Within their shared Core, Niwla met Alwin and Winal. Alwin was running around in circles, shrieking like a banshee. Meanwhile, Winal was being a productive member of society, putting on the finishing touches of their re-rebuilt mini-factory (that’s a mini-factory that had been rebuilt twice.)

  Using a pair of summoned Mental Hands, Winal caught Alwin mid-run. That did little to shut his trap and instead made him yell even louder as they brought him toward Niwla.

  "Would you stop your screaming!" Niwla shouted.

  Alwin paused his screams to reply. "We got kidnapped and now we're stuck in a cage. What else am I supposed to do?" Then, he resumed his frantic screams, much to the vexation of Niwla.

  "Maybe you could, y'know. Come up with a plan to get out of here?"

  Once again, Alwin stopped screaming.

  "Isn't that your job? You do all the brainy stuff, Winal does all the labor stuff, and I do all the panicking for both of you."

  "Yeah, that's not how any of that works."

  "Says who?"

  "Says me. Now, if you're not going to be helpful, then keep your mouth shut."

  "Fine! Be that way." Alwin pouted.

  Alwin had his mouth sealed shut, just like Niwla wanted. However, that didn't stop the kid from screaming. With his lips clamped tight, he began to let out a muffled, high-pitched scream that somehow managed to be even more annoying..

  Niwla didn't have time to deal with Alwin's nonsense, so he did what he should've done from the start—walk away. He moved away from Alwin, toward Winal, who sat on his throne of Mental Hands.

  "Hey, Winal. After you're done putting the mini-factory back together, do you think you could help me with something? I'm trying to come up with a scouting skill, and, well, two heads are better than one. What do you say?"

  Winal didn't say anything. Instead, all of the Mental Hands that formed his throne simultaneously gave a thumbs up.

  "Thanks. At least someone’s being helpful." Niwla shot a glare at the still screaming Alwin, who had his mouth shut.

  "I'll try to come up with some designs before I consult you on how we can put it together."

  Niwla moved himself further into the Core, past the giant DIY Freezer, past the Oven-ception that Alwin had created, and past the Mental Hand powered Conveyor Belt, and most importantly, past the ever-screaming Alwin.

  Now that his ears weren’t being bombarded by sonic attacks, he could begin brainstorming about the scouting skill.

  The skill required a specific set of parameters in order to be effective as a scouting agent. First, it had to be truly independent, unlike the Spirit Hands and Spirit Feet.

  While those two Spirit appendages were able to demonstrate some form of agency, most of the time they relied on instructions given to them, whether they be conscious or subconscious. These scouting agents had to be able to move on their own to collect information, without relying on any commands given by either him, Winal, or, worst case, Alwin.

  They had to be intelligent agents, capable of autonomous action in the environment, in order to meet their delegated objectives.

  Second, they had to be small enough not to be noticeable by any unsuspecting cultivators.

  Third, they needed a lot of them in order to effectively map out their surroundings. Thus, each individual scouting agent needed to have a minimal load on the main body.

  There was a reason why they could only have up to either eight pairs of Spirit Hands or Spirit Feet at a time. Each pair placed a strain on the body. Therefore, each individual scouting agent needed to have as small a footprint as possible to allow for large-scale deployment.

  Fourth, range. The farther they could operate without fizzling out or breaking connection from the Core, the better.

  Fifth, these scouts had to relay the information back to him in a timely manner. Real-time updates would be the most ideal.

  These five factors were non-negotiable. Each one needed to function reliably before he could launch them out into the sect. It was going to be a tall order, designing such a complex skill from the ground up with minimal resources available.

  If only there were a library in here, it would've made things so much easier. Or if only Alwin had spent more time stockpiling skills and knowledge instead of goofing off and coming up with variations of the standard Spirit Blast, maybe things wouldn't have ended up this way.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  However, now was no time to dwell on the past. He was the opposite of Alwin. Niwla was going to correct Alwin's mistakes.

  He started with something basic. The form factor of the skill. In the prototyping phase, it would be best to work with something simple. Something that they had worked with the most. It was something spherical.

  He went back and grabbed a Spirit Blast that had been recently completed and cracked it open. For now, he'd try to make do with modifying a Spirit Blast to serve as a temporary vessel. It would house the core components of the scouting agent. Afterwards, he'd worry about scaling it down.

  The Spirit Hands and Feet couldn't exactly see the world, they only had a rough sense of it—primarily using the caster's vision to aid them. That was one of the reasons why he could only have so many of them up at once, each one placed a cognitive load on them that piled up.

  These scouts had to be able to perceive the world without relying on the caster. He needed to fit the scout with some sort of camera to record visual data. But therein lies the problem. Niwla didn't know how to fashion a recording device out of Mana. Mental items could only shape and manipulate Mana, but only Nana was allowed to leave the Core and materialize in the real world.

