When the team members inside have successfully completed the transformation of the stronghold, and those specially processed magical messages have been successfully emitted, the strange and bizarre looking "ritual" outside is finally coming to an end.

Onlookers saw that the shadows of the "black cloaks" summoned by Baron Fiorlando had now been completely transformed into rats, so numerous that they could fill an entire clearing.

After a brief pause, these strange rats bypassed all onlookers and ran towards the cracks in the mounds around the Rock Lake Mine, where they disappeared in an instant.

It didn't take long for the huge black rat swarm to finally disperse completely, and the open space where the sculpture of the Black Sun Society Secret Ritual was erected was finally restored to its original state, the light and shadow of magic gradually converged, and the "arms" surrounding Baron Fiorlando slowly loosened.

The magical mist that permeated the vicinity dissipated with the gusts of wind, but the strange solemn atmosphere of the previous one still lingered, and the gray-white haired Baron Fiorlando did not rush to his feet, he raised his head, his face flashed with a strange look of reverence, he pressed his palm to the bottom of the Black Sun Ritual in front of him again, and whispered several praises to his ancient gods and the black sun in the sky.

At this point, the ceremony was finally completely over.

Baron Fiorlando slowly rose from the muddy ground, his neat clothes now dirty from his previous kneeling, but there was still a peculiar, god-like aura on his body.

The captain of the soldiers, who was in charge of guarding the mines, stepped forward with courage, and first praised the black sun in the same way as the baron had before, and then cautiously inquired about the true meaning of the ritual that the baron had just performed.

Probably because of the communication he had just communicated with the gods, the baron now seemed to be a little more approachable than before, and he did not scold the captain of the soldiers in front of him, but gave his own answer very patiently.

"In my opinion, the location of the Rock Lake mine is very important, and my colleagues ...... Hehe, the measures they have taken here before are far from sufficient, and I should make up for the gaps they have made. ”

Once again, Hugue perfectly followed the proud character of Baron Fiorlando.

He first mercilessly belittled the managers of the Rock Lake Mines before him, and then said in an extremely reverent tone: "What I call for is a great being who once ruled the land in distant times. ”

"Squeak?"

In the depths of the spiritual world, there was a question from the running rat, which disagreed with his master's words very much, what a "behemoth hill", it had never heard of it at all.

Shogg silently suppressed the doubts from the running rat, and then he continued to explain to the ordinary people around him: "What you have just seen is the response of the great god - our number of guards is limited, and the corners that can be monitored are even more few, which is not qualified, and is a sign of irresponsibility for the safety of the mines. ”

The captain of the soldiers swallowed and stumbled and asked, "You...... What do you mean? ”

"The army on the plains is gathering and may have begun to advance, and their spies are infiltrating our territory, do you want to be wiped in your sleep?"

Hearing this, the soldiers present were silent for a while.

One is because they had done the work of wiping the miner's neck just the night before, and the other is because they had more or less heard of the famous names of the Wattle royal spy and Merlin Le and the mage spy, but they did not expect that they would one day face their threat.

"Rest assured, these monitors won't do anything to you, their goal is only to keep the surrounding area safe......"

Xiuge sneered and said, "Now, go back to your place!" The guy in charge of the operation of the mine is here, I have something to ask you! ”

Then, he added to these people: "Do your own things well for me!" Don't forget, the eyes of the colossal hills are watching you! ”

As they spoke, someone saw a black shadow flashing in the pile of abandoned stones at their feet, which made them even more uneasy.

On the other side, the miners who were watching from a distance had dispersed, knowing the cruel overseers well and knowing that they were very likely to be their tools of anger, so they immediately returned to the mine where they worked.

In this way, Shuge had succeeded in establishing himself among the soldiers and overseers.

The new Baron of Fiorlando was significantly more oppressive than his previous Mage, and soon the people around him were scattered, with only the named mine director standing alone.

It was a young old man, about fifty years old, dressed in a nondescript old aristocratic attire, with two traces of ash on his knees, and apparently he had also knelt down during the ceremony.

The little old man cowered and came to Xiuge, he was a little hunchbacked, and coupled with his thin body, the whole person looked like he had shrunk.

"First...... Sir, no, sir......"

"I'm Baron Fiorlando."

"Yes, Lord Baron."

The old man was about to scare himself to death, and while he shivered, he squeezed out an extremely ugly smile: "I am the director of the mine, Hadera of the Ore Association of Watch City, what are you looking for me?" ”

"Hadera, you're familiar with the Rock Lake Mine?"

"Yes, I've been in a few nearby mines for decades."

Director Hadra nodded busily: "Before the war, I could manage three mines by myself, but the workers were all arrested and sent to serve as soldiers, so I will only take care of this one now." ”

"Oh? Is that so? ”

Xiuge squinted his eyes and looked at the little old man in front of him, and the eyes that had calmed down before once again glowed with magical light.

"That colleague of mine, he told me before he left that the workers in the mine seemed to be very dissatisfied with our management?"

