Cohort

But when he got close, Edric exploded in laughter.

"You should have seen your ugly face."

He punched Sola, who seemed annoyed, on the shoulder.

"On a serious note, why are we not back in our world if you killed the guardian?"

Sola's expression changed.

"I killed? Do you think that I killed this thing alone? It was dead when I arrived."

Edrich had a serious expression on his face

"Maybe this is a fake room. Let's check the whole cave and search for the third hunter."

"And find whoever it was that killed it."

Then they proceeded to check the whole cave, which took about one hour. They were shouting to find the third person who had entered the gate, but there was no response. In the end, they decided to go outside through the cave exit they had found while searching the whole thing.

They should never have been able to see the dungeon entrance.

Going outside, they saw a city in front of them, with huge walls circling it. The whole city was enveloped by a misty black forest, and with nowhere else to go, they went straight to the city.

After about thirty minutes, both of them were standing in front of the gate.

"OPEN THE GATES!"

Someone yelled from above.

As the huge gate opened, one soldier came out to them.

"Does any of you have a mark?"

Edric looked at Sola, who clearly wasn't going to answer based on his expression, so he did.

"Yes, both of us."

The man looked at them from the visor of his helmet, First, he went to Edrich and moved his hair from his forehead. After that, he went to Sola and did the same.

"What was that for?"

Asked Sola.

"We don't want any devils inside the wall."

Said the man with a hateful expression on his face.

"Follow me. You are going to meet the Lord."

They had no choice but to follow him, and maybe it was better for them to do so to get some clues on how to return home.

While they were going towards the small castle people were staring at them because of the way Sola and Edric were dressed but they seemed relaxed and relatively happy.

The castle was grey from the outside. Upon entering it, they were mesmerized by its white marble walls and floors.

Soon, they were standing outside the door of the main hall where the Lord was. Entering the hall, they saw a scene that left both of them shocked.

"Listen, old man, I already told you that I need to go back as soon as possible. Are you going to help me or what?"

It was Freide, standing in front of the Lord, pouting

When she heard the noise of the door, Freide looked in their direction and her eyes lit up. She sprinted toward them with a laugh and jumped on them, hugging them both.

"Thanks God it's you guys"

Edric removed himself from the hug and answered:

"We are glad to see you, too."

And then he added, whispering.

"And why the fuck are you shouting at the lord?"

Lord took a good look at both of them.

"I see they are your friends, are they like you?"

Edric stepped aside from them and answered in a polite tone:

" No, sir. My friend Sola and I are not like her at all—quite the opposite, actually. We think of ourselves as well-mannered, polite gentlemen, wh-"

He was cut off by Freide's loud voice.

"Yes, we are from the same place with the same problem."

As it turned out, according to the prophecy passed down in this world, one day humans from another world would be sent to help them. They knew the three of them weren't lying because there were people with special marks who could detect the truth. That was why the lord greeted them kindly and offered his support.

Unfortunately, the dungeon they spawned in had been conquered just before they arrived. Because they hadn't killed the guardian, they weren't teleported back, which was a huge problem.

Either they were stuck there for the rest of their lives because the monster they had to kill was already dead, or they had to find and kill another gate guardian and hope it would send them back home.

The lord summoned the cohort that had slain the Gatekeeper, and they would arrive tomorrow.

So, three of them ate and slept in their new rooms.

The next day, the captain of the cohort arrived and said that something strange had happened when they slew the dungeon's guardian monster. As soon as they did, they were teleported back to the entrance, so there was indeed some spell on that boss that should have returned the three of them home.

From that, they learned that killing any other boss monster in the dungeon wouldn't teleport them back home, but they still had to try.

They were offered the chance to join the cohort and help them, and in return, they would attempt to see if killing another dungeon guardian would bring them back.

They had no other choice, and it wasn't like this one was bad. Quite the opposite—it was a perfect opportunity to learn how to fight, because as of now, they had little chance of conquering the dungeon, and they barely knew how to swing a sword.

Upon arriving in the cohort's camp, which was next to the city walls and was pretty small.

Sola imagined that it would be a group with about twenty people in it, but the whole cohort was five people, which proved that each of them was strong.

Every member had a mark on them, except for the captain, who should have been the strongest.

There was a young woman in her early twenties who had short brown hair and carried a staff.

Every time Sola saw her she was quietly sitting near the campfire with a gloomy expression, her name was Lona.

Then there was a short man with a long brown beard, Gruin, who looked like a dwarf. The man always had a happy expression on his face. He always carried an axe with him, which meant that he was a melee fighter, unlike Lona, who was a mage.

Last two were twins Lola and Kel former used a sword while the latter carried a bow, they were the same age as them.

Lola had long, white, gray hair, while Kel had short one.

And then there was the captain, who apparently had no mark on him—neither physical nor magical. He wasn't blessed by the gods, which was kind of strange.

He was a tall man who looked physically strong, but he didn't have the strict expression you'd expect from someone with his build. His face was always calm and welcoming. He was blond, with a crooked nose and a defined jawline that gave his face a very masculine look.

His name was Erwin.