Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 220: Killing Zeus

Adam entered the Blood Tower quickly after he controlled the explosion, and quickly recovered inside the Fire Floor.

His normal recovery speed was 1000 Qi per second, and in this floor it changed into 10 000 per second, allowing him to recover his lost Qi in a few minutes.

However, he only recovered for fifty seconds, allowing him to recover 500k Qi, that is about a fourth of his Qi in the real world, before he left and flew toward Olympus.

That last attack of his was Adam's strongest attack, and was also an attack that he could only do on Earth. It wasn't just because it was a fire elemental attack, but more because of the nature of the skill.

Skills' power were caped by their rank, and this was even truer in Epoch. In Epoch, the damage a skill would do was entirely dependent on the rank of the skill, and a hard cap covered every rank. For example, Adam's [Tidal Wave] could only deal 1000% of water damage to his enemies, no matter what.

However, in the real world it was possible to overcharge a skill to make it's effects even stronger. For example, Adam's [Tidal Wave] was limited to 100 meters in Epoch, but were he in the real world creating a kilometer tall tsunami was entirely possible, as long as he had enough mana.

And this was exactly what his [Sun Spear] was about. The basic version of it would create a fire ball that was 100 meters in size, but Adam had managed to turn it into a 1km sized fireball thanks to his skill [Inferno] that made all fire skills stronger, and also because he pumped more than half of his Qi into it, which equalled to one million Aura in the game.

In the end, this made his [Sun Spear] become as powerful as a nuclear bomb, but was also much more terrifying. This was because before the impact, all that power was gathered within the spear, so anyone hit by it would be hit by a concentrated nuclear bomb.

This power had allowed Adam to burn Zeus' body, that was even stronger than Adam's, to ashes, with the exception of his head. But it did not even limit to this, as it even burned Zeus' Golden Idol.

The Golden Idol was something unique to Legends, and it was the strengthened version of a Nascent Soul. It held a great deal of power, and was the reason why most Legends were incredibly hard to kill.

Even if a Legend had their entire body destroyed, they could survive by having their Golden Idol leave their body. Actually, this was something that even Nascent Soul experts were able to do.

The main difference between a Nascent Soul and a Golden Idol was the Essence fused with the Golden Idol.

When one understood a Concept in it's entirety, and turned it into an Essence, it was not just a change in comprehension, it was a change in the very nature of things. One would create an 'Essence' within their souls. For example, a Sword Essence, or a Fire Essence.

This Essence was of paramount importance as it was what allowed one to use their concept to really temper with the real world. For example, if Adam wants to use his raw Water Concept to attack, he had to find an already existing source of water and the power itself would be greatly lessened.

But using the Water Essence, they could change the nature of their surroundings and create water out of nowhere, and attack with their Essence at near maximum power.

When one understood a Concept, they would simply store the knowledge they had about the way a certain element of the world worked, and that was it. However, this knowledge would become tangible once it turned into an Essence.

Anyway, one of the prerequisites for becoming a Legend is to fuse the Nascent Soul with one's Essence. This was the one step that blocked many people at the Hero Rank for their whole lives. But it was also what made a Golden Idol so much more powerful than a Nascent Soul.

Destroying a Golden Idol was about as hard as killing the actual person, which was why killing a Legend was very hard.

However, neither Zeus or Poseidon had formed an Essence. As thus, their Golden Idols, their source of power, was flawed and much weaker than a true Golden Idol. Although it was stronger than an average Nascent Soul thanks to the Power of Faith, any talented peak Hero would have a stronger Nascent Soul.

As for a true Legend, they could have absolutely one shotted both Poseidon and Zeus at the same time.

In Cultivation, from the Body Strengthening realm to the Inner Core realm, or the Iron Rank to the Gold Rank, the source of one's power was their Qi. It would first circulate in their meridians, then turn into a gaseous dantian, then into liquid pillars before finally turning into a solid core.

