《Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster》


 Chapter 1 Prologue: The Turning Point (1)

    The year 2459 A.A.C Vorian province, Drnaine region, Wakefield


    Aldrich keenly observed the glowing mossmp held above the door frame. He always wondered how the moss knew when to light up, as if it knew how to tell the difference between day and night.


    Not long ago Aldrich firmly believed that thismp must be a wondrous item like in the songs and the stories but apparently, ording to Mr. Krynt such things were quitemon in the big cities.


    Aldrich had the distinct urge to facepalm when he recalled Mr Krynt''s expression when he revealed his theory about themp.


    Before his thoughts could wander any further, he heard the door creaking open. Thankfully.


    "AL, I''m sorry did I keep you waiting?" Adera, hurriedly opened the door as she showed an embarrassed smile.


    Aldrich took notice of her blue eyes and soft ginger hair, as he always did. But as of her return from the academy in Voryhrm, his eyes lingered on something else, well quite a few things, the most attractive to him is the glowing ring of light on her forehead.


    It looked like it was almost tangible, of course he was fully aware that it was not, even if he were to touch her forehead he wouldn''t feel anything but normal skin. Not that he would try something like that.


    "I just got here, is Mr. Krynt in?" Aldrich answered as he tried to keep his shirt as straight as possible.


    "Come on in, he''s in his study as usual." Aldrich could hear the sourness in her voice. She must be upset with her father, but Aldrich elected not to ask.


    As Aldrich walked in, he took off his boots at the entrance. Adera did not seem like she needed any encouragement, she continued toin as they passed by the hallway, "can you believe it? His daughteres back from the academy to visit after a year but he doesn''t have time to see me! Too busy with his useless books and boring paperwork."


    Aldrich wanted no part in this argument, whichever side he chose he would ultimately lose out, so he racked his brain for the most neutral answer possible to no avail.


    "What was that?"


    "Come here youngdy."


    Fortunately, before Aldrich could muster an awkward answer, he was saved by madam Lana''s and Venna''s voices,ing from the living room. Adera scoffed and headed to the living room with obvious unfriendly intentions.


    Aldrich did not join her, instead, he continued to thest room to the left. He wouldn''t have any part in that battle. One time he got caught up in an argument between Adera and Mr Krynt''s wives and he was not fool enough to do so again.


    As he stood before the door, before he could knock, a strong and curt voice called to him,"Come on in."


    Aldrich was not surprised, like he was the first few times this happened. Apparently Crestmasters had an enhanced perception, Aldrich didn''t entirely understand what that meant but after experiencing it a few times he got the gist of it.


    Aldrich opened the door carefully, the wooden floor did not creak as he walked up to the middle aged man sitting on a cushioned wooden chair behind a huge wooden desk.


    The ginger hair that Adera inherited was well kept, unlike his beard which was all over the ce, his calm blue eyes fixed on the paperwork on the desk, clear sunlight streamed from the ss window behind him. One look at him and you would know he wasn''t from Wakefield.


    Behind the door Aldrich saw the signature white wings of the sleeping green-furred monkey. It was sleeping peacefully in a straw basket. This monkey is Mr. Krynt''s messenger, apparently it was home for the day.


    All sorts of papers and booksy strewn across the room in total disarray. An expected sight. Aldrich made sure that he did not make a misstep lest he damage the precious documents.


    Aldrich went on to pick and organize some of them, some books and papers were so close to the firece they almost became fire feed.


    "A bit early, boy, yes?" Mr.Krynt did not look up at him, he was writing slowly but with great concentration.


    "Well Mr. Isger let me go early today. So I thought I shouldn''t waste time." Aldrich didn''t stop collecting the books on the floor and returning them to the book shelf on the right of the study.


    "Surely you saw your mother before you came by, yes?" Mr. Krynt always had a way to ask important questions nonchntly. A trait that always caught people off guard.


    "Yeah, of course I did. She wanted me to thank you for that honey cake fromst time." As Aldrich answered he held his breath for a moment.


    "Oh, good good. How kind of her." Mr. Krynt still didn''t raise his head, and Aldrich allowed himself a relived sigh¡ª"good answer but terrible delivery, any decent liar wouldn''t have hesitated."


    ''Shit, you''re just too sharp old man!'' Aldrich couldn''t help butin internally.<sub> </sub>


    "Alright let us not dy, since you''re here now, this must be the right time, we ought to get going. A schr from East Gortuba once said ''everything in the right time tastes the sweetest but any earlier orter sours the taste'' wise words indeed."


    Mr. Krynt of course couldn''t resist quoting someone in the midst of everyday conversation.


    "And just vague enough to apply to anything," Aldrich mocked.


    "And thats what makes it wise."


    Mr. Krynt and Aldrich bid goodbye to his daughter and two wives. As they got on their way, Aldrich drove the wagon and Mr. Krynt sat besides him.


    Aldrich nodded at thezy vige guards when they got on the vige Back trail, the guards, seeing Mr. Krynt sitting besides him quickly adjusted theirzy postures.


    Aldrich admired this sight, Mr. Krynt didn''t raise a finger, just sitting beside him gave Aldrich a glimpse of what it was like being a Crestmaster.


    When they got to the camp site, under the Inzcan tree, Aldrich familiarly stopped the wagon and got down to tie the horse to the tree, by the time he was done Mr. Krynt had already prepared his equipment from the wagon.


    "As always keep an eye on the horse and wagon, I will be done in around two hours." Aldrich watched as Mr Krynt''s headed into the ruins entrance.


    ? This entrance was not a natural one, to dig into the mountain and make this entrance Mr. Krynt hired more than thirty men to dig for a fortnight.


    These ruins were always around Wakefield, in the back and across the east hill one of three forbidden areas in Wakefield.


    The second being the deep woods, Aldrich didn''t understand why, not until two years ago when an owlbear attacked the vige from there.


    The third was the old cemetery, the most feared of the forbidden areas, it is said a battle took ce there in the false saint''s war some years ago, nobody bothered to purify it or perhaps nobody wanted to waste time on a backward vige in the middle of nowhere.


    In any case some say the fallen soldiers rise as undead to fight again all throughout the night and in the day they go back to being corpses but if anyone were to disturb them their end was quite clear.


    Though sometimes Aldrich wonder at how much coin he could make if he were to sneak in, to steal some armor, a sword or two maybe. It could be that he could pay off all of the debt his mother owed and then some.


    Then again he could also die a miserable death, certainly his life wasn''t so cheap to risk in such a manner.


    Aldrich did his usual thing, fed the horse and daydreamed. When suddenly a thought struck him. If he could somehow help Mr. Krynt in his work with these ruins, then he might repay some of the goodwill that Mr. Krynt had shown for him. Hell, he might even get richly rewarded.


    Aldrich couldn''t contain his excitement as he shot to his feet, first he made sure the horse was tied tightly then he washed his face.


    This ancient ruin as far as Aldrich was concerned is some old building from a long time a go. The people in the vige thought that it might have been a castle, some guessed a pce of some lord or another, others thought it was fortress that was buried here in the age of dread, whatever the truth was nobody knew for sure.


    What made this ancient structure hard to investigate was the fact that most of it was buried under a mountain, quite literally. From the edges of the mountain parts of the ruin jutted out.


    Aldrich could see the opening he was looking for, this opening always attracted his eyes. Due to the shape of this structure if he were to climb up just a little he might be able to enter. This hole won''t fit regr men but he was only thirteen this year, Aldrich guessed that he maybe able to enter.


    Aldrich jumped hard and caught the edge of a huge stone, he pulled himself and stepped on the t of the stone tentatively, fortunately the stone didn''t betray his expectations, it was sturdy enough.


    Another jump took him a level above, here he decided to take a deep breath as he looked at the ground from this height, this was a little higher than he thought, only a little.


    But of course, Aldrich, a man who will one day be a great adventurer wasn''t a coward.


    Aldrich decided to do what he was here to do, the opening he saw from below was now in front of him. As he crawled in he felt the dampness and heat of this ce, although he couldn''t see much the passageway was surprisingly smooth.


    Aldrich continued on, feeling his confidence grow as his vision adjusted to the darkness and he made progress. The narrow passage was longer than expected so as to not waste time he decided to speed up when his hands suddenlynded on empty air.


    He didn''t have much time to think before the wind was knocked out of him. Fortunately hended on his back.

 Chapter 2 Prologue: The Turning Point (2)

    ''Shit!'' Aldrich cursed as he got up looking around was simply too hard even after his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Aldrich also noticed a curious fact, that while the outside was hot the inside of the ruin was actually a lot cooler.


    His whole back burned with pain, but Aldrich was excited and happy his n actually worked. ''wait till the guys hear about this, I''m gonna be a hero.''


    "Gk BgJRc GashiKP¡­"


    "Gk BgJRc GashiKP¡­"


    "Gk BgJRc GashiKP¡­"


    ''W-what was that?'' Aldrich felt a shiver up his back as he suddenly heard a strange, unclear voice. In a tongue he hadn''t heard before, it was definitely not themon tongue.


    However he could tell the voice or voices maybe? He could not be sure¡ªthey wereing from deep within the ruin.


    Aldrich knew that it was a bad idea to follow this unknown voice, but he just felt that he needed to see what these voices were about. The voices¡­ they call to him¡­ the voices¡­ he had to go¡­ he must go now¡­


    Aldrich found himself heading deeper and deeper into the ruins as the voice got louder and louder, he was walking in an absentminded stupor but with great familiarity.


    But the voices were bing too loud. His head hurt too badly, as if someone was hammering several nails to his head. The pain was too much he fell to his knees.


    Aldrich held his head in pain, yet despite the pain he didn''t let out a single cry his throat was dry and heavy all of a sudden, then he heard the sound of a drop of water hitting the ground¡ªno, not water, blood.


    Aldrich touched the underside of his nose and winced. The voices didn''t stop, and they never will, mercilessly they got louder as if admonishing him, telling him to keep going.


    The pain sobered Aldrich up and he suddenly realized where the voices wereing from, they were not at the depth of the ruins at all, they were in his head.


    They always were.


    He looked at the ground to find a strange symbol drawn with his own blood, it seemed like at some point he drew the sign unknowingly.


    No, perhaps it was not a strange symbol, although it was the first time that Aldrich had seen it, he could swear. But apparently he could understand this strange symbol. It said¡ª


    "Tindalor"


    He read out loud, and the voices disappeared, like a lie that never was. After he muttered the strange word Aldrich watched in stunned silence as the surrounding walls started to glow.


    Now with the darkness alleviated he could see that the stone walls were carved with strange marks. It was these marks that started glowing, releasing a soft but eerie blue light.


    Aldrich observed that he was in the middle of a hallway, an iparably huge hallway. The ceiling was so far up he had to strain his neck to look at it properly.


    Before Aldrich could take a better look he felt his surroundings grow terribly cold. A momentter he saw the reason.


    At far end of the hallway that turned right, the head of what could only be a gigantic serpent appeared at some point. The crimson serpent had a head that was as big as a horse and twice as wide, three eyes rested in that head and it was looking in his direction.


    Caught by surprise and bewildered by the ridiculous turn of events, Aldrich could do nothing but tremble in awe and fear as the serpent made way to him.


    Aldrich had to move, but he couldn''t, hemanded his legs to move, to run, yet to no avail. His whole body was shaking in fear but also frozen in ce.<sub> </sub>


    The biggest monster he ever saw was the owlbear that attacked the vigest year, an intimidating beast, but this serpent could snap it in half with a single bite.


    The serpent crawled on the roof of the hallway with ease, uncaring about Aldrich''s thoughts, when it''s advance came to a sudden halt.


    Aldrich estimated that distance between them to be around fifteen meters. Aldrich imagined that he could feel the creatures breath on him. Perhaps it was not his imagination. Even now when it was almost upon him, he could not see its tail.


    The crimson serpent was weirdly looking around the hallway, as if it couldn''t see him. Aldrich was suddenly struck with a thought. ''Could it be that this thing that lived in these dark ruins was so used to the darkness that it was blind to the light?''


    Aldrich suddenly got some feeling in his legs, he started to back away slowly, still keeping his eyes trailed on it. As he kept walking back, the serpent was still looking around, proving his assumption correct. The crimson serpent was blind to the light.


    ''I will make it out of here!''


    As if insistent to crush his hopes, the crimson serpent opened it''s jaw. What came out was three huge tongues, each was filled with bumps like e along their impressive lengths. The tips of the tongues had a jaw of its own with protruding jagged fangs above which was a human nose.


    Each tongue headed in a different direction, one of which wasing straight in his direction as the human nose kept twitching as if it could smell him.


    ''Shit?''


    Aldrich felt that it was stupid of him topare this creature to the owlbear, this creature was no beast, it was true monster.


    Aldrich felt his options dwindle into nothing, at this point he could only turn around and run the best he can, only Aldrich was certain that this monster would sense his hasty escape and in a contest of speed Aldrich didn''t exactly like his chances.


    But then again, should he just wait for the twisted tongue to catch up to him, is god so determined to harvest his soul this badly?


    "DUCK!"


    Aldrich obeyed themand without much thought, he saw a mass of mes hit the unsuspecting vile tongue. More fireballs shot with incredible speed and power targeting the head and opened maw of the serpent.


    The creature let out painful screams as it fell to the ground. The ground shook with weight and the impacts sent him rolling back a dozen meters.


    The bruises didn''t stop him from observing the scene but before Aldrich could watch anymore, he felt a strong grip hold him and he found himself suspended on Mr. Krynts shoulder as the Crestmaster broke into a run that didn''t suit his age.


    "Whoa! What? Mr. Krynt how''d you¡ª"


    "Shut it! Lets get out of here first. That thing is still alive, that kind of attack won''t do much against it."


    Aldrich found it hard to believe, until he heard a furious hiss behind them. Mr. Krynt was running with such a speed that Aldrich found it hard to believe that he was a middle aged man.


    While Mr. Krynt was running he suddenly turned around and sent sts of fire to the ceiling, before the heavy stone could crush them they were already on their way.


    Aldrich felt his eyes grow increasingly heavy. This was thest thing he remembered seeing before surrendering to sleep, but hisst thought was imprinted to his mind clearly.


    ''Crestmasters and monsters, truly frightening beings, if one day I were to awaken my Crest, I''ll be just like them''


    Of course after he woke up he got in so much trouble he wished he was eaten that day.

 Chapter 3 A Not So Normal Morning

    The year: 2462 A.A.C


    Vorian, Drnaine, Wakefield


    First light shined splendidly on Wakefield. But the wind carried an icy chill as if it would rather bear snow. The wind beat on the cloak of a young man.


    The young man walked leisurely, if not sluggishly on the small hills of the pasture some of which were only half-green in clear stalemate between winter and spring. Behind him trailed a semi-neat row of sheep. On regr bases he would stop and allow the sheep to graze here and there, and then move on.


    The young man would stop watching the sheep and look over his back once in a while as if looking for something and seeing nothing out of the usual he would get back to shepherding the sheep. And he would go over his actions again soon after.


    ? Gusts stered Aldrich''s cloak to his back, then streamed it out behind him. He wished his cloak were heavier or that he had a firece out in the field to draw out the cold off his bones.


    More than two years had passed since the incident, everything returned to normal and Aldrich never dared to try something like that again.


    He ran his hands over his eyelids drowsily, he barely had any sleepst night, and when he did, he dreamed of terrible nightmares. If only he could remember what they were about. Suddenly he could feel himself shivering, uncontrobly, perhaps it was for the best that he couldn''t remember after all.


    As a particrly strong st tugged the cloak out of his hand, he looked over at Dan, the farm''s yellow dog. He did not feel foolish to have to reassure himself that the dog was still there, it was that kind of morning.


    Ever since he woke up he felt jittery as if someone was watching him, making him look over his back only to see nothing.


    The nightmares themselves were not unusual. Rather the increasing frequency was. Moreover he was certain it was the same nightmare repeating but he couldn''t remember what it was about.


    Nheless dwelling on nightmares won''t serve him any, certainly it wouldn''t fill his empty pockets or his dry belly.


    It was pointless to keep jumping at shadows all morning and work is work. So rather than trying¡ªwithout sess¡ªto return to sleep, he decided to start the day early.


    The wind howled when it rose but aside from that, quiety heavy on thend. Too quiet he realized with a start.


    His hand unconsciously reached for his bow, nocked an arrow and ready to draw. No birds sang in the forest, no squirrels chittered from a branch, not that he expected them to, not this early into spring anyway.


    But he knew something was wrong when he didn''t hear the sheep bleat. Sheep bleated all the time, even at midnight and especially when they were taken for grazing.


    Today was the same, but at some unknown point while he was busy with his thoughts, they wentpletely quiet.


    He looked left and right hesitantly. The only time something like this happened wasst year, that was when a wolf attacked the sheep, his arrows were useless the wolf was too close by the time he noticed, and too fast.


    This time it was not the same though,st time the sheep went running everywhere but now they were only shivering in ce like something stered them there. Cold sweat covered the back of his neck.<sub> </sub>


    Ever since the ruins incident he promised himself he would be prepared for anything. And today he was indeed prepared, at the first sign of any such danger he would immediately flee.


    What happenedst time was just a fluke, his luck was just good enough to survive that time, and he had no intention to put that luck to the test again.


    His Crest had not awakened in thest two years, pity, so long as he was an ordinary human it would be idiotic to put his precious life in danger.


    However after a while nothing happened, and Aldrich began to feel foolish. He didn''t intend to run at shadows, it would be hard to exin to Mr. Isger why he abandoned the sheep.


    He felt he was being watched since he started on his chores this morning and kept looking behind his back  only to see nothing, the stress was clearly wearing him down. This was an awkward morning made for unpleasant thoughts indeed.


    That feeling was so persistent he almost got used to it, he did try to shrug it off and evidently failed. Such sleepless nights would take a toll on any man.


    He looked around again, nothing moved or made a sound among the trees, except the wind. The sheep were just taking a break, he ought to take one too, before he made more of a fool of himself.


    But the feeling not only persisted it grew stronger. This hair raising dread, he was extremely familiar with it. The same feeling he had when he awoke from the nightmarish sleep. The hair on his arms stirred, he looked over his shoulder.... and blinked.


    Not even three meters to his left, a cloaked figure stood, dull and unmorous. It was more habit than anything else that kept his hand from loosening on the arrow. The stranger''s cloak covered him from head to toe, no part of him showed.


    The shadowed opening of his hood fascinated Aldrich. He could see only the vaguest outline of a face but he had a feeling that he was looking right at the man''s eyes. And he could not look away.


    There was only shadow to see in the hood, but he felt pure hatred, hatred for everything that walked thend. Hatred for him most of all, for him above all things.


    He took a step back, a stone caught his heel and he stumbled, falling on his butt, breaking his eyes away from the dark figure.


    Bow and arrow fell out of his hand, breathlessly he pulled himself upright. Bare-branched trees offered no hiding ce, but the stranger was gone.


    Heart pounding against his chest, without a look to spare to the sheep, he only managed to tell Dan to keep guard.


    He ran with all his might, vaguely he could tell that he probably never was this fast before. And not nearly as fast as he would like to be.


    A minuteter he wished he told Dan to protect him not the dammed sheep! But it was already toote, his legs will not turn back or slow down even if he wanted to.


    But his attention was mostly on the Evergreen woods that he knew all his life, he explored most of the surrounding area and he knew it like he knew Mr. Isger''s farm, he knew every field and stream andke, but today these woods were not the ce he remembered.


    He decided to focus on the slippery path back to the farm, it was empty and there was not a sound to be heard.

 Chapter 4 Paralyzing Cold

    Aldrich reached the farm''s short wooden fence safely. A fence that could hardly stop any kind of attack, he never thought about that before this very moment, a short while ago Aldrich thought it couldn''t possibly get any colder, he was wrong.


    Everything looked normal, far to the right, from the corner of his eye he could see Miller and Balden working on the corn field. It was quite as it should be, he told himself to stop letting fancies take him.


    Everything is fine, but every time he blinked he saw the dark-cloaked stranger and ran even faster. Mr. Isger is the owner of the farm, he''ll certainly know what to do.


    Aldrich jumped over the fence in his haste, it was not that far from there to here to begin with. A very short fence, he now noticed, with a lump in his throat.


    He entered through the door without bothering to knock and breathed a sigh of relief. Mr. Isger was heating some milk over the fire. Isger turned around at the sound of the opened door and rough breathing.


    "A stranger!" Aldrich said breathlessly, walking inside quickly. "A stranger, just outside the farm."


    Mr. Isger frowned, discerning Aldrich''s distress, "was he armed? Did he threaten you?" He asked.


    Aldrich took a minute to register the questions, "no, I¡­ he¡­well¡­" suddenly it began to dawn on him, the stranger hadn''t said a word at all.


    "well? Speak up,d. On second thought, first sit down and collect your bearings."


    Aldrich wanted to protest, this wasn''t the time to sit down, but before he could voice his thoughts, Isger already pulled over a chair. Resigned, he could only do as told. He did feel much better after sitting down.


    "The stranger was tall, very tall, he wasn''t armed at least as far as I could tell. He wore a dark cloak that covered him entirely, so he could have been hiding a musket or a sword under it, no, I am willing to bet he was hiding some sort of weapon."  Aldrich was spitting words faster than an rmed rabbit. He was determined to convince Isger toe with him.


    "Did he threaten you?" Isger asked again. Firmer this time.


    Aldrich had to take a moment to answer swallowing his saliva repeatedly, his voice was much softer this time and words much slower, "No he did not threaten me, not in any obvious manner, he appeared behind me without a sound and when I looked at him, I felt that he meant me harm. I stumbled and fell when I looked back he was gone as silently as he came. He couldn''t have gotten far."


    "So he was harmless, beyond a feeling. And when you turned to look at him you stumbled and fell." It was more a statement than a question but Aldrich ashamedly nodded.


    "Where did this happen exactly? We must go swiftly" Isger, moved smoothly pulling his broad-ded spear off the pegs on the opposite wall.


    And they were briskly walking back to where Aldrich left the sheep, Aldrich followed absentmindedly before he asked.


    "what? Why? You believe me?"


    "what guests woulde this far off the Vige trail? and this deep into the woods? First, he might be lost and if he was it is our duty to help out. Two, if he dide with ill intentions¡­ we must look into it either way."


    "you believe me then?" Aldrich cheered.


    "we''ve been a week out in Ulek surrounded by strangers, I don''t believe an ordinary stranger would scare you with a mere look. Besides haven''t I always told you to trust your instincts?"


    "Why didn''t you call Miller and Balden with us? we might need their help." Aldrich had to ask, the stranger didn''t have the look of an ordinary man, if he was a man at all.


    Mr. Isger had a pondering expression, "It could be that the stranger is a thief and his little encounter with you is a scheme to lure us out of the farmhouse. When we left in a hurry both saw me leave with my spear which must have rmed them making them extra vignt. If the thief went about his scheme he won''t have an easy time of it."


    Aldrich felt his genuine awe at the n, what was even more impressive was how fast Isger came up with this n.


    And they were there, back on the pasture. Only the sheep and Dan were there still in ce. As they were, as if nothing unusual happened. Thank god.


    "There! He was right there!"


    Aldrich pointed at the exact spot the stranger was at when he saw him. Isger''s brows locked in thought.


    "He was there." he insisted "A man in a long ck cloak."


    Isger''s shoulders rxed "I wouldn''t doubt your word,d, we''re here to look around for him anyway, he might not have gotten far."


    Aldrich snatched the fallen bow and arrow and half drew before letting the bowstring rx. There was nothing to aim at. "He was." He insisted.


    Isger shook his grizzled head. "If you say so,d. But look at the ground. He must have left some tracks; we''ll have a look. If we find them, we''ll know for a fact he was there. If not, well... this is a day to make a man think he''s seeing things."


    The stranger''s boots must have left some marks on the snow and soil, if he fled into the woods there will be broken twigs and branches. These were only the basics, if Dan has managed to get the stranger''s smell things will be even easier. This farm and the surrounding woods was their home-ground.


    The search for tracks bore no fruit, all signs lead Aldrich to believe that nobody was here at all. If the stranger had tried to erase his tracks he would still be able to tell, but all sings pointed at the fact that there wasn''t anyone here at all.


    If he could figure out this much then Isger probably did too. Dan was unresponsive, clearly he didn''t catch the smell.<sub> </sub>


    "Aldrich be ad and count the sheep, I''ll do some searching in the woods on my own just to make sure."


    "There''s no need, Mr. Isger. I might''ve been seeing things I didn''t sleep a winkst night and I''ve been having nightmares frequently as ofte¡­" he tugged the hood of his cloak to cover his pale face.


    Aldrich wisely decided to end it here, without proof, he will only manage to make himself look the idiot. And even he himself wasn''tpletely sure he wasn''t seeing things.


    "I told you to stop reading these useless books that Krynt gives you, he''s got nothing better to do than scaring children. What a disgrace. I''ll have words for him today, yes, I will."


    "Mr. Krynt is just giving me the books I ask for, anyhow, no point in looking for what isn''t there, not when we could get out of this wind and into the vige. We still have a big wagonload of ale to deliver right?" Aldrich relented, trying to sneakily change the topic.


    Isger and Krynt didn''t have much love for each other. More like they were at each other''s throats for one reason or another. Hell, sometimes they would get into an argument just by bumping into each other in the vige.


    "I could do with a pipe," Isger said slowly, " and a mug of ale where its warm." He gave a wide grin.


    Aldrich managed a weak smile at that.


    Aldrich collected the scattered herd, on the way back Aldrich noticed Dan wasgging behind too much, Dan wasn''t his usual cheery self he was looking around suspiciously and barring his teeth.


    His barks were low and threating, even ring at Aldrich as he approached causing Aldrich to slow down considerably. He petted Dan to calm him, "take it easy boy, take it easy. It''s just me."


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Finally, they were back at the farm. Aldrich felt a little exhausted though the walk was short, he gave the farm a wide look, confirming that everything was fine. Again. Then he took the sheep back to the sheep-pen.


    "Oh, no!" suddenly Isger dashed back to the farmhouse. Aldrich was half a step behind. ''That''s it, the stranger lured them far enough so he could sneak into the farmhouse somehow he managed to evade both Miller and Balden!''


    They pass by Miller and Balden, who in turn, noticed that something was wrong as they immediately join the duo.


    Isger roughly pushed open the door, Aldrich saw Isger throwing the spear he was carrying on the floor as he fell down in seeming despair.


    "Sir, what happened?" although Aldrich did not notice anything broken, he still asked concernedly.


    "It''s burned¡­ the milk is burned" Isger answered slowly, in a daze.


    "what?" Aldrich, suddenly felt the world spinning around him in his own daze. He imagined this was probably what his mother felt when she smoked Dreamshade. "I misheard you, just now what did you say??"


    "I forgot to take the kettle off the fire, the milk boiled and overflowed, this cost me at least half a copper¡­" Mr. Isger''s voice was clearly bitter.


    That''s all? It''s my fault for letting my imagination go wild. His mother always said he had too much imagination.


    Aldrich suddenly let out a self-deprecatingugh at this whole thing. Miller and Balden joined in theugh.


    Mr. Isgerughed the loudest. "It''s a joke. AL loosen up a little, yeah? This whole thing rattled you a bit."


    That''s right so what if he had a little paranoia, Aldrich was not going to let it get to his head, the day was only just starting. Aldrich felt some warmth despite himself, he felt lighter afterughing he  wished he could sleep now and wake up the next day already.


    "Alright, we''ve got a whole cart to deliver, no time to waste. Aldrich you''reing with me, Miller and Balden keep a tight watch over the farm, we might have some trouble."


    "Trouble? Ha! I like trouble." As Balden dered that he cracked his fingers. Aldrich observed Balden''s huge figure and rippling muscles with admiration. Yes, that''s how he wanted to look like, it was also one of the reasons why Aldrich wanted to work here.


    Miller on the other hand, looked clearly not as amused by the prospect of trouble as Balden is. "Sir, is it possible you irked someone during your stay in Uleq?" An interesting question.


    "No, not particrly. At least nobody who would bother to send someone after me for a petty argument."


    Aldrich sank deep in thought, could it be that their three day stay in Uleq had some abnormality? Perhaps it was not as straightforward as it had seemed to him? Not likely, besides he had never felt watched in Uleq nor did he feel that paralyzing cold.


    Abruptly Aldrich realized what had been odd about that stranger, aside from him being there at all. He did not cast a shadow, it looked like the light of the sun passed right through him. The howling wind didn''t touch his cloak.


    His mouth was suddenly dry. He must have imagined it. Mr. Isger was right; this was a morning to prickle a man''s imagination. It''s but a daydream. how could he tell Isger that the man who apparently vanished into thin air cast no shadow? That the wind did not touch him?


    A man who could disappear so suddenly could reappear just as suddenly, maybe even right behind him.

 Chapter 5 Strangers

    Aldrich and Isger were well on their way to the vige. Mr. Isger''s farm wasn''t far from the vige though he wouldn''t call it close either. The wagon shook as the mare pulled it along the Wakefield trail.


    The trail was well traveled and the wind had calmed since early morning. Mr. Isger was walking on the left side of the wagon to the front and Aldrich was on the right keeping a close eye on the woods.


    To his great dismay the usually short and rxing trip to the vige felt excruciatingly long. Only when he finally stood before the vige gate did he allow himself a sigh of relief.


    Of course the so-called gate was little more than a wooden arch connected to a short wooden fence, there was no gate so-to-speak . Two guards greeted them at the entrance, besides the rusty spears they held and a leather helm there was no other way of distinguishing them from other vigers.


    A normally amusing sight for Aldrich, this time it invoked frustration. ''Couldn''t they have brought some leather vests and some better spears for the guards?!''


    As he was busyining internally they passed by most of the houses and Mr. Isger stopped once in a while to greet some people. Sometimes Aldrich had to cough loudly to remind Isger that they had a delivery to make.


    Wakefield''s tavern, it also doubled as the mayor''s house and one of two taverns in all of Wakefield, the oldest of the two definitely. The old wooden door had scratches and dents, the walls had them too and weird brownish spots big and small to boot. The inside was a little better.


    The door was open of course and Aldrich and Mr. Isger walked in casually. There were few patrons in, only two men sat at a table enjoying what looked like a hearty breakfast, the smell of hot bread and fresh eggs was tantalizing. Both men turned to them at the sound of the creaking door hinges when they entered.


    "Here you are, Isger! Thought you might not make it after all." Mr. Berton, got up from his seat as he shook hands with Mr. Isger.


    In return Mr. Isgerughed, "I wouldn''t want to miss out on the festival, now would I?"


    It was only now that Aldrich remembered the uping spring festival tomorrow, one of the most popr days in the vige. Unfortunately Aldrich didn''t find it in himself to cheer.


    The mayor then looked at Aldrich and nodded "good man, Aldrich, working hard right before the festival eh?"


    "Well I have to help old man Isger out in the farm, you know about his feeble back."


    The mayor burst outughing, "yeah, you do that young man," Mr. Isger had to object, "well my back is doing just alright."


    They mayor stepped aside, "we have a guest today, this is the honorable Atrio Taelva, he is a representative from the imperial bank in Ado''merin, he''s here for a visit to our humble vige."


    The man had a shaggy beard and a gentle smile as he greeted them both.


    "Mayor Berton you overpraise me, it is I who is humbled to visit such a prosperous and beautiful vige. Mr. Isger, you must be a friend of the mayor''s. Please join us for breakfast." Atrio Taelva had a joyousugh too.


    After a look exchange with the mayor, Isger answered "sounds like a fine idea. Aldrich you go unload the wagon, you know where the storage is."


    Aldrich made to move when he was stopped by the mayor''s hand on his shoulder. "Isger, tomorrows the festival, take it easy on the boy now will you? I''ll have the boys do it."


    "Sure, have it your way. I was going to let him have the rest of the day off anyway."


    Mr. Berton smile warmly, as he handed Aldrich a te wrapped with a cloth, "here this is breakfast, go eat it with your mother, she must have missed you dearly."


    Aldrich could only manage an awkward smile, "yeah, alright I will get going then." As Aldrich made his way to the door he saw the three men heading back to the table by the window.


    Aldrich was still wary of this stranger, although he bore no resemnce to the dark cloaked man. Strangers were rare in Wakefield. Very rare.


    So that''s how he ended up sneaking around the tavern and using the bushes to eavesdrop behind the window. From here he could hear the conversation quite clearly.


    "Master Atrio, with all due respect, I must request that you discipline your captain of guards. I received severalints that he has been aggressively harassing some girls. The next time I hear such aint he will be arrested and made to spend some cold nights in a cell." The mayor, spoke with a cordial but firm tone.


    "Besides I Don''t see why you would need so many guards around? They make people feel a little uneasy."


    "Such disrespectful behavior is, of course, over the line. I assure you I will be having some hard words with him this afternoon. You know how perilous traveling is these days, and a man of my profession needs some protection, but they are not my people so to say. I hired them from a firm." Atrio continued smoothly, "anyhow the deal I proposed is still on as I promised."


    "About the paper money?" The mayor asked in mockery.


    "Yes the paper money," Atrio replied as if he wasn''t bothered by the mayor''s tone, "The time of coins is over, trust me, in the big cities everybody basically uses paper. The Imperial bank is giving such great rates, this is the right time to exchange, the more you hesitate the faster the chances flee from your grasp."


    Even though Aldrich couldn''t see from his hiding spot he could imaging Atrio''s animated expressions from the intensity of his voice.<sub> </sub>


    "I''m not so sure, I didn''t think paper money was so popr. I think maybe I should wait a bit longer." The mayor was hesitant.


    "Wait a little longer? Sure take your time. It''s just that I''m afraid you''ll miss this golden opportunity to make it big. Besides the bank offers special perks to those that exchange more than fifty gold marks, the loans you could take will be most amodating."


    "Loans benefits? Why would the bank help people get into debt?"


    "This decision was made to help the imperial citizens, say for example, you might like to repair your tavern or perhaps wanted to expand it but you are just short a few coins, that''s when the bank steps in to help out in return for an insignificant interest¡­"


    Paper money. This was not the first time Aldrich heard of it, but he hadn''t seen anyone use or ept it before. And the talks delved into boresome topics.


    Atrio continued on without caring about Aldrich''s entertainment. "Do you know how your brother Tomard got the money to build his very own tavern? Haven''t you bee a little curious? this is sensitive information, but seeing as we became such good friends, I will share; he got a loan from us."


    "He did?" Asked Mr. Isger in surprise.


    "Indeed, he already paid off his debt, and then he took another loan, what was it¡ªah, yes, I heard he was running for mayor? Oops, I shouldn''t have said that, please ignore that it was but a slip of the tongue. Anyway Mayor Berton, we will be leaving on the morrow at first light. Think about my offer."


    Tomard himself is indebted to the bank? This surprised Aldrich since Tomard was the man that kept selling his mother dreamshade and started this debt spiral. His goons used to beat up Aldrich every once in a while.


    His mother however, had no intention to pay her own debt after all she didn''t want to do any work, her day consisted ofying in bed and smoking dreamshade. All the while, of course she didn''t forget to remind Aldrich of how useless he was, naturally, the debt fell on him.


    Aldrich was beaten ck and blue almost every week, this all ended when he started working for Mr. Krynt and Mr. Isger, and how he was almost done with paying it off atst.


    Aldrich decided to leave lest he get caught.


    Aldrich wander around the vige for a bit and saw that most vigers were busily preparing for the spring festival. He heard some grumbling about the guard captain during that time he got to know that said guard is named Keld.


    Aldrich didn''t feel like going home yet so he decided to pay Mr. Krynt a visit. The banker brought six guards with him, they all arrived yesterday morning, any one of them could have been the dark cloaked man.


    There wasn''t much of a change to the Crestmaster of Wakefield over the past two years. Except that he wasn''t as secretive about Crestmasters anymore, Aldrich guessed that it was to caution him not repeat his past mistakes.


    But it''s not like he was an open book or anything, sometimes he would say a thing or two.


    "Aldrich, how was your trip to Uleq? Anything interesting happen?"


    "Uh, no nothing in particr. So I hear Adera isn''t visiting this year?"


    "No, she wants to find some work in Voryhrm."


    Aldrich picked up the green messenger monkey and started rubbing it''s little tummy in circles.


    "Did she ignite her first symbol yet?"


    "Not that I know of. It depends from one person to another. Things like that better not be forced."


    Although you might awaken a holy ring if you can''t ignite the first symbol on the ring then you will remain an initiate. Only after the first symbol is ignited will you be an official Crestmaster.


    "We''ll do you have anything to say? Don''t tell me you came here to waste my time. I have work to do."


    "Tomorrow''s the festival take a break will you?"


    "I know but something came up, I will be extremely busy not just tomorrow but even for the next three days."


    "Well I guess I''ll see you in three days then?"


    "Yeah, yeah, get going."

 Chapter 6 Encounter

    It was already noon by the time Aldrich left Mr. Krynt''s ce. Aldrich decided that it was about time to go home and see his lovely mother.


    Fewer people were on and about. Aldrich still dreamed of the day when his ring awakens, then he will be truly on his way to be an adventurer. This was a ripe age for awakening ording to Mr. Krynt.


    Adera was two years older than Aldrich and she awakened around the same age. She was the first to awaken in the vige in many decades maybe even more. Aldrich still remembered the fever it caused throughout the vige.


    Aldrich believed that one day his crest will awaken, then he will leave to one of the big cities, preferably Voryhrm, there he will be a great adventurer. He will join a renowned guild and rise in honor, by then he, too, will be the talk of the vige¡ªno even the entire Drnaine territory.


    He would live in a huge manor looked after by ves and servants, eating the best food, wearing the best clothes, bedding the best women, riding the best mounts and living in luxury generally.


    But then again there was a real possibility that he might not awaken his crest. As a man who had been not only taking care of himself but even his addict mother, he naturally had to prepare for that possibility, no matter how low of a possibility it was.


    His contingency n is to study in any random academy, get into an alchemy workshop. Or he would start out as an ountant to some merchant and then make his way up.


    He has been reading when he wasn''t working. Mr. Krynt''s library is extensive but he decided to focus on these to topics. Mr. Krynt in this regard was highly generous in lending him books and exined whatever Aldrich didn''t get.


    While on his merry way Aldrich happened on another stranger, he was a short man with a light beard. He was drinking from a jug of beer as he rested his back on a random tree.


    The man was wearing a clean leather armor and boots, the armor was reinforced at the shoulders and the gut, a long sword dangled at his hip. Aldrich figured that this must be the infamous Keld. His garb was definitely a few levels higher than the viges own gaurd.


    Aldrich heard that most of the other guards don''t leave the tavern much, which is normal since their employer is staying there.


    Unlike their captain who was mostly seen out and about. And he was drinking heavily at noon, it''s not like Aldrich didn''t understand since theres hardly any danger in Wakefield whatsoever.


    Aldrich decided to hide and observe this drunk captain, perhaps he could y a prank on him for harassing the girls.


    As Aldrich observed him, he noticed that Keld had a pen, this sort of pen had ink stored in it, he was writing something on a notebook in between gulps. Keld had a nasty grin the whole time as if he knew a secrete that none else way privy to.


    That grin irked something in Aldrich as he watch on, the vige was mostly silent now as everyone was having lunch or otherwise. This is the best time to do something but he didn''t know what exactly¡­


    Also he was apprehensive of how might this drunk might react. After all he did have a sword. ''Patience, a chance wille''.


    After a while something did happen, Keld passed out. A chance. At this moment Aldrich decided what to do, he''s going to steal this loser''s notebook.


    It looked that Keld fancied his notebook quite a bit, the only other target was his sword and Aldrich wasn''t fool enough to steal a sword from a guard.


    Aldrich moved from his hiding spot noiselessly, or at least he hoped he did. The brown leather notebook was held close to his chest as it heaved up and down with every breath.


    Aldrich was close enough to smell the beer stench emanating off of Keld, he saw although Keld had the notebook close his hand around it was loose. Aldrich held it and tugged slowly, very slowly.


    By the time Aldrich''s sweat was about to fall into Kelds wide open mouth, Aldrich was able to snag the notebook sessfully. As he held it in his hand, Aldrich smiled triumphantly and swiftly backed away just as slowly as he had approached.


    Aldrich intended to stash it away and watch Keld flounder looking for it, so he didn''t go too far he hid behind a well from which he could easily watch Keld''s sleeping form. When suddenly he was ovee by curiosity. What was Keld writing about so intently?


    Aldrich didn''t waste time and immediately opened the notebook. This was a fairly new and unused notebook, the paper was so neat and pure whiteonly the first few pages were used.


    The contents were equally curious, there was mention of the number of vige guards, their weapons and even their shifts. There was a detailed description of the vige''s situation and condition of the walls and such.


    This struck Aldrich as extremely suspicious. This flirtatious man who went around chasing women did not writing about any women but about strange things.


    Aldrich felt an uneasiness creep on him, he decided to call of the prank and return the notebook back before Keld awoke. He sensed that perhaps this notebook might be dangerous, it would be even more dangerous if it was found that he stole it.


    Aldrich hurriedly returned the notebook and ran away swiftly. Aldrich decided that he should tell someone about this tomorrow just in case Keld was up to no good.


    Aldrich followed the familiar path to his house, and faster than he would like he arrived at his destination. A small shack in a tiny piece ofnd.


    Things weren''t always like this, back in the day his mother inherited a decent house before she sold it to buy more dreamshade, this happened when he was three years old so his memories of living in the house were hazy at best.


    As for his father? Aldrich was an orphan, which was normal throughout all of Vorian since the casualties were that sever. There are many orphans in Wakefield, their fathers died as soldiers in the war.<sub> </sub>


    But Aldrich was different, his mother wasn''t married to anyone when she got pregnant with him. He had no idea who his father is or was, he did ask once, he didn''t get an answer and from then on he didn''t bother asking again.


    It doesn''t matter, he was a bastard son of a drug addicted mother, and he had grey eyes, enough reasons to be ostracized. Unlike everyone else his father wasn''t from the vige, likely not even from Vorian at all.


    Meaning? That his father was from one of the provinces that Vorian fought against in the war, and lost. Aldrich didn''t think it was unfair that he was ostracized, these reasons all made sense.


    Nobody went too far. He had no friends, besides Adera, whom Aldrich wouldn''t really call a friend, she was just nice to him. They were both strangers, she and her father had blue eyes but nobody ever gave them trouble for it because he is a Crestmaster.


    Crestmaster, a special being, that defied all rules. Whatever that applies on all peoples might not apply on a Crestmaster.


    Aldrich took a deep breath and didn''t hesitate any longer, he opened the door to a smell of stale air. He sighed, "mother, I''m back", no response.


    Aldrich made his way through the narrow hallway past themon room and into the only bedroom. There he saw his mother sitting on the bed, she did not turn to him.


    Her skin was sickly pale and her cheeks sunk to her bones, her whole body was like that. Her once blond hair was bone white, and she reeked.


    Aldrich wasn''t discouraged by her silence, "Had lunch yet? Here, this a gift from the mayor, he gave it to me in the morning but I got caught up in something."


    Aldrich put the te on the bedsheets and opened the cloth wrapped around it. There was mashed potatoes and four loaves of barley bread. Aldrich started happily eating.


    His mother was still silent, but Aldrich was not deceived, her mood could change from this to violently throwing things around at the drop of a hat.


    Their rtionship was already bad before Aldrich stopped giving her money, she was spending all of it on dreamshade and getting even deeper into debt, the debt which Aldrich was intent on repaying.


    Being cutt of from dreamshade, she threw violent fits but Aldrich was not a child by that time and she wasughably weak and frail, he easily subdued her. And that''s how they ended up like this.


    After eating Aldrich drew water from the nearby well and heated it on the fire with arge kettle, after it was heated, he pored the hot water into a basin already half filled with cold water.


    ''Ahh, I''ve had a crazy day, but it''s at times like these that I can just put it all at the back of my mind.''


    After his bath, Aldrich found that the rest of the food was eaten, night has already reced day.


    Then he started cleaning the room, in the time he was in Uleq with Mr. Isger his mother didn''t bother to and Aldrich found it hard to sleep with all the dust.


    Aldrich settled down on the bed and almost fell asleep before he was ovee by an unexpected notion, he recalled his encounter with the giant crimson serpent. He got off the bed and to the water basin he touched the water with his index finger, with the remaining droplets of water he drew that word in the palm of his left hand.


    "Tindalor"


    As he read the word out loud he felt a wave offort wash over him. He didn''t know why he did that but he felt much better, finally sleep came easily after his head hit the bed.


    Aldrich felt his left hand where he drew the word burning up, he opened his eyes abruptly, he looked around, definitely not his room or any room for that matter.


    He was in an unknown ce. He found himself in a corridor with doors lined up at either side, the walls were light green and the doors were pitch ck. There was a piece of paper on each door filled with signs Aldrich could notprehend¡ª


    No... he knew this ce very well, this was the nightmare that he''s been having ever since he could remember anything, yet he would forget every time he woke up.


    But today was different, this was the first time he was so aware of himself here. He looked at his left hand and saw the sign he drew shining light blue.


    Aldrich suddenly broke into a run, because he heard the footsteps behind him. He didn''t bother to try and open any of the doors, none of them would even budge. This nightmare was simple he was being chased by the owner of the footsteps behind him and he keeps running.


    There was nothing to do but escape, his heart was full of dread when he heard the footsteps behind him. They were hurried and frantic. This corridor was endless, he had no goal but not to get caught.


    ''Wait! So what if that thing catches up with me, I''m tired of this fucking nightmare. I want to see exactly what this things is!''


    Aldrich was angry and exhausted. He wanted to see exactly what is this all about. In the past he was constantly running because he wasn''t fully aware, but now he could do something other than running.


    Aldrich stopped running and waited. Behind him the footsteps never stoped they got even faster. Aldrich felt his body shaking.

 Chapter 7 Your Fears Face You

    The footsteps came to a sudden stop, right behind him. Aldrich clenched his teeth and slowly turned around.


    What he saw was another familiar sight. The ck cloaked stranger. This man¡ªno, this thing stood taller than any man he ever saw.


    Now Aldrich understood why it was futile to search for it in the vige. This thing was with him all along. This thoughtpletely froze Aldrich in his position. Suddenly Aldrich could do what he couldn''t this morning, he could see beneath the strangers cloak.


    The weird darkness that covered this thing in the morning wasn''t there anymore. The cloak''s opening had an unnatural attraction and repulsion to his eyes, he wanted to look but didn''t, yet he was driven to.


    The creature wore nothing beneath the cloak, it had a humanoid build with two arms and legs. It''s skin was glued to it''snky bones, the monster looked inhumanly pale and it gave Aldrich the impression that it was positively famished.


    It''s face was not much of a face, it only had a mouth with no lips and he could see the thing''s yellowed and dirty teeth grinning in unmistakable joy as it looked at him. Its face bore on other features, no eyes, no nose, no eyebrows, no ears. It waspletely hairless.


    It''s hand possessed extremely long and dark nails¡ªws perhaps is a more appropriate description. A colorless liquid dripped from the tips to the ground. Aldrich could only discern it by the noise it made as it collided with the ground.


    It was only now, when it was probably toote, that Aldrich figured out why he''d been running away from this thing even though he wasn''t fully conscious in the nightmare before.


    <o>,m On a subconscious level he knew that the only thing he could do was run away and hope this thing never caught up with him.</o>


    Although he still had no idea what this was all about, clearly this wasn''t just a nightmare, it was something more.


    His left hand burned with a subtle pain that freed Aldrich from his paralyzed state. He remembered his encounter with the giant crimson serpent, even though it was hopeless he had to try to run away at least.


    He turned around and sprinted with all his might, but of course, how could the hunter let his prey escape so easily after a long hunt? The creature lunged at him from behind.


    Before he could get anywhere Aldrich felt himself being tackled, though the monster looked thin and frail it possessed overwhelming strength. It''s sinister ws tore into his shoulder with ease.


    Aldrich didn''t give himself time to feel pain, he bit the monster in return targeting the hand that held him down. The monster shrieked, and Aldrich kicked it in its torso and managed to free himself.


    Aldrich got back to running not willing to wait for the monster to regainposure. After running for a while he felt something strange, he heard no footsteps behind him. Did it give up?


    He turned his head around to look and saw what had upied the monster''s attention. It had opened it''s maw and was shoving pieces of meat in, one by one. It even bent to the ground and started licking the blood in ravenous hunger.


    ''Meat? Where did it-?''


    Aldrich looked at his left shoulder, or rather at where his shoulder should have been. Where it used to be, he saw a hole from which he could see his own arm bone.


    It was a chunk of shoulder meat now, next it might be his own head. He also noticed that along with the excruciating pain a sort of smoke was rising from the hole in his shoulder. That transparent liquid, it was doing something to him, he didn''t know what exactly but he was sure of it.


    Aldrich wanted to stop and scream and shout, but didn''t allow himself to. This was a chance to widen the distance, and he must not waste it.


    He didn''t want to die, his whole life was ahead of him, he won''t die here to some nightmare bastard. Aldrich gritted his teeth and kept running in this endless corridor.


    ''Where am I even going? That thing will soon finish its meal and then it wille for me again''


    He had been running for what he thought was hours, he was exhausted and depleted, he had a hard time keeping his eyes open, when something happened. This corridor never changed in all his experiences before but now something new happened.


    Aldrich could see faraway in the horizon a blue light shining. There. Aldrich didn''t care what it was, he just knew that it was his only hope of  ever making it out of here alive.


    Unfortunately exhaustion got to him before he could reach the blue light. His eyes closed as he was running. And then opened again as Aldrich shot up from his bed screaming.


    "What the fuck?! What the hell is wrong with you? It''s the middle of the night get back to sleep! Fucking useless, can''t even fall asleep." Amusingly enough it was his mother''s outburst that calmed Aldrich down, this was definitely the real world.


    Aldrich touched his left shoulder with a shudder, it was fine. Everything was where it''s supposed to be, as always. Only Aldrich could now remember exactly what happened in the nightmare for the first time.


    Although he believed he spent hours in the nightmare, it looked like not much time passed here. Aldrich wanted to think more about the events in the nightmare but, he felt so tired and spent that after he got back in bed even thinking became tiresome.


    Aldrich didn''t want to sleep ever again, but his mind and body disagreed. He fell asleep like a babe.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡ª¡ª ¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡ª¡ª


    His eyes shot open at once and he looked around expecting another fight, only, he found himself on his bed in the real world. Sunlight sneaked through the window''s shutters into the room.


    He looked to the side, his mother was still sleeping, good, now he knew everything was actually fine. After he went back to sleep he dreamed of... nothing. For once in forever he had a dreamless sleep.


    Aldrich almost teared up, he got up feeling much better thanst night. But of course just because he was feeling better didn''t mean that he forgot the horrific events of the nightmare. He had to find a way.<sub> </sub>


    What if the next time he slept he got sent back there again? Now that was more likely to happen than him getting lucky again. Of course the man for this job is none other than the Crestmaster Krynt.


    His first and perhaps only option is definitely Mr. Krynt, a crestmaster will surely know what to do. Aldrich washed his face, wore his boots and opened the door to be greeted with the smells of a hundred different foods. It was already well into the afternoon.


    ''Did I really sleep that long? I am used to waking up at sunrise, this feels ufortable''


    He followed the smell to the vige square. There were people ying and dancing, some were ying musical instruments others were drinking around the bonfire, some women got on a tform and sang the old and new songs. Foods and drink were free for all to help themselves to.


    ''Oh, yeah todays the spring festival''


    It was one Aldrich''s favorite days throughout the year. Unfortunately in this year''s festival Aldrich couldn''t bring himself to have a cheerful mood.


    Aldrich didn''t forget his goal, he headed straight to Mr. Krynt''s house. On the door a paper hanged, it said:


    I apologize for not being able to attend the festival. God knows that I would like to but, I find myself extremely busy. I will not be disturbed under any circumstances.


    Has hand twitched before it could knock on the door. Yes, Krynt did say that yesterday. Aldrich didn''t have a choice but to dy.


    This was not the first time that Mr. Krynt closed himself off like this anyone who disturbed him in this situation would wish they didn''t. But the situation was sensitive, Aldrich had to at least try.


    "Oi, dunce, can''t you read? My father''s busy he''s not going to see you. Piss off brat!"


    Before he could, a very angry voice interrupted him. Darry. This was one of Mr. Krynt''s adopted sons. When Mr. Krynt settled here he took two wives, both war widows, and so he adopted their children. Also one of the reasons why Mr. Krynt was epted easily in Wakefield.


    His stepsons and daughters didn''t quite like Aldrich all that much. Some might say they hated him, but Aldrich wouldn''t really go that far. He tried to get along with them but it seemed that it was a fruitless effort.


    Aldrich didn''t want to make a scene so he headed to the square again. There was another person he could talk to, that is the secret Crestmaster hiding in Wakefield, or rather some ways off Wakefield. He was a reclusive man that lived alone in the woods.


    Aldrich got to know him by chance when the man saved his life once when he was twelve. There was only one problem, Aldrich couldn''t always find the way to his house. The woods around that ce were strange and he didn''t want to get lost.


    He got himself somemb chops and mashed potatoes and started gorging himself. This is one of the few times a year he could eat meat.


    "Woah, there! The food''s not gonna jump off the te and run away now will it? Eat calmly."


    Aldrich turned his head to find father Gombst who was still wearing his clerical robes even on the festival. Father Gimbst was not a real cleric, meaning he is not a white ringed Crestmaster. But he was the holy man of the small temple in Wakefield.


    When Aldrich was too young to find a job, father Gombst told him that he will have two loaves of bred for free if only he attended the morning sermon. Aldrich was happy to do so.


    Aldrich recalled that there was another important thing on his mind.


    "Father, do you know where the banker and his guards are? I have to speak to the mayor about something."


    "The banker? Oh, those guys left first thing in the morning. Why? Did they do something?" Gombst was perplexed.


    ''They left just like that? Well thats one thing less to worry about''.


    "Ah, well it doesn''t matter now that they''re gone. What about Mr. Isger? Seen him around?"


    "Hmm, ah he said that he drank enough and left for his farm."


    "Alright, thank you so much, father, I''ll see you around."


    "Yeah, just be careful where you step."


    Aldrich decided to talk to Mr. Isger about all this and see what he had to say, after all he was an experienced man, he might have some ideas.


    By the time he reached the farm, the sun was already setting. He knocked on the door and the door open, a slightly tipsy Isgerughed.


    "Had enough sleep? I can''t believe you missed the festival. Anyway tomorrows a work day so forget about skipping. Come on in."


    ''Shit''

 Chapter 8 Unbridgeable Gap

    Aldrich was sitting on a reclining chair by the firece his leges were covered in a warm bedsheet as he calmly sipped his tea and told his story.


    Although he thought that Isger would break outughing in his face at this ridiculous story. Were he in Isger''s ce he probably would have. But Isger maintained a serious expression throughout the story, only interrupting to ask questions.


    At the end of his tale, Aldrich was d that he came here to talk to Isger about it even though Isger couldn''t possibly help him much.


    Isger looked intently at the fire, deep in thought. The silence was finally broken when he looked at Aldrich and smiled. "You''ve grown up."


    Aldrich didn''t know why but that sentence touched him. It was like he could suddenly breath easier.


    "Hey, I just said you grew up and now you''re going to cry hahahaha!"


    "I''m not crying, something got in my eye. Leave me alone."


    "Leave you alone? No way. Come on, we''ve got to take care of that thing. Follow me." Isger got up and started towards his own bedroom.


    "What? You have a way?" Aldrich was surprised. After all, Isger was an ordinary farmer, asmon as theye.


    "You shouldn''t always be so dismissive of old normal people, we might surprise you. Eh?"


    In the bedroom, Isger pushed his own bed across the room, and pulled a random wooden stick that was inconspicuously resting on the window''s shutters.


    Then he proceeded to insert it in a small hole in the wooden floor, where the bed would''ve been. Aldrich her a subtle clicking noise as that same area opened to reveal a huge chest.


    The chest was reinforced with iron at the edges, a solid metal lock sealed the entire thing up. Before Aldrich''s jaw could fall off, Isger easily carried the chest and itnded with a thud.


    "Woah, what¡ªwhat?! Mr. Isger are you a secret Crestmaster or what?"


    "Crestmaster? God no. I am just a shepherd and farmer. Anyway I have some things in here that might help us deal with your situation."


    Isger then proceeded to open the chest without unlocking the lock.


    "It wasn''t locked?" Aldrich asked in confusion.


    "No, anyone could open it normally but if you try to pick the lock, lets just say that you''d be in for unpleasant surprise." This time Isger''sughter was much darker.


    Isger took out a sk filled to the brim with a green liquid oddly the liquid was intermixed with bubbles, a pouch of white powder and four candles. Lastly he took out a sheathed sword.


    The sheathed sword looked normal but the sheath was in a decent condition. Aldrich was so shocked that he wasn''t shocked anymore.


    Isger was known for disliking weapons of all kinds, he only keeps a spear for protection and grumbles all the time about selling it off.


    Isger didn''t slow down, he cleared the area, opened the lid of green liquid and poured it to draw a square on the floor then he ced the candles at the corners and sprinkled the powder at the center.


    "Ok, go sit in the center. Hey, stop goofing off and get moving."


    Aldrich was spurred into action, he just decided to askter.


    Isger then lit another candel and sat with him in the square, "listen, when you look at the fire in this candle you will fall asleep, and if what you told me is true, you will go back there."


    "Back there?" Aldrich didn''t need to be reminded, that corridor was clear in his mind.


    "Yes back there." Isgers tone was firm, "not to worry, I''ll wake you up when this candle is half way. Waking up will bring you back. Then I will see what all this mess is about."


    "One more thing, in the meantime before I awake you, never let that thing kill you. Never. Even if its not real. You told me it was distracted by your flesh that it even gave up on chasing you? Well, use that to your advantage. Keep in mind that you are not to attempt fighting that thing, just don''t let it kill you until I awake you."


    Aldrich didn''t have the leisure to think on that much, his eyes were subconsciously attracted to the candlelight and he suddenly felt drowsy. His eyes grew heavier and heavier.


    Aldrich opened his eyes, and sure enough he was back to that cursed corridor. He was still running with all his might to the shining blue light in the horizon.


    There was one unexpected thing though, the hole in his left shoulder wasn''t fixed, the insane amount of pain mmed into Aldrich like a galloping mountain goat. Aldrich was caught off guard and screamed in agony.


    ''What the hell?! It was fine in the real world, why is it still like this here?!''


    Although he wanted to just bash his head into the walls of this ce, Aldrich forced himself to channel that desire into running faster. Anyway he wasn''t here to fight, anytime now, Mr. Isger will wake him up and he will be out of here.


    Aldrich hread the sound of rapid running behind him. The monster was done with its snack and was nowing for more. Aldrich felt his stomach twisting but didn''t turn around but ran even faster, if that was even possible.


    ''I''ve already made a good distance between us, as long as keep my speed for a while, I''ll be woken up.''<sub> </sub>


    It was often during the most crucial moments in life when tragic mistakes happened. The more you wished it didn''t happen the more likely it will.


    Aldrich stumbled, his left leg mmed into his right, he fell face first into the ground.


    Aldrich got back up quickly, it couldn''t have been more than three seconds since his fall when he felt an impact twice as strong as his fall collide with his guts sending him literally flying in the air for while.


    Aldrich managed to raise his head up, to see the physical manifestation of his fear grinning at him.


    Aldrich was confounded, there was a massive distance between them, how? When? It doesn''t matter. This monster somehow caught up with him and sent him flying in the air with a single punch.


    Such power. Aldrich felt his entire body breaking like an eggshell. Never his life had Aldrich felt such devastating power, making even his previous determination seem like a lie.


    ''Escape? Me? From this thing? How dumb could I be?! This thing is an unnatural being and I''m just a normal person.''


    How did he gain such false confidence? In the face of such a monstrosity he should have just yielded made things easier for himself.


    The monster started walking towards Aldrich, this time it''s steps were calm and steady, unhurried.


    What about Isger? The damn candle should have been entirely burnt by now, yet Isger hadn''t woken him up.


    The cloaked monster didn''t wait for Aldrich to ept his fate, it sent a w attack to his stomach, intending to finish Aldrich once and for all. Aldrich even with his battered body turned and slid away at thest moment.


    The attack that targeted his stomachnded instead on his right leg''s thigh.


    Aldrich finally saw the attack hit him properly, it was like his flesh had no resistance to the attack, the dark ws tore through his flesh with disturbing ease.


    The chunk it tore off this time was much bigger than the one oo his shoulder.


    Before the attack Aldrich recalled how he made it up to here in the first ce. And then he remembered Isger''s advice to use the monster''s irrational hunger to his advantage.


    He literally had to sacrifice pieces of his flesh to survive and he was prepared to keep on doing it until he survived. Not missing this chance he made a run for it.


    Aldrich felt the pain of his body, at every step he made his body shook, the bleeding was intense and his head was spinning but none of that stopped Aldrich.


    To his surprise, he now could see the source of the blue light. Fist-sized stones were lined up to form and arch. The stones were engraved with mysterious marks and symbols that released brilliant light, but the blue light that Aldrich could see from faraway wasing from the arch itself not the stones. It looked like¡ª


    ¡ªYes, it looked like a door, or a gate.


    Aldrich suppressed the pain and headaches he was currently feeling. Actually Aldrich had no idea where this door would lead, it could lead him to an even worse predicament, but was he in a position to choose? No, This door was the only option he had.


    Aldrich listened closely but didn''t hear any noise behind him. The monster was still enjoying it''s prize and Aldrich was almost at the light door.


    He could make it. No, he will make it.


    As Aldrich was getting closer and closer his resolve grew firmer, no matter what might be on the other side of that door, he won''t hesitate for a single second.


    Aldrich suddenly felt the air behind him twist and turn, despite himself, Aldrich turned his head back to witness an ugly scene. The nightmare monster lived up to this moniker.


    The monster was flying in the air towards him, with unbelievable speed. As far as Aldrich could see it had no wings but somehow it was levitating in the air and flying directly for him.


    ''So this is how this monster caught up to me out of nowhere! It could fly!''


    This made no sense and yet it made perfect sense. But even then he was at the cusp of victory, the door was only a few steps away. Three steps to be exact.


    Even with its flying speed, it was already toote. Aldrich suddenly found himself suspended in the air upside down and couldn''t reach the door no matter what.


    Aldrich looked at his ankle, it was caught by a tentacle that stretched from the back of the monster.


    THEN it hit him, now he understood. Now everything made sense.


    Unfortunately it was only now when Aldrich figured out the true nature of this cursed monster. This monster was toying with him. This whole time. It purposely created an opening that Aldrich could exploit.


    It purposely allowed him to escape time and time again. Not because it was distracted by the flesh it tore off but because it knew it could catch up to him at any time.


    It allowed him to almost reach the door because it wanted him to experience hope and then even deeper despair. This monster''s favorite meal was the suffering and agony that he experienced his whole life as he kept running from it.


    Aldrich stretched his hand to the door. Three steps away, that distance became an unbridgeable gap, between victory and defeat, between life and death, between despair and hope.

 Chapter 9 Last Stand

    Aldrich knew why he was still alive, he knew why this monster didn''t just tear him apart, it was savoring its meal, reveling in its filthy power over him.


    Aldrich found himself falling from his suspended position, he heard the sound of the shrieking monster and saw the tentacle that held him cut neatly on the ground. It happened in the blink of an eye.


    "I wasn''tte, was I?" Isger asked the shocked Aldrich.


    "Isger? Is that you? How did you¡ª?"


    "You just fell asleep, I saw that you were in pain. I tried to wake you up but you just wouldn''t wake up, naturally I had toe here to drag yourzy ass outside. I told you didn''t I? Tomorrow is a work day, don''t even think about skipping."


    Isger wielded his long sword in his right hand as he calmly observed the monster. Although it had no facial features besides a disguised mouth, Aldrich could read its feelings, it was frustrated and annoyed at being interrupted just when it was getting good.


    In a way Aldrich understood that frustration best because he just experienced it. The feeling of having victory snatched up from beneath you like a rug was unpleasant to say the least.


    "This thing has a dirty smell. I better do some spring cleaning." Isger taunted.


    Aldrich almost missed the sh between them as they collided. In that short moment the monster dealt three w strikes, the same type that mutted Aldrich, all were deflected.


    Isger didn''t only block but he dealt his own attack, one was to the torso and another to the inner thigh and then both retreated.


    Aldrich could see that the monster was wounded, the wounds were very deep for a human but this thing didn''t even bleed.


    To Mr. Isger''s credit he didn''t look fazed at all.


    "Alright, I am seriously rusty." Isgerughed, "watch carefully, this is my own technique, I made it when I achieved one with the sword, I call it the pure sword."


    Without giving Aldrich any time to get any of that he lunged and an overpowering presence was released from the sword.


    Now that Aldrich got a close look at it, the sword looked clean untouched by rust or dust but aside from that it was absolutely normal.


    It looked normal but the feeling it gave Aldrich at this moment was that it could cut through anything even mountain boulders would be cut like a hot knife cuts through butter.


    Aldrich was very familiar with Isger and knew him quite well, or rather he thought he knew him. This Isger felt like aplete stranger, he was the supreme knight from the storiese again and very real to boot.


    The second encounter onlysted one blink, the previously invincible monster was decimated, cut to a thousand pieces. It could not even offer up a struggle. Mr. Isger stood over thest intact part of the monster. It''s head.


    Isger didn''t waste time, he shed and cut the head horizontally. "Tough piece of shit." Isger spit to the side.


    Aldrich looked around in disgust at the scattered pieces of flesh and bone of the monster. He almost threw up.<sub> </sub>


    Suddenly there was a deafening shout, it was a shout unlike he''d ever heard in his life, he looked around and found the source. It was the severed mouth part of the monster''s head. It was screaming even though it shouldn''t be able to do that.


    As if in response to a signal somehow Aldrich imagined the entire corridor shacking¡ªno it was not his imagination at all, the entire corridor was shacking and wriggling. The walls were bing transparent.


    Now Aldrich could see beyond the walls and and what he saw numbed his scalp. There were many lights of all the colors in the world and more. Outside, several strange and terrible monsters were watching them.


    Aldrich couldn''t clearly discern their true shapes, while he tried to he felt his eyes hurt terribly and his head felt like it was about to split in two. He felt their hunger and impatience. They were waiting for the corridor to copse then they would swarm in.


    Even more horrific was that the severed parts of the monster were quickly moving on their own and joining up with each other.


    "This is why I didn''t want to fight this thing without knowing what it was." Murmured Isger out loud.


    "Aldrich get up, here, you take this." Isger pulled Aldrich up from his seating position and suddenly sheathed his sword and handed it over to Aldrich.


    "It''s good to be afraid. Fear is good, but like anything else in excess it works against you. A calm mind will serve you best."


    Isger tried to calm himself, thats right, Mr. Isger must definitely have a n. He was always able toe up with something.


    "What do I do with this? I haven''t swung a sword before but I''ll try tond a hit."


    Aldrich watched in equal parts disgust and horror as the nightmarish monster formed itself again. But this time it''s bald head split open to reveal a huge eye, it''s back cracked and revealed tens of tentacles.


    "That''s the spirit! There is a first time for everything but this is not your time."


    Isger sighed before turning around and pushing the unsuspecting Aldrich through the light door. Aldrich was standing right in front of the door all it took was a light push.


    Aldrich felt like time came to a standstill, or perhaps it slowed down rather than stopped. He watch in that moment before his bodypletely crossed over through the door, as the monster unleashed it''s tentacles in mad frenzy targeting none other than himself.


    What stood between him and certain death was Mr. Isger. Aldrich could only see his back from his position. The tentacled monster roared in mad rage, the monsters outside the corridor started attacking the corridor.


    Thest thing he heard was:


    "Ah, sorry, looks like I''ll have to skip work tomorrow."


    And everything faded to ck.

 Chapter 10 Hope Amidst Despair. Despair Amidst Hope.

    Aldrich woke up with a strained gasp. His hands moved on their own to his left shoulder and right thigh, there was no blood. No searing pain. Aldrich found himself almost bathed in sweat.


    Aldrich who was lying prone, got up, feeling that his hands shaking as if they could not support his weight. Aldrich looked around to find himself back at Isger''s house.


    Aldrich finally looked at Mr. Isger''s unmoving figure. Aldrich didn''t forget. He crawled to Mr. Isger with bated breaths. The distance between them was no more than a few inches.


    Of course, Aldrich had no doubt that Mr. Isger was fine. The Isger in the nightmare and the Isger here were not rted. After all Mr. Isger was no swordsman and he couldn''t have entered Aldrich''s nightmare, thats an absurd idea.


    Aldrich had a guess that the swordsman Isger was just a figment of his imagination. Likely his mind conjured him so as to protect himself or something to that extent.


    Finally, Aldrich reached Isger and he immediately stretched his hand to Isger''s forehead. The heat didn''t leave him. Then he put his finger underneath Isger''s nose and felt him breath in and out evenly.


    Such discovery brought Aldrich relief. But of course, it was expected.


    But Aldrich always woke up when the nightmare ended, but Mr. Isger was still sleeping. Aldrich decided that he should wake him up, just to make sure that he was fine.


    "Hey, Mr. Isger, wake up! It''s over."


    Isger didn''t respond.


    "Mr. Isger this not the time to be sleeping."


    Isger didn''t respond. Aldrich started shaking him a bit.


    " I am serious Mr. Isger. We got him. Wake up now, it''s over."


    No response. Aldrich was now shaking him much harder and even pping him from time to time.


    "Mr. Isger, stop joking. This isn''t funny." Aldrich got a pitcher of water and sprinkled some on Isger''s face.


    Aldrich suddenly threw the pitcher at the wall in anger. The pitcher crashed into pieces and the water spilled all over the floor. Aldrich then proceeded to punch the wall violently over and over until he was spent.


    Aldrich breathed ruggedly. Was it absurd that Isger could somehow enter his nightmare and that he was a swordsman? Yes, it was. But what''s been happening throughout thest two days was absurdity itself. That absurdity is his current reality whether he acknowledged it or not was of no significance.


    A calm mind is the key. If he lost his cool the consequences could be even worse than the current situation.


    First and foremost, Isger is not dead yet. He was still breathing and his heart is still beating. All is not lost. There was still hope. That hope is healer Harvick, a real cleric.


    Aldrich was determined not to waste time but he must first return the huge chest back to the secret basement. And clean up all the candles and the other random things.


    Aldrich could imagine if someone uninvolved in all this seeing the state of this room and using them of worshiping some dreadlord or even worse, a false god.


    Aldrich could only do some rough clean up, when he saw the sheathed sword, he held it for a moment before fastening it to his belt. Where he was going he might have a need for it.


    p Returning the chest back proved more challenging than he expected, the chest was much heavier than Isger made it look. The basement was very small and had only space enough for the chest.</anda>


    Closing the basement was much easier, just by returning the wooden nk back into ce, he heard a clinking noise and it was locked. Aldrich found it in himself to be a little awed by the contraption.


    Aldrich took all the bedsheets he could find and went to the barn to prepare a wagon. It was much smaller and lighter than the one Mr. Isger used to transport goods.


    He thenid down most of the sheets to cover the rough wood. While leaving some sheets to the side. Then he woke the sleeping mare and made pull the wagon to the door of the house. He felt bad about waking the mare up when it should be resting, but this was not the time.


    Aldrich went in and pulled up Isger, he carried Isger to the wagon and covered him with the sheets he left earlier. Aldrich pulled the reins of the mare and rode. His destination was the mountain woods by the old cemetery.


    He was not going through the vige trail, instead he was going to use a much less used trail that went around the vige.


    If he went through the vige the time he would take would''ve been shorter but he was most likely going to be spotted by one of the adults even at such ate night.


    Even if he told them about healer Harvick, they were unlikely to believe him. Letting him go on his own was even less likely.


    Aldrich met Harvickst year when he attempted to go scavenge the old cemetery looking to make some quick coin when an ident happened.


    He fell of one of the jagged rocks in the woods and his fall was horrible, what made it worse was the dry twig that got logged in his guts. Aldrich tried to return to the vige when he stumbled on healer Harvick picking some herbs.


    Healer Harvick healed him with his powers and in a few hours he was back to top condition. Harvick then warned Aldrich not to speak a word of what happened. Aldrich kept his word.


    Aldrich knew very little about Harvick. What he knew was that he liked to be alone and he hid his existence from the vige. Harvick is a Crestmaster, a cleric to boot, he would be treated like a king in the vige were he to reveal himself.


    And yet he chose to live alone in the woods. This means that Harvick disliked being bothered and interacting with people. Aldrich who was going to beg Harvick for a favor couldn''t bring a stranger while doing that.


    There was another more important reason, Aldrich felt that he wouldn''t be able to meet Harvick if he did that. Harvick told Aldrich that he would be able to find his ce only if Harvick allowed him to find it.<sub> </sub>


    In the ancient past which was two days ago he wouldn''t have believed such nonsense. Well, that changed.


    Going out alone in the night is bad, what''s worse is that he was using an old trail and carrying with him a sick man. The quiet in the woods was unnerving but Aldrich didn''t find himself as scared as he would have been.


    This is only natural considering his most recent brush with death to a horrific nightmare monster, the quiet woods weren''t that bad.


    Aldrich turned to check on Isger and found his heat getting lower and lower. The time between each breath he took was growing longer.


    Aldrich had to spur the mare faster. After a while he stopped the wagon. And looked around. Aldrich didn''t know the exact ce, he was simply following his gut feeling.


    Aldrich didn''t hesitate, he dismounted and held the reins of the mare and pulled it along. The mud was damp and the stars shone brightly offering Aldrich a decent view.


    Walking of the trail was bad enough on your own, but to head into the woods with a wagon was much harder. Sometimes the wagon got stuck in a tree root or slid down too much.


    A clearing suddenly appeared, in the center of the clearing there was a simple and small wooden house, it looked neither new nor old. A camp fire was burning a few meters of the door of the house.


    A man that was just like his house neither old nor young sat on a reclining chair facing Aldrich, he was smoking tobo off his pipe.


    Aldrich was not surprised that Harvick knew of his visit. He calmly guided the mare and the wagon behind it to the bonfire.


    "What do we have here? If it isn''t the crybaby boy. Not such a crybaby anymore eh?"


    "This man is sick. Please help me heal him?" Aldrich asked immediately without going into pleasantries.


    "Ah, young men these days, always in a hurry. We''ll first, here''s a question, tell me why should I help you?"


    Aldrich was taken back by an unexpected question, "because you are a cleric. That''s what you do. You heal people."


    Harvick put down his tobo pipe, "first of all, I am a healer not a cleric," he gave Aldrich a look and pointed at him, "Aldrich, you don''t mind if I call you AL do you? Well, AL, if a table breaks in your house will you bring a carpenter and tell him to fix it for free because that''s what he does? Does that make any sense to you?"


    Aldrich got the feeling the Harvick wasn''t a fan of clerics, though he was ashamed of himself for saying such a stupid thing, he never thought about it like that, "but you saved my life back then why?" he demanded.


    "Why? Because I fucking felt like it that''s why." Harvickughed in his face.


    "I''ll pay whatever you want just heal this man, he''s dying!"


    "Well. well now that''s more like it, out of the way, boy, let me see the patient. As a noble healer it is after all, my sacred duty."


    Aldrich forced a smile as a vein almost popped in his head.


    As Harvick was examining Isger, Aldrich was going through his own examination.


    ''I still haven''t payed off my mother''s debt and now this? No matter, Isger risked his own life for mine and I can''t even do this much? I maybe a bastard but I am not an ungrateful bastard''


    Aldrich was walking around the bonfire as he thought about how he could make more money...


    "Ahm!"


    Aldrich snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Harvick.


    Harvick on his part had a serious look, and when Aldrich was close enough he asked, "how did this happen? I can''t do anything to heal this man. His death is all but assured."


    Aldrich felt the world spin around him, "you''re joking right?"


    "I am not."


    "If this is about the money I said I''ll pay you whatever you want!"


    "Aldrich calm down! This has nothing to do with that. This man is dying because somehow his soul has left the bodypletely. I don''t have the ability to fix something like that."


    "The only thing I can do is to keep him alive until you bring here someone who can."


    Aldrich finally saw a ray of hope in a sea of despair.


    "Someone who can? Yes, of course. But who? You''re the only cleric in Wakefield. Mr. Krynt is a pyromancer."


    "Not from Wakefield, certainly not. You must to bring an Archbishop here."


    "An Archbishop? What? Me?"

 Chapter 11 Respect

    "Yes you. Who else is here besides you and me? Now listen. You might not have to bring an Archbishop."


    "There are two more options you can try if you can''t bring an Archbishop."


    Aldrich was sweating bullets, if the two remaining options are just like the first...


    "This is going to be a bit much, soe here sit by the fire, take a deep breath and try to keep all your questions till after I''m done."


    Aldrich walked stiffly to the bonfire and took a seat so he was facing the reclining chair.


    "Now listen carefully, the second option is, acquire a grade 6 wondrous item, it''s power must be soul rted, and someone who can use it properly,"


    "Third, get a grade three necromancer to help you or capture one, bring him here. These are the only ways that I know of."


    Aldrich was confused, "aren''t necromancers being chased by everybody? They''re heretics! they worship the lord of undeath!."


    "Ah, I guess even a country bumpkin like you knows that, huh."


    "What is a grade three necromancer anyway?"


    "A grade three necromancer is a necromancer that has ignited three symbols of his crest."


    Aldrich felt his head hurting with all the information being dumped on him like this. Seeing this, Harvick decided to slow down a little.


    "Alright let''s start with the basics. A Crestmaster is called that because they have a crest on their forehead simple right? The crest is the source of power and all abilities. The master part of the name is because as you master the abilities of the crest the more symbols you could ignite.


    The crest appears like a ring with a cross in the middle dividing the ring into four equal parts-which is why some call it the holy ring-these parts are empty until you ignite your first symbol and as a Crestmaster grows stronger he ignites more symbols.


    The necromancer in question has to have three ignited symbols, by the way an archbishop has ignited all four symbols. And I have only one."


    Aldrich was always confident in his smarts and he already was familiar with some of these things through Mr. Krynt.


    Harvick was silently allowing Aldrich to think through all what he just heard.


    ''A necromancer? That option is unrealistic, all necromancers are bloodthirsty and inhuman.''


    Their foul powers broke the sanctity of death and defiled the bodies of the dead. Heretics beyond salvation. Even god almighty, in his infinite mercy, wouldn''t forgive such acts. Perhaps that too, is a sort of mercy.


    Working with disgusting heretic is absolutely impossible for Aldrich. Not only was it extremely difficult and dangerous to find one, even if he did then what? The next thing he knew he''d be a zombie.


    Next is the grade 6 wondrous item, Aldrich knew very little about wondrous items other than somemon knowledge and that they are mostly found in ruins and dungeons. But the fact that the item was even mentioned in the same breath as the two options is already indicative enough about the difficulty of obtaining it.


    Lastly and ridiculously enough the most viable option is to bring an Archbishop here to heal Isger.


    "Wait why do I have to bring these things to here, why can''t I just take Isger to the capital and petition an Archbishop to heal him? I heard some people managed to do that."


    "Did you now? Well, regardless of wether these stories are true or not the reason is because currently, as you can see; this man''s body is dying. When I use my ability on him I can preserve his body so long as he remains within my house."


    Aldrich was incredibly frustrated by the constantly popping obstacles, but kept a cool head as he knew this time he must figure everything out before he made any rash decisions.


    "On the other hand, there maybe some methods that could solve this issue that I am unaware of. The problem is this man''s soul is missing, what must be done is to retrieve it wherever it maybe. I don''t suppose you have any idea about this, do you?"


    Suddenly the image of the bloody corridor appeared to Aldrich so vividly that he believed he was there again for a moment. Aldrich decided to be honest, after all Isger''s life depended on it and he had nothing to gain by keeping it a secret.


    Although it might sound like an insane story to a normal person, a Crestmaster was anything but normal.


    After Aldrich retold his story, Harvick was eerily silent, and stared at Aldrich pensively for what felt like a long time before he sighed, "ehh, I don''t think you''re lying but... that story is... hard to believe, if such a specter really roamed around here I would''ve been able to feel it instantly."


    "Something like that couldn''t have left no traces at all, but I hadn''t even suspected. And you say that thing tormented you for years? That makes no sense. And to top it off a normal farmer was not only able to enter into your nightmare but also severely damage said monster?"


    "Mr. Isger isn''t a Crestmaster?" Despite Isger''s denial, Aldrich already believed that he was a Crestmaster in hiding.


    "He is not. I am sure of that. I''m a cleric, in such a close proximity and him being defenseless, I can easily tell. He is as ordinary as theye. At least I thought as much.


    It''s not that I don''t believe you, it''s just possible that the specter cast some illusions on you or maybe your own mind did. Then again, this doesn''t exin how a man lost his soul so cleanly. How could so many contradictions exist together like this? Have I grown too old? The outside world changed this much? Fascinating!"


    "Give me that sword for a moment." Harvick ordered.


    Aldrich was hungry for answers, he was sure that understanding the matter better would make saving Isger easier, so he handed the sword over.


    Harvick unsheathed the sword and looked at it closely. Then he shook his head, "this is a very good sword, excellent even, it is unusual for a farmer to have such a sword, but it''s just a normal sword it doesn''t even have a single charm on it."


    Aldrich gritted his teeth in bewilderment, in the end nothing significant came out of it. He wasn''t even at the starting line.


    "A piece of advice." Harvick talked with a grave expression, "you must never mention this part to anyone. Especially about how a normal man fought a specter. The majority of people will scoff at your story but some people might want to check just in case... the things they would do to you... I am warning you, keep this part of your story to yourself."<sub> </sub>


    Harvick talked with such a ferocity that Aldrich got a little scared of him.


    "If someone came looking for Isger, will you protect him?" Aldrich had to ask now.


    "Protect him? I''m not really into violence but worry not nobody can find us here without my say so."


    "It''ll take at least two months for me to reach the capital, can you preserve him for that long?" Aldrich nervously asked. Two months was a decent amount of time.


    Suddenly Harvick looked at Aldrich strangely. "You''re not thinking about this right, boy. How will you travel to the capital in the first ce? You know travel is costly and dangerous too, right? Say you were able to make it to the capital in two months by some miracle.


    "What then? How will you meet an archbishop? You''re not thinking that it''s going to be easy right? And if so, how will you convince such a higher-up to set foot to some god forsaken vige to save some farmer''s life?"


    Aldrich felt like he suddenly fell into the river on a winter night. Harvick spoke only the truth, someone like him was more likely to be murdered and robbed on the way to the capital on such a journey.


    And how will he convince an archbishop to heal Isger. Aldrich still did not forget the lesson he just learned, people are not going to do favors for no reason. Would an archbishop be willing to talk to someone like him? No, this is an impossible task.


    ''Mother is right, I''m useless and worthless, There is no way someone like me could even hope to save Isger.''


    "Well that''s the bad news." Aldrich looked up at that remark, hoping there''s some good news.


    "The good news is that I can keep Isger alive for at least two years maybe for a third if he was lucky. I mean he''d probably have most of his physical functions."


    The deadline was much better than expected.


    "And you''re not just a normal human anymore. It might not be entirely impossible after all. Can''t you feel it? Your crest is about to form."


    Aldrich felt his forehead in disbelief but didn''t feel anything. His bewilderment turned to anger as he asked, "are you messing with me right now?! This is not the time!"


    Harvick put his hands forward in a defensive manner, "will you listen before you blow up? Damn, kids your age are all over the ce. I am not joking. Just because you can''t feel it doesn''t mean I cant."


    "Really? Shouldn''t I have an empty crest? Mr. Krynt told me all initiates won''t be able to control their crests." Aldrich was still suspicious.


    "Well first it starts slowly it usually takes a month for the spirit to grow enough. That takes time, once it grows enough your empty crest will appear."


    Aldrich was d, but not as happy as he thought he would be. The heaviness of his mission weighted on him greatly.


    "What should I do?" Aldrich decided to ask for advice since Harvick was an experienced man, and being a cleric he might have some connection to an archbishop in the capital.


    "Let me first ask you, Aldrich what is this man to you?"


    Aldrich was taken back by the question.


    ''What is Isger to me? That''s simple''


    "Isger is my employer, when I was looking for work to feed myself and to pay off my mother''s debt, he and Mr. Krynt gave me a chance. Thanks to them my situation got a lot better. So Mr. Isger is my employer, he is also my benefactor, my savior and my friend."


    Harvick stroked his nonexistent beard before closing his eyes and saying, "your friend huh? Well if you care about this man then my advice to you is; to let him die peacefully."


    These words hit Aldrich like a hammer to the head, and the rage he felt afterwards was mind-numbing.


    "Now before you get angry listen to me."


    Aldrich forcefully stopped himself from punching Harvick in the face.


    "I did say that I could keep Isger alive for two years and I certainly can, however during that time Isger will be experiencing torture-like pain. To be frank, aplishing any of the three options is a difficult matter even for me. If you fail, Isger will die a miserable death and would have suffered for nothing. You have the final say."


    Only now did Aldrich understand what Harvick meant. If he really cared about Isger he should let him die peacefully now rather than wait in suffering for an unlikely rescue. It was logical, rational. But... but...


    "You keep him alive until I return."


    Aldrich couldn''t find it in him to do that. Knowing well that his selfishness might have condemned Isger to a painful death.


    "Sure, I''ll keep him alive until then." Harvick replied nonchntly.


    "Did I make the right choice?"


    "The right choice? I never said I knew what''s right and what''s wrong. I don''t know. We will find outter after everything is said and done. Were you right? Were you wrong? Whatever it maybe, it will be very interesting don''t you think? Hahhaha"


    "One more thing, don''t you dare tell anybody my name, got it? If you do our deal is off and I will personally rip Isger''s head off and send it to you.


    You are man now and the most important thing when dealing with men is respect and if you break your word to me then I will take it as an insult, you will regret it, the result is unpleasantness for the both of us. You wouldn''t want that would you?"

 Chapter 12 The Night Is Long And Full Of Horror

    Aldrich was halfheartedly munching on bread and dry cheese as he distracted himself with the dancing mes of the bonfire.


    On the other hand, Harvick was back on his reclining chair and his tobo pipe. He blew rings of smoke and a multitude of other shapes.


    It''s been some time since theirst exchange which ended on a heavy note. At least to Aldrich, Harvick looked as nonchnt as ever.


    As Aldrich finished his meal, he washed it down with hot milk.


    Through that talk Aldrich came to understand that Harvick had something to hide but Aldrich had no intention to ask. All people had secrets even Aldrich didn''t tell the whole truth when he recounted the events to Harvick.


    But of course this request was easypared to the almost impossible task he had ahead of him. But there was a silver lining, he will soon be a Crestmaster.


    Meaning that the previously impossible mission was not so impossible anymore, the extended deadline certainly helped.


    He had to be an aplished Crestmaster within two years, then he had to invite an archbishop here or he could search for and find the grade 6 wondrous item. If he had enough money he could buy such an item.


    Of course enough coin could perhaps solve most problems. Coins, instead of making more he wascking more and more everyday.


    Now that he thought about it, it wasn''t such an impossible task after all. Aldrich had no intention to waste even a single day, he nned to leave for Ado''merin by dawn. Later he''ll figure out the rest of the n.


    The mare fell asleep and Isger was carried inside Harvick''s house. Aldrich didn''t want to wake the poor mare twice in one night, so he was going to leave it along with the wagon here. He''lle get themter in the morning.


    Aldrich washed his face with cold water and fastened the sword back to his belt, this sword will make him feel safer where he''s going next.


    Aldrich had no ns to go back to sleep, this night was long but it wasn''t over just yet.


    "About to head off somewhere?" Asked Harvick.


    "I don''t feel like sleeping so I''ll take a walk until sunrise."


    "Before I forget, I meant to give you this."


    Harvick handed him an unassuming ne with a tiny square te at the center.


    "This is a mental protection charm, it mighte in handyter on. Well it might be useless if you''re actually being targeted by a specter. You should get a better one when you ignite your first symbol."


    Aldrich didn''t know how to feel at receiving such a precious gift, but at the same time he had to shamelessly ept it.


    "Come on, don''t make that face, out there you''ll have to learn to be shameless." Harvickughed as he looked at Aldrich''s silly face.


    "Ah, be careful of how you were able to be lucid within your nightmare. When targeted by such a monster even the strongest grade one Crestmasters have no chance of resistance."


    Aldrich nodded and walked slowly outside the area of Harvick''s house.


    Before he left the vige there was some ounts to settle, like his mother''s debts. Traveling is costly, the farther your destination the more coin you''ll have to fork out.


    Aldrich had no intention to travel to Ado''merin by foot, he nned to hitch a ride on a carriage or a caravan. He also needed to eat and sleep all of which required some coin.


    His savings weren''t nearly enough, his first choice is to borrow from someone, but Aldrich had enough of debt he didn''t feel right paying off one debt and falling into another.


    The only ce where Aldrich might be able to make some quick coin is by scavenging the most forbidden area within all of Wakefield, the old cemetery, now said to be haunted by undead soldiers that fight tirelessly in the night.


    Aldrich was curious, is the old cemetery really haunted by undead soldiers? Why did the old cemetery of Wakefield turn into a battlefield? How?


    Aldrich could only imagine the fear of the people of Wakefield when a battle broke out right above their heads. The tumor could be true. If so then he would dly turn away. But if not then he might find something of value.


    Throughout thest year or so, Aldrich did think of scavenging the old cemetery but in the day he was busy with work and in the night he attempted going there a few time through this very rout.


    In the few times he got close enough he couldn''t see anything because of the thick fog that lingers around the cemetery area but he heard no evidence of an undead battle. Or anything at all as a matter of fact, it was just peacefully quiet but eventually he always chickened out.


    Instead of going through the woods and getting lost he found a way to a shortcut. He identally stumbled through the thickets by the cliffs walls and found a man made path that was covered by the over grown bushes.


    It lead almost straight to the old cemetery, Aldrich guessed that it must have been used by the vigers back when the cemetery was still in use. After all they wouldn''t take the risk of bumping into a hungry beast while on their way to the cemetery.


    Of course despite the rtive safety of the path, Aldrich was as quiet as a mouse. Aldrich looked at the sky and judged that it must be a few more hours before dawn.<sub> </sub>


    While Aldrich was crawling quietly, the serene silence of the night was broken. Aldrich thought that he must''ve imagined it but he heard it again. Now he knew what it was, people.


    How could anybody be out here at this hour? Aldrich debated on whether or not he should continue on his way or turn back. But he was curious and he was obscured by the bushes.


    But if he were caught trespassing in the most forbidden area, the mayor would lose his mind out of anger and Aldrich would be in deep trouble.


    Aldrich marched on, he would be out of the vige by this day, what trouble was he afraid of?


    p Aldrich glimpsed through the bushes light, by the chatter he now knew it wasrge group. Aldrich wondered at what could so many people be doing here at such a time? he was not quite there yet but he will soon get as close as possible.</anda>


    When he was close enough he raised his head to look through the bushes again but he was momentarily blinded by the light.


    When he could see clearly once again he doubted his eyes. He saw a group of around twenty men some of which were mounted on horses.


    Most of the men were wearing a matching uniform, a mixture of steel tes and heavy leather at the joints. They had muskets slung on their backs and swords hung at their belts.


    Some of them that didn''t wear the uniform, they were three among the ones on horseback. They were wearing colorful doublets and green patterned coats. One was a man the other a woman.


    The woman was lively and looked curiously everywhere, the man had a rxed demeanor, they were both talking quietly. Thest man who wasn''t wearing the uniform rode at the forefront.


    The man had dull clothingpared to the two behind him, his clothes were all ck and white lining. His face was covered by a silver mask.


    His mask didn''t depict some beast or a moster instead it was a middle aged man with a bountiful beard and a joyful smile.


    The three other mounted men wore almost the same uniform as those behind them. Except for some slight differences, some marks on the shoulders and the left chest.


    The only man riding on the same level as the masked man had the most marks.


    There was another man who didn''t wear the uniform, he was nked on both sides by the rest of the men. The man had a sack tied around his head up-to his neck and both his hands were cuffed behind his back.


    That man was evidently the source of most of the noise that attracted Aldrich here. He was shouting and purposely bumping into the men that surrounded him. A prisoner.


    He walked weird, which lead Aldrich to believe that even his legs were cuffed, the chains clink-nked as he walked.


    Aldrich was fascinated by this scene and got even closer, very carefully. Atst he was now directly above the group and now he could hear what the prisoner is saying.


    "Fuck you all! You dog like bastards! You think you''ve got me? Like hell you do! I can still murder everyone of you here-!"


    One of the soldiers in the back hit the prisoner with the butt of the musket. The prisoner fell face down.


    "Don''t you understand what shut your trap mean?!" The soldier had enough as he kicked the fallen prisoner in the gut.


    "Enough. Don''t over do it."


    The leader of the soldiers, the middle aged man with the decorated uniform turned around, the masked man followed him. The rest of the mounted group followed behind them.


    "Oh, what''s this? The great general defends the likes of me? How ridiculous!" The prisoner, although beaten was unfazed.


    The general had a stoic expression but his words were sharp as swords, "I do not defend you, scum. The lord wants you alive and I follow orders unlike treasonous bastards like yourself."


    Aldrich thought that he finally understood whatever is happening here. These soldiers were transporting a criminal through Wakefield. But that didn''t make any sense. Aldrich decided to eavesdrop even more.


    The blond man with the rich clothes stepped foreword, he petted the horse as he talked.


    "But I am curious, why, Voy? Whats with all this? What makes you care about this vige so much? After we took you in and sheltered you from the inquisition, you had nothing! Is this how you repay us? When did you suddenly grow a conscience?"


    The blond young man, asked, but Aldrich didn''t feel any anger or resentment, he was just curious.


    The prisoner who was down got up, and was provoked by the young man''s questions.


    "Have you no qualms about what you''re about to do to that little vige?! Conscience? How can you say that to me? I didn''t agree to any of this! God will smite you all!!"

 Chapter 13 Oathbreaker

    Aldrich suddenly felt a chill creep on him. But he didn''t understand, he was high above the cliff and the people below seemed to belong to different worlds.


    "A boring answer. Well no matter, you got caught and now you''ll get your head chopped off." It was the woman on the left of the masked man the replied.


    "Well, get me out of these cuffs and see how I bore you, bitch." The prisoner was not backing down.


    "No, he will not die now, the lord wants him alive. That''s how it''ll be. That is until he doesn''t." The general had no intention of killing the prisoner, for now at least.


    "Keep watch over this scum here, when our task is done bring him over." The general instructed the footmen before he turned around with the rest of mounted group.


    They headed in the direction of Wakefield.


    Aldrich decided to follow them, he had no idea what they nned to do in Wakefield. Despite the increasing chill, Aldrich was not quiet sure what to make of what he heard.


    The mounted group traveled along the edge, not willing to go through the woods in the night which made following them easy.


    The group did not go too far before they came to a stop, the general turned to the masked man, "I hope your role in the operation is clear."


    "Clear, clear, how many times do you have to remind me? Do I look senile to you? Tsk, this is why I hate working with you military types."


    It was the first time Aldrich heard the masked man talk. His voice was unexpectedly clear despite his mask.


    "Then you understand my need to stress this matter, you and your disciples are to merely watch, if anything unexpected happens then you act."


    "Yes, yes of course. But I''m sure you understand these youngsters don''t always listen to me, you see? This is their first time out in a while. And as a master, I have found such ughter to be very educational and fun to boot."


    ughter? Aldrich felt his suspiciouse true. But who are they here for? Wakefield is a peaceful vige most criminals are dealt with by locking them up in a cell by the mayor.


    "Fun? I care little for your entertainment. I am the highest officer here and the head of this operation. If you or your disciples disobey direct orders, I will send a formalint to your elders."


    "Oh,e on, stop being such a tight ass, will you? I don''t think Enthelmyre gave such strict orders. The mission objective is simple; kill everyone. Mission over."


    "That''s lord Enthelmyre to you. I won''t repeat myself nor will I waste anymore time, sunrise is at hand."


    ''Kill everyone? What? They''re not here to transport some criminal? W-wait, Shit, this can''t be right.''


    Aldrich watched quietly not daring to breath as the group walked off, then he turned back and returned to the footmen guarding the prisoner. Aldrich hopped that he might get some information from them.


    Observing this group felt actually much safer than the mounted group, although the footmen numbered thirteen men they felt less intimidating, even with all their shiny muskets.


    The footmen made a campfire and were drinking water from waterskins and eating what looked like dried meat. The prisoner was kept in the center. The prisoner was silent.


    The footmen did not move much, none of them went too far from the rest of the group and they were keeping a close watch on the prisoner. Even talk was kept to a minimum and their postures were focused.


    Aldrich was disappointed that he could not get anything out of them. Aldrich wanted to turn back when he suddenly realized that he was stuck.


    If he turned around he''ll be spotted by the mounted group and he couldn''t get down here because he''ll get caught by the footmen. Aldrich tried to think of a way out to no avail.


    If he got caught by these people he did not imagine he would be treated too kindly.


    The way the mounted group were going, they might bump into Harvick''s house. This thought mad Aldrich restless but he was not going to lose hisposure easily, he remembered what Harvick told him about his house.


    ''None can find this house without my say so''


    Aldrich had been thinking for a while now when he noticed something unusual happen down in the camp. The previously alert footmen became sluggish, they yawned loudly and tiredly. One by one they fell asleep.


    Aldrich had trouble believing his eyes, how did they go from full alertness to deep sleep in a matter of minutes. And all of them at once? All but the prisoner in the center.


    "Can you bastards hear me?" The prisoner asked as he turned his head around, he couldn''t see through the sackcloth over his head.


    "Tsk, tsk, about time you guys took a nap. Now let this old man be on his way hahaha!" The prisoner joyfully talked andughed with himself.


    Aldrich was awed as the prisoner crawled on his knees towards the soldier to his left and then he turned around so his backside was facing the sleeping man.


    "Fuck me, where did you hide the keys?" The prisoner was still handcuffed and had to get the keys while his hands were cuffed behind his back which was very difficult and awkward.


    "Damn I can''t reach!"


    Aldrich descended from the slop and walked towards the prisoner. He stepped on a dry brach and it broke.


    Shit.


    The prisoner was stiff for a moment and then he turned to his direction.<sub> </sub>


    "One got away huh? Did you go take a piss? Well, it''s been a long day so the lot of them decided to take a quick nap. Friend, I don''t think it''s fair of them to leave the watch to you alone, you should join them.


    you know what I''ll keep watch for you guys, are you thinking of me? Look at me, with my hands and feet like this where can I go?..."


    Aldrich stopped in his tracks for a moment before resuming his way to the prisoner in silence. He decided to go along with the prisoner''s delusion, without even saying a word he may get more information.


    "You''re not one of them. Listen friend, help me get the keys. These people are about to do something horrible to your vige. You''re from Wakefield right?"


    Aldrich was annoyed that his ploy was seen through that quickly, but he was rmed.


    "How should I trust you?"


    "You''ve got no choice but to trust me. Kid, you''re just a boy right? I know it from your voice. Listen, if you help me out I''ll help you escape this vige unscathed, I swear it on my dead mother''s soul."


    Aldrich was still hesitant about trusting a man in hand cuffs, the idea that Wakefield was going to be attacked is ridiculous but Aldrich learned quite recently that ridiculous things can happen.


    And if he was going to warn the vige he''s going to need information, who are they? How many were there? Why attack Wakefield? The prisoner was right, he was Aldrich''s only option at the moment. But Aldrich wasn''t an easy haggler.


    "First tell me everything you know, then I''ll get the key for you."


    "Shit, kid, fine I''ll answer one question and then you open the cuffs, deal?"


    "No, no deal, you answer all my questions first."


    "Oh, no, no way. What''s your name kid?"


    "Aldrich" Aldrich answered reflexively and immediately regretted it.


    "Well, Aldrich look around you. You see all the soldiers in deep sleep? Yes, they''re sleeping not dead and my trick won''t keep them asleep for much longer. If you can kill them in their sleep, I would be happy to chat with you until you are satisfied. Can you do that for me?"


    Aldrich looked around at the sleeping soldiers. If they woke up his ending won''t be pretty. Aldrich was used to hunting and working in the farm he was used to ughter.


    These men came here to kill innocent people but Aldrich wasn''t sure yet and even then, he had never killed anything but beasts and animals. Such evil men, they deserved to die but Aldrich couldn''t find it in himself to do it.


    "Deal. Who are you?" Aldrich decided to focus on the questions to avoid answering.


    "Can''t do it eh? No shame in that. Well I am Cazmer Brevoy, pleasure to meet you."


    "That''s not what I meant!"


    "That''s what you asked! Have you no manners? You should introduce yourself, show some respect I''m a Crestmaster for god''s sake.


    Okay, don''t get mad, as I said my name is Cazmer Brevoy, known by a few other names, I am a Crestmaster and I work¡ªused to work for an order called the true saint''s folk. There you go, now, the keys."


    "A Crestmaster?!" Aldrich was shocked. How could a Crestmaster be treated like this? As for the true saint''s folk, he had no idea who they were, never heard of the name either.


    "Don''t you know what a Crestmaster is? What kind of backwater is this?"


    Aldrich felt his face heat up, "I know what a Crestmaster is! I was just¡ª" Aldrich gave up on exining.


    Aldrich hesitated but a deal was a deal. He picked the two keys from the soldier''s belt and opened the cuffs on the prisoner.


    The prisoner stood up and rubbed his bruised hands then he stretched his back.


    "Alright, now I''m gonna remove the sackcloth on my head, just don''t freak out or scream or anything."


    ''Do you really think I''ll scream just by seeing your face? I''m not that shallow''


    Soon Aldrich discovered how wrong he was and what a big mistake he just made. When Cazmer removed the sackcloth he revealed a mostly normal face except for the dark greenish stain on his face, it contrasted his body''s pale skin heavily.


    On his forehead two small and smooth horns protruded, the horns were ck too but the tips glowed red. The pupil of his left eye were yellow and much bigger than his normal brown right eye.


    An oathbreaker. Aldrich would have screamed if Cazmer didn''t cover his mouth.


    "Shut it. Do you want to get us both killed? Out of the way, let me get rid of these trash."


    Cazmer went on to pick a sword from one of the sleeping soldiers and then he proceeded to slit the throat of the sleeping man, as he died the man woke up but before he could shout, Cazmer covered his mouth with his free hand.


    "Sh sh, don''t wanna wake your friends do ya? Now thats just rude. Your friends will follow you soon don''t worry, I promise." Cazmer whispered to the thrashing body.


    Aldrich had no idea who Cazmer was talking to since the soldier was already dead. But since Cazmer was an oathbreaker his actions made sense. Considering he was supposed to be mad.

 Chapter 14 Run No More

    Cazmer then went on to repeat his actions on every soldier around. Aldrich watched in disgust as blood spilled and a terrible stench spread.


    Suddenly one of the supposed corpses shot up and whacked Cazmer in the back of the head. With a loud thud Cazmer fell unconscious.


    Then the pissed off soldier turned to Aldrich. Aldrich didn''t know when he did it, but he unsheathed Isger''s sword and had it pointed at the soldier.


    His hands were shaking, he thought about solving this matter peacefully but then he remembered the still warm corpses around him. Aldrich realized there was only one way this could end.


    Aldrich looked at his opponent and discovered that he had yet to unsheathed his own sword. In fact the soldier was still fumbling weirdly with his belt, his hand was slipping, rising and falling pointlessly.


    When the soldier finally managed to unsheathe his sword, Aldrich finally realized how unsteady and weak he was. It was now or never. Aldrich lunged and shed at the soldier''s torso. And blood spilled.


    Aldrich watched as the soldier was pushed to the ground, he still didn''t believe his blownded, and the soldier didn''t even fight back. No, he did he just swung his sword far away from Aldrichpletely missing him.


    The soldier was notpletely awake, he was forcing his body to move and thats why he was unstable and clumsy.


    The soldier was not dead yet. His sword was knocked away when he crashed on the ground, he did not or could he get back up. He was simply moaning and touching his bloody wound.


    The sh was not deep enough, Aldrich wanted to just leave him like that, hoping that he would just bleed to death. But what if he got back up? Or maybe he could wait for Cazmer to get back up then he''ll do it...


    Aldrich grimly walked over to the fallen soldier, the easiest way to do it is to cut open his throat. Aldrich ced the de of his sword on his throat. He had to push it in, but the sword just wouldn''t move.


    Aldrich looked at the soldier, he was young at around twenty three, guys like him would already have two or three children running around in Wakefield. He could have a wife, parents and grandparents.


    Aldrich hesitated for too long. The soldier held the sword by the de and flung it off of Aldrich''s soft grip. Aldrich didn''t have the time to see where his swordnded because he was caught by the shoulder and headbutted.


    Aldrich fell back in pain. Now he was certain, if he did not kill this man he would be killed by him. Aldrich didn''t want to die. Couldn''t die. Mr. Isger was still waiting for him, he needed to warn the vige of the impending attack, he needed to save everyone and for that he couldn''t die.


    Aldrich felt his right handnd on a stone as big as his hand. Aldrich picked it up and lunged on the still fallen soldier and struck his head, the soldier tried to struggle but Aldrich straddle him and struck him in the head over and over.


    "Stop.... stop.... please stop...heg... I don''t want....die..."


    Aldrich didn''t stop or slow down. This soldier in normal circumstances could overpower him easily. He could not allow him to rest.


    Aldrich struck over and over over and over over and over and over again. Even after the soldier stopped moving, even after his face became a mess.


    Suddenly before his next blow couldnd a hand stopped him.


    "Enough."


    Aldrich looked up to see Cazmer.


    "No, I have to¡ª"


    "Enough, get up"


    Cazmer supported Aldrich to stand. After he stood up, Aldrich let the bloody stone fall out of his hand. Then he looked at his hand, it was shaking.


    Cazmer suddenly put a waterskin in his hand. Aldrich poured some water on his hand and since the blood was still fresh it washed off easily.


    "You did alright boy. Now watch carefully."


    Cazmer then pulled out a sword and stabbed it through the throat of the soldier. The soldier didn''t twitch.


    "Always make sure your target is dead. You''re probably gonna do more of that from now on."


    "More? More what?"


    "More killing, of course."


    "You said that you will answer all my questions. I think this is the right time."


    "I did, go on, ask me anything. But do it while looting these guys, see these nice leather bags? Take any food or coin you find."


    Aldrich felt conflicted but he was originally here to rob graves so this wasn''t such a big deal.


    "Tell me everything you know about this attack."


    "Hmm, well I told you I was a member of the true saint''s folk. It was around two weeks that I got an order, I was to participate in this attack, me and a few others.


    Our job wasn''t to really attack by just stand by in case something happened. Why would they need ten Crestmasters to stand by for something like this? That''s one of the questions I asked. Remember that masked man juat now he''s one of them."


    The man that talked about how fun and educational ughter was.


    Cazmer stopped talking as he had to flip one dead soldier to the other side to get his valuables.


    "But why? Why attack us? We''re just¡ª"


    "I don''t know why, I''m not qualified to to know. Long story short I didn''t like what I was told to do so I ran away to warn your vige. Unfortunately I was captured."


    "So this true saint''s folk order epted an oathbreaker like you?" Aldrich had to ask. Even being in the vicinity of an oathbreaker is dangerous.


    Cazmer snorted, "like me? You don''t know the half of it, this order is basically filled with Oathbreakers! As far as I know there''s at least fifty of them some of them are fully transformed."


    To think such a sphemous order exists in thisnd, it made all the horrific stories that peddlers brought to Wakefield seem a little more real.


    Aldrich finished collecting some coin pouches and was surprised each one had at least a silver, he deposited the coins and the dry meat in a leather bag and fastened it on his back.


    "Who are these soldiers? Are they from that order too?" Aldrich was definitely curious about that while still being dumbfounded that these guys actually sent ten Crestmasters to Wakefield.


    "I have no idea. It seems to me that they are a different force, they joined hands for this apparently. This is all a guess." Cazmer looked like he didn''t even care about the soldiers.<sub> </sub>


    "Alright, lets get going, running early like this is the best option for us. They won''t even miss me until everything is done for."


    Aldrich was confused, "go where? We have to go warn the vige!"


    Cazmer looked at him like he was the mad man, "are you someone important? The son of the mayor or something?"


    Aldrich felt like the question was out of nowhere but still answered, "no I am not. I don''t see how this has to do with any of this."


    "It has a lot to do with all this. Tell me, is there anyone in your vige who would believe you if you started screaming that the vige will be attacked in the middle of the night?"


    "I-I am not sure."


    "What''s your name?"


    "I''m called Aldrich."


    "Listen here, Aldrich, this whole situation is shit. I know that better than you but the fact of the matter is we can''t do anything for the people down there.


    The entire vige and the surrounding area ispletely surrounded. They have squads like the ones here all over the ce. Think of it like a that has already captured the fish.


    My n was to warn your vige days before the attack so you could evacuate. That chance is now gone. The only opening in the is this ce here. Now.


    The attack will be at sunrise, in around two hours, can you evacuate a vige of a few hundred in that time? If anyone even believed a word you say."


    How could Aldrich not understand, if he was sleeping in his warm bed and a random kid started shouting that the vige will be attacked, that guy will get publicly spanked. Why would he take something like that seriously?


    Even right this moment when he was personally experiencing this whole thing seemed surreal, like listening to a story that had nothing to do with him.


    Aldrich bit his lips and drew blood. This is real.


    "Can''t you help us? Can''t youe with me if they hear it from you they''ll believe it."


    "Look at me, I am an oathbreaker would anyone sane believe a word I say?"


    ''Are you implying that I''m not sane?''


    p "Fine you can go. I''m going down there to warn a few people who might believe me. I have to try."</anda>


    Aldrich remembered his mother and Mr. Krynt, he remembered the mayor and father Gombst. He couldn''t just leave them to die and escape on his own. He had to try. Two hours was still enough time, he could make it.


    "You''re going to die with them! Kid you got unbelievably lucky on this night. Don''t throw away your life like that."


    "No, I can''t go without at least trying. Two hours is good enough I can make it there and back in time."


    Cazmer was fuming, "are you trying to be a hero?! You''re nothing! You''re a nobody! You''ll die without even knowing how!"


    "I know!" Aldrich shouted back, "but I still have to try. You can go first. These people helped me countless times! I. Have. To. Try."


    Cazmer looked like he was struggling with something intensely. Aldrich had no idea why Cazmer was so angry, he could just escape now.


    Cazmer facepalmed and sighed heavily. Then he proceeded to take Aldrich''s bag off and fill it with the contents of his own bag.


    "You''re not making this easy. Listen I will go and make a ruckus on the opposite direction of this ce right before sunrise, that should get their attention for a while."


    "Why are you giving me all this?"


    "A deadman like me won''t need it."


    "No you don''t have to do that¡ª"


    "Shut it. I''m doing this on my own. I have to try at least right? And I''m not doing it for free. either."


    Suddenly Cazmer used the sword to cut a wound on his left leg. He then pushed his fingers into the wound and pulled out a ck ring and gave it to Aldrich.


    "This is the item I used to make the soldiers fall asleep, it also doubles as the key to my treasures hideout. On a night of full moons inject it with Ether and the details will be revealed then. Give some of the treasure to my brother in Ebrict, there''s a certain map there you can take it. You might be able to make some use of it."


    Aldrich didn''t know what to say. What can you say to a man''s dying words?


    "Deal." Thats all.


    Cazmer cleaned his hand with a wet cloth before tying it around his wounded leg.


    "Never reveal all your abilities and items to anyone, not your friends or enemies. Information is a powerful weapon, reveal only what suits your needs."


    Aldrich couldn''t say anything but he nodded.


    "Tell me Aldrich, if you did bad things all your life but did a good thing before you died, do you think it makes up for all the bad?"


    "No" Aldrich replied before he could stop himself. Then again he didn''t want to lie right now.


    "Yeah I figured as much. But you know what, I am tired of running. My father was a pirate, part of a particrly notorious band, so when I went to study in the academy I had to hide my identity. You are the first person I told my real name to in years.


    The first person I killed was my friend who identally found out my secret.


    When I graduated my talent was shit but I had big dreams so I took the oath andter on for even more power I broke it.


    Don''t ask me, I''ve long forgotten what my dreams were. At some point I forgot. I haven''t seen my little brother in thirty years, I''m ashamed to see him.


    And now look at me, a half-human half-monster madman. You know the worst part? I am afraid to die, even more scared than a fifteen year old boy. But I am tired of running. I will run no more."

 Chapter 15 Bigger Things

    Aldrich wanted nothing more than to sit and think about everything that happened on this cursed night but the night was not over yet and he had a long way to go.


    He separated from Cazmer minutes ago. With heavy steps Aldrich decided to take a risk and go to the vige through the woods. Not by any trail or otherwise, Cazmer judged that the fastest way is through the woods and the danger is eptable Aldrich agreed.


    What he needed was time, the more time he had the better. Aldrich wasn''t rushing blindly both he and Cazmer agreed that he should first talk to Krynt, if he was sessful then Krynt could help.


    The same wordsing from Aldrich or Krynt carried different weights. If Krynt said an attack wasing at least some people might believe him unlike Aldrich. His words would carry much more weight than Aldrich''s.


    He did consider the mayor but although they shared an alright rtionship but it wasn''t anything more than an adult being kind to a child.


    The woods in the night were dangerous for many reasons, hungry beasts being only one of them. And at the speed he was going, even more so.


    The starlight filtering through bare branches gave only enough illumination to fool his eyes into thinking they saw what was underfoot.


    Roots threatened to trip him at every step, old brambles snagged his legs, and sudden dips or rises in the ground had him half falling as his foot met nothing but air where he expected firm earth, or stumbling when his toe struck dirt while still moving forward.


    Uncertainty made him peer into the darkness until his eyes burned, listen as he had never listened before. Every scrape of branch against branch, every rustle of pine needles.


    His ears straining, hardly daring to breathe for fear he might not hear some warning sound, for fear he might hear that sound. Only when he was sure it was just the wind would he go on.


    Slowly, weariness crept into his arms and legs, driven home by a night wind that mocked his cloak and coat.


    The weight of the leather bag, so little at the start, now tried to pull him to the ground. His stumbles were no longer all from tripping. The almost constant struggle not to fall took as much out of him as did the actual work of running as straight as possible.


    If he wasn''t so familiar with these woods from an early age when he went hunting with Krynt and Isger he would have doubted his every step but he could not afford to. How long has it been? how much more?


    Finally the woods receded and the vige''s wooden wall came into his sights. Aldrich didn''t bother looking for the gate and just jumped over the wall.


    The vige was dead silent and dark. Aldrich didn''t dare to take a breath, but still more vivid than the wilderness, he immediately made for Krynt''s house.


    He still remembered that Krynt was busy but the current situation clearly came first. If he was stopped for even a second he would break the damn door if he had to.


    Finally, he arrived at Krynt''s house but instead of knocking on the door he turned left and headed for the only window that had light shining through it. The study.


    Aldrich stopped before the window and took out his sword, still sheathed. He wanted to use the pommel to break the window and jump in through there.


    "What do you think you''re doing?"


    A familiar voice stopped him in his tracks. Aldrich looked up and the window was opened by the man who was disbelievingly looking at him.


    "To think you would have the boldness to try and rob me of all people. Bold and... incredibly stupid."


    Aldrich put his sword back in ce. That''s right, it''s only been a day since hest saw Krynt but it felt like months to Aldrich.


    "What''s wrong with you? Who died?" Krynt jested lightly, but was met with an unamused look by Aldrich. Krynt''s jovial expression turned to a slight frown.


    "Come on in..."


    Aldrich pulled himself over the window sill and climbed in.


    Now that Aldrich was face to face with Krynt he didn''t know where to start. Too much has happened. He decided to start by what is most pressing.


    "There''s going to be an attack on the vige at first light! We have to evacuate as many people as possible. I know of a way¡ª"


    "Hold on just a moment. An attack, here?"


    "Yes!"


    This was an expected reaction. Aldrich quickly took out one of the swords he snagged from one of the soldiers and showed it to Krynt.


    "How many? What are they, goblins, kobolds?" Krynt quickly bombarded him with questions.<sub> </sub>


    Krynt was very familiar with Aldrich to begin with and when he saw the blood stains on Aldrich''s clothes and a sword that nobody in the vige had. He chose to believe in the warning.


    "They''re humans and they''re organized, at least I know they have someone they call a general and they wear a uniform. The have muskets and swords. I am not sure how many."


    "Muskets and swords? They seem like a real military force than bandits. Listen, you go and call father Gombst to the vige square. I''ll contact the mayor."


    Krynt was taking out his own musket from a wardrobe. Aldrich was d that the exnation didn''t take long, after all time was of the essence.


    "Oh, and they have ten Crestmasters."


    Suddenly Krynt stopped all his movements like a puppet with its strings cut. The he stood back up dropping the musket to the ground and looked Aldrich in the eyes.


    "H-how do you know that? No never mind, just tell me, are you sure of that?"


    This was the first time that Aldrich saw Krynt so spooked. So afraid.


    "Yes I''m sure."


    Krynt was suddenly deted beforeunching into the many drawers in the room and starting throwing stacks of papers into the firece.


    Aldrich was understandably confused, a strange feeling began to overwhelm him.


    "What are you doing?! Mr. Krynt we have no time for this we have to get moving there''s not much time before sunrise!"


    "It''s no use!" Krynt snapped. "Do you even know what ten Crestmasters even mean? There''s no escape. I''m not warning anybody, you should escape on your own quickly."


    "Why not?! You know an attack ising. Everyone will get killed if you don''t¡ª"


    "I can''t! If I did warn them they''ll make a huge ruckus, you think it''s easy for people to just up and leave their homes? They will notice that kind ofmotion.


    And if they did that then the enemy will attack now. We''re not dealing with some dumb creatures, if something suspicious happens in the vige they''ll just attack now.


    The target of this attack is probably me. If the only Crestmaster goes missing they''ll know. The more people try to escape the more obvious."


    Aldrich tried toprehend what he was hearing to no avail. Everything just became gibberish.


    "You are the only one that can escape, Aldrich. Just wait a moment." Krynt took out a bunch of papers and started writing, after he was done he stamped the paper with a wax seal.


    Krynt then called to his winged messenger monkey and inserted the paper in a contained and strapped it to a belt around the monkey and handed the monkey to Aldrich.


    Aldrich took the monkey absentmindedly, "they''ll kill everyone. They''ll kill your wives, your kids, they''ll kill you! And you want me to take a monkey and a piece of paper?"


    "I know," Krynt was back to his usual calmness, "things turned out this way... maybe we were wrong, back then we didn''t know anything... but, there are things in life bigger than you or me..."


    "I don''t¡ª"


    "You will. Someday. You''re going to be a Crestmaster just like you always wanted, huh. I can feel your crest. But be careful, the life of Crestmasters may not be what you think it is. Also, my daughter Adera, look after her, she might get caught up in all this. Please."


    "I will, I promise."


    Aldrich nodded heavily, then his eyes wandered to the portrait above the firece. It was the portrait of a beautiful brte woman holding what looked like a one year old baby girl.


    This was Krynt''s first wife, she died before he moved to Wakefield. Aldrich always wondered why Krynt wasn''t together with them in the portrait.


    Before Aldrich jumped out of the window, Krynt went back to throwing the papers to the fire and didn''t turn back to look at him.


    Aldrich jumped out, but he wasn''t leaving yet, there was another person that he had to take with him no matter what.


    His mother.

 Chapter 16 Like A Dream

    As Aldrich passed through the familiar streets and alleyways he caught himself lingering at some houses. And he hesitated but never stopped.


    Somehow his leg kept walking through it all. He did not want to look, didn''t want to recognize the houses or the people living in them. Sleeping without a worry, in a drunken dream expecting to wake up as usual.


    But in the back of his head he recognized them, after all he grew up with them, yed and even fought with some of them. That was Wyter''s ce a carpenter.


    As he walked he saw more and more. There was also Aga, Baran, Jafer, Hake, Pam- he didn''t want to look anymore but felt that he was somehow obliged to.


    He came here running like a fool thinking he was going to save everyone. Some part of him thought maybe he should have listened to Cazmer. If he ran away there and then maybe he wouldn''t have to feel like this.


    Eventually Aldrich found himself back home, Aldrich hesitated by the door, it was more habit than his own will.


    He pushed open the door and entered, he walked grimly to the bed room and was surprised him mother wasn''t asleep as usual. Instead she was staring at the burning mes in the firece.


    "Where were you?"


    "Mother, theres no time, we have to go."


    "Go? Go where? Did you hit your¡ª"


    Aldrich snapped, "I''m serious! The vige will be attacked! We barely have an hour to run away. I''ll tell you everything elseter! Leave your things, we have no time."


    His mother stared at him for a hard minute.


    "I''m not going anywhere."


    "Mother I''m not joking there¡ª"


    "I heard you the first time! The vige will get attacked, yes? Great. I am staying."


    "Whats wrong with you?! I have enough coin to take us to Voryhrm and I can learn in the academy, I can be a Crestmaster. Come with me."


    "Atst. You''re so dumb, you decide to make something of yourself now when it''s already toote? Useless! One step toote for anyone of us."


    Her words although Aldrich was already used to them still stung. It''s not like he could control something like that, but that was just an excuse.


    "So what if you got a Crest? You''re just going to fail. Why even bother? just sit down here and die with the rest of us. You''re can''t make anything out of yourself. Just die."


    Aldrich was tempted to do it. Isger was between life and death because of him, Cazmer was going to sacrifice his life for him and Krynt was going to die too.


    All because of his weakness because of he''s worthless, he went through all that but couldn''t change anything. He convinced Cazmer to buy time with his life only to achieve nothing.


    "No. There are things that I must do."


    "Whatever, go fetch me my dreamshade stashed in the corner under the drawer."


    Aldrich had to be impressed by her consistency at least. How she still managed to get dreamshade after all his measures to stop her is a mystery.


    It was a small hand-sized pouch. Aldrich gave it to her unwillingly. He watched her take out her pipe and fix the powdered substance in ce. Then she directly used the fire to light up her pipe. She took a beep breath.


    Aldrich watched as her eyes shined and her body looked alive at that moment.


    "You never listen to me. I never liked you. If you go out there, be ruthless. Be your own master don''t be a pawn, a ve. As you are now you probably can''t be anything but a pawn. But if one day you can be ...free, that wouldn''t be so bad, free, yes, just like a dream."


    The blue smoke veiled his mother''s face he couldn''t see her expression and didn''t want to. Aldrich turned around and walked towards the door. He stopped, as he opened the door he turned to look back at her.


    "I will make something of myself, I''ll be a great man. From whichever hell you go to, watch and see."


    Then he stepped out and closed the door.


    "Fuck off!" He head the curse echo behind him.


    Aldrich didn''t slow down he was alreadyte, he couldn''t afford to waste anymore time. He jumped over the wall and continued on his way right back where he came.


    The messenger monkey rode on his left shoulder so quietly he almost forgot it was with him. It was only the size of his forearm and very intelligent.


    As he made his way, he took out a waterskin and took a generous gulp. The light of the stars was fading and the dark sky was brighter.


    This gave Aldrich more visibility but also told him that he was almost out of time.


    Panting and huffing as he ran up the hills and through the woods, he didn''t doubt his direction even once, without any evidence he simply followed where he thought was the right way.


    Eventually he found his way back to the clearing where thirteen corpses greeted him, he ignored them. When he suddenly stopped in his tracks to think carefully.


    From this direction, Cazmer probably wanted Aldrich to go around the mountain and go straight through the woods till he reached somewhere.


    But now the time was toote, the cover of the darkness that they banked on will soon desert them.


    And the mountains were homes to savage beasts much more so than the woods around the vige, the mountains were wild and unforgiving.


    Cazmer thought of this escape rout with himself as the subject, these beasts were nothing to a Crestmaster but to Aldrich this was a death sentence.


    He could easily get lost too as Aldrich had never explored these parts too much.<sub> </sub>


    There was a river stream that was close by. Aldrich had his eyes on this stream as it descends it would join with the Drnaine river that passes right through the middle of the vige to Uleq and then up to Ado''merin.


    It was too shallow for big boats here. It was used for fishing and drinking in the vige. Aldrich saw a bunch of logs around the stream.


    He would hold on to one of them and escape by passing right under their noses. Then he wouldn''t get lost and he will cover a good distance in a short amount of time.


    Aldrich looked for a suitable log when he happened on a huge log that was hollow on the inside. Perfect. Aldrich dumped his bag in and broke some offshoots that could get the log stuck.


    He then proceeded to push all the logs around into the stream. If there was only one log it would be too conspicuous. With so many logs the chances of getting away increases.


    He mad two holes in the hollow log, one to breath and the second was to the right side so he could maneuver the direction if needed.


    Aldrich then pushed the log into the water and guided it downstream, the log was not to heavy because it was half-hollow. when he felt the time was right he hopped in the hole in the log and breathed deeply.


    The monkey went into the leather bag to hide of its own ord. Making Aldrich praise the creature''s intelligence.


    Cool air filled his lungs. The breathing opening was above the water. He could see through it the sky getting brighter at an rming speed. The water flow was slow andzy very spring-like.


    There was a real chance that he could be toote but there was nothing that Aldrich could do now, he ought to just wait. But his racing heart and his rising anxiety didn''t allow him to just rx.


    Aldrich who was busy cursing the river water for being slow was struck dumb by a loud noise. Aldrich looked at the sky expecting thunder clouds but saw a clear sky.


    The loud noise was like thunder. He was sure it would shake awake whomever was sleeping in the vige. It was like someone fired off a musket right next to you.


    Then he looked around and he knew he was now going through the canal that passed through the vige. That noise it came from the direction that Cazmer went to...


    The first noise was unknown to Aldrich but the second was obvious, it was a trumpet, multiple trumpets then sounded from many directions as if to answer the first.


    "Who in the hell is y¡ª"


    As Aldrich was passing through the vige he heard men go out of their homes and barking angry questions at being woken up in such a way.


    Then came the shaking of the earth, as the log was constantly moving he couldn''t see anything properly. But he knew this was the charging horses, and then screams. First confusion and then horror.


    Aldrich was desperately trying to breath and failing. It was actually happening.


    He started smelling smoke, as minutes passed like hours to Aldrich the stench of smoke grew stronger, the air thicker. He looked at the now clear sky and shuddered, the sun had risen.


    Aldrich saw sudden shes of light¡ªfire. Thick smoke billowed into the sky, from a dozen ces. Aldrich heard a dozen sounds of breaking ss, wood and the cracking of bones.


    In minutes the smoke blossomed to raging fires towering above the roofs. Aldrich shut his eyes and tried to shut his ears but even then he could hear everything.


    To Aldrich''s horror there was a sudden thud and he was pushed someways through the log. Quickly he scrambled back in.


    The log got stuck at the base of the vige bridge, thest stop beforepletely leaving the vige. This gave Aldrich a good look at the massacre unfolding only a few meters away.


    He saw Baran, a hunter, carrying his aged grandfather on his back and making a run for it. A bullet hit his father on his back and they both fell, hard. Another shot ended Baran himself.


    Aldrich was looking for a way to frer his log through the second hole he made through the right side of the log.


    "Wow."


    Aldrich was startled by a voice that came from directly above him.


    "From here we really can see the whole thing, huh."


    "As I said no matter how talented you are you need experience just as much. I could tell this is the best ce, the view is so wide."


    Aldrich recognized these voices like he knew them for a lifetime though he only heard them once before. This was the masked man and his disciples. Standing right above Aldrich on the bridge. If one of them happened to nce downwards...


    Just then his eyes unwittingly caught on to a horrific scene even among all the madness around.


    He saw father Gombst in his faith robes impaled on the tip of a spear held high by the spearman even on his horse. Father Gombst was still alive, even bleeding from his eyes and ears.


    The spearman was looking directly to Aldrich''s direction, Aldrich even had the illusion that they made eye contact.


    "Ah, is that guy showing off to us?"


    "Probably."


    "I have to admire his ass-kissing in the midst of a massacre."


    The spearman, satisfied that he got a look from the Crestmasters above the bridge, hurled Gombst across the air. Aldrich heard the sound of his breaking neck clearly.


    Finally, Aldrich pushed off the stuck log and the log passed through the bridge smoothly. It was whileter when Aldrich felt his body losing strength.


    The voices and the sounds of the ughter faded, at least they should have, he shouldn''t be able to hear anymore of that and yet they won''t go away. He could hear them as if he was still there.


    His eyes felt as heavy as boulders, Aldrich was afraid to sleep but if he returned to that nightmare at least he might be able to see Isger. From one nightmare to another.

 Chapter 17 Skinned Dogs

    Aldrich opened his eyes with a strained gasp. He saw stones as big as melons that formed an arch, the stones had mysterious glowing marks and symbols.


    Aldrich knew what it was, he knew what was on the other side. He tried to peer through the light curtain but it obstructed his vision. He was mid-fall and his backnded, not too harshly, on paved ground.


    Aldrich didn''t have the patience to tend his wounds, he got up attempting to cross through the light door again. Hoping to see Isger again.


    But the door disappeared silently like a lie. It disappeared like it was erased from existence. He looked around desperately but it was nowhere to be seen. Instead he felt the stinging, unbearable pain coarse through his body like an overflowing flood.


    His shoulder and thigh were still the same, his time in reality almost made him forget his misery here. Well this pain was a quick and effective reminder. The injuries he sustained here remained, it seemed like he had two bodies; one was in the real world and one is here.


    He expected, or rather believed that he would return to that bloody corridor were he to sleep again but he found himself in a strange and unfamiliar ce.


    He found himself looking at a deste town paved with cobblestones. In some ces overgrown nts grew in between the cobblestones, in others the stones were over turned by the nts.


    Rubble of copsed buildings along with silence, soot, ash and fogy heavy on thend. The fog was especially heavy since he could hardly see ten meters around.


    However despite the fog and the sorry state they were in now, he could tell these houses must''ve belonged to nobles or merchants, either way the buildings looked very different than any he had seen before.


    Perhaps once upon a time they were magnificent and glorious. The current state of destruction seemed to bury the once-glorious past, yet even then a spec of that former greatness still prevailed.


    As he walked apprehensively trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder and thigh he saw that many houses and other buildings had copsed in on themselves. As he touched the walls of the buildings he was confused as they stonework was seamless.


    There was no sign of chisel or imperial paste, as if the walls just grew from the earth and formed this shape on their own. The shapes, from what he could tell were special, most of them were different but each had their own style.


    Aldrich''s awe turned into shock as he explored the area, he thought that what he saw at first were the mansion of nobles or merchants but how many nobles lived in this town? This entire street was paved and full of simr mansions...


    There was another possibility, one that Aldrich normally wouldn''t have dared to consider. What if... what if these were the houses of peasants?


    If not for his recent experiences he wouldn''t have even thought of this possibility. That was just ridiculous, this was probably a central city of whichever ce this was so many nobles took estates here. Now that seemed much more realistic.


    Another oddity was the boarded doors and windows, they were all sealed with tough wooden nks, from the outside. Aldrich tested a few and they were very sturdy. Seems like they weren''t simply abandoned.


    Aldrich wondered where he was? How did such a nice and rich city fall like this? When he looked upwards the fog strangely didn''t obstruct his view.


    A sky full of stars and a single moon shined on him. The stars shined with a thousand different colors and looked so close, Aldrich thought if he raised his hand high enough he might catch one.


    The stars were close but the moon was even closer and it shined with a disturbing yellowish glow, none would try to touch it. It felt repulsive and disgusting in this beautiful night sky.


    Aldrich was looking for someone, anyone but couldn''t find anyone, not that he moves far at all. His wounds were still bleeding, especially his thigh. He needed help.


    Suddenly a low growling disturbed the silence and stopped Aldrich in between a three-way intersection. The street was divided to the front, left or right. The growling came from the front.


    Aldrich couldn''t see clearly due to the fog. But he could feel and hear a creature moving towards him. It gave Aldrich cause for worry but also hope, as this was the first creature he woulde across here. This meant that there are other people here at least he hoped that was the case.


    From the street ahead emerged a dog that reminded Aldrich of Dan, Isger''s yellow dog whom he had to leave behind, his fate unknown. Aldrich liked tofort himself with this childish hope: unknown, still better than dead.


    Though this dog reminded him of Dan it had absolutely no right to thatparison. It had a disproportionately huge head, red eyes, protruding fangs and bone ws.


    It also looked like it was skinned by a novice butcher-hand. It was a skinned dog that was somehow still alive and kicking.


    Aldrich loved dogs and could waste half a day ying with Dan and forgetting his chores. Aldrich was confident he could get along with most any dog.


    Unfortunately this particr dog didn''t seem keen on ying, judging by its fierce look, the dripping saliva didn''t help either.


    Aldrich reached for his waist slowly and was surprised the sword wasn''t there. Aldrich could barely keep walking with all the blood he lost, and without a weapon he had no chance.


    Aldrich decided to hide for now and look for an opportunity to escapeter. He slowly retreated to left and bumped into a door. He knocked and then he remembered about the boards.


    Aldrich decided to try and break in by force, he could not outrun a dog on a good day, with these injuries? Forget it.


    Finally he heard something from inside the house. It was a moan. Any response was good enough.


    "Hello there, I need help¡ª"


    Aldrich was interrupted by a banging on the door from inside. Then more moaning.


    Aldrich started to have a bad feeling about this so he started to back off and turned around to witness a chilling scene.<sub> </sub>


    In ce of one skinned dog there was now five, and they blocked the right and front streets. Aldrich looked to his left, the only open path and made a run for it.


    Aldrich made a run for it. The fog was still a problem but Aldrich had bigger problems behind him he could not afford to slow down. He ran straight ahead.


    The insistent barking echoed in the empty streets behind him. Eager and hungry.


    Aldrich suddenly stopped, he saw a chunk of the wall to his left had almost fallen in on the street to this side. He passed it and pulled it to his side, fortunately it fell in.


    Aldrich heard the barking stop for a moment followed by a crash, he smiled to himself. Even as he felt his vision blur and distort. The blood loss was taking its toll.


    Perhaps his mind was ying tricks on him but he saw a house different from all the others around it. And how can it not be? It was the only house with light from the windows and torches lined the fence.


    Aldrich was unwilling to pass up a such a chance. As he got closer he heard the barking behind him again, furious this time. But he could also see the door was not barred here.


    Aldrich ran through the fence with all the despair of a dying man and banged on the door with the remainder of his strength. But there was no reply.


    "Help! Open...door!"


    Aldrich wasn''t even sure he was banging on the door. The barking got closer and closer. Aldrich wanted to keep running but his body was at its limit. He fell to his knees. The dogs were almost here.


    "Tchung!"


    The door opened, Aldrich could only keep his eyes open to see the silhouette of an old man before he passed out.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Aldrich awoke to gut wrenching pain, he screamed uncontrobly for a good while before he registered the unfamiliar ceiling he was looking at.


    Aldrich looks ahead and is face to face with the man that saved his life. The old man looked really old, he was bald andpletely hairless.


    Aldrich wanted to talk and move but he felt that everything was heavy, extremely heavy. The old man was looking at him with an appraising look.


    Aldrich lowered his eyes to see the source of the pain that woke him, only to see a red ten-sided crystal stabbed into his heart.


    ''Oh, yeah that would definitely hurt.''


    Aldrich somehow found it funny that he did all that only to end up like this. He felt obliged to make onest self-deprecating joke.


    Funny thing is when he lost consciousness he thought he would return back to the real world with all his injuries healed and wouldn''t have to worry about his wounds here until the next time he went to sleep.


    Once against everything went dark.


    The next time he woke up he was waken up by an argument. Throughout his life he''s been through arguments some were over important things other not so important. From the sound of this one he guessed it was over a silly thing.


    "I''m asking you where are all the crystals?" A grumpy voice asked.


    "I told you I don''t know. I injected him with one like we agreed. I want to ask you where the hell are the remaining four crystals?!" Another grumpy voice replied.


    "Don''t you dare give me that, asshole! I know you thought it was interesting since he didn''t die, you wanted to try another one."


    "I did so what? Didn''t you think the same too?"


    Aldrich opened his eyes, this time easier than the first time. He looked to his right where the voices wereing. To the old man.


    "Alright! I only injected him with one more that''s all."


    "Lair, ever since I''ve known you, you''ve been lying and lying!!"


    Strange thing is, the old man was alone, no one was there with him, he was looking at a tall mirror in the wall and shouting arguments at his own reflection.


    He was arguing with himself.


    "Fine! Shit, I gave him two. You like that? What about you?"


    "I also gave him two! Whatever, isn''t he still alive? Who cares?"

 Chapter 18 No Mercy

    ''Do I have toe across one madman after another?''


    Aldrich watched in horror as the old man continued to argue with himself. Aldrich tried to move but couldn''t, he lowered his eyes and found himself strapped with belts on some bed.


    But the more he looked at it the more it looked like a bed that was somehow held in a position between standing and lying normally.


    "Ah, you''re awake, friend?"


    His movements had alerted the old madman. Aldrich couldn''t help but curse under his breath.


    "How do you feel? All better I hope?"


    Aldrich was about to scoff when he suddenly realized he didn''t feel the terrible pain that afflicted him previously. Inplete astonishment he looked at his left shoulder to see it restored to normal without even a scratch.


    Aldrich looked at his thigh to see it back to normal. A mad Crestmaster. Although this man had no sign of transformation to a monster his madness was evident.


    Most importantly the stab wound that should have went straight through his heart was nowhere to be seen.


    "You came across some nasty thing out there eh? It''s quite bad out there, lucky you, its not easy to encounter me. Hahahahaha."


    "T-thank you, lord crestmaster, for saving my life." Naturally Aldrich wasn''t going to mention anything about the old man''s madness.


    "Crest-master? Whats that? Could it be a mistake in my weave? O''lost one, can you understand everything I say?"


    The old man had a genuinely confused reaction. Could this man be so mad he forgot what he was?


    "Yeah, yeah, I understand everything. And I''m not lost, I''m just looking for something?"


    "Well aren''t we all looking for something? But you are a Lost one. You are a stranger in thisnd here, aren''t ya? O''lost one. Been a while since I''ve bumped into one of your kind, I thought you guys died off."


    For some reason being called Lost angered Aldrich a bit. But this was currently his only source of information. Even a hint would be enough. Besides he is in a strange and unfamiliarnd it was not a stretch to say that he is lost as of now.


    "Old man, I appreciate what you did for me. I''m just looking for a door of light made of stones, the stones form an arch and have many mysterious symbols carved into them, the door levitates in the air and could vanish in the span of a blink. It also has a curtain of blue luminous light."


    Things that would have sounded ludicrous to him three days ago came naturally out of his mouth.


    The old man was in thought for once before he spoke, "well I haven''t heard of it, personally. But I know this, in thisnd, whatever it is your looking for you''ll have to go to the shattered divine city and acquire the crown."


    "The crown? What are you saying?"


    "The crown! Why, of course the one and only crown. Then all your questions will be answered, all your wishes will be granted! Salvation, damnation, above and below, one and all!!"


    Aldrich was captivated by the description of the old man, that for a moment he forgot the old man was crazy. Literally.


    "W-wait divine city? Ashphim is the only divine city in the world! What sphemy! Who dares to name their city as such when the empire is still standing?!"


    Despite Aldrich wanting to keep things civil he couldn''t control himself when he realized such words were actually spoken so impudently. Even if the old man was insane there are things that even madness can''t excuse.


    "Ashphim? What is that? The divine city is the divine city because the great one and all the ancient lords made it as such, there''s no question about it. Ugh, Lost ones are always so clueless! So ignorant!"


    Aldrich was burning with anger at such a nonsensical answer, but he also realized that he was at fault for arguing with a madman. What could he gain by this? Hell, he might even trigger this crazed bastard.


    "Anyhow I''m going now, before I go hold out your hand." The madmanmanded.


    Aldrich had no choice but to do as he was told even if heshed out now he couldn''t put up a fight against a Crestmaster. Besides this way he could get the old man to untie one of his arms, both of which were restrained.


    The old man inited his hand thoughtlessly and put a smooth purple stone in his hand, the stone had a strange sign painted with dark tint. When he held the stone in his hand he felt it beating like a heart.


    "Now, crush it."


    Aldrich looked up hesitantly at the old man.


    "Come on, this will be a huge help for you. After all if you died too simply I would lose out."


    Aldrich already came this far. He crushed the stone and it broke into powder. He barely put any strength in to it.


    A strange feeling traveled throughout his body starting with his hand. Aldrich had no idea what just happened¡ª and was still happening.


    "Don''t sleep for too long~ as you''ve probably already noticed these parts are unkind to strangers. I pray that you will find your way to the divine city. Good luck."


    Aldrich was once again overtaken by drowsiness.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    The moonlight illuminated the bed that he was strapped to, Aldrich was alone now. He used his free hand to untie his restrains, he slid down the bed andnded unsteadily.<sub> </sub>


    With the feeling of the solid floor underneath him, he felt good. Now that he could finally look around, he observed his surroundings.


    The room was in with only two beds simr to the one he was just on. There was a huge table filled with many ss beakers and such. A huge cab with ss doors took almost the entire south wall, it was stacked with books.


    Aldrich checked on his body once again by the mirror just to be sure. Everything was where it''s supposed to be.


    Aldrich walked around the room and exited through the door, then he turned right and entered waht he believed to be themon room, though he had no intention of leaving the house just yet.


    Aldrich might have to go to the so-called divine city. For now he had no other clues that could lead him there. Most importantly he had to figure out where he was and go from there.


    He had no intention to believe everything the madman said. He nned to scour this town first and look for anything useful on his own.


    This quiet town had hidden dangers like the skinned dogs, what if there was more? In order to find the information he needed, he had to explore this town, he needed a base. This house will do.


    Themon room had small round tables made of dark wood, like all the furniture around they had ornate carvings. There was a long couch in the center of the room adorned with what must''ve been, long ago, luxurious fabrics.


    The walls of the room had portraits and paintings hung high above, although whatever was painted on them faded away into drab darkness and foul smell. Many chandeliers hung from the roof dully.


    Aldrich looked at all of these things in wonder but his breath was stolen by something else. To the right of the prominent firece there was a dull seal, a symbol.


    Familiar and alien, both at once. Aldrich had conflicting feelings as he looked at this symbol. The symbol read:


    "Tindalor"


    Aldrich said it out loud in a tongue stranger to him yet oh, so familiar, he walked to the symbol in a trance and kneeled down to inspect it. He traced his finger over the seal and it glowed iron-red. Like dark iron still in the forge.


    ''Be careful of how you were able to be lucid in the nightmare''


    Yes, it was this seal he drew on his hand on the first night he became aware of his nightmare and was able to remember the details where as previously he couldn''t.


    And now he encountered the same seal once again. It somehow reacted to him. The seal was still glowing in red.


    When Aldrich came back to, he backed off hurriedly, he bumped into the coach. He decided to stay away from that sign for the time being.


    Suddenly his attention was attracted to a thudding noise. Aldrich followed the noise, he came upon a staircase that lead to the second floor. The noise wasing from above.


    Aldrich returned back to themon room. He heard the same kind of moaning. A part of Aldrich wanted to ignore it but if he wanted to make this ce his base couldn''t leave such a unstable element.


    But that doesn''t mean that Aldrich will confront whatever was up there unprepared. He started looking all over the house for a weapon.


    To his dismay he found a bunch of rusted knives, spoons and forks. The best he got was a bone cleaver and a meat hammer. Both of which were in sorry conditions.


    His look-around made him question who would abandon such a great home along with these nice metal spoons and forks? Even in big cities these things would have sold for good coin.


    Anyhow Aldrich had better things to do than ponder such things. He weighed the bone cleaver and the meat hammer in hand each. Then he decided on the bone cleaver seeing as it still had a half-decent edge.


    Aldrich left the bone hammer in themon room just in case he need it. He walked slowly up the steps that lead to the source of the insistent noise. The noise was already testing his patience.


    A very moldy and dirty carpet wasid on the staircase and it clung to his boots with every step.


    Finally after a much longer walk than he expected he reached and found a hallway that lead to four doors. One to his left, two to the right and one at the end of the hallway.


    Unexpectedly the staircase continued further above, but his business was here.


    The one room to the left was open and empty. The ones on the right on the other hand and the one at the end of the hallway were anything but quite.


    Aldrich saw that the doors were sealed by an iron rod inserted in between the handle.


    Aldrich removed the iron rod of the first room on the right and opened the door but didn''t enter, instead he backed off.


    Something immediately came crashing into the opposite wall. It had a humanoid build but wasn''t human. It had charred skin that broke in some ces. And green liquid oozed out of it.


    It turned around and Aldrich attacked, he shed at the monster''s right arm and unexpectedly cleaved right through it much easier than he expected and lost his bnce causing him to stumble.


    What he failed to notice was the short sword the monster had in its left hand. The monster was unaffected by losing a hand and immediately shed at Aldrich''s exposed back.


    Aldrich wanted to endure the pain and turn around to finish it off but before he could do any of that he felt the sword stab through his back and out of his stomach.


    Before he could realize what happened the sword moved upwards, tearing through his guts as it went.


    Aldrich saw his guts flopping out of his body before everything went to ck.

 Chapter 19 Vengeance And Hunger

    Aldrich screamed in pain, he weeped and his limbs iled around erratically. He clutched his stomach but couldn''t find the gash that should have been there.


    The was was a very real sword through him and yet there was not even a scratch to prove it. Aldrich found himselfpletely naked andying on a dusty wooden floor.


    Aldrich looked right above him and saw the seal of Tindalor shining. He stood up after the pain subsided he examined himself carefully. He was not dead and he was not in the real world yet. He waspletely naked too.


    He was beginning to have a very bad premonition, what if he was stuck here? What if he couldn''t go back anymore?


    ''Was that all in my head? Will I ever return to the real world?''


    So funny.


    It was so hrious.


    Aldrichughed for a long time, couldn''t stop. A response to fear, to anxiety, to the incredulity of his current situation.


    He choked on tears, his lungs burned fromck of air and his stomach ached from theughter.


    When the storm was over, hey on the dirty floor, gazing aimlessly at the ceiling.


    A restlessness settled in his bones. He got up and looked for something to wipe his face with but found things that he rather not touch for now.


    Aldrich found the meat hammer he left on one of the tables close to the staircase. It was real. While there was still room for doubt, the sings all point to it.


    Aldrich looked to the only thing that made sense, the seal of Tindalor. The banging against the doors upstairs didn''t stop instead it got even louder.


    If what happened was actually real, then that thing was now out and about. Aldrich debated on running out of the door now and looking for somewhere else to make a base.


    That was clearly the best choice, the most reasonable thing to do. But... Aldrich couldn''t bring himself to do it. He could not forgive that thing for killing him.


    If he chose to run every time he faced a setback will he even achieve anything in his life? If so he should have listened to his mother and died with her there and then.


    He sat down and thought about what happened, Aldrich came to the conclusion that it was not a hopeless fight. In fact it could be easier than expected.


    That monster was truly fast, much faster than Aldrich and it wielded a short sword which gave it better reach than his bone cleaver. But it was fragile, very fragile.


    Aldrich remembered why he lost the first time it was because he overestimated the force he needed to attack the monster''s arm. Another advantage he now had, the monster had only one arm now.


    As for where his clothes were, he had a good idea. Aldrich picked up his meat hammer and climbed the stairs as quietly as he could.


    When he reached the upper area he crouched and stuck to the staircase. From his angle he had a good look at the monster. It actually had its back to him.


    The monster too had crouched on the bloody ground and it had its sword discarded to the side. Aldrich felt silly for being all quiet, the monster wouldn''t have noticed him anyway.


    It was busy taking hungry bits out of his corps, his old body had be its meal and it looked very delighted as it gorged itself on chuck after chunk.


    It was a surreal experience looking on as a monster fed on your dead body. But this was not the first time he saw a monster indulging with his own flesh. Aldrich shook off the disgust instead he thought of it as a good thing.


    What better chance to ambush the damned monster? Aldrich walked slowly and carefully his hammer held tightly in his right hand.


    When he was right behind the creature he attacked, he aimed his strike to the back of the monster''s head. A resounding crack rang out in the hallway.


    It fell t on its ugly face. Before it could react Aldrich used his right knee on it''s back to hold it and pressed it down. The monster struggled and iled its limbs in attempt to throw him off, but Aldrich held on for life.


    The second hit struck the monster on its cracked skull sending bone shards in the air. One even grazed Aldrich''s cheek.


    The monster fell silent but Aldrich wasn''t done. Aldrich switched his hammer for his bone cleaver, fallen at the feet of his previous body.


    Aldrich worked on a farm for years, he was much more proficient with the bone cleaver than he was with the sword.


    Soon enough the head rolled and Aldrich stood triumphant.


    Aldrich looked at his previous body, now mutted and messed up. His face paled and he sent an angry kick to the monster''s corps. And he spit on it for good measure.


    Rather than dwell on unpleasant matters Aldrich went to check on his loot. The sword was in a better condition than anything else in the house, oddly enough.


    Aldrich decided to keep it, but he wasn''t going to throw away his bone cleaver.<sub> </sub>


    ''I''m going to use the sword primarily but keep the bone cleaver for when things get close and personal.''


    But all of these thoughts flew right out of his head in the next moment. His head turned to the monster''s corps. He walked to it and knelt beside it.


    For some reason the monster''s corps looked delicious, he wanted it, he had to have it. He wasn''t hungry a moment a go but now he felt like he hadn''t eaten in weeks.


    Aldrich was almost about to take a bite when two small red orbs floated out of the monster''s body and into the hand that held the body.


    Aldrich could feel the orbs travel throughout his body before they disappeared mysteriously. It gave Aldrich a feeling of satisfaction. The hungry was gone.


    ''A moment a go was I really about to dig into a monster''s dead body?''


    Aldrich had no idea what came over him. Just that it was powerful, he wanted¡ªneeded those orbs.


    There were still two more rooms to go. Aldrich felt it likely that the rooms must have the same kind of monsters locked in. He was resolved to finish the job today.


    But he needed rest before he tackled the next room. And he also needed to think of a strategy. So he picked up the sword and bone cleaver and went downstairs.


    After a minute he returned, having rested and made up an interesting idea. Aldrichpleted his preparations and then he proceeded to remove the iron rod from the door handle.


    The door sprang open and a monster that looked almost identical to the previous one came out running after the escaping Aldrich.


    Aldrich suddenly turned around and didn''t run anymore. The monster took no notice and suddenly tripped over the two bodies stacked over each other. One was his own and the other was the old husk.


    Aldrich aimed for the midsection of the monster and stabbed through it with the sword. Pinning it to the floor. But the monster still had some fight in it.


    It wailed loudly and tried to swing its sword at Aldrich''s legs. Aldrich simply dodged to the monster''s other side away from the sword. Then he took out his trusty meat hammer and bone cleaver.


    What happened next was followed by cracking bones and a decapitated head. Aldrich wiped away his sweaty forehead and looked at the new corps expectedly.


    That feeling emerged again, Aldrich could not stop himself from salivating. He touched the monster''s body with his hand and another two red orbs traveled to his body and disappeared again.


    Only this time he was filled with an overwhelming sense of fulfillment as he closed his eyes as if to appreciate a fine meal.


    Aldrich opened his eyes to be greeted with another strange scene.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5 years


    Strength: 1+


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 1+


    Vitality: 1+


    Intelligence: 1+


    Spirit (ck): 2


    Essence : 4 (red orbs)


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv:1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Before him was a strange panel that recorded strange information. It seemed like a chart that evaluated several attributes of his.


    It irked him that all of his attributes but spirit were all at one. Hm, the plus sign behind grabbed his interest for a moment. Aldrich thought about increasing all his attributes starting from strength.


    When he thought about that he saw the number after strength change to two. And then was assaulted by the mother of all headaches.


    Aldrich quickly ran back down to themon room and threw himself on the couch ignoring how dirty it might be. Aldrich was quickly summoned to sleep. However it was more urate to say that he was in so much pain that he lost consciousness.

 Chapter 20 Tired Of Passing Out

    Aldrich''s head shot up and violently hit the roof of the hollow log he was in. The impact rocked the log on the river.


    ''Shit!''


    Aldrich looked around for a moment and became certain that not much time passed since he had initially fallen asleep. The sun had just risen.


    From his past experiences he came to the conclusion that time stopped in the real world when he was in the nightmare realm or perhaps it slowed down significantly.


    By all ounts, he spent several hours at the least in the nightmare realm. However despite everything for now this was only conjecture and had to be tested for clear answers.


    He wanted to think more on this matter but his drowsiness overpowered him. He could only hope that he wouldn''t be going back there anytime soon.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Aldrich woke up and found himself, gratefully, still in the real world. But what surprised him this time was the time, the sun was about to set for the day.


    He fell asleep at sunrise and awoke at sunset. If he was a bard he might''ve made a song about it. He had traveled on the river for such a long time he didn''t even know where he was anymore.


    Uleq was half a day''s walk from Wakefield but he took the river, even if the river was slow on this day he still must''ve left Uleq in the dust.


    Uleq was the farthest Aldrich had ever traveled and today he went even beyond that, all while asleep in a log.


    Aldrich decided that he was far enough, it was probably safe to get off here. Aldrich took the chance when the river was partially calm and maneuvered the log to the river''s shore.


    Aldrich took the leather bag from the bottom of the log and crossed the rocks that lined the shore, he promptly rested his back on one of the trees behind.


    His body ached as he stayed too long in that position in the log. Aldrich opened the leather bag and a fluffy green monkey popped out. Aldrich had forgotten about it.


    The monkey started ying around and Aldrich stretched his body for a bit, before he started collecting dry wood for fire.


    The sun set slowly giving Aldrich enough time to collect enough wood. Then he took out two flint stones from the bag and lit the fire easily. A soldier''s bag had quite a few useful things.


    For example abundant water and dried meat that couldst him days. Most importantly it had twelve silver coins, more money than he had ever seen in his life.


    His mother''s debt was about fifteen silver and although Aldrich worked for years to pay it off,st time he checked he still had eight coins left to pay.


    Of course the fact that his mother kept increasing the debt as he tried to pay it off was a factor in that. Well, it''s not like he had to pay anything anymore to Tomard, he was dead with all the rest of them.


    He noticed that the monkey was trying to attract his attention. It was waving its hand.


    ''Ah, right Krynt gave it a letter or something to deliver, well I guess this is far enough.''


    Aldrich waved to the monkey and watch as it unfurled its white wings and flew into the air.


    ''So lucky, if only I could fly too''


    Aldrich ate his food in silence and warmed himself by the fire. Then he thought about what happened in the nightmare realm especially thest bit. It was so mysterious.


    Suddenly the same chart appeared before him, it was almost transparent but not quite. Aldrich looked away and noticed that it followed his eyes urately. There was a change in the chart.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 2


    Agility: 1


    Endurance: 1


    Vitality: 1


    Intelligence: 1


    Spirit (ck): 2


    Essence: 0


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    His strength changed from one to two and his essence turned from four to zero. Curious. Ah, there was also that ability that he didn''t pay much attention tost time. He sank into deep thought as he looked at the panel.


    Aldrich tried to piece the events like a puzzle not everything fit perfectly but at least he had a decent guess.


    The essence orbs were the red orbs that he absorbed from the corpses of of the yed monster after he came into physical contact with them.<sub> </sub>


    Thest time when he had four essence orbs there was plus sings after all the attributes other than spirit but after strength increased to two the essence changed to zero meaning that essence was like money, with it he could increase his attributes.


    To increase the attribute from one to two he needed four essence orbs. Meaning he needed to kill two more monsters, he decided to call these monsters Husks.


    And to increase it to two or three, he wasn''t sure.


    The husks weren''t undead as far as he guessed. The undead weren''t interested in human flesh or any flesh at all for that matter. The undead had no such concern but the husk was clearly the opposite of that.


    The ability... the eyes of insight. When he thought of it he remembered crushing that stone that the old madman gave him before he passed out for the hundredth time in one day.


    Aldrich had a conjecture he thought that the reason he could see this panel was rted if not directly caused by this ability.


    The spirit... Harvick said that the reason the crest will appearter on is because his spirit was still growing. What if he used essence to increase his spirit like he did with strength wouldn''t that mean that he could be a Crestmaster faster?


    The condition, the blood of¡ª


    Abruptly, his line of thought was cut off by the hit he got at the back of the head. By all rights the hit should have knocked him out, but it didn''t.


    ''Fuck, I was too focused on-''


    Before he couldplete his thoughts a second and a third strikesnded on his head and hisst thought before losing consciousness was:


    ''Fuck I''m tired of passing out!''


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    "Oh, horseshit!" Aldrich hissed angrily as he got up. He was back in the nightmare realm because why the fuck not?


    ''I swear in the name of the almighty god, I will kill whoever knocked me out''


    Aldrich was fuming at his attacker and at himself too for letting his guard down in a wild and unknown ce. He had a great many things on his mind but that was a poor excuse.


    Aldrich looked around the huge house and found some dirty rags to cloth himself at least until he found something decent.


    Aldrich pped himself out of his pathetic regrets now that he came here again he had a purpose. Different from any other time he was here.


    He had a n, if he needed essence to increase his attributes then he will hunt the monsters here and make himself stronger faster. Isger only had two years left.


    Aldrich remembered that one more room remained here uncleared, he wanted clear it now. The problem with thest room is also why Aldrich left it forst.


    In the rooms before each had only one husk in there, however the moaning noisesing out of thest room told him a different story. There was more than one husk in there.


    How many? The only way to be sure is to open the door and see for himself. And he was going to do exactly that.


    Aldrich picked up his weapons, the short rusted sword he got from the first husk and the meat hammer and the bone cleaver. He also got a short sword from the second husk that he brought downstairs and kept close by.


    Aldrich climbed the stairs and then he came about three corps two husks and one human. Aldrich to make use of them again, it workedst time so why not.


    This time he ced them in different but strategic locations along the hallway. To make use of the husks clumsiness. He also prepared another n.


    As he held the iron rod that imprisoned the husks in thest room he prepared himself mentally and after a deep breath he pulled the iron rod but notpletely, he looked inside.


    The closest husk to the door lunged at him like a beast, Aldrich ducked and payed no heed to the husk that missed him by a hair''s breath. Another one came running after the first.


    Aldrich hurriedly returned the iron rod back in ce. Two were more than he bargained for but he still had a n for such a mistake.


    Aldrich was in time to block the sh aimed at his neck, he barely managed to block the second and third attack.


    ''Indeed the difference in swordsmanship still matters, anyway I''m not here to duel you, monster''


    Aldrich tackled the husk into the open door of one of the rooms to the right. Without giving the husk time to collect itself he sealed this room too.


    Aldrich fell back in retreat as he dodged the corpses that he spread on the floor. The husk that first lunged at him followed Aldrich closely and stumbled but didn''t fall.


    But that was fine that was more than enough for Aldrich as he aimed for that moment and struck the husk''s leg causing it to fall on the ground.


    Aldrich then impaled the husk to the floor with his sword and went to work on that skull.


    Aldrich didn''t rest for long as he opened the door of the room. The husk was actually walking about the room. He reckoned the husk must be pleased to have a whole room to itself after sharing a room with many others for who-knows how long.


    Aldrich was here to kill and took his chance to ambush the husk and stabbed his sword through the stomach of the husk and ran the sword upward until his sword got stuck in a bone and wouldn''t budge.


    Fortunately the husk was already dead. Aldrich happily collecting four red orbs for his efforts.


    But he wasn''t done yet there was still two more to go. And one of them looked like trouble.

 Chapter 21 Information

    Aldrich looked over at his attributes. He figured out how the panel worked it would appear and disappear whenever he thought about it. As he had expected the plus sings appeared after all the attributes that didn''t less than two.


    Aldrich wanted to increase his spirit attribute so he didn''t increase anything else for now. There are still two husks left in that room.


    Aldrich took a short break to get back in top form. Now that he tried a few things he got familiar with the speed of the husks.


    He took a deep breath and pulled off the iron rod of the door handle. The husk, impatient as ever, lunged towards the opening of the door.


    "!"


    He estimated the husk was surprised when the door closed on him halfway through. Aldrich grinned, only the upper half of the husk was out the rest was still in.


    Aldrich reached out for the iron rod that was used to seal this room and punctured the husks right eye and drove it straight through. It turned out much harder than expected.


    Aldrich collected his two red orbs and retreated to the end of the hallway by the staircase.


    Thest husk emerged. The other husks wore rags and had short swords, this one wore an armor that mixed metal and leather at the joints, above all it wielded a long sword. Its head was covered by a metal helm that obscured all but a T shaped slit.


    His overall get-up was in better shape than most everything Aldrich saw here, perhaps even better than the soldiers thatid waste to Wakefield.


    Aldrich didn''t allow himself to be intimidated. It had some fancy armor so what? It was still a husk. The weight of its armor must slow it down negating the biggest advantage the husks had.


    Aldrich had just the n for a heavy, clumsy husk.


    But something went wrong, the husk didn''t charge at him like his brethren did. It advanced slowly and firmly. This, Aldrich didn''t expect.


    Aldrich didn''t have much time to think before the armored husk stood, towering above him.


    The speed he disyed far outstripped Aldrich could have expected, in one breath it was slow and in the next it was so fast that the air hissed. He barely managed to block the blow in time or his head would have been lopped off in one move.


    And yet the force of that one move still hurled him flying to the wall. His left arm took the worst of the impact and an unpleasant cracking sound echoed, Aldrich knew it was broken or maybe even fractured.


    His whole body was crushed, he had never experienced such raw power before in his life. His head was spinning and his eyes were out of focus, with every breath he felt an agonizing pain in his chest.


    Aldrich turned to look at the monstrous husk in shock. The husk was uncaring for his turbulent emotions, it lunged at Aldrich and shed horizontally. At least thats what Aldrich assumed happened since he couldn''t see the move at all.


    The sh cut through the middle of his face right under his nose and separated whatever was above from what was below. Before everything faded to ck he heard a slimy noise and creepy thud.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Aldrich scrambled to stand but slipped, ending up on his hands and knees, he inhaled the chilly night air with the desperate greed of a drowning man.


    His deep breaths were rugged and uneven, as his body adjusted. His innards churned, he grabbed at a nearby flower pot and spewed the contents of his stomach into it.


    The small pot, already filled with soil and a mass of dust and filth, wasn''t enough to contain everything and vomit sloshed over the edges, sttering over wooden floor and the carpet.


    Aldrich recalled his death with grim rity. He stood no chance against that husk, there was no question about it. This truth was ingrained in his very being, in fact he was sure that even fifty of him would face the same result.


    He had overestimated himself because he won a few times and underestimated his opponent and that cost him his life.


    Aldrich acknowledged his defeat squarely. The first time he was killed was because he made a small mistake against a husk and that cost him his first life. The second however, was an utter defeat, as of now he had no chance of victory.


    Although he came back to life he was naked again and all of his weapons but the short sword were left with his previous body. Upstairs with that thing¡ª


    That thing! Aldrich quickly ran to the door that led to the staircase and closed it. Then he proceeded to push the couch onto the door.


    That husk was now free and about. Aldrich didn''t feel like fighting that thing for now. Besides he could feel that he would soon wake up. He would think on what to do next time.


    Aldrichid on the couch and closed his eyes. Then, darkness.


    Aldrich body in the real world stirred but before he could even open and eye he received another smack on the head.


    Aldrich sank into darkness again. Aldrich was angry but didn''t allow his anger to cloud his judgment this time. The fact that he was knocked unconscious twice told him that he was needed alive.


    At least for the time being he wouldn''t lose his life.


    In the darkness Aldrich thought of the attribute chart. Although he had a vague understanding of the attributes, he wished that he could get a better understanding of them.


    In the darkness the panel materialized.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 2


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 1+


    Vitality: 1+


    Intelligence: 1+


    Spirit (ck): 2


    Essence: 6


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######<sub> </sub>


    ''So six isn''t enough to increase spirit huh''


    Aldrich was a little disappointed. He was unwilling to use the essence to increase other things as he wasn''tpletely sure what they meant


    Increasing spirit would make him a Crestmaster faster and the increase in strength was noticeable when he fought the husks. But the current situation didn''t really allow him to do as he pleases.


    The one who kidnapped him might''ve wanted him alive but how long will thatst? There was no guarantee that he would be spared.


    Suddenly Aldrich watched as the contents of the panel blurred and changed to something new.


    Strength: the power of the body


    Agility: speed and reaction


    Endurance: toughness and resistance


    Vitality: life force and recovery


    Intelligence: knowledge and perception


    Spirit: ?


    Essence: the essential essence of all creatures and matter.


    Eyes of insight: the reading andprehension of experienced phenomena.


    The blood of #######: ???


    Aldrich read everything carefully. Aldrich smiled reluctantly, even though he got an exnation he still didn''t understand most of it.


    But he had a guess, the panel was the result of the eyes of insight.


    In The current situation he needed to boost one of his attributes. The way he thought about it endurance is definitely a good choice.


    Aldrich ultimately decided on vitality. Endurance increases toughness and resistance which would be useful now but endurance was better before he got hit.


    Vitality corrted to recovery, and he needed to recover from the pummeling he got to his head. After Aldrich decided he didn''t hesitate. The number after vitality changed to two.


    And Aldrich was assaulted by a multitude of emotions as an alien force traveled through out his body.


    Aldrich opened his eyes, then shut them quickly as a headache blinded him.


    "Shit," he muttered.


    "You, You''re finally awake?" said a woman''s voice. "Good. The sooner you wake up, the sooner we can figure how to get out of this death trap."


    "Death trap?" Aldrich repeated groggily.


    "Eh?"


    Aldrich pried his eyes open again. His head didn''t hurt as badly this time, but it still made his eyes water.


    He was lying on what looked to be a rotten wooden floor. The worn boards had been improperly shaped. They bent and bowed, giving him a view of what could only be grass beneath.


    Lifting his head up, he looked around. Although the floor was made up of wood the cell bars were made up of iron.


    p He looked through the bars, grasnds stretched as far as he could see. As far as the eyes could see in the night.</anda>


    He was in a cage, in a line of cages. They all seemed to have wheels, and when they moved it would be in a caravan-like fashion. That''s what Aldrich imagined a caravan would look like.


