Expedition

Today was the start of their long and arduous journey.

Aldric had prepared with Nephis' cohort. Stocking up on food and items. Memorising travel routes and the type of creatures they might encounter.

His role in this group was more of an acquaintance. Similar to Kai, he was not part of Nephis' inner circle. It seemed that the group played off his desire to leave the forgotten shore as well as get stronger to bring him along.

Maybe with the long journey, they could become a lot closer. Who knows.

He now stood with the group. Trailing in the rear close to Kai: Nephis and Caster led the group. Heading towards the cathedral for their pathfinder in hiding and her protector. Cassie was situated in the middle of the pack.

As a result of the situation Effie caused with Gunlaug's men, she was entrusted to Sunny to wait until the start of their journey.

Kai turned and spoke to him.

"What splendid armour you have Aldric. Where did you get it from?"

He was adorned in a jet-black ancient plate of armour, radiating a feeling of dark resolve and adamantine grace. Its glossy surface devoured any light that touched its surface. All parts were seamlessly linked together into a barrier of impenetrable steel.

This was the strongest armour that he had ever owned.

"Thanks. I got it from a trade in the Bright Castle memory market."

" What? Something like that would definitely not be on sale in that place."

Kai responded passionately. After all, he had spent the longest there out of everyone in the group.

" It was a bit of a fixer-upper but it was worth the effort."

Kai was confused at the response but he ignored it in his growing interest in the visage of it.

Aldric looked at his memory.

Memory:[Mantle Of The Underworld]

Memory Rank: Ascended

Memory Tier: VI

Memory Type: Armor.

Memory Description: [Vowing to never look upon the Goddess of the Black Skies again, the prideful demon retreated into the darkness beneath an unassailable mountain chain. He wasn't the first to lead his army against the gods. However, he was the first to shed their blood, as well as learn the secrets of his own.] 

Memory Enchantments: [Living Stone], [Feather of Truth], [Stalwart], [Underworld Armament], [Prince of the Underworld],[Synergy]

Vanquished Foes: 1213/6000

Aldric remembered when he received this item.

Flashback

It was his sixth day at the Bright Castle. It was time to visit the Memory Market. 

Walking through the place, the [Tesseract] was screaming at him. Directing him towards something in the store.

Like a sonar, Aldric could feel the memory guide him to the castle. The only other feeling he got was something in the far south of the city. 

What it was he did not know.

Being guided along, he came upon a small table holding a broken stone armour.

' Ok. So that's what it's looking for.'

He had noticed the item to be the [Mantle Of The Underworld]. The memory that was behind the birth of Mongrel and a few of Sunny's future abilities.

'Sorry not sorry, Sunny.'

Aldric thought insincerely.

He did not attempt to haggle intensely with Stev, the owner of the store. 

Bought with the soul shards he accumulated from his hunts, it did not hurt his bottom line at all.

The rest of the memories were not useful to him. All were mostly dormant rank and the type of memories that people did not want to keep to themselves.

As soon as Stev had transferred the memory to Aldric, something incredible happened.

In his soul core, the [Tesseract] that was madly spinning around his soul core changed into a familiar shape and devoured the new arrival. 

Feeling the abnormality in his soul sea, Aldric entered it just to notice the [Mantle Of The Underworld] to have disappeared.

' So the armour is considered as something left related to the maker of the [Tesseract]' 

" So the creator of this memory is ██" 

Aldric had came to a conclusion.

Walking back to his room, he had a confused face. Not knowing to be happy or sad that his new memory was devoured.

Flashback End

It took 60 days for the [Tesseract] to repair the memory as well as modify it to add the unknown enchantment.

He had theorised that it was due to the [Tesseract] having to control whatever soul essence it could siphon from his core.

Aldric could only read the name of the enchantments with his [All-Seeing Eye] charm. Some critical thinking and previous knowledge allowed him to piece together their capabilities.

However, the new addition eluded him.

'Synergy with what?'

As amazing as it would be to gain the full abilities of the armour, he could not access them as a sleeper. Sleepers could only access their soul core and manipulating soul essence was something reserved for the Awakened. 

The active enchantments were completely unavailable to him.

The only ones that he could use were the [Stalwart] and [Underworld Armament]. These were passive enchantments that did not need to be activated. 

[Prince Of The Underworld] was already available to the sleepers previously and was completely automatic.

This meant that he could only use the Ascended armour for its durability and charm-holding ability.

It was still much more durable than the [Cragborne Armour] that he was using previously. The difference in one rank was insurmountable.

They continued to walk in focused silence.

"Oh Aldric, you haven't met Sunny yet have you?"

Cassie spoke.

"No, I haven't. From what I heard he seems like an interesting character."

Nephis had a long look on her face at the mention of Sunny.

Caster did not react at all to the conversation.

They had finally arrived at the cathedral. 

Appearing from the ruins, they walked steadily to the entrance of the cathedral.

There, they saw two sleepers waiting for them. 

The more noticeable one was Effie. 

She was a tall and attractive young woman. She had hazel eyes and beautiful brown hair, tied in a simple braid. Her build is extremely athletic, with perfect lean muscles rolling under the dewy olive skin with each movement.

Next to her stood a short young teenager.

He was thin and pale, with dark circles under his eyes and other signs of extreme exhaustion. His black hair was long, falling over his eyes in a dirty mess. What was noticeable were his eyes. Deep in their dark depths, there was a glint of calm, heavy, bleak coldness. He also possessed the look of a seasoned fighter.

Sunny addressed Kai first.

"Night, ...uh... what are you doing here buddy?"

"I'm very happy to see you, my friend. You see Lady Nephis invited me to join the expedition. I decided to agree after careful consideration."

"Wait.. are you crazy?"

Sunny sighed.

"Nevermind"

Leaving behind his confusing acquaintance, Sunny approached Nephis to speak about the conditions of his assistance.

"Oi curly bastard!"

A boisterous voice shouted at Aldric. 

" I guess they convinced you to join huh? Wonder what they promised you."

She spoke in a teasing voice.

"Nothing much. Just some battles and a good time."

Aldric responded in kind.

They had a weird rivalry going on because of them both being hunters. It came to a peak when Aldric was given the title of "Dark Hunter". Effie was pissed that happened.

"Whatever"

"Heard you had to be kept safe like a princess from Gunlaug's big bad men."

He said clearly mocking her.

"You bastard!. You know what happened." 

Visibly aggravated by the insult, she responded.

"Whatever" 

He mirrored her previous dismissal.

A feeling broke through their conversation.

He was being observed.

'So this is the 'Dark Hunter'. I had never heard of him until Effie spoke about him during the past week. Did he really defeat a fallen rank creature alone?'

Observing the average-height, curly-haired hunter, he immediately felt an aura of cold darkness. Darkness that was much similar to the bastard that gutted him. 

Not knowing what to think about this revelation, he continued to peer at him as if he were an enchantment. 

A familiar spark was situated near his chest. It was as if the spark was spinning around his heart. 

'What the hell? How does he have a touch of divinity?'

'I only thought that the cathedral and Nephis were the only sources of divinity in the Dark City aside from myself.'

In a state of hidden shock, Sunny whispered to himself.

"Just who the hell are you?"

**********

Thank you for reading peeps.

What do we think about the chapter?

There will be a lot of dialogue moving forward. 

Anyone have any ideas for the future abilities of our boy Aldric?

Reading a lot of the comments, where do you guys get these gifs from so readily? 

Big 28 completed. 

Till the next one.

Peace.