Zane opened his eyes. He is in an enclosed space. Space looked like it was surrounded by tree roots and the ground was covered with a layer of stone.
"Are you awake?"
He turned in the direction of the voice. He saw his teammates. Mike and Elora were sitting near an entrance of a path leading to the unknown while Eric and Ariel were beside him.
"Where are we?" Zane asked.
"I'm not sure but it seems like we have been dragged into a hidden path," Eric replied.
"A hidden path?"
Eric started to explain.
A hidden path is a mysterious existence. No one knows where or when they will appear but their existence has been confirmed.
A dungeon would only have one boss monster, which is the most powerful monster in the dungeon. Once the boss is defeated, monsters will stop spawning and the portal will start to close.
Rarely, dungeons can have a hidden path that leads to a hidden boss whose strength could be stronger or weaker than the dungeon main boss. Defeating the hidden boss doesn't close the portal or stop monsters from spawning but it does give grand rewards.
The most mysterious thing about a hidden path is that not only can it be found, it can also find you. In Team 1's case, the path found them.
Was this a blessing from the heavens? Well, it depends. If you were to find a hidden path, you could choose whether to enter it or wait for reinforcements if the boss is too strong. But if you were dragged into it, the only way to get out is to defeat the hidden boss.
In other words, they are trapped there until they defeat the hidden boss whose strength is still unknown.
"So, have you guys seen the hidden boss?" Zane asked as he saw the last to wake up.
"No, we haven't. It would be safer for everyone to go together." Eric replied.
"How long has it been?"
"I'm not sure but I'm the first to wake up and it's been half an hour since then," Ariel said.
"Well, let's get going. There are no other ways out anyways." Eric said and got up.
.
.
The moment Team 1 disappeared,
"What?" Mr Holt received an alert. He took out his tablet and saw that all five recruits from Team 1 had disappeared or went out of range.
"Mr Holt. Could it be a hidden path?" A slayer asked.
"A hidden path in an E ranked dungeon? Impossible. Maybe their wristband broke. Deploy a team to find them."
"Yes sir."
'It couldn't be a hidden path right?' Me Holt thought to himself. The last thing he wants is for his recruit to die in the first week.
.
.
Back to the hidden path,
After Zane woke up, their group went through the opening. The cave wasn't narrow. If anything it was wide, it could even fit three cars at a time. The ceiling had orbs illuminating light, they weren't very bright but at least they could walk in it. The ground was covered with a layer of stone and it was oddly flat.
After a few minutes, they arrived at a junction. In front of them were two paths.
"What do we do?" Ariel asked.
"Should we split up?" Mike asked.
"Let's split up. Arie and I would take the left path while Elora, Mike and Zane take the right. We'll return here in 15 minutes whether we find anything or not." Eric suggested.
The rest of them nodded.
"Alright Let's go," Eric said before going through the left path.
About 5 minutes in, Zane saw something odd.
'What's that,' he saw wave patterns coming from behind. The wave patterns increase as time passes until he sees a humanoid figure that was glowing green coming towards them.
"Run!" He alerted his teammates and started running and the other two followed.
"What Is it?" Elora asked.
"Just run! On our left, there's an opening."
After a while, they saw the opening as Zane had said.
*huff.*
*huff.*
*huff.*
"What was…" Elora stopped mid-sentence.
*thud*
*thud*
*thud*
*thud*
*thud*
The ground shook as if a giant was stomping the ground. Soon, they see a giant figure. It stopped just in front of the opening. The giant looked like a walking withered tree. It stood about 3 metres tall, almost hitting the ceiling.
The trio was stunned. They covered their mouths with their hands, not wanting to make any sound.
After looking around, the giant continued walking.
*Huff* they let out a sigh of relief after seeing the giant leave.
"It's gone. Let's continue."
Just then,
*Crack* the ground beneath them cracked, causing them to fall deeper
*Splash *
*Splash *
*Splash *
Instead of falling to their deaths, they fell into the water. They fell into a pond.
"Huh?" As soon as they got out of the water they saw someone coming out of an opening. It was Eric and Ariel.
"What are you guys doing here? Did you guys fall as well?" Elora asked
"Fall? We walked here. More importantly, how did you guys get here?" Eric answered.
"Well, the ground broke when we were hiding from a monster and we fell in."
"That should be impossible. How can you be here when you fell through the ground? " Ariel said.
The trio was confused.
"The thing is, we have been walking in a straight line the moment we separated so…" Eric explained.
'I'm sure we fell and it was quite deep. How is this possible?' Zane thought.
"No use pondering over it. It must be how the dungeon works. Let's keep going." Eric said and they continued walking towards the other opening.
As they left the area, an orb rose from the water. A slit appeared in the centre of the orb and it slowly opened. It was an eye.
.
.
Team 1 made their way to another enclosed space that was ten times bigger than the one they woke up in. It didn't have any opening other than the one they came from.
"A dead end?" Mike exclaimed.
"Let's head back. Maybe it's the other path." Eric suggested and they turned towards the entrance.
"Wait. Where's the entrance?"
The entrance they came from was nowhere to be found.