Khan's coldness had scared Kelly, but she had never once believed herself to be wrong about her ideas. However, Doku's words dealt a blow to that belief and made her realize how deeply Khan had actually bonded with the Niqols.
When it came to actual time spent with the Niqols, Khan and the other recruits were almost on the same level. The aliens were more at ease around him, but he always ran away during the parties, so the number of hours was in the other humans' favor.
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However, Khan didn't put any wall between him and the Niqols, and they could feel it. He treated the aliens as if they belonged to his species, without biases nor care for the political environments that stood behind them.
The Niqols couldn't help but appreciate his behavior, those willing to accept humans so openly at least. Their poor self-restraint made them like how Khan appeared so free around them. They didn't see a member of a different species when they talked to him.
Khan's behavior was only the last of the features that made the Niqols appreciate his character, and that mostly involved the students' perception. It wasn't a major aspect for the professors, but it fused well with other parts of Khan's reputation.
"Mission?" Khan asked.
"It's something that we do a few times every year," Doku explained while moving his eyes between Khan and Kelly. "Do you want to talk about it outside?"
"No, it's fine," Khan exclaimed while walking toward his bed and sitting cross-legged over it. "I believe it doesn't involve classified stuff."
"That's correct," Doku announced before stepping into the room and sitting next to Khan.
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Khan's words dealt another blow to Kelly's belief. He had the chance to keep the contents of the mission for himself and gain leverage over the other recruits, but he decided to inform everyone right away. His actions clearly showed that he prioritized the mission over petty squabbles with his companions.
Kelly couldn't help but return to her bed at that point. She didn't like to have such an unrestrained companion in her group, especially on an important mission. However, Khan seemed to be in complete control of his actions and behavior.
Doku picked a smooth square rock from the insides of his robe and threw it at the center of the room. Azure symbols lit up on the small item once it touched the floor, and the room seemed to react to that event. The menus on the walls transformed into images that depicted a sea of flowers covering a plain interrupted by a few short hills.
That scene appeared on each surface of the room, but most recruits inspected it while looking at the floor. The images even moved as the perspective flew over the environment and revealed its vastness.
Doku remained silent while the perspective moved to the interesting part of the environment, but a peculiar scent reached his nostrils during the wait. The Niqols sniffed the air a few times before discovering that Khan was the source of that unique odor.
"Are you bathing in the wild?" Doku asked.
"Your nose is frighteningly accurate!" Khan laughed.
Khan's packed schedule didn't give him the chance to take showers inside the underground habitation, but he didn't want to stink. Liiza didn't care about that part too much, but she had limits that Khan didn't want to discover.
Luckily for Khan, the cave in the marsh stood behind waterfalls. He had often used them to clean himself, and Liiza had even joined him at times. Still, the scent of the wild had inevitably become part of him.
"I'm always outside doing missions," Doku explained in a proud tone while scratching the tip of his nose. "I just developed it throughout the years."
Khan chuckled and shook his head, but his mind grew cold. He immediately decided to address that issue with Liiza. He couldn't leave such clues of his relationship lingering around him.
"That's it!" Doku declared when the images focused on a specific hill covered in pinkish flowers. "We have to collect them. That's the mission."
"Don't tell me that they are a core material for the [booze]," Khan commented when he noticed the similar shades of the flowers.
"That's just one of their uses," Doku laughed. "We only need the leftovers of the flowers to make the drink. The other parts are useful materials in many medical fields. The Niqols have started to reevaluate them after gaining access to part of your knowledge."
"Can you even reveal this?" Khan asked. "This sounds like something that should be classified information."
"These flowers are cheap and grow every few months in multiple locations on the planet," Doku reassured. "You don't know these locations, and we would know who to blame if they started disappearing from the place that you'll see tomorrow."
Khan didn't answer. He limited himself to nod in understanding. Doku's plan was failproof since humans didn't have anything in Nitis' orbit with the ability to scan the surface accurately.
"So, do we just fly there and collect them?" Khan asked. "Why even sending someone from the second year for something like this?"
"These flowers attract predators," Doku explained. "It's usually enough to send only a few of us to collect them, but everyone is scared after the last outburst of monsters."
The arrival of the daylight was something that the Niqols still tried to keep a secret. They knew that the humans probably had already learnt about that event with their tech. Yet, the aliens didn't want to give them too many details for fear that they could use them to their advantage.
The Niqols had even recently accepted that the arrival of the daylight would affect their younger generations, so they wanted to remain in control of the situation. They couldn't imagine that the humans had already learnt about that danger and had developed a cruel plan to maximize their number of benefits.
"Didn't you clear the entire planet from the monsters the last time?" Khan continued. "What are the chances for a new monster to appearing again?"
