Chapter 91: The Purple-Gold Rat King 2

Seeing that Kent did not argue, Darkya decided not to say anything more.

And, truthfully, she knew she could not really blame him.

Only then did she notice that Kent’s clothes were still completely soaked from the river.

A faint sense of guilt rose in her heart.

“Your clothes are all wet.”

She looked at him with concern.

“Are you going to be all right?”

“N-No problem.”

Kent immediately waved it off.

“I’m strong. This much is nothing.”

Hearing the concern in Darkya’s voice filled him with an unexpected warmth.

But that feeling lasted only a moment.

Almost immediately, Kent turned and looked at her suspiciously, his expression cautious, as though he were guarding against some hidden scheme.

Darkya instantly understood what he was thinking.

“Hmph!”

She glared at him fiercely.

“Look at you.”

“Forget it. Let’s go back.”

With that, she turned away in irritation.

Ignoring Kent entirely, Darkya led the enormous group of Shadow Rats back along the path they had come from.

Kent stared after her.

Then he slapped a hand against his forehead.

“Hey!”

“Wait!”

“You’re seriously planning to bring all of them back like this?”

He hurried after her.

In Kent’s eyes, Darkya was clearly still too inexperienced with the world.

She simply did not understand how dangerous greed could make people.

Bringing a Rat King and several hundred Shadow Rats openly into the city was practically announcing to everyone that she possessed an extraordinary treasure.

Darkya turned around and looked at him as though his question made no sense.

“Why wouldn’t I bring them back?”

“I’m going to show Father.”

“At least then he’ll know how capable his daughter is.”

Kent froze for a moment.

“Ah.”

Then realization dawned on him.

“Well... in that case, I suppose it’s fine.”

He had genuinely been trying to protect her.

But he had forgotten one very important fact.

Darkya’s father held an extraordinarily high position among the dark elves.

Aside from the Dark Elf Empress herself, there were very few people above him.

Under those circumstances, forget about Darkya taming a mere Shadow Rat King.

Even if she somehow returned with a dragon as her magical beast, there probably would not be many people foolish enough to try stealing it from her.

Besides, the dark elves were naturally a highly united race.

Internal factions and political struggles certainly existed.

No society was completely free of them.

But judging by the temperament of the dark elves, such conflicts were probably limited to only a small number of individuals.

Life in the Dark Region followed very different rules from life on the surface.

What was dangerous aboveground might mean nothing here.

And what seemed harmless on the surface could easily become deadly underground.

“Did you see that?”

One of the dark elf patrols had just passed Darkya’s returning group.

Two young dark elves walked at the rear of the formation.

The older one glanced back in amazement.

“Darkya truly deserves to be called one of the geniuses of our race.”

“She actually managed to tame a Shadow Rat King.”

“And not just the Rat King.”

“She brought back several hundred Shadow Rats with it.”

His voice was filled with unmistakable envy.

The younger dark elf sighed.

“A Rat King...”

“How does someone get that lucky?”

“Why do I never run into something like that?”

Before they could continue whispering, a sharp voice came from the front.

“You two!”

“Hurry up!”

“What are you doing back there?”

The patrol captain had noticed that they were falling behind.

The two young dark elves exchanged a helpless glance and immediately quickened their pace.

By that time, Darkya had already returned to Muan City.

She was now sitting with several elders, describing the entire process of capturing the Rat King.

Only the small purple Rat King had been brought into the room.

The remaining Shadow Rats had been placed elsewhere under guard.

Several elders stood around the young creature and examined it carefully.

This had actually been Darkya’s suggestion.

She wanted them to confirm whether the creature truly was a Rat King.

To be honest, even Darkya herself was not completely convinced.

She had heard stories about Shadow Rat Kings.

She had read descriptions in books.

But she had never actually seen one.

And this little creature was simply too weak.

Second-rank.

That was almost absurdly low for something called a “king.”

The elders examined the creature carefully.

After a while, they looked at one another.

Excitement flashed in their eyes.

But there was also unmistakable doubt.

So the five elders began another, even more thorough inspection.

They checked its nose.

Its ears.

Its limbs.

Then its mouth.

Its teeth.

Its claws.

Finally, one of the elders carefully drew a small amount of blood.

The five of them gathered around and studied it closely.

Darkya could no longer hold back.

“Well?”

She looked from one elder to another.

“It is a Rat King, isn’t it?”

Although she had seen descriptions in old records and heard others speak about them before, that was still different from seeing the real thing with her own eyes.

And until these elders confirmed it...

Darkya was not willing to be completely certain.

“Darkya...”

The Third Elder looked at her with undisguised envy.

“Your luck is simply incredible.”

The moment those words left his mouth, the expressions of the other elders changed as well.

There was now more than simple admiration in their eyes.

There was jealousy.

