Zhou Xiao glowered, clenching his face as his gaze turned cold.

Every goblin in the tribe were charging at his group at the hobgoblin's furious roar.

Before this, those students had imagined that they would fight and win gloriously when they had their backs up against the wall.

They had even envisioned it in this very confrontation between themselves and the goblin horde.

However, when they smelled the goblins' stink from up close, saw their maniacal glares, and realized that the goblins outnumber them by several fold, all magnificent aspiration disappeared in a puff of smoke, and only the most primitive of terror was left in the depths of their minds.

They had to run!

Or what, stay and be magical beast fodder?

Without needing anyone to tell them, the students all fled, pushing themselves even harder than when they were violently suckling infants.

While the goblins attacking them were not tall, they were familiar with the landscape, well aware of any slopes or pits nearby.

Moreover, because they had been constantly dwelling in the forests, some of those goblins were more physically fit than those university students who lacked training.

Two goblins soon caught up to the slowest girl, and the one of the left pounced, swinging his club at her head.

A transparent barrier hence appeared over her body to deflect the blow, and her summoned beast—a slime—was called forth as regulation dictated.

The slime sprang up, spitting purple acid ooze which streaked through the air in an arc.

One of the goblins was almost struck in the eyes. It was lucky to have raised its arm at the very last instant to block the acid ooze.

The slime managed to wrong foot those two goblins, proving itself very useful just then.

It managed to buy some time for its master.

Forty-four seconds later, three goblins beat it into a pile of pulp, destroying it completely.

One minute and fifty-seven seconds later, the goblins caught up with the girl again.

There was no one who came to protect her this time—the one and only companion she had was the slime, which had literally been beaten into a pulp.

She had no other summoned beasts aside from that to buy her time. After all, she had grumbled about how gnomes and goblins were ugly, and so did not take any…

Amid one final scream, a fresh flower wilted.

***

As the hobgoblin walked just beneath his tree, Chen Yining stared at the defenseless back of its head, feeling an immeasurable thrill right then.

This was he best moment for an ambush.

He hesitated for a brief instant before calling an attack.

Green Skin needed just two more dead goblins to evolve. Once it did, it would be two ranks above hobgoblins—which was equal to an adult beating up a kid, let alone average goblins that were three ranks below.

And at his command, Green Skin leaped off the tree from on high, shrieking weirdly as it did.

The hobgoblin promptly looked up toward the bizarre cry and reacted swiftly with a barrel roll forward.

It did not realize that Green Skin was not aiming for it, but the two goblins behind it.

All those two could saw were two fists that kept enlarging in their vision.

Pow! Pow!

Their heads were dented.

On the tree, Chen Yining moved quickly to drag both strands of essences that appeared on his Summoner's Grimoire.

[8/8], [1/1]

All conditions met. Evolve!

[Summoned Beast: Goblin Chieftain]

[Current Level: 2 (74/100)

[Rank: Rare ⭐]

[Race Talent: While attacking, goblin chieftains have a fractional chance of inflicting fear upon a unit with lower rank.]

[Bond (Goblin)]

[Summary: Remember, runts—I'm not the chieftain, I'm the arch-chieftain!]

This time, Green Skin's figure remained just over two meters tall and did not change much, but numerous yellow and blue bands had appeared over its face and arm.

Since it had evolved in a split second, when the university students eventually turned to look behind, all they saw was Green Skin lifting the enemy hobgoblin by the neck with a single hand.

The hobgoblin struggled as hard as it could.

Terror could be seen in its eyes.

A chieftain… how did a chieftain appear out of the blue?

Goblin chieftains only appeared in large goblin villages, and those were situated deeper inside the forests!

Green Skin gripped its right hand firmly then, the veins over its palm protruding.

With a crunching sound, the hobgoblin's head drooped feebly and it faded into a white light.

Chen Yining studied the required materials for Green Skin's next evolution then, and felt that it was not possible for the time being.

It was [0/32], [1/4] and [0/1], and if what he surmised was right, it meant thirty-two goblins, four hobgoblins, and one goblin warrior.

While goblins and hobgoblins would be easy, Chen Yining had yet to encounter any wild goblin warriors.

Meanwhile, the remaining goblins were left at a loss following their hobgoblin's death. In fact, two extremely cowardly goblins were trying to make their quiet escape.

"Squawk-garble~" A goblin nearby was hopping and yelling something nearby.

Green Skin glared at it and bared its sinister teeth, and the goblin's feet promptly caved. Dropping limply to its knees, it started bawling and kept squawking a load of stuff that Chen Yining did not understand.

Still, Green Skin appeared to understand. Touching its cheeks and then its own pecs, it casually waved at the goblin, gesturing for the goblin to make itself scarce.

"Twenty goblins… you've only killed three for now, so do what you will," Chen Yining said quietly.

He had no idea what the other goblin was saying, but what Green Skin did allowed him to make a wild guess.

Green Skin quivered at that, and promptly ran off to hunt down the other goblins.

***

"Thank you… really, thank you." The university students who ran away just now returned when they saw what happened.

Since they had yet to escaped the dangerous forest and return to town, they were naturally going to latch onto the most powerful person around them.

"You're awesome, bro."

"Thank you, bro."

Be that as it may, they were not all that barefaced and were not great at flattery, which was why they could only manage those few lines. Most of them were just standing around hesitantly, and would quickly smile when Chen Yining's gaze reached them.

He did not have to ponder much to guess their intention—they want to return to the city with him.

With the one student who had tamed the doll monkey gone, the remaining students were all noobs.

But I don't want do go back to the city right now…

After all, Chen Yining needs to seize the moment and accomplish all three quests on hand, since the presence of the bounty house was constrained by time. There was no telling how long they would have to wait if they missed this one chance, not to mention that his younger brother was still beside the lake—what if something dangerous happened to him if he was away for too long?

Someone ran towards them then and cried out in panic, "Mingli is dead!"

The students panicked further at those words.

After all, a human who was still alive and kicking a moment ago was gone in the blink of an eye.

Fear grew among their hearts.

All of them turned toward Chen Yining. He was now their savior, after all.