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

to the thousands of microorganisms working in it. Little bugs gnaw at the foliage, earthworms digest it, and their nutrient-rich humus fuels the plants’ growth. There are so many that it feels like the blanket is living and breathing like one enormous organism. It’s perfect for getting some rest, nice and warm. In that moment, my consciousness splits completely, and I slip into sleep. Yes! It’s real, complete, deep sleep.

New ability: Friend of the forest

 

Lets you…

Feeling conscious while also definitely asleep is an odd feeling. Is this all LJ’s doing?

Yet again, I’m in the field of flowers with the girl in the white dress leading me by the hand. This time, however, it’s so lifelike that I can’t tell if it’s actually a dream or not. The red hair, the average height, the level of strength…she radiates love and care, like a mother taking her child through a dream forest. It’s definitely not Femida. They’re different…and they have different motives. The girl is leading me as though she definitely knows the way to the other side of the field. There are no signs or landmarks, but I can tell we’re going the right way. Suddenly, I feel a sense of alarm, though the girl barely reacts—it’s like she knew it was coming and just keeps leading me along. Pain breaks into my dream, and I can see my legs turning black. Even in my dream, I feel LJ breaking into my main consciousness to scream of danger.

Opening my eyes, I realize two things: I’m not alone in the tree, and my legs are killing me. My whole body is covered in the ash from the burned roots, and I hear them crack when I get up. What was that for?

Krash is standing next to me whistling something under his breath. He’s busy frying my legs using a dense ray of light, and I wish I hadn’t looked to see what was left of them. The defenseless soles burned completely away, leaving nothing but the stubs of white bones with flesh sloughing off them. The shapeshifter stops when he notices where I’m looking, and that’s when I address him.

“You furry freak! What did I ever do to you?”

Rage fills me. Everything around is incinerated or charred beyond recognition. This is my tree! My home! I haven’t done anything to him, and he keeps coming after me. What did I do to you? What do you hate me for?

The shapeshifter was already getting ready to fight, though apparently being called a freak cuts especially deep.

“You nitwit! Know your place! You want me to leave?” Long, feline whiskers appear from under his hood, and long claws shoot out of his sleeves. “Show me what you can do! Show me the strongest of the chosen ones! Show me your potential! So far, all I’ve seen is a weak shell of the chosen one who was able to kill gods five years ago, the one whose name is a byword even now. Show me the true Bloody Sagie, and not the louse that’s left of you now!”

“Freak! I will never be what you’re trying so hard to find in me.”

The shapeshifter leaps closer, putting himself into the perfect position to start striking at me. Close combat! An uppercut with his claws! My magic shield absorbs all the damage, but the force sends me flying up into the crown of the tree. The branches scrape at my body.

Half a second later, lightning strikes where the shapeshifter was standing, but Krash is already gone.

LJ appears at the edge of my consciousness to take over defense and activates my shroud of darkness. The shadows cast by the leaves would be enough to hide me from a normal person, but not a shapeshifter. A light spear flashes by without hitting me.

Buff received: Keeper of the nameless divinity’s altar

All attributes boosted by 150%

Duration: No longer than one hour, with the buff lifted at the end of the duel

The shapeshifter leaps upward toward the top of the tree, driving me up ahead of him. My advanced perception against his animal instincts gives me at least a chance of surviving, if not an advantage. I’m able to block or neutralize every mid- and long-range attack he throws at me.

As the fifth minute ticks by, I start to feel the difference in the amount of mana we have as well as how fast we can replenish it. With the buff, I’m regenerating mana six times faster than a normal player. The shapeshifter is no slouch either, sitting at about 1500 morale without a buff, or 15000 mana a minute against my 37000. The difference in our reserves means I can’t use my arsenal of heavy weaponry, the ones that take 100000 mana, but, happily, he’s in no hurry to use his either.

The attacks start coming less frequently, though they’re more accurate. Flashes of light combine with gravitational blows. Between the time I feel the spell coming and the hit itself, there’s less than a second, but that’s a lot of time for light and gravity. LJ reacts to the danger faster than I can, which is the only reason I’m still alive.

Krash switches over to mid-strength area attacks, and rage fills me. He’s burning my tree! Bastard!

Bastard! Bastard!

A powerful dwarf hammer does nothing as I’m saved by a weaker teleportation moving me a couple meters to the side. A column of light swallows my shield of darkness, and the response is lightning bolts and water blades. The shapeshifter doesn’t stop for a second—I can barely hit him with normal spells. He’s all about light and gravitation, as they’re instantaneous. Some lightning bolts do strike home, however, and he’s forced to replenish his shield.

My opponent has the better position and attacks; I’m better at defense and replenishing my mana. But then the critical moment comes when he starts climbing