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

so I don’t feel afraid.

You got a debuff: Universal weakness

Effect: 50% cut to all your main attributes, skills, and resistances.

Duration: 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds… 58… 57…

∞ ∞ ∞

As soon as I get my vision back, Vaalsie hits me with another buff. There’s no time to look around. I’m too worried about whether I’ll be able to survive in such an aggressive environment.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 500 (ignored: 317)

82/200

Resistance to physical damage: +0.02%

Physical damage ignored up to 634/second

Resistance to mental damage: +0.01%

Mental damage ignored up to 62/second

Survivability +1

Weak healing! Weak healing! I’m so tired of that miserable old idiot.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 500 (ignored: 317)

84/200

That really scared me.

Yesterday, I noticed something surprising: continuous damage is always at least a quarter mental. My physical resistance stopped growing, though my mental resistance is catching up. Three days of constant healing has boosted my intellect to 45, too. At this point, I’m healing exactly the same amount of health as I lose, and the regeneration from my survivability is kicking in. Take that, Vaalsie! I wonder what else he’s going to do to me. Complete paralysis? No, he can’t do that. It would break human rights laws. Anyway, I have another day in front of me.

It’s a good thing I didn’t jump when the veil of darkness fell away. The worms had done a lot to level-up my perception over the three days. In the corner of my eye, I notice something on the edge of the cliff. It’s a good thing I’m used to lying down, otherwise I would be jumping up in terror.

What is that?

Demon, Harol, Level 250

He is using something like natural camouflage to blend into the cliff. Long red whiskers flick around, though the wind isn’t that stiff. His multifaceted eyes look around without blinking, and his body is large, similar to a lizard’s, only with wings like a fly.

When I read his name, I realize what’s probably going on. When the demons didn’t find anything, they sent that Harol here as the one to raise the false alarm. The search party had a hard time understanding him, too.

I lie here healing myself for another day. Sometimes, the demon flies around above where I am before alighting on the cliff and going back to sitting motionless. He must have nerves of steel to be able to just sit there like that. I’m an exception. Healing and reading the logs keeps me busy. When I’m done, I just read them again. Every time I do, there are fewer words I don’t know as the program translates them for me. When I’m done, I read over what I have.

Normal demons chatter constantly, while their commanders are generally quiet. It turns out that the Fields of Ash are just the threshold leading to the first circle of Hell. Once you get past them, you’re in Limbo, a place where minor sinners have to deal with their pangs of conscience. The souls sent here are doomed to constant suffering, and the castle of the local ruler creates an aura of pain and torment by using the energy it gets from the souls there. That aura is what does the constant damage.

The first circle of Hell is the largest, with all subsequent circles becoming sequentially smaller. The worst part is the aura created by the fortresses in the lower circles - it’s much stronger than the one here. There are auras of fire, ice, disease, paralysis, death, terror, and even parasites and stench. These spawn monsters right from the earth. The fields of ash separate the demon world from the misty shroud, on the other side of which are the Gray Lands. None of the devils have ever so much as approached the shroud.

The demons found strong distortions in the local magic field and sent four squads to check it out. Without finding anything after a check of everything within a hundred kilometers from the point of entry, three squads left the Fields of Ash. The fourth spent another two days keeping an eye out before leaving, as well. Harol was sentenced to five days here as punishment for the false alarm.

Things are starting to get a little boring - the game, then two hours with the psychologist, then my studies. Eight days of that! I haven’t even had to heal the last two. Today, Harol is supposed to leave, which means I’ll be able to leave, too. Vaalsie turned out to be quite the bastard. For every visit to the psychologist, I get a new debuff: lame, deaf, mute. I’ll get something new today.

Harol flies off. The whole time he was here, I didn’t hear so much as a sound from him.

I pull myself out of the ash and look around. My kid clothes have been completely eaten away, leaving me in nothing but my underwear. It’s white, and I can’t take it off or do anything to it until I turn eighteen. My body has turned gray, even my hair.

I need to do some leveling-up, and I need information, too. I have a ton of strength and health.

“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: 68

Intellect: 58

Wisdom: 45

Available attribute points: 0

Additional attributes

Speed: 20

Athleticism: 20

Morale: 40

Survivability: 60

Derivative ratings

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

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

Mana: 450 (wisdom*10)

Health: 680 (stamina*10)

Strength: 680 (stamina*10)

Health restoration: 600/minute (survivability*10)

Mana restoration: 400/minute (morale*10)

Strength restoration: 200/minute (athleticism*10)

Running speed: 12 km/h (1+speed/10)

Defense: 1

Resistance

Physical damage: 2.51% (damage ignored: up to 874/second)

Poison: 1.27% (damage ignored: up to 211/second)

Mental damage: 0.65% (damage ignored: up to 125/second)

Skills

Cooking: 25

Trap setting and disarming: 19

Archery: 2

Swimming: 4

Breath-holding: 5

Stealth: 25

Life Magic: 74

Mind Magic: 25

Space Magic: 8

Earth Magic: 25

Water Magic: 1

Fire Magic: 25

Air Magic: 25

Light Magic: 6

Dark Magic: 25

Meditation: 34

Hand-to-hand combat: 25

Perception: 45

Professions

Herbalist: 2

Fisherman: 16

Tailor: 23

Blacksmith: 1

Carpenter: 16

Look at me! I should be a doctor! My 74 Life Magic is impressive, to say the least. On the other hand, the fact that I’m weak and can’t run is