Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 243

Volcanic Zone (1)

It had been two days since they left Vulcan.

The group, having reached the vicinity of the volcanic zone faster than expected, stopped at a pre-selected waypoint to resupply and rest.

Since there would be no stops on the way back after completing the investigation of the Magic Tower, they needed to replenish various supplies, including fuel, here.

From here on, they could be within the Magic Tower’s surveillance range, so Lenox also changed his appearance appropriately.

He couldn’t show Evelyn how he altered his magic pattern, but if he concealed his presence with Nix’s emblem, it would be difficult to recognize Lenox.

There was no need to reveal that a Saint-level mage was accompanying them on this journey.

Evelyn judged that openly revealing their forces would be a bad move, as they didn’t know exactly where the Blaver Magic Tower’s actions were directed.

“We’re supposed to meet someone here. We arrived earlier than expected, so we’ll have to wait,” Evelyn said.

“Who are you talking about?” Lenox asked.

“This visit to the Blaver Magic Tower isn’t something that the Vulcan City government is doing on its own.”

Evelyn, who was sitting in front of the pile of firewood and playing with her magic, said.

Crack!

A spark that flew from between her fingers instantly caught the dry wood, and a small campfire was started.

She threw the lit firewood into the fireplace of the waypoint lodging and continued.

“If it were just Vulcan acting alone, they wouldn’t accept it so readily. So, we decided to borrow the name of another city.”

“Another city?” Lenox asked.

“The Machine City, Machina,” Evelyn replied.

“They are a customer who greedily consumes the materials they produce, as important as the Blaver Magic Tower is in the steel industry.”

Thump, thump!!

No sooner had she finished speaking than someone began to bang roughly on the door of the lodging.

As the agent who was resting unlocked the door, a heavy, furry mass tumbled into the room.

Thud!!

A hoarse voice emerged from the dirty, dusty fur.

“W, water……”

As the trembling mass uttered a final gasp and slumped, a low silence filled the lodging.

Lenox silently turned his head and stared at Evelyn.

“The envoy from the Machine City, are you saying that this fur ball is it?” he asked.

“……Let’s help him first and then think about it,” Evelyn replied.

After Lenox roughly cleaned the fur ball with cleansing magic and the agents brought water, the group was finally able to see the person’s appearance clearly.

A middle-aged man with a beard that was not just bushy but abundant.

He wasn’t particularly short, but his body was quite thick due to his broad build.

“Hmm…… Thank you for your help,” the man said.

The man, who introduced himself as Mauzer, with a serious expression and a deep voice to match, looked around at the group and bowed his head, his complexion much improved.

“I apologize for being so rude at our first meeting. I was really about to die of thirst.”

“What happened to the rest of your group?” Evelyn asked with a cold expression.

“I heard that Machina would also be moving in groups similar to ours.”

At her words, Mauzer scratched his beard.

When something wriggled out from inside his beard, the agents looked horrified, but they held their positions with superhuman patience.

“Well, that’s…… Until a day ago, I was moving with my group, but in the middle, I was the only one left. I don’t know where it went wrong.”

“Are you serious?” Evelyn asked.

Mauzer, feeling an unknown chill from Evelyn’s completely different cold demeanor compared to when she was with Lenox, began to sweat profusely.

“W, well, I don’t remember it well. I remember going into a strange cave, but after that, I was alone, collapsed in the middle of a prairie. Somehow, I looked at the night sky and figured out the direction to get here, but…… I had no food left.”

“Tell me more about the cave,” Lenox said.

At Lenox’s words, Mauzer pondered.

“There were stones that emitted a strange light embedded here and there. I pride myself on having handled quite a lot of ores, but it was a type I had never seen before. Out of curiosity, I tried to collect one, but it was stuck in the wall and wouldn’t come out easily. From there……”

“From there?” Lenox asked.

“I think I just fainted,” Mauzer replied.

“……”

Mauzer, slightly shrinking under the group’s cold gaze, said.

