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Chapter 142
“Master!” Lydia cried out, racing to give me a hug.
“Master!” Miki cried out a moment later, also running up to me.
I held out my arms and hugged them both. I was at the stairway leading up to the 14th floor. I had spent the last few hours waiting for the girls to arrive. Now that they were on the same level as me, I felt an immense degree of relief. Of course, with my Party Status, I made sure to check on them constantly. Both girls remained healthy and fought vigorously. In the end, Lydia had reached 34 and Miki reached 30. The gap between the two girls seemed to be closing nicely. When they reach level 50, I had hoped they’d gain some kind of better ability.
I casually began bringing them back to the library to register. Meanwhile, we chatted a bit. The Bounding Yokai showed its face, but I quickly took care of it. It took less than a minute for me to down the boss at the moment. This wasn’t necessarily because I was so powerful, but because I had grown extremely used to its movements and knew how to fight it efficiently. When the monstrous ghost wailed its last cry, I turned back to the girls and smiled.
The two girls looked and each other and then at me. Their expressions were somewhat strange.
“What is it?” I asked.
The two girls lowered their heads, but it was Lydia who answered. “Master has grown really strong.”
“Master is amazing,” Miki added.
I enjoyed hearing the compliments. They made me feel good about myself. However, now was not the time to concentrate on that stuff. Rather, I wanted the girls to be ready to get deeper into the dungeon as efficiently as possible. I destroyed the boss right now so they could get a chance to see it. Next time, I wanted them to fight the boss on their own.
“Ah, that’s right.” A thought suddenly came to me. “Are you doing okay, Lydia? I know you’re scared of ghosts. Coming down here must be difficult.”
Lydia shook her head. “Not at all. I’m mostly frightened by things I can’t touch. Since I can hit the monsters with Miki’s enchantment, they are much less frightening. Besides, the jewelry store owner gave me a necklace that increases my spiritual resistance. I’m less vulnerable to these kinds of attacks now.”
“Ah… good.” I nodded.
As someone leveled up, they’d naturally have higher status. The higher your status, the more you could resist spiritual attacks anyway. The Lydia now was much different from the Lydia who first visited this city about a month ago. We were all much stronger now. In fact, if my guess was right, we’d rank about the level of a C class party right now. Although me with my cheat skills and multiple jobs probably reached closer to a B.
“Alright, girls, you’ve done well up until now. Your abilities leveled nicely.” More nicely than mine thanks to the 2X slave experience, “Therefore, I want to try something new now.”
The two girls cocked their heads, but once again Lydia took the lead. “What do you want us to do Master?”
“I’m going to work on your 2nd jobs.” I declared. “Miki… we’re going to work on basic magician for a bit. Lydia, I want to see where your scout abilities can bring you. As for myself, I’ll be upping my Slave Master job. I’d like to see what you’re all capable of.”
Chapter 143
I continued to grind with the girls on level fifteen. They both managed to get their second ability up to level ten. Miki giggled with delight when she found herself able to throw a small fireball, and Lydia’s speed and visual acuity was also enhanced. After careful observation, I determined that basically, every level you made in a job increased your status somewhat.
So… every level in Swordsman would give you status that would make you a better swordsman. You might increase in speed, agility, visual acuity, strength… while things like intelligence wouldn’t increase all that much. These changes occurred even if your job changed. In fact, some of these changes were likely necessary to unlock other, higher tier jobs. You probably couldn’t become an Advanced Swordsman until your status was high enough, or something like that.
However, there was also the act of having the job equipped. This gave you access to all of the skills from that job. In some cases, you could learn a skill without the job. For example, you don’t need the language skill to learn a language, although it definitely makes things easier. This is why a person could seamlessly advance from a level 50 Basic Magician to a level 1 Advanced Magician without suddenly growing weaker. You still had all the benefits of the Basic Magician
Anyway, your skills were their best when you had the job equipped. So even though every level of Swordsman increased your strength incrementally, there was also a massive bonus associated with having that job equipped in the first place. Presumably, a second-tier job would have a better bonus than a first tier. In this world, this system seemed set up so that what someone did would slowly cause them to grow stronger, eventually evolving to higher tiers.
Of course, this world had limited knowledge of job systems, and there were likely plenty of jobs out there that they had never heard about before.
The girls worked very efficiently together. Weeks fighting alongside each other as they fought for a common goal had truly enhanced their teamwork greatly. Lydia was able to make her fiery spirit sword almost instantly. Miki didn’t waste a second to bring up the Spirit Fire so that she could battle ghosts. The two worked together seamlessly.
