Chapter 67

"What... the fuck are they wearing," I muttered.

"Hey, if I'm gonna build a clothing factory, I'm not gonna bother with clothes that aren't sexy as hell," Lisa said, folding her arms in such a way as to squish and lift her tits.

Yesterday, the Royal Guard had been dressed in forest-green military uniforms that, while certainly tight-fitting and therefore quite flattering to their forms, were not outright fetish gear.

This morning, however, they were wearing mass-produced replicas of Lisa's collar, with the skintight latex bodysuit it projected having been modified a bit. From toe to mid-thigh, it was almost the same- the high heeled stilettos had been replaced with chunky boots that were nonetheless equally high-heeled, tracing a 45-45-90 triangle with the heel, the sole, and the ground, joined seamlessly into a black bodysuit so skintight it looked like body paint. At the middle of the thigh, however, they terminated to form a fishnet pattern of threads crossing threads in big diamonds, for about three inches before reforming into very short shorts that were also quite low-waisted. From the middle of the backside waistband, a pair of new latex threads stretched forth, going up and over, each hugging the curves of the wearer's body as they came around to the front, and briefly spread into a triangle of latex that didn't quite fully cover the wearer's aereola. The other corners of the triangle became more string; the inside corner's string was tied to the other corner's string in a big, decorative bow, while the top corner's string went up, behind the back of the neck, and tied into another bow, before finally joining up with the collar. And, as a deliberately hard-to-spot detail, the triangles of the comically small bikini each bore a single color-matched triangle of adamantine, heavily enchanted to be lightweight, extra protective, and to extend its protection all over the body.

It was absurd, not just because these soldiers had been put into latex pants that let them hang conveniently-pre-condomed dong along with a microbikini and a fucking collar, but more because this was actually an improvement. Adamantine armor wasn't a viable option for anyone below Level 13, and here we were giving them some clothing that was comfortable, lightweight, and was even more protective than full adamantine plate (that hadn't been enchanted, anyway).

"Well, it's not doing amazing things for discipline, but it is doing wonders for morale," Rachel pointed out, gesturing to a guard getting spitroasted by two others, while another guard had untied the string holding her bikini in place to let a fifth suck on her nipples. They weren't the only ones engaging in some celebratory "our kingdom is saved and also we've all got our tits out" sex, but they were the ones we could most immediately see.

"The best part is, thanks to the Succubus enchantments, these things have plenty of civilian applications, too," Akane added. "It'll permanently grant the wearer Breed Speed and Litter Size 3- now, two elf betas knocking each other up will make six babies in one month instead of two babies in nine!"

The math of how Breed Speed worked on awakened monstergirls was surprisingly straightforward- the baseline gestation period of an unawakened monstergirl was about a month, and coincidentally, the baseline awakened pregnancy was nine times longer. As such, where Breed Speed 3 reduced an unawakened pregnancy to about half a week, nine times that amount was about thirty one days, or... well, about a month.

"Oh?" Rachel asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Also, in the interest of not being entirely sexual," Nicky said patiently, "it will also grant Long-Lived 3 and Extra Class Slots 3, for those who may have mutated below what most elves have. And, furthermore, to grant a benefit to all elves... it will grant the Inherent Class: Trickster and Sorcerer classes to the wearer."

Rachel inhaled sharply through her teeth.

"Also," Nicky continued, turning to regard me. "Should you so desire, we do have breeding populations of unawakened kitsune and dragongirls, if you'd like to hand those out as familiars instead of elves."

"I... maybe," Rachel said. "Part of the reason we've used elves as familiars, aside from only elves having the Traits we need, is because... well, we are a kingdom of elves, and we'd like to stay that way. But..." Rachel sighed. "...Something that Medea Dorn said to me, all those years ago, has stuck with me. That homogeneity was a weakness, and diversity was a strength. I didn't even disagree with her, really; that the number of bloodlines has dwindled in the Red Forest, to the point where nearly every wood elf alive today is descended from the same flock of livestock has troubled me for a long time. It's just..." Rachel sighed. "...If all of the elves in this forest died out, their children born as bunnygirls and foxgirls and cowgirls... Something would be lost there, wouldn't it?"

"I don't think you're going to have a problem with running out of elves," Nel said dryly, gesturing at a pair of elves right next to her, one of whom had tied her knot inside the other and filled her belly with cum.

Rachel grunted in wordless acknowledgement. "It's a thought. I'll consider it, although there're more problems to it than simply running out of elves. Among other things, our current culture of everyone born awakened being responsible for awakening another elf runs quite deep, and replacing that other, unawakened elf with an angel or a demon is... potentially somewhat risky."