“D, don’t look at me like that. I was just doing my duty as a blacksmith! How could I not go into such a cave!!”

“At least for today, I wish you had prioritized our appointment……” Evelyn said, sighing.

“Do you have any means of finding your group? If not, we should go to the Magic Tower ourselves. If we don’t make it on time, the Magic Tower might use that as an excuse to refuse our entry.”

“Th, that’s……” Mauzer stammered.

Mauzer was sweating profusely, but in the end, he couldn’t say anything and closed his mouth.

“Perhaps the Blaver Magic Tower has already recovered your group and is taking care of them. I think it would be right to go inside the volcanic zone first and then think about it,” Lenox said.

“Ah, I understand…… Certainly, the other colleagues are also good at reading the stars as I am, so it won’t be difficult for them to find their way,” Mauzer said.

Lenox pondered, leaving behind the hairy man who nodded with a slightly dejected face.

‘A cave, huh……’

In this world full of all sorts of mysteries and scenic wonders, the general knowledge of terrain that Lenox had did not apply.

However, it was awkward in many ways that Evelyn didn’t know about a cave nearby that would have piqued the interest of Mauzer, an industrial engineer from the Machine City.

Perhaps it was related to the recent actions of the Blaver Magic Tower.

Evelyn probably suspected it to some extent, but she seemed to want to avoid delaying the schedule by exploring the cave right away.

Since this visit itself was a meeting made by exercising the power of two cities, she didn’t want to give the Magic Tower an excuse to refuse the appointment.

It would be possible to explore the cave even after entering the volcanic zone, so she must have thought it was right to deal with the urgent matter first.

“Then let’s rest today and enter the volcanic zone early tomorrow morning,” Evelyn said, looking around at the group.

“Since there are residential areas formed around the Magic Tower even inside the volcanic zone, there won’t be any major dangers or shortages of supplies. Perhaps we might even find Mr. Mauzer’s group inside.”

“I understand,” Lenox said.

Mauzer nodded and suddenly began to sniff.

“By the way, is there any beer around here? If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to have a drink for a good night’s sleep.”

“……”

He was definitely human, but was it a delusion if Lenox was reminded of a certain race he had only seen in books?

In the end, the group managed to put him to sleep only after finding and feeding him more than three barrels of the supply beer stored in the waypoint warehouse.

The agents stared at Mauzer, who had fallen asleep with a flushed face and was patting his belly, with suspicious eyes.

“Can we trust that man?” one of the agents asked.

At the agent’s question, Evelyn let out a small sigh.

“According to the list we checked in advance, he’s definitely the head of the Aibamer Workshop, which is well-known in the Machine City, Machina. He volunteered this time because he wanted to see the metals produced by the Blaver Magic Tower with his own eyes after a long time.”

“Then it’s unlikely that the Magic Tower was behind the disappearance of his group,” Lenox said.

“The Machine City, especially if they treated the group of a famous workshop head poorly, the losses would be enormous.”

“I think so too, but…… you never know. In fact, this trip is to confirm that,” Evelyn said.

“……”

“Let’s end it here for today and talk again tomorrow. I said that, but we need to replenish our energy to last long in the volcanic zone,” Evelyn concluded.

* * *

The volcanic zone of Klaoroniss, where the Blaver Magic Tower is located, is a very famous area near Vulcan, full of all sorts of mysterious natural phenomena.

It was not easy for a huge volcanic zone to be formed by a cluster of volcanoes that actually spewed lava, not dormant volcanoes that had stopped activity.

It was also not ordinary for the headquarters of a Magic Tower that dealt with fire-based unique magic to be located in such a place.

In the modern magical academia, where old superstitions and prejudices have disappeared and theory and proof have taken precedence, mages are aware that it is more efficient to borrow the power of tools or teachers than to rely on special environments.

However, the Blaver Magic Tower, which stubbornly continues its magical practice in a disaster zone where high heat boils, was one of the very conservative groups that adhered to tradition, even in the recently flexible academic world.

