And Then The Elven Nation Attacked 10

"I'm actually more shocked than anything else... I mean, I know we've got some serious strength behind our arms no matter how thin they look, but this wood is heavy duty stuff and she's carving it like it's nothing."

Miel hummed playfully as her hands moved so fast they were a blur even accounting for my absolutely cracked dynamic perception. She was moving with purpose and great celerity, on what was not the first but the seventh iteration of a prototype machine.

Not an automatic machine just yet, but one designed to replicate and demonstrate the idea of leverage to elves who don't have a particularly extensive knowledge of science.

Neem, who had rescued me from the craftswoman not too long ago, poured me a cup of leafy hot water, also known as tea made with incredible leaves but poor technique, and I took a sip. Testament to the quality of the leaves, it was pretty good, despite the fact that I'm 100% confident this did not go through any sort of proper tea leaf making process.

Miel's workshop wasn't too far from my home, and she had filled it with bits and bobs and many a tinkering toy built to resemble outsider technology. Almost all of it was of incredible craftsmanship and supreme construction, but fairly basic in terms of technology.

And as she sat at her work table, she was putting together a set of wooden gearwheels carved from divine tree wood.

"So this is called a compound gear, right?" Miel asked, sticking her tongue out as she used a tiny carving knife to shave off paper thin slices of wood from the treated and dry block she was carving out of.

Specifically, what she was creating was a gear stacked on top of another one and joined together by how the wooden parts fit together, as they would lock in place and would only be able to be pulled apart deliberately, as it required unnatural movements that would never occur under their normal application. I had left that part up to her imagination, and she had delivered something great.

"Correct," I said.

"How's it work?" she asked, as she looked at the pieces she had carved. Five separate sets of wooden gears, one small, with eight teeth, one big, with twenty four teeth, and another small one, carved to fit into and join with the big one to connect into a single one, as well as a single solitary big gear that had no small pair in the lot, I got three gears for each set, as well as a base with two sticks that would go in the middle of the hole. "This serrated disc, the gear... I can sort of see how they would turn together," she said, as she put two big ones, the teeth perfectly fitting into one another, and then she turned them, "this makes sense, but how does this become exponential?"

I hummed. "That's where the little ones come in," I explained. "Let me show you," I said, grabbing the base and slid first one of the big gears onto the first of the sticks on the base, then I put together one of the small gears with one of the big ones, locking them in place as they slotted together perfectly, and put it on the other stick, with the small one at the bottom, adjusting the big one's position until they fit together.

"Can you tell me if you notice a difference here?" I asked, as I turned the miniaturized, simplified gearbox in my hands to the side and then flicked the bottom gear with my finger, causing it to spin.

"The big ones - they're spinning at different speeds!" Miel asked.

"I can't detect any magic whatsoever, yet what I'm seeing makes no sense," Neem added, taking a sip of tea herself. "Savior, what is this?"

"This is called a gear ratio," I explained, "in this case, the ratio is three to one," I said, raising three fingers. "For every three spins of the small, eight teeth gear, the big gear spins once," I said, "as it has twenty four teeth. So what happens when you make a big gear spin a small one?"

"The small one spins three times," Miel replied, grabbing another pair of gears and sticking them together, locking them in place just as I had, then passing it to me.

"And that's where it starts, because when the tiny one makes the big one it's attached to spin, it makes it spin at the same speed it, itself, is spinning," I explained, "which is where the exponential growth starts."

"Forgive me for being ignorant - but what does exponential mean in this case?" Neem asked, sounding confused.

I really would not have expected to find myself giving a relatively basic math lesson to an elf older than most civilizations in my world, but there I was. "Okay, let me explain it with this gear," I said, grabbing the next pair that Miel passed to me, then sliding it in place, and showing Neem the gearbox in all its glory. "Here, as I explained, this wheel," I said, poking the first gear, "will make this one," I then pointed at the bottom small gear, "spin three times every time it spins, which in turn makes this wheel," I tapped the gear directly connected to it. "So can you guess how many times this one is going to spin," I asked, tapping the small one on top of the first big gear, "each time I spin the bottom gear?"

"Six?" Neem asked.

Miel hummed. "No, nine!" she said, "because they don't add up, they multiply," she explained.

"Exactly, that's what exponential means!" I said, "instead of adding up three spins, it multiplies the number of spins by three each time."

"Oh! So it goes three, then nine, then twenty seven, then, eighty one," Neem hummed.

"Then two hundred and forty three, then seven hundred and twenty nine," Miel said, "and then- and then- it just gets out of control!" she said. "This compound gearbox you're showing me... that's the trick, isn't it? That's how we get the blades to spin fast enough!"

"Exactly!" I said.

"Wait, but, if this just gets crazier and crazier, wouldn't you create some incredible force?" Miel asked, tilting her head.

"Correct, but on the other hand, every action creates and equal and opposite reaction," I said, quoting one of the fundamental laws of physics, "which means that the longer and greater the gear ratio becomes, the more force it'll take to start spinning the first gear, balancing this so you can get optimal power to effort ratio is crucial, and in my world, swapping gear ratios on the fly became an integral part of motorized vehicle operation," I explained, "on top of that, well, there's this thing called centrifugal force - long story short, the faster something spins, the more stress it's put under, and eventually it's going to just explode."

