A New Kind Of Grind

"So kids can benefit from stat bonuses, even though they don't have stats?" I asked, watching a few kids chase some sheep around, trailed after by a dog.

"That's... not how it works," Rachel said. "Kids don't have access to the system, that part is true, but what that means is they can't see their stats, don't have inventories, and can't have classes. They still have stats, they just can't really do much with them."

"Ah, that makes sense," I said. "Sorry, I didn't grow up on this planet. I've been here for barely half a year."

"Roxy?"

I turned around, and beheld Neloteth and Elendar Tanelye as they walked into the 'outdoors' area. Really, it was a spatially-expanded agricultural chamber, but it was the biggest open space in the building, and it had grass, so, it's where the livestock lived and where the younger kids hung out to play.

"Oh, hey Nel," I said, waving at her. "Sorry to bail on you, but it turns out I have something like an actual commitment to this place and the people who live here. Inconvenient, but I'll live. Turns out they've got families they wanted to see, which is a very embarrassing oversight on my part, but... well, we're working on it."

"I'm glad you're okay," Nel said. "But..."

"Have you perhaps forgotten that you own a magical device that can contact people from across the entirety of Dorn, let alone this one particular city, and inform them of changes in plan as they occur?" Elendar said.

"I've been busy, okay?" I said defensively. "And I'm still busy, so unless either of you wanna get roped into a construction project..."

"...Construction project?" Elendar asked.

I gestured at the construction site behind me, where a few people were arguing over blueprints in the middle of several big ol' pallets laden with bricks.

"The fancy stack of magic tents was... alright," Rachel allowed. "But we'd rather live in a real building, with walls that aren't as thin as canvas."

"So picky, these people," I said dryly.

"Okay, but... you... aren't a mason, right?" Nel asked. "Am I correct in my assumption that you don't have any real experience in bricklaying or construction?"

"That is correct," I said. "What you're forgetting, however, is that I'm a Wizard who's really good at using [Telekinesis] to lift heavy shit, such as, say, pallets of bricks. As such, I'm still important to have at a construction site."

"Are you the only Wizard here?"

"I'm the only one here with maxed-out Soul Stats, and at low levels, that counts for a lot," I said. "Anyhow, it's not just construction. I've gotta talk to people, address other problems, and generally deal with the fact that, as much as everyone here is a fully-intelligent person, it's still a group that I am in charge of, and people are a bit reluctant to do anything big without knowing whether or not I'll approve."

"And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that you've beaten literally all of us in a fight," Rachel said dryly.

"What can I say? I'm good at what I do."

---

After three days of construction, the overall structural shell of the apartment building was complete, and all that was left to do was put in the interiors, which was... still very much a time-consuming and labor-intensive task, all told, and in all honesty, would probably be an even bigger pain in the ass, what with how everyone who'd have to live in that building would have a well-earned opinion on how it should be laid out.

Plus, I was gonna have to teach them about showers, toilets, and the general life-improving amenities of indoor plumbing. I don't actually care that much if they've got magical alternatives already, I have knowledge to share and these former criminals sentenced to community service are a very literal captive audience.

"Say it," I said.

"Alright, alright, the enchanted gear wasn't a waste of time," Ash said. Which was an excellent concession to get out of her, on account she was one of our few Mystic Artificers who'd been charged with making all that enchanted gear as ASAP as possible.

The enchanted gear itself was an elaboration on the Sakurai family's Sevenfold Necklace thing; for everyone in the Purpleheart Collective and also their children, a chain with twenty baubles woven into it was created, to provide a solid boost to all sixteen base stats, plus boosts to health, stamina, and magic regeneration, and the final bauble being to grant a thin-but-noticeable layer of magic armor that mostly just protected against everyday incidental injuries.

It wasn't an amazing, earth-shaking artifact that kingdoms would go to war over, but it was a hell of a quality-of-life boost for the fairly-average people I'd had them made for.

"I'm still not completely convinced on this whole water thing," Ash continued, frowning at the schematics I'd drafted. "But... well, it's more XP, so..." She shrugged.

The three major components that she had to concern herself with were a water heater, a water filter, and a water pump. The first and third were pretty straightforward and achievable by ancient, non-magical techniques; the Archimedes screw-pump predated the birth of Christ, and "fire" was not a concept that many adults needed to be introduced to. It was the second one that was any degree of tricky, but really, water-purifying enchantments weren't that hard. What these all were, however, was big. The specifications were what I'd call "overbuilt," stemming from a rough powers-of-ten estimate of how much water one person would use in a day, times how many people we should plan to house here before needing to expand (rounded up to a power of ten), and then throwing on one last power of ten multiplier because I wanted to be very, very confident that we'd be prepared for the next decade or so of people in the Collective having more kids, or getting married, or even bringing in new people.

"Right, well..." I looked around at the others. "Anyone else got any questions?"

"Are you planning on living in this thing too?" Grip asked.

