Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 400

“Hmm….”

As always, for Lenok, smoking a cigarette isn’t just about the act of smoking.

It’s about inhaling the smoke from a carefully processed blend of herbs, painkillers, and stimulants, forcibly elevating his near-debilitated condition to something closer to that of a normal person.

It goes without saying how much time and resources Lenok has invested to reduce side effects and increase efficacy in this process.

It’s been quite some time since he started making his own cigarettes after gaining knowledge of alchemy from the old world, but there were still some areas that needed improvement.

“I should work on it again after this is over.”

[That’s the 15th prototype, isn’t it? I wish the 15th had a better smell.]

“That’s not something I can control.”

For Lenok, the most important thing is the efficacy, duration, and side effects of the drug, tailored to his condition and environment.

The smell, taste, and addictiveness are secondary issues.

[The smell of the 14th one you’re using now is too harmful to a smart spirit like me. Master has a duty to improve the working environment for spirits!]

Lenok chuckled at Davi’s protest as she rubbed her front paws against him inside his coat.

“Well, it’s not impossible… I’ll try when we get back to the lab.”

As he studied the magic system, his understanding of alchemy deepened, and suppressing the scent was now within his reach.

While replacing the necessity or convenience of cigarettes was still a distant goal, he was now starting to reach the point where he could suppress the inconveniences that arose in the process.

Of course, it was obvious that Davi would suffer through many trials and errors in the process… but the digital spirit didn’t seem to think that far ahead yet.

“Still, I put a lot of effort into adjusting it to a herbal scent. The 14th one listening would be upset.”

[I’m not.]

Lenok turned his head at Davi’s firm answer.

“What do you think? Doesn’t it smell quite fragrant for a cigarette?”

The central lobby of the Dyke branch on the 8th floor, shrouded in darkness.

Between the offices piled high with documents.

Right there, where no sign of anyone had been felt until just now, a pale figure stood still.

“…I’ve smelled something similar to this in Kertritz.”

The figure sniffed for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, before opening his mouth.

“If you open the mouths of those who are so addicted to drugs that their brains have melted, they smell like this. Do you know why?”

Thud.

As he took a step forward, the moonlight streaming in through the window revealed the figure’s face.

A middle-aged man with a thick beard and tattoos all over his face.

Despite wearing a neat shirt and shoes, the dirty, beastly nature emanating from his body could not be hidden.

The man looked up at Lenok and spoke with a blank expression.

“It’s because the drug-soaked tongue and brain fluid mix together, creating a bitter scent. What’s funny is that many started using drugs because of that scent after seeing how those guys died.”

“I see. Kertritz, you say….”

Lenok nodded and exhaled smoke.

“I heard it’s one of the top three maximum-security prisons in the Balkans. I heard they repeat high-intensity abuse and oppression to the point where it’s hard to even breathe, but you managed to escape from there.”

“Well, whatchamacallit… I’m not in a position to say this, but there are always people needed to handle the dirty work, right?”

The man grinned and said.

“My friends who envied the Three Heads [likely a reference to a powerful group or organization] for freely using shady bastards wouldn’t refuse if the opportunity arose.”

“Oh….”

Only then did Lenok, who had come down from the pile of documents, smile along with the man.

“For someone who claims to be an escapee, you seem overly familiar with how the city works.”

“…….”

“You escaped long before the Restriction Ordinance was lifted. Can I interpret that Achilles was also gathering shady forces while avoiding the City Council’s eyes?”

Perhaps it was because it was a pointed remark.

Lenok, seeing the man speechless, put a cigarette in his mouth and nodded.

“Now, if you just give me testimony about Madrich Onion, that would be perfect.”

“…Try it if you can.”

The man, touching the tattoos on his face, laughed.

“Before we completely destroy this building…!!”

Kwaaaang!!

Immediately after, the ground beneath Lenok’s feet shattered, and something huge rose up from directly below.

