Gestation
Page 15
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 (ignored: 322676)
363706/522130
Resistance to mental damage: +0.01%
Mental damage ignored: up to 333878/second
I push the limit, restoring 59000 health. It’s such a shame that I can’t boost the amount of health I can heal. For that, I would need to increase my intellect, and I can’t do that. What if I create a cloak or a ring instead of a bow? I really want to give it a try, but I can’t.
I don’t have any scrolls, and none of the creatures I kill gives me a single potion. I can probably make them, though. Mama told me that potion-making is one avenue of cooking, so I should give that a try. The aura is really getting to me. I need a break. That will give me the chance to grow the forest thicker, too.
I go back to shooting at the ground.
Father…I miss you. I wonder how he and mama are doing.
First, I work on the forest, then I make wild strawberries. What can maxed-out healing spells do when they hit fertile soil? I now know the answer to that question. There are enormous trees spreading out for a kilometer in every direction, and I guess that the druids are going to start praying to me. After all, I can grow a forest in Hell.
I have neither flasks nor the ability to make them, though I really want to work on my cooking. But I bet that the psychologist won’t exactly give me a pat on the head if I start to cook and eat the locals. There isn’t anything else beside humans here! My only option is to make broths using roots and local herbs. Then, I have a crazy idea that I decide to try out.
I make a lake. Yes, I really am crazy! I just about die from the recoil of the magic, notwithstanding the health pool that ritual magic has given me.
My experience with the mountain has stuck with me, back when the light exploded, highly concentrated in a single point. I use that to create a pit before shooting Water Magic into it. Then, I melt the ice, and it’s only at that point that I add life. After three hours of shooting maximally charged Life Magic at the lake, I realize that it’s madness.
There are fish in the lake! Mama, I’m going to make fish soup! Using an astral bow is practically cheating. On the other hand, who else could use it?
The next month is peaceful as I work on my fisherman skills. I really hope I can go fishing with father again. Hell, the forest, the lake, fishing…and peace. I spend all my free time working on my shooting, fishing, and cooking.
The forest turns out beautifully. Animals even start to show up. Little ones at first, and then larger ones. Bots start to visit the shadow of the trees. I have a feeling that the misers and profligates who show up are going to turn into new Hell elves. Their contemplative nature is perfect.
I spend the whole month looking for recipes that will boost my intellect. The only option is to try the potions, seasonings, and ingredients on myself. As it turns out, you can even use your own blood to cook with. I try bark, wood, roots, leaves, fruit, herbs, minerals, animal organs, bones…everything. So many patterns reveal themselves as I first try all the ingredients and see what kind of effect they have. Then, I combine them, everything together first, and then in a particular order. It’s at that point that I figure out a rule: you start by boiling bones. When the broth takes on their qualities, you add the next ingredient the same way. If you boil the mixture for too long, you lose the effect. Different ingredients take different times to cook, so you have to keep everything in mind: time, temperature, and order.
Great intellect potion
A potion-brewing master made this potion. It boosts intellect by 20 for 30 minutes.
Effect:
Intellect +20
Duration:
30 minutes
Hm, that’s not much. What if I let it boil for a while longer to steam off some of the liquid?
Concentrated intellect potion
; A potion-brewing master made this potion. It boosts intellect by 50 for 45 minutes.
Effect:
Intellect +50
Duration:
45 minutes
Still, that’s not it. To start off with, I use my own blood to avoid level limitations and make sure the effect isn’t cut. I boil the mixture in clay pots. To sum up what I’ve learned, all the elements of the potion affect the brain, mostly stimulating it. But I need a catalyst to intensify the effect. For humans, that’s the balance of salt in the body, so I need oxidizing minerals.
I end up doing some digging, tearing down mountains in search of salt deposits. One mountain smells like the real deal, making my nose twitch, and the aroma is especially coming from one small crevice. I raze the mountain, making a pit where it used to be. Blood malachite and moon quartz! I decide to go deeper to see what else I can find. There’s a round deposit of some kind of salt I can’t identify - perfect.
