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

favorite people. A meeting with one meant problems with the other. Vaalsie is standing next to Eliza alongside my capsule.

“Miss Eliza is going to take you to the medical center for some tests. Your punishment will be lifted during that time, though any attempt to disobey her will only result in me making it worse. All right, go with Miss Eliza.”

Eliza takes me to the parking area in front of the orphanage, where there’s already an aerocar waiting. None of the kids at the orphanage have ever seen anything like that, something driven by a human. That made sense, though as the few drivers around here are just pilots. The car itself is great, too. I’ve never seen anything like it, not even on the station’s sixth level.

“Hobs Hospital, third level. Child diagnostics.”

“Got it, Miss Donovan.”

I’ve never flown in an aerocar, so I enjoy the trip, though Miss Eliza is on edge. You can’t tell by how she looks, but I’m starting to notice when people are going through internal turmoil.

The hospital is beautiful. We arrive at a level where it’s normal for there to be a lot of people, and some doctors meet us at the entrance to usher us into a room. Then, they put me in a chair and make me put something with sensors on my head. It looks like a crown. But seeing it reminds me of the crown Rachel was wearing that fateful night, and I wouldn’t touch it if I had my druthers. Sadly, nobody asks me.

After that, nobody needs me to do anything except look at pictures.

“Miss Donovan, it’ll take thirty minutes to create a baseline, and another three hours for a full analysis.”

“All right. I’ll go sit in the waiting room.”

She leaves me with the men in the room, and it gets boring quickly. They don’t show anything interesting, and I already know what they’re going to do. I went through a similar test last year when my psychologists wanted to see how angry and happy I get. That was when I learned about deviations from the psychological norm, too. So, Eliza thinks I’m psycho? Screw her. I don’t think I am, and I don’t care what she thinks.

Some moments do turn out to be interesting. There are pictures of Rachel, Galboa, Finx, Vaalsie, and Eliza herself. The scenes with blood are disgusting, but it’s hard to be afraid of things like that when you’ve seen what’s in the shroud like I have.

∞ ∞ ∞

The doctors said the boy was consciously limiting the emotions he displays. He wasn’t a psychopath, meaning that he was looking for pain as compensation for something. They finished the test, and Anji just gave Eliza a grunt and an arrogant look when she met him in the hallway. It was like he knew all along and was shocked by how ridiculous the whole thing was.

For all the fighting, Anji got more hours of studies, and he used them to sleep or learn. A normal boy might have had a problem losing his free time and friends, chatting with a psychologist, and fighting all the time, but Anji just slept peacefully during study time and went back to the game for some more pain and suffering. That was the path he had chosen.

∞ ∞ ∞

I leave the Fields of Ash and head toward the rivers of lava. Even from a good hundred meters away, I’m engulfed in their heat. Perfect! Another ten steps, and…

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 50 (ignored: 0)

870/920

Another couple of steps.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 150 (ignored: 0)

736/920

Resistance to fire: +0.02%

Thermal damage ignored up to 12/second

There it is. Lava is melted rock, with a temperature between 500 and 1200 degrees. The heat can project a long way, and the closer I get, the more thermal damage I take. Even the 10% of the pain I get is excruciating! It’s like my skin is on fire, and the feeling only intensifies as I step closer. I feel it all over my body and take two more steps forward.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 250 (ignored: 12)

508/920

My survivability restores 17 health per second. I can go farther.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 325 (ignored: 12)

217/920

Weak healing! And another couple steps.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 405 (ignored: 12)

515/920

Resistance to fire: +0.02%

Thermal damage ignored up to 36/second

My Life Magic is all the way up to 112, meaning that healing spells are 112% more effective. Weak healing starts at 1030, so each time I cast it now, I get 2183 health. I don’t even have that much to begin with! It’s even become so second nature that I just think, and my left hand starts doing its job. I can feel the magic power concentrating in my palm.

I forgot one important thing: monsters spawn right out of the ground in this world.

An imp crawls up out of the lava and stares at me. Like an idiot, I’m staring at my effect panel.

Demons, Imp, Level 102

“Human me-eat!” he crows before rushing at me.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 250 (ignored: 834)

338/920

I feel no fear. He can’t kill me. For a full minute, he scratches, bites, and tries to tear at my flesh. The skin doesn’t budge, however, and he can’t do anything. The only damage I’m taking is from fire. I ignore two critical hits, one to the eye and another to the neck, though I almost pay for the error with my life. Some parts of my body only partially ignore damage. It’s a good thing I’m pretty strong.

Taking about ten steps backward, I kill him. He’s a little guy, a head smaller than me, and I’m a kid. As we battle, I realize that imps have half of their attributes in strength and the other half distributed evenly between agility and stamina. In a word, they aren’t hard to kill. They use their claw and two rows of very sharp teeth, they can fly, and they have complete immunity to fire.

From the imp, I get wings and a horn. That’s probably the first food I’ve seen in Hell. Father and I ate raw fish in