Episode 15. Inquisitor (1)
In truth, carrying firewood was closer to labor than proper exercise. But muscles built through labor like this were closer to practical combat muscles than muscles built merely for show. Muscles that only looked good tended to hinder movement and easily lacked endurance.
“Hmm…….”
Gebel tapped here and there on Isaac’s body, checking.
“Why do you ask?”
In the meantime, Isaac, having caught his breath, asked.
“Your breathing recovery has gotten faster, and the speed at which you’re building muscle is extraordinary. Yet you swing a heavy axe around with ease, but tremble complaining that a few pieces of firewood are heavy. I just can’t pin you down.”
“……I don’t really know either.”
Gebel didn’t particularly suspect anything. He was already convinced that Isaac was a Sacred Body, so there was little reason to doubt. He was merely curious about the conditions under which Isaac displayed the monstrous strength of a Sacred Body.
But Gebel was now focusing on a different point.
“It’s not a problem. The speed at which you’re building stamina is incredible. Astonishing, even. To think muscles would build to this extent in just a week.”
To Isaac, there was little difference, but to Gebel, he looked different.
*It must be thanks to the tentacles.*
[**Dead God’s Entrails** / Absorbs a portion of the stats and traits of a devoured target.]
[**Flesh Storage** / Until the devoured target is digested, regeneration speed increases drastically.]
**Flesh Storage** was an ability that drastically increased healing speed in exchange for rapidly digesting the devoured target. And this applied even to his body, exhausted after a full day of stamina training.
The way muscles grew was as follows. First, exercise destroyed muscle tissue. Then, as the muscle healed, it became bigger and tougher than before.
Repeating this process created bigger and harder muscles, but thanks to the Flesh Storage ability, Isaac could perform bolder and more strenuous exercises without fear of injury.
As a result, Isaac’s muscle growth had accelerated.
Furthermore, since the **Dead God’s Entrails** drastically increased that efficiency, his body couldn’t help but improve visibly.
Isaac was pleased to hear Gebel’s evaluation.
*Good, good. I feel like I’m finally starting to enjoy some of the benefits of coming to another world.*
Everything was going smoothly.
He received physical training from Gebel, who was a former vice-captain of the Holy Knight Order, and learned miracles and sacred hymns from the Abbot.
Isaac was confident that if things continued like this, he would be able to enjoy an incomparably stable life. The Abbot didn’t suspect him either, and was pushing him hard to become a paladin—what was there to worry about?
He just had to rise through the ranks within the order, then lead the Dawn Army and reclaim the holy land.
***
Time passed quickly.
Isaac spent his days under the full support of the Abbot and Gebel’s guidance.
In between, he carried out missions for the Nameless Chaos and grew the tentacles’ abilities. Using tentacles inside the monastery was still dangerous, but Isaac had been walking a tightrope.
The nutritional supply received through the tentacles and Gebel’s swordsmanship instruction created a marvelous synergy, so Isaac’s skills improved by leaps and bounds day after day.
Thus, the third winter came that Isaac greeted with his own body.
It was a winter that arrived somewhat more harshly than he had expected.
The forest surrounding the monastery was submerged in white by snowflakes that began falling earlier than ever before. But thanks to Gebel and Isaac having prepared diligently for winter throughout late autumn, the monastery was in a much sturdier state of winter readiness than before.
Amidst the fluttering snow, Isaac stood in the monastery’s backyard with his sword raised above his head.
Two years of training had brought great changes to his body. Muscles had attached themselves to his formerly chopstick-like limbs, giving him a decent appearance, and his face was beginning to show the signs of a youthful young man. Though he still gave a slender impression, it was outstanding growth compared to before.
Instead of swinging the sword, Isaac simply held it aloft for a long time, beads of sweat forming all over his body. Despite not swinging the blade once, snowflakes melted from the heat radiating off him before they could even touch him.
Soon, Isaac’s eyes flashed.
Before he even thought to swing, the sword moved.
The blade’s trajectory fell sharply.
Whoosh! A sharp sound of splitting wind rang out, and the snow piled around him was swept away. Only then did Isaac explosively exhale. Sweat poured down like rain a moment later.
*This seems to be the limit my stamina allows.*
The cursed blood trait of the Nephilim had hampered Isaac throughout his sword training. But he had been able to grow his stamina considerably through the Predator trait, so he could compensate to some extent.
*Is this the limit of the Nephilim race’s stamina? The racial wall is higher than I thought.*
He didn’t know exactly what level this was. But to gain greater strength and endurance than this, he would need to look for magical means or miracles.
*If I learned advanced swordsmanship, I could cover everything with this level of stamina, but…….*
Isaac felt he had reached the limit of the swordsmanship he could demonstrate. Despite never having learned it from Gebel, he could already glimpse the realm beyond. That *realm beyond* was not merely a feeling but something measurable in numbers.
