6 Funeral March

One Hour Later... - The Chittering Forest - Joyde's Point Of View...

"That's what you get for attacking me out of the blue." I state simply as another higher level player comes to attack me, spitting blood on the floor as blood erupts from his mouth.

It would seem that while I was gathering the boar skins, all twenty of which are high quality, twelve for Luciana and the rest for Mara as a gift, Selindra went ahead and informed her entire guild of a very powerful but still level one evil player, namely myself.

One hour later... I've already taken down around five people, all of which were men. I guess they're all her wannabe boyfriends?

"Oh well, good for me, I guess." Muttering to myself as I loot the fifth idiot which attacked me. He was level 20 but, like I said before, levels don't mean actual shit in this game, stats do. And their stats are just barely above mine.

I guess they just farmed the early mobs to level quicker? I mean they couldn't have gotten over here so quickly if they weren't close.

Walking on down the road, I open up my living aura to full bloom and take notice of another five men hiding in the bushes nearby. They seem to be talking about something quite heatedly.

System Notice

The White Guild - Sel and Friends - has declared war upon you and any who choose to aid you.

Well, that explains that. I watch as they cheer loudly and make sure to use that loudness to sneak closer to them. And Sel and Friends? Wow... virginity galore.

System Notice

During a war between factions, all infamy which would otherwise be gained by killing other players will be turned into fame.

"War does not happen because one side is right and the other is wrong.. no, war only happens when both sides are right from their own point of view." - The Teachings of Rhean, ch9 , pt6

Oh those idiots. They just gave me the right to kill them all and enjoy it without any real repercussions. Sneakily approaching the group of five to find them all readying their buffs and weaponry.

There's are two level sixteen, one twelve, a level twenty seven and a level three. Shouldn't be too hard, albeit that level two looks familiar. Oh, its the guy that I split apart beforehand, nice. Now, I'm gonna do it again.

"Did you turn your reality meter off?" One of them asks and I scowl. The hero-wannabe from before nods at them with a supposedly wizened look."Yeah, this guy is an evil monstrosity. His attacks hurt a lot but we can easily make them pretty much worthless."

"Why did you even have the reality meter on default? Are you a masochist or something?" Their healer, a level sixteen priest asks with disgust on his face.

"What? No! It just adds to the difficulty of the game, but this guy is too strong for me if I leave it on. Once were done with him, I'm putting it on higher." His friends distance themselves from him and I feel my lip curve upwards. Maybe this guy isn't as much of a chicken as I thought. Lets leave him for last.

Positioning myself to be behind their healer, I leap forward and combine my Twin Fang with Chaos Rush to cleanly sever his head from his shoulders.

"A-AAAH!" The rogue, a thin guy that looks around fifteen falls on his ass as the daggers he was cleaning beforehand fall onto the ground from his hands. Quickly kicking them both aside and thus, disarming him, I dodge an oncoming blow from a warrior with a zweihander in his hands. The giant blade falls down and digs deep into the ground as I tear through his side with a scythe, making the guy fall onto his knees.

Heh, with the reality meter lowered to minimum, critical wounds will make you stunned and thus, unable to act. In this game, ever since Harold was created, the greater your reality meter, the greater the benefits you gain.

More loot, more exp, more stats, greater buffs and a much larger chance to unlock legendary skills and classes, these are all the untold benefits of being maximized. Makes me feel special as I've never played with anything less that 100% of the reality meter.

"And you are the only player in the entirety of the game who currently has it on 100%, the other beta testers have all set it at 70%, which is still much higher than the default 20%." But if that's true then is that why I've been getting all the benefits so far?

Shaking my head out of my stupor, I quickly charge the fallen rogue but a barrier erected by their level twelve mage stops me in my tracks."Nope, no way." He smirks at me with those words but then I simply shrug and say as I prepare my twin fang."So you wanna go first then? Sure thing, mate."

My simple answer made his eyes grow wide as I dodged the level three's shaky swing and then tore through the mage. Getting a curious idea, I pull my scythes upwards with full force and manage to cleanly tear the mages arms off.

He feels no pain whatsoever, but the sight of having your arms cut off is still quite disturbing as he also falls to the ground. In the meantime, the rogue recovered and collected his daggers, trying to ambush me from midair as he leaps from a tree."AIRYAAAH!"

Thing is, rogues really shouldn't be so loud. I promptly position my hands in a tilted arc, one in front and the other behind me as I spin myself around twice in quick succession, disemboweling both the mage and the rogue at the same time, showering me in crimson and guts.

The warrior recovers from his stun and opens his eyes to witness the carnage, promptly falling back down onto his knees as he does so. The wannabe-hero charges me once again, seemingly not disturbed by his friends getting rampaged.

Backhanding him aside, I see his health drop to nearly dead and I let out a laugh as I approach the fallen warrior."A tip for the next time you decide to come after me... having the reality meter turned off allows me to stunlock you forever. Every critical attack I do will stun you for five seconds."

To his chagrin, the warrior stands up, seemingly remembering that the world around him is nothing more than a game."But.. if that's true then why don't they tell you this at the beginning?"

I shrug, waving my hands aside as I do so."Well, EUPHORIA is an MMO game, y'know? One of the best selling points of the genre is rewarding people for bravery and exploration."

