Intermission 1 year later...

Work zone in the marsh

 

Rex was inspecting a tall metal structure that looked like a massive metal barrel. It was 20 feet wide and over a hundred feet tall. The upper welds were all done beautifully, these were all completed by the succubi welders, the lower welds were all messy and holes could be seen everywhere. They weren't entirely uniform and some had missed the seams.

 

This tower would serve as the main proponent of the fractional distill for making oil products. Crude oil would slowly be brought up to a boil and then gasses would rise as they boiled off the oil, the internal pressure will cause the gasses to rise in the tower according to their weight, kind of like how oil will float on water. Nets will be set that allows the liquid to re-condense and travel down a pipe to be stored.

 

“We will need to rebuild it again, there just isn't any way to work with this.” Rex didn't seem disappointed as he went over the construction.

 

The welds from the workers had improved again, it was only a matter of time at this point until they learned it. Turning to the group of construction workers he had a total of 23 people. These were all of the slaves and prisoners that were willing to work with Rex. It wasn't even a tenth of the population at this point.

 

Rex had flagged all of the edible plants on the island, and a lot of the slaves were just eating that or fishing the monsters. The succubi only protected the coconuts that they used, but this made the prisoners and slaves think they outsmarted the succubi. In truth, Rex realized his mistakes from the past. Forcing these people to learn and work was pointless, he was thankful to even have this small group who worked with him.

 

The 23 people all looked disappointed with Rex's call, but this was the tenth time now that they had to tear apart the distill. They were a mixture of beastmen and elves, the dwarves had too many issues with their short legs. Since coming out of his depression, he had rethought everything. Dryfys was going to rise no matter what Rex did, he only sped up the process. Welch had told him this when he told her he created the weapon that burned down so much of the elven forest, but he seemed to underestimate the little girl's hatred.

 

Looking over he could see a big white bear sitting on his large ass next to a little girl who was punching a tree wrapped in a sheet of cotton. Borscht had tried to train Rex to use his mana to fight, but Rex didn't have any. This only resulted in him punching the tree with his full power and nearly breaking his hand!

 

There was an entire system that had been developed for slowly increasing and building up mana to increase someone's strength beyond their natural limits. This explained so much to Rex, no wonder Kira could wrap around him at night and he had no escape, it seemed she was just getting stronger. Her tail was stronger than Rex's arm was. Looking over he could see Kira was also training, she had set up a work table and was researching enchantments.

 

A set of chisels and a small hammer were the main tools, she also had a wax pen that Rex had made her for marking on the metal. She had created a torch to set the prepared silver wire into the etch, it was used to heat it, and then she just hammered it in. Kira was in charge of figuring out how to heat this monstrosity when it was finally done.

 

Rex sat down on a stump as he watched the workers using small grinders he made using tungsten for the disks and the small engine he created. They weren't the fastest as the engine was a bit weak, but they did the job okay. The engine had to be fixed regularly, as they had a lot of problems. Due to enchanting his technology development had been very, very strange. Trying to figure out which direction to go gave him a splitting headache sometimes.

 

Some of the workers were complaining, but they were all paid fairly well. The most determined of the workers was a walking beaver, he would use his large flat tail to pound plates till the welds broke. Not only was that old beaver the best welder of the bunch, but he was also easily the most motivated. Since the dock project, he had been a consistent worker for Rex.

 

Borscht walked over to Rex and had a confused look on his face as he looked at the kid who calmly watched as they destroyed their work again.

 

“What is the point of this, couldn't you do this by self?” The big bear asked.

 

Rex could only smile sadly at the big bear as he continued to watch as the tower was taken down.

 

“I believe that there is no problem that can't be fixed, but I can't fix everything alone. I have had 2 years now to learn that you can't force change if you want any lasting impact. It is a gradual process that slowly changes the person.” Rex explained calmly. “I made a lot of mistakes by not understanding the people or things around me, I was afraid of what I didn't understand. I can't keep making those same mistakes, or what kind of person am I?”

