However, she seemed completely unfazed by the incident. On the contrary, she sincerely apologized to Norton for damaging the laboratory and offered compensation. This unexpected response surprised Norton. Initially, he thought that someone so deeply engrossed in experiments would be difficult to engage with due to a lack of social skills. Norton had been prepared to accommodate this girl.

But after chatting with her for a while, Norton realized that she wasn't that kind of person. She was simply not very good at expressing her feelings and was somewhat introverted. This blend of internal and external biases made Lilia von Nirakot not very well-liked.

This was Norton's first encounter with her. It was neither romantic nor elegant, and it didn't even make sense. Yet, it was very... explosive. Setting aside these personal aspects and focusing purely on a professional level, this girl, with her astonishing intuition and talent, was an excellent assistant. Following their explosive meeting, Norton would take time each night to go to the alchemy lab to talk with her and exchange views on magic and alchemical techniques while conducting various magical experiments together. Their relationship quickly grew in this academically charged atmosphere.

Of course, this was purely a friendship between like-minded individuals, very different from romantic feelings. With Lilia's help, Norton was able to resolve several issues that he couldn't manage alone—like experiments, flawed magical theories, and partially understood magical knowledge. So, while he felt Avril was nice on an emotional level, from a rational perspective, this girl, Lilia von Nirakot, was his top choice, even over Anne.

Because this girl could carry part of Norton's dream—to improve necromancy, enhance the undead army, create stronger legions, and use this as a foundation to improve the production methods in Sylvania and enhance productivity. To make Sylvania stronger. What? Why not use this to wage war? Because waging war to acquire land and wealth is the most violent, base, and unintelligent means—it is crude and lacks foresight. Norton wanted a more elegant and beautiful expansion.

Imagine if one day, Sylvania's civilization and development reached such a height... Their poor would immigrate across borders, and their rich, officials, and nobles would transfer their wealth and families, ready to strike again and then flee their own countries. Strong warriors would aspire to serve Sylvania, powerful magicians would yearn for Sylvania's knowledge and research equipment, students would envy Sylvania's education, businessmen would covet Sylvania's market, and peasants and citizens would envy Sylvania's advanced systems...

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If that were the case, you wouldn't need war, weapons, or armies to expand your territory. Every region and every nation would be clamoring to join Sylvania. Standing at such a height, how great it would be!

Of course, building a country of such magnificent scale requires more than just one person's effort, and it takes more than a hundred years. But as a vampire, Norton had ample time, and as for power...

He could continue to work on it.

In recent days, Norton and Lilia had been discussing at length how to improve Sylvania's production techniques. More specifically, Norton had been conceptualizing and brewing a technological revolution for several years.

"I think the production at our armory, while better than other countries, is still not very good. In fact, in my opinion, this method of purely manual production seems somewhat simplistic and primitive."

"If production doesn't rely on engineers and workers, what else can it rely on? Do you intend to involve those living beings in such confidential production?" Lilia felt puzzled at Norton's words, prompting him to explain further:

"Of course not." Norton shook his head and continued, "I believe we can use the undead to produce the undead."

"Use the undead... to produce undead?" Lilia was even more confused by Norton's suggestion.

"Why do you think the undead move? I'm not talking about their obedience to commands, their marching, or forming ranks. But consider this—these ordinary skeleton soldiers can use stabs and slashes like regular human soldiers, high-level tomb guards possess more powerful skills, and liches can use magic. Do you know why that is?"

"Because we inscribe magical runes on them, embedding these skills and experiences into them—you mean—"

At this point, Lilia began to grasp Norton's idea.

"Yes, I believe that since we can enhance soldiers' combat skills with runes, even allowing them to use magic, why not further develop new runes that allow the undead to replace skilled workers in industrial production?"

Hearing this, Lilia thought it seemed less straightforward than Norton suggested and felt he was a bit optimistic.

"Your idea sounds promising, but the issue is that in over ten thousand years of history, no necromancer has ever considered using their undead army as technical workers—for manual labor, yes, but they never thought of inventing runes for labor."

"You know, my mentor, Elder Elson, once told me that relying solely on force cannot drive social progress. I've always believed he was right. Just because no one has done it doesn't mean it can't be done. This concept makes sense logically and isn't entirely unfeasible. The runes for magic arrays and the materials needed are already available. What we lack for this innovation is a group of mages to execute this research."

Lilia finally became interested and asked Norton, "So, have you found the 'missing' mages?"

Norton nodded affirmatively, "Of course, indeed. Before this, I had already submitted an application to my academy. Several academy teachers, my classmates, and other mages within the domain of Kastain have been assembled to form an excellent research group, which has already achieved significant results."