The piece of paper was full of well-known ingredients as well as the necessary smithing condition and process.

Bastian opened his eyes wide. He read from top to bottom, from side to side, turning the paper around many times before licking his lips and asking Jack.

“Where’s the rest?”

“You’ll get it two months from now?”

“What?” Bastian was triggered.

Jack instinctively leaned backward like he was expecting a blow.

“The terms. Remember?”

Bastian turned his eyes back at the instruction and carefully read through all the ingredients and steps again. His hand twitched with every passing of his eyes. Being one of the most accomplished blacksmiths in Oxdale, he knew the thing that Jack had written here could very well open up a whole new door. An Artificer was ranked not based on the body improvement like that of other factions but instead on the product of one’s crafting. Even if your level is Crusader, you could still be ranked as Archon if you managed to craft something worthy. A part of why Bastian was always into Stormbringer because of this very reason, though an incomplete copy couldn’t be presented to the Artificer Council.

The many notes in this recipe claimed if it was correctly crafted, the chance for Black Lightning Blade to become Crusader rank was still lower compared to the other items that the old man had ever known.

“Hey, brat, are you sure that you can get me the detailed instructions?” Bastian asked.

Jack nodded confidently. Item Crafting in the system wasn’t a passive skill. It was instead an active one with a cooldown of 24 hours. With every usage, Jack would gain more knowledge about the item’s crafting method. He reckoned the details on fire control, melting time, mana requirement, materials fusion, or hammer rhythm would later be revealed. Then, he would only need to give it all to Bastian to do the dirty work. If that wasn’t the case, there was a reason behind his two-month offer. He would have been long gone by then after the Awaken Ceremony.

The atmosphere in the room was getting uncanny, as both persons in that room didn’t know how creepy they were smiling.

“Okay,” Bastian put away the paper and said, “make your terms!”

“No more brat!”

“No can do!”

“No more working with the Hensley!”

“I’ll have dirt for dinner then! You damn Harpers aren’t helping me with my business!”

“Teach me decently!’

“I’ll teach you when you stop being a brat!”

“Then protect me as best as you can!”

“Hmm, damn brat, how the hell should I get my hand on that recipe if you’re dead?”

Jack, out of habit, extended his right hand out but quickly pulled it back after realizing how dirty the old man’s hands were.

“It’s a deal then,” Jack said. “Now, do you want to get another gold coin?”

Bastian puffed his cheeks, breathing enthusiastically. He jumped down from his chair, opened the back door into the forge, and yelled.

“Come inside, brat!”

It was the morning of the next day in the principal’s office.

“How did you do it?” Meinhard asked in total confusion. “Bastian just made an ultimatum last night, claiming he would cut the supply to the Hensley if you were to be harmed.”

The professor had shaved his scruffy beard and changed his clothes, looking more imposing and worthy of his position as the school's headmaster.

Jack shrugged, raising his hands up as if it was but a certainty.

“I have my cards.”

“Unbelievable. What could have moved Bastian?” Meinhard shook his head in disbelief.

“So,” Jack said, “let’s return to our business. What do you think?”

“You sure are cautious. Edward, Bastian, the Harper, and you still need me?”

Jack leaned his head, thinking about the names that Meinhard had just listed.

“Ed mustn't be that strong; if so, he would have finished his duty.”

“Take care of Jasmin?”

“Yes, the actual solution to protecting me.”

As for the Harper, the most powerful man in the house wouldn’t be available for a while and Jack reckoned Meinhard understood that.

“Bastian is another story,” Jack continued, “the Hensley may hesitate from messing with me in the upcoming days, but they will. They have to before Abraham’s return. In all honesty, Bastian’s threat was half-hearted at best.”

“Yes, that is true,” Meinhard said, “I’m not sure what had happened last night between you and Bastian, but even with that obnoxious of a smith’s support, the Hensley could still get their hands on you, you know!”

Jack nodded.

“Bastian could be quite unpredictable and cut off his contract with the Hensley, but in the long term, he will eventually stick with them because that’s all he got. Unless he leaves Oxdale, which he would if only he could.”

“Well, Bastian is a freak. Who knows what’s in his mind!”

Jack rubbed his hands.

“So, the only real answer here is you, professor!” Jack concluded.

