The redheaded girl beside Arther was more than happy to answer John's questions, as if she was waiting for a chance to flex her knowledge.

“I'm Vanessa, just Vanessa. This is the Aerlorhn forest the West of Redhorne City. Aerlorhn forest holds a low level dungeon that ranges from D to C level and its partial clearing provides a steady source of spirit cores to Redhorn.”

Arthur cleared his throat, “We’ve been contracted by the Adventurers guild to this dungeons in the area so as to prevent a spirit beast surge from flooding the city and to prevent the dungeon from upgrading to a higher tier C level dungeon. Seeing as you were attacked by a spirit beast that took the form of a boar, it is most likely our fault that you are now in your '' he paused to look John up and down “current state”.

John had a lot of questions. A lot.

“So you’re adventurers then. Sure, sure. I woke up in a forest that has dungeons, wild beasts who attack on sight, and to top it off I had to venture through it stark naked. Why is it your fault that I was attacked though”

“We were tasked with clearing the low level dungeons of this area.” Vanessa continues as if reading from a textbook, “Near a dungeon, normal animals keep their distance due to spirit beast’s comparably aggressive tendencies. There shouldn’t be any spirit beasts within the outskirts as we had just taken down the previous boss. The other spirit beast should have flocked to the dungeon core to try their hand at taking up the mantle. One being far in the outskirts implies... it was intimidated by an individual who wielded a particularly frightening aura that didn’t expend the effort to finish it off when it fled.`` With her last line she looked at Arther with an accusing glare.

Now arther spoke up, “Pardon for our researcher’s long winded explanations. Once she gets going, well, it's hard to make her stop” he joked with a megawatt smile plastered on his face.

“She means to say, it's OUR fault you were attacked. Aside from that, you likely hit your head pretty hard if you don't even know where you are and don’t seem to recall anything about spiritual energy.At least you know your name I suppose. How about we escort you back to town as we just finished our contract. Ill have a doctor friend of mine check you out... well he’s kind of a doctor I suppose”.

John simply nodded and followed the group as they headed eastward. He gathered that he must have ended up in a different dimension. He remembered learning about the possibility of such things while in college. It probably wasn’t wise to throw around the information that he was from a different world just yet. They’d probably think he was some kind of lunatic! Looking up at the sky, John shook head as he saw that the clear blue sky had two suns in it. One red and one orange. This whole experience should have been jarring... but it was like his reactions to it were numbed. Why was that?

The worst part about this is that John was beginning to accept his current circumstances. He seemingly woke up in a strange magic forest, fought a spirit beast, and ran into a group of adventurers. It was just like the web novels he had grown up reading when he was avoiding doing his school work!

Walking beside him, the big man hit John on the back hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

“I'm Joana Strongarm. Part giant and this party’s defensive combatant.” he said while rubbing the back of his head shyly “if you can’t tell already we’re a rather eccentric group. Arther is a loon, Vanessa’s a know-it-all. I'm a half breed and Tina... well Tina’s Tina.”

Joana nodded toward Arhter who was walking a bit ahead of the group. “Arther is a bit of a Joker but he's reliable. At first his personality might seem overbearing and hard to deal with but at least he doesn’t turn his nose up at other races like others of similar status to himself”

John mentally stored away what Joana had told him. “Well, It’s nice to meet you... and thanks for catching me earlier. Anyways, I'm sorry but this is a lot for me to wrap my head around. You're telling me that you’re a half breed?” John asked inquisitively.

“My old mom was half giant so I guess I'm more of a quarter breed. You don't see many like me as the human nobles ran what's left of the giants into the mountains to the west a few centuries back” Joana said with a far away look in his eye.

The petite girl with cat ears quietly spoke while keeping her eyes to the ground “Tina. Beastgirl. Nice to meet”

“Hahah” Joana laughed heartily. “Our Tina is shy at first but opens up when you get to know her. Don’t be surprised when I tell you she's one of the most skilled magic assassins of her rank.”

John chuckled to himself. It was hard to imagine Tina, this cute cat girl, as an assassin but perhaps the complete black outfit she wore gave some hints to the fact she was a stealth type fighter.

“John” Arther stopped and turned around to speak. “It seems that we are close to the village. I sent a message ahead to Vincent to let him know that we are bringing in a patient. We go way back so he agreed to clear his schedule and take a look at you when we arrive”.

He turned to Tina “We'll be coming up on the village shortly and it might be a bit embarrassing to be walking through a village half naked, skinny, and covered in grime so Tina, could you spare the mana to cast a stealth spell on John here”

Tina nodded her head “mhm”.

She whispered a few words to herself with eyes closed and placed her small hand on John’s arm. Suddenly the whole world went black and white in John's perspective and looking down his body seemed to have turned ethereal.

Arther nodded “Good, now let's head into town”.