 

Rex sighed deeply as he watched what was happening on the worksite.

 

“I grew up poor, and I was the only kid in my neighborhood who was white. That was one of the best experiences of my life, and it helped shape me. You can always find common ground if you look for it, but you can create differences out of nothing in the same way. Technology exists to break these barriers and bring people closer together, at least that is what I believe.” Rex finished.

 

It was ironic coming from a weapons manufacturer's mouth, but an engineer was an engineer. Everything was problems and solutions, but you had to be trained with that mindset. Thinking systems are what schools primarily tried to instill in students. Most of the knowledge that they can teach you can be found anywhere, but the mindset couldn't.

 

“So by teaching they become smarter?” The bear asked him about the conclusion he drew.

 

Rex could only smile sadly at the bear's conclusion, but the bear was just too adorable. How could he disagree?

 

“That's right Borscht if you teach them they will grow smarter.” Rex began to laugh sadly.

 

Rex could only reach up and pat the bear's head before he had an idea suddenly. The succubi were interested in weapons and clothes, they also liked things like soap. Rex looked over at the big white bear and a thought suddenly occurred to him.

 

“Borscht, what most interests you? What would get you out of your cave every day?” Rex asked as he looked intensely at the big white bear.

 

“You could find beautiful bear woman! With nice rump and good-sized shoulders. I will quickly run out of cave to put cubs in her!” The bear said seriously.

 

When well-fed, this was what beastmen cared about. It was almost purely instinctual, he imagined “good nap” would be his response after that. It was just like having an incredibly dangerous predator as a neighbor, as long as they were fed they were almost playful. Rex had wondered if they were an offshoot of monsters somewhere evolutionarily.

 

A prime example of this was how Borscht ran on all fours, this wasn't his skeleton allowing him to do both. He could change the structure of his bones using his mana, it's why beastmen spellcasters were rare. For some beastmen, this also grants a size increase as well. This is more common in females, so they can fight off the males to a degree. They had a female fox beastman in the succubus homeland and she worked in the textile factory. When she dropped down to run on all fours she grew in size quite a bit. Rex had tried riding the fox, but nothing could beat Borscht's sheer fat in comfort. They all treated Rex pretty well, it was just the uncute ones who refused to bathe that didn't seem to take any pity on young Rex.

 

Rex also really wanted to see magic, but no one could do it. They were the dregs after all, slaves and prisoners of war. They had a serious lack of formal training of any kind, but that was the disadvantage they had with starting with slaves. They were used as mules by the elves, they had the collars to control their actions. They didn't want smart workers, they preferred quantity over quality.

 

This had lead Rex to believe if you removed the elves and demons then the continent made a lot of sense. You had the beastmen and skaarm, or other bug races, as the main overlords and they all evolved from monsters at some point. They had a female from one of the bug races, she was a type of scorpion with a poison sting. Her whole body was covered in thick chitin armor and she had a very scary face, but she was quite easy to talk to.

 

If you got past the mandibles, the extra mouth bits, the multiple eyes, the bladed protrusions from the arms, and the thick black armor that gleamed in the light, she was just a large walking scorpion. She walked on 4 legs and had 2 legs that had evolved into fairly normal arms with 5 slender fingers, then she had a larger pair of arms with pincers. She was too small for Rex to ride, or he probably would.

 

“Hey Welch, come here!” He called over to the training elven girl.

 

Welch looked over at Rex and walked over slowly, Kira was seeing this with an enraged expression. Rex had no idea how to help Kira with this issue of her's, he realized this was a trait all of the succubi had. They loved competing and would boast shamelessly to each other when they thought they had an advantage. For the most part, Rex could channel this energy positively, but not always.

 

Rex looked right at Welch as she walked over.

 

“Can you copy a spellbook from memory for me?” Rex asked excitedly.

 

Who wouldn't be interested in real magic after all? This was his chance to finally see it!

