Adrian looked around.

A wide-open window to his left, a furnished wooden floor, a white ceiling. He had seen all this only moments ago. He had been here and witnessed the recreation of one of his memories.

’But it’s different this time.’

Even though everything looked just like before, it somehow felt... different.

The first time, it felt no different from reality, almost indistinguishable. But right now, he could feel that all this wasn’t real. He could clearly sense it.

And that wasn’t the only thing he could sense.

’I’m unconscious right now.’

Though he couldn’t explain how or why, he could clearly feel that his body was currently unconscious. This place, it was actually within his own mind.

He moved closer to the window.

Unlike before, he could not see the traffic outside, nor could he see anything else. All he could see outside the window was a thick, dark fog.

Letting out a sigh, he casually opened the door in front of him and entered.

As he had expected, neither his grandmother nor his past self was present here. He began looking around the room.

His grandmother was a minimalist; she only kept absolutely necessary things. The concept of luxury was beyond her. Which was why the room was mostly empty, with only a bed, a small table beside it, and the cupboard present here.

’I think this rocking chair was the only luxury she had ever bought. She seemed to like it a lot, though, considering how she spent most of her time sitting in it.’

As he reminisced about those past moments, his gaze fell on a small picture frame on the table near the bed. He picked it up.

The photo in it was of his seven-year-old self sitting on his grandmother’s lap, both of them had a bright smile on their faces.

Adrian thought that he must be smiling at this moment, looking at this picture, but the face reflected in the picture frame’s glass was expressionless—as it had been for a long time.

He put the frame back on the table and sat in his grandmother’s rocking chair.

As he leaned back, his mind was filled with questions.

Why was he here? What was this place? Why did he see that vision? And what had caused it all? But he didn’t ponder over these topics. He would only make himself more confused if he started speculating without anything to go on. And besides...

’There is a more important matter at hand.’\

Adrian knew why he was unconscious. His body must be in a very critical condition at this very moment. There was even a chance that he would not survive for much longer.

And his body was in that state because he had injected it with an abnormally large amount of mana, which tore it apart from the inside.

’But why did that happen?’

The logic behind the phase system was that when intent became too strong and began drawing more mana than the body could handle, it would forcefully evolve to support handling that higher amount of mana.

So, according to his calculations, the mana from the dimension should’ve forcefully evolved his body so that it could handle that mana.

But it didn’t. His body didn’t evolve or change as he had expected, which caused all this.

Adrian sighed.

’Nothing’s making sense. Where is the mistake? It all should’ve gone according to my calculations. So why...’

Just then, his eyes began growing heavy. He could feel that his body was waking up. Adrian looked at his grandmother’s room one last time before closing his eyes.

***

Adrian slowly opened his eyes as a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling greeted his vision. He could feel his body resting on a familiar, soft surface.

’I’m in my room, huh? More than that, I don’t feel it, the pain or any lingering discomfort.’

He glanced at his own body. Although it was covered by a blanket, he couldn’t spot any of the wounds that should’ve been there or any scars. It was as if his body had never been horribly broken.

’Is this another vision?’

Just then, a heavy voice came from his left. He recognised it instantly.

"Finally awake? Young master Adrian, you have no idea how big a commotion you have caused in the mansion."

As he turned to the voice, he saw Sir Joran sitting on a cushioned chair a few steps away from the bed.

"How long was I—?"

"Two days. You’ve been unconscious for two days, even after all your injuries were healed. Honestly, you wouldn’t have survived if not for your personal maid; you should be thankful to her."

Adrian quietly looked at Sir Joran, waiting for him to explain further. Sir Joran remained for a few moments before speaking in a more formal, serious tone.

"Young Master Adrian, you are prohibited from using mana starting now. The only exception is when you have been given permission or when someone is around to supervise you."

Adrian narrowed his eyes.

’He didn’t ask how I ended up like that.’

To others, Adrian should’ve been found in the library, in a near-death state. The first thing one does in such a situation is ask how it all happened. Yet Sir Joran didn’t.

And those words must’ve been a message his mother asked Sir Joran to convey. After all, he didn’t have the authority to impose a prohibition on the child of his lord.

Letting out a sigh, Adrian contemplated for a bit before asking.

"Sir Joran, I have a question."

The burly knight gestured as if to say, ’Go ahead’.

"What would happen if a body were forcefully injected with an abnormally massive amount of mana? Would it evolve to a higher Phase?"

"How massive are we talking exactly?" Sir Joran asked thoughtfully.

"How massive?" Adrian pretended to think. "I don’t know, maybe an infinite amount of mana?"

Sir Joran tilted his head, looking at Adrian with an expression that seemed to be asking, ’What sort of nonsense is that?’

"Young Master, the body adapts and evolves to support a higher amount of mana. This is the logic behind the Phase Ladder, correct? Then tell me, how can anything adapt to infinity?"

Adrian froze as his eyes widened.

Sir Joran hadn’t spoken something profound. In fact, it was something rather simple. But the shock Adrian felt was exactly because of the simplicity of those words.

’Why didn’t I think of something so stupidly simple?’

Perhaps he had gone into so much technical depth that he couldn’t see such plain logic.

"Besides," Sir Joran continued. "It wouldn’t have worked. Many people have tried to ascend to a higher Phase artificially by forcefully injecting their bodies with a large amount of mana. But it failed each time, and all those people ended up dying. In the end, the imperial family put a stop to it by declaring the practice as part of unauthorised biological experimentation, making it illegal under imperial law."

He leaned in, meeting Adrian’s gaze.

"Young Master Adrian, you... wouldn’t attempt something like that, would you?"

Adrian frowned.

’So that’s how it is.’

He finally understood why Sir Joran didn’t ask anything about how he had ended up in that state. They all must have had a general idea of what had happened to him, but decided to quietly bury the topic. Otherwise, he would’ve become a criminal who broke the imperial law.

More than that, he finally understood something very important.

That spell, as well as the whole idea of infinite mana, was never going to work. After all, for him to use the mana from the dimension, he would first need to channel it through his own body. Doing that was as good as suicide.

’Seems like I was right all along. There’s no way something so convenient as infinite mana can exist. If only... I had stuck to that belief instead of wasting those five years doing something so meaningless.’

Well, it wasn’t completely meaningless. After all, studying dimension creation had helped him create the Space Implosion spell. It may not be as overwhelmingly strong as he had hoped, but it was still a decent space element attack spell, which he previously lacked.

"Young Master Adrian," Sir Joran’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while now, but... what happened to your presence?"

’Uh, now how am I supposed to explain that?’ 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He was sure that he shouldn’t mention anything related to his infinite mana dimension idea. But it would be hard to explain his lack of presence otherwise.

"To tell you the truth," Adrian began. "I have been experimenting with my presence since the moment I reached the Second Phase and got the ability to see it. I was trying to create a spell that removes presence completely."

Sir Joran frowned.

"That’s not possible. A lot of people attempted this, and all of them failed. If you try to keep the excess mana from releasing, then your body will burst like a balloon."

Adrian tried his best to make a sad, remorseful expression. Though he didn’t know if he succeeded.

"Sadly, I learned this fact too late and suffered greatly because of it. But during the desperate moment when my body was being torn apart, I tried to change the spell and stop it. Which somehow resulted in this. But since it all happened by mistake, I don’t know the process myself and can’t recreate it."

Sir Joran leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face. He stayed quiet for a while before replying.

"I see, what a pity. But you were lucky enough to survive, so I would say things turned out well."

Adrian heaved an internal sigh.

’Looks like he bought it.’

"But, Young Master Adrian,"

’Uh?’

Sir Joran leaned in.

"Are you... into assassination?"