Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 618

“You…!!”

The assassin, belatedly realizing Renok’s presence, glared at him with a sharp gaze. Renok, however, ignored the fierce killing intent and looked up.

A colossal two-headed, four-armed statue loomed in the dark chamber.

It was the artifact the Doctor had brought for the mid-term settlement in Pandemonium, a relic used to store, retrieve, and exchange knowledge and power from the old world.

This object had suddenly appeared at the coordinates where the assassin was tracked, revealing itself before Renok’s eyes.

“Tch, damn it…!!”

The assassin shot a murderous glare, as if he wanted to kill Renok immediately, but he remained rooted to the spot.

Only then, having carefully observed the assassin, did Renok understand the situation and nod.

“You have good instincts. Did you try to remove the bullet because you knew you were being tracked?”

Blood streamed down the inside of his rolled-up forearm, and he held a thin, scalpel-like hand knife.

It was self-harm that required the determination to dig into his own flesh to remove the bullet.

He likely guessed that the bullet’s presence would be a hindrance immediately after escaping.

“It’s impossible unless you have similar experience… It seems you’ve carried out this kind of assassination operation several times.”

“….”

“Side Squad, right?”

At Renok’s direct question, the assassin’s aura sharpened even further.

Though he didn’t show it outwardly, it was clear he had been caught off guard.

However, Renok had been certain the assassin was a Side Squad agent from the moment he saw the two-headed, four-armed statue.

The emblem on the statue, which he had confirmed with Councilor Langmuir, seemed to be the core power of the Side Squad group.

Perhaps he thought there was no reason to remain silent now that his identity had been exposed.

The assassin glanced back at the two-headed, four-armed statue and quickly snapped at Renok.

“I don’t know how you found this place, but if you shut your mouth and obediently turn back, I won’t kill you. From the beginning, my only target was Nasisa Solmer.”

“But you also shot the colleague you personally taught marksmanship to.”

“….”

This was the very person who had taught the soldier who came to Renok the wrong maintenance habits and deliberately prevented him from zeroing in.

At Renok’s calm retort, the assassin’s face clouded over for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure.

“I’ve dedicated myself to the security department for years for this moment. A minor sacrifice is inevitable…”

“Do you know exactly what this statue is used for?”

“…!!”

The assassin was startled as Renok had already passed him and stood in front of the two-headed, four-armed statue.

Renok, touching one of the statue’s arms, said,

“I didn’t think there could be several of these, but the appearance is slightly different from my memory. The inherent power isn’t that great either.”

“….”

“No, now that I see it, the material itself is…”

It wasn’t the hard ore Renok remembered, but a form of bronze that was gradually rusting and crumbling.

Renok, instantly realizing that the statue here was not the one left by the Doctor, turned his gaze.

“It’s a replica. Is it something made to temporarily project the statue’s power?”

Without waiting for the assassin’s answer, Renok lowered his head.

“Well, it doesn’t make sense to hide such a precious relic near the workshop district. Another original is hidden somewhere in the Machine City…”

The two-headed, four-armed statue the Doctor used for the mid-term settlement and another second statue that existed somewhere in the Machine City.

And what was now in front of Renok’s eyes was a replica made to project the ability of that second statue.

‘Considering the traces of old-world relics and knowledge that stand out here and there, did the Doctor ever work in Machina [a city known for its advanced technology]?’

The old-world magic gun, the End of Teremer.

The technological prowess of Side Squad agents who had embedded their consciousness into their neural circuits through full-body modification.

The old-world artifact transformation mimicry technique contained in the pendant Nasisa brought.

And even the form of the two-headed, four-armed statue Renok was now facing.

It was too much to dismiss as coincidence; there was an awe for the traces and knowledge of the old world everywhere.

At Renok’s words, the assassin no longer asked anything.

He only gritted his teeth and plunged the hand knife he was holding into his forearm without hesitation.

Thwack!!

