Underground River

The river was very long, with sheer cliffs on both sides, and a waterfall at the back. There was no way to climb up, so the only path was to follow this underground river downstream.

Galen was very careful, with smooth stones on both banks. He nimbly climbed on these slippery rocks, moving extremely agilely.

Kyron followed behind him. Galen simply exposed his back to Kyron. Kyron's heart burned with the thought that if he had malicious intent, he could stab Galen in the back with a dagger and perhaps retrieve the axe.

But he only dared to think about it. This guy's muscles were all trembling, looking very intimidating. Kyron felt that even if he did attempt a sneak attack, he would likely be the one dead.

Kyron was not as agile as Galen and struggled to follow, slowly climbing over the stones.

They reached an underground river passage ahead. Even Galen stopped when he saw the dark tunnel, carefully observing the surroundings.

Galen did not look back at Kyron or into the black passage ahead. Instead, he looked up at the strange dim light on the dome ceiling and the steep rock walls around them.

After a while, he lowered his gaze into the river passage: "Are you ready?"

"...I'm ready!" Kyron had caught up, suddenly feeling a tinge of excitement. Was this the feeling of adventure?

Yes, knowingly facing mortal danger, yet unable to hold back the inner excitement instead of anxiety and fear.

Perhaps every boy is born with some adventurous genes!

Galen's domineering confidence had unconsciously infected Kyron as well.

...

Galen led the way into the dark underground river passage, and Kyron quickly followed.

Inside, the humid air felt suffocating. The stones on the ground were muddy and slippery, with moss growing on the surface, requiring extreme caution.

Fireflies flitted along the walls and cave, providing a faint glow. Kyron felt curious and reached out to catch them, but they immediately flew away.

Galen walked quickly, so Kyron had to give up catching fireflies and hurry to keep up.

After over half an hour of walking, leaving Kyron panting, they reached a flat area.

There was no path ahead, only a rushing underground river flowing deeper into the mountain's belly. The water deepened, with no footholds on either side.

Galen looked down at a wooden post with a broken rope, originally used to tie a boat that was now gone, leaving just the post.

"It must have been taken by skeletons or someone else!"

This meant they were not the first to enter this secret realm, as others had already gone in.

As Galen frowned in thought, Kyron walked to the edge of the flat area and noticed a cluster of bamboo growing in a dark corner.

"What about making a bamboo raft?" Kyron tentatively asked Galen.

Hearing this, Galen came over, his eyes lighting up. He felt along the wall and found a vine-like plant, pulling it down with considerable force.

"It should work!"

The two took out woodcutting axes and began chopping bamboo together. Kyron needed several axe swings to cut one bamboo stalk, but Galen could fell one with a single swing.

The difference in their strength was quite large.

"I'll chop the bamboo, you weave the raft!"

"Okay!"

Kyron readily agreed and immediately turned to cut the vines and weave the bamboo raft. He conveniently had a chilled dagger, very suitable for handling the vines.

Weaving the raft was meticulous work. Kyron feared the raft would fall apart in the river passage, so he bound several layers of vines, still not feeling reassured until he tested it again.

"This is enough, it's sturdy now. We need to hurry," said Galen with a frown.

They lifted the bamboo raft and placed it in the water. Galen stepped on first, sitting at the front, while Kyron jumped on and sat at the rear. Each holding a bamboo pole, they propelled the raft downstream.

...

This underground cavern was clearly a typical karst landform, with the winding underground river and interconnected caves - a massive underground water maze with who knows how many exits.

Propelling the bamboo raft downstream didn't require much effort, as they just drifted with the current's flow, using the poles mainly to push off cave walls if the current pushed the raft askew.

After half an hour, Kyron felt the current getting stronger and noticeably descending further downslope.

The surroundings were pitch black, with only fireflies flitting about and faint glows from overhead stalactites - too dim to see more than an arm's length ahead.

Galen frowned and took out a lighter to illuminate the path in front.

The raft emerged from the cavern into an open area, with dim ceiling light filtering down once more.

Suddenly, Galen forcefully planted his pole into the riverbed, abruptly stopping the raft and startling Kyron, who nearly fell into the water before quickly bracing himself with his own pole.

About to ask what happened, Kyron saw Galen pointing ahead and whispering, "Look!"

They had entered a larger cavern, with sandy banks reappearing on both sides of the river passage and strange purple, thorn-covered plants growing from the cliff walls and hanging down like curtains.

But Galen wasn't pointing at the plants, but rather at the riverbanks themselves.

The dark sandy banks seemed covered in still, rock-like shapes that on closer inspection were slowly writhing and clustered together - they were living creatures!

Their stillness made them easily mistakable for ordinary rocks, but focusing revealed they were unmistakably alligators, densely crowded on both banks.

There seemed to be countless alligators with a ferocious appearance that made Kyron not dare look too closely, his body trembling, while Galen stared intently for several minutes before sighing:

"This is just a level one instance, I thought it would be easy, but the difficulty seems higher than I expected!"

None of them had experience, it being their first secret realm instance. Who could have predicted such difficulty?