Chapter 41: The Mainland War – Chapter 6

Day after the last chapter...

Succubus homeland, Oil Refinery

 

If blacksmithing is a process that allows someone to take steel and turn it into a sword, then machining is the ability to make 10,000 of that same sword that is all identical. This is because machining is all about designing a process. Once you have created a process then the product can be produced in mass, then you have moved onto the path of industry.

 

At the moment he was making a simple lathe, it was a machine to tool steel. A lathe spun a piece of metal in a chuck, then you used a stationary blade attached to a carriage to shape it. This allowed you to make perfectly round and very smooth parts cheaply and easily. This was a necessary tool to make precision parts in machinery.

 

Jacques de Vaucanson created the first all-metal lathe in 1751, he made it to create better rollers to deal with silk. Some people say that this invention along with all of the various products of oil is what lead to humanity's insane growth as a species. This was because the lathe could be scaled up as a tool, and it was used to make most of the steam engines parts. The steam engine was the force that drove the industrial revolution.

 

A lathe allowed a person to create the same part in a fraction of the time with much more precision. For the first time, people were able to create a surplus of parts, and this lead to a drastic drop in cost. This meant people were able to afford the newest items, and they saw their lives transform before their eyes. All of this extra money led to more industries spawning, this meant more jobs. It also contributed to the most fundamental change in humanity.

 

It was the first time humans truly came to realize that they could replace their weak flesh and tiny muscles. They could do everything with machines that required human muscle. This machine is also what started the profession of the machinist.

 

Rex had just finished installing the motor that would spin the chuck when he was interrupted.

 

“What's that?” Welch asked him, as she watched from the side.

 

She had just finished her morning training and was covered in sweat.

 

“It's a tool for shaping metal.” Rex responded.

 

“Why do you need to shape metal when you can cast it?” Welch asked in confusion.

 

Rex paused as he thought of how to explain it best, it was a fairly simple concept.

 

“When you have two nations with soldiers of equal physical strength, what do you think will determine who wins?” Rex asked her.

 

“Wouldn't it be the side who is more determined?” Welch said as if it was a question.

 

“No.” Rex replied simply as he started working. “It's the side that is better armed.”

 

Rex began working on setting up the carriage, the cutter was a small piece of dark iron. He had used several pieces of metal to create this small triangular blade. This was because shaping and sharpening it was such a colossal pain. Anything could be scratched by using itself, this was how hardness worked. Using Dark iron to shave down dark iron took hours to create a triangular blade the size of his thumbnail.

 

“If I wanted to cast the barrel for a gun, it would take hours to mold it, then hours to heat treat it.” Rex said as he placed a piece of round stock in his chuck. “Machining allows me to take a treated bar of steel and cut it to shape while it is still cold, this means I don't have to heat treat them. I can make several gun barrels in the same amount of time.”

 

The lathe was ugly, but that was to be expected. It used 2 v-shaped bars and a screw to direct the carriage. A second screw controlled the blade, and pushed it forward, and retracted it.

 

“When you go to war, production will ultimately defeat numbers.” Rex said with certainty. “1 big stick is useless if 10 smaller ones can match it, especially if the 10 little sticks can be produced faster than a single big stick can.”

 

This was just how much production affected a battlefield, the more you could produce, the better off you were. The winner of any war was usually the one who managed to outproduce their enemy. The best example of this was Russia during the second world war. The heavy tanks they used were monstrous, they dominated the battlefield at the time. They were arguably some of the best tanks of the era, and Russia managed to outproduce Nazi Germany. It was faster, more heavily armored, and was much better suited for the Russian winter. They were the king until the German Tiger tank was developed, but then Russia made new ones.

 

“Doesn't that only apply to cold weapons? What about other ones?” Welch asked.

 

She didn't even get to finish speaking before Rex had already started laughing.

 

“It only gets worse... much, much worse...” Rex squeezed out between his giggles.

 

Taking a few breaths to calm himself he began to explain.

