After Nick invented the Elemental Converters, he continued advancing in the Second Realm.
He now had access to far more Pure Energy, which opened more ways to use it.
In general, Techniques were put into two categories.
Concrete and Abstract.
This was related to their use of Pure Energy.
Concrete Techniques required a fixed amount of energy to produce a fixed amount of destruction.
For example, using arbitrary numbers, five points of Pure Energy could summon a lightning bolt that caused 15 points of destruction.
This could be a devastating technique in the Second Realm, but in the Third Realm, using this Technique would be a waste of time and Pure Energy.
Meanwhile, Abstract Techniques worked on a percentual basis.
Using 15% of one's Pure Energy could produce a lightning bolt that caused destruction equivalent to using 45% of one's Pure Energy.
These Techniques would grow more powerful as one advanced.
When explained like this, it would seem obvious that Abstract Techniques were strictly superior to Concrete Techniques.
Sadly, it wasn't that easy.
Conversion of energy into destruction was an entire branch of research in regards to Techniques.
Concrete Techniques were refined to perfection, and they were supposed to be used inside a certain Realm.
Meanwhile, Abstract Techniques needed to be flexible in their conversion.
Sadly, the efficiency of the conversion would be very different at different levels of power.
If the last example was used with more realistic numbers, at the best possible conversion, the Abstract Technique would transform 15% of Pure Energy into 30% of destruction, but when used with more energy, it could drop from 30% to 10%.
That would make the Technique a literal waste of energy.
Not attacking would be better than attacking at that point.
Because of that, Abstract Techniques needed to be further refined into different levels.
In the Second Realm, one would have to learn the first level of an Abstract Technique, and when one reached the Third Realm, one needed to learn the second level to make it useful again.
Meanwhile, Concrete Techniques were self-contained and easier to learn.
If one just kept learning Concrete Techniques appropriate for their level, one wouldn't even need an Abstract Technique.
Now, the Concrete Techniques looked better.
Yet, Abstract Techniques had their own unique use.
Abstract Techniques could do more.
For example, there were Abstract Techniques that increased one's passive usage of Pure Energy to enhance one's physical body.
This effect couldn't be achieved by Concrete Techniques since their energy usage was fixed.
Concrete Techniques used Pure Energy once to unleash one effect.
Abstract Techniques could keep siphoning energy to keep the effect active.
A powerful Nightman would use two to three Abstract Techniques to make them faster and stronger while unleashing a lot of Concrete Techniques to cause damage.
Due to the passively increased speed and power of their bodies, fighting against someone who didn't use these Abstract Techniques would feel like fighting someone of a lower Realm.
Both kinds of Techniques had their uses.
Nick studied the Techniques that had already been created, and he focused on the one that increased one's physical body the most.
This Technique was very similar to Nick's primary ability.
The only difference was that this Technique used energy to achieve that effect, while Nick's primary ability used nothing.
Additionally, Nick's primary ability had a much higher increase in power.
Nick managed to improve the Technique by leaps and bounds in just a couple of hours.
He increased its efficiency significantly while also improving the power multiplicator.
When Nick used this Technique, his physical power increased threefold, while his passive energy consumption also tripled.
This was not that bad.
His Pure Energy regeneration would just suffer a bit.
He still recovered more Pure Energy than he was using while this Technique was active, but it would just be quite a bit slower.
That was a good exchange for a threefold increase in power.
However, there was an issue.
The Technique was extremely complex.
Nick didn't have issues using it, but he believed only Fifth Realm or Sixth Realm Nightmen could use this Technique after practicing it for several years.
Yet, the energy conversion was designed for someone in the Second Realm.
If someone in the Fifth Realm used this Technique as it was, their energy consumption would increase by over 40 times to triple their physical power.
The person would run out of Pure Energy very quickly.
'It's still worth studying,' Nick thought as he published the Technique in the Archive.
Over the next months, Nick created about 60 more Abstract Techniques for Nightmen in the Second Realm.
There was no lack of Concrete Techniques, which was why Nick focused on Abstract Techniques.
After creating enough Techniques, Nick focused on his advancement into the Third Realm.
'This advancement should not be too hard. It is simply Zephosis but for Nightmen.'
'Achieving Zephosis is a bit bothersome. I should focus on making it easier.'
After a couple of weeks of trial and error, Nick created an easy way for Nightmen to achieve their version of Zephosis.
Funnily enough, it required knowledge of all four knowledge repositories.
It was a pill.
When consuming the pill, the body would discharge all non-essential organic matter from the body.
The digestive system, lungs, blood vessels, and heart would die and leave the body.
Nightmen's Zephosis didn't need all of that since the network for Pure Energy was already covering the entire body.
After all, Nick had designed the body to be this way.
The pill would get rid of these unnecessary parts and create a big open space.
This open space could be used in further advancements to add more things that improved one's Pure Energy storage, manipulation, and recovery.
Achieving such an effect with a mere pill required an insane amount of knowledge in human biology.
A machine that could create this pill needed to be insanely advanced.
The effect it had on the person's Pure Energy was significant, and one had to know a lot about Pure Energy to make this pill work.
Lastly, actually achieving this effect required complex manipulation of Pure Energy.
This pill was incredibly powerful and easy to use, but conceptualizing and creating it required unreasonably high levels of advancement in almost all fields of study.
Luckily, Nick had all of that.
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