The Rise of the Black Plain

"What about the arena? How much longer will it take to be ready?"

"Ehh, it is also almost finished and should be ready in the next ten days." Dillian responded promptly.

"This is good... We are going to inaugurate the cultivation tower in 2 days, so, in the meantime, we will let the population know about it."

"Hmm."

Dillian nodded and then changed the subject. "Young master, I think it is almost time for us to make contact with the government of the City of Waters."

That was a top priority on Dillian's agenda. The population of the Dry City was already working at its limit, and there was almost no room for improvement in the area of agriculture. Currently, there were practically no unemployed in this region.

Only the young people under the age of 15 were 'unemployed.' And even those who wanted to join the Black Plain Army were working in agriculture. After all, this was a form of guaranteed income in the Dry City!

Therefore, the city urgently needed to receive immigrants. And although some families came from Stone Island, that number was minimal.

Elen could not risk spreading the propaganda of the Black Plain, and there were also not so many people willing to take risks in a new place. For this reason, attracting people from Stone Island was not effective in supplying labor in the fields.

Minos had asked Elen to do this propaganda, mainly to attract lesser-level array masters, blacksmiths, and alchemists. But, of course, he didn't have the crazy thought that tens of thousands of people from that place would come here, just like that.

Anyway, that was an issue that would occasionally cause problems in this place.

Unfortunately, they could not draw much attention, so it was quite problematic to keep the growth of this place to the maximum.

The fame of the Black Plain was not good in any part of the north of the Central Continent, so people would not come here just like that. And with a small population, Minos would have to face problems related to labor for a long time.

Finally, not being able to open the doors of the Black Plain to the world, showing what they had best, only made it difficult to solve this problem.

"Hmm, I think we have to do this in the next few weeks..." Minos said as he relaxed in his chair and blew out a breath. 'It looks like I have to go on a trip soon... '

...

After that, a day passed, and the news about the inauguration of the cultivation tower had already spread through the Dry City.

Many already saw the large building that was being built in the central region of the city gradually taking shape, so they were very curious to know what it would be.

At this moment, in front of the Dry City Public Library, a group was leaving that place, talking animatedly.

"Did you hear the rumor? That building is going to start operating tomorrow." A young man said, pointing in the direction of a large building shaped like a pyramid trunk.

"Ehh? And do you know what it will be used for?"

"Hmm, more or less. I heard that this building is for cultivating and training."

"Huh? And what is the difference in doing this in our homes?" Other people asked in doubt. Most of the city's inhabitants did not know the idea behind the cultivation towers.

In fact, millions of people in the north of the Central Continent did not know about this. After all, few cities had buildings like this. And even in the towns that had, most of the population could not afford to train in such places!

Thus, many did not understand the difference between cultivating inside a unique place and doing it in their homes.

And even though some learned about this type of thing in spiritual academies, not all of these places taught such specific things. In places like the capital of a kingdom, children would certainly know about it. But in impoverished areas like the Dry City, there was no need to talk about such a thing, which many would not even see that in their lives...

"Idiot, I heard from my grandfather that the cultivation towers are special constructions, which further increase the spiritual concentration of where we cultivate!"

"What? Can such a thing be done? I thought that the most that could be done were to improve the spiritual concentration of the city..."

"Hmm, I thought so too before, but after I found out a little bit more about the array masters profession, I understood that it is not that simple." A young man said proudly.

He had started to learn about arrays from an old man that came from Stone Island to the Dry City. So, he knew a little about this area.

"A spiritual gathering array can act in a large area or do this in a small space. That is decided at the time that an array master is finalizing the framing of these items."

"By doing this, the array loses much of its reach, but in return, it gains in efficiency! As a result, a room with a high-level grade-1 array will have a much stronger spiritual concentration than a large area with an array of the same classification but focused on large spaces."

Spiritual gathering arrays work like an atom. The array was the nucleus that attracted free spiritual energy, electrons to its surroundings. And the shorter the distance from its core, the more the force of attraction.

Consequently, any array of this type would necessarily have greater effects in its vicinity, while it would have lesser effects in more distant places.

However, when the array was focused on serving an ample space, it had to give up its efficiency in order to keep the difference between the spiritual energy concentration of the area as little as possible.

Of course, it was impossible to end all the differences in quality. Still, the array masters managed to reduce this to an acceptable value at the cost of the array's efficiency.

However, when focusing on small spaces, these arrays did not need to sacrifice their efficiency, so it had great results in places where it focused on increasing spiritual concentration for small areas, as in the case of these rooms present in cultivation towers.

"Oh! So, this is how it works! Incredible!"

"Hmm, it is quite interesting what the array masters can do..." He said with a satisfied smile. "But in these cultivation towers, you can also train your battle techniques at a high level."

"I heard that too. It seems that people can train without fear of destroying the place, and there is still a way to rent spiritual arrays that will help you in your training!" A young man said excitedly.

Training alone was challenging. After all, some techniques required their users to complete some unique requirements.

For example, the Devouring Art, its user had to train it by absorbing the spiritual energy of living beings or spiritual arrays. It was unable to absorb free energy in nature or of spiritual plants.

But unlike Minos, the ordinary population could not have spiritual arrays for training. And it was not easy to work out specific techniques without the aid of these items.

In this way, this cultivation tower could help many people train a technique with special requirements.

And other conversations like these were taking place throughout the Dry City, which would once again have a new service being made available soon.

"Hahaha, it seems that the decision to come here was not wrong!" A tall man said out loud, looking at a woman who was having her meal with him in one of the restaurants in town.

These two had received Minos' offer when he had passed through the city of Portland. At the time, they had obviously refused. Still, after a friend of them left Stone Island, they could not leave their curiosity and ended up in the Dry City.

The two had no idea where this friend had gone, but after watching his family for a while, they finally arrived at this place. And to their surprise, this was where Minos had said he came from, at the time he had made that commercial offer several months ago...

"Hmm, this place truly has a lot of opportunities for blacksmiths like us. But I wanted to see the face of those old Portland blacksmiths when they find out what they're missing." The woman said with a satisfied expression.

They had invited others to find out the whereabouts of their friend. After all, he could be in trouble since he had left without giving any warning.

That was not normal, and as longtime friends, they had been worried!

But who knew that their goodwill had led them to a real treasure...

Not only did they find out that their friend was very well in this place, but they were also now following the same path themselves. This city was a land of opportunities, and whoever arrived first could enjoy it for longer!

The man laughed and then said with an exciting look. "I want to see this cultivation tower... Not even the city of Portland has one of these!"

"Hmm, but I heard that it would be excellent, losing only in the capacity for those in big cities. However, it will only have four floors for now, not even having a thousand rooms..." The woman said in a low voice.

"But that is understandable. After all, this place is still small..."