After the villagers calmed down over their argument, which apparently was a common thing, we asked to be shown to a place to stay the night. They wanted to put us up in their homes, but I insisted that a barn was enough. We actually had no intention of staying there, so I didn’t really care. As soon as we locked the doors, I was going to portal away and sleep in a comfy bed. Sleeping out was fine and all, but a rested person definitely was better able to handle the next day’s challenges. My nights of sleeping uncomfortably on a dungeon floor were far behind me.

“Just in case something comes up, we really should have one of us remain behind. If they got attacked while we were in another city and they came to beg for help, only to get no answer, it would definitely cause Master guilt.” Miki explained.

“I will stay.” Ruby declared. “I admit that I was uncomfortable with the idea of leaving, anyway. You should remain on the site of a mission until it is complete. That’s what I’ve been taught.”

“Unfortunately, you’re not one of my slaves.” I told her. “I can communicate with my slaves a fairly long-distance using Slave Communication.”

As you grew higher in level, all of your skills also grew stronger. The higher-level Mage, the more control I had with Fire Control. Slave Communication had grown in the same way. Like Sense Life, the distance was much farther than when I started out. Barring a Dungeon being in the way, I could send a message to Lydia’s group despite the fact they were nearly two weeks travel from where we were. I now knew I could create a Portal to them as well, so they really weren’t far from me at all.

However, Ruby wasn’t my slave, and so I couldn’t use Slave Communication on her.

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“Don’t you have Hero? I thought there was Party Communication?”

I had yet to find a book on Heroes, so most of what I knew was from my own experiences and guesses. I supposed it made sense that Hero, a self-sacrificing and leadership job, would have the capacity to communicate. In many ways, it made more sense for parties to communicate than for slaves to communicate. It only took me a moment of glancing through my jobs when I realized what the problem was. I had switched to True Hero as soon as I got it. True Hero was more focused on self-sacrifice and fighting back evil.

It kind of made sense. True Hero came from defeating a Demon Lord, an act of fighting the ultimate enemy. Meanwhile, Hero was more like a title of leadership thrust upon a strong fighter so that he might protect the city around him and help them overcome challenges. So, Heroes had more of a party focus than True Hero. Furthermore, Party Communication should be a fairly mandatory item for any Hero. Once again, I had skipped essential skills due to my tendency to unlock higher tier ones early. I had done the same thing with Slave Master, having likely missed countless important skills that Slavers possessed to focus on the far more impressive skills.

“I’ll stay.” Raissa said.

“You won’t!”

I won’t let a woman pregnant with my baby sleep in a barn.

“Salicia will” I spoke after a moment of silence.

“What? Me! M-m-master, what did I do to displease you?”

“Isn’t a former bandit the most suited to be on the watch for bandits?” I offered.

“Geh… even if you say so.”

“Think of it this way, you’re doing this in place of Carmine.”

“S-sister! Well… if you put it that way, then I will save sister from this burden.”

“Sister, thank you…” Carmine gave her a thumbs up as I opened a Portal.

“A-appreciation…” Salicia teared up.

She was actually really easy to control once you understood her triggers. Carmine jumped through the portal, coldly abandoning her sister to a barn in incestland. That was actually the real reason I had picked Salicia. She felt right at home in this place. The rest of us left through the portal quickly, while Salicia was easily duped into doing a job no one else wanted.