Chapter 844: Handover (12)

After Evelyn had scurried back, looking embarrassed as if fleeing, it was the evening of the day after Lennok returned to his mansion.

Lennok was pondering over the conversation he had with Evelyn about Lapis.

“I’d heard the news of Lapis completing his Tier from Pandemonium, but…”

He recalled Deimus himself mentioning that fact during the Pandemonium meeting, stating that Lapis had reached Level 7.

It wasn’t strange for Evelyn to convey that fact to Lennok now, after all this time.

Nor was it strange that Lapis had completed his Tier at such a rapid pace, thanks to the Heavenly Sight ability and the support of the Lighthouses established across the continent.

However, the fact that Lapis, having completed his Tier, intended to visit the Vulcan City Council directly was unexpected.

Furthermore, Lapis was one of the very few individuals who knew the origins of Evan’s identity, an identity from the Eyes of Blue.

“I’m tired…”

Lennok murmured unconsciously, the persistent thoughts about his identity resurfacing.

He had spent the entire dawn dealing with Evelyn and talking, so even after sleeping for half a day, he still felt considerably fatigued.

Moreover, the answer Lennok had finally conveyed to her at the end of it all—

“Haa…”

Lennok sat on the sofa with a damp towel draped over his face, leaning his head back as if collapsing.

He had solidified his conviction after his showdown with Dorye, and even more so after being thoroughly shattered by Croken.

Even so, this was the first time he had directly spoken it to someone.

It was a declaration that he would transcend Level 8, which had been stagnant for a long time, and qualify to challenge ascension.

It was a resolution to reach Level 9 and provide an answer that surpassed the conclusion of this world.

Only after completing his journey in Yorta could Lennok accept the fact that he needed to become a Transcendent.

“…I wonder if I did the right thing.”

Through the battle with the Magic Scribes, he had, in essence, confirmed Evelyn’s suspicions.

Evelyn had probably confirmed her conviction of who had been in Yorta.

But what meaning did Evelyn take from Lennok’s words?

At first glance, she seemed to understand, but conversely, she also seemed not to.

Just as Lennok couldn’t fully empathize with Evelyn Marcia’s way of life, perhaps Evelyn felt the same way looking at Lennok.

However, if it hadn’t been an answer of that magnitude, Lennok wouldn’t have been able to convince Evelyn.

If he hadn’t explained that his entire journey, wandering the continent, transcending good and evil, was for one unchanging purpose.

If he needed to show that what Lennok desired hadn’t changed from their first meeting until now, then there was no other way.

She was a trustworthy person, someone who shouldn’t be turned into an enemy.

Antagonizing an ally with such talent, skill, and character was undesirable… No, that wasn’t it.

He tried to convince her with flimsy excuses and reasons, but Lennok’s reason for acting was simple.

He wanted to be honest; he didn’t want to betray her.

He knew he should have if necessary, but since it wasn’t necessary, he didn’t.

How could someone who couldn’t honestly convey a single word elicit an honest answer to their own desires?

Even if it meant forcing out such inconsistent logic and answers, Lennok wanted to tell Evelyn.

That he trusted her.

“……………”

He still wasn’t sure if it had been properly conveyed.

He tried to convey something that couldn’t be expressed in words, so it lacked form and left lingering regrets.

Even falling into such sentimentality was ultimately Lennok’s choice and regret.

He merely hoped that Evelyn would ponder and reflect on this fact as much as he did.

[Whirrrr.]

While Lennok was lost in such trivial sentiments, rubbing his face with the towel, Davi in his arms let out a strange sound.

[Drrrrt.]

“……………?”

Whirrrr, drrrrt.

As Lennok looked down at Davi with a bewildered expression, the printer in the corner of the living room started operating on its own, spitting out a few sheets of paper.

A report that seemed to have omitted about 95% of the preceding content, entirely skipping the main points and delivering only the conclusions.

Lennok roughly read the context and then realized that this was the result of the medical examination record sent by Murphy.

[It’s a summary of the medical examination report that the vampire Master made a deal with sent via email.]

“A summary?”

[If I printed the entire medical record file, it would be about 552 pages. Should I print it here?]

“…No, that’s fine.”

If Davi had only printed the conclusions, most of the full report must have been graphs and numerical data anyway.

It seemed like there wouldn’t be any problem even if he just quickly scanned the email before going to bed.

Lennok was about to look at the examination results report Murphy had sent but felt something amiss in Davi’s words and turned his head.

“Davi, now that I think about it, did you always refer to vampires that way?”

