Chapter 27: Chapter 27

"So... monologue to me?" Akane asked.

"It's simple, really," Roxy said. "Familiars get two class slots as a baseline, and Ranch Familiars get zero class slots as a baseline. But if a Ranch Familiar has the Extra Class Slots Trait, then she's got as many class slots as she has levels in that Trait. This means that they can take classes and do delves. It took a little jiggering with a Dungeon Gate to get it to calculate average party level based on the Familiars as though they were their own separate people, without taking me into account at all, but after that was done, all I had to do was give them some basic training and some less-basic equipment, and now they're doing delves all on their own."

"Huh," Akane said. "And your Ranch Familiars just... do it?"

"Ranch Familiars are generated less as companions and more as hired hands," Roxy said. "Their personalities are generated as naturally subservient and inclined to do pretty much whatever you tell them, within reason."

"What... defines the bounds of reason, here?" Akane asked. "Because, uh. In this house of many ultrasubmissives congregated around one particularly dommy alpha, that's kinda..."

"Basically, they need time to themselves, and some manner of respect, recognition, and or recompense," Roxy said. "Would you like to see my solution to that?"

"I would!" Akane said.

---

"Whoa," Akane said.

"This is a village tile," Roxy said. "These are each exactly one hectare internally- one hundred meters by one hundred meters. Now, I call them 'village tiles,' but really, they're more like slices of moderately dense towns. For every Ranch Familiar assigned to delving, there is a Ranch Familiar assigned to one support job or another. See, this village here is currently at three parties of four delvers each, so therefore there are twelve non-delvers in the village, too, some of which do crafting or resource gathering as a way to materially support the delvers, and some of which... don't."

"The Den of Hospitality," Akane read aloud.

The town square was about ten meters on a side- a reasonable size for an actual village, but with only two dozen villagers, it felt oversized and empty. The building they'd emerged from into the town square was the town hall, where the village's administrative apparatus would go when it actually developed one, and where the village's Dungeon Gate currently went. There were three other buildings whose facades formed the sides of the town square, each of which was a major public building. Going clockwise from the town hall, the first one, whose a sign bore an anvil, a potion, and a wand, was the workspace where equipment was requested and made. The second one, across from the town hall, whose sign bore a pick, an ear of wheat, and an egg, was the storage space for raw resources, produced by the town's gatherers. And of course, there was the third one, whose sign simply read 'The Den of Hospitality.'

The town hall was built in a stately style, with cut stone bricks and big glass windows and simple, clean lines. The workshop was more workmanlike, built from more craggy fieldstone mortared together, and built in a busier style, drawing the eye. The storage barn was built simply from corrugated sheet metal. And the Den of Hospitality was a warm and cozy-looking wooden building- with windows that were merely translucent, allowing light through but not proper images.

"That's where the delvers, crafters, and gatherers go to eat breakfast and lunch, then again at the end of the day to drink and fuck away all their worries," Roxy said. "Wanna go inside, meet the lovely ladies within?"

"Oh hell yes," Akane said, powerwalking over to the Den.

She pushed open the door and stepped into a proper, classic tavern, the sort she saw in movies about any time and place that wasn't modern-day Dornhelm. The furniture was all stained and polished wood, with lighting coming from plain, undecorated chandeliers- with enchanted ever-burning candles, of course- and a wall of bottles, barrels and kegs.

"Welcome to the Den, sugar," a demongirl in a frilly little dress said, sashaying up with a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. "We weren't expecting anyone at this hour, but we never turn away a guest. Come right on in, and we'll get you fixed up with whatever you need. You'll have to pardon the wait, though."

Of course, while the movies always hired actors who were a lot prettier than the typical woman you'd find waiting tables in an actual tavern, Roxy was a monstergirl rancher with immaculate breeding stock, and these waitresses would steal the show even in a porn shoot.

For instance, this here demongirl was a tall beta exemplar, with tits bigger than her head putting some serious strain on that frilly white dress of hers; it gathered in dozens of tiny little pleats at the- low, generously-cleavagey- neckline, but was stretched completely taut against the thickest part of her breast, where her nipples and nipple piercings left quite visible impressions. Over her shoulders went the straps of a little black half-apron, which started just below her breasts, and tented quite prominently over her foot-long erection, hanging down with juuuuust enough excess that Akane couldn't directly see it.

