The Great Crestmaster

"I'll call for the patrolling guards, you'll be caught in no time." Aldrich warned the thief behind him.

"Humph! Just try it kid. See this here neighborhood? It's the turf of our syndicate. The guards won't even hear you and if they did they'll just turn a blind eye."

"Stop bluffing. You're just counting on your buddies to get me like a bunch of cowards!" Aldrich hurled a well timed insult.

"Shut your yapper! if you don't want your guts painting this street. I've got a musket right here," Aldrich felt a cold metal press at his vest.

"You think I need my crew to steal a few coppers from a kid like you? Huh? Why'd you stop talkin'?"

"H-here. I'll give you my coins so long as you promise to let me go." Aldrich stammered in fear.

"Ha! Where'd that tough attitude of yours go now? Cat got your tongue? Huh, answer me! Should've just did as you were told from the get go." The thief demanded.

"It's just a tough act, I wanted to bluff my way out of this." Aldrich was forced to answer out of fear.

"Hmm, that's a good trick but it won't work on professionals like me. Now, I'll let you go like I said. So long as you don't try anything funny."

"You got it. My life is much more important than some measly money." Aldrich breathed a sigh of relief and slowly untied his coin pouch out of his belt. He then took the pouch and held it out with his left hand towards the thief but from the back without turning around.

Since Aldrich followed his instructions to the tee, the thief nodded to himself and got closer to Aldrich because of the pose he was in, he couldn't stretch his hand too far back. However, before he could take the coin pouch it fell off of Aldrich's hand.

The thief's eyes followed the coin pouch dumbly and he was late to dodge the punch to his forehead. In fact, even if he wasn't distracted at all he wouldn't have been able to react to Aldrich's speed.

The thief fell over like a puppet with it's strings cut, Aldrich made sure to hold back hence why the thief only lost consciousness without any major brain injury. Aldrich proceeded to drag the unconscious thief to an alleyway.

Aldrich found out that he was a young man who was doing something to make his voice seem older and he didn't have a musket it was just a dagger. This made Aldrich suspect that the thief had no intention of killing him.

Of course a dagger could kill a man just as easily but Aldrich just wanted to give the thief the benefit of the doubt. Since he believed that the thief had no intention to kill him then Aldrich also wasn't going to kill him.

Obviously that didn't mean that he was just going to let the thief go so easily, since he came out to rob people then he must have been prepared to be robbed himself. Aldrich relived the thief of his own coin pouch and in it he found a single silver coin and two coppers.

Very luxurious for the thieves in the Drnaine region but of course this is Voryhrm if you didn't have at least that much on you then you basically couldn't do anything. So this amount was just some pocket change.

'Shit, couldn't you have had any more coin with you? Poor bastard! Hopefully this will teach you that crime doesn't pay.'

Aldrich fixed his clothes and walked out of the alleyway casually, in reality he was checking the area around him. And when he didn't notice or feel anyone following him, he was assured that the thief was indeed alone.

Aldrich didn't loiter around for too either, he resumed his journey to the next street over, the 17th Gana, which was in a slightly better condition that the 18th at the very least.

Aldrich waited patiently for a public carriage and was relieved that he didn't have to wait for more than a few minutes. The carriage was half empty and smelled heavily of tobacco and alcohol.

Aldrich moved to the cleanest seat he could find and waited for another half an hour before he got off. He wasn't very far from his apartment but he wanted buy some bread. He remembered seeing a bakery here somewhere.

As expected his memory was as great as ever, it was only two streets from his apartment and fresh bread was a decent delicacy. While he was there he bought some cheese and milk too.

Aldrich locked the door behind him and he lit up the moss lamps in his apartment afterwards. He put the cheese and milk in the fridge and the cheese in the storage room. He washed his hands, cleaned some of the pots and utensils.

It was time for the first meal he was going to cook in his own new home. Aldrich decided on something simple and easy, that was also why he got the bread and cheese. The coal burned nicely, so Aldrich added some oil on the pan.

While that was happening he took out the beef from the fridge and added some salt and pepper. When he felt that the pan was hot enough he added the beef, which didn't take long to cook.

Aldrich enjoyed the beef with some fresh bread and washed it all down with apple juice. After he was done he took all his dirty clothes, put them all in a basket and took it to a laundry in a neighboring building.

The laundry was run by a mother and her two daughters, he found out that his clothed will be washed and ironed by tomorrow night so the speed was great and the fact that it was a ten minute walk of his apartment was a nice bonus.

After he returned to the apartment Aldrich took out a notebook from one of the drawers and and a pen. Aldrich sat on his humble desk and brought one of t moss lamps closer for better lighting.

Aldrich was going to have his first class in the academy tomorrow so he intended to prepare himself as best as he could by jotting down what he knew about Crestmasters in a short summery. He did not wish to embarrass himself in the class tomorrow.

It was a few hours later and Aldrich had written a bit more than a short summary. He had the confidence that he wasn't that bad in the basics especially when he learned much from his conversations with Ayemon and company.

Aldrich turned off the moss lamps and jumped on his bed, this night was over in the real world but it was only beginning in the nightmare realm.

****

After Aldrich put another log in the fireplace he equipped his chain mail over his leather armor.

Aldrich felt much safer and it wasn't nearly as heavy as the half-plate armor he wore in the Sunken valley.

All in all after some practice and exercises here and there he judged that his movement and reaction speed were nicely synced with the newfound weight in equipment.

Today was going to be a big day. The next house on the list out there was actually the building in which he managed to sneak up on two second type husks who were guarding and armory.

If his memory served him right he found some kind of ledge that gave him the chance to sneak in. That was probably a crucial moment in his experiences in the nightmare town, if he didn't get his hands on that armory his life would have been much more miserable here.