    Apparently the caravan was camping for the night.


    Managing to lever himself up to a sitting position, Aldrich felt like he wanted to puke. His head hurt quite a bit. He swallowed down, he puked enough in the nightmare realm.


    Reaching up, he felt around his skull. Behind his right ear, he found a ratherrge lump.


    "They gave you quite a thumping, huh?"


    Aldrich looked to the speaker.


    She was an unassuming woman. Dressed in good clothes with brown hair and blue eyes.


    "I guess so." Aldrich responded.


    He looked down at himself. He was in better shape than expected, his head hurt like hell and he would see double from time to time. But the pain was starting to fade.


    The biggest problems were, his sword and bag were nowhere to be seen.


    "Great. That''s great. They shoved you in here, told me not to touch you or they''d beat me to death, then ran off."


    Aldrich looked at the woman again, she was leaning on the cage bars and twirling the ends of her messy hair.


    "What is all this? I didn''t see anything when I was hit." Aldrich inquired.


    "Well, the general gist of it is we''ve been ambushed and kidnapped by goblins. Right now we''re headed to their hideout, is my guess. The lucky ones will be eaten the unlucky ones will be goblin ves. Unless we make a run for it."


    "Goblins?" Aldrich had never seen goblins before and yet he''s been kidnapped by them.

 Chapter 22 Unapologetic

    "Goblins?" Aldrich had never seen goblins before and yet today he''s been kidnapped by them.


    Amotion broke out far up ahead. It sounded like shouts and someone banging pots and pans together.


    "Ho? This might be our chance," said the woman. "If only¡­"


    A goblin Aldrich hadn''t noticed went sprinting by. He couldn''t see it clearly, it was more like a very short shadow from where he was standing.He must have been hiding between the cages.


    "There we go. I figured there was one watching just in case." said the woman. "Right. Here''s the n. You boost me up, I knock the roof off, and then I open the gate."


    Aldrich wasn''t quite sure about that n, but he didn''t have anything better to suggest.


    "Fine."


    "I''m lighter than you, hands together then and give me a boost," said the woman.


    Aldrich looked at the wooden roof, it didn''t look that sturdy and wasn''t even fixed in ce right. "Why would they leave it like that? Did they not notice?"


    "Goblins are cunning but they can also be careless like that. Besides they knocked out most of their captives. Most wake up when it''s already toote. The roof is also far enough."


    "Why didn''t they knock you out?" Aldrich wondered.


    "Because, when our carriage was attacked I, of course, surrendered without a fight. Now we don''t have much time,e on."


    Complying, Aldrichced his fingers together and knelt down. The woman put one foot into Aldrich''s hands and looked at him. "On three and up."


    Aldrich nodded his head.


    "One, two, three!"


    Aldrich lifted and shoved, pushing the woman up. Bits of what he assumed was roof material started to rain down on him as the woman worked above.


    "Ha, got it. Up we go."


    The woman lifted out of Aldrich''s hand. Stepping back, he looked up to see how it was going.


    Wedged in the opening, the woman was already wiggling her way out. It was obvious she''d be out in a matter of seconds.


    "Ah, thanks for that. Sorry to do this, but I don''t have any way to actually open that gate. Good luck and all that," said the woman.


    Aldrich stared at the woman''s backside, uprehending.


    It wasn''t until the woman had both feet on the edge of the cage that Aldrich realized he was being left behind.


    Pure anger flooded him as he realized his mistake.


    With a shout, Aldrich mmed his shoulder into the side of the cage, rocking it violently to one side. The increased strength attribute was well worth it.


    iling her arms, the woman shrieked and fell backward. Breaking through the roof, she crashed to the ground back inside the cage.


    Gasping for breath, the woman struggled to her hands and knees.


    Perfect.


    Aldrich took two steps, nted the third on the woman''s shoulders, then leapt up towards the hole.


    Missing his target, he crashed through the top, lost his bnce and flipped out the other side. Landing in the grass with a thump. He put more strength into it than necessary, newfound strength was harder to control than expected.


    ''Ha. That worked. Even if not as nned.''


    Getting up quickly¡ªfar quicker than what a normal man could after a fall like that, with his aching back and hips¡ªAldrich looked back into the cage.


    "Wait, wait," the woman pleaded. Pressing herself to the bars, she smiled at Aldrich.


    "I''m sorry, I didn''t mean that, it was only a joke. A bad joke on my part, but a joke. That''s all. Help me out here."


    "Sure, sure. Good luck and all that." Aldrich replied sarcastically as walked off.


    "No! No! You can''t leave me. I''ll scream if you leave and they''lle here. You won''t get far enough." The woman threatened, desperate.


    Aldrich fell silent and stopped retreating. This woman was at her wits end, she might do it.


    "Look here, it doesn''t have to be like this. Just help me out of here and I''ll tell you where to go, I know how to get to the main road."


    Her words were convincing, she had a point, he didn''t know where to go even if he escaped. But...


    She already betrayed him once. There is no reason that she wouldn''t do it again. Aldrich schooled his expression.


    "We have a deal. I help you out and you help me get to the main road, yes?"


    Looking around the ground, Aldrich found a branch as wide and a bit longer than his arm. It looked dry and hard.


    "We''ll use this to get you out of here, just let me break it, yes?"


    The woman nodded eagerly. Picking it up, he wedged it between the bars and snapped it in half. Inspecting both breaks, he found one with definite potential to be used as a crude spear.


    And stabbed through the gap between the bars.


    The woman actually managed to dodge albeit clumsily and hit the other side of the cage with her head.<sub> </sub>


    "No, no, don''t do it. Listen, listen I swear I won''t betray you. I can''t get taken by the goblins, my fate will be worse than death. We can work this out."


    Aldrich thought that she would definitely scream but now he got a better understanding of the situation. She wanted to live and escape, her only hope for that was Aldrich.


    Her threat was a bluff.


    "You should have thought of all that before you betrayed me for no reason. You tried to use me. Fuck off."


    "No! You can''t do this to me! Wait, don''t go! Look at me." The woman tore off her dress tunic, revealing her chest to Aldrich.


    "I''m a woman, don''t I please you? I''ll be your woman, I swear. I''ll do anything for you. Take me with you¡ª"


    Aldrich thrust his wooden spear again, the woman shrieked and jumped in the cage erratically. Aldrich cursed under his breath. This bitch sure knew how to dodge.


    "Aaa¡ª"


    The woman had already begun to scream when two hands from the cage behind reached out through the bars and shut her mouth, the other hand held her head in ce.


    Aldrich seeing his chance didn''t hesitate to thrust his spear through the woman''s exposed throat. A fountain of blood spurred out of her throat as her body started thrashing left and right.


    Soon a foul smell emanated in the area. Only when her body wentpletely limp did the hands from the adjacent cage let go.


    Aldrich looked at the body of the woman and didn''t feel sorry. There are things that he could not tolerate. When she threatened Aldrich''s life she might as well have forsaken hers.


    Aldrich looked at the owner of the hands that helped him. He saw a short boy, likely no older than nine.


    "Are you done gawking? Come here, closer." The boy spoke with a very adult voice.


    "What''s with your voice?" Aldrich had to ask.


    "My voice? Whats with my voice? Ah! I''m not a little human boy! Haven''t you seen a halfling before?"


    "A halfling! Wow." Aldrich eximed.


    "What''s with that reaction? This is your first time, seriously?!" The halfling protested.


    "No no, I was just trying to crack a joke..." Aldrich hurriedly lied.


    "Ah, whatever. Now listen, most of the goblins have gone to check on themotion up front. Now there''s only one goblin left to guard the cart. He''s probably the one who has all the keys. See that torch back there? I can see him there."


    "You can see him?" Aldrich saw the light of the torch but nothing else.


    "Yea, I''m a halfling I can see better than humans in the dark."


    "You said he''s guarding the cart?"


    "Yes the cart that has most of the loot they stole from us."


    "Alright, you want me to get the key and open your cage right? Fine."


    "You must be quiet the young adventurer. Whats your name? I''m called Tarzin Tenberry."


    "My name is Aldrich, and I''m not an adventurer. Not yet at least. Actually They took something of mine that I must get so I''m not only going to help you."


    "You''re not? You look like you were born for the job. Well met Aldrich, well met, listen, regarding the loot cart there''s a blue heavy hemp bag with a distinctive mark of a grinning aatxe."


    "An aatxe?"


    "Aatxe, a crimson bull. Very high ss delicacy. The bag has some important paperwork, these brainless goblins wouldn''t pay it much attention. If you find it and bring it to me, I promise on my name as a Tenberry topensate you handsomely."


    "I can''t promise you anything but if I get the chance I will bring it to you."


    Aldrich checked on his crude spear and thought it could take a bit more. He walked briskly on the west side of the caravan of cages while the goblin was on the east.


    This gave Aldrich cover and allowed him faster movements as he was short on time. Finally Aldrich could see that he was almost at the end of the caravan, the closer he got to his target the slower he advanced.


    From his cover behind thest cage cart he could see the side profile of the goblin clearly for the first time.


    The creature had the hight of a seven year old, giving Aldrich quiet the shock. It had a t face, slopped back forehead, broad nose, pointed ears and small but sharp fangs.


    It had red eyes and it''s skin was sickly green. In one hand it held a javelin a head taller than itself and a chunk of raw meat in the other. It was chewing loudly and the blood and juices overflowed.


    A tall torch was fastened to the ground besides the goblin. It wore nothing on its upper body. It had a rag on its lower body and tied a leather belt around its waist. The belt had a chain of keys dangling from it.


    Aldrich had already decided on a n that he hoped would seed on the first try. He picked up a small stone and tapped with it on the bars of the cage.


    The goblin stopped eating for a moment and looked around. Unsure. Aldrich tapped again. This got the attention of the goblin as it abandoned it meal and headed to the direction of the noise.


    Aldrich reminded perfectly still and waited until the goblin was in the right spot before he thrust his spear and stabbed through the torso of the goblin.


    Unfortunately the crude wooden spear was just that, a crude wooden spear and it broke before it could go deep enough. Fortunately the goblin''s own javelin was in better shape.


    Aldrich reached for it as he suppressed the struggling goblin with his right foot, in the midst of that, the goblin used its free hand to throw dirt in Aldrich''s eyes but missed. He pried the javelin from it''s clutches and finished the job.


    The javelin went through the open mouth of the goblin.

 Chapter 23 Toll

    Aldrich hunched down and took off the keychain. There were many keys around twenty or so all in a state of disrepair. Aldrich looked around and saw a wooden cart covered with ropes.


    He untied the ropes and saw many bags and even clothes piled together in what could only be called a mess. He started searching but it was too dark.


    Aldrich picked up the torch and brought it closer to the messy cart. With better light Aldrich finally found his bag and most importantly the sword that Isger gave him.


    Aldrich opened his bag and was relieved that nothing was missing. It seems that the goblins didn''t bother checking the contents they just piled everything they looted here and when they returned to their hideout they would check everything at once.


    This was only conjecture it might be wrong. But Aldrich felt like it is true, if the goblins knew that this bag had twelve silver coins they wouldn''t just dump it here.


    Aldrich searched a bit more and easily found the bag of the halfling Tarzin. It was blue and had the mark of a red bull, though he couldn''t see how the bull was supposed to be grinning.


    Aldrich picked it up and made a quick run back to the halfling''s cart cage. The halfling was excitedly telling Aldrich to hurry it up while Aldrich was trying the keys one by one.


    When he tried the thirteenth key it worked. Tarzin quickly got out and they shook hands.


    "Let''s get the hell out of here, my friend." Tarzin whispered, as he checked the paperwork in the bag.


    Aldrich looked around at the cages nearby, all the people there were passed out. He looked at the keys in his hand.


    "No. Before that let''s open the cages nearby." Aldrich refused.


    "What? Shit, fine give me half the keys, that way we''ll finish faster."


    There were six other cages behind Aldrich''s own cage, there were many more after it. But Aldrich just couldn''t afford to waste more time.


    Aldrich and Tarzin opened the six cages and awoke the people there. He told them to run but most were still out of it and could hardly stand.


    Aldrich didn''t have much time so he and Tarzin escaped together into the woods. Tarzin told him that he could see very well in the dark so Aldrich decided to follow.


    Maybe if that woman didn''t betray him and threaten him afterwards she would''ve been one of the people that had a chance to escape...


    Aldrich followed Tarzin through the trees and thickets for while. A sweet scent hung around the air, not cloying or overly redolent but delicately rich and refreshing.


    On some vines, roots of flowering trees poked out of the vines upon which they were nted. Tarzin was very agile but slow. Frustratingly slow.


    Soon the halfling started panting and breathing roughly. Aldrich, not wasn''t about to waste time talking, he quickly grabbed him and hoisted him on his left shoulder.


    "Hey! What''re ya doing? I can run just fine."


    "You''re slowing us down. Just tell me where to go."


    "Fine. Have it your way. Let me just tell you back when I was young I was the fastest one among my brothers and cosines and the rtives of said cosines¡ª"


    "Shh, something''s not right. Shut up." Aldrich lowered Tarzin back to the ground and looked around suspiciously, sword drawn.


    All was quiet but Aldrich felt that something or someone was watching them. Aldrich picked up a stone and threw it to where he felt the danger.


    A cry rang out of the tree shadows to reveal a grey wolf. Now exposed, the wolf lunged at Aldrich, it was too close and too quick.


    Aldrich fell down, the wolf on top of him. The wolf attempted to cut open his throat but Aldrich mped its maw with his hands. He then kneed the wolf to the side and got up, sword in hand.


    He and wolf remained still, eyes locked at each other. The wolf gave Aldrich onest look before it turned tail and ran into the woods again.


    "Man, o''man. That was dangerous huh." Tarzin climbed down one of the trees.


    "When did you have the time to climb up there? Alright, let''s get going. The wolf might bring his friends here."


    Aldrich carried Tarzin and ran even faster than before. Aldrich was impressed by his own prowess, doubtless without the increased attributes he wouldn''t be like he is now.


    The hit he gave the wolf must''ve rattled it into escaping.<sub> </sub>


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    The sun banished the darkness of the night and a new day arrived. Aldrich and Tarzin decided to take a some rest by a flowing brook.


    Aldrich and Tarzin drank the cold water with thirst. Aldrich didn''t forget to filled his waterskin, then shared the dried meat with Tarzin as they rested by the shade of a tree.


    "You''re sure this is the right way?" Aldrich repeated.


    "Of course, of course don''t even worry about it! When have I, Tarzin of Tenberry let you down?" Tarzin assured.


    "You didn''t.... I guess." Aldrich was a little ufortable with the energy that Tarzin had. They only met a few hours ago so Tarzin didn''t really have the chance to let him down so technically he wasn''t wrong.


    "My brother and I run an inn at the Lunsken district, it''s called the grinning aatex when youe to Voryhrm be sure to pay me a visit. You areing to Voryhrm right?"


    "Yeah, I must study in the academy to be a Crestmaster and then I''ll an adventurer. So about the invite, don''t mind if I do."


    "I knew it! Someone like you definitely has to be a Crestmaster! Actually my nephew is graduating this very year. He''s gonna be the pride of the whole family." Tarzin proudly boasted.


    "Such happy news, then you have to treat me for free when you''r nephew graduates." Aldrich was quite impressed.


    "Hahaah, you bet! My nephew is actually not much older than you, you guys must be friends. My nephew is actually quite talented he might join the Knights of thest sustar!"


    "Wow." Aldrich eximed audibly. The Knights of thest sustar is one of the oldest and most renowned adventuring guilds in all thend. It was famous not only in Vorian but the entirety of the empire. It was not simply an adventuring guild but also an independent order.


    Even Aldrich who lived in the extremely remote Wakefield heard about it. This guild had a history of hundreds of years and many legends had their names.


    There were even some rumors that the founder of the guild fought in the liberation war. Though its disproved by most.


    "When youe to Voryhrm I can pay you for saving my life. But if you can wait for half a year or so then I promise you a reward that is hard to buy with money."


    "Sure¡ª"


    Abruptly four hands appeared from thin air and strangled Aldrich. He was taken back and no matter how much he tried to fight back by punching or kicking nothing worked.


    He then opened his eyes properly and looked at his assants. There was man in a soldier''s uniform, the soldier''s face was unrecognizable because it was crushed, broken beyond repair. Fresh blood dripped off the soldier''s uniform.


    The second was a woman in tattered clothes and an exposed chest, she had a hole in her throat, the blood from which sputtered on Aldrich''s face.


    Both were talking together in ovepping voices, they said:


    "Why?...why?.....why?"


    "Murderer!!.....Murderer!...Murderer!"


    "No, wait," Aldrich pleaded between gasps as his neck was choked harder, "I didn''t want...to... I¡ªwas...!"


    Suddenly Aldrich felt a ssh of cold water cover him. And the two dead people were reced by a worried Tarzin.


    "Wha-what happened? Did I fall asleep?" Aldrich trembled.


    "No, you didn''t sleep. You were talking and then suddenly you started chocking yourself and talking to yourself... I think you need a bit of sleep actually. We''re about an hour away from the main road. Take some rest."


    Aldrich looked at his own hands that were stuck to his neck and didn''t know what to think. Even though logically he convinced himself that he was in the right, and he indeed is in the right, that emotional toll is not easily brushed off.


    Aldrich looked at his reflection in the water for a moment and then punched his reflection causing the water to ssh everywhere.


    He drank a mouthful of water and washed his head by submerging it in the water for a moment.


    Aldrich decided to take a nap for a moment, hoping to go back in the nightmare realm. He''de up with a n to defeat the armored husk, this time without fail.

 Chapter 24 Hunt

    Aldrich opened his eyes in the now familiar couch. He got up and stretched his naked body. Then he picked up the spare short sword he left here.


    Aldrich kept a close watch on the door leading to the staircase and listened closely. Silence. Aldrich had no ns to confront the armored husk now.


    After thest confrontation he understood that the difference between them was not only in skill alone. There was a difference in the armor and the quality of their respective weapons.


    The armored husk''s armor along with its long sword were in semi-decent condition. Unlike Aldrich who had rags for armor and a rusty short sword.


    Distinct from the normal husks the armored husk was not clumsy and prone to mistakes. On top of all that it surpassed him in power and speed. When these conditionsbined together it was no wonder he lost.


    In fact, although he was reluctant to admit it, if he had won then it was not short of a miracle.


    So his n was to hunt outside for now. Farm essence, increase his attributes and find better armor. There must be more normal husks out there and also the skinned dogs. Opponents that he could take.


    Perhaps it was time for some revenge. Aldrich wanted to see if other creatures could give essence besides the husks.


    Before he left Aldrich piled even more furniture on the door just to be safe. And then he headed out.


    Aldrich walked outside for the first time since that day and was greeted by the thick fog of the nightmare town.


    He had a purpose, to look for a weapons shop. If this was a town that people once lived in, then it must have had a weapons shop or a smithy.


    But in order not to get lost, which is very easy in such thick fog, he decided to check the town methodically street after street. When he reached a dead-end he would return back to the house and then try the next street.


    Aldrich walked, holding his sword and looked around and checked on the two rows of buildings. Silence ruled the nightmare town but Aldrich was not deceived by this silence as he knew its treachery.


    Aldrich checked on several buildings without any luck, the buildings on this street seemed to have no stalls or shops of any kind.


    Aldrich stumbled on a building with half copsed walls. This gave him a good way to look inside the building without the risk of entering.


    But curiously enough only the high ends of the walls copsed so he had to climb over some of the rubble. Aldrich was happy to do so, as it wasn''t that far.


    Aldrich climbed upwards with ease thanks to his improved body. When he was finally high enough to see the inside of the building through the opening in the wall he quickly lowered his head.


    He saw two husks, not normal ones but not armored like the one back in the base. They wore leather armored hardened at the shoulders and torso.


    They were walking in circles absentmindedly, and they each were armed with a small round shield and a spear.


    Aldrich lowered his head and calmed his breathing lest he be discovered. It looks like the husks be aggressive only when they encounter noise.


    At least that was ording to his past experiences, it was prudent to test everything and verify the facts.


    Right beside the two husks was a wall with pegs and it had all kinds of weapons lined up on it, from axes to great swords and even a long bow. Aldrich clinched his hand in excitement.


    Finally something was going his way. Aldrich was determined to not waste this chance. He picked up a pebble and threw it at one of the husks then he immediately ducked down.


    Hearing amotion both husks were confused and hastily checked, they looked for the intruder in vain. After a while they settled down.


    Aldrich was disappointed, he thought the husks might fight each other and make things easier. Unfortunately that didn''t happen. Could it be that these monsters won''t antagonize each other?


    This time he picked up a much bigger pebble from the remnants of the old walls below him. This one much bigger that thest. He aimed and fired with all his power behind the throw.


    The pebble hit the unsuspecting husk right in the middle of its leather helm sending it sprawling across the floor.


    Aldrich immediately ducked to dodge the spear that almost skewered his head. A momentter Aldrich looked at the spear above him wondering why the husk didn''t pull back. And then he noticed the tension in the spearhead, it got stuck in the crevice of the wall.


    Chance.


    Aldrich jumped over the ledge of the wall and stabbed, with his enhanced power and the fragile husks the sword pierced through the eye socket of the monster.


    Aldrich wanted the sword to go out the other side but it didn''t. He pushed the corps to the side and and observe hisst opponent.


    Thest husk lunged and stabbed forward, Aldrich dodged the thrust but the spear got him in the chest with its edge. Aldrich didn''t allow himself to process the pain, instead he cut off the husks hands with a sh of his sword.


    The spear along with the hands fell with ng to the wooden floor. The husk retreated but Aldrich didn''t let up. He shed but the husk unexpectedly dodged the attack by falling to the ground.


    Aldrich froze mid-action. The husk survived by tripping and falling down. Aldrich stabbed through the throat of the equally as confused husk, all the while smiling bitterly.


    However a momentter all thoughts vanished, Aldrich once again experienced that overwhelming hunger. Aldrich quickly collected four orbs to calm down his restlessness.


    Then he he stripped one of the husks with the most intact armor and tried it on. It was over sized a bit. But Aldrich was d to have it for it was quite embarrassing walking around naked.


    He took one of the shields and turned his attention to the beautiful row of weapons. There were more than twenty weapons and he wanted them all. Aldrich decided to take them and stock them in the base. His only fear is to be ambushed while transporting them.<sub> </sub>


    He needed all the weapons he could get his hands on and back ups. Lots of back ups. Aldrich took the weapons two at a time back to the house and for now dumped them all in themon room.


    Unfortunately, sometimes in life the more you don''t want something to happen the higher the likelihood of it happening. Ironic.


    Aldrich didn''t appreciate the irony, when on hisst trip back, he encountered three skinned dogs. They moved silently and quickly with the thick fog a man might not even realize how he was ambushed.


    Aldrich had one small round shield and an axe in the other. It was no coincidence that he had a shield as he only changed the weapons but kept the shield always with him.


    He and the dogs exchanged res. The dogs charged together. Aldrich held his ground and blocked two the dogs, the third managed to bite and hold on to his leg. Fortunately his new leather pants were sturdy but it still hurt like hell.


    Aldrich deflected the two dogs and smashed the one biting at his leg with the axe, a direct hit at its midsection. It didn''t let go.


    ''Tenacious piece of shit.''


    The barks from the side reminded him that he had two more beasts to deal with. One of the two free dogs jumped high and opened it jaw wide. Aldrich smirked.


    While its still midair his axe separated its head in two, horizontally. He turned to thest free dog and blocked it''s attempt to bite into his left leg.


    With it''s attack foiled it retreated and started running around him while barking and growling. Aldrich payed it no heed, instead he turned to the dog that still wouldn''t let go.


    "You don''t want to let go huh?!"


    Aldrich smashed its head with the axe repeatedly. The dog didn''t budge. Again and again.


    "You don''t want to let go? Fine, don''t let go! I''ll see how long you can take a beating!"


    Aldrich struck again and again and turned the skinned dog''s face into mush. Finally it let go but only when the dog was already dead.


    Aldrich looked at thest dog, it red at him and charged again, and again he blocked, seeing his chance he struck immediately after blocking and the axe tore into the dog''s back but when Aldrich tried to pull it out it got stuck.


    To get it out he had to kick on the axe''s handle pretty roughly. Disgusting fluids and smells permeated the area. Aldrich was a farmer and had his fair share of disgusting experiences but this was on a whole new level.


    But a momentter even this disgust was forgotten, ovee by intense hunger as he touched each of the corpses he was rewarded with one orb from each beast.


    Aldrich picked up his weapons and his weary body and dragged himself back to the base. He dropped the weapons and the shield and checked on his leg.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 2+


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 1+


    Vitality: 2+


    Intelligence: 1+


    Spirit (ck): 2+


    Essence: 9


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Finally he could increase spirit. But Aldrich wanted to hold on using the essence now as he had to consider a few more things.


    If his guess isn''t wrong then he needed eight essence orbs to increase the value from two to three. He couldn''t just waste essence he had to decide on priorities.


    He wasn''t evenpletely sure that increasing spirit would make him a Crestmaster faster. At the end of the day that was only a conjecture he came up with. Certainly it wasn''t out of nowhere but it wasn''t confirmed either.


    Aldrich decided that it was better to just collect essence orbs for now and when he had a better understanding of the attributes he would make a decision.


    He made great progress today, he was lucky to find the weapons and even collected a handful of essence orbs. Aldrich stretched and felt that it was about time he woke up so he went to sleep on the couch.


    After experiencing this a few time he thought he was getting the hang of it.

 Chapter 25 Time And Meeting

    "Alright, That was good rest. I feel much better. Tarzin let''s make haste."


    Tarzin looked at him in disbelief. "You''re joking right?"


    "Surely not." Aldrich answered tly.


    "You barely closed your eyes and now you''re fine?"


    Aldrich remembered that time flows differently in the real world than the nightmare realm. Since it was not sleep he was actually still tired. He was just excited for a moment.


    "Hahhaha I just thought it might be nice to lighten the mood. Look at your face." Aldrichughed awkwardly.


    "Oh, may the lord have mercy on your sense of humor! This is not the time. I''m off to sleep for an hour at the least. In the meantime you can do whatever it is that humans do instead of sleeping. I swear humans don''t know how to rx for a moment, god~."


    Aldrich was exhausted himself so he didn''t protest much. He closed his eyes and went into a peaceful sleep.


    Aldrich woke up due to the sun burning his face. He rubbed his unfocused eyeszily and then he remembered where he was.


    He looked around and found Tarzin curled up on himself under a tree''s shade. "Wake up! Tarzin! It''s almost noone. Get up!"


    Tarzin shot up into air. He hurriedly gathered his bag and they were on their way, fast. It was very lucky that they were not attacked and eaten by some beast while asleep.


    The forest and woods that were not close to viges or towns were infested with endless numbers of beasts and monsters. Anything could happen in such a ce.


    Tarzin and Aldrich made good time. They did oversleep but they were rtively close to the main road to begin with, Aldrich noticed they were almost out.


    Aldrich could see the forest giving in to tnds slowly. Suddenly he was stopped by Tarzin. "What are yo¡ª"


    "Shh, something ising." Tarzin raised his hand. True to his words, a minuteter Aldrich felt the ground beneath him shake a little.


    When Aldrich looked at the direction of the noise he saw a massive boar charging with great speed, the great boar stood as tall as he was and it had six tusks protruding outwards.


    It was chasing something, a really fast flying colorful thing that he couldn''t see properly. It led the boar to ram into a huge rock, the big rock shattered into smaller rocks.


    The impact sent rubble and dust to the air. The flying thing flew high up and disappeared. The great boar, enraged, started smashing into random trees, it looked unfazed by the previous ident.


    Aldrich and Tarzin were doing their best in pretending not to be here. They both hid behind trees and held their breath. Wishing to wait out the angry boar''s episode.


    Unfortunately luck had abandoned them and the boar charged right at their hiding spot behind the trees.


    ''You have the rest of this damn forest why did you have toe here of all ces.'' Aldrich cursed inwardly.


    Aldrich and Tarzin jumped away at thest second. When theynded on the ground Aldrich gave his bag to Tarzin.


    "Go! Run away!"


    "What? No, I''m not going anywhere without you!"


    "Listen I can''t protect you and fight, you''re going to hinder me and get us both killed. Now go call for help."


    "Shit, I''ming back for you. With help." Tarzin managed to escape in time before the great boar turned around and red at Aldrich.


    In response Aldrich smiled, in what he hoped to be a friendly smile. Unfortunately the great boar chose to ignore his kind intentions and charged at him.


    Aldrich didn''t dodge yet, he waited until the boar was as close as possible before quickly jumping away. Hended on his back and felt his skin burning with the friction.


    The boar took time to turn around before charging again which gave Aldrich the idea to lure it like this and then he would see how much damage he can do in that time. After that he would just repeat until either the boar escaped or it died.


    Aldrich picked himself up and looked at the slow boar, it was actually slower even than he expected.


    ''Wait, that''s not right.''


    The boar wasn''t moving at all, it was shivering. Aldrich looked to the south and opened his eyes wide. There stood a blue-eyed two meter tall white wolf.


    How could he not have noticed such a huge creature approaching? At this size it wasn''t an ordinary wolf, it was a direwolf. It was deadly, fast and quiet.


    The boar tried to run but the direwolf was faster. It moved with great speed and a w swipe sent the boar flying, before it could stand again it was held down by the direwolf. In two bites, in two massive bites it tore off the the neck of the great boar.


    The great boar had thick and tough skin. It would take some effort for normal swords to injure it. Yet the direwolf finished it off in two effortless bites.


    Aldrich watched all this and didn''t run because he would doom himself if he did. He was no match for it in terms of speed and if he gave this beast his back then it might be his end.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich hoped that the beast would busy itself with the prey it just hunted. Then he can retreat slowly. But of course it wasn''t going to be that easy.


    The direwolf didn''t seem very keen on enjoying its meal yet, it turned to look at Aldrich. Blue eyes met grey in midair.


    Aldrich didn''t move not because he was overwhelmed with fear or panic. After all this wolf was a cute petpared to the nightmare monster, even the armored husk, by his estimation could give it a beating.


    Aldrich was thinking about using his essence orbs to upgrade hit strength to three. This is his only viable option. Even if he increased agility to three¡ªwhich he couldn''t¡ª he didn''t think that he would be faster than the direwolf.


    So overpowering it seemed like the most optimistic solution. Isger''s sword was definitely sharp enough he justcked the strength and skill to use it. The image of Isger wielding this sword masterfully came to his mind once again.


    ''Ah, I''ve been having some bad luck with dogstely...''


    Aldrich couldn''t help but think that even though he was up against a wolf.


    The direwolf lowered its posture, Aldrich threw away the scabbard and held the sword with both hands. At this moment he dearly wished he had one of those shields from the nightmare realm.


    However before anything could happen the direwolf flew backwards like it was hit by a war-hammer and crashed violently into the tree behind it causing the tree to topple over raising a cloud of dust.


    Aldrich backed away and coughed as he breathed in some of the dust. When the dust cloud settled he looked at the direwolf and found it retreating and growling threateningly at him.


    He looked at where the direwolf was just a second ago and saw what looked like an arrow imbedded in the earth. The arrow body had a metallic sheen to it.


    Aldrich then realized the direwolf wasn''t growling at him. But behind him. He turned around and sure enough he could see the silhouettes of a group of people heading his way.


    "Well, I missed huh." One of the strangers remarkedzily.


    "Did you really miss or did you do it on purpose?" Replied another.


    "Hey, the direwolf was lucky enough to survive let''s leave it at that." Another stranger intervened.


    "Aldrich! You still in one piece? Told ya'' I was going to get help didn''t I?"


    Aldrich knew Tarzin''s voice when he heard it. He looked at the direwolf, it was backing away slowly while still keeping an eye on him. Cautious.


    But suddenly all thought were erased from his mind as a feeling of primal hunger dawned on him. An intense but familiar hunger. In an unfamiliar ce.


    Aldrich was only a few steps away from the cause of his hunger, the corps of the great boar. He kneeled down and touched it. Aldrich saw clearly three essence orbs being absorbed into him.


    So it worked in real life too. But it didn''t happen when he killed that woman and the goblinst night. Are there some conditions? There was much that he had to find out.


    When he came to, the strangers were already behind him. He stood up and turned to face them. They were three men and one woman.


    All of them were wearing fancy but notvish clothes with nice fabrics, though they were not overly decorated. They all looked to be in their early thirties.


    The archer looked like he put on his bowst minute and was arguing with the woman on the right. The man on the left reminded him of the strict discipline of a soldier, he was smoking tobo out of a pipe.


    The man walking foremost drew his attention the most. He had a gentle smile and sharp features entuated by his ck vest and light brown coat, his trousers were were of the same color.


    What attracted his attention however, was the grey eyes the man had. He was the first person that had the same eyes as him he ever met.


    Aldrich heard that colorful eyes were not umon outside the Drnaine region. After all the people of Vorian had intermarried with the other provinces for two thousand years. Even then grey eyes were still rare.


    "That was a close one, eh?" The grey-eyed man remarked.


    "Yeah." Aldrich didn''t know what else to say.


    "Caldera, stop arguing with Orven already ande check on this brave young man."


    The man tried to pat Aldrich on the back but Aldrich stepped back reflexively.


    The man withdrew his hand. The woman who wore a purple shawl over her dress walked over to Aldrich.


    "Try and rx a bit. We''re trying to help." The woman whispered.


    Aldrich didn''t trust any of them but they did just save his life. Besides judging by that arrow he witnessed just now, he probably didn''t stand a chance against them.


    Suddenly he felt a warmth spread to his body through the woman''s hand over his shoulder. This helped Aldrich calm down and some cuts and bruises all over his body had started to heal.


    A Crestmaster. A Cleric.

 Chapter 26 The Good Guys

    "How is he?" The grey-eyed man asked Caldera.


    "He''s fine, much better than expected really." The woman named Caldera answered with some surprise.


    "Great. Really great." The man looked around at the mess caused by the fight here. The archer, Orven, stepped forward.


    "So, I hate to ask this now... but is he the one?" He was asking Caldera.


    "No, I said we should look in Ado''merin." Caldera replied, annoyed.


    "When have any of your revtions been urate?" Orven asked but it was clear he wasn''t waiting for an answer. "I thought we might have gotten lucky."


    "Our search continues." The smoking man answered from behind.


    "Well maybe this is our guy. We should ask him," the grey-eyed man finished looking around the battlefield and came back.


    "It''s impossible, Ayemon, I would know if it was him." Caldera responded.


    "I''m just saying we should ask him just in case. You never know." Added the grey-eyed man, Ayemon.


    "Fine by me."


    "Uh, while I am grateful for the help just now," Aldrich interjected, "but I must ask, who are you? And what are you talking about?"


    The group looked around and when it looked like none was going to answer, Ayemon smiled slightly and said, "well, we are the good guys."


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Aldrich helped Tarzin up the wagon and shook hands with him. They both actually made it out in the end.


    "Are you sure that you must leave?" Aldrich asked regretfully.


    "I must. I have urgent business in Izki, I cannot dy. We''ll meet when you get to Voryhrm and we''ll drink to being alive after a shit experience!"


    Tarzin found a wagon going to Izki. The wagon transported people, not goods, there were many people sitting in the back. He was an owner of an inn in Voryhrm quiet the impressive halfling.


    Aldrich watched and waved as the halfling''s wagon disappeared over the horizon. Although it was only a few hours since they''ve met, he felt that it was a good experience after all.


    Then he walked off the main road and found a carriage stopped by a small clearing.


    A campfire burned in the center of the clearing. The great boar was hung upside down by a rope over a tree branch. Orven and Norge¡ªthe man who was smoking¡ª were skinning the beast.


    Norge is the one that carried the body of the beast with one hand and made it look easy. The boar was two meters long and as tall as Aldrich, even after he increased his strength doing something like that was impossible for now.


    Caldera and Ayemon were sitting on a log by the campfire. Caldera was reading a book while Ayemon was drinking water. Ayemon gestured at him to take a seat on the log too.


    Aldrich obliged. Ayemon finished drinking water and looked at Aldrich and handed him the waterskin.


    "I''m not thirsty thank you."


    "Good. Well ask away." Ayemon said with a smile.


    "Why are you willing to answer my questions?" Aldrich asked curiously.


    "Well we want ask you some questions of our own so I thought it only fair if we answered some of yours first. Besides you gave us such a good boar for our lunch."


    After all Aldrich learned that Crestmasters don''t work for free or anyone as a matter of fact. So he decided to pay them with some of the silver he had but Ayemon refused and insisted that the boar was payment enough.


    "Are you all Crestmasters?" Aldrich decided to start with an easy question.


    "Yes, we are."


    "Is Caldera an Archbishop?" His question was followed by silence.


    "Ahem, no, that¡ª she is not." Ayemon had a bewildered look on his face.


    Of course Aldrich had expected this but he was still disappointed nheless, "do you know who Enthelmyre is?"


    Aldrich still remembered that fateful night clearly. He remembered the name of the lord that sent the soldiers to burn Wakefield.


    "Why, of course I do." Aldrich was surprised by the unexpected answer.


    "Who is he?!" He demanded.


    "Wah, take it easy. I mean who doesn''t know who Enthelmyre is? He is the deputy governor of the province of course. Always has been ever since the end of the war."


    Aldrich finally remembered how he felt that the name was not unfamiliar to him. He heard it whispered by the adults when they got drunk. He sat back down.


    But this answer, only gave him more questions. Why would the deputy governor of the entire province send an army to burn an insignificant vige? That obviously made no sense.


    "Are you lying to me?!" Aldrich couldn''t stop himself from yelling thest part of the question.<sub> </sub>


    "Hahaha, calm down. Why would I tell you such an easy lie to disprove? I have no reason to make a fool of myself. I don''t know what you''ve been through but you better take it easy."


    True. Aldrich could easily find out. He knew this but still lost control of his emotions and yelled at a stranger, he regretted his outburst.


    "I''m sorry. I was out of it for a bit."


    "Don''t you worry about it," Ayemon dismissed, "listen, if you want, why don''t you tell me your story so I can better answer your questions. I am quite well informed. If you like of course it''s up to you."


    Aldrich thought about it. He was tired of knowing nothing he wanted to know who was behind it all. He wanted to know why Wakefield burned. Why did innocent vigers have to die horrible deaths?


    Aldrich retold his story but only the relevant parts without mentioning anything about the nightmare realm and Harvick. By the time his story was done, night hade. The boar meat cooked in a stove over the fire.


    "I''m sorry for your loss. It''s a terrible tragedy what they did to your vige." Orven, the archer said. The rest nodded in unison as they offered him their condolences.


    Their pity served only further anger Aldrich. He knew that they couldn''t do anything about it but he didn''t want their pity, their understanding, he strived only for answers.


    How could they, these strangers understand him, how could they understand the reverent relief at being alive, the hidden bone-deep anger at being alive, the ripping grief at the loss of a thousand little familiarities.


    "These soldiers, did they have a coat of arms? Some kind of sigile?" Norge asked.


    "No. Actually I''m not sure it was in the dead of night. Aren''t they just Enthelmyre''s soldiers?"


    "It could be. Unfortunately Enthelmyre has no private soldiers and has no right tomand any imperial division."


    "It doesn''t matter, we must tell the governor, no, the emperor. The emperor wouldn''t allow such crimes to be inflicted on innocent civilians." Aldrich suggested.


    "And how will you tell the emperor. Will you send him a letter or will you personally meet with his imperial highness?" Ayemon asked a question deted Aldrich.


    "In fact, even if I were to arrange a meeting between you and the emperor right now, prey tell what would you say?"


    "I''ll tell him about all the crimesmitted by Enthelmyre!"


    "With what evidence? You don''t even know half of what you saw back then. You juat heard someone say the name Enthelmyre, and now you want to use the deputy governor?


    Hell, let''s imagine for the sake of argument that you had definite evidence of Enthelmyre''s involvement. Who are you? Nobody. Nothing. It''s you against lord Enthelmyre."


    Aldrich didn''t like what he was hearing. At this point it just seemed hopeless no matter what he did he couldn''t even look straight at someone like lord Enthelmyre.


    That was of course besides the fact that he had no reason to doubt lord Enthelmyre other than something he heard offhandedly. But it was a clue.


    "What about the order of the True Saint''s Folk? They''re an evil organization that employs and shelters Oathbreakers. Isn''t that enough to condemn them?"


    Aldrich still remembered it was two forces he was after. Not just an army but an evil heretical organization too.


    "That is true, of course. It''s just that I regret to inform you, the True Saint''s Folk is an organization that has already been purged by the inquisition fifteen years ago after the war. It''s probably another force relying on the infamous name to establish themselves."


    Aldrich was silent for a moment before he spoke next.


    "Alright, your turn." He was done with his questions for now.


    "Well, tell me Aldrich did you receive a revtion?" Ayemon asked as everyone payed closer attention to him.


    "A revtion? Whats that?"


    "A revtion is basically, something horrible is going to happen in the future so god tells you about it in advance to prepare yourself. Have you seen any saint in your dream? Any Aspect?"


    "No, not particrly. No." Aldrich saw monsters in his dreams but no saints to speak of. And certainly not any Aspect.


    "Well it was worth a try. Actually we''ve been looking for the oracle for past couple years now."


    "You haven''t even met this oracle?"


    "No"


    "Then how do you know that there is an oracle to begin with?"


    "Well, Caldera here, received a revtion about a finding a person who received a revtion." Orvenughed.


    Aldrich smiled too. That was quite the amusing idea. But soon his smile faded, his quest for vengeance seemed nigh impossible with not even a single clue.


    "What are you mopping about?" Norge asked him.


    "Well, I''m without any clues I don''t know what to do."


    "Without any clues? Who said that?" Asked Ayemon in seeming confusion.


    "You did!" Aldrich eximed, exasperated.


    "Me? Now when did I say that? Tell me about the strangers who visited Wakefield the day before the attack. In detail."

 Chapter 27 Ado’merin

    "The strangers?"


    "Strangers visited your vige that barely gets any visitors and coincidentally left before the attack. Now doesn''t that smell fishy to you?"


    Suddenly Aldrich remembered the notebook he happened to read that day, he snatched it from the sleeping guard. It had information about the vige situation about weapons, number of guards and their shifts.


    How could he have been that stupid? The clues were right in his face.


    The owner of the notebook was a bodyguard named Keld Adash. He was known for going all around the vige to flirt with women instead of protecting his employer.


    But what if Keld wasn''t flirting with women? What if it was all a ruse, so that he can move around the vige freely. All his weird actions would be med on his vulgarity and pervertedness. His true objective was¡ª


    "Information..." he stuttered, the words came out of his mouth like they weighted as boulders, "they were sent to collect information."


    "Undoubtedly, And anything else? Names? any distinguishing features?"


    "Atrio Taelva, he imed to be a banker for the Ado''merin imperial bank branch. Keld Adash was one of his bodyguards."


    Ayemonughed, "Ado''merin well, would you look at that. That happens to be where we''re going tomorrow."


    -------------------------


    Aldrich watched the trees and hills get left behind by the carriage. This was the first carriage that Aldrich saw, nobody had something like that in Wakefield or Uleq. It didn''t look as fancy as he had imagined.


    It was bigger than he expected but the outside woodwork was in and unadorned. It was bigger than it looked on the inside than it looked and the seats were big and wide, there were cushions even on the back of the seats.


    Aldrich was sipping tea from a porcin cup that he wasn''t sure how to hold. He looked at Caldera and Ayemon, on the seat across, drinking elegantly and tried to imitate them. He failed.


    He shared the seat with Orven, Norge was out driving the carriage.


    This tea was called the Azureleaf tea and was apparently harvested from tree canopies in the far south. Apparently it was mostly sold by elven merchants.


    Aldrich savored the sweet but sour taste of the tea. Last night he had slept a peaceful sleep without being pulled to the nightmare realm. This was a pleasant surprise for him.


    After he finished his tea he handed his cup to Caldera who collected it into a wooden basket underneath.


    "Aah! These bumps are driving me mad!" Protested Orven.


    "Really?" Asked Aldrich. Confused. He felt that the road was extremely well trod and stable.


    "You feel like that because you haven''t tried the imperial roads, after you do, you just cante back to dirt and mud trails. Isn''t this the capital of the region how cheap can they be?!" Orven raged.


    "These guys are stuck a hundred years in the past. They think hoarding gold is all they have to do." Answer Caldera with disdain and disgust.


    "It''s not easy to part with gold is it? Besides the concept of spending gold to make more is difficult to ept for some people." Added Ayemon.


    Aldrich felt a little embarrassed for being impressed by the road but he was d that he didn''t voice out his feelings. He would seem like a total country bumpkin. More than he already has.


    Aldrich had more questions to ask. Yesterday he realized that he was ignorant of the state of things outside Wakefield. If he was going to save Isger and take revenge on the perpetrators of the massacre, he needed to do better.


    "I thought about it and I think the news should reach the central government right? I mean even if they killed everyone in the vige, someone sooner orter will realize that a vige of a few hundred people disappeared, right? The government will be rmed."


    Even if their n had worked and there were no survivors, a vige can''t just disappear. Someone will find out and people will start asking questions.


    Aldrich looked at Orven who had an awkward look on his shaved face.


    "Ah, well.... you see... its not that simple."


    Orven looked at Ayemon and he nodded.


    "These are foul times, Aldrich. Monsters and even dungeons are popping up everywhere. Bandits and ouws have taken control of many trails and roads, some of which go about their dark business in broad daylight.


    In other regions the lords unsanctioned private armies squabble with one another. Abandoning small viges and towns to their fates.


    Some other areas of Vorian have be a yground for goblins, kobolds, gnolls, bugbears, trolls and orcs, you name it. Foul times indeed." Ayemon stated.


    "What do you mean to say?" Aldrich inquired, he remembered his very recent experience with the goblins and cages. The cages full of people.


    "What I mean to say is; what happened to Wakefield is a terrible tragedy. But, by no means is it shocking or rare in the current circumstances. I''m sorry."


    Aldrich gritted his teeth, "how could the governor not do anything about this? How could the central government be this blind? This makes no sense."


    "Unfortunately, it does." Replied Caldera, "the rest of the provinces and the central government are happy to see Vorian suffer. After all we had sided on the wrong side during the war."


    "The wrong side?" Aldrich asked.


    "The defeated side. We lost the war along with the false saint, he''s dead but we''re alive and the rest of the provinces aren''t done kicking us when we''re down.


    And as for the governor, why would he report his failures? If he did, not to mention his career, even his head would fly off, so he would rather steal as much taxes as he could while looking the other way."


    "Looking the other way?"


    "It''s an expression, it means he is pretending that everything is fine and reporting that everything is great to Central. And Central is happy to go along with it as long as no one makes an official report."


    "Hundreds of innocent vigers are dead. And they''ll look the other way? People were killed without even knowing why and nobody cares?" Aldrich asked no one in particr.<sub> </sub>


    "The story will be the talk of Vorian for a week, two maybe and then it''ll just fade away. To the rest of the world it''s like it didn''t even happen. But the most important thing is that you don''t forget." Ayemon reminded Aldrich.


    ''That''s right, let them forget for now. Let them sleep in honey and milk while I sleep in nightmares. They''ll see, all of them will pay. All of them will rue the day they decided to involve Wakefield in their dirty schemes. This I swear.''


    Aldrich subconsciously drew blood from his lower lip. He could see now why they had no qualms about ughtering an entire vige. Because they knew they were in the clear.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    After a long time, Aldrich could see the walls of Ado''merin growing closer and closer. After a while, the huge gate was looming over the carriage.


    He saw many guards on top of the walls and by the gate. Each were very well armed, some had bows some had crossbows, others held muskets at the ready.


    But the carriage passed through the gate smoothly without a hitch. The slightly bumpy road turned to smoth pavement.


    Aldrich observed Ado''merin a city that he had only hear about until now but the carriage moved too fast for him toprehend any part of it.


    "Where to?" Norge asked from outside.


    "An unassuming inn, for now." Answered Ayemon.


    "Got it."


    Some timeter, the carriage came to a stop and they each got off. Aldrich looked around but before he could take the city in he was taken by the smell.


    Caldera must have noticed the look on his face. "The greedy sods that run this city didn''t bother with sewerage."


    Aldrich looked at the hundreds of people in the streets, the three- and four- story buildings everywhere. The cobbled streets with tracks worn a hand''s breath down into the stones.


    There was too much. Smells of cooking pork, chicken and duck. Spices he didn''t know, fresh fish, rotting fish, a thin odor of humanoid waste. And a stronger one of horse and cattle manure.


    Aldrich tried not gawk as he followed Ayemon and the rest, they walked towards a two story inn, the inn had a wooden signboard with the name, the smiling rose.


    Before they entered Ayemon threw a copper coin at group of four young men by the door of the inn. After catching the coin, the young men scrambled to get the horses into the stables.


    When they entered the wooden floor creaked under their feet and the smell of cooking pork and fish grew ever stronger. The hallway was clean and tidy.


    Aldrich walked behind the group to a young woman behind a desk, she was fiddling with a book. When they were close enough she looked up at them and asked politely, "good evening, how may help you today?"


    "Just four rooms for the night." Ayemon said with a smile.


    The receptionist beamed, "of course. Hot water will be provided in the night and morning by the staff. That''ll be eight coppers."


    ''Eight coppers? That''s insane!'' Aldrich wanted tosh out at the insane price. But no one else reacted so he held his tongue.


    "Sure." Ayemon ced one coin with the number five inscribed on it, and four separate coins on the table.


    "Let me get you your keys, sire. Eh, you made a mistake sire, you gave me nine coppers." The woman took one copper out to return it to Ayemon but he refused.


    "Ah, you can keep that." He said.


    "No, sire, I can''t. I''ll get in trouble for this..."


    "Consider it a token of my appreciation for the good work you''ve been doing here." He insisted.


    The woman blushed as she kept the copper coin in her pouch.


    "I don''t deserve such kindness sire."


    "Outrageous! How can you not? Since the moment I walked in I felt your hard work and sincerity, by the way.... we just got here from Kidaran. Did you by any chance hear anything interestingtely? Any rumors, perhaps?"


    The woman looked like she was thinking hard, "I''ve heard about all sorts of rumors, I''m just not sure what are you looking for."


    "I''m thinking something big, something recent. Any ideas?"


    "Oh! I know!" the receptionist jumped excitedly.


    Aldrich held his breath. Here ites.


    "The fifth daughter of lord Onsworth was seen swimming in the jorieke in the middle of the night, and in the nude too."


    Aldrich felt the veins one his forehead about to explode and shower the receptionist with his blood.


    But Ayemon''s reaction was different.


    "Whaaat~ now that''s some big news."


    "I know, but it''s not confirmed yet. Anyhow, through that door''s the tavern if you feel hungry at all please try it out."


    The receptionist then opened a drawer and brought a few keys out and gave them to Ayemon.


    At this moment the front door opened again.

 Chapter 28 Why?

    The new arrivals were the four young men that took care of the carriage. They came carrying the luggage.


    Aldrich andpany went upstairs and Ayemon gave Aldrich, Orven and Norge each a key. The four young men came in behind them and distributed the luggage and went down.


    "We didn''t get anything out of her." Aldrich mentioned to Ayemon.


    "We did get something. Now we know the news might not have spread here yet or it might have been blocked."


    "I guess that''s true" but Aldrich wasn''t convinced, "when are we gonna search for Atrio and Keld?"


    "Slow down, who said we will? That''s too risky. I''ll send some local friends to look for these men. By tomorrow morning we''ll hear something about it."


    "But he works in the bank, we can just capture him!"


    "No we can''t. We don''t even know if what he told you guys at Wakefield is even true. His own name is likely an alias."


    "Wha-" this was a possibility that he hadn''t thought of. That''s right none of what they imed could be trusted.


    "It doesn''t matter if its fake or real in the end it''ll lead us to him. Besides you saw his face right? if you saw him again you will recognize him easily."


    "Then what should I do?" He asked


    "Well, first of all go wash up then we''ll go get you some decent clothes. Norge and Orven will take care of the rest."


    Aldrich looked at his ''clothes'' that were in a unrecoverable mess. His baggy breeches and loose shirt were torn and tattered full of grime and dirt, dried blood was obvious on some parts.


    Aldrich was in no position to care about his filthy state before now. Aldrich realized that he had been running for his life constantly for the past few days.


    Aldrich felt his cheeks burning and ran straight into his room. He must have stood out when he was among Ayemon and hispanions.


    Aldrich didn''t wait long before there was a knock on the door, he opened it and found two girls of his age holding a bucket of hot water. He let them in.


    They ced the bucket on the floor and produced a wooden tub from a tiny room that he hadn''t noticed. Then they filled the tub with the water and left.


    Aldrich submerged himself in the tub, he felt the hot water over his skin and sighed despite himself. The events of thest few days yed themselves in his mind over and over.


    Aldrich finished washing himself and headed outside. When he got to the reception he found Ayemon and Caldera waiting for him by a table. The reception area was lit by three mossmps as the sun had already set.


    When they noticed his approach they got up. And smiled at him.


    "Well lets get going."


    When they walked outside the inn, Aldrich noticed that most shops and businesses-like buildings had mossmps on the outside. Themps releases pure white light. Even the night wasn''t dark in the city.


    They walked on the side of the streets, carriages and people all moved in a strange rush as if they all werete for something. All the people were dressed in simr fashion and quality to the clothes of Ayemon andpany.


    One thing that got his attention was that people were still out and about even after the sun had set. In Wakefield everyone would retire back home at this time.


    Aldrich left his sword at the inn, he didn''t want to attract attention to himself. He noticed the receptionist giving him a cautious look back in the inn or maybe she was appalled at his terrible state.


    As Aldrich observed the carriages in the streets he noticed that most of them had a grand appearance with intricate patterns and many different colors. Some were not even pulled by horses but by blue scaled huge lizards.


    Aldrich would have attacked if he didn''t know to restrain himself, the people around acted like that was a normal everyday thing.


    This made Ayemon''s carriage seem insignificant. And perhaps that was by design. Probably no one can expect that four Crestmasters travelled on such an unassuming carriage.


    The more he thought about it the more usible it seemed. Even in their choice of clothes and the inn they chose they made deliberate actions to blend in.


    Aldrich marveled at such thought process, indeed these guys knew what they were doing.


    They came to a stop and Ayemon raised his hand in the air, shortly afterwards a carriage stopped by the side of the street.


    "Where to?" The carriage driver asked.


    "We want to get some clothes, somewhere decent but not too expensive. Not a shop, a stall perhaps."<sub> </sub>


    "Sure. Get in."


    Ayemon gave the driver a copper coin and opened the door and walked right in, Aldrich followed as he thought about this exchange.


    "What is this? You can do that?" He asked curiously.


    "This is a private carriage, this is that man''s job. He takes people wherever they want to go for coin." Answered Caldera.


    "Why is it called private?"


    "It''s called private because there''s also a public carriage. There''s a difference. A public carriage can stop to pick up people only in specific areas. A private carriage can stop anywhere and costs more."


    This all was new to Aldrich. But he could understand why they needed it. Cities were big and had many people and many ces that people can go to and people wanted to reach a destination fast.


    Soon enough they stopped and got off. They were in a street that was stacked with stalls, most of which were selling clothes and fabrics. Ayemon told the carriage driver to wait for them.


    The stalls had people shouting how their fabrics are the best and cheapest, some even imed that nobles brought their clothes from them. Some had beautiful women posing in their clothes and inviting customers to buy.


    Aldrich walked and stopped by one of the stalls, there were many men and women around it and looked at them examining the fabrics and the men behind the stall were busy writing down measurements.


    "Come on, we''re not here to tailor something we''re looking for something ready and easy." Ayemon called out to him from the back.


    They walked until they arrived at a stall that had trousers and shirts of many colors lined up on his stall.


    Eventually Aldrich bought two outfits both were good fits snd had a soft texture. The two trousers were dark brown and ck respectively. While one shirt thar had buttons was white and other was grey.


    He only bought one coat that he would wear over both shirts. It was light brown. This cost him a whole silver. This price made Aldrich give up on buying and storm off but he was stopped by Ayemon.


    Both Ayemon and Caldera said that these clothes were average but to Aldrich these were the finest clothes he ever had. In the vige only the mayor and Krynt could have such great clothes.


    On the way back to the inn Aldrich had a lifeless look on his face. One silver. That was three months of his wages from both his jobs with Isger and Krynt.


    He made a total of eight coppers a month. Six from Isger''s and two from Krynt''s. This can''t be right. When he looked at the twelve silversst night before going to sleeep he invariantly believed that he was kind of rich.


    But now, it was starting to be clear. A city was a ce that burned through money like a bonfire through paper. The rushing people made sense. They were all trying to make money to make ends meet...


    Back in the inn, Aldrich changed into his new clothes and looked at himself in the mirror. He stood at 1.7m, his jet ck hair wasn''t too long, his grey eyes were starting at his reflection.


    He wore the dark brown trousers and white shirt with buttons, he fixed his new light brown coat over the shirt. Except for some dark circles around his eyes he thought he didn''t look too bad.


    Aldrich went down the stairs and passed through the reception to a door and entered the tavern. The smell of the food had diminished since the time they first arrived.


    Aldrich saw his group sitting by a table and walked towards them, while walking he observed that only two other tables of the tavern were in use.


    When he sat down he noticed a stack of papers on the table in front of Norge. Before Aldrich could ask about it a waitress came to their table.


    "Excuse me, I was wondering if you were done deciding." She asked.


    It seemed like Ayemon and the rest got here earlier and were asked about their order before he came.


    "Yes we''re mostly done, we''ll have three ale mugs and one beer. Three tes of chicken breast and onions and one fish stew. Our young friend just came here so when he decides he will call you back for his order."


    "Sure thing," the waitress replied and hurried back to the kitchen with their orders.


    Aldrich looked at Norge and asked him the question that has been on his mind.


    "Did you find anything? About Atrio and Keld."


    "Well, we aren''t sure yet. Anyhow, the man named Atrio Taelva is not recorder in the banks record of employees. There''s still the fact that he may have used an alias. We''ll have to make sure."


    Aldrich wasn''t surprised by the answer, "why are you helping me?" He asked, looking at Ayemon.


    "You''re a noble aren''t you? Why take the risk to investigate the deputy governor? You don''t know me."

 Chapter 29 You Have To Earn It

    "Because I don''t want another war to break out. If Lord Enthelmyre is really trying to rebel against the emperor then things here will be even worse than they already are."


    "Thest civil war had driven a wedge deep enough in the empire and the result is a division that the empire hadn''t seen since the era of dread." Ayemon stopped to take a sip of water.


    "Now I don''t know if Enthelmyre is really behind it. Personally I doubt he is. I just don''t see how he could be mad enough to try something like that. But if he is, then the chances of victory in this rebellion are even worse than thest time. So I want to find out what is really brewing."


    "And I am a clue that could lead you to the truth." Aldrich stated with certainty.


    "Correct. Personally this conflict is looking to be a bit too much for me. My goal is to avoid the conflict entirely if possible. Will you work together with me?"


    "Can you help me contact an Archbishop?" Aldrich inquired. This was an important goal for Aldrich. Other than revenge, he had an even more important goal, to save Isger.


    "An Archbishop? Well, I certainly can arrange such a meeting but why?" Ayemon had a curious glint in his own grey eyes.


    "I want to save someone important to me. For that I need an archbishop to find his soul and return it to his body."


    "Where is this person? Will you take a lifeless body to Ashphim?" It seemed like Ayemon had many thoughts in that short pause.


    Aldrich smiled bitterly, "I have to take the archbishop to the body not the other way around."


    "What do you want an Archbishop for precisely? I assume you you know that an Archbishop can''t return the dead back to life."


    "He''s not dead." Aldrich looked straight into Ayemon''s eyes steadily and stressed his words firmly. Perhaps his words were meant for both Ayemon and himself.


    "So he must be in a sorry condition but actually it might not be an Archbishop that you need. I assure you, most injuries can be settled easily by grade two cleric."


    "Well it''s not exactly an injury so to speak, his body is fine," Aldrich paused to take a look at the people on the table before he resumed, "his soul left his body but he is still alive and kept as such."


    There was a pin-drop silence before Ayemon asked, "I don''t mean to discredit you but allow me to ask, how did you find this out? If you truly are a shepherd from some backwater how could you recognize this particr state?"


    "I-" it was then that Aldrich realized that they didn''tpletely believe in his story and that made sense, they just met and he came to them with some sketchy fairytale, and without any real evidence to boot.


    From their perspective it was only natural to doubt, the fact that they took him seriously enough until now is very generous. And yet Aldrich couldn''t tell them about Harvick no matter what.


    "I, got help from someone trustworthy." Aldrich could only dodge the question like that.


    "How old are you, Aldrich?" Ayemon suddenly asked.


    "Fifteen and a then some."


    "So you''re already a man, and I will treat you as such. I can arrange a meeting between you and an Archbishop but I can guarantee the Archbishop won''t take half a step outside Ashphim for you. To be frank with you, you aren''t worthy."


    Aldrich clenched his hands in frustration. But Ayemon continued.


    "Now, I can insist on the Archbishop to do so. But why should I? Whats in it for me? I don''t think you are valuable enough for me to waste such a favor on you. If you want such treatment then you have to earn it."


    "How?"


    "By achieving great things. Be a remarkable man, have some achievements under your belt. Grow into a powerful Crestmaster. Or you can be filthy rich, that works too."


    "I only have two years. Three at most." Aldrich rified.


    "That''s enough time. If you''re talented enough. Let''s make a deal, if you ignite your first symbol within two months you can be an adventurer then if you aplish five grade two quests within two years I will adopt you."


    "What? How could that help me?" Aldrich was dumbfounded, he had bo idea how the conversation got here.


    "Of course it''ll help. Think about it, is meeting an Archbishop as amoner and meeting him as a noble the same thing? And being both a noble and an aplished Crestmaster will give you enough weight."


    True, that would definitely make things easier for Aldrich. But he didn''t think that the rest of Ayemon''s household would be in agreement. Actually wouldn''t that cause some nasty problems?


    "Ah, don''t worry too much. If we have a deal and you managed to meet my expectations I will definitely be true to my words."


    "We have a deal." Aldrich decided that he might as well agree, he would do anything to increase his chances of sess. This was a path of no return to begin with he would either seed or be buried in a nameless grave.


    "Great"


    Ayemon stretched his hand across the table and they shook his hands just in time for the waitresses.<sub> </sub>


    The waitress came carrying a tray, she distributed the drinks and the dishes to the four people that ordered.


    "How can I help you sir?" The waitress asked Aldrich who promptly realized he hadn''t thought about it at all.


    "Err, give me a loaf of bread and cheese tter."


    "Any drinks?"


    "No, just some water."


    "Right away, sir"


    Aldrich looked back at the group who appeared quietly amused by his forgetfulness. Aldrich chuckled as he thought about that too.


    "Then tomorrow we''ll make our journey back to great Voryhrm! You''re with us now. You''re going to be a Crestmaster right? That''s the city you ought to be at." Orven dered, while patting Aldrich on the shoulder.


    "Yeah, this guy can easily register you in the academy and insert you in an ongoing semester just fine." Caldera pointed at Ayemon.


    Aldrich''s jaw fell open, "you can?" He asked in disbelief.


    "Sure, I can. I''m sort of an honorary profesor there. It''s nothing big, I just give a ss or two wherever I feel like it. So I can definitely open some back doors."


    "Aren''t you abusing your authority? Isn''t that... bad?" Aldrich inquired hesitantly.


    "Yes I am. I do frequently abuse my authority and position. I didn''t want to be an honorary professor to begin with, but they forced the position on me. So why the hell wouldn''t I abuse my authority?"


    Perhaps Ayemon might be a more influential noble than he gave him credit for? Nah, it''s probably not as he exaggerated.


    Aldrich grinned, Voryhrm that''s the most famous city in the entire provincetely. It was always one of his dreams to go and live there a life of luxury and plenty. Now his purpose was darker.


    There was also, Adera, Krynt''s daughter. She was studying there for thest three years. He didn''t forget that Krynt''sst wish was for him to help her out.


    p If Krynt was right and the vige was attacked by his enemies then they might target Adera too. Thest remaining person who knew of Wakefield other than Aldrich.</anda>


    "But what''s the use of opening a back door for me, doesn''t it take years to graduate?" Aldrich was curious. If it took such a long time then he didn''t want to waste his time on it.


    "It could take years, yes. But it could also take only a year or even less. To graduate you need to ignite your first symbol that''s the only condition, that is the only thing that matters everything else is just horseshit."


    The waitress came in again and brought his food. Aldrich ate his food in silence appropriating the sour taste of the cheese. The bread was different from the bread baked in Wakefield, it was more white than brown and easy to swallow.


    After the meal was done Aldrich decided to ask a question that troubled himtely.


    "How do I ignite my symbol faster?"


    "You should be patient. When you get to the academy they''ll give you a meditation incense." Answered Caldera.


    "Anyhow it depends on your talent. You will be hearing this phrase a lot more from now on. The basic idea is that your spirit is growing and depending on the rate of growth your body adapts." Remarked Orven.


    "The growth of the spirit isn''t something that you should be concerned about, it happens naturally and you must simply wait." Agreed Ayemon.


    ''Spirit... that''s the most important.''


    Aldrich smiled, "ah, really? That sounds interesting. By the way how did you get the list of all the bank''s employees? Why did you get all of them? we just need one." He asked Norge.


    "Because I got the information through an information guild that has a branch here. I didn''t ask for the name because that might alert our query, we don''t want that now do we?"


    Something about his smile just now gave Aldrich a chill.


    "N-no we don''t."


    "Besides it will take time to investigate these people."


    "We''ll be leaving early in the morning, go get some rest everyone." pped Ayemon.


    Aldrich returned back to his room, closed the curtains and the shutters, he left the fire on for the night. He took off his new clothes and when his head hit the pillow he was in deep sleep.

 Chapter 30 The Roar

    Aldrich woke up in his base, on the couch. He stretched after waking up and observed his new leather armor and leggings. Looks like he happened to get new clothes in the real world and the nightmare realm at once.


    Aldrich looked at his prized weapons strewn on the floor and picked up the long sword, this one gave him a better feeling than the short sword. Today he was going to hunt outside too.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 2+


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 1+


    Vitality: 2+


    Intelligence: 1+


    Spirit (ck): 2+


    Essence: 12


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich decided that he would upgrade his spirit by the end of the hunt.


    Aldrich walked out of the house after deciding his direction today. Aldrich looked at the sky and suddenly realized he had never seen the sun here. A fact that made him subconsciously ufortable.


    Aldrich didn''t waste time and chose one of the random houses on the left street. The house he chose was the smallest and most humble of all the houses in this street.


    This house, like most houses was sealed, Aldrich broke the wooden boards and waited outside. Aldrich didn''t n on entering rashly. Husks were attracted to noise.


    He didn''t know how many husks there were here, so he nned to draw them out with the noise of the broken wood. Fighting in the darkness of the house is risky, but out where there''s better light? Now that is obviously more advantageous to him.


    Aldrich waited by the door and sure enough a husk came running. Aldrich hid by the door and when the husk was about to pass by the door he put his foot in its way.


    The husk tripped and fell face first into the tiny stone steps that lead up to the door. Even Aldrich felt a little bad about it. A once childish prank could be utilized like this.


    He didn''t expect it to be that brutal, but of course he didn''t give the husk any time to get up and stabbed right through it.


    Aldrich breathed easy as he absorbed two red orbs. He looked back at the open house but there was no more movement. He went inside cautiously.


    He searched the house which was much smaller than his base but it was empty. He felt a little stupid for choosing his base as the base when it was jam-packed with husks.


    If he could''ve found this house first then maybe he wouldn''t have had to die twice.


    The empty house had much less furniturepared to his base and only had two floors.


    The husk had no weapons to speak off.


    Perhaps this was his easiest kill so far. Aldrich looked all over the house for anything valuable and in the only bedroom in the house he found a strange leather poket.


    Aldrich opened it carefully and to his surprise he found coins in it. They were dirty but in a good condition. There were three silver and five copper coins.


    The copper coins were nothing he had seen before, they were square shaped and had a hole in the center of the square. While all the coin in the empire were circr. The silver was normal circr shape.


    But it continued to get even stranger, the imperial copper had Adon I''s palm on one side and the final wall on the other. But this square coin had the likeness of a winged tiger on both sides. The likeness was unclear, it was blurred somehow.


    The silver of the empire had the sacred peak on one side and the sword of Adon I on the other. This silver didn''t have any marks perhaps eraser by time or they just didn''t have any.


    Aldrich stared at the coins in his hands unflinching, he closed his eyes in resignation. There were many clues before this but he always chose to ignore them. Clues that lead to a terrifying conclusion.


    That this... ce, might be apletely different world. A world that even the empire didn''t know about.


    Another valid and more likely possibility is that this could be like the Eastern continent, a far awaynd that will sooner orter be discovered by the empire.<sub> </sub>


    Still that didn''t exin how he can appear here not to mention he had revived from death twice. Perhaps, this ''death'' isn''t real?


    But... that feeling, when he recalled that terrifying and disgusting feeling of death he couldn''t really tell. What is real? What is not? He found himself unable to ascertain.


    Aldrich returned the coins back into the pouch and took it with him. He decided to get back to the base, he didn''t feel like hunting anymore.


    On the way back, the eternally unchanging town suddenly experienced a change. There was a roar. It was so powerful and deafening, before he realized it, Aldrich was rolling on the ground covering his ears.


    It seemed like the roar wasing from everywhere and nowhere at once. Aldrich started uncontrobly scratching his face, violently tearing away at his skin, his eyes rolled backwards.


    It felt like an age had passed and yet it also felt like the time to blink, just as suddenly as it happened it ended. After the roar ended he managed to stop his hands from tearing his own face apart. Aldrich got back up, held his sword with both hands and looked around wearily.


    Aldrich had expected to be ambushed by some kind of monster or another but nothing happened, seemingly everything was back to normal. And his face was hurting like hell.


    However that silence was once again shattered, this time by a plethora of sounds of crashing and howling, screaming and shouting, unintelligible cries erupted from all over the previously quiet town.


    Aldrich recognized some as the familiar moaning of husks hundreds, thousands of them all at once. And others werepletely new to him. Aldrich looked around him and found the husks were all trying to break out from the boarded houses along the entire street.


    Aldrich was sweating buckets of cold sweat. The previously quiet but terrifying town had be loud and even more terrifying. Abruptly he noticed something from the side of his eye heading towards him, very quickly.


    Aldrich wielded his long sword with both hands and attacked in a downward sh. But his opponent, a giant roach as tall as his knee, was much nimbler and faster than expected.


    It dodged the attack and jumpedtching onto his leg. Aldrich was taken back and out of bnce after missing the strike. Soon after regaining hisposure he quickly noticed the giant roach was gnawing at his leg.


    Fortunately his new leather leggings protected him. For now.


    Aldrich debated on striking is down with his sword but feared he might hurt his own leg. So he found a better alternative.


    Aldrich looked at the corner edge of a building right behind him and kick it with the leg that the roach was attached to. Disgusting yellow pus exploded out of it and sttered everywhere.


    Aldrich pulled back his leg and was surprised that he actually got one orb out of the giant roach.


    ''Even something like this can give me an essence orb?''


    Aldrich suddenly looked behind him and saw four roaches emerging from the fog and heading towards him with the same speed as their now dead kin.


    Aldrich focused and moved his hands to what he felt was the best way to hold a long sword to have his right hand at the top end of the grip and the other hand at the bottom of the grip, closer to the pommel.


    This will allow for a much wider range of arm movements with the sword.


    Aldrich now had a better understanding of these monsters so he waited until right before the collision before stepping forward and sidestepping to the right.


    With a single sh he shattered two of the giant roaches and injured the third. Thest one managed totch on to him and started climbing up his body. Before it could get far however, Aldrich stent it flying with a punch.


    Itnded on its back, revealing many disgusting legs and struggling in vain to flip over. Aldrich stabbed right through it and turned to thest injured roach. Aldrich killed this one like he killed most roaches in the real world, he stepped on it.


    Almost on que, he heard a crackling noise behind him and he saw dozens, no, a hundred giant roaches all swarming in his direction.


    Aldrich decided to cut his losses and run. As he made a run for it, he was ovee by that hunger and then he realized he only got the essence orbs out of three roaches, missing two of them.


    He almost turned around but forced himself to keep running. Soon the feeling of hunger subside a little but it had not disappearedpletely, a force wanted him to go back and get the orbs, an unbearable voice at the back of his headpelled him to obey.


    Aldrich was aware that he died and revived twice but he didn''t know for certain how many times could he revive? What if his next death was also thest?


    Besides the feeling of death was horrible beyond words, he would rather lose two orbs than go through that feeling ever again. No matter how valuable these orbs were his life was of greater importance.


    Aldrich reached the base sessfully and closed the door firmly behind him.


    Aldrich took off his sword and dropped it in the weapons junk pile. He then walked back to the room he first saw when he was restrained on that strange bed by the old madman.


    ''Now that I think about it didn''t that madman stab me in the heart with some kind of red crystal? I wonder what that was about?''


    Come to think of it he never came back here after he first left. He looked at a book shelf, he picked one at random and opened it. Unfortunately he couldn''t understand a single word.


    It wasn''t like themon tongue of the empire at all. Completely foreign, absolutely alien to him.

 Chapter 31 Endings And Beginnings (1)

    This is but another indicator that this might be an undiscovered continent like the Eastern continent. Probably.


    It was a shame that he couldn''t understand thisnguage, if he did he could probably learn much about what this town once was and what happened to its former citizens.


    Aldrich believed that the former citizens of this town were somehow transformed into husks. Otherwise how could they now upy these buildings and houses?


    But if that was really the case how were they locked in? Who locked them in? It''s as if whoever did that knew that the people would turn beforehand.


    Or perhaps the husks invaded this town causing the people to flee. A much brighter alternative.


    If he could learn thisnguage he might learn the whereabouts of the so-called divine city much faster and safer than now. After all, he was basically searching for a needle in a haystack.


    Aldrich looked around the room and noticed there were curtains over the beds. Why did they hang curtains over beds? He didn''t know.


    They were also made as if to separate the three beds. Even stranger, who installed those restraints in beds?


    ''Wait a moment, could it be that this is not a bedroom and instead some kind of torture chamber? Or an experimentation den of some mad physician?''


    The room now made more sense to Aldrich.


    One of the curtains was draped over a wall. Aldrich curiously pulled it a side and that revealed a door behind it. The door had a broken handle and with a push it opened wide.


    Aldrich peered inside and despite thepletely different style, he recognized it for what it was. This room looked like a study room.


    Before Aldrich could enter, however, he felt a sudden tug. Aldrich knew this is the sign that he will soon wake up.


    Aldrich walked back through the hallway. There was a hallway, if you turned right you will get to themon room, if you turned left you get to the kitchen but if you go further ahead you will find another door to the right. Aldrich didn''t have the time to explore the entire house yet.


    Aldrich returned to themon room and threw himself over the couch.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 2+


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 1+


    Vitality: 2+


    Intelligence: 1+


    Spirit (ck): 2+


    Essence: 17


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich looked in glee at the number of orbs he had, the most he had ever collected. Now he felt a little sorry for leaving the two roaches and fleeing. Maybe there was enough time to get them but in hindsight everything changed.


    Aldrich made his decision, he upgraded both spirit and strength to three, leaving behind only one orb in his possession. Aldrich felt an electric shock all over his body and closed his eyes.


    Aldrich opened his eyes back in his room in the inn. He got out of the bed and looked at the night, and then at the firece not much had changed. Time passes slower in the nightmare realm.


    He looked at his body, it felt different very different, powerful. Aldrich felt power surge through him, through his blood, muscles and bones.


    More importantly he looked at his reflection and saw a shining crest on his forehead. He remembered the day of the ruins incident back when he was only thirteen years old, Adera also had a simr looking crest.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3


    Agility: 1


    Endurance: 1


    Vitality: 2


    Intelligence: 1


    Spirit (ck): 3


    Essence: 1


    Ether:1


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    He noticed there was an unexpected change in his attributes. A new attribute appeared, Ether. Aldrich tried to look at the exnation but only got question marks.


    Wait, just now when he observed the exnation of the attributes he saw that intelligence corrtes to knowledge and perception.


    Could that mean that if he increased it that his learning ability will be better or that he will be smarter?


    The problem was that each upgrade costs greater amounts of essence orbs, at least for the time being he had no choice but to focus on some attributes more than others.<sub> </sub>


    He couldn''t have everything, if he had to work all day to pay off his mother''s debt then he couldn''t have time to y with the other kids his age. He simply had to make a decision like he did back then and stick to it. It was very easy to say but hard to do in practice.


    After all, the ability to increase his learning skills was very tempting. In fact all attributes could only benefit him but he had limited orbs to go by. Plus he was pressed for time even more.


    Aldrich felt tired and decided to go back to sleep. After all going into the nightmare realm is not equivalent to sleep.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª-


    Aldrich woke up rtively easily. He still wasn''t used to sleep without nightmares. Well that wasn''t technically true but still.


    If he could do with the nightmares early then he would have a normal night of rest which still counted as a win in his book. Aldrich put on his trousers while doing so he still admired the soft fabrics.


    He opened the curtains then the shutters, the light of the rising sun lit the room in splendor. Aldrich let himself bask in the light for a moment and breathed deep. The cold and refreshing morning air banished any drowsiness left in him.


    There was a soft knock on the door.


    "Sir, would you like some hot water?"


    "Sure," he said as he opened the door, and the same two girls that came in yesterday came in again.


    The girls dropped the hot water bucket on the floor, the water almost spilled all over.


    "Ah!"


    Aldrich didn''t know what happened till one of the girls pointed at his forehead.


    "Oh, yeah. This." He touched his forehead and tried to make it disappear but failed. Aldrich already knew from Krynt that initiates couldn''t control their crest.


    Sometimes it would disappear and at other it would appear, randomly. Until he became a full fledged Crestmaster he couldn''t do anything about it.


    The girls recovered from their shock and prepare his bath with the same speed and efficiency asst time. While he soaked in the hot water and scrubbing himself he wondered if this is what it felt like to be rich.


    Aldrich still hadn''t forgotten his original dream. He was still going to do it. It''s just that he had to do a few more things on the way.


    Aldrich finished his bath and wore his clothes, hebed his hair and prepared his only belongings; a leather bag and a sword. Then he opened the door and headed downstairs.


    Aldrich decided to wait for the Crestmasters in the reception. He didn''t have to wait long as the group descended downstairs.


    "Mornin'' you''re up early," greeted Orven.


    "Did you forget? He said he was a farmer." Reminded Norge.


    "All city people should learn a thing or two from us country folk." Boasted Caldera.


    "Well, what are you waiting for? Let''s go get some breakfast." Invited Ayemon.


    "Oh, what? Your crest appeared, that''s great that makes things much easier for us." Ayemon remarked nonchntly.


    The rest of the group also made simr offhanded remarks.


    ''Damn, they weren''t impressed even a little''


    Somewhere Aldrich hopped that they would show a bit more of a reaction. He was a little dejected.


    ''So Caldera was also from the country side?''


    Aldrich followed the rowdy bunch and headed to the tavern, the tavern was much livelier at this time. It was basically filled with all kinds of people including some halfling and dwarves.


    Aldrich wanted to observe the dwarves keenly but only gave them a brief look. They talles than halflings and broader than humans, they looked very strong and heavy too.


    The only remaining races that he had heard about but hadn''t seen in the empire were the elves, the vendari and the orvikar.


    Aldrich noticed that some people payed special attention to him and his group when they saw his crest. But none made any remarks.


    He also saw that a short wooden stage was in the center of the tavern, some tables have been moved to the side to make room for it. On the stage a band of three women and two men stood ying various musical instruments.


    Now that he took a closer look, one of the women didn''t y any musical instrument but sang a song, the march of Hileard hall. A very traditional and famous song.


    A waitress came to their table. She was not the same waitress as yesterday, there were many waitresses busying around.


    "Good morning, may god bless your souls sirs and madam. Today we have a special breakfast; grilled sausage and vegetables, very fresh. You may like to try it out."


    Just hearing the description already watered his mouth.


    "I''ll take two grilled sausages with two eggs on the side, please."


    Aldrich had always wanted to try such avish meal but in the past he always had to watch his spending. Not today. The others made their orders and the waitress left.


    "Oh, I almost forgot we''re going for morning prayers before we take our leave."


    "Do we have time for that?" Aldrich questioned.


    "Absolutely. It''s just a quick prayer and then we''ll leave. They have a decent temple close by."


    "Oh... great."


    Aldrich had to force a smile. Before the massacre he used to make a habit of attending morning prayers. Father Gombst used to give him two loaves of bread for free.


    Ever since that day he didn''t have a moment for himself and now he wasn''t sure if he should really enter a temple. He knew father Gombst won''t be there.

 Chapter 32 Endings And Beginnings (2)

    The food arrived and he forced himself to eat and stop thinking about stupid things. The meal was great and vorful, cooked to perfection.


    Aldrich thought about the reason for the great vor and realized it must be the salt and pepper. Of course the cook was alsopetent.


    p In Wakefield salt and pepper were expensive and sparse, halfway through winter most salt is rationed. But in the cities, he heard from the peddlers, salt and pepper were in abundance and much cheaper.</anda>


    Aldrich finished his meal and helped load the luggage in the carriage. When everyone else was done, Norge drove the carriage to the nearby temple.


    From the outside Aldrich could already tell how different it was from Wakefield''s humble temple if it could even be called that.


    This one was made from pure white marble. As the many walls rose higher they joined together to formed a great dome that encapsted most of the structure leaving only a single tower rising in to the south.


    When he entered the massive prayer hall, he took a deep breath. He had seen the tall ss windows on the walls from the outside, they were painted with many colors what he didn''t expect is that when sunlight passed through the windows and into the hall it bathed the ce in a hundred different lights.


    The hall was unfortunately almost empty, except for the priest who was kneeling by the altar. Perhaps the priest heard the door opening because he stood from his kneeling position and turned to them.


    The priest was surprisingly a young man only five or so years older that Aldrich. He was wearing a blue and ck holy robe. He walked towards them.


    "Greetings, did you perhapse for the morning prayers? Unfortunately you''re bitte."


    "I guess we didn''t pay attention to the time." Apologized Ayemon.


    "It happens life is filled with many distractions but god is merciful. You can join the prayers before sunset."


    "Ah, although we are a littlete, father, can you perform a passage rite for this young man here? He had lost many dear ones in an ident but couldn''t send them off. If you please..." Caldera suddenly said.


    Aldrich froze in ce and then, in a fit of anger, he tuened to leave but Norge''s hand rested on his shoulder and made it a futile struggle.


    Aldrich tried, but even with his newfound strength he couldn''t even budge, which made him question if the enhancement even worked.


    But Aldrich kept trying until his face was blood red. Then Ayemon''s face lowered in front of his own face. Norge''s hand loosened around his shoulder but Aldrich didn''t attempt to run again.


    Ayemon whispered, "Aldrich your people haven''t been buried and you are the only one who can send them off. I know it must be unbearable, but being a grown man means that sometimes you have to do things that you don''t like, things that you can''t bear to even think about."


    Aldrich closed his eyes and the faces of all the vigers of a backward insignificant vige called Wakefield passed through his mind. Images that told a story from what seemed like a life time ago.


    Krynt and his family that took care of him, his wives, Lana and Venna always treated him to honey cakes when they made some. He had a rocky rtionship with Krynt''s step children but he always believed that they would put it all behind them someday.


    The mayor who treated him kindly, father Gombst that taught him about the teachings of god. Tomard that sent his goons to beat him up. his mother...


    And many more, some people he liked and some he didn''t, some he yed with and some he fought with. All of them were now dead.


    Aldrich walked behind the priest until he was face to face with the alter. Aldrich kneeled and sped both hands behind his back. He looked at the alter.<sub> </sub>


    The alter was made up of threeyers. The highest one was empty, the second had five small statues, representing the five aspects; the father, the maiden, the sage, thedy of harvest and the iron lord.


    Thestyer had the likenesses of the nine prophets in order, from the first to thest.


    The young priest smiled at Aldrich and ced his palm on his forehead.


    "Almighty god, Altunan, may his divinity bring peace to the dead, to the departed. In his infinite mercy, the faithful shall be epted and embraced from now on and forevermore. From this earthly living they are unchained, released but they are not forgotten not by the Almighty Altunan nor you. May he watch over you and guid your way."


    In the final part Aldrich repeated softly after the priest and drew the holy ring on his forehead, "Their deeds shall forever live until the end of time."


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª-


    Aldrich skinned the rabbit and removed its internal organs after letting it bleed out under a tree. The night breeze was growing cold and the green leaves danced to its tune.


    He already figured out that what happened at the temple was a setup. nned by Ayemon probably but Aldrich didn''t have it in him to protest.


    It was true that the dead deserved a send off at the very least. As the only survivor it was his duty to do so, whether he liked it or not.


    Aldrich looked at his right hand, there was a pitch ck ring on his index finger. Cazmer sacrificed his life and entrusted him with hisst wish. He had every intention of fulfilling it to the best of his ability.


    After they finished in the temple, they immediately got on the carriage and rode off to Kidaran. From there they would get on a river ship and sail to Voryhrm.


    Even after sunset the carriage didn''t stop or slow down until veryte in the night. He could see now why they were sure the trip was only going to take seven days.


    Night travel should shorten the time considerably and while he initially believed it was reckless he quickly changed his mind. The obviousmon sense of normal people didn''t apply on Crestmasters.


    Aldrich enjoyed the taste of the tender rabbit meat and thick broth. He drank the apple juice they brought from the inn just before they left.


    Aldrich was excited to go to the nightmare realm today, throughout this day he was impressed by his own power. Aldrich believed that he could rival the armored husk right now. In strength at least.


    Aldrich thought about what had happened carefully and came to the conclusion that his crest appeared because he increased his spirit to three.


    A while back Harvick told him that it would take a month for that to happen. He had managed to do what should have taken him a month in only a few days. This was the great ability of essence.


    Despite that he was realizing that every single one of the attributes was very important and that he needed more and more essence.


    When Aldrich remembered the number of giant roaches and great number of houses and buildings, he had to ask himself how many husks were there? There was definitely no shortage of essence.


    Aldrich continued to analyze the ability further. If he needed four essence orbs to upgrade from one to two and eight to upgrade from two to three then he could only assume that he would need sixteen for the next level.


    Without realizing it, at some point he fell asleep. When Aldrich woke up on the couch in the base he smirked. But soon his smile died down when he heard the noise outside.

 Chapter 33 Progress

    A part of him thought the next time he came back everything would''ve returned to normal. It didn''t. With a grim expression he listened to the unceasing moaning of husks, to the barking of skinned dogs and... many other things that he didn''t know.


    Aldrich looked around and found the coin pouch he lootedst time. Three silver and five copper, that was a huge sum of money. Now it was shame that it all he could do was let it collect dust here.


    ''Wait...''


    Aldrich suddenly pped himself twice. How could he not have thought about this until now? When Isger came to the nightmare corridor he bought his sword with him and used it to battle.


    Another thing when he fell out of the blue door he was wearing the smae clothes he had in the real world. His first corpse upstairs was still wearing those clothes.


    This confirmed that he could bring things from the real world here. Then what about vice versa? It was highly likely. But... he just didn''t know how.


    How did Isger bring a replica of his sword into the nightmare? Better yet, how did he bring a replica of his own real world clothes here?


    This whole entire thing was mysterious to say the least.


    Aldrich was about to push away the couch blocking the door to stairway but stopped himself.


    ''No, it''s not the right time. There''s something much more urgent.''


    Aldrich sat back down, deep in thought. He decided not to challenge the armored husk for now. There was a few reasons for that. First, he wasn''t going to rush into the fight just because his strength increased to three.


    When he recalled the fight¡ªthat wasn''t even a fight¡ª as brief as it was, he understood that the armored husk hadn''t taken him seriously. He was crushed without evennding a single hit.


    The difference wasn''t only in strength and speed alone, it was greater still in skill. Aldrich knew he couldn''t catch up to the armored husk''s skill in a short amount of time. So he needed to crush it with raw power.


    One attribute that he currently had his eyes on was intelligence. If it really increased his learning ability then maybe he could learn swordsmanship faster. The potential of these attributes is hard to ignore.


    Granted Aldrich didn''t want to fight it fairly, of course. But his current situation reminded him of the days when he was just a boy.


    When he got in fights with boys around his age he could always y tricks to win, even against bigger boys. But when the debt collectors came to beat him up he tried all the tricks he could but he always got beaten ck and blue.


    He must be at least on the same ying ground to even try some dirty tricks. As he was now, Aldrich judged that he wasn''t ready just yet. But he also didn''t think he was that far off.


    The second and most important reason is the noise outside. What if some of the husks were to break out of the sealed buildings? Then they would be attracted to the noise made by other husks in an unending cycle.


    Aldrich imagined the whole town teeming with husks filling the streets in endless pursuit of fresh flesh, even if there was nothing but normal husks, he would be overwhelmed, not to mention even stronger types. The thought made him cringe.


    So Aldrich came to a decision, he needed to clear out the surrounding buildings so that he could create a sort of safety zone that he couldfortably move in.


    Aldrich decided that he would clear the surrounding seven buildings for the next week or so and then he could make a move.


    He could wait for the husks to calm down but that was actually difficult, the husks reacted to noise. They were basically encouraging each other, and they didn''t seem to get bored.


    Aldrich picked up his shield and a long sword, before he went out he made sure to check his armor too.


    As Aldrich observed the town he noticed that something was different about the town, but couldn''t tell what. The fog. The always thick and heavy fog had significantly thinned out.


    Now he had a much clearer look on the town. Maybe if he climbed somewhere high up he could see just how big this town was after all. And maybe the way out.


    Aldrich turned to the house that was the closest to his base to the right. He decided to clear the neighboring houses.


    He kicked open the wooden boards sealing the door with ease. Then he tapped his shield against the wall from the outside and didn''t have to wait long for two husks toe running at him from the hallway.


    Aldrich observed the first one, it was charging at him recklessly and without a weapon. Aldrich blocked with his shield and the husk mmed into his shield.<sub> </sub>


    The force behind the charge wasughably weak. Imagine sprinting into a wall full speed. That was almost what happened to the husk and it stumbled backwards.


    Perfect.


    Aldrich took this chance and kicked the stumbling husk right back into its chargingpanion causing a terrible ident. Aldrich stabbed his sword through both of them at the same time.


    It was not enough to kill them but certainly enough for Aldrich to keep going''s until they were. Aldrich made easy work of the two of them. He barely put any effort in the sword and yet he was able to do it.


    Indeed when the attributes increase to three a clear difference manifested. Swinging the long sword was troublesome before and now it felt much easier.


    Aldrich searched the house and found one sealed room on the second floor. It had an iron bar in between the door handle simr to his base.


    Aldrich breathed in deep and unlocked the door. A spear pierced through his abdomen. At least it would have if it wasn''t blocked by the shield.


    Aldrich backed away with cold sweat. The husk that attacked him was wearing the same armor as him and a metal helm. Aldrich didn''t attack yet.


    The husk sent a flurry of piercing attacks all of which Aldrich either blocked or dodged. When the husk slowed down Aldrich closed the distance between them, taking the advantage over the spearman and cutting its throat.


    The freaky and gooey green blood of the husk sttered on him. Aldrich found it off with some of the rags he found in the house.


    Aldrich then searched the house and found a coin pouch simr to the one he snaggedst time only this one had seven silvers and a few coppers. Although he couldn''t take them back to the real world yet, some day soon he hoped he will. And then these coins will serve him well.


    He also took the liberty of relieving the husk of his armor and spear. The normal husks had rags and no weapons, beyond the essence orbs they were useless.


    Aldrich collected all six essence orbs and returned to the base havingpleted his objective for the day.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 1+


    Vitality: 2


    Intelligence: 1+


    Spirit (ck): 3


    Essence: 7


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich hesitated for a good while, deliberating on if he really wanted to do this. Finally, he upgraded intelligence to two. Losing four orbs in the process.


    Aldrich once again felt the familiar electrical feeling throughout his body. Good thing he was already on the couch.

 Chapter 34 New Type

    Aldrich woke up again in the real world. Not much time had passed since he first closed his eyes. Seeing that things were just as usual he went to sleep.


    The next morning everyone was awake at sunrise then they got back in the carriage and were on their merry way. By noon they finally saw a stone post of a vige north of the main road but Ayemon didn''t want to waste time.


    Many hourster something changed, the road below them became paved stone. The carriage was able to speed up further thanks to that.


    "Is this the imperial road? So that''s how it feels huh." Aldrich eximed.


    "No. This is an ordinary paved road and it can''t evenpare to the real imperial roads." Answered Caldera.


    "The imperial roads are made from the Ermitsal. You''ve heard of the Ermitsal institute of alchemy right? The institute was named after Johnathan Ermistal the man who created it. Right now only half of the empire has aplete road system." Ayemon sounded vexed over the mater.


    "Why are you trying to make it sound like that''s little? No other nation has been able to do something remotely close to that." Retorted Orven.


    "I am fully aware, but think about it, the form was discovered over a century ago. Why did they only start building roads thirty yearster? Instead what do they do? Wage some more useless wars! Ipetent!"


    "You can''t be talking about the Eastern continent conflict right? do you realize how big the discovery of a new continent is, right? If we invested in roads, the continent would''ve been snatched up by the republic and the dominion."


    "Did I say we should just hand it to them? Is the dynasty such an easy opponent? What we should''ve done is let them bite each other, meanwhile we finish the world''s greatest road and transportation system and then we swallow them all up."


    "When you know how everything turned out it''s easy to make such condescending remarks."


    Aldrich listened attentively for a while although he didn''t understand everything he still learned something about the overall situation which could serve to educate him more.


    He was surprised that the imperial roads turned out to be quite a big deal. He just wasn''t sure as to what that exactly meant.


    The road winds through the foothills of the Cretian Mountains just to the south, and there is a bite to the wind as it blows off the peaks.


    ording to a milestone cracked by repeated freezing and thawing, travelers are arriving at the town of Elet.


    It looks like a tumble of stones from a distance, but as they get closer, they see that the ruined appearance is just an illusion caused by the town''s uneven, badly weathered wall, and the jumble of te roofs visible within. Several wooden signs are posted at the battle-scarred city gates.


    A small, stone keep atop a low hill overlooks a small vige built directly below it. A fast-flowing stream runs nearby, past a wooden waterwheel mill, and a few more farmhouses and barns are visible across the fields.


    The houses of the vige are mostly half-timber and ster, with steeply sloped rooftops. One of these buildings isrger than the rest, and has a tavern sign hanging over the door. It was called the drunken fairy.


    Elet is a vige built around the ancestral castle of Lord Jauntir, whose domain extends approximately eight kilometers in all directions from the castle. There are 15 knightly manor houses in the territory, and two other viges about the same size as Elet: the vige of Oton and the vige of Cthayr.


    The rest of the poption is scattered throughout the area in isted hamlets.


    They didn''t eat at the drunken fairy instead Caldera went in and brought with her five tes of grilled goose and apples.


    During this lunch even Norge, who had been driving the carriage until now left the horses and joined them in the carriage. Apparently the horses were trained to follow paved roads as such they didn''t need strict guidance.


    "Why did you say that Lord Enthelmyre is not the one behind it?" Aldrich asked Ayemon.


    "Well it''s not just me. If the question is; does lord Enthelmyre have rebellious thoughts? then the answer is yes. But will Enthelmyre dare to act on these thoughts? Now that''s highly unlikely."


    "Why? I don''t understand isn''t he a powerful man in the empire?"


    "His tile is just for show, in truth he is a political prisoner. If lord Enthelmyre were ever to rebel it should be in the next emperor''s generation not this one. However if we were to entertain the possibility that he might actually be nning a rebellion right now then I would have to admit that he is a braver man than me."


    "How so?"


    "After all, if he can n a rebellion while being under the direct watch of the inquisition''s extermination chapter then I must admit to underestimating him quite a bit."


    Aldrich shivered. The inquisition was known far and wide throughout the world. Even Aldrich who was a faithful believer of Altunan still looked around after hearing the name.


    "You said you wanted me to finish five grade two quest what does that mean?"


    "Well, there are five grades in which we divide all creatures ording to power. Starting from grade zero to four."<sub> </sub>


    "Zero not one?"


    "Yes, this is a general estimate. Each grade has three levels within. For monsters it''s decided by theirbat power. For us humanoids we use the crest and the four symbols as the criteria.


    A normal humanoid without the first symbol is is always grade zero. If a veteran soldier has a musket then he is equivalent to a grade zero level two. When you awaken your symbol then you will instantly be a grade one being.


    As for quests and missions issued by guilds then they follow the same division but each grade is divided into three levels:mon, special and superior."


    Aldrich didn''t argue, instead he changed the target of his questions to the talkative Orven.


    "How big is the difference between grades?"


    "Well, it depends. Remember this ranking is not absolute. But generally a grade one being at level one or two creature can be beaten if it was surrounded by twenty or so trained musketeers. At grade one level three you need some canons and a handful of experienced adventurers."


    "As for quests, whatever the grade it may be, themon rank means that you should expect a battle with a single monster of the same grade. A special rank means you should be prepared for a few monsters of that grade, or the situation itself may include severalplications. Finally, superior rank, means that you might expect an incredible monster of that grade or basically it means that the quest could go up in grade."


    ? Aldrich was quite taken by this information.


    "But remember this is only an estimate, reality does not always conform to our rules."


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Aldrich awoke in the base. He looked around and decided to check on the study room he found a while back. He might get something valuable from there.


    Aldrich picked up his shield and looked between the short and long swords. Eventually he decided on the long sword again.


    He walked back to the torture room and back into the study room. The room was massive like everything else in this town.


    It had four rows of bookshelves each one almost reached the roof, full of books. Aldrich opened one of the books and coughed due to the dust.


    The writing was surprisingly clear and the paper was in decent condition. Unfortunately he couldn''t read a word. He turned to the mahogany desk and there was many books and papers on it.


    Aldrich looked around some more but that was all he found in this drab room just an endless amount of books and notes that he couldn''t read.


    Rather than waste anymore time Aldrich departed the base and made his way to the next building on the list. Well, it''s a mental list.


    Aldrich kicked open the door¡ªnow with great familiarity¡ª and stepped back and waited. He heard the husks moaning but none of them was in sight.


    Aldrich carefully peered in from behind the door, the hallway was clear. He advanced slowly and carefully. He now heard the moaning and wailing clearly.


    He decided to follow the noise and turned right. The darkness in the house was awful, that''s why Aldrich was moving so slowly.


    Finally in amon room he saw his target, the husk was ramming its head against a wall mindlessly. The green gooey blood already colored the wall green.


    Aldrich sneaked up behind the husk and when he was an arms distance away he stabbed it through the back of its skull. The husk fell lifeless. That was... weird.


    He collected two orbs and a coin pouch he foundying around in the room.


    Until now Aldrich had ssified all husks he came across into three types. First, the normal husks, they were reckless, clumsy and fragile. They might or might not have a weapon.


    Second was the leather armored husks, they were as tough as humans and weren''t as clumsy as the first type. They were swift and deadly.


    The third, he had encountered only one husk of this type; the armored husk. It was a foe that Aldrich didn''t yet dare face.


    But this... the husk actually ignored the noise of the broken door and instead continued banging its head against the door. Perhaps it would have killed itself all on its own.


    But the fight was not over yet, there were still quite a few husks within this house.

 Chapter 35 Battle

    Aldrich cleaned of the green blood from the sword and followed the noise to a staircase leading up to the second floor.


    The hallway here was even darker and the rooms here were all wide open except for one. The first room to his right was sealed with and iron bar.


    Aldrich listened for a moment and determined that this room had at least two husks. Aldrich took a deep breath, removed the iron bar and sprinted in.


    As he ran in, he observed his opponents, two second type husks. One of whom was armed with a great sword and the other with what looked like short bow.


    The husk with the great sword shed at him, straight from high up intending to split him in half. But such a huge attack left an opening, Aldrich who was already mid-run dropped and rolled, dodging the attack smoothly.


    Aldrich used this momentum to charge not at the husk wielding the great sword but at the archer. He dodged the arrow, aimed and shot poorly due to the distance.


    Aldrich didn''t attack instead he hid behind the archer and pushed it towards the swordsman, which saved his life. The sword that was intended for Aldrich tore the archer in half horizontally, sttering green blood all over Aldrich.


    Aldrich was shocked, this was not intentional. He didn''t expect the swordsman to have recovered andunched another attack at him that fast. He wanted them to bump into each other and fall or something to that effect.


    But this shock didn''tst long when he raised his shield to block the oing sword. He managed to deflect it but the force of the blow made him stumble back a few steps.


    Aldrich looked at his shield. The steel reinforced wooden shield was dented heavily and his entire arm up to his shoulder was numb. Aldrich went on the offensive and attacked with three consecutive cuts and the swordsman parried them all.


    Aldrich then threw away his shield and held the sword with both hands. He learned a few things from thest exchange. His opponent was quite skilled but their strengths were actually equal.


    Aldrich threw an overhand upper cut, the husk blocked him with his own sword. Their sh sent sparks in the air, the metallic ng of metal rang throughout the room.


    This time it was his turn to parry, the next cut came from the other side, Aldrich parried again and again. Back and forth, until, he realized he was still alive. Aldrich was being pushed back, breathing hard and his arms losing strength.


    ? Aldrich didn''t like where this was going. He needed to think, to act instead of react. With the next cut, Aldrich threw his hands up, and parried high, with his point towards the husk''s face.


    In his pleasure at his sess, he nearly missed the moment to thrust, but thrust he did. The tip of the sword pierced through its eye and with a final push out of the other side.


    Aldrich breathed in hard. Panting, he wiped of the blood and sweat off of his face. He collected four essence orbs and one coin pouch.


    With a start he realized that this was the first real sword fight that he had. In the past he always used less than dignified methods to win.


    ''It''s not like I didn''t want to do that this time too, but I couldn''t. Against apetent opponent dirty tricks can''t be expected to work all the time.''


    Aldrich gathered himself and made his way to the third floor. From the moaning sound he was sure that he only had one husk to take care of.


    The third floor was by far the darkest. Aldrich followed the moaning noise to a room when the moaning suddenly stopped. Aldrich looked around but the visibility was horrendous.


    He walked into the room. He was stabbed in the back. With a grunt he turned around and pushed off the husk. Aldrich did not allow himself time to feel the pain, he tackled it to the opposing wall with beast-like ferocity .<sub> </sub>


    The crash shook the walls slightly causing dirt and grim to fall of the walls. Aldrich proceeded to punch the husk in the face repeatedly until the husk stopped moving.


    He could have easily finished it off with his sword but chose not to. Aldrich pulled out the knife that was still in his lower back, pulling it out proved quite painful. It was a kitchen knife, a very rusty kitchen knife.


    This was the second time that he was surprised by a husk this day. He had no idea if this wound was fatal or not. It didn''t feel like it was fatal.


    Aldrich found the sealed windows and broke the wooden boards in every room improving visibility quite a bit.


    The moonlight in the nightmare realm was as intense as ever. Aldrich looked at the sky and lost himself in its beauty, the hundreds of colorful stars bathed the town in a hundred different colors.


    Now that the fog had diminished, the starlight was even clearer, if not for the creepy yellowish color of the moon it could have been a romantic sight.


    Aldrich came back to himself and started searching the entire house and he found another coin pouch. In the biggest bedroom he found a hollow under the ster behind the bed.


    Aldrich carefully removed it, he inserted his hand in and pulled a small ornate chest. The chest was made from an unknown material, it had intricate white patterns over its dark blue surface. It had two metallic handles on it''s sides.


    Aldrich felt like he got lucky again. Just the red precious stone iid at the center of the chest was enough for him to get happy over. However unfortunately the chest wouldn''t open, no matter how hard he tried to pry it open.


    Aldrich sighed. Of course it wouldn''t be that easy. He looked at his attributes and decided to upgrade his intelligence to three now. He had three essence orbs left fromst time and he got eight this time.


    This was an experiment to see how his body reacted to the change in attributes rather than just passing out on the couch. Aldrich gave themand in his mind and the panel blurred for a moment.


    Then came the pain. Aldrich closed his eyes and fell to his knees, tears involuntarily escaped his eyes. He felt and electric energy roaming, touching, twisting and changing his body in ways that he couldn''t understand.


    Abruptly the pain was gone, reced by calm rity. He looked around, it didn''t take that long or maybe it did. He didn''t know. Aldrich could see and feel things around him significantly better than he did before the change.


    Aldrich went back down to the room in which he fought the swordsman. He stood exactly where the swordsman stood and held his own sword in the same stance that his opponent used.


    He closed his eyes and recalled the moves that were used against him. During a battle everything flew by quickly that he couldn''t remember things that clearly before now.


    Aldrich looked at the dead husk and something unexpected happened when he focused on him a few letters floated above it''s head; Drager.


    ''A Drager? So that''s what husks are called? Husks just sounds so much better.''


    At this thought something changed again, the letters that formed the drager words blurred and changed into; Husk.


    ''Wow, what? that''s neat.''


    But wait, why did he only start seeing that now? If his ability the eyes of insight was the source of the panel and attributes then why wasn''t he able to do that before?

 Chapter 36 Time? Time For What?

    The only logical answer is that the intelligence attribute is somehow connected to the Eyes of Insight. This made sense. Insight and intelligence, how could he not have thought of that before.


    He collected the heavy leather armor and tried to take the great sword too but his hands were already full. He''ll just make another trip back.


    Aldrich deposited all his spoils in themon room of the base and noticed that the pile had grown very disorderly. He decided to find a ce to organize all his spoils.


    Aldrich headed to the seal of Tindalor on the wall beside the firece. Ever since he first saw it here he had been fearful of approaching it and that fear only grew when he resurrected the first time.


    He did consider that his resurrection had nothing to do with it. If this was just a nightmare, a bad dream born of his own imagination then maybe he couldn''t die because of that, because it was just a dream to begin with.


    But that theory was very faulty. In the nightmare corridor he genuinely felt that if he was killed by the nightmare specter, then he would die in reality. Ultimately, a conjecture is just that a conjecture.


    Aldrich traced the sign with his finger and sighed. He sat on the floor with his back resting on the sign. Thinking.


    He could leave and relocate his base to any other building he cleared. But the others didn''t have the seal of Tindalor. What if he was killed and he resurrected here while this ce was infested with monsters?


    After all, both times he resurrected was right under the seal of Tindalor. An obvious clue. The second reason is that the old madman was staying here before. The third is intuition.


    The old madman was extraordinary, even if he was insane. This became even more certain after Aldrich explored the town more. How powerful would one have to be to move freely here?


    When the old man saved him from the skinned dogs something happened. He was being chased by at least five skinned dogs and they were only a few steps behind him.


    Yet when the old man opened the door the barking and running noises disappeared collectively at once. Only now after his intelligence increased to three was he able to remember that, after all at the moment he was half conscious.


    As for the intuition, Isger always taught him to trust in his instincts. Aldrich believed that this house was the key to finding the divine city and leaving this cursed town.


    ''Wait there''s something here...''


    There was another part of the attribute panel that he never payed any attention to. The condition.


    Something''s not right. How could he not even investigate this? It''s like whenever he opened his attributes panel he would always gloss over it for some reason.


    Aldrich checked the exnation of the condition: the blood of ######, for the first time since he upgraded intelligence to three.


    Condition: the blood of #######: time remaining:???.


    ''Time? Time for what?''


    Aldrich didn''t know how to react. The time was question marks, what did that mean? The more he knew the more questions he had.


    At least for now, there are two methods to figure it out. First, by upgrading intelligence, he had a hunch that if his intelligence was high enough he will be able to see everything in the exnation.


    The second method is upgrading the level of the eyes of insight. He came to the conclusion that he might be able to do that if he had enough essence orbs. Just like his attributes.


    But where did this bloode from? How is it inside his body? He didn''t remember anything about how that happened. It was just there when he first opened the panel.


    ''Wai¡ª"


    He remembered that the old madman had stabbed him in the heart with a red crystal. And when the madman was talking to himself he implied that he used five crystals on him before he regained consciousness.


    It was ludicrous. Crystals were just pretty rocks, they don''t even have any blood in them. But... but... what if that was not the case this time.


    The old madman gave him the eye of insight saying that he would lose out if he died early. Aldrich swallowed his saliva. He was beginning to understand the situation better.


    Aldrich decided to upgrade all his attributes to three for now before focusing on spirit and strength again. Since every attribute was important one way or another.


    If all his attributes rose to three he could basically mow down the husks easily. Perhaps including the armored husk himself.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3<sub> </sub>


    Agility: 1


    Endurance: 1


    Vitality: 2


    Intelligence: 3


    Spirit (ck): 3


    Essence: 3


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    After some calctions he needed thirty two orbs to upgrade all the three remaining attributes; agility, endurance and vitality.


    Aldrich returned back to the house he just cleared and collected the armors and weapons. Then he marched back to the base. He decided to get them now because he knew he would be toozy the next time he came back.


    He will probably need three or four more days to collect that amount of orbs. Aldrich wanted to continue hunting today but he was exhausted. Although the battles often take a short amount of time they leave you exhausted for the next couple hours.


    Aldrich rested his back on the Tindalor seal and waited, but even after a good while he still didn''t feel the feeling of being pulled back.


    Aldrich finally decided to try something. He put his hand on the Tindalor seal and said,


    "Return!"


    Aldrich looked around on expectantly but nothing happened. He looked left and right and he was d that he had nopany here.


    But soon after a memory was triggered in his mind. It was a memory the Aldrich could never forget and couldn''t truly recall.


    When he first learned of the word, Tindalor. He heard endless ravings and shouts all in his head. And he said : "Tindalor"


    But he said it in an unknown tongue, the same unknown tongue he heard that day. The sign shined and shed in iron red.


    This was the first time he waspletely aware of him leaving the nightmare realm. He felt something illusory inside move and twist, shift and disappear sometimes before everything went to ck.


    Aldrich woke up back in the real world. He was in a sleeping bag around the campfire. He marveled at the new experience. Truly extraordinary.


    Aldrich opened his attribute panel and saw that of the three orbs he had left over, two had disappeared. He did feel like he lost something went he activated the seal. So it took two essence orbs toe back all on his own.


    This was a fair price in his book. Moreover this meant that he got a measure of control in the nightmare realm. At least he wasn''tpletely clueless anymore. That night Aldrich went to sleep with a smile.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Today they actually visited a town, a small but very important town to Aldrich. This town was called Herth and starting from this town the imperial roads stretched out in many directions.


    The town itself was orderly and bustling even more so than Ado''merin. Some of the biggest buildings were five stories high and they were painted in orange and brown hues.


    "The Ermitsal substance was the source and now many variants of it are used by constructionpanies to build basically everything. If you have the money, that is."


    Ayemon must''ve seen him staring.


    They stopped at an inn called the shy cat. The inn was was not made of Ermitsal but old fashioned bricks. Here, they bathed and changed clothes.


    While they were eating a meal ofmb skewers with rice. This was the first time that Aldrich tried rice. Apparently it was very popr closer to the east.


    "By the way what was the rectangr building we passed by?"


    Aldrich saw some strange rectangr buildings in the town, they looked like they were intended to be towers but they weren''t high enough to be. And they were very narrow and had no windows or door whatsoever.

 Chapter 37 Ship And Money

    "Ah, you must mean the earth pir. I guess it must stand out for someone seeing it for the first time. I got so used to them that I just don''t even notice them anymore." Orven responded.


    "It''s nothing too interesting. They''ve just been there, like the mountains and rivers scattered randomly throughout the world. They don''t do anything except stand in the way of construction." Exined Norge.


    "Actually that does sound interesting to me." Aldrichughed.


    He''s been wanting to travel around and see all the wonders of the world. All the oddities hidden thend.


    "Aren''t you cheerful today? I''m guessing you''ve never been on a ship right? Well today''s your lucky day. We''re taking a ship to Voryhrm from this port. We''ll make it in two days, three if the winds not with us."


    "What about the carriage and the horses?" Aldrich questioned.


    "The carriage and horses? It''s not ours, its a rental. We''ll return it."


    "You can do that?" Aldrich wondered, would someone rent out their carriage? This truly fascinating for him.


    "And much more. Watch and learn, this''ll be good experience for you."


    And watch he did. They went to a shop called Addy''s wares and returned the carriage and two horses. The owner, a dwarf named Addy, came running to greet them.


    The dwarf was very polite and invited them for lunch, his treat. Unfortunately the group had just eaten lunch and had to refuse.


    "Sorry, Addy we are in a hurry, we have a ship to catch." Orven apologized.


    "A ship? To Voryhrm? Don''t matter, my cousin is the captain of the Stubborn Hawk. Here, if you show him this he''ll sell you the tickets for half price." He handed Ayemon a brass ring.


    "No, No, we can''t. Really. We already troubled you so much. How can we ept this." Said Ayemon as he pocketed the ring.


    Aldrich watched the exchange in bewilderment.


    "No no there''s no trouble at all. Just make sure toe by if you have business in Herth."


    "We''ll do. Have a good day."


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    The port was wide and rife with so many peopleing and going that one might get lightheaded trying to keep track of them. Cargos were loaded in and some loaded out.


    Guards in uniform patrolled the ce in shifts. Some rode horses and others rode giant blue lizards. There was shouting and yelling and the smell of river fish marked the port very distinctly.


    "What''s a ticket?"


    "It''s a piece of paper that says that you can travel in the ship."


    "How much does it cost?"


    "Depends"


    "On what?"


    "It depends on what kind of ship you''re taking, on what amodations you want. The distance you want to travel is also a factor."


    "Seems a bit too tedious to me."


    "By the way. Do you have any identification papers?"


    "What''s that? Oh, you mean like the records of when I was born and such?"


    "Yes that is the one I mean."


    "Well turns out I was in too much of a hurry, you know, fleeing for my life. They might''ve burned to a crisp."


    "That''s good, smartass. When we get to Voryhrm we''ll forge you a new one."


    "Do I needed it to buy a ship ticket?"


    Aldrich felt like this and that were somehow connected since Ayemon brought it up now.


    "Yes, officially. In reality? No. There are manyws that simply exist without being enforced. But sometimes you might bump into an asshole."<sub> </sub>


    That gave him something to ponder on. Meanwhile they found the dwarf''s brother''s ship. It was three masted ship and it''s crew like every other crew at the moment were in a hectic mess.


    They were stopped by a guard who stood by a wooden booth at the entrance to the ship.


    "Purchase your tickets at the booth, gentlemen."


    The booth was poorly made and the middle-aged woman managing it had a constant frown on her face, she looked at them like they owed her money. When they were close enough she opened the wooden shutters.


    "We''re sold out. Go try somewhere else! Whoes here when it''s almost time to set sail?"


    "Your captain''s brother Addy, from Addy''s wares sent us. He said that you''ll amodate us."


    "His brother? Heng! I''ve heard that one before. Get out of here before I tell the guard to shoot you out of here!"


    Ayemon produced the ring and ced it on the wooden table with a ng. The woman shot to her feet, her face pale.


    "I-I am profoundly sorry sirs, no, my lords. It was but a joke. Yes, a bad joke on my part. I''ll go bring the captain right away. Just a moment."


    And off she went. A few minutester she came with a man who was dressed immactely and neatly. His jacket was green with white stripes. He had a full beard and his hat stood prominently.


    "You''re my brother''s guests? Greetings to you all. We have some rooms left but the more expensive ones, nobody wants those. I can cut the price in half but that''s the most I can do."


    "Half? That''s great news. Our luggage is light. We''ll take whatever you have. Our destination is Voryhrm." Ayemon agreed easily.


    "Most gracious. That''ll be seventeen coppers each. This includes three meals a day."


    "Of course."


    After Ayemon handed the captain the money he gave Aldrich a look.


    Oh, right. Aldrich opened his pouch and pulled out five copper coins, three of which had the value of five and the remaining two each had the value of one.


    Aldrich paid for almost all his expenses so far. And this time was no different. Aldrich paid the seventeen coppers and felt a pinch in his heart.


    Seventeen and that was just half? Then the full price is one silver and fourteen coppers. Of his original twelve silver now only eight remain.


    Was being a sailor was that lucrative? Well, probably owning a nice ship and ferrying people is.


    When he remembered that he used to make eight coppers a month, he felt quite dejected. He would need two months of savings to pay for this trip.


    That was assuming that he didn''t eat or drink anything during that time. And that was if the fifty percent discount applied.


    The more he thought about it the more he wanted to take back his money and just swim all the way to Voryhrm.


    "You''re Addy''s brother? Howe you''re a human and he''s a dwarf? That makes no sense."


    He had to distract himself with something so he decided to ask.


    The captain looked at him like he just said something ridiculous.


    "Does it make sense that my father had two wives one of which happened to be a dwarf?"


    "Aha, so that''s how it is~"


    "I''m guessing you don''t have many nonhumans up north in your vige."


    "How did you know?"


    "Anybody can tell from your ent. Now, this is your room. If you need anything just ring that bell. Hot water will be delivered at night and in early morning if you don''t want it, be sure to inform any one of the servants."


    ''Now that he thought about it, he thought Ayemon andpany were the ones who had an ent. But as it turns out he was the one who had an ent? Damn, everyone is going to find out that I''m a country bumpkin...''


    Aldrich looked at the room and found it to be amazing. It was a roomrger than any room he had stayed in before, not counting the nightmare realm of course.


    The curtains, chairs, walls, carpets everything was fancy. It even smelled great. And clean unlike the nightmare town in its entirety.


    Aldrich walked back out and looked at the view from the railing. Who knew they could build a house on a ship?

 Chapter 38 Luxury On The Ship

    He thought that they were going to stay in the hull of the ship. But there was an entire two story building on the ship. Their rooms were all at the second floor.


    The ship began to set sail slowly. Finally the ship left the harbor, the winds joined with the river water and pushed the ship towards thends beyond.


    Aldrich busied himself looking all over the ship annoying the crew with all sorts of questions. Wherever he felt that one of them was going to snap he would take his leave at the right moment.


    A bell rang at noon, Aldrich knew that the bell signaled lunch time. To be honest Aldrich didn''t feel that hungry but he already paid for all the meals till he got to Voryhrm. He sure as hell wasn''t going to miss a single one of them.


    Aldrich went to get changed after that he  went to the great hall, it was teeming with many people. Men, women and children were moving about in a hectic manner.


    The windows shutters were opened which allowed the refreshing wind to rush in, the view was simply mesmerizing.


    Even more mesmerizing, however, is the group of women on the central stage. All of them but one were ying on musical instruments. Thest woman was singing in a loud voice that drew the attentions of all who might listen.


    She was singing a song he had never heard of before, but that didn''t matter. She was wearing tight clothes that left little to the imagination and her dance hmmm...very, very flexible.


    "Wow"


    "Hold it in young man. Your eyes are going to fall off."


    "Wha-" Aldrich turned around to see Norge standing right behind him. The rest of the group was approaching them from behind. Seemingly, they just arrived.


    "Ah, I was waiting for you guys..."


    "Of course you were. Lets go."


    Aldrich followed to a stairway that he hadn''t noticed in the back. Two servants stood guard.


    "Can I see your key number sir?" One of them asked.


    Aldrich showed them his key number that was attached to the key chain. It was 23, which was his room number. Then the servants opened the way respectfully.


    Behind him the rest of the group did the same.


    They went to a room in the back much smaller than the great hall but much morevishly decorated. The room had only seven tables and only one of which was upied.


    So they took their seats at a table by the open window and a waiter promptly asked for their orders.


    "We have a full menu of fresh sea dishes at the ready, ranging from tuna to giant crabs."


    "What do you rmend?"


    "The fried two headed lyth is one our chef''s most praised dishes, I believe it won''t disappoint."


    "Sounds appetizing, get us all a portion. Along with some xar shrimp soup."


    "Certainly sir. If you would wait for a short while."


    Aldrich didn''t mind Ayemon making the order, after all the only sea food he experienced was fish from the river in Wakefield.


    The food arrived shortly thereafter, the smell was tantalizing and the food tasted even better somehow. They served it with tes of butter and crispy bread.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich who thought he wasn''t that hungry moments ago was eating like his life depended on it. The plethora of new tastes and the great weatherbined to create a great experience.


    Aldrich rang the small bell ced at the center of the table and the waiter was already there.


    "I can order any amount without paying anymore right?"


    "Undoubtedly, whatever you order shall be delivered our chefs and cooks along with the rest of the staff on this ship are at your service."


    "Well," Aldrich was a little embarrassed by the hospitality but then he remembered that he paid for all this. "I''m not familiar with sea food so get me some of your best dishes."


    "At once, sir."


    Everyone already retired to their rooms but Aldrich was enjoying a Marina sandwich and Vadon stew. He ate until he felt ufortably bloated. When he walked back to his room he started regretting eating that much.


    Aldrich looked at the mossmps everywhere on the ship and the light they produced. Even at night the river was still beautiful arguably even more so than in the day. The twin moons Koray and Obereon shined spectacrly on this night.


    Aldrich found some books in a drawer by the huge bed in his room the book was about a fantasy story titled: the rising of the king.


    Since Aldrich didn''t have much to do before he went to sleep he decided to read a bit until then. The story was about an ordinary orphaned kid who disguised himself as a prince.


    Aldrich found the story to be quite nd and boring but it did help him pass the time, he turned off the mossmp by tapping it twice at the center.


    Mossmps turn on automatically at night but they can be easily turned off.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Aldrich looked around and smelled the damp air of the nightmare realm. He definitely had to find some way to clean this house. It was clear that he would be spending a lot of time here.


    The problem was that he didn''t find any water here, its like the people that lived here didn''t use it. He hadn''te across any well so far.


    Aldrich picked up his trusty long sword and a new shield since the old one broke. He listened around the town and it was still just as loud asst time he was here.


    Aldrich remembered his wound fromst time. He checked on it. His lower back had a scar mark but it waspletely closed and didn''t hurt at all. It was like it had healed a long time ago.


    Aldrich moved on to the next house and this house had a wider walled fence than the other houses. The iron front door was deeply rusted and wouldn''t budge.


    Aldrich had to climb over it which turned out much harder than he initially expected. With all the armor and weapons he was carrying he was quite heavy.


    Aldrich proceeded to break the door down and waited, following his usual strategy. Unfortunately this time too, it wasn''t sessful. He sighed, he couldn''t expect every trap to work.


    Aldrich advanced into the house slowly clinging to walls and following the voices until he arrived at what he expected to be themon room. The voicesing from inside indicated two or more.


    Aldrich kicked the door open and blocked the spear thrust that weed him. Aldrich didn''t back away, he was already familiar with this move. Aldrich used the moment when the spearman was yet to withdraw his spear back and counter attacked to exploit that opening.


    His sword tore through his opponent''s armor and drew blood. Aldrich spared a moment to check on the second husk in this room, it wasing over but he had enough time to finish the first one off.


    After all it wasn''t ideal if two husks joined hands on him. He didn''t think that he would lose as he is now but he wasn''t going to take an unnecessary risk.


    Aldrich blocked the second strike and counterattacked in the same manner. This time his sword ended the husk.

 Chapter 39 Pain

    Aldrich turned towards his next opponent and attacked first. His sword sh aimed for the husk''s knee the hit broke the knee of the husk. The husk responded by a stab of it''s own but it was toote.


    The husk attacked even as it fell down. The spear managed to break his leather armor and graze his left shoulder. He kicked the unbnced husk down.


    The spear flew out of its hand. Aldrich finished it of with three strikes. Turns out decapitating someone wasn''t as easy as it sounded in the stories.


    Aldrich collected his orbs and advanced upwards and on the staircase. The moment he set foot on the second floor and arrow lodged itself in his abdomen.


    Shit.


    Aldrich rolled to the right before the second arrow shot through his eye. This was bad. An archer who can see in the dark while Aldrich can''t.


    Aldrich felt chills up his spine before he rolled over but he wasn''t fast enough. The hammer got him in the knee. The feeling of breaking bone was horrible to behold. In what seemed like a moment of twisted divine retribution.


    A bad predicament could be even worse. The archer had a melee partner.


    Aldrich used his position on the ground and grabbed the husks legs. With a mighty push the husk was felled to the ground.


    Aldrich climbed over it and another arrow hit him in the back. Aldrich ignored the pain and took the husks own hammer to break its skull. *crack* Turns out breaking a skull was a much easier alternative.


    After which he picked back his sword and immediately rolled to the side barely missing an arrow aimed for his head.


    Aldrich breathed hard. He got beaten up but he learned something after taking this beating. The position of the archer. The advantages the archer had over him was the distance and visibility in the darkness and the fact that it was hidden.


    Now the archer had lost one of them, he had to take a chance. Aldrich sprinted towards the archer hiding in the dark.


    His face kissed the floor in a violent collision.


    His knee. It was broken. Funny thing is as he fell down he heard an arrow whistle where his head would have been.


    Aldrich hurriedly ced his shield over his head and the impact of the arrow on his shield numbed his hand.


    Aldrich didn''t know what to do, he was in a seemingly hopeless situation. The barrage of arrows didn''t stop and his hand was about to give in despite his increased strength.


    His endurance was still at one.


    Think. Think.


    Aldrich threw his sword at the position of the archer. A move that the archer had not expected, it jumped away but otherwise remained bnced. Aldrich had yo try something else.


    He took the chance and jumped using his right leg and jumped once again thankfully he crossed the distance. Then, using the edge of the shield he smacked away the archer''s bow. Sending it flying in the air.


    Aldrich fell down at the archer''s feet, the archer stomped on him once, twice but Aldrich caught the third and twisted its leg until it fell to his level.


    Aldrich punched and broke the husk''s nose with a crack. The archer was evidently weaker than him. Much weaker. It was back to an old fashioned fist fight.


    It was finally down after Aldrich broke it''s neck with a chilling twist.


    Aldrich took the time to check on his knee and cursed at the sight of his broken knee. Maybe if he had better endurance it wouldn''t have broken so easily.


    Aldrich stood back up albeit with difficultly. Aldrich started stabbing the husks corps randomly out of anger. This pissed him off to no end, and the pain was on another level.


    After calming down he collected his spoils of war, four essence orbs. A meager amount for all the trouble he went through. Luckily the archer had a coin pouch strapped to his belt so at least he got a little extra.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich picked up his weapons and decided to retreat back to the base. He could clearly hear more husks in the house but he was in no condition to fight anymore.


    If he found first type husks then he could easily dispose of them, that would be lucky, but if he got tangled with another fight like thest one he could only die. In the first ce that''s why he wanted a base so he could retreat and recuperate when needed.


    Aldrich walked the deceptively empty streets alone with a heavy heart. Being dyed here means that his overall n would be dyed. Although the streets were empty, by no means were they quite.


    Aldrich felt like he was stared at by hundreds of thousands of eyes. Ever since that deafening roar he felt that something had change however that change was not over yet, that was only the trigger.


    Soon something terrible will happen and the only way to be ready for it was to be stronger and to do that he needed more essence orbs.


    Suddenly his attention was attracted by the sound of footsteps around the corner. Aldrich stopped all movement. He listen closer. The footsteps grew closer and higher in number.


    Technically he had better vision now with the fog being thinner, but he didn''t see anything. Aldrich suddenly lowered his eyesight and saw it.


    It was a horde of white-furred mice running through the streets heading somewhere he couldn''t see. There were thousands of them running in almost soldier-like discipline. Like a marching army.


    These mice would have been no different from normal mice if not for the human hand growing out of the end point of their tails.


    The hand had five fingers some had right hands and some had left hands. The nails of said hands were yellowish green and most were broken and jagged.


    Aldrich was pressed against a wall and trying his best to be part of the wall. As he was observing the endless flow of mice he remembered his encounter with the giant roaches.


    The giant roaches were very weak and yet they each gave him an essence orb, what if these mice were the same? This was an inconceivable number of orbs. With such a number of orbs wouldn''t he just be able to end all of his problems?


    Aldrich gulped. Not only were these mice small they were also not bloodthirsty like the giant roaches, skinned dogs or husks. They haven''t charged at him madly despite him being so close.


    Aldrich used his eyes of insight on the mice and a name appeared on the mice''s head. Ahuizotl. Another weird name but he wasn''t going to change it this time.


    Chance.


    This was undoubtedly a chance to make it big. Aldrich didn''t hesitate any further, he raised his sword and mmed it down on the endless stream of mice.


    The blow was so powerful and brutal it directly crushed four or five mice. This ted Aldrich, his theory wasn''t wrong about these Ahuizotls, they were by far the weakest monster in the nightmare realm.


    But his tion didn''tst long as the endless stream of mice came to a sudden and abrupt stop. The mice closest to the sword jumped and climbed over the sword''s edge with extreme speed.


    Aldrich backed away and punched the Ahuizotl in time sending it crashing on the nearby wall. It exploded into blood and gore at the impact.


    Aldrich didn''t have the time to celebrate as the countless horde of mice charged at him from everywhere. Aldrich was bigger and stronger but he found himself helpless against tens of mice climbing on his body scratching and biting.


    Without any warning multiple mice sneaked under his leather armor. Aldrich realized his folly and attempted to run except he forgot about his broken knee and fell down.


    Again he felt a chill at his feet, he looked and found the mice had torn his boots and dug into his feet with their saw-like teeth. Aldrich screamed at the top of his lungs.


    The mice started eating his flesh with hunger. Aldrich tried to get up but there were tens of mice eating at his every part, his legs and arms his face and even his hair.


    Aldrich suddenly felt an even more violent pain that for a moment he forgot about everything else. It was one of the mice that sneaked under his armor, not that it mattered since the armor was torn to shreds already.


    Somehow Aldrich mustered the strength to raise his head to see that a mouse had dug a hole in his abdomen. It''s white fur was now red with his own blood. Aldrich wailed desperately.


    Another one of the mice pocked his left eye socket. Slowly, very slowly with the sound of crunching and munching everything turned to ck.

 Chapter 40 Bitter Defeat

    Aldrich revived under the seal of Tindalor. He woke up choking and coughing violently. He gingerly touched his abdomen and his left eye.


    Finding that everything was in ce he sighed. And then punched the wall in anger. He was trembling in rage at his death to those Ahuizotls.


    If only his knee hadn''t been broken he would have decimated these trash. Aldrich looked at his knee, it was back to normal. Aldrich picked up a random sword and sprinted outside.


    He didn''t get even a single essence orb out of that whole thing. He didn''t have the time to collect any because he didn''te into physical contact with any of the bodies of the dead mice.


    His old body was still there with his long sword, shield and the coin pouch that he got from today''s hunt. No way in hell he was going to let these little shits get away with what they''ve done to him. And he wasn''t going to wait for even a single second more.


    Aldrich sprinted through the street and when he turned around the corner he came back to the horrific scene of his own dead body being feasted on.


    Aldrich had encountered this very scene a few time but he still didn''t get use to it and he wasn''t sure that he wanted to.


    Aldrich charged in with all his rage and shed around wildly, then he stomped for all he was worth, the problem was there was no end to the horde.


    Eventually the mice climbed over him and brought him down. When he tried to run they had bitten of the tendons in his ankles. Finally Aldrich experienced another gruesome death.


    Aldrich looked nkly at the high ceiling of his room. He had never really gotten the chance to look at it clearly.


    Aldrich remembered the chest he found on one of his most recent hunts, it was actually hidden very sneakily under the ster of the wall. Maybe there''s something hidden in the other buildings too?


    Aldrich busied himself with such thoughts as the time passed by because he didn''t want to think about what happened.


    After his second death he found himself back in the real world without feeling the same pulling force as always and without him directly exiting through the seal of Tindalor.


    He was just expelled. This left a bitter taste in his mouth. Even more so when he remembered his stupid actions.


    He won a dangerous fight against two powerful husks and that made him arrogant. No not only that, with the increased attributes the husks became quite an easy opponent.


    Out of greed he attacked the mice horde without considering their superior numbers and his own broken knee.


    He heard that even a grade two Crestmaster can be taken down if overwhelmed by enough numbers. Then what about him who was basically just a normal human?


    However, all of this can be brushed aside by saying it was a spur of the moment thing. Then what about the second time?


    He lost himself to the shame and pain of losing to a bunch of mice. To Aldrich his first death couldn''t be helped because he was fighting for his life for the first time.


    His second death was to an opponent that surpassed him in almost every regard, some part of Aldrich felt that it was only natural to lose against such a monster.


    But his defeat at the hands of a bunch of mice made him unable to contain his temper. All of that turned into blinding rage that literally drove him to his death.


    Aldrich woke up in the morning but somehow still felt extremely exhausted, he felt a dull headache that simply wouldn''t stop.<sub> </sub>


    The matter of the forced expulsion still weighed on him. This experience had at least taught him that if he died twice in raw he would be forcefully expelled out of the nightmare realm.


    Noon came by and he was still in bed. He couldn''t remember thest time he spent his day in bed.


    This took him back to the old days when he didn''t understand that his mother was in debt or why they had to move house. He didn''t have to worry about putting food on the table.


    He used to just fool around with the other kids in the vige, y chase with at least fifty kids at once. He would do dangerous stunts like climbing up a tree to get a kiss from a girl.


    He used to go fishing in the river and built castles and forts of haystacks. When it was the hottest day of summer he and the kids would go swimming in theke.


    He used to have a best friend called Nars, they used to do everything together. Theypeted in races around the vige while being run after by the guards, they yed pranks on the girls all the time.


    But soon after he had to look for a job and the time he could y with Nars got shorter and shorter until one day they stopped ying or talking at all. Aldrich didn''t know when it happened or how.


    Nars is dead now. Along with the rest of the people of Wakefield. Aldrich thought maybe, someday when things got better he could y around with Nars again.


    He wanted to apologize for letting their friendship drift apart. But now Nars is dead. He wouldn''t be able to make amends with the dead, will he?


    Aldrich got out of bed and washed his face with the cold water from the pitcher. The tears on his face were burning hot. What is already done cannot be undone.


    Aldrich went to the great hall and climbed up to the special guests quarters. It was empty save for the staff, everyone was already done with lunch.


    There he once again indulged in all sorts of new sea food, he tried all what he could stuff in his starved belly. He even tried an onion soup even though he didn''t like onions much when he was younger but it seemed like the food had all lost its taste, what happened? Why did the food taste like shit today?!


    "Ale, do you have ale?" Aldrich asked the waiter beside him. Trying his best to seem calm.


    "We certainly do, our alcoholic menu is not lesser than our regr one."


    "Then get me a mug of ale."


    "Perhaps some beer sir? It''s much easier to swallow your first time."


    "Fine."


    "Right away, sir."


    This would be Aldrich''s first time trying alcohol. He felt that today was as good as any day for some beer.


    The beer came in a pitcher. Aldrich tried it and almost vomited his lunch out. Why did the adults like this so much? He was under the impression that it was supposed to blow his mind away.


    Aldrich tried a few more gulps and after his second mug, it didn''t taste that bad after all. Well, it didn''t have any taste to speak of but the headache got a bit lighter, maybe. Or maybe it was just his imagination.

 Chapter 41 Casual Talk

    "So this is where you were. Sneaking off to drink beer on your own?"


    Aldrich woke up, his face was stuck to the tableware and his drool made a little puddle. Raised his head and looked at the direction of the speaker.


    Ayemon was sitting on the chair opposite to his own. Ayemon was an opposing reflection of him at this moment.


    He was well dressed with his simple and elegant temperament, his hair wasbed neatly and he even smelled nice. All of this ticked Aldrich off.


    "What do you want?" Aldrich asked, and his voice was sharper than he intended.


    "Well I was looking for you," answered Ayemon, unaffected by Aldrich''s grumpy attitude.


    "What''s with the beer?"


    "Ugh¡ªI just wanted to drink a little..."


    "Well you''re doing it wrong."


    "Wrong?"


    "Indeed, wrong. Don''t you know that you shouldn''t be drinking alone? Beer is best enjoyed inpany!"


    "Really? I haven''t heard of that..."


    "That''s because you''re still young. Now here, get drinking."


    "I was actually kind of done for the day..."


    "What? You dare to refuse a drink from me? Do you want to lose your head?!"


    "Fine, fine, just one more drink though. I mean I''m sure you''re jesting about me losing my head right?"


    "Right, right. Do I look like some crazy person who''d do something like that?"


    "N-no?..." Aldrich answered hesitantly and Ayemon red at him so he corrected himself, "I mean no."


    "Hahhaha Ahaha"


    Although he said it was just one drink they kept drinking well into the night. The twin moons were shining in full tonight.


    "Hey, you don''t¡ª you don''t feel like how I imagined nobles to be?"


    "And how did you imagine them? Fat, ugly and arrogant? Well there are some of those here and there."


    "I don''t know. I thought nobles would be difficult to talk to."


    "Difficult? Well, it must be difficult for some but not for you."


    "Me? Why not?"


    "Eh? Aren''t you an unusual boy who managed to escape several deadly situations? You''re impressive."


    "Me? Impressive?" Aldrich asked bewilderedly.


    "Hey, stop trying yo be humble. It''s okay to be proud of such an achievement. The bastards that attacked your vige weren''t amateurs they knew what they were doing. It doesn''t mater how you did it whether by luck or skill, you managed to escape that''s impressive. Hold your head high."


    "Yeah I guess you''re right. I am impressive."


    "Yeah you are, be proud and confident. Most other fifteen year old''s wouldn''t have made it. Oh, yeah didn''t you escape from a ver goblin band right after that?"


    "Eh, it was just a coincidence really."<sub> </sub>


    "It doesn''t matter. The fact is you made it out of two deadly situations consecutively no less, that means you have something that makes you special. Don''t be in a rush. Take it easy, in no time you''ll shine."


    Aldrich was a little embarrassed, he had not been so highly praised, and the one praising him was not only a Crestmaster but also a noble and an honorary professor in the Crest academy, his station was worlds higher than some nobody like Aldrich.


    That''s right, he might have lost but that was not the end, it was just a minor setback. The important thing is to keep going never giving in to stress and pressure.


    He had it in him to make it. Through the nightmare realm he could take himself to the highest summit. Whether it may be riches or glory, he was at the turning point in his life.


    "Hey, Ayemon, eh, I just wanted to say thank you for all the things that you''ve done for me until now."


    "Don''t thank me just yet. I''m not the type to help people for no reason. I helped you because I believe you are a valuable person. I''m helping you for myself not for you."


    "I don''t mind. Helping me for yourself? That doesn''t sound so bad to me."


    "You are a bit of weirdo aren''t you? Most people would have been offended by that."


    "Really? I don''t see why." Aldrich then recalled something, "by the way, is it alright for you guys to return like this? Weren''t you looking for an oracle? That sounds quite serious to me."


    "Nah, its fine. We''ve been looking for the oracle for three years now. We didn''t have any luck. I have others looking all over the empire so its fine. To be honest I''m not sure that finding the oracle is a good thing."


    Aldrich was confused, they were looking for the oracle so thoroughly yet Ayemon didn''t seem to keen on finding the oracle.


    "Why not?"


    "Well, it''splicated. Oracles aren''t exactly known for the good news they deliver. Every time an oracle appears its not a good sign. One may even say it a bad omen in and of itself. Ironic, god loves irony they say right?"


    "I guess its not that simple, huh."


    "Yeah. Well, you best not get involved in things like that."


    "Well it has nothing to do with me. I was just curious."


    "You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat. hahahah"


    Aldrich returned back to his room, he was still very tired, ever since he returned to the real world he has been tired and the headache just won''t stop.


    Aldrich opened the windows shutters to let the night air in. The twins looked even closer from this high up. The waves on the river were calm and slow.


    Aldrich had made up his mind, he was tired and weak as of now but he was highly motivated. He nned to avoid that horde of mice at any cost.


    He wasn''t wrong in thinking that the mice were the weakest creatures in the nightmare town until now at least. But the real problem was their insane numbers.


    However that was not all bad. Aldrich decided to think of them as resources that he lost for now but they will eventually be his prey. He wasn''t going to forget this lesson.


    There was another creature that roamed the town in great numbers. The giant roaches.


    For now he will just carry out his original n and take down the houses surrounding the base. Maybe by then he could be strong enough to take them down.


    If he was lucky enough he might get to upgrade his spirit to four by then, a step closer to bing a true Crestmaster.


    Although he wasn''t really sure how high did it have to be for him to be a Crestmaster. But a step closer was still a step closer.


    Aldrich slid into the bed and after some time he sank into sleep.


    Aldrich woke up in an unexpected but familiar ce, he was in the real world on his bed and it was morning. The sound of the waves crashing against the ship.


    He didn''t go. For some reason he wasn''t pulled into the nightmare realm yesterday. Wait did something like this happen before? He wasn''t sure.

 Chapter 42 Complications

    The question was why? What happened? Could it be that he was expelled for good? That he couldn''t go back anymore?


    The idea was more concerning than he expected it to be. He needed to go there it was the only clue he had as to Isger''s whereabouts. It was also a ce that could potentially hide a few treasures.


    The mystery of the old madman and the Eyes of Insight was still hidden there. What could be the reason that he couldn''t go back?


    Aldrich kicked off the bedsheets in time for the maids knocking softly on his door. Aldrich opened the door and the maids prepared his bath for him as he pondered on thetest events.


    The answer must be in his two consecutive deaths. There was also the subsequent exhaustion. There could be a very real connection between them.


    If so then could it be some sort of penalty? For dying twice in a row he couldn''t return for a day? Or maybe because he was exhausted. If going into the nightmare realm consumed energy like running or swimming then that would make sense.


    But he didn''t feel very tired when he awoke in the nightmare realm every day. If so then the only viable answer for the time being was the repeated deaths.


    Resurrection in the nightmare realm looked very simple and even reced his body and healed all his injuries but as it seemed, it clearly wasn''t without risk and it wasn''tpletely disconnected to his real body as he thought it was.


    Aldrich went down and coincidentally met the guys heading to the great hall so they went together. Breakfast was served. The boiled eggs and chicken soup were wonderful.


    Aldrich drank his apple juice, feeling much better than yesterday. The terrible headache was no more and his body didn''t quite feel as tired. In fact he felt energetic. The taste was back in the food.


    "Aldrich can I have your attention please. Good. Tomorrow we''ll be arriving to Voryhrm. There are somethings that you should look after."


    Ayemon interrupted his thoughts.


    "What things?"


    "First Voryhrm is the secondrgest city in Vorian currently. Actually the way I see it even Ordoran can''tpare to it. This means that it serves as the political and economic center of the province. Watch out."


    "Watch out for what? Politics? I''m not involved in any of that." Aldrich questioned back, uprehending. He has yet to even see Voryhrm, this seemed unnecessary.


    "All Crestmasters are involved in politics to a certain extent. Despite not being one yet, you are involved in escaping a massacre that might potentially have links to the deputy governor, that sounds a little political to me."


    "Yeah... that sounds about right." Now that he thought about it, he was a little involved. Quite a bit.


    "The city has many undercurrents, even I may not be aware of all of them. So, remember keep your head down, advance as a Crestmaster and follow through with our deal."


    "Sure I think I can do that." Aldrich was confident in that aspect.


    "Oh, yeah, about the girl. Adera Elton right? Don''t tell her anything yet. Not until I give the call."


    "What?!" Aldrich eximed in surprise. "What do you mean I shouldn''t tell her anything?"


    "I mean just that, don''t tell her about anything in regards to the vige massacre."


    "Her father was killed! And her entire family."


    "I am well aware of that. I am telling you to do it for a good reason."


    "I''m listening, but if I don''t like what you have to say I''m telling her."


    "Sure, you go ahead and do that if you want her to get killed."<sub> </sub>


    "What are you even saying? Just get to the point."


    "The point is, if she was being monitored by the enemy and they noticed strange behavior in her they might decide to kill her right off. Worse is if they see a change in her behavior they might suspect that a rat escaped the Wakefield massacre."


    "That''s just a baseless assumption. If they wanted her dead wouldn''t she already be? Why would they be spying on her?"


    "I don''t have any evidence, that much is true. But my experience with the likes of them and your description of their tactics I can tell you that they are definitely monitoring her. Even if that is not true we must act with that assumption."


    "But why....?" Aldrich did not understand, when did things be so twisted?


    "That''s what we have to find out. She is, as of now, the only real link to the real perpetrators behind the scenes."


    "She''ll ask me what I''m doing here."


    "Tell here you Awakened your crest and came here to be a Crestmaster, which is true. Remember, she could be the key to uncover the face of our enemy and their motives for burning down Wakefield."


    "She deserves to know the truth."


    "She does and you will tell her, when the time is right, this is not just for you, this is for her too."


    "Alright I get it." Aldrich had to admit that he made sense even if he didn''t like it, "I won''t tell her anything."


    "Aldrich I need you to be extremely careful this is not a game our lives and potentially the lives of millions of innocent people in the empire could rest on doing this right."


    "I get it already. I''m going back to my room I''ve had enough if that''s all."


    Aldrich returned back to his room, his head was buzzing with conflicting thoughts. He knew this was the right thing to do but...


    This was the best way to go about this but... at the same time he felt that it was cruel to hide Adera''s family''s death no matter the reason. Lately it feels like he''s like a lone boat against a raging storm.


    At noon the ship stopped at a port. This wasn''t Voryhrm, it was the port of a newly rising city called Allohis. Aldrich saw many passengers disembark here.


    Many huge triangr containers were loaded out of the ship. Apparently they were cargo containers. Merchants used them to transport manymodities across vast distances.


    Aldrich went down the docks to walk around and saw the many people scrambling to reach the city gates. There were even kids younger than him working in here.


    Aldrich was surprised by the amount of people who had adventurer guilds pins on them, all kinds of colors and shapes were drawn on the pins. They were carrying giant sea monsters to to butchers shops.


    One of the monsters looked like a hair ball with green eyes, another looked like a sea bird without the feathers and a lot of teeth. The most impactful was a horned shark with giant crab-like hands.


    While looking around Aldrich even heard that there was a big construction going on in the city. They were building new city walls to expand the city into the nearby forest.


    Apparently the president of the constructionpany was going to run for mayor and he was very popr too. When Aldrich asked about him he was enthusiastically bombarded with information he didn''t ask for.


    Aldrich returned back to the ship and back to his room when the ship was about to resume its journey. The next stop was Voryhrm.


    Aldrich had his lunch early and went back to listen to the band of women who sang yesterday, they called themselves the Alluring sirens. They were hosting a special show tonight and he wasn''t about to miss it.


    Aldrich enjoyed the show over some beer and even got to talk to the alluring sirens.

 Chapter 43 Back To The Nightmare Realm

    After the show many people went to shake hands with the alluring sirens, Aldrich was one of them.


    Apparently the sirens weren''t travelers like himself instead they worked aboard the ship as entertainers. Aldrich was fascinated that such jobs could exist, in Wakefield there was no such entertainment.


    Aldrich wanted to ask the sirens for a dance but couldn''t quite get the courage to ask. Tsk. Maybe next time.


    Aldrich returned to his roomte at night and threw off his clothes.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 1+


    Vitality: 2+


    Intelligence: 3


    Spirit (ck): 3


    Essence: 12


    Abilities: Eyes of Insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich looked at his attributes and used his orbs to upgrade vitality to three and endurance to two. Doing this reduced his essence orbs to zero.


    Immediately after he felt an electrical shock all over his body.


    Aldrich could feel almost all the umted exhaustion fleeing his body like a startled rabbit. His body which hadn''t felt quite right since his forced expulsion once again felt right.


    No it was not just right but better. Aldrich punched the air and imagined killing a husk with a single punch. Though he wasn''t quite sure that he could do that yet, however he keen to give it a try soon.


    Aldrich remained awake for longer than he should have out of excitement. But he did fall asleep.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª-


    Aldrich woke up in the nightmare realm on his couch. He looked around and found himselfpletely naked. Come to think of it, the second time he charged into the Ahuizotls horde he only equipped himself with a short sword.


    After he recalled this shameful behavior he wanted to go back in time and give past Aldrich a good punch.


    Because he was naked, without even a rag, he was easily devoured by the horde. To be fair its not like wearing another leather armor is enough to protect him but it still could''ve bought him some time.


    Aldrich prepared himself and was d that he had multiple armor sets in the base, after all he did loot every one he encountered till now. Thanks to that he had more than three more sets.


    Aldrich nned to finish the remaining husks in thest house he hunted in but decided to retreat due to his broken knee. That experience also made him realize that he was in great disadvantage in the dark.


    The ambush fromst time was not fatal but it also left a deep impression on Aldrich. What if the husk that ambushed him had a better weapon? Then he would have lost a life for sure.


    This did not bode well for him as he encountered more and more powerful husks, better equipped and with a disadvantage in numbers and in the dark. If only he could see as well as the Vendari in the dark.


    The Vendari were said to be able to see clearly even in the subterranean world. Forget about the Vendari just a vision as good as the dwarves and halflings was more than enough to turn things around.


    Come to think of it the first time he saw the base was when he was desperately escaping from the skinned dogs was different than it was now. It was lit with even the fence lined with burning torches.


    But when he woke up the torches were off. At the time Aldrich didn''t pay that any attention, mostly because he was preupied with other things.


    It was like the torches burned that day to lead him to this house. Certainly that was an oundish idea.


    In fact even if he had a torch it wouldn''t matter since he couldn''t go into battle while carrying a torch.


    Aldrich walked the streets and didn''t turn to check on the ce of histest deaths. He had no ns to fight with the Alhuizotl horde any time soon even though they might have already left the area he didn''t want to risk it.<sub> </sub>


    The streets were as loud as ever or perhaps they got even louder? Or was it only his imagination?


    Aldrich stood before the target house and pondered, a minuteter he decided to try something out. He looked around and saw many chunks of fallen wall material.


    He picked one that was half of his head''s size and hurled it at the wooden boards that sealed the windows. The impactpletely destroyed the wooden seal.


    This was the idea he came up with. In the past he was afraid of causing too much noise but now that didn''t really matter anymore.


    The wooden boards were actually very tough but with Aldrich''s increased power they were no problem. After most of his attributes reached three the overall power he could exert was greater than simply having only strength at three.


    Seeing that his n was working Aldrich went around and destroyed all the sealed windows in the house letting in the intense moonlight of this nightmare realm. Like this he was able to solve the darkness problem.


    Aldrich picked up his long sword and shield and entered the house cautiously. He headed to the second floor and found the corpses of the two husks that gave him a tough fightst time.


    He actually couldn''t loot their belongings because of his broken kneest time but he definitely will this time, but only after he was done clearing the rest of the house.


    He opened one of the rooms on this floor and found a husk charging at him. First type husk, unarmed and clumsy. Aldrich blocked with the shield and that was enough to send it flying backwards.


    Aldrich charged after it and finished it off with one attack, he actually did it. Aldrich collected his orbs and moved to the next room. Here he encountered two first type husks and made easy work of them.


    After all this time his power, skill and experience had reached a point where previously dangerous opponents were now easy pickings.


    But Aldrich didn''t let this get to his head, it was but the weakest type. He moved on to the third andst floor.


    The third floor was well lit, as far as well lit as you can be in the current circumstances at least. The hallway was guarded by one spearman. A second type husk.


    Aldrich wasn''t impatient, he kept his shield raised and blocked as he advanced on his opponent. The husk waited and waited and finally it went in for an attack.


    Aldrich blocked one thrust after another, atst he advanced and closed the distance between them while the husk was in mid-motion. Aldrich shed open its throat while diverting the spear to the side but it wasn''t dead yet, it was too shallow.


    It went crazy and sent a barrage of chaotic attacks. Aldrich simply blocked and backed away. The spear got lodged in one of the walls. Aldrich charged in and finished the husk off.


    Aldrich picked up the coin pouch from the husk''s belt but then returned it. He wasn''t done yet. The third floor only had three rooms two of which he found out were empty.


    Thest one had the voices of at least two husksing out of it. Aldrich rested for an hour before he decided he was ready.


    He kicked open the door and jumped in. He was greeted by the sight of three husks. One was an archer, the second was a swordsman and the third wielded only a shield.


    All of them were wearing chain mail armor over leather. Upon witnessing this sight Aldrich turned around and escaped. The husks followed.


    Aldrich ran all the way to the second floor where he hid behind the corner cloaked by shadows. The husks frantically chasing after him wereing down and closing in on him.


    Aldrich listened for their footsteps keenly and waited, he calmed his breathing to a still. When the husks were about to pass by him and head into the first floor he ambushed them.


    Using his shield as a cover he tackled the first husk that came his way. The impact sent the husk crashing into the hallway wall.


    Aldrich didn''t waste time at all, he held his sword over the fallen husk and decapitated it in one blow. Only then did he have time to see that the one he killed was the archer.


    Some good luck for once.


    But Aldrich knew he didn''t have time to celebrate when a sword''s edge almost decapitated him in return as he did to the archer husk a moment ago.


    Aldrich dodged away, and turned towards his next targets. The shieldman and the swordsman. The swordsman dealt a second attack, Aldrich blocked.


    The attack pushed him back and he grimaced, it was a heavy blow. But Aldrich had no ns to just sit there and take a beating.


    After the third attack that he blocked he sent a stab at the swordsman''s legs. But it was blocked by the shieldman perfectly. The shield that the husk used was much bigger than Aldrich''s own shield.


    While his shield was small and circr in shape it had an outward bulge at the center. On the other hand the husk''s shield was twice as big as his and it was t.


    A sword struck his left upper chest, it hurt but it didn''t break through his armor and his bone didn''t crack from the impact. These high stats payed off. Aldrich saw the swording but he wasn''t fast enough to recover his stance in time. Thankfully he still retained use of his left hand.


    Aldrich retreated and felt grateful that he finished off the archer first. Thisbination was extremely deadly. Even now he was put on a difficult battle.

 Chapter 44 Slaughter House

    Aldrich decided that he must get rid of the shieldman first. As long as the shieldman kept protecting and the swordsman got more chances to attack he would stand no chance at this rate.


    Aldrich felt his blood flowing, yet he purposefully didn''t look at his wound to keep his focus on the battle.


    Aldrich exchanged blows with the swordsman from time to time, he managed tond some hits but they were too shallow. Most of the time his attacks were blocked by the shieldman.


    This frustrated Aldrich to no end, if he attacked the swordsman the shieldman blocked him, if he attacked the shieldman he would leave an opening for the swordsman.


    He was meeting the swordsman blow for blow but if the predicament continued he would tire out and lose.


    Even if he wanted to use the same strategy again to kill one of them the staircase was blocked by the husks, he was trapped here.


    Aldrich could feel himself thinking clearly even while he was exchanging deadly blows with the sword wielding husk. In fact he felt himself improving as time went on, he was learning the move-set of this monster.


    The two husks coordinated well with each other, each covered for the other''scking qualities and together they produced a force that Aldrich even suspected had a chance to defeat the armored husk back in the base.


    The short stature of the shieldman allowed him to move freely and intercept Aldrich''s attacks from almost any angle. This was in contrast to the swordsman''s taller stature.


    Aldrich sighed, he didn''t like taking risks but often in times like these he had no choice but to take a risk otherwise his defeat and subsequent death were inevitable.


    Aldrich backed away andunched his sword in the air like a javelin at the swordsman.


    The swordsman, froze for a moment, and proving to be every bit the warrior Aldrich thought he was, he evaded by rolling into one of the rooms in the hallway.


    Aldrich took this chance and began sprinting the moment heunched the sword in the air. The shieldman held its defensive stance.


    Aldrich grabbed the shield with both hands and with great strength he suspended the husk in the air and walked towards one of the broken windows along the hallway.


    The husk understood the danger it was in and tried to let go of the shield but his hand was strapped to the shield tightly with two belts. It''s struggle was in vain.


    Aldrich''s superior strength was enough for him to throw it out of the broken window. Aldrich didn''t stay to see the impact instead he rushed back to his sword but he did hear a satisfying thud.


    He was just in time for the enraged husk''s charge. Aldrich held his ground until just before the collision he sidestepped and the husk found himself charging at the staircase leading down.


    Just now due to the earlier gambit the husks and Aldrich exchanged ces. Aldrich exploited the rage of the husk to lure it into a trap.


    The husk tumbled backwards. That fall would have been bad enough without the armor. The resulting crash was all the better for it.


    He went downstairs and found the husk struggling to stand. That wasn''t enough to kill it? Tough asshole. Aldrich took it upon himself to split it''s skull in half.


    Aldrich collected the orbs from both husks and decided to take a breather. The fight had drained him of even the space to breath.


    Aldrich examined the battle and even he himself was impressed that his gamble worked. It was a desperate attempt. And yet the most impressive was his ability to think so clearly amidst the fight.


    If this was a result of the intelligence attribute then it was definitely well spent essence orbs. Now he had twelve orbs total, a good haul.


    But Aldrich wasn''t done hunting just yet.


    Aldrich cleaned out this house but only roughly, he made sure to get anything that looked valuable, that included four coin pouches, all of them were quite heavy.<sub> </sub>


    He nned to do a through inspection of all the houses he cleared but that wille at ater time. When he managed to secure the area enough to allow himself some leisure.


    Of course whether anything big will happen to the nightmare town as he expected will y a definite factor in his future activities.


    Aldrich rested and transferred all of the battle spoils into the base safely without incident. He was going to clear one more house before returning to the real world.


    Aldrich picked up his long sword and this time he equipped his newly acquired shield. Aldrich liked how sturdy it felt around his arm, it also offered a bigger protection rangepared to hisst shield.


    As for the chain mail, he tried it but it felt too heavy and stuffy for him right now. It would slow him down considerably, so he decided to leave it until he needed.


    Aldrich headed to the next house in order and repeated his window crushing strategy to great sess.


    Except on thest window of the second floor. When he broke it open an arrow was shot at him. Thankfully it missed.


    Aldrich didn''t expect to be attacked before he even entered the house. This unexpected encounter made took him by surprise and he was slow to react.


    Aldrich then ducked and raised his shield over his head as he made a run for the house, ignoring the arrows that tried to skewer him in the process.


    Aldrich entered the house and was greeted by another arrow aimed for his head. Aldrich deflected it but itnded in his right thigh.


    ''Shit!''


    Aldrich knew the weaknesses of archers, close distance. The longer he remained in ce the more likely he would die. Aldrich raised the shield to cover his face and charged at where he thought the archer was.


    Aldrich finally made it to the archer who produced a long dagger to fight him at close range. But that in itself was enough to turn the tables to his advantage.


    Aldrich shed once and sent the dagger flying, the second sh broke its shoulder bone and the third finished it off for good.


    Aldrich took out the arrow from his thigh and winced in pain. He was bleeding badly, but Aldrich didn''t feel safe looking after his injuries here.


    Aldrich advanced upstairs and found himself against two archers in the hallway. He guessed that it was one of them that messed with him when he was outside.


    Aldrich raised his shield and blocked straight ahead, he was greeted with a hail of arrows. Two of them found marks in his waist. As he advanced they retreated, attempting to keep the distance wide enough.


    But this was not an endless hallway, eventually their backs were to the wall in a very literal sense of the word. That was already enough time for Aldrich to make the distance between them unsuitable for long rangedbat.


    Aldrich targeted the one on his right and it met his sh with the bow. The bow broke after taking three hits. Aldrich then stabbed it through its heart.


    He turned to thest one only to find it missing. He was too focused on that husk and allowed the other one to slip through his fingers.


    Aldrich looked around and found three rooms each with open doors. The husk was quite for once and didn''t reveal its hiding spot.


    Aldrich swallow and moved around with difficulty, he was battered and injured so badly if he was a normal human he would be on his deathbed.


    But Aldrich wasn''t a normal human any longer. His vitality was at three and his endurance at two. This granted Aldrich extraordinary resilience and stamina.

 Chapter 45 Olost One

    Aldrich didn''t find anything in the first two rooms so he knew it was hiding in thest remaining room. He stepped in calmly and looked in every nook and cranny but the husk was nowhere to be found.


    Aldrich got back to the hallway and looked outside and an arrowhead missed him by a hair. Aldrich ducked down.


    It actually went outside. The time he took looking for it in the empty rooms was enough for it to make it outside.


    Aldrich thought about what he should do if he stayed here, he could hide and wait for the arrows it has to run out. If he charged after it, it would have an arrow aimed straight at the door.


    Aldrich tried baiting the husk into wasting arrows but the cursed thing wasn''t so easily fooled as he had imagined it to be. This husk had the patience to waste time.


    Aldrich smiled despite himself, the husks were bing harder to defeat. This only served to solidify his theory about the nightmare town changing.


    Aldrich crawled down on the floor so the husk will continue to believe that he was still waiting there. Aldrich got up when he was far enough and sprinted to the opposite side of the hallway.


    There he saw many broken windows but one of them faced to the back of the house. Aldrich looked down and estimated the distance. Far but doable.


    Aldrich leapt off the window andnded on top of the outside wall. But what he didn''t expect was that the wall started copsing and he had to make another jump.


    Aldrich rolled on the ground for a bit, coughing due to the dust and rubble. Aldrich looked around and wondered if the husk heard the copse of the wall. After a while of looking around he guessed not.


    After all the entire town was bussing with constant noise, howling and wailing. He decided to begin his counterattack.


    Aldrich walked around the wall of the house and past the second corner and then stopped if he looked beyond the next corner he would see the archer keeping a close watch on the main door.


    Aldrich grinned. Often time the solutions to difficult problems was not asplicated as it would first seem.


    Aldrich walked slowly, carefully and sneaked behind the unsuspecting husk. By the time the husk felt something was not right it was already toote.


    The green blood sttered over the ground and made a disgusting puddle. Aldrich went around looting the corpses and cleaning the house. Which has be a routine at this point.


    While Aldrich was looting thest archer''s body something unexpected happened. It started raining. Aldrich looked at the sky in astonishment.


    The sky was just as clear and cloudless as always. But it was raining all the same. No, it wasn''t. It was snowing? Something wasn''t right.


    It wasn''t raindrops or snow that was falling it was ss shards, only they weren''t real ss shards as they melted into water when they fell on anything.


    Aldrich touched the water on his face, water that was ss just a moment ago. Suddenly he began hearing voices in his head. The voices were shouting, screaming and crying.


    It was just like that time in the old ruin by Wakefield when the seal of Tindalor first appeared. But this time he didn''t fall on his knees and lose consciousness.


    Aldrich focused his mind and endured the pain tearing at his skull. Then he heard a voice in his head, it spoke very clearly.


    "Hear me O''lost one. If you can hear my words then know that all is not lost, there is still hope for us. Come to the Pure chapel. There, everything will unravel."


    ''What was that? How?''


    The voice came directly into his head. The Pure chapel? Where''s that?


    Suddenly an image was projected into his mind. He saw what he expected to be the chapel, a grand building surrounded by five towers rising to the sky. Statues of strange beings were seamlessly incorporated into the building.


    Unlike anything in this world the chapel was unblemished, utterly pristine. It gave the impression that it was sinful to even expect it to be anything but perfect, even in this nightmarish world. what could be inside?


    Then the vision moved, it was inside the chapel. But everything inside was blurred as if there was something covering his eyesight.


    ''Wait why did it show him the image just now when he thought about it?.... Coincidence? Impossible. This thing can read my mind?''


    Aldrich quick abandoned the loot he was carrying and made his way back to the base, running all the way through. His injuries were severe so moving even one muscle hurt him like hell but right now he could careless.


    If this thing could read his thoughts and inject voices and images into his mind then that was something he couldn''t deal with right now.<sub> </sub>


    He had Harvick''s ne of mind protection in the real world not here and wasn''t sure if it would even work against something like that.


    While running away he was bombarded with multiple visions. He saw a four armed giant with fire for a face or it''s face was burning it was hard to tell which.


    He saw huge floating rock with multiple eyes,rge and small eyes protruding out of it at random. He saw a ceiling high marble pir and a humanoid creature was strapped onto it with huge iron nails.


    He saw a creepy dark passage filled with prison cells, within the cells were husks. The husks were wailing without end, from deep in the darkness a heavy thud of footsteps approached.


    He saw a great mansion or was it a castle? It was huge structure manned by an army of husks. All deked in full te armor. Their swords and armor shined in different lights from time to time.


    The vision moved into the mansion, to a grand courtyard at the center there was a stone tform on which was a chained... something. He couldn''t see before he heard an enraged roar.


    Aldrich awakened by in the base, at some point he had copsed on the ground unknowingly. Aldrich didn''t remember arriving at the base or even how he returned.


    He checked on himself and everything hurt. Clearly not much time had passed since he returned which was a good sign.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3+


    Agility: 1+


    Endurance: 2+


    Vitality: 3+


    Intelligence: 3+


    Spirit (ck): 3+


    Essence: 18


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich Looked at his attributes panel and was d to see the plus signs behind all the attributes. This most likely confirmed a theory he had.


    The number of essence orbs he needed for every upgrade was double of thest upgrade. Right now only two of his attributes weren''t at three.


    Aldrich without hesitation used the orbs to upgrade endurance to three and agility to two. He had six orbs left after that and only agility was the only attribute that wasn''t at level three.


    Aldrich crawled to the seal of Tindalor and intended to return back to the real world. He had many things to sort out but he really didn''t feel like it right now. He just wanted to have a good sleep.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Aldrich looked at the familiar ceiling of his room and heard the waves as they crashed against the ship.


    ''Well that was a bit much for one night wasn''t it?''


    Aldrich returned to sleep without bothering to close the window.


    The morning sun rays woke Aldrich up. He stretched and put his trousers back on. The maids brought the hot water and he bathed leisurely.


    When it was time for breakfast he made his way to the special guests quarters. He was the first to arrive of his group.

 Chapter 46 Grand Arrival

    The waiter came to ask for his order but he declined to order his food before the rest of the group arrived, that would be rude. This was likely theirst meal on the ship, the next one will be in Voryhrm.


    "By the way can I see the kitchen? I have nothing to do before my friends arrive."


    "...certainly, sir. It''s just that the cooks are a bit busy around this time."


    "It''s fine I''ll be so quiet and quick they won''t even notice me. Ah! By the way can I meet to the chef that''s been cooking for us?"