Speaking of this, a gloomy smile appeared on the face that belonged to Baron Fiorlando: "Since you've been in these mines for so long, you should be familiar with these miners, right?" ”

"Uh, and ...... Not really. ”

Hadra sensed a chill inexplicably, his lips trembled twice, and when he raised his head, he met the baron, and at this moment, he only felt that his internal organs seemed to be pierced by the other party's gaze.

"Lord Baron," he said, "Actually, I don't know much about these miners...... Although most of them came from the city, they didn't mine much before the war. ”

"Not a miner? So what did they do before? ”

"Everything, farmers, merchants, hunters and fishermen, and maybe ...... who have fled from the front"

Speaking of this, Hadera also sighed: "Now the demand for crystalline ore is getting bigger and bigger, and many places even have to arrest people for mining." ”

"Hmm."

Xiuge silently withdrew the magic power he had released, the light and shadow under his eyes returned to calm, he looked at the mine director seriously, and then said, "Then, I want you to go back and sort out the list of these miners...... Pick out the ones you think are the most troublesome and provocative, and give me their names tomorrow morning. ”

"Huh? Ah, yes, my lord, I'll give it to you tomorrow morning. ”

"Also, my soldiers are coming soon, and they need warehouses, a lot of them."

Xiuge instructed very casually: "Empty those warehouses for food, and store those dried vegetables for what?" ”

"But what about the food?"

"Whatever you do, throw it all away, or take it to those miners to eat, I don't care, in short, it must be vacated within two days!"

In the baron's arrogant words, the mine director Hadra fled, sliding away like a beetle rolling on the ground.

……

In the evening, the weary workers came out of the mine in disgrace, and they gathered in the open space of the mine with trepidation.

Today, they are mining slightly less ore and are likely not up to par.

Whenever this happens, they are always punished by either the leaders of the miners being caught and whipped, or being deprived of wages and rest time.

Today, however, none of this has happened.

The miners were astonished to find that the heavily armed and vicious overseers had all been grouped on the other side of the mine, and they looked as if they had been given a new job.

From the slumped mine supervisor, the miners learned that the new Baron Fiorlando had no trust in their clumsy and sloppy workers, so he entrusted the task of renovating the mine camp and building some of the foundations to the overseers and professional soldiers.

Now, the miners are given an additional task.

The surplus food storage in the mine needs to be vacated, so the dried vegetables, hard bread, and some dried meat and fish that have accumulated in the warehouse need to be disposed of urgently, and the best way to dispose of these stockpiles is to fill the miners' stomachs.

Director Hadera seemed to have a talent for the power of the fox, and in a few words he imitated the gesture and tone of the baron's orders, and then the "lazy" miners were left to accept their punishment honestly by digesting the rudimentary food that no one wanted to touch.

In the two-story building on the edge of the mine, the baron's face flashed in the light.

He let out a short, inexplicable laugh as he closed the curtains and disappeared into the hazy darkness.

Now, he had to seriously digest the windfall that the previous "ritual" had brought to him.

For some reason, the ancient ritual that originated from the "Colossal Hill" brought unexpected nourishment to the running rats belonging to the belief of Mother Earth Goddess and all the Ernst rat colonies.

The magic from the Black Sun Ritual had been perfectly divided between them at this time.

Sniche had never eaten in moderation, and it ate again, now lying on its own turf and rolling around, the chaotic magic light and shadow constantly flickering on its surface, and it was obvious that it would not be able to fall asleep for a while now.

The size of the Ernst family's rat colony has grown considerably.

If the space that previously housed these family rat groups was only a slightly larger cave, then now, the world below the body of the Running Rats has faintly taken the form of an "underground kingdom", and the magic rat swarms are growing several times, or even dozens of times the previous ones, and every Ernst family will that operates independently in the outside world can easily command these newborn rats.

Thanks to the magic within the Black Sun Secret Rite, these grown rat colonies will not be detected by other rituals belonging to the Black Sun Society's magic system.

In these ceremonies, they are considered allies, and they are extremely loyal to the association.

There is no way to do this, as a group of summoned magical creatures, the magic in their bodies is even more pure than those spellcasters who have only recently joined the Black Sun Society, and under the cover of these pure ancient magic, the rats can almost freely travel in these areas controlled by the Black Sun Secret Rite.

"It's terrible, it's terrible."

General Bernhardt, who has always complained about his rat body, is now excited to the extreme, and now he has used himself as an "anchor point" that can continuously spread the magic rat swarm, as long as the conditions and location are right, he will immediately arrange his new eyeliner in a specific area, which allows him to directly return to the pride of commanding thousands of troops many years ago.

And when the rat swarms under the command of General Bernhardt managed to infiltrate the garrison's strongholds, sentry posts, and checkpoints, he had some strange new ideas.

"Son, you say, can our army grow faster? If there were more of them, I'd be sure I could even dig through the walls and fortifications of those guys before the war began, and damn it, I think we're more than capable of building an underground world under their feet, and given the time, it's okay to build a dungeon! ”

Or ...... Or is there a way you can get these rats to grow bigger? If they can also take up arms, or even use those new firearms, tsk, maybe we will have a chance to clean up this Black Sun Society! ”

(End of chapter)