After we got Nicolas, I stayed two more days in the Black Empire, but I don't leave the Dungeon.
Even so, I left Nira making deals with Queen Melissa about various types of books they have here, knowledge is always important, if you can get it just by paying money it's worth it, as long as you have money left over, which is my case by the way.
But while Nira got copies of books and useful materials for various types of production work, I let Lillian and Elsaris' families steal all the forbidden books from the Empire, I also let them steal half of the treasure that Gregory Roux amassed in hiding.
During the last battle where Gregory Roux was killed, I had made several Fairies and Spirits with the element of shadows stay hidden watching Kimera Soldiers troops from afar.
I asked the Fairies and Spirits to follow anyone who tried to escape, this would be very useful to track down their base and could help me steal them before the people of the Empire found the base.
I found all the research on body enhancement using various types of techniques and all the research on Kimeras along with many reports on the practical use of this research.
A small fortune was also found along with a book of contributions, it seems that Gregory's supporters gave all their fortunes to Gregory to fund this operation or stole it from others, they had records of everything, even expenses, and they were well organized.
Of course, Elsaris killed everyone inside the facility, I don't need prisoners and I can't let these idiots who know anything about this research on Kimeras loose around.
As the attack on Gregory's base was fast and during the battle, it was unexpected for the enemy, in addition to books, various materials, and money, we also found out about the location of two other bases that I will attack.
The other two bases were quite a distance away, so I let Elsaris take her family to one and Kira took a group she had trained to the other base.
I told them that I wanted the books, materials, and only half of the money, I told them to leave the other half on the bases for the Empire.
I told the two of them to meet me in the village of the Elves.
After that I told Nira about the 3 bases while I sent Ivan to help her in the negotiations, I told her to use these three bases to force some more benefits from the Black Empire, benefits in the form of rare items or normally product knowledge, I prefer to get these things without stealing if possible.
Of course, we're going to keep our visit to these bases a secret, even if they realize what we've done, it doesn't matter, it will be too late.
Alan the doctor and Rakan the head magician are very eager for the knowledge they didn't have before, these two are very similar.
I just hope the Queen doesn't get too angry when she finds out what I did, but it would be interesting to see her reaction.
Aside from the various matters I was resolving these two days before departing the Black Empire, I also took the time to talk to Nicolas every night.
I discovered that he wasn't usually much of a conversationalist, the reason he talked so much on the first day was because he had been trapped inside a box for so many years with nothing to do and no one to talk to.
When I heard this from him, I thought maybe I couldn't bear to go through this, this level of isolation and loneliness is something few people would be able to bear, those who say they can are either lying or are idiots enough to even believe it.
As a core he can't move on his own, the only reason he's able to speak is that he put that option in the various magic settings he made on the core.
But being able to speak and listen is all he can do, he can't see, feel things, touch, or smell, he can't feel any kind of energy or Aura either.
After I let him talk for a few hours, everything became easier, he seemed to calm down and wasn't talking in the same uncontrolled way as before.
What he said the whole time was about his projects, it seems like he spent a lot of time thinking about his research during his time in isolation, that's what kept his sanity maybe.
I let him talk, but I understand little of what he said or almost nothing, to be honest, he used a lot of technical terms and spoke very fast, it was as if he was putting out everything he kept inside him during so many years of solitude.
After letting him talk for hours, I told him a little about myself too, nothing important other than a common conversation to make him more comfortable, after a few minutes I left his core in the mansion's room which was where everyone sat for talk or rest so he would have more people to talk to even while he was busy with something else.
The next day, the night before leaving the capital of the Black Empire, I was finally able to have a more serious conversation with him, the things the Queen said about him did, in addition to the things Lilian discovered during her conversations with her niece were not good.
It seems like he has done a lot of things wrong his whole life, he personally has never intentionally killed anyone but his experiences have already caused explosions destroying his lab and everything around that might just be his house, sometimes some houses around, other times an entire block or maybe even a village.
Also, he can be easily fooled as he thinks little of those who buy his creations, he accepts the money by investing everything in his research but doesn't care too much about the rest.
I asked him if he didn't feel guilty that his creations were used to kill people, but he replied with a question "if a Blacksmith felt guilty that his sword was used to kill?", it was a valid question that made me understand how he thinks as he gathers everything he hears.