Chapter 55

Elendar

"Is it just me, or is it kinda weird how human betas are usually pretty unremarkable-looking women who are neither short nor tall, nor flat nor curvy, and yet monstergirl betas are almost exclusively these hot fuckable bombshells?" Roxy asked.

"I've actually done some reading on this," Elendar said.

The two of them were alone in the Ranch Room of the Sakurai apartment, looking after the batches of bunnygirls that had just been born earlier today. Unawakened monstergirls were quite normal, according to Elendar's artificial acculturation and everything she'd seen since, but every now and then, Elendar thought a bit too deeply about them, and came away unsettled.

"Quite simply, unawakened monstergirls can reproduce blazingly fast," Elendar said. "A human pregnancy takes nine months to come to term; an unawakened bunnygirl can do that in as little as three days, which is sooner than humans typically realize they're pregnant in the first place."

"So, what, they've had more time on the evolutionary stove, from a generational perspective?" Roxy asked.

"I... maybe?" Elendar asked. "I'm... not entirely sure what 'evolutionary stove' means in this context, but... Essentially, unawakened monstergirls are exceedingly easy to selectively breed for desired traits. And yet, an ordinary bunnygirl beta still would not be so well-endowed as these ones are, because these ones aren't ordinary betas, they're beta exemplars."

"I keep hearing that term, and I've generally gathered that 'exemplar' means 'fat tits,' but that's about it," Roxy said. "Enlighten me?"

"Broadly speaking, there are two competing growth hormones in the human body," Elendar said. "Alphagen promotes the growth of muscles and bones, promoting tall, muscular builds. Omegagen promotes the growth of soft tissues, as well as a few specific bones in the hips. Both of these hormones are mutually antagonistic; adding omegagen to someone's system causes weight gain around the chest, hips, and thighs, whereas adding alphagen to someone's system causes muscle growth and, often, a reduction in fatty tissues."

"Okay," Roxy said, nodding. "I assume that y'all also get fused growth plates in your bones at the end of puberty, hence the lack of height gain with alphagen?"

"More or less, yes. Anyhow, betas typically have roughly balanced amounts of alphagen and omegagen, and, quite notably, betas are the only sex of the three that is capable of homosexual reproduction," El said. "And through an interaction that we still don't completely understand, if two betas reproduce with each other, there's a slim chance of producing the Exemplar gene, which marks their child- always a beta, as two betas only ever make more betas- as a beta exemplar. And that introduces a third growth hormone to the system."

"Oh?" Roxy asked. "And is this one called betagen, by any chance?"

"It is, yes. And it does similar things to both alphagen and omegagen, without antagonizing itself," El said. "The Exemplar gene can be inherited by alphas and omegas, too- Akane inherited it from Usagi- and has a similar effect. It makes them as tall as an alpha, and as curvy as an omega- often curvier, objectively, as an exemplar is often a lot bigger than an omega."

"I see," Roxy said, nodding slowly. "So... the reason unawakened monstergirls all look like this, and human betas don't, is because unawakened monstergirls have been bred to produce and then spread a rare gene that causes what is only not a hormonal disorder because we like what it does?"

"More or less," El said. "Humans don't come in an unawakened variety, and so cannot be selectively bred like unawakened monstergirls can. Not easily, anyhow. If Nel's parents can teach us anything, it's that people tend to complain when you don't let them have children of their own."

"Yeah, when you do that sorta thing to people, it's called eugenics, and it isn't looked upon fondly, where I'm from," Roxy said. "Gotta say... as much as I know, intellectually and experientially that these unawakened monstergirls simply are not person-smart and can in fact be ethically treated like person-shaped livestock... my moral compass sometimes asks if I'm doing the right thing." Roxy sighed. "Of course, that's complicated by the simple fact that I like this current state of affairs, and in fact, it gives me a boner. So I always wonder if I accept any defenses of it with less critical thought than I should, simply because I benefit from the idea those defenses are true."

Roxy sighed.

"Well, if it's any consolation, the elves of Vilane are quite alright with keeping unawakened elves as pets and livestock," El said. "It might interest you to know that, in Vilane and pretty much nowhere else, there have been successful projects to breed Traits across breed lines; they keep elves that give milk, elves that give eggs, and I think there were ongoing attempts at breeding elves which give wool, but not that many people are all that bothered, as the Vlandish generally prefer linen and cotton over wool."

