“That thing cannot have a soul, Tobias.” Mathias said.

“You’re a heretic now Mathias. You have to think like one. Even the monsters created by dungeons have souls; why wouldn’t this thinking, living thing have one?”

“It’s made of metal!”

“And golems are made of stone.”

I logged new information gathered from context. There were dungeons capable of summoning monsters as well as rock based lifeforms. Potentially silicon life. These all represented additional unknown threats. From the previous context of the conversation, I gathered that my charge had a library on site. I rose to my feet, standing behind the gaunt man— whom I noted was named Tobias.

Mathias looked at me with discomfort. A subroutine began displaying a psychedelic art display around a smiling face on my head display.

“We can debate the philosophy later. For now I need to rest.” Tobias said, exhausted. I followed him as he walked into a side room, eventually lying on a bed.

I observed him patiently, crouching to stand inside the small room.

“What are you doing?” Tobias asked, staring at me from where he laid on the bed.

//DIRECTIVE: PROTECT TOBIAS AT ALL COSTS

Tobias stared at me momentarily, before breaking eye contact and laughing. “Alright. Okay.” He rubbed his face. “Carry on! Just turn the fucking lights on your face off!” Tobias rolled over, shoving his head under a brown colored pillow.

I stared at him for 1.24 earth hours, at which point his vitals indicated he had fallen into sleep.

This compound was guarded. The followers of Tobias appeared to have a directive preventing them from harming him. At this point, the most effective use of my time is to acquire additional energy to ensure I do not run out again, followed directly by acquiring as much information about the world as possible.

I stepped out of the room with a radar pulse. The door whined on its hinges. A second radar pulse identified the shapes of all occupants and the quickest path to Mathias, who appeared to be Tobias’s second.

I pushed the door open, causing Mathias to jump as I entered. He shifted the knife from his sleeve to his hand.

//I REQUIRE ADDITIONAL CHARGE

“Seela damnit! What the fuck!” Mathias shouted. He had dropped a book, which clattered to the ground, and walked backwards until his back pressed into the wall. It clattered as it hit the ground.

I continued to walk towards him.

//I REQUIRE ADDITIONAL CHARGE

“Okay! Okay! Seela’s light, calm down! Just a second!”

I paused, stopping in the middle of the room.

Mathias still pointed the knife. He looked around the room, eyes hovering for a long time at the window at its side. The room was some kind of make shift study. Most of the books that had previously adorned the shelves were scattered on the floor, and hadn’t been touched since, judging by the fact that dust still clung to them.

In their place was a litany of well used books with covers of ambiguous darkened leather and covered in dozens of unknown symbols.

Mathias slowly put the knife down, not breaking eye contact with my upper sensors during the process.

He walked around the desk slowly, lifting a hand to my core and approaching me. Dim light shown from his hand where he pressed it to my torso; my core slowly started to fill.

Mathias gasped, falling over, and I registered that my core’s charge had risen to 40%.

Unacceptable. I would have to complete its charge. But it was at a threshold where it could fall to a second priority. First I needed to obtain information on the world. While AI615 had scanned and reversed the local language, it did not obtain or at least transfer to me the written language of the world.

//I REQUIRE ACCESS TO A LANGUAGE CODEX

Mathias panted. “You want a what?” As he asked, he took a step backwards.

//I REQUIRE ACCESS TO A LANGUAGE CODEX

“Seela’s light, okay! I get it! You don’t have to yell all the time! You need a translation. What a needy undead.” Mathias stepped to the piles of books on the ground, kicking them away until he found what he was looking for. He threw it to me.

I opened the book. None of the text was legible. I scanned and absorbed the words and individual characters that assembled them anyway, indexing them all. With a spaceship level AI such as AI615, I would be able to borrow its processors to simply brute-force the language. As it was, however, I needed word for word translation.

“What languages do you speak?” Mathias asked, looking between me and the book.

//ENGLISH. MANDARIN. HINDI. SPANISH—

“Okay, stop, stop! You’re holding the book upside down.” Mathias took the book from my hands, moving to sit at the desk. He picked up the book from the floor then sat down, staring at me nervously.

I stared back.

“Come here.” He said, opening the book to the first page. I approached the desk, leaning over it so my upper optical sensors could scan the pages. “I’m only going to do a few of these with you. I don’t have time to educate a stupid undead all day. This word here is abandoned—“

//WHAT SOUND DOES THIS LETTER MAKE?

I interrupted,

“That’s a—“

//WHAT SOUND DOES THIS LETTER MAKE?

We repeated the process for every letter, and when we had done that, I started reading the book. I could processed approximately two pages a second, though getting a handle on turning the small paper pages took effort. My finesse won out in the end.

I began to rapidly read the book, absorbing the information and cross referencing the spoken language that AI615 had processed and distributed. After the first few pages, I only stopped approximately once every 3 seconds for clarification on varying words.

Mathias stared at me, steepling his fingers as I consumed the entire book in a few minutes.

//COMPLETE. I REQUIRE ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON THE CURRENT POLITICAL AND CULTURAL STATE OF THE WORLD

Mathias waved at the pile of books on the ground.

I stacked the dictionary neatly on the table before beginning to process the next book.