After putting the Fallen into a Containment Unit, Nick went to the contained Adversary to learn more about Star Energy.
As always, while he was listening to the Adversary, Nick was also practicing Zephyx Manipulation.
Zephyx Manipulation was the way to become truly powerful.
The power to create one's own abilities had infinite potential.
It just needed a lot of time and studying to push Zephyx Manipulation to such a level.
If Nick could create diagrams as complex as the Sun could make, he could create any kind of ability he wanted.
But it took a long time to get to such a level.
After learning from the Adversary for about ten years, Nick delivered his accumulated knowledge to the researchers.
For Nick, ten years couldn't be considered a long time anymore, but for the new researchers in the research base, this was a long time.
When the first of the new recruits confirmed that the proof was indeed as weighty as Ghosty said, they became more relaxed.
Almost 40 people were now fully focusing on researching Star Energy, and they were progressing quickly.
With Nick's new notes, the progress would become even faster.
The prototype of the smaller Star Energy generator was also finished.
By now, it was only about a meter across, and it still produced as much Star Energy as the bigger ones.
The notes that Nick delivered this time would help the researchers in making the generator even smaller.
Maybe they could push it to just half a meter wide.
If they managed to do that, it would be enough to power a Seed.
Sure, it was cumbersome to carry such a big object, but it could be considered portable if one wore it like a backpack.
At that point, they could start researching Pure Energy.
They didn't need a lot of Pure Energy for the Seeds. They just needed a little bit to reload the Seed's battery.
The most important thing was a constant supply of Star Energy.
After checking in with the researchers, Nick went out to capture a couple new Specters.
Then, it was time to return to Aegis.
Nick's break wasn't completely over yet, but he said that he would pay attention to humanity's technology.
He went to the research and development department and visited the Technician.
"Hey, Julian! You came at just the right time! Look at this!" the Technician said with a proud smile as he showed Nick a gigantic machine.
It was a 20-meter-high nuclear fusion reactor.
Nick had already expected something like that.
Aegis had the best researchers, and they progressed extremely fast.
When Nick returned to Aegis' headquarters, he also noticed several new additions.
For one, there were cameras everywhere.
Due to the Envious Researcher's terror, cameras had been rare in the past since they were not important enough to develop.
After all, Barriers had a similar function already.
There was no need to undergo the Envious Researcher's trial for just a couple of cameras with bad quality.
"Quite impressive," Nick said.
While the Technician knew that Nick now had the job of the Envious Researcher, he didn't know what Nick had to do exactly.
"I managed to synthesize Star Energy," the Technician said, taking out a small vial from the gigantic reactor.
Nick looked at the vial, and sure enough, he could feel that it was Star Energy.
Naturally, the Technician knew what Star Energy was since Nick had told him about it many years ago.
"Star Energy is powerful," Nick said. "It is toxic to Specters. Just a single drop can turn a Specter into Prephyx."
"I noticed," the Technician said. "I also noticed that it is quite unstable. Storing it for more than a couple of minutes is almost impossible."
"If we could just store it for extended periods of time or make a reactor small enough to be portable, humanity would have a devastating weapon against Specters." 𝐑𝓪𝐍Ȱ𝔟Êṩ
Nick's brows furrowed.
This was the exact direction he didn't want Aegis to take.
"Gunpowder and guns," Nick said.
The Technician blinked a couple of times in confusion.
Where did that come from?
But then, his eyes widened as he realized what Nick meant.
"You're saying that we should not use it directly as a weapon since that would be wasting its potential?" he asked.
Nick nodded. "The older Specters are already familiar with Star Energy. Death and the Trio of Destruction have probably fought against the Enlightened Ones before."
"They know how to counter Star Energy in its original form. They probably already created weapons and armor that can block Star Energy. Throwing Star Energy at Specters is like lighting a ball of gunpowder on fire and throwing it at the enemy, hoping that it explodes near them."
"You want to make Star Energy accessible so that Extractors can more efficiently fight Specters, right?" Nick asked.
"Yep," the Technician asked as his mind went through countless possibilities.
"You said the issue is storage," Nick said. "If you could just store Star Energy, you could access it whenever you want."
"However, there is an issue with that line of thinking. For example, we don't want to kill Specters since that just creates more Specters. We want to suppress them. Throwing a bunch of Star Energy at them will just lead to even more Specters. You're throwing oil into a fire."
"Additionally, what's the point of killing Fanatics and Demons? The Specters we should truly focus on are the Corruptors and Trio of Destruction. The Corruptors probably also know how to resist Star Energy since they are directly subservient to the Trio of Destruction."
"The only thing you will accomplish is the birth of many more Specters."
"Try to think outside the box. You want to store Star Energy so that you can have access to its purest form, but retaining access to its purest form is not necessary."
"Focus on transforming it."
"What if you could forge Star Energy into physical weapons?"
"If we can control the destructive aspect of Star Energy, we can injure Specters without killing them, and we can also solve the issue of storing Star Energy
in that way."
"Don't try to turn a bar of metal into ore again."
The Technician raised an eyebrow as he fell into thought.
He looked at Nick, who looked back with an even expression.
The Technician could tell that Nick wanted him to go down that route for some reason.
"Sounds like a good idea," the Technician said.
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