“When it comes to being conservative and adhering to tradition, it’s comparable to the Sinclair Magic Tower,” Evelyn muttered, looking at the passing scenery.

After entering the volcanic zone, the group’s words had decreased significantly, but she still wasn’t sweating a single drop.

The speed of the off-road jeep for climbing the somewhat rough mountain was comfortable, but the air was getting hotter as they went up the mountain, making it hard to breathe.

The flowers and bushes that had been blooming little by little at the bottom of the volcanic zone gradually disappeared, and now all that could be seen were black rocks and a sky covered in ash.

If that were all, even the agents who had trained their bodies with magic wouldn’t have kept their mouths shut, but not many people could maintain their usual attitude when they saw the river of lava flowing right next to the jeep.

Only Lenox was sitting in the back of the jeep with an indifferent face, wiggling his fingers.

“But the Blaver Magic Tower, especially the Western Continent branch, is well-regarded because, instead of being bound by old traditions, they have entered the steel industry using the environment as a weapon. This place, which handles immense heat, can be called one of the best forges on the continent,” Evelyn said.

“……”

“Naturally, various means of transportation and trade routes are connected here to refine all sorts of rare metals, and the amount of capital flowing in continues to increase. Experts say that if this continues, it is not impossible for a village to form near the volcanic zone……” Evelyn continued.

Evelyn, who was continuing to speak, suddenly pulled an arrow from her waist and swung it.

Whoosh!!

A green flash sped through the thick rocks and pierced something.

Something that had been rushing towards the group from behind the rocks lost its strength and collapsed, revealing its form.

[Kieeee……]

A four-legged beast. It had an appearance similar to a hyena, but its body was made of rock, and a hot substance similar to lava flowed in the parts that formed its joints.

The beast, with its head pierced straight through, let out a faint death cry and collapsed, but the liquid that flowed from the beast’s body instantly began to burn the jeep’s tires.

Sizzle!!

“……It’s a lava monster,” Evelyn said.

The agent quickly reversed the jeep to minimize the damage, but it was already in a state where they would have to replace more than two tires.

“I’ve heard stories that they sometimes appear near the volcanic zone…… It’s my first time actually seeing one,” Evelyn said.

“Because we don’t often travel through the volcanic zone with our bare bodies,” another agent replied.

“The problem is, it doesn’t seem like they just appear occasionally,” Evelyn said.

[Krrr……!!]

The presence of beasts dripping hot saliva from between large rocks.

Not just one or two, but easily more than a dozen.

“Haa…… Let’s deal with them and talk again,” Evelyn said.

The moment Evelyn and the other agents stood up, sighing.

Whooooooosh!!!

Suddenly, a white wave surged from behind and swept away the lava monsters rushing from the front.

A sharp chill that instantly froze the stuffy air of the volcanic zone.

Before they could properly identify the source, the monsters swept away by the wave of cold began to writhe in pain and scream.

[Kieeeeeeek!!]

Just the change in their body temperature, which was always fixed at a high level, caused them to rapidly lose their life signs and collapse.

The wave of cold did not stop at the first wave but spread like a resonance throughout the rocky area, clearing the way and removing obstacles in an instant.

One of the agents who was watching the scene muttered in shock.

“T, to use this level of ice magic in a place without water……”

All eyes were on the person who had instantly painted the surrounding dark red rocky area white.

Lenox calmly accepted the gaze and moved his feet.

“Let’s go right away,” he said.

The items taken from the cartel’s executive vault did not only include the book on Parden McQueen’s magic.

In Lenox’s hand was a book different from the [Primary Magic Guide] he had been reading all along.

[Ice Magic That Even Beginners Can Easily Follow.]

The title was very straightforward, but the title of the book was not that important. What was more important was the content, wasn’t it?

Thinking that, Lenox, who was slipping the book into his coat, made eye contact with Evelyn.

“……?”

He thought he had hidden it quickly, but he couldn’t fool Evelyn’s eyes.