Wizard: Building a Golem Legion From Zero-Chapter 54 - 52: The Self-Cultivation of a Hands-off Boss
In a spacious public practice room, Allen had just finished his last personally taught lesson for the Basic Rune Mutual Aid Group.
The apprentices, still wanting more, dispersed in twos and threes, fervently discussing the "multi-node resonance" technique Allen had just explained. Everyone’s face shone with the satisfaction of what they had learned.
Vera and Colin didn’t leave. They stayed behind of their own accord, skillfully tidying up the tables and chairs and wiping clean the stone teaching slate Allen had used.
"Allen, that lecture was amazing,"
Vera said, clutching a few books, her face full of admiration. "I feel like a few things I could never figure out before just suddenly clicked."
Colin nodded vigorously beside her, chiming in, "Yeah, yeah! It was way clearer than the academy professors. Those guys just read straight from the textbook."
Allen looked at them. Two months had passed, and they were no longer as thin and timid as when he first met them.
A steady income allowed them to eat their fill and dress warmly, and they even dared to purchase some basic cultivation materials. Their whole demeanor had been transformed.
"From now on, I won’t be coming around as often," Allen said suddenly.
"Huh?" Vera’s hands froze. She looked up, her eyes filled with shock and confusion. "Why? Isn’t the Mutual Aid Group doing great?"
Colin got anxious too, stammering, "I-Is it something we did wrong? Or is someone giving you trouble?"
Allen waved his hand, signaling for them to calm down.
He pulled over a chair and sat down, then pointed to the seats opposite him.
"Sit. There’s something I need to tell you."
The two exchanged a glance and sat down nervously, like two elementary schoolers waiting to be lectured by their teacher.
"The model for the Mutual Aid Group is already established. I can’t keep spending all my energy on repetitive teaching work."
Allen spoke slowly, but each word was clear. "I’ve already been promoted to Advanced Apprentice and have more important things to do. So, I plan to outsource the teaching."
"Outsource?" Vera had clearly never heard the term before.
"Simply put, I’m going to hire people to teach in my place."
Allen explained, "You two will be in charge of the Mutual Aid Group’s daily management from now on—things like recruitment, collecting fees, scheduling classes, handling student leave requests, and other miscellaneous tasks."
He looked at Vera and Colin and continued, "It won’t be easy work, but in return, you’ll each receive a monthly salary of thirty Low-Level Magic Stones."
"Thirty?!" Colin nearly leaped out of his chair, his eyes wide as saucers.
Thirty Magic Stones! He used to work himself to the bone for an entire afternoon at Hansen Potion Shop just to earn half a Magic Stone.
’And now I can earn thirty in a single month?’
Vera was also stunned by the number. She could hardly believe her ears.
She stammered, "Allen, this... this is too much... We’re just doing miscellaneous chores..."
"It’s not."
Allen’s tone was indisputable. "You’re taking on management responsibilities, so you deserve the corresponding reward. Besides, I don’t want my managers to have to worry about their daily bread or Meditation incense."
His gaze swept over the two of them, and the authority contained within his calm demeanor made Vera and Colin subconsciously sit up straight.
"Your job is to ensure the Mutual Aid Group runs smoothly and turn it into a machine that can continuously generate value. Understand?"
"Y-Yes, sir!" Colin nodded emphatically, his face flushing with excitement. He felt like his blood was boiling.
Vera nodded vigorously as well. She knew this wasn’t just a job, but a profound demonstration of trust.
Allen was very satisfied with their reaction. He needed loyal and efficient subordinates, not partners.
Vera and Colin came from ordinary backgrounds, had simple personalities, and held enough reverence for him, making them the most suitable candidates at this stage.
"Alright, go and get these people."
Allen took a list from his pocket and handed it to Colin. "Just say that Allen Wesren wants to discuss some business with them."
Colin took the list. Four names were written on it.
He recognized two of them; they were junior apprentices who used to bury their heads in books in the library and took exceptionally good notes.
"Okay, I’m on it!" Colin clutched the list as if he’d received a royal decree and dashed out like a gust of wind.
Only Allen and Vera were left in the practice room.
For a moment, the atmosphere grew quiet. Vera looked at Allen, feeling that the person before her was both familiar and strange.
He was still the same handsome youth, but he carried the air of a strategist in complete control, like an Official Wizard.
"Allen," Vera asked in a small voice, "will you... still guide our training in the future?"
Allen glanced at her. ’This girl’s talent is among the best I’ve ever seen. She can almost resonate with Magic Power. As long as she keeps up with her studies, she’ll definitely become an Advanced Apprentice.’
"If you hit a bottleneck, you can come find me anytime,"
he replied. "Also, this is for you two."
He took two small Crystal Bottles from his storage pouch and handed them to Vera.
The bottles contained a pale blue liquid that shimmered with a captivating luster in the light.
"This is a diluted version of a ’Magic Power Affinity Potion’,"
Allen explained, "It can help you better sense the tides of Magic Power, which will be beneficial for your Meditation right now."
Vera numbly took the bottles, which were cool to the touch.
She knew of this potion. The academy store sold it, and a tiny bottle cost over twenty Magic Stones—something she would never dare to dream of affording.
"This... It’s too valuable..."
"Just take it."
"Consider it an advance on your bonus. I need you to grow stronger as quickly as possible. In the future, I might have more important things for you to do."
Vera clutched the Crystal Bottles tightly, a warmth spreading through her heart. Her eyes started to sting.
She nodded firmly. "Mhm! I definitely won’t let you down!"
Half an hour later, Colin returned with four apprentices, each with a different expression.
These four were the "specialized talents" Allen had screened and selected through DSeek back when he put out a bounty for notes.
Their overall strength might not be top-tier, but in their respective areas of expertise, they possessed a depth far beyond that of ordinary apprentices.
