[Chapter:16][Mistake? Or not?]

*bzzz*

The crystal buzzed as I fed it my mana, and it's pulses grew greater in magnitude as it gave off more mana than I had imbued into it.

"This…basically spits on the law of conservation of energy…"

The thought made me want to laugh as I gathered the mana generated by the crystal, and fed it back. Then, a larger amount of mana was released by it, which again I fed back into the crystal.

Over and over and over again, this process continued, until…

*crack*

'Ah, it cracked.'

I blinked as I saw the tiny, nearly imperceptible, yet distinct crack on the surface of the crystal.

'Now, what do I do?'

This was entirely knew area to me. None of the books I read mentioned anything about it.

So I could only shrug my shoulders and direct a small quantity of mana into the crack.

*crack!*

'Ah, it got wider.'

I felt like scratching my hair as I looked at the crack. It was obvious the crystal was something extremely important, yet I somehow needed up cracking it…and now what?

Do I just leave it alone till it recovers naturally?

How long would that take? Even the pulses stopped, meaning the crystal no longer generated mana. So does that mean I would no longer be capable of generating mana either till the crystal recovers?

And what if the crystal never recovers? Does that mean I crippled myself magic wise?

'Ah, whatever. I'm really not suited for thinking too much.'

Shaking my head with a sigh, I decided to say 'fuck it' and sent an enormous amount of mana into the crystal again.

*CRACK!* *BOOM!*

With a thunderous rumble, the crystal shattered into countless specks of light. Yet nothing disastrous happens. Instead, I felt a great hunger overcome me.

It wasn't the normal kind of hunger, though. Instead, it felt like something very important disappeared, and I felt tue desperate need to fill in the void left behind by its disappearance.

*click!*

With a shudder of my body, the restricting I placed on it disappeared, and within but a moment, oceans of mana began to surge from the outside, picking up a slight breeze which soon turned into a storm, nearly creaking the sofa I was seated on.

'Not enough…'

Yet, even as ridiculous amounts of mana gathered in the place of where the crystal previously was, I still felt empty.

'More…'

"What's happening here!?"

"Tanaka!?"

"Admin-san!?"

I could hear the shouts of the group. Looks like they came back huh?

Unfortunately, I couldn't focus on the, at the moment. Al I felt was hunger…a desperate, overwhelming hunger.

"More…", I muttered out subconsciously as my every breath cause all the mana around me to surge into my body.

*crack!*

A familiar sound of space cracking appeared as I barely opened my eyes to see the entire space around me splintering apart.

"The dimensional gap."

A thought flashed through my mind as I waved my hand, an exorbitant amount of mana coursing through it and impacting the flow of mana at the tips of my finger.

*crack* *crack!* *CRACK!*

Space shattered like brittle glass, and the familiar multicoloured scene made me smile as I let my self sucked into it.

"I'll be back in a minute."

That was all I could say as I looked at the surprised faces of the group before the crack in space recovered.

Then…silence.

'Is this the dimensional gap?'

Feeling the tremendous, horrifying amounts of energy, of mana around me, pressing every inch of my body and even my soul, I couldn't help but chuckle.

'Sweet, just what I needed.'

Even as I felt like the world itself was pressing onto every cell of my body in an attempt to squash me, I laughed.

'How long has it been since I laughed…'

It was strange, really. In my previous life, although I wasn't much of an extrovert, I still laughed every now and then.

Since I embraced the identity of Tanaka, though…

'It's like I forgot what it feels like…to laugh…'

For the first time in a very, very long time, however, I felt like laughing. And so I did.

*growl*

The soft grunts of a beast made me turn around, and what met my eyes is the gargantuan figure of red, scaled, majestic beast.

Four limbs, four wings, a long scaly neck, a draconic snout with a long horn curving backwards from its forehead, and a pair of draconic eyes that looked at me with unhidden curiosity.

"You must be Great Red."

The Dragon God of Dreams grunted in response.

"Nice to meet you. Don't mind me, I'm just here to eat."

It seems my words were quite surprising for it to hear, evident by the way it quirk its eye. Though I don't think it cared about my purpose, as I continued observing me.

As for me…

"Ah, I'm getting hungry again."

The energy pressing onto my body, at the moment I entered the dimensional gap, felt like I was being crushed by a mountain.

A second later, it changed to a smaller mountain.

Another few seconds later, it felt like a hill was on top of me. Don't ask me what the difference is between having a mountain and a hill atop your shoulders.

Less than a minute of staying here, the pressure was almost negligible, and now…

"Greedy little thing…"

I smiled as I felt whatever it was within me devour every last grace of energy that as much as touched my body. And the rate grew faster and faster, as when just a minute ago, it still couldn't do much about the energy of the dimensional gap, now, it was no longer satisfied with the 'mere crumbs' of mana pressing against my body.

'Hungry…'

A faint voice, one which I almost missed, echoed within my mind.

'More…', the voice resounded, louder and louder each time, and I could feel my conscious drifting away as instinct took over.

"I'm hungry…"

That was the last thought that I could think of…before everything faded away.

I blacked out.