Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3), John Gold [free e books to read online .TXT] 📗

she went out. Ultimately, she brought two thousand of the two thousand five hundred bodies we needed.

The four-level seal drawn in blood looks like a complex pattern with thousands of letter-like shapes. Just drawing it from memory takes forever, and the last part is traced on top of my tattoos.

We start the ritual.

After activating the seal, my jaw drops at the power surging through my body. Ow! It’s like my soul is being torn to pieces, each of them suffering their own individual pain.

I’m not just taken to the astral island; I’m thrown there, almost like I’m my own meteor. If I didn’t have such resistance to physical damage, the impact would have killed me.

The island grows quickly. New elements join, while the thing sitting in the astral is enjoying the chance to throw me around however it wants. Huh, I can feel it, but not its emotions. Does that mean it isn’t a person? Doesn’t feel emotions? Both?

I’m pulled out of my reverie by the sensation that something is approaching the island. It turns out to be something enormous, angry, and very powerful that I feel from a long way off.

Our two and a half thousand victims pour at me like a meteor made of flesh.

“Diamond shield! Maximum! Magic shield! Maximum!”

The diamond shield shatters after just five seconds, and the powerful stream of bodies knocks me off my feet. The first blow is taken by my shield. After that, I get to work.

My magic shield bursts, and I immediately activate a wind of death. The stream of bodies stops, though my victims whirl around next to the island. Everyone who wasn’t killed by smacking up against my shield starts to get up. They’re possessed by evil spirits, and the remaining victims rain down from the sky.

Possessed! The ritual victims are all possessed by demons and evil spirits. They’re lifted to their feet, and those still alive are empowered by the spirits in them. Huh, that’s strange. The thing is above the island, though I feel something in…all the victims on the island. A collective intelligence? Or a queen ant?

Monster, Goroto the Minion, Level 3501

Got it. There’s an automatic balancing system—if I’m too strong, they make the victims even stronger. But not that strong!

Happily, Light Magic is one and a half times as effective against demons and evil spirits. Possessed victims fall into that category, as well.

“I summon the sun! I summon an infernal spirit of cleansing!”

All of my strength is poured into each of them. I have bigger things to worry about than the recoil.

Superior Elemental, Infernal Spirit of Cleansing, Level 4027

It’s a giant made completely of bright, white flames. Just his aura is enough to kill all my adversaries, though he’s looking at me awfully suspiciously.

Hey, wait a minute, why are my summoned creatures attacking me? How is that fair?!

Twenty seconds later, they’re both dead. I can’t afford to leave them alive, as they have an entire arsenal of deadly spells, and they’re working alongside the victims.

The battle lasts quite a while, though I eventually realize that the victims are behaving something like a colony of ants. I don’t figure out who the queen is until the very end though. They start by trying to kill me with raw power, but that doesn’t work. Burning and drowning don’t work, either. Next comes poison, though nobody can bite me, and I’m not about to drink any of it. With each new attempt, their strength wanes, though not the way I’m expecting.

I destroy bodies, spirits when I can. But the little bastards run off somewhere, and I only find out where when there are just a hundred victims left.

Demispirit, Bartholomew, Level 3775, raid boss

It’s the demispirit of a warrior armed with a sword and a shield. His metal armor buzzes with enchantments, and sparks run up and down his sword. Hm, this is going to be tough. I haven’t spent much time working on my resistance to lightning.

All he attacks me with is lightning. Smart. The point of the battle was to create an opponent with powerful protection and the right kind of damage.

He’s ten times stronger than a usual monster, with about a hundred times as much health. The worst part is that he’s especially agile and partially ignores physical damage. A ball of lightning flies around the island, sending bolts in my direction, and he gobbles down the rest of the victims himself to boost his level by 200.

Spending a whole hour fighting just one enemy is too much. I end up having to pin the demispirit to the ground with continuous dwarf hammers, though his health doesn’t drop even as his armor gradually disintegrates. I assume his armor comes from a single-use amulet that absorbs physical damage.

Four streams of consciousness maintain and replenish my magic shield; the other four send Light Magic flying at the beast. He partially ignores Dark and Mind Magic. Ultimately, I’m able to kill him, my last victim, and get back to the laboratory.

New ability: Chimeric parasite shield

The chimerologist who made this shield gave part of himself, making it completely subject to his will as his own flesh and blood.

Effect: Lets you create a shield made out of a layer of skin. The durability depends on your stamina, and the maximum charge depends on your mana. The shield absorbs physical damage equal to the mana charge you place in it. Your morale attribute governs how fast it can be replenished.

Requirement: Non-level ability

Ability unlocked: Astral bone sword

A chimerologist wanted to create a sword that would be the personification of himself. It is linked to both the soul and the body of its master, being no less than another of his body parts.

Effect: Lets you create spells and imbue your sword with them. The durability of the sword depends on