The short sleep on Snow's back didn't appease Khan's exhaustion, but he still revealed a resolute expression when he saw that a small group of recruits led by Paul hurrying toward the entrance to greet him.
Khan noticed George, Harris, and the other recruits who he had vaguely begun to know yesterday, but his gaze soon went on their condition. Most of them featured bandages or limped while they walked toward him. It was clear that their hunts had also been quite difficult.
Even Paul had bandages around his forehead. He also appeared quite pale, but he didn't seem to have problems hurrying in front of the group and stopping at the camp's entrance to perform a military salute.
"At ease?" Khan mocked Paul before giving voice to a short laugh.
Paul sighed before breaking his salute and shaking his head. He wasn't in the mood to laugh, especially after seeing Khan's state. The boy had his chest in the open, which revealed a few red marks caused by the many battles that happened during the night. His shoes had disappeared, and his trousers were nothing more than a mass of rags tied together to cover the lower part of his body.
Khan was trying not to show his exhaustion, but his body didn't listen to him. Paul and the other recruits could clearly see how tired he was. His large eyebags, his pale complexion, his thin figure, and the dirt and patches of sweat on his skin showed how hard the night had been for him.
"Ambassador Yeza has notified Captain Erbair about your feats," Paul explained as Khan entered the camp. "You have become a celebrity among the Niqols."
"How is the situation here?" Khan asked while waving his hand toward the recruits who had come to welcome him back to the camp. "Casualties?"
"None," Paul promptly replied. "We have many injured, but everyone will recover in no time."
George and the others gathered around Khan and Paul as they walked across the camp and exchanged short reports that described the overall situation in the area. The recruits didn't even realize that they were instinctively placing Khan at the center of their attention. They almost interacted with him with the same respect shown toward Paul.
"You guys in the distant areas had awful luck," Paul commented while pointing at different spots of the updated map on Khan's phone. "Most of the stable monsters have appeared there. You had Captain Erbair nearby, but she never had the chance to help since other threats had appeared around her. The network has also been unreliable tonight, so our communications have been down for many hours."
"How did you even coordinate?" Khan asked while studying the screen. "You took care of more than thirty monsters in a single night. That's more than good."
"We weren't alone," Paul confessed. "Niqols have come to help us coordinate. We actually had to request their support due to the issues with the network."
"Can't we improve it?" Khan asked. "What do we even need to stretch the range of the network? It's pitiful to risk being in the dark as soon as we get out of the camp."
"It's not up to us," Paul sighed. "The Global Army has the repeaters ready, but we need the Niqols to approve them. The Padlyn's deal will help a lot in that field. The crisis has happened a week too soon."
"Hopefully it doesn't occur again," Khan commented. "Do we know how this even happened? I'm not an expert, but I know that there shouldn't be so many monsters at the same time."
"An external factor caused the mutations," Paul explained before glancing at the recruits around him. "Lieutenant Kintea will hold a briefing later tonight. Every lesson is obviously canceled, so try to rest during the afternoon."
The long night spent hunting had stretched until the beginning of the morning. Khan had wasted a bit killing the bull, and the travel to the camp had also taken a while. Only a few hours separated him from lunchtime now.
The professors in the camp had to take part in the hunts, so they had also gained a few free days. Khan felt the intense need to hit his bed when he realized that he was in no condition to train, but a stronger desire filled his mind as soon as the group crossed one of the central buildings in the camp.
"I'll rest soon," Khan reassured Paul, "But I need to eat something first. My last meal has been during the celebration in the city."
Paul's eyes widened at that revelation, and he had to muster the entirety of his strength not to kick Khan directly toward the canteen. It would be better if he ate in his room, but his stern gaze showed some worry when it passed over the other recruits.
"No stories today," Paul ordered. "You'll have time to talk about everything another day, so let him sleep as soon as he finishes eating."
George and the others stopped their tracks to perform a military salute and shout a loud "yes, sir" before chasing after Khan and Paul again. The latter ignored the event and took note of Khan's order, but a frown appeared on his face when he heard what the boy wanted.
"Do you really want six plates of those big worms?" Paul asked. "I'm sure I can find synthetic meat."
"The synthetic meat is tasteless," Khan complained. "I'd rather have gross but yummy worms."
"Aren't they too squishy?" Sonia couldn't help but join the conversation and comment when the topic reached the food. "I don't know. I still can't accept them."
"You'd be surprised to what I've learnt to accept in the Slums," Khan laughed. "We have a saying there: Never kill the trapped rat. Let the embers have its life."
