Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

The players around Adam suddenly started shouting, chaos took place. How unlucky could they be? They began flooding the Kingdom's chat with screenshots of their new quest. Soon, everyone knew that the next village that would be attacked, would be Rosewatch.

Adam suddenly saw rows of 'f' in the chat. Adam closed it and shook his head. They were really unlucky. The first villages attacked would be destroyed, because of the levels of the players. But the ones who would be attacked later had more luck, as their players would have the time to level up and would thus be able to defeat the tide and even get the rewards.

Adam clenched his fists. That was unfair. That was too unfair! He would lose two Levels and a lot of time just because someone else had made a mistake!

But then Adam shook his head and refused to let despair take a hold of him. He could survive this. He didn't know how, but he knew he could. The developers wouldn't just put something unreasonable like this.

Adam quickly concluded he needed equipment. He needed almost 5000 XP to pass to the next level, so leveling up would be difficult. And the power given by equipments was better than the one given by levels.

Adam rushed toward the auction house, and once he arrived there he began looking for equipments. He also put everything he got on sale.

He was surprised though, because before he could even find a good piece of equipment for himself he received a notification.

[Auction House: 'King Slayer' has bought your 'Venom Piercer' for 5 Silver.]

Adam was surprised. When selling in the auction house, one needed to put a minimal price, and a price to buy the equipment immediately. And he had actually set 1 Silver for his materials, and 5 for the daggers as the maximum price. But as Adam decided to ignore the matter and take it as someone needing it for a quest, he received another notification.

[King Slayer has sent you a friend invitation.]

Adam looked at the ID carefully. He didn't remember hearing about this person. Was he a member of some guild who recognized his name and wanted to recruit him?

Adam thus accepted the invitation, curious.

Immediately after, Adam received a call.

The first thing King Slayer asked was "Are you in Rosewatch?"

Adam asked, surprised "How do you know?" King Slayer replied "I am in Rosewatch too. When I heard your name in the announcement, I was quite sure I remembered seeing your name earlier."

Adam was surprised, this man had a really good memory. He asked "What about it?"

King Slayer said "I have a quest with great rewards, ones that could help with the village's attack. But I won't be able to do it in less than 30 minutes if I'm on my own. That's why I need help."

Adam asked "Your quest can be shared? Why with me?" King Slayer replied "It can only be shared with another person, and who would I choose other than you? You are the only one who killed an Elite Boss."

Adam smiled, that was true. King Slayer said "Where are you right now?" Adam replied "At the auction house." King Slayer said "Good. Join me in front of the village chief's house."

Adam said "Okay." and then hung up before walking in the chief's direction. He only needed thirty seconds to reach there. There weren't many people, so he easily found King Slayer. And it was hard to miss him anyway.

King Slayer was a Level 4 Dark Elf Assassin, with several equipments on him. He was the first Level 4 Adam saw, and he had several pieces of equipment on him, which was quite rare.

King Slayer waved at him and Adam approached him. They shook hands as King Slayer said "I didn't think you were this tall. Truly befitting a Berseker. Now, accept the quest, we must hurry."

[King Slayer has invited you to join a quest!]

Quest Detail: You found a letter on a dead knight about an important member of the Azure Sky Kingdom being captured.

Quest Level: 5

Quest Difficulty: S

Objective: Save the mysterious person trapped.

Deadline: 24 hours

Reward: 3000 XP, 40 Silver, ?

Failure penalty: Forbidden from entering Ember City, lose 2 levels.

Adam looked at King Slayer in shock. How lucky was he to find an S Rank Quest? Still, before accepting Adam asked "This quest only seem to benefit you. 3000 XP isn't enough for me to level up before the tide."

King Slayer nodded and said "I know. But this is an S Quest, do you think you won't get some equipment? As a quest becomes more difficult, it doesn't increase the XP primarily, but the items you will get. Although it isn't said here, I found in the letter that if we can succeed we will get a powerful skill of our choice, as well as a Class Armor."

Hearing him, Adam suddenly felt excited. The skill could be disappointing if he was unlucky but the Class Armor couldn't. A Class Armor was a special kind of armor that was literally made for one class, and that was stronger than other equipments of the same level.

Adam no longer hesitated and accepted the quest. Adam looked at his map, but was surprised to see there was no objective. As if he was reading his mind King Slayer said "There is nothing on your map because we can't go there by foot. I picked up a teleportation crystal next to the letter that will lead us to the quest. Do you need anything before we go?"

Adam checked his equipments durability but saw they were all at 100% of durability. The only things he used were his sword to attack, and his boots when he was bitten by the wolf, but he replaced both, so Adam nodded and said "We can go."

King Slayer nodded and took out a multicolored crystal. That was the first time Adam saw something like this. King Slayer clenched his hand, crushing the crystal. Then, just next to them a tear appeared in space, and King Slayer said "Here, we need to enter in here to start the quest."

However, just as he said that a nearby player rushed toward the tear. Adam wanted to stop him, but King Slayer shook his head. Adam thus watched, curious. The player was about to enter the rift when suddenly… he was sliced in two.

Adam saw him blink his eyes before dying, not understanding what happened. King Slayer said "Not just anyone can enter a tear in space, we can enter because the quest protects us, but at our level anyone who didn't receive the quest will die."

Adam felt pity for the Level 2 Assassin. His level was now reset to 1 because of his greed. King Slayer said "Come in."

Adam nodded and the two entered. When they passed to the other side, the portal closed itself. Adam looked around, curious. They had landed into a strange room, there was no door nor window, only torches on the sides that emitted some mana.

King Slayer said "We can only get in here through a teleportation crystal. Come, we need to hurry to save the princess. But first, accept the invite so we can share XP from the kills."

[King Slayer has invited you to form a party!]

Adam accepted and as they started running he said "I'll tank in front while you attack them in their back." King Slayer smiled and said "Of course, you don't expect an Assassin to tank do you?"

Adam smiled back and looked forward to their first opponents.

As they ran, Adam fell behind because King Slayer was faster than him as an Assassin, and as he looked at his back he felt the man was an expert. The way he was moving showed he had a great control over his body.

After a moment King Slayer took Adam by surprise when he asked "Do you have any AP left?" Adam replied "Yes, 15 of them."

King Slayer turned around, with some shock on his face, and asked "What Level were you when you killed the Elite?" Adam replied "Level 2. Killing it raised my levels by two, and the quest associated by another level. I didn't really get the time to put in my levels though."

King Slayer laughed and said "This will be easier than I thought then. You should put 10 of your AP in Agility, and use the other 5 as you wish. This way, we will be able to complete this quest faster. Moreover, even for a Berseker Agility is important. For your Strength and Endurance, the Class Armor will give more than enough points for each."

Adam thought about it, and in the end nodded. His strength was already high enough, and to get any substantial change he would need to put all 15 of his AP into Strength. But doing so would make of him a Glass Cannon, and he didn't want that.

Adam first put 10 AP in Agility, then 3 into Intelligence and the last two in Endurance. He immediately felt his speed double. King Slayer smiled and accelerated. He was actually holding back?