Chapter 50

Nel

"So, let's go over the basics of monstergirl ranching, so I understand what I'm doing and don't make any stupid mistakes," Roxy said. "Nel, you did some research into exactly that a month ago, from more-or-less the same place of ignorance as me- well, maybe. Uhh... y'know what, just start from the beginning, and assume I think 'monstergirl' is slang for internet-poisoned transfems addicted to energy drinks."

Nel blinked a few times; pretty much all she could get out of that was that, where Roxy existed, there might have been a popular kind of energy drink (was that like a stamina potion?) called "monster." She certainly had no idea whatsoever what the fuck "transfem" was supposed to mean.

"...Right, so..." Nel cleared her throat. "Ranchers can tame unawakened monstergirls, even if they already belong to another Rancher- this is usually called theft, and it's pretty illegal. Ranchers have a pool of energy that increases with stats and levels both which allows them to sustain a certain number of unawakened monstergirls without actually having to feed them."

"Sounds like an ad-hoc mechanic meant to mimic how ranching worked back in my world, where most livestock were four-legged animals that mostly ate grass and could be pastured on land that wasn't suited for regular plant-farming, but could also be fed grains that'd otherwise be fit for human consumption," Roxy mused.

Nel carefully tucked away this tidbit about Roxy's world- which she always seemed to describe in terms of it lacking something that was commonplace and normal in this world- and soldiered on. "Anyhow, you know all about milking monstergirls, and you seem to understand the idea that they eat basically the same food humans eat, so let's move onto the real meat and potatoes: breeding monstergirls. There are a few key details here, so... Okay, I think I know how to present them in the most reasonable way? Lemme try it."

"By all means."

"So, first and foremost, unawakened monstergirls have their own variant of the System, which is most relevant here for tracking who their parents are, their grandparents, and their great grandparents. For any two monstergirls, they are either related or not related, based on a straightforward comparison of those limited family trees: if any ancestor on one tree shows up anywhere in the other tree, then those two monstergirls are related. Sisters? Related. Niece and aunt? Related. Grandmother and granddaughter? Related! And, since there's a maximum of eight great grandparents, that gives rise to a common motif among Ranchers: sixteen sufficiently-unrelated monstergirls constitutes the start of a breeding population, because even without any new blood from outside, sixteen is the number of great-great-grandparents a monstergirl has, and those aren't in the family tree."

"I see, I see," Roxy said, nodding. "So, four is the minimum acceptable degrees of consanguinity?"

"That's another way of putting it, yeah," Nel said, nodding. "Now, if two monstergirls are unrelated, then they'll be willing to have social sex with one another, and be perfectly capable of reproduction. Once a monstergirl is pregnant, she'll usually be pregnant for about a month- twenty eight days, give or take three of them- before giving birth to one fully-grown adult offspring, who is, herself, already capable of reproducing on the very day she's born."

"Fucking hell, that's faster than rabbits," Roxy muttered.

"Funny you should mention those," Nel said. "Most domesticated bunnygirls have the Breed Speed 3 and Litter Size 3 Traits, both of which make them even more prolific breeders. Every rank of Breed Speed basically halves the amount of time gestation takes; at Breed Speed 3, a pregnancy lasts between three and four days. Meanwhile, every rank of Litter Size doubles how many offspring are born per pregnancy; at Litter Size 3, a single pregnancy produces eight offspring."

"So a single well-fucked bunnygirl can, ignoring her offspring, produce sixty four offspring in the same time it'd take a cowgirl to produce one," Roxy said. "Alright, well... I guess, in terms of making tons of monstergirls, bunnygirls are the best there are."

"Exactly right," Nel said. "That's why they're the most commonly-used breeding stock. There's just one slight problem that I haven't gotten to yet: crossbreeding."

"...Crossbreeding?"

"Remember, the idea of a half-bunnygirl is a social construct. When monstergirls of different breeds reproduce, the offspring always manifest one of the parents' breeds... with a small handful of well-known exceptions, but we'll get back to that later. The thing that determines which parent's breed any given monstergirl manifests is those breeds' Rarity scores. Convoluted enough yet?"

"Honestly, this is all sounding too straightforward to be natural," Roxy said. "But, well, the System, so." She shrugged. "I'm following just fine though, don't worry. Monstergirls breed fast, especially if they have the right Traits, and crossbreeding simplifies itself in the resolution through something called a Rarity score which is assigned on a per-Breed basis."

