Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich took Irene to a local sailor that provided this service, they transported people to and from the island. It was a popular destination before the increase in danger.

A dozen years ago, there was a sudden spike of monsters and so the people of Ebrict had to reduce their visits to Umbra island. In turn this allowed the monsters to increase their numbers even more.

However that was not even the half of it, the island became a hub for bandits and pirates alike.

Of course this angered the lord and he retaliated with righteous anger but the pirates and bandits were cowardly vermin and knew to hide in the crevices of the island.

It was especially troublesome when a tribe of gnoll pirates settled in, they were very strong and stubborn, no matter how many of their number were slaughtered they wouldn't leave.

Humans naturally were not the only pirates that roamed the sea.

The island was actually still not that bad as even ordinary people can go in and back safely, of course there were some unlucky few.

These pirates and bandits were actually busy fighting among themselves all the time and unless there was an external attack with huge numbers they were likely to ignore that.

Which is why the lord was using them to kill each other so long as they were stimulated correctly and at the appropriate time.

Despite that people were still sensible enough not to venture into the island unless they had no other choice.

Crestmasters who wanted to take a look at the island naturally didn't worry too much. Their only concern most of the time was to not encounter multiple grade one monsters rather than pirates or bandits.

Of course the gnoll tribe was a different case since they were just unreasonable and they had gnoll pack leaders.

Aldrich had no plan to go too deep into the island, so when the ferryman docked the boat in the small dock of Umbra island he thanked him and extended his hand to Irene to help her out.

But Irene didn't take his hand, she ignored it and climbed on the dock-way herself. Aldrich pulled his hand back and frowned.

"Eh, so where to?" Aldrich asked to dispel the awkward mood just now.

"Hm, we could go to the Aelmor watch tower up the hill, it's the closest place that could also allow you to have a good view." Irene said without turning to look at him.

"Uh, yeah that sounds like the perfect place, let's go."

Aldrich observed the old and abandoned dock and sighed at the state that it was in. The island looked incredibly beautiful with vibrant trees and colorful flowers and fruits.

The watch tower was above a hill that overlooked the old docks, the tower was in the same condition as the docks but with a little effort it could be restored fairly easily.

Aldrich didn't know what to say, to be honest the silence unnerved him. Irene had been a little… cold. She didn't say much if anything on their one hour long trip on the boat.

"N-nice weather huh?" Aldrich said and immediately cursed himself in his mind a thousand times.

'Why did I say that?'

"Yeah… nice weather." Irene replied, "this is the best place to get a good look at the island. There's the Pilgrim's Path, then there's the Howling Pass and finally the Stone stairs."

Irene pointed to several locations, they didn't enter the watch tower just this high hill gave them good enough view.

After all the watch tower was not in the best condition it was best not to test just how ruined it really was.

"The Stone stairs are the center of this island's legend about the Umbra monastery, it is said that it was built on that giant flat rock, it is believed that the stone stairs were built to lead to it. But as you can see there's nothing there, just empty land."

That was true Aldrich didn't see anything and it even seemed that nothing at all was built on that giant flat rock.

There were no ruins or any sign that anything was ever there, it lacked even a hint of some ages old monastery. Unless it was somehow buried under the giant rock, an unlikely possibly.

Suddenly Aldrich got an idea and used his Eyes of Insight to look. Since it had leveled up, he was keen to test it out and see just how it improved. He now knew that not everything was displayed on the attributes panel.

Aldrich took a step back. To his eyes at this moment the giant rock was still empty.

But it was surrounded by some kind of dome made of what looked like Ether lines that intersected and diverged at different points. Glyphs shined and glittered on belts of light.

Beneath the dome there was a hundred different spheres of different colors dancing to a strange and terrible rhythm.

"So? You, done?" Irene asked and interrupted his thoughts.

"No, I'm not." Aldrich answered. He saw something that intrigued him but it wasn't his priority right now.

"What else is there?" Irene asked.

Aldrich didn't know, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Why did Irene's attitude towards him change so suddenly?

"I… want the necklace that I gave you, give it back." Aldrich demanded, and yet that wasn't what he wanted to say. But he just felt that he didn't know how to ask.

Irene finally looked at him, she was obviously upset. With quick movement she took it off and threw it at him. He caught it.

"Are you done? Now can we go?" Irene asked sharply.

"What's wrong? Why are you mad at me all of a sudden?" Aldrich has had it and he decided to just ask.

"I-I'm not not mad. Now can we go?"

"You're obviously mad. Can you talk clearly, what's wrong?" Aldrich asked since he simply couldn't figure it out.

Obviously he was going to take the necklace back but asking for it here and now was a mistake.