Bone Deep: Limitless Book One a LITRPG series

by S. S. Gosu

Will Cole grew up in Millbrook — a mountain village of three hundred souls where the only education that mattered came from his father's knife and his mother's silence. Colm Cole taught him to butcher an animal down to the bone. Martha taught him that quiet people survive quiet places.

Then Colm disappeared. And Will discovered that his father wasn't a cook — he was something far more dangerous, hiding at the edge of the world.

When the Tower opens, Will enters with a C-grade talent, a hunting knife, and a body hardened by sixteen years of frontier survival. Inside, the rules are simple: climb or die. Every floor breeds creatures that hunt by vital force. Every climber you meet might be the one who slits your throat for your crystals.

Will doesn't join groups. Doesn't trust strangers. Doesn't talk when he can act. He hunts from the shadows, lets others draw the danger, and finishes what they can't. The Tower's early floors think he's a vulture. By the time they realize he's a predator, it's too late.

His edge is compression — a technique his father left behind that lets him condense his cultivation until his stats read weak and his fists crack stone. The lower his numbers, the harder he hits. Every compression is agony. Every breakthrough is a lightning storm. And somewhere on the floors above, the truth about Colm Cole waits to be found.

Genres: Litrpg

1098 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 14, 2026

Reviews

[Roberto Flores]

I can not find the narrative direction with this. The characters have no personality and the MC acts in very different ways with no clear indicator why. If one third of the nuance given to the violence was given to the story , this would be a solid book.

[Paul Clemons]

extremely inconsistent in need of boots

Really this should be a 5 star book but it has huge inconsistencies I can’t ignore. First off the opening of the book is extremely nonlinear jumping around and I gave up trying to keep track of when things happened and just went with it. It got better as I kept reading.

The mc is smart and cautious and stupid and makes poor decisions. Take off your pack before entering a lair as you are not opening your pack mid battle and you will either be dead or alive to retrieve your pack which is constantly ruined yet never missing. And what is up with the boots? Destroyed? Not destroyed? He sees them everywhere yet never tries them on or gets new ones. The mc likes spears yet never asks about them and where is his spear at the end of the book? The op mc has to get stronger to pass a mini boss and when he does, he finds bodies of those half his level. He barely talks and a three word sentence is super long yet he hears rumors? He finds dead people but rarely comes across the living?

We know almost nothing about the world but every dead creatures bowels are described in detail with color, smell, and contents. When one paragraph will do, three are used with two describing intestines, blood smell, and the ache of a completely healed injury. And how would a boy who grew up in a 300 person village know about our modern things like aquifers, donating blood, hydraulics, fingerprints, sponges, shark teeth in rows and pointing in, tuition, a cathedral, batteries, fire hose, baseball bats, and dynamite? Are there guns and gun powder too? Did the Inn use a paper filing system or should the only file he knows about be the kind that sharpens tools? The focus is on every drop of blood yet we know nothing about the world. There are many other inconsistencies like the name Doss that just made my reading ache like a broken rib.

Note to the author: take inventory of the mc’s stuff, file it, note it, it’s just math, and all the other words to describe actions. But seriously if the mc picks up a water skin, write it down and if he loses the water skin let the reader know and write it down because in my head he has about 14 now.

[Monika Krisinski]

Not my usual litrpg, but attention holding.

I'm a bit meh toward the main character. He has some good qualities, but some not so moral. The killings are described ad nauseam (lots of intestines, blood and bowels releasing), but a lot of logistics/daily living is left out. For instance, where is he getting new clothes (as his have been burned, bloodied and ripped to shreds). Does he ever bathe?? Why is he climbing the tower; just to find his father, or another reason? Diving into book #2.

[Cheyenne]

3.5 rounded up. A bit repetitive at times, heavy on internal narrative and light on dialogue/social interactions with other characters. Will is a loner and the book does not let you doubt that. Interesting fight sequences, though. Stat counting etc aspect of litrpg isn't a huge focus, it's definitely a lot more of a tertiary aspect for the book. World seems pretty grim tbh. There's definitely a knowledge gap that Will has compared to others and the reader is right along with him in that gap with only bits of clarity being sprinkled in.

[Victor U]

IBS

This story mentions Bowels or Bowels release 65 times. We get it they are relaxed. I have read a few healer litrpgs that went less into the medical jargon than this book does. The time line jumps don’t add up. There are a few times that the mc is trying to questioning himself after killing someone like it was his first time but at this point he had killed four people and didn’t care.

[Murphies_law]

An interesting mix of grimdark, cultivation and tower climbing

The author really loves anatomy, wasting no chance to throw around medical terms during the constant fights. Furthermore, he insists on reporting in detail about voided bowels of almost every killed creature..

Sadly, the MC isn't hero material. He acts very inconsistent,showing symptoms of a split personality disorder. He sometimes extinguishes threats mercilessly, then begs people not to attack him and spares mass murderers even after they attacked him, thus allowing them to continue their terror.. After ignoring the corpses throughout most of the book, he starts showing them respect by closing the eyes of some. He is also hypocritical about cannibalising human crystals, as he stops to harvest them for one or two kills claiming morals all of a sudden, which he forgets again soon after.. The Mc kept annoying me with his strict refusal to use longer blades despite constantly struggling with closing distances or dealing deep enough wounds or setting down his backpack before entering fights..

The story has also strong inconsistencies. This goes for the starting levels of the climbers, how weak level 1s and 2s traversed the first death zone that was said to require level 3, the missing sexual drive that sees most women killed for their crystals, the totally ignored hygiene, the seemingly self repairing clothes and boots, the origins of fire wood later on etc..

