The horse that Toka has saved dragged both Ansu and Toka behind bushes for their safety. Toka of course, had no idea...because he was like a dead fish
...
THREE HOURS LATER
The sky turned into orange evening.
Toka softly opened one eye… then the other— wink, wink.
Immediately, Neelu bounced onto his chest -
BLOP! BLOP! BLOP!
Ansu, who had been dragging Toka's heavy bags with her tiny strength, froze "A-Anna! You woke up!"
she rushed to him with a piece of bread and a waterskin, with some added tears in her eyes.Neelu continued bouncing towards the massacre site proudly to show them what he had done.
Apparently, while Toka and Ansu both were asleep, Neelu had dissolved all the blood and gore in the clearing turning it into a safe spot from wild creatures from the forest.
Toka finished eating the bread but he still felt weak. Then he doubted "Why am I still on low battery? Didn't I just eat…?"
He suddenly thought of energy drinks and took out a light-blue potion and gulped it down.
Energy was slightly spreading through his body "Ohhh… that's hit the spot."
Then he drank another one, Energy flooded in and-
His stomach gave up "OH NO—NONONO—MOVE!!!"
He ran behind a bush while sticking his hands tightly to his buttocks, and completed the course.
Ansu tried not to laugh at her anna but she failed "Pfft—HAHAHAHA!"
Toka returned to the massacre clearing while wiping his sweat and turned to Ansu "Don't. Say. A. word."
Once lightly recovered and body brimming with full of energy he looked at the books he looted earlier and a thought struck in his mind "Maybe I can exchange these for their knowledge…"
Then next thing come to his mind was making the clothes earlier drained him badly. So he decided to use a new method this time.
The gears whirred followed by Robotic voice [Equivalent Exchange… activated.]
He drew the Exchange circle, placed the books in the first circle and also added a Light-blue bottle as the energy source this time to not become like a dead dry fish like last time.
He placed his hands on the arrow and released mana to the circle while thinking "I want the knowledge from these books… for both Ansu and me."
The books trembled then-
FWOOSH!
They burst into Runes that floated in the air above the second circle.
SAKSAKSAKSAK—!!
like bullet, these runes forced straight into Toka's head.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!"
A great load of knowledge surged into his brain all at once-letters, formulas, symbols, diagrams—everything crammed into his skull, with that sudden surge of knowledge he had gotten a sharp headache.
His vision went black. His skull felt like it was cracking from the inside, he clenched his teeth "Nnghh—! I… can't—!!"
He forced his last bit of willpower into holding against the pain and just like that -
-the pain is gone.
Toka collapsed forward, panting heavily, his vision blurred, he blinked rapidly.
Slowly… slowly… His view became clear. A tree, Leaves, The books—still lying inside the first circle.
And then "Ansu"
She looked scared but unharmed, Toka exhaled in relief "Thank god… she's fine…"
Thak!
a pebble hit him on the forehead.
Ouch ouch ouch!! Toka felt pain.
Ansu took another stone to attack again and froze after seeing toka being normal and said "A-Anna… I was checking if you turned into a monster…"
For Toka it felt like Déjà vu...That was what he did to test Neelu.
Toka froze and said "Even if I turned into monster, I won't eat your meat! I'll just feed on some grass than you ...okay"
He sighed "Great… karma really works super fast."
He rubbed his forehead and picked up one book form the first circle.He flipped through the pages of the book—
He was shocked that he could read everything in the book perfectly. It was like the information had always known to him.
A thought struck him in his mind "…Display status."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then runes popped out on his forearms—this time he could read them clearly-
[Name: Toka
Age: 20 Level: 3
Class: -
Skills: Equivalent Exchange (X)
Stats:
Strength-E Dexterity-E Stamina-D Intelligence-C Wisdom-F Charisma-B]
Toka stared at those letters while blinking "Okay… so I'm not completely useless trash. Only useless trash."
He thought for a moment because something is bothering him "Why didn't Ansu get any of the knowledge from the Exchange? I specifically thought 'for both of us'…"
He thought about it again and again but nothing made sense.
"It's better she didn't if so, she might've fainted or may be dead already...but still… something feels fishy."
...
Night was approaching slowly...Cold air was creeping in,
Toka hurried and tossed a few metal scraps and dry branches into the first exchange circle and injected mana into the arrow while thinking about Flint and steel.
FWOOOOOOOOOSH—
They unraveled into glowing light, then turned into a flint and steel set.
Next, he gathered the leftover fruits, placed them in the circle, and thought "Some jam would be nice…" so they could spread it in the bread and eat.
SWIRLLLLLL-
A swirl of shimmering liquid spun inside the second circle, forming a few jars of fruit jam—sweet, thick, and smelling oddly professional.
A few meters away from the…massacre site is perfect for their camp
While eating bread, he stared at the identity plates he'd gotten earlier.
The first :
[ Bison Adventurer Guild
Name: Toka
Age: 20
Rank: Bronze ]
The second:
[ Bison Adventurer Guild
Name: Ansu
Age: 9
Adventurer Rank: - ]
Toka was shocked "They resonate with users energy??? Haa!!"
He remembered how they sucked out nearly all his energy earlier.
His brow twitched "So that's why it sucked me dry?! What the fu*k"
He let out a groan while thinking to cancel his bicycle plan because he had a horse and… a path that may lead to a human civilization rather than to a danger.
But he still needed transport, he rummaged through the pile of scavenged weapons, Broken swords, Bent shields, Rusty daggers.
"Alright… it's time for some recycling magic."
He used the energy-saving trick he learned before when knowledge Exchange— and only exchanged exactly enough energy bottles into the exchange to avoid fainting again.
One light-blue potion and One blue potion are all left in the total 15 set.
Everything else he poured into the circles with the all broken things and some metal scarps and some wooden logs and broken wagon parts.
Weapons are all dissolved into small molecules and formed Metal bars ,Metal stretched, folded, shaped. Wood turned into pieces and formed to planks.
In the second circle, items appeared falling one after another-
CLANK KANK CHANK THAK CLANK KANK CHANK THAK
-9 swords
-7 solid shields
-2 sharp daggers
-Cart materials (wheels, axles, nails, wooden panels)
-Camping gear ( ropes, cooking set, jars and mugs)
Finally it stopped when Toka felt like a dried sunfish. He collapsed backward "…Yep. I'm dry. Completely dry."
Neelu bounced worriedly, Ansu fanned him with a leaf "anna! anna don't do magic again"
Toka raised a thumbs up shaking his hands slowly "It's ok! don't worry about me...I'm only doing this for our sake"
Then suddenly, he went to Trance, their everything is black.
Then a mouth came in front of him suddenly and warned " don't play out of rules kid!!!! Follow ... the ...Rules..."
Then he came back from the trance, he was sweating all over his body and bleeding from his nose and he froze that he can't able to process anything now.
Ansu asked "anna...what happened anna??" while crying, Neelu is jumping hurriedly as it worrying about Toka, that Horse is watching them from afar.
Toka isn't listening to anyone and can't able to, because he is only thinking about that warning.