The Rise of the Black Plain

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, Minos and his two traveling companions had already arrived in the Yellow City!

They had traveled from the Dry City to this destination in just under two days. After that, the group had taken up residence in one of the city's abandoned buildings.

There were few furnished buildings in this now-abandoned town, but none of the three bothered. After all, in addition to not needing a lot of daily rest time, they each had useful items for this type of situation in their spatial rings.

Moreover, despite the degraded state of this location as a result of the lack of humans to maintain the local infrastructure regularly, this town could still be considered the better stopping point for this group.

In addition to being a good reference point, easy to locate, this city also did not suffer from the many problems that forest regions could have. And with all that, the people of Minos' group didn't mind local conditions, despite their high status!

Then, they had spent their first night in this region until dawn on the third day.

...

Hours passed, and at this moment, the sun was at the top of the sky over the Yellow City.

While Minos' group awaited the arrival of the spiritual judge, the three humans and Celeste's beast were outside the central mansion of that city, chatting or relaxing there.

The great beast of Celeste was lying in a corner, sleeping peacefully and enjoying the pleasant sensation of having its body warmed by the sun's rays. At the same time, those two women were talking about private matters, sitting on a nearby small wooden bench.

Finally, Minos was walking on the outskirts of that mansion, analyzing specific ideas.

'This place seems to be big enough for me to build a base in this town…' He thought about it as he surveyed the terrain at that location. 'Perhaps I should send a group to make these preparations.'

'After the soldiers' mission in the Maritime City ended, I will be able to set up a small branch here...'

Minos had no interest in building a new city on the Black Plain, at least not until Dry City reached its maximum potential guaranteed by the dome area.

That's because this young man didn't want to divide his meager forces into two places, not even having to invest in a city with the same capabilities as the Dry City.

After all, if he did that, he would have to pay for a defensive tower equal to his city, or such a location would become very vulnerable in the short term. But this, in addition to being very expensive and dependent on a large number of soldiers, the territory of Minos did not have the population to occupy a new city!

So, until the Black Plain became independent, Minos had no intention of building new cities. Instead, he would explore some locations through the shadows and continue developing the Dry City.

That was his plan and something crucial to the possible success of his forces on this journey.

But even if he wasn't going to create new cities, he was interested in opening more army bases. Like in the case of that naval base, from which the products developed in the Dry City came departed. Such places could play an important defensive role for this young man's territory, and he was not ignorant of such a thing.

As such, this idea that he was analyzing was part of the Independence Plan, in part focused on the domain of certain cities and regions.

He wanted to build these outposts in the Maritime City, Cite of Waters, and here, in Yellow City!

In these cities, this young man intended to rule them from the shadows, building small secret bases from which soldiers could act by surprise against future enemies.

And such a thing was within the possibilities of the current Black Plain since there was no need for such massive investments, nor large numbers of soldiers in each of the posts.

Anyway, Minos then bent down and looked at the dirt floor of part of that property and muttered something. "Hmm, I can use this mansion as camouflage and then create an underground base at this location."

'With that, even if people occasionally pass through this town, they won't find out about my soldiers' presence around here!' He pondered, carrying a slight smile on his face.

He naturally wanted to do this to prevent someone in the future from accusing him of having invaded the territory of an independent state, and this causing him even more trouble. Because, even if a rebellious plan like the one he wanted to pursue was already against the ideas of all the royal families, it wasn't as bad as invading another power's territory.

After all, the Counter-Revolutionary Statute was not something with immediate effect!

Such a thing would take from a few months to sometimes even more than a year to have results, that is, for reinforcements to join the war. However, if the news of an independent territory being invaded by an outside force reached the ears of essential people in the royal families, well, it would have rapid results.

Consequently, such action could significantly advance the arrival of reinforcements to extinguish the flames of the revolution, something that could greatly disrupt Minos' life...

Precisely because of that, Minos didn't want to expose his future bases casually!

...

Some time passed, and finally, a carriage appeared at the beginning of that street that passed in front of the central mansion of Yellow City.

Two beasts were pulling such a carriage and two men sitting at the front of this means of transport. One was the one that controlled the beasts, and the other was a man wearing silver armor.

Other than that, in the twilight at the end of the day, people in Minos' group could see from afar a shadow generated by the lights inside the carriage, which indicated the presence of someone else in that group of newcomers.

"Finally!" Mirya commented in satisfaction, shortly after heaving a sigh of relief. "They kept us waiting all day…" She complained in a low voice to Celeste, with an unhappy look on her beautiful face.

"It doesn't matter, they're on time, and we can finally settle this issue!" Minos commented to the two almost instantly as that carriage entered the range of this young man's spiritual sense.

He readily felt that there were only three people in that group. One was the driver, which had a standard level for the region, another was the person in the carriage, level 49, and last was the man in armor, level 53.

"This Spiritual King must be a bodyguard hired by Elder Norman." Minos mused, noticing that person's cultivation.

He had managed to hire for this service, through the Cohen family, the spiritual judge with whom he had previously done business in Athela. By the time Celeste arrived in the Dry City, Todd had found such a professional in the organization where Minos had purchased various techniques specializing in that profession.

And coincidentally, the person who had been assigned this service was Norman!

Finally, that carriage reached the front of that mansion where Minos and the two women were waiting.

"Did I make you wait?" An elderly voice resounded from inside that carriage as the old man slowly opened the carriage door.

Quickly the elder Norman descended from where he was, being accompanied by that Spiritual King closely until he heard Minos' answer.

"No, Elder Norman is punctual. You said you were going to arrive in about three days, and really, you're here as promised!"

"Oh? You are that young man from before!" Norman commented in surprise after hearing Minos' voice and seeing that face he had met once before.

However, as he did so, his expression slowly changed, as gradually, his pupils abruptly contracted, and his mouth dropped open.

'He's almost level 49!' Norman thought inwardly, shocked to realize how fast the speed of this young man in front of him was. 'He increased four levels in less than two years, amazing!'