?Nick's feet left the huge pillar that Solace's building was built on, and Nick started to fall.

He had never fallen from such an insane height.

Nick felt the air hitting his face, and the sound of rushing winds thundered in his ears.

The thought of falling from so high up used to terrify Nick, but right now, he felt something completely different.

It was some kind of freedom, but that word wasn't completely accurate.

Maybe it was some kind of calling?

Maybe it was the feeling of something terrifying ending?

Maybe it was the feeling of touching something extremely dangerous?

Or maybe it was the feeling of touching something very warm and nice?

No matter how it was described, Nick felt like something in his chest was becoming warmer.

Nick's speed was picking up at a scary pace.

The fall didn't take as long as Nick had thought.

He had anticipated that he would fall for a minute or so, but he reached the ground after only around 15 seconds.

Nick was falling headfirst, and he was looking at the ground when he was just 50 meters away from it.

The next moment, Nick repositioned himself so that his legs pointed downward.

With practiced ease, Nick used the Zephyx in his legs to cushion the impact.

BANG!

The sound of something hard hitting the ground echoed throughout the street in which Nick landed, but the sound wasn't as loud as one would have expected.

At the same time, dents in the form of Nick's shoes appeared on the metal of the street.

Meanwhile, Nick's legs just slightly buckled after landing.

Nick felt like he had needed to use quite a bit of power to retain his balance, but that was about it.

It actually wasn't as bad as he had imagined.

One could compare it to a mortal jumping into a pool of water from a height of ten meters or so.

Sure, it was scary, and it would be dangerous if one hit the water in an uncontrolled manner, but as long as one hit the water in a safe manner, not much would happen.

Some of the people on the streets turned to Nick, but they quickly lost interest again.

Veterans and stronger often reached the lower layer by simply jumping from the middle layer.

It was just that Nick's landing was a bit louder than the usual ones.

Nick looked at the ground for a couple of seconds before he walked towards the Outer City.

For just a couple of moments, his mood had improved.

The rush of doing something dangerous distracted him from the things worrying him.

Sadly, the rush didn't stay for long, and Nick's mood quickly reached rock bottom again.

He left the Inner City and slowly walked towards Dark Dream.

Without even thinking about it, Nick entered Dark Dream's building.

He had been inside the building for a month by now.

Ever since he didn't need to eat, drink, or sleep anymore, Nick had seen no point in buying a home.

Dark Dream was his home.

The building was his house, and the Specters were his pets.

After entering the building, he mindlessly started checking the Zephyx containers.

When he had collected all the containers, he brought them to Wyntor's office.

Wyntor just nodded without looking at Nick when he saw the containers.

Nick turned around to leave the office.

At that moment, Wyntor furrowed his brows.

"Everything okay?" he asked as he looked at Nick's back.

"Huh?" Nick answered like he had just been woken up. "Eh, yeah, sure."

Then, Nick opened the door to leave.

"Wait a second," Wyntor said.

"What?" Nick asked in confusion as he turned to Wyntor.

Wyntor looked into Nick's eyes for a bit.

Then, he sighed.

"Close the door," he said.

Nick raised an eyebrow but did as he was told.

"Come on, take a seat," Wyntor said, gesturing to one of the chairs in his office.

Nick sat down and just looked at Wyntor with discomfort.

"Is something the matter?" Nick asked.

"That's what I should ask you," Wyntor said. "You are lost in your head, and you barely react to anything. If you work like this, it's only a matter of time until something bad happens."

Nick furrowed his brows, guilt visible on his face.

"Sorry," he said. "I'll be more alert and careful from now on."

Wyntor raised an eyebrow as he looked with skepticism at Nick.

"What's this about?" he asked. "Did you fail in advancing?"

"No, I became a Veteran a couple of minutes ago," Nick said.

"You did?" Wyntor asked in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Nick looked to the side.

"It didn't feel important."

Wyntor looked at Nick like he had said something ridiculous.

"I think it's quite important that my Chief Zephyx Extractor managed to advance a level. That's about as important as it gets, except for a security breach, maybe."

Nick didn't answer.

Wyntor sighed.

"Okay, what's the issue?" he asked. "You weren't like this yesterday. Did something happen in Solace?"

"No, nothing happened," Nick answered.

"Really?" Wyntor asked.

"Yeah, everything's okay," Nick said.

At that moment, Wyntor narrowed his eyes.

"Nick, I'm sick of these games. Stop being wishy-washy and tell me what's bothering you. We're friends!" Wyntor said with a voice loaded with annoyance.

Nick looked at Wyntor.

Wyntor always seemed so distant, but right now, he seemed like just a normal friend who was concerned with their friend.

Nevertheless, Nick didn't forget the constant distance that was usually between the two of them.

Friend?

That didn't seem likely.

Wyntor saw the doubt in Nick's eyes, and his anger increased.

"We are friends, right?" Wyntor asked with an almost threatening tone.

Nick's body moved back in his chair as he looked at Wyntor.

"I don't know," Nick said carefully. "Are we?"

"Of course we are!" Wyntor almost shouted. "I jumped into the sewers for you! I covered for you so many times! I gave you your weapons and all of your tools!"

Surprisingly, Nick didn't show any strong reactions to Wyntor's atypical outburst.

"I don't think that's what a friend is," he said. "The first thing, maybe, but I'm not sure about the other things."

"I think you view me as an investment, not a friend."