The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich opened his eyes in the now familiar couch. He got up and stretched his naked body. Then he picked up the spare short sword he left here.

Aldrich kept a close watch on the door leading to the staircase and listened closely. Silence. Aldrich had no plans to confront the armored husk now.

After the last confrontation he understood that the difference between them was not only in skill alone. There was a difference in the armor and the quality of their respective weapons.

The armored husk's armor along with its long sword were in semi-decent condition. Unlike Aldrich who had rags for armor and a rusty short sword.

Distinct from the normal husks the armored husk was not clumsy and prone to mistakes. On top of all that it surpassed him in power and speed. When these conditions combined together it was no wonder he lost.

In fact, although he was reluctant to admit it, if he had won then it was not short of a miracle.

So his plan was to hunt outside for now. Farm essence, increase his attributes and find better armor. There must be more normal husks out there and also the skinned dogs. Opponents that he could take.

Perhaps it was time for some revenge. Aldrich wanted to see if other creatures could give essence besides the husks.

Before he left Aldrich piled even more furniture on the door just to be safe. And then he headed out.

Aldrich walked outside for the first time since that day and was greeted by the thick fog of the nightmare town.

He had a purpose, to look for a weapons shop. If this was a town that people once lived in, then it must have had a weapons shop or a smithy.

But in order not to get lost, which is very easy in such thick fog, he decided to check the town methodically street after street. When he reached a dead-end he would return back to the house and then try the next street.

Aldrich walked, holding his sword and looked around and checked on the two rows of buildings. Silence ruled the nightmare town but Aldrich was not deceived by this silence as he knew its treachery.

Aldrich checked on several buildings without any luck, the buildings on this street seemed to have no stalls or shops of any kind.

Aldrich stumbled on a building with half collapsed walls. This gave him a good way to look inside the building without the risk of entering.

But curiously enough only the high ends of the walls collapsed so he had to climb over some of the rubble. Aldrich was happy to do so, as it wasn't that far.

Aldrich climbed upwards with ease thanks to his improved body. When he was finally high enough to see the inside of the building through the opening in the wall he quickly lowered his head.

He saw two husks, not normal ones but not armored like the one back in the base. They wore leather armored hardened at the shoulders and torso.

They were walking in circles absentmindedly, and they each were armed with a small round shield and a spear.

Aldrich lowered his head and calmed his breathing lest he be discovered. It looks like the husks become aggressive only when they encounter noise.

At least that was according to his past experiences, it was prudent to test everything and verify the facts.

Right beside the two husks was a wall with pegs and it had all kinds of weapons lined up on it, from axes to great swords and even a long bow. Aldrich clinched his hand in excitement.

Finally something was going his way. Aldrich was determined to not waste this chance. He picked up a pebble and threw it at one of the husks then he immediately ducked down.

Hearing a commotion both husks were confused and hastily checked, they looked for the intruder in vain. After a while they settled down.

Aldrich was disappointed, he thought the husks might fight each other and make things easier. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Could it be that these monsters won't antagonize each other?

This time he picked up a much bigger pebble from the remnants of the old walls below him. This one much bigger that the last. He aimed and fired with all his power behind the throw.

The pebble hit the unsuspecting husk right in the middle of its leather helm sending it sprawling across the floor.

Aldrich immediately ducked to dodge the spear that almost skewered his head. A moment later Aldrich looked at the spear above him wondering why the husk didn't pull back. And then he noticed the tension in the spearhead, it got stuck in the crevice of the wall.

Chance.

Aldrich jumped over the ledge of the wall and stabbed, with his enhanced power and the fragile husks the sword pierced through the eye socket of the monster.

Aldrich wanted the sword to go out the other side but it didn't. He pushed the corps to the side and and observe his last opponent.

The last husk lunged and stabbed forward, Aldrich dodged the thrust but the spear got him in the chest with its edge. Aldrich didn't allow himself to process the pain, instead he cut off the husks hands with a slash of his sword.

The spear along with the hands fell with clang to the wooden floor. The husk retreated but Aldrich didn't let up. He slashed but the husk unexpectedly dodged the attack by falling to the ground.