Isaac’s gaze turned toward the empty air.
[**Low-Rank Paladin Swordsmanship Proficiency (Lv 99) (999999/999999)**]
[**Requirements not met. Next stage cannot be unlocked.**]
After being permitted to hold a sword, Isaac had trained in swordsmanship without missing a single day. It had been long enough to fully digest Kalsen Miller, who had been in his belly. Performing the movements accurately gave far more experience than simply doing them many times.
Thanks to that, Isaac’s skills had grown by leaps and bounds, and he had already succeeded in filling his swordsmanship training gauge to the brim.
But that was already half a year ago.
Whenever Isaac tried to head toward the *realm beyond,* his body instinctively stopped right before it.
Because he was too exhausted, or because he was certain his body wouldn’t endure it.
*Advanced swordsmanship…… it’s probably something like a skill.*
In Nameless Chaos, *swordsmanship* was classified as a skill, like magic or miracles. The variety was small, but it was undeniably a different category of *skill.*
Just as mages used mana and priests received miracles in exchange for worship, swordsmanship consumed stamina. In the game, it was depicted as consuming HP, but he didn’t know about reality. If he truly used a technique beyond his station, his body might break down.
It meant Isaac’s HP could reach zero.
*……I won’t be unable to use it for life, right?*
He suddenly felt worried, but he wasn’t at a level where he’d drop dead just anywhere. He also thought that if push came to shove, he could somehow manage with the tentacles’ Predator trait. Until he found out what that insufficient *requirement* was, he had no choice but to swing his sword with as much restraint as possible.
*Do I really have to become a paladin?*
In fact, it would be nice to learn advanced swordsmanship from Gebel. He had even shown him advanced swordsmanship before. But even as he thought so, Isaac had already long since let go of his greed for advanced swordsmanship or swordsmanship proficiency.
Gebel had explained long ago why he didn’t teach Isaac advanced swordsmanship.
“Knight order swordsmanship becomes more flashy and complex as the level rises. High-level swordsmanship can sometimes show effects like magic or miracles.”
Until now, Isaac had become skilled enough to perform the moves Gebel taught to a degree that surprised even himself.
Gebel, who had intended to be nitpicky, was left speechless. A fourteen-year-old who had just picked up a sword was cutting, thrusting, and striking with such proficiency that a battle-hardened veteran who had rolled on the battlefield for decades had nothing to say.
“Each of the Holy Knight Orders pursuing the path of the sword has its own secret arts. They all claim to be the best, but since each has reached that realm through research and effort, it’s hard to judge superiority or inferiority.”
If such an Isaac began learning and using advanced swordsmanship immediately?
“But even fully grown adults often lose control or injure themselves trying to wield it. There are countless such cases.”
It meant Isaac’s young body could be hurt, or even torn to shreds.
It wasn’t impossible.
In reality, there were many cases where beginners attempted excessive, difficult movements and got hurt. Of course, those movements didn’t produce magical effects, but the fact that superhuman movements could be performed was no different.
In this world, magical things were possible as well.
Isaac himself knew best that even if he learned advanced swordsmanship now, he couldn’t use it.
“And more than anything, because the Avalanche Swordsmanship must not be leaked carelessly.”
“If I join the Avalanche Holy Knight Order, can I learn it?”
“Perhaps. But that won’t happen. The Avalanche Holy Knight Order no longer exists.”
Isaac thought that might mean he wouldn’t teach him, but Gebel never flatly refused to teach him. Instead, he carefully observed every movement other than advanced swordsmanship.
He adjusted and had him repeat basic swordsmanship training only, as if fixing delicate machine parts. Occasionally he taught ways to change direction, connect movements irregularly, or reverse the blade path, but in the end, he had him repeat almost the same movements nearly every day.
Thanks to that, even now after two years, Isaac was still repeating only basic movements.
Cutting, thrusting, striking down, blocking.
The movements he had repeated for the past few years, focusing on precision and power, were now engraved in his muscles to the point where he could even feel snowflakes landing on the sword tip.
Isaac let out a sigh and raised his sword again.
He had already finished today’s training, but Isaac raised his sword again out of a strange lingering attachment. His breathing was still rough, unable to calm down, and his muscles trembled as if convulsing.
*One more time.*
Isaac had let go of his lingering attachment to advanced swordsmanship. What he wanted to do was no different from wanting to increase his push-up count by even one more. He didn’t want to regret not having built the stamina to swing his sword just one more time at a life-or-death moment.
*The tentacles are, after all…… a last resort.*
If he didn’t want to be driven out as a monster, he couldn’t recklessly pull out his tentacles just because he was cornered.
Isaac forcibly regulated his breathing and aimed his sword tip at the empty air.
