‘Master Custodian, why are these fleshy beings making weird noises?’ Exarchi complained over the hivespeak.

‘It could possibly how they are communicating with each other. We’ve already observed that the organics known as rats communicate through squeaks and whimpers,’ replied Drone 7.

‘That is possible,’ Custodian noted. The A.I. was vaguely aware of humans, but it didn’t know much about them. It was obvious that the humans were an intelligent species, but how much Custodian knew about human behavior was very lacking.

Its creator probably didn’t think it through the Custodian needed more details other than ‘these are humans’. Alas, there was nothing that could be done now.

‘Just like how I could learn from the spiders, I could learn from these ‘humans’. I believe it would be easier as humans appeared to be intelligent,’ Drone 6 offered.

‘Do so, but before that, come to my core room. Alone. Don’t let the organics leave the forward outpost. Exarchi, watch over them, but do not kill them,’ Custodian instructed. While it would be nice to gain a lot of resources in a short period of time, the A.I. sought to use them as its tools while they are still alive.

‘Master Custodian. Do we continue our raids?’ Slayer asked.

‘Negative. The undead are on high alert. It is too risky to do anything for now. Watch over the organics with Exarchi for now,’ Custodian replied.

As Custodian turned its attention to the scouts inside the ruined city, the drones were left to their task. Drone 6 left the outpost to get to the core room while the rest stayed behind.

“Princeps. What do you think the organics said to you?” Slayer asked as he observed the humans. After trying to communicate with Princeps, Gerard’s group turned their attention back to the holy water.

They took out a leather flask and filled it with the pool’s water. Afterwards, they gave the water to their injured companions. A few moments later, Elena sat upright wearily while Aefelred stopped looking like he was on the verge of death. It was clear that their injuries were being healed quickly..

“Weren’t they damaged a few moments ago? How did they repair themselves?” Exarchi pondered loudly. This was the first time they saw any being repair themselves so quickly. Even they, the drones, had to go back to the core room for repairs.

Drone 7 noticed this, then took out a glass of holy water. After pouring a substantial amount onto its own hand and nothing happened, Drone 7 remained confused. To the drones, there wasn’t anything special about the water other than the fact that droplets remained floating in the air.

“We have much to learn, it seems,” Drone 7 concluded.

The drones remained diligent, standing guard over the humans. In fact, it looked like they had the humans captive. A few moments later, Drone 6 returned.

“Congratulations on the name, Weaver,” Slayer nodded at the now-named Drone 6.

Weaver shook his head and said, “It’s nothing. I still have work to do in order to prove my name.”

‘Drone 7, come to the core room. Bring your chainmail with you. I wish to study it,’ Custodian instructed from the hivespeak.

“I guess I got my task. What are you going to do now, Weaver?” Drone 7 asked.

“Learn from them. And if possible, learn where they came from!”

A few hours later, the mage Aefelred coughed harshly, then woke up. When he opened his eyes, he was nearly blinded by bright light.

‘Am I… in the afterlife?’ Aefelred thought to himself. He knew he wouldn’t been able to survive after exerting himself beyond the limit.

He sat upright, then saw the priestess Elena tending to him. She was busy dressing Aefelred’s leg with bandages.

“Oh, you poor little girl. You were so young, so hopeful. Yet, you ended up dying,” muttered a depressed Aefelred.

“Hmm? What are you talking about, Mister Aefelred?” Elena stopped wrapping his leg and looked up to Aefelred.

“This… is the afterlife, right? Why bother with my injuries?” Aefelred mumbled.

“Elena, is he alright?” Dyvona approached the confused Aefelred. She was worried that the holy water muddled with the middle aged man’s thinking, causing him to be delusional.

“This isn’t the afterlife? How am I alive? Where are we?” Aefelred asked. Without saying anything, Dyvona simply pointed behind her. There, the mage saw Gerard talking to a man draped in fur armor and white robes. They were both crouched, chatting and drawing on the cavern floor. Curious about the strangers, he listened on their conversation.

“Geh… Roid?” the mysterious man asked.

Gerard shook his head, then said, “No, no. Geh-RARD.”

“Guy-Rard?” came the reply.

