Adrian closed his eyes, focusing his senses on the dimension. As he had expected, it was expanding every passing moment.

’It’s really... working.’

He still couldn’t believe that the crazy idea he had attempted had actually worked. The scale of what he had accomplished was so vast that he struggled to imagine it.

"Infinity..."

Those words unconsciously slipped from his mouth.

In this world, power was measured by the amount of mana one possessed; everything one could do was limited by the amount of mana.

A spell’s tier was largely decided by the amount of mana required to cast it, infusion arts were divided into levels for a similar reason.

One could only increase their mana capacity by ascending to a higher Phase; there was no way to bypass this restriction. But Adrian had essentially done just that. If what he was thinking was indeed correct, then that would make him the strongest being in existence.

’No, I’m getting ahead of myself. I have to test it first.’

Shaking away the wild thoughts, he once again focused on the dimension. This time, a detail caught his attention. The larger the dimension grew, the blurrier it appeared to his senses. It was as if he was slowly losing the ability to even sense its existence.

Could this also be the result of giving up his control over the dimension to the spell? He couldn’t guess.

’I’ll wait until I can no longer sense it; it should become large enough by then.’

Adrian picked up the paper he had previously thrown and began going through his spell design once again.

If he had to explain the logic behind the creation of a magical formula, the simplest definition would be that it was like creating a mathematical equation.

’For example, if someone wanted to create a spell that allowed one to shoot fireballs, they would need to convert the process into something similar to an equation, something like two plus two equals four.’

They could assign the value of two to mana and assign the value of four to fireball, while the spell itself holds the value of two. So if they expend mana while creating the magical formula, it would create the equation two plus two, which will result in the answer four, the number assigned to fireball.

Though, of course, that was merely an analogy, the actual process of creating a spell was incomparably complex. Still, the process itself was similar.

The sunlight that illuminated the library slowly dimmed and disappeared as he continued waiting in silence. With the sky outside now dark, nothing illuminated the library’s interior.

Usually, the librarian would’ve turned on all the lamps by now, but his absence, coupled with the fact that he had told the maid not to disturb him, resulted in the library interior being submerged in complete darkness.

He reached out and turned on the single lamp that was nearby, allowing its dim light to illuminate the surroundings, if only barely.

"It’s time."

He could no longer sense the dimension, no matter how much he focused, which meant it had expanded significantly. By now, the amount of mana contained within it must be several times his own mana reserves.

Adrian focused his attention on the spell.

One of the functions he had applied to the spell was to create a door that connected the dimension directly to his body. When closed, only mana from his body could flow into the dimension. But when opened, the mana from the dimension could flow into his body as well.

And Adrian had complete control over that door.

While focusing on that door, he took a deep breath and mentally commanded it to... open.

But as the door connecting his body and the dimension opened, a strange pressure suddenly appeared in his surroundings, and as if a dam had broken, a large stream of mana gushed out from inside the dimension, directly into his body.

But the moment that happened, chills ran down his spine.

’Something is wrong...’

He didn’t know what, but something inside him was screaming at him that things had gone wrong, that things had gone horribly wrong.

It didn’t take long for him to find out, though.

An abnormally large amount of mana began forcing its way into his body, which was already full of mana, making him stifle a groan.

His body tried its best to push the mana back into the dimension, but that didn’t stop the massive wave of mana at all.

"Agh," he clutched his chest.

The mana began forcing his body’s capacity to expand, as if to make more room for it.

"No! Aghh!"

His body tried to release the excess energy outside, but couldn’t, because of the spell that redirected that mana into the dimension. Glowing bluish cracks began to appear all over his body as the excessive energy began tearing through his body to escape outside.

"Ahhhhhh!! No-ughhhhhHHH!!!"

His mind turned chaotic under the unbearable pain as his body was being torn apart from the inside. His thoughts shattered before they could form, preventing him from thinking straight.

He began scratching at the table in desperation and started grabbing and throwing books lying on it to the ground. His desperate thrashing made him fall off the chair, hitting his head on the hard surface as he fell to the ground.

His arms, legs, chest, and even the lower part of his face were all filled with glowing blue cracks as he continued to thrash around, even on the ground.

The glowing blue cracks continued to widen as if moments away from tearing his skin completely.

Suddenly, a cold sensation gripped his heart, making him freeze. It slowly spread across his entire body, making his limbs grow weak. Even the mind-numbing pain grew slightly dull as his vision slowly began turning dark.

His mind was still chaotic, and he still couldn’t think properly, but as if by instinct, Adrian understood. He was going to die soon.

Lying on the floor, his surroundings grew blurry as his consciousness began slipping away.

But just when he felt that it was all over, the view before him shifted.

Adrian suddenly stood in a pitch-black abyss, with only darkness present everywhere one’s eyes could look. A massive grey sun hung high above in that darkness, bound in millions of ethereal blue chains.

With a size so absurdly gigantic that his mind could barely comprehend it, its grey light illuminated the dark abyss like a burning candle illuminating the darkness, yet incapable of chasing it away completely.

It was a sight that would evoke awe in all who witnessed it. It was as if he was looking at something cosmic, something celestial.

The next moment, he was pulled into the grey sun without any warning. Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation, as if he was connected with all living beings in existence. He could feel their existence as well as he could feel his own.

Even though it lasted for only a second, his mind was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information he was made to perceive. At the same time, he felt a change occur within him. It was hard to explain the nature of that change, but he was sure something about him had indeed changed.

Then, his vision shifted once again as the pitch-black abyss, the grey sun bound in chains, all of it disappeared like an illusion.

Standing still, it took him a while to come to his senses as his chaotic mind cleared slowly.

"What...?"

He still felt disoriented, his mind a jumbled mess. But slowly the haze began to clear as he recalled everything that had happened until now. And as it did, he felt chills down his spine.

’I almost died.’

Something had gone wrong with the spell–or maybe he made some miscalculation–but the mana from the dimension had torn his body apart from the inside. The sensation was still clear in his mind.

And then...

’Wait, how did I survive?’

It felt as though he was moments away from dying, with his mind still chaotic from the pain. Yet he was now feeling completely fine, as if he had not suffered life-threatening wounds moments ago.

Still confused, Adrian focused his attention on his surroundings. But the moment he looked around and took in the view before him, he froze, as if turned to stone.

He couldn’t spot the towering bookshelves of the library, nor could he spot the table or cushioned chair where he had sat moments ago. In fact, he was not even in the mansion, from the looks of it.

He stood in a room that didn’t have a tall ceiling like he was used to seeing in the mansion. The floor beneath wasn’t the smooth, unknown black marble; it was a furnished wooden floor, something he could not expect to see in his new life.

To his left, there was a window, opened wide as the wind blew in, making his hair flutter. Outside the window, cars were speeding through the road as people walked in clusters, some even looking at their phones.

His mind went blank as he processed all this information. A deep frown appeared on his face as he pressed his hand to his temples.

’How did I... get back to Earth?’