“Hoo…”

With a faint frown, he unhesitatingly rummaged through the inside of his forearm muscle.

The blood flowing along the blade dripped down his fingers and forearm, tearing and cutting away even the flesh.

Clink!!

The bullet, pushed out and flicked away by the tip of the hand knife, fell powerlessly at the assassin’s feet.

Without even thinking of stopping the bleeding, he raised the hand knife towards Renok. The blade was tattered as if it had been eaten away.

The assassin said,

“This hand knife is made of Grazia ore. It’s something that would only bend a little even if it were hit by a shell at point-blank range.”

“….”

“This thing is like this after being used for a moment to remove a bullet. Do you know what this means?”

“I wonder.”

Renok smiled.

“I don’t think you need to proudly tell me that you’ve been scammed.”

In reality, Renok’s residual magic power in the bullet had eaten away at the blade and destroyed it, but Renok didn’t bother to tell him that.

Perhaps the assassin wasn’t expecting a normal answer either.

“Heh heh…!”

The assassin, laughing ominously, appeared right in front of Renok and kicked his shoulder with all his might.

Wham!!

Renok’s figure was thrown into the middle of the dark chamber, bouncing and rolling.

Not stopping there, he caught up with Renok, roughly pressed his neck down with one arm, and slammed him down.

Thud!!

The assassin, who had climbed on top of Renok’s figure sliding across the floor with his back scraped, subdued him at once and asked,

“Are you an Executor [a powerful agent]?”

“….”

“If you were from the Mechanized Brigade, you wouldn’t even try to talk to me like this. Who’s your backer?”

“Don’t you think the order is wrong?”

Even though he was being kicked and his neck was being pressed down, his voice was unbelievably calm.

As the assassin flinched at the tone, Renok’s answer followed.

“You’re the one who plotted the assassination against Nasisa Solmer. Rather, there are many things I want to ask.”

“There’s no time to be talking such nonsense now…!!”

The assassin was about to scold Renok, but he suddenly looked down and realized something was wrong.

If a human body had been dragged across the floor for tens of meters, there should have been all sorts of gruesome fragments left behind, including blood and flesh.

Yet, the floor of the chamber leading to Renok’s feet was as clean as a whistle, without a speck of dust.

The assassin, realizing this, jumped up from his spot.

“Well, I guess I have a rough idea of what you’re aiming for.”

A calm voice was heard right next to the assassin.

Renok, already standing next to him, had taken out a pendant from his pocket and was looking at it intently.

“Were you waiting for the moment Nasisa brought this artifact outside?”

“…!!”

The crafting tool of the Hearth Fortress that Nasisa had presented to Renok for testing, and that Renok had repaired on the spot.

Now he understood why the assassin hadn’t confirmed Nasisa’s death on the spot, even though he had plotted the assassination.

For the assassin, securing this pendant safely was more important than making sure Nasisa was dead.

“Tch…!!”

The assassin, looking very tense, was looking for an opportunity to snatch the pendant from Renok’s hand.

Renok, completely ignoring the assassin’s reaction, was lost in thought as he touched the pendant he had repaired.

“The pendant and the existence of the statue… I see.”

After saying that, Renok smiled and threw the pendant back to the assassin.

“Give it a try.”

“…What?”

“Activate the statue’s power. Isn’t that why you stole the pendant?”

“….”

“Seeing that you’ve set up this secret place near the lower workshop district, you must have known that Nasisa would be dispatched.”

Renok smiled as he looked at the silent assassin.

“You’ve been waiting for this opportunity, haven’t you? What are you doing?”

“Damn it…”

The assassin gritted his teeth, realizing his true intentions had been completely exposed, but he could no longer resist Renok.

He had realized he had made two missteps in the previous battle and that he could not gauge the opponent’s true power at all.

The man standing in front of him now was an overwhelmingly bizarre and mysterious monster compared to any of the strong opponents the assassin had faced so far.

