Limitless by John Gold (best e reader for android txt) 📕

+813% strength restoration speed

It takes just 10000 mana a minute to keep the elemental at the bottom of the lake, and I’m restoring 623000. In other words, it takes me fifteen seconds to fully restore my supply of strength.

I’m emotionally exhausted from the horror when the elemental finally dies ten hours later. Everything around us is covered in enormous chunks of ice, and even the edges of the artificial lake are crumbling into it. There is no longer a fire burning in the forest or the village. Right at the end, I was forced to send tsunamis crashing over the forest to knock off the overgrown elemental’s health restoration speed, as it speeds up the more area his original fire covers. How are you supposed to kill that thing? Block its ability? Put out the fires for two kilometers around it? Kill it with one blow?

The dread releases me from its clutches, and I head through the empty village to the source of the anxiety. It looks terrifying after the fire and brutal battle. The darkened windows of the houses peer deeply into my soul, and the crash of buildings collapsing sounds like the last nail being hammered into the coffin of my sanity. It’s unpleasant, but at least I don’t feel the anxiety anymore.

The shroud begins right in the middle of the empty village, and it drops me into the next city of the dead. Eraga is an exact copy of all the other cities. My search yields the same results, too. Nobody’s seen or heard about my family, though I’ve only done eight of the sixteen trials so far. Either father got them much farther than I thought he would, or he’s ended up somewhere else. I do my best to avoid even thinking about that latter option.

Logout

∞ ∞ ∞

Femida stopped by for a visit. When I climb out of my capsule, she’s talking with Claude. He’s clearly giving her the low-down on my physical and psychological condition.

She finally notices that the med capsule is open and I’m sitting by the window enjoying the warm breeze when they finish up.

“How are you feeling? Claude said your brain was going through exhaustion from being overloaded, and that you spent three days in the clinic.”

The breeze is gently caressing my skin, and my nose twitches from the salt in the air.

“I really took the rage trial hard. Since then, I’ve had disgust, unfounded loathing, and contempt. Do you know what it’s like when you turn off synesthesia and sense the revolting smell of blood with every skin cell in your body? When just seeing someone makes you want to destroy everything around you? After that, I got completely apathetic and almost killed myself. The regret trial almost did me in with all the self-incrimination I had going on. It felt like I was guilty of absolutely everything negative in the world, and after that I had to deal with a dizzying trip across the Styx and the unforgettable terror of having fire everywhere. Believe me, if half of that happened in reality, I would’ve turned gray a year ago.”

“But you almost died! Don’t rush it—you only get one shot at this.”

“It’ll be fine. You should focus on yourself and Ekron. How are things in the outside world?”

She sighs loudly and throws herself onto my soft bed.

“Long story short, things are bad. More specifically, Roni’s having problems with some of the alliances in the game. They put an incredible price on her head, and we’re now being chased all over the Inferno. We’ve actually spent the past month back out in the world, down in some caves. There aren’t any players in the world besides the three of us who can work in those conditions without a problem: Level 3500+, fire-aura damage up to 25 million, and the kind of bots that raise the hair on the back of your neck.” Femida falls silent for a second before continuing. “Sagie…finish up soon, would you? We can’t keep living like this.”

I know and understand Femida better than she thinks.

“What you mean to say is that you can’t get to where you want to go without me. Or that it’s just really hard. Hey, how is Isaac? The poor guy has to listen to you two girls chattering on all day long. I’m surprised he hasn’t gone insane.”

“Idiot!” Fem snorts into the pillow. “He’s fine, and Roni loves talking with him. They’ve taught me so many new curse words that I could hold my own with anyone down at the docks. You should hear what they call each other, though I think that’s just the way they’re comfortable talking.”

Femida is maturing, starting to see different facets of the truth.

“Ekron is much older than she looks. In the game, I wouldn’t say her character even looks twenty-five, but she’s actually a good bit past forty. Talking like that is normal for her. It could be from an old job, or maybe it’s just the way her family talks. Regardless, she feels comfortable cursing up a storm like that. Isaac is just happy she’s talking with him. You just watch—he’ll keep trolling you both until he finds something else he enjoys doing.”

“And you think that’s normal? Both of them are going to fry their nerves!”

“In your little trio, Ekron is the strongest personality. You follow her, just with an eye on your own goals. Isaac… I’m not even sure what to say. He loves you platonically. You’re more than just a partner in the game for him and you’re smart enough to understand that.”

Femida says nothing, though I’m sure she’s happy to receive the praise.

“What about you, Sagie?”

“I’m not going to let anyone manipulate me. As long as we have the same goals, we’ll keep moving in the same direction, making concessions and reconciling the way we think.”

Femida takes off in the evening, leaving me to go relax in my corner on the roof. I can read here until I’m blue in the