The Rise of the Black Plain

"Well, our allies are probably already at risk anyway, so it won't be bad to bring them to Dry City." Minos said right after hearing the comments of those three.

"But how will we do that?" Abby questioned him. "Currently, Dry City already has almost 500,000 inhabitants, and we have reached the maximum internal capacity of the area protected by the dome..."

After the events in Maritime City, the migrations to the Black Plain had continued until the Night News had released that edition in which it talked about Otis' execution.

That was because Minos' allied families in the region had continued to make their efforts to attract people to Minos' city until the date of that publication.

Only after that, the Nash, Cohen, and Stokes families, stop their actions since no one mentally sane would come to the Black Plain in the middle of a war of independence.

Consequently, almost 20,000 people had arrived in Dry City in that period between the massive migration of the Maritime City inhabitants and the publication of the Night News.

Because of this, Dry City had reached the limit of what could be built and did not have the space to receive those three families at once.

Hence, Abby had questioned that!

"Well, naturally, we have plenty of room outside the dome..." Regina commented in a casual tone.

But although she spoke it as if it were a joke, she was being serious in her suggestion, which, by the way, was not bad at all.

"Hmm, that might work..." Dillian nodded in agreement.

However, to Viola, the least experienced one there, that did not sound so good. "Really? Won't that be dangerous?"

"Dangerous? Only if we have to face something like what happened eight months ago..." Joey answered that young woman's question while thinking about how to make Regina's suggestion work. "But with the young master here, I feel there won't be any problems..."

"The enemy should not change their strategy until the massive forces of the Counter-Revolutionary Statute arrive... So, until then, I can say that the dangers will be minimal."

Minos nodded in agreement. "Yes, we can build camps outside the dome, and that may even increase our security area around the city."

"And those people will still be able to alternate in shifts to rest in Dry City, use local services, etc."

"It's not a bad plan."

"In any case, it will still take some time before that happens. So, we will have time to sort out the necessary preparations so that our allies are not exposed to unnecessary danger."

"But the question is, does Dry City have the capacity to provide services for a few tens of thousands more cultivators?" He asked, looking at Dillian, who was running the city at this period.

"Hmm, yes, young master, I believe we will be able to."

"In the past few months, we have managed to double the capacity of the local Cultivation Tower. On the other hand, all the public buildings have been expanded to their respective maximum capacities."

"And the number of spiritual professionals in our city has reached the 3,000 mark, with dozens of grade-2 ones."

"With that, the number of establishments focused on selling cultivation resources has increased considerably in recent months, and the scarcity of resources is no longer as tremendous as before." He said, reporting this crucial information for the matter at hand.

Dry City had almost continuously, since Minos' arrival here, suffered from a lack of resources. That, of course, was related to the resources produced by spiritual professionals, not the food planted around this area.

After all, Dry City was an exporter of this kind of resource, so there was no shortage of food rich in spiritual energy here.

But pills, weapons, in general, artifacts produced by professionals such as chefs, blacksmiths, array masters, they all had long wait queues in this city.

That was related to the low local prices, which Minos forcefully maintained to make his inhabitants stronger quickly.

And so, since the arrival of Davis, the first alchemist in Dry City, the local inhabitants had become accustomed to the lack of some resources of that kind. In some cases, they had to be content to wait for weeks to receive some items, as in the case of pills.

However, the supply had significantly improved with the increased number of professionals in the city, and the resources of little use to the army gathered during the war.

However, even with all the improvements, there were still resources, such as certain pills, that could take several days to be delivered. But the current situation definitely allowed this city to welcome more consumers without making the reality in question much worse.

"I see..." Minos said in satisfaction.

"Well, if our city can receive these people, I want you and Joey to start planning what is necessary for the migration of our allies."

"As for you, Abby, start the talks with your families and the people from houses Parkinson and Austin."

"All right." All three replied at the same time.

"Good. Besides that matter, I want to know how the progress of your groups is..." He said as he looked at Viola and Eda.

Viola was in charge of Elite Squad affairs for this meeting. At the same time, Eda, who had returned from Yellow City after switching shifts with Angela, took care of a sensitive matter in Dry City.

"How is the orphanage, Eda?"

"Well, things aren't going badly..." She said sincerely. "After this period, we managed to place 129 children under the care of the state, as well as 32 under outside supervision."

The latter referred to those orphans living with relatives but were supervised by the local orphanage staff.

"Most of these children are quite young, under 5. So, our service was not and will not be that complicated with them."

"With the good living conditions given to them, education, treatment, and the guardians, we haven't had many problems so far."

The guardians were basically soldiers who had the mission to connect emotionally with these children, helping them as real older brothers or sisters.

It was cruel to manipulate people's feelings, but that was one of the best ways for these children to trust the state. As such, the orphanage led by Eda right now was using that strategy to care for the orphans.

"But some of the older children, uh, well, it will take longer for them to grow up and become contributing citizens to local development..."

"Hmm, that's normal..." Minos commented without much concern.

The personality of humans was like sheets of paper. A specific person's sheet would be blank at birth but quickly be filled in the first few years of life.

And upon reaching a certain age, which by the way was not high even in the Spiritual World, certain marks would be difficult to erase or change.

At the very least, some 'blur' would remain in place, something that, even with much effort and caution, would still be something that would mark that person.

So, Minos understood that the work of the local orphanage staff was not straightforward, and not everyone would be able to complete the government's expectations.

Therefore, Eda's answer was good enough for him.

He then looked at Viola and asked. "What about the Elite Squad?"

"After we leave the Spatial Kingdom, the cultivation speed of the soldiers slows down. However, all the soldiers have managed to advance at least once in the last few months."

"Pyke and Barbara have reached level 49 and will probably be the first to reach the 6th stage after me."

"Others like Robin, Humbert, Elmer, Dumas have reached level 48 and are the second tier of warriors in this squad."

"What about results in battles... Have we had any recent losses?"

"We have not had any deaths since the beginning of the war, but three of our comrades have had serious injuries and for the moment are unavailable to fight for the army."

Upon hearing this, Dillian was not slow to comment on the matter. "Don't worry, young master. Once I reach level 56, I will be able to solve the problems of these guys."

"Oh? That's good."

Viola then finished. "Finally, we have achieved some good results in the last few months. Some of us were able to kill enemy Spiritual Kings. At the same time, we managed to accumulate over 5,000 enemies killed at the hands of our 100 soldiers."

...