Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

"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 place 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 successful 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, their combat 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 to comprehend 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 a common 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 ask later.

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 that complicated. 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."

"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 buried later 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."

"Are there no other options for us? This just doesn't sit well with me." Aldrich felt that Crestmasters should have more freedom.

"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 scholarship 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 collateral. Civilians can't resist Crestmasters in the slightest."

Aldrich nodded heavily. Even Crestmasters have to abide by the laws 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."