Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 53

Lenok’s face, accurately capturing the direction of the camera, gazed intently that way.

#

[The reaction is quite significant.]

Jenny’s voice came through the phone.

Lenok was lying weakly in the middle of his one-room apartment, listening to her words.

As soon as he felt he had overdone it, he had returned straight home without stopping at a bar to rest.

It would be nice to take another 100 million cell elixir at times like this… but unfortunately, the only money left in his wallet was the 20 million cell advance he had received for this request.

[It seems Paul Ackerman had more funds spread around than we thought. For those who were receiving investments from him, it’s like their money supply was cut off overnight.]

An unfamiliar echo, designed to prevent eavesdropping, leaked from the call.

Jenny believed that if they had to discuss business on the phone, such a security measure was necessary.

Lenok didn’t understand how she could prevent eavesdropping with just this background music, but he had no choice but to go along with it.

[Of course, the fact that you messed with Juice Master’s underlings also played a part, but that drug lord wouldn’t move over something so small, so the strange atmosphere in District 48 right now must be because of this.]

“Did Dyke have anything else to say?”

It had only been a single night, but it had been an eventful one.

Two were dead, one had run away, and one had stabbed him in the back.

If it hadn’t been for Lenok, it would have been a complete failure.

It wouldn’t be strange if an enraged Paul Ackerman had retaliated against Dyke Corporation.

In this situation, if Dyke Corporation was thinking of washing their hands clean after giving him only the 20 million cell success fee, Lenok would have to reconsider things.

As Lenok asked, recalling the drone camera he had spotted, Jenny immediately replied.

[I already received a long message apologizing for what happened during this operation. They must be sweating bullets over there. They’re asking you to visit their headquarters again.]

“What do you think?”

[It’s better to ignore them.]

Lenok smiled faintly at the answer he liked.

[I don’t know how they got involved in this industry, but it’s strange that they’re asking for cooperation in the future while planning operations like this. It’s not too late to move after confirming the additional compensation they’re offering.]

“How much can we get out of them?”

Considering that Lenok had salvaged an operation where one of the team members directly supplied by Panoha had betrayed them, and somehow turned it into a success, the stakes Lenok should receive were considerable.

It was clear that they didn’t even conduct proper tests when selecting team members, so it was meaningless to even discuss cooperation in this state.

If clear feedback wasn’t given on this part, there was no need to do business anymore. No, they shouldn’t do it at all.

[They’re well aware of that fact, so they probably won’t try to get away with nothing. At the very least, we should be able to squeeze a good amount of money out of them.]

“I hope so…”

Lenok replied, burying his face deep into the pillow.

It was a new product he had bought after replacing the entire bedding last time, so there was still a faint smell of fabric.

[…It seems like you had a really hard time this time.]

She had already heard an explanation from Lenok, but it seemed that the fact that Lenok was tired was more real to her than the words about who betrayed him and who he killed.

It was understandable since Lenok had rarely shown her that he was having a hard time.

In the first place, Lenok had never told anyone that his body was weak.

The reason he had this call with her today was also the result of a calculation to show off to some extent so that she could extract as much as possible from the deal with Dyke.

“I am a bit tired.”

[Well, that’s what being a freelancer is like. Sometimes it can’t be helped. But if you’re hurting anywhere, at least tell Jorden. He used to handle scalpels back in the day.]

“…That’s a bit unexpected. Was Jorden a doctor?”

[He didn’t get a formal license, but if he’s saying it himself, he’s probably not a quack. I don’t know the details.]

“……..”

Come to think of it, when Lenok first brought Taylor Evans’s corpse, he remembered Jorden pointing out even strange things just by looking at the corpse in the bag.

At that time, he just thought he was a talented person, but thinking of him as a doctor, it made sense.

“Maybe if there’s a chance later.”

[That’s a no, right?]

Lenok, who roughly brushed off Jenny’s sharp remark, ended the call and buried himself in the bedding.

Market

“Ugh…..”

The bruise on his stomach was still a deep purple.

He had bought and applied something similar to ointment, but it didn’t seem like he could expect the recovery speed to increase significantly.

Lenok lay carefully so that his stomach didn’t touch the floor, lost in thought.

‘I should refrain from trying to overcome situations like this in the future.’

It was a reckless choice to use the shotgun’s recoil as a booster to escape when his shield was about to be shattered.

Especially considering that he hadn’t been able to eat and had been groaning for almost a day after the effects of the drug wore off.

He had prepared several countermeasures in case the shield was breached, but at that time, he was not only about to have his shield broken, but he was also about to be buried in the ground, so he couldn’t use them.

Of course, considering Lenok’s combat thinking ability, it was highly likely that it was the most rational decision in that situation… but Lenok didn’t need rationality that would wear down his body.

The most important thing was to somehow get this weak body back on track.

“……..”

After thinking about the usefulness of the shield for a while, Lenok sighed and straightened his posture.

Let’s put the worries aside for later.

There would be plenty of time to think even after his body returned to normal.

Now, as always, he was going to do what he had to do while resting.

Whoosh!

He spread his magic in all directions and unleashed magic from both hands.

Crackling…!!

Blue currents of electricity sprang up from his hands.

The common electric-type magic [Lightning Bound].

Until now, he had only focused on implementing this flow in his hands and hitting the opponent with it… but Lenok concentrated and very slowly moved his magic to stop each of the flickering strands of current.

Crack… crack…

With extremely delicate magic control, he restricted the activity range of the electricity and stopped the flow.