 

“I can write it, but I can't read, so I don't know if it will be readable...” She said slowly as her face grew redder and her ears drooped.

 

Rex had a dumbfounded look on his face.

 

How can you write, but not read? That makes no sense!

 

Rex was trying to figure out if she had some problem with her brain when she explained further.

 

“When I was a kid it was the only kind of fuzzy, but it got worse as I got older and older.” Welch began but was stopped by Rex's sigh of relief.

 

“Don't scare me like that, I thought you had some kind of mental problem. If all elves were dyslexic I would want to put my head through the nearest stone.” Rex muttered as he looked at the group of elves helping the construction.

 

The beastmen were mostly friends of Borscht, and the elves were former retainers of Welch's grandma. The only person who worked sincerely for Rex was the beaverman. Rex had named him Bob since he didn't like his real name. Calling him Flattail was stupid, that was his original name.

 

For your sincere dedication, I will make you the most important beaver in history!

 

Rex was imagining a construction outfit on that beaver, as he led all of his teams in the future. First, he would find a dentist to fix his messed up teeth, they kind of hung out for everyone to see, and they were crooked. He direly needed beaver braces and a more dignified haircut, but Rex was certain this wouldn't be another Canabus!

 

“You can fix my eyes?!” Welch exclaimed in shock.

 

Rex had to control his expression, otherwise, he would be annoyed at having his grand plans for Bob interrupted.

 

“Kira, can you help me with something?” He yelled out to the little succubus who was smoldering with jealousy at her worktable.

 

A radiant smile appeared on her face, as she quickly responded to him.

 

“You can ask Kira for anything! I can help you much better than the elf can!” Kira declared proudly, causing Welch to begin flaring up in outrage.

 

Rex had never seen these sides of Kira come out until Welch came around, it was proof that she was also a succubus.

 

She only started eyeing me because it pisses you off!

 

Rex felt like if he continued these thoughts he would drown in the depression it would cause him. Rex and Kira were essentially stuck together, and he had slowly been coming to terms with that. Kira didn't seem to realize she was creating her own worst enemy the more she goaded Welch on. He was worried this would turn into some harem situation that was out of his control!

 

“Can you bring me some glass and a cutting stone for it? I also need some polish.” Rex listed out what he needed, watching Kira make large nods with a very serious expression.

 

She quickly flew away to gather the materials.

 

“Do you know how water will make a fish look larger or smaller when you look through it?” Rex asked Welch.

 

She had a confused look but nodded the same.

 

“This is caused by the light getting distorted by the water. The same thing is happening in your eyes, things get blurry up close.” Rex explained as he stood slowly and dusted himself off.

 

Motioning for Welch to follow him he walked over to the large wooden table Kira had been using before. Grabbing a sheet of paper he began to make big letters on it for testing vision. It didn't take too long for Kira to return with the requested items.

 

She had brought his small table grinder using the same small engine. Taking the pieces of glass and Kira's wax pen, he marked out the lens shapes on both pieces of glass. He then began to quickly start shaping them, on the grinding wheel, he would then have to polish them. Glass lenses were also subject to the industrial process, and they were very easy to manufacture. Let the designers make the things that don't matter, like the frames.

 

They also didn't like Rex's city plans, he had no idea why people like so much useless space in their cities? Cars would be unnecessary if they utilized the space to put everything within walking distance. This is why engineers weren't city planners, a circuit board is not a good plan for a city. Stacking similar businesses on top of each other for efficiency would also upset them greatly. Rex had often wished this happened, so he didn't need to drive all over town to compare prices.

 

As a hobbyist, he often made all kinds of different things in his workshop back on Earth. It wouldn't have been surprising if he had been on several watch lists for the number of different chemicals he played with. Something about handling chemicals that can kill you with the slightest mistake was just so thrilling. His mold friends in his body had done wonders for this hobby, he could now bathe in things that would have killed him before, and they seemed to only get stronger the more he did it.

