Chapter 50: The Mainland War – Chapter 15

3 days since the last chapter...

Succubus Homeland, Research facility

 

Making a program is similar to making a pizza, you only have to create all of the ingredients for it from scratch. Every different farmer and meat processor is a part of your team! They all send you the finest ingredients they can to make your pizza. A rich wheat flour, spicy pepperoni, dry mozzarella, and sweet tomatoes. In short, it is terrible in a bunch of different ways, and it is made worse when it all comes together. This is a process known as “Integration Hell.”

 

“And I am right in the damn middle of it!” Rex yelled out angrily, as he banged his fist on the metal machine in front of him.

 

Rex had spent 3 days attempting to make this machine, and he had failed over and over again. A mill was the child of a lathe and a drill press. It worked by moving a drilling machine over the metal using a sliding carriage. A mill was perfect for parts that were created in layers, anything with a flat bottom and top that needed precise machining.

 

“But not this piece of shit!” Rex said, kicking the table it was standing on.

 

His wig lay discarded on the concrete floor, showing the stubble on the top of his head. His thick bushy white eyebrows had begun to peel at the corners, revealing his newly growing eyebrows. His bright green eyes were filled with tears of pain, these were from hitting the metal machine. He was a bit small for his age, this was due to his poor diet. All they had was a small amount of produce that was grown by a mixture of the Pride of Men, and his working crew.

 

It had taken them 6 years to learn the basics of farming with fertilizer and chemicals. Modern farming was nothing like the old archaic practices that they used here, there was almost no rotation needed. Nitrates could tell the soil that it was not allowed to rest, it would be growing something. This was the first time they were rotating crops due to a fungus that had appeared, it was resistant to the fungicides that Rex had created.

 

Which was fine, you just grow something else that the fungus was unable to hurt until it died out. It was their first rotation, they would be eating maize and beans for a few years. This would replace their diet of flour and berries for a while.

 

Monster meat gave Rex problems pooping, so he didn't like to eat it. This was because his stomach wasn't equipped to handle it, it didn't have the muscles the beastmen did in his intestines. It came out very similar to corn, and it wasn't a very pleasant feeling. What he wanted was normal fish, and normal animals, but these were incredibly rare. There was almost no animal life on the island anymore, just plants.

 

This mill was supposed to be what started the industrial movement, but it just wasn't working. Rex was trying to make it work by taking advantage of how the logic seemed to work, but it was a failure in the end. The main circuit worked in several pieces, 3 motors worked to control the position of the cutter by controlling the XYZ coordinates.

 

One of the pieces of the enchantment was removable, it told the cutter the size of its blade. This could be changed when you swapped out the bit on the mill. The last piece of the enchantment was to tell it the exact shape that you wanted to be cut from the metal, Rex had hoped this would be enough. If you place your dreams in one hand, and your daily shit in the other, the heavier will always be clear.

 

The table was large enough for someone to lay on, it was 6ft x 4ft With 2 arms that held the mill on a central arm. A mill was much like a drill press that could move, with a special bit for cutting the metal. It's why it was called the child of the drill press and lathe. Rex had thought making one would be easy, he had made one while he was in college. It was the first machine he had built from scratch, he had kept it in a corner of his garage in the modern world.

 

Being in a military family meant they were barely middle class, and his father didn't have a lot of money. The military was the most common producer of engineers, but that path had been closed to him. Machining was an expensive hobby to have, but they were skills needed for engineering. Now they were the tools he was counting on to progress the entire industry. They didn't have workers they could count on in the first place.

 

“I can't do tool paths by hand, it would negate the entire purpose!” Rex said in anger, as he rubbed his tired face.

 

Below the table that held the metal stock was another large metal plate covered in a dense series of carvings to form an elaborate circuit. This plate was the reason for the giant size of the machine, it was so it fit the massive enchantment. A pile of discarded plates sat in a corner in the room, it was as tall as Rex was. Each one was as large as a dinner plate, they were the remnants of his study of the enchanting language.

 

What Rex originally had was just a graph with what he defined as properties of mana based on what the old elf had determined. He had also dissected the few enchantments the old elf had left, but he was shocked to find that they were mostly just pieces put together for a synergistic effect.

 

What Rex imagined was a graph that had rings around it at every 100 positions ending at 9 rings in total. Each of these rings was a threshold of mana that you needed to be able to supply to cast the spell in the first place. Anything past 9 was moot as the mana cost had hit the boundary of infinite. That was because the mana cost was cumulative the farther you went in any specific direction.

 

A lot of these points on the graph had similarities with the points around them, and Rex had started assigning colors to them. His goal was to map the entire thing and assign a color based on the branch it belonged to. All of the enchantments he was using were all incredibly low leveled and low cost, but he needed to use a lot of them. Every symbol added a mana cost to the enchantment that was produced, every single failure was a cost of mana and steel.

