The Rise of the Black Plain

"We come from a region where your skills will be valued the most, and you will have a large consumer market. There you will have better opportunities than here in Wilburg, and you will also be able to receive support from us, even without joining our organization."

"To begin with, Blue-grade techniques are available to anyone who regularly lives in our city. And if you join our organization, you can receive even more benefits!" Minos commented as he had a sincere smile on his face.

He then continued. "Our city, although not as big as Wilburg, it already has its own cultivation tower, which offers more than 4.200 daily vacancies, and that number will increase soon. In addition, we already have a guild for array masters, where you can find the items you need for your regular training."

"But make no mistake, our city is an opportunity for people like you not because of these factors, but because of the common population!"

We have no unemployed, and even ordinary citizens with White talent can afford medical care and spiritual items that are inaccessible for them elsewhere!"

"And due to the greater purchasing power of our population, professionals of any specialization will have good opportunities in our territory."

"And aside from everything I said, there's a lot more that might interest you in moving to my city. But there is something I must point out first. In my city, you wouldn't need to spend a single crystal to get a place of commerce."

"If you want to trade in the local guild, you can do it for free, without having to pay any fees. And when you reach grade-2, we'll give you the option of having your own shop outside the guild, totally free of charge!"

Saying all this, Minos paused for a moment as he saw the man's suspicious countenance. He seemed to be impressed by all of this, but even more so by the fact that he didn't believe a word of young Stuart.

After all, why would land of opportunities like the one he'd just heard of need to look for mere level 39 cultivators elsewhere? As far as this man knew, each area with a cultivation tower should be almost as developed as this city. 

So, what young Stuart had just said seemed like a blatant lie, that this young man hadn't even bothered to try to 'make up' it to make it look more realistic!

And as the man's face darkened, Minos said something that made this array master take a step back and swallow his saliva heavily.

"If you don't believe me, I'm willing to make a Soul Contract!"

"What?" He exclaimed in shock, looking incredulously at the couple in front of him.

Signing Soul Contracts was not a common thing to do in everyday situations like the one in question. Because this service was not cheap, and there were few people capable of validating such agreements.

But still, the brown-haired young man, who didn't even look 20-years-old, said that to this man...

"Are you serious?" He questioned Minos while trying to regain his composure.

"Hmm, I'm serious. If you're interested, we can combine all the points of the deal and then look for a high-level grade-1 spiritual judge to validate that." Minos said without delaying.

Although the service of spiritual judges was expensive, it wasn't something entirely out of Minos' possibilities. After all, these professionals charged prices that were only a little higher than arrays with the same professional rating.

Thus, since spiritual judges could make contracts with people up to 10 levels above theirs, a level 39 individual of high-level grade-1 could validate the agreements Minos would make with people below level 50.

And that was precisely the cultivation range of the targets he would be looking for in this city!

With that, even if he made several deals, it would be worth it, as it could be paid for with low-grade crystals, something Minos had in large quantities.

At the same time, by making this kind of deal, young Stuart might have a higher success rate than previously in Portland. He could certainly get more than just one person this time...

Finally, when he heard the confirmation that Minos wasn't kidding, that man stopped for a moment and looked at the couple in front of him thoughtfully. 'Well, if you sign a contract with me, guaranteeing all of this, then I can be sure you are serious…'

'I don't think anyone would try to kill themselves by attracting punishment for such a thing, right?' He wondered.

If a promise made in a Soul Contract could not be fulfilled, the only fate of the one who promised such a thing would be death!

And if such a promise were achievable, then such a thing would happen sooner or later since it was impossible to escape the influence of the laws involved in such an arrangement.

"Well, if you're going to sign a contract with me, I don't mind moving into your territory. By the way, you didn't say where it is." The array master said, right after he had made up his mind on the matter.

Hearing this, Abby replied. "We won't say where our territory is until you sign the contract. That's because we'll put a clause that prohibits you from talking about the location or name of the territory with people who don't know about the subject."

"But after we sign the contract, we'll talk about it."

'That... Do they need to be that vague? Ahh, but I guess it doesn't even matter. If they're going to sign a contract promising all those things, then the location or the name of this place doesn't matter!' He thought for a moment, realizing that there was no relevance to knowing more about this place.

"Okay, so let's talk about the main points of this agreement..."

After he said that, the three immediately began discussing the contract's contents, including the contract's duration, the scope of each party's authority, what was and was not permitted, and Minos' promises.

Minos and Abby had listed everything they owned in the Dry City to assure this man that the territory they represented had many opportunities.

On the other hand, they had debated what this array master's relationship with their organization would be like.

This man was concerned with maintaining his freedom, and that was what their agreement had guaranteed. In exchange for going to Minos' territory, he could act freely and still receive support in purchasing materials, free training sites, and Blue-grade techniques.

And that would start to apply in 6 months when this man would have to travel to the city of Minos.

Anyway, there were many details in their agreement, and after talking for a few hours, the three had requested the service of a spiritual judge.

And to Minos, this time, he had not faced many problems in achieving this since the number of professionals in this specialization and classification was not so small.

There were very few grade-2 spiritual judges in the north of the Central Continent. Still, the numbers of individuals in that profession were not insignificant when it came to grade-1 ones.

Because of this, they would have to wait only five days for such a professional to validate their agreement!

And in the meantime, Minos wanted to make this same agreement with other local professionals, who were close to low-level grade-2 classification, at level 39.

Allied to that, he also wanted to get at least three levels 48 professionals, who were close to reaching the medium-level grade-2 classification.

These individuals would be critical to the development of the Dry City in the coming years, so Minos wanted to solve this thing at once in this city. And he didn't need people of that rank from many professions. It would be enough for his territory as long as they were individuals from the three main specializations.

...

And so, several days passed in Wilburg!