It had been ages since Alexander had laid eyes on a being like the ones in front of them, but the last time he did, it seared an image into his mind that he had not been able to forget even till this very day.

The moment he saw the three huge figures appear within the goblin settlement, all his past memories came flooding back into his mind.

He no longer remembered how long ago it was, but the last time he encountered such a being, Alexander had been leading the soldiers of the Royal Army in a defence against an invasion force so fearsome that it had cut right into the heart of the Great Manta Kingdom!

Tens of thousands of lives were lost before the combined coalition army of the nobles were finally able to surround and rout the goblin army under its command.

The Goblin King!

A freak of nature that was occasionally born into the goblin community, and also one that was able to rally all goblins to its side, boosting their strength and power with just its aura alone.

On top of that, it possessed intelligence that far surpassed the average goblins, allowing it to efficiently deploy its boosted goblin army.

For some reason, goblins that gathered around the Goblin King seemed to fall under a deep trance, not having to think twice about sacrificing their lives to fulfil the Goblin King's wishes.

On top of that, even by itself it was not an easy opponent.

Its superior physique and fighting sense meant that it was even able to overpower a troll in combat despite the latter's strong regenerative abilities.

All of that added together made the Goblin King an extremely formidable opponent to face on the battlefield!

And now, before his eyes, there were not just one, but three different Goblin Kings standing together at once!

With such a ridiculous scene unfolding before his eyes, he actually failed to hold in his emotions for a moment and gasped out loud!

Thankfully, the thunderous drumming of the goblins was sufficient to drown out any other sound, and the goblins failed to notice their presence despite his mistake.

Regardless, Roland gave him a stern stare, and Alexander could only hang his head low in shame.

Alexander was the only veteran here, yet he was actually the one who had almost given away their position due to a completely avoidable mistake.

This was a mistake that could have led to disastrous results for the trio, possibly even death!

"What is wrong, Alexander? Do you know these beasts?" Roland chose not to focus on his mistake any longer, and asked with a voice transmission.

"Those..all three of them are Goblin Kings!" Alexander had regained his calm after realising his mistake, and did not make the same foolish action of verbalising his words this time.

"Three Goblin Kings?!" both Roland and Rose turned to look at Alexander in shock.

What kind of concept was this?

How would the goblins act when there were three different leaders born into the same community?

Alexander did not respond, choosing instead to focus his attention on the gathering of goblin kings that was occurring before them.

Seeing that he did not have any intention of speaking further, the duo turned back to the Goblin Kings below as well.

Contrary to their expectations, the three Goblin Kings walked up to each other and simply sat down on the ground before starting to converse in an unknown language.

The thunderous drumming stopped and the noisy chattering of the goblins ceased, as if they were afraid of disturbing the conversations among their leaders.

The three people hiding in the trees were a safe far distance away, but their keen senses allowed them to clearly hear the words being exchanged.

It was the Goblin Tongue, the language that all goblins communicated in, and also something fundamentally different from the Human Tongue of mankind.

There were people who studied the various languages of the different races, and were able to decipher even the words of beasts.

Unfortunately, none of the three people present were learned in such a subject, and there was no way for them to understand a single word.

Judging from their actions, it did not seem like the meeting would end anytime soon, and the trio could only retreat regrettably.

They had already obtained more information than they planned for, even managing to uncover the presence of the Goblin Kings by a stroke of good luck, and needed to regroup at their temporary encampment in order to plan their next steps.

As for sniping off the Goblin Kings, it was definitely impossible to do so in the presence of all the goblins, unless they wanted to face off against the entirety of the goblin horde right now.

The number of goblins was seemingly endless, so even if they had the strength to do so, their stamina might not be able to hold up before they were eventually overwhelmed by sheer numbers!

---

Night had already fallen upon the land, and back in his tent, Roland lay on his bed, eyes wide open as he stared at the ceiling made of beast skin.

In his mind, images of the goblin settlement continued to replay themselves as he tried to think of any possibly exploitable areas.

Was it possible for him to enter the settlement and assassinate the Goblin Kings while avoiding any detection?

Roland believed that it was definitely possible for him to enter and kill off one, or even two of the Goblin Kings if he could only know their exact locations at that time.

As for completely avoiding detection, he was not confident of it.

After all, he had trained to be a warrior, not an assassin.

Even if he was able to safely escape after being found, it would still startle the goblins into exercising greater caution, possibly forcing them deeper into Dragontail Valley.

And this would only make it even more difficult to eliminate them once and for all.

What Roland wished for was not a temporary solution like forcing the goblins back for the time being.

What he wanted was a loud and resounding victory that could announce his ascension onto the world stage!

That was the only way he could truly gain the approval of all within his realm!

That was the only way he could reignite the hope and trust in the nobles!

So if he were to execute such an assassination operation, then Roland had to be certain of its success!

Unfortunately, he simply could not think of any method that could ensure the success of such an operation.

Roland let out a deep sigh of helplessness and sat up in bed, entering meditation state to calm his mind.

Unbeknownst to him, there were four adventurers riding straight towards his camp at this very moment.

After thinking for a few days about Lynn's advice to him, Baroc had finally decided to take the initiative and requested for another audience with the City Lord and the king.

However, upon arriving at the Aron Army facility, he was actually informed that the king had already left with the entire expedition army!

Baroc could hardly believe what he was told!

What the hell happened to the king's promise to give him an answer after the investigations were done?

He had heard a lot about the bad reputation of this king, and he personally bore a bit of negative emotions towards he king as well.

However, this King Roland ended up being even more unreliable than he thought!

Depressed about his naivety in overestimating the king's credibility, Baroc could only leave the facility in dejection.

But the heavens were not about to forsake him!

Klint's contacts among the merchants had informed him that the king had purchased a large amount of construction materials before heading towards the Dragontail Valley.

