'Additionally, the formation of an Energy Bone takes about ten years with optimal usage of energy. This gives the Nightmen much more time to research Techniques and to learn the Internal Technique they will be using in the future.'
For the next ten years, Nick focused on creating different Internal Techniques.
For now, it was more important to give the Nightmen different ways to advance.
Any knowledge and experience they gathered in this era would save years in the next era.
Yes, Nick had to become an Eternal before the era ended, but there were still a couple of centuries left.
Nick created about 50 Internal Techniques.
'Everyone should be able to find a fitting Internal Technique.'
For now, Nick left the creation of Abstract and Concrete Techniques to the Nightmen.
Internal Techniques were much more difficult to create since they needed to be usable up to the Ninth Realm.
How could a Nightman in the Fifth Realm know how an Internal Technique would have to be to work in the Seventh Realm?
After the ten years were up, Nick was ready to advance again.
'The Fifth Realm should be the last one I should take a look at. Starting from the Fifth Realm, developing new things will take decades, and that can wait for the next era.'
'The passive energy regeneration of the Nightmen is still good up to the peak of the Fourth Realm, but with the addition of the Energy Bone, it reaches its limit.'
'My focus for the advancement should be to boost energy regeneration as much as possible.'
Nick looked at the different Nightmen.
They all wore rings on their fingers.
These rings were their Star Energy and Pure Energy generators.
Without them, they would run out of Pure Energy and die.
As it was, Earth was essentially an alien planet to Nightmen.
They couldn't survive with just their biology due to all of the Prephyx in the atmosphere.
In space,they could absorb Star Energy with their skin and use some of the Zephyx they stored to create Pure Energy.
Powerful Extractors could survive on Earth without food, but the same thing wasn't exactly true for Nightmen.
Yes, they didn't need food, but they needed Pure Energy, which needed Zephyx.
In a foreign world, every biological lifeform probably had some form of Zephyx stored in their bodies, which they would use to create their own Pure Energy.
If the Nightmen lived in such a world, they would need to regularly consume other lifeforms to refill their Zephyx.
Sadly, these life forms didn't exist here.
The Nightmen needed Extractors to create Zephyx.
Just like how knights in the olden times required farmers to grow their food.
'I am sure that the alien lifeforms working with Pure Energy advance on a purely biological basis, but that doesn't mean that's the best way.'
'The Ancient Ones only used technology.'
'The aliens only use biology.'
'Why not combine the strengths of both paths?'
For the next ten years, Nick developed the perfect advancement for the Fifth Realm.
When he was done, he looked at the fist-sized machine in his hands.
This thing was incredibly complex, but it also had incredible power.
Nick siphoned a huge amount of Pure Energy out of the several generators around him and used everything to strengthen his Human Core.
His Human Core became several times harder.
When it was finished hardening, it had attained a level of hardness that allowed it to compress Pure Energy to twice its former density.
This increased the maximum amount of Pure Energy one could store at a time.
Next, Nick opened his chest and placed the machine in the spot where his heart had been.
The machine connected to his internal Zephyx storage and his Human Core.
Almost immediately, all the Zephyx of Nick's storage was emptied and pushed into the machine.
The machine transformed the Zephyx into Pure Energy at incredible speeds and shoved it into the Human Core.
When the Human Core was full, the machine stopped pumping out more Pure Energy, and Nick's Zephyx storage refilled with the Zephyx he produced.
The machine was a potent Pure Energy generator.
It was many times stronger than the Pure Energy generator the Nightmen wore on their fingers.
With the Pure Energy generator, the Nightmen's speed of energy recovery would be equivalent to the speed of energy recovery an Initial Protector would have.
Yet, they were only at the Fifth Realm.
'Biology can only absorb so much energy at once. If it absorbs too much, the pathways will collapse.'
'But metal doesn't have that problem.'
'The speed of their energy recovery can keep up with all of their demands. The bottleneck is now the amount of Zephyx they can store at any given moment.'
'And we can increase that severalfold by creating a wearable Zephyx storage.'
Nick did some math and simulations in his head.
'It's terrifying,' he realized.
'With all of these things, Nightmen at the Initial Fifth Realm could fight Peak Specialists evenly.'
'Of course, they would need to know a lot of Techniques, but it's definitely possible.'
'The fusion of biology and technology can produce incredible power.'
'I also already have ideas about the next advancement, but I can't spend my time on that yet. I've been here for around 30 years, and I can't afford to spend more time on this for now.'
'I need to become an Eternal.'
Nick published all his findings in the Archive and planned his next steps.
The Nightmen would deliver plenty of data to Nick within the next centuries, and he would use that data to come up with further advancements in the future.
Now, he had to focus on becoming an Eternal.
As he looked at the city and saw the thousands of Protectors, Nick decided to make use of them.
It needed an incredible amount of suffering to become an Eternal.
Protectors were not Shields, but there were many of them.
Thousands of Protectors would equate to tens of Initial Shields.
Nick couldn't use the underground city to advance all the way, but he could supplement his advancement.
And he would do just that.
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