 

This wasn't in the least a pleasant process, as he was still sick for hours until the mold processed everything.

 

Finished carving the lenses, he handed them to Welch. Standing up he walked 5 paces away and turned to look at her.

 

“Alright hold the lens over your right eye and cover your left, let me know if you can read any of these, and to where you can't read it anymore.

 

Welch closed her eye and held up the lens and began to look at the letters. She had a look of excitement as she responded.

 

“I can't read any of it!” She said excitedly.

 

“Is it better than it was?” Rex asked confused.

 

“It's much better!” She responded excitedly.

 

Rex smiled as he walked over and collected the lenses, now it was just adjusting them to the right size.

 

-

 

“No it has gotten worse again...” Welch said disappointedly.

 

What the hell is going on, if she could see better before how could she not understand any of this?!

 

Looking down at the sheet of paper in English, then over at the young teen-aged elf, a thought crossed his mind, as he looked at the English words.

 

I can't write anything but English, it's starting to all make sense now!

 

Rex took a few deep breaths as he looked at the lenses he had nearly ground through trying to figure out the problem.

 

“Kira, can you write elven?” He asked the little girl.

 

Kira looked at him with a serious expression and nodded confidently.

 

“We are going to need more glass...” Rex sighed to the little succubus.

 

-

 

Kira was holding a sheet of paper with chicken scratch on it, she couldn't produce the flowing letters of the elves very well. Welch had to question if her eyes were working at first, and she was just staring at the paper with a flat look on her face. Rex was wondering if she found Kira's attempt to be insulting to her. Rex had used wire to make some simple rims, they were only reading glasses anyway. Welch seemed pretty happy with them regardless, so it was a win-win for Rex.

 

A lot of the elves had stopped working and were watching the three kids as they all played together. A succubus, an elf, and a creature that they had never seen before. Welch was the least skilled of the three, with the boy being like some wizened grandmaster. They had heard from Welch what Dryfys and the other elven leaders had done, and this had given them a sense of hopelessness. Being such long-lived creatures they held out hope of going back to their homeland, but that dream was becoming more distant by the day it seemed.

 

They had placed their hopes that Welch would be able to return them home one day.

 

Among this group of workers was a Beaverman, a race that was treated very lowly among the beastmen. He looked at the young boy who would make his dreams possible. Watching the boat destroy his dock had nearly driven him mad with rage, he had never felt such a feeling in his life. Looking at the direction of the docks a thought began to run through his mind.

 

I will master this technique of joining metal, and then I will create a new dock that will stretch to the bottom of the ocean, and span to the mainland!

 

Bob's breathing began to pick up as he imagined the sheer size of the dock, he would want to live in it when it was completed. That way he could ensure it was properly protected at all times!

 

The beaverman took apart the last weld and stacked the bent welded plates on each other to form a large pile. Not all of the plates were bent uniformly, as it was done by the group of beastmen workers. It was done with sheer force and used Borscht as a mold.

 

They were all in a similar boat as the beaver and were claiming Borscht as their protection. The big white bear was able to thoroughly trounce any of the other beastmen. They looked at his large, intimidating bulk, and his impressive muscles.

 

Borscht also trained on his own time, usually underwater killing monsters with his meaty paws and insane bite strength. Borscht could unleash around 3500 pounds per square inch of pressure with those big jaws of his. A lot of the bulk on his face was very powerful muscles. Rex wasn't sure what a bear's normal bite force(~975 PSI) was off the top of his head. This was very close to a crocodile though, only a few hundred off.

 

The beastmen then looked at the strange little creature running his fingers through that thick white fur. They had also seen him riding on his back, and even on his shoulder when he walked around on two legs. They could only assume that Borscht kept the creature around for comfort, maybe he thought of him as an ugly hairless cub.

 

“Listen, Little Rex, I think if you just did a bit more workout, you would be able to establish dominance! Little Blue creature is truly horrifying thing, but you need your own strength! I can make you just like bear!” Borscht tried to convince Rex to his hellish training again.

