Chapter 79: The Mainland War – Chapter 43

 

3 days since the last chapter…

Succubus homeland, Training field

 

Rex was one of the most gunshy engineers he knew in the weapons plant back on Earth. With no military background, he mostly fired guns as a hobbyist and went to the shooting range once a month to practice with a couple of his guns. He had never thought of himself as incredible, but he had been pretty good. Seeing the grouping of bullet holes on the target at the end of the range, he could confidently say that they would all fit under the palm of his hand.

 

“Good shooting, Bren!” He said as he looked at his own grouping. “At least they all hit the paper…”

 

Several of the bullets had flown out of the target and barely made it onto the paper, the rifle was heavy and the recoil was more than he was expecting sometimes. He could say with complete confidence that any of the succubi were a better shot than him. Next to him stood a small succubus holding a pistol that was larger than her hands. The kick from the recoil almost caused her to smack herself in the face, but her grouping was tight enough that a quarter could hide the bullet holes. The determination she showed as she fired all six rounds made Rex feel even worse about the results he achieved.

 

“Shaya truly is one of the greatest geniuses the succubi has produced.” Bren nodded sagely as she said these comments. “We are all incredibly proud of her.”

 

Then he looked at her other target which was a steel beam she had cut in half using sprays of bullets, this was caused by the much larger weapon sitting on the table. With the exhaust pipes coming off the side of it, it almost resembled an engine since Shaya had removed the stock and made it fire only from the hip. Using the magical light technology, a tube, some red paint, and mirrors she had made a laser pointer that was the size of a pen. This had been carefully attached to the plethora of objects sticking off the front of the weapon.

 

A small dial on the side could control the fire rate and allow it to adjust from 350 rounds a minute up to 2000 rounds per minute using gears. It was the first firearm he had ever seen with a clutch installed in it, this was something she had come up with looking at the tank schematics. The first thing that he thought of was that it would be every military development department’s wet dream since it had so many functions. It was so much that the word “over-engineered” immediately came to his mind.

 

“Shaya, I think that if your legs shake from holding the gun, then you need a different gun! Look at how well you shoot, imagine if you just had the machine gun portion…” He tried to convince her.

 

Shaya paused and turned to Rex with a blank expression before she turned and looked down at her legs, then at the large gun. Her sight moved back and forth between the two before she seemed to gain some insight. Running over to a small table that was used for maintaining guns, she took a piece of paper from a bag she carried and began doing some sketching with small tools that were made for her little hands. Rex was curious and walked over to get a look at what she was designing and instantly felt his jaw hit the floor.

 

Instead of a gun that didn’t cause her legs to shake, why not make stronger legs? What she was slowly doodling was the shape of a large armored warrior with feet the size of a tank. The most impressive part was the tail that she was drawing to have a spiked wrecking ball and a sharp blade like a spear. There were shoulder-mounted cannons that he assumed were controlled by the pilot's wings and large impressive horns on the head that were made for ramming things. 

 

The body was bulky and the weapon was an even larger version of the machine gun that she had been building. Overall the shape was still a succubus and it had impressive armor built over its body to make it look like a valiant knight. Rex assumed that it had to be 10 stories tall at least, and he could already see the problems with trying to build something like this. The stress on the metal and the number of engines you would need to move something like it would be phenomenal.

 

“You seem calmer now, did you come up with a solution to the problem you were facing?” Bren asked him.

 

Rex was able to smile when he heard this question, it was because he had found a solution. “I did.” 

 

“What was it?” Bren asked with interest.

 

“We assign point values to things,” Rex stated calmly.

 

“I am listening,” Bren said with interest.

 

“Killing a big target may net the valiant succubus many points, but to achieve the highest score possible she has to survive until the very end,” Rex explained. “This is also how we can determine which succubus will get what weapons, like succubusters and tanks. I also plan to take requests for new things.”

 

This way he could also control the amount of them that were on the island since if left to the succubi they would have a small army. As it stood it would already be suicidal for any force to attack the island, there were countless cannons and large-caliber machine guns at almost every corner and angle. But this didn’t stop the succubi from always wanting more weapons and bigger guns, Shaya was a prime example of this. The more Rex taught her the bigger she made her gun, she was even thinking of making a robot to carry it.