This time, rather than simply refining his movements, he decided to assume a kind of imaginary opponent. He had done similar training many times. First a wild boar, then Gebel, and then Kalsen.
But this time, the opponent was neither human nor monster.
It was the Nameless Chaos.
No, to be exact, it was himself lunging while spewing out tentacles.
The strongest being Isaac had ever met was neither the wild boar, nor Gebel, nor Kalsen.
It was himself.
When the flooding tentacles went berserk and poured out with a momentum that seemed to devour the world, Isaac felt terror.
Isaac couldn’t help but think about how to stop such a being if he faced one, or if he became such a being.
Of course, at his current level, he would die horribly a hundred times out of a hundred.
*Still, just once…….*
In his imagination, his limbs had been crushed hundreds of times and his head smashed, but Isaac moved his sweat-soaked body once more. He felt the tentacles slamming down on his body again.
At that moment, his sword moved strangely.
Isaac, who had repeated the same movements tens of thousands of times, sensitively felt that change. He instantly felt his sword squirm and bend.
*Huh?*
It was a short distance, a simple thrust, but Isaac’s sword evaded the tentacles’ trajectory and accurately stabbed the enemy behind them.
*Ping.*
Isaac came to his senses. The imaginary enemy had disappeared, and before him was only empty air. Isaac couldn’t understand what had just happened.
He felt that the sword had bent at a bizarre angle that shouldn’t have been possible.
Like a tentacle.
***
*This is…….*
Tap. Before Isaac could grasp the situation, Gebel’s voice came from behind him.
“You’ll catch a cold.”
Isaac was startled and lowered his sword. Fortunately, Gebel didn’t seem to have seen that movement just now.
*Fortunately?*
Isaac couldn’t understand why he thought that was fortunate. But he felt as if he had done something that must not be discovered. Isaac thought it was a premonition secretly planted by the tentacles. He had received such premonitions often when doing things that *must not be discovered.*
While Isaac was putting on his clothes, Gebel looked at the traces around him and asked.
“Have you been at it since dawn?”
“Yes.”
Unlike the other children, Isaac had been given special permission to come out from dawn. He couldn’t miss the remaining prayer and mass times, but the monks, knowing the Abbot was fully supporting him, accommodated him with convenience at all other times.
“I told you that sword training is enough now.”
Gebel already seemed to know that Isaac’s skills had hit a plateau. Isaac had been dissatisfied about not being taught advanced swordsmanship, but he also knew why Gebel said sword training was enough now.
“Recite the Prayer of the Ember.”
Ironically, this was the very reason Isaac clung to his stagnating swordsmanship.
Isaac began reciting the prayer with a displeased expression.
“You who are always first in all places, you who guide the blind lighthouse keeper…….”
Tick, tick-tick!
Sparks flew from Isaac’s fingertips, and a bright light appeared. However, the flickering light lasted only a moment, fading and disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.
Just as it had been for the past several years.
Gebel stroked his chin and muttered.
“Remarkable.”
“What is?”
“You have such outstanding talent in swordsmanship and your faith is beyond reproach, yet it’s remarkable that you have so little talent for miracles.”
“……Isn’t that normal?”
“Usually, those given the opportunity to learn prayers are people already proven to have faith and talent. I think I succeeded in the Miracle of Light within half a year.”
Isaac felt as if he might despair. Isaac’s race, the Nephilim, had high faith ability, so he had hardly worried about miracles. Rather, he had worried about swordsmanship and physical training.
But the results were the exact opposite.
*If I got outstanding swordsmanship talent from eating Kalsen, shouldn’t I have gotten his miracle talent too?*
Isaac felt like taking it up with Kalsen.
The prayer he had just recited was the Miracle of Light, a fundamental domain among prayers. But Isaac, despite being recognized as a Sacred Body by the Abbot and Gebel, had failed to successfully perform any prayer or sacred hymn properly.
A paladin who couldn’t properly demonstrate a single miracle. That was no different from an ordinary knight. No, it might even create more reason for suspicion.
*……Is it because of the tentacles?*
The Nephilim’s racial traits did not interfere with miracles. Nephilim’s high faith ability was considered as stealing God’s miracles, so as long as one knew the prayer and how to use it, they could use it freely.
If there was a reason to guess, it was only the Nameless Chaos.
There was a possibility that the Nameless Chaos was interfering with the use of miracles.
Isaac looked down at his palm and thought. Isaac had received countless help from the tentacles until now. Without the tentacles, he wouldn’t have a healthy body like he did now.
No, he had overcome life-threatening crises several times thanks to the tentacles.
But the Nameless Chaos was undeniably a deity hostile to the Codex of Light.
For Isaac, who harbored a part of that god in his body, to demonstrate the miracles of the Codex of Light might be an impossible matter.
*Then, could I perhaps use a different type of prayer?*
For example, a prayer worshipping the Nameless Chaos, or…….