Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 81

“……”

Talent, huh. Just how much potential did that man see in Lennox?

If he truly understood Lennox’s capabilities, would he be so relaxed right now?

Regardless of the complex thoughts swirling in his head, the man continued to speak.

“To bring change to this stagnant world… we need as many talents as possible.”

For a moment, Lennox forgot his fear and carefully considered the man’s words.

A stagnant world.

Those words resonated with the long-standing concerns he had heard from Cheon-gyeon and had been pondering.

The man, seemingly aware of Lennox’s thoughts, stared down at him for a moment before summoning something in his hand and tossing it over.

“You seem interested in what I have to say, so take this.”

He spoke after confirming that Lennox had caught it.

“It doesn’t have to be now, but someday, you might want to hear the truth.”

It will be helpful then, the man concluded, tilting his head towards the sky.

And with that, a dark magic circle emerged from behind the man, swallowing him whole.

Whoooosh!!

A brief gust of wind swept through, and when the others opened their eyes again, the man was gone without a trace.

Even the giant who had taken on the majestic form of a Shura [a powerful, demon-like being in some mythologies].

“Hoo…!”

Only after confirming the empty sky did the others relax and slump to the ground.

Kilian, leaning against the collapsed vault wall with an exhausted expression, spoke in disbelief.

“You were right, Van. If Eden had succeeded in stalling for time…”

“……”

Though no one spoke, they all nodded in agreement, their gazes fixed on Lennox.

They too had realized, upon hearing Lennox’s words, that they had just been face-to-face with a member of Pandemonium.

It seemed Eden had been trying to buy time, but who would have thought he’d actually bring in a big shot from Pandemonium?

If Lennox hadn’t recognized the man’s intentions and quickly killed Eden, none of them could have guaranteed their survival.

Watching the others still reeling from the shock, Lennox glanced down at the object the man had given him.

“……”

A teardrop-shaped obsidian brooch.

Considering the man’s use of black magic, it was more likely that this item was related to black mages rather than Pandemonium.

Could they really know something about the secrets of this world?

It was impossible to determine the truth right now.

He would have to investigate and judge for himself.

Lennox clenched the brooch tightly and silently looked up at the sky.

The night sky of Vulcan was still dazzling, with no stars visible.

As everything fell back into place, the collaboration between Lennox and Dyke was also nearing its end.

#

With Eden’s death, the gang was completely annihilated, and things progressed surprisingly quickly.

There was some commotion about the appearance of a black giant in District 48, but keeping things quiet in this world wasn’t too difficult.

Dyke cleared away the power plant that the Pandemonium black mage had pushed aside, built a new branch office in its place, and quickly began to seize control of the market.

They needed to stabilize the business quickly before the city government’s inspections began.

For the other project teams, including Panoa’s, this was when the real work began.

With the success of the plan, the long internal conflict within Dyke’s headquarters also came to an end.

The shareholders unanimously sided with the management, and control of the company was completely handed over to Dustin Goodman.

The severe restrictions on personnel that had been placed on Panoa were completely lifted, and her position within the company skyrocketed.

“This way, please. We’ve been waiting for you.”

Manya, who had come out to the elevator, politely guided Lennox to Panoa’s office.

While she usually had an unreadable expression, she seemed more lively recently.

“Things seem to be going well.”

“It seems to show a lot.”

Even as she replied, Manya’s face remained expressionless.

“We haven’t even started the business properly yet, but the projected revenue is already extraordinary. Various clients, including freelancers and mercenaries operating in the outer districts, are already trying to trade with us to replenish their dwindling weapon supplies.”

“……”

“The outlook is positive enough that we’ll need to run more than half of our production lines to handle the expected volume.”

The project he had participated in had been a huge success, so her position in the company must have risen sharply as well.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.

The floor where Panoa’s office was located.

The space where she had once worked alone was now bustling with dozens of employees, busily moving documents, talking, and holding phones to their ears.

“There’s a problem with the maintenance at Factory No. 4, and they’re short on staff? I’ll send you a list of outsourcing companies, so choose one and send me an email back.”

“The defect checks aren’t being done properly during the first production inspection.”

“Request additional personnel from the higher-ups and double-check the manual.”

“The materials department is empty! Who owns this phone!”

The people who had been shouting and moving around became composed and cautious as soon as they saw Manya’s face.

She subtly enjoyed their blatant gazes as she slowly knocked on the glass door of Panoa’s office.

The door opened immediately, and a pale-faced Panoa greeted Lennox.

“Come in. It’s the first time we’ve met since the operation.”

“It’s been a while.”

As soon as he sat on the familiar office sofa, Lennox asked,

“You don’t look too good.”

“Well… there are things I can only do now.”

She said that and smiled at Lennox skillfully.

“But I can’t postpone the gift I owe you, mage.”

As expected, the hunting dog wasn’t going to be boiled in a pot just because the job was done [a metaphor for betraying someone after they’ve served their purpose].

Rather, Panoa had been constantly contacting Lennox even after the job was over, diligently trying to show him that she hadn’t forgotten him.

She knew that the unexpected success of this plan was entirely dependent on the abilities of one person, Lennox.

It was Lennox’s skill, which went beyond the category of a simple mage, that had made it possible to make up for the relatively insufficient manpower and lack of information and to crush the gang head-on.

She was aware that trying to boil the hunting dog carelessly could break the pot she had prepared.

