Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 967

The underground cavern was a swirling vortex of purple and black mana.

The manifestation of a black hole, sucking in and pulling at even light itself, distorted space, causing the entire underground area to tremble as if being drawn in.

The time it existed at Victor’s fingertips was a mere instant, imperceptible to the five senses.

However, the miracle wrought by the forbidden artifact erased all traces left by Anathema simply by its existence.

A dark ruin buried deep in the earth, where not a single ray of light could penetrate.

Thump, thump!

“Phoo!”

Felix’s head emerged from the pile of dirt, his beak struggling to clear the way.

The bird’s head, gasping for air as if searching for oxygen, shook while still buried in the ground.

“Ban? Gwihee?”

“Felix. Over here.”

Bang!

At that moment, a door burst open above Felix’s head, and Lenok reached out a hand.

“The mansion is protected by a spell, so the damage isn’t too bad. Come up.”

“…It feels like something similar happened before.”

The situation was that Felix, in a disheveled state, had woken up from being unconscious, and Lenok, who had woken up earlier, was taking care of him.

Felix, recalling what had happened in the restricted area, gave a wry smile and grabbed Lenok’s hand, pulling with all his might.

Thud!

Lenok’s body fell straight out of the door.

“…Ban?!”

While Felix was in shock and frantically supported Lenok’s head, Lenok got up nonchalantly.

“My apologies. I forgot about the anti-gravity manipulation.”

“…Are you alright?”

Felix asked with a worried expression.

“You don’t look too good.”

“No. I just have some things on my mind.”

Lenok’s expression, as he said that, was also furrowed, as if he was focused on something else.

While Felix looked at him suspiciously, Lenok, having restored the crumpled shield, used a gravity chain to pull Felix up.

Thump!

With a ground-shaking roar, Felix’s massive body was pulled above ground.

Felix, brushing off the dirt, finally let out a sigh and stepped into the mansion.

“The reception room…”

The mansion, which had been neat when he first found it, was now covered in piles of dirt due to the backflow of soil.

The mansion’s structure itself was intact, but it couldn’t prevent the soil from pouring into the interior.

“You’re late, birdbrain.”

“…”

Peisha, who was lying on the sofa in the reception room, glared at Felix.

“If you can’t even avoid a bit of soil and get buried, you might as well suffocate to death.”

“…I have no excuse. It’s because I have an unnecessarily large and heavy body.”

“Let’s sit down and talk.”

Lenok, patting Felix’s dejected shoulder, pointed to a chair in the reception room.

The mansion was half-tilted. The surroundings were messy, with piles of dirt underfoot.

Although the scenery had changed a lot, they gathered as they had before heading to the temple.

However, silence hung heavy among the group sitting in the reception room, without a single word being spoken.

“…”

Felix and Peisha were quietly glancing at Lenok’s profile, lost in thought.

It was a strange sight, as if they were trying to gauge Lenok’s mood while watching him.

“…Hmm?”

Only then did Lenok belatedly notice their reactions and chuckled.

“Sit comfortably. Why are you acting so fidgety, like you’ve done something wrong?”

“Ahem, well…”

“It’s because they thought you’d be pissed about having the forbidden artifact stolen.”

While Felix cleared his throat, Peisha gave a crooked smile.

“It’s normal to be furious when some thieving bastards suddenly steal your stuff. If it were me, I would have smashed this mansion to pieces by now.”

“Ah, so that’s what you were talking about…”

Lenok trailed off, giving a wry smile.

Peisha, with her arms crossed, tilted her head and said.

“That creepy masked guy. He used some bizarre spell I’ve never seen before.”

“…”

“I’ve met a few manipulators in the central area, but none of them had such strange abilities. What’s the deal?”

“He’s a special type manipulator who was recently recruited into Pandemonium.”

Felix replied with a troubled look.

“He’s said to be extremely arrogant and irritable, and he has unparalleled talent in handling manipulation techniques.”

“A special type manipulator with that much skill and background, and his identity hasn’t been properly revealed yet?”

