"I'm captain Yuhal," the muscular guy said. "Let's get to work, servants."

"Wait." Suei moved his head from side to side. "Two of my little ones are missing!"

The sound of everyone chatting resounded across the room. None of the servants had noticed that two of them were missing. "Is it really true?" "How could he notice it at a glance?" They asked themselves.

"We should have escaped as well," Remya said. "There aren't that many guards."

"Escape? That's dumb," Saya said. "They let them run away on purpose. That's why the guards left. They are confident we can't escape, even if they don't guard us."

"Oh, calm down little ones. The two of them are coming back."

Two guards entered the room, each one grabbing a dirt-covered servant by the neck. They threw them in front of the two captains.

"How could you find us?" They were startled. They couldn't believe they will get caught so easily.

"Little ones. Going away without permission is no good. Don't do it again, okay?"

"Y-yes." Their bodies shook.

"Don't tremble." He patted their heads. "I won't harm you." He walked away with a sadistic smile.

"Watch closely." Yuhal ordered the other servants.

Mana concentrated on the escapees hands and feet. The mana materialized and became shackles. The two escapees tried to escape, but they couldn't move. The shackles moved in all directions, lifting them on air and extending their limbs. *Aaaaaah* They screamed, but it was useless. The shackles wouldn't stop. Excruciating pain filled them as their limbs dislocated.

Yuhal moved his hand and a whip materialized. "One." He said as he whipped both of them. They screamed. The whip wasn't normal, it was a magic item. It was much more painful than a normal whip, but it did less permanent damage. "Two." He slashed again.

"I'm sorry... Sorry... I won't do it again."

"Three." He whipped again. Their clothes became rags and fell on the ground. "Four." Their blood splashed into the floor forming a puddle. "Five... Six... Seven..." He whipped them again and again. Always with the same deadpan expression. The servants were disgusted by it and wanted to look away, but they couldn't. "Seventeen... Eighteen..." The escapees stopped screaming. They didn't move anymore. They just stood there, bleeding. "Nineteen... Twenty." After whipping them twenty times, he stopped. The shackles and whip became mana and fused back with him. They fell on their pool of blood. They were still alive, breathing, even if their eyes showed the contrary.

"Poor things." Suei waved his hand. His mana flowed into them and their previously dislocated limbs joined together once more. Their injuries closed and left scars behind. They felt a surge of energy inside them, but their pain didn't stop. They still felt the same agony as before. "Now you won't need to miss a day of work. Isn't it great? Get up."

Like zombies without any will of their own, they stood up.

"We cannot let this happen again, little ones. I trust that none of you will do it, but to make sure I must order it." He cleared his throat. "The Red Demon orders you to not leave the premises."

Rayen felt something inside of him stir. Now he couldn't leave, not unless someone else overrode the order.

"Those who dedicate their lives to the Red Demon will receive power, joy, freedom. Those who desire to escape, to go against it, will only get pain and suffering. Their lives will be sacrificed to make the Red Demon stronger. It's your decision, little ones. Do you want to be powerful? To stand above all this? Or do you want to suffer the consequences of going against those who own you?

"Now, we will go to the library. My little ones, you are weak. You need to change, you need to be strong and powerful. Only then you can truly be of service to the Red Demon."

"Those who fail to make a barrier in one week will be sacrificed." Yuhal said.

Faces of worry appeared on most of the servants.

"Don't worry, little ones. It's easy. Barrier is one of the most basic spells, so it won't be that hard."

"If you guys don't have enough talent to do it, you are worthless. And if you are worthless you won't be able to serve the Red Demon. But the Red Demon will find other uses to your lives. Understood?"

The library was a giant separate building inside the castle. It could easily hold two thousand people. There were tens of thousands of books on the bookshelves and just as many on the floor. The bookshelves had compartments which held crystals and scrolls. There were hundreds of them. The scrolls were too old and in a precarious condition. The crystals were fine, they were hard to break and didn't age. There were still two corpses on the floor. They must have tried to hide on the library when the Red Demon attacked, but it was futile. It seemed that those two weren't the only ones, since the floor was covered with blood and debris, but there was no trace of the others. A dozen followers were looking at the crystals. It was strange, since most of the followers were at the party, but some liked to learn and study more than partying. Preferring not to lose one minute to improve oneself. Rayen was like that as well.

"This is the common library. Not sure how it was called before, but now it is called that." He pointed to a metallic door that felt out of place compared with the rest of the library. "Behind that door is the advanced library. None of you are allowed there."

"Little ones, your mission will be to clean this up. Today, you have two hours to clean it. The other days you will have one hour to clean. You can't read anything while cleaning."

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"How are we going to learn to make a barrier and a foundation? Are you going to teach us?"

"We won't waste time teaching you anything, you are on your own."

"Once you finish cleaning, you can read anything from here. Other than during the assigned hour, you cannot enter this place. It's only for followers. You can't take books, crystals or scrolls with you out of the library, and you need to put everything back in place."

"What if we don't know how to read?" One servant asked.

"You can use recording crystals."

"Recording crystals transmit a memory that has been saved into your mind. With this you can learn any technique without reading it. If not you can just get another servant to teach you. You will be free to do anything you want when you aren't working."

"The faster you clean, the more time you will have to learn." Yuhal waved his hand, buckets full of water appeared, along with cleaning cloths, brooms and other cleaning tools. "We will be back in two hours." They left.

Some of the servants took the cleaning tools, while others went near the entrance. There there was a huge white pillar full of little holes that had orbs inside.

"What's that?" Rayen asked.

"Those are reference orbs," Vesh said. "You take one and think of a title or information about a book, it searches for the related ones and shows you where they are located and where they go." He took an orb and a book from the floor. A light appeared from the orb and pointed to a bookshelf.

