Level 2 Warrior

Green Skin bared its ferocious tusks. It seized the nearest goblin, its exceedingly large palms holding the goblin up with a vice-grip in the air, seemingly having no mercy toward a former green skin comrade.

Pow!!!

The other goblin was slammed heavily to the ground, and there was not telling how many bones throughout its body was broken.

Green Skin then raised its right leg and stomped on the goblin's head, crushing it.

It seemed to enjoy using such overwhelming power to crush its opponent—it had never tried anything like that before.

After becoming a goblin warrior, Green Skin completely overwhelmed any average goblin in terms of strength.

Meanwhile, another goblin beside them could tell that it was not getting away, and so shrieked in fear as it smashed its stick at Green Skin's butt cheeks.

They bounced elastically, while Green Skin's brow twitched as well.

While its buttocks were not injured and were merely aching a little, it lost face since it had been hit in the rump by another goblin in front of its own master.

In response, it swung its palm from high above down onto the other goblin's neck.

Smack!

The goblin's head swiveled half a circle before it fell limply to the ground.

Woah, such a fierce hobgoblin!

The pursuing humans were exceedingly irritated that the goblins they had chased so hard were being killed by someone else, but their indignation faded away entirely after they saw the violent sight.

See you around.

They did not doubt that the green-skinned muscular monster, which was endlessly stronger than the average goblins, could punch through their belly in just one try.

"What level of goblin is that?" someone asked somberly.

In their perspective, a goblin that powerful would have at least reached level 3.

"At first, I thought goblins were weak and didn't think that goblins are that ridiculous after they level up. I've made up mind—I'll level goblins!" someone added excitedly.

"Maybe the other guy had developed his goblin well." Another man discouraged him.

"There shouldn't be too huge a gap even if it's a matter of development—how much could individual goblins differ from each other anyway?" the first person retorted.

"Fine, you do have a point anyway."

Either way, the four goblins that had been killed were now Chen Yining's loot, and he first converted one for Green Skin, earning him 6 EXP that brought him up to level 2 with 3 additional EXP.

[Level 2 (3/1,000)]

Chen Yining rubbed his eyes, checking what he saw before and that his eyes were not playing tricks on him.

One level up, and the EXP was multiplied by ten?

Chen Yining had expected several other possibilities—such as each subsequent level needing an additional one hundred EXP or even double the EXP cost from before, just like the formula for fusing goblins.

He just did not expect that leveling up again needed ten times the EXP.

With this formula… leveling would become extremely difficult.

Did that not mean that improving from level 3 to level 4 would require 10,000 EXP?!

It seems that leveling up was going to be exceedingly tough, but it would also mean that the improvement between each level would be considerable. 

At the moment, Chen Yining was staring fixedly at Green Skin, who did not seem to change visibly after reaching level 2.

The single difference was that its presence appeared just a littler fiercer now.

While Green Skin might be aware of how it had specifically changed itself, the goblin itself could not describe it—all it managed to do was mumble for half a day before concluding, "I became stronger".

Yes, yes, you're stronger now, whatever…

Meanwhile, after Chen Yining fused the remaining three dead goblins to Green Skin, its fusion progress was (3/8) (0/1).

While Chen Yining knew that the '8' in front denoted goblins, Chen Yining was not sure about the '1' at the back.

His guess was that it could be some necessary item, or the corpse of some evolved hobgoblin or goblin warrior.

Looking at the forest ahead, Chen Yining hesitated for a moment.

There was no telling if something might change if they went in at night.

Given how the gnomes and the goblins in the city had come from the forest, it was obvious that magical creatures could enter the forest.

What if they ran into powerful magical creatures if they headed inside the forest then?

It was safer to farm these goblins and gnomes in the suburbs.

While it was impossible to ensure perfect safety, it would at least be relatively safer.

As Chen Yining and the others moved along the streets, they found that many of the facilities on the way had been destroyed.

Some of the unluckier shops would be completely wrecked.

Chen Jing even narrowed his eyes with lingering fear.

It was fortunate that they were not living in the suburbs, or it would be too unbearable.

There was no way they could sleep soundly at night—in fact, they would be afraid to sleep too soundly, since they would be worried about magical creatures quietly slipping into their homes.

After walking some distance and getting off a downward slope, Chen Yining soon saw a nearby factory.

There was a large tent set up in the yard of the factory and the walls surrounding it was 2.6 meters tall. A group of goblins was outside, shrieking urgently and even hammering the gates with their sticks.

Even so, the steel gates of the factory were huge and thick with no gaps between its bars, preventing the goblins from sneaking inside.

Chen Yining remembered that some factory gates would have gaps between the bars that skinnier humans could crawl between, let alone smaller goblins.

Then, from the distance, Chen Yining managed to smell the stench of pig dung coming from within.

The factory must be a farm.

A sharp rake extended out of a gap at the bottom of the gates and stabbed one of the goblins in the leg, flooring it with the injury.

"One, two, three, four…"

Licking his lips, Chen Yining quietly hid behind a wall to count the goblins.

He counted three times to confirm that there were thirty-four, along with one hobgoblin.

This was the first time Chen Yining had seen one out in the wild too.

Surrounded by normal goblins that were only as tall as its chest, the hobgoblin stuck out like a sore thumb. 

Then, it raised a huge steel pipe it picked up from somewhere… and with a weird cry, smashed it on the gates.

Bang!

Chen Yining could clearly hear it even from far away.

Then, Chen Yining watched with his own eyes as the hobgoblin stumbled two steps backward, the steel pipe flying out of its grasp.

What an idiot.

Chen Yining thus inwardly critiqued the hobgoblin.