Reset: DPS to Support?!

Moving through the forest nearby the Town of Parm, a young man scurried through the dirt paths as he held onto his staff tightly. There, he soon shot out a few basic attacks whilst kiting the monsters that had spawned within the area.

"Kikk!" The plant-like monsters angrily shot out bullets akin to petals over to the black-haired man, Shinto. Though despite the shots being fast-paced, Shinto had already anticipated such attacks and scrunched over to the side in the next moment.

Soon after, he retaliated by sending out a divine light down towards the monsters.

[ Shadow Diviner Skill - Hallowed Crest ]

"K-Kikk!" At the collision between the light and the plants, a sound could no longer be heard from the enemies side. As the pillar of light dissipated away—Shinto noted as the monsters had turned into grey ash.

[ You have defeated 'Bullet Petals'! ]

[ You have defeated... ]

[ You have levelled up to level 44! ]

[ You have obtained 10 stat points. ]

"...phew," with the monster defeated, Shinto stretched his arms in a relaxed manner. "One level down and another to go."

It had been hours since Shinto had entered the forest. And during that time, he had been leisurely training and grinding his levels. Though, his efficiency wasn't as good as wished it'd be. After all, with his damage being on the lower side, the monsters took a much longer time to kill.

"Hmm... If I continue at this pace, I should level up after around 47-ish more monsters? Well, that's if I don't share my experience points with anyone," he thought to himself as he turned his head turned over towards the direction of where a black explosion had occurred during his battle with the monsters. "And for Kon... It should be far lesser."

While deep in thought, a black fox soon approached the man. Then, as if he had a puffed up chest, he spoke out whilst wagging his tail excitedly. "Aha! Master! Master! I'm done with the batch of monsters you asked me to deal with! I levelled up! Isn't that great?!"

"Yes. Great job," Shinto smiled as he patted the eager Kon. "What's your level right now?"

"Hmm, level 30!" his tail continued to wag. "That's good, right? Right?"

"Mhm. Keep it up," he nodded his head. "I think there are a few more monsters over by the north area of the forest. So let's head there after a quick break."

"Alrighty!" he answered excitedly. "But, Master... I've got a question before that."

"Hmm?" Shinto tilted his head. "What kind?"

"Well, speaking of break, why are we suddenly in the forest, again?" Kon questioned. "I mean... I know it's to train! But, aren't we on a break? Oh, and, weren't you going to do something? What happened in that temple?"

"Ah... About that," Shinto helplessly sighed. "It might be a tad bit long for me to explain it, but there were certain problems that happened. So, while we're passing the time for the situation to die down—we might as well hunt down monsters," he stated. "But, if you want to take a break, that's fine."

With Hikari sending out a cry for help through whispers earlier in the day, Shinto knew that the two girls were in trouble. However, with the uproar from the crowds and the ecstatic pope—there was nothing he could do to help. Thus, he could only play the waiting game while waiting for Hikari and Crowelin to wrap up with the little 'event' that they had apparently created.

And what better than to grind to pass the time? It was a good way to kill two birds with one stone as he needed to reach level 45, where he can equip the gear obtained from the dungeon while also levelling Kon up.

"A break? Ah! No, no! I don't need a break!" he shook his head. "If Master wants me to train hard, then I will!"

"Aha... Well, if you insist," Shinto chucked. "In any case, we'll continue hunting on an individual basis. So, you don't need to worry about me and just go all out with the monsters you find in the forest."

Despite Shinto's lack of solo capabilities with his class, he had to compromise as it was far more efficient for Kon to gain experience on his own without his support. After all, if Shinto was alone, Kon was his main source of damage. He couldn't rely on Kiara nor Blake as the two weren't permanent summons, unlike Kon.

"...hmm, the enemies we're dealing with here are within my level bracket," as he noted that Kon was lying down on the ground, Shinto stared at him whilst in thought. "But even then, despite being ten levels lower, he can easily fight off two to three enemies at the same time like it's nothing. Though granted, they were on the easier end of the spectrum."

Since the very start of when he had first gotten the Shadow Diviner class, Shinto had been facing against higher levelled enemies far beyond his level standards. It was a struggle, however, in the end, he and the rest of his group members had made it through successfully.

So, in comparison to the monsters that he and Kon were fighting now, they were nothing.

"Huh? Master? Is something the matter?" Kon slightly whimpered as he noticed that Shinto had his eyes on him the entire time. "D-Did I do something wrong?"

"...ah. My bad," he shook his head. "Break's over, so let's go to the next area."

...

As the time slowly passed till the evening light seeped into the world, Shinto and Kon were still at it, grinding up their levels via fighting off all the monsters that had spawned in the forest. At this point, they seemed to have fought off more than a hundred already. Of course, in a total of both, where Kon was much more.

"...hah," letting out a tired sigh, Shinto soon glanced at his rising bar of notification.

[ You have defeated 'Bullet Petals'! ]

[ You have defeated 'Wild Dandelions' ]

[ You have defeated 'Silverfanged Wolf' ]

[ You have levelled up to level 46! ]

[ You have obtained 10 stat points. ]

"...right. That should be for the day," he nodded his head in satisfaction at his level now being at 46. Soon after, he turned towards Kon where he was still in battle. "As for Kon, looks like he's still at it."

"Heeyah!" Kon shouted out as he threw out a few pale flames over to the floating dandelions in the area. In the next moment, the fire began consuming them. "Take this!"

Following that, multiple black orbs appeared around him as he then flung it over to the monsters—sealing their fate.

"Yay! Levelled up again!" Kon cheered. "Should I do more? Uh..."

"It's fine Kon, that's enough for the day," Shinto stated.

"Ah! Master!" interrupted by Shinto, Kon turned towards him with starry eyes. "Look, look! I'm level 35 now!"

"Oh? That fast?" he asked amusingly. "That's quite a big progression... How many did you kill?"

"Uh... I lost count after 50..." Kon muttered out. "Maybe 70 or so? Monsters started appearing lesser after that so..."

"Right... We did go through quite a lot of monsters in the area today," he laughed. "But it's not enough to put a dent on the population. So there's that. In any case..." as he was about to open up Kon's status window, he was quickly interrupted as the bushes around them rustled loudly.

"...!?" Alerted by the noise, Kon and Shinto turned towards the direction of the sound. There, they saw a blonde-haired woman as well as an auburn one exiting out of the bush with tired expressions. "Ah... Crowelin? Hikari?"

"...we...have...arrived," Hikari muttered out in a worn-out voice.

"Jeez... What happened to you guys?" Shinto raised his brow in question upon noting that Crowelin and Hikari had arrived. However, unbeknownst to him, the two were extremely exhausted and on the verge of falling down to the ground.