Within a dense snowy forest, a group of large horned frog-like humanoids assembled around a big hole filled with mud. They were all kneeling towards the mud pit and held their heads down in silence. Besides the frogmen, there were also some metal automatons standing around motionless.

‘Activating drones…’ Custodian, the super-factory A.I. and leader of the Varangians, announced in its communication network, also known as hivespeak.

Seconds after the announcement, the mud pit started heating up until bubbles started to pop up. A large frogman approached the mud pit and stuck his hand into it before nodding satisfyingly.

“The Iron Lords have performed another miracle once more! This is a suitable spawn pool!” the large frogman croaked in his language.

The frogmen collectively stood up in joy and sang praises towards Custodian’s drones who had worked closely with the frogmen to build an artificial spawn pool.

It wasn’t the first time Custodian had artificially created a monster spawn, since it had already been expanding its various dungeon farms in its very own dungeon located deep within Mount Varangia, but this was the first time it had to work with the organics to create a truly suitable spawning structure.

‘Niner, have you finished compiling the steps to create our own troglodyte spawn pools?’ Custodian asked the drone idling around the troglodytes.

‘I got it all! Now we can make more spawn pools, then we can get mooooore slaves for the mines, bwahahahaa!’ Niner replied with his typical high-pitched voice.

‘True, though they can also be used for biomatter,” Custodian noted as it inspected its fledgeling troglodyte village being built close to the entrance of Mount Varangia.

Although the troglodytes had originated from the deep within the dungeon, there were simply too many troglodytes to accommodate them all, and Custodian wasn’t willing to move the monsters into its core dungeon complex. So, it did the most logical thing possible - it kicked them out of the dungeon.

With the help of the drones, the leader of the troglodytes, Razugotter, managed to set up a small self-sufficient troglodyte village with his fellow kin. Not only did they provide workers to cut wood, they also sent warriors out to clear the paths within the monster-infested region.

Despite their usefulness so far, Custodian still wasn’t willing to invest in organics yet. While troglodytes were definitely cheaper than drones, they were obviously harder to control. Plus, it still wanted to study the troglodytes further before assimilating the monsters fully into its forces.

With his job done, Niner had to go back to the dungeon to begin his work, but before that, he had to make sure the village was in working condition. While the smaller frogmen, called low troglodytes or simply troglodytes, swarmed the village aimlessly, the bigger frogmen, designated as high troglodytes by the drones, surrounded the blue-spotted Razugotter.

“Razugotter, I had my doubts about the Iron Demons… No, I mean, Iron Lords, but now I am faithful to them and them alone,” a high troglodyte praised.

“My family is deeply fascinated with these things called trees, we hope to have the Iron Lords teach us more about them. Can you help us, Razugotter?”

“My warriors are willing to fight these strange creatures which desecrate such a beautiful haven given to us by the Iron Lords! Point us in the right direction, Razugotter!”

Razugotter laughed then raised his hands. “My kin, we should all celebrate for now and rest. Tomorrow, we have much work to do. Speaking of which, Lord Niner! Many thanks for the spawn pool!”

“Yes, yes. Is everything good here? You won’t all wither and die?” Niner asked.

“No, Lord. It’s a bit colder up here, but your magics are helping us keep warm,” Razugotter replied as he turned to look at some of the heating pillars set up by Custodian. “Will you be leaving us, Lord?”

“For now, yes. I have work to do. But,” Niner turned to his back and continued, “he will be staying with you for a while.”

Behind Niner was another drone like him—a Daedelus type drone—named The Erudite. He was draped in white silk robes and had an extra pair of arms on his back. On his head was a large monocle designed to assist with analyzing texts.

“Since Weaver ran off somewhere else, he will be the one taking over to learn your language,” Niner explained.

“As you wish, Lord Niner. May I know His Divine’s name?” Razugotter asked.

“Who?”

“His Divine, Lord. The Iron Lord who will take over…”

“Oh. Why is he called His Divine?” Niner asked with a confused tone.

“You are all divinely beings, lord. Who else but divine beings could let us live in such a beautiful world without even asking anything in return?” Razugotter explained.

‘Except we just wanted to kick you out, but that’s fine,’ Niner thought to himself. “He is called The Erudite or just Erudite,” Niner answered using the closest approximation in the local human language, Vyssian.

“I see.” Razugotter bowed down to Erudite and greeted, “Lord Erudite. I am glad you would humble us with your pre-...”

