I arrived at the warriors guild to accomplish the second half of my quest. The quest which will eventually get me my dream class. I had three more days to meet up with my friends and this I suspect this was going to be way harder than the first part. Unsure of what lay ahead of me, I braced myself and entered the guild with trepidation.

The warriors guild and the intelligence guild was as different as rain and shine. The bright broad hallways of the intelligence guild was refreshing whereas the dark, flame lit corridors with weapons and suits of armour aligned in a path was foreboding. The entrance of the intelligence guild was decorated with statues and sculptures. The entrance of the warriors guild however was a training ground with many warriors honing their art.

"Can i help you?" A booming voice greeted me as I entered the guild.

"Y-Yes. My name is Jinx and I have come with a letter from Dumblemore, leader of the intelligence guild for your leader." I replied, caught off guard by the loud voice.

"Intelligence guild? What would those scrawny bunch of weaklings want with our leader? Show me the letter."

Scrawny? Weaklings? Warriors must not like magicians very much...

I went forward and passed him the letter.

However, his face slowly changed as he read the letter. First from disapproval, to slightly annoyed and finally shocked and wide eyed. The transition was quite pleasant to look at honestly.

"You... Wait here." He simply said and he went deeper into the hallways, turning around a corner and vanishing from sight.

As I was left alone I looked around me. The warrior's hall had a huge main hall. They were filled with statues along the sides of the circular wall. Upon closer inspection, I realised all of them were modelled after characters, most of them human and not NPCs if i was right. They had a short intro and description engraved in a plaque at the base of the statue. Most of them were burly and well built, some wielding spears, huge battleaxes but majority of them greatswords. They must have been the most popular choice of weapon for warriors. However one particular statue caught my attention.

He was holding a short sword instead of the usually huge weapons and he looked significantly less buff than the other statues.

Statue of Elemental Swordsman Zarak

Zarak was a well known figure, especially in the northern lands of Ire. The fact that he could venture to the northern lands was proof of his strength. They were permanently shrouded in a winter blizzard, housing monsters of minimum level 200. The harsh conditions made surviving there hard enough let alone hunting. Zarak made his mark by leading a quest to defeat a frost wyrm with just 20 people. As a gauge most wyrm hunting parties consist of at least 50 people as wyrms were like mini dragons. They had breath attacks and were almost immune to both magical and physical attacks. Most of the people in Zarak's party returned alive and all of them said that the fight was one of the most amazing fights they saw. He managed to stop the blizzard which most of them had no idea how. Then he managed to melt the surroundings and they say to this date, a small part of the northern lands is not covered by snow due to his efforts. Normally we warriors do not believe in using magic. However, Zarak's swordplay was so ahead of his time that he could take on 3 of the best fighters in the guild at once. This is what earned him respect, and ultimately this place in the warrior's hall of fame.

A warrior who could stop blizzards and make an entire piece of land immune against its own climate? Furthermore that title. This should be the title I am getting right. Dumblemore did mention to me that the title has been engraved in history before so some other person should have did it before me.

"Hello. I see you have found the statue of what you can assume is your senior." A deep burly voice behind me suddenly spoke.

Shocked, I turned around quickly to see a huge man, with long black hair wearing full body armour which was gleaming silver with red patterns all around looking at me. He was at least a head taller than me and I could see a huge battleaxe in a holder attached to the back of his armour.

"Oh! You shocked me. Sir. May I know who you are?" I asked, suspecting that this was the man whom I was supposed to be looking for, the leader of the warrior's guild.

"I am Xeron, leader of the warriors guild. I have read the contents of the letter and I am very intrigued by your existence. Truth be told we warrior types don't really clique well with magic types. We value strength, courage and valor while they value intelligence, tactics and efficiency. It's not that I don't respect them or anything but I would just like to have nothing much to deal with the intelligence guild. Zarak changed that. He came into my guild one day and challenged my finest to a duel. What I saw was an amazing warrior who could also harness the power of nature in his sword. That I could appreciate a thousand times over. This is why I am willing to help you. Are you ready finish what you started?"

"Yes. A thousand times over, yes."

"Good reply. This is what you have to do. You have to spar with me but I will only entertain one spar a day. This is so you can reflect upon your actions should you not succeed on your first try which is probably going to be what happens. The rules of the spar is easy. I will not equip any items except for a level 1 sword and I will use an item called stat limiter to reduce my stats to be equivalent to that of yours. I will only have one skill. Sword mastery at advanced level 5. I know it is a high level of mastery but I am not expecting you to win against me. I just have one request. You have to wound me using your choice of weapon. Just get 1HP off me and you pass the test. Do you understand?"