“….”

The assassin, clutching the pendant tightly, stood in front of the two-headed, four-armed statue with a tense expression.

The moment he placed Nasisa’s pendant on the statue’s outstretched hand.

Thump…!!

The statue’s hand slowly curled up, grabbing the pendant and clenching its fist.

At the same time, the five eyes embedded in the left face of the statue slowly began to open.

“Now, it’s activating…!!”

The assassin, filled with joy, climbed onto the statue’s arm and shouted urgently with both arms wide open.

“I want to know where the heart of the Dragon King is…! Or any information about it!!!”

“The heart of the Dragon King…?”

Even as Renok repeated the words, the assassin looked at the statue urgently.

As if responding to those words, the statue’s eyes opened and looked down at the assassin.

The statue’s eyes, which had lifted their eyelids, were bloodshot and eerily red, unlike Renok’s memory.

“Hmm?”

Renok frowned slightly at the sight.

The statue’s outstretched hand swung around as if rejecting the assassin, throwing him away.

Whoosh!!

The assassin, completely unprepared for the statue’s reaction, was agitated and moved away from the statue.

“Tch…!!”

Even in the midst of that, he quickly retrieved the pendant and tried to run away to Renok,

Bang!!

“Gasp!!”

At the same time as the sound of a gunshot, the pain that shot up his side accurately cut off the flow of magic power in his body.

The assassin, who had fallen to the ground bleeding from his side, looked back with difficulty and saw Renok’s face slowly walking towards him.

In his hand was a pure white revolver emitting a faint smoke.

However, what was different from before was that blue cracks were spreading across the surface of the white metal, as if an electric current was flowing through it.

“No…”

Renok ignored the assassin’s resistance, picked up the pendant from his hand, and said,

“The pendant made by the Hearth Fortress is not an old-world relic. To be precise, it’s just a tool made by applying old-world technology.”

“….”

“What the statue collects and exchanges is not something related to the old world, but only memories directly intertwined with the forgotten world. You don’t know that fact exactly.”

It wasn’t for nothing that Renok had handed the pendant over to the assassin and encouraged him to use the statue’s power.

Because Renok, who knew relatively accurately about both the pendant and the statue, knew that this transaction would not work in the first place.

In the end, should he be satisfied with having provoked the assassin enough to find out what he wanted?

“A backer who is looking for the heart of the Dragon King but vaguely knows about the statue’s ability… No, is it more accurate to think that they were testing the standard?”

From the moment he realized that the statue’s replica was projecting its power, Renok had ruled out the possibility that the assassin was acting alone.

The fact that the replica was brought here in advance meant that someone else was keeping the second statue, which was the original.

“Side Squad. What’s your relationship with Pandemonium? Are you receiving orders from the Doctor?”

“…!!!”

Was it as if Renok’s one word had triggered something?

“Ah, no… please!!!”

The moment he heard those words, the assassin’s whole body began to convulse madly and creak.

Click, click!!

A strange undulation as if it were swelling up with flesh. A noise like gears turning from inside the body.

“Kuh… ugh!!!”

Thud thud!!

The steel frame that popped out from inside the assassin’s face, which had suddenly lifted its head, covered his entire body and transformed into a bizarre monster.

[Haaahhh!!]

The monster, screaming shrilly, slid across the floor and charged at Renok.

A ferocious gesture to smash an invisible shield and tear out Renok’s heart without hesitation.

But almost at the same time, the revolver bullet that Renok raised deflected the incoming blades and caused an explosion.

Wham!!

[Kieeeeeeek!!!]

As soon as it realized that it was difficult to take Renok’s magic bullet head-on, it changed its tactics.

It quickly moved around the dark chamber, disrupting Renok’s aim.

Swoosh swoosh!!

The moment a dull metallic gleam flashed between the shadows, it was already out of position, aiming for Renok’s blind spot.