Salt does, indeed, turn out to be the key. The malachite and quartz crumble in my hands to melt beautifully in a pot full of blood. The malachite melts instantly, turning into blood, while the quartz salt takes much longer. Still, what a result!
Quintessential intellect potion
The master who brewed this potion was a genius. It gives you 30 intellect permanently.
Effect:
Intellect +30
Duration:
Permanent
It’s just a shame that I don’t have a craftsman skill. If I did, I could get much more. As it is, my well-developed potion-brewing skill gives me +200% on the effect of the potions I brew. I can’t find any more salt, though, no matter how many days I spend leveling mountains. The malachite does some good, at least. I settle for that.
Superior intellect spell
A potion-brewing master made this potion. It boosts your intellect by 100 for one hour.
Effect:
Intellect +100
Duration:
1 hour
My inventory is full to overflowing, but I don’t even notice the overload. I pretty much always have a load that’s just 10% from the maximum. Lots of the things I picked up in the other circles went to boosting my sewing, and it took me just three weeks to get my carpenter profession to 250. I need to sew myself a new bag now. It’s so nice not having to carry it around with me - technically. It hangs in the air, completely invisible. If I want, I can grab it or make it visible.
But for that, I had to risk a ritual sacrifice. I needed a really big bag, and the ones you normally make just don’t cut it. Blood magic and ritual magic are the only things that help.
I changed the seal again, wondering if that would have any effect on the item I’m creating. A hundred and eight victims fit in a four-level pentagram, and I decided to go with mages.
Dirac spatial bag
A great artifact mage decided to make an entire laboratory in his bag. He went missing, but the bag is still with us.
Effect: 100 item slots. Identical items can be combined in one slot, and each slot is a dimensionless shelf.
Requirement: Scalable item
Durability: Indestructible, with damage to it taken out of the owner’s health
∞ ∞ ∞
What’s a week of punishment in comparison with picking up something like that? Nothing! I can carry a metric ton around, and I don’t have the normal restrictions on how many items I can have in one slot. Of course, I decide not to push my luck and earn the next punishment, which I’m told will be an entire month. But I so want to…
I kind of got hung up in this circle of Hell. It’s been twelve months in the game for me, and four and a half of them have been spent here. I turned thirteen. It’s going to be another two months, and that’s no good.
It’s like rage gives me power. Yes! The fortress is in sight, and the mental damage I’m taking is skyrocketing. Everybody’s always fighting, and I can barely get around with all the bodies on the ground.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 801100 (ignored: 333878)
363226/780130
Resistance to mental damage: +0.01%
Mental damage ignored up to 334771/second
I can heal a whole 89000 health every second. It’s a madhouse all around me though, and I’m feeling so aggressive that I just want to kill everyone. Meditation is all that helps me get through the outbursts of rage. I know how I’m going to get even with that crystal on top of the fortress. I’m going to steal it! After cutting down the island, I grab the diamond. What’s a beauty like that doing up in the sky anyway? It won’t do any more damage in the area, but I can definitely use it to store mana.
A month! This really is Hell. The only way I’m able to make it through is by focusing on how much I want that crystal. Finally, I’m standing under the walls of the fortress, taking aim at my target. Just in case, I boosted the number of victims I sacrificed to get my health to two million. Fire! The island is reduced to rubble, though the gem isn’t harmed. The same isn’t true for me though: the recoil takes off a million and a half health.
Scattered rock is all that’s left of the island, and the crystal, whole and intact, comes flying toward me. The damage from the aura is gone.
Fly to me, my precious!
I dig down into the ground up to my knees, and that’s with my demon appearance! Then, I have to break the artifact into eight pieces so I can get it into my bag. Finally, I turn to the fortress.
It turns out to be abandoned. There’s nothing and nobody inside, just bare stone walls.
On the other side, there’s an enormous hole. That’s where I’m going! Climbing down would be silly, so I just leap in.
∞ ∞ ∞
Current location: Fifth Circle of Hell. Stygian swamps.
