You know, with every single Isekai I have read until now, there’s always this kind of thing. The Killing experience. There are some which say it's okay if you have a reason, others saying it’s wrong and all of that. Even worse, there are some which just kill because they want to.

Is it wrong to kill someone? Is it wrong to kill someone who did a bad thing? Is it wrong to kill just because you want to? Those are some pretty deep questions(or not). I mean, we are in a fantasy world. Earth wasn’t that different in the past.

If I remember correctly, there was a time where it was a law, right? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. A life for a life. History always depicted something like that. There were also causes which killed people, only because those said people never really followed what some thought.

There was the Witch Hunt period, the Crusades, Civil Wars, oh, and the list so go on. Am I overthinking over the situation? Am I getting crazy? Probably. Yeah, probably.

What is happening you ask? Well, let’s go back in time just a little bit.

After I entered the carriage, started the journey towards the city of Caerleon, and made the Shielding Badge, even reaching a small village was all okay. Then we reached the second village at dusk, and spent the night there. We even received a warning from the village chief about bandits on our way to the next village. Surprisingly, the Empire had a lot of Villages.

Of course, the people in the carriage were a little bit unsettled, especially the mother with her daughter, since their last stop was Caerleon. The couple of elders started praying, and the young couple was… well, the man was saying he would protect the woman. Let’s not get too deep onto that.

The coachman bought a sword on the second village before coming back to the carriage. And then there was me. Speaking truthfully? I was scared. In reality, we find it easier to fight and kill both monsters and beasts than humans. I mean, it is plausible.

Human beings are different from monsters. We put in our heads that, just because monsters don’t have a clear consciousness, because they act on instinct, there’s no problem in killing them. That’s not exactly right. Take Amara and Kasumi as an example. The two can think and even speak what they have in mind.

The second day of traveling, we stopped at another village, and the village chief said the same thing: “Careful with the bandits ahead.” And I had this thought in mind: Will I be able to do it? To pull the trigger and kill someone?

I couldn’t handle those thoughts. I kept thinking in my head: If I don’t do it, the elderly couple will be killed, the mother and child will suffer, this young couple will suffer. They will all die. I need to do this. Can I? Will I be able to do this? I will die as well.

Call me a coward or whatever you want, but this is normal. I think? Maybe? Probably. Hopefully.

“That’s just wishful thinking.” I mumbled.

Finding a way out, just to do something. That’s what humans do. I’m starting to think like a hero of some story. Not to kill. What a joke.

You know those stories where a hero appears just to save the world? Yeah, those, where the hero never kills. I have this thought on my head. Sometimes to do some good, you gotta be the bad guy.

It’s funny, since in all those stories, when something bad happens, because the hero left said person alive, what do the people do? “It’s the hero’s fault!” “If only the hero had killed him!” “This wouldn’t happen if you had taken action!”

But what happens if the hero kills that person, only to save people? “Monster!” “You are no hero!” “Heroes don’t kill!” Kinda reminds me of a certain Dark Knight. He’s a nice person, but leaving a lunatic alive, just to follow that principle? That’s nasty.

I like that Dark Knight a lot, mind you. But those are just my thoughts. And the more I think, the more I get scared, and even more thoughts appear in my head. What if I start to kill just to enjoy? What if I become like them? What if I do what they do?

Kill them, just to someone live tomorrow. That’s what some people say. What am I thinking? Everyone is a hero in their own heads. I shook my head, and tried to clear my mind of those thoughts. And just as I was about to try and focus on what to do…

“Stop right there!” A hoarse voice came from the outside. “Leave the goods and women! And we won’t kill ya!”

The clear intent of them echoes in my mind. There is a reason? Maybe. Does it matter? No. I take the MPD off my pocket, and activate the Enemy Scan function. I point to the back of the carriage, finding 6 men behind.

I use at my front(to the other side of the canopy), finding 2, and behind me, 2 as well. At the front of the carriage, there are 3, and to the right and left side, 3, to a total of 19 men. Time to go to work.

“Kasumi, Amara.” With my voice, the two come out of my shadow. “Deal with the ones from behind. Finish them, and…” The words didn’t come out. I look towards the mother with her daughter in her lap.

“What will happen next. Can you not let your daughter hear or see this?” She nods swiftly. “Deal with them.”

(Master? It’s to kill them, right?)

(Kill them?)

Both Amara and Kasumi ask me that.

“Yes. Excuse me.”

I put the Shielding Badge on the floor of the carriage, walking right to the side of the coachman.

“As soon as the barrier activates. Don’t move. Oh, and cover your ears.”

I say that to the people in the carriage, and they do so. The mother hugs her daughter, and the little girl covers her ears. Right. No way out of this.

I pull Satz of it’s holster, and point towards the left guy on the road.

