Forbidden: Max level warrior

The inn was quiet.

Whatever storm Ann had caused in the tavern earlier had long since faded into the night. The scent of roasted food lingered faintly in the hallway, muffled laughter drifted from somewhere below, and a cold wind brushed against the shuttered windows.

Ann lay on the bed in his private room, staring at the wooden ceiling above him.

The silence was different now. Not the tense kind. Just... still. Like the world was finally catching its breath after watching something it couldn't comprehend.

He exhaled slowly.

So much had happened—and yet, none of it surprised him.

He reached one hand into the air and brought up his interface with a thought. The translucent screen shimmered above his palm, casting soft blue light across the room.

"I turned off the barrier today," he muttered.

It hadn't been for fun. It was a test.

The Absolute Barrier, the first passive effect from his Demon Lord title, made him untouchable. Anything below a certain power level—completely nullified, even the strongest spellsin this low Earth wouldn't scratch him. Anything that somehow passed through it—reduced by ninety percent. To any inhabitant of this world, it might as well have been divine protection.

But Ann was curious.

He had deactivated it during the tavern scuffle. Let a full-power strike land from a level 60 B-rank warrior, wielding a weapon forged from Orichalcum —a rare and nearly indestructible magical alloy.

The strike didn't just fail.

It didn't even make a sound.

The blade shattered on impact with his skin.

Which meant... even without his barrier, his natural durability was absurd.

"Not bad," he said softly. "Guess this body was built properly after all."

He clenched and unclenched his fist. There hadn't been pain. Not even a scratch.

Nobody on this "low earth"—he was currently in—was likely capable of doing meaningful harm to him. Not without bending the rules of reality itself.

He shifted, pulling up his Skill Weaver tab next.

Originally, it had been one of his rarest achievements in the game. A passive that allowed him to custom-design skills—combining effects, elements, and triggers into completely unique spells or techniques. The only drawback was the cost: each creation drained Skill Points, often in massive quantities.

But now?

He smirked.

He had infinite skills points and Forbidden Points.

And thanks to the system's restructuring of this world, Forbidden Points could be converted into skill points on demand. Which meant he could build anything, so even if he didn't have infinite skills points he could still create anything.

That was how he'd created the Kinetic Nullification Field—a spell that erased all kinetic feedback and force transmission in a given area. That's why that B-rank swordsman's "mountain-splitting slash" hadn't even stirred the air.

And then there was Chrono Veil—a localized time-stop, frozen within a defined sphere, keeping only Ann in motion.

He hadn't even needed it yet.

But it worked.

Now, his mind turned toward a new target.

Speed.

"If my defense is that good, and my magic's limitless... what about raw movement?"

In the game, his endgame build had achieved FTL—faster-than-light reactions and bursts of motion that let him dodge lasers, split storms, and parry beams mid-flight.

And that was before the Forbidden System removed all restrictions.

He flexed his fingers. "Even without time-stop... I should be able to match that again. Maybe surpass it."

He closed the menu, then opened another.

Demon Lord of Infinity — Title Tree

The familiar interface displayed three unlocked perks:

1. Absolute Barrier

2. Aura of Tyranny — a presence so overwhelming it instilled fear in dragons and made low-level beings collapse on sight. It wasn't just magical intimidation. It was death, personified.

3. Dark Magic Affinity — instant mastery of every form of dark magic: hellfire, necromancy, soul curses, shadow-based spellcraft. All of it belonged to him.

The next node pulsed faintly.

Locked: Death Magic

The tooltip didn't explain what it did.

He didn't need it to. If it was next in the Demon Lord line, it was bound to be insane.

And beneath it... more nodes. Still locked. Hidden.

He stared at them for a moment, then closed the screen.

Freedom.

That word floated in his mind.

What was he supposed to do here?

Be a hero?

A villain?

Play some neutrality game?

Did it even matter?

He rolled onto his side and stared at the nightstand where a candle flickered.

The truth was, he didn't care about saving kingdoms. Or destroying them.

He just wanted to live—unchained.

No grind. No rules. No server bans.

Just freedom.

Still...

...World domination maybe?

He opened the System Shop again and typed in a word.

Ring of silence – 10,000 Forbidden Points

The option hovered before him like a joke. It had always been one of those "impossible" joke items. A running gag among late-game players. Nobody ever had enough points to buy it.

Until now.

He could click it.

[A ring that masks the wearers aura completely, sound, presence, Mana signature, everything about the wearer would be masked to the point even if the wearer was standing close to someone the wearer wouldn't be noticed except the person focused or the wearer wanted the person to know.]

he purchased it then, quietly, he navigated away and opened a different tab.

"Let's learn about this place."

Within seconds, two thick tomes materialized on the bed beside him.

The Arcane Foundations of the world.

A Concise History of the Known World

He cracked the first one open.

For all his absurd power, there was one thing he lacked: context. He didn't need it to win fights. But he needed it to win the game behind the game.

He skimmed the pages, taking it all in at inhuman speed.

Magic here followed tiered progression:

Apprentice Mage — Levels 1 to 30

Adept Mage — Levels 31 to 50

High Mage / Court Mage — Levels 51 to 79

Archmage — Levels 80 to 99

Grand Mage — Level 100+

It aligned fairly well with what he'd seen so far.

And then, he flipped to the martial classes:

Apprentice Warrior — Levels 1 to 30

Adept Warrior — Levels 31 to 50

Champion Warrior — Levels 51 to 79 (combat masters, often battlefield legends)

Arcane Warrior — Levels 80 to 99 (those who combine magic and might at the peak of human potential)

Grand Warrior — Level 100+

F-D rank monster— 1 to 30

C rank monsters —31 to 59

B rank mosnters—60 to 79

A-S rank monsters —80-99

SS rank monsters —100+

The ranks also implied to all species.

He closed the book, slid it aside, and leaned back.

So many levels. So many systems. So much structure.

All of it... below him.

Still, he wanted to understand it. Because one day, someone strong might appear. Someone real. Someone fun.

And when they did, he didn't want to just overpower them.

He wanted to outplay them.

The candle flickered once, then died.

Ann didn't move.

He sat in the dark, unreadable.

And the night passed.