There was a moment's pause.

"I really want to see it now," Miel admitted. "I want to see how long of a gearbox I can make before the goddess' wood can no longer endure it!" she said. "... and now I understand gnomes and I don't think I like it," she said, narrowing her eyes. "I'll have to be very careful about this, there's still a part of me that desperately wants to see it explode just because!"

"This power seems... honestly incredible, if you just showed it to me I would think this a magical artifact," Neem admitted. "I think I can start to believe you could possibly make a flying machine like this."

"Well, there's still a lot of work to be done to create a flying machine, but it's a start. How about we start with land vehicles first, and then once we're good with that, we'll start thinking about flying machines, alright? Besides, until we can build an engine that doesn't rely on being manually powered... it's okay for land vehicles, but you really don't want to be high up in the sky and realize your arms and legs are too tired to keep powering the flying machine."

Of course there was always the possibility of using hot air balloon technology. A Zeppelin would work just as well as anything else.

We need so many things, I'm starting to get distracted. Electricity is, surprisingly, not as far as I initially thought. Thank you, internet and everyone sharing your knowledge back at home, I promise it shall be used to uplift some erotic elves into the height of technology. Rest easy knowing your expertise will be used for the good of the elves.

Hm.

I wonder... would those people be happy knowing I'll use their knowledge that they have so graciously shared to make modern conveniences? Would they be happy knowing I'll use their expertise to create and produce weapons that I may well turn on humans?

Or would they be happiest knowing that I'll absolutely make some vibrating sex toys and use those to put them inside my fellow elves?

Luckily, there are more than enough blueprints for the creation of four wheeled vehicles that function similar to a push bicycle. Thankfully we have access to fantasy materials that are much better than what we had access to in Earth, and our physical abilities being what they are, we don't need to rely on the early motorized vehicles that were horribly inefficient and caused tons of pollution.

Miel is the greatest and most knowledgeable and talented craftswoman among all the elves, so I have to keep her interested. She's also the one who knows all the other craftswomen here, which means she's basically my best hope to get what I want done, done.

"Alright, I think we can definitely put something together, something small but usable, which we can show to the elder council," Miel said. "I think if we can show how useful this is, we'll definitely be able to get everyone on board with this project!"

Neem clapped her hands, smiling brightly. "Savior, that's wonderful... With Miel, Kalatina, Meltriss and myself," Neem began, counting off her fingers, "you've got enough support that I don't think anybody would oppose you as our leader!"

"Neem, you understand I intend for you to be the Queen of Elves, right?" I asked, turning to her and raising an eyebrow. "They respect you, like you, and you've basically been their leader all this time."

"But Savior, it's not right," Neem said, shaking her head. "You've clearly proven your leadership qualities, and that you're the chosen of the goddess with the knowledge to lead us into the future!"

"Well- my leadership skills that may or may not exist aside, being the leader of a nation is about more than just knowing a couple things, right?" I asked. "It's about having your heart in the right place," I explained.

"But you- Savior, you've said repeatedly that you love all elves," Neem protested.

"Yes, repeatedly, you wouldn't stop talking about how much you love elves when we were doing it!" Miel threw in with a laugh.

"Yes, but-" I sighed, "I think if I was queen I wouldn't have any time to go have lots of sex with elves and- and I don't want to live that life," I finally said.

"Oh- ooooh," Neem said. "Yeah okay I'll be queen then, but promise you won't neglect me," she said, though she sounded a little dejected.

"W-what, just like that?" I asked. "Are you disappointed in me Neem?"

"Not at all, Savior, I'm disappointed in myself," Neem said, clenching her fists and looking down. "I was only thinking about myself, and I didn't consider your feelings or needs at all..." she said. "I was just being selfish, I just wanted to push it onto you, but I get it now... your true leadership is far beyond a mere Queen of the Elves," she said, "you would unite us as your women..."

I... felt really awkward and decided not to tell her that I also really, really wanted to have sex with an elven queen and she happened to fit the bill incredibly well.

Back in my world, elven princesses and queens were almost a staple of lewd fiction. Distinguished, with queenly dignity and gravitas... Neem certainly fit the bill, with her milfy elf charm... Seeing a royal elf with a swollen belly carrying my child got me going real hard.

I shook my head and slapped my cheeks. "I'll always be here and do my best to help and develop our nation, but I think I should not be its leader. Maybe a minister of some sort? Maybe one who can be replaced by popular vote should it be required."

"I can't imagine anyone who would vote against you Savior, but if that is your wish, then I shall do my utmost to see it granted," Neem said, grabbing my hands with hers, then brought them to her face, kissing my knuckles. "I will gather all the most influential elves and together we will start our nation."

"So then you'll be our, I think the humans call it, Prime Minister?" Miel asked. "Then I can be our research and development minister!"

"We can discuss that later," I promised, "for the time being, please focus on the present," I spoke, "what is directly within our reach right now," I said, taking the gearbox we had made in hand, and putting my finger to the first gear. By now, Miel had assembled all of the pieces she had made, giving us a four gear box with a gear ratio of one to eighty one.

I flicked the first gear with my finger, and the wooden gears began to turn, the final gear turning at an absolutely incredible speed despite the slow speed of the one I hit.