Stephan examined the room, moving his head all around it. He wondered how it stood there like that without falling. It was a magic world after all. When he explored the castle in the game, there wasn't any mechanism like this. All the secret doors had block mechanisms, you merely had to push one of the bricks and a secret passage opened. He grinned thinking that even the demon in angel skin could get things wrong.
There was one true way to get access to the secret passages of the castle of Dimitruicasten without a special seal; the adventurer or the seeker had to pass a test that happened in a separate dimension. Stephan didn't know about that. However, he made sure to take a pen and a notebook he found near the bed with him. He was the calculative type and since he realised many things weren't loyal to his memory; he had to make a plan.
"What's this again? Why do these side quests pop up from nowhere? However, I am happy because of it. Out of all the quests until now, I like this one the best right now. I can finally find a sceptre, maybe some more."
The problem was that he didn't know about the test. Aurora, when she made the game Legend of the Past, gave full access to the player before. However, Masmoenia was a real-world, different from that game. The only reason for that game to exist in the first place was to find the one she wanted to bargain with.
Stephan was always a serious player, even in life. He made notes and drew maps as he explored different places. He had to redraw what he remembered from the game.
He opened the door and gasped. The light of the torches in the chamber streamed into the doorway to reveal a huge, muscled monster holding a massive, spiked club in one hand, it raged roaring. Stephan glanced at the chamber's door that opened immediately. The bandits, their weapons in hand, rushed towards the apprentice.
"I guess I have no choice. Goodbye my dear cute guards," he waved at them then stepped inside the secret door. It closed behind him leaving the bandits looking around for traces of the door.
The creature slammed its club against the ground then Stephan. Considering he had no weapon, only a pen and a notebook in hand, he rolled aside dodging the spikes. The creature had a garment hiding its private part and skulls attached to a belt. From the green look of it, he knew it was an ogre. He looked around for a sword and realized he wasn't in the castle anymore; he was in a forest but it seemed different from the one he came from.
It had lush green vegetation and full-grown trees with big branches and bright leaves. It looked like a version of a past forest that didn't exist anymore. However, he recognized the place as one of the special forests around Valtrar. The ogre smiled a jagged-toothed grin then bent down to pick a rock and shoved it at Stephan.
Instinctively, he wanted to blast it with a fire spell. However, he didn't have any scepters, his only option was to run away and lose the ogre inside the forest. With his great luck, he could do that. As if the ogre understood his plan, it roared again. Just then, like a tidal wave crashing against the dock, a heap of goblins appeared behind him, showing their heads one by one, popping out like mushrooms from the bushes.
"By the beard of Gandalf! Talk about luck! Don't I have the worst of it all?"
A horrid sound of gleeful cheers erupted from their mouths, then arrows and spears followed. Meanwhile, the ogre tightened the grip around the rock. For a moment, Stephan thought it was the end of him. He tilted his head to the side then the rock flew next to his head, missing him by one hair, and struck the chest of a goblin. A crashing sound followed and Stephan understood the goblin was dead.
"Since I intruded on your warm reunion, I shall go my way, my dear goblins and ogre," with this, Stephan started running, his life hanging on a thread.
The horde of goblins led by an ogre followed him, so keen on hunting him and making him an example of what followed each adventurer roaming those lands. Oh, how chained to his daily toiling he was, so he could intrude of the exquisite battle between two races. The sun was high in the sky and the chase reminded him of that time he failed the tutorial quest and was given a penalty one. This time, he didn't have a weapon but the monsters were killable.
"If I had my sceptre, I would have burnt you all, you stupid green vegetables. Oh, how I hate green vegetables? Such a fitting description of these dumbasses?"
The goblins were known for slight speed and the skill of climbing trees. Therefore, climbing a tree to hide wasn't a good idea and throwing rocks wasn't either. He kept running until he felt his stamina dropping to almost 0. Right when he was almost exhausted, he remembered the forest's name. Right now known as the Plaguelands, formerly known as the forest of maledictions simply because of the existence of a terrifying monster by the river.
"I am in the future. The game was in the past. No wonder everything changed and the game system is slightly different. She didn't make the game on assumptions, she made it on past events. But is that?"
Knowing he couldn't survive the hunt, he chose to lead the goblins to the monster's den. Right now, the monster wouldn't come out, as long as he didn't touch the water. The horde stopped when he reached the land of the Sea Serpent. They eyed him with anger and threw rocks at him but with his luck, they all missed. In the end, Stephan stuck his tongue out at them.
"Next time, choose your prey wisely, you bunch of green vegetables."