Before Razugotter could even finish his sentence, the Erudite crouched down and intensely stared at the frogman. He started poking the troglodyte then touched Razugotter’s webbed feet. After a long inspection, the Erudite nodded satisfactorily, then ran off to investigate the village.

“Well, have fun with the Erudite, then,” Niner waved and gave his farewell.

“Y-Yes, Lord Niner…” the bemused Razugotter replied.

Bordering Custodian’s home, Varangia, were the two human nations of Vyssium and Rhankia. They had been clashing with each other for some time, and some of the lords of Vyssium were more than eager to hire the Varangians as mercenaries.

Between the Northeastern border of Vyssium and Northwestern border of Rhankia was the recently-conquered Castle Marcoir which served as a frontier castle against the Kingdom of Rhankia.

At the castle itself, there was an assembly of warrior drones forming up. Clad from top to bottom in chain armor and armed with the finest axes in the region, the warrior drones were a formidable foe to the local human lords. To add to that, Custodian’s most sapient drones, the Daedeli, led the drones with their inhuman commanding skills.

The drone army at Castle Marcoir was facing against a small band of Rhankish riders, most of them were unarmed. However, they weren't here to fight; they had an agreement not to attack each other.

“What a magnificent army. They could perhaps rival a Greatian army!” a human riding on a horse praised. “Though small, this should be a great addition to the Kojan Walls.”

A drone with two smaller spider drones attached to his chest and back approached the horseman and greeted, “This army is under my command. You may call me Exarchi.”

“I see. Well, General Exarchi, it seems that Humanos has guided us to meet each other. I am Archpriest Agrianos of the Cathedral of Saint Sallus. We shall journey eastwards towards the Kojan Walls with my own army. You shall be under my command throughout the contract as agreed by your leader, Weaver,” Agrianos explained.

“I was already briefed about this.”

“Very well, let’s begin our long journey. We’ll pass through Rhankia, then Alaria, then the border zone. I do hope you brought enough supplies,” Agrianos added.

“Supplies are not a problem. Let’s go.” Exarchi nodded.

On the other side of the region, at another castle bordering Rhankia and Vyssium, another group of drones was gathering to leave for an expedition. Compared to the mercenary army, this group was much smaller and lightly armed. While most of them were warrior drones, some of them were also specialized base-building drones.

A large red-headed man inspected the drones and nodded with satisfaction. “Not bad. This should deter any bastards that would like to see my family go broke.”

“Otto, are you sure you want to withdraw from the war?” an older Vyssian man approached and asked.

“Sorry, Wick. I've already got my cousin back and my men had their fill of loot. I don’t have many men, so I can’t risk losing them all when the Rhanks flood the region with their damned knights and serjents,” Otto replied.

Eoforic, also known as Old Man Wick by both the Vyssians and the Rhanks, sighed and shook his head. “Alright, I can’t force you to join the raids if you don’t want to. You’re heading to Hetten, right? You might as well get me some Hetten jerky.”

“Well, Wick, I wouldn’t mind selling some to you for a ridiculous price,” Otto shrugged.

“Bah, ya damned bastard.” Eoforwic waved his hand and laughed before going back up the castle.

With his business in Rhankia done, Otto turned to check on his drone mercenaries. While Otto wasn’t sure if these mysterious people from Varangia were human, he was sure about their fighting abilities.

“Oi, northmen. What’s with the carriage?” Otto asked the leader of the Varangian escort, Slayer. Taller than most drones, Slayer even dwarfed Otto both in height and weight thanks in part to his full plate armor.

“As agreed. Some people… come with us,” Slayer turned to the carriage and replied.

“So they’ll be following us along?” Otto asked again.

“Is there a problem here, Lord Otto?” a masked drone dressed in white silk robes approached and interjected.

“Ah, Weaver. I was wondering about that large carriage your fellow northmen are bringing along,” Otto pointed out.

“Some farmers from my home wishes to find new lands to settle,” Weaver lied.

Otto gave the drone a bemused look and scratched his neck. “You people can farm on the mountain?”

“Yes.”

With a sigh, Otto relented and said, “Alright, alright. We’ll be off soon. I’ll come back in a few months with your lads. I thank ye for your services, northman.”

“No, no. Thank ye, my good man,” Weaver said then turned to Slayer. ‘Did you see that? I am learning proper human accents.’

‘Disregarded. Is it fine to leave only one Security and Termination automaton at home base?’ Slayer asked in hivespeak.

‘Affirmative. Just keep your objectives in mind,’ Weaver reminded. 'Do you remember your objectives?'

‘Yes, create a secondary base in Hetten.’