When I opened my eyes I saw my hunch was right, we were outside of the structure where I landed before. I was propped against the sloping wall of the building, and looking at myself I discovered I was naked from the waist up. The position I was helped me breathing a little easier, but every breath was painful. Also all my equipment disappeared.

After starting looking around for it, and to understand better what was happening, I finally saw all my items in a heap at the feet of a gigantic man. He had the same kind of hands of the one who lifted and dropped me, only he was far more taller and muscular. Even if he looked older it was clear he was the one in charge.

In fact all the people in the surrounding, there were at least a dozen more armed men and women nearby, had a deferent attitude when talking to him. Well, more than talking they seemed all heated up discussing something about me, judging from all the pointing, and the two men I encountered in the tunnel.

Sometimes the discussion was at the limit of screaming, and at first sight it appeared almost everyone was against the duo. A jolt of pain finally awoke me completely, and my muddled senses returned to a more normal state. Keeping listening to the various conversation I tried to think of a way to escape but before that I checked my status.

NameRaceAverageHuman IHPMP20/112120AtkDefDexWis11111111Exp60/180

Looking at my meager remaining hp convinced me that the only real solution was to wait and see. If I was almost killed before, against the two that looked the younger of this group, than it was useless trying escaping much more tough looking customer. All armed and dressed in leather armour, with few metal bits there and there, to boot.

They all had, men and women both, some quirky body part. But, even in all that strangeness, a scheme was clear. The majority of them had hands or feet, or both, resembling an animal varying from mammals to reptiles or even insects. A smaller portion had mutated facial features, but they were a minority of the group and all of them were armed with ranged weapons.

After listening to their bickering for a while finally I understood, or guessed to be more honest, what was happening and why I was in this condition.

The gigantic man's name was Cawic and he was the chief of this little mercenary group. Various component were appealing to him to punish the two younger member who disobeyed orders, and infiltrated in the building ahead of everyone else. It seemed that they were stationed in one of the nearby island, when they saw the light from the old structure. They embarked on various boats and came here.

The two, who I had the displeasure to meet, were faster than anyone thanks to their ferryman being a local, expert old man. I supposed they where talking about the old man that died in front of me, the thought only was enough to make me mad again.

What happened after they entered I figured out already. But what happened after I passed out was news to me, and also a piece of information I was interested in.

It seems shortly after I was out for the count, the other mercenary arrived and started questioning about what happened there. Some scouted but found nothing apart from the stairs leading on an empty roof, then they dragged me, and the man's corpse, out of the building. They said that when the last of their people exited the wall closed behind them, returning a seamless mass of stone, like it was for time immemorial apparently.

But what made me even more angry than before, was the way the two young mercenaries were trying to lie their way out of predicament. Following what the smaller one's made-up story, they were telling everyone that the old man had gone mad from the fear, and attacked me when they first saw me in the corridor. Also they had the gall to reclaim my equipment, that was their only profit from this expedition, just like I was already dead.

Soon after I understood why they considered my fate sealed, and why the bigger man of the duo was so disturbed when he saw I was 100% human. It seems there was much I needed to learn about this world, much more than the few information the voice had on the current state of affairs.