Chapter 20: To Laugh or Cry?


    Frey scurried towards Shinto with a delighted face, as she said in a gleeful tone "Thank you so much for your help back there! I was quite in a pickle haha..." Frey nervously let out augh.


    Hearing Frey''s voice, Shinto snapped out of his thoughts as he nced over to Frey who was facing him.


    "No problem, I''m d I could help," Shinto said as he raised his brow, "Though I do have a question..."


    "Hmm? What would that question be?" Frey crooked her head as she inquired further.


    "Why were you being chased by ten wolves?" Wasting no time, Shinto jumped to the question.


    "Ah- Um... You see... Uh..." Hearing the sudden question from Shinto, a bead of nervous sweat dropped down on Frey''s forehead as she hurried to make up a sentence, "You see... Uh well..." Frey fickled with her fingers as she finally said out a proper sentence, "I was... trying to fight against ten wolves at once..." Frey let out a nervousugh.


    "...You, what were you thinking?" Shinto furrowed his brows as he scrutinized Frey.


    Frey donned an orange vest around her body, brown gloves meant for a brawler and an amber coloured hair tie, tied around her messy orange ponytailed hair. All of the items she had equipped on her, seemed to be that of a level five gear.


    "With gears such as yours and from the skills you use; Fighting against ten wolves at once... Are you asking for suicide?" Shinto spoke in disbelief as he red at Frey.


    "Ahaha..." Freyughed meekly, "Well... I was trying to test my limits!"


    "And going up against ten wolves was a good idea because?" Shinto asked still in disbelief.


    "Because I wanted to see how far I could go...!" Frey hastily responded.


    "...You" Shinto sighed helplessly, "So since you were going against ten before..." Shinto thought to himself as he hesitantly spoke, "I''m guessing you could go up against nine...?"


    "Nope!" Frey answered.


    "Eight?"


    "Nope!"


    "...Four?"


    "Nuh-uh." Frey shook her head.


    "Then why did you try to go up against ten if you couldn''t even handle the previous numbers of wolves...!" Shinto shouted as he quickly let out a cough, calming his mind.


    "I can go up against two!" Frey boasted as her eyes sparkled with pride.


    "...And you thought you could go up against ten because of that?"


    "Mhm!" Frey nodded her head.


    Shinto stared nkly at Frey, not knowing whether tough or cry. Going up against ten wolves at once when she could only handle two? Where did the confidence to fight ten at once evene from?


    "H-Hey...! What''s with that nk look you''re giving me?" Frey pouted, "I honestly thought I could go up against ten!"


    "How...? Jumping from two to ten is just..." Shinto could not finish his own sentence, knowing full well that any reasoning he would provide would be meaningless.


    "Well, just because!" Frey yelled as she looked at Shinto with a serious re in her eyes, "I like the challenge!"


    "..." Shinto continued his nk stare as he looked dumbfoundedly at Frey, speechless.


    Shinto couldn''t process Frey''s logic and answers behind her decision of fighting against ten wolves. He just couldn''t.


    Wouldn''t it be logical to try for three wolves or four wolves first, instead of jumping straight to ten?


    And where on earth did she even get such high confidence that she could solo ten wolves?


    Many thoughts ran through Shinto''s head, but he couldn''t connect anything.


    ''Is this how a newbie acts...?'' He thought to himself as he blinked twice at Frey.


    A newbie that knew nothing of the game and thus would often time do stupid things... Like this one.


    Even as a newbie when the game started out, Shinto who was rather hardheaded didn''t profusely challenge a multitude of monsters which he clearly knew he couldn''t handle it, and instead went for a gradual increase in numbers.


    He had a hard time believing in the fact that Frey had such a high belief that she could solo ten wolves.


    As a brawler at the start of the game who only has single target skills. One wouldn''t be able to solo more than four wolves without a team. To act to the fact that they had to be up and personal with their targets, trying to go up against more than four with ack of crowd control skills was just asking for a death sentence.


    Even as a Shadow Diviner with ranged capabilities from his basic attacks, he could handle no more than five, with kiting and dealing low damage, Shinto could barely survive against the wolves high agility and ruthless attacks. Fighting against six required his full-on concentration and there wouldn''t be any room for mistakes, if it wasn''t for Frey''s interjection with taking away two wolves, he would most likely be dead.


    "I have no words for this..." Shinto inwardly sighed to himself as he shook his head, shaking off his nkness


    "No words for what?" Frey crooked her head to the side as she questioned.


    "...Nevermind. It''s nothing." Shinto quickly brushed off his earlier statement as he took a step away from Frey, preparing to leave the area.


    "Huh? Where are you going?"


    "I''m going off to continue levelling."


    "Ah, Then why don''t we hunt together!"


    "...Together?" Shinto blurted out as a thought passed through Shinto''s mind,


    ''What if she aggroed more wolves than the both of us could handle if I hunt together with her?''


    "What? What''s wrong? Since we''re here, we might as well hunt together right?" Frey gleefully smiled.


    Shinto stopped at his tracks quickly, he turned his head towards Frey as he let out a sigh, "...I guess it won''t hurt."


    "Yay! Ah, right! I should introduce myself and my ss right, is that how basic gaming courtesy go? I''m Frey and my ss''s Brawler!" Freya excitedly introduced herself, "What about you?"


    "...Shinto."


    Shinto couldn''t really reject Frey''s offer to hunt together. Hunting solo would be a stupid idea since he couldn''t utilize his ss to the fullest. Thus, he needed to be in a team in order to support.


    And to add on to that, it would be more efficient to fight monsters in a party as you can cut time by aggroing multiple enemies at once. Though, Shinto felt worried if Frey might go over the top.


    "Oh! Shinto? That''s a nice name!" Frey excitedly said, "Now that we''re introduced, we should go and create whatchu call it, party thing right?"


    "Yeah," Shinto nodded his head.


    "And how do we do that?"


    "It''s simple, just look over my character and say in your head, ''party create''." Shinto instructed


    "Hmm..." Frey locked her gaze onto Shinto as she followed his instruction. Soon after, a window appeared in front of Shinto.


    [ yer: ''Frey'' has sent you a party invite. Do you ept? ]


    "ept," Shinto epted the request as he looked over the party window.


    [ Party Leader: Frey, Brawler, Level 6 ]


    [ Party Member: Shinto, (Hidden), Level 4 ]


    "O-Oh! So it''s like this!" Frey''s eyes glittered as she sessfully created a party.


    "Anyways, now that the party''s established, let''s be on our way," Shinto said as he began making his way towards another area of the forest.


    "Hey wait up!" Frey hurried along as she tried to catch with Shinto.