After Nick left the office, he went to check up on the Specters he could buy access to with points.
While his main priority was increasing his expertise in many academic fields, he also needed to advance in his level.
When Nick entered the hallway with these kinds of Specters, he was surprised to find over 30 of them.
Compared to the test Specters, these Specters were not kept secret, and all the information about them was displayed in front of their Containment Units.
After looking at a few of them, Nick saw that the prices were dependent on three factors.
How easy it was to work with the Specter.
How long one session of work took.
How much Zephyx the Specter produced.
A Specter that was hard or painful to work with was not as expensive as one that was easy to work with.
Of course, time was also a factor. If someone needed 18 hours to work with a Specter, they would barely have time for anything else.
Lastly, the amount of Zephyx was also important. While there was a limit to how much an Extractor could absorb in a day, that limit was quite high.
Most Extractors needed to work with three or four Specters to reach that limit unless the Specters gave a lot of Zephyx.
These three attributes decided the price one had to pay to work with a Specter.
In general, one bought access to a Specter on a monthly basis.
Of course, since others might also want to work with the Specter, one didn't have access the entire time but fixed shifts during which they could work.
The prices varied highly.
The cheapest Specter cost five points for the entire month and was basically as good as the level one test Specters.
The only positive thing about these Specters was that much fewer people would be working with them.
From what Nick had heard, most of the experienced people worked with the Specters, which cost ten to fifteen points.
If one didn't care about a bit of pain, one could fulfill one's daily quota with only two of those Specters while not using more than eight hours.
However, that required paying 20 to 30 points per month.
80% to 90% of people did not have that many points, considering that they had to keep 50 of them to stay here.
The truly talented trainees could afford the Specters, which cost 50 points.
There were only three of them, but they all gave a lot of Zephyx while only needing two hours of work, at most.
Then, there was one Specter that cost 100 points.
In order to get access to that Specter, one needed 150 points in total or more.
Getting that was already very difficult.
For example, Cynthia probably earned a good 50 points from academia alone and another 40 points from the Specters.
However, her Battle-Strength and fitness levels were probably just a bit above average, giving her 20 points in each, at most.
That would put her at barely 130 points, which wouldn't be enough.
While Mendor achieved even more points in academia, his physical power was even weaker.
He most likely also couldn't get 150 points.
The only person Nick knew who could realistically get 150 points was Steve, but it was probably close.
This 100-point Specter was obviously reserved for only the top 1% or 0.5% of all trainees.
Nick walked up to the entrance and spent his points on it.
100 points was not even a third of his total.
He walked through the door and entered the locker room.
The locker room looked pretty normal, except for a bunch of basins stacked near the wall.
Nick walked over to one of the basins and pushed it under a hole in the wall.
Then, he pulled a lever.
The next moment, a wave of white objects tumbled out of the wall, falling into the basin.
When the basin was full, Nick looked at it.
It was filled with bones.
Animal bones and human bones.
There were about 50 kg of bones in the basin.
Nick lifted the basin and approached the employee entrance of the Containment Unit.
The entrance opened, and Nick walked in.
As soon as he entered, he saw a pile of bones in the middle of the room.
On top of the pile of bones were three upper halves of human skulls with ghostly light in their eye sockets.
The lights seemed to follow Nick as he walked through the room.
Oooohhh.
A ghostly wail echoed throughout the Containment Unit.
Nick walked up to the pile of bones and poured the bones over it.
OOOOOOOOHHHHHH!
The wail became way louder, and it sounded almost orgasmic.
It seemed like the pile really, really liked the bones.
A moment later, smoke came out of the bones, and they started to vanish.
It was like they were slowly turning into fine mist.
While this was happening, Nick felt an avalanche of Zephyx filling the Containment Unit.
Just based on the amount of Zephyx, Nick could tell that this was, at least, a Fanatic.
And it was not a weak Fanatic.
'No wonder this thing gives off so much Zephyx,' Nick thought.
Within five minutes, all the bones vanished, and the three heads looked at Nick.
Nick almost felt like they were begging him to bring them more bones.
"Tomorrow," Nick said. "You get another load tomorrow."
Ooooohhh.
Then, Nick turned around and exited the Containment Unit.
That was it.
The ultimate Specter when viewed from an Extractor's perspective.
It didn't attack.
It didn't move.
It gave a ton of Zephyx.
The only work one needed to do was to lift and empty a basin.
And it barely took five minutes.
'In a way, this reminds me of the Dung Heap,' Nick thought as he put the empty basin back. 'Just better. It even has a similar name, the Bone Heap.'
After dealing with the Bone Heap, Nick went back to the main hall.
Naturally, the discussion was still going on, and Nick went back to join.
Nick learned a lot over the next couple of days.
Then, he went back to earn his points again.
Once a month, everyone had to earn most of their points again.
Nick made good progress in his math exam, cracking the 40% on the first test without having to think for several hours.
He also made a bit of progress in Zephology.
His history exam was also far better, thanks to his trade.
Otherwise, everything basically remained the same.
These were big topics, and Nick would need a while to make progress in them.
The fitness test went over rather quickly.
Luckily, he didn't need to repeat the battle portion.
Earning the battle points was dangerous, and if one had already proven themselves, there was no need to prove themselves again.
Anytime someone fought a Specter, there was a non-zero chance of death.
However, Nick had to work with all of the Specters again, but he decided against going all out.
He worked with the level five of focus Specter again since it wasn't dangerous to him and since he didn't need to earn his qualifications again.
But he skipped levels three and four of pain.
There was no reason to go through so much pain again when he really didn't need the points.
So, Nick earned about ten points less in total this month, but he was still above 300.
Every day, he also paid a visit to the Bone Heap to shower it with a couple more bones.
For the remainder of the time, Nick went and exchanged his knowledge with Cynthia, Mendor, and Steve.
Sometimes, Nick just randomly took a couple of tests to find things that he didn't know yet.
After around two months, most people already knew Nick.
The vast majority had never talked to him, but they had listened to him talk to others, and they felt like he was a pretty cool guy.
Although, that was to be expected since all of them benefited from him.
Many of them even walked up to Nick to teach him a couple of things without expecting any repayment.
They liked him, and they felt good when they helped him.
It was a genuine cooperation.
As more and more time passed, Nick had to put a tick in the "learned from another person" field in the tests much more often.
However, Nick saw that as a good thing.
It didn't matter from where he had learned something.
It only mattered that he knew much more than before.
Eventually, Nick stayed here for almost an entire year.
Nick was now 38 years old, and he would soon advance to the second level.
Nick had seen an incredible number of trainees come and vanish within the month.
Most of them were very distrustful of everything around them, viewing the entire trainee camp as a brutal competition.
To them, putting others down meant getting ahead.
Sadly, that was exactly what Aegis didn't want.
And finally, Nick's Barrier turned yellow.
It was time for him to leave.