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

energy. Ritual magic and blood magic both help me boost the effect I get from the potions. The tens of tons of blood are poured over the roots of the tree in an offering of free energy. By the time my second month of brewing potions rolls around, it’s already a middle place of strength.

It’s been three months here in the Gray Lands, and today I finally reached my goal.

Cooking +1

Your cooking skill has reached the maximum value

New ability: Gourmet

Once a day, you can make a maximum-difficulty meal that permanently boosts one attribute by 50 points. Gourmets pour all their emotions into their dishes, which results in delectable delights at the cost of 20 levels.

Limit: The same attribute cannot be boosted twice by the same person.

Give me two! I get half what I’m given, but levels are easier to pick up than attribute boosts. I think I understand why there aren’t many high-level cooks in the world.

The rest of the day is spent collecting my most valuable ingredients and cooking some special dishes. Right at the end, I pick up a plate and activate my new gourmet ability. The menu that pops up lets me choose the attribute I want to improve. The unique evening is just for me and my food—torches burn forlornly at the edges of my table. There are four place settings, but I’m the only one there eating the goulash soup with hints of cumin. The thick meat sauce features slices of a root I don’t know. Instead of tea, I enjoy a nonalcoholic liqueur made of forest berries—everything is beautiful and elegant. If only I weren’t so completely alone for the fourth month in a row. It hurts…my heart hurts…

For the whole next week, I make myself delicious food once a day, enjoying every bite. My maxed-out perception turned out to be the key factor as I progressed my cooking, and it even lets me savor everything I eat.

I’m collecting salt, which controls how long the potions last and how strong their effect is. I’m now able to use up to ten ingredients and the same number of salts at the same time. That’s one plank in the platform I’m going to use to defeat opponents several times stronger than me in levels.

Despite the problems I’ve had brewing potions with permanent effects, I give them another try.

Quintessential intellect potion

The master who brewed this potion was a genius, as it gives your intellect a permanent 30-point boost.

Effect: Intellect +30

Duration: Permanent

After that, I make four potions for other attributes. It’s possible that the admins will strip me of their effects after the trial, but they’re still a big advantage in the here and now. I found the mysterious grains of salt that make temporary potions permanent in the roots of a plant fertilized by the copious bloody flows coming from my experiments. Of course, the “grains” weigh twenty-two kilograms.

I finally get what it needs to grow: an enormous quantity of blood. After being processed by the plants, it settles in the soil as salt deposits. Project Chrysalis does nothing if not surprise.

After making a few temporary solutions for intellect and mana, I can’t wait to do more. I need more advantages!

This whole time, I’ve been diligently growing the tree, and I’m not even really sure how tall it is at this point. I’m actually scared to climb it. If I fall and kill myself, I’ll lose my account, after all. Even my seven-figure health wouldn’t save me. Plus, there’s still the possibility of taking a deadly hit that chops off my head or does triple damage to my heart.

It’s time to make myself some armor and other equipment. There’s hardly any metal around, and what little I had went toward making the cauldron that I’m not planning on smelting back down. Bones! Bone armor and jewelry become the core of my outfit. Father gave me plenty of lessons, and I learned everything, which means that now I can leverage every little bit he taught me to give myself the best chance of survival. There aren’t any animals in my forest larger than bobcats, so their bones are the ones I use. Father showed me how to soften and mold them. I figure out on my own how to reinforce them—it’s blood magic to the rescue yet again.

Using the same method I once used to reinforce wood and metals, I’m able to make comfortable armor. Find me a necromancer who wouldn’t be green with envy if he could see me! I end up with evil wood spirit armor.

Evil wood spirit greaves

In Crazyman’s Forest, there lived a strange forester who collected the bones of the animals he killed. Years went by, and he decided to commemorate their memory by creating unique armor out of their bones. But the forester died the second he put his armor on. The souls of the deceased animals tore into his mental body, assimilating his soul into the armor.

Effect:

Stamina +494

Intellect +494

Survivability +494

Requirement: Scalable item

Durability: Indestructable, with damage to it taken out of the owner’s health

The helmet, breastplate, belt, and gauntlets finish off the kit. In all, it’s five items that all offer identical effects, though they don’t give me a set effect. Judging by the kit, what I’ve done has been written in letters of blood through the annals of this world.

I remember Fem telling me that making items like this was dangerous, but I’m prepared to risk everything for a shot at emerging victorious. I use the bodies of Ownie, Grunt, and the two hirelings to make the scalable equipment. That’s also a good chance to double-check that their respawn time is determined by the rage I’m feeling.

The jewelry is much simpler.

Bobcat lord ring

According to legend, the king of all the world’s bobcats lived in Crazyman’s Forest. Just catching a glimpse of a human was enough for him to creep up on his prey, turn into a bobcat, and pounce.

Effect:

Stamina +494

Survivability +494

Requirement: Scalable item

Durability: Indestructable, with damage to it taken out of