The two men ping-ponged pronunciations with each other until the stranger managed to say Gerard’s name correctly.

“Gerard?” the stranger tilted his head.

“Yes! That! Me Gerard!” Gerard excitedly nodded his head, giving his approval.

The stranger wrapped his chin with his hand, then pointed at Dyvona. “Gerard?”

“No, no. Gerard no,” Gerard pointed at Dyvona then made a cross with his arms. Then he pointed at himself and said, “Me Gerard.”

Aefelred frowned then asked, “Who are these people and where are we, Dyvona?”

The short woman simply shrugged, unable to give him a proper answer. “They rescued us from the city, then led us to this chamber. We’re not even sure if they’re humans.”

“Not… humans?” Aefelred slowly turned his eyes to the stranger conversing with Gerard. “Could they be… undead?”

Dyvona shook her head and replied, “Impossible. Only liches are intelligent enough to converse with living people. Besides, do you see that pool of water? It’s all holy water.”

“What?!” yelled Aefelred, causing the nearby strangers to look at him.

“Keep it down, old man. These people are… pretty jumpy. It’s almost like everything we do is strange to them,” Dyvona urged.

One of the mysterious people approached the white robed stranger and they began conversing with each other. Aefelred hoped that by listening to their language, he could guess who these people were.

Much to his surprising, he couldn’t even tell if these people spoke to each other or were playing tunes to each other. The large bulky one ‘spoke’ in deep drum-like beats while the white robed one uttered chime-like rhythms.

“Yeah. These people wouldn’t even show their faces to us. Sometimes, they even stare at each other in silence, like they were telepathically talking to each other,” Dyvona commented as Aefelred watched the strangers.

“How long have I been out?” Aefelred asked.

“Just a few hours. But still, they wouldn’t let us go anywhere but this room. You see those metal spiders coming in and out of the room? I want to know what they are,” Dyvona pointed at a line of scout drones venturing into the ruined city.

“It must be Humanos’ doing that we get to meet these very odd, but fascinating people,” Elena suggested. She had a smile on her face as she clutched the human effigy on her hands. Being a devout Humanosian, she always kept a small wooden doll shaped like a human, a symbol of Humanos. “Ah, Mister Aefelred, you shouldn’t get up yet.”

Despite Elena’s warnings, Aefelred got up just wearing pants and a cloak worn across his chest. He started walking towards the white robed stranger talking with Gerard.

“This… man. Me man. Dyvona woman. We men. You? What you?” Gerard was trying to ask what the stranger was until he realized someone was approaching. “Aefelred? What are you doing? You’re still hurt.”

“I wish to give my thanks to our saviors.” Aefelred turned to the white robed man, then bowed. “Thank you. I owe you my life. I am Aefelred fal Sea’axfeared, and under the oath of House Sea’ax, I will treat you as if you were my kin.”

To his utter dismay, the stranger simply tilted his head in confusion. It seemed that his words were lost on the stranger.

“Aefelred, they still don’t understand our language. Try using easier words.” Gerard chuckled much to Aefelred’s embarrassment.

“Ah, that is. Me… friend? Is that right?” Aefelred scratched the back of his head.

The stranger pointed at Gerard, then to Aefelred. “Fall… See-Axe-Fee-yord?”

“What? Ah, I understand. You’re asking why we’re both named ‘fal Sea’axfeared’? That’s a bit hard to explain…” Gerard shook his head. “But what about you? What is your name?”

The stranger raised his head, thinking about something deeply for a moment. Then he uttered, “Wee-voh.”

“Wee-voh? Huh, interesting name, I suppose,” Gerard scratched the side of his head, doubting whether he heard it right. In response, ‘Wee-voh’ shook his head and said once more, “Wee-var.”

“Wee-var? Weebah? Ah! Weaver! One who weaves? How did you know that word?” Gerard asked.

“Yes. Me. Weaver.” Weaver nodded his head in delight.

The humans and the drones continued to converse, meanwhile Custodian was absorbing all the knowledge it could get. It was discerning the language, understanding the motions, and most of all, learning about the humans.

