Haaaaa…
She was good, but in the end, the match point had been won by me. She was sexy enough, but her techniques still had room for improvement.
“Phew. That wasn’t the stamina I expected out of a Tier 2. Hey, what are you smirking at?”
Was I? The retorts that I was about to use got stuck in my throat, as she cast a spell on us. My skin heated up a bit, and I could feel every part of me tingle for a second. It wasn’t the tingle of mana, though. I couldn’t feel that.
“It’s a simple spell to dry clothes, or sweat. It won’t really clean you, though. Now now, don’t make that face. You are already way stronger than your tier suggests; you would only do yourself a disservice if you were to split your time to dabble in magic. Yes, a mage can deal with 3 warriors at the same tier, but the same mage can’t easily deal with a single warrior of a higher tier.”
Either I was starting to lose control of my face, or she was starting to read me much more easily. Whichever the case might be, a change of topic was needed.
“That merchant of yours, how do you plan to contact him? How fast can he come?”
She squirmed on my right, as I felt her hands slowly inching down.
“Oh, don’t worry about him. It will be easy to send him a letter, but it will cost us one of your precious platinum coins. As for him coming here, it’s a bit more complicated. He has good ships, so it won’t take him more than a week to reach here after getting the letter. But the thing is, we need a dock for him unload his goods, so we will have to wait until we can set one up on the southern shores. Why do you ask?”
Her cold hands, which had reached their targets, were causing it to shrink up, rather than burst forth.
“The alchemist had a breakthrough. Apparently, mana cores react with nitric acid, kicking the Nitrogen out. After you filter out the Nitrogen, all that’s left is a new liquid, as the Alchemist calls it, ‘Mana acid’. Oh, can you pass me my pants?”
It was lying just below her feet, and after throwing it to me, rather than return to my side, she decided that her face was needed more near the cold hand of hers, which was still toying with my junior.
I took out a somewhat squishy black square from the pocket of my pants, about 3 cubic centimeters big.
“This is one of 2 things she managed to do with it for now. There is a lot we don’t know, so she has to find out by trial-error. This is what you get if you add animal fat to the mana acid. The acid isn’t used up by the process, but the fat changes its properties and becomes similar to vulcanized rubber.”
Her hot breath had managed to do what she wanted it to do, where the hands had failed. She took her eyes from the object of her curiosity for a moment, to ask her questions.
“So you want him to bring animals here, so we can open a farm? What are the uses of that ‘rubber’ for you to go so far?”
This world had a distinct gap in the list of domesticated animals, compared to ours. They had dogs, which could go up Tier 3, but were mostly Tier 2. It was a similar case for the horses, or rather horse-like creatures. They also had a half-rabbit half-chicken omnivorous creature that was called ‘teror’, which was farmed for its Tier 1 core and meat. What they were lacking were the oxen. Of course, this world had similarly tanky creatures, but their Tier was higher, leaving the elves unable to domesticate them. Since the physical strength of individual farmers was higher, they weren’t missed much.
“Rubber and this new material are quite useful. There are many uses, but mainly, it will help with the machinery. You can make gaskets with them, which will allow more lax tolerances when building steam engines. With it, perhaps Brian can knock out one or two of the less efficient engines by the time spring comes. But for now, we don’t need that much rubber. The fat from the goblin corpses are more than enough. There is another reason why we need the animal farms; meat and cores.
Rather than give a rest to her now stretched jaw, she lifted her eyebrows and lowered her ears, signaling me to continue.
“As you know, many have tried to establish large farms, but have failed, all of them due to economics. But with the steam engines increasing the grain production in the future, the equations will change. Citizens’ eating more nutritious food, meat, of course will be good, but it won’t change things much. But what will have a big impact are the cores. I don’t have to tell you what will happen if a bigger proportion of the populace were to be higher tier, do I?
She closed her eyes for a second to think. Not long after, she pulled out, to take a deep breath.
