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

my fingers on the desk throughout the whole lecture—my nerves haven’t recovered, and I’m constantly on edge. Buds have appeared on my desk, about to open. The same is happening with my bench.

Reflexively, I’m constantly using Life Magic. The habit, which I’ve had ever since the Hashan Desert, is to constantly heal myself, though I’m currently “healing” the wooden table and bench. The worst part is that I can’t control it any more than I can control how my heart beats. Instead, I quickly pluck the leaves and cast a shield on the bench for me to sit on. Who would have thought that my habit of always healing myself would lead to this?

The speaker continues.

“Finally, we have Space Magic, the most important magic art.” A murmur breaks out. “Oh, don’t be so surprised. Mages don’t have much health, so they use magic shields. But you won’t live long if your shield is broken. Because of that, all mages make sure they work on their Space Magic skills. Those include invisibility, all kinds of magic shields, teleportation, dwarf hammer, force hammer, telekinesis, ghost weapon, armor, and much more. Just don’t think that you can teleport to anywhere on the continent whenever you want. First of all, it takes ten seconds to set up the port. Second, the distance is limited by your skills. The default is one kilometer, and each level lets you port another hundred meters. And with that, our lecture has come to a close. Anyone who would like to get a mage class can come on up, or, if your skills are high enough, you can find the instructor for your specialty. Just check the list on the way out for their names and room numbers.”

With the lecture over, I stand up and get in line to pick up my mage class. My heart is pounding, there’s an enormous grin on my face, and my eyes are sparkling happily. I think back to the long journey I’ve taken so that I could one day end up here in the academy. My first spell, the first skill I learned from the book, my first ritual, my first artifact, my first tattoo. Finally, I’m standing here, ready to get my class.

The line gets to me.

“Young…young man, would you like a mage class?”

You have a class offer: Mage

Accept: Yes/No

“Yes.”

***

Leon, Merlen, and Rebecca Ruzh were watching the recording of the tournament in Kkhor. The young man in the cat outfit was drowning his opponent in liquid glass, the most violent death of the competition.

“Rebecca, is that him?” Leon asked, worried.

“I can’t say for sure—it’s been eight years since we last saw each other. It’s hard to even compare him to the last recordings we have. The clothes are different, the battle style is different, and I don’t see any particular magic skills.”

It had been five and a half years since the battle for Airis Castle. Nothing but ruins were left of the fortress itself, despite all the defensive measures that had been taken, though Leon rebuilt the citadel stronger than ever. Airis was a city that time around, one of the few built for players and by players—the largest of them, in fact. After the fall of the two dark gods and Margul’s death, more than thirty dungeons appeared in the area, all varying in their degree of difficulty. The field of battle and the surrounding lands became a middle place of strength, the perfect place to do some leveling-up.

Still, all that paled in comparison with what had been expended on the search for Sagie. The gods all scoured the world for him. All respawn points around Airis were guarded by Golden Hand troops, and there were even wanted posters hung in every city, every village, and every rundown, roadside tavern.

To the entire world, Sagie had helped the dark gods—all the videos from the battle showed how Sagie and Femida had let the undead forces in. As soon as the two were within the fortress shields, the dark gods had begun their attack. The unusual kids, in fact, were branded a diversionary force. The next second, a meteor smacked into the little house next to the citadel, the world was enveloped in a red cloud, and Sagie summoned another enormous meteor. It destroyed the castle, killed the defenders, destroyed the attacking army, and defeated the dark gods.

Sagie returned a minute after the attack as a lich to heavily damage Margul. Death itself then appeared on the field of battle to take the boy’s soul back to Hell, and the result was Margul’s death in the crossfire, Sagie being decapitated, and all the undead trying to kill the lich going up in flames. Grass still didn’t grow on the spot of the battle. Bots didn’t appear, and birds gave it a wide berth. A few dungeons did appear directly beneath it, but no life came back.

The world considered Sagie an enemy, the most wanted criminal anywhere. The young gods announced a reward of a hundred million credits for information as to who the person hiding behind the screen name really was. Another twenty-five was promised for anyone who caught him in the game. Everyone with the name Sagie in Project Chrysalis was hunted down, the persecution continuing until none of them were left. His friend Femida had been thrown into jail twice; twice, she’d broken out. She was accused of aiding and abetting mass murder, the murder of the people living peacefully in Airis at the time of the battle. Her sentence was extended after she broke out, but nobody could figure out who she or Sagie was. They even sent clones of the boy after her and offered several times more than the official reward. But she refused. She refused to so much as talk.

Leon pulled himself away from his memories. Back then, they needed a respite from the war, and a