About an hour later, John had run out of other things he needed to do and could finally concentrate fully on the acquisition of upgrades. While they all got dressed to show the dedication to actually getting work done, John quickly finished the last Negotiator Class Challenge and got the level.

“These all kind of suck,” John said and sighed. It was the exception, rather than the norm, that Perks before level 5 were exceptionally interesting or powerful, but this was still on the disappointing side of things. “An incredibly minor Stat bonus, a fix for a problem I do not have,” he brushed over his short hair, only in need of hygienic care to look basically the same every day, “and one of these Perks that I feel border on mind control.”

“I mean…” Gnome looked over his shoulder, reading the text. “It’s probably just you becoming more attractive that does it? It should say what it is about you that makes it rise by 5 in that case though…”

“Exactly. Flat opinion increases make me uncomfortable,” the Gamer responded. “It’s natural that people will be more inclined to like me because I’m a well-spoken Chad…”

“Never – ever – use that word again,” Lydia interjected.

“…I’m a well-spoken Adonis,” John obliged her, just because comparing himself to an ancient Greek myth was more complimenting than an internet meme, “with a muscular body and the smooth voice of a baritone singer. It’s easily understandable that people would have a generally more favourable opinion of me. No weird, unexplainable bonuses required.” He took a short pause and read over the choices a second time, just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “Anyway, with two and three out, Copper Tongue is the only one that remains. Even if it’s pretty dull.”

He clicked the button and suddenly had his shoulder tapped. Turning, he saw Nia look at him with her piercing blue eyes, “Say ‘aaah’,” she said in her toneless voice.

“Aaaaaah?” the Gamer obeyed with a questioning undertone.

After looking into his mouth for several seconds, Nia mechanically nodded. “Your tongue isn’t copper coloured. Good. Proceed.”

John wanted to say that she didn’t need to check that, but with Gaia, there was always a chance she may prank him in some way. Before they could lose themselves in some other banter, another window informed him that Artificial Spirit had finally reached level 100.

“Alright, time to get you two some new tools,” he said, turning to his maids. “Let’s start with you, Aclysia.”

“As you wish, Master.” Aclysia diligently bowed her head. She stepped before him and, by using Create, John caused the usual little flood of windows to appear to let him customize his Artificial Spirit that little bit more.

“Alright, that one is easy enough,” John said, ignoring his reignited annoyance at the bars filling sideways. “Strength, and that’s done.”

‘Well, I already know what I’ll choose there,’ John thought and looked up at Aclysia to give her a chance to disagree. Juggernaut was a repeating choice and John still wanted it, as it could turn the tide of battle. There were enough restraints that Aclysia could need several seconds to burst out of or for which she would need that little bit of a bonus. Following that instant freedom with several seconds in which she was incredibly hard to stop and her extreme Strength meant she could turn into a true freight train of a maid, with her cargo being pain and punishment. Desperation Rush was similarly useful in tight situations, albeit John wouldn’t have taken it between those two choices.

Sword Specialization 3, however, was what he did take when Aclysia nodded in approval. Last time they had skipped out on it because both of her main weapons, Marath and Eclys, at the time had ranged components themselves. Since then, they had been reforged and Aclysia was left without effective ranged tools. Even a weak ranged tool would be better than none, especially since Aclysia didn’t have a gap closer.

“Would you protest if I picked Emergency Stasis?” John asked his weaponized maid.

It seemed to be the obvious choice to him. Admittedly, First Servant of State was incredibly potent, but her role as such was, likely, temporary. As she had proven on numerous occasions now, Aclysia was perfectly able to fulfil the role, but she didn’t excel at it. Her veneration of his person over his cause made her alienate people that made good arguments on the basis of Fusion’s ideals. The maid was a servant, not a politician, and it showed. She was better suited to a secretarial role. The problem with that was that she would have to switch roles with Beatrice. While Aclysia was bad at dealing with situations that went against the Gamer’s interest, putting the passive maid and her factual sass-blasting in charge of internal diplomacy was a sure-fire way to lose the support of the ruling bodies.

The person John wanted to head the assembly of ministers was someone smart, independently minded, simultaneously loyal to him and tirelessly working. Lydia would have worked fantastically, but she was the queen of another guild. Scarlett could have doubtlessly made the entire Federation richer, but she loathed the idea of working for the government. There was also the suspicion John had, a well-founded one he had from knowing what she had done before he arrived, that she would pass laws that would make the Federation overall richer, but the people at the bottom would have to work twice as hard to get the same, proportionally, as before. Scarlett wasn’t a corrupt crony, she was true to her business deals and never swindled anyone who didn’t try to trick her first, but she was a selfish capitalist. She would act in her own interests first.

This, together with her innovative attitude, made her a tremendous wealth-generating asset for Fusion and John would have kept her around even if he wasn’t fucking her. Fact of the matter was, he wouldn’t have been loving her if she was a selfish, irredeemable, corrupt money-launderer. Another fact was that she was great in the marketplace, but had to be kept out of the government. She had enough influence by advising him on certain questions.

There was a third woman John knew who fulfilled all of the categories John looked for. She was flying around the middle east and following her curiosity at the moment. Whenever Momo came back, putting her into a maid uniform and into Aclysia’s current role would be the second and third thing he wanted to do with her. First was sorting out exactly what kind of relationship they would have, going forwards. Beatrice would be relinquished of her secretary duty and be able to entirely focus on her financial department.

John had time to think about all of that in the silence that followed his question.

“…No,” Aclysia finally came to a conclusion. “No, I would not. While protecting you from damage is my personal honour, the amount you are protected for is not enticing me enough to forego an insurance on my own life. Saving you is worth infinitely more if your life can be spent with me.”

