Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 843

After Evelyn fled in embarrassment, the evening of the day after returning to the mansion, Lenok was mulling over the conversation he had with Evelyn about Lapis.

‘I heard the news that Lapis had completed her ascension from Pandemonium, but…’

He remembered Daymus mentioning it during the meeting in the Demon Realm, stating that Lapis had reached level 7.

It wasn’t strange that Evelyn was now telling Lenok this directly.

It was also understandable that Lapis had completed her ascension so quickly, thanks to the Heavenly Eye’s abilities and the support of the lighthouses built across the continent.

However, it was unexpected that Lapis, having completed her ascension, would try to visit the Balkan City Council herself.

Moreover, Lapis was one of the few people who knew the origins of Evan, who belonged to the Azure Eye.

“I’m tired…”

Lenok muttered absentmindedly, once again troubled by thoughts of his identity.

He had spent the entire night talking with Evelyn, so even after sleeping for half a day, he was still quite exhausted.

Moreover, the answer Lenok had given at the end was-

“Haa…”

Lenok, with a wet towel covering his face, leaned back on the sofa, tilting his head back.

After the battle with Dore, and after being utterly defeated by Kraken, he had solidified his conviction.

Yet, this was the first time he had said it to someone directly.

A declaration that he would surpass the stagnant level 8 and gain the qualifications to challenge ascension.

A resolution to reach level 9 and provide an answer that transcends the end of this world.

Only after finishing his journey in Yorta could Lenok accept that he had to become an Ascended.

“…I don’t know if it was the right thing to do.”

By using magic during the battle, he had essentially confirmed Evelyn’s suspicions.

Evelyn probably had a firm idea of who was in Yorta.

But how did Evelyn interpret Lenok’s words?

She seemed to understand at first glance, but on the other hand, it seemed like she didn’t.

Just as Lenok couldn’t fully empathize with Evelyn Marcia’s way of life, perhaps Evelyn thought the same way about Lenok.

But if he hadn’t given that answer, Lenok wouldn’t have been able to convince Evelyn.

If he hadn’t explained that all his journeys, wandering between good and evil, were for one unchanging purpose.

He had to show that what Lenok wanted hadn’t changed from when they first met to now, and that was the only way.

She was someone he could trust, and someone he shouldn’t turn into an enemy.

It wasn’t wise to antagonize a collaborator with such talent, skill, and character… no, that wasn’t it.

He was trying to convince himself with lame excuses, but the reason Lenok moved was simple.

He wanted to be honest, and he didn’t want to betray her.

He knew he should if necessary, but he didn’t because it wasn’t necessary.

How could someone who couldn’t even convey a single word honestly elicit an honest answer to their own desires?

Even while forcing out such illogical reasoning and answers, Lenok wanted to tell Evelyn.

That Lenok trusted her.

“…”

He still wasn’t sure if it was properly conveyed.

He tried to convey something that couldn’t be conveyed through words, so it was formless and left lingering feelings.

Even falling into such sentiments was ultimately Lenok’s choice and regret.

He only hoped that Evelyn would ponder and contemplate this fact as much as Lenok did.

[Whirring, whirring.]

While Lenok was lost in such trivial sentiments, rubbing his face with the towel, Davi emitted a strange sound from his chest.

[Rattle, rattle.]

“…?”

Whirring, rattle.

As he looked down at Davi with a puzzled expression, the printer in the corner of the living room started working on its own, spitting out several sheets of paper.

A report that seemed to have skipped about 95% of the preceding content, sending only the conclusion while completely omitting the main points.

After roughly reading the context, Lenok realized that this was the result of the examination records sent by Murphy.

[It’s a summary of the examination report sent by the vampire you traded with, Master.]

“A summary?”

[If I were to transfer the entire examination file onto paper, it would be about 552 pages. Should I print it here?]

“…No, it’s fine.”

If Davi had gone to the trouble of printing only the conclusion, then most of it would be data related to graphs and numerical notations.

He could just open the email before going to bed and skim through it without any problems.

Lenok was about to look at the examination report results sent by Murphy when he felt something was off about Davi’s words and turned his head.

“Davi, come to think of it, have you ever called a vampire that way?”

[Me?]

It seemed that Davi himself hadn’t been aware of the term.

Davi tilted his head, his six tails fluttering, and asked back.

[But that skinny thing… isn’t it not an organism?]

