21. Discussion & Planning

Rakna rubbed his nose with an invisible frown as he stood on top of a tree.

“Am I supposed to say that someone is badmouthing me now?” He muttered and Pronos blinked in confusion from his spot in his scarf.

[I believe that is merely a superstition,] Alexa interjected and Rakna was mildly surprised.

“How interesting,” he casually said while jumping to another tree, all while inspecting the school grounds to his right. He was currently circling the school from one side while Dan was checking the other. He landed on a branch in a feral way that probably himself wasn’t aware he had used.

“Tell me, Alexa, what are you exactly?” He decided to chat with his virtual guide as he analyzed the goblins and eagles swarming the school.

[…As I have said previously, I am an Artificial Intelligence tasked to-]

“Spare me that.” She was quickly interrupted. “All right. In that case, answer this; are you an AI connected to a server or are you independent?”

[I do not understand your query.]

Rakna sighed and swiftly hid behind the tree he was on when a goblin turned his way. He did it with a calm and completely carefree expression. “Let me rephrase then. You stated that you were a personal AI, correct?”

[Affirmative.]

“Then, am I safe to assume that you only respond to me?”

[Yes.]

“Okay, so you should be able to tell me. Where does your source code reside? Inside my head or within an external server that people may be able to alter?”

This time, Alexa took some time to answer and Rakna patiently waited, still hopping from one tree to another.

[…I think I understand what you wish to know, Rakna.]

“Oh? Tell me.”

[You are worried that the System might have a way to monitor, spy, or harm you through me.]

“You’re half correct.”

[Half?]

“Answer my question first.”

[I am, as you put it, independent. Where I reside is, technically speaking, within your brain. I am connected to a server indeed. However, it’s a one-way road where I only receive information but not the opposite. For instance, Appraisal functions in a peer to peer setting where a request is sent to the server in order to verify the validity of the scan and see if the target of said appraisal is susceptible to it. If not, nothing is sent, if yes, the target will give you a result and not the server itself. Therefore, you do not need to worry about secrecy. The System forbids such things so that no Host can take advantage of it, unfairly, at least.]

“I see,” Rakna blandly responded and spotted Dan a few dozens of meters away from him. He made a hand sign in his direction and the spectacled teen scowled.

‘Rally point?’ He thought. ‘He even knows our hand signs…’ He was suspicious of Rakna’s identity but he felt that it wasn’t important in this situation. He turned around and made a circle with his index and thumb and flashed it over his shoulder; the regular military hand sign for ‘I understand’.

Rakna watched him go back from the way he came and he did the same shortly afterward. On the way back, Alexa spoke again, [Rakna, may I enquire why I was only half correct?]

If he could smile, Rakna probably would have done it at her words. What Alexa didn’t know was that this question of hers had consolidated his thoughts.

“The answer to that, Alexa, lies in what you just asked me.”

[…?]

“Also, feel free to speak whenever you want in the future,” he added. “If you ever believe that I’m doing something wrong, or if you ever think that there’s a better way, or even if you just want to join in the conversation for fun, do it.”

Even for a high-class AI like her, that was too much to interpret and she fell silent out of pure confusion. A minute later, just about when Rakna and Dan were going to reassemble with the others, she instead chose to retort about something her Host had said.

[I do not join conversations for fun.]

The corner of Rakna’s lips raised a little. If anyone he knew was there at that moment, no existing word would have been able to describe their shock.

“We’ll see, Alexa. We’ll see…”

* * *

Twenty minutes after they had left for their scouting, Rakna and Dan landed back where the rest of the group was.

“You’re back,” Leis stood up. “How did it go?”

The two scouts looked at each other and nodded as if they had an agreement. Dan stepped forward and started reporting what he had seen, “To be honest, there wasn’t a lot that was noteworthy. At least from the outside. First of all, the eagles seem to be… sleeping. They are scattered all over the roofs of the different buildings. As for the goblins, most of them seem to be resting but there are few groups that go out into the forest from time to time. I’d guess; to hunt or patrol.”

“But that’s not really important. The crucial part is that I spotted at least five hobgoblins like the one we fought earlier,” Dan added and Leia grimaced. She wasn’t the only one uncomfortable with the notion of fighting against five of those monsters. “What about you, Xiorra? Anything to add?”

