Dark night, moonless, a cool light rain pattered down. Raindrops fell on the mud and rocks of the riverbank, washing away the bloodstains on them. A faint bloody smell diffused in the air.
This was the bottom of a deep, secluded canyon. A turbulent stream, splitting the mountain rock, rushed through the center of the valley floor. The gurgling sound of the water echoed continuously in the valley.
On the two sides of the deep valley, one side was a vertical sheer cliff, and the other was a steep slope. Countless tough shrubs, grass, and trees struggled out from between the rocks and mud. At the bottom of the steep slope, the gradient began to gradually flatten, forming a sloping riverbank. On the riverbank was a scene of tragedy.
Two or three carriage bodies lay overturned on the riverbank. Human and horse corpses were scattered everywhere. Dripping blood flowed from horrific wounds, washed by the rain into the nearby river. Terror was frozen on the faces of the dead.
At the scene of the blood and rain tragedy, everything was silent and still, seemingly devoid of any sign of life. Of course... that was only how it seemed.
Near the riverbank, inside an overturned carriage that was barely prevented from sliding into the river by reins caught on a rock, a young girl was leaning against the upright seat, eyes closed in silence.
The girl was about thirteen years old, wearing a simple white and brown dress, cloth shoes, and short socks. It was not a wealthy person's attire. Many parts of her body were stained with blood. Her long silver-white hair hung neatly below her shoulders, even reflecting a faint silver light in the dim environment. Her closed, serene, and beautiful cheek was stained red with blood on one side. Looking closely, one could see that the blood flowed from her forehead behind her right-side bangs.
Like the surrounding environment, the silent girl also seemed to be a part of this tragedy, until... her eyebrows twitched slightly at a certain moment.
After an unknown amount of time, a faint breath emerged from beneath her nose, which should have been completely silent. Then, as the girl's chest rose and fell again, that breath gradually strengthened.
"Hoo..."
The girl's eyebrows furrowed tightly, revealing a look of discomfort. One hand rose to touch the right side of her forehead.
'So painful... so cold... Was I having a nightmare? Or did I fall out of bed?'
Confused thoughts churned in the girl's mind. As the pain in her forehead clearly subsided, her thoughts became clearer, and she started thinking about more things.
'Is it raining outside? Why is there the sound of water? There's no river near home? Is someone turning on the tap early in the morning to wash the ground outside?'
Amidst numerous confusions, the girl slowly opened her eyes, revealing crimson pupils. The dark environment made it difficult for her to see for a moment. After adapting for a while, she was finally able to barely make out the scene in the dark, confined space.
Then, she immediately froze in place.
Inside the carriage, opposite the girl, a woman's corpse was leaning against another upright seat. Broken glass from the carriage window was embedded in the woman's throat. The still-flowing blood stained her canvas dress red. Her eyes were wide open, and the terror she felt before death was conveyed undiminished to the girl's eyes.
"Hiss..."
Seeing such a sight, the girl immediately gasped. The instinctive fear of a corpse instantly filled her thoughts, sweeping away all other doubts and confusions.
For a moment, the startled girl immediately stood up but accidentally hit the top of the carriage with a "bang". Bending at the waist, holding her head, and looking around, the girl finally realized she was in such a small space.
Being in a confined space with such a terrifying corpse, the girl's heart couldn't help but become more unnerved. She quickly reached out and fumbled around, trying to find a way out. Fortunately, she soon felt the carriage door above. After pushing it open forcefully, she quickly climbed out of the carriage.
'Damn it! What's going on? What kind of hellhole is this? How are there corpses?! Did someone put me in a haunted house while I was asleep? Who would be so bored as to pull such a prank!'
While thinking like this in her heart, the girl struggled to climb out of the carriage. Then, when she reached the riverbank where the light rain was falling, looking at the tragic sight before her eyes, she couldn't help but stare blankly.
