Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 133: Everburn Mont

After the little incident with the four robbers, although the two did see other humans, the majority of the beings they saw were magma monsters, most of them being magma slimes.

Adam found out his ice attacks were stronger against the slimes because they were beings of extreme hotness, being made of magma.

As he used his different skills, Adam also confirmed something he had been thinking about recently. When he created his cultivation technique, he had a bonus to water proficiency, and until now he didn't know what it meant.

But through experience he finally found out what the use of this bonus was. Every time he used water related skills, they would appear much clearer than before.

The level of his skills depended on how well he mastered them, and to master them he had to understand how to manipulate and mold his Aura to achieve the effects intended.

And to learn this, he would have to repeatedly use the skill to learn the pathway used, and how much Aura he should be using. This was quite a long and arduous task, which was why perfectly mastering a skill was hard.

Of course he could also repeatedly use it, forcing his body to remember how to use the skill by imprinting it into his body, but this could only push a skill to Level 10, and it was very limited for higher leveled skills.

And here came the Water Proficiency. Since he created his cultivation technique, every time he used a skill related to the water element and which he did not perfectly master, Adam was able to feel much clearer the Aura used, and thus allowed him to memorize more easily how to use a skill.

This had already allowed him to push his [Misty Escape] to level 3, and his [Great Ice Breath] to Level 2. The magma monsters had made great targets to practice.

Other than that, Adam also realized that the volcano was much bigger than he thought. It took Thalia and him ten minutes to get to the other end of the area. Knowing there were also a Level 60, 70, 80 area and so on until Level 200, and that there were multiple areas for each level, this Volcano was bigger than any that ever existed on Earth.

At the end of each zone, between the current one and the next one, there was always a rather safe area where one could collect a fire if they wanted.

Adam and Thalia did not stop at the first rest area of course, as the fire present here was barely any better than a campfire.

From that point, several hours went by, during which Adam and Thalia made their way into the volcano. Other than the level of the monsters, the temperature was also gradually rising.

By the time Adam and Thalia reached the zone between Level 80 and 90, the temperature was so high that an Iron Rank would lose health every second.

Once there, Adam looked at Thalia and said "Do you want to take your fire here, or should we go on?" Thalia replied "You didn't seem to have any difficulty dealing with those Level 80 monsters, so I say we go on."

Adam nodded and the two started moving again. Every area seemed to be bigger than the previous one, and so even though it only took them 10 minutes to clear the Level 50 area, it had taken them an entire hour to clear the Level 80 Area.

Another hour went by, and the two were already nearing the end of the Level 90 area. Since now, they didn't encounter any difficulty, most of the monsters were either Elite or Chieftains, with a few Lords here and there. Thalia never had to lend in a hand, and probably wouldn't have to do it at all since if a monster could trouble Adam, Thalia would most certainly be completely overpowered by it.

At first Thalia was keeping a certain distance with Adam, although she had put a mark on him the way he had killed those four robbers had its effect on her.

But through the different zones, although the two didn't speak much as they didn't want to reveal too much about themselves, she couldn't help but feel like Adam had something special.

She couldn't really explain it, but she felt like she was safe next to him. And well, it's not like she had much of a choice, she knew that if she tried to go back on her own she would probably die on the way.

When the two were able to see the end of the dangerous zone though, something unexpected happened. Adam and Thalia weren't alone but instead accompanied a group of three Kartian Swordsmen whom Adam had saved from another band of robbers.

Those three were Level 95, and were quite good when they fought by three, which is why Adam and Thalia took them with them.

The group of three looked at the safe zone like it was heaven, they had been struggling in the Level 90 area for quite some time and they weren't like Adam who had opened the 2nd Gate or Thalia who didn't have to fight at all, so they were quite exhausted by this point.

Seeing no monsters nearby, the three began running toward the safe zone, leaving Adam's protection. Adam himself didn't say anything to them as he could see they were tired.

However, just before they could reach the safe zone, a torrent of lava suddenly engulfed them. They didn't even have the time to scream before they got covered by the magma. This magma wasn't like the surrounding magma either, it was even more viscous and it would be much harder to get out of this magma.

But as to whether they would be able to get out of this magma before dying, Adam and Thalia would never know, because a second after the magma appeared, a large beast appeared and swallowed all the magma.

[Magma Fiend] (Elder, Level 90)

HP: 5,000,000/5,000,000

The Magma Fiend was about 5 meters tall and 3 meters large, and looked like a giant dwarf made of magma. It's arms were abnormally big, but more importantly it's mouth could become bigger, big enough to swallow half a dozen people at the same time.

The Magma Fiend crunched the magma it had just swallowed, as well as everything in it, and looked at Adam and Thalia with its big eyes Well they weren't exactly eyes, more like two fireballs in eye sockets. But it seemed that this Magma Fiend was somehow using those to see.

Adam looked at the nearby Thalia and said "I will hold it back while you run to the safe area." Thalia wanted to say something but before she could even speak Adam and the Magma Fiend were already rushing at each other.

Adam saw the boss opening it's mouth, and instantly he jumped to the side and opened his mouth toward the boss's mouth.

The 4th Gate main use was the perfect balance, but there was actually a secondary use for those proficient in using it. Normally one would need to use the 4th Gate for years, or even decades to use this ability, but Adam was able to use it as soon as he opened the Gate thanks to his experience.

This ability was the ability to predict trajectories. If someone threw a ball in front of Adam, he now would be able to predict where it would fall the moment it left that person's hand.

Another example is the Magma Fiend in front of him. The moment it's attack started, Adam already knew where to place himself to dodge it.

Of course, this ability wasn't omnipotent. There were limits to the ability. The most obvious one was speed, even if he could predict the trajectory of something, if that thing was too quick then he wouldn't be able to dodge it.

Also, if there were too many objects moving then predicting the trajectories of everyone of them would be painful to his brain, although Adam's limit in this life was many times higher thanks to his powerful soul.

There was another weakness toward living beings as well. The trajectory of a 'dead' object, like a stone being thrown, wouldn't change once in the air unless an external factor changed the trajectory.

However, for a living subject, for example a sword being swung, the trajectory could be changed by the swordsman if he was skilled enough.

So while this ability gave Adam an edge over his opponents, it wouldn't allow him to outclass all his opponents effortlessly. For this dumb boss though, it was more than enough.

After dodging the fire breath, Adam fired his own [Great Ice Breath] at the boss' opened mouth.