(Eloe POV - Heaven’s Key, Eloe’s Domain, Work Room)

3 days after I sent Euclid her assignment, I got a reply from her.

> Hello, Eloe. I spent some time working on the assignment you gave me. Within the constraints you’ve given me it is indeed difficult to improve the power efficiency of the drone, but I did come up with a hierarchical optimization scheme that eked out a 3% improvement. I’ve included that particular design for your perusal. Anyway, I wasn’t happy with that, so I gave it a harder try. Without disrupting the overall shape of the device, nor lowering its defensive or offensive capabilities, I’ve managed to improve the efficiency by 40%. I’ve redesigned the nanocell structure of the circulatory system as well as introduced novel accelerant nodes, which serve as microscopic hearts to keep the power liquid flowing. This allowed me to decrease the dimensions of the vessels and speed up the energy and matter transfer through them.

> I’d have wanted to split up the main heart as well, but I did not have access to its design, so I’ve kept it as it is.

> I don’t know how to synthesize it yet, but you should be able to. The material cost of it should be the same as for the previous design. I’ve included all the data for it in the attachment.

…What the hell? She is bullshitting me. 100%.

Seated at my desk, my heel is starting to get restless and taps against the floor the more I think about it.

Agh, fine. Let me check it out instead of tearing at my hair here.

I check out the first design, the one that is 3% better. I see that she moved the organs a tad, and then comparing my original design with hers, I see that she did something akin to an elaborate chess maneuver to improve the circulation slightly.

I feed the design into the simulator and it checks out.

Phew. Ok. This meets the grade. You pass.

But what is the other design?

I check it out, and immediately see the differences. The power vessels have all been greatly shrunk and made much more numerous, allowing the material inside them to transfer faster. To reduce the strain, she invented some kind of mechanism I haven’t seen before. She didn’t mention it in her email, but there was also a novel regulator to spike the transfer rates in stressful situations.

I feed the design into the simulator and it checks out.

This can’t be real! I should be able to synthesize this without issue, let me make a complete drone and I will try it out

(Eloe POV - Heaven’s Key, Eloe’s Domain, Speed Range)

Seated at the table atop of a cliff, I look at the race through my binoculars. I spent some of my money to create this domain and filled it with various rocky cliffs. I’ve made it 100km long, but 1km wide, just for this single test. I really wanted to witness it with my own eyes, I am just so incredulous that Euclid could do something like this. I keep telling myself that the simulator is wrong even though rationally I know that can’t be the case.

(TODO Image: Two drones racing through the sky next to each other. Jet flames emerge from the thrusters on their wings and back.)

I watch and soon enough the hypersonic race ends in less than 20s, with one drone ahead of the other. It was Euclid’s drone. This improvement to power circulation and transfer efficiency should improve its combat ability by 10-15%. This might be enough to raise my estimated rank by a quarter in the Heaven’s Key tournament.

Sigh. Gaze at the sky wistfully.

[https://i.imgur.com/sd6sLhR.png]

I need to put her under my wing after all. She’s earned it.

It wouldn't be bad to bring her under the sheets as well. It has been so long since I’ve had a lover. It must have been a few hundred years.

With the ability to swap bodies, gender is fluid in this place. Long ago before I came to the Great Game, when I was an ordinary woman I was into men, but the higher ranks are all women and robots so I got used to loving women. At some point every prospective partner became lower ranked than me, so I’ve discovered a part of myself that enjoys dominating others rather than becoming frigid. That is really hard to get into if my partner is a large, burly guy with a ton of muscles.

Having them experience bodies more fitting for their low rank and showing them the joys of womanhood can be addictive. It used to be a bad habit of mine.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

And thinking about Euclid right now, my urges are really coming back.

> Well done. You pass. I’ll make you my apprentice.

> It must have taken you a while to do this. I don’t know what kind of rates you used to get all this done in just 3 days, but they must have been very high. Forget work for a while

> Let’s go on a date! Meet me at Rickert’s Domain in 3 hours! We are going clothes shopping.

I attached the domain reference and emailed the above to her.

> Sure, I’ll be there!

I received a reply from her a few minutes later.

(Eloe POV - Heaven’s Key, Rickert’s Domain, Modern City During Summer, Restaurant Near the Log In Point)

[https://i.imgur.com/ZKv3aLH.png]

The busy sounds of cars passing by on the street outside might be a common sight for those Below, but I’ve been buried in my work for so long that they are nostalgic to me. I never see such sights unless they are in Games or Domains such as Rickert’s.

