“Do you think he’ll wake up soon?” a voice, somehow rough but not deep said from the side of Bennie. He could judge it wasn’t close by it almost sounded like it was in the same room as him.

  “I don’t know. No one would, not exactly normal for someone to just drop out of a dead arc-gate,” came a second, much more effeminate, voice.

  He had no idea what an arc-gate was but he was sure it had something to do with the magic circle he had stepped on. But beyond that, he was trying to figure out who the two voices were. He couldn’t feel anything restraining him, so that was good, in fact, he was lying on an amazingly comfortable bed.

  For the first time since he had come to this world he hoped that a notification would be waiting for him when he opened his eyes.

  But his luck wasn’t quite there yet, instead he saw what he could only describe as a primitive thatched roof. The woodwork in it seemed intricate but there was no ceiling. The voice had continued on as he tried to learn more about the situation but now they went quiet.

  Hearing footsteps get closer he turned towards them, and felt his blood ran cold. He was looking at what he could only describe as a bunny girl wearing casual clothes approaching him. She had a smile, or he thought it was a smile, “Oh, good, you’re awake. You should be fine, we ran a few spells on you for safety though.”

  “What are you?” he stammered out as he tried to slide towards what he hoped was a wall on the opposite side of the bed.

  She scrunched up her nose and backed away a step, “Is that any way to greet someone who’s bed you are in? “ she asked, taking a rather stricter tone than he would have thought of someone so short. “Pah, it doesn’t matter right now. You are going to have to answer a lot of questions soon so I may as well answer any you have right now.”

  He did eventually find that the bed was up against a wall, and that he wasn’t alone with the bunny girl, and that the room they were in was small, with only one door and a small drawer set on the far wall. Behind the girl stood a big brute of a man, sure he had two horns growing out of his forehead, but he otherwise looked entirely normal.

  Or as normal as a man that was slightly bending down, while wearing armour, a sword on his hips, and a look of extreme annoyance could look.

  “I am a bun-kind and my name is Mandy. Behind me is Drake, he’s an Oni-kind. Are we the first people you’ve seen?” she said.

  He looked around the room and saw Alice floating half in the wall and half out, vigorously shaking her head while pointing at herself. So he shouldn’t mention her, he guessed. The other two looked at the corner he was staring at and then Mandy waved her hand in front of his eyes.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry, I am fine, just a bit shocked still. Yes, uh, you two are the first people I have seen, at least in a while.”

  Mandy nodded her head, “And somehow you dropped in through a long dead arc-gate. You’re definitely not from Clear. Do you know who summoned you?”

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  At that the systems that prompted him popped up and basically told him the same thing that Alice had just told him.

  You have been summoned to this world by a being of ancient myth, do you choose to share this secret or keep it a myth?

  That was also wildly unhelpful. He shrugged, and noticed that Mandy and Drake must have noticed he was reading a notification. Not knowing who to trust was often a thing he saw tear people in movies and books apart. Deciding to risk it all he laid it all out on the floor.

  “Look, I’ve been here for almost 10 days now. When I walked through a door I saw a gigantic dragon head in front of me. Since then I’ve just been wandering until I found a mansion out in the middle of nowhere. I was living there until whatever is sending these notifications appeared and I had to go look for a portal room…and now I am here.”

  Mandy sat back in her chair as he finished, going from a slightly shocked expression to a thoughtful one. Drake just quietly closed the door to the room and went to stand in front of it. Completely shutting Bennie in the room without any other visible exit.

  “Now that is something. We hear the stories, even saw murals of them. Tell me, uh, what is your name, sorry.” She asked, taking out a notepad from where he could not see and scribbling with a pen he also didn’t see her grab.

  “OH yeah, my name is Bennie, people just call me that.” She wrote it on the paper before looking him up and down. He had crossed his legs and was leaning against the wall.

  “Good, don’t give your full name, to anyone. No one will do something with it, but it’s still better to be safe. You said a dragon right?”

  “yeah, big guy, his head was as large as the building I was going to before…” he let the sentence hang in the air.

  “Mhm, okay. So what world are you from?”

  “Earth.” “Ah, an easy to remember name. Bennie, I will be honest here, we don’t entirely know what’s going on.” She said, Drake nodded along. Bennie noticed that neither seemed angry, or even annoyed, more worried.

  “Should you know what is going on?” He asked.

  They looked at each other this time, sharing a small nod. Mandy’s eyes unfocused for a second then he saw a yellow screen pop up in front of her. “We should, our classes are meant for these kinds of things.” She flicked the screen and it floated over to Bennie. “I’m a record keeper. Everything I am is to keep histories, stories, and truths. Everything I know says you should be impossible.”

  He read the screen, it simply said her name and what her class was, not much else. “So people from other worlds aren’t normal?”

  Drake shook his head in a firm no before Mandy replied, “Bennie, people from other worlds are as common as the trees of the forest. Our world is large and we would never be able to live on all of it alone.” Then what makes me so special? He thought, and then also said aloud.

  “Bennie, would you call yourself a human?” she asked.

  “Yes, what else could I possibly be?” he responded.

  She leaned forward in her chair, almost like she wanted to study every pore on his face, “I need you to take this as calmly as possible. The last humans allowed on our world died out over 10 millennia ago. By our system’s own magical decree, humans are outlawed.”

  As she finished her sentence his own system sprung a new notification on him.

  Quest:

  Humans are outlawed on the realm of Clear.

  You are human.

  Go forth and undo the last damages your species have caused for the peaceful species of an entire realm.

  He sucked in a deep breath. What had the humans done? What could he do? Mandy and Drake gave him a weak smile before he said the only thing he could think of.

  “Oh”

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