Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

As Adam scanned through the crowd of players, he spotted the ones who fought along with him. He grinned and bellowed "My friends! I promised you victory, did you think I would go back on that promise! We, the players of Rosewatch, have won, together!"

As soon as he said that everyone in the crowd cheered in delight. Adam looked at the crowd of excited gamers with his grin, they had really gone past that calamity. He may have kept a brave front in everyone's eyes, in the inside he was the most scared. He couldn't lose, his time was limited.

The cheering gradually quietened and Adam said "Now, if you would allow me, I need to join the chief and claim our rewards."

He walked down from the wall and began making his way through the crowd. His fellow players made way for him, and soon Adam was able to see the chief's house. The chief was waiting in front of it, with a smile on his face.

When Adam approached the chief's house, he saw Harold, Arno's father, on the side. He first walked to him and handing Arno to him he said "Your son fought well, unfortunately he was the only one who survived amongst the inhabitants of your village."

Harold bowed to Adam and said with tears in his eyes "Thank you! Thank you!" Adam smiled and patted the man on the shoulder, and then walked up to the chief.

The chief nodded to him so Adam placed himself next to the chief and stood there, looking at the crowd. The main plaza was filled with both players and NPCs. The players looked the most happy, but some of the NPC had sad faces.

That was to be expected, after all those guards weren't just mindless drones with no history or memories, each of them was also a member of this village, and their families were here.

The chief started speaking "Chosen Ones and inhabitants of Rosewatch, together we were able to join hands and save this village. Losses were made on both sides, but in the end we prevailed and were able to live through this. Nonetheless, I would like to express my deepest thanks to the Chosen Ones who helped us, you could have fled, but you didn't. That's why we will do our best to reward you."

At that moment, every player on the square received a notification, including Adam.

[Village Quest Completed!]

[Rewards: +1 Level, +1 Gold, +1 D Rank Skill, +500 Fame in Rosewatch, +200 Fame in Azure Sky Kingdom.]

That was only the beginning though. The Chief turned to Adam and said "As the commander, I will let you distribute the rest of the rewards to your men, according to their contribution."

Adam nodded and once again he received a notification. Although he was told he would be the one to distribute, that wasn't really true. What he received, along with everyone else, was the chart of everyone's ranking in term of contribution.

There were two lists, a Party one and an Individual one. Different ranks would mean different rewards, and so the ones who put their all in the war were rewarded the most.

For the Party Chart, everyone knew who the three parties would be, just not the order. In the third position, was the [Night Wolves] party. It was impressive because the party only had three players, and all of them made it to the end boss.

For the third place, the rewards were per individual: +1 Level, 1 Gold

In the second place, came the [Dragon Temple]. Unlike the [Night Wolves] party, they had more members, but they were rather average so they didn't make it to the end boss. Still, their contribution allowed their party to class one place higher.

For the second place, the rewards were per individual: +1 Level, +3 Golds.

Lastly, much to everyone's surprise, the ones in the first place were [King's Heart]. They were surprised because despite being only four individual players, they had managed to rank higher than parties formed by the elite members of First Tier Guilds.

For the first place, the rewards were per individual: +2 Levels, 5 Golds.

This was a particularly big reward at this stage of the game. On the current market, 1 Silver Coins equals one Dollar, meaning 1 Gold is 100$ and 5 Gold is 500$. And that was only for one event!

Next, was the Individual list. At once everyone looked at the top, and without surprise, the name there was Valiant Heart.

Adam almost couldn't refrain himself from laughing when he saw his reward: 1 Rare Class Weapon, 1 C Rank Skill, [Monster Slayer] title.

Adam already knew the power those two rewards could grant him. After all, he was this powerful thanks to his Class Armor, and his C Rank Skill was no doubt a powerful one. As for the title, its effects were displayed and could make many people jealous.

[Monster Slayer: While fighting against a monster, said monster has its stats weakened by 10% and yours are boosted by 10%.]

Tailing him in the second place was King Slayer, his teammate. Although he didn't show himself a lot on the battlefield, he would be attacking monsters every second. His reward were: 1 Rare Class Weapon, 1 D Rank Skill.

Then in the third place was surprisingly Arin, the MT from Night Wolves. He got 1 Rare Armor and 1 D Rank Skill.

A Rare Armor and a Rare Class Armor were pretty similar, but the Rare Armor would have a fixed level while the Class Armor could grow with the user. In term of attributes though, there wasn't really much of a difference. There was one big difference when the equipment reached level max, but Adam would discover this in the future.

Anyway, now that every reward was distributed, the chief looked at Adam up and down and said "I see you have grown strong, strong enough to head out of this village. If you want head to the capital of our kingdom, Ember City, come see me. I need someone to go deliver something for me there."

Adam nodded and said "I can come right now, I don't have anything else to do here." The chief smiled and entered the house. Adam followed him in, he didn't expect to end up becoming the first player to leave the village, nor that there would be a quest coming with it. All he knew was that to leave the village one needed to be level 10.

Anyway, Adam followed the chief in the house, and the two went to his office. The chief sat and began to write a letter as he said "As happy as I am to have survived through this, all of our guards have been killed, and they can't be revived. You Chosen Ones will soon all leave, and although new ones will come, they might not be as noble as you and have evil intentions, not to talk about the occasional monsters who will attack the village. Normally I would only have to ask the mayor of the nearest city, but in our case the closest city is the capital, so this will have to be bought to the King himself. This is no easy task though, because not just anyone can go speak to the king, and our time is short. If you accept this request of mine, you must deliver this letter as soon as possible, the fate of the village depends on it. Can you do it?"

[Ding! New Quest Detected! 'Reinforcement'!]

Quest Detail: Following the attack on Rosewatch the guards of the town have been decimated and they need reinforcements.

Quest Level: 10

Quest Difficulty: C

Objective: Find a way to deliver this letter to the King of Azure Sky.

Deadline: 24 Hours

Reward: 5000 XP, 1 Uncommon Equipment.

Failure penalty: -5000 XP

Adam immediately agreed to the quest, it could be hard for others, but for him it was the easiest quest. After all, he already had access to the Royal Palace thanks to the Princess he saved.

The Chief, Frank, looked relieved when he saw Adam accept. Before Adam could go, he said "Valiant Heart, you have truly saved our village, we will forever be in your debt." Adam smiled and turned to him to say "I only did the right thing."

Frank was shocked, and only when Adam left the house did he regained his bearings and smile happily.