Ollphéist
Day turned to night and night turned to day.
As the days passed, so too did the number of times Dílis was killed by The Pursuers of Chaos.
He knew there would be repercussions for what he did, yet he didn't think he would quite literally be hunted down to the ends of the world.
In his attempt to escape from the Pursuers, Dílis travelled as far as his level would allow him in the opposite direction away from The Great Divide, which was situated in the north of the map, between the Einstark kingdom and the unexplored regions even further north.
What awaited him was the same as everywhere else.
Death.
No matter where he went, he always came into contact with members of the Pursuers.
This wasn't to say that Dílis was a pushover, far from it in fact.
For every time he had suffered a game over, so too did most of the members hunting him, despite their levels being similar or even higher than his.
This was due to the skill he possessed in-game, coupled with his vast experience gained through playing the game for as long as he had.
Dílis was incredibly talented at not only PVE but also PVP as he had encountered various Pk'ers (player killers) throughout his time playing the game. There was one major problem though, just as a talented painter is worthless without the materials needed, so too was Dílis when it came to levels and equipment.
Since Dílis had been using the money he got from the game as his only source of income, Dílis had very few combat sets saved up.
This was the big difference between Dílis and The Pursuers.
While the Pursuers had hundreds of players situated all across the map, Dílis was but one player, even if he managed to kill a couple of his pursuers the rest would just recover their teammate's items and take his.
Before long, Dílis was at the same level as your average player with the only gear set in his possession being the starter set which you gain after completing the tutorial.
Gone was the powerful user by the name of Dílis.
Gone was the faith the public had in the invisible hands as, since his comrades had joined The Pursuers of Chaos, they had performed poorly and with a bad attitude towards the players, totalling the image Dílis had built for them.
Dílis was alone, with neither the stats nor gear, being hunted down wherever he went, with no longer the means to fight back, he was powerless.
Dílis was at a stage where he began seriously worrying, he could no longer hunt, the items which he made a living off of selling could not be acquired, this wasn't about the game anymore, he was in trouble.
"Shit, gimme a break," Dílis groaned to himself, as he looked over the level thirty hunting grounds, the Plains of Grassy Grass.
"Status, open", a translucent blue screen appeared before him detailing his stats, equipment and skills.
Dílis entered the settings portion, before saying "System, Log out".
Dílis disappeared from where he had been standing, overlooking the Plains of Grassy Grass.
He opened his eyes and sighed.
Dílis had been sitting in his Reality Shell, a device which allowed the user to login to various VR games released by Project X before they made Soulkin Online.
It was a large silver machine, propped up against the wall of his dingy apartment, plugged into one of the only plug sockets in the room, with a comfy looking chair in the middle to sit down in.
At the top of the Reality Shell, there was a helmet attached to multiple wires and bars which could be lowered to rest upon the head of whoever sat in the chair.
Dílis sat there for a while, thinking.
After a short time, he stood up and made his way towards his bed.
It wasn't far, he lived in a pretty small apartment, after all, only the necessities, bed sink, shower, drawer and an oven.
"Ok let's think for a while," Dílis mumbled to himself, as he laid down on his bed, the springs creaking as he did so.
"Money, I like money but unfortunately it eludes me, money, I need, money, I can't make, solution? dunno' but that's the reason I'm talking to myself like this, like~an~idiottt."
"I could get a jo--"
"Yeah no, that's out."
"Unfortunate"
"I could ask my friends to let me bo--"
"No friends...right."
*sniff* *sniff* Dílis began wiping his eyes as if he was wiping away tears.
"I guess... I guess I'll just have to sell my body..."
"Pfft hahaha, ah, ah...I do make myself laugh."
"Seriously though what can I do, I could make a new character? If I did I would be able to make enough if I power level a good amount, I've also got a little saved up so I could rely on that for a little bit...ugh no good, that's not gonna work, even if I can change my name I can't change how I look."
There was no way a person could change how they looked in-game to differ from their real-life appearance, you would be able to change hair and eye colour but your main features would remain the same.
Depending on the race chosen, your looks would be altered slightly, elves have fairer skin, dwarves have beards and look rougher, gnomes have smaller overall features, at the end of the day even with these changes he would be the same person, surely the Pursuers would check this as well.
"Hrrrrmmmmmmmm," Dílis let out a loud groan, as he tried to figure out the best solution to this predicament he found himself in.
Dílis thought for a while, spinning ideas around his head before he realised something
"I'm forgetting something, aren't I, 'Monster', not only is it the main enemy which you slay but also a playable race."
