Shadow Novelist
Volume 23: The Game Changes
← Previous chapter: 717 Establishing Contact
This question made Nick doubt if he actually understood what he was hearing.
Had he misinterpreted the Specter's language?
'No, it makes sense. I'm pretty sure it just asked me if I'm hungry.'
Nick hit the middle of the gate, signifying a no.
"Joyful: Ha ha ha! I should have expected!" came the translated answer from the walls.
Surprisingly, the Specter had also established a way to communicate the tone of a sentence. Apparently, that was important to the Specter.
'It didn't even ask me whether or not I'm human. Although, that's probably because it doesn't even think that I could be a Specter. A Specter has no reason to come into contact with another Specter unless it was searching for a servant.'
'Also, most Specters wouldn't be interested in some ancient Specter that was contained. Only humans would be inquisitive enough to try to communicate with this Specter.'
"How long have I been in here? Has it been more than a hundred years?" the Specter asked via hits.
Nick kicked the bottom of the gate, signifying a yes.
"More than a thousand?"
Another yes.
"More than ten thousand?" it asked.
Yes.
"Surprised: No wonder I'm hungry!" it commented. "You got food?"
Nick furrowed his brows and hit the side of the gate, which represented uncertainty or confusion.
"Encouraging: Bodies! Human bodies!" the gate answered.
Nick didn't answer.
'So, it does consume bodies,' Nick thought. 'If we manage to properly contain this Specter, we can train all of the Shields.'
Over five seconds passed without Nick answering.
"Careful: Want me to change the topic?"
Nick kicked a yes.
"Exasperated: I see that you like conversations to be a bit more serious."
Nick kicked another yes.
"Accepting: Alright, let's talk about the important stuff then. Why did nobody talk to me for so long? Did everyone die?" it asked.
Nick kicked a yes.
"Before we continue talking, do you actually have the power to free me, assuming you wanted to free me?" it asked.
Nick punched a no.
"Can you contact a Sky Shatterer?" the Specter asked.
Nick raised an eyebrow and sent an answer signifying confusion.
"Someone powerful enough to break through this prison," the Specter elaborated.
'Guess level nine Extractors were called Sky Shatterers back then,' Nick thought.
Nick gave a no.
"Why not? Do you not know one?" the Specter asked.
Nick punched the left side of the gate, signifying that none of the available options to answer were adequate.
"Shocked: Wait," the gate answered before hesitating for a moment. "Don't tell me that there are no Sky Shatterers."
Nick kicked a yes.
"Wait, yes, no? Are there any Sky Shatterers that are alive?" the Specter asked.
Nick gave a no.
Silence.
"Level five Transcenders?" the Specter answered.
Nick gave a confused answer.
"One level lower than a level one Sky Shatterer," the Specter elaborated.
'He's probably talking about Peak Shields,' Nick thought.
Nick gave a no.
"Level four Transcenders?"
No.
"Level three Transcenders?"
Nick had already prepared his answers.
No.
The Champion of Light was a Mid Shield, but Nick decided to keep the Champion's existence secret.
The Champion was humanity's enemy, and this Specter might give humanity a chance to finally get rid of all of this.
This Specter had to be kept secret from the Champion.
"Level two Transcenders?" the Specter asked.
Nick gave a yes.
"Relieved: Oh, good! At least we have Transcenders!" the Specter answered. "Do you work for one of them?"
Nick gave a yes.
"Are you just a distant employee, or are you working with one of them very closely? Yes for the first one, and no for the second."
Nick gave a no.
"Great! So, can you get one of them to talk to me? You're not strong enough to have a proper conversation with this gate between us."
Nick gave a no.
"Shocked: No? Why not?"
Nick gave another no.
"Can you reach them?"
Yes.
"Then, what's stopping you from contacting them?"
No.
At that point, the Specter started to guess one reason after the other, and Nick kept giving no's to every reason.
"Can they not come here?"
Yes!
The first yes!
"Can you tell me why?"
No.
"You don't want to tell me why?"
Yes.
"No matter what I offer?"
Yes.
"Annoyed: Okay," the Specter said. "So, I'm stuck with you."
Yes.
