Jacob was sitting in front of Joseph, amazed by what had happened.

“Joe, Tommy’s a great master. You are really lucky, trust me.”

Tell him that I’m the First Martial Saint for him, not Tommy.

“He’s not happy with being called ‘Tommy’, and he said you should address him by his title,” Joseph cringed a bit while saying that.

“He’s always been touchy around me. And that’s just because I whooped his ass in our last duel. Ah, sore losers, what can you do about them, right?”

OUTRAGEOUS!, the First Martial Saint shouted, I did not lose! Tell him! This filthy bastard is lying once again! We ended up in a draw, and he said that his sword was close enough to my throat that he had won! Unbelievable! After all these years… Wait a second, did the filthy bastard recount the story this way? DID HE SPREAD SUCH A LIE ABOUT ME?

“Uhm, Jake, my master is saying…”

“I can imagine,” Jacob sneered, “tell the Golden Hero that he should know better than getting hung up about a loss. He was always praised for his humble origins and kind heart – that chicken –, and he should live up to that reputation.”

The wave of insults and swearing that came from the First Martial Saint was impossible for Joseph to translate.

“Uhm, if I may, I didn’t say I would be Jacob’s disciple. I didn’t remember agreeing to that,” Flavius said with clear discomfort.

“Well, you have been abducted, and now you are in my care. You can avoid calling me master, but the deal’s done! Plus, you heard the little chicken, you have to become stronger than Joseph. And with a 9th level talent and a Ligh and Darkness Dual Affinity? It’s going to be very easy.”

Puah! You and your talent and Affinity! I had no talent, and I slaughtered countless beasts! Joseph, don’t listen to that scam artist, we are going to make humanity’s hero out of you. Plus, we are going to aim for Jacob’s neck, not just his tiny little blonde bimbo disciple!

“Jacob, I don’t like the way you treat people. I don’t think I should be your disciple,” Flavius looked intensely at his ‘master’ and protested.

“Really? Well, even better. I’ll get you strong enough to challenge my beliefs and establish yours for humanity. Without me, unless you luck your way into the heroic and golden graces of the First Martial Saint, it will be extremely hard for you even to imagine surpassing me.”

Flavius detached himself from the conversation, while Joseph acted as a proxy for the First Martial Saint’s insults.

He needed strength, and he wanted to be able to protect his mother. Above all, he refused to let others cripple himself again. He didn’t know how Joseph’s spirit knew Jacob nor how Jacob could know so many things. But one thing was for sure: Jacob was the most knowledgeable person there; the kid had praised Epagogia’s knowledge, but he said that his own expertise was definitely superior.

“Jacob, I want you to understand,” Flavius suddenly interrupted the bickering, “that every time you are going to do crazy things like having teenagers execute criminals, I will try to stop you.”

“I couldn’t hope for a better response from my disciple!” Jacob patted the taller’s man shoulder.

“Are you not scared that I will turn against you?” Flavius raised an eyebrow.

“You? Ha! Kid, there are monsters capable of ruining countries in a day in this world, and they are probably after my scalp right now. If my talent was a fraction of Epagogia’s – and I fully mean to get there, by the way – I will gut those monsters like I already did in another life; that, by the way, is another conversation we are having later today. If you say a word to anyone who doesn’t already know, I will start the gutting with you. So, many monsters much more powerful than you want me dead. If you manage to kill me before I change your naïve mind, you are welcome to try!”

Flavius nodded slowly, even though he was not sure he fully understood what Jacob was saying. And he hadn’t even thought about killing Jacob.

Joseph got up and waved to Jacob and Flavius: “The First Martial Saint says that I have to go train with him now. I’ll see you in a couple of hours at lunch, Jake.”

With that, only the reluctant disciple and his new master were left there.

“Well, let’s resume our lessons.”

…

Jacob had explained some of the most basic concepts of Alchemy to Flavius. He had gotten up before dawn to cultivate and, as soon as he felt diminishing returns from sitting and accumulating Qi and Mana, he fetched Flavius for his first lesson.

The topic had been ‘balance and equilibrium in all concoctions’. Before even thinking about creating anything, Jacob had to explain how the most basic things worked.

“It’s like cooking, if you put too much salt, it tastes bad, if you put too little, there is not enough sapidity. Balancing energies is easy in theory, but much more complex in practice. It’s not just about ratios and density. Sometimes, the final product will amplify one or another property of one herb, and you have to account for that. If you don’t, you will fail. ‘The best pill furnace is your own mind’, that’s what a famous Alchemist Saint used to say. A couple of them also said that the best furnace is the body, but we are not going to talk about that for a while. Suffice to say that you will need balance in things. And sometimes, you will need to extremely tilt that balance in one direction; it means that you might have to create a castle that stands on top of a needle. And the day you manage to do that, you will have reached the highest level of Alchemy.”

Flavius’s expression betrayed his complete lack of understanding and prompted another explanation, this one much longer.