The moment the gate become shut, I felt my link with the Mental Energy around me stronger than ever, I'm now able to freely control it as I wished, this was already the perfect turn of events to me .
I thought that there would be something troublesome happening to me like what happened with closing the gate and how troublesome that was, the gate being shut also brought changes to the scenery around me, now I wasn't just surrounded by darkness, but I was devoured by the darkness .
The gate disappeared from my senses, all I currently saw in front of me was a pitch black darkness, that seemed to devour the concept of light itself, the only thought I had in mind was that I might have actually jinxed myself by wondering about the troublesome situation I will encounter next .
Well, here it comes, filled with all the troubles that I'm not acquainted with how to even start to deal with, in the instructions in the method, I suppose to open the gate after I closed it 9 times, but here with the first problem that faced me in doing that, I can't manage to even find the gate .
How should I try to open it, when I can't even find it, what kind of a situation I'm in, well, from my perspective, I was in a terrible situation, I wasn't able to understand what should I do, not to mention that time hadn't stop passing outside, who in the world knows how many hours had passed by now .
Wait, something seemed to be wrong, I'm already panicking like this, yet I hadn't broke the focused state that had brought me here, what in the world does this mean, I should have been kicked out like what happened before, why I haven't been kicked out yet .
I was slightly panicking before, but now, now my panicked state seemed to have leveled up to max, I'm now facing the final boss of panic, Terror, I started to feel my body getting heavier, my breathing rigid like never before, my senses getting completely dull, my vision may have already started to blur, I'm not able to see anything, I won't even be that much surprised if I had already blacked out .
It was only after the second that this thought appeared on my mind, did I finally started to let go of this state, after recalling that I was still alive, I was still here and for a reason, my senses were already dull, the second I appeared here,my body outside wasn't in a critical state, there was no need to panic .
The only thing that I was still concerned about was time, but I seem to have come in terms with this concern, I needed to calm down and focus on the things that I can do to solve my situation, time was out of my hands to control, but how to make the best use of the time in hand wasn't .
The only thing I can do now, is to try and make use of my remaining time here to actually achieve something, I calme down and started to inspect every inch of the area with my Mental Energy, in hope of finding the mysterious gate, I then felt that I happened to stumble into something and directly went where that feeling came from .
I saw that it was a piece of bronze, that piece seemed to have fell from the gate doors just now, after picking it up, it actually sunk into my body and disappeared, I got goosebumps at first, but then recalled how weird my situation already is and just started to try and perceive the location of that damned gate .
After a second or two, another fragment of the door was found by me and even though, I didn't have a clue about what was going on, I was still keen on getting it first, soon in my hands, there were numerous fragments of the doors, it seem that the doors hadn't broke apart, they had shattered into numerous pieces and my task now was to glow them together as it seem .
I had perceived the last fragments that was in this weird space and seem to have finally collected every fragments there is, then a magical scene happened after I had collected the last fragment, the fragments that had sunk into my body before began to come out and fuse with each other forming the gate from before, but this time something was different with the bronze gate doors .
One side of the doors was now obsidian in color, while the other side remained the exact same, seeing this I couldn't help but wonder what kind of change was that, but as the gate completely materialized in front of me, I was able to have some guesses regarding what was happening .
One side had the illustration of a man sitting in meditation posture, the sun and the moon were on his shoulders, people seemed to worship him or maybe asking him for help, they were prostrating in front of him in a weird fashion, that what was on the bronze side .
On the other side, the obsidian side, there was an illustration of a wicked creature head that seemed to be quite evil, just looking at the illustration made people frown and I was no different, especially not with seeing what seemed to be a river of corpses flowing beneath him .
On that big head sides, there were creatures of all sorts and kind kneeling on one knee in front of him, the scene made me believe that those two illustrations were depictions of the two nature I bear in me, my human nature and now my demon one, at least that was how I interpreted what I was currently seeing as, not willing to dwell much on this than how much I already dead, I felt glad that I finally managed to come this far .
But it was not the time to take things here easy or slightly, I directly approached the gate in front of me and started to inspect it using Mental Energy, my Mental Energy control currently was unmatched, so it took less than a second to inspect the situation thoroughly, as mentioned in the Mind Nourishing Method first chapter, I will need to reopen the gate using my Mental Energy .
As I tried pulling the doors of the gate, I felt that my Mental Energy was being consumed rapidly, it was as if the two doors in front of me were absorbing my Mental Energy, but they weren't budging an inch, so I directly stopped trying and started to have a headache right after .
It was a mental one that I was starting to feel due to the predicament I was currently facing, the problem could be summarized in the fact that Ithe consumed Mental Energy wasn't being regenerated, meaning that the only thing that I can use to push those doors to open was currently severely lacking .
I wasn't able to grasp anything beyond that, my heart or at least that what I felt to be my heart started to beat faster than ever before, I ws unable to calm it down this time until at least a minute had passed, only then did I started to think thoroughly about this predicament of mine .
If I'm unable to use my current Mental Energy reserve to open that gate, then a dire consequences waited me, I don't know what those consequences might be exactly and whether they will be life-threatening or not, but I was certain about not wanting to find out .
