Gestation by John Gold (love books to read .txt) 📗

tough battle between his belt and my weak healing. Mama cries, father swings away, and I can’t see his face. That’s probably for the better.

When morning breaks, the beating stops and I get a new message.

∞ ∞ ∞

Resistance to physical damage +0.03%

Physical damage ignored up to 2/second

Life Magic +8

Life spell effectiveness +9%

Survivability +3

Morale +6

Intellect +8

Wisdom +5

After glancing at that, I quickly pull up my attribute window.

Name: Sagie

Level: 0

Experience: 0/100 (100 left until the next level)

Race: Human

Class: None selected

Basic attributes

Strength: 20

Agility: 20

Stamina: 20

Intellect: 9

Wisdom: 6

Available attribute points: 0

Additional attributes

Speed: 6

Athleticism: 3

Morale: 7

Survivability: 19

Derivative ratings

Physical damage: 10 (strength/2, but no less than 1)

Carrying capacity: 50 kg (strength*10/4)

Mana: 60 (wisdom*10)

Health: 200 (stamina*10)

Strength: 200 (stamina*10)

Health restoration: 190/minute (survivability*10)

Mana restoration: 70/minute (morale*10)

Strength restoration: 30/minute (athleticism*10)

Running speed: 6 km/h (1+speed/10)

Defense: 1

Resistance

Physical damage: 0.03% (Damage ignored: up to 2/second)

Skills

Cooking: 3

Trap setting and disarming: 8

Archery: 2

Swimming: 4

Breath-holding 5

Stealth: 3

Life Magic: 9

Mind Magic: 1

Space Magic: 1

Earth Magic: 1

Water Magic:1

Fire Magic: 1

Air Magic:1

Light Magic:1

Dark Magic: 1

Meditation: 1

Professions

Herbalist: 2

Fisherman: 16

Tailor: 2

Blacksmith: 1

Carpenter: 1

I guess my happy face says more than I’d like to show, because father’s smiling at me.

“Get some breakfast, and then tell us more about your deal with the mage.”

As we eat, father tells me how he saved the lives of two mages. Both times, they taught him a spell as a reward. They say you can pay to learn more, but he hasn’t been able to do that.

A hundred of my gold coins are for winning the tournament; the rest is from the bets I placed. When I mention how much I won, including the amount I paid Bernard, father starts coughing and mama breaks a plate. I silently hand father a hundred gold coins.

“You should keep these. I might waste them on something.”

Suddenly, they both burst out laughing, and I realize how silly that sounded.

Once he catches his breath, father continues.

“Mages don’t just teach spells to anyone. I wonder how much that Bernard won to make him so generous. He probably just gave you this hundred gold out of principle. You have to pay for everything. That’s exactly how I got my spells.”

“What, did I win him nine lives?!”

Father and mama smile lightly. The nerves are gone, they’ve calmed down.

“Maybe even ten.”

Then, they glance back at me seriously.

“So, he gave you another spell?”

“No, he taught me how to meditate. He said it works best in places of strength, though I don’t know what they are yet.”

“Meditation…” Father looks blankly at the table. “Sagie, do you want to be a mage when you grow up?”

“I haven’t decided yet. I don’t know much about the other classes. There are robbers, assassins, archers, swordsmen, warriors, paladins, friars, and craftsmen. But it’s almost impossible to get skills from other classes. When I found out that you know some spells, I realized that I could get them, too, and everything just worked out.”

“I’ve been wanting to ask you about the tournament. Sometimes, you fought haphazardly, though you used your opponent’s weaknesses or aimed for their vulnerable spots other times. You used fighting stances, planned your strategy, studied your opponents. Your mother and I know you’re a traveler from another world.”

That much was easy enough to guess by my long absences.

“Then, why were you worried? We can’t die; we’re just resurrected at the last respawn point.”

“But what if that doesn’t happen? We don’t even want to find out.”

Father wasn’t lying. As soon as we’re done eating, he goes back to beating me, this time with double the force. I practice weak healing all the way to dinner.

∞ ∞ ∞

Resistance to physical damage +0.05%

Physical damage ignored up to 12/second

Life Magic +6

Life spell effectiveness +15%

Survivability +1

Morale +6

Intellect +5

Wisdom +8

Boosting my abilities and attributes is great, but getting beaten for practically 24 hours straight is exhausting… Hard to describe the feeling.

Time to log out.

∞ ∞ ∞

The office windows offered a spectacular view of the sunrise on Jupiter, a great event for the colony. The sight was impressive, making you just want to stop and pause time for a while. On the other hand, the office’s owner paid little attention to the beauty on display. Her internship had been going well until she was handed Anji Ganet. She’d spent the last week digging through text recordings of conversations with doctors, and the notes left by medics. Eliza loved a challenge, and the case was an intriguing one that didn’t fit into the overall picture. A flight took her down to the space port, where she promised the brigadier that the conversation would remain between them. He told her everything he knew about the previous year.

Back when Anji had first appeared in the port, nobody paid him any attention. Then, they’d noticed that some things were missing, they caught the boy, and he quickly confessed to everything. He was required to work off his debt, after which he asked to stay. There were some jobs nobody wanted and he took them. Then, he developed a close relationship with one of the engineers, though he’d disappeared after Galboa’s accident. Nobody had seen him since. The most interesting part was that the description the space port staff gave her couldn’t have been more different from what the doctors and orphanage personnel had written. He was a smart, serious, and talkative child—talkative! Sometimes, he dickered with the workers. With others, he laid out arguments well beyond his years. He didn’t cry; he didn’t whine. The brigadier said that he was even severe, more with himself than with anyone else.

“He’d scare anyone for a laugh, though he was fearless and wouldn’t tolerate anyone making fun of him. All his jobs were done on time. If he were older, I’d offer him a job.”

“What do you think about his behavior in general?”

“He didn’t let anyone close to him. Even when he talked with people, he’d stay a meter or a meter and a half away from them. He was formal with everyone except Galboa and his son.”

Eliza jotted down some notes. The way people behave in society reflects their