 

Right now it was a resource that didn't have a lot of uses on the island, outside of magical lights, guns, and the oil refinery. Their current upkeep was only about 30 medium-sized magic stones a day, it was fairly pitiful. This was because a constant diet and good exercise had allowed most of the islanders to reach their full potential, especially the beastmen. They had all bulked up considerably, especially the young ones like Doug.

 

Borscht weighed 1000 pounds when he came to the island, he had been quite a scrawny bear. Now he had happily doubled that weight, and he was quite rotund. The thought of his bulky white friend brought a smile to his face, and he started laughing.

 

“He looks like a white panda when he sits down!” Rex said laughing.

 

Whenever he was by himself he allowed himself to talk out loud, or when he was distressed. He realized it was a strange habit that was borne of his depression, it started when he stopped trusting the people around him. Now it had become entirely habitual, and he had to stop himself from doing it when he was around others.

 

Looking at the failure of a machine, a new thought struck him, something he felt might be worth investigating. This was because designing tool paths was something he never wanted to attempt. Tool paths were the cut lines that the mill would perform to create the final shape, they were a very detailed set of instructions for the machine to follow. That was because of the major difference between what the elves did and what Rex was doing.

 

“I want a machine that anyone can use even if they don't have mana.” Rex said to the machine that was currently moving the mill bit around in an erratic way.

 

This is what happened when you left a shape for it to try to cut out. The arm would not know how to begin, or how it should move. This caused it to just flail around, this was something that couldn't be solved by using a more powerful material. He had already wasted several pounds of truesilver trying, it would all need to be melted down again. This was the costs that any researcher would go through, right now it was all being covered by the succubi.

 

“No, it is all Kira, this is the cost of them getting new weapons,” Rex muttered.

 

For better explosives and bigger guns, the succubi were willing to pay any cost necessary. Rex realized weapons for them were like food culture for humans. They didn't eat, they only drank the infused water that was produced. Now that they didn't hunt, all they did was pursue their interests. What predator wouldn't admire sharper claws or bigger teeth?

 

Looking over on a workbench that was covered in cloth, he saw the monstrosity he had created. Why was gold amazing? A piece as large as a fingernail could coat a football field when mixed with zinc. Gold foil was an incredible substance that astronauts had to use in large amounts in space. Rex had used this miraculous substance to coat the metal of a gun by heat pressing it.

 

“They are gaudy as hell...” Rex said with a flat tone.

 

These were semi-automatic rifles chambered to 7.62x52mm and powered by enchantments. They used the new enchanted cartridge system, you could load enchanted metals in the shape of a bullet tip and activate them using an enchantment that would activate the metal on the casing itself. These would be metals especially saturated in large amounts of mana, these would be for killing especially hardened targets A black polymer folding stock that was reinforced with steel, and a polymer grip was the only plastic on the gun.

 

This rifle ejected out of the top like the Garand, while this was annoying, it meant that chambering a single round could be done by a succubus' tail. This was so that enchanted ammo could be manually added into the gun if necessary, this could be done by manually pulling open the bolt using an ambidextrous charging handle.

 

This was because Rex had to design guns around ambidexterity. Even a succubus would move their tail around to their dominant side when they used it. The magazine was straight with no curve to it, and it held 12 rounds. The standard imprint of a succubus tail was molded onto each side of it to give their tails additional purchase.

 

Rex had made a twin set of these guns that would be the start of the series, this was how he would kiss the asses of the two succubi. These were meant mostly as showpieces after all. Kira had gotten her habit of displaying weapons from her mother, their house was a prime example.

 

Most hunters may display a trusty rifle over the fireplace as a trophy, Kira had put a rocket launcher there the other day instead. The succubi had dubbed it the Monsterfaust since they had no idea what a panzer was. They loved the idea of calling it a fist in a strange language though, that idea was a huge success among the gathered succubi. Rex only called it a panzerfaust because of the comical shape of the rocket head, Rex was unable to fire the weapon due to the severe recoil from the rocket fuel.

 

The first gun would go to Kera, this was to try to finally get on her good side, he needed someone to help him reign in Kira. The second gun was for Kira, it would work as a bribe for the succubus who had been in a foul mood the last few days. Rex also wasn't very comfortable with a live rocket sitting right over a burning fire, Kira often got cold at night and added extra wood to it. It wasn't bad enough having loaded guns everywhere, and explosives hidden in various places.

 

“If that vampire had attacked me inside our house, she would never have gotten out of there alive...”Rex muttered, wiping the cold sweat that formed on his forehead off.

 

Neurotoxins, no... the succubi used the good stuff, potassium cyanide gas that could flood the entire house. They had a giant pressurized canister of it that Kira had asked for. Cyanide was already used in their mining operations underground, the dwarves had construed a sealed system that ore could be fed into. They used cyanide was planned to be dumped on the swamp monster within a year, it should greatly enjoy that.

