"Mentor"

4:00PM

Marcus sat at the bench and waited for the stranger to arrive. He began to feel a rush of foolishness for sitting on the bench and waiting for someone who beat him up.

"Why am I even here, there's no point. It's not like he can teach me anything." Marcus muttered under his breath.

"What'd you say about me being unable to teach you anything kid? Come back here and I'll show you how good of a teacher I am." a familiar voice sounded out from the alleyway behind the bench.

Marcus recognized him and headed down the alleyway wondering where he was hiding.

Marcus was pulled into a building through a door to his left with unbelievably fast speed. A passerby watching him walk through the alley saw him disappear, but couldn't understand where he had gone.

Marcus was stunned as his vision began to focus and he saw what looked like a boxing gym. He gazed at the man beside him who looked very proud of this little gym.

"Who exactly are you anyways?" Marcus asked Cross who began to walk towards the ring.

"Train first, talk later" Cross said as he tossed Marcus a pair of MMA gloves. He hopped into the ring and beckoned Marcus to join him. Marcus put on the gloves he had been given and began to climb into the ring.

"So how do you wanna do this, do you wanna learn grappling, kicks, or punches first?" Cross asked Marcus. "Let's go with some punches first, they seem to be the easiest." Marcus replied.

"Alright, based off of yesterday you understand the basics of how to punch, so it's time to teach you how to counter when someone else tries to hit you. It's useless against grapples, decent against kicks, and extremely good against other punches." Cross explained to Marcus who nodded in understanding.

9:00PM

There was sweat all over the ring. Marcus had been learning how to use the Counter for hours, and began to feel confident that he had gotten the timing down.

"Ahhh man that really wasn't easy." He said, sitting down and drinking some water.

"Hey don't complain, you were able to learn how to do it in a few hours. The professional boxers would hate you if they knew how fast you picked things up." Cross said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Marcus laughed and checked the Skills menu once again. His Unarmed Combat skill had reached Level 3, and he had 238/10,000 required XP to reach level 4. He wondered why he had gained so much XP, but could only think that it was due to training under a mentor that told him precisely the best way to do something.

"Hey Cross, I think it's time you tell me a little bit more about yourself." Marcus reminded Cross, who was cooling off in front of a fan.

"Alright you deserve to know, so basically I was in the military for 4 years stationed in Iraq, and I've been back in the U.S. for 2 years."

"I haven't had to kill anyone, but I did see some disturbing stuff during my deployment... I saw a young boy running towards my unit while we were eating one day like normal, and no one noticed until it was too late that he was armed with explosives."

"I watched him run right into the middle of the room and... He pulled the switch and.. I watched more than half of my squad disappear in the blink of an eye along with a little boy who was taught how to sacrifice himself for his country from birth."

"Those soldiers, they had families man! The people that died, they had a home to go back to if anyone should have died in that explosion it's me! I survived though, and ended up here after the government basically told me to fend for myself."

"I just hope that you can use what I teach you to survive, even if things get difficult and you need to fight to survive." Cross could barely get his words out as he began to choke up after talking about his past. He clearly blamed himself for what had happened.

Marcus could see that Cross was extremely upset, but Cross still cared about Marcus enough to train him and try to make him a better man. Marcus began to feel guilty for judging Cross so quickly, and vowed to himself to give everyone a chance in the future, because everybody deserves a chance to prove themselves.

Marcus eventually headed home thinking about what Cross said. He decided that he would help Cross in the future if there was ever a time when he needed him. Marcus would try to check if the system could help Cross with his living situation and other problems starting tomorrow.

Falling asleep, all Marcus could think of was the counter he was taught and how he should refine it. He dreamed of countering punches thrown at him from all angles, and trained his reflexes in his dream. He would have to keep on grinding XP if he wanted to get anywhere in the future, but he could tell having someone teach you something increased the amount of XP gain close to 10x the original amount . He had one mentor, and decided he should soon search for more.