    "I don''t really think tha¡ª"


    "Lead the way."


    The waiter took him in such pathways and turns that for a moment Aldrich thought it was some kind of maze like in the ship.


    But eventually he was taken to a huge kitchen. The cooks and staff moving about in this kitchen made it look like a street market. The smells of cooking foods stimted his hunger.


    Aldrich was lead to man who looked to be in his fifties. The man had no beard but he had an extremely long blonde mustache that grew and was tied to a knot behind his back.


    The man was a professional chef in a family of professional chefs, even his two brothers were working in high-end restaurants in Voryhrm.


    Apparently this guy wanted to leave the family profession and be and alchemist. He studied day and night and apprenticed in a decent guild.


    But he was miserable until one day he started cooking again. Now he uses what he learned to be an alchemist as a chef.


    A nice story but Aldrich didn''t really ask, this guy was extremely talkative. Aldrich thanked him for all the nice meals he cooked and returned back to his table.


    Aldrich ordered sausage, eggs, two bread buns and finally tried some of that sea fruits.


    After breakfast they started casually talking about the things they would do after returning to Voryhrm. Some wanted to attend theater ys they missed, some wanted to buy all sorts of things.


    "Oh, Aldrich, a piece of advice," warned Orven, "we''ll get off at the Dockway port and we''ll go through the Dockway district after that, keep a close eye on your coin pouch."


    "Really? Even in Voryhrm?" Aldrich questioned in disbelief.


    "Just in some districts. There are even worse districts than Dockway, in some of them you might lose more than just your coins."


    "Alright, I get it. But I thought big cities uses only paper money these days?" Aldrich inquired.


    "Where did you hear that? Paper money is gaining more and more poprity with the imperial bank backing it so strongly but that''s not enough for it to rece coins any time soon."


    It was Atrio Taelva that said that, he now recalled. He was trying to get the mayor to give him all his coins in exchange for paper money. Lying and distracting. That was his role to distract people lest they interfere in Keld''s business.


    But was it only for the purpose of distraction? There was another possibility, what if Atrio was trying to make some money while on the job? Surely Atrio didn''t think that anything he said mattered in a vige of dead men.


    Aldrich felt his blood boiling in anger, such people were not beneath any action no matter how deplorable.


    But then again this was good information, this meant that Atrio wasn''t wless, he was greedy enough to let some things slip. This meant that the True Saint''s Folk aren''t a perfectly controlled organization they were just humans too, prone to mistakes.


    This thought put a smile on his face. After all, didn''t he escape from right under their noses? They will slip again somewhere, sometime and when that happens he will be there.


    Aldrich suddenly heard the tolling of bells, a sign indicating that it was about time to dock at port.


    Aldrich andpany stood at the railing. From here Aldrich could see a wall far way in the distance. As time passed and the ship got closer and closer he began to see how big the wall really was.


    The walls cast their shadow on the river from their position high against the cliff edges. The wall in its entirety was covered by Ermitsal which made it shine under the sun.


    The walls were so tall he couldn''t estimate their height. The river was squeezed between the two cliffs on both sides. There were may ships besides theirs heading in the same direction.


    Suddenly Aldrich raised his head and looked high into the clouds, a beast emerged. Aldrich heard high pitched whistling. The beast got closer and closer and that revealed it actual huge build.


    Aldrich stared in astonishment, everything was quite at this moment. The beast had the upper body of a giant eagle and the lower body of a giant steed. It was a hippogriff.


    Even more mind boggling, the beast was fitted with ridding gear of leathers and straps everywhere. And a man in full te armor was riding it.


    The full body te armor he wore was nothing usual, it had a unique blue color and green at the joints. His chest piece had the insignia of a tower releasing light from the top.


    He was armed with a longnce, but Aldrich could see many other weapons strapped at the sides of the hippogriff. The weapons were a huge crossbow and the other side had a musket.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich''s jaw fell open as the collective cheer from all the passengers not just from their ships but from all the others at once.


    When the cheer died down the rider lowered his visor and spoke with a thunderous voice.


    "Wee one and all! Everything is as usual keep to the left for a smooth dock!"


    After that he returned high up hidden by the clouds.


    "That was... awesome." Aldrich couldn''t help but exim. Truly an unexpected first sight.


    "They''re called the Beacon Keepers. Their job is to guide and monitor all the ships that approach Voryhrm. They were named after the great light houses of Beacons point. They are a force that answers only to the city council alone."


    "Do they all ride hippogriffs?"


    "Most of them do, yes."


    "Are they all Crestmasters?"


    "Some of them are but most are ordinary people."


    Soon the ship approached the port and after a longer than expected wait they managed to descend the ship. Aldrich once thought that the port of Herth was big, he was wrong.


    He must''ve been, because this port stretched as far as the eyes could see. A multitude of humanoids busied themselves here.


    Some were carrying cargo, some were hauling ship parts, some were shouting saying things he couldn''t make out. A truly shocking thing was the solid Ermitsal ground underneath everything.


    Aldrich even had the misconception that the earth here was originally made of Ermitsal.


    After looking for a while he discovered that the people here didn''t move around chaotically as he first thought. They were moving in order.


    This was because he noticed painted boards with signs telling people who had different purposes to follow ck dotted lines on the pure white Ermitsal streets.


    Aldrich followed Ayemon and the others as they skillfully maneuvered through the crowds of unending people. Finally they reached a faraway ce where the traffic was low.


    Orven whistled loudly and eventually a carriage stopped.


    "Where do you want to go? I can only take you guys as far as Sobruz. I''ve got work to be done here." Dered the red-bearded dwarf.


    "We''re going to Nistoch, 6th Harveston street. If that alright with you. If not then don''t mind us." Replied Orven matter-of-factly.


    "W-what?! Of course not, sir. I-I mean my lord, please. My carriage is at your beck and call." The dwarf immediately started sweating and even took out a handkerchief to clean his hands.


    "Sounds like a deal to me." Agreed Orven.


    "Let me help you with your luggage. Jimmy! What arezing about for?! Get down there and lend a hand to the kind lord." The dwarf turned to shout at a human man sitting on the chair besides him.


    The man had a short red hat over his eyes and leaned his head to the back before the dwarf yelled at him. After which he jumped down and collected the luggage.


    "Hahaah please ignore him my lord this guy is new and doesn''t know how things are done here."


    Aldrich noticed that this carriage was pulled by four giant blue and yellow dotted lizards, he had since learned that these animals are called giant Geckos. The wheels of the carriage were metallic and there was a grey substance over the wheels.


    Aldrich looked back at the way the carriage came and noticed it didn''t leave any marks on the Ermitsal street. He guessed that it had something to do with this grey covering over the wheels.


    The carriage was clean and smelled very inviting. Aldrich looked at the passing scenery out of the ss windows attached to the doors of the carriage.


    Soon he looked at the most interesting thing around, the looming city wall. The wall looked even bigger the closer he got to it. To the point that it resembled a small mountain.


    "How big is it...?" Aldrich asked no one in particr.


    "Thirty five meters in height. Seventeen in width. There are four levels of encampments at different heights."


    "That''s insane!" Aldrich eximed. As the carriage got closer he could see the army guarding the gate.

 Chapter 47 Future Plans

    They were dressed in a mix between leather and te armor, each had tower shield, a musket and a sword. They stood at attention like unbreakable spears.


    The encampments at each level of the wall had canons, trebuchets, catapults and ballistas. In total the gate was manned by at least a few hundred men.


    When they passed under the shadow of the gate, he noticed many portcullises lined into the roof of the wall. The gate itself was huge and allowed for hundreds of people to enter and exit easily without trouble.


    If Ayemon didn''t tell him that there are fifty such gates in Voryhrm then he would have assumed that this was the primary gate of the city.


    The guards didn''t stop the carriage from passing, in fact the gate was wide open. The carriage passed by the many, many buildings that littered the streets. The streets were all so wide twenty carriages could take the street without a problem.


    What didn''t surprise Aldrich was, of course, the high rise buildings and many colorful things. It was that all the buildings here were at least stered with Ermitsal if not built with it.


    The amount of wealth one had to have to do this was unimaginable for Aldrich. No wonder the guys made fun of Ado''merin. Were he to live here, he too would have made fun of it himself.


    Ado''merin was like a tiny vigepared to this mega city. It even smelled nice without any filth littering the streets. All the people in the streets wore respectable clothing.


    "Are they preparing for war?" Aldrich asked.


    "What are you talking about?" Questioned Caldera.


    "The gate. The walls. They had hundreds of guards and all sorts of weapons."


    "That''s just the norm here. In fact, anyrge city has do at least this much after the age of dread. Every city has to have the walls of a fortress. Not to mention Voryhrm, one of the surviving cities that endured the attacks of Dreadlords for three hundred years and participated in the liberation war."


    Aldrich could imagine the scene in his mind, where the hordes of dread charged against these walls and were broken time and time again. The citizens of the city lost all contact with the outside world but endured for three hundred years. Truly and epic for the ages toe.


    "Is the heroes hall really here?" Aldrich had heard of it from Adera and ever since, he wanted to take a look on his own.


    "Of course if you want to see it just go Old Voryhrm and¡ª"


    "Old Voryhrm? Aren''t we in Voryhrm now?"


    "Yes but this is technically the new Voryhrm. The old Voryhrm was actually the city that survived the dread age. Now it''s one of the districts in the new city."


    "So, the new city was built around it?"


    "You can say that. But it was not nned or anything, as time went on more walls were added and it progressed into a mess. But eventually arge scale reorganization happen some sixty years ago and that''s how the current Voryhrm came to be."


    Looks like Caldera was very knowledgeable about the history of the city.


    The carriage passed by street after street consecutively, the people walking around were all well clothed. The shops and markets were all grand and lively.


    After a long while the carriage came to a stop. When they stepped out of the carriage they were faced with a huge and stylish metal gate. Beyond the gate six guards were starting at them.


    When they got a clear look at them one of them darted to the magnificent mansion in the back and the rest quickly opened the gates.


    Ayemon paid the carriage driver and the bag-boy took out the luggage.


    "Hey wait a moment I''m not staying here, I''ll see you guyster." Interjected Orven before his bag was lowered down.


    The mansion door opened and a few servants and maids came running out frantically. The servants all lined up in two lines and Norge surprisingly stood with them at the forefront of the line. They bowed.


    "We wish you a safe return, master!"


    Aldrich followed Ayemon in silence. The servants took their luggage and the entered the mansion. However before he could go anywhere he was pulled away by a few maids.


    The maids took him to a beautiful room, decorated with luxurious woodwork and carpets and paintings. The room was spacious but not too big.


    The maids brought hot water and a change of clothes, they also took away his old boots. Along with the tub there was two small buckets.


    They were put to the side of the tub as if they went together. They were filled with some white bricks, when he touched them he knew that they weren''t bricks.


    "What are those?" He asked one of the maids.


    "This? The white soap is for the body, the brown is for the hair."<sub> </sub>


    "I''m not sure how to use it..."


    "You take it in your hand, add some water and rub it on your body.


    "I see, thank you."


    The maid left and Aldrich tried using the soaps, as she called them. This was the first time he had heard of such things. As he used the hair soap some of the bubbles got in his eye and it hurt viciously.


    ''Why didn''t that made tell me about this?!''


    Aldrich was angry even after he washed his eyes with water the pain hadn''t subsided. After the bath he wore the clothes that the maids had prepared for him andbed his hair that admittedly looked much better now.


    Aldrich looked in the mirror. His new clothes were a ck trousers and vest over a white buttoned shirt. His hair had grown wildly a little from the sides, even afterbining it it still had a wild air about it.


    Aldrich looked at his new footwear, it was some king of light brown slippers that were soft to walk with.


    Aldrich heard a knock on his door and opened it to find Norge waiting. Norge was as immacte as ever his clothes didn''t have a wrinkle and he stood straight and imposing.


    He should have known that he was some kind of noble attendant. Aldrich decided to ask about it. But Norge spoke before he could.


    "The master is waiting for you in the dining hall."


    "Eh, fine. By the way are you his attendant?"


    "I am the butler in charge of the manor''s affairs. Sometimes when my master leaves for whatever reason I apany him."


    Aldrich and Norge talked as the walked and turned from one hallway to the next. The walls were decorated with candle stands and paintings.


    The maids and servants were scurrying around in a hurry yet they only walked briskly.


    Aldrich entered the dining hall and saw Ayemon sitting on a far chair. He was talking with a beautiful maid standing besides him. When they entered he looked at them and nodded.


    "Lets have some lunch shall we? My chefs are renowned in Voryhrm let me tell you, there are actually some uneducated bastards that tried to steal them from me. Can you believe the gall of some people?"


    Aldrich was nervous for a moment but when Ayemon started acting like normal he rxed and took a seat to Ayemon''s left.


    The chair was as expected of this luxurious mansion. Right now luxury won''t surprise him, if he found something that was not up to the standard of the rest of the mansion then he will get surprised.


    The meal was served timely and very elegantly by the maids, red wine was poured in both of their cups. The rich aroma of the red wine stimted his appetite and the grilled pork belly.


    After the meal tea and honey cakes were served. Aldrich ate heartily and didn''t spare anything. Ever since his attributes increased he was feeling more and more hungry, his appetite has had an explosive increase.


    "So what do we do now? Should we go get that fake identity?" Aldrich asked after he was done with the food.


    "No, now we wait. I''ll send someone to city hall tomorrow. You don''t have to do anything about that."


    "Really don''t they have to see my face at least? Or maybe ask some questions?"


    "That sounds boring so no. What you have to think about is how you will deal with Adera."


    "What do you mean? I''ll just lie like you told me to not long ago."


    "Yes, but that''s not enough. Think on this. The fake identity we''ll get you will be of a viger from some faraway northern hill. This is how everyone will know you. But she can expose that secret."


    Thats true. The fake identity can only work on people who don''t know who he really is, but as someone from Wakefield how will he convince Adera not to rat him out.


    Besides, a fake identity was very suspicious. Even if Aldrich somehow convinced Adera to lie along with him, that alone was enough to put her on alert.


    That was without even considering that Aldrich nned to hide the news of the Wakefield massacre from her.


    "When will my fake identity be ready?"


    "As early as tomorrow and if it waste then the day after. Then we''ll register you in the ongoing semester."

 Chapter 48 [Bonus Chapter]Crest Types

    It''s a bonus chapter! I want to take this chance to thank all my loyal readers for their great support! Good work guys! Also this is a one time offer if I can get three golden tickets I will release another bonus chapter this Friday.


    one more thing before I go, check out the synopsis, I outlined some milestones for the novel.


    Special thank you to Anthony_Beasley for my first ever golden ticket!


    *****


    It was very likely that he will have to encounter her soon, sooner than he would like to. Aldrich didn''t want to meet her that soon.


    Everything has be soplicated so fast, if only things could go back to the way it used to be, to a simpler time. Back then he didn''t have to lie so much, he didn''t have to hide any secrets but suddenly everything changed.


    It will never go back to the way it used to be. This was a thought that he could not expunge no matter how optimistic he tried to be. But yet again he believed that one day things could go back to that simple time.


    "You should also look for a ce in the Academy district. That''s where most initiates stay, it''s a good district, energetic with so many youngsters running around."


    "I can''t stay here?"


    "Sure you can. For only ten gold coins a month, why not?"


    "..... I think I''ll find a ce."


    "To be honest I''d rather not send you to study in the useless academy I''d rather you take the guild examination already but you mast leave behind a record of having studied in the academy. And the time isn''t right anyway."


    "Do you have some kind of grudge against the academy? Aren''t you a professor there? Wait, what guild?"


    "The Knights of thest Sustar of course. No other guild is even remotely close to it in prestige and glory in Voryhrm."


    "I heard about their examination, I heard it''s a great secret all those who take it can''t talk about it."


    "Oh, yeah. I happen to know the details, before you take the examination you have to keep what I tell you a secret alright? Or I''ll never hear the end of it."


    "Are you sure about that? You know what, I think I want to take the exam normally and pass it on my own. Even if I fail so what? I''ll just retake the exam. I might have been a simple farmer and shepherd but I know that failure is the best teacher. I don''t want to keep using your slimy methods that''s not me."


    "Wow! That''s so moving, so noble. You know what? Go for it champ. Integrity is a virtue that is hard to hold on to in these terrible times."


    "Yeah what can I say? I was just grown and disciplined in the highest and most sought after virtues. I can''t just keep taking shortcuts you know?"


    "Yeah, I feel like I overstepped my boundaries just now. I mean who knew you were so indifferent to your own death? Now that''s something that most people just can''t do."


    "Yeah, yeah¡ªwait, death? My own death? You can die during the exam?"


    "Obviously, this guild is the best out there but their examination actually has the highest mortality rates. The fact that you''re so confident is really admirable."


    "H-how can an examination be fatal? that can''t be legal, that''s ridiculous!"


    Aldrich chocked on his own saliva.


    "It''s very legal, after all, they make you sign off your life before taking the exam."


    "What if I don''t sign it?"


    "Then you get kicked out, of course."


    "Listen about what I said just now... you know that I was joking right? Hahahahaha! That was a goodugh, no? Now that I think about it, I''m still going to need the information."


    Ayemon: "..."


    "No, no don''t look at me like that. Hear me out. It''s not that I''m afraid of death it''s just that I''m afraid to die without helping you to take out the traitors in the realm, you know. If that were to happen I just wouldn''t be able to forgive myself. So... about that exam..."


    "Fine. All joking aside, you will only attend some of the sses in the academy, the ones that are actually useful so be prepared."<sub> </sub>


    "Can I really just skip sses like that?"


    "Don''t worry I will arrange someone else to attend those useless sses in your name."


    "Are you some sort of crime lord?"


    "No, I''m much worse. I''m an actual lord. Your free time will be put to good use don''t even worry."


    "I''m not sure if I should ask, but, what do mean ''good use''?"


    "I mean we could register you as an independent adventurer and when you''re not in ss, you''ll be hunting monsters in the sunken valley."


    "Why? Shouldn''t I focus on meditation?"


    "You need to make money, genius. Don''t tell me you''ll go back to being a shepherd here too? You need to make some cash for rent, food and equipment. I''m not spending more than I need to on you. I haven''t adopted you yet."


    That''s right. His money was already running dry and he needed a great amount of money to do anything in this city. Besides Ayemon already did enough for him, if he kept relying on him then what was he but a burden?


    Besides hunting monsters had a lot of benefits. First he could hone his skills, second he could make money and finally he could acquire orbs. With the increased demand of orbs it will definitely help that he could get his hands on more orbs.


    "The next month or so is going to be very important for your career as an adventurer. However you must not neglect meditation."


    "How does meditation help me be a Crestmaster?"


    "As an awakened human your spirit is growing naturally right now as it grows ites into contact with the Immatirum. This is usually a very dangerous process, meditation will help your crest digest the powers of the Immatirum with as few side effects as possible."


    "But where is this Immatirum? What is it?"


    "The Immatirum is everywhere, it exists within the world and also outside of it. Only beings of powerful spirits cane into contact with it. That''s how Crestmasters have all their powers and abilities."


    "But you said that the spirit is growing naturally so why do we need meditation?"


    "Because the power of the Immatirum is very vtile and dangerous. If not handled carefully it could result in three oues. You could lose your crest and be back to being a normal human, your spirit could break and you will be a vegetable. Last of all, you could transform into a monster and start killing people randomly."


    "So that''s what Oathbreakers are..." Aldrich remembered the horrific state of Cazmer, his charred skin, his mismatched eyes and his red-tipped horns.


    "Well, technically, yes. But not quite right. Don''t think about it too much, it''s too early for you. When you ignite your symbol you wille into contact with all of that."


    "Can I know what crest I will ignite beforehand?"


    "Out of the five crest types, all of them are powerful you don''t need to stress too much about something like that."


    The five types of crests that a Crestmaster could ignite were: Weaponsmaster, Pyromancer, Glyphmancer, Cleric and Knight.


    Once your first symbol is ignited, it will be fixed on the crest type too. For example if Aldrich ignited a sword symbol as his first symbol then all the symbols he would ignite in the future will be of that type too. The sword symbol is a branch of the Weaponsmaster crest type that basically includes all weapons.


    Aldrich wanted to be a Pyromancer. Krynt was a pyromancer and the pyromancer Crestmasters are know for having the greatest destructive power.


    Aldrich imagined himself burning the armored husk to death from a safe distance. He imagined shooting fireballs at the mouse horde and burning them before they could even get close to him.


    In fact even if he ignited as a Weaponsmaster that would be fine too. The ability to identify enemy weak points and unleash sword storms up close at the enemies sounds very fun.


    "By the way, I wanted to ask you something. I don''t mean to be intrusive or anything but you understand our situation is dire."


    "Why are you being so mysterious? Just ask, you don''t seem to hesitate to ask anything, now I''m curious."


    "Yeah, tell me, Aldrich, what is your rtionship with Adera?"


    "Wha¡ª"

 Chapter 49 Explore

    "Ah, I mean to say how close were you with her back in Wakefield?"


    "Why do you have to know that..."


    "As I said, the situation is dire. Your answer will help me decide on how to deal with her."


    "How to deal with her? What are you even talking about?"


    "Calm down, hear me out.."


    "I''m calm. You just started saying some random things."


    "Listen to me, you may not like to hear this but I will still say it. There''s a possibility that Adera is an agent that works for whoever was behind the attack on Wakefield."


    "You don''t know what you''re talking about! I told you, her father, his two wives who were like mothers to Adera and all her step-siblings died that day. How could she have anything to do with that?"


    "Listen to me, I know that very well however, I must doubt. To find the truth we must not leave even ourselves unquestioned. Of course, this is just an unlikely suspicion on my part, to be clear I have quite a few apprehensions towards this Adera."


    "Adera would never help those evil bastards who attacked Wakefield. That''s just impossible. That''s all I''m going to say about this ridiculous question. I know Adera well, I grew up with her, she''s my friend she would never have anything to do with something like this."


    "Fine, I believe you. I''m just trying to explore a possibility. As I said I didn''t mean to upset you, it''s just the nature of our enemy is very insidious even to hide among normal people. If our enemies are that cunning and ruthless we need to be even more so."


    Aldrich mulled over these words. Nheless Ayemon was just too paranoid.


    "Why do I have to spend more than a month attending the academy, why wait that long?" Aldrich decided to change the subject, this was a topic that he didn''t want to talk about anymore.


    "Because the examination will only start then. Did you think that they held the examination every week? Besides you need this time to get used to your new environment and to learn many basic things about Crestmasters and adventurers."


    "That makes sense."


    "There''s also a chance I could get you a great instructor."


    "An instructor? What''s that?"


    "A trainer. You need to learn the basics ofbat. You were a farm boy just a week ago, even if you knew about the exam if you can''t take care of yourself inbat then you better wait till next year."


    "I think I''m decent enough in realbat."


    "I like that confidence. Keep that positive outlook. But if the instructor tells me that you''re not ready I won''t sign you up. I''m letting you know now so don''tin to meter."


    "Good, I''m looking forward to it. What''s he going to teach me? Swordsmanship? Hand to hand?"


    "I don''t know, that''s up to the instructor he''ll see what fits you best and teach you ordingly. I don''t want to discourage you, but you should lower your expectations of your talents and prepare yourself to get hurt during the training."


    "Alright, here, read these papers and choose which one you want to see first." Ayemon handed him a stack of papers from the nearby tea table.


    "What''s this?" Aldrich asked.


    "Its a newspaper, in the back it has advertisements for apartments, the address, the prices, the location and many more things. Look them over and go there tomorrow to check on which ce you like."


    "That''s handy."


    "It is. Just be careful not get scammed by anyone, check on everything in the apartment before you decide."


    "Shouldn''t I do this after I get my fake identity?"


    "As I said before thew is unbending but humans are flexible. If they actually ask you for it just slip a copper or two in his hand. And that goes for anything you want to do in your life from now on."


    Aldrich was beginning to get the picture, it seems like with enough coin you can do anything. There was one time when Ayemon insinuated that if one was rich enough they could even have an audience with an Archbishop.


    "Also you will be going to a shoe shop before going anywhere else. We can''t have you going around everywhere with your boots."


    "Do I have to? Can''t I just do thatter?"


    "You must. You can''t go into any respectable establishment with boots. Not in Voryhrm. Shoes are a must, boots are for rougher ces than the beautiful streets of our great city."<sub> </sub>


    "I will never understand you city people. What''s wrong with boots, they''re sturdy and warm."


    "Tone down the farmboy within you. This is the big city, what you wear and where you live tells people many things about you, and that reflects in their attitudes."


    "Alright I''m leaving. I don''t think I will be hungry for dinner."


    "Yeah, you take care."


    "Ah, by the way. I don''t mean to intrude. I''m just wondering if the rest of the family didn''t want to eat here because of me..."


    This was something that he had thought about when he first came into the mansion. His presence probably had a negative effect on Ayemon''s family. As no one but servants came out to greet Ayemon yet.


    "The rest of the family?" Ayemon repeated the question as if he was confused, "ah, don''t worry about it, it''s just me."


    "Just you?" Aldrich asked back, even more confused.


    "Yeah, I am the entire Seerstorm family." Ayemonughed.


    "Well, yeah. A-anyway I guess I will be seeing youter."


    Aldrich returned back to his room with the help of one of the maids. There was a time when he thought that Ayemon will have to deal with a nasty atmosphere if he were to adopt him into the family.


    However turns out his worries were in vain. But that in itself was strange. Ayemon was at least in his early thirties, he should have married long ago and sired at least a few children.


    Aldrich did hear that city people marriedter some of them even in theirte twenties.


    Ayemon should have had at least a few wives. Even if he didn''t, what about his brothers and sisters? What about his parents and grandparents? what about cosines and other rtives?


    A family was big, a noble family should be even bigger by all rights.


    This was strange issue but it didn''t really concern him all that much, in fact this was good news for him. In this case there were fewer problems for himter on.


    He just remembered that Caldera always slept in the same room as Ayemon when they lodged in an inn. He thought that she was his wife but no one said anything about it, not even in reference so he didn''t ask.


    Aldrich used the toilet and washed his hands afterwards. Then he went through the newspapers that Ayemon gave him. This went on tillte at night.


    The amount of information was just so much but in the end he decided on which streets he was going to start with. Hopefully he might be able to haggle the price down a fair bit.


    Aldrich stretched his body and drank some water before he jumped on the soft bed. The pillows and bedsheets fit the quality of the mansion. Aldrich gave the bed a ten out of ten.


    ****


    Aldrich woke up back in the nightmare realm with his back resting on the seal of Tindalor. Last time he returned by using the seal which mean that he spent two of the remaining six essence orbs that he had left.


    Aldrich checked on his body which was battered and half a step to death thest time he was here. In contrast to that time, right now, his body was in a perfect condition. His wounds healed perfectly without leaving a single scar.


    Aldrich wasn''t sure if this was the effect of his vitality attribute. In fact he had a hunch that upon returning to the real world all his wounds healed magically and instantaneously. But of course this was only a spection.


    Aldrich knew that the effects of level three attributes were powerful but they still didn''t reach the level of Crestmasters.


    To heal such deep wounds with only level three attributes seemed far fetched, in fact he wasn''t sure that Crestmasters could heal wounds like that without help from a cleric.


    After all he experienced that level in other attributes that could be tangibly tested. Aldrich decided to test the vitality attribute closely after today''s hunt.


    Aldrich picked up his weapons, his long sword and shield. But he wasn''t going out yet, there was something that he had to see for himself here. He walked out of themon room and headed right.


    There was still an unopened door at the end of the hallway that he only noticed at ater time. Aldrich decided that today was as good as any to see where this door led.


    Going past the kitchen he found the mysterious door. This door was notably wider than all the doors he had encountered in this house, it was not sealed by anything and when he tried the handle it opened easily. A cloud of dust and rot assaulted his senses.


    Aldrich coughed and backed away from the door. After a minute of coughing he stabilized himself and cautiously entered the room. Surprisingly faint light shined in the room.


    For a moment Aldrich thought that the old madman hadn''t left at all instead he hid here in this room and observed him through unknown means.

 Chapter 50 The Basement

    But to his relief and contradicting his fears, the room was empty of any creature. The candle was burning on a small round table at the western edge of the room.


    Aldrich descended the short stone stairs, there were only six steps. The design of the room in such a way made it much bigger than expected.


    The east wall of the room was filled with chains tied over iron pegs imbedded in the wall.


    Aldrich couldn''t see properly so he walked over to the round table and took the candle with him intending to use it to get a better look at the room when he noticed that the southern wall was lined with unlit torches.


    Aldrich tried lighting one of the torches and it caught on fire bringing a smile to his face. Then everything became clear. Right under the light of the torch there was a metallic cage.


    There was over a dozen of them lining the southern wall. Thankfully the cages were empty. The cages had small wheels attached to them under the base.


    Aldrich walked over to the northern end of the room and when he passed by the center of the room he noticed a smooth depression running from the short staircase to the western end of the room.


    There a huge metal gate blocked the way. The gate did not have bars instead the entire thing was made of pure metal alone. In the center of the gate there was a tiny, dirty ss window, whatever was on the other side was impossible to know due to the filthy state of the ce.


    This depression, the gate, the cages, the chains. This all meant something very questionable was happening here. Undoubtedly this ce hid deeper secrets than it first let on.


    Aldrich approached the metal gate and didn''t find any handle to open it with. He just saw a half-rusted metallic wheel attached to the gate. The window was too dirty even after he cleaned it a bit, it was still hard to see anything on the other side.


    Aldrich wasn''t in a hurry to explore everything at once he wasn''t even done with the room he was in right now. He decided to back down for now.


    He turned to the northern part of the room that he was originally going to search before his attention was attracted by the gate.


    The northern side of the room had no chains or cages. In contrast to the southern side. It had four massive ceiling-high cabs. The ss disy of the cabs was quite murky and dirty but not as much as the gate''s window.


    The wood and metal work on these cabs was off the charts, it was so well made that just looking at the carvings gave Aldrich chills. Even in Ayemon''s mansion he had not seen such craftsmanship.


    Aldrich cleaned the ssware of the first cab from the east from the outside. Atst he saw although not too clearly, the cab was divided into four different levels. In each of the levels there were some sks.


    The sks were simr to the ones in the torture room but these were not empty, they were filled with colorful liquids that glowed. Some were green, some red, others yellow.


    The sks were sealed tightly with an unusual thing like a cork but diffident somehow.


    Aldrich was fascinated by the colorful liquids and the sks. He moved on to the next cab and it was the same as the first one.


    The one after that was different, it was filled with small intricate metallic chests like the one he found hidden under wall ster in one of the houses he cleared.


    The one after that one was also filled with small metallic chests. Aldrich didn''t wish to waste time so he tried to open the cabs. Unfortunately his efforts were in vain.


    The cabs were locked with an unnatural lock, they wouldn''t even budge under his full strength. Aldrich held his sword and tried to break the hinges of the cab to no use.


    Angered by the results, Aldrichunched an attack at the ss doors of the cabs, he didn''t even care if he broke such nice cabs.


    But to his shock the cab was unscratched by the attack. Aldrich attacked again and again. To no use. It was like attacking a mountain his attacks were as light as a feather to this cab, it didn''t even shake or rattle.


    Aldrich even felt that his sword''s edge had begun to dull leaving him with a dumbfounded smile. Clearly this was no ordinary cab. The things it locked must be truly valuable.


    Something unnatural was afoot here. Aldrich had every intention of making use of any resources he could get his hands on so it was only right that he wanted to open the cab.<sub> </sub>


    However he also realized that he was simply unable to right now. He had a hunt to get to so he picked up the candle and left the basement.


    He could have a better look at the base now with candle, he lit up one of the torches that were on the house''s fence and brought it into themon room.


    Aldrich left the candle and the torch in themon room and left the base to his next target. At this point in time he was half done clearing the surrounding houses and buildings. Only five more to go.


    If he cleared one per day then that was five days toplete his objective. On the sixth day he will challenge the armored husk and im victory.


    While making his way to the targeted house he noticed a peculiar stone tform in the center of the neighborhood. It was broken and shattered somewhat.


    Aldrich got closer to the tform and examined it. Mostly dust and rubble but it also had faded marks, as if it was inscribed with something a long time ago. Unfortunately whatever it was it was erased and only hints remained.


    Aldrich continued on his way and after confirming the target house heunched his special move, window destroying barrage!


    When an arrow aimed at his eye from one of the second floor windows he wasn''t surprised anymore, he blocked it calmly. After which he covered his head with the shield and entered the bounds of the house making it impossible for the archer to aim at him.


    Aldrich kicked open the door and saw a first type husk running away from him. This had never happened before, every time even if the husk was unarmed they would charge at him.


    Aldrich ran after the fleeing husk afraid it might join up with reinforcements. That would make things harder than they had to be.


    Aldrich caught up to the husk in the kitchen of this house, the husk, cornered, decided on a desperate attack and lunged at him.


    Aldrich simply blocked with his shield and with one sh decapitated the husk entirely. It was at this moment of triumph that he felt a presence at his back.


    Aldrich turned around in time to block the backstab aimed at his spine. This ambusher, unlike thest, who had a kitchen knife, had a long dagger. Could it be considered a short sword?


    Aldrich was sweating bullets, it was a close call. He kicked back at the ambusher, it recovered and moved with swift speed around the small room jumping nimbly.


    Aldrich grabbed the over energetic husk and punched it in the face, he heard the unmistakable crunch of broken bones. Then he split it''s skull in half for good measure.


    He made his way upstairs and blocked the arrow that targeted him as soon as his head was high enough for the husk to shoot.


    He blocked another arrow but the third found its mark in his right shoulder, sending bouts of pain throughout his body. Aldrich gritted his teeth and advanced.


    When he was close enough he removed the shield and charged at his opponent. Aldrich attacked and was blocked in turn. The husk had discarded the bow and arrows on the floor.


    Instead it revealed a short sword and a shield. Aldrich and the husk exchanged several blows.


    The husk turned out to be a better swordsman than expected. The husk exploited an opening and Aldrich got punched with the shield''s sharp edge and his nose broke, he lost his focus.


    Aldrich fell down on his back, his vision a mess. He was seeing four husks instead of one. He wanted to brush it all off and get up to resume the fight but no matter how he tried to convince himself his body refused.


    His body was responding erratically and it just wouldn''t listen to him. The husk came closer and stood looming over him.


    Aldrich was unconvinced by this result. It seemed that he was going to die yet again, but Aldrich didn''t want to experience that feeling again.


    He bit his tongue and drew blood, that hurt like a bitch but at least it jogged his head. He could revive but while he was alive he wasn''t about to ck off.

 Chapter 51 Abnormal Candle And Attempt

    The sharp pain cleared his head in time for him to roll away from the stab aimed at his throat. The sword missed and he kicked with his leg at the boots of the husk, bringing the husk crashing down. A move that he was getting a bit too familiar with.


    His sword was too far away, he couldn''t allow the husk to regain itsposure. Aldrich crawled over the husk, straddle it and used the sharp edge of his shield to strike at the husk''s head repeatedly until it''s brain spilled out of its head.


    Aldrich cleaned the blood off of the sword and the shield then he decided to take a short break before advancing further, he wasn''t too tired but it was always better to be in perfect shape for the next battle.


    The next sealed door revealed a swordsman who was d in chainmail. The battle began unceremoniously.


    Aldrich and the husk traded blow after blow but it was clear he had the advantage in terms of raw power. The husk had better technique than him, but after all this time Aldrich was finally able to see the patterns of the sword style that the husks used.


    It was the same with all the swordsmen he encountered in this nightmare world up until now, save for the armored husk.


    The stances and responses to different moves finally all clicked together in Aldrich''s head like pieces of a puzzle. It would be too much to say that he solved it but he was surely getting there closer and closer everyday.


    Aldrich deflected the sideways cleave with the perfect amount of strength because he knew it was a feint. The husk had his stance broken and Aldrich stabbed the husk through the stomach and kicked the husk off.


    The husk was sent rolling on the floor but it managed to rise swiftly preventing Aldrich from finishing it off. But Aldrich didn''t mind. He discovered that he could hone his sword skill on this husk.


    He was sure of his own superiority. Even if he got hurt a little that would only serve to make his vitality experiment better off.


    After a long training session with his new training partner Aldrich was forced to part ways with it. He sent its head flying away, this sight made him a little regretful since he learned quite a bit from this husk.


    Aldrich cleaned the house and picked off three coin pouches, he made two more trips back and forth to transport all his loot.


    Aldrich looked around themon room in appreciation, thanks to the candle on the table, he now had wood burning in the firece that added some warmth and liveliness to this bleak house.


    Wait!


    He took the candle and used it so casually because it was the most normal looking thing in this ce. Amidst all the abnormalities in this world a candle was by far the most normal looking thing.


    But how was it normal? The candle was burning in that room on its own. Who lit that candle? When? Aldrich had spent hours since he arrived in the nightmare realm but the candle hadn''t burned any wax.


    It was the same as when he first found it, unchanged.


    Aldrich breathed harder and harder, he looked at the normal looking candle on the table and backed away slowly.


    Anything normal-looking in abnormal conditions was not normal at all, it was the personification of abnormality.


    Aldrich suddenly felt himself bump into the wall from behind. His back was covered in cold sweat as he red at the candle. How could he not have noticed?


    The candle hadn''t hurt him in any way, yet. The candle mes looked like normal fire in every way, they even worked like normal fire. In any case worrying about something he couldn''t change was useless.


    Nothing happened this time but if he kept making stupid mistakes carelessly one day he will pay dearly for it. Aldrich admonished himself harshly in order to remember this lesson.


    Aldrich decided to stop worrying and focus on the vitality experiment this time. He had received his fair share of injuries on this hunt.


    Aldrich decided to wait and see how long it will take for his wounds to heal if they healed at all and at what rate. What kind of injury could he heal from and what kind of injuries did he need to watch out for.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich sank into deep thoughts as he waited for the result of the test. He recalled the two husks that worked together to ambush him today and grimaced. Over time the tactics of the husks were getting smarter and deadlier.


    They even worked together to do this. That kind of trap was deadly and cunning. First they lured him to their chosen ambush spot and when he was right under their control the hidden husk revealed itself.


    His right shoulder was struck by an arrow, it was the best method to watch out for the vitality. After about an hour the wound in his shoulder was still fresh and the healing power of the vitality attribute was there but it was too much for a wound like this.


    Healing a gaping hole in an hour proved difficult at this point in time.


    Next Aldrich opened one of the coin pouches he found and emptied its contents. Thirteen silvers and some coppers, he ced the coppers aside and returned only the silver in the coin pouch.


    Aldrich then walked to the wall beside the firece where the seal of Tindalor was inscribed and ced his hand on it while he was holding the coin pouch.


    Aldrich then spoke in that unknown tongue again¡ªthat he somehow apparently knew, it was just one word¡ªthe word Tindalor. The feeling of an electrical current passed through his body and Aldrich felt the two essence orbs being absorbed by the seal to send him back.


    Aldrich willed to take the coin pouch with him with all his heart. In the very moment when the two essence orbs were taken to send him back. In that brief moment he felt the same feeling stir again this time he lost six essence orbs before everything faded to ck.


    *****


    Aldrich woke back up in the real world. He felt around with his right hand and felt a familiar coin pouch in his hand. It was stillte at night but the firece was still burning so he held his hand out.


    He had the coin pouch held tightly, carefully, almost fearfully he opened the coin pouch and thirteen silver coins shined under the light of the fire.


    Aldrich looked at the silver coins in amazement, in disbelief. He did not expect to seed so he was shocked when he did.


    To think of this attempt Aldrich thought of the seal of Tindalor as a carriage. If you want to go somewhere you pay a carriage fare, so when he wanted to return back to the real world he had to pay two essence orbs.


    What if he wanted to bring luggage on the carriage? He needed to pay some more. That was the line of thinking that lead to this sess.


    In the trip from Ado''merin to Voryhrm he started with twelve silver coins and ended up with seven by the time he got here. In total he had twenty silver coins.


    This was a great wealth, ten more silver coins and he would have a gold coin. A gold coin, it was a legend in Wakefield, people bragged about touching a gold coin for years toe.


    ''Perhaps only the mayor had ever owned a gold coin. I''m rich, I''m rich, mom look at me now.''


    Now that he thought about it she would have probably scowled at him and mocked him for being happy over a small thing. After all she was never impressed by anything that he did.


    Despite that Aldrich was so happy that he found it hard to go back to sleep and when he remembered that he had dozens of coin pouches in the base, his happiness turned to ecstasy.


    Aldrich fell asleep while clutching the coin pouch and kissing it every once in while. He even woke up in the middle of the night to check on the coin pouch.


    The next morning Aldrich woke up and took his bath while humming a cheerful tune. If his voice didn''t start cracking as ofte he would have broken into a song. He was a little embarrassed by his changing voice.


    He looked at himself in the mirror before going down and noticed that his crest had disappeared today. This was normal as initiatives can''t control their crests.


    At times it might appear and disappeared at random. Could be multiple times within the day even.

 Chapter 52 (Bonus Chapter) Out In The Big City

    We did it! As promised here is the extra chapter on Friday! A special thank you to @oliokos and @Anthony_Beasley, for the golden tickets! I am so grateful to all readers even if you justment or vote with power stones. Have a good one.


    ****


    "You seem to be in an awfully good mood today."


    Ayemon remarked while they were eating breakfast.


    Aldrich stopped eating his omelet to answer, "yeah, what can I say? Good sleep does that to you hahahaha."


    "Can you stop being so happy? Seeing you in a good mood puts me in a terrible one."


    "....you need to seek some professional help."


    "So, are you ready for today?"


    "Is the fake identity finished?"


    "Not yet, I meant about finding a ce."


    "How badly do you want to kick me out? Anyway I''m ready of course. I will try the 6th pioneer street first I may have some luck there, I have a good feeling about it. Or I will look in Berry Lane, I think."


    "Don''t forget to buy shoes first, boots are for outdoors rugged work."


    "Sure, by the way I will go to a barber first. My hair has been bothering metely."


    "Sure thing. I just thought that you might be short on money."


    "Me? Short on money? ...I''m not."


    "Well I don''t care where you got the money as long as you don''t steal it."


    "Is looting the dead considered stealing?"


    "Of course not. The dead don''t need money, now do they? The money is only useful for the living! In fact you could consider it a kind of help that the dead give to the living, ah, such good people."


    "That''s what I thought."


    Aldrich left the mansion after his meal and turned to the street, he stopped at a sign that indicated the ce where carriages were allowed to pick up customers.


    Aldrich didn''t wait long or rather didn''t wait at all, a carriage stopped in front of him immediately.


    "Where to, sir?" Asked the carriage driver a man with greyed out hair.


    "I want to go to a barber and to buy some shoe. It would be better if it was close to the academy district."


    "So somewhere on 3rd pioneer street?"


    "Yeah that works nicely."


    "That''ll be two coppers."


    The carriage drove swiftly and smoothly. From this, he inferred that the driver was an experienced man who knew how to control the carriage.


    After twenty minutes or so the carriage stopped and Aldrich saw a boardwalk lined the street in front of him.


    Aldrich payed the driver and chose a respectable looking shop that has a sign that read: Excellent hair care for men. Aldrich opened the half ss door and entered the barber shop.


    The first thing he saw was a man strapped on a strange looking chair even his head was forced into ce by small leather belt around his forehead. The barber was injecting him in the neck with needle.


    The needle had a transparent tube attached and it was currently emptying out a funny looking liquid into the man''s neck.


    "Are ya gonnae in or are ya gonna block the way son." A voice said.


    Aldrich looked at the half-elf standing beside him. He was too focused on the scene before him to notice.


    p This wasn''t the first time Aldrich saw a half-elf. Throughout the journey there were many of them around, the closer you get to Voryhrm the more they popped up.</anda>


    "Eh, I''m sorry, I was absentminded for a moment."


    "This yer first time at a surgeon barber''s shop I take it?"


    Aldrich nodded.


    "Well don''t keep standing there, take a seat right there."


    Aldrich followed the instructions, there were three other strange seats besides the upied one, they were empty.


    Aldrich took his seat on one of them, the seat was warped with hard leather but it wasn''t unpleasant. It was painted red and brown, some of the colors were faded, telling of the chair''s age.


    "What''s a surgeon barber? Shouldn''t a barber just cut hair?"


    Actually he only learned what a barber is when he asked Ayemon. In Wakefield there was no such job. If you want your hair cut just ask some to do it for you.


    "Surgeon barbers do cut hair but they also double as physicians. If you can''t afford a real physician."


    "Oh, cities have all sorts of jobs."


    "Well we do." Laughed the half-elf.


    "So, How do want your hair done? Something shy? Something intellectual?"


    "Just a little pruning is all."


    "No no, look at your hair. I have to fix this. My pride as a barber will not allow me to let you walk around with that mess."<sub> </sub>


    "Eeh? like I said just some pruning, you get me right? Like trimming."


    "Yeah, yeah sure, I got you, just leave it to me."


    The barber used all sorts of tools on Aldrich and cleaned his wild hair, he cut it a bit lower from the back of the neck and behind the ears. Then he washed his hair in the sink and dried it with a towel after that he put on some gel andbed the hair nicely.


    Aldrich walked out of the barber''s shop looking like a new man. Even though the barber didn''t listen to him, the results spoke for themselves.


    Aldrich didn''t need to call a carriage, this boardwalk street had many shops for all needs. A few of which were shoe shops. Aldrich decided on one that had a board which read: Nadeen, Shoemaker and cobbler.


    The shop had many cupboards lined against the walls of the shop, the doors of the cabs were removed so onlookers can see the shoes on disy.


    "Hello," Aldrich greeted as he entered the shop. At first he thought that the shop was empty when he saw an old halfling sitting on a wooden chair behind a desk.


    "Wee young human." The female halfling replied. As she messed around with a hammer and an awl.


    "What are you here for custom? Repair?"


    "I want to buy some shoes."


    "What size?"


    "Size? What do mean?"


    "How old are you?"


    "Fifteen and a half."


    "Fifteen? You look a little big for fifteen. Let me see."


    The halfling woman got out of her seat and started searching the shoes rows. Finally she took out three.


    "This one here isced-up walking shoe, these are button-ups with low heels for formal asions or if you want to impress someone."


    "I''ll take one for each type."


    "Whoa, easy there try them out first."


    "oh yeah sure."


    Aldrich tried the shoes on but they turned out to be too small for him and the woman brought another pair, this time bigger and they fit perfectly.


    "So your size is eight remember that when you go to buy shoes again."


    "Thank you, I will remember that. How much will that be?"


    "Fourteen coppers. Seven for each."


    "That''s too much, ten seems more fitting."


    "In the city people don''t haggle."


    "Well good thing I''m not from the city."


    "Smartass, give me thirteen and we''ll have a deal."


    "Twelve."


    "Fine, but when your shoes need repair or you want to buy some new ones you know where toe."


    "Deal."


    "Also tell your friends toe here I''ll give them a nice discount."


    "Have a nice day." Aldrich exited the shop with his new shoes on and his old boots in a paper-bag. The shoes feltfortable but alien.


    His overall look, now was very simr to the surrounding people around him. No longer were people giving him strange looks as he passed by.


    Aldrich stopped another private carriage and told the driver to drop him at 6th pioneer street. Aldrich looked around at the five and six story buildings, some were wide and had different wings.


    Aldrich looked the blue and white building with the fenced ck painted iron and gate. This was the supposed building. Aldrich stopped by the gate and looked around.


    He had forgotten how to contact the owner. There was some instructions but among the many advertisements he read it was lost on him.


    "Hi! Just a moment." Aldrich saw a blonde girl exist the building and waved at her.


    "Hi there," the girl turned to him and smiled.


    "Hi, yeah, didn''t mean to bother. Actually I''m looking for the owner about an advertisement for an open apartment."


    The girl blinked her emerald eyes for a moment before replied, "well the owner is not here at all. But you''re in luck, if you want to see the apartment talk to the head guard there. He can make all the arrangements for you."


    She pointed at a tiny room beside the gate, it was so unassuming that he just didn''t notice it or maybe he didn''t have the time to look carefully enough.


    "Oh, now that''s embarrassing, thank you for the help all the same. I''m Aldrich."


    "Oh no, I don''t mind. We might be neighbors if you take the apartment it''s only right we help each other out. I''m Irene. I''ll see you around, Aldrich."


    "Yeah, see you." Aldrich was d that he stopped Irene to ask her, she was such a nice and pretty girl.


    Aldrich then walked over to the tiny room and knocked three times on the door. The door was opened by a ck haired dwarf, whom Aldrich assumed to be the guard.

 Chapter 53 Apartment Hunting

    "What can I help you with friend?" The guard asked politely.


    "I''m here about that apartment? It wasn''t taken right?"


    "Oh, that one, yes, yes, it''s still avable of course. Let me show you."


    "Sounds good to me."


    "By the way are you a student of the Crest academy?"


    "Yes, I am."


    "That''s great. The owner is very supportive of students like yourself he even gives special discounts."


    Aldrich followed the guard to the second floor through a set of stairs, the entire structure was made of Ermitsal like all the buildings in Voryhrm and the paint job was well done. Frankly Aldrich was impressed by everything but he kept a neutral expression.


    He took Aldrich the room number twenty one, the number was written on a tag above the door. The guard inserted a key in the door lock and opened the door.


    "Like what the paper said we have prepared almost everything that a resident might need. The basic d¨¦cor and furniture is provided by us."


    Aldrich followed the guard in, the apartment consisted of one bedroom, onemon room, one bathroom and a small kitchen. The furniture was poor inparison to Ayemon''s mansion but it was leagues above the old run-down shack he shared with his mother.


    The guard stopped in the kitchen and opened the drawers to reveal many tes, knives, spoons and forks. He opened another drawer and showed Aldrich stock-pot, a brazing pan, a stew pan and a boiling pot. In addition to many cups.


    "All of this is included among many other things, look at this here," the guard pointed at a cubical device in the corner of the kitchen.


    "I''m sure you know what a refrigerator is, but this is no regr refrigerator. This is thetest model released by Lampar magic touch. It''s an odorless refrigerator."


    Aldrich had seen refrigerators on his way to Voryhrm, this incredible device used ice spirits andbined it with Ether used by clerics to preserve food. It was invented a long time ago but was strictly used for military purposes until recently.


    In the beginning it was house-sized and transportation was difficult but after it was released to the public, thepany called Lampar magic touch improved on the original design and it got smaller and smaller.


    The only two problems that faced it were the high price and the foul food odor. Apparently this new model had managed to fix one of the issues.


    Aldrich nodded at the guard''s remarks. Then he turned to the cookery and looked upwards, he saw shutters closed on a window but the cement of the window here was strange.


    "What''s that?"


    The guard opened the double shutters and Aldrich didn''t see the outside as he had expected, instead he saw a huge pipe that lead high into the ceiling.


    "This is an air cleaner, when you cook something doesn''t the smell bother you? You don''t have to worry about it that anymore. All that will be sucked to the chimneys on the roof."


    "Impressive." Aldrich eximed.


    "This is the ce, what do think? It''s only twenty minutes away from the Crest academy, some big markets and shops are also nearby."


    "Well I think it''s pretty good, how much?"


    "That''ll be two slivers and fifteen coppers per month."


    "You''re joking!"


    "I''m afraid not, sir. This apartment is as good as new and it''s in the best of neighborhoods in the district. The security is also top notch."


    "Sounds like two silver coins is a good deal for us both."


    "Sir, you''re too much. Let''s do this if you pay three months in advance we can make it two silvers and ten coppers."


    "How about two silvers and two coppers?"


    "Seven."


    "Five"


    "Deal."


    The dwarf produced a stack of papers from a small bag he was carrying.


    "This is the original contract, I have to modify it ording to our deal. One more thing, the advanced three month payment has to be in bank credit notes. Preferably the imperial bank."


    "Bank notes? Why won''t you just take the coins?"


    "I don''t know, I''m just doing as the boss tells me to do."


    "But I don''t have any on me right now."


    "That''s fine we can sign the contract tomorrow, how does that sound?"


    "Fine by me."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich shook hands with the dwarf and took his leave. Aldrich debated on whether he should go to the bank now and just get everything over with. But the sun had already set.


    This was one of the habits he got out of working in the farm, he slept at sunset and rose at sunrise. Ayemon andpany often made fun of him for it. But it was a hard habit to break as soon as the sun set he would feel drowsy.


    Aldrich stopped at the public carriage stop and waited for fifteen minutes until the public carriage made its turn and he got on board.


    A public carriage differed from a private one not only prices and where it could stop but size was also a significant factor. In a private carriage no more than seven passengers could ride but a public carriage could take up to thirty.


    The carriage he got on was half full and he shared it with humans, halflings, dwarfs and halfelves. The seats were considerably lessfortable than the private carriages.


    Aldrich had to keep a close eye on the carriage stops lest he misses Nistoch, 6th Harveston street. In the end he returned sessfully.


    He was afraid that the guards won''t recognize him and kick him out but that didn''t happen, he entered the mansion sessfully but he got lost when he tried to get back to his room.


    It wasn''t until he stopped one of the maids that he was able to return to the room. After which he took a bath. A maid knocked on his door and told him that Ayemon was waiting for him at the dinning room.


    Aldrich had dinner with Ayemon and Caldera who finally showed up. She was missing yesterday when they first arrived. Unlike Orven who left off on his own and Norge who works here her absence was unannounced.


    Aldrich didn''t ask about it and didn''t bring up the subject, mostly because he was bombarded with questions of how his first visit to the big city went.


    "You look much better now." Caldera praised.


    "Really? The barber was really good." Aldrich was a little embarrassed by the praise.


    An issue urred when Aldrich mentioned the apartment.


    "Didn''t I tell you not to haggle? This is not some off-side vige, this is Voryhrm! The city of dreams! The second capital of Vorian for god''s sake."


    "I don''t care, I haggle for most things that''s how I did things and that''s how I''ll do them unless I decide not to."


    "Why, you cheeky brat! I won''t allow this shameful behavior!"


    "I listened to you once about it, I won''t do that again."


    "That''s not how we do things."


    "You''re right. You know what? When I get rich enough I''ll stop haggling, how does that sound?"


    "I was about to p that smirk off your face but then I remembered that one p from me will probably kill you."


    "Very funny."


    "Listen, tomorrow you should try to go and invite the instructor I told you about yesterday."


    "Me? I thought you said you prepared him for me."


    "Did I? Anyway since it''s you who needs to train then you do it. Remind me to give you a little something for the instructor."


    "Aren''t you making this a little tooplicated? Shouldn''t I just invite him?"


    "If only it was that easy. Money can''t move that asshole. He''s a pretentious bastard who thinks his farts smell great."


    ".....Sounds like someone I know."


    "I see that your tongue has grown too long for your station."


    "So anything else I should know about this guy? What''s he like?"


    "He''s a retired adventurer and he spends his time drunk at on bar or another."


    "Why do need that kind of guy?"


    "He was trash as adventurer but he''s a great instructor for beginners like you. The foundation he builds is admittedly solid."


    "Fine whatever."


    After dinner Aldrich returned to his room, this time without any help. Then he hoped on the soft bed and returned to the nightmare realm.


    In the nightmare realm, Aldrich went on to the next house and used the same window breaking strategy. It was working fine and there was no need to fix something that''s already working.


    He encountered a total of seven husks in the house. Three were first type husk that were finished in one blow each. Next he fought two archers in the second floor and he shortened the distance and finished them off too.


    Lastly he fought two swordsmen separately, he spent a long time fighting the two of them, not because it was particrly hard but because Aldrich decided to think of them as training opponents.


    The more he dueled the swordsmen the greater his understanding of the sword style they used and he uncovered more and more openings and weaknesses. This honed his own sword and prepared him for his battle against the armored husk.

 Chapter 54 Identity And Complications At The Bank

    He returned to the real world with a total of eighteen essence orbs, arge amount in the past, not anymore. That is with the assumption that each attribute needed sixteen orbs to advanced further. He had to use two orbs to return to the real world and to bring that coin pouch took six orbs.


    Aldrich even felt that the potential of essence orbs was not so easy to measure, the possible uses for essence orbs could surpass his imagination.


    The next morning Aldrich finished his morning routine and went downstairs and found Ayemon drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.


    "Good morning."


    "Good morning. Have a seat."


    Aldrich took his seat and poured himself a cup of dark coffee, no sugar or milk. Ayemon continued reading the newspaper and Aldrich busied himself with the egg and bacon.


    "Your identity is ready. Here you go, Aldrich of Oakwood."


    Aldrich took the measly three papers stapled together and looked at his information.


    "Could somebody find out if they looked into it?"


    "This fake identity isn''t like the ones you''ll find on the ck market it''s something that''s as real as a real Imperial identity as you can get. But I wouldn''t say its impossible, just very unlikely."


    "Is this vige even real?"


    "Sure it is. It''s in the north, far north."


    "What if someone asks about it?"


    "Just say it''s snowing all year round." Ayemon replied, unconcerned.


    "Well, be ready at noon today we''ll go to the academy to register you officially. Finnish everything else before then."


    "Great, I''m going to the bank now. Then I''llplete my apartment contract and I''ll be back in time."


    "Well? What are you waiting for? Get going."


    Aldrich departed along with the papers of his fake identity, then he stopped a private carriage.


    "I want to go to the imperial bank."


    The carriage driver looked at him, waiting. Aldrich looked back, he didn''t know what he was waiting for.


    "Which branch? Which district?"


    Oh, he didn''t think of that.


    "Is there a branch in close to the pioneer street?"


    "So the academy district? Yeah, hop on."


    Soon after he got out and paid the carriage fare of three coppers. The imperial bank was as expected a grand building but it was only three stories high which wasn''t much in Voryhrm but it was bulky and the decorations of grand statues and beautiful garden full of colorful flowers and vases gave it a trustworthy appeal.


    Aldrich saw many important-looking people entering and exiting the bank, they wore clean and neat clothes, some wore luxurious essories like red gemmed rings and golden nes.


    Aldrich entered the building from the many doors of the building, the air in the bank was cooler and refreshing somehow. The smell was of some kind of high grade perfume.


    Aldrich saw that the employees of the bank were wearing a green and white uniform simr to the servants uniform at the mansion.


    Aldrich approached one of the widely smiling employees and asked, "hi, I''m here to deposit some coins."


    "Do you have an ount with us, sir?"


    "No, but I was hoping to make one now."


    "Why, certainly.  Please head to the right they''ll give you a number and when your number is called its your turn."


    Aldrich did as he was told, he was given a number and told to wait at some of the chairs scattered in the area. When his name was called a young man in the same uniform asked for his identification papers.


    Aldrich didn''t hesitate and handed the fake papers to the employee, his expression did not betray his inner turmoil. He was scared that the papers would be discovered and then he could get into unending troubles.


    But his worries were unfounded, fifteen minutester his ount was sessfully made and the employee thanked him for his patience.


    Aldrich proceeded with his tasks normally and asked the employee to deposit thirteen silver coins to his ount. Three of the coins were imperial coin the rest were from the nightmare realm.


    "Sir, ten of these coins are not recognized by the imperial bank."


    The employee suddenly said. Aldrich didn''t know what to say.


    "Really? Are you sure? It''s silver, what''s the problem?"


    "Apologies sir, we cant do that. The bank can''t ept coins of unknown value."


    "So, what are you going to do about this?" Aldrich asked nervously. He didn''t want this to escte any further.


    "Sir, in cases like these we will present the coins to the bank''s expert appraisers. It might take a while."


    "Oh, that''s fine I don''t mind. I can wait a while." Aldrich wanted to breath in relief but held himself back with supernatural willpower.


    "No, sir. I meant that you must book an appointment."


    "Oh, when are they free?"<sub> </sub>


    "Eeh, next week? Maybe?" The employee was unsure.


    "What''s this? It''s just a few coins, why dy the client?" A high pitched voice suddenly interjected behind the employee.


    The employee who was handling his case turned around and greeted the neer.


    "Ms. Yasbel, this can''t be helped the schedule of the appraisers is always busy, as you are well aware."


    The neer was a young woman, she was wearing the same uniform as all the employees but instead of the green she wore dark blue.


    "It''s fine I happen to be free, you can go now. I will take care of this client."


    "As you wish."


    Aldrich could now have a better look at the woman, she was beautiful woman with ck hair and deep ck eyes. Her hair was done in a bun and she wore silver sses.


    "These are the coins? Well let''s go to my office. My tools are all there."


    "Sure, thanks for the help. I wouldn''t have liked to wait for a week."


    Sheughed softly as the walked, "I know that feeling. It''s just the pressure on the staff is a little too heavy these days. I''m Yasbel."


    Aldrich followed Yasbel into a study type room on the second floor. It was neat and sparsely decorated.


    "I''m Aldrich, nice to meet you."


    "Nice to meet you too, you just made an ount in the bank? You must''ve just arrived in Voryhrm, right? Do want to know how I knew?" Yasbel asked, very amused.


    "Don''t tell me, it''s my ent isn''t it?" Aldrich answered, as he rolled his eyes.


    "Oh,e on, yes it''s the ent. Don''t be so grumpy I really like countryside ents."


    "Well you''re in luck, I''ve got a fresh ent."


    Yasbel talked as she took out several tools from different drawers and ced them on the table.


    "By the way does the appraisers being so busy mean that many people bring unrecognizable coins to the bank?"


    "Yes, but not necessarily coins. Most of the times its precious gems and old relics, like rings and essories. Of course we do get coins from time to time.


    It''s mostly because of the Great Division during the Age of Dread. When the monsters upied thend and built strange tombs, weird cities and terrifying monuments to their Dreadlords.


    During that time many of their cities got buried underground or shattered in Liberation war. And the remnants still get discovered even today by daring adventures. Some of the coins that were used at the time along with old relics are found and they get brought here to determine their value."


    Aldrich had no idea that this was such aplicated matter. He just thought that silver was silver and thats it, but clearly the matter was of some importance.


    He regretted casually bringing the coins so carelessly, he was d that he wasn''t the only one otherwise it might draw unwanted attention.


    He could have talked to Ayemon about it but he didn''t know how to exin where he got these unknown coins. In addition all this time he was traveling with Ayemon where would he have gotten them?


    Of course he could im that he just had them before he met with Ayemon and the rest. However the matter was said and done, it couldn''t be changed.


    "These silver coins all have no inscriptions on them, likely because of the wear and tear throughout the years."


    "Well I wouldn''t really know. I thought the same too."


    "Well I''ve finished the primary inspection, these coins have a slightly higher silver content than the imperial coin. Very impressive."


    "I''m d that''s the case."


    "Yeah, well I can tell you roughly that one silver coin is equivalent to one silver and two coppers of our own coin."


    "What does that mean?"


    "It means the ten silvers you have are equivalent to twelve imperial silver coins."


    Yasbel held the coins before him and grinned.


    "Congrattions! I will have the converted coins deposited into your ount. You can withdraw them from any imperial branch."


    "Even overseas?"


    "Anywhere in the world where our bank has a branch. As long as you have the ount key and sign properly then the bank will be at your service. Anything else I can help you with?"


    "Yeah actually, I need some bank credit notes."


    "Of course, here use this. If you want us to customize one for you tell me."


    "Customize it? Why would anyone want that?"


    "This option is sometimes used by bigpanies, guilds, organizations and noble houses to distinguish themselves. They add their sigils or brands and whatnot."


    "Well, the bank is very through. Thank you very much I''lle to see you next time too."


    "Please do, it''s my pleasure."

 Chapter 55 The Crest Academy

    <o>,m Aldrich walked out of the bank with a new experience and learned many things. His next stop was the apartment. He waited and boarded a public carriage to 6th Pioneer street.</o>


    Aldrich looked at the nice building, still awed by the white and blue colors, the design was also especially impressive even in Voryhrm. He stopped by the gate and found the head guard, the ck haired dwarf and a human patrolling the area.


    "Oh, you came." The dwarf greeted him with some surprise.


    "Sure, I came. I said I wasing to sign the contract today didn''t I?"


    "I know you did. But there are many people that say that in the way of polite refusal, if you know what I mean."


    "People actually do that? How is lying considered the polite thing to do?"


    "Hahhaha, I never thought of it like that. Just think of it as people not having it in them to say what they really feel. Come on follow me to the apartment."


    Aldrich followed the dwarf to the apartment number twenty one and once again took a close look at the apartment, the hard wood floor was ssy and sturdy. The paint-job was mirrored to the exterior of the building being a mix of white and blue.


    "Let me get you some beer? Or tea?"


    "Actually I''m in a bit of a hurry so maybe next time."


    "Shame. The name''s Brozas Earthjaw, if you need anything you know where to find me."


    "I''m Aldrich of ¡­ Oakwood."


    He answered as he read the contract details and made sure that everything was in ce.


    Then he signed the contract. This was a year long contract meaning fifteen months. Three months advance payment with imperial credit notes was fair enough.


    After signing the contract Aldrich took out his brand new imperial bank note and filled in his information and the specific amount which was six silvers and fifteen coppers. Finally he singed the note too and gave it to Brozas.


    "Good, good, here''s your key. Everything is in ce, you can move in whenever you feel like it."


    "Great I''ll bring my things tomorrow."


    "Excellent. By the way where were you living up to now? If you don''t mind me asking."


    Aldrich was confused by the sudden question and didn''t know how to answer. So Brozas continued, "eh, don''t mean to be rude, it''s just that the semester in the Crest Academy is not even over and you had to change your ce. Something serious must''ve happened."


    That''s right, Aldrich couldn''t tell him or anyone that he was just joining the semester. Ayemon was doing this under the table. If he went on babbling his big mouth he''d ruin everything.


    "Ah, well some unpleasant things happened, I just don''t feel like talking about it now."


    "Understandable, it must''ve been tough. Well hopefully none of that will impact your stay here."


    "Yeah, I hope so too."


    Aldrich shook hands with Brozas and took the apartment key with him. As he waited for a private carriage he thought about the amount he paid. Three months, each for two silvers and five coppers. This totaled at six silvers and fifteen coppers.


    Truly a great amount, probably even Ayemon wouldn''t expect him to rent such an apartment. For good reason too. In fact if Aldrich didn''t have dozens of coin pouches in the nightmare realm he wouldn''t have made this decision either.


    A private carriage stopped by and Aldrich boarded. He was going to register in the academy on this very day. A day that Aldrich had dreamed of for a very long time. Only for some reason he wasn''t as excited by the prospect anymore.


    Of course one of the reasons being that he will very likely reunite with Adera today. Unfortunately it won''t be like the reunion that he once imagined it to be. Instead it was a reunion of lies and schemes.


    It was only noon but Aldrich already felt tired. What kind of reunion is this? He had to lie and trick the only other survivor of the Wakefield massacre? And it had to be Adera of all people, what kind of sick joke is this.


    Aldrich got back to the mansion and took a bath and changed his clothes. This gave him the time to banish all the negative thoughts and focus on the present.


    Aldrich found Ayemon waiting for him downstairs, together they boarded one of Ayemon''s personal carriages. After seeing the carriage Aldrich could see why they didn''t bring a carriage with them and rented one instead.


    Yes, it would have definitely made them stand out. Forget about the poor Ado''merin even in Voryhrm itself this was the carriage that all the other carriages made way for in the streets.<sub> </sub>


    The carriage passed by the Crest square and from his seat in the carriage Aldrich could finally have a look at the Crest Academy. The building was grand just like the imperial bank the hill it was built on made it look bigger and grander.


    The carriage wasn''t going through the main gate, instead it circled around the block and came through a back entrance. The back entrance was hidden by a few alleyways and overgrown trees and bushes.


    The carriage came to a stop by one of the many open two meter doors. Aldrich could see many people moving about on campus the image made him think that the academy was like a city within a city.


    Ayemon walked briskly towards one of the gates and Aldrich followed, the inside of the academy was no different than the outside, elegant and beautiful.


    The carvings on the walls were inspiring and ancient giving the feeling of a mountain that endured endless years.


    Soon they got to a section of the building that had many chairs lined up and it waspletely empty in contrast to the rest of the academy.


    "Give me your identification papers."


    Aldrich did as he was told.


    "Good, now just sit here and rx. I will take care of the rough work. After I''m done you will go into that room for the test."


    Ayemon pointed at a door to the side.


    "Yeah sure¡ª wait! What test? You didn''t tell me about any test."


    "Ah, I don''t have the time right now. Don''t worry you''ll do fine. Anyway I''m going."


    This bastard. Aldrich was almost certain that Ayemon didn''t forget. He was messing with him. Aldrich wasn''t worried, he knew Ayemon liked to cheat and plot his way in life. If the test was something that he had to worry about he would have made sure to help Aldrich.


    Aldrich waited in ce for what seemed like forever. He got bored the ce was dead quite and barely anyone passed by here. When someone did they were fast and quick about it. They didn''t seem like they were in the mood for a conversation, sadly.


    Suddenly Aldrich saw Ayemon returning with two men and one woman. Aldrich didn''t get to say anything before Ayemon instructed, "Aldrich, go into that room someone will be with you soon."


    Aldrich did as he was told and entered the room that seemed like it wasn''t cleaned for a long time. The room waspletely dark, the curtains were closed and very little light entered the room.


    In that darkness Aldrich saw that the room was empty of everything save for one wooden chair in the center of the room. Aldrich wasn''t sure if the chair was his to sit upon but he did anyway.


    After a minute or so he heard loud voices outside then grumbling and finally the door opened and a middle-aged man entered.


    He could tell that the man lost the argument, even if he didn''t hear the argument one look at his face was enough to tell you he didn''t want to be here.


    The middle-aged man didn''t talk, instead he ce his hand on the wall of the room seemingly at random. Without understanding anything else, Aldrich suddenly felt something, a force, a mountain, a deep sea.... something massive and iprehensible.


    Where was he? Where did he go? Just a moment a go he was... wait where was he? What was he doing? Why?


    He knew he was... this thing? It was just so big so heavy... how did it suddenly appear? No it was always there.


    He was this thing, only one part of a whole. An insignificant part.


    No. He was not insignificant. He was Aldrich and he wasn''t a part of this... thing. He was himself.


    Aldrich suddenly opened his eyes and gasped. He was back in the room, back on the wooden chair.


    "Alright get up." Ordered the middle-aged man, who had at some point removed his hand off the wall. Now Aldrich could see, a few strange marks lit up and formed a square around the man''s hand on the wall.


    Aldrich got up and almost tripped. The door opened and the room lit up with mossmps. Leading the group that entered was Ayemon who was ring daggers at the middle-aged man.


    "Did you hold your hand a bit longer than necessary, Fa?" He asked, his voice stoic.


    "You must''ve imagined it." Replied the middle-aged man, named, Fa with a smirk.

 Chapter 56 Gone

    "Did I now? my imagination isn''t as wild as yours." Sneered Ayemon.


    "Suit yourself. You must''ve already told him about the test. Don''t bother denying. I know you did." Hissed Fa.


    "Just give me the badge, Fa. I don''t need to prove anything to you." Demanded Ayemon.


    Fa unwillingly produced a badge from his pocket and gave it to Ayemon.


    Ayemon and Aldrich walked out of the room and turned many hallways, thankfully there were many signs with pointed arrows that helped navigate directions. Ayemon gave Aldrich the badge while they walked.


    "This is your identifying badge wear it when youe to the academy, don''t lose it. If you do. It will be troublesome."


    Aldrich got a clear look at the badge and it was green jade colored and it had the word Crest inscribed into it with a fancy font.


    Aldrich wished more ces would implement such a helpful method like the pointed arrows. That way the troublesome hallways and corridors wouldn''t waste people''s time.


    Ayemon stopped and pointed at the door of a room that read: Records and Student Rtions.


    "Go in there and ask about Adera. I''ll wait for you here. Take this, show any employee you talk to both of these badges when you ask about her."


    The second badge was white and also had the word Crest inscribed into it.


    "Is this your personal badge?" Aldrich wondered.


    "Mine? No, stop asking so many questions and get going. We don''t have time."


    "What''s the hurry?"


    Ayemon just stared at him silently.


    Aldrich swallow his questions and entered the room, the smell of tobo marked this room and fresh smoke lingered in the air. There were many desks and many people working on paperwork.


    Aldrich approached one of the workers there and asked, "excuse me, I''m here to ask about a student."


    "Are you a student here?"


    "I am"


    "Show me your badge."


    Aldrich put his own badge on the table. The clerk wasn''t very enthusiastic.


    "What do you want?" He asked dismissively.


    "It''s about a student called Adera Elton. I want to know which sses she''s taking and when."


    "Why should I tell you? Are you family? What is the nature of your inquiry?"


    "No I''m a friend."


    "I can''t disclose such information carelessly. It''s against our privacy policy."


    After saying that the clerk ignored Aldrich and turned back to the paperwork on the table.


    Having no choice Aldrich ced the second badge on the table. The clerk shot to his feet and his voice cracked as he talked.


    "I''m sorry sir, that was impolite of me. Was it Adera Elton? Just a moment."


    The clerk went on to violently open several drawers and searched through tons of paperwork with great speed. The clerk was sweating bullets as he flipped from one folder to another.


    Finally the clerk came back to the desk and looked at Aldrich hesitantly.


    "Adera Elton from Wakefield, a third year. Seventeen years old."


    Aldrich beamed despite himself, "that is correct, that''s her."


    "Well, eh, I can give you her schedule, sir, if you want..." the clerk mumbled uncertainly.


    Aldrich was growing frustrated with the slow clerk, "yes, that''s what I came here for, just give it to me and we''re done."


    "I certainly can," the clerk coughed, "it''s just, student Adera has been absent for the whole year. She hadn''t attended a single ss since the beginning of the year."


    "What?" Aldrich blurted the question dumbly, in disbelief. "Did she graduate?" He asked hopefully.


    "No, she hasn''t been reported as a graduate..."


    Aldrich decided to use the temporary authority that he now seemed to possess, He raised his voice angrily. It was easy because the anger was not an act, "Are you sure?! You''re not lying to me are you?!"


    "Higk! N-no sir, I wouldn''t dare. It''s the truth."


    "What else can you tell me about her? give me her address."<sub> </sub>


    "No! I can''t, that''s impossible."


    "I think you can. I insist."


    "Sir please I don''t have the authority to do something like that, I''ll get fired."


    "Just give me the address, nobody has to know about this."


    "I-I can''t." The clerk swallowed seeing Aldrich''s darkening face and whispered, "But I can tell you that she lived in the girls dorm, ask about her there it shouldn''t be hard to find her room number."


    Aldrich collected the badges and promptly left the room, outside he found Ayemon and he told him about his findings. They both were in agreement that it was better to go ask about her right away.


    The carriage trip was short, the girls dorm consisted of two buildings, unfortunately Aldrich was in no state to appreciate the architecture at the moment.


    They stopped by the first building and asked for the bookkeeper. The bookkeeper was an old woman who kept the girls in line with the curfew and stopped them from trashing the rooms.


    This time Aldrich didn''t y around, he immediately took out both badges and the woman got to work. The old woman didn''t say much, she handed him the record book and he found Adera''s name after a few minutes of searching.


    Her room was number thirty three. And Adera never informed the dorm that she was taking a break or anything simr.


    ''Wait didn''t Kryntin that Adera didn''t send a letter in a year? Oh, no. I have a bad feeling about this.''


    At the time he was in the midst of a ferocious confrontation with the nightmare specter and didn''t pay much attention to that conversation.


    Indeed, it was just a passingment as ordinary as can be. But now the matter has started to unfold in an unexpected manner.


    Suddenly he noticed that Adera had a roommate, a girl named Sidney. The girl happened to be still living in that same room.


    Aldrich immediately made his way to the third floor and knocked on the room number thirty three.


    After three knocks a voice behind the door asked.


    "Who''s there?"


    "Hi, I''m Aldrich. I''m Adera''s friend can I talk to you for a moment?"


    "Adera''s friend?.... I guess you cane in."


    She opened the door, she was short girl with long brown hair and eyes, very Vorianeen. She had small freckles on her cheeks and nose.


    Aldrich stepped into the room and looked around. It was a simple room with one cupboard and two beds and two tables.


    "Are you here to take her things?" Sidney asked, seemingly, expectant.


    "What? No. I want to know where she is. You''re her roommate you must know where she is."


    "You''re not here to take her things? How would I know where she went off to? I haven''t seen nor heard from her in a year. One day she just stopped showing up."


    "Do you have any idea where she might have gone? Some where she wanted to go to? Anything important she said before she disappeared." Aldrich pleaded.


    "I already told you, I have no idea. Are you a city watchman? We weren''t that close. She just dropped off."


    "Can''t you think of anything? Something unusual maybe? You''d better think hard here. I don''t want to throw you in a cell for not cooperating." Aldrich ignored her question and put a stern tone in his voice, that seemed to answer her question.


    Sidney looked into his eyes for a moment and she looked in deep thought. She bit her lips before she talked.


    After a long excruciating moment she spoke, "I don''t know if this counts as something unusual but, in thest few weeks before she vanished her grades took a dive and she seemed... absentminded. She started missing sses quite a while before she disappeared, that''s all I know, I don''t know anything else."


    "Thank you, that helps."


    "Whatever. Listen did she, I mean Adera get into something bad? You know, did she get mixed up in something?"


    "Do you have something in mind?" Aldrich asked keenly.


    "N-no, not particrly. I''m just guessing you know. Strange thing, to just abandon the Crest academy and just leave. Who would waste such an opportunity?"


    "Anyway thank you for the help. If we have anymore questions I''lle see you again."


    Aldrich went out and closed the door after himself. He was going down the stairs when he heard a shout behind him.


    "Aren''t you going to take her things?!!"


    <o>,m Aldrich quickened his steps and pretended not to hear anything. Aldrich got back into the carriage and retold what happened to Ayemon word for word.</o>


    Aldrich knew that hecked experience and time, Ayemon was wise and knowledgeable he might have a good idea.


    "It''s them right? They''re behind this. They kidnapped her... or killed her." Aldrich stated his own thoughts first. The words came out clear, cold and to the point.


    Words alone could hardly describe the rage he felt at this moment. It was always a possibility but, subconsciously he had told himself that it was going to be fine. Even after Krynt and Ayemon had already warned him beforehand.

 Chapter 57 Spirit To 4

    "It is possible. But there are other possible scenarios. We must not assume anything at this point in time. But this doesn''t fit the characteristics of our enemy."


    "It doesn''t? How so?"


    "Our enemy is cautious and cunning, how could they kidnap the daughter of the only Crestmaster in Wakefield a year before their attack? That would have alerted the Crestmaster that something wasn''t right."


    "Now that I think about it that is true."


    "If I were the enemy I would have disposed of her on the very day of the attack or some time after that before the news could break out."


    "But what if they had something else in mind back then? What if the attack on Wakefield wasn''t always their n." Aldrich pondered.


    "I just said it''s a possibility not a certainty. But, to be honest... I just don''t feel like that they would be that sloppy."


    "How are they sloppy? They made her disappear without a trace. That seems fairly efficient."


    "It''s just they way they went about it. A sudden disappearance raises many questions, don''t you think?"


    "We''re just walking in circles. There is no end to the spection."


    "No we''re not. At least this lessened the suspicion on her."


    "I guess you can say that."


    "Cheer up, no news is good news."


    They returned back to the mansion where they ate dinner and made the arrangements for next few days. After which Aldrich gathered his luggage which was the only one leather bag and moved into his new apartment.


    Aldrich had moved in his things to the cupboard and wondered when he could fill it all up with clothes. He just had four sets for now and the cupboard looked way too big when he put his folded clothes in it.


    Aldrich had many things to do the next day, including his first hunt in the sunken valley. This excited Aldrich since it felt like his childhood dream wasing true soon, with things going this fast he will be a real adventurer in no time.


    After all, Ayemon registered him as an independent adventurer and now he could do many things with this identity.


    Aldrich jumped on his new bed and instantly knew it wasn''t as good as his bed in Ayemon''s mansion, it wasn''t as soft or as big but this wasn''t bad somehow this bed felt a little morefortable.


    It gave him a familiar feeling. Aldrich was already drifting to sleep before his thoughts could scatter any further. He awakened in the nightmare realm as expected.


    ****


    Aldrich changed his worn out leather armor and wore a better off set. He looked at the candle and sighed, ever since then he didn''t dare to pick it up again. He wondered sometimes if he was overreacting but ultimately he decided to keep his distance.


    Aldrich at the charcoals in the fire ce and paused, the fire of the candle looked, felt and worked as normally as you might expect from a real candle. The fire burned normally and left behind charcoal and ash.


    He picked up his long sword and shield. Before he went out he spent an hour training with the moves that he had copied from the swordsmen husks he encountered up-to now.


    After he was done with his training he moved out in familiar fashion and made his way to the next house on the street. His n has been going smoothly, right now only four houses remained.


    The town was as noisy as it had beentely but when Aldrich heard a violent cracking sound he knew this wasn''t part of the regr symphony of noise he heard all the time here. This was new.


    It was also very close. Aldrich walked back and looked at a house that he had just passed by. His target for today was the house after this one. When he got closer, he heard the same cracking sound, this time louder and more obvious.


    Aldrich walked into through the fence and he looked at the wooden boards that were blocking every door in this town. He saw an axe sticking out of the wooden boards, now reduced to half their size.


    Aldrich saw the axe being pulled back and another hitnded on the boards, now he knew the source of that cracking sound. Aldrich hurried to lean on the wall before the husk could spot him.


    Aldrich watched again as the husk pulled back its axe and sent another powerful strike on thest remaining part of the blocking wooden boards. Thisst hit shattered the seal on the house.


    It was at this moment that Aldrich decided to reveal himself, he used this moment of victory for the husk to ambush it and broke both of its hands. Aldrich thought that he would be able to cut them off but it didn''t go as he expected.


    However it did have the intended effect of disarming the husk. The husk roared in rage or perhaps pain, he didn''t know which and didn''t care to ask. The second and third attacks tore an X shaped mark on the husk.


    Aldrich picked up a coin pouch and tied it to his belt. Now, this house cameter on his n but the circumstances didn''t allow him to simply follow the n.


    Aldrich had no choice but to move this house to today, he didn''t want any husks leaving this house. And to stop them from doing so he had to kill them. Right behind the axe husk there were three first type husk.


    The husks charged at him and Aldrich proceeded to skewer the first and elbow the second. The third tripped and fell down on its own. Aldrich decapitated the second husk that he had elbowed to give himself time to pull out his sword from the first''s guts.<sub> </sub>


    While he did dispose of the second husk, the third had bitten into his calf. Aldrich, in his anger stepped on the husk''s head with his free foot and crushed it under his weight causing brain matter and green blood to make a pool on the ground.


    Aldrich climbed upstairs and opened one of the closed doors. He blocked the first spear but not the second, it buried itself in his armor.


    Aldrich didn''t back down instead he advanced and struck down one of the two spearmen with an upper sh.


    After the sessful hit he retreated and kept a close eye on thest spearman, this husk didn''t hesitate inunching chaotic thrusts at him.


    Aldrich just blocked and when the husk let up he took the chance to kick on one of the statues in the room.


    Aldrich took the first spearman''s spear and used it to impale the second one. This attack finished it off for good.


    p Aldrich moved to the next floor where he came to blows with a swordsman, the battlested long because Aldrich wanted to improve himself further but he noticed that there wasn''t much that he could learn from this swordsman.</anda>


    Aldrich used his new sidestep spinning attack to finish it off, he came up with this attack especially for these opponents it was the best counter to their sword style in his opinion.


    The incident of the husk breaking out was not a simple thing that could be brushed off, if he wasn''t close enough to hear the axe husk break the door then he would have had husks running around freely in the town.


    A terrifying thought.


    Aldrich cleaned up the house he searched for all the valuables he could get his hands on and actually he found a small box in the main bedroom it had several colorful precious gems and stones.


    He made four trips in total to transport all the armor and weapons from the house to the base. Aldrich checked on his stats and essence orbs.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3+


    Agility: 2+


    Endurance: 3+


    Vitality: 3+


    Intelligence: 3+


    Spirit (ck): 3+


    Essence: 28


    Ether: 1


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich used eighth orbs to upgrade Agility to three, now all of his attributes rose to level three. Aldrich endured the aftereffect of the upgrade and waited for the feeling to subside.


    With all his attributes at level three he didn''t feel as much pain as when he first started upgrading his attributes. In fact after his endurance was upgraded to three he felt that his skin was harder and tougher.


    Of course he could still easily be hurt by arrows and swords it was just that the impact has decreased a bitpared to the time when his endurance wasn''t at three.


    However Aldrich wasn''t done yet with his upgrades, today is the day that he will have the first attribute to reach four. Aldrich had decided on the order of the next upgrades. First it will be spirit, after spirit it will be intelligence.


    After that it will be spirit again. Spirit was the most important attribute to be a Crestmaster fast, after he became a Crestmaster his power will shoot to new heights.


    Raising his other attributes was not a bad thing but it also dyed his advancement. Having high attributes was good as they could only improve when he ignited his first symbol, but now that his attributes all reached an eptable level it was time to focus on the spirit attribute. Or maybe he might just bring all his attributes to 4, well when the time to decide came he will make a decision.


    Aldrich closed his eyes and used sixteen orbs to upgrade spirit to four. The moment he gave that order he felt the world spin around him slightly.


    The essence orbs within him swirled and expanded, the amount of pain he experienced now wasparable to being shot by multiple arrows at once.

 Chapter 58 The Sunken Valley

    A momentter the pain vanished and the world looked very clear to him. The feelings he was experiencing now were ethereal and he couldn''t put them to words. Aldrich looked around and didn''t notice anything different about him.


    Atst Aldrich released himself from the slightly magical feeling and returned to business. He picked up one of the many coin pouches and emptied its contents save for three silver coins. He nned to bring these three with him.


    Last time he sessfully brought back ten silver coins but that was not the end of the matter. Why did he have to give up six orbs to bring back ten silver coins? What was the rule behind that?


    Now that he thought about it, did Isger bring the sword to the Nightmare Corridor in the same way he brought the coin pouch to the real world?


    Did he use essence like Aldrich did? There was much that he didn''t know about Isger. That fateful day Isger made him sleep and go into the nightmare corridor using some strange candle. He told him to keep looking into the candle me.


    A candle, another candle. Why a candle what were all those things in the secret basement in Isger''s house. What happened to the basement? Did the True Saint''s Folk find it? Are the two candles rted? Both candles were kept in basements too.


    He wanted to return and get Isger''s things but even that was too hard for him to do at this point. Anyway all these mysteries will be answered when he returns Isger''s soul to his body.


    It could be weight, the heavier the material he wanted to bring the more he had to pay. Another possibility was that the price was fixed, meaning that to bring anything back he simply had to pay six orbs no matter what.


    It could also be something that he hadn''t even thought of yet.


    This called for a more calcted experiment. Right now he had four essence orbs in total and he needed two for himself. This left only two orbs to carry the three silver coins.


    This will determine if it was the weight rule or the fixed amount rule.


    Aldrich feared that there might be some kind of bacsh of attempting to bring back something without having enough essence orbs. But he couldn''t just do nothing he could only hope that it wouldn''t kill him.


    Before leaving Aldrich took onest look at his new attributes,


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3


    Agility: 3


    Endurance: 3


    Vitality: 3


    Intelligence: 3


    Spirit (ck): 4


    Essence: 4


    Ether: 2


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich returned back to his new bed, still in nighttime. He felt around his left hand and took out the coin pouch. His essence orbs were reduced to zero. However there was another change he saw in his attributes.


    The feeling just now after his spirit was upgraded was simr to what he felt when he was tested in the academy but it was much fainter, this time it left an aftertaste that made him thirsty. Odd.


    Ether had increased to two after he upgraded spirit. Yes, the ether attribute wasn''t there at first it just appeared after he upgraded spirit to three. And now it changed again, this confirmed that it was closely connected with the spirit attribute.


    The exnation behind it was just question marks. Aldrich decided to ask Ayemon about it. This attribute must be connected to Crestmasters otherwise it wouldn''t make sense.


    Another thing was the coin pouch. This time he brought three silver coins for two orbs. He didn''t experience any difort or anything unusual, this could only mean that it was fine. But if it that was true then how did he bring ten coins for six essence orbs?


    If the calctions were correct this time then wouldn''t that mean that six orbs should be enough for only nine coins?


    There was another possibility, that the value of essence orbs increased exponentially as more orbs were used in a single transaction.<sub> </sub>


    Just like upgrading an attribute from one to two took four orbs and upgrading from two to three took eight orbs. This meant that six orbs could have allowed him to take more that ten coins.


    The experiment wasn''t finished yet, next time he will try to take something other than coins to the real world. It''s just that the loss of his hard earned essence orbs made his heart ache.


    But if he wanted to learn more about the nightmare realm and the seal of Tindalor, to be able to utilize his resources to the fullest potential he needed to make some sacrifices here and there.


    Good thing he was going to start hunting in the Sunken valley tomorrow, this will give him an extra source of essence orbs. Aldrich put the coin pouch on the table besides the bed and went to sleep.


    The next morning Aldrich got up and washed his face with the cold water from the water pitcher. Then he waited. But even after a some time the maids didn''t bring the bath water. That''s when he remembered he didn''t have maids.


    He wasn''t living in Ayemon''s mansion or lodging in an inn, he was living on his own. This revtion made Aldrich sigh in resignation. Deciding that there was no point in mopping around he put on some clothes.


    Aldrich found some empty barrels in a small room in the kitchen. He took the barrel and went out. He didn''t forget to lock the door. Downstairs he saw may men lining up with simr barrels.


    After some back and forth Aldrich discovered that there was a well in the building''s backyard. That''s where the residents drew their drinking and bathing water. They were standing in a line because only four people could use the well at once.


    Aldrich waited in line and he didn''t wait long, when it was his turn he saw that there was a pulley installed into the well. He just had to attach the mps around the barrel and the contraption did the rest.


    Aldrich took the water and he left some for drinking, the rest he poured into a big basin and heated it over the fire ce. After ten minutes he removed the basin when he thought the water was warm enough.


    Next he wore his clothes, andbed his hair. Aldrich locked the door behind him and made his way out of the building, by the gate he saw Brozas and he gave him a quick greeting.


    Aldrich stopped a private carriage and waited on the way to Ayemon''s mansion. A few minutester he greeted the guards patrolling the mansion''s gate. The guards let him in with a smile.


    Aldrich knocked on the door and a manservant opened the door and walked with him to the dinning room. Aldrich found Ayemon munching on mashed potatoes.


    "You''re a littlete aren''t you?" Ayemon said, by way of greeting.


    "Yeah well, it seems I got used to being pampered by maids."


    "Well that happens. Take a seat."


    Aldrich did and a servant came in with tes of food and arranged them on Aldrich''s side of the table. Aldrich first took a few gulps of orange juice before he attacked the mashed potatoes and bacon.


    "By the way does every house and building have their own wells?" Aldrich asked in between bites.


    "That''s right." Ayemon said and his tone was asking if that wasn''t obvious.


    "That doesn''t make any sense, how could there be so many wells in the same area?"


    "Ah, I see what you''re talking about. These are man-made wells not natural wells. You see the water of the Yongar river is redirected to a specific underground Infrastructure. This infrastructure is one of the reasons why cities can even exist. An efficient sewage system is one of them. Thank god for that right?"


    "Yeah, that''s greatly appreciated." To be honest Aldrich was surprised that the different between living standers between viges and cities was that stark. It was like the big cities existed in a different world altogether.


    Aldrich washed his hands after he was done with his meal.


    "So what are you going to do today?"


    "Didn''t you say that I should go hunting today in the sunken valley? Or should I go meet the instructor now? It''s the morning he shouldn''t be drunk now right?"


    "He''s always drunk. I think the night is a better time for that. So do you have any experience in hunting?"


    "I do I''ve been hunting in the woods by the vige with the hunters I''ve helped many times. I know how to track animals and to hide my own tracks."


    "Not bad, at least you have something to start with. What''s you''re weapon of choice?"


    "I''m good with the bow buttely I feel that my skills with the sword have beening along nicely."


    "Very good. Norge will give you an armor set, when you go hunting you must have it on. Regardless of how ufortable it may feel, this acts as protection and training at the same time."


    "As you are an adventurer now albeit an independent one, you must understand that, out there anything can happen, your life could end in an instant."

 Chapter 59 Frontire Town

    "I understand, I''m no stranger to having my life in danger, trust me on that. Now tell me what are the types of creatures that inhibit the Sunken valley?"


    "I would have been disappointed if you hadn''t asked me that. Caution is a must when dealing with monsters. This is a very important subject for an adventurer or even any Crestmaster even if you aren''t the fighting type."


    "It''s that important?"


    "Undoubtedly. This matter may surpass your imagination. Information is valuable. Now, what if you wanted to get your hands on information that could not only save your life but also make you tons of gold?"


    Aldrich didn''t answer as this question was rhetorical.


    "I bet you''d be willing pay handsomely for it. That''s what monsters are. You might not realize it but monsters are wildly used in daily life. The oil, the fur, the meat, the poisonous nds and many more. When adventurers fight and triumph over monsters they obtain this information and they can sell it to the highest bidder.


    Of course where you''re going is a very mild ce where even ordinary humans can hunt monsters. Basically as long as it not a grade one monster then everyone already has that information. I just wanted to let you know early."


    "You still didn''t answer my question yet."


    "What was your question again?"


    "What type of creatures could I encounter in the Sunken valley? The mostmon kind."


    "Oh, yeah, yeah. The Sunken valley is divided into three areas. You will hunt within the first area; First ground. You must not go further. So, the highest beings there are all grade zero. Fierce beasts and whatnot."


    "Oh, you remember that direwolf that almost killed you when we met? That beast is somewhere in between grade zero level two or three. If you see it you better run. There''s also the owlbear, these are the strongest monsters in the First ground."


    "That sounds boring I should go to a higher level area." Aldrich provoked.


    "You will die. This is a warning you must not take a step outside of First ground."


    "I know I was jesting. Anyway so how to make money doing this?"


    "When you go to the Sunken valley you will pass through Frontier town, some call it Ordeal town anyway you get the idea. That town is where you will sell whatever you hunt."


    Aldrich changed into the armor set. It was a half-te armor, but it wasn''t normal it was thicker and heavier than an ordinary set. Aldrich was still quite fine but he could see how the suit acted as part of the training.


    He also took a long sword to go along with the suit. He decided not to use Isger''s sword if he didn''t have to, that sword was special no matter how ordinary people said it was. Everyone thought that Isger was just a farmer but that was far from the truth.


    That sword was too much for him as he was now, but someday when he could truly unleash its power like Isger did that day he would wield it with his head raised high.


    Aldrich took a special public carriage. The people in the carriage all wore armor and carried weapons. This carriage was heading straight to Frontier town through the Seekers gate.


    This gate could easily be essed from the Crest academy square, that was done on purpose as the initiates were often taken for practical training in the Sunken valley.


    Obviously the Crest Academy students were a minority among the valley''s regrs. The most numerous hunters of the Sunken valley are normal people. As the First ground was not too dangerous especially if you were in a group of five or six and you were all armed with muskets.


    Valley hunters was a very widely used term in Voryhrm as it was amon job, but also from regr hunters. The encounter rate of grade zero monsters was high, ironically that was the reason for the poprity of the Sunken valley.


    An hourter Aldrich got off at the Frontier town. It was an active town with many carriages big and small entering and exiting. Almost everyone here was deked in armor and carried weapons.


    Aldrich walked around and saw many carts pulled by all manner of creatures oxes, elephants and eight-legged horses. These carts more often than not carried the corps of a huge beast.


    Aldrich was attracted to one of these carts. Unlike most carts this cart did not have the corps of a huge beast but a child-sized beetle. It had a fluorescent blue shell and two bulging eyes of the same color.


    "Hey! Beat it, before I teach you a lesson, kid. Don''t you dare have any ideas about my catch." A low and thudding voice interrupted Aldrich''s thoughts.


    The man who owned the cart had taken notice of him. Aldrich smiled, unthreateningly and said, "pardon me, I was just surprised by this creature. This is my first time seeing such an insect, What is it?"


    The sight of that creature reminded him of the giant roaches in the nightmare realm. If not for the obvious difference in color he might have made a mistake.


    "It''s a Fulgur beetle. Now leave me alone. I''m not afraid of killing kids." The man was clearly in an unpleasant mood so Aldrich backed away so as to not cause a scene.


    In Frontier town there are only two gates. One leads in and the other out. A simple design. Aldrich walked towards the exit gate, the gate that leads into the First ground. When he suddenly felt a tug at his arm and looked down.


    He saw a halfling girl staring at him.<sub> </sub>


    "Sir, I was talking to you just now didn''t you hear me?"


    "I''m sorry it''s just the surroundings are so loud I couldn''t tell if you were talking to me."


    "Come with me for moment." The girl said as she pulled at his hand. Aldrich was curious so he decided to follow. The girl brought him to a shop that had some weapons and other wares disyed.


    "What''s the matter?" Now that they were here Aldrich wanted to know what the girl wanted after all he didn''t have all day.


    "Sir, let me ask you, are you going hunting in the Sunken valley?"


    "Yes, I am."


    "Sir, I couldn''t help but notice that you only have a sword with you. If you want to go hunting you need other supplies."


    "I think a sword is good enough and I have a waterskin here, that should be enough."


    "This must be your first time. Didn''t you notice all the backpacks?"


    Aldrich did notice, he just didn''t pay them any mind, he was focusing on all the yed monsters and beasts.


    "How will you carry the body of your prey? Do you think these adventurers go around pulling carts behind them?"


    "Get to the point." Demanded Aldrich, annoyed.


    "Look over here. We have a customer!" The girl called over into the shop and a human young man came out. He was carrying something in his arms, strange thing it had small wheels.


    The young man strangely bent and twisted the wood and fabric mixture and a minuteter it unfolded into a cart. The same kind of carts that he had seen when he first came to Frontier town.


    "H-how?"


    "Hehehe, this only the beginning if you buy the adventurers pack from us you can attach this foldable cart to it. After a hunt you wouldn''t need to leave your prey out in the woods until you get a carriage from town."


    "To think that someone woulde up with such a marvelous idea, truly fantastic."


    "Of course people want to save time. Even if you hunt in a group and send one person to get the cart anything could happen during that time. But not anymore."


    "What about that adventurers backpack you just mentioned?"


    "This thing here," she said as she pulled out the backpack that was as big as her. "This has all the basic things you might need in an adventure. All purpose knives, ropes, a map of the First ground that includes some crucial information, binocrs and even a pocket for a foldable sleep-bag, if you''re thinking of a long term hunt. It was designed to fit in with the foldable cart."


    Aldrich examined the cart and saw that when it was opened the seemingly disjointed wood parts fit together and when taken with the backpack they fit together well.


    "It''s nice but... isn''t it too small?"


    "No worries there are different sizes to fit your every need, good sir. There a six wheel and an eight wheel version. Much bigger and very stable.


    "Sounds good. How much for them both."


    "Ah, I am d you took a liking to our products. May I just say that you have a keen eye, sir. That will only be two silver and ten coppers please."


    "Okay, thank you for the exnation. See you around."


    "No wait! You can rent it if you don''t have the coin."


    "You should have said that from the beginning. I imagine everyone just rents their equipment."


    "You can''t me me for trying to make a sale..."


    "So, how much?"

 Chapter 60 Hunting Monsters

    "Five coppers a day."


    "Now that sounds reasonable. I also want that bow and some arrows."


    "You have to buy the arrows and if anything you rent from me get damaged you willpensate me."


    "Fair enough."


    "Nowe here with me for a moment. Look at this," the halfling pointed at several shops alongside the street that had a t board with papers on it so any passerby could read them easily. The boards were put a little to the side of the doorways of the shops.


    The papers had information on what beast they want hunted, what part should remain intact, old or young and how much they might pay for it. It didn''t need anymore exnation, the monsters hunted in The Valley get sold here.


    But to whom? That''s why people put these boards so that hunter would know who wanted what, and make the exchange easier and simpler. It also gave the hunters a target for what was in demand in the market.


    Aldrich paid the money and took the six wheels cart with the backpack. Aldrich then made his way out of the gate and advanced into the Sunken valley. Meanwhile he checked out the map and saw that it had the mostmon beasts and monsters marked on it.


    Apparently the most dangerous monsters in the First ground, also know as the beginner area for adventurers in Voryhrm, are the: Akata, Umvorax, assassin vine, giant ck bear and white elk.


    There''s also a note about a direwolf pack roaming the eastern ins. Ayemon did mention that his knowledge was outdated, good thing Aldrich noticed that.


    As he read these notes he was d that he took the time to talk to the little halfling girl. What was even better was that this information gets updated every month.


    Now that he thought about it he should probably pay that halfling girl two more coppers. He felt that he got more than he paid for.


    However he didn''t see any information about grade one creatures that might be in the First ground. The First ground had very few grade one monsters but that didn''t mean there were no grade one monsters here.


    ording to Ayemon grade one monsters like Bebilith, Basidirond and Catoblepas have been encountered here. After all monsters can move freely nothing is stoping strong monster from justing in here.


    As for beginners area? That was a term for intelligent humanoids even if the monsters understood they weren''t likely to give a damn.


    Of course the chances of encountering such a monster here were significantly lowerpared to deeper regions of the Valley.


    Aldrich had some skill with the bow, the short bow to be exact. He was actually much more used to it than the sword. When he worked as a shepherd and farmer Isger let him take the short bow for protection.


    Aldrich wanted the long bow but he was just not strong enough to use it, the strength needed to pull the string was too great for him back then. Even for the short bow, it was still very hard for him to use it.


    This time Aldrich took the long bow and bought twenty five arrows for his hunt, after all shooting prey from afar is the best way to hunt. After walking for a while Aldrich decided on his target area. He decided to go to the east.


    The Sunken valley as the name implies is literally a valley that looked like it suddenly sinked into the ground. It had the cliff walls looming from the extreme east and west.


    While the central area is thick with towering trees that bolt out the sun, when you go to the far east or west more ins emerged and the trees faded away.


    The giant trees if The Valley were truly a sight to behold, Aldrich had seen trees this thick and tall but not in these numbers. The colors of the trunks and the leafs were emphasized. Aldrich made his way to his destination and made sure to erase his tracks.


    This was his first time hunting in monster territory, in the real world at least. Aldrich saw several beasts and avoided all of them as he didn''t want to hunt while there are still people around. After some more time he made a stop to relieve himself and to drink some water.


    Finally the trees started to recede and the soft mud turned harder and easier to walk on. That''s when Aldrich knew that this is the perfect hunting ground for him.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich lowered his backpack and hid it in a safe area, he made sure to cover it with overgrown leafs and grass. He still had his sword strapped to his belt and the quiver on his back.


    The bow was in his left hand, he climbed up a tree and waited, without so many trees to block his vision he could aim easily and shoot with all his might. His target was the Umvorax.


    The Umvorax was Included among the strongest monsters in the First ground, it was definitely a grade zero level 3 monster.


    Aldrich didn''t make this decision lightly, he was confident in his strength. Aldrich believed that his power was no less than the Umvorax.


    The Umvorax was a solitary beast and it didn''t move in packs, these were the reasons why Aldrich decided to make it his first prey within the Sunken valley. Furthermore, a well preserved Umvorax could sell for a silver and something, might even be two silvers.


    This was a very good catch. The meat of Umvorax was considered high quality and Ayemon liked it so Aldrich decided to treat him to some fresh Umvorax.


    Aldrich heard a noise in the area and after a while it turned out to be a yellow dog with a stone-like horn where it''s nose should have been. This beast was called an axe handle hound.


    How did that horn look like an axe handle? He didn''t know, that''s just how it was named. Aldrich came here to hunt and such a beast could sell for five or so coppers.


    But Aldrich let it go.


    This dog wasn''t Dave but it reminded Aldrich of Dave, Isger''s yellow farm dog. Together they yed and herded the sheep hand in hand. That slight resemnce made Aldrich unable to pull the string despite knowing that Dave died a long time ago.


    After the hound got away Aldrich cursed at his stupidity. That wasn''t Dave, and he wasted five coppers or even more. He promised himself that he wouldn''t hesitate next time.


    Half an hourter, Aldrich heard a rustling sound in the horizon and he saw it. It had a silvery fur with a rust-like tone. It was only a meter long and it was sprinting on eight legs. The head was tiger-like and the tail was bushy.


    Aldrich calmed his breathing and took an arrow from his quiver, he easily pulled the string and aimed. The string that he had trouble pulling back only three weeks ago was  now an effortless task.


    Aldrich waited for that beast to get closer, as a distance of more than two hundred meters was a difficult shot for him in terms of aim since he didn''t use a long bow before.


    The Umvorax seemed to be casually strolling in the area, the movement of it eight limbs was a fascinating sight. The Umvorax suddenly sped up and with its iron-hard ws it struck a nearby tree. The impact caused the tree to shake violently.


    Aldrich got serious at that sight, the pure power behind the attack was a notch higher than his own. The Umvorax repeatedly attacked the tree, it wasn''t as violent anymore, it was a yful beating. It kept running its ws against the tree.


    Aldrich spected that it was sharpening its ws or training? He wasn''t sure which. But he was sure that he won''t get a better chance than this.


    Aldrich aimed and took his shot, the Umvorax that was busy with the tree a moment ago rolled to the side swiftly. The Umvorax turned around and looked right at Aldrich''s hiding spot on the tree.


    Aldrich had no idea how the Umvorax dodged an arrow shot at it from a blind spot and when it was upied.


    The Umvorax rushed with rage and eagle-like speed. Aldrich stopped thinking about how the Umvorax dodged his arrow and got another one.


    Aldrich could have jumped away, but he didn''t, the tree was higher than most in the area and he would be wasting a shot if he did that. Aldrich took aim and wanted to shoot before the Umvorax mmed into the tree but he stopped himself.


    Aldrich remembered the great reaction speed and insane reflexes of the beast just a moment ago. So he forced himself to wait. Just before the beast was about to collide with the tree he made his shot.


    Aldrich heard the Umvorax scream in pain just as he felt a powerful force shake the tree terribly. The Umvorax was only a meter long how did it make that impact? What force was behind it? This thing must be much heavier than it looked.

 Chapter 61 Hunting Monsters (2)

    Aldrich returned his bow to his back and grabbed the tree branch as the second impact shook the tree, even more so than the first. Aldrich tried to think of something but his ideas deserted him.


    The next impact didn''te, instead it went quite and Aldrich instantly felt that something wasn''t right. Aldrich looked around but he couldn''t see the Umvorax under the tree. For a brief moment he thought that it left him alone and ran away.


    Aldrich wasn''t fooled, he could feel the Umvorax from the opposite direction, where he couldn''t see because of the direction of the branch he was hanging on.


    It was like he was somehow aware of the general location of the monster even if he couldn''t see it. Thanks to his enhanced perception.


    Aldrich decided to take this chance to pull himself up and stand on the branch he was holding onto, then he walked along the tranche''s length. When he was close enough, with the least amount of noise possible he jumped over to the nearest tree.


    Aldrich possessed great physical strength and flexibility such a jump was easy work for him. The hard part was making the least amount of noise whilending. He held on to one of the big branches of the tree so it can take his weight.


    The big branch didn''t shake as much, and Aldrich breathed out in relief. But he wasn''t done yet, he went on the other side of the tree, the side that was perpendicr to the tree he was originally on, the one that the Umvorax was still climbing.


    Aldrich made a simr jump andnded on a tree that gave him an unobstructed view of the beast that was climbing the tree.


    He watched the Umvorax was using its eight limbs and sinking its ws into the the tree to climb it. It wasn''t fast by any means but it was not slow either.


    Right above it''s right shoulder his second arrow stuck out. Looks like hisst arrow hit the mark after all.


    Aldrich pulled out an arrow and nocked it on the bow, pulled the string to the fullest. Even if the Umvorax dodged this arrow too that wouldn''t matter. If it made such a sudden movement it would fall and that will be the end of it.


    The Umvorax was at the higher section of the tree, that was three stories high. The result was already decided. Aldrich loosened the string and the arrow shot straight at the unaware beast.


    The ears of the Umvorax perked up, it quickly climbed several steps higher once again foiling Aldrich''s ns. Aldrich cursed out loud, there was no point in being discreet anymore.


    He momentarily shot the second arrow and it was forced to dodge to the side, the arrow missed again. But that hasty movement was too fatal, it went falling down. Aldrich watched as it fell down breaking branches all the way down.


    A thud soon followed, Aldrich quickly climbed down and looked at the fallen Umvorax. He didn''t get close. This beast had taught Aldrich that a grade zero level 3 monster was exceptional, it was both cunning and strong.


    Aldrich took out another arrow, aimed at the beast and shot it. The arrow struck the beast in the abdomen and it leapt to the ground roaring and growling. Aldrich took out his sword while feeling a little scared.


    This monster was probably as powerful as the armored husk. Several of its limbs were broken and it was bleeding everywhere and yet still in managed to stand. Aldrich debated on waiting it out, with such injuries it will sumb soon.


    But then again the Umvorax could just escape, Aldrich and the Umvorax were not alone in this forest. There were other hunters and other monsters. Aldrich didn''t quite like the idea of handling his hard earned kill over to anyone whether it be beast or man.


    Aldrich was definitely wasn''t above just backing down and retreating until the beast died of blood loss but then again the current circumstances didn''t allow for this tactic.


    Aldrichmented this bad luck but he wasn''t afraid of fighting head on when the time called for it. Aldrich threw his bow and quiver to the side. He and the Umvorax exchanged res, because Aldrich wanted to buy time.


    ''Can you do me a favor and just roll over and die.''


    The more time passed the greater his advantage. The beast was too angry to die seemingly as it charged at Aldrich, the way it ran proved to Aldrich that it had several broken limbs.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich two-handed the long sword and shed at the lower chest of the beast as he side-stepped the charge of the beast. This was a trick he learned from his dailybat with husks in the nightmare realm.


    The Umvorax fell down, it tried to get up several times but it failed. Aldrich finished it off for good, cutting its throat open. Aldrich watched as lifeblood drained from the beast and it thrashed on the ground. Aldrich wiped his sweaty forhead.


    Soon after Aldrich collected his real prize, eight essence orbs. Truly a generous amount, the most he had gotten out of any one creature. This made his day and cemented a theory he had. The stronger the creature the more essence orbs it was likely to give.


    The second most he had gotten was four essence orbs from the great boar that was was killed by a direwolf when he was escaping the ver goblins with the halfling Tarzin.


    The weaker creatures like the giant roaches, Auizolt mice and the skinned dogs gave out only one essence orb. On the other hand husks gave two. The armored husk will probably be like the Umvorax and give out a simr amount of orbs.


    At least he had confirmed that he was ready to face and defeat the armored husk atst he was getting there. If the Umvorax was considered a grade zero level three monster then the armored husk should be the same.


    Just now he almost messed up because he wasn''t used to the weight of the half te armor. He would have been injured for nothing and an injury when he was alone in the Sunken valley might spell his doom.


    Aldrich tied the Umvorax upside down and hanged it from a tree branch to let the blood flow out of the body. As he had previously expected the Umvorax was much heavier than it looked.


    Since it had a small body the blood drainage didn''t take long after which he untied the rope. Aldrich went to get his backpack from the hiding spot, and he tried to open the folded cart.


    This task turned out much harder than he expected, he wished he had tried doing that a few times before he ventured out. Finally, before Aldrich lost his temper and trashed the cart he managed to open it correctly.


    Aldrich hauled the body on the cart and breathed a sigh of relief. This monster was very tough, it truly resembled the armored husk.


    Suddenly Aldrich heard a twig snapping.


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes, he wasn''t surprised, he had expected that the smell of the Umvorax''s blood might draw in some vermin.


    What surprised him was that the sound was much closer than he would have liked. Whatever it was, it managed to sneak very close with him noticing.


    Aldrich made his way to his discarded bow and quiver, he quickly notched an arrow and hid behind the cart. As he watched the direction of the sound he just heard a vaguely familiar silhouette revealed itself from the forest.


    It was the snow white head of a direwolf, it stood bigger than a wolf and longer than two meters without counting its tail. The direwolf looked at the corps of the Umvorax with its ice-blue eyes.


    It looked around cautiously and lowered its posture, taking a prepared stance. Aldrich waited and calmed his breathing down, he remained still even when the beast started approaching.


    ? The direwolf pack was said to be roaming the eastern ins, this was one of the reasons why Aldrich wasn''t taken off guard. He knew they were close by but if he had to face a whole pack then he would just turn back, he was strong but he wasn''t insane, Aldrich watched the monster growing closer to the cart.


    Suddenly the wolf stopped and stood in ce, it began looking around and sniffing. That''s when Aldrich shot his arrow at it, he knew if he gave it anymore time he might loose the chance.


    The arrow struck the wolf in the neck sending it rolling, Aldrich took the second arrow and shot again. He knew one arrow was nowhere near enough to bring down a monster like that.


    The second arrow missed because the wolf stabilized itself and charged at Aldrich in a zigzagging pattern. Aldrich discarded his bow and quiver, it was time for closebat.

 Chapter 62 [Bonus Chapter] Almost Time

    This chapter is in honor of @NU_ST for the extremely generous super gift, the magic castle, thank you very much. I know I said I will release the extra chapter on Friday but I changed my mind you guys earned it.


    I know this part of the story might seem boring to some readers but I can tell you guys that this set up is necessary for the next event, and I promise you it will be worth it.


    ****


    Aldrich took out his sword and exchanged multiple times with the huge direwolf. This is where the great defensive properties of the half-te came into y. When the ws of the direwolf tried to w his insides, it was blocked.


    This gave Aldrich the chance to inflict several gashes on the monster, the troublesome part was that the attacks weren''t as effective as they could have been because of the size of the direwolf.


    The wounds that would have been fatal for smaller creatures were not so fatal for the direwolf. Moreover he had not been able to make any critical attacks due to the high speed and agility of the direwolf.


    But of course it was still driven to despair as Aldrich cut off it''s hind leg, bringing it down. Aldrich finished the direwolf off and absorbed four essence orbs.


    At one point not too long ago he was scared by the mere sight of this monster that he didn''t think that he would survive without the timely help of Ayemon andpany.


    He grew to the point where he no longer feared this beast anymore. Sooner orter the mountains that seemed unattainable will no longer be so far away.


    The seemingly impossible quest he was on wasn''t so impossible after all.


    Aldrich wanted to roar and celebrate his victory but this was not the time nor the ce. Aldrich quickly drained the blood of the direwolf which took longer than the Umvorax. He was in a bit of a hurry since the amount of blood spilled here was sure to attract more and more trouble.


    The weight of the cart wasn''t a problem for Aldrich now but he wasn''t sure that the cart could withstand the weight. However after a while he was assured that the cart was fine, it did creek once in a while but otherwise was fine.


    He was especially impressed by the contraption that made the six wheels so flexible and sturdy at the same time. Adventurers used these cartsmonly, it was only natural that a lot of care was taken when they were designed.


    Soon the thick trees began to give in to mud trails and more and more people came into view. Some of them took a look at his catch andplimented him.


    "Nice catch!" Someone eximed.


    "A direwolf? Luckily you didn''t bump into the pack." Another warned Aldrich.


    "Hey. Just a minute brother." A group of men, that looked well armed stopped Aldrich on his way to the town.


    "What''s the matter." Aldrich asked.


    "Well, if your teammates are forcing you to do the hard work alone you''re better off with others. Don''t put up with this behavior." A man who appeared to be around twenty five or so stepped up.


    "Teammates? What are you talking about?" Aldrich questioned, feeling confused.


    "Don''t pretend. I know what you''re going through. Just because you''re not as good as the rest of them right now doesn''t give them the right to treat you like a ve."


    Aldrich was taken back by the apparent sincerity of the man that he didn''t know what to say.


    "Eeeh, I appreciate the sentiment but I think you''ve got the wrong idea. I don''t have any teammates at the moment actually but I will keep what you said in mind."


    The man looked like he felt very sorry for Aldrich, he put his hand on Aldrich''s shoulder and patted him.


    "Even in this situation you want to cover up for them? I like your character. Truly, even a young man can inspire. If you feel like you''re not treated righte find me at the town square."


    After the young man and his crew left Aldrich finally began to put the pieces together. After looking around at the returning hunters he noticed that the majority were in a team of five or more.


    This meant that most hunters just couldn''t defeat monsters on their own even if the monster were only grade zero and especially if they were at level two like the direwolf or three like the Umvorax.


    You wouldn''t expect a young man to go hunting in the Sunken valley alone not to mention the fact that he hunted a direwolf alone. The people didn''t know that he hunted a Umvorax because the huge body of the direwolfpletely covered it.


    So when people saw Aldrich pulling the cart alone they thought that his teammates were leaving him with the heavy tasks as they returned to town ahead of him.


    Aldrich made note of these things because it was interesting. The terror of monsters and the difficulty of hunting them even in numbers and with muskets.


    A while ago Aldrich thought that all hunters must be rich when he counted the money they could make from a single hunt. But that wasn''t necessarily the case.<sub> </sub>


    If a direwolf in a good condition sold for a silver and that was divided by five then each would be making four coppers. A great sum on its own if you ignored that you had to risk your life to hunt a grade zero level two monster.


    Aldrich returned to town, he stopped by a sink to wash his face and hands. Next he looked for one of the many butcher houses he saw while passing by this morning. He was taken back by the number of people crowding around every butcher house.


    Aldrich had no choice but to wait in line for his turn by one of them. After the wait he handed both of the carcasses to one of the butchers in the stall, a white haired old man.


    "I will sell you the direwolf and the fur of the Umvorax but I want it''s meat cut nicely."


    "Good catch. I''ll give you a silver and five coppers, that''s fair."


    "Ten coppers and when I have something again I''lle to you."


    "Deal. I''ll take one copper for the job."


    Aldrich nodded his agreement. One copper for skinning and cutting the small-sized Umvorax is fair. A few minutester Aldrich was handed his money and an ice box with the meat of the Umvorax stored in.


    Aldrich picked the pace since he was dyed more than expected by the wait at the butcher house. He moved through the streets back to the halfling girl''s shop. He took off the backpack and returned it along with the cart.


    "Hold it." Just when he was about to leave he was stopped by her.


    "You''re not going anywhere before I check on the equipment. With all due respect there have been some disrespectful people who tried to cheat us. It''ll only take a minute."


    "I''m in a bit of a hurry."


    "I promise it won''t take long."


    Aldrich had to suppress the urge to just up and leave. He still had many things to do on this day, like buying cooking oil and food necessities as he wasn''t simply going to eat every meal at Ayemon''s mansion.


    "We''re done here. Everything seems to be in ce. Thank you for your patronage."


    "Your wee. Oh, yeah, here. I almost forgot." Aldrich handed the halfling girl a copper coin.


    "I think you guys provide a valuable service and I want to support you guys a little."


    "Thank you sir, ourpany is detected to our craft of making adventuring easier and more essible for everyone."


    "That sounds great, keep up the good work. I''m off."


    Aldrich walked out of that exchange feeling good about himself. The cold box wasn''t heavy at all so it didn''t slow Aldrich down as he made his way to the public carriage stop. Many hunters wereing in and many others were leaving.


    Aldrich took a seat by the window and waited for the carriage to fill up. Half an hourter he stood at the mansion''s gate and the guards let him in as usual.


    Aldrich walked over to the main entrance and a guard opened the door for him. Aldrich didn''t entered but called over to one of the manservants in the hallway.


    "Hi, this a fresh Umvorax tell the chef to make us a nice lunch."


    The manservant looked quite confused for moment but he soon regained hisposure.


    ? "Sir, I must ask the master for his approval."


    "Can you not do that? I want it to be a surprise actually."


    The servant tried to take the box from Aldrich but it was too heavy for him and he had to call two other servants to help out.


    "I can''t, absolutely not." The servant was clearly adamant about it so Aldrich really had no choice but go along with it despite his disappointment. Still he could understand where the servant wasing from.


    After all Ayemon was a true nobleman of the empire if his servants just epted any food they were told to serve to him wouldn''t they be failures as servants? Now that he thought about it the food that Ayemon ate must go through some extensive checks.


    While thinking about that Aldrich went up to his room but he didn''t have the time take a real bath so he only washed up briefly. When he was done he was back in his regr clothes and gentleman shoes.

 Chapter 63 Mistake

    When Aldrich was going down the stairs he heard somemotion downstairs. As he got closer he heard some of the conversation, it turned out they were talking about the Umvorax he had in.


    When he got down he saw several people, men and women surrounding the cold box he brought with him. Ayemon was standing a bit to the side of the crowd and looked at him when he came down.


    "Ah, here''s our brave hunter. You look fine."


    "How do you like my gift?" Aldrich asked with a smirk.


    "Not bad, not bad, I thought you were in need of some coin but you seem to be doing just fine. Come lets take a walk in the backyard."


    When they were about to leave one of the servants turned to Ayemon, "sir we confirmed its fine."


    "I told you guys its fine a long time ago. Just take it to the kitchen, tell them to make something nice and be quick about it." Ayemon ordered.


    Aldrich looked as the servants hauled the box and carried it away. Then he and Ayemon walked out and around the mansion to the backyard.


    Ayemon called it a backyard but it was pretty much a private park. No, it was much bigger than that there was a whole forest behind the mansion and it had a hunt house.


    Apparently when Ayemon invited his friends over they would allpete in hunting the wild life in the woods.


    While he was immersed in his thoughts and secretly calcting how much a mansion like this would be worth, Ayemon looked at him with a serious look on his face.


    This stopped Aldrich in his tracks, he had never seen this look on Ayemon before.


    "What''s wrong?"


    Ayemon stopped with him and sighed, "Aldrich I have to tell you something, but you have to keep your calm."


    Aldrich had a bad feeling after he heard that but he still nodded, "what is it?"


    "It''s about what happened to Wakefield, I just received confirmation about it."


    Aldrich''s smiled froze, "you did? So did the news just break out?"


    "No, there were already some talk about it in Ado''merin when we first set sail. I didn''t say anything because they were just rumors, but now an information guild has confirmed it and sent an expert there."


    "What did they find?" Aldrich asked with a ghastly smile.


    Ayemon hesitated, "you don''t want to know¡­"


    "No, I do want to know." Aldrich insisted.


    Ayemon closed his eyes for a moment and then he resumed, "they found the houses burned to a crisp, the bodies of the vigers were feasted upon by all manner of wild beasts. Their heads however, were stacked together into a pyramid-like structure and a wooden spike was driven into the forehead of every head."


    Aldrich could see this scene in his mind with perfect rity, the heads of men, women and children, old or young their end was the same.


    They knew nothing, they were just celebrating the spring festival and the next thing they knew they were attacked and killed for no reason. Even after death they were defiled, this was a level of savagery that would boggle the mind.


    "This is not the main point I wanted to tell you about."


    Ayemon''s voice pulled him back to reality.


    "What I wanted to tell you about is that the expert found other things there. He found Kobold and gnoll corpses, more than thirty of them scattered around the vige."


    Aldrich was confused, "Kobolds and gnolls? What do you mean? Why would these corpses be there?"


    "After verifying the signs of the attack, the expert concluded that an alliance of two tribes of gnolls and kobolds were behind the attack."


    "What?" Aldrich leaked out a dumbfounded question. When he was escaping the vige his log got stuck under the bridge and he had a good look at the attack.


    There were no kobolds or gnolls, there were no monsters just people ughtering other people. Could they have been lured by the smell of bloodter? No that would have been a heavenly coincidence.


    "Staged," the word came out choked out his mouth, "they staged it to look like that."<sub> </sub>


    "Quick thinking," Ayemon praised, "they probably did. I''m a little shocked with the amount of preparations that they went so far for a tiny vige, now I''m curious myself."


    Ayemon looked at Aldrich in surprise, he was not shaken with anger nor was his blood boiling, he was calm. He did not do this on purpose, just a moment ago he was angry but then it looked like it just vanished.


    Aldrich was indeed angry, but he was angry ever since he escaped the massacre. Anger was red fire and boiling magma, but when it surpassed a certain level it became a frozen sea, calm but ready to swallow its target whole when the time was right.


    "Aldrich prepare yourself the news will break out soon at that time almost everyone will believe that it was just an attack by monsters, a tragedy to be sure but one among many. Keep your cool like you are doing now. Remember you are not Aldrich of Wakefield you are Aldrich of Oakwood. This has nothing to do with you, do you understand?"


    "I understand." Aldrich answered.


    "Cheer up will you," Ayemon pped him on the shoulder, "There was another thing that I wanted to talk to you about, Aldrich I am grateful for the gift."


    "Well it wasn''t an easy hunt."


    "Really? Well to be honest with you I''m surprised, even a little shocked."


    "Is it that surprising?"


    "Undoubtedly. Aldrich, to be honest with you I sent you to the Sunken valley I expected you to fail and be taught a lesson on your first time."


    Aldrich didn''t know how to answer that. Now that he thought about it, if he wasn''t as experienced as he was he wouldn''t have seeded in hunting a single monster even of it was just a grade zero level one.


    "So you underestimated me." Aldrich used not unkindly.


    "I did. Though in my defense I made a mistake based on my knowledge about you being a normal man. But I was clearly wrong."


    Aldrich suddenly felt the air around him get colder. That''s right, Ayemon would definitely be suspicious of a farmboy that could hunt an Umvorax on his first hunt. Not to mention that he came out unscratched as far as Ayemon could tell.


    Aldrich had the chance to realize this when he encountered the adventurers on his way back to the town. They firmly believe that he hunted with a group of five or more to be able to hunt a direwolf let alone an Umvorax.


    He should have taken the hint then. But he didn''t he just yed it of like it was a funny misunderstanding, there was another reason. Aldrich wanted to show off, he wanted to brag about himself about his aplishment. and now he messed up because of his ego.


    what is this why would he be proud of something this small, something this insignificant? Ridiculous!


    Ayemon was different, he knew that Aldrich was alone and he believed that Aldrich had almost nobat experience before now. With thebination of these circumstances Aldrich would have been suspicious of himself if he was in Ayemon''s ce.


    Aldrich tried to hard to think of a usible excuse for all this but he came up with nothing. Even if he told Ayemon about the nightmare realm he had no way to prove any of it. That exnation would put him under even more suspicion. And he definitely didn''t want anyone to know about that.


    "Are you done thinking?" Ayemon''s exasperated voice brought him back to reality.


    "Looks like you''re done. Listen, I understand that you have a secret."


    Aldrich could only nod, he was already found out, it was useless to deny, if he did he would only make himself more of a fool than he already did.


    "That''s fine." But Ayemon''s next words surprised Aldrich, "everyone has secrets I won''t force you to share your secrets with me."


    "Are you sure?"


    "Why not? I''m a man of many secrets myself so I understand. Now what I want is to have a better understanding of your talent andbat ability now."


    "Now? Here? What do I do?"


    "Just attack me with everything you''ve got. Give me a punch with all your strength."


    "Alright, fine. Don''t me me if you get a broken bone."


    Aldrich knew that Ayemon was probably going to be fine since he was a Crestmaster.


    "Oh, by the way if I suspect that you went easy on me I will kill you right here and now so you better focus."

 Chapter 64 Instructor Gazeff

    Aldrich could see that although Ayemon was smiling like usual but he waspletely serious, he will be killed if he cked off.


    Aldrich focused like his life was one the line because it was and punched at Ayemon. The punch was caught in Ayemon''s palm and the wind whistled around them for a moment. Ayemon didn''t retreat a half a step.


    Aldrich didn''t hold back in the slightest, actually he wanted to use this opportunity to see the difference between him and a Crestmaster. But Ayemon didn''t look to be struggling in the least.


    "Eh, that was pretty good." Ayemon looked at his palm and nodded.


    "You were born with supernatural strength, it seems. Not a bad talent, first grade Pyromancers, Clerics and Glyphmancers will only be a little stronger physically."


    "Well I''ve always been stronger than most. I guess."


    "Now don''t be too happy I said physically, I see that it wasn''t mere coincidence that you of all people were able to escape from the Wakefield massacre."


    After a while a servant came to call them back for lunch. When they got in the dining room the found a huge te of roasted Umvorax ribs and rice.


    Caldera had also joined them for the meal and it was absolutely fantastic. The meat of the Umvorax had something special about it, Aldrich didn''t know if he imagined it or not but he felt that he was less exhausted somehow.


    The rice was mixed with garlic, tomatoes and onions, the ribs were zed with honey and the meat fell right off the bines. The sulent vor was brought out by the herbs and spices. To top it off now he knew why the Umvorax was so heavy despite it small size, the reason was definitely thepact muscles, fat and huge bones.


    After lunch Caldera took out a very small ck bag tied carefully with a white thread giving it an elegant look. Aldrich took the small bag and tried to see what''s inside without opening the tie.


    "That''s the stone fruit, that''s how you''ll bribe that annoying drunk."


    "It must be something special huh."


    "Somewhat. Now listen and follow the strategy I will give you now to the letter."


    "Go ahead."


    "Go to the ck Vault bar on 18th Gana street and you will find an old-looking guy depending on how heavily he''s been drinkingtely he might look like a seventy year old or a malnourished thirty year old. That bar doesn''t have many customers you''ll know him when you see him."


    "Then tell him that you heard that he''s the best out there and that you want him to train you. He''ll outright ignore you or refuse you, then tell him I rmend you, he''ll refuse again. He might get a little rough after hearing my name. Anyway after that you take out the stone fruit but don''t open the bag."


    "Why don''t I just take it out from the beginning and save myself some time?"


    "Don''t be a smartass. Timing and order are very crucial in life, take this as a lesson. Didnt you say you were good at haggling?"


    "Fine. By the way how rough are we talking when you mean rough?"


    "Aren''t you endowed with supernatural strength? Don''t worry about it. One more thing, don''t believe any of the nder that guy says about me. That guy is really petty."


    "He''s like that huh."


    Aldrich picked up the small ck bag and made his way to a private carriage while humming the tune of the Emperor''s Companions. A very popr song if not the most popr song in the empire.


    Aldrich got off at 2nd pioneer street, where a mixed market is held. Aldrich had to buy some necessities before he got home, thanks to the good location he could just walk the distance back to the apartment.


    Aldrich brought potatoes, tomatoes, onions, green and red pepper, garlic. He got orange, apples, rice and cabbage. He brought enough coal tost him a week. Lastly he got a jar of cleaning agent, used to wash the toilet.


    Aldrich walked the rest of the way back to his apartment and put everything in order before getting another barrel of water and heating up the water basin. Then he poured the water into the tub and mixed it with cold water till it was perfectly warm.


    Aldrich washed himself and used both soaps, body and hair soaps. A few minutester the grim and the rest of the exhaustion from the hunting was washed off.


    Aldrich wore his clothes and noticed that these trousers and the white shirt and ck vest were hisst clean set. He must clean them soon.


    Aldrichbed his hair and cleaned his shoes until they glistened. Then he sat by the window and watched the sunpletely set. Even as the sun set the lights of the mossmps lining the streets banished the darkness of the night.


    Aldrich walked out and locked the door behind him, the people of Voryhrm knew no rest as they trotted on the streets in the night no different than the day.


    Aldrich got on a private carriage as he didn''t want to waste time on waiting. The carriage dropped him at 18th Gana street right besides the ck Vault bar.


    Aldrich looked around and was surprised that the bar looked quite deserted and old, even the entire street looked like that too. The mossmps were spars and dim some of them had broken poles and nobody bothered to fix them.


    The streets were mostly empty of any traffic the few people that walked the street were wearing heavy cloaks and each one had a dangerous look about them.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich thought that since the instructor was so good that even Ayemon gave him praise he would be drinking fine alcohol in high ss establishments not in this dpidated looking bar, it looked like it was on the verge of shutting down.


    Moreover the street felt unsafe like he was suddenly going to be jumped by some of thugs roaming the street. The discreet stares he felt around him almost confirmed his suspicion.


    Aldrich tried to tell the carriage driver to wait for him but the carriage had driven off before he knew it. Coward. Aldrich walked up the wooden and squeaky steps of the staircase that lead up to the bar door.


    The inside of the bar was in a simr condition to the outside, old, moldy and dirty. The hardwood floor creaked with every step he made as he maneuvered through the disparate tables to get to the bar.


    The lighting of the ck Vault was a mix of bad mossmps and candle stands giving the ce a mysterious and vague atmosphere. The few patrons were engaged in half loud conversations over some food and drinks. From time to time he could hear the sound of clinking cups and cheers.


    The customers didn''t pay Aldrich much heed when he entered most only spared him a quick nce. Aldrich in turn looked closely at each table trying to tell which one might be the instructor.


    Aldrich''s eyes fell on a man who didn''t sit at any one table but directly at one of the bar seats. He was alone and his head was on the bar-stand as if he passed out like that. Aldrich approached the man and took a seat right besides him.


    The man had a mug of some kind of ale, as far as Aldrich could tell by the smell, right to the side. It looks like the man passed out when he was halfway through his drink. Aldrich coughed a little as he hid the ck bag containing the stone fruit underneath the seat.


    The man was unresponsive. The sun had just set, how can you be that drunk? Aldrichined in his mind and coughed louder and used his elbow to poke at the man.


    "Can I help you?" A sudden question interrupted Aldrich''s actions. He looked up and saw one of the bartenders, a short haired half-elven woman.


    "Eh, not really, I''m only here to talk to this man."


    "This is bar. You want to stay? You order a drink."


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes, "somemon beer sounds about right."


    "Coming right up. That''ll be a copper." The woman took out a tankard and a mug from under the stand.


    "Do you know how much did this guy have to drink before I came?"


    "This guy? Gazeff, he''s a regr of sorts in our bar. Well he drank a mug and a half of cheap ale."


    "What, only that much? Isn''t he supposed to be a drunk?"


    "Well you could say that but what sort of drunkard can''t hold his drink? He just drinks that much and then he passes out for an hour or so after hees to, he orders the same again. If you''re trying to kill yourself there are easier ways you know? But its good for business so what do I care."


    "Having fun talking horseshit behind my back?"


    Before Aldrich could respond to the bartender the unconscious man stirred besides him and he talked in a raspy but clear voice. Aldrich couldn''t see his face because of the messy long hair he had going everywhere.


    "Is it behind your back? Sit down your drunk. I''m talking shit right in front of you."


    "Piss off, bitch. I''m in a terrible mood today."


    The man and the bartender bantered a bit.


    "Hey you," the man pointed at Aldrich without raising his head, "you have something to say to me?"


    "Ah, actually I¡ª"


    "A drink. This is bar, when you want to talk to someone in a bar you must first buy them a drink. That''s just basic manners."


    "Fine," Aldrich agreed, "give me another beer¡ª"


    "Actually, some dwarven stout would be nice."


    "That will be four copper coins." The bartender chimed in.


    Aldrich had to put some serious effort to keep his smile by reminding himself that he was going to make a good first impression.


    "Good. One mug of dwarven stout for my new friend here..."

 Chapter 65 No Half-Measures

    "Yes sir, but that''ll just take a minute."


    "Now we''re talking. See, now I know you''re a man of honor." The instructor raised his head off the table and looked at Aldrich for the first time.


    The instructor was like Ayemon described him to be, he had the features of Vorianeen man in his early thirties but those features were somehow twisted. Dark circles under his eyes, the eyes themselves were red and veins popped out like he suffered from long periods without sleep.


    Unnatural pale skin and his beard looked like it was clean-shavenst week. Aldrich wasn''t the only one taken aback by the other''s appearance.


    "Hey, you''re just a kid. Aren''t you too young to be here? This street isn''t safe."


    "Yes, yes I am. But when I heard that I could have the chance to talk to the renowned instructor Gazeff, I just had to try my luck."


    Gazeffughed, "well if you put it that way, I can see why you might think it worthwhile."


    ''It''s as Ayemon saidpliments and praise worked well with prideful people.''


    "Surely an opportunity to meet such a famous character is worthy, after all they do say that you are the best of the best."


    "Well they''re not wrong in that regard." Gazeffughed.


    Aldrich smiled, thinking that this might not be so hard after all.


    "Oh, one thing, though."


    "Yes?"


    "I''m really not renewed or famous at all. Ah, Don''t get me wrong, you''re right I am the best but I''m just not that well known. I retired more than ten years ago. Most forgot about me, only a few assholes remember me."


    Aldrich didn''t know how to respond or if he should respond to that.


    "So, I guess what I''m trying to say is, who sent you here boy?"


    "I''m not really sure it I should say..." Aldrich could feel a sense of danger approaching him rapidly.


    "Oh,e on." Gazeff took a swing at his half finished ale, "No pressure I just want to know, I''m on good terms with most people that I''ve met."


    Since Ayemon already told Aldrich that it was fine to reveal his name Aldrich didn''t mind so much. Not to mention that he was following the correct order of steps to sessfully invite Gazeff to be his instructor.


    "Well actually it was Ayemon Seerstorm, he was the one who sent me here and told me to approach you."


    Suddenly Gazeff''s hand crushed the wooden mug he was drinking from and sent shrapnel and ale all over the bar-stand.


    "W-who did you say?... I must''ve misheard."


    Aldrich didn''t anticipate that and one of the shrapnel grazed his cheek, fortunately such a thing wasn''t enough to even draw blood from him.


    "I did say, Ayemon Seerstorm."


    Aldrich stated cautiously as calcted how much it would take him to make it to the exit. But it seems like Gazeff wasn''t really listening to him clearly.


    "Ayemon... Ayemon... that Ayemon? It must be him. That bloodsucking leach." Gazeff started to talk to himself out loud. Aldrich was upset at hearing Gazeff insult Ayemon but he wasn''t going to voice out his thoughts.


    "That guy sent you to ask me to mentor you?"


    "Yes. That''s the gist of the story."


    "....Shameless, unbelievable.... shameless bastard. If power was measured by how shameless a man was then he would be the strongest man in the entire world."


    "You are well regraded by Ayemon but if you think I will just sit here and allow you to insult him then you are gravely mistaken. I will not tolerate it anymore." Aldrich has had enough, no matter how much he needed this guy he wasn''t about to let him continue to insult Ayemon so openly.


    No matter what Ayemon treated his with respect and kindness.


    "Really now? You won''t tolerate it you say? Bold of you. You know what? I''ll do it I''ll be your mentor. You need some help for the entrance examination right? Fine."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich was confused, this wasn''t how it was supposed to go. He thought that he messed up by saying his thoughts just now but it turned out great. He didn''t even have to take out the stone fruit. Ayemon and Gazeff must be on better terms than he was initially lead to believe, right?


    "Ah, knowing that guy he must''ve given you a little something for me?" Gazeff inquired.


    "Ah, yeah, he did. Here, it was supposed to be yours anyway."


    Aldrich took out the ck bag and handed it over to Gazeff. The fact that Gazeff was able to infer that Ayemon prepared a gift for him was proof of his earlier conjecture.


    "You must know Ayemon really well."  Aldrich asked indirectly.


    Gazeff took a long look at the contents of the bag before he closed it and tied the tie again.


    "Know him? Sure I know him. I know he knows what to to give and to whom and at what time, I know that he''s a conniving snake that destroys anything thates close to him. Now I''m sure you feel like he''s your best friend but when he''s done with you, you''ll be lucky to keep your life."


    "Are you saying that you''re going back on your word?" Aldrich asked sharply. It did feel easier than he expected. This drunkard could have lied to get the stone fruit and now that he''s got it he revealed his true colors.


    "Go back on my word? What, do I look like Ayemon to you? I''m a man of my word. Regardless of my personal feelings towards Ayemon, I agreed to mentor you and I will prepare you to pass the entrance exam to the best of my abilities. Don''t get your nerves wrecked kid, rx."


    "I''m d we coulde to an amicable agreement." Aldrich said through gritted teeth. This guy was getting on his nerves in an unpleasant manner.


    "Oh, now that you mention the agreement, my wages are eight silver coins weekly. And we have five weeks before the entrance exam so that''s one gold and ten silver coins in total."


    "Eight per week? You''re joking right?" Aldrich eximed in disbelief. This guy has been just spouting whatever came to his mind for a while now.


    "Do I look like I''m in a jesting mood here? What''s the problem anyway? Aren''t you backed by Seerstorm? That''s pocket change."


    "Didn''t you already take the stone fruit?" Aldrich asked, annoyed.


    "And that''s why I''m giving you such a great deal, besides the gift was just for me to agree to teach you. That''s not enough to justify mybor. Back in the day I used to charge 5 gold a week and people waited in lines to beg me to ept them."


    "As if I''d believe such nonsense. I may be young but I''m not an idiot."


    "Fine, you know what? We''ll meet tomorrow in the Frontier town and we''ll have our first training session. Take the time to think about it and if you think it''s too much just tell me and we''ll call it quits but the fruit is mine regardless."


    "That sounds reasonable to me. I guess." Aldrich had to admit that he wasn''tpletely ustomed to the wages that mentors would get paid in Voryhrm.


    The half-elven bartender finally brought the dwarven stout with in a mug. Gazeff immediately took a generous chug.


    "Yeah think about it and tell me before we start because you can''t quit after you already started. You either die in the training or live to see the five weeks finished."


    "Why is it always life and death with you guys in Voryhrm?"


    But Gazeff onlyughed, "Isn''t that how life is? Walking on the edge, you either make it to the end or die trying. I take no half measures trust me on that. If you can''t take my training then the life of adventurers isn''t for you."


    "How about we meet at the outgoing gate in Frontier town at noon?" Aldrich decided to set a proper time and ce for this.


    "Sounds good to me."


    Aldrich shook hands with Gazeff and paid the bartender before he walked out of the ck Vault. The street outside was even gloomier than before if that was even possible. Unfortunately no carriages passed by here even after he waited half an hour at the public carriage stop.


    Aldrich decided to try his luck at another street. The block was a few kilometers so it wasn''t a big deal for Aldrich, he was just upset he wasted so much time waiting uselessly.


    Suddenly while walking away he noticed someone tailing him from behind, Aldrich notice this guy since a while ago but he thought that they were just going the same direction.


    That was until the man started elerating towards him at a crossroad. Aldrich looked around him first before turning around. In situations like these there were likely others working together with this asshole.


    The sudden eleration of the man could be a trap. Aldrich had some experience when it came to tactics like this when he was getting beat up by Tomard''s thugs for being short a few coins that month.


    "Stop, don''t make any rash moves." A heavy cracking voice said behind him. "Don''t turn around, don''t do anything unless I tell you to. Now then just untie your coin pouch and hand it to me from the back."

 Chapter 66 Crime Doesnt Pay

    "I''ll call for the patrolling guards, you''ll be caught in no time." Aldrich warned the thief behind him.


    "Humph! Just try it kid. See this here neighborhood? It''s the turf of our syndicate. The guards won''t even hear you and if they did they''ll just turn a blind eye."


    "Stop bluffing. You''re just counting on your buddies to get me like a bunch of cowards!" Aldrich hurled a well timed insult.


    "Shut your yapper! if you don''t want your guts painting this street. I''ve got a musket right here," Aldrich felt a cold metal press at his vest.


    "You think I need my crew to steal a few coppers from a kid like you? Huh? Why''d you stop talkin''?"


    "H-here. I''ll give you my coins so long as you promise to let me go." Aldrich stammered in fear.


    "Ha! Where''d that tough attitude of yours go now? Cat got your tongue? Huh, answer me! Should''ve just did as you were told from the get go." The thief demanded.


    "It''s just a tough act, I wanted to bluff my way out of this." Aldrich was forced to answer out of fear.


    "Hmm, that''s a good trick but it won''t work on professionals like me. Now, I''ll let you go like I said. So long as you don''t try anything funny."


    "You got it. My life is much more important than some measly money." Aldrich breathed a sigh of relief and slowly untied his coin pouch out of his belt. He then took the pouch and held it out with his left hand towards the thief but from the back without turning around.


    Since Aldrich followed his instructions to the tee, the thief nodded to himself and got closer to Aldrich because of the pose he was in, he couldn''t stretch his hand too far back. However, before he could take the coin pouch it fell off of Aldrich''s hand.


    The thief''s eyes followed the coin pouch dumbly and he waste to dodge the punch to his forehead. In fact, even if he wasn''t distracted at all he wouldn''t have been able to react to Aldrich''s speed.


    The thief fell over like a puppet with it''s strings cut, Aldrich made sure to hold back hence why the thief only lost consciousness without any major brain injury. Aldrich proceeded to drag the unconscious thief to an alleyway.


    Aldrich found out that he was a young man who was doing something to make his voice seem older and he didn''t have a musket it was just a dagger. This made Aldrich suspect that the thief had no intention of killing him.


    Of course a dagger could kill a man just as easily but Aldrich just wanted to give the thief the benefit of the doubt. Since he believed that the thief had no intention to kill him then Aldrich also wasn''t going to kill him.


    Obviously that didn''t mean that he was just going to let the thief go so easily, since he came out to rob people then he must have been prepared to be robbed himself. Aldrich relived the thief of his own coin pouch and in it he found a single silver coin and two coppers.


    Very luxurious for the thieves in the Drnaine region but of course this is Voryhrm if you didn''t have at least that much on you then you basically couldn''t do anything. So this amount was just some pocket change.


    ''Shit, couldn''t you have had any more coin with you? Poor bastard! Hopefully this will teach you that crime doesn''t pay.''


    Aldrich fixed his clothes and walked out of the alleyway casually, in reality he was checking the area around him. And when he didn''t notice or feel anyone following him, he was assured that the thief was indeed alone.


    Aldrich didn''t loiter around for too either, he resumed his journey to the next street over, the 17th Gana, which was in a slightly better condition that the 18th at the very least.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich waited patiently for a public carriage and was relieved that he didn''t have to wait for more than a few minutes. The carriage was half empty and smelled heavily of tobo and alcohol.


    Aldrich moved to the cleanest seat he could find and waited for another half an hour before he got off. He wasn''t very far from his apartment but he wanted buy some bread. He remembered seeing a bakery here somewhere.


    As expected his memory was as great as ever, it was only two streets from his apartment and fresh bread was a decent delicacy. While he was there he bought some cheese and milk too.


    Aldrich locked the door behind him and he lit up the mossmps in his apartment afterwards. He put the cheese and milk in the fridge and the cheese in the storage room. He washed his hands, cleaned some of the pots and utensils.


    It was time for the first meal he was going to cook in his own new home. Aldrich decided on something simple and easy, that was also why he got the bread and cheese. The coal burned nicely, so Aldrich added some oil on the pan.


    While that was happening he took out the beef from the fridge and added some salt and pepper. When he felt that the pan was hot enough he added the beef, which didn''t take long to cook.


    Aldrich enjoyed the beef with some fresh bread and washed it all down with apple juice. After he was done he took all his dirty clothes, put them all in a basket and took it to aundry in a neighboring building.


    Theundry was run by a mother and her two daughters, he found out that his clothed will be washed and ironed by tomorrow night so the speed was great and the fact that it was a ten minute walk of his apartment was a nice bonus.


    After he returned to the apartment Aldrich took out a notebook from one of the drawers and and a pen. Aldrich sat on his humble desk and brought one of t mossmps closer for better lighting.


    Aldrich was going to have his first ss in the academy tomorrow so he intended to prepare himself as best as he could by jotting down what he knew about Crestmasters in a short summery. He did not wish to embarrass himself in the ss tomorrow.


    It was a few hourster and Aldrich had written a bit more than a short summary. He had the confidence that he wasn''t that bad in the basics especially when he learned much from his conversations with Ayemon andpany.


    Aldrich turned off the mossmps and jumped on his bed, this night was over in the real world but it was only beginning in the nightmare realm.


    ****


    After Aldrich put another log in the firece he equipped his chain mail over his leather armor.


    Aldrich felt much safer and it wasn''t nearly as heavy as the half-te armor he wore in the Sunken valley.


    All in all after some practice and exercises here and there he judged that his movement and reaction speed were nicely synced with the newfound weight in equipment.


    Today was going to be a big day. The next house on the list out there was actually the building in which he managed to sneak up on two second type husks who were guarding and armory.


    If his memory served him right he found some kind of ledge that gave him the chance to sneak in. That was probably a crucial moment in his experiences in the nightmare town, if he didn''t get his hands on that armory his life would have been much more miserable here.

 Chapter 67 Big Night In The Nightmare Town

    After carful deductions about the size and shape of the building that made it stand out from the rest of the buildings in the neighborhood Aldrich had determined that it should be some kind of base for protection. Basically it was a barracks.


    Aldrich had intended to leave the barracks forst but after defeating the Umvorax and the direwolf today he had determined that there was nothing to fear from this barracks.


    Besides his sense of urgency didn''t diminish just because no new changes happened in the nightmare realm ever since the crystal rain.


    For the time being Aldrich had no intention of obeying the voice that talked to him and showed him those visions.


    First Aldrich couldn''t trust some unknown voice out of nowhere. Secondly, even if he wanted to go to that chapel he didn''t know the way to go there.


    Keep in mind that he had barely explored two streets of this town in the three weeks he had been transported here. Or rather since he was cursed to be brought here almost every night.


    The slow progress frustrated Aldrich who just wanted to find Isger sooner rather thanter.


    Yes, indeed, Aldrich loved the fact that he had a limitless supply of coin from here and the fact that he was progressing in power by obtaining essence orbs here but he couldn''t afford to rx and take it easy.


    For every minute he waste to save Isger weighted on his heart. What if he was in pain? What if he was being tortured by those monsters in the nightmare corridor?


    At the same time he was reminded of what happenedst time he let his emotions lead him astray.


    So if he really wanted to save Isger then gaining as much power as he possibly could was the most crucial to saving Isger.


    Even if the blue light door appeared in front of him would he dare to enter it as he is now? The obvious answer is no.


    It was not as simple as entering the corridor and retrieving Isger''s soul, to actually do it he must be strong enough to fight against those monsters.


    Not a day goes by when he could forget that monstrous specter, every after Isger had torn its body to absolute shreds it stillbined again.


    That scene when the individual body parts moved like they had a life of their own truly struck terror in his heart. Not only that, it actually became stronger after that.


    Was it always that strong and it simply hid that power or did it get stronger after it rbined? The first option was the most favorable but Aldrich just had no way of knowing.


    So without having the power to overwhelm that specter and its friends that were sealed behind the endless doors of the corridor he just couldn''t risk going back there now.


    Pathetic.


    Isger risked his life to save his, without any knowledge of what his opponent was capable of and yet he didn''t dare to do the same for Isger.


    Aldrich struggled to put these irrational thoughts to the back of his mind and bury it deep where he wouldn''t be affected by it in crucial circumstances.


    Aldrich picked the pace as he made his way to the barracks he felt that he needed something to take his mind off of these unpleasant thoughts. Killing some garbage husks definitely fit that bill.


    However his face grew darker as he observed the barracks, the barracks had two towers and one huge chunk of a building in the center, it was too big.


    Aldrich tried his usual strategy to break the windows and allow some light to enter the gloomy building but that failed.<sub> </sub>


    This result was not unexpected because all the huge windows of the barracks were bared with metallic bars that were surprisingly still sturdy and didn''t budge much even after a dozen impacts of thrown rocks by Aldrich''s full power.


    If he continued he could probably break it in ten minutes but there were just so many windows in this huge building and if he were to spend that much time on this one task he would just be wasting too much time.


    Aldrich had to think of another way, since this strategy failed then he must try another. Aldrich got back to the base and returned with a torch. He didn''t touch the ominous candle or move it he just lit the torch over it without any direct contact.


    That could still be dangerous of course but he was a drowning man and he was going to have to take some risks from time to time. Aldrich took the torch to the barracks and he climbed and jumped over the fence only to be in dismay again.


    The door, no the gate that blocked his way was sealed with a portcullis. These obstacles were starting to get on his nerves but Aldrich didn''t mull over it for long. He was able to sneak in here before so why not use the same method again.


    Now that the fog had thinned out and he had a torchlight with him he figured out that the fallen over wall was on the second floor of the left tower. Aldrich climbed over the fallen debris of the broken wall, which turne out to be a simple task even with a torch in his left hand.


    Aldrich took a quick look at the room and ducked down quickly. Aldrich raised his head again and fortunately the only two husks in the room were dead. What struck him as out of ce was that the dead husks didn''t have any foul smell.


    If a normal corps wasn''t buried for that long it ought to produce a nasty smell. But husks were always weird to begin with so Aldrich didn''t pay that much heed. Instead he approached the door of the room and pushed it.


    Fortunately after a few minutes the door''s hinges gave in and the door was opened wide. Aldrich used his shoulder to m into the door sending it crashing outside. After which he picked up his sword and torch, the long sword in the right hand and the shield and torch in the left.


    How was he able to hold both, the shield and the torch in his left hand simultaneously? Because the shield was fixed by two leather belts to his forearm while he carried the torch normally.


    Of course in anybat situation this arrangement will fall apart. Which is why he was d to see that the walls were lined with unlit torches on iron stands. Aldrich didn''t hesitate to light every single torch he came across as he walked down the hallway.


    He nned to clear out the first floor first and then go on in ascending order to clear the entire tower first before moving on to the rest of the barracks.


    In the first floor he encountered a terriblebination of one shield man, one spearman and one archer. He had encountered thisbination before but thanks to his quick-wittedness he managed to dispose of the archer first thereby breaking their formation.


    This time he had no such chance as he was immediately ambushed by an arrow the moment his feet touched the stone ground of the first floor. Aldrich managed to perceive the arrow and somehow blocked it with his shield.


    Aldrich blocked the arrow but the spear got him in the stomach. Fortunately thanks to his chain mail the injury was lighter than it could have been. Aldrich quickly opened the throat of the spearman and used its corps to get close to the archer.


    The archer kept shooting arrows and made ab out of the spearman. It looked like a hedgehog. Aldrich saw the shieldman step up to protect the archer like an annoying fly so heunched the hedgehog-like spearman onto the big shield it wielded. The impact was strong enough to topple the monster over.


    Aldrich who didn''t like wasting chances rushed to skewer the archer before the shieldman could get its bearings back. This battle was over once he got rid of the archer and the spearman.


    The shieldman, after losing the offensive members in the team had be a punching bag for Aldrich. The battle was short-lived and it gave him the chance to get his instincts in order.


    Aldrich checked for any ambushers in the first floor and didn''t find any, which prompted him to return to the second floor. The second floor had two spearmen and one archer who were standing guard on the staircase that lead to the third floor.


    Aldrich made easy work out of them when he rushed around the spearmen and pummeled the archer that hid behind them. The breaking of the formation was the bane of teamwork. So long as it was a frontal battle when he didn''t fear being shot to death from afar, Aldrich had the confidence to finish any husk in two direct blows.


    Indeed although the archer was not dead yet, the impact of being pushed dozens of stairs down was effective in keeping it out of the battle until Aldrich finished off the two archers in two blows.

 Chapter 68 Rewards

    Aldrich moved on to the third floor, but it was eerily empty of any husks. Even the blowing wind was lonely. He searched carefully in every room, every nook or cranny but it was deserted. The only notable thing on the third floor was a storage room with three sets of half-te armor.


    Now that was something he didn''t have in the nightmare realm. He was of course going to confiscate themter on when he was done clearing the barracks. Aldrich made sure to light up the torches on the walls before he advanced to the fourth floor.


    On the fourth floor the noise lead him to a room that contained one swordsman and two archers. At least thats what he believed them to be when a bolt stunned his shield hand. Aldrich took a better look as he retreated and found out that what he thought was two archer turned out to be two crossbowmen.


    This was the first time that he encountered crossbowmen in the nightmare realm. Aldrich stopped retreating and charged in, he was going to lose if he widened the distance so despite the risk he chose to advance.


    His target wasn''t the two crossbowmen but the swordsman in the center. Aldrich finished it off in two clean strikes thanks to his superior power. Unfortunately in that short amount of time he had more than two of his ribs broken when he took a bolt to the chest.


    Aldrich endured the pain and jumped on the husk that had almost reloaded his crossbow, that was a simple kill.


    The crossbowman was nothing without the two factors of distance and time, Aldrich broke off the neck and flipped over exchanging ces with the husk and he heard a clear thud of impact on the husk he had just used as a shield.


    Aldrich threw off his body shield and tackled thest remaining crossbowman after which it was decapitated without much resistance.


    After a short break Aldrich decided to continue his hunt but before ascending further he lit up all the torches in the fourth floor, and he took one of the crossbows with him. He judged that a medium range weapon mighte it handy in thest remaining floors.


    And he was right, when he encountered his foes in the fifth floor he found himself pitted against two shieldmen and one swordsman. Fortunately he used his newfound crossbow to kill one of the shieldmen easily. Although he wanted to shoot the second one too he was pressed back by the charging swordsman.


    Aldrich wasn''t upset, he was d that he killed one of the shieldmen but his goal wasn''t to finish off all of the husks with the crossbow but to separate them from each other and since thest shieldman took a defensive stance in the back and the swordsman charged to the front that meant that his goal was achieved.


    Aldrich shed with the swordsman, however his own skills and strength overpowered the lone swordsman sending it''s sword to the air and tearing a gash in its guts. By the time thest shieldman came running everything was already over.


    Aldrich smirked at the shieldman and pummeled it to oblivion. The nasty part about all this is that the sticky green and gooey blood of the husks had stained the sword and dirtied his hands.


    Aldrich had to take a few moments to clean himself and his weapons up. It wasn''t that Aldrich was a clean freak but other than the disgust there were other practical reasons on why he had to do that.


    One such reason being was that the blood would dull the sword, the second was what if his hand slipped while swinging his sword? That would make for a funny death. If it happened to someone else, if he was the victim of such a death he reckoned that he might not find it all that amusing.


    And so he had to clean up the sword until it looked eptable. Aldrich looked back downstairs and saw that the torches that he had lit in every floor hadbined their light to creat a very bright light.


    Aldrich took the swordsman''s sword for himself, his own sword had grown dull with use. It was about time for the new to rece the old. After testing the new long sword it turned out to be of the same size and weight as the old one.


    Aldrich climbed up to the sixth andst floor of the tower. It was dead quiet and much narrower than the lower floors. Now that he thought about it the higher he went the smaller the area got and the less rooms it had.


    Aldrich wasn''t deluded by the quite and seeming peace of the sixth floor. After, all the ambushers signature move is to be quite and strike when he least expected it. The sixth floor had only three rooms.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich checked them in order and the first two rooms were empty. Aldrich almost believed that this floor was empty like the fourth floor but that feeling vanished like snow on a summers day when he stood by the door of thest room.


    Aldrich felt a sense of danger simr to the one felt while battling the direwolf. Aldrich opened the door and his sight fell on an armored figure standing at the center of the room.


    The room itself was devoid of any furniture or decorations, the armored husk unsheathed a sword strapped to its back. Aldrich couldn''t clearly see the eyes of the husk behind its helm but he felt the husk observing him just as he was.


    <o>,m The husk didn''t look like it was going to make an moves, it was just standing there. This was enough to warn Aldrich that typical tricks weren''t going to work on his opponent this time.</o>


    First Aldrich started his attack by shooting at it with his crossbow, unbelievably it intercepted the bolt in midair and caught it in it''s free hand. Then it charged at him with ferocious speed and its two meter body created a heavy pressure on Aldrich.


    Aldrich had already discarded the crossbow right after he shot that bolt. He wasn''t intimidated by the pressure of the husk at all. He calmly wielded his sword and exchanged blows with it.


    Aldrich knew where hecked, his skill was a step below the husk but his overall power made up for that difference. Aldrich was at a even greater disadvantage since his ribs were limiting his movements and the pain that sent throughout his body was intense.


    But Aldrich soldiered on, the chance to hone his sword skill against a powerful opponent was priceless in value. Eventually he imed victory but not without having his left armpletely broken in the process.


    Aldrich looked around the empty room and found a small room behind a curtain the room was locked by a iron bars. Aldrich turned back to the husk and surprisingly he reaped four essence orbs. But that was only one of the reasons he was searching the dead husk.


    Aldrich got his hand on the second reason, a key chain with three keys. Aldrich tried to smile but his body was in too much of a wreck and any movement was basically torturous to him at the moment, so in consideration for his well being he decided to not do anything that he didn''t have to.


    Aldrich opened the iron gate with one of the keys and found himself in an armory. All the weapons looked normal but for a sword and a shield hanged on pegs at the center of the room.


    All the other weapons and basically anything in the nightmare town was covered in rust and dirt. And yet, the sword and the shield before him were unblemished, anyone who took a look at them would believe they were forged yesterday.


    Aldrich traced his hand over the sword and admired the reflection on the de, the pommel was engraved with the patterns of a white, four winged tiger. The same pattern was on the face of the shield over a red background.


    Aldrich took the key chain and decided to return to the base as for collecting the rest of the loot that was for next time. Obviously his body was in a sorry state he could hardly walk back not tp mention carrying so many things with him.


    This was only the first tower in this hugeplex, he fought thirteen husks and one of them was equivalent to grade zero level two monster. Even without the loot he gained a total of twenty eight essence orbs, a sumptuous amount.


    Aldrich got back out the same way he came in and even such a small jump was too much for him right now. Aldrich dragged himself the rest of the way when suddenly he heard dogs barking close by.


    Aldrich quickly hid behind one of the many crates and barrels in the street. A few minutester a pack of skinned dogs ran past him while drooling all over the street with their tongues dangling out of their overgrown fangs.

 Chapter 69 Progress And Unexpected Blunder

    Aldrich waited for a good minute before he continued on his way to the base. He wasn''t going to repeat his mistake fromst time he wasn''t about to enter a losing fight for no reason. He had a sessful hunt this night and he wasn''t going to throw it away for a few more orbs.


    Aldrich returned back to the base and willed his body not to fall apart. He took another coin pouch and filled it with ten silver coins, he needed money more than ever these days and his expenses were only going to increase.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3+


    Agility: 3+


    Endurance: 3+


    Vitality: 3+


    Intelligence: 3+


    Spirit (ck): 4


    Essence: 40


    Ether: 2


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    This was the greatest amount of essence orbs he had ever held at any one instance. Looking at that number certainly made him forget about the crushing pain all over his body.


    The chance to upgrade spirit to level five was almost irresistible to him right at this moment. But Aldrich had his reasons for choosing to upgrade intelligence first.


    Aldrich predicted that the price of each upgrade doubles so to go from four to five he would need thirty two orbs which was a manageable amount for him currently.


    Furthermore he didn''t know just how high he would have to upgrade his spirit attribute for him to be able to ignite his first symbol. Maybe it would happen at level five or maybe at seven.


    Even so the priority should definitely be spirit over intelligence. But there were three recent issues that made Aldrich pause his investment in the spirit attribute for now.


    The first being, the guild''s entrance exam. Although nobody had mentioned anything about it directly to him, he was able to infer that the examination criteria for initiates and true Crestmasters were different.


    That was obvious, the difference in ability was reason enough.


    Ayemon didn''t tell him about this because Ayemon simply didn''t or rather couldn''t possibly believe that Aldrich could be a Crestmaster in such an impossibly short amount of time. So logically there was no need to tell him about it.


    Second it would make Ayemon loose any trust in him if Aldrich couldn''t exin how he was able to be a Crestmaster all on his own without even meditating once.


    He needed to wait so can also attend the academy for at least the entire month, graduates and non-graduates were differently treated.


    He needed to go through the motions at the very least, after all most people attended for at least four years. The background of the academy was absolutely vital for him.


    Aldrich needed Ayemon''s help for his future ns, its not like bing a Crestmaster will suddenly solve all his problems. In fact bing one under such suspicious circumstances will be disadvantageous in the long term.


    Third andstly, it was regarding the time question marks of the only condition in his panel.


    The only way to get a decent understanding of it, as far as he knew currently, was to either upgrade intelligence or the eyes of insight skill.


    Upgrading the skill seems to be quite the difficult matter because even now with forty essence orbs he couldn''t see the plus sign behind it.


    How much essence did it really require? Was it even worth it?


    Anyhow these were the reasons that made it problematic to be a Crestmaster now. Not that he was sure to be one were he to upgrade his spirit further but at the moment each increase was a gamble.


    So Aldrich made the difficult but correct choice to upgrade intelligence to level four. But wait. Something wasn''t right.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 3+


    Agility: 3+


    Endurance: 3+


    Vitality: 3+


    Intelligence: 3+<sub> </sub>


    Spirit (ck): 4


    Essence: 40


    Ether: 2


    Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich took a second look at his attributes and wanted to face palm himself. How did he not notice that there was no plus sign after spirit? And he wasted so much time pondering and deliberating...


    But this wasn''t his fault, he had not suspected that even with forty essence orbs that wouldn''t be enough to upgrade spirit. From level one to four, each upgrade took double the previous level. However that rule seems to have been finally broken.


    Aldrich was upset, he wasn''t going to upgrade his spirit anyway but that was different, choice and inability were in stark contrast to one another.


    He still upgraded intelligence and he also decided on agility too. After that he grabbed his coin pouch and used eight orbs to return to the real world. Six for the coins and two for himself. By the end of the night he was left with zero orbs.


    Aldrich woke back up in the real world. He nonchntly took the coin pouch and ced it on a nearby table. He wasn''t as surprised anymore by the sensation of bringing things to the real world.


    More importantly he felt around his body and had to admire the aftereffects of using essence orbs to improve himself. The feeling was truly spectacr, the greater the improvement the greater the gratification.


    Aldrich tried to see the exnation of the blood condition but unfortunately there was no change, all he saw was question marks.


    This reminded him of that voice that talked to him during the crystal rain incident.


    It said that he could get answers if he went to some chapel. How could he find it anyway? There was no clue besides that mysterious voice. Its not like he could ask for directions, the husks didn''t seem very friendly.


    Despite his carefree thoughts, in fact even if he found the way to the chapel he still had his apprehensions regarding listening to some unknown voice in his head under these suspicious circumstances.


    Then again he was running out of time, this is an unmistakable feeling deep in his guts.


    The upgraded intelligence attribute was far from useless, however, even at this very moment Aldrich could feel his mind going over his entire battle history and reviewing his experiences.


    The techniques and footwork that seemed to elude him, now unraveled in his mind.


    This is especially the case regarding the swordsmanship that he picked up from the swordsmen husks.


    Aldrich could feel that he almost grasped something, it was like a fog that was right in front of him but his hands couldn''t grasp it.


