Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

His Second Gate opening wasn't that unexpected, it was a little early but Adam knew it would either be opened today or the day after with how much his healing factor was stimulated by the constant fighting.

The concept of having his Gates opened in a virtual world and also open in the real world at the same time was an incomparably strange concept to Adam, this shouldn't be possible.

After all, his body in real life and his body in the game wasn't the same, and yet they were able to strangely connect and resonate. Adam had a theory about why that was possible, but he wanted to wait for further proof before making any hasty conclusion.

Anyway, it had happened when he was on his last run, he had already killed the entire dungeon except for the Chieftain Boss, and he was resting to heal his HP naturally. During the entire afternoon, the only times when his HP had been full was when he was fighting the boss and when he left the dungeon.

While his HP was about 70% done, he felt something in his body click, and he received a notification.

[Congratulations for opening the Gate of Healing! Heal up to 5% of your health every 5 seconds!]

On the paper, this was a very strong attribute to have, but it did have a drawback that wasn't mentioned. The body couldn't just heal on its own. If one tried to abuse the healing rate while fighting then they would only fasten their deaths.

To heal itself, the body would take the energy from within itself, the energy one would need to fight. So even though one could heal at 1% of their health every second, one would quickly become unable to fight, or even move if it is abused.

That's why, a good martial artist wouldn't just have this healing factor, but would also be able to use it in a way that allows them to last longer in combat.

On the other end, someone who didn't know how to use it may die even faster than they would have had they not opened it. This wasn't a problem for Adam of course.

After he had opened it, Adam had looked at his wounds heal up at a fast pace, and noticed that he had opened two Gates in the same day.

This was quite crazy, but not absurdly so. The first three Gates were very closely connected, even for Old Adam who had less potential, no guidance and only his real world body to train, it had taken him only a year and a half to go from opening the 1st Gate to opening the 3rd one.

Now, in this life it had only taken him a day to open the first two, and the third one would soon follow.

Compared to this, having leveled up his [Mighty Strike] to max level may seem insignificant, and Adam would have thought so as well weren't he the one to max it up.

Every time Adam leveled up his skills, he would grow more familiar with them, and he would become capable of understanding them more. However, as they grow in levels, his skills also receive subtle changes, and [Mighty Strike] had received the biggest one.

When he first used the skill, all Adam did was use the strength of his entire body to strike harder. However, as he leveled up the skill something else started coming into the mix to make it even stronger.

After all, from level 1 Adam was already using his entire strength to strike, so how was it constantly getting stronger?

Well, the answer came in the form of the white glow that formed around his sword. In the latter levels of the skill, the weapon he used would start glowing with a faint white light, which grew stronger with each level.

Now that it had been maxed, the light had turned really bright, and using the skill made him look like he was using a sword of light. Adam couldn't name this energy, but he understood that it was present in him, and that it was making his sword stronger.

Now, if he wanted to find out more about the secrets of his skill, he would need more fighting, but he was done fighting for today. He would soon disconnect, but first he had something to do, and that is meeting up with King Slayer.

Earlier when Adam was grinding he had sent a message and the two agreed to meet in a tavern in the city slightly before 8 am.

Seeing he had some time before that, Adam first headed to the dwarven village, where he was warmly welcomed as he sold them his ores. However, he didn't want to sell his [Dark Gold Iron Ore], not yet at least. It was quite rare as he had only gotten a single piece in all his runs.

After selling his ores and completing the quest from the Alorge Association, felt like this had been a really fruitful day. Most of the other players were between Level 15 and 16, with a few being Level 17.

Soon, Adam arrived at the tavern they had agreed they would meet in. He wanted to wait silently, but the moment he stepped in everyone quickly shut up.

The first to do so were the players, who recognized his name, followed by the NPC who either felt he had already opened the 2nd Gate.

Adam ignored them all and walked to a table where he sat. Soon after the tavern became lively once again, and Adam had a few mugs offered to him from both NPCs and players. Adam smiled and accepted as he waited.

Adam could see a few people were hesitating whether they should come to him or not, but in the end they were too scared and before they could try anything King Slayer entered the inn.

The moment he saw him, Adam couldn't help but be surprised. King Slayer was already Level 19, and he had opened the 2nd Gate. Adam raised his hand and waved at him.

King Slayer ignored the others who also became silent once they saw him, and walked toward Adam, sitting at his table. Surrounding them, the players began gossiping, some with the NPCs.

Meanwhile, Adam looked at King Slayer eye to eye and said "You have become stronger." King Slayer smiled and replied "If my senses are right, the one who had the most progress wasn't me."

Adam smiled back but didn't say anything, King Slayer's senses were sharp. He then asked "Now tell me, why don't you want to be in the guild's name?"

King Slayer moved his hand in front of him, and a second later Adam received a private chat invite. Adam accepted and King Slayer finally talked, now unable to be eavesdropped on "How much do you know about the politics in Epoch?"

Adam was surprised by the question, but still answered "Quite a lot, for the current stage of the game. Why?" King Slayer replied "If my guess is right, the guild is under the Coldlands Empire, not the Coalition, right?"

Adam nodded, so King Slayer said "My race is Dark Elf, and I'm an Assassin. We aren't really welcomed in the Coldlands, may we be players or NPCs, and even if you vouch for me, I still wouldn't really be able to do anything there. And that would be the same for all the assassins in the game."

Adam asked "But isn't it the same for all the guilds?" King Slayer nodded "It is, but they are big guilds, their members are already there, so even if they have to enter an enemy territory, it doesn't matter. However, for a newly created guild recruiting players from the opposing factions will be hard, very hard."

Adam frowned "What does this have to do with the guild's name?" King Slayer replied "Everything, actually. The reason I don't want to be associated with the guild's name is because I won't join the guild."