"Ah, you've met Julie already," Roxy said as she walked in. "Sorry to impose at a weird hour. Could we just get some sandwiches?"

"Sure thing, honey, coming right up," Julie the demongirl waitress said, writing down Roxy's order and sashaying off to the kitchen, revealing that her short skirt was lifted up in the back by her spade-tipped tail, leaving her thick, juicy ass and wet pussy on full display.

"Anyhow," Roxy said, guiding Akane over to the nearest table and sitting down on a stool. "Working in a tavern isn't terribly prestigious work, in general. I'm going to try to encourage the development of the village's culture such that it is seen as prestigious? Y'know, providing support and making life go on and be worth living. But if that doesn't work, well, I can just give everyone a second Class Unlock and put everyone on a rotation."

"Fair enough," Akane said. "So, the waitresses here will fuck patrons?"

"Yes, you can ride the demongirl's cock," Roxy said, nodding. "Or whatever. She will gleefully do whatever sex things you ask of her, because out of an already fairly horny demographic, she was in the horniest quartile."

"Yesssss," Akane said, pumping her fist in glee.

"So, hopefully you see now how I've set up the villages to be, more or less, a self-sufficient delve-automation process?" Roxy said. "In, uh. Something of a rather overkill manner?"

"It's a miniature society," Akane said. "Where everyone takes care of each other... more or less. I think. What do the delvers provide for the others?"

"XP, mainly," Roxy said. "All XP earned in the village goes into a communal pool, then divided evenly among everyone. This means the crafters and gatherers level up at the same rate as the delvers, who only level up at half speed- not a huge deal for them, considering that I've carried them all up to Level 14 already, and now they've just gotta put in double the usual grind to the next level, which isn't that onerous."

"I see, I see," Akane said, nodding. "And... what are you getting out of this?"

"So far?" Roxy asked. "Pretty much nothing, besides little villages I can visit when I feel like it. As time goes on and I build more villages, then the trickle of Dungeon Master XP will become more significant, but right now... I mean, fuck, I ain't even chargin' 'em rent or taxes. They're just doing what people usually do, except in my house, and on friendly terms."

"Even though you have Level 14 crafters and gatherers who can expand your production capacity?" Akane asked.

"I'm not at a point where I'm constrained by my own personal limitations," Roxy said. "I don't even want anything from them, except Dungeon Master XP, which they give me just by living their lives."

"What about Class Slot Unlocks?" Akane asked.

"Eh," Roxy said, shrugging. "I'm honestly not too fussed about those. I might offer rewards for them, if they ever do drop? But, honestly..." Roxy shrugged. "They already just give me most of their drops anyways. Not as an offering, or a tithe, or worship. They do it because they don't need any of that shit, and since this village doesn't have a concept of money in the first place, they don't feel the need to sell any of it to fund further delving, since that's free, here. And, this is crucial: I don't want any of their shit either, but, they're insisting that it's better that I have a central storage system for all this so that, if some other village down the road needs some item they don't have, they can check the central storage system for it instead of having to contact every other village to see if they've got it."

"...Fair enough," Akane said.

Julie returned from the kitchen with two plates of sandwiches, each one cut in half diagonally.

"Here you go, dolls," Julie said, bending over far more than necessary to put the plates on the table. "Can I get you anything else?"

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"A drink would be nice," Akane said. "Can I get some demongirl milk, straight from the tap?"

"You most certainly can," Julie said, pulling out her tits.

---

"This is a hefty NDA," Anzerath said, signing it. "What've you found that's so much better than dragongirls you're willing to go to greater lengths than me to hide it?"

"Oh, that's simple," Roxy said, once everyone had read and signed the contract. "I found a Trait that gives extra class slots, and lets Ranch Familiars have classes and do delves. There's also another Trait, that makes them not level-capped to my level minus two, and are instead just capped at my level, but that one is mostly just nice to have."

"...You automated the delve grind," Clara said. "That's..."

