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

the orphanage. That misstep had led to his complete refusal to work with her, and now the boy was closing up and turning off his audio channel.

“Moro, play the audio back and show me how the boy reacted to everything I said.”

From the recording, she could see that Anji’s face twitched for just a second when she said “that’s why.” The system registered his expression as a disgusted grimace.

“Ah-ha, so you feel hurt when it comes to your principles and values,” Eliza said with a triumphant smile.

∞ ∞ ∞

Well, that’s news. Although, I can’t help thinking the diagnosis is wrong. The overload is probably just something to do with my nerves. I’m having a hard time controlling my flow of thoughts, both in and out of the game. That means I need to read about it, otherwise I’ll kill myself without even trying.

I’m pretty sure I know how to stay relaxed over the coming two weeks. To work on my smithing, and smithing skills in particular, I need metal. For that, I need lots of ore. Time to get to work. It’s back into the sweet embrace of darkness for me.

My conversation with Claude is short but productive.

∞ ∞ ∞

You can learn the miner profession.

You learned the miner profession.

Miner: +1

Chances of discovering mineral deposits: +1%

∞ ∞ ∞

“Claude, for a few reasons, I need to spend the next two weeks in the dark. I’d like to spend that time mining ore.”

“Two weeks? You’ll go crazy by yourself!” The blacksmith throws his arms up.

“Believe me, two weeks is nothing. I’ll be busy, too.”

“Ah-h, you’re always like that. Is there anything you aren’t afraid of?”

“Sure, a terrifying old lady and her grandchildren.”

“What old lady? Did you do something to her?”

“Wearing a black hood and holding a scythe. I ran away from her, but she kept inviting me to visit. It didn’t go well.”

I walked off toward the mine, leaving Claude’s shocked expression behind me. He didn’t see my insidious smile, however. A little thing, but fun.

Off I went into the darkness. There were lots of reasons for this, for example, since your brain takes in most information from your eyes, darkness helps lessen the load placed on it. I don’t plan on using magic, though nobody said anything about meditating. The most important thing right now is to learn how to control my consciousness. After all, another attack like that could kill me.

It turned out to be even better than mediation. Each strike of my pick was a touch that let me feel the space around me, with my imp eye ability drawing a picture based on the echoes. They say that the darkness starts staring into you if you spend too much time staring into it, but that’s not how it is for me. I start to sense it. My whole being works in perfect harmony, analyzing what my body is doing, the strength of my swings, the sounds around me. I empower myself with every hit, finally perfecting my ability to control my body. Working in complete darkness like this is so relaxing! My hands are getting the chance to work in place of my head.

Two weeks pass, and I get a message.

New ability: Shroud of darkness

You’ve spent so much time in the dark that you’re starting to think of it as part of you. You have the ability to clothe your body in a shroud of absolute darkness.

∞ ∞ ∞

If you think about it, my aura is just starting to consume the light. I look absolutely dark, and it’s a great ability. I’m a full-fledged night hunter now.

When my treatment finishes and I get back to the orphanage, the first thing I do is fall asleep. I sleep for hours, only waking up to get some food before going back to sleep. There’s no pain, no stress, no blood. I’m feeling great and ready to work.

Back in the game, I leave the mine. Aromas fill the air: the forest, the sea water, food being cooked, hot metal. I run over to the sea, looking to jump and feel each muscle clenching, each cell working.

I swim all day, checking to make sure I can still control all my streams of consciousness. Actually, it’s even better. Using them now doesn’t tax me as much. I head back to the blacksmith’s in the afternoon.

Quartz sand is one of the most valuable materials I found in the mine. We use some to make glass, since I don’t have anywhere to hold the potions I make. I was using acorns instead of tubes. Clarissa barely had enough for herself, I didn’t have many of my own, and they weren’t sold in the village.

For a week, I work in the smithy, reinforcing metal under Claude’s instruction. I find out that you can reforge metal to add layers and make it stronger. You can also temper it in special structures that add different things to them. I’m no blacksmith, and I’m not planning on developing that area, so I just focus on processing metal. Five days later, I pull it off.

Skill learned: Metal reinforcing

Metal reinforcing: +1

Effect on reinforced metal: +1% durability

Everything’s set up so cleverly in Project Chrysalis. To start with, there are real parallels for reinforcing metal by tempering it in special constructions. Every different kind of metal has the temperature it melts at, and you can wreck the constructions if you use them for the wrong kind. And who prepares the treatment for the metal? Clarissa, using her potion-brewing skill. That means that I get her recipe.

There are about two weeks left until the ship gets here, and I still want to learn how to reinforce wood. If the book is accurate, you use a special treatment. They haven’t invented things like compression, so you have to figure out which treatment to use for which kind of wood, otherwise it’ll have the opposite effect. Everything having to do with processing metal and wood, really, works with the thermal and chemical properties of the material. I get what I’ve been waiting