Nick walked down the lonely street of the abandoned Dregs.
This part of the Dregs had nearly nobody living in it. At most, some people who wanted to avoid the blood tax tried to hide here.
And some of them actually managed to do that, but they were in the minority.
Because of that, only the people who couldn't afford to lose another two liters of blood would try that stunt.
After all, if they were going to die with the next tax anyway, they might as well take their chances.
But aside from these people, there was basically no one.
The streets were completely ruined, and walking on them was extremely dangerous.
Nick had been walking through these streets for several days now, only leaving once a day to do his duties in Dark Dream and to sleep.
Nick had become 18 years old recently, and he was finally ready to become a level two Extractor.
A John.
A couple of days ago, Nick had felt like some kind of energy inside of his body was ready to explode.
That was the sign of an Extractor being ready to break through.
The only thing they needed was to come into contact with an Adolescent Specter and have that energy explode forward.
At that point, they would reach the next level while also mutating their ability with the support of the Adolescent Specter.
Without being in contact with a fitting Specter, reaching the next level was impossible.
Of course, Nick could just come into contact with the Dung Heap since that was also an Adolescent Specter, but Nick didn't want that ability.
It didn't seem to fit the Null's ability very well.
So, Nick was trying to come into contact with a new Specter.
One that he had known for almost two years.
Back then, Wyntor had used it as an example for the category of Force Specters.
The Fog.
The Fog was a known Specter that lived in the abandoned Dregs inside Crimson Fungus City.
Many people knew about it, but the bigger Manufacturers were not interested in capturing it.
The issue was that the Fog was a Force Specter, which made it very difficult to catch and contain it.
The Containment Unit necessary to contain such a Specter was so insanely expensive that it might even take years for the Specter to pay it off.
25 million credits.
That was the price of the Containment Unit.
Something like the Fog would, at most, produce 50 grams of Zephyx a day, which was about 50,000 credits.
Assuming there were no associated costs and 100% of the produced Zephyx went to repaying the Containment Unit, it would still take 500 days to repay the Containment Unit.
But since Dark Dream only got to keep 60% of the Zephyx, it would take even longer.
Now, if the Fog were an Adult Specter, things would be different.
It would definitely produce over 100 grams of Zephyx a day, and they could still buy the same Containment Unit.
The Containment Units for Force Specters weren't built for weak Specters since it was not really profitable.
The materials needed to contain an Adult Specter barely made up 10% of the price.
The Containment Unit that Wyntor had bought had consumed an entire year of Dark Dream's profits, and he had even needed to take out a loan.
But for Nick, he was willing to pay that price.
Nick had been an excellent Chief Zephyx Extractor, and on top of that, Wyntor fully trusted Nick.
Naturally, Wyntor wouldn't waste such a great employee as Nick, and he would continue to invest in him so that Nick could reach his full potential.
The plan to capture the Fog had been created over a year ago.
Both of them realized that the Fog's ability had a great affinity with Nick's ability.
On top of that, the Fog wasn't an incredibly powerful Specter in battle.
Force Specters like the Fog almost exclusively fought with their abilities since they didn't really have bodies with which they could punch their opponents.
But in turn, capturing them was insanely difficult.
Nick knew that capturing the Fog was not a given.
Of course, Nick would get his ability either way since he only needed to come into contact with the Specter, but not being able to catch the Fog would mean that Dark Dream's investment would go up in flames.
Because of that, there was still a lot of pressure on Nick's shoulders.
As Nick walked through the empty and damaged streets, he looked around with his sharp eyes.
By now, Nick had reached a height of about 185 centimeters, and that was most likely where his growth was going to stop.
Nick hadn't been very tall before he had become a Zephyx Extractor, and it had seemed like he wouldn't grow up to be tall.
However, the Zephyx was essentially pure energy, and the body needed energy and nutrients to grow.
The Zephyx Nick had come into contact with had allowed his body to grow to a respectable height.
Of course, due to Nick's brutal training, he had also grown frighteningly muscular.
His body was almost identical to Reynold's body.
Any more muscle and Nick's speed and flexibility would suffer.
He was perfectly on the border between too little and too much muscle.
Nick was so athletic that he could even carry all five of his spears and his fist weapons while also being able to jump with quite some agility.
Nevertheless, Nick still only carried three of his spears with him since he didn't want to suffer too much of a speed disadvantage.
Nick had stopped training with Reynold and Manela a couple of months ago.
Both of them had essentially taught everything they knew about wielding their weapons to him.
Now, Nick only needed to get actual practice in real scenarios.
They were actually extremely impressed by Nick.
Reynold had even said something quite surprising.
"You do know that you are actually experienced and strong enough to join Kugelblitz, right? I could request an interview for you, and you would join my team within the week."
However, Nick declined.
Wyntor had never betrayed him and invested so much in him.
Nick wouldn't leave Wyntor like that.