As soon as I realised what the goblin was doing, I came to a decision.

  "Yeah, not today, sorry."

  I shot his hand off, which seemed to have done the trick, as the goblin let out a final gasp before ceasing all movement.

  Green goblin blood was splattered everywhere, overlaying the previous red circle of what I could only presume was human blood.

  "Damn..."

  At this point, I wouldn't be able to harvest all of the goblin's ears, meaning my comission would go down.

  Well, it wasn't like I particularly cared about that.

  Turning around, I gazed at the adventurers tied to the pole.

  Two women, two men.

  I hesitated to free them.

  'Wouldn't it just be better if I killed them and devoured them?'

  If I saved them, that meant I couldn't have Blue devour the goblin corpses.

  On the other hand, if I killed them, Blue would have an even larger meal, and I'd grow even stronger.

  It didn't sound too bad, and honestly, they were going to die anyway.

  Pointing my finger upwards, I charged a spell.

  As mana flowed through my body, I felt a pain inside my head.

  My body felt strangely sticky, and I almost felt like vomiting.

  For whatever reason, a disgusting feeling enveloped me.

  That unwelcome sensation brought me a kind of clarity.

  '...Wait, that's a bit too much.'

  I wasn't sure why I had been so bloodthirsty.

  Realistically, I doubted that some newbie adventurers would even be worth experience.

  And more so than that, they had done nothing to deserve death.

  I was far from some arbiter of justice, but ending people who had done nothing against me wasn't something I wanted to do.

  "Guess the heat of battle got to me?"

  I mumbled before shifting my aim to hit the ropes binding the captives.

  One by one, the captured adventurers fell from the pole.

  With their arms freed, they quickly removed the remainding bindings on their legs and mouths.

  An awkward silence quickly settled upon the ruined goblin camp.

  Furio looked at the group with a blank expression as they stared at him with caution.

  Scratching his head, he turned around and began inspecting any intact goblin corpses.

  "Ah, t-thanks for saving us, sir... That magic was amazing!"

  A woman hurriedly thanked Furio, hoping to break the tension her group was feeling.

  Furio looked at her and nodded with a slight smile.

  "Yeah, well, it wasn't much. But... there's no need to refer to me as sir, I'm definitely younger than you guys."

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  A tall tanned man responded with a cough.

  "Right, but, you really saved our skins, so, it just feels right."

  "Do whatever you want."

  If they wanted to speak to him respectfully, then he wouldn't complain.

  They spoke in hushed voices amongst themselves as Furio tried to harvest whatever remained of the goblins.

  'Should probably be a bit gentler next time...'

  Furio didn't particularly care to speak to the adventurers he had just saved.

  Considering they were weak enough to have lost to a small group of goblins whilst having four people, there would be no use in forming a connection with them.

  Even someone like that merchant he assisted long ago was more valuable.

  He threw the few goblin ears that he managed to collect into his pouch.

  Luckily, the ears of the shaman goblin were in decent shape.

  'This should be enough proof...'

  Thinking for a moment, he ccouldn't help but be curious as to how the adventurers were captured.

  A small camp like this would do their best to avoid adventurers.

  Checking on them from the corner of his eye, he could see that they were quite injured.

  Perhaps some of that injury could be attributed to his explosive bullet.

  'Well, I saved them, so it's not that bad.'

  Whilst he was collecting ears, it seemed they had managed to find some of their equipment in a tent, allowing them to bandage their wounds.

  "Oi, how'd you guys end up in this situation anyway."

  One of the female members, a plain looking brunette woman, responded quickly.

  "Ah.. well... uhm, we saw the scout markings... and it didn't seem like there were many goblins, so we thought we could take them on..."

  Furio was new to being an adventurer, but even he knew that this kind of behaviour was looked down upon.

  The proper process was to receive a quest, go to the marked location, complete the quest, and report back to the association.

  Basically, if they had succeeded in their attempt, by the time Furio reached the location all he'd find would be an empty campsite, essentially wasting his time.

  "...Honestly, you guys are too weak to even think about doing stuff like this."

  Saying such harsh words, he wondered about his own state.

  For him to confidently give such advice, wouldn't he have to be 'strong'?

  At least for his age, he felt that he was pretty high up.

  At fourteen years old, most mages would only be at the second layer, whilst he was already at the third.

  On top of that, his firepower was comparable to a fourth layer.

  In two years, he aimed to become a fourth layer, meaning his firepower would probably be at the fifth.

  Of course, he had vague ideas about 'the average mage' but he wondered how he'd compare to the ones who could be called prodigies.

  Ending his musings, Furio looked back at the group.

  They had taken on dejected expressions, failing to meet his gaze.

  None of them responded to his critcism, as they probably understood its truth.

  Having no purpose left here, he started leaving.

  "Wait, ehm, your name! What's your name, sir?"

  A slim man wielding a sword shouted for Furio.

  '...Isn't this familiar?'

  "Call me Outis."

  Thankfully, the group seemed to have no intentions of following me.

  At the very least, they had enough shame to not try freeload off me for a trip back to the city.

  I looked at the sky, recognising that night was falling.

  I was damn tired of camping, so I was fully willing to make the trip even during night.

  After giving it some thought, I felt slightly pleased with my actions.

  I had done something good, after all.

  ...Although, hadn't my first thought been to kill them?

  Well, at least I took a better path in the end.

  I wasn't particularly sure about what I wanted to do with myself in this world, but at the very least, I didn't want to follow the path of my past life.

  'Would that make me a hero?'

  I found it a little comedic.

  From an outsiders perspective, wasn't I already walking the path of a villain?

  I was exiled from my family in disgrace.

  After being exiled, I began studying under a dark archmage known as the Lich King.

  I wasn't sure what kind of evil acts my master had commited, but I could guess that he had plenty of skeletons in his closet.

  Now, I lived under a fake name with a changed appearance.

  By all means, wouldn't it be fitting to have ideas of revenge once I returned to the empire?

  '...Well, to be fair, I do need to take revenge.'

  The one who had ordered my death.

  I wasn't going to let them off easy.

  With such thoughts, surely I wouldn't be considered very heroic.

  'Whatever, such things are meaningless.'

  More than anything else, I wanted to live my life freely.

  In a sense, perhaps I should be glad I was exiled.

  If I had shown great talent in the estate, I surely would have been shackled by the expectations of others.

  Seeing the huge walls of Babel, I sighed.

  "I really need to make some friends."

  These days, it felt like I was constantly left alone with my thoughts.

  LOG 36 - THE KEY EMPIRE'S GOLDEN GENERATION

  It is known throughout the continent that the current Key Empire is the strongest it has been since its founding. Usually, it would be typical for each generation to only produce one or two archmages, usually coming from the great families. Yet when counting the current heads of the five great families, all five have reached the status of archmage, meaning that at least five archmages rose from a single generation. This 'golden generation' completely reversed the previously declining state of the empire and has allowed for it to reach it's second peak after a thousand years.