Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

"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 plan." 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 speculation."

"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 was coming true soon, with things going this fast he will become 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 more comfortable.

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 place 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 plan has been going smoothly, right now only four houses remained.

The town was as noisy as it had been lately but when Aldrich heard a violent cracking sound he knew this wasn't part of the regular 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 hit landed 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 the last remaining part of the blocking wooden boards. This last 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 came later on his plan but the circumstances didn't allow him to simply follow the plan.

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.

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 slash.

After the successful hit he retreated and kept a close eye on the last spearman, this husk didn't hesitate in launching 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.

Aldrich moved to the next floor where he came to blows with a swordsman, the battle lasted long because Aldrich wanted to improve himself further but he noticed that there wasn't much that he could learn from this swordsman.

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 (black): 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 bit compared 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 become 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 delayed 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 acceptable 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 was comparable to being shot by multiple arrows at once.