“Hey! Ya hear me! Left the goods and-!”

BANG!

The sound of the shot is so loud, that every single bandit starts to act. The guy I shot at is dead, falling on the ground. Arrows come from both sides, and a light-blue barrier appears, stopping the arrows.

“Tch! It’s a magician!”

Jumping off of the carriage, I point to where the arrows came on my left, and shoot three times.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Gah!” “Guh!” “Noo-!”

Grunts and a weak voice echoes through the forest. I can also hear faint sounds of fighting behind me, with the absolute certainty that Kasumi and Amara are taking care of the situation..

I pointed Satz towards my right, and shot the last two bullets, hearing once again the grunts. No bullets, time to use this. I activate the Digi-Struct on my left hand, materializing a knife. This knife isn’t just a throwing knife by the way.

I’d made this on the night before departing. This is a knife with a small trigger on the back of the blade, close to the handle. Why? Because in between the blade and handle, there’s a small container. Needless to say, in the small container, there’s Mana Infused Powder. Meaning, this is a grenade knife.

I press the trigger on the knife’s handle, and throw at the last place. I don’t have the [Throwing] skill, so I know that I won’t hit the last archer. That’s why the explosive part. It's just to make sure.

“What the?”

KABOOM!

“What?!”

“Tch! Kill him!”

“Heh! Eh?!”

The guy at the right was dumbstruck by the explosion, and the middle one gave the orders. When the one at the right tried to move, he had a dumb expression on his face.

“What are you doing!? Go already!”

“I can’t move!”

“What?!”

“Of course you can’t.” The two look towards me. “You’re already dead.”

I had activated my Mythril Wires right as I touched the ground, and was trying to mingle them until reaching the last guy. It took some time, since I was focused more at the others around, then the one I wanted to target.

“What do you mean?!”

“Why should I tell you?”

I pulled my hand backwards, and the Mythril wires cut through the guy’s neck. It didn’t lop his head off, but it cut very deep. I think it stopped at the bone of the neck. I cut the remaining wires, and reloaded Satz.

“Tch! I won’t let you!”

The last one, probably the leader, rushed towards me. I had already reloaded Satz, and could easily finish him with it. But I decided against that.

“What?!”

I activated my left blade and deflected his own. He rushed towards me again, with a vertical upwards slash. I avoided it by stepping aside, putting Satz in it’s holster, and activated my right blade.

“It is the end.”

“It’s not!”

He looked towards the carriage. He rushed towards there, probably to take someone as a hostage. Shame that there was a barrier between him and the carriage.

“Guh!” He hit head first on it. “What!”

“I’m not so stupid, you know?”

Without waiting, I pierced the man in the stomach. He tried to flail his sword at me, but with my left blade, I defended, and cut his arm.

“Gaaaah! I! I just wanted to at least! One last time before turning into that!”

A last desire, huh? Seeing up close now, I could see two small holes into his neck. So he was bitten? What a shame.

With a last move of his hand, he died. I took the blade off of his stomach, retrieving them.I took his body, and tossed it in the middle of the road.

“Amara, Kasumi.”

(Finished.) (Finished~)

“It’s finished.”

I talked to the coachman. He breathed a sigh of relief, and talked to the others on the carriage. I walked to all the bandits, and looked in their bodies. There were a few coins, in total: 256 Copper, 687 Bronze, 548 Silver, and 13 Gold.

Walking to the carriage, I asked the Coachman what to do with the money and other things, but he simply said that the spoils belong to the one who killed the bandits. Thought as much. I took the coins, putting in the Digi-Storage.

I checked the leader. He had a strange jewel with him. It was a purple pentagon shaped jewel, embedded into a V shaped golden badge. On the inside of the purple jewel, there was a strange pattern on it. It’s Divine language.

► Unknown Jewel Key ◄

A key made out of an unknown Jewel. It opens an unknown chamber in an unknown place.

“So informative.”

Ignoring the description of this ‘Key’, he also had a Mythril blade, of low quality, and more money. 12 Copper, 38 Bronze, 168 Silver, 210 Gold, and 1 Platinum. I took all the bodies of the bandits, opened a hole on the ground with [Transmutation] and tossed them inside that hole, closing it right after.

“Have you finished?” The coachman asked, and I nodded. When I was entering the carriage… “This is your first time, right? Killing someone.”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t sweat it, lad. You saved people, you know?”

“Yeah.”

I climbed the carriage, and both Kasumi and Amara were there. Amara was in her viper-like form, and the people of the carriage were looking at her.

“On my shoulder, Amara.”

She heard my voice, and crawled to my left shoulder, while Kasumi was on my lap. The carriage started to move again, and the people inside the carriage were still a bit… unsettled. At least the little girl was the innocent one. She was looking at Kasumi with stars in her eyes.

