Chapter 43 The mysterious mansion

"Nothing good."

Hearing Kyle's response Zak quirked an eyebrow wondering what made Kyle respond in such a way. Waiting on Kyle Zak looked around to see if there was anything else which may be helpful and moved over to one of the small bookcases located on the balcony.

There weren't anywhere near as many books as there were on the lower floor but they still numbered over a hundred. Zak began to flick through the book to see what was contained and drew a blank as what was written in the books may look similar in style to how things are written now but there was enough difference that he struggled to read it.

Kyle was thinking about the last comment in the journal and found it worrying. What could be powerful or numerous enough to force the original architects of this mansion to flee while taking into account that there were apparently more of these constructions even within his city not to mention in other cities within the empire.

Seeing Zak looking blankly at one of the books Kyle decided not to worry about the past as he had time to look into it later and walked over to see what Zak was reading. Looking from the side Kyle could see the book was in an older dialect which contained certain commonalities with the written systems in use but had extra strokes to some letters and others which were completely foreign.

"Sorry Zak can I have a quick look at that book."

Hearing Kyle next to him Zak turned to him and passed over the book as he didn't even know where to start. Kyle began to flip through the book looking for something which would give him a base to see if he could work out what the book was relating to and about halfway through he found what he was looking for.

This page had a diagram with some written words indicating certain movements or actions. The lucky thing was Kyle was familiar with the diagram and the actions as this was an altered form of the technique his mother trained in which allowed her to become a sorcerer. This was a cultivation manual for sorcerers so once Kyle knew what the book was about he looked further in looking for anything else that he could recognise.

After a moment Kyle found a list or catalogue towards the back of the book which contained information on different kinds of sorcerer abilities like tamers and dream walkers.

"What is it sir?"

Zak wanted to know what this book contained as he had found it with his master and it piqued his interest.

"It is a sorcerer cultivation manual which is similar to what my mother uses."

As he said this Kyle realised how slim the chances were that he found a manual so similar to the one his mother practised when even among the current empire there were several competing techniques. To check this Kyle pulled another random book from the shelf and flicked through to the same page as in the previous book. It was another technique. For a moment Kyle thought it was exactly the same but when comparing them together he found there was a slight difference in the mana usage. Looking towards the back where the catalogue was located he found the abilities listed there were different and seemed to be more related to the sixth sense like clairvoyance and remote viewing.

"These are different techniques but both for sorcerers. Zak go to the other side of the balcony and bring me 3 different books."

Zak didn't say anything and just jogged over and grabbed books from different cases while Kyle did the same on his side. When comparing them Kyle found they all contained slightly different techniques which seemed to push people towards one ability or another when practised. This was great as Kyle would be able to compare techniques and see which nodes leant themselves to one thing or another.

"Okay we've spent enough time here we should move on but let me have a look at the first floor and see if there's anything else."

When they went back to the first floor again Kyle looked at the apparatus and really wanted to mess around with it and find out what it did but he also knew this would be universally stupid in a world with magic so instead he focused on the books. Coming to one of the cases he took down a mid-sized red covered book.

When Kyle opened the book he found this was different than the books on the second floor as these contained tightly written notes. He didn't have time to read through this so he looked around until he found a book that had been left on one of the desks. When he opened this book he found it was in the same format as the books upstairs but rather than having a sorcerer technique this contained a mage technique.

"This book contains a mages cultivation technique instead. I'll need to have a proper search but this appears to be a cultivation library. I wonder how many different techniques the ancients had access to?"

When Kyle said what he believed this library was Zak's eyes lit up as when he had kids his master may let them train in one of these techniques. Not the best one of course but a good one at least.

Kyle saw Zak daydreaming and remembering how people in this world viewed strength and those with that strength he got an idea what Zak was thinking. Kyle just shook his head before he spoke to Zak.

"Zak all these techniques are only useful as reference. The technique you are training in now is stronger and won't limit you to one path. I'm just happy I can use the reference here to create or improve skills."

Hearing Kyle, Zak was at first incredulous but then he remembered just how weird this kid was and he was already fully invested in helping him. It was only a flight of fancy but hearing what Kyle said about his technique Zak decided he would tie himself to this prodigy for good or ill.

"Master I would like to take you up on your job offer would you accept my pledge."

Zak kneeled to Kyle even though now their heads were at an equal height. Personal honour is a big thing to these people and to give someone your pledge means that your life is theirs to do with as they will. Kyle was aware of the gravity of this pledge although he didn't know how he got this man's undying loyalty he didn't want to demean the man's intentions so he just accepted.

"Very well Zak you are my first vassal, I appoint you as my personal administrator and accept your pledge."

This all sounded rather comical but they were now considered inseparable. Deciding enough time had been lost Kyle headed out while Zak followed behind. They carried on through the third floor opening various store rooms which contained various materials, weapons and other unknown objects. There were two discoveries on the third floor which made Kyle happy. The first was a storeroom containing a selection of metal ingots waiting for use and the second was two elevators one in the east wing and the other in the west. These elevators were run using, yep you guessed it arrays. This meant the movement of weapons, foods and other things would be much easier.