The one in the lead was a third-year apprentice named Ben Hart. He had a somewhat pale complexion and wore a pair of thick glasses, looking like a total bookworm.
He specialized in ’Magic Material Research’. The notes he had submitted back then were exceptionally organized and even included analysis of his own failed experiments, which had left a deep impression on Allen.
Of the other three, one specialized in ’Basic Potioneering’, one was an expert in ’Magical Creature Studies’, and the last was an avid enthusiast of ’Astrology and Divination’.
"Senior Wesren," Ben Hart said, pushing up his glasses, his tone laced with a scholar’s precision and a hint of caution. "Why exactly did you summon us?"
They had all heard about Allen’s miracle of "perfect scores in fourteen subjects." Toward this suddenly risen "Academic God," they felt a mix of reverence, curiosity, and confusion.
Allen didn’t beat around the bush. "I want to hire you to be instructors for the ’Learning Mutual Aid Group’."
"What?" The four of them stared at each other, all thinking they had misheard.
’Let someone else teach the group that was legendarily taught by "God Ai" himself?’ 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞
’Isn’t that just ruining his own reputation?’
As if reading their minds, Allen unhurriedly took out a thick stack of documents from his storage pouch and distributed them.
"These are the teaching materials I’ve compiled."
Ben Hart took the set of lecture notes on ’Magic Material Research’. He had only flipped through two pages when his expression changed drastically.
His breathing grew ragged, and his fingers turned white from gripping the pages too tightly.
"This... this is impossible..."
he muttered to himself, his eyes behind his lenses filled with shock. "’The Paradox of Ironwood Toughening’... You actually solved it using ’Reverse Energy Permeation’? Heavens, this line of thinking... Why have I never seen this in any textbook!"
The others also began flipping through the materials for their respective subjects, their expressions shifting from confusion to surprise, and finally, to utter reverence.
The teaching materials Allen had provided were completely beyond their comprehension.
They started from the most fundamental logic, deconstructing and reorganizing the entire knowledge system.
They contained countless ingenious concepts, highly efficient learning paths, and even several corrections to errors in the academy’s own textbooks!
’This isn’t a textbook; this is the official answer key, the holy bible to achieving high scores!’
"Your job is to teach according to the content of these materials. Each of you will be responsible for three to four courses."
Allen’s voice rang out again. "For every course, I will provide a complete syllabus, analysis of key concepts and difficult points, post-class exercises, and the standard answers. You just need to play the part of a ’repeater’."
"Of course, you can also add your own understanding and examples within my framework,"
Allen added. "If you teach well and receive positive feedback from the students, there will be an additional bonus."
He paused, then played his final card.
"The salary is fifty Low-Level Magic Stones per person, per month."
GULP.
Someone couldn’t help but swallow hard.
Fifty Magic Stones a month! For junior apprentices like them, who were still struggling for cultivation resources, this was an absolute windfall!
And the job was simply to teach using the "holy bible"!
"Furthermore," Allen’s gaze swept over them, "as my instructors, you can ask me about any problem in the teaching materials at any time. Believe me, you’ll gain far more from this than from auditing any professor’s lecture."
That sentence completely shattered their last line of defense.
’Getting a high salary and receiving personal guidance from the "Academic God"—where else could you find a deal this good?’
"I’ll do it!" Ben Hart was the first to declare. He adjusted his glasses, his face red with excitement. "Boss Allen! It’s my honor to work for you!"
With the first one on board, the remaining three scrambled to agree, afraid that Allen would change his mind.
Allen nodded in satisfaction and signaled for Vera to take out the Magic Contracts that had been prepared in advance.
As he watched the four sign their names on the contracts, Allen let out a soft breath.
His investment was the organization of some basic knowledge from the DSeek database and a monthly expenditure of 260 Magic Stones.
Meanwhile, his Mutual Aid Group, at full capacity with fifty members, brought in a monthly income of 750 Magic Stones.
After expenses, he could still clear a net profit of nearly 500 a month, and that didn’t even include his cut from the potions.
More importantly, he had completely freed himself from the tedious work of teaching, allowing him to devote all his energy to his own cultivation and studies.
Not only had he become a hands-off boss, but he had also incidentally acquired four "technical experts" with considerable achievements in their fields and two loyal "administrative assistants."
These people had the potential to become the first levers he would use to gain even greater benefits in the future.
After settling everything, Allen left the practice room.
Instead of returning to his dorm, he planned to head to the Apprentice Trading Market.
As Allen’s figure disappeared at the end of the hallway, he had no idea that on the academy forums the next day, the change in the Mutual Aid Group’s main instructor would once again spark a heated debate.
These junior apprentices, in their teens, were still young and impressionable. Weighed down by heavy coursework and lacking life experience, their greatest daily pleasure was gathering on the forums for some high-intensity gossip.
[SHOCKER! God Ai Retreats Behind the Scenes, Hires an Instructor Team for a High Salary! Fifty Magic Stones a Month, Can You Believe It?!]
[What am I seeing? Ben Hart? That library bookworm is a teacher for God Ai’s group now?]
[Fifty Magic Stones... I fucking work my ass off just to make thirty! God Ai, you still need cleaners? The kind that can read!]
[Wake up, guy above me! You think God Ai is just burning money? This is called letting the professionals handle professional work!]
[The more I think about it, the scarier it gets... God Ai is the boss, hiring people to work for him, and he’s just raking in the cash while lying down. And we’re still here studying our asses off! Just how does his brain work?]
Amidst the endless discussions, the name Allen Wesren was no longer just a synonym for "Academic God."
In the hearts of many apprentices, this fifteen-year-old Advanced Apprentice had quietly taken on a far more mysterious and powerful aura.
