Chapter 37: The Mainland War – Chapter 2

Succubus Homeland, The Exchange

 

Napoleon Bonaparte had a famous saying that many modern people could hear almost anywhere. “What one should fear is not a competent enemy, but an incompetent ally.” Even Rex has heard of this famous saying before. He often felt like the two men had much in common. A bright vision of the future, a short stature, and incompetent allies.

 

On the top floor of the exchange, it was made into a war room. It would be better if they had a map of the mainland, but one of those didn't exist currently. Instead, they had a large table and they had to imagine where everything went, this seemed to work fine for the succubi, but Rex was stuck constantly trying to piece together where all the cities went. None of the succubi could agree on what the map looks like, so they got nowhere making one.

 

Kira sat at the end of the room, and it had a long table that ran along it. She was at the head of this table as the leader of the succubi, and Rex stood to her right as an advisor. The succubi have no customs like this, they would just issue reports wherever they happen to run into Kira. This meant Rex was left hearing it from Kira, with no way to ask any questions later on.

 

Rex was very unhappy with this situation, as he realized just how much information they tended to just leave out. Rex found out about the elves changing to a paper currency after it had happened. This meant they had taken quite a hit financially when they changed out the currency they had. This also effectively cut the island off from its silver source, and copper was becoming more expensive in the elven markets. The island has no real source of silver, except small pockets here and there.

 

This was due to the island having a volcanic nature, it has a lot of different minerals that were mixed in through the molten rock. They just severely lack any form of copper, silver, mercury, and magnesium. They also have very poor farming land, and not a lot of it.

 

Shaya stood to Kira's left, and she was still a young succubus. In her hands was a clipboard Rex had made for her, and she has a pencil ready. She wore an open-backed white dress and kept her hair short. She acted as Kira's scribe and her assistant in her enchanting work. The little succubus was still too shy to talk to people and often hid behind Kira. No other succubi had been born since Shaya.

 

Borscht and Welch were also in the room, but they were off to the side currently. Kera sat off to Kira's left at the table, and she was in the form of a dark elf. Kera often changed its features, as she got tired of staying with a particular look. Kira and Kera were almost identical to each other in succubus form, except for their chests. Kira was quite happy to point this out to her, and Rex had to question if it was real. What if his future wife was lying about her chest? He would have no way to know, and this would put their relationship off to a rocky start.

 

Rex shook his head to clear his jumbled thoughts and glances at the succubi who have come to the island. Two of them were with Kera on Acid Island, so they didn't count. Rex ignored these two and focused on the three from Fang City. It was a cat, a tiger, and a monkey beastmen.

 

Rex dug through his memory and remembered they did the money trading scheme he used on the elves. That scheme had lead to the elves hardening their economy against any further shenanigans.

 

“Report.” Kira commands with a straight face.

 

Rex and Kira had to rehearse for when she needs to be a leader. She could hold a dignified demeanor, but she refused to change her dress at all. For combat, she had a thick belt that went around her waist, under her tail. This allowed her to carry spare magazines on her legs, as they belted to her thighs. She also kept several types of explosives Rex made just for her. She tended to fight just like a little hooligan, she shot at them from in the air or threw bombs at them.

 

Kira also used one of the lever-action rifles that the succubi were trained on, she also had something special for more troublesome targets. She liked to call it “Shredder!” and this was carved into the side of it. It was a short barrel, single shot, breach-loaded shotgun with a folding stock. A normal shotgun was 12 gauge, and you would think it gets bigger the higher you go. That was completely and utterly false.

 

Gauge is the number of identical balls you get from a pound of lead. A 12 gauge shotgun means you have 12 small balls from that pound, this means you need a more narrow barrel to choke it properly. This was a 6 gauge shotgun, which was absolutely ridiculous by normal standards. It also used much more gunpowder than a regular shell, this was due to what it was using as shot. Dark iron slag was packed into these shells, and she made each one very carefully. This was for targets that would need a “firm touch” from the leader of the succubi.

 

Rex was hoping this was just a phase that Kira was going through. She still listened to him very closely, and he never has any problems working with her. The real problems came when it was no longer just the two of them, and it seemed to just trigger her hidden succubus jealousy! The girl was fiercely competitive, Rex should have realized this when she was so gung-ho over replacing her own mother!

 

Rex shook his head to clear them of his girl problems and listened closely to the report.

 

“In the middle of the night, the elves attacked Fang City. Ivangor had reappeared on the battlefield. He was stronger than was last recorded, and he breached the city. He led these strange deformed creatures, they looked like some kind of goblin. They fought the hyena king and defeated him. Then they ganged up on the tiger king.” The Cat beastman stopped with a serious look on her face.

 

She then started nodding, as if pleased with her report. looking around all of them were. Glancing at Kira she was looking at Rex with a questioning look.

