How long had I been unconscious? As soon as I came to, I sat up and looked around. The gate that had sucked me in was a rare extra gate, and an EX-rank one at that. It wouldn't be strange if anything happened here. It had all the makings of a place full of surprises.

But what if, just what if, this was a dragon's lair, as those hunters had casually suggested? Or it might be a maze full of dangerous traps, or even some terrible den of crime...

But when I opened my eyes and looked around, I realized I'd been completely wrong. 'What kind of gate is this?' I had woken up inside a log cabin. They said anything could happen in an extra gate, but as far as I knew, not a single hunter had ever experienced anything like this. I was utterly bewildered.

'This is no time to panic.' I'd lost my head for a moment, but finding a way out had to come first. I brought up the notification window to check the gate's clear conditions.

[Rank: EX

Clear conditions: ?]

Strangely, though, it didn't say what the clear conditions were. It wasn't like before, when at least part of the requirements had been shown. There was literally nothing written there.

What? Don't tell me... was I trapped in this gate?

I shook my head hard. "That can't be..."

The idea of a hunter being trapped in a gate forever made no sense. Even if a hunter failed to clear an ordinary gate for some reason, they wouldn't be trapped inside unless they died. If it went uncleared for long enough, a gate break would occur and an exit to the outside would open.

But this was an extra gate. Hunters hadn't even been able to enter it. It was an unheard-of gate that shouldn't have existed in theory. Goose bumps rose all over my body at the thought that the usual rules might not apply.

"No. That can't... happen."

I couldn't stay trapped here forever. Somehow, I had to find a clue to what this gate was and how to escape it. I decided to leave the room and look for one. But I had no idea what might be waiting beyond that door, or whether it would be hostile or friendly. I ought to arm myself, just in case. I opened my pocket dimension and took out the Dragon Bone Sword and several protective artifacts.

"At least that's one thing I don't have to worry about." My pocket dimension had failed to open a few times before, so I'd been afraid it might happen again. Thankfully, it opened normally this time. Once I was armed, I heightened my senses as much as I could, swallowed, and slowly opened the door.

CREAK

Beyond the bedroom door, I sensed no one. No people, no monsters, nobody at all. Holding my breath, I began looking around to figure out where I was.

There were clothes and food like bread, so someone must have been staying here until recently. Finding a person, whether the owner of the house or someone else, was my first priority. I needed to learn exactly where I was and why I'd woken up in that room.

I was wondering whether I should go outside and wait for the owner when the door opened with a creak. I found myself face-to-face with a woman who appeared to own the house.

"გეფრცხდებით?"

The moment our eyes met, relief crossed her face and she began speaking to me. But I'd never heard the language before, so I couldn't understand a word. Perhaps that was only natural if she came from another dimension.

Something else caught my attention, though. Her ears were long, almost like an... '...elf?' If elves existed, wouldn't they look just like her? From her long ears to her green hair and beautiful features, everything about her looked elven.

"გესმით რა ვამბობ?"

She kept talking to me, but I couldn't understand a word, so I took an interpreting artifact from my pocket dimension and put it on. Then I heard her say, "Adventurer, can you understand me now?" At last, I understood what the elf was saying. She seemed to have realized that what I'd taken out was a translation artifact.

"Yes. I can understand you now."

"I'm glad. But, Adventurer, could you perhaps put that sword away...? I'm afraid you might stab me with it..."

She didn't seem intent on harming me, so I hurriedly put the Dragon Bone Sword back in my pocket dimension. "I'm sorry. I woke up somewhere unfamiliar and took it out because I was preparing for the worst. That was rude of me."

"Not at all. I understand." The elf gave me a kind smile and waved a hand gently.

"Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves. My name is Estelle. As you can see, I'm an elf. And your name, Adventurer?"

"I'm Minjun."

"Minjun..." Estelle pronounced my name awkwardly. "Judging by your name, are you from another continent?"

"Not another continent. Another dimension. Elves don't exist in the world I come from."

