Max's immediate thought was that he had perhaps misinterpreted the insect-lady's meaning. Immortal? Nah, that couldn't be. So he tried to clarify it.
'Me, never die? Always young?'
The insect-lady nodded, a smug grin blooming on her pink lips.
He got her confirmation. Instantly, Max felt his world crumbling down. His heart sank, and it was as if he had lost all hopes in life. He stayed frozen for the longest time, his face shifting gradually until it showed the deepest of despair.
The insect-lady, observing what was happening to the boy who had freed her, was rendered speechless. She had her mouth agape, disbelief written all over her smooth, gorgeous face. This was exactly the opposite of the reaction she had expected—no, believed anyone would show when receiving the news that they had become immortal.
After all, who didn't want to be immortal? She just couldn't wrap her head around why Max had reacted this way.
Thankfully, Max didn't stay like that for long. There was a little hope still flickering in his eyes. He felt determination creeping in. But first, he had to examine this terrible case from all angles, starting from the most obvious fact. He relayed to the insect-lady a question. 'What are you?'
Amidst his heightened brain activity, he didn't notice that he had automatically imagined typing words in his head, and along with them, came the meaning he wanted to convey. He realized this a second later, after which he concluded that this method was more effective at transmitting his thoughts more smoothly.
The insect-lady was surprised to receive such a smooth transmission. She had barely ever used her telepathic ability before meeting Max, so her transmission was still rough. But surprisingly, Max, who had just learned how to do it, was able to take it to the next level after just a brief exchange with her.
She snapped out of her daze and replied by conveying a certain information about her race. However, because she didn't speak in words, the name escaped Max. Though he could still somewhat perceive an image of the race she was talking about.
A memory from his childhood suddenly emerged in Max's mind. He did feel as if her form—a tiny person with insect wings—was not unfamiliar. Like, humans must have heard about a creature like her at some point in their lives. A creature from folktales. In this era however, ancient tales like that weren't super popular. And Max wasn't exactly a person who enjoyed reading or enjoying fiction in general.
Immediately, Max turned on his Iris and navigated his way to the browser app. He typed 'tiny girl with insect wings' on the search engine bar.
The search results displayed pictures of winged tiny ladies, though most of them possessed butterfly wings instead of dragonfly. They were called 'fae', otherwise more well-known as 'fairies'.
'Fairy?' asked Max.
The insect-lady nodded. She was indeed a fairy.
'And, the thing you gave me…dust?'
She nodded again. 'Fairy dust,' she clarified.
Max fell in thought. After a few seconds, he decided to summarize everything. 'So…you're telling me you're a fairy.'
The fairy nodded.
'And you sprinkled your fairy dust on me, making me immortal?'
The fairy nodded again, with a smile.
'Well shit, I don't wanna be immortal.'
The fairy opened her mouth as if wanting to say something, but then realized she didn't really know how to respond to that. It wasn't as if she was going to actually speak, since they had been communicating through telepathy. She was just so dumbfounded by Max's repulsion toward immortality she had reflexively opened her mouth.
She struggled with this for a bit, her lips bobbing up and down. Finally, she gave up and conveyed, 'You, not, serious.'
At that, Max was slightly offended. 'I'm being totally serious.'
The fairy was still having a hard time believing him, but then she relented and asked, 'But why?'
'Because I don't want to live forever. I want to finally meet my family again, wherever they are.'
Hearing that, the fairy finally understood, somewhat. However, she still didn't get one thing—he could still see his family again if he managed to remain alive after they had reincarnated, which meant he had to embrace immortality. After that, all he needed to do was to find where they were born next.
Did the people in this world not know about reincarnation? She wanted to ask him that, but something was tugging at her in the back of her mind, making her hesitate. So before she could decide, Max conveyed another question.
'How do I get back to being mortal?'
The fairy scratched her head. 'Fairy dust, again.'
'Oh, so what I need is another fairy dust sprinkle?'
The fairy nodded. 'But, not have, dust, now. Used all.'
The fairy had only had one dose of fairy dust, and she had used it to turn Max immortal.
Of course, Max was disappointed to hear that. 'Is there any way you or I can acquire more fairy dust?'
The fairy nodded, giving Max hope. But then that hope was instantly crushed the next second. 'Dust, not here. Where, my world.'
Max slumped. There was no way he could cross The Gatemaker and go to The Ancient Ruins. Only those within the government had access to The Gatemaker. Not even the high-profile magic device manufacturers could gain the right to cross over.
And being who he was, there was no way Max could join the government. He had no qualifications. He hadn't even graduated high school! Besides, it was an open secret that only a few percent within the government were allowed access to The Gatemaker.
However, the bad news didn't end there.
'And,' the fairy continued. 'Rare thing. Location, not know.'