 

Looking around the room filled with stolen furniture from the cruise ship, and the various succubi a thought went through his head.

 

Idiots! All of them! No wonder I made so many mistakes!

 

Rex immediately leaned over to Kira's side and began whispering commands into her ear. She nodded with a serious expression, but a confused look in her eyes. After a few moments of this exchange, Kira leaned back more.

 

“What was the army doing, when Ivangor attacked? There is no way he breached the city alone and killed 2 beast kings, Fang City had a population of over 100,000. Why was he able to get to the beast kings so easily?” Kira finished, and sighed in relief, she looked at Rex with a “praise me” look.

 

Looking around the room, all of the succubi were staring intently at him. Rex sighed in resignation, as he reached out and patted Kira's head. All of the gathered succubi gave a few nods in agreement. This made Kira feel even more like a real leader, as she focused her attention back on the cat beastman.

 

This whole thing was theater for Rex, as the succubi were never this proper. Even this room was only to store all of the furniture from the cruise ship. This was just until the succubi finished moving it all into their own houses. This table though was much too large for any of them. What would they even use it for?

 

“The army wasted their time setting up these weird machines with a long arm. They then shot the clay jars filled with a black goo that was lit on fire. It was so much weaker than the Great Weapon of the Succubi!” The cat beastmen said in disdain. “Is it even worth mentioning? It didn't explode when you pour water on it? All it could do was just burn really hot! I could even easily stare at it! It had such weak mana in it. It did make the beastmen have to stop to try to put out the fires.”

 

This information was not what Rex was expecting to hear. Looking around he saw disdain on all of the Succubi's faces, and Kira was glancing at him questioningly.

 

His first few years here, he was swept into the succubi's pace. This was mostly because he knew so little about the world, except what they told him. Rex realized this created a bias in how he perceived things, and he overlooked quite a bit of their faults. This lead to the catastrophic situation they found themselves in.

 

Did they try to reverse engineer the gel I created?

 

“Tell me exactly how they handled it. Was it exposed to air? Did they light it first? Was it some kind of spell?” Rex said with a very serious expression, his full attention on the succubus.

 

The cat beastman had to stop and think for a bit, her succubus tail began to lightly slap at the floor, as her few brain cells went into overdrive.

 

“They took the lid off the jars and used a torch to light it. They fired it immediately as it burned really hot. Some of the “wooden launcher things” were burned up. A very poor attempt at imitating the mighty succubi!” The cat beastman said with pride, the other succubi nodded along with her.

 

In the past Rex would have panicked at this knowledge, instead he was putting the pieces together.

 

They probably had an alchemist who managed to capture some of the gel, and they tried to reverse engineer it. I have no idea how they did it, but they did...

 

An image of a hellscape appeared in his head as the city was engulfed in the black oil they had made.

 

Kira was looking at Rex in confusion, as she thought he wanted her to ask the succubi all the questions. This whole thing was very strange to Kira, she had no idea why Rex insists on doing things like this. Why did they need some formal room to have a meeting? Couldn't they have just brought the sisters to their house? Looking at her mother, she was confused why she needed to be here in the first place? Now he wasn't even following his own ideas.

 

“What happened when they threw water on it? Did it go out?” Rex asked carefully.

 

“No, it would float on top of it, and begin burning again. They had to use dirt, but it was rocky, so they had troubles with using it.” The cat beastman said. “The fire caused the beast kings to get separated, and it produced a thick smoke. We only saw the aftermath of the fight between Ivangor and the beast kings.”

 

When you question them like this, the entire contents of the report change. The best way to talk to succubi is not to confuse them. Ask them multiple little questions if you want them to talk. This was a lesson Rex had to learn after much effort. If he would have listened to the original contents of the report, it painted almost a cartoon in his head. Rex realized he has missed all kinds of crucial information over the years when it came to the elves.

 

Why would the succubi care about a weapon they could easily beat? They didn't understand the gravity of any of it. Instead, Rex began to feel a deep sense of dread.

 

This is so much worse than I ever thought it was.

 

Taking silver out of the economy made a lot of sense, especially if you wanted to deny an enemy that has infiltrated your lands access to the material. They also seem to be trying to pursue alchemical weapons. The elves also possessed a more complete set of enchanting knowledge, they weren't having to figure it out as they went.

 

The situation they were in was much direr than he expected. With Fang City under the elves' control, they could take over the port near Acid Island. Currently, a naval battle has been going on over the waters, as the two sides fought each other over control.

 

This increasingly large fight was also drawing the attention of the other factions on the mainland. This was making Rex feel increasingly uncomfortable with the situation.

 

It is probably some form of catapult, more than likely enchanted... The beastmen are doomed.

