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

I still remember the smell of father’s tobacco and the taste of mama’s cooking. I even feel thankful to Rachel and Bernard for sending me here. Eliza was right: my karma in the project would have dropped drastically after what I’ve done, only there are no gods here to curse me. There’s only me, the sinners, and the devil. My abilities have grown in leaps and bounds, I’ve been able to drive far past what I used to be limited to, and I have my skills, my magic, my forbidden arts… I’ve well surpassed even my own expectations. That wouldn’t have happened in the regular project lands. There aren’t places there that do the same continual physical damage as the auras in Hell. There are only a few places where there are monsters above Level 1000, too. I’ve covered all the weaknesses I brought with me from that world, though I lost what was most important to me: my parents and friends.

As soon as I log into the game, I decide to look at what I was able to make. I pull the sword out of my right palm with my left hand.

The weapon doesn’t have a guard. It’s a bone blade with a small hilt. I can infuse it with magic, turning it a cold white color, and a mere wish is all it takes for the built-up energy to fly out in a shock wave that works like any other blade. Fire, darkness, light - the energy can take any form. The only problem is that I can’t use the sword to heal. That makes sense though, as does the fact that the strike can’t take the physical form of water or earth. It’s basically the bow, just without the recoil issue.

My astral double was able to hew the island in half, though all I can cut into is a root. Of course, it is three meters across. My double is probably really high-level, so he could have killed me with one blow if he hadn’t been busy with his tomfoolery. Or was that just a warning? Either way, I’m better off not facing certain death in the astral anymore.

They told me I couldn’t do any more of those rituals, though I’ll bet they won’t punish me for creating a bone hound. It ends up being seven meters tall, made to look like Cerberus, and it bounds across the swamp until it gets to the hole and dives in with me.

∞ ∞ ∞

Current location: Sixth Circle of Hell. Graveyard of the City of Dis.

Fields of Ash

Sadly, the dog doesn’t make it through with me. I’m by myself. But this is what people think of when they think of hell. Everything around me is burning, even the earth. If I hadn’t built up the amount of damage I can ignore back in the first circle, I’d have died the second I got here.

∞ ∞ ∞

Damage taken: 50000 (ignored: 280515)

22560/22560

And this is the periphery! I can’t imagine what it must be like in the center. Oh, and there’s the guard. He isn’t alone, however. There are three figures, each of which reminds me of Miss Donovan.

Unfortunately for them, they turn their back on me. I’m not about to play fair with three opponents at Level 550.

I climb into one of the graves, where I find that the fire damage is much higher, reaching 150000. That’s okay though, since I need a second to prepare for my shot.

Even though I give it the maximum charge, I only kill one of them. The other two are stunned, and I kill them with ordinary spells. There was no way I was going to be able to pull off a second shot with the bow, and I wasn’t about to die by making a stupid mistake like that.

I get two rings and earrings from them.

This circle is very different to the others. The sinners here are constantly being tormented by fire coming right from their graves. They die and are reborn over and over again.

I’m drenched in sweat, notwithstanding my advanced resistance to fire. The local furies are Level 400, and I have to collect victims one by one for my combined health ritual.

I walk up to the walls of the City of Dis. They tower above me at the very center of the circle, and the intense heat means I can only use demons. The local sinners die frequently too.

Experience is a beautiful thing. I’m able to boost my fire resistance and get to the next hole in just two weeks. Taking 500000 fire damage starts to feel normal, even if it’s still hard to breath.

The hole is right next to the city, on the other side. I jump in, and that’s when the fun starts.

I’m dropped right into a pool of boiling blood. Can’t see a thing! When I break the surface, centaurs start shooting arrows at me.

That turns out to be a big mistake. One dolphin kick, and I’m flying out of the water and at one of them. He wasn’t expecting that kind of agility from a sinner, and he definitely wasn’t expecting a charged sword.

I take him out with one sweep of my sword, hurl destruction spikes at the second, and then tackle the third straight into a ditch.

I get a bow and some arrows in with the loot.

Then, I check out my mini map.

∞ ∞ ∞

Current location: Seventh Circle of Hell. First Belt. Phlegethon.

Pits of Boiling Blood

Ooh, this is brutal! There are guards at every turn, three of them, in fact. Whatever, time for a bath, a bath of blood.

Back in the Middle Ages, on Earth, there was a countess who bathed in blood. She has to be somewhere around here. It isn’t bad, regardless, and I even find it kind of relaxing thanks to my 550000 resistance to all kinds of thermal damage. It’s thick and warm… I’m almost overcome with the feeling, having long since become accustomed to hearing screams all around me.

I find the exit to the next