The Great Crestmaster

The sharp pain cleared his head in time for him to roll away from the stab aimed at his throat. The sword missed and he kicked with his leg at the boots of the husk, bringing the husk crashing down. A move that he was getting a bit too familiar with.

His sword was too far away, he couldn't allow the husk to regain its composure. Aldrich crawled over the husk, straddle it and used the sharp edge of his shield to strike at the husk's head repeatedly until it's brain spilled out of its head.

Aldrich cleaned the blood off of the sword and the shield then he decided to take a short break before advancing further, he wasn't too tired but it was always better to be in perfect shape for the next battle.

The next sealed door revealed a swordsman who was clad in chainmail. The battle began unceremoniously.

Aldrich and the husk traded blow after blow but it was clear he had the advantage in terms of raw power. The husk had better technique than him, but after all this time Aldrich was finally able to see the patterns of the sword style that the husks used.

It was the same with all the swordsmen he encountered in this nightmare world up until now, save for the armored husk.

The stances and responses to different moves finally all clicked together in Aldrich's head like pieces of a puzzle. It would be too much to say that he solved it but he was surely getting there closer and closer everyday.

Aldrich deflected the sideways cleave with the perfect amount of strength because he knew it was a feint. The husk had his stance broken and Aldrich stabbed the husk through the stomach and kicked the husk off.

The husk was sent rolling on the floor but it managed to rise swiftly preventing Aldrich from finishing it off. But Aldrich didn't mind. He discovered that he could hone his sword skill on this husk.

He was sure of his own superiority. Even if he got hurt a little that would only serve to make his vitality experiment better off.

After a long training session with his new training partner Aldrich was forced to part ways with it. He sent its head flying away, this sight made him a little regretful since he learned quite a bit from this husk.

Aldrich cleaned the house and picked off three coin pouches, he made two more trips back and forth to transport all his loot.

Aldrich looked around the common room in appreciation, thanks to the candle on the table, he now had wood burning in the fireplace that added some warmth and liveliness to this bleak house.

Wait!

He took the candle and used it so casually because it was the most normal looking thing in this place. Amidst all the abnormalities in this world a candle was by far the most normal looking thing.

But how was it normal? The candle was burning in that room on its own. Who lit that candle? When? Aldrich had spent hours since he arrived in the nightmare realm but the candle hadn't burned any wax.

It was the same as when he first found it, unchanged.

Aldrich breathed harder and harder, he looked at the normal looking candle on the table and backed away slowly.

Anything normal-looking in abnormal conditions was not normal at all, it was the personification of abnormality.

Aldrich suddenly felt himself bump into the wall from behind. His back was covered in cold sweat as he glared at the candle. How could he not have noticed?

The candle hadn't hurt him in any way, yet. The candle flames looked like normal fire in every way, they even worked like normal fire. In any case worrying about something he couldn't change was useless.

Nothing happened this time but if he kept making stupid mistakes carelessly one day he will pay dearly for it. Aldrich admonished himself harshly in order to remember this lesson.

Aldrich decided to stop worrying and focus on the vitality experiment this time. He had received his fair share of injuries on this hunt.

Aldrich decided to wait and see how long it will take for his wounds to heal if they healed at all and at what rate. What kind of injury could he heal from and what kind of injuries did he need to watch out for.

Aldrich sank into deep thoughts as he waited for the result of the test. He recalled the two husks that worked together to ambush him today and grimaced. Over time the tactics of the husks were getting smarter and deadlier.

They even worked together to do this. That kind of trap was deadly and cunning. First they lured him to their chosen ambush spot and when he was right under their control the hidden husk revealed itself.

His right shoulder was struck by an arrow, it was the best method to watch out for the vitality. After about an hour the wound in his shoulder was still fresh and the healing power of the vitality attribute was there but it was too much for a wound like this.

Healing a gaping hole in an hour proved difficult at this point in time.

Next Aldrich opened one of the coin pouches he found and emptied its contents. Thirteen silvers and some coppers, he placed the coppers aside and returned only the silver in the coin pouch.

Aldrich then walked to the wall beside the fireplace where the seal of Tindalor was inscribed and placed his hand on it while he was holding the coin pouch.

Aldrich then spoke in that unknown tongue again—that he somehow apparently knew, it was just one word—the word Tindalor. The feeling of an electrical current passed through his body and Aldrich felt the two essence orbs being absorbed by the seal to send him back.

Aldrich willed to take the coin pouch with him with all his heart. In the very moment when the two essence orbs were taken to send him back. In that brief moment he felt the same feeling stir again this time he lost six essence orbs before everything faded to black.

*****

Aldrich woke back up in the real world. He felt around with his right hand and felt a familiar coin pouch in his hand. It was still late at night but the fireplace was still burning so he held his hand out.

He had the coin pouch held tightly, carefully, almost fearfully he opened the coin pouch and thirteen silver coins shined under the light of the fire.

Aldrich looked at the silver coins in amazement, in disbelief. He did not expect to succeed so he was shocked when he did.

To think of this attempt Aldrich thought of the seal of Tindalor as a carriage. If you want to go somewhere you pay a carriage fare, so when he wanted to return back to the real world he had to pay two essence orbs.

What if he wanted to bring luggage on the carriage? He needed to pay some more. That was the line of thinking that lead to this success.

In the trip from Ado'merin to Voryhrm he started with twelve silver coins and ended up with seven by the time he got here. In total he had twenty silver coins.

This was a great wealth, ten more silver coins and he would have a gold coin. A gold coin, it was a legend in Wakefield, people bragged about touching a gold coin for years to come.

'Perhaps only the mayor had ever owned a gold coin. I'm rich, I'm rich, mom look at me now.'

Now that he thought about it she would have probably scowled at him and mocked him for being happy over a small thing. After all she was never impressed by anything that he did.

Despite that Aldrich was so happy that he found it hard to go back to sleep and when he remembered that he had dozens of coin pouches in the base, his happiness turned to ecstasy.

Aldrich fell asleep while clutching the coin pouch and kissing it every once in while. He even woke up in the middle of the night to check on the coin pouch.

The next morning Aldrich woke up and took his bath while humming a cheerful tune. If his voice didn't start cracking as of late he would have broken into a song. He was a little embarrassed by his changing voice.

He looked at himself in the mirror before going down and noticed that his crest had disappeared today. This was normal as initiatives can't control their crests.

At times it might appear and disappeared at random. Could be multiple times within the day even.

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