1 day since the last chapter…

Succubus Homeland, Bathroom inside the research facility

 

“This is the only place I feel safe, they don’t come in here,” Rex muttered to himself.

 

He was sitting on a toilet made of glazed clay that the dwarves had made and had it recently installed when the facility was built for him by Bob. Since the succubi did not excrete anything, this was the one place he felt like they wouldn’t look for him. His eyes had deep bags under them from the constant barrage of excitement that came from them and more of them were trying to get jobs at the weapons plant. The worst ones had been a group of succubi who worked in the repository, they had finally seen a new career advancement path in front of them.

 

Knock knock knock!

 

The bathroom was small and just had a toilet and a sink with running water, it was pumped up from the base of the mountain. He reached his hands to his face and began rubbing them under the magical light in the ceiling. The walls were concrete as was the floor, with a door made of plastic since the island lacked wood resources.

 

“I wanted to let you know that we are ready at any time to learn the secrets behind the ultimate weapon of the succubi.” This was a succubus who was doing her best to sound serious and solemn at the same time. “We have worked for you for 7 years now faithfully after all.”

 

“They found me…” Rex muttered.

 

Knock knock knock!

 

“Another?” Rex wondered.

 

“We at the Succubus Fulfillment society are very interested in how the ultimate weapon of the succubi is made, we feel it has the potential to be even greate-” He could hear a succubus starting to talk but he cut her off through the door.

 

“You just want to use several kilograms of the explosive instead of a few grams, we don’t even have the mana necessary to do that! No!” Rex said.

 

Knock knock knock! Thump!

 

Rex heard something slap the concrete heavily, it almost sounded like a body hitting the ground.

 

“Great builder, I have finished the building you wanted to be constructed,” Bob told him through the door.

 

“Oh, the cannery? That was fast…” Rex muttered.

 

“Yes, I also finished another ship and it is ready to set sail,” Bob told him.

 

This was incredibly welcomed news and it brought a smile to Rex’s face when he heard it. 

 

“Wow, that is incredible. Great work!” Rex said happily.

 

Rex was fully dressed, he was just using the toilet like a chair as he tried to hide from everyone and take a break. It appeared like it was pointless, there weren't many places for someone like him to hide on the island. It also didn’t help that his guards were selling his hiding places for some extra cash from the islanders and the Beastmen could just track his smell. It didn’t matter where he went because they could find him on the island within a few minutes, but hiding like this made him feel better for those few moments that it worked.

 

Knock! Knock! Knock!

 

This knocking was frantic and seemed almost angry at him, but from the one, he could tell that it was a succubus fist.

 

“Please! Hire more people at the plating plant!” Shou yelled desperately.

 

On the other side, this succubus had deep bags under her eyes and she looked desperate and at the end of her rope. Her assistant did nothing to help her outside of a few projects a day and the eager succubi were constantly presenting her with more work. They would never believe the amount of work that she had to do on a given day, and she was still several years behind on her work.

 

“That is fine, I will let you hire one more helper,” Rex told her. 

 

Shou’s mouth slowly fell open when she heard this, one helper would never allow her to get ahead on her work. Even if she was given a dozen of them they would never be able to keep up with the demand of just the succubi and they had other orders too. Certain parts need to be plated for their industrial uses. That was the main reason that he established the factory and he thought that plating weapons would keep the succubi motivated.

 

Suddenly Rex could hear whispered voices from the other side of the door and leaned forward when he recognized one of the voices as Bren. He suddenly felt a chill run up his back when Shou’s entire tone seemed to change.

 

“Okay! I will handle it!” Shou said excitedly.

Rex found his hands reaching for the door of the bathroom, he didn’t know why but he felt like his scheme was going to blow up in his face. He wanted to know just what Bren had suggested for Shou to completely change her tune. He had always thought that the succubi were less educated than him and easy to manipulate, but that was changing rapidly. With the succubi being surrounded by a competitive society where they were all fighting to rise to the top, a change was happening to the members of the race.

 

Have I been underestimating them this entire time? Rex had to seriously consider this thought for the first time. It was the first time he met a succubus that truly scared him, she had been hiding among his guards this entire time using him as her golden ticket to a better life. She wasn’t the only one who he knew possessed these tendencies, as he was very familiar with another succubus who was good at using others. That succubus was Dora who spent most of her time among the elves.

