With its newfound knowledge upon the way Settlement_1’s society works, NIM started observing more in earnest, picking up words little by little. It watched as a group of children played tag in the middle of the village, laughing and giggling to themselves, some visibly frustrated due to their slower pace compared to their peers, making them easy pickings for the faster children. Then, one of the women would come as things started heating up, appearing from the house in the very middle of the village, talking with the children and, after a bit, leaving, only for them to start playing a different game.
It watched as a older kid, likely a teen, went up to the door of the Smithy, knocking on it and saying rather loudly what was likely a greeting, and what NIM realized was the name of the Blacksmith, as a older man in a nearby house came out and told the kid that the Blacksmith, apparently named 'Admane'. After speaking for a little, the teen asked the old man something, and the old man responded with what NIM realized were directions, as the teen promptly gave what was likely a thanks, and went on his way towards another house nearby, before repeating the earlier act of knocking, screaming a greeting and then screaming the man's name.
In response to which, a tired-looking and decidedly angry Admane stepped out, barking a sentence out that was likely a question of some kind, to which the teen said a number of words which NIM didn't even begin to have a clue for, aside for one which seemed to have the word for 'child' at its root. Interestingly, Admane seemed to immediately perk up, before practically dragging the teen towards the Smithy, and beginning to show him around the rather small structure, which realistically did not need the showing around, seeing as it was largely one single room.
With these developments though, NIM realized that most likely the word it had heard previously with 'child' root, was in fact the word for apprentice, and the teen had just asked to apprentice under Admane to learn blacksmithing, something which the quick-tempered man appeared very joyous for. Seeing how overworked he had been recently, NIM could guess rather easily where that excitement was coming from, and could agree on a conceptual level with Admane, as it was obvious the village could use a second pair of hands on blacksmithing, to make sure proper efficiency was met in that trade, and the specialists involved in it did not grow overworked and inefficient.
This was, in turn, also extremely lucky, as Admane showed the teen, who appeared to be called Mezirm, around the Smithy, directly naming individual things such as hammers, the anvil, the forge and materials, to which Mezirm appeared to be desperately trying to remember everything, and doing an admirable job of it, even if it was obvious from a glance that the boy was anxious from all the new knowledge he was forcefully learning, and especially that which he might be accidentally forgetting along the way.
Soon, however, night came as it always does, and it was ironically the excited Admane that had to force Mezirm out of the Smithy, as the young lad seemed intent on absorbing as much as possible, both in experience and knowledge, and had been trying to convince Admane of letting him work on some low-grade copper for a little now, but Admane refused each time, stating that they would work together first, and only afterwards would he be allowed to attempt a solo project.
It was a little bit of a shame, seeing as the interactions between the two proved to be genuine treasure troves of specialized terms in their language, but NIM couldn't blame them for needing to rest, or Admane for being wise enough to know they did need to rest, unlike his new protege. And anyways, silver linings where they can be found, NIM did need to move a SNIMC into what it now realized was the building which seemed to house the village's child-rearers, where it was highly likely as well to find new vocabulary to learn.
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As it ordered SNIMC-N to enter, scout out and position itself somewhere optimal within what was currently designated as Settlement_1/Kindergarten, NIM slowly parsed through all it had learned about Settlement_1’s culture and, more importantly, language. It now knew the word order its language operated off of, it knew a significant amount of words, and it would be able to learn so very many more in the coming days, as each word helped piece together the next ones, giving context to every interaction that made deducing their meaning infinitely easier. Even if NIM noted with some frustration how truly sluggish it felt in this current form, so far below what it had been even at its weakest and basest in its previous existence.
However, as much as it would’ve liked to start parsing through all of its data further, to more properly organize and codify its knowledge of the language, it bitterly remembered the issue of energy plaguing its artificial mind currently. Already, after only a day or relatively minor work, it had lost 15.3% of its battery in the main Sub-NIM mass maintaining it, and if it didn’t regulate its energy consumption correctly, then it was liable to losing even more opportunities to learn about Settlement_1. After all, imagine if it hadn’t been able to be active today in learning Settlement_1’s language? Would there have been as good of an opportunity to learn about specialized terms if it didn’t actively listen in on Admane teaching Mezirn about everything? NIM considered the change so small that it wasn’t even worth wasting a singular 100th of a percentile of energy on calculating it, and instead decided to re-enter sleep mode.
Coming back online approximately a full 12 hours later, NIM noted the slow but gradual movement forward of night within the day, signifying that the planet it was on was currently entering what should’ve been wintery months and, seeing the minimal difference in actual climate conditions, guessed that it was currently situated in a more equatorial region, or something nearby, once more piquing its interest, showing how the civilization of Settlement_1 seemed to be built in what could’ve been nearly a rather perfect position for a civilization, with the one real issue being the lack of a major water source, at least as far as NIM knew, which admittedly didn’t say much, seeing its… limited knowledge of the region, which it still hoped to soon enough rectify.
If nothing else, NIM was at least glad to be in such a hot region of this new world, seeing as winter would’ve well and truly most likely forced it to re-enter NIM-RA mode for months on end, a well and truly bothersome prospect. That wasn’t to say the climate was perfect for NIM either, of course, but it wasn’t freezing at least. NIM could handle heat, hell, it loved heat, its quantum dot coating practically ate it up, especially if it placed itself in the optimal gradient zone between the heat and some cold. What it didn’t like was just cold, which meant that its quantum dot coating was forced to rely upon solar power which, while still able to collect solar energy with a 66% efficiency, making it practically able to do whatever it wanted while in the sunlight if all of its Sub-NIMs had QDC… well, even that wasn’t the case.
However, as much as it loathed its current situation, that didn’t make moping about any more efficient of a method to fix the issue either. As such, NIM reconnected to its various SNIMCs, and was met by an already bustling village. If nothing else, NIM had to give it to the people of this quaint little place, they were diligent, hard-working, and at least some of them appeared to understand the necessities of rest and relaxation for continuous maximal efficiency. Compared to the humans of its original world, frankly, these humans almost didn’t even need its guidance!
{Almost.}