“A med student, huh?” Jacob looked at the guy, interested.

Does he have a Healing Affinity like Andrew? Was that part of Epagogia’s teasing?

It would make sense for her to tease him like that to discover then the guy had a harmless Affinity like Healing. It was completely in the purview of Epagogia’s modus operandi. “

“Yeah, not the best life, honestly. If I could go back in time, I’d rather be a farmer, to be honest,” the man chuckled at his own joke.

“I wonder what I would be if I could back in time,” Jacob said while chuckling for a different reason.

“Well, can’t you be whatever you want once you get a second shot at life? We are now in the apocalypse, and everyone is starting from zero. As long as you can defend yourself, you could be someone making a living in a circus for all people care. Zero societal expectations, no med school to finish for one parent less to lovely pressure and me into it,” Flavius said.

“Well, everyone has their own burden, man,” Jacob said while looking the other one up and down. “I’m sorry about your parent.”

“I guess one has to be ready to suffer things like that in the apocalypse,” Flavius said with an unconvinced tone.

“A dear friend told me just the other day that that shouldn’t be the case. We have to grieve people, have hopes and dreams even in the apocalypse. And not just your standard dreams of power,” Jacob told half for Flavius’s sake and a half for his own.

“Yeah, I agree with that. F*ck the apocalypse,” Flavius commented.

“Cheers, and f*ck the apocalypse,” Jacob replied while fishing out a cigarette from his pocket.

“Aren’t those super expensive in the Contribution System? I saw cigarette costing more than a 1000 Contribution Points per pack of twenty,” Flavius looked suspiciously at Jacob.

“The pros of being the de-facto dictator of this place,” Jacob winked at him and handed him a cigarette, “since cancer’s not a thing anymore, do you want to smoke 50 Contribution Points?”

“How can I refuse when you put it like that,” Flavius smiled and took a cigarette from Jacob, lighting it up with his on Qi made into a fire and taking a slow and satisfying first puff.

“So, what’s your Affinity?”

“Mh? Light and Darkness, I think,” Flavius said.

Jacob almost swallowed his cigarette.

“Are you sure?” Jacob looked at Flavius with wide eyes.

Flavius nodded, a bit shy about it.

“F*ck, that’s good,” Jacob said approvingly, “it’s really good! Oh, that’s why she gave you the Cultivation Technique without thinking.”

“Why?”

Flavius was confused by Jacob’s ramblings.

“You can’t use a Cultivation Technique for a person like you with any other person. She gave you the Yin-Yang Cultivation Technique, which can only really be used by someone with a rare Light and Darkness Affinity. Ah, your Affinity is only one ‘step’ lower compared to the rarest Affinities around. And considering that it is a double one, it’s pretty much there. So you won the lottery, kid,” Jacob said with a pensive tone.

Kid?, Flavius thought. He was quite a bit older than Jacob unless Jacob looked at least eight to ten years younger.

“Well, then I think I pretty much already know everything that Epagogia gave you. Oh, this is going to be fun! You are going to make an excellent warrior!” Jacob was getting more and more excited. “Scratch what I said before. Half an hour is nearly not enough; we are going to train for the next two hours. Haha! This must be Karma, I swear! The strongest cultivators we have are all girls, and now we finally get one! Oh, I’m so glad!”

“Isn’t that a bit sexist, man?” Flavius was a bit uncomfortable with the comment.

“Sexist? Flavius, let me tell you something, my new dear friend. I love all these women, but one needs a balancing force. Your Cultivation Technique is not called the ‘Yin without Yang Cultivation Technique’ or vice-versa. You need men and women at the top. Otherwise, our range of decisions narrows down a bit too much. Oh, and don’t you dare repeat what I just said to any of said women!”

“Whatever you say, man,” Flavius shrugged.

They went outside the walls, but not too far. They could still see the lights on the sentinels’ posts.

“You know, the person who developed your Cultivation Technique is the stuff of the legends,” Jacob suddenly said.

“I’d be really curious to know how you and that tall woman know all these things,” Flavius commented.

“As I was saying,” Jacob went on, ignoring what the other had just said, “it was a peerless master, one of the most incredible fighters in history, and an Alchemy Saint too! Oh boy, so many things I can teach you!”

Flavius Affinity and his Cultivation Technique naturally gave him an edge to spot the balance in things, especially when it came down to Alchemic concoctions.

Jacob’s crazed eyes were now really scaring the poor Flavius.

“Show me the first stance of your Martial Style,” Jacob said, all excited.

“Oh man, it’s a bit embarrassing,” Flavius groaned.

“Come on, come on! I can even fight with you barehanded! We are close in Cultivation, and this might prove an excellent opportunity for you!”

Flavius sighed and assumed the extremely embarrassing position that had been etched in his mind. He widened his leg and flexed them until one was in front of the other, his hand pointing straight in a chop, with the palm toward the ground. It was extremely similar to a cinematic kung-fu stance you could observe in movies, where one arm was pointing toward the ground, and the other was left back pointing toward the sky.

“Well, that’s it, man. What now?”