Ray takes the sword from his back and daggers from his waist and places them next to the tree he slept under the day before. He went and put the wooden sword in the sheath and it fit perfectly and same with the daggers.

"Wow, they fit right in."

"Since the mayor gave you regular daggers and a regular long sword I went to the guard's training grounds and asked for these since they make them the same shape as the real weapons."

Ray was tense; he doesn't know if losing the fight with Zinnia would lose him the reward from the system. And since this is the first quest he wants to see what the rewards will be.

"What are you scared that a healer will go and defeat you"

"No, I just hope you are right about this"

Ray practiced using the daggers a bit more and was understanding how to use them properly.

"Well, now that you had your practice, let's fight and see if you are prepared"

The two went twenty feet away from each other. Ray just stood there with the wooden sword held by both hands, while Zinnia had a different stance. A wide stance facing to the right while her and her sword facing Ray.

"On three we fight!"

"Alright"

"ONE… TWO… THREE"

At that moment Ray ran towards her and made a big swing that she easily dodged by stepping aside. This left him wide open. And she swiftly smacked Ray in the head.

[End: 13/16]

[Hp: 13/15]

"Don't make your attacks too obvious that how I avoided it, it might have been fast but reckless"

"..."

Ray stepped back to give some distance.

'What if I use it like-'

Zinnia came in with a flurry of attacks. Making him fall to the floor.

[12/15 Hp]

[11/15 Hp]

[10/15 Hp]

[8/15 Hp]

"Uggh"

"You think a monster will give you time to think"

As she was going to go for another attack, Ray took his sword to block the attack but he didn't hold it properly.

[7/15 Hp]

'I need to do something fast'

With all his force he pushed the sword as hard as he could which made her stumble onto the ground.

While she was trying to recover Ray unleashed another swing. Even though the attack was lacking in strength he was using initially, it still managed to successfully knock her to the ground causing her to twist her ankle in the process.

"Yeow"

He still had trouble recovering each attack he made so the next attack he did she evaded and she clumsily went into her stance again.

"For a novice you, your attack hurt"

She reaches to her foot and under rubs it. She then quietly said something.

'heal'

"Thank you, I think I have to give thanks to all those labor jobs I worked on"

'I should probably switch to the daggers'

Seeing this Zinnia quickly ran over and thrust her swords towards him. Ray weakly raised his sword to block the attack. His block faltered and the sword went sailing out of his hand. Ray still got one of his daggers out.

"Even if you have a dagger, it won't do much if you can't hit me"

Zin's sword was a few inches away from his face. But she couldn't do much since she hurt her foot, even more, when rushing towards him. She tried to act like she has already won.

"So do you want to give up?"

Just then Ray remembered something.

'System what does perseverance do again'

[Perseverance Lv. 1: Actions won't be stopped by attacks that are weak or make the user flinch or stagger]

'Use perseverance skill '

[Perseverance skill activated]

[End: 11/12]

[Endurance will decrease every time you get hit with a move that staggers]

"Uh, I think those dire bears came back"

Ray pointed behind Zinnia. She turned around to see that she got tricked.

Ray rolls to the wooden sword and is now wielding the sword on his left and the dagger on the left.

'I should be able to at least keep her from attacking if my first attack misses.'

"You won't fool me next time"

"Don't worry I got what I needed"

Ray could notice that Zin is breathing very heavily.

Ray dashes towards her and sweeps his sword diagonally with great force. His goal was to use her injury from earlier to his advantage. When the strike made contact it sent her arm reeling back.

She was about to go for another swing since she thought Ray couldn't follow that up but suddenly there was a wooden dagger pressing on her neck.

"It's your win"

[Congratulations]

[2/2 of quest completed]

[Quest: Learn Swordsmanship From Zinnia Completed]

[Two New Skills learned]

[Quest rewards available]

"Man that was rough, you really had me in the first half of the fight. I was about to panic."

"When you pushed me back that second-time I hurt my foot. I wanted to fully heal it but that would tire me out but then I saw you about to switch to the daggers so I rushed in and hurt my foot even more."

Ray looked a little shocked realizing he hurt her friend badly.

"I am very sorry Zin, I didn't know you got hurt that bad."

"Don't worry, remember I can heal myself. And it's not like you went out of your way to hurt me. Only the twins would do something like that since they have nothing better to do than be annoying brats"

"No, even brats are more reasonable than them"

Zin and Ray relaxed for a few minutes. During that time Zin had healed her foot and began healing Ray.

[Hp: 15/15]

"Thank you Zin"

"No problem, I actually need to leave now. My trip there won't be as long as yours. For us it's going to be a few days for you, it's going to be a week or two with the twins. I wish you the best of luck"

"Thanks, I hope it isn't too dangerous over there with the pack of dire bears, come back safe."

"Yeah, thankfully we will have three guards protecting us on the way there."

'He sounded like a maiden telling her husband to come back safe from war'

Zinnia left the grotto and now Ray was by himself looking at the system to see what he got.

[Swordsmanship Lv. 1 Obtained]

[Dual Wielding Lv. 1 Obtained]

[Accept Rewards]

[YES]          [NO]

"Yes"

[Three skills Points Obtained]

[Swords Dance Lv. 1 Obtained]

---

Worked around 7 hours yesterday and I actually feel great. Hope you guys and gals had a nice break, today I will be giving myself a little treat to some manga or books in Barnes & Nobles today. What are your guys' fave series from here or elsewhere?