With the discovery of so many resource materials and rare specimens, it was no wonder Saine had immersed himself in them.
He had originally only intended to muddle through five years on the Gumo Plane battlefield, his main objective being the Fire Element resource materials produced by the Dark Flame Holy Tower.
Yet he had not expected the Gumo Plane's appeal and unique properties to surpass even Saine's prewar estimates.
Of course, a large part of the reason Saine had left the fighting during the war and willfully "committed dereliction of duty" was that, ever since infiltrating ten thousand meters underground, his temporary Holy Tower Badge had temporarily lost contact with Fortress Headquarters.
Saine judged that the Gumo Plane's abundant underground metal deposits, especially those Magnetic Metals, had interfered with the Holy Tower Badge's external communication frequency through some unusual field.
The situation now was that Saine could not contact Combat Command, and Combat Command had no idea what was happening on Saine's end.
He was effectively running solo with Nataya and Lunna.
However, the Holy Tower Badge's recording function had not ceased because of this.
The battle results and enemy kills Saine and the others had achieved in the Underground World would quickly sync with the Holy Tower Combat Command once they returned within a certain distance of the Surface World.
When that time came, however much mission compensation Saine was due, he would receive that much.
As for the long blank period in the battle records... Saine, an alchemist who had dismantled a Holy Tower Badge back in his apprentice days, would have no difficulty intercepting and deleting that segment of recorded data.
In truth, Saine was neither the first nor would he be the last of those "cunning magicians" who weathered a Plane War through cheating and