Genius Wizard Takes Medicine Chapter 21

Jordan clicked his tongue at Jenny’s words and poured whiskey into a glass.

“Do you think Van will still see it that way after what happened?”

“Ah… right.”

It would be fortunate if he did not start panicking every time he saw a reptile for a while.

“For now, we shouldn’t recommend jobs from corporations or syndicates. With their financial power, anything can happen in an instant, like hiring Crocken. It would be better to look for jobs involving gangs or mercenaries.”

Gangs operating in District 50.

Freelance mercenaries working in District 40.

The pay was lower than corporate requests, but those jobs were more closely tied to the actual workings of the field, making them useful for Lenoch.

Where could they find requests that paid decently without being too dangerous?

Gangs were simple, but their endings were dirty.

Mercenaries were clean, but brutal.

The decision did not take long.

“Gangs are… a bit much. Mercenaries would be better. He should be able to blend in with them. I’ll contact some of the more reasonable ones.”

Mercenary offices never lacked manpower.

But the story changed completely if that manpower was a wizard.

Just the suggestion of hiring a wizard as external support would be welcomed by most organizations.

For them, building a connection with a hired wizard was profitable. And if the wizard proved skilled enough, they could offer special treatment and try to bring him in as an exclusive member.

Since Lenoch had already worked with someone capable like Dylan, he probably would not feel too much resistance toward the mercenary profession.

Jordan let out a small sigh as he watched Jenny pick up the receiver.

“I’m helping with your business because Kaiser asked me to, but remember, I can’t always cover for you. You’re smart and quick-witted, but you tend to rush ahead and ignore other options.”

“Hello? Dre, it’s me.”

Jenny winked as if she understood, then immediately began talking to the person on the other end of the line.

Jordan silently shook his head and picked up a towel to wipe the glasses.

The bar would open soon.

It was time to prepare for customers.

At an unnamed franchise burger joint, Lenoch ordered a burger set, unwrapped it, and took a bite.

It looked like the hamburgers he knew, with a thick meat patty between two buns, but the sauce and the name were completely different.

Even in a world where magic existed, did people’s desire for fast food still end up as bread and meat?

Lenoch briefly pondered the thought, then quickly forgot about it and turned his attention to his newly activated phone.

“Hmm.”

Now that he thought about it, he had lived for more than two months without paying attention to a phone.

Back on Earth, he usually kept his phone close when he was absorbed in games. But after coming here, he had been too busy surviving and researching magic to think about it.

Since he had activated both calling and network functions, Lenoch could browse various things with the same familiarity as using a smartphone on Earth.

News, society, sports, economy, magical engineering, research…

As Lenoch’s fingers slowly moved through unfamiliar terms, they suddenly stopped.

[Explosion at manufacturing plant in District 42 delays Charlotte Corporation’s new product launch… Although an evacuation order was issued within a two-kilometer radius, no major damage has been reported.]

“……”

Lenoch immediately opened the article to read the details, but it only stated that an explosion had occurred because of an unknown gas leak.

There were no photos of Lenoch or Crocken.

There was no mention of unidentified attackers either.

The article revealed neither facts nor truth, but Lenoch could easily guess the interests hidden between the lines.

Everyone connected to the plant wanted the explosion dismissed as a simple accident.

The massive funds the city government had invested in supporting the plant’s construction had gone up in smoke.

But because the incident was being covered up, no one would dig into the truth.

‘Is this how corporate jobs usually work?’

They had assigned a reckless job like destroying a plant, yet once it succeeded, the payment and cleanup were handled cleanly.

Lenoch did not know whether this was normal for all corporations or simply a characteristic of Baritz Corporation, the client behind the request.

Either way, it was thorough.

‘It’s reassuring that I don’t have to worry about the aftermath, but it doesn’t feel entirely comfortable knowing that cleanup is happening without my knowledge.’

There should be no problem while he was working under Van’s identity.

But there was no guarantee that would always remain true.

Encountering a monster like Crocken out of nowhere…

If he worked with corporations again, he would have to be far more cautious.

Lenoch threw away the unfinished burger and stepped out of the shop.

The employee at the counter seemed to have something to say, but he ignored it.

Lenoch lit a cigarette and walked down the street.

Now that he had created an identity with Jenny’s help the day before, there were a few things he needed to handle.

“Welcome. What brings you here?”

“I’m here to look at rooms.”

He planned to move out of the cramped hotel and secure a place of his own.

Until now, without an identity or money, he had been content to stay in a cheap hotel and pay by the day. But now, he could afford monthly rent.

After studying Balkan’s real estate a little through his phone, Lenoch had no trouble speaking with an agent and viewing several rooms.

He did not expect anything grand with his current budget.

For now, a studio with basic hygiene, running water, and a kitchen would be enough.

Security would have been nice, but if it was too expensive, he could give it up.

That was a problem he could partially solve with magic.

After touring several studios introduced by the agent, Lenoch chose one near the street where his hotel was located and completed the contract.

The rent was thirty-five million Cel per month, with a five-million-Cel deposit.