As if time had stopped, Lenok, who had confirmed the current frozen between his fingers, extracted the inherent magic deployment pattern from the inside of the current.

Woo-oong!!

At the same time as a magic circle suddenly appeared in the air, the bolt magic flowing in his hand disappeared completely.

Just like he did at the factory before, he had succeeded in extracting the formula of the magic circle from the bolt magic.

“Hmm…”

Lenok, who was carefully observing the magic circle slowly rotating in the air and the pattern of magic flowing through it, took a nearby memo pad and began to write something.

The handwriting was crooked because he was writing with a pen while lying down, but it didn’t matter.

In the first place, Lenok was a naturally bad writer with terrible penmanship, so it wasn’t much different.

“Magic three times big. Seven rotations. Two compressions… Should I draw the pattern separately?”

He mumbled to himself, scribbling illegible letters and numbers as if he was doodling, without taking his eyes off the magic circle.

In his recent personal research, Lenok had been focusing on the task of breaking down the common magic he used one by one and quantifying them according to his own standards.

In fact, modifying common magic itself was not that difficult for Lenok.

It was possible to refine the magic he already knew to be more efficient, but increasing the capacity of the magic itself while reducing efficiency was a completely different matter.

The research he was doing now was to take it one step further.

It was possible to simply increase the power of [Thunder Calling].

All he had to do was to pour in magic to increase the range and firepower.

However, Lenok was not satisfied with that and was thinking about how to dramatically increase the power while reducing magic consumption.

It would be ideal if he could eliminate the premonition before casting, which was a disadvantage of electric-type magic… but it was not an easy task.

The boundary that Lenok was worrying about now was one of the gateways from common magic to unique magic.

‘Eventually, I might have to create magic on my own.’

Lenok was not a fool, and he was already keenly aware of how difficult and challenging it was to obtain a unique magic system.

It wasn’t something that could be done simply with money or by taking on difficult requests.

Unless he had more fame and power than he did now, and had more connections, he wouldn’t even be given a chance to see such rare items.

For Lenok, going higher than he was now in this industry was not a matter of choice.

He would go up until he could get what he wanted.

That was all Lenok could do.

‘It’s not like I can make any groundbreaking improvements right now.’

It was possible to refine the magic he already knew to be more efficient, but increasing the capacity of the magic itself while reducing efficiency was a completely different matter.

To put it bluntly, it was like creating a completely new magic.

However, if it became difficult to obtain a unique magic system, or if only items that did not meet Lenok’s standards came into his hands.

Then he might really have to put all his efforts into this task.

Analysis based on theory, rather than relying solely on senses or talent, might be more helpful.

That was why he was collecting data like this whenever he had time, not being able to ignore such a possibility.

In fact, the only source of data for common magic was Lenok himself.

“……”

It was frustrating and daunting, but what could he do?

It was the path he had chosen, and it was what he wanted.

In the gradually darkening room, only the faint magic light flickered.

The light that had been illuminating Lenok’s face without knowing the passage of time stayed by his side for a long time without going out.

As if it contained the hope that he would never give up.

#

Time passed.

Lenok, with his tired body, visited the market after a long time.

For a while, he had no choice but to eat instant food because he was busy with work, but Lenok still hadn’t given up on his dream of a healthy diet.

His knife skills were still clumsy, and even measuring out seasonings was a mess, but that was a problem that could be overcome with effort, regardless of Lenok’s devastating motor skills.

Lenok knew very well that he had no choice but to move on his own to get the necessary nutrients directly.

It had been a long time since he had met the woman with green eyes, until now.

“It’s been a while.”

“Ah, yes…..”

Evelyn, an agent of the city government.

She was a woman with immense power and status, but she had a simple hobby of growing vegetables and selling them at the market.

He had never been to that market since he had met her, but had she also moved her stall?

He couldn’t have been more unlucky.

The moment Lenok noticed her presence, he quickly returned the magic pattern he had been changing to its original state.

This was the magic pattern she knew when they first met in the market.

He didn’t know if Evelyn remembered Lenok’s magic pattern, but it was never a bad idea to be careful.

Evelyn, who had been staring at Lenok from beyond the dozens of vegetables spread out on the stall, tilted her head.

“Hmm…?”

“What’s wrong?”

“It seemed like your magic pattern changed slightly, but was I wrong?”

“……..”

“I guess not. I must be mistaken because I’m tired these days.”

“You probably are.”

Lenok, with a rare, kind smile, agreed, and Evelyn also nodded in agreement, roughly convinced.

Lenok had noticed the short gap in which he had changed his magic pattern. He didn’t know what kind of eyes she had, but she was a woman who made it impossible to let his guard down.

Lenok, who was slowly looking down at the vegetables with a relaxed expression, kept repeating his thoughts in his head.

‘She’s a skilled person who can bully Kraken. I have to be careful… careful…’

Unlike his inner thoughts, Lenok, with a relaxed expression, picked out the vegetables he had thought of in advance and put them in his shopping basket. He took out money from his wallet and handed it to Evelyn.

She diligently counted all the bills and gave him the change according to the price.

Even if it was a hobby, she was meticulous in these areas.

Lenok thought so and very naturally greeted her and turned around.

He would be successful if he could just get out of the market.

The moment he took a step while thinking that, Evelyn’s voice came from behind him.

“Hey, wait a minute.”

“…….Yes?”

“What’s your name?”

Evelyn asked with an unreadable expression.