The high-rise building of dozens of floors swayed greatly from the violent impact, and the piles of documents that had been stacked in the 8th-floor lobby scattered in all directions, obscuring the view.

In the midst of this, a giant who had accurately grabbed Lenok’s leg swung his arm, and the mage’s figure stretched out and crashed into the floor below the 7th floor.

Woodudududuk!!

A gruesome sound like bones breaking.

The tattooed man and the huge giant, who had come down to the 7th floor through the collapsed floor, began to surround the landing point at the same time.

“I made sure you wouldn’t die, so get up already.”

The giant, bursting into a rough laugh, said with his arms crossed.

“There are some things I want to hear before I kill you. If you want to live even a little longer, you better listen.”

Thick iron bars were embedded between his elbows, which were completely bare, creating a bizarre shape.

It was as if the bones of both arms had been replaced with an unknown metal. The magic power flowing from them swirled slowly and solidly.

“Can’t you hear me?”

“…….”

Lenok, who had fallen in a messy posture, did not answer.

The giant scratched his head and turned his gaze to the tattooed man standing next to him.

“Levi, did that mage already die? He looked so frail, I didn’t think he’d last long.”

“No way.”

The man called Levi laughed.

“He’s one of the top guys in the outer districts based on his recent achievements. His skills are definitely proven. There’s no way he died from just this.”

“Then why isn’t he getting up yet?”

“Obviously, it’s because he’s preparing something like a mage would.”

Levi smiled faintly and looked around with his head held high.

“Considering our goal, this is right. Once we defeat the mage named Kyunroe head-on, Dyke will give up all resistance and hand over all its foundations to us.”

“Hmm.”

“It’s enough to crush the will of the top brass who have been delegated all of Dyke’s authority. They must be watching this from somewhere.”

With those words, the tattoos all over the man’s face began to wriggle as if they were alive.

The tattoos, which crawled like snakes across his face, wriggled down his neck and gathered at his fingertips.

The man made a hand seal and said.

“We’ll finish this before the others come up. Get ready. All that’s left is to kill Kyunroe and prove our strength.”

The reputation and strength that the mage Kyunroe had built up in the underworld. It’s not that they don’t know the level of that.

However, the times when Ban had shown off his power were mostly when facing a powerful superhuman one-on-one.

Or, in most cases, when the situation was thoroughly set up for him.

The two people gathered here today to destroy the Dyke branch are not the only ones.

Their colleagues, who are approaching from all sides of the branch even now, are not only confident in their individual skills but also skilled in combined attacks.

It’s hard to believe that there is a mage who specializes in one-on-one combat, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to overwhelm Kyunroe with numbers to kill him.

In the process, it is also possible to show off their power and organizational skills, which have increased their range of activity as the Restriction Ordinance has been lifted.

Kiriirik!!

As Levi made a hand seal, thousands of pieces of tattoos gathered at his fingertips spread out in all directions and began to cover the room.

Levi, who had completed the spell without hesitation, drew up his magic power and chanted.

“Self-Magnetic Domain Deployment.”

Kwaaaang!!

The tattoos that covered the walls, floor, and broken ceiling emitted a bright light and added a monochrome wave to all sides.

It completely overturned the entire environment.

The appearance of a remote island, dotted with black and white as if drawn with ink.

Around the island, black ink was filled like a lake, constantly floating unknown patterns and letters on the surface of the lake.

“Ink Immortal Island View. It is a domain implementation of categorical commands that maximizes the power contained in words and letters.”

Levi, who had firmly established his domain while making hand seals, brought his hand to his mouth and said.

“I don’t know how long you’re going to keep watching our preemptive attack, but if we set the stage first, you’ll have no choice but to move.”

Levi, who grinned, whispered something between his hand and mouth, and at the same time, words shaped into letters began to rise in unison on the lake.

[Burn]

[Twist]

[Freeze]

[Pierce and break]

[Crush and burst]

[Roll and crumble]

A series of thoughts that had turned from language to letters, and from letters to commands, were placed on the ink-filled lake and then rose again.