"Sad: Fine. Serious: You are not a young person if you are strong enough to make the cage shake. So, you should know that I am naturally very interested in getting out of this cage. My only way out is humans. I am explaining all of this to make it clear that there is no reason for me to be adversarial to you. I want to help you so that, in the end, you may help me. Do you believe me?" ř
Yes.
"Joyful and relieved: Great! Are you interested in potentially learning how to use the prison to free me? Naturally, all the power lies in your hands. You just know how it works, but it will be up to you whether or not to free me. Sound good?"
Yes.
"Amazing! Now, can you bring energy back to the prison?"
No.
"Do you know how to bring energy back to the prison?"
No.
"Use your Seed and interface with the command port."
A confused answer.
"Do you know what the command port is?"
Nick could imagine what that meant in the context of Barriers, but that was probably not the same thing the Specter was asking about.
So, Nick gave a no.
"Do you know how to access the interface of the prison?"
No.
"Do you have a Seed?"
Confused answer.
"It's a tiny little round thing that gets put in your body. All machinery and all kinds of devices can only be accessed by the virtual overlay your Seed creates. Do you have that?"
Nick gave an answer that meant that none of the options were fitting as an answer.
"Alright, don't try to interpret any assumptions into my following questions. Take the questions for their rawest possible values. Have you ever seen a Seed?"
Yes.
"Have you ever used a Seed?"
No.
"Have you ever seen anyone use a Seed?"
No.
"Do you, or anyone that you know of, know of a way to possibly make a Seed usable?"
No.
"But you have seen Seeds?"
Yes.
"Okay. So, not everything is lost. As long as you can implant a Seed and make it work, we can work from there. You just need to get a Seed, restore its energy supply, imprint it, and implant it."
"Can you get one of the Seeds?"
Yes.
"Good! Go get one and come back. Joking: No worries, I won't go anywhere."
Yes.
After giving his yes, Nick transformed into mist, moved through the different hallways, and grabbed a random Seed from a random pile.
Nick didn't want to experiment on the Seed of the dead Peak Shield. There might be information on it that was extremely valuable.
Yes.
"You got a Seed in your hands right now?"
Yes.
"Good! How good are you at forging in the context of your peers? Use yes and no as a scale. The closer you hit to yes, the better you are."
Nick went about 70% to 80% to yes.
By working with Ghosty and the Technician for years, Nick became extremely good at Zephology and engineering.
"Great! That makes things easier! First, we need to delete all the contents of the Seed. Without deleting all the data, we can't make it usable. You delete all the data by letting Specter Energy run through it for about five seconds. Do that."
Nick knew that the Seeds could absorb and release Zephyx, but no one could interact with the Seed by using Zephyx.
Nick had expected that the Seed would need a complex flow of Zephyx to delete its contents, but he apparently only needed to shove Zephyx in.
'That means that Seeds most likely don't work with Zephyx.'
Nick's body was made of Zephyx, and he just willed his energy to flow through the Seed between his two fingers.
Nick could feel a bit of resistance when his Zephyx flowed through it, but after some seconds, all the resistance vanished.
Yes.
"Are you done?"
Yes.
"Was the flow of Specter Energy different between the beginning and the end?"
Yes.
"Good! That means it most likely worked! Next, do you know how to make Pure Energy?"
Nick raised an eyebrow and gave a confused answer.
"Pure Energy is something that you can make with Specter Energy and Star Energy. Do you know what that is?"
'Star Energy?'
Nick gave a confused answer.
"Okay, you do have access to Specter Energy, right? You just used it to delete the Seed's contents."
Yes.
"Can you transform Specter Energy into matter?"
Yes.
"Can you transform Specter Energy into light?"
Barriers worked partially with that principle.
Yes.
"Can you force atoms to split with Specter Energy?"
Nick furrowed his brows.
This was one of the biggest hurdles when it came to creating rank seven materials.
The Technician could do that, but it took an insane amount of work, and the Technician had to do it all manually.
Splitting atoms with Zephyx was essentially the very tip of the world's cutting-edge technology.
Nick hit the middle between yes and no.
"Is there a Transcendent that can do that?"
Yes.
"Do you know how to do that?"
No.
"Is there a Transcendent that can make atoms fuse?"
Nick blinked a couple of times.
They had thought about that and knew that it should theoretically be possible, but they had no idea how to actually do that.
No.
"Disappointed and accepting: Seems like I have a lot to teach you."