  If he couldn't do it, then Winal might have a shot at it.

  Niwla made his way back to Winal, who had just completed re-rebuilding their mini-factory. Unfortunately, next to Winal was Alwin, who happened to still be screaming. Fortunately, Winal was teaching Alwin a lesson.

  Winal’s Mental Handsl had Alwin in their grasp. One covered his mouth, while two more slapped his cute little cheeks silly as punishment for being such a menace, instead of contributing. That sight put a smile on Niwla's face.

  Back to business.

  "Winal, I'm creating a scouting skill that will help us get out of here." Niwla showed off the Spirit Blast with its top off, via his own Mental Hands. "It needs to be able to 'see', if you get what I mean. Do you happen to know how to create some sort of recording device using Mana?"

  A pair of Mental Hands detached from the throne and floated up to Niwla. They began to converse, Winal's response to Niwla via sign language.

  "No."

  That was a huge blow to his plans, but the Mental Hands weren't finished yet.

  "My expertise lies within creating objects inside the Core to help shape Mana into Skills. The most I am able to do is create a Mental Camera to act as a reference. I am unable to assist in producing such a device using Mana."

  It was disappointing. Here, he thought Winal would be able to save the day. This scouting skill creation was going to take a lot longer than he had anticipated.

  Alwin—who was still being slapped silly—bit down on the Mental Hand that gagged him. Startled, the Mental Hand jerked back, uncovering the leaking hole of word vomit that was his mouth.

  However, instead of screams, coherent words actually came out.

  "I know how to make it see!" Alwin proudly declared.

  Niwla had his reservations about the matter, simply because Alwin was Alwin. But because Alwin was Alwin, he might be able to come up with a method that Niwla couldn't think up—simply because Alwin's logic was so irrational it looped around to a strange, borderline-genius kind of rational.

  "Go ahead," Niwla said, passing the opened up Spirit Blast to Alwin.

  Winal commanded his own Mental Hands to let Alwin go, dropping him onto the floor. His body squished and bounced back up like jelly.

  Alwin summoned out a pair of his own Mental Hands. Alongside it, a brush and a palette popped into existence as well.

  Niwla watched with raised eyebrows as one hand held onto the palette while the other dipped the brush into the Mana Pool. Winal stared with that characteristic blank look of his, observing what Alwin was up to.

  Under Alwin's orders, the Mental Hands began painting. They dipped the brush into the Mana Pool, then palette, before they touched it to the surface of the sphere. Stroke by stroke, they painted with uncanny focus.

  Soon enough, they were done.

  "Ta-da!" announced proudly.

  The Mental Hands rotated the sphere so that Niwla could get a good look at their masterpiece. A white circle, with a smaller black circle contained within. They had painted an eye onto the shell of the Spirit Blast.

  "What is this supposed to be?" Niwla asked, already regretting letting Alwin work on something so crucial.

  "You said you needed the skill to see. Eyes can see. Therefore, I helped turn it into an eye. Now, it should be able to see."

  "Alwin, you know that's not how it works. There are so many complex processes behind the visual system. Simply painting a crude image of an eyeball won't make it spontaneously ‘see’."

  "Of course it will," Alwin said. "Watch and learn, boyo."

  Alwin got even more pairs of Mental Hands out. Without any warning, they slapped themselves over Niwla’s and Winal’s eyes.

  "Hey! What are you doing?" Niwla shouted.

  "Relax and just focus. It's like how you communicate with the Spirit Hands and Feet," Alwin said.

  Niwla let out a sigh and gave in to Alwin's farce. The sooner he proved that Alwin was wrong, the faster he could go back to actually solving the problem.

  He focused on the crudely painted sphere, as if it were one of the Spirit Appendages. Niwla could sense that it was emitting a signal as if it were a Spirit Hand or Feet. It was faint, but he honed in on that signal. What he saw shocked him.

  Niwla saw… himself.

  "Oh my Cor!" Niwla shouted. "You actually did it? How?"

  "It's like I said. Eyes can see. So, I just turned that ball you brought over into an eyeball. So, now it can see."

  "But that doesn't make sense. There are so many things that make up the optic system. Nerves, retina, macula, and so much more. All you did was paint two circles. How is it even transmitting the visual data?"

  "I don't know." Alwin shrugged. "I just know that eyes can see. I also know that eyes send information to the brain. Our Core is basically the brain of this whole operation. So, it sends whatever it can see back here. It's really simple, I don't get why you're trying to complicate everything."

  "There are so many things wrong with that statement." Niwla paused, then sighed. "You know what? Never mind. Let's continue building this scouting skill. Together."