Casual Info Dumping

"Are you sure this is fine?" Curtis asked with slight worry when he saw Aubrey walk out with armor and her bow.

It wasn’t just him, most of the people there had varying degrees of concern. Only Xander seemed more intrigued than anything else.

"Wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t sure." Aubrey just shrugged.

For context, the next phase of the plan was this. Using the specific openings Curtis had intentionally left open for the ants to pass through, a special strike team—which consisted of the Lunatics and Xander’s squad—would move in and eliminate the ants that came through whichever opening swiftly.

They’d move in, kill the first set of targets, then move to the next location. Moreover, under Aubrey’s instructions, Curtis had done it on such a way where each opening was easy to reach, so they wouldn’t spend too much time moving around and risk allowing ants to pour out from one side due to being left alone.

So how did this affect Aubrey?

Well, ever since the changes brought to her mana pool happened, while her perception had undergone qualitative changes, the problem was that the sensory load made it difficult for her to do anything other than acting how she did earlier, that was acquiring information across the battlefield and relaying it.

In short, she couldn’t fight.

So much of the worry stemmed from this knowledge. On top of that, the higher-ups and the captain weren’t very keen on letting her participate as, at the moment, she was simply an invaluable asset on the battlefield. Her timely observations made many things possible, so the idea of her engaging in direct combat didn’t sit well with them, as losing her would be extremely problematic.

But she had insisted that she would be fine. She also explained that if she got closer to the frontline, she would be able to observe much more and relay the resulting information. So after a bit of back and forth, they finally relented.

’Your confidence tells me you managed to figure out a workaround to your processing issue.’ Xander hummed telepathically as the group sat around a campfire in one of the abandoned outposts.

Aubrey glanced at him and smirked imperceptibly.

’Let’s just say the ants were very... inspiring.’ With that said, she gave him a deep look, and Xander suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

’Uh, what is it?’ He asked, and after a moment, Aubrey just shook her head.

’Nothing, don’t worry about it.’ Then she spoke aloud, her head turning in the direction of the catacombs. Indeed, now that she had gotten closer, her perception allowed her to peer in much deeper than before. Not yet close enough to ’look’ directly inside one of the caverns where a queen was, but enough to let her observe their activity with much more clarity.

"They’re gathering again. In the next 20 minutes or so." Everyone paused, then Sparrow, who had been sharpening her swords, asked.

"Is there anything we should look out for this time?" At that, Aubrey answered almost immediately.

"Beyond the usual, there are several groups of those ranged ants from before. There are also two more variants. One of them is also an airborne type, while the second is ground based. The first seems to be a specialized swarm that moves in groups. Individually, they aren’t much, but when together, they can create barriers that can reflect ranged magic to a certain extent. This seems to be the adaptation made to defend against our magic artillery.

The second, ground variants, are especially large and robust, with each one possessing particularly sturdy defenses, and their heads have been altered to allow for easier digging through the earth. They are almost like tanks, and they most likely are the queens’ response to use using earth reinforcement magic to stop them from directly burrowing through the ground." When she said this, the group was just about to start discussing countermeasures when she continued.

"The first group of new variants contains an ant that behaves like a linchpin, allowing for the barrier to have a sustainable foundation. It’s susceptible to most magical attacks but is extremely nimble, making it difficult to hit and pin down, but it cannot stray too far away from the other ants of this caste. Its size is 3.4 meters long and 1.1 meters thick. It’s prone to moving erratically in order to remain unpredictable and hard to hit, but in doing so inadvertently creates a pattern than makes it predictable once more. There are twenty groups of this new caste, with each one being made up of 50 ants, and the effective range of their barrier is 200 meters across." Everyone blinked, unable to react immediately, but even then, Aubrey just calmly adjusted her goggles and plucked at the string of her bow, unbothered.

