The Rise of the Black Plain

After passing by the two foxes, Minos went to the open ground in front of the lake house and then took a golden scroll from his spatial ring. That was the technique he had chosen to learn at this stage of cultivation that he had achieved.

The technique was called Explosive Steps, Golden-grade, 6 phases. The first phase of the technique could make the user reach 50 meters per second, going to 1,600 meters per second in the final phase!

It could also increase average flight speed by three times!

But for that, the user would have already reached the level of a Spiritual Emperor since this was the minimum level for someone to fly.

Other than that, there was no time restriction for this technique. As long as the user could continue to supply spiritual energy, he could travel vast distances, even on foot!

"Mounts? I don't need one! With my legs, I can go around the world in a few days!"

When reading this, Minos almost wanted to laugh at whoever had left such a technique behind... But it indeed was very effective. After all, high-level spiritual beasts would not turn into mounts in this world.

So, even if someone was at a high level, having 6th stage mounts could already be considered the maximum. Above that, these beasts were already seen as specialists, even in human forces from the Central Continent.

After all, even if there was a particular bias from the humans of this continent, the forces of this place were not yet stupid to waste such beasts, treating them as mounts.

In general, the powers that had beasts above the 6th stage allocated them as protectors. In a few cases, they could even govern certain places.

Anyway, if someone wanted to travel long distances, that person would probably need to adjust to the speed of weaker beasts or should walk their paths on their own. Consequently, this technique that Minos had chosen seemed very interesting to him.

Minos soon started training in the technique while occasionally running around the Spatial Kingdom.

He ran from side to side while activating the technique and suddenly increasing his speed. That was creating a funny image to see, so much so that the two foxes were around, laughing at the constant falls of Minos.

After all, it was pretty challenging to get used to such a brutal speed change. Before this technique, he could barely move at half the speed that this new technique enabled!

So, while learning the basics of the technique, Minos had fallen many times, sometimes rolling across the floor of that place for several meters.

"Au! Au!" Tiny Kyla commented to her mother as she rolled over on the floor.

Emlyn then laughed and said. "He's not throwing himself on the floor on purpose!"

After doing this until he reached the ten kilometers mark, Minos finally stopped after activating the technique for the last time.

It was indeed a speedy technique. For example, the technique used by the young Troy was classified as Silver-grade, but it only made his speed reach 40 meters per second. And although the difference is not so significant, Minos' technique was only in the first stage...

So, after getting used to his new technique, the young Stuart rested for a while and then began his training on his old techniques.

He wanted to feel how much it had changed after he leveled up!

Minos started with his support technique when he suddenly used some of his spiritual energy and activated it.

Devouring Art!

Simultaneously, the characteristic black ring rose to the sky from the body of Minos while slowly expanding the range. This time, the black fog inside it was even more concentrated, and the noise emitted was more noticeable.

The ring quickly reached the surroundings up to 100 meters away from Minos while absorbing the spiritual energy of an array that the young man had previously set up.

'Hmm, the conversion factor has increased to 30% of the energy absorbed!' He celebrated with himself. Each increase in this conversion factor meant that he could use his techniques even more in battle!

With this, he could spend even less of his own energy, increasing his fighting proficiency!

After that, Minos started to train his attack technique.

Upon activating it, the space around 80 meters from him suddenly froze as if time had stopped. In doing so, he took a moment to enjoy the sight of many leaves standing in the air.

If his technique's restrictive characteristic increased, he could affect even more enemies and was also more likely to prevent leaks from happening!

He also realized that both the attack and defensive techniques approached a domain in which he could freely choose who to use its effects. He could prevent his technique from stealing spiritual energy from his allies and that his companions were not affected by the Spatial Sword's restraint!

But he felt he could only do these things in the next phase when he also reached level 50. But that was a long way off, so Minos had put that idea aside.

Minos also trained his defensive technique, but this was the one that showed the slightest improvement.

It had only further increased the resistance that its user's body would receive upon activating it. Still, it had not yet reached the point where the young Stuart could use it to attack. No, that was something it would still take for him to achieve...

After that, he sat down with the two foxes, resting from his hard training session.

"Emlyn, how long will it take you to reach the 6th stage?" Minos curiously asked as he held tiny Kyla in his hands.

"I think in less than two months..."

Spiritual beasts had outstanding cultivation speeds since they were more compatible with spiritual energy.

Nine-tailed Foxes cultivate almost as fast as humans with Silve talent that used Silver-grade cultivation techniques.

But that didn't apply to all beast races. For example, the Nine-tailed Foxes were very well classified, so they had such good cultivation speeds. But even though they have more aptitude for spiritual energy, it didn't mean that these beasts were stronger than humans, in general.

That's because, billions of years ago, when the world was still young and lacked a well-established cultivation system, one of the first humans to cultivate created what would become the first cultivation technique!

Before that, humans cultivated without techniques, but that was thousands of times more difficult since humanity's natural aptitude was not great for this type of activity.

In increasing aptitude, it was: humans, spiritual beasts, and elves.

Elves had innate abilities, spiritual beasts had monstrous physical strengths, and some also had unique skills. As for humans, on the other hand, they were the least proficient in cultivating.

However, before there was contact between the three primary races of this world, the first human techniques already had been circulating for a long time on the Central Continent!

That allowed humanity to continue to exist, even though it did not have as much aptitude as its fellow elves and beasts. Anyway, humankind had dealt with this problem by creating cultivation techniques.

The first one was classified as White-grade. These techniques were getting better and better through countless years, having peaked with the first God of humanity, Henricus Longus!

Anyway, all this effort had made up for the tremendous initial difference between the three dominant species of this world. But still, beasts and elves are naturally more blessed by the skies and don't need techniques to cultivate as fast as humans!

Anyway, after spending time talking to the foxes, Minos left the Spatial Kingdom, promising tiny Kyla that he would bring her friend here.

The little fox had made friends with the young Alison, so she missed playing with that young girl.

Emlyn had translated everything for her daughter so that she would understand what he had said.

'Ah, now that I've increased my level, I have to worry about dealing with some bureaucratic issues...' Minos thought about it, walking towards his office.

He had a good amount of crystals in hand, so he wanted to start some projects for the Dry City. On this trip to the Cromwell Kingdom, he had seen many things that he wanted to bring here.

He intended to build a cultivation tower and a fighting arena. With this, Minos hoped to increase its citizens' speed while also stimulating battles.

Fights could improve the speed of cultivation. But even if it did not, cultivators could still improve their understanding of their respective techniques. With that, Minos would reward the best fighters in the arena, making these people learn to appreciate and participate in the fights in the city's arena!

He also had other plans for the city, but it would still need time and more resources for these other things. So, at this point, he wanted to focus only on these two projects until he could do more for this place.

And among some of the things that Minos wanted to do as soon as possible was to increase the number of alchemists in the city. But unfortunately, there were only two of them, and the two were barely able to breathe lately...

There was still no array master or a blacksmith in the Dry City. That needed to be resolved as soon as possible since this place was already big enough to have nothing like this...