The Rise of the Black Plain

Upon entering the large building, Minos and Ruth immediately looked for the classification of the training rooms in this place. That was information that was on a big screen in the center of the entrance hall.

When looking in that direction, the two soon saw that there were four types of rooms, which could have a larger or smaller area.

The first type of room was indicated for those who are in the 2nd stage of cultivation. The second room, for the 3rd stage, the third for the 4th, and the last for the 5th stage of cultivation.

The number of crystals that someone needed to pay for each room also depended on its size, ranging from private rooms to places for up to 10 people.

For the slightest room for 2nd stage cultivators, prices ranged from 50 low-grade crystals to the largest room for 5th stage cultivators, 50,000 crystals per day!

As for a room for two, for 5th-stage cultivators, which Minos and Ruth wanted, it cost 16,000 low-grade crystals per day.

Smaller rooms genuinely cost more than larger rooms if the values were divided between the people who would use them, of course. That was a measure to lower the cost for those with few spiritual crystals!

After paying for a day of training, Minos and Ruth went to the 11th floor of the building, where the room that they had managed to rent was.

Upon arriving at that location, the two passed through a large corridor, going from the elevator to their room, number 1158. But this was not a tiny place. No, there were restaurants and living areas on all floors of this building, where the cultivators could talk between one training session and another.

The place was surprisingly well thought, aiming at the well-being of the users of this service.

Anyway, Minos and Ruth arrived at the room they had rented.

This place was about 100 square meters and had a bathroom and a kitchen. Other than that, there was practically no furniture in the area since the most critical use of these rooms was for cultivation and training.

There was only one space reserved for the fights, which took up the largest area of the room and an area of about 10 square meters, with two large cultivation cushions.

There was also a large array on the ceiling of this room, which concentrated the spiritual energy only within the space of this place!

Ruth then looked at Minos and said with a smile on her face. "How about we start our fight first?"

"Eh? I thought you would prefer to do that after we cultivate..."

"I don't know why, but I wanted to change the order of that for today..." She said ambiguously.

Minos then shook his head in agreement. There was no difference for him since he would fight her anyway.

Thus, the two youths changed their clothes quickly since it would not be suitable for them to train with regular clothes.

Minos was then only in shorts, while the young Ruth wore light armor, which could also be used as clothing.

"Are you ready?" She asked with a smile on her face.

"Hmm, come on!"

Soon after, the two looked at each other for a split second and then activated their techniques.

Devouring Art!

Indestructible Body!

Spatial Sword!

The light of the place suddenly dimmed when Minos' support technique came on, forming a black ring at the top, while a humming noise could be heard as it slowly spun.

After so many struggles that Minos and Ruth had between themselves, and after the young Stuart had battled many beasts and enemies, his three techniques had already reached the full completion of the phases it was in.

Therefore, it only remained that he accumulated more energy to move on to new phases.

However, Minos was already feeling an increasing sense of control over his power at this point, to the point where he believed he could reduce the area affected by his techniques if he so desired.

Not only that. From what he felt of the Devouring Art, he would probably be able to absorb energy only from those he wanted at the end of the next phase!

Instant Steps!

Fists of Pain!

Ruth then began to move within the area of influence of Minos' techniques. Still, she hardly felt any effect on her body.

Even though she lost energy for Minos' technique again, after he reached level 38, it was still almost insignificant for Ruth.

As for the Spatial Sword, it could barely affect Ruth's speed by 5%. Therefore, the fight between the two remained a game of resistance for Minos...

Swooish!

Minos made several movements while moving around to not receive the punch from Ruth, which was coming towards him!

Pow!

However, Minos' movements were too slow for the young Ruth. She quickly dodged the blades of air created by him while sending several blows in his direction.

Pow!

Another blow hit Minos' chest when he was suddenly thrown aside until his back hit the array, which protected one of that room's walls!

"Ahh!"

He screamed when he felt pain in different parts of his body. He then said. "Ha... Haa... Ruth... You're using more strength than usual. Take it a little easier with me!"

"Oh? Sorry, I didn't notice. Let's continue!" After saying this, the tips of the girl's lips suddenly went up when she moved against Minos again.

Pow!

"Ahhh!"

...

The fight went on for a few minutes, while Minos basically took a good beating from Ruth, being repeatedly tossed from side to side of this room they were.

At the end of the 'friendly match' the two has had, Minos was utterly exhausted, while he had some abrasions and an ashen face.

On the other hand, Ruth looked as good as before, without even a single taste of sweat on her beautiful face. But unlike Minos, who was feeling for the fight, she felt very well, as if she had released her stress entirely...

'It seems that I shouldn't think about other women while I'm with her...' Minos thought about it as he crawled' to start regaining his strength.

Seeing this, Ruth smiled softly and immediately started training her battle techniques.

She took an array from her spatial ring, which simulated a shield, and then started using it as if it were a punching bag to train her technique, Fists of Pain!

Pow!

Pow!

...

Time passed, and both young people had already trained all their techniques, leaving only spiritual cultivation.

Since Minos had fewer techniques than Ruth and needed to train them for less time, he was the first to sit in meditation, spreading some crystals around him.

The room they had rented had great spiritual concentration. Still, it was even better if they combined it with their spiritual crystals!

So, Minos quickly began to cultivate his technique, Solar God Breath, while feeling how much easier it was to cultivate in a place like this.

'I have to make a place like these in the Dry City. That is just incredible!'

'Even using crystals, I think the absorption speed inside such a room is at least twice as much as if it is done in a place without an array like the one here!' He thought as he felt the spiritual energy around him, and the energy in the crystals start to merge with his power.

...

After spending their first day almost training in the cultivation room for the 5th stage cultivators, Minos and Ruth had returned to the hotel and had their daily fun. The young woman had no reason not to do her thing with him since she had already released her stress on him earlier.

And after that first day, the two decided to follow this training routine at the Cultivation Tower for the next few days until the Spiritual Tournament finally started.

...

With that, soon two weeks passed in Capital City, and Minos and Ruth were training a lot, while they spent rest and had fun most of the time that remained, during the night in the hotel where they were staying.

But Minos did not only do this during this period.

He and Ruth always stopped to check on the Cultivation Ranking and the fights in the arena. However, nothing captured the two's attention most of the time, as Minos was not a fan of anyone at his age. Thus they would not waste their precious time watching other people grow stronger...

As for the arena fights, the two only watched those involving people above level 41. But this event did not happen enough, with only two matches, one between the 5th and 7th places and the other between 2nd and 3rd place in the Arena Ranking.

In these fights, there were no surprises, and those in the best position managed to keep theirs after very disputed matches.

Minos had also met some people who were going to participate in the Spiritual Tournament at the Cultivation Tower.

Whenever he and Ruth stopped to rest and eat, they saw some regular people on the same floor as theirs, who were a pair of siblings with red hair, the two youths from the Cultivation Ranking, Ford Carline and Kara Carline.