Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 116: Fourth step

Chapter 116: Fourth step

’What the hell is a runic weave?’

This was the one question Theo couldn’t find an answer for. It didn’t matter how hard he scoured the knowledge he obtained from the library, how many different questions he posed for the hive, or how much he tried to guess from just the discipline’s name alone.

It was as if this entire discipline was just something that the hive... either imagined or created on its own, only to remove Theo’s access to it as soon as he attempted to learn more about it, wiping all the data to then prevent him from learning something it deemed incomplete, invalidated.

And with that said and done, there was nothing left for Theo but to accept the reality and finally move to the last major objective he had for the day.

And it was to go back to the new, fourth cultivation step of his personal cultivation path that the hive compiled, first to learn what it was all about, then to slowly get himself accustomed to it, and finally, with the help of the resources he had on hand and then the mansion’s array, to actually make use of it and push his cultivation just a little bit further.

’Okay, hive, you’ve won,’ Theo admitted in his inner voice as he fell back to his bed, sprawling all over it with arms and legs as far apart from each other as if he was trying to occupy as much of the bed’s surface as he could. ’I’m going to drop that weave topic for now, so how about you reveal that fourth step to me?’

There was no need for Theo to strictly specify that he had his cultivation in mind. Given how the active command for the hive was merely the tip of the iceberg of the thought process that led to it, the hive likely knew about it even before Theo actually formed it into a concrete thought in his head.

<Compiling the fourth step of the Infinite Nanite Cultivation>

<Fourth step: Interfacing (Nascent Soul/Soul Formation)>

Just the header of the message was enough to get Theo excited. And while the fourth step of the infinite nanite cultivation only covered two cultivation realms, one less than the third step... he could hardly feel bad about it when every step in traditional cultivation was leagues harder than any and all of the realms that came before!

That’s why, while this time Theo’s new path appeared to cover much less ground of personal development than the last one, in reality, it allowed him to cross a much greater threshold than any of the steps he completed before!

<- Create a mirror copy of the main storage of your structure by bloating the redundant meridian point (overcondensed point) marked on the blueprint

- Establish a resonance between the dantian and its copy

- Sever the dantian’s clone from the structure

- Saturate the severed core to force its growth

- Upon the severed core reaching sufficient growth, superimpose it and fuse it into your existing structure>

<Warning! This step will create an autonomous interface allowing the hive to directly control and moderate the flows within your cultivation by interfacing with the superimposed structure directly!>

<Warning! The hive cannot determine the full extent of the effect this step will take on its algorithm integrity!>

Reading through each phase of the next step, Theo couldn’t help but put on a troubled look on his face.

’This step seems much, much more complicated than any of the steps before, huh?’

The first step was all about cleansing the body and then creating pathways for the mana to flow through Theo’s flesh, ending only once Theo not only created a whole network of microscopic wounds all over his body but then solidified them into a hidden, second nature of himself.

The second step was all about filling the paths he just created with mana, effectively making them into highways for this magical energy to flow through his body.

The third step was all about adding perfectly logical infrastructure to his paths, turning them from simple paths into a much more advanced system with necessary redundancies, storage, and nodes that allowed for a much smoother mana ride while also creating more room for it to flow and a whole system of valves-slash-nodes to better control the flow.

By this logic, the fourth step should either expand upon Theo’s existing inner infrastructure in a way that only made sense or build up on it in ways that it didn’t before. And yet, this fourth step only remotely adhered to the second idea of the expansion, suddenly turning to be all about cloning, fusing, and superimposing?

In terms of his mind, Theo couldn’t claim he fully understood the intent of this development. It was simply too far removed from any rules, standards, or physical equations that he knew about for him to accept it as logical. On the other hand, though, with all the knowledge of the library’s first floor now firmly saved within his brain, this step also felt perfectly natural, as if it was the most obvious conclusion to all the cultivation efforts Theo executed thus far.

’On the other hand, isn’t this striking a little bit too close to giving the hive a certain level of autonomy for my own, personal comfort?’

For all the attempts to make himself independent from the hive in fear of losing himself to its algorithms, Theo wasn’t ready or even willing to just give up on it. With the level of edge the hive offered giving him over everyone else in this world, it was too good of a tool for him not to rely on it.

Which is why, seeing how the hive now suggested a method that would seemingly only increase the level of influence it had over Theo while granting it even greater autonomy than it already had...?

