There's a young wizard who effortlessly conjures lightning bolts out of thin air, a feat that is so extraordinary that it wouldn't surprise anyone if the Lightning School of the Magic Tower were already vying for his attention.
Despite his remarkable magical prowess, he remains humble and uninterested in the trappings of wealth and fame, choosing instead to reside in the back alleys.
Although one might try to lure him away with riches or notoriety, it's evident that his talent cannot be owned or controlled by anyone.
"But it's such a waste… Where else can we find a wizard like him?"
As Kidel nodded her head, the muzzle of the rifle she had been carrying on her back flashed.
"Where's the guarantee that we won't meet as enemies while working here?"
Dray's smile vanished from his face as he realized that Kidel's story was entirely plausible.
Dray's mercenary group or Lennok were not good or righteous people. They were just workers in the underworld, chasing money-making jobs and living off the city's lubricant.
No one knows when they will meet as allies and help, or when they will meet as enemies and risk their lives.
After hesitating for a moment, Dray answered.
"That's why you always have to leave a good impression on the people you work with."
At the completely different, heavy voice, the other mercenaries turned their heads.
"If I saw his ability and got attached, I might not have been able to let go of the feeling of regret, and it would have been difficult to give him the impression that the job was handled cleanly. No one knows how such small actions will come back."
"……"
"I just made the best choice I could in that situation. All we can do now is… hope for good luck."
What's it like to wander the city's streets at night, armed with guns and knives, amidst millions of people?
The constant fear of encountering someone more formidable than oneself, who might be willing to kill for a greater sum of money, is a natural concern.
Each day, they hope that the ominous possibility of misfortune won't present itself, so they can live to see another.
That's all Dray Krimgal can do.
After dispelling his troubled thoughts, he calmly pats his colleagues on the back.
"Let's go. After the job is over, let's raise a drink in honor of the fallen ones."
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
A couple of days after Krimgal Mercenary Office's mission was accomplished, Dray delivered the blood samples he'd extracted from the deceased man's body to Lennok through Jenny.
Jenny, who handed over the Styrofoam box, had a sickened expression due to the stinging smell of blood, but Lennok calmly received the box without falling for her clumsy act.
It was laughable that a woman bold enough to run a bar in the middle of District 49 would be disgusted by the smell of blood.
It wasn't a big expense to buy another small refrigerator to store the blood separately.
Although Lennok couldn't analyze the blood mixed with dark magic right now, he might be able to understand the principles of that strange doping ability after becoming more magically mature.
"Oh hey, you know that consulting company that used to be in that building? Well, they up and moved to a different spot."
Jenny recounted the incident's aftermath to Lennok while serving him a drink from Jordan.
At some point, Lennok's tab was waived, and he was no longer charged for drinks. This was feasible because he brought in significant commissions, totaling more than ten million cells.
"It kinda makes sense, ya know? I mean, everyone wants to save money on rent and taxes, but there's only so much you can take. After going through something like that, not many folks would stick around."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Her expression remained unchanged despite the faint sound of gunshots outside the bar, which made her words less persuasive.
None of the three individuals present at the bar considered relocating since such occurrences were frequent in District 49, and they continued to drink. Apart from one customer who grumbled about the commotion and stormed out, only to come back drenched in blood, it was an unremarkable day.
"Hey Van, what's your take on working with Krimgal's office this time around? How'd it feel?"
At Jenny's question, Lennok answered casually.
"Nothing special. It was much easier compared to the experience with Croken. We did face a Scavenger executive, but… it wasn't that difficult."
"You mean that retired soldier? If he was an executive of District 51, it'd make sense why he's at that level."
She muttered with a long cigarette in her mouth, chuckling.
"Just so you know, not all Scavengers are a bunch of weak or shoddy folks. There are actually quite a few who got caught up with them in a moment of carelessness and ended up getting hooked."
"Are you saying the core leaders are different?"
"Well, it's not just the bigwigs, but even the local chiefs have a pretty big gap among them. If you ever end up dealing with the Scavenger chiefs in the 20s districts, tread carefully. There's gotta be a good reason why they're able to build such a massive organization by collecting all kinds of junk."
Lennok didn't answer, but he tried to remember her words inwardly.
So far, the Scavengers he had encountered were nothing more than simple thugs or robbery gangs. However, if she said so, it was reasonable to think that there was more to them than met the eye.
Jenny giggled as she looked at Lennok's serious expression while puffing out smoke.
"Hey, did you hear about the commotion this recent incident is causing? It's been making quite the buzz around here. The scavengers haven't made such a bold move in a while, so folks are really curious about it."