Rakna closed his eyes from his seat next to Flavia and mused. “Your findings are basically the same as mine,” he said. “Though, that’s only for the outside.”

“What?” Dan was puzzled.

“From what I smelled, there aren’t a lot of goblins inside the buildings, but there are at least two more hobgoblins as well as an even stronger monster,” Rakna declared without missing a beat.

“Smelled… you say?” Leis made a weird expression.

Rakna nodded unperturbed. He pointed at his nose. “I can smell living things and the intensity of the smell is indicative of their strength. This ability is also a byproduct of my Nirvana Skill.”

“This skill of yours is confusing me more and more…” Allan uttered. “You extend your nails, control wolves, smell people… Are you turning into a werewolf or something?” He jested but the lack of reaction from Rakna made him sweat.

“In any case,” Rakna continued. “We have to plan this out. To start off, we need to decide if we just want to collect the souls we need or clear the entire area.”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Gantt said. “We just want to reach the quota. No need to take more risks.”

“Wait, Gantt, he raises a good point,” Leis raised his voice and his gang looked at him. “It certainly has its risks, but if we clear the area, we can both increase our level and gather a large number of souls. Regarding our level, I’m sure it will be a huge help to fight Aquila. As for the souls, remember that the mission prompt said we would receive a proportionate amount of Talys, as well as a title if one possesses the most souls. It has quite a lot of advantages.”

Gantt furrowed his eyebrows and looked down pensively. “It’s true that if you put it like that, it might be worth the risk.”

“So? What’s your choice?” Rakna asked again and Leis resolved himself.

“Okay, I’m in. Let’s clear them out.”

“Good, then let’s talk about the attack,” Rakna stated then started drawing something on the ground with a twig. In just a few seconds, he had drawn a very rough map of the school and their group’s relative position to it. He circled one of the buildings and opened his mouth, “The strong presence I smelled is in here. I would bet that it’s the goblins’ leader.”

“It’s a reasonable guess,” Dan commented. “But what do you want to do about it?”

“I’ll go kill it.”

“Wha…”

“I’ll go there alone and kill the leader. I’ll try to do it as fast as possible and attract the attention to me so that you can raid them while they’re distracted and in disarray. However, their number is nothing to scoff at. No matter how skilled all of you are, it will be hard to kill them all without casualties.”

“I assume you have a proposal for that?” Leis questioned.

Rakna nodded calmly. “After, or while I’m fighting the leader if it happens to be stronger than what I expected, you will rush in and concentrate your efforts into getting to the gymnasium before they swarm you. Once you occupy it, you will have the best terrain to retaliate. The gym only has two entrances and it’s easy for you to defend them. It’s also our best counter to the eagles. The roof of the gym is half composed of glass panels. Open them, and you can safely shoot them from there.”

Everyone was speechless. It did sound like it was the most effective strategy they had. Occupying the gym would render useless both the enemy’s numerical advantage as well as the eagles’ overwhelming airborne threat. But…

“But this plan has a big flaw,” Dan remarked. “Which is you. What if you can’t get their attention? Or what if the leader kills you? If that happens, there’s no way we can occupy the gym.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Rakna calmly responded and stood up. “I’m confident enough that I can flee if I have to. Additionally, let’s say that I have an army of my own. Though, the choice to follow this plan through is yours, Leis Walker.”

Leis closed his eyes and pondered. “All right. We’ll do as you said. But I will only go in when I’m sure that you have caught their attention. Otherwise, I’m sorry to say that I won’t do anything. We don’t have anything to lose here. You’re taking the most risk so I can’t complain.”

Rakna nodded and turned toward Flavia and Allan. “I can guess your answer but what about you two?”

“Obviously, I’m in,” Allan shrugged.

“I as well,” Flavia followed. “But I think that at least the two of us should go with you.”

Rakna shook his head. “No need. As I said, if I ever need to run, I can. But if I bring more people with me, it’s another story. I would have to cover you and things would get a lot harder.”

Flavia bit her lip and ultimately sighed with a lowered head. “Fine… But you better return to us alive.”

“No worry. I don’t intend to die any soon,” he stated and looked at everyone. “You all will enter from the front while I will infiltrate from the back. The timing for your entrance will probably be obvious enough but I believe it’ll be time in about twenty minutes. Clear?”

Leis snorted and he and his gang replied with one word; ““Roger!””

AhraManyu

Huge foreshadowing in this chap.