 

“Have you told anyone about this yet?!” Bren asked as she placed her hands on his shoulders tightly.

 

“No… I haven’t... “ Rex muttered.

 

Bren was doing some math in her head, right now no one but Rex or Shaya could produce weapons like the succubuster or the big sister main battle tank. These were things that were considered priceless because money couldn’t buy them, this information would cause a storm among the succubi. She needed to carefully consider the best way to make the most of this new system so that she could maximize her profits!

 

“And how are these points earned?” Bren asked.

 

“At the end of battles, defeating monsters, and completing missions,” Rex said calmly. “This is going to be a system for the warrior succubus.” 

 

“And can custom weapons be ordered? What if they want a special weapon?” Bren asked.

 

“Of course, I plan to create a new division of succubi to study enchantments. It will be dangerous, but I have realized that it is the only path forward for us.” Rex explained. “The canning plant has made that apparent for me.” 

 

Rex said this as he pulled a can of meat from his pocket and gave it a few shakes for good measure. It was his lunch, one of the cans from the first batch that came from the canning plant. After being cooked with some salt and herbs found on the island, the taste was incredible. It was better than any of the canned food he had eaten on Earth, he had eaten almost 3 cans of it before he was so full he had been forced to take a break. The plant had been running almost non-stop with groups of succubi working from morning to night.

 

“Rex, there you are!” A voice called out.

 

Turning around he could see a dwarf with a bald head who was using a rubber umbrella as a shade to walk under the sun. He had a ruddy complexion and was sporting an enlarged gut from all of the canned food he had been eating. All he needed was a spoon and he could just discard the rest of the can when he was done eating straight out of it. And what was even better was the enchantments on the can make it even easier to eat large amounts of it. One of the more popular varieties among the dwarves used alcohol to flavor it during the cooking process.

 

Rex looked at the can of cooked meat in his hands and wondered if waving it around is what summoned the dwarf before he held up a case filled with documents. “The new weapons plant is being constructed, some of the dwarves who helped carve it out are joining in so it looks like we will be finished even sooner.”

 

“What brought that on? I thought only a few of them were interested in the project?” Rex said with some shock.

 

“You can make guns the same way you make those cans, can’t you?” Guffrey asked.

 

“It has never been a question of if I can, but when I can,” Rex said confidently. “With the numbers we have, I would expect to be able to produce thousands of weapons a day. I also had something I wanted to show you.”

 

“What is it, Guffrey asked as he began walking towards him.”

 

The training yard they were using was only a short walk away from the lab where Rex did most of his research. While trying to dissolve the magical metals he ran into a hurdle, and that was getting them to dissolve in the first place. All of the acids he had tried had failed to produce any noticeable results so he tried to powder the metal. That turned into an effort in futility since cutting it was a slow and painful process using tools, so he turned to enchanting.

 

This led him to an old print that was collected by a succubus who also provided the print that was now being used on the canned meat. It could take water and move it at extreme speeds and create pressure that was incredible to behold. While the mana cost was intense, the effect it could have on production was beyond value for the island. Before long they made it to the large temple-like structure and into the front doors. 

 

After walking down the long hallway past the guarded entrance they came to the lab which was a large open room with various tables and tools running along the sides. With a few nimble skips, Shaya took the lead as she ran to a large table where a thick sheet of steel that was over an inch thick sat on a metal grate. Above it was a thick metal-reinforced plastic hose that led to a nozzle that was made from enchanted metal with a hose attached to the side that provided mana using a small pump. 

 

It was mounted on the same frame that the milling equipment was normally set up on and used the same controls. Shaya looked proud as she activated the machine and a thin stream of water began to fire out of the nozzle after some sputtering. She was like an artist as she carefully maneuvered the metal and started cutting out the outlines for a part of a tank's turret assembly. One of her projects was a large pile of metal parts that needed to be welded together to start constructing the frame. 