    Aldrich felt a devouring thirst all of a sudden. He recalled his brief encounter with the armored husk. There was something there.


    It would not increase any of his attributes but he knew that if he were to grasp it his power would skyrocket.


    Hecked a very crucial part, something essential. One more step. Aldrich could only curse his bad luck. Before this he was doing fine but now he was tortured by an itch that he couldn''t scratch. And yet it taunted him so.


    Aldrich turned off the mossmp lest he waste anymore time. He had a very long and packed day tomorrow so he would rather make the best use of this time.


    ****


    Aldrich woke up at sunrise as usual and followed his morning routine. After his morning wash he made himself some boiled egg sandwiches.


    Right after, he took out his notebooks and carried them in a study bad that he hung on his left shoulder.


    Today, he had a ss in the academy. It was a ss about dungeons, it was one of the sses that he had to attend.


    Aldrich made his way to the public carriage stop and was d that he lived so close to the academy otherwise his trip would take more time.


    Aldrich got down at the main entrance to the academy. The various giant statues that lined the path to the gate were especially awe inspiring. There were even some motivational quotes carved on stone tes beneath the statues.


    Aldrich didn''t have all day so he only gave a quick look at the surroundings as he made his way to the building mentioned in the schedule that Aldrich gave him.


    The number of rushing students darting from building to building was less than he expected. Perhaps it was the grandness of everything that trivialized the students.


    Aldrich wasn''t able to follow the instructions on the schedule so he asked for directions without stubbornly insisting on going on his own.


    The lecture hall, as it was aptly named was an oval and wide chamber. The seating arrangement was in a half circle that made the professor in the center and simultaneously gave good view all around.


    It looks like he waste despite his best effort as the professor, a man in his sixties, was already talking and writing on a green chalkboard behind him. The ss had a little more than twenty people in attendance.


    Aldrich didn''t say much as he took his seat as quietly as possible without disturbing the ongoing ss. The title written on top of the chalkboard was; intermediate dungeons.


    Aldrich looked around and was surprised to find some young-looking kids taking the ss.


    "¡ª¡ªso if we were to say that dungeons are not necessarily unnatural, then we would fall into a typical confusion. We are not forced to lump all dungeons into a single definition to understand dungeons.

 Chapter 70 Dungeons

    "If we were to talk about most natural dungeons in existence or that have existed in the past, then we are talking about dungeons before the second and third cataclysm.


    As is widely known the dungeon mutation phenomena started after the second cataclysm but what is mostly overlooked is that the phenomena didn''t go out of control until the third cataclysm,monly known as the Age of Dread."


    At this point one of the students in the front seats raised her hand and after getting a nod from the professor, she asked,


    "Then, why are there so few natural dungeons anymore?"


    "A fine question. It is well known that finding a dungeon is very rare. In the time before and even after the second cataclysm it was very hard to encounter a dungeon and all natural dungeons can be close permanently so most any dungeons found were dealt with in a very simple and final manner."


    Another student raised her hand.


    "Why don''t we just do the same to unnatural dungeons and be done with it?"


    Aldrich had the distinct feeling that the professor was about to p that girl for some reason, but he was actually just smiling.


    "A natural dungeon has no restriction. This is the biggest difference between natural and unnatural dungeons. If a natural dungeon is dangerous we can just send an army to clear it, or I can just blow up the entire ce if I don''t want any casualties. Now, doing that to unnatural dungeons is almost impossible or rather risky. It that clear?"


    "We will talk in depth about the differences of unnatural dungeonster on. There are types that need only to be cleared once but there are some rules and restrictions even then. Others are permanent and could be cleared infinitely.


    I am sure you know of The giant ant cavern in Derma, Its a very popr dungeon among beginner adventurers, its one such example of a unnatural dungeon that can be cleared as much as you like. provided you pay the fees."


    Aldrich was writing down everything that he heard this whole time even the seemingly dumb question. He was just getting into all thiste so he had to put in some effort to catch up.


    "This semester is almost over, some of you might graduate this time. But I still advise you to take my ss; advanced dungeons next semester even if you graduate.


    This information regarding dungeons is so precious that it might save your life or make your lives easier. There are many big headed youths that take dungeons lightly and end up paying dearly for that."


    Aldrich immersed himself in the ss and when the ss ended he had written four pages back to back.


    He felt surreal to be here in the crest academy, learning to be a Crestmaster. Not long ago this was the dream. Unfortunately from then to now many things happened yet this didn''t prevent Aldrich from being happy at this moment.


    When the professor announced the end of the ss he saw the students gather their books, get off their seats and disperse towards the two exits of the ssroom.


    From the corner of his eye he suddenly noticed a short girl with long brown hair leaving the ssroom. It was, Sidney, Adera''s roommate. Aldrich quickly followed her.


    "Hey," Aldrich called out once they were out in the hallway. "Fancy meeting you here."


    Sidney looked back upon hearing that.


    "You," she looked at Aldrich like she suddenly suffered some bad luck, "I told you everything I know. Stop following me!"


    "Whoa, take it easy. This is a coincidence, we just took the same ss." Aldrich said dismissively.


    "Do you think I won''t pen aint to the academy about you? They will tell your superior about this!"


    Oh right. Aldrich now remembered that he had pretended to be a city-watchman to trick this girl into answering his questions with more honesty.


    Actually he didn''t mind telling her the truth now that he got what he was there for, he also felt a little sorry about lying and scaring her like that, though he would do it again if he had to.


    However even before he could exin he could see it in her eyes, the realization. Her jaw suddenly ckened and her eyes went wide. She pointed her finger at him as she walked closer.


    "You. You. You!"


    "Ahahhaha, well, this is a little awkward."


    "You lied to me. You tricked me."


    "Well technically I just confirmed your own assumption, so I didn''t actually lie."<sub> </sub>


    "Don''t you dare try your lies on me again."


    "Alright, my bad. I just had to do that since you didn''t want to help me out at all. You know what let me treat you to some fresh canberry juice and then we''ll let bygones be bygones. How does that sound?"


    "Fine, I''ll choose the ce then."


    Unexpectedly, Sidney agreed and she had a viscous smile on her face.


    Aldrich could tell that she was up to no good by he wanted to make amends and he already gave his word he wasn''t going to take it back so easily. Besides he might need her helpter on.


    "Sounds like a deal. By the way I need to get my meditation incense for this week, can you show me the ce?"


    "Hmm, sure follow me¡ª wait." Sidney turned back again and red at Aldrich.


    "The week already started yesterday."


    "I was busy so what?"


    "That doesn''t mean that you don''t know where to get meditation incense, if you''re attending that ss then you should be a third year or greater right? a first year should know this."


    Shit. He messed up.


    "I happen to be a forgetful person you know?" Aldrich couldn''t think of anything but thatme excuse...


    "Uhuh, yeah. I know what this is all about now."


    Aldrich: "??"


    "You''re being frivolous. Well, it didn''t work. Try being a little more straightforward. Humph."


    Aldrich didn''t know how to answer that and could only watch Sidney walk away.


    "Hey, you blew it but it was a good try."


    A guy approached the dumbfounded Aldrich and patted him on the shoulder.


    "Eh? What?" Aldrich asked.


    "Hey doesn''t let that get to you. Rejection is normal just move on to the next one."


    "Actually I wasn''t really trying to¡ª"


    "No no, it''s fine you don''t have to to exin to me. I understand."


    Aldrich didn''t bother exining anything further since this guy didn''t seem like he was going to listen anyway.


    "Where can I get my incense? Help me out."


    "Was the shock that much?! Take it easy, I''ll take you there."


    Aldrich decided to use this misunderstanding to his advantage soon after the guy took him to a section of the building with so many rooms with numbers called the resources management section.


    Aldrich chose one of the rooms and was asked to provide his academy badge which was a green ring that had the words crest written inside it somehow.


    Aldrich was handed a small cloth that wrapped something inside. This was the meditation incense, it was standard issue for all students of the Crest academy. He didn''t bother to check it now, he put in his hand bag and closed it off.

 Chapter 71 First Day Of Training (1)

    Even after he made it out of the academy he was a little pissed off about the earlier misunderstanding. However it was still better than being suspected by Sidney for not knowing something obvious like that.


    This way he managed to avoid a close call in exchange for an awkward conversation so this was actually the better oue. Aldrich thought to himself that he needed to be careful with his words now that he had entangled himself in aplex web of lies.


    Aldrich got off the public carriage at the stop of the imperial bank, after all he came today to deposit some more coins in his ount. He was once again impressed by the imperial bank and the amount of people that came in and out, it was actually more than the academy.


    Aldrich didn''t talk to anyone instead he followed the way he remembered to Yasbel''s office. He still remembered that she invited him toe to her when he wanted to do something in the bank and Aldrich decided to take her up on her offer.


    Aldrich found the door closed and so he knocked on it a few times.


    "Come in."


    Aldrich opened the door and entered, he saw that Yasbel wearing the same red and white uniform and silver-rimmed sses, she was writing something furiously on her neat desk. Aldrich coughed lightly to attract her attention.


    "Hm? Just leave the paperwork on the desk¡ª" Yasbel was saying midway when she raised her head and saw Aldrich.


    "It''s me, Aldrich. Fromst time? Remember?"


    "Ah! Yes, yes. Aldrich. I''m sorry I thought it was someone else. Come in, have a seat, some coffee?"


    Yasbel smiled professionally and adjusted her sses before standing up to shake his hand. Aldrich shook her hand delightfully and sat on one of the wide leather chairs by the side of the desk.


    "No need I''m going to do some exercises after this."


    "That''s too bad. How can I help you today?"


    "Actually it''s same asst time, I want some of my coins apprised and deposited to my ount if you''re not too busy."


    "Busy? This is my work, besides I was the one who told you toe to me if you had some work in the bank right?"


    "That''s true." Aldrichughed as he proceeded to give her the thirteen coins.


    Yasbel got right to work and got all of her equipment out, "hmm, these coins are very simr to the ones fromst time, did you forget to bring themst time?" She asked curiously.


    Aldrich smiled at the question, "well you can say that."


    "Very mysterious~"


    The time passed quickly while chatting with Yasbel and when she was done she deposited the equivalent to fifteen silver and six copper coins to his ount. Aldrich decided to withdraw ten for his daily expenses right away.


    Twenty coppers was one silver and thirty silvers was a single gold coin. If he hadn''t paid for the apartment''s rent his wealth would be more than a gold coin.


    Aldrich had heard that there are bigger coins than gold called mithril but he heard that these were used in trade by nations so that was really out of his league to think on.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich bade farewell to Yasbel and returned back to his apartment where he changed into his half-t armor, that proved harder than expected because he was doing it alone without help.


    Aldrich then boarded the carriage to the sunken valley and whistled along the way. He was supposed to meet Gazeff for his first day of training today too.


    The Frontier town was bustling as usual and it was brimming with the tension and edge of adventurers and hunters alike. Aldrich made his way to the halfling women''s shop and rented the adventurer backpack and the six-wheels cart.


    This halfling helped him out by calling out to his so he didn''t mind giving her some business, of course her merchandise is good enough so it was well deserved in his opinion. The halfling thanked him when they were done and he decided to ask about a certain something.


    "By the way you wouldn''t happen to know a tavern called the Grinning Aatax, would you? It''s run by two halflings one is call Tarzin."


    The woman thought about it for a moment and then responded, "I''m not sure this is the one you''re looking for but I did hear about something like that from my great uncle''s third cousin who knew some who might have dinned there once. It''s in Lunsken district by the pure fountain."


    Aldrich tried his best to memorize the ce even though this information didn''t look reliable at all. Tarzin told him about the tavern like it was some famous ce but when he look for it when he got here, nobody seemed to have heard of it.


    Of course when more than a million people lived together the ce they upied was truly huge and it was difficult to find ces like that. Since halflings were said to be all acquainted with one another he decided to ask anyway and hoped he got lucky.


    Aldrich valued Tarzin as a friend, the first friend he made outside Wakefield and together they escaped a life threatening situation so he hoped to meet him again.


    Aldrich picked up the pace and took a look at the demands posters today before heading towards the outside gate. He was supposed to meet Gazeff here. Some people were waiting for their friends and teammates by the gate and with that amount of people it was hard to spot Gazeff.


    Even more so since this is his second timeing here so he wasn''t used to it yet.


    Luckily enough he managed to spot Gazeff atst, he was wearing casual clothes and had the same intoxicated look about him. He too had a backpack with him at least, only his was much bigger than Aldrich''s.


    Aldrich wondered why Gazeff''s backpack was so bloated as he approached. Gazeff noticed him not long after.


    "I was beginning to think you chicken out." Gazeff said, by way of greeting. Probably.


    "I think I''m on time though."


    "Whatever," Gazeff dismissed, "follow me, and be quick about it. We''ve got much to do today, much to do."


    "Lead the way."


    Aldrich followed behind Gazeff as they made their way out of the town and straight into the forest of the First ground. He skillfully jumped over ditches and dodged obstacles like thorns and vines.


    Suddenly some kind of flying monster as big as a house cat ambushed Gazeff. Aldrich didn''t even feel the monster at all, it hid itself and attacked at the right moment. Aldrich wanted to warn Gazeff somehow but it was too fast, so fast that Aldrich could not even get a clear look at it.


    It was blur of ck and green headed right at Gazeff''s back from a blind spot. Gazeff was unarmed and he didn''t even wear any protective equipment. Aldrich blinked and he felt his face stung by something.

 Chapter 72 First Day Of Training (2)

    Aldrich opened his eyes and rubbed his face where he felt the sting, he found blood drops. It wasn''t his blood and neither was it Gazeff''s, it was that monster. The moment before it touched Gazeff, he swatted it off casually.


    Aldrich didn''t see what happened clearly but he could infer it. The monster vanished after being casually swatted by Gazeff, Aldrich looked around for its corps but he didn''t have much hope to find it.


    Because he wouldn''t be surprised if that thing just turned into bloodmist.


    Although he found the remains of the monster atst, he could hardly identify it or what it looked like five seconds ago. Now, it was a mangled blob of broken bones and flesh. Definitely not pleasant to look at.


    Aldrich wanted to collect its body since Gazeff didn''t seem to care but after he saw the state it was it in he decided against it. That thing was a grade zero level two monster like the direwolf or the armored husk he defeated yesterday, it was worth a pretty sum.


    Gazeff was already some ways ahead, Aldrich followed behind quickly even as he felt his heart ache at the loss. Wait. Aldrich quickly turned back to the corps and absorbed four essence orbs sessfully.


    Aldrich then followed Gazeff again. He almost forgot that he could absorb essence orbs from any dead creature whether he personally killed it or not. Of course the condition being that hees into physical contact with said creature after its death.


    He might not be able to make money off of it but he still made valuable profits.


    As for how Gazeff killed that creature so easily, naturally Gazeff is a Crestmaster whening to the First ground he didn''t need any weapons or armor to begin with.


    Aldrich ran after Gazeff and thought of a devious n. What if he provoked the monsters and attracted them to Gazeff? Wouldn''t he make huge haul? By relying on Gazeff to kill the monsters he might get his hands on fifty or more orbs.


    It was highly tempting, Aldrich salivated at the thought of it. Barely any effort and high returns. But, it was just an idea. All ideas are easy but to actually apply that idea was a different matter entirely.


    Gazeff was a Crestmaster but he was probably only a grade one Crestmaster, he wasn''t invincible. Any ident could happen here, and with enough numbers he will be overwhelmed and Aldrich was likely to die earlier than Gazeff in that situation.


    This is the real world not the nightmare realm, if he died here, that was it, there were no second chances. At least he wasn''t willing to test his resurrection in the real world.


    Aldrich found Gazeff in a small clearing as he was taking out various equipment out of his huge backpack. Gazeff took out several iron stakes with bright red gs tied at the tip of each one.


    "Wait here."


    That was all Gazeff said before he walked off, he could see Gazeff because he didn''t go too far. Gazeff was nailing the stakes in several trees that were not too far apart.


    After he was done he returned and took out a huge bag out of his backpack. Aldrich reckoned that the bag took at least half the space in the backpack.


    "Come here."


    Aldrich did as he was ordered.


    "Stay still."


    Aldrich againplied. He watched as Gazeff took out various pitch ck stones tied with strange looking ropes. And tied them around his limbs, his arms, his legs, his thigh, his back and his stomach.


    The pitch ck stones were carved neatly into triangles that fit together perfectly. However it was when Gazeff was done that Aldrich noticed the weight he was carrying. He still had his half-t armor on and thebined weight was staggering.


    Aldrich thought that with his advanced attributes he could brush off any training with ease. And yet now began to understand why even after Ayemon knew about his strength he still sent him to train with Gazeff.


    Gazeff''s movements came to a sudden halt as he ignored Aldrich and looked intensely far away into the depths of the Sunken Valley, Aldrich followed his look but was unable to discern what the instructor was looking at.


    "what is it?"


    "Nothing. Just focus on your training."


    "What now?" Aldrich asked with a grimace.


    "Did you see where I nted those gs? Those trees make a circle around this area you must finish seventyps in an hour, go."<sub> </sub>


    "Seventy? With this on?"


    "Why else would I have you put it on? To look fancy? Ayemon told me about your superhuman strength so I optimized the training especially for you don''t worry. Now, your time has already started."


    Aldrich dragged himself under that weight and started jogging by following the marked tree line. In the beginning he made twops easily but after that he slowed down as he started tiring out.


    The distance and weight were no joking matter, his body felt so heavy that he recalled his days in the farm, before he has this power he now enjoyed. Back then he worked from daybreak to sundown and he was tired all the time.


    Aldrich remembered that effort he put in to get something to eat for himself and his mother. Ever since he started upgrading his attributes he no longer felt truly exhausted except for that one time he was expelled from the nightmare realm forcefully.


    Aldrich felt himself smiling as he made the fortiethp, yes, this wasn''t such a bad feeling. He decided to slow down, not because he was tired but to conserve his energy. He could run faster but Aldrich knew that he had enough time, there was little need to finish much earlier than that.


    "That''s enough." Dered Gazeff.


    Aldrich plopped down in the center of the clearing he just ran around for seventyps. He wanted to breath properly so he was about to take off his armor but he was stopped by Gazeff.


    "Who told you to take it off? You can take a ten minute break but you can''t take off the weights. Don''t look at me like that, did you think it was over or something? We''re just getting started."


    "You can''t be serious! I''m not a Crestmaster yet, you know?" Aldrichined. He felt that his entire body was on fire but this guy was only giving him a ten-minute break? That''s just insane.


    p "The fact that you can talk like that afterpleting the test I just gave you means that your talent is sufficient. I''m able to urately gauge your limits, so I know what you can and can''t do. Don''t even bother arguing with me when it''s about training."</anda>


    "So that was a test? Damn, I think I should have lost on purpose then."


    "I''m d you still have a humorous spirit but don''t even think about cheating. I know exactly what kids like are like, being born with a natural talent must''ve gotten into your head a long time ago."


    "I don''t think so..." Aldrich eximed, it''s not like he could take that lie back and now he had to live the rest of his life with it.


    "I said don''t even think about it!" Gazeff sneered. "My job is to forge overconfident guys like you into true steel. You might not believe my words but your talent is not that special. This world is vast and you can die a thousand times over if you get arrogant."


    Aldrich remained silent, he understood Gazeff''s good intentions. Gazeff was kind of in the right, if Aldrich was born with his current power he would likely be very arrogant for having them. And he would have every right to be, after all, as things stood Aldrich qualified as a level three being if barely.


    "Do you have to be an adventurer?" Gazeff suddenly broke the silence and asked.


    "Yeah, I''ve always dreamed of being an adventurer." Aldrich was a little taken back by the question but he still answered.


    "Why? Most Crestmasters can get easy jobs without any trouble. You can be a nobleman''s advisor or a politician''s bodyguard. If you don''t like that kind of thing you can join a renown order or something. There are many options that pay nice enough and are much more prestigious."


    Aldrich didn''t answer immediately, he felt like he needed to think carefully before answering. He was at a loss on the exact meaning behind Gazeff''s words so he could only answer within his means.


    "It''s not just a matter of me desiring honor or glory, I certainly want those things but right now if I want to achieve my goals and being an adventurer is the most suitable path avable to me. Naturally if one day I can retirefortably I would want to."


    "An adventurer huh?" Gazeff sighed, "I was an adventurer once too."


    "What happened?" Aldrich asked curiously.


    "I was shot with an arrow to the knee is what happened."


    "Aren''t you a Crestmaster can''t you just brush off that kind of thing?" Aldrich was not convinced.


    "Sure if it was a normal arrow. That arrow was poisoned by the grand shaman of the toxicdweller goblin tribe. The fact that I survived  and can walk at all is out of pure luck."

 Chapter 73 Incident And Duty (1)

    This served as a wake up call for Aldrich. Until now, most of his understanding of Crestmasters has been superficial.


    Even when he learned from Krynt''s books he mostly dismissed the deaths of Crestmasters as unlucky idents.


    Deep in his mind he had a belief that Crestmasters were somewhat invincible and infallible.


    This couldn''t be helped as themon sense understanding of Crestmasters was that they were simply out of reach.


    However that was far from the truth.


    Crestmaster were powerful, frighteningly so, and yet the monsters that inhabit thend were notpletely annihted yet.


    In fact there were many areas all throughout thend where monsters regained supreme.


    The monsters and other enemies of the empire were not weak at all. In fact, there were times in history when Crestmasters were ughtered one-sidedly by these monsters.


    Another factor was that information about power difference between Crestmasters were very vague.


    The more practical information about grade two Crestmasters was unavable anywhere he looked. All that was clear was that they were the elites in many high positions in the world.


    And it was even worse for grade three, as the only description he got was that they were no longer human. This of course didn''t help much in gaining any clear understanding.


    "Time''s up."


    Aldrich didn''t argue, he got up and took the long sword that Gazeff held to him.


    "Watch carefully, I''m about to demonstrate the twenty eight basic sword forms you can also call them stances. If you have any questions ask me after I''m done."


    Aldrich backed off and watched keenly as Gazeff showed him one stance after another. The moves looked... awkward.


    As Aldrich saw more and more forms he was progressively convinced that none of these moves could ever be used in realbat.


    He didn''t consider himself to be an expert swordsman by any means but he definitely was somewhat experienced in realbat.


    He could tell that these moves were purely reliant on looks like a dance, it was good for showing off during some festivals or parties and whatnot.


    But, what enemy would let you dance in the middle of a battle? That didn''t make any sense at all.


    When hepared it with the swordsmanship of the nightmare realm he couldn''t help but shake his head.


    The nightmare swordsmanship was aggressive, brutal and to the point. He didn''t learn it from a teacher but by fighting to the death with husk swordsmen.


    "Do you have any questions? If not then it''s your turn." Said Gazeff after he was done.


    "Actually, I do have a question. What is the use of these forms? Even a child could tell that it won''t work in realbat."


    "That''s the stupidest thing that I''ve heard all week." Gazeff facepalmed.


    "I''m being serious." Aldrich demanded.


    "Do I look like I''m joking with you? That, just now, was a demonstration. Meaning that I was extremely slow so you can see the moves clearly."


    "Well, that is true..."


    "With your strength and build the thing youck right now is coordination and efficient use of power. When you can perform all twenty eight sword forms as smoothly as the flowing water of the Yongar river you will understand.


    Next week we will have a spare at the end of the day, then you tell me if you think the stances are useless.


    Now, get working! And if I see you cking off you will get some extraps today."


    Aldrich proceeded to try and repeat what he saw but along the way he made a few mistakes here and there. Gazeff had to correct his blunders every now and then.


    The forms got increasingly moreplicated as he went on. The weights and the armor made everything harder than it had to be in his opinion.


    Switching quickly between the stances was the hardest part. This went one for several hours before Gazeff called the training to an end.


    Gazeff ordered him to collect the gs back at least he got to take the weights off. After Gazeff took off the weights Aldrich felt like he was an uncaged bird, free and unfettered.


    His body was soaked with sweat, his smell was probably terrible, good thing he couldn''t smell himself.


    Aldrich and Gazeff moved a little while looking for a stream or a brook. They did bring waterskins but it''s been so long the water turned warm.<sub> </sub>


    Abruptly while they were walking Gazeff''s grabbed him by the shoulder. Aldrich looked back at him and saw that Gazeff had an ugly look on his face.


    "Don''t panic," He warned with a frown, "we must retreat at once. But don''t run no matter what, keep your speed in check and a tight lookout around you."


    Aldrich felt that Gazeff was not joking and he tightened his grip on his sword. This was not good, a threat that made Gazeff retreat was not something he could underestimate.


    If his luck was bad then it might be¡­


    No. No point in overthinking. Aldrich breathed in and out then he followed Gazeff step for step, while keeping a moderate pace.


    They were returning to the town but it was not close it might take an hour at best. If they had not decided to look for water¡­


    At some point an extremely foul smell spread in the area, he could stomach it at first but as time went on he started to have to cover his nose and mouth with his shirt from under the armor.


    Afterwards they were hit with howling winds and they heard the distinct noise of a great amount of trees copsing behind them.


    Whatever it was it wasn''t too far away now. Aldrich wanted to make a run for it but Gazeff motioned for him not to.


    "If you run too fast you''ll attract several monsters to yourself, our luck was bad but so what? Just remember not to do anything unnecessary. Stay behind me and follow my instructions to the letter!"


    Aldrich didn''t hesitate, he may not like Gazeff much but right not he was pretty much his only reliable support. And if this was a grade one monster then¡­


    Aldrich felt the winds calm after they were furious moments ago, the foul smell was back stronger than ever and it wasing from¡­above!


    Aldrich looked up and witnessed a huge silhouette diving down, wings iling everywhere and dark purple and blue feathers scattered everywhere.


    Before he could get a decent idea of what he was looking at the figure crashed in the clearing right in front of them. The crash was loud and he heard the cracking of bones when the mud and grass was sent flying by the impact.


    Aldrich looked at the malformed earth up front and realized there were two figures that crashed, they were entangled together.


    The first was the obvious two and half meter giant bald hawk, and it took the burnt of the fall damage as it''s left wing was broken.


    It''s eyes were shining in green and a purple liquid leaked out of its mouth and it released a dark fume as it dripped on the earth.


    The bald hawk was lying prone and it had two massive ws, even inparison with the rest of the body. The ws were armed with long talons and each w could easily hold an entire human.


    And one of the ws indeed was, at this very moment, a man d in blue and silver half te armor was held in one of these ws. The massive talons pierced the man''s defense in several ces and deep red blood seeped outward.


    The blond man was without a helm and blood oozed out of his mouth, but he was smiling all the same.


    Aldrich knew why, he could see in his hands the man held a long bonence that prated the chest of the monster and was what probably brought the monster crashing down here.


    "A Necrotic-w Hawk, this is not good." Gazeff mumbled.


    Aldrich had never heard or read about it but just one look at it told him that it was a grade one monster. Even in this state he could feel a terrible pressure from it.


    Before the pair could recover from the after effects of the crashnding they were alerted to the nearby trees falling down.


    With unimaginable force, a beast burst into the clearing, the beast had a longnky neck and antler horns grew along it''s spine''s length from head to tail.


    The monster had was mounted by four individuals who were all Crestmasters, their crests were openly revealed on their foreheads. The monster which was their mount red at the Hawk with red angry eyes.


    Before the mounted party coulde any closer the Hawk seemed to have regained consciousness due to the feeling of danger. With a screech it stood upright.


    The man was trying to pull out hisnce but he had to abandon it midway to escape. But the Hawk was not about to let him escape so easily it lunged at him, attempting to snap him in half.


    The man looked to be in a sorry condition as his movements were sluggish and slow.


    Aldrich looked beyond, to the party riding on what he assumed was a Catoblepas. This was a monster that he had read on.


    On the Catoblepas a woman stood and pointed both of her hands to the struggling pair of monster and man. She unleashed a torrent of mes in that direction.


    Aldrich''s hands curled into fists. This attack wasn''t intended to save the man but to burn both the monster and the man together. After all they were struggling together in close proximity making an urate shot was not possible.


    The mass of fire was fast, so fast that it crossed a distance of more than fifty meters in the span of a breath.


    Before the fire could incinerate both man and monster, that mass was separated and turned into several fire birds that dodged the fleeing man narrowly.

 Chapter 74 Incident And Duty (2)

    The fire birds collided with the Necrotic Hawk and released several small explosion in their wake. The impact pushed the Hawk some distance away.


    A smoke screen resulted from the attack which allowed the injured man to escape a good distance away. But he was limping and bleeding badly from several holes in his body.


    If he wasn''t a Crestmaster and a Knight he would have died long ago, the mangled flesh made it easy to see the bones. He was riddled with several such wounds.


    After a moment a radiant light engulfed the man and he seemed to breath out in relief. After the light dissipated Aldrich saw a miraculous scene the man was no longer bleeding and his injuries were healing at a rapid pace.


    Aldrich looked away to the woman in the group who were ck and white faith robes, she closed her eyes and her pure white crest shined. He could see her symbol, it was the holy circle which made her a cleric.


    The man being healed had a crest too, it was bronze and his symbol was of ance and a shield which made him a knight.


    The Catoblepas was probably his mount. Speaking of that monster after the party had dismounted it charged in the direction of the Hawk.


    It stopped right before the smoke screen and breathed in deeply as it dug its feet into the mud.


    "Breath of decay!"


    The knight ordered from behind. A stream of green foul smelling air was released from the monster''s mouth and it broke into the smoke.


    The Hawk released an anguished cry, after the smoke dissipated Aldrich had expected it to be scorched badly, though it was burnt in some ces it wasn''t as bad as it should have been.


    Aldrich saw that attack clearly, a dozen fire birds shot a that speed should have charred half of it at least.


    The breath of decay caused it''s once beautiful feathers to grow white and several green and red bumps like e popped on it''s skin. The didn''t look good at all.


    The Necrotic-w Hawk''s eyes glowed in creepy green and it cried deafeningly. The sound of cracking bones echoed in the vicinity.


    From the mud that the were standing on, skeletal bones emerged one after another at frightening speed, the bones rearranged themselves magically to form short humanoid skeletons.


    The skeletons reminded Aldrich of the goblins that kidnapped him and tried to enve him and Tarzin some time ago. The skeletons had green glowing eyes and held only short bone daggers.


    They divided themselves and half of the summoned skeletons went to attack the party members in the back the other half targeted the Catoblepas.


    "Go! Don''t let it summon any more!"


    Shouted the Knight who was being healed.


    The Catoblepas charged at the Hawk and rammed into it with it''s massive horns digging deep into its flesh and dislocating the bonence which was logged into the Hawk''s chest.


    But moments after that dozens of the short skeletons had climbed all over its body and started stabbing everywhere at once prompting the Catoblepas to back away in frenzy.


    The Catoblepas released some sort of energy, Aldrich wasn''t able to sense it clearly but he could tell that it did something when he saw that the bone daggers broke when they tried to stab for a second attack.


    The skin of the Catoblepas seemed to have changed color to dark gray and it became as hard as stone.


    Suddenly an incredibly fast shadow darted over the battlefield, it was one of the party members. A man in light armor who had a blue crest. The symbol was unclear as the man was moving so fast he could barely make out his face.


    The man got close to the Catoblepas and at this moment his crest shined and released a blue light that came upon the man''s right hand. The light transformed into a bronze ive.


    The man was a Weaponsmaster and his weapon was a ive, and it was evidently special as it turned the skeletons into dust the moment it came into contact with them.


    The man then jumped over to the Catoblepas that was still being assaulted and with supernatural reflexes and strength he cleared out the majority of the skeletons that were bothering it.


    Unfortunately he was still one step toote as two of the skeletons crawled upto the head of the Catoblepas and with their bone daggers they stabbed through the two eyes causing blood to spray outward.


    *ROAR!*


    The Catoblepas went out of control and the man was almost flung off of its back but he didn''t let go instead he mounted the Catoblepas and mmed his ankle into the monster''s abdomen bringing it down to a halt.<sub> </sub>


    It was then, that the Hawk which waspletely silent and unmoving for two minutes suddenly lunged with ungodly speed and with a wide open beak it bit into the neck of the unexacting Catoblepas.


    But instead of meeting flesh it felt like it was biting into an old rock. The man reacted atst and shed at the two remaining skeletons instead of targeting the Hawk.


    Aldrich didn''t know or understand why the man made that decision, he had a clear opening to kill the Hawk. For whatever reason, that dy was long enough that it allowed the Hawk to break the stone-like defense of the Catoblepas.


    It managed to tear a hefty chunk off of the Catoblepas''s neck. The man tried to attck the Hawk but by then it had rolled on the ground strangely.


    As it rolled on the ground, from the mud several small humanoid skeletons emerged quickly and attached themselves to the Hawk. Their bones then rearranged themselves into what looked like a suit of armor that covered the Hawk from head to toe.


    "DUCK!"


    The woman who was a Pyromancer shouted at the Weaponsmaster. As the man ducked the ive returned to his crest in a sh of light and a two meter wide fire ball collided with the Necrotic Hawk.


    The resulting explosion caused the air to ripple like a water wave in ake. Aldrich was pulled out of the scene when Gazeff pointed backwards and so they started retreating slowly.


    So far none of the involved parties have bothered them, probably because they were too focused on the battle. And who could me them they were fighting for their lives.


    When the smoke had dissipated, the party hadpletely regrouped, the pyromancer was sweating bullets.


    Clearly that attack was not so easy to pull off, there was another woman in the back she was dressed in half-te and looked like a melee fighter but her face was pale and weak.


    The Knight had retrieved his bonence and was rubbing the head of the Catoblepas, the ive wielding man was there too. The cleric was healing the fallen Catoblepas but as Aldrich saw it bleeding more and more he shook his head.


    The Necrotic-w Hawk was curled up in the small crater that resulted from that explosion. This time it was hurt badly and bleeding profusely with charred flesh and smoking bones littering the earth underneath.


    Aldrich swallowed down, by all rights that thing should have been burnt to a crisp, but then again it disyed a resistance to fire earlier and it had covered itself withyers of bone armor before the attack.


    The Hawk ignited with purple smoke. Thirteen skeletons climbed out of the mud and made a run for the party members. These skeletons were much bigger-human sized and wielded bone clubs.


    "It''s charging for an acid burst, I''ll go in there and stop it, Carl you protect them here!"


    "Can you do it?" The Knight looked at the Pyromancer but she shook her head.


    "I''m out of Ether."


    "We have to finish it off now, you guys back off as far as you can go. I will take the chance to attack while it''s using acid bust."


    "Are you thinking that you can tank it? You can''t do that..."


    "It''s our only chance, I''m the only one who can resist the acid thanks to my stone skin."


    The weaponsmaster released his ive andunched it at the iing skeletons, the ive spun in the air and it released a powerful shock wave as it destroyed five skeletons at once and it even flew back to the weaponsmaster.


    The Knight rushed to dodged the remaining skeletons as they tried to grab into him by he cleverly dodged any attempts to drag him down.


    Atst before he could reach his goal several pores seemed to have opened in the body of the Hawk and a purple liquid gushed out. Everywhere.


    In a radius around the the Hawk and in every direction, where itnded trees withered and the earth itself burned and corroded in a matter of seconds.


    Aldrich and Gazeff were not far enough to escape the st range and were engulfed in the attack.


    But not a single dropnded on the two of them. Aldrich looked at Gazeff but it didn''t seem like he was doing anything special. Above their heads, there was the silhouette of an invincible shield and the acid seemed to have avoided them of its own ord.


    Aldrich looked at the center of the battlefield and saw that the Knight had pierced the Hawks head with his bonence at some point when it was unleashing its attack.

 Chapter 75 Incident And Duty (3)

    In a radius of more than twenty meters thend had turned into a putrid swamp of death. Corrosive purple acid burned through the trees and wild life in the surroundings to an unfamiliar ce.


    Only a few moments ago Aldrich was still in a forest-like area where dense trees and wild grass grew everywhere. But in a matter of a few minutes the world seemed to have been turned upside down.


    He could see the carcasses of some monsters that were taken out in the st, he couldn''t recognize any of them for only piles of mangled bones and distorted flesh was all that remained.


    Even the Catoblepas was now surly dead as the majority of it''s body hadpletely disintegrated.


    The acidic swamp was releasing purplish fumes that rose to the sky and partially blocking out the rays of the sun.


    The Crestmasters party had made it out of the st range safely, except the woman in armor. She was the one who didn''t contribute to the battle at all but she looked even more exhausted and worn out than all of them.


    The others party members were checking on her but the cleric just kept shaking her head. Then the ive wielder pulled her up.


    "She''s hopeless, we need to check on Loyd. He might be in critical condition. How''s your Ether?"


    "I''m fine, I can still use Heal twice. Lets go."


    They ran quickly not bothered by the remains of the acid beneath them. The Pyromancer was right behind the two of them.


    They made their way to the center of the chaos, a crater. In that crater they saw the Knight prating the giant Hawk''s head with his bonence. The Hawk was flipped over and thence went right through it and even stabbed into the ground under it.


    The closer they got the better they could see the Knight''s back.


    "Loyd! Come down here, let me heal you quickly. You might have some problemster if we dy."


    Called the cleric from behind, urging the Knight toe down.


    The Knight reacted to the call, "oh, you guys sure took your sweet timeing here huh." He said halfughing.


    "Healing? Well I wasn''t hurt all that much but just to be perfectly sure."


    However when the Knight turned to look at the rest of the party their feet froze in ce and their faces paled in fright.


    "Hey, what''s wrong?" Asked the confused knight, "you look like you''ve seen a ghost!"


    But even as the knight tried to lighten the atmosphere, the rest of the party looked at him with wide open eyes and fear along with shock lined their faces.


    The knight didn''t know what''s going on anymore. Come to think of it, he was a little lightheaded since a while ago, and this blurriness on his left eye made it hard to see clearly.


    "Loyd¡­ you, don''t you feel anything? Look, look at yourself!" Stammered the pyromancer in the back as she pointed at the knight.


    "Look at¡­myself?" Muttered the knight, uprehending. Then he lowered his field of vision and took a look at himself.


    "What¡ª-the?!"


    He saw that the right side of his torso was missing from back to front and everything in between. Not even his bones remained, he only had one hand now.


    His armor was mostly melted by the acid and it fused with his flesh giving him a horrifying look to behold.


    The knight flopped downwards where he was quickly surrounded by the rest of the party and the cleric didn''t waste anytime, quickly rays of pure white light covered the knight.


    But unlike thest time, the healing powers seemed to not have any effects on the knight.


    "Do it again! Heal me!"


    Demanded the knight, he somehow had still retained his consciousness and could even talk.


    "I''m-I''m trying¡­"


    Sobbed the cleric, and once again pure white light engulfed the knight. But s, it was to no avail. The cleric''s face was deathly pale as she but her lips.


    "I''m out of Ether, I''m sorry!"


    "What''s going on?! I told you to heal me! Do it now!"


    The knight yelled but as he talked more his voice got softer and softer. He tried to move but his hand had grown heavy at some point and he could only let out hisst breath.


    "No, no! This can''t be true, I-I can''t die here like this¡­ that makes no sense."


    The knight murmured something before his bronze colored crest shined on his forehead and a breaking noise echoed in the area.


    Aldrich heard it clearly, it was like throwing a stone at ss window.


    "Shit!" Gazeff cursed when he heard that noise and then he yelled at the top of his voice, "kill him now! Don''t allow him to turn!"<sub> </sub>


    The party of three were taken aback by the sudden turn of events! A momentter the ive wielding man summoned his ive and a blue light shined at the tip.


    "Get away from him!"


    He yelled at the cleric that blocked his way when he was about to decapitate the fallen knight.


    "No! Leave him alone! Loyd is special he can control it!"


    "Get out of my way! Have you lost your mind?!"


    The woman payed the words no heed and instead charged at the knight and hugged him covering his body with hers.


    The ive that was about to split the knight in half stopped and wavered. That hesitation was enough as the previously hollowed insides of the knight began to recover with unbelievable speed.


    But the flesh that grew was blue and gooey, where his right hand used to be, a blued slimy tentacle grew and iled in the air.


    The cleric witnessed these changes up close and she backed off.


    "Loyd, are you fine now? You remember me right? Right¡ª"


    Before she could say any more the iling tentacle pped in the air and skewered her in one single motion.


    Suspended in the air she looked at Loyd''s face that had ckened into an expressionless look, and where his left eye used to be twopletely blue horizontal eyes stared at her.


    These eyes were devoid of any feeling but primal hunger and blood thirst alone.


    The ive that had hesitated before now struck with righteous wrath, but it was blocked by the dark blue tentacle.


    An onlooker might have thought that the ive would have torn the tentacle apart easily but it was not so. The knight or perhaps what was once a knight stepped back from the impact but that was all.


    The monster and the weaponsmaster engaged in battle exchanging multiple attacks, but as time went on the monster was bing stronger and it brushed off most injuries.


    It looked like the end of the battle was already determined when suddenly the monster was struck by huge impact in the back of the head and another one almost in the exact same moment sending it face first into the acidic mud.


    The monster''s skull was half destroyed any grade one creature would have died but it was stubbornly trying yo get up.


    "Let''s go! This is our chance!" Gazeff shook Aldrich with his hand.


    Aldrich wanted to watch the rest of the battle, this was the climax but he swallowed down his curiosity and joined Gazeff in running.


    A minuteter two metallic balls the size of a fist returned to Gazeff''s hand. Aldrich was extremely envious. It was Gazeff who ambushed the monster in thest minute with these two balls.


    And they even returned on their own to Gazeff. If this was not awesome then he didn''t know what was.


    "Are these¡­.?" Aldrich left the question hanging.


    "Yes."


    "Which grade?"


    "Grade two."


    Grade two wondrous item! No wonder. The pair was back in town and Aldrich was checking on his body carefully. Although he seemed fine his heart was still beating in a mixture of emotions: excitement, fear and longing.


    This was the first time he had witnessed Crestmasters going at it. Finally he could put something real as a goal when he thought about his crest.


    "So, you didn''t tell me, are you in for the five week course or what?" Asked Gazeff.


    "Yeah, yeah." Aldrich answered sheepishly. Are you kidding me? Gazeff was clearly a veteran, seasoned and tested through real battle he knew what he was doing.


    Suddenly Aldrich spied a man and a woman in haggard states dragging themselves through the gate into the town and the woman noticed them.


    "You! It''s you two rats! You were the ones hiding there!"


    She pointed at them and screeched loudly, the man besides her was startled and looked them. He was obviously the ive wielding Crestmaster, and she was the pyromancer.


    The only two surviving members of a party of five Crestmasters, now that he thought about it that was an extremely terrifying encounter.


    On the other hand he felt that there was something wrong with the performance of the Crestmasters. Not that he didn''t acknowledge their power but they seemed off somehow.


    "You had the gall to hide and run while we were dying out there!" The woman marched over to them. This created amotion that drew many peoples eyes.

 Chapter 76 Incident And Duty (4)

    To anyone who reads this chapter please consider posting a review or supporting with power stones and GT, this is a shameless request from me!


    The novel will get featured on cheering reads starting today. Thank you all for the support.


    Also if I can get some feedback on the action in thest few chapters that would be great.


    ****


    Aldrich didn''t know what to say. It was true, he and Gazeff didn''t interfere for most of the battle and even when people started dying except for thest bit, they didn''t lift a finger.


    "We couldn''t do anything," Aldrich tried to exin.


    "I''m not talking to you, kid!" Hissed the woman at him, and then red at Gazeff, "him, I don''t care, but what about you?! Your a Crestmaster and you have a grade two wondrous item. Why didn''t you do anything?"


    "First don''t point at me with your finger," Said Gazeffposedly, "second lower your voice."


    "You impuden¡ª"


    Before the woman could resume her rant Gazeff cut her off, "just because I''m a Crestmaster you think I have to help you? I''m retired and I had to protect a helpless boy."


    The woman looked like she had a lump stuck in her throat.


    "Besides who was it that brought a grade one monster to where it doesn''t belong and endangered ordinary people? Who was it that hesitated in killing an Oathbreaker?


    Now, I can''t me you guys for all this but, if I''m not wrong I still saved your lives so at least show a little curtsy."


    The man besides the pyromancer tapped on her shoulder and then he looked at Gazeff, "I''m sorry for the words she said. She didn''t mean any of that, I also want to thank you for saving our lives back there."


    "It was my fault that I hesitated and caused one more unnecessary death. It''s entirely my responsibility. Although we can''t repay you now, some day we will."


    Gazeff nodded, "It''s fine, you guys witnessed the deaths of three of yourpanions its natural for your emotions to be a mess, take care. But you must always remember to keep a good look on those among you in the party that took the Oath, that is the duty of all Crestmasters."


    Aldrich has had just enough with the woman but then he recalled that these guys just went through a life changing event. Its only natural that they were a little rattled to say the least.


    Duty? what does that mean? Their duty is to kill theirpanions? Aldrich didn''t understand and he was in no state to ask at least not now when these guys were still in mourning.


    After that they got into talking and Aldrich finally understood what happened. Their party was hunting in the second region of the Sunken valley, Hero''s fall.


    Hero''s fall, what a bad name. Perhaps it also served as a grim reminder, this is where heroes fall and are forgotten just like that.


    This was a regr hunting ground for them when they weren''t on any quests. Today just when they hunted a Flutterflesh they were ambushed by a Boloti.


    Both of these monsters were grade one, but they were victorious against the Boloti but before they could finish it off it escaped and they gave chase.


    Only by that point the swordswoman had exhausted her Ether at that point. The monster led them to what they had initially believed to be it''s nest. But it wasn''t, it was the nest of the Necrotic-w Hawk.


    So when they fought the Hawk they were already on theirst legs. When they were about to pull out and retreat the monster grabbed Loyd and flew away forcing the rest of the party to give chase.


    This was how a team of Crestmasters met their end. Aldrich dwelled on these events, the party was incredibly powerful and bnced with a Catoblepas in toe they could be considered a powerful party.


    But ultimately they were just unlucky.<sub> </sub>


    ****


    He had just finished his second day of training but ultimately he needed to hunt today and since there was still some time before sunset he thought that he might as well give it a shot. If he could get his hands on an Amphiptere...


    Aldrich heard a distinct whooshing sound among the noises of the fleeing birds. It was close by, Aldrich ran it the direction and saw his prey.


    Long, simian arms snake through the trees like furred serpents, dangling from a shaggy, striped ape in the leafy canopy above and trying to snare anything below. Aldrich, himself happened to be the thing below.


    Aldrich had read about this monster, if he was not wrong then this should be a Grappler Arboreal. ording to the information on the First ground map then these monsters inhabited the the northwestern tree tops in ns, their numbers are estimated to be around forty or so.


    Aldrich smiled as a prey approached but he remained focused. He didn''t know how to hunt this creature properly but he was willing to improvise.


    He didn''t have long to think because just as he marked the Grappler as his prey he was marked in return. The Grappler hurled something at him but he was a step faster as he rolled out of the way.


    Aldrich took a quick look at it expecting a stone or some fruit but it was actually dung. Aldrich''s pupils constricted in rage. But it was at this moment that the Grappler''s tentacle-like arm descended an unexpected distance while the Grappler itself was still high up and coiled around Aldrich twice.


    Aldrich found himself restricted and pulled up before he knew it. Not only was it fast it was also powerful, he could feel the grip around him tightening further that it actually produced cracking sounds from his body.


    Aldrich couldn''t allow himself to be pulled up to the treetop in such a defenseless manner. If that happened his chances of survival would not look good at all. Aldrich breathed deeply and instead of struggling he loosened himself and an opening appeared.


    The previously tight grip of the Grappler loosened for a moment and that''s when he freed his sword and got it out of the tentacle grip, giving himself enough respite to swing it with all his might at the tentacle-like arm.


    The blow was so powerful it felled the armpletely. Aldrich found himself falling all of a sudden. Luckily he managed to grab on to a tree branch before he could fall too hard. Next, he propped himself up and looked at his enraged opponent.


    The Grappler was raging madly, with its arm cut off it went into frenzy and mmed into the trees and branches around, the blood gushed out of its severed arm and dyed the canopies red.


    Aldrich looked at this scene and decided to retreat. The biggest concern was the speed of the Grappler up in the trees, it moved like it was walking on the ground with perfect stability and uncaring speed. Fighting it up there was unwise.


    Aldrich went down carefully and he looked around as he slowly went down the tree. He was splitting his focus on everything around him while still keeping an eye on the enraged Grappler above.


    The Grappler will soon redirect its anger on him and that''s why it was best to return to the ground before doing anything else. He was careful not to make any abrupt or sudden moves that might attract its attention.


    Finally safe on the ground again he looked to the Grappler and sure enough it had regained itsposure somewhat and it was looking at him menacingly. Aldrich gave it the finger just because.


    The Grappler raged and hurled a variety of things at him from poop to fruits and stones. Aldrich dodged and hid behind the trees, he understood the purpose behind this attack, it was to provoke a reaction out of him. The Grappler then could take advantage of that opportunity to make a move.


    Aldrich was almost done in by this tactic, it might look simple or even barbaric but it was undoubtedly effective. He also noticed something else, despite its anger and vengeful spirit, the Grappler clearly had not intention ofing down to face him.


    This monster knew it''s best advantage was the tree tops and the ground was disadvantageous to it so it was unwilling toe down at all.


    Eventually the Grappler went silent for a minute before it gave him onest angry look and retreating away.


    After he rested for a good while he noticed that the sun was going to set in an hour if he wasn''t wrong. He decided that if he couldn''t catch anything good in half an hour he was going to resolutely give up on catching anything.


    He was confident in his ability but he wasn''t suicidal, staying over night in the sunken valley was not wise to say the least. The danger level would rise severely in nighttime.


    Aldrich wore his armor and walked around randomly, hoping to attract any stray monster in the vicinity. Far in the distance he heard several gunshots, man birds went flying in his direction from the south.


    Many hunters used muskets to hunt in the First ground, after all despite its price and few disadvantages it was lethal beyond doubt against most grade zero monsters.

 Chapter 77 Normalcy And Experimentation

    Aldrich retreated back towards the town vigntly, he didn''t dimiss the possibility that the Grappler might have pretended to withdraw to lower his guard.


    What he saw from the monster indicated that it was capable of such trickery.


    After a while and when he got close to the town Aldrich realized that he was returning empty handed and sighed in disappointment.


    He had hoped to make a few extra coins today but things just didn''t go his way. He also didn''t regret not fighting the Grappler just now, he could make up for today''s loss some other day.


    Better to lose out on some coins than to lose his life.


    He had his eyes on a creature called Amphiptere, this monster was very special, one could called it the most valuable grade zero monster.


    Not only was it grade zero it was also at level one and yet a young Amphiptere sold for at least a silver coin.


    That was almost the price of a regr level three monster of the same grade. Just because a monster was stronger, that didn''t make it more valuable necessarily.


    It depended mostly on the demand.


    The Amphiptere in particr is especially valuable because it could be trained as a messenger creature. The younger it was the better it sold.


    That was because generally it was easier to train monsters when they were younger.


    Of course most monsters could never be trained or domesticated. An Amphiptere''s egg was ideal, but of course most of the time one could count his lucky stars were he able to get his hands on one at all.


    After Aldrich saw the posters today and learned why the Amphiptere is valuable he figured that there was always demand for it. He wasn''t sure if he wanted one for himself right now, but surely if he got an egg then that was a different story.


    Aldrich returned back to town and gave back his rented items, then he got on a returning carriage and got back to his beautiful apartment.


    Naturally, the next step was to clean himself up and get the clothes he delivered to theundry ce back.


    He decided to treat himself to a hearty meal at a nearby tavern, he gotmb chops and mashed potatoes with vegetable soup and some cold beer.


    He didn''t forget about visiting Tarzin but that can wait another day. His body was worked to the bone today he could hardly stay awake not to mention going out of district.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment and on the way he bumped into that girl that helped him out when he came to look for an apartment here. If his memory didn''t serve him wrong then her name was Irene.


    Aldrich wanted to say hi, but he hesitated. He could see from her demeanor that she was in a hurry and she was suspiciously looking around, he felt that maybe he should catch her another time.


    She seemed to be mumbling something to herself but he couldn''t make out what, because of the distance between them and the blowing wind made that even harder.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich got back in his apartment feeling a little refreshed by that walk and ready for another night of adventure. Tonight, in the nightmare realm he wanted to try out the sword stances that he learned today.


    ****


    Indeed the moment he put his head on the pillow he woke back up, but he was in the nightmare realm far away from the Adon Empire.


    Aldrich didn''t attack the next area of the barracks immediately, first he cleared out the first tower fromst time. After all,st time he was so injured that he had to abandon everything and return to the base.


    Aldrich went right to work and started transporting weapons, armor sets and anything that looked valuable. Finally it was the turn of the room that was protected by that grade two husk.


    Aldrich looked at the massive amount of weapons and armor and wished that he had a foldable cart here.


    Wait.


    Actually maybe he could, until today he had only brought things from the nightmare realm to reality and didn''t try the opposite.


    Aldrich took over the weapons one after another and left the best forst, the special sword and shield, red and white with the pattern of the four-winged tiger on both of them.


    Aldrich was by no means a weapons expert but even he could tell that both of them were works of art. The greatest craftsmanship he had seen to date. A work that rivaled Isger''s own sword.


    The weight was the only thing stopping Aldrich from switching right away. The sword was definitely a long sword and he could swing it around two-handed but he certainly couldn''t truly wield it.


    It will have to wait.


    Aldrich was not impatient at all. He will sooner rather thanter get stronger and then he will be happy to put them to good use.


    Next he took off the pegs and used took them to the base, he cleaned out the torture room and installed the weapons pegs there.


    The amount of weapons and armor he now piled up in themon room went out of control and that couldn''t be allowed to continue as is.


    So Aldrich spent a few hours more putting everything in order and cleaning up the ce. Finally after he was done he put one some new and shiny half-te armor, it was in to look at but it will perform its job effectively.


    Aldrich then used the remaining key to open up the door that locked the tower from the central structure of the barracks. Aldrich again used his torch to put some light in this gloomy ce.


    That day Aldrich fought and defeated a total of thirteen husks one of which being a grade two spearman. Aldrich tried to use the sword forms he learned today but he almost got killed doing it.


    Today''s yield was a total of thirty two essence orbs including those he got thanks to Gazeff in the real world. He could upgrade two more attributes but he decided not to, for now. He also got the key to the final tower from the level two husk.

 Chapter 78 Vision Of Ignition

    Aldrich decided to collect the material spoils next time, for now he returned back to the base and practiced the twenty eight sword forms diligently.


    He might not agree with Gazeff but he trusted Ayemon and Ayemon chose Gazeff as his mentor for a reason.


    ? This meant that Gazeff knew better than him by all rights and Aldrich decided to act on that belief. So he might as well take the time to work on those moves.


    Gazeff had no reason to cheat him and even if he did, eventually everything will be clear whether these moves were useful or not.


    Aldrich returned after a few hours of extra practice and this time he didn''t bring back any coins with him. Tomorrow he was determined to buy a foldable cart and bring it back to the nightmare realm.


    Even with all that work after Aldrich returned to the real world he found that he couldn''t fall asleep at all. After rolling on the bed for half an hour he just gave up.


    He turned on the mossmp and started reviewing the notes he took during the dungeon ss today.


    That''s when he remembered those meditation incense that he got. Thatpletely slipped his mind, and it was such an important thing too.


    But in a way that wasn''t all that strange, his days were very packed after the ss that his mind was just busy with so many other matters.


    It might not be such a bad idea to write a to-do list to keep track of all his tasks.


    Aldrich decided to try them out, he couldn''t sleep anyway so he might as well make good use of this time.


    The crest academy gave each student seven meditation incenses, one for everyday for a week. He had seen Adera use them when she came to visit. Back then they seemed so mystical to him.


    Aldrich opened the wrapping and took out one of them, he used the fire from his still warm firece to light it up and inhaled deeply.


    It was that simple, just like lighting up a tobo pipe. For such an important matter the process was fairly easy perhaps purposefully so.


    An initiate only had to breath in the resulting fumes of the incense until it burned off, one every day.


    Of course Aldrich guessed that one can also buy more from the academy if they wanted to meditate more.


    The smell was very pleasant and rich. His overworked mind seemed toe to a standstill.


    The colors of the world around him became saturated and everything became blurred. It seemed like there was a thin but firm veil that blocked his sight.


    He felt the Immatirum above him, below him and everywhere all at once. There he saw endless darkness, silent and serene. A will greater than life called to him, urged him.


    It was so sweet, that voice. It promised to alleviate all his worries, solve all his problems and grant him all his dreams.


    Then.


    Aldrich felt the palm of his left hand burn slightly and he saw a vision. He saw himself in a pure white tower of marble, he was resting his back on a wall and he looked worn out.


    He had his eyes closed and looked asleep but then in the next moment his eyes opened as if he was shocked awake. Then his crest appeared and in the lower right slot a ck-red light burned.


    His eyes flew open everything returned back to normal. Aldrich looked at the the incense and found that it had burned offpletely leaving behind a normal wooden stick.


    His crest was ignited in that moment in the vision. But he had never seen that white tower before and he didn''t even get to see what ss or symbol he got.


    Was it real? It could just be a figment of his own imagination.


    Aldrich had to admit that it was a magical experience. But he just didn''t have the time to marvel at it for too long as he felt his eyes grow heavy once again he quickly made a run for the bed.


    He was unwilling to miss this chance to sleep before sleep deserted him again.


    Aldrich had a great sleep and started the next morning energetically. After his morning routine and a good breakfast, he took his hand bag and got to the academy for his second dungeons lesson.


    Once again he had a very fruitful ss that ended with him writing a ton of notes and he even asked the professor some questions that he had aboutst ss.


    The professor was kind and he answered all of his questions patiently.


    The students didn''t talk to each other much during the ss and even after, he also took notice of some students that seemed much younger than him in the ss. Curious.


    By the end of the ss he made eye contact with Sydney whom he noticed ring at him throughout the ss but Aldrich didn''t pay her any mind.


    He didn''t care too much about that misunderstanding so he just smiled at her and walked out.


    Aldrich bumped into someone else when he walked out of the ssroom, it was the guy that helped him to get his meditation incense yesterday.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich had a good impression of him so he decided to thank him.


    "Hey," Aldrich called out, he also made sure not to raise his voice too highly in the academy. The guy turned around after being called.


    "Oh, hey, it''s you! How are you doing today?" The guy greeted after he saw Aldrich.


    "I''m Aldrich, I''m fine, how about you? I wanted to thank you for yesterday."


    "Hahah don''t worry about it. I''m Frank, nice to meet you. I guess we met yesterday but didn''t have the time to introduce ourselves."


    "Well the circumstances were a bit..." Aldrich conceded.


    "Hey, hey, I told you to forget about it! Don''t get hung up on one failure. You know what my sweetheart has some girlfriends I can ask her to introduce you."


    "Well I appreciate that but I''m not really in that kind of mood right now, I''m too busy."


    "I get it, take your time." Frank talked in an understanding tone and looked at him with some pity.


    Aldrich felt his mouth twitch, he didn''t want to continue this conversation so he decided to change the subject.


    "By the way, I was curious about those young students in our ss, aren''t they too young to be third years?"


    Frank looked at him, bewildered for a moment before he shook his head, "have you been burying your head in books all these years? You know that advancement is not dependent on age.


    It''s talent that''s all that matters. Those guys are younger than us but their talents have allowed them to be third years as they awakened at an earlier age."


    Aldrich did indeed remember having a few conversations with Ayemon about something like that.


    Yes, in the crest academy graduation depended entirely on whether you were able to be a Crestmaster or not, awakening earlier meant that you could enroll faster though that had nothing to do with talent.


    It did however, mean that you got a headstart on others.


    No amount of study and research could turn one into a Crestmaster, only talent. If you didn''t have the gift then you could never be a Crestmaster.


    Talent was the deciding factor in almost everything rted to Crestmasters.


    Back in the day before Aldrich awakened his gift he was constantly bothered by his ownck of talent. That and quite impatiant to boot.


    There was even a time when he thought that Krynt was hiding the secret of bing a Crestmaster from him and everyone in the vige.


    After all, in the whole of Wakefield only Krynt''s daughter awakened as Crestmaster. To a frustrated Aldrich that looked suspicious, to which he could now see that he was looking for target to vent.


    Later, Aldrich realized that Krynt can indeed teach him on the ways of Crestmasters but he himself couldn''t learn back then.


    In the world of Crestmasters talent was everything. This was not an exaggeration, it was meant in a very literal sense.


    All the students in the academy were initiates, this meant that they all had the potential to be Crestmasters. However they did not have an equal chance of bing one.


    At least half of all initiates remained as such for the rest of their lives. Never being able to ignite their symbol simply because they weren''t talented enough. A cruel fate.


    Those who were deemed talented enough took four to seven years of meditation to be proper Crestmaster and ignite the first symbol.


    This could be considered the most average talent, if one failed to advance even after seven years then it was better to quit and look for something else.


    Those who advanced before four years were considered to have good talents with decent potential. Their future aplishments were looked upon favorably.


    Each symbol represented a grade of existence, igniting the first symbol meant that one had evolved beyond grade zero that most beings are born into.


    A grade one creature surpassed grade zero entirely in almost every aspect.


    Aldrich and Frank shared augh in the academy''s cafeteria, Frank invited Aldrich to some club that he and his friends had made and Aldrich didn''t want to refuse outright so he told him that he was going to think about it.


    It was not a bad idea as Aldrich was begining to see his own ws, he could not possibly bother Ayemon about every little thing could he?


    Now he understood what Brozas, the chief guard of the apartmentplex had meant when he told him about this matter.


    Aldrich bade Frank farewell and headed back to his apartment. He had to make his way to the sunken valley for his training with Gazeff.

 Chapter 79 Trial And Error

    The training today was split into three parts, first was the seventyps and second was the twenty eight sword forms practice. Finally he had hand to handbat with Gazeff.


    Aldrich guessed that Gazeff added the hand to handbat to create a suitable excuse to beat him up. Which he did. That was a blow to Aldrich who thought that he was getting good as a fighter.


    Gazeff told him that this style was called the bone breaker art by the monks that taught him. Aldrich could indeed attest that this art was not named in vain.


    After the training was over it was almost sunset, so Aldrich decided to leave with Gazeff. No matter how confident he had gotten he wasn''t going to risk it in here for a bit of essence and some coin.


    "Oh, yeah since you clearly decided to take me as your mentor you before pay up. I want the money up-front each week." Gazeff demanded as they walked back.


    "In your dreams," Aldrich sneered, "I''m going to give you three silver coins at the beginning of the week and two at the end."


    "We have a deal." Gazeff replied seemingly unbothered by Aldrich''s rude tone, "By the way I will increase the time of your hand to hand training starting tomorrow."


    "Do you think I''m afraid of you, old man? I''ll learn that bone style or whatever and kick your ass. By the way that name is some."


    "Hahahah I like that spunk, it''s boring to beat a lifeless dummy after all."


    "Laugh all you want now, but don''t beg for mercy when I break your back." Aldrich actually wanted to back out but he was in too deep to back out.


    After they got back to town Aldrich went back to return his rented items as usual but today he bought an eight-wheeled foldable cart.


    This was going to be the first item he carried things to the nightmare realm from the real world. Consciously at least.


    Aldrich was very excited about the prospect of bringing items back and forth between the nightmare realm and the real world. The potential behind this was simply too great.


    Unfortunately that potential was shackled by the necessity of essence orbs to do anything.


    Ever since he had be entangled with the nightmare realm essence orbs had be his bread and butter. Simply put, the growing uses he had for essence orbs was basically recing air. And it looks like this is only the beginning.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment and cleaned himself up before cooking himself a heavy meal for dinner. These days he probably won''t have time for lunch so he had to make the difference in breakfast and dinner.


    He had been eating more and more ever since he increasing his attributes but he wasn''t worried since he knew that some Crestmasters ate more than normal.


    Just for dinner he had one and a half chicken with an entire te of rice. To be honest part of it was his own gluttony, back in Wakefield he had to eat very little since money was short.


    His cooking skills had developed over the years to reach a decent level, naturally when he finally got his hands on some coin he wasn''t going to be stingy on himself. Even more so knowing that his body need the food to properly grow.


    Aldrich wanted to go and visit Tarzin but he was too worn out to do that. Besides he actually had a another ss in an hour so he decided to rest up before that. This ss was about charms and wondrous items so of course Aldrich was beyond excited to attend.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich attended the ss in a ssroom that looked very simr to the dungeons ss ssroom. The information and delivery of the professor was superb. This ss was attended by many more people than the dungeons ss.


    Aldrich asked one of people sitting besides him and apparently most people had no intention of bing adventurers so they had no need to venture into dungeons, this meant that they didn''t have to waste their time taking a ss they wouldn''t need.


    This answer was very logical in a sense, but it still bothered Aldrich for some reason. The image he had of initiates who were about to be Crestmasters was different than the reality he found himself face with.


    Aldrich looked up to them as aspiring heroes who couldn''t wait to conquer the world, s he himself wouldn''t want to risk his life if he didn''t have to, so he could at least understand where they came from.


    Back in his apartment Aldrich took out the foldable cart and ced it on the bed with him. He realized that he had no idea on how to bring things from the real world to the nightmare realm.


    When he wanted to bring items from the nightmare realm to the real world he uses the Tindalor seal to exit willingly. But in the real world he always went to the nightmare realm when he went he went to sleep.


    Aldrich was out of ideas so he decided to just hold it while he slept and hope for the best.


    ****


    Aldrich awoke in the nightmare realm as usual, he looked around for his foldable cart but unfortunately he didn''t see it anywhere.


    He could only sigh in disappointment, and yet this result was not unexpected.


    This idea was random to begin with, so he didn''t bother to think about the failed attempt too deeply. He ned to try different things next time.


    He went to carefully examine the seal of Tindalor that was carved on the wall by the firece in the-now cleanmon room.


    After a bit of that he decided to go back to the basement to check on things, it had been a while since hest came here. The basement was still the most mysterious aspect of this house.


    Aldrich believed that the secret of this house could lead him out of this miserable town to the shattered divine city where he could get to the light blue gate.


    The hard metallic gate was as unmoving as ever and the curiosity he had about whaty beyond this gate was truly captivating. Aldrich payed attention to the hole in the middle of the metallic wheel.


    If his spection was correct then he should open the gate through this wheel, if the wheel was like a lock then wouldn''t the hole in the middle by a keyhole? Perhaps that was the case.


    If so the a key must exists somewhere in this house, hopefully at least. Currently there was nothing else he could really do about it besides hoping that the key was somewhere in the second or the unexplored third floor.


    He didn''t get much time to explore the second floor either before he was expelled by the armored husk above.


    He did have many chances to go take a look at the third floor but he wanted to make sure not leave anytent threats in the second floor.

 Chapter 80 The Right Way To Take Revenge

    That whole ordeal still irked Aldrich. At some point he thought that he could identify how strong a husk was by their armor. The better the armor the stronger the husk, or so he thought.


    But that was actually illogical, it made no sense in reality, he became sure of that when he cleared the first tower of the barracks.


    When Aldrich first saw the half-te of the level two husk he thought it it was stronger than the armored husk that upied the second floor of his base. But of course, after Aldrich exchange blows with it he realized that it was weaker.


    How much weaker? He had no idea because he didn''t really fight much with the armored husk it was just an execution.


    Aldrich then elevated his own assessment of the armored husk upstairs, it should be a level three monster. It could even be a special case.


    One tower and two houses remained to be cleared before he cleared the entire neighborhood, this meant that the day of confrontation wasn''t far.


    If his calctions weren''t wrong then it was probably going to happen four dayster. In three days he would have enough essence orbs to upgrade most of, if not all of his attributes to level four.


    Suddenly a realization dawned on him, this was the right way to take revenge, by biding one''s time and making all the preparations. Finally when the time is right one must strike without hesitation.


    Aldrich came up with this is idea that his experience with the armored husk was a miniature version of his real world issue. So what is he was not strong enough now? As long as he kept growing he would eventually be able to walk sides ways in the world.


    Even if it was the deputy governor so what? even if it was someone even higher up, one day his de will reach them when they least expect it. One day he would take everything from them. Everything.


    Whatever it was that they wanted to aplish he would stand on the opposing end of that no matter what. He was not only going to kill them but also put and end to their evil ambitions, clearly something was extremely important to them if they were willing to go that far.


    Aldrich grinned that''s right, they too had things that they cared about, he wanted to see what their expressions would look like when they lost these things.


    Aldrich spent a good minute observing the gate hoping to uncover the secret it concealed but it still eluded him despite his best efforts.


    As for why he didn''t try to break it with force, that was obviously because he didn''t want to break the wheel by ident. What if that sealed the gate for good? That would be such a waste.


    Breaking things should be ast resort, it might indeed be the solution to the problem at hand but it could easily destroy any hope of opening that gate too.


    That was why Aldrich was apprehensive about using force to pry it open.<sub> </sub>


    Besides if his experience with the nearby shelves had taught him anything it was that this ce was more than meets the eye.


    He looked at the four shelfs of mysterious potions in huge sks, the northern wall of the basement was basically stacked with them.


    Unfortunately the borderline magical defense or something allowed him to only be able to look at the goods without being able to touch anything.


    This was a frustrating feeling so he decided to just vent out these feelings on today''s hunt.


    Aldrich fixed his armor and cleaned his weapons carefully before he proceeded to the barracks that took much of his time recently. He still recalled that he had not looted the central area but he decided to leave it untilter.


    Aldrich opened the gate to thest tower of the barracks, there he encountered a total of thirteen husks all well armed and worked together to enhance each other''s strengths.


    Aldrich had guessed that thirteen units must make up a squad, if so then the level two husks must be squad leaders.


    This time half of the squad was stationed at the first floor where they patrolled and caught sight of him. The battle that ensued was not very long. Despite their numbers, Aldrich was already familiar with their tactics and and superior in everything else over them so it wasn''t much of a fight.


    In thest floor he found the rest of the squad with their squad leader, that was a much harder fight that forced Aldrich beyond his limits. The squad leader was a swordsman and he was level two, a dangerous foe on his own and this time he was backed by six husks  to boot.


    Aldrich fought tooth and nail, atst he won the battle but he also lost his left arm and right leg. If it wasn''t for his superior vitality that stopped the bleeding quickly he might have died of blood loss.


    Aldrich couldn''t crawl back to the base even if he wanted to so after a long enough time he  returned back to the real world having gained another twenty eight essence orbs.


    After the first battle in thest tower Aldrich kept a close eye on his attribute panel and figured out what''s needed to upgrade an attribute to level five. He saw the exact moment when the plus sign appeared after the level four attributes.


    He needed forty eight orbs, so that was actually triple thest upgrade. Fortunately he remembered to look out for that otherwise he would have missed his chance to know the exact number.


    Knowing these kind of things was important as he could keep track of his spending that way. The way Aldrich thought about it was like he dealt with money, if he didn''t know the cost and value of money then it would be troublesome to use it to the greatest benefit.


    Understanding the attribute panel was absolutely important to Aldrich, after all it was his greatest asset and a grave secret.

 Chapter 81 Family Dispute

    Once Aldrich returned to real world he opted to sleep right away. He opened his eyes thinking that morning hade but it was still night and he was woken up by the loud noiseing from his neighbors.


    Shouting, it was an argument.


    Aldrich tried to go back to sleep but the noise persisted, it sounded like an argument that went bad. Soon Aldrich couldn''t take it any more, he decided to go have a word with his neighbors.


    This was not eptable, it was the middle of the night and he was trying to sleep. He opened the door and followed the noise until he got to apartment number twenty five on the opposite end of the hallway.


    Aldrich knocked roughly on the door.


    Suddenly the voices stopped and footsteps approached the door and it was opened. It was the girl that helped him out before, Irene. Right now her blonde hair was disheveled and her face was sickly pale with dark circles under her eyes.


    "Oh, hey, it''s you..." Aldrich who was ready to blow up, held himself back after he saw her.


    Irene had helped him out before so he didn''t feel like yelling at her besides she didn''t look right at all.


    She was most likely sick, moreover she was definitely sleep deprived, he knew this because he suffered from it not long ago.


    He also recalled that he once saw her returning to the apartment building while looking around suspiciously and murmuring to herself.


    "Oh, ah! It''s you Aldrich right? Ah, I''m sorry the yelling must''ve bothered you..." Irene apologized while rubbing her tired looking eyes.


    "It''s alright, the noise was just a little too loud so I came to see if there was any problem? Anything I can help with?" Aldrich made sure to extend a helping hand.


    "I''m sorry about the noise, I was just arguing with my old and stubborn grandfather, he''s a piece of work I tell ya." Irene exined and tried to y it off like a joke but Aldrich could hear the indignation in her voice.


    "Ah, so that''s how it. If you could just keep it down, it must be hard on you. Listen I won''t bother you anymore. If you need any help or something I live in twenty one."


    "I''m not sure if this is something that you can help me with, it''s really just a family matter nothing too big."


    "That''s true. I''m an adventurer but I guess these things aren''t part of my specialty. Anyway good luck and good night."


    Irene looked at him in surprise, "an adventurer you say?" Aldrich nodded, "like a-a Crestmaster?" She asked in anticipation.


    But Aldrich shook his head, "soon to be one, but no, not a Crestmaster yet."


    "Oh."


    "Yeah, but I suppose even a Crestmaster can''t interfere in a family dispute, right?"


    Irene looked taken aback, although she shouldn''t have been, "ah, yeah, yeah of course. Of course."


    Aldrich felt a little awkward so he bid her a good night and took his leave.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment and listened for a while but the noises had disappeared, fortunately.<sub> </sub>


    Indeed Aldrich could y level three monsters but he couldn''t solve a family rted dispute nor did he intend to interfere in something like that.


    In the end he could only hope the Irene would take care of the problem without issues. If the noise problem kept repeating then he might really loose his temper.


    Sleep was always something hecked because of the dammed nightmare specter so he always cherished the time when he could sleep soundly.


    Aldrich woke up in the morning as usual, feeling quite refreshed. Looking at the sixty essence orbs in the panel made him happy and rxed, he nodded to himself when he remembered that he had close to a gold coin in his bank ount.


    When one was rich waking up early in the morning wasn''t so tiring anymore! Aldrich opened the wide windows of themon room after his bath and smelled the beautiful air of early spring.


    Before he could get to cooking breakfast however he noticed that a letter was slipped under his door. When he went toin to Irene about the noise it wasn''t there so it must''ve been slipped after that.


    Aldrich picked it up casually and opened it, as expected it was from Ayemon. There were very few people that knew him here in Voryhrm so the options were limited. Apparently Ayemon invited him to breakfast in his mansion today.


    Aldrich was d that he found it before he started cooking else he might have had wasted some food. Aldrich picked up his bag and took it with him, he had a ss and he might not get the time to get back here to pick it up.


    When he was out of the apartment he bumped into Irene who happened to be exiting her own apartment.


    "Ah, Aldrich!" Irene noticed him and waved her hand cheerfully.


    "Yeah, good morning. By the way I want to say that I hope I wasn''t rude yesterday. If I was I really didn''t mean to."


    Aldrich wanted to smooth things over, they were neighbors so he didn''t want any friction to be between them.


    "What? No, no, don''t say that, you''ll make me feel even worse."


    Aldrich looked at Irene and noticed that she looked a little better thanst night. At least the dark circles around her eyes had decreased.


    "You look much better than before. I don''t know what the issue with your grandfather is, but you should not over do it to the point of affecting your health."


    "I know, ah, this matter is just not easy to resolve. Anyway I won''t dy you any further. Are you going to ss?"


    "Yeah, well first I''m going to get myself some breakfast though."


    "What do you study? Language and grammar? History? Law?" Irene asked casually.


    "Actually I''m studying at the crest academy." Aldrich replied honestly.


    "Really?" Irene asked excitedly, "so you''re going to be a Crestmaster? That''s so awesome."


    Aldrich was ttered by the praise, "its not a big deal though. I''m not going to work for a noble or anything like that, I will be an adventurer. What about you, what do you do?"

 Chapter 82 Monster Codex

    "Actually I''m a student too but nothing as impressive as you, I study architecture in the technical college. You did say something like that about being and adventurerst night, I thought you were were one of the people that go hunting in the sunken valley and call themselves adventurers. They don''t even belong to any guild and they go in numbers of twenty or more. These kinds of people are desperate to boast about themselves."


    "Really? There are people like that? But I thought that even ordinary people can join adventure guilds."


    "They can, but they are few and far in between. Most of them are incredibly skilled people that deserve respect. But the guys that go hunting in the sunken valley like that are just regr hunters."


    Aldrich bade Irene farewell and boarded a carriage to Ayemon''s mansion. During the meal Aldrich indulged in the high ss meal and talked with Ayemon about his training with Gazeff and how it was going.


    "By the way I don''t see Caldera?" Aldrich asked since Caldera usually shared the table with them at meals.


    "Hmm, she''s out again looking for the elusive oracle. Stubborn woman, I told her long ago that will only bring her more troubles."


    "Isn''t the appearance of an oracle a big deal, why are you unconcerned?" Aldrich asked, exasperated at Ayemon''s attitude.


    "Why should I be? The whole thing is a waste of time. If it was really a big deal then the oracle should be taking care of it. As for me, naturally I have nothing to do with it so why would I butt my nose in someone else''s business?"


    "Aren''t you toozy?" To Aldrich that was reasonable and yet it also seemed like Ayemon was toozy to concern himself. If oracles only appeared on in turbulent times then it was probably not a good idea to ignore it.


    In any case he himself is just a little bug, if the sky fell obviously the giants will hold it. As for him he will just pay attention to his own insignificant matters.


    "You say that," Ayemon sneered, "but I think you know exactly what I mean."


    Aldrich drank the tea without answering, damn this old fox, he could see through his thoughts.


    "Anyway let us put that aside for now, did I tell you about the importance of information regarding monsters of grade one and higher?"


    "I think you might have said something along those lines before." Aldrich muttered uncertainly, he did, indeed remember but he wanted to mess with Ayemon and see his reaction.


    "Hehehe I talk and talk but it looks like my words just enter into one ear and exit from the other." Ayemonughed but hisughter wasn''t joyful but dark.


    "I was just¡ª" Aldrich tried to say but he was interrupted.


    "I don''t mind telling you again, listen up." Ayemon''s dark look disappeared and it was reced by an expressionless one.


    That''s when Aldrich knew that he fell into a trap and and now he was forced to go through another lecture.


    "The thing is information regarding monster of grade one and higher is that it''s valuable. Knowing about the characteristics of a monster could save your life so obviously these kinds of information are valued by adventure guilds and most other forces out there.


    Remember even if a monster is weaker than you it could still have an ability that could threaten your life. I told you before that the grading system is a mortal creation it''s bound to be wed. In a battle of life and death there are many factors that could spell your doom.


    So what''s the point of all this talk? It''s to remind you that if you encounter a unique monster in the future you could make a good profit out of it. Here take this."<sub> </sub>


    Ayemon handed him a thick book, Aldrich curiously flipped the pages and thought that it was a few hundred pages at least.


    "What''s this?" Aldrich inquired.


    "Can''t you be bothered to read a little? It''s a codex of two hundred grade one monsters. It has everything, their habits, life spans, variants and even mating seasons. You have to memorize everything in this book within ten days."


    Aldrich widened his eyes in shock, such a book was like a treasure. Even more so to Aldrich currently because he was just starting as an adventurer, to him this book was priceless.


    "I-I can''t pay for this..." Aldrich exined nervously.


    "Obviously not. I''m giving it to you. This is only the first volume after ten days I''ll give you the second. Don''t ck off or else you''ll ruin my reputation."


    Aldrich was touched, he could feel Ayemon''s efforts to help him even in things that Aldrich hadn''t thought about.


    "Ten days? I only need a week, you''d better have the next volume ready for me by then."


    The only possible way for him to show his gratitude was not through empty words but by decisive action.


    "Are you sure? That''s two hundred monsters, don''t talk big if you can''t back it up."


    "Aren''t you looking down on me too much? I''ll let you that I''m good at a number of things."


    "Think about this, I''ll test you on your knowledge by the end of the week don''t whine that I didn''t warn you."


    "Test me all you like! I''ve gotten tested by Krynt quite a bit so I''m confident in myself."


    "Great, you can''t take that back!"


    "Can you stop nagging me nonstop? I said I''ll do it so get off of my back."


    "Enough nonsense, focus on some of themonly encountered monsters like the Bulette, gtinous cube and mimics."


    "Are they thatmon? I haven''t heard about them much."


    "That''s because most of the time people tend to like more exciting stories with majestic-like monsters. These monsters are the weakest of the weak in grade one but they each have their own troublesome abilities."


    "Believe it or not most novice adventurers tend to die to sneaky monsters like these than to the majestic ones. For example the Bulette can swim in the ground as if it was water and it has the patience of a hunter."

 Chapter 83 Sponsors

    "Imagine for a moment that you are exploring the ruins of an ancient forest when suddenly and silently your party members go missing one after another. This is not the work of a ghost or an evil spirit but a single Bulette ambushed them from the very ground they walked on."


    Aldrich felt a chill up his spine just thinking about it, this was the weakest of the weak? It didn''t have any other ability so to speak. However that one ability was already so deadly.


    Ayemon used the word swim, that was not a mistake, it was a deliberate choice of words. If so then even if it was discovered, it could simply escape into the ground, what could he do then? Dig after it? That was a redundant idea. What monster would wait in ce for it''s doom?


    It could escape far away and then attack once the party had lowered its guard or once they were weary, tired or even when they celebrated a sessful battle.


    The possibilities were terrifying, the more he thought about it the more he shuddered at the thought of encountering this monster.


    "Do you understand now? These monsters live in constant battles for survival, theirbat instincts have been honed since birth. Underestimate monsters at your own peril."


    Ayemon''s grave warning brought him back out of his deep thoughts. Aldrich nodded his head and held the codex tightly in his hands, only now did he begin toprehend the meaning of Ayemon''s earlier words about the value of information.


    This matter could not be stressed any further, learning these things prior to encountering these monsters was invaluable, how important was your life? Not to mention that this was considered amon grade one monster.


    "By the way, I wanted to ask about Adera, how is it looking?" Aldrich asked seriously, after all this matter was very important to him.


    Truth be told he wanted to ask about this the moment he got that invitation letter, but he decided to calm himself and askter.


    Ayemon tapped his index finger on the table three times before he looked at Aldrich, "well I''ve been following a clue recently but don''t expect anything big any time soon. Remember to keep your expectations low."


    Aldrich gritted his teeth and managed to say, "great, just keep me informed. So what''s the clue? I couldn''t find anything that significant."


    "Well, I''m tracking Adera''s sponsor in the academy. They seem to be a noble house outside of Vorian."


    "Her sponsor? What''s that?"


    "When you want to study at the crest academy, you have to pay your dues. The first year is always free, mind you by the grace of our magnanimous Emperor.


    After that the forces that are interested in employing an initiate that is to their liking might contact you or you might contact them for a sponsorship to continue your studies."


    "I didn''t realize it was thatplicated. But what do they get in exchange?" Indeed paying money without getting anything in return was impossible.


    "They get a contract that says you''ll work for them once you graduate, sometimes they can even cut the expected wage of a Crestmaster other times they get you to work for a certain amount of time without being able to quit."<sub> </sub>


    "That sounds shady, why would these Crestmasters take these deals?"


    "Of course they need to take the deal, if they want to continue being students of the crest academy. Some of the more talented ones get to choose but most people just don''t have that luxury."


    "What if Someone wants to do something else instead of following the agreement? Do they get killed?"


    "Killed? No, they just need to pay a fee for breaking the contract otherwise they will get sued, if it gets to that its over for them."


    "I don''t know if this is better or worse. Aren''t these people afraid of making an enemy out of a Crestmaster? Isn''t that stupid?"


    "Naturally if they dare to sponsor one then you should assume that they aren''t afraid of one either. Besides these forces are not simple, most grudges would be buriedter on.


    Their actual treatment is actually very good, under a noble house you will get to live the high life with minimal effort and make good connections easily throughout your time."


    p "Are there no other options for us? This just doesn''t sit well with me." Aldrich felt that Crestmasters should have more freedom.</anda>


    "There are actually, you could pay for your own studies, some merchants do this, you could also take a loan from any bank or you could get a schrship from the academy."


    "I don''t know about all this, these methods all seem to restrict Crestmasters..."


    "And that''s the point. Look, there''s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. A casual dispute between Crestmasters could result in untold damages to public property and the loss of many civilian lives as coteral. Civilians can''t resist Crestmasters in the slightest."


    Aldrich nodded heavily. Even Crestmasters have to abide by thews of the emperor. These methods might be restrictive but he could also see that if Crestmasters really went wild the damage to the civilians might be catastrophic.


    A Crestmaster could break a civilian''s hand if he shook it too hard. That difference was absolute, even firearms couldn''t do much against the weakest Crestmasters.


    So, obviously if Crestmasters were to be part of society then there had to be restrictions.


    However he felt that Ayemon wasn''t telling him everything, it was as if there was something else that Ayemon was alluding to but he wasn''t willing to spell it outright.


    Aldrich himself got the impression that he should know the answer, he felt that he already had all the pieces of the puzzle and yet he couldn''t put his hand on it.


    "However throughout the years it was found that hard restrictions were useless, in fact they could have severe adverse effects. So, instead they used soft methods that don''t force but nudge in the correct direction."

 Chapter 84 Breaking News!

    Ayemon continued his narration as if he didn''t notice Aldrich''s doubts.


    "It''s not like Crestmasters get a bad deal, most Crestmaster could pay off their debts in a few short years. At least most of them won''t be debt ridden for more than five years.


    Being sponsored by a noble house is a blessing that people kill for, Crestmasters that show great potential get married into those families. It''s not an exaggeration to say that they have assured their line''s prosperity for a few generations, in a way."


    Indeed, there were more than one way to look at this issue, and most of the time the Crestmasters don''t lose out. Otherwise there would be many more Crestmasters that turn adventurers.


    But of course, paying off debt while risking life and limb or paying debt while being pampered by the nobles were two different things. So what if it took a few more years? As long as they had a life they could wait!


    But what if they died? Then everything was over.


    Of course Aldrich understood all this but he just didn''t like the idea of debt, ever since he was little he was paying off debt.


    Aldrich had decided that he won''t live like that ever again. The risk of adventure? That was a small price to pay for freedom.


    Besides it has always been his dream to be an adventurer, he didn''t care about the lukewarm reputation of adventurers, he didn''t care about the dangers that came with it.


    Even if the Wakefield massacre never happened he was still going to be an adventurer if his crest awakened, and it did.


    If it didn''t then that''s another matter altogether and he had prepared for such a possibility.


    Aldrich picked up the monster codex and departed for the academy he had a ss in the morning as usual. The ss was informative and it was a favorite of Aldrich''s.


    It was getting better when the professor announced that the next chapter was about several expeditions into three particr dungeons and it will delve into the best clearing tactics depending on the party you were in.


    This is definitely a very vital topic, he wanted to see how these theories were applied in reality. Not to mention that dungeons were interesting and very mysterious to the world.


    Aldrich was beginning to understand why Crestmasters needed to operate in parties of four or more on their quests.


    No wonder, since equal grade monsters were typically stronger than counterpart Crestmasters.


    Add to that a trap-packed dungeon and you will have a very challenging quest.


    Crestmasters were pressed to team up if they wanted to contend with monsters, a team of four will generally have some injuries and almost no casualties when they went against a monster of simr grade.


    Even if you didn''t count dungeons since they were rtively rare, most of the time it was Crestmasters that venture into monsterirs.<sub> </sub>


    This meant that monsters usually held the home-ground advantage and adding that to it''s superior strength, and unusual abilities, that would definitely mean that Crestmasters had to make up the difference in numbers.


    After the ss Aldrich had his regrly scheduled training session with Gazeff. During this session, Aldrich repeated the three parts, starting from stamina to hand-to-handbat.


    On this day Gazeff even praised his reaction and reflexes. Aldrich inwardly thanked his level four agility attribute.


    Thebination of his high perception from the intelligence and the agility attributes was terrifying.


    Aldrich thought that he was definitely was getting the hang of the twenty eight sword forms and the bone breaker style.


    By the end of the training Aldrich actually managed to hunt a water leaper that tried to ambush him when he went to refill his waterskin from a nearby stream.


    The water leaper was like a mutated frog, it had grown snake-like scales and a jagged sting at the end of a long scaly tail.


    From the shrubs of the stream it tried to sting Aldrich, s it failed the initial attack and Aldrich finished it off using the bone breaker style.


    The water leaper could have hurt him badly but Aldrich''s perception had be too high. Even the crafty ambusher husks were no longer a threat to him.


    Unfortunately it was only a level one monster it only yielded two essence orbs, the poor bastard.


    After he found out that it was worthless in the market, Aldrich was even more pissed at the water leaper. Eventually he found someone to buy it and it sold for three coppers.


    On the way back to his ce Aldrich passed by a newspaper stand. In front of the stand there was a man who was holding one of the papers and hollering.


    "Breaking new! Breaking news! A vige in the Drnain region called Wakefield was ughtered by gnolls and kobolds! The deputy governor has issued a statement! Read it here first! The Yongar Weekly brings the hottest news on the clock! Here! Here!"


    Aldrich froze in ce. He heard the man repeat his lines twice more before he was sure that his ears had indeed not deceived him.


    He knew that this wasing, Ayemon told him about it a while ago. And yet he was still shaken when he heard it. Aldrich quick regained hisposure and brought the news paper from the man.


    His face did not betray his inner turmoil. He knew that it was better for him if he didn''t read it, he already knew what''s in it. He did not need to agitate himself any further.


    But, he still decided to read it. In all caps the in the first page it read:


    [An unforeseen tragedy! The death of more than two hundred vigers! The deputy governor Seinalt Enthelmyre was enraged and heartbroken at this news he has officially requested the governor to allow the lords of the Drnain region to draft soldiers to form a defensive regiment to protect the imperial popce in the region!]

 Chapter 85 Undercurrents

    Aldrich continued reading with immense focus, he had disconnected himself from the outside world. His entire world was consumed by this piece of paper.


    After he read the piece multiple times he was able to summarize it. Basically the massacre was pushed onto the monsters without anyone to dispute it. No one even seems to suspect anything.


    Lord Seinalt Enthelmyre has publicly denounced the savagery of the monsters and pointed the me to the lords and officials of the Drnain region.


    In turn the lords apologized for their negligence but at the same time they alluded to the fact that the private forces they had at their disposal were not enough to protect the entire region.


    Lord Enthelmyre didn''t have the authority to allow something like that but he understood that the lords were simply shorthanded.


    So he made an official request to the governor to allow the lords of the Drnain region to draft soldiers and creat a defensive regiment to prevent further tragic cases from happening.


    However the governor refused, he stressed that the faultid with the lords of the region, they werezy and neglected their duties. They were too affluent and their behavior lead to this tragedy.


    He then decided to punish the Dranin region by increasing the taxes. He even summoned several lords for questioning in Orodran, the great capital of Vorian. Their fates were unknown yet.


    In the end lord Enthelmyre didn''t get what he wanted. Of course Aldrich was not certain that Enthelmyre was really the one behind it. He was not even sure that he was involved at all.


    In the past he was lead to believe that because he was ignorant and because he heard that name mentioned by the general when he was eavesdropping on them.


    However that didn''t mean that lord Enthelmyre was not a suspect, in fact he was still the primary suspect because he didn''t really have anyone else for now.


    So him not getting what he wanted was a good thing in his books. Obviously there were deeper implications in this event but Aldrich wasn''t sure that he understood everything.


    It was better to ask Ayemon. After all he was a lord he should understand the essence of what was happening in the political world.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment, but on the way to the building he noticed an old hunchbacked woman who was sitting on the sidewalk.


    The woman''s hair was entirely white and her skin was crumbled and dry and filled with cracks, on her face and exposed arms he noted brown sunspots.


    Her eyes didn''t seem to have much rity, they were clouded and even looked muddled. The old woman had a hemp bag opened before her and some passerby''s dropped a copper or two in the bag.


    Aldrich observed all this and stopped in front of the old woman. He remembered when he was hungry and wanted to eat his own clothes, at that time he prayed for someone to help him out.


    Aldrich had a hard time parting with money, he earned his money with difficulty, andtely he even risked his life for it. But he also knew what it was like to beg people when you had nothing. This feeling of hopelessness and despair, he was no stranger to it.<sub> </sub>


    This old woman could hardly sit properly how could she take care of herself? Aldrich took a five copper coin and tossed it in the hemp bag. He turned to enter the apartment building but suddenly his hand was clutched.


    Aldrich looked at the old woman that held his hand. The old woman lifted her head and looked at him with her worn out eyes and said, "thank you, I will remember this kindness."


    Aldrich smiled and took his leave. He washed himself and prepared some lunch before his afternoon sses.


    Although Aldrich still remembered to look for Tarzin he was just too busy these days, so he thought that when he had some free time he would definitely go for a visit.


    The night sses were about wondrous items and charms and the second ss was about various nts and fruits.


    Apothecaries, surgeon barbers and especially alchemy workshops had great demand for them and were regr customers for adventurers.


    As one would expect, both sses were extremely important and Aldrich absorbed the information like his life depended on it because it did.


    He was especially surprised by the low attendance in the second ss, apparently not many people liked learning about nts. Aldrich had to agree, learning about nts wasn''t as interesting as dungeons or wondrous items.


    But, this wasn''t about personal enjoyment, it was more so about personal safety. On one hand most people don''t want to be adventurers so their thought process was probably along the lines of not needing to waste time on something that wouldn''t have anything to do with them.


    However Aldrich had to disagree, even if you didn''t be an adventurer this information was still important.


    But he could onlyin in his own mind. He wasn''t the type that would go around lecturing people on what to do.


    He returned to his apartment at night. After a quick wash he made his way to the closest shops and managed snag himself some groceries and cheap clothes.


    After a hearty meal of chicken broth and toasted bread, he revised his lessons and began to dig into the monster codex that Ayemon gave him starting from the first monster.


    With his daily routine mostly fixed, the days passed by quickly, a weekter Aldrich had aplished one of his objectives in the nightmare realm. Had had sessfully cleared the entire area around the base of all husks.


    Unfortunately he didn''t encounter as many husks as he did initially so his total essence orb savings rose only to seventy two.


    He could have chosen to venture further into the nightmare town but he decided not to, instead he fortified the defenses of the base and organized his loot.


    Before exploring he decided to get rid of thest living husk in the area, the armored husk.

 Chapter 86 Overdue Battle

    In the past few days Aldrich felt his skills reach a new heights. It was not an increase in strength or speed but more so the culmination of his experiences and skills.


    So he spent thesest few days preparing vigorously and resting, until this day. Though he couldn''t guarantee victory and might even ''die'' he had no intention of dying anymore.


    Still he didn''t spend any orbs at all and was not nning to, at least not yet.


    Aldrich removed the various things he used to seal the door of themon room leading to the staircase. As he climbed up, sword in hand, he found himself pondering.


    He had always wondered why the armored husk never tried toe down? All this time it had remained remarkably quiet, if Aldrich didn''t know that it was surely up there he might have even doubted that it was ever there in the first ce.


    Aldrich had always suspected that the armored husk was a little different but couldn''t figure out why. It could very well be his own bias, having been killed by it twice. He may never know.


    Aldrich climbed the staircase slowly and listened attentively but he didn''t hear anything. Unlike most husks that lost their minds since the roar, the armored husk was silent and unmoving.


    Aldrich found the armored husk standing at arms length to his left as he stepped on thest step of the staircase. He had thought that the husk returned to the room in which he was first sealed in.


    However contrary to his expectations, the husk was standing as if to guard the staircase to the third floor. Aldrich didn''t think much about what it all meant, he could not afford to.


    The moment he looked at the husk, it looked back and Aldrich heard the distinct sh of metal at a great force. His body had acted before his mind could direct it and he blocked the strike that might have as well killed him.


    Aldrich used the impact of the sh to change his position to the opposite of the armored husk, in the hallway of the second floor.


    Dust lingered in the air for a moment before Aldrich charged and attacked, targeting the husk''s left shoulder. He wasn''t shaken when his attack was blocked as he switched targets to the hands holding the longsword but the husk advanced two steps forward causing him to lose bnce.


    Aldrich was in his defensive stance already, prepared for anything when he suddenly lost sight of the armored husk. At that moment he felt his hair stand on ends as a sword struck his right shoulder and drew blood as it destroyed his chain mail and hardened leather.


    ''W-what?! How?''


    Aldrich suppressed his pain and shock to send a powerful kick to the midsection of the husk. Instead of pressing his attack Aldrich retreated because that monster took on his full power kick without staggering, it simply backed away to reduce the impact.


    Aldrich was beginning to feel the sting of his shoulder, he recalled that moment just now.


    How did that husk get so close to him silently? How did he lose sight of this hunk of metal? Was he careless?


    Aldrich exchanged a dozen blows more with the husk and breathing was beginning to get harder because of his wound. But in return he had managed to inflict some damage to the armored husk in return.


    Aldrich no longer cared about conserving his stamina, he charged and pushed the husk back, trying to spot an opening in its defense¡ª


    "¡ªHm?"


    Aldrich was suddenly depleted of his stamina, abruptly, the short sword that he was used to wielding grew extremely heavy.<sub> </sub>


    No, he was too weak so he was thrown off by his own swing and he couldn''t do anything about it.


    Aldrich could clearly see the husk''s sword heading to his own neck, it was a very normal sh, under normal circumstances he would have easily blocked or deflected it. Hell, he would have at least dodged away.


    And yet now it seemed like a godly blow that he couldn''t even resist.


    ''Fuck!''


    This was Aldrich''sst thought before the sword sent his head rolling on the ground causing the blood to dye the floor red.


    Aldrich woke up beside the seal of Tindalor with a resigned sigh. He lost again, this time his death was not unexpected.


    Failure was within his expectations to begin with, that''s why he acted recklessly at the end when he knew that he couldn''t win.


    He wanted to test out his opponent and see if he could find a weakness, a w.


    On the brighter side, this time he had a real battle with the armored husk instead of being crushed instantly.


    The difference between the two of them was not in strength and agility anymore, in that respect they weren''t too different. And when Aldrich took the remaining three attributes to level four he might evene out on top.


    The biggest problem was experience but even then Aldrich didn''t feel like it was an unbridgeable gap. As long as he was a little lucky then he would be able to grasp victory.


    Or so he thought, however when he remembered two specific moments in the battle he began to have second thoughts.


    The first is the moment when the husk closed in on him, the second was when he lost his stamina and couldn''t even lift a finger.


    Something was obviously wrong, this was not normal, he knew his own stamina, he waspletely capable of going for another ten minutes of intense battle. His perception and focus during battle was not that fragile either.


    This can only mean that the armored husk was capable of bizarre abilities. If Aldrich is to have any hope of defeating it he must figure out a way to neutralize them or bypass them.


    At any rate this fight wasn''t hopeless because Aldrich had managed to figure out a weakness of the armored husk, if he managed to exploit it correctly then perhaps victory was not far.


    The armored husk is indeed extraordinary, the proof was that even now when the door was wide open it had no intention of leaving its post. Unlike other husks, it had a purpose.


    It was not mindless like it''s brethren, it might not be intelligent but it definitely had a mission. That mission is to prevent anyone from essing the third floor no matter what.


    This was not just a conjecture, it was a result of his observations so far, it also perfectly exined the husk''s strange behavior. It didn''t allow its instinct to control it, rather it remained faithful and dutiful.


    During the battle he managed to use his Eyes of Insight on it, he saw these words floating on its head, Elite husk : guard of the Unseen Hand.

 Chapter 87 Mortal Combat (1)

    Aldrich looked at his new body and smiled, the armored husk was a very tough opponent and to figure out all his tricks he will probably have to die a few more times.


    Aldrich hated the feeling of death, it was as disgusting as ever but he learned to ept it and harness the advantage of his immortality, now he was going to put it to full use.


    That bizarre step which made him lose sight of the husk and the stamina stealing abilities were extremely dangerous. The armored husk proved that it could use them to lethal effect, the husk might not even be a grade zero being.


    After all, only one good ability was good enough to make a monster, and the husk had two. In fact, for a split second Aldrich even considered pulling back, relocating the base and just hole up somewhere else.


    But he was not whom he used to be, Aldrich analyzed the battle and put himself in ce of the husk. If he had these terrifying skills he would have used them right away and ended the battle before it even started.


    This meant that the husk couldn''t just spam these skills, there were some conditions and limitations to these skills.


    That was the conclusion that he had arrived at. Basically the armored husk was not a grade one being but not grade zero either, it was somewhere in between, half-step into grade one.


    Now that was why Aldrich decided to use his essence orbs to upgrade the three attributes of Strength, Endurance and Vitality to level four.


    He wanted to save those orbs for some other time but he no longer needed to, his focus was on defeating the armored husk as soon as possible.


    His attributes now looked like this:


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 4


    Agility: 4


    Endurance: 4


    Vitality: 4


    Intelligence: 4


    Spirit (ck): 4


    Essence: 24


    Ether: 3


    Abilities: eyes of insight LV.1


    Condition: blood of ######


    For some reason when all his attributes reached four the amount of Ether he had increased by one.


    So what if the armored husk had someme abilities? He also had an ability: immortality, unlike the the armored husk he had infinite lives. He could slowly figure out the limitations, habits and patterns of the armored husk.


    He would whittle it down bit by bit and eventually he would destroy it all the same just like any other husk he encountered in this cursed nightmare town. He would show it the horror of fighting against an immortal!


    This was not purely logical, nor was it illogical, Aldrich had already determined that he had met the qualifications to defeat it, so he was going to do just that.


    His body was rippling with supernatural power, the synergy of the attributes when they were all on the same level gave him a boost. This was not an illusion he had felt that multiple times before.


    Aldrich was even going to stop all other activities in the nightmare town, he was going to kill this husk no matter what, no matter how long it took, a week? Fine, a month? Good! A year? Not bad!


    Aldrich wore his own armor and picked a short sword without a shield as it only hindered him in this fight.


    He stood face to face with his opponent again and attacked. A side-step spinning attack, hended a hit but it only dented the te armor of his foe.


    The armored husk was ready and sent a diagonal sh that made the air ripple with the force of the sword, but Aldrich ducked downward.


    The sword missed its target, but it was difficult to stop such a strike in time so it collided with the wall of the room in the left side of the hallway and it cut through the wall material causing debris to scatter all over the ce.


    Aldrich cared little for the sharp pain on his cheek, instead he lunged away from the armored husk as if he was making his way to the staircase leading to the third floor.


    The armored husk reacted in a hurry, and for a moment Aldrich saw a blur before he saw the armored husk seemingly materialize in front of him to block him from getting to the third floor.<sub> </sub>


    But it was unsteady on its footing, Aldrich smirked in delight as he exploited that moment of weakness and shed at the underside of the husk''s left shoulder, where there was no te and only leather.


    Aldrich finally drew blood from his opponent. However, he had managed to sh off the husk''s entire arm.


    Unexpectedly his sword couldn''tplete the job, as the arm flew in the air in a mixture of gore his sword got stuck in the joint bone of the husk.


    Cursing under his breath Aldrich made to back off but it was far toote, the armored husk''s eyes glowed red for a moment and Aldrich suddenly found himself as weak as an old man barely able to breath.


    ''Not this shit again!''


    Aldrich was able to take two steps back and that was only because he had decided to abandon his sword, which was still lodged in the husk''s shoulder.


    Before he could do anything further he saw the husk''s own sword cut him in half from the waist down, Aldrich didn''t mind he just wanted to spit on it before he died but he couldn''t even do that.


    Aldrich awoke underneath the seal of Tindalor and held his chin in thought. He made some progress that was for sure, that was a good attempt.


    He even had the tendency to ovee it, if not for the two skills it would have been a simple fight. But that was just the effect of skills, even with superior strength, skills could ovee that difference.


    This time he knew for a fact that the armored husk was defending the third floor, and it was willing to even take some risks to prevent Aldrich from going up there.


    What was there? Why was the husk so fixated on that task? Aldrich was undoubtedly a curious man by nature but in life there were things that one couldn''t know.


    No matter, the second thing he figured out was the disappearance skill, the husk was not actually disappearing and reappearing in a different ce through magical means but it was a high speed movement.


    Third before the husk used the stamina drainage skill it''s eyes glowed red for a moment, this sign could serve Aldrich very well.


    He had a feeling that there were even more ws that he could find. Indeed anyone else who wasn''t a Crestmaster would probably have no chance against it.


    No, even some inexperienced Crestmasters might fall when faced with the sudden outburst of these skills. But he was different, if he lost he could just try until he got it right over and over.


    One thing that surprised Aldrich mildly was that he wasn''t expelled from the nightmare realm after he died twice in a raw.


    Thest time this happened he suffered from extreme exhaustion and was unable to enter the nightmare realm for a full day.


    This probably had to do with his increased attributes, the difference between then and now was like night and day. This meant that he could probably endure at least one more death before he was expelled.


    Not bad, this was a piece of good news but he decided against challenging the armored husk again today. He decided to call it a day and return to the real world.


    He did not feel like experiencing that level of exhaustion again, and he wasn''t free in his day to day life either. This wasn''t like his carefree life from before, he had ces to be.


    So instead of blindly charging in he ought to take a step back and try challenging the armored husk again tomorrow, he didn''t lose anything anyway.


    ****


    Aldrich met the armored husk blow for blow andnded several hits, as shallow as they may be he didn''t mind.


    He baited the husk until forced it to follow him into the room on the right side of the hallway, one there it used the diagonal wide sh but Aldrich had already seen iting and ducked low.


    Taking this chance to attack the husk''s lower body that was now vulnerable, the attack was powerful enough that it send the te in the leggings of the armored husk flying.


    Aldrich wanted to press his attack but he was too greedy and the husk''s eyes glowed red for a moment and then Aldrich''s back was prated by the long sword.


    Despite wanting to dodge or do something his body was slow to react and a moments dy in battle was fatal.


    Aldrich inflicted a deep wound in the husk''s thigh, but he was pushed back andmitted a moronic mistake of losing his sword.


    Aldrich was pale for a moment before he wizened up and picked one of the swords that remained here from his previous attempt. Finally he dashed to the third floor''s staircase and managed to take the armored husk by surprise.


    He managed to destroy a chest piece in exchange for his life but Aldrich didn''t mind, he was just putting in the work for his next attempt.


    Aldrich returned to the real world pleased with himself, he put off the mossmps and covered himself with the nkets when he suddenly shot up in a hurry.


    He relit the mossmps and poured himself a ss of water as he thought about something. What happened to the bodies?

 Chapter 88 Mortal Combat (2)

    I rmend listening to this while reading this chapter and the next one too. https://youtu.be/Y41Qlu6W0Oo


    ****


    That''s right Aldrich fought and lost in the second floor''s hallway quite a few times, he also killed a few husks up there. The hallway should be stuffed with corpses right now.


    Yet when he returned to challenge the armored husk yesterday the hallway was clear, not a single body to be found, even today, he should find at least three of his bodies there.


    But there was only the equipment that he wore on him those times. But no bodies. That didn''t make any sense.


    Maybe the armored husk ate them, thats right husks do hunger for flesh, but could it have eaten that much in that short amount of time? Perhaps, after all it was monster what couldn''t it do?


    And yet¡­


    And yet, why were his equipment left there in the exact same spot where he had died? What about the blood?


    Some dried blood should have remained on the husk''s armor right? Forget about that, there should be a significant amount of blood in that hallway, it couldn''t have dried that fast.


    But the second floor looked clean with not a smudge to be seen.


    Huh, that was creepy, not just the normal amount of creepy that was already expected of the nightmare realm, but even more so, if that was even possible.


    Aldrich was surprised but not spooked, he had encountered his fair share of creepy things so he just took it in stride.


    Of course he still needed to know exactly what was happening and if it was happening in the base alone or it was happening in the entire nightmare town. This distinction was extremely important.


    The days passed by and Aldrich continued to challenge the armored husk twice a day. On the fifth day of what would be his ninth challenge, he knew he was going to win today.


    Aldrich looked at thepletely decimated second floor and smiled warily, when he and the armored husk shed several times here, the walls and furniture became an absolute mess of unrecognizable sheets, cotton and rubble.


    He could no longer use the walls to his advantage but he no longer needed to. When the armored husk used his diagonal sh he used Grass Cutter Stance meant to attack from beneath, targeting an opponent''s legs.


    It was not the most effective strategy when fighting against the Turtle guard stance but when used at the right opening it was extremely effective.


    With well practiced moves he evaded the husk''s retaliatory attacks, when you knew your opponents moves and patterns like you knew your own name, the other factors no longer mattered.


    Indeed he managed to break the husk''s kneecap with a mighty strike and the husk fell kneeling. At the moment that Aldrich was going to finish it off its eyes glowed red for a moment.


    Aldrich immediately stopped mid-action and backed away, he was sweating bullets. If he fell to the stamina drain skill then this attempt would be over.


    But after he made the two meter distance between him and his fallen foe he grinned.


    The stamina drain skill was overpowered, it was not an exaggeration to say that it wasn''t fair to the point of making an undying man like Aldrich feel desperate. But it was not absolute.


    After experiencing this skill more than ten times he had figured it out, first the obvious sign of the activation of the skill, the glowing eyes. Second that the skill had an effective radius of two meters around the the armored husk.


    Third the armored husk couldn''t just spam it endlessly, it definitely consumed some sort of energy and the limit of the armored husk was three times a day.


    In attempt number eight Aldrich almost sessfully killed the husk after it exhausted its energy in the previous attempt.


    Finally in order to curb its high speed movement skill he had destroyed the te armor slowly and now he managed to cripple it once and for all.


    With limited movement and weakened defenses the husk was amb to the ughter. Still the armored husk was an extremely skilled swordsman and it managed to cleverly dodge and block any fatal injuries for a while.


    Finally Aldrich got it to use itsst skill for the day as he watched the husk''s eyes glow red for thest time Aldrich kept his cool, backed away and waited for it to end so that he could decapitate it once and for all.


    However, life was an experience of one unexpected turn after another.


    The husk''s eyes continued to glow and the armored husk that was silent until now suddenly roared and green blood sttered over the floor.


    It had used its sword to sever its own leg from above it''s broken kneecap. There was no hesitation, no second thoughts only unwavering blood-thirst and brutality.<sub> </sub>


    It''s ck charred skin that all husks possessed started glow red and an unpleasant heat wafted in the area. Aldrich wanted to rush in and stop whatever was happening now.


    But he could still feel the stamina drain skill being active if he rushed in to the area of effect it would be over. But he couldn''t just sit and wait it out either.


    Think. Think.


    His mind quickly spun and he jumped to the side and grabbed some of the swords that were left behind in his previous attempts. He thenunched them one by one at the husk.


    But the husk wasn''t helpless it used its own sword to deflect away the oing swords, only two of the swords he threw managed to hurt the husk and that was only barely.


    It seems like it was surrounded by a repulsive air at the moment that protected its body, that air suddenly exploded outward.


    Aldrich felt the husk''s momentum soar despite losing a leg, despite being on the verge of death. He had to crawl away from the air st and he breathed in the dust and dirt that covered the now silent battleground.


    Cough! Cough!


    He had no idea what was happening anymore, one moment he was about to win and the next he was crawling on the ground. Aldrich looked at the source of the air st and gritted his teeth.


    He was still alive, no matter what he sure as hell wasn''t going to go down without a fight.


    Before the dust could settle the armored husk emerged and lunged at him with unparalleled ferocity and power. It rested its weight on it''s remaining knee and the stump of it''s remaining leg. It didn''t seem to care about the pain in the least.


    Worse still. He took a good look at it, it had grownrger as a whole now it lookedger than two meters, its now red skin had somehow fused with its te armor into a sickening amalgamation of the two.


    Aldrich didn''t have time to dodge, he had to take the hit. The Turtle Guard Stance was meant to be the foil to every other stance, save for the Guard Breaker.


    It was meant to be unshakable, unassable¡ªat the cost, of course, of mobility and offensive capacity. But then what was the point of attacking if your enemy was running straight into your de?


    He remembered how Gazeff did it, he was like a mountain. Aldrich hoped to do the same at this very moment.


    *CRASH*


    The two swords met and the resulting impact created a an air wave that made all the dust in the air surround the two in the middle for a single moment. As if time came to a stand still.


    In the next moment everything moved again as if the spell broke and the armored husk bypassed Aldrich and mmed into the wall at the end of the hallway.


    If the rooms hadn''t been broken down, this would be the room that imprisoned the husk in the past. Before Aldrich came by and freed it.


    Aldrich wasn''t much better off as he coughed blood into the ground and held his chest in a grimace.


    Naturally after looking at the new size of the husk Aldrich wasn''t sure that he could win in a contest of pure strength so he made a little adjustment in the end.


    He employed the Force Redirection properties of the hand to handbat that Gazeff taught him, the Bone Crushing Art.


    Inbination with the Turtle Guard stance and at the moment when the impact was at its strongest he was able to use the husk''s own power against it.


    He had never done that before, mixing hand to hand and sword stances. He didn''t even realize what he was doing at the moment he just did what seemed right.


    Gazeff didn''t teach him that nor did he see Gazeff do anything simr.


    *Roar!*


    Aldrich didn''t have the time to pat himself on the back the fight wasn''t over yet. He remembered what just happened and looked at his left hand it was shaking while holding the sword.


    The monster was now twice as fast, it wasn''t as fast as when it used the high speed movement skill but now it wasn''t just fast in short bursts but it could maintain a great speed for a longer period of time.


    He could not afford to be passive anymore, if he allowed the husk to attack and be on the offensive then he would surely lose. That was uneptable.

 Chapter 89 Mortal Combat (3)

    He turned around and ran straight ahead at the roaring monster. it used a diagonal sh and Aldrich as if on pure instinct rolled into the wide open body of the husk.


    He had seen this move many times even after the change the armored husk still used it which gave Aldrich the chance to slip into the personal area of the husk.


    Being big wasn''t always good, sometimes it left behind openings that wouldn''t normally be there. Though that is in part thanks to the fact that it had to limp awkwardly after it lost its knee.


    Aldrich slipped in and stabbed through the exposed neck of the husk but it was no longer a normal skin. The skin that was a mixture of hardened flesh and metal, it was too tough even a point nk strike only left a shallow wound.


    Aldrich was not willing to lose this chance so he grabbed onto the neck of the husk and propelled himself behind the neck, straddling it. Since the husk was kneeling it was not too hard to grapple onto it.


    From there he stabbed through the husk''s eye and the eye popped, sshing blood the husk roared and thrashed.


    If it was of the same size as before the transformation then it wouldn''t have managed to do much but now even small movements could cause destruction.


    It flipped over and mmed Aldrich to the ground and the remains of the walls at random, each hit put cracks in the building.


    Aldrich felt his the bones all over his body break and his flesh got ttened with each impact. He was under the impression that the entire house was shaking at this time.


    But Aldrich wasn''t done just yet, blood soaked his entire body and he felt that even breathing was hard but he unleashed a roar of his own. He stabbed his sword deeper still into the husk''s eye socket causing the husk to thrash even harder.


    But Aldrich didn''t care he stabbed the sword until only the hilt remained, at which point he felt the husk''s movements grow slower, clumsier no longer as powerful as they used to be.


    Until it fell down and the thrashing came to an end and so did the battle. Aldrich breathed in and out and every breath caused him agony but he still smiled. Victory atst.


    No wait!


    He didn''t get any essence orbs yet nor did he feel that insatiable hunger. He felt a chill all over his broken body and looked at the face of the armored husk.


    He saw it''s one remaining eye staring at him shining in red.


    The red light was flickering, like an old mossmp that was about to go out for good but it still has some kick left in it.


    Aldrich sprang into action, if it was sessful in using the stamina drain skill then he was a goner. He ced both hands on the sword''s hilt and propelled himself to the opposite direction of the head, twisting the husk''s neck in the process as he went.


    That''s right he didn''t pull the sword out of the husk''s head.


    He leveraged his own weight and the fact that the husk was incapable of moving in order to break its neck. His feet touched the ground on the opposite side and he pulled for all his worth as he roared his defiance.


    He looked at the eye and it stared back at him, the red light flickering and it was getting much clearer and brighter. Aldrich pulled and pulled, he heard the neck of the husk crack.


    But by then the red light hade into full bloom, Aldrich shut his eyes. And then¡­.


    Nothing.


    Aldrich hesitantly opened his eyes and looked at the neck, it had a huge open gash in the middle where green-red blood spilled. It was the shallow wound he had previously left on it before he abandoned that approach.


    The strain on the neck when he twisted it to break it caused that wound to expand and grow from a shallow wound into a lethal one. Aldrich didn''t let his guard down he kept his eyes fixed on the huge corpse lest anymore unexpected things happened.


    After a while he felt the familiar insatiable hunger and he allowed himself a smile. He had done it.


    He yed a mighty foe.


    When he was first killed by it back then he had just gotten to the nightmare town, he was truly a greenhorn.


    And even after he went through all that bloodshed and became able to kill all the husks with ease he had hit a metal te when he tested himself against the armored husk again.


    In all honesty his victory almost turned into defeat multiple times throughout the battle, especially during the second phase of the battle.


    Aldrich knew for a fact that if he had not crippled it before it transformed there by limiting its movement he would have lost.


    If he had not destroyed at least half of the armored husk''s armor he would have lost. If theplete armor set fused with it''s skin to form that powerful protection he would have no way to deal any heavy damage to it.


    Worse still, if he had not made it exhaust it''s Stamina Drain skill before it transformed he would have lost.


    If, if and if, there were no ifs in life. He had won one way or another and he proved himself the better man.


    Aldrich wasted no time in iming his reward, he touched the armored husk''s fallen body and a great amount of essence orbs was absorbed by him.


    Aldrich was shocked he looked at the interface and looked at the number of essence orbs increase like grass shoots in spring.


    Essence orbs: 24¡ª> 80 ¡ª> 98


    And then when the number hit one hundred something strange happened.<sub> </sub>


    Essence orbs: 1 (green)


    Under Aldrich''s shocked gaze the essence orbs in the armored husk were fully absorbed and a another change urred.


    Green essence orbs: 1


    Red essence orbs: 19


    He had gotten an absolutely massive amount of essence from the armored husk and got to see a new change in the attributes panel. He actually got ny five essence orbs!


    After a few minutes Aldrich had a good guess about what happened. All the essence orbs that he had seen before were red and the armored husk''s were no different.


    However, it seems like when the amount of essence absorbed reached a certain threshold, in this case one hundred, it would be gathered together and bepressed into a green essence orb.


    Meaning that one hundred red essence orbs are equal to one green essence orb. From this one could naturally infer that green essence orbs must be more valuable than the red ones.


    But of course he had to test things out to find out for sure.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 4+


    Agility: 4+


    Endurance: 4+


    Vitality: 4+


    Intelligence: 4+


    Spirit (ck): 4+


    Green essence orbs: 1


    Red essence orbs: 19


    Ether: 3


    Abilities: Eyes of Insight LV.1+


    Condition: blood of ######


    Finally he could actually upgrade the Eyes of Insight, without a doubt it actually consumed green essence orbs.


    In the past he had wondered at why even after he hoarded 72 essence orbs he still couldn''t do anything about that ability.


    Awesome! It was the hardest battle he had ever fought and he won. His body was broken in such way that even he was disgusted to look at himself and he could hardly crawl even if he tried and yet it was all worth it.


    It was then.


    Aldrich was shocked to see the armored husk''s body burn into nothingness. It didn''t burn like how a body burned but like when one lights piece of paper with a lighter.


    From the feet up and up to the maligned head very quickly, in what could only be less than five minutes a whole body disappeared. It didn''t leave behind any ashes or foul smell.


    But it did leave behind a fat coin pouch, a tiny red colored shiny stone and a ck heart that was levitating in the air.


    The ck heart had pure white bones jutting out of it from the back and coiling around it in a protective fashion. Eerily enough the heart was beating rhythmically as it levitated in the air.


    Aldrich crawled over to the coin pouch, he looked at the workmanship of it and whistled, it was some high ss stuff alright. He opened it.


    "Holy Altunan!"


    The pouch fell off his hand and onto the floor and coins rolled out, gold coins. Aldrich hurriedly, hands trembling, caught the coins that rolled out and put them back in.


    His breathing was rugged and it wasn''t all entirely from the gut twisting pain he was suffering just moments ago. He counted the coins and counted them again and again. There was no mistake, in this pouch there was thirty gold coins.


    That fucker, if he had known that it had this much money Aldrich would have killed it sooner even if he had to chew on dung.


    Aldrich suppressed his emotions and looked at the remaining two items before him. One was very familiar, the other was unknown, strange and somehow twisted.

 Chapter 90 Revelations (1)

    He used his Eyes of Insight on the two items, the red stone was called: Deadman''s Remnant.


    He had seen one like it before, when he first entered into this nightmare town he met an old madman who stabbed him in the heart with five red crystals and before he left he made Aldrich crush a simr looking stone, only that stone was purple in color and this was red.


    That was how he gained the Eyes of Insight. If his guess was not wrong then this should be an identical item. What kind of ability will he get if he crushed this one?


    The ominous heart was called: Proof of Devotion.


    Aldrich elected to avoid the unknown but strange and out-of-ce Proof of Devotion for the time being. It just didn''t look as inviting as the Deadman''s Remnant.


    Aldrich held the red stone in his hand it had a strange symbol drawn on it with an extremely dark ink. It felt too smooth like an egg and although it seemed like breaking it would be hard, it certainly wasn''t.


    Even with Aldrich''s current weak grip it crumbled with a little push and turned to red dust particles that dissolved shortly there after.


    Aldrich felt an electric shock graze through him,  he was used to it or so he thought, his broken down body certainly wasn''t. In fact he was already on the verge of death, any normal man would have long since sumbed to the horrific wounds.


    But Aldrich was far from normal, his endurance and vitality were both at level four which kept his body alive until now. But not anymore. The sudden shock was enough to push him over the edge.


    ****


    When Aldrich was back in the real world he wasn''t that bothered. In truth he had to die either way, that body was already wrecked beyond repair he couldn''t crawl back to the seal of Tindalor even if he wanted to.


    More importantly he looked at the attributes panel and grinned.


    Abilities: Eyes of Insight Lv.1+, Deadman''s Remnant (?)


    Aldrich didn''t know what ability this Deadman''s Remnant was, no¡ªit didn''t feel like an ability at all.


    Inexplicably Aldrich understood this at a nce, he had to use his Eyes of Insight on it. And he did, once he did that, unbeknownst to him his eyes shined with a red and ck light before he fell unconscious.


    Aldrich felt something from deep within him call to him, pulling him inward, and instinctively Aldrich knew it was the Deadman''s Remnant, the red stone that he had crushed was somehow inside him.


    Aldrich didn''t resist that pull but indulged it and soon felt a darkness consume him. He traveled in the darkness for a long time, no a short time, no, no he was there for eternity. Perhaps not.


    ****


    When he was a young man in the spring of his youth, he attended the Bestowal ceremony with his parents in hopes of being blessed with a divine core.


    The adherents of the Lord of irvoyant Moon performed the ceremony every three years, when the blessings of the Lord of irvoyant Moon descended on the world several chosen ones will rise.


    They will be bestowed with professions and from then on they were destined to soar to the sky.


    Out of the tens of millions in their city, hundreds were chosen every cycle. Sometimes when new nner wars were approaching thousands could be chosen.


    The young man would be happy with any profession, but if he had to choose then he wanted to be a Knight.


    If he did good enough he was guaranteed to be a Moonlit Knight in the future. Then he could earn glory in the nner wars for both the Great One and his lord.


    But just being a regr chosen was already good enough then his parents wouldn''t have to work in the golem factory and they could move to a different ward, a safer one.


    By then he could attend the gatherings of professionals and see Lisa again. That girl, she was very pretty. After he glimpsed her once in a parade he couldn''t forget her.


    But, ultimately that year he wasn''t chosen, it''s fine, the young man wasn''t discouraged, he''ll just have to try next time. Unfortunately even after that he was never chosen.


    It''s been many years since then, he found work in the same factory as his father with that connection. The work was hard and the coin was barely enough but the young man had no other choice.<sub> </sub>


    One day his father was involved in an ident in the factory, a magical agent spilled and infected his arm, the only way to save him was to amputate his arm.


    But even after he was saved he still couldn''t work anymore, he became increasingly weaker and a monthter he couldn''t get out of bed. Thus he had to be let go.


    Around the same time, one day he woke up and his mother was gone. He had no idea where she went, she just left.


    His father''s sickness got progressively worse, their savings could hardly pay for the cheapest medicine. After a year, his father had shriveled up. Looking like a shadow of his former self.


    "Son, please, just let me die. I''m sorry."


    His father was sorry and he could barely talk properly. His pleas broke the young man''s heart and he had no idea what to do.


    Only a miracle could save him now. But he had already prayed to the Great One and The Lord of irvoyant Moon many times but there was no answer. Again and again he pleaded and prayed until his tongue was dry.


    There was no answer.


    Until there was, one day someone knocked on his door. It was an amicable looking middle aged man, he was dressed elegantly in clothes that the young man could never have.


    He held a magical staff and the young man recognized him as a wizard. A chosen.


    The wizard asked to take a look a his bedridden father and the young man obliged. The wizard took a single look and said that he could cure his father and even restore him to health once again.


    The young man wasn''t excited he knew his father could be saved but he didn''t have any money for the treatment. Even if he sold this run-down house it wouldn''t even be close.


    However the wizard told him that he didn''t want money, he just needed him to renounce the Great One and the Lord of irvoyant Moon, he also had to join their organization, the Unseen Hand.


    "What do you think of this world? Isn''t it wrong? Is it not twisted and unfair?! The Great One does not see us as his people, no matter how much we try we will never be Ethereals, he does not love us! He does not care for our suffering!


    The Lord of irvoyant Moon is even worse he is a traitor who sold our world to the Divine Land for lordship and dominion!


    We have the guidance of a truly great being with us, we seek to right the wrongs of this world and help people like you. Join us, true devotees! Help us shatter this sham of a world!"


    The young man was enthralled, that''s right this world was wrong and he was the biggest proof. How could he not be chosen? How could he live his life in mediocrity?! Did that make any sense?


    No!


    No, obviously not. He deserved more, he needed more. The wizard told him that he would need to take a ve seal to be one of them.


    In exchange for that his father would be cured and he just had to work for them as a guard.


    The young man didn''t need much persuasion he agreed to join the Unseen Hand and his life took a turn immediately after that. Especially after he heard that the Unseen Hand was working on creating artificial Divine Cores.


    When they seeded in the future he would have priority in taking whichever profession he wanted.


    The young man and his cured father moved to a different city and they lived in rtive wealth, even his father''s arm was restored. They were not living in luxury butpared to the past their lives were worlds apart.


    The young man''s job was to work as a low rank guard in the city. It was a safe and easy job that payed well enough too. He was just asked to let some people enter and leave the city without notice.


    They were fellow members of the Unseen Hand, the young man was happy to help them. He even went out of his way to make sure everything was right days before any operation.


    Several yearster he was promoted and finally knew what the order was doing in the city. They were kidnapping people and using them as experimental subjects.


    The man was fine with that, ever since he had taken the ve mark and sworn his oath of allegiance to the Unseen Hand he felt that it was only right that things happened in this way.

 Chapter 91 Revelations (2)

    Eventually this suffering would lead to freedom and they would regain the fair and just world that they lost. Forever freed from the rule of the narcissistic Lord of irvoyant Moon and even the Great One himself.


    One day he got the news that the artificial divine core was about to bepleted.


    The man shook in excitement, the day of salvation was not far! To think that he would experience this great era personally! Such bountiful blessings!


    The Divine Land controlled many worlds in the Astral realm through the divine cores. The entirety of the Divine Domain was conquered and controlled just like that.


    The original spirit of the world would be erased and the divine cores would take their ce.


    There by making the people reliant on the divine cores, and who controls the divine cores? The Divine Land.


    The first and most essential step is to create an alternative to what the Divine Land offered. With these new artificial divine cores the people would have a way to fight back.


    The man was then presented with abat art. His superior had presented it to him and told him that if he mastered the three techniques of thebat art he would be as powerful as a true professional.


    The man was shocked. This was a heretical method but what heresy has he notmitted by now?


    His superior told him that they had obtained thisbat art from a foreign world. A world that was far away from the clutches of the Divine Domain.


    However due to the differences between worlds it was extremely difficult to attain sess in practicing this art. If he managed to do it then it would be his fate.


    The man practiced diligently but he didn''t see any results. He wasn''t disappointed by that failure, he just had to wait until the Unseen Handpleted the artificial divine core.


    However one day, the Lord of irvoyant Moon issued a draft order of an unprecedented scale. The order was forced upon most professionals in the three worlds in the irvoyant Moon region.


    However they weren''t going on a campaign to the outer worlds but to assist the Divine Land. It seemed like an ident had happened over there.


    The Lord of irvoyant Moon himself was on the head of this massive army. Before he left, he retrieved the true irvoyant moon from the Divine Land and stationed it here to protect the three worlds in his absence.


    The moon that shined day and night over the three worlds was just a projection from the Divine Land, that was the true home of the betrayer who called himself Lord.


    He also gave an order to close all teleportation gates and gave the keys to the Divine Land to the Overseers of each settlement, until his return the spatial nodes were to be sealed.


    The sacred beast, the four-winged tiger was the Lord''s own beloved pet from before his ascension to lordship. It was set to monitor and protect the region from the capital of the three worlds, Castamirphia, the phasing city.


    Castamerphia was the alleged home of the Lord, who still kept pretenses. It was more like a vacation house when the Lord deigned to visit his subjects.


    The people were in panic at such an event but the Unseen Hand saw it for the opportunity that it was.


    With the most powerful professionals gone on the reinforcement campaign, the three worlds became their yground.


    A council member from the Unseen Hand graced the city where the man worked shortly after that. A true higher-up! Someone truly special, blessed by true guidance.


    Their operations moved much faster and they no longer cared to cover their tracks so much like in the past.


    But it wasn''t yet at the level where they can do whatever they wanted as long as the majestic capital still hovered over their heads.


    Twenty years passed peacefully until one day the news broke out that the capital city had crashed into the ground at the center of this continent.


    Some imed to have seen a gigantic spear appear out of nowhere and pierce through the city. Some said it was a hand that pulled the city from the heavens to the earth.


    The capital city of the three worlds Castamirphia was not just a pretty city. It was filled with state of the art weaponry, it had high grade sentinels and mana canons.


    It was manned by third advancement professionals of all sses and had treasure troves of magic tools.


    Even with most personal on the war trail, the city still had a mystic knight, an archmage and an Angel. Not to mention the sacred beast.


    With this power it could invade and upy an intermediate world without a problem!


    On that same day, the resplendent irvoyant Moon was shattered and destroyed. The debris fell upon the three worlds and destroyed much causing all sorts of disasters and the three worlds fell into darkness without the light of the moon.<sub> </sub>


    Some imed that the Lord of irvoyant Moon had fallen as the moon was a representation of his position and might.


    The professionals began losing their mystical powers and especially the magic casters who were cut off from the primal weave.


    However the clergy of the congregation were quick to dismiss these ims and any who might voice out these thoughts was tried as a heretic and a traitor to the realm.


    Moreover the actions of the clergymen started to be stranger and stranger everyday.


    No ceremony was performed after that day and no new professionals were chosen, instead the adherents called for blood sacrifices.


    Soon that was not enough, they began performing unseen before rituals and singing strange songs.


    They imed that they knew how to restore the moon so long as they showed enough suffering they moon would grace the three world once again.


    As time went on the lost powers of the clergymen returned, but they were no longer as they were before, their miracles became foul and steeped in darkness.


    After a certain time they imed that only the blood of royalty could satiate the Lord. They wanted tounch an attack on the ruins of the fallen Castamerphia.


    This plunged the city in civil war and order was no more. Perhaps, that was the true state of a world ruled by false gods, the man was happy to see them eat each other.


    However what worried the Unseen Hand the number of strange monsters that started popping out everywhere at an incredibly pace, not only that strange urrences happened like people burning into a crisp out of nowhere.


    Some disappeared outright. Others grew to gigantic proportions and some grew extra limbs. Something untoward was happening but he didn''t know what.


    He was not qualified to know much. He knew that an insidious curse was brewing in the city. Without magic, contact between different settlements became almost impossible.


    One day his superior called him and his three other subordinates telling them to protect the safe-house.


    They had lost contact with the Organization and things in the city became extremely dangerous and tense, they had to do something to protect themselves.


    He especially begged the man who was now a captain to protect the third floor''s staircase at any cost.


    The superior had to perform an incredibly important experiment upstairs. His superior trusted him greatly he even gave him control of all the budget when he was busy.


    In the third floor, the captain of the guards and his men loaded many of the kidnapped people in cages to the third floor.


    The man promised to protect the staircase to the third floor no matter what. That was his eternal duty.


    It was small and even silly, such a small purpose but he was a small man to begin with, isn''t it appropriate that way? Yet it was because he knew how small it was that he had to stay true to it.


    In life or death he won''t waver in his conviction.


    As the man wore his armor and sharpened his sword he felt his heart beat with true devotion.


    ****


    Aldrich woke up struggling with a massive amount of information being poured into his head.


    He was having the mother of all headaches as he gasped, he was basically bathed in sweat his clothes were damp and stuck to him.


    But Aldrich didn''t pay that any heed, he simply sat down and penned a letter as quickly as possible. His handwriting was aplete mess and he only wrote two lines but he could sense his limit approaching.


    With his supernatural willpower he managed to open the door of the apartment and opened the window in the hallway. From here he could see Brozas and his men patrolling the front yard.


    "Brozas!" He shouted, Brozas looked up at him in rm, "send¡­this ¡­.letter!"


    His voice was cracking and he threw down the paper and didn''t bother to check on whether itnded safely or not.

 Chapter 92 Afterward

    His head was throbbing as if it was being continuously struck with a log. He quickly returned back to his apartment and threw himself on the bed as he lost consciousness.


    After an unknown period of timeter he opened his eyes, he waspletely miserable. He was hungry and thirsty, he was very thirsty his insides were burning.


    Worst of all the endless stream of information was not over. But the thirst was no joking matter, he had to drink water and quickly.


    He tried to get off the bed but his bnce was off and he fell down, slowly and carefully he crawled on the floor to the fridge, he kept a pitcher of water there.


    Unfortunately he felt that he had to get back to sleep immediately otherwise something terrible would happen to his mind.


    Aldrich luckily found another pitcher of water on the table in themon room, although it would be warm he wasn''t exactly in the position to pick and choose.


    He tried to reach for it but his hand slipped and the pitcher fell on the floor and broke, spilling the water on the floor.


    "No¡­" He couldn''t even exim properly.


    Aldrich wanted to lick at least a drop of water but he could no longer fight the overwhelming pain, he felt the pendant around his neck heat up and a momentter everything went dark again.


    ****


    Aldrich woke up and felt a presence besides him. His survival instincts took over and he had his hand strangled the neck of the unknown presence.


    "Ugh!-"


    Aldrich''s ears registered the voice and he looked at the girl that he was chocking. The girl had medium blond wavy hair with light brown tones and soft green eyes, she was none other than Irene.


    Aldrich didn''t let go, he looked around suspiciously. It was his room, he was on his bed. He let go of Irene.


    "Ugh! What''s wrong with you?!"


    She snapped at him angrily. Aldrich didn''t flinch.


    "What are you doing here? How did you get in here?" He asked sharply. He struggled to recall what happened¡­


    He defeated the armored husk and got a Remnant and then he used his Eyes of Insight on it and then..!!


    Aldrich held his head, a massive amount of memories and information was injected into his mind causing him to ck out.


    And finally he tried to drink water. And then, darkness.


    "I saved your life and this is how you repay me?!" Irene red at him.


    "You¡­ saved my life?" Aldrich repeated, dumbfounded. He certainly wasn''t in the best shape but his life wasn''t exactly in danger.


    "You were about to die of dehydration? How can you not remember that?"


    Aldrich had to admit that he was in desperate need of water thest time he regained consciousness. Perhaps he really was about to die¡­


    "Wait, what is today''s date?"


    "The 25th."


    "What?!"


    Aldrich''s jaw fell open, when he defeated the armored husk it was the 21st. This means that he remained unconscious for four whole days. Good thing he sent that letter to Ayemon.


    The room was in awkward silence, Irene was sitting on the bed and he found it difficult to look at her.


    "Ehem! Let me apologize for my actions. I waspletely in the wrong, I was really out of it and I acted rudely."


    "I get it. Here drink this."


    Irene handed him a cup of water and he realized he was thirsty but not like before he fainted. She saved his life, this meant that she probably fed him some water while he was out.


    "I heard the pitcher breaking and saw some of the water spill out from under the door. I was concerned so I knocked on the door, there was no answer, I tried opening the door and it was unlocked."


    "I''m sorry, it was an unexpected ident and¡­" Aldrich found it hard to find a usible excuse.


    "It''s fine, you don''t have to tell me." Irene rolled her eyes and from that look Aldrich knew that she wasn''t lying. This only served to make him ashamed further.


    "By the way," Irene said as she suddenly stood up and looked at him warily, "don''t you need to ¡­uh, um, relive yourself?"


    Aldrich was stunned by her words and his dder was about to explode, he immediately shot off to the bathroom and before he could close the door a towel was thrown at him.


    "Take a bath too, you stink!"


    ? Aldrich came out of the bathroom thinking that this day could not get any more humiliating when he smelled something pleasant cooking from the kitchen''s direction.


    He was reminded of his empty stomach and driven by ungodly hunger he rushed absentmindedly to the kitchen.


    He was practically drooling by the time he reached heated kitchen. There he saw Irene stirring a pot and adding some spices.


    "Easy there tiger, the stew is not done yet."<sub> </sub>


    "Stew?"


    "Covas fish, very easy on the stomach and very delicious too."


    "Well it smells amazing."


    "Back in my hometown we had this shrubs shrimp, now if we could get that, then I could''ve made a real meal."


    "Hey, I''m notining. I love sea food, though I still like meat better."


    "Of course you do. My dad was the same back then, whenever he could get his hands on any type of meat we would be having a festival. Ironic since we lived in a fishing hamlet."


    "Really? We only had a shallow stream in our vige barely any fish to be had."


    "Where are you from?"


    "Wak-" Aldrich bit his tongue before he said something stupid, "Oakwood from up north, far far in the north. You wouldn''t have heard of it."


    The stew was ready and so the moved to themon room and ate at the table. The setting sun gave onest look at the world before it went down and the mossmps reced it''s light.


    "So, what''s it like?" Irene asked as they were eating.


    "Ueh, it''s nothing, just snowing all year long."


    "Ohh, I haven''t seen snow before moving to Voryhrm."


    "So," Aldrich cleared his throat to change the subject "where are you from?"


    "Hmm, it''s just a small no name fishing hamlet, you probably haven''t heard of it. It''s called Ebrict."


    Aldrich stood up pushing the chair back roughly and it crashed into the wooden floor.


    "What did you say?"


    Irene looked confused, "what''s the problem? I-I just said I''m from Ebrict."


    Ebrict. Ebrict. That was the name of Cazmer''s hometown where he said he buried his treasure and where his brother lived.


    Finally, he found a clue. Although he searched for it and asked about it, no one seemed to have anything concrete to say about it but he finally found a clue.


    No, she''s actually from Ebrict which was even better.


    "Ah, I get it, You must''ve heard of the legend of the Umbra monastery. You''re going to be an adventurer obviously it attracted your attention."


    Unexpectedly she found a convenient excuse for his outburst. Naturally hetched onto it.


    "Oh, yeah, totally. Who hasn''t heard of the legend of the Umbra monastery."


    "Well, it''s not really a famous legend anymore¡­ sorry to disappoint you but the monastery doesn''t exist, it never really existed. It was just a legend and nothing more."


    "Oh, yeah well I still want to see for myself."


    "That''s fine but I''ve known people that went on the ind, there''s nothing there. Well if you don''t count pirates, bandits, thieves and monsters that is."


    They finished the rest of the meal while exchanging conversation and jokes. By the end of the meal Aldrich collected the dishes and took them to the kitchen.


    When he was back Irene was ready to leave.


    "Once again I''m sorry about all the troubles that I''ve caused."


    "Can you stop apologizing? I told you it''s fine. If you were in ce you would''ve done the same right? Besides It''s been so long since I''ve cooked for someone so it was a good change of pace for me."


    Aldrich sighed, actually he didn''t know what he would have done were he in her ce. Some time ago he would have agreed with that statement with out a doubt but now¡­ he just didn''t know.


    "Well goodnight."


    "Goodnight."


    Aldrich shut the door and sighed once again, to be honest he was troubled by this. She saved his life but he couldn''t figure out a way to repay her. Not to mention he was extremely rude to her several times.


    Wait a minute.


    ''What did she say just now? She said that she didn''t have the chance to cook for someone else in a while, right?''


    But.


    Wasn''t she living with her old and stubborn grandfather? She had an intense and loud argument with him that disturbed Aldrich''s sleep one night.


    She probably made a mistake. Obviously she wouldn''t forget the fact that she lived with her own grandfather.


    Come to think of it all this time he had never seen Irene''s grandfather.

 Chapter 93 Contemplation

    No. There might be something more to this, but he shouldn''t pry too much into it. He had a feeling that Irene wouldn''t react very nicely to it.


    But now that he began thinking about it from a different perspective he was beginning to see that there were several weird and strange behaviors disyed by Irene.


    The weird muttering, the suspicious and paranoid looks, the sleep deprivation and finally the loud arguments with her ''grandfather''.


    Furthermore, Irene stayed in his apartment for several hours, even if she was on bad terms with her grandfather he should still be worried that his granddaughter spent such a long time in a strange man''s apartment.


    This whole matter with Irene was not over, but he couldn''t just go and ask her about it now. It was better to find a good opportunity first and try to understand what exactly was happening here.


    More importantly, he had massive issues to deal with.


    He looked at his status bar.


    Skills: Light Step Lv.1+


    Light Step Lv.1: double your speed in short bursts, has to be in straight lines.


    This is it. Aldrich knew this Skill, it could be said that he was very familiar with it. The armored husk used it to devastating effect against him in their battles.


    He did manage to get his hands on his first skill. It was now that he fully understood the difference between abilities and skills.


    Abilities were passive and could be used by consuming physical stamina, the consumption was very tiny. Very negligible.


    Skills on the other hand had to be activated and they consumed Ether energy. All Crestmasters relied on it to use their skills, a fact which he recalled from the incident with the Necrotic-w Hawk.


    He had hoped to get the Stamina drain skill, but after experiencing the armored husk''s memories he knew why he got the movement skill.


    There was no other option this was the only skill that belonged to armored husk himself, the stamina drain skill was not his own.


    It came from the ve brand that was bestowed upon the armored husk when the council member executive came to reside in the city.


    All the members of the Unseen Hand were boosted upon his arrival. And they were ''blessed'' with being able to use some of his powers in times of need.


    Especially since the conflicts and anomalies started increasing exponentially in thest memories of the armored husk. The once illustrious Professionals lost their minds after their powers deserted them.


    Even though the Unseen Hand was actively working to overthrow the order of the three worlds it too had never experienced such an upheaval.


    It was true that they initially celebrated these things but as time went on they started to lose track of things. They too were affected, some of their members lost control and the executive from the council became ever more violent and erratic day by day.


    The worst of all was the istion, cutting off teleportation which was the main method of transportation in the three worlds lead to an unmitigated cmity. People turned on each other.


    Travel outside physically? Only one in ten thousand made it back. The outside world was gued by mana storms and monsters never seen before stalked thends in search for any flesh.


    The goals that the Unseen Hand worked hard on for more than ten thousand years was in front of them without them even doing anything and it only took twenty years.


    Better yet this was much worse than their ns, this was true mayhem!


    Unfortunately, the central piece of their plot, the artificial divine core, was not ready yet.


    However Aldrich did not think that he already unraveled the mystery of the Nightmare realm despite his newfound knowledge.


    He did indeed learn of many things, however, he only got the memories of the armored husk, a low level guard. And not even all of them at that, there were many missing ''holes'' in the memories he got.


    There were many things that didn''t make sense when he thought about them. For example, the armored husk never had any skills of his own in his entire life, even until the moment when everything went dark.<sub> </sub>


    The armored husk was supposedly practicing a method from a foreign world to gain the power of a professional. And the Light step skill was one of the three techniques in thebat art.


    But he had ultimately failed to gain anything from it. In the end when the armored husk stood guard over the staircase of the third floor he was an ordinary man.


    He could use the stamina drain skill but only once, that was what he was told. And yet when Aldrich fought him he used both skills so efficiently. And he used the skill multiple times with liberty.


    Thebat art had two more skills, the second one was called the Weight of a boulder. Apparently, it allowed the user to triple his weight and transfer that weight wherever he wished.


    He could transfer it to his sword at the moment before his strikends. The weight included his own armor and equipment, the user of the skill won''t be affected by the increased weight.


    The third skill was called Qi gathering, the exnation about this skill was vague. And Aldrich didn''t get anything from the memories of the husk regarding it.


    Second, why were all the husks sealed in their houses? When? Who did that?


    Third, the moon of the three worlds was supposed to have been destroyed long ago but it was clearly fine in the current Nightmare realm.


    Well, not exactly. In the memories of the husk the moon of the three world was always pure white. But the moon now was sickly yellow and it was much closer to the world than before it''s alleged destruction.


    The source of light for the three worlds was not the sun, which they knew of from other worlds within the Divine domain and outside.


    Apparently after the Lord of the irvoyant moon rose to lordship he took the actual moon to the divinend and left only a visage, perhaps a better word would be a spirit of it to light the three worlds.


    Of course he did bring it back before he lead the great army to the divinend.


    All in all, Aldrich didn''t know if he should believe any of this, this whole thing was insane. It didn''t make any sense. A being could grow so powerful that he could rule three whole worlds?


    Even more damning is the fact that the Lord of the irvoyant moon was considered among the weakest Lords in the Divine Land. There were thirty three Lords in the Divine Domain but only nine Ancient Lords and they were all below the Great One.


    Then what was the Empire? what was he? what was this whole world? He was insignificant, his whole world was insignificant, it was a pointless speck of dust in the uncaring Astral realm.


    ¡­At least he had gained useful information and some interesting things were revealed to him. For example he found the way to the divinend that the old madman talked about.


    The way was through the basement. The basement was actually a secret hideout of the Unseen Hand, it was a prison of four levels, each level had a warden.


    That was where those kidnapped by the organization were kept. Underneath the fourth level of the prison was the personalboratory of the executive of the Unseen Hand.


    The people were actually experimental subjects used in the research of the Unseen Hand in their quest to create artificial divine cores.


    But the good news is he didn''t have to go through all that trouble, he just had to go through the first level of the prison as it had a secret path that would lead him straight to the residence of the Overseer of this city.


    The Overseer had the key to a teleportation gate to the Divine Land itself and from there, how hard could it be to find the divine city and get that crown or whatever the old man said?


    But he had to get another key before that, the key to the prison was with the superior of the armored husk who holed himself in the third floor to work on some experiments of his own after themunications cut off with the organization.


    That iron gate had to be opened with the key. If anyone tried to use force to open it, it would self-destruct killing the ones behind the attempt and burying the entrance to the prison.


    Aldrich wasn''t afraid of death but he wasn''t about to let the only path he knew get buried so he had to get the key from the superior.


    The superior wore the key around his neck all the time and he had to have taken it with him back then. The key also opened the cupboards he saw in the basement which had some very interesting gadgets.


    Although he had many questions he wasn''t here to be a historian or an archeologist, he had a mission. To find and bring back Isger''s soul.

 Chapter 94 The Bewitching Oath

    The nightmare realm had a great potential, this was undeniable and he wasn''t dumb enough to ignore that, of course.


    The ways in which he could make use of the nightmare realm to facilitate his goals were endless in a very real sense. It was already midnight when he finished his contemtions, so he decided to sleep, tomorrow he was going to visit an old friend.


    Back in the real world Aldrich spent his day normally, he had only one ss in the morning and so he had some free time on his hands and he decided to meet up with Frank and they chatted over breakfast.


    In this conversation he learned from Frank that he was actually about to be a Crestmaster but he was intentionally suppressing the ignition of his symbol.


    He bragged that not many people had the opportunity to do so since most of the time people would get overwhelmed by the feeling of ignition.


    This was not some groundbreaking thing as it was a well known strategy, the reason behind that was because when you get tested to join a guild the exam for Crestmasters and non-Crestmasters was very different. This was obvious since the difference in ability was that wide.


    In other words it was better to take the exam before ignition as that means you would take the easier exams of course this logic has its own ws but it was valid.


    After all, since people like Frank could control the awakening he would do it after he was epted into the guild. There by, getting the benefit of being a Crestmaster and not going through a harder exam.


    Aldrich was impressed by that, in fact he considered joining up with Frank since they were both aiming for the Knights of Last Sustar. And they both got along well enough.


    It was at the end of their conversation that Frank said something extraordinarily interesting.


    "My sweetheart is going to take the oath after two days so that she could be back in Vorian in time for the exam."


    Aldrich froze for a moment when he heard that word, he looked at Frank and asked slowly,


    "what is the oath?"


    "Eh? You don''t know??!" He raised his voice.


    "Well, is itmon knowledge? I didn''t hear anyone talk about it except in hushes and whispers?"


    "Duh, obviously they would, its the Oath of Doom after all. They despise it, fear and resent it but can''t help but seek it."


    To be honest Aldrich knew about Oathbreakers, everyone knew, it wasmon knowledge that Oathbreakers were mad, out of control Crestmasters and everyone feared them.


    He had seen two so far, one of them even turned under his watch. It was a terrifying thing to behold, it regenerated half a torso in a matter of minutes.


    But although he saw that, truth be told he didn''t really understand what happened.


    "If you saw an Oathbreaker you have to immediately run away and report it to the closest temple in the area.


    They are known for killing randomly and under the effects of breaking the oath, they got cursed into malformed monsters that would eventually no longer resemble humans."


    As he heard these words Aldrich was reminded of Cazmer the Otherbreaker that saved his life on that fateful day.


    Cazmer had entrusted him with hisst wish and a ck non-assuming ring that was a wondrous item that had the ability to make other people fall asleep.


    Aldrich didn''t know how to use it yet but he felt it faintly react since he had upgraded his spirit to 4.


    Soon he will learn to use it, who knows it mighte in handy someday.


    He had to fulfill Cazmer''sst wish but that was not as easy as it sounded, Irene was from Ebrict so when he got a good chance he had to get as much information as possible.


    "The oath of doom? That sounds very ominous, if it was so bad then why do people take it?"


    Frank had a hesitant expression on his face as if he wanted to talk about it and didn''t want to, all at once.


    "Listen, I have a ss soon, so I''d better get going." He stood up and made to leave before he turned around and whispered, "if you want to know about the oath just look it up in the library. But I rmend not talking about too much it in a public setting."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich didn''t expect that, so he just nodded and said his goodbyes as he made his way to the library.


    The library avable for initiates was huge, the books covered everything from history to dungeon research. He first checked the monsters section and found that despite the many books information about grade one monsters were sparse.


    Not to mention grade two or higher, even the information on grade one monsters just mentioned the most basic. It was vague and mostly consisted of warnings not confront these monsters as a normal person.


    Aldrich shook his head and thought about the monster caudexes that Ayemon gave him,pared to this pile of junk here it was a divine tome of knowledge.


    Alright, he wasn''t here to see this, he took some of the books that looked to be the most relevant about the oath and took a seat at one on of the reading tables.


    Due to his high intelligence attribute his reading and learning abilities far surpassed ordinary people.


    In fact even for Crestmasters Aldrich could be considered outstanding except for Glyphmancers who are said to all be geniuses, other sses were not know for their intelligence.


    The more he read the more his expression changed from awe and wonder to fear and then shock. After more than two hours he was done and so he reorganized the information in his head.


    First, what is the oath? To take the oath one must perform a ritual in the holy capital of Ashphim itself, it was not rare at all, it was held yearly at this time under the foot of the Sunbreak mountain.


    p The oath was a simple thing, as a concept at least. It had the effect of raising the talents of anyone who took it, basically those whom had the talents of Crestmasters will have their talents amplified and the ignition process would be smoother in return.</anda>


    So, why is the oath so bad then? Easy, those who took the oath will not be able to ignite more than one symbol in their life time. Not only that they also had to not overuse their powers as much as possible for fear of breaking the oath.


    At the age of thirty five all who took the oath must retire from any job that is considered by the imperial citadel to be straining on the oath.


    As for what happens when you break the oath? The crest on the forehead of all Crestmasters breaks.


    Then you begin to lose your mind, it could be slow or fast, and when that happens all Oathbreakers awaken to great powers and be bloodthirsty unleashing great tragedies.


    So despite the dangers why do people take the oath? Why does the Empire permit it and even encourage it? All the while knowing of the tragic ends of Oathbreakers?


    It was because, thanks to blessings of great Altunan and the oath, the Empire boasts the greatest number of Crestmasters in the whole world by far.


    So is this a secret from those who take the oath? No. Are people being forced to take that risk? No.


    Not all initiates end up bing Crestmasters, some people can''t do it for their entire life, they seek to be Crestmasters even if they take that kind of risk, it was worth it.


    Aldrich feltplicated as he remembered Cazmer''s words to him that night. For power he took the oath and for even greater power he broke it. Finally these words made sense.


    ording to Cazmer a former member of the True Saint''s Folk, the order employed at least fifty Oathbreakers in their ranks. This was the personification of insanity.


    A force like that could take down an entire city all on their own.


    But how did they dare to keep that many Oathbreakers? It had to be known that Oathbreakers attacked and ughtered at random, they didn''t care if you were on the same side.


    Yes. He was able to converse with Cazmer semi-normally but that was only because Cazmer had only barely transformed. And even then it felt like he could snap at the drop of a hat.


    What''s going on? Every time he thought about True Saint''s Folk he found them to be hidden in a veil of mystery and they even seemed to defymon sense.


    There were many dark organizations and secret societies there was even cults dedicated to the false gods, but this organization in particr gave him a terrifying impression.


    The thing that frustrated him the most was that Wakefield had nothing to do with anything, they were just minding their own business, living simple lives everyday.


    So, why?! WHY? WHY? WHY?!

 Chapter 95 Old Friend, New Friend

    Aldrich threw away these thoughts, it brought up an unpleasant mood. He called a private carriage and rode away to the Lunsken district.


    Lunsken district was far away from the academy district and he only knew that the Grinning Aatax was nearby the pure fountain. That was fine he was going to take a look and ask some locals.


    Aldrich got off the carriage and took a look at Lunsken, it was alright. It just had the same atmosphere as the 18th Gana street where he was jumped by a thief when he first met Gazeff.


    Not only was he jumped, the thief was actually poor so it was just whole lot of time wasted for nothing.


    Anyhow, Aldrich walked by the so called pure fountain and it was actually not bad, the waterworks were beautiful and the birds flocked around the area giving the ce a very attractive look.


    In the mostly bleak residential buildings of Lunsken this ce was a rare relief and rxation spot. There were many shops and stalls around it with many peopleing and going.


    "Boss do you know where the grinning aatax is?"


    Aldrich brought a hotdog sandwich and asked the dwarf behind the stall.


    "Hm, ah! The Tenberry brothers right?"


    "Yeah, it''s them." Aldrich was expecting the answer.


    "Just take a left turn here and you''ll see their board."


    "Thank you for the help."


    Aldrich made his way over while eating his hotdog and evading the children who were ying all around the area.


    Finally he saw it, a moderately sized board that had the same image of the Aatax that he saw previously when he and Tarzin escaped from the goblin caravan.


    The inn looked to be in a sorry condition old and moldy woodwork the brown color of the walls was turning green in ces. After a few more years it could fit in the nightmare town.


    Aldrich pushed the door open and entered, a small jingling rang when he stepped in. There were no patrons in at this time in the reception.


    An elven woman was the receptionist, she was trimming her nails when she looked up at him but she didn''t smile or greets him in anyway. She just resumed her trimming.


    Aldrich coughed loudly to get her attention, "hi, I''m looking for Tarzin Tenberry, I''m his friend."


    "He''s in the tavern. See that door? Just go in."


    She answered without lifting her head.


    But Aldrich didn''t care he just walked past her and stepped into the doorway. The tavern smelled of a hundred different alcohols all at once and the lighting from the ambient mossmps gave the ce a certain atmosphere.


    Tarzin was standing behind the bar and using a small white towel to clean a ss cup in his hands.


    Aldrich walked up to the bar and saw that Tarzin was standing on a long legged t chair. That exins why he looked like a human for a second.


    "Ehem! One Erdestani tea please."


    "Tea?" Tarzin repeated dumbly and then looked at the newly arrived patron and zoned out for a moment.


    "Holy Altunan! It''s you, Aldrich!"


    Tarzin eximed in shock and Aldrichughed, "why, didn''t you tell me that you owe me a treat? Well here I am."


    "Well, well, you look so different. Back then you looked like an escaped convict. And you''re taller too."


    Well now that he recalled when he met Tarzin he still looked like shit, what with all the blood and all that.


    "Wee to civilization boy! It''s been like what? A month? No, a little more than that. d to see you made it to Voryhrm."


    "Well," Aldrich looked a little apologetic, "I''ve been here for some time already¡­ I was a little busy so I didn''t get the chance to pay you a visit."


    "Hey! Hey! Now that hurts a little! Whatever, turns out you were a man that forgets his friends!"


    Aldrich smiled warily, "here I am now, so let''s just forget about it."


    "Forget about it? Just like that? Hell no! I won''t forget about it until we have a feast tonight!"


    "A feast? Noe on, I have things to do. Maybe another day." Aldrich tried to exin but he was cut off.


    "No way. I won''t let you leave this tavern before sunrise or my name is not Tenberry!" He loudly dered as he jumped on the bar and pointed at Aldrich.


    "Fine! But don''t forget it''s your treat." Aldrich wouldn''t turn down something free. Besides he slept for three days straight he was kind of tired of sleeping.<sub> </sub>


    "Wilton! Cole! Come down here youzy bums!"Tarzin called to upper floor, hearing no response he was grinding his teeth and then he ran up.


    Aldrich took a seat by the window and waited patiently, he remembered Tarzin telling him that he had a talented nephew that was about to be a Crestmaster and join the knights of thest Sustar.


    The same guild that he was trying to get into, hmm perhaps they could help each other.


    Footsteps sounded from upstairs and three halflings descended, one of them was Tarzin but the rest were strangers.


    One was fat and had a long beard, some might think him a dwarf rather than a halfling but he didn''t have the same bulky frame as dwarves. The other looked like Tarzin and was following behind as if he was dragged down here.


    "This is my brother Wilton." Pointed Tarzin at the fat halfling. "And this is my nephew, Cole." He pointed at the boy on the side.


    "Nice to meet you, I''m Aldrich." He greeted then and stretched his hand to Wilton for a handshake which Wilton immediately recuperated.


    "Oh, I know who you are! Aldrich the little hero who saved my idiotic brother''s life from whole tribe of goblin vers."


    "Eh¡­" Aldrich leaked out a confused sound.


    Cole took his hand for a shake after his father let go and he beamed at him, "yeah, we heard how you guys teamed up to kill 50 goblin wolf riders and finally even took down a frost direwolf."


    Aldrich looked at Tarzin, ''was the story that exciting? When did all that happen? And a frost direwolf? That''s a grade one monster!''


    "Ah, well the story may not have gone exactly like that¡­"


    Wilton gave Tarzin a sharp look and Tarzin''s neck shrank down, "hey, I did warn you that I exaggerated some stuff for entertainment purposes!"


    Aldrichughed out loud. The whole group shared augh and soon Tarzin got them all some beer and they started chugging.


    All the while the kitchen in the back rocked with activity and tantalizing smells wafted out from time to time.


    A few hourster somemb chops wereid on the table they were zed with honey and garlic sauce. Next there was Parish bread and Toursan eggs.


    Deep into the night Aldrich told them about what he''s been up-to in Voryhrm so far. Of course he omitted some parts here and there.


    When they heard about the Necrotic-w Hawk they were all enthralled by the story and shocked by every turn of events.


    "Back then¡­*hek* Aldrich you didn''t just save me¡­ you did more than that*hek!*" Tarzin was drunkenly mumbling.


    "I told you¡­ I told you just wait for no more than half a year you''re going to make it big! We''re all going to make it big! That thing once we get it then our lives will turn around for sure¡ª"


    His rambling was stopped by Wilton as he covered his mouth and looked at Aldrich apologetically, "he''s too drunk let me take him up."


    "No I''m not drunk! Let me go asshole!"


    Aldrich smiled in bemusement and looked at Cole who was sitting opposite to his own chair.


    "So¡­ are you suppressing your crest until after the exam?"


    Cole looked shocked, "how did you know?"


    "It was just a lucky guess. When Tarzin talked about you he sounded very sure that you would be a Crestmaster."


    "He just doesn''t know how not to brag. Are you doing the same? I thought people like us were rare¡­"


    "Like us?" Aldrich asked keenly.


    "Yeah well I know two more people who are the same as me and you."


    "Well I know someone too, you know what I think? Maybe we should team up."


    Cole took a swing from his drink and grinned, "an elite team, I like that. One of my friends is an alchemist, he''s got his hands on some very useful stuff. I''m good at sneaking and I my dagger y is not bad."


    "I have super-strength and I can take on any grade zero creature. My friend has a wide socialwork."


    "That''ll work, but if we want to form a party we have to wait until after the first part of the examination. You do know that we can''t choose teammates before then right?"


    "Sounds good to me. How long for the exam now?"


    "You''re that confident? Good. It should be in ten days."

 Chapter 96 What Do You Choose?

    Aldrich didn''t know that but since Cole was so certain about it he went along with it, it looks like he will have to get the information about the imminent exam from Ayemon as soon as possible.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment and washed up, cooked some simple breakfast consisting of eggs, mashed potatoes and some greens. He didn''t actually drink that much and so he wasn''t that drunk to begin with.


    He made his way to the academy and attended the sses for the day. Next he found Frank at the cafeteria.


    "Look who''s here." He said by way of greeting.


    "Listen, yesterday I found three more people that are like you and me, suppressing their crests. We should form a team together."


    "Since when were you suppressing your crest too? You didn''t tell me that before."


    "I just forgot, I was too focused on our talk about the oath¡­"


    "Well, I definitely would like to join a group like that but¡­ I have to be in a team with my sweetheart. I wonder if you can let her join."


    Aldrich didn''t know to respond to that, clearly his sweetheart wasn''t like the rest of the team. This put him in a difficult spot.


    "Is she good at something in particr?" Aldrich asked hoping to get something that could substitute for talent.


    Frank had a difficult face on, "she''s good at archery, I guess. But she''s getting the oath as I said so her talen is no problem she''ll be guaranteed to ignite her crest soon."


    "Archery? That sounds good, rangedbat is necessary after all." After all the more arrows covering their backs was a good thing, she could fill this role nicely.


    "Ehem, well you should know, she doesn''t really have anybat experience but she''s willing to learn and is very enthusiastic. She''s quick on her feet too."


    Aldrich was truly trying to look for merits in this arrangement but the exam wasn''t a game it was a test of life and death, it wasn''t some walk in the park activity.


    "Listen, I really like you, Frank and I would like for you to join us but I really can''t speak for the rest of the team we will have ask them. But don''t put much hope in it."


    "I understand, it''s a risk but we have a strong team with us I think it''s really doable." Frank exined.


    "That''s true."


    It was a team of five powerful and talented individuals it might not be that difficult to carry someone less¡­ talented.


    Aldrich was willing to do that for the exam and even persuade the others, however that was all. If the other members decided that they wouldn''t want to take that risk then he could only apologize to Frank.


    Aldrich had a n he wasn''t just randomly doing things. The n was to form an official adventuring party with the members of the exam team, Aldrich had given this matter serious thought.


    He first thought of the fact that the exam was a life and death test, this would make for a good foundation of trust between party members.


    He wanted to build up on that foundation to make a real party once they were epted into the guild.


    That was why choosingpetent and capable party members was essential, this couldn''t be overlooked. Aldrich had no intention to baby a bunch of burdens and be dragged down by them.


    They each should pull their weight and contribute something to the party otherwise there was no point. The exam wasn''t the end but the start.


    It was true that he liked Frank but it was not to the point of going that far for him. This was the reality of the current situation it wasn''t that he was unkind but he had things to aplish.


    Aldrich then picked his things but he didn''t return to the apartment but instead he took a carriage to 6th Harveston street, Ayemon''s mansion.


    It was time to hear all about the imminent exam form Ayemon.


    He was sure that his letter reached Ayemon otherwise he would have definitely sent someone for him. He must remember to thank Brozas for thatter.


    The hastily written letter exined only that ''I will be extremely busy for some time so tell Gazeff and don''t worry about me.''


    He simply didn''t have the capacity to write any more or better for that matter. This reminded his that he also needed to buy a messenger creature and urgently too.


    Now that he got his hands on the coins it was no problem to buy a fully trained Amphiptere, which would save time and solve a problem for Aldrich who was having an ever expanding list of contacts.


    "Look who decided to show his face," mocked Ayemon right as he entered themon room. He wasn''t wearing his formal clothes today but a lose shirt and he was getting ap pillow from a maid on a long couch.


    She was the same pretty maid that Aldrich noticed before, she was feeding Ayemon nuts while he was eating and smoking tobo from a luxurious looking pipe.


    "Did you miss me?" Aldrich joked.


    "Nah, while you were gone I had less headaches and my life was just fine. But now that you decided to show your face again my head is already-"<sub> </sub>


    "Alright, I get it. Did you get my letter?"


    "Your letter? Oooh you mean this?" Ayemon was handed an envelope by one of the manservant''s standing in the room.


    "This letter. I needed an ancient tongue interpreter just to understand your horrendously bad handwriting."


    Aldrich was basically bombarded with insults left and right the moment he came in. Which wasn''t so bad.


    "So, want to tell me what happened?"


    There it is.