Among the Five Great Races, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans and Beast-men there existed a sixth race, Monsters.
The monsters were removed from the list of the Great Races by the great kings of the past, reducing it from the Six Great Races down to the Five Great Races.
Why?
The reason was that the other members of the great races thought of monsters as lesser beings.
While the Five Great Races all split off and formed kingdoms, the monsters never managed to do so.
This was not the only reason however, most monsters were not sentient beings and so would easily become hostile to the other races, the other races declared monsters to be a threat and actively hunted them.
Dílis was currently considering whether or not he wanted to create a monster character, the reason being it was hated and seen as useless by the community.
There were far too many disadvantages which players found while playing as the monster race.
For one, monsters had no starting town, this meant they had nowhere that could be called safe, no tutorial and no starting gear.
Another reason the monster race was so hated was the fact that NPC's would actively hunt you down as they see you as a threat, this meant you couldn't enter towns of any kind even if you were to find one.
These aren't the largest problems though, people found that monster, as a race, was incredibly weak, people found that their total starting stats were about half that of the other races. On top of that, the type of monster you can become is completely random, the only thing in common is that they are all incredibly weak.
All races have the same stat points to begin with, however depending on your chosen race they could be distributed differently, this, of course, didn't include the monster as they had half of the other races total starting points.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the monsters didn't have a class option and they couldn't obtain a Soulkin, one of the main reasons people played the game, to top it off, they couldn't buy skill books, instead, they had to learn the skills which were found to be far too inefficient.
All of these facts combined made the player base label the monster race as useless and a mistake, avoiding it at all cost.
It was this failure of a race that Dílis was considering becoming.
There were two reasons for this.
One-when you pick the monster race, you look like the monster which the game picks for you, this meant that Dílis would absolutely not be recognized by the Pursuers.
Two-Dílis had a certain potion which had suddenly revealed its worth to the desperate Dílis, the Potion of Evolution which would allow him to evolve into stronger monsters, was suddenly looking very appealing.
This was only possible due to the unique rank the Potion of Evolution possessed, since Dílis was only resetting his character, the item, which was bound to his account, would transfer with him.
Unfortunately, this was the only unique item in his possession this meant that, other than the potion of evolution, he would have no equipment once he reset.
"This'll be risky but...It's not like I have many choices...ha to think the day would come when I would be resetting my character".
Dílis had decided, he would become a monster and live only for himself this time around.
He closed his eyes as he was tired yet excited for the day to come.
The next day rolled around and Dílis was ready for it, he woke up early, ate some breakfast and immediately sat down in his Reality Shell, the helmet lowering itself, emitting a low humming noise as Dílis strapped himself in, much like one would strap on a bike helmet.
Dílis' senses became numb as his world was consumed by darkness.
SOULKIN ONLINE
!Press Start!
Dílis pressed the start button.
[Load Character]
[New Character]
[Settings]
[Exit Game]
Dílis took a deep breath before choosing, new character.
[Are you sure you wish to create a new character?]
[Doing so will delete your current character]
[Yes/No]
"Yes."
[Once reset you will not be able to restore your character]
[Are you sure you wish to reset your character?]
"Yes, just do it, please, before I change my mind."
[Confirming...]
[deleting character data...]
[Reset character successful]
[Welcome to the world of Soulkin Online]
[Create your Character]
[Dílis]
~Level: 1
~Race: Monster
~Class: -
~Title: []
~Fame (0)
~Notoriety (100)
-Stats: Str(3) / Hp(3(x10)) / Int(5) / Speed/Stamina(4) / Magic(0) / Total: (15)
"Wah, a hundred notoriety right off the bat huh? That's so mean game, also what's with these stats? Total fifteen, normally you would get thirty, argh what a shitty game."
Dílis took a deep breath.
"Calm down, you knew what you were signing up for when you picked this race."
"Complete character."
[Are you sure you wish to proceed with this character?]
"Sure, why not."
[Loading...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[..-- "Right you're pissing me off now, fuck off with the loading times, shoo, shoo."
[#Error@]
"Huh?"
[~Error/]
[&rr@r]
[£ErRoR''']
[^&Eror]
[!tem Dem@n K!ng's P@t!0n 0f 3v0Lution detected]
[Loading failed successfully]
[C0mM3nc3 Tr@NsP0rt t() (0)tHer world]
[Bzzt...Bzzt]
"Wait, WTF is going on."
[W3lc0m3 t0 S()ulk!n Onl' Bzzt']
[Welcome to Athos]