Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Once out of the game, Adam once again found his body had changed by a great deal in the great world, it was much stronger than before.

What shocked Adam though was the energy he felt in his body. He felt Aura in his body!

Actually, Adam did kind of expect his real body to have Aura since he had been blocked from opening the Third Gate in the real world too. However, expecting it and feeling it was different, very different!

That meant cultivation was real in this world then! Now the question was, had people already discovered cultivation before him, or was he the first one?

Adam held no doubt that if such an energy existed in humans, they were bound to have found it already. However, even if there really are cultivators in this world, they mustn't be very strong, or they wouldn't have been able to hide.

Despite not even really starting cultivation, Adam could tell a cultivator could become really strong really fast, because of his current power. He could feel his body was already as strong as it was back when he opened the Third Gate in Enya's Realm.

In other words, he was as strong as a Level 20 Iron Rank who opened the Third Gate… The more he thought of this, the more convinced he was. Epoch wasn't just any game, but it was actually a guide to cultivation!

Upon coming to this conclusion, Adam took his phone and searched for information about the company that made the game, Gaia Inc. He tried to find any information about them that could somewhat relate to cultivators, but he couldn't find anything, as expected.

Adam shook his head and then looked down at his hand. He was curious about something, could he replicate the skills from within the game?

His hand began shining in that familiar white glow as Adam felt a strong power in his hand. It worked! He dispersed the Aura and tried his other skills, but found out he was unable to activate them, probably because he didn't understand them well enough.

That added a worry to Adam though, and that was about cultivators who played the game. If he could activate skills from within the game into the real world, then could skills learned in the real world be used in the game? That would make cultivators have way more skills than anyone else, and it would be perfectly mastered skill from the beginning…

Well, he would have to discover by himself, there was no use in worrying too much about it now. For now, what Adam really wanted to do was to try cultivation.

After all, Adam was a mix between this body's soul and old Adam's, and even though his main personality came from this body's soul, Old Adam still had quite some influence on him, including his love for cultivation.

If what he went through in Epoch was really a good guide to cultivation, then he had already reached the peak of the first realm, thanks to opening the Gate of Limit, so what he needed to do now was to replicate what his class change did to him.

Adam sat cross legged on his bed and closed his eyes, focusing on his insides. Since he had opened the third Gate, he could almost 'see' his inner body, and he could feel a set of an additional vein-like system go through his body. If he was right, then this was his meridians.

However, they were empty right now, as all his Aura gathered in a place in the center of his body. That place wasn't the Dantian though, it was just a place where all his Aura was stored.

To enter the next realm, what Adam needed to do was to make his Aura travel through all his meridians to construct his Dantian. It wasn't simple though, because he couldn't just do them one by one, he had to fill all of them with his Aura at the same time.

And with the subtle amount of Aura he had, none of it could be wasted, meaning he needed a fine control over his Aura. That's why, Adam guessed that even when other people discover cultivation is real, it will still take a long time before people start cultivating.

Luckily for him, he was different from the average people as he had already opened the Gate of Limit, which granted him perfect control over his inner energy.

In moments he had already spread his Aura through all his meridians, dividing it equality. This allowed his meridians to form a strange connection together and turned them 'alive'.

The Aura in them began to pulse as it converged toward a spot in his low abdomen. There, the Aura formed a sphere that gradually became bigger and bigger.

While it grew, the Aura that was going in the sphere to help construct it would push the aura already present back in his meridians, in a strengthened version of itself that strengthened the meridians.

It took five minutes for the sphere to stop growing and his body to stop strengthening. Adam opened his eyes and smelt a terrible stench coming from him. He looked at his body and saw his clothes were wet, and tainted.

His uncovered arm revealed a black layer of filth had appeared all around his body, which Adam identified as the impurities of his body. The smell was so disgusting that Adam immediately took off all his clothes and entered the shower connected to his room, and washed off the filth from his body.

As he did so, he took the time to appreciate the new strength he had. Even if he didn't use any Aura, his body was now much stronger than before, his strength had reached in the tons at least.

He knew that if he tried to punch the wall next to him, he would inevitably make a hole in it, and won't hurt his fist. Hell, he could probably stop a speeding car if he used Aura.

He now had entered a new realm, the second one, which was equivalent to the Bronze stage in the game. His body was strong enough to be called super human, and his Aura was mainly stored in his newly formed Dantian, with some wisps of Aura contained in all of his meridians.

If he wanted, like in the game, he could use his Aura to strengthen a part of his body, making his defense or his attacks stronger, consuming some amount of Aura with every strike.

But that was only the rawest use of Aura, probably used by the average cultivator with no skill. For Adam, he had mastered a skill that allowed him to better manage and use his Aura, [Mighty Strike]. Using the same amount of Aura, his punch would be stronger than someone who just covered their fist randomly.

While showering, Adam also thought about the players he met and who had opened their gates, especially the members of First Tier Guilds.

If they had received the guidance to open the Gate of Opening before the game even started, then did that mean they were cultivators? After all, he knew it was possible to reach his current realm without opening any Gate, since it was the case in Epoch… Well, he didn't know it, but he was pretty sure he was right.

That meant he would have to go to the dojos behind First Tier guild or stronger to find cultivators. If he wanted to meet them, it was because he had questions. Did they know about the game? Were they the ones to launch it? If so, why would they do so?

So many questions filled his mind, but Adam came back to the real world when he heard he received a notification. He quickly dried his body and found out his friends were asking him if he could go out tonight.

Adam smiled and replied to them. He needed some fresh air, he hadn't left his house since the launch of the game.