27 Episode 4: Shadow (3)

"Eh?" Shinto stared blankly at the words uttered by Kon. "Is that all?"

"Y-Yeah!" he meekly nodded his head.

"Uh..." Shinto wasn't expecting this type of answer. He had thought there'd be an underlying reason for his refusal to be unsummoned. But, to think that it was all because he didn't want to be lonely? "This is..."

He couldn't think of a reply. Instead, he could only pull up the updated description of [ Shadow Calling ].

...

[ Shadow Calling Lv 1 ] [ 40 Shadow Gauge ] [ Cooldown: 5 Minutes ]

Calling from the shadows, a Shadow Minion will be summoned to your side.

Shadow Minion List:

-Kon

Upon summoning a Shadow Minion from the list above, they will gain the [Shadow Minion] status. When they are released from the skill; they will lose their [Shadow Minion] status.

•The maximum amount of Shadow Minions you can summon is equal to the skill's level.

•When the Shadow Minion is unsummoned, they may return to the Shadow Realm to recover or stay by the Shadow Diviner's side. Then, they won't be able to be summoned for the next hour.

•You may release the Shadow Minion from the skill at any time. If the Shadow Minion is far from you, they may release the skill and return to the Shadow Realm themselves.

With a glance at the newly updated skill, Shinto could note a few things. One, the Shadow Minion can stay permanently if they wanted to, and two, the skill doesn't consume anything else besides the initial costs of summoning.

"Err... Since this skill doesn't passively use my resources, I don't mind you staying. But... The issue right now is... You don't have any sort of stealth skill," he reasoned. "It'll be extremely difficult to walk around town like that."

"Right... I don't have any camouflage abilities like my sister..." Kon said with his head hung down low. "But, there must be a way, right? I can hide in a bag or under your shirt if I have to! Just anything but unsummoning..."

"Well... I don't have a bag. And, I don't think you can hide under my shirt?" Shinto helplessly replied. "Perhaps if I got a coat or something, but right now, I'm empty of equipment."

The current Shinto only had a wooden staff equipped as well as an amulet resting in his inventory. He was far from having the ability to discreetly hide Kon under his equipment without anyone taking notice.

"Oh..." Kon sulked. "Is there nothing we can do?"

"Well, the only other option is to take a roundabout path," he said. "It'll take a longer time to reach the dungeon, but it'll attract less attention."

"If it's like that, then... I guess that will do!" Kon nodded his head.

Coming to a conclusion, Shinto didn't say anything else as he and Kon began making their way out of Black Wolf's Den.

...

Back in the town of Parm, a brawler could be seen enveloped by a blue pillar of light—indicating that she had just logged into the game. There, the brawler by the name of Frey began to stretch her arms.

"Phew! What a day last night!" Frey excitedly said. "I wonder what we'll do today?"

After her short exercise, Frey began walking through the crowded streets, making her way over to a small tavern by the edge of town. At that instance, her eyes spotted two familiar people sitting at the tables outside of the building.

"Hey, Jerome, Kris!" Frey waved madly at the two. "I'm here!!"

"Ah? Frey, you finally logged on!" Jerome replied with a smile. "Have a seat."

"Took you long enough..." Kris sighed. "Did you log off immediately after your death last night? I couldn't reach you."

"Ehehe... After the dungeon last night, I had to log off for a while since I forgot to do something. And then uh... I kind of fell asleep..." she scrunched over to the table, sitting at an empty seat. "But it's all good now!"

"Ah, that explains why we couldn't reach you," Jerome sighed.

"Well, now that you're here, should we go somewhere to dungeon?" Kris asked. "I don't want anything crazy like last night though. That thief exhausting our stamina was one thing, but he had to backstab us just like that? Sigh. What a waste of a boss."

"Right... I heard Black Fang dropped some good stuff too! What a shame..." Jerome frowned. "If only we weren't fooled by Ractron..."

"Oh!" Frey's eyes glistened. "About that... Hehe... I defeated it!"

"Huh?" The two glanced toward Frey in confusion. "You defeated who?"

"That big bad wolf of course!" she said with a puffed-up chest. "We hid away from that backstabbing thief and he died just like that! Then Shinto and I began fighting the wolf and we killed it!"

"...you defeated him???" Kris was in disbelief. "How?? That guy's healing shouldn't be able to keep up with the boss' damage and you would die from just two hits. He was at 10% health when both Jerome and I died, right? There should be no way!"

"Hehe! We didn't need healing!" Frey boasted, showing the ring obtained from the boss. "Shinto just dodged all of his attacks and didn't get hit at all!"

"...what?" Jerome blinked absent-mindedly. "He took the aggro and didn't get hit?"

"Yeah! He was all whoosh, jab, whoosh, miss!" Frey threw her fist forward in excitement as she retold the story of last night. "Then we defeated him just like that!"

"..." The two listening to Frey's story looked at one another, still in disbelief. "He was a support, right?"

"Mhm! That's what Ractron kept calling him!" Frey nodded his head.

"..." Speechless at Frey's explanation, they could only let out a sigh. "Well... Since you have that ring... I guess that's proof enough that you defeated him..."

"Yep!" she nodded her head. "Should we call him over to dungeon with us? Let's see..." As she opened up her friends list, her eyes shook. "AH! I forgot to add him!!"

...

Through the grassy fields near the town of Parm, Shinto and Kon could be seen walking on the dirt path as they slowly headed toward Old Wood Caverns, a dungeon much like Black Fang's Den.

"This roundabout path is much longer than I thought..." Shinto sighed. "But we're almost there."

In order to reach the dungeon without drawing much attention, the two had to take a detour around the walls of the town so that they could head south, where the dungeon was located. However, Shinto had underestimated the distance between Black Fang's Den and Old Wood Caverns. The road was much longer than he thought.

"S-Sorry, Master..." Kon, who was on his shoulder, muttered out in apology.

"It's fine," he said. "It's better than drawing any sort of attention anyways."

After 20 or so minutes of walking and avoiding nearby monsters, they had finally reached the entrance of what seemed to be a mountain path. Beyond there were countless entrances to caverns.

"Is this it?" Kon asked.

"This should be it," he said, looking around the mountainous region of the area. "Shall we go in?"

The entrance of the mountain path that they were at was called [ Old Wood Mountain ]. Although it had the name "Old Wood" in it, there weren't many trees there. It was a dryland mountain, with little to no greenery at all.

"Ah, so we reached the dungeon?" Kon sighed out with relief. "Then, let's go in!"