“There’s very little information coming out even from within Pandemonium. There’s even talk that no one knows his face. He must be a monster with a very special background.”

Felix, answering Peisha’s curt question, asked with a puzzled look.

“He’s appeared in several of Pandemonium’s major operations, so I thought the information would have already circulated among the legion-level forces… Did you not know about it even though you’ve risen to the rank of general?”

“No, that’s… Damn it, it wasn’t like that when I was working in the field!”

Peisha, who was rambling excuses, quickly changed the subject.

“Even considering that, the black hole he used at the end. That doesn’t make sense. Is it possible to extract gravity just by getting your hands on an artifact?”

“It’s more accurate to say that a dangerous artifact fell into the hands of a dangerous manipulator.”

Felix’s expression, with his eyes closed, changed to one of undisguised distress.

“That was literally a miracle in the form of manipulating concepts. With that kind of talent, it’s no wonder he could stand confidently before Ban.”

The miniature black hole that Victor’s avatar used at the end.

Its true form was revealed above the underground temple for only a fleeting moment, but there was no way that superhumans like Felix and Peisha wouldn’t recognize its true value.

No, rather, they knew well that such a concentrated power of concepts could only exist in reality for a very short time.

Having the skill and insight to witness and understand the true value of manipulation techniques, they couldn’t help but feel more dejected by the gap.

“The continent is vast indeed. There are so many talented people that I can’t even imagine.”

“So, mage. What are you going to do?”

Peisha asked in a sarcastic tone.

“You wouldn’t still be here if you didn’t have something in mind, would you?”

From Felix’s and Peisha’s perspectives, it wouldn’t be strange to see Lenok as having failed to achieve his goals and having come up empty-handed.

But how could Lenok explain here that he had designed and guided the outcome to some extent from the beginning?

After pondering for a moment, Lenok said in a calm tone.

“You don’t have to worry about it for now.”

“…Don’t worry about it?”

“One or two failures are not surprising. For today, we can consider it a trial and error and be patient.”

“…”

“We can always repay this debt to Pandemonium later, can’t we?”

At Lenok’s nonchalant answer, Peisha stared at Lenok with a squinting gaze.

It was a strange reaction, as if she was looking at an incomprehensible creature.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…This isn’t the patience I know from that guy.”

“…”

Peisha’s question was strangely sharp.

Peisha, who had been staring intently at Lenok, suddenly said.

“I’m not going.”

“What nonsense are you suddenly spouting?”

“I’m saying that even if you suddenly go crazy and decide to kill Pandemonium, don’t drag me into it.”

“…”

“I don’t know what plan you’re cooking up that makes you so relaxed, but since you have a goal in mind, that’s why-”

“We’ll talk about what to do against Pandemonium later.”

Lenok, cutting off Peisha’s words, which she was spitting out as if she was resentful of being dragged around, raised his hand.

“For now, let’s focus on the gains we made today.”

“Gains? What gains? We didn’t even get to touch anything, and everything was stolen.”

Even Peisha had been watching Lenok’s mood because he hadn’t been able to take any of the artifacts in Anathema’s temple.

However, instead of refuting Peisha’s words, Lenok silently reached into his pocket.

Whoosh!

A grumpy poison toad and a ring that scattered cold air appeared on the table at the same time.

“…Huh?”

“This can’t be.”

Peisha, who had been lying down with a bored expression, sat up, and Felix looked at Lenok with a dumbfounded expression.

“Those are the artifacts that Pandemonium’s lackeys stole. Since when…?”

The Ice Artisan and the Cursed Maw, which should have been originally stored in Anathema’s temple, but had ended up in the hands of Soryu and Ermong, respectively.

Lenok had snatched those two artifacts from Pandemonium’s hands and escaped the temple.

It was surprising that he had done such a thing while facing Pandemonium, but what was even more astonishing was that even Peisha and Felix, who were on the same side, hadn’t noticed.

“There was a gap in their concentration due to the spell they used right before escaping the temple.”

[Croak!]

Lenok, placing his hand on the head of the loudly croaking poison toad, said.

