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.
“Alright, that one is easy enough,” John said, ignoring his reignited annoyance at the bars filling sideways. “Strength, and that’s done.”
“Would you protest if I picked Ergency Stasis?” John asked his weaponized maid.
It seed 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 nurous 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 argunts 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 Gar’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 soone 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 governnt. 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 sa, 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 trendous 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 governnt. 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 mont. Whenever Momo ca 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 departnt.
John had ti to think about all of that in the silence that followed his question.
“…No,” Aclysia finally ca 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 enough to forego an insurance on my own life. Saving you is worth infinitely more if your life can be spent with .”
John nodded, agreeing with the entirety of that. Sure, the final sentence was formulated in a particularly selfish fashion, but Aclysia being crazy in so regards was nothing new. He clicked the button and then, just for good asure, 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 Gar. The passive maid obeyed with a silent bow and stepped before him. John used the sa procedure and was greeted with two more windows than usual. The first one gave the explanation.
‘That should help her catch up the deficit sowhat,’ John thought and then looked at the first window.
‘I am calm… it doesn’t bother … I am calm… I am calm…’ John repeated to himself while pressing on the Swing button a second ti and getting that awful window out of his face.
John stroked his chin. Sworn Weapon was a sowhat worse and sowhat 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 managent. While not particularly valuable at the mont, it could beco potent later on. Each Reverse was generated when Beatrice had expanded 100 Swing. Getting half of that back, even if it ca 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 extrely fast opponent, but that wasn’t necessarily valuable. Not when he had Sylph on his crew.
“Bae, could you show Perfect?” John asked.
“Question: perfection or Perfect?”
“Your weapon, not your butt.” The Gar grinned, squeezing Aclysia’s ass. The two were the exact sa. Every day, Beatrice made sure she had the sa proportions, aside from her chest, as Aclysia. It was all to play into the twin fantasy John so craved.
“Statent: 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 mont’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 t 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 mory, he didn’t trust it enough to choose a Skill imdiately.
‘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 monts before. At the mont, she had 110 maximum Swing. 110 strikes ant Crescendo would trigger 9 tis. Having awful base damage hardly mattered if it created 9 rays of energy in a mont’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 tres 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 seed like the obvious choice. Elental Refinent 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 sa order of things, giving Baelentium next, L/S-Baelentium after that and finally the tadermis, 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 refinent wasn’t overly important in everyday life. That aside, it would increase the value of making Aclysia’s refinent even better. All around, John was certain it was the best choice. Therefore, he took it.
“Okay, so Resilient Engine is out,” John declared.
“Statent: 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 to fuck you until your mind breaks down,” the Gar 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!”
“Statent: 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, Ergency 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, so 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 na? I’ll have to ask around.’ He closed the window.
And then he turned to fulfilling a bunch of Class Challenges.
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