Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

"Ooh, a rare symbol, not bad." Praised Ayemon while inspecting the symbol.

"Yeah, I was surprised too." Aldrich smugly said, feeling proud.

"Norge! Come on in her check this out!" Ayemon yelled.

"Do you want me to call him? He's on the other side of the—" Aldrich was about to say when he suddenly turned around to see Norge behind him, standing silently.

"Good, good potential." Norge nodded normally as if he didn't suddenly appear out of thin air. In fact Aldrich was sure that the door wasn't opened.

"Stop that, are you trying to show-off?" Ayemon asked, looking exasperated. "Aldrich don't let him scare you, contrary to his appearance he has a childish personality."

"Childish personality?" Aldrich asked looking unconvinced, "I don't think so?"

"Don't be fooled by appearances, back in the day when I first met him, he was going around calling himself the king of assassins and what not—"

"Ayemon!" Norge suddenly interrupted.

"Ooh, what's this? You broke character," Ayemon whistled provocatively.

"I… I meant, sir. You got a letter from the city council it would be wise to send a reply as soon as possible." Norge said unconvincingly.

"Pffft!" Aldrich couldn't hold it in. He began to understand what Ayemon meant. And he felt a little curious about what kind of life they lived before he met them.

"A letter from the city council? Is that the best you could think of?" Ayemon sneered, "but you're not the man of the hour now so let's focus on Aldrich for now."

Aldrich started telling them about his adventure starting with the bandits quest and he didn't hold back, describing everything he remembered.

"Tsk, tsk, how great is it that Beastmen were treating humans as inferior beings? This is fucking hilarious!" Ayemon slapped his knee.

"We took good care of them so hopefully they will learn not to make a mess in Vorian. It makes me angry to see what they did to all those people and especially the impregnated women."

Aldrich could only hope that the death of these three will have a good impact on the situation in Vorian.

"It is something, at least." Norge looked stoic as usual but Aldrich could hear the anger in his voice.

After all, all demi-humans were once human slaves by default. Although they are still, some of them in the territory of the Dominion developed… overambitious ideas.

"That's not all, I also got this," Aldrich handed Ayemon a wrinkled piece of paper with messy drawings and writing that he did not recognize.

"It didn't look very valuable but I found it in the Ravenfolk's nest. So I thought you might be able to see something in it."

Indeed while searching the nest for valuables they didn't find much but this paper and everyone else thought it was gibberish so Aldrich ended up taking it.

He didn't think much of it either but he took it anyway since it looked a little interesting.

"Hmm, it says 'Midnight tree' and this here is a crude map, I guess?" Ayemon told him after staring at it for a few minutes.

"Oh, so they were actually searching in the Zurn woods for this Midnight tree? What is it?" He asked with interest, it sounded like the beginning of a new adventure.

"No idea," Ayemon shrugged, "I can't decipher the so-called map either, its not clear at all. Maybe if I was there myself I could figure it out."

"Oh, well, whatever. It was worth a shot." Aldrich wasn't too hung up on the tree, since it seemed like a hassle for now.

"Go on, tell us what happened next." Ayemon urged and Aldrich obeyed.

This was an important part, Aldrich told them about what happened on the ancient land bridge without hiding anything.

He did get an explanation from the blind priestess but he trusted Ayemon more obviously, so he wanted to hear what he had to say about that encounter.

It was a terrifying incident to Aldrich, one that he found difficult to not think about. That banshee was so powerful and it even seemed like she knew Aldrich better than he knew himself.

Besides if Ayemon came to the same conclusion as the blind priestess then that will increase Aldrich's trust of her.

"Hmm, I believe I got the gist of it." Ayemon tapped his fingers on the table and then spoke, "before I answer let me ask you, Aldrich, what do you know about the Spirit?"

"The Spirit? It's very important for Crestmasters and how strong your spirit is determines how talented you are, and you affinity with the Immatirum."

"Not a bad answer. Spirit is the most important for Crestmasters. But what determines talent is how fast a spirit can grow. However there is another factor concerning the spirit, it's quality."

"Quality?" Aldrich tasted the word.

"Yes, the amount of Ether that you have is related to the quality of your spirit, it also affects how many Wondrous items you can attune at once."

Aldrich's eyes sharpened, the amount of Ether and wondrous items determined how powerful a Crestmaster was.

For example, the party Aldrich and Gazeff happened to stumble on after their first day of training. They were at their weakest because they exhausted most of their Ether, one of them was completely out of the fight.

If they had more Ether they could have fought more, they could have used more skills, they could have had more wondrous items.

It was absolutely vital to a Crestmaster to have more Ether, the more the better. Even in a fight with an equally skilled opponent with more Ether q battle of attrition could still save your life.

"Now, let me ask you. What is the most revered characteristic of our Emperor?" Ayemon suddenly asked out of nowhere.

"The Emperor? Well, if I had to choose then it would be, that he was chosen by god, a divine man." Aldrich answered proudly, brimming with loyalty and faith.

"No. It's not a bad answer, it's both, true and politically correct but think deeper, don't play around." Ayemon wasn't impressed by the answer apparently.

"Well, if I had to say then, it's that the Emperor has all five crests." Aldrich said seriously.

The Emperors of the Acladon Empire did not go through the ceremony for fun, nor was just to prove their divine right under Altunan. But there was another reason.

After the ceremony, the Emperors would always be bestowed all five crests. No matter what they originally had, they would get all the rest.

That was not all, they also had their original powers enhanced. They ceremony helped them ignite more symbols, while the increase in power was not always constant it was different from person to person.

This is the one of the main reasons why the Empire dominates the world from the past to the present.

"Exactly, now you must know that there are talented people who awake more than one crest, dual crests and even the legendary triple crests. These people enjoy not just a stronger spirit but also a spirit with a greater quality."

"Wow, they didn't teach us that in the academy." Aldrich was impressed. He couldn't even imagine what having multiple crests would look like.

Every crest was bound to one path, once you ignite a symbol belonging to a certain class then all the symbols that follow will be of that class.

But what if you had another crest? Then that restriction could be lifted, if only a little bit. Imagine if Aldrich awakened a new crest for the Cleric class? Then he could heal himself and fight at once.

Not only that a Cleric was capable of boosting his allies and weakening his foes. The addition of an extra crest was no small matter but it was an extremely rare occurrence.

Of course, a brand new crest was unheard of compared to that.

"Now, those from the five companions families are blessed, they have at least one person of dual crests in every generation. That is indicative of their status and power."

"So, the talent can be passed down through bloodlines?" Aldrich asked because he thought that wasn't true.

"No, well, no and yes. If Crestmasters bloodlines can be passed on for a long time, at least a thousand years. Then the chances of Crestmasters being born in that line increases and with the blessings of the five families it is not strange that they are a step above others."

"So, what does all this have to do with me? That I have the blood of the five families?" Aldrich asked. Could it be that he was actually destined for greatness?

"Stop joking. I mean, that you have a spirit with a greater quality than normal. That is also a natural thing, it happens every once in a while. Also don't joke around about the bloodlines of the five families, it's a stupid thing to do."

Aldrich came to an understanding, once again he was reminded of something he didn't pay attention to in the attributes panel.

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