Dresden slowly opened his eyes and found himself in an unfamiliar room… and a familiar body.

Wait, body?

He blinked, trying to feel for the other half and… it’s still there, just unconscious right now. Huh.

He frowned, well, Aezan frowned, but that’s beside the point, as Dresden still didn’t really understand how this whole thing really worked, nor how he’s able to control these two bodies at once even at a large distance away (he’d tested it for a bit back in the forest) but somehow there wasn’t any problem at all even if Aezan and Lia were too far from each other.

First things first though, he had to figure out where he was, since he was on a rather fancy bed, if he wasn’t mistaken, then this would definitely be silk, which implied that he ended up in some prosperous place.

Actually, he could just check the map right now so—

“Ah, sir, you’re finally awake?” the door suddenly opened as a slim man that looked to be wearing some sort of butler’s clothes walked in. The man smiled slightly as he bowed, “Excuse me, then, I have to inform the Master of your awakening, please wait for a bit.” He said, before closing the door again.

Aezan managed to catch the floating status bar atop the butler’s head.

[Aiden Lv. 16 | 13240/13240HP]

Aezan blinked, “Huh?” he muttered belatedly, wondering why such a seemingly strong person would act as a butler in this place… or maybe that’s his misunderstanding? After all he only had the Giant Orcs to compare the levels with, and those guys, though numerous, were already fairly strong…

Maybe this world just had an incredibly high standard then?

He didn’t know.

Then again, it probably made sense in such a fantasy setting, butlers tend to not just be your typical servant after all, sometimes they also act as super skilled assassins/bodyguards. Maybe that was the type of guy Aiden was.

Whatever the case might be, he could only wait around and speculate, since he was told to wait here after all. He also didn’t want to piss off anyone here, after all, if the butler was at that level, then who knows what the levels of all the other people around here would be?

So he had no choice but to sit still and just wait for the guy to come back.

In the mean time, he could at least look over the map and his stats for now.

---

Aezan Diaz / M / LV. 10] {HP: 1720/1720 MP: 340/340 SP: 151/151}

[EXP UNTIL LV. UP: 134900]

[PHYS. POWER: 14(+5+2)=21]

[MAGI. POWER: 4]

[SPEED: 10]

[ENDURANCE: 10(+2+1)=13]

[PERCEPTION: 7]

[UNUSED POINTS: 25]

{Titles}

<Indomitable Warrior | +5 P. POW., +2 END>

<Slaughterer of Orcs (Giant) | Additional 20% damage to Giant Orcs, Additional 10% damage to all other Orc types>

{Skills}

[UNIQUE SKILLS: Parallelization System {Co-Op Sync<Inactive: Out of Range>} (Partner: Lia Saejan), Indomitable Will, Elemental Blade Enhancement, Transcendent Sword Mastery]

[PASSIVE SKILLS: Physical Endurance Lv.2]

[ACTIVE SKILLS: Legendary Mana Slash Lv.1]

{Equipment}

Warrior Set Equipment [Beginner] <+2 P. POW., +1 END>

Frostflame Arclight Sword {Unique Evolving Sword | Bound to Aezan Diaz | Can be Summoned}

{Inventory Items}

[Portable Camping Site <Small> {Gold Rank - Can be Upgraded}]

[Scroll of Teleportation] {Infinite Uses | Cannot Teleport: Please Bind a Location | Bound to User: Aezan Diaz}

---

[Current Location: Vortien Theocracy]

[Distance from Partner (Lia Saejan) : 4,748km]

Well then, that explains some things.

It was nice that the Parallelization System seemed to have a feature where he could see where their partner was. From what he can see in the map, Lia seemed to be in… basically the other side of the world, like, way up there, in some place called the Fennel Kingdom.

So then… this basically meant that they were going to be separated for quite a long time…

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE POINT OF CO-OP MODE THEN?!

For some reason he was now suddenly hearing Lia’s voice in his head, which was weird considering how he’s basically Lia but then—

Right.

Don’t think about it.

At this point Dresden might as well admit that he was insane. Considering how he basically had a split personality now and the fact that he still didn’t feel like he’s actually here. Whatever, he’s just going to be Aezan for now, if Lia wakes up then he can still focus as her anyways so it’s fine.

… it’s just going to be sad since now he can’t make a one-man comedy duo.

Yes. Aezan missed Lia already. Imagine missing yourself…

Before he could go deeper into that rabbit hole of thoughts, the door opened again, and this time two people walked in.

It was Aiden, the butler from lately, and another man with him this time—or rather, young man. At least he looked young, like in his 20s and all that, but other than that, what caught his eye was the stylishly formal clothes the guy was wearing. Must be a noble then.

[Colton Vess Lv.19 37680/37680HP]

Must be one yep. The guy has a last name after all.

“Greetings Sir Hero, I am Baron Colton Vess. It truly came as a surprise to us when we had suddenly come upon your unconscious form in the middle of the Darvion Dungeon, but thankfully you weren’t in too dire of a situation when we found you down there.” Colton said, smiling. Aezan couldn’t help but think of him as like a typical otomege handsome character, but that was just another one of his random thoughts.