Quest Received : Xeron's Test

Xeron has told you how much he respects Zarak's very existence and that is why he is willing to help you undergo this class change test. He has briefed you on the requirements. You must land a hit to damage at least 1HP off him during a spar.

Difficulty Level : D

WIll you accept?

Yes|No

As I thought, there would be fighting involved in this. And I have a self imposed 3 days rule to finish this goddamn task. Well, this is it. This is what I've been waiting for. One hit.. It should be hard but maybe it can be done. I will have to use underhand or surprise tactics though..

"Yes."

"Very well. Would you like to spar now?

"Yes."

"Follow me."

He took me to the front yard of the guild where many people were practicing. Most of the people who were training hard immediately stopped and greeted him the moment they saw him. It seems like he usually does not come out into the training grounds often.

He took me to a relatively empty piece of land and further elaborated on the rules.

"Remember there is no time limit. You need to hit me once. I will not stop sparring until you either die or say that you give up. You must deal the one instance of damage physically. No casting of spells will get you either the class or my respect. Everything okay?"

"Yes sirrrrr."

"Begin."

I readied my katana and took the fighting pose I've spent a few days at the training hall. Xeron took out a wooden sword which looked relatively plain and simple and took his stance as well. I looked into his eyes. Usually it was a calm gaze but now there was fire in his eyes. I could feel the killing intent radiating from every fiber of his body. I decided I should strike first to initiate on my terms and try to get the hit. I stepped in as fast as I could and decided to give him a blow that would surprise him enough to maybe get me that one hit.

"Gravity Crush!"

I swung downwards with the only sword skill I had and I heard the familiar howl in that split second. However, unlike the scarecrow, there was no feedback coming from my katana. I saw in the space that I slashed, Xeron had nearly, efficiently sidestepped in with a safe margin of about 5cm. Carefully calculated for any deviations I could possibly do. Needless to say i was as exposed as a man who got his swimming trunks swept away into the sea. He swung hard and fast. Precise and deliberate. I felt the sword bash squarely into where my liver was supposed to be.

Critical Hit!

You have lost 200hp!

I swear if people still died from experiencing immense shock from pain experience in RR even though it was at 2%, I wouldn't be surprised. That one blow reduced me to half HP and I had to back off immediately from him, unable to phantom how in the world that happened within a span of 1 second.

He has the same stats as me! He's using a lousier weapon. He has the same agility, strength and everything. Only the sword mastery is different and he just owned me in less than 1 second?! Doesn't matter I just need to hit him once. But I shouldn't risk dying though or else I will be unable to log in for 24 hours which was 4 days in game time.

I recollected my thoughts. Gravity crush was an outstanding skill that could surprise almost anyone but my opponent was a guild leader. A master level player or NPC. He had even saw Zarak fight before so he should have seen his fair share of elemental swordplay. I needed a different tactic. And then I remembered what Dumblemore told me. I needed to use what I have learnt in the first part. But what exactly have I learnt?? All the elements? Should I combine them together to form element X? No that wouldn't help at all. Wait what if.. Just like gravity crush, I could create more skills to help fight this monster? Well I had to think fast as Xeron was alreach approaching me with that crazy murderous intent radiating from him.

I decided that I needed just speed to inflict that one wound on him. I used mana manipulation to make my sword as light as possible using gravity, I then gathered more mana at my feet and started to convert it to wind. Lastly, i concentrated aura across my whole body and converted it to electricity.

New Skill : Wind steps

Harnesses the force of wind to increase movement speed.

Movement Speed + 20% (Dependent on Wind Affinity)

Mana Cost: 10 mana/s

New Skill : Electrical Impulse

Harnesses the force of electricity to maximise movement of electrical impulses along the central nervous system to increase reaction speed.

Reaction time -0.05s (Dependent on Lightning affinity)

Mana Cost: 15 mana/s

In the spur of the moment these were the only two things I could think of that could help me maximise my speed. I opened my mana bar and saw that my mana had already begun draining and I did not have long to maintain these buffs for long. I had about 10-15 seconds worth to settle this. I charged at Xeron just as he was charging to me.