But as soon as Renok saw that movement, he put away the revolver and took out another gun.

Click!!

A thin, long laser gun shining with a cold navy blue light.

But what was unusual was that a precisely cut crystal prism was floating in front of the long barrel.

The shape of the prism, which remained fixed in place as if it were fixed in front of the barrel even when the barrel was moved around.

Without even having time to be wary of its bizarre appearance, Renok immediately pushed in the magazine and finished loading.

Beep beep beep!!!

A series of messages quickly appeared at the same time as the targets were simultaneously captured in the laser gun’s scope.

[Prediction calculation complete.]

[Automatic interception activated.]

Immediately after the message appeared below the scope, Renok pulled the trigger, and the laser gun’s barrel began to shine brightly.

Fwoosh!!!

The laser light that burst out from inside the barrel passed through the crystal prism and instantly split into dozens of beams, illuminating the chamber.

The monster was trying to escape the aim by changing direction, slowing down, and accelerating in various parts of the chamber.

But surprisingly, the dozens of split beams hit the monster’s entire body without a single error.

Thud thud thud!!!

[…!!!]

The laser, which had split almost simultaneously, caught up with and pierced the monster’s trajectory as it desperately tried to escape.

Only then did the monster, realizing that evasion was impossible within the scope that Renok was aiming at, scream and charge in a straight line.

[Hwaeeeeeeek!!!]

Each time it indiscriminately allowed the beams to hit it head-on, it staggered from the high heat that penetrated deep into its body and shattered the steel frame.

Nevertheless, the monster gathered all its remaining strength and succeeded in grabbing and breaking the prism of the laser gun.

[Aaaaaaaaah!!!]

After uttering a series of indescribable, diverse screams, the assassin was about to self-destruct as if swelling up his entire body.

But Renok stared at the monster for a moment, then took out another prism from his pocket.

“I have one more.”

[Ah?]

The monster, realizing that it was the same equipment as the prism it had just struggled to destroy, let out a death cry.

There was no need to pull the trigger any more.

Bang!!

One shot to the assassin’s horribly distorted forehead inside the completely shattered steel frame.

Watching the monster’s form collapse powerlessly on the spot, Renok tidied up the remaining debris.

“Is it a self-destructing killing machine that transforms with a specific word as a trigger? They’ve made some unique things in the Machine City.”

A human weapon that indiscriminately destroys the surroundings and self-destructs by transforming the hormones that explode in the brain just before a human dies.

It was indeed the best way to cause a specific incident and destroy witnesses and evidence.

Come to think of it, the shadow leader who infiltrated Renok’s workshop also transformed into a bizarre beast at the end and struggled.

“Pandemonium…”

Pandemonium and the Doctor. It was clear they had reacted to these keywords, but it was difficult to grasp to what extent they were involved in this incident.

If they were determined to use Renok’s magic or use Victor’s communication network, it wouldn’t be impossible.

But if that happened, the position Renok had built up as an artisan would be in danger.

‘Now that Nasisa has been caught up in an assassination attempt, it’s hard to know if the plan to move to the upper workshop district will proceed as promised. In the end, is the best option to watch the situation unfold…’

Although he had pursued and killed the assassin, he had not yet crossed the line of being able to operate the workshop under Lyman’s name.

Knowing that he could deceive the Executors and Ex Machina, it wouldn’t be bad to maintain his status as an artisan as much as possible.

Renok tidied up the assassin’s body to make it look like he had self-destructed, checked the time, and muttered.

“It’ll take about 3 minutes for the investigative agency to find this place…”

If he left right now, he could avoid being caught for any traces or circumstances that Renok was here, but…

Even as Renok thought that, he stared at the replica of the statue that was still intact.

“…Okay.”

During the mid-term settlement, the statue’s power was only used once due to the Doctor’s mediation, but since the opportunity was given, there was no reason to pass it up.

Renok immediately climbed onto the palm of the statue and took out one item from his pocket.