[Me?]

It seemed Davi herself hadn’t been conscious of the title.

Davi tilted her head, fluttering her six tails, and retorted.

[But that scrawny thing… isn’t it not an organic being?]

Lennok wasn’t sure exactly what nutrients and substances a vampire’s body was made of.

Most of the vampires Lennok had met were either more annoying than mosquitoes or difficult-to-befriend colleagues anyway.

He knew a blood wizard named Ryan Aiter, who had become a vampire from a human, but he hadn’t heard from him since entrusting him to Madam.

“I should probably do some research on vampires, too…”

The True Blood species among vampires received special treatment, even being regarded as long-lived species in the Outer Tribulation City, Kundara.

Among them were outside figures involved in the project, such as the ‘Duke of Feared Blood’ who authored the Blood-Thought Scribe.

If Lennok needed to find traces of Kaiser in Kundara, he would need to familiarize himself somewhat with the long-lived species.

[Should I try searching for related data on the central network?]

“Data accessible through literature or historical records wouldn’t be of much value. It would be faster to demand a trade from Madam.”

She was the oldest broker Lennok knew in this city, an eccentric who had witnessed the failure of the project.

And among vampires, she was a person of considerable insight, serving as a mediator in various matters.

“Last time, she asked for the blood of a high-Tier ability user, and I appeased her by giving her the Clown’s blood. She’ll probably ask for the same thing this time.”

Though she didn’t overtly show it, she clearly coveted Lennok’s blood as well.

If the fastidious Murphy was so distracted by Lennok’s blood, it was obvious how valuable a high-Tier transcendent’s blood was to a vampire.

Lennok pondered for a moment, then nodded as if he had made a decision.

“To prepare for a deal with Madam, I’ll extract opponents’ blood separately when fighting as Van.”

[…Hmm, Master, shouldn’t you really not feel unfairly accused by such rumors?]

“What did you say?”

[Mmmph mmmph.]

Lennok covered Davi’s mouth with both hands, pretending not to hear, and turned his gaze back to the report.

He ignored all the specific figures and data, only checking the doctor’s opinion that Murphy had directly written at the very bottom.

After all, most of the equipment Murphy used was on a different scale than Lennok’s research equipment, so it would be difficult to deduce anything just by knowing the numerical results.

It was more effective to simply gather Murphy’s own perspective and opinion to hear the conclusion.

As expected, Murphy’s opinion was written in remarkably small print, densely filling the back of the report.

= I know you won’t look closely at the specific figures or graphs, so I’ll write it here.

= To put it simply, your genetic information is changing little by little.

“……………”

= Your basic metabolism, physical abilities, and organ functions are still at a low level, but areas related to magic are completely different.

= Your internal magic transfer rate, mana contamination rate, and recoil adjustment values have exceeded the upper limit. It’s beyond what a human body can withstand.

= If this were the medical record of someone I didn’t know at all, I would have thought this patient was a very noble demi-human or a long-lived species. Or that they had undergone an equivalent ‘reconstitution.’

“Reconstitution, you say…”

Lennok murmured, naturally flipping the paper to the back of the report.

= While superficially maintaining a human form, your body is undergoing transformation at a cellular level for some reason. The forced over-recovery applied to your body can also be explained through the same conclusion.

= The reason you can endure with blood pressure and blood flow speeds varying in each body part is because the forced recovery applied to your body was achieved through spellcraft. To be precise, your body has changed to coexist in such a state.

“……………………”

Aside from Lennok’s own continuous modification and variation of his magic, did this mean his physical body was also synchronizing with that change?

A reconstitution so subtle that even Lennok found it difficult to perceive by simply observing and examining his own body, yet its significance was far from small.

The reason he hadn’t noticed it until now was likely because Lennok’s talent was biased towards his capabilities as a wizard.

= I am not a high-Tier archmage, so I cannot accurately pinpoint the cause. I can only generally explain what the overall changes in your body are.

= However, it is clear that the changes in your body are closer to optimization as a sorcerer rather than as a human. A transcendent of that level and mastery might be literally recreating themselves without realizing it.

= And when I uploaded this over-recovery and the changes in your body to the Ars Nova medical record database to search for data, I found exactly one case.

He flipped the paper again.

The final page of Murphy’s lengthy opinion and explanation of the medical record.

= An experiment conducted in absolute secrecy within Ars Nova, which hadn’t even received a risk assessment rating. It seems there was one patient among those who participated who had a similar case to yours.