 

Technology has a way of leveling the playing field. The elves and beastmen have similar numbers, this was if you didn't count the sheer number of slaves the elves possessed. For every elf, the country owned at least 2 or 3 slaves. This was the power that the collars provided provide to their nation. They could firmly take someone under their control, as the collars were so insidious.

 

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Once registered to the user's mana it was capable of remote activation. You could kill the slave at will, and even restrict their movements. They were capable of causing pain and detecting lies. It was another thing they were studying, as it possessed some form of enchanted intelligence. The ship also had a feature in it to detect if the user was an elf. It must have possessed some form of mana sensor, and Rex direly wanted this technology.

 

It's going to be a race... us against the elves... it's going to be just like the struggle for the nuke...

 

Rex took a few deep breaths and covered his face with his hands. Countless scenes were playing before his eyes. They were scenes of elven battleships sailing towards the island, and all they could do was just defend. This would lead to them having to eventually flee or die. If he was captured they would collar him instantly, then he would never be able to escape. Rex was much too dangerous anywhere he was allowed to place his roots.

 

The opinions that the elves had of the other races ran counter to what Rex believed after his time here. The two were irreconcilable, and this had to do with his last name. The Otem family were Jewish refugees from Poland who had fled the holocaust. There was no way he was ever going to condone that kind of behavior. It is why he refused to take any action that was iron-handed. While this might have confused his friends, it didn't matter to Rex. He just wasn't that kind of person.

 

The reason Rex hadn't pushed any of the prisoners or slaves who didn't want to work for him, was for a reason that no one around him would understand. It was a phenomenon that had been seen countless times, but no greedy person would ever allow it to just happen. What led to the greatest progress humanity had ever made? The answer was simple, boredom and too many resources.

 

This island was a paradise compared to the mainland, even with all of its various problems. It could easily sustain up to a thousand people, and the waters were full of edible monsters. If they didn't work they have nothing to do on the island. Water was in the lake, and all of the food was marked.

 

Rex had hoped they would get bored, and become interested in the oil refinery. Sadly this had been far too naive. What happened instead was many great battles between the prisoners and the slaves, then things started to get weird.

 

The first main barrier for races was language, and Rex solved this by introducing English. The slaves could learn it from the succubi, all of the succubi could speak it on the island. As a race that mimics other races, they could learn languages quickly.

 

Once a language was unified on the island, then “culture” began to appear. So did other pursuits that Rex didn't care to mention. Rex was hoping to push an enlightenment on the races on the island, by giving them nothing else to do but think. Who could have expected what would have been the final result of that misguided decision? While a sense of unity was created, could he even use it?

 

While he was in a much better position than a few years ago, he was still stuck with only strange pieces he could use. This was a very dire situation compared to before. Feeling something poking his side, he turned to see Kira looking at him in concern.

 

Her tail was longer than any arm, and she was using it to get his attention. It was clear that she didn't grasp why it was a problem either. Rex had to take a breath to control his chaotic thoughts.

 

When dealing with a machine, never try to eat the entire pizza at once. Rex was looking at the entire situation at once, and realizing it was a losing one, he allowed himself to panic. Old Rex would have crumpled here, but he wasn't that same kid anymore.

 

The Elven lands were separated by a sea and many rivers, they heavily relied on the waters to move product from one place to another.

 

“Welch, have you ever seen a map of the elven lands, all of it?” Rex asked the elf who was standing at the side, her face quickly began to turn red though as she nodded slightly.

 

“I did... but it was kind of small and blurry...”Welch said it quietly as if hesitating.

 

This meant that she wanted to help, but her vision was fairly poor in the past. Her eyesight was quite poor, and from her hesitation, it meant the map would be worse than what the succubi produced. This all stemmed from there being no way to navigate in the world, at least that he could find.

 

The rotation of the planet wasn't stable, this meant you couldn't trust the sun for longitude or latitude, they also didn't have a north star that he could find. Rex was convinced this was why it was so rare to hear about any other continent. It was just too dangerous to travel in this world for any kind of distance. Succubi used landmarks that they could see to navigate when they fly. This was completely useless if you were surrounded by the ocean.

 

Rex shook his head, as he began to piece what he knew together. The forest was only a small part of their territory. They had 3 large landmasses that circled each other and created a sea in the middle of them. The largest of the landmasses was to the north, and it was constantly under threat from the skaarm. It is a mountainous wasteland that is where most of the ore comes from. The drow also fights the dwarves here to keep them out of the elven forest. The mountains separated it from the mainland, you could only move through really narrow valleys.

 

The last landmass was also between the sea and the ocean, and it was supposed to be shaped a bit like California. This was where most of their food was grown, it also has the majority of the slave population.