"As for the second variant, there are 5 of them in total. Each one is nearly 90 meters long and 30 wide. Their chittin is 3 meters thick at its thinnest at 7 at its thickest, and they possess a special organ that allows them to spew out a type of flames that are both sticky are difficult to remove, as well as hotter than usual. They also possess a certain level of regeneration, and have two sets of brains for each half of their body, making them harder to kill. But there is a congregation of nerves near the back middle of their torso that will effectively paralyze them if struck. To do so, an attack of penetrating nature with a speed of..." As she calmly rattled off information the group had been thinking they would need to fight intensely to obtain.

And the thing is that she didn’t even look like she was straining or trying too hard. Her voice was calm and casual, almost conversational. Like she wasn’t just calmly stating the traits and weaknesses of the ant variants the queens had no doubt gone through quite a lot of effort creating.

She even explained the specific points where they were likely to emerge, how they would synergies with the rest of the ants, and the impact their presence would have depending on how freely they were allowed to reign.

All within the span of about 5 minutes.

By the time she finished, everyone just stared at her. Even the usually silent and collected Zeke had to pause, his brows raised to his hairline.

’... Since when were your observations THAT accurate and specific?’ Falael gave Aubrey a look, and she adjusted her goggles again as they glinted in the light.

’Since a few hours ago.’ Xander blinked and suddenly thought of something.

’... Did you manage to read the first page of that book?’ Hearing this, Aubrey just smiled slightly.

Within her mana pool in the incomplete library, several ’Aubreys’, that she began to call "Information Clones", moved about. Their numbers having risen from just one to 10.

Each one bore the immense load that was the information Aubrey regularly received both from the outside world. So not only did she no longer endure that burden, her mind was practically free. What’s more, these clones both processed the raw data she constantly perceived and filed it away to be used later, while also deciphering the swathes of information that swirled inside her prism.

In just a few short hours, the library had become something of a sustained system, and the previously bare bookshelves were slowly getting filled with books containing all sorts of information.

And in the center of this, the leatherbound book with the golden title was flipped to its first page, the words that had previously been incomprehensible to Aubrey now arranged neatly for her to read.

After she created the first Information Clone, she seemed to have completed some sort of prerequisite, and the book finally allowed itself to be read.

When she grasped the content that had been made available to her, Aubrey’s abilities immediately underwent a subtle but profound change.

The book itself was a sort of "Recognition" or "Identification". As someone who had managed to interact with the Information River and survive, she had passed the preliminary "trial" which allowed the book to form inside her mana pool.

However, she hadn’t been able to use it yet because she still fell short in certain areas, and she needed to overcome specific hidden conditions to gain more and more access to the book. Her creation of the first Information Clone was that first step.

The book wasn’t sentient, but rather, it operated on a specific set of rules and directives, like a construct. Her creation of the Clone essentially pinged a "Green Flag" in the "System", granting her preliminary "Authority", and therefore initial access to its contents.

When this happened, and Aubrey read the first page, her mind was filled with the corresponding information concerning the changes brought about by this discovery.

There were a few, but the one among them that caused Aubrey’s observations to be so precise like they had been just now was something called the "Ledger of Certainty".

Essentially, when she observed something, rather than having to manually switch between ’visions’, with her clones in the background processing the information, she could receive a summary of a target’s existence and general condition with a glance. Letting her know things like its weight, mass, temperature, and so on.

The surreal thing was that the book technically hadn’t given her any sort of new ’ability’. Rather, it seemed to help her refine what she already had, building off her experience to create a beneficial result.

Which brings us to the current situation.

"... Well, that was helpful." Xander stood and stretched. That earned him some looks, and he just shrugged.

"We just got handed key information on a platter. I don’t know about you, but I intend to exploit the hell out of it." That caused Sparrow to scoff, but she didn’t disagree.

"Y’all are insane." She shook her head and stood, the rest following suit.

"Are you guys the ones with the title of "Lunatics"?" Falael retorted.

"Two things can be true at once." Bodhi shrugged, drawing his sword.

"Enough yapping. Let’s get the killing started." Ragna huffed and drew his axes.

With that, the group got ready.