 

“Imagine an explosive that was powerful enough to destroy an entire city instantly. Imagine if you could use this weapon to hit anywhere you want in the world. Now imagine controlling thousands of these weapons.” Rex said this all slowly. “At a certain point, the weapons can go beyond destroying cities and start destroying entire nations. You can't call yourself a true superpower unless you can destroy the world 3 or 4 times over. Production speed is the only thing you can compare safely at that point. No one wants to use those weapons and go to war.”

 

Welch looked confused at this.

 

“Why would you make weapons you never intended to use?” Welch asked.

 

“Would you want to fight Borscht if he was really angry?” Rex asked her flatly. “No, you wouldn't. You might be stronger than me, but not Bear!”

 

Welch laughed at the impersonation he added at the end.

 

“You might want to cover your ears.” Rex warned as he started the lathe.

 

Maneuvering the carriage and the blade, he squirted some oil on the steel to keep it cool. Pushing the blade forward using the dial, the metal squealed as a strip was carved off. Rex pushed the blade forward and back carefully, and checked the cut with calipers. Once the initial cut was made to the proper size, he began working the carriage back and forth, running the blade along the outside of the metal.

 

Rex stopped occasionally to add more oil, but in less than 5 minutes he had shaved the stock into a thin pin. This was the pin they used to attach the receiver to the polymer grip. This simple part would have taken over 10 hours to cast.

 

Rex looked over at Welch with a confident expression, but she just looked bored. Rex heard the sound of wood clattering on the floor. Looking behind him he saw a Dwarf wearing the usual thick robes that covered all of their skin. Rex could imagine the shock on the dwarf's face, his jaw was probably hanging open. Rex just sighed in sadness for the dwarf.

 

I tried blacksmithing once... I got tired after swinging a rock a few times when I was making an ax... After that, I never did it again...

 

Rex couldn't imagine dedicating his life to such sweaty work. Rex only wanted to work hard once. Why did he ever want to do the same thing more than once when he didn't have to?

 

“Can you make anything round with that?” The dwarf asked excitedly.

 

“You can, but round stock is just better to start with. Making square stock round takes a long time, you are also more likely to damage the cutter.” Rex responded to the dwarf.

 

The dwarf quickly grabbed the clipboard and began rapidly taking notes. His job was to pass this information to the rest of the dwarven smiths. In return, Rex was provided a premium price on ores and materials. Rex was more than happy to do this, this meant he could pawn off all kinds of little, and annoying jobs onto the dwarves.

 

They will probably shit their britches when I show them a milling machine...

 

Rex had placed much of his hopes on the industrious dwarves, he wanted them to become talented machinists. This was because even if they worked their hardest, and mastered this technology. They would still be decades behind Rex, probably even centuries. What Rex was doing was the equivalent of handing them a puzzle in a clear plastic bag. To be useful, they would need to understand it. This would require years and years.

 

“Can I try it?” The dwarf asked with an excited tone.

 

“Sure, knock yourself out.” Rex said as he walked over to a new guest and squatted down.

 

This guest was a little tawny mouseman with a white belly that extended to his face. Rex thought he looked much more like a hamster, but this statement was very insulting to the mousemen. They had a very deep grudge against their relatives, the hamstermen.

 

This mouseman had on a clear backpack they normally used for nitrate, this one was filled with seeds from a type of tree on the island.

 

“I got the seeds you wanted, are these used to make some kind of weapon?” The little mouseman asked with confusion.

 

When they stood at their full height, they barely reached over Rex's waist.

 

“I would never lie to something so cute.” Rex muttered to himself quietly.

 

“What?” The mouse asked with confusion.

 

“I said that soon the elves will learn to fear the power of the mousemen!” Rex said to the little mouseman, patting him on the head.

 

The mouseman looked at the man with a confused look on his face.

 

“When you return to the mousemen tribes, that will be the moment when the elves begin tripping over their feet trying to run from you.” Rex told the little mouseman. “In fact, I think the name Greko will go down in mouseman history.”

 

The mouse had some skepticism on his little face as he looked at the man. He didn't know the power contained in those little seeds, he had even eaten a few of them and was just fine.

 

Rex just smiled, as he took the backpack and watched the mouseman scurry away.

 

“Why did you want those seeds?” Welch asked.

