After realizing these things, Nick truly accepted his role.
Ever since the old Champion had put his trust in him, Nick hadn't been convinced that he was the right person for the job.
But now, he accepted it.
He wasn't the perfect candidate for the position, but he was the least unsuitable, to put it mildly.
'I'm not sure if I will ever manage to live up to the old Champion's expectations, but I have to try,' Nick thought.
Ever since Nick had fully transformed into a Specter, the intense pain caused by his overwhelming guilt had almost vanished.
When Nick had thought about the melting people in the Dregs, his heart had beaten faster, and he felt like something inside of him was tearing apart, but ever since he had become a Specter, these symptoms all vanished.
Nick still felt guilty, but it was more on the magnitude of sneakily leaving work 30 minutes early without permission.
And yet, whenever he thought that things weren't so bad, he reminded himself of everything he had sworn to himself and the people he had killed.
He would never forget what it was like to be in the Dregs, desperately searching for credits for some food, while the rich people in Crimson City had entire forests to themselves!
He had become a monster when he had freed the Crimson Sea, and he was still a monster.
However, he was well on his way to rectifying that.
And he couldn't have any doubts before he successfully managed to redeem himself!
These were the things that Nick always told himself when he lacked the drive to better himself or the world around him.
'And if I ever manage to redeem myself, I won't just stop there,' Nick thought. 'At that point, I have the power to change the lives of over a million people! That is almost 10% of all humans!'
'When I have that power, I have the power to truly change things.I can actually make a difference!'
'I can actually change the world into something people enjoy living in!'
'However, no matter what happens, I can never lose sight of this goal or my ideology! Otherwise, I will just join the endless horde of faceless Protectors and Heroes who just stand around, complaining about not getting another promotion.'
Nick remembered when Wyntor had told him that he couldn't make a significant change in the city.
He remembered when Albert argued with Nick, telling him that he didn't think Nick would be able to make a difference.
Nick remembered when Julian just laughed at his ambitions.
He remembered when Crimson City's old Governor laughed at him, telling him that he wouldn't be able to change things.
Whenever he talked to anyone about this, they laughed.
Nick narrowed his eyes.
'Just because it's impossible for you doesn't mean it's impossible for me.'
'I've improved the lives of over 200,000 people, and I'm not even 10% done with what I aim to achieve one day!'
Sadly, success couldn't come immediately, and things very quickly became mundane again.
After the Knife left, Nick, the Technician, and Ghosty returned to experimenting on him again.
For now, Nick didn't have any big jobs.
While the normal people in the Great Triangle didn't notice any differences, the elite felt a big shift after Pride's death.
For normal people, nothing changed for now.
Same prices, same work, same people.
But the Extractors noted a big increase in Specter activity, more aggression by known powerful Specters, and more nervousness among the Heroes of most cities.
Some of the Heroes had worked for Pride in secret, and without Pride's backing, things became very chaotic.
Pride's actual servant, who created the suffering in the cities, was no longer under Pride's protection, and they no longer received orders.
Unstable Specters started to become more reckless, while more intelligent Specters started to become greedier.
Heroes who were not directly related to Pride's forces became more nervous due to the increase of Demons and Fanatics in the area.
Many times, cities knew about the presence of Demons in the area but couldn't directly capture them due to the risk associated with it.
Two good examples were the Plague Vulture, which had lived west of Crimson City for quite a while, and the Corrosive Dust, which had been south of Crimson City for decades.
The normal people only really felt a difference when a couple of caravans didn't come to the cities, which increased the prices of some goods.
The Great Triangle had become quite a bit more dangerous.
In just the first year, Aegis liberated 14 cities in the Great Triangle that had been secretly controlled by Pride.
That was almost 10% of all the cities in the Great Triangle.
Luckily for Nick, while the liberation of the cities was a good thing, big changes always caused some suffering, and Nick was related to Pride's death.
So, he got the blame for some of the suffering, and he felt his Zephyx production increasing by quite a bit.