 

Now that they had taken Fang City, they could push along the coast safely. Right now they were pushing for the beastmen's docks using the land and sea, it was a two-pronged attack. They wanted to be able to ship supplies along the coast and commence a northern charge. Now that they had somewhat started learning his mana extraction method, it was just a matter of time before their equipment improved. Rex felt like he wasn't going to find his answer here, so he moved his attention elsewhere.

 

The beastmen had a large flat expanse that reminded Rex of the American west in its infancy. It was highly underdeveloped, with some hills and mountains as the only things breaking it up. It had many streams and rivers coming from various lakes that dotted the plains. They had access to all kinds of resources, but they were much like the early Native Americans.

 

With a really poor leader... He just won't do anything...

 

The current situation was untenable if left alone, and TNT wouldn't be enough to equalize it.

 

The guns on the island were just to deal with the locals, they would use explosives to take out ships. Acid Island was a natural fortress for the succubi, this was because of the phenomena that occurred over natural forming acids. Anywhere that concentrated acids were found in mass, you had harmful gases that were released. The Ijen Volcano in Indonesia was a place like this. It was a sulfur-rich volcanic zone with a natural lake. The area was so rich in sulfur that even the lava would burn blue.

 

The gases that formed around the lake were completely colorless and odorless, usually Hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide in high concentrations. Hydrogen sulfide was often found in the oil, Rex was very familiar with it. In low concentrations you have respiratory issues, in high concentrations, it was a rapid-acting neurotoxin. The concentration was high enough that anything would die within a few hours of coming into contact with the island's environment. Anything that wasn't a succubus at least, not even Rex was confident he could survive there.

 

They claim it is a forbidden zone... with a terrifying monster hidden in the smog...

 

The current guns were just to get the succubi used to them. The plastic ammo was re-usable, it didn't need a primer. The guns use an enchanted bolt system, and the cartridge had silver in the back to transfer the spell through. The point of the bolt carrier was just to disconnect the enchanted striker off of the back of the casing. All of the guns possessed a magic stone to power them in the stock. They would need to be changed every few hundred rounds, it was one of the drawbacks to an automatic design.

 

Feeling a more urgent poking, he looked over to see Kira with a more concerned look on her face. Looking around, the succubi had gathered near the end of the table and were chatting happily. Welch was using Borscht as a pillow and had fallen asleep. Borscht was also sleeping happily, with his giant maw hanging open. His tongue was occasionally slapping around at his upper jaw.

 

Right, I have to figure this out alone...

 

Leaning over he began whispering in Kira's ear, he was calling to adjourn the meeting. The original plan they had come up with was based on faulty information, it would never work. Rex needed to reform how they thought about the elves and change how they interacted with the beastmen. It was also time to begin truly unifying the island into a proper country. Right now they had a collection of factions, and this wasn't going to work in the long run.

 

The succubi were beginning to leave, as Kira turned to Rex.

 

“What's wrong? Was them having a new weapon that bad? Don't we have lots of weapons too?” Kira asked him in confusion.

 

Rex looked at his friend of 7 years, and future wife with a look of resignation. Right now he was trying to find the best way to explain it.

 

“This is going to turn into an arms race, and the winner will be the one with the most destructive weapon. This is because we can never contend with the elves' numbers, it's the same way with the beastmen.” Rex told her carefully. “We can only win if it is considered a truly stupid idea to attacks us, and if they lose too many benefits in doing so.”

 

This was how you established a powerful nation. You needed to be good to trade with, someone invaluable. You also needed to be scared to attack, this way they wouldn't covet what you held.

 

I want to be just like Switzerland, selling machinery and chemicals... that is because everyone silently ignores the weapons they sell all over the world...

 

This was the direction that Rex wanted to approach this situation from. He needed to take measures to move in this way if he ever wanted a real country to form here.

 

“Are you saying... we are going to make an Ultimate Weapon of the Succubi?!” Kira asked him with light shining in her eyes.

 

This was news that the entire sisterhood would need to know, this would be a massive morale booster!

 

“Yeah, among other things.” The boy sighed out in resignation. “I think we are also going to have to seriously consider becoming pirates.”

 

Kira watched the boy muttering this with shock overcoming her expression. From this utterance, she could easily tell what this would mean.

 

New weapons!

 

The little girl was getting more excited the more the boy kept muttering. Now that the succubi were gone, he didn't need to worry about holding it in.

 

“The beastmen aren't going to work in their current form, it would be better off as a buffer zone between us and the elves. I need to get the weapons that are just good enough to win, but crappy enough to not be a threat...”Rex muttered. “I also need a representative, and to create a brand.”

 

Kira watched Rex as he was running through ideas one by one, she was slowly getting excited as she listened to it. It had been so long since she last got to fight anything! They were finally going to start having fun again!

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