That day, after Lynn finished half a day of answering questions, he returned to the laboratory with a slight frown.
Although he had been highly efficient at earning Contribution Points and had made a small fortune from the war,
the increasingly tense atmosphere outside and the desperate struggle emanating from the new students still left him feeling an invisible pressure.
Just as he was about to return to his partition to meditate, Gregor called out to him.
"Kid, why have you been so absent-minded lately? Your brow is furrowed tightly enough to crush a Carrion Beetle."
"That doesn't seem like you. Didn't you always look so confident before? Have you wilted already?"
Gregor set down a bone plate etched with flickering energy circuits. Rarely, he was not engrossed in his research.
His clouded yet seemingly perceptive eyes examined Lynn.
"What, are you worried about those rumors outside? Afraid you'll be dragged off to fill the lines?"
Lynn did not deny it and nodded.
"Mentor, if war really breaks out, will the Academy conscript apprentices?"
"Hmph, conscript?"
Gregor sneered. He casually grabbed a handful of unidentified bone powder from beside him and scattered it across the experiment table, sketching out a crude pattern.
"Look. This is the Eternal Night Graveyard, where we are."
He pointed at the cluster in the center.
"And around it." He scattered several more small piles of bone powder around the center.
"Places like the Forest of Ten Thousand Bones, the Rotten Abyss, and the Shadow Domain—these subordinate planes and small worlds under our control are like natural fortresses and satellite cities."
With his withered finger, he tapped the gaps between those "satellite cities" and the center, his tone full of certainty.
"If a war truly begins, the first to hold the line will be the Undead