Chapter 2: Ingestion

[So, after half a day, you’ve figured out how to move your body, huh?]

“…Yeah.”

Lennok replied as he poured water into a cup with stiff, robotic movements.

Even though he was awake and alive, his every movement was unnaturally linear and slow.

It was a bizarre motion, as if he were calculating the angle and force of each movement of his arm… and indeed, Lennok was moving his body in a similar way.

“Completely… a different sensation… moving… but… there’s a pattern…”

[Once you memorize the parts where your senses are mismatched, you can consciously move your body.]

Davi sighed.

[Yakson probably didn’t intend for it to be like this.]

“…”

Yakson would have wanted Lennok to lie still like a dead mouse for three days after taking the medicine, but instead, Lennok was up and moving his body despite the mismatched senses.

It was like playing a game with the controller buttons randomly reassigned.

Pressing the attack button made him jump, and moving the console left opened the item menu.

Lennok had memorized the pattern of his mismatched senses, which were more complex than that, and was consciously calculating his body’s movements to get up.

“Th-this… help.”

[Of course, otherwise, the Master wouldn’t have done this on purpose.]

Just as Davi said.

At first glance, it was a side effect of the drug made from addictive plants, which artificially stimulated the nerves and disrupted the sensory control range. But Lennok had discovered another possibility within it.

Beyond the mere dissociation of body and mind, it was a foreign sensation of meticulously calculating and manipulating his own body.

This unfamiliar sensation, which Lennok had never experienced before, was inspiring him in a fresh way.

“In a little while… mana, too.”

[Yes, yes, that’s right. I hope you can use magic before your body returns to normal.]

Davi turned away and hunched over as if the time spent worrying was a waste, but Lennok ignored her and focused on moving his body.

‘To move the left calf muscle, I need to activate the right trapezius. To rotate the right ankle, I need to lift the left pinky…’

Of course, Lennok didn’t know the exact locations of the muscles in the human body, but dividing and categorizing his body according to his own criteria wasn’t difficult.

The important thing was to memorize the experienced sensations and not confuse them with others.

‘If you know that most of the left and right directions are reversed, you can guess which sensation is needed. Once you get used to manipulating your body with that in mind…’

It would be possible to manipulate mana even with the mismatched senses.

Mana manipulation ability relied not only on will and mental strength but also on basic physical sensations, so it was indispensable.

In the first hour, he could only pour water with one hand, but by the second hour, he could stand up and balance.

By the third hour, he could walk on his own.

It wasn’t Lennok’s long-atrophied motor skills, but the body’s movements, calculated from the sensations and built from the ground up, that created new possibilities in Lennok’s mind.

After half a day.

Fzzzzt…!!

Lennok succeeded in manifesting magic again within 12 hours, his body’s senses completely mismatched.

Davi, who had been silently watching from below, asked.

[I don’t know how humans perceive their bodies… but this is amazing, right?]

“…”

What good would it do to explain to her what Lennok had just done?

Instead of answering, Lennok leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and sat down.

His consciousness, focused on the mana flowing within him, sank deep.

Eventually, he reached the source of the mana flowing within his body.

“Whooooo…”

He could feel it.

The medicine’s effect, spread throughout Lennok’s body, was subtly stimulating his muscles and gradually changing his sensory threshold.

It was a process of stretching the very nature of Lennok’s muscle cells, which were inherently unable to accept mana.

Having regained control over the mana, Lennok could observe this process as if from someone else’s perspective.

Now he somewhat understood why Yakson had recommended this treatment.

She had predicted that with Lennok’s potential and talent, he would achieve results like this, regardless of the medicine’s side effects.

The talent to find a faint glimmer of inspiration even in the disorienting side effects.

That was the essence of Lennok’s abilities.

‘It’s fortunate I could receive treatment from her…’

If she could discern Lennok’s talent so accurately just from taking his pulse once.

What would other mages think when they saw Lennok?

His talent was too powerful, too sensitive, and too dangerous.

