Mentor

Walking up to Master Mae Hoon, he reaches for his bag and takes out a set if brushes from his briefcase. "Here Yasuo, you can have these."

"… Are you really giving me your set of brushes? Why?" Yasuo said in confusion, seeing that Master Mae Hoon had not only taken out any set of brushes, but his own personal set of brushes that he was using just a few minutes ago while teaching.

"Yasuo, you can just accept those." Master Mae Hoon said with a smile on his face, to which Yasuo looked hesitant to.

A few seconds of silence fell after Master Mae Hoon said this, and there was no acceptance whatsoever in Yasuo's eyes, so he added: "Yasuo, if you really need a reason why I am giving you these brushes, it is because I was going to switch brushes anyway, sooner or later. Additionally to that, I saw how talented you are just now and, as your teacher, I don't want that talent to go wasted."

Having heard this, it would be impolite to decline, so Yasuo took a deep bow before saying: "Thank you very much sir" and gratefully accepted the brushes, while he was very excited from inside.

"Hmm, Yasuo. Were you from the top ten?" Master Mae Hoon asked, seeing Yasuo's badge glimmering when he took a bow.

"Oh, Yes sir. I am tenth place."

"That's strange, I didn't hear Jeon Park mention that a rune type awakened had managed to get into the top ten." Mae Hoon said, looking up in the air while thinking about this a little more.

The reason neither Jeon Park nor Mae Hoon knew that Yasuo, had entered the top ten as a rune type awakened was because he had taken the combat test at the evaluation.

But Yasuo didn't want to reveal this and just said: "Maybe he didn't tell you because of privacy reasons?"

Mae Hoon looked at Yasuo, and found his answer pretty sound, but for some reason he still had a certain suspicion, but he just moved on from that topic.

"Yasuo, did you know that starting next week the people from the top ten can ask for a personal mentor as a privilege?"

Yasuo knew where this was going, so he gave a forward response: "Yes, I know sir. But I don't know yet who I want to have as a personal mentor." he said looking down, as he still hadn't decided if he wanted a personal mentor for dagger wielding or rune drawing.

Master Mae Hoon looked kind of confused thinking to himself: 'Am I not the obvious pick as a personal mentor for a rune type awakened student?'

Soon after that thought, the little strange things about Yasuo started to add up, and he kind of realised to himself that Yasuo might have other reasons as to wanting to pick another personal mentor, which he didn't want to pry any further into.

Mae Hoon took a deep sigh. "Even if you don't choose me as your personal mentor, you can come ask me questions anytime." He said with a reassuring tone.

As soon as Mae Hoon said this, Yasuo's complexion brightened right away. "Thank you sir!"

"… Uhm, can I maybe ask a question right now?" Yasuo asked hesitantly.

Master Mae Hoon laughed, as he didn't expect Yasuo to be such a straightforward person as to ask a question immediately after he said that Yasuo could ask questions anytime, but quickly said: "Of course, ask away."

A wide smile formed on Yasuo's face as he began to ask a question, which was on his mind for the longest time. "This is a hypothetical question. If someone wanted to draw a rune on a place they couldn't reach, how would they go about something like that."

Master Mae Hoon didn't even take a second to answer Yasuo's question: "Then just use transfer paper." He said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Yasuo was stunned by the quick response, which sounded so obvious that he felt stupid not having thought of that himself, but soon added: "But using normal transfer paper won't work, right?"

Master Mae Hoon looked at Yasuo in the eyes: "That's right, normal transfer paper won't work." He said with a straight face, thinking that Yasuo could find the answer himself.

Yasuo looked even more dumbfounded this time, and couldn't respond to such answer.

Mae Hoon got the memo that Yasuo didn't understand and gave him the answer to his own question: "If normal transfer paper doesn't work, just use magical transfer paper."

Master Mae Hoon said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and for some reason Yasuo just accepted it at this point. 'If such a thing exists, it might actually work!' Yasuo thought, full of hope.

"Can I get this 'magical transfer paper' at the academy?" Yasuo asked, turning his hypothetical question into reality.

"Sure, I can even sell you some." Master Mae Hoon said, before adding: "If you have enough points that it."

Yasuo's eyes widened in excitement, and quickly asked "How much is it?" not being able to wait any longer, thinking about the possibility to finally be able to place his mana barrier rune on the perfect spot, his back.

Mae Hoon looked a little saddened as he saw how happy Yasuo was, before saying: "It's a bit pricy for a new student. 5000 points."

