Chapter 60 Chapter 60 – Adolescent
In essence, this meant that Nick was about 3.4 times as powerful as he had been when he had caught the Dreamer.
Since the Dreamer didn't have an ability useful for combat, Nick could have probably caught the Dreamer even without his ability if he had been that powerful back then.
But that didn't mean that Specters were no longer dangerous.
The physical bodies of the Specters were only a small part of their strength.
The truly threatening and terrifying part was their ability.
For example, due to his family, Wyntor had gained a very powerful ability from a Specter.
The ability wasn't very useful for capturing Specters, but it was incredibly useful for staying alive.
The ability had come from the Specter called The Blinding Light.
The Blinding Light was a level three Specter that looked like a floating ball of light.
The Specter belonged to Kugelblitz, which was how Wyntor had been able to gain its ability.
While The Blinding Light could theoretically smash into someone with its body, that was not why it was dangerous.
Its true power was its ability to burn people.
The Blinding Light could burn any living being in its vicinity…
Unless they directly looked at it.
However, if they directly looked at The Blinding Light, their eyes would burn away.
In essence, one was exchanging their sight for survival.
If one lost their eyes, they would become immune to the burning effect of The Blinding Light.
This effectively meant that one had to fight The Blinding Light without eyes.
If The Blinding Light were a Hatchling and if Nick had tried to catch it, things would have turned out very differently.
The Blinding Light's ability was actually useful for combat, compared to the Dreamer's ability.
Nick wouldn't be sure how to capture The Blinding Light if it were a Hatchling, and he also wouldn't be sure if he could survive.
Luckily, the Dreamer didn't have a useful ability for combat.
When Wyntor told Nick about The Blinding Light, he also told him how much he hated it.
Wyntor had its ability, and to gain its ability, Wyntor had needed to lose his eyes five times.
He said that this had been the most painful experience of his life.
Wyntor even told Nick that it usually wouldn't take that many times to gain The Blinding Light's ability.
Usually, people only needed to have their eyes burned thrice.
Some even got it after only two times.
But Wyntor needed five times.
Of course, Nick asked why, and Wyntor's answer was pretty simple.
"It means I'm not talented in producing Zephyx. It means I have no talent for becoming a Zephyx Extractor."
Naturally, being a Zephyx Extractor was one of the most prestigious professions in the world, and it was more than enough to become an heir to the Melfion family.
Yet, since Wyntor had no talent, he had to go the administrative route and become an amazing businessman.
But for that, he needed money, which was why they were now talking about getting a second Specter.
"Don't forget that, even though you've grown much more powerful, a Specter, even a Hatchling, can still prove to be your death," Wyntor said with a warning tone.
"Naturally, I don't expect you to go after an Adolescent Specter. The Dreamer will become an Adolescent Specter soon enough, and it will occupy the new Containment Unit. This means we need another Hatchling."
Nick nodded.
"Anyway," Wyntor continued. "I followed up on Jenny's clue regarding the Riker Strikers."
"Oh?" Nick uttered, looking at Wyntor with interest.
"I found out quite some interesting pieces of information," Wyntor said. "For example, the Riker Strikers have only appeared in the Dregs about five years ago."
"Before that, there had been no Riker Strikers."
Nick nodded. He remembered that no one had talked about the Riker Strikers back then, but they very quickly appeared.
It was almost like they became extremely powerful overnight.
Back then, Nick had barely been eleven years old, and he had been busy getting his own life on track, which was why he had barely noticed anything.
"Their leader, Riker, had also seemingly appeared out of nowhere," Wyntor continued. "Well, seemingly. After a lot of digging, I actually found some sightings of him before he became the leader of the Riker Strikers."
"Based on witness accounts, Riker was someone that worked for The Hub, and he accepted basically every single dirty mission that gave a lot of money."
"He mostly did assassinations, beating people up, extorting money, threatening people, and so on."
"He amassed quite a bit of wealth for the Dregs' standards."
"Now, if this were everything, he wouldn't seem strange, but there are two things that rubbed me the wrong way when I heard them," Wyntor said.
Nick leaned forward with interest.
"First," Wyntor said as he lifted his right index finger, "he didn't always accept the job with the biggest paycheck."
"Of course, under normal circumstances, that doesn't seem strange. After all, jobs that pay very well often require you to do horrible things or very dangerous things."
"But in his case, the opposite was true."
"He didn't actually aim for the best-paying jobs, but for the jobs that needed him to commit the most horrible acts."
Nick's eyes widened in surprise.
"People just think that he went for the jobs with the biggest reward since those jobs were also the most horrifying ones, most of the time."
"I understand that some people want a lot of money, but it is very strange that he specifically ignores money just so he can commit more horrible deeds," Wyntor said.
Nick furrowed his brows and nodded. "Yes, that doesn't seem normal."
Wyntor also nodded. "The second thing is even more surprising."
Wyntor leaned forward.
"Not even a single merchant that sells food recalls ever selling food to Riker."
Nick's eyes widened.
Now, that was very suspicious!
"That means Jenny was right, right?" Nick asked.
Wyntor nodded. "Most likely."
"I think Riker is a Specter."
Nick became excited when he heard that.
"Don't get excited just yet," Wyntor said with a serious expression.
Nick looked with a raised eyebrow at Wyntor.
"Based on how long he has operated in the Dregs and how far his social power has grown, I'm quite certain of one thing."
"Riker is not a Hatchling."
"He's an Adolescent."
"That means we can't go after him just yet."
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