Rex stood facing the ocean, on the bottom of the completed ramp. The ramp looked like a giant cut that separated the cliff's face as if a knife was used to carve it out. The cliff was over 200 feet tall and stood straight against the waves of the ocean.

 

Blood and meat from a massive harvest of sharks had dyed the waters red with blood and pieces of sharks. Succubi could be seen in the air, using palm-leaf baskets to dump more gore into the water. The sharks weren't the only thing to have been attracted to this harvest, as even large snake-like creatures sprang from the water, consuming the sharks whole. Bigger dinosaur-like creatures could also occasionally be seen, and various other sized predators.

 

Other succubi flew with similar baskets, they carried concrete in the baskets and began applying it to the cracks in the cliff face. They were balancing it out and flattening the rock. Prisoners stood behind him in an orderly fashion, digging channels for steel rollers. Several dwarves worked in full cloth suits, as they drilled holes in the rocks to insert TNT to carve the cliff. A steel track was being inserted into the walls of the cliffs, and large steel rollers were being pushed out one by one to be inserted into the ground.

 

Rex had a confident look on his face, as the blue plastic wristband began to slowly bubble on his right arm. It began to turn into a blue thick fluid as it crawled up his arm to his shoulder. The less viscous it became, the more violently it seemed to bubble and hiss. At a certain point, it was like the fluid went critical, as it began to suddenly shift through a variety of different colors.

 

The colors seemed to appear in the fluid at random at various parts along his arm, red, blue, green, silver, black, then they started mixing to form various other colors. Vapors and gasses of various colors began to form some raising and some lowering in the air. Sparks were issued in waves as violent puffs of smoke were released, flames even shot out of the fluid in some areas.

 

Rex stood before the waters and raised his right arm.

 

-

10 days earlier...

Succubus Homeland, Central plaza

 

“Remember the heat is everything, and you need to move your hands very steady. You do not want to startle this fluid, as you have seen what happens.” Rex said his voice spread through the plaza in a calm controlled manner.

 

Many stoves were set up a good distance apart. Tables were next to it with various ingredients that were being slowly added. It was mostly glycerin and hydrochloric acid with a few other things. The liquid was a light yellow and boiled softly as it was stirred in a very controlled fashion.

 

The stirring was done by 30 succubi who had very serious looks as they were carefully stirring the mixture. This was the original group of succubi who made weapons and gunpowder on the island. They were only in this to learn about making the great weapon of the succubi when Rex had told that succubus they were only learning to walk. She took it upon herself to mean there was some sacred process of learning to craft this weapon. This meant they're done learning to walk, they wanted to run dammit!

 

They went on strike, and Rex had to come up with something that seemed more dangerous. That way they could lord over their replacements, and gloat to all of their friends. All for the glory of the succubi race after all. Rex had no idea how Kira came from such a species.

 

“She is like a diamond, found in a pile of pigs feces.” Rex muttered quietly.

 

Right now they were making nitroglycerin, this was the most dangerous part. If you don't stir it, it will clump and become stable. Nobody would want that, so it has to be carefully stirred the entire time, and the heat has to be controlled. Since the succubi wanted to strike, he would give them just what they want. The tables all had to be a certain distance apart, that way if an accident happened it wouldn't disturb the other tables.

 

Combined they weren't making much, and since it was open-air outside, a blast wouldn't be lethal. Several succubi had been escorted off this plaza blackened and covered in ash. They would recover in a few days and return to work. Their determination was amazing, what was even better was the replacements for weapon making. They would look on at the succubi making nitro with a look of jealousy as if it should've been them. This caused them to work even harder.

 

“For the glory of the great weapon of the succubi!” They all chorused together in a whisper as they finished cooking the batch of nitro.

 

Rex had begun to feel like he was running a cult, as he stood in front of the statue of him and Kira holding up the glass orb in the sky. Rex tried to pretend that it didn't exist, it was gaudy and he didn't like it at all. Kira had been urging him to interact with the succubi more, so he had been trying. The issue was that they had such strange interests, it was only weapons and beauty products.

