Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Adam looked at the snakes between him and the two Lords, and walked toward them. He looked like a madman wishing for death, but as he approached them, although the snakes were initially threatening him by hissing, they still made way for him.

He stopped in front of the two big snakes, staring into their eyes. After an intense stare, the two snakes both lowered their heads to Adam, shocking him.

The two snakes then started separating from each other, and it turned out they weren't just expressing their affection for each other, but rather were protecting something dear to them, eggs.

Two eggs had appeared in front of Adam, and they looked weird for eggs as their shell was blue and red respectively. Adam took a quick peek at their status, but he already knew what to expect.

[Fire Bead Snake Egg: Egg of a powerful Class 4 Monster.]

[Ice Bead Snake Egg: Egg of a powerful Class 4 Monster.]

He did expect the names, but what was the Class stuff about? It was the first time he ever saw it, it looked like he would have to ask some NPC about monster Grades. Or maybe Neith would know the answer?

But now wasn't the time, as the two Lords had to ask him something, which he would probably have to figure out since they couldn't communicate.

After a moment of staring at the two eggs though, Adam couldn't find what they wanted from him. Then, the [Ice Bead Snake] advanced and spat out ice at the ground. There wasn't a big impact, so Adam wondered what it was doing, before finally understanding.

The snake had sculpted a third egg with its ice, one slightly bigger than the two in front of him. He now understood, there was a missing egg.

The moment he understood this, the system sent him a notification.

[Ding! New Quest detected, 'Missing Egg'!]

Quest Detail: Two monsters have mysteriously decided to ask for your help to find their egg.

Quest Level: 50

Quest Difficulty: SS

Objective: Find more about this egg, and if possible bring it back to the two bosses.

Reward: ??

That was definitely weird, even the system had used the word 'mysteriously', this clearly wasn't a normal situation. Moreover, for him to find an SS Quest in a map already explored by many adventurers, he must have something special that made the quest trigger only to him.

After thinking for a bit, Adam concluded it could only be two things. They had either sensed he was a Sovereign, or they had smelt Neith on him. Whatever it was though, he decided to complete this quest. After all, it wasn't everyday he got such quests… wait, now that he was thinking about it, he was getting such quests every day.

To be able to trigger so many of them, it wasn't just his luck, but his ability too. Before he got to Bronze Rank, every one of his high rank quests were acquired because he had achieved something considered incredible, and now that he had become a Sovereign, he was even more entitled to such quests.

And Adam was right in his thinking, there was a correlation between the rank of quests and the strength and achievements of the player. For most quests, there were different prerequisites to be fulfilled for the player to see that quest, but Adam's strength and status were great enough to bypass many of those.

For example, Orin. Adam didn't know it, and probably never would, but his encounter with Orin wasn't exactly random. What had happened was that Orin had learned about Adam's incredibly fast growth, and of his achievement in the Battle of Rosewatch, and so he had sought him out.

Of course, Orin had been lucky that Adam was training at the Spider Nest when they met, but even if Adam had chosen a different dungeon, Orin would still have appeared to him, and simply used a different approach to give him his quest.

However, if it was another player, one who didn't have anything to their name, and was unknown, then even if they harassed Orin they wouldn't have gotten a quest.

Some might see this as unfair, because it was pushing the strong to become stronger and the weak to become weaker, but it actually wasn't the case. Each and every one of those quests were really complicated, and failing in a single one of them would result in a drop in reputation, and the player would lose their momentum.

Once it was lost, they wouldn't get as many quests as before, or the loss in reputation might even make their attraction to NPCs with quests lesser than average players.

This might sound like a dumb mechanic, but it was actually a good parallel with the real world. Even if one does many great things in their life, a single bad one would taint their reputation and turn them into devils, thus becoming more hated than the average people.

But he was going off track, he focused back on the real world and looked at the two snakes. He knew he had to find an egg, but it was easier said than done, especially when he didn't have any info on who stole it.

The [Fire Bead Snake] let out a hiss though and a moment later one of the Chieftain snakes slithered toward him before opening its mouth wide. Adam was disgusted by the smell, despite being kind of used to it, but he didn't move since it wasn't trying to eat him.

After a few gurgles, Adam understood the snake was trying to vomit something out, and a few seconds later Adam saw a breathing man fall in front of him.

[Serpentine Gang Member] (Bronze, Level 50)

HP: 100/4000

All the equipment on the man's body had disappeared, probably digested by the snake seeing the burn marks on his body. The man was also unconscious, and wasn't about to wake up.

However, Adam didn't care, since this was already enough for him. He knew what he had to do. He nodded at the two snakes and walked out of the cave, the sound of his steps shadowed by the man getting eaten once again.

Once out of the cave, he patted Neith leg, making her lower herself, and he jumped on top of her. As he did so, he heard her voice in his head 'What was in there master?'

'Snakes, they want me to retrieve their egg for them. It won't be for today though, only tomorrow. But before I go, do you know about grades? I saw snake eggs that were said to be Grade 4?'

Neith replied 'You never heard of this master? Grades are like classes, they are a classification of potential.'

Adam raised an eyebrow and asked 'Does it work like classes?'

'Kind of, but there are differences. Humanoids and monsters don't grow in the same way. Even the humanoid with the less potential of his race could potentially reach Legend rank, but a Grade 6 monster has almost no chance of ever going past Chieftain Rank, unless they can find a new bloodline. However, they are sure to become Chieftain in their lives, while a human could remain level 1 for their whole life.'

Adam patted her and asked 'What Grade are you?'

Neith let out a childish proud laugh as she replied 'I am a Chosen, I am outside of grades, meaning I can reach any rank. A Grade 5 monster will definitely reach the Lord Rank as long as they don't die, and a Grade 1 will reach Legendary Rank, even if they never fight for their entire life. However, for a Chosen, they can stop as Chieftains for their whole lives and live in mediocrity, or reach the special rank between Legendary and Godhood. But like Sovereigns, most of the time we never reach that stage.'

Adam asked 'Then I guess most people would rather have a Grade 1 pet rather than a Chosen? How shortsighted.'

Neith chuckled and said 'I'm glad master doesn't intend on swapping me for a Grade 1.'

Adam looked at her with squinted eyes and said 'You seem to have adapted to your situation really well.'

Neith replied 'If I chose to accept your offer, it wasn't because of fear, although I was scared. It was because I'm bored in my cave, and I wanted to explore the outside world. Moreover, as a Sovereign you are worthy of becoming my master, I would rather die than serve a weakling.'

Adam raised an eyebrow upon discovering this secret pride of Neith, but didn't say anything as they continued making their way out of the canyon. This time, because they weren't fighting everything they met, it only took them an hour to get out of the canyon, where Adam recalled Neith back in his Pet Space and disconnected from the game.