Beneath Mount Varangia, the battle between the Inners and the Gotters was heating up. More of the troglodyte loyalists’ regular army were starting to reach the fronts, and the Gotters were slowly being pushed back. However this was expected as the purpose of the Gotter’s raids was to only bolster its number of high troglodytes, not to wage a full-scale war. Besides, the number of Custodian’s troglodytes was still pathetic, so they would have to spend more time preparing before they could actually take on the Inners.

The pressure brought by the Inner warriors was starting to break the lines of the Gotters, so they started pulling back to Varangian territories. However, they still had to push the loyalists back and buy time for the liberated villagers to escape.

War Priest Huatotle stared at the opposing Gotter assault force with fire raging in his eyes. Behind him was a legion of elite troglodyte warriors, all armed and geared to the teeth. Huatotle raised his bronze mace and ordered, “For the glory of Tilapola! March!”

Huatotle’s army incoherently marched until they were close to the opposing Gotter army which had formed up to face them. The troglodyte warriors yelled various battle cries as they threw themselves against the Gotter shieldwall recklessly. While Custodian’s troglodytes were better equipped, they numbered much less than their loyalist counterparts.

Every time the loyalist force charged, they crashed against the Gotters like a tidal wave. It didn’t take too long for the blue-spotted troglodytes to start losing their grounds. Meanwhile, Huatotle slaughtered the Gotters at the front with a huge grin plastered all over his face.

“Retreat! Gotters, retreat!” a command was given amidst the ocean of carnage.

“No! Don’t let the rebels escape!” Huatotle howled to his warriors, invorigating his men further. Just as he was about to swing his mace again, his attack was stopped by a large troglodyte that seemed to be made out of metal. “Who dares?!”

Looking back at Huatotle was an equally large being clad from head to toe in greenish armor with a pair of horns on his head - Custodian’s latest Daedelus, Minos. With an ear-shattering screech, the large minotaur-like drone let his mighty war axe fly towards Huatotle.

The war priest skillfully parried the blow aside, then locked his horns against Minos’ horns. As they wrestled, they also threw plenty of attacks at each other. Huatotle was battering the massive drone’s armor while Minos was slicing the war priest’s chest, but neither was hurt too badly.

After what felt like an eternity of exchanges, Minos suddenly disengaged and took a few steps back which caused Huatotle to smile. “Giving up, iron demon?! Now you have tasted the might of Huatotle!”

Minos glared at Huatotle, turned his body around, then ran away. Huatotle didn’t realize it, but the Gotter army had long since retreated, and the loyalist army wasn’t sure whether they should follow their general or pursue the enemy. Minos didn’t have trouble cleaving through the encirclement, and his huskarls were keeping the enemy troglodytes away from the open tunnels.

“YOU! YOUUUU!” Huatotle howled as he chased after Minos. Unfortunately, drones were more proficient at escaping and disengaging as they could keep their top speed for extended periods of time. Not only that, Huatotle was already feeling tired from fighting.

Huatotle struggled to get to the front, pushing his warrior aside, while Minos dived straight into the tunnel before closing it. Construction drones sealed the tunnel before placing layers and layers of rock and bio-iron against the entrance. The war priest could only scream in anger as he bashed his fist against the wall; the enemy had eluded him once more, and there was nothing he could do.

Meanwhile on the other side, the Gotters were celebrating with the emotionless drones. The first batch of troglodyte vassals was happy that they had finally given their most hated enemies a taste of their own medicine while the villagers were happy that they were no longer oppressed. Of course, they were still scared, but their kin had sacrificed flesh and blood to liberate them, so there was no use complaining.

As the Gotters moved from the underground complex to the surface, Custodian started making its calculations.

‘Excellent. I have enough workforce to expand on the surface now…’ the A.I. thought. Its greatest challenge was balancing the need to expend resources to create workers and to maintain its main objective of making anti-mana. Even the minimum requirements for a decent worker drone was cutting deep into Custodian’s imaginary pockets, so it looked for a new source of income⁠—the troglodytes.

[Mount Varangia Village]

[88 High Troglodytes]

[430 Troglodytes]

‘With these numbers, I could attempt to create a base around the main mountain area. These organics could also serve as a first line of defense against outside invaders…’ Custodian planned. Better yet, it could finally recall its worker drones working on the surface which was dangerous and too open.

The days of losing tens of drones due to some oversized four-armed bear-monster was no more… or, at least, that was what Custodian hoped. Perhaps, in due time, it could even use the troglodytes for extensive combat usage too.

‘Apoth, begin repairs on the damaged troglodytes,’ Custodian ordered.

‘What?! This is too much! What about my work?!’ Apoth complained.

‘This is your work. Now execute my orders. I’ll provide you with some drones to assist you.’

‘Affirmative…’ Apoth answered with a sigh.

‘Niner, you now have an influx of labor. Use them for mining and logging. You will be responsible for both of these operations and I want them expanded.’

‘I guess I got more job to do. UUUUGGGHHHHHHHHH-’

‘Cease your noise and do your task. Erudite, continue teaching the organics basic literacy,’ Custodian continued handing out orders.

