Now that Alwin had somehow managed to implement a key part of the scouting skill—seeing—it was time for Niwla to tackle the other aspects.

  The scouting agents needed to be autonomous, capable of making independent actions to achieve their goal. But how would he accomplish that? Like many complex problems, decomposing them into smaller, more manageable subtasks made figuring out a solution much easier.

  Using the visual data they received, they would have to respond to any changes in the environment. An example of this would be if a cultivator were to suddenly enter their field of vision, the agent would need to react to this. However, just because they reacted didn’t mean it was the right reaction. They could react by moving forward into the path of the cultivator, which would spell bad news.

  Thus, the agents would need to think in a way that worked toward the goals set out for them. In this case, it would be to keep out of sight and scout out as much area as possible. They had to be proactive.

  However, this thinking was limited. It was under the assumption that there would be only one scouting agent out in the environment. The plan was for as many scouting agents that Niwla could feasibly produce. It would make zero sense for one scout to map out an area only for a second scout to map out the exact same area again. That would be a waste of time and resources.

  Therefore, these agents needed to communicate with each other. They had to let each other know which areas had been mapped out, while also informing about potential threats to look out for.

  In other words, when designing these scouting agents, they needed to be reactive, proactive, and social. Sure, having these designs in mind was helpful, but how would he actually implement them?

  Niwla's eyes shifted toward Alwin, who had a huge grin on his face, still overjoyed from his earlier accomplishment.

  "Alwin?" Niwla said.

  "Yes, Mr-not-working-hard-enough?" Alwin teased, while doing his signature victory dance—a jiggle to the left, a jiggle to the right.

  Niwla rolled his eyes and ignored the insult. Instead, he dumped the full list of requirements that he had thought up on the dancing slime.

  Nods and a couple of 'uh-huhs' punctuated the air as Alwin's vigorous dancing slowed to a crawl, until he was as still as a statue.

  With the last of the requirements read aloud, Niwla looked at Alwin with an expectant look on his face. Surely, he could come up with something so nonsensical it could turn nonsense into non-nonsense, which effectively made it make sense. This was Alwin we were talking about.

  "So?" Niwla asked.

  Alwin's mouth hung open. No sound came out.

  "Hello?" Niwla asked again.

  "I think you broke him," the Mental Hands signed out on behalf of Winal. "You info-dumped on him too hard."

  "Darn it." Niwla clicked his tongue.

  "I do have some ideas in mind. Give me some time."

  The Mental Hands zipped back into position on the throne of hands before they all carried Winal into a deeper part of the Core. Niwla was now stuck with an Alwin whose mouth was so wide open, drool dripped out. At least it was better than listening to him scream.

  While Winal was hopefully coming up with a solution, Niwla would tackle another one of the problems—distance.

  When spells were created, they held a certain amount of Mana that allowed them to maintain their properties and form. Once this reserve of Mana ran out, they simply dissipated into nothingness. However, as long as the spells were within a certain distance of the Core, their Mana could be replenished, keeping them active.

  The same principle—distance—could be said about how Spirit Hands and Feet could receive commands and instructions from them. These were done in the form of Mana Waves that were tuned to a specific frequency. However, they also had a set distance from the Core. Stray too far and they’d stop responding entirely.

  Even though Niwla knew these facts, he didn't know how to address them. He let out a groan of frustration. If only Alwin had hit the books more than he hit his bed, there could've been more Magical Theory within that shared brain of theirs for him to reference.

  Alas, he could come up with nothing.

  It was just in time, too, for Winal had returned upon his Throne of Hands. Following along was another pair of Mental Hands that was carrying a chunky black box, with a display that was switched off.

  A pair detached from the throne and began interpreting for Winal.

  "I have come up with a way to handle whatever you mentioned earlier." All of the Mental Hands under Winal's control pointed at the black box. “This device will receive visual input data from the scouting agent, process it, and send back instructions for the scouting agent to execute. I call it a Core Processing Unit or a CPU for short."

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  "Incredible," Niwla said. "You actually managed to implement everything that I mentioned?"

  "Theoretically, yes. This is still only a prototype. There are many issues that need to be taken care of before it can be used in the field."

  "Still, that is amazing. I would love to see it in action."

  The Mental Hands gave a thumbs up before fiddling about with the black box. They jabbed, prodded, and probed it till the display suddenly flickered to life.

  Displayed on the screen was Niwla, Alwin still with his mouth hanging open, and Winal on his Throne of Hands, seated beside the CPU. They were viewing the live feed from the scouting agent that Alwin had helped set up.

  "Not bad. How about the intelligence part?"

  Winal gave a nod, and another pair of Mental Hands detached from the throne. They floated toward the scouting agent till they could be seen on the CPU. Immediately, numbers and flashing lights lit up on the display. Instructions popped up, telling the scout to hide and seek cover.