“……………”

= I was only able to find it because the change rate in the recorded biological information in the database matched to some extent. I have no more data than that. If you want information about the experiment, you’ll have to find someone else.

Lennok knew that Ars Nova was a place that enjoyed the benefits of more advanced civilization and technology than any other city on the continent.

As was common in various city-states across the continent, Ars Nova must have also repeated countless experiments and research for the sake of its city.

And having directly looked into the Well of the Codex, Lennok knew that the central city’s reputation was by no means false.

‘The central city deliberately created artificial Transcendent like Gye-baek and made them fail ascension.’

An experiment that crammed tens of thousands of Geas into a human body, forcibly reforming them into Transcendent who challenged ascension.

Hadn’t even Lennok himself been unsettled when confronted with such a crazy idea and method?

Whatever experiments and failures occurred in that now-destroyed city, it was highly likely that they already transcended the scope that humans could judge.

This was especially true if it was an experiment from Ars Nova that hadn’t even received a risk assessment.

Perhaps the patient Murphy mentioned was also someone who was sacrificed during the Gye-baek incident.

“Aurel Silford…”

The fallen Transcendent, Gye-baek Aurel Silford.

But his true identity was merely a monster forcibly completed as a Transcendent by external forces and made to challenge ascension.

Looking back, Lennok still didn’t know anything then.

Entrusting his consciousness to Gye-baek’s body, facing the Outer Sea beyond the Well of the Codex.

Even in that moment, seeing the forms of the Outer Gods floating dreamily in the dark sea and gazing into the eye of a shark-headed dragon.

He knew he was peering into the world’s most dangerous and darkest secrets, yet he hadn’t realized the true nature of it.

At that time, why was Gye-baek gnawing away at the continent, heading blindly towards the Well of the Codex?

How did Pandemonium know about it and arrive at the Well in advance to confront Gye-baek?

And how could the Director reconfigure the Geas placed on Gye-baek’s body, allowing him to challenge ascension again?

“……………”

A secret he could only understand after meeting the Outer Gods at the Far Eastern Branch, crossing the Well of the Codex, and opening the Ascension Gate in Machina.

One fact he could vaguely guess only after returning from seeing the memories of the Arcane Gunner who sought to save the world by shooting down a god.

The Director of Pandemonium is connected to the central city of Ars Nova.

He didn’t know when, where, or for what reason it began, but his actions and motives clearly originated from the central city.

[Oh, Master.]

Just as Lennok silently sipped his coffee, his thoughts sprawling from Ars Nova to the ascension ritual, Pandemonium, and the Director.

Davi, who had been curled up lazily on Lennok’s lap, suddenly looked up as if remembering something.

[That vampire added a postscript to the email with the medical report. I’ll open it right away.]

Pop!

At her words, a holographic screen appeared before Lennok’s eyes.

Lennok touched the screen with a reluctant expression to open the email and said,

“Murphy isn’t lax enough to leave out an opinion from a report and send it as a postscript. If it were important, he would have rewritten the entire report. It’s probably not related to the main subject—”

As Lennok spoke, he saw the contents of the postscript and fell silent.

= This isn’t about the report, so I’m writing it here. The City Council tried to scout me.

= I usually ignore them, but the name of the organization that tried to scout me looked familiar.

= They asked if I was interested in joining some research institute, isn’t this the name of a researcher working in your magic tower?

Lennok’s eyes instantly turned cold.

“……………”

Vylun Research Institute.

He had already committed that name to memory, but he never expected it to be mentioned again through Murphy.

“Hah… This is truly bothersome.”

Lennok, sitting on the sofa, fiddled with his phone, pondered for a moment, then stood up abruptly with an annoyed expression.

He didn’t care if they built a research institute or not, but since they used Evan’s name, he needed to figure out what they were aiming for by scouting talents from various places.

Information this unsettling could potentially vanish by tomorrow.

He needed to check what was happening there right now.

Pushing aside the sleeping pills he had placed beside him, he covered his face with one hand.

As he swept his cheek, Lennok’s appearance instantly shifted to Van’s face, and he glared at his phone again.

The photo file of the Vylun Research Institute business card was enclosed with Murphy’s postscript. The way to the institute was simply indicated.

“Davi. Scan this map and connect it directly to the satellite.”

Lennok, who had taken off his coat and put on gloves, nodded.

“If things go wrong, we might have to turn everything upside down, so prepare for jamming.”

[Starting right away!]

The moment Lennok picked up the Cybernetic Spirit, who couldn’t resist a good mess, and channeled his magic,

The wizard’s shadow vanished as if disappearing from within the mansion.