Chapter 4. Predation (2)
‘Predation?’
It was a word he had heard before.
Isaac recalled the description he had seen when creating his character.
[Entrails of the Dead God: Absorbs a portion of the stats and traits of a target subjected to ‘Predation’.]
So this was the effect of Predation. Now that he thought about it, a similar message had appeared back when the swarm of tentacles had swallowed Kalsen whole.
‘Then, does that mean a portion of Kalsen’s stats and traits were absorbed into my body too?’
But Isaac didn’t have the time to think about this in detail.
“Mureujikeu, just now….”
In his confusion, Isaac tried to ask the cat for its opinion. But to his dismay, Mureujikeu hissed loudly and bolted away without looking back.
‘As if to prove it’s just a kitten!’
“Isaac?”
Isaac felt his heart drop. Right beside him, the child Yorhan, who had been sleeping with snores, was looking at him. Isaac panicked, wondering if the boy had seen everything.
“Isaac…? What were you eating?”
“Ah, no. Mureujikeu came in and must have caught and eaten a rat.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. Fortunately, Yorhan seemed to have woken up from the noise he heard in his sleep. Yorhan tried to nod his head but quickly fell back asleep.
Isaac had no idea what on earth had just happened.
‘Tentacles came out of my hand? It ate a rat? What stat went up?’
Isaac recalled what had happened a month ago. He clearly remembered the moment he was cut by the knife, when tentacles had surged from his chest and swept through 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 the hell is inside me?’
Isaac examined his palm. Unlike the scar on his chest, there wasn’t a single trace on his left hand of the skin being torn and something bursting out. As if it had all been a dream.
But as if to tell him to wake from that dream, a message window appeared.
[Touch of Chaos]
[A basic ability usable by the kin of Nameless Chaos. Calls forth amorphous tentacles to devour enemies. Its strength increases in proportion to Health and Faith.]
“….”
Every faith had basic skills. Just as the Codex of Light granted the ability to create light and flames, and the Golden Idol granted the ability to offer money in exchange for counsel, the tentacles were the most basic skill granted by the Nameless Chaos faith.
‘Of course… it would have one.’
Realizing it was a skill, Isaac actually felt somewhat relieved. Understanding it in game terms was better than having some unknown monster lurking inside his body.
But then Isaac realized he was no longer hungry.
‘No way. It can’t be that.’
It was the tentacle that had eaten the rat, not him, right?
Trying to deny what had just happened before his eyes, Isaac lay down on the bed.
***
He had thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep properly after what happened, but he slept just fine. The body of a fourteen-year-old child was honest in its need for sleep. Even, though he hated to admit it, his stomach was somewhat full, so he drifted right off.
The next day, Isaac fell into thought again. It was a problem of tentacles, of this world, and of his values, but all of them were interconnected as a whole.
‘How can I keep winning and survive?’
A frail body.
A lineage shunned by the gods.
A believer of a faith that would be purged on sight.
Tentacles that surged out at every opportunity.
And of them all, the biggest problem was the faith itself.
Isaac didn’t know much about Nameless Chaos. But when wandering the frontier in Nameless Chaos, these kinds of quests sometimes appeared. Eerie, gloomy regions, suspicious atmospheres, missing people. Once the horror-movie-like setup began, nine times out of ten, ‘it’ would appear.
Tentacle monsters.
Monsters just like the ones that had burst from Isaac’s body.
Such beings were treated like ‘special quests’ that had to be exterminated unconditionally, regardless of which faith one followed.
‘This… I must never get caught.’
If caught, he would be hung and burned at the stake immediately.
Isaac imagined the currently kind monks tying him to a cross and setting him ablaze, stoning him, or throwing him onto all sorts of medieval torture devices.
[Nameless Chaos is observing you.]
And regardless of whether Isaac shuddered in dread, Nameless Chaos was watching him with interest.
There were many problems.
If he didn’t care about the means, he could hole up somewhere and survive, but Isaac didn’t want to hide in a cave like a barbarian.
He was a strategist of this game. He didn’t even want to think about losing in an ugly manner.
What he always thought about was the ‘condition for victory’.
He still didn’t know what the victory condition was, but for now, he had to survive.
‘For now, if I want to avoid dying on the streets, I need to build up my body first.’
But how? It wasn’t like he could sneak into the warehouse and steal meat.
He would be lucky if there was even any meat to steal.
“Kid, you feeling sick?”
At the voice, Isaac turned his head.
Isaac realized he had been working in the fields. And that his hand, which had been digging up potatoes, was now clawing aimlessly at empty air.
When he turned his head, a man with a bushy beard and a rugged face unlike the other monks was looking down at him. Isaac racked his memory and quickly recalled who he was.
Gebel.
He was a man who, though not a monk, somehow clung to the monastery. He didn’t study scriptures or pray, but seemed to be staying as a guest, doing rough labor and hunting for the monastery. Perhaps because of the rumors that he was a deserter, all the children feared him.
And for some reason, he often sent glances that seemed to observe Isaac. Thanks to that, Isaac had been subtly wary of him, so he tensed when the man suddenly spoke to him.
‘Hmm?’
Just then, Isaac discovered something on Gebel’s body.
It was certain. What Gebel wore at his waist was a belt from the Holy Knight Order’s uniform. It was in tatters, no different from a rag, but there was no doubt it belonged to a paladin.
‘Is he really a deserter? No, a paladin deserter?’
Even from Isaac’s memories, paladin was a profession treated like nobility and respected by society. Much was demanded in return, but it wasn’t a status that let one wander around in such ragged beggar’s clothes. And if it were stolen, it was far too dangerous an item to flaunt so openly.
