Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Next to him, Neith appeared from the ground, she had quite a few injuries too, but she had seemingly gained something out of this fight as she had leveled up too, and she was giving off a slightly stronger feeling, she ought to have strengthened aspects of herself he couldn't see.

Despite not knowing, he didn't ask. He sent a last look at the defeated army and said mentally 'Where is the egg?'

'Underground. Do you want me to fetch it now?'

Adam nodded and Neith disappeared for a moment, and when she came out again she had a purple egg with her.

Adam took it from her and curiously looked at its status.

[Nether Serpent: Egg of a powerful Class 3 Monster with a powerful lineage.]

Adam now had two choices. He could either abandon the quest and its rewards to get the egg, or he could get the quest. At this stage of the game, and even later in the future, most people would just take the egg, this was a Class 3 Egg after all.

A Class 3 Monster would go all the way up to the peak of Hero Rank without much of a problem, and this one was even said to have a powerful lineage, meaning it could potentially awaken it's bloodline even further and become a Legendary Beast.

And even Adam was hesitating. He didn't want the egg for himself, he was plenty satisfied with Neith and could only have one pet anyway, but for his subordinates.

But he didn't linger for too long, he could get better eggs in the future, or they could get them by themselves.

Adam stored the egg in his inventory and jumped atop Neith and the two moved back toward the Snake Cave.

This fight hadn't just been good for his skills, but it also directly helped for his main goal, getting money for his brother. He had been able to get some equipment, and every equipment he got was good as they were a majority of Level 50 Uncommon equipment with some Common ones.

Adam made a quick count, and saw he had gathered 27 pieces of Uncommon Equipment, and 12 Common ones. It looked like as they leveled up, the trash equipment would start disappearing. Level 300 Common Equipment was probably rarer than Legendary Equipment…

Unfortunately he had been in the middle of a fight and he didn't have the time to pick up the equipment from all the gangsters he killed, or he would have hundreds of pieces of equipment.

Even those he had picked up, he had done so at the very end when he was waiting for his cooldowns to reset and to activate his [Totemic Rage].

Speaking of his [Totemic Rage], Adam would be weakened for four hours, but that didn't worry him. It was only 9 am in the real world, meaning the fight would be in more than three hours outside the game, or six in game, meaning not only he wouldn't be weakened anymore by the time the fight would take place.

And with what he just did, Adam was confidant he would be able to kill all 1000 of them even in a weakened state.

But there wasn't any need to take an unnecessary risk. While he and Neith made their way to the snake cave, Adam first wanted to kill enough monsters to fill his armor's berserk skill condition, but they saw no monster!

Actually, it wasn't just monsters, but no adventurer could be seen either, which made the Serpentine Canyon unusually quiet.

However, when he wasn't far from reaching he was stunned by what he saw. Hundreds if not thousands of soldiers were walking in a formation, and Adam easily recognized them as guards of Ember.

Adam could see all of them were between Level 70 and 100, and they were led by a Level 150 Gold Rank.

[Ember City General] (Level 150, Gold)

HP: ?/?

The general waved his hand, making the army behind stop, and he made the horse upon which he saddled move toward Adam and Neith. Adam told Neith to lower down to their level, and the general said "Are you perhaps the Sovereign from Rosewatch?"

Adam nodded and quickly showed his Azure Insignia before asking "What is someone like you doing here general? Moreover, with an army?"

The general made a surprised face as he asked "Didn't you hear? There was a terrifying roar that came from deep in the canyon, it made every monster and adventurer flee, we think there is a powerful monster above this map's level that appeared."

Adam was stunned, so his roar was that powerful? He smiled and said "Sorry to disappoint you, but you made the trip for no reason general. There was no such beast, it was only me fighting with the Serpentine Gang. Speaking of them, since you have an army at the ready, they are now leaderless, and they are missing about a fifth of their numbers."

The general was shocked by what he heard, but after a moment he shook his head and said "I would rather move out needlessly ten times than ignore the call once and have deaths on my mind. But you're right, I might as well turn this trip into a useful one. Stay safe."

Adam nodded "Stay Safe." and made Neith walk pass the army as the headed in the Serpentine Gang's direction.

Apart from them, Adam didn't cross any other adventurer or monster on his way to the cave, even the snakes guarding the entrance of the cave had retreated inside. Adam jumped down from Neith and entered the cave.

But when he entered he finally saw them, but there were six of them instead of the usual two, and not far behind was one of the Chieftain bosses.

Adam walked past them all and entered the center of the cave, where he could see the two Lord Snakes were still coiled around their eggs.

When they saw him arrive they did something that surprised him though, as they uncoiled their bodies and bowed their heads to him.

Why would they do that? Did they somehow smell the scent of their egg on him? But an egg doesn't have any scent… Did they know he was the source of the roar?

Adam shrugged it off and took the egg out of his inventory. The moment he did the two lords hissed in what seemed to be relief and happiness. Adam put the egg down next to the two others, and looked at the two lords.

The [Ice Bead Snake] coiled its body around the eggs as it began shining, while the [Fire Bead Snake] hissed loudly at the other snakes. The Chieftain snakes hissed back before slithering toward some of the holes around the cave.

After a moment he saw one of them come back with a glowing amulet on top of its head, followed by another one who had a parchment on top of its head. Before he could pick any of them, he received a new notification.

[SS Quest 'Missing Egg' Completed!]

Rewards: 1 Level(/3), 30 AP(*5), Hydra's Amulet, Whirlwind Slash.