Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich picked up the second book. This one was full and it was in good condition too, there was no title so Aldrich just started reading.

After twenty minutes he got a grasp of what this book was. It was an anthology of Cazmer's life, his accomplishments and achievements.

It had important information like the layout of certain dungeons, all sorts of unusual monsters and items.

Aldrich understood what this was. Cazmer had no idea who would find this hideout so he left this as an unspoken agreement with whoever found this place.

This was probably his payment for a request in the third book. He wanted to make the person indebted or satisfied with this. Well, it was only a guess so he wasn't exactly sure.

But he knew that this information was extremely valuable especially to adventurers.

Aldrich didn't read the whole book, it was too big so he decided to leave it for later. The third book was similar in size to the first book.

This book revealed Cazmer's true identity, he was the son a pirate. The Gluttonous Sparrows, in the past they terrorized these waters and their name spread far and wide.

This is why Cazmer and his brother had to change their names and especially so for Cazmer who obtained the talent to become a Crestmaster.

This background could only be buried. Even after the Gluttonous Sparrows were no more their name was associated with grudges and evil.

Cazmer actually had an inheritance from his father, it was supposedly a map to a undiscovered island in the Fog sea.

Aldrich's hands trembled, this was basically a treasure map. The Fog sea was the most secretive of all the water bodies in the world.

As it was the hardest to explore due to the endless fog, it is said that those who venture into the Fog sea are never seen again.

While the sea of Plenty had bad weather and sea monsters at least there were many survivors who made it out to tell stories about it.

Eventually this lead to a slow build up that culminated in the discovery of the Eastern continent.

Any sailor who found an island would be considered the owner of the island by imperial law. This is why there is a crazy for sea voyages. As a result many people became wealthy overnight after selling their islands to the Empire.

An island in the Fog sea, this was like a pie that fell from the sky. But of course there was no such thing.

First it came from an unreliable source, not Cazmer but his father, and who knows where he got it from?

Even if it was real, just because there was a map doesn't mean that he could get on a ship and find the island. At any rate it was not a bad deal to get it. At least he can confirm everything slowly later.

The request in the third book was similar to what Cazmer originally asked of him. To share some of the treasure in the chest with his brother.

Aldrich was really relieved that Cazmer wrote down his brother's name. Even if Aldrich knew that he lived here in Ebrict, finding him with nothing to go on was basically impossible.

Fortunately he not only added his name, but also his likely occupation. Finally he checked on the chest and discovered that it had ten gold stashed in.

This was kind of disappointing to Aldrich, he thought that Cazmer left his brother something more.

It's not that ten gold was a small amount by any means, you could do much with that Aldrich could testify. But based on the many years that Cazmer spent roaming the world he should have accumulated a much greater sum.

But an idea occurred to Aldrich, maybe Cazmer didn't leave behind much on purpose. After all for a regular person, ten gold was a life changing amount and yet it wasn't so much that it would attract too much attention.

Yes, Cazmer was not a careless man.

Aldrich wasn't going to take anything from that money, not even a single copper. He was planing on giving it all to Cazmer's brother.

****

The next day, early in the morning when the rest of the party was still sleeping in Aldrich left. Naturally he carried the coin pouch, he wasn't about to carry a chest with him in town, that would be weird.

Aldrich asked around, and while he did that he heard news that lord Garon took down another pirate crew and confiscated their stolen goods.

Aldrich was lead to carpenter Oswoln Zobrick's household. It was just a regular looking house, but two others in the neighborhood had the name Zobrick on their plaque.

Aldrich didn't know which one to pick, he heard some noise at one of the three house's front yard, so he nocked.

A young man who was probably of age with the young lord of Ebrict opened the door, he was shirtless and had a hammer in one hand.

"Hello? How can I help you?" The young man asked.

"Ah, yes actually, I'm looking for Oswoln Zobrick?"

"Lookin' for da'? Well, you must be new in town, my da' had retired some years ago. If you're looking to fix something or if you want anything made you can try my work."

Yeah, of course it's his son. Aldrich didn't know why he didn't think of that immediately, it's like his brain short-circuited.

"Ah, well, I'm not here for that. I need to talk to him about an important matter." He obviously couldn't spill the beans.

"Well," the young man stared at Aldrich for a while before he spoke, "I can call him for you then. But let me say this now, my father is an old man, if it's not important I would rather you don't bother him."

"I promise, it's really important. I wouldn't want to impose otherwise now would I?" Aldrich could understand why the young man might be a little annoyed at him.