[Michael]

AI slop. Confusing introduction where the protagonist attacks a bull, but it’s not a bull it’s a man. But he’s called the bull for some reason. Not a name or title like The Bull. Just the bull. So that was confusing from the very first page.

Another part of the book the mom talks about some rider that delivered a message as if he used to be an old friend of the family. But they didn’t know him, he was just a stranger delivering a message. The kid asked who the messenger was and the mom got emotional saying, “he doesn’t matter anymore. “. I think the AI writer confused the messenger for the person the messages from. Otherwise the mom was getting upset over some random dude that was hired to deliver a message.

And the final bit of AI slop that I couldn’t get past — they were hunting a deer and the protagonist shot a crossbow at it and missed. The deer ran away and he immediately started tracking it by the blood drops, presumably from the crossbow bolt that missed. I think that was page 20 or so.

DNF. AI slop.

[Junior]

Stopped at 80%. The whole thing is just an exhausting slog. It's obvious that either an AI is doing the bulk of the writing or it's a group of people who don't read each other's work. Inconsistencies, contradictions, things that are there, then gone, then back.

Even ignoring that the story itself just feels pointless. Both a world and an MC with the depth of a drying puddle. Pointless descriptions about anatomy that don't fit with the narrative. Soooo much releasing of bowels. The MC is gravely injured pretty much the entire time, which is described in nauseating detail, yet it never matters because he just behaved like it's not there.

Note to self: do not continue

[Suzanne Pearson]

The book is good but beware ai narrative

The book keeps its mystery and although it is different, it keeps you interested. 5 stars for the book. However, if you do the narration, it is ai and many, many words are mispronounced. For example, it pronounces “bow” as in a wooden bow that shots arrows like “bow” like the bow of a ship. Huge difference. It says the word “wound” as in you are bleeding from a wound like “ wound” like I wound up a spool of thread. Ai doesn’t know what the word really is. I preferred reading it, although I chose to listen to it because I had to do things with my hands. So just know what you are getting into with the narration.

[Taran]

An interesting read

I liked the story, the writing style was different to what in used to but not bad. I found the leveling and power system very under explained, you pick up more of an understanding towards the end of the book but there's still no clear explanation. Also a weird obsession with stuff voiding it's bowels on death. We get it, creatures and people lose control when they die, we don't need to know about it might group fight or every time.

[Bert Babb]

Good story but got bogged down in delving theorems.

The MC was trained by his father to compress his advancement 10x per level. This made him powerful, but he still had to advance his cultivation and of course he made enemies along the way.

The story was long on cultivation theory and short on storyline. At over a thousand pages, it got quite tedious.

[gordon musgrave]

Wordy

Very very wordy. Entire pages just to describe a killing including bowel movement. If half of that was deleted it would have improved the book. The writer sometimes forgot the level of the mc. What is really annoying is if people can come from outside why don't people leave?

[Karen]

DNF 22% (doesn't sound like a lot but this is a long book). I am pretty certain this is AI without proof reading. I am learning. MMC has almost no internal voice. Everything is cold. Logical. Emotionless. Finally get to the Tower and then "I made a promise to a dead man?" Who and the what now? Your father isn't dead. GAH

[That Guy]

Ai slop

This is very clearly written by ai, and the author was too lazy to bother proof reading or editing. How hard would it be to just edit the output from your prompts. Ai is doing most of the work, you only have to put in a small amount of effort. Unfortunately, there are a ton of releases like this.

[Kenneth D. Foster]

Would be 5 star but...

I don't know what's going on with writing styles lately but the "not this, not that, but something else" style is annoying. And its not just this book or this author. It's like a bunch of litrpg authors took a class from someone that can't write, but told them it was a great style.
Stop it!! Please.
Other than that, great book.

[Iain]

Solid solo progression.

Not for those looking for teams or clans or crafting or even side characters and relationships. This is a pure solo tower climb and it’s decent at what it does.

[Lori Stull-Morr]

Probably AI, but still good.

Good story but has the repeating cadence of AI. Also quite a few errors where the same information changes to something different each time told. If you don’t mind that the story holds

[Daniel Bean]

Ability stats not consistent

Once the leveling started up the writer didn’t stay consistent with the stat upgrades to the character. From one level to the next the stats stayed the same even with the way the writer developed the upgrade system.

[boyd]

slow to develop

Well written . This is your story if you love continuous combat without remorse or interpersonal relationships. I got tired of well done combat without purpose or pause. Development is too slow for me and I have lost interest.

[Chris]

AI generated, unedited text

This wasnt that bad for awhile. But after 300 pages of the same unevolved, unintelligent "half a sentence with a period is edgy and real" two line paragraphs, I couldn't keep going. Do not spend money on this. Do not feed the AI.

[Gordon Tait]

Highly recommended

First book of a new series. And what a first book. Highly evolved writing with depth. A must read for all aficionados of the genre.

[Jim Phillips]

Started good

I mostly enjoyed this. While the character always advances it gets repetitious. Reaching the end was a struggle. We did have an epilogue.

[Mark]

At least half of the sentences are fragments. Weird.

[John Ballew]

obnoxious

Writing with obnoxious simile. No depth of character. Author probably thinks they are an edge lord or something. Don’t bother.

[Matt]

I like the writting style

I like the writting style. It's different from what I've seen in other LitRPG books. My only gripe is the grind. The same thing happens on repeat with the only the monsters, stats, and levels changing. This is just be my opinion, please check it out anyway.

[Charles Hagberg]

A good long book

This is the first book I read by this author and I have to say it was worth my time hard boiled character and he had a hardcore teacher, excellent book

[Jordin Wilkie]

The writing style limits character connection.

[Dantegideon]

Interesting ideas overshadowed by an insufferable MC. I almost reached the end but I couldn't quite manage it!