My sword felt as light as a feather and my feet moved with much more agility than before. I decided to take the initiative and took 3 quick swings at Xeron. Since my reaction speed has increased, I could see the subtle movements Xeron was doing when I was striking him. His eyes were looking at my hands, not the sword and he carefully adjusted his sword to deflect each of my strikes with the smallest amount of movement possible and even though I swung three times in the time span needed for a normal man to only swing once, he deflected all three strikes with ease and followed up with an attack of his own. He swung horizontally from my right and I could see the attack coming. I shifted my katana to obstruct the path of the swing but I should have known better. With my sword as light as a feather, Xeron's word plowed straight into mine and even after impact his follow through still managed to hit me as if my sword was not even there in the first place.

You have lost 50hp!

I was down to about 150hp maybe slightly more cos of passive health regeneration but things were looking bad. I could only maintain this amount of speed for 7 more seconds and it seems like it was at the expense of strength. I had to just believe in myself and I charged straight ahead again. I tried to feint left and strike right but Xeron saw through me like I was just an open book. Hell he did it so easily he didn't even have to read the book. I was like an open porn magazine. And he raped me. He read the feint and slashed at me immediately. I could barely reposition myself to avoid a fatal blow but the damage had been done.

You have lost 100hp!

I had 4 seconds left to go and one more strike would kill me. I decided that this was it for now.

"I concede sir. I shall return tomorrow." I said.

Xeron nodded at me and looked slightly disappointed. How could I blame him. I didn't even come close to wounding him, touching him even. It felt as if I had met with an insurmountable task. I had to move and immovable object.

I decided that this quest needed to be dealt with the highest priorities. I immediately went back to the Boar's Head and told Elena about my situation. I asked to quit then and there as I had to concentrate on this with everything I had and I would most probably be leaving with my friends after that already anyway. Elena however never failed to surprise me with that huge heart of hers despite that outward appearance.

"Hmm yea I guess you wouldn't be working here anymore. However as a reward for your hard work for the past month, you are now one of my esteemed guests. You will receive a complementary 3 nights stay here with free meals paid for by me and I will hear nothing less. Go kick Xeron's ass. He's a good man but he needs to be shown some surprises once in awhile. I'm sure you will be able to do it."

I'm pretty sure Jinx is an in game name that RR has programmed that should someone have this name, all NPCs should treat him well.

With this settled, I went straight to the training hall and asked the only other NPC I know who could help a favour.

"Monarch, spar with me please. As long as you have free time could you spend it sparring with me? I lack the experience of real battles to succeed in a quest of mine."

Turns out all I had to do was ask. Monarch was also getting pretty bored of doing nothing but watch newbies whack scarecrows.

I practiced for 7 hours straight with Monarch. He taught me the basic techniques just hitting scarecrows would not teach you. How to parry, when it's better to dodge instead. Footwork, offensive and defensive were both also taught to me. I realised how much I have been lacking in the fighting department. Sure I had many spells I could conjure up but if I could not fight, it would be meaningless. I understood what this quest was trying to tell me once I started sparring with Xeron. This was also why I decided against using darkness spells to slow his movement, creating an ice floor under his feet and raise the earth one of his leg was standing on all at once. It would create a pretty big opening but I think it defeated the purpose of the quest and training.

I had a deadline to meet and this could be a shortcut I could easily take. However I still have my pride and knowing this quest would only help in my journey in RR, I wanted to live up to Xeron's expectations in the proper way. By giving him a beautiful sword fight.

I learnt all the basics from Monarch by the first day and I decided the next morning, I would go spar with Xeron again to see how to apply all I learnt against him.

As I walked into the guild on the second day, many people begun to recognise me. Looks like sparring with the guild leader isn't a chance that one could easily come by. I went to the front desk.

"Xeron is expecting me. I will be out waiting where we were sparring yesterday." I said as politely as I could and went back out into the grounds.

A few moments later, Xeron was back out again and everyone had gathered around our training spot, eager to catch the guild master in action.

"I hope you'll do better than yesterday."

"I tell that to myself everyday."

"Let's hope you're not all talk. Begin!"

This time I was ready. I did not use my buffs straightaway as they could only be maintained for a short amount of time at my level. Instead i just wrapped my aura around the sword and got ready to convert it to gravity, lighter or heavier at my command.