    "I got sick, heavy fever and everything thates with it." This was also an excuse that Aldrich already came up with long before he decided toe here.


    "I see, well I''m d you''re okay now. The exam is at hand, I assume you''re here for the details?"


    "Yeah," he really didn''t need to answer because Ayemon asked a rhetorical question.


    "Well, listen up. The exam of the guild consists of two parts and three quests. One quest in the first part and two quests in the second part."


    "Quests? Like adventurer quests?" Aldrich asked just to confirm.


    "Exactly. Haven''t you wondered why the exam is a secret? Because nobody can tell you about it even if they wanted to, even if they themselves took it.


    The quests are always randomly selected so there''s no way to prepare or cheat beforehand. Of course the quests are all grade zero quests."


    "Hmm, very creative." Aldrich had to admit the method was very good at vetting only the best recruits.


    "But wait, you said you were going to pull some strings to help me, so how are you going to do that when it''s random?"


    "I obviously meant that I can get you the quests that I want you to get."


    "But, it''s random."


    "It is, but not when you have some friends on the inside to arrange a ''coincidence''. What do you think? Aren''t I great?"


    Ayemon had a smug look on his face.


    "Yeah, I''m very impressed by how corrupt you are. To the point that I lost hope in humanity."


    The pretty maid burst outughing and Ayemon chocked on his pipe.


    "You insolent brat! Your tongue is getting longer and longer by the day, might be time for some trimming."


    Aldrich smirked defiantly, how do you like a taste of your own medicine?!


    "Lets get back on track here, the first part''s quests is always easy the difficult ones are in the second part.


    The first quest is always something like escort quests or herb gathering, perhaps some information gathering. Just make sure to do as the quests say no more and no less.


    The party members are chosen randomly by the guild but I can''t do anything about that, You can only move on to the next part after finishing the first quest sessfully."


    "Obviously."


    "In the second part of the exam consisting of two quests the participants are allowed to form parties of no more than six."


    Ayemon smiled warmly for some reason and that gave Aldrich a bad feeling.


    "So, Aldrich, as I said I can manipte the exam to give you easy quest but I can also manipte it to give you the hardest quests. What do you choose?"


    Aldrich finally understood, in the beginning when Ayemon offered to help him pass the exam he didn''t know that Aldrich had super-strength.


    But now that he knew it was redundant to give him help that he didn''t need. And also there was probably another reason.


    "You want me to impress the senior guild members to raise my prestige from the get go."


    Ayemon''s eye seemed to shin for a brief moment before he replied calmly, "you catch on fast."

 Chapter 97 Great Change

    Aldrichughed out loud for a moment, "sure let''s do it."


    "No hesitation," Ayemon mused, "you''re awfully confident."


    "That''s because I am, I''ve got be capable of at least that much right?"


    "Good, then I will show you the quests that you will ''randomly'' get five dayster, how''s that?"


    "Sounds good to me."


    "You''d better prepare party members early for the exam."


    "Already did, well for the most part."


    "I see your adapting quickly, good. But don''t forget what happened on your first day of training with Gazeff, be prepared for anything."


    Aldrich grimaced as he recalled the devastation of that battle in an area where you wouldn''t normally encounter grade one monsters but that was just a mortal ssification reality can be different.


    Even a powerful party like that could be driven to exhaustion which eventually lead to the death of three Crestmasters.


    However Aldrich had no intention to be paralyzed by fear, he knew of his own power and he had enough confidence to drive himself forward regardless of his apprehensions.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment and changed for his training with Gazeff. He met up with him in the usual ce where Aldrich showcased his progress and he managed to shock Gazeff.


    Unfortunately by the end of the day Gazeff reminded him of this week''s payment and Aldrich realized that he did not bring with him any of the coins fromst time and he was already out of money.


    Aldrich was going to return to the nightmare town tonight so he was definitely going to get the fat coin pouch. Well at least some of the coins.


    ****


    Aldrich woke up under the seal of Tindalor and stretched his new body although he really didn''t need to, it was in top condition.


    Aldrich picked one of the half-te armor sets in the store and chose the ck long sword that he couldn''t use before due to the weight.


    This time around there was no problem. The ck sword had the likeness of a four-winged white tiger engraved on the hilt. Aldrich now knew this was the scared beast of the three world and the personal pet of the Lord of irvoyant Moon.


    Aldrich made his way to the second floor to pick up the rest of his spoils, but when he reached there the Proof of Devotion was gone, it had seemingly vanished.


    Aldrich picked up the coin pouch and frowned, he scanned the surroundings but it was nowhere to be seen. That was weird.


    He had hopped to study it but unfortunately he passed out for too long and he couldn''t be sure of what happened. Add another question to the pile, really at this point Aldrich wasn''t annoyed.


    He just had to go to the divine city that was all.


    Aldrich looked at the staircase of the third floor, there he was going to get the first step to leave this ursed ce. But he wasn''t going now.


    He needed to collect some essence orbs to transport the coins back, and since gold was heavier than silver he needed more orbs.


    Aldrich stored the coin pouch in the study room where by pure curiosity he picked up one of the book lying around and stared intently on the title for a good minute.


    "The¡­ mana¡­ power¡­ amplifier theory?"


    Aldrich had obtained some knowledge of thenguage used by the people in this world, although he wasn''t that good at it at least he wasn''tpletely clueless anymore.


    He put the book away and proceeded to go outside. Since he cleared out this area he had to venture out, this was the first time he was going to leave this area.


    On the way Aldrich once again found the destroyed stone tform that he once passed by and he stopped. He went to observe it and noticed that the signes and marks had long since faded.


    This was a teleportation tform. In the past people used it to travel anywhere in this city within minutes, some bigger ones even worked across the continent.


    The two other worlds of this region ruled by irvoyant moon was connected to this one through this system. There were even some huge teleportation gates used to mass teleport armies, traders and tourists across worlds.


    Aldrich sighed and hopped that he might somehow make use of this someday. This sort of thing can absolutely change the world.


    The husks outside of the base zone were as loud as ever and that annoyed Aldrich a little. Ever since that roar these guys have been so noisy.<sub> </sub>


    As he was strolling the ruined streets of the nightmare town he heard a distinct crash. He looked at the source of the noise and saw an axe head jutting out of one of the doors, which made him stop and return.


    Aldrich was not rmed he had seen something like this before, it wasn''t a big deal. He waited for the husk topletely break out and then three others followed behind the first one.


    Aldrich didn''t wait any longer he charged at them and used the swinging leaves stance for a broader attack range.


    The sword cleaved two husks like a hot knife through butter painting the street with their guts.


    That¡­ was too much.


    Aldrich had to stop and look at the sword, no it wasn''t just the sword he too had be a monster at least to these husks.


    One of the husks shot at him with an arrow which Aldrich easily dodged and then he kicked the husk mming it into the wall and making a new door to that house.


    Aldrich then looked thest remaining husk and just decapitated it with ease. Then he checked on the husk he kicked into the house.


    It was still alive if not barely, it had broken bones everywhere but struggled to stand back up.


    His prize was eight essence orbs, not bad. Aldrich then turned his attention on the next house.


    He broke in from the front and proceeded to massacre the nine husks there. No matter what they did they couldn''t even injure Aldrich he was like a wolf in chicken pen. Here he got eighteen orbs and a total of twenty six.


    It happened when Aldrich was gearing up to go to the next house. He heard a roar.


    It was THAT roar but much louder this time as if it was right besides him but this time he didn''t bleed out, he too has be stronger.


    But as time won it was bing increasingly unbearable, suddenly he heard a crash from the side and saw that some husks broke out from a nearby house.


    ''The second time in one day?''


    Suddenly he heard a second and third crashes, he looked around saw the fourth, the seventh the¡ª


    ''No, way¡­''


    The roar stopped, but Aldrich wasn''t paying attention anymore he was observing hundreds of husks in this street alone breaking out all at once and from the noise he could tell it wasn''t happening just here.


    The husks stopped advancing after they broke out they were simply gazing at the moon in a trance.


    Aldrich began backing away from whence he came. He was strong he could even take out ten on his own without breaking a sweat now but this wasn''t ten, this was hundreds.


    The husks suddenly started roaring madly and Aldrich suddenly felt stupid because he felt that there was a certain rhythm to their roaring like an unconventional song.


    Then the husks started changing, their limbs grew eerily long, their feet and hands grew especially bigger. They grew to about 2.3 meters some grew more and others a little less.


    Grey-blue hair sprouted from everywhere on their bodies and it was very thick in a matter of minutes.


    It was especially long where it grew from their necks like strands of wheat and that hair bent to cover their faces. Their mouth''s developed longer fangs and their lips stretched to take over most of their faces.


    Their nails grew into ws and a beastly tail emerged from their backsides.


    Aldrich watched as he was running back to the base and after the transformation waspleted he looked above their heads: Malformed Husk.


    Suddenly one of them lunged at him bearing huge ws and Aldrich dodged and shed as he side-stepped, his sword cut off the husk''s hand.


    Aldrich calmed down, it became much faster and stronger than before but he wasn''t at a disadvantage either. He used the Grass Cutter stances to disrupt the monster''s movement.


    However he was surprised when it jumped high in the airnding behind him and kicking him in the back sending Aldrich back.


    He regained his bnce quickly and used a feint to mislead the creature to his true attack by luring it to farther than its friends in the area. Here he deflected an piercing attack and stabbed it through the chest.


    He was surprised when he got six orbs from this one husk. However he took too long and he was already surrounded by more than fifty malformed husks.

 Chapter 98 Not So Easy

    He looked around and seeing as he was in a pinch he observed where there was the least amount of Malformed husks.


    Aldrich put away his sword and exploded with such a speed that it looked like he flew out of the encirclement of the husks.


    He had used his new skill, Light step. This skill doubled his speed but only as long as he moved in a straight line. This gave him an incredibly valuable method to run away¡ªer, to make a strategic retreat.


    It was not worth it to die now, he already got incredibly sick of dying to the armored husk so many times. Besides he wasn''t sure that the changes in the nightmare realm were over yet.


    For these reasons he had to quickly return to the base which was ironically the safest ce in the nightmare town as of now.


    The skill was great but he could feel his Ether and stamina depleting fast, he judged that he could only maintain it for ten seconds before beingpletely exhausted.


    For the first time he was able to actually feel the existence of Ether in his body, it was vague like smoke.


    He could see at every turn he took the husks all changed in Malformed husks and broke out of the houses and buildings that imprisoned them not long ago.


    The thick fog that covered the whole town was dissipating and visibility became much better, the light of the yellow moon grew clearer and brighter.


    Aldrich was almost back, thankfully the safe zone he created in advance was clear of husks for now at least. Before he entered the house he glimpsed something strange.


    From the cobblestone under his feet a candlestick appeared. Perhaps, appear wasn''t appropriate, grew. A candlestick grew from the cobblestones and it was already lit.


    Aldrich looked around him, at the edges and corners of the streets and even above walls candlesticks of various sizes grew. Some were bigger than others some were straight and some were bent in weird angles.


    The darkness that ruled this town was gone, these candles grew everywhere, Aldrich climbed to the rooftop of one of the houses that he already cleared and witnessed that scene.


    The nightmare town has changed.


    Just when Aldrich was ready to farm essence orbs like crazy. He held back his indignation and returned to themon room with his new coin pouch.


    There was nothing he could do about the situation anyway so it was better to focus on what he could do.


    Gold was heavier than silver and so it would cost more to transport luckily he had essence orbs in stock. He made thirty two orbs today alone.


    That Malformed husk gave him six orbs, before the transformation took ce he got two from level one husks and now it gave three times as much so that could be a plus depending on how you looked at it.


    If the level one husks became that strong it it was likely that something simr happened to level two and three husks.


    Anyway today Aldrich decided to take five gold coins at once. He needed arge amount of funds for living Voryhrm.


    Aldrich picked five of the coins, the gold coins of the nightmare town had the word ''irvoyant'' on one side and the likeness of the moon on the other.


    The word was written in Quohen which was thenguage of the three worlds, in the real world probably no one would ever know what it means.


    Aldrich closed his eyes and activated the return function of the seal of Tindalor. He felt the essence orbs being consumed, two to return and 34 to bring back the coins.


    ****


    Aldrich opened his hand and looked happily at the five gold coins. He only had 15 red essence orbs left but that was fine, these coins couldst him for at least another month.


    In ten days he wouldn''t have to pay Gazeff''s wage which should significantly lessen his overall spending. So all in all this was a fair amount for suchrge sum.


    Aldrich kept the coins in his pouch and returned to sleep which he desperately needed. The next day he got up feeling refreshed and had a huge breakfast of bacon and cheese with apple juice.


    After attending the sses and chatting with Frank for a few minutes he made his way to the imperial bank.


    He familiarly nocked on Yasbel''s office door, and entered after being told toe in.


    Yasbel was wearing her usual clothes of dark blue suit and white shirt, a formal suit paired with her silver-rimmed sses and professional demeanor gave her a rare charm.


    Her hair was done in a thick bun that rested on the back of her neck. The thick bun wasbed to perfection not even one hair was out of ce and it indicated just how long it was if it was let free.


    Looking at her subconsciously put a smile on his face but he quickly recovered. ''Man, these banks sure know how to get to people.''


    "Hey, if it isn''t Aldrich."


    "Oh, you remember me?"


    "How can I not? Come, take a seat."


    Aldrichplied. He was surprised that she still remembered him considering he hadn''t been here in while. To be precise this was his third time here.


    "Care for some tea? Or maybe coffee?"


    "No thank you, I''m just here for some quick deposite and then I will take my leave. I wouldn''t want to disturb you."<sub> </sub>


    "Another deposit that needs to be appraised first?" Yasbel asked with some surprise in her tone.


    Aldrichughed, "yeah, well you know the drill by now right?"


    "Yeah¡­ well why don''t you show me the coins first?"


    Aldrich took out the pouch he prepared beforehand and put it on the table and pushed it towards Yasbel.


    She took the pouch, opened it and gasped. Aldrich saw how her eyes widened and felt just a little bit smug.


    "Well," she said slowly as she fixed her sses and peered at the coins closely, "we need to go somewhere else to finish this transaction."


    "We do?" Aldrich asked in confusion. That was weird.


    "Yes, indeed we do. We need to go somewhere more¡­ private."


    Aldrich didn''t have this kind of money before so he wasn''t sure but since Yasbel who was obviously more experienced in this said as much he could only agree.


    Yasbel didn''t waste any time she put the coins back in the pouch and turned the mossmps off while leaving the window drapes open. She and Aldrich walked outside the office and she locked it with a key.


    "Wait, don''t you need any of your equipment?" He didn''t see her take anything with her.


    "No. We don''t need those for now,e on let''s go."


    "Alright, if you say so."


    Aldrich followed Yasbel outside of the bank which made him frown but he didn''t say anything and followed Yasbel. They took a private carriage to a nearby street and got into a nice looking coffee house.


    At this point Aldrich was bewildered, he didn''t know what Yasbel''s intentions were but if she wanted to run away with the money then she was doing a poor job out of it.


    They went to the second floor and took a seat by the window. The decor of the ce was green and brown, the natural lighting and the mossmps gave the ce a rxing mood.


    The ce was open for business but the second floor was empty of patrons. This is what she meant by private.


    Before they could talk, a waitress came up to take their orders, "how can I help you today?" She asked, looking at him.


    "For me just ck coffee, no sugar."


    "And for thedy?"


    "I''ll have a Red Eye with fresh cream and a honey cake."


    The waitress left and Aldrich stared at the woman who sat opposite to him.


    "Can you stop ring at me? You will embarrass me."


    "Cut the crap. So, what do you want?"


    "Well, aren''t you frank and straight to the point?" Sheughed, "but I do like serious men."


    "And I don''t like to waste my time." Aldrich coldly pointed.


    "Well then, I''m sure that you will fine your time with me a great investment."


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes but didn''t say anything.


    "Well, the point is. Lets be partners, me and you."


    "Partners?" Aldrich had to admit that he didn''t expect the conversation to go this way.


    "Why would I want to partner with you and what for?"


    The waitress arrived with their order and they waited for her to go back down, the silence was broken when Yasbel took a sip from her coffee.


    "The coffee in the office is just not like this. And the cake hmmm, it''s really tender and smooth, the vor just works with the coffee."


    Aldrich didn''t urge her but he was secretly fuming that she was dodging his question but as with hunting one must remainposed. So he took a sip from his own coffee to calm himself.


    "Hey, why don''t you try some of this cake? It''s really good. Too bad this ce is about to close down, Ie here every now and then when I''m not busy with work."


    "I''m not here to chit chat, what are you trying to say?"


    Yasbel put down her spoon and looked at Aldrich, "what I''m trying to say, AL, can I call you AL? Alright, AL. I''m saying your money is obviously dirty and if you don''t want to be arrested you''ll have to partner up with me."

 Chapter 99 Deal

    Aldrich had to school his expression as he asked, "dirty? What the hell are you talking about?"


    "My money''s always been alright. Weren''t you the one that said that there are many people who bring in items for appraisal? Is it wrong to bring in more coins?


    If the imperial bank doesn''t want my business then I''ll just look for other banks where I''ll be respected as a customer."


    That''s right the imperial bank maybe the central bank of the empire and the most trusted in the world but it wasn''t withoutpetition.


    He hopped to scare Yasbel with this possibility, whatever it is that she had in mind she must have her position in the bank to back her up.


    However it was this backing that was also her weakness. At least that was the intention after all he didn''t really know Yasbel all that much but it was pretty much the only w he could catch.


    Yasbel looked amused by his words, "really now? Well it''s already toote for that I''m afraid to say."


    "Your coins are good, excellent even. But that''s not the point. The point is the origin of the coins. Where do theye from? They''re clearly from a single source."


    Aldrich clenched his fist under the table. Although she couldn''t possibly have any knowledge of the nightmare realm, her guess was spot on.


    "In thest two times you visited the bank you deposited what is almost equivalent to a gold coin. Which is fine, that really wouldn''t attract much attention, but five gold coins at once? For a sixteen year old vige boy? Now that''s suspicious, don''t you think so, AL?"


    Seeing that Aldrich didn''t say anything, she continued, not minding his silence, "that raises questions about the origin of these ancient coins that keep on increasing. Most adventurers bring in all the items they want for appraisal in one go, that''s just human nature."


    "But not you. One might say that I''m nitpicking but I''ve always trusted my gut. And do you know what my gut is telling me now? It''s telling me that you''re a fat sheep."


    Aldrich didn''t know how it came to this, all along he thought that he was doing everything adequately he was always cautious and didn''t slip up.


    But that was all in his head.


    Increased intelligence was not equivalent to gaining wisdom. Experience happened naturally and there were no shortcuts, it''s thebination of intelligence and experience that was wisdom.


    Aldrich was obviouslycking in experience about money management, banks and the procedures that took ce to circte money.


    He thought that he could just bring in unfamiliar coins, appraise them, get rich and that was the end of it.


    "If my colleagues or superiors were to know of you and your actions that would set rms ringing in their heads. They would think that you  had an exclusive treasure tomb, the deeper you dig the more money you get."


    "Now how do you think they might use that knowledge? A nobody who has a treasure is carrying a curse. It''s not gonna have a happy ending so to say."


    Aldrich looked around and for a moment thought of silencing her permanently. Just now she let out the fact that she was the only one who knew.


    Aldrich only dealt with her this whole time.


    If she disappeared then he would be free to start all over again, this time he was going to be smarter.


    But it wouldn''t work, tens of employees and customers saw them exiting and walking out together. Besides this was a business street there were too many people outside this coffee house and patrons down below.


    Aldrich could kill her without any weapons whatsoever just one punch was enough. But that waitress saw them sitting together. Did she think of all this beforehand?


    ''No. Stop it. That''s stupid.''


    "You said you wanted us to be partners?" Aldrich asked through gritted teeth.


    "I''m d you came around. Hey, don''t give me that look. Anyone else would have reported you."


    "How¡­ nice of you."


    "Really? Don''t be like that, believe me you don''t want the Imperial tax agency on your back. And neither do I. My idea is simple we can make a great deal you and I."


    "Listen, I have a n to make everything much better for you after this, you won''t have a worry, just do as I say." Yasbel put on a sincere look.


    "Pray tell." He said, skepticism coating his every word.


    "First you can''t appraise any of your coins in the bank, you have to take them to outside appraisers. They''re services are not free like it''s in the banks but that''s better for you."


    "Then use the coins to buy businesses of any kind whatsoever. Then you wouldn''t have to be the ones to deposit the coins and still gotten the value out of them."


    Aldrich had to wrap his head around it, "aren''t there too many useless steps? The coins will just get into the bank again."


    "Someone else other than you will deposit them there. And that''s very important to make it look like you''re not in sol possession of the coins. And thats only in the beginning, in the future we won''t have to rely on these coins at all."


    "Sounds like a good idea, but what''s in it for you? Why go so far?" This was the crutch of the matter at hand.


    "Of course it''s for a cut."


    "How much?"


    "50%"


    The air grew still in the area, "you''re kidding right? You know, I am not actually picking these coins out of the street right? I''m literally risking my life to get this money."


    "You could say the same thing about me, I''m risking my life by helping you out, I think that''s a fair amount for what I contribute."


    "I''m out there risking life and limb that''s different from sitting behind a desk and manipting records isn''t it?"<sub> </sub>


    Of course what he couldn''t say was that he was literally, without exaggeration¡ªdying countless times to get that money.


    "AL, you disappoint me, truly. Listen I didn''t want to have to say this but you''re also paying me to keep a tight lip about all this, you understand me?"


    That''s right, this wasn''t a negotiation. ''Either you give me what I want or you go down.''


    That was her true intention, no matter how sweet and honey coated her words may seem on the surface, deep down they carried poisoned daggers.


    Aldrich suddenly looked up above Yasbel''s head, a momentter he smiled.


    "What was your name again?" He asked.


    "It''s Yasbel."


    "I mean your family name."


    "It''s Reinkal. Listen, stop trying to waste time, you can''t change how things are, just ept this deal. Shake my hand and we can put all of this behind us."


    "Hmm, that doesn''t sound right to me."


    "Have you lost it because of the pressure? Let me spell it out, you have no choice but to agree."


    "I mean your family name, it doesn''t sound right. I would think¡­ Ortarious sounds much better."


    "What are you talking about? Of course my family name is Reinkal. I don''t see how this has anything to do with our discussion."


    Aldrich smirked, "oh, I think it does. Very much so."


    Yasbel grabbed her purse and got up attempting to leave, "I can see that you need more time to think this whole thing over, I still have work to do."


    "Did I tell you that you could go?" Aldrich said, his voice several degrees colder.


    "I think leaving like that in the middle of conversation is rude, sit, miss Ortarious."


    "I told you my name is Yasbel Reinkal." She said, firmer this time.


    "Oh, but I really think Ortarious suits you better don''t you think? You can call me AL and I will call you miss Ortarious, is that alright with you miss Ortarious?"


    "I told you to stop calling me that!" Yasbel had unknowingly lost control of her voice.


    "Sit. Down." It was an order. "Oh, and watch your voice, this is a respectable establishment."


    Yasbel obeyed silently and sat down looking like amb guided to the ughter.


    "H-how did you know? Who are you? Who sent you?"


    Aldrich picked up the spoon that Yasbel used a while ago and took a bit of the cake.


    "Hmm, you know what? This cake does taste really good. And this coffee, hmm, not bad at all, it got a little cold but still. I can see why you frequentlye here."


    Yasbel looked like she was sitting on a bed of needles, "look, I get it. I will forget everything that happened here alright? I don''t know you and you don''t know me."


    "Tsk, tsk, I can''t believe you would say something that harsh. I feel hurt, really. Besides how can I forget my time with such a beautiful woman like you?"


    Yasbel replied by ring at him.


    "Whoa, that''s a scary look, miss Ortarious. I''m ashamed to say but I''m not a brave man. You know, my tongue has a tendency to slip when I''m scared, I might end up saying things I''m not meant to say."


    "What. Do. You. Want?"


    "What do I want? I want to take you on your offer."


    "What?" Yasbel looked like she really didn''t understand.


    "Why, is that surprising? If it''s not you, someone else will pick up on the suspicious points in me anyway. So I think we could definitely make a fantastic team."


    Yasbel looked unconvinced, "whats the catch?"


    "Well, it''s nothing big. We won''t be partners anymore, you will work for me. And your cut will be 15% of the profits. Can you do that?"


    "¡­. You lured me in, you tricked me." She said as if she came upon some sort of realization.


    "You can think of it however it pleases you, I assume we have a deal?"


    Of course he had no intention of dispelling her fears. Let her overthink.


    "¡­ we do."


    "Great! Now let''s discuss the details."


    Aldrich smiled as he looked above her head more precisely he looked at the words that hovered there : Yasbel Ortarious.

 Chapter 100 Yasbel The She-Devil

    It waspletely by way of coincidence. Aldrich just used the Eyes of Insight on Yasbel by pure chance and saw that herst name was different from the que on her office door.


    The first time he said it, was to test the waters to know if she would really be affected by the reveal of that name. And the results exceeded his expectations to say the least.


    He had no idea that she would be that rattled just by hearing that name and so he caught her in a trap.


    As someone who was also hiding his identity and someone who has many secrets he understood that these secrets were very sensitive.


    p "So, let''s talk about the details. Lets start from the beginning."</anda>


    "Fine, you got me." Yasbel sighed and her distorted expression was reced by a neutral one instead.


    The fact that she could get her emotions back in check and ept her current situation so quickly made him even more wary against her.


    "First part of the n is actually to make apany."


    "Apany? What for?"


    "I was going to exin, can you let me talk? You can ask after I''m done."


    Aldrich pursed his lips but decided to remain silent for now.


    "There are many reasons, the first being is that you will have a business and trading license which means you will be able to do many things which an individual can''t.


    Investigating apany is harder than an individual and its a perfect shield and vessel.


    Second you will open an ount in the bank for thepany, which you will control as the owner.


    Next, as I said about the gold or any coins you bring from wherever you get these things. You will not have the coins appraised in any bank but with outside appraisers, which all have a fee of twenty five coppers to a silver or so.


    And then you will use these coins to buy businesses, the profits will then be transferred to thepany''s ount. Any questions up to here?"


    "Yes, actually," He nodded. "Why do I have to buy businesses?"


    "After you get the coins appraised they''re going to be stamped with the seal of approval meaning that they could be traded in the market and that''s when you have to get rid of them as soon as you can."


    "But even if I did that not many people would agree to ept strange coins instead of imperial coins."


    "That is true, in most cases at least. Here''s where Ie in, from my position in the bank I have ess to many things that most people are not privy to.


    Such as some businesses urate financial situation, I know which ones are in desperate need of funds, which ones are putting on an act and which ones suffer from bad management, these people would ept especially in arge transaction.


    The goal here is to get rid of your dirty money and exchange it for the clean imperial coin and other valuable assets and thats not all we canter use it to buynds, farms, ves you name it. From something suspect to something normal."


    Aldrich had to admit that he was impressed, this bitch knew what she was doing. And she wasn''t done yet.


    "When the situation stabilizes a little in the future I can use my position to send that coin to be minted into imperial coin.


    Or if that''s not possible, I can have it sent to other branches all over the world. By the time the world takes note of this ''new'' coin we would be in the clear and rich as fuck too."


    Aldrich was salivating at this prospect, he even felt sorry towards Yasbel for cursing her dozens of times in his mind. But he quickly sobered up.


    "Wait, wouldn''t thepany be under suspicions then? If a hugepany that has no roots appears out of nowhere all of a sudden many people will have questions for where all these funds came from.


    That is without mentioning otherpetitors or nobles who would definitely be rmed and jealous. They''ll have plenty of incentive toe after us even if we were actually legit."


    Yasbel looked to be in deep thoughts, "first, before I answer that. Can you answer my question, how much coin can you get within a year? I have to have an estimate to know what we can actually do."


    How much? To be honest Aldrich had no idea. How much money was there in the nightmare town? Unknown. But it was huge, huge amount.


    How much could he get? Hmm, the recent changes in the nightmare realm were worrying but he too was getting stronger and his ascension to grade one was around the corner.<sub> </sub>


    If nothing unexpected happened then he was going to be getting more and more coins.


    "Hmm, let''s say it''s ten gold per month for now."


    That would cost him around sixty eight essence orbs, since five cost thirty four orbs to transport.


    "Ten per month, and that''s only for now? About people noticing thepany we probably don''t have to worry about it for the next year."


    "And after that?" Aldrich was the type that had to be prepared beforehand, he didn''t really like surprises.


    "After that we will have umted a decent amount of wealth and influence within Voryhrm. And we will use that wealth to bribe any officials that might look twice at us, city watch, city hall and local syndicates.


    At that point anyone who thought of busting us would have the full force of ourpany crushing them. In the meantime I will bury anything that might implicate us.


    Don''t forget we will no longer rely on the ancient coins to sustain ourselvester on. We will be a legit conglomerate that has a legitimate source of ie."


    That''s true the world revolved around money, he has seen this first hand the moment he walked out of Wakefield. With enough money you could do anything in Voryhrm.


    And why wouldn''t he? He had no choice if he got busted then it was over for him.


    Moreover, Aldrich liked luxuries but that was not the only reason he had to get rich. This was one of the methods he could use to retrieve Isger''s soul and save him.


    If he had enough money he wagered that he could buy any wondrous item, he might even be able to invite an Archbishop to save Isger. The possibilities were endless having money was definitely better than not having it.


    "And in the future¡­"


    Aldrich couldn''t help but feel that Yasbel has changed, gone was the serious mood from before, she was getting more and more excited the more she talked.


    Aldrich couldn''t help but feeling like this was not the first time she thought about all of this. It''s like she was spilling out a n she had ever since she was a toddler.


    She didn''t even seem to remember her fear and trepidations form not too long ago.


    "Alright, I got it. Lets start slowly step by step and then make our way to the advanced parts when the timees."


    Yasbel seemed to awaken from her stupor, "yeah, yes of course. Sorry I got ahead of myself¡­"


    "Well, I will take part in the guild''s recruitment exam in nine days so in the meantime I don''t think we can do much besides having the coins apprised."


    Yasbel smiled, "actually we can do something, I will set up the paperwork for thepany and you can finish the rest in city hall in three days. If you can get me ten gold coins I can get you your first establishment."


    "You already have a ce in mind?¡­ how long have thought of this n?"


    "I''ve always had the vision for something like like this but¡­ not enough capital. And you already know the ce I have in mind, look around you, what do you think?"


    "Alright sounds like a n," Aldrich looked at the coffee house and nodded, it didn''t look half bad and both the coffee and the cake were decent.


    "But I need at least two coins for my expenses so have them deposited in my ount. Of course I don''t need to remind you to keep things under wraps."


    "I understand. But from now on, please refrain from depositing any of these coins in your personal ount. Also don''t forget toe over after you get the business and trading license to make thepany''s ount."


    "I got it, I''ll have to say goodbye now," Aldrich dered the end of the meeting as he stood up, "this was a good talk, I still have other things to see to so, see youter. Oh, it''s your treat right?"


    Aldrich still had to attend his training with Gazeff who kept making it harder and harder. It''s not that he was reckless but he had to pay Gazeff and he already dyed the man a week.


    As he made Gazeff wait more and more the beating he got in the ''practice'' portion of the training got harsher and harsher.


    As Aldrich walked down the stairs, Yasbel remained alone, looking at her reflection in the what remained in her coffee. Deep in thought.


    Subconsciously her index finger moved and wrote on the table the name Aldrich.

 Chapter 101 Immersed In Thoughts

    Support the novel for this double drop!


    ****


    Yasbel had not expected that she would meet such a mishap today. Her mind was full of questions, she was not the type to just brush them off, she couldn''t even if she wanted to.


    She thought that she did everything perfectly, after all she did everything perfectly without a single mistake.


    In the first ce it was not impossible to know the name; Ortarious, but it was not easy either. And anyone who knew wouldn''t know to associate her with that name anyway. She was sure of that.


    And yet here she was, cornered by a farmboy. How did ite to this? She reviewed her actions so far but it was a futile effort, she didn''t find where she slipped up.


    Sighing, she took off her sses and rubbed her eyes. It was difficult for a person to find one''s own faults, all people had a tendency to overlook their own mistakes and problems.


    She thought that she overcame that part of herself but it was obvious that she didn''t, at least not yet.


    So could it be a coincidence? No, absolutely not. Aldrich wouldn''t have been that confident if he wasn''t sure, he purposefully lured her into a trap where she couldn''t resist.


    She took the risk because her original ns were stumbling, she wouldn''t be promoted any time soon. She had to at least be the assistant manager of the branch if she wanted to get her hands on that evidence.


    But despite her fast rise in the ranks in the beginning, middle management was a slog. She was eighteen this year and if she had to wait to get to where she wanted to get she would be thirty eight by then. So she had to think of another way.


    That''s when Aldrich entered the picture, the moment sheid eyes on Aldrich in the lobby that day her instincts told her that he contained an opportunity. That was why she gave him special treatment.


    He didn''t even seem to notice that he was getting special treatment, seeing this she knew that he was inexperienced.


    Even if she was wrong about him she wouldn''t have lost anything but a little time but if she was right she might get a good return on her investment.


    And today her hunch was confirmed when she saw those five gold coins. She knew the time to reap the benefits was now, this fat sheep had delivered itself to the chopping block.


    Only he was not a sheep, he was a monster and she dug her own grave. Perhaps the old idiom ''wolf in a sheep''s clothing'' worked aptly to describe him.


    Now that she thought about it deeply she noticed subtle differences in Aldrich in all three times she met with him.


    The first time he was a clueless farmboy that just took his first step into the big city. The second time he was getting familiar with the ways of the city.


    The third time he had already be a dangerous individual. This was not only because he uncovered her secret but also because he disyed an ability to absorb and use new knowledge at a high speed.<sub> </sub>


    After all he was the one that pointed to the fact that thepany woulde under scrutinyter on. This was something that she wanted to revealter to raise her value further.


    Another thing was that he offered her 15% even after he had cornered her, this move was brilliant. He could have given her much less and she couldn''tin.


    By giving her a significant cut he ensured that she wouldn''t flip out irrationally. He gave her a taste of the benefits and simultaneously took her down a peg.


    Hmm, not bad. Yes Yasbel didn''t feel too bad that she lost to Aldrich this time. Working with someone who was smart enough to recognize her talents was already good enough for her.


    ****


    Aldrich sneezed into the wind. It was already eight at night, he had just finished the appraisal on the five gold coins and they were now stamped so they could be used as legal tender.


    He payed a silver and ten coppers for the appraisal and then he exchanged two of the coins for their value in imperial coin. This was because he had an immediate need for funds.


    Although the shop owner tried to persuade him to convert the rest he declined politely. This was probably thest time he did this sort of suspicious conversion.


    As for why he offered her 15%? It was for two reasons. The first is because he didn''t actually know Yasbel''s secret, he knew a family name but nothing beyond that.


    The second reason was because he wanted her to work with passion. Passion made a difference, if she worked unwillingly that would have unknown consequences.


    ? Especially so, since she had a vital role in the operation. He would have to find a recement for her but that would be extremely dangerous it was simply better to keep a friendly and amicable rtionship between them.


    Tonight was not going to be a quiet night, he was going back to check on the nightmare town. He was pressed for essence orbs he had to get another 34 orbs at least so that he can take back five more coins.


    No, he needed to bring back seven coins because he was going to use the two that he already converted for his personal use. He also had to see what happened over there.


    Everything was connected to that roar, he heard it so many times and the husks went crazy when they heard it.


    Maybe, just maybe he could revert the husks back to how they used to be if he uncovered the secret of that roar. Not that he needed to.


    The Malformed husks give out more essence orbs so it wasn''t all that bad a deal.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment while he tried to sneakily eavesdrop on Irene but there was nothing to hear.


    After going through his nightly routine which consisted of eating diner then going through the new monster codex and his ss notes. Finally a round of meditation before going to bed.

 Chapter 102 Meeting

    Aldrich checked up on all his equipment and after making sure that everything was fine he came to the regretful decision that he had to leave his new sword behind on today''s hunt.


    This time he was going to take the long bow for his main weapon and a short sword as back up in case he had to engage in closebat. Today was all about getting as much orbs as possible.


    In the nightmare town the distances between buildings and houses was not that big, at least not for him. His physical might was not just for butchering monsters.


    He made his way outside and observed that the safe area was still devoid of husks which was good of course. He entered into one of the empty buildings and made his way to the rooftop.


    From he he looked at the new nightmare town and beheld it for all it''s glory. It was the sight of many buildings stretching beyond what the eye can see and it was all well lit with candles that grew like grass-shoots everywhere.


    The light made it possible for Aldrich to spy on the Malformed husks who now roamed the streets freely.


    He jumped over one roof after another and noticed that this was much faster rate than regr exploration.


    Before he could leave the safe zone he noticed a disjointed group of Malformed husks moving within the safe zone. Of course, these buggers just wouldn''t follow the script.


    <o>,m With the husks now free it was inevitable that some of them might find their way into the safe zone.</o>


    Aldrich aimed at the husk that was furthest from the rest, he pulled out the arrow. These arrows were from the barracks that he looted clean, they weren''t wooden and tipped with some metal they were entirely metallic with forked and serrated heads.


    Aldrich had always been good with archery, well in Wakefield he didn''t have a sword so all his practice went into the bow.


    He aimed at the head which was covered and overrun by wild grey-blue hair and loosened the string.


    *woosh!*


    The arrow his it''s mark but the damned thing wasn''t dead yet so he finished it off with a second arrow. The rest of the group came running in the direction of the building he was on.


    Aldrich backed off a little but he made sure to keep a look on the husks but they were moring like it was a fish market. They were jumping but not high enough and wing at the building, probably to bring it all down but not hard enough.


    He took out another arrow aimed and fired, again and again until five Malformed husksid dead beneath him. He looked at his bow and thought that this idea might be inspired by the mighty Altunan himself.


    It was genius! In the past when it was dark this idea was just stupid but now it was an entirely different story.


    He climbed down and after making sure that he was alone he absorbed the essence orbs sessfully. This was already thirty orbs!<sub> </sub>


    This whole transformation thing that happened might not be such a bad thing after all.


    He also collected the arrows that he killed the husks with, unfortunately only half of them could be used again the rest were too damaged to be put to use again.


    Aldrich climbed back up to the rooftops and continued on his way, as he moved on from one area to the next he noticed that the husks were too grouped up like they were moving in herds.


    Aldrich tried his luck and targeted a somewhat separated group, after all he had the high ground. He managed to kill one but before he could take out the rest of the group an arrow hissed by his ear.


    Aldrich retreated and ducked down. One of these husk was a level two, meaning that it had a weapon.


    Before he stood up another two arrows were aimed at where he would have been if he stood up right then. Aldrich took a peak at the husks down there and saw that a swarm of more than thirty husks surrounded the building he was on.


    Aldrich gritted his teeth, got up and dashed immediately he jumped from one roof to another four times before he lost the swarm. He had to give up on getting the essence orbs from the husk that he killed.


    Aldrich had toe into physical contact with recently perished beings in order to be able to absorb their essence. Alright things might not be as easy as he would have liked them to be.


    Aldrich was jumping around looking for decent prey when he noticed a shadow moving by, his eyes followed the figure and he knew what it was. It was a Skinned dog.


    It was carrying the head of a Malformed husk in it''s mouth. It has been a while since Aldrich dealt with one of these, these dogs were his oldest enemies in this town.


    Aldrich watched as the dog cleverly evaded the patrolling husks and he decided to follow it. Some timeter he noticed thendscape change around him and the buildings became less sparse.


    The dog headed in the direction of a stone bridge that should lead to another ward but didn''t go through it but it slipped under it. Aldrich came down and looked at the area under the bridge.


    It was big, the further down he looked the wider the area seemed, he carefully climbed down the smooth pavement and looked around for the dog.


    There was a huge tunnel that had many sub-tunnels going underneath the the bridge, but even this ce was not free of the candles. The smell of this ce made the rest of the town seem like a perfumed paradise.


    The candles lit up even here which is why he was able to clearly see a statue. The statue was oddly pointing its hand to the inside of a sub-tunnel.


    The statue was not of a human.


    "What¡­ a surprise¡­ a Lost One.."

 Chapter 103 Uldin, Merchant Of Leng

    The statue was not of a human but a humanoid being. It stood two meters tall and it had the face of a middle-aged man but two goat horns grew from the sides of it''s face and coiled downward behind it''s ears.


    The ears were long and they looked split in half, one half pointed upwards and the other downwards. The statue of this humanoid being was carrying a huge bloated bag, it was part of the statue.


    The statue was wearing a rob like cloth that made it hard to observe any further. When Aldrich suddenly heard these words he turned around in a hurry.


    He couldn''t believe his ears, someone actually talked to him here. And it managed to sneak up on him. He looked around but didn''t see anyone.


    "I''m right here."


    Aldrich turned back and saw the ''statue'' was no longer a statue, it was a two meter tall creature carrying a bloated bag and wearing a long back rob with res strips. It had green-grey skin and it''s hair was slicked back, with a chin beard.


    Aldrich charged as fast as he could by immediately using the Light step Skill and using his short sword in an uppercut to behead it immediately.


    The creature extended his hand and caught the sword with ease. Aldrich was rebounded by the force and backed a way, he flipped in the air and decided that he was leaving this ce.


    "Hey! Stop it. Don''t go, listen to me! I don''t mean you any harm, look."


    The creature said. It was speaking Qouhen, thenguage of the nightmare world before everything went to shit.


    Aldrich had to weight his options so he stopped retreating and saw that the creature dropped the sword he caught from Aldrich and raised it''s hands up and opened it''s palms, a sign of peace.


    He was immortal anyway, so he had nothing to lose anyway. Even if this was a trap he would just resurrect and then it he could hunt this thing down.


    "Alright, have you calmed down? No need for violence, I hate violence, I''m a friend to your kind."


    "My kind?" Aldrich asked keenly.


    "Yes, the Lost Ones. Admittedly I thought they all died off some time ago."


    Lost One. Aldrich had heard this name only from one person in his entire life. The old madman that gave him the Eyes of Insight. There was no mention of any such names in the armored husk''s memory.


    "I was of great aid to your people back then when they wanted toy siege to the Overseer''s mansion. And even long before that."


    Aldrich''s breathing quickened, the overseer''s mansion that was his goal. And yet it was brought up so casually.


    "My name is Uldin, a merchant from a faraway ne called Leng."


    "And how can I trust anything you say Uldin?"


    "Didn''t your seniors teach you about us, merchants of Leng? How can you not know about¡­ us? Unless, hmm, have you been to the Pure chapel yet?"


    Again. It was something that has interested Aldrich ever since he experienced that ss rain that gave him chaotic visions. The voice told him to go to the Pure chapel, that everything was not lost yet.


    "No, I haven''t. Do you know the way? Can you take me there?"


    "I do know the way, when I was slumbering as a statue my hand was pointing in the direction of the the chapel. But I can''t take you there, only the Lost Ones can go there."


    "Your hand?" Aldrich looked at the sub-tunnel that he was pointing at and saw that it was a dead-end.


    "Go on, you''ll fins what you seek there."


    Aldrich walked in and didn''t bother to cover his back if he was attacked and died here so be it, he could take some risk.


    He wondered if the wall had some kind of hidden contraption so that it could slide to the side or be pulled up to reveal a hidden path. However the closer he got the better he looked at the door and his eyes widened in disbelief.


    On the wall by the end of the tunnel he saw something that was both familiar and alien at once. It was not glowing but faded like it was washed a way by the stream of time but it was obvious to him.


    It was the seal of Tindalor.


    Aldrich traces the seal with his hand, this was definitely it. He saw it almost every day, it didn''t have the molten magma-like color like the one in the base but this was surely the seal of Tindalor.


    The seal that brought him here in the nightmare realm to begin with, the seal that resurrected him countless times.


    "It''s there right? Like I said."


    Aldrich turned around and found the merchant of Leng Uldin behind him. Somehow he got the feeling that Uldin wasn''t entirely sure the seal would be here.


    "You can''t see it?"<sub> </sub>


    "Obviously not, only the Lost Ones can see it or interact with it."


    "So, how did you know it was here then?"


    "I saw many Lost Ones long ago,ing here and then disappearing. While I can''t see the seal I can infer it''s existence from their actions."


    "You said this was the way to the chapel, did you not? While this maybe interesting it is not the way."


    Uldin shook his head, "oh, but it is the way. It''s dormant now because it''s not been used for a very long time but you can activate it."


    ''So does this mean that all the Lost Ones used the seal of Tindalor like me? Moreover it wasn''t used in a long time, does this mean that something happened to the other Lost Ones?''


    Aldrich didn''t know how to feel about these so called Lost Ones, on one hand they seemed to share some kind of connection with him but on the other he was wary of them. But this was the moment of truth.


    "So, how do I activate it?"


    Uldin grinned, "why, with your blood of course!"


    Aldrich tensed up and took a step back, expecting a fight. But Uldin just stared at him causing him to get angry.


    "Hahaha, I''m just messing with you. What would I get by killing you? You''ll just resurrect again won''t you?"


    "That wasn''t funny." Aldrich said with a deadpan expression.


    "Well forgive me, sir. My humor is still stuck a thousand years ago back when I went to slumber."


    "A thousand years? Whatever, Just tell me how to activate the seal."


    "Actually what I said is true you do need blood to activate it, just a little bit from your finger should suffice."


    Aldrich rolled his eyes in annoyance, he pricked his finger and traced the seal again with his blood and the seal shone in the usual molten magma color.


    "Any now how do I use it to go to the chapel?" Aldrich asked Uldin.


    "Well, you tell me. I don''t know anything specific about it. All I know is the Lost Ones put their hands here, close their eyes and then they teleport."


    Well that was not very helpful now was it? Wait, close their eyes and then teleport? ''That sounds like when I use the seal to get back to the real world.''


    Aldrich closed his eyes and focused on the seal, a momentter he felt a connection, a tug, a direction. Three directions. One was back to the base the other was the one that would take him back home.


    Thest one was unknown, it was there, the Pure chapel, he could feel it and almost see the five towers and magnificent statues that were everywhere. That was the image he had from that vision.


    Aldrich pulled his hand back. Since he could use any seal to go the chapel there was no pressing need in going now especially with Uldin watching his every move.


    "I''ll go thereter. I think you''re not stupid enough to kill me."


    "It''s good to cautious," Uldin caressed his chin beard and smiled, "now then, if you''re not in a hurry to go somewhere why don''t you buy something?"


    "I am a merchant as I said, I have many trinkets that I believe would be very crucial for you. Many Lost Ones were regrs of my humble store."


    Aldrich followed Uldin back to the big tunnel and asked, "didn''t you say that you slumbered for a thousand years? What goods remain to you now?"


    "Well, my goods are as safe as can be, I assure you," Uldin patted his bloated bag, "as long as they''re in this bag they''re fine. I also have other things like information which I also sell."


    "Information about what?"


    "Anything and everything! Anything I know is for sale¡­ for the right price."


    "How much gold for your entire bag?"


    "Well, I can sell it to you, but I don''t trade for gold or any of this trash." Uldin spat in disgust.


    "Then what do you trade for?"


    Uldin grinned, "Essence, of course! Essence without a doubt!"

 Chapter 104 A Merchant’s Generosity

    Aldrich sucked in a cold breath. To this day he had never met anyone else who knew of essence besides himself, this was the first time. This guy might really know about the secrets of the nightmare town.


    "I don''t really have much essence orbs with me now, maybe some timeter."


    Aldrich was regretful but he needed every single orb right now.


    "A shame," Uldin shook his head.


    "But since this is our first meeting, why don''t I give you a treat in name of our budding friendship?"


    "I''ll give you any information you want as long as the price doesn''t exceed three green essence orbs."


    "Anything?" Aldrich asked in disbelief.


    "Remember the price. It''s not really anything."


    "Can I ask about the Overseer''s mansion?"


    "Sure."


    "In the Overseer''s mansion, is there a teleportation gate that can take me to the Divine Land?"


    Although he knew he still had to make sure lest he go on a fool''s errand.


    "There is."


    "If I get the key of the gate can I use it?"


    This was a crucial question if Aldrich was a neglectful person he might have missed it.


    Uldin smirked, "no, you can''t."


    That was an unexpected answer. Aldrich had thought that he would only need the key to use the gate.


    "Why not? As far as I know I only need the key to activate the gate."


    "That''s true, you''re well informed on this. But, have you asked yourself how the gate works? In the current situation it can''t happen."


    "What do you mean? Stop talking in riddles."


    "There''s a spatial ban on this world, think of it as a seal that prevents anyone froming in or going out of this realm. Otherwise how could I still be stuck here?"


    Uldin then squat down and drew a circle on the ground, "this is the world we''re in now."


    Then he drew another circle around the first one, "this is the seal that the Lord of irvoyant Moon put on all three worlds in this region."


    "So, if you want to leave this realm you must first break the seal and then feel free to use the gate however you want."


    "And how exactly do I go about doing something like that?"


    "It''s simple, really. First go through the Overseer''s mansion get the key and use the teleportation gate to go to Thnis."


    "You just said that I can''t use it."


    "Can you pay attention? I said you can''t travel outside the world but you can within the world."


    "And how exactly will going to this Thnis solve this issue?"


    "Have you heard of Castamerphia? Its the capital of the three worlds and it''s also the home of the Lord of irvoyant Moon. I bet it has the coordinate of the seal, from there you can dispel the seal."<sub> </sub>


    "So?"


    "So, when Castamerphia fell from the sky it fell on another great city at the center of this continent called Thnis."


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes, he had hopped that he would quickly reach the Divine Land but fate had other ns for him. It was one problem after another.


    But Aldrich wasn''t about to give up so easily either no matter how long it took he was going to retrieve Isger''s soul.


    If so then there must be a way to break the realm seal in Castamerphia. When the time came he was going to test the words of this Uldin.


    Anyway this did not change the short-term ns that he made. He still had to go to the Overseer''s mansion and then figure things out from there.


    "So, where''s the teleportation gate key exactly, I mean where in the mansion?"


    "It should be with the Overseer himself at all times. The safest ce must be within his person."


    "Is the Overseer strong?"


    "What do you think?"


    "Have youe across an old madman here?"


    The one he was referring to was the one that he first met when he came to this ce.


    "An old madman? Madness isn''t new around here, I need a better description. A name perhaps?"


    "Hmm, no. He''s just a generic old man who argues with himself from time to time."


    "I really can''t do much with thatck of information."


    "That''s understandable." It made sense, besides that man couldn''t have been alive a thousand years ago right?


    The reason why Aldrich even bothered to ask was because he knew the Professionals of the nightmare realm could increase their lifespans when they advanced in their professions at some point.


    "Tell me about the power system in this world. I already know about the divine cores so tell me about the different advancements and the most notable figures."


    "That''s too much, I will answer but only in the most general of terms anymore and the price will go out of control.


    In the Divine Domain the power levels were divided by advancements in the profession. When one takes a profession, for example a well known the Knight profession starts with: Squire, that is the first advancement.


    Then Knight is the second advancement, the third advancement is the Moonlit Knight, the fourth is the irvoyant grand knight and finally, the fifth advancement is know as Mystic knight.


    In the irvoyant Moon region at the very least, fifth advancement professionals are considered the peak in the three worlds and could increase their life spans by two hundred and fifty years at minimum.


    In all the three worlds there are no more than ten of them, each of them presides over important matters and they could be considered close confidants of the Lord of irvoyant Moon himself, they are very very rare even if you look at the entire Divine Domain.


    In this world, achieving the fifth advancement means bing a ''higher being.'' There are some of them in Castamerphia and Thnis right now, well, whatever remains of the two cities anyhow."


    Aldrich mused on this information, in the real world he had never heard of anyone extending their life spans. Even the Archbishops who are grade four Crestmasters died at a normal age between ny and a hundred.


    "Alright, we''re done with the questions today," dered Uldin.


    Aldrich wanted to ask more but he already got some good info for free, which softened his stance with Uldin.


    "Don''t be discouraged young one, why don''t you take a look at my wares? Maybe something will catch your fancy."


    "Fine, show me." Well looking has never done anyone any harm, so why not? Besides if he saw something useful he mighte back after saving upter.

 Chapter 105 Clockwork Beetle

    "Good, good, just two red essence orbs please." Uldin said.


    "What?" Aldrich asked in confusion, "I didn''t see anything."


    "That''s the fee to ess the first level of my stock."


    "Two orbs just to look?! You can''t be serious!" Aldrich fired back. "If you want essence orbs so much why don''t you go kill a few of those bastards outside."


    "I would have, if I could." Uldin said full ofmentation.


    "What do you mean you can''t? You''re powerful enough."


    Aldrich suddenly thought of something and said, "wait, you actually can''t. You wouldn''t get any orbs?"


    "That''s right. Well I''ve grown tired of saying this by now but, only Lost Ones can. Otherwise how could I rely on you guys?"


    Now it made sense why this powerful being would trade goods for essence, he himself was unable to collect any, which gave Aldrich an incredible advantage.


    "Okay, goodbye, I''m leaving. I''m not paying two orbs just to take a look."


    "Fine, have it your way. But wait a moment, here take this," Uldin opened the zipper of hisically huge bag and pulled out a beetle. A metallic beetle.


    The beetle was shiny and it was as wide as three fingers and as long as one, the center was empty intentionally as there was a circr opening.


    However the beetle wasn''t entirely metallic, the various limbs both front and back were actually made of flesh and pinkish red in color.


    "This is a clockwork injection beetle, it''s truly a work of art. Itbines both clockwork and fleshbending magics to a wonderful degree."


    "What does this thing do?" Aldrich was disgusted by the appearance of this thing but as long as it was useful then¡­


    "Have you ever faced a problem when you tried to consume a potion during an intense fight but ended up dying? Was that not frustrating? Well that ends now! With this clockwork beetle as long as you bond it and install your potions it will inject you in a timely manner with but a thought. And I am giving it to you for free as a token of my friendship."


    Uldin was giving a passionate pitch, how would he react if he knew that Aldrich had never consumed a potion?


    "Well, show me how it works."


    "Certainly, it just needs a drop of blood."


    Blood again? Ugh, Aldrich was getting tired of this but he didn''t refuse free things. So he pricked another finger and a dropnded on the creepy beetle.


    As that point it seemed toe to life, it started wriggling and the sound of various gears grinding against one another rang out. It turned on the palm of the merchant looked in his direction.


    Aldrich felt some kind of connection between them and didn''t know how to feel about that.


    "Now you choose a potion to install in it. This model can only carry a single potion so be careful what you choose."<sub> </sub>


    Uldin took out three sks and told Aldrich to choose one of them to install in the beetle.


    Aldrich used his Eyes of Insight on the three sks: 1) healing potion, 2) stamina potion, 3) giantification potion.


    Giantification? A potion that turns you in a giant? Seriously?


    "Does this potion really have that kind of power?" Aldrich asked as he pointed at the golden liquid in the sk.


    "What power? I haven''t exined what these potions effects are yet." Uldin seemed confused.


    "Ah," that''s right, Uldin didn''t know about the Eyes of Insight, "I think I''ve seen an illustration in a book before."


    "Alright¡­" Uldin didn''t look convinced but he didn''t harp on the subject, "the red potion, is a healing potion, it could heal any minor wounds in ten seconds and it could heal a heavy injury in an a hour or so.


    This green one restores stamina, if you feel tired out in battle use it and in just a minute you''ll be back to tip-top condition, no problem."


    When Uldin got to the golden potion he had a fake shocked look on his face as he exined, "thest one is a giantification potion? What''s this doing here, this is a level two potion I must''ve taken it out by mistake."


    Aldrich couldn''t help but feel frustrated, this crafty asshole put on an act of generosity to entice Aldrich, worse still it was working. If he wasn''t in a desperate need for every orb he would have fallen for the ploy.


    "Ah, this is so embarrassing, my reflexes got dull after my slumber, let me get the right potion."


    Uldin opened the zipper of hisicallyrge bag and returned the golden potion and reced it with a swampy green one, but this one had many tiny frogs swimming together like a school of fish.


    The new potion was interesting but even more interesting was that Aldrich didn''t see anything from the opening of the zipper, the bag was just dark and seemed to contain nothing.


    Also just now when Uldin rece the potion he didn''t move his hand too deep in the bag, it looked like the potions just moved independently. Wouldn''t he have to look to find the things he was looking for in such arge bag.


    Moreover how could these ss sks be lumped casually in a bag? They needed to be carefully stored lest they break right?


    "Did my Bag of Holding catch your attention? Mine is a little special but I have some smaller ones in stock if you like."


    Uldin took out a small pouch the size of his hand, it was simply too different from Uldin''s own bag.


    "A Bag of Holding? How does it work?" Aldrich asked since he was indeed interested.


    "Well, to put it simply it''s like carrying your own storage, you can put anything that doesn''t have aplete spirt in it. Weapons, armor, arrows and even food. The food won''t go bad in the bag, and you won''t feel the weight at all."


    Aldrich was stunned, if the Bag of Holding was really that insane then it was worth any price.


    The most crucial aspect was the weight part, if Aldrich could use it to transport goods from the nightmare realm to the real world and vice versa without having to pay for the weight penalty then it was a divine item.

 Chapter 106 Potions And Bag Of Holding

    "Will it bloat like yours when I put things in it?" Aldrich had to ask, if that was the case then it was going to make taking it to battle out of the question.


    "No, not at all. As I told you mine is a little special¡­ and I might have put a little too much in it. Anyway take my word for it, if you ever face a problem with it I will reimburse you in full."


    Well that didn''t sound like a bad deal.


    "So, how much do I have to pay to open your store''s second level?"


    "Two green orbs, but, since this is our first meeting I can sell it to you right now without that payment and with a very special discount."


    Aldrich didn''t have much expectations but he still asked, "so, how much?"


    "Ten green orbs. Don''t look at me, the original price was seventeen, I am giving you a great deal here."


    "Whatever lets finish what we were doing with this beetle."


    "Alright, nowstly we have the greedy frog potion," Uldin pointed at the frog potion, "this potion has the power to increase the amount of essence orbs that you cab get out of any creature for five minutes."


    Aldrich''s eyes widened, turns out these potions were too awesome, none of them was useless. The greedy frog potion was ridiculous.


    "So, which one? Choose one to take home for free this one time." Uldin raised both hands into the sky dramatically.


    Aldrich looked at the three potions and couldn''te to an easy conclusion, each one had a significant impact and could help out in crucial moments.


    Aldrich looked at the expectant Uldin and smiled warmly, "why don''t you choose for me? Choose whichever potion you think I would need the most."


    Uldin stroked his white beard that looked weird to Aldrich with Uldin''s blue skin.


    "That''s a sneaky request my new friend. Well, it''s a request I''m willing to oblige."


    After saying that Uldin took back all three potions in his bag and took out another potion, it was grey in color and unassuming.


    Aldrich used his Eyes of Insight on it and before he could take a look at the potion''s name he saw countless semi-transparent arms stretched towards him, hands iling about. He took a step back and stopped using the Eyes of Insight.


    Everything looked normal again. But Aldrich could swear he saw the source of the hands was that potion.


    "This is called a Mind Calming agent. I believe you will need this one the most out of my potions for the time being."


    Uldin then lowered the potion into the circr opening in the center of the clockwork beetle and there was a clicking sound as the contraption closed up on it''s own, holding the sk firmly.


    Aldrich took the beetle in his own hand and it crawled all over his body going under his armor and clothes it reached his back and then, mysteriously he no longer felt the beetle.


    p He could feel that it was there but he didn''t feel any difort at all as if it wasn''t actually there. At the same time he could feel that he couldmand it to inject him with the agent with a thought.</anda>


    Aldrich had a strange feeling, the reason he told Uldin to choose for him was because of Uldin''s experience that dwarfed his own.


    He believed that relying on those who were more experienced in certain areas was better than rushing on his own. But he did not expect that Uldin wouldn''t choose any of the three.


    Mind Calming agent? How was that better than the other three? Was Uldin messing with him? He really didn''t know. But it was a gift so whatever.


    He would be lying if he said that he wasn''t concerned about the vision he just saw.


    "So how much for these level one potions?"


    "At least one green orb, some of them like the greedy frog potion is for one green and nintey red orbs."


    "Don''t tell me I have to pay the fee every time I want to buy something."<sub> </sub>


    "It''s just a one time payment to ess the store levels."


    "Alright I''m going to hunt some dogs. What will you do?"


    "For the time being I will just be staying here to check up on my goodies if you want to buy something just use the seal to teleport here."


    "Oh, yeah, you said the other Lost Onesid siege to the Overseer''s mansion" Aldrich stopped before leaving, "how did it go?"


    Uldin mused before he replied in annoyance, "if they seeded I would''ve long gone to Thnis and Castamerphia."


    Aldrich took off and went deeper into the Under-bridge area, the smell got worse, he saw many wooden shacks in terrible conditions.


    There were many rusted pots and pans scattered around long wood crucifixes, the ce was gloomy.


    Aldrich looked at all this and didn''t know what happened, he didn''t see any husks here at all but people lived here so time ago, he marched on and he finally found some Skinned dogs. There were three of them.


    Two were unremarkable but thest one was different, it was as tall as Aldrich and more than two meters long, most notable it had two heads and it''s maw was full of a putrid-looking liquid.


    Aldrich watched the group feasting on the remains of one of their own kind but he was unmoved. He decided to use this opportunity to sneak attack them.


    He was far enough, he drew the string and fired on the big dog scoring a clean hit on one of it''s monstrous heads. But the dog wasn''t dead yet and charged at him, the dead head hanging down.


    Barks drew the attention of it''s three friends, looks like one was covered by a mess of barrels and wooden boxes and so he failed to notice it. Aldrich remained in ce.


    He nocked another arrow drew the string and waited until the big dog was close enough and fired. Without looking at the result he took off the bow and unsheathed his sword.


    One of the smaller ones had already lunged at him from the side, Aldrich didn''t have the time to dodge so he just punched it in the jaw causing several teeth to go flying in the air.


    When it was still stunned he slit it''s throat and killed the second one by using Light step to appear behind it and cut it in half. After which he staggered because he wasn''t used to the skill yet.


    Thest one attempted to flee but Aldrich chased it down shortly after and disposed of it.


    He was mildly taken back when each of the small dogs gave him four orbs, the big one gave him six. That was eighteen orbs, together with the orbs he got before meeting Uldin that was forty eight in one night.


    That was good enough for today, he decided to get back to the base. Today he still had to see what this Fractured chapel was all about, the time was now.


    Aldrich climbed back up and used the rooftops to travel again in rtive safety, however he was suddenly hit by a powerful impact in his back causing Aldrich to lose bnce while jumping from one roof to the other.


    Luckily he managed to hang on to the edge of the roof, and with his strength it was easy to pull himself back up. After safelynding on the roof of the building heid prone and checked his surroundings.


    He felt his back, it was an arrow or a dart and if he wasn''t wearing a half-te armor it would have pierced through his back. Even then if he hadn''t been lucky enough to grab on he would have fallen from three floors high.


    Aldrich wasn''t that confident in surviving that especially with his armor on. Above his head three more arrows passed by at once, so it was more than one archer or a really good one. The arrows were fast and powerful.


    Aldrich waited until another batch of arrows were shot and then dashed away, he used a zigzagging pattern to make his escape.


    Finally he was back to the base, he wiped off his sweat and breathed in, he was thirsty but he didn''t have any water in here which might be a problem moving forward as he was spending more and more time in the nightmare realm.


    Aldrich didn''t wast anymore time he took his ck sword instead of the regr short one and kneeled by the seal of Tindalor, he put his hand on it and focused.


    Once again he felt a pull from three directions, one was back home, the second was to the Under-bridge area where Uldin was, thest was to what he assumed was the Fractured chapel.


    He willed himself to follow the faint tugging and in the next moment he saw endless lights engulf him and in the next everything was over, he found himself under a red sky.


    In front of him was an old trail that reminded him of the trails of Wakefield, it was old and messy with overgrown vines and thorns.

 Chapter 107 The Fractured Chapel

    Aldrich realized that he must be on a mountain path, to his left and right he was surrounded by natural stone.


    He walked forward, it was the only path forward really. He faithfully followed the old trail until he came upon a clearing, that''s when he saw it.


    Atop a barren hill rising from the center of a dark wood stands the silent remains of an ancient chapel, its ck form silhouetted against the blood-red sky.


    Five broken towers surrounded the main structure, weatherworn walls and a crumbling te roof reveal centuries of decay, and yet the structure stands intact.


    Gargoyle-like statues leer out from buttresses along the chapel''s outer walls and nk a gate of rusted iron.


    Dozens of mausoleums and grave markers dot the rocky slopes beneath the structure, twisted and shunted as though the earth itself had tried to expel them.


    Aldrich pushed open the iron gate and it swung open without resistance, he walked in and noticed strange looking trees within the front yard which must have been a beautiful garden a long time ago.


    Vines as thick as a human arm grow twisted around the gnarled trees. Dark vines pulse within shining red leaves, while razor-sharp thorns coated in a sticky ck liquid threaten to y the skin of passing creatures down to the bone.


    The scarred skulls of beasts, monsters and humanoids lie hidden within the surrounding brambles.


    Aldrich didn''t go over there to check he ignored all the other things in the area and headed to the giant gate of the chapel which had somehow remained intact in the midst of all this.


    He certainly didn''t remember it looking like this when he saw it in that vision. At that time it looked holy, no matter what kind of evil it was it could not stain it. But now¡­


    Aldrich tried to push the door open but it wouldn''t budge, so he tried harder, this time he really put his back into it but the result was the same.


    It had to be known that Aldrich could kill a man with a punch easily. He could put a hole in a wall without a scratch on himself.


    He stopped, clearly brute strength was not the answer, well maybe he just didn''t have enough strength. Then he noticed a handle that could be used to knock so he tried it and knocked twice.


    Suddenly the statue of a Gremlin-like creature besides the gate moved on it''s own and it opened it''s mouth. It''s eyes released blue light that shone on the gate, the light formed ito words.


    "Your¡­ blood? Shall¡­ prove your allegiance?"


    Aldrich still wasn''t that good in Qouhen but he finally managed to read the text. Blood again.


    *sigh*


    Aldrich pricked his finger, for the third time this night and dropped a few drops in the statue''s mouth. The mouth closed for a moment and then cracking sounds rang out as the gate opened.


    Aldrich stepped in to the chapel feeling a bit nervous. He noticed that this ce was alone devoid of any candles, in the current nightmare realm candles dominated the whole ce, they were everywhere.


    But here, wherever here was, not a single candle to be seen. Not even the yellow sickly moon disturbed the red sky of this ce.


    As he walked in he passed by broken tables and chairs, scattered pieces of clothes drifted with cold winds that originated from within the chapel.


    Walking in he found himself in a crossroads, two sets of stairs lead to the left and right respectively but the third one lead down to a central hall within the chapel.


    Aldrich went downwards, the massive hall was circr and along the edges of the walls there were more statues, however these were not of monsters but of humanoids.


    Each wearing different armors and unique styles, they had their weapons pointed upwards as if trying to say something. On each of the statues there was a bloody handprint that seemed extremely fresh.


    The bloody handprint didn''t belong to the owners of the statues but to one person alone. This was only a guess but the statues were not of the same size some were big some were not but the hand that marked them all was the same.


    At the center of the room an obsidian b sits on a raised tform, as he got closer he knew it was the source of the cold wind in this ce.<sub> </sub>


    On the tform there was another thing, which could only be a spherical y vase but it was too big and there were several holes in it.


    Between the vase and the stone b there was an inactive seal of Tindalor, Aldrich didn''t know whether to consider himself luck or not for finding two in one night.


    Before he dealt with the most pressing issue in this hall he used the same finger to squeeze a few drops of blood and trace the sign to activate the seal, with this he felt a little less reserved in this ce.


    Now for the most obvious thing in the room, in front of the tform there was a book that levitated in the air surrounded by pure white light, the light had many golden words floating in the light itself as the letters circled the book.


    Aldrich deliberated on how to deal with this situation in the best way but he couldn''te up with anything clever so he just decided to go with the easiest approach.


    ''Anyway, I was invited here. In the worst case I will just die.''


    Aldrich stretched his hand towards the light and the words scattered into nothingness like a mirage, the light faded and the book came into his hands like it was natural.


    Aldrich opened the book on the first page and read the first thing he saw:


    "Whoever might get this journal, without a doubt you are our kin not in blood but by will. I hope that you will inherit our will."


    Aldrich took a while to read that sentence, that page was actually empty when he firstid eyes on it but almost immediately after, the words appeared, the words were shining with light.


    No more words appeared so he flipped to the next page and more words manifested:


    "I struggled to think of how the next generation must feel, to be thrown into a strange world without any recollection of who you were, and no one to guid you. It must be a terrible thing.


    Mypanions don''t see a point in writing this since the prophecy stated that no more Lost Ones will emerge and indeed it has been so for thest thirty years. They believe we are thest of our kin, we have been stranded with not a word from the ascendants in the Divine city.


    As the leader I cannot be idealistic, I must not allow myself to sumb to illusory dreams. But it is because I am the leader that I must have hope.


    We have failed our siege against the Overseer''s mansion, only twenty of us remain. We will attack once again, onest time. I believe we will emerge victorious, we must, we cannot fail.


    The souls of our vanquishedrades and friends watch over us, their sacrifices and their lives were not in vain. I will make sure of that, at least one of us will reach Castamerphia.


    If not¡­ then I believe someday new Lost Ones will emerge carrying our fates, it is a foolish hope. I can see the decay of the pure chapel with my own eyes but I have to believe and so I left this journal for you.


    I feel like I have returned to the boy I once was when I first awoke here. I don''t care about the scars I bear on my soul, I am a childish man who believes in fairy tales and legends and that is fine by me.


    I have always believed someday one among us, Lost Ones, will one day reach the Divine Land and unravel our fates."


    Aldrich read these words slowly but he was confounded on some of the hidden meanings behind them. But be that as it may, this person was right, he was a newly ''emerged'' Lost One.


    But how did the Lost Ones die? Aren''t they supposed to be immortal? And what was the meaning behind using the word ''emerge''?


    Shouldn''t the right word be ''born''? Or could it be that it was intentional? As if to say the Lost Ones appeared out thin air. Like him.


    He wanted to continue reading but he was suddenly struck with an annoying headache, he felt like he couldn''t concentrate or focus clearly on the words in the book.


    To his eyes right now it looked like there was a blur on the book. This wasn''t normal, he wouldn''t be exhausted anytime soon his stamina was extraordinary so how did the simple task of reading consume him so much?


    Aldrich closed the book despite how badly he wanted to continue on reading, this Chapel definitely wasn''t the right setting for afortable read.


    He used the activated seal of Tindalor and returned back to the base with the book in hand, he notice that the teleportation didn''t cost him any essence orbs.

 Chapter 108 The Age Of Dread

    That was weird, ording to his understanding, using the seal to teleport should cost at least two orbs not to mention that he took the book with him.


    Could it be that moving within the nightmare realm had different rules than moving to the outside?


    Aldrich had to figure it all out but he could always experiment some timeter, for now he had to take the money and get back to the real world.


    Aldrich had 63 red orbs and that was more than enough to take the seven coins he needed but he decided to take nine instead. It was not that he was greedy but he had to ount for unexpected situations, rainy days.


    Since he already had a good stock of essence orbs he might as well put them to use.  Aldrich had to actively restrain himself from upgrading his attributes to prevent himself from identally igniting his first symbol.


    He had to rush to be a Crestmaster before and now that he could, he had to restrain himself, ironic. It was not easy but, it was only a few days till the exam starts so it wasn''t a terribly long wait.


    He had to do things right, he needed to bring the right kind of attention on himself not the suspicious kind. His recent debacle with Yasbel only reinforced this belief, he was walking on the edge of a sword one wrong move and he was done for.


    So while being careful to always keep at least one green orb in his disposal he might as well do something about the money part of things with the rest of the orbs.


    He made sure to secure the journal of the Lost Ones in the study before he returned to the real world, with nine golden coins in hand.


    Aldrich stretched for a bit and then went back to sleep. In his sleep he dreamt of finally reaching the divine city and bringing Isger''s soul back with him to the real world.


    After saving Isger he went on to expose the schemes of the True Saint''s Folk and bringing them to justice at the sharp edge of his sword. After that he was invited by the Emperor to be themander of the Crownguard.


    The next morning he woke up feeling refreshed, it was a pretty good dream. He woke up a little too early because he had to get his cleaned clothes from theundry in the nearby building.


    After that he washed up andbed his hair, admired his newly grown stubble and shaved it off. Today was a weekend so he had no sses, it was the perfect day to go make apany.


    Aldrich didn''t cook at home but picked up a philly cheesesteak sandwich. He ate it on the way to the city hall, the private carriage was a smooth ride with the giant Gecko lizards reflexes and speed.


    Central Voryhrm was the busiest ce in all the city, all the big attractions like theaters, museums, art galleries and the Hall of heroes were here. The hotels and boardwalks that lined every street made it look like the center of the world and not just the city.


    The Hall of heroes was built back in the Liberation war when Emperor Indorias III lead the resistance against the Dread Lords that had been ruling the world for three hundred years at that time.<sub> </sub>


    Thirteen Dread Lords descended on the continent and gave the Empire the greatest humiliation it had suffered since the second cataclysm. The invasion of the Dread Lords was dubbed the third cataclysm for good reason.


    At the time the Empire was at it''s peak, it was one of two nations that existed in the continent, the other one being the Golden high elves nation which was once a great ally to the Empire.


    Back then the Adonian Empire ruled everything, whatevernds they didn''t rule weren''t worth ruling.


    Aldrich could imagine the shock the Empire suffered when they first faced the power of the Dread Lords and their armies. The Empire had enjoyed peace for too long, they had grown arrogant, conceited andzy.


    Many schrs would argue that the attack on Ashphim, the sacred capital of the Empire was the first wake-up call they got in a long time, the second could be considered the most notable event of the Dread Era, the death of Indorias I.


    The Saint-Emperor of the Adonian Empire, killed!


    They Emperor himself engaged three Dread lords at once, killing all three but ultimately his wounds were too severe.


    The Empire had to hide behind thest wall once again, the Dread Lords never attacked Ashphim again but the rest of the world was not so lucky.


    At that point in time the Empire existed only in name, the various provinces, cities and towns were cut off from the support of the Empire, most people had to dig into the Subterranean realm beneath the earth to survive.


    Some scattered to the deserts and fringes of the world, others fled to the seas and oceans. But only very few strong, brave souls holed up in their settlements and resisted the Dread hoards until Indorias III came to the rescue.


    Three hundred yearster his great grandson avenged Indorias the first and put an end to the terrible age of Dread. Of course the consequences of that age still haunt the Empire today.


    That was why the Empire never allowed itself to be content and satisfied ever again. All the big cities were built with the specifications of a fortress and prepared for something worse that the age of Dread.


    However, while most Dread Lords were vanquished some went into hiding when they smelled the changing winds and they stirred up trouble from time to time.


    Old Voryhrm was one of these settlements that repeatedly fought the hoards of Dread for three hundred years, without any help or resources, without giving in to evil and survived till the end.


    That was why when Indorias III freed the city from the encirclement he ordered a hall to be built to honor all the fallen heroes of that Cataclysm.

 Chapter 109 The Holy Grail

    Aldrich wanted to see the Hall of heroes himself, but he was busy today. He had to get the important matters settled first.


    Aldrich couldn''t believe that he wasted four hours in city hall just to get most of the paperwork over with.


    The department ofmerce and trade had many civil servants. But the sheer number of people that needed to process work through the department was cause enough for dy.


    Not to mention the intentional tardiness of the civil servants.


    Even when they knew that he was a student in the Crest academy they didn''t change their treatment. Considering that not many of the students be Crestmasters it made sense.


    Only a true Crestmaster was worthy of better treatment, potential was nothing, true achievement was everything.


    In fact, if he didn''t spend three silver coins just to get the work done he would have had to wait for two weeks at least. When he understood what those dirtbags wanted he just started slipping coins left and right.


    And what do you know? The work that was dyed a couple hours was done in fifteen minutes. Fuck, corruption was a serious problem, ordinary citizens were basically screwed over.


    This only served to reinforce Aldrich''s determination to not be ordinary. The fate of the ordinary was to get the scraps, to lick the bottom of the barrel and to grovel in mediocrity.


    He will not suffer this fate.


    After a quick lunch, he went to buy several sets of clothes, trousers, vests, shirts and shoes. He also got some long coats and cloaks, and perfumes and two rings.


    Some were fancy others were practical, as a soon-to-be adventurer he was bound to spend a lot of time out in the wild.


    And as a business owner he needed to look the part. He was going to be involved in big projects so he needed a look that would inspire confidence and trust.


    Aldrich then returned back home in time for dinner, he washed up and ate his fill. Next he went on to revise all his notes from the past and memorizing the monster codex number 3.


    The variety in monstera was something to behold, there were some incredibly disturbing monsters in this book. Rarely seen grade one monsters such as the Swamp hag had the ability to poison the air.


    The poison gas could induce hallucinations at first but after continued exposure it would lead to loss of mobility, this was the case for Crestmasters, ordinary people would die after two minutes of inhaling that gas.


    Aldrich closed the book and took out an empty book, he started writing down his two year n to save Isger. This was his main priority right now, revenge wouldeter.


    He also had to find the missing Adera, if something happened to her, he would not be able to forgive himself.


    First of all to get Ayemon''s help he needed to aplish five grade two quests within two years. Obviously, he couldn''t just start taking grade two quests the minute he became a Crestmaster.<sub> </sub>


    It became all the more evident how difficult that aplishment was the more he understood about adventurers and Crestmasters.


    Grade one Crestmasters could take any quests they liked, the guild wouldn''t stop you under normal circumstances. That was not the issue.


    The problem begins with knowing that grade two Crestmasters were elite, in a city of millions of people which is also where people from the entire province congregate there are very few individuals who achieved that rank.


    And even fewer parties, for example like the Mace of Garan, a newly rising grade two party of four.


    Basically jumping into grade two quests without being a grade two Crestmaster was not wise. So, for the first year, he was going to finish as many grade one quests as possible.


    The year after that he was confident in bing a grade two Crestmaster so it was only natural to move on to grade two quests.


    That would make his prestige and fame shoot through the roof, which would be of great help in getting an Archbishop to helping Isger. Of course, in the meantime he would be trying other things on the side like the attempt in the nightmare realm.


    Or maybe through thepany he made, he named it: the Holy Grail. He didn''t know which of the methods would ultimately bear fruit but one of them definitely will.


    <o>,m The best part about this n is that all three methods worked in tandem with one another.</o>


    The nightmare realm helped in raising his stats and getting more skills and treasure, which would fuel the Holy Grail and his sess in the Knights ofst Sustar would propel his fame to greater heights.


    This way not only would he not be distracted but it would also get better for him the more he kept at it.


    Aldrich didn''t write in themon tongue but in Quohen, after all, this was sensitive information, it had to be kept safely.


    As for the True Saint''s Folk he was conflicted, a part of him wanted to find them and punish them at this very moment. But another part, a moreposed part of him wanted the opposite.


    It was better not to encounter them before he became a grade two Crestmaster at the very least. Right now he would aplish nothing, their powers and secrets were terrifying.


    But Aldrich wasn''t just hoping for things to work out, if in the case he could somehow expose their existence to the Empire he could watch from the sidelines as they were butchered.


    The True Saint''s Folk is a powerful organization but it was no match for the Empire in any way. It was a conclusion that he reached not by blind faith but pragmatic deduction.


    Otherwise why would they go so far to hide their deeds? They were clearly unprepared for a frontal confrontation with the Empire.


    Although he wanted to do it with his own hands, preferably. But if he got the chance to rat them out, then he might as well do it.

 Chapter 110 A Price Will Be Exacted For What Was Bestowed

    Two extra chapters will be released next week, a big thank you to The_Boss_9517, for the Castle and also damn you! I will have to write even more now¡­


    Vote and join the discord to talk to me and give me feedback.


    ****


    Aldrich closed his eyes and willed himself to be in the nightmare world after his daily meditation.


    A few minutester he opened eyes back in the nightmare town. He seeded, he had felt that his connection with the seal of Tindalor had deepened after he visited the Fractured chapel.


    He didn''t need to sleep anymore to get here he just needed to focus for five minutes and that made his mobility much more flexible.


    Aldrich didn''t n on hunting much today he was here to read that journal again, this time slowly.


    This was a valuable source of information that Aldrich desperately needed. Understanding the nightmare realm and Voros was of outmost priority.


    Voros was the old name of this nightmare town, long ago before everything went to shit.


    Aldrich sat down one the now cleaned study room and took out the mysterious journal. First re-read the two pages fromst time just to jog his memory.


    Next he flipped on the next page.


    "My introduction has gone on for a bit too long, I hope that you aren''t bored or frustrated with me. But I have a little bit more to say before you can officially start with the journal.


    A few warnings and a bit of advice. I can''t help but nag, the future is uncertain.


    I am conflicted as write this maybe it''s the old age getting to me or the madness that enved us all. On one hand I wish that we are truly thest of our kin. And on the other hand, in case we failed, I hope someone out there will continue in our ce.


    My first warning to you is to be careful of the nted hill shack, leave it be, do not look into it. It doesn''t concern us, keep your focus on the Overseer''s mansion.


    The shack is an anomaly containing a terrible curse, and it''s suspected of hosting a fourth advancement being. It is beyond your imagination.


    So long as you don''t approach it, it too will mind it''s own business.


    Next, tell me friend, did you think that you are truly immortal?"


    Aldrich''s eyes shook as he read that question, what does that mean? Of course he is immortal. Simply put there is no doubt about it. He himself was well aware of that fact.


    And yet, how did the other Lost Ones die out? Was it out of old age? Aldrich didn''t want to think about that, he had gotten toofortable with his ''ability.''


    But, Aldrich was not one to run away from reality, at least not for very long. He flipped the page.


    "Let me ask you again did you think that you were immortal? That you had no need to fear death? Is there really such a thing?


    There will always be a price for what is bestowed.


    No, no. There is no such thing as a free gift in life. You are cursed my friend, and so were all of us. It is best to ept it as soon as possible, otherwise it will be the cause of many tragic tales.


    There are blood red crystals in our souls, these crystals are what makes us what we are, and grants us ''immortality'', however that is also the source of our curse.


    The source of our blessings is also the source of our curse.


    There is a beast in the heart of every man, as time goes on the beast walks out and you are locked in. Forever."


    Aldrich clicked his tongue in frustration, what did that mean? Why did he have to be so cryptic about it? Is it not better to be clear when you leave a message to the future generations?


    "I will borate on thister on, for now you should know that you must prevent yourself from dying as much as possible. For for every life like it is yourst.


    It is the only way to endure the transformations and trials ahead of you. Remember you are still mortal, if you believe otherwise then you have already lost.


    Lastly, to end the introduction on a slightly brighter note, I left you some magic items in the Pure chapel. Now, the first one is easy to get but I hide the others and sealed them behind barriers, to get them you have to prove yourself.


    Don''t be mad at me, it''s only natural that you have to work for something valuable. There''s another gift, if you put your favorite weapon in the cauldron it will get a free enhancement.<sub> </sub>


    The cauldron is the vase-looking thing with many fist-sized holes besides the obsidian b. Both had long since existed here, as far as I know, they existed in the chapel since the beginning.


    The obsidian b has the special power of allowing you to use the essence orbs you collected to improve your basic attributes. It could even purify Deadman''s Remnants which is the basis for our strength.


    Use it wisely.


    Directly beneath where you got the journal there is a false bottom under the rug, there you will find the Cloak of the Unseen. It''s an excellent magic item for freedom of movement."


    Aldrich tried to flip to the next page but he was once again struck with a terrible headache and could hardly think straight. This happened to himst time too.


    Somehow he was restricted from reading more than two pages a day. Obviously this wasn''t a coincidence, Aldrich didn''t believe that the same thing could happen twice unprompted.


    But it was this knowledge that intrigued him and scared him at once. This man was clearly dead a thousand years ago but he still had so many tricks.


    But, Aldrich didn''t rule out that this may have more to do with the Fractured chapel than the writer of the journal. That ce was clearly special.


    Aldrich wanted to go and get that cloak at least but he was not in the best condition and Aldrich didn''t want to risk going there when he wasn''t in top shape.


    The writer of the journal called it the Pure chapel and he clearly had great confidence that the chapel was absolutely safe. He left the journal there because he believed it would never be outrun by monsters ever.


    But, clearly the chapel from that time was different, right now, Aldrich didn''t feel all that safe in there. There was this sort of skin crawling feeling behind it.


    So he opted to return back to the real world, today was the day he was going to know about the quests of the guild''s exam. Since he gained some interesting information he might as well call it a night.


    ****


    It was noon and Aldrich had just finished preparing dinner, it was a spicy chicken soup. But he wasn''t nning on eating it alone, he wrapped it up.


    He could see that Irene was returning just now through the window, she had several books in her hand. She must have been to some library or maybe she took the time to study outside.


    Aldrich waited for her to settle down and then pickup the soup and nocked three times on her door. A whileter a voice asked.


    "Who is it?"


    "Irene, it''s me Aldrich I came by to give you some soup as thank you forst time."


    The door opened and Irene looked a little awkward, "ah, you didn''t have to, really. It''s fine already."


    "Can''t I invited you for a meal? Wouldn''t I be an ungrateful bastard?"


    "Well, since you already cooked and everything. I''ll take it."


    "That''s great," Aldrich smiled, held his breath and tried to hide the nervousness behind him, "oh, can Ie in to greet your grandfather? It would be rude of me not to."


    Irene seemed to have frozen in ce for a moment or was that his imagination? before she said, "sure,e on in. It''s a good chance for you two to meet."


    ''That''s all? I was ready for a physical confrontation. Could it be that my worries were unfounded?''


    Aldrich walked in, following behind Irene. The apartment was a replica of his own except it was much neater and more colorful. The curtains had the likeness of a lighthouse sewn on them, giving it a personalized look.


    In themon room Irene put the soup container on the food table and scolded in the direction of the couch.


    "Grandfather! This is our neighbor, Aldrich. The one who recently moved in, don''t be rude."


    Silence.


    Suddenly Irene got heated, her face got beet red, "grandfather, this is not the time! Come say something nice!"


    She turned to Aldrich, "I''m sorry my grandfather has always been like this. He''s not good with people and could blurt out the first thing thates to mind."


    Aldrich''s faced was pale as his back was bathed in cold sweat, he looked between the couch and Irene because there was no one else here besides the two of them.

 Chapter 111 The Crux Of The Problem

    Aldrich felt that his head was spinning, this was worse than he expected. He still wasn''t sure of what was happening but it clearly affected Irene''s mental faculties badly.


    Aldrich could just turn around and pretend that he didn''t see anything but Irene saved his life, he sure as hell wasn''t about to leave her like this.


    Moreover he wasn''t just a powerless farmer anymore, he could do something, "Irene¡­ I don''t see anyone here besides the two of us¡­"


    Irene looked at him in confusion, "stop joking around ande eat, don''t worry about grandfather he will eatter on his own."


    Aldrich stood in ce, "I''m serious, your grandfather is not here."


    "Not¡­ here?" She stammered like she was shocked all of a sudden, "oh, yeah. My grandfather has been¡­ dead for a long time."


    "Dead?" Aldrich repeated.


    "Yes, dead. I wasn''t even born when he died... But he''s here now. Hees to visit me sometimes. Can''t you see him? He''s right there!" She screeched and pointed up front, at the air.


    Aldrich wondered if he sounded like this when he first told Isger about the nightmare specter that fateful morning.


    That was why he knew that it was possible for something to be real for you and unreal for others.


    "Fine, I believe you Irene. Come sit," Aldrich pulled Irene to the couch and sat her down. She had a surprised look on her face.


    "You really believe me?" She asked hesitantly.


    "Yes, why wouldn''t I believe you. What does your grandfather want with you? Can you tell me?"


    "He¡­ he¡­ I don''t know." Irene breathed deeply, "He talks and talks but I can''t understand most of what he''s talking about. He only talks in my dreams, he''s frantic like he''s warning me about something but I don''t understand most of it."


    "It started a year ago, but he''s beening more and more sometimes I can see him hovering everywhere around me. It''s be hard for me to sleep and I can''t concentrate in ss. Living has be so unbearable."


    Aldrich mused, it looks like it was a ghost of some kind. It was only to the point of annoying her but it had developed to causing sleep loss and she became haggard as time went on.


    This can''t be allowed to continue, at this rate it willpletely break Irene mentally and physically. Something needed to be done.


    "Where is he right now?"


    "He''s over there," she pointed directly to his left. "No! He''s not there anymore! He''s¡­ he''s here." She pointed at her head as her eyes rolled backwards.


    She suddenly got up and ran straight to the wall, mming into it. Before she could do it agin he caught her and no matter how she struggled it was useless.


    But she didn''t stop she was fighting, thrashing around wildly and trying to bit him.


    "Irene. IRENE! Can you hear me?"


    She was unresponsive, but after a while she abruptly went rigid like doll with it''s strings cut off. She was whispering softly something he couldn''t quite hear clearly.


    He got closer and finally managed to hear something before she passed out.


    "Top¡­ marble¡­ lighthouse.."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrichid Irene back on the couch but he didn''t go anywhere, he was concerned that something might happen again.


    Thankfully an hourter Irene woke up. Her eyes looked unfocused for a moment.


    "Good afternoon." Aldrich eximed.


    "After noon? Ah! What happened?!"


    "You tell me. Did he tell you something again?"


    "¡­Yeah, he did. Most of it was as usual and I couldn''t understand it but I remember one word. He said: trapped."


    Aldrich tapped his knee, "trapped? Could it be that he''s being held somewhere?"


    Irene shook her head, "that can''t be. He''s definitely dead, he''s been dead more than five years before I was born."


    "Then, maybe his spirit is trapped somewhere," Aldrich considered this the highest possibility.


    "Irene, have you heard of a marble lighthouse?"


    Irene looked stunned for a moment before she gasped, "the Marblehead lighthouse in the old port! The lighthouse used to be our property but it was closed due to high pirate activity. My grandfather was the owner and keeper of the lighthouse. Then¡­"


    "His spirit was trapped there somehow after death. It must be exorcised, it''s the only way to end this madness."


    "But how, I don''t know what to do¡­"


    Clearly Irene was a normal girl she wasn''t involved in matters like these. But it was different for Aldrich.


    "Leave it to me," Aldrich smiled and pointed at himself, "I happen to know some people who might know a thing or two. I''ll figure something out."


    "Really? You will? I''m really sorry. I didn''t mean to suddenly dump all this on you." Irene looked like she was going to cry.


    Aldrichughed loudly, "what are you saying? You saved my life, these kind of things are my specialty. Just leave it to me. I''ll go meet with someone to deal with this problem right now."


    He was indeed going to tell Ayemon about this whole thing, he needed an expert''s opinion. Aldrich wished that he could go there himself but the exam was six days away.


    It wouldn''t make sense for him to miss the exam and then having to wait for another year. He couldn''t make Irene wait for the exam to end either.


    Who knows how long the exam would take?


    Admittedly this could be a perfect excuse for him to visit Ebrict and fulfill his promise to Cazmer. Well, he still didn''t rule it out.


    First, he had to iron out the details of the exam, there could be a way if there was a break between the first part and the second. If so, he could utilize that time to get the problem solved.


    Of course if Ayemon could go there himself or send someone to deal with the issue. But he didn''t know what Ayemon''s attitude was going to be.


    He opened the door to the guest room at Ayemon''s mansion. Ayemon was waiting for him, while sipping some Azuraleaf tea.

 Chapter 112 The Exam’s Three Quests

    Aldrich didn''t know how to start, he went over what he nned to say beforeing here but he still found himself unable to exin.


    Deep inside he felt that he didn''t want to involve Ayemon in every one of his problems, even if Ayemon could solve everything with a flick of his fingers.


    That was not the problem. Aldrich didn''t want Ayemon to think of him as ipetent, the kid that he had to take care of all day. He wanted to prove that he could take care of his own problems himself.


    But an innocent life was on the line, not only innocent but one that he was highly indebted to, so realistically speaking he had to ask for help.


    "What''s wrong with you? You''re early but I already have the quests of the exam ready. Take a look."


    "It''s here already?" Aldrich asked. Well, he could always ask after hearing about the exam. Because that might change how he responded to Irene''s problem.


    Ayemon took out an envelope from on of the drawers of his desk, it was not very big.


    "The first part, has only one quest, which in your case, is this!" Ayemon pulled a small stack of stapled papers.


    "In this quest you will be joining two random examinees and two guides."


    "Guides?"


    "Yeah, this is basically an educational quest, as long as you''re not a half-wit you will pass it. Most people do."


    "Well, out with it already." Aldrich demanded, feeling exasperated.


    "Have some patience young man. There is a farm close by Voryhrm, it''s owned by a family. The father and his son were filling up a dried out well when for some reason the father decided to go into the well but he didn''te back up."


    "Then the son who waited for his father followed him in to check up on him after not hearing anything for a long time. He too, has not been heard of after that. The family demanded to find out what happened to them."


    "Your mission in this quest is information gathering, find out what happened to the pair of father and son. And then report it to the guild."


    "Information gathering? What if we face a monster there?"


    "Do not engage. Just make sure to observe as many details about the monster and the ce as you can. Remember your role is just that."


    "I understand." Fine if they didn''t want him to do anything else then so be it. That just meant that passing the exam was just easier for him.


    "Next is the second part of the exam which consists of two quests, this time you get to choose your teammates.


    In another vige, there have been sightings of goblins in the outskirts of the vige, your mission is to find the nest and exterminate the goblins there."


    ''That doesn''t sound too bad.''<sub> </sub>


    "Do you Understand what it is to exterminate? A goblin nest could have from fifty to a hundred goblins, you must make sure to kill them all. Goblins hold grudges, whether they be old or young."


    "It''s fine I don''t care, I will make sure to kill them all. Back then I was kidnapped by a goblin tribe when we first met."


    "Hmm, that''s great. Thest quest is even easier than that one. A trade caravan will pass by the Zurn woods, but bandits are known to have recently upied the area and robbed many people. Your mission is to also, exterminate them all."


    "Bandits? What are they?"


    "Humans. Don''t worry they''re no more than thirty, along with the payment you will also get all the bandit''s loot."


    Thirty humans. Aldrich pursed his lips, he hadn''t killed another human since that woman. In the past he did it for survival, for self protection.


    But now he was going there himself with the express purpose to kill people for a quest. People he didn''t know and had never crossed paths with before.


    He remembered that night when he killed his first man with a stone by smashing his head in until it broke. He remembered the exact moment when the man died, it was when he hear a crack, a sound people hear when they open a boiled egg.


    Cazmer told him that he was going to do more killing from that moment on. And he was right, Aldrich had no intention to refuse the quests or to beg Ayemon to change it.


    This quest was probably Ayemon''s true test, he wanted to see if Aldrich had what it took to get his hands dirty. If hecked even this tiny amount of resolve then he should just kill himself.


    What will Aldrich do if he found the True Saint''s Folk? Hold hands and sing with them? Anyway he wasn''t going to kill innocent people he was going to dispose of criminals, beasts in the skin of men, they had nothing toin about.


    "Fine. I ept two of those quests but I want you to change one of them."


    Ayemon had a unreadable look on his face, "you can''t kill a few people? What do you think they''re innocent so-"


    "No, not that one," Aldrich had to stop him before he misunderstood any further.


    "I mean the goblin extermination quest."


    Ayemon eyes showed a sh of surprise, "what for? Did you get traumatized after yourst encounter with them? Trust me, this will help you get over it."


    It looks like there was a reason why this quest was chosen too. Ayemon took into consideration Aldrich''s past experiences to choose the most fitting quests for him.


    "Actually it''s not that. I really don''t have a problem with that, I even take the quest after the exam. Well, I need to exorcise the ghost of my neighbor''s grandfather and it''s trapped at the top of a shut down lighthouse in her hometown."


    He spilled the beans in such a way that covered the whole problem and also summarized it in a few short sentences. Aldrich felt a little proud of himself.


    Ayemon, however did not look impressed at all, "start from the beginning, and slowly for god''s sake."

 Chapter 113 Strategy

    The summery Aldrich gave was really good, but hey, not everyone can enjoy high art, so we will leave it at that.


    Aldrich realized that he couldn''t leave to Ebrict so carelessly because of the exam but what if the problem became part of the exam?


    Thinking about it, it fit the bill, it was request to exorcise the soul of an old lighthouse which he used to own in life, unfortunately for unknown reasons it had trapped the poor man''s spirt, preventing him from going to the afterlife.


    Aldrich exined the story to Ayemon from beginning to end, he altered Irene saving his life to her taking care of him when he suffered that ''fever''.


    By the end of the tale Ayemon was rubbing his temples in frustration, "and you don''t want me to send someone to take care of it for you. You want to do it yourself."


    Aldrich swallowed down and nodded, "I want to do this myself."


    "Are you at that age already?"


    "What?"


    "You know, you must really like this girl, huh." Said Ayemon with a shit-eating grin.


    "N-what? That''s ridiculous. Stay on the topic."


    "Sure, I''ll get out of your way. But really, you do realize that adding an entirely new quest into the quest pool instead of manipting the distribution is almost impossible to do, right?"


    Aldrich scratched his head, "I mean, I know. But I thought if there was anyone corrupt¡ªAhem! Anyone connected and influential enough to do something like this it would be you."


    "Hmm, ah, what can I do when my hands and feet are tied? You realize that this will force me to meet with an insufferable fellow? Ugh, I had hopped to keep all this under wraps¡­"


    Aldrich felt bad that he had inconvenienced Ayemon once again but he really didn''t have any other solutions.


    Well, he still had to get help from Ayemon despite not wanting him to solve his problems for him. But a little bit of help was not the same as actually solving the problem so it was fine for a start.


    "Well, for now consider it done."


    "Thank you so-"


    "I''m not finished."


    Aldrich suppressed his excitement and sat back down, "I would still advise you not to go for it. There is a tremendousck of information that might make this quest beyond your capabilities."


    "Lack of information? That''s true but aren''t all quests like that? There is no quest that ispletely safe and not one where all the dangers are clear before even attempting it right?"


    Aldrich had a certain level of understanding for adventuring, after all he didn''t spend all his time goofing around, he learned about them as much as he could and even had a taste of it himself in the Sunken valley.


    The only true rule of this line of work was that it was uncertain. That was the key word that perfectly described this profession, Uncertainty.


    "Right. But remember knowing something might happen doesn''t mean that you will truly be able to deal with it. Caution is an adventurer''s best friend. I don''t want to give you a lecture so this the end of our talk about this subject."


    "Cough, wait a minute." Aldrich cleared his throat, "I actually have no idea how to exorcise a ghost. So¡­"


    Ayemon tapped the table twice before he replied, "well, a simple wandering spirit could be dispelled with a bit of holy water. But this ghost must be a Haunting spirit since it remained for so many years, the best way is to break the object that it''s haunting."


    "What if the object is the entire lighthouse?"


    "You don''t have to worry about that, if it was that powerful then you will die since you definitely don''t have a chance. The item should be no bigger than your hand."


    "Well that''s reassuring, I guess," Aldrich felt the sting but he couldn''t refute it, "she told me that he was harmless and seemingly wanted to warn her about something."


    "I don''t know about that but assume that it''s not true anyway. We have no way to verify it, and he could be harmless to his granddaughter but that might not necessarily be his attitude to strangers."


    Ayemon tapped the table again and continued, "as for the dreams, I can''t tell. To be able to see a ghost in her dream means that the girl must have a special spirit herself. But the damage to her mind might not heal easily."


    "Can we help her somehow?" Aldrich asked, hoping for some way to treat her.


    "You can."<sub> </sub>


    "Me?" Aldrich asked in confusion.


    "Yeah, just give her that ne."


    Ayemon pointed at his chest and Aldrich took out the ne that Harvick gave him before he left that night. The mental protection charm.


    "It''s a mental protection charm, but it never worked before." Aldrich exined.


    "A charm? This is a grade one wondrous item not a charm. And it''s been used twice, it has three more uses left."


    "A grade one item? But¡­" Harvick clearly told him that it was a charm. Moreover how was it used twice?


    He never really tried using it and he didn''t remember it activating on it own. Wait! That time when he absorbed the armored husk''s memories he did feel it heating up for a moment.


    Could it be that it was that time? It was possible. But when was the first time then?


    Grade one items and charms are imbued with finite powers and did not require attunment to be used anyone could use them with ease.


    Grade two and above required attunment and each had capacity so grade one Crestmasters could only attune two items at most, anymore and their crests would not be able to handle it.


    But in return the powers in the items will never dry out as long as they were channeled with Ether. Glyphmancer artisans worked very hard and long to create grade two wondrous items and above.


    Aldrich decided that he was going to lend his ne to Irene since he didn''t need it much. After dealing with the quest he could always take it back after the deed was done.


    But wait, Aldrich felt that he had to think of something, like he knew he forgot something but he didn''t know what.


    "What about this ring?" Aldrich showed Ayemon the ring that Cazmer gave him.


    Ayemon gave it a look and nodded, "this is a grade two item. I assume you know what that means? You can only use it after you ignite your symbol."


    Aldrich sighed, well perhaps he might not be able to make good on his promise to Cazmer as soon as he would have liked. But it was still not to far away.


    He decided that as soon as he ignited his symbol, meaning immediately after being epted into the guild, he was going to do it first on the list.


    "What is it called this town, and where is it? Because if it''s too far I can''t do anything about it. The longest time frame for a single quest in the exam is two weeks, without special circumstances it will not be extended."


    "Well, it''s a fishing hamlet called Ebrict. It''s a small town, I don''t think you''ve heard of it."


    While exining Aldrich cursed himself for forgetting to ask Irene where her hometown was.


    "Ebrict? Actually I don''t think I''ve heard of it¡ª wait, Ebrict? As in, the Umbra monastery? Yeah, yeah. Hmm, it''s too far."


    Umbra monastery? Irene talked about that too when she first told him about Ebrict. No, that''s not the point, it can''t be that he would have to give up because of the distance.


    "Can''t I go on sea? I''ll take a ship, any ship will do, they have a port there. I''m sure for the right price someone will take us."


    Ayemon shook his head, "it won''t work, the entire southwestern coast is overrun with pirates. And even with good coin we can''t arrange a ship in such short notice, a captain needs his crew to run the ship. But¡­"


    "But, what?!"


    "You maybe able to make it onnd, after you finish the second mission send a guild representative to report your sess while you and your party head to Rathea and from there you must take the ancientnd bridge."


    "Ancientnd bridge? A relic from the age of Wonder¡­" Aldrich was taken back at that thought.


    "Yes, the age of Wonder. While almost everything from that time vanished into oblivion some things still remain and cling to our world."


    Aldrich returned back to Irene''s apartment feeling great that he got everything sorted out in such a timely manner.


    Truth be told he rted to Irene''s plight, after that was an experience that he was not going to forget for the rest of his life, it could be said that he was here today as he was because of the nightmare specter.


    If only one single thing didn''t go the way it did he would have been dead or worse alive and powerless to take vengeance.

 Chapter 114 Bastard Sword

    The food got cold so Irene reheated it and as they ate they talked. Aldrich took off his ne and passed it over the table to Irene.


    "This is a protective charm wear it at all times, make sure to never take if off until we sessfully exorcise the spirt."


    "Alright, but how will you do that?"


    "I will go to your hometown and exorcise your grandfather''s spirt during the exam with some very strong people."


    "They couldn''t have just let you do that."


    "They did, coincidentally the quest was already there so I just told them that I had to take it and they were really nice about it."


    "I''m going with you." Irene surprised him with her demand.


    "You can''t, it''s dangerous, you''re an ordinary citizen."


    "And so are you, you are not a Crestmaster yet."


    Aldrich chuckled, "I may not be but I am not much weaker than one. I''ve hunted more than my fair share of grade zero level three monsters."


    "But what if the same thing that happened to me happened to my parents?"


    "Why do you say that?"


    "I mean, I don''t know how all of this works but I''ve heard enough stories to know it could happen.


    What if my grandfather''s ghost was doing worse to my parents who are closer to the ghost than me? I need to check up on them."


    "Well," Aldrich could refute these arguments but he couldn''t entirely dismiss them. Besides there were many unknowns about this case her parents would definitely be more willing to share information if their daughter was with them.


    It would save him a great deal of hassle. But bringing her closer might also make things worse still. However, leaving her here might be even worse.


    It was not an easy decision to make so Aldrich decided to think on it for a few more days beforeing to a final decision on this matter. It was better to take a step back for now to reassess the overall n.


    ****


    In the nightmare realm Aldrich was staring at the journal, deep in thought. The old and dusty study had beenpletely cleaned by him, the firece was zing with warmth and the night was filled with the¡­ energetic husks activities.


    They were really enjoying their long lost freedom to roam around aimlessly and break whatever they encounter in their wake.


    He was thinking of what happened thest time he read the journal, it had be obvious that he couldn''t treat this book as an ordinary item.


    Reading it consumed his energy to an unbelievable degree, he couldn''t just casually browse through it and expect to aplish something that day in the nightmare realm.


    He had to choose when to read and when not to.<sub> </sub>


    Today he wasn''t going to read. He had to go to and get the item that the author left for him in the Fractured chapel, and also try out that free upgrade.


    Aldrich picked the ck long sword, it was by far the best sword he had right now and it could get even better. Why wouldn''t he want that?


    Under the blood red sky of the Fractured chapel Aldrich entered the main building and looked around in the central hall but he didn''t see any obvious ces where one could hide something important.


    Most of the ce was in decay anyway. But the author of the journal wouldn''t have yed a prank on him could he? It was supposed to be easy.


    Aldrich got an idea, he went to where the journal was previously levitating at and looked down at the ground. He stomped and heard a hollow echo underneath.


    Jackpot.


    He thought that the journal was the first clue, and he was right. Aldrich removed the false bottom and took out a wooden box that was unlocked.


    He pushed the lid open and found a white folded cloak. For a cloak called the cloak of the Unseen he thought it might be ck or at least darker in color.


    Cloak of the Unseen: any who wear it will have their presence suppressed. Your actions will be more likely to be ignored.


    That was the information he got after using the Eyes of Insight on it. This was a very interesting item, whether it was useful or not was not determined yet.


    Aldrich didn''t want to have any high hopes that until he experienced the item in action himself.


    Next he looked at the circr tform at the center of the hall, there were three things on it. First was the obsidian b that produced cold winds all over the ce.


    The second was the seal of Tindalor andstly, the so-called Cauldron. The Cauldron was a huge spherical vase, at least it looked like one at first nce and it had several huge holes that lead deep to the center of the item.


    Aldrich unsheathed his sword and inserted in the centermost hole in the Cauldron only to be met with a sudden suction force that pried the sword from his hand.


    He tried to grab it back but it was pulled in too fast and it disappeared within the cauldron. Something that shouldn''t be possible, the cauldron was big but wasn''t that big.


    He should have been able to see his sword sticking out but it vanished without a trace. A momentter the cauldron started releasing light and vibrating rapidly.


    Aldrich had the impression that the entire chapel was shaking with the cauldron. All of a sudden he had the distinct feeling that he was being watched by the statues that were lined in a circle along the hall''s inner walls.


    And in the next moment everything returned to how it used to be, silent and unmoving. This made this ce creepier than before which was not an easily achieved feat.


    Aldrich looked at the quite cauldron and it produced his sword back again through the same hole he inserted in starting from the pommel.


    It was no longer a long sword, more like a bastard sword with a broad de, it was inscribed with shapes and symbols he did not see before and it gave him a feeling of thirst.


    It was thirsty for blood.


    But that wasn''t the only thing that changed just now. Aldrich could tell, something else happened.

 Chapter 115 Marl Fizznick’s Misfortune

    He did not know what, if he had to tell he could only say that the chapel was dead before this moment but when he upgraded that sword it came back to life.


    He could feel a special quality in the sword now, something distinct. In the past the sword was excellent and reliable, but now it was even more so, like a beast waiting to be unleashed only blood count satiate it''s thirst.


    But Aldrich wasn''t sure that he liked that, to be honest he wasn''t sure of the intentions of the author of the journal.


    On the one hand he said that nothing was free, and on the other he gave him a supposedly ''free'' upgrade. He said there are no free gifts and yet he imed to give him not one but two as of now.


    Aldrich immediately used the seal of Tindalor on the tform to return to the base, he could have used it to return to the real world but he didn''t want to bring the sword back with him.


    ****


    Aldrich took his morning ss and chatted with Frank for a bit before making his way to a non-assuming sea food restaurant where on a table that overlooked the great Yongar river he found a beautiful woman wearing a bun and silver-rimmed sses.


    Yasbel.


    "I''m sorry did I make you wait, Yasbel? I bumped into a friend."


    "Not at all. I was enjoying the view."


    Yasbel smiled as she exined, Aldrichughed and took a seat while cing an envelope on the table. The high winds were strong here and that was why they decided to meet here.


    There were no other people here to overhear things that shouldn''t be heard.


    "I got most of the paperwork done, take a look and fill in the extra details." Aldrich pointed at some areas that he didn''t bother with.


    "As expected, the bureaucrats don''t understand any othernguage but money. Fucking pigs."


    Aldrich couldn''t help but agree but he had to remind her that they weren''t in the clear yet, "we''re not rich yet, we''re just starting."


    "Give me this." Yasbel took the envelope and started browsing through the papers, "the Holy grail? I like that name. Well, let me take this home and I''ll finish it up by tomorrow. For now you should have a look at this."


    Yasbel took out an envelope of her own and presented it to Aldrich. He took a look at the paperwork and it turned out to be about that coffee house, it was called Dane''s coffee and pastry.


    "Alright tell me the short version."


    "This is our target like I told youst time. The owner is a man called Marl Fizznick, he listed it for sale two weeks ago, check this."


    Yasbel took out a yellow small folded paper and passed it to Aldrich. He unfolded the paper, it was an advertisement for the coffee house on the Yongar daily but there was a problem.


    "He wants to sell for 30 gold? That''s not what you told me."


    "Obviously we won''t buy it for any price he demands. You see the thing about Marl Fizznick is that he inherited the business from his father. It''s a family business and it''s really a good one too.<sub> </sub>


    They have a good reputation and many loyal regrs, they have a ce in the localmunity. Their coffee beans are imported by partners from Izzram, old Cistia and the hearnds in Norfgar.


    And Marl himself is the man behind the making of the coffee and managing the affairs of the coffee house. They earn a near consistent 12 gold a year in profits."


    Aldrich was shocked, he did the calctions in his mind, since there are fifteen months a year that''s 25 silver coins a month!


    Moreover she said in profits, meaning after paying for rent and costs! That was an incredibly sessful business.


    "So, what made them a target? I mean if I was in Marl''s ce I wouldn''t consider selling so easily."


    Yasbel chuckled, "But The family has been saddled with debt since Marl''s grandfather first borrowed money to make the coffee house a thing in the first ce and Fizznick is still unable to pay it in full."


    Aldrich sucked in a breath of cold air, "that can''t be right. How could three generations of sessful businessmen be unable to pay back such an old debt?"


    Yasbel shook her head, "it''s tooplicated, let''s just say that the debt grew faster than their profits, there are also other factors but that doesn''t concern us."


    "And? What is our concern exactly?"


    "What concerns us is,st year Marl had to move into a storage room, and this year he has to pay ten gold and pay off the debt or next year the debt will be 15 gold.


    He has been frustrated so he decided to sell it off and pay the debt off with the money from the sale, thing is he added quite a bit more to make off with a hefty sum too."


    Aldrich inferred that Marl''s own expenses must also be significant otherwise he would still have been able to pay off the debt but since the situation progressed to this degree must mean that he''s out of luck.


    "Well, he''s smart," remarked Aldrich, "he''s using the sess of his business to cover up the fact that he jacked up the price."


    "He''s crafty but he was unlucky that his little tricks wouldn''t work on me. Especially since I have a clear look at his ounts and transactions." Yasbelughed softy as shempooned.


    Aldrich smirked as hemented, "poor fe, his misfortune makes for a sad tale."


    Yasbel nodded, beaming, "I know, this world is too cruel. But¡­ his misfortune is our chance."


    "Hey, you sound a little cruel yourself," Aldrich reminded, "he''s a fellow imperial citizen and we''re going to help him out of a difficult spot by paying off his debts."


    "In exchange for his family business, of course." Yasbel added.


    "Not only that, we''re also going to let him keep his job, the job he devoted so much of his life to."


    "You know what, Aldrich? The world is indeed cruel but it''s also beautiful."


    "I couldn''t have said it better myself."

 Chapter 116 Representative Of The Holy Grail

    Aldrich was carefully reviewing the paperwork regarding Dane''s coffee and pastry. Dane was the name of Marl''s grandfather who first started the business.


    The circumstances that made Marl unable to keep paying the debt was his own rising cost of life style, he hired private tutors for his sons and sold his family''s ancestral house to live in too big an apartment, in a too expensive street.


    He bought useless art pieces that lost their value the moment he bought them, he bought ves and gave them away as gifts.


    He was basically indulging in greedy consumption without any reservations, eventually while money was good, the debt increased exponentially.


    Of course if Marl was quick on his feet he might have been able to avert this fate and get back on track. But he was too drunk to notice, while almost everyone around him knew it wasing he must have thought that hit came from a left field.


    It seems like Marl''s grandfather was a miner before he saved up and took that loan, his father was careful and diligent, he even saved up quite a bit.


    But Marl despite his talent in managing the business and the good coffee he made he had too big of a w. From what an outsider like Aldrich could see, it looked to him like Marl had an underlying obsession to be a nobleman.


    Aldrich wore his new suit and got a fresh cut, the new silver ring and ck ring he got from Cazmer created a good contrast on his right hand.


    Yesterday they had already sent Marl a letter to arrange a meeting to discuss the business at hand. Today he got a reply letter in which Marl expressed his agreement.


    The meeting was at lunch time and it was in Dane''s, this was so Aldrich could take a look at the establishment itself, even brows through the ounts and try the various coffees and pastries of the house.


    Yasbel was noting, after all she was a middle management employee of the imperial bank it would look suspicious if she came with. Besides she still had to go over thepany''s finer details.


    As Aldrich was sitting in a private carriage thinking about that as he fiddled with his new ring.


    In truth Aldrich already went through these papers and could have done most of the work himself but he gave it to Yasbel as a test.


    After all, he had to keep a close eye on this girl. She might have not truly given in, so he wanted to use this chance to prob her, if she actually tried to do anything funny then Aldrich would have no choice but to dispose of her.


    If she was going to be a core part of this whole operation and a representative of the Holy Grail then he needed to trust her. That is not something that can happen over night, he needed to be sure.


    So Aldrich created an opening which Yasbel could exploit if she had malicious intentions by looking as if he didn''t bother with the small ''details''.


    Aldrich walked into Dane''s coffee house and took a broad look, now that he was in the mood to admire the ce he took a good look at it. Last time he was too focused on Yasbel.


    Hmm, the ce definitely had a ssy look but it was obvious the decor was old, and the walls had dents here and there. The tables and chairs were strategically covering the most damning disrepair.


    But despite this the ce was sessful because the actual product they served made up for the other inadequacies. Even now the tables were almost full.


    The waitress that opened the door for him smiled sweetly at him and gestured for him to take a seat.


    "Sir, you can take a seat and then order when you''re ready or if you already have something in mind you can tell me now."


    "Thank you, but actually I''m here to meet Marl Fizznick."


    The girl looked taken back, "eh, can I ask your name and who you''re with, sir?"


    "My name is Aldrich and I represent the Holy Grail."


    "Oh, that''s great. The boss has been waiting for you. Come with me."


    Aldrich followed the waitress to the second floor, there were three special rooms and she guided him into one of them.


    As he entered Aldrich''s eyes fell on a fat bald man in his fifties, he had a thick mustache but no beard to speak of. He looked paler than what was healthy.


    He was smoking from a disposable cigarette and he stood up when the door was opened.


    "Boss, this is the man you told me about, he''s here for the Holy Grail."


    "Aldrich?" Marl stretched his hand for a handshake while asking and looking a little doubtful.


    Aldrich took his hand and smiled as he introduced himself, "Aldrich, indeed. Representative of the Holy Grail, I''m here about the advertisement you posted on the paper."<sub> </sub>


    Marl nodded, "yes, yes. Don''t be offended I was just surprised by how young you look. Come take a seat. Why don''t you try our special for today? It''s a caramel coffee with blueberries, or maybe our signature Tarzel cake it''s a crowd favorite."


    "Well I can''t turn down this generosity, sure I would love to try them both."


    Marl gave the waitress by the door a look and she closed the door softly as she left.


    "I heard that you personally work in the kitchen."


    "True, I do. I love making coffee but I also trained some disciples to take some of the load off of my old shoulders."


    "That makes sense. We saw that your work payed off, Dane''s is very popr makes me wonder why you listed it for sale¡­"


    Marl put off the cigarette in the ashtray and coughed, "well, you know this how life is sometimes. My sons are not interested in my work they''re both studying in engineering andw respectively. They won''t ever do this kind of work."


    Aldrich caught on to the feeling of dissatisfaction and conflicting emotions in Marl.


    "Yeah, I must agree life might surprise you. So, let''s get to the main topic, the price you listed was¡­"


    "A little too high? I understand that it might seem like that," Marl nodded, "but the house has a loyal base of customers. In three or four years you guys will probably make back 30 gold."


    "How can you guarantee that?" Aldrich asked skeptically.


    Marl smiled confidently as if was waiting for this question, "I can''t guarantee anything, this is business, there''s always certain risks involved. But I can show you our ounting books for thest ten years. Even in the worst of times we have always managed to turn a profit."


    Marl took opened the drawers of a cab beside him and took out several huge files. Lined them up in order from 2451 to 2461.


    The door opened and in came that waitress carrying a tray she put down the coffee and the cake and left seemingly without noticing the tense atmosphere or the files on the table.


    "The staff look well trained." Aldrich remarked.


    Marl nodded with a proud look, "Absolutely, most of them have been working here since they were fifteen. They know their jobs."


    "That is great. But still 30 gold with the condition of the ce, it''s still too much."


    Marl looked troubled for a moment before he said, "alright, I never said the price was not negotiable. How much would you say is a reasonable sum?"


    "Hmm, well I would say 10 gold. Honestly that sounds like a perfect price." Aldrich said calmly as his sipped his coffee.


    Marl looked like he swallowed a fly, "y-you must be joking! That''s less than a year''s earnings! Get out! Get out! I''m not going to waste my time on this pointless conversation."


    Aldrich put the coffee cup down on the table, "oh, but I really don''t think you want me out of here."


    Marl looked like he calmed down, "mr. Aldrich, your honorablepany doesn''t truly want to buy for less than my yearly profit right? Even of you wish to negotiate there is a certain limit."


    Aldrich nodded and said, "I understand, please excuse me for not exining my position clearly. Under normal circumstances I would say 24 gold probably the price you has in mind."


    Marl didn''t interrupt but took out another cigarette and lit it.


    "So why didn''t you say that from the start? If it''s 24 we can still talk¡­"


    Aldrich coughed because of the smoke, the room was small to begin with, "well, lets start with the obvious, this coffee here is garbage."


    "W-what?"


    "Did I stutter? The coffee made by your so called apprentices tastes like it was made in barn boots. But I tried some coffee her myself a few days ago, it was a world of difference. I assume you made that one?"


    Marl didn''t reply but he didn''t need to the answer was written all over his face.


    Aldrich continued unbothered by his silence, "meaning, if you leave, this establishment will be run to the gutter. I would say this ounts to 40% of the value."

 Chapter 117 Acquired

    Aldrich took a bite of the cake, it wasn''t that bad, "Next is the local reputation, the source of which, is your family''s name Fizznick. Old, established and trusted by themunity.


    After you leave the regrs will start leaving one after another. Some might stille once in two, three months. That''s another 30% of value."


    Marl couldn''t take it anymore and responded, "these are mere spections on your part, my apprentices coffee is well regarded by others. You may not like it but that does not mean that others won''t, people have different tastes, you know."


    Marl took another puff of his cigarette, "what about the reputation? I admit that things might get a little rocky at first but as long as you guys continue to preserve you will build your own reputation.


    You know what, let''s agree on 20 gold, and we both walk out of here winners there''s no need to be too greedy."


    It may look like Marl was still stubborn with all that talk but he was actually conceding. This meant that his n was working.


    Aldrich sighed and lowered his head sadly, "unfortunately it looks like we won''t being to an agreement. To be honest with you mr. Fizznick I was given a budget of 10 gold that I simply don''t have the authority to increase. *sigh* it''s too bad."


    "W-wait 18! No, 15 gold! That''s all I ask for, that''s the lowest I can go."


    Marl didn''t see Aldrich''s smirk as his head was lowered. Marl was desperate, not only because he had a debt to pay but because he also had to pay if off by the end of the month.


    Two days ago Marl received a notice that the payment was moved forward to the end of this month Instead of three monthster. A little she-devil pulled some strings to make it happen.


    It was a good business he couldn''t allow someone else to snatch it.


    Aldrich suddenly raised his head and made a ''aha!'' Sound as if he thought of something.


    "W-what? What did you think of?"


    As expected Marl swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker.


    "I just got an idea that I guarantee will work out for both of us." Replied Aldrich with an honest and sincere look.


    "What is it?"


    "Well, it''s still 10 gold but, you will keep working here as the operations manager. A position that will yield you 17 silver coins a month in wages and you can continue to run things here as normal. It''ll be like nothing has changed at all."


    "Well, this¡­ I," Marl mumbled incoherently unable toe up with a response.


    This was enough to tell Aldrich that he was tempted with the idea. And how could he not be, 17 silver coins! A gold coin is 30 silver coins.


    Not only would he be able to pay off the debt that haunted his family for generations he can also get a well paying job and continue on with his life as if everything was as usual.


    It was not getting rich over night but it was a tempting offer. Better yet, it was the only offer. An offer that he can''t refuse.<sub> </sub>


    Marl looked to be struggling for a minute and Aldrich didn''t interrupt, he just sipped his coffee it was actually not as bad as he made it out to be.


    "25 silver coins!"


    "20, that''s my final offer."


    "Fine, we have a deal."


    As he said that mr. Fizznick looked like he aged ten years. Aldrichughed and shook Marl''s hands firmly.


    "A great choice! A great deal! I assure you ourpany isn''t interested in micromanaging at all. You will truly continue to be the boss here, our only concern is the financial profitability."


    "I hope you stay true to your word. I am putting three generations of my family''s efforts in your hands."


    "You made the best deal of your life. If you prove yourself you might even get funding to redecorate the ce at that time it will get more exposure. You will just have to add ourpany''s sigil by the front board."


    "I''m fine with that. So¡­ about the payment procedure. I don''t want it to be aplicated thing, and it has to be as soon as possible."


    "You don''t have to be concerned about that at all, I have the money right here. I also have all the necessary paperwork prepared after singing we just have to go to the city hall to finalize the deal."


    Hearing that the money was already prepared and seeing that Aldrich wanted the deal done as fast as he wanted it put Marl in a relieved state, Aldrich put a beautiful pouch bag on the table and motioned for Marl to open it.


    Marl had an uprehending look on his face when he saw the unfamiliar coin but he was d that it was stamped with the sign of authenticity, meaning that it was legal tender.


    "It''s unfamiliar coin I know, but you can exchange it for imperial coins wherever you want. Here''s the letter of reference."


    Aldrich had this letter written by the appraisal shop so that Marl can be at easy. Wouldn''t want him pulling out at thest moment now would we?


    "The Holy Grail, you guys didn''t forge this to trick me did it?" Marl asked a dumb question, but when you were selling multiple generations worth of effort, that was to be expected.


    "Why would we go so far to do something that could easily undo us? I can together with you to the bank when you exchange it for imperial gold. How does that sound?"


    "That sounds¡­ good. I trust yourpany of course, I just merely want to make sure everything is where it''s supposed to be."


    "I understand, it''s a big transaction. No need to feel any apprehensions if you feel the slightest bit that we mistreated you, then don''t hesitate to inform me."


    ''My god, this whole thing is a scam.''

 Chapter 118 Secret Meeting

    "So, what do you think?" Asked Ayemon.


    Gazeff grumbled, "what do I think? You make it sound like I have a say in all this! If he wants to risk his life then so be it, I got paid so what do I care?"


    Ayemon rolled his eyes, "if I didn''t know you, I would think of you as a cruel man." He moved his back as the maids started to massage that part.


    "Cruel? I just don''t care. I taught him to the best of my abilities if he wants to throw his life away then so be it. He wouldn''t be the first¡­ nor thest."


    "Does he really have to be an adventurer? Why not let him join some the fancy orders to grow fat and sire many brats? I''m sure with your rmendation things can go smoothly."


    Ayemon shook his head, "are you implying that I forced him on this path?"


    "Force?" Gazeff repeated sarcastically, "probably not. It was probably something a long the lines of nudging him where you wanted him to go."


    "You''re wrong."


    "Am I? Can you tell me that you honestly wouldn''t stoop that low? YOU of all people?"


    Ayemon snorted, "I would. But I didn''t. Didn''t you get paid in full? That''s all him."


    "As if! You want me to believe that kid could pull out one gold and ten silver? Ridiculous!"


    "I''m telling you, it''s him. I haven''t the foggiest how but he''s not short on money at all. Tell me, what did you think of him after training him for a month, is he ready?"


    Gazeff took a sip from his vodka and grimaced, "ready or not, I can''t tell. He''s the fastest growing trainee that I''ve ever had, I''ll tell you that. It''s like he was born to do battle, whenever I think I''ve got the measure of him hees back the next day stronger, faster, his skill level jumps a level with every day. Where did you find this kid, Ayemon?"


    "Really, I''m d he at least has the talent and endurance to be praised by you like this."


    "Talent?" Scoffed Gazeff, "it''s not just talent, it''s drive, he has something that keeps pushing him forward. And you didn''t answer my question, where did you find him? The Bloodstainednds?"


    Ayemon turned around and motioned for the maids to do his legs next, "Holy Altunan why would you even think that?!"


    "Listen that kid isn''t a rookie, he''s killed before and been in battle many times. Of that I''m certain."


    "That''s nonsense, he may have killed what? One two men here and there. But many that makes no sense?" Ayemon looked just as confused as he sounded.


    "You really didn''t know?" Gazeff was skeptical, "you can''t expect me to believe that."


    "I have no idea how to convince you. Can you be any less trusting?"


    "You''re thest person I''d trust anyway."


    "You really know how to bring down the mood, no wonder you''re not popr with women."


    "I''m well received as far as I''m concerned."


    Ayemon dismissed the maids and asked, "so, what exactly are you worried about? You sound proud of him and yet you don''t believe that he''ll make a good adventurer."


    Gazeff took another shot, "an adventurer? I don''t have the impression that he himself wants to be one, it''s likely a means to an end for him. You probably know what I''m talking about."


    Ayemon''s eyes gleamed for a moment but he otherwise remained silent.<sub> </sub>


    "My¡­ concern first is for his life. Countless unmarked graves litter thend, he might just join them.


    My second concern is about that anger¡­ in his heart it burns. I don''t know how that would look like once it was unleashed one day. Who knows it might burn his target one day but he might not even see the innocents in the way."


    Ayemon was silent for a moment but then he smiled, "I knew you''re just a big softie."


    <o>,m Gazeff snorted, "nonsense. I know your ways. You''re ning something."</o>


    Ayemon suddenly turned to look Gazeff in the eye, "I''ll tell you if you want to know."


    Gazeff knew he wasn''t joking, "no, I''m fine I''ve got enough problems of my own."


    "That''s too bad, I had hopped to get your help," Ayemonmented, "is it about those guys? I heard about what happened¡­ It''ll be hard to get them back on their feet¡­"


    "I''ll have to think of a way¡­"


    "Oh, I know." Eximed Ayemon, "how about Aldrich? I mean after he gets a little more experience under his belt."


    "How can you ask that? He needs at least a few years to get there."


    "Hey, he might surprise you. There are some people in this world who possess special destinies and are blessed beyond their peers."


    "I know. You''re talking about people like the sword saint? Humph! It''s not easy for men of that caliber to be born."


    "I don''t know. Back then it was equally improbable but during the war there were actually three. Times of chaos invite the birth of heroes and viins."


    "Three? What do you mean? That brat at the Brass tower? Don''t jest. Times of.. chaos? But¡­ the Empire is at peace the war is over."


    Ayemon remained silent for a long ufortable moment before he said, "peace, what is that? It''s the time when we prepare for next upheaval."


    "What Crest type do think he''ll get?"


    "I think Glyphmancer, with that learning ability once he ignites his crest he might get more than ten Glyphs at once."


    "I don''t think so. It''s a good guess but it feels like he''s also good at swordsmanship he might be a Weaponsmaster."


    "He could get a primarybat glyph, who knows. Pyromancy isn''t out of the picture too."


    "What if he," Ayemon cracked his knuckles, "gets a rare symbol?"


    "¡­ that will get too much attention from citadel spies. You know that the Watchful Eye chapter of the inquisition is snooping around don''t you? Are you going to let them walk all over you?"


    "They''re looking for that thing, besides let them look, I''ll pretend I didn''t notice. High priest Hjanda is looking out for them, so let them have fun, but they will be deeply regretful if they take me for a fool."


    Ayemon smiled and chuckled warmly as if he was an uncle watching his nephews y around in the park.


    "Anyway lets look forward to it, after all today is the day of the long-awaited exam, lets see how he does."

 Chapter 119 The Big Day

    Aldrich could only describe the guild hall of the Knights of Last Sustar as unexpected. This ce looked like a respectable hotel rather than a guild hall.


    it was brightly lit with mossmps and decorated with green drapes over the half covered windows. The tables and chairs were made of high quality Redwood, the chairs were cushioned with silk.


    The chandeliers were elegantly designed in a simple but artistic fashion, the light green carpets were lined with golden intricate designs.


    "Next."


    The participants were standing in a line and  Aldrich was one of them, they were taking a simple card inscribed with a number from the employee upfront.


    He was nked by two other employees, all wearing the guild''s badge on their uniforms, the badge was of two unfurled wings with feathers flying at random.


    The young man was taking out the cards after checking for ID.


    It was seven in the morning and Aldrich was trying to restrain his excitement by counting the participants. They were of all kinds of races, elves, dwarves, halflings, half-elves and humans.


    "Next."


    He counted to fifty before he was distracted by the voice of the employee, his turn hase. Aldrich did as he was told and presented his ID papers in an orderly manner.


    However after seeing his ID the employee paused for a moment and if Aldrich wasn''t looking for that moment he wouldn''t have noticed it.


    Next the employee didn''t take a card off of the top but from the side of the table there was an ashtray, from under the ashtray he pulled a card and gave it to him, the number was two and the letter beside it was A.


    "Good luck. Next!"


    The employee no longer looked at him and Aldrich proceeded to sit at the table marked with the letter A.


    There he found two others sitting before him, a boy and a girl. They stood up when they saw him approaching the table and the shook hands with him.


    "Hi, I''m Katrine. You can call me Kate."


    "And I''m Kip. Looks like we will be a team. We just have to wait for the guides and pray that we get an easy quest."


    Aldrichughed, "yeah lets do that. I''m Aldrich by the way. Have you guys had breakfast yet? If not then we can go together after the boring matters are over."


    "Oh, I am hungry now that you mentioned it¡­" Kip rubbed his tummy.


    "My mother tried to get me to eat but I was too nervous and couldn''t ear a bite." Remarked Kate.


    Aldrich smiled reassuringly, "I know that feeling, but after getting my number I feel much less nervous."


    Before they could talk more two more people joined them, two young men. They were clearly older than them and they carried a confident aura as they joined the group at the table.<sub> </sub>


    "Wee examinees, we will be your guides on this first quest. My name is Sam and I will be the leader on this quest." The short haired man introduced himself as he shook hands with everyone.


    "I''m Liam, good morning to you all." The taller man besides Sam was next.


    "Take a look this is our quest." Sam passed over a bundle of papers on the table.


    Aldrich was thest to get the papers and as he read it he nodded to himself. This was the correct quest.


    The basic gist of the quest was to investigate a well in a farmstead outside the city in which two people went missing in, after going inside. Gather information, if possible find out the cause of disappearance.


    It was at its heart an information gathering quest, the real quest, which was probably to rescue the missing father and son was for someone else.


    But there was one problem in this quest in his opinion, how much was enough? How much information should they get for the quest to be considered a sess?


    Should they give the well a quick look and then write down that it looked normal? He didn''t know, which is why he was d that they gave them two experiences guides.


    Sam, the leader, took the papers from Aldrich and asked, "so, what did you guys think?"


    Kip replied first, "I don''t think it''s going to be that hard but we should talk to the family of the missing people first. They should know what happened better than what''s described here."


    Sam nodded, "that''s right, always ask the locals about the subject and recent happenings in town. Things may have change in the time when the quest was submitted until we actually got to the site."


    Kate and Liam both nodded. Aldrich was d that his peers weren''t the reckless type.


    Aldrich coughed to get Sam''s attention, "so when does out role end? What type of information do we have to get to sessfullyplete the quest?"


    Sam smiled, "that''s a keen question, what was is? Aldrich? Well, from my experience, I believe we need at least to confirm a body or the condition of the missing people, are they dead? Alive? What took them?"


    Liam then continued, "what took them? What tracks did they leave behind? It could have been done by a human and not any monster at all."


    "You mean someone did¡­ this?" Kate asked looking pale all of a sudden.


    ? Aldrich couldn''t help but be reminded that these two, Sam and Liam were truly experienced. They weren''t Crestmasters but they were adventurers all the same.


    The fact that someone might have disposed of the the pair of father and son and med it on a ''mysterious'' well, might be true. It was all the same they had to report at least one important fact.


    All in all this was not a difficult quest, but it did mean that they will have to go down that well searching for clues.


    "So¡­ are we going now?" Asked Kip.


    "Now? No way. Look here we have three days toplete this quest, it''s a two hour ride. And we need to prepare some things just in case, don''t be in such a hurry."

 Chapter 120 Prepare And Eavesdrop

    "Alright, alright, did you guys have breakfast yet?" Sam asked.


    "No, not yet." Answered Aldrich and the other two shook their heads.


    "Lets go then it''s my treat."


    Aldrich took notice of Sam and Liam''s badges on their chest, they had the two wings of the guild''s sigil but it was also different. This one had a green background and the number 1 in between the wings.


    The Guilds district was as the name implied, home to most guilds headquarters in Voryhrm. There''s the Gleaming swords guild, the Rising star guild and the shield n guild.


    These were some of the top guilds in all of Vorian and since Ordoram was upied by the new governors since the end of the war sixteen years ago.


    That was why most businesses had quickly found reasons to reallocate here. In the past Ayemon once said that Voryhrm was now the real center of Vorian, and he was right.


    Ordoram was a capital in name alone.


    After a hearty breakfast he understood that many people were not like him and his friends Cole and Frank. Kip and Kate, had no idea if they were ever going to ignite their crests.


    They both took the Oath, and so their chances were much higher than before but the Oath was by no means a guarantee that things would work out.


    Aldrich didn''t tell them that he was sure about his chances he mirrored their stories and gave them sympathetic looks as they all shared in uncertainty.


    Sam and Liam were two such examples of initiates who never ignited their crests, they were working part time, adventurers in the guild where most their quest were of this nature.


    They could also be hired by other Crestmaster parties to work as scouts and to do menial tasks. Like preparing the tents and cleaning and so on.


    The other job was Ether supply and Glyph repair, which was a good job that only initiates can do.


    See, the walls and defenses of Voryhrm were protected by thousands of protection and repulsion Glyphs that need to be repaired and supplied with Ether every once in a while.


    These were jobs that were always in demand.


    After the breakfast consisting of omelets fried fruits and bacon, they followed Sam and Liam to a shop, it''s sing read: Leaf it to me.


    Yes, it said ''Leaf'' not ''leave'' which could have been a mistake. However Sam exined that it was in the past but it got people curious and the owner kept it like that.


    This was a weapons workshop, all kinds of weapons were disyed in cases and lined both sides of the wall. There were swords, maces, spears, machetes,nces, bows, muskets and even shotguns.


    "Wee!"


    A short-haired elven woman greeted them happily.


    "What can I help you with? Looking for something specific? Want something custom made just for you? Just say the word!"


    "It''s just me." Dered Sam as he walked inst.


    "Darn it," the woman''s demeanor suddenly changed, "what kind of bad luck do I have to be cursed by you cheapskates? Just hurry up."


    Samughed and looked at them, "guys do you have short swords? If not you can rent some from here and when your done just return them."


    "Why short swords? My weapon of choice is the spear." Comined Kate.<sub> </sub>


    "I-I haven''t killed anything before and I only use knives to eat." Stammered Kip.


    "We will be going into the well which is a small and closed area, you need a short sword unless you guys have a musket?" Liam asked, despite knowing the answer.


    No reply.


    "Alright, we''re not going to need them anyway but while going through a quest you must be prepared for things to go bad. I have some spare change so it''s on me this time."


    Sam exined to which all three expressed their gratitude.


    "Since when did be that nice?" The elf asked.


    "Hey, these guys are going on their first quest, as their senior isn''t it better to help them out?"


    Aldrich was celebrating on the surface only, inviting them to breakfast could be exined by Sam wanting the team to get closer to work better.


    <o>,m That was also what Aldrich was trying to do when he first talked to Kip and Kate. And yet even id it''s just renting weapons it had to cost quite a bit for Sam. So why?</o>


    Why would he do that? Was he just a good person? Was he rich enough that he didn''t care? It might look silly and turn out to be nothing but Aldrich had to think.


    He had to pay attention to even the moat trivial details, it was because he cked off that the whole debacle with Yasbel happened. If Aldrich didn''t have the Eyes of Insight he would be living a different kind of life right now.


    And while that ended up ying in his favor, it was just a lucky coincidence. He couldn''t possibly expect it to happen again.


    "Short swords also have their differences, look around and choose one which suits you, be careful not to choose one that''s too heavy. This madam is going to take care of you, we''ll go for a smoke break." Said Sam.


    Sam and Liam walked outside and took out their cigarettes and his vision was then blocked by the door.


    Aldrich and the two of them started going through the swords with the elf and trying the swords out.


    Aldrich suddenly facepalmed, "oh, I forgot to ask Sam something. I''m going now."


    After saying that he ran out of the door, both Kip and Kate didn''t suspect a thing and the elf didn''t seem to care at all.


    Aldrich opened the door softly but didn''t see Sam and Liam outside so he looked around for them at bit and smelled tobo shortly after. He peered from the edge of the building and saw them.


    The my were talking in the alleyway.


    Aldrich could hear only bits of what they were saying.


    "Hey, don''t worry man, we''re going to¡­.. for sure this time¡­." Liam said.


    "I know¡­ I know¡­. This time for sure¡­ the newbies seem like they can follow orders and the quest is simple enough."


    "Yeah¡­. But that Kip, he seems like he might be a pain in the ass. Even the girl''s better than him."


    "I know. But think about it, every party needs a meat bag."

 Chapter 121 Who Am I?

    Aldrich didn''t go there immediately after they stopped talking but waited for a few minutes before he approached them.


    If he went right after they stopped talking they might suspect him of overhearing them.


    He told the others in the shop that he was going to ask them a question so he had to do that to prevent them from finding any discrepancies.


    "Oh, Sam, Liam, I came over to ask if we should get any small shields too. A sword is good but a shield could be very good for beginners."


    Sam and Liam turned to him and their faces changed, they were back to being all smiles and reassuring gestures.


    "Oh, I haven''t thought of that. You know what that sounds good but we''re out of coin for now. The quest is really simple so we''re already over-prepared."


    "Oh, okay." Aldrich turned around to get back in.


    "Wait."


    Aldrich turned around looking confused.


    Liam asked, "Aldrich, are you¡­ do you have experience inbat? It seems you have some?"


    "Uh, yeah, I do. I was trained just a little bit. Don''t worry about me being a burden, I''m not going to slow us down."


    "Oh, that''s great. It''s good to have a capable teammate, go back in and chose the sword that suits you best."


    Aldrich turned around and his smile died as he walked away. Naturally he purposefully revealed that, it wasn''t bad to reveal some strength so as to not be considered weak.


    Besides from the tidbits he hear from that conversation no matter how shady Sam and Liam were it seemed like they shared the same goal, toplete the quest.


    Aldrich didn''t care about anything else. But he was going to do his research tonight, it was always good to have a better grasp of the big picture.


    "Guys, I think it''s a good idea to take mossnterns since we will have to investigate the inside of the well."


    Aldrich decided to candidly give advice to Kip and Kate, after all he did not want anything bad to happen to them.


    Even if they didn''t want to listen he himself was going to prepare for all eventualities.


    "Oh, how did we not think of that?" Kip wondered.


    "Jeez, Aldrich it feels like you''re one of the guides." Praised Kate.


    "Hey, it''s not a bad idea to keep our wits about us out there."


    ****


    Aldrich sighed as heid down on the bed, he had hopped that the first quest at least would be easy and straightforward but things were not that easy in life.<sub> </sub>


    In Voros, the nightmare town.


    Aldrich had no intention to jump over rooftops again, today was for reading. He tried jumping on the rooftops again but as soon as he left the safe zone he was skewered by dozens of arrows.


    "I remember the absolute confusion I felt when I opened my eyes in this unfamiliar ce. It was followed by the three great questions, who am I? Where am I? What do I do?"


    Aldrich frowned in doubt, it seems like the author waspletely clueless, even of his own identity.


    "I wandered around and due to my bad luck I encountered my first monster, a Scargling. That was my first death, the next thing I knew I was back to life in another unfamiliar ce, the Pure chapel.


    I found myself surrounded by strangers, some wereughing others were trying to exin but I was a stranger to myself, and the feeling of death was utterly disgusting.


    Soonter I was told that I was a Lost One, the proof? All Lost Ones resurrect in the Pure chapel upon the first death. This was my home and these were my people."


    <o>,m Aldrich closed the book with a thud, indeed there were some stark differences between him and the old Lost Ones.</o>


    First, the author''s first memory was of finding himself in the nightmare town. There was no mention of his past before that, where did hee from?


    He did not mention passing through a gate or a door as Aldrich expected. He thought that all the Lost Ones came here like he did through that blue gate. This was one of the main reasons he was intent on learning about them.


    Second of all, there was no mention of the Lost Ones going back to their original worlds, he was able to go back and forth and even bring things with him.


    The way he said that this was his new home, it definitely indicated that he couldn''t go back and he had no memory of who he was at all. That was strange.


    No, he was the strange one, the other Lost Ones were all the same as the author, he was the anomaly.


    Third, the author mention before that the obsidian stone b was the only way to use essence orbs to view and increase attributes. That was not the case with Aldrich.


    He could do it on his own as long as he focused for a minute, he didn''t need any help.


    ''What am I?''


    Aldrich had begun to believe that he really was a Lost One, that he was part of something, a bigger whole. But it seemed that might not be entirely true.


    No, he still didn''t get any conformation on anything, it was better to reserve judgment until he finished the whole journal and exploring the Fractured chapel.


    Aldrich returned to the real world and went over the information he gathered on the internal workings of the guild. It would seem that he managed to understand Sam and Liam''s motives.


    The guild had a hierarchy systems and it clearly divided ordinary people and Crestmasters.


    Sam and Liam were Assistance and they were rank one at that. The lowest of the low, the hight the level the more likely they were to be hired by better Crestmaster parties.


    So under these circumstances the guild made a clear promotion line, if the Assistance of level onepleted a certain amount of quests then they would be promoted and get an increase in rank.

 Chapter 122 It Begins

    That was why the were so invested in this quest, it was probably critical for them to seed in this quest because it aided them in their careers.


    Perhaps it might be THE quest they needed to advance, so they even spent money to ensured the quests ispleted.


    This was not a bad thing for Aldrich, he thought that Sam and Liam might do something to sabotage the quest but his worries were unfounded.


    In fact it was a good thing. As for what they said about Kip being the party''s meat bag, it was not nice but it was truthful as Kip has admitted to have nobat experience whatsoever.


    Of course, the first mission was just an easy information gathering but the next two quests were anything but brutal. If Kip wants to pass through sheer luck then he must either be really luck or really rich.


    <o>,m Oh, wait. He also might just be a fool.</o>


    ****


    The next day at nine in the morning the group of five met at one of the many Northern gates and Sam and Liam had already prepared a carriage.


    "I hope everyone had a good night''s sleep, there''s nothing to be nervous about we will go in ask some questions get some tracks written down and we''ll be out and back to Voryhrm before you know it."


    Sam had an incredibly energetic look about him and the others all cheered. Aldrich was of course among them. Today, everyone decked inbat gear with the short swords and mossnterns.


    The carriage ride was slow when they were getting out of Voryhrm as all the Northern gates because that was the easiestnd ess to the rest of Vorian.


    But after the carriage passed the ride became faster and faster. The imperial roads were impable and that was why a half a day journey turned into a two hour ride.


    The vige was called Zort, and it was mainly popted by farmers and their farms. They produced wheat, barley, eggs and milk. Most of the produce was sold in Voryhrm, there were many viges like these around the city.


    Many big cities are like this, as a great amount of basic materials was provided by these farms, mines and mills. They got off the carriage in what looked to be the local market.


    Aldrich certainly did not feel that this vige was at all like Wakefield. How to say it? It simply felt foreign to him, alien. This was much closer to being a town than a vige, they had cobblestone streets.


    "Excuse me, sir. Can I ask where the Kazt family farm is?" Sam asked one of the vigers. Suddenly the whole crowd looked at them at once.


    Aldrich kept his hand close to his sword and his eyes and ears worked at full capacity.


    The man looked Sam and the group up and down before he spoke in a gruff voice, "you here about old Barry and his son? Adventurers?"


    Sam looked unbothered by the excessive attention from the vigers, even seemed to enjoy it, relish in it.


    "Yes, we''re the adventurers sent to take care of ten matter, now if you''re so kind tell point me in a direction."


    "Ooh! Yes, yes of course! Please follow me. Everyone''s been worried about that well."


    "What was that? Did you hear something?" Liam asked Aldrich.


    "No, I didn''t hear anything."<sub> </sub>


    As the followed the man Aldrich overheard someone in crowd mumbled something, he said, "what''s the use of adventurers anyway? It''s been three week already, they''re dead by now."


    But he didn''t feel like mentioning that to Liam.


    "So, how has the family been doing since then?" Sam asked the viger.


    "Oh, they''re mourning. But you know how it is, life goes on¡­ but people have been avoiding them, for fear of¡­ back luck."


    Sam nodded understandingly, "it''s unfortunate but not all is said and done. I''ve seen a few cases like theses where people think it''s a done deal but life can surprise you. There''s hope they somehow survived."


    "Y-you really think so? They can be saved?" The man asked looking moved.


    "Hey, that''s what we''re here for, right?"


    The man nodded vigorously at that remark and even the rest of the team''s stride got a little more momentum behind it.


    ''But that''s not what we''re here for though¡­''


    Aldrich could understand the need to raise moral before a big undertaking. So, he just kept theining on the inside.


    Fifteen minutester they met with the Kazt family, two sons who each had two wives and children of their own, three sisters and old Barry''s own two wives.


    This was only the immediate family the others were in close by farmsteads. Including Barry''s brothers and sisters, his inws and his own parents.


    "Oh, thanks to almighty Altunan! Adventurers thank you foring. My father and brother have been missing for three weeks now, I''ll take you to the well right now."


    The oldest of the sons who looked to be as old as Sam stepped forward and greeted them. They all looked tired and sleep deprived, some of the women had tears streaks on their faces that haven''t dried yet.


    Aldrich looked at their hopeful gazes and clenched his fists, he too hopped that by some kind of miracle the missing father and son were okay somewhere.


    "Yeah, alright let''s not dy. Why don''t you tell me about what happened that day. Anything you noticed?"


    The well was in a muddy piece ofnd in the farm. Perhaps a better way to say it was¡ªwhat remained of the well. The cobblestones and pulleys were removed, only a two meters wide ditch in the ground remained.


    "The well dried up around two years ago and my dad wanted it removed and the hole filled back up. Make use of the empty area here you know?


    So he and my brother worked on it, but on that day as they started filling the hole up with soil my father said that he saw something so he went down to check.


    My brother waited and waited, after a while he decided to go down there see what took so long and¡ª"


    "And what?" Liam asked sharply.


    "And¡­ and¡­ I heard him scream but when I looked down he was gone. I swear on Altunan he was gone. He wouldn''t answer no matter how many times I called for him."

 Chapter 123 Dark Well (1)

    The whole family was out and about doing other work in the farm, nobody expected that something like this would happen when it was just a simple job of closing down a dried up well.


    But most importantly this information significantly reduced the possibility of it being done by another member of the family. With many witnesses seeing the pair go down and into the well willingly.


    It seems that the problem urred after they went into the well, which only reinforced the fact that they have to go in to have a look and investigate.


    There was a make-shiftdder made up of rope that was used by the pair to go down into the well. From up here the inside of the well just looked like a regr cave.


    But it was too dark to tell even in daytime visibility was clear only directly under the opening of the well.


    "Alright you guys can go back into the house, we''re going to take care of things here." Sam ordered the rest of the family to go back.


    Aldrich nodded to himself, these people were civilians their safety must be absolutely not threatened under their watch.


    "Okay, first of all does anybody want to use the bathroom?" Sam asked with a smile.


    Everyone shook their heads, Sam and Liam both shared augh apparently at an inside joke.


    "No really, if anyone wants to go then go the house and tell someone I''m sure they will amodate us." Sam continued.


    "Check up on your equipment, make sure that everything is in the right ce. Fasten yournterns properly, we will go in a circr formation wherein everyone will watch out for everyone''s back."


    Liam instructed and everyone did as he said. After that Sam gathered the group and announced, "listen up, this is the most important matter when going on a quest."


    The newbies all payed attention at these words.


    "Remember to follow orders at any cost. The leader''s words in an adventuring party are absolute. During the quest hold in any questions that you might have and obey orders."


    Aldrich and the rest nodded in understanding. This was not the first time that Aldrich heard that, it was among the many things he learned about adventurers in thest month.


    Only the scout of the party could counter the leader, which in this case was Liam. In that case it woulde to a vote. Obviously this could only happen outside of battle.


    "I''ll go in first and Liam will best, as soon as you get down get in the formation we agreed upon just now."


    Unexpectedly Sam volunteered to go down first which came as a slight surprise for Aldrich. Nheless he followed along with the others, he was third in line.


    Thedder was sturdy and tough, while the air got damp and moist as he went down step by step. His feet touched the ground atst and he followed the others into the formation.


    The ground waspletely dry, the ceiling of the inner cave was much higher than he was first lead to believe when looking in from above.


    After Liam joined the rest of the group they started advancing deeper and quicker than one would expect the light of the sun that seeped from the opening no longer provided enough light.


    The mossnterns lit up on of their own ord, fiventerns provided decent lighting and Liam crouched down and started examining the ground looking for any tracks and soon he found some.


    Aldrich noticed them too, although they were almost entirely gone some traces looked like human boots. But it was a wild guess at this point since three weeks had passed.<sub> </sub>


    "This confirms the pair must have headed deeper in the well," Liam said.


    The group looked at where the footsteps were headed and felt dumbfounded that the well was bigger than they initially thought. It extended further in.


    The party maintained the formation and Liam continued to stop to search every now and then, finally they were struck by a terrible smell. It reminded Aldrich of the smell of rotten fish.


    They looked on and followed the smell, a few minutester they came upon the source.


    "Holy Altunan!" Kate eximed.


    Even Aldrich frowned, it was the sight of a half-rotten human corpse, the body looked blue and was bloated, dark disgusting liquid leaked out of the wounds all over the body.


    The wounds were everywhere and festered with some kind of fungus, the face was missing an eye, the tongue looked like it was pulled out forcefully and it dangled lifelessly.


    It was a horrific sight, the members of the group were definitely appalled but to their credit they remained mostlyposed. Sam gestured for everyone to remain silent.


    Liam examined the corpse and nodded, "I don''t know which one of them this was but at least we found one."


    Aldrich sighed, unfortunately no miracles saved the day. But at least they got what they were here for so he remind everyone not to dwell on their feelings here.


    "Come on lets get out of here."


    Sam gave him a sharp look, "where are you going? Did I say that we were retreating?"


    "Eh? No, but we did what we came here to do so I thought¡ª"


    "That''s right you thought. I give the shots here, kid."


    "But yesterday you said¡ª" before Aldrich could say anything he was cut off. Again.


    "That was yesterday. The situation has clearly changed. We still need to find one more body to be able to consider the quest a sess."


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes but otherwise remained silent. The rest of the group looked at Sam in surprise at his outburst.


    Sam coughed, "I didn''t mean to snap at you like that, it''s just that you guys need to follow orders don''t do ANYTHING without my say so.


    Yesterday I said we the situation is different for every quest and in this quest we need to find the other body or we need to find out whatever caused this to happen."


    "But, what if that thing finds us first?" Kip asked .


    Sam nodded, "that could happen and in that case we need to eliminate it."

 Chapter 124 Dark Well (2)

    Eliminate it? Aldrich didn''t like the sound of that, this was an information quest, shouldn''t they prioritize escaping first?


    Ayemon did emphasize on avoiding any encounters and just getting the bare minimum of information needed to satisfy the requirements of the quest.


    "I know what you guys must be thinking but we can''t be cowards! Think about it when is the next party going to get this quest and when will they arrive?


    What if that thing preyed on the vigers during that time? Should we, as adventurers abandon them for a measly quest.


    Wouldn''t we be to me if we just let things be, we can turn back now and do the minimum¡­ But we can keep going and do what adventurers do, save lives!"


    Aldrich wanted to revolt right away but the rest of the party were going with the flow created by Sam''s words. Which to some idiots might make sense.


    Actually Sam''s words made sense, he addressed the main concerns of the party and the points he made could not be refuted by Aldrich without sounding like a heartless asshole at which point he would be ostracized by the party.


    Aldrich could care less about the opinions of these strangers but¡­


    The biggest issue is that if he insisted to withdraw and Sam chose to write something bad about him in the quest report, he might get failed and then the whole exam would be over in one quest.


    So, Aldrich decided to hold it in for now. It wouldn''t make sense for him to throw the test for something like this.


    "Liam what can you tell us about what did this to him?


    "It looks like he was harshly beaten to death, with a blunt object maybe? These here are bite marks, not too big, whatever left these wasn''t a big creature that''s for sure. But¡­"


    "What?" Kip asked.


    "I can''t seem to find the creature''s tracks. There''s nothing to indicate a struggle either, which doesn''t make any sense."


    Sam gave the area a closer look and nodded, "if he was beaten to death, he ought to have at least struggled a bit. But this could be exined by the tracks fading over time."


    "Let''s advance, slowly and keep a lookout for any suspicious tracks."


    ''Are you even looking for the second body?'' Aldrich mocked inwardly. Sam was talking as of that monster was their goal all along, the second body was no longer even an after thought.


    This contradicted his earlier conjunction, he thought that he understood Sam and Liam''s motives up-to this point but it would seem like he might have jumped the gun.


    After moving forward for short while they heard a sound, the sound of water droplets hitting the dry rocky ground. This made them tense up for a moment.


    Though the hadnterns these were the cheapest kind and the light didn''t reach very far. They moved to the source of the noise.


    Drip.


    Drip.


    Drop.


    They approached it and under the light of thenterns it turned out to be nothing. It was just condensed water from the roof of the cave hitting the ground, this allowed them a sigh of relief.<sub> </sub>


    It was then that a loud thud echoed in the quiet cave and Kip fell down face first and struck the rocky ground like a puppet with it''s strings cut. Liam who was the closest to Kip shed to the darkness to his right.


    But his sword only grazed the air.


    "Kip! Hang on."


    Kate knelt besides Kip and tried to wake him up, the rest surrounded the two and took a look at Kip. His head was thumped badly and blood oozed out but he was still alive and breathing.


    Aldrich could have caught or prevented that thing from withdrawing but didn''t. Because he felt that something was not right.


    "Oh, my god! Look at him. Come on lets go, lets take him out of here quickly help me carry him." Kate pleaded with Sam.


    But Sam was unmoved, instead he asked Liam, "did you see it? Is it¡­?"


    Liam smiled joyfully, "I didn''t get a good look at it but it definitely wasn''t a grade one."


    Sam''s face broke into a smile of his own, "jackpot!"


    "Wha- what are you two talking about right now?! We need to take him out or he''ll die!" Kate pleaded, this time louder and more desperate.


    "Shut the FUCK up!" Sam yelled at Kate, to which she responded with stunned silence. Perhaps to her, this came as a shock since Sam has been reliable, generous, patient and charming up to this point.


    "This is still the quest, you WILL obey my orders!" When Kate looked like she was going to cry Sam''s tone softened, "hey, hey, look we''ll get out as soon as we get that thing. It''s just a grade zero, it''s and easy job."


    Suddenly they heard another thud, this one was only a few steps away, the group of four approached. It was another body that looked much worse than the first one they''ve found.


    Suddenly Sam spun around and flung a throwing knife at the close by wall of the cave. They heard a hit, a strange guttural cry and then Liam dashed there and stabbed through the creature, finishing it off.


    The creature looked like a mix between a slug and a goblin, it had dark skin, long wild hair and even longed pointed nose, the creature had a snake-like underside and held a wooden club.


    "It''s a Moji." Aldrich knew this creature which is why he still stuck with the group, if he separated he would have made himself a target. It was one of the weakest monsters ever.


    "We got it. I told you it''s just a weakling. Now we can take Kip and get the hell out of here as heroes. Godamn heroes!" Sam dered wildly,pletely unlike his usual self.


    "Yeah we got it. This is more than enough¡­" Kate said weakly as if she was exhausted for some reason.


    "It''s not over yet." Aldrich said.


    "What are you talking about? Look, does this thing look like it has some fight left in it?" Liam asked by way of mockery.


    But Aldrich just shook his head. This was because while this monster was one of the weakest it¡­ lived in groups.


    Suddenly many, many more Moji crawled all over the cave walls and the roof, they were all angry and releasing some sort of war cry.

 Chapter 125 Dark Well (3)

    Aldrich felt his scalp going numb, the numbers they could see was not the problem it''s what they couldn''t see, Aldrich could feel that there were many more behind these.


    "What are you two doing get back in formation!" Aldrich yelled at them to wake them from their stupor.


    Sam and Liam''s expressions froze in ce as if they were too shocked to respond. And upon hearing his words their bodies moved on reflex, this was because they were moderately experienced.


    Different from Kate whom he had to lift up and pull out her sword for her. After which she finally got a grip of the current situation.


    Aldrich was always on high alert so he positioned himself to the way back where they came from to make a quick escape if things went south.


    Unfortunately these Moji were too many and they crawled on the surfaces of the roof and the walls, leaving a strange wet and sticky liquid in their wake. They already covered the escape rout.


    "Let''s only focus on getting the ones blocking the way back." Aldrich had to tell them so none would make any stupid moves.


    "O-okay, yeah! They''re not too strong, lets get them." Sam answered as he got his spirits back.


    Sam advanced and the rest followed. Suddenly one of the Moji''s mouth bloated unnaturally and spat blue spit, it hit Liam on the thigh.


    "What the¡ª"


    Liam checked on his thigh but it was just fine. Nothing burned and nothing hurt. While they were distracted five Moji lunged at them wielding wood and bone clubs, Aldrich cut down two of them in midair.


    The others were not so quick, Sam''s knives impaled one of them and Kate shed at the one that attacked her causing it to back away long enough for Sam to backstab it.


    Liam expertly cut down the one that lunged at him. After withstanding that wave of attack, Moji seemed hesitated to continue attacking them their momentum dulled.


    This was Moji were actually very cowardly from the start, they allowed them to regroup and get back in formation. Even in big numbers they were a cowardly bunch.


    They were known to target the weak and overwhelm with numbers, but if they were unsure if their target was weak or strong then they probably would prob first.


    Suddenly a cry rang out and at once many Moji attacked with their spit once again, this time at was aimed at the whole party. Aldrich stepped back and only some of itnded on him thanks to ssh damage.


    "Don''t be fooled this is a tactic to distract us!" Sam yelled, "watch out for their surprise attack like earlier."


    Suddenly Aldrich grabbed one of the Moji corpses on the ground and lifted it up. The corpse was turned into a pincushion by four arrows in the next moment.


    "Aah!"


    Aldrich nced at Kate and cringed she was shot by three arrows one to her knee and two to her torso. She fell down convulsing and twitching.


    "Lets go!"


    Sam and Liam broke whatever remained of the formation and ran to the exit of this enve. As they ran Liam suddenly tripped and got back up again only to fall back a second time.


    "What the fuck!"


    It was that spit, it made it hard to run or make any sudden movements, it became too slippery. Aldrich and Sam both had the least amount and so the could move much better.


    Sam ran past the many Moji blocking the way, some of them attacked him and slowed him down especially when he was unluckily shot with an arrow in the back.


    Aldrich was much faster than Sam and he wasn''t just running he was unleashing a brutal ughter of any Moji that dared block his way and soon enough the Moji were taking the initiative to target Sam instead of Aldrich.


    Aldrich who understand the nature of these monsters knew that the best way to handle them was not by running blindly. He had to demonstrate to them that he was not an easy target.


    And indeed, Sam who was purely escaping and showing them his back looked the weaker of the two and thereby the preferred target. Which allowed Aldrich to make a clean escape.


    Well, rtively clean. Aldrich ducked down and rolled many arrows hit where he was just now. This was one of the reasons Aldrich didn''t just kill them all.


    Arrows in the dark where he had a visibility disadvantage were simply too much. Even if he could evade and dodge some of them now he was in no ce to confront the Moji.


    Another impatient roar echoed in the cave and a blur darted out of the cave''s depth. Aldrich glimpsed it, in the dim light of thenterns, it was as big as a human and lizard-like tail with green seaweed-like hair.<sub> </sub>


    It struck the fallen but alive Liam with it''s giant bone club and ttened his ribs.


    "Aaaaah!"


    This was the Moji chieftain, it was a rare breed among them and itmanded the entire tribe. It was stronger and faster than it''s peers and much more violent too.


    But it rarely participated in the hunt, most of the time it would send it''s underlings to take care of that,ter it would take what parts it liked in the prey and left the rest for the subordinates.


    However it seemed that Aldrich''s killing spree had made it feel threatened.


    Liam screamed a guttural cry before he was silenced forever. Aldrich was already on the run, and Sam although held down by many Moji still ran carrying them with him in desperation.


    Aldrich climbed the rope as fast as he could but before he could get far his foot was pulled down from the ankle.


    "No! Don''t leave! I order you! I''m the leader! Take me with you." Sam shouted. That''s right he was still the leader and in the quest his words were absolute.


    "Let go! You fucking loser! We''re in this mess because of you!" Aldrich answered by kicking his hand with his other leg, with his strength that one hit broke Sam''s hand.


    The sound of breaking bones echoed in the well. But, before Aldrich could get back to climbing back up his ankle was caught once again by Sam using his other hand.


    Sam was weighted down by all the Moji that were hanging on his body. The chieftain was only a few steps away and the whole hoard that were hesitant before were encouraged by his presence and all of them were nowing in a single unstoppable wave.


    "Fucking bastard! Let. Go!" Aldrich used the sword to cut off the ropedder under him and then he gave a final kick to Sam''s hand, breaking it too.


    Aldrich quickly climbed up and from the top he could see Sam ring at him while being devoured by the hoard of Moji.


    ''re at me all you want from down there.''


    The nerve of some people¡­ even though Sam and his friend were the reason why this happened, he actually felt indignant as if he didn''t cause two innocent people to die.


    Aldrich knew they wouldn''t follow him up here because they were purely subterranean monsters, they wouldn''te up to the surface unless there were special circumstances.


    Unlike other subterranean monsters like the Troglodytes that made frequent surface raids.


    But just to be absolutely sure Aldrich rolled back what remained of the rope.


    "What¡­ happened? Where are the rest of the adventurers?"


    Aldrich looked over and it was the Kazt family that gathered a good distance away from him and looked scared and confused.


    "Oh, it''s you guys. The rest of the group, unfortunately¡­ didn''t make it. Thanks to Sam, our leader''s sacrifice¡­ I was the only one that made it... *sob*"


    Aldrich said looking traumatized, and just as scared as the rest of them. Unfortunately he didn''t know how to cry onmand.


    The eldest Kazt son came over to pat him on the back, "no, no, this must be what he wanted. He wanted you to get out here. To live!"


    "You''re right! He must have wanted me to warn you guys. You have to block the opening of this well quickly!" Aldrich bit his lips as if to not allow himself to grieve now.


    "Get help from the rest of the vigers if you have to. I have to go and report this to the guild someone wille here to avenge my friends."


    "You''re injuries¡­ you should rest first¡­"


    "No!" Aldrich replied, determination burning in his eyes, "I must report to the guild, at once."


    After saying that Aldrich promptly left the farm and then made his way back to the vige square where he stopped a wagon heading to Voryhrm and rode with.


    His clothes were in tatters blood spots were not yet dry on his clothes. But he didn''t give in to despair despite his loss.


    This particr feeling was not an act or a front he was seriously worried that he had failed the quest and the the exam by extension.

 Chapter 126 Settling The Matter

    Aldrich entered the guild hall in his disheveled state, looking frantic and panicked. Many people looked at him in surprise, some of which were examinees like Aldrich himself.


    Aldrich grabbed one of the employees and spoke incoherently, "the¡­ quest¡­ monsters¡­ well¡­ help!"


    The employee looked stunned for a moment before he nodded and said, "alright, follow me."


    He was taken to a room, a woman in the same uniform waited for him there.


    "Tell me what happened and start from the beginning."


    Aldrich started retelling the story but he obviously didn''t mention that he eavesdropped on Sam and Liam''s conversation. He also didn''t say anything about pushing Sam down to his death.


    Instead he changed some of the facts to look clueless and mentioned how Sam in all his valor sacrificed himself so that Aldrich could make it out and warn the poor vigers.