"Oh, thanks."

Vesh sneered. "Unlike an ignorant fool like you, I prepared myself to be a mage."

"Too bad all that preparation was wasted on you." Rayen took an orb. The other servants were taking them as well. If he wasn't fast, he wouldn't get one and would have to clean the floor.

He took a few books on the ground and put them in order on the bookshelves. He wanted to start practicing as soon as possible, but the orders were absolute. He couldn't read any of the books until he finished cleaning, and even then he only had two hours to clean and learn.

Stone put the two corpses on his shoulders and took them outside to dispose of them. He could carry both by himself. The servants were amazed, each one of them weighed around 80 kg.

The servants made a ruckus while cleaning. They chatted, splashed water, made noises while brushing and sweeping. The followers were annoyed by all that. All of them except one took a crystal and a few books and left the library. The other one had clothes that were different than the others. They were more complex and high-class than theirs. He left the crystal he was reading and went into the advanced library.

There were many books that caught Rayen's attention, books about alchemy, plants, skills, and obviously barrier and foundation techniques. He made sure to remember the location of all of them. He will be looking for them soon.

Over an hour and a half passed. There were twenty minutes left for the two hours to pass. At last, they finished cleaning and putting the books in place. Most of the servants ran to the crystals. There wasn't enough time to memorize all the contents of the books, and many of them didn't know how to read. Their best bet was to use crystals. When you used one, it was like looking at it happening in front of you. Once you saw it, you will always remember it. It was less time consuming that the books. But only a few of dozen of them had foundation techniques or the barrier skill, there weren't enough for all two hundred servants.

Killing another servant was forbidden, but attacking him wasn't. So they bit, kicked and punched each other. Rayen stood there, looking at the mayhem. There were hundreds of books with the wanted techniques, more than needed.

'Fighting for a crystal is pointless. It's much better to just read a book. There is more variety and I won't forget it anyway.' Avoiding unnecessary risk, he took a book he saw earlier. It was a book that explained foundation techniques. It didn't have any technique, only information about them. Still, it was useful to learn more about which one to pick.

Stone headed for one of the crystals. He didn't know how to read, so this was his only choice. There were three people fighting for it. He took two of them by their necks and lifted them. They struggled and punched his arms, but they couldn't reach his head, his arms were much longer than theirs. He hit them against a wall. *Puuuum puuuum puuuum* Again and again, until they lost consciousness.

"I-I give up." The third one ran away.

Stone sat on the ground and put the crystal on his head. Seeing the two unconscious servants at his side, no one wanted to bother him.

"My princess, don't worry, I will get you a crystal." Vesh smiled at Yune. He ran toward a guy who just got hold of a crystal and punched him in the face. "Give it to me."

"As if." The guy punched Vesh, but Vesh stepped to the side and he missed. Vesh took the guy head and slammed it against a bookshelf. Many books fell to the ground. They stopped the fight to put them back in place. The guy tried to attack him, but all his attacks were easily evaded by Vesh. He was constantly pushed back. Vesh finished him off with a kick on his temple. The guy collapsed.

"Easy." Vesh took the crystal from the unconscious guy.

Two more came, they were from his group. "Give it back."

"Do you want help?" Rayen said.

"Hah, I can handle it. I would rather die than receive help from you."

"Okay..."

They tried to punch him, but Vesh evaded them like a fly. It didn't matter how much they tried, they couldn't land a hit. Even if they couldn't hit him, they didn't give Vesh a chance to counter-attack. The battle was even. Vesh took a few books and threw them to the ground. They were forced to stop fighting to put them back in place. Vesh took the chance to punch one of them on the head.

'Vesh is quite good.' Rayen was amazed. He didn't know Vesh could fight that well, but two more of their group went to help. Now it was four versus one.

Vesh evaded one punch after another, but he couldn't keep up with four. Soon he was on the floor. The four of them kicked him. Rayen kept looking, they wouldn't kill him anyway.

On another side, the two rakuyas were defending a crystal. One was absorbing the information, while the other one guarded her. The spirits circled outside, not letting anyone get near them. They were vicious. They would scratch and bit anyone who get near, but they couldn't get attacked since their bodies were ethereal.

Saya and Yune were looking at old books and scrolls. The scroll were ancient originals, from the time before books existed.

"Those aren't good." Rayen told them. "If the techniques were anything good, the originals would be in a safe place and not here."

"I know," Yune said. "I've already decided on my technique."

"Don't get close." Saya stared at him.

Rayen got the gist of it from the book. To convert ownerless mana into your own mana, you had to brand it with your soul. But the process couldn't be done just like that. It needed special magic symbols. Most spells needed you to transform the mana, which could be done outside your body, but it was faster if it was done inside, and for that you needed magic symbols. You could also use mana to nourish your body and become stronger, which needed even more magic symbols. The problem was that your mana capability depended on how many magic symbols you had, the more you had, the lower it will be. And if you weren't a strong mage, your mana will dissipate quickly if it wasn't inside your body. And a foundation was a collection of all those magic symbols arranged in a particular way to boost their effectiveness.

There were some rare techniques that used objects as well. Those were more powerful than normal techniques, but this library didn't have them.

'If I had a high magic capability, I could simply get one with high mana conversion. But I don't. Nourishing is best for when you want to use your body, but I'm a mage. Mages aren't supposed to fight close range, that's for warriors, mages must fight from far away.' He nodded. He choose a technique with a good balance between capacity, conversion and nourishing. It didn't convince him, but it was the best he had here. He spent the rest of the time left memorizing the symbols.

Yuhal and Suei came back. "The two hours have passed. Let's go back."

Rayen put the book back. All the symbols were constantly appearing in Rayen's mind. He wasn't sure if he remembered them correctly, but he had no chance to check it back, he could only hope he did.