“Master, you are showing the smug face again. You said that alchemist Larysa had found one more thing, right?”
I had left the most interesting part to the last. Perhaps I should wait till she finishes the job she had started.
“The mana acid has one more use that she has confirmed. Adamantium dissolves in the acid. Dump some adamantium rich soil into the liquid, filter it off, and boil the acid. All you will be left with is Adamantium.”
Indeed, her eyes widened and her ears stood erect for a second, after which she jumped up in shock.
“Wait! You mean she managed to make pure Adamantium?!”
“Of course not. If we had, I would have told you sooner. Even if I didn’t, Larysa would have. You see, the strength of the acid, and the purity of the adamantium it leaves behind is dependent on the mana core initially used to make the mana acid. If a Tier 1 core was used, then the purity will be 1%, 5% for a Tier 2 core, and 20% for Tier 3. This discovery has only made it faster and cheaper to make Adamantium, not better.
Also, you might have noticed that the way purity scales is similar to how a blacksmith can purify. It also doesn’t make sense that weaker acids can’t make it any purer, as the only effect a weaker acid should have is on the work speed. There is too much that we don’t know about how mana and magic works.”
Her eyes shifted around while she grumbled under her breath, digesting the information. A minute later, she came to herself, slumping back to my lap, much more tired. Yes, I should have waited until she finished her task, and not left me hanging like this.
“Still, this changes everything. We got a huge trump card now. One that can make us allies, or enemies to the entire world.”
It was a given that it would change the world. After all, making adamantium cheaper could start a new arms race, but I was not sure about the global political ramifications. It took some time for her to gather her thoughts, and after prodding her to continue, she explained the matter.
“The Empire is strong on this continent, and it was the biggest country in the world before the fiasco, but it was never the strongest. On the western continent, lays the Tamar Union, which is spearheaded by a Tier 7 warrior, the strongest man in the world. Couple of decades ago, he had the brilliant idea that the mages were too powerful to be left unsupervised, and any mage at or above Tier 3 had to work for the state. But with the help of Atalanta, most of them managed to escape his tyranny, which sparked a feud between them. This weakened the mage forces of Tamar, but they had never relied on them in the first place.”
She had started to toy with my dick using her hands once again, absentmindedly.
“Atalanta might not have the population nor the military might of Tamar, but they have one thing they don’t, the Mage Union. Atalanta is a puppet state, controlled by a more meritocratic globalised organization. Even through the war has gone on for long, the borders have not shifted, since the Union would come out at full force to defend the fortress at the border.”
Being a high Tier Mage made one’s mind more flexible. One proof of that would be her actions right now. She had started to take a more involved approach to pleasuring me, and she was thinking about the ramifications of this new discovery while also telling me about global powers.
“There is also the Mithras kingdom. While they don’t involve themselves with the war, they are selling Mythril to Atalanta, while also selling Adamantium to Tamar, thanks to their extensive and abundant mineral reserves.
Now, if Tamar were to get news of this and manage to increase their Adamantium production, they could possibly win the war. This could make us enemy of the mages, worldwide. Although it would hardly be any different even if they don’t win.
Alternatively, we could inform the Mage Union about this, and get awarded for the contribution. But in this case, we would have to deal with the enmity of Tamar.”
Thanks for the chapter. Better à subtle s*x scene with most of the action faded to black that a badly one. If you don't intent to write a story for the s*x then this level is perfectly fine
While the way it was handled was acceptable, myself, I found it somewhat wanting.
Anyway, there are many writing guides available to help with different subjects and aspects of writing, including a few that help with writing s*x scenes. Some of these writing guides are free and some are not. I'm sure nearly all writers have their strengths and weaknesses. But I think it behooves good writers to try to improve on their weak points. I recently bought 'Essoe's Guide to Writing s*x Scenes', which I thought was tasteful and helpful, if pretty brief. Still, it was pretty cheap, so I can't complain.
