William was very surprised to hear Asura’s voice again. He knew the same slave traders who had captured him had also taken his sword and surely sold it to someone.

“How are we talking like this? I thought the seal had cut off our connection,” William said mentally.

“Yes, it did, and that’s why I asked you to put your blood on the sword. Now you can talk to me.”

“That’s great, but where the hell are you? I’m stuck at the end of the world here, working in a mine, mining mana stones…”

As much as talking to Asura was a great thing, William still had no idea if it would help him in any way.

Maybe it would help with the loneliness and give him someone to talk to, but what he needed was a way to escape, not just chat.

“Really? What a situation… Well, I’m far away too. I ended up being sold to a wealthy merchant who lives in a village. Can you believe it?”

“Wow…”

“Yeah, anyway, I have a way to help you. How about you take control of the sword? Do you have any free time there?”

William did have some free time since he could mine the stones pretty quickly.

“Yeah, I have some free time. But I’m not sure what you’re trying to do.”

Asura then explained. “Since I’m far from you, our connection is weak, and I’m almost forced to hibernate again. So, you’ll become the sword, not me. I want you to take over the sword’s consciousness during your free time!”

“That way, you can talk to the person who bought me and try to influence them. If you can transfer your demonic energy to the user, well, then maybe you can get help to get out of there.”

The whole situation was quite complex, and William wasn’t sure if he could pull off what Asura was proposing.

Wouldn’t it be easier to spend his energy trying to escape in another way?

William was afraid of being unable to remove the seal—he knew it was difficult because James had also received a seal—and there was a chance he’d be stuck there as a slave for a long time, or maybe even forever!

So, in reality, trying this crazy plan Asura suggested seemed interesting.

“Alright, let’s do it. But how do I do it?”

“I’ll share some of my memories with you, and you’ll take over. You’ll understand.”

At that moment, many images flooded William’s mind. It was as if he had lived those moments himself.

The memories Asura shared were mostly related to some spells and rituals he could perform when taking over the sword’s consciousness.

All of this would be used to gradually influence the sword’s wielder and, in the end, get them to come to William and rescue him.

It seemed like a slow process, but an interesting one. After receiving all that information, William had to sit at the back of the mine and process everything.

After that, he did something he never imagined he could do. His consciousness shifted to the sword, and he began to see things as if he were Asura!

The vision wasn’t great, but he could hear everything clearly and sense mana much more easily than he could with his original body.

The most impressive part was that his real body still retained some consciousness—enough for him to perform basic tasks like mining mana stones and maybe even sleep!

‘Where am I…?’ he thought.

William was in a dark room, locked away. He noticed other things around him. They were other types of weapons.

And then, the door to the room opened, and two people walked in. One was an older man, and the other was a young woman.

“What do you have to show me, Dad?” she asked.

The man seemed very excited. He was smiling broadly.

He walked over to where William was—or rather, where his sword form was.

The man picked him up, removed the cloth covering him, and said, “I bought this impressive sword for you. It was a bit pricey, but it’ll be great for you.”

The young woman took the sword in her hands, and at that moment, William felt a strange sensation. It was odd for him to have someone holding his body, especially this beautiful woman with delicate hands.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, but he stayed calm.

“I love it! I really needed one, especially since I’m going to the battle academy in a few days. Thank you so much, Dad!”

She gave her father a tight hug. William found the whole encounter very touching and beautiful.

He didn’t do anything at first. As soon as the woman picked up William, he felt he could already send her mental messages.

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However, that would only scare her, and it wouldn’t be worth it. He needed to slowly build a bond with her before starting to influence her. At least, that’s how he planned to act.

After all, time seemed to be the most precious thing he had at the moment, as he was completely trapped in the Black Pine family’s mansion…

For hours, he simply watched the woman swing him back and forth, practicing on a wooden training dummy.

The strangest part was not feeling any pain even when hitting the dummy—which made sense since he was a sword—and also feeling his body being swung around.

William already knew the woman’s name was Victoria, and that she would soon leave the village to train in magic and close combat at a battle academy in a larger city.

This battle academy seemed more focused on battle mages—the type William was.

On this first day, William didn’t try to talk to her. After a while, he fully returned his consciousness to his body since he needed to bring back the mana stones.

With the sack of mana stones in hand, he left the mine and found one of the guards outside. This guard was responsible for collecting the mana stones from all the slaves.

The other men handed over their mana stones and left. William did the same.

The amount of mana stones was similar.

‘At least now I know how much I need to work daily,’ William thought.

It was already getting dark when he finally left the mines. He and the other miners went to the kitchen to eat something.

“You seem to have handled your first day well,” one of them said.

This miner seemed younger, and he didn’t have the same empty, defeated look as the other two.

“Yeah, but it’s the first day, right? Of course, it’s easier to handle. How long have you been here?” William asked.

“About a year,” the man said. “Those two have been here for several years, I think. I’ve kind of accepted that I’ll never leave this place.”

“They’ve been mining for that long? The mine still seems so full.”

“Mining started a year ago. We all came together. But from what I know, they did other things before. Now, if you ask me what, I have no idea.”

William thought about asking his name, but the man stopped him. “Don’t say your old name. None of us have names anymore, unless Master Jonas gives you one. If you say your name here and they hear it, well, you’ll get beaten.”

That caught William off guard! He remembered he had shared his name with Wendy—she had done the same—but luckily, no one had heard or simply forgot to report it to Jonas.

“Really? I didn’t know… Thanks for letting me know.”

“No problem. You can call me 03, okay? It’s because I was the third to come. And you can be 04.”

“This naming system seems simple enough.”

The two ate and chatted a bit, but after that, it was time to return to their rooms. William also found out that they only had free time to do other things three days a week!

“We can do some other things at night three days a week, but on the other days, we have to stay in our rooms,” 03 said, then leaned closer to William and whispered, “I’m pretty sure they do this so we don’t even have time to think of an escape plan.”

What 03 said made sense, and William agreed.

They each went to their own room. When William arrived, he noticed that Wendy was already inside because of the lights, but when he went to knock on the door to talk to her, one of the guards who was standing nearby stopped him.

“You can’t talk to her today. Go to your room and keep quiet.”

The treatment was terrible again, and William felt like trash. In fact, he didn’t expect anything else since he had been bought as a slave…

He went to his room and spent the rest of the night looking out the window and reflecting on his next steps.

‘I need to get the fucking out of here….’

That thought grew inside his head with the passing days. Would he find a way out of that situation?

William was staring at the window when he noticed something peculiar. A few people were walking on the courtyard, moving toward the back part of the mansion. It was the same area where he saw that cabin with the lights on.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep