Elios calculated the movement very well – in approximation with the previous string, the distance to the Gate, the direction it should go, the movement… well, the comparison to strokes wasn't entirely out of place.
The first movement was fast and, just as it was about to be completed, Elios stopped.
There as no need to continue – he already saw the flaw.
The movement was one millimetre off.
Actually, he didn't know how much that was, but he just decided that the gate was one metre tall in his sea of consciousness, this meant that based on the fact that one metre is 100 centimetres and one centimetre being 10 millimetres…
Just based on this, he was actually constantly comparing a small movement with the gate that was 1.000 times larger.
It was infinitely difficult, so this mistake was expected by Elios.
At least he didn't dare to say he would succeed on the first try – every new day he would try it again, and if he didn't do anything for a whole day, then he would become unprecise.
It wasn't to the level of being rusty, but in the case of just one millimetre causing failure, it was obvious that this small 'rustiness' would cost him at least one try.
After a moments rest, he tried again. His mental power was full and he wanted to gamble today.
*Swish* the movement was fast yet steady, following a predestined path.
After it finished, time seemed to stop for a moment, before the string broke on its own.
"No- why? Fuck! What happened? Wasn't it perfect?!" Elios was agitated, complaining in his mind without break.
He allowed himself to be mad at these times – taking everything into yourself was definitely not good, neither for his mentality nor his health, so he just cursed as he wanted.
A few minutes later, he calmed down and inspected the mistake.
"Hmm, it seems the issue wasn't the movement itself, but the connection! Strings are all connected, I actually made a beginner mistake – instead of leaving the string open, I made it a 'perfect' string.
Perfection means it can't be connected with other things, only when things are imperfect will they connect with others to become perfect.
But where should I make it imperfect? Hmm… the next string will be connected to the side, should I cave it slightly to the side?"
He thought about it deeper and deeper, throwing around different ideas, before he had a good idea.
"It does connect to the side, but there are strings above and below it that are already connected to the side – in this case, it doesn't actually need to be connected, or rather, even if it's connected, the strings above and below won't connect together.
They are right – the last steps are always the most difficult. The answer seems obvious, but in fact, one shouldn't take the most correct answer… maybe, if I were to connect the top and bottom, this one might be pulled by them into connecting with the one to the side!
Strings aren't singular entities – in other patterns and even nets, there were similar cases.
It seems I was obsessed with perfection at the last step, that I fully ignored my experience and opted for quick success!"
He shook his head before focusing once more.
This time, he waited a bit longer, calculating many things, before he started once more.
*Swish*
The start of the string was a bit fast, making the start sharp, unlike the previous perfect flatness.
At the end, he had an abrupt stop, and the string ended with a semi-circular shape, as if the last power pushed the centre of the string a bit forward.
The string stopped but there was no further movement – it didn't break, which meant that it was in a rather stable position, but Elios knew this was an illusion.
It was currently still fine because it retained a part of the mental power, if he waited for too long, it would loosen up and break!
He quickly followed his plan – using one tenth of mental power on the string above, he made a extremely small sharp hole.
Instantly, the tip of the sharp string connected, but the shape of the string was still triangular sharp, not fully connected.
Elios knew this would happen and didn't pay any more attention – the rushed to the other side and used another tenth of his mental power to cave in the string below.
In just a moment, this end was connected too.
Finally, he used another tenth of mental power, pushing it into the string.
The string seemed to heal on its own, and the connection became better and better.
While the string reached a perfect synergy with the other strings, Elios was fighting his tiredness.
He used 4 fifths and one tenth of his mental power – only one tenth remained.
He already crossed the safety line and was barely staying awake.
Just as he did so, he saw a wonderful scene.
The strings fully connected on this end, then they formed a pattern together. Only at this moment did he see that the invisible connection to the side rose again, connecting the pattern into the net that had already formed.
Then, the net reached out from all sides, connecting to the other two nets that were hovering close by.
It was like seeing gears turn – one step was completed, all steps followed!
Just as Elios was extremely weak, suddenly, a familiar power flowed from the Gate of Worlds!
"This… isn't this my mental power?!" he asked in shock.
All this time, he never felt the Gate absorb his power, so he never thought he would get mental power this way.
Information flowed in with the mental power – in fact, the Gate of Worlds had another ability, to absorb World Energy and transform it into every kind of energy.
This small mental power was from the reserves plundered over the years of living in his body – only in the last three months did it really take off and absorb more…
Just as he was about to read further and learn more, he saw that the nets all aligned themselves together!
*BANG* an extremely loud sound spread across his whole sea of consciousness-
Like thunder that symbolised the beginning of spring, suddenly, his heart started beating extremely strong!
Just as Elios was enjoying the sudden increase of magic power, there was a knock on his door –
*Knock* *Knock* Knock*