As he sat down at the kitchen table to the second warm meal he's had in the last month or so, he contemplated who would make a good maid slash bodyguard. He currently had his tank growing his next companion, his swordsman, Artoria Pendragon. Who better than the female version of King Arthur to fulfill the role?
A small groan left him as he ate the fried rice that Valeria had prepared. He'd been an alright cook in his last life, not having the stuff needed in this life, but Valeria had improved on everything he'd ever known by leaps and bounds. He supposed that was the power of being an unparalleled genius.
As he ate his lunch he considered who to make next as his maid. One of the first names to pop into his mind was Grayfia Lucifuge from High School DxD, but he dismissed her the moment he remembered another made who looked almost identical but was a human, Sakuya Izayoi. Sakuya was a human woman with the innate ability to stop time and a penchant for knives. Granted, while she would maintain the ability to stop time, she might not like knives in the new life he would give her. Only innate talents remained in the blood, not memories.
After lunch, Peter returned to working on the spider venom. It wasn't the complexity that was making it take so long but rather the process of making it. Some steps took hours to complete on their own. He didn't mind at all, it would be worth it when the starting strength of everyone in his crew was them all being able to lift ten tons with relative ease.
He couldn't wait.
Wooden swords clashed as Artoria and Alex sparred against one another. Peter watched, enthralled, while Sakuya served him some tea and snacks. Valeria was sitting close by reading books on boat construction, she'd decided her first project would be designing their ultimate ship. Materials weren't an issue so she could design it out of whatever she wished. Meanwhile, Sakuya had been created and was thrilled to be his personal maid and bodyguard. She did some training with Alex as well, but her ability to stop time was ridiculous in combat.
His eyes shifted to the side when the sound of his revolver firing echoed in the area. There he watched his Marksman taking practice shots at moving targets designed by Valeria. She was the latest homunculus and the only mutant of the group, Domino. With an active X-Gene that allowed her to subconsciously alter probabilities, she was an uncanny marksman that could his a target in pretty much any situation. Not to mention the sheer lunacy that was her performing trick shots. She was so 'lucky' that she really only needed to be taught how to use the gun and she was instantly deadly with it. Even now every shot was a bullseye.
He sipped his tea and smiled to himself as he watched his people go about their work. Currently his tank was growing yet another homunculus, this time his chef. Valeria had been right about his eating habits. Good food was a must and he hadn't truly realized just how much he missed it until he'd tried to take a nutrition potion after days of good food and nearly vomited it back up.
Now he wanted someone with inborn talent to be a chef and there was only a single person that came to mind as the ultimate choice, Erina Nakiri, the God Tongue herself. With her innate sense of taste, a little training, and him providing literally otherworldly ingredients, his food would become the best in the world.
Once he finished his lunch, he returned to his lab and looked at a collection of a dozen vials filled with light green liquid, the finished spider venom. He collected one of the vials and a syringe. It was a matter of moment to fill the syringe and prep his arm. He looked up into the stoic face of Sakuya, "Don't worry, this is perfectly safe. Though I may pass out for a while, so be prepared for that, alright?"
She gave a deferential nod, "Yes, Master."
Taking a deep breath, Peter slides the needle through his skin and into the vein at his elbow. Pushing down on the plunger, he watches as the venom is fed into his body. He waited for about a minute without feeling anything but the sting at the site of the injection before saying, "Huh, that wasn't so..."
His whole body slumped but was caught by Sakuya before he could fall to the ground in an unconcious heap. She let out a sigh and lifted him up with relative ease. She might've been a petite woman, but she was already stronger than the average man. It took no effort for her to carry Peter to his bed, strip him down, and tuck him in until he regained consciousness.
Peter awoke with an uncomfortable groan. His entire body had a bone deep ache and his mouth tasted like he'd drank one of his potions while simultaneously being as dry as the deserts of Arabasta.
"Welcome back, master."
One of his eyes cracked open to see Sakuya sitting next to his bed in her maid uniform, his white hair done up in twin tails and her red eyes studying him as if assessing what he might need. Seeming to find something, she casually picks up a glass of water with a straw and holds it toward him. After taking a sip to wet his mouth and throat, he manages to grind out, "How long?"
"Twenty-four hours, master. Your latest homunculi has been standing next to the tank refusing to move until she is given her designation."
He grunted at that information. It might not have been the best idea to take the venom while he had one growing, but he just couldn't help himself. His body was already feeling better, the aches fading as his body adjusts to the last of the changes and heals over. He flips the blanket off of himself, not caring that he's only in a loose pair of short and exposing himself to Sakuya. His body had already been fit thanks to his potions and resistance training, now he looked like an Adonis with perfectly sculpted muscles that were lean but powerful.
He poked at himself for a bit, taking in his new and more powerful form. He gives a little push to scoot to the edge of his bed to stand and ends up pushing himself off of his bed entirely. If not for his now vastly improved reflexes he would have landed on his face, instead he did a casual rotation in the air and landed firmly on his feet.
"Amazing."
He looks his hands over again and hums in question. While Sakuya watches, he moves over to the wall and places the tips of his fingers against it. He wills himself to stick then gives a tentative tug, his fingers remain firmly affixed to the wall. Grinning, he reaches higher up with his other hand and repeats the process. Within moments he's crawling on the wall both his hands and feet sticking to it with ease and releasing when he wills it. He feels zero strain even as he crawls onto the ceiling and hangs upside down.
"Ha! It worked perfectly!"
He lets go of the ceiling, performs a casual flip, and lands back on the ground with ease, "It will be all of you taking this formula next. But there's one more thing I need to test. Sakuya, get one of your practice knives and throw it at me from behind, please."
The next instant his eyes widen as he feels a 'buzz' in the back of his mind screaming at him to 'MOVE!'. He instinctively drops to the ground with his legs splayed out and his fingers touching down, ready to leap back up at a moments notice. A solid 'THUNK!' comes from in front of him and he can see a blunt knife stuck in the wall vibrating.
"Holy shit... So that what Spider Sense feels like."
"Nicely done, Master."
Peter stood back up and turned to look at his maid. She was standing prim and proper, no sign that she'd just thrown a blunt knife with enough force to pierce the wooden wall of his room. He gave her a bright smile, "You'll understand once you can feel it yourself. A sixth sense whose only purpose is to help you evade danger. I can't even imagine how powerful it will be in your hands."
Seriously, he couldn't. The instant she sensed danger she would be able to freeze time the ntake as long as she wished to set up a counter attack. No matter how fast someone was, she would always be faster. The only person he could conceive of being fast enough to actually harm her was Admiral Kizaru with his Pika Pika no Mi. Light speed was no joke. The speed of light also had weird interactions with time so he had no idea what would happen in a collision of the two in battle. He was not a physicist of any kind to figure that out!