Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 73: Sell it all

Chapter 73: Sell it all

The prize of all the materials and tools Theo ended up buying ended up clearing pretty much every last coin out of his purse, leaving nothing but air in place of the great prize he got from selling his brew to the vice-headmaster.

With his hips now lighter from the weight of all the coins he carried before and his arms burdened with several sacks half-filled with all sorts of different materials, Theo slowly made his way back to his room while hoping for the very same thing that made him leave the formation store as soon as he bought all that he needed.

He had to... No, he wanted to avoid attracting even more attention to himself than he already did.

Not because there was any real issue with people knowing about him.

Theo simply disliked the idea of getting people to be interested in him, all because it was a problem that would only ever continue growing.

If he reached a certain level of popularity, he could rarely experience a second of life without someone trying to spy on him in hopes of witnessing the birth of a new potential gossip. If his fame grew even further, he could forget about ever getting some alone time. And even if his fame fell through the roof, there was a high chance someone would still always remain on his tail, hoping to get a scoop that would allow them to rekindle the legend of the academy’s infamous teacher.

No.

The reason why Theo disliked attention was mostly because of how much bother it could be down the line. And secondly, after learning all that he did from his excursions into the library, his methods...

To say they were unorthodox would be as accurate as claiming that denouncing the god, the faith, and the divine was somewhat on the level of a faithful practitioner having tiny doubts about their religion.

No.

Theo’s methods were, quite literally, out of this world, based on a weird mix of his own somewhat scientific background, the powerful calculating and parsing power of his hive, and then some rare nuggets of wisdom related to the magic and cultivation that he found in the thousands upon thousands of books he indirectly consumed.

And with that in mind, the more eyes were to stick to him, the harder and harder it would be for Theo to practice or even to teach his ways to his two disciples!

Theo’s desire to remain somewhat low-key and uninteresting to the masses, however, still wasn’t enough to counteract the physical pain he had to endure when his spine, already expecting to deal with the familiar weight of all the coins he held attached to his hip, ended up twisting due to the lack of weight it expected to carry.

’To think that spending money would be a cause of physical discomfort,’ Theo thought, only now learning of some inconveniences attached to his life in this less-than-properly-developed world. He then shrugged his shoulders, trying to quell this miserable feeling of loss caused by all his coins going missing in action, first with a solid dose of ’it is what it is,’ followed by ’it’s the cost of doing business,’ and ending with a fresh layer of ’a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.’

It was with those copium-infused thoughts that Theo finally got back to his place, slightly happy he managed to return without causing another commotion or even attracting any major looks. Yet, rather than returning to peace and quiet so that he could take some rest and slowly plan his next steps for the future...

"Master!"

Two voices rang as one pretty much as soon as Theo closed the door behind him, leading his eyes towards the two silhouettes kneeling down right on the floor in the very middle of his room.

His two disciples kneeled down while keeping their backs perfectly straight, each holding a considerably bloated pouch just a few inches in front of their knees.

And Theo couldn’t call himself a teacher if he failed to notice how Lukas, whose pouch appeared to be slightly bigger out of the two, carried a much happier smile on his face than Tesh, with the smaller bag, did.

’There goes my peace and quiet to plan for the future, huh?’ Theo thought, initially forcing himself to keep a straight face while hiding his annoyance beneath it... Only to then realize that he wasn’t even annoyed all that much?

And more importantly, it’s been quite some time since he finished drawing all the plans for the future that he might need in the next few days or maybe even weeks! All that was left to do was to put his recently obtained formation-setting knowledge to use and draw a blueprint capable of achieving one extremely specific goal, all in a bid to sweeten the deal his two disciples so hastily agreed to.

"We are here to offer all the money earned from the sales you ordered us to make!" seeing his master’s face relax, Lukas happily reported, pointing his hand at the stretched-out pouch before his knees before bringing his hands down to the floor and then bowing forward and then down with his entire upper body, "please!"

"...yes, please!"

Tesh joined in, taking but a short moment to break through the slight daze she found herself in.

