John came home to Aclysia bowing twice as deep as usual. “I am so sorry, Master,” she apologized.

He was so confused he postponed getting rid of his shoes for a moment. “What for?” he asked.

Aclysia raised her head and showed an ashamed expression. “The pizza will need two more minutes until it's ready. I was delayed by several factors.”

Probably cosplay fans and streetlights. She never jaywalked even when there was not a single car around. “Happens.” John decided to not bother with the details and instead put her at ease. “Also, two minutes is not bad. I am very thankful that you cook anyway, you know?”

The words prompted a wide smile. He was surprised to see such an expression on her face, she usually reserved herself to smaller gestures. He didn’t mind either way, as long as she knew she could always behave the way she wanted to. “I am happy to be of use. Regarding cooking, might I ask a question?”

“Of course.” John said and finally slipped out of his shoes.

“In a family, one is supposed to cook from what I have read but neither you nor Rave do. Why is that?”

John rolled his shoulders to relax a little. Despite Gamer's Body keeping him in an all around good condition, he was still human when it came down to it. “Well, aside from the fact that we aren’t exactly a family, we do have somebody who cooks.”

“Really?” Aclysia looked at him with confusion, now that expression he was used to. “Who? I have never met that person.”

John laughed, she was so cute when she was this oblivious. He pointed at her wondering stare. “It’s you. I think I need to check if I raised the correct Stat earlier.” He made a slight joke at her expense but he was sure she could handle it. He passed by her to get his pizza. He expected Aclysia to follow but instead he heard another question from behind him.

“Do you mean that I am part of your family, Master?”

Was that even up for debate? What else would she be? “Yes, of course you are,” he shouted over his shoulder. A moment later he felt something very happy and heavy hug him from behind.

‘Thank you.’ He received in his thoughts. It was a mental call of gratitude that echoed in his soul and made him smile.

‘No, thank you for all you do,’ he thought back, trying to muster even half the honesty she had sent those words with.

They stood there for maybe twenty seconds. Aclysia’s face pressed against his back, John didn’t want to move until his Artificial Guardian calmed down from whatever was going on. She did so when a high-pitched alarm rang from the kitchen.

“The pizza!” Aclysia exclaimed, almost panicking and hurried over.

John followed at a slower pace and arrived just in time to see Aclysia take the pizza out of the oven with her bare hands. He wasn’t particularly alarmed, she was Fire Immune after all so she could do stuff like that with her spatula-like hand.

‘Wait, her spatula-like hand?’ John watched very closely as she hurriedly put the pizza on a plate, after which her hand morphed back into a normal human one. She put the plate on the table and waited for her master to sit down and start eating or to listen to his choice of beverage. “Aclysia, hand.” John extended his own.

Aclysia put her hand into his without an expression. “Make it flat.” She did, it looked like a spatula again, “Thorn.” A singular very sharp looking needle, “Claws.” Small curves of Obsidian at the fingertips appeared. They looked dangerous, not as dangerous as Nathalia’s but that was a high standard anyway. “Since when can you do that?” John asked.

“Since you raised my Stats earlier, Master.”

Okay, so it was most likely the Agility. Interesting. “Is that all you can do?”

“No, I have greater control over my body shape as a whole and can deviate further from my blueprint.” Aclysia explained.

“How much further?” Aclysia kept the claws and grew the dress out another ten centimetres. “About this much further, Master.”

Not incredibly impressive overall, but very interesting. It begged the question how much further she could go if he raised Agility further. Would she become one of those liquid-metal cyborgs from Terminator eventually? Because that would be both badass and terrifying.

“I want to try something later,” John said as he finally sat down to eat.

“Is it a new position in the bedroom?” Aclysia’s voice sounded almost hopeful.

“Nope, sorry.” John said and added, “We can do that too though.”

“Could we?” Aclysia asked, a bit hopefully. “I would very much enjoy that. Rave got some time to herself today, I believe I deserve the same.”

A more intense manifestation of her own wants and needs. Another change John very much welcomed. The more of an individual she became, the more he could believe she wasn’t just following his whims because he had started her existence. “No, I want to see what Enchant does to you. Your Skill says it will have an effect and I want to find out what that is.”

“Affirmative, do with my body as you please. That is my wish.”

“That can be interpreted in all manner of wrong ways,” John told her.

“No, it cannot,” Aclysia responded with a mild smile.

About twenty minutes later in his room, John and Aclysia sat on the bed, facing each other. “Are you ready?” John asked the Artificial Guardian.

“I am always here to fulfil your commands, Master. Therefore, I am ready whenever you are.” Aclysia responded and so John used Enchant.

Okay, that seemed simple enough. It operated on the same three choice principle as his Skill Evolution Points as well. Yep. He could work with that. Tank was the obvious choice here. “Do tell me whenever you have a personal preference,” he encouraged Aclysia. She nodded and he went ahead with his choice.

