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

hands. Right then, we came up with a plan to squeeze as much money as we could out of all our enemies. The key was that Femida was prepared to “betray” me and send me off to a closed location in a different dimension from which I wouldn’t be able to return. For a week, she squeezed Leon, the small pantheon, and a bunch of other “philanthropists” who were prepared to donate money if I disappeared. She ended up signing a contract with Leon who would pay her 288 million credits if I was gone from the world for a week. I had to sacrifice my new name from the clinic, and Femida had to make her real name known to the world. During the last week before my trip here, I had at least thirty seeker spirits around me at any one time that I had to completely ignore.

When I headed to the Gray Lands, my track went cold. In two weeks, Femida is supposed to receive 20% of the total amount in the contract, with the rest paid out in equal sums for every month I’m gone. If there were an achievement award in Project Chrysalis for running a racket, Femida would definitely get it. She’s using my poor reputation to squeeze money out of the gods. The gods! The same ones the whole world prays to. And the little trick we played on Bernard was flawless. He’s the only person who definitely knows how to get to the Gray Lands, and Femida buried a red stake in my back that dissolved me right in front of him. It was treachery of the highest order right in front of one of my greatest enemies. I’m going to find Talamei and Miridia, the bastards, and send them back to the Gray Lands. It’s just a shame I won’t be able to kill them.

In a word, I have the world twisted around my little finger. The old and the new gods are sure they’ve gotten rid of me forever; Femida is in good hands; and I’m on the way to my next destination.

I crawl out of the ashes and look myself over. Just like in Hell, my skin has taken on an ashen shade. I’m not wearing any clothes; my inventory is empty. The blood tie rings I wanted to use to find my parents in the Gray Lands are with Femida. It’s just a good thing I still have my tattoos, otherwise things would be really bad.

Here in the Gray Lands, I find that I no longer have access to my source in the astral. The spell that’s supposed to take me there doesn’t work, and neither do my other teleportation spells. Even my leap spell does nothing. All the different chats, news feeds, and other sources of information from the outside world are closed off. Even my inventory sack has reverted to the basic type with twenty slots.

“Attribute window.”

Name: Sagie (Almark)

Level: 2561

Experience: 121560/28313620 (28192060 left until the next level)

Race: Human (demigod [unavailable])

Class: Mage

Basic attributes

Strength: 1467

Agility: 1467

Stamina: 2130

Intellect: 18184

Available attribute points: 0

Additional attributes

Speed: 500

Survivability: 1095

 

Derivative attributes

Physical damage: 733.5 (strength/2, but no less than 1)

Carrying capacity: 3667 kg (strength*10/4)

Overall strength: 36550 (stamina*10+15250 from tattoos)

Mana: 27413 (overall strength*0.75)

Health: 9138 (overall strength*0.25)

Health and mana restoration: 10950/minute (mana*2)

Running speed: 184 km/h (1+speed/10)

Defense: –5

Resistance

Physical damage: 100% (damage ignored: up to 25 million/second)

Poison: 12.60% (damage ignored: up to 47368/second)

Fire: 100% (damage ignored: up to 25 million/second)

Electricity: 100% (damage ignored: up to 25 million/second)

Mental damage: 100% (damage ignored: up to 25 million/second)

Cold: 100% (damage ignored: up to 25 million/second)

 

Skills

Cooking: 284

Trap setting and disarming: 19

Archery: 252

Swimming: 377

Breath-holding: 701

Stealth: 253

Life Magic: 1000

Mind Magic: 288

Space Magic: 660

Land Magic: 401

Water Magic: 303

Fire Magic: 699

Air Magic: 701

Light Magic: 458

Dark Magic: 633

Meditation: 682

Hand-to-hand combat: 122

Perception: 1000

Necromancy: 251

Blood magic: 277

Chimerology: 250

Ritual magic: 288

Artifact creation: 254

Poison-making: 25

Ointment-making: 25

Metal reinforcing: 25

Wood reinforcing: 25

Body enhancement: 612

Swords and daggers: 211

Astral: 42

Magic vision: 48

Item identification: 3

Spell scaling: 711

Magic energy manipulation: 802

Professions

…

Abilities

Imp eye

Undecuple consciousness

One of our own

Shroud of darkness

Friend of the forest

Gifts

Meeting deferred

I have to wonder whether I would be taken to the palace of death if I were to die right now. Just like any living person, I have no desire to meet that bony character. No, I’m not here in the soul world because of his scythe and justice—I’m here to make Hell tremble!

While we were diving to the bottom of the Sea of Madness, I was able to pick up the fourth rank of the herald of the creator achievement, so I got +40 to all my attributes. The mushrooms I was growing were self-contained ecosystems with their own internal microclimate. On the way down, I grew nine of them that apparently became small places of strength. Along with the eight trees in the heart of the Hashan Desert, in the volcano, and on the North Pole, I also picked up the third rank of the life of the saints achievement: +150 to all my attributes. They joined forces with the aegis and otherworldly diver achievements to total +380. That went a long way toward compensating for the loss of my equipment. I wonder if you can make battle underwear.

My magic manipulation skill has progressed faster than my skill for magic scaling, and it could be my ace in the hole when the time comes to fight a stronger opponent. Everything else has just progressed as part of my quest for full resistance to all kinds of damage. I did forget about poison, but that’s not a problem for now.

It’s time to see what’s going on with the local population.

I run straight ahead for about ten minutes. The complete absence of life is driving me crazy, and I start to wonder whether I got myself thrown into an unfinished location. Maybe, it’s a bug. But how do you get out of somewhere that doesn’t exist?

My annoyance grows; the silence gets on my nerves. The cloud of ash raised by my feet falls silently back to earth, almost as if I’m running through a spherical vacuum.

The anger