  Even more numbers and flashing lights popped up as it scanned the immediate area for appropriate hiding spots. But all that was in front of it was a huge expanse of Mana. So, the CPU instructed the agent to turn.

  However, nothing happened. The scout remained still while the CPU continued to bark out flashing lights, numbers, and repeated instructions.

  "What's going on?" Niwla asked.

  "It seems that instructions are being sent, but the scout is unable to process them. Very peculiar," the Mental Hands signed out on behalf of Winal.

  "Do you know how to fix it?"

  "I know!" Alwin suddenly shouted, his jaw finally moving, sending droplets of drool flinging everywhere.

  Niwla still had his reservations, but since Alwin was Alwin, he might just be able to solve it.

  "Go on then," Niwla said.

  Alwin moved up to the opened up Spirit Blast—the shell of their prototype scouting skill—while a pair of his Mental Hands floated off somewhere. They returned moments later with chunks of wet Mana Clay that they had scrounged up from the bottom of the Mana Pool.

  The Mental Hands began to mold and shape the clay as Alwin supervised. He gave them directions on how to push it out, pull it apart, and mold it into whatever shape he wanted it to take. Soon enough, the lump of clay had become a wrinkly oval, almost like a walnut, except a lot squishier. They then slotted it into the opened up Spirit Blast and closed the lid.

  Almost immediately, the scouting agent began to spin and turn around. The CPU's display changed to reflect this behavior with even more numbers and flashing lights as it analyzed the brand-new visual data it was receiving. Finally, it had found a suitable location for the scout to hide—behind Winal's Throne of Hands.

  The scout began to move toward the hiding spot. It did so not by floating, but by rolling. The display went from Winal's huge throne, to blackness, to the top of the Core, and back to Winal before it finally reached the throne. More instructions popped up as the scout was forced to lay eyes on the ‘enemy’ Mental Hands it had just ran away from, waiting for the coast to be clear before resuming its objective.

  "What did you do, Alwin?" Niwla asked, surprised, yet at the same time not really, that whatever he did actually worked.

  "Oh, that's easy," Alwin said. "That little eyeball thingy couldn't understand the instructions because its brain wasn't big enough. So I made it a brand new, bigger brain."

  "That's..." Niwla didn't know how to understand such a concept. The Spirit Hands and Feet weren't explicitly fitted with brains either, yet they could follow simple instructions and even think on their own. It didn't really make much sense to him. Perhaps Alwin's unique Mana shaping abilities imbued the Spirit Hands and Feet with more power than originally expected.

  "You know what? As long as it works," Niwla said.

  And it was working!

  The scout was able to see what was in front of it, react to the environment based on it, and also transmit that information back to them. However, were they truly autonomous? The processing was being handled Core side rather than agent side. At the scale Niwla was aiming for, this could place a tremendous amount of strain on them.

  "Winal, from what I understand, all of the decision-making happens inside of the Core. But we need a lot of scouting agents. Would the CPU be able to handle it? Or do you think it's possible to shift the processing into the skills themselves, now that they have a brain?"

  The Mental Hands began interpreting for Winal again. "It is theoretically possible to shift the processing from the CPU to the scouting agent, but that is not something I can do. Like I mentioned before, my expertise lies in creating constructs to aid with the Mana shaping process, not the Mana shaping itself."

  "Well, good thing for us, Alwin seems to be a master at manipulating Mana."

  "I am?" Alwin said, surprised by the sudden compliment. But he quickly changed his tune. "I mean. Of course, I am!"

  "Good," Niwla said. "You go help Winal."

  "Roger, roger!" Alwin said as he jumped up onto the Throne with Winal.

  A pair of Mental Hands detached from the Throne and promptly slapped Alwin off. He yelped in pain, only for the same pair of hands to pick him up and toss him at the scouting agent, which had begun wandering off to scout the area.

  While they handled that, Winal did a little bit more brainstorming. He still needed to address the Mana storage problem.

  Maybe Alwin could create some sort of extra Mana reserve within the skill, but would that be enough? At the tiny sizes they were supposed to operate at, would that little bit of extra Mana last long enough for them to fully explore the entire area?

  Then, Winal had an epiphany.

  What if a small subset of scouts were used as portable batteries? They would move towards scouts that were low on Mana, share with them their charge, then come back to Niwla for a refill, and repeat the whole process again. That way, they could keep going for as long as possible.

  It was borderline—no, it was genius.

  Now, he just had to let Winal and Alwin know about the extra parameters to be added.

  Coincidentally enough, both of them were on the way back. Winal had a blank look on his face, while Alwin had a sheepish smile that said, 'It wasn't my fault."

  In the palms of the accompanying Mental Hands was the prototype scouting skill. It was smoking.