“Old dude, stop swinging that sword around, you will hurt yourself!”

“I may be reaching my four-hundreds, but I can still dispatch any pitiful assassin!”

“Assassin? I don’t even know who you are!”

“Don’t pretend innocence, assassin! Who else would be sneaking around here? I, the Friedrich Ernst the First, will not be fooled so easily.”

“Who? Am I supposed to know you?”

“YES.” He replied with an air of undeniable confidence. He was so certain in his reply that I almost believed him. However, it only took me a second to remember that I really don’t know who he is. But just in case, I took a closer look at him and tried to figure out if I had seen him before. Wait, now that I had a closer look at his face, he looks somewhat familiar.

While I was distracted with my thoughts, he again swung his sword. Not again! I quickly raised my hands to block his strike. My body was flicked across the room as I crashed into the wall, creating a big impact crater. The surrounding walls and floor started to crack as a result.

After I blocked his second strike, my both hands felt sore from the impact. It was so much stronger than the last time. I really need to be more careful. But that could wait, my current priority was to start complaining out loud to voice my dissatisfaction with being thrown around. “Look at my hand, it’s tingling! What the heck, dude, you hit like a truck.”

The moment those words fell out of my mouth, the old dude froze, and his expression turned into the one of surprise. “Wait! So, you’re a hero!” He pointed at me dramatically.

“Huh? A what now? What sort of accusation is that?”

“No. You certainly aren’t old enough for that, but if you are not a hero, then what are you? At first, I thought that you were a fellow from Earth, but none of them are this young.”

“Wait, you are also from Earth? Why should I believe you? Prove it! Tell me some history trivia.”

“Well, you see, I have been here for quite a while. I was transferred to this world back in the middle of the twentieth century. It was shortly after World War II ended, and Germany and Japan were defeated.”

What is he talking about? For a moment, I was starting to believe him. “I don’t know what the hell is Germany, but Japan didn’t even participate in the war, they were neutral throughout.”

“Huh?”

“Texas lost the World War II because they tried to invade the Mexican Union, but they weren’t equipped to handle their harsh deserts and rainforests. Simultaneously, the United States of Europe and their allies attacked them from behind, ensuring their defeat.”

“?”

“Not long after World War ended U.S.E. and the Mexican Union entered a hot war, but thankfully a few dozen years later the Mexican Union collapsed, and it’s been relatively peaceful since then. Well, until recently anyway. The Mongolian Empire had been stirring up trouble not long before I left.”

“You are not trying to make fun of me, are you? It may have been a long time since then, I am getting old, and I was never the brightest but! I am not this stupid!” He shouted angrily as he glared at me.

He doesn’t believe me at all, even though this time I'm speaking the truth! “Wait, what if this is some kind of alternate Earth scenario? What if we are both right, and we are just from two different yet similar worlds.”

“Sure, that would explain it, but how can I say that you aren’t just lying?”

“Me? Never. I am one of the most honest people you will ever encounter. I swear on the life of my most beloved pet dog.” I placed my fist on my chest while radiating with honesty. “It must be some alternate universe.”

“I see, I will believe you for now. But if that’s the case, that poses even more questions. I am pretty sure all the other heroes are from the same version of Earth.”

“Alternate universe, that sounds interesting. I wonder how I can take advantage of that…” I spoke to myself quietly.

“What did you say?”

“I am just surprised by such a revelation, I am not quite sure what to think. If we are from two different places, I am wondering…, how did you arrive in this world?”

“I died back on Earth, and after death I was summoned here by the Arcadian gods. They all gave me divine blessings and I became their first hero.”

“That sounds quite different from my experience. By the way, how did you die? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“It was nothing special. I just got ran over by a truck.”

“Ha-ha. That’s pretty funny, not gonna lie.”

“You too? A few of the heroes also made fun of that fact, I never understood why.”

“Looks like your world also has people of culture.”

“There were a few others that got ran over by a car. No one is making fun of them.” He folded his arms as he stared towards the ceiling.

“Now, now, that’s not the same, is it?”

He sighed in resignation before changing the topic. “What about you? How did you die?”