 

And what was this brilliant training regiment that the bears had come up with? Finding a big log, getting onto all fours, and pushing it using your whole body with your head. It was clear what they were attempting to turn their precious brains into. Rex was horrified that Welch was so happy to train under this bulky white furball.

 

You are for petting, not for fighting!

 

Rex firmly concluded this, as he began to form plans in his mind for an armor that was so cumbersome the bear would be trapped unable to fight. Once he had the lubricants and plastics he needed to make gaskets and other seals, he would make a proper machine shop. There was so much equipment he needed to be able to manufacture the fun things.

 

An image of the bear with a chain gun appeared in his head before it disappeared.

 

Petting! Not fighting!

 

Looking off in the distance he could vaguely make out the location where the creature lived in the swamp. That was another mystery Rex wanted to solve, once he could teach it a thorough lesson. Since it nearly killed him, he was planning on giving it a nasty surprise of the chemical variety. He would soon need a place to dump all of his chemical waste, it had slowly filled up an entire succubus house with metal drums he had made.

 

Blue deemed these waste materials as beneath him, so Rex had no way to get rid of them as so many of them were incredibly toxic. It was the number one problem with industrial nations, and he didn't have a convenient chemical depot that had all the necessary equipment and materials to break down some of these chemicals either. They were slowly turning into an explosion risk, and he wouldn't want that to be wasted in the succubus homeland.

 

Once I begin distilling oil, I will have all kinds of disgusting shit to get rid of! I will drown you in filth like you tried to do to me!

 

Rex had been dreaming of this revenge for a while, and he had been stockpiling all of his waste diligently. This would continue until he had enough to turn the entire pool into a chemical disaster. Since it was a plant, he had to kill it completely, and this was the most thorough answer he could come up with. Too much fire had the risk of turning into an explosion risk with all of the swamp gas. Chemicals could be dumped freely though!

 

I will enter the infamy list of every future environmentalist!

 

He had to leave some problems for the future generations after all. Rex was certain the succubi definitely wouldn't care. Looking at Kira, he was certain he may even find encouragement.

 

“Unleash the great weapon of the succubi!” Rex heard Kira's voice in his head.

 

Rex shook his head as he thought of all the chemicals he was going to use on the plant.

 

-

 

Inside a large cityscape, many people wearing blue outfits stood in protest in front of their governmental building. They all had signs that they held in protest. Some said “We are sick of defending!” or “Grow some balls and fight!” were everywhere.

 

Almost every day they were attacked by something or another, they were all sick of the passive role they were forced into. Only protecting their homes with no way to retaliate against their aggressors. The people of Rex's body had finally had enough! They were calling for radical change and the establishment of a new force.

 

The cries of “Get out!” Shook the windows of the large building as millions surrounded it. Floating castles also surrounded it in the sky to allow more protesters to gather. It had been steadily growing in intensity for months.

 

Inside the building in a meeting room, two individuals stood. One was an old man in blue clothes, the other was a young man in purple

 

“Will you be able to give what the people want?” The blue-clothed man asked the purple.

 

“Yes, I can” The youth in purple nodded respectfully.

 

He admired the old man in front of him as one of the original founders of their race, but it was time for the new generation to take charge. Times were changing and so were they. The man snapped his fingers and a door was opened.

 

A man wearing a black suit of power armor walked in silently. His large frame at 8 ft. tall moved noiselessly as if he floated. The black suit of armor had no accents on it and seemed plain as if mass-produced. The helmet was like a giant gas mask with a red visor. On the helmet was an insignia that looked like a red V.

 

“This is our new comrade from our elite task team code-named “Plague” This will be our answer.” The man in purple said calmly.

 

The man in blue looked at the black-armored man and suddenly felt a silent pressure from him that he hadn't felt before. It was like he was seeing some bloodthirsty monster contained in a human-shaped armor.