Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

The summery Aldrich gave was really good, but hey, not everyone can enjoy high art, so we will leave it at that.

Aldrich realized that he couldn't leave to Ebrict so carelessly because of the exam but what if the problem became part of the exam?

Thinking about it, it fit the bill, it was request to exorcise the soul of an old lighthouse which he used to own in life, unfortunately for unknown reasons it had trapped the poor man's spirt, preventing him from going to the afterlife.

Aldrich explained the story to Ayemon from beginning to end, he altered Irene saving his life to her taking care of him when he suffered that 'fever'.

By the end of the tale Ayemon was rubbing his temples in frustration, "and you don't want me to send someone to take care of it for you. You want to do it yourself."

Aldrich swallowed down and nodded, "I want to do this myself."

"Are you at that age already?"

"What?"

"You know, you must really like this girl, huh." Said Ayemon with a shit-eating grin.

"N-what? That's ridiculous. Stay on the topic."

"Sure, I'll get out of your way. But really, you do realize that adding an entirely new quest into the quest pool instead of manipulating the distribution is almost impossible to do, right?"

Aldrich scratched his head, "I mean, I know. But I thought if there was anyone corrupt—Ahem! Anyone connected and influential enough to do something like this it would be you."

"Hmm, ah, what can I do when my hands and feet are tied? You realize that this will force me to meet with an insufferable fellow? Ugh, I had hopped to keep all this under wraps…"

Aldrich felt bad that he had inconvenienced Ayemon once again but he really didn't have any other solutions.

Well, he still had to get help from Ayemon despite not wanting him to solve his problems for him. But a little bit of help was not the same as actually solving the problem so it was fine for a start.

"Well, for now consider it done."

"Thank you so-"

"I'm not finished."

Aldrich suppressed his excitement and sat back down, "I would still advise you not to go for it. There is a tremendous lack of information that might make this quest beyond your capabilities."

"Lack of information? That's true but aren't all quests like that? There is no quest that is completely safe and not one where all the dangers are clear before even attempting it right?"

Aldrich had a certain level of understanding for adventuring, after all he didn't spend all his time goofing around, he learned about them as much as he could and even had a taste of it himself in the Sunken valley.

The only true rule of this line of work was that it was uncertain. That was the key word that perfectly described this profession, Uncertainty.

"Right. But remember knowing something might happen doesn't mean that you will truly be able to deal with it. Caution is an adventurer's best friend. I don't want to give you a lecture so this the end of our talk about this subject."

"Cough, wait a minute." Aldrich cleared his throat, "I actually have no idea how to exorcise a ghost. So…"

Ayemon tapped the table twice before he replied, "well, a simple wandering spirit could be dispelled with a bit of holy water. But this ghost must be a Haunting spirit since it remained for so many years, the best way is to break the object that it's haunting."

"What if the object is the entire lighthouse?"

"You don't have to worry about that, if it was that powerful then you will die since you definitely don't have a chance. The item should be no bigger than your hand."

"Well that's reassuring, I guess," Aldrich felt the sting but he couldn't refute it, "she told me that he was harmless and seemingly wanted to warn her about something."

"I don't know about that but assume that it's not true anyway. We have no way to verify it, and he could be harmless to his granddaughter but that might not necessarily be his attitude to strangers."

Ayemon tapped the table again and continued, "as for the dreams, I can't tell. To be able to see a ghost in her dream means that the girl must have a special spirit herself. But the damage to her mind might not heal easily."

"Can we help her somehow?" Aldrich asked, hoping for some way to treat her.

"You can."

"Me?" Aldrich asked in confusion.

"Yeah, just give her that necklace."

Ayemon pointed at his chest and Aldrich took out the necklace that Harvick gave him before he left that night. The mental protection charm.

"It's a mental protection charm, but it never worked before." Aldrich explained.

"A charm? This is a grade one wondrous item not a charm. And it's been used twice, it has three more uses left."

"A grade one item? But…" Harvick clearly told him that it was a charm. Moreover how was it used twice?

He never really tried using it and he didn't remember it activating on it own. Wait! That time when he absorbed the armored husk's memories he did feel it heating up for a moment.

Could it be that it was that time? It was possible. But when was the first time then?

Grade one items and charms are imbued with finite powers and did not require attunment to be used anyone could use them with ease.

Grade two and above required attunment and each had capacity so grade one Crestmasters could only attune two items at most, anymore and their crests would not be able to handle it.

But in return the powers in the items will never dry out as long as they were channeled with Ether. Glyphmancer artisans worked very hard and long to create grade two wondrous items and above.

Aldrich decided that he was going to lend his necklace to Irene since he didn't need it much. After dealing with the quest he could always take it back after the deed was done.

But wait, Aldrich felt that he had to think of something, like he knew he forgot something but he didn't know what.

"What about this ring?" Aldrich showed Ayemon the ring that Cazmer gave him.

Ayemon gave it a look and nodded, "this is a grade two item. I assume you know what that means? You can only use it after you ignite your symbol."

Aldrich sighed, well perhaps he might not be able to make good on his promise to Cazmer as soon as he would have liked. But it was still not to far away.

He decided that as soon as he ignited his symbol, meaning immediately after being accepted into the guild, he was going to do it first on the list.

"What is it called this town, and where is it? Because if it's too far I can't do anything about it. The longest time frame for a single quest in the exam is two weeks, without special circumstances it will not be extended."

"Well, it's a fishing hamlet called Ebrict. It's a small town, I don't think you've heard of it."

While explaining Aldrich cursed himself for forgetting to ask Irene where her hometown was.

"Ebrict? Actually I don't think I've heard of it— wait, Ebrict? As in, the Umbra monastery? Yeah, yeah. Hmm, it's too far."

Umbra monastery? Irene talked about that too when she first told him about Ebrict. No, that's not the point, it can't be that he would have to give up because of the distance.

"Can't I go on sea? I'll take a ship, any ship will do, they have a port there. I'm sure for the right price someone will take us."

Ayemon shook his head, "it won't work, the entire southwestern coast is overrun with pirates. And even with good coin we can't arrange a ship in such short notice, a captain needs his crew to run the ship. But…"

"But, what?!"

"You maybe able to make it on land, after you finish the second mission send a guild representative to report your success while you and your party head to Rathea and from there you must take the ancient land bridge."

"Ancient land bridge? A relic from the age of Wonder…" Aldrich was taken back at that thought.

"Yes, the age of Wonder. While almost everything from that time vanished into oblivion some things still remain and cling to our world."

Aldrich returned back to Irene's apartment feeling great that he got everything sorted out in such a timely manner.

Truth be told he related to Irene's plight, after that was an experience that he was not going to forget for the rest of his life, it could be said that he was here today as he was because of the nightmare specter.

If only one single thing didn't go the way it did he would have been dead or worse alive and powerless to take vengeance.