“I didn’t. When I was sent here, I was still pretty much alive. I was also summoned here by a god. But you mentioned multiple, in my case, there was only one. Not sure if it was one of yours or a different one altogether… Anyway, he just dropped me off in the middle of a random forest, without any direction to speak of, and I haven’t heard of him ever since.” I wonder what that jackass is doing anyway.

“It could be possible, but I haven’t heard of any other gods outside of those in Arcadia. Well, there are a few legends that mention other gods, but not sure how reliable that information actually is.”

“I am more interested in that hero thing that you keep mentioning, what is that about?”

“You really don’t know?”

“No clue.” I raised my hands in the air in resignation.

“Well, gods of this world like to summon dead souls from our Earth and reincarnate them into new bodies. After that, they give them divine blessings to strengthen them. They basically use it to create strong individuals.”

“Why don’t they just give blessings to people here?”

“From what I understand, when they summon someone from our world, they receive a [Hero] skill. Blessings are like a force multiplier, and a combination with summoned heroes is quite potent.”

“So they just summon people from other world to do their bidding? How many heroes are there anyway?”

“By now hundreds, at least. Hard to get the real number. Over the years, they started to progressively summon more and more.”

“…”

We both stayed quiet for a moment as I tried to process all of the information. This is a good opportunity to learn more about this world. He mentioned that he’s almost four-hundred years old, he should know a lot of stuff. But before I could ask any additional questions, he spoke up.

“Well, that explains who you are, but it doesn’t explain why are you here. This is a restricted area, no ships are allowed to sail even near these islands. How did you get here, exactly?”

“I was just passing through this place and I saw the destruction outside, you see. I didn’t even know that this was a restricted area, there were no warning signs along the way or anything indicating as such. Yeah, so it was just a total coincidence. I really didn’t expect to find someone from another world, like, what are the odds?”

“So you claim that you were just passing through, right around the time this event occurred? Isn’t that a bit too coincidental? You seem to have more strength than any other hero than I know of, was it you who caused this disaster?”

“I specialize in stealth and melee combat, I don’t really have any way to cause such a large-scale damage.”

“I guess that would make sense…”

“Yeah. To be honest, I am genuinely surprised that you are even suspecting me, considering the real cause behind all of this.”

“…”

“Are you really not aware? I had just assumed that you already knew. Don’t you have any experts in the field?”

“What do you mean?” He frowned in response.

“You see, back on my planet I was a professional geologist, that means I am very adept at surveying the land, among other things. I surveyed places for many build projects like dams, but I also worked on many urban expansion plans.”

“Really?”

“Yes. So, as you can see, I know what I am talking about when it comes to such matters, and that’s why I have to say, you picked an awful spot to build this. I was just passing by, but the moment I noticed what happened here, I had to investigate it. It is like my second nature, I couldn't resist, and what I found was quite astounding.”

“…”

“Terrain in this area is inherently unstable, the geological makeup of this place makes it horrible for underground construction. Any digging on a larger scale would create instability that could cause sinkholes on a catastrophic scale to appear. You are lucky or unlucky that it didn’t happen sooner, it is actually astonishing that it lasted so long.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“There are hidden pockets of gravel deep underground mixed with brittle minerals that are very dangerous for such construction. Not only that, near the surface, the composition of the earth is just another problem. This whole event was a chain reaction of the numerous unfortunate factors. To be honest, I would recommend relocating a bit further from this area to prevent future problems. It is like literally the worst spot you could have picked on the whole island. You don’t even have to go that far for it to be considerably safer.”

“I see, I will have to keep that in mind, I wasn’t aware that it could be so important… But still, there’s one thing I don’t understand. If this was caused by a geological composition of the earth, then why did snow on the surface turned into an ice?”

“That is a very rare phenomenon that can happen in areas with a great seismic activity. The mechanics behind it are complex, it has to do with specific wavelength of vibrations. Explaining it is not easy, but it is a thing that can certainly happen.”

“Was that really just a natural phenomenon?”

“Yes, albeit a very rare one. Several variables must align perfectly for it to occur. But I mean it literally happened, if you don’t believe me, just look outside. Is it even worth explaining if you won’t believe me?”

“No, no, no, I'm grateful for your expert opinion on this matter. As a matter of fact, the cause of this event was unknown to me before you explained it, so I am thankful for that.”

“Glad to hear that, we fellow another-world people should be helping each other.”