The craggy peaks of the sea bordering mountains came into view through the morning mist. They stretched into the sky, higher than the clouds allowed one to see. Their vertical, smooth faces, seemingly unclimbable, made them all the more impressive. They looked like they were made by gods.

Kayden lost focus on the mountain range as the bow of the ship got slammed by a strong wave. He grabbed the railing so that he wouldn't fall and face plant on the splintery, slippery deck. Once he regained balance he looked around him to see other aspiring adventurers pointing and shouting at the mountains. They had finally made it.

The small ship was probably only capable of holding one hundred people and it was jammed packed. Many nights, people including Kayden had to sleep on the wet, spruce floors. He had woken up many times with rashes from being soaked in water. Clearly, the ship wasn't very well water proofed. He had been on the ship for two months, traveling across a vast ocean so he had dealt with these conditions for quite a while.

Every time he got fed up with the traveling situations, he just remembered why he was doing what he was doing. Only a couple of months before, June 1st; Kayden remembered the date exactly; a news messenger had come to his village with waving arms and an excided demeanor. He had stood in the town center on a log and spoke of how the great military leader of their country, Rusher, had discovered a new land. The messenger spoke of how the people who lived there, across the ocean, lived by no rules, no morale code, just violence. They were barbarians. Not much was known of the land but he said that Rusher had gone just to explore, not to conquer.

Rusher is hailed as a hero in their land. Many evil forces have risen on the horizons, threatening to crush their way of life. The nation to the south had launched a massive land and naval invasion, destroying the southern towns and cities of their country, Farchon. In less than three weeks, Rusher had not only driven out the invaders but also took over a large chunk of their territory during the retreat. This created a buffer land between the southern nation and Farchon.

Long story short, Rusher is a military genius. Usually wherever Rusher goes, a large following follows. People feel safe by him. They'll do anything he says…

Kayden glanced back at the peaks of the approaching barbaric lands Rusher had discovered. Various posters were plastered around his village, inviting people to come over to the new land, still without a name, and settle down. Rusher was trying to expand the Farchon empire but he needed people to do it.

Kayden's heart swelled with the pride of the idea that he was going to be forging new frontiers alongside his hero, Rusher. Rusher was also calling for troop recruits to set up a small army and defense groups to protect the new settlements from barbaric attack. Kayden was planning on joining the ranks; to serve under Rusher. The posters did warn of danger though; that nothing was yet established and there would be no food or shelter, that you'd have to forge for a while on your own. Rusher expected people to come together and form small settlements, bases, and forts. This would slowly enable safety for the settlers of the new land.

Rumor had it, that there was only one, small opening in the seaside cliffs where people could enter the continent. The place was only about a kilometer wide and it was notoriously named 'Spawn'. Adventurers were cautioned that barbarians knew to wait at this place to attack unexpecting, ungeared people.

Admittedly, Kayden was a bit nervous but he had gained a few friends on the long trip out here who he planned to stick with for a while. Kayden took a deep breath as he stared back at the vast ocean he had come from. This was further out than most people had ever explored. This was the unknown.

No more than a few minutes later, it came into view…spawn. Its majestic mouth opened up as if it wanted to eat the ocean. The walls of the pass shot up into the sky, into the clouds and mist. The ship turned towards it and continued on, keeping a steady pace alongside the waves. Once they were about a half kilometer away, the ship stopped.

Why has it stopped? We're almost there. He thought.

The old spruce door at the back of the deck opened and the captain came out. He raised his voice to be heard over the crowd. "This is as far as we go. You'll all have to load into the row boats and go the rest of the way on your own."

Everyone started chatting excitedly but Kayden walked up to the captain as he turned to walk away. "Captain! Wait!"

Seemingly annoyed, the captain turned around. "Yes?"

"Why not go all the rest of the way. We're almost there."

The captain squinted through his old eyes before hiking up his leather jacket. He spoke solemnly. "Let's just say that on my past trips, I've lost a few too many crew members to arrow fire."

Leaving Kayden frozen, the captain turned back around and walked back into the bowels of the ship.

Fear really hit Kayden for the first time. This was real now.

"Kayden!" Someone called his name. He turned to see his new friend, JohnnyPlayz2004, stepping into a boat which was suspended over the side of the ship like a life boat. "Come on! Get on my boat before it fills up!"

