After getting his points, Nick left his big black cube and went towards the main hall again.
He quickly walked towards the next testing room, avoiding some people on the way there.
Nick stepped through a door and entered a new hallway.
This one was filled with rooms on both sides, and Nick saw a couple of people going back and forth.
Surprisingly, the first rooms had actual queues in front of them.
'These Specters are probably easy to work with,' Nick thought as he looked at the queues.
This hallway contained several Specters that the trainees could use to train.
As Nick looked at the sign above one of the doors, he knew why so many people waited in front of this one.
'Discipline level one,' Nick read.
In total, there were 20 Elders that the trainees could work with, and all of these Elders could be worked with many times per day without requiring a long time.
Aegis had thousands of Elders all over the world. They had enough Elders to pick from for their most talented trainees.
These 20 Elders were divided into four categories, and each of them required different strengths to work with.
Pain.
Focus.
Discipline.
Danger.
These were the essential four components that Extractors needed to work with Specters.
They needed to be able to resist pain and trauma. Good examples were the Blinding Light, the Can, and the Blaze, which all belonged to Sky Dream.
They needed to be able to focus for a long time and not commit any mistakes. Good examples were the Attention Seeker, the Annoying One, and the Talker.
They needed to be disciplined and resist allures. Good examples were the Gambler, the False News, and the Berry Bush.
Lastly, they needed to be powerful enough to deal with unstable Specters since many of them were extremely dangerous, even while working with them. Good examples were any Blood Specters, the Tragedy, and the Bleeding Lady. Working with any of these could put the Extractor's life in danger.
There were five Specters per category, and they each gave a different number of points after successfully working with them.
It was important to note that these Specters only gave points once a month.
However, they could be worked with however many times the trainees wanted.
All of the queues stood in front of the first-level Specters.
'Almost all of these people will be gone within the month,' Nick thought.
The only people who used the testing Specters to advance their level were people who had no points to spare.
Behind the testing hallway was an actual training hallway, which contained Specters that were less dangerous and easier to work with.
However, compared to giving points, these took points.
Obviously, if a trainee barely managed to get their 50 total points in the month, they wouldn't have any points left to work with an easy Specter, forcing them to work with the test Specters.
Yet, since they already barely had any points, they most likely also couldn't work with a lot of the Specters here. Otherwise, they would have more points.
That doomed them to work with the level one Specters every day.
So, how many points could one earn while working with these Specters?
Quite a lot.
Successfully working with a level one Specter gave one point.
Level two gave five points.
Level three gave ten points.
Level four gave 20 points.
And level five gave 35 points.
If someone managed to work with a level five Specter, they only needed the five minimum points from the other three categories to stay as a trainee.
In short, they only needed to be amazing at working with the Specters and fulfill the basic requirements.
To stay in the trainee program, one only needed to be really good at one thing or pretty good at everything.
The trainee program was there to find the truly talented people.
'20 different Specters,' Nick thought. 'Reminds me of Dark Dream.'
After looking at the rooms for a while, Nick walked up to one of the queues.
Nick saw people talking with each other while waiting for the Containment Unit to become free.
Nick just walked past them, eliciting several glances from them.
The people looked at each other and shook their heads.
They didn't know Nick.
Nick approached the door, and his Barrier activated.
A moment later, the white light of his Barrier turned green before vanishing.
When the trainees saw the light, they groaned or sighed.
"Can't you test something else?" one of them asked with annoyance.
"There are queues in front of all level one Specters," Nick answered. "I have to start somewhere."
The man looked at the other queues and just looked away.
The reason why the man was annoyed was simple.
People who were here to earn points had a higher priority than people who were here to train.
The trainee's Barriers acted as identifications, and if one of them wanted to work with a Specter, they needed to register with the Containment Unit by using their Barrier.
If someone hadn't worked with a Specter before this month, the light would shine green, and they would get higher priority.
If they had already worked with that Specter, the light would turn yellow, and they would need to go to the back of the queue.
The light could also turn red, but that only happened if someone didn't fulfill the minimum requirements to work with a Specter.
However, the Specters that needed minimum requirements were not level one Specters.
After a break filled with annoyance, the people started to talk with each other again.
Nick just waited.
About five minutes later, the door opened, and a young girl walked out.
At that moment, Nick's Barrier shone green, which meant that it was his turn to enter now.
Nick entered the locker room in front of the Containment Unit and closed the door behind him.
On the wall, Nick saw a couple of illustrated instructions, which he had to follow.
'Remove my shirt, huh?' Nick thought as he looked at the illustrations. 'Sure.'
Nick removed his shirt and put it to the side before approaching the actual entrance of the Containment Unit.
DING!
The door opened, and Nick walked in without fear.
This was the first level of pain, and he wasn't worried.
Nick had been under the Nightmare's influence for hours at a time.
He could deal with pain.
As soon as he entered, he saw the Specter.
It was a one-meter-tall vampire bat that stuck to the wall. Its eyes were completely red, and it focused on Nick as soon as he entered.
This Specter's name was, fittingly, the Vampire Bat.
Nick held his right arm forward, and the Vampire Bat slowly approached.
It looked at Nick with care, and based on its behavior, it seemed intimidated by him.
Naturally, Specters didn't really have fear, but the Vampire Bat still knew that a strong Extractor could kill it, which was why it acted so carefully.
And Nick felt very powerful and confident.
After some seconds, it carefully stretched its bladed tongue to Nick's arm before moving it back and forth.
Nick felt a cut opening up on his arm, but the cut was very clean and not very painful.
Then, the Vampire Bat's tongue started to suck the blood out of the cut.
The experience was more uncomfortable than painful, but that was to be expected.
Being able to work with such a Specter was viewed as a bare minimum to become an Extractor.
Specters rarely got more harmless than this.
Of course, that was only true while the Specter was contained.
If this thing were free, it would probably suck the blood out of countless civilians, turning them into dried husks.
After some minutes, a green light appeared inside the Containment Unit, and the Vampire Bat immediately pulled back.
Naturally, the Specters here had been trained thoroughly so that they didn't accidentally kill the trainees.
Nick slowly lowered his arm, which was already half-healed.
Then, he walked out without hesitation.
Back in the locker room, Nick put on his shirt again before leaving.
'That went about as expected,' Nick thought as he walked past a guy who was entering the Vampire Bat's Containment Unit.
Nick looked around the hallway. 'I should do all the level one Specters first.'
Nick approached the next queue and registered with his Barrier, eliciting some annoyed sighs from the people.
This time, Nick had to wait almost 30 minutes for his turn.
Apparently, this Specter needed more time than the Vampire Bat, but that was to be expected.
'Level one of focus,' Nick thought. 'Would not be a test of focus if it ended in a couple of seconds.'
Nick entered the locker room and immediately walked into the Containment Unit.
On the far end of the Containment Unit, Nick saw a desk with a console on it.
The console was the Specter.
Nick approached the console and tapped on a couple of buttons.
The console shifted between ten different camera angles of random locations, which Nick had to remember.
After looking through the different camera angles for about a minute, Nick clicked on the screen.
Something inside the picture had changed, and Nick had to highlight the change.
If he failed, the Specter would consume some of his Zephyx.
That was basically it.
Nick just needed to find the abnormalities in the camera feeds and highlight them for about 30 minutes to finish the test.
That wasn't very difficult for an Expert with enhanced senses.
The Specter was called the Observation.
'Guess I'm on Observation duty,' Nick thought as he clicked on the screen again.