Kill the Sun

After Simon's explanation, things made much more sense.

'Right, our Zephyx Synchronizers just copy the way the Specters use their abilities, but there is still a way to manually achieve the same effect.'

'It's just extremely difficult.'

The manual had many simple examples of how to produce a certain effect.

Creating light that could keep the Nightmare at bay was not difficult.

However, achieving a certain effect was the simplest part.

Finding out how to do something was not hard.

The hard part was making it usable.

For example, the way the manual explained how to create light could even be understood and used by Nick.

However, if he were to use that method, he would only be able to create a tiny twinkle before running out of Zephyx.

With this method, a Mid Hero would probably run out of Zephyx within ten seconds.

That was, obviously, unsustainable and effectively unusable.

The difficult part was the next.

Refinement.

Refinement was the process of making the ability Zephyx-efficient while also keeping usability in mind.

The less Zephyx someone wanted to use to create a certain effect, the more steps the Zephyx needed to go through, complicating the entire process.

However, complicating the process naturally also made it much harder to actually use the ability.

It was a balancing act of efficiency and ease of use.

And assuming someone managed to refine an ability to usability, they would still have an even harder task in front of them.

Actualization.

Actualization was a way to use that ability in an instant, making it useful in battle.

But that was almost impossible.

The Zephyx couldn't leave one's body while manipulating it, making any kind of device or machine useless.

Weapons like guns used someone's Zephyx to create a destructive effect, but these kinds of transformations were extremely simple.

A machine that could achieve what a Zephyx Synchronizer could do would need to be humongous, extremely expensive, and cumbersome.

In short, while these machines could technically exist, they couldn't be used in battle or transported.

Humanity was constantly trying to create weapons that could achieve these kinds of effects, but progress in the research was slow.

Every major part of progress needed to get past the Envious Researcher, the Adversary that killed all humans who knew about a significant advance in technology.

Getting past the Envious Researcher was extremely difficult every single time, and it was responsible for the deaths of 90% of humanity's brightest minds.

Without the Envious Researcher, progress would speed up by over 50 times!

Without it, humanity might have already created a way to use external gadgets to create an ability.

Creation.

Refinement.

Actualization.

Those were the three steps to getting a new ability without the need for the Zephyx Synchronizer.

Yet, it was so, so much harder than it seemed.

'With my current Zephyx storage, I can use my own ability to create light for over five minutes without me needing to dedicate any of my focus to it.'

'This level of Refinement and Actualization is basically impossible to achieve.'

'This means that the abilities created via Zephyx Manipulation can never compare to abilities copied by the Zephyx Synchronizer.'

Nick read through the entire manual and remembered everything.

The mental capabilities of an Expert were vastly beyond the mental capabilities of a normal person.

Experts could read through 10,000 words in a single minute and remember every single one.

Nick deactivated the manual, closed his eyes, and went through the contents of the manual in his mind.

He remembered the contents, but he would still need some time to actually learn the concepts contained inside.

Nick could recite the manual, but he couldn't fully explain it yet.

"I'm done," Nick told Simon.

"Already?" Simon asked. "It's barely been a couple of hours."

Nick nodded. "I've done nothing but read and write reports and manuals in my entire career. I'm pretty fast at reading and remembering things."

"Right," Simon said as he remembered something. "You're a Chief Zephyx Extractor. I totally forgot."

Nick stood up and walked over to the closed metal plate.

"Treasurer, I'm done," Nick shouted.

The metal plate moved to the side.

"You sure?" the Treasurer asked. "You only get to look at it once. Be sure to remember everything inside."

"I remember everything," Nick said with confidence.

"Alright," the Treasurer said as the manual floated back. "Then, that matter is settled. You may leave now."

"Of course, Treasurer," Nick said with a polite bow.

BANG!

The metal plate closed again.

"Let's go," Simon said. "We need to meet the Technician."

The two of them walked out of the open door of the treasury, which slowly closed behind them.

"We need to visit the Technician. He's also down here," Simon said.

"Who's the Technician?" Nick asked.

"That was the young man that was with you when you met the Champion of Light," Simon explained. "He's the third Shield stationed here, and he's responsible for research and matters relating to administration inside the headquarters."

