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

“Nope. You aren’t worried about people coming after you? Headhunters love those exotic orders.”

Oh, yes, Kirk, if you only knew how exotic I really am. But headhunters don’t worry me too much. I don’t use portals, and I can sense seekers from a long way off. Maybe, I should become a shapeshifter.

“Anyway, do you know anything about shapeshifters?”

“Not too much, though I know some. There isn’t much reliable information out there. Anyone can become one, though there are different conditions for the different types. There’s the infection time, the nature and strength of the damage you take, the kind of shapeshifter, and their conditions. Don’t worry about what happened yesterday. You died, so you definitely weren’t infected. To get infected, you have to survive your meeting with the shapeshifter.”

“How do you cure the disease?”

Hearing the word “disease” threw Kirk into a fit of laughter. By the end, he was rolling on the floor. He was too simple and open to have grown up in a normal environment. He was more like a farmer who had just shown up in the city and was enjoying life. I can see all his simple emotions. He’s definitely broken, even if I don’t know what exactly did it, and his personality is like the foundation of an unfinished building. Kirk himself just sits there without building anything, as he doesn’t have anything to copy. He isn’t copying me either; he’s just picking the traits he likes, the ones he thinks are right.

“You have to go through rebirth. I mean, rerolling and creating a new body. You can pick a new race when you do that, too.”

“Oh, right, tell me about rerolling. I don’t know too much about it.”

“I’m not going to ask what your username is, but how is it there’s so much you don’t know about?”

You want to know everything, Kirk, but you aren’t ready for that.

“I was flying in a small interplanetary ship. We collided with some space trash that hadn’t been registered, the life support system was knocked offline, and we had just a couple more hours. The captain put the crew and passengers into anabiosis in the emergency life support capsules, we lost control, and flew off into nowhere for two years. A rescue probe looking for a completely different ship saved us though, and we survived. It took us half a year to come to after being in anabiosis so long. Then, they said we had to wait a year before we could play full-immersion games. Our consciousness wasn’t ready for them.”

“Yeah, that’s brutal.”

Kirk, you’re too inexperienced. Orphans can all lie with a straight face. I could have described the ship in detail, and he would’ve believed me.

“So, what about rerolling?”

“There’s the rebirth process, and there’s rerolling. If you reroll, you lose all your achievements, your class, your class skills, your techniques and spells, and your attribute points. You can choose a different nickname, too. The new character will be at your same level, though it will be completely empty. You’ll have no friend list, and you’ll be out of your guild and other associations.

***

Anri got me up to speed on what I need to do for our work. It turns out that there are a number of Life Magic spells for body modification. The higher-level ones take more time and mana. I got forty spells on a temporary basis that I can only use within the academy. Earth and water mages as well as air and fire mages have identical spell sets. Life and mind mages have different ones. In the end, it’s forty different body modification spells. Anri hinted delicately that he wouldn’t mind if I quietly got to work on my own modification.

He’s always looking for the positive, a happy kolobok who enjoys everything out of the ordinary.

“Am I correct in assuming that you don’t have money for new spells, and that’s why you haven’t come to talk to me yet?” He asks with a sly grin.

“You’re right. I’m still figuring out how I’m going to earn money for them.”

“I need an assistant sometimes, so I’d be willing to teach you one spell for every time you help the academy. Of course, we’ll discuss your reward beforehand.”

Anri is practically jumping for joy. What, does he know about empathy?

“Why are you helping me?”

“Because it’s fascinating! Life mages are happy in general—fire mages are passionate, mind mages are observant, dark mages are secretive, light mages are kind, earth mages are decisive, water mages are gentle, air mages are sensitive, and space mages are calm. Those character traits are inherent to our colleagues and express their being just as much as their choice of clothing reflects their specialty. And what kind of mage are you? The cat’s got your tongue. Exactly! You’re different and unpredictable.” Anri comes closer to make sure nobody can hear us. “I saw your battle with the shapeshifter. You survived in a sea of light and a weaker purgatory. You stood in melted rock and ignored the drops of glass falling from the top floor. How is that not interesting?”

The mage doesn’t know about empathy, but he’s welling over with curiosity. What he said about being happy is right too.

A week passes like this. In the morning, I get my instructions from Anri, then I have a battle in the arena, and finally, it’s more instructions from Anri. It’s only in the evening after I get my body modification work done that I have free time. On the other hand, it’s also then that Kirk throws himself at me, asking and chattering about everything at once to sooth his need for conversation. I like his kindliness, openness, and hospitality, as well as the tea he gives me every evening. And the cafeteria food isn’t as good as his. The local chefs apparently haven’t put much work into advancing