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

the real world, though it modified them based on where they came from as well as magic. Everything was built into a complex system built on the laws of magic and its properties. Armor, swords, artifacts, relics, and magic created a complete world young Philip knew nothing about. And that was how Isaac came to be.

Over the first month, he died fifteen times of hunger, as he spent whole days sitting at the gate and checking out the swords, armor, and amulets sold on every corner of Trebona, a city populated by craftsmen. By sheer chance, Isaac’s starting city was one where science and crafting were held in higher regard that combat abilities. Trebona, a human city, was right near dwarf-populated Varakh Tiral, so they were flooded with metal the workshops could use to work round the clock. They made the continent’s best weapons. In the first week, Thor, one of the young gods, erected his main temple there, and that served to attract even more people.

The idea captivated him the way ideas had when he was younger. Forgetting to sleep and eat, Isaac sat at the northern gate, where he studied the players’ weapons and armor. The feeling of hunger, the cold at night, and the cries of beggars didn’t bother him the least. All he cared about was metal and quality workmanship. Philip’s mind was given over completely to that new, unstudied area, and he listened greedily to the clanging, his eye measuring the weight, density, and quality of alloys. The smell of rust and weapon oil coming from sheaths filled his nose. He scoured trash heaps to find pieces of broken weapons and armor, especially excited when he found scrap metal left over from the smithies. He could tell how it was processed from just the soot on the metal. Broken blanks told him everything he needed to know about the blacksmith’s skill. Isaac carried his most valuable finds around in his inventory, considering them his treasures. Sometimes, he got so carried away in his search for new materials to study that he would steal pieces left unattended outside a smithy’s. He was never caught, though he constantly trod a very fine line.

A month later, he was able to tell the condition of a piece of armor as well as its quality and how rare the metal was just by glancing at the person wearing it. It was less an ability than experience and an inquisitive mind that understood metal and listened to its siren call. The sound of the blacksmith’s hammer was like a melody echoing across the city, and Isaac could tell how good that blacksmith was just by listening to him work.

After another month went by, Isaac started noticing that armor made out of the same metal could have different qualities. It wasn’t even that they were made with different levels of smithy skills; armor could match its owner’s shape, fighting style, temperament, class, and activity. Isaac identified hundreds of parameters for matching owners and armor. At night, when there weren’t many people around, he would head into the alleys and practice moving correctly. The idea of how armor should match its owner started to form in his mind. It was just a vague impression, however, so he spent hours practicing movements and trying to understand where armor was technically defective.

One traveler with a particularly memorable set of plate armor took Isaac to a training base for warriors. He had a Roman short sword, a round shield made partially out of wood, and combination armor. All his more vulnerable points were covered by metal; everything else just had thick leather. The traveler had long since noticed the street urchin who always stared at him from the gate, and he gave a shout once they’d gotten to the spot set aside for duels.

“Duel!”

“Duel?” Isaac was so shocked that all he could do was repeat after his opponent.

That was the first time he was killed by a player. Regardless of the fact that he wasn’t wearing any protection, he was able to stay alive for more than a minute and force the warrior to really exert himself. The battle ended in a single blow when Isaac got tangled up in his own rags.

The next day, Isaac headed over to the training hall himself to watch the player who had sent him back to the respawn point.

Three weeks of focused observation told him that the player didn’t switch out his armor once. He’d leveled-up thirty-six times, but he was still wearing the same basic equipment all newcomers got for completing the starter quest for warriors. Right then, he was practicing three combo moves on a dummy until he was blue in the face.

Mastery!

Suddenly, Isaac realized why the player didn’t change his armor.

The boy in the starter’s clothing, which had long-since turned to rags, watched as the warrior honed his abilities. The precision of his movements took into account the features peculiar to his armor, the spot he wanted to land his attack, and his method for counterattacking. The warrior demonstrated less the art of battle and more the art of using his weapon and armor.

Isaac spent another month at the training base watching the guy carefully. In the first week, the warrior switched out his pauldrons for something heavier and more durable. Then, it was his shield and sword, the upgrades made out of more balanced, high-quality steel. The leather elements became flexible metal equivalents.

After that, Isaac saw how the warrior traded in his armor as he leveled-up and improved his attributes. That put the idea of the perfect armor into his head, a suit that adjusts to meet the needs of its owner.

The boy was going to the training center every day to observe the players. He studied fighting styles, techniques, armor, classes, and tactics—the mastery the players displayed. The concept of the ideal suit of armor consumed him, and