"So?"
"More and more clients are searching for our lightning-wielding wizard. It's pretty thrilling for us freelancers."
"Hmm…"
That's definitely a good thing. Compared to spreading himself thin by helping anyone, having specific requests targeting him would lead to better treatment and higher rewards.
"That's why I've worked hard for our wizard."
Jenny said that and brought out a paper file from behind the bar and handed it to Lennok.
"So, I gathered all the requests from the past week that specifically asked for you. Here ya go, take a look and pick out whichever one you're interested in."
"Is there this many?"
The thickness of the papers in his hand seemed to easily exceed ten pages.
"It just goes to show how in demand a skilled wizard really is. Honestly, even I'm taken aback by how many exclusive requests you've been getting. Most of my clients don't get this kind of attention."
Jenny looked at Lennok with greedy eyes as she spoke.
"Let's keep collaborating, and I promise to only take a tiny cut as commission."
"Sure."
Lennok laughed dryly but didn't respond, and Jenny didn't say anything more either.
Holding the file, Lennok stood up and, as if suddenly remembering something, Jenny spoke.
"Hey, regarding those requests you were checking out earlier. Unfortunately, since their deadlines all clash, if you decide to take one, we'll have to reject the others. So, if you could let me know your pick ASAP, we can inform the clients and they can look for other options. It's important to be considerate of their needs."
"Understood."
Returning home, Lennok promptly discarded the file and blood-filled box in a corner of his room before heading to the bathroom.
He purged all the alcohol he had imbibed at Jenny's bar, a practice he had adopted to alleviate the aftereffects.
Although the resulting upset stomach was inevitable, Lennok believed that being sick all day was a greater setback.
After finishing up in the bathroom, he moved to the kitchen.
He grilled the pre-thawed meat, briefly washed the vegetables, and stir-fried them with a store-bought sauce.
As the food sizzled in the pan, he retrieved leftover rice from the rice cooker and served it with simple side dishes to complete his meal.
Lennok understood that consuming a variety of nutrients was more important than consuming a lot, and he made a conscious effort to eat slowly, savoring each bite.
In the process of researching the application methods of common magic, all the inspiration and methods that came to mind were written down and stuck directly onto the wall.
The common magic Lennok uses has been developed from the beginning to the end, relying solely on his own memory and talent.
Although it would be different if he learned other unique magic, there was no other choice but for Lennok to make a little effort to raise the level of common magic even higher than it is now.
Fortunately, the magical talent that he had raised by attaching all sorts of penalties was not in vain, and Lennok had been developing his own magic without stopping even once, with only very small speculations and inspirations.
Rather than simply using the predetermined magic for its intended purpose, he goes through the process of redefining and re-establishing the magic's consumption, range, power, and limits to create new magic.
The adjustment of the range of [Thunder Calling] used against the scavengers this time was also part of such research.
Lennok placed the Styrofoam box containing blood in a small refrigerator he had bought in advance. As the blood had been touched by black magic, it was only natural to take measures with small-scale barrier magic.
Sitting upright in one corner of the room, he finally began to go through the documents in the file folder that Jenny had handed him.
There were requests from mercenary offices like Krimgal, as well as cases where individuals had placed orders for escorts.
There were also unusual requests such as cooperation in laboratory experiments, and numerous requests from companies like last time.
With a blank face, Lennok looked through the documents and paused for a moment before bursting into a hollow laugh.
"Ha… These guys are pretty crazy too."
There was a request from the scavenger side that they wanted to hire him.
To be precise, it seemed that the head of the District 38 Scavenger had been keeping an eye on his actions.
Lennok couldn't help but be surprised by the request, which blatantly revealed an intention to not care even if it meant previously interfering with the operations of the same organization.
Jenny must have known about it, so she probably deliberately didn't tell him.
Working together, he could see that she was quite playful.
"Let's see. First, eliminate this one and this one too…"
He filtered out all the requests with extremely tight deadlines. For now, he put aside the requests coming from the mercenary office.
He also eliminated all the requests from unknown individuals.
Surprisingly, many of the relatively clean requests came from corporate entities.
Lennok didn't think negatively about working with gangs, but trustworthiness was an issue.
He intended to hold off on working with dangerous organizations until he had the power to buy trust with strength.
After filtering through various stringent conditions, there was only one request that appealed to Lennok's heart.
Among the gathered requests, it had the longest remaining deadline to accept, and the conditions weren't too strict. The compensation wasn't very high, but there was a keyword that caught Lennok's eye.
"A pharmaceutical company…"
(TO BE CONTINUED)
