At the bottom of the valley in the dark night, the river water still rushed forward without stopping, the sound of the flowing water echoing through the narrow space, and on the river bank, several points of Light were swaying forward.
On the dark river bank, there were four men walking in the rain with Lights. Three were in front, dressed in rough cloth clothes and pants soaked with rain, all in their twenties or thirties, holding a gas Light in one hand and knives and clubs in the other. They were almost all stout, with tattoos on their arms where their sleeves were rolled up.
Behind the three, was a man dressed much better. He wore a dark red suit jacket, black trousers, and an inner jacket. His face was pale, his face was long and thin, his eye sockets were deep, his nose was hooked, his brown hair was short, and his eyes revealed a coldness. He was holding an umbrella for himself.
Beside the man, two strange hounds followed on his left and right. They had almost no fur or ears, their dark red flesh was directly exposed, and their bodies were lean and tall, reaching about to the man's knees. But they were all skin and bones, presenting a deformed appearance, completely unlike normal dogs.
The man's name was Edrick, and he was a bandit... no, to be precise, he should be the gang boss of the nearby Wokan Town, known as "Strange Dog Ed".
Ed was insidious and ruthless, the local tyrant of Wokan Town. No one in the town didn't fear him. Relying on two strange hounds of unknown origin, Ed had risen to a very high position in gang fights. His two strange hounds were fierce and comparable to wild beasts, and they seemed unable to die no matter how injured they were, which made his opponents and even his subordinates fear them.
Strictly speaking, Ed, as a gang boss, wouldn't normally do something as blatant as directly attacking a caravan, but this attack was due to some special circumstances.
He needed to obtain something from that caravan.
"Captain, I see the Light, they are overturned up ahead!"
At this time, the subordinate walking at the very front of Ed reported after looking ahead a few times. Hearing his subordinate's report, Ed nodded, then spoke coldly.
"Continue, hopefully the target didn't fall into the river..."
After that, Ed, his three subordinates, and his two hounds walked along the river bank all the way. Soon, they arrived at the location where the carriage caravan had overturned.
The bodies of people and horses, along with the carriages, were scattered on the river bank. It was because of their pursuit that the caravan had suffered such a calamity.
Arriving at the scene of the accident, Ed glanced at the tragic sight before him, then spoke to his subordinates, giving orders.
"Search separately, remember, it's a white-haired girl about thirteen years old. Find her whether she's dead or alive, preferably alive..."
"Yes, Captain!"
After Ed finished giving orders, his three subordinates immediately split up and began to examine the surrounding bodies and check the situation in the overturned carriages. Ed, meanwhile, stood still with his umbrella and his hounds, supervising his subordinates.
Ed's subordinates were gradually inspecting the scene. Since they were all gang members, they greedily picked up various valuables during this process, even directly searching the bodies and taking away everything of value. Seeing this situation with his subordinates, Ed let out a cold reprimand.
"Forget about the rest! Find the target first! If you don't want to be fed to the dogs, hurry up!"
Hearing Ed's reprimand, the subordinates all stopped their body-searching actions. Some of them glanced at Ed behind them with complaining eyes, but after seeing the two strange hounds, they turned their heads back in fear.
They all knew that Ed was irresistible, or rather, his hounds were irresistible.
They were simply the hounds of demons, definitely not normal creatures!
With fear, Ed's subordinates continued their search. Gradually, two of the subordinates searched the farthest carriage. This carriage was overturned on the sloping river bank, almost falling into the river. Fortunately, a rein barely held it back. The horse's body attached to the rein was stuck between two Stones not far away.
The two gang members climbed onto the overturned carriage to look inside, and then their eyes lit up. They saw that there were many coins and jewelry under the seats inside the carriage, and in large quantities!
Seeing this situation, the greedy subordinates who couldn't restrain themselves glanced at Ed in the distance. Seeing that he wasn't looking at them at the moment, they quickly reached their hands into the carriage to try and pick up the money, but the money's position was too difficult to reach, so they couldn't get it. Therefore, the gang members began to scramble to squeeze into the narrow carriage, wanting to get everything out.
And at this moment, behind the horse's body not far away, a pair of red eyes was staring at this scene.
Seeing that the prey had taken the bait, the white-haired girl reached out and pulled out a dagger she had picked up earlier on the ground, and cut down at the rein pulling the carriage. A cut had been made in the rein beforehand, so the girl easily cut the entire rein.
"Ahhh!!"
The carriage, losing its pulling force, immediately slid down the sloping river bank into the turbulent river. The two gang members who were squeezing into the carriage had no time to react, and with screams, they slid into the turbulent river with the carriage. Along with them were the valuables that Dorothy had collected beforehand and put into the carriage as bait.