Not trying to recklessly manage this situation as before, I instead began to analyze my situation to discern whether the current amount of mental energy would suffice in opening that gate again, or was it better to wait some more time, as I was beginning to think of this, I sensed something weird going on with darkness around me .
They were beginning to fuse with my Mental Energy, it seem that my actions had set off some kind chain reaction, I felt it more clearly this time, my Mental Energy was being corroded and forced to fuse with whatever that black darkness of mine was .
The Mental Energy reserve of mine hadn't decrease thankfully, but not only hadn't it being decreased, it also began to materialize physically, my Mental Energy now had something like a tangible and effective impact on my surroundings, meaning that my Mental Energy could be said to have gotten a bit more stronger .
But the thing was, the darkness around me seemed to disperse at an alarming rate as well, my head buzzed with questions, but now was not the time or place to be dwelling on such topics, the thing that I was concerned about was whether will I run out of Mental Energy and that weird darkness before I manage to reopen that mysterious gate or not .
Thinking like this, I directly began to think of the most suitable way to open that gate, the current Mental Energy I have should allow me to impact the gate doors two times, before I run out of any opportunity to open the gate with the meager amount I would still have left .
The first thing that I had tried to do was to force open that gate with my physical hands when I used it before, but this time it was completely to no avail, the thing not only was inaccessible for me to touch with my bare hands, it directly become illusionary once I try to get close to it .
That was the thing that remind me of needing to use Mental Energy if I were to ever hope of opening that gate again, thinking of this, I couldn't help but have a crazy thought in mind, seeing how the fragments were scattered before, I thought about instead of trying to open it, I can try to shatter the door .
Being a bit hasty due to the different things that were at risk currently, I tried to implement this idea of mine instantly, my idea was to use the materialized mental energy and shape in a drill like shape and use that drill to blow holes in the gate doors in front of me .
According to the method, the moment I opened those gate doors, my mental energy would increase, so digging hole in the two doors in front of me might allow me to regain some of my consumed Mental Energy, not only that, but even though it might be quite the far-fetched possibility, I had some firm belief that I will be able to find a way to retreat back into reality .
The only question now was whether I would like two waste one of the two chances I have on this, a long time should have passed outside by now, I wouldn't be surprised, if a few days might have already passed even, so I now need to take my chances and make up my mind .
I tried to morph the Mental Energy that had fused with the weird darkness in this place, thanks to the superior control I currently had on my mental energy, I instantly saw that in front of me an electric drill appeared and this drill was even gleaming with white light .
The head of the drill had started to revolve then with my intention of attacking the gate, I saw that the drill went ahead and started to clash with the gate doors, trying to drill holes in the side that had the human illustrated on it wasn't possible, even after the drill had focused on clashing with that side for 6 times, there wasn't even a scratch on the door surface, not even a shallow mark .
Sensing that my Mental Energy was being consumed together with the darkness around me, I understood that I will fail soon to open the gate, so instead of letting this chance go to waste, I tried to dig holes in the other side, the obsidian side of the gate doors, it was nothing but a gamble on my side, it wasn't a move that targeted success, it was an experience gathering move at most .
But unexpectedly, it did work beyond what I hoped for it to do, the moment the drill crashed into the Door, I was beginning to see a shallow marks starting to appear, this was after the first clash between the two, seeing this, I was overjoyed, then all of my caution disappeared .
The second clash happened and the place still was deathly silent as before, but I managed to see that the shallow marks become even deeper than before, but the only issue laid in the fact that the drill was starting to become illusory, the Mental Energy consumed to make all this happen, was enough to weaken it greatly .
But I had already made up my mind after seeing the marks that filled that side of the door, I will use my Mental Energy to drill that door open right now, the illusory drill suddenly started to shine with brilliance, being empowered by all the Mental Energy I currently have, made it shine even more brightly than before .
Then as if getting more vigorous, it directly clashed with the closed door gate again, this time the marks didn't get deeper, a hole was made in the door by the spinning drill, the whole place was suddenly illuminated by the light that came through that door, I was stunned slightly so the drill had stopped for a few seconds, then I saw that the hole was starting to regenerate, so instantly I allowed the drill to go all-out .
In less than a few seconds, the whole door was filled with big wide holes that illuminated the whole space, this time these holes weren't regenerating, the door itself started to shake and the cracks connecting these holes together started to get wider and wider across this side of the gate door .
The drill had been completely consumed and turned illusory then dissipated, the door was still being shaken and the cracks began to appear all over it, in any second now it should be coming down, as this thought appeared, I saw that this door shattered directly and as if they were sharing the same fate, I saw that the other side that had been unmoving before, was suddenly flung open .
I was already at my limit, so the second this happened, I was finally kicked out of this weird space and returned to reality, I felt that my body was unfamiliar to me, but all that I can think of currently was whether I had succeeded in taking the first step .
Just as I was contemplating on this, my door was suddenly knocked on, looking at the closed door in front of me, my mind frowned at recalling the process just now, but I still allowed the person knocking on the door to enter, elder Loon and the father of this guy entered and had a joyful expression on his face, seem to be in quite the good mode, unlike me, he said :
Callen, the family head said that there have been some news regarding the person you had been looking for .