I went into an offensive stance and slowly inched closer towards Xeron. He took up the same stance as before and I decided that I should take the initiative again. I slashed at him quickly and waited till the last moment where I could see him prepare to parry the sword with his own. I made the aura heavier immediately and it was apparent that Xeron wasnt expecting such a heavy impact. He staggered for a tiny bit and I immediately took that advantage. I brought my sword down from the top of my head as fast as I could making the aura light in order to get the one hit I was looking for.

Xeron however was insanely fast in recovering and he put the sword above his own head at such an angle where my sword slid off this and before it hit the hilt of his sword he jerked the sword so my sword would fly off to one side and brought the sword down towards my head. I tried to sidestep it but the jerk he made threw my momentum off and I could only move partiallly. His sword struck my hard onto my shoulder blade.

Critical Hit!

You have lost 150hp!

I recollected myself immediately as even though I was struck off balance, a shoulder blade was not really considered a vital spot. If it were a metal sword however that would be very different but thank god for wooden swords. I caught a faint smile off Xeron's face and I just wanted to wipe off that smirk so bad. I got ready my sword again and this time I activated my buffs.

Moving faster, reacting faster had small subtleties that really helped in the swordfight. After learning the basics, i learnt to read the flow of a swordfight that is actually very important. Whenever I went on the defensive, the reaction speed helped me identify the path of the sword which would come swinging at me just by looking at how Xeron held his sword and which muscles were contracted before he started his motions. I needed to parry most of his strikes as they were small compact and precise with godly amount of deliberation and practice that could be seen in each stroke. He did not move 1cm more than he needed to. He perfectly maintained a constant 1m range between the both of us. Whenever I took one step forward he took one step back. However my added movement speed enabled me to occasionally dodge one or more of his swings and whenever I dodged, I had the advantage to initiate a counterattack since he had to finish his follow through. This lasted for a good 10 seconds and everyone else in the crowd was obviously extremely hyped up about this seemingly fast paced exchange. However 10 seconds meant something bad. I had no mana left.

Xeron took full control of the fight after my buffs wore out. I have learnt the basics of swordplay but I was obviously still full of holes. His parries all had a certain jerk to the such that after he parried me I would be mini-stunned for a short while, unable to quickly proceed to my next action. His dodges were so controlled that he could dodge my blade by as little as 2cm. The closer you dodge an attack, the more of an advantage you have as it means you were closer to the target after he missed his strike. His attacks were sharp and counters even sharper. I could only hang on for about 15 seconds after my mana had run dry before my HP dropped to a dangerously low level.

"I concede sir. I will go and improve yet again."

"You better. However you are not just all talk I can give you that for now." He turned around and walked off cooly.

"Hey newbie that was kinda cool! Come back this time again tomorrow I want to see more!"

"Yea newbie press on!!"

Seems like I had a few fans within the warriors guild now as well. However this was bad. Tomorrow is the last day I have to complete this quest and the closest chance I had to strike Xeron today resulted in me suffering 150 damage in return. I had no time to lose. I headed back to Monarch.

I went back to training with Monarch for the entire day again. He said he could not teach me anything more as the basics were all he could teach. It was the basic training hall after all. I decided that I had all my cards lay out in front of me already. I just needed to formulate the play with these cards that would grant me the one hit off Xeron. And so I begun to formulate my master plan. Sure enough as Dumblemore said, I would have to put everything I've learned up till now for this deciding moment. I trained my strokes until my katana mastery reached beginner level 5. I then headed to the Boar's Head into my room and begun my image training where I considered every possible scenario and decided on my own battle plan tomorrow. I had to risk it all.

The next morning, I headed to the warrior's guild yet again. This should be the last time I told myself. As I reached sure enough there were a crowd of people in the front yard, some of them not even warriors now just waiting to watch the spar. I did the usual and called Xeron out.

"Better than yesterday?"

"Of course."

"Begin."

I took my stance and begun my final, master plan. It was a reckless one but I needed this to work. I slowly circled Xeron, for the first time not using any mana at all in the beginning. Not even gravity manipulation. It would be a straight up sword fight. Which meant that I would get creamed.

Sure enough in the first minute I was just trying to hang on, parrying blows that resulted in me still receiving glancing blows. Failed dodges that resulted in hp lost. I lost about 300HP from the first minute and I still couldnt get anywhere close to wounding him. Then I decided to use my mana.