Kayden rushed over to the boat which was already half full and stepped inside. Its swaying threw him off and made him fall to the floor.

"Clumsy." Johnny said as he helped Kayden up onto a seat.

"Thanks."

"Are you ready man!?" Johnny asked. He was excited. Far more than Kayden was, which was hard to believe.

"Well it's kind of scary. There are barbarians there you know."

Johnny dismissed that with a wave of his hand. "Pffft. Tall tales. Just to generate publicity."

Kayden shrugged. "Maybe. But I guess we'll see when we get there."

"I guess so."

Suddenly, a girl, about their age, 17, jumped into the seat across from them. "Hey, boys."

"Oh. Hey Gamma!" Johnny replied, too jittery to sit still.

"Hey Johnny P!" She then turned towards Kayden, her green eyes looked straight at him. Her blonde hair reflected in the sunlight. "And how are you Kayden?" she asked with a hint of mischievousnes.

"I'm doing great. You?"

"Fantastic! We're about to meet Rusher!"

"Well we might – not meet him right away. He's going to be off exploring." Kayden pointed out sort of obviously.

"Whatever, we'll be serving under him which is super cool, regardless."

Once again, Kayden shrugged.

The boat launched a few minutes later. Four guys took over the oars and made their way, through the violent waves, towards spawn. Once they got within one hundred blocks of the beach, things started to clear up and become more visible. Everyone was looking to see what they could see.

Expecting to see pristine sand and trees, Kayden was…taken back. There were no trees and the beach was made up mostly of mud. Random cobblestone structures filled in the gap, creating an ugly display. What seemed like a thick grime floated on the water outside of the beach.

"This isn't exactly what I expected." Gamma commented.

"Neither did I. Something feels-wrong." He answered back absently as he took in what he was seeing with confusion.

Johnny scratched his head. "Maybe just the entrance is like this, ya' know?" No one answered back. The entire boat had fallen silent.

All of a sudden there was movement on the beach. A few people pointed and whispered quickly. What seemed to be a man, ran out from a gap in the mess of cobblestone and made his way to a boat that was parked on the beach. Frantically, he pulled it into the water, jumped in, and started making his way towards them. Everyone watched in silence as his boat passed theirs. He didn't look up from his oars and just powered through the group of other boats. The man was young; maybe mid-twenties, and was dirty from head to toe. He also had a frantic look on his face as he made his way towards the ship.

"Rusher messenger?" Someone on the boat said.

"Yeah, probably." Replied another.

The sinking feeling in Kayden's stomach intensified. There seemed to be something really distraught about him. Like he had seen something no one should ever have to see.

Kayden settled back down in his boat and sunk lower into his seat almost wishing he didn't have to get up for a while.

"That was weird." Gamma said, stating the obvious.

Seeing the state of the man who just passed, put everyone into a deeper silence. The pilots of the boats steered the one hundred or so people towards the beach.

Not more than a minute later, the front of the small boats hit the shore. Kayden's heart skipped a beat when he felt that.

People started filing out of the boats. Some seemed wary but for the most part, most were jittery and excited.

Kayden followed Jonny out. Gamma exited last. Kayden's feet landed in the mud. Foot prints were everywhere in the muck. Trash littered the beach and it stunk to high hell. Some people started gagging.

Kayden looked down the line of people. About one-hundred-twenty in all. They all seemed to be transfixed on the cobblestone and dirt mess that blocked their way through the pass.

"How are we going to get through?" Gamma asked as she pressed up against Kayden.

Johnny pointed towards a thin gap in the cobble. "We should be able to slide through those holes and gaps."

Just then a woman, maybe in her late twenties, turned towards Johnny with a contemplative look on her face. "It looks really thick in there. I don't know if I could handle that. What if I get stuck!?"

Johnny ushered her to calm down. "Don't worry. I'll help you through."

Kayden took a deep breath as he noticed that the group was moving into the jungle of cobblestone pillars. "We better get going." He said to his friends "We don't want to be left behind."

He took Gamma's hand who seemed surprised. "C'mon. We can do this." Her surprised look faded into an innocent smile as she followed alongside Kayden. To be honest, Kayden took her hand because he was scared himself although he wasn't willing to admit it.

