"I was worried sick about you!" Aria shouted inside Nick's office.
"Sorry," Nick answered neutrally, "but there wasn't much I could have done about that."
"Why did you even go on your own? Something could have happened!" Aria shouted in anger.
"I told you," Nick answered, his tone still neutral. "I don't want you to learn of my ability."
Aria took a deep breath as she kept her anger in check.
"Why would that be so bad?" she asked. "We're in a relationship, right? Our lives are connected, right? How is it possible that you prefer risking your life over telling your girlfriend a bit more about your life?"
Nick frowned. "I already told you that the secret of my ability is the biggest and most important secret I own. My ability can be relatively easily countered as long as someone knows about it. Just telling you that much is already putting me into a dangerous situation."
"Dangerous situation? How is me knowing dangerous to you? Do you think I would just tell any random person or Specter about your secrets?"
Aria seemed quite insulted. "Even if we were to have some kind of falling out, I would still not unveil your secrets. Betraying these secrets would be akin to betraying the memory of this relationship and myself."
"The fact that I didn't tell you about any of the shady things Kugelblitz has done while I still worked for them is proof enough."
Nick didn't show any outward reaction to Aria's words for a while.
"0.0001 is infinitely higher than 0," Nick said. "Even if you were to use your entire power and mind to protect my secret, there would still be ways to get it. Jenny is a good example."
Aria glared at Nick.
She loved Nick, and she wanted to be in a relationship with him.
Yet, he always kept his distance.
He agreed to be in a relationship with her, and he also said that he loved her.
Nevertheless, he always stayed away from her, acted on his own, and kept all his secrets to himself.
How was this a relationship?
Wasn't a relationship built on trust?
If you couldn't trust your partner, why were you in a relationship with them?
Well, some people would say sex, status, or wealth, but none of that applied here.
Nick was uninterested in sex.
His status was higher than Aria's.
And while he wasn't as rich as Aria, Nick really didn't need any more money.
'What's even the point of this relationship? I don't get it,' Aria thought with annoyance.
"I think it's better we stop here for today and continue some other time," Aria said.
Nick nodded.
The two of them exchanged some uninteresting and empty sentences before Aria left Nick's office.
After Aria left and Nick's ability reactivated again, he sighed.
'I have no idea what to do,' he thought.
'I want to tell her more, but I can't. Telling her more will put her in danger.'
Interestingly enough, Nick wasn't referring to any external sources.
He was referring to himself.
There was one thought that Nick had had for a couple of years already, and ever since he had come up with it, he had never forgotten.
'What if my ability can become even more powerful by becoming more unknown?'
'The Null kills everything that learns too much about it.'
'What if my ability can become even more powerful if there are no humans left in the world that know of my ability?'
Nick remembered how the Champion of Light had acted.
The Champion of Light had deliberately told Nick to keep his ability secret from the other two Shields.
There had to be a deeper meaning to this if the Champion of Light didn't even want his closest allies to know of Nick's ability.
Nick wasn't certain, but he didn't want to take any chances.
Additionally, he also couldn't shake the feeling that being close to him was extremely dangerous in general.
Almost everyone who had been close to Nick was dead.
His family, Trevor, Wyntor, Julian, Albert…
The only one that survived for a long while was Jenny.
Nick logically knew that there wasn't some kind of higher power or whatever that forced him into one tragic scenario after the other, but he still didn't feel safe allowing someone to come closer.
The closer someone was to him, the more scared Nick became of their death.
Nick shook his head. 'I can't solve this stuff now anyway. I should focus on doing something that actually matters.'
Nick left his office and went down to the Containment Units.
However, he didn't enter any Containment Unit.
Instead, he searched for one of the local extraction captains.
Since the city wasn't technically a Manufacturer, they also didn't have a Chief Zephyx Extractor.
Instead, the duty of organizing Zephyx extraction was dispersed over five people.
Each of these five people was responsible for every Specter on a single level.
One guy was responsible for all the Hatchlings, another guy for all the Adolescents, and so on.
Nick went to the extraction captain, who was responsible for all the Elders.
By now, the extraction captain should have already finished creating a basic profile of the new Specter.
And sure enough, he had already created it.
The slug's official name was Big Brain Slug, and it was a Mid Elder.
Even more, it was worth quite a lot of money since working with it was very easy and wasn't limited to a small number of people.
The more people were lost in the Big Brain Slug's labyrinth, the more Zephyx it produced.
Additionally, weaker people could work with the Big Brain Slug as well.
They hadn't been able to test what kind of ability it would give new Extractors yet, but even if it turned out to be pointless, the Big Brain Slug would probably still be the most valuable Mid Elder in the entire city.
By capturing the Big Brain Slug, Nick had given the city a valuable treasure.
And that wasn't even everything!
Five of the six people Nick had rescued had joined the city guard.
While they were not a gigantic help, two Veterans and three Johns still amounted to something.
After looking at the report, Nick decided to pay the Big Brain Slug a visit.
He entered its Containment Unit and looked at it.
For now, nobody was working with it since the extraction captain still needed to create a shift plan for it and also had to teach the Extractors how to work with it.
"Since you've come peacefully, your rate of Zephyx confiscation is only at 90%. You get to keep 10% of what you produce," Nick said.
The Big Brain Slug didn't show any reaction.
It had expected that it would be something like that.
90% was on the lower side but still common.
"However," Nick continued, "you have the unique opportunity of increasing that ratio to your favor."
"There are Specters with lower rates since they are helping us in unique ways. For example, I've worked with one for years that only has a 75% confiscation rate."
The Big Brain Slug didn't seem to react, but Nick could somehow tell that it was paying more attention to him now.
"How can I improve my rate?" it asked flatly.
"You can communicate," Nick said. "Additionally, you are very intelligent and have lived in the outside world for a long time."
"You want information," the Big Brain Slug answered.
"Correct," Nick answered with a nod. "I want to know more about the cave system and what we can find there."
"What do I get out of this?" the Big Brain Slug asked.
"Depends on how valuable your information is," Nick said. "I'm willing to lower the confiscation rate to 50% until a multiple of the value of your information has been repaid. If your information isn't very valuable, you get to keep this confiscation rate only for a couple of days. If it is extremely valuable, it could remain this low for decades."
The Big Brain Slug weighed its options.
"How can I trust that you won't go back on your word? I'm not human. Your laws don't protect me," it asked.
"Because we both know what you will do," Nick said. "You will give us a relatively cheap one to see whether or not we keep our word. If we do, you will give us a better one, and so on."
"If I break my word, you will simply stop giving out any information. I know that. You know that. We all know that."
The Big Brain Slug thought about Nick's words for a while.
"I am fine with the deal," it answered a couple of seconds later.
Nick nodded. "Then, what's your first bit of information?"
"There's a level two Possession Specter hidden in one of the caves. You just have to walk up to it and grab it. It has no offensive capabilities."
"However, it is pretty deep in the cave, and you will require a lot of light."
Nick didn't show any reaction, but he felt like he had picked up a treasure.
The first secret the Big Brain Slug was telling him was already netting him an Adolescent Possession Specter.
"Alright," Nick answered. "We are going to check the validity of your information, and if it is valid, we will lower your confiscation level to 50% for around a week."
"A week?" the Big Brain Slug asked. "That's not much."
"Slug, you are no longer going to be working with only six weak people at a time," Nick said.
"This Containment Unit is going to be packed very soon."
"A week is more than enough."