Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 338

The young man’s expression shifted slightly as he saw Lenok’s left eye.

“A magic eye… and a single-eye variant at that. How intriguing.”

The young man grinned and slowly lowered his stance.

“Usually, if someone has a magic eye in only one eye, it’s often because they’ve transplanted it from someone else.”

He manipulated his wrists, and short daggers appeared in his hands, held in a reverse grip.

The speed was so fast it was barely visible. It was clear he had considerable skill in swordsmanship.

“Let’s see whose eye you stole and are using. I’ll lay you down and ask you slowly.”

“You talk too much.”

Lenok said, raising his hand with a blank expression.

“Why didn’t you talk so much when your subordinates were dying?”

“……”

There was no reply.

The young man’s expression hardened slightly, and he dashed forward, his color fading as if he were becoming transparent.

His magical energy and life signs vanished completely, as if he had been erased from thin air.

Lenok, who had been watching this from the front, was impressed by the refined stealth technique.

“Left…!!”

Lapis, who was clinging to Lenok’s side, whispered.

Immediately after, two streaks of light that had shredded the shield struck directly between the carapace fragments.

Koo-oong!!

The impact was considerable. It was hard to believe that such high-level stealth could coexist with such power.

The young man’s initial attack didn’t end there.

He rotated in a completely different direction from the initial exchange, unleashing a flurry of strikes aimed at Lenok’s vitals.

Even while unleashing such sharp attacks, his stealth technique remained flawless.

Blades appeared from the vanished space, tracing dozens of overlapping trajectories, and began to thinly slice away at Lenok’s shield.

Kaga-ga-gak!!!

Penetrating the shield was instantaneous. However, the gruesome blades did not tear through the mage’s insides.

Lenok, without even turning his head, had deployed ice pillars in the air to block the two blades heading for Lapis’s face.

Koo-oong!!

They stopped at the moment of impact, and the shock scattered ice fragments, spreading a chill over the snowy field.

The young man, who had stopped right in front of them, licked his lips as he looked down at Lapis.

“How annoying. I will definitely deal with you here and now.”

Ssae-aek!!

He disappeared from sight again at a speed that was barely visible.

Lenok, unfazed by his words, focused on manipulating the magical energy in his hands.

Considering his extraordinary agility, refined stealth, and the combination of his dagger skills, he was likely a specialist in assassination.

A physical ability user so skilled that he could hide his presence even while swinging his blade to kill.

If that was the case, there was no need to try to find his faint presence. It was better to focus on other aspects.

The young man, hiding in the blizzard, glared at Lenok with sharp eyes.

‘His guard is stronger than I thought…’

He had never missed an initial attack, yet he hadn’t been able to touch the mage or the lighthouse keeper.

No matter what method he was using, it was impossible unless he could see through the possibilities that arose the moment the young man attacked.

‘Avoid a direct confrontation.’

The young man, who had been hiding his presence and watching his subordinates die, was aware of how powerful the mage’s fire magic was.

The moment he raised his magical energy for a direct exchange, it wouldn’t be strange if his entire body was pierced.

If he made even a slight mistake, his entire body would be reduced to ashes.

The target he needed to aim for was clear.

‘Target the lighthouse keeper. It would be good if I could kill her or get my hands on her, but if not…’

He could kill the mage who was leaving himself open to protect Lapis.

At least, now that he had confirmed that he couldn’t interfere with his initial attack, the choice was up to the opponent.

Ssaa-aak!!!

The young man’s long tongue extended from his mouth, wrapping around the two daggers and sweeping them up.

Immediately after, the completed image within him manifested as a microcosm, melting the twisted color of his heart into a potent poison.

The color of the daggers that the tongue had swept over was tinged with a bluish-green hue.

‘It’s a potent poison that can even paralyze a spirit beast. If it just grazes them, it’s my victory.’

Shhh-eeek!!

The young man’s body, hidden in the blizzard, dashed forward.

The hat he wore was both a tool to hide his presence and a rare artifact that suppressed his presence.

