Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Adam revealed a smile as he read the notification. The Bronze promotion was one of the most important events in the game for a player, it would determine their future achievements as well as their influence in the world.

From the looks of it, Adam needed to reach the palace in the distance, the Roskhalla. Adam opened his inventory and was surprised to see that all his equipment was in his inventory. What was he wearing then?

He looked down and saw that he only had pants on, and they didn't provide any armor, they were there only for an aesthetic purpose. Adam reached for his back and grabbed a handle, but it felt strange, the weight of the weapon was off.

He took it off his back and saw that his weapon wasn't really a weapon, but only the handle. However, as Adam thought about a sword, steel magically appeared from the handle and formed a true greatsword.

[Are you sure you want your weapon to maintain this shape?]

Adam was surprised by the notification, and decided not to confirm but to experiment with the weapon. It turned out that it could only transform into the weapons available to the Berserker's Class, and there was only one version for each weapon. So he took the sword.

If his armor had been taken off, what about his stats?

Name: Valiant Heart

Level: 20

Title: Not Available

Race: Northman

Class: Berserker

Rank: Iron

HP: 600/600

MP: 100/100

Strength: 100

Agility: 65

Endurance: 60

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 5

Skills: Not Available.

[For the Bronze Promotion, all participants have the same amount of AP. Your stats have been distributed based on your previous choices.]

That made sense, if they really wanted this to be a test of martial art then everyone needed to be as strong as each other. Now that he had his weapon and knew his stats, it was time for him to start his journey to Roskhalla. Adam jumped from the platform he appeared on, landing on the plain.

It didn't take long for Adam to meet his first obstacle, a man had appeared in front of him, blocking his path. While he was on a clearing, there were rocks and holes in the ground that allowed one to hide, such as this man.

[Unworthy Spirit] (Iron, Level 20)

HP: 600/600

The spirit had a solid body, but his face was distraught, and filled with regret. He charged toward Adam, his axe raised in the air. Adam shook his head and as the spirit approached within his range, he jumped forward.

Despite having the same stats as the spirit, Adam looked much faster than him as before the spirit could even slash down, Adam appeared behind it, sword raised, and it's head slide off its shoulders.

Critical Hit! -800 HP!

Adam looked at his sword, astonished. How come he made so much damage? His Strength attribute was at 100, and he had made a Critical Hit. That meant his weapon dealt 600 damage, without the critical hit his weapon has a damage of 300!

That is as much damage as his [Champion's Sword], a Rare Rank weapon. Why would they give him such a powerful weapon for his test? Adam tried to think of a reason, but nothing came to his mind so he shook his head and decided to move on.

After killing this first spirit, Adam continued walking toward Roskhalla. Again, he crossed yet another enemy. Adam didn't know how skilled it was, because in his eyes it looked as amateur as the other one, and he killed it before it could attack even once. However the moment he did so another two appeared right away, jumping at him.

Unfortunately for them, they died without landing a single hit. Adam was troubled though. Despite having opened the Gate of Opening, he couldn't detect his enemies, it was like the rocks were capable of hiding the spirits until they attacked, meaning Adam was forced on the defensive.

As Adam gradually approached the palace, the number of spirits started augmenting, and so did their skills in martial arts. At the same time, Adam was pretty sure there were some milestones when killing the spirits.

There had been several times when the skills of the spirits got upgraded suddenly, forming several waves of spirits based on skills. Passing a wave would then allow one to have a class one rank higher.

For Adam, when Roskhalla started really getting closer instead of being something far in the distance, the level of the enemies he had to deal with had reached the level Eddy and the others had when they first met.

When Adam reached within one kilometers of Roskhalla, the spirits got upgraded once again, and this time they all became as strong as Judith had been when she tried to kill him. It probably meant that as long as one reached within one kilometer of Roskhalla, they would get an A Class.

Now that he had reached this point, it was like he was facing tens of Judith, all attacking him with everything they had, not caring whether they will die or not. Most players in the world would barely last a few seconds, but Adam was walking through them like a breeze, making the spirits fall in groups.

For someone who opened the Gate of Opening, facing groups of enemies wasn't that scary, although he needed some concentration they didn't pose much of a threat.

And Adam didn't even have to worry about tiring up anymore. Thanks to the opening of his Gate of Healing, his physical stamina in the game had become monstrous, and his mental stamina had also increased amazingly since he healed his old injuries in the real world.

Slightly more than an hour after he arrived in the testing grounds, Adam had finally killed all the spirits sent after him, finishing the first part of the trial. While he had been killing them, Adam had also been experimenting a little, as plowing through the spirits wasn't funny in itself.

He had tried to use his favorite skill, [Mighty Strike], a few times. Of course, it never worked, but Adam felt like he was holding onto something. He had decided to test this particular strike because it was the skill he understood the most and also the only one that was 'natural'.

By natural he meant that this was the only one humanly possible, or at least it was in the beginning. After all, at the first level, the concept of [Mighty Strike] is simple, one only needs to use the power from all their muscles to unleash a bit of additional damage.

And that's why, Adam tried to do as such. However, until now he couldn't seem to get a grasp on it, he knew how to use his entire strength into one strike, but that only allowed him to deal 100% of his damage.

That's when Adam realized that he was wrong about this skill, even the first level wasn't really using only the body, but an additional source of strength.

Normally, upon realizing that, Adam would have given up, after all the skill wasn't humanly possible. However, when he finished fighting and started heading for the gates of Roskhalla, an idea came to him, and as he continued thinking about it, his face brightened.

What an idiot he had been! The answer was under his nose all the time! He finally knew what he needed to do!

As he was in the middle of his realization though, a shadow appeared next to him, and the cold gleam of a blade appeared near his neck.