 

Rex stood up and pushed open the door in front of him, what he saw was a large group of people from the island who were waiting for him. Most of them were succubi, but there were other members of other races as well. Several dwarves could be seen holding cases filled with papers who were here to discuss setting up rails and tracks across the island. Their plans for the land had been completely upended when the swamp began to turn into a dense forest. 

 

“Alright, one by one please,” Rex said to the large group as he put a serious look on his face.

 

Turning around he sat right back down on the closed toilet lid and waited for someone to enter the bathroom and present their business. The succubi, never one to shy away from their desires, sent someone into the bathroom first to ask for some of his time. It was a succubus wearing a snazzy set of slacks and an open-backed vest with a crop top. The logo of a rifle with a succubus tail snaking around it was monogrammed on her vest in gold leaf.

 

She put on her best smile and put her hands together in front of her chest as she began to speak. “We at the Succu-”

 

“No, I will not tell you how to make the ultimate weapon of the succubi yet, that was a prototype!” Rex told them. “If you are here for that, please leave!”

Rex could hear the angry mutterings of many succubi, and the one in front of him also put on a hurt expression. He didn’t care as he kept his face flat and emotionless.

 

“The succubus who dropped the weapon died in that blast. We need to come up with safer ways to handle things... or in the end we are not going to have any succubi to teach anything too.” Rex told them with a serious expression. “Now, who is next?”

 

The succubus from the S.F.S left the bathroom with a dejected expression, she was soon replaced with another succubus. This succubus was smaller than all of the other ones on the island. On her back was a rifle that was almost taller than she was, and was constantly undergoing modifications. Various tubes could be seen filled with fluids that ran along with hoses to various contraptions on her firearm. 

 

The gun had a flashlight that used a magical silver sphere in a case that was cone-shaped and held on the gun by an adjustable arm. It also had some kind of underbarrel device that he almost thought looked like a flamethrower, but it looked like the hose going to it was to deliver mana to some form of enchantment. She had also installed what looked like a thin piston along the side that was also being fed mana and had a spike sticking out of the end. The stock had also been fitted with springs and was collapsible so it was easier to carry.

 

Is she planning to go to war? She can’t even speak to groups of people! Rex’s thoughts were jumbled as he was handed a piece of paper and slowly looked down at what was on it. A tank… she is planning to go to war!

 

Looking over what was on the paper, he could see a crudely drawn picture of what looked like a tank, but it was missing several key functions. It didn’t have any kind of suspension or cooling system, it also needed air filtration and several other features. Any vehicle on tracks shakes when it drives and this makes it hard for the crew to be able to man it for long periods. The tracks also looked like some kind of chain that he had no idea how they could work.

 

Looking up he could see Shaya with such a pitiful expression on her face that he felt like he needed to help her fix this terrible blueprint design.

 

“The boat engine would need to be downsized to fit inside of this, but it will work surprisingly. The transmission will need to be designed from the ground up. There isn’t a suspension, the crew would be lucky if they could drive it for longer than 4 hours without needing a break.” Rex explained the different features of the drive system. 

 

Then he moved to the turret and began inspecting that part of the tank and began seeing some problems.

 

“The tank rounds need to be kept in a special compartment, that is if you are not using an auto-loader,” Rex said as he pointed to a rack where the rounds for the tank were carried.

 

Auto-loaders allowed a tank to have a faster firing rate, but they also had a downside to them. A tank’s main cannon required a rotating base and the armor needed to be thinner there to allow the turret to move. This means a well-aimed shot can allow the blast to enter the tank and set off the ammo in the auto-loader, killing everyone inside. The M1 Abrams and the Leopard 2 didn’t use an auto-loader and had a person do it with an armored cabinet to store the rounds; these were safer in tank combat in theory.

 

“This thing needs an auto-loader, we are not fighting tanks, after all, I would also increase the ammo storage and give it a hood,” Rex said as he pointed to the round back of the tank.

