The Mana Quotient upgrade was as painful as it was expensive! Not only did it put his guts and spine into a strain, but it also affected his brain, since intelligence was primarily located on one's brain! Timothy felt as if a viral virus was attacking his nervous system, he felt dumber by the second once the pain intensified, but he didn’t fear such foul effects per se, because he knew that they were temporary.
Timothy endured the pain for a whole hour, and at that point, the pain threshold was too high for him to handle, so he fainted. Fainting was one of the best things that could happen to him right now, because the pain he felt while unconscious was reduced by at least a third! He got a bit of peace like this.