It was ok as far as being ”tasteful” and keeping it from being distracting from the worldbuilding and almost sfw
would had liked some more lewd stuff or pillow talk cus I am thinking their relation feels a bit rushed? Like are they just f*ck buddies or romantic relation outside of their work relation? Then again we have done some time skips and stuff could had happened ”behind closed doors” that us readers has not been priviliged to know. But that’s just my opinion love the story so far keep up the good work and have a good day 
...
Author mentioned that s*x was basically like getting a massage for these guys. Also, it seems like the Princess is more or less working him over for information; note how she casually stops her "work" every time he stops sharing?... she is quite literally pumping him for information.
I also think that it is BS that she is telling him that he can't be a mage. The guy literally cultivated to the level of their experienced warriors in a month; either the princess is ignorant about the fact that he came from a world without mana, or she knows, but is really spinning things to try and steer him away from also becoming a mage. (I think it is fairly obvious that he could handle both, if he chose.)
Too little, or actually I get that you want to portrait a typical conversation of lovers who sometimes discuss things between matches, just that the I feel the chapter is too small. It feels like a big chunk is missing between this chapter and the past one, or maybe a little extra description of the shenanigans to flesh out this interaction that you seem to present in this one.
Anyway, not bad reading per se, thanks for the chapter.
The bedroom scene was well done. It could have been just a bit more subtle until the end of the chapter (the d*ck reference).
This is not the sexiest writing, but as a gentle promise of things to come, it is a bullseye.
They had dogs, which could go up Tier 3, but were mostly Tier 2. It was a similar case for the horses, or rather horse-like creatures. They also had a half-rabbit half-chicken omnivorous creature that was called 'teror', which was farmed for its Tier 1 core and meat. What they were lacking were the oxen. Of course, this world had similarly tanky creatures, but their Tier was higher, leaving the elves unable to domesticate them. Since the physical strength of individual farmers was higher, they weren't missed much.
I really do like how you describe the domesticated animals, particularly how you made most of them different from Earth animals. Far too many fantasy and isekai stories have the same, boring old horses, dogs, cats, chickens, etc., implying that these were either somehow imported to this fantasy world (or visa versa) or put there by the gods.
I am curious about what those "horse-like creatures" look like. Are they herbivores, omnivores or carnivores? Do they have thin or thick fur or scales? How is their head and tail shaped? Do they even have a tail, or manes?
I like it when fantasy stories describe their horse-like creatures or transportation/ pack animals as being quite different. Several of them describe either Chocobo-like giant birds for riding and carriage-pulling. Either that, or they're often dinosaur (raptor)-like creatures, sometimes called "dragons" by the locals. One story had all their local domesticated animals and most of the wild animals as large, dinosaur-like reptiles (sometimes described by the locals as "dragons").
What they were lacking were the oxen. Of course, this world had similarly tanky creatures, but their Tier was higher, leaving the elves unable to domesticate them. Since the physical strength of individual farmers was higher, they weren’t missed much.
Is it really the case that many farmers reach Tier 2 or even Tier 1 warrior strength and just rely on their own muscles to do things like pull a plow to plow fields and dig or pull out tree stumps? I thought the cores required to advance were far too expensive and difficult to obtain for mere farmers.
Since this world has horses (or horse-like creatures), I'm pretty sure that most farmers who could afford them (or the lords who own land and have serfs or employ locals to work his fields) would use horses to plow their fields, haul timber and help with other very difficult but menial tasks.
But then, with people in villages being described as poor off as they are and with the big focus on their military necessitating the need for large numbers of horses, I doubt many farmers can afford horses.
That said, oxen (or similarly tanky pack animals) have some advantages over horses. Oxen were slower than mules or horses, but they required less care, and they could pull heavier loads. And while a mule or horse could cost $90, an ox could be bought for about $50. Also, the expense of keeping oxen is much less than of horses; less by one-third, say some.