More corpses, not just people, but also horses. The bloody smell diffused in the air could not be washed away by the rain. There was more than just the one overturned carriage behind her. A gas lamp hanging from the front of a carriage swayed continuously, its flame flickering, providing faint illumination in the rain-soaked darkness. The wheels on the carriage were still turning, as if it had been moving rapidly not long ago.
"What... what the hell is this... If it's a prank... the cost is too high, isn't it... Is it necessary to be this exaggerated just to scare me?"
In the rain, the girl murmured in astonishment, looking at the scene before her eyes. Fear and confusion arose in her heart. Then she shook her head violently, forcing herself to calm down.
"Don't panic... calm down... Let's observe the situation first... Ugh!"
Just as the girl was trying to calm down, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her head. She couldn't help but cover her forehead again.
Immediately after, she felt her thoughts boiling in her mind. Countless memories that did not belong to her all surged out at once, making her mind chaotic.
"Hoo... This is..."
Gritting her teeth, the girl reached out and held onto the carriage beside her, trying hard to keep herself from fainting. Just like that, amidst gasps, her chaotic mind gradually returned to calm. The stinging pain in her head gradually disappeared, and the girl... gained a set of memories that did not belong to her, or rather, the soul currently inhabiting the girl's body gained the memories of this body.
"Hoo... Hoo... So it's not a prank, it's... transmigration...?"
Continuing to gasp, the girl finally understood her current situation.
The girl's soul at this moment was a transmigrator from a modern, different world, while the girl originally belonging to this world was named Dorothy.
According to Dorothy's memories, she was an ordinary girl living in a remote village. Her father, a hunter, died unexpectedly during a hunt. Her mother disappeared after her father's death. From a young age, she and her only blood relative, her older brother, were adopted by kind people in the village, her father's relatives, Hannah Aunt and her family.
Apart from her naturally silver-white hair and crimson pupils, Dorothy was a beautiful ordinary girl. She grew up with her brother under the care of Hannah Aunt. From a young age, she was very sensible and well-behaved, often helping the adults with tasks.
Due to her naturally intelligent nature, Dorothy was sent to the Church school class in town to learn to read and write. Even in her teens, she became one of the few literate people in the village. Because of this, she often helped villagers read and write letters.
Dorothy's older brother was six years older than Dorothy. Because the village land was enclosed for raising sheep, he, along with other young people from the village, followed the trend and went to the city to work as a laborer when he was sixteen. This lasted for three years. Not long ago, Dorothy's brother wrote a letter to Dorothy in the village, saying that he had found a good job in the city and could afford to rent a decent house, so he wanted to bring Dorothy to live in the city.
Upon receiving her brother's letter, Dorothy was very happy. She immediately said goodbye to the villagers, packed her things, and got on a carriage heading to the city. However, she didn't expect that shortly after setting off, the carriage convoy she was in would encounter a bandit robbery.
On the riverbank at the bottom of the valley, rubbing her temples, Dorothy digested the memories in her mind while looking towards the steep slope beside her. Many items that had been thrown out of the carriages were still hanging on the branches of the trees on the slope. In Dorothy's memories, the convoy she was in had overturned during the bandits' pursuit, and the entire convoy had almost rolled all the way down the slope. Looking at the current situation, it seemed like no one had survived...
In Dorothy's last panicked memories, she heard the shouts of bandits and the roars of beasts. Amidst the horses' cries, the world before her eyes began to overturn. Finally, after a pain in her forehead, her memories completely stopped.
"Hoo... What a poor girl. She finally had a chance to go to the city for a good life, but she didn't expect to encounter something like this..."
Sighing, Dorothy said with emotion. Then her expression froze, and she suddenly felt that something was wrong.
"Wait... girl?!"
Suddenly, realizing the seriousness of something, Dorothy immediately reached out and probed downwards. After several attempts yielded no results, her expression became distorted.
"It's gone... it's really gone... I'm Dorothy... Dorothy is a girl, I, I've become a girl!?"
For a moment, Dorothy was completely frozen in place, her expression blank, letting the light rain fall on her.
Just then, a sound from afar pulled her consciousness back.
"Hey! Found it! The carriage rolled over there!"