 

Rex looked at the bag that was filled to the brim with small seeds.

 

“A small piece of one of these seeds contains enough neurotoxins to kill you several times over. It also has a strong hemotoxin, but the neurotoxin kills you long before it can act.” Rex explained the seeds. “The mousemen possess an inherent immunity to these types of toxins. It has to do with their diets, and the things they ate as they were evolving. Do not ever underestimate what nature is capable of producing.”

 

Rex set the bag down after he verified it was properly closed, he would need to process these in an abandoned building that could be destroyed once he was done.

 

“What are you planning to use it for?” Welch asked him.

 

Rex smiled sadly as he looked at the innocuous bag of seeds.

 

“There are a lot of uses for strong toxins, the most common is insecticides. I originally only planned to use weapons like this on the skaarm, that is because insects are much more vulnerable to toxins.” Rex explained. “Since their organs are much simpler, it makes it easier for the toxins to destroy them.”

 

“Isn't a toxin just another word for poison?” Welch asked him curiously.

 

“No, that is a misconception. Poisons are anything that can negatively affect the body, table salt can be a poison if you start eating it in excess.” Rex began to explain. “Toxins have to be produced by an organism, they can be administered actively or passively. Some frogs can kill you if you handle them with bare skin. Venom is made specifically to attack or defend. The easiest way to think of the difference is whether or not you can eat the substance. Most venoms can be eaten with no ill effects, toxins are rarely so kind.”

 

A lot of plants had been used to murder Earth, some intentional, and some accidental. Nightshade, oleander, daffodils, hydrangeas, there was a huge list. Animals and children were the most likely to become poisoned by these things. They were the most likely to put things in their mouths. It was possible to build an immunity to toxins by prolonged exposure, but this method came with all kinds of problems. Usually, the medical conditions you developed from the long-term exposure, most assassins weren't stupid enough to do this to themselves.

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“Where did you learn to make all this stuff from? Did you have a teacher?” Welch asked him.

 

“I had a lot of teachers, I was always interested in a lot of different things. The best teacher is a curious student, as they will always find a way to obtain the information they seek.” Rex said and sighed as he thought of all the videos he watched about chemistry in his boredom.

 

The internet was often a better teacher than his teachers were. If anything, his college professors just made him hungrier for the things they wouldn't teach him. Rex had gone down all kinds of rabbit holes due to the amount of curiosity he always had. Even now what he wanted to do was lock himself in a lab and continue his mana experiments. Rex had only used iron and silver so far, Guffrey had opened a door that Rex had often been pondering about.

 

There are so many new materials to discover in this world!

 

The one thing that limited industrial progress was the materials available at the time. Walking back towards the lathe he created, he saw that Welch was following him. Usually one of the two girls always followed him wherever he went. Being busy all the time meant that the two girls would always have something interesting to look at, by following him. Rex was fairly used to this already, on Earth he usually had assistants tailing him. The advantage of being worth a high salary is that you would never be allowed to do something that someone much cheaper could.

 

Returning from his thoughts, he observed the dwarf.

 

The dwarf was using the dials on the lathe very carefully to maneuver the steel stock he was turning. Looking at it closely Rex realized it was the cap for some kind of tool. Rex was impressed that the dwarf was able to use the tool so quickly, it was rare to pick up something so fast. A lathe was fairly simple to learn but took a lot of practice to master.

 

“This is incredible!” The dwarf said, as he finally removed the finished butt cap.

 

Rex realized it probably went to a hammer or some other kind of tool the dwarf owned. He could just use some pliers to crimp it onto the tool. A press could have also made the same kind of cap, but even faster. Rex had many uses for a lathe, but one of the best uses was to sell the technology to the dwarves. These tools were only intermediary ones, and would quickly be replaced. The true king of industry was CNC machines.

 

A CNC machine just followed set lines called tool paths. These were programmed into it by a computer, and the machines would follow these paths. Computers had invaded every single type of industrial production tool, and Rex was very happy with this change. Nobody wants to use dials to make curved lines, anyone can try it using an etch-a-sketch.

