Gestation, John Gold [good books for high schoolers .TXT] 📗

open book. “Still, you need to realize that the situation isn’t hopeless. Mama can teach you cooking, and that’s a skill you can use to make simple potions. We have other professions, too: tailor, blacksmith, carpenter, mage. And thirty meters…well, that takes us right down to the lake. We’ll fish from the shore.”

“Thank you.”

Galboa said that solving problems gives you experience and makes solving the next one even easier. The opposite is true, too: run away, and you’ll be weaker the next time. For some reason, the most valuable lessons people can learn are the ones that hurt the most. Pain… Hey, there’s an idea!

“We have the dogs, too,” I say with a smile. Father realizes what I mean.

“That we do.”

Meditation: +1

Mana restoration speed: +2%

∞ ∞ ∞

Oh, and meditation.

You got a debuff: Vow of silence

Effect: You can’t speak or use the internal chat.

Duration: 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds… 58… 57…

∞ ∞ ∞

Father reads the description of the debuff and simply grins. So, he really can read my effect panel.

Then, he comes at me with a horrific combination of blows. The finishing touch is held back at the last moment, but I can tell the difference in everything. What I know about hand-to-hand combat is how to win or defend myself without killing anyone. What father knows is the art of killing. It’s the same ability, just different ways of using it.

Rachel… She comes by twice a day and teases me, telling me that I have put down roots. I like listening to her chatter on about life in the city. I like how she laughs as father tosses me around like a windmill. In the morning, while we’re fishing, she swims in the lake with the guys. It’s nice to know that she’s nearby. Her red, disheveled hair is down to her shoulder blades, and the dress she bought at the fair looks great on her. She’s so beautiful.

Real life is nothing but a series of fights. The collectors tell me I’m disrespecting them by ignoring them when they talk to me.

“What, tiny, you couldn’t stop blathering and kissing ass over at the space port, but talking with us is too much? What if–”

A punch to the Adam’s apple stops that nonsense. The psychologist kept her word; they know I was over in the space port and that I can talk. I’m going to have to cooperate or double down.

The whole week, as soon as I pull myself out of the capsule, I have company looking to “chat.” And every time, the sound system goes off with a significant delay. Vaalsie is purposely ignoring the whole thing. My body is slowly turning into one big bruise, but I always hit back in reply. Now, my attackers walk around with polished faces, and by the end of the week, they’re leaving me alone. All I have to deal with is two more weeks of extended studies.

Five days with your family means a lot to an orphan. In the morning, father goes off to fish, while mama and I walk him out. There’s just a little more than two more days left until astral anchor is lifted. Mama taught me how to cook and sew, and it turns out that sewing with enchanted thread gives the clothes a better bonus. You can make regular clothes more durable that way, too.

Mama watches me cook, correcting me when I make mistakes. When father comes home, we train the dogs or make traps for wild beasts. Then, in the evening, we sit around the fire, and he shows me his carpentry skills.

“Sagie, look. This is a wolf call. It howls when you blow into it, calling the wolves to the hunt. Craftsmen all have a skill, something that makes the items they produce even better. If you got one of these from a master carpenter, you’d be able to summon everything living within five hundred meters of where you are. Masters are better at working with the material. More effective, really. This material is low quality, so this call is only good for one use.”

I look at the tool in his hand with surprise. Father stares into the fire thoughtfully, and then he takes a drink of the thick berry juice in his cup before continuing.

“There’s always a balance between how durable something is and how many times you can use it. To make the right sound, you need to have a lot of stamina, too. Blowing into the wolf call makes it lose half its durability. Of course, that makes sense. What else would you expect from normal wood? It’s a wolf call made out of yew wood. Masters use better-quality materials, and they can even fortify them with magic. They try not to do that though, since you can’t enchant the material once you do.”

Father tells and shows me so much. It turns out that ice takes years to melt on the sun, bones bend, and wood can become stone. He uses a large bone to show me. After washing a special solution off it, he straightens it out, cuts off the end, and makes a stool leg. Out of bone!

“When it dries, it will become hard enough that you can carve something into the surface.”

The craftsman skill gives you big bonuses. To compare, I carved wooden knives, my 1-2 damage against my father’s 20-25. That doesn’t even take into account the +4 bonuses for strength and stamina.

“Here, take this knife. It’ll remind you of your first time working with wood.”

Wooden knife

Knife carved out of a block of yew wood by a skilled master.

Physical damage: 20-25

Durability: 400/400

Strength: +4

Stamina: +4

I don’t have a class, not to mention another level. The knife could as well be legendary! It looks great in my hand, something like a short, one-handed sword. On the other hand, I’m not a warrior, so I don’t get any additional damage for my fighting skills. I do more with my fists.

It’s the final day of my punishment, and we’re