I was right. It was a dangerous question to ask. I probably shouldn't have.

  The man looked somewhat troubled when I asked where I was.

  He did answer though.

  "This is the Lost, a beginner grade dungeon. Did you enter here through the portal, or are you from this place?"

  I had not knowingly entered through any portal. I hadn't even realized there were such things in this world. It was odd he called this place a dungeon too, but I chalked that up to possibly being a limitation of his translation magic.

  However, I didn't feel safe telling him the full truth.

  So I only told him the parts that were convenient to share.

  "I'm... not from this place, no."

  "I see. I don't remember seeing you come in though."

  Although it was dangerous to assume anything about a whole new world, I took a gamble and assumed humans of this world couldn't stand guard for multiple days on end.

  "I... um... arrived three days ago..."

  "Three days?!"

  He seemed surprised, but I think it confirmed that my gamble was a success.

  "Goodness, child... you've been lost that whole time?"

  I awkwardly nodded. It was true that I had no idea where I was.

  "Do your parents know you're in here?"

  I shuddered despite myself.

  It wasn't that I had awful memories of my parents or anything like that. Honestly, I could barely remember them at all.

  The problem was that there's just no right answer to his question.

  If I decided to act like I had parents, it could lead to a futile search for people that had never existed in this world. If I admitted I didn't, then instead it could lead to me ending up in some orphanage somewhere.

  In technologically enlightened civilizations, even the most neglectful caretaker would eventually notice a child not growing up when they should be.

  Still, both roads led to that same possibility, so there wasn't anything I could do. I wasn't against lying, but if it bought me nothing, then honesty was always the better strategy.

  "I don't have any."

  That answer didn't make him particularly happy though.

  Well, he was probably hoping he could just find my parents and solve everything that way, but that was never a possibility in the first place.

  "So you snuck in here then?" He asked. "Are you being abused at home?"

  I still wasn't sure where 'here' was, so I decided to ask a bit more about it.

  "Shouldn't I have? Umm... and no, see, no scratches."

  "I see that, but why're you barefoot?"

  Right... technologically advanced societies usually mandate footwear.

  It's a bit of irony.

  Rather than express their dominion over nature and science by making everywhere safe to walk barefoot as my homeland did, they usually just make protective footwear cheap and abundant.

  Still, even if it's weird, kids are sometimes just weird. It's another trump card for aliens like me.

  "I just like being barefoot..."

  "I... see." He seemed to awkwardly accept my answer, at least. "Look, I'll escort you back to the portal then. The staff on the other side can contact your guardian to let them know you're okay and to come pick you up. I know you probably snuck out here or something, but kids are allowed in the dungeon with some supervision, you know."

  I didn't have a guardian for them to contact, but I accepted for now.

  "Okay... they are?"

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  "You didn't even know that much? Why did you... Kids are allowed in beginner dungeons. Anyone's allowed in, because there's no real chance of death in them."

  'Huh?'

  He must have picked up on my confusion, because he let out a sigh, and gave a more thorough explanation.

  "If you're injured or otherwise pushed past a certain point in a beginner dungeon, you're automatically revived at the entrance. You must have been doing pretty well to stay under that threshold for three days by yourself, but you were in no serious danger out here."

  "Then how come kids need supervision?" I wondered out loud.

  "Well... dying still sucks in here, so some parents complained. It's fine as long as you have some supervision, you can probably even ask one of these guys."

  He pointed his thumb back at the trio who first spotted me.

  "Though... hmmm... is the reason you're having trouble in here because you haven't learned our language yet?"

  It wasn't 'the reason,' but I could see it being a lot of trouble anyway, so I nodded in response.

  "Yeah, I see. Translation scrolls aren't expensive, but I bet it's more than a kid like you can afford... alright, kiddo, I'll see what I can do. I dunno what your story is, but you deserve a Skill too."

  I didn't want to admit that I had no idea what he was talking about, so I just asked the most vague thing I could think of that might get him to say more.

  "I do?"

  "Of course you do. These losers who found you do, and you do too. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

  "O-okay... um... does that mean they don't have one either?"

  "Most people here don't. Sometimes, beginners stick around a few weeks to practice someplace safe, and of course there's always supervisors and the occasional mentor adventurer here to watch over things, but the only real reasons to come here's either to get a Skill or to help other people get theirs."

