Genius Wizard Takes Medicine Chapter 14

Rest

“Hm…”

After returning to the hotel, Lenoch sat in the middle of the bed and focused silently on smoking his cigarette.

As the old man had said, inhaling smoke was naturally less effective than using injections.

Nothing was more efficient than putting drugs directly into the bloodstream.

However, carrying disposable syringes every time he went out for work would be inconvenient. On the other hand, a cigarette did not look suspicious even if he kept it in his mouth.

Besides, the feeling of inhaling smoke was not unpleasant.

“Indeed… this is different.”

While the cigarettes he had stolen from the factory pounded heavily against the back of his head and awoke his body, the newly purchased product filled his whole body with vitality without making him feel fatigued.

For Lenoch, who needed relief from his weak body more than mental pleasure, this was exactly the effect he needed.

His body felt much lighter and stronger than before.

Of course, it was only a forced boost created by the drug. Even so, while the effect lasted, he should be able to move without any major problems.

Lenoch knew that he had already reached a decent level as a mage.

However, actual combat was another matter entirely.

He could not afford to let his weak body and poor stamina get in the way when he suddenly faced gunfire, like he had when capturing Taylor Evans.

Satisfied with the drug’s effects, Lenoch lay back on the bed, exhaled smoke, and began thinking about what he needed to do next.

‘Now that I think about it, I need to restock my bullets.’

He had no complaints about the pistol he had stolen from the supervisor, but he only had four bullets left.

Since awakening his magic, Lenoch had never doubted his magical talent.

Even so, he did not think he should neglect physical weapons.

No matter how great his talent was, his body was still fragile and unreliable.

Working in District 49 to earn money was unavoidable, so it was only natural that he prepare for every possible danger.

‘Once I earn enough money, I should look into getting a fake ID. I can’t live without an identity forever…’

Lenoch looked regretfully at the cigarette in his hand before reluctantly putting it out in the ashtray.

At 70,000 Cel per stick, this cigarette was more expensive than the hotel room he was staying in.

He felt like chewing up the entire filter, but for now, sleep came first.

With a practiced motion, Lenoch took the sleeping pills from beside the bed and lay down.

Now that he thought about it, Lenoch had been taking sleeping pills every day for the past week while researching common magic.

His supply was already running low.

It seemed the remaining 700,000 Cel already had a place to go.

Before long, Lenoch fell into a deep sleep.

His insomnia was still unresolved.

His body grew exhausted every day.

The sleeping pills and cigarettes he relied on daily would eventually build tolerance, forcing Lenoch to search for even stronger drugs.

But at least for this moment, his expression was completely peaceful.

And so, another day passed.

It was the day Lenoch first began earning money in the massive city of Balkan.

***

Time passed quickly.

After confirming that the side effects of the new cigarettes were far milder than the old cigarettes, Lenoch spent several days resting properly.

There were still plenty of things he could do while resting. Now that he could control mana, researching magic while lying in bed was entirely possible. His rapidly growing talent gave him more than enough room to immerse himself in magic.

The more he studied, the shorter his casting time became, and the more spells he learned to apply.

By combining several electric-type spells he already knew, he even created new ones. Lenoch became absorbed in the kind of experimentation he had never been able to attempt back when **WORLD** was only a game. Without anyone disturbing him, he continued researching magic while slowly stabilizing his body.

Once he felt somewhat recovered, he stopped resting and returned to work.

He visited Jenny’s tavern repeatedly and selected wanted criminals to hunt.

Jenny may have assigned bounty hunting simply to test his abilities, but for Lenoch, who desperately needed money, it was a decent source of income.

Tracking targets was not difficult as long as he had a trace of their blood, and subduing them was even easier.

There were not many jobs that paid as much as the first bounty on Taylor, but the amount he earned in a single day was still considerable.

After Lenoch captured his third wanted criminal alive, Jenny subtly tried to offer him other kinds of work. However, Lenoch continued focusing on bounty hunting.

Before starting a job, he smoked a cigarette, captured the wanted criminal, and handed them over to Jordan.

Then, after receiving the bounty, he returned to the hotel and slept like the dead. He would rest for about three days, research magic again, and once his body stabilized, return to work.

By repeating that routine, Lenoch eventually saved close to ten million Cel.

During that time, the name **“Van”** seemed to spread in several places. But as long as nothing involved him directly, Lenoch did not care.

Being known as a capable bounty hunter was not necessarily a bad thing.

Then, one day, about a month after he began researching magic and earning money—

“……”

Lenoch opened his eyes as sunlight poured through the window and struck his face directly.

He sat up while clutching his throbbing head.

The two cigarettes he had smoked one after another while chasing a wanted criminal the day before were still affecting him.

He fetched water from the drinking fountain, emptied an entire bottle, then washed his sweat-soaked body.

By now, Lenoch had grown so used to this lifestyle that he could find the towel on the rack even with his eyes closed.

After showering, his gaze turned to the corner of the hotel room.

The ten million Cel he had earned by capturing wanted criminals was piled there.

