The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich laughed out loud for a moment, "sure let's do it."

"No hesitation," Ayemon mused, "you're awfully confident."

"That's because I am, I've got be capable of at least that much right?"

"Good, then I will show you the quests that you will 'randomly' get five days later, how's that?"

"Sounds good to me."

"You'd better prepare party members early for the exam."

"Already did, well for the most part."

"I see your adapting quickly, good. But don't forget what happened on your first day of training with Gazeff, be prepared for anything."

Aldrich grimaced as he recalled the devastation of that battle in an area where you wouldn't normally encounter grade one monsters but that was just a mortal classification reality can be different.

Even a powerful party like that could be driven to exhaustion which eventually lead to the death of three Crestmasters.

However Aldrich had no intention to be paralyzed by fear, he knew of his own power and he had enough confidence to drive himself forward regardless of his apprehensions.

Aldrich returned back to his apartment and changed for his training with Gazeff. He met up with him in the usual place where Aldrich showcased his progress and he managed to shock Gazeff.

Unfortunately by the end of the day Gazeff reminded him of this week's payment and Aldrich realized that he did not bring with him any of the coins from last time and he was already out of money.

Aldrich was going to return to the nightmare town tonight so he was definitely going to get the fat coin pouch. Well at least some of the coins.

****

Aldrich woke up under the seal of Tindalor and stretched his new body although he really didn't need to, it was in top condition.

Aldrich picked one of the half-plate armor sets in the store and chose the black long sword that he couldn't use before due to the weight.

This time around there was no problem. The black sword had the likeness of a four-winged white tiger engraved on the hilt. Aldrich now knew this was the scared beast of the three world and the personal pet of the Lord of Clairvoyant Moon.

Aldrich made his way to the second floor to pick up the rest of his spoils, but when he reached there the Proof of Devotion was gone, it had seemingly vanished.

Aldrich picked up the coin pouch and frowned, he scanned the surroundings but it was nowhere to be seen. That was weird.

He had hopped to study it but unfortunately he passed out for too long and he couldn't be sure of what happened. Add another question to the pile, really at this point Aldrich wasn't annoyed.

He just had to go to the divine city that was all.

Aldrich looked at the staircase of the third floor, there he was going to get the first step to leave this accursed place. But he wasn't going now.

He needed to collect some essence orbs to transport the coins back, and since gold was heavier than silver he needed more orbs.

Aldrich stored the coin pouch in the study room where by pure curiosity he picked up one of the book lying around and stared intently on the title for a good minute.

"The… mana… power… amplifier theory?"

Aldrich had obtained some knowledge of the language used by the people in this world, although he wasn't that good at it at least he wasn't completely clueless anymore.

He put the book away and proceeded to go outside. Since he cleared out this area he had to venture out, this was the first time he was going to leave this area.

On the way Aldrich once again found the destroyed stone platform that he once passed by and he stopped. He went to observe it and noticed that the signes and marks had long since faded.

This was a teleportation platform. In the past people used it to travel anywhere in this city within minutes, some bigger ones even worked across the continent.

The two other worlds of this region ruled by Clairvoyant moon was connected to this one through this system. There were even some huge teleportation gates used to mass teleport armies, traders and tourists across worlds.

Aldrich sighed and hopped that he might somehow make use of this someday. This sort of thing can absolutely change the world.

The husks outside of the base zone were as loud as ever and that annoyed Aldrich a little. Ever since that roar these guys have been so noisy.

As he was strolling the ruined streets of the nightmare town he heard a distinct crash. He looked at the source of the noise and saw an axe head jutting out of one of the doors, which made him stop and return.

Aldrich was not alarmed he had seen something like this before, it wasn't a big deal. He waited for the husk to completely break out and then three others followed behind the first one.

Aldrich didn't wait any longer he charged at them and used the swinging leaves stance for a broader attack range.

The sword cleaved two husks like a hot knife through butter painting the street with their guts.

That… was too much.

Aldrich had to stop and look at the sword, no it wasn't just the sword he too had become a monster at least to these husks.

One of the husks shot at him with an arrow which Aldrich easily dodged and then he kicked the husk slamming it into the wall and making a new door to that house.

Aldrich then looked the last remaining husk and just decapitated it with ease. Then he checked on the husk he kicked into the house.

It was still alive if not barely, it had broken bones everywhere but struggled to stand back up.

His prize was eight essence orbs, not bad. Aldrich then turned his attention on the next house.

He broke in from the front and proceeded to massacre the nine husks there. No matter what they did they couldn't even injure Aldrich he was like a wolf in chicken pen. Here he got eighteen orbs and a total of twenty six.

It happened when Aldrich was gearing up to go to the next house. He heard a roar.

It was THAT roar but much louder this time as if it was right besides him but this time he didn't bleed out, he too has become stronger.

But as time won it was becoming increasingly unbearable, suddenly he heard a crash from the side and saw that some husks broke out from a nearby house.

'The second time in one day?'

Suddenly he heard a second and third crashes, he looked around saw the fourth, the seventh the—

'No, way…'

The roar stopped, but Aldrich wasn't paying attention anymore he was observing hundreds of husks in this street alone breaking out all at once and from the noise he could tell it wasn't happening just here.

The husks stopped advancing after they broke out they were simply gazing at the moon in a trance.

Aldrich began backing away from whence he came. He was strong he could even take out ten on his own without breaking a sweat now but this wasn't ten, this was hundreds.

The husks suddenly started roaring madly and Aldrich suddenly felt stupid because he felt that there was a certain rhythm to their roaring like an unconventional song.

Then the husks started changing, their limbs grew eerily long, their feet and hands grew especially bigger. They grew to about 2.3 meters some grew more and others a little less.

Grey-blue hair sprouted from everywhere on their bodies and it was very thick in a matter of minutes.

It was especially long where it grew from their necks like strands of wheat and that hair bent to cover their faces. Their mouth's developed longer fangs and their lips stretched to take over most of their faces.

Their nails grew into claws and a beastly tail emerged from their backsides.

Aldrich watched as he was running back to the base and after the transformation was completed he looked above their heads: Malformed Husk.

Suddenly one of them lunged at him bearing huge claws and Aldrich dodged and slashed as he side-stepped, his sword cut off the husk's hand.

Aldrich calmed down, it became much faster and stronger than before but he wasn't at a disadvantage either. He used the Grass Cutter stances to disrupt the monster's movement.

However he was surprised when it jumped high in the air landing behind him and kicking him in the back sending Aldrich back.

He regained his balance quickly and used a feint to mislead the creature to his true attack by luring it to farther than its friends in the area. Here he deflected an piercing attack and stabbed it through the chest.

He was surprised when he got six orbs from this one husk. However he took too long and he was already surrounded by more than fifty malformed husks.