The Evolution of a Goblin to the Peak

"Don't you ever think of escaping from us?" The guards warned Souta with a grim expression.

"Well..." Souta's expression turned cold in an instant. The atmosphere turned chilly.

Even though he was wearing a mask and the guards couldn't see his face, they could still feel the heavy pressure he was releasing. It feels like some heavy risks were placed on their shoulders.

The guards subconsciously took a step backward. They gulped their saliva as they felt that Souta could easily kill them right here.

"Y-you, don't try it!"

The chilly atmosphere disappeared in an instant. Souta sighed and removed the mask from his face. He then said, "Relax; I'm not planning to escape. I just wanted to tell you that I'm not the one who killed these two people. They don't have their internal organs anymore. The killer must have taken them, so if I'm the killer, why don't I have their internal organs."

"You have a point there, but we still need to investigate you. I hope that you will cooperate with us," the guards said to him. They still haven't lowered their weapons as they knew that Souta was a very dangerous man.

"Well, I'll cooperate with you. I already showed you my face, so there's no point in escaping right now." Souta nodded his head at the guards. He then squinted his eyes and said, "But I have one condition."

"Do tell us," the guards said.

"I don't want you to touch a part of my body. You don't have those rights. If you can abide by that, then I'll follow you." Souta said to them with a cold look.

"Y-you're just a—" one of the guards was about to say something bad to Souta, but the captain of the guards stopped him.

"Shut up!" The captain of the guards looked at his subordinates. He then looked at Souta and agreed with him.

He knew that Souta's power was above any of them. Even if they worked together to subdue him, it still wouldn't be enough to stop Souta. That's the feeling he got from Souta.

'Just who is this young man? It seems that he's not the culprit, but I get the feeling that he knew this case better than us.' The captain of the guards has a lot of questions in his mind. He shook his head and thought that he would ask Souta later. He didn't know what was happening in their land right now.

The captain of the guards shook his head and asked his subordinates to clean the crime scene.

'What are you thinking?' Saya asked him in his head.

'I'm trying to smoke out the mastermind behind this. I'm sure that he will make a move soon. You saw that creature in the basement, right?' Souta said to Saya in his head.

'Yeah, what about it?' Saya asked, but she immediately took back her question as she realized something. 'If the owner of that monster in the basement knew that you were investigating the scene, he would surely put you down.'

'Yeah, the owner will try to silence me. After all, the preparation is nearing completion. It's just a matter of time before everything goes down in this Fersch dukedom,' Souta said to Saya.

'I don't think so. At most, the owner will send some lower life forms, like a dark vine eater, to silence you. They only know that your power level is C-rank, but they don't know the specifics of your skillset,' Saya replied to his words.

'I know that. The owner is hiding carefully in the dark while controlling every pawn that he has, so I doubt that the owner will personally show,' Souta said in his head as he shrugged his shoulders.

'If you know that, why do this?' Saya asked him. What she couldn't understand was why Souta was letting these people capture him.

'Well, I'm sure that Lumilia will figure it out. I will leave the rest to them while I go find the mastermind. It's a win-win for me and them. They will receive a lot of benefits from solving this case,' Souta grinned maliciously.

In Souta's case, he doesn't need to solve it anymore. He already knew what was happening in this dukedom, and he just needed to find the mastermind behind the killings.

"Let's go now," the captain of the guards looked at Souta and said.

"Okay," Souta nodded and followed the guards leisurely.

Since there's nothing to watch anymore, the folks slowly disappeared when Souta and the guards left the scene.

'Although there's a low chance, I still hope that the mastermind will visit me. I will know it instantly if I see the mastermind's appearance,' Souta thought.

...

[Thunderous Flaming Roar]!

A sea of flames and lighting swallowed several huge monsters. It toasted several dark vine-eaters in front of Bryan.

"I'm not done!" Bryan shouted as he raised both of his hands in the air. A lightning ball formed on top of his left palm, and a fireball formed on top of his right palm.

"Fuse!"

Bryan put them together, and a powerful energy swept out the entire area. It shook the ground heavily. The ball of lightning and fire was emitting powerful mana fluctuations.

"This is it! Go down, all of you!"

He then threw it towards the dark vine eaters.

[Lightning Flame Sweeper]!

A powerful explosion occurred, and it made the entire ground tremble. The entire area was wiped out. A huge gully appeared in front of Bryan after the huge explosion.

After a few moments, rocks started to fall. The entire place was crumbling, and if Bryan didn't leave, he would be buried alive here.

The aftershocks of the explosion were felt on the surface. The people there were shocked when the ground trembled and huge cracks appeared. Smoke appeared between the cracks, and the temperature started to rise. They felt heat coming out of the floor. The people quickly ran away in panic.

"Huff... Huff... Huff..."

Bryan was breathing heavily as he drained almost half of his mana in this battle. He took out a blue potion from his pocket and drank it.

"Really, this taste never changed," Bryan complained as he threw the bottle on the side. He looked up and saw that the ceiling was collapsing.

"I need to leave this place!" He shouted before he turned around and ran.

...

Lumilia and Brando were on the surface. Both of them managed to safely leave the sewer.

Lumilia looked down with a worried expression on her face.

"Don't worry about him. You told me before that Bryan is strong, so believe in him. Plus, he's still holding back his power." Brando said to her when he saw her worried look.

"You're right. If he uses his full strength, then I'm afraid..." Lumilia nodded, and she took a deep breath to calm her breathing.

Suddenly the ground shook, and they heard a loud booming sound coming from the underground.

Both of them were caught off guard, so they fell on their butts.

"What the—" Brando cried out when he saw huge cracks start to appear on the ground.

"Bryan is serious right now," Lumilia muttered as she stood up and patted her clothes.

Then, the two of them saw smoke coming out of the cracks in the floor and a heatwave coming out of it.

"What's wrong with Bryan? We're just talking about him holding back his power, and now this..." Brando was speechless. If they created more damage, then they would have to pay for it.

The floor beneath their feet was five feet thick, and Bryan just blew it up with the aftershock of his attack. Plus, the concrete floor wasn't just an ordinary road. It was made from high-quality stone that a huge kingdom used to create their roads.

This was the only thing that made the Fersch dukedom the same as the huge countries. In history, before the Fersch dukedom was founded here, this place was once a huge country. However, after it fell, the Fersch dukedom replaced it, and it didn't manage to catch up to the level of the previous country.

Their improvements stagnated throughout the time because of the suppression they received from their neighboring countries.

"Let's go. Now that Bryan is serious, this place is turning bad," Lumilia said to Brando.

"Turning bad?" Brando looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"Yeah, the Adventurers Guild doesn't know about the dark vine eater in the sewers. According to their records, the monsters in the sewers are only toxic rats and grim toxic rats. But now..." Lumilia said to him.

"I understand. It means that someone purposely hid those monsters there, right?" Brando realized what she was trying to say. "Also, did those monsters have any relation to the killings in this place?"

"I don't know. It is impossible for the dark vine eater to kill those people. If the dark vine eater is going to kill someone, then it will eat it. It will not leave the body in the alley." Lumilia said to him. Still, she was wondering why there was a dark vine eater in the sewers of this dukedom.