Nick left the Containment Unit and went to the underground city again.
He decided against going to the last knowledge repository for now.
The reason was that the knowledge repository for energy manipulation strictly related to creating abilities and understanding one's own power.
It was simply the application of Pure Energy, Star Energy, and Zephyx when it came to increasing one's personal power.
This would be relevant when humanity could produce a new kind of human that could work with Pure Energy.
Additionally, Nick also couldn't use Star Energy or Pure Energy.
It would be more useful to learn about these things when his disguise ability advanced again.
For now, he needed to focus on humanity's future.
All the pieces were there.
The knowledge was available.
Engineering, biology, and energy.
Now, he just needed to turn these concepts into reality.
After putting all the knowledge about energies into the Archive, Nick retreated.
For the first time, he would be actually researching.
He would not be learning from others but creating new knowledge himself.
There were several things he needed to fight against the aliens.
One, he needed humans who could live in the darkness while also working with Pure Energy.
Right now, there was no way for both things to be possible at the same time.
Two, he needed these humans to reach the ninth level.
Three, he needed to increase his personal power enough so that he could infiltrate the alien base.
Four, he needed to learn enough about alien technology so that he could manipulate it.
These four things were necessary.
If all of these four things were true, humanity could free themselves from the aliens.
The knowledge about energy manipulation would only be relevant in the second step.
For now, he would focus on the first step.
He needed to create humans that were immune to the darkness, were not allergic to Star Energy or Pure Energy, and could use said energies to become stronger.
He had to alter the very fundamentals of humanity.
He needed to reinvent cells, significantly alter the genome, and put everything into practice.
This would take a while.
This alteration of humanity's fundamentals would be even more significant than what the Enlightened Ones had done.
Nick looked at how the Enlightened Ones changed their humans.
The Enlightened Ones did two things.
First, they improved and isolated their Zephyx Synchronizers.
There was no reason to get rid of Zephyx as a power source.
Because of that, they kept their Zephyx Synchronizers.
However, they changed the Zephyx Synchronizers so that they wouldn't weaken humans to Star Energy or Pure Energy.
At the same time, they also created an implant that could isolate the energies from each other.
This was the thing Nick had seen inside the Nightmare's body.
A spinning dodecahedron.
This was called a Firmament.
A Firmament acted as a whiteboard for Zephyx.
In a way, it was an altered artificial Specter Core that surrounded the Zephyx Synchronizers.
The humans could create Manipulation Lines on the inside of the Firmament, granting them abilities.
At the same time, the Firmament also isolated the Zephyx Synchronizers from Star Energy and Pure Energy.
This would allow humans to walk the path of an Extractor while not interfering with their body.
The Firmament stopped all Zephyx from entering the body.
This meant that Zephyx did not increase the power of the Enlightened One's bodies and minds.
It was simply a storage of energy they could use to launch abilities and attacks.
The second thing they did was to alter the genome so that humans received a new organ.
The organ was between their intestines, and it was called a Human Core.
The Human Core was connected to the body and the mind, and it worked with Pure Energy.
A small and very sturdy channel connected the Firmament with the Human Core.
As Zephyx entered the channel, Star Energy, which was absorbed by the skin, would gather around the channel.
Several complex biological processes took place, and the Star Energy and Zephyx would turn into Pure Energy.
Prephyx would be created during the process, and it was discharged through the skin.
Finally, the Pure Energy would reach the Human Core.
The Human Core would then spread the Pure Energy throughout the body, enhancing it.
Like this, the human would still have access to their Specter-granted abilities while also benefitting from Pure Energy.
This was how the Enlightened Ones worked.
Of course, there were several other enhancements, but these were all related to the path to power related to Pure Energy.
Just like Extractors, the Enlightened Ones also had several levels, which they called Realms.
Naturally, this path to power was separate from an Extractor's path to power and required its own resources and methods.
It was quite a good system.
Nick couldn't find a fault.
Sadly, he couldn't use this system.
The aliens had already studied the Enlightened Ones, and Nick was certain that they had found a way to counter these humans.
Most likely, they created some kind of weapon that would mess with the Firmament or the channel.
Maybe they could manipulate the Firmament into sending far too much Zephyx through the channel, which would break the channel and allow the Zephyx to roam throughout the body.
This would essentially poison the human and make them powerless.
Alternatively, they could also mess with the complex biological processes in the channel.
If that biological process could be stopped, pure Zephyx would be pumped into the Human Core.
There, the Zephyx would be strengthened by the volatile nature of Pure Energy, essentially using up all the power the human had while also clogging up space for new Pure Energy.
It would be like pumping a stone into a heart.
There were a couple of more ways to mess with biology, and Nick had to avoid all of them.
He couldn't be sure what the aliens would use to counter these kinds of humans, and he had to prepare for all of them.
He had to reinvent the entire thing.
And that would take time.
A lot of time.
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