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

good ace to have in my sleeve in case I need to jump into the game. Otherwise, there’s no point getting on his bad side. I need to change the rules of the game. Both Vaalsie and the psychologist are getting in my way, and the fact that I’m a child means that they both have power over me. I need to find adoptive parents or move to an orphanage where I make the rules.

I find an original solution. On one of Jupiter’s moons, there’s а hospital colony, the city-state Arpa. According to local laws, I can receive citizen status when I turn 14 if I’ve lived there for more than three years and have enough money to tide me over until I turn 18. It’s a pretty big sum—90,000 credits—but I can pull it off. If I take money out of the game for a couple years, that should do it, especially if I can sell some items from Hell at the auction.

The citizenship issue won’t be a problem if I can get myself transferred to a local orphanage. The problem is that I’m not sure how I’d do that. I could pretend I have psychiatric disorder and get myself transferred there… That would take some doing, and it would be pricey.

I didn’t even think about going the route of adoptive parents, my experience with Galboa enough to put paid to that idea. If Eliza had told the kids I wasn’t mute, Galboa was definitely fired. I don’t want to screw over the people I care about. I’m a kid, but it’s still really unpleasant…thirsting for strength, becoming strong, and always protecting yourself, staying away from affection and pushing people away.

I renounced weakness and emotion a long time ago. That’s how I learned to be quiet and think. Being human isn’t about what you say; it’s about what you do. Younger children are different from older children in that way.

My nose starts to bleed. I need to relax.

∞ ∞ ∞

Here I am, back in the game. Project Chrysalis greets me with the usual hellish landscape, though I also get to check out my newest acquisition.

Astral bow

A crazy ritual created a local rift in the astral, linking it forever to this bow. The bow itself creates astral arrows full of mana.

Effect: Depends on the type of spell and how much mana you put in each arrow. The maximum charge is equal to the amount of mana you have, and you can be hit with 10% of the damage if the spell recoils.

Requirement: Non-level item

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

∞ ∞ ∞

You want to know what’s crazy? When you pull the bow back and pour all your mana into a single arrow. The cliff shatters, and I’m thrown back 25 meters by the shock wave. And that was just a trial run!

Father’s going to be so proud.

When I pick the bow up, it starts to glow. Superior mages use the same principle when they’re getting ready for a powerful blow, though they make sure they aren’t standing in the same place as their opponent.

“Attribute window!”

Name: Sagie

Level: 0

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

Race: Human

Class: None selected

Basic attributes

Strength: 400

Agility: 245

Stamina: 400

Intellect: 235

Wisdom: 247

Available attribute points: 0

Additional attributes

Speed: 200

Athleticism: 200

Morale: 286

Survivability: 400

Derivative ratings

Physical damage: 200 (strength/2, but no less than 1)

Carrying capacity: 1000 kg (strength*10/4)

Mana: 2470 (wisdom*10)

Health: 4000 (stamina*10)

Strength: 4000 (stamina*10)

Health restoration: 4000/minute (survivability*10)

Mana restoration: 2860/minute (morale*10)

Strength restoration: 2000/minute (athleticism*10)

Running speed: 76 km/h (1+speed/10)

Defense: 1

Resistance

Physical damage: 10.01% (damage ignored: up to 45077/second)

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

Mental damage: 9.19% (damage ignored: up to 29537/second)

Fire: 26.21% (damage ignored: up to 280515/second)

Electricity: 9.85% (damage ignored: up to 42088/second)

Cold: 2.01 (damage ignored: up to 2455/second)

Skills

Cooking: 25

Trap setting and disarming: 19

Archery: 2

Swimming: 250

Breath-holding: 250

Stealth: 250

Life Magic: 250

Mind Magic: 250

Space Magic: 250

Earth Magic: 250

Water Magic: 250

Fire Magic: 250

Air Magic: 250

Light Magic: 250

Dark Magic: 250

Meditation: 250

Hand-to-hand combat: 92

Perception: 166

Necromancy: 250

Blood magic: 250

Ritual magic: 250

Artifact creation: 250

Professions

Herbalist: 2

Fisherman: 16

Tailor: 45

Blacksmith: 250

Carpenter: 250

Abilities

Imp eye

Undecuple consciousness

Demon possession, complete

Gifts

Meeting deferred

The first thing I check to find out is how much health I can restore at a go. Wow, one weak healing gives me 2360. That means that ten streams would give me almost 24000. Victims! I need victims! It’s time to work on my mental resistance.

I’m not allowed to do mass sacrifices anymore, but nobody said anything about just a few for a ritual.

I love working on my mental resistance. There’s no point wasting time on stun spells. Experience shows that spikes work much better. I’m currently taking 22000 damage and healing 24000, though it’s going so slowly. I need more fire! But then it hits me that my skill with the bow isn’t that great, so there’s something to work on. I fire healing arrows to make sure I don’t die from the recoil.

The world around me starts to change. The healing is working on the soil, almost as if it’s alive, and grass, flowers, and other plants start to grow. Two weeks later, there’s a whole grove. Surprisingly, some of the locals stop beating up on each other and come over to my forest, where they sit and relax. Nobody fights. More and more of them show up, though the fights start when they get into arguments about their spots by the trees.

I start heading toward the fortress. Each circle in Hell is smaller than the previous one, and the aura is thicker, too. Because of that, the closer I get to the fortress, the angrier and more annoyed I feel. It’s hard to build my mental resistance. Ultimately, my healing gets up to 176000, and I have a practically unlimited health pool. The important part is to avoid mass sacrifices.

In another two weeks, I’ve created a forest and headed toward the fortress in the fourth circle of Hell under its cover. And here I am. It’s only the trees that calm me down and relax me - the aura is stronger and stronger.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 481100