That’s why Lennok had to keep climbing higher, without stopping for a moment.

Now, with his body and mind ravaged by the medicine’s side effects.

Lennok absurdly felt himself becoming more exalted than ever.

Wooooooong!!!

The body and mind are inextricably linked.

No matter how strong the mental fortitude, one cannot escape innate weakness,

And no matter how sturdy the body, one cannot fully express their will under a timid mind.

Mastery of the laws is merely a byproduct of the two pillars perfectly harmonizing within oneself.

But in this moment, Lennok realized he could control his body entirely with his mind alone.

The very moment one overwhelmingly powerful pillar replaces the other.

Lennok’s mind, freed from the chains of the body, soared into the boundless skies and headed beyond consciousness.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom!!!

The formless shockwave bursting from Lennok’s body began pounding madly against the lab’s walls and floor.

The room had been reinforced with sturdy steel plates and security magic, and noise-canceling magic had been cast, but regardless, Lennok’s body began to levitate in place.

Whoooooong!!

[……]

As Davi watched the process with a slightly guarded expression, the inwardly focused Lennok reflected on the path he had taken.

The intense exaltation and unbelievably heightened sensitivity he felt

Were akin to the moment of awakening he had experienced while facing Eden in the past.

Back then, Lennok had witnessed and deciphered a true inherent magic for the first time, plunging into a state of intense awakening.

Not only did he break through to level 5 in that state, but he also copied all of Eden’s inherent magic and even attempted to master the level 7 [Thunder Imprint].

Lennok’s mind often transcended mere consciousness through concentration beyond limits, but he had never experienced an awakening like that since.

The stroke of luck he had written off as a one-time event had returned at an entirely unexpected moment.

“Ugh…!!”

He slightly trembled, unable to contain the storm of will-thought and inspiration raging in his mind.

At this moment, he felt he could attempt something he had thought impossible before.

He could revisit the powerful level 7 magic, including [Thunder Imprint], which he had mastered despite barely meeting the requirements.

But Lennok firmly shook off such temptations and turned his gaze back inward.

He couldn’t guarantee when such an awakened state would come again.

Judging from past experiences, this exaltation was triggered by some specific, unprecedented experience.

So, before this opportunity born of chance vanished, he had to do what was most necessary for Lennok.

That was to decide on the mental image to imprint on his Domain.

He could tell.

That the memories in his mind, once vague landscapes,

Would allow him to see through the abilities of his Domain, which had been mere speculation, and combine them in the most effective way for himself.

Two lifetimes flowing through his heart.

Reflecting on the hazy yet intense sea of memories, he closed his eyes.

It didn’t matter if the memories were truly his own.

What was important was finding the mental landscape most efficient and beneficial for Lennok.

In this moment, Lennok swam through the vast sea of memories, assembling the necessary landscape.

While other mages could only draw the most vivid mental images,

Lennok alone created the needed image by assembling it himself.

This was proof that Lennok had completed himself as a mage.

From the moment he was born into this world, he had been wholly himself.

Killing weaknesses, maximizing strengths, bearing necessary burdens, and moving forward.

The answer wasn’t far.

Whoooooooooosh!!!!

At that moment, behind the floating, closed-eyed Lennok, a clear mana radiance emerged.

The intense light, bright enough to illuminate the dark lab, slowly rotated behind Lennok.

The mana radiance, bursting forth from its source, formed a perfect circle, its head biting its tail.

[This is…]

As Davi, who had been sitting hunched and wagging her tail, suddenly stood up, the circle vanished as if it had never been there.

And Lennok, who had been floating in the air, slowly descended to the floor.

Davi remained still, waiting for Lennok to open his eyes.

“…”

[……]

“…”

[…… Asleep?]

In the dimly lit office of a bustling bar.

Jenny, after dismissing the others, sat alone in the dark room, typing away on her laptop.

Just as Lennok managed the overall conflict with the Cartel, expanding and developing the business internally was her responsibility.

