Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

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 blame 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 fault laid with the lords of the region, they were lazy 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 clarity, 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, and lately 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.

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 classes.

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 classes were about wondrous items and charms and the second class was about various plants and fruits.

Apothecaries, surgeon barbers and especially alchemy workshops had great demand for them and were regular customers for adventurers.

As one would expect, both classes 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 class, apparently not many people liked learning about plants. Aldrich had to agree, learning about plants 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 become 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 become an adventurer this information was still important.

But he could only complain 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 week later Aldrich had accomplished one of his objectives in the nightmare realm. Had had successfully 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 the last living husk in the area, the armored husk.