But even that was discarded now as he ran towards the mage.

“…!!”

Lenok’s gaze immediately went to the dropped hat.

He didn’t stop there, discarding all the other tools he had kept in his pockets, doing everything he could to distract his opponent.

What he wanted was a single opening.

Not just approaching the opponent, but a single moment where he could force a necessary choice.

Aware that he was at a crossroads, the young man’s magical energy surged relentlessly, and all the nerves in his body were sharply focused on his opponent.

The moment their long shadows overlapped on the snow.

‘Now!!’

The young man, who had appeared in front of Lenok, met Lenok’s eyes with his two magic eyes.

The spiral pattern rotating outward. A power that, by meeting the gaze, reversed the opponent’s magical energy in the direction the magic eye was rotating.

If it worked properly, it could completely reverse the magical energy in the body, causing them to splatter blood and die.

Of course, it wouldn’t work for long on a mage of this caliber, but it would be enough to distract him and prevent him from using magic for a moment.

If the shield protecting his body and the magical energy he would use for a counterattack were disrupted, there was nothing he could do.

He twisted his waist, pushing the daggers he held in a reverse grip in a trance.

Sswae-ae-aek!!

The daggers, bent as if space was distorted, grazed past Lenok’s neck in that fleeting moment.

Immediately after, he was slammed headfirst into the ground by an unknown impact.

Koo-oo-oong!!

“Kee-ee-eek!!”

The young man, who had fallen at Lenok’s feet, let out a short scream.

Trembling, the young man looked up at Lenok and muttered.

“H-how…?”

Even if the magic eye’s power didn’t work, the speed at which he had launched the counterattack was abnormal.

The young man’s body, which had appeared in front of Lenok and accelerated, had reached nearly the speed of sound for a moment.

It was impossible for a mage to see and react at that speed. It was impossible unless he had been reading his movements from the beginning.

“Because I knew you were hiding your body in the flow of an Ascended’s magical energy.”

Lenok replied, looking down at the young man with a blank expression.

“If that’s the case, then all I have to do is reverse-calculate that flow and find the parts where the pattern is distorted.”

“Kuh, hehe…!!”

The young man twisted his body and laughed weakly at those words.

“That’s, impossible…!!! How could you know the magical flow of ‘Jindun’…!!”

A 7th-level Saint-ranked mage.

There weren’t many things impossible for a superhuman who had completed the seven concepts of self-modification, but even so, what Lenok was saying sounded like nonsense to the young man.

A monster that was on a different level than the 8th-level Supreme-ranked ability users who had transcended their species and broken free from the limitations of their rank.

How could he possibly understand and interpret the magical energy of the transcendents who had truly abandoned their individual meaning and were challenging ascension?

Even a Saint-ranked ability user like the young man could only use the magical flow in the vicinity to hide his presence.

However, Lenok’s expression had also changed subtly.

“Well… I admit that it was a coincidence.”

The magical flow of the snowy field had felt strangely familiar.

Its true nature was part of the barrier’s magical flow that Lenok had felt when he observed the rifts in the world at the Palgong Fortress.

The barrier mage who had been invited to seal the rifts at the fortress had said that it was the masterpiece he had left behind before becoming an Ascended [a being who has transcended the limits of their current existence].

The transcendent who had left behind a barrier to protect the rifts and then ascended was none other than the Ascended ‘Jindun’ who was located in this northern highlands.

Lenok, who had been studying the barrier and rifts left behind by the Ascended for a long time, was able to understand Jindun’s magical pattern and recognize the familiarity.

‘There are more than one or two things that don’t make sense…’

Lenok had heard that Jindun hadn’t moved from the northern highlands for at least several hundred years, but the history of the Palgong Fortress was no more than a hundred years, even if it was stretched out.

If that was the case, then the time when Jindun set up the barrier at the fortress and the time when he reached level 9 didn’t match.

It was impossible to know whether this discrepancy was simply a misunderstanding or if there was a deeper secret hidden within it.