 

Plasma cutters, mills, lathes, all kinds of machines had been incorporated to use CNC technology. Rex hoped to use the programming function the elves tapped into to create these kinds of tools in the future. Since they had stolen Rex's technology, then he would happily do the same to the elves. Rex wanted to use enchanting to create a new type of industrial machines.

 

“I never would o' thought that steel could be shaped like this.” The dwarf said in shock through his thick robes and gloves.

 

“This is just one way metal can be shaped, there are many different ways you can do it.” Rex said, as he watched the dwarf carefully going over the different parts of the lathe.

 

“I will need to talk to Guffrey first before I can offer you anything for it.” The dwarf said embarrassed, this was because he had no idea how to evaluate the worth of such a tool.

 

Rex thought this was fine, and it was what he had expected. If this dwarf had just carelessly spouted out some price, then Rex would have lost a lot of respect for him.

 

“That is fine, it will also give me some time to prepare some formal blueprints for it.” Rex nodded to the dwarf in response.

 

The dwarf nodded, and Rex could hear him sigh in relief under his hood.

 

“I will be going to report to him, Brewmaster.” The dwarf said as he bowed and turned towards the mountain, quickly walking away.

 

Rex waved at the dwarf as he left, before walking over to a table next to the lathe. Various papers and measuring tools were scattered all over the table. The design for an engine he had made was on the paper. Rex was deciding on the tools he would need to create, to make this engine. The lathe would be used to turn the pistons, but he was going to need a milling machine to cut the slots. This also meant he would need to create a way to reliably produce dark iron to make all of the various bits he would need.

 

A mill used a very special bit that was round and had a flat tip. It was a very specialized drill bit, called a milling bit. Engineers had never been known for their creativity, you can just look at the names of everything they made. It was usually named after its purpose. This was just how engineers did things.

 

Thankfully, Kira has an even worse naming sense than me!

 

This thought made Rex sigh in relief. It would be so embarrassing to be remembered for something that had a really stupid name. Kira could take all of that heat if they managed to create history.

 

“Why do you think the other elves are all acting this way?” Welch asked as she thought of the mousemen.

 

Rex paused from his work, as he turned to the elf.

 

“Do you know what happens when people of any race revere strength over intelligent decisions?” Rex asked, but he didn't let her finish before he answered. “Extremism is what you are left with.”

 

Rex looked around at the refinery and all of its various components. A sad smile made its way over his face.

 

“When you sincerely believe that you are better than others, and use this as a justification to harm them, then it is just being extreme.” Rex said as he sighed out sadly. “Sadly, once they get into power, it is usually too late. They will launch an all-out attack on the system that allowed them to come into power. Dryfys already did this when he abolished the Monarchy system the elves used before and created a new one. Replacing the currency could also be seen as a move to take all the precious resources directly into his hands. Right now he has steadily been securing his power, and we were constantly stuck on the defensive.”

 

“Is there a way to stop a nation that has turned to extremism?” Welch asked hopefully.

 

An image of Germany after world war 2 appeared in his mind. It was reduced to rubble, and the people were treated like animals. The allies left them nothing and destroyed everything they had. The people were forced to wander the ruins, fighting over scraps of food. The people were left in horror, as they tried to survive the destruction from the war they started.

 

Through the horrors of that reconstruction, as they were treated as a disease on the world, something incredible happened to the Germans. They came together through that hardship and learned from their mistakes. They are now one of the most humanitarian countries in the world. In a little less than 80 years they went from being fascists to one of the most democratic nations in the world.

 

In a modern world sanctions on trade would be enough to punish an adversary. Strangling a nation's economy is much more damaging to a country than being shot at. They were not in a globalized world though.

 

“The easiest way is to challenge the belief they hold and crush it into powder before their very eyes. You need to drive them to sincerely question just what they are doing. You fight extremism with rationality.” Rex said plainly. “Not many will follow a course that they believe can only lead to ruin, not as long as they think it is pointless.”

 

Hope was a double-edged sword to any leader, if that hope was ever shattered then their loving supporters could quickly become a lynching mob out for their blood. A lot of German soldiers threw down their weapons when they realized that the war was pointless. They tried to take their families and find somewhere to retreat to. Rex was already sure that this same thinking was something the elves shared.

