Meeting Strangers

[One Arcane Shard detected]

[One Arcane Shard recovered]

"Ha ha, did you see that? A single hit, fucking precise!"

Like almost everything else that had happened so far, the two messages that flashed in front of Vincel's eyes confused him but he had no time to try to understand them as he was no longer alone.

A group came running out of the collection of forest trees on the other side of the river bank. Vincel counted five of them but he wasn't going to dispute the idea that there was more.

The one running ahead of the others was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties and judging by his words, the fact that he was holding a bow, and the excitement with which he approached the carcass of the slimy green creature currently floating on the river, Vincel guessed he was the one who shot the creature down.

Of the five that had come out of the forest, three (including the twenty-something excited young man) were male and the other two were female.

Vincel was easily more interested in looking at the ladies. He looked just long enough to see they were both pretty but he did not look long enough to possibly be tagged as 'creepy'.

He also did not look long enough to start forming inappropriate thoughts.

'Naked as I am, I will be caught the moment I get such thoughts' Vincel thought and shivered at the horror of the consequences.

One of the men had a sheathed sword and Vincel knew his protruding member would make a very clear slicing target.

Speaking of which, their dressing was not normal to Vincel.

It was a mix of the old style of dressing with the old style of weaponry sprinkled with a modern take.

The excited young man, now examining the carcass of the slimy green creature, was slim and dressed in form-fitting simple wear with a satchel attached to his right whip.

The second Male, also dressed simply, looked to be around the same age as the excited young man but his figure was vastly different. He was tall with broad shoulders and a wide chest. His sleeveless arms bulged with muscle.

The third male looked like the eldest of the group. Vincel put his age in the late Thirties probably. He was dressed in loose pieces of Armor and was equipped with a satchel on his right hip and a sheathed sword on his left hip.

The third male, the eldest of the group, had a small smile on his face.

"Knowle, it's only your first kill here. No need to lose your head," he said to the excited young man.

"Besides, Even for E-rank beasts, Unans are such weak creatures. Relying on entrapment to get the upper hand," said the muscular young man.

"Weak or not, I got it down in a single shot," Knowle said pompously.

"A single weak shot," the muscular young man mumbled while Knowle took a dagger out of his Satchel to begin cutting open the slimy green creature.

'Weak? That thing that almost killed me was weak?'

Vincel's eyes went from the 'weak' felled beast to the young man cutting it open and then his eyes went past the three men to the two ladies.

One of them had short black hair and was tall and lithe with moderate-sized breasts that looked shapely in the slick clothing she had on. She didn't shy away from staring at Vincel in all his naked glory.

The other had shoulder-length brown hair and was dressed in more conservative robes, that did not do that well in hiding her nice figure. She also appeared to be determined to look anywhere but at Vincel, naked as he was.

The thing was, whether it was the one staring at him or the one trying not to, Vincel was embarrassed all the same.

'Well, damn,'

Vincel finally put his hands over his member in a bid to protect his dignity. The action caused the eyes of the males present to go over to him.

There was a was at least a whole minute of uncomfortable silence and then Vincel went on the offensive.

"Who are you guys? Where is this? Where am I?"

The three men shared looks before the eldest-looking man looked back at Vincel,

"You don't know where you are?"

"No, I don't" Vincel answered, his wet hair dripping water into his eyes.

"How is that possible?" asked the petite lady in slick clothing.

Just like before, she was not shying away from staring at him. Her eyes were mostly focused on his chest but they occasionally flickered lower to his barely covered member.

The more time the eyes of the strangers spent on him, the more uncomfortable Vincel felt.

"I-I don't know. I just woke up here"

"Just like that?" asked the second lady, making a point to stare at his face or the top of his head.

"Just like that," Vincel said with a nod, "I woke up, drank water from the river, saw a bunch of stuff that I don't understand, and then I was attacked by that thing,"

As Vincel finished speaking, he gestured to the dead beast with his head. He dared not move his hands away from where they were.

"What stuff did you see?" the muscular young man asked with a head gesture.

"Some numbers and words and- You know what, I don't care about that. I just really want to know why I'm naked in a forest and almost got choked underwater," Vincel said in exasperation.

The Eldest man nodded as though in understanding.

"I have no answers to why you're here naked but as for the attack, yeah, it is expected.

Within Gates, you must always assume every creature wants to kill you. It's the best way to stay alive,"

Vincel looked confused.

"Gates?"

The man nodded.

"Yes, Gates. You asked where you were, right? This is a D-Rank Gate and the creature that Knowle there killed is called an 'Unan'."

"A what?"

"An 'Oo-nan'. Jellyfish-looking things that are imbued with the art of camouflage. They lure you in with their crystal clear watery habitat and then drag you in to devour you."

"Score!" Knowle yelled suddenly in excitement as he pulled out a greyish-green orb from the bowl head of the Unan he had cut open.

Eyes went to him but they left soon enough.

"My name is Aidan, I am the leader of this group."

The Eldest-looking man introduced himself and then pointed to the muscular man,

"He's Jilan and those two lovely ladies are Lea and Kleon."

With the way Aidan gestured, the short-haired slickly dressed lady who had no problem staring at Vincel was Kleon while the one dressed in conservative robes was Lea.

"What's your name? Or you don't remember that too?"

Vincel shook his head,

"No, I remember. It's Vincel,"

"Alright Vincel, it's nice to meet you," Aidan said with a smile.

'Is it really?' Vincel wondered in his mind.

'Nothing about this situation seems 'nice''

"Knowle, you have a spare set of clothes you can help our friend here with?" Aidan asked.

Knowle had cleaned up the orb he got from the Unan and was about to put it away into his satchel when Aidan asked his question.

"I do," Knowle said reservedly before he stuck his hand deep into his satchel and appeared to be rummaging through it.

Vincel's eyes widened.

The satchel looked to only be about seven inches wide at the opening and five inches in length but more than twelve inches of Knowle's arm was inside it.

'All that movement. How much space does he have in there to move his arm that much?'

Knowle eventually pulled out a bundle of clothes which he tossed to Vincel.

Curious as he was about the satchel, Vincel put it aside and started to put on the clothes.

It was a simple dress composed of a shirt and a trouser. Both felt like they were made of cotton. The trouser had a drawstring which Vincel pulled and tied to make it firm around his waist.

There was no underwear in the clothing set.

'I don't think I would have worn it even if he included it. I don't want my thing pressed against where another man's thing has been.

Wait, what if they just don't wear underwear here? What if they always go commando? That would mean-'

Vincel hurried to stop thinking.

It was best not to look too much into it and just be glad he was now covered.

"We should get moving, Aidan." Kloen said striking an impatient pose.

"We'll get back to the hunt soon," Aidan said and waved her off.

Kleon snorted.

"You are paying me to help you bring down the Gate-Ranker and not to stand around and chat with a stranger who could very well be tricking us."

Vincel furrowed his brows in confusion.

"How would I be tricking you?"

Kleon rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. Who just happens to be naked within a forest Gate?"

"Maybe he was robbed?" Lea said in a small voice.

Vincel nodded.

"Yes, maybe I was"

He was glad for an 'explanation' to latch on to.

'Last I remember, I was being given a painless death after six months of agony. All the money I had, I transferred to Matron Agatha so I had nothing to be robbed of.

My God! I have so many questions.'