Chapter 68

A Strange World

How long had I been unconscious?

The moment I came to, I immediately sat up and looked around. The Gate that had swallowed me was an Extra Gate, already rare enough on its own, and on top of that, it had been classified as EX-rank.

Under those circumstances, it wouldn’t have been strange for absolutely anything to happen. It was a combination practically designed to overflow with variables.

But what if, just what if, this place really was a dragon’s lair, like one of the Hunters had casually joked about? Or it could be a labyrinth filled with deadly traps, or some horrific lawless zone…

Yet when I actually opened my eyes and looked around, I realized all my expectations had been completely wrong.

What kind of Gate is this?

The place where I had awakened was, unexpectedly, the interior of a cozy log cabin.

They said anything could happen inside an Extra Gate, but as far as I knew, not a single Hunter had ever experienced anything remotely similar to this. That was why the situation left me so thoroughly confused.

This isn’t the time to panic.

I had lost my head for a moment, but the priority was finding a way out. I opened the notification window to check the Gate’s clear conditions.

[Rank: EX]

[Clear Condition: ?]

Strangely, however, the notification window did not specify the clear condition. It wasn’t even like before, when at least part of the requirement had been shown. There was literally nothing written there.

What was this supposed to mean? Could it be that I was trapped inside this Gate?

I shook my head hard, refusing to accept the thought.

“That can’t be…”

The idea of a Hunter getting trapped inside a Gate forever made no sense. Even if a Hunter failed to clear a Gate for some reason, ordinary Gates did not permanently imprison them unless they died inside.

If a Gate remained uncleared long enough, a Gate Break would occur and an exit to the outside would open along with it.

But this was an Extra Gate, and one that Hunters had not even been able to enter in the first place—an unheard-of Gate that theoretically shouldn’t even exist.

The thought that this Gate might exist outside every known rule sent goosebumps across my body.

“No. There’s no way…”

I couldn’t stay trapped here forever. Somehow, I had to uncover the identity of this Gate and find a clue that would let me escape.

To find that clue, I decided to leave the room. Before doing so, though, I had no idea what might be waiting beyond the door, or whether any being I encountered would be hostile or friendly, so I needed to arm myself just in case.

I opened my spatial storage and took out my Dragon Bone Sword along with several defensive artifacts.

“At least that’s one piece of good luck.”

There had already been several disastrous occasions when my spatial storage refused to open, so I had been worried it might happen again. Thankfully, this time it worked normally.

After arming myself, I heightened every sense as much as possible, swallowed once, and slowly opened the door.

Creak…

The moment I opened it, I didn’t sense anyone nearby—not a person, not a monster, no one at all.

Holding my breath, I began examining the cabin to figure out what kind of place this was. The presence of clothes and food like bread suggested that someone had been staying here until recently.

In that case, finding a person—whether the owner of the cabin or anyone else—was the most urgent task. I needed to ask where exactly I was and why I had awakened in that room.

I was wondering whether I should go outside and wait for the owner when the front door opened with another creak, and I found myself face-to-face with a woman who appeared to live here.

“[Unintelligible speech]?”

The moment she met my eyes, relief appeared on her face and she started speaking to me. But the language she used was something I had never heard in my life, so I couldn’t understand a single word.

Considering she was a being from another dimension, perhaps that was only natural.

But something else drew my attention. Her ears were long and pointed…

…An elf?

If elves actually existed, wouldn’t they look exactly like this? Long pointed ears, green-tinted hair, and strikingly refined features—all of it fit the image of an elf perfectly.

“[Unintelligible speech]?”

The woman kept talking to me, but since I still couldn’t understand anything, I took a translation artifact out of my spatial storage and put it on.

Then, at last, her words became clear to me.

“Adventurer, can you understand me properly now?”

Only then could I finally understand what the elf in front of me was saying. Judging by the situation, she seemed to have figured out that the object I had taken out was a translation artifact.

“Yes. I can understand you now.”

“That’s a relief. But Adventurer, could you perhaps put that sword down…? I’m worried I might get stabbed if something goes wrong…”

She didn’t seem to have any intention of harming me, so I hurriedly returned the Dragon Bone Sword to my spatial storage.

“I’m sorry. I woke up in an unfamiliar place, so I prepared for the worst. I think I was rude.”

“Not at all. I completely understand.” The elf smiled kindly and waved her hand in reassurance. “Come to think of it, we haven’t introduced ourselves. My name is Estelle. As you can see, I’m an elf. What is your name, Adventurer?”

“I’m Minjun.”

“Minjun… I see.” Estelle pronounced my name awkwardly before continuing. “Judging by your name, are you perhaps from another continent?”

