Ding!
Suddenly, Nick's Barrier shone with a yellow light, but no one paid attention to him.
By now, Nick was no longer even part of the entire discussion.
His discussion with Cynthia had been infiltrated by several Zephyx Engineers, and they were all debating math and Zephology by now.
Nick wasn't even really sitting in the middle of the circle of people anymore.
Just like everyone else, he was in the audience.
From time to time, some of the Barriers turned yellow.
When a Barrier just randomly turned yellow, it meant that it was time to meet the supervisor.
Everyone had to meet the supervisor once a month for a quick interview, and now, it was Nick's turn.
This entire debate about Zephology and math had been going on for weeks by now.
It wasn't always the same people talking.
Old participants started to lose interest just for new participants to join in, keeping the conversation going.
Neither Cynthia nor the brown-haired man were part of the conversation anymore.
When Nick's Barrier turned yellow, he stood up and left the area by jumping over the audience.
This was the easiest and quickest way to leave.
Nick's Barrier blinked yellow from time to time, and he asked a random trainee about where to go.
The trainee sent him to the hallway with all of the testing Specters. Apparently, the meeting rooms were beyond those.
Nick walked into the hallway, passed the queues, and entered another hallway.
This hallway was completely empty and didn't look special, except for the yellow light coming out of one of the doors.
The yellow light was identical to the light from Nick's Barrier.
'I guess I have to go there,' Nick thought as he approached the door.
He put his hand on the door and pushed, opening it.
Nick found himself in a standard office.
Desk, chairs, folders, papers…
Nothing special.
The person sitting behind the desk was a serious man who looked to be in his thirties.
He looked at Nick with a neutral but cold expression.
"Sit, trainee," he ordered.
Nick entered, closed the door behind him, and sat down in front of the desk.
"I assume this is your first interview?" the man asked.
Nick nodded. "Correct. I joined about a month ago."
The man nodded. "In this interview, we are going to talk about your performance in the last month, and we're going to find ways to improve your results, assuming you managed to reach the minimum threshold of points. Did you reach the minimum?"
'I guess he didn't look at my file yet,' Nick thought.
Then, he nodded. "I did."
"Good," the man said as he grabbed a folder at the edge of the table. "Now then, let's see where you stand."
The man opened the folder, and Nick saw a page with all his personal information on it.
As soon as the man saw the page, he blinked a couple of times.
"You were sent here by the Technician?" the supervisor asked with furrowed brows.
Nick nodded. "I originally worked as a Liaison. I am here to become a Specialist so that I can resume my duties."
"Liaison," the man repeated. "I haven't heard of that before," he commented as he started to tap away on a console on his desk.
For almost a minute, the man kept tapping and reading in silence.
"Alright," he said, looking away from the console. "I see what this is about. As far as I can see, you are not truly part of the trainees since the trainees are here to become Agents in the future. You are only here until you are a Specialist."
Nick nodded.
"That's a bit of a special case, but I think we can deal with it," the man said, his voice becoming less stern.
Naturally, the supervisor had to appear intimidating and serious in front of the trainees.
He wasn't truly someone that didn't know how to have fun.
When he saw that Nick wasn't really a trainee, he relaxed quite a bit.
Nick was more of a peer than a trainee.
"Nevertheless, officially, you are a trainee, and I have to review your performance," the man said as he turned to the next page without looking at it. "Now, let's take a look at your points."
Then, the supervisor looked at the page that summarized the points Nick earned in all categories.
The man looked at the page silently.
His eyebrows rose.
He blinked a couple of times.
He furrowed his brows.
He raised his right eyebrow.
He scratched the side of his head.
He took a deep breath.
"Ooookaaaay," he slowly said as he turned to the next page.
He looked at the page with the fitness scores.
Then, he looked at Nick's body.
He nodded a couple of times with an impressed expression.
After that, he looked at the page with the battle points.
He let out an impressed whistle.
"Did you try the seventh level?" he asked.
"No," Nick answered.
The man just kept nodding.
"Makes sense," he uttered as he went to the page detailing Nick's academic points.
The man looked at the page for quite a while.
"That actually makes a lot of sense, considering your background."
Nick just nodded.
Finally, the man looked at the page detailing the Specter points.
When the man saw the 35 points in the focus category, he furrowed his brows.
"Usually, getting 35 points in danger, pain, or focus is a bad thing, not a good thing. Can you explain why you went for the level five in focus but not the other two?" the man asked.
"Because it's not risky to work with the execution wall," Nick said.
After that, Nick explained what method he used to work with it.
The man leaned back as he listened to Nick.
"That actually makes a lot of sense. Seems like the Aductress didn't consider that before bringing that Specter here," the supervisor said. "I mean, she's an Agent, not a Chief Zephyx Extractor. It actually makes sense that you would find a better way to work with it. I guess that was your job for the majority of your life."
Nick just nodded.
Nick might not have as much experience as the Aductress, but when it came to finding ways to work with Specters, not many people could compare to him.
"Alright, so," the supervisor said after closing Nick's file. "There's not really anything you can improve with your fitness. I don't think it's possible to improve your physical statistics without using any abilities. As long as you can keep your current score, you're good."
Nick nodded.
"The same thing is true for your battle points. Don't make this public, but the highest points in the battle and Specter categories are only there to filter out people with an unhealthy level of ambition. I can't tell you what the seventh level of battle is, but what I can tell you is that it is dumb. Really dumb and stupidly dangerous."
Nick nodded again.
"Your Specter points are also as good as they can possibly get. There's no need for you to improve yourself in that regard."
"I guess the only thing you can do is to improve your academic points, but I don't think I need to tell you that. You seem to have everything under control," the supervisor said casually.
"I do," Nick answered.
"Alright. So, is there anything you want to talk about specifically?" he asked.
"There is one thing, actually," Nick said.
The man nodded, telling Nick to continue talking.
"Level three of battle. The little girl."
"Yes?" the man asked.
"After I defeated her and the green light appeared, she accused me of lying about my level and attacked me with her actual power," Nick said. "If I were weaker, she would have killed me. I don't think having a Late or Peak Elder attacking Initial and Early Experts with all of its power is appropriate for level three."
The man's eyes widened, and he took a deep breath.
"Please, tell me exactly what happened," he requested.
Nick did just that.
After Nick was done talking about it, the supervisor grimaced.
That was a fuck-up on their part.
That should never have happened.
"Sorry about that," the supervisor said. "I am going to tell the Aductress, and we are going to act accordingly. Most likely, we are going to replace it with a different one."
"Is there anything else?"
Nick shook his head. "No, that's everything."
The supervisor nodded once. "I think keeping you here for four years is a waste. Would you be okay with staying here for one year to learn a bit more about academia before advancing to level two? Level two has more hands-on experiences."
"That sounds good," Nick said.
"Good. Then, we're going to proceed like this," the man said before standing up and extending his hand.
Nick also stood up, and the two of them shook their hands.
"See you in a month for your next review," the supervisor said with a respectful nod.
Nick nodded back. "See you."