In the end, he wanted to lean towards the summoner/puppeteer angle more than he wanted a better version of an arcane bolt. Therefore, he pressed the plus next to Possession and saw what would happen.

A choice between three options. That was pretty nice. The Gamer did love his customization.

Body Swap was not only a great tool for fighting, the amount of chaos he could create in the enemy ranks would be legendary. It also effectively made him immortal as long as he swapped into younger bodies again and again. However, that was immoral as all hell and Rave had told him he wouldn’t have to worry about it if he got more powerful anyway. There also were questions that came along with that Skill. Would his own body just die? Did his Stats get transferred over or would he have to level up again and again? What happened if an enemy resisted the Spell? Wouldn’t he effectively murder everyone who he used this on? Didn’t sound like his kind of deal. Even if he acknowledged the power of it, he did not want it.

Control was a bit further up his alley. Controlling living things as well meant that he could pull off all kinds of shenanigans without leaving his own body behind. It was, however, just as morally ambiguous. Mind controlling his enemies he could somewhat justify, as long as he did not become the aggressor. It still was outside his comfort zone.

The third option was very interesting. Not because of its power, he had no idea about how good this Artificial Spirit was, but because it created a new Skill entirely instead of replacing Possession. Since Possession already did what he wanted it to, that it stuck around was completely satisfying. There would be nothing lost if he picked this option. He could, somewhat safely, assume its power competed with the previous 2 options. Rarely were RPG mechanics ever balanced, but the devs did try.

The cost of Artificial Spirit was negligible. 1 MP per minute was nothing compared to his current regeneration of 9. If he assumed the Artificial Spirit could serve at least as a moderately powerful guardian, then he would have his familiar and a reliable frontliner. A bodyguard that would never be anywhere but by his side.

John remembered the Artificial Crystal in his inventory. If he used that he could make the Artificial Spirit be capable of self-upgrading through the Living Material Attribute. Maybe Gaia wanted him to do that? Or was it himself who did that piece of combination work?

The question made him swallow. Was all of this his doing or was he just dancing in the palm of a higher power? Gaia was obviously amused at his exploits and keeping tabs. Sure, she was an omnipotent deity, so keeping tabs on him wasn’t anything specific to him individually, but it still begged the question. Why did he have this power and why did she keep commenting on what he did? Did he deserve this blessing?

“Stop doubting yourself,” he mumbled and then chose Artificial Spirit.

The knowledge affiliated with the Skill flooded into his mind. A crystal like the one he had was not only good for creating an Artificial Spirit, it was required. Without a crystal core, the magical matrix of these entities could not be sustained. It was effectively the hard drive for their soul. ‘Coincidence, fate, or deliberate help?’

No answer given, John looked around the room for something he could use the Skill on. Technically he could use anything as a base, but the Artificial Spirit would resemble that base for most of the time. Even as they grew and changed, they would be drawn to keeping to an approximation of that first form.

Standing up, John moved over to his small collection of figurines. He had Kratos, Ezio, the Dragonborn, Samus Aran in her armour, and A2 from Nier:Automata. He picked up the last one. If he was going to create a bodyguard, he might as well make it an aesthetically pleasing one.

The figurine was akin to the original design in most aspects. An Asian woman with long, messy white hair and attractive features. Her breasts were on the smaller side, her body slender, with a nice backside. She was naked, in the sense that she wore no clothes, but the character was an android and all of the lewd bits had lost their skin coating and revealed the black metal underneath. It created the impression that she was only wearing lingerie, stockings, and long gloves. Really a masterpiece of design.

Where John’s figurine differed from the character were the eyes. A production error had caused the irises to be painted green instead of blue. A thousand of these had shipped before the distribution was stopped and a recall and replacement offered. John had kept his as a collector’s item. It probably was worth a pretty penny.

