"Aaahhhh~, remember Mom's job is [Civil], right?"
Yes, and until now I haven't understood why such a job exists or how it would be even remotely useful.
"Yes, Mom chose this job without really knowing how things worked, and yes, Dad and I were pretty pissed when she showed it to us. Even though he also didn't have much of an idea of how a job worked in this case"
Yes, until now you were just repeating what you already said.
"But soon after, we had to eat our words. It turned out that the [Civil] job had a very useful skill assigned to it, perfect for us. The ability to create a safe zone, the [owner's area]."
The name is terrible, but the skill seems good, it seems.
"It's a good skill; it allows the person with the job to designate a property as their own and create a barrier around it. In our case, the entire area of the main house was designated as Mom's property, and even if the monsters tried, they couldn't enter."
.....
'Okay, IF that were true, then wouldn't all the work I put in keeping watch all night be basically useless? And the rubble we put in front of the house too?'
"Calm down, like every skill, it also has a downside. Unlike my green voice, which constantly drains mana, this designation and "maintenance" of the barrier or area limit doesn't consume mana to maintain itself, but it does have a limit on attacks (hit points). If, for example, a group of goblins kept banging on the gate for a day, the barrier would fall and we'd be screwed."
'Hmm hmm, continue.'
"Thinking about that, we think about what type of opponent is always the most annoying to deal with?"
I'd say it depends on the individual. Some would say it would be opponents who debuff, opponents who constantly buff themselves and regenerate, opponents who only defend themselves, etc. But if it's about the most annoying monsters in general, I think they would be...
"Flying monsters?"
"Exactly! And Mom's ability is also slightly malleable, like the others so far, being able to designate a specific type of opponent to focus on defending. So she designed the barrier to be maximally effective against flying monsters and minimally effective against ground monsters."
Was that why I didn't see or even hear any winged monsters near my house, or any birds?
"In theory, the barrier can now repel flying monsters of at most medium size—don't ask what they are, I just know it would—and even directly eliminate lesser monsters and easily repel small flying monsters. But ground monsters are a different story. It still defends against lesser ones like mana-altered rats, but not goblins, wolves, zombies, etc."
"Okay, that made me feel a little better, but what does that have to do with you not being able to leave?"
"So she could go with Dad, Mom assigned me to be responsible for the property when she wasn't there, transferring the "barrier controls" to me. This way, even though she was away, the barrier and those she listed as "tenants or co-owners" could continue to come and go without a problem. But this permission is only valid as long as I'm within a maximum of 20 meters of the property's delimited area."
Is it just me, or does that 20-meter area keep popping up with annoying frequency?
"And if you go beyond that area?..."
"Yeah, the access to [the property area] is broken, and any monster can get in. And worse, the time the barrier was up doubles as a monster decoy. In theory, it creates a situation where we have to defend the base. But if we manage to survive, we'll get a pretty large amount of materials."
"It's still not very comforting."
"Yeah, I know."
Hhhhhaaaaaa~ the world gets more complicated every moment.
"But how exactly would Mom know these things to tell you? You're not going to tell me all this was in the job description, are you?"
Maria shrugged before answering.
"[Civil] isn't a job often seen in fiction, so who knows what he could really do. Maybe it was all in the explanation, maybe it was some kind of feeling he caused; the only way to know that would be to have him yourself."
"It can't be that simple, right?" I thought, rolling my eyes.
Well, at least the explanation didn't take long, I had barely sucked half of the rat's blood, and for nothing it must have lasted about 5 or 7 minutes... I felt sick just thinking about it. And that IS my new reality.
Now I'm going to stop thinking about it (too) and get back to the main point, it may have been little but it was still almost 10 minutes that we won't get back. Mom and Das are waiting for us, well, more me actually but...
"Okay, I understand why you can't go, but what about who should go with me?"
At this, we all fell silent and thought for a few moments.
"I think the best match would be those who would give me the best advantage to use my abilities."
"And who would those be?"
"Hmmmm, the best match I can think of in this case would be Nawa, but considering how she is... It would be Lumi. With his light abilities, he could distract the monsters, and the flashes of light could be enough to create shadows for me to hide in."
"Okay, I get the logic, but don't you have [vulnerable to light] or something like that?"
"Yes, I do, but I think if I wear thick clothes that barely reveal any skin, it might not be too much of a hindrance. Besides, this might also be a good way to see how my unique ability [Resistance] works."
"... Fair enough. Anyone else?"
.....