Doku hesitated before answering. In his mind, he didn't see any problem revealing everything about the daylight and speaking openly about the issue. However, he had orders to remain silent about it. Luckily for him, his mission had another real explanation that he could use without mentioning the imminent crisis.
"We didn't clear these areas during the last crisis," Doku revealed. "Our presence in the area might have ruined the natural environment necessary for the appearance of the flowers. We only used non-invasive methods to keep track of the flora, but that's it."
"I bet your methods didn't find anything strange," Khan guessed.
"Which is even stranger," Doku concluded before heaving a helpless sigh. "I'll lead the team. There won't be many of us since we want to keep our impact to the minimum, but we'll still bring more students than usual. You are already here, so the professors thought to add a trustworthy human to the team."
"I will never believe that they used the word trustworthy," Khan laughed.
"They didn't," Doku laughed too, "But you were the obvious pick anyway, so just accept it."
The Niqols had chosen Khan for his feats during the previous hunts, and the recruits knew that. Yet, it still felt bad to learn that the aliens didn't even consider them.
"The briefing will happen early in the morning," Doku announced while standing up and storing his square rock. "Someone will pick you up. Everything should go smoothly, so prepare yourself for the usual end-of-the-week party. It's mandatory."
Doku then turned toward the other recruits before continuing. "You must also come."
George and the others nodded and showed smiles, but they all cursed internally. Their heads had just stopped hurting after a good day of rest, but Doku didn't intend to let them rest for too long.
"New weapon?" Doku asked after he turned back toward Khan and noticed the sheathed knife tied to the side of his robe.
"I'm just practicing," Khan smirked. "You'll only see kicks tomorrow."
"Hopefully I won't," Doku laughed before reaching the entrance and performing a polite bow toward the recruits.
Doku left after that gesture, and the awkwardness created during Khan and Kelly's squabble returned. No one knew what to say in that situation, so silence reigned for a few minutes until Kelly decided to speak.
"You might have lost this chance if you were outside," Kelly commented before lying in her bed.
"I'll ask them to give me a communicator," Khan laughed before lying down too.
Khan had returned to the academy because Liiza had to see her mother. The couple wouldn't have had the chance to meet that night anyway, so Khan could rest properly. Of course, he decided to return to his nightmare only after his meditation and mental training ended.
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A Niqols from the first year reached the humans' underground habitation at seven am, but he found Khan sitting cross-legged next to the entrance to the staircase. The two didn't need to say much to each other, so they quickly moved across the forest to reach the gathering point of the team.
A surprising scene unfolded in Khan's eyes when the Niqols led him toward an empty spot near one of the mountains. The alien then left and left him to inspect the situation with hesitant eyes.
Khan quickly noticed Doku and Azni arguing over something trivial, but it seemed that the girl was only teasing the boy. Yet, Khan's surprise didn't come from the two Niqols. His eyes inevitably widened when he saw Liiza sitting on the other side of the empty area.
Liiza was reading one of her books, but her eyes rose toward Khan when she felt his gaze on her. Surprise also filled her expression, but she quickly suppressed that feeling when she noticed one of the Niqols turning toward her.
Everyone noticed Khan once he stepped past the trees, and a series of bows happened. It turned out that Khan had met all of them in the parties during that week, and he heaved a sigh of relief in his mind when he confirmed that their names existed in his memory.
The group wasn't big. It featured only eight students equally picked from each year. Four of them came from the first year, while the other belonged to the second.
'They must really fear the daylight for Liiza to be here,' Khan thought as he exchanged salutes with everyone and summoned Snow through the mental connection with the creature.
Khan had learnt a lot during his first week inside the academy. Azni had already confirmed that Liiza was one of the geniuses there, but the latter had to explain her specific field privately to make him understand everything.
Liiza could cast complicated spells. Her expertise in manipulating mana had yet to reach an exceptional level, but the delay required by her abilities didn't manage to lower her value as a warrior. She could turn an impossible battle into an easy hunt with the proper preparations, so many considered her a necessary asset during troublesome situations.
Her presence in the team stated how afraid of the monsters the professors were. After all, convincing Liiza to perform those missions always was quite annoying due to her character, but they had decided to make her mother handle the matter.
Liiza had initially felt annoyed that Yeza had ruined her chance to spend another entire day with Khan. Still, those feelings dispersed when she saw him exchanging bows with the other Niqols and trying to use simple words in their language to communicate.
It felt nice to see Khan doing so well among the Niqols. The scene almost made Liiza forget all the problems that their different species could cause. She dreamt of a time when she and Khan could hold themselves in the open without worrying about what their superiors would say.
The group departed as soon as the Aduns arrived. Khan limited himself to follow Doku, and the same environment seen in the underground habitation unfolded in his vision after a few hours. However, it became immediately evident that something was off with that scene since holes filled all the regions outside of the area kept in check by the Niqols.
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