 

The high elves had come here running from something, it was plain to see that they had completely given up the idea of fighting when they first appeared on the continent. It took much coaxing and a few hundred years before the elves began to develop their arrogance.

 

“Will all the elves suffer because of what Dryfys is doing?” Welch asked him with sorrow hidden in her eyes.

 

“Yes, that is a certainty. Unless they have some hidden ace up their sleeves, then I think it will happen right after they finish with the beastmen.” Rex said flatly. “I don't think they can afford this kind of expenditure. Their entire labor force is made of slaves, their production speed is quite poor.”

 

A slave would rarely have any morale. While you can order them using the collars it doesn't mean they have to work their hardest for you. While the elves all lived affluently, they had a really slow development speed. They also treated their slaves like farm animals, this was something the high elves had left them.

 

“Is there a way to take out the top, but spare the bottom. Like cutting rotten branches from a tree?” Welch asked him seriously.

 

Rex looked at Welch sadly again.

 

“No, that won't fix anything. People need to learn somehow.” Rex said as he took on a more determined expression. “When only the bad people are the ones being heard, then the good people need to speak up. They need to let their voices be heard in any way possible, and push that evil back down.”

 

“But they are being lied to-” Welch started talking, but Rex cut her off.

 

Pointing at the sky, he said something ridiculous.

 

“The sky is green, blue as a color does not exist.” Rex said flatly, confusing the elf. “Do you believe me?”

 

Welch shook her head.

 

“Then why do you believe him based on his words alone?” Rex asked her waiting for her response.

 

Welch paused for a second and tried to think of how to describe it, she was finally left with a really weak response.

 

“Because he is the High King...” She said slowly with hesitation.

 

“Does that make him infallible?” Rex asked and smiled in a forlorn manner. “I have so many strange titles, Brewmaster, Great Teacher, Great Builder. I'm sure I will have even more in the future. The title I am probably most proud of is a flawed human that is filled with contradictions.”

 

Rex's smile turned into a smile of confidence.

 

“As long as I hold that title close to my heart, I will never be arrogant. I will also never stop growing, and I can keep my humility.” Rex said this with pride.

 

Welch found it shocking to see someone so willing to admit their faults. It was a type of thinking that wasn't common among the elves. The boy who was sitting at the table with a confident smile had been an enigma to the elf.

 

A creature that was weaker than any other on the island, one that had constantly experienced near death and brushes with insanity. Instead of trying to find a quiet hole to hide in, he was instead trying to build a nation where strength meant nothing. A nation where only your willingness and your determination mattered. As long as they wanted to contribute, no matter what race they were, he would find a place for them.

 

Welch suddenly felt powerless in front of the boy. Rex worked constantly towards his goals, yet she just trained her body. They were both alone in this world, but he seemed like an unshakable mountain. No matter how much he stumbled or messed up, he put one foot in front of the other and kept walking forward. It was a determination that only the strongest could ever possess.

 

What she didn't know was that all scientists and engineers must be masochistic. It was the only way to stay positive after thousands of failures.

 

Welch was interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of frantic wing flaps. Looking into the sky towards the source of the sounds, she saw an angry succubus barreling towards them. Welch barely had time to take a few steps back to avoid being landed on by Kira.

 

Welch saw Kira glance at Rex with a loving look, before turning a hate-filled stare onto Welch.

 

“I thought I could smell something sweaty. You shouldn't stink up the air around my future husband.” Kira told her with a look of scorn.

 

Welch instantly felt a ball of rage erupt into her chest.

 

I just bathed you bitch! Why does everyone always think it is sweat?

 

“You sure flew here quickly, I half expected those over-inflated meat bags would slow you down in flight.” Welch commented as she stared at Kira's twin peaks. “The extra weight was probably just removed from your brain.”

 

This caused Kira to also feel anger at the elf.

 

Rex watched the two beginning to get ready to fight with exasperation. A thought flashed through his head before he snuffed it out.

Can't you both do this somewhere else?

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