Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Adam approached the old dwarf and asked "Can I help you?"

The old dwarf's smile receded a little as he said "You came from within the mine, right?" Adam tilted his head, and after a moment he nodded.

Orin looked delighted as he asked "Did you get any [Black Iron Ore]?"

Adam asked "Why are you asking?" Orin replied with a laugh "Do you know the history of this mine?" Adam shrugged and said "Didn't it use to belong to the Azure Sky Kingdom?"

Orin nodded and said "It did, but they didn't own the entirety of it. Actually, some of the earnings from the mine would come to my village, because we are the blacksmiths who worked with the metals excavated to create armors for the Kingdom. Most of the armors for the guard trainees were made by us."

Adam raised an eyebrow and said "I don't mean to be rude, but why are you telling me this? If you don't have anything else to say, I would rather go back in there."

Orin shook his head and said "Back in the day, we would use this mine as our livelihood, my village has always depended on the earnings from this cave. However, three weeks ago a tragedy struck us."

Adam scratched his head and said "I'm sorry for you, but I honestly don't know how I can help you." Orin replied "There are actually two ways. If you got any [Black Iron Ore] then please sell it to us."

Adam asked "Why would I do so?" Orin replied quickly "If you sell the ores to us, we will pay less gold, but we will let you buy from the equipments we have in store. Those equipments are better than any other you can find in human smithies."

Adam asked "Fine, but what about the second way?" Orin then said "Have you ever heard of the [Dark Gold Iron Ore]?"

Adam shook his head so Orin explained "This is a rare evolution of the [Black Iron Ore] that is much more precious and that can be used to create armors for Silver Rank experts. If you find any then please sell it to us."

Adam asked "How precious is it?" Orin replied "This mine always had [Cave Spiders] in it, but they were never a threat to us, to mine in Black Iron one needs to have a powerful body, so the spiders were never a problem. However, [Cave Spiders] grow stronger by eating minerals."

Adam now understood why the boss room was the storage room. Orin said "We don't know how, but one of the spiders was able to get in the storage room and stay in there for a considerable amount of time, slowly growing. It became strong enough to evolve into a Lord."

Adam couldn't help but ask "Is a Lord Monster that strong? You should be able to defeat it since you are Level 50, and you weren't alone."

The old miner sighed and said "No, a Level 50 Lord would have decimated us. And although this one was only Level 30 by then, as a Lord it was still stronger than the miners. That's why the mine was deserted for a short while for the guard to come here and kill the beast."

Adam said "And it didn't go well?" Orin shook his head and said "A few days ago the guards came in the mine, but they were killed by the beast despite there being ten of them. Fortunately it was a dungeon and they were able to revive outside."

Adam raised an eyebrow "Silver Guards? What level was the monster?"

Adam shrugged and said helplessly "They don't know, they were killed before they could see what level or rank the beast had reached. But seeing how quickly they were killed, even a Level 50 Lord monster wouldn't be strong enough, so it probably evolved once again."

Adam said "I'm not even Level 20, I'm but an Iron Rank still. Moreover, what's the purpose behind killing it? It is inside a dungeon, it will just revive."

The old man shook his head and said "I know I am asking a lot, but no one wants to hear us out. Since the guards got killed, the lord who owned this mine decided to abandon it, and no one sees any point in spending resources to kill it. After all, even though revival is possible, that's only up to a certain point."

Adam raised an eyebrow and asked "Is it?" Orin nodded and explained "This dungeon can only revive people who are Level 50 Silvers at best. For the beast to kill them so quickly, it is stronger and thus won't be able to be revived. However, the same can be said for anyone with any hope to kill the beast. Moreover, the guards died before seeing how strong the spider got, so no one even knows who to send in. Permanently losing a Silver Rank is too heavy of a price for the lord of this mine, so he decided to abandon it."

Adam shook his head and said "I wish I could help you…" Orin waved his hands hurriedly and said "Just let me finish. As long as you promise us to kill this beast once you become strong enough, then we will accept you in our village as long as you sell some ores to us. And if in the future you manage to kill this beast, we would owe you our lives, ours and our children's. We can even offer you part of the mine's shares!"

[Ding! New Quest detected, 'Spider Nest'!]

Quest Detail: A village of dwarves has lost its main way to earn money, from the hands, or rather legs, of a monster.

Quest Level: 30

Quest Difficulty: SSS

Objective: Kill the final boss of Spider's Nest on Nightmare Difficulty.

Reward: Worshiped relationship with Orin's village, 10% of Spider Nest's earning, ??

Adam's eyes widened when he saw the reward, wasn't that exactly what he needed? If he owned part of the mine then money would never be a problem anymore. He had doubts though, even if the reward was promised by the system, how could Orin offer him so much?

As if he could read his mind, Orin said "After losing the mine, the managers of the mine decided to give us the entire ownership of the mine, as 'compensation'. The truth is that they didn't want to waste time and resources into saving this mine, so they gave us the mine, which became worthless."

This made Adam frown, although a kingdom as big as the Azure Sky Kingdom ought to have corruption in it, seeing it from his own eyes made Adam frown. He asked "Who owned this mine?"

Orin replied "Viscount Malo. This mine is within his territories." Adam then said "Good. I accept, I promise you I will kill this monster when I become a Silver Rank, or earlier if I am able to. Shall we make a contract?"

Orin shook his head and said "I believe you, your promise is enough." Adam raised en eyebrow and Orin explained awkwardly "Paper is expensive, if I had to make every adventurer a contract the village would be broke even faster."

Adam smiled, and said "I see. I have several Iron Ores on me, can I sell them to you or should I bring them to your village?"

Orin shook his head and said "I will buy them here. My price is 12 Coppers for a piece, while market price is 15. How much do you have?"

Adam checked his inventory and replied "35." Orin smiled and said "Wonderful. Let me do the calculation…"

Adam stopped him though and said "3 times 12 is 36, so 360, plus 5 times 12, 60. That is 420 Coppers, or 4 Silvers and 20 Coppers."

Orin laughed and said "You have a sharp mind lad, must have been well educated. Here you go." The two made the exchange, and Orin said "The higher the difficulty, the more ores you will find. Now, it is time for me to go, but before that hand me your map, I will mark the village on it."

Adam nodded and a map appeared in his hands, it was simply a manifestation created by the system to make deals easier. Once done, Orin walked away while Adam returned to the dungeon.

Then, for the rest of the day Adam went through the Normal difficulty of [Spider's Nest]. By the end of the day his inventory was full, and he had leveled up to Level 18. His [Lunar Smite] was also now level 5.

But that was unimportant compared to the rest. First, he was able to open the 2nd Gate. Secondly, his skill [Mighty Strike] had reached Level Max.