The Rise of the Black Plain

Upon entering that room, Minos and Abby immediately headed towards the chairs there, right after Elder Caesar indicated them to do so.

The two had taken this opportunity to look at this place from top to bottom and could already see several valuable items around there. For example, there was a silver knife of about 8 inches with a wooden handle with some unique markings in a glass frame.

In another corner of the room, there were other utensils used by a cook, which, as far as these two knew, must be of high value.

Other than that, this room looked like an ordinary office where business could be done.

Upon seeing that Minos and Abby had sat down, Caesar massaged his chin for a moment and said. "Youths, what business do you want to do with the Jalene City Culinary School?"

He naturally didn't doubt that these two in front of him wanted to do business. After all, even though they were both very young, they were already at level 43!

In this case, for an experienced old man like Caesar, it wasn't hard to conclude that these two probably belonged to some power with good funds.

Otherwise, there would be no way for these two to look so young in such a stage of cultivation in the northern part of the Central Continent!

On the other hand, he was only at level 48, so it wasn't strange that people in Minos and Abby's cultivation stage would look for him to do business.

Eventually, after hearing that question from this bearded man with short gray hair, Minos said. "Sir, we are traveling through the Kingdom of the Waves because we know that the best cooks in our region are here."

"That's right!" The old man nodded emphatically, gently lifting his face, with his chin pointed upwards...

Abby then continued Minos' speech. "We are from a small power on Stone Island, which is trying to create its own culinary school. That's why we traveled to this region to buy spiritual techniques aimed at this area."

"Then, you are from Stone Island... No wonder! There truly are few culinary powers in that state, and they definitely wouldn't do business with you." Caesar commented, 'understanding' the situation of Minos and Abby.

Stone Island didn't have this well-developed culinary area. In fact, those grade-2 cooks in this state were often part of large families and rarely had restaurants or organizations of their own.

Most of the people in that profession in Elen state were in grade-1. When they wanted to move up in rank, they migrated to other states in the region, or they would have to join one of these big organizations. In any case, Stone Island was left behind in this matter due to the few culinary techniques disseminated among the population.

That is, due to the low number of cooks!

In fact, organizations like The Barbecue Temple, which Minos had known, were scarce in that state. And even in big restaurants like this, the monopoly on spiritual techniques was no different from what happened in prominent families.

And because of this reality, Caesar had believed and even understood the difficulty that the power behind these two had to go through to achieve these techniques... 'Not bad, it seems that the organization behind these two is determined to develop their culinary side, even though they have to make such efforts!'

The old man then spoke again. "Well, I understand your difficulties, but the Jalene City Culinary School values its techniques a lot. I'm not saying we can't do business, but the price won't be low."

"Oh? And how much are we talking about?" Minos asked, looking into the black eyes of the old man dressed in white in front of him.

"First, I must make it clear that we don't sell the original versions that we have. Hence, it's no use trying to negotiate such a thing. We won't accept any value." He said it firmly, so these two youths wouldn't insist on this matter.

This culinary school wouldn't sell such a source of income!

From time to time, this organization could sell copies of their original techniques, and this brought them a good profit. However, if they didn't have a monopoly on such techniques, then they could lose that advantage to other powers!

On average, the cost of producing an original spiritual technique was 15 times that of a copy. But even considering this difference, it wouldn't be worth much to sell original techniques for 15 times the price charged for copies!

Therefore, this power would not sell such items.

As for copies, such things could be destroyed and degenerate over time. Because of this, no matter how many copies were sold, the market would hardly be saturated.

Few powers treated this matter in the same way as Minos, keeping such techniques in one place and preventing people from possessing them. After all, the techniques themselves were treated as rewards for subordinates.

'Have you contributed to the organization? Then you will gain the right to such items.'

Such a thing was widespread in the region.

That's because, by gaining a spiritual technique from a prominent family, even if a subordinate couldn't create copies of those techniques, one could still let their family members learn it!

And they could even pass such a thing down for generations within their relatives!

As with Minos, who inherited three Black-grade techniques from his father, two of them came from the Brown Kingdom's royal family, which Albert had acquired through his efforts.

After hearing the old man's comment, Minos nodded his head in understanding and continued to listen.

For him, it would be nice to buy an original technique, but he didn't count on that at the moment. And due to his organizational characteristics, Minos didn't need more than one copy of the same technique.

"Well, we charge the price of 5,000 low-grade crystals for each copy of Blue-grade techniques." Caesar said, looking at Minos and Abby, waiting for their reactions.

"5,000?" Abby muttered. As far as she knew, that price was within the average charged for copies of techniques in that rating. So, she wasn't surprised by this old man's response.

"Okay, the price is good, but how many types of techniques are you selling here?" Minos asked doubtfully.

"We have many different types. Would you want more than one?" He said in surprise. Not only did Minos and Abby seem unfazed by that value, but they still wanted to take more than one kind of technique.

For Caesar, this was unusual behavior. After all, generally, each power would buy several of the same techniques to distribute among future members.

"I will only take one version of each type of technique. Hence, if you have 50 types, then I'll take one of each."

"What?" The old man yelled in disbelief as he rose from his chair. 'That's not a tiny amount, but does this guy only want one of each? Doesn't the power behind him think of their subordinates?'

"It's impossible?" Abby asked.

Caesar then shook his head in denial, trying to calm down. "I'm sorry about that. I lost my composure for a moment." He then took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped it across his face, and said. "As for the number of types of Blue-grade techniques we have, it's only 60. Will you want one of each?"

"Yes, I would like to take one of each."

"If you wanted more than one of each, it could have taken a few days, but since it's only one copy of each type, I believe we can deliver this right after payment."

"Then, it's 300,000 low-grade crystals. Are you sure this is what you want?" He asked, still in shock as he wiped the bead of sweat that had trickled off his forehead.

Such a number of crystals were not small, and this old man was impressed by the expenses of an unknown power in the culinary sector. 'Maybe they want to become competitive quickly?' He thought about it to himself simultaneously as he watched Minos put bags of low-grade crystals in front of him.

After receiving the payment, Caesar promptly calculated that until he realized it was all right. "Young Minos, is there anything else you want? Or is that all?"

"Hmm, I wonder if you guys also sell Black-grade techniques. Do you do this?"

"What?"