"I'm a little impressed," Cecilia said. "Also, understand perfectly why you don't want anyone finding out."

"Mhm," Roxy said, nodding. "I mean, I'm not actually sure what would happen if the information leaked? But I'd like to avoid finding out, if I've got the option."

"So, why bring us in on this?" Clara asked. "I mean, sure, we're all Ranchers who know enough to be suitably impressed by your work, but..."

"In point of fact, what I really need are instructors for my delvers," Roxy said. "So... can I ask you to do that for me? In exchange for beer and tits?"

"Can I get some gold, too, just for fun?" Anzerath asked.

"Sure thing," Roxy said. "The delvers make tons of it, and don't have anything they want it for, besides jewelry- which, like, doesn't use a lot of gold."

"I'm in," Clara said.

"Same," Cecilia said, nodding.

"You've got my vote," Anzerath added.

"Excellent," Roxy said, nodding. "Do be aware that the culture there is... odd. I've helped them out with the basic framework for their own internet, and they've taken to it like porn stars to a camera."

"Hey, they can't be more hypersexual than I am," Cecilia said.

"How much are you willing to bet on that?" Roxy asked.

"...Uhhh."

---

"Heeeey, Cecilia!" a particularly pear-shaped foxgirl called as Cecilia meandered around the campus aimlessly. "Can I get a selfie with you?"

"Hm?" Cecilia asked, turning to face the foxgirl. "Yeah, sure thing. Want me to make a face, or..."

"Nah, just smile," the foxgirl said, pulling her phone and tits out.

"...You take your tits out for selfies around here?"

"Mhm!" the foxgirl said, nodding. "And our dicks. Why, how do you do it where you're from?"

"The boring way," Cecilia said, pulling her own tits out. "Wanna fuck after this?"

"Sure!"

---

"Alright, well," Roxy said, pulling out a slate and scanning over it quickly. "All of these requests have been noted and will be processed with all due haste. That brings us to the good news part of these meetings."

"Oh?" Viceroy asked. "What good news do you have for us this time?"

"So, thanks to a recent advance in the Incubus class, I've gained the ability to spread the Succubus class through a potion, rendering all of the ranched monstergirls still in milkers Succubi," Roxy said. "Through this, I have hit Incubus Level 10, and am on track to reach Incubus Level 20 before the end of the year. What's more, Incubus is now powering up Rancher in return, increasing the output of milk and cum dramatically, which should greatly speed up the rate at which Traits increase, as well as allowing for new, low-profile milker suits, allowing monstergirls to be packed much more densely into ranch tiles, greatly increasing the return on expansion. And, very importantly, with the high-quality training coming from our instructors-"

"You won that bet, by the way," Cecilia said.

"-the rate at which our delve teams are completing delves has gone up dramatically, and the culture should prove sufficiently accommodating to new delvers that, should this council agree to it, I could quadruple the number of delvers over the next month, giving every current delver three apprentices to train up, and within two months after that, I should hit Level 15 in Dungeon Master, allowing for Level 15 Dungeons." Roxy looked around, grinning. "So, who wants to hit Level 15 in a day's delve, instead of thirty fucking years?"

"Fucking hell," Anzerath said. "When do you think you'll hit Level 20?"

"Dunno," Roxy said. "Let's find out together, shall we?"

"I certainly don't mind the idea of being Level 20, myself," Nicky said. "It would definitely make an impression, when the time comes to go to Vega and take the crown myself. Hard to argue with someone six levels higher than you, especially when there's more than one of them."

"What do you plan to do with the crown of Vega?" Clara asked.

"Oh, you know," Roxy said. "Install myself as their immortal godking and usher in a new era of utopian prosperity where none shall suffer for want or need. That sorta thing. Give them the internet, free food, cheap enchanted gadgets, a Guild that'll teach 'em how to delve with skill, style, and safety, and Dungeon Gates of every level to delve. And then just... sit back, relax, and watch the show. Maybe let just a little bit of my own Ranch leak out into Vega, though, influence the local culture, and provide me with a steady source of eye candy. Replace the king with their selfish ambitions with myself and my own pro-socially selfish ambitions, and be beloved by a lot of people. You know. Stuff like that."

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