Immediately after, they transformed into all sorts of forces and rushed towards the fallen Lenok.

Kwagwagwagwagwa!!!!

A scene of destruction where flames and ice shattered and burst like sand.

“Within the Ink Immortal Island View, the output and volume of the incantations I can use increase almost tenfold.”

Levi muttered, constantly whispering incantations between his fingers.

“Let’s see how long you can last?”

Kwaaaang!!

The giant, who had entered the domain with him, also began to move, breaking through the bombardment that Levi was constantly pouring down.

The solid iron bars embedded in his forearms wriggled and emitted a strange vibration, and in response, the air shook violently and rotated.

As he gripped the tremor between his two fists and swung them, a storm raged and a whirlwind began to form along the path his forearms were tearing through.

Hwiooooooo!!

Levi also watched the scene and once again materialized incantations and wielded them like weapons.

“It’s no use trying not to react. From the moment your existence was identified within the domain, you can’t avoid it… Huh?”

Levi, who was about to provide fire support in response to the giant’s movements of grabbing and swinging the air, stopped moving as he tried to brush off the papers falling from above.

He had realized that the piles of documents that had been scattered everywhere before the domain was deployed were something that shouldn’t be there at this moment.

“Wait, why are these piles of paper still in my domain…?”

It was impossible for mere piles of paper with work instructions to pass through the filter of the domain that Levi had deployed.

Unless a specific spell-like measure had been taken on all of the hundreds of papers that were now scattered above the sky of the Ink Immortal Island View.

And Levi’s face turned pale for the first time when he confirmed that the letters written on the papers that had fallen on his head were not just work instructions, but complex barrier formations that were impossible to recognize in their original form.

“N-No way… To draw such a large barrier formation on mere paper… That means from the beginning…!!”

At that moment, hundreds of barrier formations drawn on the papers, including the one Levi was holding, and the papers scattered in the distant sky, all glowed at once.

Paahhh!!

The scenery of the Ink Immortal Island View began to disappear as if paint was dissolving in flowing water.

Deudeudeudeuk!!

The noise generated in the process of space melting and then being restored to its original form.

“Keuhak…!!”

Levi staggered, spitting out blood from the shock and backlash of the domain itself being canceled out.

“Oh, you have to be careful.”

Someone caught Levi’s body from right behind him.

A calm male voice was heard in his ear.

Levi, realizing that it was the voice of the mage he had been talking to just before, trembled all over and turned his head.

Lenok, who had been taking the giant and Levi’s attacks while fallen just before, was standing with a healthy complexion, holding both of his shoulders.

“You’re not very sturdy for an escapee. No, if you’re someone who escaped from prison, it’s normal to be malnourished.”

“Y-You… this….”

“The bold preemptive attack of deploying the domain from the start wasn’t bad. You have a fiery touch, probably because you’re a criminal.”

Lenok smiled and patted Levi’s neck.

“But when deploying a domain, you should have checked the place and situation carefully. It’s not a powerful spell or weapon. If you take it out without the confidence to kill your opponent, you’re more likely to be countered like this.”

Kiiing!!

The area between his neck heated up, and the heat instantly spread through his spinal cord and brain.

“It’s a double-edged sword, so to speak. You learned how to wield the sword, but you didn’t learn when to swing it. Next time, you’ll need to make a more careful choice.”

Lenok, who had released Levi’s shoulders, muttered as he stepped back slightly.

“If there is a next time for you.”

“N-No…!!”

Hooook…!!

Along with Levi’s scream, hot flames erupted from all the holes in his face.

Immediately after, his head burst like a balloon.

Bbeoeong!!

Sticky blood and bodily fluids fell on Lenok’s head, but were blocked by a shield and slid down.

Lenok stared blankly at the corpse that had fallen with its head missing, then turned his gaze away.

The giant, who had been watching the recent tragedy blankly, stepped back at the light movement.

Lenok, taking a step forward, muttered.

“Let’s begin.”