Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 451

The long night passed, and dawn arrived. Light began to pierce the gloomy, sunken jungle.

The morning in the jungle, where tens of thousands of creatures lived and breathed, was quiet.

The only sound was the gentle echo of dew drops falling from spiderwebs between the trees.

Plink, plink.

The droplets of water that brushed against the leaves and fell were a deep crimson color.

‘Ugh… die…’

A faint groan from someone who couldn’t even manage a proper scream.

Lenok, who had been sitting still with his eyes closed, turned his head at the sound.

‘Die…!!’

Whoosh!!

A sharp flash of light shot through the dimly lit jungle.

At the same moment he slightly tilted his head, a mana thread rose from beneath him and snatched the flash.

A poisoned needle, covered in a sticky green liquid. A deadly poison that would kill instantly upon piercing the skin.

Immediately after, a rain of countless thrown weapons fell from above Lenok’s head.

Catalysts attached to the sharp weapons flashed incessantly, turning the surroundings into a giant mass of heat.

KWA-AAANG!!!

Shamans who had revealed themselves amidst the explosions began to charge towards Lenok, forming hand seals.

They unleashed their signature spells, aiming them relentlessly at Lenok.

Sticky curses, snake-like ropes, and a giant scythe slashed and spun in all directions.

Clang!!

After drawing attention with powerful firepower, they planned to subdue him with a thorough close-quarters assault.

As the Maelstrom was a group formed by various shamans, there were also shamans who excelled in close combat.

The leaves at the end of a fist trembled, creating a gust of wind, and the patterns drawn on a dagger glowed as it flew.

Fwip, fwip, fwip!!

However, Lenok’s figure seemed to sink into the ground, tilting downwards before floating as if sliding along the floor.

Strange movements, as if he were being dragged by an invisible string.

The shamans’ attacks, unable to time their attacks against his bizarre evasive maneuvers, missed one after another.

Behind the shamans who had failed their initial attack, a sharp counterattack from the mana threads flashed.

‘Kuh-ahhk!!’

‘Damn it, how did he get here…!!’

‘No, no!!’

Every time Lenok, who had landed on the grass, walked past the shamans, the number of corpses scattering blood increased.

By imbuing the mana threads with severing magic, increasing their cutting power, and greatly increasing their tensile strength and hardness instead of flexibility.

Combined with Lenok’s ability to conceal his mana, they were like invisible blades in this chaotic jungle.

It wouldn’t be impossible for a superhuman to sense the mana threads, but what if the opponent was a special type of mage who could manipulate hundreds of such mana threads?

Lenok had never lost the initiative in this kind of psychological warfare.

‘Ugh… uh…!’

From the man rolling on the ground, the remains of a small, broken skull spilled out.

It emitted a faint smoke and vaguely pointed in the direction where Lenok was sitting.

Lenok looked at the remains of the skull and sighed lightly.

‘I wondered how they broke through the maze, they used forbidden magic. It’s hard to predict the efficiency when human sacrifice is involved.’

The depravity of using fellow humans as materials for spells.

It was the most dangerous catalyst a mage could use, but it was also true that its efficiency was abnormally outstanding.

There was a rumor that using the forbidden magic of human sacrifice would cause even the caster to be consumed by the spell, but not many people were wise enough to discern that.

‘Are you the only one left?’

Lenok said, slightly leaning towards the fallen man.

Squeak…

At the same time, with a sound like a thread slightly stretching, dozens of mana threads began to move around Lenok.

Whirr, whirr, whirr!!!

In an instant, he grabbed the collar of the surviving shaman, Kayern, and lifted his body up.

Kayern, who had opened his eyes weakly and looked down, saw the figure of Lenok wearing a mask looking up at him.

A small clearing in the jungle.

The figure of a mage, with hundreds of mana threads spread out like a spiderweb in all directions, sitting at the center and looking up at him.

Kayern groaned as he realized that the hundreds of mana threads he was sitting on were densely spread throughout the surrounding jungle.

‘…It was, it was you.’

The other shamans were all dead. Despite spending an entire night, they couldn’t even touch Lenok’s clothes.

However, the reason Kayern had desperately tried to reach the place where Lenok was located was not to beg for his life.

‘Because of you… I wandered around the same place dozens, hundreds of times…!!’

Kayern glared at Lenok with bloodshot eyes, burning with hatred.

It was hard to find any trace of normal reason in his desperately distorted face.

Even in a situation where his limbs were being squeezed by the mana threads, he didn’t beg for his life, but rather, he was drooling at Lenok in a bizarre manner.

Lenok knew where the cause of his half-crazed state came from.

‘You, because of you, I couldn’t reach the well…!! Kill…!! I’ll kill you…!!’

Lenok, watching Kayern thrash around like a child and foam at the mouth, waved his hand.

Fwip!!

The mana thread that grazed his chin stole Kayern’s consciousness.