I used electrical impulse and wind steps and begun to unleash my counterattack with gravity magic. I thrust with my heavy sword, forcing Xeron to use a sidestep which followed up into my light, high speed horizontal slash which he smacked away with ease. Knowing a counterattack was imminent, I merely allowed the momentum he struck into my sword to rotate me into a full 360 spin, using the added momentum to perform a gravity crush. Which was seemingly my last ditch effort. Xeron was in the middle of a counterattack but was forced to parry my counter-counter as it was too late to dodge. Gravity crush connected and I prayed the impact was huge enough to force some damage upon him. Apparently, Xeron's parry angles were so perfectly calculated that he managed to absorb every single bit of force into the wooden sword. He grinned and struck back at me.

You have lost 80HP!

Oh crap I was left with 20hp. Usually this was when I gave up and Xeron knew it. I also appeared to be spent all out of mana. However today was the day which I cant give up and I decided to stick with it. Unknowingly, this was all part of the plan. I had about 50 mana saved up left. Enough for about 2 seconds of buff and gravity manipulation. I had to fight like a cornered beast if I wanted to get one strike off this asshole. I had to do it. There was no backing down.

I steeled my resolve and filled with an adreanaline rush, I begun the final part of my masterplan which involved what seemed like a kamikaze attack. However I have studied Xeron's pattern thoroughly and there was one habit he always had. He always parries with a jerk but that style would backfire on him if the impact was bigger than what he expected. As i threw myself into the fray knowing this would be do or die, sink or swim, I swear I saw time slow down. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush or something but I saw Xeron getting ready a thrust to repel his charge. Without the electrical impulse buff. I managed to sidestep the thrust, barely dodging it and I raised my blade from the top of my head again, knowing that Xeron will parry it by raising his blade above his head at a slightly slanted angle. I activated my mana manipulation and made my sword heavier as I brought it down, and added some wind aura to my arms to make myself swing faster. I also used electrical impulse to look at the angle Xeron was gonna parry my blade with. Along with that adrenaline rush I had I saw it. I adjusted my swing before bring it down and crashed it on his blade with all I got.

The perfect parrying angle was finally off and Xeron's sword was blown away and I quickly used mana manipulation one last time, using all my mana, making my sword lighter and swiping at the long extended arm of Xeron which was still holding onto the sword which was blown away by the earlier parry. Finally. For the first time in my life, I made a cut on actual skin and felt the feedback along the blade of my katana. All these short bursts of actions were all I could do now and finally I managed to achieve a breakthrough.

The crowd burst into applause as I finally drew blood with my sword.

"WELL DONE SON! That was quite a plan. I wasn't expecting that hard as hell anti parry stroke. It was a pleasure trading blows with you. I was very surprised though that you didn't use mana manipulation more to your advantage. You could've used it to slip my footing or curse me and slow me down. May I know why didn't you?" Xeron asked with a huge smile on his face.

"I realised that this test was to show me two things. The earlier part was to show me the endless possibilities of my mana manipulation. This second part however was to teach me that despite my mana manipulation, sword skills itself also has an equally huge role to play. The point of this test wasn't to make me use all sorts of magic to slow you and cut you, it was to show me that just based on sword skills and nothing else, I could get owned like shit by someone having higher proficiencies than me at swordplay. Furthermore I think I only wounded you for what? 30HP? I'm pretty sure the slash was fast but not heavy because I made it light. If this was a real fight I would've been squashed."

"Well done son. You are right. I wanted to show you just how important sword skills are apart from the mana manipulation. True, the possibilities are endless with mana manipulation. But if you want to take on this class you cannot just rely on that. Your sword skills will also shape you to become a better swordspell. I hope you can remember this test and what you gained out of it. Congratulations. Go and achieve greatness that was meant for this class. You will also be part of the warriors guild from now on. I hope to hear from you if you have any exciting exploits."

New Stat : Fighting Spirit

New Skill : Adrenaline Rush

When your HP is below 10%, you will gain additional buffs due to the state of near death. Time will seem to slow down as you embrace the final actions you may be taking before your imminent doom.

Quest Complete : Xeron's Test

You have made a cut on Xeron's arm, and it was through tons of trainings and planning. You have also realised the true meaning of this test without Xenon telling you. You have gained his respect as well as your reward.

Congratulations. You can now change class to : Elemental Swordsman. Will you?

Yes|No

"Yes." I made it. A hidden class in 30 days. I was still a level 1 noob though.

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