If the First Elder had not been present, Darkya even suspected that some of them might have been tempted to snatch the Rat King away from her.

“Really?”

Darkya’s eyes immediately lit up.

“That’s wonderful!”

The moment she heard the Third Elder’s words, she understood that her guess had been correct.

She jumped up excitedly, her eyes narrowing into delighted crescents as she smiled.

The Third Elder waited until she had calmed down slightly before continuing.

“It is indeed a Rat King.”

“But not just an ordinary one.”

His expression became much more serious.

“This is a Purple-Gold Rat King.”

“A Purple-Gold Rat King?”

Darkya blinked in confusion.

She looked down at the small purple creature in her arms, then repeated the name.

The Third Elder immediately realized that she knew nothing about it.

He smiled and began explaining.

“There are many different types of Rat Kings.”

“They are classified and named according to their bloodlines and physical characteristics.”

“Among all known Rat Kings, the Purple-Gold Rat King ranks third.”

Darkya’s expression gradually became serious.

The Third Elder continued.

“A Purple-Gold Rat King possesses extraordinary agility, but its physical strength is equally astonishing.”

“And this particular Shadow Rat is even more remarkable.”

“Of course, that will only become apparent once it reaches adulthood.”

He paused briefly.

“According to ancient records, an adult Purple-Gold Rat King can reach the Saint Rank.”

Darkya’s eyes widened.

“The Saint Rank?”

The Third Elder nodded.

“What humans call the Legendary Rank.”

“Rank Ten.”

The room immediately fell silent.

Rank Ten.

Those two words alone carried enormous weight.

The Third Elder continued,

“There are only two kinds of rat-type magical beasts ranked above the Purple-Gold Rat King.”

“Strictly speaking, however, neither of them can truly be considered an ordinary Rat King.”

“The highest-ranked rat-type magical beast is the Gold-Devouring Rat.”

“Gold-Devouring Rats survive by consuming ores.”

“Magical metal deposits.”

“Gemstone veins.”

“Iron ore.”

“Almost any kind of mineral can become their food.”

“Their bodies are also unbelievably flexible and resilient.”

“To say that ordinary blades and weapons cannot harm them would not be much of an exaggeration.”

Darkya listened without interrupting.

“The second-ranked species is known as the Mystery Rat.”

The Third Elder’s expression became slightly distant.

“But that species has already gone extinct.”

“It was a space-element magical beast.”

“Today, it exists only in ancient records.”

“Then comes the Purple-Gold Rat King.”

He looked again at the small creature in Darkya’s arms.

“This little one is most likely the descendant of a Rat King from an enormous Shadow Rat colony.”

“Otherwise, it would never have gathered so many followers while still this young.”

Darkya lowered her eyes toward the trembling creature.

“So how can you be certain that it’s a Purple-Gold Rat King?”

“That part is actually easy.”

The Third Elder smiled.

“The blood of a Purple-Gold Rat King carries a faint trace of purple.”

“That is one of the clearest signs of its bloodline.”

Darkya had never heard any of this before.

But that was hardly surprising.

The elders had lived much longer than she had.

Naturally, they knew many things that younger dark elves had never encountered.

Meanwhile, the gazes of the other elders toward the Rat King had become increasingly strange.

Envy.

Desire.

And even disbelief.

After all, once this Rat King matured, reaching the Tenth Rank was almost inevitable.

Rank Ten.

The Legendary Realm.

It was a threshold that ninety-nine percent of ninth-rank experts would never cross in their entire lives.

And Darkya was now holding a creature with the potential to reach that realm directly in her arms.

After thinking for a moment, Darkya suddenly frowned.

“But if that’s the case...”

“Wouldn’t a large Shadow Rat colony eventually produce many smaller colonies?”

She looked at the Third Elder.

“Shadow Rats give birth to more than one offspring at a time, don’t they?”

The Third Elder shook his head.

“It isn’t that simple.”

“Bloodline awakening is an extremely rare phenomenon.”

“Even among offspring born in the same litter, their eventual bloodline ranks may be completely different.”

“One might remain ordinary.”

“Another might become much stronger.”

“And only an unimaginably rare individual will awaken the bloodline of a true Rat King.”

He paused, searching for a suitable explanation.

“For a Rat King to appear...”

“One might emerge only among tens of millions.”

In truth, even the Third Elder did not completely understand the exact workings of magical beast bloodlines.

So his explanation remained somewhat vague.

“Oh.”

Darkya nodded.

She did not ask anything more.

But inside, she was almost bursting with happiness.

A Saint-rank magical beast.

And not merely that—

a dark-element Saint-rank magical beast.

Its future combat strength could only be imagined.

Of course, magical beasts required enormous amounts of time to mature.

But for dark elves...

Time was the one thing they had in abundance.