Phantasm

Kandis Hammond, a twenty-four-year-old financial analyst from Sydney, sits down at her computer and wakes up naked and alone in a locked stone barn in another world. Glowing text informs her she has become a Worldwalker — one of seven chosen to play the Great Game, a contest that unfolds every two centuries and reshapes empires. Unsuited for combat, Kandis must rely on her wits, charisma, and illusion-based abilities to survive. Wherever Worldwalkers go, trouble follows — and the Great Game has a way of finding her whether she wants it to or not.

Kandis Hammond has settled into life in Latorra as a level-four Phantasmal Artificer. With a party of fellow adventurers, she has established a home base in the city of Talnier, hunting monsters for experience and wealth. But she still hasn't identified her patron god — a gap with dire consequences — and her mysterious Dungeon core remains unexplained. Then another Champion arrives in Talnier, and their party includes someone who complicates everything.

Kandis Hammond has become Councillor of the frontier town of Talnier. Using her charisma and illusion magic, she's a natural politician, and now she must travel to the royal palace in Dorsay to have the king confirm Talnier's charter. What sounds like a straightforward diplomatic mission is anything but. Kandis has made enemies during her brief time in Latora, and one of them would happily ensure she never makes it home.

Kandis Hammond juggles her roles as Town Council secretary, Adventurers Guild member, and head of Talnier's local bank — all while the town prepares to expand and mysterious notes arrive from a fugitive elven bard. Then she uncovers a disturbing plot by a power-hungry duke that threatens to destroy everything she has built. To save Talnier and its people, Kandis must quickly assemble her team and an arsenal of spells. Some things, she's learned, cannot be done alone.

Kandis and her Adventurers Guild companions enter a dungeon the elves call the Fortress of Unending Nightmare — and the dungeon's intelligence, Axel, is delighted to have them. Each floor is a deadly recreation of a computer game from Kandis's former life, and the only way out may be through a portal that leads back to Earth. Meanwhile, Kandis keeps having unsettling visions of her old career at a tech startup — memories, or evidence that someone is tampering with her mind?