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

you even figure out how to use blood magic? The game doesn’t let kids anywhere near it!”

Anji’s only reaction to her wrathful tirade was an attack of Homeric laughter.

“I’m going to write a petition to have you kept from using blood magic. And I’m going to tell the supervisor to cut down on your free time!”

∞ ∞ ∞

It’s incredible! I’m holding in my hands a ring that I created myself. It whispers something about a wish to serve its master, turning out to be just as semi-intelligent as the book said it would be. The only problem is that I was summoned by the psychologist as soon as I left the astral, and I don’t have much time left if she’s going to follow through with her threats. First, though, I want to see what I came up with.

Superior vampire acolyte ring

A crazy blood mage killed dozens of people to create this ring, endowing it with consciousness and a thirst for blood. The blood malachite and mithril give the ring incredible power, though only its owner can wield it. The ring would destroy anyone else who tried to wear it.

Effect:

Power +25

Stamina +25

Survivability +25

Requirement: Scalable item

Durability: Indestructible, with damage to it taken out of the owner’s health

∞ ∞ ∞

I’m the crazy blood mage! I’m a psycho, sadist, and masochist, too. That’s what Eliza is going to think when she sees what I’ve been doing for the last six months. I need to hurry if they are going to approve her petition - I won’t have access to blood magic or sacrifices anymore. What a ring!

As soon as I put it on, it buries itself in my finger, all the way down to the bone. The message that pops up tells me that I can only remove it by lopping off my finger. A symbiotic ring! Just the one ring gives me so much. I’d sacrifice all of Hell to make more of them. It’s just a shame I don’t have a craftsman skill, otherwise there would be more bonuses.

Over the next five days, I kill more than I have in the last six months. But I’m the happy new owner of eight identical rings and chains.

Blood mage vampire chain

Killing people by the hundreds in his avid experiments, a blood mage created this chain. His thirst for power and strength was so strong that it was absorbed into it.

Effect:

Intellect +35

Wisdom +35

Morale +35

Requirement: Scalable item

Durability: Indestructible, with damage to it taken out of the owner’s health

∞ ∞ ∞

As soon as I slip the chain on, it curls around my neck twice and buries itself in the flesh. I don’t even want to think about the message telling me that I have to chop my head off if I want to remove it.

It turns out that the way you create items, the way you kill your victims during the ritual, and the kind of victims they are has an effect on the items’ attributes and bonuses. I’m not an artifactor, so I won’t be able to enchant them. That’s a shame, too. It would be interesting to see what damage resistance bonuses I could get.

I’m a Level 0 monster! I thirst for strength, even if power doesn’t interest me. Formally speaking, I’ve found a way to quickly boost my attributes and therefore my chances of survival. It’s time to make some gloves.

Just to see what happens, I only use one kind of bot. It turns out that they have to be the same, so I go with warriors. I have to go pretty far from the plateau where I work, but I do end up finding an entire location packed with warriors hauling logs and rocks.

This time, I use a different ritual seal. The victims are supposed to die slowly, but I ignore the options for a cruel, painful death. I’m not bad enough to take lives that way.

Leather cannibal gloves

A crazy mage figured out something very surprising: if you eat the body part of a still-living victim, you get to take their life force. He was killed by his own servants, who used one of his victims to poison him.

Effect:

Agility +45

Wisdom +12

Morale +51

Requirement: Scalable item

Durability: Indestructible, with damage to it taken out of the owner’s health

∞ ∞ ∞

After the ritual, the gloves change, going from black to a dirty whitish color. The leather is much softer, reminding me of girlish hands. They fit tightly, making my hands more feminine and elegant. In my demon appearance, they fuse with my body.

I spend a whole week running around looking for archers like a madman, but then I do find them. There’s some kind of forest full of archers lugging logs around. They fight, and it’s a sight not for the faint of heart. The old men yank each other’s hair, tear at each other’s ears, and kick each other in the crotch. Oh god, what is this place?

Thinking back to my father, I remember what he said and the branch of the walk-tree the blacksmith sent me to get. I’ve been working on my carpentry skills so I can make a bow, after all. Father’s going to be so proud of me!

Ahead lies my biggest experiment yet. It’s the largest and most complex seal in ritual magic and blood magic, a seal more suited to a grand master’s 550 skill than my 200. I need almost five hundred victims and a seven-layer pentagram, and I have no idea how I’m going to kill that many people in the astral. But I want to try. I’m prepared to risk everything just to see what happens.

Just the thought of facing down a crowd two thousand strong, with a level two magnitudes beyond my own, and the prize at the end, sends a shiver of sweet anticipation running down my spine. A crazy smile spreads unwittingly across my face. I want to know just how strong I am.

I spend two weeks getting ready for the ritual. It takes almost two days to perfect the seal, making sure it matches everything in the book.