Other than occasional Refresh and healing, I found I wasn’t all that necessary. However, I did find out something quite interesting. With my Duplicate Slave Skill, I was able to create the spirit sword myself. It turned out that I didn’t need to depend on Lydia to hand me a spirit enhanced sword. As long as Miki tossed me some fire, I could do it myself. In fact, I started more closely looking at both girl’s abilities. I could now emulate Miki spirit attacks too!
Both girls clapped their hands when they saw me copy their abilities. I couldn’t do any ability as well as either of the girls. Without 8 spiritual tails allowing me to absorb spiritual energy, I actually found a lot of her skills very taxing, and I engorged on the waters of life to recover in a reasonable amount of time. As I was drinking some water, I casually considered their new jobs. Naturally, Basic Magician was most interesting to me.
I tried to copy her fireball, and dropped my water skin and choked on water as fire actually sprung from my fingertips! I could cast all of their skills, including skills that weren’t active! As expected of a Slave Master ability!
“Master is so cool!”
“Master is a basic Magician too?”
Before I could shake my head, text appeared in front of my vision.
{You’ve managed to manipulate mana to invoke magic. You have unlocked Basic Magician.}
I let out a noise of complete surprise. Basic Magician was a job that I had been eyeing enviously. I had the White Mage ability. By all accounts, I had been invoking magic from the beginning, but this world never heard of White Mage. It’s possible that White Mage was a very niche high tier ability. In that case, since I skipped the jobs leading up to White Mage, I couldn’t retroactively learn them.
This was also probably why I knew Slave Master but didn’t suddenly get Slaver or one of the lower-tier slave jobs. Dungeon Diver and True Dungeon Diver were different in that they were both earned the same way, but one was higher in level than the other. This only confirmed what I already suspected. When it came to job tiers, White Mage was broken. I had gotten it without starting as a Basic or as an Apprentice Magician.
I equipped it briefly.
{You have unlocked Mana Control.}
Somehow, this ability made it feel easier to control the White Mage spells. I could target easier and I felt like I was using less mana. It looked like starting from the basics was truly helpful. I had so much to learn about this world.
Chapter 144
After a hard day of leveling up, we finally retreated to the library. I felt completely exhausted. I was about ready to collapse on the floor. I only just managed to refresh myself and then go about the standard duties. The girls complained a lot less. I had to look strong for them.
“Master? What is going on with your friend?” Lydia asked as I cooked the food.
“Ah… they went on without me. I think they grew angry,” I said simply.
“That’s very dangerous. If Master wants, we can push ahead.”
I thought about it, scratching my chin. “I’m really worried about them, but I don’t want to be reckless either. Honestly, we’ve had several really close calls lately, and I’d rather not put us in any more danger if I can help it. We’re in good shape now. I don’t feel like we need to leave the dungeon, but I also don’t want to risk anyone dying. I’ll keep you all safe.”
“M-master…” Miki suddenly spoke up. “This… person… wouldn’t happen to be a girl, would it?”
Lydia didn’t move, but her ears flicked at the words.
“She is a girl, and as it turns out, I was forced to enslave her.” I sighed.
It was better to just be honest. Since they asked outright, I definitely wouldn’t lie to these girls of mine. I held back a little before while things were emotional, but now that we were together, there was no reason I shouldn’t come clean. I closed my eyes, waiting for the backlash. Considering how Celeste acted when she learned about these girls, then it wouldn’t be surprising if these girls who were even closer to me acted even angrier.
“Ah!” Miki nodded casually. “So, it’s that…”
“Another girl… she must be pretty if Master wants her.” Lydia responded thoughtfully.
“Eh?” I opened my eyes to see that both girls had barely reacted at all. “You’re not angry?”
Miki blinked. “Why would I be angry? Master is Master. Rather, isn’t it natural that Master has many? It doesn’t matter how many pretty women Master has because Miki will always be first.”
Lydia nodded. “I was afraid at first that Master would leave me when Miki came, but after you almost died that one time, I’ve decided to appreciate the time I have with Master, rather than fight those who also realize Master’s greatness. And then, you disappeared in this dungeon. If I hadn’t had Miki by my side to support me, I don’t know if I’d have made it. Having other women to lean on who feel the same way is wonderful. If anything, it is good that others realize how wonderful Master is. Plus… I will also always be Master’s first… in a manner.”
As Lydia blushed, I let out a breath of relief. It seemed like I was worrying over nothing. In the end, both girls had come to terms with each other, and with any future women I brought home. Wait! Future women? I wasn’t planning anything like that! Two was already more than enough. Once I freed all three of them, I’ll be lucky if even one girl stays by my side without slave affinity and Mina’s Blessing.
“Actually… if he already made the other girl a slave, wouldn’t that make Lydia his third?” Miki suddenly pointed out.
“Geh!” Lydia’s calm expression quickly turned sour.
Leave it to Miki to start trouble just as we got through our problems.