So, there was only one thing she could do.

She had to give him a sweeter reward and make sure his teeth wouldn’t turn towards her.

And Panoa had been working hard, squeezing out time, for this very moment.

“I gave you the five fingers of Enakphil as a down payment, but the reward for the overall success of the plan is, of course, separate. Please accept this first.”

She said that and handed over an anonymous bank account and a seal.

“It’s a dummy account with 300 million cells. It can be withdrawn in cash, and it’s been thoroughly laundered.”

“……”

Lennox listened to her answer and quietly picked up the account.

300 million cells.

Even considering Lennox’s increased value and the danger pay he had received, it was clearly a large sum to give to an individual.

But Panoa knew for sure that saving money in a situation like this would not help at all.

Moreover, the reward she had prepared didn’t end there.

She immediately took out a pair of matte black gloves and a small bottle filled with a light green liquid.

“These are gloves from the Black Palace Workshop and a potion called the Spring Water of Toone. It’s said to be good for internal injuries.”

Panoa glanced at Lennox’s face and said,

“…I prepared this because I thought you might have overdone it during this operation.”

She must have received a report that Pandemonium had almost interfered at the end of the operation, so it would have been difficult to let it go without a reward.

The gifts she had prepared showed how much she had thought about the situation.

That’s why Lennox didn’t give a useless answer and asked what he was curious about first.

“Black Palace Workshop?”

“It’s a VIP workshop run by an artisan who only takes orders from a select few members. Our company was only recently able to get on the waiting list and become a member. The products from this workshop are of such high quality and difficult to obtain that they are often used as gifts.”

Ignoring Panoa’s words, which were full of subtle boasting, Lennox picked up the gloves and put them on both hands.

They fit snugly on his palms and were so light that he could barely feel them.

When he tried to activate his mana, it flowed through the gloves very smoothly, which meant that they had been carefully designed with mana conductivity in mind.

“They are designed to harden rapidly upon receiving a certain level of impact, protecting the wrist as well. If you fall from a 10-story building, you can greatly reduce injuries if you just put your hands on the ground properly. It’s one of the most popular and hard-to-get products from the workshop.”

As soon as Lennox heard that, he took off the gloves and infused them with impact magic.

Bang!!

Just as she had said, the surface of the gloves instantly hardened and stretched down to the wrist, trying to protect the joints.

Only then did Lennox smile and nod.

“You’ve brought good things. Thank you.”

“Of course, I don’t intend to just brush it off with these things. The funds recovered from the gang’s vault will also be distributed according to your contribution to this operation and deposited into your account. It seems that a considerable amount was spent while fighting us, but you will still be able to take more than 70% of the remaining funds.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

There was no need to refuse the money that would be deposited into his account.

After that, Panoa explained in various ways how Dyke Corporation would proceed with its business and how she could help Lennox in the process.

She also subtly hinted that she hoped Lennox would help Dyke’s business more, but Lennox ultimately did not answer her and left the headquarters building.

The faces of Panoa and Manya, who were disappointed, lingered in his mind, but he cleanly shook off any lingering feelings.

He had done enough, and he had received enough.

In addition to the modest goal of gaining fame as a freelancer, he had received various artifacts, including funds, as compensation.

Above all, the data on the electric-type unique magic he had obtained from Eden’s laboratory was clearly the biggest gain from this operation.

He had already confirmed in battle that he could use the application techniques within it without learning the unique magic itself.

With systematic research, Lennox’s magic could reach an even higher level than it was now.

Even Lennox, who rarely experienced emotional fluctuations, found it difficult to hide his joy just thinking about it.

He wanted to lock himself in his one-room apartment and focus on research right away, but there were a few things he had to take care of externally before that.

‘I’ll leave the cleanup of this matter to Jenny, and I need to improve my lifestyle a bit.’

It was clear that Lennox’s reputation and value had increased dramatically as a result of this incident, and since he had acquired a large sum of money, it was necessary to change his existing environment.

In particular, his current one-room apartment was quite small for the things Lennox owned, and the security was not good, which made him feel uneasy.

With this much money, it was possible to find a relatively large house in the inner city.

‘It’s hard to make money, but it’s also hard to spend it…’

The point was this.

After deducting the cost of purchasing elixirs and drugs, how much money could he spend on improving his living environment?

And how much more would he have to invest in the future?

Considering that a mage needed a proper laboratory, it was inevitable that he would continue to expand his personal space.

However, he also had to leave enough money to maintain his health and vitality with more expensive elixirs and drugs.

It was a difficult problem, and it was a concern that he couldn’t share with anyone.

Like swimming through the mud, he had to worry alone and find the answer.

The smoke that scattered far away mixed with the cold air of the city and disappeared.

Winter was approaching.

Noise

“Did he leave?”

“Yes. As always, he didn’t look back.”

“That’s understandable.”

“…President.”

Panoa, who had been gazing out the window, reluctantly turned her head.

Dustin, who was sitting on the sofa, leisurely shook the coffee cup he was holding.

“We have to hold onto Van no matter what.”

“I know. And he knows it too.”

“……”

“How could he not know when we’re courting him so blatantly?”

Dustin’s self-deprecating words were not wrong.

The reason why Panoa was giving Lennox such extravagant gifts was because the higher-ups had made their own decision that they had to hold onto him.

“I went to a meeting for a while this time. My friends started asking about that mage.”