Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 4



Only Noblemtl

Episode 4. Predation (2)

‘Predation?’

It was a word I had heard before.

Isaac remembered the explanation he had seen when creating the character.

[Innards of the Dead God: Absorbs some of the stats and characteristics of the ‘gorged’ opponent.]

Is this the effect of predation? Come to think of it, a similar message was displayed before when a group of tentacles engulfed Carlsen.

‘So does this mean that some of Carlsen’s abilities and characteristics were absorbed into my body?’

But Isaac didn’t have time to think about this in detail.

“Murzik, just… … .”

Isaac was confused and tried to ask the cat for advice. However, Murzik cursed loudly and quickly ran away without looking back.

‘I guess someone isn’t a kitten!’

“Isaac?”

Isaac felt his heart drop. The child who was sleeping right next to him, snoring, was looking at him. Isaac freaked out, wondering if he had seen the whole thing.

“Isaac… … ? “What were you eating?”

“Oh, no. “I guess Murzik came in and was eating rats.”

That’s not a complete lie. Fortunately, it seemed like Johan had woken up in his sleep because of a sound he heard. Yorhan nodded his head but soon fell back asleep.

Isaac had no idea what had happened.

‘Tentacles appeared from my hand? Did you eat a rat? ‘What’s rising?’

Isaac remembered what happened a month ago. He clearly remembered the moment he was cut by a sword, tentacles sprouting from his chest and sweeping the area. If the same thing had happened again, all the children in the room would have died, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.

‘What on earth is inside me?’

Isaac examined his palm. Unlike the scar on his chest, there was no visible sign of a protrusion from the skin on his left hand. Like a dream.

However, a message window appeared as if telling me to wake up from a dream.

[Hand of Chaos]

[Basic ability that nameless members of chaos can use. Summons irregularly shaped tentacles to bite the enemy. Becomes stronger in proportion to physical strength and faith.]

“… … .”

Each faith has basic skills. Just as the Code of Light has the ability to create light and fire, and the Golden Idol has the ability to obtain advice by offering money, tentacles were the most basic skill possessed by the Nameless Chaos Faith.

‘Of course… … ‘Maybe.’

Once Isaac realized it was a skill, he felt better. It is better to understand it in a game-like way than to have an unknown monster inside your body.

But Isaac realized that he was no longer hungry.

‘No, no way. ‘I guess not.’

Isn’t it the tentacle that ate the rat, not you?

Isaac lay in bed, trying not to accept what was happening before his eyes.

***

I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep well after something like that happened, but I was able to sleep well. My 14-year-old’s body was honest about its need for sleep. Even though she didn’t want to admit it, she fell asleep easily because she was reasonably full.

The next day, Isaac was troubled again. It was a tentacle issue, it was about the world, it was a values ​​issue, but it was all connected as a whole.

‘How can I continue to win and survive?’

fragile body.

A lineage shunned by the gods.

A believer who would be killed if caught.

Tentacles that pop out at any opportunity.

Among them, the most problematic thing is faith itself.

Isaac doesn’t know much about nameless chaos. However, when you wander around the outskirts of Nameless Chaos, quests like this sometimes pop up. An ominous and gloomy area, with a suspicious atmosphere and people going missing. When a horror movie-like directing begins, ‘it’ will most likely appear.

Tentacle monsters.

Monsters like the one that came out of Isaac’s body.

Such beings were treated as ‘special quests’ that had to be unconditionally defeated, no matter what faith one chose.

‘This… … You must never get caught.’

If you are caught, you will be hanged and burned at the stake.

Isaac now imagined the gentle monks crucifying him, burning him, stoning him, or throwing him into all the horrible medieval torture devices.

[Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

And whether Isaac was shivering or not, Nameless Chaos was watching him with interest.

There are many challenges.

Although he could survive by hiding somewhere if he did whatever he could, Isaac didn’t want to hide in a cave and live like a savage.

He was the master of this game. He didn’t want to do it because he thought he would lose in an ugly way.

What he thought about was always the ‘conditions for victory.’

I still don’t know what the victory conditions are, but I had to survive for now.

‘First of all, if you want to go out and avoid being a guest, you have to prepare yourself first.’

But how? It is impossible to go to the warehouse and steal meat.

It’s a good thing I have some meat to steal.

“Little one, where does it hurt?”

Isaac turned his head at the voice he heard at that time.

Isaac realized that he had been working in the fields. And that the hand that was digging up his potatoes was digging in the wrong place.

When he turned his head, a man with a bushy beard and a grim look, different from the other monks, was looking down at him. Isaac searched his memories and quickly remembered who he was.

Gebel.

He was a man who was not a monk, but was somehow living in a monastery. He did not study the scriptures or pray, but he seemed to spend his days as a monk doing hard work and hunting at the monastery. Perhaps because there was a rumor that he was a deserter, all the children were afraid of him.

And for some reason, he often gave Isaac an observing look. Thanks to this, Isaac was also secretly on guard, but when I suddenly spoke to him, he became nervous.

‘huh?’

Then Isaac discovered something on Gebel’s body.

It was certain. What Gebel was wearing on his waist was the belt worn by the Holy Knights. It looked like nothing more than rags, but there was no doubt that it belonged to a paladin.

‘Are you really a deserter? No, a paladin deserter?’

Looking back at Isaac’s memories, a paladin is a profession that is treated on par with nobles and is socially respected. There are a lot of demands, but I am not in a position to walk around like a beggar like that. If it is a stolen item, it is too dangerous to show off.

