Stephie suspected Kyle is holding back for a long time. Although it looks easy when Kyle uses his agility to dodge and block attacks, taking less damage than a full vitality tank, it's actually incredibly difficult.
Not to mention, the precision and timing required to save his teammates every single time they mess up, it was astonishing.
His teammates aren't as experienced as him, so they didn't notice. But to him, it was clear Kyle was holding back, or rather, they were holding Kyle back. He knew they shouldn't waste Kyle's potential, but regardless, he had his own dreams as well, and Kyle was his key to achieving them.
After hesitating for a while, he came to a decision, one he believes should be the right one.
He looked at his teammates "I think we all learned a lot from this dungeon, and learned what we should work on improving. I decided to become a professional player, if you want to play casually, then this is where we split up"
"You think you are better than us? I'm in as well, you will die the second I'm not around", Mary said while pouting.
"Count us in as well!" the twins said simultaneously, he could see Kyle shuddering for a moment. The poor guy has yet to get used to them.
Stephie smiled and looked at Barry.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to join you, but I wish you good luck". Barry said, a glint of hope could be seen in his eyes. He then proceeded to walk away, waving towards his teammates for goodbye.
Stephie was disappointed, but he didn't let it affect his expression. They all wished Barry good luck, as they looked at his back slowly getting smaller and smaller.
After Barry was out of their sight, Stephie turned towards Kyle "I'm glad we met each other, but I think we should part our ways here. Let's add each other as friends, and may we meet again in the future".
Stephie didn't want to hold Kyle back. Instead, he wanted to train his party, until the day they could finally stand shoulder to shoulder with Kyle. And maybe even be the ones that support him, and not the other way around.
Kyle sighed and accepted the friend request.
"Don't forget about me, don't you dare reject my friend request", Mary said.
The twins also sent a friend request to Kyle, and he accepted them all.
Stephie looked at the departing Kyle one final time and said "Alright team, it looks like we have a job to do"
*****
Kyle sighed as he walked silently back to the village. He knew it was too good to be true, finding friends couldn't be so easy, not for him at least.
Although he felt like a babysitter when fighting with them, he liked the feeling of someone trusting and relying on him.
Not to mention, his control over his skills and battle awareness improved immensely, it turns out battling a boss while protecting players is a great form of training.
Similar to how running with weights is more effective than running without them.
Thinking about it is of no use, after getting strong enough, it will be much easier to find a team.
He started running to clear his mind, it was some form of training, and what's more calming than training?
After entering the village, he started walking towards the market, he didn't get to give his teammates the equipment he received from the boss, so he intended to sell it.
On the way to the market, he suddenly recalled an odd guy that could be of some helped.
He decided to message the meaty salesman for some help, he didn't want to get scammed by others after all.
"I got a low tier uncommon dagger and a peak tier common staff, how much should I sell these for?".
He immediately received a reply "Don't worry about it, send them to me through the mail, I'll sell them for you for the best price, you are my friend after all".
"Thanks!" He replied as he clicked the 'mail' button and selected the items.
"No problem. By the way, I take 5% as a fee"
"..."
He felt scammed, but he couldn't do anything about it, he already sent the items.
Pushing these thoughts to the back of his mind, he decided to focus on his goal, beating the cat. Now that he thinks about it, that doesn't sound good.
After setting his mind on defeating the mighty boss that wanted to conquer the village, he started planning his next steps.