“Do you want to pet her?”

“Can I?!”

I nodded, and her mother moved to my side, with her daughter in her arms. The little girl then started petting Kasumi, and looked really happy while doing so. Fluffiness is justice too. The only problem was Amara on my left shoulder, who was kinda angry since Kasumi was receiving some attention.

Thankfully, we arrived at the next village before dusk.

The remainder of the trip was smooth sailing. There were some monsters that attacked the carriage, but it wasn’t much of a problem. They weren’t much to Satz anyway. In the path to Caerleon, the elderly couple disembarked in two villages before Caerleon, and the young couple descended one village before Caerleon.

Arriving there took 5 days. The first two were normal, the third we had the bandits attack, and the other two was just with some monsters attacking.

Caerleon city was a mining city. The mountain range was the main mine of the city, but it had others as well. Most of the mines were underground, having a higher number of ores, but the quality was also low. And as for the mine on the mountain, it was of a higher quality, but less quantity.

All the mines had more Iron than anything else, but it did have other ores. Such as Copper, Silver, Gold, Tin, Lead and some fantasy ores as well. Such as Mythril, Adamantite and the one that is on my blades, Hihi’irokane. Albeit the fantasy ores were in much less quantity, in between 1 to 6% of the total quantity of Iron. Gold as well.

As I was walking through the town, most of the miners were in front of stalls, or in the taverns. Strange. I had a hunch as to why, but I kept quiet about it.

I was thinking about the target the Witch asked me to defeat and collect it’s Core, the Krakagator. It’s favorite food was Hihi’irokane. That’s why it had the capabilities of using some Lava related magic.

Nonetheless, I was too tired from the trip to this city, so I simply reached an Inn, and fell asleep quite quickly.

The following day, I went to the adventurers guild of the town. Since it was a mining city, there were a lot of blacksmiths around. There were other mines a few ways away from the town, one that was famous for its ores, but hard for the distance you had to travel.

It’s focus was on 4 magical ores: Orichalcum, Adamantite, Mythril and lastly, Mondálium. Of course, you find more Mythril than the other 3, but it’s worth it as well.

The mine had at least 20 floors, and some people thought that it was a dungeon already. Which was… true. I passed by the Adventurer’s Guild of the city, and heard some people talking about it. The dungeon was very hard, since the monsters there had the same qualities of the ores you found there.

Even worse, was the boss on the last floor, since he had an outer carapace of Mondálium. If you go there alone, you would be in a dire situation. The boss had a weak point right behind his neck, and alone you wouldn’t be able to hit him. People gossip quite a lot.

In the Adventurer’s Guild, 7 out of 10 quests, mainly focused on escorting miners to acquire ores on the mines. BUT!

“Subjugate the Unique Monster.”

► Subjugation of a Unique Monster ◄

Subjugate a Unique Monster close to the Mountain Range, East Entrance of the mine.

The monster is a Magmasaur.

Do check the Bestiary for more Information on the Monster.

Rewards: 750 Gold Coins Rank Requirement: B-Rank +

“The reward is quite good.”

“Are you planning to take this quest?”

When I turned around, there was a girl looking at me, with glinting eyes and a business smile. Probably no one appeared to take this quest?

“Yeah, I do. I need to get the Core of a Krakagator. But if this guy is around, then maybe I can get some more money.”

“I see. Are you perhaps an A-rank?” I gave her my card. “Not A-Rank, but B-Rank. Either way, we would really appreciate it if you could take this quest.” I nodded, and she breathed in to speak.

“The monster appeared right when the blood moon appeared. The adventurers who had gone there returned badly injured, and we couldn’t send more of them. But if we had an A-rank, that could change the situation.” She sighed and kept talking.

“The miners are very irritated with the situation, since the mountain range is the main source of income of the city. That’s why most quests are all for escorts.”

“Hmm… Alright, I’ll accept it.”

The girl had a big grin on her face, and she hurriedly put the quest under my name, and I walked out of the guild.

I looked more through the city, checking if it didn’t have anything that got my attention. There were some good swords, but nothing that really worth it, so instead, I walked out of the gate, going towards the mountain’s feet. By the way, both Amara and Kasumi were on my shoulders.

BANG!

I was passing by the forest quite easily. The monsters around this part were all wood or rock related. Like, rock and wood serpents, Green Wolves, the same monsters that the ‘Heroes’ defeated, Rose Reapers, and Forest Trolls.

The Forest Trolls are a place variant. Depending on the place you are, you can find different Trolls. Like in a volcano, underground, snow, mountain and so on. They have slightly different capabilities.

The Forest Trolls were a bunch of green furry guys, but not pretty. Giant nose, two giant tusks coming from its lower jaw, curved back and two horizontal horns going to the back of their heads.