It seemed likely that he had already been discharged from the military or was temporarily entrusted to a monastery.

‘No, wait. Paladin? ‘A paladin.’

Something flashed in Isaac’s mind. At that moment, a man’s voice sounded as if he was interrupted from his thoughts.

“Seeing you dazed, I guess I’ll have to tell the monk that you’re being lazy.”

Gebel muttered mischievously. For now, Isaac hastily froze.

“Nothing much. Please take a look.”

“You’re a kid with a weird way of speaking. But don’t squat. “I almost got kicked.”

Gebel snorted and passed by Isaac. At that time, a familiar fishy smell passed through Isaac’s nose.

Isaac asked, pointing to Gebel’s basket.

“Is that a rat by any chance?”

“huh? How did you know? Because the rats are so aggressive, I have been trapping and catching them for the past few days. “It would be difficult to waste all the food in the winter.”

Gebel laughed mischievously and clattered down a basket full of rat carcasses at Isaac. It may have been an attempt to scare him, but instead of running away screaming, Isaac just stared at the basket. It was Gebel who was embarrassed.

“It’s a bit of a waste. Autumn mice are plump and perfect for grilling and eating… … .”

“Can you eat mice too?”

When Isaac asked with a twinkle in his eye, Gebel laughed as if it were absurd.

“No, the Code of Light prohibits eating rats, saying they are creatures of darkness that carry disease. Well, even if it were, I wouldn’t be in a position to be judged on the battlefield. But the monks will care.”

It’s a legal reason rather than a hygienic reason. Isaac doesn’t care about the law anyway. I’m a little concerned about germs, but anyway, if you use other means than eating with your mouth… … .

Isaac asked, looking straight at Gebel.

“Can I clean it up?”

“Clean it up?”

Gebel looked at Isaac with strange eyes. Isaac didn’t know why he was looking at him like that. He said that both children and adults hate work. You might be surprised that he said he would step forward and do the work, but there was something different in Gebel’s eyes.

“hmm… … Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. The hole has already been dug, so all you have to do is bury it. “Even kids can do that.”

Gebel narrowed his eyes and asked.

“You’re not planning on playing around with a rat corpse, are you? “If you hear of someone messing around with a rat carcass somewhere in the monastery, you will be beaten.”

“That won’t happen.”

Gebel looked at Isaac intently and muttered.

“I won’t tell Brother Alec. The hole is over there. “Don’t forget to sprinkle lye on the body before burying it.”

Gebel left the basket he had put down and went back.

From this brief conversation, Isaac became convinced of Gebel’s identity.

‘It’s a Holy Knight. I think his status was quite high… … .’

Currently, the only place in this world that can be called a ‘battlefield’ to the point where people around it are starving is the border between the Immortal Church and the Holy Land.

When I suspected that he might be a paladin, I began to understand the attitude of the other monks. Although he was just a handyman, he showed an attitude of being subtly observant and intentionally not talking to him. I thought he was too stubborn to talk to me, but I could understand it if the former Paladin was hiding his identity on purpose.

Isaac remembered this for now and thought about how to use it later.

‘But that’s not something to worry about now.’

Isaac almost dragged the basket full of rat carcasses in the direction Gebel pointed. As he said, there was a fairly deep hole. All you have to do is pour the rat carcass into this, pour in lye, and bury it with soil.

Isaac first checked that there was no one around. It’s not that there aren’t places to hide and watch, but I was able to cover them well with my body.

And soon I fell into one final worry.

‘Can I really eat this?’

Is there anything that can’t be done? Historically, there are many cases of eating rat meat. In France, there were even menus and recipes made with rat meat.

There was also concern as to whether tentacles would appear again. What happened then was just a coincidence, and there is no way something like that would happen again.

Of course, I had no intention of secretly eating the rat unless tentacles appeared. But as if there was no need to worry, a tentacle burst out from the palm and swallowed the mouse in the hand.

Crunch, crack.

[It preyed on ‘field mice.’]

[The ‘predation’ perk increases intake efficiency.]

[Resistance to low-level diseases increases.]

[The blessing will remain until it is digested.]

Isaac looked at the tentacle with dumbfounded eyes. This time, rather than being scared, I felt like I was feeding a pet.

“Okay, eat it. eat. “Eat it all.”

Isaac muttered, half giving up.

First of all, I had no choice but to use him in order to survive. This is the only way to supplement protein in this poor monastery.

I just hoped that Gebel would never dig this hole again.

***

Isaac thought about Gebel, or more accurately, the paladin.

God clearly exists in this world, and he shares his power with his followers. The pinnacle and power that rules the world all come from God.

Monks routinely performed miracles, big or small, from lighting a candle to heating water. Of course, it was not for daily convenience but for practice, but even greater miracles than this were recorded in the book as if it were natural.

Stop the sun and burn down enemy cities for a week, blind heretics who practiced blasphemy, or summon an apostle of God made of light to hear a message.

Of course, the power of priests and paladins was bound to be enormous.

‘Both are Tier 1 jobs in the Nameless Chaos world.’

Priest is also good, but Isaac’s low stamina is a problem. However, the Paladin had many survival opportunities. If you think that it is a one-and-only life that cannot be retried, Isaac was strongly attracted to the story of survival.

Moreover, with the Nephilim’s high religious ability, a paladin could use the same abilities as a priest.

‘The problem is that this is the Monastery of the Code of Light… … .’

tentacle.

This guy’s tentacles were the problem.