He could only be satisfied with the fact that he had one more question to ask if he ever met an Ascended.

With that thought, Lenok stared down at the young man who was rolling around clutching his chest.

The moment the purple magic eye slowly rotated, resonating with the young man’s eyes, matching its speed.

The young man’s head began to throb and burn as if it would explode.

“Ugh…!!”

His whole body was burning with pain and heat.

It was so painful and dizzy that he couldn’t even guess what kind of magic he had been hit with.

It was like when he first learned assassination techniques and built up his poison resistance.

“The pain will last a long time. That’s the purpose of the ability I created.”

“Haa…!!”

“Don’t you feel a strong sense of disconnect between your mind and body? I’ve been thinking about the method of transferring consciousness recently.”

Lenok crouched down and looked at the young man, continuing to speak.

The disconnect between the body and consciousness that he had been pondering while fighting Gearsides. Lenok had succeeded in imitating that disconnect through the visual synchronization and magical energy transfer of his magic eye.

“Even if I can’t perfectly replicate it, it’s not difficult to imitate the side effects. Your ego is shaking, and you’re losing control of your body and dying.”

This was possible because Lenok’s magic eye was fundamentally growing beyond the level of simply observing the realm of possibilities.

Lenok was learning how to interfere with the scenery and the movement of magical energy within his vision, going beyond the concept of simply seeing.

Weee-ee-ee-ing!!!

The young man couldn’t take his eyes off the endlessly rotating purple magic eye, and his whole body convulsed.

The transfer of information using the magic eye’s shared vision.

By using the magic eye as a medium to force a massive amount of information, arbitrarily created with the help of Davi, into his head, he was rendering even a 7th-level ability user helpless.

“Tell me the leader, purpose, and location of your organization.”

Lenok said.

“Then I’ll kill you without pain.”

“Heh, hehe…!!”

The young man smiled, dripping with cold sweat.

“Unfortunately, this, this pain… I can endure it… as much as I want…”

Even though it was difficult to even speak properly, his attitude was resolute.

However, Lenok frowned, guessing that it was not the young man’s own willpower, but an artificially created response.

“I thought you were close to an assassin, but it seems you really did receive this kind of training. Even though your memories should be getting mixed up, your reaction is still this strong…”

“This person, his eyes are getting more and more glazed over…”

Lapis, who had been watching the situation while clinging to Lenok’s side, muttered.

The young man’s eyes were starting to roll back as the unidentified information flowed directly into his head.

Meaningless words began to leak out of the young man’s foaming mouth.

“Rosesti… I have to pass the training to eat bread… test subject… I want to die…”

“It seems like I won’t get a normal answer.”

Lenok muttered, and at that moment, as he was about to raise his magical energy to end his life.

The young man blurted out someone’s name.

“Jaun… Audis…”

“…”

Lenok paused at the unexpected name.

Chwa-aak!!

The young man, with his eyes rolled back, extended his tongue and shot it towards Lenok.

However, the flames that erupted from the tip of the tongue traveled back along the extended tongue, burning his body alive.

Hwa-reureuk!!

The young man, who let out an unknown death cry, died on the spot.

Lenok, leaving the flames that had risen on the snow behind, gently placed Lapis, who had been clinging to him, on the ground.

“Ugh…”

Lapis, who had been clinging to him in a half-prone position, staggered slightly, barely regaining her balance and sighing.

“Jaun Audis… If that man is here, it’s really dangerous.”

“…What?”

“Don’t you know, Evan?”

“No. I know who Jaun Audis is, but…”

A special wanted criminal and a jewel mage. And the leader of the terrorist organization Falchion.

He had planned to overturn a megacity by joining hands with the black mage Craig Tillion, but when Lenok killed Craig, he sensed the failure of the plan and didn’t he run away?

His unique behavior, way of thinking, and cruel methods were still vividly etched in Lenok’s memory, but he never thought that Lapis would know his name.

