Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

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 moss lamp and started reviewing the notes he took during the dungeon class today.

That's when he remembered those meditation incense that he got. That completely 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 class 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 fireplace to light it up and inhaled deeply.

It was that simple, just like lighting up a tobacco 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 to come 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 black-red light burned.

His eyes flew open everything returned back to normal. Aldrich looked at the the incense and found that it had burned off completely 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 class 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 class that ended with him writing a ton of notes and he even asked the professor some questions that he had about last class.

The professor was kind and he answered all of his questions patiently.

The students didn't talk to each other much during the class and even after, he also took notice of some students that seemed much younger than him in the class. Curious.

By the end of the class he made eye contact with Sydney whom he noticed glaring at him throughout the class 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 classroom, it was the guy that helped him to get his meditation incense yesterday.

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 class, 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 become 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 become 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 become a Crestmaster.

Talent was the deciding factor in almost everything related to Crestmasters.

Back in the day before Aldrich awakened his gift he was constantly bothered by his own lack of talent. That and quite impatiant to boot.

There was even a time when he thought that Krynt was hiding the secret of becoming a Crestmaster from him and everyone in the village.

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 become Crestmasters. However they did not have an equal chance of becoming 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 become 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 accomplishments 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 a laugh 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 flaws, he could not possibly bother Ayemon about every little thing could he?

Now he understood what Brozas, the chief guard of the apartment complex 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.