Kill the Sun

After about half a minute of looking at the Spilling Bottle, Julian tipped it over while holding it in his hand.

Nick watched as purple sludge was coming out of the bottle and gathering on the ground.

Julian watched the sludge with interest.

A moment later, one of the mouths moved over to the sludge and opened, consuming all of it.

Nick raised an eyebrow.

Julian was eating the sludge?

A moment later, Julian put the bottle upright again.

"Prephyx Matter," Julian said. "It has a corrosive and poisoning effect. Most likely, the intention behind the bottle's actions is to destroy as much life as possible. It doesn't matter if it's human, animal, or plant."

"Sadly, it can't grow more powerful," Julian said with a confident snicker. "What a waste."

Julian threw the bottle to the side, and it landed perfectly upright on the ground.

"Guess we're just keeping it here or selling it."

Then, Julian walked towards the Containment Unit's exit.

Nick's face showed no reaction, but inside, he grew nervous.

"Is there no use for the sludge?" Nick asked, not looking at Julian.

"Of course there is, but there are plenty of Specters that produce Prephyx matter. In fact, the supply far exceeds the demand, and I don't think that an Initial Hatchling will make a dent in the market," Julian answered casually.

'That's not what I mean, you dumbass,' Nick thought, trying his best to keep his face from showing any of his anger. 'But I can't just directly tell you without seeming suspicious.'

"Oh, okay," Nick said as he also approached the exit. "Who are we going to sell it to? What about the city? There's bound to be something the guards inside or outside the city could do with a small object that can produce infinite Prephyx matter."

The two left the Containment Unit, and as Nick passed by Julian, he saw him furrowing his brows in thought.

'He's never been outside this city,' Nick thought. 'That's the only reason he didn't make the connection. He's never seen the forests or the black sludges before, but he should know about them.'

The two important parts of Nick's statement were "inside or outside" and "small object".

Sure, there were plenty of Specters that produced Prephyx matter, but they were not all portable, and they probably didn't produce as much.

If the Spilling Bottle worked on the forests, someone could literally just dig a small crevice that led into one of the forests and just put the bottle on the other end of the crevice.

Sure, the Prephyx matter was very weak, but after days upon days, it was bound to show an effect.

"I might have an idea," Julian said with a smirk. "If we're lucky, this Specter might be worth quite a bit."

"When's the next big meeting?" Julian asked.

"In about a month," Nick answered.

"Alright," Julian said. "I will run some experiments. If everything goes well, I need you to sell it to the city."

Nick nodded.

Naturally, Julian didn't dare to attend the big yearly meeting.

For the past two years, he hadn't been in a single one of them.

Technically, the yearly meeting only needed an owner and the Chief Zephyx Extractor, and since Nick was both, he could act as both.

Usually, there were two people per Manufacturer in the meeting since they were focusing on different things.

The Chief Zephyx Extractor usually wasn't as involved in business matters but knew everything about Specters and vice versa.

They also didn't want to seem disrespectful to the governor.

Of course, if Julian was the only one missing from the meetings, it would be suspicious.

Luckily, he had already dealt with that issue by meeting all of the usual participants "on accident" at random times.

Yes, Julian's power didn't work on a strong Specialist or Hero, but he also didn't immediately get unmasked as soon as any of them saw him.

He still had his normal body, after all.

As long as nobody was trying to check whether or not he was human, nobody would notice.

So, as long as he met some of them outside for a quick chat, no one would bat an eye.

It would just be some small talk.

At that point, Julian would just give some random excuses about how busy his day was.

However, Julian wouldn't dare to enter the actual meeting.

It was one thing to talk to one of them outside, but talking in a tense meeting with several people who could potentially see through him was dumb.

Everyone in the meeting was already suspicious of everyone else.

Luckily, Julian's absence from the meetings didn't seem too strange since several of the people could confirm that he seemed awfully busy.

So, Nick was the one who dealt with the yearly meetings, and he would also need to be the one who sold the bottle to the city.

Nick didn't ask why Julian wanted to sell the bottle during the meeting, but he guessed that Julian had some kind of plan.

"Are you going outside again?" Julian asked.

Nick nodded. "Yes, the team is still waiting."

"Good," Julian said. "You already got quite a good haul, but we can only get one of the two things we need from the bottle."

The most important thing Dark Dream needed right now was an Adult so that Nick's power could increase without arousing suspicion.

However, there was a prerequisite to getting that.

Having the means to contain an Adult.

The Containment Unit wasn't the issue.

Nick's power wasn't the issue.

The issue was the building.

The building they were in wasn't durable enough for the vibrations that an Adult would cause while attacking its Containment Unit.

Such a powerful Containment Unit was already very heavy, and with the additional vibrations, it would most likely fall through the floor and damage anything below it.

Because of that, they needed a new building.

However, getting such a building wasn't easy.

The city owned every free building and wanted a lot of money for these buildings.

Julian and Nick already had their eyes on a specific one, but getting it would drain two entire years of profits.

Sure, they had enough saved up, but they would not have many liquid assets left after that, which would be an issue.

But now, if everything worked out with the Spilling Bottle, they could get one for much cheaper.