    All this time the woman was writing down his story word for word. Aldrich had already memorized the whole story beforeing here.


    In the end she finally talked about what he wanted to hear the most, "about the quest and the exam¡ª"


    "No! I don''t care about the exam, I know I failed but the importantly, you have to send someone to eliminate those monsters¡­ the vigers are in grave danger. This is what Sam would have wanted."


    The woman sighed, "I understand how you feel but¡­ you could be considered to have passed the quest and can move on to the next phase."


    Aldrich smiled and hurriedly asked, "really? You''re serious?"


    "Yeah, you found out what happened to the two missing victims and the reason for their disappearance. We will still send someone out there to check up on things and finish this matter."


    The woman looked like she wanted to say something but she found it difficult to talk about it for some reason, "These two guides¡­ they are the ones to me for how things turned out¡­"


    "What? How can you say that! Take that back! Sam and Liam are heroes." Aldrich eximed all the while inwardly nodding in agreement.


    "They were probably aiming to get promoted through this quest."


    "But justpleting the quests would have been enough right?" Aldrich had believed that to be the case but Sam''s actions then didn''t make any senseter on.


    "Yes,pletion alone will get them a good evaluation but if they went above and beyond the requirements of the quest and resolved the danger at the same time their evaluation would have allowed them to immediately rise to rank two Assistants."


    Hmm, so that''s what was going on. His thoughts were right but he just didn''t have a clear enough understanding of how the system here worked.


    "Alright, get going you need to wash up. Your name is Aldrich right? 2A? I will report that you passed and moved on to the next phase. Come back here tomorrow to join up with the rest of your peers to form teams and get your second phase quests."


    Aldrich got up with spring in his steps but he was stopped before he walked out.


    "Oh, and tomorrow you will get to see one of the Ringed knights, the white ze spear. He will give a speech to motivate you rising youngsters."


    "Ohh, what?" This time Aldrich was really excited.


    The knights of thest Sustar, this was the name of the guild but the word ''knight'' did not refer to Crestmaster knights. Within the guild there is an inner circle that acts as an independent order and the center of the guild, the Ringed knights.


    These were the backbone of the guild, and adventurers could rise to that level bypleting quests. It was very vague what the knights did and what their purpose is.


    However one thing is clear, the Knights are widely respected and hold incredible influence.


    p The power threshold to get invited was unknown but some people predicted through patterns that the peak of grade two should be the qualifying factor.</anda>


    Aldrich returned to the workshop: Leaf it to me. He decided to return the sword, after all he had his own and he felt bad that the owner lost four of the swords that were rented out.


    "So, you''re telling me that you could only bring me this?"


    The elven woman was upset.


    "For now only. Later on the guild will send someone there. Obviously they will retrieve the bodies and equipment too, so you just have to wait a bit."


    "Wait a bit? You know that if the items are not returned by the time you agreed on the price increases?"


    "Uh,dy I think you''re mistaken, I''m not the one who rented these swords from you. I was just being nice by returning this back to you."


    "You were with Sam when he did this, and now that he''s dead you have to pay me my money."


    "You can''t be serious he did that on his own, I am just here to return this sword. The rest of this matter has nothing to do with me."


    Thisdy was clearly hysterical if she thought he was going to pay anything. That asshole already did enough damage by almost causing Aldrich to fail.


    "You¡­"


    Before she could say anymore Aldrich walked right out of the door, he was already exhausted from all the acting he dis today he was not about to go through a pointless argument with this crazydy.<sub> </sub>


    Back in the apartment Aldrich took a nice long bath and cooked some nice grilled steak seasoned with a spicy garlic honey sauce, and finally some cold beer to wash it all down.


    He checked the essence orb harvest today and chuckled, 30 red orbs from killing those Moji. Not bad, not bad. Unfortunately the next quest was bound to be¡­plicated.


    Bandit extermination. And then right after awards he will have to make to the ancientnd bridge.


    Back in the nightmare realm, Aldrich didn''t dare to travel by jumping on rooftops so he decided to just teleport to the Underbridge area where Uldin, the merchant of Leng stayed currently.


    Unexpectedly the teleportation cost him ten red orbs, but when he went back and forth to the Fractured chapel he didn''t have to pay anything. Almost as if to encourage him to go there.


    The next day, the first thing he did was take a carriage to Lunsken district, the Grinning aatax. Here he met Cole again.


    "So, how are things on your end? What did your friends say?" Aldrich had to know if their previous agreement still stood.


    Cole thumped his chest, "they both said it was fine. Actually finding two more talented people was definitely a good surprise for them too. And since we can make a grand party whatever thest two quests may be it won''t stop our rise to the top! Cheers!"


    "Yeah, cheer!" Aldrich coughed, "but, eh, there''s just one little, tiny thing you have to know."


    Cole''s smile died and said, "what is it? Were you injured in the first quest? Did your friend not make it past the first quest?"


    "No, no, I''m perfectly fine. It''s about my friend, you see his girl is also taking the exam and he has to take it with her, so if he joins us then so does she¡­"


    "And I take it this girl is not like us, is she?" Cole cleverly identified the crux of the issue.


    "Yeah, but she took the oath recently and she''ll ignite her crest soon, and she''s also quick on her feet. She''s a half decent archer too."


    "Alright you don''t have to sell her anymore, we''ll take her."


    "Really? You sure?" Aldrich asked doubtfully.


    "Yeah, we have a team full of capable people we don''t have to worry too much about taking someone¡­ less experienced."


    "Will your friends be alright with it? It might not be as simple as that¡­"


    "It''s fine, enough nagging already."


    Aldrich sighed, "thanks, I just wanted to let you know in advance. You can consider this a favor to me."


    "Well, I''ll take it."


    "I''m leaving we''ll meet at table 2A today to officially make the team and take the two remaining quests."


    "Yeah, drinks after the speech are on your friend because he has a sweetheart and that makes me seriously jealous!"


    "Yeah, he ought to treat us." Aldrich absolutely agreed.


    ****


    "¡­ you''ve got to be kidding me." Ayemon was exasperated.


    Aldrich smiled warily, he didn''t know how to reply to that. Even he didn''t expect that the first and supposedly easiest quest would end up being so messed up.


    "In the end things yed out safely and Ipleted the quest so, it''s fine."


    Ayemon nodded, "like I said things could and will go wrong that is why you have to be on your toes."


    Aldrich told Ayemon the whole story honestly without hiding anything from him. This was not something that he had to hide from Ayemon, perhaps it might even be better to let him know so that he could better deal with any repercussions.


    "Well, it''s about time. I have to go, my friends are probably there already and I don''t want to bete." Aldrich said as he got ready to leave for the guild.


    "Hmm, are that excited to see the ming spear?"


    "It''s the white ze spear."


    "Whatever. Don''t be fooled that guy is not as impressive as he sounds. Just a fancy title, a big head and nothing to show for it."


    "Don''t you like anyone?"


    "I like myself."


    "Someone else, anybody other than you?"


    "Hmm, no one that I can think of at the moment besides our great Emperor."

 Chapter 127 The False Saints War

    The five provinces that make up the current Empire today were; Vorian, Uthgar, Izzram, Melowar and Norfgar.


    Even though today the Empire upied a third of the continent¡ª a far cry from it''s heyday, it was still the dominant power in the world despite rising rivals like the Republic and the Dominion.


    However to truly examine the Empire''s current political and social state today, one must point to the False Saint''s war, the most devastating event since the end of the age of Dread.


    Unfortunately due to the False Saint''s war that started neen years ago and ended sixteen years ago, the Empire lost a great deal of prestige and geopolitical influence.


    A three year war, was a short war. Ifpared to the many other campaigns in the past it could be called trivial even. Barely a war.


    But it was the most significant war in the past eight hundred years since the end of the age of Dread. Even the discovery of the Eastern continent was not as significant to the imperial people.


    So why was that the case why was this short war so significant for the Empire? Why did this civil war leave such a scar?


    That was actually the Empire''s first civil war since it''s inception 2462 years ago on the hands of Adon I, the first Emperor and thest prophet of Altunan.


    While other nations go through internal conflicts over session on daily basis, that was not the case in the Empire. Of course that was not natural, not in the least.


    It was divine. The Emperor was chosen by god, in each and every generation. Literally.


    It was done through a ceremony that determined the chosen personage to be the rightful ruler of the Empire, the protector of the realm and the saint who spoke with god''s own voice.


    Now, if one were to say that the session did not follow bloodlines? That would be a wrong statement.


    While the Empire did not have a traditional royal or imperial family, it had five, technically speaking. They were known as the five Companions families.


    Adon I, did not establish the Empire single-handedly, he had fivepanions and before his and sacrifice to seal the Dark Lord to end the second cataclysm he announced that only the descendants of his fivepanions could seed him.


    So eight years ago, when the emperor of that time ordered the ceremony to be held to determine his sessor, the light of Altunan descended and a man was chosen from the five families.


    The new emperor was decided, as was expected and the people of the empire celebrated and drank to the new heir that night.


    However, it was on that very night, the night of the weeping skies, that heretics proimed that they saw the light descend once agin on¡­ a different man.


    The man was also a member of one of the fivepanion families, this is true without a doubt. In fact, that man was the younger brother of the man chosen in the day.


    The next day people went to investigate where the light that descended, only to be lead to the estate of another one of the five families but the ce was burnt to the ground, the entire family was exterminated over night.


    Since all the family members were there to attend the ceremony, there were no survivors. One of the five families was no more, that was the day the civil war started.


    There was no ce for discussion or exnation, actions spoke louder than words.


    The five families ruled Ashphim and the empire from that seat, but there were other nobles who arguably had equal standing to the five families. They were the five Highlords.


    When Adon started conquering the world back then, these five families bent the knee and abandoned the worship of the false gods. epting that Altunan was the one true god, they received mercy from Adon.


    They took off their crowns and became Highlords and governors of their respective provinces. House Enthelmyre was one such house.


    Naturally lord Enthelmyre attended the ceremony, but the next day after the night of weeping skies he was gone without notice.


    It was discoveredter that he was the one who helped the false saint and pretender escape the scene of his crime. House Enthelmyre possessed an item that allowed them to traverse great distances in a short amount of time.


    Later on lord Enthelmyre sent letters to each and every lord in the Empire, major and minor alike.


    In it he dered his independence from the imperial citadel iming that they supported a false saint to the throne and that he has pledged his allegiance to the true saint emperor.


    The lords must quickly work with him to restore the true chosen emperor to the rightful throne or be dealt with in the same manner as the night of weeping skies.


    From now on he was not just a lord but a kind once again as his ancestors once were.


    The aftermath of the rebellion was beyond imagination, a rift that threatened to end the oldest and most glorious civilization of the continent. Not even the age of Dread was that bad.


    Starting with abandoning the conquest of the Eastern continent with the Green Range concordant. The agreement was between all four involved parties.


    The Republic, the Dominion and the new Crimson Dynasty, the natives of the Eastern continent. They deal was that everything north of the Green mountain range would belong to the Empire but they would forever stay out of the conflict.<sub> </sub>


    This was when the Empire was on the verge of achievingplete victory in the war. It was an unbelievable turn of events for the Republic and the Dominion.


    Vorian and Melowar both rebelled and dered that the chosen Emperor was not the rightful heir of the throne. A great sphemy, likes of which had never been seen in 2400 years of the Empire''s history.


    Naturally as a result the house of Enthelmyre was no longer the governors of Vorian since the end of the war. And the lord Enthelmyre of that time who dered that he was a king lost his head along with all of his blood rtives.


    At the hands of his own son, the current deputy governor, lord Seinalt Enthelmyre.


    As for the seat of governor of Vorian, it was decided to be handed down to the other lords of the empire in a circr turn basis, each termsts three years.


    Knowing these facts it was evident why Ayemon did not believe that the current lord Enthelmyre would ever n a rebellion, he was basically stripped of all of his powers and he himself was fanatically loyal to the Emperor, enough to kill off his own family to prove his loyalty.


    ****


    Aldrich walked into the hall and sat down at table 2A, as soon as he sat down the employee that was distributing the team cards passed by.


    He gave Aldrich a new card and put five others in the center of the table.


    Unexpectedly he was one of the first few people to arrive and he didn''t see Cole or Frank. So Aldrich ordered a chicken sandwich with some grape juice to pass the time.


    Not too long after the ce began to fill up and finally he saw Frank walk in, he was holding a girl''s hand as he walked.


    The girl had short ck hair and her dress was embroidered with lcs and sunflowers against a ck background.


    Aldrich waved at Frank who was still looking around. Frank, noticed him and came over with his sweetheart.


    Aldrich stood up and shook hands with them.


    "This the man of the hour, Aldrich." Frank greeted, "this is my sweetheart, Emma. The one I told you about?"


    "Yeah, I remember her," Aldrich rolled his eye, "he brags about you all the time." He said to Emma and sheughed.


    "He talks about you too." She said whileughing, "nice to meet you."


    "Yeah, nice to meet you too." Aldrich said as he remembered that Knight in the Sunken valley and how he broke the oath and tried to kill hispanions.


    Soon after, Cole and two others walked in a woman and a man. The woman had long ck hair with red streaks. The man was tall he wore sses and carried a book in hand.


    Aldrich didn''t need to wave to Cole, he immediately noticed him and came over.


    "Aldrich, this is, Helen and Nathan."


    Aldrich shook hands with the two of them and introduced himself, "nice to meet you two atst."


    "Same here," replied Helen, "I hear you have supernatural strength and you even imed you can beat any grade zero monster."


    Aldrich blinked at the sudden question but then smiled, "I sure can."


    "I like that confidence. I''m sure we can count on you in the next two quests," Nathan said, "uh, by the way, since you have supernatural strength would be willing to test my potions? I''ll pay you handsomely of course."


    <o>,m "Stop it, Nathan! I told you not to say that to someone you meet for the first time!"</o>


    Aldrich was dumbfounded.


    "Don''t take him seriously, he''s the alchemist I told you about, well he''s still in training. His head is not right¡­"


    "Ahem! This is Frank and Emma." Aldrich introduced.


    Another wave of introduction followed suit and the ce was soon filled with friendly banter until the lights of the mossmps suddenly dimmed.


    "Quite please. Now that you have divided yourselves into parties we will hear a word from the esteemed master Varth Elmer."

 Chapter 128 Knight Of The White Blaze Spear

    After those words the light of one of the mossmps focused on a stage at the center of the hall.


    A gentleman who looked to be in histe twenties walked to the stage. He was wearing a navy blue suit and a top hat and had well groomed full beard.


    He had a gentle smile and his presence was mild but all around there was pin-drop silence. The people around held their breaths at no one''smand and yet they all did.


    "Ah, I am sorry to interrupt your conversations. My name is, Varth Elmer and I just hopped to say a few words to those of you who aim to join our guild."


    His voice calm and peaceful but it spread to everyone clearly, if the attention on him before was surprising then, at this moment it was astounding.


    "I wanted to say, surpass your limits."


    "There has been no shortage of critics or mockery from pseudo-intellectuals, our entrance is exam is brutal, barbaric and many other words that I wouldn''t say in any respectfulpany.


    And I say yes, it is. That''s right. Many casualties result from this exam, many young and spirited people die. Even in the first quest people have already died."


    The atmosphere began to turn dark and depressing. Aldrich understood why, Kip and Kate were clueless and they didn''t have to die but they did anyway.


    "Their deaths are tragic and painful to us and to who were left behind. But¡­ this is the risk that they had decided to take, life is like that. This is the greatest guild in all of Vorian!"


    That''s true, everyone who participated in the exam had already signed away their life when they applied for the exam.


    "If you want to be part of it you better not do your best because that''s not enough! Do better, surpass your limits, do the unthinkable!


    Once you do, you will be taken care of in the guild, we have connections all over the world. We can get you any Wondrous item, any custom made armor, any mount, anything. Tickets to restricted dungeons? Easy!


    If your debt to your noble sponsors is bothering you, we can dy payments for you. If youck housing, we will get you the best deals, if you want a loan from the bank but couldn''t get one, we will get it for you!


    So long as it exists in this world we can get it for you! As long as you prove yourself of course. So long as you are a rising Crestmaster of our guild nothing is impossible!"


    As these words echoed in the area there was a moment of oppressive silence and soon Aldrich could feel his blood boiling at these words his heart was beating faster and faster.


    Varth Elmer then gave a sweeping nce at the entire audience one table after another, when it was Aldrich''s turn he felt that Varth''s gaze may have lingered a bit longer than the rest.


    But that was probably his imagination, everyone else probably felt the same way he did.


    "So you better be prepared to die for that opportunity."


    After saying that Varth took to the stairs to the second floor and entered one of the rooms.


    "Whoo, that was intense!" Cole exhaled the moment Varth left.


    "Tell me about it," Emma, Frank''s sweetheart said, "I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest."


    She looked flushed and breathed in long gulps like she just went through a marathon. That may be a bit of an exaggeration.


    But all the rest in the hall were not much better, perhaps for some those words may have seemed cruel but the people here have all signed away their lives!


    To them it was either their ambitions were realized or they were better off dead. Regardless of their talent, origin or race they were here at this moment putting their lives on the line.


    "Oh, where''s Nathan?" Aldrich asked since he just now noticed his absence.


    Cole looked around, "oh, he said he needed to take a dump right when the speech started so he took off. He''ste."


    Right when they were talking about him, Nathan walked back in from one of the side doors in a hurry.


    "What? Did I miss it?"


    "Man, you don''t even know what you missed!" Cole gloated.


    "Damn it! That was the worst timing!"


    Right then an employee came over and left two envelopes on the table, they were marked as numbers: 2 and 3. These were thest two quests.


    If they passed then they would be official members of the Knights ofst Sustar guild.


    "Hey, you guys had lunch yet? Why don''t we check these out and make preparations and ns while we eat?"


    Aldrich wanted toy out the ns and roles as soon as possible. The time limit for each quest was only two weeks.


    "Well, what are we waiting for? Let''s go!" Frank said.


    ****<sub> </sub>


    After a grand lunch of roasted horned rabbit and ck snapper soup the group opened the first envelope which had the number 2 marked on it.


    "Bandit extermination? Tsk, bad luck. We got a harder than normal quest, the Zurn woods? Not too far. They are estimated to be between twenty and thirty."


    Frank read the quest out loud so everyone can hear.


    "Let me see this." Aldrich took the papers and started reading, "hey, at least the guild has an assistant who will guid us to their approximate hideout location."


    "I''ve got some stuff that might help us in getting rid of these scum." Nathan had a dark gleam in his eyes.


    "Since we have some time to spare why don''t we make a more detailed n after seeing the ce and conditions in person." Helen suggested.


    "That makes sense. Let''s see what the third quest is about."


    Aldrich paid close attention and great focus to school his expression when Cole started reading the third and final quest.


    "Ebrict? Never heard of it. Ghost exorcism? I don''t know how to feel about this one¡­"


    "That''s weird," Emma held the papers closely, "this quest is¡­cking so much information. Where''s this Ebrict anyway? Doesn''t sound like any nearby town?"


    "Ebrict! Oh, I know," before Aldrich could chime in he was beat by Nathan who eximed, "Ebrict, as in the Umbra monastery!"


    But after he excitedly eximed everyone on the table had nk looks.


    "No way, you guys don''t even know about the Umbra monastery? Oh my god this is so embarrassing!"


    "Stop talking to yourself and tell us what you know!" Cole snapped. "Tsk, do you have to boast every time?"


    "Well, first let me ask, have you guys heard of the age of Dread?" Nathan asked sarcastically.


    "Nathan, I swear to god this is NOT THE TIME." Helen snapped.


    "Jeez fine, I was just making sure. In the age of Dread the Empire was fractured and outside of Ashphim the settlements either held on, fled or held up. Right?"


    "Right, we know this already go on."


    "However there are actually settlements that came to be in that time, one such settlement was actually established in the age of Dread by schrs in Umbra ind which is facing Ebrict. Right next to it, in fact."


    "Go on." Aldrich said as it seemed that Nathan paused for dramatic effect.


    "This establishment was called the Umbra monastery and it was established by schrs to create a ce where people can still seek knowledge even in an age of darkness, now here''s the shocking part, it is said that the monastery had once repelled the attack of a Dreadlord."


    "That''s bullshit!" Cole cursed.


    "Well, let me continue, the monastery is a legend today, while many records exist and state that such a ce had once existed there is no evidence of that on the ind. No structures, nothing to indicate that such a ce once existed."


    "That''s weird." Frank stated the obvious once again.


    "Of course. In the past it was a hot attraction for adventurers seeking to unearth whatever secrets may lie there. There are even rumors that the citadel was interested, unfortunately the legend was just that in the end, a legend."


    "Soo, I hate to interrupt but what does this have to do with our quest?"


    "Ah," Nathan snapped back to reality, "it means that we will have to think of a really cleaver way to reach Ebrict before the time limit."


    "It''s that far?"


    "Since its a fishing hamlet why don''t we take a ship, that wouldn''t take too long."


    "It''s no use the waters of the southwest coast are infested with pirates, only a warship may take us there, if you could get one."


    "Is this not unfair? This is an automatic fail. This can''t be right¡­"


    "Guys, I have an idea," Aldrich who was silent until now spoke up and everyone looked at him.


    "We can finish the bandit quest first, the Zurn woods are not far from a vige called Rathoa."


    "And?"


    "From there we get supplies and take the ancientnd bridge while we send a guild assistant to report us clearing the second quest which will buy us time to reach Ebrict andplete the quest."

 Chapter 129 Take The Lead

    "An ancientnd bridge?" Cole asked, "a remnant from the age of Wonder¡­ but it is said such ces are cursed."


    "Yeah, he''s right," Frank added, "it is known."


    Aldrich chuckled, "don''t tell me you believe that nonsense? Anyway that''s my idea, if anyone here has a better one feel free to share with us."


    The party members looked at each other in silence and no one spoke up.


    "Well, I say we go to the guild and try to change this quest. It''s obviously unrealistic for us to do this¡­" Emma said.


    "Please, what will you tell them? Do you really think that a guild like the Knights ofst Sustar made such a mistake?"


    "I agree with Aldrich, the fact that it was included here must mean that it could be done." Cole said in agreement.


    "I mean, I don''t think they''ll fail us forining but I have never heard of a case where the guild agreed to change any of the allocated quests¡­" Nathan added.


    "I guess we really don''t have much of a choice¡­" Helen sighed.


    "Okay, why don''t we focus on the matter at hand first and then we''ll move on." Aldrich said.


    "What do you have in mind?" Emma asked.


    "Well¡­ first of all I propose myself to be the leader of this party. We should get these details sorted out in my opinion so that we can tackle the other issues more smoothly." Aldrich smiled and exined.


    "And why do think you are fit to be the leader?" Nathan asked.


    "Well, for a few reasons. I have supernatural strength, I have hunted grade zero level three monsters before and I am basically the most experienced here."


    "Aldrich helped my uncle escaped from goblin vers, he''s the real deal." Cole baked Aldrich up.


    "Yeah, I too think Aldrich would make a reliable leader." Frank chimed up.


    "I''m with Frank on this one." Added Emma.


    Looks like helping him out was not in vain, which made Aldrich nod.


    "If that''s true then I guess it would make sense for you to be the leader, but if you fuck up in the Bandit quest we will choose someone else." Helen acknowledged.


    "Yeah, I agree with that."


    "Great," Aldrich pped, "I''m d we came to a quick decision. I hope that I will be able to take you all to greater heights, we will definitely aplish these quests without a doubt."


    In fact Aldrich wasn''t that interested in the leadership role but he wasn''t about to let anyone else have it either. So the only way was to take it for himself and hope for the best.


    After histest experience with an ipetent and reckless leader he wasn''t too keen on putting himself in that kind of position.


    That is not to say that he didn''t trust these party members but he just couldn''t take that chance.


    In Aldrich''s opinion the most dangerous thing in this mission was not the thirty or so bandits, it was instead these inexperienced party members.


    They were talented, that couldn''t be denied, but ultimately talent was not experience. He was able to sense the fear and reluctance in them when they heard that they would have to kill humans.


    Almost all of them were green, except perhaps for Cole and Nathan. He was sure that Cole already killed once but he wasn''t sure about Nathan due to his weird personality.


    Going on this kind of quest with people who haven''t killed before was a recipe for disaster. He knew first hand how hard the first time was, and a life or death battle was decided in a moment.


    A single second of hesitation was enough to get you killed. Their opponents were by no means experts but they were bandits, killing was nothing to the likes of these scum.


    If a bloodthirsty killer faced with a greenhorn that subconsciously held back the result was not hard to predict.


    This was the most difficult part of this quest as far as he could see right now. Which is why he already did some preparations, perks of knowing which ''random'' quest you will get.


    "Alright, my first contribution as the leader of the party will be this, since I seem to have heard of these bandits beforehand, I think I can get someone who has already encountered them to share some information with us."


    "What? Really?" Cole asked as if to mirror the rest of the party''s feelings.<sub> </sub>


    "Oh, yeah" Aldrich nodded but added, "but it''s not a sure thing. Since it''s such a short notice¡­ but I will try my best."


    Of course it was already done but he didn''t want to seem too sure, that would draw unnecessary suspicions.


    Besides if he told them the truth he didn''t think that they were going to appreciate him willfully taking on the most dangerous quests. And of course Ayemon told him to not speak a word about their meddling.


    "Oh, if you can really do that, it would help so much." Helen said sounding impressed.


    "Well, well, well, our leader sure has a lot of tricks up his sleeve doesn''t he?" Nathan remarked.


    "He might be the real deal." Emma said.


    This worked better than expected to cement his role as the leader and instill a sense of trust in the party members.


    "Well we shouldn''t dy more than three days before departure so I will arrange the meeting to be tomorrow morning. Have you guys heard of Dane''s coffee and pastry?"


    "Hmm, oh, the one in the academy district by the bank?" Helen asked.


    "You know it? Yeah it''s that one we should meet there for breakfast at ten, and I will bring that person there so all of us can hear what he has to say."


    "Sounds good to me. I heard about their coffee too, I might have heard that they were closing down soon?" Frank asked.


    Aldrich smiled as he said, "you can''t believe everything you hear, Frank. That joint is going to  be around for a long time, trust me on that."


    ****


    "Ladies and gentlemen, this here is a member of a certain escort agency that was escorting a merchant and his goods through the trade rout that skirts the Zurn woods."


    The group was sitting in the second floor in an open air area, the table was packed with all sorts of sandwiches, pastries and cakes. Along with coffee of course.


    Aldrich introduced an awkward looking one armed man, he had shaved his beard recently and his clothes looked like they weren''t ironed in a long time.


    "For reasons rting to confidentiality he will remain nameless and so will be his associates. He was there to witness and survived the attack of the bandits so he will fill us in. If you have any questions don''t hesitate to ask."


    "Uh, so why don''t you tell us the general gist of what happened."


    "Alright," the man replied with a gruff voice, "uh, our employer already knew about the bandits, the had be infamous in the area. So he hired fifteen well trained, equipped and experienced guards."


    The man coughed, "but that was not all, he also got information of the usual striking spots of the bandits along the rout. His n was not simple either, he made us change rout an hour before the bandits usual barricades."


    "Aha, he wanted them to think that you guys were non-the wiser to let down their caution." Nathan analyzed, "as for why he only changed the rout then it was to make sure the bandits were all concentrated and not spread out."


    "You are right, he even abandoned one carriage full of goods to circle around the woond rout¡­ but, we were still attacked all the same."


    "But how? That makes no sense. How could they have known your location when you changed route abruptly." Aldrich asked.


    "I don''t know, nobody knows, but they were all there almost all thirty of them, waiting for us as if they knew¡­"


    "Humph! I figured it out," Helen dered, "it must have been a traitor from within, that''s the only exnation that makes perfect sense."


    "Yeah, but¡­ how can are bunch of bandits¡­" Nathan''s words trailed off but everyone understood what he was trying to say.


    How can bandits have people already in a merchant caravan, either it was great coincidence or these bandits were really a front for a syndicate of some kind.


    "No, it wasn''t one of us!" The nameless man said indignation lining his facial expression, "it couldn''t have been."


    "I understand you want to trust and believe in yourpanions but¡­"


    "No, it''s not that," the man shook his head vigorously, "it couldn''t have been because no one except the head merchant knew that we were going to change route suddenly. It was a secret kept by one man."


    At this point the the atmosphere got heavy, and for good reason. It made no sense for the bandits to have been prepared for a sudden change of ns especially when they have already set up their barricades.


    Unless the head merchant told on himself, obviously that was out of the question.

 Chapter 130 The Peculiarities Of The Bandits

    "So¡­ how did these bandits fight? What kind of weapons do they have?"


    "Ugh," the man closed his eyes as if to remember, "they fought like bandits, chaotic and brutal. They had a few muskets, but mostly swords and spears."


    This was better news than expected, honestly Aldrich had begun to think of these bandits as battle hardened and disciplined mercenaries. But it would seem that was not the case.


    But that only made them more of a mystery, how could this gathering of crude bandits do something like what happened to that merchant?


    Are they organized and capable or are they just amateurs with swords?


    "Anything else?" Nathan asked, "like anything unusual? Something that seemed out of ce, something that maybe didn''t sit well with you?"


    "I don''t know, I didn''t have time to observe anything. I was fighting for my life but other than the ambush I wouldn''t say there was anything¡­"


    Aldrich understood that, the man was in no position to look for some clues. In the heat of battle keeping yourself alive was the only thing that mattered.


    "Wait!" The man eximed.


    "What? Did you remember something?" Aldrich asked urgently.


    "Aah, I don''t know if this counts as something, like the kind of thing you guys expect me to say but, I remember before the ambush we found¡­ long ck feathers in the woods."


    "What? What are you talking about? This is clearly not what we''re looking for!" Emma snapped.


    "Hey, calm down. Take it easy on the man, he probably doesn''t have much else to tell us." Frank quickly talked to her.


    "Ah, I''m sorry. I was just¡­ tense." Emma apologized.


    "It''s fine, I was the one who told him to mention anything at all." Nathan said.


    "¡­The feathers," the man continued, "they were long and beautiful. I remembered them because of that. It''s all I can say."


    "Yeah, thanks man. We appreciate the help. You can go now." Aldrich was grateful for the help and it''s not like it was for free, he already payed this man a silver for this information.


    "Yeah."


    The man got up and prepared to leave but before he walked downstairs he stopped, "I know this is shameless of me to ask, but if you can get rid of those bastards, please save my friends¡­ some of them were captured."


    "I¡­" Aldrich wanted yo say that he was going to save them for sure but somehow the words got stuck in his mouth, "we will do our best. I can''t promise you anything, however."


    "That''s fine."


    Aldrich sat down and closed his eyes for a moment and then he opened them, this was not the time to be slowing down. It''s not like he was powerful enough to do anything and everything, far from it, in fact.


    But it was something he wished he could have said it without thinking about it. However it would be even worse if he gave the man false hope.


    "Hmm, so we learned quite a few things about these bandits."


    "Yeah we should get moving to Lookwood vige tomorrow. Everybody prepare your equipment and if you need any help don''t hesitate to ask me."


    "It''s a three day journey so make sure to pack enough clothes, food and some coin." Frank reminded the party.<sub> </sub>


    Lockwood vige was the closest settlement to the Zurn woods trade route and it was where they were instructed to meet with the Assistant from the guild.


    The Assistant apparently had the precise location of the bandits hideout which¡ªif true, gave them a tremendous advantage. It made the quests that much easier.


    It seemed that the guild was trying to tell them that this was a straightforward quest where they just had to barge into the bandits hideout and just exterminate them in a frontal attack.


    But first Aldrich had a other ns, he had to solve the hesitation of the party members who didn''t do anything like this before.


    And since the bandits were so through, then wouldn''t it be better to use that against them. A frontal attack was not bad, if you had the element of surprise and experienced party members.


    ****


    The next day.


    On the imperial road, two carriages trodded to Lockwood vige, the first was shared between the party members and the second only had luggage and supplies.


    "Aldrich are sure that we really need a second carriage? We could have loaded the luggage here. Isn''t it a waste of money?" Cole asked looking ufortable.


    Aldrichughed, "don''t worry about it, how can we trouble the lovelydies to stay in a cramped carriage when we can afford a second one for the luggage?"


    "Aldrich is right." Helen agreed.


    "That''s true, you guys ought to learn a thing or two from Aldrich." Emma spoke up too.


    "Yeah, I was always on board with the idea." Frank quickly exined.


    "Me too, me too." Nathan said.


    Cole was there sitting alone and ufortable under the dagger-like gazes of the two women. Aldrich prayed for him in his heart andughed.


    Of course his purpose in bringing a second carriage was not exactly that nice.


    ****


    Two dayster.


    The Zurn woods were blooming with colorful trees of all kinds of fruits and nuts, the trees were tall and vibrant. All kinds of animals darted around, their shadows streaking by as fast as the wind.


    The party arrived in Lockwood vige and were weed by the Assistant in charge of the information. A woman in her thirties who had a mean look to her.


    In themon room of one of inns in the vige, she showed them a local map which had a clearly defined path that supposedly lead directly to the bandits hideout.


    "I have been there, without a doubt this is the hideout. Around the high noon they all return to the hideout until sunset and then they return back to their respective blockades."


    "Look here," she pointed at three red circles on the map, "these are the locations of their barricades."


    "Theymunicate using horns, if anything happened in any of the blockades the others would soon converge faster than you would think. Then they would attack all together."

 Chapter 131 Investigation

    Aldrich andpany spent the entire day studying the trade route and preparing their strategy.


    "I say we attack at noon when they''re all in one ce so that the others don''t scatter around and escape." Helen said.


    "Yeah, that sounds like the best n. I mean the guild assistant helped get us this information, it is definitely the best move we can make."


    Frank agreed with her but Aldrich remained silent to hear what the rest of the group thought.


    "I don''t know¡­" Emma said hesitantly, "I feel like maybe we should attack them when they''re separated. That way we won''t have to face all of them at once."


    "What is they use the horns to surround us while we attempt that? It would be over for us if they did that." Cole countered.


    "They wouldn''t be able to call for help if we attack them like a storm, we would be done with them easily as small groups." Nathan said.


    "Why do you think so?" Aldrich asked.


    "Since they number no more than thirty and they have four barricades including their hideout. I will make a guess and say that the three outposts are each manned by six or less men."


    "That''s a valid point." Aldrich nodded.


    "So, that is our n?" Helen asked.


    Aldrich chuckled, "no, Well kind of. But not exactly."


    "So, what is it? You must have a n right?" Frank asked.


    "Does it have anything to do with the extra carriage we left behind at the Woodswalk inn?" Nathan asked.


    "Yes, very much so." Aldrich then proceeded to exin the n to them. While this wasn''t definitely the most ideal n, it was the most suitable to achieve the most out of this quest.


    Aldrich had the luggage transferred from that carriage to the one they were all riding in originally some ways before they got too close to Lockwood vige.


    On the road there were several inns and taverns and Aldrich had the coachman sleep the night there. That carriage was going to be the main attraction in the n tomorrow.


    He had already informed the man of his role in this situation and paid his half the price, the other half waster, after hepleted his part of the deal of course. Aldrich even paid for his stay in the inn, costing him a total of 17 copper coins.


    This was almost a silver but Aldrich couldn''t be stingy for the quest, moreover he was hoping to recoup his losses by taking the bandits loot for himself.


    As for involving a civilian in the quest? Don''t be silly, he just paid the man to drive in a certain direction for a certain amount of time independent of the quest.


    That wouldn''t be against the rules now would it?


    ****


    The next day the party members sneaked past the bandits first barricade on foot, from this area that was outside the man-made trail and into the woods, this was the point where the bandits would have to attack the carriage.


    Aldrich had instructed the coachman to do as the merchants didst time when they changed the route abruptly in an attempt to escape the bandits.<sub> </sub>


    This was done with the intention to almost replicate that scenario. This way he wanted to see how exactly the bandits would respond, how did they quickly adjust their positions to the perfect ce?


    Was it a coincidence? He wanted to find out how they got their information.


    However, this situation was not the same as the merchants, the merchants had many carriages in the caravan and they had fifteen hired guards to protect them.


    Unlike this time where it was only one small carriage with no protection whatsoever ever. Aldrich was even afraid the bandits were going to abandon it altogether.


    The reason why he went with this approach was so that even if the bandits somehow knew that the carriage changed course they wouldn''te at it with their full power since it was not worth it, it looked like a simple job.


    Aldrich and the party were armed to the teeth and used green cloaks to camouge themselves into the environment.


    Suddenly they began to hear loud voices and grunts approaching hurriedly in their general direction.


    In the very narrow clearing where anything with wheels at least had hope to pass, a group of rough-looking men descended from the woods wearing dirty clothes and wielding crude weapons.


    They were all breathing roughly, clearly having made a quick run to get here this fast.


    "Fucking hell! We¡­.wheew¡­ do we have to do this? This run is killing me!"


    One of the fatter men cursed loudly and he was sweating bullets, his tongue was dangling outside like a thirsty dog.


    "Yeah, are people going to just do this all the time now? Brother, are we even sure there''s anybodying through here?"


    Another one asked a tough looking man in the center holding a machete, he was bald and had a red bandana around his head.


    "You guys stop whining like little bitches ok? Big brother told me personally! Has big brother ever been wrong?!"


    The bald man red around and the others all shut up when his eyes fell on them.


    "But.. we didn''t even have time to bring something to block the road with¡­"


    "We will block it ourselves it''s just one carriage, god it''s like this is your first time doing this!" The bald man yelled, "AND YOU I told you to stop drinking, you bitch!"


    One of the bandits was apparently half drunk, no¡ª by the look of it all of them were, but that one was dead drunk, judging by the way he wasughing out loud all on his own and ignoring the yelling.


    But Aldrich was actually weirded out, how did they know that it was only one carriage? They couldn''t have know unless they''ve seen it already.


    How? How?


    Aldrich looked around and noticed there in the direction where the bandits came from, on the ground there were long ck feathers.


    Wait, what?

 Chapter 132 The Ambush

    ck feathers? Yes, he said something about seeing ck feathers before the bandits ambushed them.


    Aldrich didn''t know what exactly that meant but he had a hunch that it was somehow rted to how the bandits had ess to information that they should not have.


    While the party remained hidden and quiet the bandits bickered with each other and Aldrich nodded to himself when he was sure that the bandits did not have any more reinforcements.


    He noticed that the party was getting impatient and some of them like Emma, Frank and Helen were sweating excessively. Even then, he didn''t give the order to attack yet.


    There was a time for everything.


    Not long after, the sound of horse-hoofs and turning wheels reached the vicinity at which point half of the bandits went into hiding a in the thickets.


    Aldrich smiled and motioned for the group to begin moving ever closer to that group of three bandits. The bandits had all their attention to the carriage that was closing in quickly.


    Emma nocked an arrow and looked to him for the signal to shoot. Aldrich waited.


    The carriage did not slow down at all, in fact it had no cargo, it was basically empty and the coachman was already told not to slow down at all when passing through this area or risk losing his life.


    "Hey! Stop in the name of the Emperor!"


    "Slow down this instant!"


    "This is an imperial inspection!"


    The three bandits who remained to block the way started making amotion and waving their weapons at the approaching carriage.


    So they were relying on this kind of trickery to do their dirty work huh¡­


    "H-hey, bro-brother he''s not slowing down at all!"


    "Wave your spear in the air, if he doesn''t stop then just throw it at him."


    "He''s too fast, even if I get lucky¡­"


    "Shut yer trap! Just do it!"


    The leader was clearly the bandit wearing the red bandanna. Aldrich shook his head, if he was in ce of these bandits he would have retreated but it would seem like they got used to winning.


    "Don''t kill the one wearing the red bandanna." Aldrich whispered.


    One of the bandits hurled his spear at the carriage but it missed so spectacrly that Aldrich even suspected that it was done intentionally.


    He was too drunk. Probably, or he was just bad.


    It was right then when the bandits realized that the carriage was not going to slow down and they scrambled in panic to move out of the way of the speeding carriage.


    "Now."


    An arrow flew and shot one of the bandits in hiding, but it only pieced his shoulder. Another arrow flew by and this one took out his eye, the bandits were in a state of panic.


    A short shadow reached out from behind one of the other bandits and climbed on him from the back, then two daggers slit his throat. It was Cole, even Aldrich lost sight of him for a moment.


    "Y-you! We''re under attack!"


    Aldrich dashed out to the third bandit who was in hiding in the woods and with a simple movement, a sh so fast and deadly the man probably didn''t even see iting, his head flew into the air.


    His body slumped to the ground and blood gushed out of it.


    One of them yelled. That was when a sk full of brown liquid smashed into his head and smoke started to rise from all over his body without any fire.


    "Agggh! It burns! Aaaaaah! No, noooo!"


    The man fell on the ground and started scratching himself everywhere in a frenzy. The red bandanna leader cursed and attempted to run away.


    "Fucking hell! Just wait you bastards!"


    Unfortunately Aldrich had his eyes on him the entire time, before he could get any further away Aldrich blocked him.


    He attempted to change direction but before he could even think straight he was sent flying in the air by Aldrich''s kick to the gut.


    "Oops, did I over do it?" Aldrich wonder aloud.


    That wouldn''t be good, he needed this asshole alive for now.


    "Gheg!"


    Fortunately the bandit was still alive, unfortunately he started emptying the contents of his stomach right then and there.


    "Hey man, you alright?" Aldrich only frowned and patted the man on the back.


    "H-hey! Y-you, leave me alone, you don''t know what you''re doing!"


    "Yeah, yeah," Aldrich nodded and warned, "this is going to hurt a little so grit your teeth okay?"<sub> </sub>


    "What?" The bandits was evidently not very bright.


    Aldrich didn''t waste time chatting with him, he grabbed his right arm, twisted it backwards until he heard a crack, indicating that it was dislocated.


    ? "Aghha! Aghaaaaaa!"


    The bandit with the musket finally finished loading the thing and aimed at Aldrich, but before he could fire his back was cut open by a swift saber.


    This is Frank''s favorite weapon, he wielded it with one hand to his back while taking a strange looking stance.


    "Stop screaming, damn." Aldrich was annoyed with the red bandanna bandit who was screaming his lungs out.


    He tore his bandanna off of his forehead and stuffed it in his mouth. He then searched his body for any other weapons and didn''t find anything so he took out a rope from his adventurers backpack and tied his legs together.


    Atst he checked up on the rest of the party and it seems like most of the work was done, this was the power of a surprise attack. Along with several other factors, of course.


    Aldrich walked over to the bandit who was first shot in the shoulder and then in the eye by Emma, he was dead.


    There was another bandit shot by six arrows by Helen, he was the fat one who threw away his spear at the carriage. He attempted to escape after their leader made a run for it.


    But he was still alive.


    "Helen,e here for a moment."


    Aldrich called for her and Helen came over looking perplexed.


    "This guy is still alive," he said and pointed at the fat bandit, "can you finish him off please?"


    "W-what? I shot him five times¡­ how is he still alive?¡­"


    "Well, he''s big and your arrows didn''t hit anywhere fatal so¡­ anyway he''s immobilized so just finish him off with a dagger if you want."


    "Uh¡ªwell¡­ I-I don''t¡ª I''m not sure how to do it." Helen said looking extremely on edge and breathing erratically while avoiding eye contact with him.


    Aldrich smiled warmly, "eh, don''t worry about that, I can help you, here take this." Aldrich handed her one of his throwing knives. Then he knelt besides the fat bandit who was silent the whole time.


    Aldrich pointed with his index finger and said, "look here, if you want him to bleed out then a deep enough cut to the left here is good enough but for the best result just a wide horizontal sh here is good enough."


    "I-I¡­" Helen looked aghast.


    "Aldrich, it''s fine I''ll do it." Frank intervened and took out his own dagger intending to finish off the fat bandit.


    "No." Aldrich stopped him with a look.


    "She''s going to do it."


    Helen held the knife and knelt beside the bandit, her hand was shaking and she was still frustrated.


    "You can do it," Aldrich put his hand over her''s and felt her hands calm down, together they slit the bandit''s throat. Helen fell backwards on her butt, her ck hair with red streaks looking disheveled.


    "You did it. Good work." Aldrich pulled her up and congratted her while smiling warmly.


    "Yeah, I did it, thanks"


    "Hey, Aldrich want me to kill this one too," Nathan called to him and pointed at the bandit who fainted after Nathan''s potion was thrown at him.


    "No, keep him alive. We might have a use for him."


    The reason for the difference in treatment was because he could see that Nathan didn''t have a problem with killing, he might have killed before.


    Of course Aldrich expected Emma to be the problem but it looked like she did her part from afar. Which is probably what Helen wanted to do by shooting the bandit so many times.


    Unfortunately she was unlucky and the bandit lived despite the many arrows he was shot by which forced Helen to confront this obstacle much more personally than she would have liked.


    "You-YOU! Have no idea what you just did!" Eximed the bandit leader who somehow managed to spit out the bandanna in his mouth.


    Aldrich smiled and dragged him over by pulling his hair, "well, I''m counting on you to tell us what we''re dealing with."


    "Kid you have no idea¡ª"


    Aldrich turned around and smacked him in the face, "fuck! Can you stop repeating the same shit over and over. For now shut up!"


    "B-bastard, just wait¡ª"


    Aldrich smacked him again and again, until his face bloated and a tooth flew out.


    "Do you understand themon tongue? I dislike having to repeat myself, I said shut the fuck up. You will only talk when spoken to, am I clear?"


    Aldrich pulled the fool over so that he can have a better look at him, "Or believe me you will wish you died with the rest of the trash."

 Chapter 133 The Last Question

    Aldrich handed the bandits to Cole and the others while he and Frank went over to the carriage. The carriage came back once all themotion died down.


    "Hey, Charlie, thanks for the help." Frank shook hands with the coachman and Aldrich handed him the rest of the pay that he was promised. All in all that was almost a silver.


    "No problem, I''m getting paid so it''s not much of a hassle. You say hi to your folks okay, Frank."


    "You got it."


    In fact, if he wasn''t a contact introduced by Frank he probably wouldn''t have agreed to help for less than three silvers. But Frank proved to be well connected and that saved them a bit of money.


    But most importantly it meant that their little y on the rules by including a civilian in the quest was going to stay a secret between them.


    In, the shade of the towering trees the party gathered around, resting, drinking water and cleaning their equipment. The two captured bandits were tied up in two different tree trunks.


    The red bandanna bandit was tied up close by and he was guarded by Aldrich and Frank while the other one was much further away and he was guarded by the rest, they couldn''t talk to each other unless they shouted.


    ****


    Bodger had a rough day to say the least, he was just living life like usual, you know, drinking, raping, murder and preparing to steal a poor sods goods.


    Of course he was also going to kill anyone who didn''tply.


    He got lucky today and got an easy job today, just one carriage. It wasn''t even protected by any armed guards. Bodger wished that they at least had some fresh women.


    If they had a pretty woman then that was even better, they he could give her to the big brothers and get rewarded by being allowed to use the women pen.


    The carriage and horses could be sold for a good sum, more drinks for everyone! More Dreamshade too. Not bad, not bad.


    This is how life should be, just taking whatever he wanted and doing as he pleased, it was the definition of life! Back then when he was a garlic farmer he wasn''t living at all.


    He was just toiling day and night, whatever weather it was hot or cold, snow or rain it was just working and working and for what? For scraps!


    Good thing he made it in the end, and he''s been living the life ever since he decided to be a bandit.


    But who could have imagined that on a seemingly normal day, he would find himself ambushed and his crew killed by a bunch of crazy kids.


    Bodger was drunk but thanks in part to the pain and time to rest he managed to sober up. He was tied down and couldn''t move, which meant that his predicament was not over.


    But it wasn''t over for Bodger just yet, he was alive and that meant that he still had a chance of making it out of here safe and sound like he always did.


    ****


    "Alright, I think it''s time we had a talk-" Aldrich was trying to start the talk when he was interrupted by Bodger.


    "You want to know where our hideout is? Right? I will tell you!" Bodger eximed.<sub> </sub>


    "Oh¡­" Aldrich put down the knife he had taken out, "are you sure? Are you really going to rat out your friends?"


    "Friends?" Bodger scoffed and spat on the ground, "they''re not my friends! I¡ªI¡­ you might not believe this but, I was just doing as I was told¡­ I was afraid of what they might do to me.."


    "How can you expect us to believe you?!" Frank raged, "we saw you with our own eyes when you wanted to ambush that carriage!"


    "I know I can''t say anything to convince you guys but that''s fine. I can even take you guys to the hideout if you want me to." Bodger said with a resigned sigh.


    "I¡ªyou!" Frank''s hand that was shaking in anger as he pointed at Bodger was lowered as if Frank was depleted of his anger.


    "You''re going to take us to the hideout?" Aldrich repeated and smiled, "well, that''s great! But first I want you to answer some questions, can you do that for me¡ªwhat was your name again?"


    "It''s Bodger, and of course I will answer any questions you have, anything at all, I hate those bastards for ruining my life!" Bodger dered, righteous anger coating his every word.


    "Right, Bondel."


    "It''s actually Bodger¡ª"


    "Whatever," Aldrich waved his hand to dismiss, "first question, how many of you are there?"


    "Twenty four, there were more but due to certain raids and mishaps our numbers decreased."


    "How may barricades do you guys have?"


    "T-three."


    "Did I hear you hesitate just now? Did you hear that, Frank."


    "Yeah, it looks like he''s not as honest as he wants us to think he is."


    "N-no, I swear to god, I''m telling the truth! I was just thinking of saying two because you guys already took care of one. The one I was in charge of."


    Aldrich nodded, "that makes sense. I didn''t mean to doubt you, brother. Just one more question, you ready?"


    "Yeah! T-then you''re going to take me to a prison nearby? I don''t mind, I made mistakes and I''m prepared to pay for my wrong doings."


    "To a prison?" Aldrich repeated and them shook his head, "no, no, after you helped us out so much we will just let you go, how about that?"


    "Really, oh thank you, oh thank you so much," Bodger started to cry tears of gratitude, "I can''t ever repay you but I promise to be good, and do good, I''ll help people from now on!"


    "I always believed in second chances." Frank nodded.


    "Ok, here we go, thest question. How did you know that the carriage would change direction suddenly?" Aldrich asked while keeping a close eye on Bodger''s reaction.

 Chapter 134 Demi-Humans

    "W-what?" Bodger asked back, uprehendingly, "h-how?"


    "I mean, this is clearly not your usual blockade right? You guys came here running like you knew where the carriage was going to pass and I heard you guys talking so I know for sure that you were aware that it was just one carriage."


    "Did¡ªdid I say that? I-I just¡­ I really can''t recall that¡­ probably because I was drunk and all the pummeling you gave me. Sorry, what was the question again?"


    Bodger was no longer crying or making eye contact instead he was looking around in a panic and stuttering.


    No longer was he able to keep a straight face he was clearly sweating profusely upon hearing that question.


    "The question was how did you know that the carriage was going to change directions to here, long before it came it came into view?"


    Bodger showed no response.


    "All right let me make this easy for the both of us, let me change the question a little," He took something out of his pocket and showed it to Bodger.


    It was a long ck feather.


    "Look Bodger, look," Aldrich waved the feather in his face and then asked again, "what is this thing? Tell me everything you know about it and then you''ll be a free man once again."


    "W-what''s that? It''s just a feather. It''s probably from some bird, what else can I tell you about it? Now if you''re done let''s go to the hideout, they might sense that something is wrong if we dy here."


    Aldrich face palmed, "oh, no, I asked the question twice and you didn''t answer me¡­ that can''t be good. I thought you didn''t care about the other bandits, why are you protecting them?"


    "I¡­" Bodger attempted to say something but ultimately he wasted too much time which is why Aldrich smacked him in the head.


    In fact Aldrich could easily kill a normal human with a punch to the head, naturally he intentionally suppressed his power.


    "Are you lying to me? To us? After we offered to let you go?" Aldrich asked, his voice full of anguish. As if he was hurting more than the bandit.


    Frank kicked Bodger in the stomach, if he hand not already emptied his stomach he would have vomited again.


    "Damn, and I was actually beginning to feel sorry for you!" He gave him another kick, "what were you thinking!"


    Aldrich hurriedly stopped Frank, "whoa, hold it."


    Either Frank was a really good actor or he really thought that Aldrich was actually going to let this scum live another day.


    "This asshole was trying to trick us from the start."


    "But, isn''t it obvious that bandits would betray each other? Why would he do that?"


    "That''s true, but this guy actually doesn''t believe that we''ll win," Aldrich chuckled, "for some reason he truly believes that we will definitely lose once we go to their hideout."


    "Ugh! N-no I am sorry I didn''t mean that," Bodger stammered after he caught his breath.


    "What I want to hear are answers." Aldrich calmly knelt so that he could look the bandit in the eye, "I will not repeat my question."


    "Listen kid, you''re reading too much into this, there''s nothing to worry about. At midday everyone will converge there so you can take them all out¡ª"


    Aldrich started shing.


    "Agaaah!"<sub> </sub>


    Bodger screamed for dear life but as time went on he stared at his body and noticed that although Aldrich cut him more than a dozen cuts none of them were fatal, in fact they were shallow.


    "Is-is that all you''ve got? There''s no need for any of this just go off on you own. It''s obvious you''ve never tortured anyone before just let me go and I will pretend that none of this happened."


    Aldrich cleaned his throwing knife and put it back. He didn''t look at Bodger but at the faraway group that was interrogating the other bandit.


    "Frank, can you go and tell Nathan to give you THAT potion."


    "THAT potion?" Frank looked confused, "which potion? What are you talking about?"


    "The bone melting poison."


    "Wha-"


    "WHAT!" Bodger eximed in fright.


    "Why did you think I bothered cutting you up like this? You''re right I don''t have any experience in torture so I will be learning right now on you."


    "You know what they say right? There''s a first time for everything."


    The bone melting poison was¡ªas the name implied, a poison that melts the bones of whoever ingests it.


    In the case of Bodger he will experience this pain slowly since the poison will seep into his body through the wounds Aldrich made.


    ''N-no way, a bunch of kids wouldn''t possibly have something like that, right? But¡­ a bunch of kids wouldn''t have been able to kill my crew no matter how useless they were¡­ fuck!''


    "Have you thought about it?" Aldrich suddenly asked bringing Bodger back to reality, "good, think about one more thing too."


    "See your friend over there?" Aldrich pointed at his the other bandit, "he''s being asked the same questions by my friends, you may be loyal and tight lipped but will he be the same? I wonder."


    "Y-you are a monster!"


    "Oh, please, I have no need to hear that from you. I have a quest to finish and I will get the answers I want, you get my drift?"


    "A quest? You''re an adventurer? Is this what this whole thing is about? We''ve already been reported to a guild, shit."


    Frank could be seening over with a white liquid in a test tube.


    "I-I''ll talk, I will talk." Bodger shouted in desperation.


    Aldrich who was about to pour the poison on Bodger stopped in his tracks, "oh, man~ I wanted to try it out."


    Bodger sighed in relief.


    "Oh, but I will also get the answers from your friend and if I think you lied to me¡­"


    "I get it. It''s the demi-humans! We''re working for three demi-humans, the force us to call them big brothers. And they take all the good-looking women."


    "What kind?" Frank asked in surprise.


    "Ravenfolk, they''re Ravenfolk."

 Chapter 135 The Dominion

    The demi-humans have always existed at the edges of the world and faraway from any civilized society.


    Their numbers were low and their intelligence was even lower, true savages. They were considered no different than monsters, but they made for good ves andborers.


    And so that was what they were until the age of dread came to be, when the majority of humans fled to the subterranean realm, the ves were picked up by the Dreadlords.


    It was three of the thirteen Dreadlords who took special attention to the demi-humans, first was Oth, the forefather of all orcs know as the lord of savagery and bloodshed.


    Second was the Abhorrent beast, the lord of the hunt, andstly, the three headed wolf of nightmares.


    Once the demi-humans submitted to the various Dreadlords, somehow the three lords influenced the demi-humans with their foul powers and changed them to increase their intelligence and their numbers flourished like never before.


    They joined in the Dreadlords in their rampage since then bing faithful ves to their new masters. Their intelligence did not increase by much but it was enough for them to start using their powers efficiently.


    Some of them who performed merit in battle were granted great powers equivalent to Crestmasters by the Dreadlords. And there are special ones who gained significant power and infamy enough to distinguish themselves.


    Naturally after the age of Dread ended and the Dreadlords dead, sealed or in hiding, the demi-humans faced the wrath of the newly returned humans, dwarfs, elves and halflings.


    However the Empire was weak and still recovering from the liberation war, that was when the Dominion was first established and intervened.


    The Dominion was primarily made up of the humans who went to the subterranean realm in the northeast of the continent, however when they returned they were not the same, not in mind nor body.


    They had dug in too deep into the subterranean realm in the northeast, much deeper than anyone else, and they encountered ''something'' unknown. When they came back they were a new races calling themselves the Vendari and Orvikar.


    And they did not have the same loyalty that other ces had to the Empire, they especially did not appreciate being abandoned and forced to go under ground.


    Perhaps to most people a fast death was better than generations of unending struggles just to survive within apletely new environment. Not seeing the sun for generations was bad enough.


    So even after being saved by Indorias III they no longer wanted to rejoin the Empire and instead established the Dominion after absorbing the demi-humans.


    Indorias III did not want to resort to violence against those who didn''t want to join back willingly so he left them as is and hoped that one day their grievances would wane with time.


    Of course the story with the Republic was different to say the least.


    However if Indorias III knew of the consequences of leaving the Dominion alone toter generations he might have made a different decision at that time.


    Of course the peace was broken during the remation war, and the war of crusades in which the three powers shed in earnest, with the Empire emerging victorious in both wars.<sub> </sub>


    Anyhow the Dominion has expanded throughout the years to the be the third superpower of the continent today. And demi-humans are still a major faction.


    The Dominion has faced destruction when they failed to take over the world in the remation wars buy it was reformed by a faction of the Vendari calling themselves the Ascendancy that has a very transparent anti-human agenda.


    The old Dominion had all sorts of shiny slogans like equality between all races in the Dominion and lofty ideals like spiritual examination following the teachings of Radnor.


    <o>,m But the new Dominion created by the Vendari was different, it had twisted the teachings of Radnor into radical statements and rewrote the scrolls and book left behind by the old schrs.</o>


    The new interpretation stated that there was a strict racial bias and order, at the top of it was of course, the Vendari, then the Orvikar and elves and finally the demi-humans.


    And it also pointed out the reason behind the various cataclysms, three in the know history, they imed that it was because of the humans. And newer and greater cataclysms will follow.


    The Ascendancy called for all the other races to join them to overthrow the Empire. Their main im was that continues disasters will befall the world unless the humans are deposed from their dominance over the world.


    These days the rtionship between the Empire and the Dominion was tenuous to say the least, while the Empire did not pay them much attention before the new Dominion because in the past, despite their numbers they weren''t organized.


    It also helped that they did not challenge the Empire''s interests and beliefs, however the new Dominion was different. It was organized and the Vendari high elders used ruthless but effective methods to reunite the factions of the old Dominion.


    Although much could be criticized about them, the results spoke for themselves, the rule of the Ascendancy added a sharp re and a focused edge to the Dominion.


    ****


    Which is why it was weird hearing about demi-humans in Vorian, not so much in Izzram or Norfgar but here? That was unexpected, especially since the False Saint''s war.


    This troubled Aldrich, if there were many of them then this quest couldn''t bepleted.


    ''Ugh! Anotherplication! Or is this just how quest normally are? Am I supposed to just prepare myself for apletely different mission?''


    "How many are there? What do they want with you bandits?" Aldrich asked Bodger.


    "Ah, I don''t know! I swear! Don''t hurt me! I don''t know, they barely talk to us, they only want beautiful women. They talk to us only when a preyes by to tell us about their numbers and direction."


    "How many?" Aldrich asked again, because he was aware that Bodger was flustered.


    "Three, as far as I know there''s three of them. But the boss mostly deals with one of them."

 Chapter 136 Differences

    *Hiss*


    Frank sucked in a cold breath, "this is bad, did the guild even know about this? Should we retreat and report this to the guild?"


    Aldrich shook his head, "it doesn''t matter if they didn''t know about it, that doesn''t change the fact that we have toplete the quest."


    "Hey you, let me guess. Since the Ravenfolk notified you of a target he''s expecting you guys to present all the goods at midday when all of you guys gather in the hideout?"


    Bodger nodded in affirmation.


    "So, your n was to take us there and watch as we get taken down by that demi-human?"


    "Right, right!"


    "Where do the Ravenfolk stay?" Aldrich asked.


    "Uh, a little deeper in the woods, they have a nest atop arge tree, they spend most of the time going deep in the woods and we don''t know what they''re doing."


    "Oh? You sound like you know the ce, can you take us there?" Frank asked.


    "No, I''ve been there but only a few times, I would not be able to take you guys, I swear, please believe me I really don''t know."


    "I believe you," Aldrich indeed was not lying, Bodger did not have the heart to lie anymore, "but someone else must know right?"


    Bodger had a stupid look on his face for a moment before he joyfully nodded, "yes, yes, it''s the boss, he has a skull ne the mad man and he was a soldier in the war! He knows."


    "Alright thank you Balden." Aldrich patted the bandit on the back.


    "It''s Bodger¡­"


    "Whatever, anyway, you ready to go?" Aldrich asked.


    Bodger once again nodded in excitement, "yeah, thank you, thank you, I will remember this favor for the rest of my life."


    "Oh¡­" Aldrich had an awkward look on his face so he coughed a few times, "ah, listen, you really don''t have to do that, since your life will end shortly."


    "What?" Frank asked in confusion at the same time that Aldrich beheaded the bandit. The head flew in the air and blood sttered but Aldrich moved away from the blood ssh before itnded on him.


    Frank was not so lucky.


    "What happened?" Frank asked in seeming confusion.


    "What''s wrong? I thought we got everything we needed from him, was there something you wanted to ask him?" Aldrich replied.


    "What¡ªno, I mean why did you kill him? He''s already yielded, and he answered all our questions?!"


    "You can''t possibly have believed that I would have let him go, right?" Aldrich rolled his eyes.


    "Let him go? No, but we could have taken him to the authorities, they should deal with him!"


    "Calm down¡ª"<sub> </sub>


    "No, why are you so calm?! You just killed a man, take it seriously!" Frank yelled.


    Aldrich somehow felt that he wasn''t on the same page as Frank.


    "You killed a bandit too, not even an hour ago!" Aldrich had lost control of his voice and yelled back, angered without knowing why.


    "Yeah, I did. And I''d do it again!" Frank breathed out, "but that was a battle of life and death. This is different. He was tied down and couldn''t defend himself, you didn''t have to do that."


    "Yeah I killed him so what?" Aldrich sneered, "he tried to lead us to a trap or have you forgotten that? The quest is to eliminate ALL the bandits."


    "Fuck the quest! This is a man''s life and this is just a stupid quest!" Frank grabbed Aldrich by his shirt''s cor, "no matter the sin, so long as man is alive he can atone for it."


    "There are sins that cannot be atoned for, sins that can''t be forgiven." Aldrich said as he squeezed Frank''s hands until he let go but even as he did he saw the look in his eyes and that he was not convinced.


    "And I will remind you that I am the leader of this party until the two quests arepleted, keep that in mind."


    "Have you guys fought enough?" Cole said as at some point the rest of the party members had surrounded the two of them.


    "This is not the time, it''s almost midday, tell us what you learned and give me that bottle." Nathan said.


    "Oh, thanks, and well done for understanding my trick." Aldrich handed Nathan the test tube.


    "Wait, so that actually wasn''t the bone melting poison?" Frank asked in surprise.


    "Duh, obviously it was just a trick to get the bandit talking. The bone melting poison is not something that the likes of us could get our hands on." Helen answered.


    "Only organizations like The Stained Daggers or The Hand Of Czar could have it, and it''s sold in limited quantities to outsiders." Aldrich added.


    ? "Oh?" Nathan leaked a voice of surprise somehow, "y-yeah, this is definitely not the bone melting poison, obviously I understood the trick you wanted to perform, obviously, for sure."


    "Uh, yeah," Aldrich coughed to get everyone''s attention, "first of all, I want to be extremely clear about this with all of you, my goal is to pass the exam andplete these two quests that we have left, at any cost."


    "Let me tell you, in my first quest, an information gathering quest there was a 90% casualty rate, out of the five participants I was the only survivor. However despite that I passed the quest and moved on and that''s why I''m here now."


    "Why are you telling us this now?" Franks asked sharply.


    "Because," Aldrich walked over to thest bandit alive and undid his ropes, "I want to remind all of you that this is an exam not just a quest that we can freely deal with as we like.


    I would love to hand over these bandits to the authorities but¡­ the guild only cares about thepletion of the quest requirements and so we have to kill them all, we can''t risk it."


    "Is it so important for you that you''re willing to kill an unarmed man whose not a threat anymore?" Frank asked calmly, he wasn''t as irritated as earlier.


    "It''s not just me, Frank. All of us will fail if we allow even one bandit to live, do you want to throw away this exam, will you be responsible when we have to take the exam again next year? Even then, what if we get a simr quest?"


    Frank clenched his fists and looked to be struggling, everyone was looking at him, "fine, but no more killing unarmed men, that''s all I ask."


    "Fine. That''s a deal."

 Chapter 137 Attack (1)

    Aldrich threw down one of his throwing knives, the one he used to cut down Bodger to the now free bandit.


    The bandit quickly lunged and grabbed the knife, at which point Aldrich stepped on his hand.


    "Aghaa!"


    "Look Frank, he has a weapon and he''s free, can I kill him now?" Aldrich asked mockingly.


    Frank frown and walked over, he unsheathed his saber and slit the man''s throat open, he watched as the man went still.


    But he was somber the whole time.


    Aldrich felt that he acted out just now, he went a bit too far. But it was that look that annoyed him, the way Frank looked at the bandit as if he felt sorry for him.


    Aldrich didn''t like that. But this was not the time to fret over such things, time was of the essence. Besides so what if Frank wanted to feel sorry for the bandits? Let him be, as long as he killed them in the end.


    "Guys, we found out that three demi-humans, Ravenfolk to be exact are actually behind the bandits."


    The party disyed various emotions and reactions which he didn''t really pay too much attention to, he just ryed the information they got until everyone settled down.


    "Basically, nothing has changed, we still need to attack in an hour when all the bandits converge." Aldrich exined.


    "But¡­ demi-humans are tough, I heard that in adulthood some of them be at the peak of grade zero." Emma said.


    "That''s true, even if they''re not tigermen or wolfmen, Ravenfolk can fly." Cole agreed.


    "I can deal with the demi-human," Aldrich said.


    "Are sure?" Nathan asked, "if you can''t we can use this."


    Nathan pulled out a small box out of his backpack, it was tightly shut and locked, after opening the lock he took out a hard ball of linen and tied with a small of ropes.


    "Some of you might have heard of it, it''s called alchemical fire." Nathan said with a smug grin but no one reacted.


    "Really? Well¡­ it''smonly known as a¡ª"


    "A bomb." Cole cut Nathan off and the party went to an uproar, Aldrich had to admit that Nathan had surpassed his expectations.


    "I heard these were expensive as hell, how did you get your hands on one?" Aldrich asked. It wasn''t just expensive it was also not sold to just anyone.


    "Well, Perks of being an acolyte of course, I snagged two at a discount heheh."


    "Will it kill a demi-human for certain?" Emma asked.


    "Unless it''s a grade one then yes, it doesn''t even have to be a direct hit, this darling will make it disappear in proper style."


    "That''s great, that gives us more options then, but still the first one will be dealt with by me, there''s no need to use it like that but¡­"


    "What you have something in mind?" Cole asked.


    "Yeah, I think I do, but first tell me, do you have a deadly poison, Nathan?"


    "I do, but if you''re thinking of poisoning the bandits then forget it, the doze is not high enough and it''s basically impossible to sneak it in."


    "Fine, but how about somexatives?"


    <o>,m "Eh, yes? I do have some on me, but you understand someone has to sneak it into the water or some food."</o>


    "That''s a tall order." Helen remarked.


    "Yeah, but I think Cole can do it. Isn''t it about time for lunch about now?" Aldrich said.


    "Eh? Me?" Cole asked back in surprise.


    "Yeah, who else, you can sneak pretty well and being a halfling you have better vision than us, right?"


    "Well, yeah," Cole scratched the back of his head, "I haven''t really done something this big before¡­"


    "Tell me if you don''t want, we can do it another way. Think about it."


    "If you can somehow do it, the fight would basically be a child''s y." Aldrich said.


    "A few drops of this and the effects will show in ten minutes," Nathan showed a brown bottle.


    "I will do it." Cole said and took the bottle from Nathan.


    "You sure? It''s dangerous¡­" Frank asked.<sub> </sub>


    "This line of work is dangerous but so be it, I don''t mind a little thrill." Coleughed.


    In this moment he reminded Aldrich of Tarzin, he had that same daredevil energy about him.


    "Hey, can I talk to you alone Cole?" Aldrich said.


    "Yeah, sure."


    Aldrich and Cole moved away from the party, and the rest looked over their equipment and cleaned up the two corpses.


    "Aldrich, you don''t have to worry about what happened with Frank, I thought you handled it very well. Different people have different ways of doing things, you''re the leader so your word goes."


    "Oh, thanks for saying that, I do admit I could have handled that better. But, that''s not what I want to talk to you about."


    Aldrich opened his own backpack and took out a white cloak and gave it to Cole.


    "What''s this? Feels nice to the touch but I assume that''s not what you wanted to show me?"


    "It''s a cloak that can suppress your presence, it makes it so that when you wear it, your actions are more likely to be ignored. As long as you don''t make any obvious mistakes grade zero beings will ignore you."


    "You mean it''s a wondrous item? It can make me invisible? But¡­ I can''t utilize my Ether yet."


    "No, listen carefully, not invisible but harder to detect. It''s not exactly a wondrous item, you don''t need to supply it with Ether I already did that."


    "But, this should be a grade one wondrous item how¡­"


    "I''ll exinter, for now just make use of it alright?"


    "Fine, if this thing works as well as you say it does then this quest might as well be over. It''s no wonder you managed to save my uncle''s life."


    This is why Aldrich felt that revealing the cloak to Cole was not a problem, he had a very good rtionship with him and deeper connection through Tarzin.


    There was another reason, he felt that Cole already possessed a natural talent for it,bined with the cloak and the results were bound to be even better.


    Aldrich didn''t want Cole to take this unnecessary risk without any hope or help, it was not good to put the whole party''s expectations on him all of a sudden, the pressure could result in a terrible oue.


    So he decided to reveal one of his trump cards, it wasn''t a big deal and it would make fighting eighteen men much easier.


    After cleaning up and following the rout to the bandit''s hideout they came upon a clearing of sorts, it was a makeshift ''fort'' of dry wood and sticks.


    They used the tall trees to hide in between the leaves and greenery, this height also allowed them to get a pretty decent look into the bandits hideout.


    Which can only be called a hideous camp.


    The wall was not even straight, it bent and twisted at ces and in the northwestern edge it had fallen into the fort negating the point of a wall. The wall itself was not that high.


    "Eww, what the hell is that?" Emma pointed at the center of the camp where a huge pig was gorging itself on shit mixed with human meat.


    "It''s a great boar variant, it would seem like it''s their pet." Nathan analyzed.


    "The smell is disgusting, how are they living in this filth and dare call themselves human?!" Frank remarked.


    "They''re cooking now, which is a good thing. This is really the best time we could have done this." Aldrich said.


    "I disagree, the best time would have been at night, sneaking is easier in the cover of the night and most bandits would be tired." Nathan disagreed.


    "Well, that''s true," Aldrich nodded in acknowledgment, "these are not the most ideal circumstances but we will have to do with what we''ve got."


    "By the way, what do you think the bandits are doing? Can I have the binocrs?" Emma asked.


    Frank gave her his and exined at the same time, "most of them are frantically cleaning, probably in anticipation of the Ravenfolk demi-human."


    There was one thing that they did not mention while it was in open they purposefully omitted it in their discussion. It was therge cell to the side.


    The cell was more like a whole room full to the brim with filthy humans, halflings and dwarfs too, though they were in the minority. All of them looked miserable and lifeless, held in shackles nailed to the ground.


    The whole cell was even dirtier than the rest of the camp.


    Some of the prisoners were taken out to clean the camp and there were four bandits overseeing them. Some were sweeping and others were wiping.


    "Do you have a clear shot? Isn''t it too far from here?" Helen asked Aldrich.


    Aldrich had the bomb in hand and was ready to throw it into the bonfire at the center of the camp, as soon as Cole returned he was going to throw it in.

 Chapter 138 Attack (2)

    Cole lived in Lunsken district with the rest of his family, the Tenberrys and their family was considered okay, not too bad in Voryhrm.


    But that was in Lunsken, the worst district in the entire city, some might call it the slum district which wouldn''t be too far off. And so Cole spent his life there And he had seen some messed up shit.


    Thew was basically a joke in Lunsken, the city watch station did not function at all. Lunsken was ruled by various criminal syndicates that wrestled with one another for control over the district.


    All the businesses in Lunsken had to pay one of the six syndicates ''protection money'' although the Tenberrys were better off than some they still had hard times which made it difficult make much of what they had when most of the money went out of the door.


    Cole had to learn to protect his coin pretty much since he could remember anything, but that was not the end of it. For him, learning to protect himself was not enough.


    He found pickpocketing to incredibly easy to master, his hands were swifts and light, he also had something about him that made it easy for people not to notice him.


    Halflings were always significantly shorter than all the other races and people payed less attention to them in general but it was even more so for Cole.


    One day Cole robbed the wrong man.


    He was pickpocketing with his friends as usual. They had a tactic where they would openly distract the victim and he would sneak from behind and in the perfect moment take the coin from that sucker.


    He was caught. Turns out the man was a member of one of the six syndicates and moreover he himself was a thief.


    Cole shook in fear he knew that he fucked up, the six syndicates were like kings in Lunsken, you can rob anyone but them, and it was much wore if you got caught.


    However the man let him go, apparently he had recognized Cole, he was one of the men that collected protection money from his father and uncle.


    So instead of punishing Cole who was rted to paying subjects he took his two friends, they were bums, beggars, insignificant lot.


    Cole was left alone, but he soon came to his senses and¡ªin a fit of madness, followed the man discreetly, street after street until he went into a building.


    Cole knew what could happen to them, what happened all the time, only to people he didn''t know nor care about. They get taken and disappear on a ship to some faraway ce that no one is ever going to see them again.


    Cole waited for a while and then went in, only to see the silhouette of the man heading into a basement. He had to save them.


    The man was luckily alone, in the basement and he was using a rope to tie his friends hands to a metal pole. That was when Cole sneaked In from behind and stabbed him in the inner thigh and removed the knife immediately.


    It was his pickpocket knife, he used it to cut open purses and now he cut open a man. By the time the man noticed anything amiss he was already bleeding fountains out of his thigh.


    Cole didn''t wait for him to bleed out but finished him off quickly while covering his mouth, it would be a disaster if someone heard anything.


    Cole freed his friends and they just walked right out of the building, it would be hourster when the body might get discovered.


    ****


    Cole used the bushes and the shadows of the tents and buildings to sneak around until he found the source of the food''s smell, a big half closed off kitchen with two cooks throwing ingredients into big pots. They looked alike, perhaps twins.


    "I say, what kind of useless shit is Bodger doing to be sote?!"


    "He must be ying around with the women! Lucky bastard and we''re here toiling all day! Fuck this shit!"


    "He probably wants us to do all the cleaning and thene over with all the goods like a hero!"


    "Hero my mother''s ass! He just got lucky is all, to get one carriage with no protection. It''s almost too good to be true¡­"


    Cole, hid behind the various bags of potatoes and onions and garlics, under ten shadow of the big table in the middle of the kitchen.


    Suddenly one of them leaned down and almost looked him in the eye as he picked a bag and put it over the table.


    ''Phew, wow Aldrich wasn''t kidding about this cloak.''


    No matter how good he was that kind of close proximity was not something you could in. If not for the wondrous item it would have turned bloody just now.


    "Hey, you useless bums one of youe help clean out with us, the big brother is almost here!"


    "Fuck, where the hell is Bodger! He should clean this shit we''re cooking for all of you, you ungrateful dick!"


    "Oh, is there a rat in here?" The outsider asked the twins and Cole took out his dagger and held his breath.


    "Yeah there are, plenty of them, you want to catch them? Go on ahead we gave up on that task a year ago."<sub> </sub>


    "The fuck do I care?! Get your ass moving, boss''s orders!" The man who said this stormed off.


    "Man, I''m gonna kill Bodger when he gets here!"


    "Who cares about him, let''s not wait for hiszy ass and serve the food as soon as it gets ready and then we can me him. If that works then we may get rewarded by the big brother."


    "You know what? Yeah let''s do that, fuck that guy!"


    One of the twins took of to help in the cleaning the ce while the other remained to cook, meanwhile Cole knew that his chance hase. He peaked out from under the table went right back in.


    After a while he saw that the man''s legs faced away he moved out with the speed of a rat and grace of a cat, he pulled open the cork of thexative.


    He did remember what Nathan said about it, a few drops was enough but he was in no position to measure so he poured a portion of it in every pot and went back under the table.


    "What was that? Hmm? Fucking rats, you dare to scurry around even when I''m still in here!"


    The cooks went mad he started smashing the tes and utensils, atst in his anger he kicked the table aggressively flipping it over and the bags of food along with Cole rolled out.


    "Holy fuck! Blood and darkness!"


    The cook howled and jumped around holding his leg that was bleeding, he went out of the kitchen quickly while limping.


    Cole who held his heart in his hand breathed out and dashed out, he followed the same route he came from but he was much slower this time since the movement of the bandits had slowed down with most of the chores done.


    "BODGER!"


    Cole stopped in his tracks, behind a bush. It was a loud voice that immediately caught attention.


    He saw in the clearing where the food tables were moved for the feast to wee the Ravenfolk demi-human the bandits all surrounded a man who had skull ne.


    "You all know me, I''m a merciful man." He dered, "if you want to have some fun with some fresh meat, I will allow it."


    "But¡­ if you take too long and make me look bad in front of big brother then you better count your days! Nass! Where''s Nass?"


    "Here boss." One of the men stepped forward.


    "You go and get me Bodger that crazy bastard and do it in thirty minutes, big brother is about to arrive we''re going to eat before you. And when we''re done I better find Bodger and the loot here or else!"


    "Yes, boss. But what if Bodger found something good and ran away?" Nass asked.


    "You better bring him to me in half an hour or doesn''t bothering back."


    "Yes, boss."


    Cole took off and jumped over the wall when the bandits were preupied with their boss because¡ªin the distance, faraway in the sky he spotted ck wings flying in this direction.


    Too big to be an ordinary bird. Cole didn''t wait to see it clearly, he knew what it was.


    "I did it! But we have a problem."


    He ran until he spotted the others on top of the trees and waved to them, he saw the party cheer silently but quickly quite down.


    Aldrich went down picked him up and jumped three time to bring him to the rest of the party.


    "What is it?" Aldrich asked.


    ''These jumps are nuts! How is this guy not a Crestmaster?! Does that make sense?''


    "Uh, first of all a bandit was sent to get Bodger and the others and finally the demi-human is here."


    "Let me see."


    Aldrich took out the binocrs and looked at the figure that wasnding in the middle of the bandits camp.

 Chapter 139 Attack (3)

    Aldrich brought the cloak before they set off from Voryhrm, it was very light so it cost him 10 orbs. He thought that it mighte in handy and it did.


    "We have to deal with the errand boy sent to check up on Bodger." Aldrich said.


    "Why don''t we deal with himter? He won''t find Bodger anyway meanwhile we can get to attacking the main camp I reckon we will be done in fifteen minutes or less." Nathan said.


    "That makes sense, but what if he returns sooner than expected? Or what if he was alerted by the battle''smotion? I think he might run away and then we might never see him again."


    "I guess the safest option is to kill him but a chase might cause amotion and alert those in the camp," Hellen said.


    "I will do it myself, we know which way he''ll go right? Did he move out?" Aldrich asked Cole.


    "Yeah, I think by now he might have already been on his way, he was going on foot but still he''s a few minutes ahead of you."


    "That''s fine, I can catch up, I think," Aldrich took off his backpack, "but if I didn''t we will go with the other approach then."


    Saying that Aldrich jumped off from the top of the treending swiftly and immediately dashing out in full speed. The errand boy was also probably in a hurry so it was still not a sure thing.


    But it was easy to know which way he will take since they already had a clear map of the area and Aldrich had memorized all of the important locations and routes.


    Aldrich didn''t hold back, he was running using his full speed, he felt the wind pping against his skin and for a while it seemed that time hade to a standstill.


    As the trees and animals fled at his sight and the clouds parted he saw his the back of his quarry atst. The man was also running, he was too focused and didn''t notice Aldrich behind him.


    While running Aldrich picked up a pebble, aimed and shot the poor fe in the back.


    "Agh!"


    The man fell to the ground as his own speed proved to be his greatest enemy, he crashed and went on to get wrecked for some distance, Aldrich even heard the sound of breaking bones.


    Aldrich got closer and got a good look at him, it turns out that his limbs were twisted and his flesh was mangled badly, his face was ruined and especially his nose, it was gone.


    Aldrich didn''t mean to do this, to the point that he felt some sympathy for this bandit. Truthfully he just wanted to stop him and then kill him the old fashioned way¡­


    "Uh¡­ s-save¡­.me¡­eh¡­"


    Oh, so he was still alive? Aldrich hurriedly saved the man from his suffering, by stabbing him in the heart. After all he was not here to waste time it was good that he managed to finish the job this fast.


    Aldrich turned around and returned the way he came, maneuvering through the woods expertly and avoiding any mud or pitfalls.


    "You guys ready?" Aldrich asked when he got to the tree which the party was using to spy on the bandits.


    "Altunan smite you!" Cole cursed, "you can''t have already killed him right?"


    "I did. Now, cut the crap and tell me what has the bandits been doing?" Aldrich asked.


    "Nothing much just drinking and feasting, the Ravenfolk demi-human is sitting on the seat of honor with the bandit wearing the skull ne."


    Aldrich finally had a look at the demi-human, he was not too big, from this distance at least he wasn''t bigger than two meters. He looked like a humanoid raven with the upper body of a man, his back supported tworge wings and was covered in ck feathers.


    He had the head of a raven and with a beak for a mouth, his legs were wed and he held arge broad-ded spear. It was truly big and it looked heavy too, without the strength of a grade zero level three being it was impossible to wield it.


    The strange thing was that it didn''t let go of the spear even while eating which meant that it wasn''t careless and might even not trust the bandits all that much.


    When Aldrich noticed some of the bandits rushing around holding their pants he knew it was time.


    "You guys go down there and hide by the walls when I throw the bomb that''s when you guys rush in and try to make sure that every hit is a fatal blow.


    The first few moments of this attack will decide the result if we mess up and lose the chance then we will all die, go."<sub> </sub>


    The group took their positions and when Aldrich saw that he aimed at the bonfire in the center of the bandit''s camp and hurled the bomb at it.


    The bomb was not actually as light as it looked, it cut through the air and was about to hit it''s target but it missed the center of the bonfire.


    But that was fine, it was close enough.


    *BOOOOM*


    The bandits who were eating fell off their seats and were stunned, some of them whom sat too close to the bonfire bled from their ears and two of them caught on fire as they iled on the ground.


    There was a moment of confusion and panic as the bandits couldn''t see because of the intense smoke and couldn''t hear properly, those who could walk lost their footing as soon at they did so.


    Suddenly one of the bandits who was struggling to stand was shot by an arrow in the neck, two others saw the same fate respectively one after  the other.


    In the cover of the smoke a bandit though that he saw a shadow pass by but he couldn''t be sure, he walked over to check but before he could he felt a sharp pain and then saw eternal darkness.


    A man wielding a saber dashed by but he didn''t attack any of the fallen bandits instead he focused on those who still had some fight in them.


    "Who! *cough* *cough* who is it! Cowards, show yourselves!"


    On of them took out a musket and shot around randomly as he started yelling, he was far enough from the st but his stomach was twisted and it hurt to the point of driving him to madness.


    Frank jumped over and with a smooth movement he drew an X shaped wound on the man''s chest.


    "Agh! Eso! God damn you! You shot me!"


    Turns out one of the bandits was injured by friendly fire and he was on the ground surrounded by a foul smell. Frank finished him off.


    Another one had a bow and he was shooting wildly too, he couldn''t focus at all his stomach was going crazy like he ate something not right, suddenly the man realized that he was out of arrows and in that moment a dagger stabbed him in the guts.


    Nathan heard a strange noise after he killed that bandit and walked over to the source, under a wooden box he found a bandit that was too busy relieving himself that he didn''t even care about what was happening.


    "For fuck''s sake." Nathan swore as he killed the uncaring man, even in hisst moments that bandit had a blissful expression on his face. That sent shivers down Nathan''s spine.


    "¡­what the hell was that about? Is the outside world this scary?"


    Nathan thought that he made the right decision to embark on this path and see what was outside of theb, but it seemed that the real world was much darker than he thought.


    Well, the goal was a learning experience so it was good that it surprised him.


    *OINK*


    Suddenly a speeding beast ran wildly in the clearing amidst the smoke it crushed three bandits in the chaos and destroyed the kitchen.


    It was the great boar variant that went crazy when the bomb first exploded and caused much more damage to the bandits than it did to the party. After which it ran through the opening in the wall in the northwest.


    "Ooh, so that''s what broke it in the first ce." Cole concluded as he stabbed the two cooks who almost found him in the kitchen not long ago.


    All of a sudden strong winds blew all over the ce, the smoke started to vanish revealing dozens of bodies littering the ground.


    "LOWLIFE HUMANS! You dare ambush me?!"


    The Ravenfolk spread his great wings and the winds blew away some of the smoke but before it could blow it all away an incredibly fast figure darted across the battlefield and attacked the Ravenfolk.


    A sword and a spear shed, but this was no normal sh it was one of extreme strength, the resulting sound was simr to the bomb''s own explosion.

 Chapter 140 Climax

    Aldrich felt his foe''s power in that one exchange and narrowed his eyes, the demi-human was indeed strong, he was truly a level three creature.


    Aldrich needed to finish it off as soon as possible, the others had the upper hand now but as time passes more bandits would regain theirposure.


    The demi-human attacked in a barrage it didn''t slow down even when it''s attacks were deflected one after another, in fact his attacks got even faster.


    Aldrich used the Waves stance to negate the distance disadvantage between the sword and the spear but it wasn''t exactly working out as he was forced into a defensive position.


    The demi-human was an experienced warrior and his attacks were varied and he even used his wings to surprise Aldrich and block his sight.


    But Aldrich was no amateur, he charged forward instead of retreating and used the attack to his advantage, to flip over the extended wing and in the air he cut off that wing.


    The demi-human was stunned never in his wildest dreams did he expect the human to use his own strategy against him.


    Because he attempted a low thrust when he extended his wing he was unable to react in time.


    "Agaaag!"


    He released a pained cry as he retreated but Aldrich was not about to lose the advantage so easily.


    Actually one of his main worries was the demi-human''s ability to fly, that was why instead of targeting his human arm which was used to wield the spear he chose the wing.


    If the demi-human lost his arm he might just fly off, then he could regroup with the remaining two Ravenfolk which meant that the quest would be ten times harder.


    "Human! I will allow you and your filthy followers to go if you¡ª"


    Aldrich used his Light step skill and to the demi-human it must have looked like he suddenly appeared beside it while it was talking.


    He had no intention to negotiate at all, so why waste time talking?


    His sword was met by the metallic pole of the spear, it seems that he managed to react instinctively, however when he was still in shock Aldrich threw a throwing knife in his wide open beak.


    "Ugah!"


    Blood gushed out as the demi-human''s tongue and insides were cut, the damage increased as he instinctively closed his mouth. Aldrich aimed at the knee and kicked causing the demi-human to lose bnce.


    Right then he shed with his sword exerting all of his might, the sword tore through the demi-human in a diagonal gash from the shoulder to the thigh, bone shards flew out of the wound and the creature fell down.


    His eyes were the picture of disbelief, he couldn''t have imagined falling to a human who was not a Crestmaster and in such a short time too. He should have flew away the first chance he got.


    Aldrich looked at his sword in irritation, the sword waspletely ruined, it was jagged and had lost its edge. Which was to be expected, this was a regr sword and he used it for a while already.


    It was not a wondrous item, it simply couldn''t withstand that heavy usage, especially in thatst attack. He used his full power and the body of the demi-human was not soft like a human''s, the bones he broke through sheer might ruined the sword.


    And the bastard was not dead yet, Aldrich picked up the spear and used it to behead the demi-human for good. It was better suited for him until he got his hand on a better sword.<sub> </sub>


    It was also pressing since he rushed to be as fast as possible.


    Of course if he could take the ck sword from the nightmare realm then he could have made short work of that demi-human.


    "Ugh! Let¡­ me¡­ go!!"


    Aldrich turned around to join the fight as he intended but it seems like he was a step toote.


    Emma was captured and strangled by the bandit leader with the skull ne.


    "You bastards! Clear up a way for me or I swear I''ll kill this bitch right here!" He demanded.


    Everyone froze in ce, most of the bandits were already dealt with with only three others remaining alive but they were all pretty much out of the fight.


    They had weapons but they were shitting themselves while crying. It was a disgusting sight that Aldrich didn''t bear to look at for too long.


    "Let her go scum!" Hellen yelled.


    "If I see any funny shit then the first thing I''ll do is I will strangle her to death! Now out of the way!" The bandit threatened.


    "God damn it!" Cole cursed as he moved out of the way.


    Emma could not fight back, she was locked in a stranglehold and was even starting to foam at the mouth. Frank pushed Nathan and Hellen out of the way.


    Aldrich was already at the back so he didn''t have to move away and he was currently racking his brain on what to do. He had never expected this situation to ur.


    Even after everything he did, it wasn''t like everything was going to work ording to n, sometimes ns get derailed or straight up fail.


    If he attacked he would put Emma''s life in danger but if he didn''t do anything there was no guarantee that the bandit would keep his word, no¡ªhe was more likely not to.


    Suddenly he noticed Frank giving him a look, Aldrich hesitated but then nodded.


    The bandit''s escape was not fast nor easy since he practically had to drag Emma as he moved, when he suddenly stumbled.


    A throwing knife suddenly struck him in the back of the arm that was chocking Emma, and then he suddenly noticed the light of the sun reflecting off of a saber that was slowly approaching him.


    The saber skewered the bandit through the chestpletely missing Emma whom he had intended to use as a meat shield.


    The bandit fell down but before Frank could finish him off he was stopped by Aldrich.


    "Stop it we need him to go to the nest." Aldrich reminded Frank.


    "Fine."

 Chapter 141 Insatiable Hunger

    Aldrich hurriedly stopped the bleeding of the bandit with bandages. He could not allow him to die before guiding them to the nest to get rid of the remaining two Ravenfolk.


    The others were checking up on Emma and Aldrich was join them after he finished tying the bandit properly when he was suddenly assaulted with a familiar feeling of hunger.


    ''Wha?¡­ no''


    But before he could stop himself he put his hand on one of the dead bandits and absorbed two red essence orbs.


    "No, no, what??" Aldrich was so spooked that he spoke out loud. But the hunger wouldn''t go away he unwillingly walked over to the next dead bandit and took the essence.


    ''No¡­ I don''t want this."


    Aldrich had lost control of his body he was ovee with the hunger and although there was a part of him that resisted he was just too hungry, he had to get that essence.


    But he killed humans before, why didn''t this happen back then? Come to think of it, he always spent short amounts of time close to the corpses.


    The intense hunger was not immediate, it took some time toe over him but once it did he would feel like apletely different person.


    One bandit after another, he went through the entire camp when he suddenly found himself close to the cage of the captives. For some reason the captives looked at him with fear.


    "H-hey Aldrich, what are you doing?" Cole asked.


    Oh, Aldrich didn''t notice hime so close, "uh, I''m just making sure that, um, none of the bandits are ying dead¡­"


    "Aha, I didn''t think of that, guess that''s why you''re the leader."


    "Y-yeah," Aldrich replied feeling guilty, "by the way, there should be seventeen bandits here right?"


    "We killed six in Bodger''s group and one outside so, yeah there should be seventeen here. Why is someone missing?"


    Cole''s calctions lined up with his but, "yeah, one of them is missing."


    "E-excuse me sir."


    Aldrich looked over, it was one of the captives, a man who had pressed himself to the wooden poles of the cage.


    "The one you''re looking for is right here! It''s that man he snuck in during the chaos!"


    The man pointed at another one in the cage and the rest of the captives scrambled away from his finger until he could see one man who was not in chains and curled up in the corner.


    "D-damn you! You dare!" The bandit lunged at the captive who ratted him out and Aldrich pushed open the cage door, it was unlocked.


    He caught the bandit and snapped his neck. It was that effortless for him to kill an ordinary man. Then he dragged the body out and got two orbs in the process.


    "Sir-sir, can we go out now?" That man asked again.


    "Hmm," Aldrich was surprised that they were smart enough not to go out during the chaos in an attempt to escape even when the cage was unlocked.<sub> </sub>


    "Uh, yeah I guess. I assume someone here knows the way to Lockwood?"


    "Yeah, yeah, some of us are from Lockwood."


    "Well go on then and when you get there look for the Knights of Last Sustar guild assistant in the Dewws inn and tell her to get here to check up on the quest, can do that?"


    "Of course, of course, this is the least we can do to repay you great adventurers."


    "Great, and be careful in the woods."


    Aldrich watched as the captives scrambled out of the destroyed bandit camp and finally he got his hand on the demi-human and his reward was ten red orbs.


    Over all he got forty two essence orbs from this quest and it wasn''t over yet, next was the attack on the demi-humans nest.


    This attack had to be done even faster than this one, even when out numbered the Ravenfolk were level three even if he could take care of one the others must use their superior numbers to take down the other one and they must not be allowed to fly away.


    "Aldrich Emma is in no shape to fight," Frank cam over and exined.


    Aldrich could see that Emma was in terrible shape, she would need a few hours to get back into fighting shape which was not ideal. But that required time which they didn''t have.


    If they waited around here who knew whether the two demi-humans mighte here out of impatience, naturally once they took a look at the state of the hideout it was obvious that something was not right.


    "We will have to leave her here, after we finish off the two remaining demi-humans we will take her back to Lockwood where all of us will get a good rest."


    Aldrich exined his n to the party and then walked over to the bandit leader, who was now tied up and sweating. He removed the cloth they used to block his mouth.


    "Listen, we will let you go if you take us to the demi-humans nest, how about that?"


    The bandit spit on the ground, "I ain''t got nothing to say to you. I don''t believe a word you say! You''re adventurers you''re here to kill us all aren''t you."


    ''Hmm, a seemingly intelligent bandit, ugh so annoying.''


    "No, no, we''re here to kill the demi-humans not you guys, the guild got news about demi-humans lurking around here so¡­ if you take us there we''ll let you go and nobody has to know anything."


    "Fat chance kid, if what you said is true then why did you kill all of my men?!"


    "You guys were eating and drinking with the demi-human we thought you guys were together¡­ but you''re not, right?"


    The bandit looked like he was struck with a sudden thought and then smiled like a fox, "oh, yeah we''re not together, he just came down all of a sudden, he''s much stronger than us and brutal savage being a demi-human."


    "So I assume we have a deal?"


    The bandit nodded.

 Chapter 142 The Last Stop

    Lost Ones could absorb essence from any recently dead creature, it didn''t matter what it was, that power made no distinctions between humans or otherwise.


    This left a bad taste in his mouth but it was even worse was knowing how that hunger took over his senses and made him absorb that essence even when he didn''t want to.


    They were now following the bandit leader to the nest that was not too far from the camp apparently.


    The bandit was gagged so that he wouldn''t suddenly shout to reveal their location to the Ravenfolk. This was a necessary precaution that couldn''t be overlooked in the slightest.


    Aldrich believed that he had intimidated this guy intoplying but that was a far-cry from enough to get him to believe this bandit.


    And yet still his thoughts wandered to that insatiable hunger and how it drove his body to act against his will. And the satisfaction that came after absorbing that essence.


    In all honesty Aldrich wanted to feel bad, to feel terrible for what he did. But he didn''t he felt thrilled to get more orbs, it was that desire to get more orbs that haunted, there was no limit no line that could stop that hunger.


    Aldrich smiled bitterly, he couldn''t go back, he was already embroiled in all this and essence orbs got him to where he is today.


    If given the choice to forsake this power to preserve his humanity he knew from the bottom of his heart that he wouldn''t even consider it. Without this power he wouldn''t be able to contend with his all-powerful enemies nor would he have a chance to save Isger.


    If his soul was the price then so be it.


    That is not to say if someday he achieved his goals and had the chance then he probably wouldn''t need this power. Of course, Aldrich was aware that such a day if possible was far away.


    The call of the nightmare realm cannot be denied.


    "Stop!"


    After going through the woods for a while they were stopped by Hellen''s warning. Aldrich stopped and turned to look at her indicating that she should speak.


    "There''s a trap in front." Hellen said.


    At these words the bandit reacted and struggled in the ropes that bound him but his struggles wereughably weakpared to Aldrich.


    Hellen walked to the front and showed them that the ground upfront was covered in too many leaves.


    "If we walked over here then we''d have fell into a pit." Hellen said.


    Cole walked over and nodded, "not only that, look over here, there''s a thin wire that leads deep in the woods. My guess is that if we fell in the trap it would also rm the enemy."


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes at the bandit who couldn''t say anything due to the gag, but he was struggling intensely.


    "You know your stuff about traps." Coleplimented Hellen.


    "I was a hunter in my hometown, I know a thing or two about traps in the wilderness. But don''t expect too much in dungeons or such¡­"


    Aldrich chuckled, "that''s fine, you two did great. But we obviously can''t trust this bastard anymore¡­"<sub> </sub>


    "He might actually have taken us to the right direction, considering the trap had an rm attached to it." Nathan analyzed.


    "There also a high chance that he did that since only if we confront the Ravenfolk would he have a chance to escape¡­" Frank added.


    "Oh, I have an idea!" Aldrich eximed, "but first, Frank this guy tried to kill us with a trap, I assume it''s alright to kill him, right."


    "¡­fine," Frank replied unwillingly.


    ****


    One of the two Ravenfolk was at the nest sleeping and the other was spending time with the human women in the women pen. When they were alerted by the noise of the bells tolling.


    *CLING GLANG CLING CLANG!*


    The Ravenfolk in the women pen hurriedly flew to the nest where his brother was already roused awake. They looked at the bells and knew which trap was triggered and where.


    They had tens of bells in a circle around the nest, if any stranger approached by coincidence they would know. This was a necessary precaution.


    "This bell is from the human pets camp''s direction¡­ did a beast trigger the trap again?" The biggest one asked.


    "It could be¡­ fucking annoying, interrupting my joyful time!" The other angrilyined, "but¡­ did the youngest not go there to get a new pet?"


    The biggest one narrowed his eye, "anyway lets got check it out, this is must even if it was just a beast we must teach it a lesson!"


    The other one picked up his spear, looked unwillingly at the women in imprisoned in the pen and spread his wings to the sky.


    Not long after they closed in on the pit trap, the pit was not just a deep pit but it was also lined with sharp wood spears. They might not be durable but they were deadly enough the first few times.


    Thanks to their superior vision they were able to observe a humanoid figure impaled by the spears and it was face down. It seems like they were going to have human for lunch.


    Dumb humans delivered himself to them. The Ravenfolks looked at each other and smirked, humans should know not to wander in the woods too far.


    Unfortunately it was due to these idiotic creatures that they would have to cover up the pit again, which was an annoying chore.


    The biggest Ravenfolknded outside of the pit and the other one hovered down towards the foolish to death human to pick him up.


    Suddenly, the biggest Ravenfolk was mmed by a surprisingly mighty force, it cane out of nowhere, and he crashed into a nearby tree.


    When he got up after adjusting he witnessed a horrific scene, his little brother was burnt to a crisp, pieces of his charred skin, bone and internal organs littered the ground.


    Fire still burned on what remained of his body that fell into the pit.

 Chapter 143 Take It All In

    Aldrich pushed the bandit down the pit which triggered the rm, this was done intentionally to attract the Ravenfolk here where they can ambush them at ease.


    He had hoped that only one woulde here so that they can deal with him easily. But he was not unprepared for the two of them toe.


    That''s when he threw the bomb and itnded beautifully killing one of the demi-humans at once and injuring the other.


    The Ravenfolk tried to get up as quickly as possible to escape. He had always believed that Ravenfolk were definitely smarter and superior among the demi-humans.


    They might not be as strong as the tigermen or the wolfmen but they had greater intellect and they could fly!


    Obviously the situation was disadvantageous to him so he decided to retreat, it''s not like he was fleeing for his life or anything! He did not fear humans at all!


    He pushed himself off the ground and pped his wings but he couldn''t fly as fast as he wanted to nor was he stable in the air at all.


    Abruptly he was shot with an arrow and crashed into a tree again. At this point he knew he was in no shape to fly but he noticed one thing.


    The humans didn''t throw another bomb at him which would have been the easiest and safest way to kill him. This meant that they were out of bombs, it was too early toe to that conclusion but he had no choice but to do so.


    The Ravenfolk sensed around but he didn''t feel the disgusting powers of the Crestmasters, this is the best thing to have happened, no bombs and no Crestmasters?


    And yet these humans dared to try and kill him?! He was going to get revenge for his brother now!


    But before he could think further a human seemingly materialized in his personal zone, somehow he just appeared there and he had their own n''s spear pointed and thrusted at him.


    And like an unstoppable avnche it pierced through his torso with a power that no ordinary human should possess.


    However the Ravenfalk was not easy to deal with either, it somehow pushed Aldrich away and jumped into the air, but instead of flying he furled his wings and somehow the feathers all over his body shot out like bullets.


    Aldrich used his Light step skill again and jumped in the air kicking the demi-human down, as he lunged and punched him in the head he realized he was dead already.


    Aldrich cut off his head just to be sure, it wasn''t bad to double check like Cazmer taught him.


    ****


    Not long after the guild''s assistant came over with some other workers and checked up on all the bandits, they collected all the bodies and stacked them in a mass grave.


    Aldrich wrote a report about how the whole quest went about in ten pages quickly, handed them to the assistant and and told her to send the report to the guild as they would have to journey to Rathoa first thing in the morning.


    It was only a few hours but it was admittedly extremely taxing on the mind and the body, obviously Aldrich wasn''t a heartless bastard who would put too much pressure on his party members.<sub> </sub>


    Taking a the rest of the day to adjust and rx, especially since all of the did really good, even Emma whom he initially did not have much hope for. All of them proved very capable.


    Aldrich gained another twenty red essence orbs from the two demi-humans, and two more from the bandit''s leader so all in all he had one green orb and ny four orbs, which meant that he was very close to gaining his second green orb.


    The women who were held captive by the demi-humans were freed from their captivity atst but it was unknown when or if they will ever recover.


    Some of them had been impregnated by the demi-humans, at the very least these children could be sold to a ve farm after birth for a reasonable sum. This could make up for some of the harm that the women suffered.


    Aldrich felt deep sated indignation at the horrifying things that have be not too abnormal in the Vorian after the war.


    What would have happened if Vorian didn''t lose? What if they didn''t take the wrong side? It was impossible to know for sure but Aldrich hoped that the Emperor would be merciful and lift the upation on Vorian soon.


    Had they not suffered enough? Have they not paid enough for their sins? It was true that Vorianmitted the greatest sin but so many years have already passed now, shouldn''t the punishment be lifted now?


    Aldrich turned away from these thoughts, he washed up after a few hours of sleep, night has already fallen, downstairs the inn had already gotten rowdy.


    Aldrich had ordered the kitchen to prepare a feast for the party since they had done great he ought to reward them. Ayemon said that good work should be rewarded, a leader must show his appreciation.


    Being nice didn''t cost anything, Aldrich made sure to make a distinction between his actions during a quest and after it.


    Besides they got a good haul, the bandits loot now belonged to them which was around fourteen silvers and and they made ten more after selling the two intact bodies of the Ravenfolk.


    Thest one was blown to bits and the meat couldn''t be eaten anymore so it couldn''t be sold.


    So all in all they made four silver coins each which was a banger. It could have been even more if the quest was not part of the exam, in that case they would have gotten paid forpleting the quest too.


    Aldrich went up and nocked on each of their doors, bringing them downstairs for a surprise.


    A long table was stuffed full of delicacies, pork ribs, vegetable soup and roasted chicken with garlic bread and a very cold beer to wash it all down.


    "Wow." Cole eximed and jumped straight in, the others hesitated.


    "Come on, we did a great job today and we made it, eat till you can''t breath, it''s my treat!" Aldrich dered.


    "Whoo!"


    "Yeah! Lets drink until we drop dead!"

 Chapter 144 Crossing The Ancient Land Bridge

    Aldrich and the party celebrated but not too much, after all they still had a quest ahead of them. So it wouldn''t be suitable to go all out until they have passed the whole exam.


    Aldrich meditated before going to bed and spent some time reading in the nightmare realm.


    ****


    The next day, on a speeding carriage the party of six journeyed to Rathoa. From there they had to advance to the ancientnd bridge to make it and have enough time toplete the quest.


    Two dayster they arrived at Rathoa, it was a small vige smaller than all of the viges close to Voryhrm. It had a poption of a few hundred and it had no proper road which reminded Aldrich of Wakefield.


    However they faced a problem when the coachman learned that they wanted to cross the ancientnd bridge he refused to take them further, which forced them to be dyed in Rathoa.


    Around town they heard the same talk that it was best to steer clear of thend bridge, some people imed that it was haunted, others that all who tread upon it will be cursed.


    Some said that one person or another did use it in a time of urgency and returned safely only to fall off a cliff or bing blind or deaf a week or twoter.


    Naturally that was not all bad news at least it was confirmed that the bridge was stable and some people managed to use it just fine. As for these other rumors Aldrich dismissed them as unfounded superstition.


    So what if some people had bad things happen to them after using thend bridge, did bad things not happen before that point? Obviously that was just people connecting dots where they didn''t need to.


    Aldrich was certainly not willing to give up easily, he looked around the vige and it turned out the mayor had a half decent carriage.


    Aldrich bought it from him after a long session of negotiations and bargaining, eventually he got it for three silvers. And two more for the horses, this already cost him more than he gained in thest quest.


    Obviously Aldrich did it with his own money without the help of the party members, it would have been a disgraceful matter if he did that.


    Aldrich felt responsible not only because he was the leader but because he also chose these difficult quests without the party''s knowledge and that put their lives in danger obviously.


    Aldrich wanted to make up for that somehow, also he failed to ount for the superstition regarding the ruines of the age of wonder which was a real factor in this quest.


    After spending half a day due to the dy they marched on to the ancientnd bridge. Thend bridge was safe as far as Aldrich was concerned if it wasn''t them Ayemon wouldn''t have let him take the quest.


    As they got close enough to see it, they were awed to say the least, it was massive, as it should be. It connected this part of thend and went over the small strait formed by the sea and thend¡ªand reached the other side.


    Ordinarily people would just go around if they were traveling onnd. But since they were short on time they had to go through it.


    Thend bridge was made of an unknown substance, at least the Empire was never able to figure out how it was made or how to replicate it.


    p The food and other supplies were already taken care of from the joint fun of the party consisting of twenty coppers each. This was the agreed amount but if a need for more arose then it would be increased subsequently ording to the need.</anda>


    Of course Aldrich would not raise the amount during these quests in the exam at all. He was going to take on all the expenses topensate for the difficult quests.


    After climbing onto the bridge, Aldrich slowed down the carriage, no matter how confident he was he still couldn''t act recklessly. The bridge was thousands of years old after all.


    Despite not having any prior experience in driving carriages Aldrich didn''t have too much trouble because the road was just a straightforward path if he still couldn''t drive it here then he was a fool.


    The party made good time but they still had to spend the night on the bridge. They might even have to spend another night too, with how far the journey was.


    In any case the bridge waspletely devoid of anything or anyone, after all only desperate people would dare take the bridge. This was great for them as they did not have to be on alert for any unpleasant business on the road.


    But even then Aldrich arranged a night watch shift despite the grumbling andining, they were still in the wild, regardless of how things may seem one has to be prepared for anything.


    This was a hard learned lesson from actual experience.


    There was also another reason why he didn''t want to rush the journey. Emma.


    She had yet to get over almost getting chocked to death by a bandit which was understandable which is why Aldrich wanted to give her time to pick herself up.<sub> </sub>


    Frank was also by her side all the time which definitely helped in getting her over it.


    As the first shift ended Aldrich exchanged ces with Nathan and went to sleep in his sleeping bag.


    Since this carriage was too small they had to sleep outside but it wasn''t very cold so it wasn''t a big deal. The two moons, Koray and Obereon were both full tonight, and they cast a decent light.


    ****


    Aldrich was suddenly aware that he was dreaming. He wasn''t in the nightmare realm, he was just dreaming, but he was lucid and somehow this felt different from a real dream.


    He was walking down a staircase apparently, he continued walking. There was no real reason behind that he just wanted to see what was at the end of the staircase.


    Suddenly he heard a noise. His feet froze to the steps, the noiseing from below was enough to turn the blood in his veins to ice. It wasn''t the roar he''d heard in Voros, the nightmare town.


    The guttural growl of an unfathomable, monstrous beast. No, that he might have been able to understand. Something at the bottom of the stairs sang. With a woman''s voice.


    Aldrich reached the final step, his heart hammering against his ribcage.


    An ornate door stood at the bottom, it was wide open. The space behind it was not the dank, horrifying darkness he half expected.


    Torches lit the walls, hanging from sconces at intervals as if a schr had been given the task of keeping the ce illuminated. He did now know why he thought of schrs, after all that was an odd task for a schr.


    A thick tapestry covered the floor, ornate symbols weaved into its fabric that made Aldrich''s eyes hurt to look at too closely.


    Oh, now he remembered what he was here for, somewhat, he was looking for something. Or someone. He wasn''t sure but he had a feeling at the back of his head that finding that thing was of great importance.


    He walked through the door, at the back of the room stood a woman. Or what Aldrich thought was a woman, at least¡ªit was hard to tell. She had her back to Aldrich, singing gently in a voice that sounded almost sweet.


    The walls caused the song to echo, filling the stairwell with the ghostly "tune". Though Aldrich thought he heard something discordant in the song¡ª like a single t note, right before the melody resolved to the root.


    She wore a sheer white dress that did very little to hide her figure. Aldrich realized abruptly that this was indeed a woman¡ªof a kind he''d rarely had the opportunity to see.


    As if she''d read his mind, she took that moment to turn. Aldrich''s heart skipped a beat. The woman was almost painfully beautiful, with long golden hair and high cheekbones. The face of an angel.


    The woman held a child, ten years old maybe twelve, in her arms. The boy looked as if he were almost asleep¡ªbut he didn''t look either asleep or awake. His nostrils twitched, confirming he was alive.


    Was he here looking for this child? Could he be here to save the child? But from what? the thought that he''d simply curled up in this woman''s arms of his own free will seemed too absurd to be true. He had a feeling that the scene he was seeing was just¡­ wrong.


    The woman smiled. "Hello, young man," she said, and there was something in her voice that made Aldrich''s skin crawl.


    "Does this belong to you?" The woman gestured with her head to the child. The way she referred to the child upset Aldrich but he reigned in his impulses.


    "What have you done to him?" Aldrich asked. "Release him and we''ll leave. He never meant to intrude upon you, I swear."


    A strange smile spread across the woman''s face. It seemed almost too wide for her features. "No intrusion at all, Aldrich," she said, as if Aldrich had apologized for being early to a party.


    "I''ve merely given the child rest. Rest from this world and all its petty cruelties." The smile widened even further. "You would know more about that than most, wouldn''t you, child?"


    "I never told you my name," he said, taking a step toward the strange woman. "How do you know me?"


    The woman shrugged. "I know everything about you, child. Your past, your present¡­ your future. You were meant for so much more, yet you''ve already wasted so much of your short life within Wakefield. Would you like to know your future?"


    Aldrich shuddered. "Let him go."

 Chapter 145 Unknown Terror

    "Why are you so angry with me?" The woman asked and hearing the hurt in her voice caused anguish in his own heart, "did I displease you?"


    "Uh," Aldrich swallowed down feeling suffocated, why was he angry? How could he be angry with her? The most beautiful woman in the world?


    "No-no, I am not angry¡­ I was just¡­" Aldrich didn''t know what to say.


    "Aldrich don''t you love me?" The woman asked and his heart beat quickened.


    "Yes, of course I love you with all my being." Aldrich said and a momentter he wondered why he said that. He didn''t even know her.


    "Can you¡­ do something for me?" She asked sweetly and Aldrich hung at her every word.


    "Anything, I will do anything for you!" He hurriedly dered.


    "Why don''t you make me your woman? Come here be one with me."


    Wait, who was she? What was he doing here? What did hee here to do? He need to do something here, a pressing matter. But for the life of him he couldn''t remember.


    "That doesn''t matter to you anymore, Aldrich." She giggled and said as if she could read his thoughts.


    "Yeah¡­" he agreed, the words rolling out of his mouth without control. It didn''t matter all that matters was her, that he was able to see her and worship her.


    "Aldrich you didn''t agree yet," she reminded him.


    "Oh, what was it, again?" Aldrich asked his eyes roamed her heavenly body, curves that were just right, her lips so captivating that he couldn''t control himself he imagined her lips around his manhood.


    "Can youe here and embrace me?" She cooed.


    Aldrich was already on the verge of exploding he walked over to her right away. He couldn''t even bother about what he was here for since it didn''t matter.


    But his feet were very heavy, for some reason his own body was refusing to obey properly. He wanted to go faster, how could he make her wait?


    She opened her arms to wee him and his mouth went dry, the resistance of his body waned significantly. He walked over to her.


    But when he was only a few steps away he paused, his left hand burned with pain. That pain awoke something in him.


    ''Wait what the fuck happened to me? How could I have been so easily deceived? Why did her words put him under a spell?¡ª a spell, that''s right!''


    "What''s wrong my love? Why do you hesitate? You want this, there is a love for women in you, for me above all else."<sub> </sub>


    The woman asked and he felt once again that her words made sense¡ªno! Aldrich jumped back and pulled a sword out of nowhere. He pointed it at her.


    "Who are you? What are you?" He asked for two reasons, because he wanted to know and because he wanted to buy time.


    Just know he noticed that he was weak, incredibly weak. His body did not feel like his usual self, gone was all the power he gained using essence back was the feeble farmboy.


    It was like he never did anything, never gained that power and never overcame any foes. He was back to being a clueless, ignorant nobody. And that made him unwilling to confront this thing for the time being.


    He remembered this was a dream but he could be call an expert when it came to weird things happening in dreams. There was no need to take a risk like that when he knew something sinister was underway.


    A tinklingugh escaped the woman''s lips. It wasn''t remotely human. "If you stayed in Wakefield you would have died and saved yourself the trouble, like your mother told you to. She knew better, oh she knew much more than she let on," she said, chuckling cruelly.


    "Though unfulfilled¡ªin so many ways. Since you unexpectedly survived, you''re going to join the adventurers guild like you''ve fantasized about for so many years, but ultimately you will die on a random quest." She let out a sniff.


    "A pity those are the only options I see. You could have been something useful. But at least I will get your sinful blood, you could be considered to have contributed something in life."  Sheughed as if she thought of a funny joke.


    "My blood? Sinful?" That was an odd description.


    "It''s not odd at all," she answered as if she could read his mind, "your blood is sinful, oh so deeply sinful, every single drop of your blood is stained with sin, yes indeed. And I will savor it lest it go to waste on the likes of you."


    Aldrich tried to call out the Eyes of Insight but it was futile. Nothing worked, he was isted from the nightmare realm and powerless.


    "What was that just now?" The woman asked, "the thoughts that I couldn''t hear, what''s that trick? You''ve been doing it for a while now?"


    ''Thoughts that she couldn''t hear?¡­Could it be the nightmare realm?''


    "Yes, that thing¡­ what is it? I stripped you of all your powers so what is that?" She wondered out loud.


    ''So that was why she didn''t attack yet, she was deterred by something she couldn''t understand. But why couldn''t she hear that? He wasn''t doing anything special.''


    "So, even you don''t know?" She asked sharply.


    "Who are you?" Aldrich asked again, trying to change the subject and clear his thoughts. Dealing with an enemy that could read his thoughts was not easy at all. "What are you?"


    "When you look faraway in the distance and see the horizon," she whispered, cocking her head to the side, "I am what''s beyond it. When you look deep into the ocean, as far as mortal eyes can see¡ªI wait just beyond the border of your perception. I control your fate with a thought."


    She giggled in a way that was almost girlish. "I am Death, young man. And I have been with you since the moment you were born."

 Chapter 146 Powerless Struggle

    For a moment Aldrich was struck with uncontroble fear, he almost believed her.


    After all she knew that he was from Wakefield which very few people knew, and the way she talked about his mother¡­ it sounded so believable. She also took away all his powers somehow.


    But she didn''t seem to know about the nightmare realm. That was strange, if she knew so much about him then how could she not know about the source of his power?


    Only that she couldn''t hear his thoughts about the nightmare realm for some reason, Aldrich didn''t need to know the reason now, he just needed to use that to his advantage.


    "If you know everything then can you tell me about the nightmare realm?" Aldrich asked.


    "¡­ what was that? Can you say it louder?" She demanded. And Aldrich could sense some impatience in her atst. Anyway, the experiment was a sess.


    "I said the nightmare realm? Aren''t you death? Aren''t you the thing that is beyond my perception?"


    The woman shook her head violently her neck elongating to the height of her own body, her head hit the walls and made dents and cracks with each blow.


    Alright so this confirmed that she was definitely not human and that not knowing something did affect her, perhaps more than he expected to.


    In a way it made perfect sense, this thing thought that it was in a position of unopposed superiority in terms of power and knowledge and yet she was met with the reality that she wasn''t all powerful or all knowing.


    "I can''t hear you?! Say it clearly! I know everything about you, I know I do."


    Aldrich smirked with derision and ridicule, "oh, I know what you are, you''re just a bitch in heat. Stop pretending to be something more, you''re not that special."


    "Mortal, you dare mock me!!" She shrieked. And then her head returned to her shoulders and she calmed down.


    With that, she began to sing. The haunting luby filled the chamber, bouncing off the wall and redoubling as the creature made a sound that was anything but joyful.


    For a moment, Aldrich''s heart hurt from the beauty of it¡ªthen more of those broken, discordant notes joined the melody. A deep, sinister tone entered the song, warping it into something twisted and evil.


    The woman''s smile dissolved, along with the rest of her beautiful disguise. Whaty beneath was the angr, vicious face of an apex predator.


    Her teeth glistened like knives in the torchlight. Her skin was not fair anymore, it was deathly blue and white, her hair was ck like ink and it gained a life of it''s own as it formed tendrils and floated in different directions.


    "Come here!" she shrieked, her voice going banshee-shrill in an instant. She didn''tunch herself at Aldrich or assume a battle stance¡ªshe simply fell, as if gravity had reversed and Aldrich''s body was the floor.


    He had not seen anything like that before. Nothing in the world moved like that.


    The dagger fell from Aldrich''s nerveless fingers as the women''s shriek rattled his skull. He had just enough time to see the creature''s blur before the creature mmed into him.


    The room shifted around him as he flopped onto his back, going down in a heap. Aldrich cursed this body, it was too weak, too slow and he didn''t know what to do with it.


    The monster¡ªfor it had never been a beautiful woman, not truly¡ªstared down at him, her nails elongating like daggers.<sub> </sub>


    This reminded him of the nightmare specter so uncannily that he thought he was back in that corridor again and this was but a mere disguise of that monster.


    Those sharp fangs shed in her face, her eyes pointing in the opposite direction like a deer''s. She lifted her hands to skewer him, her long tongue lolling from her drooling mouth.


    Somehow he found the sword . No one was more surprised than Aldrich as he lifted it to parry, catching the demon''s swipe on the downswing. Anger red in its inhuman face.


    "Eat you," the creature hissed. It sounded half-demon, half-witch. "Eat you up!"m


    "Eat this bitch!" Aldrich stabbed at the banshee in her wide open mouth, the creature iled and fell on it''s back.


    Aldrich got on top and started twisting while he straddle her, she struggled despite the fatal wound. But Aldrich didn''t let up and instead he pressed harder and she went limp.


    But even then he pulled the sword out and started stabbing in her torso looking for her hear if she had any.


    But after a dozen stabs he backed away from all the blood and fell on his butt, huffing and puffing.


    "¡ªdid you really think it was going to be that easy?"


    Aldrich stood up in panic but as soon as he did he was bound with her hair even while she was ten meters away. She was back to normal all the wounds vanished like they were only in his imagination.


    "Heheheh, you''re mine now and forever!"


    Aldrich could not move at all he, if he had his true power then he might''ve been able to escape but¡­


    There is no such thing as if¡­


    Suddenly the hair was burned with golden mes. The banshee screamed in pain and Aldrich looked at the fire that burned the hair and yet did not hurt him at all. In fact he felt it soothing and warm.


    "Away with you, witch."


    Aldrich saw another woman appear besides him, she dressed like a priestess with ck and white on her dress, except it was slightly stylized.


    She had long tinum white hair and held a golden scepter inscribed with holy words, she had a mole under her pink lips slightly to the left side and her eyes were covered by a cloth tied around her head.


    "YOU DARE!!" The banshee shrieked again, in pain and anger.


    "It is not your ce, nor is it your time [Banishment]!"


    The priestess spoke with grace and poise but he also felt a different kind of rage within her.


    A swirling vortex of light appeared behind the banshee and before she could do anything she disappeared.

 Chapter 147 Ebrict, Fishing Hamlet

    Aldrich stared at where the banshee was just a moment ago in disbelief. He had a hard time understanding what happened.


    Everything happened too fast it seems that this woman saved him. Aldrich felt the tension leave him and fell on his knees, breathing hard. This body was truly useless.


    "Are you alright?" The priestess quickly came running over to him and knelt beside him as she asked with concern.


    "Yeah, I''m fine," Aldrich said as he weighted his options, he did just get saved by her but she was still untrustworthy and yet he was in no shape to flee nor fight.


    "Ah, there''s no need to fear me, that wasn''t supposed to happen, I guess you were just unlucky Aldrich."


    Aldrich suddenly felt his blood run cold, he didn''t tell her his name, was he famous or something without knowing it?


    However, the priestess suddenly surprised him by quickly shutting her mouth with both hands, looking extremely embarrassed.


    "Ah, I wasn''t supposed to say that¡­ can you forget it?" She asked him, if not for the blindfold he imagined she would be starting at him intensely.


    "Oh, thank you for saving me, but what was that thing? What happened here exactly?" Aldrich decided to focus on the present issue since it was clear that the priestess had an entric personality.


    "Hmm" the priestess look like she was deep in thought, "well, that was a Banshee, and she wanted to use this chance to end the danger in it''s fate by killing you now."


    "Fate?" Aldrich tasted the word finding it strange, "wait so it somehow knew that I was going to be a source of danger for it so it wanted to end me early? But why did it try only now?"


    "Yes!" The priestess pped excitedly, "well it''s due to three conditions that are rted to you and one that is rted to the Banshee itself. First it''s because of your spirit, it has a special allure to creatures like that banshee. Second¡ª"


    "Wait, can you borate more? How exactly?"


    "I can''t." She answered with a tone that brokered no leeway for negotiation so he decided to stop pressuring.


    "The second reason is because your on the ancientnd bridge where the veil is a little thinner. Third you don''t have your ne on you for the time being."


    "Oh, that makes sense. So there was something special about the bridge after all, huh." Aldrich muttered, "but these were only the conditions on my part, what about the banshee?"


    This concerned Aldrich greatly, although Banshee''s were incredibly powerful beings, half of all encountered banshees are grade two monsters.


    But that didn''t make any sense how could it sense danger in fate and move ordingly? That was an overpowered ability, even a grade three being wouldn''t have that kind of power right?


    "The banshee has be a special being, it''s at the peak of grade two, but it was not through it''s own power that it sensed the danger in fate but through a certain item."


    "H-how do you know so much?" Aldrich had to ask, this woman was very suspicious and weird but surprisingly enough Aldrich didn''t feel any malice from her, in fact it felt like she somehow¡­


    "I-I heard about it¡­ anyway, this is the ce where you will confront her so remember it. I think I will go now¡­"


    The priestess looked around hesitantly like she didn''t know what to do.<sub> </sub>


    "Wait, I will have to travel one more day on the bridge should I just not sleep?" Aldrich remembered that he was in a pickle, if he met that banshee again¡­ it wouldn''t anything good.


    "Eh? No, no it''s fine now, it will have to recover and by the time the quest is over you will get your ne back right?"


    She spoke as a matter of fact and even Aldrich nodded along with her taken by how confident she was about it.


    "The quest is actually pretty dangerous, I might not even make it." Aldrich said jokingly.


    But the priestess suddenly grabbed his hand and looked at him despite being blindfolded he could tell she was.


    "I believe in you, Aldrich. You will make it for sure, despite the hardships and loss that awaits you, you will make it."


    "Eh, thanks," Aldrich was embarrassed by how confident she was in him. He felt a little awkward for doubting her but the doubts only continued to umte.


    Suddenly he was aware that the priestess was starting at their joined hands and she was furiously blushing, her entire face was like a tomato.


    "So, before you go, can you tell me your name?" Aldrich asked hopefully.


    "I-I can''t, not now. B-but when we meet in reality I will tell you." She smiled and Aldrich was taken back by her beauty.


    This was real, not like the fake illusion cast by the banshee, this was real.


    ****


    Aldrich woke up, to the sound and smell of eggs and bacon on the fire.


    "It''s good that you woke up, it''s time for breakfast." Cole said and handed him a waterskin which Aldrich greedily drank from.


    Two dayster they got off the bridge and came upon the main road in this region, the first thing that struck them was the heat, it was hotter here despite the clouds.


    The second night went smoothly like the woman said. And Aldrich was d for it, that experience was terrible, except for the part where he met the priestess.


    They did see a flock of giant eagles hunting fish in the sea and nesting in the clifftops. But there was no danger so to say, they didn''t get close to the bridge.


    Finally, after asking for directions a couple of times, at noon of the third day, they made it to Ebrict, the fishing hamlet.


    Ebrict was built on two identical hills that formed an arch, the east and the west. The center of the arch a port was being built with many workers moving about and few ships here and there.


    When he looked at the east hill he saw the tip of a lighthouse peaking from there.

 Chapter 148 The House Of Langston

    Having finally reached their destination, the party let out a collective sigh of relief, five days of continuous travel did that to you. Aldrich was especially d that he was off the damn bridge.


    Not too far from the shores of Ebrict one could also see the silhouette of an ind in the distance.


    "That''s the Umbra ind, where the Umbra monastery was supposedly established. In the the legends it''s said the high schrs made pilgrimage to it even in the age of Dread making it their home even in death."


    Nathan sighed as if hemented that reality could never be as romantic as fiction.


    Ebrict had a few gates that were manned with a few soldiers armed with muskets and crossbows. The wall was nothing like Voryhrm but it was much better than a regr small-time town.


    This was strange, Aldrich thought that it should be a rundown vige devastated by pirates, bandits and monsters. But that was clearly not the case the defenses and traffic going in and out of the town was not small at all.


    Listening to the conversations of other travelers, he got a better understanding of what was going on, the lord of Ebrict was constructing a new port and he even sent his men to suppress the pirates in the region.


    Many people came here for the jobs, they were fishing and building ships and opening all kinds of stalls. After seeing the security of the town and seeing results in the lord''s endeavor many decided to settle down here.


    Aldrich could see a bright future for Ebrict if the lord was sessful in making the water routes safe once again.


    Aldrich and the rest passed by the gates easily, there was not much hassle anyway. The streets were a bit narrow for his liking but it was expected after all the town was just getting revitalized.


    Aldrich picked an inn on the Easthill called Yellwsprings. It was a decent ce and not too expensive, the tavern of the inn was also packed with people of all kinds some elves and dwarves here and there too.


    "Thanks that will be fourteen coppers," the receptionist, a half elf with long blond hair said.


    "Of course, here," Aldrich handed her fifteen coppers. The receptionist counted them and at the end she paused before looking back at him.


    "Uh, sir, you made a mistake, you gave me an extra copper." She said honestly.


    "Mistake? That was not a mistake, it''s yours" Aldrich smiled and returned the copper to her.


    "But, I can''t, I will get in trouble for this¡­"


    "Nonsense!" Aldrich righteously dered, "you deserve it, I was able to feel your dedication and hard wok the moment I walked in this fine establishment. I insist."


    "I don''t know what to say, thank you, sir!" The elf said looking emotional.


    Aldrich coughed, "oh¡­ it''s just that I was wondering if you''ve heard any rumors?"


    "Rumors? I did hear about many rumors what are you looking for?" She asked.<sub> </sub>


    "Eh, why don''t you tell me about the lord and the new port, how about that?" Aldrich said, he was curious and he also didn''t want immediately reveal why he was really here.


    "Oh, that''s easy. The lords of Ebrict have always wanted to restore peace in the sea here and they''ve been working at it from thest generation. Now after building up manpower and with five Crestmasters it was time to start cleaning up the waters."


    "Wow, five Crestmasters? That''s impressive. But how sessful has it been?"


    "Very sessful they even took down the ckpany and executed the first mate and the captain publicly on the docks for all to see, if not these many people wouldn''t have been confident to settle here."


    "Oh, wow. As expected of such a great personage, truly inspiring." Aldrich showerplements and then asked, "oh, what about the old marblehead lighthouse over there? We got a glimpse of it when we came in."


    "Oh," the elf sighed, "there are too many rumors about it, some say Johny the town trickster was dared to spend the night there but no one ever saw him again. Others talk of a swarm of bats making it their hime now that it was abandoned, some even said they saw strange lights shining from it."


    "Well, thank you very much, my friends and I will have some rest and then we''ll go the tavern for some lunch."


    Aldrich and the party were in desperate need of rest so today was definitely not the day to tackle the lighthouse especially since they still needed to gather more information. And they needed to visit a certain family too.


    After a hot bath and a change of clothes Aldrich felt like he was a human once again. He needed to get his hands on a wondrous item that kept one clean at all times.


    After a three-hour long afternoon nap the party gathered in the tavern for lunch. But of course the tavern was empty since most people already had lunch by now, which also annoyed the cooks and the staff.


    But hey, they were paying customers so there''s that.


    "Isn''t it weird that the lord didn''t do anything about the lighthouse with rumors like that flying around?" Hellen asked.


    "Yeah, and it''s not like hecks the power to do it. He had five Crestmasters under hismand, Crestmasters are very well aware that ghosts are real right?" Frank agreed with her.


    ? "Well," Aldrich mused, "you guys have a point but actually it''s not that strange. The lord is clearly busy with the pirates and the new port all of his resources are probably invested there."


    "That''s true," Nathan said as he munched on a giant crab''s leg, "don''t forget thatmoners spread all kinds of rumors, he can''t possibly investigate all of them right?"


    "But still didn''t she say that a person went missing after going there?" Cole asked.


    "I don''t know, we can''t know for certain unless we ask the lord himself so instead of that let''s focus on what we can do¡­" Aldrich pointed out so that the focus remained on the quest.


    "Where to first?" Emma asked.


    Aldrich smiled, "we have to meet, Irene Langston, the girl who issued the quest. So we''re going to pay a visit to house Langston."

 Chapter 149 The Marblehead Lighthouse

    "Langston huh, well I guess we better get going after lunch and get all the information today get the ghost exorcised tomorrow and get out of here." Cole said eagerly.


    "I take it you don''t like the heat much, huh?" Frank asked.


    "Oh, yeah I with Cole on this one it''s not just the heat but the moisture too." Hellen didn''t make a secret of her distaste as she fanned herself with her hand.


    "Well, it''s good you guys are so eager but if we are not ready then we might dy, there''s still time to do this when we''re absolutely ready and prepared."


    Aldrich was just as eager to finish this but as the leader and as someone who explored the nightmare town, Voros, he knew when to slow down and prepare first before doing anything drastic.


    "Jeez, you sure know how to bring the mood down," Nathan said as he chuckled.


    "Okay, I think we''re all done eating so let''s get going."


    After asking around town for Langston they were pointed to one of the houses that was close by the docks. It had a red painted door and y seagulls on the windows.


    Aldrich knocked on the red door three times.


    The door opened and he was greeted by Irene''s cheerful smile which broadened the moment she saw him.


    "Al-"


    *cough*


    "Miss Irene Langston?" Aldrich asked loudly.


    Irene then remembered what they agreed on and straightened her expression, well at least she tried to, "yes, who might you be?" She asked stiffly.


    "I''m Aldrich and we''re the adventurers that took on your quest, do you mind of wee in for some questions?"


    "Eh, um, no-no not at all." She stammered like she was trying to stifle aughing that was threatening to break out.


    Aldrich sighed and since the others had his back and couldn''t see his face he winked at her causing her to blush and almost break her role.


    Not everyone had the acting skills of Yasbel which couldn''t be helped, but it also made Aldrich want to tease her more to see more of her reactions.


    Aldrich and Irene agreed on this n before the exam itself began and she she left toe here back then, of course she came on thendbound route.


    Naturally the agreed upon n was for them to act as if they were strangers to keep this whole thing under warps.


    Aldrich was especially happy to see that Irene''s expression has improved significantly, her skin was back to normal and her eyes were a vibrant green.


    It was worth it to let her keep the mental protection ne.


    "Oh, please take a seat here and let me call my father." Irene lead them to themon room.


    It was decorated with statues of fish and there was even a portrait of a strong looking man holding a huge shark in a chokehold above the firece.<sub> </sub>


    Of course Aldrich already knew that Irene''s father was a fisherman but he was clearly passionate about it to a certain extent.


    The smell of the house was clearly perfumed to smell like this when a fisherman lived here.


    "Hey, did anyone else think that girl acted a little strangely?" Emma asked.


    "Yeah, I thought so too," Nathan chuckled, "could it be that she has something to hide?"


    Aldrich clicked his tongue, these guys are overthinking, "you guys are reading too much into it, she made the request form the guild she wanted us here, she has nothing to hide."


    "Rx Aldrich," Cole looked at him and rolled his eyes, "it was clearly a joke."


    Aldrichughed awkwardly, damn he was too self conscious.


    Aldrich was saved when he saw a tall man with a heavy build and thick arms enter with Irene. He was the same man in the portrait. His beard was not too long and light blond, his hair was pulled back.


    "Adventurers, I''m called Huzon. You answered the call much faster than I expected, for that you have my gratitude," the man shook hands with them all and took a seat himself.


    Irene served tea to them as Aldrich replied, "not all, it''s our duty to lend a hand when we are called for."


    Huzon nodded, "I assume you are here to ask about the situation, I will cooperate with what I know. To be honest my daughter was the one that suffered the most and she only came back a week ago."


    "It''s fine just tell us what happened no matter how insignificant it may be," Aldrich replied hoping to get at least some clue.


    Huzon recited what happened to Irene and how she got help from a ''neighbor'' and finally how to resolve the matter, which was by destroying the haunted object.


    "So it''s just straightforward, the object shouldn''t be too small nor too big so it wouldn''t be that hard." Cole concluded after hearing the story.


    "But¡­"


    Huzon suddenly interrupted, and looked conflicted, "adventurers, I know this might sound purely emotional but¡­ my father, I know him, he wouldn''t do anything like that. Causing harm to his own granddaughter, even if he became a ghost he would never do something like that."


    Aldrich didn''t refute, not because he agreed with Huzon but there was no point since he wouldn''t be able to reach amon ground with him regarding that argument.


    "Well, first why don''t you tell us about the lighthouse, why is your father''s ghost haunting it? You must have some guess right?"


    Huzon''s face darkened upon hearing that question, and he spoke with unwillingness, "that lighthouse used to be ours, my father''s to be exact he loved it and treasured deeply. It was passed down in our family generation after generation.


    But when the activity of the pirates increased so much, it became useless and had to be shut down. That could be a reason."


    Aldrich nodded. But Huzon wasn''t done yet.


    "But more than that, the reason is probably because he ended his own life there in the lighthouse."

 Chapter 150 The Third Floor

    "You mean to say he killed himself there?" Frank asked with a shudder.


    "The day he went there for thest time he told us to leave him be, that he wanted to be buried with the lighthouse. It was after years of knowing that it would never be used again."


    Aldrich pondered on these words, it was hard to know what happened exactly but at least got some new information that might aid them.


    "So what about the rumors then? A man went missing." Frank asked.


    "I know these as well, the rumors about lights and bats and all that, they only started half a year ago. Before then the lighthouse was not the center of any rumors at all."


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes, "you''re saying that something happened then, to cause all these strange incidents?"


    Huzon nodded gravely, "obviously, I heard that stuff but I dismissed them all before my daughter came home and now I can''t help but think that something else must have happened."


    Irene did say that to her it looked like her grandfather was trying to warn her about something. Aldrich was always wary about that.


    After all, the ghost did not disy much hostility, it even to took the initiative to reveal it''s location to Aldrich back then.


    But at this rate they might never know unless the ghost talked to them itself. However,munication for a low level ghost was extremely hard.


    In fact if Irene didn''t have a stronger than usual spirit and a direct blood rtion it might not have been able to manifest in her dreams andmunicate something.


    "My father was a kind soul, I know it for certain he would never hurt anyone. That''s why... I want to make a shameless request from you adventurers, please take me with you!"


    Huzon looked into his eyes. Aldrich closed his eyes because he already felt troublesome things approaching, he wanted refuse tly but he didn''t.


    First he could see it in his eyes that he was going to follow them anyway. Second, Aldrich guessed that they may need him to talk with the ghost, besides having his son with them might calm the ghost down.


    "Father, no!" Irene suddenly shouted at her father, "I should go! Grandfather talked to me even though I was so far away, I''m better for the task."


    "Girl! You only just recovered, if you go now it might cause worse harm!" Huzon reprimanded.


    "Huzon, you know I can''t take you..." Aldrich sighed, "officially, that is. Guild rules make a point of not involving civilians."


    "Involved who? I am just going to clean the dusty lighthouse when I coincidentally bumped into you adventurers."


    <o>,m "Father, you can''t!" Irene interrupted.</o>


    "This matter is finished, I''m sure the adventurers wouldn''t want to take a little girl with them, right?" Huzon questioned.<sub> </sub>


    "Yeah..." Aldrich answered as he evaded Irene''s eyes. There was nothing he could do about it, for him he would rather Huzon take the risk rather than Irene.


    "So it''s settled, " Aldrich dered since no one had anything more to add, "tomorrow at noon we will meet at the entrance to the marblehead lighthouse."


    Back at the Yellosprings inn, Aldrich and the others had dinner and decided that the morning would be used to prepare the equipment and so forth.


    Aldrich went back to his room, meditated and went to sleep, when he opened his eyes he was back in the nightmare realm.


    He had made some effort to explore the Underbridge area in thest few times and managed to get his second green orb and twelve red orbs.


    It was a good haul, he noticed that the area here was mainly popted by the Skinned dogs. Some of them actually go out in to the surface to hunt Husks.


    Aldrich looked for Uldin, the merchant of Leng but he was gone sincest time, apparently he went scavenging for goods here and there to sell to Aldrich for insane prices.


    But today Aldrich wasn''t going hunting nor was he going to read the journal, today he was going to bring down the superior of the armored husk in the mysterious third floor.


    Aldrich used the seal of Tindalor to travel back to the base, paying two red orbs in the process. It was annoying but he could only do this since he didn''t want to be killed on the way by the army of Husks or shot down by them on the rooftops.


    Aldrich was armed with his ck great sword which was enhanced by the Cauldron in the Fractured chapel. And he was donning his finest half te armor, which gave the perfect contrast between defense and flexibility.


    Aldrich had hopes that the superior just died up there which will make his job much easier but he also knew that life sucked and he had to fight tooth and nail to get what he wanted.


    He walked over the steps of the third floor''s staircase beyond what he ever did before, a new mark.


    He was surprised when he reached the end of the staircase because what awaited him was not a hallway with rooms in each side but one huge stone gate.


    The stone gate looked nothing like the workmanship he expected of Voros, it looked crude, as if no one bothered to even polish it after getting it here.


    It had old carvings of strange letters that was Quohen, it was something else mixed with many other symbols and signs.


    Aldrich nocked on the gate but there was no answer, a pity. He pushed at one side of the gate with all his might for a minute or two when the door swung open.


    No one was more shocked than Aldrich at that sight, he expected it to not budge at all. He thought that he must look for other clues and go on a journey to learn how to open it after putting in endless effort.


    Aldrich walked in, he would be lying if he said that he wasn''t nervous and a little squeamish. The scene beyond the door surprised him too.

 Chapter 151 Nowhere To Be Found

    He walked into a massive ancient hall rather than a room, a hall of that sized couldn''t possibly fit in the third floor, it was physically impossible, the whole house would be crushed under it.


    *BANG*


    Behind him the door closed of it''s own ord. Of course it did, because why not?


    He was not bothered by that not very much in fact. He had built up some resistance to some of these things by now.


    What really got him was this hall he was in right now, even after getting inside he was still awestruck by how big it was in contrast with the outside.


    It was like a vige square but an indoor one that was sculpted right inside a mountain.


    There were two sources of light, of course the ever present candles everywhere and¡­ moonlight for some reason.


    Aldrich looked at the ceiling but not to mention the moon not even the sun should be able to shine here. The ceiling looked like the inside of a cavern andpletely closed off.


    Something was obviously not right, not that there ever was anything right in the nightmare realm.


    But still¡­ things here still followed some basic rules of life right? But this hall didn''t.


    Aldrich walked under the shadow of one of the massive pirs and noted some dried blood all over it, or was it? It was hard to tell, maybe it was old paint?


    Aldrich did not rush, he was here expecting a fight to begin with, why waste the element of surprise? He was also in new environment so it was better to be cautious and explore carefully.


    It was the silence that helped to decrease the tension a bit, this was a good indicator that there were no Husks around.


    Aldrich advanced further but he didn''t find anything that stood out, as he was getting closer to the center of the room he noticed something strange about the pirs.


    They were everywhere.


    No hall needed that many pirs, and it looked like they were built haphazardly with no regard or a purpose, suddenly he looked up again at the closest pir and stopped in his tracks.


    This particr pir and many of the others that Aldrich thought were disjointed and randomly ced was made of cages stacked over each other almost to the ceiling, which is why Aldrich¡ª at first nce though they were regr pirs.


    The cages were not empty, they were stuffed with the rotten corpses of people. Aldrich backed away thinking they were Husks but upon closer inspection he discovered that they were truly dead.


    All the bodies had torture marks all over them but the fatal wound that killed them was a perfectly circr hole in the middle of the forehead.


    This was true for all of the bodies without exception. The flesh of the corpses was dark green with blue spots, some of which had melted and fused somewhat with the other corpses.


    He summoned his courage and touched one of the bodies and his fingers sank right in, he hastily pulled back in disgust. Fuck he should have worn a gauntlet for this shit.


    But he furrowed his eyebrows in thought a momentter, that was weird, how long had these people been dead?


    If Uldin was to be believed then it should have been more than a thousand years, right? So how are the bodies not skeletons at least? It wouldn''t be strange of they were dust not to mention skeletons.


    And the whole in the middle of the forehead¡­ it was too smooth, you couldn''t leave a mark like that with a sword or a spear, you would need a special tool for this.


    So this is what happened to those people that the armored husk hauled up here. But what was the superior doing to them here? And where is he? He had a feeling he was about to find out.


    Aldrich wanted into the center of the hall which was ironically devoid of pirs and cages, all but for one pir in the center.


    Much bigger than all the rest and pure white, it shined brightly under the light of the moon. It was also carved with mysterious symbols and signs like the door.


    Finally the central pir had an additional statue which was carved very badly like everything here. It should be depicting some kind of serpent that coiled around the pir.


    The head looked strange and crooked to the point where one couldn''t make out an expression. In Aldrich''s opinion it ruined the aesthetic of the central pir, the only decent looking thing in here.


    <o>,m But of course he was not here to critique the architecture of the ce, he looked around scanning for the superior around the central pir.</o>


    Hmm, weird, he thought that he was going to confront the superior here but this ce was just as empty and deste as everywhere else was.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich walked in to the central pir carefully, slowly, his senses in full operation to detect even a hint of danger or movement from anywhere. But even as his hand touched the pir nothing happened.


    However, not intending to ck off he check on the poorly made statue, just to be sure. After all, he did encounter a statue that turned out to be a real person recently.


    He touched the statue of the serpent which should be quite long considering that it coiled around the pir twice, should be around five to six meters long.


    Nothing happened after he punche it, it was tougher than it looked, Aldrich gave it a few more hits and backed away immediately. Silence.


    Aldrich shook his head, he walked around the pir to look for more clues. He needed to get the basement key, that was the only safe way to ess the underground pathway to the Overseer''s mansion.


    Suddenly he move much faster, there was a mark on one of the pirs behind the central pir. It was a¡­


    Seal of Tindalor.


    It wan an inactive seal just like the one under the bridge. Aldrich bit his finger, drew blood and activated the seal, to lessen his disappointment.


    At least he did something although it might not be that significant in the grand scheme of things.


    Aldrich had to think of another way now. It was an unexpected turn of events for the third floor to bepleted empty.


    This meant that he had to ask Uldin about the path the old Lost Ones used to get there or he would be lucky if it was mentioned in the journal.


    These options were always there but Aldrich wanted to do it this way because the underground tunnel of the Unseen Hand would lead him directly into the core of the mansion basically it bypasses all the defenses and obstacles in the way.


    Of course the Overseer''s mansion was protected heavily, otherwise why would the Lost Ones have toy siege to it twice and still fail? It was a ce that became the burial ground of immortal-like beings who besieged it in numbers.


    That kind of confrontation is something that Aldrich would like to avoid of possible. But at least for now he had to think of another way.


    Strange thing is in the armored husk''s memories he clearly remembered the superior going up here to perform his own experiments after losingmunication with the others.


    He was supposed to be here, his experimental subjects clearly were.


    Aldrich ced his hand on the seal of Tindalor and returned to the real world dissatisfied.


    ****


    Aldrich and the party had breakfast, consisting of grilled sausage and beans along with a side dish of Guce cheese. This was a beast which looked like a cross between a pig and a cow, it was used as cattle around these parts.


    Aldrich liked the cheese very much and even wondered how this Guce itself would taste with some honey and garlic sauce. After breakfast the receptionist called for him.


    Aldrich walked over curiously, he had gotten most of what he wanted here, but he did not mind hearing more.


    "You have something for me?" He asked with a smile.


    "Oh, yes, I do, but keep your voice down," she whispered, which intrigued him.


    "Oh, what is it then?" Aldrich wasn''t interested in much else at the moment.


    "I heard, that¡­ yesterday" she said while looking around in seeming fear, "a group of inquisitors arrived in town almost at the same time as your group."


    "¡­ what? Inquisitors? What are they here for?" Aldrich asked in shock, and then he looked left and right.


    "I don''t know, nobody does" The woman replied, "they went to the lord''s estate as soon as they came in."


    Aldrich breathed a sigh of relief, of course he hadn''t done anything to be afraid but even if you didn''t do anything, if they think that they need you for a case then the inquisitors will take you all the same.


    In fact the inquisitors will question anyone as long as you havee into contact with a suspect, no matter how brief said contact was.

 Chapter 152 Encounter

    "Do you know which chapter they''re from?" Knowing that could make it easier to know what the inquisitors are here for.


    The inquisition of the Adonian Empire was made up of six chapters, each performed a specific purpose. Each chapter was headed by a High inquisitor and all six chapters fall under the Archlector.


    The Archlector is one of the most powerful people in the Empire, perhaps in the world. The post included a permanent seat on the High council, a seat with the emperor himself and the other high lords and great officials, like the grand marshal and the prime minister.


    "I don''t know but, I heard some of them were wearing golden robes and others with grey ones." The elf said with uncertainty.


    Aldrich handed her a copper coin and left the inn with the rest of the party. This was an interesting piece of news, he only knew the golden robbed men were from the Watchful Eye chapter.


    The Watchful Eye was charged with seeking intelligence and reporting on corruption or subterfuge from foreign spies. As for the grey clothes? He had no idea.


    Ayemon told him to do his best not to encounter the inquisition as a whole, but it wasn''t like he needed to be told that.


    Besides when the inquisition shows up in such an open fashion it means that something ominous was happening.


    Anyway he had nothing to do with them, he just had toplete this quest today and be on his way.


    He rushed a little bit so that they can go to the abandoned lighthouse since it was far removed from anything around. A few minutester they were almost out of the streets.


    But it was at times like these when life chose to fuck with you.


    "Everyone make way!! The inquisitors are passing through! Make way!"


    ''Fuck me. What did I do to anger you, Altunan? Damn, I forgot to pray after I woke up¡­''


    The people around hurriedly scrambled to their houses, they were surrounded by mostly sparse houses here at the southernmost end of the town.


    Aldrich and the party attempted to join the crowd but the doors were quickly locked and the windows shutters shut, leaving them alone in the open.


    "Let''s break in," Nathan unexpectedly suggested to Aldrich''s shock.


    "Have you gone mad?" Aldrich scolded.


    "Let''s make a run for it, then," Nathan once again said.


    "No, how would that make us look? If we run that would definitely draw suspicions on us. The carriage is already here, the coachman saw us."


    Yes, unfortunately the carriage was not too far away it already turned to this street and they were seen.


    "What now?" Emma asked.


    "We wait for them to leave, just move over to the sidewalk and act natural." Aldrich ordered, while wiping his sweaty forehead.


    The party quickly did as he said, there was enough time since the carriage was actually moving very slowly. Guards followed behind the beautifully decorated carriage in three rows.


    The first was made up of knights in full te armor, they had long cloaks and walked in the order and discipline expected of knights.<sub> </sub>


    The second was made up of tow grey robbed women, their faces were covered with a piece of paper, it was inscribed with¡­ glyphs. For some reason one couldn''t see their features even though the paper only cover the middle of the face.


    The third was a single man¡ª Aldrich thought he was an orc, he stood at two and a half meters and had a bronze featureless mask on his face.


    On his back he carried a strange contraption of metal and ss that towered even above his own hight by a head. Metallic pipes extended from the contraptions into the huge man himself. The contraption would release vapor every once in a while.


    It was unknown how because of the obstruction of his clothes, which were a golden robe and green vest underneath.


    Aldrich and the others did their best to wait despite the agonizing slow march of the inquisitors. As the carriage passed by he could hear some voices leaking out due to his exceptional perception.


    "Do the people here think of us as gue bearers? Are you perhaps feeding them negative news regarding the inquisition?"


    A sharp and curt voice asked in seeming annoyance.


    "N-no, absolutely not. We would never do that. These are just peasants¡­ they are ignorant please overlook their disrespect, inquisitor Bernard."


    Another voice, younger and hesitant answered.


    "Bernard, quit teasing the young lord. Commoners are likely to cling to negative views." An older and gentle voice admonished the first one to talk.


    "Grandfather, when can we get back to the Eastern continent? It''s so boring here! When can we going to skin some people?!"


    A much younger voice asked in frustration. And someughter ensued in the carriage some was genuine and some wasplimentary.


    "Rascal! Stop that!" The old man scolded.


    Atst, the carriage passed by and Aldrich sighed in relief.


    "Stop the carriage for a moment." A curt voice ordered and the carriage stopped shortly after. He recognized this voice as belonging to inquisitor Bernard. The door of the carriage opened.


    Aldrich felt his blood running cold.


    A man with a thin angr face and a goatee walked out of the carriage, he wore the golden robes and had an extremely thin curved sword on his waist.


    He walked towards them and the guards behind the carriage all turned towards them at the same time.


    "Kids, you didn''t run away like the rest, why?" He pointed at them and asked.


    "We, ah, we''re not from around here so we didn''t have a ce to run to."


    Frank answered before Aldrich could say anything and Aldrich cursed him a hundred times in his mind.


    He was going to articte his words and say that they didn''t run because they heard of the good deeds of the inquisition and wanted to catch a glimpse at such splendid individuals.


    "Not from around here?" Inquisitor Bernard asked with interest, "then where are you from? Why are you here?"

 Chapter 153 Proceed

    "Ah, we are adventurers, well, adventurers-to-be, we''re here for thest quest of the entrance exam."


    Aldrich quickly answered, at this point honesty was the best policy.


    Bernard whistled, "exam quest? All the way here? Well, that''s beside the point." Bernard took out a monocle and cleaned it a little before putting it on.


    "Hmm, little girl did you take the oath?" He asked, looking at Emma.


    "Y-yes, sir."


    Bernard nodded, e here,"


    "What?" Emma asked confused.


    "Do I have to repeat myself? I saide here, kneel down let me take a look at you."


    Aldrich''s mouth went dry, "do as he says." He ordered, obeying was the best thing to do here.


    There was also another reason, three people came down from the carriage while he was focused on inquisitor Bernard.


    A young boy, no older than twelve, and a man in histe twenties, finally there was a gentle looking old man who had a soft smile on his face and reading sses.


    "Bernard, you''re being too harsh," the old man said.


    "But¡ª"


    "It''s fine," the old man stroked his moderately long white beard, "these young people are going on a quest, it''s not appropriate for us to stop them."


    "¡­ yes, senior." Bernard answered and returned the monocle back to his pocket.


    "Now, you go on, be sure to be careful out there," the old man said kindly as they turned their backs and walked towards the carriage.


    Aldrich didn''t dare to breath too loudly, it was one close call. He didn''t know what was going to happen if they decided to arrest Emma¡ª


    "Oh, just one more thing."


    Aldrich didn''t know when the old man returned and stood right in front of him.


    "Don''t be nervous, tell me¡­ did you recentlye across a ce where the veil is thin?" The old man asked, with his soft voice but his eyes were now cold like steel and emotionless without any fluctuations.


    "We did," he gulped subconsciously, "we had to travel fast because of the quest''s deadline so we used the ancientnd bridge."


    The old man raised an eyebrow, "most grade zero beings wouldn''t even know to distinguish such a ce."


    Aldrich had slipped up, it was actually the old man''s question that hid another meaning behind it depending on how it was answered.


    But it at times like these that Aldrich was calm, "I just guessed, it was only ce that I could think of. After all, we didn''t go through any other ce that was noteworthy."


    "Hm, that makes sense. I hope you guys are alright then?" The old man asked sounding concerned for them.


    "Oh, yeah, we''re fine. Nothing out of the usual." Aldrich answered calmly and smiled.<sub> </sub>


    "That''s such a relief," the old man looked at him like a relieved grandfather, "thend bridge isn''t actually that dangerous, the veil is almost back to normal there. Nothing unusual happened right?"


    "Nothing."


    "Oh, dear me, I dyed you again, I am very sorry. Good luck, may god be with you." The old man said not sounding sorry at all.


    "May god be with you."


    Aldrich bowed with the rest of the party to send the inquisitors off, the inquisition was part of the church, so inquisitors were akin to priests.


    "You''re bow just now¡­" Bernard, remained in the end and said to Aldrich, "seemed a little halfhearted, you just bent your back a little."


    Aldrich was stunned that he actually turned back to look at their bows, he quickly bent his back deeply, "I''m sorry for my carelessness."


    ''Fuck, I thought I was done dealing with you.''


    Bernard turned around boarded the carriage and the inquisitors passed by but Aldrich and the party remained bowing for a while even after they left.


    Aldrich gritted his teeth until he felt he might break them, he couldn''t help but feel that if he was Crestmaster he wouldn''t be treated like this.


    ****


    The lighthouse sits on Marblehead Point, arge granite cliff that juts out into the ocean from the shore.


    In days past, the early settlers mistook the white cliffs for marble, hence the name. An old, overgrown track leads ind from town, around and up onto the clifftop, a trek of approximately 5 kilometers.


    The penins is topped with a rough, hardy grass and scattered small trees, twisted and bent from the wind.


    The lighthouse itself stands 20 meters high, a hexagonal structure of stone blocks cut from the very cliff on which it stands.


    A single door at ground level allows entry. On the west side, an old lift sits on the ground attached by ropes to pulley systems affixed to the top of the tower.


    This was once used to haul supplies of wood and oil to the top to replenish the lighthouse beacon.


    "The system is old and in disrepair," Huzon said as he pointe at the pulley system.


    They had arrived and met up not long after their encounter with the inquisition. The fitted granite blocks are worn but appear solid and defiant of the elements. Aside from the wind all is quite.


    Aldrich tried to open the old door of the lighthouse but it seems like it was stuck in its frame, it was swollen from moisture probably.


    "Everyone, forget about everything else, from now on, our only objective is toplete the quest no matter what." Aldrich had to raise the party''s spirits.


    The moral fell after their recent encounter.


    Aldrich pushed the door using a little bit of strength, the door moved back but didn''t open so he pushed again and it did. He was careful not to break it.


    He was faced with a room, this room smells of damp and mold. A spiral staircase rises in the center of the room to the floor above. Two doors block ess to other parts of the ground floor.


    A pile of rotten wood, copsing crates, and old barrels sits piled against the wall between the northern door and the staircase.

 Chapter 154 Breaking The Shell (1)

    "Keep in mind," Aldrich said before anyone entered the lighthouse, "we will explore every floor looking for clues that might help us understand the ghost."


    "One more thing, Mr. Langston you will always remain a floor below us until we call for you. For example, while we search and clear this floor you will remain out here until I call for you. If you disobey me I will use force to expunge you from the quest."


    "I understand, I''m not an adventurer, do what you came here to do and I will fulfill my role." Huzon replied and nodded in understanding.


    Aldrich had no choice but to bring him on the quest but he also had no intention to put him in harms way for obvious reasons.


    "Let''s go, we will not split up, follow me to the northern room first." Aldrichmanded and made his way into the lighthouse.


    The inside smelled like a barn or worse, the most likely cause was the pile of rotten wood, copsing crates and old barrels. They were piled against the wall between the northern door and the staircase.


    Maybe it was a sign of bad luck but as soon as Aldrich approached that pile he heard a squeezing noise and shed with a newly acquired short sword.


    Light green blood spilled and he looked at the source, it was a giant centipede, he judged that it was close to two meters long and as thick as his arm.


    "Shit! Help!"


    It wasn''t alone, seven others had attacked from the dirt pile all at once, one of thempletely entangled Cole like a snake would. Aldrich ran over and stomped on its head crushing it like an egg.


    Frank''s saber shed by like whip and without giving the centipedes any chances he cut three of them in a few short breaths.


    Hellen took care of one by flipping it over so it couldn''t move and then she stabbed it a dozen times with a dagger. Emmas didn''t have to lift a finger since Frank took care of her.


    Cole who was embarrassed by his disy jumped over and killed one in an attempt to restore his dignity.


    Nathan held one on the ground with several belts from his backpack, he was pouring on it several drops from different potions and shaking his head every once in a while.


    "Fucking useless." Saying that he stomped on it mercifully.


    Aldrich looked at the dirt pile and realized that it was their nest, he shook his head and walked over to the door of the room. This small room holds a bunk bed, a pair of chests and a small table holding a stoneware basin and ewer.


    Aldrich walked in carefully, the others streamed in behind him, all on full alert. The earlier attack was a wake-up call they were attack as soon as they walked in.


    Aldrich opened the chest, it was empty, he walked over to the bed, there was nothing to see but the dirt and dust everywhere so he decided to proceed to the next room through a door in this room that connected them both.


    This one was almost identical to the first one and the cheat here was empty too.


    "Call Huzon in, its clear," Aldrich told Hellen.


    Huzon came in with her a momentter, "these were guests rooms. Usually to house travelers or the asional survivors of shipwrecks."


    Aldrich nodded in understanding.<sub> </sub>


    "The next floor," Huzon said pointing at the spiral staircase, "that was my father''s room, he used to call it his domicile. He used to stay here months on end even after the lighthouse was shut down."


    Aldrich didn''t waste time, he walked forward and climbed the staircase and stepped on the second floor. Since this was his room, he was expecting to find a clue as to what happened.


    This level of the lighthouse is a single room. The


    staircase continues up the center to the next level Small, round windows pierce each wall in the cardinal directions.


    A sagging bed covered with mildewed


    nkets sits beneath one window, a sea chest peeking out under one end. A rusted iron stove stands between the bed and a small desk.


    A short wardrobe is next to the desk, and the pieces of a broken chair are scattered across the floor.


    Huzon remained down of course and the others followed behind him and they walked over to the sea chest under the window, it was unlocked so he opened it.


    It had a pair of old boots and spare nkets. Next was the desk drawers, they were filled with moldering paper and crawling with silverfish. A spilled container of ink, long dry, has left a broad, ck stain across its top.


    While he was doing that Cole went to check on the wardrobe, it had an old oilskin coat, a ck woolen cap, and a wooden cane, all hanging from hooks on the back of the cab.


    "Hey, guys there''s a false bottom here," Cole said attracting everyone''s attention. Cole took out one of the hooks and inserted it through a gape in the false bottom''s side and then pulled up.


    As soon as he did that the top of the wardrobe fell on his head with a violent crash.


    "Shit!" Aldrich cursed as he pulled Cole from underneath the wood and stone. Turns out the top was also false and filled with stones, when the false bottom was removed the trap was triggered.


    Cole lost consciousness, it was a hit in the back of the head so it was the worst kind.


    Nathan removed the rubble and mess while the others checked up on Cole. He pulled out was hidden under the false bottom and protected by the trap. It was an old sack and a leather-bound notebook.


    "Wow, interesting." Nathan eximed after he opened the old sack.


    "What is it?" Aldrich asked, interested by that.


    "It''s... two gold coins." Nathan said as he took out one of them.


    "WHAT!"


    The group was collectively shocked, the rest immediately surrounded Nathan even leaving poor Cole alone.

 Chapter 155 Breaking The Shell (2)

    Aldrich held the coin closer to his eye and nodded in thought, "this is definitely real imperial gold."


    "This must be the lighthouse''s keeper''s life savings," Frank suggested, "we must return it to his family members."


    "Eh? I don''t know about that¡­" Nathan countered, "the rules of adventurers state that anything that was not specifically mentioned in the quest is ours by right."


    "You can''t be seriously trying to take a whole family''s inheritance," Frank argued.


    "The quest is not over you two," Aldrich intervened, "I will decide after the quest, now think about this how did a lighthouse keeper of a small town make that kind of money?"


    Nathan and Frank''s expressions shifted, that''s right. A single gold coin was equivalent to thirty silver coins, it was a big amount even in Voryhrm. And yet the found two here?


    "Maybe he saved his money over all the years he worked andter converted them into gold?" Frank asked. Of he thought of the most optimistic possibility first.


    "It''s possible," Aldrich agreed, that was indeed a valid idea, "but did you all forget that he was out of work for years after the increase in piracy?"


    "He should have been losing money instead of making it, unless he had some other business going on back then?" Hellen asked.


    "Huzon would have told us about something like that," Aldrich replied, something was indeed strange. "Lets check on the notebook instead of specting blindly, after that we can ask Huzon directly since he''s here."


    Of course the tower was draped in darkness but they had mossnterns so visibility was not a problem. This made it so that he can read here instead of having to go out.


    Aldrich undid the wrapping and took out the leather-bound notebook and opened it. Right from the start he noticed many pages were torn out of it.


    He started from what he could read.


    "It''s bad these days, the pirates have pretty much closed the sea routes in the entirety of this region. The lighthouse is not needed without shipsing and going."


    This was all he could make in one page so he turned to the next and soon he was done with the notebook. Atst, he got a good idea of what happened to grandfather Langston.


    It seems that after the port was shut down, the keeper worked with smugglers, bringing in goods at night during low tide through a sea cave at the base of the cliffs. He became quite wealthy due to his association with the smugglers.


    However in hister years, the smugglers joined forces with local pirates, fencing goods that had been taken from looted ships.


    They demanded the lighthouse keeper douse the light and allow ships to run aground, threatening to expose his past dealings with them if he did not.


    This was a line the lighthouse keeper was unwilling to cross. Thest entry in the journal reads:


    "It''s no longer smuggling. Now it''s murder. There''s a cutter they want run up on the reef tomorrow night, the new moons. They threatened to sell me out if I don''t do as they


    say. I won''t. I''ll have no blood on my hands. I''m heading to the top with myst bottle of rum and the potion the apothecary sold me. No more. I can do this no more."<sub> </sub>


    ''So this is why he killed himself.''


    Aldrich couldn''t help but agree with what Huzon said before, this man was indeed a good man despite his dealings with smugglers he was unwilling to cross the line and even ended his life on his own terms.


    "We''ll clear thest floor and then call Huzon up here," Aldrich said, in fact he should have thought of that from the beginning, it would be best if he remained in the safe ground floor.


    "Guy¡­" Cole, had regained consciousness at some point while they were busy discussing the notebook, "thank you sooooo much for not ignoring a fallen teammate¡­" he said sarcastically.


    "It''s just a little bump, walk it off," Hellen said.


    "How did I fall for that trap?" Cole was more angry at himself for not noticing that the false bottom was not the only trap.


    They ascended the spiral staircase and reached the third floor. Stacks of old wood and barrels crowd half the space in this room.


    A noticeable odor of oil is present here. The stairs end here, but a smaller ramp ascends one wall to a trapdoor in the ceiling.


    As soon as he stepped foot on the floor here he noticed that his footing was not stable after a closer look he understood.


    Wood and oil for the lighthouse beacon was


    stored here. The stacks of wood and the wood of the barrels is old and rotten. Many of the barrels are leaking oil, making the floor slick.


    "Guys be careful when you walk here, the floor is slippery with oil, also make sure that yournterns don''t fall off on the floor, the oil is likely mmable."


    Aldrich warned behind him and make sure to walk slowly and carefully. He looked around and waited for the rest to join him, this ce gave him an uneasy feeling.


    He held his new sword and evened out his breathing.


    Suddenly from the direction of the stacked barrels five giant rats charged at them. Each one of them was as big as a dog, with red eyes and several rotten patches on their fur.


