Aldrich stopped the ghosts from leaving but most of them already started vanishing, however he still had an important question to ask them.
"Why didn't the lord and the authorities investigate the disappearance of this many people?"
Aldrich had this question the moment he saw the number of the ghosts. No matter how busy the lord was he wouldn't be able to ignore this. When that many people go missing it was bound to creat some waves in place.
"I… am not sure… but most of the new ghosts were not from Ebrict… they may have taken people from other places."
The ghost was able to offer an explanation before vanishing altogether. At last this quest was finally over.
The Aberrant acolytes were sent here for a certain objective, they were intelligent enough to cover their tracks and were able to lay low under the nose of the lord.
Their objective remains unknown but Aldrich didn't care about that, his concern was that the lord had somehow struck a deal with the Shoggti, which seemed to have been a needless worry.
Anyway Aldrich and the others couldn't carry all the cargo and they didn't really need to. They just carried the most important things and left using the small boat in the cave.
As for the rest of the stuff, naturally it belonged to them but obviously they could get it later. First they had to report this incident to the guild's assistance team here.
They didn't meet up with them when they first came here due to the urgency of the quest but now that they completed it things had to be reported.
Besides it was this team of assistants that would gather their loot and clean up the bodies like they did after the bandits quest.
This was their job, but it also included things that they will only get access to after being official members.
In the Yellowsprings inn they took off their armor and put both Frank and Huzon into some beds. They were still unconscious which was starting to worry them a bit.
"Hey, Aldrich what crest did you get?" Cole asked curiously.
Aldrich cleared his throat, "Weaponsmaster crest, my symbol is the great sword."
"But, I haven't hear of a crest that can manifest a weapon…" Nathan remarked.
They were talking about the enhanced great sword which Aldrich used in front of them in the battle.
"Ah, well, my great sword symbol is a little different.."
"So, its a rare symbol…" Hellen joined in.
"Yeah," Aldrich said seriously, "I was lucky."
"Well, that makes sense actually," Nathan nodded in understanding his glasses shining, "after all, I thought you became a grade two Crestmasters in one leap."
To be honest even Aldrich was impressed by his own newfound power, he was definitely much stronger than a regular grade one Crestmaster.
In fact, in the last battle Aldrich only relied on two skills, one was the Light step and the other was the Aurora: Augment. He still had two move skills that he didn't have to use.
There was also the fact that he wasn't used to his powers yet, this is one of the reasons why he didn't want to use too many skills until he got the hand of this grade of power.
His physical enhancement alone was terrifying.
Taking the time to raise all of the stats to the highest possible level before igniting his symbol payed off in a big way.
Aldrich was holding himself back from recklessly advancing for many reasons that were all incredibly important but he had to talk himself out of doing it everyday even though he knew it was wrong.
But alas, he did it. And eventually his waiting bore fruit. With this power in hand his goals were so much closer, much closer than they ever were.
And he had a feeling that he will soon get to put his newfound powers to use.
He remembered the beast, that was a truly terrifying monster. The whole time he felt that power flowing in his veins, if he could somehow control it…
He remembered that beast's stats, when he was dormant he got a glimpse and he remembered it clearly. The beasts had a +2 on all his current stats but that wasn't why it was strong there was another reason.
Beast:
Abilities:
1) minor resistance to physical damage Lv.1
2) minor resistance to magical damage Lv.1
3) minor resistance to mystical damage Lv.1
Skills:
1) Hunter's Howl Lv.1
2) Insatiable Hunger Lv.1
3) Intimidating glare Lv.1
4) Claws of severance Lv.1
These were the reason why it was so strong, unfortunately he didn't have the leisure to analyze them when he had the chance.
"You guys take a break, I'm going to report this and have the assistance team deal with the rest of the menial tasks."
"We'll leave it to you!"
They were so ungrateful that none of them volunteered to do it in his place but that was how life was sometimes. Being the leader wasn't all fun and games.
The assistants of the big guilds were everywhere, they may not have a branch in every settlement but they definitely had a team of assistants. If not here then somewhere close by.
Aldrich didn't have much trouble finding them and with the paperwork from the guild to prove his words the team moved.
However before he left he was told to write a complete report as his testimony will be sent to the guild through a flying messenger. He was also told to be prepared for a visit from the watchmen.
This was already something he was expecting, obviously this matter grew to dangerous proportions. After all two grade one monsters associated with the Shoggti were nesting right under the lord's nose.
If he was the lord of Ebrict he would definitely take it as an insult, this was a humiliation that was bad for his reputation.
Especially since he was actively trying to clear the waters and reopen trade routes, this kind of slap in the face was probably not something he wanted to hear about.
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