Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 372

As the white and black stones moved, their positions shifted, expanding each other’s territories.

It was the first time Lenok had played a board game since coming to this world, but he adapted easily.

A game that was a mix of Go and Othello. Roughly, with hundreds of pieces, they would capture and flip each other within the board, solidifying their positions.

A simple yet complex game where one had to pay attention to the small details while not losing sight of the big picture to achieve victory.

‘Not too difficult.’

Lenok thought, moving his stone naturally.

“You’re worse at this game than I thought?”

“……”

He lost every single game, as expected.

No matter how smart and intuitive Lenok was, it was impossible for him to win against an Ascendant [a being who has transcended mortal limitations] in a game he was playing for the first time.

Jintun clicked his tongue at Lenok and swept the board clean.

“Let’s play a few more rounds.”

“Understood.”

After that, Lenok focused on playing the game with Jintun without a word.

A sensation that felt distant and faint, like a dream.

In a hazy vision where the sense of time was barely perceptible, he concentrated on exchanging moves with Jintun in a trance.

He was aware of what was happening outside until the very last moment, but Lenok ignored it.

The fact that Jintun was facing him like this was proof enough that this whole situation was his intention.

The head of Pandemonium, the end of the Cradle [a place of origin or beginning]. Awakening Jintun.

If Jintun was fully aware of and had made decisions about this series of events, Lenok was willing to go along with his intentions until the very end.

After that, the two of them focused on playing the game without saying a word.

He placed a stone, and lost.

He placed another stone, and lost.

But even amidst that, Lenok’s skills were rapidly growing, observing and taking in Jintun’s techniques.

How much time had passed?

In the midst of playing dozens of games, a moment arrived when the two’s back-and-forth became balanced.

The moment Lenok was about to pick up a black stone, Jintun, who had been silently focused on placing stones, opened his mouth.

“I feel sorry for the other two.”

“What do you mean?”

“The last three to pass through the gate. I was originally going to meet each of them individually.”

Jintun said, turning his head.

“But now, I don’t have much time left. So, I had to make a choice.”

As Lenok turned his head following his gaze, he finally realized that they were near the stairs of the Cradle.

Above the stairs, the head of Pandemonium, who had just ripped the pipes from Jintun’s body, could be seen.

Behind him, Lenok himself and Ermong were looking up at the scene with shocked faces.

Lenok carefully observed himself and the others, and then realized that time had not completely stopped.

Very slowly, at a snail’s pace, everyone was moving.

Jintun and Lenok had been playing an endless game within the infinitely divided gap of time.

“It’s about infinitely dividing consciousness and filling the gaps with new thoughts.”

Jintun spoke as if he had read Lenok’s mind.

“It’s a much more efficient and safer method than directly stopping the world’s timeline. There’s a side effect of not being able to escape from the gaps in consciousness if you’re not careful… but when you need to think about something, there’s no better trick.”

Was he saying that he was artificially stretching his perceived time to an infinite length to use it for thinking?

The fact that he was treating his own consciousness like a toy was surprising, but what was even stranger was the contradiction in Jintun’s words.

Lenok asked, dumbfounded.

“You divided your consciousness, so why was I dragged into that area?”

“This labyrinth is a conceptual realm created by directly carving my mind. If you’ve come this far inside the Cradle, wouldn’t it be fair to say that you’re practically a part of me now?”

“……”

Jintun’s words were calm and collected.

Lenok didn’t show it, but he felt a chill run down his spine.

It was proof that Jintun held the power of life and death over all the beings inside this Cradle.

Lenok, Ermong, and Maiya, as well as the head of Pandemonium who had just destroyed Jintun’s life support system, would not be able to escape his influence.

But Jintun, knowing all of this, had allowed his body to be killed by the head of Pandemonium.

Lenok understood the intention, but he couldn’t understand the reason.

“Why me?”

“Because I chose you.”

“What do you know about me?”

“Nothing.”

Jintun replied.

“I see nothing. That’s why I chose you.”

“……”

“Usually, around this age, you can’t help but see strange things whenever you meet someone. How that person has lived, what they think, and what they’re looking for when they come to me.”

Jintun clicked his tongue and laughed.

“To be honest, I like seeing such blatant desires. Fragments of emotions that I no longer have… it’s quite a good snack just to watch from the sidelines.”

He pointed to Ermong and Maiya, who were frozen above and below.

“In that sense, those two have special meanings. The most greedy friend in this labyrinth and the friend closest to being desireless. Originally, I would have chosen to meet one of them instead of you.”

“……”

Jintun’s words were very vague, but Lenok could roughly understand their meaning.

Ermong, or rather, Jaun, the original owner of that body, had a greed that was incomparably stronger than others.

And Maiya, who had come here because of the Pandemonium incident, had the least desire, he was saying.

After a long silence, Lenok placed another stone and opened his mouth.

“I met the Sky Watcher.”

“The lighthouse keeper from the boondocks?”

