A rider rode into the City of Sea’ax and went straight for Princess Imma’s manor. Even now, most Sea’axfeared were still oblivious to the fact that the Rhankish princess resided right at the heart of their lands. Nevertheless, the various well-armed and armored retinue of Imma raised a few eyebrows here and then.

The rider jumped off his horse and showed an identity badge to one of the guards. Without further ado, the guards allowed him in and closed the gate behind him. Armed servants led the man into the courtyard, where the princess was happily chatting with her sword-oath.

“Your Highness, I have urgent news from Vyssium.” The man handed Imma the parchment and explained, “The letter has all the details, but to summarize, some of our spies were killed at Varangia.”

Princess Imma furrowed her brows and immediately asked, “Were they caught?”

“We’re not actually sure. We just know that our men were killed while they were investigating Varangia.”

“Is this related to the hunter contract?” Imma asked as she recalled the events that transpired recently.

“Yes. The Varangians hired many trackers and hunters and sent them north. Do you think it was a trick to catch and kill our spies?”

“What would they gain then?” Imma asked angrily while glaring at the man.

“My apologies for speaking out of place, Your Highness.”

With a sigh, Imma asked, “So our spies were killed deep in the Varangian forests?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Very deep north to add. The Varangians were quite suspicious, they were on the lookout for people and were trying to keep people out of the forests. Even a few of my men were initially caught and sent back.”

“Well, at least the Varangians are quite hospitable,” Imma commented. “They didn’t outright kill your men. Is that all?”

“We also found some dead Vyssian trackers. Groups of them.”

“Same place where our spies were killed?”

“No, Your Highness. All over the forest and very far from the northmen’s mountainhome. Not only that, I doubt they were killed by wild animals.”

“Anything else?”

“Nothing of note, Your Highness.” The messenger bowed and took a step back.

“Tsk. This is all too concerning. Alright, I’ll read the rest in the report.” Imma waved her hand, dismissing the Rhankish messenger. Once gone, Imma’s sword-oath, Alleigh, spoke, “There must be something going on up north. Perhaps an increase in monster activities?”

“The messenger said the Vyssians were killed by fellow men… or by the northmen,” Imma recalled.

“What do we do, Princess?”

Imma closed her eyes and kneaded her head. Problems were piling, yet the princess had neither the manpower nor the resources to solve them all. “We do nothing for now.”

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

“The only thing I want to worry about is when the Varangians will return south. The magical worm-cart project in Marcoir has been delayed for too long,” Imma said. The princess had secured support from the Varangians to have them install the ‘worm-cart’ machine into the region of Marcoir to test its capabilities. It wasn’t cheap, but if her spy reports from Vyssium were correct, the boons would pay off the expense many times over. However, all of the Varangians suddenly returned to their home and there hadn’t been any word from them since. “And how much was that Varangian beast of theirs? I want to buy one. I heard they don’t tire out so a wagon could keep running without a break.”

“They said it wasn’t for sale, Your Highness.”

“Nothing can’t be bought! Let’s see if Count Marcoir is willing to fork up some more silver for us.”

Imma coughed then retorted, “P-Princess…Count Marcoir might not have that much in his coffers left...After all, he had to order for the reconstruction of his fort.”

“He has many powerful relatives in Rhankia, though. I’m sure they will be happy to gain the support of the royal house.”

“Princess…”

“Fine. For now, I’ll shelve the idea.” Imma tiredly sat down on her seat and watched the clouds in the skies. “So many wonderful beasts in the world, yet I can’t have any of them…”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to get them eventually,” Alleigh tried to comfort the princess.

Imma raised a brow as she watched a squadron of aerial drones fly from one horizon to the other. “Soon, I hope.”

Custodian was busy recouping its recent losses. This battle had cost the super-A.I. quite a lot of valuable resources, not just in immediate material weight, but also in loss of productive time. If it weren’t for the meddling kojans, it would’ve been made to make at least two new Factory Cores a long time ago!

To add to Custodian’s sadness personality matrix, the kojan bodies recovered were just enough to make up for almost four-fifths of its material losses during the battle. Then again, while the kojans did provide a lot of bio-matter and mana matter, the most important boon their corpses brought were the Core Tokens!

After recovering all of the kojan corpses, the super-A.I.’s pseudo-wallet shot to several dozens. This time, it wasn’t just a squad of kojans which attacked Custodian’s domain—it was an entire army of them!

After processing all of the kojan corpses, it bought the knowledge of basic hydroponics immediately.

‘Ah, so this is how it works! So… why is it so bad?’

[Basic Hydroponics] did give Custodian the knowledge to grow plants in a controlled environment of its own construct, but it was so inefficient! The size requirement was huge and with the technique given by the database, its bio-matter stock would sooner run out! Other than that, it didn’t really give any knowledge on which plant was suitable for hydroponics. In fact, were the plants Custodian have at the moment suitable for hydroponics?

‘So that’s why it was so cheap…’ Custodian commented with a more-than-usual monotonic voice. Other than the fact that the knowledge given was useless, it didn’t include basic agriculture data.

[50 Core Tokens: Basic Agriculture Theory.]

[Core database required for low-level agriculture production. Note: Basic Agriculture A.I. have this by default.]

Alternatively, Custodian could also just painstakingly experiment and learn about farming.

‘Hmm? What’s this?’

[500 Core Tokens: Basic Warform.]

[Provides schematics and knowledge to the creation of a basic battle drone meant for war. This crude drone form does not require complex industrial facilities to manufacture, but is costly. Military super-A.I.s start with this.]

‘Military super-A.I.? And warform? Are my combat drones not good enough?’ Custodian pondered how a military super-A.I. even worked. ‘I hope I meet one soon. Fighting’s too complex for something like me.’

‘Master Custodian. Destination arrived,’ a voice which Custodian had not heard from for a long time had finally reached out through hivespeak.

‘Ah. Slayer. You’ve finally tracked down the æscren mine?’ Custodian asked.

A long time ago, when Exarchi set off to beat the unliving light out of the undead in the east, a separate expeditionary force went far west to search for the fabled ‘magical iron’. Custodian was deeply fascinated by this material and thus, had set Slayer on a hunt for more of the metal called ‘æscren’ by the Vyssians.

The only and last rumored æscren mine was said to be located in the mountains of Hetten, and Custodian wasn’t even sure if it existed. To add to that, searching Hetten was such a huge pain that by the time Exarchi had destroyed several undead armies, the western drones had only scratched about 40% of the region. It was hard enough for Custodian with its full mechanical might to keep an eye on its home ground, imagine trying to scour a foreign land with only a handful of scouts!

‘Not yet. Still looking. Possible locations narrowed to this area.’ A map was visualized within Custodian. It marked several stretches of mountains, but also a few flat lands. Notably, all of them were very far from human settlements, but there were signs of abandoned settlements nearby.

‘Good. Keep looking. Once you find the approximate location, set up a base and begin operations. You might as well exploit Hetten for its resources.’

‘Affirmative.’

“We’ve found more æscren?” Apoth appeared in Custodian’s core room holding a bottle of blue solution.

“Not yet. But I estimate that we will find it soon.”

“That is good because,” Apoth held out the bottle and said, “I think I’ve synthesized a weaker version of the ‘holy water’ using æscren chipped from Princep’s sword.”

“So holy water is made from æscren?”

“No. A weaker version of the holy water is. I think the actual holy water is made from a stronger material.”

Custodian thought back to the human nations down south. “A stronger material, you say? With the kojans pushed back for now, it might be time to set our eyes on the human nations once again…”