He nods at me with a sad sigh."Well whatever. We lost fair and square but, can you tell me how the hell is a level one so strong? Are you a premium player or something?"

Grinning at him, I raise my right hand up in the air."Show Reality Meter and benefits."

A simple sentence is heard as his eyes grow as wide as saucers as the system massage is displayed for all to see. The low level behind me stops dead in his tracks.

Reality Meter (Joyde) - On (100%)

Current Benefits:

+20% chance of getting rare loot

+50% experience boost

+50% extra to fame/infamy events

+All buffs will grant double their benefits, aside some exceptions

+Legendary skills/classes are much easier to unlock

+100% bonus reputation with all factions

+dying has no penalties, instant resurrection costs 1 silver at all stages

"Dear god, what the hell is this? These benefits are fucking unfair." The warrior exclaims as I shrug once more."Well, its what I get for playing at 100%."

He shakes his head in disbelief."How can you even play like that?"

I grin at him as I make my scythes erupt out in front of him, blood spilling onto the ground as I grit my teeth."It makes me feel like wolverine."

"Wait, taking them out like that actually hurts?" The guy behind me exclaims.

With a nod, I say."Always."

A sense of grimness surrounds us all as I place my scythe next to the neck of the warrior, but he slowly pushes them away."Look, since you're new you gotta be short on gold right? Here's five gold coins in exchange for my life. Oh, and also, fuck this guild. /gquit."

The logo of *Sel and Friends* promptly dissapears from beneath his player name, which is Bruntez."Well, okay then." I say while blinking in amazement and take the five gold into my pockets.

The wannabe-hero behind us yells out with tears in his eyes."Bruntez! To think that you would betray our beautiful lady like that! How dare you?"

Bruntez looks at me as I silently hand him a premium healing potion and point at the idiot behind us. He grins at me and stands up once he drinks it, promptly setting his own reality meter to maximum and nearly squealing from happiness as he sees the boosts start to affect him.

Taking his Zweihander and making sure to feel its cold steel in his hands, he charges behind me and horizontally separates the idiot in two equal halves."B-but, w-why?..."

System Notice

Your Chaos Soul is amused by your actions.

Strength has increased by 15.

Agility has increased by 5.

Intelligence has increased by 10.

You have gained 20 fame (5 per person killed).

Having felt the presence of a suitable candidate, your Chaos Soul has activated one of its former powers. You have regained the ability to use the ability, Infusion.

Infusion allows a high level Chaos Soul to etch a piece of itself upon another soul, eventually transforming it into a separate Chaos Soul. Warning - You will be dealt 100hp points of damage per each infusion. Becoming infused with Chaos will make the host unable to lower their reality meter from 100%.

Amused by the fact I showed mercy? Well, I do suppose its not something I usually do. And you need to have the reality meter at 100% to even be counted as a candidate? I like it."Sorry, but I can't have you go around spreading your unique class to everyone you feel like. Only people who actually have the guts to play at 100% have the right to gain a Legendary Class if you ask me. But, thanks to Aurelius, one can also buy a legendary class... this is why I'm making your Chaos as overpowered as possible, I want you to take down those kinds of people." Harold's amused voice echoes in my mind as I nearly burst out in laughter.

Approaching the still amazed Bruntez, I extend my hand. He turns to me and shakes it with a smile."Hi, the names Joyde. Nice to meet you, Bruntez."

"Same here?" Releasing my hand from his, I quickly add on."I have a proposition for you, Brun. You see, my class is a special class which allows me to grant it to other people, kind of like a vampire... however, in order to use it, you will be forbidden from lowering your reality meter ever again."

He blinks at my sudden proclamation."If its like a vampire then that means I won't be getting exactly what you have, right? Just the starting effects?"

I shrug."I ... well, I got this class way back in the beta and its kinda related to the game's soul system, if you know what that means?"

His eyes grow wide."You mean like an Inheritable Class? Aren't those only Legendary?"

Nodding at him, I speak."Yes, exactly."

Gulping as he heard my rather simplistic answer, he lowers his head and places a finger on his chin in thought."I wanted to try out becoming a paladin, but this class of yours sounds much cooler... thing is, does it hurt a lot?"

"Yep. The first time I got it, I fell unconscious." I say as his eyes widen even further.

Then, as I start to turn away with a shrug, he stops me by placing a hand on my shoulder."Which means that if I don't pass out, I'm better than you."

My grin grew within seconds, from ear to ear, as I heard him say those words."So you accept?"

"Hell yes!" Is the last thing he said as I impaled him through his stomach with a scythe."Infusion."

His face twisted and twisted into horrified shapes as pain tore through his very being and his form fell onto the ground, promptly passing out in front of my feet as the Chaos Cracks formed upon his body. Granted, he won't be getting my scythes, living aura or even any of my passives at first, but the stat gains should make him happy enough. Adding him to my friends list, I turn around and start to walk towards the town, remembering to stop next to a lake in order to clean myself of blood. Don't want to smell of guts once I finally come to turn in Mara's quest, if you know what I mean.

System Notice

Chaos Infusion successful!

Bruntez has been transformed into a Chaos Walker.

A chaos walker is the very first step, the first class level of Chaos, one who is beginning to walk the path... but we'll get to that later as I explain the class to him once he logs back on.

Right now, its time to get me some booty!