Aldrich froze mid-action. The husk survived by tripping and falling down. Aldrich stabbed through the throat of the equally as confused husk, all the while smiling bitterly.

However a moment later all thoughts vanished, Aldrich once again experienced that overwhelming hunger. Aldrich quickly collected four orbs to calm down his restlessness.

Then he he stripped one of the husks with the most intact armor and tried it on. It was over sized a bit. But Aldrich was glad to have it for it was quite embarrassing walking around naked.

He took one of the shields and turned his attention to the beautiful row of weapons. There were more than twenty weapons and he wanted them all. Aldrich decided to take them and stock them in the base. His only fear is to be ambushed while transporting them.

He needed all the weapons he could get his hands on and back ups. Lots of back ups. Aldrich took the weapons two at a time back to the house and for now dumped them all in the common room.

Unfortunately, sometimes in life the more you don't want something to happen the higher the likelihood of it happening. Ironic.

Aldrich didn't appreciate the irony, when on his last trip back, he encountered three skinned dogs. They moved silently and quickly with the thick fog a man might not even realize how he was ambushed.

Aldrich had one small round shield and an axe in the other. It was no coincidence that he had a shield as he only changed the weapons but kept the shield always with him.

He and the dogs exchanged glares. The dogs charged together. Aldrich held his ground and blocked two the dogs, the third managed to bite and hold on to his leg. Fortunately his new leather pants were sturdy but it still hurt like hell.

Aldrich deflected the two dogs and smashed the one biting at his leg with the axe, a direct hit at its midsection. It didn't let go.

'Tenacious piece of shit.'

The barks from the side reminded him that he had two more beasts to deal with. One of the two free dogs jumped high and opened it jaw wide. Aldrich smirked.

While its still midair his axe separated its head in two, horizontally. He turned to the last free dog and blocked it's attempt to bite into his left leg.

With it's attack foiled it retreated and started running around him while barking and growling. Aldrich payed it no heed, instead he turned to the dog that still wouldn't let go.

"You don't want to let go huh?!"

Aldrich smashed its head with the axe repeatedly. The dog didn't budge. Again and again.

"You don't want to let go? Fine, don't let go! I'll see how long you can take a beating!"

Aldrich struck again and again and turned the skinned dog's face into mush. Finally it let go but only when the dog was already dead.

Aldrich looked at the last dog, it glared at him and charged again, and again he blocked, seeing his chance he struck immediately after blocking and the axe tore into the dog's back but when Aldrich tried to pull it out it got stuck.

To get it out he had to kick on the axe's handle pretty roughly. Disgusting fluids and smells permeated the area. Aldrich was a farmer and had his fair share of disgusting experiences but this was on a whole new level.

But a moment later even this disgust was forgotten, overcome by intense hunger as he touched each of the corpses he was rewarded with one orb from each beast.

Aldrich picked up his weapons and his weary body and dragged himself back to the base. He dropped the weapons and the shield and checked on his leg.

Name: Aldrich

Age: 15.5

Strength: 2+

Agility: 1+

Endurance: 1+

Vitality: 2+

Intelligence: 1+

Spirit (black): 2+

Essence: 9

Abilities: eyes of insight Lv.1

Condition: blood of ######

Finally he could increase spirit. But Aldrich wanted to hold on using the essence now as he had to consider a few more things.

If his guess isn't wrong then he needed eight essence orbs to increase the value from two to three. He couldn't just waste essence he had to decide on priorities.

He wasn't even completely sure that increasing spirit would make him a Crestmaster faster. At the end of the day that was only a conjecture he came up with. Certainly it wasn't out of nowhere but it wasn't confirmed either.

Aldrich decided that it was better to just collect essence orbs for now and when he had a better understanding of the attributes he would make a decision.

He made great progress today, he was lucky to find the weapons and even collected a handful of essence orbs. Aldrich stretched and felt that it was about time he woke up so he went to sleep on the couch.

After experiencing this a few time he thought he was getting the hang of it.