Crossing
What do you think when you see a river enshrouded in murky darkness? Do you want to go for a drink, dive in, or try some fishing? Well, the name of this one, the Styx, practically screams at me to try drinking from it. I find myself on a small island. On the one side, there’s darkness, on the other, the river. I look for a dock, figuring that the guard will be coming that way in a boat. I’m exactly right.
Stygian Brigand, Flegius, Level 450
He’s a guy wearing a gray chlamys and holding a large oar.
By the time he gets there, I’ve figured out that I can step into the river. I completely ignore the 500000 mental damage, and the souls that brush against my body just tickle. It’s a deep river, which I use to my advantage.
When Flegius gets to about thirty meters from the bank, I jump in. I’m in my demon appearance, and I’m completely strengthened. I’m also great at my zigzag jumps.
“Pay the toll” is all he has time to say. My blow is terrible, landing with my knee just as he tries to use a fist. We both topple into the water with a splash.
I’m not sure if he’s ever had anyone fight back like me, but nobody’s going to be giving me a second chance. I dolphin-kick over to him and grab him by the leg.
I can go without oxygen for four and a half minutes, which is what I’m counting on. It works. As the second minute ticks away, Flegius starts flailing and gulping water. He jerks, trying to break free, though I keep pulling him down to the bottom. My demonic appearance in the river of souls is far more terrifying than the old boatman. I’m using every advantage I can to beat what is a powerful enemy. Finally, I’m successful.
The loot I get from him is…a ticket.
Ticket
Gives one soul the right to cross the Styx River in Flegius’ boat.
∞ ∞ ∞
He’s even mocking me in death! I couldn’t care less about his river.
As I step out onto the bank, I pull out my map. I got across the Styx, but now I’m in the Stygian swamps. This circle is much smaller than the last one, so I should be able to get to the next hole in less than a day if I run as fast as I can.
Unfortunately, I overestimated myself. Running across the swamp, which has bodies instead of a bot
tom, is really hard, especially as there are people fighting everywhere. As soon as one battle finishes, the next one starts. New fighters pop up right out of the swamp, going on and on forever. I can’t feel a particular aura of rage, just a wild fire of anger and fury. If the shroud were right next to me, I would say that Lord Rage was right on the other side of it. I’m wrong again though: he’s everywhere, he’s the darkness swimming right in the water. I look closer, and the darkness looks back at me with blood-red eyes.
I run without thinking of anything. Brigands slaughter the fighting sinners, and I surge by them with large leaps. I do have to change my running style. I wish I could run across water. That probably has something to do with telekinesis and requires energy every second.
The closer I get to the center of the circle, the stronger I feel the swamp pulling me in. The drowned people lying on the bottom grab at my legs, making it harder for me to run. I fall, get up, and keep running. Rain starts falling, cries ring out from the fights going on all around me, and a fog spreads across the swamp. Visibility drops to two meters. I have to change something.
I need to find a way through the swamp that doesn’t have bodies getting in my way, and I have to be able to see where I’m going. An arrow fired with weak healing creates an impassable forest. I need something else…and this is going to be fun! Awful, very awful, but fun.
I grow out the forest even more. It takes me three days until I get the size I’m looking for. I need a large, dry space. So, I create it under the roots of one of the gigantic trees. There, I get to work using necro-chimerology. It’s a shame I’m not allowed to make sacrifices, though nobody said anything about chimerology or necromancy. The emanations of death are a great source of energy, even if they are tricky to work with.
For four weeks, I work, and I start to look crazed. Even back in the orphanage cafeteria, my smile kind of terrifies the other kids. It looks like what I’m doing in Project Chrysalis is starting to affect who I really am. But it’s so much fun creating dead creatures, flesh terrors, bone hounds, ghouls, zombies, and other spawn of necromancy. What do I feel when I give dead flesh a semblance of life? Happiness, and the power of the creator. They don’t talk, but I feel each of them. They bow to me thanks to my blood magic.