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

of its organs by sucking everything in with a gravitational wave before detonating.

Rivz is killed when the internal organs below me explode.

Level 2951 unlocked

5 attribute points available for distribution

…

Level 2960 unlocked

45 attribute points available for distribution

After climbing out of the creature’s mouth, I clamber down the side of the pit it was sitting in. The fear is gone, though I do have some experience climbing down spots like this, and it isn’t the most pleasant experience.

When my rump hits the ground, I realize that the descent is over—I’m standing on the city border.

Mavrikan has a surprise for me: the blacksmith from my village and his wife. They’re sitting quietly on a bench, whispering to each other, and I’m too ashamed to go over and say hi. I’m pretty sure it’s my fault they’re dead.

∞ ∞ ∞

It had been a year and a half since Sagie attacked Leon. Mirida was reading a paper that detailed what happened, and shivers ran down her spine when she saw the weapon Sagie had used. The gods knew about toys like that even if the rest of the world had only heard rumors, though nobody had any idea what Miridia had made in the vaults under her main temple after the explosion in Ferengar.

She didn’t just lose her followers because they turned their back on her for no good reason. They piously believed in the infallibility of their protectress and the patron of sorcerers and artifactors, though dwarves were starting to disappear by the hundreds. At that point, the rulers quickly put their heads together and found the common denominator. They had simply stopped believing in her without lodging any formal complaint, and her once-expansive flock dropped to a couple thousand in a week.

When the former goddess read the article that talked about the weapon Sagie had used, her heart skipped a beat. She’d made two unique swords. Sagie’s weapon sounded awfully familiar, so Miridia quickly headed off to her old temple to find hers—Heaven and Earth. They were perfectly safe. In fact, they were still in perfect condition after going unused for two thousand years. She’d forged them at the epicenter of the explosion, right under the spot where the artificial sun had appeared.

The swords were slid into a special container and hidden in her sack. Nobody was going to be getting to them.

∞ ∞ ∞

Over the next six months, I go through the House of Resignation and nearly die when one of the spawn of darkness almost pushes me to resign myself to my death. The temptation grows each time. In every instance, however, I focus on what I have to live for, and each step forward helps me better understand my own values. This is the most important lesson the Gray Lands are teaching me.

When it looks like your life is over, the people you care about are dead, and you’re all alone, you start to realize that you can live for yourself and your dreams. But when I completely suppress the feeling of resignation, I gradually move toward the idea of living for other people rather than for myself. Their happiness is more important than my own. With that realization, it hits me that I understand what parents feel for their children.

Next, I get to the House of Loyalty, where the demons try to break my will and force me into their service. The sole point of life, they claim, is to follow the dictates of your master.

I learn something new as I suppress the emotions that surge up within me during each new trial. I find out what makes people human. The meaning behind culture, upbringing, civilization, social norms, and the trends that move community. The farther I go, the better I see straight through to the heart of people, what they do, and what drives the leaders of colonies and entire nations. If you look at things from that point of view, all of humanity’s motivations are laid out before you.

After that, I move on to the House of Love. It’s the most unforgettable, terrible place in all the Gray Lands. Every time I step out onto a field with an enormous tree at the center, there’s someone I love living in it…and they’re trying to kill me.

As soon as I find the exit hidden in one of the rooms, I’m thrown straight through to the next trial. The world is getting brighter, emotions more colorful, and the trees around me sharper.

The first incident was the most memorable. I nearly died of happiness when I saw father, with mama holding Rosie next to him. They behave as if my being there is the most natural thing in the world. Mama puts some food on a plate in front of me. Father reaches into a closet for some wood he’s working on. But as soon as I swallow a spoonful of soup, a message pops up telling me that I’ve been poisoned.

I look up and see mama looking back at me angrily.

Even my sister is filled with rage, and that’s when father breaks a stool over my head. I spend the next ten minutes lying on the floor under the cover of a magic shield. They do everything they can to break through, though they aren’t strong enough. And all I can do is wonder who could possibly have thought up a trial like this. Killing the people you love?

It’s the hardest trial I’ve been through. Ever since my time at the orphanage, I’ve avoided trusting or loving anyone. The stronger you are and the more powerfully you close yourself off from other people, the more you get hurt when you do trust someone. Love in any of its forms is, first and foremost, about trust. I’ve only opened up to three people who have never betrayed me: father, mama, and Femida. They’re the only ones I could trust enough to be myself around them. Everyone else got held at arm’s length, but that changed after the trial. Now, I don’t trust anyone, and