“We failed to recover the forbidden artifact, but we did manage to secure these two items.”

The reason why Victor’s avatar didn’t leave immediately after recovering the forbidden artifact and instead confronted Lenok.

From the beginning, Lenok had no intention of handing over the Ice Artisan and the Cursed Maw to Pandemonium.

That’s why Lenok moved the avatar to help Pandemonium until right before the escape.

Then, at the moment when the jewel staircase was broken by Ban’s lightning spear, he stole the Cursed Maw and the Ice Artisan and equipped the forbidden artifact.

He deployed a miniature black hole, collapsing the temple, and at the same time, handed over the two artifacts to Lenok.

It wouldn’t have been possible without the subtle, almost imperceptible mana manipulation and the Archangel’s Compassion, which could teleport inanimate objects.

If he hadn’t used such a technique to disrupt the situation at the end, Soryu and Ermong would have immediately realized that the artifacts had been stolen.

“I can’t just let them steal all the items that have been transferred to my ownership with my eyes open.”

Lenok smiled at the two people who were looking at him with dumbfounded expressions.

“So, instead of the items we lost, I’ve been thinking about how to use these two artifacts.”

“How to use them? Who among us besides you would be able to use these artifacts?”

Peisha scoffed and snatched the poison toad.

[Croak!]

She stared at the struggling poison toad with a sullen expression, then opened the toad’s mouth and said.

“This isn’t a living thing. It’s a charm made of a mass of resentment.”

“…”

“It must be something made by ancient sorcerers or shamans. Many of the methods for making high-level charms have been lost, so modern sorcerers hardly use them. Sorcerers are also relying on artifacts, which is the pathetic state of the sorcery world.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard about the origins of charms. You have considerable knowledge of sorcery.”

Felix turned his gaze with a surprised expression at Peisha’s fluent explanation.

“Did you study sorcery separately on your own?”

“Damn it, would I ever do that? When would I ever learn and use such troublesome spells?”

Peisha replied nonchalantly and shook her head as if disgusted.

“I know a sorcerer. He’s a crazy person who tries to spread and teach sorcery all the time. I heard it from him.”

“…”

Peisha spoke as if it was nothing, but Lenok paid attention to the existence of that sorcerer.

Given Peisha’s personality, it was safe to assume that she wouldn’t leave a sorcerer who spouted useless words to her alone.

If that was the case, then the sorcerer who forcibly injected sorcery information into Peisha’s head must be a skilled person that even Peisha couldn’t handle.

And, if there was someone with that much skill and status within the legion, it must be-

“For guys like me and birdbrain who don’t have a knack for sorcery or black magic, this is just a nasty decoration.”

Peisha, holding the toad’s mouth and stretching it wide, said with a grumpy expression.

“That ring called the Ice Artisan is even worse. Who here has mastered ice-type bloodline abilities?”

“…”

“Judging from what that prince said, it seems to be a specialized piece of equipment tailored for that royal family. If you mess with something like this, you’ll be cursed instead of blessed.”

Peisha said that and leaned back on the sofa, tilting her head.

“Both are useless. Well, maybe some blind customer will buy them if we sell them at an auction later.”

“Hmm…”

Was it true that what they had obtained after fighting for more than half a day was just a gain that none of the three of them could use?

Felix, unable to react to that fact, let out a groan and hung his head.

“I’m sorry, Ban. I could have done a little more in that situation. If I had drawn a little more of the power of the Arrival-”

“It was enough that you got one over on Maiya, so there’s no need to apologize.”

Lenok said that and picked up the Cursed Maw that Maiya had thrown.

“And forget the nonsense Peisha just spouted. This is actually quite useful for all of us right now.”

“What, you bastard?!”

“If you saw Ermong, the black magician, using the Cursed Maw, you’d know that it’s an item that devours specific curses or grudges.”

Lenok, tapping the head of the poison toad, said.

“To be precise, it’s an item that sucks up only curses or grudges, no matter what you feed it, and spits out the rest.”

How was Ermong able to use the Cursed Maw to summon Maiya and Hyulno to the underground temple?

