The mercenaries were planning to get rid of the fat rat queen.

  Although its combat power was mediocre, as the core of the entire tribe, it had at least gold-level strength. Once it succeeded, digging out a gold-level earth magic crystal would be a sure thing.

  However, when Captain Kenmet swung his two-handed sword and was about to take action, he was stopped by Jia Lan. Jia Lan smiled and asked Captain Kenmet: "Do you want a precious gold magic crystal or an endless supply of silver magic crystals?"

  Captain Kenmet was stunned when he heard this.

  Magic crystals are rare resources. Depending on the type and rarity, the market price naturally varies greatly. Among the five magic crystals of "wind, fire, water, earth, and wood", the earth magic crystal may be the most inconspicuous and the price is relatively affordable.

  The black iron grade earth magic crystal is only five silver jims, and the bronze grade is only five gold talans. Even the gold grade earth magic crystal can only be sold for five hundred gold talans at most. It depends on whether there are earth magicians who need it urgently to sell it at a good price.

  After all, the higher the grade of magic crystal, the rarer it is. No one would be stupid enough to sell it at the market price set by those profiteers.

  Although five hundred gold talans are not a small number, ten silver grade earth magic crystals can also be sold at the same price.

  The Golden Two-Headed Dragon Mercenary Group has just harvested tens of thousands of silver earth magic crystals, so naturally they don’t look down on a mere gold magic crystal.

  However, Jia Lan’s words made people wonder, can we harvest more silver magic crystals by not killing the rat queen?

  “Mr. Jia Lan, do you mean… that you plan to tame this rat queen?” Captain Kenmet scratched his head and asked in confusion.

  "Taming? No, it's not necessary." Jia Lan smiled and shook his head, pointing to the cage array in the rat cage hall, "In fact, thousands of years ago, the Dragon Worship Cult had already started to raise Dark Mocha rats, which you call 'Dark Demon Rats'. These cages are prepared for them."

  A fire destroyed the huge rat colony that the Rat Queen had spent countless years breeding, but the sacrifice of the rat colony not only cleared the rat infestation in the ruins of the Dragon Worship Cult temple for Jia Lan and his team, but also indirectly saved the life of the Rat Queen.

  For the Dark Mocha rats, a dark creature group originating from the Underdark, as long as the Rat Queen is still there, the group is not extinct.

  This Rat Queen, who has been kept in captivity by the Dragon Worship Cult for countless generations, although most of the Dark Mocha rats' special abilities have degenerated, the instinct to reproduce the group still exists.

  Feeling that there was no danger outside, the dying Rat Queen, despite her weak state, struggled to breed the next generation of Rat Queens before wailing and dying.

  Its corpse, like the previous generations of Rat Queens, will remain fresh under the protection of some residual energy and become food for the new generation of Rat Queens as they grow.

  However, the mercenaries who did not understand these ecosystems naturally did not know that the Rat Queen had given birth to a successor.

  Under Jia Lan's command, they took out ropes and turned over the "meat mountain"-like corpse of the rat queen, revealing its fat belly.

  Jia Lan used a wind blade to cut through the fat layer, and the disgusting intestines and liver poured out.

  One of the purple flesh balls began to wriggle slowly and was taken out by a mercenary who covered his mouth and nose and placed in front of Jia Lan.

  Jia Lan used the long dagger that Old Jimmy gave him to cut open the embryo, and a pink little thing rolled out, whimpering weakly and sniffing around.

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  Jia Lan summoned a water ball to wash it, and released several cleaning spells to remove mucus and stench, and pulled it up by its tail for careful observation.

  This one-foot-long little guy seemed to be born with some congenital deficiencies. He was frightened by the upside-down posture and screamed desperately, but he couldn't even struggle, and could only twitch his tender nose to explore the outside world.

  In Jia Lan's eyes, the little thing's weak protest seemed insignificant, and he gently placed it on a carefully cleaned ground.

  Then, Jia Lan took out a heavy stone box from his pocket, and carefully took out a small ivory cup with complicated and mysterious runes engraved on the wall, a crescent-shaped bone pocket knife, and three crystal balls that were crystal clear and flawless.

  Jia Lan used a long dagger as a pen to outline a simple but mysterious three-phase rune array on the ground, and then placed the crying mouse in the inverted triangle pattern in the center of the array.

