Genius Wizard Takes Medicine Chapter 11
“Attempted?”
“There’s no way sewer trash like him could break through Achilles’ security. The other scavengers involved were all killed, and this guy was the only one who managed to run away. Achilles has already washed their hands of it, so now the cleanup has been left to us.”
From the way Jenny spoke, there seemed to be a considerable gap in power between Achilles Corporation and the scavenger group.
“The scavenger branch he belonged to has already abandoned him, so even if you handle things a little roughly, there shouldn’t be any trouble.”
“Hmm…”
“The bounty is three million Cel. It isn’t an enormous sum, but for catching a rat, it’s not bad. What do you think?”
Three million.
For Lenoch, who had been worrying over a shortage of just a few thousand Cel barely a week ago, it was an absurdly large amount of money. Even so, he did not accept right away.
‘It’s too vague.’
After spending a week in the city, Lenoch had gained a rough sense of just how vast and varied it was.
Even Zone 49, where the entertainment district was located, felt like an entirely different world from the crowded district that housed the library.
Finding one person in a place like this with only a photograph would take far too much effort.
As Lenoch searched through the file for any useful clues, he noticed something and pointed to it.
“It says here that a blood sample was collected.”
“Huh? Well… yes, we have it.”
“Can I take it?”
“We can give it to you, but… I doubt it’ll be much use.”
Jenny reluctantly told the old man to bring the sample from behind the bar.
What he returned with was a torn piece of clothing stained with blood.
Lenoch slipped it into his pocket and rose from his seat. Jenny looked at him and asked,
“What are you planning to do with that?”
“It’ll help.”
“If you’re thinking of hiring a blood mage, forget it. Those money-grubbing demons charge at least 500,000 Cel per job, so you’d barely make a profit. And if that’s not your plan, then the sample is only good for confirming his identity.”
Jenny shrugged, adding that Achilles must have handed it over for a reason, but Lenoch ignored her and left the bar.
Although she had mentioned blood mages, Lenoch had no intention of relying on one.
Lenoch knew a little about the unique magic used by the blood magic branch.
It was a branch of magic with a relatively simple preparation process and powerful results, but its recoil was severe. Those who practiced it always lived with the risk of shortening their own lifespans.
In a game, that would not have mattered.
In reality, however, it was an entirely different problem.
Considering that blood magic consumed life force as payment, it was understandable that blood mages charged such high prices.
There was no reason to hire one just to catch a thief.
After finding a suitably secluded place away from prying eyes, Lenoch crouched down and laid the bloodstained scrap of cloth on the ground.
“…[Bloody Chase].”
The moment he poured his will and mana into it, a magic circle roughly one meter wide began etching itself into the ground, with the cloth at its center.
Wooong!
The magic circle glowed a vivid red as it absorbed the bloodstains from the fabric. After vibrating faintly, it transformed into a single red thread that slithered across the ground like a snake.
Lenoch watched it for a moment, then stood and followed.
This was a common spell favored by hunter-type professions that used magic. It was mainly used to locate missing prey or track down a target.
Its duration was not long, and it could not function properly if the blood was mixed with other traces. It also only showed direction, not distance.
Even so, the target did not seem to have any way to counter it.
As Lenoch followed the direction indicated by the thread, the number of people gradually decreased, and the air grew lighter.
The smell of human presence faded, and before long, he arrived near an unnamed construction site bordering an abandoned railway.
People dressed in shabby rags were lying down on top of the heavily rusted rails.
None of them had a healthy complexion, and the strange stench in the air suggested they relieved themselves wherever they pleased.
It seemed to be a place where those rejected by both the bright and dark sides of the city came to sleep.
Among them, the red thread stopped at a man leaning against the wall in a corner of the railway.
Lenoch slowly approached him.
“Taylor Evans?”
“……”
The man remained completely still, like a corpse.
Looking down at him, Lenoch let out a sigh.
Keeping a safe distance, he pulled out the cutter he had taken from the thug.
Was it an illegally modified product from Dyke Corporation?
When he pressed the two buttons on the handle, a bluish light extended from the cutter.
“Oh, this is…”
It looked like a miniature lightsaber.
Lenoch adjusted his stance and was just about to drive the light into the man’s thigh when—
The man, who had shown no sign of movement until now, suddenly twisted aside and bolted.
“……”
Watching Taylor flee without even once looking back, Lenoch shook his head.
He had been prepared to counterattack in case Taylor tried to attack him, but he had never expected the man to run without even putting up a fight.
Despite his thin, shabby appearance, Taylor was surprisingly fast. At this rate, he would soon disappear from view.
In the brief window he had to act, Lenoch’s thoughts moved quickly.
He still had control of the situation, and several options were available to him.
He could chase after Taylor himself, or he could use Silence and fire his pistol, just as he had done before.
However, sprinting with this body would require the aid of a cigarette, and he was not confident he could land a shot from this distance.
So Lenoch chose a third option.
He drew up his mana and swept it through the air. With a clear image and firm intent, a hazy ripple spread from his left hand.
[Sound Wave]
At Lenoch’s incantation, an invisible shockwave traveled through the air, surging forward like a wave.
Its speed was the speed of sound.
The unseen blast shot ahead with tremendous force and caught up to the fleeing Taylor in an instant.
Thud!
Less than three seconds later, Taylor, who had been running for his life, lost his balance and collapsed.
Lenoch slowly walked toward the spot where he had fallen.
He had already walked quite a distance since leaving Jenny’s bar, and his stamina was beginning to run low. If he failed to control his breathing, he would have no choice but to rely on cigarettes again.
After chain-smoking while researching magic, he now had fewer than five cigarettes left.