People die for wealth. Dorothy didn't believe that a group of bandits wouldn't be tempted by so much money!
"Beck! Wood!"
The gang members' screams attracted the attention of others. Another gang member saw the carriage and his companions enter the water and immediately ran to the river bank to see if he could rescue them. And at this moment, Dorothy, who was still hiding, saw an opportunity.
"Hey!"
Without a word, Dorothy rushed out directly, charging towards the gang member who was standing on the river bank with his back to her, and slammed fiercely into his lower back. Although not an adult, in the case of an unprepared back attack, Dorothy was enough to make someone lose balance...
"Ah!"
With another cry of surprise, the gang member by the river was hit by Dorothy, lost his balance, and fell face first into the river. He was swept away by the turbulent river water along with his previous companions, and Dorothy also managed to regain her balance in a stumble.
Three are gone... so next...
Trying hard to suppress the surging fear in her heart, Dorothy looked along the river bank into the distance. There, Ed was watching everything that had suddenly happened with annoyance.
"Where did this brat come from... how dare you..."
Ed, witnessing his subordinates being tricked, gritted his teeth and drew a revolver from his waist, aiming it at the girl less than ten meters in front of him. Just as he, full of anger, was about to shoot, he saw the girl's figure in the dim Light.
"A white-haired girl..."
Seeing this situation, Ed couldn't help but pause, abandoning the idea of shooting, and then ordered the hounds beside him.
"Subdue that brat for me!"
Following Ed's command, the two deformed hounds dashed out, charging towards the girl in front at high speed, preparing to knock her down and subdue her.
Facing the hounds roaring in the rain, Dorothy had no intention of escaping. She held her breath and focused, facing the threat coming towards her, and slowly spoke.
Then, what came out of Dorothy's mouth were low, long, ancient syllables as if from a distant time and space.
"—Fus—"
At this moment, the word emitted by this small body was like a war drum being fiercely beaten on the battlefield, shaking the air, whipping the strong wind, and the ancient language from another world caused a strange phenomenon.
A powerful invisible impact rushed out from Dorothy, scattering the rain, and directly sending the two hounds that were coming towards her flying. Even Ed, who was standing in the distance, was affected. He was shaken and lost his balance, his feet slipped, and he fell to the ground, and his revolver also slipped out of his hand as a result.
Seeing this situation, Dorothy took a step forward like an arrow, picked up the fallen revolver, held it tightly with both hands, and aimed it at Ed who was struggling to get up.
Raising his head, Ed saw the dark muzzle of the gun aimed at him. Panic showed in his cold expression, and then he quickly spoke.
"Wait! I didn't..."
"Bang!"
Having no intention of listening to the bandit leader in front of her explain anything, Dorothy directly pulled the trigger. As the cylinder rotated and the hammer struck, flames spewed from the muzzle of the revolver, and the bullet exiting the barrel flew forward, piercing Ed's chest at close range.
Then, this gang boss fell down in response with his eyes wide open, meeting death in a way he had never imagined before.
"Hoo... hoo..."
Sitting on the ground, shaken by the recoil, Dorothy looked at the fallen man in front of her, panting heavily, her gun-holding hands trembling unconsciously. Her heart was surging violently. No matter how forced the situation was, the first time she fired a gun, the first time she killed someone, was not something she could adapt to immediately.
'Hoo... you killed this whole carriage of people, you killed Dorothy... this is well-deserved death...'
Comforting herself in this way, Dorothy supported her trembling body and slowly stood up. Then she touched her throat with one hand, recalling the ancient words that had caused a strange phenomenon just by being spoken.
She knew what those words were?
That was the Way of the Voice, the Dragon Language used by Dragons in a game she had played before called "The Elder Scrolls", which contained powerful power! It was a Dragon Roar!
What Dorothy had just uttered was the most classic Dragon Roar in the game, the first word of Unloading Force, which is "Fus", meaning "Force".
The Shout of the Dragon, this was a language powerful enough even when spoken as a single word. In the world of "The Elder Scrolls", Dragons used this as a weapon for fighting, every battle was a destructive "war of words". Besides Dragons and gods, only exceptionally talented mortals and Dragonborn could master such a language.
Undoubtedly, this was an incredibly powerful language, and such a language, with just 3 characters, required Dorothy to exchange it for the Prit common language she had learned over many years, with over 3000 words...
At this point, Dorothy also roughly understood what the ability she had gained with her transmigration was.
That was...
Trading knowledge for knowledge.
Using the knowledge of this world to exchange for the knowledge of another world...