  Jia Lan placed the three crystal balls steadily on the apex of the inverted triangle rune, humming the obscure secret spell, flicking his fingers, and a handful of bright gem powder fell like a meteor.

  As the gem powder fell, the entire rune array suddenly burst into a light blue light, and the criss-crossing lines and mysterious runes flickered, covering the entire space.

  The crystal ball at the top of the inverted triangle rune glowed softly, covering the entire rune array and the crawling mouse.

  The originally uneasy mouse seemed to have found support, and instantly calmed down, curled up in the center of the array, and fell asleep.

  Jia Lan picked up the sharp bone knife, gently cut a hole in the palm of his left hand, and clenched his fist to drip the gushing blood into the ivory cup.

  Every time a drop of blood fell into the cup, the ivory cup would make a crisp and pleasant ding-ding sound as if it was struck. The bright red blood gradually turned into brilliant gold under the transformation of the dense mysterious runes on the ivory cup.

  Jia Lan solemnly chanted the secret spell, dipped his fingers in the golden blood, and began to outline a secret mark that belonged to him out of thin air.

  When the golden secret mark was finally completed, Jia Lan hesitated for a moment, then asked Captain Kenmet for the golden magic crystal of the mouse queen, and threw it into the mark. The magic crystal was wrapped in the secret mark and slowly fell towards the sleeping mouse in the magic circle.

  As it fell, the golden magic crystal, which was as big as a fist, shrank smaller and smaller until it was only the size of a thumb belly, and was wrapped in the secret mark and embedded in the mouse's forehead!

  Seeing that the contract ceremony was successfully completed without any resistance, Jia Lan breathed a sigh of relief.

  However, just as the light of the three crystal balls gradually dimmed, a fiery red light suddenly flashed on the mouse's body, converging into the earthy yellow magic crystal with a hint of light gold on the forehead, adding a small flame rune to the secret mark left by Jia Lan!

  Jia Lan widened his eyes, this change was completely beyond his expectations.

  The Rat Queen's golden magic crystal was for the Little Mouse to inherit the Rat Queen's heritage. Perhaps it would inherit the Rat Queen's earth element talent, but where did the fire come from? Could it be the fire element left in the magic crystal after the Rat Queen died in the flames?

  Jia Lan shook his head in confusion, put away the contract-making tools, grabbed the mouse and stood up.

  Jia Lan did not yet have the ability to summon a "mystical pet", so he could not seal the mouse as his magic pet for the time being. Of course, he never intended to choose a little mouse as his mystical pet.

  So, Jia Lan could only ask the mercenaries for a leather backpack, stuffed the still sleeping mouse into it, and carried it on his back.

  The whole contract-making process amazed the magicians of the Golden Two-Headed Dragon Mercenary Group. Fortunately, there was no "summoner", a branch profession of magicians among them, otherwise they would probably see that Jia Lan's contract-making ceremony was very different from the summoning ceremony they knew.

  In fact, Jia Lan's strength was not enough to complete this contract-making ceremony. The success was mainly due to the power of this set of contract-making holy objects, in addition to the fact that the young mice had no resistance consciousness.

  Although the main function of this set of holy objects is not to sign a contract with creatures, it is more than enough to deal with low-level beings such as the young rat queen.

  Just as Jia Lan was about to continue exploring other areas of the Dragon Worship Ruins with Captain Kenmet and his team, he suddenly remembered a forgotten legend about the Dark Mocha Rat!

  According to the legend, the Dark Mocha Rat is a rat-shaped creature living in the Dark Region, but they are not ordinary rats, but a kind of arcane creature, commonly known as "Arcane Beast".

  It is said that the Dark Mocha Rat has a variety of forms and is not limited to a single species. According to the needs of the tribe, the Rat Queen will give birth to different kinds of offspring to serve herself.

  For example, the "Flame Mocha" that can be reborn from the flames, and the "Blood Mocha" that can restore itself by sucking the blood of prey, etc.

  The most common is the "Claw Mocha" that occupies the majority of the tribe.

  Interestingly, among the Dark Demon Rat Group, some gold-level Rat Queen guards and spouses are called "Rat Kings" by mercenaries, those responsible for fighting are called "Soldier Rat", and those responsible for collecting food are called "Worker Rat", etc.

  However, these are completely titles imposed on them by people according to the habits of ant colonies and bee colonies. In fact, the so-called "rat king, soldier rats, and worker rats" should be the faded "flame mocha, blood mocha, and claw mocha"!