The Rise of the Black Plain

After leaving the government mansion, Minos and his group began to stroll through that region in the central part of the city.

They soon passed an avenue with well-developed trade, with stores in several different areas. There were even blacksmiths, alchemists, and array masters on this street.

And that was in line with what Minos had read in the report made by the soldiers of the Black Plain Army, who had come here previously.

There were two alchemists in the City of Waters, one array master, and one blacksmith, all of them low-level grade-2 ones. Of course, these professionals had their disciples and helpers, who also supported the production of items from those professions sold around here.

So, there was a good supply of grade-1 items in this city!

And that was already very good for a place with less than 200 thousand inhabitants and without much prosperity. After all, although this place was already worthwhile for the Stokes family to worry about, this was still not a prosperous place.

For comparison, the current Dry City has only two alchemists of low-level grade-2 rank, while there is no array master or blacksmiths in this same classification.

And of course, as for the other professions... Well... The Dry City was a long way from having someone well ranked in the other areas.

Anyway, there was a good supply of items in this town, even considering that this place was not yet well developed as large cities...

While walking through the streets, Lee suddenly saw a sign with prices from an alchemical shop. There it said. 'Spiritual recovery pill - high-level grade-1 - 989 low-grade crystals.'

"Wow, what a high price!" He exclaimed in surprise while showing it to Alison.

"With our salary, if we added the crystals of 6 months of work, we could only buy one of these!" The young woman exclaimed.

Seeing the two youths arguing about it, Minos smiled and said. "Well, it's not exactly right to say that the price is high. In fact, it is even low since the average charged for a pill of this level is above a thousand low-grade crystals."

"It can not be!" Alison exclaimed unhappily. She didn't understand how people could buy pills that expensive!

"So, how do ordinary people buy spiritual pills?" Lee asked doubtfully.

He and Alison did not know the reality outside the Dry City. For them, the alchemists there were the first they met...

Some soldiers then smiled at the young man's naive question upon hearing this.

The two might not have known about these things because they were very young and had studied at the Black Star Academy, which did not have the same 'programming' as the Preparatory Academy of the Dry City.

And like many young people from the old Dry City, if Minos hadn't shown up there, they would only learn about this and other things after starting their adult life, when they were going to worry about the livelihood of their families.

There were also no alchemists in their city before. Even their parents might not know the prices usually charged for these items.

So, it was very common for young people like them not to know about this type of information!

Minos then replied. "Ordinary people do not buy spiritual pills of this classification. At least this is very unusual. Most can only buy up to medium-level grade-1 pills, and with a lot of effort to achieve this."

After that, one of the soldiers approached them and spoke to the two youths in a low voice. "In the Dry City, prices are only lower because the young master is paying most of the cost of production in our place."

Upon hearing this, the two young people were amazed. This was not information that everyone in the Dry City knew!

Only those more experienced people in the army and those citizens who already knew about the average price of these items knew that Minos was paying for it. But young people like Lee and Alison might not know...

'So, this is how it is!' The two thought.

'It is no wonder that the older people in the city admire the master so much, even without knowing anything about him!' Lee thought to himself.

He admired Minos for several reasons, but that was because he knew some of the young Stuart's secrets. Like the Spatial Kingdom, the high-level techniques, the foxes that certainly could protect the territory in the future, and also for the unique opportunity that he had received.

If he had gone to the Gill family, this would probably be his biggest mistake in his life!

But he did not know these details, so he did not previously understand why older people in the Dry City admired Minos so much. After all, he was a good ruler, but they didn't need to worship so much him, just for that.

They didn't have Lee's reasons for doing that!

Anyway, soon the group continued to know the City of Waters while talking about many things they saw.

In this city, some exciting things caught the attention of the two young people. For example, there were two battalions in this place, one from the Stokes family and the other from the royal family of the Cromwell Kingdom.

And when asked why, the two youths found that this was very common in border towns.

The City of Waters could be considered the first urban region of importance for anyone coming from the north of the kingdom, so this was a place that needed to have a post of the Royal Army of the Cromwell Kingdom.

Kingdoms and empires in the Spiritual World generally charged taxes for the entry of visitors to posts in the border cities. This was a considerable resource since thousands of people often came and went from one region to another.

After all, there were businesses. People moved in. Some wanted to see the world, etc. But in addition to the financial gain, this was also a measure for the kingdom to know who was entering its territories.

Of course, it was not possible to know the origin of each person in detail, but knowing the strength of the visitors was already very important.

For example, imagine if many Spiritual Kings arrived in a kingdom at a specific time... Well, it would be crucial for the king of that place to know this kind of information. It could significantly influence the local political balance and even cause many problems!

As a result, the kingdom could not simply wait for vassal families to report on these crucial matters.

Betrayals happened, and the worst type of enemy was the intern. In this case, having outposts in the border regions was a common practice for royal families in the Spiritual World.

Anyway, there were also the Stokes family troops in this city.

This family was the sovereign of this place, and it was their responsibility to protect and manage that area. They could not expect the royal forces to do this for them.

That is why, in each border town, there were also the forces of the sovereign family of that region.

'Hmm, there is a lot of strength in this place...' Minos thought to himself. The number of soldiers in this city was not as numerous as the forces of the Dry City, but they were much stronger!

From what Minos could see and feel, this city must have at least four times more strength than the old Yellow City.

And unlike bandits, who might not have adequate training and good techniques, these soldiers were undoubtedly better equipped than those bandits, who the young Stuart's forces had wiped out.

Seeing this, he was even more confident that it would be impossible for him to use a more 'violent' strategy in this place.

He had to reach an agreement with the governor here. Otherwise, he would certainly have to give up on getting the unemployed here.

There were many negative implications for fighting this place.

This could attract the attention of the royal family of the Cromwell Kingdom, of the Stokes family, and could even alienate the population of this city from the forces of Minos.

After all, who would put their future in the hands of people who took their territory by force? The City of Waters was not being occupied by groups of bandits, as had happened in the Yellow City. In this case, Minos could not act as before!

...

Meanwhile, in a place in the mansion, in the center of the City of Waters, there was a large training room, which at the moment had a mature woman sitting on a cushion on the floor, cultivating peacefully.

There was a vast spiritual array over the place where she was, which seemed even more potent than all those that were in the Dry City together!

In addition, some medium-grade crystals were scattered around this woman while shining and decreasing their intensity little by little.

This woman had long green hair, about 1.7 meters tall, with a voluptuous body, characteristic of mature women like her...

If Minos could see her, he would realize how similar this woman was to the young woman he had previously met.

Anyway, besides having excellent measurements, she could also be considered very beautiful, having a different charm than that of the young Viola.

At this point, she finished her cultivation session when she realized that someone was standing at the door of this place, waiting for her.

"What is the problem?" She asked as she opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the person who was there waiting for her.

"Madam Mirya, earlier today..."