Nano Machine Chapter 21: This Guy, He Fooled Us All! (C)

Right when Cheon Yeo Woon was about to consume his first manna orb, Seop Maeng looked over his shoulder and asked him a fitting question.

"Keul keul, hey disciple. I forgot to ask, but who's that guy over there?"

"Oh!"

Seop Maeng asked while pointing at a bed in the middle-right side of the dispensary with a white curtain covering it. It was the first time he ever heard the breathing noise of anyone other than Cheon Yeo Woon's in the dispensary. As though jeomhyeol, being forced into sleep by a strike to the pressure point, had been performed on him, he was mumbling to himself in a low voice.

*Chwak!*

When Seop Maeng drew the curtains away, there before him was a bald boy with a huge bandage around his torso lying there. As expected, he looked like a victim of jeomhyeol.

"Ho oh? You got him by the carotid artery."

Although Seop Maeng never taught him how to use jeomhyeol, based on the current situation it was clear Cheon Yeo Woon had already learned the knowledge required to perform it.

"He used the opportunity after Doctor Baek left to attack me."

"Attack you?"

Seop Maeng frowned at Cheon Yeo Woon's words. It meant, for whatever reason, the obstinate cadet had no fear of being expelled. It appeared there was someone who either promised him asylum or some other benefit that would go his way. With indignance in his voice, Seop Maeng asked Cheon Yeo Woon.

"Who is it?"

"It's one of the Buk Ma clan cadets from my group."

"Ha! Buk Ma clan? I'm telling you, I've never seen a single decent kid coming from that clan. Tsk tsk."

Perhaps it was from their specific style of fighting, but the truth was that Buk Ma clan, out of all the other clans had been known for producing many radical and belligerent troublemakers in the past.

Seop Maeng reasoned that regardless of their status as one of the pillar clans, being born and trained in Buk Ma clan's cutthroat culture made it inevitable for the cadets to behave in that way.

"You don't have a single day of peace, do you kid?"

"…. it's okay. I'm used to it."

Thanks to his tumultuous life, he really was used to it. Cheon Yeo Woon's response discomforted Seop Maeng a little.

Tak tak!

"Ah?"

As Seop Maeng put pressure on Cadet Number Twenty-Three's carotid artery again to prolong his sleep, he offered Cheon Yeo Woon a word of advice.

"If you use jeomhyeol on someone with about one year's worth of training on inner power under your belt, your opponent will regain consciousness within a few hours. If you want to knock someone out, you would need at least ten year's training worth of inner power. You got it?"

"I will keep that in mind, teacher." His eyes glistened with accomplishment as though he had learned something monumental.

Thanks to Seop Maeng's second dose of jeomhyeol, they could obviate the risk of him having an unprecedented awakening. It was a complete must that no one found out about East Grand Lord Seop Maeng's secret tutelage.

"Okay now, take the manna orb and swallow it."

"I need to swallow it, that's all?"

"No, you have to chew it all up before swallowing to get the best results, of course."

If it weren't for Seop Maeng, Cheon Yeo Woon wouldn't have absorbed even half of the manna orb's full potential. Even small advises like these were helpful for Cheon Yeo Woon in getting the most of the benefits they gave the cadets in the academy.

In that regard, he was lucky.

Crunch, crunch!

When Cheon Yeo Woon chewed on the manna orb, the strong herbal smell and bitter taste made Cheon Yeo Woon's stomach queasy. The wise old saying "the more potency the medicine has, the bitter it gets" was applied to this situation.

With a look of disgust on his face, Cheon Yeo Woon chewed down the manna orb one painful bite at a time as he sat down in a half-lotus position.

"Now, if you enter the moocheon shinbeop breathing technique, I will use my qi to supplement the optimal absorption of the manna orb's full potential in your body."

"Okay, teacher. I appreciate the opportunity."

"Begin the breathing."

"Yes, teacher."

Cheon Yeo Woon sat up straight and used the breathing technique he had learned through moocheon shinbeop. Seop Maeng then placed his two hands on Cheon Yeo Woon's back and emit his qi into him. Unlike the time Cheon Yeo Woon was learning the movement path of qi circulation in his body, the process of supplementing the better absorption of a manna orb in one's body required a different pathway for the qi.

The broken down manna orb traveling Cheon Yeo Woon's digestive tract from his mouth to his digestive organs diffused all over his body. The nanomachine's voice rung out inside Cheon Yeo Woon's head.