 

An M1 Abrams had a large extension that came off the back of the turret and that allowed for additional storage. A lot of modern tanks had begun to use this method to increase the amount of ammo the tanks could carry for longer missions. A tank round is as long as a man’s forearm to the tips of their fingers and weighs around 40 pounds(~18KG). The tanks were starting to go from a crude drawing to a detailed plan for a modern tank.

 

“Why was this thing made big enough to include these bunk compartments?” Rex asked. “The cab of this thing is closer to a small mobile home. Shaya, this thing is going to weigh close to 100 tons(~90MT) when it is fully loaded.”

 

Looking up he could see the little succubus looking at him like she was trying to figure out if that was some kind of problem. Since he had decided he would put an auto-loader in the vehicle, it removed the need for a loader and the crew was reduced to 3 people. He used this to reduce one of the beds in the back and shrink the cabin significantly. These small changes he was making as he kept erasing and redrawing parts of the blueprints took him several minutes and the lack of tools made some of the lines messier than he would have liked.

 

“This should be much more functional, also I fixed the tracks and included a drawing near the back on one of the blank pages. What made you want to design a tank?” Rex asked.

 

Shaya looked down at the blueprints that had completely changed after being in Rex’s hands for only a few minutes. The moment these papers were delivered to the island and into her hands something about it spoke to her.  This was the perfect transportation for someone like her who got nervous whenever there were eyes on her. She felt like this was something necessary but she just couldn’t complete it herself.

 

“There is just one major problem we would need to tackle to make the vehicle usable. It needs enchantments that can allow the people operating it to see outside of the armored hull. I also feel like not adding something to the hull to make use of it is kind of wasteful as well.” Rex explained. “How cool would it be if it was possible to use magical metals to allow the entire thing to become invisible, or emit enough light that it would blind anything that looked at it.”

 

These last parts were meant to be a joke, however, when he looked at the little succubus he noticed the shock on her face. She then started glancing down at the papers in her hands and back at his face with a grin starting to slowly stretch from ear to ear. Just as he was about to tell her that it was impractical she turned and ran out of the bathroom with her tail straight up in the air.

 

“Okay, this can be a good learning opportunity while we prepare to build trains,” Rex muttered.

 

He was interrupted as a dwarf walked into the bathroom he was sitting in holding a book filled with papers. Rex had been expecting this as the plans for the entire island had changed with the discovery of the monster in the swamp that was able to manipulate plants. It meant that moving the food production there made more sense when all of the trees and bushes could be changed to slowly produce fruits, vegetables, and nuts. They were here for a single reason.

 

“Is this the plan for the rail system?” He asked.

 

“That is correct, we have adjusted it now that the farming areas are going to move.” The dwarf told him respectfully.

 

On earth, it would be impossible to hold meetings out of a bathroom without someone getting offended. But Rex could tell from all the voices that there was a crowd gathered outside and he didn’t feel like fighting his way through them.

 

“The rails look good, moving the farming area helps out.” Rex nodded as he saw the clear lines laid out.

 

“You said that we will be able to produce metals that never rust? Will the tracks be made from it?” The dwarf asked as Rex handed him back the papers.

 

“That is correct, it is called stainless steel. You just mix nickel and chromium into the metal when you are smelting it to make an alloy.” Rex explained. “The plans look good and the rail diameter will be fine. Will monster bones really work to make timbers?”

 

“They are much stronger than most woods, at least the bones we keep gettin from the deep seas. We carve them into furniture and sell some of it in the undercity.” The dwarf told him honestly.

 

It was a resource that Rex never thought about using before, but the cartilage structure was very rich in mana which made it incredibly strong as a material. It was also light and could be easily painted to change its white color. Because of how much of the material they had been acquiring from the shore defense cannons the bored islanders began to look for things to do with it. The long straight ribs were almost the same as some hardwood trees that were used for building.

 

I need to keep experimenting with the way mana bonds with matter. Rex thought.

 

For a long time the piece of equipment that he would have given almost anything to get a hold of was an electron microscope. They did not work the way that most people thought of and were similar to echolocation in their form. What you did was fire electrons at something then read the deflections to get an idea of what you are looking at. This was how the structures of most of the elements were seen for the very first time.