 

Outside of that, they said they had to conserve their energy, this seemed to just mean lazing around everywhere. Now as more and more succubi were arriving here, it was getting easier to produce things. Later today a large group would be bringing cotton. It had taken a tremendous amount of time, so Rex was worried they hadn't found much.

 

Borax though had finally been found, Rex was worried it would be rare, but it turns out they use it as soap. Rex had been so angry he nearly wanted to scream.

 

“You are using my welding rods, to scrub filth off your bodies...” Rex muttered.

 

Borax was a very rare salt, just because there was no easy way to produce it. You need a very specific type of soil and salts present to get it to form. The elves had lots of seasonal lakes though, so it was fairly common.

 

Kira came out carrying a large pot of hydrochloric acid and set it in the plaza on an empty table. It was being produced in another area by some succubi, Rex was forbidden to go. As a lot of the acids leaked into the air, he had decided to have the succubi learn to make them. The problem was the lack of clothing this caused them. Rex figured he was just too young, as he did not react to all that juicy flesh.

 

Instead, Kira had nearly gouged his eyes out trying to cover them. The cotton had been delayed twice so far. It was supposed to be here 3 days ago, but they were having issues avoiding beastmen detection. Rex thought they were probably just being lazy somewhere. Looking over he oversaw the succubi finishing the process. They were soaking the nitroglycerin into powdered sawdust, this would cause the sawdust to become trinitro tricellulose of TNT for short. This would then be rolled tightly into a wax paper tube with a fuse in the center.

 

The fuse was a civil war special using a string of burlap coated in gunpowder and lard. America has used these types of fuses proudly for over 100 years. Rex hated the things because they wasted his precious potassium nitrate. Every pound the succubi extracted from the soil made Rex want to weep, he had so many better uses for it. The only boon was that Rex found limestone in the waters around the island. It had formed from thousands of years of shells, this made Rex want to wipe out the shark population.

 

Concrete could fix so many problems he had with the clay, he wanted to fortify the island. A major war was set to kick off between the beastmen and the elves, and he wanted to use that time to make the island a fortress. Only when they were secure, with the ability to produce weapons would they be able to do as they pleased.

 

Rex wanted to explore the vaster world, he knew of another continent and he hoped to eventually find humans. To do this though, he had to have a safe place for himself. The elves wanted to capture the entirety of the mainland and create an elven utopia. They would put every other race under their feet, and Ivangor was the great general. Rex didn't want to end up under those moccasins after he had heard about them.

 

“When all you care about is strength, of course, you will create a psychopath like that one day.” Rex muttered. “He is the ideal elf.”

 

Rex had begun trying to learn as much as he could about the elves, and he began to see why they had such a messed-up society. Since monsters were a very real threat in most areas, having a strong leader made sense. The strongest elf had been Amyllyr in his youth as a powerful mage. Most elves followed after the high elves and pursued magic, then along comes Ivangor. Rex was sure Ivangor couldn't read and took up martial arts.

 

That crazy elf had a gift and developed entire martial systems for the elves. It was like the birth of the first elven cultivator. This upset everything in the elven society that only valued magical achievement, as Ivangor could just beat the shit out of them.

 

“It seems like concrete on the surface, until you realize it is full of cracks.” Rex muttered.

 

This was like saying they would only run a country with the smartest human. That seems amazing on its surface until you get some genius sociopath with the nuclear launch codes. The elves had never realized they had access to martial systems, due to the high elves' supreme use of magic. The high elves did not need a strong body, after all, they had the clearest understanding of magic after all.

 

-

Meanwhile...

Imperial Elven Training Camp, Camp Ivangor

 

“Now, make sure you observe closely.” An elf elven man said.

 

He stood in front of thousands of elves. He was currently barefoot and had on large leather pants. They had strips of leather bolted and riveted to them. His vest was of a similar design, and his short beard was even firmly more wrapped in a chain. Now that he wasn't a king anymore, he didn't need the shitty crowns, and his topknot stood proudly. Why replace the chain, when the beard will just grow back? This was Ivangor.