At the mention of another world, surprise flashed in Estelle's eyes. "You're from another world? Goodness!" Her voice had grown much louder than before, too.

"By the way, Estelle, where are we?"

"This is Elysium, the City of Exiles."

Naturally, I'd never heard of it.

"Oh, if you meant what this world is called rather than the city, we call it Pangaea. I don't know what people in your world call it."

Pangaea. Pangaea...

'Wait a minute.' When I'd spoken with Sia before, hadn't she said the dimension she'd lived in since her reincarnation was called... Pangaea? Then could this be the dimension Sia had called home as a dragon? 'What kind of coincidence is this?' The realization sent a chill through me.

"Um, Minjun? Is something wrong...?"

"N-no." I hurriedly waved off Estelle's concern.

"You said you came from another dimension, so you must still be confused. I'm sure you have plenty of questions, too."

"... Yes, I do."

Why had I ended up in the dimension where Sia had been reincarnated? And how could I get back to my own? My head was already starting to ache.

"You should take your time, rest, and gather your thoughts. If you have any questions, please ask me anything."

I had so many questions I hardly knew where to begin, but I decided to start with the first one that came to mind.

"Could you tell me what happened when I was found?"

"A guard on duty at the city gate found you unconscious outside it and rushed you here."

So I'd lost consciousness as soon as I passed through the gate and collapsed outside the city gate. That alone showed how strange this gate was. What kind of gate worked like that?

"By the way, Minjun." Estelle suddenly peered closely at the ring on my finger. "Is the ring you're wearing made of dragon bone?"

"Yes."

"If you don't mind my asking, who gave it to you?"

"It was a gift from my girlfriend. I have a necklace made of dragon bone too, as you can see. But how did you know the ring was made of dragon bone?"

Putting everything else aside, how had she recognized the material?

"We're more sensitive to a dragon's energy than most people. The one who founded our town was a dragon, you see. That's why it caught my eye."

"A dragon founded this town?" I was so startled that I raised my voice without meaning to. I was the only human on Earth who could wield dragon power, and I'd ended up in a city founded by a dragon. There was no way this was a coincidence.

"Yes. There's a statue of our founder in the city center. Would you like to see it? I can show you around town on the way."

It was too intriguing an offer to refuse. I followed Estelle outside.

The moment I stepped outside, I was met with a view unlike anything on Earth. Houses built in an architectural style rarely seen in Korea lined roads paved with stone instead of asphalt. Looking back, I could see an enormous fortress wall surrounding the city. It might have been my imagination, but even the air felt distinctly different from Earth's.

And then there were the residents. Their hair and eyes came in all sorts of colors, and some weren't human at all. Humans were the most numerous, but I saw elves like Estelle and a few residents who looked like dwarves. There were beastfolk, too, and several others whose races I couldn't begin to guess. I spent the entire walk staring at the unfamiliar sights. The residents, perhaps because my clothes were unlike theirs, kept stealing sidelong glances at me.

After we'd walked for a while, Estelle said, "We're almost there. That statue over there is the one I told you about." She pointed toward the center of town. We were still some distance away, but the statue was so large I could make out its shape. As we drew closer, its outline came into sharper focus. Estelle said it had been built so long ago that even the residents didn't know exactly when, yet it was so well maintained that it didn't look old at all. The closer I got, the more its grandeur overwhelmed me.

At the same time, my heart began to pound harder with every step toward it. I knew this feeling. It was exactly what I'd felt just before the gate pulled me in.

"What's wrong?" Estelle tilted her head, apparently puzzled that I was staring at the statue without a word.

If I was feeling the same thing now, then perhaps... It sounded too unbelievable to be true, but what if that dragon statue had been trying to draw me into this world from the start? And that wasn't the only thing bothering me.

"Why does that statue feel so... familiar?"

I'd never seen it before today, of course, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew it.

"Maybe there's a similar statue where you live?" Estelle suggested.

"There definitely isn't. Why would I feel that way...?"

I didn't know why, but I was sure of one thing: that statue was the cause of all this, and the key to getting back to Earth.