Chapter 69

"The infantry and the tank must support each other," I explained. "The tank is faster than a woman on foot, but it is not nimble, and its options for dealing with foes that manage to get close are sharply limited. The infantry, however, can quite capably shoot any enemy fighter who gets too close to the tank, which in turn is drawing the bulk of enemy aggression with its size and destructive power. Any questions? Yes, Cadet Indoleth?"

"Sir, why are our uniforms no longer sexy?" Indoleth asked.

"Because, as fantastic as your tits looked in the first one, it was determined, to nobody's surprise, that an overly-sexy uniform was not conducive to maintaining discipline," I said, closing my eyes. "Hence the move from collars and microbikinis to actual clothing supplemented by an enchanted belt."

Now, sure, it did make my dick hard to watch a busty redhead with pointy ears strut around in heels, tights, a bikini and a collar with a big-ass gun on her shoulder, but, the simple fact of the matter is, there simply was not any military advantage to my erection. Yes, I know, Incubus magic, but there are limits, okay? The enchanted belt really did work better than the collar, and if any of the soldiers wanted to be sexy, they'd have to, le gaspuro, unbutton their shirt or something. The horror, the inconvenience, the acknowledgement that just because I thought the elves were sexy didn't mean they were sex objects I could force to wear fetish gear for my own benefit.

...Not that it took much force; I'm sure there was an interesting psychosocial analysis to be done on why, but the short version was, as much as I knew the wood elves weren't sex objects, I wasn't entirely convinced they knew that, too.

"Now, if anyone has a question relevant to armored cavalry?" I waited a few long seconds. "Moving on, then, to airpower and its limitations."

I returned to my quarters to find Rachel plowing Nicky into the mattress, a collar around Nicky's throat and a leash in Rachel's hand.

"Oh yeah, take it, bitch," Rachel said, before swatting Nicky's ass with the hand not holding the leash.

Well, it was good they were getting along.

"Cum for your king one more time, Princess," Rachel growled, leaning in closer.

Nicky obeyed, making a mess of the bedsheets and her stomach, before Rachel, gasping and shaking, pulled herself out of Nicky's ass, her cock throbbing, before she flipped Nicky over and sprayed her own load all over Nicky's front.

"Enjoying yourselves?" I asked, making them realize I was here.

"I love your girlfriend," Rachel said simply, chest heaving with every breath. "I can't believe... you've got... so many, high quality girls in your harem."

"Including you, it'd seem," I said. "Anyhow, do you mind if I ask how close you are to Level 11 Dungeon Master?"

"Should be there by dawn," Rachel said. "I'll... build the first Level 11 dungeon gate once I wake up, and then... we can take it for a spin. My guards will insist on coming with us, though, so... Unless you want to convince them to stand down, I'm afraid you won't be able to bring any of your other girls along for the delve. Max capacity is eight."

"Considering how horny every wood elf I've ever met is, I imagine all I'd have to do to convince them is ask who wants to make some half-elves, and then put them on maternity leave afterwards."

"I'll need them back fairly soon," Rachel pointed out.

"Right, which is why I won't actually impregnate them," I said. "I'm sterile, thanks to my Incubus powers; very convenient for someone who, inexplicably, fucks as much as I do. But, well, there will still be unprotected sex, so... after a few days, when it's clear it didn't take, they'll return to active duty. But! I'll only do that if anyone else wants to come; we've all delved Level 13 gates before, so the gate itself isn't going to be... super interesting to us, I'm afraid."

"Fair enough," Rachel said, shrugging. "I know this place is a backwater compared to Dorn, but... well, a Level 11 gate is going to be new for us."

"True, true," I said, nodding. "You alright, Nicky?"

"Mhm..." my exhausted, blissed-out, cum-covered princess with big fat tits said.

"Fantastic. I'm gonna go get something to drink, let you enjoy that a little longer. I will be magicking all the cum away before I go to bed though; I'm afraid you'll just have to convince Rachel to apply a fresh coating tomorrow."

The next day, true to her estimate, Rachel had in fact hit Level 11 Dungeon Master, and- after cumming on Nicky's face again after an early morning wake-up titfuck- set about constructing her Level 11 dungeon gate in the same settlement as one of the Level 10 dungeon gates. That settlement, much like the one hosting the other Level 10 dungeon gate, was growing bigger, as workers put up bigger prefabs- my hangars, basically- with the intent of being denser apartment and hotel housing, for the people who were just in town to get carried through the dungeon gate.

(The other settlement with a Level 10 dungeon gate would probably be getting its own Level 11, since the only restrictions on how many gates Rachel could build were materials, which we had in unlimited supply, and magic energy, which we also had in unlimited supply. Pretty much the only reason Rachel wouldn't build a gate of each level in every pair of houses calling itself a village would be because she didn't think it was necessary and didn't particularly want to.)

