Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 211: Fortress

Jafar and Adam were sitting in front of each other, a cup of tea in front of them. As it turned out, tea was also a thing in Epoch, and Lizardkin were among the best artisans in the entire world.

Adam also knew there were techniques to drinking tea to look refined and all of that but he had no idea of how he was supposed to look, so he simply sipped the tea a little before saying "I heard you have the command token for the rest of your group."

The command token was the device they used to communicate with the other holders of the tokens. Jafar was starring at the cup in Adam's hands, probably triggered by the way Adam was drinking, but he still said "I do."

Adam put down his cup and said "I want you to call them all here and form a base. A fortress." Jafar frowned and said "Wouldn't that be offering our lives to those demons? If they find this base, we will all die."

Adam shook his head and replied "Their leader, Tazolos, is on the verge of becoming a Legend, and so he can't bother with us. I learned some things about the demons in this realm, they don't really care about us. If we are split, they will become targets. Only if they come here can we protect them."

Jafar's face turned grave as he asked "A Legend? Are you sure about your information?" Adam nodded and said "A hundred percent. I don't know how long it will take him to reach that realm, but while he is working on it, he won't chase us. At most, he will send a few of his Higher Demons."

Jafar sighed and said "So what? You will protect us? He has other peak Higher Demons." Adam nodded and said "He does, but he can't send them. I discovered in the past two weeks that the demons aren't the only forces in this world, there are also monsters at the peak of the Sage/Hero Realm. Sending a peak Sage at us means becoming vulnerable, so he can't. He can only send a mid tier Sage at us, something which I can manage."

Jafar still shook his head though and said "Even if they come, would you really protect them? What's in for you?"

Adam replied with a passive face "The only way to exit this realm is to kill Tazolos. Among the people who entered this realm, only I can possibly defeat him while being a Gold Rank. Unless you want to remain stuck here, I am your only chance to return to Epoch."

"As you said, there has to be something in for me. Except being a benevolent person who like to help others, all I need is for you all to work for me while we are in Providence."

Jafar raised one of his nonexistent eyebrows as he asked, a little confused "Work for you?" Adam nodded and said "Although we have been trapped, some of the information we got was still true, such as the riches contained in this dimension."

Jafar's face changed as he said with a little anger "Do you really think we are going to gather the resources and just give them to you? You want to ripe the gains without doing anything?!"

Adam's face turned colder as he said "Nothing? Does fighting hundreds of Sages and a possible Legend nothing in your eyes?"

Adam also began releasing his aura in his anger, which had become so powerful that Jafar felt a suffocating might. Seeing Jafar's constipated-like face, Adam restrained his aura with a sneer, before talking.

"Besides, even if you wanted to you wouldn't be able to take the resources. As I said, there are also Sage monsters in this realm. There's said to be two Racial Powers' worth of treasures in here. One half is detained by the demons, and the other by the monsters. Of course it is the Sage monsters who got the resources. Are you confident of snatching resources from a Sage monster?"

Jafar bit his inner cheeks in frustration but said nothing. Adam's gaze and voice were still cold as he said "I want you to scour this dimension and search through it for me. If you find a Sage Monsters, report it and I will take care of it. If you find other survivors, lead them here, and they will be faced with the same deal."

Adam got up from his chair and headed for the exit of the little cave, but before exiting the room he said "Those monsters, they are to be allies, not enemies. Don't do anything stupid." And with those words, he left the cave.

At first, he wanted to be nice and respectful toward Jafar, he was the leader of the Lizardkin here and could become problematic. However, only when they started talking did he understand that being nice wasn't an option anymore.

As his power grew, he was starting to meet with more powerful people, and with power, came arrogance, and pride. He could clearly see when they spoke that Jafar saw himself as Adam's equal.

Were it somewhere else, Adam wouldn't mind, but in their current situation, they clearly needed a leader, someone above the others. So Adam changed his attitude throughout their meeting and clearly established his position as the superior one, to knock Jafar down a peg.

Obviously the Lizardkin didn't like it, but Adam didn't care. Even if he refused now, without his protection they wouldn't be able to last long in here. And even if they managed to hide for years without being found, when Adam defeated Tazolos, if he could, their only way to leave would be to beg him.

In the end, they would need to rely on Adam, so even escaping wasn't an option. Adam controlled them while in Providence, and it would extend to all those who entered alongside him.

Adam didn't have some kind of god complex or anything, ruling over others wasn't something he particularly liked, but it was needed. Without a leader, chaos would ensue, and they couldn't afford inner strife while being hunted by hundreds of Sage Demons.

Also, Adam was originally here for a reason, and that was to hunt for resources. And so did everyone else. Their respective powers already expected them to kill each other, so what was some domination compared to killing them?

As long as they did their job well, they would be able to leave this realm safely and he wouldn't bother them. Although they wouldn't have gained anything, they could consider themselves happy to be alive after going through such a thing.

And just as Adam expected, although Jafar was reluctant at first, when he took the time to think about his and his fellow Lizardkin situation, he realized that he didn't have much of a choice. If he wanted to live, then submitting to Adam was the only solution.

So, as reluctant as he was, he still ended up by calling for his subordinates. He didn't like it, but they would have to work for Adam.

Since he now had people searching the world for him, Adam didn't have to leave anymore. All he had to do was to cultivate in their new base and wait for news from his temporary subordinates.

Still, there was one thing he wanted to do, which he hadn't yet told Jafar. Thanks to his relatively high attainments in the Spirit Concept, he could pretty easily detect lies from weaker people.

Among the people who would enter the base, there were bound to be spies, and Adam could have them tell Tazolos about his base. The demon couldn't send a peak Hero to search for an unknown amount of time, but if he knew where they were then killing them all wouldn't take long and that Sage could come back quickly.

That's why, once the batch of Lizardkin arrived later, and the other races later, he would interrogate them all. It would take some time, but it was needed.