By now, Nick could talk back to the Adversary.
While he was hard to understand, he could talk with it with quite some speed.
This made it much easier since Nick could now ask questions.
Although he had to repeat them many times.
If he truly wanted to talk to the Adversary without constantly having to repeat himself, he would need to become a Late Demon first.
The production of Zephyx was at its all-time peak right now.
It seemed like the Grand Continent was undergoing the biggest upheaval right now.
Five years after Lust died, the majority of its cities started to destabilize.
The former servants became ballsy and reckless, leading to many raids by Aegis.
Because of that, Nick advanced rapidly, and only six years after becoming a Mid Demon, he became a Late Demon.
But by then, Zephyx production had dropped significantly again.
It seemed like almost all of Lust's cities had already undergone their period of upheaval.
'My Zephyx production dropped by over 80%, and I need even more Zephyx to advance now,' he thought.
'If I don't do something, my Zephyx production will drop to almost zero within the next couple of years. Of course, I can keep my production going by just extending the sentences of a couple of corrupt guards. Let me see…'
'If I were to extend the sentence of all of the guards, I would be producing this much Zephyx… and I need this much Zephyx…'
'If I only used the guards, I would need over 30 years to advance.'
Naturally, advancing one stage at such a high level within only 30 years would still be crazy.
Nick would still be faster than over 90% of all humans.
However, compared to Nick's usual speed of advancement, 30 years was insanely long.
'Every second in which humanity isn't free causes an imaginable amount of suffering to countless humans.'
'I can't just sit here and advance in silence while countless humans suffer.'
'But I also can't just return before my free time is up. If I return early, the Champion might become suspicious. After all, I'm a Specter, and I'm supposed to think of myself first.'
'I'll have to find a solution to this problem soon, but for now, I should continue focusing on the research.'
When Nick became a Late Demon, he paid the researchers another visit.
Within the last six years, they managed to create some basic machines that could turn Star Energy into different forms of energy.
Heat, movement, electricity…
They were able to manipulate it with machines now, but they still hadn't found a way to manipulate it with their minds, which was the goal.
For now, they would focus on creating something like a Barrier that could interact with Star Energy as a proxy.
If they could do that, they would be able to roughly control it with their minds.
There would just be a layer of translation between the mind and the Star Energy.
When Nick delivered the next book, the researchers learned a lot about the production of Star Energy.
The Adversary often focused on different things than the researchers.
The researchers worked on making the Star Energy accessible, while the Adversary focused on talking about the production of Star Energy.
This was a good thing since this meant they were making progress on two fronts.
With the help of Nick's writings, the Researchers managed to multiply the production of Star Energy severalfold.
With more Star Energy, they could experiment more, which allowed them to progress faster.
Without the Adversary's help, these advancements would have taken many decades.
Finding, creating, and learning to manipulate a completely new kind of energy took a long time.
After delivering his new book, Nick returned to the Adversary.
Now, as a Late Demon, he could finally talk with the Adversary without having to repeat himself constantly.
Nick told the Adversary about the progress of their research.
"Annoyed: you shouldn't think about controlling Star Energy with your mind," the Adversary spoke with its vibrations. "This is something only the most powerful humans can do."
"Just make a portable storage that delivers Star Energy to the Seed. This will not be enough to properly operate the Seed, but it should give you basic access. If you can access the Seed, your research speed will shoot through the roof!"
Nick furrowed his brows. "You say only the strongest humans can control Star Energy with their minds. Why?" he asked.
"It's a completely different form of energy," it answered. "Controlling Star Energy is about as foreign to you as controlling gravity or time. Specters might give you these abilities, but they are all based on Zephyx, and you can't truly control these things. You are essentially taking a pre-built machine and just press a button."
"You don't have that ability with Star Energy. You don't have an intrinsic way to interact with it. You will have to create the machine yourself."
"Also, Star Energy is only good for fighting Specters and for defending against them, and you are doing that by creating weapons out of them."
"Trying to achieve the same fidelity in control with it as you have with Zephyx is a waste of time and will accomplish nothing."
"That's what Pure Energy is for. Pure Energy is much, much more useful for humans. If you unlock Pure Energy, you can work on manipulating it all you want. It will be worth the effort."
"Urgent: But first, you need Pure Energy!"
At that moment, Nick remembered something. "Did you say we need Star Energy or Pure Energy to access the Seeds?"
"Both," the Adversary answered. "Seeds operate with Pure Energy, but they produce Pure Energy themselves already. You need to feed it Zephyx and Star Energy so that it can produce Pure Energy."
"But if a long time has passed, the internal storage of Pure Energy inside the Seed will be used up, and to get the machine rolling again, you need to feed it a bit of Pure Energy again."
"As soon as it runs again, you only need Star Energy and Zephyx."
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