The entirety of the group became aware that Khan had to eat rats during his time in the Slums, but they forced themselves to suppress their comments. The recruits even stopped being curious about Khan's taste since it barely matched human standards anymore after those experiences.
"So, six plates?" Paul asked again and limited himself to sigh when he saw Khan nodding.
Paul left the group when Khan reached the building with the many rooms, but he didn't remain alone even after he got to his small flat. The various recruits who had welcomed him back to the camp entered with him and sat on the floor as they waited for him to clean himself up.
Khan still had the clean uniform from the celebration, so he changed inside the small bathroom and jumped on his bed while dodging the group of recruits sitting on the floor. Their curious gazes fell on him at that point, but Veronica delayed their questions since she entered the room while bringing the six plates that Khan had ordered.
The grey worms released odd noises that made the recruits look away whenever Khan put them into his mouth. Still, they didn't comment on Khan's eating habits and quietly waited for him to fill his stomach.
"So," Khan announced while placing the various trays next to his bed, "What do you want to know?"
A storm of questions flew toward him and made him spend ten minutes reliving the long night. The recruits had experienced similar events, but Khan had been alone among Niqols during the hunts. His story sounded far more interesting than theirs.
Khan described almost everything that he had to go through. The recruits soon learnt about his role and opponents, but he didn't disclose some details, especially when they involved Liiza. He didn't want to reveal that he had understood her element.
"It must have been fun to fly from one region to another," George commented once Khan's story ended. "We could only approach the monsters nearby, but the Ugu often failed to reach them in time. The network had also been extremely unstable, so you can imagine the mess."
"I'm surprised we could be so disorganized in front of such a crisis," Khan commented. "I guess we don't have enough troops here."
"This isn't our planet," Sonia snorted. "The Niqols can't expect us to do a lot when they barely allow us to expand."
"They would have handled the crisis well even without our help," Natalie replied. "The Niqols are quite strong. We aren't really necessary."
"We must become necessary," Harris added. "That's our role here."
"Only a long cooperation can lead to that result," Veronica explained. "The Niqols are wary of humans, and Khan's prowess doesn't help in that sense. I think it's normal to be afraid in their situation."
"We have spent years developing technologies that they can't even imagine," Sonia said in an annoyed voice. "They should beg us to share it with them."
"Like we are begging to learn more about their understanding of mana," Khan laughed. "They are ahead of us when we consider how advanced both species are. Also, they can live quite well without technology, while we can't survive without mana."
"Our understanding isn't too poor," Harris commented.
"They have mana as the foundation of their society," Natalie explained. "You have been in the lessons. The Niqols can partially understand emotions through the mana coming out of us. How can our understanding even compare?"
"Didn't they have to confirm that?" George asked. "I thought it was only a guess."
"It felt true today," Natalie replied. "They could understand when I had to rest before me."
The recruits continued to converse for a few more minutes, but Khan eventually felt forced to kick them out of his room. His eyes were about to give up, and no amount of pretense could hide his exhaustion from their excited gazes.
Khan confirmed what he had experienced during his return on Snow's back. Something had changed in his nightmare, and his second rest removed every doubt in his mind. The dreams had remained the same for almost twelve years, but they featured the additional scenes revealed by Zalpa now. They would end with the map of the alien solar system.
A message reached Khan's phone and awakened him from his messy slumber. The mandatory briefing arrived, and every recruit in the camp gathered in a large hall in one of the buildings. Lieutenant Kintea was already there, but he politely waited for all the injured to take their seats.
"The Niqols have been quite silent about the reason behind this crisis," Lieutenant Kintea explained through the help of images that appeared on the walls. "However, the Global Army has a telescope not too far away from Nitis, and we managed to discover something peculiar today."
The images on the walls depicted Nitis' solar system. Six planets orbited around a distant star, but their trajectory progressively brought them closer to that small sun as the program made the years pass.
"As all of you know," Lieutenant Kintea announced, "Everything on Nitis has evolved through mana. The fauna here is nothing more than a mass of Tainted animals. Their mutations are stable, but a strong source of radiations can trigger a second evolution."
The images on the walls then lit up and showed the radiance released by the star. It didn't take much before that glow reached the sphere that depicted Nitis.
"The Global Army found out that the planet is going to experience complete daylight in a few months," Lieutenant Kintea continued. "What we saw today is only the result of the radiations reflected by one of the planets nearby. We strongly believe that the actual daylight will cause far more problems."
****
Author's notes: I think the matter of the golden tickets is quite clear, but do ask if you have doubts.
As for the covers, I would naturally keep them on the discord. They won't disappear.