Things became more and more problematic.
However, Dark Dream continued to grow, and when it came to Newbies and Johns, they had become legitimately scary now.
Dark Dream's number of Newbies had not increased much. They only went from 45 to 50.
However, six years had passed since they had increased the number of their Newbies so drastically, and many of the Newbies had already become Johns.
Dark Dream now had a whopping 75 Johns!
They had even more Johns than Solace and Gemini, with both of them only having 50 each!
Anatomy used to have more Johns than Dark Dream as well, but they had lost almost all of them, leaving them with only something like 20.
Only Ghosty's Lab had more Johns than Dark Dream, with 170.
Of course, since they were only Johns, they didn't increase Dark Dream's power by a lot.
However, having a lot of employees had some benefits.
For example, the Johns and Newbies stumbled upon way more Specters inside the city.
Ever since the Crimson Sea had been covered, more Specters appeared within the city again, and Dark Dream had managed to catch a few.
For example, they had caught three Hatchling Possession Specters over the years.
Of course, since they were only Hatchlings, they were not worth that much, but they could be used to train a couple of new employees.
That was also the reason why Dark Dream's number of Newbies had increased a bit.
They had also caught an Adolescent Possession Specter, but working with it wasn't easy.
Nevertheless, Dark Dream now had 13 Possession Specters, which was nothing to scoff at.
They had also caught four Adolescent Physical Specters. Two of those could be used to train weak Johns and Newbies, while the other two were just regular Specters, basically.
However, all of these were only Dark Dream's unimportant catches.
As for important catches, they had made two.
One of them was called the Trail of Stars, named after the mythical concept of stars, which were supposed to be objects that were in the sky.
However, these obviously didn't exist since nobody had seen even one of them.
The Trail of Stars was moving trail of appearing and disappearing stars, which seemed to have been made by small children.
The Trail of Stars could fly, disperse, and regather.
Yes, the Trail of Stars was a Force Specter, and Dark Dream had managed to catch it.
The Trail of Stars gained power by fulfilling wishes in a devious manner.
For example, if someone wished that they wouldn't need to go to work tomorrow, that person might find their place of work blown to bits and their boss killed.
If someone wished for some food, they might find themselves getting captured by a person who got off on feeding someone to death.
The Trail of Stars showed quite a lot of power when fulfilling wishes.
As a test, Nick had asked someone to wish that he wouldn't bother them as much anymore.
Naturally, the Trail of Stars tried to kill Nick, and he was quite surprised when he found that it had the destructive power of a Late Adult!
That was more than shocking since it was just a Late Adolescent!
After failing to kill Nick, it went to attack the one who made the wish, but since Dark Dream had already been ready, it was suppressed before it could do anything.
Of course, to test all of this, Nick had needed to free the Trail of Stars from its Containment Unit.
But that hadn't been an issue since Dark Dream had so many powerful employees now with Suppressor abilities.
They didn't even need a Specter Cage to transport Force Specters anymore.
The ability of the Trail of Stars and the amount of Zephyx it produced wasn't anything special.
It was just the fact that it was a Force Specter that made it special.
Force Specters were always worth a fortune.
Even the useless ones.
As for the other catch, labeling it a catch was not completely right.
Dark Dream traded three Adolescents for an Adult.
The three Adolescents that were traded away were the Blood Fish, the Agonizing Wait, and the Puppy.
Among this group, Nick only missed the Puppy.
Working with the Puppy had been great, but he needed to give Ghosty's Lab something that was actually good.
After all, the Blood Fish and the Agonizing Wait were not worth much.
The Puppy had been one of Dark Dream's first Specters, but the Specter they had received was worth far more.
It was an Initial Adult called the Icy Ghost.
The Icy Ghost was a floating sphere of something that could only be called coldness.
Anything that approached it would freeze over, and that was exactly how the Icy Ghost became more powerful.
The more things it froze, the better.
However, the reason why it was worth so much was its ability.
Its ability allowed Extractors to infuse things with cold.
Bullets, other people, Specters, anything.
That made this ability insanely versatile.
Many people had been interested in purchasing the Icy Ghost, but Ghosty's Lab had never wanted to let it go.
That was until it advanced to becoming an Initial Adult recently.
Surprisingly, as soon as it advanced, Ghosty's Lab was fine with selling it, which seemed completely contradictory.
Nevertheless, Dark Dream made a good catch with the Icy Ghost, but there were other good things that had happened.
The Dreamer had become an Adult a couple of years ago, and it had already advanced to becoming an Early Adult.
This was great news for Dark Dream since the Dreamer was their flagship Specter and since not every Specter could become an Adult.
However, the Dreamer wasn't the only Specter that advanced.
The Abductor also advanced, and it was now an Initial Adult.
But there was one last Specter that also advanced.
The Grey Room had also become an Adult.
With this, Dark Dream now had nine Adults!
Dark Dream was growing more and more, and Dark Dream's employees felt great about the future.
But then, something horrible happened.
It might not have involved Dark Dream, but it might implicate them in the future.
Anatomy had done something drastic.