Chapter CXXIII Planning (Patreon)

Phyllis looked up from her discussion when Misaki entered the room. Immediately she noticed that Misaki was excited about something. Fortunately they were about done with the paperwork needed to start a school. She knew some of their decisions would seem strange to humans, but now that she was a succubus they seemed perfectly natural. At the moment the only thing on the drawing board was an all-girls school. She wasn’t sure what they would do with boys, but then again most of the locals were going to be girls. Especially with so many local pregnancies being girl-girl pregnancies. Often with the involvement of at least one lust demon, if not more.

Before Misaki could start, she said, “I can tell something is exciting you, but first. Do your new abilities have anything that might help with the boys?”

Misaki’s expression turned to that distinctive look people gained when looking over system windows. After a moment she nodded, I have two options that might be useful. I could purchase a trait that will allow me to prevent boys being born within a defined zone, or I could use the dungeon rules to establish a zone around the schools that would automatically gender-bend boys into girls.”

“Both sound useful. I would certainly prefer the second, but I can see an advantage with the first. How tight can you define the zone?”

Misaki frowned, “not sure, but from the sound of it I think it can be shrunk to cover just one room or enlarged to cover the entire town.”

“Well no reason not to buy both. Just set them both up in the immediate area of the school, and no further. That girl forcing trait would spare any boys born within the genderbending field some confusion down the road.”

“I only have to buy the one. I can do the second right now. Just let me know where you want to build the school. As for the first, yeah it would spare them a little confusion.”

“Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Misaki lit up, “I had an interesting encounter with Milith earlier. She taught me a new spell, and even left me a cool toy. Well, cool if we can fix it. Dewari mentioned a dwarven follower of hers in Voribar that might be able to help with that. In fact she said that she would be orgasmically excited at the prospect of working on it.”

Phyllis leaned forward, “that sounds interesting, alright. What kind of spell did she teach you, and what is this cool toy?”

“She taught me the spell ‘Skylord’s Lance.’ I can’t use it, myself, but I was able to base a spell of my own off of it.”

“A spell of your own? I guess that’s why you were so excited. Not many mages get to make their own spells.”

“The original spell was designed to modify the racial ability ‘Skylord’s Breath’, we dungeons have our own racial weapon, mainly for defending our core, called Crystal Ray, although as a Demonic dungeon I have access to the more powerful Demonic Ray. I can channel a lesser version of both through my avatar.”

“I’m familiar with it. A rather potent pure magic attack that ignores the resist stat, and does a lot of damage, very quickly. It isn’t easy to defend against either, not without the right equipment anyway. What does your spell do?”

“The System named it Crystal Lance. It unleashes a focused stream of pure magic that ignores the Resist stat, and is especially effective against dragons. The spell also has the shield piercing property, allowing it to deal damage directly to the target. Wards are unaffected by the shield piercing property, but it does deal increased damage to wards. It’s a very potent spell.”

It did sound potent, but not something everyone could use. Although not surprising, and not entirely unbalanced. With that Dragon in town, it was nice knowing there was someone with a spell that could deal with it. Then Misaki dropped a bomb.

“The best part, is my new status as a guild stronghold lets me erect special towers in guild territory. These towers are topped with a false core that allows me or any designated guild member to fire full-powered Crystal Rays or Demonic Rays at any target in range. A range that isn’t small by the way, and even better is that my spell can be used to actively upgrade those rays.”

Maybe it was overpowered, but it was still defensive in nature. Just in a way, she hadn’t really heard of. That was actually useful. “That sounds useful.”

“Unfortunately those towers aren’t cheap. I wanted to place a few to protect my new castle entrance, but I could only afford two.”

“I’m not surprised. The system does try to balance things.”

“Yeah, it does.”

That seemed to be everything on the spell, and she was curious about that toy. “So that new toy of yours. Can you show me it?”

Misaki smiled brightly, “I was planning to show you it. Let’s go!”

Then she promptly rushed out of the room, and with a sigh Phyllis followed her.