After that, we reached the foot of the mountain. What surprised me more, was that it had some lava spots around. Those weren’t very big pools, like around the size of a public bus. That wasn’t very scary, but the monsters at the border of the pool? It was a bit.

“Hmmmm… these are the Krakagators?”

► Monster: Krakagator ◄

A giant Lava Monster, remembering the prehistoric beast Sarcosuchus. It’s intern temperatures are above 2000 degrees Celsius, and it has a high resistance both against water and ice elements. It is Immune to Fire, Lava or Magma Magic.

“Those are a bit scawy. Anyway, one I might be able to deal with, but more than that? Nope.”

There were 6 of them, and if I shot one, it would probably be a bad idea. How do I do this? Maybe?

“Hmmm… This is a problem. How do I separate them?”

Since I didn’t have any idea, I simply grabbed some stones, walked a little bit away, and tossed the stones at one of them. The one I aimed at didn’t give shit about me, and only after I threw all the stones at him, did he give attention to me.

Gruuuu~

The monster opened it’s glowing eyes, and looked towards me. I smiled and waved at the monster. And man, that pissed the guy a lot. He let out a loud roar, and the lava between his scales were brighter than before. He lashed his tail on the lava, and rushed towards me.

“Uh-oh.”

And so did I. Rushing through the forest,while avoiding trees, jumping through rocks and tumbled tree trunks, the guy was simply breaking through everything. What a guy! Oh yeah! I need to reload.

I reloaded Satz with the Tungsten bullets, and stored back the normal ones. And after a few seconds of running through the trees, avoiding the trees that were launched towards me(don’t know how?), we arrived at a bigger place, with a boulder and a tree in the middle.

I turned around, sliding a bit on the ground. Looking ahead, the Krakagator was still rushing towards me. I looked towards the boulder, I ran and jumped at it, and jumped away to avoid his mad rush. Almost, huh?

Grrrr!

Pointing Satz towards him, I started to shoot.

Grrrraaaa!

The bullets pierced the monster's head rather easily. Oh, right. Satz special effect. Satz had a special effect, that when mana is poured onto it, the bullets get faster and harder. It didn’t kill the Krakagator, but he had now bloo- lava?

“He has lava for blood?”

The guy had a dark-orange liquid coming from his injuries. I shot more three times, and the holes were oozing the orange liquid from them. The monster stepped backwards, surprising even me. He’s afraid? Why? Look at his size!

I don’t know how this guy’s mind works, but he simply turned his back to me, and started to rush away! No you don’t! And of course, I followed him as well. I jumped on the tree branches, and kept following him. Now!

BANG!

The bullet traveled and hit him right at his head, in the middle of his eyes. The Krakagator fell nose first on the ground, even tumbling while that happened. I took my MPD, and looked at him. He’s dead. At least I won’t be fooled by him faking it.

Since the Witch wanted the monster’s core, I descended from the tree, and would start to dismantle it, but-

“Hot! Too hot!”

The surface of his skin, or better, scales was still hot, and I would need to wait. Or not.

“Burn everything to cinders. |Fiery Blade|”

I pierced the monster’s scales, and it entered quite easily on it. In this monster case, the way to dismantle it was to find a special scale, and use it as a guide.

The special scales weren't anything much. They were a set of scales, right at the middle of its belly, and after piercing it, you would only need to follow the pattern.

Said pattern was a direction the own body of the monster had. It was awfully perfect, since anyone would be able to dismantle it. I couldn’t touch it even with my gauntlets. They are made out of Titanium. Should I make Tungsten gauntlets? Nah!

I could touch the monster only to move it a bit. And as I kept cutting through the directions it provided me, the heat was going down. By the way, I bought a 2 Liters pot with a lid, and of course, heat resistance. Why? Because the Krakagator’s blood was very useful in making Fire Resistance potions.

Said potions were to pass on the body, making you resistant to fire. The Witch asked me to take the blood too, since the value of said potions were very, very good. She calls me greedy, but when she’s in business mode, she does the same thing.

One of the few things that are very useful of the Digi-Storage, is that nothing rots inside of it. So, the materials are all fresh. I was dismantling this monster, only to raise my [Dismantle] skill more. The harder it is to dismantle a monster, the more the skill goes up. With my Status Condition though, I’m sure this thing will only give me one Level.

I took the monster’s scales, and stored the rest of the body on the Digi-Storage. And as I had thought, the Skill received only one Tier.

“Alright, let’s go back there.”

I walked through the path of destruction the monster did, and reached the lava pool from before. Only to find a giant T-Rex. It had orange skin, with a yellow glow coming from its throat and mouth. It had spikes-like horns spotting from its head to its neck, and was chewing, probably on the Krakagators that were here before I was here.

“Shit.”

I didn’t expect to find such a thing so soon.