Whatever the reason, the humans were exerting a massive amount of mana into the surroundings. However, unless Custodian were to chop the humans into pieces to study them for minute details, it was useless to try and find out why. The A.I. needed these people alive to squeeze information out of them.

Just like with the spiders, it would take time for Weaver to learn from the humans. After all, weaving an intricate understanding of living beings wasn’t simple, but Custodian knew, inevitably, they would find a way.

As the hours go by, the undead inside the ruins returned to normal, allowing Custodian to send raid teams once more. Princeps, Weaver, and Exarchi were left to watch over the humans while the rest of the original team consisted of Slayer, Drone 7, and Magus continued to venture off.

The humans tried to get out a few times, but were stopped by Princeps and Slayer.

‘This is illogical. Why are they trying to kill themselves? Don’t they know if they step out of this room, they will die?’ Slayer complained.

‘Organics are illogical,’ Custodian concluded, to which the drones agreed.

Things went back to normal, just before the humans arrived. The iron ore production continued, so did the raid on the undead city. But the question remained clear: Where did the humans come from?

To answer this by itself, Custodian ordered its scout drones to backtrack the movement of the humans. Much to Custodian’s frustrations, it led back to the large fort with the tall tower guarded by numerous living armors. One way or another, if the A.I. wanted to find where Gerard’s group came from, it would have to break into the fort. Luckily for Custodian, its fastest drone had returned from a scouting venture.

As Custodian formulated a plan to get into the fort, Drone 4 reported to its master. The drone was noticeably thinner, but modifications were clearly made to its legs, making them resembling beastly hind legs. Yet, its movement were quiet, allowing the drone to quickly scout out deep into uncharted areas.

“Yes, Master Custodian?” Drone 4 asked.

“I have a task for you. You must get into the fort within the undead city. If we were to try to get in by brute force, I’m afraid that the overwhelming number of living armors would simply decimate all of my forces for no gain or profit,” Custodian instructed.

“Understood. Will I be alone?” Drone 4 inquired.

“Mostly, yes. In case our plan fails, the spiderlings would be more than willing to sacrifice themselves to get you out in one piece,” Custodian replied.

Drone 4 nodded, then left the core room without further ado. It entered the forward outpost, causing the humans to be agitated.

“Look! That person can’t be a human!” One of them said.

“But the others have normal legs… are there more than one type of species down here?” another one mused.

Drone 4 was still covered in silk cloth, but its legs were still obvious. The drone’s hind legs caused it to move in a very strange manner, and it strode towards the exit of the pool chamber. The drone wasn’t interested in the humans anyway. After all, it was Weaver’s problem to deal with them.

As soon as it exited the chamber, Drone 4 started to run at an incredible speed. Its hind legs allowed the drone to launch itself forward in order to cover large distances within a few seconds. This combined with the fact that drones didn’t tire made it a speed demon.

The wind whisked by as Drone 4 sped through the grassfield and into the city limits. By now, the drone slowed down. Inside the city, it was hard to maintain a high speed without crashing into a building or an undead. But the reason why Custodian chose Drone 4 wasn’t only for its speed.

As soon as a building came into its sights, Drone 4 jumped up, then climbed the building. Leaping from building to building, it avoided the unnecessary detours and the undead patrols. While almost all of the living armor were stationed at the fort, there were still some living armors guarding their barracks, and wraiths wandering around the city aimlessly.

Soon, Drone 4 appeared before the fort. Observing not only from its ‘eyes’, it was also using the nearby scout drones to scan the surroundings for opening. It didn’t take too long for the speed demon to find a chink in the seemingly impenetrable wall of living armor.

Drone 4 snapped its finger, then made clicking noises as it pointed at a direction. A few combat drones revealed themselves, then provoked the living armors. The undead weren’t disciplined, causing an entire section of living armors to chase after the spider drones.

Using this opportunity, Drone 4 leapt into the buildings near the fort, and made use of its speed to barge through the fort walls. The drone was simply too fast and too quiet for the living armor to catch, so it was unhindered in its infiltration.

Entering through the only door, Drone 4 managed to get into the tower that was in the middle of the fort walls. Inside the tower, there were smashed furniture and skeletons scattered everywhere. It was quite obvious that the humans fought their way out from the fort, but where they came from was still unsolved.