 

Turning to stand before a rock he stretched his leg forward. Stretching the toes out, he pressed them to the rock, before slowly curling them in. This left a small gap of less than an inch between his toes and the stone. Stretching his leg around he made a sharp movement, driving his foot forward.

 

Pop!

 

“I will teach you all this technique, provided you can survive my training.” Ivangor said flatly.

 

Craaaaaaack! Shaaater!

 

A spiderweb of cracks slowly extended from where his toes impacted, causing the entire rock to shatter. In the center of the rock, from where his toes had hit, the stone had been ground into powder. With the center of the stone destroyed the outside had fallen apart.

 

“You will walk like me, you will talk like me, and when we fight the beastmen. You better race me into battle.” Ivangor said all of this in his normal monotone.

 

When he wasn't in combat or dealing with something combat-related. The elf had no passion for anything that didn't make him stronger.

 

“Any questions?” Ivangor asked.

 

An eager elf rushed forward, and bowed to the fabled elf king.

 

“Is there anything we-” The elf started before his head exploded.

 

Ivangor's leg fired forward, with his body seeming only attached. It had appeared as if his other leg was sliding across the ground, as he performed a rapid kick. Ivangor had managed to traverse a whole 40 feet in this movement.

 

“If you cannot even understand that, we do not need you.” He said flatly to the falling corpse.

 

Lowering his leg he stared around again with a flat face.

 

“Any other questions?” He asked.

 

Not a single elf dared to speak.

 

“Good, after this we will begin a special body tempering technique I developed for novices. It uses a very strong acid, you will need to circulate your mana carefully to temper yourselves. You will need to figure this out before your flesh fully comes off, otherwise, I will painfully end you for wasting my acid.” Ivangor looked around at all the terrified elves. “Alright, time to start training.”

 

-

A few hours later...

Succubus Homeland, Rex's Lab

 

Rex was watching a glass bowl with a little blue creature happily drinking up some hydrogen peroxide. He was attempting to train it, but it was hard. This amazing image of a powerful warrior fighting in a slime suit had struck his fancy, and he just couldn't resist this thought. Firing acid and chemicals just seemed so cool!

 

I shouldn't be having these thoughts yet, it isn't time for middle school!

 

When he was in middle school, he wanted to be like a certain suited hero. Then he started growing up and realized he would never be that cool.

 

I have another chance! No, I must make these thoughts leave my head.

 

What Rex was trying to do was train blue to learn to see that it could make acids out of things that aren't normally acidic. Water, hydrogen peroxide, and sulfuric acid are one such mixture. They call it piranha solution, or piranha etch. You use it when dealing with the substrate or when you have an organic matter that is hard to remove. It is the foremost leader in eating through organic matter!

 

If he could train it to make piranha etch, then he just needed to feed it antimony. Blue could seemingly facilitate chemical reactions in its body, as the fluid, it was comprised of seemed completely inert. The issue was that communicating with it was so difficult. The fact that he could communicate at all was a blessing, but he wanted more.

 

“I want my slime suit!” Rex muttered.

 

He felt like the mold in his body, and this slime were meant to go together. He just felt it in his bones, but maybe that was just the mold. A test was needed, but it was really risky.

 

Dunk!

 

Kira opened the door with an excited expression, as she ran into the lab. Stopping in front of Rex with a small skid, she quickly relayed what happened.

 

“The cotton is here!” Kira said happily.

 

Rex looked over at her and decided to take a break. Standing from his stool he stretched his shoulders. Blue stretched up to the rim of the pot, then slid over to Rex's wrist, quickly forming into a bracelet. Rex waited for it to finish before he followed Kira. She had quite the spring in her step, but Rex had little hope for the lazy creatures.

 

“How many guns, have we made?” Rex asked her.

 

“We have 20 total, and I have begun training an elite team!” Kira told him proudly.

 

Looking at the little girl, he didn't have many hopes. The plan was to find a merchant's vessel and take it over. The elves had much better ships than the beastmen, plus this aligned more with his sentiments. Every time he thought of the beastmen, he thought of Canabus' help. How could he betray that cute beagle face?

