The trainees looked at Nick in silence.
Now, they finally knew.
They knew that the focus level five Specter was an execution wall.
Sadly, most of the trainees didn't know what an execution wall was. After all, the execution walls were used over two thousand years ago.
Nowadays, it was acceptable to throw criminals to Specters.
"What's an execution wall?" one of the trainees asked.
One of the other trainees quickly spoke up and explained the concept of an execution wall.
When the trainees heard what an execution wall was, they showed mixed reactions.
Such a Specter was most likely extremely deadly, but it was also just so… plain.
It was just a wall with spikes.
"What did you have to do?" the black-haired girl asked.
"Stand in front of the wall for 20 minutes. React if it tries to kill me," Nick said.
The girl furrowed her brows, while the red-haired guy sighed.
"Just as expected," the red-haired guy said as he casually leaned back. "Another personality test or whatever that stuff is called."
The green-haired man also seemed annoyed.
"Not entirely," Nick said.
This made everyone look at Nick.
"I worked with it," Nick said.
Silence.
Someone had actually worked with a level five Specter?!
"Why?" the black-haired girl asked.
She didn't ask how, but why.
After all, putting oneself in so much danger for 15 measly points sounded insane.
"Because I found a way to work with it without endangering myself," Nick said.
The next moment, Nick told them about how he worked with it and what would have happened if the execution wall fired its spikes.
When the trainees heard that, they looked at each other.
That… actually made sense.
That was quite a good way to deal with it.
Sure, it would still hurt a lot, but it wasn't any worse than pain level three.
Additionally, it also wouldn't require a high level of speed to pull off.
This essentially trivialized the Specter.
The requirements no longer seemed necessary.
"You should tell the supervisor at the end of your month," the black-haired girl said.
Nick nodded without saying anything.
The general manual said that every trainee would get to talk to one of the supervisors every month.
For most of the trainees, this meeting was the time when they were thrown out of the program.
The ones that could stay would just receive some feedback.
"It's been a while since we had a new person on your level," the green-haired man said.
"Thanks," Nick said absentmindedly. He didn't really care and was just being polite.
If it were up to him, Nick would just continue earning points and working with Specters, but he knew that working together with others would most likely be important for the next 20 years or so.
"Are you interested in an exchange of knowledge?" the red-haired man asked suddenly.
"I'm always up for learning more things," Nick answered.
Since he was going to be stuck here for a couple of years, the best thing to do was to learn more things.
The more things he learned, the more informed his future decisions would be.
The red-haired man smirked with confidence. "Glad to hear, but I hope you have something good to distribute! You only get something if you have something valuable you can give in return!"
Nick just nodded. "Naturally."
"I'll join you," the green-haired man said.
"You?" the red-haired man asked with a mocking tone. "If I remember correctly, you barely have anything to contribute."
"That was eight months ago," the green-haired man answered neutrally. "Not everyone is always stuck at the same level, like you."
"I'll also join you," the black-haired girl interjected.
The green-haired man nodded before turning to Nick. "When do you have time?"
"I still have to do the battle portion. I don't know how long that takes," he said.
"Not long," the green-haired man said. "There are seven Specters in total, and it barely takes five minutes per fight."
Nick nodded. "Then, in about four hours?"
The other three nodded, and everyone agreed to meet in four hours to discuss things.
After that, Nick left to go to the battle portion.
He walked through the hall and entered the hallway to its north.
Most of the trainees looked at Nick, but they didn't follow him anymore.
The battle portion wasn't as interesting as the Specter portion.
Nick entered the hallway and saw nobody else here.
'That was to be expected,' he thought. 'I don't think there's any reason to battle the Specters regularly.'
Nick approached the first Containment Unit and entered its locker room.
There were no illustrations, which meant that the standard rules applied.
The main manual Nick had received naturally told the trainees about the rules of combat.
Killing the Specters was forbidden unless it was by accident or couldn't be helped.
Survival was guaranteed for the first three levels.
Levels four and up would not guarantee a trainee's survival.
In the first levels, a trainee would lose if their Zephyx ran out or they conceded.
In the later levels, they would lose if they died or conceded.
The trainee would win if the Specter was rendered immobile or conceded.
Some of the Specters had alternative win conditions, but those would be explained in the locker rooms.
These were the basic rules.
There were seven levels in total, and the points received from each level were not additive. The trainee only received the points from the highest level they could complete.
The first level gave five points.
The second ten.
Then, 20, 35, 50, 70, and 100.
Naturally, being able to complete level four already guaranteed someone enough points to stay in the program.
Most likely, someone like the green-haired man had completed at least level four.
Without hesitation, Nick opened the door and walked in.
When the door opened, he saw a young man standing in the middle of the room.
The man looked into Nick's eyes, and Nick looked back.
Two seconds of silence passed.
"You pass," the man said neutrally.
Ding!
The next moment, a green light appeared inside the Containment Unit, signaling to Nick that he had passed.
It seemed like the first level was only there to get rid of the absolute weakest people.
Nick just nodded before leaving the Containment Unit again.
Naturally, getting the minimum requirement of points per category was almost guaranteed.
One just needed to have the absolute bare minimum of qualifications in the four departments.
The hard part was getting the 50 points in total.
For that, one needed to show some talent.
'Or be sociable,' Nick thought. 'As long as you can convince others to teach you some basics, you can earn quite some points in the academics portion. Although, getting 30 points in that without being able to work with any level two Specter would still be extremely difficult.'
Nick walked out of the Containment Unit and entered the next locker room.
There were no special rules here.
Nick walked into the Containment Unit and saw a muscular wolf that was dripping in blood.
The wolf was almost as tall as Nick, and it looked at Nick with intense eyes.
"Leave," the wolf spoke with a dark voice, "you are too weak. Come back when-"
BANG!
Nick exploded forward and rammed his blade through the wolf's brain.
BANG!
Then, Nick kicked the wolf against the wall, shaking the entire Containment Unit.
Several of the wolf's bones broke, but it quickly shot to its feet again.
"I concede!" It shouted immediately, not daring to let Nick out of its vision.
Ding!
A green light appeared, and Nick walked out of the Containment Unit.
When Nick had seen the wolf for the first time, he didn't feel like it was a true danger to him.
Sure, it was still an Elder, but it didn't feel very powerful.
Yes, it seemed quite intimidating, but that was it.
'Most likely, this thing isn't very strong. It's just very imposing,' Nick thought. 'It's most likely there to filter out people that don't dare to fight something scary, even if their survival is guaranteed.'
Naturally, there was no reason not to try fighting the wolf. After all, the manual said that survival was guaranteed for the first three levels.
Nick left the Containment Unit and walked over to the next one.
It was time for the third level.
Yet, when Nick walked into the locker room, he noticed two doors instead of one.
'Interesting,' he thought as he saw the illustrations.
Besides one door was an illustration of an Extractor compressing a cloud of smoke.
Besides the other door was an illustration of an Extractor fighting a beast.
'It makes sense, actually,' Nick thought. 'Being able to suppress a Force Specter is also part of one's combat ability, but it requires specialization. Punishing Suppressors because they can't wrestle a monster seems unfair, and forcing a powerful fighter to suppress a Force Specter is just as nonsensical.'
Naturally, Nick walked over to the door that would lead him to a Physical Specter and entered.