Primus greeted Elder Yelena and she led him to the temporary encampment site. At a large clearing, there were multiple tents and wooden barricades sperating the members of the Thunderbird's Guild from normal passengers. The utmost peripheral of the encampment was occupied by a large blue tent with a shimmering emerald sphere encompassing it. The tent had the symbol of a golden bird embroidered on its silky fabric and was undoubtedly a spacial item with more space than its size suggested on the inside.
Avdan hadn't returned yet, so Primus decided to get settled in before exploring the less dangerous parts of Cursed Island. Elder Yelena assigned him to the leftmost position of the encampment where his tent was. It was quite spacious and had a bed, desk, and glowing orb. The glowing orb was a luxury the other passengers, excluding the Thunderbird's guildsmen, couldn't afford. Any other source of light such as torches could burn the cheap fabric their tents were made of, so they had no choice but to settle for sunlight. As for why Primus had a glowing orb, it was evident Elder Yelena viewed him favourably and was trying recruit him into the Thunderbird's Guild.
Primus smiled wryly. He unpacked his luggage and exited the tent. Just as he was about to leave the encampment, a voice came from behind him:
"Hey, you! Where are you going?"
Primus turned around and saw a short young man with whittled black hair dressed in plain clothes of the same color. He had an intricate bird-like tattoo on the back of his right hand.
"Remind me how that's any of your business."
"It's none of my business, but I'm really curious about Cursed Island, and I saw you heading to the Isle of Death. So I thought I'd warn you." The young man continued, "I'm Randall by the way."
"The Isle of Death?" Primus muttered.
"Oh, you haven't heard of it? It's the reason this island is cursed. There's a spacial rift at its center that monsters come through. It doesn't matter how many fiends we slaughter since they'll just keep pouring through the rift."
"So all we need to do to turn this island into a Stronghold is seal the rift right?"
"That is correct. The rift itself isn't that stable, so a mid-tier Spacial Seal should do."
Primus' eyes basically turned into CRC signs when he heard that. The mid-tier Spacial Seal wasn't too costly, so he could afford it and potentially profit from it if he managed to seal the spacial rift at the center of the Isle of Death. If he sealed the rift, not only would the game register a new Stronghold under his name that he could use as his guild's headquarter like Samane did, but he also stood to gain a huge sum of CRC since the Cursed Island clearing operation had been issued by the Golden Star Guild, one of the wealthiest guilds in all of CR. They promised a lucrative renumeration.
"How do you know about this spacial rift though?"
"I've seen it before. I'm one of the Thunderbird's guildsman. We attempted the clearing operation with an Elder once, but we failed miserably." Randall sighed.
Primus wasn't surprised that Randall was a member of the Thunderbird's Guild because of the Guild Sigil on his right hand. Guild Sigils allowed members to communicate over long distances with each other, depending on the Sigil's level, identify other guildsmen, access the Guild Marketplace by remote, and receive perks from Elders, co-leaders, and the leader.
"If even a first-rate player and possibly fifty other of the Thunderbird's guildsmen failed to to seal the rift, what hope do both of us have then?"
"We failed because we lacked information. The spacial rift is unstable, but the monsters that come through it are extremely powerful, and although we can't beat them, I know how to avoid them."
"So, we make it to the spacial rift as fast as we can, then seal it before the monsters can get to us?"
"Precisely." Randall nodded.
The monster clearing could be left to the Golden Star guildsmen, all Primus had to do to gain a Stronghold and a huge sum of money was seal an unstable spacial rift. How hard could that be?
"Let's scout first."
They both went west of Cursed Island. The thick bushes and shade of tall trees blotted out sunlight and turned the environment dark. Primus and Randall hadn't even gone that far when a roar suddenly came from in front of them.
Randall instantly pulled a dagger out of nothingness. He wanted the beast dead.
From the darkness, a huge body jumped on Randall, throwing him to the ground. Primus summoned the Shadow Blade and stabbed the creature. The blade bit into the beast's flesh and drew purple blood from it.
The creature resembled a lion with an eagle's head and had two tails. Its trembling muscles bulged beneath its skin and its three eyes shone ominously with red light.
Primus slid underneath the beast and pierced its belly, he slashed the blade horizontally, and the beast's guts spilled everywhere. It jumped back with a howl, but Primus followed it, his short sword glowing darkly.
The creature roared and charged at Primus. He jumped into the air and did a flip, then he threw the Shadow Blade at the creature's head which exploded upon impact.