  It was always risky asking things that were deemed common sense, even if I could always use the excuse that I was still just a kid, but since a trio of adults apparently didn't have their Skills yet, whatever those even were... I decided it must at least be difficult enough to ask about getting one.

  Plus, by saying I deserved one, he kind of implied that not everyone would think so. There must be some contention there.

  "So um... how do you get... a Skill?"

  "If only I knew. Some say you get it by deserving it. Others say people have latent skills that dungeons draw out, and you have to figure out what yours are before they surface. Nobody really knows anything for certain. We don't even know if you have to be in a dungeon to receive one, just that nobody's ever been verified to get one outside a dungeon... though I dunno how they'd know one way or the other."

  "So you don't know when you get one?"

  "You know, and in beginner dungeons, usually everyone else becomes aware of it too, but not every dungeon's like that in the first place. It's true the whole world's never felt anyone get a Skill, but that could just be how it is."

  I was running out of safe things to ask about.

  But there was one thing that was really bothering me...

  "If you can't die here, how come people don't just live here?"

  The man laughed for a bit.

  "Well, that's a good question! It's true that the dungeon'll bring you back from the brink if you get badly injured, but it won't sustain you if you get hungry or thirsty. I think some scientists tried to make it work a long time ago, but the trouble was that nothing really grows here. All the trees and animals are powered by the dungeon's magic, and what you can get out of them is just unsustainable."

  I frowned.

  No wonder I had so much trouble trying to survive here. Technically, I had found a food source, but it was a nutritional loss. I'd have eventually starved if I relied on bark alone.

  But this also meant that I had no choice, at least for now, but to try and integrate into this world's society, at least to some degree.

  "I-I'd like to... keep coming here... and get a Skill..."

  I had no clue what Skills were, but if people deemed this place inhospitable, then it was worthwhile to try and find a way to live here.

  "Sure thing, kiddo. But for now, let's get you back home. Your guardians must be worried about you."

  I replied with something that was probably unnecessary. "Probably not."

  After all, I didn't have any guardians. Who'd worry about me?

  Ideally nobody.

  Thankfully, he just let out another sigh, put his hand on my shoulder, and said with an odd air of sincerity, "Seriously, kiddo. If you're being abused, come to me about it. I know when you're the victim, your abuser seems like a big, scary monster, but every abuser's just a small fry trying to feel more important than they are. Meanwhile, I've got actual connections."

  "S-sure... I'm not being abused though..."

  He sighed again, but left it there.

  ***

  After that, he took me to a small clearing in the forest, where I tried not to look too surprised at the giant, glowing energy field that was apparently a portal.

  I knew this not merely from the fact he said he was bringing me to one, although that was a solid hint.

  Just looking at it was enough to make alien knowledge pour into my head, telling me that it was a portal.

  A portal to a special grade dungeon called Terra.

  Hoping this wasn't some bizarre trap, I followed him into the energy field, and we ended up in Terra.

  I just was very aware and oddly certain of where we'd arrived, likely again due to more alien knowledge.

  It was difficult to tell how trustworthy it truly was, but it was also difficult to doubt it in the first place.

  I presumed that this phenomenon was related to how people supposedly know when they or others gain Skills: alien knowledge simply entering one's mind to inform them of such.

  Did it stop at merely knowing you've obtained a Skill, or was the Skill itself alien knowledge too? Were you informed of how it worked, or was it purely trial and error? I wasn't sure of anything, but they seemed to be an important key in navigating this world, so obtaining one became a priority.

  We appeared in a dingy park surrounded by metal fencing, though there was a single open gate that led to the city beyond.

  A portal existed on this side too, and looking at it made me aware that it went to the beginner grade dungeon, the Lost.

  The man led me over what looked like an information kiosk at the park's entrance.

  It would be possible but quite difficult to climb the fence and reach the portal without a worker inside the kiosk seeing... and since this world had electric lighting, it could also have cameras.

  I could see lights on within the building, but also street lamps both in and out of the park.

  "This young girl got lost in the dungeon... oh, she's not fluent yet, I'll ask her for her guardian's contact information."

  Since that didn't exist, I had only one solution.

  "Actually, I know where I am now, I can get home from here!"

  I fled.

  Thankfully, I wasn't chased.