"Fair enough," I said. "You are already gonna be getting the benefits of elves with Trickster and Sorcerer just from the collars, anyways. The actual monstergirls themselves are, admittedly, mostly decorative by comparison. Oh, hey, that reminds me- why were you so adamant about getting the infinite magic engines as ASAP as possible?"

"Hm? Because I need more mana to power our dungeon gates," Rachel said, as though it was obvious.

"...I was never informed that those required significant amounts of power to operate," I said.

"Who the fuck taught you?" Anzerath asked.

"Nobody did," I said. "Whatever. You've got a bunch more power to play with, and I'm assuming that's going to speed up the rate at which your soldiers can train and level-grind, now that you've got plenty of delve capacity?"

"Mostly that, yes," Rachel said. "However, it is also the case that I have the Dungeon Master class, and having my people delve my dungeons more frequently may allow me to level that up faster."

"Oh hey, that's the class I wanted to unlock by coming here and milking you," I said. "I've got it already, in fact- still only Level 1, though. What level are you?"

"Level 10," Rachel said. "I understand your enthusiasm to train your new class, but, in the interest of my people's survival, it may be best for you to sit back and let me handle this one."

"...Fair," I said. "How... does Dungeon Master level up, though?"

"By having people delve your dungeons," Rachel said. "There are a finite number of adults capable of delving at any one time, and as such, a finite amount of Dungeon Master XP to be gained. If I can just get to Level 11, though, I could create armies of Level 12s, and, in time, a few Level 13s. I'm close, I'm so close, I just... One little push, and we can do this before the next crusade comes crashing down on us, and we might be able to throw back the armies of Vega without losing most of our people and settlements."

"It'll be even more likely if Roxy introduces you to guns," Anzerath said.

"Right, that," I said, nodding. "Uhhh... okay, I've got a few gun factories in my inventory-"

"Why," Elendar asked, flatly.

"Iunno, in case I ever found myself in a position where I had to equip an entire army on short notice?" I said. "But right now, what I think is the highest priority is setting up a transportation network, so that we can actually deliver all this shit to people, because right now, it's just sitting in crates, doing no good to anyone. So... to start out with, I've actually got a bunch of light trucks in a crate somewhere in my inventory- again, because it was the work of an afternoon, and I figured they'd come in handy someday- and after a crash-free course in driving, the soldiers can deliver the first few shipments and start doing some good right now, while we continue to scale up and prepare for a proper, high-speed and high-volume logistics system."

"I haven't given you my crown yet," Rachel said. "But... still, your plan does make sense. It has my approval."

"Good. Akane, Nel, you two know how to drive; teach the soldiers. I'm gonna start working on trains."

I liked trains. It wasn't because I was autistic- I mean, I was, but that's not why I liked them. No, I liked trains because I grew up in the American suburbs, and hated how everything had been ruined for the sake of being easier to drive through in a car. Trains were the obvious solution- steel on steel means no burnt rubber shedding off the tires of even your "eco-friendly" electric car and polluting the environment, and electrified rail plus solar panels equaled transportation that didn't burn fossil fuels. Plus, a train could carry way more passengers per driver, meaning that, in a world where I could take the train to get places, I wouldn't have to operate heavy machinery for hours at a time.

I bring all that up because, while I do like trains, it's because they're better than cars, not because I wanted to explore Thomas the Tank Engine's body. So, under the entirely different engineering constraints of this world, it made sense to ditch a lot of the essential elements of a conventional railroad. Such as the rails.

The train carriage, a perfect tube because that was easiest to manufacture and also to bore holes for, was suspended in the middle of the tunnel by magic. The train itself only really carried basic comfort amenities and an identifier token; the actual propulsion was handled by the tunnel's magic, which itself was controlled by a centralized hub that should and would be attended and operated by a number of very attentive people, but didn't really need to be, on account that the automated systems were well-designed and robust, and also I made it a policy that any line worth running was worth running twice, ensuring that each line was one-way, with no need for passing whatsoever, and the only risk of collision being when a tunnel section failed and a train came to a halt. In that event, however, we would almost certainly know about it, because the token stopped moving and wasn't detected where it was expected to be, and it was possible to slam the brakes on every line until we found and solved the problem.

I'd admit it was a little overengineered for its current form, connecting Industry Central to the capital and nowhere else, but we'd get to the others sooner or later. It was just a matter of time.