Paradigm Parasite

Chapter 1: "First Match"

For all intents and purposes, he should have been poisoned, but his body moves.

I put my hand on my left chest. I can't feel my heart beating....

"Seriously...?"

I check for a pulse, but there is no response. But for some reason, his body temperature is still there.

It's hard to tell if he's physically dead or alive.

He's a very half-assed zombie.

It seems to have five senses, but... But something is missing.

But first of all, I want to do something about this hunger...or rather, starvation.

I wonder if I have to follow the theory and attack people and eat them.

Frankly, I don't want to do that.

I should find something to eat, after all.

Well, where is this place?

According to my memory, it is a wilderness in the northern outskirts of Oratorium territory.

If I go north, there is a mountain range inhabited by subhuman races such as goblins, and if I cross it, a large forest inhabited by woodland elves and other races.

If I go south, I can find a small village.

The choice was rather simple: north or south.

If I went north, I would be entering goblin territory, but there would be crops and other things they were growing.

They would not likely share their crops with me, so if I wanted them, I would have to steal from them.

The subhuman race is basically hostile to humans, so they will attack anyone who finds them.

If I go to the south, there is a village, but the lord...probably a former lord, is well known and is treated as the source of all this, so he will probably be kicked out or even killed.

It doesn't make much difference which way I go.

Either they will be human or subhuman.

If I am lucky, I may be able to resolve the issue with a discussion when dealing with humans, but... I don't think there is much hope with these people, who seem to turn their backs on me so easily.

Even if it seems as if we can talk it out, it would be a loss for me if someone reports me for being too friendly.

If so, I'd like to go to another territory, but the only one adjacent is my fiance's. If they find me, I'll be erased in nine out of ten cases.

Should I simply enter an appropriate private house and use force?

In that case, well, I might be able to get by, and if I do well, I might even be able to get a weapon.

But if I do it, I will have to kill all the witnesses. If I let them live, the people who killed Rothfeldt will find out that he is still alive, and if they report it to the knighthood, the knighthood will come after me as well.

With Rothfeldt's skill, it seems that he can handle a few people, but it is probably only a matter of time before he is killed. In any case, battles are always about numbers.

When dealing with subhumans, discussion is out of the question, so basically, if you run into them, kill them. If you don't run into them, you steal from them, which is simpler than dealing with humans.

North.

There really wasn't a choice.

The destination is decided to be north, and then I need to find out what I am capable of, as there is a high probability of a battle.

I looked around, but there was nothing else but a sparse growth of dead trees.

I break a branch of a tree and take a stance for the time being.

"Phew!"

I trace the pattern of all available attack methods, such as stabbing and slashing. It's just as I remember it. I can do it without any problem.

In this world, there seems to be no such thing as a school. It may be that Rothfeldt simply doesn't know about it.

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It seems that learning swordsmanship in this world is a matter of accumulating experience in actual combat. In other words, you have to learn it with your body.

It may be too much to be true, but Rothfeldt was actually sent out by his father to hunt bandits and goblins, and he has been fighting actual battles there up to the present. Most of the battles he remembers were not fair and square.

Well, I remember that he and his father put a lot of effort into training and practicing real combat-style fighting.

The rest is magic.

The procedure for activating magic is as follows.

1. Picture a magic circle in your mind. Draw it, not float it. It seems that it is no good to suddenly prepare a completed magic circle in your mind.

2. Imagine the power, range, and scope of the magic circle.

3. Fire the magic circle.

The process is completed in this order.

The first step was particularly tricky. It is not a problem when you are not doing anything, but it is very hard when you are in the middle of a battle.

If you are hit during the construction and feel pain and your thinking is disturbed, it is said that the formation will disappear in an instant.

I learned the formula when I was hit in high school, and it went right out of my head.

If that happens, you have to start over.

The point is that there is a disadvantage that once you start building, you have to finish it to trigger.

Moreover, Rothfeldt's fighting style is mainly melee, so he can't use magic with any significant power.

It can't be used in battle.

It's not that there is no use for it, but let's put it on hold for now.

...And finally.

I've been calmly thinking a lot about myself....

I have been thinking something strange since a while ago. I've been thinking about things too calmly.

It's not unusual to panic a little in a situation like this...no, it would be odd if I didn't.

It's me, right? Everywhere I go, I think negatively, and because of that, I get bullied or hated everywhere I go. And I'm trapped in a negative spiral of even more negative thinking....

I'm starting to feel sad.

I have a few theories about this, but I don't have enough information.

I decided to put it on hold.

I decided to move for now.

I was about to step out toward the north....

...and there it was.

There was something in front of me.

And there were three of them.

He is about 3 meters tall, with dark skin. His whole body was covered with solid muscles.

His face was wrinkled like an old man's.

In his hand he holds a club, probably made of wood, with an uneven surface.

He wears something like a rag around his waist.

He was neither a goblin nor an orc, but a giant troll.

It was a giant troll. According to my memory, he is one of the top threats among the subhumans in the area.

There were two of them.

The remaining one was a goblin.

They were no more than one meter tall. Greenish skin, strangely large head in relation to the body.