It wasn’t because Ermong fed it the curse he was afflicted with and received high-purity black mana in return.

He had simply fed his mana to the Cursed Maw and then used the mana that had been cleansed of the curse to use black magic instead.

“The fact that it devours curses and grudges seems to limit its use, but if you think about it a little more, it can be applied in various ways.”

Lenok, looking back at Felix and Peisha, shone his eyes.

“Purification of thoughts or mana. It can cleanse items or powers imbued with sinister energy.”

“So, what does that have to do with-”

“…Ah!”

Felix, interrupting Peisha’s words, trembled greatly as if struck by lightning.

Felix, making eye contact with Lenok, asked with a slightly agitated expression.

“Could it be, the mana of the Arrival…?”

“Yes.”

Lenok nodded and tossed the Cursed Maw to Felix.

Looking at Felix, who had inadvertently received the poison toad, Lenok said.

“The sinister resentment contained in the mana of the Arrival. If we feed that to the Cursed Maw and filter it out, the purity of the mana will be much higher.”

“…”

“If the problem is the madness and side effects that come with using mana, then if we purify it, we can focus on training more easily, right?”

The mana of the Arrival that Felix used was originally obtained by transferring the mana contained in an artifact.

However, since it was the mana of a superhuman who had ascended as a berserker, it was also true that he continued to suffer from side effects while using it.

That’s why, from the moment he heard about the Cursed Maw’s ability, Lenok had been thinking about how to use it.

And he thought that he should test that ability before completely escaping the 55th district.

“Felix. Feed it the mana of the Arrival and see if the Cursed Maw can purify the mana.”

“That’s…”

“If things go well, we can get our hands on the cleanly purified mana of an ascendant. And if its purity is high enough for others to use-”

Lenok said that and got up from his seat.

“Peisha and I might also be able to use that mana.”

“You’re making others do the work and where are you going?”

“I’m going to test the ability of the Ice Artisan.”

Lenok, clutching the ring that scattered cold air, said.

“As you said, this is an item that will curse rather than bless if you’re not a member of the Kabahim royal family. I need to investigate exactly how it works.”

“You’re determined to freeze to death. Do as you please.”

Peisha, lying down with her legs crossed, chuckled at Lenok.

“Well, if you die outside, I’ll at least light a bonfire.”

“If I fail, it’s your turn next, so be prepared.”

“…”

Lenok, leaving behind Peisha, who had a bug-chewing expression, immediately left the reception room and went around to the back of the mansion.

The mansion was also half-tilted due to the collapse of the underground temple, but it hadn’t been completely buried yet.

The open space below the sewer passage had been partially destroyed, but there was still some space left.

In a place like this, even if he tested the ability of the Ice Artisan, the cold air wouldn’t spread into the mansion.

“Then…”

However, unlike what he had said earlier, Lenok immediately put the ring in his pocket and leaned against the ground.

He leaned his back against the tilted wall of the mansion, closed his eyes, focused his mind, and reversed the direction of his consciousness.

He had given a suitable reason to leave the two of them, but there was one thing he had to deal with first.

“Hoo…”

At the same time as he let out a soft sigh, cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

The moment he closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and quickly dispersed his mind as if letting it flow away.

Lenok’s consciousness began to rapidly sink and flicker as if being sucked into somewhere.

* * *

District 21 of the megacity of Vulcan. The Cathedral of Highlea.

Above the chapel, where the sound of an old organ echoed softly.

Pandemonium members stood surrounding a sorcerer wearing an obsidian mask.

A sharply heated atmosphere. The other members’ gazes were wary, as if they were looking at an enemy.

However, Lenok, regardless of the gazes pouring in from around him, was intently looking at the glass-colored gauntlet on his left hand.

A metallic gleam sparkled brilliantly on the palm of the gauntlet.

A strange reaction, as if he was intoxicated, as if he was looking at his own face reflected in it.

“So.”

Sister Highlea, who was rubbing her temples with a troubled look, said.

“I think we need an explanation from beginning to end about what you did in this operation, Victor.”