Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Eddy sighed in relief when he saw Adam wasn't offended by his statement and thus continued "My friends and I picked up a Quest on the Bronze Board to clear up a Goblin infested fortress. Any Bronze Adventurer can pick this up and do it on his own, but because we are of a lesser rank and don't have any accomplishment to our names, we need to be at least seven to accept the quest."

Adam asked "What would I need to do? How would I be rewarded? And why do you take the risk of completing a Bronze Quest?"

Eddy replied "All you need to do is to do is to follow us in the fortress, you don't even need to fight. For your reward, we can offer you a seventh of the reward for the quest."

Before he could continue Adam interrupted him "A Seventh? For doing nothing? I will get as much as you, by doing nothing? I don't think I should come then."

Eddy panicked and said "No wait, you misunderstand, let me explain." Adam frowned but stayed sat. Eddy swallowed and explained "I know the reward sounds too big to be true, but this is because we don't care about money. Finishing this quest would give us an item that would make us stronger and thus help with our Rank up quests."

Adam asked "What is this item?" Eddy replied "I can't tell you if you don't join us, what if we tell you and you refuse to do the quest with us? Then you can tell anyone else about that item and send thieves to steal it from us."

Adam nodded, if he were a despicable person, he could really do that, or just kill them himself.

As Adam was thinking, the Cleric, who was an Islander Girl slightly older than Adam, said "The goblins we will be facing will have around 100 in Strength and Agility, if you feel confidant you can even help us fighting. If you contribute to our mission we can even offer you additional rewards."

Adam looked at her and said "But I'm only Level 11." The Cleric girl shrugged and said "As I said, it is if you are confidant in your strength, you can just follow us if you want. But tell us now whether you want to join us or not, don't make us waste time."

Adam remained silent for a few seconds, thinking about the situation, and after weighing everything in his mind he decided to accept and thus said "Show me the quest."

Everyone around the table was overjoyed to hear his answer, and all got up. Adam accompanied the group as they picked up the quest and began queuing to register.

Meanwhile, Adam had received a new notification.

[Ding! New Quest detected, 'Goblin Fortress'!]

Quest Detail: A group of adventurers has approached you for your help, and you have accepted to join them in this quest.

Quest Level: 20

Quest Difficulty: A

Objective: Kill all the goblins in the fortress and bring their chief's head to the guild.

Reward: 50 000 XP, Depends on contribution.

Failure penalty: -1 Level, Unable to take any quest above your rank for one week.

As he had suspected, there really seemed to be something wrong with this quest, accompanying them shouldn't be a A rank Quest.

Even for the rewards, following NPCs around wouldn't give 50 000 XP at level 20, there was bound to be something strange happening.

Now came the question, what would go wrong? Would his teammates betray him? Or would there be something unexpected within the fortress? Adam had no way to know which one it was, but he still decided to go.

As he accepted the quest the priest next to him said "We will prepare potions and sharpen our weapons today, so we will meet at the East Gate at the first lights in the morning, alright?"

Adam nodded calmly, but inside he was excited. He was already confidant to take on this quest at Level 11, but if he had the whole day to level up and strengthen himself then this quest would be easy.

Although time in the game passed quicker in game than in reality, one day in game was one day outside, and the reason was simple. There weren't 24 hours in a day, but instead 48, so the days and nights were longer here. That's why as long as it was day outside, then it was day inside.

As the group was queuing Adam left the group to search for his own quests that he would do for today while they waited.

Adam planned to grind for today, he would head to the Blacksmith and Alchemist associations to take their assignments and gather resources.

Adam ended up picking five different quests on the Iron Board, the five asked him to kill monsters from two different areas, and the monsters from the first area were between Level 10 and 15, while those in the second area were between level 15 and 20.

Adam went back in line with group of adventurers. The six of them were apparently good friends, which served to relieve Adam as the probability of people capable of having such bonds shouldn't betray him.

Ten minutes later it was finally the group's turn, and they seemed familiar with the worker from the guild. When the moment came to register themselves though, they realized Adam wasn't registered within the guild, so they had to do that first.

It didn't take long and once Adam was registered as an Iron Adventurer, they were able to confirm taking on the mission. The group left and Adam confirmed the quests for today.

Once that was done, he asked for the two others guilds, and learned that instead of two separate entities, they formed a single one.

Alorge Association, gathering both Alchemists and Blacksmiths. This was actually a branch of the much wider Alorge Mountains, which was one of the Racial Powers.

Alorge Mountains had two races, Dwarves and Kartian, one race has a racial bonus with smithing and the other with Alchemy. The best Alchemists and Blacksmiths in the world gathered there.

The worker from the guild was kind enough to take the time to explain the different racial powers to Adam.

The cold Coldlands, the creative Alorge Mountains, the dark Blackheart Mountain, the natural Feynwoods, the beautiful Aldeneid, the harsh Cassifon, the hot Buwog and the mysterious Citadel.

Coldlands belonged to Northmen.

Alorge Mountains belonged to Dwarves and Kartians.

Blackheart Mountain belonged to Dark Elves and Catkin.

Feynwoods belonged to Wood Elves and Fae.

Aldeneid belonged to Light Elves and Foxkin.

Cassifon belonged to Lizardkin.

Buwog belonged to Orcs.

The Citadel belonged to Islanders.

Adam was also able to learn something important, and that was despite the fact that those were racial powers, everyone (almost) was accepted within them. And that was to ensure fairness.

That's because to Rank up to Bronze, one needs to pick up a special class, and they weren't all the same in power, the weakest ones were E Rank Classes while the best were SSS rank classes.

And each racial power specialized in different classes, so if a Wood Elf was a Berserker and wanted to try to get an SSS class, Feynwoods had none, that's why the other nations were opened to others.

But this was a complicated subject, the politics in Epoch were quite realistic and so a Northman would still have an easier time than a Dark Elf in the Coldlands Empire.

And it went even deeper than that, because every race received different treatments based on their race, because of the alliances between the different powers.

Among the racial powers, there were three factions: Light, Dark and Neutral. The Light Faction was formed by Coldlands, Feynwoods and Aldeneid. The Dark Faction was made of Blackheart Mountain, Cassifon and Buwog. Finally the Neutral Nation was made of Alorge Mountains and the Citadel.