Evren was catching his breath as he limped towards the dissolving centaur lord. It had been a tough fight and he was bruised and bloodied all over. He picked up the yellow mana gem and the mithril spear that were on the ground and walked over to his wagon. He healed himself with magic, a majority of the pain going away, but plenty of it remaining. His armor was in rough shape as well. The centaur lord had two other centaurs with it, one attacking at range with a bow, the other in close with a spear, while the lord coordinated their attacks and would occasionally attack with spells.

It was definitely the toughest fight Evren had fought in the dungeon. He picked up his bow and dagger that had been dropped and tossed during the fight, putting one in its sheath on his waist, the other in its place on the front of the wagon. He got something to drink before pulling the wagon towards the exit. The passage leading from the 85^th floor to the 86^th floor was lined with trees and carpeted with grasses. Along the side of the path, flowers would sporadically grow. The passage stopped its downward slope but seemed to continue through the forest.

When it opened up, Evren could see fields of grains growing before him. In the distance a town was visible, with the occasional person being seen moving around. Evren was nervous. It was the first time he would ever meet someone on this world. How would they react? The dungeon had been sealed off all this time, nobody had entered the dungeon for years.

Evren pulled the wagon to the edge of town, in a spot he could be seen and stopped. He made sure his weapons were placed properly on the wagon and he just stood there, waiting. He ran his fingers through his hair. He had never cut it since he had arrived, and it was quite long and shaggy, as was his beard. He had never had a beard before, his former race didn’t grow them, so he didn’t know that it would keep growing like it had.

He looked down at himself and the armor that he was wearing that was torn up and battered, and he started to wipe it off as if to somehow clean it and make it look presentable. As he was doing so, he heard a commotion from the town. A few people had seen him and pointed in his direction, running back to the town. Evren stayed where he was and made sure to stay away from his wagon. Three men came out of the town, one with a bow, who pointed it at him from a distance, and two others who approached with their weapons raised. Evren raised his hands and waited for their approach.

They stopped just out of range of him and asked him, “Who are you!? How did you get here?” Evren kept his hands raised and said, “My name is Evren. I fought my way through the dungeon to get here.” He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb back towards the path leading to the 85^th floor. “That’s impossible,” the man replied. “The dungeon’s been closed for years.”

Evren nodded and said, “Yeah, I know. It took me five days to unbury the entrance, and seven and a half months to get here.”

The man stared at Evren for a while with a stunned look on his face. He turned to the man next to him, “Joseph. Go and call Joseph.” The other man stared at him for a moment, then looked back at Evren, then to the other man before turning back to town and running off in that direction.

After a few minutes the man came back, practically dragging an older gentleman along with him. Evren cleared his throat and gestured towards the town with his head. The man turned his head and yelled, “What the hell are you doing? I didn’t say kidnap him!” The other man suddenly stopped and looked at the man he was dragging along. He bowed his head and appeared to be apologizing profusely. The older man used his hat to wipe the dust off of him and looked towards Evren and the man guarding him.

He took a cautious step forward, then stopped. He then took two more steps forward before pausing, and then rapidly walking over to Evren. “Who are you? Where did you come from? Did you come from the fortress? Is the war over? What happened to the Mercia Kingdom? Did the Holy State Grandia send you? How did you get here?”

Evren smiled and said, “My name is Evren and it’s a bit of a long story, do you perhaps want to sit down first?” The man leaned back in surprise that he received an answer and said, “Sit? Yes. No. Do we have a place to sit?” He looked around and then back to Evren, suddenly noticing that Evren was holding his hands up. “OH! Where are my manners, my name is Joseph.” He held out his hand for Evren to shake. Evren looked down at the hand and tilted his head to the side in confusion. Evren, with his hands still in the air, shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know what to do.

“Oh, you can put your hands down, I’m sorry.” The man behind Joseph said, “Sir we don’t know if he’s dangerous.” Joseph turned his way and said, “Walter, don’t be rude, get us some chairs.”

He turned back to Evren; his hand still held out before him. Evren looked at the hand and extended his own in front of him. Joseph shook his hand and released it. Evren looked at his hand and then at Joseph. Raising one eyebrow he said, “A greeting?”

Joseph replied, “Oh, do they not shake hands outside anymore?”

Evren smiled as Walter approached with two stools, setting them on the ground beside the two men. Evren said, “That’ll be part of the explanation I think.” Evren said as he sat down on the stool. “Let’s see, where do I begin. I guess I should say I was summoned here from a different world.”

As he was about to sit down, Joseph suddenly stood back upright and took a few steps back. Walter drew his weapon and pointed it at Evren again, the other guard fell down as he ran away. The guard near town with the bow was so confused and scared that he fired the bow at Evren. The shot went wide and was going to hit Walter in the back when Evren cast ‘wall’ between the arrow and him. The arrow bounced off the wall and fell to the ground.

Walter turned around to see the arrow hit the ground and looked at the guard who had shot it. The guard was holding the bow in two hands in front of him and said, “Sorry.” Walter shook his head and turned back to Evren; his sword still raised. Joseph looked at Evren and asked, “Did Holy State Grandia send you?”

Evren shook his head, “When I arrived, I was naked in the middle of a field in the middle of a forest, alone. I held a crystal in my hand that I broke later. I wandered until I found a frontier town south east of the fortress, which is where I learned about this dungeon. Travelling for over half a year I made it to Plinth, where I stayed for the winter before heading to the Aernide Fortress about eight months ago.”

Joseph sat down now intrigued, “Who did you stay with in Plinth?”

Evren looked at Joseph in the eyes, then up to Walter’s eyes, then back down to Joseph, “I’ve seen nobody other than you since I was summoned to this world.”