Sadly, advancing from being a Peak Fanatic to becoming an Initial Demon was a significant jump due to the different classification.
Jumps between levels were always accompanied by a qualitative change as well.
Usually, it needed more time and quite a bit more Zephyx to advance.
However, even if given enough Zephyx, many Specters wouldn't be able to advance.
The reason for that had been relatively unknown for the longest time, but Ghosty's theory about human suffering allowed scientists to come up with some hypotheses about Specter advancement as well.
What if advancement between levels for Specters needed some kind of requirement related to their reason for existence, aka human suffering?
Almost all of these hypotheses were still in their trial phase.Researchers were still sending different Extractors and volunteering normal people to Specters to see how things would develop, but some of them seemed quite promising.
Sadly, the experiments would still take a couple of years to produce anything conclusive.
Nevertheless, the running theory right now was that some advancements require quantity, while others required quality in terms of human suffering.
Some Specters needed to make a certain number of people suffer, while other Specters needed to cause suffering to very powerful people.
The fact that none of the Seven Corruptors had advanced to becoming Adversaries gave this hypothesis more credibility.
All Corruptors were working on causing suffering all across the world, in many cities.
None of them seemed to focus on the Protectors.
Most likely, Peak Fallen needed their suffering to impact humans on a global scale.
Luckily for Nick, he wouldn't need to consider these requirements for his advancement.
The quantity and quality of his caused suffering was definitely great enough to fulfill whatever requirement was necessary.
Nick had made tens of powerful Heroes suffer quite a bit, and he had impacted hundreds of thousands of humans.
He just needed to gather more Zephyx than usual to become an Initial Demon.
Based on Ghosty's estimates, Nick would probably become an Initial Demon within the next two to five years.
Nick essentially just needed to wait.
For the next couple of months, Nick continued working with Ghosty and the Technician.
He was learning a good deal about Zephyx Manipulation and different materials.
Nick could now conjure over 300 different materials.
He had learned enough to build a house with just his Zephyx.
Although, conjuring an entire house would still take him a couple of hours. Also, while Nick knew a lot, he didn't know a lot about architecture.
Aegis still needed to stabilize the Great Triangle,and they didn't have the manpower to focus on another assault on the Corruptors for now, which was why Nick had the time to focus on the research.
However, about six months after Nick returned to his research, he actually got a mission, which quickly transformed into an actual job.
Originally, the Left Arm just told Nick to check up on the Nightmare.
Ever since Nick had attuned his Zephyx Synchronizer to the Nightmare, no one had seen the Nightmare again.
It wasn't that Aegis couldn't enter the Fiend of Darkness. It was because the chances were high that recklessly coming into contact with the Nightmare might cause things to escalate.
What if the Nightmare reacted to anyone stronger than a Specialist?
Messing with the Nightmare was probably a good way to end the current era.
So, Aegis didn't touch it.
However, Nick was already attuned to it, and he was also a Specter now.
Even if there were some kind of safeguard in place, it most likely didn't involve Specters.
Because of that, the Left Arm wanted Nick to revisit the Nightmare and test a couple of things.
When the Technician heard about that mission, he asked Nick to check something else as well.
Ghosty had told the Technician about an area north of Crimson City that was always empty of Specters, and the Technician was interested in that area.
Since the Fiend of Darkness was still in Crimson City, Nick needed to go there, and while he was there, he could also take a look at that area.
The Left Arm needed to be informed about any mission Nick was sent on, and the Technician talked with her for a while.
The Technician somehow managed to relay information to the Left Arm about how much Nick actually knew about the Sun and humanity's true situation.
This gave Nick a certain quality that was extremely rare and valuable.
Nick knew what he could and couldn't talk about.
In general, Aegis didn't want to send just any Hero or Protector into some kind of valuable ruin.
What if they found something out about the Sun and muttered to themselves?
But since Nick knew all of this already, he could look at the valuable ruins without endangering Aegis.
In the end, the Left Arm gave Nick the job of archeologist, and he immediately got his first mission.
His mission was to investigate Crimson City and its surroundings.