"This great lord is a newborn machine spirit! You woke us up when you had your awakening!"
"..."
Theodore was lost for words.
'A machine spirit? And a newborn at that? I thought machine spirits were made, not born?'
And there was the fact that it seemed to inhabit that trophy!
His curiosity needed an outlet badly and so he couldn't help but blurt out:
"Awakening? You mean, me getting up this morning caused you to be born?"
"Ha Ha Ha, you think you are powerful enough for that? Humph! Of course not. I was not born this morning lad."
"What?! When were you born then?"
"Yesterday!"
"...you are being serious?..."
"You ignorant barbarian! Fine, this little lord shall educate you further!"
"While you were passed the hell out, you awoke your mana! I must say though, what a mess it was!"
"My mana!? You are saying that I awoke it?
"Indeed you did lad. Congratulations on becoming a little more civilized!"
"You should immediately kowtow three times and recognize this little lord as your senior. Humph!"
"So how then did you end up in my trophy? Were you inside it the whole time?!"
"Of course not, fool! The trophy merely contained our embryonic form. Stupid, like you, compared to this little lord!"
"It only contained the necessary mana circuitry to start our empty core and yesterday, when your mana suddenly spiked, we used some of it to evolve!"
"We sincerely recommend, that you immediately build a shrine and worship our wisdom! Best bow down there thrice daily!"
Theodore found it extremely hard to ignore the condescending tone this little lord put on.
He had the feeling that he would have to somehow put up with it if he wanted any answers.
"Why me? Why was your embryonic form inside my scholarship trophy?"
"Humph! You are not so special! From what we know all the so-called "Prodigies" are given one of us when they graduate."
"Sadly you barbarians rarely awaken us!"
"Our task is to find the mana-sensitive ones."
"You should feel eternally grateful to us!"
"By the way, what is with this shitty level of cultivation of yours?! Stage three, minor success?! Truly, sinful beyond redemption!"
"..."
Theodore's face started twitching!
Just simply throwing this guy out of the window would not be enough!
The heavens would cleanse its filthy mouth with tribulation lightning!!
He did not want to be the one blamed for unleashing it onto the world by throwing it aside!
What if it started insulting everyone around and people started getting hit by its tribulation?
His thoughts were interrupted though, when he remembered the butler waiting for him.
"Oh **** me sideways, Mr. Duunim is waiting outside! I don't have time to stand here are let this bastard wannabe lord insult me! I gotta go and get ready!"
He blurted out loud and he then chucked the sphere onto his bed.
Just as he had turned to run to the bathroom, he could hear a furious, high pitched stream of insults being thrown his way:
"...Bastard huh? you can go get bent for all we care!! F*** you!!
"And just so you know, if we had hands, we would rather s*** in them and clap, than have to educate fools like you!!! Humph!"
"..."
Theodore was completely speechless.
He fully retreated, to have the quickest shower of his life. Then he changed into one of his academy uniforms as they had been the cleanest of his clothes available.
He had planned to do his laundry the morning after going to bed but that was two days and nights ago.
The uniform were a white shirt, pants, and a coat made out of smart-fabric.
This fabric would clean and dry itself over time and all modern clothes were made from it.
Women loved clothes made from this as some could change shape and color on command!
The coat had golden highlighted shoulders, that represented his scholarship status and a name tag above the front right breast pocket.
The coat was made with spiritual energy and mana circuitry as a life-saving measure.
School for cultivators was all about studying to become stronger!
This often meant frequent contests of strength between the students and these uniforms were made to reduce the risk of injuries, on or off-campus.
Theodore had seen his fair share of fights, even after school. His body cultivation though meant that he usually ended up winning them.
Body cultivation was seen as unnecessarily difficult and many cultivators used spiritual energy methods that focused more on powerful attack methods instead.
While these methods still refined the body, it was not anywhere near the effort required by pure body cultivation methods.
Thanks to his attainments in body cultivation, his clothes were filled out nicely in all the right places.
Theodore stood almost two meters tall and his short, black hair and deep emerald eyes contrasted with the white academy uniform he was wearing.
When he was done changing, he looked at the obnoxious sphere on his bed and grabbed it, stuffing it into his jacket pocket.
Almost immediately he could hear the complaints gush forth:
"Hold on savage! Hey, we are talking to you. Where the f*** are you taking this little lord huh?!"
"Sigh... Mr. Duunim said that I should bring you with me to meet someone, probably his employer."
"..."
Theodore's answer shut up the small sphere immediately and he could feel a shiver running through it at the mention of Mr. Duunim's employer.
As he left his house and approached the luxury limousine a heart-rending cry came out of Theodore's coat pocket and it drew the attention of the onlooking neighbors and kids:
"Nooooo anything but that!! We don't want to go! Unhand me you barbarian!!"
The sphere started trying to escape his coat pocket but Theodore prevented its escape by slapping his hand over the pocket and holding down with all his might.
The jerky motion of the sphere kept throwing Theodore off balance and he almost fell over.
The gathered neighborhood kids had a blast at this and a few younger women had a chuckle at the sight.
Just as Theodore blushed hard and steadied himself, the doors of the limousine opened on their own.
Mr. Duunim sat in the back of the luxuriously decorated car on a black leather seat while sipping what appeared to be tea.
He looked up at Theodore and his awkward pose and simply shook his head.
"Have you two had enough yet?"
In response Theodore and the sphere both answered at the same time:
"He started it!!!"
"..."
"Look, children, I hope you will behave yourself more respectfully when we get to where we need to go. For your own sake."
"Now please get in and sit down, we have wasted a lot of time already."
Duunim was not wrong of course.
By the time Theodore and the sphere had entered the Luxury limousine, it had been ten full minutes and forty-five seconds.
Forty-five seconds was a truly long time for machine cultivators.