Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

[So I want your support, you know what to do.]

Adam closed his status while looking a little proud before walking back to the group. He showed them the key he had just gotten and said "I found this on the High Shaman, it was the only thing that could be associated to the treasure you are after. All we need to do now is to find the lock, which is most certainly in this room. Let's all search for it."

They nodded and the group began their search. Ten minutes later though, none of them had found anything. They continued searching for another 20 minutes, but there was nothing, they had been patting the walls and the floor in search of a hole but they found none.

Adam looked at his key, with how large it was the hole shouldn't be hard to see, so why couldn't they find anything?

"Master!"

Everyone looked at June who had just exclaimed. She was standing in the middle of the room, next to the smashed table. She pointed her finger up and said "Look."

The group turned their eyes to where she pointed, it was on the ceiling. The room was circular, and the walls weren't straight, but rather curved gather in a single point, right above where Jun was standing.

June then said "I can see there seem to be a hole hidden there, but I don't know how to reach it…" Indeed, the closer to the center one was, the higher the ceiling would be. On the edges of the room, the walls were only five meters or so, but in the center of the room the ceiling was about twenty meters in height.

Adam nodded and replied "We can try, although I don't really see why there would be a key hole on the ceiling. As for how to reach up there, I can throw you up. Once up there you will have to plant your daggers into the wall as not to fall."

June looked a little embarrassed as she said "I don't think that will be possible master…"

Adam tilted his head and June showed her daggers and said "They aren't sharp enough to cut into the stone making this room."

Adam approached her and said "Show me your daggers." She nodded and gave them obediently. Adam nodded to himself, those were Level 20 Uncommon Daggers.

He took out [Star Glitter] and gave them to her. She opened her eyes wide and Adam said "Keep them, you are my disciple after all, if I can't even gift my own disciple a weapon then I would be a pathetic master. Use them well in the future, and don't get killed."

She bowed "Disciple thanks master." Adam shook his head and said "I already told you, don't be so courteous. Now, are you ready to go up?"

She nodded so Adam gave her the key before he grabbed her and used [Mighty Strike] to throw her in the air. He hadn't used his entire strength though as he would probably have made her crash into the ceiling, what he needed was to use just enough force for her to stop right below the ceiling so that she could plant her daggers into the wall.

This was considered a really difficult task for a normal person to precisely control their strength, but for Martial artists of Adam's standing it wasn't that hard.

Jude reached the right height and slashed her dagger at the wall. Unexpectedly though, her dagger wasn't able to pierce deep enough in the stone to plant itself.

As the group thought she would fall, Jude slashed out again, with her other dagger, and this time it was lit up as if it had burned in a fire, the greenish metal had turned white.

This time the dagger had no trouble piercing into the wall, and allowed her to stop her body from falling. She then looked down and said "I was right, there is a key hole here!" She didn't have to speak loud because the room had a good acoustic.

The group were full of joy, they would finally get what they had come here for. Jude inserted the key in the hole, and turned it. As she did so they heard a loud click, and the room started rumbling.

The roof started moving, retracting toward the walls. Jude hurriedly jumped from the ceiling making a double back flip and landing gracefully. A 20 meters fall wasn't much for a Level 20 Assassin, especially a powerful martial artist.

The group looked up, wondering what they would discover. They first saw another roof, it looked like a hidden room was above them the whole time. This hidden room had many chains, all converging to one point, a man.

The adventurers were shocked upon seeing the man hanging in the air, stuck in the chains. When the false ceiling finished retracting to the walls, the imprisoned man started moving, the chains lowering him down.

They moved backwards as the man appeared where they were, his head lowered and his clothes in tatters. The group couldn't see the man's face, but they instantly understood he was a Northman, and probably a Berserker since he had a body build similar to Adam's.

He was tall and muscular. The special thing about him was his hair though, they were blue, a light blue. When he first saw him in the air, Adam thought he was dead, but now that the man was at his level he actually saw there was a status above his head.

[Johan] (Iron, Level 20)

HP: 650/650

Seeing his level and HP, Adam was confidant enough to approach the man. If the man only had 600 HP while being Level 20 then the clothes he wore couldn't be hidden armors, he really was in tattered clothes.

Adam stepped in front of the bound man and said "Wake up."

However, there was no reaction from the man, so Adam crouched to look at the man's face. His face was shadowed because of his position, but Adam was able to see that he was young, like every Iron Rank he met.

His eyes were closed, he was unconscious. Adam was about the grab his chin when Johan suddenly moved and tried to bite Adam's fingers.

Adam immediately retracted his fingers, he was far faster than Johan with his equipment after all. Adam looked at the man's face, which was showed nothing but hate.

However, as the two stared at each other in the eyes, Johan started showing confusion, and his earlier hate disappeared as he looked around and saw the two slain bosses. Adam smiled and said "Looks like you have cleared your mind. Care to tell us your story?"

Johan snapped back at Adam and asked "Were you sent by father?" Adam shrugged and replied "I don't know who your father is, but no one sent us here, we are adventurers, and we got a mission to exterminate the goblins here. Now, who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Johan began talking "I am Johan Clearwater, son of the mighty King of the North, and I was captured by the Goblin Kingdom, imprisoned here. Thanks to you though, I will be saved. May I know where we are?"

Adam replied "In the Coldlands Empire, the Azure Sky Kingdom." At his words Johan beamed and said "Great! Great! My eldest sister is living here! Haha, those mongrels really picked their prison well!"

Johan then continued "Mister, I have an item that will send a rescue signal to anyone from my family as long as they aren't too far."

Behind Adam, Jude asked a little suspicions "And the goblins didn't take it away from you?" Johan looked at her and said "Don't you know about bound items? As long as I don't want it, no one can touch it except me."

He then looked back at Adam and said "Look under my shirt, I have an amulet. It is made of gold with a ruby in its center, its the item I'm talking about. The chains block me from using it, but can you do it for me?"

Adam shrugged and searched for the amulet, and there it was indeed. Adam wasn't really too suspicions toward Johan, he was imprisoned by the goblins so he should be on their side, and except for him there wasn't really anyone to give them the item for the promotion.

Adam took the amulet out of the shirt and Johan said "That's it. Press the ruby please." Adam did so, and the amulet suddenly started shining with a bright red light which was directed toward the roof.

Adam dropped the amulet which began crumbling, and Johan said "My friends, you saved my life and I still don't know your names. May I know what your names are?"

They nodded and each of them began presenting themselves to Johan. Adam was rather surprised to see that all of them looked respectful, each bowing after their presentation. Looks like the King of the North was someone important.

When they finished presenting themselves, they heard a loud rumbling outside, and in the next moment the roof above them was frozen before getting destroyed, revealing two individuals which Adam knew, King Henry and Queen Skade.