"I already have an apartment," I said. "But, well, I do like the idea of having a place of my own that doesn't charge rent, so..." I shrugged. "I'm not planning on moving in, but it's not out of the question."

"Dammit," Grip said.

"There goes the neighborhood," Legs added.

"Assholes," I said simply. "Well, anyway, I'm gonna get out of your hair now, if you don't need me for anything else."

They didn't, so I retreated to the canvas-and-bamboo tent-apartment building, and knocked on Cecilia's door. It opened instantly, so I took the hint and stepped inside, to find that she was already entertaining guests.

"Hey Nel, El," I said, waving at the two elves at Cecilia's table. "Wasn't expecting to see you two here, but I can't say it's an unpleasant surprise."

"Cecilia invited us over, said she had something interesting to share," Nel said, while Elendar nibbled at some bread.

"It's that weird class thing you asked me about, a few weeks back," Cecilia supplied. "Now you're here, so I can begin."

"What weird class thing?" Elendar asked.

"Roxy, on our second meeting, learned that I was an active system researcher," Cecilia began, launching into what promised to be a long ramble. "And what she ended up asking me was engaging enough to be worth spending a few weeks reading old records and legends: how many classes are there, really?"

"...Twenty, right?" Nel asked. "The three gatherers, three crafters, four mono-roles, six duo-roles, and four tri-roles?"

"Incorrect," Cecilia said. "Those are the most common classes, but I assure you, there are others outside that group that I've seen with my own two eyes. One of those is Dungeon Master, a class centered around the creation and maintenance of Dungeon Gates. It's not something you can get through a Class Unlock item, though; only someone who's got every single crafter and gatherer class at once can get it, by getting all of those crafting and gathering classes up to, or past, Level 10."

"So the fact it requires six fucking class slots..." I began.

"Five, but yes. There's a reason we don't get very many of those."

"Huh," I said. "Okay, any others?"

"I've mentioned it before, but there are four alternative mono-role delver classes," Cecilia said. "I've personally confirmed the existence of one of them, but there's historical records of the other three, too. They can only be gained by having a specific Trait, and each one is peculiar to one of the Four Legendary Monstergirls: Dragons, with the Sorcerer class; Kitsune, with the Trickster class; Angels, with the Oracle class; and Demons, with the Swordsage class. They aren't naturally-occurring, and no stable breeding population of any of them exists that we know of; the only source of them is Dungeon Gates, and they are very rare; the most recent Dragon found in a Dungeon Gate was twenty five years ago, and the one before that was four hundred years ago."

"So, wait," I said. "Demons are one of the Four Legendary Monstergirls, right? So I cannot, in fact, visit an esoteric Rancher and get myself a demongirl familiar?"

"It's just demon," Nel said. "Like how I'm just an elf, not an elfgirl."

"You are an elfgirl, for as long as I think that's a funny thing to say," I countered.

"You cannot, in fact, get a demon familiar," Cecilia said, shaking her head. "Not unless you keep getting very, very lucky in your dungeon loot."

I hummed thoughtfully, then bit the bullet. "...Are succubi... succubuses... Is there such a thing as a succubus in this world? Or an incubus?"

"There are a few apocryphal legends from prehistory about them, and the weird abilities they supposedly had," Cecilia said. "It's possible to interpret those legends as reporting the existence of an esoteric class that no longer exists, but..." Cecilia shrugged. "Well, ultimately, these are legends. They work fine as part of someone's faith, but reliable historical records, they are not. And that's fine; they aren't meant to be."

"There are a few Vlandish legends I can share about them, but..." Nel trailed off. "Roxy, what do you think a succubus is?"

"Well, where I'm from, a succubus was a fictional creature; a variety of demon that manifested as a sexy woman that had lots of sex," I said. "And I was thinking, if any such creature exists in this world, then I would very much like to bang one."

"You'll have to settle for elves, bunnygirls, and humans," Cecilia said. "And maybe a dragon, depending on how well you get along with my sister."

"I guess we'll see, won't we? Anyway, Nel, what do the Vlandish think a succubus is?"

"A very, very lustful person, who either travels from village to village or sets up longer-term in a bigger town or city," Nel said. "They fuck like champions, and aren't usually that picky about who they're fucking; some legends say they're empowered by lust and fucking, and that's why they do it."

"There's one legend that says they do it because they serve some unseen master, and they're the one empowered by all that lust and fucking," Cecilia said.

"Wh- oh, I remember that one," Nel said. "Huh. I haven't heard it in a really long time, and... I think I might've heard a different version than you? Or maybe I'm just misremembering it."

"Are these legends important to the elves of Vilane?" I asked.

"They're not, like, foundational myths or anything, no," Nel said. "I think they actually come from the humans of Vilane? I'm not totally sure."

So, there was my answer: a few people would have some vague idea of what the hell I was talking about with Incubus and Succubus, but none of them would have terribly strong opinions about it.

"I see," I said. "Well, Cecilia, thank you for your time and effort. You've given me a lot to think about."