Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3) by John Gold (novel24 TXT) 📕

have to drink a nasty solution to restore my salt and trace element balances. I’m exhausted.

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Back in Project Chrysalis, I find myself on the same island in the astral. I feel the same tingling in my body that tells me there should be a divinity nearby. Okay, where’s the message about Azami showing up?

New unique class rank: Demigod

Your mental body is inextricably tied to your source of strength in the astral. Your physical body is still intact, and you can’t use your divine energy for spells. All your energy turns into mana, and your strength source drops by 10% every time you die. If it runs out completely, you will lose your demigod class rank.

I’m becoming what I’ve been fighting. The tingling in my body tells me that the divine energy is still there, though it’s converted into mana. The fact that I don’t know any divine spells renders that pointless for me, however. Although, there are some things to think about. It looks like I’ve grabbed the carrot and dodged the stick. I don’t have maximum resistance like the gods, not to mention the direct link between my level and my skills, though I do have access to an enormous reserve of magic energy in the astral. And I don’t risk losing everything if I die. Even after ten deaths, I’m just back to being a normal player. I have a new spell I can use to open a direct portal to my source, and I assume I’ll have to recharge it with direct contact.

The enormous tree behind me is highlighted as the source and gauge for my strength reserve. Obscene words have been scratched into the bark, and Slender also added some notes and marked off the days. The poor guy was stuck here with us for nine months in local time.

Divine energy reserve: 100000000/100000000

Judging by the number, MoroKrai’s heart grew into the tree.

I dig through the interface to figure out how the source works. It turns out that as soon as my supply of mana is about to run out, I switch over to my source in the astral. Everything else is pretty much the same as other players. My tree in the astral isn’t a place of strength, so I have to resupply it myself.

A theory for how I picked up the demigod class rank comes to mind. Here I am in a unique place, and the confluence of the astral, my ability to fuse with the trees I grow, and the organic mana storage might have been enough to make it happen. My blood-malachite tattoos may have helped, too.

When Femida shows up, Azami has just arrived on my little island in the astral. This time, he’s in the form of an unusual rhinoceros, something like a lightly smoking volcano on his back. The supreme natural god is a changeling—he can change the way he looks, but the power I sense makes it very clear who’s standing in front of me. This time, he just turns and leaves after barely listening in on my thoughts. I can sense his disappointment even in the astral. He saw Sagie in me, and not LJ, the Sagie who became a lich, fused with the tree in Kurg, and led to its demise. I get his disappointment—my nature is far more terrifying than LJ’s.

Femida climbs into her living armor, which was hiding behind the tree, and walks over.

“Who was that?”

“Azami, the supreme natural divinity. There isn’t any information written down about beings like him, so you should feel lucky you got to see him.

After telling Femida what happened in real life, I smoothly transition into mentioning that I’m now a demigod. It’s time to get ready for the big hunt.

Without leaving the astral, I start preparing potions using my own blood. I’m going to need quite a few water-breathing potions, which is why I bought a retort and alembic that hold a hundred liters. It’s a good thing we aren’t in real life. Normal adults have just five liters of blood, and I need more than a hundred. Due to the fact that my crafting skill is underdeveloped and my potion brewing is rudimentary, the potions themselves turn out to be very poor quality. Still, they do the job.

Blood potion for underwater breathing

The mage who brewed this potion used his own blood, giving it an additional effect.

Effect: Lets you breathe under water for 25 minutes

Additional effect (only for the source of the blood): +25% intellect, +25% morale for 20 minutes and 6 seconds

The first potion I drink gives me underwater breathing and boosts my intellect. My morale doesn’t get any higher, meaning that I’m limited to 500. Screw it. Just the fact that it works on me is good enough. Because of my resistance to poisons, most potions do nothing, not to mention poisons.

Femida relaxes in the woods while I brew my potions. Isaac and Slender are off walking around together. Thanks to the retort and alembic, I’m able to control how concentrated my potions are. The stronger I make them, the more gelatinous they are.

Ultimately, I have to add a few thickeners and wait for the extra fluid to boil off. My hundred liters of blood turns into about twenty liters of very thick red gelatin, and I’m able to move on to looking over the remains of the herbs I have in good light. I’m no alchemist, so the end result turns out to be middling.

I carefully cut the gelatin up into cubes, wrapping them in slices of cheese to make a kind of cheese candy.

Concentrated blood potion for underwater breathing

A blood mage tried a culinary experiment that resulted in this potion.

Effect: Lets you breathe under water for 40 minutes.

Additional effect (only for the source of the blood): +25% intellect, +25% morale for 32 minutes and 10 seconds

Femida didn’t