The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich didn't go there immediately after they stopped talking but waited for a few minutes before he approached them.

If he went right after they stopped talking they might suspect him of overhearing them.

He told the others in the shop that he was going to ask them a question so he had to do that to prevent them from finding any discrepancies.

"Oh, Sam, Liam, I came over to ask if we should get any small shields too. A sword is good but a shield could be very good for beginners."

Sam and Liam turned to him and their faces changed, they were back to being all smiles and reassuring gestures.

"Oh, I haven't thought of that. You know what that sounds good but we're out of coin for now. The quest is really simple so we're already over-prepared."

"Oh, okay." Aldrich turned around to get back in.

"Wait."

Aldrich turned around looking confused.

Liam asked, "Aldrich, are you… do you have experience in combat? It seems you have some?"

"Uh, yeah, I do. I was trained just a little bit. Don't worry about me being a burden, I'm not going to slow us down."

"Oh, that's great. It's good to have a capable teammate, go back in and chose the sword that suits you best."

Aldrich turned around and his smile died as he walked away. Naturally he purposefully revealed that, it wasn't bad to reveal some strength so as to not be considered weak.

Besides from the tidbits he hear from that conversation no matter how shady Sam and Liam were it seemed like they shared the same goal, to complete the quest.

Aldrich didn't care about anything else. But he was going to do his research tonight, it was always good to have a better grasp of the big picture.

"Guys, I think it's a good idea to take moss lanterns since we will have to investigate the inside of the well."

Aldrich decided to candidly give advice to Kip and Kate, after all he did not want anything bad to happen to them.

Even if they didn't want to listen he himself was going to prepare for all eventualities.

"Oh, how did we not think of that?" Kip wondered.

"Jeez, Aldrich it feels like you're one of the guides." Praised Kate.

"Hey, it's not a bad idea to keep our wits about us out there."

****

Aldrich sighed as he laid down on the bed, he had hopped that the first quest at least would be easy and straightforward but things were not that easy in life.

In Voros, the nightmare town.

Aldrich had no intention to jump over rooftops again, today was for reading. He tried jumping on the rooftops again but as soon as he left the safe zone he was skewered by dozens of arrows.

"I remember the absolute confusion I felt when I opened my eyes in this unfamiliar place. It was followed by the three great questions, who am I? Where am I? What do I do?"

Aldrich frowned in doubt, it seems like the author was completely clueless, even of his own identity.

"I wandered around and due to my bad luck I encountered my first monster, a Scargling. That was my first death, the next thing I knew I was back to life in another unfamiliar place, the Pure chapel.

I found myself surrounded by strangers, some were laughing others were trying to explain but I was a stranger to myself, and the feeling of death was utterly disgusting.

Soon later I was told that I was a Lost One, the proof? All Lost Ones resurrect in the Pure chapel upon the first death. This was my home and these were my people."

,m Aldrich closed the book with a thud, indeed there were some stark differences between him and the old Lost Ones.

First, the author's first memory was of finding himself in the nightmare town. There was no mention of his past before that, where did he come from?

He did not mention passing through a gate or a door as Aldrich expected. He thought that all the Lost Ones came here like he did through that blue gate. This was one of the main reasons he was intent on learning about them.

Second of all, there was no mention of the Lost Ones going back to their original worlds, he was able to go back and forth and even bring things with him.

The way he said that this was his new home, it definitely indicated that he couldn't go back and he had no memory of who he was at all. That was strange.

No, he was the strange one, the other Lost Ones were all the same as the author, he was the anomaly.

Third, the author mention before that the obsidian stone slab was the only way to use essence orbs to view and increase attributes. That was not the case with Aldrich.

He could do it on his own as long as he focused for a minute, he didn't need any help.

'What am I?'

Aldrich had begun to believe that he really was a Lost One, that he was part of something, a bigger whole. But it seemed that might not be entirely true.

No, he still didn't get any conformation on anything, it was better to reserve judgment until he finished the whole journal and exploring the Fractured chapel.

Aldrich returned to the real world and went over the information he gathered on the internal workings of the guild. It would seem that he managed to understand Sam and Liam's motives.

The guild had a hierarchy systems and it clearly divided ordinary people and Crestmasters.

Sam and Liam were Assistance and they were rank one at that. The lowest of the low, the hight the level the more likely they were to be hired by better Crestmaster parties.

So under these circumstances the guild made a clear promotion line, if the Assistance of level one completed a certain amount of quests then they would be promoted and get an increase in rank.