Drone 4 continued exploring until it reached the first flight of stairs. Going up, the drone encountered some undead skeletons standing idly on the stair steps, but they weren’t blocking the way so Drone 4 left them alone. Other than the skeletal remains, some of the wall was also charred, indicating the use of magic.

It didn’t take too long for Drone 4 to complete its first flight of stairs, revealing a small corridor connecting the first set of stairs to another. Continuing its journey, Custodian realized there was a change in the environment as soon as Drone 4 completed the second flight of stairs.

Custodian was vaguely aware of where all of the drones are at, but if it concentrated on a specific drone, it could tell where the drone was at. The moment Drone 4 reached the end of the second set of stairs, it felt like the drone suddenly teleported several meters up.

Just like before, there was a corridor going to another stairway. Custodian continued to monitor the location of the drone, and when it reached the top of the stair, Drone 4 was teleported several meters above. It was like the drone went from the ground floor to the fifth floor instantly.

To add more confusion, each flight of stairs only took a few seconds, so it was impossible for Drone 4 to spontaneously appear several levels above.

Custodian’s scout continued going up until the fifth flight of stair. By then, Custodian was flooded with notifications.

[Analysis: Area rich in mana.]

[Analysis: Area rich in mana.]

[Analysis: Area rich in mana.]

…

Drone 4 left the top of the stairs and started walking down a long cavern passage. It ignored the skeleton pieces scattered all over the cave, but it stopped when it saw a group of skeletons blocking the passage. It seemed that they were circling around a specific spot.

In order to get a better look, Drone 4 pushed the skeletons aside until it reached the center of the group. Custodian, upon seeing Drone 4’s finding, didn’t know what to feel.

‘Drone 4. Take that human corpse into the core room… now.’

In the middle of the cavern passage, a group of skeletons surrounded a dead woman. Her body riddled with holes, and blood seeped into the floor. Skeletons with bloodied hands or weapons stared silently, but was disturbed by the newly arrived Drone 4.

Custodian had to get this human body. If it could process this body, it could figure out how much matter they would provide.

The skeletons ignored the drone as it picked up the human corpse. Just like the rest of Gerard’s group with the exception of the priestess Elena, she had red hair. Her lifeless eyes bore a weary look, and blood dripped from her bloodied lips.

Drone 4 lifted the body from the floor, then pushed past the idle skeletons. It didn’t take too long for the drone to descend all the way to the bottom floor, but it still had to get out of the tower and the fort without catching the attention of the living armors.

To achieve this, Custodian was willing to sacrifice as much spider drones as it needed just to get this precious sample back to the core room.

Custodian sent a small group of combat drones to attack the fort, garnering the attention of the living armor. Though none of the them survived, Drone 4 managed to escape out of the city until it reached the plains, where it met up with the raid team.

The only remaining problem was the humans in the pool chamber. Custodian was guessing that if they saw the human corpse, they would be enraged, just like how the rats would react. Thus, it sent the raid team in advance.

They would bring in loot scavenged from the ruined city and hide the corpse among the treasure.

The raiders were organizing their loot, placing books and scavenged wood onto basket drones. When Drone 4 arrived, they tried to stuff the corpse onto one of the baskets but couldn't. When Slayer was about to twist the woman’s limbs, Custodian warned not to damage the corpse.

Without a choice, they decided to simply wrap it in silk, then surround it with looted weapons. Carrying the bundle of ‘weapons’ back into the pool chamber, the humans didn’t even suspect a single thing as the drones marched past them.

Upon reaching the core room, Custodian had the drones get to work almost immediately. They stripped the corpse, then tossed the body into their master’s glassy body for processing and analysis.

[Warning! Mixing two different types of raw materials at once! Separate them!]

‘Two? The humans also have a core?’ Custodian thought.

Slayer opened the woman’s chest, then searched for the core, but couldn’t find anything.

Custodian began scanning the body. Given how intense the body was giving out mana, the A.I. could easily identify the source of the mana.

‘The heart. Take out the heart.’

Slayer ripped the heart out, then passed it into Custodian for processing.

Custodian’s eyes flickered with surprise. ‘Wh-what the?!’