"Boss! We found it!"
Hearing the unfamiliar but understandable words coming from afar, Dorothy's heart tightened. She turned her head to look in the direction of the sound, only to see scattered flickers of firelight in the dark night on the distant riverbank. Those lights were swaying and moving towards her.
It's those bandits! They found the place and came down, searching along the river towards here!
Realizing that things were not good, Dorothy immediately furrowed her brows and had no time to dwell on other issues. She quickly crouched down and hid behind a carriage.
'Not good... Those guys must have come down to look for valuables... They are all vicious bandits, I need to run quickly...'
While thinking, Dorothy observed her surroundings, trying to see where she could escape. However, unfortunately, perhaps due to the rain causing the water level to rise, the direction Dorothy could escape in was already submerged by the turbulent current. The steep slope beside her was too steep, and coupled with the slippery conditions from the rain, she couldn't climb up at all.
The only way out of here now was in the direction where the firelight flickered in the dark night. However, that was also the path the bandits were searching along. If she escaped that way, she would inevitably run into the bandits.
'Damn it... Is it a dead end?'
Realizing the danger she was in, Dorothy was instantly anxious. Just as she was considering whether to play dead on the spot to see if she could fool the bandits, a voice sounded in her mind out of thin air.
That was a strange voice, devoid of emotional fluctuation, indistinguishable between male and female, as if countless mouths were chanting together in a low voice.
"Soul integration complete... Link established..."
"Sacrifice knowledge... Grant knowledge..."
"Huh?"
Hearing the voice in her mind, Dorothy was startled. Then she shook her head and calmed her thoughts.
'What the hell is going on? What is this voice? Is it coming directly from my brain? Could this be the legendary... system... that often comes with transmigration?!'
Although a bit stunned by the sudden voice in her head, with danger looming, Dorothy quickly adjusted her thoughts, thinking about how to seize this possible opportunity to resolve the crisis.
If it really was the system commonly seen in transmigration novels, then there must be some transmigration benefits! Maybe it could be used to deal with these bandits!
Thinking this, Dorothy closed her eyes and silently prayed in her heart, attempting to communicate with the so-called "system".
'No matter who or what was just speaking in my mind... Can you grant me some kind of power?!'
Dorothy thought this, and the voice quickly responded to Dorothy, sounding again.
"Power... is knowledge... Sacrifice knowledge of this world... Acquire knowledge of a different world..."
Hearing the voice in her mind, Dorothy was startled. She thought that this power seemed to require exchange, and it required knowledge. What kind of knowledge did she have that she could exchange?
As soon as Dorothy finished thinking, the cold, strange voice immediately replied.
"Currently... this body's most valuable knowledge... is language and writing..."
"Language and writing?"
Hearing the voice's words, Dorothy thought of the memories of this body she was in. The girl born in the countryside, Dorothy, was most proud of being able to read and write. This was the result of her hard study in the intermittently held Church school class. It was the biggest difference between her and the other children in the village. In this low-level society with a high illiteracy rate, being literate was a very valuable thing.
The mastery of writing and language is naturally a kind of knowledge. Can the so-called "system" in her mind turn this knowledge into power?
Never mind! The situation is urgent now, I can only try it first!
Holding onto this thought, Dorothy thought silently in her heart.
'Offer up the language and writing I have mastered... Whatever it is, grant me the power to solve the current predicament!'
After silently repeating, Dorothy began to wait in a state of panic. After a while, the responding words appeared in her mind.
"Prite language, complete grammar, fluent mastery of 3027 vocabulary words, both reading and writing possible..."
"Using this as a contract... Exchange..."
Along with the words in her mind, Dorothy felt her head swell. Immediately after, a piece of information that did not belong to her past life, nor to the original Dorothy, was injected into her mind.
This, too, was a language...
At this moment, before Dorothy's eyes, a section of mysterious, ancient characters appeared out of thin air. These characters were strong and wild, sharp and grand, as if carved onto rock by the sharp claws of some giant beast.
"Dragon language, Way of the Roar, 3 characters..."