MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 653 Four Pillars: Breaking the Language Barrier

Though the Sapient Oneʼs response was concise, it still brought a great amount of surprise to Valyr as his eyes widened in slight disbelief.

Feeling a great amount of excitement welling up inside him as many questions began to linger in his mind, the young man took in a few deep breaths all of a sudden to compose himself.

Then, letting out a long and drawn-out sigh, he looked at the Sapient One once more before asking a question. ”Can you really understand me?”

Even though Valyr was incredibly glad to find out that he did not need to rely on the system to talk with the being in front of him, it only dawned upon him after calming down that he had not spoken a word of his language in front of the Sapient One before starting the conversation.

With that in mind, the young man found it quite odd that the being knew of the language, causing him to wonder.

ʼDoes the Sapient One really know how to speak the language through a language skill? Or is it achieving it through other means?ʼ

Hearing Valyrʼs question, the Sapient One went silent for a bit before wryly smiling.

With a slight nod, it then responded, ”I can, but not everything.”

Then, as if it already had an idea of the question forming in Valyrʼs mind, it continued, ”Iʼm using a very strong skill to talk with you. It consumes a lot of my mana.”

”I see.” At those words, Valyr faintly nodded, recalling a certain type of skill he had come across in the past.

Though language skills were the ideal method in being able to communicate with other species and races, utilizing the system wasnʼt the only other method one had access to if they wanted to achieve something similar.

Being more expensive to use compared to language skills, though a skill of such type cost a lot of mana per usage, translation skills offered a relatively similar level of flexibility in communication when compared to language skills.

An upside to owning a translation skill rather than a language skill was the fact that one wouldnʼt be limited to a certain language. 

By paying the price of mana, a considerable number of languages could be translated, depending on the rarity and level of the translation skill owned.

It was also incredibly convenient as a tool if one would only have to talk with other races for a short while in order to complete a task or a quest.

However, as a downside, translation skills did not offer the same level of understanding that language skills could give a person, leading to many incidents of misunderstandings between two races over a few mundane statements.

Aside from that, translation skills consumed a personʼs mana with every word translated, needing one to replenish their mana every once in a while if they were engaging in long conversations.

”Would it be a problem with you if we continued talking like this?” Feeling like their conversation would be cut short because the Sapient One had run out of mana, Valyr suggested another method of communication to the being.

”We could talk through the system if youʼd like,” said the young man.

Surprisingly, after hearing Valyrʼs suggestion, the Sapient One briefly had a repulsed expression on its face as it shook his head. ”No need. I have a way to fix it.”

”Wait here.” After saying those words, the Sapient One stood up from its seat as it leisurely made its way to another part of the space.

Watching the Sapient One arrive in front of a pile that looked to be made out of scrap metal parts, Valyr raised his eyebrow in curiosity once he saw the being retrieve an item that reminded him of the vintage computer monitors in his past life.

Though, unlike those monitors, the item the Sapient One brought along had a lot of gears and tubes running along its sides. 

On top of that, what looked to be a series of microphones and speakers could be found on the itemʼs top portion.

Placing the item it had grabbed onto the chair it was previously sitting on, the Sapient One made yet another trip back to the pile, grabbing what looked to be a nondescript block of metal that had a cable attached to it.

Examining the itemʼs shape for quite some time, Valyr eventually felt something click in his mind as his eyes widened in realization.

ʼIs that… a power bank?ʼ

Curious as to whether his guess was correct or not, the young man watched the Sapient One return with the item, attaching the cable onto the monitor-looking item it had carried earlier.

Then, flicking on what seemed to be a switch on the backside of the monitor-looking item, Valyr and the Sapient One watched as the gears and tubes on its sides gradually came to life as the black screen on the front gradually gave off light.

ʼSo, it is a power bank.ʼ Having his guess be confirmed, Valyr softly nodded as he ignored how anachronistic the two items were in comparison to the Sapient Oneʼs appearance.

Then, focusing his attention on the lit-up screen, the young man watched as a series of characters appear on it, all of which were incomprehensible to him.

Eventually, after scrolling through a plethora of characters for quite some time, the screen stopped on a few sets of characters, prompting the Sapient One to look at Valyr. ”Could you talk for a bit?”

Hearing the beingʼs words, Valyr stared for a bit as the Sapient One pointed at the monitor-looking item.

Though he had a faint idea as to what was going on, he began to scratch the back of his head. ”What do you want me to say?”

Whirr…

As if the monitor-looking item had received an input, the gears and tubes on the itemʼs sides began to move with even greater fervor as the characters that had become fixed on the screen earlier gradually disappeared.

Instead, the screen returned to how it was earlier, going through a plethora of characters that Valyr could not make heads or tails of what it meant.

However, unlike earlier, incomprehensible sounds began to emit out of the speakers on the top of the item while it was happening, prompting the Sapient One to put up its ears close to them.

Hearing the sounds being emitted by the speakers, Valyr felt as if his earlier thoughts of the monitor-looking item seemed to have been mistaken.

Then again, as more and more time passed, the sounds gradually became more comprehensible to him, causing his eyes to widen in great disbelief.

ʼMachine learning?ʼ muttered Valyr to himself, briefly gazing at the Sapient One continuing to put up its ears near the box.

Though machine learning meant another thing entirely to the young manʼs knowledge, Valyr felt like the term was the most fitting for what was currently happening, getting a faint grasp of what the monitor-looking item was doing.

ʼIf Iʼm correct in my assumptions… the item took my words as input, broke it down to its most basic parts, and then gradually rebuilt the language from there.ʼ

As the thought came to mind, multiple other questions began to surface, such as how something that looked more steampunk than futuristic was able to do such a thing, or how the item would be able to infer an entire language if it did not have a database as reference.

In the end, he threw out all of those thoughts from his head.

After all, the item the Sapient One was using was strong proof that the civilization that used to live on the city ruins on the surface was more advanced than he initially thought.

Ding!

After emitting sounds for what felt like thirty minutes straight, the monitor-looking item eventually emitted a sound that reminded Valyr of the system as a set of characters appeared on its screen.

Taking a brief look at it, the Sapient One faintly nodded and flicked the switch on the itemʼs backside off before unplugging the cable from the power bank.

Then, after bringing both of the items back to the pile they came from, the being returned to its seat and took in a deep breath, staring at Valyr for a bit as it seemed to be thinking about the first words it would say.

”H-hello.” Eventually, after a minute of silence, the Sapient One mustered up its courage and opened its mouth to speak in a slightly shaky voice. ”C-can you understand what Iʼm saying?”

”I can.” Though he had already expected their current situation to happen with what he had just witnessed, Valyrʼs eyes still briefly widened in surprise as he nodded in response.

”I… apologize for not being able to talk in greater depth earlier.” Faintly smiling at the young manʼs words, the Sapient One took in a deep breath before beginning to speak in a way that made it seem like it had known the language ever since it was born.

”The size of my mana pool is quite limited, which is why I could only give you brief responses,” said the Sapient One, to which Valyr replied that there is no problem.

”In any case, now that we could talk with one another without having to worry about any language barriers, let me properly introduce myself.” Standing up from its seat, the Sapient One looked at Valyr with a smile before giving him a brief half-bow.

”In this place, I am known by the people by many titles.”

”The One Who Gave Solace. The Lightbringer. The Peopleʼs Hope. The Great Leader.”

”Though most call me the Sapient One.” At these words, the Sapient One let out a chuckle. ”However, since youʼre the first human from the surface Iʼve seen in so many years, and such titles are frivolous in front of someone unaffected by it…”

”You can call me Ryvrthe.”