Chapter 201

Chapter 201 Exchange

“The reward of language… is also a language?”

Inside the tent, Kapak murmured to himself in response to his own words, trying to understand their meaning. After some thought, he grasped the significance of what was said.

‘The powerful spirit is saying that I need to offer a language as repayment for the one given to me. Do I really need to give up a language as well?’ Kapak understood the other’s intention and felt a surge of fear.

‘I do need to offer a language to this spirit, but… apart from the Prit language given to me, the only language I know is my tribe’s language. I can’t sacrifice my people’s language for an invader’s language like Prit.’

Kapak thought to himself. His tribe held his family and friends, and he was born and raised there. As a warrior of the tribe, he definitely did not want to abandon their language.

‘Could this spirit be an evil one? According to the shaman, some evil spirits like to play with humans through such exchange contracts. Am I now entangled with such an evil spirit?

‘It first gave me the invader’s language, then wants to take away my own language, making it impossible for me to communicate with my fellow tribesmen, forcing me to interact with the invaders, enslaving me again and making my fellow tribesmen hate me, while it enjoys this?’

Kapak pondered in his mind, feeling extremely uneasy. He immediately prostrated himself before the illustrated book and prayed sincerely yet fearfully.

“Unknown powerful spirit, I am very sorry, but I cannot forsake my language. Please take back your previous gift…”

In the King Campus library, Dorothy, who had just left the restroom, heard this and couldn’t help but smile wryly. She thought to herself,

‘This is similar to what I used to think, that knowledge disappears after being sacrificed. This is indeed a misunderstanding. It seems I need to explain it to him…’

With this thought, Dorothy sent another message to him.

“Knowledge lies in inheritance and exchange, not in deprivation.”

These words echoed in Kapak’s mind inside the tent. After a moment of surprise, he suddenly realized their meaning.

‘Knowledge lies in inheritance and exchange, not in deprivation. Yes… when the Shaman taught us to read, he didn’t suddenly lose his ability to read. Language is not an item… it doesn’t disappear just because it is ‘sacrificed’…’

Kapak, who was quick-witted, immediately understood the logic. He immediately devoutly worshipped the illustrated book.

“Unknown powerful spirit, thank you for enlightening me. I am willing to offer the language I learned since childhood as repayment.”

After Kapak finished praying, the knowledge of the Spiritual Seal Language recorded in his mind was immediately duplicated and transmitted to the distant Dorothy via the information channel.

In the library, Dorothy received the complete knowledge of the Spiritual Seal Language from Kapak. Instead of wasting the precious remaining capacity of her Soul Book to inscribe this knowledge, she stored it and replied.

“The compensation has been received.”

Inside the tent, Kapak, who was kneeling on the ground, was slightly startled upon hearing this voice. He checked whether he could still recognize the characters on the wooden sign of the tent, and spoke a few sentences aloud. Finding everything in order, he felt a surge of joy in his heart.

‘I still know my tribe’s language! Sacrificing knowledge does not make me lose knowledge! Just as the spirit said, knowledge lies in inheritance and exchange, not in deprivation!

‘I acquired a new language at almost no cost by offering knowledge as a sacrifice and receiving knowledge in return. Is this the principle of action of that spirit? Truly unique and powerful…’

Kapak, who had virtually received a gift, felt an unusual excitement. While looking around, he continued to worship the illustrated book.

“Unknown powerful spirit, thank you for your gift. May I ask for your name?”

Kapak asked, and soon received a reply.

“Akasha…”

“Akasha…”

Kapak tasted the pronunciation, confirmed he had never heard it before, and prayed again.

“Please, mighty Akasha, are you the spirit residing in this book?”

“I do not reside anywhere. The text you see is merely a medium for our communication.”

‘Medium… Indeed, how could such a powerful spirit reside in something so ordinary…’

Kapak thought to himself, then continued to pray and inquire.

“Please, mighty Akasha, having bestowed a gift upon me, what else do I need to do for you?”

“A valuable knowledge offered, I will grant you equivalent knowledge…”

A deep voice resounded in Kapak’s mind. After listening, he nodded thoughtfully. He now understood that he could use other valuable knowledge to obtain more gifts in the future.

Equal exchange, a fair spirit! And he wouldn’t have to lose what he exchanged! Even more fair!

“Mighty Akasha, I will try my best to gather precious knowledge.”

Kapak prayed again, and the response came quickly.

“Yes, if you learn valuable knowledge, you can pray to me. For now, don’t tell others about my existence. Keep the text you hold, you can use it to contact others like yourself.”

“Understood, I will follow your instructions.”

Kapak said, and then the voice in his mind disappeared.

After kneeling in front of the illustrated book for about ten minutes, Kapak stood up, walked over to pick it up, and looked at the collection in his wooden box, which was filled with the strange things of the invaders he had gathered.

Sitting next to the wooden box, Kapak began to search through the various small industrial items. Seeing all the texts printed on them, the characters he once couldn’t read were now all understandable. Because he could read the text, he knew the names and functions of many things.

“This is… a music box? This is… a watch?… This is a cane? These are… medicines?”

Thus, Kapak continued to search curiously by the wooden box, reading everything he could see in Prit writing, understanding the names and even the functions of these items. He couldn’t help but marvel that although the white-skinned invaders who took land and lives were hateful, their things were truly amazing.

…

On the other side, Dorothy, who had finally convinced Kapak to sacrifice the Spiritual Seal Language, sat contentedly in the library.

‘Sigh… Finally, I have a new language. Although I can’t use the precious Soul Book capacity to inscribe it, I can use the system to exchange it. Perhaps I can exchange it for Dragon Roar.’

Dorothy thought, then opened the long-unused system exchange. Using the Spiritual Seal Language, she exchanged shortly afterward. The result of the exchange was indeed Dragon Roar.

To Dorothy’s surprise, using the Spiritual Seal Language this time did not result in exchanging all three segments of Dragon Roar at once. This time, she only exchanged one segment of Dragon Roar.

“Dragon Roar, Delay Time.”

“Roar at time, command it to submit to you, slowing the surrounding time by thirty percent.”

“Akatosh is the beginning of time, Odahviin is the end of time, all dragons are fragments of time. Therefore, delaying time involves the essence of dragons and is one of the highest-level Dragon Roars.”

“…