However, when one broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm, their Inner Core would fuse with their soul and form a Nascent Soul, which would become one's source of power. Then, it would turn into a Golden Idol following the process explained earlier.

As such, a weak and flawed Golden Idol was the same as a weak and flawed Liquid Foundation or Inner Core, meaning lesser quantity and quality of Qi, and which led to a weaker body and overall strength.

But even if it was flawed, a Golden Idol remained quite strong. For Poseidon, he was truly too weak and his Golden Idol was easily destroyed by Adam's Inferno.

However, Zeus' Golden Idol could have easily survived inside Adam's Inferno, and would have needed a strong attack from Adam.

However, Adam's [Sun Spear] was so powerful that his Golden Idol had evaporated with no chance of survival. But it did have an effect, and it was sparring Zeus' head from turning into ashes.

Anyway, this served to show the power of Adam's strengthened [Sun Spear]. Hadn't he controlled the after effects of the explosion, the eastern part of the city would have been destroyed by the shock waves, and the entire city would have been dried.

However, there was a cost for such power. Adam had to overload his meridians to launch such an attack, and the ones he used had for the most exploded. Although Adam looked relatively fine, in fact he couldn't use his right arm anymore, and it would take days to recover from such an injury.

That's why, while being a powerful attack, he couldn't afford to miss as it could only be used once. It wasn't only his right arm, even the meridians in the rest of his body were badly charred, and Adam's combat prowess had become much weaker. Even Poseidon could proveto be a life and death fight.

When he flew back toward Olympus, he took Aegis in his left hand since he couldn't store it in any spatial treasure, and flew inside Olympus. Obviously, he hadn't forgotten Zeus' powerful weapon, his lightning gladius, which he had stored inside his Blood Tower this time.

When he got back inside Olympus, he could see they all wore shocked faces, and for a good reason. Their king, whom they had never seen suffer from any defeat, had been killed by Adam, and nothing remained except for his charred head.

Adam still decided to store it alongside Poseidon's body, as the two's body were still considered quite strong and he could maybe forge a powerful artefact using what remained of their bodies.

Adam didn't speak directly, and instead went for one of the many tables to take what he had come for, the legendary food and drinks of the gods, Ambrosia and Nectar.

Ambrosia looked like a rainbow candy that smelled heavenly, while Nectar was a purple drink with shades of blue. Adam could feel powerful Qi coming from both, and understood he had been right in his assumptions.

Adam first took a cube of Ambrosia, which tasted like the best food Adam ever had, meaning his mother's food. But the taste wasn't the most important, as Adam felt a powerful surge of Qi enter his body, allowing him to recover a part of what he had just used in his fight, but also strengthen his base as a whole.

Adam concluded it's effects were similar to the Rose Tree Fruits. It was much less powerful, but the limit of what he could hit was much higher, to the point Adam wondered whether there really was one.

He then turned to the Nectar and gave it a try. He quickly understood it's uses were different from the Ambrosia. This drink didn't help with one's cultivation, but it still had wonderful effects. First, Adam felt his injuries started healing at a quick speed.

But what made Adam really happy, and it more important than even Ambrosia, was it's second effect. He could feel a gentle energy travel to his very soul and slowly strengthen it.

Spirit Strengthening products were very rare, but incredibly precious. A strong spirit was useful for many reasons, for example defending from spirit attacks. But that was only the rawest use of a strong spirit.

A strong spirit also allowed one to possess a stronger comprehension, for everything.

This strengthening also wasn't on the same order as the Spirit Concept, which also made Adam's spirit stronger. The Spirit Concept only increased the quantity of one's spirit, replacing quality by quantity. This helped one to strengthen their spirit attack and defence, but that was about it.

However, Nectar was able to better the quality of one's spirit, meaning it was much more valuable. For example, Adam had been able to overpower many of his foes back when he was in the lowest levels thanks to his stronger spirit, not his stronger body.