"A little, yeah," Roxy said. "Hey, is there... are there populations of awakened monstergirls out there besides elves?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no," El said. "Elves already had breeding populations, before the Elven Epoch, and three of those managed to reconstruct themselves, but if there were any other breeds that had breeding populations, then they're either well-hidden or lost to time. As for creating new breeding populations, well... that's not exactly easy."

"No?"

"An awakened monstergirl is either born awakened, like Nel was, or is a Familiar who was made awakened, like me," El said. "Making unawakened monstergirls into Familiars is tricky, as it requires a Familiar Slot, which people only get once they hit Level 5, and they only get the one unless they either find and use a rare item that can't be made, only found in dungeons, or they go up to Level 10. Then, once you do get an awakened monstergirl, you run into the problem that is humanity. Humans are everywhere, and if someone hasn't been raised specifically to shun humans and never marry them, there's good odds that the person they meet, fall in love with, and start a family with will be a human. And humans have an effective Rarity of 1; even bunnygirls and cowgirls, some of the most common and prolific monstergirls, only have a one out of two chance of making another monstergirl when they're married to a human. With rarer breeds, the odds are even worse, and soon enough, the monstergirl-ness leaves the gene pool, leaving only humans, some of whom might've been raised by a foxgirl."

Roxy nodded, slowly and carefully.

"...This is one of my bad ideas," Roxy said. "It appeals to me, but I recognize it's objectionable, and have no strong attachment to it."

"You want to create a new community of awakened monstergirls," Nel guessed.

"I do, yes," Roxy said, nodding. "I want to see what a village of bunnygirls would look like, after a few generations for the unique Traits of bunnygirls to impact their culture. Or cowgirls. Any monstergirls, really. I'm... a bit uncertain where I'll get enough awakened monstergirls to start a village, but, well... Either I'll figure something out, or I'll abandon the idea as unethical nonsense. Possibly both!"

"I'm already scared," El said dryly, humoring Roxy's self-conception as a mad prophet with cursed visions that strike fear and madness into the common man, rather than a foreigner with a few valuable outsider insights and the sex drive of a woman in her mid 20s.

"Anyhow, once we've got a breeding population of bunnygirls going, it'll be pretty easy, with potions and all, to make breeding populations of elves, kitsune, and whatever else we want," Roxy said. "The thing is, I'm not sure what else we'd want. I mean... cowgirls, sure, why not. But I'm at kind of a loss for what else to add."

"Beegirls could be nice," El said. "Get some honey and wax going. Also, Traits. You can get beegirls with Litter Size 5."

"Holy shit, why the fuck does anyone bother with bunnygirls then?" Roxy asked.

"They have a special sex ratio," El said. "When a beegirl alpha breeds a beegirl omega, each offspring has only a one in sixty four chance of being an omega. And... well. There are no beegirl betas."

Roxy blinked.

"I bet I can fix that," she said.

"It'd certainly be interesting to see you try," El said.

"Alright, well, what else?" Roxy asked. "What other weird monstergirls present that kind of challenge for me to try and solve?"

"Well, there are the four legendary monstergirl breeds," El said. "You already have Lisa, but that leaves you with a dragon, an angel, and a demon to collect for the full set."

"...That's a maybe," Roxy said. "Those don't exactly grow on trees."

"They do not, and part of it is because they are very difficult to breed," El said. "The fact they have a Rarity of 6 is one thing, but there's a special mechanic that makes it even more tedious and error-prone."

"Oh, good."

"Each one has two lesser breeds; when a kitsune breeds a bunnygirl, not only is there only a one in sixty four chance of the child inheriting the kitsune breed, there's also the fact that inheritance instead manifests the foxgirl breed. From there, you have to breed a kitsune with a foxgirl she isn't too closely related to until a spirit fox is made, and only once you have an unrelated spirit fox do you have even a chance at making another kitsune."

"Fucking hell."

"And it's like that for all three of them."

"See, this is why the potions that just directly turn any monstergirl into any other breed are so useful," Roxy said. "I get to just skip all that bullshit. The only bullshit I do have to deal with is getting one of each in the first place. I'm led to believe they're quite rare. As in, 'people don't even consider auctioning them off, and just keep them as their own familiars' rare."

"True, but you don't have to get the whole dragon for yourself on a permanent basis," El said. "You just have to get enough of the dragon's milk and cum to make the requisite potions."

"Finding and milking a dragon is not exactly trivial."

"Cecilia's sister Anzerath is a dragon."

Roxy blinked.

"Oh."