Meinhard smiled. Since yesterday’s meeting, he had been feeling like favoring Jack. Seeing a ten-year-old running around, struggling to gather every available resource he had to convince the most powerful man in this town to support him is almost unimaginable. If Meinhard were to tell someone about all of this, they would say he had gone crazy. Yet, here they were, feeling like everything wasn’t crazy enough.

“Alright,” Meinhard exclaimed, “I will be your guardian. Of course, the aforementioned terms shall be my conditions.”

“Fine,” Jack pleasantly said, “I couldn’t have expected anything less.”

With that settled, Jack intended to leave but was stopped by Meinhard.

“We need to talk about our lesson.”

“I thought we’re just going to meet and continue to study Arcanist,” Jack said.

“For now,” Meinhard paused, sorting out the words, “you need to complete your study about the Nightblade first.”

“Demand from the Corvus?”

Meinhard nodded slightly.

Jack took a step back and pondered. The animosity he had displayed toward the Corvus had been everything but subtle. Despite the fact that he had returned from World No.146 and become a completely different person, from his experience of being abandoned himself, the way of the Corvus had never sat well with him. For the time being, he reckoned there had to be some other reasons for the Corvus to do such a loathsome act. Whatever it might be, he would still remember the suffering his biological mother had endured.

“Okay, I will finish my study on the Nightblade,” Jack said.

Meinhard sighed in relief. He had been worrying whether or not Jack would voice his objection. He searched in his robe’s pocket and gave him an orb a bit smaller than the palm of Jack’s hand. Inside the orb was a black flow of smoke floating around. Looking closely, a small sparkle of black light could be noticed in the center.

“This is?” Jack asked.

“A Legacy Orb,” Meinhard said.

Jack received the orb from Meinhard. He turned it in his hand as the sparkling spot had caught his attention. Slowly, everything started fading and all that was left in his consciousness was the black light. It almost seemed as if Jack was about to be pulled inside the orb when a finger snap from the principal brought him back.

“Use it only when you’re home and alone, not here.”

“Why does this thing look so dangerous?”

Meinhard breathed out hard, frowning his face.

“Do you have any idea how many people seek the possession of a Legacy Orb?”

He frowned even harder when he realized Jack was indifferent to everything he had just said.

“Legacy Orbs could only be found in the hands of great power. Its creation is extremely costly, both material-wise and mental-wise. Its function was to convey the knowledge and experience of the maker to the user.”

Jack got curious.

“So,” Jack said, “instead of practicing and studying, I can just use the orb to absorb everything I need?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Meinhard responded, “but I advise utmost caution, for you must know your limit during the extraction process. The minimum requirement for one to create a Legacy Orb is the rank of Legend. Therefore, the amount of knowledge and information they’ve passed down could be enormous and way over your current comprehensibility, so much so your head could explode, don’t take it literally. And I can’t tell whether this was crafted by a Legend or is it actually a Divine Legacy Orb, you got that?”

His grandfather couldn’t have spared the time to craft this, especially not for him. If this was, in fact, an actual Divine Legacy Orb, Jack suspected that there was at least one more Divine in his household.

“Oh, no wonder even you envied me,” Jack said jokingly. “Why then don’t you just use it behind my back?”

Meinhard pouted.

“Besides the fact that I would be hunted by the Empire’s largest assassin guild, Legacy Orb is a very sophisticated item, but it could only grant the intended ones its benefits. This orb was made solely for the certified descendants of the Corvus.”

“Are they paying me some attention now?”

“How I see it, yes. They want to turn you into one with capability.”

So you did tell them about how I can be on the same potential level as Charlotte Allison, Jack thought.

“Fine by me, mutually beneficial.”

“The orb is not omnipotent,” Meinhard said, “it would help you with the knowledge and feeling of an experienced Nightblade. But, it’s still not your own.”

“And, I still need to practice,” Jack continued his professor’s words, “as well as contemplate in order to grasp the skill of a Nightblade.”

“That’s enough. You can return to class or go see Bastian now. Make sure to use it as early as possible.”

“Don’t tell me, since it was made by at least a Legend, so….”

“Yes, you are currently holding in your hand a piece of treasure of Legend rank. You let it slip and who knows, maybe Oxdale will be wiped off the map!”