Genius Wizard Takes Medicine Chapter 15

She had not only recognized Lenoch as a mage, but had even mentioned his mana pattern openly.

Lenoch’s mind quickly arrived at the answer.

‘…The barrier.’

After learning to use various common spells, Lenoch had made it a habit to keep a barrier spell active whenever he went outside. It seemed the mana pattern leaking from that barrier had caught her attention.

But was it really possible to notice that he was using magic and even read the mana pattern from the spell itself?

That was something even the police could only do with measuring devices.

Unless she had some special innate ability, or was an extremely powerful mage, it should have been impossible.

Either way, from Lenoch’s point of view, she was not someone he wanted to get involved with.

Keeping one hand near the cigarette in his pocket, Lenoch answered calmly.

“That’s right. I haven’t been in this city for long.”

“I thought so.”

“But how did you know?”

“Hmm? Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s just something I can do.”

“……”

The moment her curiosity was satisfied, she seemed to lose interest in Lenoch.

She lightly shook her head, then turned her attention to another customer standing behind him, subtly offering them vegetables that looked like onions.

Lenoch left the market with a baffled expression.

“Whew…”

This city was vast, and it was full of strange people.

He had only come out to buy ingredients, yet somehow, he had ended up feeling a chill down his spine.

“I need to pay more attention to magic.”

The more he used magic, the more his mana capacity naturally increased, and his casting speed kept improving.

His abilities were growing even without much effort.

Because of that, it was true that he had recently become careless about learning more.

He had thought that being able to use almost every common spell he knew was enough.

But a woman he had never met before just seen through him?

Even if he could not immediately learn new magic and increase his options, there was still room to improve how efficiently he used magic.

After returning to the hotel, Lenoch wiped away his sweat and placed the ingredients in the kitchen.

Once he caught his breath after the tiring trip outside, he washed everything he had bought and stored it in the refrigerator.

Then he took out only what he needed, placed it on the cutting board, and began cooking.

“One spoon of misutgaru… two spoons of sugar…”

Beside the cutting board lay a note with cooking instructions written on it.

He had copied it from a cookbook at the library.

On days when he did not visit Jenny’s tavern, Lenoch often stopped by the library.

It was open to individuals, had a vast collection of books and data, and even allowed him to use a computer when necessary.

Whenever he had time, Lenoch steadily gathered knowledge about this world and about magic.

This time, he had borrowed a cookbook focused on healthy meals.

Although this was his first time cooking, Lenoch’s expression was completely serious.

He understood very well that keeping his body in decent condition required more effort than most people needed.

The poor physical stats he had chosen when creating his character, along with the many penalties he had taken to strengthen his magical talent, were constantly eating away at his body and mind.

He could not solve those penalties directly.

But in a world where magic existed, there had to be some kind of method.

He could not rush.

Lenoch reminded himself of that as he slowly moved the knife in his hand.

‘First, I need to secure a proper identity and bank account.’

Lenoch chopped the zucchini-like vegetable unevenly on the cutting board, but he did not care.

From the start, expecting himself to be skilled at physical work was unreasonable.

‘Once I have a safe way to store money, I can focus on saving more and finding a real solution.’

The road ahead was long.

There was still too much to do.

But he had to move carefully and deliberately.

The world around him was still unfamiliar, dangerous, and unstable.

If he wanted not only to survive, but to truly live, he needed to prepare for many things.

And Lenoch believed he was ready to do that.

With a firm will to survive, Lenoch moved the knife toward the third vegetable.

Outside, the sun was beginning to set.

***

“New work?”

District 49. Jenny’s bar.

Lenoch had already visited her workplace nearly a dozen times.

He was starting to grow used to the tavern’s dimly lit lobby.

As he sipped the whiskey Jordan had handed him, he thought over Jenny’s words.

“Yes. Van, you’re not planning to keep coming here just to chase bounties forever, are you? Honestly, if you want to work as a bounty hunter, there are better places with better conditions.”

“Hmm…”

“I know you seem to enjoy this work, but to be blunt, the rewards are limited unless you go after high-risk criminals with kill orders. Or do you actually want to chase those lunatics?”

“Not really.”

The Balkan government did place enormous bounties, sometimes worth billions of Cel, on the worst criminals.

But Lenoch had no intention of aiming for them.

If someone could continue committing crimes without being caught despite a city-wide pursuit, then they must possess dangerous and unpredictable power.

At this point, Lenoch had nothing to gain from facing such monsters head-on.

Seeing that Lenoch was showing some interest, Jenny continued without missing the chance.