 

“You come up with the most amazing things… This also keeps the metal cold so it doesn’t need to be heat treated again!” Guffrey said as he reached over and felt the cold metal after being cut by the water stream.

 

“If I have the print, turning it into an enchantment takes almost no time or effort. As long as you have a way to supply it with mana it will act just like the monster's ability does, but in a mechanical form.” Rex explained. 

 

Earth had them too, in the 1960’s they were adapted to be used on wood by Norman Franz to increase cutting speeds. What they discovered was that while it didn’t increase the cutting speeds of wood very much, it was incredible when used on metal. A plasma cutter could perform the same function but the high heat that was used to cut the metal ruined the heat treatment. While this was fine for things that weren’t under pressure or stress, it added extra steps when producing things like engine parts.

 

“You seem like you are in quite a good mood?” Guffrey asked.

 

“Kira is coming back in a few days with some of the succubi. It is a good time to hold a holiday I think.” Rex said with a smile.

 

“What holiday is that? Is it like a festival?” Guffrey asked.

 

“In time it will be, but we need to create some holidays on the island,” Rex explained.

 

“What is it?” He asked.

 

“It is called Thanksgiving. It is supposed to give thanks to the harvest and to hope for a more plentiful year. But now we can begin canning fruits and vegetables, so in a sense, we achieved food that will last for years now.” Rex explained. “Kira is also bringing back a lot of the stuff she collected from the mainland, so we were thinking of spending a day cooking and preparing everything.”

 

“You are thinking of a grand feast?” Guffrey asked.

 

“That’s right, enough to feed the entire island until they are full with leftovers to spare. I want to bring out all of the alcohol and make it a festival to remember, something that everyone can look forward to.” Rex explained.

 

“What about all of the projects we have going?” Guffrey asked.

 

“We can take a day off,” Rex explained.

 

“When is the Lass going to return?” Guffrey asked so he could prepare.

 

“3 days from now, they are also bringing Welch back with them, I guess they plan to only leave some of the sisters there to help the beavers until they can bring back more explosives. The ore is so rich under the mountain they are attacking that the gophermen that they recruited can’t find a good way through it.” Rex said with some concern. “If they use the explosives they brought then they won’t have enough left to carry out the attack. She said that the amount they used to clear the waters was more than they could replenish, the gist of it is shipping. We just don’t have enough supplies on the mainland and the succubi are going to have to wing it all.”

 

“That does sound like a problem,” Guffrey said sadly.

 

“It is, we just don’t have enough shipping. Between ammunition and armaments for the crew and the supplies they need since they are beastmen, it reduces the amount they can carry.” Rex sighed sadly. “There is also the delay of a few weeks just to make a round trip, this will be easier when we have more ships but it takes time to build them.”

 

Aircraft was the answer to moving items quickly over a long distance, but those required airfields and too many sensors that he didn’t have or enchantments that could replicate them. This was the same issue he was having with the tanks since the people inside of them wouldn’t be able to see what was happening around them. But he also needed to come up with a magical superacid that could dissolve the magical metals he was working with. Everything was interconnected and he was feeling like a lifetime was not going to be enough. 

 

I need to start training the next generation… then work them like dogs! Rex had been trying to think of how to tackle these various issues, he felt like he was in a similar position to before he built the oil refinery. Soon a large group of children would be delivered from the various races, but some of them would be staying on the island. He was also planning on taking in some of the succubi and starting school. Then the graduates could begin helping him advance the various fields around the island, and a military academy could be started for the people who want to fight.

 

“Are you going to start freeing our women from the elves?” Guffrey asked him seriously.

 

“We are only going to have one shot at it, the elves have shown me that the same trick will never work twice on them. I am going to free all of their slaves in one fell swoop, and take as many back with us as we can.” Rex explained. “Dora has informed me that the elves are suspending the sale of borax, which is worrying for many reasons. Most likely they have an alchemist that refined cold iron, which means they are going to have a massive improvement to their weaponry soon. I feel like we are on a clock and the longer we give the elves the worse the situation will be for us.”

 

“You can just remove the collars. What’s the problem?” Guffrey asked in shock.