“Not another continent. Another dimension. Elves don’t exist in the world I come from.”

Her pupils widened, clearly surprised by the words “another dimension.”

“You’re from another world? My goodness!” Even her voice grew much louder than before.

“By the way, Estelle, where is this place?”

“This is Elysium, the City of Exiles.”

Naturally, I had never heard of it.

“Ah. If you meant to ask what world this is rather than what city, we call this world Pangaea. I don’t know what people in your world call it, of course.”

The name Pangaea echoed in my mind for a moment.

Wait a second.

Thinking back, when I had talked with Sia before, hadn’t she said the dimension she had lived in after reincarnating was called Pangaea?

Then could this place possibly be the home dimension where Sia had lived as a dragon?

What kind of coincidence is this?

The realization sent chills across my entire body.

“Mr. Minjun, is something wrong…?”

“N-No. It’s nothing.” I hurriedly waved my hands at Estelle’s question.

“Since you said you came from another dimension, I imagine you’re still confused. You must have many questions too.”

“…Yes. I do.”

Why had I fallen into the same dimension where Sia had reincarnated, and how was I supposed to return to my original world? My head was already starting to ache.

“It would probably be best to rest and organize your thoughts slowly. If anything comes to mind, please ask me whatever you want.”

I had so many questions that I didn’t even know where to start, so I decided to begin with the first one that came to mind.

“Could you tell me what the situation was when I was first found?”

“The person guarding the city gate found you unconscious in front of the entrance and hurriedly brought you here.”

So I had lost consciousness immediately after passing through the Gate and collapsed in front of the city gates. That alone showed just how strange this Gate was.

What kind of Gate worked like this?

“By the way, Mr. Minjun…” Estelle suddenly stared closely at the ring on my finger. “Is that ring you’re wearing made from Dragon Bone?”

“Yes.”

“If it isn’t rude, may I ask who gave it to you?”

“It was a gift from my girlfriend. I also have a necklace made from Dragon Bone. But how did you know the ring was made from it?”

Putting everything else aside, how had she recognized Dragon Bone at a glance?

“Compared with most people, we are much more sensitive to a dragon’s energy. The person who first founded our city was a dragon, you see. That’s why my eyes were naturally drawn to it.”

“A dragon founded this city?” My voice rose before I could stop it.

I was the only human on Earth who wielded dragon power, and I had fallen into a city founded by a dragon. There was no way this could be a coincidence.

“Yes. That’s why there is a statue in the center of the city honoring that dragon. Since I can show you around the city at the same time, would you like to come see it with me?”

It was far too interesting an offer to refuse.

I followed Estelle outside. The instant I stepped out, a landscape obviously different from Earth spread before me.

There were houses built in architectural styles rarely seen in Korea, roads paved with stone instead of asphalt, and when I looked back, an enormous wall surrounding the entire city. Maybe it was just my imagination, but even the air itself felt clearly different from Earth’s.

The residents were just as striking. Their hair and eye colors varied wildly, and I could see races that weren’t human at all.

Humans were the most common, but there were also elves like Estelle, several residents who looked like dwarves, beastfolk, and a few people belonging to races I couldn’t identify at all.

The unfamiliar scenery held my attention the entire way, while the residents occasionally glanced at me, probably because my clothing looked so different from theirs.

After we had walked for a while, Estelle said, “We’re almost there. That statue you can see over there is the one I was talking about.”

She pointed toward a statue in the center of the city. We were still some distance away, but it was so enormous that its shape was visible even from here.

As we drew closer, its outline became more detailed. According to Estelle, it had been erected so long ago that even the current residents no longer knew exactly when it was built.

Despite that, perhaps because it had been carefully maintained, it didn’t look ancient at all. The closer I got, the more its grandeur seemed to press down on me.

And at the same time, my heart began pounding harder with every step toward it.

I knew this feeling all too well. It was exactly the same sensation I had felt right before the Gate pulled me inside.

“What’s wrong?”

When I stared at the statue without saying anything, Estelle tilted her head in confusion.

If I was feeling the same sensation now, then perhaps—absurd as it sounded—the dragon statue itself had somehow been trying to draw me into this world from the very beginning.

And that wasn’t the only thing bothering me.

“Why does that statue feel… familiar to me?”

Obviously, this was the first time I had ever seen it, but I couldn’t shake the impression that I knew it somehow.

“Could there be a similar statue where you live, Mr. Minjun?”

“Definitely not. Then why does it feel this way…?”

I didn’t know the reason, but even so, there was one thing I felt certain about.

That statue was the cause of what had happened, and at the same time, it was probably the key that would allow me to return to Earth.