Once this job was over, he would have to ask Jenny how to obtain more of them.
Taylor Evans lay trembling on the ground, both hands clamped over his ears.
Bright red blood seeped through his fingers.
The common spell [Sound Wave] was originally used to detect nearby objects through sound vibrations, much like a bat’s echolocation. However, if its output was increased, it could produce this kind of destructive force.
Back when Lenoch had played as a Gun Mage, he could not have used it this way unless the game allowed it through a fixed method. But with his current talent, simply forming the image while activating the spell was enough.
Taylor’s eardrums were destroyed.
His cochlea had probably been damaged as well.
He would not be able to hear anything, let alone walk properly.
“Hmm.”
Looking down at Taylor, who had been completely subdued and was now trembling on the ground, Lenoch fell into thought.
After finishing his research on common magic, the first thing Lenoch had considered was how to protect his own body.
He understood very well how important it was to defend himself from all kinds of threats, not merely physical attacks.
If he failed to properly protect his senses, Lenoch could easily end up just like Taylor.
His frail body would not survive even a single attack like that.
With that thought in mind, Lenoch grabbed Taylor by the ankle and turned around.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
At the same time, the mana barrier surrounding Lenoch flickered and shattered.
The defensive spell he had prepared in advance had reacted to a shot fired from somewhere nearby.
It was a barrier that could remain active after being cast once, but its durability was so low that a single bullet was enough to break it.
Still, that was more than enough to give Lenoch the brief moment he needed to respond.
The instant the barrier broke, his thoughts and mana moved together, weaving a new defensive field.
In less than a heartbeat, he completed a barrier dozens of times stronger than the first.
This one could even withstand an anti-tank rocket for a short while.
Once he had secured his safety, Lenoch quickly bit down on a cigarette and spread his mana in every direction, searching for signs of life.
As the fatigue accumulated in his body slowly faded, he felt himself grow lighter.
Even though he had been sniped without warning, Lenoch’s mind remained perfectly calm.
Taylor’s eardrums were destroyed.
His cochlea had probably been damaged as well.
He would not be able to hear anything, let alone walk properly.
“Hmm.”
Looking down at Taylor, who had been completely subdued and was now trembling on the ground, Lenoch fell into thought.
After finishing his research on common magic, the first thing Lenoch had considered was how to protect his own body.
He understood very well how important it was to defend himself from all kinds of threats, not merely physical attacks.
If he failed to properly protect his senses, Lenoch could easily end up just like Taylor.
His frail body would not survive even a single attack like that.
With that thought in mind, Lenoch grabbed Taylor by the ankle and turned around.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
At the same time, the mana barrier surrounding Lenoch flickered and shattered.
The defensive spell he had prepared in advance had reacted to a shot fired from somewhere nearby.
It was a barrier that could remain active after being cast once, but its durability was so low that a single bullet was enough to break it.
Still, that was more than enough to give Lenoch the brief moment he needed to respond.
The instant the barrier broke, his thoughts and mana moved together, weaving a new defensive field.
In less than a heartbeat, he completed a barrier dozens of times stronger than the first.
This one could even withstand an anti-tank rocket for a short while.
Once he had secured his safety, Lenoch quickly bit down on a cigarette and spread his mana in every direction, searching for signs of life.
As the fatigue accumulated in his body slowly faded, he felt himself grow lighter.
Even though he had been sniped without warning, Lenoch’s mind remained perfectly calm.
All his worries about his future, survival and life fell away in the face of immediate danger.
Emotion and fear sank beneath the surface, replaced by the cold rationality and powerful mental discipline of a mage.
‘Nothing.’
He swept the area within a one-kilometer radius, spending his increased mana without hesitation, but sensed nothing except the presence of vagrants.
Either the sniper was positioned more than a kilometer away, or they had used some method sophisticated enough to hide from simple mana detection.
Either way, it was troublesome.
But did this trembling man really have enough value to justify that?
Lenoch’s gaze, which had been moving around Taylor’s fallen body, suddenly fixed on his head.
‘Now that I think about it, the shot was aimed at the lower part of the barrier. At first, I thought they were trying to subdue me, but…’
What if the bullet had actually been aimed at the head of the man collapsed on the ground?
The moment he formed that reasonable assumption, his thoughts rapidly connected.
He reached a conclusion almost instantly.
‘They were trying to silence Taylor Evans.’
It was probably the scavenger organization.
Was there some kind of information in his head that could not be allowed to reach Achilles Corporation?
If so, it made sense that the sniper had fired only after Lenoch found Taylor.
Most bounty hunters would likely count the target’s death as their own achievement if the target was killed while they were in pursuit.
Even the fact that the scavenger organization had tried to silence Taylor would be buried along with him.
However, Lenoch had no intention of letting the sniper go after they had so openly tried to shoot someone right in front of him.
Once he accepted a job, he intended to see it through decisively and without mercy.
At the very least, that was the kind of person he wanted “Van” to be known as.
The more ruthless and cold-blooded Van’s reputation became, the fewer people would dare interfere with Lenoch’s efforts to make money.
The moment he made his decision, Lenoch pulled the pistol from his pocket and shot Taylor in the head.
Bang!
With a harsh gunshot, Taylor’s twitching body went still.
Jenny had said she preferred him alive, but that also meant bringing him in alive was not absolutely necessary.
Of course, this meant whatever secret Taylor had been carrying would be buried forever… but Lenoch had no interest in such things.
What mattered to him now was finding the sniper who had pointed a gun at him and making them pay.
Everything else was merely part of the process.
‘Found you.’
Lenoch did not miss the wave of mana that stirred in response.