"Deal! I'll take five!" Yasuo said with fire in his eyes, full of joy after hearing such a low price.

Master Mae was dumbfounded that Yasuo wanted to buy five magic transfer papers, which cost 25.000 academy points, not believing that Yasuo had that many points as it had only been one week since the academy started. In disbelief Mae Hoon checked if Yasuo really had 25.000 academy points, and to his surprise, Yasuo really did have enough points.

After a short exchange, Yasuo had bought the five magic transfer papers from Mae Hoon. Yasuo couldn't wait to use them, which could also be seen in his body movement.

Mae Hoon also noticed this and said to Yasuo: "I'll see you at the next lecture, Yasuo." With a grin on his face.

Yasuo respectfully said his goodbyes before he quickly returned to his bungalow with the magic transfer papers and his new brushes in hand, and immediately took the elevator down to his training room.

Once there he rolled out one of the sheets of magic transfer papers on the floor to reveal a big white sheet of seemingly normal paper, which was one by one meters in length.

Yasuo couldn't wait to start drawing a rune on the transfer paper, but then suddenly thought back at what he was thought at the lecture and remembered that the size of a rune would also sometimes have correlation to a rune's grade depending on its usage.

Thinking about what size would be best for the mana barrier rune, only one thing came to mind: 'The bigger the better! An actual mana barrier has to be big to protect the user, so I think the rune also has to be as big as it can be!"

Without a second thought, Yasuo drew a rough outline of his whole back on the sheet of paper on a one to one scale so that he knew how big the rune could be.

With that done, Yasuo grabbed the biggest brush that was given to him, and looked at the transfer paper one more time, which made another thought appear in his head. Again something the teacher thought him.

"Don't just depend on the mana from the mana ink, also use your own mana to shape the rune."

Yasuo had never done something like this before, but once he put his brush to the transfer paper, there was no going back.

For some reason, he could feel the mana flowing to the brush, and instinctively knew how to do it. With this feeling freshly engraved in his mind, and not wanting to lose it, Yasuo continued to draw the rune, making the first brushstroke as big and bold as he could.

'I can do this!'

With this single thought in mind, everything else cleared up. Yasuo was solely zoned in to drawing the rune. Yasuo continued going with the flow, drawing the rune as bold as he could, with the big strokes perfectly complementing the rune, which had a simple design.

With Yasuo having drawn this rune so many times, as it was the first rune he ever got, it came together perfectly, and after a few minutes the rune was complete.

After having poured all his soul and mana into shaping the rune, he was surprisingly exhausted for the first time after drawing a rune.

Having completed it, Yasuo took a step back to see the rune in its full glory, looking at it with admiration. The big rune looked like it was meant to be this size for some reason.

The rune was so beautiful, even Yasuo, who had drawn the rune, was impressed by the beauty of it, almost not being able to believe that he had just drawn it.

"Focus Yasuo!"

He said to himself, trying to make him focus on the task at hand for it had not yet been completed, and proven as a viable way to successfully make the rune on his body.

'Finally the moment of truth.'

He picked up the transfer paper and gently placed it on his back, aligning the rune to his spine as precisely as possible.

Taking a deep breath to stabilise his hands, he confidently placed it on his back. 'There's no going back now'

With no way back, Yasuo confidently pressed the transfer paper against his back, which immediately made it shine more brightly than Yasuo had ever seen before, lighting up the whole room.

"Yes! This is it!" He excitedly said, making him wait full of anticipation for a hologram to pop up, but as the light faded, nothing happened.

In a sudden burst of negativity, all the hope that Yasuo gained suddenly vanished into thin air.

'Why did I get my hopes up… I knew this wouldn't work.' The saddened Yasuo thought to himself.

In all of the excitement of using the transfer paper to create a rune on his back, Yasuo forgot the most crucial thing, something that soon entered his mind again, which instantly brightened his expression with the hope he lost just a few seconds ago.

"Blood! I still need to activate it with a drop of blood! Only then will it be determined if the rune was successful!"

Before thinking about it for even one more second, Yasuo summoned his dagger and pricked his finger, making the blood spurt out. 'Ouch, I cut it a little too deep.'

Disregarding the the pain from the big cut on his finger, he immediately brought it to his back where the rune would be placed, which immediately made a bright light illuminate the entire room, even brighter than ever before.

In even more anticipation, Yasuo was waiting, praying, for a hologram to pop up.

And the anticipation was soon positively suspended by the much anticipated notification:

[Rune successful]