Dai pushed away the desk and underneath it was an old metallic safe. It was quite large, enough for him to slip inside but he didn't think there was that much space inside.

"Shut the door and wait outside. If I see you peeking in, I'll gut you." Dai didn't break eye contact while he stated each word.

Dai heard the click of the door closing and he opened the safe. There were two handles on top. Dai grabbed and pulled them up. A minimal amount of force was required and the racks started moving up by themself. It had about ten different compartments.

Two of them had bound up books. They were valuable arts. Dai ignored everything else and started flicking through them first. They were interesting, ruling had its perks. He had an idea and called out to his AI.

[Scan]

[Visual Access is Required. Would You Like to Grant Access?]

Yes.

Dai flicked through each of them and had the AI record it. Could the AI interpret what it was seeing? He would have to test it but the answer had to be yes. Most AI's were built on the back of physical neural networks in the brain. These things used the brain for their processing power, they were just more logical in their use.

That's why if Dai knew the language, the AI knew it as well. There were obvious limits to this. AI were very good for certain tasks but newer situations required the build-up of new tools.

Dai pulled himself out of his thoughts. He'd flicked through all of them. Categorize as Methods and Provide List of Methods.

[12 New Methods Acquired]

[17 Year Cicada Cycle]

[Moon-Light Harvesting]...

Dai scanned through them and most of them were concerned with the breeding and control of insects. These would be useful in the near-term. His chest was feeling quite numb.

The bottom two racks were filled with spirit stones. There was quite a variety. He had about ten small pouches of those. He logged them into the AI as well. There was more money, most of it in these bulls. One other thing he got his hands on were letters.

These were official letters in here bundled up. Dai grabbed them as well and shoved the rack back down and locked it up.

He did make sure to look underneath for a hidden compartment but there was nothing. He pulled the chair over and leaned back. He had the seal in his hands.

He started flicking through the letters and reading them. He logged them in his AI as well. Most of them were concerning tribute. There were exact requirements for tribute that had to be sent out to the Gail-Urns.

There was also one particular letter concerning the arrival of an accountant from the Urns. He would be living down here and making sure the tribute went up on time.

Dai was in no condition to wage a war with these Urns. He didn't see any benefit in doing so. The point was, binding himself to this seal would put a giant target on his back. It was inevitable. The imp's words were ringing in his head.

Dai called in the Drude. He or she had very pale skin with silver-white hair. It was dirty and covered in mud. The eyes were muddy brown. "Why did you betray her so fast?"

He was referring to the imp. It would do to know their loyalties. "If I didn't you would've just killed me and moved on to the next person."

"Does death scare you that much?" Dai had some knowledge about Drude's. They had a culture of sacrifice because of their unique physiques.

"No, but I couldn't let you...kill the people down there. They're family. You can fight as much as you want but don't pull us in." There was a little bit of venom in his words, it sounded like they were tired of all this fighting.

That's it, he thought. That was a nice little lever, somebody with no loyalties or incapable of being loyal was not going to be a good fit.

"Well, how would you like to change it?"

They tilted their head, they were somewhat confused. Dai placed the seal on the desk and placed a dagger beside it. "Prick your finger and drop some blood on it. Its a blood-bound seal. It'll make you ruler of this fine city."

"I don't want it."

Dai smiled. "You don't have a choice." Dai didn't want to outright threaten him, it was best left unsaid. The drude walked over, grabbed the dagger and paused.

"My demands won't be too outrageous, you just have to implement certain things. Most of all, think about this family of yours."

Their shoulders slumped. He pricked his fingers and let it drop on the seal. A tiny wisp of smoke emerged out of it and it transformed into a howling ghost. It latched onto the drude's finger and disappeared.

"From now on, train yourself with this method." Dai grabbed a sheaf of letter papers and wrote down a technique. It was called [Dreaming Slumber]. It was a mid-tier method in his opinion, he'd gotten it from a tribe of Drude's back in the day.

"You are not allowed to share this to anybody. Train with it every-night. It is a basic method. Other then that, train in combat every day for four hours. The only way you'll keep that seat is if you're powerful."

Dai would've loved to bind them through some sort of contract but one of the main requirements for most of his techniques was a balance of power where he was stronger. He just couldn't perform or enforce them without any essence.

The drude was quite over-whelmed with all this but they grabbed on to the manual for [Dreaming Slumber] and started memorizing it.

Dai rummaged through the imp's articles and found a strange magical item. It was the communication item. It was quite fragile and he didn't have an idea of how to use it at the moment. He kept it all the same.

AI, make a list of the guard-demons and everybody I encountered in this castle.

It compiled it within a few seconds. There was a list of 14 demons. He would have to spare the head-guard but the rest had to go. He needed to minimize his involvement.