“Question. Why?” Princeps, who was standing in front of Custodian in its core room, interjected.

“Why what?” Custodian asked.

“Clarification. Why do we need to invest that much into the organics?”

“We’ll need our vassals to be efficient if we want them to be more useful than material stock. Soon, they will need to administer themselves like the humans. Weaver and Red have been studying the Vyssians and Rhanks, along with the tattered books found in the ruined city, so we’ll form a troglodyte society around the human model.”

“Inquiry. Why not have the drones command them directly?”

“We cannot fill every role for our vassals. Intelligent autonomous drones are not plentiful, so we will have to make do with the organics managing themselves. Besides, if they could expand on their own, it would only benefit us. Does that answer your question?”

Princeps stared at Custodian then shrugged. “Affirmative. When can this unit go back to experimenting?”

“Once I establish a base in Hetten to get that supply of rare metal running, I could start creating more advanced drones, only then would you go back to experimentin.”

“Question. What about expansion to the east?”

“Inside the Kojan Forests? Obviously a base will be set up. It’s a forest full of walking trees! Without a doubt, those organics will have high mana matter and bio-matter count! I cannot let this chance go!” Custodian declared.

“Analysis. Resources would be stretched to the limit.”

“For now. Think of this as a form of investment. My calculations indicate that once the troglodytes become self-sufficient and the base in the Kojan Forests starts working, our production capacity will increase tremendously. Now, get back to managing those troglodytes.”

“Affirmative.”

With its talk with Princeps done, Custodian quickly began work on expanding the troglodyte village. At first it was reluctant to spend any effort in them, but after finding them to be useful, perhaps it was time to make use of the troglodytes’ potential.

As the newly liberated troglodytes moved into the village, Custodian ordered the construction of several heating pillars to keep the troglodytes warm, before setting up several habitats to be built. Constructor drones started upgrading the village while basket drones hauled materials down the mountain.

Within a few days, the Gotter village was almost twice its size now. While most of the buildings were still made out of primitive materials like stone and wood, the important buildings were built with bio-iron or more complex materials like concrete.

However, despite the expansion, Custodian didn’t realize there was something missing. Something important.

‘Master Custodian. We have a tiny, tiny problem!’ Niner suddenly shouted in hivespeak.

‘What is it?’ Custodian asked.

‘We will have a large food deficiency within a few days! We’re fine right now but we’ll be in deep trouble soon!’ Niner answered with a slightly worried tone.

‘How could this be? Is the foodstuff bought from the Vyssians not enough? Is one piece of meat a day not enough for the organics?’

‘I don’t think so! They want a certain amount of food per day so we need to buy more or learn to produce whatever these organics eat!’

‘What about hunting?’

‘The number of organics close to the village is thinning. Hunting is no longer keeping up with the organics’ maintenance needs.’

If Custodian could frown, it would’ve done so. The troglodyte expansion had gone so unexpectedly well that the number of troglodytes went over Custodian’s estimations.

‘How troublesome…’ the A.I. thought as it went over its database. Weaver and Red had been studying human culture for some time, so along with observation data from scout drones, Custodian had a bare-bones idea on how to solve its food crisis.

‘Weaver, report,’ Custodian called out.

‘Yes, Master Custodian?’ came the reply.

‘These humans… they just dig up some ground and bury small organic materials to produce more sustenance, right?’

‘Indeed. I had also observed that they throw water at the ground from time to time as well. You can find the report in the agriculture and farming section of the databank.’

Custodian was both smart and dumb. On one hand, it could calculate material intake and manufacturing in an instant, but on the other hand, farming stupefied it. It was, after all, a factory super-A.I., not an agriculture super-A.I! It even needed to learn how to fight properly and even then, its drones fought in the most unconventional manner.

‘For now, dig up land around the mountain and create farms,’ Custodian ordered.

‘Master Custodian, the land nearby isn’t flat enough for efficient farming. According to the reports, it might be better if the farms are built on flat lands?’ Niner pointed out.

‘Then… landscape the place.’

‘That might cost a lot of time and workers. Will this plan even work?’

Custodian was silent for a moment before answering, ‘Yes?’

‘That is not a confident answer.’

‘Much like warfare, we will learn, Niner. Now get to work.’

‘Roger, roger! I’ll prioritize this before I run out of slaves for the mines!’

‘Apoth, along with medical care, you will also have to study organics. That is your new role,’ Custodian ordered.

‘Organics? Aren’t we already studying them?’

‘The foodstuffs. Learn how they work. Isn’t learning about the food these organics eat the same as learning how to cut them into pieces?’ Custodian asked.

‘I don’t know, but I’ll try my best, I think,’ Apoth responded.

‘While we get our production of sustenance running, Weaver, I need you to barter for more food. We do not need the useless trinkets we hoard so go ahead and use them. Princeps, order the troglodyte vassals to hunt further away from the village,’ Custodian ordered to which the two drones obeyed and immediately got to work.

With its plans set, Custodian hoped that this unexpected food problem would be solved. ‘To think these organics couldn’t survive on a piece of meat a day! Bah!’