 

“I have the enchanting schemes in my office for the originals that the high elves created, the ones that the elves use are weaker copies..” Rex said and wondered when Guffrey started doubting him. “But once I open them a single time they will quickly adapt and that is the problem. I’m not the same kid that I was all of those years ago.”

 

Every attack he had launched on them from the shadows had backfired and even the great weapon of the succubi had just aided their development. If Rex was going to cause them problems again then this time would be different. An armed rebellion the likes of which they had never seen or could prepare for, one where ships filled with weapons and synthetic armors would be given away freely in hopes of convincing the freed people to climb into the cargo holds. Especially the women who would be promised an incredibly safe place that is filled with willing partners.

 

“Actually, why don’t I just show you what I came up with,” Rex said and motioned for Guffrey to follow him to a different room.

 

“What was wrong with the keys you used before?” Guffrey asked.

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“I’ll show you,” Rex said as he led him into a long hallway that could act as a shooting range. “I don’t fire weapons in here because of the echo it produces on the concrete. But it is great for testing ranges.”

 

Walking over to a closet he pulled open the heavy door and revealed a room that was lined with lead and filled with plastic buckets of slave collars. They were all open and Rex took the time to snap them all shut one at a time before he began tossing them on the ground. Guffrey noticed that the only thing in the room was a large silver ball that sat on a pillow. The ball had runes carved into it intricately that he assumed had to be tooled due to the precision. Suddenly he thought of all of the various machines that Rex had built and wondered if this had been part of their purpose.

 

“It looks perfectly round…” Guffrey commented.

 

“It is as close as it gets, maybe 1/10000 interference if even that,” Rex commented. “It has to be to ensure that the energy wave it releases is sent in all directions equally.”

 

Rex walked over to the large silver marble on the pillow and pulled out a vial of thick viscous fluid that was completely clear, it was mana that he had mixed into a fuel mixture.

 

“Freedom was often compared to a torch or a shining star,” Rex said as he poured the fluid on the silver ball.

 

Instantly a blinding flash erupted from the silver ball that seemed to be able to penetrate even the bones in Guffrey’s hands when he tried to cover his eyes. The light was able to pass through his skin, between his bones, and through his eyelids to blind him. It felt like it was sticking to the back of his eyes and producing its light even when he had his eyes closed. He couldn’t see anything at all.

 

“What they don’t tell you is that freedom is blinding, it is painful sometimes, and it is easy to lose your way in it,” Rex commented dryly as he rubbed his eyes that were leaking tears.

 

All around them the sound of clicks was issued from all of the collars that Rex had activated and closed. They sprung open on their own as if the light was unhappy with their existence and wanted them gone. Guffrey heard this sound too and suddenly felt shocked mixed in with his pain. 

 

“What is the range of this thing?” The dwarf asked. 

“It can blanket the entire island if it is dropped from the air. All It is doing is transmitting the opening frequency through light instead of touch, it is quite incredible.” Rex commented.

 

“What about the blindness?” Guffrey asked.

 

“It will go away in about 10 or 15 minutes, that is the only downside. But it has incredible penetration and nothing I have found but lead or gold can effectively block it. Even then it has to be at least as thick as a thumb if you use lead, I am still trying to work out the proper ratios for protection.” Rex explained.

 

What Rex had been more surprised about was how easy it was to send a signal using a medium that humans didn’t have a good grasp on yet. With some light, he was able to send a command to the collars and open them, something even the high elves might not have imagined. All because they didn’t want the collars to be easy to open and required the use of a tool to make it harder to free them. The original keys he made created the frequency of mana that the collar recognized as the open order which turned it off, so he started experimenting with other methods.

 

“Sound also works but it is so loud that it can cause permanent damage to anyone close to the center of it. Magical light is bright but it creates particles that emit light that can pass through solid objects, this will make you blind for longer as these particles can produce light inside of the eye but it isn’t bright enough to cause any lasting damage.” Rex explained quickly to alleviate the dwarf’s worries.

