Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher Chapter 25: Starving no more

'Just a little bit further...' Theo thought, gritting his teeth as the sack of at and spices he brought continued to weigh him down. 'Did they really have to put that market so damn far away from the teacher's quarters?!'

This was the one simple reason why Theo couldn't care less about all the stares his small pilgrimage brought on him. Amidst all the other reasons that would usually be the case, he was simply too focused on bringing his loot over to where he could properly process it, leaving him with no spare energy to care about others.

Right now, however, with the burden of the very last flight of stairs already behind him, Theo only had to conquer the very last straight, the very last few steps...

Click!

The sound of the lock in the doors to his room turning couldn't be any sweeter, allowing Theo to finally slap his sack of at down on the floor, freeing his hands from its overwhelming weight.

"Haaaaa...." A long sigh escaped from his mouth as he slumped down on the nearby chair, taking a few monts to just let his body rest.

'Who would've thought that getting food when you are borderline malnourished could be so damn hard,' he thought, gradually slowing his breath down as the beating of his heart steadily returned to a normal pace.

While the hardest part of actually carrying the at over to his room was over, though, Theo's task was only about to truly begin. And once he regained just enough strength to move, he stood up from his seat before moving over to his alchemy stand...

And started to dismantle it.

'Distiller, out. Harness, out. Catalyst chamber, out. Filtration array...' Theo hesitated for a mont as he stared at a complex set of tubes, filters, and condensation coils arranged into one relatively sizable device before finally shaking his head and then unscrewing the few screws that kept it attached to the stand, 'out.'

By the ti Theo was done with his handiwork, his state-of-the-art alchemy stand, one that even the best alchemists in the academy could be jealous of, was reduced to pretty much just a countertop to the left, a huge fireplace in the middle, and then an empty shelf to the right.

'Now, it's no different from a kitchen,' Theo thought with a small smirk forming on his lips, only to then shake his head again as he started to bring over spare parts of the stand, assembling a new contraption right above the fireplace.

First ca a huge pot, one originally designed for the lengthy process of long-boiling herbs, where one could just fill the pot with water, throw the herbs in, and then just let it boil for a full day-and-night cycle, allowing the extraction of all the possible material within the herbs and then automatic distillation of the brew through the simple evaporation process.

Right now, however, Theo only filled it halfway with water before finally opening up his burlap sack and then throwing chunks of raw at into the cold water, caring not for all the water that ended up splashing away and out of the pot.

Only once the uneven mixture inside Theo's belt-high pot reached roughly eighty percent of its full volu did he move on and place a relatively simple lid on top of it before poking two holes in the lid to allow for the water vapor to escape.

Then, however, rather than just leaving the pot as it was, Theo made sure to isolate the two holes before throwing a bunch of coals on top of it and then covering it all with a huge frying pan.

'I would die from hunger if I waited all the ti it would take for the at to slow-boil. So, until it gets ready...'

After setting up a fire under the pot and then, after catering to it for a bit, using a wooden stick on the thicker side to set the coals at the top of the pot on fire too, Theo finally pulled out one of the nicer beef cuts that he saved for the first bite.

'In theory, I could try to make a sashimi out of it, but...'

After staring at the piece of raw at for a while, Theo breathed out a long sigh before throwing it on the pan, then reaching for the small spice pouch and gently dusting its surface with a mix of various aromatic powders.

"I'm not mad enough to risk eating raw at, not when there's no way to know whether it was butchered, processed, and then stored in the perfect conditions necessary to ensure it's safe."

Soon, the coals underneath the frying pan heated it up to the point where the at on it started to sizzle, indicating its fats were now starting to lt down, creating a proper oil that allowed for better transmission of heat from the pan to the at itself.

A few monts later, while nearly drowning in the mix of his own saliva and the delicious aroma that filled the room, Theo gritted his teeth and used so of the alchemy utensils to flip the at over to the other side before covering its nicely fried side with a fresh coat of spices.

In the end, though, Theo had to suffer through this delicious aroma only reinforcing his imnse hunger for quite so ti, given just how long red at had to take before its insides would cook properly.

'Thinking about this, I really should've organized so sort of drink to go with all this at,' Theo thought, trying not to let his imagination make his hunger even worse.

Thankfully, after all of his preparations, the alchemy coals proved to be quite a lot better than the coals he was used to from Earth, easily heating up not only the pot from up above but also the frying pan from below it, pushing enough heat through the at on top of the frying pan to make it completely safe to consu.

"Just to be on the safe side..." Theo muttered as he pulled out the one and only knife within the whole of his room before making a small cut to the side of the at and then twisting the knife to push the two sides of the cut apart, revealing the nice, tenderized at hidden inside the slab.

"Fuck yeah," unable to hold his excitent, Theo cursed out loud before using the very sa knife to drag the at over to Theo's only plate before bringing it up to his mouth and taking a bite.

The mont Theo's teeth collapsed upon the at, it just... parted under the pressure, releasing a bomb of rich juice inside his mouth, juice that rushed to coat his parched gums with the delicious, strictly aty taste.

The first bite of proper at, after a period of nearly starving himself out, brought on nearly a drug-like effect, causing Theo's consciousness to spin as he shook unsteadily in his seat, unable to contain himself.

Sensing the nutrients, the nanites within his bloodstream stirred, switching over from preservation mode to consumption mode, allowing for boosted regeneration of the hive and better ingestion of the provided food.

It was all but a first bite. And as all the changes finally concluded, Theo's consciousness vanished, replaced by his suppressed hunger in its truest, rawest form, forcing him to just ignore the heat of the at taken freshly off the plate as he bit down into it like a hungry predator would into its prey.

Only upon pretty much inhaling the entire slab of grilled at did Theo's consciousness return, allowing him to release a satisfied sigh as he leaned back in his chair.

"That really hits the spot..." he muttered, relishing the mont before shaking his head and reaching for the nearby sack just to grab another slab of at and throw it on the frying pan. "But if my mory serves right," Theo's happy face quickly turned sour, "it won't be long before just the sight of at will be enough to make feel like throwing up."