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

Sagie had healed was on the girl’s mind, but it was as a well-trimmed, middle-aged man that he enjoyed life as much as he could, without quitting his job at the academy. Ekron’s soft laugh from next to her drew the mage’s attention.

“Oh! I have guests, and I didn’t even know.” The mage looked closer at Femida when she took off her helmet. “Wait a minute…you’re my dear student’s friend. Where is he?”

“Hi, Anri. He’s currently not in contact with anyone from this world.”

“Could you give him a gift of appreciation from me?” The mage pulled a ring out of his pocket, the glowing green color a dead giveaway for powerful Life Magic.

Femida smiled.

“I’m afraid I can’t take it. Neither I nor the recipient is sure if he’ll be returning to this world, though he did ask me to give something to you in the hope that you’ll pass it on to the rightful owner.”

The girl opened her trade panel and sent the mage the archmage’s staff Sagie had gotten with the loot from Tiberius Sen. Anri’s eyes opened wide, and then he burst out laughing so hard that he had to wipe away tears.

“You know, young lady, I had a feeling he’d do exactly that. When I heard about the archmage’s death and who defeated him, I was sure the victor would turn down the title.”

Femida smiled, though she still didn’t understand how Sagie could give an artifact like that up. Deliberately refusing a unique position and the enormous power that came with the highest rank of mage seemed crazy.

“Why did he do it? It’s ridiculous!”

“Not from his point of view. It’s been a bit more than a year since he first walked in the building looking to pick up the mage class, and everything about him was surprising. Take the high level he attained without a class. How was he able to get his hands on magic skills without being a mage? How was he able to progress so incredibly far? Why did he hide his abilities? Why didn’t he care about money? Half a year went by—just half a year—and he was able to do something I hadn’t managed to do my entire life: lift my curse. Your friend isn’t looking for attention or fame, that’s why he turned down the title of archmage.”

Ekron walked over from the stairs.

“I’m sorry for butting in, but we need to talk about more important matters.”

Anri looked at the uninvited guest coldly.

“What could be more important to the academy than finding a new archmage?”

“The only demonologist instructor in the world, and the only person who can stop the demon invasion. I assume you’re aware of the prophecy.”

∞ ∞ ∞

It’s been almost six months since I got to the Gray Lands. I’ve been working on my blood magic and ritual magic, creating blood golems and practicing new spells from that arsenal. Blood hive explodes the body of your opponent into hundreds of little red bees. Then, there’s glutton’s mouth, amida flesh, brotherly blood armor, blood blade, and bitter mercy spear. My enemies die in the worst possible manner, and then they end up on my altar for blood rituals. Happily, my blood magic is already up to 900 thanks to my culinary experiments, so it takes just a couple weeks to max it out.

Blood magic +1

Your blood magic skill has reached the maximum value

New ability: Brotherly blood

Spilled blood will reach toward you of its own accord in an effort to heal your wounds. The ability gives you complete immunity to damage from poison and bleeding.

Complete control over how I bleed! On the other hand, there are paralysis poisons that marauders and assassins love, not to mention stunning, hallucinations, and soporifics. Basically, all poisons that work on the level of consciousness are just as dangerous as ever.

Things go much faster with ritual magic. After sticking five hundred sacrifices in an enormous magic seal, I use them as a source of strength to intensify my spells. They’re enough for ten spells with ten-fold amplification. I take a normal fireball, expand it by a factor of eight, and then pour almost nine times the supply of mana in to strengthen it as far as blood magic will go.

I’ve ended up learning quite a bit. For example, ash can be turned into boiling magma, and the simplest of basic spells can do 50 million damage across a wide area. Every fireball like that boosts my Fire Magic skill by 1 point. Ritual magic jumps the same amount for every five hundred victims. I wonder how many people in the world have maxed it out.

Fire Magic goes first.

Fire Magic +1

Your Fire Magic skill reached the maximum value

New spell: Dead star

The sun god gave his adepts a great gift. Every second, a star dies somewhere in the universe, and now you can see a tiny example of what those catastrophes look like.

Effect: Creates a ball of fire that sucks in all matter within ten meters for two seconds using a powerful gravitational wave before exploding, doing 50 million damage for three seconds to everything within the damage radius.

Cost: 100000 mana

Recharge time: 24 hours

Needless to say, I decide to see what kind of power the spell has. I let go of the reins, give rage the upper hand, wait for Grunt to show up, and send the thing in his direction. He’s coming in my direction at full tilt, and the spell very nearly kills me, too. Just as it activates, I grab hold of the altar. I’m sucked in along with it a second later, however. Right at the end, I take 20 million fire damage, the altar is destroyed, and I’m thrown back thirty meters. The conclusion is simple: don’t use the spell without a clear plan. Too dangerous!

The altar getting taken out is actually good news, as the death magic emanating from it has been doing 30 million damage. If only I could stick it in my inventory. Sadly, it weighs two tons and belongs to the category