A hard look came to Joseph’s eyes, and he said, “There’s nobody alive in the fortress?”

Evren shook his head and said, “No.”

Joseph nodded and stood up from the stool. He picked it up and handed it to Walter. He looked to Evren and said, “Come, we can discuss further at my home.”

Evren stood and pointed over his shoulder at the wagon, “Is it ok to bring this along?”

Joseph turned back and looked at the wagon, only nodding in a reply.

Evren stood up and picked up the stool, handing it to Walter, then walked over to the wagon. He picked up the pull poles and started pulling the wagon along towards town after Joseph. Joseph was walking at a slower pace, so he caught up to him, and just followed along behind him.

As they approached the town, Evren noticed a crowd had gathered, and they were all staring at him. He understood their curiosity and didn’t say anything. Joseph spoke over his shoulder to Evren. “Welcome to Anbuton.”

Evren looked around at the small town, “How long have you all been here?”

“Thirty-eight years.” Joseph replied quietly. “I was just a young adventurer when the Holy State Grandia attacked Aernide Fortress. When they reached the third wall, we were ordered to take everyone into the dungeon. There were a few of us who could teleport directly to here, and they did so until they ran out of mana. The rest of us guarded the entrance until it was collapsed.” Joseph tilted his head with a shrug, “It was easier to get people to Anbuton at that point, but we knew we were stuck.”

The walked in silence for the rest of the journey to Joseph’s home. Joseph turned to Evren and said, “You can leave the wagon here. Walter will make sure nobody will touch anything.” The guard Walter nodded, “Yes sir.”

Evren turned to look at the guard, Walter and dropped the weighted pull poles to the ground with a thud. When Walter heard the deep sound of the poles hitting the ground, he turned his eyes towards them and saw the weights, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

Evren followed Joseph into the home with a small smile hidden by his beard. When Evren got inside, he saw someone standing next to Joseph who said, “This is my wife, Isabel.” Evren nodded and stared at the woman, “Wife? So, you’re a woman then?”

The woman’s eyes went from Evren to Joseph with a look of confusion, then back to Evren’s. Evren apologized saying, “Sorry, human isn’t my native race, and I can’t tell you all apart yet.” Isabel’s eyes were now tinged with worry as she looked at Joseph. Joseph shook his head and said, “Isabel, he’s here to explain just that. Would you make us some tea?”

The woman nodded and went off to the kitchen. Joseph guided Evren to a room with a couple of couches and a low table. When Evren sat down opposite of Joseph, he leaned forward and said in a low voice, “How do you tell the difference between men and women? I don’t want to insult anyone.”

Joseph nodded and said, “Well, women have more feminine features.” Evren shook his head at that. “Ah… hmm… Oh, women have no beards.” Evren nodded, and said, “So, you’re a woman then?”

Joseph laughed and shook his head, “No, I’m a man, I just shave my beard.”

Evren replied, “Oh, should I shave my beard then? If I do, I won’t get confused for a woman, will I?”

Joseph shook his head, “I doubt you’d ever get confused for a woman. Women are usually smaller and more delicate than men are.”

At this point Isabel came into the room and said, “Women have breasts for nurturing their young.”

Evren looked the woman in the eye, saying, “Breasts for … Oh, you mean teats?” and looked directly at Isabel’s breasts. She felt a bit uncomfortable being stared at and covered herself up. Evren, oblivious to what he had done looked to Joseph to check for breasts, then looked at Isabel in the eye and said, “Thank you, that should help.”

Evren turned to look at Joseph, and leaned forward, “Should I shave my beard also? I noticed not many people have beards.”

Joseph, surprised at the question held his own hand to his face and felt the stubble of a beard. “Well, it is your choice, although yours is a big wild, so I think a trim is due, but you could shave it if you wanted to.”

Evren ran his fingers through is beard and said, “Trim? Then my hair would need a trim as well.” Evren turned his attention to Isabel and suddenly stood on his feet saying, “Apologies, wife of Joseph. I am Evren Bozdag.” He held his hand forward as Joseph had earlier.

Isabel, slightly stunned, said, “My name is Isabel. Good to meet you.” And took his had to shake it. They released hands and Evren sat back down.

Evren took a breath and said, “I supposed I should start at the beginning. I come from a world more advanced than this one. I was a soldier for a long time, and a few years after I retired, I was murdered. And then I met a man who called himself Anomaly. He spoke of a lot of things that really didn’t make any sense to me, but he told me I was getting summoned to a different world, and that the people who summoned me were a tyrannical state. He wanted me do something about it, so he tampered with the summoning somehow.”

Evren picked up the teacup that had been left for him and smelled it. It had a pleasant scent, so Evren took a sip. It was just slightly bitter but had a floral sweetness to it that was calming. He set the teacup back down and continued. “When he was done talking, I found myself in the middle of an open field with a crystal in my hand. Anomaly had told me the crystal was to control me and to shatter it. I did so without problems. Oh, he told me I may have a tattoo on my chest, but I never did.

“Because of my military training, I was able to survive, and eventually made it to a town a few days walk away. It was there I learned more of this world. It was then I decided to head to this dungeon to see if there were any survivors. Along the way, I came across a fortress and another town that had been victims of the Holy State, and then I arrived at Plinth where I stayed for the winter and made my way to the fortress in the spring. I spent the last seven to eight months in the dungeon working my way here. And that’s when I met you all.

“I’ve met nobody alive on the outside. I didn’t know where to look to be honest. Along the way I was concerned that there would not be anyone here, and I would have wasted my time. It seems though, that those concerns weren’t worth the effort.”

Joseph nodded, “Yes, it would seem so.”