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

“Bernard, you were right—they’re weak. Even all together, they couldn’t kill me. This avatar still has a good half its strength left.”

“Don’t underestimate the wanderers. They may try to outwit you. Don’t be stupid.”

“I hear you, brother. Okay, time for me to go.”

∞ ∞ ∞

The dragon spread his wings again and flew off toward the enemy’s main group. The little attacks mages threw at him did nothing, and Margul was just one of five dragons in the war. The humans couldn’t beat them even with their numerical superiority.

The dragons formed a wedge and swept a firestorm over the enemy army, evening up the sides. Margul himself created a blue sun right above the gods to ensure that they were weakened, but not killed. One of the dragons split off from the group with a message for Leon: they were leaving the alliances due to a serious wound suffered by their leader.

“I’m not going to die at the hand of these weaklings,” Margul said furiously, creating a final spell that blinded everyone on both sides.

∞ ∞ ∞

I was naïve to think that I could take out everyone and everything in this desert.

There’s a hulk that I notice from a kilometer away, though it noticed me from two kilometers away and is dashing toward me. It’s a raid boss, and I happened across where it patrols. Damn mega dungeon! Where are my victims?

Monster, Death Spinner, Level 301, raid boss

Two minutes later, I have three victims lined up to combine our health. The raid boss’ retinue is first to get to me—eight tarantulas, each the size of an aerocar. The only difference is that they’re faster and could eat an aerocar in less than a minute.

Monster, Small Death Tarantula, Level 310

I wasn’t prepared for this, though I do have my shield ready. I’m not worried about poison damage; it’s physical attacks that are making me think twice. But they make their first mistake right at the beginning, charging in a group that’s easy to target with dragon breath. Four of them die outright. The rest keep coming, and I have to take them out with lightning and another dragon breath.

I have another minute left before the raid boss gets to me, and there’s no time left to collect the loot after I heal myself. I need to face him down, and I have a good attack. The important part is surviving the recoil.

“Dwarf hammer!”

Dwarf hammer is a scary spell. Your opponent is squashed by a giant gravitational impulse. It’s like a mouse getting hit with a sledgehammer.

The boss is a monster among monsters. He takes three hits delivered with all my power and keeps coming, the first two just driving his legs deeper into the sand, and the third finally breaking them and crumpling his chitin shell. Four legs still stick out of the sand, while the rest are buried deep inside. A million health and enormous resistance to physical damage is no joke.

It’s just when I walk over to him that I realize how big the spider really is. He could have eaten Cerberus and matched up against the six-armed guard in the eighth circle of Hell. That thing is the size of a small shuttle! It’s a good thing my last hammer strike took him out, otherwise I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. My mana is almost gone, and my health is in the red.

Oo-ooh, wait a second! If things like that are what I get from this kind of monster, I’m more than happy to have them keep coming. Everything is epic and legendary, although I obviously can’t use any of it. But if I can identify and sell it, I’ll walk away with a pretty penny.

It’s like the spider gobbled up a bunch of ancient heroes and then came around wondering who to give the loot to.

I’m going to stay here for now. First, I need to make new clothes, and second, I need to eliminate the mental damage I’m taking.

Mental damage is brutal. I haven’t fought other players, and they can blind me, stun me, paralyze me, take control of me, possess my body, and influence my mind. That’s the worst thing I can imagine. What could be tougher to deal with than your own body betraying you? Fire and physical damage is fine, and I’m working on poison. This desert is the only place in the world with the kind of aura I’m looking for. I’ll go to the very center if that’s what it takes to handle the issue.

There are four kinds of armor in Project Chrysalis: cloth, leather, chainmail, and plate. Mages only use cloth armor. Thieves, assassins, and archers use both cloth and leather armor. Marauders and crossbowmen add chainmail to their selection, while warriors generally tend to use heavy plate armor. They do occasionally go with other types, though. They can wear a cloth outfit, put chainmail over it, and top that off with plate armor. All of the defense attributes add up, though only what you’re wearing on top gives you added effects. If I wear armor, I’ll get a penalty for using it without a skill. Wearing armor is a main class ability. Anyway, of the four types, I can only use cloth armor.

I can make items for my neck, head, wrists, chest, ears, legs, feet, and hands, as well as a cloak or cape. Pauldrons only come in plate armor. I’ve never heard of implants though, which is why I asked the master healer at the Sural arena about it. It turns out that mages and warriors can both change their body to meet the needs of their specialty.

Over the course of the day, I make a new altar and start to think about where I’m going to develop in the future. I don’t have any restrictions on using monsters to create items, so I can make whatever I want. I just have to make sure nobody notices