The Rise of the Black Plain

Ten days had passed, and Minos and Abby had already arrived in Wilburg.

During this past time, the two had traveled quietly from Athela to the region dominated by the Cohen family. And besides having stopped to rest and train, the two hadn't done anything else of significance.

There were not many natural areas in this mid-northern region of the Kingdom of Waves where mighty spiritual beasts could be found.

There were even some small forests, but they were dominated by beasts below the 5th stage of cultivation, which offered no challenge to the couple.

And that was common. After all, this was the most populated region of the Kingdom of the Waves, a part of this state almost entirely dominated by human forces.

Because of this, the few nature reserves that remained in this part served only as hunting areas, where ordinary people could get items of animal origin.

Finally, after Minos left territory directly controlled by royalty, he entered the Cohen family's territory. This place had about 30% of the area of the Black Plain and a large city, which already had more than 1 million inhabitants.

In addition to Wilburg, there were 15 other cities in the territory of the Cohen family, which in total numbered more than 8 million inhabitants.

And Minos had had the opportunity to go through some of these places with Abby, having been positively surprised by the development of this region. Contrary to what could be seen in other territories of noble regional families, this area ruled by the city of Wilburg was not totally dependent on this place.

In the northern region of the Central Continent, in many cases, the best services were all in the biggest cities. In contrast, the others are left with only the crumbs. But in this territory of the Cohen family, each town had populations above 400,000 and had services of all professions.

That was admirable!

In some places that Minos had passed, plantations were stretching for tens of kilometers. In contrast, in others, there was a significant presence of the mining sector.

It was a territory with several different activities, demonstrating the local sovereign power's care in diversifying the economy.

But that wasn't all that unique!

In fact, this type of management was widespread among merchant powers, such as the Miller family, which followed the same model in their region, according to Abby.

And that was reasonable, after all, who knew better about investments than the big regional merchants?

Such powers were used to earning by selling others' products, so it was only natural for them to develop better ways to invest their profits. Thus, organizations of this kind could depend less on external means and take a step forward towards autonomy.

That is, who would know about tomorrow?

You may be fine now, but then a problem falls right into your lap, and everything changes. And due to this kind of thing, the great economic powers had already developed their ways of investing to guarantee tomorrow.

An expert once said that an intelligent man spends less than he earns. But, on the other hand, a brilliant man would put his crystals into something that would ensure him a living even if his primary source of income ceased to exist.

'Make the crystals work for you!'

And because of that, economic powers used to be the best in public management in the Spiritual World.

Anyway, after passing through the well-organized territory of the Cohen family, Minos and Abby had already seen a bit of Wilburg, where they had arrived today, at the beginning of the evening.

This place had experts from all areas and even some medium-level grade-2 individuals from the top 3 spiritual professions. But there were no guilds of great regional importance, such as Minos had met on the way to Athela.

Yet this city had good options and could be considered an enjoyable place to live. Here, many businesses related to non-spiritual professions existed, places to hire mercenaries, three spiritual academies, a cultivation tower, and much more.

It wasn't exactly a place with tremendous opportunities like Dry City. Still, it was much better than what could be found in many of the cities Minos had known.

As an example, the case of the Maritime City. This location charged its citizens an annual tax that was simply disproportionate, considering that there were no decent services there.

And many of the towns Minos had known in the Cromwell Kingdom, most suffered from this same problem.

Anyway, after staying in a suitable place in this city, the two had taken the rest of the night to relax and settle their personal affairs in bed...

Minos had some business to do locally, but that couldn't be done until the next day when it was appropriate for him and Abby to visit the Cohen family and also when local services were open.

Dealing with the Cohen family shouldn't be a problem and would likely be resolved in just one day. But what would require a more significant amount of time would be Minos' second intention, to attract professionals to his city.

This time he wasn't interested in getting ordinary grade-1 specialists. No, now such a thing wasn't so attractive to him and what Minos wanted was to attract those low-level grade-2 individuals.

Dry City already had a few of this classification of the top three spiritual professions. But the number of these people in that place was tiny, and the ruler of the Black Plain wanted to change that.

He wasn't after beast tamers, or spiritual judges, as such areas were hardly in demand in the Dry City. But for the other professions, even if for some it was less attractive for him to worry about it now, it was still worth investing in each of these areas.

They could develop in his city, and shortly, when the Black Plain opened up to the world, there would already be all the necessary services to attract new inhabitants.

...

Little by little, it dawned, with the city of Wilburg shrouded in a dense fog, which at certain points was already mixed with the smoke of some chimneys.

In this city, there were many buildings, but most buildings were below three floors, so chimneys were very common around here.

Many people cooked at home, and during breakfast, they not only prepared their first meal of the day, but many already prepared their lunches as well.

After all, ordinary people who had to work for more than 10 hours a day didn't have time to go home for lunch, nor did they have crystals to eat in restaurants. Thus, cooking more than one meal in the morning was very common in Wilburg.

And in the middle of this typical early morning in this region, in an 8-story building in the southern part of the city, two youths were taking a shower at the time in one of the apartments of this building.

There was a bathroom with a large functional area in that place, where there were all the necessary items that a place like this would have.

Among the standouts were the bathtub and a shower area, which could fit even six people simultaneously!

And right there, Abby and Minos were washing each other's bodies, with large sponges in their hands, filled with a foamy product.

Abby's stunning body was already all covered by foam, while her beautiful breasts constantly trembled, letting some of the foam run down her body. At the same time, Minos was behind this young woman, washing her back and gently stroking one of her breasts from time to time.

They had just finished their 'morning activities' and were just getting cleaned up so they could finally go out on business. And even though the two of them might as well keep doing that in the bath, they didn't want to delay their affairs in this town.

Because of this, the two did not take long and soon had finished their shower and started to get dressed.

"What are we going to do first?" Abby asked Minos as she helped him button his shirt.

"Let's try to find old Lance, or his grandson, Todd, to talk business..."