Only then did Lenok confirm that the early morning jungle had regained its silence, and he slowly walked down from the mana threads.

Just as he was about to tie Kayern up with mana threads and drag him into the forest, a stiff voice came from behind Lenok.

‘Good, barrier.’

‘…’

A man with bronze skin was standing like a ghost, looking at him through the precisely arranged mana threads without a single gap.

He looked to be about forty years old. A middle-aged man who didn’t look young. His muscular physique and the blue stone knife in his hand were striking.

The mana flowing from him was at least level 6.

The moment Lenok’s eyes turned cold, the man slowly reached out his hand and spoke again.

‘You deployed mana threads to draw a barrier, and turned the entire area into a maze.’

His tone was awkward. It was as if he was not familiar with the language used on this continent.

However, the man’s words, spoken in such a tone, accurately pierced through what Lenok had done.

Shamans who summon elephants as familiars. Against the Maelstrom, which was like a living tank unit, Lenok did not insist on a head-on fight.

Instead, he scattered mana threads widely throughout the jungle and created a huge maze using the spread mana threads as catalysts.

By applying the Ascendant Jintun’s barrier magic to the extreme, he bent the space itself, connecting the beginning and the end to create an inescapable labyrinth.

At the same time, he mixed the strange mental waves flowing from inside the well appropriately into the barrier, constantly stimulating the shamans.

The shamans, realizing that they were constantly wandering in the same place, suspected and attacked each other in a state of extreme excitement, and self-destructed.

The elephants, having lost their masters, went wild in their excitement, smashing the jungle and scattering in all directions, leaving only a few shamans who had belatedly regained their senses.

If the surviving shamans, led by Kayern, had not used human sacrifice to find Lenok, they would have died without even knowing what they were up against.

The bronze-skinned man standing in front of Lenok had accurately understood such a series of events and was praising him.

‘To be able to play with your opponent like this in this jungle. Excellent. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a barrier mage like you.’

‘…The preamble is long.’

Lenok’s distorted voice flowed from behind the mask.

‘Did you call me here just to exchange pleasantries?’

The man shook his head.

‘No, there is something I want back.’

‘…Get back?’

‘Belongs to my tribe, you have it. I want to trade.’

‘…’

‘Excellent barrier mage. I won’t harm you. Just show it to me.’

The man said, slowly flicking his hand.

At the same time, something inside Lenok’s robe began to vibrate faintly.

Only then did Lenok understand that the man’s words were not nonsense, and he slowly took out the vibrating object from his chest.

‘This is…’

A leather ring made in the form of a necklace. Lenok, having recognized the identity of the artifact, raised his head.

It was the artifact given to him by the leopard-riding warrior who had survived to the end of the Grim Reaper Gang race.

He had identified himself as a member of the Southern Blood Spirit Clan and had given it to him.

It had the ability to locate an opponent through constellations, and Lenok had used it to find Madrich Onion.

To call this object a tribal item meant that the man in front of him was also a member of the same Blood Spirit Clan.

While Lenok was lost in thought, the man spoke again.

‘I’m not just asking for it for free. I’ll tell you the secret of the serpent.’

‘…The secret of the serpent?’

If the word ‘serpent’ was used in this jungle, it almost certainly referred to the serpent guarding the well, the secret of the Ascendant’s Handbook.

The Blood Spirit Clan was said to live hidden in a place much deeper than the ancient city where the well was located, and only a few of them wandered the continent to experience the world.

A story about the secret of the Handbook passed down by such people… Lenok didn’t hesitate for long.

‘Okay.’

It wasn’t an item that was of great use to Lenok or that he had used effectively.

However, if it was an item that had some meaning to the Blood Spirit Clan, it was enough if he could hand it over and get some useful information.

As he readily threw the necklace to the man, he muttered with a slightly moved expression.

‘Our tribe does not carelessly hand over relics to others.’

‘…’

‘The fact that they left this item with you is proof that they lived a life without regrets. I want to repay that.’

It seemed that he had mistaken that the Blood Spirit Clan warrior who had given him this item had already died, but Lenok didn’t bother to correct his misunderstanding.

There was no time to explain how he had come to possess this item.

The man gently stroked the necklace before putting it in his chest and opening his mouth.

‘There is a story about the serpent that has been passed down through our tribe’s history.’

‘A story?’

‘A story of a serpent who, because he was so focused on his given mission, forgot it.’

‘…’

‘Once, all the mortals of this jungle shared in glory, but as the serpent’s time began to turn back, it lost its meaning. The city that revered the great mission was consumed by madness, and the serpent destroyed everything with his own hands.’

It was obvious that it was not a simple story.

It was also obvious that the man was using the form of a tribal myth to speak indirectly to Lenok.

‘I know what you’re trying to do in this jungle.’

The man’s awkward tone had become fluent and serious.

His eyes glowed with a strangely bright yellow light.

Lenok had heard about those eyes from Oliviera once, so he was aware of them.

