Summoned with an SSS-Rank Portal Skill

The guard showed William where the bathroom was. He still tried to explore more of the mansion to understand why Jonas had bought him and Wendy, but he couldn't figure anything out, which was a shame.

In the end, he went to the bathroom, used it, and returned to his room.

On the way back, the mansion felt even emptier, and the only sound William could hear was the wind hitting the windows. Explore more at My Virtual Library Empire

One of the windows opened as he was heading back to his room, letting in a freezing gust of wind that sent shivers down his spine.

"Chilly," William muttered.

He walked over to close the window. There were no staff around, and William felt it wasn't a good idea to leave it open.

The last thing he wanted was trouble, and this could certainly lead to some.

As he started closing the window, William looked outside and saw something curious. The window faced the back of the mansion—a part he hadn't seen yet—and there, he noticed some lights on.

William could see clearly thanks to his enhanced vision—a gift from the strange snake's lineage.

'What the hell is going on over there?' he wondered.

The light was coming from a small shack. It was strange to see someone out there so late at night, especially considering everything was covered in snow.

'Is that where some of the guards sleep?'

Several possibilities ran through William's mind as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing, but in the end, he couldn't find an answer.

The only way to find out more would be to leave the mansion and go out there, and he didn't want to do that. At least, not now. William closed the window, returned to his room, and went to sleep.

The next morning, William woke up to knocking on his door. He expected to see one of the maids—maybe even the same one who had treated him poorly—but it was none other than Jonas!

"Get up and eat something in the kitchen. After that, meet me outside," Jonas said, then left.

In that brief conversation, William could already tell that Jonas wasn't treating him as kindly as he had during the journey to the mansion.

'He was just trying to make us feel comfortable… We're slaves, after all…'

William did as Jonas instructed. Wendy also went to eat, but unlike him, she was called to go somewhere else.

"Any idea what we'll have to do?" William asked.

"No clue. But it's definitely going to be exhausting, and maybe even dangerous," Wendy replied.

William nodded in agreement. "We'll definitely be doing the things they don't want to do."

After eating bread, fruit, and eggs, William left the kitchen and went to meet Jonas outside.

Jonas was waiting in front of the mansion, but that wasn't their destination.

"Come with me," Jonas said.

They walked around the mansion—and this made William curious about the lights he had seen the night before.

William pointed to the shack he had noticed. "What's that cabin over there?"

"Nothing you need to know about, and don't even think about going there, or you'll face the consequences," Jonas said sharply. "Our destination is over here."

The place they went to had another shack—much smaller—filled with tools.

And near this shack, on a dirt path, was the entrance to a mine. Jonas handed William a pickaxe and a sack to carry the mined materials.

"Your job is simple: mine mana stones. You'll do this all morning, take a break for lunch, and then continue until early evening," Jonas said.

It was utterly inhumane. However, William couldn't even complain. Unfortunately, his fate was no longer in his hands.

Jonas left. William, with the pickaxe in hand, entered the mine.

Inside, he found other people! There were three men there, all dirty and thin. They were also slaves working in the mines.

Wendy wasn't there, and William already knew why: the grueling labor of mining was simply too exhausting!

He could tell just by looking at the men present. They were all malnourished, filthy, and had empty looks in their eyes.

However, there was something they all had in common: they all had the same seal on their bodies as William.

In other words, these slaves weren't ordinary people—they were mages! They could be as strong as William, or maybe even stronger?

This gave him a glimmer of hope.

'Can I get them to work with me to remove the seals?' William thought.

"Hey, guys," William said.

None of the three men responded. It was as if they hadn't even heard him. William tried again, and one of the men finally replied.

"Listen, kid, I feel bad for you ending up here so young, but since you're here, you need to learn how things work. Less talking, more working. Otherwise, one of the guards will show up and beat you."

After that, no one spoke to each other. They were all mining mana stones, and they made it clear that William should do the same before something happened to him.

William went deeper into the mine, away from the others. He just wanted to be alone.

The walls, ceiling, and sometimes even the floor of the mine were filled with veins of blue stones—the mana stones.

This mine had A LOT of mana stones.

'It must have been discovered recently, and now Jonas and his family want to claim all the wealth…'

William believed it had been discovered recently because of the sheer amount of mana stones. If it were an older mine, it would have been nearly depleted by now.

But that didn't make much sense either. The mine was located right behind Jonas's mansion. How could he or his family have taken so long to find it?

Everything was very strange, but William could only focus on mining and stop thinking about these things. With the pickaxe in hand and the sack by his side, he began to mine.

The good thing was that even though he was inside a mine—where it was supposed to be quite hot—the temperature was actually bearable.

William also felt that his much stronger body compared to normal mages gave him an advantage down there.

His mana was blocked, but his physical strength was still intact, which meant he didn't tire as easily while mining.

In fact, he noticed that his strength made it easier to extract the mana stones. And on the very first day, he already came up with a plan.

'If I mine too much and bring back a lot of mana stones, they'll expect more from me. So, it's better to match the others' output…' he thought.

Since it was his first day, he didn't have a clear idea of how much he should bring. He mined for about two hours, filled his sack with a good amount of mana stones, and then sat down to rest.

Thanks to his System inventory, he was able to pull out the book he had been studying and started reading. However, since his mana was blocked, practicing magic wasn't very useful, so he put the book away.

When it was time for lunch, William passed by the other men and checked how many stones they had collected to get an idea of how much he should work.

From what he could tell, the amount was similar, but those men had started mining a bit earlier. This meant William would have to slow down his pace.

'This means I'll have a lot of free time down here, but for what?'

That was still a mystery to him. He and the other miners went to the kitchen to grab something to eat.

There, William ran into Wendy again. She already looked tired, but nothing too extreme.

"What kind of work are you doing?" William asked.

"I'm responsible for cleaning the outside of the mansion and working in the greenhouse where they grow food and some medicinal herbs. What about you?" Wendy replied.

That work sounded like a dream compared to what William had to do.

"I'm stuck mining mana stones like crazy in the mine behind the mansion…" William said.

Wendy felt a little sorry for him. She placed a hand on his shoulder, gave him a smile, but didn't say anything.

Unfortunately, she had no way to help him.

William ate his lunch as quickly as possible, thinking he could use the time to explore the mansion a bit before heading back to the mine. But, unfortunately, that didn't work out.

"Done eating? Back to work," Jonas said as he passed by.

Next time, William knew it would be better to take as long as possible to finish his meal…@@novelbin@@

He returned to the mines once again, and started mining again. This time, he went a little slower, and finished his job hours before his shift ended.

But what could he do with his free time? Well, there was something. Asura's voice ringed inside his mind, which was odd considering the sword was far gone!

"Can you hear me?"