 

The plan was to wait for the elves' attack, then swoop in to arm the animals. He could use this to begin working them like dogs, in their own fields. They will collect him cotton and all kinds of resources the island couldn't produce. He primarily wanted them to become loggers, and help ship him the elves' precious forest.

 

The island didn't have a good source of wood to make boats, and they couldn't support the production of large iron ships. Concrete boats were weak to impact, so monsters made that technology useless.

 

The two made it to the plaza quickly, and Rex began looking around.

 

“Where is it?” He asked Kira.

 

She had an excited look as she just pointed up.

 

Rex looked up as she said, but he only saw a cloud.

 

“What are you talking about Kira?” Rex asked confused.

 

Rex kept looking around but he just didn't see anything. Kira suddenly grabbed him and tried dragging him, but he just shook her off.

 

“Rex, run?” Kira yelled.

 

Grabbing him more forcefully and pulling him away quickly. Rex looked around confused before he saw something that made his eyes constrict. The long fluffy white cloud was falling straight towards them. Rex stared in shock as he saw the sheer amount of it. Rex had never really weighed cotton before, so he had no reference for the sheer amount.

 

Maybe 9-10 billion cotton swabs?

 

Fllllllllllloooooooooooooooooffffffffffff!

 

The sound of getting engulfed in cotton was much like the feeling of being drowned in blankets. He and Kira were swept along and firmly pressed together under the cotton. Since Kira had been in front of him, she fell first and he was pressed on top of her.

 

It was a very good thing she didn't have any of the normal orifices a girl does, as his face was firmly pressed into her butt. The small gap in her cheeks was what allowed him to breathe. Kira was yelling and screaming, but too bad the cotton dampened all of the sounds. Rex could only continue to struggle for the slowly diminishing air, as he started to pass out. The sheer weight of the cotton had allowed it to press out a lot of the air.

 

-

 

Rex had once fallen asleep on his arm and had a red mark on his face as a result. When the succubi had dug Kira and Rex out of the cotton, he had 2 of them. On both sides of his face was red with a diamond shape of white in the center. Kira was also very embarrassed, her face was bright red. And she didn't like that her anatomy could be seen on Rex's face. Currently, she refused to look at him as they stood in the lab together. Naturally, Kira wouldn't let him be seen in public.

 

“Kira, that's gotta be at least 6 tons of cotton...” Rex said in shock.

 

“Rex, please don't talk to me right now, I can't look at you.” She mumbled sadly.

 

“They are so lazy, but then when it comes to things that enhance that laziness they are even worse...” Rex muttered.

 

The reason for the delays were discovered. The succubi had used a cave to compress the cotton into a snake. Then over time, it unfurled into a cloud. This meant every day as it happened they were slowed down that much more, then sent a report of the delay. Then the next day as they were forced to go even slower, they had to send another messenger.

 

“It's the dumbest reason, I have ever heard of.” Rex muttered.

 

Normally Kira disciplined Rex when he talked to himself, but right now she couldn't bring herself to look at him. Every time she saw her butt cheeks on Rex's face, she wanted to find a hole and die in it. The succubi had been fed up with this horrible idea, it had been so hard to move it. The moment they saw their homeland, many of them just let go of the vines.

 

This hatred of the cotton seemed to evaporate when Rex was ready to claim some. They viciously fought him off and gave him less than 1/10^th of it. This was still a lot of cotton, but they happily began shoveling it into their little homes. Rex then lost half of this cotton, as Kira happily made them a new bed.

 

They are sleeping on my gunpowder!

 

The good thing though was that cotton was plentiful in certain areas of the beastmen plains. Rex wanted to go to the mainland, as having the succubi bring him what they found was too slow. Rex felt like if he had mercury he could advance his mana research. Transferring mana to metal was hard, and using magic stones directly caused loss. Only about 5% of the mana was transferred with this smelting method.

 

Mercury had an amazing propriety that most don't know about. It could fuse with most metals at room temperature and form an amalgam. This is most common in dentistry, where half of a filling is comprised of mercury. Mercury by itself is highly toxic, but it is safely bonded to other metals. Rex wanted to use this process to transfer highly pure mana into metal.