“… Eh? Hero?” Aezan asked, tilting his head in confusion, so now he was suddenly a hero? But he had no memory of this… is this like a backstory of Aezan that he just didn’t know or something? “I don’t really remember any of that…”

Colton blinked for a moment, before laughing as he started to explain, “Ah, no, that’s a misunderstanding. Certainly, there is no record of you anywhere in the Drakon Empire’s logs, but… it seemed that you have a very interesting weapon bound to you, one that could only be wielded by the prophesised Hero of the Drakon Empire.”

Aezan blinked a few times, taking in the sudden burst of information (considering he had the brainpower of two people it didn’t even take a second to register but it was still worth noting), “Oh! You mean this weapon?” he exclaimed, getting off the bed and reaching his hand up as he summoned the Frostflame Arclight Sword.

The temperature around them suddenly dipped down, forming a slight coating of ice for a moment, but quickly disappearing as the temperature rose once again to counteract it, and with a bright flash of light, the sword appeared in Aezan’s hand, seemingly having a bright cyan aura around it.

This was the first time Aezan had summoned his weapon indoors, so he wasn’t quite expecting the drastic changes in temperature to actually affect the surroundings that much. He also didn’t really like having the sword summoned out all the time, with how freaking bright it glowed.

The two men in front of him weren’t aware of his thoughts however, and simply seemed to have a surprised look on their faces, Colton in particular looking excited with his wide smile.

“Beautifully majestic… it truly is as the legends say.” Colton murmured, seeming mesmerized as he stared at the blade for a few more seconds before shaking his head and looking to him again, “Ah, forgive me Sir Hero, I was just… captivated, having seen the famed Drakonis Glacies Sword in the hands of a chosen one…” the baron said, apologizing to him with a slight smile.

“Drakonis Glacies Sword, huh.” Aezan said, looking at the sword in his hand with a raised brow, “I seemed to have underestimated your importance… you actually have many names huh?” the sword seemed to respond at him, by blinking white for a moment before dimming back into its usual cyan glow. Aezan just chuckled, shaking his head at the sword. Seriously, this sword was weird in many ways. Not only is it sentient and overpowered, it was incredibly famous too!

“Oh? Does Sir Hero know the Legendary sword by a different name?” Colton asked, looking curious at the interaction between Aezan and the sword.

“Yeah, I know this blade as the Frostflame Arclight Sword. Actually, I don’t even know why it’s like, suddenly bound to me considering how this sword just randomly appeared in my hands at the time I came to—” Aezan paused for a moment as he realized how he was about to talk about how he suddenly got into this world, this didn’t go unnoticed by the other two men it seemed, as one of them raised a brow and the other furrowed their brows slightly, “—a weird forest and all that.” He finished, shrugging his shoulders.

“I see… can I ask how you ended up in the Darvion Dungeon then?” Colton asked looking cautious of his words.

Aezan didn’t mind it much and just nodded, he didn’t need to tell them everything, but he at least had to warn them about that colossal monster he and Lia had met back in the forest. “I don’t mind, to be quite honest I was lost in this odd forest that was full of Giant Orcs. I didn’t know what happened exactly, but I just know something weird happened when I had managed to kill all those Giant Orcs… the ground suddenly shook and cracks started forming in the ground, and just before I went unconscious… I saw it.” He now had a grim look on his face, “That being… it was so much bigger than I thought. Surrounded by darkness, an empty silhouette of what seemed like a man… I don’t know what to describe it as other than how I felt it to be like. It felt like a being of chaos and darkness. The Entity of Chaos… that was what came to mind as I saw such a horrifying being. That was the last thing I remember, forgive me.”

Though Aezan was being quite honest with his words, he did exaggerate and embellish things just a little bit. He wanted to have that dramatic flair of a hero who had met one of the biggest bosses near the climax of the game and lost, and now everything was ending up in the bad end route…

In simpler terms, he just couldn’t help but roleplay (or perhaps LARP is the better term here) real hard. Could he be blamed though? It was fun.

It seemed that his words were rather effective as the two people in front of him had very serious and dark looks on their faces.

“The Chaos Entity… that would explain why the Drakonis Sword vanished from the Cathedral and ended up in Sir Hero’s hands… Still, to think that the Chaos Entity would return so soon.” Colton murmured to himself, looking down with a hand on his chin.

“Master.” Aiden said, suddenly, turning to Colton.

Colton met his gaze and nodded, “Yes. Please inform His Highness and the Cardinal of this immediately, if this truly is the case then we have no time to waste, if what I know of the place Sir Hero has explained is right, then I fear that the Capital may be in great danger. Make haste, Aiden.”

“Understood, Master. Please excuse me, Sir Hero.” Aiden said, bowing to Aezan before disappearing into a dark smoke.

Aezan’s eyes widened upon seeing that, but he quickly turned his attention back to Colton who took a step towards him,

“Sir Hero,” Colton said, reaching a hand out to him, seemingly asking for a handshake, “Though it is quite late of me to ask this, and the situation is dire, I wish to ask one question before I take you to the Cathedral.” He then took a deep breath, staring straight into Aezan’s eyes. “What is your name?”

Finally being asked that question, Aezan couldn’t help but grin. His quest was about to begin. “Aezan Diaz. That is my name.”

Colton blinked briefly upon hearing his name for some reason, but he eventually nodded and asked him another thing, “Then please grab my hand, Sir Aezan. I will teleport us to the Vortien Cathedral.”

Aezan nodded, unsummoned his sword, and took Colton’s hand.

As this was happening, Lia, on the other side of Vaera, finally woke up.

---