It wasn’t too hard to catch up with Misaki. As they entered the dungeon, Phyllis tried to convince her to make a brief detour, but Misaki was too excited to show her this new toy. Phyllis therefore decided to make that stop on the way out. She really did need a new wardrobe.

Thankfully it didn’t take too long to reach their destination on the final floor. Perks of not having to clear them, but being able to take the direct shortcuts. Misaki took her straight to the new toy which turned out to be a giant metal construct that resembled a scorpion covered in rust.

“I see what you mean about needing repairs. It’s covered in rust, and looks like it was left to rot for a long time. What is it anyway?”

Misaki replied with a grin, “A combat walker. In my old world mecha like that were among the heaviest land combatants employed. While not as fast as a tank, or most tracked vehicles for that matter, they were bigger and heavier.”

Now Phyllis was just confused. “Combat walker? Tank?”

Misaki’s expression changed, and then she spent the next few minutes trying to explain. It wasn’t the best explanation, but she managed to get an idea of what the terms meant. Armored combat vehicles were not entirely unheard of. Although their effectiveness was often questionable. There was one that she knew of, that was reasonably effective. Designed for siege warfare, the Dragon Ram, as it was called, was an armored battering ram. Slow, but heavily armored. The Dragon Ram was even enchanted to resist magic, and large enough that the designers installed a couple of weapon emplacements to help protect it.

She had heard some recent rumors about the Empire working on some new design for an armored vehicle. Supposedly another mobile fortress. They were believable. Mobile fortresses typically used flight enchantments to float, and provide a modest speed. Although the weight limit of those enchantments greatly limited the size of a mobile fortress. Not to mention they were rather expensive, so as weapons went they were only employed by the wealthier empires.

As for the combat walker, the closest equivalent she could think of was the armored golem. Golems were limited in many respects, but they did have their uses. Golems naturally had high defensive stats, and a large health pool. Plating the magical constructs in armor was a logical step. Many nations with the resources would use armored golems as walking shields for their troops.

There was a variant of armored golem called a Spider Bolt golem. It used four spider-like legs to move around, and mounted a single ballista on top. It was also armored, and the ballista mount was protected by both enchanted wards and an armored shell. It was surprisingly fast for a golem, able to move just a bit faster than the average footsoldier. That was twice as fast as most other armor golems. The ballista was also a very valuable mobile weapon. From the sounds of things, she felt the combat walker was roughly akin to this type of golem. Just much larger, and carrying heavier weaponry. It was no surprise that a dwarf would orgasm at the thought of work on something like this. The Spider Bolt golems originated from the dwarves after all.

“I see you really like this rusty contraption,” commented Phyllis after listening to Misaki practically babble about it.

Misaki nodded, “Yeah, I kind of do.” then she sighed, and looked at her feet, “Too bad everything I know about them is superficial.”

“You can’t know everything. Tell you what. Why don’t we plan a trip to, um, Voribar you said? That is only about two weeks’ travel away. Once we square things here, we can take the kids, and go hunt us a dwarf. Look up this female dwarf Dewari recommended, and see about fixing it up.”

“Sure, but we will need to take a few people with us to help watch the kids.”

“Alright, let’s take a month then to properly plan the trip, and get things squared here. That also gives me time to get a new wardrobe.” Phyllis tugged on her dress, “The cute and innocent look was fine before, but I just need something sexier.”

Misaki nodded, “Yeah, I guess you do.” Then her eyes widened, “That’s why you wanted to stop by that shop. I’m so sorry. Let’s get that done now.”

Suddenly Misaki grabbed her hand and started pulling. She sighed. It seems that Misaki could be quite energetic when she was excited. Phyllis could sense that Misaki was already envisioning her in new sexier outfits, and could not wait to see it. Then again, Phyllis really wanted to wear something sexier, and not so cute and innocent. She eagerly followed along. While also considering how to speed up Carol’s return to her shop. The town rather depended on her for clothes. Well not all, but for their everyday clothing needs, she was the most important person in town.