Bundles of ten-thousand and hundred-thousand Cel bills were stacked in plain sight. It was a large amount of money, but that also meant he could not casually ask for room cleaning while it was sitting openly in the corner.

Because of that, Lenoch had not been able to change the bedsheets for more than a week.

It was uncomfortable, but it was still better than showing ten million Cel to strangers.

“I should open a bank account…”

A bank account was the only proper way to store the money safely. But for Lenoch, who had no valid identification, walking into an ordinary bank was out of the question.

There was an anonymous bank in District 49 for people in situations like his, but the fees were so outrageous that even beggars avoided it. Lenoch had long since given up on that option.

In the end, he had only one choice.

He would buy a new identity.

He planned to purchase the identity of a missing person and rewrite the information completely.

The dealer who handled forged identification charged twenty million Cel for the transaction.

If Jenny had not acted as a mediator, it would have cost another ten million on top of that. In that sense, he owed her quite a lot.

Recently, Lenoch had become painfully aware of how inconvenient it was to live without a legal identity. As soon as he gathered enough money, he intended to create a new one.

After lying down for half a day because of the lingering side effects of the drug, Lenoch finally forced himself up, got dressed with difficulty, and went outside.

“Whew…!”

Without a cigarette in his mouth, even walking out of the hotel was painfully difficult.

His frail body began to break out in a cold sweat just from being under the sun. If he walked for an extended period, his body temperature rose, and a headache soon followed.

Lenoch himself found it hard to believe that he had endured three days in the factory and still managed to escape.

His hand instinctively moved toward the cigarette butt in his pocket, but smoking on a day when he was not working would only waste money and damage his body further.

Even though the new cigarettes had fewer side effects, that did not mean they placed no burden on Lenoch’s weak body.

With unsteady steps, he headed toward a small market near a residential area.

Despite the harsh midday heat, the market was crowded with people setting up tents and selling all kinds of fresh ingredients.

The reason Lenoch came to a neighborhood market instead of buying things from a mart or store was simple.

It was cheaper.

The freshness and storage conditions might be slightly worse, but most of the ingredients were grown or produced directly by the sellers.

Since they did not pass through distribution companies, the prices were lower than ordinary stores. For Lenoch, that made the market ideal.

Of course, when he had first started buying food without knowing anything, he had wasted tens of thousands of Cel on hotel breakfasts and had been overcharged at expensive restaurants without even realizing it.

Now, however, things were different.

After realizing that this world’s civilization was slightly more advanced than Earth’s, Lenoch had greatly reduced that kind of wasteful spending.

Sometimes he bought disposable lunch boxes from convenience stores, and other times he settled for cheap fast food.

Recently, however, Lenoch had been buying ingredients from the market and cooking for himself.

His body was no longer in the same condition as before.

He still had no choice but to smoke when he worked, but reducing the side effects and maintaining his basic nutrition were things he could manage.

Taking care of his health and preventing his body from deteriorating any further were important.

A few days earlier, Lenoch had even squeezed money out of his limited budget to order a full set of nutritional supplements online for the first time.

“Ma’am, I’ll take two Gabi onions, five Senil green onions, and six bell peppers, please.”

Having visited the market a few times before, Lenoch now selected the ingredients he wanted with ease and asked the owner for them.

Although the ingredients looked different from those on Earth and had unfamiliar names, there was no way Lenoch would fail to remember them.

“Thirty-four thousand Cel.”

“Hmm?”

The calm voice was completely different from the owner he remembered.

Lenoch raised his head.

A woman with jet-black bobbed hair was staring straight at him.

“Who are you?”

“I’m the owner of this store.”

Could this hastily set-up tent near the market really be called a store?

“…Where’s the lady who was here before?”

“She’s someone I hired.”

“Then what about these vegetables?”

“I grow them as a hobby.”

These vegetables, piled high enough to fill one side of the stall?

That was far too large-scale to be called a hobby.

Only then did Lenoch take a proper look at the woman he was speaking to.

She had calm eyes and an expressionless face. Her small but distinct nose and red lips stood out, making her quite beautiful.

She wore a loose bomber jacket and jeans and sat crouched behind the stall, but her unusually calm presence left a strong impression.

She certainly looked out of place among the people buying and selling fruits and vegetables.

“If you grow this much as a hobby, you must be quite rich.”

“That’s right. I make good money.”

“……”

Lenoch said nothing more. He paid her thirty-four thousand Cel and took the bag.

He had no way of knowing whether her words were true or not.

But if she really was doing all of this as a hobby, then she was probably wealthy.

Lenoch had no intention of getting involved with her any further.

At least, that was what he thought until she spoke to him again just as he was about to return to the hotel.

“Your mana is unusual.”

“…Pardon?”

“Why is a mage like you in a place like this?”

“I’m not sure what you mean…”

“If your pattern is that precise, even I should remember it. You haven’t been in Balkan for long, have you?”

Her expressionless mutter sent a chill down Lenoch’s spine.

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