Teacher Botan couldn’t help but exhale through her leaves. This human student was truly the most knowledgeable student she had ever seen in her eight hundred years as a teacher. It was as if he had an affinity for botany; every plant she pointed at, he could identify. She had gone through half the greenhouse, and the man hadn’t made a mistake yet. In fact, there was one plant that she realized she had misidentified due to the student’s answer. She stroked the bottom of her flower with her leaf, mimicking a human elder stroking their beard. The quality of the academy’s incoming students decreased more often than it increased. This generation was one of the worst ones yet, but it still brought in a genius of the mind. His aptitude for cultivation may have been lacking, but it seemed like the world had gained a true scholar this time around. Teacher Botan saw no reason to let such talent escape from her grasp. “Would you like to be my personal disciple?”

“Yes!” Howard said. Although his answer was forceful, Teacher Botan suspected the student was actually quite reluctant due to his body language. For a plant to successfully become a teacher of humans, she had to learn quite a bit about human body language; in fact, she probably understood more about human behaviors than most humans did. However, despite the reluctance the student was showing, Teacher Botan still made the choice to accept him as her personal disciple. Such a good seedling had to be quickly snatched for herself!

“What are you waiting for?” Teacher Botan asked. “Kowtow to me three times to show your dedication.”

Howard grimaced as he got out of his seat and dropped onto his knees. Once he accepted the plant as his master, the chance of him becoming the personal disciple of anyone else drastically dropped. Unless he showed outstanding talent, no one would make trouble with Teacher Botan just to recruit him. However, what choice did he have? He didn’t want to wait two years to break through to foundation establishment. Cultivation was a race, and the sooner he set off, the more resources he’d obtain. With loud thudding sounds, Howard’s forehead struck the ground three times. “Howard greets his master!”

“Excellent,” Teacher Botan said, her petals slightly parting, a Nine-Leafed Rose Devourer’s way of grinning. “Stand up. From this day forth, you’re my personal disciple.” She flicked outwards with one of her leaves, and a token flew towards Howard. There was a vine attached to it, and when the vine came into contact with Howard, it wrapped around his waist, firmly securing the token in place. Teacher Botan’s eyes scanned the rest of the class. When she had been questioning Howard, she had also been observing the expressions of the remaining students. If they had any idea what the plants were named, then she would’ve seen it in their expressions. From what she could tell, other than Howard, none of the students had any experience with plants. However, she wasn’t discouraged. This was how new students should be, their minds bright and open like white sheets of paper, ready to be painted on with her own personal color.

As a teacher, Teacher Botan was relaxed when teaching botany—it was so simple and didn’t require much effort on her part. As for the students, if they thought the class was going to be an easy one, they were in for a rude awakening. “I’m sure all of you have read the requirements before joining my class. Everyone, take out your textbooks. Starting from tomorrow, there will be a quiz every day on the plants described in the first one hundred pages of the book. I suggest you begin studying right now.”

The students glanced at each other before taking out their textbooks. As for Howard, he didn’t have one. As someone who believed in himself, how could he plan for the worst? He was supposed to become Teacher Brawn’s personal disciple! With his confidence, how could he buy the textbook to a class he wasn’t planning on attending? He was striving for success, not planning for failure! There was a break period given to the students between classes, but fifteen minutes wasn’t enough time for Howard to go to the school store and purchase the textbook, not if he wanted to get to class early to make a good impression on the teacher.

“Where’s your textbook, Howard?”

Luckily, Howard had the system. He tapped on his head. “I didn’t see a reason to bring it to class because I’ve memorized the whole thing, Master Botan.”

“As expected of my personal disciple.” Teacher Botan’s leaves rustled, and the flower atop her stem nodded. It seemed like Howard had planned this in advance. Although she wasn’t too influential in the school, she was still a good choice for a freshman to pick as a backer. With her mastery in botany, there wasn’t anyone who would want to offend her. People weren’t afraid of frontal attacks, but no one wanted to be on guard against someone who was an expert in poisons. Besides, she could also come up with prescriptions to deal with poisons as well. It was better to have a doctor as a friend than as an enemy, so most teachers and upper management were willing to get on her good side. With her as his backer, Howard could easily walk around the school with his head held high despite his crappy potential.

Howard glanced around the room. The rest of the students were busy cramming the information within the book into their heads. What was he supposed to do? Luckily, his master had plans for him.

“Come here,” Teacher Botan said and pulled a journal out from a desk. “These are my personal notes on concocting. For now, read this until you’ve memorized it. I’ll teach you prescription concocting once it’s all in your head. I have high expectations for you, so you better have it memorized within the week.”

Howard took the book and returned to his seat. If he had done the system’s earlier quest and obtained an eidetic memory, this would’ve been extremely easy. Luckily, the system had a change of heart or something and became a kind tutor that answered every question. It was basically the same as having an eidetic memory. He’d only have to read the book once, and if his master quizzed him on it, then he could ask the system for the answers. With the help of the system, it wouldn’t take very long for him to gain access to herbs for concocting prescriptions. Howard opened the book, splaying it out on his table. This was his first step to obtaining the Myriad Mist Cultivation Technique!

***

“Wow, your user is pretty smart,” Azalea said, raising an eyebrow at Grandpa Vremya. “I thought he was a bit incompetent because of how he treated Pravos, but I guess the numbers for his potential don’t lie.”

“Of course,” Grandpa Vremya said, a smug expression on his face. “This is simply the difference between Pravos’ skills and my own. As a primordial god, I’m obviously better than her at this.”

Pravos’ expression darkened. She really wanted to expose everything Grandpa Vremya was doing, but it was pretty clear what would happen to her if she did. She’d be launched forward in time! Wait, no, this was Grandpa Vremya. She’d be trapped in a black hole for all of eternity!