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

tenth of the potential their musculature offers, while possessed bodies use all of it. The only problem is that broken bones and torn ligaments render the body useless all too soon. That means that I’ll be able to strengthen my whole body when I’m completely demonified, though I’ll use my health instead of my strength. But that’s for later. I have so many streams of consciousness now. I accepted the third stream, leaving me with just 100 each of intellect and wisdom, though I slowly and carefully step away and wait until one point appears for both of them. Ten minutes later, I’m the proud owner of a fourth stream of consciousness. I’m going to have to be careful now. After figuring out how to use two streams of consciousness, four is a piece of cake. They’re all focused on healing, too. One weak healing restores just 100 health each time, but four streams gives me 160 every two seconds. An hour later, I’m able to go back to the lava.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 53250 (ignored: 51777)

527/2000

Resistance to fire: +0.02%

Thermal damage ignored up to 51919/second

My resistance to fire is all the way up to 15.17%, but I’m still afraid to get any closer to the lava. I stop five steps away from it, sit down in my meditation pose, and hold my arms out. At that distance, it’s a minimum of 1000 damage. Theoretically, I can heal myself four times a second and keep from dying even if I go closer, though I’m wary about taking unnecessary risks after my betrayal. I only have one life.

Just for fun, I go through the loot I’ve gotten from the imps. Besides the horns and the wings, which I’m tired of eating, there are rings, pieces of skin, and several necklaces. The pile of clothes, which I don’t even look through, goes straight into my bag after I take out the rocks and other junk. I don’t know what anything besides the usual stuff is, so there is no point putting it on. Way back when, I’d put on some simple things that gave me two points for each of my attributes, though their low durability meant they quickly broke under the relentless heat. Too valuable for that… I’m better off in my impregnable underwear, covered as I am in ash and soot. My hair has lost color and turned a grayish hue.

In real life, it’s been a month since my last punishment for fighting. The guys started leaving me alone. I’ve proved myself worthy of my place in this harsh world, proved my right not to bow to anybody. Vaalsie apparently reconciled himself to the fact that I won’t be joining his collection team and won’t be talking with the psychologist. He isn’t even giving me debuffs anymore. I study for eight hours a day, which helps with the monotony. My free time is spent building myself up in Project Chrysalis. Every four hours, I log out of the game to exercise and get some food.

Time passes, and a small pantheon of young gods appears. Almost all the clans worship someone, and all the priests of the new divinities do what they can to attract NPCs.

Project Chrysalis greets me with the usual scenery.

Once, father and I went hunting at night. He told me a story about monsters and special guilds. The latter brought people together to hunt the monsters and complete special quests. Father wanted to be someone like that when he was little. I didn’t, but I want him to be happy. I wonder how father and mama are.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 65550 (ignored: 63733)

183/2000

Resistance to fire: +0.02%

Thermal damage ignored: up to 63852/second

There’s a lot you can learn yourself. For example, there’s calculating how effective different investments are and determining when they’re worth going through with. In terms of my health, there’s nothing else for me to do here, and using clothes to boost it is pointless. Just one wrong step would mean death so, I’m going to have to find other ways to develop. I use three streams of consciousness for telekinesis, holding an enormous boulder up in the air. That does the most to boost my morale. I kill imps using my bare hands to work on that skill, finding that partially strengthening myself works wonders. I can take their heads off with a single swipe of my palm.

The hardest thing is doing several different tasks at once. Just now, two stones fell into the lava, something that happens a dozen times a day. They’re getting smaller and smaller, since the lava just melts them. Sadly, one limitation of telekinesis is that it doesn’t work on live objects, otherwise I’d be throwing fireproof imps around.

Also, I read.

Demonology turns out to be a really interesting book. The use of demons works based on Solomon seals. The stronger the creature you want to summon, the more valuable the sacrifice should be, otherwise the demon will kill you. Nobody summons the higher beings of Hell. The seals have been lost, and the sacrifices would have to be incredible. In a word, that isn’t my ticket out of here. At least, I’m not sure how it would be.

Blood magic focuses on the elements of the human body. Besides blood, you can use hair, fingernails, toenails, and bones. They’re used to establish who they belong to, look for a person based on their biological material, and temporarily amplify magic or physical skills. That last bit is especially popular among the dark mages - blood knights, vampires, and simple mages who drink the blood of intelligent beings. That’s why nobody likes that area of magic. The dark side gets colossal power, strengthening their mental body to the point that they can do amazing things. The more you work this way, however, the more of you it requires. I wonder what a knight in full armor with triple strength, agility, stamina, and speed could do. The book says that adherents to this form of magic are death