They were mere blocks from the cobble when commotion was heard from within the depths of the mess. Everyone froze in their tracks. Kayden listened intensely as he tried to stay as still as possible. He glanced over at Jonny who was quietly stepping over a deep crevasse in the cobble mess. His face was in shadow from the thousands of cobblestone blocks above them. Kayden turned back to face the front. He didn't hear anything more.

"That was weird." Gamma said shakily. "That sounded like people."

Kayden shook his head. "Probably just an animal. Come on." He tugged on Gammas hand and they continued. Everyone else seemed to regain their wits also and started moving again.

Kayden let go of Gammas hand to jump over a few blocks deep gap. His friends followed suit. He then climbed over a rocky pile of cobble before weaving through thick, unorderly pillars.

This is strange cobblestone. Kayden thought ominously. Something really isn't right here. It looks almost as if buildings were built here and destroyed and buildings were built on top of them only to be destroyed again. Kayden also noticed that there were many places where it looked as if TNT had gone off. Hell, all of it seemed as if TNT went off. One block wide pillars shot up through gaps in the cobble as if they were used by people to get out of the blocky mess. Other blocks were seen also. Wooden planks, dirt, gravel, and sand were all strewn throughout, only making the place seem more chaotic.

Suddenly, through his not paying attention to his steps, Kayden's foot didn't touch anything on his next step and he fell with a yell. He scrambled to grab something as he fell. His right hand grabbed a ledge of cobblestone as he panicked.

"Kayden!" he heard Gamma yell frantically. Kayden looked up to see Gamma reaching down to grab his wrist. Jonny ran over and offered his hand to Kayden.

"D-don't look down, buddy. Just grab my hand." Jonny stuttered. Kayden couldn't help it. Despite his fear he looked down and instantly became disoriented.

Below him was a vast expanse. After a large gulp Kayden realized what he was seeing. Below him was a large, dark cavern. It descended dozens of blocks. The blocks at the bottom seemed to be…bedrock. That's a far way down. He thought panickily. Bedrock! This cavern was so deep it reached bedrock! Various lava and water streams fell from the ceiling of the cavern which, as far as Kayden could see, extended in all directions. Various shafts of light, coming from other holes in the surface, lit up sections of the bottom.

"Kayden, I can't hold you up much longer!" Gamma yelled. Kayden shot his head up to see his friends above him, terrified.

"Give me your hand!" Jonny yelled. This time he did as he was told. He slowly reached up and grabbed Jonny's hand. They then pulled Kayden up out of the cavern.

"Woah." Jonny said as Kayden collected himself. "The ground is hollow?" No one spoke for a few more moments and they stared down into the hole.

Someone, another adventurer, came up behind them and looked down into the hole. "We better be careful." He said. "Even the land can kill us."

"Who are you?" Jonny asked.

Kayden recognized him from the ship. He had brown hair and was above average in height. He wore basic clothes. Kayden had never spoken to him though.

"My name is Lich. You?" He asked as he offered his hand to Jonny. Jonny shook it. "This is Gamma and Kayden. I'm JonnyPlayz2004. We're sticking together."

"You are? Mind if I join you? I never found anyone on the ship worth sticking with."

Jonny looked over at Kayden and Gamma with a skeptical look in his eyes. After a moment of hesitation Kayden responded. "Sure, why not? It's dangerous here. We'd be safer with more numbers."

"Cool! Thanks!" Lich cheered. "Lead the way."

Kayden nodded before carefully stepping around the deadly hole in the ground. He tried not looking directly down into it, but he still caught a glimpse of the massive expanse of open air right beneath their feet.

"We better pick up pace. We don't want to be left behind." Kayden said before picking his way around the craggy cobblestone.

After walking for about ten more minutes, there was still no end in sight to the jungle of junk blocks.

"I wonder when this will end." Gamma said. "It has to at some point."

Jonny responded. "You're right. Rusher wouldn't ask for assistance if this is all there was. This place so far is useless. We'll be on rolling hills and in lush forests before you know it."

"I hope so." Gamma said.

A minute later the group rounded a large mountain of cobblestone. It was probably created by someone repeatedly pouring lava on top of water and water on top of that lava to create a cascading effect of cobblestone. Kayden knew this as a 'lava cast'. It was a viable tactic in covering something up. It was used for both flat out grieving, and warfare. He had seen a few of them when he had traveled down south right after the war against the southern nation. The southern nation had created massive, two-hundred block high lava casts to smother entire villages. The rubble is still being cleaned up.