 

The issue was that mercury is usually only found in nature as an amalgam, and neither the beastmen nor elves seemed to know anything about it. Most of their medical knowledge, and alchemy, was derived from plants. They had to collect mana-rich plants and follow archaic recipes. Rex was reminded of those TV commercial products and his stomach groaned in annoyance as if it recalled a bad memory.

 

The more elements and chemicals he had, the more he could produce using them. He wanted to experiment with making mana-rich drugs, he wanted to see if he could beat the beastmen alchemists. The longer the war went on between the beastmen and elves the more time they could develop. Building a refinery in the swamp would take a few years.

 

Copper wasn't something he had, so he had to make plastic if they wanted to be able to battle anyone. They would not be unified as a single race, so he would have to build an adaptable army. It was an issue that no one on earth had, but the races here had vastly different bodies. Some beastmen only had 4 fingers, and armor would be needed in all shapes and sizes.

 

Plastic was the only way around this in weapons, as they would have to have a larger size with extra material, then you would file it to comfort. He couldn't use the succubi as the bulk of their forces, they had too slow of reproduction. Rex had been here almost a year, and Kira was the only succubus child. Every lost succubus was the loss of a generation, Rex had no way to fix this. Kira was currently studying this very issue, it would be bad if she couldn't have a child before Rex passed away.

 

Who knew how long that would be, the mold seemed to like their new home, and helped with most of the cleaning. He didn't think it would be long before he didn't have an immune system, as it would be replaced. He was the first human who could say he was a percentage bread mold.

 

“I am going to go back to making more guns, and training with the sisters.” Kira told him as she bolted out of the Lab.

 

Rex just reached up and rubbed his cheeks.

 

“I'd be embarrassed if I had to look at my own ass too. Especially if it was on my fiances face.” Rex muttered to her retreating back.

 

It was probably a good thing she was leaving though, as Rex was about to test something fairly dangerous. Reaching over he grabbed some hydrochloric acid that was stored in a flask. Grabbing a small glass rod, he dripped a small bit onto his arm. He watched it bubble and hiss, as the hair was dissolved, but his skin was fine. When he had handled Blue at first, he was shocked that he wasn't hurt by the acid.

 

He had really dug his fingers in it too, however, his skin was unharmed. This confirmed that the mold had made a change to his anatomy that was similar to a succubus at least in skin density. The next test was even more dangerous though. He was planning to ingest toxic chemicals, and see if the mold could protect him from poison. If it could, he would be one step closer to his slime suit.

 

Reaching into his chemical storage he selected hydrogen peroxide. The goal was not a lethal dose of something, he would test with an amount that only made him sick. Measuring and dissolving it in some water, he chugged the mixture down.

 

“So gross!” Rex muttered.

 

He normally used this mixture as a mouthwash. Standing up quickly he decided to head to the room to take a nap. The cotton incident had drained him.

 

-

 

Inside a bustling city, the mold had made it their home. Little men and women filled the once empty streets, as they went about their way. Castles floated in the sky, and large wizard towers had been erected. This seemed in parody to the vast factories producing parts and the many little businesses.

 

Within a small diner, a bustling atmosphere was in the air. The patrons were all happily talking about their daily lives to one another. Friends cheered and toasted each other

 

“It's a great time to be alive!” This was a common sentiment.

 

Suddenly in front of the diner, they saw black creatures begin to erupt and sweep the town.

 

“Look, Comrades! Invaders, quick call the authorities!” A patron yelled out loudly.

 

“I just notified the police!” A waitress yelled out as she rushed from the back with a cellphone.

 

Many of the wait staff and cooks were coming out of the dining room.

 

“Hahaha! Very good!” The patron said as he drew an AK-47 out of a suitcase he carried.

 

All of the patrons and wait staff were happily passing firearms to everyone.

 

“Very good! This way if we fall More will come!” The patron yelled as he led the mob of people to fight the black creatures.

 

This scene was repeating from every business in the city, and soon several of the floating castles began to blare loud alarms, as drones began to pour out of them in waves. A light blue glowing wave was formed that surged through the city towards the black viscous shadow invaders. This was an even more violent response than when they conquered the city.