The Hidden World

When Yuki returned to his dorm, it was late at night and the Academy was silent. He was out shopping with his newly earned money and carried with him a single small bag. Akira, too, had a bag but it was larger than Yuki’s as it contained her clothes.

 

“Why didn’t you buy the piano thing?” Akira asked Yuki once she popped out with a flash.

 

“Because this was more valuable,” Yuki replied. He took out a rectangular device and opened it up. “A laptop is considerably more useful than a synth for me currently.”

 

“But I wanted to hear you play music,” Akira said with a small pout.

 

“I can do that on here. Besides, with a computer I can start the things I’ve been meaning to do for a while,” Yuki explained.

 

One of these things was the exploration and testing of the source code that Raphael had given him. It seemed that no one had noticed that Raphael had given this to him. It would make sense since these were the same people that allowed an intelligent AI give its source code to a child.

 

Yuki loaded the files of Raphael_Core into his laptop and began to search through it. The code was written in a different software language than the ones back on Earth but Yuki had anticipated this. He had already learned this language from reading books in his spare time when he was in his dorm. Because of this, he could comfortably read what was written.

 

What the files and code told Yuki was that Raphael was extremely complicated. The code itself didn’t look particularly complex but rather it was its integration with magic that made it complicated. The software defined the various functions and parameters that Raphael followed while also creating the interface that people interacted with to use Raphael.

 

The magic did all of the heavy lifting. It was magic that created the “brain” of Raphael. Magic allowed Raphael to think for itself and made it possible for it to learn. It also accelerated the effectiveness of the software and gave Raphael the capacity to analyze information at lightning speeds.

 

Yuki brought up the files that contained all of the spells that were used to form Raphael. On his screen, there were dozens of spells of varying size and complexity. Like the other spells Yuki had seen, he was able to read the runes that were used to make these circles. He saw many new runes that he had never seen before and worked to memorize them. Though he could read them, that didn’t mean he had an entire dictionary of magic runes within his mind.

 

‘It’s amazing to think that beings who can’t read these runes were able to create spells like these,’ Yuki thought to himself as he scrolled. ‘So amazing that it seems almost impossible.’

 

Yuki was doubting the fact that elves or dwarves or whoever made this system did so without any knowledge on the magic tongue. The spells were too complex for someone to create accidentally or through trial and error. That didn’t mean that there weren’t mistakes or places for improvement, though.

 

Scattered around the various magic circles were errors or redundancies that only slowed down the system. Yuki could find places where something was defined too clearly or places where the opposite was true. As he read, Yuki’s mind also came up with ideas for spells that either added more functions or improved existing ones.

 

‘One thing I would like to put would be a personality,’ Yuki planned. ‘This is going to be quite an extensive project.’

 

While Yuki was doing this, he noticed that Akira was laying on the couch on her stomach looking at a screen that was being projected by Yuki’s watch in her hand. Yuki had taken it off as sweat was forming around his wrist and was making him uncomfortable.

 

“What are you reading?” Yuki asked her.

 

“An announcement,” she replied. “Tomorrow, all firsts years will be going to the school hunting grounds during their homeroom to experience their first monster hunt.”

 

“So they’re trying to see if people can kill now,” Yuki said. “I wonder if they will give us weapons.”

 

“I don’t know, they didn’t say anything in the announcement,” Akira responded. “I find it quite amusing that they send this after we just went hunting.”

 

“They don’t expect new students to out killing monsters already,” Yuki said. “It is unfortunate that we are going to the school forest, though.”

 

“Why?”

 

“There is nothing strong or valuable in it. I did my research on the hunting grounds in and around the city.”

 

“Oh, well we can always go back to the place we went to today,” Akira said.

 

“I just don’t like having my time wasted. If I have to do something that I’ve done before, I might as well try to benefit from it,” Yuki replied. “I’m going to be doing some research and spells.”

 

“Okay~. I’ll just watch tv or something,” Akira responded. “I wish you had more entertainment, though.”

 

“Remind me to buy some games next time,” Yuki said as he turned his attention back to his laptop.

 

“I’m hungry,” Akira announced.

 

“We just ate,” Yuki replied, not looking away from his screen. His hand was drawing incomprehensible scribbles on a sheet of paper. “Go get something out of the fridge if you really need to.”

 

Akira walked outside and Yuki heard the sound of the refrigerator opening and various things being shifted around. When she came out of the kitchen, she held a yogurt.

 

“We should bring snacks when we hunt,” Akira suggested, licking a spoon as she flopped down next to Yuki.

 

“Then we need some kind of storage,” Yuki responded. Then he paused. “Storage…”

 

“What?” Akira asked curiously.

 

“Storage,” Yuki repeated, not answering anything. His hand began to sketch out a circle.

 

“Thank you for the answer,” Akira said then she turned on the television while Yuki’s hand scribbled furiously.

---

 

The next day, Yuki woke up in bed and began to prepare for the day’s classes. Akira, who was sleeping next to him, cracked her eyes open at the sudden loss of warmth.

 

“We have to go,” Yuki told her.

 

“Alright,” she replied, stretching her arms and yawning.

 

She glowed brightly for a moment before her body melted and was sucked into the mark on Yuki’s arm. After that, Yuki finished his daily routine and headed for his homeroom. As he walked there, he remembered the announcement the day before and opened it. He changed his course and headed toward the forest at the back of the Academy. The announcement told students to gather there for the day.

 

When he got there, he found a group of students twice as large as his homeroom class. It seemed that the regular students had came as well. And everyone had came early, something that Yuki never saw before.

 

‘This world really loves combat,’ Yuki thought as he took his spot near the corner of the group.

 

“Hey,” a voice said behind him.

 

Yuki glanced over and saw Yuna standing behind him a bit awkwardly. She was dressed in loose clothing, most likely so that she could move around easily when they hunted. Looking at the other students, he noticed that they were staring at him. Or more likely, staring at Yuna.

 

‘Well, she is quite pretty,’ Yuki thought. ‘But her being here is ruining my attempt at going unnoticed.’

 

Yuki nodded in greeting to Yuna then returned his attention to the front where Nataru was standing. It seemed like class was going to start soon.

 

Right on que, Nataru clapped his hands and the group of first years quieted. Then he cleared his throat.

 

“You all should have gotten a notification of what it was we are doing today and so should know the plan,” Nataru said. “For those who didn’t read the notification, we will be entering the forest to hunt monsters.”

 

There were excited murmurs from the students.

 

“We will now be handing out weapons for those of you that didn’t bring their own,” Nataru continued.

 

‘We were supposed to bring our own weapon?’ Yuki thought as he walked up to the front to grabbed a sword from a bag that Nataru was carrying.

 

As Yuki walked back to his place in the back of the group swinging his sword, Nataru spoke again.

 

“Is everyone ready?” he asked. The students all nodded, some with excitement and others with determination. “Alright then. Here we go.”

 

He turned and walked into the dark and dense forest.