Lenok didn’t know exactly what nutrients and substances a vampire’s body was made of.

Most of the vampires Lenok had met were either annoying opponents worse than mosquitoes or difficult business partners.

He knew a blood mage named Rayan Aiter, who had become a vampire from a human, but he hadn’t been in contact with him since he left him with Madam.

“I need to do some research on vampires too…”

Among vampires, the true bloods, who were treated specially, were considered long-lived beings even in the outer city of Kundara.

Among them were also project outsiders like the ‘Blood Lord,’ who wrote the Blood Scripture.

If Lenok had to find traces of Kaise in Kundara, he would have to be somewhat familiar with the long-lived beings.

[Shall I look for related data on the central network?]

“There won’t be much value in the data accessible through literature or historical records. It would be faster to request a trade with Madam.”

Lenok knew that she was the oldest broker in this city, a strange person who had watched the project fail.

And she was someone who had considerable insight among vampires and played a role in mediating the situation.

“Last time, she asked for the blood of an extreme ability user, so I got away with giving her the blood of a clown. She’ll probably ask for the same thing this time.”

Although she didn’t show it openly, it was clear that she was also coveting Lenok’s blood.

If even the picky Murphy was captivated by Lenok’s blood, it was obvious how valuable the blood of a high-level transcendent was to a vampire.

After pondering for a moment, Lenok nodded as if he had made a decision.

“Even to prepare for a trade with Madam, when fighting as Van, I’ll make sure to collect the opponent’s blood separately.”

[…Hmm, shouldn’t Master not be wronged by such rumors?]

“What did you say?”

[Ubbububub.]

Lenok covered Davi’s mouth with both hands and pretended not to hear, turning his gaze to the report.

He ignored the specific numerical values and data, and only checked the doctor’s opinion that Murphy had written at the very bottom.

Since most of the equipment Murphy used was different from the research equipment Lenok used, it would be difficult to find out anything even if he knew the numerical values.

It was more effective to gather only Murphy’s own perspective and opinions and hear the conclusion.

As expected, Murphy’s opinion was written in particularly small letters, densely filling the back of the report.

=I’m writing this here because you probably won’t look at the specific numbers or graphs in detail.

=To get to the point, your genetic information is changing little by little.

“…”

=Your basic metabolism, physical abilities, and organ functions are still at a low level, but the areas related to magic are completely different.

=The values for internal magic transfer rate and mana contamination rate, as well as recoil adjustment values, have exceeded the upper limit. It’s not a level that a human body can withstand.

=If this were the examination record of someone I didn’t know at all, I would have thought that this was a very noble demi-human or long-lived patient. Or that they had undergone a ‘reconstruction’ equivalent to that.

“Reconstruction, huh…”

Lenok muttered, naturally flipping the paper to the back of the report.

=You may only appear to be human on the surface, but your body is changing at the cellular level for some reason. The over-recovery that has been inflicted on your body can also be explained by the same conclusion.

=The fact that you can withstand the state where your blood pressure and blood flow speed differ in each part of your body is because the forced recovery inflicted on your body was done through a spell. To be precise, your body has changed to be able to coexist in that way.

“…”

Was he saying that, apart from the endless modification and variation of his own magic, Lenok’s body was also synchronizing with that change?

A reconstruction that was so subtle that even Lenok himself couldn’t perceive it just by observing and looking into his own body, yet its meaning was by no means small.

The reason he hadn’t noticed it until now was probably because Lenok’s talent was biased towards his abilities as a mage.

=I am not a high-level archmage, so I cannot accurately identify the cause. I’m just roughly explaining what the overall changes in your body are.

=However, it seems clear that the changes in your body are closer to optimization as a sorcerer than as a human. A transcendent who has reached that level and realm may be literally recreating themselves without being aware of it.

=And as a result of uploading this over-recovery and the changes in your body to the Ars Nova examination record database, there was only one case.

He turned the paper again.

The last page of Murphy’s long opinion and explanation of the examination record.

=An experiment that was conducted in secret even within Ars Nova, and did not even receive a risk assessment. It seems that there was one case like yours among the patients who participated in it.

“…”

=I was only able to find out because the rate of change in the bio-information recorded in the database was somewhat consistent. I don’t have any more data than that. If you want to know about the related experiment, you’ll have to go find someone else.

Lenok knew that Ars Nova was a place that enjoyed the benefits of more advanced civilization and technology than any other city on the continent.

