Nick looked at Mundus with a neutral expression as he approached him.
"Welcome to Dark Dream," Nick said with a polite tone as he offered his hand.
While Nick was definitely not on Mundus' level, as the host, he showed good manners when offering his hand.
Mundus shook the hand as he looked into Nick's eyes. "Thank you. I've come with a business proposition."
"Glad to hear," Nick said as he gestured to the staircase. "Let's talk up in my office."
The two of them walked towards the Extractor shafts.
The door to one of the shafts opened, and Nick jumped from wall to wall until he reached the eighth floor.
Meanwhile, Mundus just slowly levitated upward below Nick.
Proper flight was an ability that could only be unlocked at the sixth level.
There were a couple of ways to unlock flight as a Specialist, but they only counted as pseudo-flight abilities.
For example, kicking the air to "jump" in a direction.
Specialists could do that, but it took quite a bit of power, and compared to running on the ground, this was much slower.
Meanwhile, Heroes could fly just as fast in the air as they traveled on the ground, and they didn't even need to use much Zephyx.
The two of them arrived on the eighth floor, and Nick could already see Julian standing in front of his office.
Mundus showed no reaction as he saw Julian.
However, Nick was quite nervous.
This was a huge risk.
They were about to have a longer conversation, and this time, Mundus was not in some kind of hurry.
This meant that he had all the time to look at Julian.
If Mundus suspected Julian of being a Specter, he would be able to feel that Julian was a Specter.
It was like having a spy in one's group.
If one didn't suspect the spy of being a spy, some signs might just appear as quirks.
Oh, the guy has long conversations with his wife after important meetings? Yeah, that often happens. His wife is very nosy.
Man, that one guy was really lucky that he wasn't part of the convoy that got ambushed by the enemy.
Only if someone already suspected them of being a spy would they be able to see the clues.
Another analogy would be a cheating partner.
Very often, people only realized that their partner was cheating when they were confronted with irrefutable evidence.
And then, they would feel like idiots because they ignored all these "obvious signs" from the past months.
In the same way, Julian's Zephyx was acting strangely.
It was reminiscent of how a Specter's Zephyx worked, but there were also abilities that made the Zephyx move this way.
Sadly, Julian was forced to attend this little meeting today.
When a Hero showed up in Dark Dream, not appearing for the meeting would be even more suspicious.
Every person would drop whatever they were doing and attend the meeting.
Nick walked over to Julian and stopped beside him, facing Mundus.
"What a surprising visit, Mundus," Julian said with a smile as he offered his hand.
The two of them shook hands.
"Let's talk away from prying eyes," Mundus said.
Mundus had never been a man for formalities or many words.
He didn't say a lot, and the few words he spoke were always direct and to the point.
"Of course," Julian said as he opened the door to Nick's office.
Then, the three of them stepped in.
Nick and Julian sat down behind the table while Mundus sat down in front of it.
Nick was used to dangerous situations, but sitting in front of Mundus still made him nervous.
This was a Hero, and he did not have a great disposition to Dark Dream.
Anatomy was the Manufacturer with the worst relationship with Dark Dream.
They were not enemies, but it was no secret that Anatomy was interested in consuming Dark Dream.
Dark Dream was just a fat piece of meat to them.
"So, what brings you here?" Julian asked with a smile.
Mundus remained silent for a couple of seconds as he looked at Nick and Julian.
Nick knew this tactic very well.
When there was a strong power imbalance, staying quiet for a while often made the weaker side nervous.
Nick had used that tactic regularly when talking with problematic employees or during negotiations with companies that weren't Manufacturers.
"Three months ago," Mundus started, "there has been an incident regarding the Forbidden Zone to the north."
Julian and Nick could already tell where this was going, and if they were right, this would be big money.
"Naturally, you already know what happened back then," Mundus said. "But what you don't know is that Kugelblitz has been trying very hard to find an opening to capture the Specter."
"However, that's not easy. The north is mostly unknown, and if they send a Hero, they might die. Sending more Heroes will increase the chances of success, but it might also spell the end for Kugelblitz."
"Kugelblitz has tried to capture more of the Specter's minions, but they only managed to capture two minions on the level of Elders in the past three months. Progress is slow and cumbersome."
"But as the undeniably strongest Manufacturer, Kugelblitz believes that they have all the time. If they are not confident in capturing the Specter, no one is."
"Time is not a factor for them. As long as they keep working on it, they will capture it. No matter if it takes a couple of months or an entire decade."
"And that is our opening," Mundus said.
"Who are you referring to with our?" Nick asked neutrally.
Julian didn't comment or react.
Mundus looked at Nick, who felt the atmosphere become tenser.
However, Nick remained calm.
Well, as calm as someone sitting in front of Mundus could be.
"Depending on your answer, this will include you as well," Mundus answered.
This confirmed Julian's and Nick's guesses.
Sure enough, this was a huge opportunity.
