My Life Changed with the Unlimited System

Ethan finally leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath. His fingers loosened their grip as he placed the last paper down on the desk in front of him.

"Finally," he muttered. "I thought it'd be simple… but the deeper I learn, the more complex it becomes."

His hands were sore. The tips of his fingers were stained with ink that had turned faintly luminous, the result of his experiments with magical binding agents.

What began as ordinary ink had slowly changed the more he poured his Ascendant Energy into it. Now, it pulsed with faint mana residue.

The room around him was a cluttered battlefield of knowledge. Notes filled the corners, diagrams were pinned on the wall, and spell papers were stacked in careful, chaotic towers.

"What a mess," he said again, this time with a small smile.

Despite the disarray, he felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

He had done it.

The basic phase was over.

Among his scattered work, one scroll in particular caught his attention. It was his first successful formation spell for defense. With his current strength, amplified by his affinity with elemental energy and the boost from the Flame Dragon Sword, it could withstand attacks from foes up to the Higher Four-Star Ascendant rank.

It wasn't perfect. Not yet. But it was strong enough to protect him or people that mattered to him.

Another scroll held the camouflage spell. It bent the light around him, dampened sound, and suppressed spiritual and energy signatures. He had tested it in different environments, and while it consumed more energy the longer it ran, the effect remained consistent.

"I don't really need it for myself," he murmured as he looked at the scroll again. "But it might help someone else escape when they can't fight."

That thought wasn't new. In fact, it was how this whole journey began. He wasn't making spells just for himself. Every step, every improvement, he had always been thinking of how others could benefit.

Then there was his offensive scroll. A paper with a trigger spell that could unleash a controlled blast of fire mixed with raw force. Enough to knock back or even injure a Higher Four-Star Ascendant. It took hours to refine the triggering mechanism so it wouldn't detonate too early or miss its mark.

While working on these, Ethan had also deepened his command over elemental powers.

Fire was his most natural element, responsive and fast. Earth, on the other hand, demanded patience and precision. Water and wind fell somewhere between. He learned to shift their forms, to compress, expand, harden, or soften depending on what the spell required.

He ended up creating over a hundred scrolls. Each one a unique variant of a basic spell. Some were offensive, others defensive.

A few were designed to support or assist, and all of them were marked with personalized runes. Every scroll was primed and ready to be activated.

But they were still small in scope.

Personal shields. Room-sized barriers. Short-range effects.

He had yet to create anything that could protect a house, a complex, or an entire facility.

His thoughts wandered to Hera. She had casted most of the spells easily. The one that chained and absorbed Duran, the barrier that protected her house, the one that destroyed the ritual and the teleportation portal.

"I believe I'm still far away."

That kind of spell needed a different level of energy. Something he simply didn't have right now.

Even so, the progress he made was undeniable.

He opened his status again, and his eyes widened slightly.

His Intelligence had soared.

It now stood at 1201.

"So it really is Intelligence," he said thoughtfully. "The higher it gets, the more energy I can produce."

And true enough, his Ascendant Energy had grown as well. He now had 12,010 units in total.

"That's... actually pretty good."

He wasn't too worried about running out of energy in battle, not with the Flame Dragon Sword as a backup. The weapon acted as a reliable battery. But even so, the more he learned, the more he realized how critical it was to manage energy carefully.

After giving himself a moment to rest, Ethan stood up and began to collect the papers scattered around him. Some of them had been furled like mini scrolls.

He sorted each scroll into specific categories—defense, offense, stealth, elemental, support. Everything was labeled clearly.

Some were marked by color, others by symbols he had come up with on his own.

It wasn't about being neat. It was about being prepared.

Once sorted, he stored them inside his Inventory. One by one, the scrolls disappeared in flashes of soft light, leaving the room slightly less cluttered.

But his work was far from done.

The spells he had now were good. Some were even impressive. But they weren't enough.

He needed mastery.

He needed to refine them. To make them faster, sharper, stronger. And once that was done, he wanted to create "primed" versions—formations that could activate automatically the moment danger struck. No activation word, no delay.

He glanced at a separate stack on his desk. Those were unfinished projects. His ideas for larger-scale defensive formations. Plans to cover wide areas with magic.

He wanted those formations in place before the next of the Twelve Eternal Trials arrived.

Because deep down, he knew peace wouldn't last.

Nova Tech was evolving. Its success would attract attention. And attention always came with danger.

Ethan stared at the desk for a moment.

"I want every place covered," he whispered. "I want every person protected."

Then, another thought returned to him.

Ever since he started learning spell craft, something in his perception had changed. At first, it was subtle. A flicker. A tug. But now, it was clear.

He could sense mana.

He closed his eyes and reached out with his awareness. The air responded, but faintly. Almost like a whisper.

That was when he realized it.

Earth was nearly mana-dead.

Compared to Anterra, this world had only the faintest traces. According to the old books, mana on Anterra flowed through the ground like unseen rivers. It was rich and alive, sustaining magic naturally. But here, it was like trying to draw water from dry stone.

"No wonder everything feels heavier here," he said, frustrated. "I'm relying too much on Ascendant Energy just to do what should be basic."

And then he remembered a book he had barely skimmed before.

He pulled it from the pile. Its pages were yellowed, its writing faded. But halfway through, he found it.

A section titled: Mana Rebirth and Environmental Reconstruction.

It was a study on how dying lands could be revived. It spoke of ancient methods, mostly lost to time, but one technique stood out.

The Mana Gathering Formation.

It wasn't a single spell. It was a complete magical system. A web of runes and symbols arranged with exact precision.

It required a balance of elemental inputs, precise placement, and constant regulation. The formation would draw ambient mana from surrounding areas and gradually increase a region's mana density.

Ethan stared at the diagrams, turning the pages slowly. The more he read, the more he understood the scale of what it demanded.

It was complex. Difficult. Time-consuming.

But it was possible.

And if he succeeded, he could restore mana to Earth, little by little. Nova Tech's headquarters could become the first true sanctuary for spell craft. Then his home. Then perhaps an entire city.

There were no limits, only steps.

"This... This is the key," he whispered, eyes gleaming. "If I can do this... everything changes."

He wasn't ready yet.

But one day, he would be.

And when that day came, the Earth would no longer be a barren land. It would be reborn.