Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich picked himself up and along with Cole they slowly retreated. He noticed that many of the prisoners have already escaped during the commotion.

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 collapse.

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 place 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.

"Relax we won't get jumped here, we're in the clear." Aldrich comforted.

"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 he committed 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 the last 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, later on they went to different districts and later 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 accumulate a fair bit on this day.

Name: Aldrich

Age: 15.5

Strength: 8+

Agility: 8+

Endurance: 7+

Vitality: 8+

Intelligence: 7+

Spirit (black): 7+

Green essence orbs: 40

Red essence orbs: 73

Ether : 9

Abilities: Eyes of Insight LV.2

Skills: 1) Light step LV.2

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 glance 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 speculating 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 regular 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 was completely 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 place 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—'

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 played 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 upcoming 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 explanation 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 incompetent 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."