The Rise of the Black Plain

Quickly three days passed, and Minos and his group had already reached the City of Waters.

And when they arrived at that place, this time Minos had to pay the local tax. After all, it just didn't happen last time because Ruth had the flaming medallion, which allowed free passage.

Anyway, he paid the fee of 3,200 crystals for him and his group to enter the Cromwell Kingdom officially. And shortly after that, they proceeded to the central part of the city, where the hotels were located.

The group had arrived in the middle of the night, so they couldn't start doing business today. But even if it was another time, they couldn't just come without making an appointment. So, it would be a few days trip for their group.

And right after finding a place to stay, they didn't take long and went looking for a place to eat. After all, in a smaller city like this, it was tough to find something decent in hotels...

And during the group's journey through the town, Lee and Alisson were dazzled by what they saw. Although the current Dry City is not much worse than the City of Waters, there was a distinct difference in favor of this place to that they were traveling.

Not only that, this was the first time that the two had known a different place than the Dry City. All they knew was this place and even though they had already heard from the old residents of the Yellow City what life was like in their old region, seeing a new place with their own eyes was a completely different experience.

Anyway, the group quickly found a place to eat.

...

While enjoying their meal peacefully, Lee and Alison argued about the things they had seen in this place.

"This city is so beautiful! It doesn't look like a place near the Black Plain!" Alison said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Hmm, and there are a lot of shops and restaurants here. Even in hotels, we saw about three, just on the street where we were earlier!" Lee agreed.

They were used to the Dry City, which had only two hotels at the time, and there was still no restaurant of the same quality as the one they were eating.

Of course, in the restaurants in of the Dry City, it had meals with a high spiritual concentration, but when comparing flavors... Their city needed more high-end cooks.

And that was one of the famous professions in the Spiritual World.

Like alchemists, cooks used their skills to 'refine' edible substances. Of course, while the alchemist focused on creating a pill that recovers or helps in advancing, cooks concentrate on maintaining and even improving the spirituality of meals, enhancing the taste of the food.

But it was not as easy to become a cook as an alchemist.

After all, the number of people in this profession was much less than in that one. For this reason, good cooking techniques were generally a long way from ordinary people, such as what one could see in the Dry City.

Because of that, it was so difficult to have good restaurants in a place like the city of the two young people. Even though the cooks there were improving their level, their techniques were still of the White-grade classification. After all, Minos had no technique of this specialization to place in the library of the Dry City.

And that didn't just happen with cooks, but with any other profession. There were no people of all specializations in the city of Minos. Even those few areas with professionals there had only people with techniques of the lowest classifications...

Anyway, time passed, and the group of 8 people was having their meal in that restaurant when Lee asked. "Master, do you already know who we are going to talk to here in this place?"

"Hmm, I heard about it from grandpa Dillian. He told me that this place is ruled by a woman named Mirya. It looks like she's at level 51, Spiritual King stage."

Alison's pupils opened in surprise, and she said. "Is she that strong?"

"That's what we found..."

While she was talking, suddenly, a young woman with green hair passed by the table of Minos and his group, and overheard their conversation. She smiled and asked. "You are here to find that person, huh?"

When Minos noticed the intrusion of this stranger, he frowned and said nothing for a moment as he watched the young woman in front of him. She was about 1.6 meters tall, an incredible figure, with wide hips and full breasts, while her beauty could be considered top-notch.

Other than that, her green hair drew attention, but not in the wrong way. It indeed looked great on her. In addition to these superficial details, Minos could also feel the level of cultivation of this woman, who was in the General Spiritual stage, level 44.

He then finally answered. "May I know this lady's name?"

"Oh... It seems that I meddled without even introducing myself... Sorry for this, my name is Viola." She said with a sensual smile on her face.

'It seems that this girl has the same personality as Elena...' Minos thought for a moment, with a smile on his face. "So, it's Miss Viola. And yes, we are here to try to find this ruler. Why? Can you help us?"

She then sat down in a free chair next to Minos and then started to speak. "It is not so easy to contact that woman. She is always in training. But why do you want to meet her?"

"I may have an offer that interests her or the Stokes family..."

"An offer, huh? And where are you from?"

"I come from the north..." Minos said vaguely.

She looked Minos up and down and smiled. She could see that he was young, but he already had a high cultivation level. With that, she was already sure that there was a powerful force behind him.

In this case, he probably really had a good plan in hand.

"Well, if you go to the government mansion, you can say that I recommended you. Maybe you will be luckier to meet that woman." She said with a smile.

After saying this, Viola got up and said goodbye to the group of Minos, heading towards the interior of that place.

Alison then spoke. "What a rude woman, she interrupted our conversation out of nowhere!"

"But maybe her name is valuable to us..." Lee said in a low voice, upsetting his friend. He was more dedicated and smarter than Alison. He certainly fits the profile that Minos wanted for his future leaders.

"Hmm, Lee is right, Alison. You need to think about the hidden implications that each action has. Maybe she is just a strange person, but maybe her name does have some value..."

They continued to talk about this and other things when they finally left the restaurant and returned to the hotel where they had booked their rooms.

And while they were back, Minos went over the information he had from that place in his head.

From what the Black Plain Army soldiers had reported, this city should have somewhere between 140 thousand and 160 thousand inhabitants. As for the numbers of unemployed, this was certainly no more than 15,000, which could be considered a standard rate in this part of the Central Continent.

After all, not all services performed in a region would be adequately contracted. There were many informal services in which workers would do several different things, such as hunting, helping to harvest fields when labor was lacking, transporting resources from one place to another, etc.

As a result, have a rate of up to 15% unemployment in the population over ten years of age would be considered acceptable in these regions. Consequently, the City of Waters was as expected.

But this was an opportunity for the Dry City. Even though these inhabitants still had their seasonal activities in this place where Minos was, it didn't mean they were doing well...

To take an example, the current Dry City had no unemployment. Everyone at the minimum age was already working. But even so, there was no shortage of people to do these random services.

Some people worked in agriculture in the morning while hunting in the afternoon. Or they did it in shifts, and half the week did something, and in the other half did another activity.

Anyway, even if there was no unemployment, there was no shortage of people willing to do these seasonal services.

Therefore, even if Minos took the entire unemployed population of the City of Waters, this would not negatively affect this place. The young Stuart was sure that he would not be refused if he brings a good offer.

'I wonder who that young woman is... Is she a local government official?' He questioned himself with a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Anyway, soon the group of 8 people arrived at the hotel where they had booked their rooms, and each went to their respective place to cultivate and rest for a few hours.

Their trip here had been a little tiring since sleeping in temporary camps was never comfortable.

And as to why they needed it, well, the Black Plain Army did not have a spiritual beast like Ruth's great eagle. So, their journey took much longer...

As for Emlyn, serving as a transport was not in her agreement with Minos...