The pose of the figurine had A2 in the middle of flicking her hair back, her face in a passive aggressive expression. No weapons and no base she was glued to. It was, without a doubt, one of the hottest video game designs in history and the best he had access to. ‘Maybe this could be my second haremette?’ John thought, then shook his head. That was wrong twice over. Whatever he made would have limited faculties to start with and he wasn’t going to add a female-shaped object to any harem. Also, he hadn’t talked with Rave about it yet. ‘Can’t be faulted for wanting a pretty face around me though.’

First step was to combine the figurine with the crystal. Crafting’s Reshape option should have him covered there, provided it all worked like he expected it to.

That sounded exactly like what he wanted. Confirm was pressed and the Artificial Crystal pulled from his fingers. It collided with the torso of the figurine, then slowly was absorbed into it. The figurine expanded slightly, displaced material at the centre moving elsewhere. The paint miraculously survived the entire process. In the end, he had one slightly larger figurine, as tall as his hand.

So far so good. What followed were two agonizing minutes of waiting for his mana to recover. He distracted himself by putting on some music. It didn’t work. He was too curious to see what would come of this.

Immediately, when the MP had recovered enough, he used the Skill. Instinctively he knew that he had to fill the basic soul with some instructions. A soul without purpose did not exist. Every human was born with the desire to live and procreate. It wasn’t universally maintained. Few people stuck with that alone as they grew older. Would his creation be the same? ‘I want a loyal servant that will protect me to the best of her ability,’ he thought and the Skill activated fully.

The mana vanished. He waited. Nothing happened. “What the hell Gaia, is your code broken or…?”

‘Creator?’ A voice rang into his head. A neutral, almost timid, female voice pleasantly ringing in his head.

“Ehm, hello?” John asked towards the figurine.

‘Yes, Creator?’ It appeared it had worked after all. Best to confirm with Observe.

Okay, a new kind of screen. Probably because she was some weird mix-up between item and non-item. Ridiculous though that the name broke the Interface. He would need to do something about that.

“Can I rename you?” he asked with a smile.

‘What is a name, Creator?’ the voice asked, while the figurine moved for the first time. The passive aggressive expression shifted into a smile that mimicked his own. There was a light to those green eyes now. A dull one, but a life nevertheless.

 “Basically, it is what people address you with.”

‘So, your name is Creator?’

“No, my name is John but you can call me what you want.”

‘What I want?’ The figurine asked, ‘I should be a loyal servant that protects you to the best of my ability. Is this my want?’

“Wanting is to have the wish to achieve something. For example, if you want to get to the edge of the table, you’d have to achieve that by walking there.” The figurine turned her head to the part of the table he pointed at. The motion was, albeit on a much smaller scale, akin to that of a human. His expectations and life experiences had imbued her with a basic understanding of how to behave.

‘I want to be a loyal servant that protects you to the best of my ability. Will having a name aid in this mission, Creator John?’

‘I would say so.’

‘Then rename me as you see fit, Creator John.’

Now that he had consent, he realized he actually had nothing prepared. Swiftly he scrambled his brain. Luckily his thoughts were so much faster these days. ‘The name of the item was Artificial Crystal of Life, Youth and Sin… How about I shorten that? Art. Cry. L. Y. S.’ “Aclys…ia. Aclysia.” That sounded like a good name.

‘Aclysia,’ she repeated in his mind. ‘As you wish, this will be my name from now on, creator.’

A new Attribute had appeared there. Learning Spirit – what it did was likely in the name. He found it more interesting that she had Stats now. The perv in him immediately noted that she had a Libido and the potential arising from that. The rest of him was more interested in what the Stats in general would do to her. An Intellect and Wisdom of 1 implied a near total lack of mental faculties. She was capable of basic reasoning though – or at least of asking questions. Then again, so were three-year-olds.

For now, John decided to double down on the aesthetic aspects. ‘Say, what are your thoughts on high-heels, stockings, and French maid outfits?’ he asked.

‘Whatever do you want my opinion to be, Creator John?’

Perfect.