Construction of the farms was undertaken by Niner and his construction bots. They had to figure out how to create as much arable land as possible while dealing with the slopes of the mountain. After deforesting a large area, Niner had the land cut up into smaller layers, forming large steps. At the same time, water was hoisted up from the dungeon complex and up into water towers which stood guard over the farms. Using the newly-built terraces, he instructed drones to start planting seeds obtained from the humans.

‘Ha! Not a problem for the likes of me! Master Custodian, food production should start soon!’ Niner exclaimed in hivespeak. Obviously their food crisis wasn’t solved instantly. Custodian still had to temporarily buy food from the humans, but the Vyssians weren’t the only source of food that was available.

‘How goes the negotiation with the Rhankish princess, Red?’ Custodian asked.

‘I’m almost done, but what about the contract with the Vyssians?’ Red replied.

‘The Vyssians just wants us to defend a specific section of Rhankia, right?’

‘If you mean around Castle Marcoir, then yes. But what do you mean by that, Master Custodian?’

‘Sell Castle Marcoir back to the Rhankish princess, but strip most of its materials. Leave something for them.’

‘Eh? Then what?’ Red asked with a shocked tone.

‘Build another fort nearby. I’m sending some construction drones to you. And Niner, as well.”

‘But I have to expand the logging camps, the mines, and the farms!’ Niner complained.

‘Hmm…’ Custodian looked over its available drones until it found a suitable candidate. ‘Smith, hand over the job of watching over the steelworks to a Thane drone. You’ll be building a fort.’

‘A fort? Need it big?’ Smith replied.

‘However you wish. As long as you can defend it. Build it along the river as well,’ Custodian added.

‘Affirmative,’ Smith complied.

After assigning more drones to different tasks, Custodian looked back at the troglodyte village. As there wasn’t much going on, much of the A.I.’s interest was directed at its vassal troglodytes. Logging camps were set up around the villages to clear wood for construction and processing, and buildings were built to give the new troglodytes assignments.

Though the troglodytes had a general armory, there wasn’t enough manpower to start a standing army without sacrificing its workforce. Even the preparation for the battle against the underground troglodytes required a hit in material production.

Now that Custodian had an influx of workers, Varangia could finally start creating its own troglodyte army. The constructor drones built a large walled building filled with storages and quarters close to the center of the village.

[Constructed 1 Troglodyte Barracks.

+0.1% growth rate for Troglodyte vassals in Mount Varangia Village.

+5 LOYALTY to current Troglodyte vassals.

+1 LOYALTY to future Troglodytes from Mount Varangia Village.]

[Non-machine integration detected. You may now spend anti-mana to upgrade buildings.]

‘What?’ Custodian muttered in its mind. Looking at the barracks, there were some new options in the barracks.

[Troglodyte Barracks]

[Integration Unit 1 Not installed. 50 units of anti-mana in weigh required.]

As it was cheap, Custodian quickly got the drones to place the required amount of anti-mana in the corner of the barracks. Instantly, the drones received a blueprint and quickly got to building the integration unit.

[Troglodyte Barracks]

[Integration Unit 1 installed.]

[Adds 5% increased strength and overall health on assigned vassals during combat.]

[0/10 High Troglodytes assigned. 0/200 Low Troglodytes assigned.]

‘Quickly, Princeps! I need you to assign some organics to the barracks! Immediately!’ Custodian shouted over the hivespeak.

Princeps immediately dropped whatever he was doing and quickly rushed around the village, frantically grabbing a handful of troglodytes, mostly the one who had fought underground, with him. After assigning some troglodytes to the barracks, the integration unit flashed out, and the troglodytes glowed with a faint red light. The troglodytes were surprised at first, but became confused as nothing happened to them.

‘Let’s see now…Find a way to activate the bonuses,’ Custodian ordered.

Princeps brought the troglodytes to the courtyard, then pulled out a long stick. He looked at the troglodytes one by one before saying, “Command. Attack me.”

“Wh-What, Divine Lord?” the high troglodyte spoke.

“Clarification. Practice. Only practice. Though, I doubt that you would be able to land a hit against me anyway.”

“If that is what the Divine Lord wishes! We shall not fail you!”

Though it was barely noticeable, the troglodytes flashed red before they got into action. The troglodytes formed a circle around Princeps, but they were still reluctant to attack him. As they had no shields, they simply held up their weapons and pointed at the drone. They had seen what Princeps was capable of so the troglodytes trembled as they inched closer to him.

Just as the first hit was about to be struck, Princeps calmly stated, “Enough.”

The troglodytes heaved a collective sigh of relief then quickly dropped their weapons. Princeps couldn’t really tell if they were really that much stronger since it was hard to gauge it properly, but from the way the troglodytes glowed a moment ago, he assumed it worked as advertised.

Moreover, while it isn’t necessary for troglodytes to be assigned to the barracks to become a warrior, they wouldn’t benefit from the upgrade. Troglodytes could also be assigned and unassigned at any time.

‘That’s interesting. We need to find a way to apply the integration unit to the other buildings and upgrade them as well,’ Custodian declared. Inside the village’s overview, Custodian saw a few building requirements such as the worker’s gathering hall and the spawn pool nursery.

While it didn’t know what they did, it was easy to guess as to what their benefits could bring.

‘Niner, you’ve got work to do!’

After months of raiding and with the addition of the announcement of a new searing, hostilities between Rhankia and Vyssium had largely ended, though not entirely. Small portions of Western Rhankia and most of Northwestern Rhankia were still under Vyssian control, and the Rhankish Royal Army was still adamant on taking back the stolen land.

Duke Villbrod, the commander in charge of defending West Rhankia, was kneading his head as he looked over the letter from the princess.

“First, she tells me not to attack Castle Marcoir, then she says she’s going to buy it off the northmen mercenaries?! This is an insult to Rhankish honor! If we’re going to let every mercenary band to take our castles and sell them off, she might as well sell the capital!” Villbrod yelled as he slammed his fist against his wooden table. “What do you think of this, Count Marcoir?”

Marcoir, sitting in the corner half-bored, blinked twice at Villbrod as if he had just asked him a ridiculous question. “If she’s buying it back, isn’t this a thing for us to celebrate, Your Highness?”

“That is not the point! In the first place, you were the one that lost your castle! You should be out there besieging the northmen!”

Marcoir scratched his slowly-growing beard then took the letter from the table. After a quick glance, he said with a half-grin, “Apparently, once it’s bought, it goes back to my possession as decreed by His Majesty, King Leosif the Third. My dearest, ugly castle is back in my hands without a fight! I’m now satisfied and will no longer be following you around, Your Honorable Highness.”

“What about your pride?!”

“I still have my subjects to worry about. I’ve seen what the northmen did to my castle. It’s going to cost many lives to take it back, and even then, victory is not assured.”

“Are you a coward, Count Marcoir?” Villbrod asked with a frown on his face.

“No. Just reasonable,” Marcoir said before leaving the room with his men, the other lords in the room looking on with contempt and ridicule.

After he left, Villbrod asked out loud, “Anyone else?!”

None of the lord was willing to say anything to the angry duke so they kept quiet. Villbrod nodded with a satisfied face before saying, “I have received reports that a large northmen army left with Archpriest Agrianos to fight in the searing. This is the best time to attack Castle Marcoir as they won’t have the numbers to challenge us. We need to take the castle back before the princess completely sells the castle off! Who is with me?!”

“Aye!” the entire room shouted.

“We must regain the honor of Rhankia!”

“For our honor!” the room repeated with great confidence.