After leaving Pre Village, he summoned a black raven to begin reconnaissance.
In fact, during the previous clearing operations, Rowan already knew in which direction there were more Goblins, so heading in that direction was definitely the right choice.
Having an extra field of vision felt a bit strange to Rowan at first, but he got used to it after a few minutes.
The black magic raven was different from a real-life raven; it was completely black, with magic flowing through its body, feeling almost like liquid.
Its mimicry was truly poor, and anyone who wasn’t blind could tell it wasn’t a normal creature.
The raven flew high in the sky to scout the surrounding area, while Rowan followed below.
Soon, he had roughly locked onto a direction.
He stayed busy until nightfall, clearing out two more Goblin tribes and slaying hundreds of ordinary Goblins.
The experience from Goblins was still a bit low.
If only there were an Ogre tribe, that would be great.
In the story, the Ogre tribe seemed to be deep within the Tob Forest.
The leader of that Ogre tribe was named “Gu” and was one of the three great rulers of the forest.
He was extremely powerful; although he was nothing more than trash that got one-shotted by the Ainz Ooal Gown, he was still not someone Rowan could handle right now.
Unless Degradation could instantly kill him.
And in the Tob Forest, the strongest entity was still that giant hamster taken as a pet by the Ainz Ooal Gown.
Deep in the great forest, it was said that there existed a game BOSS that had crossed over hundreds of years ago, with a level as high as eighty.
That was an existence known as a Demon God, now sealed deep within the forest, so naturally, it was not something Rowan could consider right now.
Well, he should just keep his feet on the ground and kill more Goblins.
Goblins were great; they were weak, provided experience points, and were numerous.
…
Three days passed quietly.
During these three days, Rowan destroyed over a dozen Goblin tribes, killed over a dozen Ogres, and various other monsters, such as Slimes, wolves, and so on, among which there was no lack of monsters stronger than Ogres.
Unfortunately, the highest level among them was only ten; none of them could serve as a real opponent.
In three days, his level had only increased by one and a half.
Leveling up was becoming increasingly difficult, and the good days of rapid leveling were gone forever.
After three days of exploration, Rowan had roughly located the place where the Goblins gathered the most.
It was deep in the mountain forest, some distance away from the village.
Rowan only watched from afar and dared not get close at all.
Based on his observations, there were at least thousands of Goblins gathered there—no, perhaps even tens of thousands.
This was far beyond the scale of a Goblin tribe.
Rowan looked on with great envy; with so many Goblins, if converted into experience, how much would that be?
However, as good as the experience was, Rowan did not dare to be reckless.
Those ordinary Goblins were one thing; they couldn’t even break his defense.
But the high-level Goblins hidden among them were different.
Rowan had discovered more than one Goblin over level ten, and he had even seen a level fifteen Goblin.
That level fifteen Goblin was not the Goblin King.
If there really was a Goblin King, its level would most likely be even higher.
In this situation, rushing in alone would likely result in being beaten to death by a mob.
Tsk, his current methods were still too few, and he didn’t have any skills for escaping or clearing the field, so he couldn’t take the risk.
He returned to the village first to report the situation to the village chief.
Although he hadn’t discovered the whereabouts of the Goblin King, with several thousand Goblins gathered together, the probability of the Goblin King appearing was extremely high.
Rowan wrote a report and handed it to the village chief, telling him to immediately find someone to notify the Adventurers Guild.
While waiting for a response from the Adventurers Guild, Rowan approached the edge of this large tribe to clear out some Goblins that were far from the camp.
These experience points were up for grabs, so why not take them?
Although he didn’t dare to break through the front, picking off stragglers on the outskirts shouldn’t be a problem, right?
With the raven scouting, he could run away quickly if he spotted something wrong.
Rowan targeted those Goblin squads that went out hunting.
Every ambush allowed him to annihilate the entire squad, without letting a single Goblin escape.
…
Behind the large Goblin tribe stood a towering building.
It was a wooden structure, filled from top to bottom with the style of the Goblin race: bizarre, dark green, cluttered, and stinky.
Ordinary Goblins didn’t have the idea of building structures; they didn’t even know how to use tools.
However, as their levels increased, their intelligence would also increase.
The stronger the Goblin, the higher its intelligence.
Inside this tall building, the young Goblin King flipped through the magic book in his hands.
He was very tall, looking not much different from an ordinary human, wearing the crown on his head, dressed in neat leather armor, and holding a magic wand in his hand.
He really didn’t look like a Goblin.
The Goblin King, the leader of the Goblin race, was generally formed by a max-level base Goblin class—Goblin Mage, Goblin Warrior, or Goblin Archer—advancing through some fortuitous coincidence.
For example, this new Goblin King had advanced from the former tribe leader, a Goblin Mage.
His level was as high as 21, and he had already crossed into the fourth tier.
Not only did the Goblin King possess a clever brain, but he also mastered several powerful fourth-tier spells.
He commanded tens of thousands of ordinary Goblins, and under his command, there were over a dozen third-tier commander warriors, and even hundreds of second-tier subordinates.
Warriors, mages, archers, priests—every class was very complete.
This strength was enough to destroy an entire region.
But it still wasn’t enough; the Goblins were still too few.
The Goblin King was well aware of the power of humans.
Although he could claim territory and become a king, he would soon attract the attention of human adventurers.
With his current strength, he was no match for those high-level human adventurers.
He was very distressed.
He originally wanted to slowly become stronger, at least waiting until he reached the fifth tier before starting to build a kingdom.
But unexpectedly, after becoming the Goblin King, those ordinary Goblins were inexplicably attracted to him, and more and more came.
This caused him great annoyance.
Should he abandon these Goblins and retreat to hide his identity?
Or should he go with the flow and continue gathering Goblins, only considering escape if the situation became unfavorable?
The young king was very conflicted.
Although gathering Goblins was eye-catching, it was not without its benefits.
He discovered that the more Goblins he gathered, the faster his strength increased.
The Goblin King class was just like that; the more subordinates he had, the faster his strength increased.
If he were just by himself, he wouldn’t be a “King,” and his growth in strength would become very slow.
Just as the Goblin King was hesitating, an old Goblin entered.
This was one of the very few existences among Goblins with relatively high intelligence.
Ordinary Goblins were practically like beasts, and while Goblins that had crossed into the second and third tiers had a bit of intelligence, they were exceptionally stupid.
This Goblin priest before him was originally the leader of a tribe, and after joining, he became the right-hand man of the Goblin King.