For one, increased tier also gives large stamina too, helping the farmers plow manually for far longer. While normal oxen are as you say, but in this world, they are more akin to rhinos than our oxen. As for horses, sure, most big farms may have one or two, but smaller farms will not. And also, cores speed up the cultivation drastically, but it is possible to advance without them as a warrior. It just takes a lot of time. Most elves will reach T2 at late middle age even if they don't actively cultivate.
Why the heck is she thinking of sharing this knowledge with ANYONE?!... the advantage is priceless. Especially for building an industry. Currently, only 3 people know about the process. If "Tamar were to get new of this...", kill the princess. Same goes with the process of creating Mana acid and animal-rubber.
simple, they can't really do much with it now, and knowledge about the process will eventually get out but if they play their cards right and sell it to the right buyer, they can gain a lot in the short term.
@Primezurker I wouldn't say that the secret will get out for sure. It sounds like the process to make magic acid is relatively basic and magic cores aren't common. It requires 3 components (a couple if items to make higher grade nitric acid, plus magic cores), one of which (the core) is relatively rare. Probably all the magic acid that needs to be produced, could be produced by the 3 people who currently know about it. If nothing else, sell the acid, share the secrets of how to manufacture rubber, but keep the manufacturing method for magic acid a secret, so that they can essentially control who gets to manufacture rubber and will always profit from anything made from it. It might have been challenging if the only unique material being imported into the city, but the city is, and will be, importing a number of unique materials, as well as commonly used materials, for the manufacture of large quantities of all sorts of interesting things in the future; nitric acid is a component for explosives, so you know that he will be importing for other uses. Hiding the import of relatively small volumes of a couple materials to make nitric acid for magic acid should be relatively easy... even better, in a pinch it can be produced from ammonia, which can be a precipitate from urine and feces, so no import needed at all.
Keep in mind that even he doesn't yet know all the uses of magic acid. It could be as useful and universally useful as electricity or as dangerous as the atom bomb.
thanks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter!
They had dogs, which could go up Tier 3, but were mostly Tier 2. It was a similar case for the horses, or rather horse-like creatures. They also had a half-rabbit half-chicken omnivorous creature that was called ‘teror’, which was farmed for its Tier 1 core and meat. What they were lacking were the oxen. Of course, this world had similarly tanky creatures, but their Tier was higher, leaving the elves unable to domesticate them.
I'm thinking that what they need the most is a way to breed large amounts of Tier 3 beasts to harvest their cores. Tier 1 cores should be easy enough to obtain, at least through raising terors. And it sounds like they have mostly adequate access to Tier 2 cores, even if it could be improved. They could raise "dogs", for instance.
But what about Tier 3 cores? Besides feeding them to their soldiers to get more at Tier 3, it would be useful to have more for their new mana acid Adamantium refining, to get 20% Adamantium for things like armor.
To this end, I think it would be interesting for Lloyd to introduce them to the "The silver fox domestication experiment" performed over some 59 years by a team of Russian geneticists, lead by Lyudmila Trut. Essentially, they selectively bred foxes in order to create a domestic strain that had improved traits for fur farming and was much more docile.
The experiment end up with unforeseen side effects with huge implications. They selectively bred foxes for being neither aggressive nor fearful of humans. Rather rapidly, these breeds ended up with more and more dog-like traits - to the extent that they no longer had pointed ears but dog-like floppy ears. Research revealed that their selective breeding and turned off or on certain genes (i.e., epigenetics) that resulted in an adult animal with kit-like (young adolescent) traits. Also, apparently, the domestic dog is essentially a wild wolf, but frozen in puppy-hood with certain genes switched on or off.
So... Why couldn't these elves selectively breed their "dog"-like creatures to not only be docile, but to consistently have a Tier 3 core? Alternatively, perhaps they could find a different, wild creature with a Tier 3 core that breeds rapidly and try to selectively breed it?