Ray now realized why the animals were so docile in this grotto, it's due to such a terrifying presence of a gigantic pond monster. But because no other hostile animal is going to go against it, it has become some sort of haven for most of them.

'It's better if we don't come here often, if we fuck up we might have to deal with whatever dwells in that pond'

Ray leaves with urgency, not trying to overstay his welcome, he picks everything up and leaves. Since he didn't leave right away and watched that whole fiasco it was hard to see where he was going as he was running back to his place and trips on a root of a tree.

*Fa-thud*

"Ah, fuck!"

[Hp: 12/15]

One of the daggers pierced Ray's left leg. He pulls it and continues to walk at a very fast pace.

'I know that they work at least'

Ray sets down the gear and lights the oil lamp. He takes the lamp with him to the second floor and looks for some cloth, to use as a tourniquet. After that, he goes back down to the first floor for a bucket of water to clean his dagger. He could barely see with light from the lamp, he had to be careful not to hurt himself more than once.

'This old shirt will do, I don't use it anymore'

He starts ripping the shirt and wrapped his wounds. After he was done he went back down and got a. A small bucket of water and cleans the dagger. Since he could barely see even with the lamp he was extra careful not to cut himself.

Once he had finished he starts to wonder more about the system.

'What's the purpose of this 'system' thing? Who sent that letter, since the twins didn't mention it since they weren't gloating about how good they got me. Was it someone from that school or was this meant for another 'Rayburn'?'

The more and more he thought about these things his head started to hurt because he was trying to find a definitive answer.

"I can't go wasting food, let's eat what Zin left me"

The food tasted even better after a long day of work. He didn't do his usual stargazing since he had to wake up early and train.

It was much easier to go to sleep since he almost tired out his body.

…

[Entity is trying to take control]

[Resisted]

…

Before the sun rises, Zinnia was already at Ray's house. She walks upstairs with urgency.

"Ray wakes up, ray come on wake up! There was a change of plans. Come wake up"

"Hm… okay okay I'm up, what's happening?"

"I won't be here all day and I won't be here tomorrow, a village the west is currently under attack by a pack of red dire bears. And they lost their healers during the attack and they need help."

"Cant your parents go themselves since they are better healers at the moment?"

"They need as much backup as they need so I will be there"

"Oh, before we start I got accidentally stabbed, could you heal it before we head out??"

He points to his Left and she goes over and places her hand on it.

"Heal"

[15/15]

Since it was a minor wound she didn't have to use a big heal spell.

"I'll have to speed up your training, if you can beat me, someone, who knows the basics of swordsmanship than you'll be fine. I have to leave an hour before noon so ill teach some more stuff before the one on one fight"

Zinnia spent the next few hours teaching Ray the fundamentals of blocking and parrying. Since they were rushing, he couldn't practice much but he can figure out how to do it later.

"Alright now that I showed you what to do we are going to fight and if you beat me then you are prepared"

She then starts to pack the stuff she brought with her.

"What are you doing?"

"To the grotto, where else?"

"Well, about that.."

He tells her about the situation and how two big furry monsters came in and started attacking everything and how a giant snake (Lake Guardian Tarlou), had emerged and all the other monsters there bowed to it. The snake grabbed it with its tail and just stared into them and then he placed them both down and they ran away in fear of it.

"So all we have to do is no attack any of the creatures, that's simple enough"

"But.."

Ray started to worry and she could see this.

"Ray, we don't have to worry about it coming out and doing whatever it did to those dire bears from what you described. My brother said that animals can sense hostility or something along those lines. We aren't going be hostile we are just going to have a sparring match."

"Okay I'll trust you on this"

The two go to the hidden grotto taking the same amount of time, Ray has thought of making it easier to get in but it would cause problems with whoever finds it. And now that the Lake Guardian Tarlou was added to the equation it made it more dangerous.

Again when the two entered, it looked as beautiful as ever.

"Well, are you ready?"

She throws a wooden sword and 2 wooden daggers towards him.

Edit: I am making a spreadsheet for things that could happen to Ray or future members. And I will roll to see what interesting things happen in between important plot points.

I'm still a novice writer so if some fight scenes or scenarios sound weird plz let me know. Had to rework some stuff with this arc and next arc, nothing too major but adding POVs of different characters and changing 1 or 2 things. can't believe we have a few days left in 2020. Looking forward to anime in January 2021 we got such huge bangers like reincarnated as a slime, Horimiya, Mushoku Tensei, and many others. what are you guys looking forward to in 2021?