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

worry, you’re now the only one who can hear what I’m about to say. Thank you! I’m sincerely grateful to you for the challenges you’ve given me: the most complicated seals, tattoos, and ink in the world, hours and whole days of unforgettable work. Any master would consider you sent by the gods, though you’re probably more likely sent by the underworld with a soft spot for craftsmen. Today, I reached the pinnacle of my development as a tattoo artist. My crafting and tattoo artist skills have reached the maximum, and you have no idea how much that means to those of us who are from this world.”

Wow, a local maxed out a skill? That would have unlocked a new ability or spell for him, though the fact that he isn’t a mage must mean it’s the first. What would a local get for that?

“Is that why the tattoo had five effects? Could we redo the rest? That would be well worth the money.”

He shakes his head, looking scarily ghost-like, not to mention displeased, in the clouds of smoke.

“No need.”

I check and see that all my tattoos now have an additional two effects, which means he must have gotten an ability or gift that lets him change what his tattoos do. Huh! He didn’t even have to touch me.

“Bor, what’s with all the secrecy? You can be the richest man in Sural now!”

“Have you ever wondered why there aren’t any craftsmen with maximum skills in the world? Or where they all go?”

The artist’s figure starts glowing a slight silvery color. He continues as he slowly dematerializes.

“Sinners go to Hell, regular people go to the Gray Lands, the righteous go to Heaven. And I just found out where the world’s best masters go.”

The master is starting to evaporate, and I barely have time to ask another question.

“But where?”

“To the best world.” That’s the last thing Bor says, and there’s an enormous smile on his face. His body disappears without trace. All his clothes and the trunk he was putting together are still right where he left them.

If I were an ordinary player, I would be ecstatic after hearing these words. One of the great secrets of the world revealed, though I have to wonder why the archmage stayed here instead of dissolving away like Bor. Maybe, he declined the offer so he could stay with his teacher. But I don’t have time to think about that.

A second later, I’m in the water, a hundred meters away from Bor’s shop, and over the spot where I hide my ink. This is where I stuck the destination for my leap spell. A group of players gathered around the tattoo artist’s shop, and one of them walked in to find it empty. At least, they were there for his services rather than for my head.

The last place I have to go is the auction. After running to the next city over, I buy myself a mana storage made of blood malachite, a copy of the one I got during the quest from the Academy of Magic.

My bone armor attracts quite a bit of attention, though taking it off would reveal my tattoos to everyone around me. I’m forced to cover it up with some rags I found in a trash heap. It’s hot and uncomfortable, and the bone helmet makes me look like a lich.

There’s a magic space eddy ten kilometers away from the city. It takes me to my island in the astral, in the eighth layer, where time ticks by eight times slower.

Standing at the center of the island, I close my eyes and tune in to my senses. That thing in the astral is still watching me, though it isn’t actually doing anything. On the other hand, when I was in Bor’s shop and he cut loose his cloud of smoke, my consciousness instantly switched from emotions to fighting mode. That’s when I felt the creature in the astral instilling emotion in Bor. Euphoria is the strongest of emotions, and it generally lasts for a minute only before it gradually weakens. In Bor’s case, however, he was being given exact doses over the three minutes we talked, enough to keep him in that emotional state. That tells me that the thing in the astral can manipulate public opinion by instilling emotions. I’m a player, and Bor was local, so emotions can be instilled on both sets of characters in Project Chrysalis. What is that thing? And what do you want, my nameless enemy? Saying anything aloud or writing it in the chat would be folly. That thing is too powerful. It could harm me or my loved ones, and all it would take is the desire to do so.

Sagie, there’s a reason why I’m describing this exact moment out of everything that’s happened in the last two and a half years of our life. That thing in the astral is the world’s strongest creature. Neither death, nor the devil, nor all the gods can compare with it, not even if they all joined forces. Never underestimate it or its ability to affect the world around you.

Sitting down in my meditation pose, I press a piece of blood malachite against myself and activate a panacea spell. Then, I turn on my life aura and boost it eleven times. The air fills with the smell of woods, grass, damp moss, and even thunder. Life springs up all around me.

LJ takes up a spot in the back streets of my consciousness. He loves Life Magic and growing forests, so I let him take care of that while I do some reading in the infonet.

I can restore about 612000 mana with my modified mental body and meditation. My life aura takes 100000 a minute, leaving me with 512000. It’s going to take me three and a half hours to fill my mana storage, after which I’ll have to wait for it to grow into my tree and become a part of me.

LJ has been working