Most likely, he had already been discharged or was temporarily taking refuge at the monastery.
‘No, wait. A paladin? A paladin.’
Something flashed in Isaac’s mind. Just then, the man’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Seeing you space out, I ought to tell the monk you’re slacking off.”
Gebel muttered in a mischievous tone. Isaac hastily mumbled an excuse.
“It’s nothing. Please go about your business.”
“Strange way of talking, kid. And don’t crouch there like that. I almost kicked you.”
Gebel snorted and passed by Isaac’s side. Then, a familiar bloody scent brushed against Isaac’s nose.
Isaac pointed at the basket Gebel carried and asked.
“Are those rats, by any chance?”
“Huh? How did you know? The rats have been swarming, so I’ve been setting traps these past few days. Can’t have them wasting all our winter stores.”
Gebel laughed mischievously and dropped the basket full of rat carcasses before Isaac with a thud. He had probably meant to scare him, but instead of screaming and running, Isaac stared intently at the basket. It was Gebel who ended up feeling awkward.
“It’s a bit of a waste, though. Autumn rats are nice and plump, perfect for roasting….”
“Can you eat rats?”
When Isaac asked, eyes gleaming, Gebel laughed as if bewildered.
“Well, the Codex of Light forbids eating them, saying rats are creatures of darkness that carry disease. Not that you can afford to be picky on the battlefield. But I suppose the monks would care.”
It was more a matter of religious law than hygiene. Isaac didn’t care about religious law in the first place. Germs were a slight concern, but since he wasn’t going to eat them by mouth, if he used a different means….
Isaac looked straight at Gebel and asked.
“May I dispose of them?”
“Dispose of them?”
Gebel looked at Isaac with strange eyes. Isaac didn’t know why he was looking at him like that. Children and adults alike disliked work. It was understandable to be puzzled when someone volunteered to do a chore, but there was something else in Gebel’s gaze.
“Hmm… well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’ve already dug the pit, so you just need to bury them. Even a child can manage that much.”
Gebel narrowed his eyes and asked.
“You’re not thinking of playing games with the carcasses, are you? If I hear you’ve been playing pranks with rat corpses around the monastery, you’ll get a beating.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Gebel stared holes into Isaac before muttering.
“I’ll have a word with Brother Alek. The hole is that way. Don’t forget to pour lye over the bodies before you bury them.”
Gebel left the basket where he had set it down and walked away.
In this short conversation, Isaac became certain of Gebel’s identity.
‘He really is a paladin. And it seems he held quite a high rank…’
In this world, the only ‘battlefield’ significant enough for those nearby to starve was the front line against the Undead Cult near the holy land.
Once he suspected the man might be a paladin, the other monks’ attitudes made sense. Their behavior—walking on eggshells around him, deliberately avoiding conversation, as if he were too lofty for a mere laborer to approach—had seemed strange. He had wondered if they were simply too proud to talk, but if a former paladin was deliberately hiding his identity, it was understandable.
Isaac stored this information away for now, pondering how to make use of it later.
‘But that’s not what I need to worry about now.’
Isaac dragged—or rather, hauled—the basket full of rat carcasses in the direction Gebel had pointed. True to his words, there was a fairly deep pit. All he had to do was dump the rat corpses in, pour lye over them, and cover them with dirt.
Isaac first made sure no one was around. There were corners where someone could hide and watch, but he could cover it well enough with his body.
And then he fell into his final dilemma.
‘Can I really eat this?’
Why not? Historically, people had eaten rat meat plenty of times. In France, there were even dishes and recipes made from rat meat.
He also worried whether the tentacles would appear again. What happened then had been a complete coincidence; there was no guarantee it would happen again.
Of course, if the tentacles didn’t appear, he had no intention of secretly eating rats. But as if to say there was no need to ponder further, a tentacle shot out from his palm and swiftly swallowed the rat he held in his hand.
Crunch, munch.
[You have preyed upon ‘Field Rat’.]
[The ‘Predation’ trait increases absorption efficiency.]
[Resistance to minor diseases increases.]
[Blessings are maintained until digestion is complete.]
Isaac looked at the tentacle with a dumbfounded expression. This time, rather than fear, he felt like he was feeding a pet.
“Yeah, eat. Eat it all up.”
Isaac muttered, half-resigned.
For the time being, he couldn’t afford not to use the thing if he wanted to survive. In this poor monastery, this was the only way to supplement his protein.
He simply hoped Gebel wouldn’t dig up this pit again.
***
Isaac thought about Gebel, or rather, about the paladin.
In this world, gods clearly existed, and they shared their power with their followers. The pinnacle of dominion, the source of power—all of it came from the gods.
The monks performed miracles daily, from lighting candles to heating water, regardless of scale. Of course, this was for training rather than daily convenience, but the books recorded even greater miracles as if they were natural.
Stopping the sun to burn an enemy city for a week, blinding heretics who committed sacrilege, or summoning an apostle of light to receive divine prophecies.
Naturally, the power of priests and paladins was immense.
‘Both are top-tier jobs in the world of Nameless Chaos.’
Priest was fine too, but Isaac’s low health was a problem. However, paladins had many survival abilities. Since this was a single life with no retries, those survival abilities strongly appealed to Isaac.
And with a Nephilim’s high faith stat, a paladin could use abilities rivaling those of a priest.
‘The problem is that this is a Codex of Light monastery…’
Tentacles.
These damned tentacles were the problem.