 

I need to use magic to do the same thing… Rex nodded several times at this point as new research was added to his list. 

 

Rex had often felt like enchanting was the best way to move forward on a planet that didn’t have a stable magnetic field. He also didn’t have a complete understanding of electronics since he had often bought what he needed and didn’t understand how to make a lot of them. It put him at a serious disadvantage when he was trying to create a modern society. He was interrupted when he felt something wiping its face on his pant leg and looked down to see a small goblin whining.

 

“Oh, Farris? What are you doing down there?” Rex asked the goblin.

 

“You can see Farris? He is not invisible?!” The goblin began to call excitedly.

 

“Yes, I can see you just fine, I was just lost in my thoughts…” Rex muttered as he helped pick the goblin off the floor of the bathroom. 

 

Now he was regretting his decision to just hold his meeting in the bathroom and poked his head out the door to see how many people were still waiting.

 

“Sorry buddy, I don’t think I can leave here with you yet.” Rex said with a sad smile.

 

His boss once told him that shit always comes in piles. This means that problems rarely come at you at once and instead tend to fall into your lap in bundles, and that was what the last couple of days had been like. The news of the first ship's successful launching and trip to the mainland had been met with much excitement from the various races. There were countless reasons for why this news was important to the various islanders but one thing was certain, the island was going to go through big changes again.

 

“You said we gonna grow more mushrooms, you promised Farris!” THe little goblin cried to him.

 

“That’s right, we already are.” Rex told the little goblin and patted his head.

 

“Is we?” He seemed surprised by this.

 

“Yes, we already expanded the growing chambers for the mushrooms.” Rex told him calmly.

 

“Did we? What about the sewage and mana they need?” The goblin asked seriously.

 

“We have begun diverting it so that you no longer need to carry it in buckets. Bob helped you set that up. I also supply the mana to you directly.” Rex reassured him.

 

“So we already growing more mushrooms?” The goblin asked, he looked skeptical.

 

“Yes, we more than doubled it.” He told the little goblin. “We plan to increase it even further. All of our future sewage is planned to be fed to the mushrooms.”

 

The news caused the goblins eyes to bulge and his jaw to drop in shock. “Really?”

 

“That’s right.” He told the little goblin. 

 

“We is going to grow so many mushrooms! HAHAHAHAHA!” The little goblin stood up and began laughing happily before he turned to run out of the bathroom. 

 

At least once a day the little goblin would come and find Rex with this same issue. He just needed to be reminded that the mushrooms were already being grown, but since he hadn’t seen them yet they didn’t exist in his mind. Dora was beginning to recommend selling these plants to the elves, but Rex wasn’t sure it was a good idea due to all of the beneficial qualities. He was interrupted again when another succubus entered the bathroom.

 

This one was wearing what looked like a white and blue sailor uniform complete with a miniskirt. On her thigh was belted a large revolver that looked like it had been chambered to a rifle round, and on her vest was the words ‘Shore Defense’. This was his first time seeing it, but the hat looked like a Navy officer’s peak hat with her horns sticking through the sides of it. He was so taken aback he didn’t know how to react at first.

 

“I have come to seek you out for a simple reason.” She told him very seriously. “We at point 3F are the best cannon team on the island with the highest confirmed kills.” Holding up her hand  for silence she put on her most sincere expression. “I am convinced that we are the best choice to run the Succubuster! We are the team that you need in order to put it to its best use!”

 

“You are talking to the wrong person, that is something Kira will decide.” Rex told her with a smile.

 

 “But team 2A came and petitioned you last week!” She said quickly.

 

“And I told them the same thing. I build it and help with maintenance but Kira decides the military matters regarding the succubi.” Rex told her.

 

Rex could feel something moving from his wrists and snaking into his clothes as it began to caress his body. He didn’t know how but Blue seemed to have a timer installed and would perform cleaning on his body. There was no way for him to stop it so he could only allow the creature to do as it pleased with him. Fortunately it didn’t take long and it was impossible to tell what it was doing under his clothes.

 

“If you could send in the next person please.” Rex told the disappointed succubus.