The one they saw here was a relatively small one, only about fifteen blocks tall from the surface. Kayden could only imagine what laid underneath.

Once they had gotten around it, Kayden had stopped in his tracks. The others did too. Ahead of them was a clearing in the jungle of cobble. A twenty by twenty block base was cleared out and in the middle of it, sat a small wooden hut. The clearing was open to the gray sky. A few fellow adventurers sat against the side of the hut, taking a rest. They waved at Kayden and the group as they appeared. They waved back.

"Anyone else curious to peek inside?" Lich asked.

"There may be something inside that we could find useful. Like food or tools." Jonny suggested.

Gamma responded "It's probably completely raided and the owner long gone." She waved her hand at it as if to dismiss it.

"Wouldn't hurt to check though." Kayden countered. He started walking forward and upon reaching the entrance, realized that there was no door. He took his first step through the doorway only to be greeted by an awful smell. The inside was about only three by three blocks and there was a small table in one corner. As Kayden looked down to the left what he saw in the corner repulsed him and made him jump back into the doorway, slamming into Jonny.

"Hey, what the hell!? What was that for?" Jonny asked as he pushed Kayden off him.

Kayden put his hands on his knees as he took in big gulps of air. Gamma started walking towards the entrance to investigate but Kayden grabbed her wrist to stop her. She let out a small gasp at that. "Do not go in there…you don't need to see that." Kayden had never seen a dead body before…at least not like that. It looked like it had been sitting there for weeks but there were no animals around, to help it decompose properly. It was just sitting there, letting the forces of gravity take it over. Rain that must have seeped in through the destroyed ceiling and that battered the body, also took its toll.

Lich walked over to Kayden and knelt next to him. "Are you okay? Need to talk about it?" Kayden shook his head then stood up after he composed himself, the image of the body still in the forefront of his mind.

"Let's just get going. There's nothing here."

Lich nodded then stood back up and ushered the group forward. The group of three other adventurers sitting taking a rest looked shocked at Kayden's reaction. Clearly, they hadn't looked inside the hut before lying down next to it.

Kayden, Gamma, Jonny, and Lich climbed their way through the dark mess of junk blocks, just trying to not break an ankle. Gamma eventually came up next to Kayden and grabbed his hand. After a moment of silence, she spoke. "I'm scared of this place. I thought when we got here…there would be sunshine and a welcoming party. Not garbage and endless cobblestone." Her words left a dark mark on Kayden. He had thought the same things. Why would Rusher bring them to a place like this especially when there are no sources of food or clean water?

Kayden looked up the side of the sharp stone cliff up through a hole in the cobblestone. It stretched up into the clouds, out of view. 'What is this place' he thought as he swung his legs over a cobblestone block.

Lich brought up the back and Kayden could see that some other adventurers were catching up behind them. "We should pick up the pace if we want to get out of this cobble jungle before nightfall-"

"Look! There!" Jonny yelled as he pointed forward. The group followed his finger straight ahead. "You can see open sky!" Jonny pushed ahead and started bounding around cobble and a water stream to get to a short cobblestone wall which he climbed with ease.

"Come on. Let's follow!" Gamma said as she ran ahead. "This must be the end of the cobblestone!" Kayden looked back at Lich who shrugged and began to jog, himself. Kayden followed him up the wall, excitement bubbling in his stomach. Will Rusher's base of operations be here? Will the rolling hills and lush forests start? A thousand images of what was possible ran through his head in a matter of seconds. He rose over the top of the ledge and stopped dead in his tracks. The rest of the group was silent and standing still.

Ahead of them, the air opened…but to unbelievable wasteland. There were no trees or any grass in sight. Stone and cobblestone made up the majority of the blocks in sight. The ground was riddled with craters and holes and there was almost no flat ground. Lava casts dominated the landscape, some going up to sky limit. Cobble pillars arced and zig-zagged across the sky like lightening frozen in time. The further out Kayden could see, the worse it seemed to get. Massive delipidated junk structures were all over and had lava and water falling from them. The occasional dirt block broke up the overwhelming gray that seemed to eat away at your soul. This was worse than any warzone Kayden had ever seen. There was not an animal in sight.

What is this? Kayden thought as the bad feeling that had been building in his stomach finally exploded. Where's the paradise that Rusher promised?