    Aldrich reminded himself not put too much power into the sword lest he break it like he did thest one. He did want to use the spear from the Ravenfolk but he decided not to bring it for this narrow environment.


    Aldrich sidestepped the first rat and shed it in midair, however when some of the blood and guts fell on him it burned slightly. Shit.


    "Guys! These are poisons rats don''t get bitten and¡ª"


    Before he could say anymore another rat sneaked behind him extremely quickly when he turned around to chase it he slipped on the oil and fell.

 Chapter 156 Breaking The Shell (3)

    What ensued next was a chaotic mess of fighting and slipping on the oil, the whole party was thrown off because of the oil.


    What would normally be a simple beast has be a difficult opponent. The rats seem to have adapted to the oil and were able to scratch with their ws at the right moment.


    Aldrich tried to get back up but thanks to the constant attacks of two rats he always ended up falling and slipping.


    He cursed in him mind but then breathed in deeply to remain calm. He examined his ''wounds'' and it turns out they were barely scratches.


    His skin was already very tough, these rats were weaklings even if he allowed them to scratch all day he wouldn''t be too bothered. Seeing this, he stopped struggling.


    He rxed his muscles and when one of the rats closed in to attack him again he reached out with the speed of lightning and caught it.


    It was over, once it was caught with Aldrich''s strength he easily twisted it''s neck until it cracked. The other one attacked at that moment, it seems like it thought that he was too distracted to deal with it.


    Aldrich took out one of his throwing knives and it popped the rodent''s eye causing it to attempt to flee at which point Cole jumped from behind and stabbed at it like he held a grudge against it.


    It seems like he was still trying to make up for the trap thing.


    Aldrich managed to get up and he saw that thest rat was killed by Frank, it was a clean cut. The rest were blocking the exit to the floor beneath.


    That was a smart move that Aldrich didn''t have time to think about, if the rats ran down it would make it hard to catch them again. Also it could put Huzon was waiting for them downstairs in danger.


    "Ugh!"


    "Are you alright?"


    However it seems like some damage has been done. Emma was bitten by the rat in her left arm, the wound was not too deep but the poison was a bit of a problem.


    "Nathan do you have something for this?" Aldrich asked since Nathan seemed to have something for everything.


    "I have a very simple antidote but she needs to see a physician for a proper prescription," Nathan took out a sk and gave it to Emma, she drank it as he exined.


    ? "Would they have an apothecary in this town?" Hellen asked, "we didn''t have one in my vige."


    "I''m pretty sure they do, what with all the construction going on?" Aldrich reassured, "Emma you should go down and tell Huzon toe up here, I should stay out of the quest from now on."


    "Come on," Frank said softly to Emma who had an unwilling expression, "I will go with you."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich knew that it was hard news having to withdraw from the quest but she already participated and so if they passed then she would pass with them.


    Besides it was better to leave now before any life threatening danger actually happens to her. Aldrich had no intention to belittle her for her efforts at all, she was just unlucky, same thing almost happened to Cole a few minutes ago.


    After resting for ten minutes Huzon and Frank joined them, there was only one stop left, the beacon.


    The reason why they took so long was because apparently Huzon knew of two brothers in town who were versed in healing.


    They weren''t Clerics but they were Crestmasters who had healed many people in town since they came here. Huzon didn''t know what ss they were but Aldrich suspected that they were Glyphmancers since they could mimic the healing powers of Clerics.


    This town actually had that many Crestmasters? Aldrich was truly impressed even a little shocked, and even the inquisition made a public appearance too.


    Aldrich had a bad feeling all of a sudden, he decided that if the injuries weren''t that severe then they would get out of here as soon as possible. This had the taste of something beyond his pay grade.


    "Alright, everyone follow behind me and keep your wits about you, low level Haunting ghosts can only use some weak illusions as long as you are focused nothing will happen. Of course even knowing that you need tp keep in mind that something unexpected might happen."


    After that warning Aldrich climbed on the ramp, since there was no more staircase and pushed open the trapdoor in the ceiling. Fresh air from the sea flooded into the damp lighthouse for the first time in a long time.


    The sea breeze whips through this open-air room. A stack of wood, taller than an average human, sits in the center of the room, unlit and rotting.


    A pair of struts and pulleys is affixed to one ledge, old ropes descending from them to the ground. An old, yellowed, skeleton in an oilskin coat and the rotted remains of other clothing lies propped against the woodpile.


    The skeletal remains were once the lighthouse keeper, who decided to take his own life with poison rather than work with pirates or face ckmail and arrest.


    Aldrich guessed that the ghost must be here logically and thanks to all the clues so far, now his ghost haunts the area. He was looking for the haunted object here, his first guess was that poison bottle.


    As they climbed up, they stared at the skeletal remains warily, the ghost could also have haunted a bone from his old body or something. After Huzon climbed up, all of a sudden the wind picked up and then wentpletely still.


    Light yellow smoke rose from the skeleton and condensed into the form of a man, he appeared as an old bearded man in a knit cap and oilskin coat.


    Aldrich could hear a strange buzz in the air, the ghost didn''t try anything nor did it disy an aggression. In fact in looked at them rather happily as if in relief.


    The buzzing continued and Aldrich realized, this was the ghost trying to talk to them.

 Chapter 157 Breaking The Shell (4)

    "Are you guys hearing this?" Aldrich asked the rest and he knew the answer by looking at their faces. They did not. Aldrich guessed that if he had a stronger spirit he might have been able to hear the ghost.


    But at this rate they won''t be able to get anything done.


    Suddenly Aldrich and the rest raised their weapons in response to the ghost pointing at them.


    "Father!"


    Aldrich looked carefully and realized the ghost was pointing at Huzon. He allowed him to walk closer to the ghost. When Huzon was close enough the yellow smoke scattered and entered  Huzon''s body from his mouth, ears and nose.


    "Attack¡ª" Hellen was about to rush when Frank stopped her.


    "Stop, we might hurt Huzon if we act recklessly!"


    Aldrich nodded in agreement and narrowed his eyes, he was taking too risky a gamble right now. Hopefully it will pay off or he might have to resort to extreme measures.


    While they were on edge observing Huzon abruptly Aldrich felt a spine chilling palpitation and he looked up. At some point in time, right above their heads, dozens of ghosts manifested and hovered there, staring at them.


    Aldrich gritted his teeth, from the beginning this quest had a dangerousck of information, the bandit quest was not so badpared to this.


    Finally the shaking of Huzon calmed down and he opened his eyes, only they were only whites.


    "Do not be scared," Huzon or rather¡ªthe ghost said with Huzon''s mouth. Aldrich didn''t freak out he saw something like this before, this time the ghost was able to talk properly.


    "You can call me, the ghost of the keeper," the ghost said, "I have awaited the day when someone will heed my call ande to save us."


    "Save you?" Aldrich asked just to make sure, "you mean you want us to exorcise you?"


    "Indeed, not just me," the ghost pointed above to the other ghosts hovering in the air, "all of us, please save us, save Ebrict. A great evil is here."


    "A great evil?" Aldrich repeated, "well what do you mean? We just have to break the haunted object, it''s probably that poison bottle right?"


    "What are you saying? The whole the town must be in danger." Frank quickly countered.


    "Frank, we''re here to exorcise the ghost and then we''re out of here." Aldrich replied, feeling that this was not the time to argue.


    "I mean I don''tpletely agree with Frank but¡­ we can''t just leave the people knowing they could be in danger." Hellen said.


    "Who said we''ll just leave them be?" Aldrich facepalmed, "we''ll get the news of the danger to the lord who has five Crestmasters under him, don''t forget about the inquisition too."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich took a deep breath, "I reckon these guys will be better at handling whatever it is that evil is. As long as it doesn''t have anything to do with our quest then forget it."


    "It''s not¡­ the bottle." The ghost said atst causing Aldrich to curse inwardly, "it was the item you were looking for but no more. Not since that monster did something here."


    "You mean¡­ the monster has the haunted item? He was able to change it from the bottle into something in his possession? What about all these other ghosts what are they doing here?"


    "At first I was alone but when that monster came here, more and more ghosts came to be. The monster kills people down there and imprisons their ghosts here."


    So the monster was killing people and deliberately creating ghosts and imprisoned them here somehow. This was bad news, it can''t be a simple monster¡­


    "Do you know what the new haunted item looks like?" Cole asked a good question.


    "A ring with a red ruby. You must destroy it to free us all." The ghost said.


    "Where is this monster? You said it was down there? Where exactly, we''ve been through the whole lighthouse and haven''t seen any sign of the monster you speak of."


    "When I was helping the smugglers I used a secret cave under the cliffs, you can go there through the cer under the ground floor. You must hurry, there is no time! It''s about to start when it''s over the whole of Ebrict will be under water!"


    So this is what the whole warning was about. Aldrich felt conflicted, nothing in life was easy. At least not in his life.


    The ghosts then disappeared altogether and Huzon was about to fall on his face but Aldrich quickly caught him. It was not hard for him so he took him out of the lighthouse andid him on the cart.


    Then he picked up the spear of the Ravenfolk, it was about to get brutal soon.


    "I found it." Cole yelled at them. He was given the task of finding the trapdoor of the basement. Apparently it was hidden under a carpet in one of the rooms, it looks like they didn''t search good enough.


    Emma had already went on her own to see the two Crestmasters because the poison should always be treated as soon as possible.


    Aldrich andpany went down to the basement. A pervasive odor of rot and mold fouls the air here. Bags of roots and tubers hang from the ceiling overhead, having sprouted roots through the cloth and withered in their time here.


    A stack of moldy sacks rises to the side of the stairs. A pair of wine racks sit against one wall.


    One of the racks has suffered a partial copse, leaving bottles and broken ss on the floor. Skittering can be heard from the dark corners of the room.


    It was much darker here than it was up there obviously, and the smell of the rotten foodstuffs made for a terrible first impression. Thankfully the light of the mossnterns was good enough.


    Now they just had to find a secret door that would lead them down to the cave which was now upied by a terrible monster.

 Chapter 158 Breaking The Shell (5)

    Aldrich did his best to focus his senses to the absolute limit, looking for anything that might threaten the party.


    Cole''s vision was obviously the best in the darkness, being a halfling but his sharp senses were not to be underestimated either. Besides the dark was not so prevalent thanks to the many mossnterns here.


    "Well, watch out for the ss shards everyone, we don''t want to cut down anymore of our numbers." Aldrich joked, but no oneughed. It''s fine not everyone had his superior sense of humor either.


    "Cole look for the secret door to the cave below and we''ll watch your back." He instructed.


    "How many secret doors have we been through now? It''s like we''re in a dungeon or something." Cole chuckled.


    "Yeah, that is true so this is what an adventure feels like¡­ like crap." Aldrich snorted.


    "You said it!" Hellen chimed in.


    "Based on the shape of the room the door should be behind the wine racks." Cole pushed some stuff and pulled others and in record time a secret door was revealed.


    "Wow, you really know your stuff," Nathan eximed.


    "Nah, this one is amateurish, anyone who made it here would have been able to find it no problem. If you''re serious about looking."


    "Hey, don''t tell me you''re an actual thief?" Aldrich asked after some deliberations, one cannot be that good at this otherwise.


    "W-what? Thief? R-ridiculous! I work in the inn, you''ve been there, I obviously wouldn''t have the time, besides I wouldn''t steal anyway I am from a respectable family" Cole started sweating and throwing excuses one after another.


    Aldrich gave him a look that said e on bro''.


    "Fuck it," Cole cursed and walked out of the secret door first. He must''ve realized that the more he tried to exin the more he implicated himself.


    The path opens onto a tall, cathedral-like room, its floor white with guano and crawling with beetles. Overriding the pungent odor of the guano is the smell of the sea.


    "Doesn''t seem like there''s any ''great evil'' as far as I can see," Nathan didn''t like that they listened to the ghost for some reason, "it''s a monster we have no reason to trust it."


    Aldrich liked that Nathan didn''t say anything when they were up there but when they got far enough he chose to reveal his real thoughts. This meant that he didn''t want to cause friction when they were in close proximity to a potential enemy.


    But¡ª


    "Look up and don''t freak out." Aldrich told the rest of the group at which point they looked at the ceiling and saw the bat colony, since this was daytime the bats were roosting. There were two particrlyrge¡ªno giant bats in the center.


    However Nathan''s statement still held true, this wasn''t the great evil, it couldn''t be. The bats were normal animals and posed no danger the giant bats were only a grade zero level two monsters.


    They were dangerous but they weren''t capable of magics nor could they orchestrate a scheme like that. Hmm, anyhow they probably weren''t far.<sub> </sub>


    "Hellen can you shoot one of the giant bats?"


    <o>,m Hellen had retrieved her bow and arrows like he got the spear before they descended into the sea cave.</o>


    "I can." Hellen said confidently.


    She nocked an arrow and shot, the arrow hit the mark and the giant bat squealed as it fell down startling the colony. The bats flew everywhere making an annoying noise all the while.


    However they suddenly attacked the party from all directions, diving in the air Aldrich sliced a few of them. But his real target was the giant bat who was roaming around the edges of the cave.


    Aldrich didn''t wait, he took the initiative while the others were taking care of the rest he used the rocks of the cave as a lever and jumped.


    The bat was taken by surprise but it was fast in the air much faster than Aldrich expected it to be. It managed to evade the attack but before it could go anywhere else he hurled the spear at it and skewered it at once.


    The force was so powerful it traveled in the air for a few meters before falling down. The rest of the bats scattered after that, however thanks to the direction of their escape he knew that there was more to this cave.


    Where he thought the cave ended there was actually a narrow tunnel that was hidden by the darkness and the natural curves of the cave walls.


    The others all noticed too and converged together, without saying anymore useless words they advanced.


    "Oh! Shit!" Nathan dodged a fallen rock, it seemed like the rocks of the cave were extremely brittle in this tunnel, even a small bump might break some rocks.


    After walking out of the narrow tunnel they came upon another cave, this wide cave has a high ceiling and is half filled with water. A crescent of sandy shore surrounds the


    In this cave there was a medium sized ship currently docked in a small one-ship dock. It was not in great condition, the ship proudly disyed a pirate g. A skull with two bones making a cross under it.


    It was not empty either, the whole ce was brimming with pirates loading cargo from the ship in barrels and crates.


    The strange thing was the absolute silence between the pirates. They weren''t talking or bickering nor cursing ofining at all. The only thing that broke that silence was a man.


    In this cave there was a huge rock. The top of a rock breaks the water''s surface. It is carved with a number of strange glyphs and a rough depiction of a three-eyed, tentacled, fish-like creature.


    A pair of manacles dangles from the rock and one man was hauled up there and chained with a system of pulleys and gears. The man was screaming for he was cut at the abdomen and small fishes were feasting on him.


    Right across them, while all the pirates worked, only one man sat on a high-backed chair simr to the one Ayemon had in his study, the man whom he could only see his back watched the show as the fish devoured the man little by little.

 Chapter 159 Breaking The Shell (6)

    One other pirate joined the man sitting on the high-backed chair. He had simr slimy looks and didn''t say a word to anyone else, from here they were only able to see his side profile.


    Aldrich took a deep breath to calm his nerves, pirates, the worst kind of scum that have ever existed in all existence. It was by no means an exaggeration to say that pirates were the spoiled trash of humanity.


    And there were many of them, Aldrich did a rough count, thirty or more pirates against five. It wasn''t looking good at all. What they did with the bandits couldn''t be replicated here.


    With the bandits they were able to separate them and then used thexative, finally they used a surprise attack to the fullest possible potential. It worked because of many factors and luck.


    This could not be done here. But¡­


    Their quest was not to eliminate the pirates this time though Aldrich would like nothing more, their quests was to exorcise the ghosts at the top of the lighthouse which could only be done by destroying the red ruby ring.


    Aldrich could see the ring right now. The man sitting on the high-backed chair had it on his right hand. He just had to break it and then make a run for it, dealing with the pirates was not part of the quest.


    This meant that he could just report them to the authorities, the lord of Ebrict was hunting pirates like a hound after a rabbit.


    As for why he didn''t immediately give the word to attack?


    He was concerned about the ghost''s warning, and how didn''t the pirates dare deal with ghosts and plot against the whole town? His best and most likely guess was, an item, somehow the pirates got their hands on a certain item which made all of this possible.


    He also noticed something fishy about the pirates demeanor, they were so¡­ weird. That was the only word he could think of now, they didn''t drink nor smoke, they didn''t even talk to each other.


    But this was also their only chance. It was a stroke of luck that all the pirates but two were unloading the cargo and only two were alone, including the one they were after.


    From here they could make an attack, ovee the two pirates easily and break the ring, make an escape all before the rest of the pirates knew what hit them.


    Aldrich would be a fool to let such a chance go by despite his misgivings. There was no such thing as perfection in life, you take what''s been given.


    "Hellen, Cole and Nathan, you will stay here and provide us with cover and once we destroy the ring, make a run for it." Aldrich whispered his n to the others.


    "Frank you take care of the one standing behind the asshole sitting on the chair, do your best to block him from interfering, I will mainly focus on destroying the ring, after that we will run."


    Frank was extremely athletic and the only person who was good with open confrontation in the party besides himself.


    He was also not a novice at wielding that saber, Aldrich noticed, his moves were practiced, his footwork bnced. This could not be achieved by self-learning, he must have been taught by a mentor like Aldrich was.<sub> </sub>


    Frank was annoying at times but he waspetent nheless.


    Everyone nodded, Aldrich and Frank looked at each other for a moment before charging at full speed to the high-backed chair. There was nothing to worry about it was a straight line if not for the sand.


    He took a look at the pirates on the small dock, they still didn''t notice that two intruders were in their midst and aiming for their boss.


    When they were close enough, the pirate standing beside the chair, who was probably the first mate, finally noticed something amiss. Aldrich used his Light step skill and dashed through the distance bypassing the first mate directly.


    Aldrich had no intention to pull his punches at this critical moment, while his speed doubled for ten seconds he thrust his spear through the back of the chair, intending to kill the pirate in one strike and then destroy the ring in one fell swoop.


    However, at this moment, Aldrich felt fear. He wanted to stop and run away at this very moment which was obviously impossible.


    He was no newbie, he knew to suppress his feelings in times of battle. He was already very experienced at it. But for some unknown reason he felt every fiber of his being telling him to run.


    This skin crawling feeling, the goosebumps, it reminded him of his recent encounter with the banshee. However it was impossible to stop now.


    ¡ªNo, he knew why. After his spear went through the back of the chair, it cut only air. The man¡ªrather the being that was supposed to be sitting there has stood up and dodged the spearing for his life.


    It had the same nk look as all the rest of the pirates and wore an oilskin coat, but it had a vertical eye on it''s forehead and four slimy tentacles protruding out from the back.


    Now he knew what it was, this was the great evil. It was an Aberrant acolyte, these were once humans but they were twisted by the creatures of the deep known as Shoggti to serve their dark purposes.


    Aldrich didn''t know much about the Shoggti as it was a grade two creature, however he knew that they possessed terrifying mental capabilities and could twist the minds of creatures into loyal ves and servants.


    Now the chained man on the rock made sense this was an evil ritual conducted by the Aberrant acolyte. The reason for these rituals was unknown but most spected that it was done to apease it''s masters in the deep sea.


    Aldrich will his body to turn back, but it was useless, the Light step skill only worked when moving through straight lines.


    "Whoosh!"


    p One of the tentacles of the Aberrant acolyte stabbed him in the the chest sending him in the air. Aldrich saw the attacking but he was powerless to do anything but watch, the impact was like being hit by a speeding carriage but with the sharpness of a spear all at once.</anda>


    Grade¡­.one¡­

 Chapter 160 Breaking The Shell (7)

    He coughed blood, the tentacle didn''t pierce the chest armor at least notpletely but it dented it and cracks appeared everywhere. The impact was enough to cause Aldrich internal damage.


    After all it was a grade one monster. Equivalent to a true Crestmaster.


    Aldrichnded on the sand and rolled, he had not felt like this since his first fight against the armored husk.


    "Haaa!"


    Aldrich tried to breath but everything felt out of wack until he shook his head and the daze he was in with it. With a roar he regained hisposure.


    Aldrich looked at the scene in front of him, Frank was suspended in the air by four tentacles. But it was not the same Aberrant acolyte that attacked Aldrich, it was the first mate.


    There were two of them.


    Aldrich ran towards the suspended Frank with the spear that he was still holding onto but he suddenly raised the spear horizontally and took three steps back.


    The Aberrant acolyte captain attacked with his tentacles and he used the pole of the spear to block. The hit made his hands shake, the metallic pole of the spear was bent with that blow, not too much as to impede use.


    The Aberrant captain didn''t move from his ce but his tentacles were extremely long and fast, crossing ten meters in the blink of an eye. In fact if it was anyone else they would already be dead taking these two hits.


    Aldrich used his Light step skill once again, he had to get Frank and get out of here before it''s toote. Without even looking he knew the rest of the pirates were already rushing here.


    Besides there was a bigger chance now when these monsters were not going all out yet. The Aberrant acolyte was not known for its brute strength but¡ª


    "Aghhhhaaaa!!!"


    Before he could think anymore he was struck with an invisible attack, the Aberrant acolyte did not make any move at least not physically. In the back of his mind Aldrich realized it this is [psychic Lash].


    His mind felt like it was suddenly and violently seized and flung into a sea storm. He could only think of that time when he received the armored husk''s memories.


    It was only thanks to his already powerful will and mind that he was able to keep himself from losing consciousness and with that he took one step towards Frank before being stabbed twice.


    One shattered the remains of his chest piece, the armored tes splintered like broken ss instead of metal, and tore into his guts. The second was to his upper right chest.


    His blood painted the sand with red droplets and that pain sobered him up enough to attempt to stand again after falling on his knees but another shock rattled his body.


    This was [Spark Shock] an attack that sent some kind of energy into the bodies of the victims and stunned them.


    "F-Frank!"


    Aldrich could hardly think anymore let alone save anyone. He watched in horror as the second Aberrant acolyte pulled at his limbs from four different directions at once.


    "Aaahghhh!!!"


    Frank who had lost consciousness at some point, regained it in the most painful way possible and screamed his heart out as the sounds of tearing and dislocating rang out in the area.


    ''Please, hold on!''


    Aldrich needed to recover mentally, that was where most of the damage he got. The flesh wounds were terrible but he knew he still had some fight in him so long as he got a few seconds to recover his messed up mind.<sub> </sub>


    In fact thanks to this psychic attack even the flow of thoughts was slowed down.


    But time waited for no one.


    "Aghaaaaa!!!"


    Frank''s limbs were about to be torn up now, at this moment not a few secondster.


    Suddenly.


    Frank''s eyes release blue light and the saber that fell down on the sand, the monsters didn''t care for it. That saber released the same blue light and flew into the air of it''s own ord to Frank.


    *phwooosh!*


    A blue arc of Ether suddenly cut off all four tentacles holding Frank, he fell on the sand, the saber besides him. Frank didn''t move an inch after falling and his eyes were shut.


    Aldrich used the chance when the monsters were stunned, he pulled out the tentacles that were stuck in him and jumped over Frank, he loaded him on his back and didn''t forget to take the saber with him.


    Aldrich sensed that the acolytes were not giving chase and he didn''t care why not either. He used hisst Light step skill, after which his Ether would bepletely depleted.


    Fortunately it was a straight line back to the other cave. The others were fending off the other pirates and they all ran back through the tunnel when they saw him.


    Aldrich didn''t care about his body now, he pressed on even after the ten seconds of the skill duration ran out. He passed through the tunnel to the bat cave which was much smaller.


    The others were dumbly waiting for him on the other side. He threw Frank off of his back and struck the walls of the tunnel in quick session.


    "Hit the walls!" He yelled at them desperately, "NOW!"


    The walls of the tunnel were already unstable they started demolishing it, he unleashed a barrage of strikes on the walls of the tunnel and didn''t stop even after the spear became a blunt piece of crap.


    The wall started falling off chunk after chunk filled the tunnel, Aldrich could feel them on the other side. Suddenly he was hit again with a [psychic Lash] from the other side.


    Aldrich fell down and felt a pair of hands pull him from the back, in his groggy stated he said, "more don''t stop!"


    Maybe they were lucky.


    Suddenly the entire bat cave started shacking and huge chunks of rock and stone fell, making for a sufficient barrier.


    "Aldrich! Can you hear me?!"


    But maybe they were also unlucky. Because¡­


    "The cave! It fell down from both sides, we can''t get through to the basement of the lighthouse."


    ''So we''re stuck.''

 Chapter 161 Breaking The Shell (8)

    This was the most dangerous situation he has been in since he defeated the armored husk, but this was real life and not the nightmare realm. If he died here once then it was over.


    His mind was in shambles and his body was wrecked to a ridiculous point. Aldrich was sure that he wouldn''t be able to maintain consciousness for long, so he tried to think of what to do.


    Obviously he and Frank were out of the picture but the others were still in fighting shape so if he came up with an idea¡ª


    "Shit, shit, shit!" Cole cursed out loud, "how did this happen? Fuck, fuck all of this!"


    "Cole try to calm down¡ª" Nathan tried to talk some sense into him.


    "Calm what? Huh?! Calm what?! We''re fucking dead!" Cole snapped.


    Nathan lowered his head with nothing to retort, he had nothing to say to that anyway.


    "Shit," Hellen muttered as she sank down to her knees, "I knew something wasn''t right when we got this quest, this is bullshit!"


    Aldrich knew what they were thinking about, two grade one monsters. That was no longer a grade zero quest, the only thing that awaited them was certain death.


    In this situation either they died here out of starvation and hunger or the monsters on the other side got to them at which point they would also die.


    This meant that they were out of luck.


    This quest was chosen voluntarily by Aldrich and he sure as fuck wasn''t going to let anyone in this quest die thanks to his arrogance.


    But Aldrich had a n, it wasn''t hopeless yet. With thest remaining strength in his body he said it.


    "B-breakthrough¡­ ignite¡­ your Crests!"


    That''s right, Nathan, Cole and Hellen were all suppressing their crests as for the guild? This was thest quest, and no one was here to see them do this. In fact even if it was discovered, so what?


    Two grade one creatures! Aldrich was sure they wouldn''t have a problem with them igniting their crests toplete the quest and defeat two grade one creatures.


    Cole and the others heard his words because of the silence among them and Cole came closer to him, he smiled bitterly and said, "Aldrich you must be joking right?"


    Aldrich didn''t understand what he was saying, was it because his mind was fucked up or what? What do you mean? He wanted to ask but his tongue had grown too heavy.


    If the three of them be Crestmasters then they could at least get out of this mess fairly easily.


    They were all suppressing their crests right? This is the time to do it. Aldrich would have already done it but his mind was too messed up and he needed a few moments of focus to call to the attributes bar.


    However Cole talked anyway, "you know that we need to enter into a deep meditative trance to do that? Does it look like we brought meditation incense here? And even if we did could we even meditate?!"<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich didn''t know that, he thought that all they needed was a thought and a moment of silence like him but the truth was not even close to that.


    '' I messed up.''


    This was hisst thought before he finally gave in and lost consciousness.


    ****


    Aldrich took a deep breath, he was in Voros, the nightmare town, in the great hall of pirs that was supposedly the third floor of the base. He had used the seal of Tindalor up here to leave so when he came back he returned here.


    He was still decked in his best arms, still holding the enhanced great sword. Aldrich decided to do it here, he was going to ignite his crest here atst and be a Crestmaster in truth.


    His head was still messed up even here, it seems that the after effects of mental attacks still carried on to this realm.


    That was no ordinary attack, if a normal man was subjected to he would have died in a second without knowing how he died. If not for his high stats, especially the intelligence and spirit stats he would have been a goner.


    Even then Aldrich found himself in an incredibly sorry state. Just a moment, he just needed a moment to think, focus and then use the orbs he painstakingly collected to be a grade one life-form.


    Suddenly he heard a noise behind him, in the direction of the central pir. It was like ss shards falling on the ground and breaking. He heard it again.


    Aldrich turned around to see what happened, this ce was devoid of anything that could make that noise.


    He saw the ''statue'' of what he thought was a serpent coiling around the central pir breaking, rather it was the outer shell that made it look like stonework break. And reveal what was underneath.


    The serpent head, which he thought was oddly shaped turned out to be the upper torso of a man connected to a centipede''s body.


    Only it had the carapace of a sea crab and instead of insecticide legs it had human arms jutting out of it. Some were longer than others.


    Aldrich wanted to move but, due to abination of his current mental state and the superior speed of the monster he was unable to dodge the wide tail swipe.


    The hit broke his right arms the instant of ten collision, no, it was the whole right side of his body. Before he knew it he crashed into the wall, the blood and flesh almost became one with the wall material.


    By the time he could register what was happening three of the longer human arms had picked him up in the air. Aldrich looked down.


    He saw a massive maw opened beneath him, the mouth did not belong to the head of the human upper torso. It was the middle section of the monster that somehow sprouted a giant mouth filled with endless fangs.


    Aldrich was swallowed.

 Chapter 162 Breaking The Shell (9)

    Aldrich was alive again but he could still hear the sounds of his bones crunching splintered, he could feel a thousand fangs tearing into his body all at once.


    However with a start he heard the sound of the monster creeping towards him once again and he realized he was resurrected in the third floor, naked and without any weapon.


    This was thest used seal of Tindalor, after death he was resurrected here.


    Aldrich reached with his left hand to the seal of Tindalor to get out of here and teleport to themon room or anywhere else, really.


    But, suddenly before he could activate the seal he ducked and rolled to the side. As he did so, he heard a horrific sound simr to the sound bombs made.


    He looked up, where stood there was a diagonal gash that ran along the wall''s length. He was still in shock, he saw a liquid sshed everywhere, colorless, without think he touched it, it was¡­ water?


    He looked back at the monster which was creeping towards him at a ridiculous speed, it somehow shot high pressure water at him from back there. If he had been even a single second slower he would be dead again.


    ''Shit!''


    Aldrich awoke from his stupor and made a run to get his sword back. He wouldn''t be able to run out of here now that the seal of Tindalor here was destroyed and the huge gate locked, he was trapped.


    Aldrich regained hisposure and realized that the after effects of the [Psychic Lash] were still notpletely resolved.


    However even if they weren''t his inability to use the attribute panel wouldn''t change. This is because he need a few seconds to focus his mind to use it, that''s why he needed to by time.


    ''Wait! What if I die now that the seal I used to resurrect had been destroyed? I might resurrect in themon room or somewhere else, right?''


    Aldrich took a chance to look back at the destruction caused by the monster and to his surprise although the wall was in shambles, the seal of Tindalor looked unaffected.


    It seems like it wasn''t easy to destroy a seal of Tindalor¡­ ok, so he was still stuck here and unable to leave nor ignite his crest.


    Aldrich ran towards on of the cage pirs and suddenly changed directions, the centipede monster mmed into the pir most of the cages fell on it in a crash.


    He smiled, this should buy him enough time to¡ª


    *CRASH!*


    The monster flexed it''s huge frame and twisted, using pure strength to free itself and send the metallic cages flying in different directions. However that was not a wise move.


    The cages closest to each other were actually tied with ropes and although most of them had decayed others still retained some tenacity.


    This caused a chain reaction and the closest three cage pirs fell on top of the struggling monster.


    Aldrich took his sword which fell off when he was sent flying by the tail swipe. However all the time he got by that coincidence ran out as the monster chose a gentler approach and like an insect it crawled and slithered around the cages.


    But Aldrich had regained his confidence, his eyes scanned the destroyed hall and lingered on one of the stone pirs. One of the cages flung off by the monster earlier had destroyed half of it''s base.


    This was not like the cage pirs, it was suitably heavy, and more importantly it tapered a bit toward the ground and looked very crumbly and unstable.<sub> </sub>


    It wasn''t precisely the n, but ns change¡­.


    At least, it had a decent chance of working.


    He ran to the pir, started climbing up the stone formation gingerly, he put the sword in his mouth and climbed.


    The fact that it was crumbling gave a lot of handholds, which aided his ascent. The fact that it was unstable made it shudder with every move he exerted on it, which did not aid his nerves.


    The armored monster rounded the corner, bounding energetically even with a wing uselessly trailing the ground. Its gaze caught him.


    *Chkreeeeeaaar!*


    "Fuck," he cursed, and carefully moved faster. The rocks and stones of the pir trembled and swayed. He paused, eyes wide.


    *Sheeek!*


    Aldrich set his teeth and ignored the swaying. ''Don''t look down, don''t look down, don''t look down!''


    He gained the semi-t top of the pir with a sigh of relief, then took out his sword, used to pull towards him, one of the ropes from the nearby cage pir.


    He nced down, stepped to the side opposite the crawling centipede, inclined himself nearly horizontal, soles of his feet against the edge of the pir, with the rope supporting his weight.


    He bent his knees. Then with all the force he could, pushed off.


    The pir swayed in the opposite direction as he swung away. He reached the top of the swing arc, and bore down with all his weight as gravity pulled him back down.


    Using the momentum of the return swing, he mmed into the pir. Aldrich thanked Altunan that he had such high stats to be able to perform this task.


    He bounced off deliberately to save himself the pain, but the shock of the collision still resonated in his bones.


    The pir leaned over. But it wasn''t enough to fall.


    The monster scrabbled at the slope, intent on getting to Aldrich and ignoring everything else.


    He adjusted and pushed off again, with greater force, cursing.


    Scratches on his knees and palms still stung. Even now, he felt his grip on the vine slipping. Sounds of broken stone echoed out.


    He mmed into the pir again. It tipped over. He huffed in relief. The pir bumped one edge against the crushed base as it wavered in its descent; he nearly slipped off. Tightening his grip on his rope, he braced.


    The monster was an insect adept at climbing and as soon as it got to the pir it did just that, the distance of ten meters was only twice it''s length.


    It just a single leap from where Aldrich was hanging, could not avoid the pir''s falling weight.

 Chapter 163 Breaking The Shell (10)

    Aldrich braced his feet on the stone, letting the length of the rope run out between his loose grip as he descended with the pir.


    Pir and monster fell, at that moment it seemed that time stopped. And a momentter an extremely violent crash and a pained scream echoed.


    That put a smile on his face. But not for long, he did not dare to allow himself a moment of respite, not now. The precious time he bought by gambling with his life.


    Aldrich used the rope and gravity to swing towards the nearby cage pir, his feet slid from under him. He turned it into a roll, dropped onto the cage''s iron bars and jumped down.


    Finally his feet touched the ground. He looked at the seal of Tindalor, but he moved too far, he would waste too much time to get there and use to seal to escape.


    Furthermore he did not forget that monster''s high pressure water attack, it was a ranged attack. If he was in ce of that monster he would have used it again to shoot himself when he was climbing the pir instead of climbing after him.


    But, it''s not like he wasining.


    That attack might have hurt the centipede monster but it certainly wouldn''t kill it. Aldrich got his moment and focused.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 4+


    Agility: 4+


    Endurance: 4+


    Vitality: 4+


    Intelligence: 4+


    Spirit (ck): 4+


    Green essence orbs: 2


    Red essence orbs: 12


    Ether: 3


    Abilities: eyes of insight LV.1+


    Skills: Light step LV.1+


    Condition: blood of ######


    Aldrich didn''t waste time he focused on his spirit attribute and there was a small change, from four to five.


    Suddenly Aldrich could feel a magical sensation spreading throughout his body, power like he never felt before overflowed and¡ª


    At least that''s what he thought was going to happen. The truth was that feeling disappeared almost immediately and he was no different than before. Still, an ordinary human.


    ''What? Did it fail?''


    Aldrich looked at his attributes bar and indeed the spirit attribute was upgraded sessfully. Abruptly, a realization dawned on him.


    Upgrade the spirit attribute to level five and be a Crestmaster. This was purely, a spection at the end of the day. It was only a guess that he came up with on his own.<sub> </sub>


    He repeated these words in his mind so many times that he believed them, at some point in time he forgot that it was only a guess. An educated guess, definitely, but ultimately a guess.


    Aldrich wanted to upgrade spirit once again, but the plus sign disappeared. His remaining orbs were not enough.


    ''No, no, this can''t be happening¡­''


    Aldrich breathed harder and harder his face paled and his lips quivered. This was the most desperate he had ever been since escaping the Wakefield massacre.


    The monstrous centipede freed itself from under the pir, the outer shell was cracked in several ces and purple blood leaked out.


    The humanoid upper body, which was the superior Aldrich was looking for had an angry expression and snarled at him. In a sh it charged at him and coiled around him like it was around the central pir not long ago, and squeezed him.


    His body ballooned for a second from the pressure and then¡­ popped. All the while he did not resist nor attempt to flee or fight back.


    Aldrich was resurrected again His body in the real world was on the brink of death, and he only had onest life left here.


    If he died one more time he would be forcefully expelled from here to the real world but his condition would beplete physical and mental exhaustion.


    And that would be the end of it, he would be the first to die among his party members. Real death not like the nightmare realm, he was on hisst leg.


    ''I¡­ have no choice but to win,''


    That''s right, the only way to get out of this situation was to win against this monster and then collect enough orbs and be a true Crestmaster.


    He had allowed himself to die in vain, why? Because it was hard? So what? What has he been doing until now? Isn''t it to ovee overwhelming odds and emerging victorious?


    No, even if he knew that he had no chance, realistically speaking against a grade one monster, but so fucking what? If he was going to die then might as well do it while fighting.


    As soon as he came upon that realization he felt his body burn.


    ***


    Ignition.


    What did it mean to ignite? Why was this word specifically used to describe the appearance of the first symbol in a crest?


    An empty crest, which initiates had, was a ring of white light divided into four sections or slots by a cross in the middle. Toplete the journey of a Crestmaster one must inscribe a symbol in each of the slots.


    Every symbol represented a qualitative change in life. A jump to greater heights in existence establishing a greater connection with the Immatirum and thus obtaining great power.


    Out of the five sses of crests: knight, weaponsmaster, cleric, pyromancer and glyphmancer. One crest will only carry only one ss of symbols.


    <o>,m Meaning if your first symbol was of a cleric, all the symbols after that will belong to the cleric ss.</o>


    ***


    Aldrich felt his forehead burning and feeling of great might and power exploded out of his body, on his forehead his empty crest appeared and on the lower left side deep red and ck lights gathered.


    The original pure white crest was no more, it was washed away by the deep red and ck that eventually intertwined.


    There was a sense of regal majesty about the deep red light, as if all who saw it were forced to worship it out of admiration. The ck was ferocious and wild inparison, uncaring for anything else but ughter and destruction.


    The monstrous centipede, sensing danger for the first time quickly charged over faster than ever before.

 Chapter 164 Breaking The Shell (11)

    Aldrich, still encased in the two lights sensed the approaching danger and made a run for it to buy time. His ignition was not over, the inscription of the first symbol took time, it was not an instantaneous process.


    Aldrich looked at his remaining orbs, one green orb and sixty four red orbs, he hid behind one of the stone pirs and upgraded intelligence to five as well reducing the red orbs to sixteen.


    Aldrich sure as hell wasn''t going to do nothing but wait, he chose to upgrade intelligence after spirit because it had the most to do with his mind. It was the fastest way to recover from the effects of [Psychic Lash].


    This was the main reason why Aldrich got in so much trouble here, he wasn''t able to fight like his usual self because of the two strikes of [Psychic Lash].


    Of course it was very likely his circumstances wouldn''t improve all that much but still, he may have been able to use the seal of Tindalor to escape who knows?


    The attack of a grade one creature was just that bad for a grade zero creature, it was only because he was Aldrich that he actually survived.


    Aldrich continued running because the monstrous centipede almost caught up to him. As he did so he felt his mind clear out for the first time in a while. Well it wasn''t that long but it certainly felt like that.


    Aldrich wanted to upgrade another attribute but it was already toote, the centipede was upon him. It cleverly circled around him with its long body and was about to crush him like it did not long ago.


    But¡ª


    [Aeon Crest: processing]


    Strength: 4 ¡ª> 7


    Agility:  4 ¡ª> 7


    Although the ignition wasn''t finished yet Aldrich saw his Strength and Agility attributes explode to seven all at once. His power tripled all of a sudden.


    Aldrich spread his hands wide as if he was about to hug someone, his hands caught the body of the centipede that was about to squeeze him to death. And it stopped.


    "Eh?"


    The head of the centipede''s upper body let out a surprised sound. Aldrich made eye contact with it for the first time, it hadpletely cked out eyes and a ne hung from it''s neck.


    That was the key to the underground prison of the Unseen Hand which Aldrich needed to open the metal gate without triggering an traps.


    Aldrich released the pressure on his hands, and jumped. The body losing that stalemate suddenly contracted unto itself and he stepped on top of the protective outer shell of the centipede, and dashed.


    His goal was the humanoid upper body of the Superior, Aldrich stepped on the already cracked shells and destroyed them further with each step, he left a footprint in blood.


    He still did not get used to his significant increase in speed and power and almost slipped out. But in the end he still made it, with a jump he raised his fist and wished that he had his sword with him at this moment.


    However, the upper body of the Superior suddenly crosse his hands and conjured a torrent of blood red mes at him. Aldrich was in the air and had no way to dodge.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich was pushed back by the mes but he still gritted his teeth and punched down, at the abdomen of the Superior. In the meantime he sneakily snatched the yellow key.


    The punch was so powerful the conjured mes were put out by the air st and he heard several bones breaking on the upper body of the Superior.


    The punch pushed him back and with that the whole six meters long body of the centipede below was flung violently along with the Superior''s upper body.


    It seems like whatever happened to the upper body had a severe effect on the lower body.


    Aldrich was taken back and winced at his burned skin, he was grabbed by several human arms of the centipede and¡ªusing the momentum it hurled him across the hall.


    He mmed into several cage pirs and finallynded on a stone pir which stopped his short-term flight. His own bones broke, everywhere.


    Aldrich willed his body to move, to respond, but to no avail. ''Just a little bit of time.'' ''Almost there.''


    He looked to the front, the centipede did not give chase nor did ite any closer, it had opened it''s disgusting mouth, which had eaten him at first¡ªand he saw water swirling in that massive maw. It was being focused into one single point.


    This is the high pressure water canon that destroyed the wall, Aldrich smiled bitterly, all he needed was just a bit or time and he could havepleted his ignition and killed this thing.


    But there was also something else concerning time that he had not payed attention to. A condition that Aldrich didn''t give much thought to.


    For some reason he was attracted to that condition now of all times, it was just an instinct.


    Something''s not right. How could he not even investigate this? It''s like whenever he opened his attributes panel he would always gloss over it for some reason.


    Thest time he used the Eyes of Insight on it he saw this: Condition: the blood of #######: time remaining:???


    But now he saw this: Condition: the blood of #######: time remaining: 00:00:02 sec


    And the time reached zero. Aldrich felt like he fell into an ice coldke in the dead of winter. But he did not feel any cold, he felt nothing, only insatiable hunger.


    With a feral roar Aldrich suddenly moved his supposedly broken body and dodged the high pressure water cannon.


    But he did not run not that he even knew what that was any more, all he knew was that he was hungry. And he must feed.


    As he charged at the centipede his body grew to stand at five meters tall, his body hair grew wildly like fur and two more pairs of eyes appeared under his original eyes, glowing in yellow.


    An extra pair of arms right under his original arms, ws that released dark ominous smoke and his face grew long to support dozens and dozens of fangs. His head had four horns like a crown.

 Chapter 165 Breaking The Shell (12)

    In the journal of the Lost Ones Aldrich once read this line: "There is a beast in the heart of every man, as time goes on the beast walks out and you are locked in. Forever."


    This was one of the warnings left to him, unfortunately Aldrich didn''t read too far into the journal yet, to see the exnation of this line.


    The beast crossed the distance of thirty meters in a blink, before the centipede could react. a w cut through the protective shell in a single strike and broke the shell, the dark energy within the w tore through the body and sliced the centipede in half.


    *SCREETCH*


    The upper torso of the Superior screeched in pain, iling everywhere, purple blood bathed the destroyed hall, but it also fired a stream of blood-red fire at the beast.


    The beast jumped ten meters in the air with easy andnded on a pir then jumped again and again from one pir to the next. In this way it evaded the fire st.


    But the aura of the centipede increased at this time, after the fire died down the remaining body of the centipede fell down as if couldn''t withstand any more damage.


    But from underneath that shell an explosive sounded rang and dozens of water canons were fired all at once in a circle that epassed the entire hall.


    The beast, with his speed chose to retreat but as long as he was within the hall he would be hit by the attack. And he was, however right before that a veil of dark and red energy covered him like a cloak from head to toe.


    After the attack ended, the beast emerged without a scratch but the rest of the hall was in a state of destruction, a random passerby would be in the right to think that a storm passed by.


    The beast howled and an ethereal red dot shed on his chest andnded on the monster in the middle of the room.


    The beast then picked up Aldrich''s fallen sword and it expanded to a size suitable for the beast to wield.


    Dark and red mes burned on the sword, the enhanced great sword was a special weapon it was just that Aldrich could not wield it and draw out it''s true might.


    In the center of the attack that devastated the entire battlefield, the centipede revealed it''s true form with out the protective shell, it was an amalgamation of sickly flesh woven together with dark magics and twisted to this being.


    The centipede was looking for the beast, expecting it to survive albeit with heavy wounds and it would soon be time to finish it off.


    However it might have been because of it''s weakened state or the steam in the hall that made visibility hard, that it did not notice the beast had appeared behind it seemingly in the span of a blink.


    However it was already toote as the great sword pierced it. The upper body of the Superior was about to do something when suddenly his arms were ripped off by giant ws.


    Before it could think of anything any more, a maw not too different from it''s own was thest thing it saw.


    The upper body was actually still part of the centipede below and it was hard to pull it off so the beast used the sword, still stabbed through it and stepped on it driving it into the ground.


    Then the beast pulled and pulled, in his mouth screams of anguish echoed but the beast was uncaring, no it seemed to enjoy it more. Finally with a disgusting tearing sound the upper body of the superior was chewed on and then swallowed down.


    The beast felt great pleasure, supreme satisfaction. What a meal! Truly delicious! Delightful! But soon his hunger returned, for it could never be truly satisfied. It needed more prey, more essence!


    Aldrich reacted in that moment of euphoria, and thought of Uldin, and the gift he gave him when they first met.


    In his flesh, a small beetle made of both gears and flesh injected him with the Mind Calming agent.


    A long darkness descended on him and after a short moment or was it a long amount of time? He couldn''t tell. But he checked up on his body and most importantly on his crest.


    It was fine, it was not broken.


    When he first lost control Aldrich thought that he broke his crest somehow even though he didn''t take the oath. To him, that was the process of him turning into an Oathbreaker, monster without any humanity.<sub> </sub>


    But the longer he thought about it he realized how unlikely that was. In that state it wasn''t like he disappeared, he was there, just very faint and unable to control the hunger and greed for essence in him.


    He looked around at the wreckage and sighed. At least he lived another day, so that was something.


    First thing first, he visualized his crest and without looking at his reflection it was as if he could see his crest. In the lower right corner of his crest, the first slot, there was a symbol.


    A symbol of a dark swirling vortex in the center there was a deep red neb surrounded by grey dust particles that were moving along with the swirling darkness.


    This crest certainly did not belong to any of the five sses, it waspletely new. It was called the Aeon crest.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 8


    Agility: 8


    Endurance: 7


    Vitality: 8


    Intelligence: 7


    Spirit (ck): 7


    Green essence orbs: 5


    Red essence orbs: 16


    Ether : 9


    Abilities: Eyes of Insight LV.2


    Skills: Light step LV.2


    Condition: blood of ######


    Crest of Aeon, Skills:


    1) Aurora: Augment Lv.1


    2) invisible weapon Lv.1


    3)True strike Lv.1


    The changes that happened to him were astronomical, Aldrich had just taken his first step into true power. As he looked on to the hall, he realized that he too, had be a monster in his own right.

 Chapter 166 The Aeon Crest (1)

    Aldrich marveled at his body, he had grown taller and his body rippled with lean but tough muscles.


    He walked around the broken hall and frowned at the scattered flesh of the corpses that were still in the cage pirs. In the rampage of that battle the cages fell and broke.


    However, Aldrich had to look for the key. His original objective ining here, it ended in him snatching it midbat but after he transformed, the beast obviously didn''t give a fuck about it.


    Ans so it was buried somewhere here, in the wreckage. As he was going around looking for the key Aldrich was busy with other thoughts.


    His crest was of apletely new ss which was great news, and also terrible news.


    For Aldrich who needed to stand out to achieve his goals, it was great as this kind of news had the potential to spread like wildfire. Even the Emperor could be rmed by the appearance of a new crest.


    But, then what? Like Ayemon said even if he somehow got an audience what would he say? With what proof?


    He shook his head, it was not a viable option. Besides, there is standing out and then there''s being abnormal. Whose to say which was he?


    In fact there are two more crests that were not of the five known sses. They were the Undead crest of necromancy and the Crawling shadows crest of the Yeatra race.


    They were both universal enemies of the entire world. In fact, the three powers of the continent would sometimes pause conflicts and join hands to hunt these two groups.


    Although it is said that the new Dominion through the hands of the Ascendancy have begun working with necromancers in secret. That was still just a rumor, the Dominion has publicly refuted any such ims.


    Aldrich was only one man, how could be willing to put himself in such an uncertain future? But a new crest...


    He could only think that it had something to do with the nightmare realm. Otherwise how could he, a normal guy, have something like that?


    However, Aldrich may have already found a solution to this problem. One of the basic abilities of the weaponsmaster crest was the ability to store weapons in the crest.


    Aldrich reached out with his mind to his enhanced great sword and his Ether enveloped itpletely. In the next moment it disappeared and the symbol of his crest changed too.


    From the swirling darkness and red neb it changed into the shape of a sword with a red tip and a ck body. This way it looked like a variant of the sword symbol of the Weaponsmaster crest.


    The weaponsmaster crest was blue and his was red and ck but that was fine, this could be attributed to it being an unusual symbol of a well known crest. This was better than being apletely new crest.


    He would be able to stand out and at the same time not be a public enemy. Besides Crestmasters can control when to show their crests so most of the time he would just keep it hidden.


    Suddenly his attention was attracted by the remains of the centipede, they were burning out of existence in the same way that happened after he defeated the armored husk.<sub> </sub>


    It left behind a ck heart. The ck heart had pure white bones jutting out of it from the back and coiling around it in a protective fashion. Eerily enough the heart was beating rhythmically as it levitated in the air.


    He had seen one just like it before, it was the Proof of Devotion. Unfortunately it didn''t leave behind a Deadman''s Remnant.


    Aldrich continued looking for the key, and after retracting his steps to the ce when he first turned into the beast he finally found it.


    Although he knew it was the key, it didn''t look like one. It was a rectangr folded golden metal. On one side it had various marks.


    Aldrich took it with him along with the Proof of Devotion, used the seal of Tindalor and teleported to themon room. He then sealed the heart in a ss jar and locked it firmly.


    At this time he didn''t have the patience to look into it, he had to return to the real world and save his teammates.


    But there was just one more thing he had to look into before that. His new stats.


    His stats made a massive jump in terms of pure stats alone he was four times maybe five times stronger than he was before and he was already very strong then.


    But there were some more shocking changes. Such as his ability and skill, Eye of Insight and Light step both rose by a level without consuming any essence!


    This was huge. He simply had no idea how or why that happened. It was still great news for him nheless.


    As a Crestmaster he obtained three new skills and using his Eyes of Insight on them he was able to see their true effects.


    1) Aurora: Augment Lv.1: this skill could use an energy called Aurora to enhance almost anything. It could be used to enhance an attack, defense and even his senses.


    The beast used it to protect itself from the high pressure water explosion. It was not a simple skill at all, that kind of versatility was not ordinary.


    Unfortunately the Aurora was hard to control for now. Unless he used a skill it remained like a lump of iron, heavy and unmoving.


    2) Invisible sword Lv.1: this skill was called invisible weapon before Aldrich absorbed the great sword, and changed after that.


    Aldrich tested this skill and it actually conjectured a perfect replica of his sword, only it was invisible.


    After further testing he found out that the invisible sword could be controlled by his mind to levitate. Controlling it was not that easy but if he honed his skill at it he might be able to make it a great secret attack.

 Chapter 167 The Aeon Crest (2)

    Unfortunately the sword was only invisible to the naked eye, it still had a shadow and when it moved the air whooshed around it. So a careful opponent might discover it.


    And it could only manifest for a three minutes before the skill ended forcefully. It had it''s shortings for sure but it was still level one, it had the potential to improve.


    Aldrich then tried thest skill, True Strike.


    In the backyard of the the base there was only the sound of the panting Aldrich as heid on his back in exhaustion, he looked at his hand and suddenly exploded intoughter for a very long time.


    ''This, this is the power that I have always wanted.''


    There were more marks on the pavement, no signs of anything abnormal, but Aldrich had to recuperate for an entire hour before he manage to get up.


    This new crest had surpassed his expectations, it was something that he simply couldn''t imagined. Every skill was extremely powerful in it''s own right but thatst one¡­


    He scratched his head after resting and used his Eyes of Insight Lv.2 on his sword.


    Great sword of subjugation: It was imbued with the wills of many strong being''s indignation and thirst for revenge. Using the heart of a ### it gained the mes of damnation.


    1) has the ability to expand into the most suitable size for the wielder. The weight does not change.


    p 2) Inflicts mes of damnation as long as it is infused with energy.</anda>


    It looks like he had a treasure with him without even knowing¡­ well it couldn''t be helped, Eyes of Insight Level 1 couldn''t see this information and he simply did not have the energy to use it.


    Aldrich finished his business here and returned to themon room, then he made sure to stash the basement key in the study carefully. He gave quick look around the base to make sure the third floor wasn''t gourmet to suddenly fall and copse on the house.


    That hall just looked like that type of ce that copse after defeating the monster for some reason.


    Then without further ado, he returned to the real world.


    Aldrich opened his eyes and changed his position fromying on the ground pron to leaning his back on the rocky wall. He felt the force of his crest as it came all over him once again.


    His wounds healed and his body grew a little, his eyes especially took on a much clearer countenance, if one looked into them for long they could get lost.


    However he was surprised when he opened his eyes to see the group crowded around Nathan who was brimming with holy light as he sat cross-legged.


    He did it. Aldrich was pleasantly surprised. Nathan opened his eyes, on his forehead, the holy ring appeared in one of the empty slots of his crest.


    "You," Cole said and then stopped as if his throat got dry all of a sudden, "you guys actually did it!"


    "Awesome!" Hellen jumped and pped. Nathan and Aldrich high-fived.<sub> </sub>


    "Nathan, how do you feel? Are your powers under control?" Aldrich asked just to make sure.


    Nathan had a calm look, well he was always calm, "no, it''s not what I was expecting to be honest but I got some handy skills too, you know clerics aren''t just good for healing right?"


    Aldrich smirked and nodded, "first heal Frank, he saved our lives back there. And then we''ll have sea food for dinner."


    "[Heal]!"


    Nathan sped his hands as if in prayer, and a pure white light descended out of nowhere. Aldrich saw this skill used before.


    Frank surprised him back then, when they were on the verge of death, somehow that saber activated and cut off the four tentacles of the first mate.


    In fact perhaps it was because they were wary of that attack that the Aberrant acolytes didn''t give chase immediately which gave them the chance to make a run for it.


    Eventually this allowed then to have a chance to turn things around. He and Frank may not see eye to eye on some things but they were still friends and teammates.


    Unfortunately even after being healed Frank didn''t wake up. Aldrich guessed that would happen after all that attack wouldn''t have been something that could be done casually.


    The tentacles of the Aberrant acolytes may look soft, they were anything but soft. His half te armor was destroyed in two hits, it wasn''t easy for a grade zero creature to even damage it not to mention cut it off so cleanly.


    Aldrich had Cole and Hellen take Frank away, when the were a sufficient distance away he punched the rocks blocking the way out of the bat cave to their of the acolytes.


    The stones broke and shuffled creating an opening which he used to crash out of the tunnel and into that ursed cave once again.


    It looks the crew of fish ves was preparing to leave as they were in the middle of loading their cargo into their ship, but due to the noise he caused to open the tunnel they were rmed.


    Aldrich looked at the two Aberrant acolytes and charged over to them the rest of the mind controlled pirated blocked his way and some of them took out muskets and crossbows and shot at him.


    However Aldrich used his Light step skill and jumped evading most of the barrage, what he didn''t evade was deflected by a skin tight veil that appeared on his body.


    The Light step skill leveled up but it still performed the same function, it doubled his speed.


    Only the time was extended to one minute, however his speed when his agility was 4 and when it is 8 now was a world of difference. Aldrich didn''t move out of the way but mmed into the pirate crew.


    Those who were unlucky enough to be directly hit had been absolutely mutted, some died right there and then. The collision itself was fatal to them.


    But Aldrich didn''t even care about them, in fact he could sit back and let them attack him all day and they wouldn''t amount to anything. They were only grade zero creatures.


    However the pirates didn''t stop nor did they run. This is because these pirates had their minds wiped and brainwashed to worship the deep sea race known as the Shoggti.

 Chapter 168 Now It Belongs To Me-Ahem! To Us!

    Aldrich passed through the majority of the hoard of enved pirates but unfortunately they just kepting so he summoned his great sword from his crest cleared them up.


    He would have liked to use more sophisticated moves but he still couldn''t control his body properly so he had to limit himself to simple movements.


    Abruptly Aldrich used the [Aurora veil], and soon after he felt that he was struck with a mild headache. He had managed to react and block the [Psychic Lash].


    This was an invisible attack that targeted the mind directly, this attack almost killed him not long ago. He was able to sense it and reacted in time.


    The [Aurora veil] did not only block physical attacks. However it didn''t block the two tentacles that stabbed at his heart and head respectively.


    Aldrich couldn''t control the Aurora with him properly, so he couldn''t have the skills activated all the time. This also helped lower his consumption of Ether and Aurora.


    However Aldrich didn''t need the skill to block every attack aimed at him. His fast reflexes and enhanced senses warned him of the attack, and he caught the two tentacles in a firm grasp.


    However, he did not know that the tentacles were charged with [Spark Shock], the moment he got into contact he was shocked from head to toe with that strange energy.


    But it didn''t stop Aldrich from smirking, he still grabbed the tentacles and pulled. There was moment of tension but then it rxed, Aldrich could see the unsuspecting Aberrant acolyte flying towards him in the air.


    The power of the shocking energy suddenly increased, Aldrich had some blood dripping out of his mouth as he jumped in the air to meet his prey.


    The Aberrant acolyte was trying to do something with it''s extra eye, the eye on the forehead was starting to glow.


    Aldrich shed and cut that thing in a clean half, even the skull and bones in it''s body were like tofu, as it fell down ck and red mes burned it until it stopped writhing.


    Aldrich looked at thest acolyte, it was currently trapped in a sphere of holy light as golden words formed a chain around it.


    The monster was kneeling down and holding it''s head between it''s hands as if it was undergoing an internal struggle.


    Nathan was kneeling down too, he was sweating all over.


    "Hurry up¡­ I can''t hold it for long!"


    Aldrich was impressed with this skill, he may have heard of it, apparently it works incredibly well against mind control. Unfortunately it needed the right circumstances.


    If Aldrich didn''t attract the rest of the pirates and one of the Aberrant acolytes Nathan could have been killed as he was defenseless while using the skill.


    Aldrich didn''t waste anymore time, he beheaded the monster and picked up a red ring from his hand. With only a little bit of strength he crushed and yellow gas was released from it into the air.


    Nathan breathed out a sigh of relief and stood up, together they finished off the remaining pirates.


    Aldrich experienced the insatiable hunger once again but he maintained his rationality. However, suddenly red essence orbs floated out of the bodies of the in pirates and converged into him.


    Aldrich didn''t lose his rationality this time because he didn''t have to fight it, he was well aware that he needed every single orb he could get his hands on.


    But he didn''t expect that something seemed to have changed, he no longer needed to physically touch the bodies to get the orbs, now he no longer needed to.


    He got four green essence orbs out of each of the grade one monsters. And the rest of the pirates gave a collective of one green essence orb, two for each one so that means he killed fifty of them.<sub> </sub>


    "What are you guys still doing over there?" Aldrich called to Cole, Hellen and Frank who were still hiding the bat cave.


    "Get moving! These pirates have so much loot, collect it all! Now it belongs to me¡ªahem! To Us!" Aldrich''s tongue slipped there for a moment.


    "What are you going to do?" Cole, asked intending to ck off.


    "I''m going to get the most important things, here look at this." Aldrich pulled up one of the Aberrant acolyte''s tentacles and showed them.


    "Ew! What the fuck! Put it down, burn it." Hellen backed off like she saw the lord of Undeath himself.


    "This is gold," Aldrich said wriggling the slimy tentacle around, "these things can be used to make sea Charms! And this eye can be used to make a grade one wondrous item!"


    "My god!" Cole sucked in a cold breath. Hellen''s disgust was still there but there was some change in the way she looked at the tentacle.


    "Wow, Aldrich you''re pretty knowledgeable, huh." Nathan walked over, "do they teach these kind of stuff in the academy?"


    "You didn''t study there?" Aldrich asked in confusion, he thought that Nathan would have been a remarkable student there.


    "Nah, they have nothing to teach me there. I learned everything in theb with my master."


    "Well, anyway get moving! If you want to be adventurers then you have to make the most out what you have."


    The others scattered and Aldrich started working on the Aberrant acolyte when he suddenly noticed something, floating out of the dead acolyte''s body.


    It was a smooth red stone. Deadman''s Remnant.


    Aldrich didn''t have to use his Eyes of Insight to know what it was but he still did so out of disbelief. In the real world¡­ of course, he could get essence orbs so he shouldn''t have been taken aback.


    Aldrich swallowed down his apprehensions and after making sure no one saw that he pocketed it in his coin pouch.


    Suddenly multitude ghosts appeared to phase through the cave walls and surrounded them. The whole party got tense and took out their weapons.


    Aldrich narrowed his eyes in caution. The ghosts parted and the ghost of the keeper came to the front.


    "Thank you brave heroes for freeing us and saving Ebrict!"


    "No problem, we did what we thought was right," Aldrich nodded heavily, "even if it was not a quest we wouldn''t have been able to leave without doing anything!"


    The ghosts showered praised on them at that remark.


    "We will go now, we will move on¡­"


    "Wait!" Aldrich stopped them.

 Chapter 169 Epilogue

    The vigorous winds of spring blew on a green mountain, full of life in mid-spring the animals and birds could be seen running across the verdant fields.


    On this mountain there was a vige, faraway from anything, it was like many settlements in Vorian these days, isted, and liked it that way. This vige was simply called Green-mountain.


    Strangers would rarely ever pay a visit to Green-mountain, it was small and far removed from any roads or trade routes. However on this day two strangers intruded on the peace of this vige.


    On one of the farms on Green-mountain, mountain goatsy dead. It seems like the goats fur was set on fire and they all burned to death.


    This was akin to the family''s living being destroyed but, to the blond woman with the irritated expression, that hardly mattered.


    "I''m trying to talk and these distrusting fucking animals were annoying me, does anyone here have a problem with that?"


    In front of the farmstead a family consisting of children, women, men and the old, all knelt on the ground in a straight line.


    "Y-you bad girl!" Suddenly on of the boys, no older than ten stood up, pointed at the blond woman and scolded with tears in his eyes.


    The blond woman was already frustrated but when she heard that she got really triggered. Her eyes glowed likemps and a scorching ray struck the insolent boy and burned him.


    To ordinary onlookers, it might have seemed as if she burned the boy with a look.


    Disturbing screams filled the ce, the boy was actively burning but it seemed like he couldn''t run nor move at all. The other family members freaked out.


    "Ah! My boy!"


    One young woman screamed at the sight and ran over to hug the burning boy, and started burning with him, a young man ran over to save her but he too became a victim.


    The rest were restrained by a tough looking middle-aged man.


    "Finally someone sensible." The woman sighed as she sat on a cushioned chair.


    "What¡­ Do you¡­ want?" The man asked with difficulty.


    "I want to know," the woman pulled out a hardened piece of paper, like the kind used in paintings, "this man here, have you seen him before?"


    On the paper was a portrait of an ordinary looking man, that might have been of age with the man being asked.


    However the middle-aged man looked confused, as he looked at the portrait.


    "I do not know this man, nor have I ever seen him. Please go look somewhere else. We''re a simple people, we don''t know anything."


    "On that we agree." The woman did not look surprised at the answered, but her beautiful features suddenly darkened, "you wouldn''t be lying to me, would you?!"


    The man shrank back in fear, "no, no, I wouldn''t dare to lie to you,dy Crestmaster¡­ I swear on Altunan! I wouldn''t even think of doing something like that! Please¡­"


    p The woman''s expression returned to normal, which to her, was probably a constant frown of frustration.</anda>


    "Have you heard of someone called Zamer Voy? What about Ruthen? No?" The woman asked again and the man shook his head once again.


    After receiving that answer the woman sank into her chair and sighed, defeated, she covered here face with both hands.


    At the same time the whole family experienced something simr to spontaneousbustion and died in agony.


    "Of course you don''t know¡­ how many fake identities did this bastard have? What the hell am I even doing here?"


    "Lora, you always lose your temper and give up easily."


    A young man walked out, it looks like he came from the direction of the vige square. The young man was also blond but he just had a bored expression.<sub> </sub>


    "Let''s get out of here I''m done for the day. I don''t suppose you found something on your end, Orion?" The woman asked.


    The young man, Orion shook his head.


    ****


    In a small vi in Allohis, at night. The master bedroom was enveloped in moans of pleasure and grunts from time to time. After an hour the sounds calmed down.


    Orion, took out a cigar and lit it as he looked out of the ceiling-high windows. On the bed, Lara and a another woman recovered.


    "This one is pretty good, I like her." Orion said as he took a seat on a nearby chair.


    "Ha! I knew you would like her, she wasn''t cheap you know." Lara stretched her back and kicked the other woman in the face, "stop spacing out! Get out of here we''re done with you."


    The ve picked up her clothes and left.


    "You want one?" Orion asked as he tried to give Lara a cigar.


    "No, I don''t want one. I want you to tell me why you volunteered for this fool''s errand? The truth this time!"


    Orion took another puff of his cigar, "why do you think it''s a fool''s errand?"


    "Why? Because we don''t even know what the fuck we''re looking for! And the guy who knows killed himself."


    "He did, but don''t you think it was strange that he did that?"


    "What''s strange about it? He went crazy as expected of an Oathbreaker."


    "But on that night he didn''t look all that crazy to me." Orion remarked.


    "What makes you say that?" Lara asked in curiously.


    "Think about it, he killed all that guards, he could have made a run for it and we wouldn''t have caught on until it was already toote."


    Lara sat upright, "what are you talking about? He was crazy he could have done anything."


    "Then what about the soldier''s ration bags? They were all empty¡­ and he didn''t have them with him, what happened? Out of the thirteen bags, one was gone and the others had their contents stolen¡­"


    "You''re not saying¡­ someone else took them? And Voy was buying time for them to run?" Lara hit the nail on the head.


    Orion grinned, "that''s right, it''s the only exnation that makes sense to me. That night, someone else from Wakefield was there and they made it out."


    "Impossible!" Lara eximed, "so you think whoever that was must also have Voy''s ring, right?¡­ All this time we''ve been looking for a person?"


    "Yes," Orion took a sip of wine and said, "That night, on the bridge during the massacre, I thought I felt someone right under us."


    "You mean in the water stream? Master would have noticed¡­" Lara still felt that it didn''t make any sense.


    "Nothing is impossible, as for master? I don''t know, he may have had his own reasons not to say anything, and why do you think he hinted at me to take this mission?"


    "So, where to next?" Lara asked.


    "Hmm¡­ Voryhrm, where else? I have a really good feeling about this."


    If Aldrich was here he would have recognized the two of them, they were the two followed the silver masked man.

 Chapter 170 Hectic

    Aldrich stopped the ghosts from leaving but most of them already started vanishing, however he still had an important question to ask them.


    "Why didn''t the lord and the authorities investigate the disappearance of this many people?"


    Aldrich had this question the moment he saw the number of the ghosts. No matter how busy the lord was he wouldn''t be able to ignore this. When that many people go missing it was bound to creat some waves in ce.


    "I¡­ am not sure¡­ but most of the new ghosts were not from Ebrict¡­ they may have taken people from other ces."


    The ghost was able to offer an exnation before vanishing altogether. Atst this quest was finally over.


    The Aberrant acolytes were sent here for a certain objective, they were intelligent enough to cover their tracks and were able toy low under the nose of the lord.


    Their objective remains unknown but Aldrich didn''t care about that, his concern was that the lord had somehow struck a deal with the Shoggti, which seemed to have been a needless worry.


    Anyway Aldrich and the others couldn''t carry all the cargo and they didn''t really need to. They just carried the most important things and left using the small boat in the cave.


    As for the rest of the stuff, naturally it belonged to them but obviously they could get itter. First they had to report this incident to the guild''s assistance team here.


    They didn''t meet up with them when they first came here due to the urgency of the quest but now that theypleted it things had to be reported.


    Besides it was this team of assistants that would gather their loot and clean up the bodies like they did after the bandits quest.


    This was their job, but it also included things that they will only get ess to after being official members.


    In the Yellowsprings inn they took off their armor and put both Frank and Huzon into some beds. They were still unconscious which was starting to worry them a bit.


    "Hey, Aldrich what crest did you get?" Cole asked curiously.


    Aldrich cleared his throat, "Weaponsmaster crest, my symbol is the great sword."


    "But, I haven''t hear of a crest that can manifest a weapon¡­" Nathan remarked.


    They were talking about the enhanced great sword which Aldrich used in front of them in the battle.


    "Ah, well, my great sword symbol is a little different.."


    "So, its a rare symbol¡­" Hellen joined in.


    "Yeah," Aldrich said seriously, "I was lucky."


    "Well, that makes sense actually," Nathan nodded in understanding his sses shining, "after all, I thought you became a grade two Crestmasters in one leap."


    To be honest even Aldrich was impressed by his own newfound power, he was definitely much stronger than a regr grade one Crestmaster.


    In fact, in thest battle Aldrich only relied on two skills, one was the Light step and the other was the Aurora: Augment. He still had two move skills that he didn''t have to use.


    There was also the fact that he wasn''t used to his powers yet, this is one of the reasons why he didn''t want to use too many skills until he got the hand of this grade of power.


    His physical enhancement alone was terrifying.


    Taking the time to raise all of the stats to the highest possible level before igniting his symbol payed off in a big way.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich was holding himself back from recklessly advancing for many reasons that were all incredibly important but he had to talk himself out of doing it everyday even though he knew it was wrong.


    But s, he did it. And eventually his waiting bore fruit. With this power in hand his goals were so much closer, much closer than they ever were.


    And he had a feeling that he will soon get to put his newfound powers to use.


    He remembered the beast, that was a truly terrifying monster. The whole time he felt that power flowing in his veins, if he could somehow control it¡­


    He remembered that beast''s stats, when he was dormant he got a glimpse and he remembered it clearly. The beasts had a +2 on all his current stats but that wasn''t why it was strong there was another reason.


    Beast:


    Abilities:


    1) minor resistance to physical damage Lv.1


    2) minor resistance to magical damage Lv.1


    3) minor resistance to mystical damage Lv.1


    Skills:


    1) Hunter''s Howl Lv.1


    2) Insatiable Hunger Lv.1


    3) Intimidating re Lv.1


    4) ws of severance Lv.1


    These were the reason why it was so strong, unfortunately he didn''t have the leisure to analyze them when he had the chance.


    "You guys take a break, I''m going to report this and have the assistance team deal with the rest of the menial tasks."


    "We''ll leave it to you!"


    They were so ungrateful that none of them volunteered to do it in his ce but that was how life was sometimes. Being the leader wasn''t all fun and games.


    The assistants of the big guilds were everywhere, they may not have a branch in every settlement but they definitely had a team of assistants. If not here then somewhere close by.


    Aldrich didn''t have much trouble finding them and with the paperwork from the guild to prove his words the team moved.


    However before he left he was told to write aplete report as his testimony will be sent to the guild through a flying messenger. He was also told to be prepared for a visit from the watchmen.


    This was already something he was expecting, obviously this matter grew to dangerous proportions. After all two grade one monsters associated with the Shoggti were nesting right under the lord''s nose.


    If he was the lord of Ebrict he would definitely take it as an insult, this was a humiliation that was bad for his reputation.


    Especially since he was actively trying to clear the waters and reopen trade routes, this kind of p in the face was probably not something he wanted to hear about.

 Chapter 171 Two Scholars

    Aldrich couldn''t avoid that so he didn''t trouble himself with needless worry. Besides they actually helped Ebrict, it could be considered a favor for the lord.


    But things didn''t always follow the most obvious and clear answer, the lord may not think of it as such a good thing.


    He was very well aware that people may not like help they didn''t ask for, even if it helped them the hearts of men were unfathomable.


    Aldrich down return to the inn, instead he asked about the two Crestmasters who were known for selling their services.


    After asking some passerby he was guided to a two story house with a nice view of the Umbra ind. The house had a sign in the front that read: the Tomund brothers at your service.


    Aldrich knocked on the door three times and looked at front yard, it wasn''t exactly in the best shape to say the least. ''Are these two Crestmasters short on money?''


    The door opened and a young man looking to be in histe twenties seized him up, "hello, anything I can help you with?"


    "Ah, yes, yes," Aldrich was taken back by the funny smelling from inside the house, "actually, did a young girl, called Emmae here afternoon for poison treatment?"


    "Ah, you''re with her?" The young man looked suspicious, "weird, she didn''t say that she was with a Crestmaster¡­"


    "Ah, well, I just advanced recently¡­" He could see how suspicious that answer was but was the truth, hopefully it was enough.


    ''Wait, my crest is hidden how did he know?'' Aldrich tensed up, this schr might not be a simple person, no Crestmaster is simple.


    "Well,e on in, she''s almost done anyway. Ah, my name''s Guthbert. I''m a Glyphmancers and a schr."


    "I''m Aldrich and I''m about to be an adventurer, nice to meet you."


    "Yeah, yeah, here. You''re little friend here suffered from a little bit of poisoning, it''s not a big deal. The fee is 14 coppers."


    "¡­ fine, here. Thank you for taking care of her." Aldrich squeezed a smile and tried to remind himself that it was not a good idea to argue with someone who healed people.


    Besides he may need their help some day so it was not a bad idea to cultivate a good first impression.


    ? "Well, you seem like a sensible young man." Guthbert took the coins and gave him a sk made of ss as tall as his index finder, it had blue powder in it.


    "This is a general antidote, it may not resolve all the poisons you might encounter but it will suppress it long enough until you can get real help."


    "Oh, thank you." Aldrich stashed it in his pocked and wondered if he should but some for all the party members.


    "By the way," Aldrich decided to ask to spend the time until Emma woke up, "I''ve been curious about something¡­"


    "Well, ask away now, don''t be shy," Guthbert seemed unconcerned.


    "I was wondering what two Crestmasters are doing, setting up shop here?"<sub> </sub>


    "Haven''t you heard me when I introduced myself? My brother and I are schrs, it''s obvious we''re here like may of our brethren before us came here to study for the clues regarding the Umbra monastery."


    Schrs? Why did that word give him a bad taste?


    "The Umbra monastery? I heard it''s a legend¡­"


    "It is, but many schrs are still attracted here to try their luck out every once in a while. We probably won''t stay here for too long either, maybe half a year at most."


    "Why is it so important for schrs?" Aldrich was very curious about that, since it was to the point of making people spend so much time on it.


    "Have you heard of High schr Neimander? He supposedly established the monastery, which attracted knowledgeable and talented people here." Guthbert exined.


    "That means that an immense amount of knowledge once existed here." Aldrich concluded.


    "Yes, and even more for the inheritance of the High schr himself!" Guthbert suddenly eximed with a wild look on his face. The change was too sudden causing Aldrich to step back.


    Suddenly the door opened and another man that had simr looks to Guthbert entered, only this one had a paleplexion and a repulsive presence.


    "Heleste, look howte it is!" Guthbert angrily scolded, "how many times have I told you, the ind is extremely dangerous in the night."


    "It''s fine, if we are to uncover the secrets of old then how can we not take risks? That makes no sense!" Heleste answer as if he was expecting the lecture.


    "It''s good to be eager but one must take things one step at a time, didn''t you hear master''s words? Knowledge must be consumed slowly lest it consumes you." Guthbert reminded.


    "Eh, that old geezer can''t even read a book anymore let alone lecture me about what to do."


    "Y-you how can you say that!" Guthbert was clearly about to snap.


    "Hahhah, rx I was just joking. It''s a bad joke. Look we have guests let us not do this now."


    After saying that Heleste went to the second floor and left Guthbert not knowing what to do. Aldrich felt like he intruded and didn''t know what to say, fortunately Emma chose to stir at this moment.


    Aldrich helped her up and thanked Guthbert one more time before leaving, of course he had a carriage waiting for him outside. It wouldn''t be appropriate to let Emma walk in her weakened state.


    They both returned to the inn, and Aldrich told the others to rest and take it easy, he also reminded them that they might have to talk to the watchmen tomorrow about what happened today.


    In his room Aldrich cleaned up, meditated and wrote the report detailing what happened during the quest. Of course he omitted some things to make the matter easier on him.


    After dinner he enjoyed some cold beer and went to sleep. However just before he fell asleep he couldn''t help but think that he forgot something.

 Chapter 172 Meeting The Lord Of Ebrict

    Aldrich returned to the nightmare realm of his own ord and started reading the various books in the study.


    He had no intention to fight anything today, besides he was sorelycking in understanding of the nightmare realm, even if these books were from the time before the great change he could still learn many things from them.


    He was especially interested in the economic and social structure of this world. Although the nightmare realm was a different world, he found that there was surprising simrities between the two.


    The way the Divine cores allowed ordinary people to be extraordinary was so mysterious. If he could get his own Divine core here wouldn''t that be really helpful?


    That was only a passing thought.


    Throughout his stay he had to get as much knowledge as possible, even if he couldn''t get much else at least that was going to be of use to him someday.


    After that Aldrich stopped reading and focused on himself, inside him there were two types of energy.


    First was the Ether which was like smoke, it wasn''t hard to control it felt natural. Next there was the new Aurora, this one felt heavy like he swallowed a barrel of lead in his stomach.


    Aldrich didn''t do anything much besides feeling these energies, as time passed he felt that he was getting used to them more and more.


    It''s not because he was tired that he didn''t want to hunt but because he didn''t want to engage in any battle before he got the hang of his newfound strength.


    ****


    The next morning while they were having breakfast and joking about how Frank slept like a log they were visited by a knight who was sent by lord Altemir to invite them for a meeting with the lord.


    Frank and Emma seemed to have mostly recovered and so they too had to join in. Huzon seemingly woke up in the middle of the night and went home right away.


    The party members felt stiff in the luxurious hall, Aldrich tried to act like he was not used to this too.


    They were instructed by a butler to wait.


    After being in Ayemon''s mansion for so long he didn''t feel that this was that great but he had to show the appropriate reaction to blend in.


    Soon, a man who looked in his fifties walked in, he had a dignified presence and a sharp gaze. He was followed by a young man in histe twenties, Aldrich and the others met him once.


    He was there, in the carriage with the inquisitors. But even if he didn''t remember he didn''t need to because the two inquisitors walked in right after.


    Inquisitor Bernard, and old man along with the young boy all walked in and took seats in the room.


    To be honest Aldrich expected trouble but he didn''t want to cross the inquisitors again so soon.


    He just hoped that they would give a testimony to some guard and that would be the end of it, why make such a big deal out of it?


    "So you are the young adventurers? Much younger than I expected. I am lord Garon Altemir." The lord didn''t sit, he greeted them first.


    So the others had to stand to ept the greeting and return it, "we are humbled to be invited by you, my lord." Aldrich said solemnly.


    "Be seated," the lord said "I can''t have our young heroes standing for long in my presence."


    Aldrich sighed in his mind, at least it looked like the lord didn''t hold them in a negative light.<sub> </sub>


    Lord Garon took a seat and motioned for the maids to serve tea and snacks. It looks like the rest of the party was too stiff as they didn''t drink the tea no eat, except for Nathan.


    However it looks like Nathan didn''t do it out understanding but he was just socially unaware, basically he was rude.


    Aldrich remember Ayemon''s nagging which turned out to be useful at this time. So he took slow sips from the tea and small bites of the snacks in between.


    "This is my eldest son, Harry, I understand that you met yesterday?" Lord Garon gestured to the young man sitting besides him.


    He already guessed that since he heard them calling him the young lord.


    "We did meet," Aldrich nodded, "but we did not say much by way of introduction¡­ there was no time."


    "Ah, yes, well today is as good as any opportunity. You''ve also bee aquatinted with the inquisitor Bernard and senior inquisitor Giltmere Voke."


    "Oh, yes we''ve met."


    Before Aldrich could answer, the old man did, he was apparently called Giltmere Voke.


    "Although at that time I don''t recall this party having a Crestmaster, and now they have two. You must''ve been through quite the ordeal, what was your name again young man?"


    "Yes, it was close call, to be honest. I''m called Aldrich."


    Giltmere nodded, "yes you did this town a service. By the way I reviewed the quest''s paperwork, everything seems to be alright for the most part."


    "But¡­" Giltmere paused as if in thought.


    "No, it''s nothing. I was just wonderingly if you want to sell the tentacles and eyes of the Aberrant acolytes? We''ll buy them for a premium."


    "Sure, I don''t think we will find anyone to buy them here." Aldrich agreed.


    "Wonderfull," lord Garon chimed in, "I would like to but everything else. The pirates cargo and the loot buried in the cave."


    ''There was that too?''


    "Including the ship?" Aldrich asked.


    The ship was one of the things that belonged to them too, after they vanquished these pirates. But it was actually a lump of wood, it was too damaged. This was his test.


    "Yes, including the ship. The pirates had cargo of salt, and iron ore. All of it for eight gold, how about it?"


    This¡­


    Now Aldrich understood what the lord''s intentions were. He wanted to buy their silence. He smiled.


    "Sounds like a deal to me."

 Chapter 173 Cazmer’s Treasure

    Aldrich could have haggled for more but that wasn''t necessary, the price was already good enough since it included giving a favor to a lord.


    Besides this was actually apetent lord of a town that he saw a future in, the active intention of lord Garon to clear up the sea and get rid of the disgusting pirates was a good thing.


    The lord smiled upon hearing this answer, "good, good, you''re a sensible young man. You''re survival was not by chance."


    Aldrich chuckled, "you overpraise me, my lord. It was a team effort and thanks to the grace of Altunan we managed to vanquish evil in the name of all that is just."


    Inquisitor Bernard''s eyebrows actually loosened a little upon hearing his words but there was no visible reaction from senior Giltmere.


    "What a heroic spirit!" The young lord eximed excitedly, "this is what we need, if people keep sitting on their bums nothing will be done."


    "Truly, I must agree, young lord." Giltmere said, "oh, you two must be quite talented to be able to ignite your crests in that kind of situation, I am quite curious what crests you ignited? Can you show us?"


    Aldrich''s smile froze for a moment.


    "Inquisitor Giltmere, isn''t that a bit rude¡­" Lord Garon said not unkindly.


    "Oh, it''s fine lord Garon, it''s no trouble at all." Aldrich quickly answered.


    Aldrich and Nathan both revealed their crests, but most of the attention was focused on him obviously.


    "A rare symbol¡­ simply marvelous¡­" lord Garon spoke with wonder in his voice.


    Giltmere and Bernard exchanged a quick look before eximing along too.


    "A talent indeed. God is generous to you, his grace is endless."


    "The empire grows stronger with each passing day thanks to talents like you."


    Aldrich forced a smile and replied with humble words. "I was luck, that is all."


    "It''s good to be humble but not too much," lord Garon replied, "you have to know your worth. Tell you what, if anything happens here I will send to you guys first and ask for you by name."


    This meant that they will get an exclusive first chance to ept any quests that may arise from Ebrict, this was quite the reward.


    But Aldrich also felt that it was a strange reward, why don''t you just give us 1000 gold? That would make me really grateful.


    ****


    Aldrich went out on his own at night, they were going to stay a bit more in Ebrict to recover and take their time. After all, the report about the quest''spletion was going to be delivered to the guild all the same.


    In fact he wanted to leave right away, he just didn''t want to stay here longer than he needed to but the party was tired from several days of travel and thisst quest basically added even more stress.


    He finally remembered what he almost forget about, he had another reason toe to Ebrict. He was going toplete Cazmer''sst wish.


    Under the light of the two moons Korey and Obereon he took out the ck ring and under a lone hill he summoned all of his will power to push the Ether into the ring.<sub> </sub>


    The ring started glowing and shed, then under the shadow of the trees it disyed a message written in light.


    "My treasure is in the old keep''s ruins, under the mass grave mark, dig until you find atch that will open a secret door. Take half the treasure and give the other half to my brother, he goes by the name: Oswoln Zabrick."


    Aldrich knew where this ruin was, it was behind the North call inn, apparently in the past it was a keep used in the crusade wars but it fell to ruin and has been like that ever since.


    It wasn''t far nor did Aldrich fear the dark so he decided to go there now and get this matter done with, he dyed it long enough already.


    The ruin of the keep was far from the kind of ce people wanted to be, it was sort of a forbidden area. Like the old cemetery of Wakefield. So it was naturally deserted.


    The fallen walls and scattered rubble was now home to a pack of wild wolves, Aldrich didn''t do anything, he just released his Ether a little and the pack scattered away.


    This was the suppressive force of a higher being, he had felt it when he fought against the centipede and the two Aberrant acolytes. And now he could release it himself.


    There was a huge grave stone in the ruin, it was inscribed with the names old fallen soldiers. He was actually a little embarrassed by digging behind it.


    ''Cazmer, couldn''t you have found a better ce?!''


    He considered himself a man who was prepared to do many things to achieve his goals but even for him this was a little¡­


    He didn''t know whether tough or cry, he just started digging and three minutester his hand caught atch and pulled.


    There were no stairs so he just jumped into the room, and with a start realized something. He could see perfectly clearly in the dark.


    He did not bring antern with him and yet he could see clearly as it was daytime. It was so natural to him that he didn''t even notice when he walked all the way out of town.


    Aldrich looked at his hands, there were some changes that were no recorded in the attributes panel. Is this how halflings and dwarves experienced darkness?


    It was strange, the logical part of his mind could tell that it was definitely nighttime. But this¡­


    It should be Dark vision.


    This was strange he didn''t know that Crestmasters had this innate ability, he knew they had enhanced perception but not this. It could be rted to his Aeon crest.


    Or¡­


    To the beast.


    He snorted and shook his head, this was hardly the time. He looked around and found himself in a small room, he had to crouch not hit the ceiling. The room was support with wooden beams in the corners.


    There was only a single table with three books on top and a chest to the side. Aldrich grabbed one of the books, opened it and read the title of the first page.


    "The True Saint''s Folk."

 Chapter 174 The Unshackled Prince

    Aldrich''s hands shook for a moment and almost all thought came to a standstill. When he recovered his eyes glimmered with anticipation.


    Cazmer was a member of the True Saint''s Folk, if someone knew anything concrete about them then it must be one of them. He just didn''t expect that Cazmer would leave behind something like this.


    ''Did he anticipate his death?''


    It was hard to tell but he did remember that Cazmer imed that he had not told anyone his real name is years. It was not hard to figure out that he was a cautious person.


    Unfortunately Aldrich still felt immense guilt over what happened to Cazmer that night. He sacrificed himself because of Aldrich''s foolhardy decision. The ultimate result was unchanged.


    Cazmer died in vain.


    Aldrich opened the book only to realize that most pages in it were cut off violently, as if whoever did it was in a hurry and didn''t care about appearances. Only three pages remained, thest three pages.


    "I could only agree, I can''t run a way from the inquisition for long. My days are numbered, that is when they came to me."


    "They said they could protect me, that I would live a normal life and didn''t have to be on the run anymore. I thought they were fools. In any case as long as I pretend to go along with them I can rest a bit maybe get a ship to some backwater shithole."


    "I was wrong, these guys are the real deal, they have way too many Oathbreakers, I am not even on the list of the most insane of them all. But something is wrong, they all seem to calm for madmen."


    "I haven''t been using any Ether as much as possible to maintain a portion of my sanity. But these guys weren''t shy about using their powers at all."


    "I thought the True Saint''s Folk were purged by the inquisition at the end of the war. I haven''t heard of anyone surviving the Exterminatus chapter. They are clearly just using the name."


    Aldrich flipped to the next page and it was clear that a lot of time has passed since the first one was written.


    "No, I was wrong again. I recognize some of them, rats that managed to escape the inquisition but there''s an internal conflict in the order. There''s a new faction, bigger, stronger and madder, they took over the True Saint''s Folk."


    "They call themselves, the Unshackled. I have difficultly in finding anything of substance about them. They sent me on seemingly pointless missions and I can''t seem to get a read on what they''re looking for or what their goal is."


    "But I heard about the leader. I heard he''s called the Unshackled Prince. I can see a light of fanaticism in the eyes of the Crestmasters when they talk about him, as if he was some kind of god."


    Aldrich read thest few lines with difficultly because they were written hurriedly and the lines were unclear.


    "I was summoned to an audience with the Unshackled Prince. I was assigned a mission to some backwater called Wakefield. I can see why people would worship him, now that I have seen him with my own eyes."


    "How?¡­ how could such a being exist in this world?! What do they want with me? They think I haven''t noticed? They pay me a little too much attention, an extra nce here and nod there. Why do they have to send ten Crestmasters to an insignificant vige?"<sub> </sub>


    "I¡­ I can''t do this¡­ I must do something before it''s toote. I hate the empire, but this¡­ this is not right."


    Aldrich closed the book and eventually his breathing calmed down, he managed to learn somethings at least.


    Ayemon told him long ago that the True Saint''s Folk was destroyed, it was true. Instead it was some new force wearing the skin of a dead lion.


    But not much practical information. He didn''t even know what army coborated with them to besiege Wakefield.


    Even members of the order were restricted in what kind of information they could know. Finding just any random member won''t be enough.


    If he wanted to find out more he had to get his hands on one of the bastards that participated in the attack.


    It was fine, not long ago he wouldn''t have dared to think of actually doing that, but now, he was different. He had the power to at least do something, he clenched his fist and his knuckles cracked.


    Looking at the positive things, he found out their leader''s title, the Unshackled Prince. This person, he was the one that gave the order to attack Wakefield. He is the enemy.


    Although he had his doubts about Seinalt Enthelmyre, the deputy governor he had no conceivable evidence against him.


    He evencked the motivation to rebel, not just that, he was probably walking on eggshells to not attract any suspicion.


    After all, he is directly under the watch of the inquisition at all times, even Ayemon said that it was highly unlikely. What he meant was that it was actually impossible.


    However, this Unshackled Prince, whoever he might be, was directly involved. He was a confirmed enemy. That was something that filled Aldrich was gratification.


    Finally he actually knew something for a fact. It was not a guess nor a conjecture.


    Whatever the reasons may be, Aldrich actually found himself not too interested in knowing that kind of thing. Not any more at least.


    It''s not that he didn''t want to know but rather it was a step lower in his priorities, the first being killing them all without sparing anyone.


    So what if he knew? Would it change anything? It was toote for any explications or arguments, he didn''t care what they had to say.


    He knew they must''ve had something to gain and probably something to lose if they didn''t. But so what?


    Actually Aldrich wouldn''t mind knowing, considering that he wanted to sabotage whatever it was that they were doing.

 Chapter 175 Undiscovered Island In The Fog Sea

    Aldrich picked up the second book. This one was full and it was in good condition too, there was no title so Aldrich just started reading.


    After twenty minutes he got a grasp of what this book was. It was an anthology of Cazmer''s life, his aplishments and achievements.


    It had important information like theyout of certain dungeons, all sorts of unusual monsters and items.


    Aldrich understood what this was. Cazmer had no idea who would find this hideout so he left this as an unspoken agreement with whoever found this ce.


    This was probably his payment for a request in the third book. He wanted to make the person indebted or satisfied with this. Well, it was only a guess so he wasn''t exactly sure.


    But he knew that this information was extremely valuable especially to adventurers.


    Aldrich didn''t read the whole book, it was too big so he decided to leave it forter. The third book was simr in size to the first book.


    This book revealed Cazmer''s true identity, he was the son a pirate. The Gluttonous Sparrows, in the past they terrorized these waters and their name spread far and wide.


    This is why Cazmer and his brother had to change their names and especially so for Cazmer who obtained the talent to be a Crestmaster.


    This background could only be buried. Even after the Gluttonous Sparrows were no more their name was associated with grudges and evil.


    Cazmer actually had an inheritance from his father, it was supposedly a map to a undiscovered ind in the Fog sea.


    Aldrich''s hands trembled, this was basically a treasure map. The Fog sea was the most secretive of all the water bodies in the world.


    As it was the hardest to explore due to the endless fog, it is said that those who venture into the Fog sea are never seen again.


    While the sea of Plenty had bad weather and sea monsters at least there were many survivors who made it out to tell stories about it.


    Eventually this lead to a slow build up that culminated in the discovery of the Eastern continent.


    Any sailor who found an ind would be considered the owner of the ind by imperialw. This is why there is a crazy for sea voyages. As a result many people became wealthy overnight after selling their inds to the Empire.


    An ind in the Fog sea, this was like a pie that fell from the sky. But of course there was no such thing.


    First it came from an unreliable source, not Cazmer but his father, and who knows where he got it from?


    Even if it was real, just because there was a map doesn''t mean that he could get on a ship and find the ind. At any rate it was not a bad deal to get it. At least he can confirm everything slowlyter.


    The request in the third book was simr to what Cazmer originally asked of him. To share some of the treasure in the chest with his brother.


    Aldrich was really relieved that Cazmer wrote down his brother''s name. Even if Aldrich knew that he lived here in Ebrict, finding him with nothing to go on was basically impossible.<sub> </sub>


    Fortunately he not only added his name, but also his likely upation. Finally he checked on the chest and discovered that it had ten gold stashed in.


    This was kind of disappointing to Aldrich, he thought that Cazmer left his brother something more.


    It''s not that ten gold was a small amount by any means, you could do much with that Aldrich could testify. But based on the many years that Cazmer spent roaming the world he should have umted a much greater sum.


    But an idea urred to Aldrich, maybe Cazmer didn''t leave behind much on purpose. After all for a regr person, ten gold was a life changing amount and yet it wasn''t so much that it would attract too much attention.


    Yes, Cazmer was not a careless man.


    Aldrich wasn''t going to take anything from that money, not even a single copper. He was ning on giving it all to Cazmer''s brother.


    ****


    The next day, early in the morning when the rest of the party was still sleeping in Aldrich left. Naturally he carried the coin pouch, he wasn''t about to carry a chest with him in town, that would be weird.


    Aldrich asked around, and while he did that he heard news that lord Garon took down another pirate crew and confiscated their stolen goods.


    Aldrich was lead to carpenter Oswoln Zobrick''s household. It was just a regr looking house, but two others in the neighborhood had the name Zobrick on their que.


    Aldrich didn''t know which one to pick, he heard some noise at one of the three house''s front yard, so he nocked.


    A young man who was probably of age with the young lord of Ebrict opened the door, he was shirtless and had a hammer in one hand.


    "Hello? How can I help you?" The young man asked.


    "Ah, yes actually, I''m looking for Oswoln Zobrick?"


    "Lookin'' for da''? Well, you must be new in town, my da'' had retired some years ago. If you''re looking to fix something or if you want anything made you can try my work."


    Yeah, of course it''s his son. Aldrich didn''t know why he didn''t think of that immediately, it''s like his brain short-circuited.


    "Ah, well, I''m not here for that. I need to talk to him about an important matter." He obviously couldn''t spill the beans.


    "Well," the young man stared at Aldrich for a while before he spoke, "I can call him for you then. But let me say this now, my father is an old man, if it''s not important I would rather you don''t bother him."


    "I promise, it''s really important. I wouldn''t want to impose otherwise now would I?" Aldrich could understand why the young man might be a little annoyed at him.

 Chapter 176 The Departed

    The young man and Aldrich walked over to the house in between, the young man went in alone and Aldrich waited outside.


    He was actually a little nervous even though he knew what he was here to do. He just didn''t know how to tell a man that his brother was dead.


    Should he talk about Cazmer''s oathbreak? It might seem like something that shouldn''t be said but Cazmer was already dead, his family deserved to know the truth, right?


    However, Aldrich didn''t want Cazmer to be remembered as a madman. At least he didn''t want to be the one to deliver this news.


    Unfortunately there were many things that he did not want to do. Many things that he would rather not confront but here he was, it was something that he simply had to do.


    Aldrich tried to think of how he should say it, but every time he tried to form some coherent thoughts they would scatter like sand castles in high tide.


    A door opened, a man came out, he wasn''t too old, maybe in his fifties, middle-aged. The young man Aldrich first talked to followed behind.


    "Hello there, I''m Aldrich."


    Oswoln smiled, "Hello there, how can I help you young man?"


    "Uh, eh¡­" Aldrich didn''t know what to say but first he had to talk to him alone, "I need to talk to you privately."


    ""Privately? What for?" Oswoln of course was puzzled by this sudden and strange request. ""Young man, look at you, you''re not a child anymore. Stop with these pranks and find some work."


    Oswoln sighed and shook his head as he was about to turn away and back to his house.


    "Your brother."


    Oswoln froze.


    "It''s about your brother." Aldrich said again.


    "I don''t have a brother." Oswoln looked at him and said firmly.


    Aldrich didn''t say anything he just looked him in the eye. In that atmosphere Oswoln''s som was the first to break the silence.


    "Da'' let me teach this kid a lesson! You think you cane in here and spout this¡ª"


    ""Enough!" Oswoln interrupted, "I will go with the young man and see what he has to say."


    "What? But¡­ fine."


    Aldrich and Oswoln walked out of the neighborhood to a nearby hill, green with offshoots.


    "How do you know my brother? You his son?" Oswoln asked.


    Aldrich smiled warily, "I''m not. But I am thest person he talk to, he''s dead."


    There was a moment of silence before Oswoln snorted, "I knew he would die in a ditch somewhere. Is that all? You can leave then."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich didn''t expect that coldness from Oswoln, he was unaffected by the news at all. He didn''t even ask how his brother died nor did he seem interested in asking.


    "No that is not all, he wanted me to give you this," Aldrich handed Oswoln the coin pouch, even if he didn''t like Oswoln''s attitude he was still going to do what he came here for.


    He didn''te here for Oswoln''s sake after all, he was here because he gave his word to Cazmer on that day and nothing was going to stop him from fulfilling his promise.


    Oswoln took the pouch, opened it and snorted again, "what a cheap bastard! He was a Crestmaster and this is all he could spare?"


    Aldrich already had enough of this but he held his tongue before but now this man crossed a line.


    "At least you got something. Cazmer saved my life, I would appreciate it if you can at least not badmouth him." Aldrich tried to be as polite as possible.


    He shook his head and turned around, walked a few steps and paused.


    "Saved your life? What''s the use now that he''s dead? He¡­ always had this thing about him, he could never sit in one ce. I told him to forget about being a Crestmaster,y low, settle down with me¡­ but he didn''t listen! And what did it get him? An early grave, is all."


    Aldrich didn''t know Cazmer nor Oswoln to either agree nor disagree. He didn''t know what kind of situation it was, what sort of life they lived. But he knew some things.


    "He saved me, and tried to save many others. I don''t know how he lived but I know how he died. He is hero to me. He could have lived, I told him to run away, he didn''t listen, he said he was ashamed to see you."


    Oswoln snorted again but this time it came out like a sob, "yeah that''s him alright, he never listens. And since when did that asshole have any shame? He could havee over to see his nephews at least right?"


    "Maybe he was in trouble, he didn''t want to trouble you too, probably." Aldrich recalled the Cazmer''s hideout.


    It was in the vige, here, Cazmer must''vee here at some point after being assigned the mission regarding Wakefield.


    He¡­ could have been here to check up on his brother, only from afar, he didn''t get close, he didn''t dare to.


    "Fucking son of a bitch! He should have just died off without sending any word."


    Oswoln cursed and from his ce Aldrich could see his hands shaking, with his back turned he couldn''t see his face, he could hear his tears falling down, Aldrich just didn''t say anything for a long time.


    Finally Oswoln talked, "you, what''s your name, kid? I''m quick to forget?"


    "Its Aldrich."


    "Aldrich, good thank you foring. It might not have been easy. One more thing, don''t be like my brother. Find a ce, a people, a home. Somewhere you hang your hat. Maybe, sometimes, mediocrity is not that bad."


    Aldrich didn''t say anything in reply, Oswoln left on his own but Aldrich stayed to admire the rising sun, the reflection of the light. The free seagulls swimming in the air, the breeze was calm.


    "If only it were that easy."


    Aldrich muttered to no one in particr.

 Chapter 177 Umbra Island

    Aldrich returned to the Yellowsprings inn for breakfast. In his hand he was carefully holding a red stone that had strange patterns written on it, it was simply too smooth.


    This was the Deadman''s Remnant that he got from one of the Aberrant acolytes. He crushed it. The stone disappeared somewhere inside him.


    He knew that was fine, in fact it was the best ce to keep it. It wouldn''t be funny if someone got their hands on it.


    The Deadman''s Remnant wouldn''t activate unless he used his Eyes of Insight on it. But that was not a nice process. Thest time he did that he almost died of dehydration.


    Of course the current him was vastly different, but still Aldrich would rather do that in the nightmare realm where he had multiple lives and didn''t fear death.


    In the real world he very much feared death.


    Back the inn, his treacherous friends and teammates were eating without him. They way they were eating also told him that they didn''t even think about looking for him or waiting until he came back.


    "O-oh, Aldrich," Cole was the first to notice him, "buddy, where have you been? I wanted to go look for you right away but¡ª"


    Aldrich sat down, "you guys should enjoy and eat, get your energy back."


    "Really? You''re not mad?" Hellen asked.


    "What? Mad? No way, why would I be mad at you? You''re not Crestmasters so it''s fine, ah, I remember how Nathan and I saved your lives¡­ and you two can still eat so carefreely."


    "Ok stop throwing shade¡­" Frank said.


    Aldrich''s eyes gleamed for a moment, this is what he really wanted, "oh, yeah, we can''t forget Frank he yed a role in saving the day too."


    "Oh, yeah," Cole echoed, "that was nuts! How''d you do that anyway? Is the sword a wondrous item?"


    Aldrich wanted to bring this up since he was curious too, but he needed to bring it up organically so that Frank doesn''t feel interrogated.


    "Uh, It''s a saber and I don''t know?" Frank looked awkward, "It must be. Right?"


    "Well, you sound as if you yourself don''t know." Nathan concluded.


    "Uh, I thought it was just a normal saber, It means something to me but I never thought it was that¡­ special or anything."


    "Where did you get it?" Aldrich asked.


    "I got it as a gift from¡­ my mentor, you could say.


    "Oh, wow that''s nice, he must''ve been someone strong, right?" Aldrich praised, "he taught you how wield that saber, he must be a well versed Crestmaster."


    "No." Frank said with certainty in his voice, "he was not a Crestmaster, he was just a woodcutter. He, he just taught me a little to survive on my own."


    ''He wasn''t a Crestmaster? That smells like bullshit to me.'' Aldrich thought.


    "Oh, is that so? Then he must''ve been a veteran." Hellen added.


    "I don''t know. I just know that he was a woodcutter living alone in a shed in the woods, he took me in."


    "It must''ve been hard on you." Coleforted.


    So, Frank was an orphan like him, the war did that to too many people in Vorian. It wasn''t an unusual story.


    However Aldrich still didn''t forget that saber injured a grade one monster when Frank was just an ordinary human. That was no mean feat.<sub> </sub>


    "Guys, that''s enough. Focus on eating we''re returning to Voryhrm tomorrow or the day after, as soon as we get ourpensation from the loot. Get ready. We''re not taking the ancientnd bridge."


    Obviously there was something more to this but Aldrich recognized that Frank didn''t want to share more.


    "We''re not? Why?" Nathan asked.


    "Uh," Aldrich didn''t think about that. Yes, it must look strange to the rest since to them nothing happened.


    ''Well the blind priestess did say that it was find as long as I got my ne back''


    "Ah, it''s nothing, I misspoke. We are going through the ancientnd bridge again."


    "That''s more like it!" Cole fist-pumped Frank.


    "Yeah, it''s fast that way. I don''t want my father to worry." Emma said.


    "I told you it was going to be fine." Frank replied.


    Aldrich left the inn and headed to Huzon''s house, he needed to check up on him and¡­ see Irene.


    He didn''t get the chance to since he had to meet with lord Garon and then he had to deal with Cazmer''s matters. But now he had time.


    ****


    "I''m sorry, he ended up like this¡­" Aldrich apologized.


    "It''s fine," Irene said wiping the sweat on Huzon''s forehead. "He insisted on going with you guys, it''s not your fault."


    "Here take this," Aldrich handed her a coin pouch, "this is your grandfather''s inheritance."


    "What?!" Irene eximed, after all the pouch had four gold coins, "grandfather had this?"


    Of course Aldrich added two more on his own.


    "When is your brothering?" Aldrich asked.


    "I don''t know, he should be on the way but the roads are not as safe as they used to be."


    Irene''s brother had left to live in a nearby vige for one reason or another, now that Huzon was injured Irene sent a letter to him.


    Huzon''s injuries were healed by Nathan and his mind was soothed, he just needed time to recover and couldn''t do any heavybour.


    "Hey, I know, why don''t we go to the Umbra ind?" Aldrich suggested.


    "The ind? But, it''s dangerous, there are monsters and bandits too, it''s not safe." Irene said worriedly.


    "Didn''t you say that you were going to show me around? Besides I''m a Crestmaster now. I want to see what kind of monster dares to show up. The two schrs seem to go there regrly, it''s fine."


    "Oh, yea¡­ you are a Crestmaster now¡­"


    To get to the ind all one had to do is take a small boat and go to the eastern port. The ind was extremely close to Ebrict, it was basically part of it.

 Chapter 178 Troubles Of Youth

    Aldrich took Irene to a local sailor that provided this service, they transported people to and from the ind. It was a popr destination before the increase in danger.


    A dozen years ago, there was a sudden spike of monsters and so the people of Ebrict had to reduce their visits to Umbra ind. In turn this allowed the monsters to increase their numbers even more.


    However that was not even the half of it, the ind became a hub for bandits and pirates alike.


    Of course this angered the lord and he retaliated with righteous anger but the pirates and bandits were cowardly vermin and knew to hide in the crevices of the ind.


    It was especially troublesome when a tribe of  gnoll pirates settled in, they were very strong and stubborn, no matter how many of their number were ughtered they wouldn''t leave.


    Humans naturally were not the only pirates that roamed the sea.


    The ind was actually still not that bad as even ordinary people can go in and back safely, of course there were some unlucky few.


    These pirates and bandits were actually busy fighting among themselves all the time and unless there was an external attack with huge numbers they were likely to ignore that.


    Which is why the lord was using them to kill each other so long as they were stimted correctly and at the appropriate time.


    Despite that people were still sensible enough not to venture into the ind unless they had no other choice.


    Crestmasters who wanted to take a look at the ind naturally didn''t worry too much. Their only concern most of the time was to not encounter multiple grade one monsters rather than pirates or bandits.


    Of course the gnoll tribe was a different case since they were just unreasonable and they had gnoll pack leaders.


    Aldrich had no n to go too deep into the ind, so when the ferryman docked the boat in the small dock of Umbra ind he thanked him and extended his hand to Irene to help her out.


    But Irene didn''t take his hand, she ignored it and climbed on the dock-way herself. Aldrich pulled his hand back and frowned.


    "Eh, so where to?" Aldrich asked to dispel the awkward mood just now.


    "Hm, we could go to the Aelmor watch tower up the hill, it''s the closest ce that could also allow you to have a good view." Irene said without turning to look at him.


    "Uh, yeah that sounds like the perfect ce, let''s go."


    Aldrich observed the old and abandoned dock and sighed at the state that it was in. The ind looked incredibly beautiful with vibrant trees and colorful flowers and fruits.


    The watch tower was above a hill that overlooked the old docks, the tower was in the same condition as the docks but with a little effort it could be restored fairly easily.


    Aldrich didn''t know what to say, to be honest the silence unnerved him. Irene had been a little¡­ cold. She didn''t say much if anything on their one hour long trip on the boat.


    "N-nice weather huh?" Aldrich said and immediately cursed himself in his mind a thousand times.


    ''Why did I say that?''<sub> </sub>


    "Yeah¡­ nice weather." Irene replied, "this is the best ce to get a good look at the ind. There''s the Pilgrim''s Path, then there''s the Howling Pass and finally the Stone stairs."


    Irene pointed to several locations, they didn''t enter the watch tower just this high hill gave them good enough view.


    After all the watch tower was not in the best condition it was best not to test just how ruined it really was.


    "The Stone stairs are the center of this ind''s legend about the Umbra monastery, it is said that it was built on that giant t rock, it is believed that the stone stairs were built to lead to it. But as you can see there''s nothing there, just emptynd."


    That was true Aldrich didn''t see anything and it even seemed that nothing at all was built on that giant t rock.


    There were no ruins or any sign that anything was ever there, itcked even a hint of some ages old monastery. Unless it was somehow buried under the giant rock, an unlikely possibly.


    Suddenly Aldrich got an idea and used his Eyes of Insight to look. Since it had leveled up, he was keen to test it out and see just how it improved. He now knew that not everything was disyed on the attributes panel.


    Aldrich took a step back. To his eyes at this moment the giant rock was still empty.


    But it was surrounded by some kind of dome made of what looked like Ether lines that intersected and diverged at different points. Glyphs shined and glittered on belts of light.


    Beneath the dome there was a hundred different spheres of different colors dancing to a strange and terrible rhythm.


    "So? You, done?" Irene asked and interrupted his thoughts.


    "No, I''m not." Aldrich answered. He saw something that intrigued him but it wasn''t his priority right now.


    "What else is there?" Irene asked.


    Aldrich didn''t know, he wasn''t sure what he was supposed to do. Why did Irene''s attitude towards him change so suddenly?


    "I¡­ want the ne that I gave you, give it back." Aldrich demanded, and yet that wasn''t what he wanted to say. But he just felt that he didn''t know how to ask.


    Irene finally looked at him, she was obviously upset. With quick movement she took it off and threw it at him. He caught it.


    "Are you done? Now can we go?" Irene asked sharply.


    "What''s wrong? Why are you mad at me all of a sudden?" Aldrich has had it and he decided to just ask.


    "I-I''m not not mad. Now can we go?"


    "You''re obviously mad. Can you talk clearly, what''s wrong?" Aldrich asked since he simply couldn''t figure it out.


    Obviously he was going to take the ne back but asking for it here and now was a mistake.

 Chapter 179 Think Aldrich, Think

    "How am I supposed to answer that?" Irene shot back sharply.


    "I want to know, you are clearly upset with me," Aldrich replied. "Is it because I asked for the ne? It was a bad timing on my part."


    Aldrich decided to take a step back and exin so that the situation doesn''t go out of control.


    "I¡­" Irene suddenly looked away, "what are you saying, if someone heard you they might misunderstand.."


    ''Hm? Her tone softened and what did she mean? Why doesn''t she just answer the question?''


    ''Wait, misunderstand what?''


    Aldrich was having an intense mental exercise, he could not have imagined that he would struggle like this while talking to a girl instead of a fight against a monster.


    "You''re not saying anything, let''s go already, it wouldn''t be good for you to be seen with me."


    Saying that Irene attempted to promptly leave when Aldrich grabbed her hand.


    "Why wouldn''t it be good form to be seen with you?" Aldrichtched on to those word and felt like he was about to understand.


    "L-let me go!" Irene tried to pull away, "you''re a Crestmaster, I''m just a fisherman''s daughter. Don''t y the fool."


    Aldrich finally understood. To Irene, when Aldrich gave her the money and asked for the ne it must have looked like he was trying to distance himself from her.


    "Oh, I think not. I need the ne and I gave you the money because it''s yours by right. That doesn''t mean that I want to distance my self from you." Aldrich exined softly.


    His words must have had some effect as Irene stopped stubbornly pulling away, "you''re a Crestmaster, you can get any woman you want right? What do you want with me?"


    Aldrich grinned, "well, you''re right. I did have ulterior motives in bringing you here."


    "What?" Irene asked in confusion.


    Aldrich released her hand and pulled her close by the waist, "you did say I can get any woman I want, I want you." He whispered in her ear.


    Irene''s face was flushed, "you''re unbelievable¡­ you''re an asshole!" She admonished without pulling away.


    "Oh, that I am," Aldrich agreed, "and you, my little fisherman''s daughter, was fishing forpliments just now weren''t you?"


    Aldrich asked rhetorically, because they both knew the answer. Irene avoided eye contact and brushed her hair behind her ear, not daring to look straight at Aldrich.


    "What did you want me to say?" Aldrich said and answered himself, "that you''re pretty? Because you are. That I like you very much? Because I do."


    He moved purely by instinct, that look, her heartbeat he could almost hear it, it was almost as loud as his own. Hie lowered his head and she finally looked at him when their lips met.


    It was brief, just a small brush of skin, and yet sweet. He pulled back, looked at her and she quickly looked away.


    "You can''t do that, it''s improper¡­" Irene stuttered unconvincingly.<sub> </sub>


    "Improper?" Aldrich asked, "it didn''t feel that way to me."


    "It is, I think so¡­"


    "You know what? Let''s try it again and see, you know, just how improper it is." Aldrich grinned and pulled her back for another kiss.


    The first one was brief and experimental, this one was longer, deeper and more sure. His hand one on her wait pulled her in deeper, if that was even possible the other on her back.


    Her own hand reached upwards and circled around his neck, their breaths mixing together and their noses brushing one another. They pulled back.


    Aldrich looked at Irene and she looked back at him, this time they didn''t beed any words. This kiss was no longer as pure, it was lustful and their tongues intertwined.


    His hand went lower to her ass and squeezed, she moaned in his mouth as her soft flesh ttened under his big hand.


    With one easy motion he lifted her up pressed her against the outer wall of the watch tower and kissed her even deeper.


    Irene didn''t know what was going on anymore, her head was spinning, her heart was probably going to pop out of her chest. All she felt was pleasure in his embrace, his big body pressed against hers.


    She could feel his hardness pressing against her bellybutton, and she felt suffocated, she didn''t have enough time to breath in between kissing and she wasn''t sure that she wanted to anymore.


    A long timeter they separated, both huffing and puffing. Aldrich broke the kiss himself, his raging little brother protested and Aldrich tried to calm it down.


    If he continued he wasn''t sure what he might do. The whole thing reached a stage that he almost lost control, but suddenly Adera''s face appeared in his mind.


    Aldrich stopped himself. His first ever kiss was with Adera under a tree. She challenged him to climb a tree for a kiss and he wasn''t going to waste that chance so he did hurt his hand but it was worth it.


    "Uh, ehem!" Aldrich cleared his throat, "soo, ah, should we get going?"


    "Y-yeah," Irene still looked flushed but when she stole a nce at him her face reddened like a tomato.


    On the way back to the docks Aldrich summoned his courage, "so, when are youing back, to Voryhrm I mean?"


    "I don''t know," Irene too looked like she regained herposure somewhat, "Not any time soon¡­"


    "Is it because of your father?" Aldrich had already guessed as much even though he didn''t like that, but it was something that couldn''t be helped.


    "I have to take care of him until he gets back in shape, I feel guilty, he went in my ce."


    Aldrich nodded he didn''t object, this was how it should be. Even though he wanted her toe back with him now, it wasn''t right for her to just leave her father bedridden.


    Certainly, Irene wasn''t the type who would do that, this is something that Aldrich liked about her. Besides it probably wouldn''t be long till they reunite again.


    "We will leave soon." Aldrich said.


    "Can''t you stay a bit longer?" Irene asked looking distressed.

 Chapter 180 Conflicting Desires

    "We will stay until all the matters regarding the pirates loot is finished, but it won''t take long maybe a day or two at most. I have to return as soon as possible toplete my graduation and to be an official member of the guild."


    Aldrich couldn''t stay here long, he had to return to Voryhrm to do many things. He had many things going on there to leave for too long would not sit well with him.


    There''s also the business and the coins. Voryhrm had the biggest market for Wondrous items which he was ning to buy many to arm himself.


    He needed arms suitable to his own level, of course he had to insist on the party members to do the same as well, rather than splurge on useless things.


    "I see, you must go after all¡­" Irene repeated dejectedly.


    "Don''t pout, how long can it take for your father to recover? We''ll see each other soon enough, we''re neighbors after all."


    "But two months is still too long, I will be awfully bored here." Ireneined.


    She did have a point, Aldrich would miss her quite a bit but he had an idea, "I''ll buy a messenger, an Amphitheater then we can exchange letters every once in a while."


    "Really? You would do that for me?" Irene asked looking moved.


    ''I was going to buy it anyway¡­'' naturally that was something he wouldn''t say at this moment.


    "Oh yes, I wouldn''t want you forgetting about me any time soon, would I?" He cheekily replied.


    "You!" Irene punched him yfully on the chest, actually even if she punched him seriously Aldrich wouldn''t know the difference.


    "Must you always have a snarky reply?!"


    "You know I do."


    ""What do you think I should do with the money? I fear some robbers might hear about it." Irene asked for Aldrich''s input.


    "Come to think of it. This whole thing is being kept under-wraps, I doubt word like that would get out but it''s better to deposit it in a bank."


    "I guess, but we''ll have to use some of it for food until father recovers. Well, it''s more than enough."


    Aldrich was struck with a thought after he heard these words, he thought of all the peopleing in to Ebrict for work. What was Ebrict''s main source of ie? It was not called a fishing hamlet for no reason.


    "Why don''t you invest the money?" Aldrich questioned.


    "I-invest? How?" Irene shot back.


    "Make apany and buy fishing boats, just the small ones and then rent the boats. People need work and if you provide a way for them to quickly start, it''s a better deal than getting in debt with the banks."


    Irene seemed to be in deep thoughts, "but, I am not going to stay here, I''ll return to Voryhrm to be an architect."


    "Oh, yeah" Aldrich might''ve forgotten that, "well, it was just a passing thought. Maybe your father can do it then and give you a share? More money is not bad."<sub> </sub>


    "That sounds great!" Irene pped out of excitement, "how did you think of that?"


    "Well," Aldrich curled his lips and boasted, "I''ve been doing some reading on business, besides I know someone whose pretty good at it too, better than me I''d say."


    ****


    In Ebrict, Aldrich and Irene dinned together in a local tavern, Irene seemed to like it a lot but Aldrich wasn''t exactly satisfied with the ce.


    It was the best looking tavern but that wasn''t saying much in this town. Anyway they had good ale so at least that was good. After dinner he walked her back home.


    "Today was great," Aldrich said in front of the door.


    "Yeah¡­" Irene''s was looking around listlessly.


    "Ah, yeah, so see youter" Aldrich hugged her briefly and walked away after seeing Irene get in.


    Back at the inn, the others were doing their own things, Cole was ying cards with some strangers and was drunk as hell.


    But he still managed to tell him Hellen was asleep, Frank and Emma were out and Nathan went to visit the two resident Glyphmancers.


    Aldrich wasn''t done for the night yet, he took out some nk papers and started writing out his n for the next year. He was very well aware that he was on a tight deadline.


    Isger''s body, ording to Harvick could only be preserved for two years, three at most. But Aldrich was obviously not going to let it reach the third year as even Harvick wasn''t confident about it.


    So he nned to resolve the matter in two years without fail. In the first year he was going to y it safe, just focusing on grade one quests and dungeons.


    It was only after he himself because a grade two Crestmaster that he would target the grade two quests. He was confident in advancing in a year''s time to grade two.


    To others this was an impossible feat, pure fantasy. But he was different he had the nightmare realm and the ability to absorb essence. This is how he got where he was today.


    After finishing the five grade two quests that he agreed upon with Ayemon he was going to invite an Archbishop to Wakefield to cure Isger.


    At that time he was going to hunt down the True Saint''s Folk and expose their evil intentions to the Empire. With his newfound power and status at that time his influence would be enough to stir the pot.


    One way or another once they were out of the shadows he wanted to see exactly what they were going to do then.


    Whatever this Unshackled Prince intentes to do he was still cowering in the dark like the gutter slime he is, this meant that he feareding out into the light.


    As long as they acted this way then that meant that they did not have the confidence to show their true faces.


    Where will they escape? He wanted to see them on the run like rats. That day was not far, not far at all.


    Aldrich will never forget, he couldn''t even if he wanted to, every time he closed his eyes he would relive that night once again.

 Chapter 181 Uldin Is Back

    Aldrich found that writing down his ideas made him feel more assured about them an cleared some foggy details.


    Obviously saving Isger by begging an Archbishop was only one way to do it, and he was not a man to put all his eggs in one basket.


    His other ns were going on along with the first one simultaneously and in fact contributed to one another.


    The second n was to go to the Divine Land and get that crown, the mysterious old man who save him said that doing so will help him find the blue light door.


    Aldrich suspected that Isger''s soul was still stuck there and to save Isger he had to get it, for now the only way he knew of was to donas the old man said.


    The old man didn''t say just that, he said that if he got the crown in the Divine city he would have all his questions answered and all his wishes fulfilled.


    Aldrich didn''t even consider these words before, he justbeled it as the rambling of a madman.


    But the more he experienced and the more he knew of the nightmare realm the more he began to analyze the words and actions of that old man.


    In fact he suspected something when he recalled what happened that day. He had a feeling that he was made into a Lost One by that old man.


    He had no real proof nor was he sure, it was just a hunch at best.


    ****


    Aldrich was back in the nightmare realm, this time too he was going to study, but first he had to check up on something.


    Proof of Devotion: long ago, the Unseen Hand plotted to overthrow the rule of the Divine Land and so they dabbled in old and forgotten powers and they heard a voice answer their call.


    This is the brand of loyalty on all members of the Unseen Hand, however, in secret it is also a prototype of the artificial divine core.


    Aldrich used the newly upgraded Eyes of Insight on the darkened heart and was rewarded with a feast of new information.


    ve brand, he did see something about it in the armored husk''s memories but he didn''t see how it was done. He also didn''t expect that it was used as part of the experiment to create the artificial divine cores.


    It was simr to what the Shoggti did to those pirates, enving them in a way that no human ever could. It wasn''t actually that terrifying, it simply involved erasing the victim''s mind and filling it with the master''s ns.


    This method was actually not that sophisticated, the ves could easily be spotted in a public setting, they stood out like a sore thumb.


    They didn''t talk nor did they blink, their skin took a greenish ting to it. Anyone could tell something was not right with them, and although their maintained basic intelligence theyckedmon sense.


    However the methods of the Unseen Hand was much more strange and terrifying. The enved wouldn''t look any different and might not even disy any abnormalities.


    Unfortunately Aldrich discovered a w in this method too, the subject had to be willing to be a ve. This was a deduction that he came up with considering how they took care of the armored husk.


    The armored husk was an ordinary person, forcing him to be a ve was not hard at all. But the Unseen Hand used this long winded and pointless method, why?<sub> </sub>


    Were they just nice? Could be, but he certainly doubted that. They needed the consent of even a trash like the armored husk when he was only an ordinary person, that was the w.


    Considering that it was part of a failed experiment Aldrich took it, still in the ss jar and teleported using the seal of Tindalor to the Underbridge area.


    "Ooh? You''re back?" Uldin asked as soon as he stepped in.


    "Yeah, seems like you''re back too. Find anything interesting out there?" Aldrich asked when he stopped talking, Uldin was staring at him like he saw a ghost.


    "You''ve undergone the first transformation?" Uldin asked looking surprised, "yes but, there''s something else, something foreign¡­"


    The first transformation? How many more are there?¡­


    Aldrich remembered that it was Uldin who gave him the Mind Calming agent, telling him that he would need it the most. That was almost prophetic.


    If he didn''t use the agent there and then he might have lost himselfpletely, bing no different than the monsters that infested this nightmare realm.


    "Uh, yeah. Could have used a warning, you know."


    "Even if I warned you about it, nothing would have changed. But I did give you the potion which resolved the issue, right?"


    "That is true," Aldrich had to admit that, perhaps he was too weary against Uldin in the past.


    "Actually I came to buy information today, about the whole transformation thing¡­"


    Aldrich absolutely had to figure out what happened, why? And how to stop it from happening ever again?


    This matter was high up in his priorities, losing control was one of the worst things he could ever face, for him who had to keep a focused mind at all times it was the worst kind of torture.


    "Eh, sure, sure. We can exchange information, how about that?" Uldin asked looking very eager.


    "What do you want to know?"


    "Tell me how you got this power? This otherworldly smell, I can''t be wrong¡­"


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. I''m here to buy with essence, how about that?"


    Although he started to trust Uldin a little more, he was obviously not going to tell him that he could go back and forth between different worlds.


    This was something that the other Lost Ones could not do, once they appeared here they stayed here. It was a unique ability that only he had and he wasn''t going to share it lightly.


    "Are you sue about that? I can increase the price, I will included any second level potion, or any twenty level one potions. What do you think?"

 Chapter 182 The Trials

    Shout out to @CoffeePanda also known as @Xoma in discord for helping me organize and rewrite my synopsis!


    Come join my discord for fun banter and first hand news about the book!


    ****


    "I don''t think so, buddy," Aldrich chuckled, the more Uldin was willing to pay the more he was assured of his decision.


    "Fine, you just wasted a life time deal," Uldin shrugged, "you could have given me anything, crumbs even, but now that I think about it, if you could leave you would have already went to Castamerphia and the spatial nod would be opened."


    Aldrich didn''t say anything he guessed that this ''''otherworldly'' smell referred to his crest, it was the only thing that changed about him since thest time he met Uldin.


    If he wasn''t wrong then the other Lost Ones all used the essence orbs to upgrade their stats and Deadman''s Remanent to get skills.


    That was the core of their strength but he was different from them. Hopefully this gave him an edge over them, after all the other Lost Ones were still immortal and yet they died and failed to leave Voros.


    Not to mention going to Thnis or Castamerphia. Despite the ridiculous power of immortality they still failed, clearly it was no easy feat.


    "So, about the information¡­" Aldrich had to return the subject to the important matters.


    "Sure, three green orbs." Uldin answered indifferently.


    "Eh?" He let out a surprised noise, this was¡­ too cheap. Aldrich came here today having adjusted his mentality to ept that he was going to be broke again.


    He was willing pay with all that he had and wouldn''t be surprised if Uldin said it wasn''t enough.


    This information was too valuable, even if it wasmon knowledge back then Uldin would recognize it''s value to him now. It was expected for him to jack up the price.


    "Isn''t that too cheap?" Aldrich asked in doubt since he couldn''t figure it out.


    "It''s not cheap, the information I have is very limited. I don''t know much."


    "Fine, how to I pay?" Aldrich was curious about that since he already absorbed the orbs and never tried taking them out.


    "Simple, just shake my hand and use your willpower to move the orbs to me."


    "My willpower?" Aldrich wasn''t sure about that until he got hold of Uldin''s hand, it was the same when using orbs to upgrade his attributes. Willpower was just thought.


    After getting the orbs Uldin took a deep breath and sighed, oddly enough this was the first time when Uldin truly smiled. Unlike his professional smile this one was real.


    "That''s the stuff." Uldin looked really creepy at this time.


    "Okay, here we go. So the transformations of the Lost Ones are believed by some to be a trial of sorts."


    "A trial?" Aldrich repeated feeling the word rolling oddly on his tongue.


    "Yes, some Lost Ones thought so at the very least. The first transformation is most dangerous the first time, so long as you can preserve yourself and return to yourself you will be rewarded with many benefits."<sub> </sub>


    "What benefits?" Aldrich didn''t remember getting anything of the sort.


    "Didn''t you go through a metamorphosis? You experienced a leap in power didn''t you?"


    "True."


    "Well, don''t get too happy it''s not over, oveing the beast the first time means that only half the danger is over and much more is still in store."


    "If you are not careful the beast will start emerging within you, this time slowly and less obvious. Your desires will get amplified at times, sometimes your emotions.


    At critical times where you used to be coolheaded and calm you might find yourself rash and reckless. You might get quick to anger or prone to fits of paranoia. In the final stages you will develop another consciousness until eventually the real you is no more."


    Aldrich shivered at these words, it was much worse than he thought, things were not just bad.


    "How do I stop it? How do I get rid of it?" Aldrich had to know.


    "You can''t. At least as far as I know it''s part of you, of who you are as a Lost One. You must learn to adapt, to control it before the next trial."


    "Part of me?" Aldrich asked in disbelief.


    "Yes, in fact even if you sit on your ass and do nothing as time passes on you will face another trial simr to this one, I''m not in the know about the details. This is pretty much all I know about this subject."


    So, I''m basically fated to face an endless struggle with my own self? The timer behind the Condition status was hidden again so he couldn''t know when the next time will happen.


    He hoped that it was just a one time thing but, it would be too good to be true. If his words were true then the transformation was already underway.


    He didn''t know how long he had or if it was enough, at this rate he was in the dark.


    One day he could just wake up and not be himself, he could be eating or talking to friends, he could be in the middle of a fight.


    ''No, this can''t be allowed to happen, I must find a way to reign it in, the Lost Ones must have left something for me, clues, information¡­''


    "Can you tell me how long you''ve been a Lost One?" Uldin asked waking him from his thoughts.


    "Three months or so, no more than four." Aldrich answered because it wasn''t a big deal besides Uldin must have a reason to ask this now of all times.


    "That''s too soon," Uldin shook his head, "it''s too fast. The first transformation usually takes at least a year. You¡­ what happened to you?"


    "I wouldn''t be here asking you all this if I knew." Aldrich rolled his eyes. But actually he caught on to something.


    Mental state.


    At that time his mental state was messed up because of the [psychicsh] of the Aberrant acolyte and because of the despair he was feeling at his imminent death.


    It could be that such a mental state sped up the process, eventually leading to his transformation or as Uldin called it a trial happening earlier than it should have.

 Chapter 183 Growing Pains

    In fact on that day he suffered two consecutive sts of [psychicsh] and at the end of his second life he gave up fighting and allowed himself to be killed.


    It was no coincidence that the time ran out there and then.


    In the journal of the Lost Ones, he got a warning to fight for every life like it was thest and yet even when he knew he just couldn''t do it.


    Ultimately he paved the way and allowed the beast to take over. At the time Aldrich was actually d that happened, if it doesn''t he could have died for real.


    It was both a blessing and a curse. Immortality did note without a cost and he had a feeling he was just beginning to see the tip of the iceberg.


    "Not bad, it seems like you were able toe to terms with it. Don''t be down, it''s part of the job." Uldin cheered him up and looked pretty revitalized himself.


    "Why are you so chipper?"


    "I made a transaction for the first time in a while. For us merchants of Leng trade is a way of life, it''s who we are. There''s also the fact that you became powerful enough to actually start trading with me from now on."


    "Well, I won''t be staying here for long I will soon leave to Castamerphia." Aldrich wanted to be up front about this.


    "All the better then!" Uldin dered.


    "You''re going to follow me there? I am not sure if the gate can take the two of us."


    "I don''t need to use the gate itself as long as you activate the gate, the spatial node here would be free and I can teleport myself to anywhere on this world."


    "That''s a neat ability." Aldrich said enviously.


    "It is, it''s just that I need the whole ban on this realm undone so I can get out of here." Uldin spoke with conviction, he was like a sailor that hot stranded on an Ind.


    "Sounds like you actually need me to activate the gate¡­ how about some help then?" Aldrich picked up on Uldin''s desire to leave, so shouldn''t he be more cooperative then?


    "I will be." Uldin said which shocked Aldrich a little as he expected Uldin to refuse.


    "I will give you a 20%¡ªno, 30% discount on all my wares. Even a thousand years ago I didn''t give this kind of discount. There''s not much else I can do."


    "Uh, thank you. That sounds like an awesome deal but¡­ why don''t you join me in the fight?"


    Aldrich appreciated the deal but he wanted more substantial help.


    "I can''t, I can''t fight or use my powers unless it''s in self-defense." Uldin looked resigned, "if I could I wouldn''t be stuck here like this."


    "What? Howe?" Aldrich honestly didn''t understand.


    "Easy. Back then, when otherworldly beings like myself wanted toe here, we had to sign a contract. We are still beholden to that contract, unfortunately."


    Aldrich sighed, he was disappointed, Uldin seemed like he could handle himself well. But whoever was running this realm was really through, huh.


    "Fine, at least tell me what is this?" Aldrich showed Uldin the Proof of Devotion and watched out for his reaction.


    "Ehm? It''s the Unseen Hand''s Proof of Devotion, right?" Uldin nonchntly answered. He didn''t seem very interested in it. "I will give you one green orb for it how about it?"<sub> </sub>


    "One green orb? You''re kidding, right?" Aldrich asked in disbelief.


    "I mean it''s just a ve brand, and it''s useless now that it''s been taken out. It''s basically a collectors item, and I am not a collector."


    "Just a ve brand?" Aldrich repeated and understood something. Uldin didn''t know that it was also a prototype of the artificial divine core¡­


    "Then forget it, I''ll keep it."


    "Have it your way."


    Aldrich returned to the base and stashed the Proof of Devotion somewhere safe and locked the cupboard.


    It may be useful some day. It was better to just keep it than to just sell it for scraps. Besides he found it interesting that Uldin didn''t know about the artificial divine cores.


    Indeed it mighte in handy.


    ****


    Aldrich returned to the real world and tried to resume his sleep, feeling satisfied with a good day. But before he could something unexpected happened.


    He remembered Irene, the feeling of her body pressed against his own, her soft breasts crushed against his solid chest muscles.


    Her taste on his tongue, her ass on his hand. His mouth was suddenly dry and his little brother was wide awake.


    ''Shit, it''s time to sleep. Get back down!''


    No matter how he pleaded he couldn''t control his little brother even when he tried to distract himself with random thoughts.


    ''Damn it! You''re rebelling?!''


    This did not happen often, most days he was simply too exhausted so he fell asleep as soon as he return to the real world but now¡­


    ''Uldin did say that my desires would increase. It''s all that beast''s fault!''


    Aldrich decided to me the beast for all of it, ignoring that he was almost sixteen now and his recent debacle with Irene.


    The next day, a new sun rose above the clouds and the stars. The birds sang in the treetops and animals grazed in the woods.


    While they were eating breakfast, a boy in a colorful clothes walked in and said in their table''s direction, "this is a letter from senior Giltmere. Stand to receive it."


    Aldrich put down his fork, took a breath and stood up with a respectful expression.


    "Oh? The senior inquisitor sends a letter to the like of me? It is a true honor." Aldrich said seriously looking very moved.


    "Oh?" The boy looked a little taken back as if he expected a different response, "ah, eh? It''s good that you know your ce¡­ but the others behind you don''t seem to hold the inquisition in the same regard."


    Aldrich shot a look at them, they scrambled to stand but most of them had terrible expressions.

 Chapter 184 The Inquisition

    "Thats better," the boy said, his nose was about to pierce the sky.


    "Ah, please forgive them their disrespect, we''re just an uneducated bunch." Aldrich apologized ''sincerely''.


    "Hmm," the boy nodded looking satisfied with his disy of subservience.


    "Well, here''s the letter."


    Aldrich took the letter and read it, the contents were easy and simple. It was regarding the sale of the two Aberrant acolytes eyes, apparently they finished inspecting them and are now ready to pay them their dues.


    For that they were to meet at Ward Call inn, they boy will guide him there.


    "Alright, the great senior inquisitor has summoned us, how can we dy?" Aldrich said tteringly.


    "We?" Cole asked in horror.


    "Yes, we." Aldrich answered while giving him a look that said keep your mouth shut please.


    The group followed behind the boy who didn''t bother to introduce himself and rode a carriage prepared for them beforehand to the Ward call inn.


    "Wait here until the inquisitors call for you."


    Aldrich andpany were left waiting in the reception room of the inn which was for some reason devoid of any employees or customers.


    He guessed that the inquisitors must have rented the whole ce or driven the others out. It was probably the former.


    "The inquisitor called for us and yet he''s making us wait when we got here? Has he no dignity to speak off." Frankined.


    "Hmm, while I agree with you, we should keep it down until we''re done with this here." Aldrich warned because he was feeling jittery the moment he walked in to this ce.


    He was angry at being made to wait after they were explicitly told toe now but what could he do?


    He was in an inferior position, in such cases it was better to ster on a fake smile and hope this whole thing is over soon.


    Aldrich agreed to sell the eyes to the inquisitors to make a point to look friendly. Not because he couldn''t find anyone to sell them to, even if there was no one here, was it the same in Voryhrm?


    Obviously the inquisitors wanted the eyes so why not take the chance to step back and have a better rtionship?


    However, he was also aware that such gestures coulde off as weakness to weak people. But he didn''t think that inquisitor Giltmere was one to not get the hint.


    Well, it was just an impression after all he didn''t know the man.


    Soon the boy called them up to the third floor, it was quite the ce, luxurious and yet ssy. The green and gold contrasted one another perfectly.


    Behind the door of the biggest room, a man was sitting behind the mahogany wood desk, but it was not Giltmere Voke, it was inquisitor Bernard that waited for them.


    "Oh, the young heroes have arrived, please take a seat." Bernard greeted and attempted to smile. He failed miserably.<sub> </sub>


    "O-oh yeah," Aldrich forced a smile of his own. "Is senior inquisitor Giltmere runningte?"


    "Yes, he¡­ will being in a few minutes hopefully. In the meantime I will chat with you guys, aspiring heroes are a rare breed these days."


    Unexpectedly Bernard was actually being nice today. If not for the giant orc-like thing behind him. He saw it following behind the carriage when he first had the pleasure of meeting with the inquisitors.


    "So¡­" Bernard coughed, ""how have you found Ebrict so far? Not a bad town eh?"


    "Yes, yes, it''s actually quite pleasant." Aldrich answered, hoping that Giltmere wille in any minute.


    He did not like any of the inquisitors he met so far but he disliked Bernard the most out of all of them. He did not forget how he was made to bow deep enough for his satisfaction.


    "Ehem! I understand that we may have gotten aquatinted on the wrong foot."


    Aldrich was surprised, Bernard was actually doing something close to apologizing.


    "What? How could that be? Sir, you were only doing your duty, how can we hold it against you."


    Fuck, Aldrich was about to throw up but he held on with sheer will.


    "Oh, you guys must be curious about this one right?" Bernard pointed at the giant behind him.


    Aldrich and the others nodded, admittedly they were indeed, they just weren''t sure if they should ask.


    "This is a special product, it''s called the Punisher. They''re not easy to make a half breed grey orc and a Sulvan hound beastmen are crossed to make even one of them. And it wouldn''t even be possible without the power of the Inverted Spire."


    The Inverted Spire was the headquarters of the inquisition and the empire''s most notorious prison despite theck on definitive information about it.


    No one actually knew it''s true location, even the High lords have no idea. For example even in the False Saint''s war it was never attacked by any side and the inquisition itself remained uninvolved.


    The prison is known to be a mysterious tower only it was built into the ground, the further down you go the more dangerous the sinners. However the sinners are rarely kiiled there.


    Instead they all lead a life worse than death, their anguish and suffering is channeled through the inverted spire to power the weird devices used by the inquisitors.


    Like the one nted on the back of this Punisher.


    The Spire was the known as the Earthly hell, and it was the nightmare of all evildoers and sinners. Few criminals would hesitate in taking their own lives to never get to the inverted spire.


    He could not me them, for they were right to fear such a ce, not a single soul in the history of the empire has escaped.


    To that end there are many clerics who work there to make sure none of the prisoners die.


    There are even stories of some foreign royalty being imprisoned there.


    Most of this information was spread over the long history of the empire and there was no way to confirm what was true and what was not.

 Chapter 185 Interesting Conversation

    "So, does that thing have the ability to think? Does it have to eat or does it rely solely on the energy of the Spire?"


    It was Nathan that asked, behind his sses his eyes were shining as he looked at that Punisher. Like a kid looking at toy he wanted from the bottom of his heart.


    "It does think, but it''s bred and raised to be absolutely loyal to the inquisition. And the Empire, of course. As for food, it still has to eat, it''s a living thing after all, not an undead."


    Bernard shook his head in disappointment as if he wasmenting that the Punisher was still not good enough.


    "What about you, young man, you''re a cleric which cathedral were you ordained at?" Bernard asked looking very interested.


    "Eh," Nathan smiled awkwardly, "I haven''t really been ordained. Actually I haven''t been to a church in ages. I am a alchemy acolyte."


    There was a silence in the room after these words were uttered so honestly, or rather recklessly.


    Nathan looked around and then continued talking of his own ord, "ah, you must be taken aback that I ignited the holy ring right? Don''t ask, I''ve been wondering that myself."


    "Hmm, it is random but to have be a cleric must mean that you hold great faith in your heart. You must be ning to report to a cathedral in Voryhrm, right?"


    Nathan shook his head, "I wanted to ignite a Glyphmancer''s tome, that way it will increase my learning ability and help in my vocation. But clerical work really isn''t my forte. I hope to continue my studies in the art of alchemy."


    "¡­ that is understandable considering that you''ve been aiming for alchemy this whole time."


    Bernard looked aghast for a moment before his expression was back to normal.


    "Well, I have suggestion for all of you, young adventurers." Bernard said, changing the subject and drawing everyone''s attention. "Why don''t you leave Vorian?"


    "What?" Frank asked in confusion.


    "Ah, that came out wrong. I meant to say, why not look for better opportunities outside of Vorian, it''s no secret that Vorian is not in the best of shapes. You haven''t officially joined any guilds right?"


    "Technically no but¡ª" Aldrich tried to say but he was cut off.


    "Technically no, means no. But it''s fine if you still join the Knights ofst Sustar, they have many branches outside of Vorian."


    "The headquarters is still in Vorian, and the others Provinces are too far away, we have families and loved ones here, it difficult to make a decision¡­"


    Aldrich answered diplomatically because he didn''t want to offend Bernard and because he didn''t want to speak on behalf of the party members on this matter. They had to decide for themselves.


    He had no intention to leave Vorian for now, he had too many things going on here. If he left he would basically have to start over. Besides Ayemon and the others were staying here too.


    "Well, it''s just a passing suggestion, don''t take it to heart. Oh, here this is for all of you." Bernard didn''t seem offended instead he handed each of them small letter envelopes.


    "What are these?" Emma asked.<sub> </sub>


    "These are rmendation letters to the Thunderp Conve. If you ever feel that it''s notfortable in Vorian you can easily switch."


    The Thunderp Conve.


    It was one of the most famous guilds on par with the Knights ofst Sustar. But the main difference between them was their ownership of a specific dungeon.


    The Endless Gift dungeon.


    Any mid-level guild would own a dungeon, buy top guilds had multiple dungeons. These dungeons are one of the main sources of ie and influence that they use to back up their position.


    But not all dungeons were the same, in fact it was hard to find two identical dungeons. Some were better than others, that was the case for the Endless Gift dungeon.


    It was said that it was a dungeon that gave out wondrous items like candy. The Thunderp Conve went from a no name guild into a household name in a hundred years thanks only to that dungeon.


    Members of the guild were given the sole right to explore it and get rich out of it.


    Most guilds sold tickets to any adventurers who would want to explore their dungeons but not the Thunderp Conve. They gave this right only to members of the guild.


    "Ah, just think about it, no need to make a decision now. You are all still young, take your time and make the right call." Bernard said with a smile.


    ''That is not a random suggestion. It has to be nned, the rmendation has an empty space for names. Meaning that the recipient could just write down any name.''


    The rmendation was issued by house Benthos of Izzram, they must trust Bernard greatly or¡­


    Suddenly the door of the room was opened and in walked senior inquisitor, Giltmere Voke. His stride was neither fast nor slow, it wasposed, his white beard looked recently trimmed.


    Aldrich looked over at Bernard and at some point he had stood up and moved away from the chair, standing beside the Punisher.


    "Forgive me, I waste." He said as he took his seat, where Bernard was sitting a moment ago. He eyed the rmendation letters in their hands but didn''t mention them.


    "It''s fine, inquisitor Giltmere, we had a pleasant conversation with inquisitor Bernard and benefited greatly."


    "I''m sure you have, I''m sure you have."Giltmere nodded, he took out a coin pouch from the drawer and handed it over to Aldrich.


    "This is the money for the eyes, five gold for each, and three for the tentacles. Any objections?"


    "No, not at al, we are just d that we were able to help the inquisition even if it is insignificant."


    "Of course, don''t fret they will be put to good use." Giltmere nodded repeatedly.


    "I''m d to hear these words, these days the world is in chaos and needs strong hands to take charge."

 Chapter 186 Politics At Play

    Aldrich and the others returned to the inn each having their own thoughts about the earlier meeting.


    It was an interesting meeting to be sure. Aldrich graciously epted the rmendation letter and had no intention to refuse outright.


    When they got back to the inn they sat together in Aldrich''s room to discuss what just happened.


    "Weird, why''d he give all of us the rmendation letters? Wouldn''t it be normal to ignore us and focus on Aldrich and Nathan?" Frank asked.


    "Maybe he didn''t want to single us out because it would be rude?" Nathan answered.


    "I don''t think so, did he look like he gave a damn about being rude?" Hellen shot back.


    "Maybe he didn''t want to tear a rift between us?" Emma suggested.


    She finally started talking again, little by little. Aldrich was d that she was recovering alright, after all she got beaten badly in both quests so far.


    "Wouldn''t it be better for him if he made a rift between us?" Aldrich asked rhetorically, "I think he didn''t mind taking all of us, maybe he could tell we were cut above our peers."


    "Or maybe he didn''t care about wasting the rmendation letters¡­" Frank added to which Aldrich nodded.


    Indeed that might''ve been an eptable loss for him. Or rather to the Benthos family in Izzram.


    After lunch Aldrich went to visit Irene and check up on Huzon. Well, they spent most of the time making out. So technically he did go to take a look at Huzon.


    The next day a letter was slipped under his door. After reading it he put on his clothes and took a carriage to the fish market where another carriage was waiting for him.


    In the carriage lord Garon Altemir and his eldest son, Harry were waiting for him. They didn''t say anything until carriage was driven out of town and into a clearing in the woods that overlooked the town from above.


    Lord Garon opened the shutters and allowed the breeze of the sea into the carriage, it was cloudy so the sun wasn''t too hot.


    "I was surprised the lord has summoned me so." Aldrich said indifferently.


    He could feel that the coachman driving the carriage was a Crestmaster, and he wasn''t trying to hide it. Perhaps intentionally so.


    "I did not mean to be so secretive but the inquisitors are a paranoid bunch. I guess ites with the job."


    Aldrich narrower his eyes but otherwise remained silent, he did notment nor show a visible physical reaction.


    "¡­ I wanted to say that we''ve taken care of the enved pirates loot. I didn''t expect that such a danger was lurking right under my home." Lord Garon moved on to another subject of his own ord.


    "I''m d it didn''t take long. If so then we''ll take our leave soon, if that''s alright."


    "Yeah, as we agreed here''s the eight gold. Once again you did a great job."


    "Thank you my lord, we only did what we thought was right."


    Aldrich took the pouch and stashed it away. But he didn''t get out nor did he say anything else, he just waited letting the silence rest between them.<sub> </sub>


    He wasfortable in the silence, he didn''t mind the quite ever since he was a kid, in fact he enjoyed it at times and at others he hated it but knew to endure it.


    "I heard that you met with the inquisitors yesterday," Lord Garon said, "how was it? They didn''t mistreat you, I hope."


    "The inquisitors were most amodating. They paid us our dues, even more than we deserve and even offered us some rmendation letters to a guild in appreciation of our good deeds."


    Aldrich sneaked in the details that the lord wanted to hear about. He made sure that he didn''t badmouth the inquisitors and at the same time he didn''t lie to the good lord.


    Plus he hoped that he could get a better understanding of the situation by revealing this information.


    "Rmendation letters, huh. You must be wondering why they would do such a thing? The other provinces do not wish to see Vorian rise again."


    "Hm?" Aldrich didn''t understand, truthfully he was lost. What did this have to do with that? Did he miss something?


    No, it''s a direct answer but there''s something between the lines. The inquisition was made up of people and so it could not be truly neutral.


    The inquisitors working there had ties and people outside of the inquisition, they had their own interests and leanings.


    "Talent?" Aldrich muttered causing lord Garons eyes to gleam with approval.


    They didn''t wish to see Vorian a suppressed province produce talents and promising people. To them it was a matter of danger.


    With Vorian and Melowar taking a backseat the others provinces had to fill in the power vacuum.


    If Vorian and Melowar returned to the good graces of the Imperial Citadel they would be put in ce to lose the power they came to enjoy.


    ? "Last year the Sword Saint was promoted to Captain of the Crownsguard. His promotion to that position has indicated a return to normalcy."


    The Crownsguard were a force tasked with protecting the Emperor himself. The Sword Saint, a Vorian, being the captain meant that the Citadel has begun making moves to restore things back to normal.


    The Sword Saint could not be stopped no matter how they tried, he was a living legend.


    Even though he fought on the wrong side in the war, even his enemies could not help but respect him.


    His first and only defeat was on the hands of the First Sword, the previous captain of the Crownsguard.


    The Emperor was injured in that battle but he ordered for the Sword Saint to be spared andmanded for Archbishop Paston, his personal healer to tend to the Sword Saint''s wounds first over his own.


    And the rest was history.


    His story from when he first picked up a sword was sold as books and then as theatrical ys.


    At bed time he heard that mothers would tell his tales. Not that his mother ever did something like that.

 Chapter 187 Departure

    "It''s in their best interests to take any talented individuals, they could strengthen their own forces and weaken Vorian in a single stroke. Their methods are not bad, most of what they offered you is probably true."


    Aldrich couldn''t help but admire this way of doing things. Using soft but effective strategy is harder than using brute force.


    "The temptation is strong, it has driven many people out of Vorian. This happens to every field, not just Crestmasters, physicians, entertainers, artists and evenborers."


    "So, is this the part where you tell me to be loyal to Vorian and stay?" Aldrich asked, amused.


    He did not feel that the people who left were in the wrongpletely. Ultimately they sought a better life and he couldn''t me them for that.


    However it did leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Because he knew he would be one of those people.


    He had his own reasons for staying in Vorian, he had obligations to fulfill but he also thought that he had better opportunities in Vorian.


    "No," lord Garon unexpectedly shook his head like he knew something he wasn''t going to share.


    "I just wanted to give you a message."


    "A message? To whom?" Aldrich didn''t know anyone of any great import. And why did the lord think of him of all people to carry a message, they were not familiar with each other.


    "You''re the best person for the job since I can''t write it, the best way is to ry it to you."


    "While I am grateful for your trust, my lord. I am not well equipped to handle such a great responsibility¡­"


    Are you kidding? This sound incredibly dangerous. He sure as hell wasn''t going to plunge himself into hell just to look good.


    "It''s for Ayemon''s ears alone."


    An unexpected name came up.


    "W-who is that? I''m not sure I follow¡­" that could be a test, he had to act like he didn''t know.


    "Cut the act. Tell him that Orven still didn''t get back nor did he send word, I fear something unexpected has happened in the west."


    "Orven?" Aldrich then remembered, he was one of Ayemon''s travelingpanions and he came with them to Voryhrm but then he left and Aldrich didn''t know where to or why.


    The unexpected news left Aldrich a little uprehending, it was one thing after another.


    "Fine is that all?" Aldrich asked in some annoyance. He was upset that Ayemon didn''t tell him he knew lord Garon.


    When he told him about Ebrict he even acted all surprised.


    "Yeah, we''ll drop you off."


    Aldrich returned to inn and told everyone to pack their things and get the supplies and food for their return trip.


    They were going right after breakfast. Theypleted the quest, got the loot and sent the report. There was nothing to do here anymore.


    Aldrich went to say his goodbyes to Irene, they wouldn''t be seeing each other for some time. But it was a short few months, it wasn''t a great amount of time. What could happen in a few months time?


    Next time they saw each other maybe¡­ kekekeke


    Aldrich snickered to himself creepily. On his way there he turned to take onest look at Umbra ind, it stood not too far from shore.


    Last time Aldrich was¡­ let''s say upied with Irene but he still used his Eyes of Insight on it and saw that remarkable barrier on the giant rock.<sub> </sub>


    The giant rock was huge, you could build a whole castle on it and it would still have some room left. Yet the barrier covered it all.


    It wasn''t a physical barrier either, people could walk all over the giant rock and not feel any obstruction, the air flowed normally.


    But something else was there, it was somehow there and not there at once. He saw something with his eyes at the time but wasn''t very helpful.


    Formation Barrier : ???


    It conceals and hides, the key was thrown out. It can''t be broken or damaged. The Glyphs used to create it were modified by the hands of a being of great power and knowledge.


    Umbra monastery is real and it''s still here. But it remains locked and sealed to outsiders, clearly they didn''t want to be found.


    Maybe if he got closer to it that time on the ind he could have seen more.


    But he still deduced several things from that brief information. ''The key'' was thrown out, meaning that there is a key to the monastery and it''s outside of it, outside the barrier.


    If so, then if he found it he could be the only person to get ess to the ancient and forgotten Umbra monastery.


    That would be really nice, not bad for his reputation and very lucrative to boot.


    He was a little concerned as to why the schrs decided to shut themselves out. And to go as far as throwing the key out.


    It''s been eight hundred years since the age of dread, the schrs must have already turned to skeletons, it wasn''t an exaggeration to called a mass grave.


    Aldrich talked with Irene and she looked very reluctant to see him leave, it can''t be helped.


    "Next time, I''ll cook for you the Shrubs shrimp I told you about."


    "I will look forward to it then." Aldrichughed. He felt sorry that he couldn''t eat the specialty of Ebrict.


    The Shrubs shrimp were rare in all seasons but winter, that was the only time when people can radially get them.


    "Sometimes things just don''t work out in life, it''s just that the time wasn''t right." Aldrich tried tofort her.


    "When youe to Voryhrm we should go to a Sword Saint theatrical y. I heard they''re really good."


    Irene shook her head, "that story has already been told to oblivion, every time the story get exaggerated more and more."


    "Now I''m really interested, we can make fun of it together then."


    Irene smiled, "that sounds fun."


    "I have to go now, my friends will kill me for being sote after I admonished them to get moving."


    "Wait!"


    Aldrich stopped and turned back to look at her in confusion.


    "Aren''t you¡­ uh¡­ I mean, fine go!"


    "Oh?" Aldrich smiled closed the distance, gave her a kiss and went on his way.

 Chapter 188 On The Way Back

    The party of young adventurers left Ebrict on a lizard-drawn carriage, they were the widely popr Geko lizards.


    The horses were pushed to hardst time and had to be sold in Ebrict for cheap. He felt sorry since they made it with plenty of time to spare, at least they will live.


    Half a dayter night came and they set up camp, the fire was zing the quite of the woods was serene. Since they were taking the ancientnd bridge they had to get off any roads.


    "We made so much money, can''t we just retire?" Cole asked jokingly.


    "Indeed we made 24 gold off of one quest alone." Aldrich whistled wonder. It was an abnormal amount thanks to the loot of the pirates.


    "I wish I didn''t fucking join the academy!" Frank pped himself. "I still have to pay my tuition debt, if I could go back in time I would not have fallen for this scam."


    Some people like Adera had sponsors to pay their share in exchange for service after graduation. Others got a loan from one bank or another, or a merchant union perhaps.


    These debts were actually crushing, otherwise with the earning power of a Crestmaster it wouldn''t take that long to pay them off.


    But Crestmasters take an average of five years to pay back their debts, some more, much more. Of course the Crestmasters debts get benefits such as no umting interests, they just had to pay the base.


    But still they had to pay at least three thousand gold. An astronomical amount for most ordinary people, it was equivalent to generations of hard work and correct investments. And most importantly, luck.


    Aldrich obviously didn''t have to pay anything he only studied for a few months and the whole first year is free for everyone, by the grace of the Emperor.


    But his cover story was that he studied for three years at the academy so, he too, put on a regretful face.


    Remembering these details of what was actually true and what wasn''t had be harder on him, as more lies build up the moreplicated his life became.


    To be honest it was annoying as hell, he wished that he coulde clean some day, but that day seemed to be only in his fantasies.


    This served to fuel his hatred of the True Saint''s Folk and the order of the Unshackled further still. He had to live like this thanks to them.


    Later after his night shift he meditated and a curious thought urred to him. He had seen his ignition of the first symbol back when he meditated for the first time.


    He saw the marblehead lighthouse and thought it was a white tower. Funny how he didn''t recognize it, he might''ve been less worried.


    However before Aldrich could end his meditation and sleep peacefully he was awaken with the feeling of something approaching the camp. It was big.


    "Everyone wake up, we''ve gotpany." He warned and kicked Frank''s sleeping bag, maybe a little too harshly than he had to.


    "What!" Frank shot up like a startled rabbit. "What was that for?!"<sub> </sub>


    "Hey you''re a heavy sleeper so I had to resort to this." Aldrich shrugged.


    The others scrambled to position, but Aldrich secretly shook his head, they were too slow! He actually didn''t need to wake them up, their foe was a mere beast.


    He could see it clear as day, he could control his dark vision so he turned it off in town so he can sleep better but out here in the wild? He dared not.


    It was an Ambeb bear, green furred but it had grown scales like a protective armor, with an intimidating size it could strike fear in most foes.


    It didn''t run away even after it knew the ambush failed and the prey were aware. It could have, but it didn''t. It chose to charge right in with a growl, carrying the might of heavy calvary.


    "I will take care of this, don''t shoot any arrows unless I say so." Aldrich certainly didn''t want the beast to die so miserably.


    He unleashed his Ether and a great ck ded sword appeared in his hand. The bear sensing the danger came to a sudden halt, but it was toote.


    Aldrich kicked it''s hind leg causing it to fall and break it under it''s own weight. With a merciful sh he cut the bear''s throat cleanly. The huge body thrashed and was suppressed by him easily.


    "Hey you gave it a merciful death at the very least." Emmamented.


    "Yeah, I would feel bad if it died messily." Aldrich sighed in relief, "now help me skin this thing. The skin and some internal organs sell for five silver at least."


    The next day at noon they got on the ancientnd bridge. It was the ce where the winds were extremely powerful. Their carriage had to be stooped until the winds calmed.


    Unfortunately due to the size of the carriage they could only take the most valuable parts of the bear, too bad, they could''ve brought a cart but then again they were in a hurry to return.


    Suddenly the winds scattered and the bridge shook, the reason was that a giant eaglended close by.


    It was a majestic beast of both beauty and danger giving the impression of a ruler themanded the sky.


    Aldrich and Nathan both released their Ether at once. It may only be a grade zero beast but they were on the ancientnd bridge, if they fell off even a saint won''t find their scattered bodies.


    Even if he was a grade two Crestmaster this fall was certain death. At least that was his conjecture since he didn''t know just how powerful a grade two was, but this fall looked deadly enough to inspire that thought with in him.


    Several giant eagles were flying around them looking at them with hunger.


    ''Shit, it was the flesh of the Ambeb bear, it was still fresh and the smell must have attracted it to them.''

 Chapter 189 Familiar Silhouettes

    Aldrich wasn''t fretting over nothing, it wasn''t just the fall that could kill them. Giant eagles had variants at grade one too.


    It was rare but still a very real possibility, if such a being attacked them from the air there would be nothing they could do.


    Last time they happened on this flock of giant eagles hunting fish on the sea, their nest was probably somewhere on these cliffs.


    Aldrich released his [Invisible Sword] and pointed at the eye of the giant eagle on the bridge. His meaning was clear, if anything happened you will die first.


    No one else but Aldrich could see the sword created by pure Aurora and to everyone it looked like there was a stalemate.


    A long momentter just when the time of the skill was about to run out, the giant eagle spread his wings and flew off of the ancientnd bridge.


    Aldrich didn''t allow himself a sigh of relief, he just kept a vignt look to his surroundings. Even with increased perception it was almost impossible to notice a foe from the air.


    By the time he could notice it was already toote, it would be different if their party had a Weaponsmaster who ignited the archer symbol, bow and arrow.


    Archers would usually get increased perception, eye sight and a connection with thend.


    There is a skill that called [greater eyesight] that allowed them to look through great distances as if they were there.


    This skill would allow their ''eyes'' to see through some obstacles, but not too many. They excelled in tracking and scouting. Aldrich hoped that someone in the party would ignite this symbol.


    The Weaponsmaster crest maybe the mostmon but it was also the most versatile, there were quite a few adventure parties made up of only Weaponsmasters of different symbols.


    There was a general sentiment that Weaponsmasters were the bottom of Crestmasters but that was only an opinion held by the ignorant.


    There is no such thing as a weak crest or a weak symbol. Only weak people.


    After going through much of the ancientnd bridge, night came and they had to spend it on the bridge. They would have to spend another night too.


    Aldrich had the ne with him this time and if the words of the blind priestess could be trusted then he wasn''t in any harm.


    Only if her words were to be trusted and Aldrich didn''t trust her.


    For a time he was swayed by her, he still felt that she indeed didn''t have any ill intentions, this had nothing to do with his emotions.


    This is a rational approach. Why trust her when she could be just as dangerous as that banshee? She did seemingly save him, but wasn''t her arrival at the right moment too suspicious?


    Who knows, what if she was in cahoots with the banshee?<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich didn''t like to think that way of a savior but he had to cautious and careful not to fall for a trap. If she was really honest then he didn''t mind being careful now than sorryter.


    And so he decided not to sleep on the bridge, he told the others that he had to keep watch so the eagles wouldn''t ambush them at night, which was technically true.


    Two dayster Aldrich was in a snappy mood and his temper red at the slightest mishap. The party was already begging him to sleep, this result hurt his pride.


    With his current status as a Crestmaster who had great physical enhancement he wasn''t too bothered by staying up for three nights, but human habits were not so easily defied.


    Sleep has already been ingrained into his bones and suddenly changing that was met with a terrible oue. Despite him having sufficiently high attributes, it was still not an easy thing to do.


    Finally they were off the bridge and Aldrich had to be retired to the carriage as the party returned to Rathoa and slept in. The next week was spent on imperial roads so it was much safer and faster.


    Eventually they found themselves in a flood of people going through the great gates of Voryhrm, the city of hope and the uncrowned capital of Vorian.


    Aldrich was back to his normal self and decided that he didn''t want to try that again. Sleep was a blessing from Altunan given to mortals to rest and recuperate.


    After one hour they passed through the gate smoothly without any trouble, the guards didn''t inspect all travelers otherwise the line wouldn''t move, they just chose people at random.


    "Did you see that guard touching me like that? Perverted piece of shit! We should get rid of him."


    As they were passing under the gated Aldrich heard something too dramatic from a couple walking in front of them, the voice was a woman''s. It seems they were unlucky and got held up by the guards for inspection.


    "Calm down, they were just doing their jobs¡­ you have a habit of exaggerating things out of proportions." A man judging by the voice answered.


    Aldrich got a sudden sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, the couple were wearing matching cloaks that were clean but unremarkable otherwise, their hoods covered their faces.


    He felt like he might have seen these figures, as if he heard these voices somewhere before but he wasn''t sure. He walked behind them to see their faces out of curiosity.


    "¡ªAldrich! Where are you going?"


    He stopped in his tracks turned around and his free were a distance away from him, looks like he drifted a bit. He turned back around looking for the strangers but they were already covered in a sea of people.


    Aldrich returned back to his friends, he couldn''t put his hand on where he saw these familiar silhouettes. Soon he threw the matter to the back of his mind.


    After all, it was just a random thought, he ought to focus on something else. He was back, finally! This trip took a whole month but atst he was back with honor.

 Chapter 190 Return To The City Of Hope

    Aldrich breathed in deeply and coughed on the dust that dominated his entire apartment, he was a little too excited and expected a different wee. Oh, well.


    He had to hire a maid to clean it regrly even when he''s not here, this level of filth was uneptable.


    He started cleaning on his own and then heated up some water for a rxing long bath. Then he went out for lunch outside since he didn''t have any groceries to cook anything today.


    They all split up and went their own ways, Cole had to take the carriage since his family had an inn and could keep it there. The Geko lizards had to be fed and taken care of too, he was the only one who could do this.


    They agreed to meet again tomorrow at Dane''s coffee house and then go to the guild together. After that they should distribute the money and go do their own thing.


    After all, since thest quest turned into a grade  one quest, there will be some things to resolve and payment forpleting the quest.


    Aldrich got a fresh hair cut, new shoes, new clothes for all asions and many groceries, in the past he had a matching style with the most people but now his style has be a notch higher than those around him.


    He thought that he should soon order some custom suits, after all he wasn''t just a business owner he was also a Crestmaster.


    Back home, night fell and he prepared a meal of rice, mashed potatoes and roasted Hog rabbits. These rabbits were grade zero beasts not animals.


    In the nightmare realm Aldrich was able to read four pages of the journal before being forced to stop. This made it clear that the stronger he was the more he could know, literally.


    Finally the information had gotten extremely juicy and helpful especially regarding the expeditions the Lost Ones went on and a map that covered most of Voros, the nigh town he was currently stuck in.


    He discovered that he was unlucky andnded in one of the wards that the Lost Ones never got to. Most of Voros was now devoid of even monsters because of the Lost Ones.


    In the long amount of time that they spent here they cleared up, the Cemetery which was infested by all kinds of undead, they vanquished bone eaters in the old marketce, they defeated wooden abominations in the woods.


    They scoured the fallen magic academy, they burned the old library, they took down the terrifying corrupted priests of the irvoyant Moon church.


    Eventually they managed to find their way to the Overseer''s mansion, only it was packed with monsters, and then theyid siege to it. And failed.


    And then thest twenty attempted toplete the job onest time. The result was unknown since the author of the journal was one of them.


    This was only scratching the surface of what he learned, he was going to digest the rest slowly and understand theyout of the Overseer''s mansion.


    The next day Aldrich got off the private carriage in front of Ayemon''s mansion but the whole ce was a mess. Many other carriages were going anding taking and loading things out.


