Ding! You have acquired the nguage ability [Pgue Language].

  ...

  In his dream, System faintly heard the sound prompt from his [Tools Menu]. Immediately after, he fell into a deep sleep, and he couldn't remember anything after that.

  Even after System woke up, he didn't find any clues after checking the video recording in the [Tools Menu]. The video up until the point where he received the notification existed, but after he fell asleep, it was all bnk.

  He shook his head, still not feeling fully awake yet. He'd slept for more than ten hours, but he didn't feel energetic. Instead, he felt like his mind was even more exhausted than before.

  The God of Pgues and Curses hadn't conveyed too much information to System. The mysterious being had only revealed his name, given System a special nguage ability, and told System to contact him again if he sought greater power.

  ...

  [Pgue Language] (2/3): The nguage ability given to System by Rafael. Provides the ability to speak, read, and write in the pgue nguage.

  ...

  Because System's body had no organs for speech, even though he'd mastered the pgue nguage, he still couldn't speak it. However, he could still communicate by writing in the pgue nguage using his tentacles.

  The words of the pgue nguage were roughly the same as the words on the bck leather book. There were only a few differences, but System could still understand it well enough.

  At the same time, he discovered that the words that had been written by the ratman wizard were different from the pgue nguage. They seem to be from a nguage that had been derived from the pgue nguage, though, and System could recognize one word out of every ten or twelve.

  However, since he could only understand about ten percent of the words, he still couldn't figure out what the book left behind by the ratman wizard was about.

  As for what the words in the bck leather-bound book and on the treasure map, System could now easily understand them all.

  The scroll featuring a treasure map that could only be seen through a magic fake eye recorded a relic where a legendary dagger was buried.

  According to the records written on the map, the map itself was a clue that had been obtained from Rafael by a pgue wizard named Narasil, who had received it in exchange for sacrificing part of himself.

  According to the text left behind by Narasil, it was likely that unknown dangers would be encountered while exploring the relic, so proper preparations needed to be made.

  System looked at the video recording of the treasure map from his [Tools Menu] for a while, but eventually gave up on the idea of treasure hunting. After all, the location of the ruins was both too far away and too dangerous. At the very least, he wouldn't go looking for it right now.

  He used his tentacles to re-read the exquisitely crafted bck leather-bound book.

  The text recorded in the book detailed how to become a worshiper of Rafael as well as how to form a connection with the god that made it possible to communicate with him.

  In fact, System had learned the method of communicating with Rafael in his sleep, which was almost the same as the method recorded in the book.

  The method of communicating with Rafael was simple, but also difficult.

  All that was necessary was to make a statue of Rafael out of certain types of materials. The statue must be created by hand and must look like the portrait in the book. The statue could either be carved from wood or chiseled from stone. The specific material wasn't too important, but the degree of accuracy must be high.

  This statue was the first step to becoming a worshiper of Rafael. If the statue wasn't made successfully, it would be impossible to open a line of communication.

  Therefore, some races with poor crafting ability could never become worshipers of Rafael in their lifetimes.

  In fact, calling these individuals worshipers wasn't entirely accurate, because Rafael had no doctrine. He would only constantly lure in believers who were willing to make exchanges for power.

  Of course, a corresponding price had to be paid for everything he gave away.

  Rafael was a completely different type of god from the God of Winter. It could be said that he was an evil god or a devil.

  In fact, even System's knowledge of [Pgue Language] was part of an exchange. However, he hadn't paid the price for this exchange yet, so it was closer to a loan. When System obtained power from Rafael again, he would need to make additional sacrifices to make up for the loan, and those sacrifices couldn't be repaid by others. The price could only be paid by sacrificing oneself.

  It could be a payment of lifespan, the limbs and organs of the body, or one's senses, such as vision and hearing. It could even be a sacrifice of one's entire life.

  This was another reason why System called Rafael a devil. He would use various means of temptation to make creatures sacrifice themselves in exchange for power.

  If System's willpower hadn't been strong enough, he might have been hypnotized by Rafael in his sleep and sacrificed himself to gain power.

  When the ratman wizard had exploded to cast that insidious curse on System, he'd done so by sacrificing his entire being to borrow Rafael's power.

  System used his tentacles to slowly close the book.

  He knew that Rafael had showed up in his dream because of the bck leather-bound book, and he also knew that he might be able to get rid of his curse by making a deal with the God of Pgues and Curses.

  However, System was very afraid of this clearly evil god.

  He extended his tentacles, wanting to tear up the bck book, but after a long time, he found himself unable to do it.

  In the end, he decided to capture a ratman first, learn the ratman nguage, and study the books that had been left behind by the ratman wizard.

  If the [Severance Curse] could be solved by using [Mental Transmission], it would be fine. If not, he could only choose to trade with this evil god.

  He had many tentacles, and even if they were cut off, he could use [Super-Speed Regeneration] to quickly grow them back. He wondered if his tentacles could be used as a sacrifice.

  He set the bck book aside. System thought about it, but finally decided not to leave the leather-bound book in the nest, so as to avoid the possibility of the book tempting him or his ant subjects.

  He quickly asked Shava to send the book back to the wizard's warren.

  ...

  System rubbed his head with his tentacles. Because of the dream sent by Rafael, he felt even more drowsy, and he soon fell asleep again.

  This time, he successfully entered the half-asleep and half-awake dormant state unique to insects, and his mind quickly recovered.

  However, his sleep didn't st long this time either, as he was soon awakened by Shava.

  As it turned out, she had finally found a ratman while carrying the bck book back to the wizard's warren, and she'd even caught it.

  The ratman had come from the direction of Lilt Forest and had been heading toward the hinternd of the Warren Pins.

  After Shava saw that there were no ordinary rats around the ratman and that it was traveling alone, she'd followed System's instructions and caught it.

  System's mandibles trembled slightly with joy and excitement.

  He decided to take revenge on the ratman first. Before interrogating the ratman, System would castrate him to avenge his hatred. After castrating the ratman, he would wrap the other party with his aphrodisiac tentacles to observe how he reacted.

  ...

  System soon arrived in front of the ratman that Shava had captured.

  This ratman was wearing tattered brown linen clothes and had been successfully paralyzed by the little meatball's paralysis poison needle.

  However, System, who was preparing to castrate this fellow, discovered that the ratman was actually a female and couldn't be castrated at all.

  When the female ratman woke up from her paralysis, System conducted an interrogation regarding the ratman nguage. After a long and difficult conversation due to the nguage barrier, he found out that the female ratman was probably illiterate.