[A strong substance that promotes the optimization of energy entered your body. A synergistic reaction between this substance and the energy coming in through the specific access point in the user's body's meridian system was causing a type of chemical osmosis which was accelerating the body's metabolism. Do you give consent to this?]

Although he wasn't able to comprehend what Nano said, he at least understood the part whatever went on would help with the absorption process. Since he was too focused on his breathing at the time, he responded with a very terse reply.

"Sure!"

[With the consent of the user, initiating metabolic proficiency of the body]

At Cheon Yeo Woon's approval, all the nanomachines inside began to scurry around in his body, boosting its metabolism, and thereby, further supplementing the absorption of the manna orb.

"Hoo woo."

Cheon Yeo Woon felt a hot flash in his lower abdomen.

This was a very propitious sign for Cheon Yeo Woon who was hoping to get the uttermost out of the manna orb. Through the external supplementation of his teacher, Seop Maeng, and the internal supplementation of the nanomachines, what amounts to only about a 70 percent and at most 80 percent manna orb absorption rate, for the first time since its composition a full absorption into the body of the recipient occurred.

Cheon Yeo Woon began to have a profuse sweating as he continued to breathe.

"What the? This kid definitely was gifted with the ideal physique for this. He is a true prodigy!"

Seop Maeng, who was helping him in the absorption process couldn't help but be amazed at the spectacle. At this rate, it was very much possible that he would absorb the entirety of the manna orb into his body. In excitement at his disciple Cheon Yeo Woon's great prospect, Seop Maeng focused more on his role so a full absorption would occur.

About two hours have passed since…

"Ha ah.. ha ah.. That was quite the workout. Keul keul."

*Bul kuk, bul kuk!*

After wiping the sweat from off his forehead, Seop Maeng gulped down all the rice wine in his gourd bottle as though to celebrate the successful endeavor. Since Cheon Yeo Woon was his first disciple, it was his first time doing this. Unlike his initial concern that the absorption process wouldn't be as promising, the manna orb's full potential had been realized.

"Keu ha~! That was good stuff, kid. Good job."

"It's all thanks to you, teacher. Without you, this wouldn't have been possible."

-You too, Nano. Thanks.–

[It is my program's purpose to serve my lord]

In the ecstatic moment, even Nano's robotic reply sounded sweet in his ears. Even more so than when he first learned to generate and regulate his inner power, the heavy sensation of hot energy in his gut helped Cheon Yeo Woon know the manna orb wasn't wasted. "Keul keul, you must be favored by the gods. As a result of your great fortune, you have been blessed with thirty year's worth of inner power training."

"Excuse me? Thirty years?"

"I am speaking in relative terms here. Keul keul keul, since all the other cadets will take the manna orb without any help, I'd say they are lucky if they reaped half the benefit of the manna orb that you did."

"Oh, right! I bow in gratitude to my benevolent teacher!"

At Seop Maeng's slightly proud statement, Cheon Yeo Woon did a short kowtow before his teacher.

As what East Grand Lord Seop Maeng said, except for the Grand Prince candidates and a handful of cadets from the elite clans who got close to absorbing the manna orb's full potential, a great majority of the cadets were lucky if they afforded half of the twenty-years' training worth potential.

"Oh, it's already morning?"

As Seop Maeng was receiving Cheon Yeo Woon's expression of gratitude, he realized that out the window the once black sky was beginning to take on a blue tint. Seop Maeng got up from his seat to leave when Cheon Yeo Woon asked a serious question.

"Teacher."

"What is it?"

"Starting tomorrow, could you start teaching me Jeopmoo Dobeop? Your personal fighting form."

"Keul keul keul, why are you asking? Of course. Just be prepared to go into hardcore training until you are discharged from this place."

Although that was his initial plan from the start, it sounded a bit more real and stirring when the idea came from the disciple's side. With an expression of approval on his face, Seop Maeng with the end of his last comment, left the dispensary.

As the day broke around the time Doctor Baek Jong Myeong would come into work, Cheon Yeo Woon went over to Cadet Number Twenty-Three and released him from his forced sleep. Not too long after, Cadet Number Twenty-Three woke up from his sleep. However, after having seen Cheon Yeo Woon's true colors the night before, he lied still the whole time on his bed, too terrified to even make a noise.

In the morning when Doctor Baek Jong Myeong came to work, he discovered Cadet Number Twenty-Three on his bed with all of his hair burned off from the previous night's incident.

"Puhahahaha."

Darn it… Argh!-