The Rise of the Black Plain

Little by little, it dawned in the Dry City when the birds sang in the trees in the streets, and the first windows and doors opened and closed.

Right now, it was cold in the city ruled by Minos, while dew covered the lawns of the city's public parks, in addition, of course, to the many glass windows of the local buildings.

The sky was still partially cloudy, with some blue dots in the middle of the white, from where light sources illuminated the Dry City more intensely.

And in the middle of this early morning, white smoke trails were already leaving from the top of some buildings. At the same time, the smell of bread permeated the residential neighborhoods of this place.

The day had just started, but hundreds of homes were already active, with all the family members drinking coffee and chatting animatedly.

After all, however early in the morning, today, the last part of the selection would start, so many competitors had woken up early, along, of course, with their families.

The first day of fights in this last part of the selection would only officially start at 10 am. Still, even if it wasn't even 6 at this time, many were already getting ready to leave.

Competitors had been recommended to arrive at headquarters 2 hours in advance to receive proper notice of how this final phase would work.

It was nothing complex, and many of them already knew they would fight the Black Plain Army soldiers. However, those minor details, such as the order of the fights, with who each competitor would fight, dates, results, would all be announced before the start of this last exam.

And because of that, the thousands of competitors were already getting ready to go to the headquarters, just as the day dawned.

...

On one of the streets of a residential neighborhood in the Dry City, there were many buildings with similar heights and different models. Many of them had a glass layer, with small lawns between the street sidewalk and their entrances. In others, there were sets of stairs.

In general, there were a few different models of buildings in this city, like those without balconies, with several windows on each floor. Others had a small open area in each apartment, sometimes with plants or places for recreation.

There were round, square, rectangular, letter-shaped buildings, such as 'T,' 'S,' 'X,' hexagonal, and other different shapes. Some were entirely covered by glass facades. Others had green parts, which scaled the walls as if some walls were vertical soils.

Anyway, the view from the buildings of the Dry City was quite enjoyable, with many colors and shapes for people to admire.

It certainly wasn't a tiring sight!

And in the middle of that street, a young woman was leaving one of these buildings, already descending the stairs to the exit of that place where she was.

Behind her, where there was a large glass door at the entrance to the condominium, three people waved their hands at this young woman.

Of these people, one was a middle-aged woman, next to a man with gray hair on his head and a tall, rustic body. In addition, there was also a girl in the middle of the two adults, who didn't look even 14-years-old, eating an apple right now.

"Good luck, big sister!" The girl yelled in her thin voice as she waved to the young woman walking out of the condominium entrance area.

"Bye, see you later." She answered.

After that, the young woman who had just left that place, Alina, waved back to her family. Then, finally, she closed the outer door of that place and made her way to the city center.

This young woman and her entire family had woken up very early today, having already had a rich breakfast, in case she had to fight on the first day of the final exam!

Alina's entire family was delighted with this young woman's performance in the selection, and they were very supportive.

They couldn't take crystals to give to her or precious items that could help her, but they provided all the emotional support that a family could give.

And this, in a way, such a thing was indeed the most important for Alina!

Anyway, after the start of the day for Alina and her family, the young woman soon disappeared from that street.

If her relatives could see her fighting in the selection exam, they would go. Yet, such a possibility was not available to the public. So, her family could only return to their business. And about that, there was a lot that her family could do...

Aside from Alina's young sister, who was not yet an adult, everyone in this family had at least one job, so they had a lot to do!

As for this young woman's sister, she did not make it into the army during the previous selection, and given the passage of time, her strength had not significantly increased enough for her to do so in this issue.  'I hope the older sister wins. Then in the next competition, we'll both be in the army!' The girl thought to herself after returning to her room.

...

Quickly some time passed, and the back gates of the local army headquarters were already open for candidates!

It had just passed 8 am, and the approximately 3.5 thousand people who remained in this phase of the selection were already entering that place.

The crowd soon moved silently to the stands of the headquarters' small arena. At the same time, some yawning sounds could be heard coming from the soldiers, and coffee fragrances drifted through the air in that place.

"Ah, finally, this selection is ending!" One of the soldiers at the entrance to that place commented to one of his fellow workers.

The other soldier then nodded, holding a white mug in both hands as he took it to his mouth. "Really, despite being an interesting event for the competitors and people related to them, it is quite tiring for us."

"I prefer to follow my usual routine."

"Hmm, don't even tell me. In the last two months, I only had to resolve issues related to this selection!" The other nodded as he warmed his hands by rubbing each other. He then continued. "Honestly, I would have preferred to stay a few more days at the coastal base, just not to have done this job, hehe. There at least I could earn double merit points per day."

"Haha, you are an interesting guy to say that. Speaking of which, I was recently selected to go spend two months working on this place. Can you tell me how things are there?" At the same time, this soldier asked, he saw the crowd of people outside the headquarters decrease to the point where pieces of the street could be seen again.

The other then began to speak. "There's not a lot to do there. It's pretty monotonous most of the time."

"Of course, we have to do the cleaning work, as there are no lower-ranking soldiers than Corporals in that place... That's the only truly boring job."

"Oh?"

"But apart from that, we have to transport the resources planted here to merchant ships and protect the base. From time to time, some groups of spiritual beasts appear in the vicinity of there, and then we have to eliminate them."

"The good thing about it is that we can fight a little more than we do here in the Dry City. We also got some crystals, selling the parts we don't eat of these beasts."

"It's a job that pays well."

"I see. But what about spiritual density? Even if there is compensation for receiving double merit points per day, I am still uncertain."

"The spiritual concentration of that place is what is like it was here before the changes generated by the young master. But that's not as problematic as you think."

"When I was there, there were already two cultivation rooms for the 4th stage cultivators, for up to 30 people each."

"Oh? Less bad..."

The two continued to talk until finally, the last participant in this final part of the selection enters that place. After that, these two soldiers quickly closed the big entrance gate to that part of the headquarters and returned to the arena from there, where all the competitors were already properly seated...