 

As the creator of the magical light, he was very familiar with its functions, and blindness from them was something he was an expert at dealing with. After close to 10 minutes the light started to recede and they were able to see again, and Rex noticed Guffrey was eyeing the silver ball differently.

 

“Are you going to have the succubi carry it over the elves' lands?” Guffrey asked.

 

“Of course not, I will just make more of them and drop a bunch of them all at once,” Rex explained. “Do you think the succubi would have the patience to perform such a complex task?”

 

“You’re right, I should have known,” Guffrey remarked.

 

“I do not know what you mean, but I do not approve,” Bren replied seriously from the side and the rest of Rex’s guards all agreed silently. “A succubus is a perfect warrior that does whatever is necessary to capture her prey, we do not slack off in battle.”

 

Kira got fed up with the birdmen’s refusal to leave the mountain and chose to come back here to be pampered… While I am happy she is returning, her behavior contradicts your statement! Rex wouldn’t say this out loud because their tails were quite good at slapping. It is just like you never tell your wife she has outgrown her favorite dress or that those jeans do make her ass look big. They are nails in a coffin that no man wants closed because it usually signals long nights of sleeping on a couch. She isn’t retreating, she is just tactically resting…

 

It also meant he could talk to her about the new system he was coming up with, he felt like her input would be the most important. For seven years now he had mostly restricted the succubi out of fear of them causing harm to themselves, and it hadn’t gotten him anywhere. Instead, he was going to put himself where he felt like he worked best which was a supporting role. Shaya had shown him that the succubi could also contribute things like the tank sketch that helped him pull knowledge out that he wouldn’t have normally.

 

He was going to create a school to train the people who would help him finish his work while supporting the succubi’s desire for more extreme weapons. The Succubus fulfillment society was a terrible thing that had sprung up because he kept trying to restrict them, so he was going to try something different. If this was mixed with harsher discipline then he was certain that the succubi’s extreme tendencies would be reduced significantly. The only reason that he felt like Kira behaved was that she knew he would be mad at her if she took stupid risks, but he had no way to impart this belief in the other succubi.

 

“I see… so this is what you were planning,” Guffrey commented when he finished processing all of it. 

 

“Once we have the ships then we will be proceeding with the plan. You could say that what Kira is doing now is like the dry run for when we attack the elves directly. We are having all kinds of logistical issues which is why Kira is having to fly back here personally, we can’t afford to make these mistakes when we are over a month away at the elves' main territory.” Rex explained. “Kira, me, Simbad, we have all kind of bungled this recent operation but it is also helping us find a lot of the mistakes in our process. Some of the beastmen just can’t stay at sea longer than a few days without falling ill. We learned all kinds of things from this recent operation and we also made good friends with the beavermen.”

 

“It is quite a feat considering how short of a time that the island has been around.” Guffrey sighed out sadly.

 

“A lot of people don’t realize how much goes into wars, we brought things like engines and other things that we thought would be useful and it ended up costing up cargo space, we just don’t have enough supplies over there yet,” Rex explained. “Supply lines are not easy to maintain, we also have had to contend with elven and beastmen ships that are in the area.”

 

“That is how I lost, our supply lines were cut off when an earthquake sealed the tunnels we were using. Without fresh food, our troops lost their morale and we couldn’t keep fighting.” Guffrey lamented. “What do you think the elves might have come up with?”

 

“I am not too sure, but it is best to prepare,” Rex said.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Elven capital, A hidden weapons factory

 

Dryfys was being led to a large open training ground after he had just walked through a gate into a large walled-off yard. Next to him was Ivangor who was wearing a stoic expression and seemed quite lively after having run here from the frontlines. It normally took over a week to make the journey using a fast horse but he could do it in a fraction of the time using a new pair of moccasins. His breath wasn’t even out of order after having run for an entire day and night and only stopped briefly at the front gate.

 

“What did you call me here for?” Ivangor asked seriously.

 

“Since Aly got her new assistant she has made some breakthroughs and we now have a weapon that can rival the cracking powder rifles that the dwarves use,” Dryfys explained confidently.

 

“Those shitty little toys?” Ivangor commented. “I could throw a rock harder.”

