Limitless, John Gold [best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

of items you aren’t allowed to carry around with you. There are two more buried at the bottom of my well.

I put together a new altar, draw the runes, and get back to working on my ritual magic. At the same time, I’m developing my Mind and Dark Magic. The rituals I’m performing enable me to summon almost any kind of spirit out of the astral, while I can also leverage my astral skill to head over into the second layer. The creatures there are all between Level 2000 and Level 3000.

The rituals are strong enough to do more than summon spirits; they can materialize them, too. The first time I summon a Level-2700 spirit from the astral, it comes at me immediately. Like the dean of the Mind Magic department said, the summoner is attacked when their level is lower. And I was clever enough to summon a raid boss.

The experience turns out to be incredibly interesting and even mysterious. I do get experience for killing local and raid bosses; I don’t get experience for killing regular creatures. There isn’t any loot either, though I don’t really need it. I’m here to level-up.

One day, I have a terrifying idea that will take a lot of work. I’d do even more, however, for the kind of incredible experiment I have in mind.

My new method of boosting magic skills by leveraging ritual magic pays off handsomely.

Mind Magic +1

Your Mind Magic skill reached the maximum value

New spell: Materializer

Any mind mage devoted to Mind Magic knows that its pinnacle is the ability to raise the spirits of the dead.

Effect: Lets you create a spirit’s material body if it used to exist, resurrecting the spirit in the process

Cost: 100000 mana

Recharge time: 24 hours

If my family is here in spirit form, I have the chance of resurrecting them and finding a way to the outside world. Just a little more, and I’ll be able to touch them, hear mama’s voice, and listen to father’s praise. How is Rosie doing? Oh, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts… I put the pain aside and resolve to find them and get them out of this place.

The mage at the academy was right, the tenth layer in the astral is blocked. But I can feel that the thing is there, with the kind of power that makes the spirits in the ninth layer stay away from the border.

I’m able to get my Mind Magic up in just three weeks using ritual magic. I start by strengthening and scaling a spell, and I finish by amplifying it still further with a ritual. Obviously, everything is at the maximum level, so the spirits I summon are all raid bosses between Level 3500 and Level 4000. But I have a big advantage in the ritual magic that makes all my spells even more powerful. As soon as they appear and are highlighted as hostile, I hit them with my strongest spells. Light spears expanded to the size of huge pipes can kill anyone with just one or two hits. The base damage jumps up by a factor of seventy, easily reaching the 50 million maximum. Occasionally, however, I come across raid bosses with ten-figure health pools, and they can be awfully tricky to kill. I run out of victims, my mana dries up, and I dash over to my tree, fighting off spells as I go. The fun ends when I reach the eleven-figure oceans of health and mana that I have access to under the tree.

There are twenty altars smelling of blood and emanating the magic of death down at the bottom of the mine. Crying and voices can always be heard coming from the dark mouth, and once, I even hear my parents’ voices. Thankfully, they die out after I bury them twenty meters deep. That’s apparently what can happen when you spend too much time communing with death.

That was a kind of warning, but I’ve ignored it and don’t regret it in the least.

For days on end, I practice ritual magic, summoning and killing spirits. Most of them are killed with lightning or other Air Magic spells, and so it hits the maximum a day before my ritual magic does.

Air Magic +1

Your Air Magic skill reached the maximum value

New spell: Tornado personified

Air mages who spend a long time alone know that the wind has its own mind and modest will. Storms, cyclone, tornadoes, and hurricanes, all have their own personal embodiment. Those who know this are just beginning their journey along the path of the true air mage.

Effect: Lets you summon a tornado and embody its spirit for one minute. The personification will attack all the opponents of the mage who summoned it.

Cost: 100000 mana

Recharge time: 24 hours

Of course, I give my new spell a try the minute I get it. The fog is swept away into the funnel, and the whole thing starts to thicken. Lightning flashes, creating something that looks like an electric cocoon with two rage-filled eyes peeping out. I find myself so mesmerized and afraid that I relax and let four of my opponents surround me. But then, the tornado takes on the form of an enormous giant, hurling bolts of lightning at them with a war whoop so loud I get a deafening debuff, and the remains of the maximum charges land very close to me. Ripples run up and down my body with every roar coming from the living tornado. But the lightning bolts keep coming, and I catch charge after charge, curled up on the ground, as my enemies keep respawning. Finally, a minute later, the nightmare ends, leaving me grinning like an idiot. That was incredible! And I’m just at Level 2677. I can’t imagine what it will be like when I’m at the apex of my strength.

The next day, ritual magic hits the ceiling.

Ritual magic +1

Your ritual magic skill reached the maximum value

The point of ritual magic is to intensify effects and spells. The pinnacle of its mastery is the