The first thing Nick did after getting back was to inform Samar and Aria of his return.
Then, he went to one of the many rooms he had left empty and started to conjure materials.
After conjuring the materials, he created a machine.
This machine would be the core of humanity's future.
The Archive.
All the knowledge Nick had accumulated couldn't fit into less than ten thousand Barriers.
He needed a centralized storage for knowledge that humans could use.
The final goal was to spread the knowledge to everyone living on the dark side, but their current Barriers weren't advanced enough to store all of that information.
But as long as they had access to it, they would be able to create better Barriers that could store this load of information.
'Creating a database made with Pure Energy materials will take too much time. I'm just going to make a very big storage with Zephyx materials.'
After a couple of days of construction, Nick finished the machine.
It was five meters tall and over twenty meters wide.
The only thing this machine could do was to store and distribute knowledge.
It had enough space to fit about 50 times the information Nick currently had in his brain.
'Now comes the annoying part,' Nick thought.
Then, Nick started to put the information he had about engineering into the machine.
Interfacing with the machine via the mind was extremely difficult without some kind of brain implant.
Nick knew how to create these kinds of implants, but he didn't know how he could connect them with someone's mind.
His knowledge of biology was limited.
So this meant that he had to write everything down.
And that took a long time.
Nick could write thousands of pages within seconds, but that was not fast enough.
He needed hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of pages.
Weeks passed.
Months passed.
Nick was busy filling the Archive with information.
Transfer of knowledge was so much faster via voice transmission.
After around two years of writing things down, Nick told Samar that the researchers could access the Archive.
After two years of doing nothing but writing, how much had Nick written down?
Something like 5% of the knowledge he had received from the Jolly Cannibal.
'This will take me about 50 years,' he thought. 'But it's necessary. The speed of our technological progress will shoot through the roof.'
Naturally, while the first researchers accessed the Archive, Nick hid himself so that nobody saw him.
The researchers knew that new knowledge was being added, but they didn't know how.
In truth, Nick was just in a small room inside the machine, typing away.
When the researchers saw a glimpse of the wisdom contained in that machine, they felt humbled.
They could only understand small parts of what was written down, but these small parts already made them feel like cavemen.
This was almost magical.
"Nick," Aria transmitted.
"Yes?" Nick asked, his speed of writing dropping to a measly 700 pages per second.
"We need more Zephyx, and we need many more Hatchlings and Adolescents," Aria transmitted.
Nick took a deep breath. "Fine. Give me a bit."
"Thank you."
Nick left the machine and flew out of the underground city.
Hatchlings were not difficult to find.
There were literally thousands of wild hatchlings within Nick's perception at any given moment.
He grabbed about 100 of the easier ones to work with and dumped them in Containment Units inside the city.
When he had created the city, he had left space for about 10,000 Specters, just to be sure.
Nick didn't need to pay attention to the level of the Hatchlings since they would become stronger while working with the Extractors anyway.
Finding Adolescents was a bit more difficult.
However, with Nick's terrifying perception, he could also find enough of them after some hours.
Then, Nick searched for Zephyx.
He could exchange some caught Specters for a bunch of Zephyx, but there might be an easier way.
Caravans.
Naturally, caravans were legal, and they earned their money by traveling from city to city.
Yet, some of these caravans also did some less-than-savory trades.
Human trafficking.
It took him about three days of watching several caravans to find one of those.
He waited until the caravan delivered their current goods before he killed everyone in it.
The bodies were transported to the Jolly Cannibal, while the massive Zephyx Crystals were brought to the underground city.
That amounted to about 150 kilos of Zephyx.
Finally, Nick could get back to writing.
Five more years passed.
"Nick, we need a few more Adolescents and about three Adults. We also need another 500 kilos of Zephyx," Aria transmitted.
"Fine," Nick answered.
He got the Zephyx and Specters.
Three years later.
"Nick, we need more Hatchlings and Adults. We also need another 500 kilos of Zephyx," Aria transmitted.
Nick gave a curt answer and dealt with the issue.
By now, it had become a bit difficult to find caravans that were trafficking humans.
This time, Nick needed about three weeks to fulfill the request.
Four years passed.
"Nick," Aria transmitted.
"What?" he asked, still typing.
"We need more Hatchlings and Adults. We also need a couple more Elders. A ton of Zephyx also wouldn't hurt."
Nick furrowed his brows. "Why do you need so much stuff?"
"Just take a look at the city," she answered.
Nick did just that, and when he did, he had to take a deep breath.
There were over 3,000 children!
The nine-year-olds from last time were already in their twenties, and several of them had already become Johns.
Most of the Hatchlings had become Adolescents.
Even more, the Johns and Veterans Nick had recruited years ago had also advanced.
Almost every single John had become a Veteran.
Apparently, the city had found a way to make Zephosis bearable,which meant the Extractors no longer needed a lot of willpower to advance.
Becoming an Expert also wasn't difficult since it just needed time and Zephyx accumulation.
The reason why Crimson City had so many more Johns than Veterans was the necessary willpower required to undergo Zephosis.
The reason for the difference in numbers between Veterans and Experts was the limited number of available Specters.
Not everyone could be prioritized evenly.
Both of these things were no issue in the underground city.
Nick brought enough Specters for everyone, and everyone could undergo Zephosis.
From now on, the limit of the normal Extractor would be the Expert level.
Then, the biggest hurdle of them all arrived.
Consumption.
And that was the main reason why Aria suddenly asked for Elders.
After looking at everything for a bit, Nick just sighed.
'My break is up in a year anyway. Might as well use that last year to give them enough resources.'
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