 

When he thought of his nemesis in the swamp and the several buildings filled with waste chemicals, an evil smile appeared on his face. Little did he know that something else was eating his stockpile of waste chemicals, as he was busy thinking about them.

 

-

Meanwhile...

Succubus Homeland, Quarantined section

 

Blue, as a creature, was constantly evolving. It was also slowly learning about its existence. It was comprised of countless cells that looked like a cluster of amoebas. Individually it was not capable of thought, but together it formed a complex matrix that acted like neurons in a brain. This allowed it to slowly gain the ability to learn.

 

When it had become too large to wear on a single wrist, it had developed the ability to split itself to allow it to stay with its creator. This was the direction it had decided to evolve in for convenience. Unlike the mold that had colonized Rex's body, Blue was forced to evolve in a different direction. It was in an environment where it did not have food that it could use, it wasn't anywhere it could normally survive.

 

It broke down chemicals to their raw elements and used them as nutrients to grow. Mana was its energy source, that was all it needed instead of chemical energy. Its blue slime body was like a small city, with the industrial power to break down anything and make it into its resources. These resources were then used to build even more buildings. Mana could be found anywhere, it was even floating freely in the air, but Blue could just take it from Rex's lab from the various waste products he created.

 

Blue had the desire to get stronger, and that meant it needed to find its way to grow. In the middle of an abandoned succubus house was a steaming pool of chemicals that were reacting with the clay floor. This pool was formed from several empty barrels the blue slime had dumped out for its children to grow. Floating in this pool were several fist-sized lumps of goo that were happily swimming around.

 

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They did not possess much consciousness if Blue left them alone, but this abandoned house filled with chemicals was perfect for temporarily containing them. These children were subordinate colonies that Blue had created from itself. They were all clear with a light blue tint to them, not the same rich, dark shade that Blue itself possessed as if it was formed from the ocean. No matter what happened they would always be subordinate to Blue, this was important for their function. Blue could temporarily absorb them to increase its mass if it needed to.

 

A perfect image of the vampire comprised of her chemical footprint appeared through its mind, it would not allow something that wanted to harm its creator to survive. It had already calculated the perfect solvent ratio to ensure that not even a molecular bond would be left of her. These children would assist with that, while they didn't possess the same power that Blue did alone, they weren't meant for that.

 

They could produce strong acids and solvents, they could replace Blue in making plastics. They would wander the island and look for matter to break down so that they could divide into new colonies. These new colonies would be able to quickly come to its call if necessary, anywhere on the island. This would ensure that if anything attempted to harm its creator in front of it again, they would never be able to leave the island alive.

 

If Blue was capable of it, an evil smile matching its creators would appear on its slime body, but for a reason, that would bring Rex to tears.

 

-

Meanwhile...

Succubus homeland, Outside Kera's house

 

A mother-in-law was a creature that Rex was well equipped to handle, or at least he was in his last life. That was because he fundamentally understood what they were looking for, stability and happiness for their family. Rex kept this thought in his mind, as he knocked on the door of the large house.

 

When meeting your future parents, the best face to use was clear. As the door slowly opened Rex put on his most ingratiating smile. This was because Rex had been the reason for Kera to move into this new house. The poor construction methods of the succubi meant that just a little bit of nitroglycerin had been enough to demolish that shack of a place.

 

“You look wonderful today Kera, is that a new dress?” Rex asked her in a bright tone, as he quickly commented on her clothes.

 

Kera had been on her guard when she saw her future son-in-law, he had destroyed her house and stolen her precious daughter from her! While he had replaced her home with a nicer one, it was still a bitter memory for her. She had owned that little home for hundreds of years, it was almost as old as she was!

 

“Thank you! It is my favorite dress, it is the latest fashion!” Kera said excitedly, as she brought up her dress. She also thought it made her look quite good.

 

Rex smiled internally, as he knew what the most important step was, never let them stew on bad memories. Your in-laws can be your greatest ally in a relationship, but they require many bribes for their services.

 

“You know I have always meant to properly apologize for the damage I did to your previous house, here I made this for you. It is the first production of the new gun for the succubi, this way we can sell off the old ones to the foxmen after some modifications.” Rex told her as if it wasn't a big deal.

 

In his hand was a long thin plastic case, that he presented to the succubus. She had quite a touched look on her dark elven face, as she received the gun case. Kera most commonly took on the form of this race in her normal day to day activity

 

Kera hesitated as she held the gun case, she had to think if she was okay inviting her destructive son-in-law into her new house. He had managed to destroy so many buildings, but Kera soon had a thought.

 

If he blows it up, he can just build me an even bigger one!

 

“Why don't you come in?” She said with a smile, as she turned and quickly ran to a large couch with a coffee table.