Invincibility frame was straight out the window. It cost too much mana, had very fringe usage and cost a lot of points and with Steelskin already active Sturdy Exterior was not as good. Regenerative Tissue was where it was at.

Now that was interesting. Despite choosing Tank he did not get a shield specialization, only weapons. Well, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted a shield specialization. It wasn’t that useful when Aclysia’s whole body was nearly impenetrable. Regenerative Tissue II would have been not all that useful and as he gave her the Sword of Glory most of the time, Weapon Specialization was his choice.

Swords. That was easy.

Now this was very interesting. Blade Dance looked like a pretty good offensive skill but he wasn’t looking for those right now. Defence Stance however was pretty useful if he wanted her to guard him against ranged attacks. He typically had Gnome for that though. Defensive Teleportation looked really damn good. Sure it also cost 20 AP (he wondered if that translated to Ability Points or Aclysia Points) but he wanted to avoid ever getting caught without her again. This Skill would help greatly to ensure that.

There was what he was hoping to see. An Extra Item Consumption Bonus meant that he could get the Dragonscale Bonus in there for a total of +25% Strength. Even though Adaptive Bladery just screamed Nier:Automata to him and his inner nerd wanted him to get it, the Stats from the Extra Consumption were too good to pass up. John chose the left option and the Dragonscale in the window that followed.

It was a toss-up between Defence Stance and Adaptive Bladery. In the end, the nerd won over the cautious side of John. With Gnome around he was safe from most projectiles anyhow. Defence Stance was useful but not useful enough to ignore cosplay accuracy.

Well, now it was either Defence Stance or Sword Specialization II. Honestly of the two he liked the Sword Specialization more but he got the feeling that he was slowly drifting towards aggressive choices and he didn’t want that. Therefore, Defence Stance it was.

Interesting. Both Sturdy Exterior and Regenerative Tissue had skipped a level now that he had gotten Defence Stance. Speaking of which, the second level of that Skill was really good. 50% higher reflexes and a lower mana cost. He took it and was presented with a slightly different window.

Well, that told him two things. One, Aclysia got Bonuses at the same levels as his Stats gave Efficiency upgrades and, two, he would need more AP before he could use Enchant on her again. Good to know.

As for the choices presented, they all looked pretty good for a tank. Refined Body was just all around nice. Ultra Rapid Regeneration made her into a pretty irksome hurdle to overcome for his enemies. Revanchism could provide some surprise turnarounds. Mechanics like Revanchism had the problem however that Aclysia would need to take in a lot of attacks before it was actually useful. He would much prefer dealing with the enemy quickly than to wait until Revanchism kicked into full effect. While Ultra-Rapid Regeneration was tremendously good, Aclysia’s HP Regeneration was honestly the least of his worries. While being the most boring bonus, Refined Body looked like the best foundation.

And there was the expected second one. Absolute Protector was insane if he used her like that. Sadly, he didn’t do it all the time. Aclysia more often engaged enemies than she was actually guarding him, that was still more Gnome’s job. He could change his strategy but why would he when it was working?

Sworn to Carry Your Burdens. Utility. That is what that was. Pure Utility. Which he didn’t need at this time. His inventory was big enough for all he did. While it did have its uses, this wasn’t something he currently felt like spending a Perk on.

Refined Body II though. John looked up. “You are able to push materials inside your body out again, right?”

“Almost all of them, yes.” Aclysia nodded.

John raised an eyebrow, “Which can you not remove?”

“The Dragonscale and the Shard of Destruction, Master.” Came her answer, leaving John wondering whether that was because of the items’ immense power or because of the fact that they were her current Item Bonuses.

Whatever may have been the case, if his idea was right he would be able to feed Aclysia things like rusty metal and get stainless bars out of it. Theoretically. It was worth the experiment and an extra 5% to all Stats wasn’t bad either. Yeah, that was the choice he was going with.

And with that he was finally done. That was a lot of decisions he had to make there. Well, time to look at Aclysia.

His mouth hung open. “Well, slap me on the kneecap and call me a skeleton,” he finally managed to mumble, “I just created the philosopher's stone.” Yeah, sure the Stat Bonuses that stacked up were also pretty insane but her main component had just changed from Steel to Titanium. The elements in her body had simply been upgraded on their own. “Aclysia…. just out of interest can you change the materials in your body at will now?”

She shook her head, “No, it seems to be an automatic process.” Aclysia explained. Well, some people had metabolism and others completely screwed with the physical understanding of fission and fusion. Just magic things, John supposed. “Is it time for sex and cuddles?”

‘She’s being needy today,’ John thought. Not that he minded. “Just the fire elemental contract to go.”