 

She left dejectedly, but Rex was already used to this as he didn’t control the military side of the succubi and left that to Kira. Leaning back against the water storage on the toilet, he decided to get comfortable until he could leave. Finished with the cleaning, Rex decided to quench his thirst and held out his hand imagining a cup. It didn’t take long for the slime to realize what he wanted and shift into the form of a bottle that he pushed under the metal sink head and began to fill with water. 

 

Technically he could quench his thirst with battery acid so he didn’t care about the quality of the liquids that he drank. But Blue could help him out by acting as a biological filter and screening the water that it held inside of it. Giving the slime a few shakes that made it feel like a thick plastic bag filled with water he held his lips to it and a straw formed that he began drinking through. He stopped when he heard the sound of the water lapping against the sink wall.

 

What he saw was a large white head covered in fur that had reached over and was using its long tongue to lap up the water coming out of the faucet. 

 

“Borscht, what are you doing?” He asked.

 

“I get thirsty waiting!” The bear told him.

 

“I see… and what did you need?” He asked.

 

“Little girl, show me vehicle you make for her. She said that it is like a boat that works on land.” The bear told him seriously.

 

This information caused Rex to lean forward slightly so that he could see the bear’s large back that was hidden outside of the small bathroom. What he saw was a little succubus eagerly analyzing the drawing he modified of the tank as she flipped through the pages. Rex figured that she went to the bear immediately to use him as a chair while she came to her own conclusions on the design. Rex hadn’t thought of developing vehicles since he was the slowest one on the island and could hitch rides from the succubi.

 

I wonder if there would be a market for vehicles on the mainland… They don’t have roads but maybe tractors or other things could be useful. Rex thought as he thought over the bear's request.

 

“You know, aside from boats I never thought much about vehicles since the beastmen and succubi are all so fast. Maybe I shouldn’t discount it, I will think about it and get back to you.” Rex told him seriously.

 

“Also, we have meat problem again! There are three more monsters killed this week that we have no room for.” The bear told him.

 

“Damn, I wanted to keep researching mana! Alright, I will solve this food problem for good!” Rex said angrily.

 

He made this vow as he was tired of having this same problem come up over and over again, it was time to start planning ahead anyway. Food was something that could always be sold to the mainland.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Beastmen plains, Beavermen’s fort.

 

The birdmen had been keeping their distance and mostly stayed high in the sky, but they had begun doing something abnormal. Sticks, leaves, and anything else that could float was all being gathered and dropped into the water of the flooded canyon. The beavermen had been working to move it away and clear it but they couldn’t work fast enough and it had begun accumulating on the waters. It made it look like the massive beaver mound in the center was falling apart in the waters around it, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

 

“Do we know what they are planning?” Lunas asked the group.

 

Lunas was standing near a small opening in the wooden wall and was using a spyglass to look at the birdmen in the air. Next to her was Greko and Chief Flattail.

 

“I am not sure, it is making me question if we should have flooded the valley.” Greko sighed as he finished saying this.

 

“It seems more like they are only trying to cover the surface of the water, it is getting murky underneath of it. I spoke to the matriarch of the gophermen and she said that they set up a failsafe if we need it.” Chief Flattlail said and laughed. “We also wouldn’t have flooded the canyon if we couldn’t do something about it if necessary.”

 

“Alright, for now all we can do is wait until the tunnel is finished to the mountain, then we can start our real attack.” Greko said.

 

“What are Kira and Welch doing?” The beaverman chief asked.

 

“They have long had a rivalry between them as the only two female warriors in their generation.” Lunas explained.

 

“Ah, what are they competing over?’ The beaverman chief asked.

 

“A mate.” Lunas explained.

 

“How time consuming, they should just do it like us beavers and marry for convenience.” The beaverman chief said. 

 

Him and his wife had lovingly supported each other since they were young and happened to run into each other when they were looking for a partner. There was no romance or any sharing of feelings, they mated that night and then went to work together the next day.

 

“Kira gets angry due to the differences in their species making it almost impossible to mate, this has long been an issue for the succubi who are normally solitary creatures. She needs a way to vent this frustration and this is how she chooses to do it.” Lunas explained. 

 

Rivalry was something that all beastmen understood as it was what their system was eventually meant to instill in the future generations.