Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich breathed in deeply and coughed on the dust that dominated his entire apartment, he was a little too excited and expected a different welcome. Oh, well.

He had to hire a maid to clean it regularly even when he's not here, this level of filth was unacceptable.

He started cleaning on his own and then heated up some water for a relaxing long bath. Then he went out for lunch outside since he didn't have any groceries to cook anything today.

They all split up and went their own ways, Cole had to take the carriage since his family had an inn and could keep it there. The Geko lizards had to be fed and taken care of too, he was the only one who could do this.

They agreed to meet again tomorrow at Dane's coffee house and then go to the guild together. After that they should distribute the money and go do their own thing.

After all, since the last quest turned into a grade one quest, there will be some things to resolve and payment for completing the quest.

Aldrich got a fresh hair cut, new shoes, new clothes for all occasions and many groceries, in the past he had a matching style with the most people but now his style has become a notch higher than those around him.

He thought that he should soon order some custom suits, after all he wasn't just a business owner he was also a Crestmaster.

Back home, night fell and he prepared a meal of rice, mashed potatoes and roasted Hog rabbits. These rabbits were grade zero beasts not animals.

In the nightmare realm Aldrich was able to read four pages of the journal before being forced to stop. This made it clear that the stronger he was the more he could know, literally.

Finally the information had gotten extremely juicy and helpful especially regarding the expeditions the Lost Ones went on and a map that covered most of Voros, the nigh town he was currently stuck in.

He discovered that he was unlucky and landed in one of the wards that the Lost Ones never got to. Most of Voros was now devoid of even monsters because of the Lost Ones.

In the long amount of time that they spent here they cleared up, the Cemetery which was infested by all kinds of undead, they vanquished bone eaters in the old marketplace, they defeated wooden abominations in the woods.

They scoured the fallen magic academy, they burned the old library, they took down the terrifying corrupted priests of the Clairvoyant Moon church.

Eventually they managed to find their way to the Overseer's mansion, only it was packed with monsters, and then they laid siege to it. And failed.

And then the last twenty attempted to complete the job one last time. The result was unknown since the author of the journal was one of them.

This was only scratching the surface of what he learned, he was going to digest the rest slowly and understand the layout of the Overseer's mansion.

The next day Aldrich got off the private carriage in front of Ayemon's mansion but the whole place was a mess. Many other carriages were going and coming taking and loading things out.

Many of them were carrying boxes of boutiques of flowers and perfumes others carried wine racks and drinks, some were guiding in a row of mountain goats and many others things that had Aldrich's head spinning.

He gawked at them for a while before remembering what he was here for and going in.

The guards recognized him and saluted to which he nodded.

Inside the mansion was even more of a mess with many servants and workers going about their business in semi-orderly fashion.

"You're back."

Aldrich was startled, he turned around and found Norge the head butler of the mansion standing behind him. He did not even feel him approaching.

"Yeah, I got back yesterday so I had to put some annoying things back in order."

"Looks like many things happened to you, huh." Norge commented looking as calm and cold as ever. He must've noticed that Aldrich was a Crestmaster now even though Aldrich suppressed his energy to the limit.

"You know what they say, if it goes as planned then it's not an adventure, right?"

Come to think of it, Norge was also there that day when he first met all of them and escaped the slaver goblins with Tarzin.

"True, true. I will inform master Ayemon of your safe arrival at once." Norge said professionally but then paused as if he got an idea. "You know what why don't you surprise him? He's in the garden library. Give this to him while you're at it."

Aldrich took a letter envelope and sighed, why did people want him to deliver news to Ayemon so much? He read what was on the envelope.

'Hm? The city council?'

The garden library was one of the rooms to the back of the mansion and it was wide and cozy usually, but even here it was full of commotion.

"I told you to get the Tabrisian mix, it's absolutely a must."

He heard Ayemon's voice before he saw the man himself, he was instructing a man who didn't look to be a worker in the mansion.

"Hello." Aldrich popped in.

"Eh?" Ayemon looked taken back for a moment and then talked to the man, "go on now, don't come back without the Tabrisian mix."

"Why, if it isn't our little adventurer? Back in one piece? I guess that's another bet I won." Ayemon shook his hand firmly and sat down on a reclining chair.

Aldrich followed suit, "so, what's this all about?"

"Oh, this? It's nothing big, I'm hosting a ball for some friends. It's always a pain in the ass." Ayemon answered like he usually does when he asked about these things, bored, uninterested.

"Here, Norge told me to give you this."