She knew The Ancient Ruins had fairy dust, but the dust was apparently a rare commodity and she didn't know where exactly it was located. To hope he could find it, Max had to literally scour the entire planet. And there was a hearsay that The Ancient Ruins was almost twice as big as Ardeim.
In other words, Max was fucked. Besides, who knew how long the fairy had been trapped in that wooden chest? In the meantime, it was even possible that somebody else had beaten him to it and hogged the dust all to themselves.
Max felt like crying. He had only kept going so far, without any goal in mind, living only to wait for his time to come. He hadn't even bothered looking to rent an apartment. He just couldn't find any motivation to increase his living standard.
All he ever felt was hollow. He had only been living in a world of grey.
The only satisfaction he could feel in his dull life was whenever the black market dealer transferred his payment. It wasn't like he needed money so bad. He only used it for food and other minimum living supplies, after all. However, there was just this unexplainable sense of fulfillment whenever he received a reward after putting his effort into something.
At least it gave his life a bit of color.
The fairy bit her lips, feeling bad that her savior was despairing due to her action. Back in her world, everybody strived for power and immortality. So the notion that it was not the same case in this world hadn't crossed her mind before sprinkling her fairy dust on him. She had just straight up assumed that he would be grateful that she had used such a rare treasure on him to make him immortal.
Max didn't know what to do now. His mind had gone blank. Little did he know, his life was about to change entirely, whether he wanted it or not. And that started with his heart rate increasing and the heat he sensed crawling up his chest.
At first, it was easy to ignore. But then it intensified in just a few seconds. He put his hand on his chest before clutching on his shirt. His breathing became erratic. He glanced at the fairy and asked, 'What is happening to me?'
The fairy stared at him as if it was no big deal. 'That, bonus. You not mage before, now you are.'
He was a what now? Max was barely able to think straight, feeling the heat burning his rapidly beating heart.
Seeing him struggling and the panic in his eyes, the fairy was once again flabbergasted. Why was he letting the heat be? He should have started to regulate mana immediately. 'You not know, what do?' she asked.
Of course he didn't know what to do! Max couldn't help but glare at the fairy. She was looking at him as if he was an idiot, that it should be obvious what he was supposed to do at that moment. 'No! I don't know what to do! Tell me!'
The fairy then got over her own confusion and began conveying a certain method to Max.
It took longer than both of them had expected for Max to decipher the method without using words. However, he finally managed to get a grasp on it, somewhat.
He understood that his now faster and stronger heartbeat was the cause of what was happening to him. As he knew, mana was attracted to a living being's heart. And the stronger it was, the more mana was being pulled in. It was like a star pulling energy with its gravity.
And now that Max's heart was undergoing transformation, more and more mana was naturally being dragged into it. Consequently, his body started overheating.
So what he had to do now was to build what was called a Mana Regulator around his heart. This acted as both the trapper of mana so that it wouldn't run rampant in his body, and as a tool that would reduce the chance of overheating, since it would be able to help him regulate the amount of mana going in and out of his body.
His heart had now turned into something different; not anymore a normal human heart. And apparently, this was a common phenomenon in the fairy's world. Max still had to find the word in Elysian language for this, but the fairy had actually transformed his heart into one called a Mage's Heart. It was the main prerequisite for a person to become a mage.
He tried breathing in deep, then breathed out. Breathe in, breathe out. He had his eyes closed, and focused only on what was happening in his chest. There was mana that was wildly kicking up a storm around his heart, and he had to organize it and form the foundation for his Mana Regulator.
He didn't know this, but it was actually easier for him to sense mana within himself than most mages. That was thanks to his ability to see mana waves. He wasn't actually seeing them right now, but it wasn't hard to connect his sight to his internal senses. He imagined mana swirling around his heart in the form of waves.
And then, like a parent telling their unruly children to behave, he 'caught' these mana waves, bit by bit, placed them in a line around his heart and commanded them to stay put. The fairy had conveyed what the foundation for a Mana Regulator normally looked like. It was like a ring around a planet.
After what felt like forever, Max had finally succeeded in calming down the mana waves around his heart. He could feel there was a silent but constant battle in his heart between mana wanting to go out and the heart's gravity pulling in. But his ring of 'tamed' mana was doing a decent job containing them.
For now, his ring still looked rough. It was basically composed of 'bubbles' of mana that barely orbited his heart. Not to mention, they were all disjointed, resembling chunks of rocks around a planet, whereas it was supposed to form one cohesive and refined mana ring. They were not supposed to look like many bubbles, rather it was supposed to be a solid ring of mana.
But that was okay. Max had to take it one at a time. It was already a miracle that he was able to form the foundation of the ring this fast. In other words, he had successfully entered the most basic yet crucial stage on the path toward becoming a mage. It was called The Ring Formation Stage.