“Of course, I’m not unreasonable enough to force you into work you don’t want. But like you said before, you need quite a lot of money to create a new identity, don’t you?”

“……”

“With your magic, there are plenty of easier ways to earn big money. Don’t tell me you still believe that nonsense I said about testing your abilities.”

Lenoch chuckled at her words.

Jenny was good with her tongue.

It was obvious that she was trying to guide him toward more profitable work, but the way she mixed praise with provocation did not feel unpleasant.

From her perspective, she probably wanted to handle jobs with higher commissions.

After thinking for a moment, Lenoch nodded.

“Alright. What kind of work are you recommending?”

In truth, Jenny was right.

Aside from the twenty million Cel needed to create a new identity, Lenoch would need even more money if he wanted to branch out into other areas.

He could not keep living in a cramped hotel room forever. He needed a proper place to stay, and maintaining his health would also cost money.

Until now, he had repeatedly worked in Zone 49 to get a feel for the atmosphere while avoiding unnecessary attention.

He had to be careful.

If Lenoch let his guard down and made a mistake, his talent would soon stand out, drawing attention whether he wanted it or not.

Being recognized for his abilities was not a bad thing.

But that was only worth considering after he had enough strength and preparation to protect himself.

Lenoch still could not guarantee his safety in this crime-ridden Zone 40.

At Lenoch’s answer, Jenny smiled broadly.

“You made the right choice. Do you know how many jobs in this field need a mage? Van, you can practically pick whatever you want.”

With that, she led Lenoch toward the back of the tavern.

This was not something they could discuss out in the open.

The large common area behind the tavern was the same place where they had brought Taylor Evans’s body.

After they sat down at a table in the corner, Jenny immediately pulled out a file and handed it to Lenoch.

It was not a simple bounty notice.

Instead, it was a report packed with dense, tiny text.

Lenoch picked it up and quickly skimmed through it.

As his eyes moved rapidly across the document, Jenny began explaining from the other side of the table.

“Charlotte Corporation recently completed a cosmetics manufacturing plant in Zone 42. Since eighty percent of the construction cost was covered by city government subsidies, there’s been controversy over possible collusion. There are also testimonies claiming that the skin lotion they plan to produce there went through extensive human experimentation.”

“Human experimentation?”

“Yes. If you look at page eight, it says that during the fourth review stage, they tried to create the perfect environment for regenerating dead skin by peeling human facial skin.”

Lenoch frowned and turned to the page Jenny had mentioned.

The report contained not only written records, but also vivid photographic evidence.

“Isn’t this enough to expose the truth? What else needs to be done?”

“What are you talking about?”

Jenny frowned at Lenoch’s question.

“Truth or not, Charlotte Corporation isn’t going to stop operating the plant just because of a few photos. This is a government-funded project. Do you really think they’ll care about some shady rumors?”

“……”

“This plan wasn’t started by the city government. It came from Baritz Corporation. They’ve recently begun expanding into the cosmetics business, and they want to stop Charlotte from growing any further.”

**Baritz.**

Even Lenoch, who had not lived in Balkan for long, had heard of that company.

Their products could be found everywhere, from supermarkets to street markets. Their familiar winged logo was also stamped on the front and back of countless cars moving through the streets.

It was likely one of the largest conglomerates in this massive city.

“Baritz gave us two conditions. First, destroy the manufacturing plant so thoroughly that it can’t be restored. Second, secure the production-process algorithm data for the lotion made there. They’re offering fifty million Cel for the first condition and three hundred million Cel for the second.”

A total of three hundred fifty million Cel if both conditions were completed.

It was an enormous amount of money.

It was hard to believe that a single job could pay that much.

However, Lenoch quickly understood the meaning hidden in Jenny’s words.

“So we can receive a reward even if we complete only one of the conditions?”

“That’s right.”

“…The second condition sounds almost impossible.”

“Correct. As expected of a mage, you catch on quickly.”

The difference in reward between the two conditions was far too large.

Judging from the client’s compensation and the difficulty implied by that gap, breaking through Charlotte Corporation’s security was likely dozens of times harder than simply destroying the plant.

Jenny shrugged and pushed the file back toward Lenoch.

“Stealing the algorithm data is an unreasonable request. You’d have to infiltrate the plant’s system management server, break through Charlotte Corporation’s firewall, and extract the data. Hiring a hacker or engineer capable of that would cost more than five hundred million Cel. Baritz is just hoping they can get lucky and find someone cheap enough to do it.”

“Do hackers really make that much?”

Even if they had exceptional skills, the idea of earning more than five hundred million Cel from a single job in cyberspace came as a fresh shock to Lenoch.

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