Aaron's eyes fluttered open as he looked around in confusion. Before he could make sense of his surroundings, memories of three years of torture entered his brain.
He clutched his head, enduring the onslaught of the memories. Soon, he calmed down and sat up.
'So, it wasn't a dream. I really went through that for three years.'
He shivered just thinking about it, and if possible, he wanted to erase it from his memory. He was really trying hard to set them aside.
"Congratulations! You are the first human to pass this test."
The powerful and almighty voice once again sounded in his head, making him raise his head. Perhaps because he had absorbed his mana, Aaron felt calm in Draven's presence.
He wanted to inspect himself as he was feeling weird all over his body, but he decided to keep it for later. There were more important things to do first.
He stood up and asked, looking at the boundary instead of Draven, "So, can you tell me everything now?"
"Alright. I will try to answer all of your questions since this concerns me too. But there is a problem. What do you know about corruption?"
Aaron answered without thinking twice, "Not much. I know that monsters from Rifts are Corrupted, and in their eyes, I saw only madness, hunger... nothing else."
"That much is correct. But you don't know how they got corrupted, do you?"
Aaron nodded silently.
"Well, find it yourself. I'm not telling."
Aaron's lips twitched upon hearing that, as he wondered how an ancient being like him could be so annoyingly unhelpful?
"There's another type of Corruption that spreads through knowledge. If I tell you, then you would become no different than those monsters you hate the most."
Aaron shivered, suddenly feeling thankful towards Draven. 'I take my words back.'
"So I can't ask anything about Gods or the apocalypse?" he guessed.
"Yes."
Aaron nodded quietly.
"I will answer your other questions, though. And I know some of them, so I'll first begin by answering them. First, why am I bringing so many people from another world here?"
He listened to Draven's relaxed voice attentively, while trying his best not to stare directly at him.
"It's pretty simple and just as you have guessed. I want to get out of here, but I need help. However, everyone is too weak, so I'm stuck here."
Aaron nodded and asked, "Who sealed you anyway? The Gods?"
"Heh, as if they could ever seal a Primordial Dragon like me. But you can say they were a part of it. What? Afraid of them?"
Aaron shrugged, "Why wouldn't I be afraid of literal Gods?"
"Hehe, you don't seem like it. Also, you will confront them if you truly want to destroy the Apocalypse. It's impossible for you to do that without making them your enemy."
Aaron frowned and quickly connected the dots with what the Dragon had told him previously, "I need to become a God to defeat the Apocalypse, and the current Gods wouldn't allow the appearance of a new God?"
Draven stayed silent, neither denying nor confirming his theory. But Aaron didn't mind it, as he concluded that the secret was likely connected to the spread of corruption.
"Anyways, so what do you want me to do?" Aaron asked.
"You are too weak, so there is no point in telling you that. I'll just give you a single task, and that is to become a God, which will make you eligible enough to learn the secrets behind the Apocalypse."
Aaron nodded as Draven continued.
"Till then, I will take a nap, so don't expect any replies."
"That's all?" Aaron was confused.
"Yes, that is all for now. Anyone below the level of Gods is worthless to me."
Aaron nodded in understanding and said, "Then, let's talk about me and what actually happened to me."
"Just see your stats, boy," Draven's voice sounded more sleepy now and also slightly annoyed.
"I have no faith in any Gods, so I don't have any status screen," Aaron shook his head.
This was one of the reasons for the immense influence of Deities and churches in this world. It was especially true for humans, who could only step onto the path of becoming stronger if they had faith in any God.
That faith would grant them a class, skills, and even a status screen, showing them their current condition and abilities. They could then use various methods to level up and become stronger.
However, the prerequisite for all of this was having faith in Gods, or at least one God in particular. Once you lose faith, you lose your status screen too.
As a transmigrator, Aaron had no faith in any of the Gods. He had even questioned the existence of those Gods for a long time.
"Try it. You would be surprised."
Aaron got confused by his amused tone but did as he was told. He muttered, "Status!"
[Name - ]
[Race - ]
[Rank - ]
...
The status screen went on, but Aaron shifted his focus because all of the fields were empty. It confused him, as this was the first time he had encountered a situation like this.
"Oh, I forgot you don't have a name," Draven chuckled.
"Name? Is it because of my transmigration?" Aaron asked, wondering if the mixing of two souls and a single body had erased his identity.
"It's probably because of your evolution," he said. "I'll tell you manually then. By absorbing my mana, you have become a hybrid of dragon and human."
"Wait! Really?" Aaron exclaimed in surprise. "Wasn't it basically impossible to have a demi-human with any race?"
It was something he had learned from Mike's memories. Apparently, this world didn't have hybrids of humans and other races. It was simply deemed impossible.
Reproduction between humans and other races never worked, and even if one tried to use other methods to seek the desired results, they were bound to fail.
It was as if the world itself didn't want a hybrid to exist.
"Heh, why do you think so many people failed before you?" Draven sneered. "They couldn't handle the unification of two races, especially against the laws of the world. But you succeeded."
There was a small pause before Draven said in a serious voice,
"Now, you are a Legendary Silver Dragon."