The Great Crestmaster

"Alright, That was good rest. I feel much better. Tarzin let's make haste."

Tarzin looked at him in disbelief. "You're joking right?"

"Surely not." Aldrich answered flatly.

"You barely closed your eyes and now you're fine?"

Aldrich remembered that time flows differently in the real world than the nightmare realm. Since it was not sleep he was actually still tired. He was just excited for a moment.

"Hahhaha I just thought it might be nice to lighten the mood. Look at your face." Aldrich laughed awkwardly.

"Oh, may the lord have mercy on your sense of humor! This is not the time. I'm off to sleep for an hour at the least. In the meantime you can do whatever it is that humans do instead of sleeping. I swear humans don't know how to relax for a moment, god~."

Aldrich was exhausted himself so he didn't protest much. He closed his eyes and went into a peaceful sleep.

Aldrich woke up due to the sun burning his face. He rubbed his unfocused eyes lazily and then he remembered where he was.

He looked around and found Tarzin curled up on himself under a tree's shade. "Wake up! Tarzin! It's almost noone. Get up!"

Tarzin shot up into air. He hurriedly gathered his bag and they were on their way, fast. It was very lucky that they were not attacked and eaten by some beast while asleep.

The forest and woods that were not close to villages or towns were infested with endless numbers of beasts and monsters. Anything could happen in such a place.

Tarzin and Aldrich made good time. They did oversleep but they were relatively close to the main road to begin with, Aldrich noticed they were almost out.

Aldrich could see the forest giving in to flat lands slowly. Suddenly he was stopped by Tarzin. "What are yo—"

"Shh, something is coming." Tarzin raised his hand. True to his words, a minute later Aldrich felt the ground beneath him shake a little.

When Aldrich looked at the direction of the noise he saw a massive boar charging with great speed, the great boar stood as tall as he was and it had six tusks protruding outwards.

It was chasing something, a really fast flying colorful thing that he couldn't see properly. It led the boar to ram into a huge rock, the big rock shattered into smaller rocks.

The impact sent rubble and dust to the air. The flying thing flew high up and disappeared. The great boar, enraged, started smashing into random trees, it looked unfazed by the previous accident.

Aldrich and Tarzin were doing their best in pretending not to be here. They both hid behind trees and held their breath. Wishing to wait out the angry boar's episode.

Unfortunately luck had abandoned them and the boar charged right at their hiding spot behind the trees.

'You have the rest of this damn forest why did you have to come here of all places.' Aldrich cursed inwardly.

Aldrich and Tarzin jumped away at the last second. When they landed on the ground Aldrich gave his bag to Tarzin.

"Go! Run away!"

"What? No, I'm not going anywhere without you!"

"Listen I can't protect you and fight, you're going to hinder me and get us both killed. Now go call for help."

"Shit, I'm coming back for you. With help." Tarzin managed to escape in time before the great boar turned around and glared at Aldrich.

In response Aldrich smiled, in what he hoped to be a friendly smile. Unfortunately the great boar chose to ignore his kind intentions and charged at him.

Aldrich didn't dodge yet, he waited until the boar was as close as possible before quickly jumping away. He landed on his back and felt his skin burning with the friction.

The boar took time to turn around before charging again which gave Aldrich the idea to lure it like this and then he would see how much damage he can do in that time. After that he would just repeat until either the boar escaped or it died.

Aldrich picked himself up and looked at the slow boar, it was actually slower even than he expected.

'Wait, that's not right.'

The boar wasn't moving at all, it was shivering. Aldrich looked to the south and opened his eyes wide. There stood a blue-eyed two meter tall white wolf.

How could he not have noticed such a huge creature approaching? At this size it wasn't an ordinary wolf, it was a direwolf. It was deadly, fast and quiet.

The boar tried to run but the direwolf was faster. It moved with great speed and a claw swipe sent the boar flying, before it could stand again it was held down by the direwolf. In two bites, in two massive bites it tore off the the neck of the great boar.

The great boar had thick and tough skin. It would take some effort for normal swords to injure it. Yet the direwolf finished it off in two effortless bites.

Aldrich watched all this and didn't run because he would doom himself if he did. He was no match for it in terms of speed and if he gave this beast his back then it might be his end.

