Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 247

Lenox quietly watched Zionis’s retreating figure, lost in thought.

Why did he seek out Lenox first, who was disguised and hiding his identity, instead of Ibelin Marcia, the leader and person in charge of their group?

Considering he mentioned ice magic and proposed a duel first, it could be seen as purely driven by competitive spirit. But then, Zionis’s reaction doesn’t make sense.

Unlike the elders who don’t show their faces directly, there must be a reason why he was the first to appear here.

While he was lost in thought, the crowd that had gathered in the training area began to disperse one by one. Some mages who had followed to assist him hurriedly disappeared after him, but the murmuring didn’t subside.

It can’t be helped. There was too little information to grasp Zionis’s intentions right away. Although he had unexpectedly crossed swords with him, it was necessary to gather more information for now.

Also, he needed to find out how the mana eye in his left eye, which had changed during the duel with Zionis, was working. In that fleeting moment, he had felt the scenery of the branching point observation he had created in his mind’s eye become visualized, so the issue of the changed mana eye was also quite important.

Lenox let out a small sigh and turned his head toward the mage who had been guiding him until just now.

“It seems I’ve unintentionally caused a commotion.”

“W-well, that’s…”

Unlike his friendly attitude from before, the guide hesitated to answer with an awkward expression. A mage who came as a guest from the outside. Moreover, an ice mage who had difficulty using his power properly in this environment had competed with the tower lord’s direct disciple. How should they take this?

It was natural to be cautious in one’s words and actions in front of someone with skill beyond the norm.

“I’d like to see one more place before I go. Would you guide me?”

“…Where should I take you?”

“The largest library in the magic tower.”

Lenox turned his head and said with a smile. “I’d like to look around the place with the most books.”

* * *

“Oho, oho!!”

“…”

“Good, very good!! Yes, this is it!!”

Mauzer, his face flushed with excitement, trembled his beard as he ran around like crazy. “I came to see this!!”

Ibelin stared blankly at the back of the short, middle-aged man as he flailed his arms and legs while running. She had followed him because she was worried about his safety, but she was going to visit this place within three days anyway.

The Blaver Magic Tower located in the volcanic region. The one and only advantage that the old-fashioned mages had chosen despite such inconvenient terrain, and a facility that was hard to find anywhere else.

The lowest floor of the spiral-shaped tower. There was a huge furnace there that directly touched the deepest part of the volcano’s core, which was the center of the volcanic eruption, and used its powerful firepower for metal manufacturing.

A magnificent pillar of fire swirling between three huge pillars. The largest and hottest flame in the volcanic region of Klaoronice. The lava, which was unnaturally hot and boiling over, not just something natural, was put through a simple process and then poured into metals brought from various places.

The powerful natural energy mixed in the lava flowed directly into the metal, instantly melting any metal into a form that could be cast with enormous heat, and then the melted metals were processed into the desired shapes.

Metals that had been processed through the furnace once became much easier to handle than before, and they had the characteristic of slowly increasing in hardness and durability when external stimuli were applied. Just by kneading the metal once through the furnace, it became easier to distribute externally, and it also made secondary processing smoother.

The lava of the volcanic region of Klaoronice and the huge furnace tower that the Blaver Magic Tower had built with great effort. Nothing has been officially revealed about what makes this possible. But there were more than one or two places on this continent that kept such secrets.

For Mauzer, the only important thing was that a perfect furnace for those who handled metal had appeared before his eyes. While she was staring blankly at him as he excitedly grabbed the mages managing the furnace and started asking them questions, a familiar voice came from behind.

“Is it okay to just watch?”

Ibelin turned her head back without thinking and burst into a chuckle. The area under Lenox’s eyes, who had walked out with a nonchalant face, was almost completely black.

“The shadows under your eyes are huge. How hard have you been investigating?”

“…I was just looking through some materials.”

Lenox replied, rubbing his eyes with an embarrassed expression. He had been so engrossed in browsing through all sorts of books in the central library of the magic tower that he had lost track of time and stayed up all night.