No matter how unique a criminal Jaun was, he was a 6th-level military-ranked ability user at the time.

He had vaguely thought that it would be difficult for his fame to spread to the northern continent, let alone remain in the memory of Lapis, the lighthouse keeper.

However, Lapis shook her head with a slightly surprised expression at Lenok’s words.

“It seems that Evan knows what Jaun Audis was like in the past. But now, that man is completely different.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the western continent, he is considered the closest to the 8th level among the Saint-ranked ability users in that area. That’s Jaun Audis.”

“…”

“He is the one who, with his powerful jewel magic and force, has built the criminal organization Elderbane, which he leads, into the largest in the west.”

Lapis muttered, looking down at the young man’s corpse with a slightly hardened expression.

“If Elderbane has decided to get involved in this incident, it’s not something we can easily dismiss.”

“Elderbane…”

Is that the name of the new organization he created after abandoning Falchion?

He had lost all of his organization members to Lenok, but he never thought that he would have gone to the western part of the continent and rebuilt his base.

But the most surprising thing was Jaun Audis’s unbelievable growth rate itself.

It was strange if he didn’t feel a sense of incongruity at the fact that he, who hadn’t even properly recognized the concept of the self-domain when they last met, was now looking at the realm of the Supreme rank.

Could it be that he had also accumulated considerable opportunities and experiences while Lenok was unaware?

More information was needed.

“Tell me more about what you know about Jaun Audis. If we have to face him, it’s better to know in advance.”

“Even if you say that… I’ve never actually seen his face myself…”

Lapis looked up at Lenok with a slightly embarrassed expression, then opened her mouth as if she had suddenly remembered something.

“Ah, I heard a rumor that he has a dual personality. He always appears once when he commits a crime, and his behavior is completely different each time…”

“…”

Information that could not be found in the Jaun Audis that Lenok remembered. But even if it was just a vague rumor, it was a very strange characteristic.

It was too different to be a new personality that had appeared in the last few years.

Perhaps Jaun Audis’s incredible growth rate is…

“Kuhahahaha!!”

The moment Lenok roughly guessed what Jaun had done, a frivolous laugh suddenly echoed in the middle of the snowy field.

“I was wondering what was going on when some bugs were dying nearby, but it seems I’m in luck.”

Several dozen warriors riding wolf-like beasts covered in white fur appeared through the blizzard.

The beasts, which were walking as if they were floating on the snow without any trouble, surrounded the two people in an instant.

The bearded warrior who had revealed his face at the front smiled contentedly and reached for his waist.

“I never thought I would be able to serve such a noble person directly. It’s an honor to be able to see the lighthouse keeper in person.”

“…”

“Let’s go together while I’m being nice. You wouldn’t refuse, would you?”

Sreung!!

Lenok, seeing the man drawing his sharp sword, turned his gaze to Lapis and asked.

“Who are they?”

“The warriors of Jakirai. One of the most dangerous warrior groups in the northern continent.”

Lapis replied quickly, sweating slightly.

“They are made up of organized warriors and riders to the point that they are said to be capable of carrying out wars. I never thought they would have smelled us so soon…”

“I didn’t know there would be so many people who recognized me. Is the lighthouse keeper that famous?”

He had guessed that it could be dangerous, but this situation where everyone was trying to get their hands on the lighthouse keeper was certainly strange.

“There’s that, but my personal information has also been spread in the process of expanding the scale of the Blue Eye recently.”

Lapis replied with an awkward expression.

“I think they believe that if they catch me, they can also control the watchers who help me…”

“…”

It seemed that many things had changed while he hadn’t been in contact with the Blue Eye for a long time.

Perhaps it was because Lapis, who led the watchers, didn’t seem to have changed much. It was a little late to realize that fact.

He never thought that the connection he had casually helped with would spread like this.

“Stand back.”

The moment Lenok was about to pull Lapis behind him and raise his magical energy.

Lapis, with a bright expression, grabbed Lenok’s sleeve.

“They’re here…!!”

“What?”