'I think I should call specific talent in different elements Elemental Affinities. Depending on one's personality, one would have different Elemental Affinities.'
'Sadly, this is not very relevant to the Nightmen. Based on their genetics, almost all of them should have Elemental Affinities for either darkness, ice, or metal.'
'Darkness requires a sinister and cold mindset. Greed for power and lack of empathy make it easier to turn Pure Energy into darkness. Additionally, since the Nightmen share DNA with the Nightmare, they should all have some talent in darkness manipulation.'
'Ice requires coldness and distance. While not all of them have that, a lot should have that predisposition.'
'Metal requires controlled anger, almost like hatred. It is not as chaotic as the greed for power that a Darkness Affinity requires. Metal is more shaped by decisive confidence.'
'A select few of the Nightmen might get a Fire Affinity, but the chances are relatively low. It requires a lot of energy and uncontrolled rage. Due to their inherent high intelligence, Nightmen learn very quickly to control their anger since actions made out of anger often end up hurting themselves more than others.'
'An Earth Affinity needs a stalwart and calm mind. It requires principles and strong beliefs. Nightmen are very pragmatic and flexible in their morals. I don't think any of them will awaken an Earth Affinity.'
'Having a Water Affinity is absolutely impossible for the Nightmen. It requires love and the desire to protect others.'
'Light is the same. Light is similar to water and requires selflessness.'
'Wind is carefree. It essentially represents doing whatever one wants. Again, Nightmen are too greedy for power, and they care too much about the opinions of others.'
'Lightning needs a balance between empathy and explosive anger. It's like it is friendly at one point, but if you anger it, it will explode with incredible force. I don't think any Nightmen will awaken a Lightning Affinity.'
'Darkness, Ice, and Metal. That's what the Nightmen will focus on primarily. Also explains why there are many Techniques the Nightmen have created based on these Elements.'
'I believe, based on my personality, I would have either a Metal, Water, Light, or Earth Affinity.'
'Luckily, the concept of Elemental Affinities doesn't apply to me since I am working directly with the fundamentals.'
'Others need to create parts of their Techniques, but the elemental transformation is made by their feelings. The second part is basically automated.'
'I can directly create the Manipulation Lines.'
Nick summoned one element after the other and inspected it.
He had seen thousands of Specters in his life, and he had also seen plenty of Specters who used elements to attack.
For the next couple of days, Nick created one Technique after the other.
One moment, his body was surrounded by pure darkness, hiding him from view.
The next moment, he shot a concentrated beam of light at the wall.
'As expected, different elements have their different strengths.'
'Darkness excels at assassinations and staying hidden. Fire excels at wide-range destruction. In the beginning, Wind and Lightning excel at speed, but later, Light will overtake them in that department.'
After some weeks, Nick's body was ready to advance to the Second Realm.
'Now, I need to come up with a good way to make use of this advancement. I need to widen the gap between someone at the Peak First Realm and someone at the Initial Second Realm.'
'There must be a decisive difference in power.'
Nick quickly came up with several ideas, and almost all of them would shape one's future path to power in a certain way.
'Jack of all trades or specialization?' he thought. 'There are ways we can increase everything or only one aspect.'
'However, humans only have a limited amount of time. They can't study forever. If we increase all aspects at the same time, that will only be useful if everyone trains in everything.'
'This is not what humanity needs. If humans were solitary, working on everything would be great since that person wouldn't have any weaknesses anymore.'
'But we are not solitary. We have teammates that protect our weaknesses, allowing us to focus on our strengths.'
'Specialization is what humanity needs.'
For the next weeks, Nick experimented with different things.
He advanced, broke his body down, recreated it, and advanced again.
Again and again.
He wanted to make sure that everything worked.
Eventually, he finished his creation.
Nick looked at his own Human Core.
At this moment, his Human Core was covered in a network of Manipulation Lines.
He siphoned some of his Pure Energy out of his Human Core, and it entered his body as it was.
Next, he siphoned his Pure Energy through the network.
His Pure Energy transformed into darkness and spread throughout his body.
Then, he became ethereal.
'The Elemental Converter works well,' Nick thought.
The network of Manipulation Lines on Nick's Human Core would automatically transform his Pure Energy into a dedicated element.
While the process of turning Pure Energy into an element happened automatically in the mind, the conversion itself still consumed some Pure Energy.
But with the Elemental Converter, the Pure Energy would directly convert into an element.
This cost no additional Pure Energy.
Additionally, the conversion was much faster and happened earlier.
It was more efficient, and attacks could be launched faster.
After creating Elemental Converters for all the elements, Nick put their designs into the Archive and told Samar to spread the information.
With this, Nightmen in the Second Realm could now fight Johns evenly.
At least, on average.
The thing about working with Pure Energy was that one's power solely relied on oneself.
It all depended on the Techniques one created and how much experience one had.
Extractors had set abilities, and as a baseline, an Extractor's ability was more powerful.
However, a John only had access to two powerful abilities.
Meanwhile, a Nightman of the Second Realm could have tens of them.
Even more, if the Nightman was good enough at creating their own Techniques, their Techniques could even be stronger than the Extractor's abilities.
Weak Nightmen would lose against weak Extractors.
But strong Nightmen would win against strong Extractors.
At least up until the Second Realm.
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