There weren’t many magic books that would be helpful to Lenox’s level right now, but the records of the magic tower’s history and their achievements were one of the things that greatly interested Lenox, who had little interaction with other mages.

“You seem to be working harder than me. Have you finally decided to join the agency?”

Lenox slightly averted his gaze at Ibelin’s words, who was teasing him with a bright smile.

“It’s true that my condition deteriorates easily. I’ll be careful from now on.”

His condition had improved quite a bit, but it was also true that the aftereffects of successfully imprinting the mind’s eye on the self-resonance field had not completely disappeared. There was no problem with battles that simply used mana, but if he overworked his body even a little, these abnormal symptoms would appear.

Ibelin shook her head silently at Lenox. “Be careful. The Blaver Magic Tower’s reaction is more favorable than I thought, but you never know what might happen.”

“I know. That’s why I’m looking at this in advance.”

Lenox said, looking up at the huge furnace tower. The dark red heat seeping out from the inside. The heat flowing from the inside of the faintly glowing tower blurred the vision like a heat haze.

“It’s probably a core facility that is highly valued even in this huge magic tower… The fact that they’ve opened this up to us has a great meaning in this matter.”

“…”

“I’m curious how they control the heat flow to manipulate this much heat at will… but I don’t think they’ll tell us that much.”

It was the core resource of the facility that accounted for the largest portion of the Blaver Magic Tower’s external revenue in the Western Continent. It was probably the essence of all the research, effort, and investment of the magic tower. If he could interpret that, or if he could get the internal design, he could use it in various ways.

While Ibelin, who was watching Lenox lost in thought with his hand on his left eye, shrugged her shoulders, a voice suddenly came from behind.

“Is the investigation going smoothly?”

It was the same voice that Lenox had heard vividly just yesterday. As if he had recovered from the aftermath of the duel in a day, he greeted Lenox with a relaxed eye contact and walked into the furnace control room without hesitation.

Ibelin, who turned her body, immediately recognized him and reached out her hand. “It’s my first time seeing you in person, Sir Zionis.”

“Nice to meet you.”

He said, taking off the glove on his hand and shaking hands with a nonchalant face. “I apologize for showing my face late. There are mountains of problems to deal with even inside the magic tower.”

“No, I understand.”

“In fact, that’s why we opened the internal facilities to guests like this. Except for the mages who are currently managing the functions of the tower, everyone is working hard on the aftermath.”

“It seems the incident with the Demonic Cult was that severe.”

Before answering, Zionis looked up at the furnace that Mauzer was currently looking at. “Would you believe me if I said that this furnace was almost taken over?”

“…”

“With just two people, they broke through the magic tower’s strict security and quickly took control of the control room that managed the furnace. If the measures had been delayed even a little, the furnace would have exploded and the magic tower would have disappeared.”

Even while talking about how the magic tower, which boasted a long history, was almost defeated, Zionis’s expression did not waver.

“I see. So…”

Ibelin nodded quietly. This was the reason why the Blaver Magic Tower couldn’t specifically mention the conflict with the Demonic Cult. It was not possible to publicly announce that the control of the furnace, the core of the magic tower, had been taken away, and that it might have exploded due to a failure in control.

It was a really big problem that the control and security of the furnace had been breached once. If this fact was revealed to the outside world, the magic tower’s stock price and business prospects would inevitably shrink significantly.

“We succeeded in stopping it by forcibly shutting down the system by blowing up the engine room… but most of the elders are in bed because they used all of their mana.” Was that why the elders weren’t showing up? At least, it was a plausible reason on the surface.

As the two of them showed some signs of understanding, Zionis paused slightly before continuing. “So, I would like to propose a deal to you.”

“A deal… you say?”

“Yes.”

He said in a cold voice. “Recently, unknown caves have been discovered one after another outside the magic tower.”

“That’s…”

Wasn’t that the same cave that Mauzer had mentioned? As Ibelin made a face as if she had guessed something, Zionis immediately said.

“The elders suspect that it might be a tunnel that the Demonic Cult had dug to infiltrate the magic tower. If that guess is true, we must secure the route they created no matter what.”