 

“You could… but most of our brethren can’t,” Dryfys said patiently. 

 

They were joined by a third male elf who was holding a book with a troubled expression on his face. A problem was occurring in the capital but he wasn’t sure how to bridge the topic with his liege. 

 

“My Lord, I must report something to you…” He said after biting his lips several times.

 

“What is it?” Dryfys asked with some annoyance.

 

“It’s the women sir, there's a revolt that is happening but…” The elf suddenly went slack-jawed as he tried to word it in a way that didn’t sound too bizarre.

 

“Out with it!” He ordered.

 

“With the soapstone ban put in place, Ashanda has resigned her office and the women are all protesting since soap will no longer be on the market.” The elf said with a twitching brow.

 

“So?!” He said with some annoyance.

 

“They are refusing to bathe, to shave, or to cut their hair…” The elven servant’s face started twitching when he got to this point.

 

Both Ivangor and Dryfys had shocked looks on their faces when they heard this information, they looked at each other with confusion and disgust. Elves were incredibly clean people, they had been that way since they discovered soapstones. The idea of this was revolting to Dryfys who was especially guilty of being a neat freak.

 

“I didn’t completely ban their sale, why would they go so far?” Dryfys muttered in anger.

 

“The boutique owned by Dora has put up a sign saying that they will be going out of business now that they can no longer produce soapstones. This has led to outrage in the women who took it upon themselves to come up with this punishment for their husbands…” The elf said with some difficulty.

 

“Is there some problem?” A female voice called.

 

In the training hall was a woman wearing a white robe with a veil covering her face, in her arms was a long silver barrel that was attached to a wooden frame with a leather bladder that ran along the bottom. It had a wooden stock that was finely carved and a sliding notch sight that was common in old rifles from the early 1500s. Next to the veiled elven woman was a short dwarven woman with red hair that was tied in braids. She had a cold expression in her green eyes and a ruddy complexion as she wore a matching white robe.

 

“No… is that the new weapon?” Dryfys asked.

 

“Yes! We just finished testing it.” She replied.

 

“And the results?” Dryfys asked.

 

“See for yourself,” Alysandri said as she handed the long rifle to the dwarven woman next to her.

 

The dwarf took the rifle and used a bolt that stuck out the side to open a breach that was similar to a modern bolt action where she fit in a metal cone-shaped bullet that had grooves carved into the side to act like rifling. The bolt was completely hollow and closing it pressed it tightly into the rifled barrel, this was something the dwarves had learned to create to make their bullets fly more true. Pouring mana into the rifle caused the bladder at the bottom to rapidly expand and it made popping noises as it began to reach its full pressure. 

 

With a pull of a lever that acted as the trigger, a stream of air was heard and a crack followed signaling the projectile had gone supersonic. The cold steel slug hit a sheet of metal that was as thick as a finger and passed through it cleanly. Both Dryfys and Ivangor were shocked at the power that was achieved using the leather bag to store air.

 

“How did you make this?” Dryfys asked first.

 

“It uses the lungs of a certain toad we found in the forest. Ever since that fire rampaged through all of the mana it released caused new species of monsters to appear and this is an ability that is in the monster’s lung. We have refined it into leather and attached it to the cold iron rifle, the valve is what controls the pressure and allows it to propel the bullet.”  She explained. 

 

“This is not what I was expecting? Well done!” Dryfys said excitedly.

 

“It is all her achievement, I only came up with a method to cultivate the monsters needed. We should be able to start making them once we have the cold iron necessary.” Alysandri said and patted the dwarven woman on the head.

 

“Is she your newest project?” Dryfys asked with disdain.

 

“Yes!” Alysandri said happily.

 

Dryfys looked at the hole that was in the sheet of steel and decided that he would continue to tolerate the woman until her usefulness ended. A scowl crossed his face that he quickly suppressed.

 

“Can I take some of these with me to the frontlines? The Crocodile king has killed a lot of my men, the mages are useless in the swamps! Maybe I can put some of these in their hands.” Ivangor commented.

 

“That is why I called you here, I need them field-tested.” She responded with delight. 

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