John nodded, agreeing with the entirety of that. Sure, the final sentence was formulated in a particularly selfish fashion, but Aclysia being crazy in some regards was nothing new. He clicked the button and then, just for good measure, Observed Aclysia. She had barely gained any new Stats, but he liked the refresher.

“Alright, Beatrice, your turn,” he said, pulling Aclysia to his side. He was standing in the living room, ready to leave after this business was done. Until he had to get through the front door, having a woman by his side was a natural need of the Gamer. The passive maid obeyed with a silent bow and stepped before him. John used the same procedure and was greeted with two more windows than usual. The first one gave the explanation.

‘That should help her catch up the deficit somewhat,’ John thought and then looked at the first window.

‘I am calm… it doesn’t bother me… I am calm… I am calm…’ John repeated to himself while pressing on the Swing button a second time and getting that awful window out of his face.

John stroked his chin. Sworn Weapon was a somewhat worse and somewhat better version of Adaptive Bladery. Aclysia had a minor delay between changing or equipping weapons, while Sworn Weapon was, apparently, instant. It was worth the thought just for the convenience of it, but not strictly necessary because Beatrice didn’t have a fighting style that relied on access to several other weapons. She only needed Perfect. Reverse Pendulum was an extra tool for resource management. While not particularly valuable at the moment, it could become potent later on. Each Reverse was generated when Beatrice had expanded 100 Swing. Getting half of that back, even if it came with a cooldown, was really good. IF she got any powerful Swing Skills, that was.

Needle Assault teased to be exactly one such thing.

John had dismissed exactly that Skill in the past. It struck him as a way to land a bunch of secure blows that would all bounce off the armour of an equally levelled opponent. In other words, it struck him as a way to waste a bunch of resources. Sure, cases existed where it could deal its damage in full or where it could catch an extremely fast opponent, but that wasn’t necessarily valuable. Not when he had Sylph on his crew.

“Bae, could you show me Perfect?” John asked.

“Question: perfection or Perfect?”

“Your weapon, not your butt.” The Gamer grinned, squeezing Aclysia’s ass. The two were the exact same. Every day, Beatrice made sure she had the same proportions, aside from her chest, as Aclysia. It was all to play into the twin fantasy John so craved.

“Statement: I couldn’t be certain, due to your general horniness,” the passive maid remarked. It was an honest dig at his personality. Beatrice herself wasn’t horny whatsoever currently. That could have changed at a moment’s notice, if John wanted her to be in that mood.

As his girls were most of the few people allowed to make fun of him without recourse, a two-way street by all rules of relationship banter, John just chuckled and waited for Beatrice to oblige him. The shaft was made of almost perfectly white ivory and led to a diamond shaped tip. The two sides extending from the tip were shorter than those running back together after the jagged corners. Silver-white Mithril blades met in a sharp tip. The centre of the diamond shape was hollow, the inner rim decorated with blue and black lines – Poseidury and Oblivium, respectively.

“One day we’ll upgrade this again,” John promised, while opening the item’s description and then checking out a specific Attribute. While he trusted his (usually) perfect memory, he didn’t trust it enough to choose a Skill immediately.

‘Yeah, that changes everything,’ John thought. Swing had a set maximum that could only be increased by Perks, such as the minor one he picked moments before. At the moment, she had 110 maximum Swing. 110 strikes meant Crescendo would trigger 9 times. Having awful base damage hardly mattered if it created 9 rays of energy in a moment’s notice, each one stronger as the user’s ability got buffed by 90% and got Beatrice close to Perfect by Design.

It was the easiest choice ever. The specific limitations of: 1. Beatrice having to wield Perfect and 2. being within 500 metres of him to keep Artificial Ascension active, were hardly limitations at all. “No objections?” he asked, while broadcasting his decisions to her mind.

“Affirmative, no objection,” Beatrice responded and John moved onto the next window after picking Needle Assault.

Copy Quality seemed like the obvious choice. Elemental Refinement was a worse version of what Aclysia’s Ultimate Body Perk had been in the past, as it gave no Stat bonus. Assuming it followed the same order of things, giving Baelementium next, L/S-Baelementium after that and finally the Metadermis, it would take Beatrice 3 Perks to catch up just to where Aclysia was right now. Body Furnace suffered from similar issues, even if it was more specialized.

In the spirit of allowing Beatrice to catch up, Copy Quality was the best choice. The speed of the refinement wasn’t overly important in everyday life. That aside, it would increase the value of making Aclysia’s refinement even better. All around, John was certain it was the best choice. Therefore, he took it.

“Okay, so Resilient Engine is out,” John declared.

“Statement: it would be efficient.”

“I don’t care if its efficient, there is no way I’m taking a Perk that makes it impossible for me to fuck you until your mind breaks down,” the Gamer responded. “I have so few pleasures in life,” he continued to knead the ass of a very happy, long-haired maid, who rested her head on his shoulder, “I need to preserve this one!”

“Statement: you are being very ungrateful for what you have, Master.”

“It’s called sarcasm.”

“I detected it, but reject its application in this case. You ought to be thankful for Aclysia, Master.”

“True enough,” John relented and gave the weaponized maid a kiss on her white head. “Anyway, Emergency Stasis is the obvious choice. No objection?”

“Affirmative, no objections,” Beatrice stated.

A push of a button later, John was faced with the final window of this upgrade spree.

‘Huh, some rebalancing… choice is clear though,’ John pressed the Reset button and was done with it. To put the finishing line under the process, he Observed Beatrice.

‘Clockwork Maid?’ John wondered, not having seen that Title before. ‘Maybe the public is giving her that name? I’ll have to ask around.’ He closed the window.