“…”

“If you don’t mind, could you, Ms. Marcia, investigate those tunnels? If there are any traces left by the Demonic Cult, or if there are any remaining dangers, we are concerned that it may hinder future visits from outsiders.”

Zionis continued calmly. “Originally, it was a problem that the elders, including myself, should have solved directly… but it’s difficult for me to go out alone because of the public eye.”

“So, you want to borrow our hands now?”

“Of course, I’m not saying this for nothing. I can’t just leave the dirty work to the guests.”

However, Ibelin only pretended to think for a moment and then immediately shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

“…”

“Since the higher-ups have given us access to the magic tower’s facilities, I would like to focus on investigating the tower during the given period.”

It was a natural thing to do. If the Demonic Cult had really infiltrated the furnace control room as Zionis said, wouldn’t it be possible to find traces of the Demonic Cult inside the tower without having to investigate the caves near the volcanic area? Unless it was an exceptionally groundbreaking reward, there was no need for Ibelin to divide her forces.

“Is that so… Then.”

Zionis, who had sighed lightly, was about to say something when.

KWA-AAAAAANG!!

A tremendous roar that seemed to burst their eardrums echoed, and a huge shockwave swept through the area.

“Uwaaaaaaaah!!”

“Toneeeeeee!!”

Desperate screams and shouts calling someone desperately. The three of them simultaneously turned their gaze to the furnace below the control room. The iron door of the furnace, which had been tightly closed, was wide open, and a huge amount of flames were being sprayed out like a rocket.

A mage who had been concentrating on managing the furnace in front of the iron door was swept away by the sprayed flames, and his flesh and muscles evaporated and disappeared in an instant. The other mages, who had witnessed the tragedy of their colleague from the same magic tower being evaporated whole, were in a panic.

Ibelin was the first to move. She jumped down to the lower part of the control room like a flash of lightning, and avoiding the flames of the furnace that were randomly scattered everywhere, she quickly threw the fallen mages upwards.

Immediately after that, Lenox, who had noticed her intention, immediately created an ice path in the air and slid the injured mages into the control room. The ice slide melted in an instant due to the enormous heat, but it was enough for a moment.

“Hwaaaa!! Aaaaaa!!”

“Ahaaaak!!”

“Kkeueueueueu!!”

It was said that the greatest pain a human could feel was death by burns. Even the mages who had been handling flames and had been with them all their lives could not escape that pain.

“Call the medical team right away, and contact the power room!!”

Zionis, with a stiff expression, shouted at the surrounding mages. “We can only stop it by cutting off the mana source going to the furnace. Move!!”

“It’s too late. We need to move right now.”

Lenox muttered, throwing off the gloves he was wearing on his hands. He didn’t know why the furnace had suddenly malfunctioned, but if they didn’t stop it right now, it wouldn’t be strange if the central building of the magic tower collapsed completely.

“We need to block the flames coming out of the furnace for a moment and close the door. Otherwise, the damage will only increase.”

“…I’ll try to manipulate the direction of the furnace flames. We have to do everything we can.”

Zionis raised his mana and immediately ran out of the control room. Lenox also ran down the stairs and immediately began to form hand seals. In that short time, Ibelin, who had neatly evacuated the other injured, came down behind Lenox and whispered.

“Ban, can you do it?”

“I can only block it for a moment.”

Lenox replied. “Considering the heat and mana concentration I’m feeling, 30 seconds after the iron door closes… We’ll be back to square one unless the power source of the furnace is cut off and Zionis controls the flames of the furnace within that time.”

“Okay.”

Ibelin answered, slowly lowering her posture on the spot. “I’ll close the door, so please take care of the rest.”

“The heat will be really intense. Are you sure you’ll be okay without any special equipment?”

Ibelin answered without hesitation. “Well… if that firepower keeps coming out, the central building might turn into ashes. If I don’t want to die, I have to stop it.”

“…Okay.”

Lenox said, closing his left eye and covering it with his hand. When Lenox opened his eyes again, his pupils were dyed a vivid purple.