"What's up, kiddo? How'd your first day go? You learn a lot?" Sung-min asked.
"Yea, I learned a good bit about the tower," Xander answered.
"Well that's good. More knowledge is always better. But anyway, it's time to start your training. Today we will start with your katana. Now that you have selected a weapon, you need to know how to use it," Sung-min said.
"But before we even start with the sword, you have to first learn the proper footwork," Sung-min said.
"There are five basic movements you need to learn," Sung-min said as he got ready to show Xander how it was done.
"First is advance, which is when you move toward the opponent."
"Second is retreat, which, like advance, is just as it sounds."
"Third is sidestep…"
"Fourth is lunge, which is a quick forward step to extend reach for an attack," he said, giving an example.
"And fifth is to pivot, which is turning on one foot to change direction or angle of attack."
"Now that that's out of the way, I'm going to teach you the basics of swordplay," Sung-min continued.
"There are lots of techniques, moves, and more, but swordplay really all boils down to these six moves."
"First is a slash," he demonstrated a broad, sweeping horizontal cut.
"Second is a thrust," he showed a direct, piercing stab.
"Third is a chop," a downward, forceful strike.
"Those are the three offensive moves. Now there are the three defensive."
"First is a parry, which is just deflecting an incoming attack with the sword while trying to create an opening for a counterattack."
"Second is a block, which is just as it sounds."
"Third is to deflect, which is angling the sword to redirect an attack away."
"There are more moves a sword can do, but these are the six foundational movements that all future moves are built upon. These are the six I was taught and will now teach you."
***
After an hour of going through each one of the moves, Xander had a much better idea of how to use his new katana.
"Now you know the basic moves of swordplay, so now you just need to learn how to actually fight. But that will only come with time and lots of practice. The more realistic, the better," Sung-min said.
"But we will get to fighting later. Today, I promised to teach you soul sense, so that's what you will learn next."
"To use soul sense, you first have to sense your soul," Sung-min explained.
"To sense your soul, you have to look deep inside yourself and find the core of your being…"
Many hours later, after a couple of different exercises, Xander had finally sensed his soul and could now somewhat manipulate it and use his soul sense.
It seemed hard at first, but once he got the hang of it, it was actually pretty easy.
"As a G-rank, your soul sense will only extend about 15 meters out in all directions, but with practice, you can learn to stretch it about 30 meters in a single direction when needed."
After getting the hang of his soul sense, they started to do different combat drills. One of which was when Xander would have to defend from Sung-min's onslaught for a solid minute. Then, after that, it would be Xander's turn to practice.
At the end of the day, they had a full-on spar where anything goes, and Xander was able to use his trait, death core, and new lightning core as much as he wanted, but he still got his ass kicked by the much more experienced Sung-min.
Like this, a week went by with Xander going to class and learning about the world and the tower and training with Sung-min every day after lunch till dark.
Xander had learned a lot over the past week, but as Sung-min would constantly remind him, he had a long way to go.
***
Today had been one full week since Xander had entered the academy, so Sung-min, to celebrate this, had run his training three full hours after dark. But then, just as Xander was thinking today would be nothing but hell, Sung-min for the first time invited Xander inside his house for a meal.
After they ate, they started to talk.
They talked about all sorts of things, from their time living on Earth to some cool stories from Sung-min's past.
Tonight was the most alive Xander had seen Sung-min in the short time he had known him, but he still wouldn't fully let Xander in, never showing him emotions or anything of that nature other than being grumpy and laughing at Xander.
That was until Xander noticed a picture of a young girl that was hung up in the hallway when he went to the bathroom just before he was about to leave.
"Sung-min, can I ask who the little girl is in the hall?"
This grabbed Sung-min's full attention, and he showed more emotions in those five seconds before he finally spoke than he had shown since Xander knew him.
"That… that is my daughter," Sung-min answered.
"Really?" Xander said with a smile, not being able to imagine the grumpy old man he knew as a loving and caring father.
"Where is she? Are you close?" he asked. As an orphan himself, he figured having a parent meant that you had to be just as close as he and his brother Austin were.
This question, however, put a sad look on Sung-min's face.
After two minutes of silence, just when Xander was about to get up and take his leave to give Sung-min some privacy, he finally answered.
"We used to be… we used to be really close until I did something she couldn't forgive me for…" Sung-min said with a heavy heart.
"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that," Xander said in a low tone, not sure what to say. He had never really had to comfort somebody before.
"Ahh, it's all in the past. She's grown into a fine young woman. She just doesn't want me a part of her life anymore," Sung-min said, starting to get out of the sad mood he was just in.
"So where is she now?" Xander asked, seeing that Sung-min was starting to feel better and thinking he might want to talk about it.
"Oh… she umm… she moved to Karael several years ago, and I haven't seen or talked to her since. But like I said, it's all in the past, so no need digging it back up," Sung-min said as he stood up, ready to walk Xander to the door.
Xander took the hint and got up, ready to leave.
As he started to walk through the door, a thought hit him.
'Wait, he has a daughter with the family name Shin. Could this be the Shin Yoo-na that my brother told me to find? Could there be such a coincidence?' Xander thought, not quite able to believe it.
He started to get his hopes up, hoping that even with their bad relationship, Sung-min could introduce the two, so he turned around and asked, "What's your daughter's name?"
Sung-min looked a little startled at the sudden question, but after a moment, he answered, "Her name is Shin Yong-seo(Korean: Sheen Yong-suh)."