Dripping water. Metallic tapping noises. Steel clanking against the stone floor.

Various noises gradually came into mind as a person slowly woke up to find himself in a poorly-lit square room. He looked around slowly, trying to make heads or tails of his situation. Other than the fact that his throat felt dry, he found out that he was bound by the feet and hands.

At first, he tried to pull the bindings apart, and when that failed, he tried biting through it. Left with no other options, he bent his head down and attempted to cut through the shackles with his horn.

He stopped when he heard a door open. Light streamed into the room, but it did not give the prisoner any relief from the darkness. Instead, fear started to creep through his spine, and he could only freeze in terror.

The person across the door matched the description of the dreaded ‘iron demons’. Rumors and tales were whispered from hovels to gathering halls about how the iron demons would torture and eat the soul of mortalkind. If such stories was true… were there any hope for the prisoner?

“Hen. Low,” the demon croaked. No, it was more like it imitated a croak perfectly.

“Hen… Low?” the prisoner muttered.

“True? No. Hello? True. Hello!” the demon waved as it entered the room.

The prisoner didn’t understand what the demon was trying to say. Was it greeting him? Why was the demon talking to him? Was this a trick? How could the demons speak?!

As the demon approached the prisoner, panic struck deep from within him. He shook his body, bit into the shackles once more, and tried to bash the wall with his horn. There was no use, he was stuck there with no escape in sight.

Frightened, disheartened, and despondent, he began to make a quiet prayer. As tears streamed down from his eyes, the demon placed a bowl in front of him.

Water?

It could be poison, but troglodytes were immune to many kinds of poison. Why was the demon giving him water?

The water glimmered green, but it was clear and looked very clean. The prisoner ran his fingers against the bowl of water, then poked it with his horn. When it was clear that it wasn’t going to spontaneously melt him, he took a sip. It was delicious, and he felt his body regaining its stamina. He had never experienced this taste before!

He couldn’t stop drinking the water until the demon spoke out to him once more, “Hello? Good? True?”

The prisoner froze, afraid to make the demon angry from any sudden moves. He gulped one last handful of water, then nodded. “Yes. Good.”

“Yes, Good? Yes, Good,” the demon nodded after echoing the prisoner.

The way the demon spoke to the prisoner confused him. Was it mocking him? Playing with him? Some kind of demonic nature that only the priests would know?

The demon placed a slab of meat onto the ground then pointed at it. “This eating. Eating, yes?”

The prisoner somewhat understood that the demon wanted him to eat the meat on the ground. Left without a choice, he picked it up and took a bite from it. Immediately, the prisoner recognized that it was rat meat, though this one was slightly meatier and had more fat in it. It would be better if it was cooked, though…

The demon sat on the ground in front of the prisoner, then started spouting, “Hello, I am… Hello I am?”

“You are…?” the demon replied without thinking. He quickly shut his mouth up in case the demon was angered.

“You-are? Hello I am You-are?”

The prisoner shook his head lightly, then hesitated to answer. When it was clear that the demon would just continue staring at him until he answered, he said, “No. I am Razugotter.”

The demon pointed at Razugotter, then repeated, “I am Razugotter?”

Razugotter shook his head, then pointed to himself. “Razugotter. Me. Razugotter. Ra-zu-got-ter Me.”

“Aaahhh…” the demon croaked. It pointed to itself then said, “We-ha-ve-er. We-ha-ve-er.”

“You are We-ha-ve-er? Strange name…”

The demon excitedly nodded, then pointed at the floor. It tapped against the ground, then said, “Learn. Us. Learn Tilapola.”

Tilapola... Learn... It wants to learn how to speak Tilapola?

But why? What could this demon gain from learning the language of the Chosen? The prisoner was uncertain and doubtful about the motives of the demons. None of the rumors or tales told of this!

Just as Razugotter was pondering to himself quietly, the door opened once more, and two new figures emerged. One was another demon, and the other… was a baby high troglodyte!

“Croooo…” the baby cooed. It raised its tiny arms towards Razugotter, and playfully clung onto the iron demon holding it. Its caretaker placed it down, then watched from a distance as the baby high troglodyte crawled towards Razugotter.

Razugotter’s mind was spinning fast. Why do the demons have a high troglodyte here? Judging by its appearance and smell, it was spawned not too long ago. The baby looked a bit too well-fed even for a high troglodyte, and the demon caretaker was watching Razugotter closely like a hawk.

“Gooo gooo…” the baby cooed once more then slapped Razugotter’s thighs.

Razugotter moved his head closer to the baby, then smelled it. Its smelled iron-like, but it wasn’t too repugnant. The smell of a troglodyte was important in determining one’s caste and origin, and the younger troglodytes would acquire them quite young. If nothing changes, this high troglodyte would bear the scent of a new clan, foreign from the influences of the other troglodytes.

What was more striking to Razugotter was that if this high troglodyte grows up strong and healthy, it would be the leader of a new clan, assuming that this was the first high troglodyte with the demon-like smell.

