A little while later, Xander found himself awkwardly sitting in front of his new mentor.
His mentor, Shin Sung-min, was about two inches taller than Xander, so he was just shy of average height. He had a head full of black hair that had a little grey in it, and he had a scar that cut across his right eye, but he could still see out of it.
He was wearing an old black robe that had been worn down and faded out, and he still carried his weapon, a katana, on his hip even after years of being retired.
"So, you just going to sit around moping all damn day?" the old man Shin Sung-min finally said after staring at Xander for the past 10 minutes.
"No, I, umm… I just don't know where to start. Like, what do we do now?" Xander asked in an awkward and slightly embarrassed tone.
"Now, I guess we get to know each other a little bit. If I'm going to be your mentor, I need to know what makes you tick, what keeps you going. Hell, do you even have something that does?" Shin Sung-min said.
"Sir, I mean Shin Sung-min, I mean mentor…" Xander started but was cut off by Shin Sung-min's consistently grumpy-sounding voice.
"Just call me Sung-min. I don't need anything else from you, so just call me Sung-min."
"Ok, umm… Sung-min, can I ask why you decided to pick me?" Xander asked, a little nervous.
"Huh," Sung-min said with a little laugh and a smile that surprised Xander.
Sung-min looked off into the distance, shook his head, and said, "I guess I just got caught reminiscing. Why? Do you wish I would have left you to the lottery?"
"No, no, no," Xander quickly said, waving his hands.
"I was just curious. I mean… they said you were retired, so I was curious as to why you would come out just for me."
"Well, don't think too much into it, kid. You just remind me of myself when I first entered the tower so many years ago. Like you, I was uneducated, had no combat experience, and didn't know a damn thing about the tower. At the time, I wanted nothing more than what I gave you, so I said f*** it, and here we are."
"But didn't that guy say you were forced into retirement? Are you sure you can even take a student?" Xander asked.
"Hell, kid, it seems like you can't wait to get rid of me with all these damn questions."
"No, I just want to make sure you won't get in trouble or anything," Xander said with a pause. "And I was a little curious why you were forced into retirement. I mean, that teacher said you used to be a good mentor, and you even were the mentor for the current principal, so…"
"Ahh, don't worry about that for now. But hell, if it will give you something to push toward, I'll tell you what. If you can show me some promise over the next couple of weeks, I'll tell you what happened," Sung-min said as he reached out his hand for a handshake. "Do we have a deal?"
Xander immediately shook his hand. He didn't even need a reason to push as hard as he could, so this was just a bonus.
"So, enough about me. What about you? Tell me about yourself," Sung-min said.
"Alright," Xander said as he started to think, 'Where do I even begin? And how much should I tell? Can I even trust this guy?'
Xander then proceeded to tell Sung-min about his life, from his early life growing up in the outskirts to being picked to enter the tower. He skipped over some of the details, but he did say that he was looking for his brother Austin who was missing. He just didn't tell him how and why. He tried to skip over his trial, trait, and powers, but Sung-min was insistent, saying how he was his mentor and this was something he had to tell him.
Xander figured he was right, so he told him about the trial and reluctantly told him about his double trait, but he did not tell him about the double divine rank trait he and his brother had, or that his death trait seemed to be able to bring him back from the dead.
He didn't want to tell him about the double trait, but he was clearly a G-rank, and at the same time, he still needed to ask his opinion on getting a second core, so there was really no way around that.
(This wasn't mentioned as it's hard to naturally bring up, but Xander's status will always be shown to other people as whatever his highest core is. For example, right now his status is being shown to people who look as [Human - G-rank - Entry].)
This shocked Sung-min, with him saying that he had heard of this rare phenomenon but had never actually met someone with one, at least knowingly.
Sung-min was also very happy to hear about what his drive was. He could tell by how Xander talked about wanting to find his brother that he would have no need to push Xander because Xander would push himself as hard as he could without a word from him.
After learning about Xander and his life, Sung-min finally stood up, "Alright, let's go. It's time to start our first training session, but first, we need to get you a new weapon."
"What, why?" Xander said anxiously. He had started to grow fond of the spear.
"First, let me ask you, why do you even use the spear? If I'm not wrong, you told me that it just happened to be the weapon you ended up with in your trial, so you stuck with it. Am I right, or am I right?"
Xander didn't want to, but he nodded his head.
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you're not a big guy, and most spear wielders are tall and strong. You don't necessarily have to be tall because you can always make a shorter spear, but the strength aspect will always be there. Your frame is built more for quick, agile attacks. Plus, I'm your mentor, and I use a katana, so it'd be best if you used one too," Sung-min explained.
"But what about ranged attacks? I like how I can throw my spear, especially when it is mixed with my Mirage Realm. It works really well," Xander said, trying to convince Sung-min otherwise.
"There are ways around that. You think I have no way to kill an opponent at range?" Sung-min said as he pulled out a throwing knife. "Another thing, a throwing knife would work much better with your Mirage Realm. While it's a rare ability, it's not completely unseen, and most people with a Mirage power use throwing knives. They're small and hard to detect, unlike a large spear."
"Besides, you still don't even know how to properly wield a spear, so it's better to stop using it now and change while you can," Sung-min said with a tone of finality.
"Fine. I'll switch." Xander started to realize that there really was no reason to stick with the spear when he could find better alternatives.