Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 153: Star Chains

[Congratulations for scoring a perfect score on your Challenge!]

As Adam left the stone monument, he received a message from the system. He looked around and realized he was back in Marbles, and a few people were waiting for him. One was obviously Thalia and the village's chief, but there were also other people.

Those people, were players. There was quite a big amount of them, and the looks they were sending him weren't very friendly.

But before anyone could say or do anything, the stone monument behind Adam started shining as a group of people were flung out of the monument. From their names, Adam recognized them to be members of Dragon Temple.

What was shocking was that among those people, none was an ordinary member. Instead, they were all at least captains of the elite squads of the guild, and most were Guild Elders. And among all those people, was Kaze, their Guild Leader.

Kaze was, or at least looked, pretty young, compared to the other Guild Leaders of First Rank guilds. He should be in his late twenties, although his actual age was probably far more than it seemed. Kaze was also a Northman, and an Elementalist.

Adam looked at Kaze up and down, and the latter was also doing the exact same thing. But quickly, Adam's attention went back to the stone monument, which was getting brighter by the second.

After a moment, it began rising into the air but, and as it did it also started getting smaller. Slowly, it levitated toward Adam, and by the time it reached him the big rock had become much smaller, and the light was disappearing.

As the light went out, Adam found out that the stone monument had completely disappeared, and it had been replaced by what seemed to be parchments.

Adam took them in his hands and inspected them.

[Epic Flying Vessel Plans]

Plans to construct Epic Grade Flying Vessels. Unable to see more because you do not possess any of the following professions: Master Engineer.

Adam raised an eyebrow but swiftly put the plans into his inventory. If they were what he thought they were, then those plans were definitely good enough of a reward.

"You have some nerves, coming here and stealing from us." As Adam was about to join Thalia and ask her how much time passed, he heard a voice from the side.

He looked at the speaker, who was Kaze, and asked with a raised eyebrow "You got a problem weakling?"

Kaze and his guild elders opened their eyes wide, who dared to call Kaze a weakling in this world?! After a moment, their shock turned into anger, but Kaze held his hand.

Seeing this, Adam grinned and said "That's what I thought." He then joined Thalia and the two left the scene. As they entered back in the village, Thalia whispered "Do you know each other?"

Adam laughed "Who doesn't know me?" Thalia rolled her eyes and then asked curiously "What happened in that monument? And what did you get?"

"I was sent to some strange land and I had to fight an army of 100 000 Level 50 Silver Rank soldiers." Thalia opened her eyes wide and asked "You were able to kill so many soldiers? On your own?"

Adam scoffed "Of course I did, I'm very powerful you know. Anyway, I got a book from that world, as for the parchments Unless you ever become a trusted member of my guild, you won't get to know what they are for."

Thalia then asked "A book? That's all? And you can forget about me joining your guild." Adam smiled and took out the book he had taken from that man. When he came back, other than feeling the system back, he could also feel the book was still on him.

And as expected, it really was a skill book.

Star Chains (B): Creates 10 chains of starlight to bind down an enemy. As long as the enemy's energy pool is not two times bigger than the caster's, then the enemy will be successfully caught. Enemies bound by the Star Chains will be unable to use their energy and their Strength will be halved. Cost: 10 000 MP.

This skill book was only for mages, which was good for Adam since he had Louisa in his guild, who led all the mages they had. Despite being a Cleric, she could also deal out a good amount of damage with her class.

Like everyone of his Division Leaders, she was an SS Class, she was a Lord of Light. This class gave her access to incredible skills, some for healing, but others also allowed her to dish incredible damage with light attacks.

It was just that most clerics didn't have access to those skills, and could usually only heal, but not attack. As for why he thought it was a good idea to give her the skill, it wasn't just because of her personal might, but because of the way she fought.

Unlike himself, who was mostly alone with Neith, all his Division Leaders would hunt and level up in groups. Sometime they would be training their men, or when they faced a tough boss they would team up with the other Division Leaders. If he gave her [Star Chains], she would be able to stop their enemies from using skills, which was a very powerful ability to have in a group fight.

But he would only be able to give it to her later, since he was busy for the moment.

"Can I see the skill book?" Thalia suddenly asked him on the side. Adam, who was just about to store the book in his inventory, was surprised by her question. However, he directly handed it to her. Unlike players, to learn a skill, the inhabitants of Epoch had to read the book and learn from it. And even when they learned it it wouldn't disappear.

Thalia flipped through a few pages and soon she had a stupefied expression. She asked "How much for this book?" Adam laughed and snatched the book from her hands as he said "I'm not selling it."

He thought she just casually asked, but she then said "Then just lend it to me, just long enough for me to learn it! I promise you a great reward for this, as you wouldn't just be making a deal with me, but with my entire imperial family! As long as I can master it I will give it back to you and you will still get your payment!"

Adam asked "Is it that valuable?" Thalia grabbed her face and said "Valuable? That's a skill of the Star series for god's sake! Of course it's valuable!!"

Adam was still surprised by her outburst, but after a moment he said "But I don't need anything"

However, it looked like he had underestimated her resolve to get the book as she said "I can offer you a guide on how to open the Gates! It goes up to the 6th Gate! And that's only a base reward!" In her mind, she was sure this would be enough, but much to her shock Adam shook his head and said "Don't need it, I already got that."

This shocked her even more as this was something as valuable as this skill. As far as she knew, the Holy Temple were the only ones who had such information, and everyone who opened the 6th Gate had to pay a big price to the Holy Temple to get the way to open the 6th Gate.

The only reason her family had it was thanks to a book they had found in ancient ruins. But this guy was telling her he already had it?!

Adam shrugged and said "I know how to open the 6 first Gates, and I know a few things about the 7th Gate, so I really don't need your thing." This was true, since he had been working on the 6th Gate in his previous life he already knew how to open it.

The only reason Old Adam hadn't opened it was because it took a certain amount of time to open it, and there was no shortcut to that. As for the 7th Gate, in Old Adam's alternate world there was a legend about there being someone who opened the 7th Gate, and Old Adam had learned through various people clues about the 7th Gate.