"...That's about the size of things, yes," Nel said, nodding. "Anyway, bunnygirls have a Rarity of 1, which is the lowest score possible. By contrast, elves have a Rarity of 4, and the way the math works out, if I knocked up two Litter Size 3 bunnygirls, then statistically, only one of those sixteen offspring would be an elf too."

"I remember you mentioning something along those lines, yeah," Roxy said, nodding. "It makes sense that's grounded in a broader mechanic for crossbreeding... Anyway! What about Traits and how those normally get passed down? How would I go about breeding for enhanced Traits?"

"That's simultaneously simple and complicated," Nel said. "Complicated, in that there are mathematical formulas with a lot of variables in them that determine probabilities, but also simple in that it can be summarized pretty easily: if a monstergirl has a Trait at the same level as every other monstergirl in her family tree- which, remember, only goes back to her great-grandparents- then there's a very small chance that any offspring she has will get that Trait with a mutated Level. Could be higher, could be lower. If it mutates down to Level 0, the Trait just disappears. If it mutates up to three higher than the breed's baseline Level for that Trait, then they also develop the Sterility Trait, which makes it impossible for them to reproduce with anyone."

"...I see," Roxy said, nodding.

"So, since elves have a baseline Long Lived 1 Trait, the safe maximum for that is Long Lived 3, and the occasional elves born with Long Lived 4 get to spend the next thousand or so years knowing they'll never have children," Nel said. "They're still especially valued members of the community, because they live a lot longer and pick up a lot more wisdom and skills, but... well, a lot of people don't like receiving the news that they can't ever have children."

"Ah."

"A-anyway," Nel said, clearing her throat; that was a touch heavy and macabre for talking about monstergirl pussy with her girlfriend. "It's also important to note that it is nearly impossible for monstergirls to inherit Traits from a parent who isn't the same breed as them; if I did sire an elf on a bunnygirl, none of the bunnygirls would get Long Lived at any level, and the elf wouldn't get Breed Speed or Litter Size."

"Right, right," Roxy said, nodding. "So, Trait Potions along with species transformation potions are both very, very useful abilities for circumventing some of the intractable challenges of being a Rancher, basically?"

"Basically," Nel said, nodding. "Doing it the old-fashioned way might be near-impossible, but you totally can get yourself a breeding population of unawakened elves who breed like bunnies and milk like cows. And, uh. Y'know, whatever else you might want 'em for."

"That is excellent fuel for my erection-" Roxy began, and Nel struggled valiantly to not sink into a fantasy of being bent over a bucket for a milking again, and then have that followed up by a nice, vigorous breeding sessio- goddamnit Roxy was talking. "-but as it so happens, I was thinking that, if I was able to make a bunch of unawakened elves with the Trickster Trait, which gave them access to Trickster as a Slotless Class, I would very easily be able to sell them as familiars to the absurdly wealthy who want to have the perfect spy as a familiar. Which... well, that would make me a ton of money, yes, but it would also be very nearly the worst possible way to put the Trickster Class into general circulation, given that it would exclusively be in the hands of people with a fuckload of money who probably want this for less-than-ethical reasons. So... I think maybe I should just not put any of this shit into general circulation just yet."

"That's... understandable," Nel said, nodding quietly. "Well... What sort of breeding projects do you want to pursue, then?"

"I'm not totally sure, yet," Roxy admitted. "It seems to me like the obvious projects, like creating a breeding population of unawakened elves and kitsune, are pretty trivial; I just need to make sixteen doses of the right potions, and administer those to a breeding population of soon-to-be-ex-bunnygirls. After that, though..." Roxy hummed quietly. "...I guess grinding up my Rancher level is a straightforwardly smart thing to do? Oh! Wait!"

"Hm?" Nel prompted.

"I know what I need to do!" Roxy continued, her eyes aflame with the passion of a new crafting-focused rabbit hole to rush down. "I need to develop equipment to automate all the maintenance of the ranched monstergirls! I already know for a fact, because of some studies that've been done on it, that monstergirls can in fact survive healthily on a diet of their own milk, so if I can come up with some way to automate milking and feeding all these monstergirls, in a way that scales up, suddenly I'm not committing myself to waking up at four in the morning to milk the fucking cowgirls for the rest of my life!"

"...Well, fair enough," Nel said, shrugging. "Do you want me to try and think of some other projects you can pursue after you decide you're done with that?"

"You're the best and I love you."

"Love you too, Roxy. I'd love it even more if you'd put me back in the milking stalls."

Roxy grinned. "I guess I know who I'm testing my prototypes on, then."

Nel grinned back. Jackpot.