When Kyle experimented with the elevators they made Randall jump out of his skin when they appeared in the forges at the basement level. Randall however got over this quickly when he saw these pieces of technology as this meant they could more easily move what they were producing.

Continuing with the momentum they had Kyle and Zak continued exploring. It was much the same on the second floor with storerooms being the majority but there were some other rooms and when Kyle looked through them quickly they reminded him of laboratories. Kyle told Zak that these areas needed to be designated as off limits as he didn't know if there was anything dangerous present in there. As Kyle gave this command the mansion once again showed that intelligence which made Kyle think more and more that it may be an AI or at least intelligent as the doors all closed and locked while the storerooms were left open.

Choosing not to worry about it Kyle carried on with a jumpy Zak who seemed to think a ghost was the culprit and would be coming after him at any moment. The best result on the second floor was when Kyle checked the area next to the room he'd taken for his bedroom. This area appeared to be a study or office but it was much larger than the one he'd been using on the first floor and it was connected to his bedroom and the view was much nicer.

"Zak you can have the office I was using downstairs as I'll be moving into this room."

When Zak heard this he nodded but he was a little envious as this was a very nice room. The furniture in here was different than the rest of the mansion and Kyle believed this was due to it being from the original architects. He hadn't noticed how the furniture in the library was made as it was all just functional so there wasn't much to say about it.

Carrying on they cleared the first floor and rather than storerooms the majority of the locked areas contained training areas of one type or another. Kyle recognised what some of the arrays in these room represented such as a pressure room which could apply pressure or remove pressure rather than gravity which would only make you heavier, pressure would be applied to all regions of your body from every direction. There also appeared to be a sparring area which had multiple protection arrays to prevent people getting hurt. This sparring area actually opened out with large doors to the inner courtyard and when the 'illusion' array was disabled it gave the guards a horrendous shock.

They also found a cold storage attached to the kitchens. Why this was disguised Kyle couldn't even hazard a guess but it was good for them as this new storage would allow the kitchens to keep foods for much longer and it was a great deal larger than the existing pantry.

In the first basement level they opened the areas and just found ore storage. It looked as though ores were stored down here ready for use and once they were melted to ingots they were stored in other areas. Possibly the architects would turn the ores to ingots then move the ingots back to begin manufacturing.

Once the basement was cleared Kyle was raring to check the next floor as even the staircase was hidden. An entire floor cut off and even the elevators didn't go down there although this may have been because they were still locked. Disabling the array Kyle and Zak began to head down while many of the surrounding people began craning their necks to see what was happening.

As they had been moving through the mansion many people heard what was happening and being nosy began to look into the new areas themselves. Walking down the staircase the lights began to brighten letting Kyle see where he was going. Different than may be expected the walls in this new area were no different than elsewhere in the mansion and there wasn't a speck of dust to be found.

Turning a corner at the base of the staircase Kyle view came to rest on the raised pedestal in the middle of the room, even though he knew it was there he couldn't see it or what was above it. Instead what he saw was a cylinder of bluish light coming down from above totally covering the area. On the floor he could see raised black stone unlike what the rest of the mansion was made from which had etched glowing characters on it. These characters appeared to be glyphs but they appeared different somehow, if he was to say his first impression these looked alien while the glyphs even if you couldn't understand them had a sense of familiarity to them. This was strange and he couldn't even guess what this was for but his gut was telling him it was somehow related to the apparatus in the library.

Deciding it would be best to see if he could find anything about this in the library Kyle accessed the mansion and was pleased to find a disabled 'protection' array which could surround this area. Kyle activated the array which created a square surrounding the light and the black stones.

Continuing on they accessed the final floor this was a bit of a surprise in a day of surprises. Kyle already knew this area was much larger than the mansion above but he didn't know what it was for. Just past the staircase leading down there was for want of a better word a shed. Looking inside there were various gardening supplies. Past this there was a lean to which housed three alchemist cauldrons and the necessary tools. The rest of this area was taken up by a field. No suspense no bells or whistles it was just a large empty field. This must be an area for growing food and herbs with the alchemy equipment this was the most likely use. So basement 1 was for forging and basement 3 was for alchemy or food production both sub levels were meant to sustain the mansion above so what was basement 2 for?

Deciding it was too late to worry about this at the moment Kyle gave another check and found the elevators were present on this floor so they stopped at B1 and B3 but not B2 what was that floor about??

Going back to the entranceway Kyle was greeted by Ash and the families of the guards, there were 5 women and 6 children. Kyle turned to Zak and gave his instructions.

"Zak take them to the guards and let them discuss the situation. If they wish to be employed the ladies should go to Lauren and Iris in the kitchen to receive some duties. I'm afraid the children will need to stay with them for the moment until we can get everything settled down."

"Don't worry sir I'll see to it."

With this Zak headed off with the families in tow who were looking around with great curiosity. Finally Kyle turned to Ash.

"Okay Ash now that that's out of the way we need to go see a man."

"What about?"

Ash asked with a sense of trepidation on seeing the smirk on Kyle's face.

"I seem to be missing one assassin maid."