After naming his subordinate as Yaksha, Aldric decided to return to Floor 0 to rest and then continue. "I need to find the array quickly," thought Aldric as he prepared to leave. Seeing his master preparing to leave, Yaksha sat down, indicating that Aldric should ride him to his destination. Aldric understood and sat on Yaksha's back. Yaksha sniffed the ground and then began to run in a direction. "Hey buddy, do you even know where I want to go?" said Aldric, looking at Yaksha who was running faster than he thought. The subordinate, in return, nodded his head. His subordinate's ability to understand his words quite surprised Aldric.

"System, how can he understand my words?" asked Aldric to the system. [Subordinate Yaksha has high intelligence and will learn things quickly. If he continues to learn things at this pace, subordinate Yaksha may learn human language in 4-5 days and may form his own will.] System replied. The intelligence of his subordinate surprised Aldric.

"It is good if he forms his own will. With this, he can protect me on his own and help me in the hunt without my commands," Aldric said. "System, how can I check whether my subordinate is loyal to me or not?" Aldric asked since loyalty was a critical factor. [The subordinates that the host will create will be 80% loyal toward you, and by giving them a name, it would increase their loyalty 10% towards you] System said. Aldric, seeing how his subordinate was loyal to him even without giving them any name, was quite relieved.

Soon, both Aldric and Yaksha reached the array that would either let them go to the next floor or return to the previous ones. "Yaksha, come into my shadow," said Aldric as Yaksha completely merged with his shadow. Aldric went back to Floor 0 through the array. These arrays worked based on the hunters' or adventurers' will. If they wanted to go further, it would take them to the next floor, and vice versa.

Floor 0, where Aldric soon teleported to, was filled with adventurers who had come to rest after exhausting themselves on their respective floors. "Sir adventurer, may I see your badge?" approached a soldier. Without hesitation, Aldric handed his badge to the soldier. The soldier then poured some mana and chanted some words on the badge, and it glowed. The glow gained attention from the adventurers who were resting there. "Seems like a newbie just came in. What floor do you think he reached?" asked a frail-looking guy to another. "From the looks of it, it should be level 19," the other guy said. "Aren't you thinking too highly of him? Look at his equipment; they are not that well made, and his armor is already in terrible shape," the frail guy said, and to his statement, many other adventurers started laughing. Aldric could hear all this, but decided to ignore them. Soon, the soldier finished his work and took out a notebook and started writing on it, "Your name is Aldric, correct?" the soldier confirmed. Aldric nodded in response. "The last floor that you were on was floor 27." To this question, Aldric again nodded without any expression on his face, but that couldn't be said about others, as their faces paled upon realizing that a newbie managed to go to floor 27 alone.

"Oii Oii Oii, chotto matte! How is such a thing possible for a newbie to go and comeback from floor 27, and that without any party members? Could it be that he was in a party before, and his party died on that floor, and he escaped? Yes, that's how it would have been," said the same frail-looking guy. "Stop it, you're only embarrassing yourself," said a young man who was on his left side.

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Ignoring all the fuss, Aldric decided to find a spot to rest. After a minute or so passed, Aldric finally found a perfect spot and lay down on the ground. He rested for an hour or so and finally got up, saying, "Eeem, nothing beats a nap after death." His eyes then landed on his armor and he was stunned to see his armor, which was in bad shape earlier, now looking as good as new. "Wait, what? How did this happen?" shouted Aldric. "Hahahha, you seriously are an idiot, Mr. Hero," a voice replied. Shocked, Aldric asked, "Who is this?" and started looking around him, but he couldn't spot anyone there. "Was it the system? No, it may speak like a human but can't show this much emotion. Then, who is this?" thought Aldric. "What are you looking at, idiot?" said the voice again. "Where are you? Show yourself," Aldric said. "Aha, show you say, but I can't show you since I am in your body, mind, and soul," answered the voice. Listening to this, Aldric started checking his body, looking everywhere. After exhausting himself, Aldric took support from a wall. "So, you give up," said the voice. "Yes," Aldric replied. "It is me, the Emperor of Dragons, Vorondor Stormscale," said the voice, which was none other than the dragon emperor.

Shock overwhelmed Aldric as he became rooted to his spot, unable to move. Until now, he knew that Vorondor possessed him somehow before, but now he was having a conversation with the dragon emperor. "H-how are you able to do this?" Aldric asked in bewilderment. "Actually, you are the only person I can do this to since, out of all the heroes, you possess two divine cores. Although the second one isn't fully a divine core, it works for me," replied Vorondor. "But how did you possess it?" Aldric asked. "Since you activated the Ruinshard's ability that summons a previous wielder, that was me. My will was brought back to it. Before you ask how my will was stored in the blade, let me clarify, before dying, not only I, but all the wielders who wielded this sword had to put a piece of their consciousness or will in the blade to guide the next warrior," Vorondor explained. "Okay, that explains things. But what will you do now?" Aldric asked. "I will guide you to kill the Demon King. Since you are the Last Hero, you are still weak compared to other heroes. So, before the Summit of the Gods, you need to become stronger," replied Vorondor. "Summit of the Gods? What is that?" Aldric questioned. "Which God are you representating?" Vorondor asked. "God of Darkness,why you ask?" replied Aldric.

Vorondor didn't reply for some time, so Aldric called him, "Sir Emperor, are you there?" "Don't call me that. I don't know you," Vorondor replied. Aldric was surprised by this change in tone. "What do you mean?" Aldric asked in confusion. "What I say is what I mean," said Vorondor. "But why are you doing this?" Aldric asked. "Don't tell me that your god didn't tell you about previous heroes of darkness," Vorondor said. "What? What do you mean by that?" Aldric said.

"You all heroes of darkness are considered as anomalies and bad luck by the people of Warna" Said Vorondor in defeated voice.

"Anomaly us but why" asked Aldric with confusion in his eyes.

"Because....."

To be continued....