<Information!>

An unprompted message suddenly appeared before Theo’s eyes, right as he was in the middle of arguing with himself and weighing all the pros and cons of this newly learned fourth step.

<The hive always had the prerogative to keep the host safe from harm even if it came at the small cost of their free will>

Theo’s eyebrows moved up. Because while what the hive just told him was an obvious truth, given how it was perfectly able to take over Theo’s body in case of an emergency... it was also the very first time for the hive to take the initiative to contact him.

And by all means, laying down on the bed and just thinking over stuff didn’t constitute any kind of emergency that would explain this weird behavior!

’Why is this situation turning uglier by the minute?’ Theo thought, gritting his teeth as he struggled to understand the situation he was in. But before his fear of the unknown could seriously affect his train of thought...

<The result of this step will merely restore the balance shaken by the introduction of the unplanned source of energy into the host’s system. Right now, in case of emergency...>

Theo’s eyes turned wide while his entire body froze.

<Right now, in case of emergency and without expressed approval, the hive will be unable to fully exorcise the power of the host’s body and mana!>

Faced with this new reality that he didn’t know about in advance, Theo felt a shiver move down his spine.

The hive’s ability to take over was something that he had long since grown used to, especially given the nature of the chemical experiments he was dabbling in back in his old life. Experiments that could easily leave him in an unresponsive state, thus forcing the hive to take over and force his unconscious body to walk out of the dangerous area, out of the sphere of influence of the toxic chemicals he could accidentally unleash.

Sure, this infringed on something that should theoretically never be infringed upon, but... given his field of hobby and expertise, it was nothing more than just professional safety.

And to learn that this consensus that he agreed to years ago was silently uprooted and turned off, leaving him vulnerable to anything that could turn his mind off and thus prevent him from giving the hive express approval to take over?

When faced with this reality, Theo was suddenly torn between his desire to fully free himself from the chains the hive imposed on him for his own safety... and rushing to go through this fourth step just to regain the base defense against anything capable of cutting the link between his mind and his body!

"If it was just a few days ago, I guess I would opt to just cast the chains aside, huh?" Theo muttered to himself, shaking his head as he gathered his strength and then jumped off his bed only to then grab the case of fresh materia prima — a courtesy of Celeste, his disciples, or maybe just the mansion’s servants — before making his way over to the middle of the mansion’s formation.

’This world is way too dangerous for me to opt for the luxury of perfect freedom,’ Theo thought as the look on his face steeled up, his determination rising in the face of the coming challenge.

A total freedom was just an illusion for those who could afford it. And while the attack at the auction house wasn’t enough to shake Theo’s confidence in his ability to defend himself, the following quick conversation he had with the academy headmaster did so without fail.

"Now then," sitting down in the middle of the formation, Theo brought out the first out of the total of twelve bottles of the high-grade materia prima before pulling its cork with a single tug and then bringing its neck over to his lips.

’How do I even begin?’ he thought, only for the hive to quickly reproduce the list of goals Theo had to complete to properly go through the fourth step of his unique cultivation. A quickness that instantly caused Theo’s eyebrow to raise.

’Quite eager, aren’t you?’ he asked the hive while a small smirk formed in the corner of his mouth.

<The hive only wants what’s best for the host>

A message flashed before Theo’s eyes, feeling almost ironical in its nature.

’Right, right,’ Theo rolled his eyes, opting not to argue with the part of himself that was growing increasingly independent and... alive? He then shook his head to rid himself of the useless worries before focusing his eyes on the first part of his current objective.

’Create a mirror copy of the main storage of your structure by bloating the redundant meridian point (overcondensed point) marked on the blueprint’

Theo read through the instruction a few times, just to get himself perfectly familiarized with it. And the very moment he felt as if it made even the most remote of sense, he took a huge gulp of the materia prima, exhaled... and then took in a deep breath, driving the mana within his structure to lower its pressure and thus create room for the world’s mana to fill it up.

’Whatever this part is all about, the one thing remains unchanged,’ Theo thought, feeling how his nanorgan started to heat up, churning out the nanites only for them to fuse with the now slowly rising amount of mana within his structure. ’Regardless of what this step is actually all about, it’s going to leave me with more mana than I had before. And for that...’

A small smile formed on Theo’s lips.

’What else would I need if not to absorb even more mana?’