It's a great day to be an immortal," Klein declared, unable to contain his wicked laughter as he stared at the blue vial of elixir in his palm.

"Congratulations, Klein. You've created the highly suspicious elixir of eternal youth," praised his spiritual assistant, Xin, her tone flat through the telepathic link, clearly skeptical of the elixir's authenticity.

"You'll see," Klein said, failing to contain his joy.

The long anticipation ended as Klein finally created the forbidden elixir of immortality. For the last five years, he had been searching for the missing ingredients from one forbidden realm to another, scouring three worlds, wasting half of his family's assets, and ultimately finding the key ingredient needed for the elixir.

Not only that, but he had also neglected training for the last five years and hardly improved in his abilities as a Fifth Circle Mage. While being a Fifth Circle Mage at the young age of 21 was impressive, it wasn't as desirable at 26.

Despite all that, many still couldn't match his power. Advancing to the Fifth Circle Mage was the hardest hurdle, and a couple of his colleagues even died in their attempts.

"Death, huh?" Klein chuckled. "Today, I'll conquer death."

"Says the guy who couldn't even land a date in the last five years," mocked the Artificial Spirit in her typical skeptical tone.

Klein was about to retort, but his mouth remained open for a moment. "Xin, remind me again why I bother to tolerate this sassy side of you. And besides, I was busy on my quest."

"There are a couple of reasons," Xin transmitted into his mind from the tiny shard implanted at the back of his brain. "Clearly, you have embraced your inner hermit to the fullest. Or why else are you so hopelessly lonely and do nothing about it? Talk to a person? Nah, you'd prefer looking for a unicorn instead."

"Truth, too much truth. Stop it," Klein said with a laugh. "And unicorns aren't real."

"Apparently, the Elixir of Immortality is," snorted Xin, almost too humanly.

"It is," Klein asserted. "Your scan confirmed the elixir's authenticity."

"Nope, I could only read its signature, which differed greatly from mana or any nano-magic technology I have ever encountered."

"You said it radiates a higher-order energy signature than mana."

"I suspected."

"But you confirmed the elixir will nourish all—body, soul, and mind."

Xin expressed an exasperated groan, a behavior she had learned from observing him. "Once you set your mind to something, it's impossible to convince you otherwise. I learned it the hard way during your expedition to the Dark Realm."

"Don't remind me of that again," Klein groaned. The Dark Realm had been the biggest challenge in his search. Two years spent in complete darkness, fighting against insanity, though it felt longer than a mere two years. It was where he turned Xin into what she was now.

You simply can't fight madness alone. Her time there certainly made her more snarky.

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Wasting five years of youth when growth was most crucial was a mistake only a fool would make, everyone had told him. But holding the elixir in his hand, he felt everything was worth it. Even the pain he endured to steal the Fruit of Life from the Dark Realm, as well as the hours spent boiling in the Slag to gain the moon's water.

Klein might be a fool, but he would be an immortal fool.

He was only one step away from reaching a level that not even his ancestors, or perhaps anyone in the world, had achieved in the last millennium.

Taking a deep breath, Klein calmed his heart and stopped his thoughts from running wild. He was about to take the elixir when Xin cautioned, "Don't be a fool; keep your dimensional orb close to you. Who knows what that elixir will cook up?"

Klein nodded and pulled the dark orb resting on the table with an unstructured telekinesis spell.

The dimensional orb was something he found along with the elixir formula, or rather, the formula was inside the orb, along with a couple of important ingredients to concoct the elixir. Even without the formula, the orb was of tremendous value.

A small private dimension to store all your belongings—that was pretty unique. More than that, actually. He had never heard of anyone having something similar in their possession.

The orb came flying to his palm at the whim of the telekinetic spell as his eyes focused on the elixir again. A grin spread on his lips, thinking about showing off his newfound success to others. That didn't seem like a half-bad idea, though it was not his style.

The first time he discovered the elixir formula, he never even dreamed of searching for all those otherworldly ingredients. Yet, here he was now, holding the elixir of immortality. It was nearly miraculous that he found all the ingredients and concocted the elixir.

Without further thought, he poured the elixir into his mouth and swallowed it down. He could feel the elixir reaching his stomach on its way toward his core.

Fiery energy surged from the liquid as it attacked his core, wrenching out a raw, visceral scream. It swiftly coursed through his blood to every single cell in his body, flooding them with power. Within a few seconds, it reached every part of him.

Yes, yes, this is it, he thought. This is power...

And with power came pain.

Klein tried to draw in his mana to ease the process. It was calming at first, but then the surging energy from the elixir seized his mana. His mana was but a trickle against the storming current.

[High-level abnormalities have been detected], Xin warned.

His consciousness wavered, pain gnawing at his whole being, but he continued, gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw. Dazed, his mouth and body turned dry as sweat formed and evaporated in mere seconds. He felt like his soul was being forcefully severed from his body.

Pain, got to embrace the pain to become immortal, he muttered repeatedly. But then his body began to break, as complete blackness seized hold of him.

The pain reached another level, and he could not endure it anymore. He could sense his body breaking, as well as his core shattering, swallowed by a torrent of dark energy. The core had been so hard for him to create when he reached the Fifth Circle, not to mention how excruciating it was when he advanced, yet it was breaking so easily now.

No. No, this is not immortality; it's something else, he shouted in his mind. But he could not stop the process. It was nearly halfway through.

"The power isn't nourishing you," Xin's voice came in alarm. "It's mutating you. Your mana, your very being..."

No kidding, genius. I figured that out too, Klein screamed inwardly. Can you do anything about it?

Xin had no answer for him.

Klein groaned. Using a few strands of mana that he could barely manipulate, he infused it into the dimensional orb, trying to recover some healing elixirs from it.

However, the moment he got a hold of a couple of vials, the dimensional orb contorted in his palm, seeking to break free. Then his vision went completely black.

He could feel Xin's words in the back of his mind, but he could not piece together what she said. Eventually, he lost all his senses as his mind drifted off into the darkness. The familiar, maddening darkness.

About an eternity later, Klein could hear Xin's voice again, though it felt dull to his mind.

"Where have you taken this poor soul with your madness now?"

Xin? Klein thought. What happened?

"A bunch of things. Where do I start? Hmm... How about that highly suspicious elixir of immortality turning out to be a disaster and the dimensional orb thrusting you into a completely different dimension, using the very energy that should have turned you into an immortal?"

Klein groaned. As far as disasters go, this one sounded a little too outlandish.