“……”

Jintun replied, continuing the game as if nothing had happened.

While Lenok was speechless at the strange title, he laughed.

“She vehemently denied it, but among us, she was the friend who loved humans more than anyone else. That’s why I thought she would be the first to go.”

“…I heard from her about the end of the world and the secrets of ascension. I came to meet you to ask about the details.”

Lenok and Jintun’s eyes met.

“What exactly is ascension? In a closed world, what do transcendents hope for when they challenge fate?”

“A cliché question. Do you need another wrapping for the grand cause of defying fate?”

Jintun replied indifferently.

“Ask something more interesting.”

“What exactly is Alkaid?”

“……”

Jintun closed his mouth.

Perhaps he hadn’t expected Lenok to immediately turn the question around.

But Lenok knew that the noun held an important meaning, as much as knowing the secret of ascension.

Otherwise, that name wouldn’t have appeared in the last message and warning left by the Sky Watcher.

He had only forcibly buried it in the back of his mind. Lenok had never forgotten that name and existence, not even once.

Jintun, who had been staring at Lenok, continued the game and said.

“You know that the end of the world is predetermined, right?”

“……”

“When the time comes, the sky will open, and the dark sea will descend upon the earth, bringing about the end. The end of the outer sea is caused by monsters that have wandered the sea for thousands of years, freed from the cycle of cause and effect, beings that mortals cannot handle.”

“I know that.”

“Is that so?”

Jintun laughed.

“Then, did you know that this has already happened three times?”

“……”

Lenok was silent.

It was because he was touching on a taboo that Lenok had cautiously speculated about but never dared to utter.

Perhaps the destruction of this world was not the first time it had happened.

Perhaps the term ‘old world’ used by Pandemonium and the Order did not simply mean a very old era, but a truly ‘previous’ world.

That this world might be the third world completed after two destructions.

“To gain a status equal to the world and escape destruction to move on to the next world. We call that ascension and have constantly revered it.”

Jintun, who had casually revealed the secret of ascension, said.

“But since the advent of the third world, the fact that not a single ascendant has succeeded has never felt as significant as it does now.”

“……”

“Perhaps the Sky Watcher already knew. That’s why she accepted her end so willingly.”

Jintun slowly tilted his head.

As if worried that someone might hear, he whispered very softly over the game board…

As if he wanted only Lenok to hear.

“There is no fourth. This world was completed through three cycles, and now it’s heading towards its end. From the beginning, ascension was a miracle not allowed to the inhabitants of this world.”

* * *

Lenok and Jintun continued to play the game.

“Good. You’re playing quite well now.”

Jintun chuckled, stroking his chin as he moved a stone.

“Your learning speed is much faster than I expected. At this rate, I can tell you more.”

“……”

Lenok captured the stone that Jintun had placed, his face contorting at the information flowing into his head.

Every time the game tilted in Lenok’s favor, every time Lenok’s stones captured pieces on the board, unknown knowledge began to flow into his head endlessly.

From the basic principles of constructing barriers, to the level of materializing thoughts and images within them, and further, to the qualifications needed to interfere with space-time and bend the laws of the world.

It was the totality of the barrier arts that Jintun had built up over hundreds of years.

At the beginning, when they had started the game without any plan, he hadn’t known, but as he endlessly exchanged moves, learned the techniques, and understood Jintun’s thoughts, he realized.

That the principles of moving stones, the rules of the game, and the efforts to improve skills all contained the mysteries and secrets of the barrier arts that Jintun had created.

Jintun was teaching him in his own way, repeating this game with Lenok hundreds and thousands of times.

Melting the power of complex barrier arts, which was impossible for a human mind and heart to properly comprehend, into the form of a game.

Every time he grasped a technique and understood an advanced theory, the corresponding knowledge of barrier arts would be hammered into Lenok’s mind.

Jintun smiled, looking at Lenok’s face, which was dripping with sweat.

“It’s the process of understanding the theory and principles, and assimilating the corresponding knowledge into your memory. Resist and accept it appropriately.”

“……”

“Fortunately, your talent seems to be much more outstanding than I expected, so I can pass on more than I thought. I should think of it as gaining another disciple in my old age.”

“Why me?”

“Ho, you can even talk?”

Lenok, struggling to look up at Jintun, who was laughing playfully, asked.

“You don’t know anything about me, so why…”

The same question as before. But its meaning was completely different from the first time.

Lenok’s talent and the shackles of his penalty. There was no way Jintun could have known about them.

That secret was a dense origin that even the Sky Watcher, an ascendant specialized in seeing, could barely perceive the other side of.

So, what did Jintun see in Lenok that made him pour his knowledge and experience into Lenok like this?

This kind of experience was also new to Lenok, and he had never imagined that the first ascendant he met would suddenly try to act as his teacher.

Because Lenok himself didn’t dislike this time.

He had no choice but to ask Jintun.

Jintun, who had been silent, turned his head slightly and looked at the scenery above the stairs.