Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 74: Serpentine Lake

After finishing his explanation, Orin darted a glance at the spider before sighing and saying "I never would have thought you would be the one to save us Anyway, thank you, you are our greatest benefactor. To reward you, we will give you what we promised. Moreover, if you need equipment don't hesitate to ask us."

[SSS Quest 'Spider Nest' Completed!]

Rewards: Worshiped relationship with Orin's Village, 10% of [Black Iron Ore].

Adam nodded to the old man and said "Here, let's add each other through the system for future transactions. Also, if you need help in the future, don't hesitate to contact me."

The two added each other and Adam left the village on top of Neith. She was his pet after all, so with her size it was normal to make her carry him.

Adam didn't head back to the capital has he didn't have much to do over there, he didn't feel like going for a quest at the adventurer's association. That's why he decided to get to a high leveled map, an unexplored one, and stumble upon a quest if he was lucky.

With how strong Adam was, and the addition of the equally strong Neith, a level 30-40 map wouldn't make it, he was just too powerful. Level 50+ Silver guards were unable to kill Neith while teaming up, and Adam was slightly stronger than her, so they should be going for a Level 50 map.

However, Adam decided to go to a Level 45-50 map because he was currently weakened, but more importantly because Adam had been curious about this map for some time.

A few days ago, he had trained in a map called [Serpentine Lake], near the capital. There, he had seen there was a Level 50 map beyond the lake, and now that he had the level to get there, he decided to do so.

On they way over there, Adam casually chatted with Neith, while she effortlessly killed the monsters crossing their way.

He was curious about her origin, since she had such a good bloodline, but after asking her he learned she didn't know anything from before the mine. Her earliest memory was waking up in the mine, and she had been attracted by the stock of ores. She was able to evolve after eating the most precious [Dark Gold Iron Ore].

Once being reminded that, Adam showed her the ones he had gotten, asking her if she was interested by any of them, but she wasn't. Apparently, she now needed more precious materials to evolve once again. Adam shrugged it off, he had been told nurturing such a pet as expensive.

An hour later, they reached the map Adam wanted to visit, [Serpentine Canyon]. He couldn't see it before, but there was actually a canyon behind the lake, well hidden from sight. Before even entering it, Adam could see many snakes hiding in the canyon, and he could only see them because he was above them for now.

Seeing how colorful most of those snakes were, they were probably venomous, but Adam didn't care about the danger and decided to enter along with Neith. He got down from her back and the two started fighting together for the first time.

The snakes didn't prove to be much of a challenge, there were mainly Common and Elite snakes, all of whom were one shot by Adam and Neith. Neith was even better than Adam to fight groups, she had many skills that allowed her to fight against crowds.

Speaking of her skills, Adam found it a shame he couldn't get to look at her attributes and skills, that would have allowed him to use her even better, but the system didn't make it that easy.

After a few hours of fighting, Adam and Neith only had explored a small part of the canyon since it was so big, much bigger than the capital, but they had made some interesting encounters.

He thought he would only see monsters in the canyon since players were barely Level 20, but he had forgotten the NPCs, they were also adventuring through the world.

He crossed quite a few of them, who were shocked by Neith and him being so low leveled, but they were oddly compliant and polite as they warned him about the various dangers of this canyon and told him about special spots that could gather his attention.

Adam was disappointed to find out this map had already been explored, but thinking about it, the map was only level 50 and so close to the capital, there were bound to be many people coming here.

There weren't any super special boss or loot here, but there were some places where he could find many monsters, which could drop interesting skills.

The places he learned about would vary depending on the people he asked, but if there was one thing common to everyone's speech, that was the Serpentine Gang.

The Serpentine Gang was a giant group of ex soldiers and adventurers who formed a gang. They would attack anyone entering the canyon and rob them of everything they had.

Adam had asked why they hadn't been exterminated by the capital, and the answer baffled him. The gang was used as a training tool by the army of the capital.

The royal army would regularly send soldiers to the canyon and test them. The further in the canyon they were able to go, the better their result would be.

And yet, despite hearing so much about this gang, Adam had walked for hours but he hadn't met them yet. His weakening period had already ended, making him at full strength once again, and the night was coming.

Instead of meeting this gang, Adam had found something more interesting. He hadn't really followed the advice of the NPCs he met, but instead searched on his own to get surprises.

He had then found a cave where many snakes were guarding the entrance, and it was well hidden from sight. Adam had to leave Neith stand guard outside as he entered on his own, because of her size.

He first had to go through a big tunnel, fighting different kinds of snakes, before reaching a big cavern. There, many small snakes blocked his way, all of them being Elites. Slightly behind them were twenty Chieftains who were all bigger than Adam, and finally two entwined snakes were at the end of the cave.

[Fire Bead Snake] (Lord, Level 50)

HP: 350000/350000

[Ice Bead Snake] (Lord, Level 50)

HP: 350000/350000

One of them were completely black with a shiny red gem between its eyes, while the other was completely white with an icy blue bead between its eyes.

The two snakes were more than fifteen meters long and were at least twice as thick as a tiger. Adam felt his fighting spirit lit up, he never would refuse a good fight, not even if he wasn't sure to win.

After all, those were Level 50 Lords. Even if they were Level 30, facing two Lords at the same time was different from facing a single one, they wouldn't just be twice as strong since those two seemed to be partners.

But those were Level 50 monsters, meaning they attributes most likely would be above Adam's, so he would have to rely on martial arts rather than pure strength.

However, all this thinking was for naught because the snakes had no intention to attack. At first the Elite and Chieftain ones had tried to rush at him, or rather slither to him, probably because they smelled the slightly poisonous smell of their kin's blood on him, but the black snake had hissed loudly, stopping all of them.

Although Adam was disappointed they didn't want to fight, his thirst for battle was replaced by his curiosity. What did they want with him?