The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich found that writing down his ideas made him feel more assured about them an cleared some foggy details.

Obviously saving Isger by begging an Archbishop was only one way to do it, and he was not a man to put all his eggs in one basket.

His other plans were going on along with the first one simultaneously and in fact contributed to one another.

The second plan was to go to the Divine Land and get that crown, the mysterious old man who save him said that doing so will help him find the blue light door.

Aldrich suspected that Isger's soul was still stuck there and to save Isger he had to get it, for now the only way he knew of was to donas the old man said.

The old man didn't say just that, he said that if he got the crown in the Divine city he would have all his questions answered and all his wishes fulfilled.

Aldrich didn't even consider these words before, he just labeled it as the rambling of a madman.

But the more he experienced and the more he knew of the nightmare realm the more he began to analyze the words and actions of that old man.

In fact he suspected something when he recalled what happened that day. He had a feeling that he was made into a Lost One by that old man.

He had no real proof nor was he sure, it was just a hunch at best.

****

Aldrich was back in the nightmare realm, this time too he was going to study, but first he had to check up on something.

Proof of Devotion: long ago, the Unseen Hand plotted to overthrow the rule of the Divine Land and so they dabbled in old and forgotten powers and they heard a voice answer their call.

This is the brand of loyalty on all members of the Unseen Hand, however, in secret it is also a prototype of the artificial divine core.

Aldrich used the newly upgraded Eyes of Insight on the darkened heart and was rewarded with a feast of new information.

Slave brand, he did see something about it in the armored husk's memories but he didn't see how it was done. He also didn't expect that it was used as part of the experiment to create the artificial divine cores.

It was similar to what the Shoggti did to those pirates, enslaving them in a way that no human ever could. It wasn't actually that terrifying, it simply involved erasing the victim's mind and filling it with the master's plans.

This method was actually not that sophisticated, the slaves could easily be spotted in a public setting, they stood out like a sore thumb.

They didn't talk nor did they blink, their skin took a greenish ting to it. Anyone could tell something was not right with them, and although their maintained basic intelligence they lacked common sense.

However the methods of the Unseen Hand was much more strange and terrifying. The enslaved wouldn't look any different and might not even display any abnormalities.

Unfortunately Aldrich discovered a flaw in this method too, the subject had to be willing to become a slave. This was a deduction that he came up with considering how they took care of the armored husk.

The armored husk was an ordinary person, forcing him to become a slave was not hard at all. But the Unseen Hand used this long winded and pointless method, why?

Were they just nice? Could be, but he certainly doubted that. They needed the consent of even a trash like the armored husk when he was only an ordinary person, that was the flaw.

Considering that it was part of a failed experiment Aldrich took it, still in the glass jar and teleported using the seal of Tindalor to the Underbridge area.

"Ooh? You're back?" Uldin asked as soon as he stepped in.

"Yeah, seems like you're back too. Find anything interesting out there?" Aldrich asked when he stopped talking, Uldin was staring at him like he saw a ghost.

"You've undergone the first transformation?" Uldin asked looking surprised, "yes but, there's something else, something foreign…"

The first transformation? How many more are there?…

Aldrich remembered that it was Uldin who gave him the Mind Calming agent, telling him that he would need it the most. That was almost prophetic.

If he didn't use the agent there and then he might have lost himself completely, becoming no different than the monsters that infested this nightmare realm.

"Uh, yeah. Could have used a warning, you know."

"Even if I warned you about it, nothing would have changed. But I did give you the potion which resolved the issue, right?"

"That is true," Aldrich had to admit that, perhaps he was too weary against Uldin in the past.

"Actually I came to buy information today, about the whole transformation thing…"

Aldrich absolutely had to figure out what happened, why? And how to stop it from happening ever again?

This matter was high up in his priorities, losing control was one of the worst things he could ever face, for him who had to keep a focused mind at all times it was the worst kind of torture.

"Eh, sure, sure. We can exchange information, how about that?" Uldin asked looking very eager.

"What do you want to know?"

"Tell me how you got this power? This otherworldly smell, I can't be wrong…"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm here to buy with essence, how about that?"

Although he started to trust Uldin a little more, he was obviously not going to tell him that he could go back and forth between different worlds.

This was something that the other Lost Ones could not do, once they appeared here they stayed here. It was a unique ability that only he had and he wasn't going to share it lightly.

"Are you sue about that? I can increase the price, I will included any second level potion, or any twenty level one potions. What do you think?"