And whether Lennok knew it or not, the fact that many had become more cooperative after he destroyed the Cartel’s partner businesses was a bonus.

At least it showed that the mage named Ban was powerful and merciless, so even those who had remained neutral until now couldn’t easily refuse Jenny’s business proposals.

Of course, normal businesses aren’t swayed by fear or street reputation… But Jenny understood the nature of this world better than anyone.

In the end, it was about gaining the upper hand in a power struggle. And wielding that influence without restraint.

Controlling the underground trade was even more so, as the existing distribution network was dominated by the Scavenger faction.

If the notion spread among those rats that the Three Heads couldn’t protect them, Jenny’s business would become much easier.

‘And Dray is oddly cooperative… Maybe I can bring their people into our business. Capital isn’t an issue, so as long as I can increase the number of trustworthy employees…’

Her thoughts raced as fast as her fingers flew across the keyboard.

After the city-wide government network was installed across Balkan, accessing the shadowy underbelly of the metropolis unexpectedly became easier.

Those clinging to the absurdly vast government network naturally created a nest where they could gather.

While the underground world grew through sites accessed via the unauthorized Deepweb network, the government took no action.

Others vaguely assumed it was because it directly benefited the government, but Jenny knew better.

The old men entrenched in the city council were obsessed with extending their remaining years.

Leaving the Deepweb and other underground networks alone, and not actively interfering with the underworld, was part of that.

The Black Consumer Project.

The final masterpiece of the metropolis, created to defy fate and break free from the shackles of time.

Now completely fallen and vanished, they were waiting for the last piece of that project to appear.

Thud!

Jenny stopped typing, tilted her head back, and ran her hand through her hair.

Her jet-black locks cascaded down accordingly.

“It’s ridiculous…”

This city, steeped in endless corruption and indulgence, once had dreams.

Believing they could break free from destiny and the constraints of time with the great civilization built on arcane technology.

Who could have imagined that all those dreams and hopes would crumble with just one failure?

But the council’s old monsters had undoubtedly changed through that failure.

She didn’t know what they had confirmed through the project, but she knew they were still gathering its remnants.

That’s why Jenny didn’t want to drag this out.

If, by any chance, the Cartel’s chairman, who had been in hiding for decades, started moving…

The monsters from her era would begin to resurface one by one.

And that would mean the previously silent Balkan political landscape would undergo unprecedented turmoil.

Staring blankly at the ceiling, she adjusted her posture.

With Ban away for personal reasons, she had to finish as much as possible.

Expanding the business during the conflict with the Cartel would expose them to more attacks, but she was willing to accept that with Dyke Corporation’s cooperation.

Missing the entry window would only result in others taking their share.

She knew it was better to secure a position now, even at a loss, than to maintain the status quo.

‘I’ve settled things with Panoya. Now it depends on how cooperative they’ll be…’

Dyke Corporation, which had entered the underground arms trade with Ban’s help a year ago, had considerable capital and manpower.

Rumor had it they bought up a large abandoned factory site in the 50th district and were operating the factories at full throttle, so they would be a big help in labor-intensive tasks.

In exchange, she had to give Panoya a share of this venture, but their cooperation alone was enough.

‘The Cartel must be pretty shaken up.’

It wasn’t just Lennok destroying their partner businesses.

Jenny had been swooping in behind him, taking over the destroyed businesses, and rapidly expanding their influence, which made the Cartel hesitant to respond rashly.

It wasn’t just Jenny acting alone; Dyke Corporation was also applying pressure, so they must have been quite flustered.

As Lennok had said, it wouldn’t be easy to resolve this chaos quickly, and more would notice the Cartel’s instability.

If they realized one of the Three Heads was vulnerable, would people still submit to the order created by the Cartel?

As Jenny pondered this, busily typing away, the office door opened.

“Hey, you’re not sleeping yet?”

“…What is it? I don’t recall calling you.”

The figure that appeared in the doorway was none other than a large-framed woman.

With her hair styled above her shoulders, replaced by robotic parts, the freelancer Mad Manson stood there.