“Here you go.” The waitress brought me the cola I ordered. I popped it open and poured it into my glass, looking at the ice cubes floating to the top admiringly. I gave it a taste, enjoying the sweet, dark carbonated drink. It really is quite nostalgic for me. I am familiar with the place in Rickert’s Domain, and it is a good place for having dates. A couple of blocks away there is a shop I’ll take Euclid to get her outfitted.

I’ve been here with some of my previous partners. I have sweet memories of this place.

Outside in the street, I could see people walking, going about their business as if they were real.

As I observe, I see Euclid logging in on the opposite street, sporting her familiar red dress. I made it myself and it looks good on her. Our eyes meet and I wave to her.

Her eyes light up and she waves back to me. There isn’t too much traffic in this city, so she looked left and right and ran across it instead of taking a detour through the stripes. That would have broken a law or two down Below.

There is a certain energetic beauty to modern cities, but having vehicles everywhere would turn it into a smog fest. Rickert designed the subdomain so it has just the right amount of density, a lot lower than a real city would.

Energetic, Euclid bounds into the restaurant. She runs up to my table and takes a seat opposite of me, practically jumping into it. I follow her posture as takes her seat, and confirm she is sitting properly for a girl instead of spreading her legs indecently, like a man would.

“Eloe!” She greets me with a smile.

“Whoa, you seem to be happy.” I remark.

“Of course. I am your apprentice now.” She says smugly, crossing her arms below her chest. “What should I call you? Master? Teacher? Mistress?”

Based on her attitude, I get the feeling she is going to be a great student. The worst thing for a student is to feel like she is being forced into it, and the best thing is for her to feel proud of it.

“Mistress.” I smile knowingly.

“Mist…ress.” She repeats, trying not to blush and failing. She is so adorable, the way she looks at me with an upturned gaze is clutching at me. She clears her throat and tries again, her face still warm. “Mistress Eloe. I’ll have to get used to that.”

“Hello. May I take your order?” The waitress comes up to us.

I raise my brow inquiringly at Euclid. She checks the menu in a hurry.

“Iced tea. Peach.” She ordered, and the waitress left us.

“By the way,” She continued, looking at me with one eye closed, embarrassed. “I hope you’ll cover the bill because my pockets are empty.” I nod at her. “What do you use here for money?” She wonders.

In response, I took out a wallet from my ladies bag.

“Paper currency.” I take out and show her some unfamiliar bills before returning them. “I got this wallet when I rented the subdomain. It looks like an ordinary object, but it can create an unlimited amount of it, so don’t worry.”

“I was afraid it could be something like life chips.” She admitted.

“Ahaha,” I laughed lightly at that. “It would be quite an expensive dating spot if it did.”

She nodded and raised her slender finger to her chin, getting thoughtful.

“Mistress, I wonder if I will really be useful to you?” She fidgeted a bit. ”As rank 34 you probably make over 50 million chips per Heaven’s Key Tournament. Yet, you sold me this body as well as a few weapons, and even got me the sponsorship opportunity. Isn’t that a lot of work for you? There should be a ton of beginners, and only so much time you can spend tending to them. Wouldn't it be better to spend that time doing your own research instead?” She inquired.

“Perhaps. It is a lot of work, but it does not take me extra time. I have a program which allows me to reintegrate my forks safely into myself, so at any given time there might be 1,000 different versions of me in my domain.”

“Ooohhh.” She became awed. “I hadn’t realized that.”

“I’d open the shop for 5h a day, spend a couple of minutes reintegrating and then spend the rest of the day as a singleton. So it only takes me 10 minutes per day to keep running the shop.” I tasted my drink. “While it is true that I do not make much money from rank 0s, some of them advance and become repeat customers. Suppose a single customer bought out my entire inventory. That would net me 300 billion chips.”

“That much!?” She was shocked. “That is like 30 billion human lives worth of chips. You must be loaded.”

I shrugged at her remark. Well, it is true, but…

“I am, but the interesting thing is, even if you had an infinite amount of chips, at most that would get you to the entrance of the Episteme ranks, which start at 30. All the technology I have for sale you can find for similar prices at other vendors. At that point people start holding the good stuff for themselves, otherwise we’d all be at Gray’s level.” I pause for a bit to enjoy my drink, and smile at her. “That is why you don’t have to worry about being useful. You’ve earned your apprenticeship. I can guarantee that the design you made cannot be found for sale anywhere.”

“That’s great!” She became brighter, touching the tips of her hands against each other cutely. “In that case, give me as much work as you can mistress. I will do it all.” She declared.

After that we made some small talk as I explained the ranks and who Gray was. After that we left the restaurant together.

As soon as we left the restaurant, I took her hand and held it. She looked at me for a moment in confusion, and noticing my confident look, smiled and completed the hand hold.

Holding her hand, I led us to our destination, the fashion boutique.