"Raise your heads," Theo requested in a small voice, dropping off the bags he brought over before moving over to the bed and then sitting down on its edge. "How did it go?"

Obviously, Lukas was the first to raise his head.

"I’ve managed to sell most of teacher Julius’ personal artifacts and memorabilia, earning a sum total of a hundred and twenty-four gold coins!" he reported with a bright smile beaming on his face.

"Great job," Theo praised the kid, knowing better than to hold back on positive reinforcement, especially when the kid quite clearly did a really good job.

"I’ve only managed to earn a hundred and nine gold coins," Tesh then reported, her face still slightly sour from her perceived loss in what was never a competition to begin with.

Still, whether Theo considered it a competition or not was one thing, and whether his two disciples did... Well, it was something else entirely.

"I initially went ahead and gathered teacher Julius’ private collection of books and manuals to sell, only to stop when I realized master might want to look through them first," she dutifully reported, only to then lower her head again, this time far enough to strike the floor with her forehead.

"For overstepping like that, I humbly apologize, master!"

For a moment, Theo remained silent, staring at the top of Tesh’s head without making a single sound.

Not longer than a few seconds later, however, he sighed away before shaking his head.

"Come on, girl, raise your head," he requested in the softest voice he’s ever used when talking with either of his disciples so far. "You did it out of a justified consideration, so how could I blame you for trying not to do something I could regret later on?"

Theo shook his head again while giving the situation a moment of his own consideration.

’Those books might be at the level that could be hard for me to get my hands on, even with all the nanites in the world,’ he thought, recalling the sensation when a barrier actually managed to stop the propagation of his nanites through the air.

But that was merely Theo’s first thought. As for what he thought next...

"I appreciate your consideration. You did a great job too, kiddo," Theo shook his head for the third time before clearing his throat and openly praising the girl too. "If anything, the fault lies in me for not giving you any further details on my request. For now, though, feel free to go and sell all of those books and manuals anyway."

This was foolish.

Why remove the often priceless books from his possession when he could easily scan through their content and then sell them?

Or so would be Theo’s worry, if not for a much bigger issue that doing the most obvious was likely to create.

’If those would be the only high-level books I would be able to get my hands on for quite some time, wouldn’t that skew my perception of the world in the same direction Julius was pursuing?’

Theo took in a breath before holding it in for a short while, taking another moment to consider all of his options and obligations.

"Go and sell all that you can. Once you are ready to retire for the night as usual, just do one more trip and buy as many spiritual stones as you can with the gold you’ve obtained so far. And for tomorrow..." Theo closed his eyes as he took a moment to calculate just how long he would need to set the next step of his plan in motion.

A calculation that soon returned a dire opportunity that was sadly too good for Theo not to take advantage of it.

"And for tomorrow, just gather here after breakfast as usual. Oh," Theo’s eyebrows jumped a bit, "and bring all of the spiritual stones with you. By then, I should have everything ready for redoing your cultivation from scratch."

The room turned silent.

The joy of properly fulfilling the very first task their master gave them now turned into shock.

Already?

The two youthful faces seemed to ask at the same time with just their expressions alone.

"Sir, if you need more time..." Tesh carefully weighed each word that she said, not sure if she was even allowed to approach the subject. But for Theo to progress from theory to its practical application not even a full day after first bringing the topic of them remaking their cultivation from scratch... Wasn’t it a bit too hasty?

It was their precious cultivation that was on the line, after all! And if that wasn’t enough, if something went wrong in the process of undoing all of their solidified efforts of the last few years, they might very well sustain severe injuries not to their cultivation itself, not even to their bodies or internal organs... But to their potential to cultivate in the future!

And worries like that simply couldn’t go unaddressed!

Still, Theo couldn’t really care less.

"Don’t worry about it and just go. And remember, bring as many spirit stones back with you as you can!" he said in a stern voice that allowed no room for negotiation or doubt... All in a bid not to let his sour mood appear on his face.

’Ready by tomorrow morning, huh?’ he thought, already cursing himself in his thoughts, ’doesn’t that mean another sleepless night?’