"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."