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

and everyone likes them. You can’t heal serious or critical injuries immediately. Thieves get their hands chopped off and their bodies thrust onto stakes. Anyone suspected of taking bribes is interrogated using magic that can influence your consciousness, and never ask how to get the marauder class. You’ll be killed on the spot just for asking.

Rabbits can ambush you, witches can poison and eat you. The gods there are real, and wiping whole cities off the face of the earth is nothing to them. The wolves hunt in packs; werewolves come out at night to mate. If you die, you lose your money and everything you’re wearing. Everything remains on your dead body. You can only get realistic loot from bodies, so you’ll never pick up a sword, helmet, or potion from a wolf you killed. All you can get are what you’d normally get: meat, the hide, and the tendons. There are deposits of mithril in the most remote mines, though everyone is equal when it comes to collecting it—there aren’t any special skills.

The dwarves have a banking system, there are civilized cities, and you’ll even find teleports and airships. Levitation takes an enormous amount of strength, so there aren’t any flying mages. There are, on the other hand, ancient monsters, abandoned underground cities, and the ruins of ancient civilizations. Actual demons feed on the souls, bodies, and blood of their victims. There aren’t any angels. There are dwarves, elves, orcs, ogres, goblins, and lots of other small peoples.

Third-order worlds only go up to Level 1000, and skills range from 1 to 100. When you create a character, it has to be the same gender as you, though that doesn’t apply to hermaphrodites. You can do unlimited amounts of damage. There’s no resistance scale—it’s different from one situation to another. For example, stone golems are immune to lightning, though you can hit them with stronger bolts and split the rock in keeping with the laws of physics. You can douse them in water and hit them with a modest charge to burn their control loop. And you can tear out their mana storage if you have enough strength. It’s a highly variable world where the end result depends on how you use your skills. That’s why mastery is more important than your level.

Once you get to Level 1000, you can go through the Valley of Wanderers and cross Six Giants Plateau. The local monsters won’t attack you at that point. At the middle of the plateau, there’s another interworldly portal that will take you to the Crossroads of the Worlds, a third-order world where you won’t have to start over. That’s where you’ll meet other civilizations. And that’s when the game will really start! Good luck, dearest humanity. This is the last we’ll be seeing of each other!”

Akashi’s group leaped down from the cube and dove into the portal. The representatives of the other civilizations in the alliance followed suit. The welcoming ceremony was complete.

This was mankind’s greatest moment. They had won access to Talzeur.

∞ ∞ ∞

Figiraldina Elmaro, or Femida as she was known in Project Chrysalis, headed over to Papilio. All her equipment stayed in the interworld along with her old body and the sword Sagie had given her. Fiji knew that would happen, but she still felt defenseless without all the metal. In this world, she played with a short, one-handed sword, also using melee and grappling moves—yet another facet of her well-honed mastery.

The interface pinged to let her know she had a new message. Could it be Sagie?

Come to Antiquity Café. First sector in the Plezara residential district—table in your name.

The sender didn’t leave their name, and that meant Fiji’s benefactor was up to his old tricks again. She had a feeling she knew what he was going to say.

After logging out of the game, grabbing breakfast, and kissing Roni goodbye, she set out for the spot. She’d never once left her house in all her twenty-three years—she could only live without her med capsule for twelve hours. After that, her brain overloaded, she lost consciousness, and she fell into something like a coma if she wasn’t immersed in the medical solution. However, that ailment disappeared completely when she went from Project Chrysalis to Papilio.

A courteous waiter led her to a private table. Fiji’s favorite food was already there waiting for her—the benefactor definitely knew where her grandfather lived and what he liked. But he wasn’t there yet. There were about forty people in the room, though they all got up and left as soon as she started eating. The only one who remained looked to be less than twenty. He had dark skin and hair, brown eyes, and a strong, confident stride. His body was trim, he was wearing the perfect outfit, and his manners were flawless.

“I apologize for the rigmarole, but there was no other way. You never know where the next hit is going to come from.”

Fiji knew him! At least, nobody knew him, though Fiji had heard about him and his achievements a hundred times over.

“I never would have thought that my grandfather, Miguel Elmaro, would look five years younger than me.”

Miguel smiled as a father might smile at a daughter.

“I’m happy you’re so smart. Of all my ninety-seven descendants, your talent is the most vividly expressed. Or, perhaps better, the will to develop your talent. Your father told me that you declined an offer to work in the strategic planning office, and that you were too busy focusing exclusively on Project Chrysalis and your mastery there to help him with even the simplest of advice. Bravo! You’re the only one in my family who stands a chance of exceed me as a guide.”

Fiji smiled, not sure how to hide her happiness. It was the founder of the Elmaro family, Miguel Elmaro, one of the three representatives of humankind, who was able to reach a second-order world. And he’d just praised her, a nobody in a side branch of the Elmaro clan.

“Fiji, you’ve seen