The monthly rent was paid to the landlord, while the deposit was handed directly to the city government.

Since the room was vacant and he did not have much luggage, Lenoch was able to move in immediately with only a few clothes, food supplies, a notebook, and several bottles of medicine he had kept in the hotel.

“Phew…”

Dim light flickered on the ceiling, and the wooden floor creaked beneath him.

It was a small studio on the third floor of a shabby villa, but it was the first home Lenoch had secured for himself since arriving in this world.

The scenery was not much different from the hotel, but for now, Lenoch was satisfied with this alone.

He checked whether the refrigerator worked and pushed the remaining food inside.

After cleaning the dusty room, Lenoch sat in the middle of the studio and closed his eyes.

Whooosh!

He drew in his mana strongly and focused his mind, sharpening his senses as much as possible.

Through the darkness beyond his eyelids, the small studio space became almost tangible.

Lenoch surrounded the room with a sphere of mana and inscribed security magic onto its surface.

Normally, setting up a barrier required drawing a magic circle and performing a precise ritual.

Yet Lenoch succeeded in imbuing the space itself with magic through concentration alone.

After realizing that he had cast a simple common-magic barrier in one try, Lenoch did not stop there.

He immediately layered various defensive spells on top of it.

He planned traps that would activate a fourteen-round [Bolt] spell when someone other than himself entered, or trigger [Gravity Bind] to restrain and crush the intruder’s limbs.

At the hotel, he had only taken minimal precautions because he never knew when he might have to check out.

But now that he had secured his own space, even if it was rented, he could properly prepare against intrusion.

Screech!

Lenoch tore several pages from a notebook he had bought at a nearby stationery store and stuck them to the wall.

Then he picked up a pen and began writing.

“Check the jobs Jenny offers and cook for myself. I also need to order supplements and vitamins… I planned to study auxiliary magic more deeply, but there’s still a long way to go. What else was there?”

Even as he muttered to himself, his hand kept moving.

His extraordinary memory allowed him to pull even fleeting ideas from deep within his consciousness and turn them into concrete goals.

Everything he needed to do was already organized clearly in his mind.

Still, writing it down and seeing it with his own eyes gave him a different kind of satisfaction.

It was not only an effort to remember his motivations and goals, but also a way to strengthen the process and determination behind them.

“Right. Unique magic… Researching common magic alone isn’t enough.”

Lenoch, who had been scribbling with a serious expression, rested his chin on his hand and fell into thought.

He did not doubt the talent he had created for himself.

However, he had begun to feel some dissatisfaction with the common magic he used through that talent.

Common magic possessed overwhelming versatility, covering all attributes and systems.

But compared to unique magic, it inevitably fell short in depth, specialization, and raw power.

For example, electric common magic was limited to summoning lightning.

But if one reached the pinnacle of electric-attribute unique magic, it became possible to change the weather itself and summon thunder dragons.

At first, Lenoch had planned to delay learning unique magic as long as possible, believing common magic’s versatility was enough for a wizard.

But his encounter with Crocken had changed his mind.

‘There’s no guarantee I won’t meet monsters like that again.’

Waiting until he obtained time-related unique magic left him with too few cards to play.

Even if he could not defeat such monsters head-on, he needed to develop his magic to the point where he could at least survive and escape.

And the fastest way for a wizard to grow was to learn a unique magic system and carve out a new path.

‘Learning another unique magic doesn’t mean I can’t learn time-based magic later. However…’

To learn a new unique magic system, one first had to reach the end of the unique magic system initially learned.

Even if he obtained time-related magic later, learning it might be delayed significantly because of the unique magic he learned first.

‘It can’t be helped.’

There were still ways to improve without learning unique magic immediately.

If he spent time increasing his magic capacity and steadily developing his control and casting ability, there would come a point when common magic alone would no longer lack power or strategy.

If he could cast [Thunder Calling] four times in succession, bind an opponent with two rounds of [Gravity Bind], freeze and thaw them repeatedly with ice and fire magic, then bombard them with shock magic, what could he not break through?

Considering Lenoch’s talent, it was not an unreachable realm.

In fact, Lenoch was confident he could raise his magic to the point where such one-sided bombardment would be possible within a few years.

His talent was like a seed that had reached the limits set by this world’s system.

It was truly worthy of a transcendent being.

The problem was that even those few years were far too long for Lenoch.

He had stepped into Balkan’s underworld to earn money and preserve his health.

The chance that he would avoid running into another monster like Crocken for several years was low.

Facing the criminal organization Pandemonium only two months after starting work was not a situation that allowed for optimistic assumptions.

“……”

To increase his chances of survival, Lenoch needed to explore every possible method, not only magic.

Having made up his mind, Lenoch put down his pen, got dressed, and left the room.

District 29.

At the end of a bustling street filled with countless shops, the atmosphere was lively and harmonious.

It was completely different from District 40, where Lenoch usually worked.

In the evening dusk, bright lights illuminated the street, and loud rock music pierced the ears.

There stood a large store.

Gun & Barrel.

It was the most famous gun shop in the district, known for selling high-quality products.

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