Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 1: A Failed Reincarnation?

Adam looked at the cabin laying in front of him, different emotions flashing on his face. But there was mostly excitement in his eyes. However, Adam had a great control over his emotions, as they all disappeared from his face as he sat on the edge of his cabin.

Let's make some introductions: Adam Collins, 20 years old boy who lived through a hard life and died from exhaustion. Adam Kent, 50 years old man who died and used a book to reincarnate his soul.

Adam Collins lived in a rather poor family. Both his parents worked in a fancy restaurant, and had always been short of money because of Adam's little brother who was sick.

Adam wasn't the brightest kid, and although he had the motivation he just couldn't make it and barely passed his graduation. He was refused from all the big schools, and thus lost opportunity to get a high salary job. But he still has one hope, and that is gaming. His family is very supportive as it is no longer a secret that video games can make people rich.

But they couldn't buy him his cabin, because they still needed to pay the hospital's fees for his brother, Matt. That's why, in order to finally being able to afford his brother's cure fee, he started working tirelessly, ignoring everything else to buy himself a cabin.

After two years, he was finally able to buy his own cabin. Unfortunately, that spelled disaster for him. Those two years of endless work put too much stress on his body, but his mind forbade him from stopping. Then, once he got his cabin, the relief finally made his body give up, and he died at 20.

Adam Kent lived a very different life. He never got to know his family, the only thing he ever learned was that his mother was 15 when she got him, thus why he got in the orphanage. Adam basically grew up reading novels, and before long cultivation worlds had become paradise in his childish mind.

When he was 12, he found a strange black book that claimed being able to reincarnate him into another world with cultivation elements in it. He doubted at first, of course, but was convinced of its magical origin when he actually had a conversation with the book.

With some more convincing, the book told him that it would reincarnate him on his 50th birthday, and send his soul into a new body. That's why, starting from 12, Adam started training in martial arts. The orphanage encouraged the children to find activities, so they obviously didn't mind him studying martial arts.

Like that, going from dojo to dojo, Adam learned martial arts, as well as the way of the sword. He trained in the greatsword, never using another weapon, believing it to be the greatest for him. He had always had a big build, and he found it interesting to mix the power of his body and sword with the speed and agility of martial arts.

Finally, his 50th birthday arrived, and Adam Kent died, his soul absorbed by the book. Then, the book crossed dimensions and dropped Adam Kent's soul into Adam Collins' body.

However, as Adam Kent was about to assimilate the body, something unexpected happened. Adam Collins, who just died, had his soul still in his body. The books disintegrated, and a contest of strength began between the two souls.

As he was older, Adam Kent should have had the advantage, but Adam Collins died, thus the nature of his soul had changed to a dead person's. And a dead person's soul was way more powerful than a living one. The thing is, a dead soul cannot enter a body.

But Adam Collins didn't want an unknown person to enter his body, and he would rather die than let Adam Kent into his body. Using his stronger soul, Adam Collins killed the soul of Adam Kent.

And that's when something interesting happened. Normally, it is impossible for a dead soul to meet a living one, because the soul appears in the body at birth, and cannot ever exit it. The soul only leaves the body when it dies, and thus isn't alive anymore when it leaves the body.

On the other hand, a dead soul cannot approach a living soul, so it is indeed impossible for a dead soul to meet a living one. And yet, because of the mysterious book this was made possible. The impossible situation of having a living soul outside a body was realized by the strange book. That's why, an unprecedented event occurred: the dead soul of Adam Collins absorbed the living soul of Adam Kent.

By doing so, Adam Collins absorbed all of Adam Kent's memories, experiences, the power of his soul, and most importantly, changed his nature. Because he absorbed a living soul, Adam Collins' dead soul was able to revive, and become alive once again.

No longer rejected by his world and own body, Adam Collins was able to control his soul once again and entered his body back.

In the end, Adam Collins came back in his body with a much stronger soul, as well as all the memories and experiences of a 50 years old man.

As he entered his body back, Adam was greatly exhausted, and went to sleep directly. Only the next day did he realize how close he had come from death. No, it wasn't even close, he had transcended it.

But this death experience didn't discourage him. Instead, he saw in this that not even the heavens could stop him from saving his brother. Even death couldn't stop him.

Since that incident, Adam had changed. And for the good. First, his sickly looking body recovered. The fact that he had stopped working helped his body rest and recover. But most importantly, a more powerful soul also stimulated his body, and helped it recover.

During the four months following his death and resurrection, Adam did a few things. First, he completely recovered, and some more as he was able to get in shape. Secondly, he proceeded everything he received from the old Adam. Third, he searched the benefits he got from a stronger soul.

He was able to conclude that it had enhanced his memory, his learning capacity, his thought process, his instinct and his reaction speed. Adam wished he had those advantages when he was in High School, he could have easily obtained a scholarship in one of the grandest universities on Earth

Well, no need to regret. VRMMO games could bring him a lot more than even the best job in the world if he became one of the strongest. And his stronger soul would help him with that.

To completely assimilate old Adam's skill with the sword, Adam had used his cabin to join an old VRMMO, Lore. Lore wasn't the best, as the NPCs weren't really realistic and the mechanics of the games weren't the best as it restricted the player in his actions.

But he still chose it, because that was the most suitable for him. Soon, the biggest VRMMO ever made would be released. It would also be the most realistic every made, the players would control their every actions and NPCs would really be human like. It would even be guarded against any cheater thanks to the AI supervising the game.

That's where old Adam's skills with the sword would come in handy, Adam would already know how to fight when others struggle to master their weapons.

Back to Lore, it was a useful game because although the actions of the players would be limited, fighting was way less assisted and one could fight with only their skills.

That's why for the next four months he used the time dilatation to its utmost to train as much as possible, helping him get to the level of Old Adam.

Now, four months had finally passed, and Adam was sitting on his cabin. Adam laid down in the cabin, and shut it on himself. His consciousness left his body, and he found himself in a completely black environment.

Then, a beautiful scenery appeared before his eyes. He was flying in the sky, and below him was a city at war. Even from afar Adam could see how devastating the battle was. Dragons and Phoenixes flew around, scorching the ground and attacking each other.

But before he could see much, his vision started flying up, and the time passed much more quickly. As he went through the clouds, the night had fallen, and the stars were shining above Adam.

As he looked up, he saw something curious. The stars were forming a word. Epoch.