Nick finished the first stone after about 30 minutes.
"Make six more," the CZE commanded with an even tone. "I will be back later."
Then, she walked towards the exit.
Nick didn't say anything and just continued looking at the tiny grain of stone he had just made.
Naturally, Nick knew that the CZE had to keep up the illusion that she was a human.
However, since she didn't tell Nick exactly what she was doing, he could only guess.
Communication between them wasn't important.
Both of them were servants of Wrath, and none of them wanted to be.
If the CZE found a way to flee from Wrath without endangering her life, she would immediately do so.
While the CZE did… something, Nick continued making the stones.
In the beginning, Nick felt a bit unsure about his ability to create the stones, but he quickly got the hang of it.
It was surprisingly easy.
'This is probably a natural ability that almost all Specters have as soon as they are born,' Nick thought. 'Maybe it's like how babies try to walk on two legs on instinct. Specters probably try to conjure things on instinct as well.'
'It's basically just memorization and abstraction. I have to remember all the attributes I want and then do some calculations to actualize them.'
Nick raised an eyebrow as he looked at the tiny grain.
'This is the best opportunity to experiment. I've barely invested anything into this little morsel. If I break it, it's no issue.'
At that moment, Nick stopped calculating and just thought about the attributes the stone should have.
The Zephyx that Nick was releasing noticeably became more chaotic, and he quickly noticed that the quality of the stone wasn't as good as before.
'Sure enough, if I just use my instincts, it becomes terrible,' Nick thought as he inspected the horrible stone.
'This is probably how normal Specters conjure things.'
A moment later, Nick started to calculate and theorize what his Zephyx should do before trying again, and sure enough, the stone he was conjuring became flawless again.
'Specters probably don't do that,' he thought.
The difference between what Specters were doing and what Nick was doing could be described with a human throwing a punch.
In general, people have seen punches and knew that they could throw punches as well. If they ever needed to punch, they would just emulate what they had seen and do what felt correct to them.
And that would end with broken fingers and/or a broken wrist if they used enough power.
Theoretically, a human could just keep throwing punches at a practice target over and over again, allowing their instincts to rectify 'what felt right', and after enough punches, the human would be able to throw a good punch.
This was similar to how Specters conjured things.
Now, someone who knew a lot of things and had a lot of experience in problem-solving would not just punch someone without knowing how a punch worked.
If one knew enough about biology and physics, they would know that their wrist needed to be straight and that their thumb should not be tucked in their fist. It just made sense to them to avoid doing that.
Additionally, they would know that one could use much more power by using the momentum of one's leg- and back-muscles, while an inexperienced human would just use the muscles in their arms.
Of course, the experienced human didn't have the 'correct feeling' of how throwing a punch was supposed to feel yet, but they already knew what it was supposed to be like.
By repeating the correct way several times, the correct feeling would come very quickly.
Nick had learned a terrifying amount of information about all kinds of topics. One could almost call him an expert in every field.
So, as soon as Nick realized how conjuring objects worked, many other concepts he had learned in the past overlapped with this one, and he very quickly analyzed and realized how exactly this was working.
Additionally, since Nick was so used to learning things, he automatically theorized before trying to actualize something.
Instead of relying on his feeling, Nick was manually calculating what he was supposed to do before doing it.
This was the reason why Nick was so incredibly good at conjuring things.
In short, he had a lot of experience in learning new things.
Almost no Specters had the opportunity to accumulate this much knowledge.
Most Specters didn't care about learning these abstract concepts. They were just interested in becoming stronger.
From the few Specters that were interested, most couldn't even properly interact with humans.
Lastly, they also needed a way to access that knowledge. Not every human could access advanced knowledge of a field.
Julian had been one of the few Specters that had the means to learn about all kinds of topics, and he had used that knowledge to essentially conquer Crimson City.
If Nick hadn't unveiled him, Julian would still be unknown and would continue growing until he became a Governor.
A Specter that knew a lot was extremely dangerous.
The Big Brain Slug had a tremendous talent for conjuring things, but the complicated math behind its created labyrinth did not come naturally.
'Envy is probably similar,' Nick thought with furrowed brows. 'I don't think that the ability to absorb and copy other abilities is that easy to use. Most likely, it supplemented its ability by learning a lot about itself and about what it could do.'
'Similar to the Big Brain Slug.'
The Big Brain Slug had a tremendous talent for conjuring things, but the complicated math behind its created labyrinth did not come naturally.
Nick continued creating the stones and kept analyzing how all of this worked.
'This makes almost the entire field of Zephology obsolete,' Nick thought as he watched the stone in his hand grow.
The majority of Zephology was about creating and programming the advanced machinery needed to influence the Zephyx.
But as a Specter, Nick didn't need this.
This was an extremely significant change.
Nick could theoretically do things that were practically impossible to do in the traditional field of Zephology.
'The possibilities are endless!'
After around two hours, Nick finished the seven stones he needed to create and decided to use the remaining time to experiment.
Eventually, the door opened again, and the CZE walked in again.
She wordlessly took one of the stones and inspected it.
Then, she transmitted the attributes of the circle of stones to Nick.
These stones were more complicated in their makeup, but it didn't influence Nick's efficiency.
Three hours later, Nick finished that circle of stones as well.
Nick received the attributes for the big stone that represented the Specter, and it was surprisingly simple.
Nevertheless, due to the size of the stone, Nick needed a couple of hours again.
In the end, Nick saw another Major Relay in front of him, and it looked identical to the Major Relay the CZE had created.
"Next, you need to imbue the stones with abilities," the CZE said.
Nick was extremely interested but did his best to hide his interest.
'Imbue them with abilities? Is that similar to what I did to my Specter Core before fusing with it?'
"This is the hard part, and I expect you to learn it within the next decade," she spoke.
'Decade?!' Nick thought.
"You want me to waste an entire decade for this?" Nick asked.
"Time has no value to you. You can't waste something that has no value," the CZE answered.
Nick very quickly realized that she was right.
Specters did not die of old age and did not grow weaker with age.
They had infinite time.
Sitting around and doing nothing for five minutes had the same effect as sitting around for a thousand years.
The next moment, the CZE sent a terrifying amount of information into Nick's mind.
It was an explanation about how to create ability lines and what he needed to 'write' with them.
Nick only received the bare minimum to do what he needed to do to create the Major Relay.
It took Nick a bit to digest all of the information.
'This is so different!' he thought.
The method the Technician had created to manipulate the manipulation lines was completely different from what the Specters had made.
Every little bit of the manipulation lines created by the Technician were clear and had a use.
Nick and the Technician could calculate everything and could see what point every bit of the line had.
But that was not true with the thing that Nick had just received.
This was extremely chaotic, and there were many lines that Nick could tell had no use.
This chaos felt very natural.
It was something that had been created over a long period of time by looking at what works and doesn't work.
This was natural, while the method the Technician had created was artificial.
This was a brain, while the Technician made a calculator.
This method was impossibly efficient and far superior to what the Technician had created.
Yet, there was also something bad about it.
It was not modular.
This was one thing, and it could only be used in this exact configuration for this exact thing.
Meanwhile, the method the Technician had created had infinite potential and possibilities.
If these two methods could be combined…
'Wouldn't I be able to use every conceivable ability in existence?' Nick thought.