True to my own estimate, nobody else in my polycule particularly wanted to come with us; even those of us who liked delving liked it for the challenge, and a dungeon gate two levels below you simply wasn't a very good challenge.

Oh well. At least the royal guards would get a good first field test of their new weapons.

The dungeon was a breeze; Rachel was, in addition to Level 10 and 11 in all the crafter and gatherer jobs (even Level 12 in Farmer), a Level 15 Druid, a class that covered every Role except Thief; as such, the Trickster class I'd given her was well, well appreciated.

Of course, with the power of automatic gunfire spraying adamantine bullets, I was reasonably certain that even a Level 3 Alchemist could've cleared this dungeon without a problem. Just start spraying bullets and never stop.

"Alright, loot chest," I said, once the boss' corpse dissolved into nothingness. "What'd we get?"

"Let's see," Rachel said, approaching the chest casually, pulling from her hip holster an enchanted thief's multitool, and using it to disarm the traps that were, at this level, pretty much obligatory on every treasure chest. "Alright, it's safe..." She popped the lid open, and reached inside. "...Huh."

"What?" I asked. "What is it?"

"It's... it's a book," she said, carefully turning it over in her hands, revealing the brown leather of the cover, with an abstract, geometric pattern on what seemed to be the front that resembled leaves, or perhaps a forest from a bird's eye view. "Hrm.. it's old, but... it's made of parchment- kept properly, that stuff will last hundreds of years."

"Interesting," I said. "I've seen books drop in a dungeon before, although usually they're far less ornate, and made with ordinary wood-pulp paper. They're usually full of spells, or recipe formulas, or other information that, broadly speaking, Dornish society already has, and has published in great big libraries for people to read. Typically I'd thumb through 'em, see if there's anything interesting in there, and then dump it at the Delver's Guild Library and move on with my day."

"Well, let's see what's in here," Rachel said. "Parchment isn't any mere paper- it's made of animal hide, and therefore very expensive. I doubt they wrote down disposable information on a decidedly non-disposable medium." And with that, she cracked it open. "...Huh, that... sure is a detailed map of the Red Forest, except... it's... labeled in Old Elvish, and it's called The Ironwoods, instead?" She frowned.

"I mean, iron is often found in nature as a red oxide," I said. "It's not that weird."

"It kind of is, because the Red Forest isn't called that because it's rich in iron oxides," Rachel said. "It's called the Red Forest because of the name Carmine, and also the fact that nine out of ten wood elves was a redhead."

"Oh."

"Now... hrm. I'm going to admit, I'm not a cartographer of any kind. These numbered lines, here, they clearly indicate something, but..."

"Let me see? Ah, those are, most likely, lines of latitude and longitude. As for navigating by those, there are a few options, ranging from sextants and chronometers to the use of Fucking Magic," I said. "As someone who had to fly across two continents and an ocean to get here, I'm quite familiar with the use of magical navigation, and can absolutely play my part in equipping a Royal Corps of Archaeologists."

"Hrm?"

"Well, obviously I'm not the one holding the book, but it sounds to me like you're holding a very old, Elven Epoch-era survey of this land," I said. "Which, very likely, details a number of points of interest that we may be able to find now, and which could hold all sorts of valuable pieces of this land's history."

"...Hrm," Rachel said, turning the page. "That... does seem to be a reasonable assumption, yes. Well, in that case, Roxy... I think I can trust you to handle this, then?"

"Oh?"

"I've got many, many other administrative tasks to handle," Rachel said. "I am more than happy to delegate this task to someone who seems to already know what she's doing, so... Congratulations, your unofficial position as the chief scholar of the Red Forest grows ever more secure." With that, she casually handed me the very old and very valuable tome, which I took very, very carefully. "I'll make sure my staff know you've got the authority to requisition some staff of your own. Good luck."

"There is a slight problem with this plan," I said.

"Oh?"

"I can't read this book," I said, looking at the page of text. "I probably don't speak Old Elvish, and I most certainly cannot read it, either- it's not exactly written with the same alphabet as Dornish."

"Ah. Hrm." Rachel tapped her chin, humming thoughtfully as I closed the book and cast a spell to scan and copy it into a paper codex that I felt far more comfortable casually paging through. "...Well, you're smart. A Level 13 Wizard should be perfectly capable of learning the language quickly enough, with a good tutor. I'll just have to find you one. Luckily for you, I'm not the only elf in this forest who's older than your country."

"Ah. That's... gonna be a culture shock, isn't it?"

"A bit, yes. Good luck."