Aldrich hoped that the beast would busy itself with the prey it just hunted. Then he can retreat slowly. But of course it wasn't going to be that easy.

The direwolf didn't seem very keen on enjoying its meal yet, it turned to look at Aldrich. Blue eyes met grey in midair.

Aldrich didn't move not because he was overwhelmed with fear or panic. After all this wolf was a cute pet compared to the nightmare monster, even the armored husk, by his estimation could give it a beating.

Aldrich was thinking about using his essence orbs to upgrade hit strength to three. This is his only viable option. Even if he increased agility to three—which he couldn't— he didn't think that he would be faster than the direwolf.

So overpowering it seemed like the most optimistic solution. Isger's sword was definitely sharp enough he just lacked the strength and skill to use it. The image of Isger wielding this sword masterfully came to his mind once again.

'Ah, I've been having some bad luck with dogs lately...'

Aldrich couldn't help but think that even though he was up against a wolf.

The direwolf lowered its posture, Aldrich threw away the scabbard and held the sword with both hands. At this moment he dearly wished he had one of those shields from the nightmare realm.

However before anything could happen the direwolf flew backwards like it was hit by a war-hammer and crashed violently into the tree behind it causing the tree to topple over raising a cloud of dust.

Aldrich backed away and coughed as he breathed in some of the dust. When the dust cloud settled he looked at the direwolf and found it retreating and growling threateningly at him.

He looked at where the direwolf was just a second ago and saw what looked like an arrow imbedded in the earth. The arrow body had a metallic sheen to it.

Aldrich then realized the direwolf wasn't growling at him. But behind him. He turned around and sure enough he could see the silhouettes of a group of people heading his way.

"Well, I missed huh." One of the strangers remarked lazily.

"Did you really miss or did you do it on purpose?" Replied another.

"Hey, the direwolf was lucky enough to survive let's leave it at that." Another stranger intervened.

"Aldrich! You still in one piece? Told ya' I was going to get help didn't I?"

Aldrich knew Tarzin's voice when he heard it. He looked at the direwolf, it was backing away slowly while still keeping an eye on him. Cautious.

But suddenly all thought were erased from his mind as a feeling of primal hunger dawned on him. An intense but familiar hunger. In an unfamiliar place.

Aldrich was only a few steps away from the cause of his hunger, the corps of the great boar. He kneeled down and touched it. Aldrich saw clearly three essence orbs being absorbed into him.

So it worked in real life too. But it didn't happen when he killed that woman and the goblin last night. Are there some conditions? There was much that he had to find out.

When he came to, the strangers were already behind him. He stood up and turned to face them. They were three men and one woman.

All of them were wearing fancy but not lavish clothes with nice fabrics, though they were not overly decorated. They all looked to be in their early thirties.

The archer looked like he put on his bow last minute and was arguing with the woman on the right. The man on the left reminded him of the strict discipline of a soldier, he was smoking tobacco out of a pipe.

The man walking foremost drew his attention the most. He had a gentle smile and sharp features accentuated by his black vest and light brown coat, his trousers were were of the same color.

What attracted his attention however, was the grey eyes the man had. He was the first person that had the same eyes as him he ever met.

Aldrich heard that colorful eyes were not uncommon outside the Drnaine region. After all the people of Vorian had intermarried with the other provinces for two thousand years. Even then grey eyes were still rare.

"That was a close one, eh?" The grey-eyed man remarked.

"Yeah." Aldrich didn't know what else to say.

"Caldera, stop arguing with Orven already and come check on this brave young man."

The man tried to pat Aldrich on the back but Aldrich stepped back reflexively.

The man withdrew his hand. The woman who wore a purple shawl over her dress walked over to Aldrich.

"Try and relax a bit. We're trying to help." The woman whispered.

Aldrich didn't trust any of them but they did just save his life. Besides judging by that arrow he witnessed just now, he probably didn't stand a chance against them.

Suddenly he felt a warmth spread to his body through the woman's hand over his shoulder. This helped Aldrich calm down and some cuts and bruises all over his body had started to heal.

A Crestmaster. A Cleric.

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