"The Black Flame?" Oisin could not believe his eyes.
"It's a fake obviously. A legendary artifact recipe can't be just lying under a temple of a capital city..."
But he gulped. "Perhaps… Perhaps it's real."
....
Grand Temple, City of Lumen.
Numerous devoted people gathered in the temple just as usual, praying to the one Almighty God for blessings and forgiveness. A saint in rich red clothing was leading everyone in the prayer.
If anything, the environment would appear soothing, a silence sweeping over the indifferentiable chants.
In midst of this, briefly breaking the symphony, a clerk appeared from around the corner. Pushing through the crowd, he ran straight to the saint and whispered something in his ears. The saint sighed lightly and told the man to go back to his work, "And if you are too concerned, tell the guards to keep their eyes on him for a while."
A brat had apparently entered the old temple, and even made his way to the forbidden chambers. However it was just a boy who was known for running around too much. Nothing unfortunate occurred, but the pillar broke down.
'This is what happens,' the saint reminded himself, 'Every time the pillar poses different questions. And nobody manages to give the correct answers. So it breaks down, and eventually repairs by itself.
'Who knows... just what would happen if someone gave the right answer one day?'
....
Oisin was thoroughly checked out several times before confirming that he does not have anything with him. Then, he was kicked out of the temple.
Oisin acted well enough to fool the two guards. He hid the recipe inside his mouth, behind his top molar teeth. Even if they checked his mouth, they would not be able to find the recipe with him.
"So that was easy," Oisin smiled in total satisfaction as he stood outside of the temple glad with his first successful, though accidental treasure hunt.
One moment passed.
"Now... I own... A freaking real and legit Grade S artifact recipe!?" his heart clenched in total disbelief and slight fear. First things first, he needed to know if that was even real.
However, a young boy like Oisin would have no way to confirm that.
"I can never trust someone else with a Grade S artifact. They will immediately try to take it away from me. So then what should I do..."
Oisin began to think as he walked aimlessly in the city.
The cemented roads of the capital seemed less crowded than usual, as the noise and chatter around him barely registered. He stared downwards and talked to himself,
"I can't go to the guild… They'd strip this recipe from me in a second. The alchemists? They are worse. They'd sell me out to the royal court the moment they got wind of this.
"Think... What do I need? I need someone… no, something. A way to craft this myself," he paused near a bakery and swallowed hard, the paper still snug behind his molars. "And I can't just ask how to forge a Grade S artifact without drawing suspicion... I'll have to find a place with the knowledge. Somewhere no one will think to look."
Oisin looked around to make sure that nobody was looking at him. He then walked up to go behind the bakery.
There was a pile of wood and trash, so nobody ever came around that corner.
Oisin then took out the recipe from inside his mouth. It would not be wrong to call this a skill of Oisin that he could keep things inside his mouth for so long without getting it wet.
Although it does not matter if the recipe got wet from his saliva. It was made from a kind of red paper, imbued with magical artifacts. It was made to be entirely waterproof, and theoretically, red papers cannot be cut down or destroyed as well.
He silently started to read out the ingredients for The Black Flame.
"This Is The Recipe for The Flame That Burns All...
The Flame That Burns The Brightest...
The Flame That Burns The Abstract...
And The Flame That Burns Itself..."
"What?" Oisin had no idea what all that meant. He continued to read, but he instantly realized something. He was magically unable to read it.
"Find the... and take.. Golden Spring? Why can't I read this..? It's in simple Vepera!"
"The hearts...
"The moonless asteroid? These letters... are blurred. How..." Oisin frowned and squinted at the words, feeling like they were mocking him.
"So I can't read the recipe yet? Seems like a restriction of sorts... I can still read one word or two though. But I can not make sense out of it just like that."
Disappointed, he moved his eyes towards the second last line of the recipe.
"The fire you see, will be darker than anything that exists. It is the Black Flame."
Oisin gasped.
He did not know how to react to this.
"Hearts... And moonless asteroid, isn't that something that comes once in a century? What is a Golden Spring? I have never even heard of this. This is weird...
"Well I suppose a Grade S recipe is meant to be ridiculous..."
Oisin put the recipe back inside his mouth, not knowing where else would it be safer. Then he decided to come back to his home.
It was a strangely interesting day for him.
...
Royal School, City of Lumen
A master was giving lectures to his disciples in a very disciplined classroom. In Royal School, the students grow up to become Adventurers, or join the national Forces. In fact, this one is considered to be among the best academies in all of Vepera.
It has constantly produced geniuses over the years, establishing it's name even in the international leaderboards. In addition, this academy receives direct support from the Royal Families of Vepera, so it could bypass many legal bindings. For example, after passing from this academy, a student would be given an artifact of their choice. Although possessing an artifact before being an adventurer or joining a national force, is considered to be a punishable offence.
"But Master!" a student who wore a greyish uniform, and had a dragon emblem drawn in the center of it asked, "Why are Grade S artifacts only in books? Did no one ever possess one?"
The Master laughed at the question, "You're right. No one in recorded history is known to posses a Grade S artifact. But they definitely exist. Scholars of the past had encountered some recipe of Grade S artifacts. They have confirmed that these are real. However, it would be nearly impossible to actually craft one."
"Why so?" the student could not help but ask another question, frowning.
"Because the ingredients required to craft a Grade S artifact are already extinct."
-
Oisin lived in a slum. In a small housing under a bridge. He shared his house with some other boys, all orphans. With time, the boys eventually became like brothers to each other.
And Oisin was the youngest of them, at the age of 16. Most of his other 'brother's had already moved out, finding works or jobs. Some of them got even married. It is to wrong to say that they were lacking in brotherly love, and it is also wrong to say that they abandoned the slum after they moved out. Their relation, it was somewhat complicated.
So now in the small housing, there lived only three of them. Dauglas, Bern and Oisin himself. The first two were of the age seventeen and eighteen respectively.
And they generally don't interfere with what the other guys are doing. They live very independently, having been used to the tradition in their household, where a 'brother' would randomly declare in a dinner that its time for him to move out as well, reducing the population by one, once in a while.
As for food, God knows how they find it. They do whatever to find a scrap of food. Doing all sorts of odd jobs and sometimes when there is absolutely nothing, they even steal sometimes. But they would not steal without any need, they had developed their own moral compasses.
Oisin came back to his room, and laid his tired self down on the rock- hard bed.
"Oisin, did anything fun today?" Bern asked from somewhere nearby, but Oisin could not see him from his place.
"Yeah, I jumped in a secret ground under the old temple."
"Oh, what was there?"
"Bunch of dark staircases, all leading to different rooms. All of them were empty though."
"How unfortunate," Bern mocked in a laughing tone, "Use your time instead of loafing around sometimes."
Oisin then turned to his side, ignoring his advice and hid the recipe inside his robe. There was no telling, what if he ended up eating the recipe?
"I could probably just memorize the thing too though..." he wondered for a while but paid no heed to it later. It was too valuable to be eaten. Plus, it was a paper, not something to be eaten.
Within a minute or two, Oisin fell asleep.
Later, he woke at midnight, just as usual.