Big eyes, big ears, and a nose. The head was big, and so were the facial parts.

This one is wearing a ragged cloth and an iron breastplate.

In his hand, he holds a rusty sword with a curved blade--a kukuri, according to my knowledge.

The goblin is pointing at me and saying something to the troll. It sounds like he is talking about subhuman things. He seems to be a subhuman. Is he the troll's employer?

The troll giggles and nods.

It's a wonder they can communicate with each other in that language.

I don't even need to think about what they were talking about.

The trolls come at me from both sides.

Both swinging down from the top, as if mirrored.

At the point of swinging up, I run to get past the right side of the troll on the right.

Before he swings down, I break off the end of the wooden stick he was holding and throw it at the right troll's eye.

The troll grunts and the club hits the ground.

The left one tried to swing down, but did not hit me because I was running in a position to use the right one as a shield.

As it was, it saw me withdraw from the right troll and ran after its back.

The right that's up...it's complicated, so let's use Troll A. On the left is B.

Troll A shouts in anger.

I keep running without slowing down. Of course, I'm not trying to escape, but I have a goal.

It was the goblin who was sitting on his haunches, looking like he had a lot of time on his hands.

I don't think he thought he was going to be the target, so he hurriedly readies his Kukri.

Too late.

I broke the remaining branch in half, held it in both hands, and with the momentum of my run, I thrust the branch into both of his big eyes.

There was a bit of resistance, but the branch went deep into the eye sockets.

The goblin let out a terrible scream and held both eyes.

I snatched the Kukri from the screaming goblin, turned around, and ran toward the troll.

Running low, I hold the kukri in my right hand and scoop up the dirt with my left.

I head toward Troll B. I throw dirt at him as soon as I get in close. The moment I get in between them, I throw dirt at them.

As expected, they don't take a second hit and cover their face with the hand that's not holding the cudgel. Just as I expected.

I ran straight past him and slashed him in the back of the knee.

Troll B grunted and fell to his knees.

Next, I tried to give Troll A the same blow, but Troll A took an unexpected action.

He threw away his club and grabbed at it.

I tried to slip past his outstretched arm and thrust the kukri into his side, but....

"Gohu!"

My body was crushed.

Troll A fell toward me. It was a body press.

I heard a sickening sound like a bone breaking in my body. A shock to the stomach. This time, I was kicked.

My body was blown away like a joke.

I rolled quite a few times and my body stopped.

The pain is there. But it is still faint.

It's hard to move, but thanks to that, I don't think I'm going to be screaming.

I manage to get up... but my right arm is broken and hanging around.

My legs are covered in scrapes, but they seem to be OK.

Other than that... several ribs are probably broken.

I really don't know how I got into this mess...

I can only use one arm. Kukri was blown away somewhere.

Troll A picks up the club he dropped and comes toward me.

Troll B is limping, but he is standing up.

Goblin is on the ground, screaming.

The situation is pretty bad...what should I do?

Run away?

Where am I going to run to in a place like this, where there is almost no shelter?

Even if I could escape, I would have nowhere to go, and it would be difficult to get into the mountains.

Should I abandon my body and become a parasite for them?

It would not be a problem to abandon the body. But getting into their bodies would be impossible.

I can see myself being crushed on the way there.

And...for lack of a better word, I'm not comfortable abandoning this body, Rothfeldt. Abandonment is out of the question.

After all, I need to get rid of these guys somehow.

No weapons, and the troll's body is so sturdy. Blows are not going to be effective.

That's all I've got.

Frankly, I don't want to do it, but I can't think of any other way.

Besides...

"Just when I was getting hungry...!"

I jumped on Troll A, who was close by, using my whole body.

With my mouth wide open, I bit him on the neck. I felt the fibers break and the taste of hot blood and flesh spread in my mouth.

It tasted bad, but not inedible. Perhaps it was the thinness of my senses.

There is a terrible scream and he grabs me by the neck. He's going to rip me off.

Of course, I don't want to be ripped off. I cling to it with my entire body to keep myself from being ripped off.

I gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, and swallow. A few teeth break on the way, but I ignore them.

It's true that hunger is the best spice. I can't stop. I gnaw, gnaw, gnaw and swallow.

As soon as my teeth touch something hard, I'm yanked off and slammed to the ground.

I could tell by the feel of it against my teeth that I'd gone all the way to the bone.

Troll A was holding his neck, which had been eaten off and blood was gushing out spectacularly, but after crouching down, he collapsed without any strength.

This one was quicker.

Just as Troll B was poised to be eaten off in the same manner, something strange happened to my body.

The broken arm began to slowly regenerate with an indescribable, unpleasant sound.

Somehow, even the broken tooth had grown back.

Oh, so that's what happened.

I'm concerned about a lot of things, but let's just be happy that the concern of treatment is gone.

Troll B looks at me with a gaze tinged with fear.

He was ready to eat, but not at all ready to be eaten.

The goblin is still screaming.

For now.

My wounds are still healing, and I'm hungry.

"Bon apptit!"

I jumped on Troll B.