 

Rex walked into the door in time to see Kera popping the latches on the gun case inside her living room. The remnants of a sewing kit sat on Kera's coffee table and a crumpled-up dress she had been working on. Since they all had such long lives it showed in the wide range of hobbies they had. Instead of a kitchen, she had a small worktable to fix her weapons, and guns were all over the walls.

 

It was all the same gun with slightly different variations on it, when Rex made the first version of the rifle, he hadn't designed it completely for a succubus. This lead to many minor modifications to the weapon since its inception. Rex also used it to get a better understanding of designing weapons for other races. That was because even slight differences to the human form meant the weapon needed to be carefully redesigned.

 

The beastmen guns had a soft polymer added to the grips of the weapons that was easier for their furry hands to find purchase. They were bullpup to be shorter with a longer barrel, and they had nothing that hung off the weapons. This way they could throw the weapon on their backs using a sling, and drop down and run on all fours. While beastmen did have a hand preference like humans did, the ratio was very even. This was because by default their hands had to be evenly skilled to run on them.

 

None of the beastmen had complained about issues with the ejection port on the weapons as the succubi had. It made it very hard to design weapons that everyone could use, a prime example of this was Borscht. The bear also wanted his own weapon, something that suited him. Rex didn't think he could get away with giving him bamboo as a weapon.

 

Rex was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of a gasp, looking over he could see a bright gold glow reflecting off Kera's dark skin. She reached into the gun case carefully, as if she was picking up her daughter for the first time. The gun was just as gaudy as he remembered it being, as the entire barrel and receiver were gold. A polymer black grip was installed on the bottom and it extended forward like a normal rifle, but all of the screw heads and pins were gold plated, only the sight wasn't covered in gold plating.

 

Rex smiled but was suddenly startled when he heard a group of gasps coming from behind him. Turning around he could see his group of guards, some were at the door while others were looking through the windows. All of their eyes were focused on Kera's gaudy weapon, and Rex could see a sudden look of conflict on her face as she stared at the gun in her hands.

 

“I made a pair of them, Kira's in on the bed waiting for her to get home.” Rex told her with a consoling smile on his face.

 

Kera instantly felt like she had misjudged this creature, he was an excellent family member. When she thought of her and her daughter having matching guns, a large grin appeared on her face.

 

“I think they will make great display pieces.” Rex had just started when Kera looked like she was reminded of something.

 

Standing up she walked over to the fireplace that had a small fire going in it, she was burning oils to scent the home. Above the fireplace sat her Monsterfaust, waiting for the day it would see its first use. She walked over to the mantle holding her golden gun, this gave Rex some hope.

 

This hope shattered instantly as she un-slung the gun from her back and took the sling off it. She then tossed the old weapon next to the fire poker and placed the golden gun on her back with the old sling. A proud look appeared on her dark elven face when she imagined her and her daughter wielding the guns in battle!

 

Kera's face was slowly becoming sterner, as the fantasies of her putting her enemies under her booted feet were interrupted by Rex's next sentence.

 

“I wanted to talk to you about Kira.” Rex told her.

 

Kera had a glowing smile on her face when she heard these words, this was her favorite topic to talk about! She was starting to see this strange creature that stole her daughter in an entirely new light, what a wonderful person. Images of her daughter wearing her low-cut shirt and short pants appeared in her mind. She wore belts on her waist and thighs to hold all of her ammo and explosives, she even created her own massive gun to destroy her enemies.

 

She is so cool!

 

Domineering, hot-blooded, and unbridled. These are the words that Kera would use to describe her daughter, and the succubi had a lot of respect for her. She had even started to build up her following, this would be the foundation for her future power. Kera had only one thought when it came to her daughter.

 

“I think Kira has been a bit too rambunctious lately, I am seriously worried she is going to get hurt!” Rex said in concern.

 

Kera's face went straight when she heard this statement.

 

“And what would you suggest?” Kera asked him.

 

“I think we should ask her to take a step back and be more cautious, I am really worried something will happen to her.” Rex began but was stopped by Kera who help up her hand.

 

Her eyes were closed and she had a serious look of concentration on her face, several thoughts were going through her head.

 

The first was a scene of Kira standing over the charred body of Ivangor, her boot on his face. Her sisters were flying around her dropping explosives on the elves that were running away from them.

 

Hurt her?

 

The second scene was an image of Kira wearing a long dress sitting on a rocking chair knitting a sweater for herself. She looked very bored, with a flat expression, she also didn't have any guns.

 

NO!

 

“I think Kira is perfect just how she is! You should just focus on supporting her from home!” Kera told him confidently.

 

Rex paused when he heard her reply, a thought suddenly dawned on him. Rex was now like a pseudo-military wife, this caused him to realize something. Rex needed to change his approach, or he wouldn't get anywhere with her.

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