The Northern Star’s Eye, which was only passed down to the direct lineage of the Southern Blood Spirit Clan. The essence of foresight that observes the stars and prepares for the future by observing their movements.

He looked at Lenok with a clear gaze and spoke softly.

‘We look at the future through the stars, predict the future, and prepare for our existence… What is about to happen is an outrage that can never be tolerated from the tribe’s point of view, but I will turn a blind eye to it for today.’

He had not come to Lenok simply to retrieve a tribal relic.

This man, who appeared to be a key leader of the Blood Spirit Clan, had come to him to directly convey their position to Pandemonium.

‘Because after a play that has been planned for a very long time ends, and after the curtain falls once, everything in this jungle can be set right again.’

‘A play…’

Lenok, pondering over those words, chuckled.

‘You’re just saying you won’t interfere in a roundabout way. I understand.’

‘…’

There was no way to know how accurate and precise the future the Blood Spirit Clan saw through the stars in the night sky was, but Lenok didn’t ask any further.

He understood that they had their own reasons, and he felt like he knew to some extent what the Handbook was.

The Ascendants Lenok had encountered so far were mostly terribly twisted, despite the great achievement of challenging ascension.

Whether it was their bodies, their minds, or their regrets for a pessimistic future.

It meant that the Handbook had also failed to escape the cycle of longing.

It was meaningless to hold the man here and ask him to tell him in detail about the Handbook.

It was enough to remember the keyword he had told him, ‘memory’.

Just as Lenok was about to turn his head without any regrets, the man suddenly threw a fist-sized pouch at Lenok.

Thud!

While Lenok, who had avoided the possibility of being embarrassed by catching it with his bare hands, was quietly looking at the pouch that had fallen at his feet, the man said.

‘It’s bait used to lure the demonic beasts of the jungle.’

‘…Why are you giving me this?’

‘I saw a little, but there will be a moment when you need it.’

The man, who had returned to his stiff and awkward tone, nodded with his arms crossed.

‘It was a good conversation. A gift.’

With those words, the man’s figure disappeared vaguely, still holding the necklace.

Lenok looked at the man’s back before quietly picking up the leather pouch.

Since he didn’t feel any particular hostility, there was no harm in keeping it.

‘The outside is completely sealed. I can’t smell anything…’

He knew that there were demonic beasts far more dangerous than any ordinary animal lurking throughout this vast jungle.

Lenok had also passed by all sorts of strange demonic beasts while creating a maze on the outskirts of the ruins using mana threads.

A jungle where creatures such as long-armed monkeys with thick calluses, huge horned lizards, or blue toads with more than eight legs were wandering around.

Perhaps he thought there would be a moment when he would have to run away from such demonic beasts.

It was impossible to know for now. Lenok glanced at his wristwatch to check the time before immediately turning his body.

It had already been over an hour since dawn had begun, and after dealing with a few stragglers, including the Maelstrom, no one had been loitering around here.

He had captured one shaman, so he just needed to drag him back to the airship.

Just as Lenok was about to turn around, thinking that, and dragging Kayern, that moment.

‘Shall we just leave that friend behind since we don’t need him?’

Fwip!!

Kayern’s head, which had been writhing while bound by mana threads, was cut off diagonally on the spot.

From behind the head that fell and rolled away, the figure of a young man twirling a small dagger appeared.

The white paint on his face and the bizarre makeup that forced a smile were familiar.

The clown, who had fallen from the airship before Lenok and disappeared in the middle of the jungle, had finally reached the vicinity of the ruins.

‘Phew, that was hard…’

The clown let out a deep sigh and stepped out, nonchalantly stepping on Kayern’s head.

The young man’s entire body was soaked in blood from head to toe.

After jumping out alone in the middle of the jungle, how many people had he killed to get here?

‘It took longer than I thought.’

‘You can say that again.’

The clown smiled as he swept back his blood-soaked hair.

‘Someone lied about jumping out together, so I was momentarily fooled, you see.’

‘…’

‘Just kidding, I rolled the dice again on the way, and I got two low rolls in a row, so, khuh-heut… I ended up having to do it all myself.’

The clown grumbled, shaking off the bloodstains on his sleeves.

It was clear that he had been in a fierce battle all night, but he didn’t seem particularly tired.

Proof that he was a powerful illusionist and an excellent warrior.

Lenok ignored the clown and turned his gaze.

‘The airship is nearby. If you haven’t joined up yet, move now.’

‘Wait, there’s something I need to check first.’

‘What?’

‘I saw a very interesting sight on my way here.’

The clown smiled as he stared intently at Lenok.

‘There was a very familiar barrier deployed in this area.’

‘…’

‘Did you know that most illusionists are also skilled in barrier magic? If you want to deceive others, you have to study how to set up a good stage. But I saw a pattern of barrier magic that I can never forget.’

The clown, who had been laughing and chattering loudly, stopped laughing and asked.

‘Victor, what is your relationship with Jintun?’