A Secret Passage

"I don't even know where we are now," Dandrik uttered as they passed by another large tree.

Carter looked around. They were currently in the mountains, searching for monsters. They have been walking around the area for two hours. And his instincts were telling him that they had already traveled so far.

He hasn't seen players in the area as if no one dared to advance up to this point. It was quite confusing and weird at the same time.

He wondered if there was something in the mountains that was being feared. It was weird specially that the place just looks like normal. Just like any other mountains that he could find on the various locations in the map.

"Should we venture more?" Joseph worriedly asked them.

"Let's walk for more minutes and if we still haven't found anything, then I think it's time to go back already," Carter suggested.

Dandrik and Joseph nodded their heads as a sign of agreement. They strolled more in the area, carefully surveying their eyes in each corner. They walked for fifteen more minutes when they finally decided to stop.

Joseph looked at his side. "I think we should go back already. We already walked too far." The man muttered as he made a worry face.

"Yes, I think we should already go back Carter," Dandrik added into Joseph's words.

Carter nodded. "Yeah. We should probably go back now."

As they turned their backs, Carter looked back one more time. He frowned when he noticed something shiny on the ground. He couldn't take his eyes off the thing.

"Wait… what is that?" Carter abruptly asked. His hands went on both Dandrik's and Joseph's arms to stop them from further walking.

"Huh?" Joseph confusingly looked at him.

Carter turned his body around and pointed to the shiny thing, located not so far away from their direction.

"W-What is that?" The man's eyes widened after looking at where Carter pointed his hands at.

They hurriedly ran over in that direction. The three of them were hesitant at first about whether they should pick the small stone on the ground that was shining or not. But in the end, Dandrik presented himself.

*Crackkk

A cracking sound sounded. Carter shifted his eyes to the tree in their front. The lower part until the middle part opened up. It created a passageway that fits a player's body.

"Should we enter?" Joseph asked anxiously. He was puzzled on why the tree opened up, suddenly.

"I think so?" Dandrik responded not surely. Both of them looked at Carter whose brows were now in a straight line.

"Let's go," the man announced when he felt the stares that were being thrown in his direction.

Carter was the first one to enter the tree and even though the two other men were in doubt about whether they should follow Carter, they still did.

The passageway was quite dark and stuffy. It just fits enough for a person that they couldn't do any other movements than just stand straight and walk directly.

"When will this going to end?" Joseph complained. They were walking for a couple of minutes already. It was already very dark, a sign that they have already walked a lot.

It was seconds after until they saw a white light on the end. The three men sprinted on their way when they noticed the light. When they officially got out from the tight passageway, they couldn't help but to groan.

'It was stuffy as hell' Carter thought.

"Where are we?" That was the first thing that Joseph blurted out.

Their eyes wandered around and saw that they were in another place. The place looked like an abandoned kingdom. The structure in the front was old and rusty. Carter could even see spider webs hanging on the sides of the gate.

They surveyed around the area until their feet halted when they saw someone. It was an old man standing on the side. The old man was wearing a brown colored dress that was designated for men.

The old man has a white beard reaching his neck even though he was bald, just like them.

"Should we go near to the man?" Dandrik murmured after noticing the same person whose back was facing them.

"I think so…" Carter replied after taking a swift glance at the man one more time.

"I can handle this," Joseph smiled widely and proceeded to go near the old man.

"Hi! May we know where we are?" Joseph suddenly asked that surprised the old man.

"Hello, young man. You can call me Romy." The old man, Romy, smiled.

"Hi Sir Romy. May we know what we can find in this place?" Dandrik questioned after Romy talked.

The old man's expression immediately changed. The smiling face from earlier turned into horror as if they said something wrong.

"B-Be careful! There is someone lurking in this area! You must go now before it could devour you completely." Romy stuttered.

"Who is that someone? Huh? What is happening?" Carter asked.

But before they could even hear an answer from the man, it mysteriously disappeared, leaving them alone, clueless and confused.