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

there. Interesting…very interesting. The spell must be stationary, supplied by some kind of creature. Non-living things can’t replenish mana, so whatever’s on the hovering island has to be living or semi-living.

Ten minutes later, I’m sitting under a large tree. Its crown reaches a height of fifty meters in an hour. Twelve hours later, the lowest branches spread higher than all the surrounding cliffs and forests. Twenty-four hours later, I’m already falling asleep, but decide to try out what I have in mind. I may die or otherwise hurt myself, but it’s worth it. My hand slips inside my bone armor as if by chance. My gaze fixes on the walls of the floating city.

“Rainbow sunset.”

Seventeen rings of silvery fog appear right over the flying city, taking on shades ranging from black at the edges to white in the middle. The rest of the rings are all the colors of the rainbow formed into a single sphere. Seconds go by, the sphere expands, and cliffs, boulders, and enormous glaciers start to appear under the silver fog. The rainbow sunset creates a small planetoid that crashes through the protective dome and crushes the island. Thousands of tons of rock come crashing down from a height of two kilometers, and the island crumbles and tumbles as it falls upside down.

There’s no explosion after the spell lands home. Instead, the island is simply buried and flattened by the planetoid. Nor, the city of angels, has ceased to exist.

Level 4251 unlocked

5 attribute points available for distribution

…

Level 4833 unlocked

2910 attribute points available for distribution

Achievement received: Sandman. Fortieth rank.

…

Achievement received: Sandman. Seventy-second rank.

Kill something 1000 levels higher than you and at a higher rank (local boss, raid boss, non-category) with one attack.

Current count: 5277

Reward: +3600 to all attributes

 

Whoa. Just like that, three and a half thousand angels died from a single spell. And there could have been more, just at a lower rank than mine. What a shame. Such a valuable resource wasted, but nothing too bad, like Cerubiel, the senior cherub in Nor, one of the twenty-seven celestial cities, said. And that means I still have plenty more leveling-up to do.

Femida respawned eight hours later near Castle Airis; Isaac had some emergency repairs done and swore he wouldn’t go back to Tanatos unless I was there or some lunatic destroyed the entire race of angels. After making him swear he won’t tell Femida, I send him the last video, the one where the angel population dropped precipitously.

Two weeks later, the war with the angels is over. They won’t be getting in my way, and they won’t be trying to get their revenge on other humans, though I’m still their enemy. Their decision makes sense, too as there are only sixteen celestial cities left. In total, I’ve killed more than fifteen thousand angels and destroyed eleven cities. The last six didn’t do much for me, however, as the populations evacuated as soon as the scouts in the surrounding areas told them I was there. My final skirmish with a radically minded angelic group gets me to the hundred and twenty-sixth rank of sandman as well as Level 7242.

“Attribute window.”

Name: Sagie

Level: 7242

Experience: 8029660/68315620 (226892060 to go until the next level)

Race: Human (demigod)

Class: Mage

Basic attributes

Strength: 13956

Agility: 13956

Stamina: 46431

Intellect: 71750

Available attribute points: 0

Additional attributes

Speed: 500

Survivability: 10415

 

Derivative attributes

Physical damage: 6978 (strength/2, but no less than 1)

Carrying capacity: 34890 kg (strength*10/4)

Overall strength: 489310 (stamina*10+25000 from tattoos)

Mana: 366983 (overall strength*0.75)

Health: 122328 (overall strength*0.25)

Health and mana restoration: 104150/minute (mana*2)

Running speed: 184 km/h (1+speed/10)

∞ ∞ ∞

I take a week away from the game after the war is won. Femida flies in to set me straight.

“What are you lying around for? The war is over, everyone’s enjoying their amnesty, and you’re here moping around. Why haven’t you been logging into Project Chrysalis? Isaac sent you an iron bouquet of flowers, and you haven’t replied. Don’t screw with the kid’s head like that.”

“You know very well it was just a thank you.” We’re sitting on the roof of the resort, the ocean surrounding us and the weather beautiful. “I just feel really bad about what I did. Sure, it’ll take me a lifetime to spend the money I get for the loot I collected from all the angels and monsters I killed. But while you were all leveling-up every day on the new monsters, I was killing women and children, the elderly, and everyone else looking to do no more than take out an enemy of their people. I didn’t spare anyone. After each battle, the emotions come back, and I feel regret and guilt. I didn’t go through the ruins of the cities; I’m afraid to see what I did.”

“Then, why didn’t you surrender?”

“I would never do that. No, I’m not worried by the guilt. It’s good, actually, since it tells me that I’m still human, that I still care about the lives of the people around me. No, I’m ashamed that I let myself be roped into a war. You think I was fighting all the angels? You’re wrong. Every city functions as its own city-state, with its own interests. When there’s a threat to all of them, they’re required to take up weapons together, but that means that my enemies weren’t the ones holding the weapons. They were the ones who wanted the war. A council of twelve cherubs manages every city, and the power they had corrupted them into sacrificing the interests of their people on the altar of their own ambitions and well-being. Did you know that their true mission is to bring knowledge to the wanderers who come to Tanatos? Aid where they can, hand out quests, give information, and help with local fights against other races—all of that. Guests on the continent get evaluated for their overall strength, meaning that they just need to be the equivalent of Level 5000, and not even necessarily at that level. Cerubiel, the first cherub I met, knew that better than anyone, but all he saw in me was a dark mage who could converse with