Hearing this bit of information from Klint, Baroc could see a ray of hope, and quickly gathered the other members of Phoenix Sentinels before riding after King Roland.

After a week of travels, they had finally caught sight of the expedition army's second encampment, where King Roland was currently located.

"They have truly fortified the area! How efficient!" Adel mused upon seeing the watchtowers and barricades erected around the exit of Dragontail Valley.

"This is quite a feat indeed, but did the king really march such a large army over here just for construction purposes? He truly is a special one!" Klint laughed heartily.

"The fortification is a good idea, but now that such a huge army is here, we no longer have to resort to simply defending against goblin raiding parties. If only we can convince the king to deploy his soldiers, if they followed our lead then we might be able to end this once and for all!" Baroc sighed upon thinking about the difficult task ahead of him.

It was once again time for negotiation and persuasion.

It truly was annoying to deal with these nobles!

"May the gods bless us with fortune!" Winstart prayed for the success of the group.

"Now then, shall we go?" Adel urged, apparently tired of just watching the camp from a distance.

"Yes, let us hope for the best!" Baroc gave the leash in his hands a quick flick, and his mount started moving towards the Royal Army encampment, followed by his three companions.

The camp was well set up, with proper fencing around its perimeters and multiple soldiers on routine patrol.

Under the watchful eyes of the guards, the group of adventurers approached the main entrance on foot, leading their horses by their halters.

"Stop right there and name yourselves!" a guard shouted out once they got close enough.

"We are Phoenix Sentinels from Waterfall City! We are here to request an audience with the king regarding the goblins!" Baroc shouted out in response.

"Phoenix Sentinels..?" the guard was startled.

Soldiers and adventurers were similar in the sense that they admired the strong.

In that sense, the powerful S-ranked adventurers were like top celebrities in their world!

Considering that there were only five S-ranked adventurer groups in the entire Great Manta Kingdom, it was not a difficult task for anyone to remember the names of all five groups.

The soldiers on duty were no exception, and their eyes sparkled with excitement upon realising the identity of these strangers.

Phoenix Sentinels, the only S-ranked adventurer group that was based in Waterfall City!

"Please wait a moment! I will inform His Majesty immediately!"

A soldier rushed off immediately, acting all eager for a task that was usually considered by them as nothing but a chore.

The soldier quickly returned with a smile on his face, bearing good news.

After hearing that the king had agreed to grant them an audience, the members of Phoenix Sentinels promptly followed behind the soldier as he led them to the command tent which was set up specifically for meetings to take place in.

There were no seats in the tent, and King Roland was already waiting there with his personal maid by his side, along with Alexander who had only just entered right before the members of Phoenix Sentinels.

"Greetings to Your Majesty," the four adventurers bowed as they greeted.

"It is you again! Rise! What brings the famous Phoenix Sentinels all the way out here?" a strange light shined in Roland's eyes for a moment as he cast his eyes on Baroc, but it disappeared immediately, undetected by any.

"This might be presumptuous of us, but after seeing that Your Majesty has set off towards Dragontail Valley from Waterfall City, we were hoping we would be able to render our services here," Baroc smiled amicably as he answered.

Despite his disdain for the king, his tone and actions were all full of respect.

There was completely no trace of the man who had an outburst of emotions when shouting at the disguised Roland just one week before.

Baroc knew perfectly well that he needed the full cooperation of the man standing before him in order to accomplish anything concrete, and thus could not afford to antagonise him in any way.

"That is a promising proposition, but in what way do you think you could help?" Roland inquired curiously.

Thanks to Baroc's previous outburst towards him, Roland did not have the best of impression of the adventurer group Phoenix Sentinels at the moment.

However, he knew better than anyone else about how dire the situation was.

So he similarly could not afford to let his emotions cloud his judgement, and thus decided to hear out the S-ranked adventurer group before anything else.

He had previously failed to obtain any further information from Baroc due to their conflict in Waterfall City, so this would be a good time to do so.

"As I mentioned before in the presence of Count Bastion, we are willing to spearhead any offense into Dragontail Valley! With us leading the charge to break their main defences, the casualties incurred would be much less than necessary!" Baroc answered confidently.

Hearing that, it was not just Roland who frowned, but Rose and Alexander did the same as well.

He planned to have the Royal Army charge through that treacherous terrain into a battle with goblins led by three Goblin Kings?

Was this guy really an S-ranked adventurer?

Or was he truly this confident in his own skills?

Even so, Roland had never witnessed the power of Phoenix Sentinels, so he decided not to come to a conclusion immediately.

"Have you gone in personally to check out the situation within the valley?" Roland questioned doubtfully.

"We have been operating in the region for a long time and are relatively familiar with the terrain of Dragontail Valley since long ago, Your Majesty," Baroc smiled confidently.

So he knew about the uneven ground and dense vegetation that would hinder any army.

"Then have you gone deep enough to scout out the goblin settlements?" Roland did not hesitate before asking another question.

"We did enter and managed to confirm the location of the goblin settlement, so I am confident of being able to lead us straight to the goblins!"

So he knew about the existence of the enormous goblin settlement that was unnaturally well organised.

"And what do you know about the existence of the Goblin Kings?" Roland continued questioning.

"Signs do suggest the existence of a Goblin King among them, but this had never been confirmed by any reliable sources. In fact, even if there were a Goblin King among them, it might not be a bad thing! It might take quite some effort but by concentrating all our attacks on taking it down as fast as we could, it is possible to severe the command chain of the goblin horde at the cost of some necessary sacrifices, ultimately securing the victory for our side!" Baroc answered with the same confident voice from before.

It was a voice that could have inspired trust and confidence in him from any other.

But right now, those words sounded screeching to the ears and were simply painful for Roland to continue listening to!