Battle group

To his disappointment the sisters just shrugged their shoulders, "Sorry, there have been so many things we did, that we don't know what is the reason. And our father forbade us to talk about the best of them.

But don't you think its fun?"

Hearing her answer, Ivan couldn't help but feel for his mentor. Although she didn't say anything definitive it was definitely even worse than he could imagine. Silently he vowed to himself to never get on their bad side if he could help it.

He hurriedly changed the topic, "Anyway, there was another reason I have come here for."

He then proceeded to tell Carl what had happened to him lately, that, that he hadn't already told him. This included how his stats had been locked.

When he finished his story, the sisters looked at him in awe and exclaimed, "Wow, your bloodline is even more domineering than ours."

"Really?", Carl asked in surprise. The sister's bloodline was one of the most domineerings he had ever come into contact with. So for them to say that Ivan's was even more domineering was certainly a huge point.

"Yes.", Beth nodded. "According to what mom told us before, it is hard to call the ancestral soul if the bloodline isn't pure and strong enough."

"Hm. Well, I don't think that this is the most important point at this moment. Instead, it should be the lock on the stats, right?", Carl asked Ivan to make sure.

"Yes. I was wondering what I could do during this year to still improve."

"So that's why you went to the lecture.", Lin exclaimed. It seemed like she had just understood Ivan's thought process of focusing more on his slaves, now that he couldn't improve himself as before.

"Yes. I wanted to focus more on other aspects of my strength. And one point is slaves, but I don't have much experience. To be honest I never really used them much in combat situations. I mostly tried to fight by myself. That's also is what I wanted to ask you about. You are the person with the most knowledge in this aspect, that I know.", the last sentences were directed towards his mentor.

Carl nodded, "It is a good idea to think of other ways to strengthen yourself. I can teach you something about slaves or battle pets as I personally call them if we are using them for combat. But in the end, you have to find out by yourself how you want to strengthen yourself."

"Anyway, have you added any new slave?"

"No, it is just Vlada at the current time.", Ivan replied honestly. Technically Celine was a servant and not a slave, although he didn't quite understand the differences, besides her being unable to enter the 'Slave Space'.

"Ok. One of the most popular designs for a battle group is the classic tank, support, and attacker composition. In this type of design, Vlada would be an attacker or support. With her support being mostly out of combat in scouting and anti-air operations. During combat, she should either combat airborne foes or assist in attacking enemies on the ground."

Ivan nodded, in school, they too were using this kind of group composition. He also agreed with his assessment of Vlada's capabilities. "So I should get a tank and support next? As well as a better attacker?"

"In theory yes. And you should also try to get a ranged attacker. But here comes the problem for you. Although a tank is easy to find. In the worst case, just select something bulky and durable. Giants or bears are popular options there. There is even a database containing all types of species and their attributes, so you can select something suitable out of it."

Gala nodded in agreement, "We did it this way as well. The database is really useful and it even contains some rather rare species."

"Yes. You should look through it later. But be mindful that you need to combat the one you select alone without outside help while executing the ritual.", Carl reminded him.

Remembering how it was with Vlada, Ivan couldn't agree more. That truly had been a bad experience. Luckily he should be able to have Celine support him, which should make it much easier.

"What's harder are the other roles. Close ranger attackers can be found easily as well since just about any monster does have a close-range attack. You just have to find a suitable one."

"Is there a database for this as well?", Ivan asked curiously.

"Yes, there is. But I wouldn't recommend you to use it. There are just too many options and I think it is better to select something that you have fought against in the wild and that you liked.", Carl responded to his question, before continuing with his point.

"So what is left is support and ranged attackers. And that's where the problem is. There aren't many of either of them."

"Huh? But there are many in the dungeons aren't there?", during the dungeon explorations he had often met monsters that could use ranged attacks or even magic.

Carl smiled and asked him, "Did you try taming them?"

Ivan shook his head. He hadn't even thought of trying to do it.

"Even if you had tried, you would have failed every time anyways.", Carl told him. "Monsters in the dungeon are different from those in the wild. While it is possible to tame monsters of a low grade, level, and rank like your Vlada, it would be impossible to tame others."

"So we have to tame monsters in the wild?"

"Yes. And there, monsters who can attack over a distance or use magic, are much rarer. They usually are mutations of other species since in this realm there aren't any species that have a high enough grade to consistently have magic."

"So I just have to go out and hope to be lucky?"

"Basically yes. Of course, you can also try to buy slaves if you have the money. At auctions, they can sometimes be found. Most of them are human but that is usually accepted. Many even think of it as easier than to have those roles occupied by monsters."

Ivan had forgotten about that aspect of slavery since he had never come into contact with it. He had always felt that his slaves were something that was connected to him and he was completely unwilling to sell them. Sure he had only ever had two. Vlada and Celine with Celine even being a very special case.

Carl could see his doubt about taking this route. "If you think that buying a slave to serve the role should have some drawbacks then you are right. Hm, how about you tell me your thoughts and then I'll tell you what I think about it?"

"Sure. First off, I think a problem is loyalty. By buying a slave there wouldn't be any loyalty, which I felt when I tamed Vlada. And according to the lecture just now the relationship between slave and master is important. I think that by buying a slave that there is a different starting point that makes it harder to improve the relationship. Even more so, if the slave is more intelligent."

"Good. That's a good point. Of course, sometimes it can also be that by buying a slave you can make that slave have a very good impression of you. It mostly depends on the former owner."

Ivan was happy that his mentor praised him since it made him feel as if he had grown. Before he had to always ask for advice but slowly he had started to make conclusions by himself. And those conclusions would be the right ones in other's eyes as well.

"Then another point would be former habits. If a slave has served another master before, then it should have developed some habits, which aren't necessarily compatible with my own style."

"Good. Do you have another point?"

Ivan thought for a bit and then shook his head. He didn't have anything else he could think of.

"Not bad, you already mentioned the main points. Which is the relationship and the compatibility between master and servant." He then turned towards the girls, "Do you have anything to add?"

The girls looked at each other and then Gala opened her mouth, "There is something missing if a slave isn't directly bound but instead bought. When you sell a slave you have to transfer the contract and in that process, the mental link gets disrupted. After that, it is possible to build something similar but it will always be inferior."

"Correct. Since you never had a bought slave it isn't surprising that you don't know about it.", he then reassured Ivan as if he feared that he would be depressed that he hadn't known about it, while all three girls knew about it.