A new clan raised by the demons… One strong enough to oppose the tribes that sat on the throne on the City of Tilapola…

Razugotter’s mind was finally made up. He turned to the demon, then said, “I will teach you my language.”

“I to show study you my tongue-hear…” the ‘demon’ facing Razugotter muttered while trying to imitate what he said. There was much work to be done to understand what the troglodyte said, but this wasn’t something new to the ‘demon’.

‘I guess this means it will teach me?’ the ‘demon’ thought after trying to piece together the incoherent babble he just heard.

‘Weaver, do you think you can do it? Can you learn from the troglodytes?’ Custodian asked.

‘Perhaps. This is much more complicated than human noise, but I can manage,’ Weaver replied as he grabbed the baby high troglodyte and pulled it closer. ‘It is fortunate we obtained success despite the odds.’

After tunneling a new entrance towards the troglodyte territories, infiltrators were sent to scout the monsters’ domain. As it turned out, upgrading the infiltrator drones to Thane-level proved to be extremely useful since they were smarter, faster, and slightly better at their job. Though they still had problems trying to get into troglodyte villages, they could, at the very least, observe villages from afar, which was how the drones learned some basic troglodyte phrases.

Custodian would need more research to figure out how to stop the troglodytes from attacking the infiltrator drones once they get too close if it wanted to infiltrate the bigger towns. But for now, observation from afar was good enough.

As the infiltrator and scout drones explored, they realized that there were lots of outlying villages which were undefended by any fortresses. These villages were smaller and had less inhabitants than the previously scouted population centers.

The high troglodytes within the outlying villages were also thinner, shorter, and fewer in number compared to the high troglodytes living inside the previous towns and villages, which Custodian’s forces had ransacked and captured. While Custodian didn’t know why there was such a disparity between the outlying villages and the other villages, the A.I. took advantage of the weak spots and sent some infiltrators to kidnap a high troglodyte or two. It wasn’t hard anyway. The drones just had to wait for a lone high troglodyte to go hunt for food, then whisk it away before it realized what was going on.

For the next few days, Weaver worked on deciphering the strange language of the troglodytes while also, at the behest of Red, bringing the baby troglodyte to learn from the captured troglodyte. Much like how Weaver could speak to the humans to a comprehendible level within a short period of time, it didn’t take him too long to be able to hold a decent conversation with the captured troglodyte.

The prisoner, Razugotter, pointed at the baby high troglodyte, then asked Weaver, “This little one. Does it have a name?”

“Little named one?” Weaver asked.

“No. This one. Have name?”

“Ah. Name. No.”

“Why not?”

Weaver thought for a second then replied nonchalantly, “Need name really?”

Razugotter sighed, then looked at the baby high troglodyte. “And what would your name be?”

“Goooo…” the baby looked at its kin with curious eyes and cooed.

As it turned out, the baby was as useful as its caretakers.

“Can I name this?” Razugotter asked Weaver.

Weaver raised its hand, then nodded. “Run.”

“You mean ‘go’...” Razugotter sighed. “Little one, without a doubt, you might change the fate of our people. I can already see that Tilapola will soon quake under you and your clan. Are you ready to shoulder such fate?”

“Crooo waaaa…” the baby laughed.

“Yes, yes.” Razugotter gently placed his shackled hands on the baby’s head, then said, “I, Razugotter of the Gotter Caste, acknowledge you as Zilopohili of the Pohili Caste - The Lost of the Demon Umbra Caste.”

“Hm? Name? What’s this name?” Weaver asked as it raised the baby.

“Zilopohili,” Razugotter answered as he pulled his hands from the newly named baby. “Its kin will be of the Pohili Caste.”

“Caste? Its family?” Weaver said.

“I… suppose you can say that. Us Tilapolas follow a strict hierarchy, rigid and unmoving. My kin, the Gotters, are born Gotters, and will die Gotters, slaves to the tribesmen that hold dominion over the City of Tilapola,” Razugotter groaned. “The caste is like a family, but not exactly. I don’t consider the Gotters from the nearby villages family, but I suppose they are close kinsmen.”

“Ah. Is like Ho-yo-ma-hin,” Weaver nodded.

“What was that you said?”

“Ho-yo-ma-hin. Hue.. Man. Man. You know… man?”

Razugotter pulled his head back in confusion then slowly shook his head. “No. What is ‘man’?”

“People above,” Weaver answered as he pointed up. “You know above?”

“The ceiling?”

“No. Above. Up. People. You know?”

Razugotter shook his head in confusion. What does this demon mean by up? The afterlife? The rocky ceiling?

Weaver stared at the troglodyte for a good minute, then he suddenly stood up in one swift move. He unloosened the chain which connected Razugotter to the wall, then leashed the troglodyte tightly to prevent him from running.

‘Master Custodian. Prepare a small escort. I need to head to the surface for an experiment.’