Nick looked around for a bit before he created a small path in one direction.
When he saw darkness swarming around the silhouettes, causing them more pain, he stepped back.
This time, he knew exactly what he wanted.
He experimented with the paths for several minutes until he found the path he was looking for.
'Last time, I didn't choose you. You yourself told me that you were not the smartest choice.'
'But this time, you are the correct choice.'
'Zephyx Manipulation is the key to true power, and I need true power to free humanity.'
'Abilities are all just simplified representations of Zephyx Manipulation. If we assume a fantasy setting, all of the abilities are just spells. They are all small representations of the greater concept of magic in the fantasy setting.'
'All of the spells take an aspect of magic and transform it into a tool that can be used.'
'If I can understand the complexity of the ability diagrams the Sun creates, I can make ability diagrams with similar complexity.'
'At that point, there will be no limit to the number and power of my abilities anymore.'
'Envy understood that truth much earlier than me, but it made a fatal mistake.'
'It focused on copying.'
'I could also choose the ability to understand Zephyx Synchronizers or even Specter Cores, but that would just give me more data.'
'It doesn't give me the processing power to process this data.'
'I could just copy.'
'But with increased intelligence, I can understand things.'
'I need to experiment a lot and find the knowledge myself, but I will have a solid foundation and understanding.'
Nick walked down the path of increased intelligence without hesitation.
The further he walked, the more confident he became in his judgment.
'Humans do not have the luxury of increased intelligence. I don't think there are any Specters that grant this ability.'
'I am already quite knowledgeable, and with this ability, I will be able to learn even more.'
Nick reached the end of the path and felt his consciousness returning to the real world.
Yet, instead of focusing on the world around him, Nick focused on his Specter Core.
As expected, a diagram was forming in his Specter Core.
For several seconds, Nick watched the diagram being formed.
It was still vastly too complex, but it didn't seem impossible to understand anymore.
It was just a lot of data points.
With time and effort, he could unravel these data points.
When the diagram finished forming, Nick was pulled back into the real world.
He found himself deep underground, surrounded by dirt.
Nick closed his eyes again and focused on his new perception.
The seventh level was special for a Specter.
The reason was a Specter's perception.
Demons could sense what happened in the surrounding kilometers with relative accuracy.
However, Death's perception stretched for almost 2,000 kilometers, and the other Adversaries were not far behind.
In fact, the Salt Trident could sense everything in the ocean.
How could someone sense everything in a radius of thousands of kilometers?
How could Specters like the False Hope or the Eternal Hunger create forests and slimes all over the world and control them?
How could a Fallen like the Ocular Serpent enforce Death Pacts over thousands of kilometers of distance?
The answer to most of that was the power of a Fallen.
Specters gained a terrifying boost in perception when they became Fallen.
And Nick was a Fallen now.
His perception stretched across a great distance.
If he were just a normal Fallen, he would only be able to sense the surrounding 100 kilometers.
But he wasn't a normal Fallen.
One aspect of the ability Nick had received from the Maw was increased perception.
With his increased perception, Nick could sense everything in a radius of 500 kilometers.
He was not in the perfect center of the island that Crimson City was on, but at this moment, he could still sense around 80% of it.
He could sense thousands of Specters living in the wild.
Nick was already terrifying due to his powerful perception.
He easily found Specters that were hidden in cities for decades.
And now, that aspect had become even more terrifying.
The number of things Nick sensed almost overwhelmed him.
It was so much to process.
However, his newly acquired ability of increased intelligence allowed him to process these things quickly.
The Sun overlooked the entire world, but it couldn't process everything at once.
It needed to focus.
Nurse Alice's senses also stretched across the entire world, but she also needed to focus.
While Nick couldn't process absolutely everything, he could process about half of what he sensed.
He could focus on half of the things he sensed.
If an enemy of Nick had such an ability, they would be a perfect counter.
He wouldn't be able to sneak up on them.
Nick casually glanced at a couple of cities, and he already found several hidden Specters.
Just out of curiosity, Nick also activated his self-made ability to read minds.
With his increased intelligence and added Zephyx, he could push that ability even further.
It was difficult, but he could even read the mind of an Initial Specialist.
The next moment, Nick looked at his self-made ability and immediately found three things he could improve.
He didn't learn anything new, but his increased processing power allowed him to see how these inefficiencies weakened his ability.
As Nick thought about technology, he also saw a couple of places that could be improved.
It seemed almost obvious to him.
'I've chosen correctly,' Nick thought. 'My entire fighting style relies on scheming and planning. Increased intelligence is a significant help in these aspects.' ŕ𝐚Ｎố₿ÈŜ
The next moment, Nick focused on some colored beams that came out of his body.
Nobody but him could see those beams.
These beams were just representations of something.
Why were they there?
Well, when a Specter advanced, all their existing abilities also improved.
And this was a new aspect of one of his abilities.
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