    Many of them were carrying boxes of boutiques of flowers and perfumes others carried wine racks and drinks, some were guiding in a row of mountain goats and many others things that had Aldrich''s head spinning.


    He gawked at them for a while before remembering what he was here for and going in.


    The guards recognized him and saluted to which he nodded.<sub> </sub>


    Inside the mansion was even more of a mess with many servants and workers going about their business in semi-orderly fashion.


    "You''re back."


    Aldrich was startled, he turned around and found Norge the head butler of the mansion standing behind him. He did not even feel him approaching.


    "Yeah, I got back yesterday so I had to put some annoying things back in order."


    "Looks like many things happened to you, huh." Norgemented looking as calm and cold as ever. He must''ve noticed that Aldrich was a Crestmaster now even though Aldrich suppressed his energy to the limit.


    "You know what they say, if it goes as nned then it''s not an adventure, right?"


    Come to think of it, Norge was also there that day when he first met all of them and escaped the ver goblins with Tarzin.


    "True, true. I will inform master Ayemon of your safe arrival at once." Norge said professionally but then paused as if he got an idea. "You know what why don''t you surprise him? He''s in the garden library. Give this to him while you''re at it."


    Aldrich took a letter envelope and sighed, why did people want him to deliver news to Ayemon so much? He read what was on the envelope.


    ''Hm? The city council?''


    The garden library was one of the rooms to the back of the mansion and it was wide and cozy usually, but even here it was full ofmotion.


    "I told you to get the Tabrisian mix, it''s absolutely a must."


    He heard Ayemon''s voice before he saw the man himself, he was instructing a man who didn''t look to be a worker in the mansion.


    "Hello." Aldrich popped in.


    "Eh?" Ayemon looked taken back for a moment and then talked to the man, "go on now, don''te back without the Tabrisian mix."


    "Why, if it isn''t our little adventurer? Back in one piece? I guess that''s another bet I won." Ayemon shook his hand firmly and sat down on a reclining chair.


    Aldrich followed suit, "so, what''s this all about?"


    "Oh, this? It''s nothing big, I''m hosting a ball for some friends. It''s always a pain in the ass." Ayemon answered like he usually does when he asked about these things, bored, uninterested.


    "Here, Norge told me to give you this."

 Chapter 191 Message From The West

    "Oh, this? Yeah, whatever." Ayemon tossed the envelope without reading it into the trashcan.


    "Ah, no!" Aldrich hurriedly took it out, "didn''t you read this?" He pointed at the sentence ''city council'' "it''s from the city council, it must be important right?"


    "Why bother?" Ayemon lit a pipe and smoked, "I know what''s in there without reading it, it''s something about attending the next meeting for a vote, or asking for favors and the like."


    "Wait, you''re a member of the city council?" Aldrich asked in shock. "You''re a big shot, why didn''t you tell me?!"


    "Em? You didn''t ask besides, I''m just the treasurer. I''m not a big shot. I basically fill a seat for the sake of convince. It''s not a big deal, anyway tell about your adventure, now that''s something I want to hear about."


    "Are you serious, even if it''s just the treasurer it''s still a big deal. You can talk to the mayor any time you want."


    "As if, If it was in my hands I wouldn''t want to be in the same room as him. Anyway, back to you."


    Aldrich pondered, he didn''t know what to start with, should he talk about what happened to him first and then deliver lord Garon''s message?


    "Before that, I have a message to you from lord Garon." Aldrich decided to start with this first since it seemed of greater importance.


    "Lord Garon? Lord of what and where?" Ayemon asked curiously.


    "You really don''t know?" Aldrich asked suspiciously and observed his expressions, however he discovered that Ayemon seem honest. "Lord of Ebrict, who else."


    "What''s with your attitude? Am I supposed to know every minor lord out there? He probably knew me. So, what does he have to say?" Ayemon waved his pipezily, smoke billowing to the ceiling.


    "Uh, he said that ''Orven didn''te back nor did he send word'' he told me that it was for your ears alone."


    Ayemon''s smile disappeared, it was reced with a nk expression that Aldrich had never seen before. Itsted for only a split second.


    "Ah, he must be one of Tagborn''s men. It''s understandable since I contacted him to do some work behind the scenes to make thatst quest of yours possible."


    Aldrich didn''t get the full picture but he understood that Ayemon went all in to make the third quest that he asked for legitimate. He had to make it actually real.


    No half-measures. That was always how Ayemon acted, even when it came to his fake identity, he said multiple times that it was as real as real can be.


    On that note his seat on the city council must have yed a part in making that work much smoother. Wait.


    "Tagborn? You mean the warlord in the west?" Aldrich asked in disbelief.


    If you were to divide Vorian in to the East and West then you arrive at a startling contrast. The east was in better condition than the west by a significant margin.


    Yes, indeed. Even with things the way they are now, monsters and bandits out of control, even with the the disappearing viges every now and then.<sub> </sub>


    Some say in the west the war never ended. Not really. Some say, it did end, but that only made things worse in the west.


    The lords of the west, for one reason or another¡ªsome say it started with a petty squabble¡ª but ultimately it lead to a skirmish and then to true battle.


    They started drafting soldiers, uwfully and soon enough every lord in sight gathered men to do battle with one another for their own reasons.


    The number of monsters in the west is said to be ten times of the east. Goblins, gnolls, kobolds and even orcs have made their own warbands and sold their services to the highest bidder.


    It became the ce to be if you were awbreakers of any kind, vagabonds, pirates and thieves weremon. The entire ce burned, many ordinary people try to run but most are just captured and enved or eaten.


    The rule ofw and order was a joke to them. The Imperial citadel made no mention of this matter. The governors didn''t either.


    Tagborn was a city in the west known now a days as the city of crime. And lord Tagborn was also known as the lord of crime, a warlord that made a name for himself in these kind of times.


    Of course Aldrich knew not of the west was really like but there was no smoke without fire.


    "Yeah, the west. Mynds are in the west." Ayemon mused, "I am staying in here for the most part but I keep in contact with my men there. I even go there a few times a year."


    "So, the chaos in the west is not as bad as everyone says it is?" Aldrich questioned.


    "I want to know that myself," Ayemon smiled, "if you go there I am sure you will agree the rumors were understated. From the looks of it, it''s even worse than what one might imagine."


    Hmm? That was an odd answer.


    "Caldera has gone west too, and I haven''t heard from her either." Ayemon added without waiting for Aldrich''s reaction.


    "So¡­" Aldrich swallowed down, "you''re going there to check up on them?"


    For some reason, Aldrich felt a chill creep up on him. He did not know why he opposed that idea. From the beginning he didn''t want to tell Ayemon about the message, but it was just a nagging feeling at the back of his mind.


    "Go there? I guess, I should." Ayemon replied, "but not now. Both of them are capable people so I''m not worried. Orven can be yful like that sometimes, andzy too."


    Aldrich sighed in relief.


    "Now, lets see your crest. Don''t even try to weasel your way out of this one." Ayemon pointed at him.


    "Fine, it''s not a big deal. Here it is." Aldrich showed off his crest. Anyone looking would be able to see his rare symbol.

 Chapter 192 The Wisdom Of The Elders

    "Ooh, a rare symbol, not bad." Praised Ayemon while inspecting the symbol.


    "Yeah, I was surprised too." Aldrich smugly said, feeling proud.


    "Norge! Come on in her check this out!" Ayemon yelled.


    "Do you want me to call him? He''s on the other side of the¡ª" Aldrich was about to say when he suddenly turned around to see Norge behind him, standing silently.


    "Good, good potential." Norge nodded normally as if he didn''t suddenly appear out of thin air. In fact Aldrich was sure that the door wasn''t opened.


    "Stop that, are you trying to show-off?" Ayemon asked, looking exasperated. "Aldrich don''t let him scare you, contrary to his appearance he has a childish personality."


    "Childish personality?" Aldrich asked looking unconvinced, "I don''t think so?"


    "Don''t be fooled by appearances, back in the day when I first met him, he was going around calling himself the king of assassins and what not¡ª"


    "Ayemon!" Norge suddenly interrupted.


    "Ooh, what''s this? You broke character," Ayemon whistled provocatively.


    "I¡­ I meant, sir. You got a letter from the city council it would be wise to send a reply as soon as possible." Norge said unconvincingly.


    "Pffft!" Aldrich couldn''t hold it in. He began to understand what Ayemon meant. And he felt a little curious about what kind of life they lived before he met them.


    "A letter from the city council? Is that the best you could think of?" Ayemon sneered, "but you''re not the man of the hour now so let''s focus on Aldrich for now."


    Aldrich started telling them about his adventure starting with the bandits quest and he didn''t hold back, describing everything he remembered.


    "Tsk, tsk, how great is it that Beastmen were treating humans as inferior beings? This is fucking hrious!" Ayemon pped his knee.


    "We took good care of them so hopefully they will learn not to make a mess in Vorian. It makes me angry to see what they did to all those people and especially the impregnated women."


    Aldrich could only hope that the death of these three will have a good impact on the situation in Vorian.


    "It is something, at least." Norge looked stoic as usual but Aldrich could hear the anger in his voice.


    After all, all demi-humans were once human ves by default. Although they are still, some of them in the territory of the Dominion developed¡­ overambitious ideas.


    "That''s not all, I also got this," Aldrich handed Ayemon a wrinkled piece of paper with messy drawings and writing that he did not recognize.


    "It didn''t look very valuable but I found it in the Ravenfolk''s nest. So I thought you might be able to see something in it."


    Indeed while searching the nest for valuables they didn''t find much but this paper and everyone else thought it was gibberish so Aldrich ended up taking it.


    He didn''t think much of it either but he took it anyway since it looked a little interesting.


    "Hmm, it says ''Midnight tree'' and this here is a crude map, I guess?" Ayemon told him after staring at it for a few minutes.


    "Oh, so they were actually searching in the Zurn woods for this Midnight tree? What is it?" He asked with interest, it sounded like the beginning of a new adventure.


    "No idea," Ayemon shrugged, "I can''t decipher the so-called map either, its not clear at all. Maybe if I was there myself I could figure it out."


    "Oh, well, whatever. It was worth a shot." Aldrich wasn''t too hung up on the tree, since it seemed like a hassle for now.


    "Go on, tell us what happened next." Ayemon urged and Aldrich obeyed.


    This was an important part, Aldrich told them about what happened on the ancientnd bridge without hiding anything.


    He did get an exnation from the blind priestess but he trusted Ayemon more obviously, so he wanted to hear what he had to say about that encounter.


    It was a terrifying incident to Aldrich, one that he found difficult to not think about. That banshee was so powerful and it even seemed like she knew Aldrich better than he knew himself.<sub> </sub>


    Besides if Ayemon came to the same conclusion as the blind priestess then that will increase Aldrich''s trust of her.


    "Hmm, I believe I got the gist of it." Ayemon tapped his fingers on the table and then spoke, "before I answer let me ask you, Aldrich, what do you know about the Spirit?"


    "The Spirit? It''s very important for Crestmasters and how strong your spirit is determines how talented you are, and you affinity with the Immatirum."


    "Not a bad answer. Spirit is the most important for Crestmasters. But what determines talent is how fast a spirit can grow. However there is another factor concerning the spirit, it''s quality."


    "Quality?" Aldrich tasted the word.


    "Yes, the amount of Ether that you have is rted to the quality of your spirit, it also affects how many Wondrous items you can attune at once."


    Aldrich''s eyes sharpened, the amount of Ether and wondrous items determined how powerful a Crestmaster was.


    For example, the party Aldrich and Gazeff happened to stumble on after their first day of training. They were at their weakest because they exhausted most of their Ether, one of them waspletely out of the fight.


    If they had more Ether they could have fought more, they could have used more skills, they could have had more wondrous items.


    It was absolutely vital to a Crestmaster to have more Ether, the more the better. Even in a fight with an equally skilled opponent with more Ether q battle of attrition could still save your life.


    "Now, let me ask you. What is the most revered characteristic of our Emperor?" Ayemon suddenly asked out of nowhere.


    "The Emperor? Well, if I had to choose then it would be, that he was chosen by god, a divine man." Aldrich answered proudly, brimming with loyalty and faith.


    "No. It''s not a bad answer, it''s both, true and politically correct but think deeper, don''t y around." Ayemon wasn''t impressed by the answer apparently.


    "Well, if I had to say then, it''s that the Emperor has all five crests." Aldrich said seriously.


    The Emperors of the Adon Empire did not go through the ceremony for fun, nor was just to prove their divine right under Altunan. But there was another reason.


    After the ceremony, the Emperors would always be bestowed all five crests. No matter what they originally had, they would get all the rest.


    That was not all, they also had their original powers enhanced. They ceremony helped them ignite more symbols, while the increase in power was not always constant it was different from person to person.


    This is the one of the main reasons why the Empire dominates the world from the past to the present.


    "Exactly, now you must know that there are talented people who awake more than one crest, dual crests and even the legendary triple crests. These people enjoy not just a stronger spirit but also a spirit with a greater quality."


    "Wow, they didn''t teach us that in the academy." Aldrich was impressed. He couldn''t even imagine what having multiple crests would look like.


    Every crest was bound to one path, once you ignite a symbol belonging to a certain ss then all the symbols that follow will be of that ss.


    But what if you had another crest? Then that restriction could be lifted, if only a little bit. Imagine if Aldrich awakened a new crest for the Cleric ss? Then he could heal himself and fight at once.


    Not only that a Cleric was capable of boosting his allies and weakening his foes. The addition of an extra crest was no small matter but it was an extremely rare urrence.


    Of course, a brand new crest was unheard ofpared to that.


    "Now, those from the fivepanions families are blessed, they have at least one person of dual crests in every generation. That is indicative of their status and power."


    "So, the talent can be passed down through bloodlines?" Aldrich asked because he thought that wasn''t true.


    "No, well, no and yes. If Crestmasters bloodlines can be passed on for a long time, at least a thousand years. Then the chances of Crestmasters being born in that line increases and with the blessings of the five families it is not strange that they are a step above others."


    "So, what does all this have to do with me? That I have the blood of the five families?" Aldrich asked. Could it be that he was actually destined for greatness?


    "Stop joking. I mean, that you have a spirit with a greater quality than normal. That is also a natural thing, it happens every once in a while. Also don''t joke around about the bloodlines of the five families, it''s a stupid thing to do."


    Aldrich came to an understanding, once again he was reminded of something he didn''t pay attention to in the attributes panel.

 Chapter 193 Dark History

    Aldrich also understood that he made a joke in bad taste. The five families were the families that an Emperor was chosen from within, they were in fact Imperial families.


    The bloodlines of each of them is carefully tracked and can''t just be found anywhere. As one can imagine this is the subject of a long time of consideration and effort.


    There were times in which these efforts have failed, unfortunately.


    A long time ago when the current Republic was called the Alliance of the free cities, the magister of one of these cities used dirty methods to acquire a descendant of one of the five families.


    And no one was the wiser, for twenty years the matter remained hidden. Even the boy himself had no idea of his true identity.


    However, the time to pass on the imperial seat came and the old emperor performed the ceremony. To everyone''s shock, no one was chosen on Ashphim.


    Instead, the emperor received a divine revtion of the location, face and name of the heir. On that day the entire family of that magister disappeared from this world.


    Not just them but the whole city too, no one was spared. The boy, the true heir to the imperial throne was back in Ashphim in less than a day.


    The magister was not killed, his soul was pulled out of his body and crucified on the Eternal peak of the Sunbreak mountain. There his soul would burn till the end of time.


    It is said that those who go on pilgrimage to the Sunbreak mountain can sometimes hear his wailing and begging to be forgiven. The only answer that awaited him was even greater torture.


    You may be able to hide from men and lie to their faces, you may even think that you seeded, but you cannot hide from god, the one and only god in the world, the almighty Altunan.


    That matter served as the catalyst of the war of crusades, the magister that was responsible was apparently an important individual in the free cities.


    Of course by then the issues between the empire and the free cities had piled on to a degree that it became hard to sweep it all under the rug.


    ****


    "So, this depth or quality as you called it, how can I improve it? Meditation?" Aldrich hoped that he could get a second crest, it was not a bad thing to have more.


    "You can''t, it''s something natural, like your innate supernatural strength."


    "But, does that mean that I can awaken a second crestter? Since I have a special spirit?" Aldrich asked unwilling to give up on this chance.


    "No. I mean it''s not impossible but really unlikely. You already got a rare symbol, don''t be greedy." Ayemon rolled his eyes and chuckled, "besides not all special spirits have the same quality."


    "What''s the difference? How are they divided?"


    "Starting from the weakest and most ordinary spirit, it''s called, Colorless. The next level is called, ck, in this level you might have a chance to get more Ether than your peers and have a slight chance of getting a second crest."


    "Next is the Grey spirit, those who possess this spirit will definitely have two crests along with enormous reserves of Ether and perhaps an innate talent too."


    Aldrich sucked in a cold breath, he felt envious even with all his trump cards he couldn''t match up to such a talent, it was akin to the unreachable stars.


    This talent was born at least once in the five families in every generation! It was not hard to understand how they were able to spread their influence throughout the world.


    "Finally, we have the Golden spirit, that only one person in the entire world could have, that is the Emperor himself. All I can say about it is that the emperor alone has all five crests and anything else is beyond my knowledge."


    Aldrich looked at his attribute panel.


    Name: Aldrich (Beast:+2 all)


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 8<sub> </sub>


    Agility: 8


    Endurance: 7


    Vitality: 8


    Intelligence: 7


    Spirit (ck): 7


    Green essence orbs: 11


    Red essence orbs: 16


    Ether : 9


    Abilities: Eyes of Insight LV.2


    Skills: Light step LV.2


    Condition: blood of ######


    Crest of Aeon, Skills:


    1) Aurora: Augment Lv.1


    2) Invisible sword Lv.1


    3)True strike Lv.1


    Indeed, his spirit was specifically at the ck quality. This was something that was truly special about Aldrich which was not rted to the nightmare realm or the seal of Tindalor.


    But wait¡ª something was seriously wrong. The question came out of his mouth without thinking, he was driven by pure shock.


    "T-then how did the False Saint''s ware to be?"


    Ayemon looked at him in shock, like he could not believe his ears.


    "I-I mean, if the ceremony was always right, then choosing the wrong man is impossible, since the Emperor would be able to prove his identity by disying the five crests right?"


    The words rolled out of his mouth like a flood, the more he thought about it the more it didn''t make any sense.


    "There should not be any dispute, no sane man would back the False Saint with that flimsy im, one that could be disproved so easily?"


    How could Vorian and Melowar feel any reassurance in rebelling? Without a legitimate im no one would care about them, there would be no war as the heir was clear.


    "Yes, in that case there wouldn''t be any need for war¡­ the night of Weeping Skies was damning for sure but even then no one would try to defend whoever did that." Ayemon sighed with an unreadable expression.


    "There would be no need for confusion, no need for division, if everything was clear, but¡­ it wasn''t as clear cut as one might like. It was anything but clear." Ayemon ced his hand on his face.


    "The truth is, that day, Altunan in his ineffable wisdom chose two, not one emperor but two, and the world was broken."

 Chapter 194 Tragedy

    Aldrich felt like he couldn''t breath, he finally understood. There was no False Saint, two brothers were actually chosen. They both had five crests to prove their legitimacy.


    This is why the people were divided, this is why Voarian and Melowar rebelled, they had an equal right to their im as the Imperial citadel. This is why many forces including the inquisition decided to sit on the sidelines.


    There was no right answer.


    "But, why, why did they have to fight? If both of them were the rightful rulers then why not rule together? Wouldn''t that be best for everyone, the empire would have another being of the same level as the emperor."


    It was difficult to say how strong the empire would be today with two beings of that level. After all, one emperor alone could suppress the entire continent, what about two?


    It was not even a question. With that kind of power, destroying the Republic and the Dominion was not a difficult task. Conquering the new Crimson Dynasty in the Eastern continent was the same.


    Then, the empire wouldn''t just be back to the glory days before the Age of Dread but even better, even beyond that. It could have been the beginning of a new golden age of prosperity and glory.


    But, reality was cruel.


    "The biggest problem was the night of weeping skies, the extermination of the Henthwyne of the five families overnight was a deration of war, no it was even worse. How could there be any talks afterwards?"


    Aldrich had to admit that he underestimated the impact of such an event. It was highly likely that he was going to lose his mind if he was an adult when these events were happening.


    No, it was even bigger than that. The extermination of one of the five families meant that there was one less bloodline that could give rise to a new emperor.


    This was an incredibly dangerous notion, the empire revolved around the emperor, without him there would be no empire.


    <o>,m And now because of that war, the empire was put on the defensive and lost so much influence. Vorian became a shithole and the scapegoat for any problem that happened in the empire.</o>


    That moment, that day, it could have been different.


    "It wouldn''t have been different," Ayemon said as if he read his thoughts, "even if the night of weeping skies never happened and the Henthwyne family still survived, the war would have happened either way."


    "Why? That wouldn''t make any sense? Why go so far?" Aldrich didn''t understand, he couldn''t put his hand on it.


    "Why? There can only be one emperor, there can''t be more, only one!" Ayemon suddenly raised his voice, "he who rules the empire, rules the world. Would you share that power?"


    Aldrich didn''t know how to answer, he had never even considered this possibility to begin with. It was a concept beyond his imagination but still, he could understand what Ayemon was getting at.


    "Even your flesh and blood?" Aldrich asked indifferently, he was beginning toprehend what happened.


    "Yes, indeed. No one c would share that power, it''s too great. Can you imagine, you speak the words of god? When you stomp your feet the world shakes in fear, tens of millions worships you day and night."<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich''s mouth was dry, he knew the answer. It disgusted him and he hated himself for it but he knew he was no better than them. To share that power? That glory? Only a truly great man would do so.


    But he was not such a great man. The throne was too powerful, too great, too glorious. Only one man at a time can rule the world.


    What kind of tragedy was the False Saint''s war? How many had to die for such reasons? How ridiculous! Blood brothers, both chosen to be the greatest in the world and yet¡­


    They had no choice but to fight and kill one another.


    One could say it was inevitable, or rather it was the only possible conclusion. But somewhere, in his heart Aldrich couldn''t help but think that maybe there was another way.


    What if it didn''t have to be like this? What if despite all the odds the two brothers stuck together and shared the power?


    Wouldn''t Altunan have wanted to see that? Is that not why he sent two emperors in this age? He couldn''t help but feel that something went horribly wrong somewhere along the way.


    "Enough questions for today." Ayemon dered, "don''t forget toe over tomorrow, we''re going to the tailor for some suits."


    "Sounds great, I''ll be on my way then." Aldrich had to leave with a somewhat heavy mood, "I will meet up with my friends and then we''re going to report to the guild, any advise?"


    "No, you''re fine. Next time don''t forget to tell me what happens next. I can''t wait to hear of what triggered your ignition."


    Opps, Aldrich almost forgot what they were originally talking about, but throughout the conversation they went on a tangent and lost sight of the original topic.


    The next part was heavy, it included his encounter with the inquisitors and the Aberrant acolytes. It was an exciting tale to be sure.


    Aldrich arrived at Dane''s coffee house and had to take a double check, the ce looked new, the old paint was reced, the dented wooden floorboards were too.


    New curtains and mossmps gave the ce apletely revitalized look. The waitress didn''t recognize him and she just lead him to the second floor.


    It was natural since he showed up here three times before.


    He was the first to arrive so he spent his time going through the menu and asking the waitress about the changes around.


    "This ce looks much better than it wasst month, what happened?"


    "Oh, its all thanks to the new owner, he made all these changes and finally we got a better fitting uniforms. The owner decided to fix the decore, thest one was taking all the money and didn''t spend anything to fix the ce."

 Chapter 195 Friends X Guild

    "The new owner?" Aldrich asked in confusion and then he remembered telling Yasbel to use his share of the profits to redecorate the ce and since more than a month passed the money must havee in.


    Yasbel was really quick to work, the money was put to use almost immediately.


    Aldrich wasn''t bothered by the costs since it wasn''t all that much anyway. Besides it also improved the look of the ce, looks were always the focus of people.


    As evidence he saw many more customers in the coffee house. This improved his mood if only a little.


    To be honest Aldrich wasn''t in the mood for coffee but for beer. He didn''t know what to with himself after that conversation.


    He had never seen Ayemon that emotional before, in fact Ayemon was always the picture ofposure and calmness. And even when he heard about Orven he wasn''t like this.


    He had the feeling that he learned something that he shouldn''t have, like a taboo. It was not a hard question to arrive at, but it was hard to ask.


    Anyone who had a small amount ofmon sense would get to the same question but most people didn''t think that way.


    It was an unquestioned mentality, to the mind, there was no connection between the five crests by which the emperor could have proven his identity and a pretender who opposed the im.


    At the end of the day, the False Saint lost, the False Saint was always going to lose. It''s just that no one knew who the False Saint was until a victor and a loser were decided.


    This line of thought was dangerous and Aldrich had no business thinking of such dark things, he must school his thoughts and never give voice to these thoughts.


    It had nothing to do with him but it was difficult to not be curious. However, it was foolish of him to butt in where he didn''t belong.


    Aldrich sat down feeling down and waited, he just asked for a ss of cold water. He decided to do what he did best, ignore that which he couldn''t do anything about and put his head where he could do something.


    Fortunately his friends arrived in time to stop him from thinking of any stupid things.


    "Morning, Aldrich, up early as usual." Cole greeted as he took a seat.


    "It''s almost after noon," Aldrich replied, exasperated, "I wouldn''t really call it early."


    "Yeah, but I would." Cole yawned, "why do you humans have to be in hurry for everything? Sometimes you gotta sleep in."


    "Well, you might actually have a point. How''s Tarzin and your father, everything is okay?" Aldrich asked, he could never forget to ask about his friend Tarzin.


    "Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. Fine, stout as dwarves I would say." Cole looked under the table for some reason, "don''t they have taller chair for halflings?"


    "I''m sure they do." Aldrich motioned for one of the servers toe over, "as you can see my friend needs a suitable chair."


    "Yes, sir. Just a moment, sir." And with that he went off.


    "Oh, yeah. They do seem to be plotting something these days." Cole added.


    "What?" Aldrich wasn''t sure what he was talking about, "who was plotting what?"


    "Father and uncle, they were whispering a lot and hiding paperwork." Cole answeredzily.


    "They wouldn''t be in any trouble now would they?" Aldrich asked in concern. If they needed some kind of help he wouldn''t hesitate to lend a hand so long as he could.


    "Nahh, it''s seems like it''s actually good news. I could have found out but I didn''t want to ruin their surprise. Oh, and Tarzin wanted me to call you over to celebrate everything."


    "Jeez, that guy just wants an excuse to party all night." Aldrichughed.


    "Hey, you enjoy that too."


    As they were talking the rest of the party members came up in quick session. Unlike Aldrich they were very much interested in coffee and some pastry.


    "Where''s Emma? She still tired?" Aldrich noticed her absence and asked Frank. He thought that she looked back to normalst time when they split up.


    "Oh, she''s fine but her father is very worried about her and he forced her to stay in bed. He called all kinds of clerics and physicians to check up on her."


    "Well, he''s in the right, it''s better for her to take a few days to actually rest and recuperate." Hellen agreed, "since we won''t be going on another quest so soon, right?"


    The question was directed at him so he answered, "no, not until you''ve all advanced and became Crestmasters at least. I''m sure you all have some loose ends to wrap up right? So I think two, three weeks."


    "I wonder if we''ll get to meet the vice guild master." Nathan said out loud, "I mean we did some great feats this time."


    "It was a lucky feat, and I don''t think someone like that would have the time to meet the likes of us." Frank replied.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich knew why Nathan mentioned the vice guild master and not the master himself. It is said that the guild master was not bothered by managing the guild and instead he spends most of his time roaming the world.


    As for why? No one really knew, the mostmon answer was that he was simply a free and unfettered man who loved to explore the world, wandering around with no real purpose.


    Some others came up with their own spections. They said he was looking foe his missing son, some said he was hunting a certain monster for revenge, others said he was looking for a certain artifact.


    Aldrich was not sure which one of these reasons was true, he could see any one of them being the true reason. None of them was farfetched.


    "You guys go on to the guild, these are my papers if they ask." Nathan handed Aldrich a folder.


    "What you''re noting with? Then why did you even bother showing up?" Aldrich was dumbfounded.


    "I only had this little bit of time to spare before going back to theb. I have so many new experiments I can perform now that I advanced. Just go on with the formalities and get me my guild badge."


    "Fine, but you''re wasting a chance to meet some of the higher-ups. You might not get a chance like thister." Aldrich warned.


    "He''s right you can workter it''s better toe with us for now, it shouldn''t take long anyway." Frank too tried to persuade him.


    "I already thought about all of that, it''s not my thing so I will take my leave." Nathan didn''t even consider their words and just stormed off.


    Aldrich andpany took a carriage to the guild headquarters. Even though he saw it and been in it before he was always awed by the size of thepound.


    He and the examinees were only allowed into one of the smaller buildings in the front. It loked like it was meant to host outsiders to the guild, it looked like a hotel.


    Aldrich andpany were expected so they were guided to an office, there they found Varth Elmer waiting for them.


    The White ze Spear, one of the Ringed knights of the guild. A man at the inner circle of authority and influence.


    "Take a seat." Varth motioned for them to sit and an employee served snacks and tea.  "Aldrich, Frank, Hellen, Cole. Where are the other two?"


    "Ah, Emma and Nathan got busy with something," Aldrich cleared his throat nervously, "so¡­ they couldn''t be here today."


    Varth locked eyes with him for a moment, "well, no matter. I have seen the report and understood what happened. It''s great that you managed to avert fanger and emerged victorious our guild is lucky to have such an aplished members."


    "So¡­ we passed?" Cole asked expectantly.


    "Yes," Varth smiled broadly "you passed, if not you then who could pass this exam?"


    "Yes!"


    "We did it!"


    "Look at me now dad!"


    Hellen and Cole jumped up and hugged each other and started dancing while shouting embarrassing things.


    Aldrich coughed hurriedly to remind the two idiots where they were. Although he expected this results Aldrich was still happy that things yed out as expected.


    "Is that all?" In that jubnt atmosphere Frank suddenly asked.


    "Is that all you have to say? We passed? What about the guild that included a grade one quest in the exam?"


    ''Idiot why did you ask that right now?''


    "You expect an apology? I heard you didn''t have any casualties." Varth replied.


    "Is an apology too much to ask?" Frank snorted, "at least have the decency to look regretful?!"


    ''Fuck me!''


    Aldrich couldn''t believe his ears, to think he would reprimand a Ringed knight and with that tone too.


    ''I am never taking you with me anywhere''


    Varth unexpectedly chuckled and thenughed out loud, anyone hearing it would know he was trulyughing from the bottom of his heart.

 Chapter 196 Guild Benefits

    He was not pretending, which infuriated Frank even more.


    "There were no casualties? That''s true but we almost died there all of us. It''s only thanks to Altunan that we walked out alive. You find that funny?"


    "No, no, excuse me. I remembered something funny from a long time ago." Varth calmed down and wiped his mouth with handkerchief, "now back to business. I understand that you are upset, I really do."


    "But let me be clear, what happens on a quest is out of our hands. We do our best to provide all sorts of support but ultimately we may not be able to ount for everything."


    The guild obviously couldn''t have known about what really was happening in Ebrict, no to mention them even the Lord of Ebrict himself didn''t know.


    "I understand that of course. But this was not a regr quest, it was part of the exam which as far as I know was supposed to have only grade zero quest. How could such a suspiciouslycking quest be allowed in the quest pool for the exam."


    Aldrich felt like he swallowed a fly. Obviously he knew the reason why, he made it so that this kind ofcking quest was added for his own convenience.


    Varth didn''t look so good himself, "I can tell you that our screening process for the exam is meticulous." Suddenly Varth shot a brief nce at Aldrich, "but the answer to your questions may be closer to you thank you think."


    "What?" Frank asked back, confused.


    But Aldrich''s mind was reeling, this bastard, he knew. Somehow he knew Aldrich was behind it. Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe he looked his way for no reason.


    It could be but he knew it was not a coincidence.


    "Anyway, here''s your guild badges. You should have them with you when you''re out adventuring."


    Varth took out six badges that had two wings and the number one. He didn''t say that they had to wear them to have it with them. Hmm, interesting.


    "This is considered your first grade one quest so it counts, here''s your reward." Varth put a coin pouch on the table. "I took your membership fees myself, so next month don''t forget to pay."


    "Membership fees? We have to pay you?" Cole asked like he was suddenly asked to donate his kidney.


    Aldrich couldn''t stop himself from facepalming, Nathan had the right of it from the start. He opted out and cut off his losses but Aldrich had to sit here and suffer.


    He should have known, Cole wasn''t the type to do any research or ask around. His thought process was probably something like this, "I will be an adventurer but which guild? Aha! That one! Because people say it the strongest!"


    "It looks like not everyone is informed, let me give you a basic summery and then you can ask someone else about the details." Varth didn''t look too surprised but Aldrich could see the disappointment in his eyes.


    ''Great, instead of impressing a higher-up I ended up looking like a fool.''


    "Well, I said some of this in my speech from before but I will be clearer this time around. By being members of our guild you can get ess to wondrous items and alchemy agents that ordinary people can''t."<sub> </sub>


    "You can also get a discount in some shops that are affiliated with us, finally you can get the opportunity to enter our dungeons and reap riches and gain dungeon delving experiences in a rtively safer environment."


    "When you go on quests wherever that maybe there you will always have the support of the guild assistance team. They collect useful information, they clean up the scene after a battle. They take care of the bodies of huge monsters and can even sell them for you."


    "Do you understand what I mean? Our job is to make sure that you leave the logistics side of things to us and you guys focus on adventuring and subjugating monster."


    "Oh, wow, I didn''t realize all of that was important¡­" Hellen mumbled.


    "Yeah, why do they have to make everything soplicated?" Cole, of course agreed with her.


    "This is only the obvious things, there''s even more that you can find outter. Like transportation and whatnot." Varth continued on undisturbed by the two of them.


    "Ah, I have a question, " Aldrich gathered his courage to ask even though he wanted to leave at once, "when can we have a go at the Silver Leaf dungeon?"


    The Silver Leaf dungeon was one of the most famous dungeons owned by the Sustar knights guild. This is because it was filled with expensive medical herbs and mystical fruits like the Stone fruit that Aldrich gave to Gazeff.


    "You, as members can of course have a go at it, but only afterpleting five grade one quests in session. If you fail one you have to do two more to make up for it."


    So there was still that kind of limitation even after bing official members.


    "This dungeon takes a week to be restored we can''t just send people in wherever we want."


    Perhaps sensing theirints Varth exined without being prompted.


    Aldrich and the others left the guild feeling happy, he didn''t care how Varth knew of the underhanded methods used to add that quest but he will leave that to Ayemon.


    Varth Elmer wasn''t just a Ringed knight, that was already an impressive identity but he was also the advisor of lord Garrett from Uthgar. Lord Garret was a member of the Lord''s Assembly.


    Lord Garrett was also Varth''s father inw, their story started when a grey orc war-chief crossed the Drought desert and attacked everything in his path. He brought with him an army of a thousand grey orcs and twenty warriors.


    The so called warriors of the orcs are all grade one beings.


    Their luck came to and end when they attacked lord Garrett''snds. At first because of the sudden attack there was no resistance but then the forces moved.


    But at that time the orcs had captured Deeprock keep, and made it into an imprable fortress.

 Chapter 197 Varth Elmer

    The grey orc were the direct spawn of Oth the lord of Blood and Savagery. They came with him from the Dread domain.


    Before then grey orcs didn''t exist in the world, but even after the Liberation war, they inly managed to drive them to the edges and dark ces of the world.


    Over time their numbers grew and were culled and grew again. Just like goblins there was no getting rid of them. They were here to stay.


    They were stronger and faster than regr orcs, the warriors were born among them more frequently. And they loved battle. They loved it.


    Their whole culture revolved around battle, and some said that the more an orc fights the more powerful they grow. The foul power of Oth made them perfect soldiers for war.


    Even more so for grey orcs they knew how to slow down and think, they used strategies and ns instead of simply relying on brute force.


    So even when they stupidly attacked lord Garrett''snds they did so with a n. By the time news of them spread they had already transformed Deeprock keep to a perfect defensive position.


    They even prepared a supply route behind them using the terrain and the viges and towns they attacked beforehand.


    A thousand grey ocrs, that was an extremely powerful force and the war-chief who nned all this was called the Bloodw.


    He intended to negotiate with the lord of thend to allow them to settle here in exchange for not bothering each other. Of course he knew that first he had to show his power.


    The army of lord Garrettid siege of the keep and were repelled nine times. Defending was easier than attacking, with that position and a horde that hungered for battle it was not hard to see why Bloodw was confident.


    Lord Garrett changed his approach, he send Crestmasters to get rid of Bloodw and end this farce. But, who knew that Bloodw turned out to be an extremely powerful monster in his own right.


    Some said that he may have been a blood rtive of Oth himself.


    And so twelve Crestmasters had their bodied straped on poles and used as gs to show off Bloodw''s might.


    However the next day, one man arrived, he was a Crestmaster but he did not sneak in to the keep nor did he demanded a duel. He just surrendered and wanted to be taken captive.


    Bloodw and the orcs hated cowardly behavior but they epted and lost interest in him since he was not worthy of battle.


    However the next day, the army thatid siege to the keep saw something in the middle of the night. A torrent of white mes burned the keep.


    They could hear the screams of the orcs some of them no doubt wanted to run out of the keep but it was not to be. For the very walls melted and melded into an inescapable prison.


    No, perhaps it was better to called an oven. Some soldiers said that the white mes burned the air around the keep so that even in their camp they could feel the heat.


    At the end when most of the screams died down the mes gathered into a gigantic white spear and destroyed the keep once and for all, turning the very earth ck.


    Only the man walked out of the keep, head held high. That was Varth Elmer and that was how he got his moniker.<sub> </sub>


    They say that if you go there even today you can see the burned earth, and the deep gash in it where a keep used to be.


    That was ten years ago, Aldrich didn''t know how powerful Varth was then, grade two? He didn''t know but he knew it was a power strong enough to put an army to rest.


    And that was ten years ago, how powerful was Varth now? It was difficult to tell, one couldn''t say for certain that he would only grow stronger, maybe he grew old and frail.


    But that was not the impression Aldrich got when he met Varth.


    Grade two? Maybe three. The power to burn down an army.


    "If he was so powerful then why didn''t he announce his intentions from the start and then just fight it out in the open? I bet it was an item that did that."


    Cole was doubtful of the authenticity of the story. Aldrich nodded too, he didn''t know and very few people would know that kind of thing.


    "If he fought them there then would only be able to kill some of them, the others might scatter and cause more problems down the line. Better to get rid of them all at once."


    Aldrich gave out his exnation and everyone looked at him at once. He did not know why they gave that look, did he have to rify that?


    "Ehm! More innocent people would suffer! How can we allow the evil and savage orcs run around freely in the realms of men?"


    "That makes sense." Frank agreed and Aldrich sighed in relief he sessfully pulled that exnation out of his ass.


    "Alright here''s the money, you can be considered rich as of now." Aldrich distributed the money to turn the subject back to something relevant.


    "So, what are you going to do with your share?" Frank asked Hellen.


    "Me? Well, I can think of a couple of things. New clothes and a better ce that''s for sure."


    "Uhh, guys, this is only a suggestion. But why don''t you save some of the money so that next time you can buy grade one items that suit your needs and ability?"


    Aldrich didn''t want to see them squander the money of useless things. After all in the team they needed to increase their capabilities.


    Completing grade one quests was not an easy.


    Aldrich didn''t want to see them squander the money of useless things. After all in the team they needed to increase their capabilities.


    Completing grade one quests was not an easy.

 Chapter 198 History Of The Lost Ones

    Aldrich woke up in the base which felt so much safer after getting rid of all the hidden dangers. It felt like it took so long. And it did.


    s, the preparations for going down to the Unseen Hand''s underground prisonboratory were almostplete. He was moving carefully but not beingzy.


    He was halfway done with the journal, for the past week he was spending all of his time in the nightmare realm reading, studying and practicing control over Aurora and Ether.


    At this point in time he learned many things from the journal and came to understand what the Lost Ones were, to some extent. To be honest in the past Aldrich had unintentionally underestimated them.


    The Lost Ones were not just some rabble that were thrown here in this city alone. They were sent everywhere within the Divine Domain, ruled by the Divine Land.


    To understand just how massive the Divine Domain think of the three worlds in the irvoyant region. Each world had tens of continents and other realms within each world.


    However these three worlds were only the territory of one of the weakest Lords appointed by the Divine Land.


    The term ''lord'' was not used lightly here, it wasn''t used to refer to nobles like it was in the real world. The term was used to describe powerful beings worthy of ruling over worlds.


    After something happened to the Divine Land, various beings appeared in different settlements spread out across worlds and regions.


    They were called the Lost Ones. They did not know where they came from or what they were here to do. But they were blessed like none before them, they were immortal.


    Technically.


    After their first death they would always awaken in the Pure chapel. However in each settlement there was a different chapel and the old Lost Ones didn''t know there were others like them out there.


    They had ess to some information that helped theme to terms with what they had to do due to the obsidian b on the tform at the center of the chapel.


    While the Pure chapels existed independently of one another they were all identical. They always had everything in the same ce and the objects were all the same too.


    The Cauldron, the seal of Tindalor and the obsidian b were all that way too. The Lost Ones could use the essence they collected by ying monsters to upgrade their basic attributes and skills through the obsidian b.


    Unlike Aldrich who had the ability to do it himself they had toe back to the obsidian b every time.


    However, that was not the only function of the obsidian b. The first time it was used it projected a vision into the mind and those who see it will get ess to ''basic information''.


    Aldrich didn''t use nor touch the obsidian b because he didn''t get a good feeling out of it. But it seems like an interesting experience now that he got this powerful.


    One day, a genius appeared among the Lost Ones, due to a special ability he had he was able to establish a connection with the others even in different settlements through the Pure chapel.<sub> </sub>


    That way they were able tomunicate and share information, as time went on more outstanding Lost Ones emerged. One of them was a woman that made it possible to send and receive items between different settlements.


    Another one was an Argorian who was able to summon spirits to aid the Lost Ones, guiding them to important items and warning them of danger.


    They knew what they had to do. They had to get out of whichever settlements they were trapped in and go to the Divine Land, to the shattered Divine city and get the crown.


    Apparently they could get whatever they wanted so long as they did that, everything was possible. Even a unrealistic wish was not an issue. Answers to any questions they had.


    The Lost Ones did not have the option to refuse, as far as Aldrich could deduce he felt like they had a sense of confusion and needed a purpose.


    The fact that they all came here without any of their memories was very convenient for that too. In that state hanging on to the most vivid and grand thing was almost too natural.


    It was an exaggeration to say that they were all deceived, some of them might''ve wanted to look for a way back and others might''ve had their own goals.


    However one day, a champion emerged among them. For the first time a settlement opened the path to the Divine Land!


    He was known as the first champion, leading the Lost Ones in all settlements to see hope in their endeavor. And soon enough more and more of the most influential Lost Ones did the same.


    And they converged together in the Divine Land to form a collective front. But that was not the end. Reaching the Divine Land was only the halfway point.


    When they got there they had difficulty inmunicating with those who still remained in the outer realms. They could do it but in a limited manner and short time spans.


    What they told of their time there was mostly bad news. The Divine Land was no better than the outer worlds, no it was decidedly much worse.


    The enemies were much stronger and they wielded strange and terrifying powers, eventually this lead to a great many deaths. Permanent death.


    Getting to the shattered Divine city was not their only problem. They discovered that the crown they sought was fragmented and the fragments held by the Ancient Lords.


    However the Lost Ones were not going down easily either, they were bathed in blood, forged in fire and each one of them was a master ofbat used to fighting and triumphing over stronger opponents.


    And so they waged war to reassemble the fragmented crown.


    Unfortunately after a few hundred years all news from the ascendants in the Divine Land was cut off.

 Chapter 199 Magic Items

    Aldrich took the key of the superior and walked down to the basement. He stood before the metallic gate and inserted the key into the center of the wheel.


    With a clinking sound he turned the wheel and it finally moved. In the past no matter how much he pushed it wouldn''t budge and yet today it only took a little nudge.


    Indeed, force was not always the optimal method. His patience payed off. If he had insisted on doing things there and then, perhaps he would be in the same ce as the Lost Ones of Voros, unable to leave.


    Dust showered over Aldrich but he was untouched by it because he used [Aurora:Augment] to create a thin sheet of film to shield himself.


    Aldrich acknowledged that it was childish but no one was here to see him so it was fine. He wasn''t flexing, he was practicing. There was a difference, besides dust could be harmful to the lungs.


    Behind the gate there was a small cubicle that had an iron base and a strange handle to the left of the weird thing. It could fit several men but he couldn''t see and staircase or another door.


    Aldrich scratched his head in wonder. He wasn''t sure how to proceed. Was he wrong all this time?


    No, he saw the memories of the armored husk he knew for a fact that the superior used to deliver experimental subjects and other things through this ce.


    Aldrich took a moment to think about his options and decided to do nothing for now. He didn''t think it was the best idea to go in there unprepared.


    He took the key and turned his attention to the western wall of the basement, it was filled with ceiling-high cupboards with ss doors. Previously he tried to break the thing without any results.


    It was used to store many of the magical reagents and chemicals along with experimental tools used by the Unseen Hand.


    Aldrich tried to open the first cupboard and unsurprisingly it offered no resistance. He could finally see without obstruction, huge sks filled to the brim with, red, blue, and green liquids.


    Using the Eyes of Insight he saw them for what they are.


    Health, stamina and mana potions. Impure.


    As he expected they were potions but they were impure. He did not know exactly what they meant but he could guess that they weren''t ready for consumption, which was a shame.


    Next he opened the rest of the cupboards and took out simr potions and small arm-sized chests with intricate designes. Unfortunately he was able to open only three of them with the superior''s key.


    The first one had a rusted and falling-apart long dagger.


    [The Bane of Gumuge (+3) ]: a dagger created for the purpose of killing Gumuge, a monster that rampaged through thend and killed many innocent people and ended any heroes that dared face it.


    It was created with the hands of a true Oread. A magical virus will build up in the body of the victim, eventually causing the blood to rupture. It consumes stamina for each use.<sub> </sub>


    Wow, jackpot! Aldrich almost jumped up in joy, it was a magical item. And an extremely useful one at that.


    The Caldron in the Fractured chapel was not a wish making device, it may have looked like it enhanced Aldrich''s great sword very easily and simply.


    That truth was the price of that enhancement was already paid for by the author of the journal and his friends before making theirst stand in the overseer''s mansion.


    Not only does it require essence, to make a +3 item, which are items with special effects you need special items, like a certain organ from a certain monster or a specific metal.


    Finding one right here was a stroke of luck. Next was the second box which had several precious jewels and gems some of them looked like rubies. This was not the first time he found such things, he had almost forgotten about those.


    He decided to take one with him today since he was going to see Yasbel soon he might as well ask for her opinion on what best to do with them.


    Thest chest had a tied up ancient scroll, it was small but it gave off a mysterious feeling to him when he held it in his hand.


    Spell scroll of ####: ????


    The information he got out of it was minimal and he may or may not have heard of spell scrolls before.


    This could be usefulter on so he decided to return it to the chest and keep it. With this he finished inspecting everything in the basement, he could say that he got many things and yet what he couldn''t get was more.


    Unfortunately the superior had only one job, to deliver these things downstairs and he had no right to make use of them or even see most things.


    This was disappointing but it was reality. In any case although he wanted more what could he do? It was better to be happy with what he already got.


    Aldrich took the three chests and returned everything back to the cupboards. Next he returned to the ground floor and stashed everything in the study room.


    He wasn''t done with the nightmare realm yet. It had been a while, Aldrich licked his lips, today was going to be a day of ughter.


    He recalled Varth Elmer''s story and how he destroyed an army of a thousand grey orcs. He wanted to see how he was going to fare against and army of Malformed husks.


    How many could he kill before he himself was killed? He ought to know the real limit of his current abilities and powers, what way was better than wanton ughter?


    Besides he longed to get himself a nice Bag of Holding, it was seventeen green orbs, that was not such a great amount to him anymore. That settles it, he was going to go back home with two magic items tonight.

 Chapter 200 A New Day

    Aldrich didn''t wear any armor he was just wearing casual clothes he brought from the real world. A brown shirt and some trousers, nothing too special.


    He didn''t need any traditional armor anymore, his body was enough for regr swords and arrows. At this point a normal set of tes would only hinder and annoy him.


    Of course the story is different if it was a wondrous item or a magic te.


    But that was a difficult request. He didn''t know much about the magic items of the nightmare realm but he knew enough about wondrous items.


    Grade one wondrous items, have a limited number of usages, they were powerful but exhausted quickly, the counter point was their cheap price.


    Grade two items were much more powerful and their power was endless as long as there was a sufficient supply of Ether. The down side was that they require attunement to use them.


    Attunment was not a simple matter for Crestmasters, it meant establishing a link between the user and the wondrous item. A link like that represented a danger to Crestmasters.


    If the item was destroyed it would leave a mental scar on the Crestmaster, it took some time to heal something like that. Worse still if it was destroyed in battle the shocking pain would leave one incapacitated.


    However, Aldrich noticed something. If he was not wrong then, grade one wondrous items were equivalent to +3 magic items in the nightmare realm. But, without the weakness of running out of power.


    Basically one can use the +3 items like grade one wondrous items without worrying about changing itter.


    Aldrich jumped over the rooftops when he suddenly felt something approaching from behind. Fast. He turned around and deflected the arrow with a p.


    With a smirk he changed direction, he saw where the arrow came from atst, with his enhanced vision he could finally see the bastards that shot at his back from the dark.


    With a speed faster than a galloping horse he charged toward the taller buildings, it was not a short distance. A normal man wouldn''t even dream of making this kind of shot.


    As he was running and jumping toward his target he was aware of three more arrows heading his way. He didn''t do anything. The arrows missed him.


    He was moving quickly and getting closer and closer to the archers so it was only natural that the field of view narrowed, along with his speed he didn''t have to do anything.


    With a jump hetched on to the windowsill and before he could pull himself up his hand was kicked, roughly. Aldrich didn''t flinch or pull his hand back, it didn''t hurt that much.


    He levered himself and with one quick motion he kicked the monster sending it flying to the opposite wall.


    Malformed husk Lv.2


    There were two archers other than the one he kicked away. The two of them had thrown away their archery kit and aimed at him with a dagger and a short sword.<sub> </sub>


    These Lv.2 were different from their lower level counterparts, the were made up almost entirely of bone.


    Very strange bone that was jagged and spiked, their hands were sculpted into bone ws and their abdomens still had organs and dangling flesh.


    Aldrich broke every one of them with a punch, the first one he kicked was already in pieces. He got a handy 54 orbs, and most importantly some small revenge on theses assholes.


    Next he targeted the closest gathering of Malformed husks in the street, it was akin to a marching army of disorder and madness. And Aldrich plunged right into it.


    The Malformed husks reacted to his presence immediately, the were all Lv.1 and most of them were unarmed. They tried to tear him to pieces with their ws and bite him with their fangs.


    But it was all in vain. He was only annoyed by these attacks, he summoned his sword from his crest and shed away at these monsters. The sword cleaved them bone and flesh alike with of knife cutting through cake.


    The sea of husks were put in a blender, a tornado of des, seemingly many and one simultaneously cutting them and ending their miserable existence.


    He faced a slight challenge when a group of Lv.3 Malformed husks were attracted over by the noise and joined the army striking at him and retreating soon after.


    Aldrich had to use his Aurora barrier to protect himself, the level 3 husks were armed and very powerful simr to the armored husk in pure strength and even possessed a semnce of intelligence.


    They were two meters tall and armed with axes and war-hammers, they used realbat techniques and could even block a half hearted attack from Aldrich.


    But ultimately they weren''t much, Aldrich switched to the offensive after gauging their power. He didn''t want to risk it without knowing the full extent of their abilities, but it turned out to be a needless worry.


    Aldrich stopped using his barrier and switched to the offensive, with a stomp that pushed the husks away for a moment he bent his back and pulled his sword in a reverse grip.


    Red mes burned on the body of the sword of subjugation, the mes of damnation had the ability to inhibit healing and regeneration to a certain extent. And of course regr burning.


    It needed three seconds of charging to unleash a big attack. However short it may be, it was too long in a critical moment.


    A level three husk sensed the chance and jumped in the air towards Aldrich, with a heavy mace in hand. A single strike might not kill Aldrich but it was enough to disrupt his focus and cause a bacsh from the skill.


    But Aldrich, seeing the oning husk couldn''t contain his grin. The husk was skewered midair and suspended there, defying the rules of gravity.


    The level three husks stared in disbelief and fear in their monstrous hearts at the illogical scene.

 Chapter 201 You’re Fucked

    As the blood of the husk ran down the invisible sword and reveal what happened. The husk had unknowingly impaled itself by jumping as if it wanted to kill itself.


    The skill [invisible sword] created a perfect replica of his sword, only he could control it with his mind in five meter radius and it was invisible.


    Of course it''s invisible only to the naked eye, it still cast a shadow and caused winds when it moved. A perceptive opponent might''ve noticed it.


    Of course it was still deadly and could take one by surprise at the right moment, just like a moment ago.


    Aldrich was done charging the attack but he revealed an opening on purpose to abuse the pseudo-intelligence of the level three husks.


    Without giving his opponents any chance to react he used [Light step Lv.2] and shed in one motion unleashing an arc of burning mes and Aurora to the crowed husks.


    Thebination was beyond deadly, it was akin to a sudden storm destruction rained on the husk rabble and even the surrounding buildings and houses didn''t escape the st.


    A cloud of dust and ash engulfed the ce entirely and it seemed like the old silence of Voros had returned to the time when Aldrich first came here.


    Aldrich marveled at his own power as he panted and heaved trying to catch his breath. Not bad for a first timer eh? He wanted to see what kind ofbination could achieve a wide area of effect.


    But it was not as easy as it looked, the focus needed to use several skills at once was insane and the consumption of Ether and Aurora doubled.


    He could recover his stamina in an hour but it was not so for energy. For that he needed three hours of him justying down and doing nothing, a dangerous prospect.


    Fortunately he didn''t exhaust his energies this time around, it was still better than using [True Strike] whichpletely drained him.


    A massive amount of essence orbs was absorbed by him none stop, he no longer needed toe into physical contact to do that anymore.


    Aldrich cackled, even in numbers weaklings are weaklings still. Not that long ago he had to flee¡ªer, make a strategic retreat from a simr hoard. And now he annihted them without breaking a sweat.


    Aldrich licked his lips, his eyes shining he made to stride forward, he could kill more, he could unleash his power to even greater devastating effect. And then he stopped in ce.


    He made a total of eight green orbs tonight and his savings grew to 19 green orbs, more than enough to buy the Bag of Holding.


    But Aldrich decided to dy, if he could make this much every day then he should save a bit more and then buy everything he wanted at once.


    Aldrich was very well aware that what he needed most now was not a magical armor-set, not a new weapon, not even a Bag of Holding. He needed more Mind Calming agents.


    Just now he was almost ovee with bloodlust, he should call it a night. It was a very good gain this time, there was no need to be greedy at the cost of his own sanity.


    ****


    "So, you''re sure these are all different kinds of suits?" Aldrich asked Ayemon again.<sub> </sub>


    "Yes, how many times do I have to say it? This here is a morning coat, that is a frock coat the one next to is a dress coat and finally an overcoat. You need all of them and with different colorbinations."


    Aldrich was standing on a stool and an old man who was both half blond and half bald took his measurements, a younger man took down notes by the side.


    This was the tailor Ayemon talked about, interestingly enough it was not one of the ones with a huge board or colorful and stylish letters but it was in the basement of a residential building under a Parithian restaurant.


    "White, ck, stripped and speckled. These are the most necessary but if you''re not some tramp then you have to get sky blue, page and grey colors. Trust me you can''t go wrong with this."


    "Like I have a choice!" Aldrichints fell on deaf ears.


    "Hey, hey, I''m not forcing you, if you don''t want to see the y in Rosen park theater then walk out. I''m paying for everything so shut up." Ayemon said condescendingly.


    "Shit, you''re a tyrant!" Aldrich red at him.


    "re all you want, I don''t see you storming off."


    Aldrich was about to flip out after all this taunting. But hey it was on him to pay so why not let him pay? And he can go to a theater for the first time so he swallowed down the insults he had.


    The y he wanted to see was called ''Traitor''s requiem'' but it was too popr and the tickets were sold out a month ago. But somehow this devil got his hands on them.


    It was one of the most popr theatrical ys in Vorian now but the troupe is moving around so it was hard to catch a show.


    Aldrich hear of it and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. He wanted to see what the high life was like so he mentioned it to Ayemon but who could have known¡­


    "So, there''s a matter I think I have to tell you about."


    Ayemon and Aldrich sat down in the theater before the show started, there were not that many people around yet.


    "What is it?" Aldrich asked curiously.


    "It''s about the blind priestess that saved you¡­" Ayemon curled his lips and looked at him, "I think she might be the oracle we were looking for."


    "The oracle? W-why do you say that? She''s just a¡ª" although he wanted to say that she was just a normal girl he wasn''t that delusional.


    "So¡­ you mean¡­" Aldrich couldn''tplete the sentence.


    But Ayemon understood what he wanted to say, "yep, you''re fucked."

 Chapter 202 Bet

    Aldrich recalled his terrible experience on the ancientnd bridge and bit his lips. He was indeed suspicious and a little apprehensive regarding the blind priestess.


    The main reason was how easily she disolved the situation and how she made him lower his guard towards her.


    Even that was only because he knew he logically should not trust her. Not because he actually felt malice or ill intentions from her.


    His senses was only a feeling and it could be wrong which is why Aldrich used a logical approach to weight her in his mind.


    Even then it was hard, considering that she saved his life and her general impression, trustworthy and kind that was the kind of feeling she gave off.


    But to Aldrich the thought that she might be tbe oracle simply never urred to him. In fact if he was asked he would think that banshee was more likely to be the oracle.


    This was not an arbitrary guess, her words and knowledge of things that she could not know is proof enough. But then again ording to the blind priestess it was due to an item.


    The blind priestess also somehow knew his name and she offered no exnation, instead she acted dumb and he was stupid enough to give her a pass.


    "H-how do you know? I meanst time I asked, you said you didn''t find the oracle. And now you im that this priestess that you haven''t met is actually the oracle?"


    "You don''t have to get so defensive about it, jeez." Ayemonughed, unconcerned. "It''s just a guess."


    *Phew*


    Aldrich sighed in relief, this asshole almost scared him to death casually. As long as it''s just a guess then there''s room for wiggle!


    This has to be a joke! Aldrich already had enough on his te he didn''t need any more shit to do. Getting involved with someone like the oracle was bad news.


    "Oh, yeah. One more thing¡­" Ayemon cleared his throat, "I did say it was a guess but actually I have a way to make certain. How about it want to try?"


    "No." Aldrich decisively replied.


    "Well, that''s fine. The choice is yours, I would never force you to do anything." Ayemon conceded.


    "Thank you, I appreciate that." Aldrich nodded smilingly.


    "I mean, I don''t know how you will live with the uncertainty. You know, the questions. Is it her? Is she not? How exactly are you involved?"


    "I mean its a brave choice don''t get me wrong, I wouldn''t know how to sleep if I were you. But, but, at the end of the day, it''s up to you."


    "Bastard¡­"


    "Hey, hey, did you just insult a nobleman to his face? I could have your head for this, peasant!"


    "You''re a snake¡ª"


    Before he could insult him even more Ayemon elbowed him in the ribs, "shush, now. The show is about to start."


    The lights all around dimmed considerably and the lights on stage grew brighter, a man in a blue and white suit walked out of the curtain holding a scepter.<sub> </sub>


    He was well mannered and his beard was well trimmed. His gait was steady and not too hasty, he tapped on the scepter when he was at the center of the stage and spoke.


    "Good eveningdies and gentlemen! It is my pleasure to wee and be host to you, good people of Voryhrm!"


    His voice boomed and somehow it was heard in the entire theater. Aldrich was not in the mood for this anymore but since he was here he might as well forget about it.


    After the show, Aldrich and Ayemon returned to the mansion. In the backyard, which was actually a whole forest, they hunted for dinner in the special beasts that were brought to grow here.


    "Remember no Ether, if I feel even the slightest fluctuations you''re done. The first one to catch the Horned fox wins. Go!" Ayemon was about to head off on his horse but Aldrich stopped him.


    "Hold on what about the loser?" He asked.


    "The loser? I don''t know, what do you have in mind?" Ayemon curiously asked.


    "Oh, I''m not sure," Aldrich put on a pondering expression, "how about an admission."


    "Exin everything already, enough stalling."


    "I just want you to say, "I''m sorry, I was wrong and you were right" it''s just a simple request."


    "What was I wrong about you little twerp?" Ayemon asked unable to conceal an angry smile.


    "Nothing. It''s just an empty statement. It''s not a big deal, nothing to worry about. You can admit defeat if you''re too scared of losing to me."


    Aldrich looked at the setting sun. He was afraid that he would be intimidated by Ayemon''s re.


    "Fine, a fine idea. Let''s see. How about this then if you lose you wille two dayster when I host my guests and you will be a manservant for the day?"


    "Let''s do it. A fair warning, I am a decent hunter." Aldrich taunted.


    The race started, Aldrich urged the horse into a gallop he pulled an arrow, nocked it  and searched with the full extent of his senses.


    Ayemon had the home-ground advantage but he had the experience. He was not an expert but he did well enough in the nightmare realm for more than three months.


    Ayemon was admittedly a powerful Crestmaster whose exact limits were unknown but Aldrich was still willing to take his chances. He was a Crestmaster himself now.


    Aldrich scoured the woods and was impressed, from the outside it looked big but once you were in there you begin to realize just how big it really is.


    He got an idea and used the Eyes of insight, with that the names of everything appeared floating to his eyes alone. He was able to see beyond his vision and after a while he saw the magic name.


    [Horned fox]


    Aldrich smirked and with the horse he made through the woond to his target. That was not using Crestmaster powers so it wasn''t cheating.

 Chapter 203 Taboo

    Aldrich raced on his horse through the wooods and followed the prompt but he couldn''t do that for long. But half the work was already done.


    "Heya!"


    Only he was greeted with the worst possible scene.


    Ayemon held the horned fox by the horn and it was already shot dead by an urate arrow to the heart.


    "Oh? You got here much faster than I expected¡­"


    "Y-you knew where to find it from the beginning!" Aldrich realized with a start.


    "Oh, yeah. Well, I knew where to look. This is after all my backyard, I know it like the back of my hand."


    "B-but that''s cheating!" Aldrich pointed.


    "How is it cheating? It''s not a Skill and I didn''t use any of my powers. Don''t be a sore loser." Ayemon said all that while gloating with a shit-eating grin.


    ''This guy has no qualms about ying dirty, damn it!''


    Back in the mansion while the fox was cooking Aldrich continued with his tale about his adventure starting with their arrival in Ebrict.


    "So the Watchful Eye chapter is sneaking around there too?" Ayemon asked rhetorically and tapped on the table, "these guys are really persistent."


    Aldrich quickly caught on to that remark, "what do you think they''re doing there?" This was something that intrigued him slightly.


    Ayemon frowned and was silent for a moment weighting his words as if debating on whether to answer or not.


    "What are they doing? Same thing they''ve been doing since the war, looking for a certain item." Saying that Ayemon went silent again.


    Aldrich didn''t interrupt nor make a single sound, this was big. And he even had a feeling that he was not supposed to know this, the fact that Ayemon was telling him was odd.


    "Before I tell you the rest, first let me ask you. What is the highest level wondrous item?" Ayemon went with a different approach.


    "Grade five. Definitely." Aldrich answered confidently. One of the sses that he took in the academy was rted to this subject so he was sure.


    In the past Harvick, the healer taking care of Isger''s body asked him to look for a grade 6 wondrous item to save Isger. But when Aldrich learned in the academy he discovered that there was no such thing as grade 6.


    "Well, that is true. However actually there are items of a higher order than wondrous items, they''re called Taboo items. And they''re very important, one of them went missing in the False Saint''s war."


    "They''ve been searching for it ever since?" Aldrich asked with bated breaths.


    "Yes, it was thought that the False Saint stole it but even during the war it was not used and thus it remained missing. But since Vorian was the biggest battleground for the war it remains the biggest suspect."<sub> </sub>


    "Where could he have stolen it from?" Aldrich asked since that seemed like a key point.


    "On the night of Weeping skies, from the Henthwyne family. Each of the five families is in possession of one. However after that night the item went missing and it couldn''t be overlooked."


    "How do they know that it wasn''t used in the war? Maybe it was used in secret?" Aldrich thought that it was a possibility. After all it''s not like the inquisition was omnipresent or omnipotent.


    Ayemon poured himself a shot and took it, "they would have known, trust me. Even the peasants would have known."


    Aldrich was not sure what that meant, is it something that was so obvious? No, could it be something that will be so big everyone will know anyway?


    "Anyway let us not talk about these gloomy subjects for now, it''s time for some grilled fox." Ayemon pped his hands twice and the servants came pouring in and putting down the dinner tes.


    "Oh, yeah, before we eat can I see your sword?" Ayemon suddenly asked him.


    "The sword? What for?" Aldrich asked curiously and feeling a little frustrated since he was about to dig in.


    "It''s very interesting that your ignition actually manifested a weapon for you, don''t you think so? Personally I haven''t heard of case like that and I considered myself well learned."


    "Sure¡­ I guess, it is strange hahhaah¡­" Aldrich had no choice but to show him the sword despite his misgivings. Anyhow it wouldn''t matter.


    "Hm? This¡­" Ayemon held the great sword and frowned, "this is strange, how is it this old when it''s supposed to be a new creation of pure Ether?"


    Aldrich gulped down his saliva, how is it old? Look at it, it looks so good. How could he tell something like that?


    "What? What is this?! Get out here!" Suddenly Ayemon roared and Aldrich felt like it was a thousand voices speaking at once, he held his ears blocking them. A cold wing blew from Ayemon''s direction.


    Aldrich couldn''t open his eyes properly in that sharp and cold winds, it was like winter had suddenly descended upon spring.


    Ayemon ran his finger across the sword''s edge but it didn''t draw any blood, instead the sword marks started glowing in an ethereal red and Aldrich could feel endless hatred and anger from within the sword.


    Just as it began everything calmed down the light of the sword dimmed and the cold winds disappeared.


    "This sword is for you and I can''t see through it but I see that it''s older than it looks and holds the grudges of a few moderately powerful people. Interestingly enough all of their egos feel united. They must''ve shared a goal in life."


    Aldrich didn''t exin he just shrugged and acted like he didn''t know, Ayemon on his part didn''t press the questions.


    After the meal he just reminded him to not forget that he lost the bet and that he intended to see himplete his part as the loser. Aldrich wanted to act stupid like the bet never happened.


    "What am I supposed to do? I will mess up I haven''t been to these kinds of events¡­ it''s best to not be stubborn and just forget about the bet..."

 Chapter 204 Only I Can Have It

    "All you have to do is stand around" Ayemon replied nonchntly, "oh, and shake a few hands every once in a while. Besides it''s a good opportunity for you isn''t it?"


    That''s right, who were Ayemon''s guests? Important people! This was a valuable opportunity to get to know them even if it''s just showing his face.


    "Okay, I will be there. Just tell me who is the main guest?" Aldrich asked because he was curious who Ayemon went out of his way to prepare so much for.


    "It''s lord McConnell, one of Vorian''s representatives in the lord''s Assembly."


    *Hiss*


    That was someone of great importance.


    To understand that one must know that the legitive system in the Empire is split into three general levels.


    The lowest was the Common''s Cab and it consisted of elected officials from the peasantry. This can also include some lesser lords however the voting pool was ofmoners alone.


    For example a mayor must be elected by themoners, while the lord of thend still held ownership over it he had to split some of his authority with the mayor.


    Next was the Lords Assembly, the provinces of the Empire are divided into regions, the lords of each region elect a representative to the Assembly. And anyw passed in the Common''s Cabin must pass through here before it can move on.


    Lastly, the High council, in which the Emperor himself was a member. It included the highest lords and officials in thend. A bill must pass through them before it besw.


    Of course the Emperor had the final say by Imperial decree but it wasn''t often that Emperors did that.


    So this is an incredibly important person in Vorian. No wonder Ayemon was paying so much attention to this party.


    "Oh, yeah. Before I forget take this." Ayemon took out a brown leather box the size of his palm and presented it to him.


    "This thing will help you meet the blind priestess again to confirm if she''s really the oracle."


    "But I don''t want to meet her again." Aldrich replied adamantly. Although there was a part of him that wanted to see her again irrationally, but he suppressed it with a will of steel.


    "You will whether you like it or not. She already saved your life, right? It''s toote to back down now." Ayemon had already cast him out and was not going to sugarcoat things.


    "But, but, we don''t know that¡­ it was a dream maybe it didn''t mean anything, it wasn''t real."


    "You have a point which is why I gave you that thing. If shees then test her to know if she''s telling the truth and extent of her ability and knowledge."


    "No point in running from this then. What''s in the box anyway?" Aldrich sighed in resignation.


    "Oh, it''s a ring Caldera found while looking for the oracle. Back then she said that it had obvious signs of belonging to the oracle. She kept it in hops of it triggering a vision or something."


    "How is that supposed to help me find her then?" Aldrich asked cooperatively.<sub> </sub>


    "You won''t find her but she will find you. We weren''t able to do anything with it but I bet it will do something when you take it out and wear it while you sleep."


    Aldrich didn''t say anything he just nodded sheepishly.


    "Oh,e to think of it, could this ring have been meant for you to begin with? Man these oracles are good." Ayemon came to his own realization and pped his knee.


    "Can you stop that? How is it meant for me? It must''ve been a coincidence¡­ I have enough things on my te¡­ fuck this!" Aldrich couldn''t take it anymore and cursed out loud.


    "Ooh,nguage, boy! Language! You never know maybe you have a minor role in all this. Like passing on an item or a piece of advice."


    "Oh, that''s true!" Aldrich suddenly cheered, "I probably have to do some minor thing and then I will get back to doing my own thing."


    That''s right, there was nothing to indicate that he was in too deep, he was a minor character, a supporting actor, a sidekick. Probably.


    Aldrich left the mansion and he was in deep thought in the carriage. It was an eventful and fun day even though he lost the bet. He found himself wondering just how powerful Ayemon was.


    He was curious about his personal power and not his political influence. Back in the theater when Ayemon elbowed him he actually felt it sting.


    Is it impolite to ask? Probably not. Ayemon was an open-minded person he wouldn''t mind, so Aldrich decided to ask him next time he got the chance.


    Aldrich was also thinking about something else. The Taboo items. He remembered the banshee and how she-supposedly¡ª used an item to peer into the future and and know it''s own fate.


    That couldn''t have been an ordinary item, no way. Something that ridiculous¡­ Aldrich felt his stomach twisting and churning. It could be¡­ the missing Taboo item.


    ''Oh, no. Stop jumping to conclusions!''


    Aldrich clenched his fists and breathed deeply. He couldn''t allow that monster to continue to possess such an item. It was too dangerous and sinister.


    He was the only safe option to have such an item, monster or not, it was too dangerous for anyone else but him to have it. If he couldn''t have it then¡­ no one else could.


    Aldrich made up his mind, if he couldn''t have it then he wanted it destroyed. It was able to seemingly extract information from both the present and the future.


    If he had it, then maybe he could use it to¡­ know who were the ones responsible for the Wakefield massacre.


    Not just who they were but even their future actions and current locations, with that item his search coulde to and end!


    "Stop the carriage at once!"


    Aldrich suddenly spotted something and shouted an order at the driver, causing the carriage toe to a violent stop.

 Chapter 205 Old Woman And The Deep Sea

    Aldrich didn''t care about themotion in the carriage which was carrying all of his groceries and things.


    He hopped out of the carriage and ran to the alley right behind it. There he found a slumped figure, he got closer and even with the dim light he saw the face clearly.


    It was an old beggar woman, he found her once begging outside of his apartment building. The woman''s hair was entirely white and her skin was crumbled and dry and filled with cracks, on


    her face and exposed arms he noted brown sunspots.


    Her eyes didn''t seem to have much rity, they were clouded and even looked muddled. The


    old woman had a hemp bag opened before her and some passerby''s dropped a copper or two in the bag.


    Aldrich was one of the people who gave her a few coppers. Right now she was beaten and was bleeding from her nose and lips, her rags were worn and torn even more than before.


    "Y-you let me go, I have nothing else to give you.." she whispered between coughs. Aldrich helped her sit up against a wall to rest her back.


    "Are you okay? Who did this to you? Let me call the watchmen to help you." Aldrich was about to call for the patrolling watchmen when she sized his arm.


    "No, no watchmen. L-leave me, I am not hurt." She stammered as she shook her head, "the watchmen are more trouble to me. Please."


    Aldrich didn''t understand, but he decided to stop foe now, "who did this to you? What do they want from a tramp like you?"


    Aldrich struggled to think of a reason for someone to beat up a helpless old woman. Those who did this work were not humans anymore, just animals in human skin.


    "Hey! Hey!"


    A shout came his way from the inner alleyways, "get away from my mother! God damn you! I said get the hell away from her! I have a pole with me."


    Aldrich looked at the intruder, he was a sickly looking man, he couldn''t put an age on him, he didn''t know if he was old or just looked like it.


    He was in a sleeveless whit shirt and had a skinny figure with sunken eyes and dark circles.


    "This is your son?" Aldrich pointed at him and asked the old woman. He wasn''t going to trust just anything this guy said and take it at face value.


    "Yes, my son. Marcus,e here boy, take me." The old woman confirmed the man''s words and stretched her hands towards him.


    Aldrich allowed the man, to hold her up and prop her. He doubted he could carry her but that was good enough.


    "Why''d they do this ma''? How could they?" The man stared walking and she followed along but suddenly stopped.


    "Oh, you," she said as she turned her head around to look at him, "you''re that boy, I remember. You gave me five coppers, didn''t you? Thank you so much, I told you I would remember."


    Aldrich was a little taken back, she did remember correctly. He opened his coin pouch, took out a silver and handed it to the old hunchbacked woman.<sub> </sub>


    "Heee! A silver!" The son eximed!


    "We don''t deserve this¡­" the old woman tried to say but Aldrich already walked away.


    Back home, Aldrich reviewed a monster codex and then followed that by meditating a bit. Although it didn''t have much of an effect on him now it was good to clear and organize thought.


    ****


    In the nightmare realm, Aldrich stretched and took out his sword, tonight was going to be mainly for hunting.


    On this night Aldrich collected seven green orbs and cleared out the streets. But that was not all, he also put his new magic dagger to the test.


    The dagger may have the look of a decaying lump of metal but it was far from it, it was aolid and extremely sharp. Three shallow wounds were enough to kill a level three Malformed husk.


    No matter how shallow it was, just a scratch was enough for the effect of the dagger to work after consuming his stamina, the magical virus would invade the body of the unwary husk.


    After three such wounds the blood clotted and exploded at once, killing the husk. The sight of the blood growing into a fleshly ball and the circtioning to a stop being followed by a moment of silence and then BOOM!


    Even a child could do this.


    However Aldrich had to pay in his stamina, if it ran out then it didn''t mean that he would just be unable to use the dagger. It also meant that he would die in the fight.


    More importantly, after that he went back to the base and focused his mind on the [Deadman''s Remnant]. He pressed on it and closed his eyes.


    The next thing he knew he was assaulted by a nasty headache and he struggled to breath for a moment. Finally the pain grew even more and he lost consciousness.


    He saw endless darkness and he stayed there for a long time, or perhaps a short moment, he didn''t know and didn''t care.


    Next he found himself in a sinking ship, shouting orders and barkingmands, but it was not to be. Huge blue and pink tendrils wrapped around the hull of the ship and pulled it down.


    He closed his eyes expecting to drown in seawater, knowing that it was his end. But even that was not true. A huge bubble covered the ship preventing any water from spilling in.


    And then he saw the source of this terror, it was a giant octopus with an inverted head, the head was split open and countless fangs protruded out.


    Beneath the twisted maw a massive vertical eye watched them in disdain. With a strange push the ship sank along with the monster as if it followed hismands.


    For a long time they only sank downwards and passed by many strange things, and massive sea creatures. Finally they were brought to a city.


    An underwater city.

 Chapter 206 Win-Win

    The ce was brimming with sea monsters moving about through strange buildings built in massive stgmites. There were strange glowing blowfish stationed at various locations in the city, for as weirs as it may see that is what it was.


    After a mind numbing trip through the city in which the saw Grindylows wielding strange looking spears. They had the upper body of a goblin vaguely, from the waist down their bodies split into a tangled web of suckered wriggling tentacles.


    Some were riding on Derstrachan, it had a toothy, eyeless, tubr head. It had powerful hind legs and ws. It could be called a horrific sort of horse but that was not true.


    That title was reserved for the Hippocampus, a mix between a horse and a shark.


    They even glimpsed a look at the Grodair, huge whales that were said to have stored enough water to make ake in their bellies. Some say that they possess a magical space within to be able to store so much water.


    And of course one couldn''t forget arguably the most fearsome in the depths, the very creature that kidnapped them. The giant twisted Shoggti.


    Perhaps only the Nagas couldpare to then in notoriety.


    The Shoggti were known as the brains and deep see vers to the surface dwellers. In age of dread they submitted to the Leviathan and were one of the main reasons that blocked sea travel.


    After a while they were taken to ce that looked like a temple, although they didn''t get a good look at it because the bubble burst and the ship fell.


    Only it was as light as a feather and no seawater rushed at them. Their captor suddenly was in front of them.


    [You will serve the great purpose, shed your skin and return. Our ves be born anew]


    The captain head, no¡ª he felt the otherworld voice in his head and found himself kneeling before he knew it with the rest of his crew.


    ****


    Aldrich woke up with a gasp. He felt disoriented and confused for a long time before he came back to his senses.


    ''That wasn''t so bad¡­''


    This one was not as bad as the armored husk''s memories. And not nearly as long. Then why was that one so bad?


    Justo because it was the first time? No, it''s probably because he wasn''t a Crestmaster back then. His stats were trash and he had to use a skill while he was an ordinary human.


    Obviously this must have contributed to the whole situation.


    Moreover he only hot the memories of thest few days of the Captain''s memories which was not a whole lotpared to the armored husk.


    Anyway this was nicely done and he even got to see something very interesting. With a calm smile he checked up on his new skill.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 8


    Agility: 8


    Endurance: 7+


    Vitality: 8


    Intelligence: 7+


    Spirit (ck): 7+


    Green essence orbs: 19


    Red essence orbs: 16


    Ether : 9


    Abilities: Eyes of Insight LV.2


    Skills: 1) Light step LV.22) Psychic Lash Lv.1(locked)Condition: blood of ######


    Crest of Aeon, Skills:


    1) Aurora: Augment Lv.1


    2) Invisible sword Lv.1


    3)True strike Lv.1


    Aldrich jumped in the air and flipped out of excitement, he got his hand on a very powerful and useful skill.


    But wait a minute, it was locked? That a first. He did not see something like that before. Furthermore what did that mean?<sub> </sub>


    Psychic Lash (locked): requires the intelligence attribute to be 8 at minimum to unlock the skill.


    So he did acquire the skill but it was no possible for him to use it unless he upgraded his intelligence attribute to eight.


    Well he did have enough green orbs to do that but he was also saving for the Bag of Holding and Mental Calming agents. Ugh, he was poor again!


    Aldrich picked up his one of the impure health potion sks and using the seal of Tindalor he teleported to the Underbridge area where he met Uldin again.


    "Oho? Your visits are bing more and more frequent. Are you finally growing up to be the consumer you were destined to be?"


    Aldrichughed warily, this guy had a special sense of humor, "soon, but not now. I wanted to ask you about this."


    He showed his the potion sk.


    "Oh, yes. I know what it is. I can tell you for¡ª"


    "I already know what it is." Aldrich cut him before he started his thing with an outrageous price, "this is an unrefined health potion. What I want to know is how to refine."


    "You seem more knowledgeable that I gave you credit for. And yes, I know how to refine it. Let''s see this should be arena ten sks worth."


    This was a big sk, the regr sized one he used to inject the Mind calming potion was a finger''s width and just as long.


    "I''m not asking you to refine it, I''m asking how can I refine it myself." Aldrich rified since it seemed that Uldin misunderstood.


    Obviously doing it himself and hiring Uldin to do were two different things. The cost being the majorponent.


    "Sure, I can tell you but there is only one way for you, theoretically speaking. How about I just tell you the surface level information first and the restter on if you want to hear more?"


    "It''s a deal."


    "For one green orb."


    "Sure."


    "Well, if you want to be able to refine this potion or any potion really, you must be an Alchemist. How, I hear you ask. It''s simple, just get one divine core of that profession."


    "Divine core?" Aldrich knew that was impossible for him now. Sinve the fall of the moon and Castamerphia the priests no longer performed the ceremony that summoned divine cores to this realm.


    No even before that the divine cores were not something that he could just grab, the cores themselves chose those suitable. That''s why they were called chosen.


    It was not a matter of connivence even back then, otherwise the armored husk wouldn''t be driven nuts. It was impossible more so now than before since everything went to shit.


    Even if he found a priest from that time he very much doubted that the priest would be willing to give him a hand like this.


    So basically, Uldin was telling him that he was his only option. Aldrich could only curse, he payed for this and yet he was met with a dead end.


    "I suppose you understand me now, my dear friend." Uldin chuckled with an evil grin, "no need to think badly of me. This is a win-win for both of us right?"


    "Yes." Aldrich answered through gritted teeth. He had a lot of hunting to do. He just hoped there were enough husks in Voros.


    "It should be like this. Lets see, for the refining of this amount lets say, fifty green orbs and for each sk, ten orbs so a hundred and fifty should suffice."


    Obviously he meant green orbs. Aldrich closed his eyes and nodded, "so you''re selling me back the potions I already gave you? How does that make sense?"


    "I''m selling them back to you at half price since you provided the potion. Ten instead of twenty, this is an intermediate level health potion."


    "Alright, why don''t try a different way? I will give you half of the potions in exchange for the other half and to pay for the refining job. That seems fair to me."


    "You seem to have forgotten what I trade for, essence! Not gold nor silver. And not potions either, I want essence."


    "I understand that. But the truth is I''m your only customer right now." Aldrich said with a soft smile, "there are no more Lost Ones, only me. And I doubt you can trade with husks and whatnot. Besides you can''t hunt for yourself, meaning I''m your little only source of essence."


    "¡­ what are you getting at?" Uldin asked looking like he swallowed a fly.


    "You know what I mean to say. What is a merchant without customers? What are all these wares to you when there''s no one to exchange them for essence? All that is valuable to you is essence, right? Then it''s easy."


    Aldrich knew more about the merchants of Leng than he did when he first met Uldin. He learned much from the jornal of the Lost Ones. He knew what Uldin desires the most was actually a transaction.


    The merchants of Leng always traded in what was most valuable in the region they were in at the time. And trade was basically their whole existence, they lived and died to trade and sell goods.


    Their race was not called merchants of Leng arbitrarily.


    In the past Uldin could trade with many Lost Ones but now Aldrich was his only option. He saw his reaction before, he was like a drug addict.


    "What do you say Uldin? As you said, it''s a win-win."

 Chapter 207 Awakened Messenger

    Uldinughed out loud, "great! Good! Good! I haven''t felt like this since a long time ago." Heughed even harder, hisugh was strange and it echoed in the area.


    Aldrich opened his eyes wide, he may have gone overboard just now. He thought that he toned down his words bu it seems like his words were still a little too sharp.


    After a while Uldin calmed down, "good. Enough, yes I do need a customer but you need me more. I will take nine potions and you will get one for your trouble."


    "Don''t joke around, we can debate on that another time. It''s six to four."


    "Eight to two."


    "Seven to three, don''t forget that I will still buy the restter on. You will basically be making all the profits."


    "Fine, it''s a deal." Uldin agreed after a moment''s thought. "It will take some time so don''t bother me until then."


    "Alright take your time." Aldrich replied while backing off. He didn''t return to the base but jumped down to the Underbridge area.


    He explored much of this are in the past but didn''t go in too deep. Today was the day. He face off against packs of Skinned dogs and ughtered them one after another.


    There were different types he met one of them before but the deeper he got the more frequent he encountered them. They were not much to be honest even though they were bigger and stronger than their ilk.


    The ce was mostly filled with a terrible smell that threatened to over turn the senses, it was that bad. He had developed some resistance to it but not much.


    The tunnels were still wide and strange looking nts grew here and there along with the candles they gave the ce an out of ce look.


    With a thud he punched to his left striking a regr sized dog in the jugr, it was that easy for him to kill these creatures. But this one didn''t die, it actually got back up in a few seconds.


    Aldrich took a good look at it and realized that it had grey fur unlike the rest of the hairless Skinned dogs.


    It lunged in the air and it''s two small paws erged and suddenly became ws as big as short swords, furthermore with that speed and even a hint of technique behind it, it was a deadly attack.


    And it struck Aldrich who was standing still, he did not dodge. He grabbed one paw and squeezed, the paws returned back to normal size but the dog still tried to bite him.


    That attack just now it actually pierced his skin and drew blood this was not an easy feat only just a little though. But it was still good enough for a weak creature like this one.


    Aldrich killed it and decided to go back for now. It looks like he was going into a new territory in the nightmare town.


    On his way back Aldrich walked down the streets to the base and killed any Malformed husk he saw. But that was not his intention now.<sub> </sub>


    <o>,m Since he was free to move now after bing a Crestmaster he had to get other things. Essence was of course the most important but coin was a close second.</o>


    Aldrich decided to loot the houses and buildings in an orderly fashion and marked every building he was finished with so as to not make a goofy mistake.


    He returned to the base with twenty four gold and sixteen silvers. He could have gotten more but he had to carry everything by hand so it was not ideal.


    His essence savings grew to twenty five green orbs. After returning to the real world it was reduced to twenty two after bringing twenty gold coins and a box of precious gems.


    It was heavy toll but he couldn''tin. Next he was ning toplete his attempt to bring something from the real world to the nightmare realm.


    In the past he tried but ultimately he failed, he wondered if it was going to be any easier now.


    ****


    The next day he appraised the coins and jewelry first thing in the morning. The box of jewelry was worth twenty gold coins which took himpletely by surprise and he exchanged them for that price at another appraiser.


    The first one might have downyed the price for his own benefit, but it seems like his suspicions were mistaken.


    Next he went to buy the messenger he wanted and needed. This time he was confident in getting the best one out there.


    Association ofmunications and letters. This was one of the most trusted and widely usedpanies to train and sell messengers they had branches everywhere.


    "Sir, this is the best one. If it''s the southwestern cost it has three years of experience. It''s better than a well trained dog, sense of smell andmunication. It can understand simplemands and even read maps."


    It had bat-like wings and a stringer at the end of it''s long tail like a wyvern. Its reptilian body was scaly but it''s wings sprouted yellowish-green feathers. It was known as Amphipter.


    "It can brave any weather, no storm or snow nor heavy rain will ever take it down. It will slow down though. It''s notbative or aggressive but it''s not afraid of a fight either."


    "My friend lives in a small fishing hamlet, they don''t have addresses, their streets don''t even have names. Can it still find the right house?"


    Aldrich was concerned over this point, no matter how amazing it was there were still some realistic limitations.


    "It cannot find someone in such circumstances but if you have something that belongs to them or something that has their smell it will take some time but it will find them in the southwestern cost. If not all it needs is to see the house once and it can memorize it forever."


    Aldrich didn''t say anything else he just shook his hand and payed the twelve silver coins, feeling satisfied.

 Chapter 208 Reunion

    It was an expensive buy but it was worth it, if it worked as intended. To Aldrich this will makemunicating with his free and associates much easier instead of having to do so in person.


    Naturally he had to take care of it and feed it. Besides the employee advised him to train it in Voryhrm first just so that it knows to return to him.


    It had to get used to him in order for it topletely recognize him as the new owner. It was not toote to return it if it didn''t perform as he was told.


    Aldrich carried his new pet in a small cage and made a trip to the Imperial bank branch but he was not ning on going in there, at least not personally.


    "Hey you," Aldrich called to one of the boys by the street ying with a wooden wheel but it seems he didn''t hear him, "boy, in the brown hat."


    "Y-yes," the boy hesitatingly answered.


    "Take this letter and deliver it to an employee in the bank, if you do then this is yours." He took out a copper coin and showed it to the boy.


    "R-really? Just to give it to any employee?" The boy asked in excitement.


    "Yes, just that. Easy right? Now go!" Aldrich gave him the letter and patted him on the back towards the bank.


    The boy returned soon after and Aldrich did as he promised and gave him the copper coin.


    "Thank you! Sir!" The boy clutched the coin tightly.


    "It''s fine you did your part, go on now."


    The boy joined the rest of his friends and they all mored around him and because very loud. Aldrich looked at them for a while, when did he stop ying like them? How long has it been?


    Aldrich walked back intending to go to the private carriage stop to return to his apartment, he carried the messenger in his left hand and walked leisurely.


    *Ssh!*


    He was suddenly sshed with some water?¡ª no it was some other liquid he was drenched in it, it might be alcohol by the smell.


    He looked at the source of the liquid, it was anky looking young man, maybe two three years older than him.


    He had a mean look to him and he was leaning on the wall of a building leading to an ally with another man.


    "Whatcha lookin'' at asshole? I thought we made it clear not to even look this way. Get the fuck outta her before I pummel the living shit out of ya!" He yelled.


    Aldrich couldn''t believe that he was randomly attacked like that. He never met this bastard and yet he did that? No, he held himself back.


    "Did someone put you up to this?" Aldrich asked thenky man.


    "What the fuck are you still doing here? Eh? Wanna die? Tired of living?!" Thenky man did not answer and instead pulled out a pocked knife.


    "You can''t be serious¡­?" Aldrich didn''t know if this man was acting, provoking him into action or actually that dumb.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich walked into the ally to the surprise of the punk and his friends. They were so surprised that they just gawked at him for a good minute.


    "H¡ª you actually want to die? Fine!" Thenky punk charged at him with his tiny knife. Aldrich caught his hand and twisted.


    Before he knew what was going on he was aware of himself writhing on the cobblestones his right arm twisted backwards so that his shoulder was dislocated and bent along with his bones and flesh.


    Aldrich looked at his hand for a moment then turned around with a speed that grade zero creatures couldn''tprehend and pped the second fellow into the wall, leaving a red hand print on his face.


    He looked around for a long while after but he wasn''t ambushed or attacked, no one seemed to care either.


    ''Huh, that''s weird.''


    Aldrich thought that a Crestmaster must be hiding somewhere or something. It was strange that these two did that without any backing.


    They just provoked someone on the street randomly?


    But then again this was life. Sometimes things don''t follow any rhyme of reason, things can happen randomly.


    On a normal day a peaceful secluded vige could be attacked out of nowhere by an army. Things happen.


    Aldrich returned back to his apartment safely, and he went out of his way to change carriages and go to other streets to lose any who might have kept tail on him.


    He was being cautious. What if it was a setup? He didn''t know. How can ordinary people attack a Crestmaster so casually. Of course there was no way they could have known. They just got lucky.


    As for why he let them live? It was because killing in the city was troublesome. He was in the right but he didn''t feel like wasting six months on a case in court.


    Aldrich took a bath and fed the little pet some fresh meat from the fridge, it was not cooked but this monster preferred it that way.


    Then he wore his cloths and after sunset took a carriage to Wellcoston 5th street, this street was packed with high ss restaurants with rating of five Apples. Like the Sleeping denizen for example.


    It started raining so he opened his umbre and crossed the street, from the looks of it, it was going to get heavier.


    If he had booked a table on the weekend he wouldn''t have gotten one.


    The waiter lead him to a table in the second floor that faced the window. There a beautifuldy was looking at the rain out of the window.


    She was not wearing a dress, which was out of ce, but anyone would ignore most of her fault after looking at her weepy face and big eyes.


    "Did I make you wait, mydy?" Aldrich asked sarcastically.


    "Yes, I have been her for fifteen minutes already." She curtly responded and Aldrichmented her sharp reply.


    "Well, it''s good that way you learned patience." Heughed to dismiss her.

 Chapter 209 Deep-Root

    The letter that Aldrich sent was to Yasbel of course. He did not want to go in there himself out of caution, he did not want to be remembered by the employees.


    Perhaps he was too cautious but nheless he wanted to erase his presence. If he kept visiting regrly and going directly to Yasbel''s office he was bound to draw attention to himself.


    It is also a good thing that he bought the messenger. That way they can arrange meetings without worrying about unnecessary things.


    "So, how did it go? You be a guild member?" Yasbel curiously asked, "I thought you died in a ditch somewhere or in a monster''s belly."


    "What, and leave you all alone?" Aldrich asked looking horrified, "no way, I wouldn''t do that. You''ll miss me too much."


    Yasbel scowled, she probably hoped that he would die out there and her little secret buried with him. The secret that he actually did not know, as a matter of fact.


    This still troubled Aldrich, he had to look into her name to find out what that secret really was. If he slipped up and she discovered that he was bluffing then there was no telling what she might do.


    Back then when he found out her name, he was in a hurry an too busy, with the exam being only a few days away. This made it so that he simply didn''t have the time to look into it.


    ''I''m not exactly sure how to go about it. Forget it I''ll just ask Ayemon to do it for me, he always knows what to do.''


    With that Aldrich felt rxed once again. Ayemon was so reliable and there was nothing he couldn''t do.


    He felt the waitere up before he saw him.


    "Well, it''s good news for us now that you''re a guild member but I wouldn''t advise on going on any quests before you actually be a Crestmaster. If can that is."


    Yasbel quickly corrected her attitude and turned to practical matters. Seeing this made Aldrich nod, this kind of ability to move on was not something that just anyone can have.


    Before he could talk, the waiter arrived.


    "Good afternoon sir, miss, thank you for choosing us for lunch. What appetizer would you like to start with?"


    Aldrich then realized that the menu was on the table all along but he didn''t take a look at it yet. However, his intelligence was at seven, with a quick look he scanned through it and asked the waiter.


    "What do you rmend? Is there anything special today?" Despite his calm exterior this was his first time in such a ce and he was a little nervous.


    "I would rmend the Bruschetta. Grilled country bread with Roma tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and basil. Or maybe the cheese garlic bread, there''s also the shrimp scampi."


    "Sounds good, but I think I will have the garlic lime roasted shrimp sd and thedy will have¡­"


    Aldrich looked over at Yasbel to allow her to ce her order only to realize that both she and the waiter were nkly staring at him still.


    ''What?¡­''


    Only a momentter did he understand that the waiter thought this was a date and he was supposed to order for her. And yet Yasbel was going along with it to embarrass him.


    ''You know what, I will choose something random and hope it sucks.''<sub> </sub>


    "Thedy will have Mini Caprese sd bites." Aldrich said with a fake smile.


    "At once sir."


    The waiter left after taking their orders.


    "I see you haven''t been to a fine dinner before, as expected of a country bumpkin." Yasbel smirked andughed softly covering her lips with her hand.


    "I''m not a country bumpkin anymore." Aldrich sharply shot back. And then caught himself, he was actually provoked for a moment.


    "Oh, did I hit a nerve? I think you will always be a country bumpkin." Yasbel tried to urge him on.


    "I hope whatever I ordered for you sucks." Aldrich could counter with that.


    "Actually you ordered something that I like. Hmph!"


    "You better hope so, because the bill''s on you." Aldrich leaned back on the chair and took a sip of the grape honey wine.


    "Really? Are you that petty? You invited me here, are you a man or what?" Yasbel replied infuriated. And she kneeling exactly what to say to rile him up.


    "Yeah, I''m a man. How about this I''ll foot the bill but then we''re going back to my ce, how about that?" Aldrich countered, he was not about to be cawed that easily.


    "Y-you insufferable, shameless¡­." Yasbel pointed at him and her finger twitched, a thousand words got stuck in her throat.


    "Oho, what''s this, you don''t want to?" Aldrich taunted smugly, "here''s an idea we''ll split the bill and call it a day."


    She had a point since he did invite her here, so he decided to take a step back since there was no point in arguing anymore.


    "Fine¡­" Yasbel brushed the hair on her forehead back, "I renovated Dane''s coffee house like you told me to, but I used up all of your share so don''tin."


    "Yeah, I went there. It looks in great shape you did a good job." Aldrich coughed since it was time for serious matters.


    "Actually I already am a Crestmaster, I ignited a rare symbol since a lot happened in thest quest. I barely got back alive." Aldrich shook his head feeling shivers when he recalled that close death encounter.


    "Well, I also did some work looking for our next target, but your story sounds more interesting so you start first."


    Yasbel looked impressed but trying her best to seem unfazed after knowing the he was a Crestmaster. Aldrich didn''t want to harp on it.


    The waiter came in with their orders and ced them respectfully on the table, he left after asking if there was anything else they needed.


    In that short amount of time Aldrich used his Eyes of Insight on Yasbel once again. He saw something new next to her name.


    Yasbel Ortarious (cursed.): curse of the Deep-root.

 Chapter 210 Echo

    Cursed? She''s cursed? What? When did that happen? And what''s the deep-root? What does that mean?


    Aldrich tried to focus his eyes on the curse to get an exnation but he only got question marks meaning that the current level of his skill was not high enough.


    "What''s wrong?" Yasbel asked and cut off his train of thought.


    "Oh? Ah, nothing, nothing I was lost in thought for a moment." He could only change the subject.


    As they ate Aldrich retold the story and he was beginning to grow a little tired of retelling it. Naturally the story he told her and most people did not include his encounter with the banshee and the blind oracle.


    Neither did he mention anything rted with the nightmare realm.


    "Since you''re a Crestmaster you have to go and change your status in the busses license we got." Yasbel suggested immediately after he finished.


    "What for? I don''t want to go back there unless I have to." Aldrich did not like hisst visit to city hall.


    "Because with that advantage we can do so much more, we no longer have to be too cautious with our moves. It''s obvious that Crestmasters get preferential treatment."


    Aldrich had no choice but to agree, if it was going to make his life easier then so be it.


    "Don''t worry, I promise this time your visit will be very different from before. You''re a Crestmaster now. And a guild member of the most famous guild in Vorian you can walk sideways in there."


    "Is that so¡­?" Aldrich pondered, and found that her words were indeed true. From here on he can solve most problems just by revealing his identity.


    It was something that he didn''t think about before.


    "By the way, what are you going to do about your party members? You''re not going to let them throw away the six gold coins in the air right?"


    "What do mean? It''s their right afterpleting the quest."


    "Don''t tell me you haven''t thought about it. They will not resist the temptation to waste the money on things they don''t need. They should buy suitable gear and ointments and whatever adventurers need."


    They each had six gold coins after the profits were divided equally.


    In fact Aldrich did think about that but he ultimately decided to leave it up to them to make the right decisions.


    "But can you actually trust them? You''re the leader right, aren''t you? You know better. This is the best for them." Yasbel insisted.


    "I don''t know, I mean I know what you''re trying to say but I can''t force them to do that. I''m only the leader during active quests not all the time. Wouldn''t that make me a tyrant?"


    "Aren''t you already a tyrant? What''s there to think about. Just call them over and make the decision for them. If you don''t, wouldn''t that increase the danger during the next quest? You got lucky this time but luck won''t be with you every time."


    "No. I see where you''reing from, indeed you make a valid point. But I''m not a tyrant and won''t give themmands on how to use their money." Aldrich made himself clear.


    "but I can talk to them and exin my rational, and hope that works. Any more and their lives is their responsibility not mine."


    "Fine, have it your way." Yasbel raised her hands in surrender, "I''m just saying you have to take charge all the time, during the quest and before and after."


    "And you call me a tyrant¡­" Aldrich was speechless, this level of projection was unheard of.<sub> </sub>


    "By the way can you give me your address?" Aldrich asked when they finished with desert, "I bought a messenger and it''s better for us tomunicate that way."


    He didn''t exin in detail but he was sure that she could put two and two together.


    "Oh, ah, my address?" Yasbel asked looking taken back.


    "Yeah, your address. You know it will make it easier for us to reach out, and it will be less suspicious than us meeting too many times in the bank."


    "Oh, yeah. You know what? I actually don''t know." Yasbel said with a straight face.


    "You don''t know? You don''t know your own address?" Aldrich asked twice just to make sure he wasn''t hearing things.


    "Yeah, I don''t. You know I''m too busy so I just don''t pay attention to trivial things like that." Yasbel replied as if his question was absurd to begin with.


    "Oh, really? Well, let''s meet three dayster at Dane''s for breakfast and in that time you can memorize your own address, how about that?"


    Aldrich just wasn''t in the mood to argue so he didn''t.


    "What''s up with you? Why the sudden obsession with where I live? You can send me letters like you did today. What''s wrong with that?"


    "You can''t be serious. What''s gotten into you?" Aldrich asked not believing the lengths she was going to.


    "I''m busy Aldrich, see youter." Saying that she stormed off without another word.


    Aldrich took a carriage to Ayemon''s mansion at once. The rain had calmed down to a drizzle by now.


    "I want you to look into the family called Ortarious." Aldrich said.


    "Do I look like an information broker to you? Huh? Look at me." Ayemon was clearly annoyed this evening and he caught him at a bad time.


    "Well, it¡ª"


    Before he could say anything he was cut off.


    "Echo, ask Echo. It''s an information guild, you want information get it yourself."


    Aldrich was handed servant clothing folded neatly and told to put it on. It looked exactly like the rest of the servants clothes and standing among them he wouldn''t stand out.


    "Tomorrow you will be here in the afternoon at twelve, you cane in early but neverte. Now do you have any questions."


    "Yes, I do. When did I offend you? Let''s call it quits. You''ve had your fun. How about Ie in as a guest instead."


    "Aldrich, what does a man''s word mean to you? Is it something that you can casually back out of? Hm?"


    "I got it, geez." Aldrich realized that this was something he couldn''t escape.

 Chapter 211 High Level Gathering

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    ****


    "Red touch, Bluestreak 32nd street. Show the bartender this sign then ask for greesp on the rocks."


    Ayemon gave him instructions on how to get to Echo.


    "It''s not just Echo, from there you can get to almost any underground organizations. You can get anything whether legal or not."


    "What''s gotten you so riled up?" Aldrich asked.


    Ayemon was clearly in a bad mood and he was unlucky enough to get caught up with him at such a time.


    "It''s about tomorrow''s gathering." Norge who appeared at some point replied to him instead of Ayemon.


    "I can see why," Aldrich nodded in understanding, "with all these big weightsing here at once, I can''t me you for being nervous."


    Aldrich tried tofort Ayemon but he was met with a weird look instead, as Ayemon and Norge were holding themselves back fromughing.


    "Ehem! Yes, I guess you can see it that way too." Ayemonughed, and took out his smoking pipe at which Aldrich frowned.


    "You don''t like when people smoke?" Ayemon asked after he noticed his difort.


    "Not really, I don''t mind." Aldrich didn''t expect to be asked that and he didn''t have any problems with smokers.


    "Well, not with that look that you gave me just now. If it bothers you then you should''ve said so."


    "What look?" Aldrich asked back, annoyed, "and I said it''s fine. I never had a problem with people smoking. I wouldn''t do it myself but that''s just me."


    "¡­. I see. You¡ª never mind. Want me to help you with that ring?" Ayemon change the subject and pointed at his ck ring.


    "Oh, this?" Aldrich looked at Cazmer''s ring, he knew that it was a grade two wondrous item but he wasn''t sure about attunment, it belonged to Cazmer not long ago. But, it''s time to move on.


    "It''s supposed to be a long process¡­"


    "Not if I help you, but be sure to protect it properly, if it broke during a battle then your done for."


    "Sure, let''s do it." Aldrich agreed although he had never heard that other people can help in this process but since Ayemon said it, obviously he wasn''t joking.


    "Alright, just look into my eyes." Ayemon said and his voice somehow echoed in his mind many many times. He felt that his head was spinning.


    Ayemon''s eyes were the same grey but now there was a sliver ting to them.


    "Aldrich release your Ether, don''t restrain it."


    In day to day Aldrich and all Crestmasters kept their Ether within themselves in order not to hurt ordinary people or draw attention to themselves.


    "Good, now reach out to the ring."


    Aldrich thought about the ring and his Ether converged into it. In the darkness or his mind he saw the ring and he reached out into it.


    "Inscribe your crest into it and make it yours." Ayemon ordered.


    "How? I don''t know." Aldrich asked in his daze.


    "You do, just don''t think about it. Just do it!" Ayemon said and Aldrich felt his voice booming in his head.


    Aldrich felt a portion of his crest merging with the empty ring and suddenly it responded to him.


    With a thought it he was back to normal, "whoa, what was that?" He asked in astonishment.


    "Want to know, eh?" Ayemon smugly raised his head and looked into the distance, "it''s just a little trick don''t let it bother you. Something only someone of my caliber can do."


    "That''s amazing." Aldrich honesty was impressed, that ability can make it so an opponent is distracted in a battle, "just how strong are you?"


    "How strong?" Ayemon repeated as if he was surprised by the question, "hmm. Hmmmm."


    Aldrich held his breath and was dying to know. It looks like Ayemon was not averse to answering.


    "The strongest." Ayemon looked him in the eye.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich took a deep breath out of shock, his jaw was about to fall off, "y-you are the strongest???"


    Suddenly Ayemon and Norge erupted intoughter together. Aldrich looked between the two of them in confusion until his cheeks went red in shame. They got him.


    "Did you see the look on his face!" Ayemon pped Norge on the back, tears about to roll out of he eyes.


    "I did, I did!" Norge pped him back, giving up on his professional act.


    "Enough!" Aldrich roared to put a stop to this, "It wasn''t that funny! Stop it¡­"


    The two of them give him a deaf ear and kept onughing for a while more until after a long time theughter died down.


    By that time Aldrich had attained enlightenment and became one with the world, achieving the sought after harmony of monks, no longer was he affected by the trivial mortal world.


    "Hey now no need to be so grumpy¡­" Norge tried tofort him but Aldrich did not respond.


    "It was a good joke, huh." Ayemon the asshole mocked him further.


    "Yeah, you got me good." Aldrich nodded andughed at himself, "not bad, not bad."


    "Don''t be mad." Ayemon waved with his hand, "what was it again? How strong am I? Average, I guess."


    Aldrich replied with a deadpan look.


    "A-above average, I guess." Ayemon coughed.


    Aldrich left the mansion with the servants attire in hand and before returning home he bought an adventurers backpack and foldable cart of the biggest size.


    Back home during his routine meditation he felt himself growing closer to the Immatirum, this was normal after advancing to be a true Crestmaster but he felt it even more distinctly today.


    It was an addicting feeling, that connection with the Immatirum, the Ether within him was excited and active as if responding to the Immatirum. Aldrich had the illusion that he could actually physically go in to the Immatirum.


    After the meditation was over he read on Cazmer''s information about his adventures and especially the dungeons he wrote about.


    At the end of the night he extended his senses to the backpack and the cart, and then he unleashed his Aurora carefully to cover them.


    After he was sure that it wasn''t unstable he willed himself to go to the nightmare realm. After advancing he no longer needed to sleep to do so.


    He opened his eyes in Voros and looked to his left. There he saw the backpack and the cart. He did it! He finally seeded in bringing things over to this side.


    He payed fifty red orbs for that but it was worth it. With this he could really start looting this treasure trove. Hehe, as for the roaming hoard of Malformed husks? He didn''t care for them.


    Actually he wanted them to find him instead of going out of his way to hunt them down.


    Back in the real world he washed up and fed his new pet, after that he showed it the map of Voryhrm and point it to Tarzin''s inn, the grinning Aatax. He wrote a simple message and sent it flying.


    The message was simple it said: It''s me, Aldrich, this is my new pet. Send a reply, I''m trying to train it.


    After that he put on his servant''s garb and took a carriage to the mansion, he slept in so he didn''t have any time to waste.


    The mansion was rife with movement, even more so than the past couple of days. Aldrich walked right in but he felt like he was crossing the sea, with so many people darting in and out.


    The decorations of the mansion were always top notch but today he discovered that there was a sky beyond the sky. The paintings, vases and ancient battle armaments were sparkling and the red carpets were lined with exquisite patterns.


    The ce looked amazing, and even smelled better. But the most breathtaking sight was the colorfully shining butterflies on the ceiling. They filled the ce with a hundred different colors and lights which was also soothing.


    Ishaw butterflies. That was their name. They were so expensive because of their colorful lights and because they lived for only a week after hatching.


    "Hey, Aldriche on in here. Stand behind me." Norge pulled him out of his thoughts and handed him a tray on which there was white wine sses.


    Ayemon and Norge were standing at the entrance in front of the inner gate. Aldrich was told to stand behind Norge. Ayemon was suited in a sky-blue and lined with dark gold, he looked so dignified and different from usual.


    Norge tapped three times with his cane on the floor, "the guest of honor is about to arrive." He said quietly.


    Yet it seems that all the servants and maids heard him as some of them dispersed and the others lined up perfectly from the outer gate to the inner door of the mansion.


    Soon enough in that pin drop silence three high ss carriages pulled by majestic lions and white tigers entered through the gates.


    "Been a while since I''ve been to Voryhrm."


    A fat middle aged man walked out of the foremost carriage.

 Chapter 212 One Man Can’t Have Everything (1)

    The middle aged man was followed by an entourage most of whom were women in revealing clothing.


    However there was a pair of women who gave off powerful auras despite being suppressed. Aldrich could faintly tell that he was no match against even one of them not to mention the two together.


    The servants of the mansion on both sides bowed their heads, "we wee, great lord Merrick Ford to the house of Seerstorm."


    Aldrich did not expect that the guest of honor would be the first to arrive. Shouldn''t he show upst? That wasmon sense, right?


    He wasn''t sure.


    After the servants bowed they worked together with lord Merrick''s servants and took away the carriages and mounts to the staples in a different section of the mansion.


    Meanwhile lord Merrick walked over in their direction, his steps were taken springily despite his size. He stood before Ayemon in silence before he broke into a cheerfulugh.


    "Ayemon, look at you! Still healthy I hope." Merrick extended his hand shook hands with Ayemon.


    "And you," Ayemon coughed, "you look a bit different fromst I saw you, when was it two years ago?"


    But Merrick paused at the remark, or perhaps was it the question, "different, how? May I ask?" He asked sharply, his big face contorting into a giant frown.


    Aldrich felt himself sweating, looks like things were not up to a great start. But he wasn''t worried, Ayemon was always slick and smooth he surely knew what to say.


    "Well, it''s not alchemy, now is it?" Ayemon sneered, "first of all, you''re fat."


    Aldrich felt his heart drop to his stomach. But Ayemon was not done yet.


    "No, I take that back. You''re not fat. Fat alone is not enough to describe this." He motioned with his hands open wide, "You''re so fat that you look like you''re pregnant. With triplets."


    The air grew still and even the birds did not chipper as if they too acknowledged the severity of the situation. The tray on Aldrich''s hand started to shake slightly.


    "Ayemon, you¡­." Lord Merrick pointed at Ayemon while shaking. The two dangerous women behind him had sharpen their gazes and their aura was on the verge of exploding.


    Lord Merrick and Ayemon suddenly burst outughing together and hugged, rambunctiousughter shook the ce as if an earthquake was was going on.


    "Man you don''t hold back!" Lord Merrick, "I am fat, yes." He pped his beer belly andughed again. "This is what happens when you sit on your rear for two years."


    "Norge you canugh if you want," lord Merrick looked at Norge, "why do you have to be so stiff all the time?"


    "I''m on duty, sir." Norge stoically responded.


    "Loosen up, will you? Take a break once in a while." Lord Merrick advised looking unimpressed.


    Perhaps lord Merrick and Ayemon were much closer than he was lead to believe? Aldrich felt this way. After all, they seemed very familiar with each other.


    Aldrich smiled bitterly, his heart was not ready for this.


    "Who''s the wine kid?" Lord Merrick suddenly looked at him. "I''ve never seen him before."


    "Oh, just a kid. He was looking for work so I took pity on him. Don''t mind him." Ayemon replied.


    Aldrich showed his warmest smile possible. Not too shabby, he made an impression just be standing there.


    "Let''s go, the others will let themselves in." Ayemon and lord Merrick entered the mansion together, Norge and Aldrich followed a step behind.


    Inside they move on to a huge room made to amodate many guests where a long table with many foods of all kinds and shapes was ced in tes. Servants were standing at the ready.


    Aldrich didn''t have to do much like Ayemon said just stand by holding the tray. He heard the two of them talking and passed the time like that. In the next few hours guests came flooding in.


    There were many lords anddies that he lost count of who was who he grew numb and was no longer impressed he just kept handing out drinks.


    However, the arrival of certain guests drew his attention again, like the Deacon of saint Payton''s cathedral, High priest Hjanda. Along with Temr, Amalia of saint Quintin''s cathedral.


    After that the current mayor of the city came Maximos Omulous, after that several judges came in together, moss notably, the judge of the High court dwell, and some other junior and senior court judges.


    Aldrich was in a state of calmness on the surface but inwardly he noticed something weird. Out of all the guests, four of them shook hands with him personally.<sub> </sub>


    That was weird. It wasn''t very suspicious at first but when he thought about their identities he couldn''t help but frown.


    High priest Hjanda, Temr Amalia, mayor Maximos and high court judge dwell. Each one of them was of the highest standing.


    After greeting Ayemon they would turn to him, asked fro his name and then went on with their business as usual, but that stood out to Aldrich but Ayemon seemed oblivious like he didn''t care or notice anything.


    After that most of the guests mingled and chatted with one another, by dinner time a musical band started ying and the atmosphere became very enthusiastic.


    But after dinner the most important guests moved on to a different room. While they were going in Aldrich gave himself the chance to sigh in relief.


    However, things did not go as nned.


    "What are you waiting for? Go in already." Norge whispered to him.


    "But, I thought that I shouldn''t¡­" Aldrich tried to exin himself.


    "What? And leave our guests without drinks? Go in already."


    Aldrich could only drag himself in to the room with all the big shots, like amb to the ughter.


    ''What more drinks do you guys need? You''ve all been drinking for half a day already, how are you not shit-faced yet?!''


    He could onlyin in his head.


    Within the room everyone took their seats and some of them started talking to one another in soft whispers, it was a quiet meeting for the most part.


    Aldrich stood behind Ayemon''s seat and felt bored to death.


    "So, Merrick, how were the Boqwen gardens? They must be very enchanting for you to spend half a year there." Ayemon suddenly asked.


    "Oh? Ah, yes. Yes indeed. The beautiful nature and the wildlife in Norfgard is already tens of times better than Vorian but the Boqwen gardens are something to behold." Replied Merrick.


    Aldrich who had keen senses notice a change in the atmosphere, although the others were talking still, they were now focusing most of their attention to this conversation.


    "True, true. Unfortunately, I could not get lord Edwinn Ademar''s invitation. But¡­ I do remember advising you to keep a safe distance from him, he¡ª"


    "I know, I know. I have heard this talk many times now. But actually after you meet the man himself you will know he is not that bad."


    Merrick unexpectedly interrupted Ayemon and exined on his own.


    "I bet he is a solid man, indeed. After all, I heard you took his daughter as your third wife. You certainly wouldn''t want to badmouth your father-inw." Ayemon''s words were loaded with meaning.


    "Well, I think that building closer rtions with old rivals is good, who needs more enemies?" Merrick countered.


    "True, true," Ayemon conceded, "I really don''t care about that. What I''m concerned about is the Western remation bill, I hope it will pass."


    Lord Merrick grabbed a ss of wine and took a sip before he replied. At this point none of the guest were talking or pretending to talk they were all listening on the sidelines.


    "I don''t know, it just doesn''t feel like we have enough votes. Don''t you think we should focus on the flood outbreak disaster bill in Norfgar? It''s just the more pressing issue¡­"


    "The flood outbreak disaster bill?" Ayemon whistled, "what a name! Actually I looked it up and it seems this disaster caused only minor damage with only twenty injured. I think our long standing n to clear up the chaos in the west is more pressing."


    The chaos in the west, it referred to thewlessness of that region. It had left Vorian vulnerable in every way but most importantly, in a political and financial sense too.


    Many of Vorian''s resources were in the west, including t and ore mines. That was not all, the homeless lords who made it out had to suffer ridicule for fleeing and abandoning their ancestral homes.


    This was not a light matter to nobles, if thesends passed down through generations were to be lost for good then so would their im to nobility.


    Their subjects would lose all respect and reverence to them, it was the greatest shame to a noble. And yet the nobles of the west had to endure this for so long.


    There was no greater wish for them but to restore their homes and honor.

 Chapter 213 One Man Can’t Have Everything (2)

    "Fine, you know what? We can talk about it. I''m sick of this wine get me a Taprisian mix." Lord Merrick sighed and ordered.


    "Norge." Ayemon called and Norge walked out at once to get the drink.


    "How much do we need for this? It''s not going to be cheap." Merrick added.


    "We will need ten million, so we will ask for thirty." Ayemon replied nonchntly.


    "Thirty? It''s not enough to buy the votes we need for something like this," Merrick shook his head, "lord Eddwinn told me that you will be like this¡­"


    "And how much did you want to pocket? This is not the time, you guys can eatter we cannot dy." Ayemon chided.


    "What''s your problem?" Merrick asked with increasing annoyance in his voice.


    "My problem? Didn''t you tell me that your dream was to liberate Vorian and save your hometown? What am I exactly to you?" Ayemon asked his own voice freezing.


    "That was a long time ago. What are you to me? The best campaign manager." Merrick, "with your help I got into the Lord''s council much easier than I would have done on my own."


    "But¡­" Lord Merrick''s voice grew lower and lower, "but, I am now a member of the Lord''s Assembly, I''m a great lord! Me, not you! I am the leader of this faction, I call the shots. I am no longer the boy you once knew."


    "I can see that." Ayemon replied.


    "You know what? Lord Eddwinn suggested something he imed that I am your puppet sometime ago." Merrick suddenly said, "that''s ridiculous right? But I couldn''t help recalling that every time I wanted the rest to vote on something they would tell me to ask you for your thoughts first."


    "What does this have to do with anything? Did Edwinn give you a sheet of paper to memorize? You are the one sitting of the Lord''s Assembly are you not?" Ayemon snorted.


    "That''s what I said. But it seems like I had to say it again, here, for everyone to hear. I think the wester remation bill won''t pass, not any time soon. Does anyone here have any objections? If so then speak up."


    Lord Merrick looked around at the people sitting in the small room and when no one sid anything he turned to Ayemon, "how about it, what do you think, Ayemon? Even great and powerful lords can encounter unfortunate¡­ ident."


    "I¡­ I agree with you." Ayemon said, his head lowered.


    "Look at these two," Meerick pointed at the two women behind him, "they''re powerful Crestmasters, elites at grade two! Both of them have decided to follow me of their own ord after knowing my might and influence."


    Aldrich bit his lower lip out of rage, he almost couldn''t control himself and attacked the so called lord Merrick. He wasn''t exactly sure of the details but he didn''t like seeing Ayemon like that.


    Suddenly the door opened, it was Norge and he was empty handed.


    "Where''s the Tabrisian mix?" Ayemon asked perplexed.


    "We-we don''t have it, sir." Norge looked absolutely regretful.


    "It''s fine, I''ve had enough alcohol for the night." Lord Merrick waved casually.


    "Why don''t we have it?" Ayemon asked Norge, "I specifically requested it."<sub> </sub>


    "It''s okay, Ayemon," lord Merrick interjected, "it''s fine, maybe they couldn''t get it. One man can''t have everything."


    ****


    Aldrich got back home after the party, washed up and change to a simple ck shirt and trousers for bed. He had an interesting day to say the least.


    *chink* *chink*


    Aldrich was pulled out of his thoughts by a strange noiseing from one of his windows, he opened it and a small wyvern-like creature flew in.


    ''Oh, right, I sent it out this morning and forgot to keep the window open.''


    Luckily it was a smart creature and waited for him toe back. Aldrich took the letter container on it''s back and opened it. There was a new letter there.


    Aldrich opened it, it was indeed Cole. Moreover what he penned down was incredibly important unlike the silly one that he expected.


    It seems like he advanced sessfully as a Crestmaster today, he got the dagger symbol of the Weaponsmaster crest.


    This was not surprising to Aldrich, Crestmaster of this symbol specialized in stealth and sneak attacks, they could detect all kinds of traps and even had a talent in dealing with poisons.


    Aldrich went to sleep and entered the nightmare realm, he went on a rampage to satiate his anger at what happened today.


    He could not believe how that pig treated Ayemon.


    At the end of the night he remembered to look at his first grade two wondrous item, Cazmer''s ring.


    Cazmer''s ring: It can cast the sleep spell in a wide are of effect three times a day. The range is ten meters, the spell takes five minutes to activate. The targets will fall asleep for various time spans depending on their resistance to the spell. Has the power to store spiritual will for a long period of time.


    ''Not bad, but it was a little disappointing to be honest.''


    Aldrich hoped that it could do more but it couldn''t be helped. Not every grade two wondrous item was an awesome weapon.


    It had a unique power so that could count for something, right? Anyway he will put it to some use some day.


    He increased his savings to 28 green orbs and that was enough for the day.


    He wrote another letter to Cole congratting him on his advancement and reminding him that drinks were on him.


    Back in the real world morning came and he had a hearty breakfast as usual with bacon and eggs and a side of mashed potatoes.


    When he was done eating, the messenger returned, of course it was much faster than before because it got used to the location and the person it was intended for.


    He opened the message, it read : Aldrich, I need your help pleasee to the inn fast my friends have been kidnapped.

 Chapter 214 That Face

    Aldrich stared at the letter for a while and blinked, he read it again just to make sure. It was written in a hurry, the letters were jumbled and the paper was wrinkled.


    Honestly his first thought was that it was a prank. Yesterday Cole bragged that he advanced sessfully and the next day his friends were kidnapped and he wants help?


    Aldrich was not sure whether Cole would pull this kind of prank or not.


    He could very well go there only to see that things were fine and Cole just wanted to hang out. But it was because of that uncertainty that he decided to go anyway.


    If it was a prank then he could just smack Cole on the head for it. But if it wasn''t¡­


    Aldrich made haste but the streets of Voryhrm were always packed, crossing three districts to go to Lunsken was not so fast.


    He had to pay the man some more coin to make the trip faster, and so they went through narrow alleyways and small arches. In the end they still took more than ten minutes which was already impressive.


    Aldrich ran all the way around the pure fountain and turned to the Grinning Aatax but as far as his first look, things were peaceful as usual. Just as he was getting ready to beat the piss out of Cole he heard something.


    "Here! Aldrich, quick! Here!"


    Aldrich was about to open the inn''s door paused his actions and looked to the left, there Cole was peeking out of the ally and motioned for him toe over. Apparently he wanted him to be quite about too.


    He walked over, his eyebrows furrowed. He looked around carefully but there were few people around and they all seemed harmless and didn''t pay him any attention.


    But he still watched out for anything unexpected. His demeanor changed like he wasn''t in the safety of the city anymore.


    He had a feeling that this was not going to be easy.


    "What happened¡ª" he tried to ask.


    "Shshu, follow me first, I will tell you after we get out of here, follow me." Cole started running and Aldrich followed behind.


    After going through some confusing lefts and turns Cole stopped and knocked five time on a wooden board in the wall of a building, half a minuteter it opened like a small door.


    A halfling popped out of the small door, she had a soot covered face and breathed in the fresh air like she hadn''t seen the sun in weeks.


    "How''s it? You got eyes on them?" Cole asked urgently.


    "We, do. But Tonton says they''re going to change directions soon. We think they will go under the Strek bridge and to the Eve lodging street. But¡­ we don''t know where they''ll go from there."


    "I know." Cole said grimly, "I''ve been there before. Thanks, tell everyone to pull back and don''t use the ways for the next week. I will take care of this."<sub> </sub>


    The girl went back in.


    "So, are you going to tell me what this is all about now or what?" Aldrich asked. He had to know some of the details if he was going to help.


    "I''ll tell you while we run." Cole said and sprinted away, Aldrich caught up with him in no time and he started talking.


    "The entire Lunsken district is ruled by six syndicates, I don''t know if you''ve heard of them. They have a presence in all of Voryhrm but mainly in Lunsken."


    "In the past, was it three years ago? Or two? We had an unfortunate altercation with the Night Scales, one of them tried to take my friends and I killed him. All this time I thought it was over but, I don''t know how, one of them recognized the two and took them again."


    "I know the ce where they''re taking them. It''s that hotel again. If they get them on a ship no one ever going to see them again."


    "I¡­ understand." Aldrich wanted to ask more but he knew that now was not the time. "We can''t do anything where there are too many people¡­ why don''t we call the patrolling watchmen?"


    "The watch won''t do anything here, they''re all in their pockets. You will only make things worse."


    Aldrich decided to listen to Cole since this was his territory, he knew better. But if this was the case then things could turn very ugly.


    "Look, there they are." Cole said, atst they were in an extremely crowded street and he couldn''t make out their shapes properly but he could see three men and one woman holding hands with two halflings.


    Aldrich and Cole no longer talked they used the crowd as a cover to follow them. The crowd was both good and bad for them.


    They followed behind them for a while when Aldrich stopped in his tracks. He was not looking at the kidnappers anymore, he fixed his sight to the bend at the end of the street.


    There, he saw a face he could never forget. No, even with the distance and the numerous faces in the crowed he could never mistake it.


    The day of the attack on Wakefield he encountered two strangers that came to the vige one was Keld Adash, who was pretending to be a flirtatious bodyguard.


    Aldrich found him drinking and writing information in a notebook. He then passed out drunk and Aldrich stole the notebook from him.


    In the notebook he found information regarding the state of the vige from guard shifts and number to defenses and such.


    Back then Aldrich wanted to tell the adults about it but he was afraid of confronting the grownups and decided to do it at ater time. What if he did tell them about it right there and then?


    Perhaps things would have gone differently. Perhaps not.


    Either way. Right now he was looking at Keld Adash himself, he wasughing out loud like he heard some joke and still had that smirk, as if he knew a secret that no one else was privy to.

 Chapter 215 The Night Scales

    It was like everything else in the world disappeared. Only Aldrich and Keld remained, so far away and yet so close.


    Even this massive crowd was as if it did not exist anymore. Time slowed down to a crawl.


    Aldrich could hardly believe his eyes, a coincidence is better than a hundred ns. No. Something was not right his vision was actually not steady, the world was distorted.


    Suddenly without being able to do or understand anything he was hit in the back of the head. Hard. He crashed down and heard the crowd around him breaking into amotion.


    Hisst thought before everything went ck was of Keld turning around the corner.


    ****


    He was aware of himself in the nightmare realm. He stared nkly at nothing. And then he was shaking, it wouldn''t be wrong to say convulsing. He dashed out of the base and mmed into the outer fence breaking it in the process.


    Aldrich didn''t care he dashed through the ce and after running without a care for a moment he saw a group of Malformed husks blocking the way. He used [Light step Lv.2].


    The corpses of the husks flew into the air bent and broken in a horrific storm. Aldrich didn''t care about the superficial wounds he sustained, rather he wee that pain.


    The blood and gore gave him a sense of¡­ life. Heughed and took out his sword and a flurry that the remaining husks couldn''t even respond to he massacred them. The battle drew in more husks from all around.


    After the dust was settled, he staggered into a nearby building and leaned on his back feeling exhausted. How long has it been? He didn''t know? How many did he kill? No idea.


    He just knew that he felt better. Aldrich pped himself and evened out his breathing, he almost lost it back then. This time he brought himself back to earth.


    Did he really see Keld? Was that real? He believed that there was no mistake, he had indeed seen him in the flesh. But then he experienced that¡­ thing, he didn''t know what happened.


    Logically, he must have been attacked. Was it Keld and his goons? No, even under the worst circumstances Keld did not see his face that day, nor did anyone know that he was a survivor. Right?


    But try as he would he could not dismiss that possibility, because someone else also knew. The banshee. To him this proved¡ªregardless of how it was done¡ªthat it was not impossible.


    However, for now the biggest suspect was not them but the Night Scales whom he was tailing. They must''ve noticed that they were being followed and when he was distracted they struck.


    In that moment his attention waspletely focused on Keld and that lead to him lowering his guard if only so briefly.


    So assuming that he was not dead yet he had to do something and fast, but first he had to make sure that he was still alive.


    Aldrich decided to return to the base and on the way he noticed the hill of husk bodies burning into oblivion leaving behind a stone. He approached it and picked it up.


    This was the first time that killing husks gave him anything but essence. He thought that it might be a Deadman''s Remnant but it was not, for starters it was not a smooth stone at all, it had a sharp metallic texture.


    [Durtunite shard] : crafting material used to enhance items under +4.


    Sweet, a good catch. While feeling pleasantly surprised Aldrich did dally, he made a swift return to the base and used the seal of Tindalor to feel the connection he had to the real world¡­ it was there.


    Aldrich breathed out in relief, he was on edge, but at least he was alive for now. He thought he might have be a permanent resident of the nightmare realm. A horrific prospect.


    But he was not in a good position out there. Considering he was knocked out, he must have been taken away by whoever did that, he might get tortured for information very soon.


    At any rate the worst case scenario- his death- did note to pass yet, he sure as hell wasn''t going to let this slide. Whoever did this took away the first chance of revenge that he got since that night.


    That was uneptable. It was unforgivable. He was not going to spare anyone, they all had to die without exception.


    But he must be in the hands of the enemy now, and with a very bad head wound. He was knocked out with one hit which means a Crestmaster did it.


    Aldrich decided to act with assumption that he was surrounded by multiple Crestmasters. That was a hard challenge. However he had his ways to get out of this situation quickly to pursue Keld¡­


    No, there was a high chance that Keld already got away. This thought brought that anger to him once again but he suppressed it. He was going to unleash it soon, he used the seal and went to the Underbridge area.


    "Oh, you''re back¡­ you don''t look like you''re in the best shape, some trouble out there?" Uldin asked sarcastically.


    "Yeah, yeah, you dine with the potions?" Aldrich asked hurriedly, he wasn''t in the mood to chit chat.<sub> </sub>


    "I see someone stepped on your tail. Sheesh," Uldin took out there green and slightly glowing potions out of his magical bag. "Here, don''t use it just for any injury, these potions can heal even fatal injuries. It''s a very effective potion."


    "Do I have to inject it with the beetle every time?" Aldrich asked since the beetle had only one slot.


    "No, just drinking it is fine. The beetle is for when you need to use a potion in midst of a heated battle. Which I did tell you about before."


    "Alright I got it. Thank you. I will be seeing you soon." Aldrich left immediately after saying that and returned to the base.


    He organized his thoughts and decided to take all three potions with him, using one here would be useless for his real world body. The potion sks were the size and length of his index finger.


    He thought about what he might face out there and after ning out how he might respond he steeled his nerves and used the seal of Tindalor to return.


    ****


    "What did you say?!"


    Aldrich got back but he didn''t open his eyes nor did he change his breathing. The first thing he heard was a disbelieving voice, an older man.


    "W-we found guild badges on the two of them¡­"


    Another man answered, hesitant and clearly lower in position than the first speaker.


    "¡­ which guild?"


    "T-the Knights ofst¡ª"


    Before the answer could bepleted he was interrupted.


    "Are you sure that they were following you? Think about your answer, are you certain?"


    "K-Kevin said¡­ I thought¡­ I mean there many people on the street but¡ª"


    "Do you want a war on our hands?" The older man seethed, "eh?! Answer me, you kidnapped two guild members without thinking? How the fuck do you figure I can exin this to the boss you fucking dimwit!"


    "I-I didn''t, we didn''t know¡­ we thought we should be careful rather than sorry. They won''t wake up any time soon we can throw them out and pretend this whole thing never happened."


    "No, it''s already toote for you or me to do that we have to kill them. I will ask permission from the boss." The older man was barely keeping himself in check, "if you''re not sure about something, that''s what you DO! You ask someone who does!"


    "I¡­ understand."


    Aldrich wasn''t just listening to their chatter, while they were bussing themselves, he checked on his body. He found that it was in a terrible condition.


    Both of his legs were broken, and not light they were hit multiple time with a blunt object to shatter the bones in several areas, his hands were cuffed and tied with a chain over his head to the bars of the cell he was kept in.


    He was naked and the mind protection ne along with Cazmer''s ring were gone. Which was not good, he estimated that not much time had passed.


    He focused his senses all around him before he opened a sliver of his eyes and looked around. He was in a dark, damp room. Likely underground.


    There were several cages in the room and since his was on the right beside the wall to his left the cages all had many people who all looked malnourished and knocked out just like he was. And he couldn''t see Cole.


    There was one man who was on watch, he was sitting on a reclining chair by the window. And he wasn''t exactly vignt but he wasn''t drinking or smoking.


    Well, that wasn''t convenient but this is life.


    Aldrich looked at his right hand and in his grasp were the three health potions. With a thought the chain holding his hand was cut. He used [invisible sword].


    With a quick movement, he chugged down a potion quickly and put the other two behind him.

 Chapter 216 This Blood Is Not Enough

    Themotion of breaking the chain alerted Kevin at once, perhaps were he an ordinary man he might have missed that slight noise. But not him he knew something wasn''t right.


    He walked over and inspected the cages and those inside but pass over most of them quickly. Aldrich was aware of him slowing down only once before he stood before his own cage.


    "I hope you die slowly for killing Cathia you bastard!"


    Kevin spat out with a venom in his every words at that cage where he slowed down.


    This was an extremely important captive that he had to keep a tight watch over. But Kevin was not worried since the poor sod was just brought in and there was no he could have recovered that quickly.


    Unless he was a grade two Crestmasters, that being the case Kevin wouldn''t have been able tond a hit even if he was give a thousand years.


    There was also the possibility of a wondrous item, but all of his possessions were stripped off of him the moment he was brought in. Meaning that was impossible too.


    In fact with the hit Kevin gave him inbination with the effect of the Disorienting orb, it was very likely to cause a permanent head injury if he was not healed by a cleric soon.


    Kevin gave the prisoner a careful look just to make sure, his hands were still hanging over his head and still cuffed properly¡­ Hmm? Because of the room being dark he couldn''t see very well.


    It looked like his right arm was actually free and the prisoner was holding onto the chain connecting to the ceiling of the cage to trick him.


    Kevin''s face went ck in anger, ''this bastard ever with his legs broken like that he still didn''t want to obediently stay put, did he think he was clever?'' He sneered.


    *Ssh*


    Kevin threw in a nearby jug of cold water at Aldrich through the gaps of the bars. "Hey! Stop pretending asshole! I can see what you''re doing!"


    However despite this the prisoner did not respond, he did not even flinch when the water sshed on him. ''W-what was I wrong? No, he definitely broke the chain¡­ did he do it while he was unconscious?!''


    While Kevin was struck with this absurd thought, the previously unmoving Aldrich suddenly lunged at him like a madman. This spooked Kevin.


    It happened so abruptly that he jumped back even though Aldrich was still locked in the cage, it was an instinctual reaction due of a feeling of danger.


    After all these cages were not made to hold Crestmasters in the first ce.


    However when he jumped back, away from the danger, for some reason the feeling of danger grew several fold and it came from behind. The dangerous feeling from Aldrich was not fake, but it couldn''tpare to this.


    *DEATH!!*<sub> </sub>


    In Kevin''s subconscious mind this word written in blood appeared. He had no idea how Aldrich could even walk on his legs like normal but he didn''t have the time to ask himself that question.


    Kevin released his Warhammer from his crest in midair, he did not know what it was but he knew that it was bad news. He could not possibly change course by twisting his body in such a short time, but he was a Crestmaster after all.


    In the span of a blink the warhammer was pulled to the ground thanks to its own weight and leveraging that, Kevin grabbed on to it and twisted in the air using it like a crotch he flipped vertically so that his legs were touching the ceiling.


    Kevin spat out a mouthful of blood. A moment a go he did not know what the danger was but now he knew. It was a sword, even though he could not see it, it pierced him in the middle of the chest.


    In the same manner that he could react and adjust in such a small amount of time so could Aldrich. No, he was even better. With his calctive abilities and perception he was able to predict Kevin''s trajectory and move ordingly.


    But even of he did not seed in that, the results would not have changed.


    Before Kevin could rouse his vitality, a burning sword cleaved his head off. In stter of blood a headless corps fell convulsing and released a nasty smell.


    In less than two minutes a Crestmaster was dead.


    Kevin did not even get to use a single skill, it took a single exchange to determine the strong and the weak. The weak being the loser who died.


    Aldrich had no intention to engage in a duel with him or anyone for that matter, he just wanted to kill him in the fastest most efficient manner possible.


    That was so Kevin couldn''t call for help. If he did so then Aldrich could be surrounded and besieged. While he could kill Kevin rtively easily on his own there was bound to be trouble if he was facing multiple Crestmasters at once.


    He had broken out of the cage while Kevin was fully focused on the invisible sword behind, he used his true sword and easily destroyed the cage.


    He rummaged through the belongings of the dead Crestmaster but he did not find his things nor did he find the key. Well it''s not like he needed it.


    But he still stole his trousers, being in the nude did bother him a bit.


    If possible he wanted to keep Kevin alive to ask him so questions but the circumstances were not ideal. They rarely were.


    Aldrich looked over the cages and found the one which Kevin has slowed down to inspect, indeed, he found Cole inside. And he did not look good at all.


    And he thought he was beaten up badly. Cole was basically beaten to a pulp, with his limbs broken and twisted. It was likely that he fought back when Aldrich was knocked out.


    He clenched his fist, this little bit of blood was not enough to satisfy him.

 Chapter 217 A Bad Opponent (1)

    Aldrich took the two heath potions he left behind in his cell and made Cole drink one of them.


    Since the damage was so sever it should take a little bit of time. But not too long, his own broken legs were healed in a two minutes. His high vitality helped but Cole did not enjoy this benefit.


    "H-hey, you¡­ you''re Cole''s friend right? I''m his friend too, help me out¡­"


    Aldrich turned to the right of Cole''s cage, there was a group of knocked out people inside. Only he and Cole enjoyed having a whole cell to themselves, the rest were packed together.


    It was a halfling who talked to him. Aldrich had sensed him before, his breathing was no different from the others but when he beheaded the guard it quickened for a moment.


    He intended to wait and see.


    "How can I believe you?" Aldrich asked indifferently, "you stayed quiet like a rat so far, why raise your head now? Just wait until I''m done with the rest of the trash then I will let everyone here out together you don''t have to persuade me."


    Indeed, Aldrich wasn''t going to leave these people here like that, since he could save them without much trouble why not?


    "No, let me out now." The halfling pleaded, "I know some information. I can guid you to where they took your things."


    "I can just search the ce myselfter." Aldrich chuckle. It was not difficult for him to do thatter, he was sure that his things were still here because not much time passed since they were brought here.


    "No, please! Let me out, I have to find Alice. Please. They took her away." The halfling begged, "I swear no matter what happenster I will owe you my life."


    "Do you understand that a battle between Crestmasters is about to take ce here? I can''t guarantee anything. You will just be coteral damage. Do you understand what that means? I can literally kill you with a p."


    It''s not like he didn''t understand the halfling''s urgency but he was in no position to take things carelessly. He was in enemy ground and who knew how many of them were here.


    But¡­ at the same time, if this halfling decided to jump from the roof to his death Aldrich wouldn''t feel guilty. To him running around here for a normal person was no different than that.


    Aldrich cut open the cage bars and the halfling scrambled out.


    "You still have to guid me to where they keep my things before you run off." Aldrich reminded the over energetic halfling.


    "Yes, yes, I saw them carrying everything to thest room on the right of the corridor." The halfling said. "I don''t know if they''re still there so don''t me me if you can''t find them."


    "Well, isn''t that convenient?" Aldrich asked rhetorically.


    *Boom!*


    The door of the room was broken, it was made of metal so that was not a simple feat.


    "I smell¡­ blood. Kevin don''t tell me you killed one of the new prisoners! The boss will skin you alive for this!"<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich recognized the voice as belonging to the man who was being yelled at, but apparently it was no man at all. It was a f-orc woman.


    She had a light green skin and two small tusks peeked out of her lips. Her hair was braided and stood at two meters tall. She had a tower shield on one hand and a il on the other.


    Aldrich charged at her the moment she barged in, his sword shed overhead to the opening in her shield''s defense. But he was unable to take her by surprise as she quickly adjusted her stance and hid behind the tower shield.


    "[Rebound]" the she-orc said and a green sheen of Ether enveloped her body.


    Aldrich was pushed back unexpectedly, he thought that at least the impact of his strike was enough to throw her off bnce but that happened to him instead.


    Aldrich stabilized himself quickly but he was still not fast enough as the she-orc mmed into him with the tower shield. He was thrown onto the cage from which he escaped.


    The impact destroyed what remained of the cage and he took a good second to get back up. There was no follow up attack and he knew why.


    The she-orc kneeled on one knee and stared daggers at him. It was the invisible sword again, it stabbed her in the back.


    However, it was Aldrich who was annoyed the most. That attack should have stabbed right through her and yet it only dealt a shallow wound?


    He was beginning to feel that this was a bad match up against him.


    The she-orc roared, for some reason hearing that roar intimidated Aldrich and stopped his iing onught before it could begin. It was a Skill.


    Aldrich gritted his teeth and stomped on the ground, he used [Light Step] and the Subjugation sword''s [mes of damnation].


    But he was not done yet, [Aurora: Augment] could also be used to enhance attacks. Dark red and ck Aurora engulfed his sword.


    The she-orc''s eyes widened in disbelief at the attack, "[defensive wall!] [defiant keep!]" that was all she could do. She would have dodged or at least tried to, if not for her injury which limited her movements.


    BOOM!


    Like a canon ball she went crashing through the wall of the room and right through the room across the hall. A scare in the walls and the ground tore through the ce.


    The whole building shook with the force and probably because the foundations of the building itself were not in good shape.


    Aldrich breathed in and dashed out to finish the job. He did not take the time to rest before knowing that she was truly dead.


    In the room in which the she-orc crashed, a mess was going on. Many tables were broken and many of those present in the room were hit with shrapnel from the broken walls.


    They were not in the best of shapes, some died outright as they were sitting right where she crashed in.

 Chapter 218 A Bad Opponent (2)

    Aldrich barged in through the dust and rubble like a hunter in pursuit of his prey. He surveyed his surroundings and spotted the she-orc, flopped over with her body in shambles.


    But alive. Which honestly shocked Aldrich, he did not think that it was possible to survive that attack when it was taken head-on and at such close proximity.


    This room had some kind of bar and the stench of alcohol and smoke was clear as day. Immediately most people ran away in panic.


    He frowned and looked around at the rest of the low lives, the reason he didn''t rush in to finish her off yet was because he would leave an opening for another Crestmaster to ambush him.


    He walked over slowly over to the half-orc and raised his sword. And then swung to the left. His ears rang and his hand shook.


    The dwarf behind the bar shot at him with a shotgun but he blocked with the sword. He guessed that there were nine pellets meaning that it was a 00 buckshot. It was dangerous even for a Crestmaster.


    It''s not that he was faster than a bullet but his sense of danger and perception were that good, to the point he moved before he was shot.


    A shotgun was powerful but it took too long to reload, especially for someone as fas as Aldrich. But he didn''t attack the bartender but ducked down and performed a wide sweep with his leg to his left.


    The halfling hiding behind a flipped table had a crossbow aimed at him, if he attacked the dwarf he would have been shot in the back when he least expected it.


    The halfling''s bones broke on contact. His ribs punctured his lungs and that was it for him. The bartender dwarf was also dead. His invisible sword shed open his throat when he turned around to deal with halfling.


    Aldrich didn''t waste any time and moved on to his true target the she-orc who was trying to muster her strength in vain.


    However!


    Before he could finish her, he was aware of a new presence by the destroyed room, it was a human man who was brimming with Ether. He was showing off his status as a Crestmaster openly.


    A fireball twice the size of his head was hurled at him. He had to make a choice to kill the orc which would lead to him taking the hit directly.


    Or, dodged to the side and look for another chance to kill her. But what if she was healed by a cleric while he was busy with the Pyromancer? If they teamed up against him he was done for.


    If so then he had to kill the orc even if it meant taking the hit. Is probably what the pyromancer thought Aldrich would do.


    But Aldrich didn''t show any signs of hesitation at all he abandoned his attack on the orc and evaded the fireball. In an instant he activated [Light Step] and [invisible sword].


    He would have like to used the invisible sword to ambush and kill the pyromancer but he was too far away and the sword only had a five meter radius. So he aimed it at the orc.


    The pyromancer was astonished by the turn of events and watch in shock as something stabbed the orc through the forehead ending her miserable existence.


    Aldrich was intent on ending the battle in one strike but something unexpected happened he felt his vision blur and twist.


    Without knowing where he was going and what happened, with that speed he missed the pyromancer and crashed into the wall awkwardly.


    At least he finally kill the annoying she-orc. Aldrich turned around but before he could do anything else he was bathed with a stream of fire.


    "Aaaaggh!"


    Aldrich braved through the burns, jumped away, rolled and aimed for an opening but the pyromancer just didn''t stop he turned around with the stream of mes firing everywhere.


    The wood and the room itself started to burn, Aldrich was kept at an arm''s length and couldn''t get close enough. He had to stay on the move or he risked being burnt to a crisp.


    He wanted to keep running and let this asshole exhaust his Ether, he wanted to see how long he canst but when he looked around he grimaced.


    If the ce burned at this rate he would run out of oxygen and die of suffocating. Running around was not an option, he had to fine an opening.


    Aldrich got an idea, while running he scooped up some rubble and shot a few at the unsuspecting pyromancer. He had to use his environment to his advantage.


    "Agh!"


    The pebbles were small but thrown by Aldrich they became deadly. The pyromancer was hit in the head and fell backwards, finally the me stopped.


    Pyromancers did not get the bulk of their enhancement into physique or endurance when they advanced. Otherwise it would not have worked.<sub> </sub>


    Aldrich stomped on the ground and dashed, he was not about to waste this chance.


    The pyromancer was in panic as he felt the danger approaching, in fact as soon as he fell down with his forehead bleeding thanks to the pebbles he reached out his hand and held a colorless orb.


    "Disorienting orb!"


    Aldrich once again felt that feeling, other than his vision he also felt like he forgot what he was doing and why?


    It was this wondrous item! Aldrich knew, it was what caused him to lose sight of Keld in the street today. With seething anger he activated the [mes of damnation] and shed.


    "Curse you!!" The pyromancer squealed as he scrambled to his feet. Aldrich had only mange to take his left arm thereby he lost the Disorienting orb.


    Before Aldrich could do anything he was boasted with a ring of fire that the pyromancer conjured faster than expected. He only managed to move out of the direction a bit but the explosion still got him.


    The explosion seared his skin and sent him flying. Aldrich tried to summon his strength but it failed him. He used too many skills and exhausted his own stamina and energy.


    The pyromancer gritted his teeth and ignored the insane pain of his removed arm. He pointed at the exhausted and burnt Aldrich, he didn''t want to leave anything behind so he took a moment to charge his final attack.


    "[Burning doom!]¡ª"


    However just as he was about to fire it off he was aware of a stab at his back, but he couldn''t do anything it was toote, someone got too close to him without him even noticing. He focused too much on Aldrich.


    "[Guttural dagger]"


    A dagger from behind got him. It was Cole who remained inconspicuous. However, unexpectedly the dagger did notplete the job, as if it was stuck in the shirt of the pyromancer.


    Even then it still drew blood and Cole immediately retreated after seeing that his ambush failed.


    "The second one? But¡­ how?" The pyromancer grumbled and frowned, "how? In that condition? ¡­hm?! Where is your cleric friend hiding? Huh? Come out we can talk about this. It''s a misunderstanding by my stupid underlings, we can talk about it."


    The three were in a stalemate, and silently observed. Aldrich understood what was going on. The pyromancer deduced that they must have a cleric helping them since their heavy injuries were healed.


    It was a reasonable guess, perhaps at the start he thought that it was odd that Aldrich was fine but he could chug it up to someone messing up. However after seeing Cole he knew that it was more than a mistake.


    Cole looked confused at the question so Aldrich hurriedly answered, "wouldn''t you like to know? Eh? Look at your situation, you think we''ll give you an answer?"


    Aldrich made sure to sound as confident and condescending as possible. The pyromancer paled at his words.


    "¡­ like I said, this was a big misunderstanding. You''re guild members of the Knights of Last Sustar, we can talk about this¡­"


    "Where are our things?" Aldrich asked for starters.


    "Here, we got them." Cole looked at him and showed him a backpack. Good it looks like he got that covered.


    "¡­what are you doing?" The pyromancer asked looking nervous.


    Aldrich smirked, "we''re going out of here that''s what. You sent for your goons out there right? You were trying to stall for time. Stay put and we''ll get out of here."


    The pyromancer looked shocked, he was indeed doing that. Good thing Aldrich overheard them talking about it when he first regained consciousness.


    "You can go, you can go. You agree this is over right? The subordinate responsible was killed by you already. Let''s forget about this whole thing."


    "¡­ one question," Aldrich pointed at the Disorienting orb clenched in the pyromancer''s severed left arm, "this thing, does it cause hallucinations?"


    "Eh? No, it just causes confusion for a moment that''s all."


    Aldrich bit his lower lip in a mixture of conflicting emotions, he knew now for a fact that Keld was here in Voryhrm.

 Chapter 219 Who Did This?

    Aldrich picked himself up and along with Cole they slowly retreated. He noticed that many of the prisoners have already escaped during themotion.


    The pyromancer followed them as they were leaving from a distance, he also didn''t do anything about the escaping prisoners as if he didn''t care.


    When they got out he saw that the building looked to have suffered an earthquake. Fire was burning everywhere and some walls were on the verge of copse.


    Curiously the pedestrians seemed to have run away some time ago. Yet, despite all this, the city watchmen never showed up.


    Cole and Aldrich took a carriage. The pyromancer watched them leave and didn''t do anything which came as a bit of a surprise.


    Were he in his ce Aldrich didn''t know what he would have done.


    "What about your friends?" Aldrich asked Cole while they were on the carriage.


    "They already got out." Cole was looking around suspiciously.


    "Rx we won''t get jumped here, we''re in the clear." Aldrichforted.


    "What was that?" Cole looked at Aldrich, "back there, you just stood there like you forgot what our situation was."


    Aldrich looked away, he didn''t know what to say, the fault was his. No matter what hemitted a grave mistake by losing his focus.


    He could say many things, he could make a valid argument but to him it was unforgivable. He endangered not only his own life but even those with him.


    This kind of mistake was a rookie slip-up but Aldrich was not new to this.


    Seeing his silence Cole clicked his tongue, "You got us out of that mess so just forget about it. Tell me something else."


    "What?"


    "How did you heal me? And yourself? Did you get a healing skill as a Weaponmaster?" Cole asked another troublesome question.


    Aldrich rubbed his eyes, "eh, well, it was a potion. Well, a few potions."


    Naturally the reason that Aldrich was able to walk around like normal was because he already used thest heath potion.


    He used it back when the pyromancer was distracted by Cole''s ambush. He was pretending to be exhausted and hurt to lure him in and finish the job.


    In fact that pyromancer didn''t fall for it, he was very cunning and cautious. Aldrich can admit that without a way to close the distance between them it would end up as a draw.


    Even with Cole''s help in a closed environment like that the pyromancer had the advantage. Furthermore he had quite a few powerful wondrous items.


    The Distortion orb and that shirt he was wearing. Obviously, otherwise Cole would have finished him off there and then.


    Perhaps if they went for a prolonged battle they could win, but he had already called for reinforcements. No matter how much Aldrich wanted to kill the entire Night Scales gang he had to recognize the situation.


    Seeing that things were not looking good he decided to pull back for now. The Night Scales were not going anywhere and so was he.


    "You do have a lot of secrets huh, well don''t mind me, I won''t tell anyone about the potion. Thanks for the help, I owe you one."


    "It''s fine. We''re friends so I will help when I can. If you encounter these guys again be sure to tell me at once."


    "Okay, yeah, sure you got it. Seems like you hate them more that I do." Cole whistled.


    "Yeah, you can say that." Aldrich narrowed his eyes.


    Before long Aldrich and Cole changed carriages and clothes,ter on they went to different districts andter on they split up.


    Naturally this was to run away from anyone who might be tailing them. It was a slim possibility but still valid, moreover the first carriage was from that area it was not hard to imagine that he might spill the beans on them.


    ****


    Back in the nightmare realm Aldrich took a look at his attributes panel. He managed to umte a fair bit on this day.


    Name: Aldrich


    Age: 15.5


    Strength: 8+


    Agility: 8+


    Endurance: 7+


    Vitality: 8+


    Intelligence: 7+


    Spirit (ck): 7+


    Green essence orbs: 40


    Red essence orbs: 73


    Ether : 9


    Abilities: Eyes of Insight LV.2


    Skills: 1) Light step LV.2<sub> </sub>


    2) Psychic Lash Lv.1(locked)


    Condition: blood of ######


    Crest of Aeon, Skills:


    1) Aurora: Augment Lv.1+


    2) Invisible sword Lv.1+


    3)True strike Lv.1


    Not only the attributes but even the all of the level one skill except [True strike] could be upgraded. But he was not satisfied with what he had.


    [True strike] was his trump card it could have been enough to kill that pyromancer but he would end up paralyzed for an entire hour after that. It was powerful but also very tricky in terms of utility.


    It was not enough. He needed to be stronger faster. If he was a grade two Crestmaster then even that ambush wouldn''t leave a scratch on him.


    He could have shrugged them off and captured Keld easily.


    The worst humiliation he suffered today was not even that. The most annoying thing was that he was not able to find other clues through this encounter with Keld.


    He was so focused on his face that he didn''t even see what he was wearing or who he was talking with. These details might seem trivial at first nce but they were anything but.


    He just remembered that he had this disgusting smile, like he was trying very hard to kiss someone''s ass. Perhaps, he was trying to suck up to a superior?


    Someone even more important to the True Saint''s Folk? A higher-up of some kind?


    The possibilities were endless if he just kept specting and being negative.


    On the bright side, he finally found one of them, one of the evil bastards responsible for the Wakefield massacre.


    So, he found him once, whose to say he won''t find him again? Voryhrm was big but Ayemon will soon know about this and with his resources and reach Keld won''t be able to hide for long.


    Aldrich upgraded his intelligence attribute consuming sixteen green orbs which is almost the same as buying a regr potion. This ended up unlocking the [Psychic Lash] skill.


    Which was a very useful and powerful skill, he could use it even if his limbs were cut off.


    Next he went on a hunting spree and didn''t stop until he waspletely exhausted. He killed husks and Skinned dogs to his heart''s content.


    By the time he was done he notice that he was almost into a new ward that he didn''t go into yet. Out of curiosity he decided to go in and kill a few more husks too.


    The streets here were unexpectedly silent, which reminded him of when he first got to Voros. Aldrich continued treading forward and looking for husks or anything interesting.


    But he was disappointed, this ce was devoid of anything. The cold winds were blowing and the light of the strange candles cast a flickering image as if the shadows were moving and racing one another.


    Aldrich turned around a corner and suddenly found a teddy bear sitting in the center of the street. His feet came to a stop.


    ''What the¡ª''


    Aldrich decisively backed down and decided to retreat for now. However he found himself looking at the same teddy bear. He just came through here and obviously didn''t see that thing.


    But Aldrich didn''t like being yed around with, he may retreat but he was not a coward. He walked over and picked it up, flipped it upside down but it just looked like a normal toy.


    He breathed out and put it back down. Suddenly his eyes rolled back and everything went dark.


    Aldrich woke up gasping under the seal of Tindalor.


    ****


    The pyromancer who fought with Aldrich and Cole was kneeling down and sweating heavily.


    He had expected the boss and leader of the Night Scales to be very angry with him over what happened today, but he didn''t expect the extent of his anger to reach this degree.


    The leader of the Night Scales gang was a notorious criminal, his deeds always shook the hearts of the people. There was no crime in Voryhrm that did not have at least some connection with him.


    He was wanted by the government for so long and yet he remains a free man even today.


    What shook the heart of the pyromancer was not the uing torture and punishment that surely awaited him.


    No, what really scared him was that his own boss, the one currently shouting profanities at him, he was scared and panic stricken even more so than him.


    And he knew the reason, at least superficially. It was because of the two cloaked strangers standing behind the boss.


    They did not say anything at all throughout his exnation but it was clear that the boss would slow down from time to time to gauge their reactions.


    "I-I would like to apologize for this sight¡­ my dumb subordinates are ipetent and caused this unpleasant scene¡­"


    The boss was actually apologizing with his head lowered.


    The two figures ignored him, they walked past him and one of them kneeled by the ash that was the result of the battle.


    "You.."


    A woman''s voice spoke and she pointed at the pyromancer.


    "Tell us everything about the two Crestmasters who did this. We need to find out who did this."

 Chapter 220 Yasbel

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    ****


    Aldrich didn''t know what happened or how he died this time. It was his first death since bing a Crestmaster.


    He could not even imagine what happened, he simply died suddenly, quickly and without any struggle. He just died.


    He never felt like this in some time, the feeling if beingpletely helpless, unable to even defend himself. But Aldrich wasn''tpletely bothered by it.


    He wasn''t even sacred of that teddy bear. He encountered opponents who made short work of him before he became a Crestmaster.


    He was going to visit that teddy bear after he advanced again and see how it goes.


    It was a crude way of thinking but he was fully convinced, strong enemy? Just get stronger than them!


    In the real world, morning hade and Aldrich was just finished with breakfast. Which honestly felt like lunch since he woke upte and devoured an entire full imperial breakfast.


    He wanted to go and tell Ayemon about Keld and what happened with the Night Scales as soon as possible but it looked like he would have to wait.


    He had an appointment with city hall and then a meeting with Yasbel, this time he definitely had to get some information.


    If not then he might have to use Echo, the information guild rmended by Ayemon to find out exactly what is going with her.


    ****


    This time Yasbel brought several potential targets to his attention, unfortunately they weren''t as convenient as Dane''s coffee house.


    But that was not as big of a deal, Aldrich had a massive amount of wealth at his disposal currently, unlike how he was in the past.


    So it was obvious that these hinderances were not financially rted.


    The key point about the whole operation is that whatever business he took over must be profitable for him to get his money back.


    First he decided to target several manualborers like barbers and cobblers, their case was not hard nor was it too different from Dane''s coffee house.


    They were start-ups who came from elsewhere and set up shop here but they werete on rent or too deep in debt. This investment only cost him ten gold only.


    Aldrich wanted to more but he shouldn''t do too much of the same thing at once so he focused on another kind of business.


    A distillery.


    This one was tricky because this distillery was shut off many years ago after a freak ident killed twenty workers and the owner at once. From then on it was abandoned and no one wanted such an ominous distillery.


    The remaining workers scattered everywhere. It was not hard to see why. Right now the family of the previous owner wanted to sell it for thirty five gold coins.


    Aldrich reckoned that it could be negotiated down to twenty perhaps. The problem was the workers needed to operate the distillery.


    "This is going to be troublesome¡­"


    Aldrich muttered.


    "Troublesome? Why?" Yasbel asked, while looking at him like an idiot.


    "Obviously we would have to go through so much trouble to recruit the workers and managers above them, we don''t have someone like Fizznick to rely on."


    Yasbel rolled her eyes, "and you said you weren''t a country bumpkin anymore¡­ tsk, tsk."


    "¡­ get on with it. Please enlighten me, I''m not as good as you." Aldrich replied with a warm chuckle.


    Yasbel looked repulsed and shivered, "that''s not like you¡­"


    "What do you mean? I obviously acknowledge I am not as experienced as you when ites to these things." Aldrich nodded.


    "Which reminds me, that is in fact the reason I hired you to begin with. Hey do you remember when I hired you and gave you a lifeline? Man, time just passes so fast."


    Aldrichmented.


    Yasbel''s face twisted like she just swallowed a fly, "ehem! What was I saying? Ah, yes. Actually you don''t have to trouble yourself with any of that."


    "These days you can just hire aw firm to take care of the hard work in your stead. You just provide the money and the rest pretty much takes care of itself."


    "Oh, I didn''t think of that." Aldrich was impressed, Yasbel was indeed capable in her field.<sub> </sub>


    "The onlyplication we face is the old rumors about the distillery, most people simply wouldn''t want to work in such a ce¡­" Yasbel replied, curling her lips in deep thought.


    "Hmm, why are you concerned so much? We can invite a priest to purify the ce, in fact one of my friends is a legitimate cleric, he will do the job. Even if there really was something wrong he can deal with it."


    "That''s hood but superstition is not so easily dispelled, Aldrich. People will still be hesitant."


    "Then we''ll send a cheque to our friends in the press and have them write something nice about it along with the requirement advertisement."


    Aldrich pondered a bit more on this, "you know what? We can also raise the wage a copper or two for them. They wille in begging for work, trust me."


    "B-but wouldn''t we lose money like that? I think that''s going a tad too far." Yasbel advised.


    "It''s as you said, it''s difficult to dispel deeply rooted beliefs. We will lose only a fraction of profits anyway. If the recruitments fails we will lose our investment entirely."


    Aldrich didn''t care about losing some pocket change for now, his goal was profits in the long run and not now.


    But he noticed a curious fact, Yasbel should know this better than him yet when it came to losing even a little bit of money she became extremely reluctant.


    It would have made sense if it were someone else, but for the business-savvy Yasbel it was a critical slip-up.


    It was like a hair on a grilled tomahawk steak te.


    Aldrich watched as Yasbel bored a carriage and left, then he walked into a corner and came back covered in a long white cloak.


    This was the [cloak of shadow] which he once loaned to Cole when he infiltrated the bandits camp and gave them a special ''seasoning''.


    It had the power to reduce his presence, and make people around less likely to notice him or what he was doing. But obviously if bumped into someone that person would react and notice him.


    This was an incredibly useful magic item that he wasn''t using nearly enough.


    Aldrich followed Yasbel but the more he followed her the more he was bewildered. He noticed that she dropped off the private carriage and took a public one and then walked quite a while.


    This ce was not a good neighborhood, it was still better than Lunsken but still. Beggars and tramps everywhere, Punks and thugs walking around with crude swords and knives.


    This was not the kind of ce he expected her to live in¡­


    Yasbel walked naturally and was about to enter one of the decapitated buildings when Aldrich notice one of the nearby drunkards followed her and was about to smack her ass.


    Aldrich rushed in. He may have his problems with Yasbel but at the end of the day she was one of his people and he wouldn''t allow this kind of behavior to pass.


    But before he could reach them, Yasbel suddenly turned around and swung her fancy purse smacking the punk in the face and putting him down.


    "Fucking bastard," Yasbel roared at the fallen man and stomped on his face, spilling blood, "do you know how much these clthes cost? Huh? Answer me dickhead!"


    Stomp. Stomp. Stomp!


    Aldrich:¡­.


    Aldrich stopped in his tracks and flinched, that was not much a high-heel she was using but it was still sharp it drew blood.


    And what the fuck did she have in her purse? A fucking brick?


    "No¡­ f-forgive, I will give you all the money I have¡­ please let me go."


    Stomp! Stomp!


    "These clothes are still new and you had the gall to try and touch me?! I get that you''re drunk but this here is more expensive than your whole fucking existence! Now get the fuck out of here!"


    The poor fe crawled away. Yasbel red at him all the way like she wanted nothing more than to kill him. After the he left she breathed a sigh of relief.


    Aldrich nodded in understanding, she must have been putting on a strong front.


    Aldrich closed the distance between them and heard her muttering.


    "Ooh, that was really goooood! I can feel the stress leaving me. If only there were a few more assholes here¡­"


    Never mind.


    Aldrich retreated and decided that he saw enough. He was sure that Yasbel was not short on money, she could easily live in a much better ce just based on her sry from the bank.


    Not to mention her cut from Dane''s coffee house for thest two months. It was hard to tell if this was just a part of her personality or something else.


    It looks like he had to make that trip to Echo after all.

 Chapter 221 Don’t Unlock Until I Change This Title

    Please check out my new book, Reborn as a god with the strongest system.


    It''s currently participating in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    ****<sub> </sub>


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 222 Don’t Unlock Until I Change This Title

    The real chapter will be published at ater time.


    chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real


    Please check out my new book, Reborn as a god with the strongest system.


    It''s currently participating in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 223 Don’t Unlock Until I Change The Title!

    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.


    Please check out my new book, Reborn as a god with the strongest system.


    It''s currently participating in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 224 Dont Unlock! My New Book Is In A Competition Help Out!

    Please check out my new book, Reborn as a god with the strongest system.


    It''s currently participating in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 225 Don’t Unlock! Find My New Book

    Find my new book, Reborn as a god : the strongest system.


    It''s in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.<sub> </sub>


    ****


    not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter not a real chapter Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited don''t read has to be edited don''t read has to be edited don''t read has Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has to be edited Has to be edited don''t read has 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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 226 Don’t Unlock, Find My New Book

    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    Find my new book, Reborn as a god : the strongest system.


    ? It''s in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 227 Don’t Unlock! Find My New Book.

    Find my new book, Reborn as a god : the strongest system.


    It''s in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 228 Don’t Unlock!

    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    Find my new book, Reborn as a god : the strongest system.


    It''s in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 229 Don’t Unlock!

    ? Find my new book, Reborn as a god : the strongest system.


    It''s in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.

 Chapter 230 Don’t Unlock!!!

    No new chapters for a while Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you paid for the chapter you won''t have to pay again. When the chapter gets edited it will change.


    Find my new book, Reborn as a god : the strongest system.


    It''s in the WPC so for that I want you all to vote for it every day to help me win! Please check it out. Sorry for the shameless plug-in.


    The real chapter will be publishedter.<sub> </sub>


    ****


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    asionally missing content, please report errors in time.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


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