This was why the Technician was so invested in this new development.
The entire reason why humanity couldn't properly fight the Specters was because training a Shield was extremely difficult.
If the current Shields could become Peak Shields, things would be very different from how they currently were.
For one, they wouldn't need to keep three of them at the same place.
They also wouldn't need to endanger a huge number of people every single time they worked with the one Adversary they had in custody.
If the Technician somehow found a way for Nick to keep advancing, all of humanity might transform.
They might finally have a way of equally fighting the Specters.
However, all of this was just potential.
Right now, it was not a certainty.
Additionally, it was important that all of this remained secret.
"But we need to survive until then, first," the Left Arm spoke. "So, I need you to keep fulfilling your daily duties."
"Yes, yes," the Technician answered dismissively.
It was quite obvious that he would once again follow this order for only a limited time.
"Try to find a way to advance. If you do find one, tell me," the Left Arm said before frowning. "We might need to wake the Champion again."
It was quite obvious that he would once again follow this order for only a limited time.
"Try to find a way to advance. If you do find one, tell me," the Left Arm said before frowning. "We might need to wake the Champion again."
"Of course!" the Technician answered with an excited smile. Finally, all this unnecessary stuff was over, and he could go back to experimenting!
"Come, Nick! Knowledge awaits!" the Technician shouted with excitement.
Nick performed a quick bow in front of the Left Arm and walked after the Technician.
The Left Arm watched Nick leave.
There was another aspect about this entire thing that the Left Arm noticed but didn't voice.
At least not in front of Nick.
And that was the mental effects of this transformation.
Due to the way the Zephyx worked inside Nick right now, one could make an argument that he was partially a Specter now.
He could be a Half-Specter, in a way.
This meant that it was also possible that Nick could join the Specters instead of humanity, and that was an important thing to consider.
If they invested everything into one human just for that human to help the Specters in the end, humanity might be doomed.
Could they create a powerful being, and if they could, would that being help humanity or the Specters?
This was an important aspect.
This was a real danger.
After all, Nick had told the Technician about the Specter Zephyx inside his body and how it dampened his emotions.
While Nick would definitely remain human in the short term, in the long term, he might change into a Specter, mentally speaking.
The Technician and Nick continued experimenting.
During this time, Nick kept learning more about biology, Zephology, and Zephyx Manipulation.
Time passed.
After a while, the two of them focused solely on how Nick's Specter Core worked.
Having a human with a Specter Core gave one advancement after the next in the field.
In just one year, the research into Specter Cores had progressed an equivalent of 50 years without Nick.
After two years of research, the Technician managed to create a prototype that could allow someone to change the manipulation lines of their Specter Core.
But that was when the research became dangerous.
From now on, they had to test things.
And since there was only Nick…
Nick's first task was to map out every possible feeling that the Specter Core gave him.
Nick could not perfectly look at his Specter Core.
Sure, he could "see" the surface, but he couldn't "see" the lines within the core.
He could only "feel" how the Zephyx changed after passing through it.
This meant that, as soon as they changed the manipulation lines, Nick wouldn't know what he would need to change to regain the current form of his Specter Crystal.
He could only look at the result by remembering how it felt and trying things out to achieve the same result.
Nick could potentially kill himself by removing or adding an incorrect manipulation line.
For example, what if he somehow isolated the connection between his Zephyx Synchronizer and the Specter Core?
That would result in his Zephyx Synchronizer being surrounded by an impenetrable wall.
It would be like an insect inside a glass.
Alternatively, a burst of poisonous Zephyx could cripple or destroy his Zephyx Synchronizer.
They had to proceed with utmost care.
Luckily, Nick had had almost two years to fully remember how his Specter Core felt.
He was quite confident in being able to recreate the original.
Finally, it was time to actually experiment.
The first thing they tried was to delete some manipulation lines.
Maybe they could turn it into a blank slate.
Yet, they realized very quickly that this wouldn't work.
After they tried around a bit, Nick's Specter Core stopped producing Zephyx, and Nick's Zephyx Synchronizer stopped receiving Zephyx in turn.
They immediately changed it back.
If they didn't, Nick would essentially "suffocate".
That made it clear.
The Specter Core was required to remain a functional Specter Core since it was the only source of energy for the Zephyx Synchronizer.
Turning it into a blank slate would kill Nick.
Next, they tried to restore the Specter Core's old ability.
After all, the Dark Cloud had been a Specter, and just like any other Specter, it had an ability.
Sadly, they had to cut that experiment short after just a couple of days.
The core of the Specter Core was distorted and essentially destroyed since Nick's Zephyx Synchronizer was inside of it now.
Reverse-engineering the ability without changing the manipulation lines on Nick's Zephyx Synchronizer would take decades, if not centuries, of dedicated research.
It was too difficult, and the results couldn't be applied to any potential new recruit since every ability was unique.
So, they tried the next best thing.
Was it possible to allow Nick's abilities to be used without the Specter Core interfering with them?
No.
The Specter Core always interfered with them and distorted them.
For example, when Nick tried to blind everyone around him, only a small white cloud would come out of his body that barely illuminated anything and cost over 50% of his Zephyx.
When Nick tried to influence somebody's mind with illusions, some black mist would leave him and fly over to the target before dispersing harmlessly.
Naturally, that also cost a huge amount of Zephyx.
Nick didn't even attempt to turn into mist. If anything went wrong there, one could probably find his body pieces scattered across the entire room.
Nick's abilities and the Dark Cloud's abilities interacted with each other, creating a useless mix.
This left only one last option.
They had to transform the Specter Core so that it changed Nick's abilities without weakening them.
And while they were already on that, they might as well shoot for an amplification effect.
So, they started trying.
Nick's ability to release a burst of light was the first they focused on since it was the easiest to test and since it was also a comparatively simple ability.
They experimented for an entire year, trying different things.
The result?
Surprisingly great!
"Show me!" the Technician said with a smirk.
Nick narrowed his eyes.
The next instant, around a hundred tiny wisps of mist popped out of his body.
WHOOOOM!
The wisps exploded into bright light, which was just as powerful as Nick's ability would have been without the Specter Core.
The wisps also vanished immediately after giving off the light since their Zephyx had been converted into blinding light.
This essentially meant that Nick had regained his light ability without making it worse.
"Alright, use the other variant," the Technician ordered.
Next, Nick held out his right hand, and a cloud of mist gathered on top of it.
A moment later, the cloud of mist started to give off a gentle light.
Then, the cloud floated higher and stopped above Nick's head.
The next moment, Nick walked around the room, and the cloud followed, still giving off a gentle light.
When the Technician saw that, he couldn't help smiling victoriously.
This was not a new ability.
This was simply another way of using Nick's old ability.
They hadn't been able to decouple the mist ability.
So, they had simply accepted it and included it in the way Nick used his ability.
After experimenting with the ability further, they had also found a way to change the output.
This essentially gave Nick an additional ability that allowed him to illuminate his surroundings for a long time without using a lot of Zephyx.
Naturally, for Nick, himself, this wasn't very useful, but it would be useful to keep his ability to stay unaffected in the darkness hidden.
Additionally, it gave Nick an easy way to escort others through dark areas.
After the two of them had seen the success in this part, they grew excited to experiment with Nick's other abilities.
And they quickly got more surprising and positive results.
This new way of consuming a Specter appeared better and better as time passed.