As was the case in various city-states across the continent, Ars Nova must have also repeated all sorts of experiments and research for the city.

And Lenok, who had directly looked into the Well of the Codex, knew that the reputation of the central city was by no means false.

‘The central city created artificial Ascended like Gye Baek and deliberately made them fail to ascend.’

An experiment that forcibly crammed tens of thousands of geas [magical contracts] into a human body, transforming them into transcendents who were forced to challenge ascension.

Even Lenok had been shaken by that insane idea and method.

Whatever experiments and failures there were in that now-destroyed city, it was highly likely that they were already beyond the realm that humans could judge.

Moreover, it would be even more so if it was an experiment that didn’t even receive a risk assessment in Ars Nova.

Perhaps the patient Murphy mentioned was also a victim of the Gye Baek incident.

“Aurel Silford…”

A fallen Ascended, Gye Baek Aurel Silford.

But his true identity was just a monster who was completed as an Ascended by others and forced to challenge ascension.

Come to think of it, Lenok still didn’t know anything back then.

While entrusting his consciousness to Gye Baek’s body, facing the outer sea beyond the Well of the Codex.

Even at that moment when he faced the forms of the outer gods floating in the dark sea as if in a dream, and looked into the eyes of the shark-headed dragon.

Even though he knew he had glimpsed the most dangerous and dark secrets of this world, he hadn’t realized the details.

At that time, why was Gye Baek mindlessly gnawing away at the continent towards the Well of the Codex?

How did Pandemonium know about that fact and arrive at the well in advance to confront Gye Baek?

And why was the Commander able to reconstruct the geas on Gye Baek’s body and make him challenge ascension again?

“…”

Only after meeting the outer gods in the Far East Branch, crossing the Well of the Codex, and opening the Ascension Gate in Machina could he understand the secret.

Only after seeing the memories of the Magic Marksman who tried to save the world by shooting down a god could he vaguely guess one fact.

The Commander of Pandemonium is related to the central city of Ars Nova.

He didn’t know when, where, or why it started, but his actions and motives clearly originated in the central city.

[Ah, Master.]

Just as Lenok was silently sipping his coffee, his thoughts stretching out to Ars Nova, the ascension ritual, Pandemonium, and the Commander.

Davi, who had been curled up on Lenok’s lap with a languid air, suddenly raised his gaze as if he had remembered something.

[That vampire wrote a postscript in the email when he sent the examination report. I’ll open it for you right away.]

Whoosh!

At the same time, a holographic screen appeared in front of Lenok’s eyes.

Lenok, with a disgruntled expression, touched the screen to open the mailbox and said.

“Murphy isn’t the kind of person who would leave out an opinion in the report and deliver it as a postscript. If it was an important story, he would have rewritten the entire report. It’s likely not very related to the main point-”

Lenok, who was saying that, closed his mouth after seeing the content written in the postscript.

=This isn’t about the report, so I’m writing it here. The City Council tried to scout me.

=I usually ignore them, but the name of the organization that scouted me was familiar.

=They’re asking if I’m interested in joining some research institute, isn’t this the name of that researcher working in your magic tower?

Lenok’s eyes instantly turned cold.

“…”

The Bailen Research Institute.

That name, which he had already kept in his memory, was being mentioned again by Murphy.

“Haa… they’re really getting on my nerves.”

Lenok, who was sitting on the sofa while tapping his phone, pondered for a moment, then stood up abruptly with an annoyed expression.

He didn’t care whether they built a research institute or not, but since they had taken Evan’s name, he had to figure out what they were aiming for by trying to scout talents from all over the place.

If it was information that bothered him this much, it was a situation that might disappear tomorrow.

He had to check what was going on there right now.

He pushed aside the sleeping pills he had placed nearby, then covered his face with one hand.

At the same time as he brushed his cheek, Lenok instantly changed his appearance to Van’s face and glared at his phone again.

A photo file of the Bailen Research Institute’s business card that was enclosed with Murphy’s postscript. The way to the research institute was simply marked.

“Davi. Scan this map and connect it to the satellite right away.”

Lenok, who had taken off his coat and put on gloves on both hands, nodded.

“We might have to turn everything upside down if things go wrong, so prepare the jamming too.”

[I’ll start right away!]

The moment Lenok, who had grabbed the cyber spirit who was crazy about causing trouble, pulled up his magic power.

The mage’s shadow disappeared from the mansion as if it had vanished.