"Sounds like he's quite busy," Nick said.

"It's not so bad. Only Agents or higher get received by the Technician," Simon said.

"Agents?" Nick asked.

"Right, you don't know the ranks of Aegis yet," Simon said.

"At the top, we have the Shields. They simply go by Shields, and they have the highest authority."

"After them come the Justiciars. They are Peak Protectors and are leading the normal Protectors. My supervisor, Aurelia Icegem, is a Justiciar."

"Then come the Judges. The Judges are normal Protectors, and I'm one of them. We either work in a team under a Justiciar or lead a team of Agents."

"Agents are Heroes who are dedicated to fighting the Specters. I don't think you have met one of them yet. Agents travel from city to city if there is danger, and they also work on finding and containing Specters for Aegis."

"Governors also belong to Aegis, but they rank lower than Agents. Governors are just there to rule a city and make sure that everything goes by the book. If you are a Governor, you are either a new member of Aegis that still needs to prove themselves or somebody abandoned by the leadership due to a lack of desirable qualities."

"Lastly, we have the Bailiffs. Bailiffs are everyone below the Hero level, and you can find them in almost all of Aegis' locations. Bailiffs are mostly comprised of young people with great talent. They are there to help Aegis, and in exchange, they receive access to valuable training and Specters. Just like Governors, Bailiffs are either people that are still new and need to prove themselves or people that are forever stuck in that position."

'Shields, Justiciars, Judges, Agents, Governors, Bailiffs,' Nick recited in his head.

"So, I'm a Bailiff?" Nick asked.

Simon nodded.

The two of them entered a door to the side of the hallway and found themselves in a disorderly room with many small gadgets strewn about.

"Oh, you're already here," a young man said as he lifted his head to glance over a table.

"Yes, Technician," Simon said respectfully.

Nick also performed a quick bow of respect.

"Might as well get this over with," the Technician said as he rummaged through his Spatial Bag.

"Here's the rulebook. You have to read it and remember all of them," he said casually as he threw a booklet on the table.

"Yes, Technician," Nick said respectfully as he took hold of the rulebook to read through it.

It was just a couple of pages long, and Nick read through it in a couple of seconds.

The rules were very basic.

Humanity above all.

Don't be corrupt.

Support Aegis.

Don't be a monster.

Stuff like that.

"Here's your uniform," the Technician said, pulling out a white uniform with a couple of yellow streaks going through it.

Nick looked at the uniform with wonder.

His uniform!

Aegis' uniform!

He was part of Aegis!

"Excuse me," Simon said nervously.

"Huh?" the Technician uttered.

"Sir, this is the uniform of an Agent," Simon said. "Nick isn't a Hero yet."

"Oh, that," the Technician said casually. "He's the first recipient of an entirely new position. Personal power is not what gives you authority for this position."

"Also, it's not completely the uniform of an Agent," the Technician added as he unfurled the uniform.

"You see this?" the Technician said as he pointed at the left shoulder, which had one yellow streak.

"And this?" he added as he pointed at the right shoulder, which had two yellow streaks.

"Agent uniforms have two yellow streaks on both sides, while governors have one yellow streak on each side. This has one on one side and two on the other."

"Nick's job is going to be to work together with different governors to improve the lives of the people in the city while also increasing the Zephyx output of said cities."

"During our meeting with the Champion, Nick said that happy people should provide more Zephyx as well. The Champion is willing to give him the chance to prove himself."

"He will slightly outrank the Governors and get an almost full say over how the cities have to be run. However, in exchange, Aegis demands a 20% increase of Zephyx within five years of Nick's arrival in said city."

Simon and Nick took deep breaths.

The Technician smiled and looked at Nick.

"You are receiving the new position of Liaison. You will outrank the Governors but will still be beneath the Agents."

"But you have to keep in mind that cooperation between you and the Governor is important. Without the Governor's power, you have no way to enforce your policy changes."

"Speaking of," the Technician said as he remembered something. "The old Governor of Crimson City is going to be standing guard in front of one of your locations as punishment for his cowardice and corruption. Since you're going to be going back to Crimson City as your first assignment, do you have a new Governor in mind, Nick?"

Nick looked with surprise at the Technician.