Daring woke up in the middle of the night by the sound of a long, deep groan. With a shovel, she quickly picked up a piece of charcoal from the remains of her campfire and attached it to a wooden stick. After attaching the charcoal, she lit the torch, brandishing it as a weapon. Exiting her hut, she took a look around her. The forest was completely dark, and the trees were blocking the moonlight. The only source of light for Daring was from her torch, and that was barely enough light to see even ten feet in front of her.

"Who's there?" Daring yelled loudly, but there was only silence as a response.

Suddenly, she heard another loud groan. It was much closer this time, and Daring turned towards the direction from where the noise had come. She could see a distant figure slowly approaching her, but there was not enough light for her to clearly see.

Is it friendly, or is it a predator? Thoughts popped up into Daring's brain like bubbles. As the shadow approached, Daring could hear its loud groans and the sound of its hoofsteps.

Could it be... a zombie? Daring took a step backwards. She had heard about these foul creatures of the undead who would attack any living thing in sight. She grabbed her saddlebag, held onto the torch with her teeth and ran in the opposite direction of the zombie.

But then she heard the same groan in front of her as well. From the light of the torch, she saw another shadow approaching her slowly from the front. She ran to the right, but yet another groan stopped her.

She was surrounded. Daring slowly backed off to where her hut was, and she evaluated her situation. She was surrounded by three unknown, most likely hostile, creatures. There was no way to escape, and her only weapon was the torch that could go out at any second. She continued to step backwards as the groans grew even louder, and the shadows of the creatures slowly melted away as they entered the torchlight.

They were standing on two legs and holding out their two front hooves. Their eyes were empty, and their skin was green and disgusting. Daring could smell the scent of rotten flesh coming from them. They did not look like ponies at all; their faces were flat, they didn't have a nose or a muzzle, and they didn't have a mane or a tail.

The circle slowly closed in towards Daring. She looked to the left and the right; the only thing she saw were more zombies.

She decided to make a run for it. She lifted up the torch and hit the nearest zombie. The zombie jumped back from the flame and grunted. Daring sprinted right past him when he was stunned, and ran straight into the forest. She could hear the angry groans following her, and she kept running until she couldn't hear them any more. She found a tall tree with vines on the side, climbed up and decided to spend the rest of the horrible night up there.

She didn't sleep very well. With the sound of zombies around her, she woke up every few minutes to make sure that she was still safe. By the time the noise disappeared, it was almost dawn. Daring got up from the tree top, feeling extremely exhausted. She rubbed her eyes and looked around; that's when she noticed a strange shadow standing on top of another tree.

Was it a zombie? Daring stared at the shadow. It looked like a zombie, but it was not making the same dreadful noise. It was also wearing something different, and its skin was much darker. Daring rubbed her eyes to make sure that she was not hallucinating, but by the time she opens her eyes again, the strange creature was gone.

"Hello?" Daring yelled, but there was no answer.

Maybe she was just too tired, Daring thought. She looked around the tree. There were no zombies, only the wind and the tide. She carefully climbed down the tree and moved forward.

"The forest is too dangerous at night," she thought. She would have to find somewhere else before sun down. She thought that a cave would be the best choice. Before she did that, however, she needed to collect more wood for a source of light. She packed all of the tools she had made into her saddlebag, and started breaking off wood from trees as she walked through the forest. She had already taken a look at the geography of the landscape when she had been standing on top of the tree, and she had noticed a small hill not far from where she was. She decided to make her way there and see if there was anywhere safe.

The forest was smaller than she had imagined and soon she had reached the foot of the hill. The hill was not very steep, so Daring climbed it without too much trouble. However, to her great surprise, she saw a wooden plank placed on top of the hill.

"Who could it be?" Daring wondered. "Planks are not naturally created, so somepony else must have placed it here. Could it be another adventurer from before me? But why would she, or he, leave only one plank behind?" Daring looked around the plank, but she didn't find anything useful.

Or... could it be a marker? Daring decided to give it a try.

She broke open the plank, and immediately exclaimed in joy, "Aha!"

Beneath the plank, there was a skinny tunnel going straight down. Daring picked up a torch, lit it up and threw it down the hole. However, as she released it, the flame on the torch went out. She had no way of knowing how deep the hole was.

Daring quickly built another small shelter around the hole and then she made some ladders with wooden sticks. She carefully placed a ladder down on the wall of the hole, and another ladder beneath it. After about 20 ladders down, she finally reached the bottom. She lit up another torch and took a look around.

In front of her was a seemingly natural cave. It was extremely dark, and Daring could hear strange noises that would make one's hair curl. She held the torch firmly between her teeth, and adjusted her hat with her left hoof. Without further hesitation, she started down into the darkness of the cave.

Then suddenly, she saw something standing in the middle of the cave near the edge of the torchlight's reach. She immediately prepared herself for combat, but the thing didn't move at all.

Daring approached with caution until a corner of the object was visible.

She gasped. It was a wooden sign.

Daring walked up with great joy, only to see that there was just one word written on the sign.

"STOP."

"Could this be a warning from a previous adventurer?" Daring thought. But it seemed unlikely. If there was danger ahead, they would have plainly written it on the board, such as "Dead end" or "Traps ahead." This sounded more like a threat; it was more like a warning to everyone who was about to enter somewhere.

Somewhere, meaning most likely the legendary lost tomb!

Daring was extremely excited. After all these years of searching, she finally found a clue that could point to the real thing. How could she not be excited? She quickly held up the torch and kept moving, soon running into another sign. This time it said, "TURN BACK NOW".

Daring took a look at the sign and immediately noticed something strange. The sign was made of plain wood, and the words were written in ink. Confusingly, the sign looked new. The wood was fresh and not rotten. Daring rubbed her hoof against the words and they immediately became blurry. The sign was fresh; it had been written and placed no more than 2 hours ago as the ink was still wet. Daring immediately looked around. Somepony must be following her, and that somepony certainly wanted to scare her off.

"Whoever you are, I have already found you! Show yourself, or I will attack!" Daring threatened, but no pony answered her.

"It's probably another adventurer who wants to get to the treasure before me," Daring thought. She went on with her exploring, but with extreme caution, readied for anything that might jump out at her.

However, nothing happened. Daring reached the end of the cave safely, and she saw a small 2x2 tunnel in the wall leading somewhere.

Daring quickly theorized what the tunnel and cave could be for. It was rumored that there was once a great empire called Minecraft somewhere out in the sea. After the king died, a lot of craftsmen were gathered to build a tomb for the king. However, the Royal family decided to murder all the craftsmen after they finished with the tomb. They had wanted to keep the location of the royal tomb a secret from the world, so when the tomb was done, they shut the heavy stone door and trapped the craftsmen inside. However, the craftsmen had already realized the Royal family's actions. When they were building the tomb, they had also built a secret passage so that when they were trapped, they could use the passage to get out and escape. Daring thought that this 2x2 tunnel right in front of her must be the secret tunnel leading into the tomb, and the wooden plank up on the surface must have been placed by a craftsman to indicate the location of the exit, so that someday they could come back and raid the fortune of the king!

Daring was so excited. She check her saddlebag to make sure that she had collected enough food for another week or so. She adjusted her hat, licked her lips and grinded her teeth together tight. She prepared herself, and entered the tunnel with extreme caution.