The Rise of the Black Plain

After the group of Miller family had arrived in Dry City the night before, they had known the places they would be staying in this city and had then gone out to get to know this strange place.

In doing so, although they hadn't learned everything about the new Dry City, they had still discovered the basics of this place, in particular the local Cultivation Tower!

Since they were not here to join Minos' army, this young sovereign had no intention of giving these people anything other than allowing them to learn the Silver-grade techniques. With that, they would have to solve their own problems locally, including finding a suitable place to train.

Thus, they would buy arrays to put in their residences, something expensive and time-consuming to obtain, or use the local cultivation tower, something more affordable.

So, after finishing learning the basics of that Silver-grade cultivation technique, Archer wasted no time and left that mansion to head towards the Dry City Cultivation Tower.

From what he had discovered the night before, this place currently had a capacity of over 3,700 cultivation rooms, which could simultaneously serve about 30,000 people a day!

Among these rooms, there was one that was made for cultivators at the 6th stage. Such a thing had been made available to the citizens of Dry City from the moment that Celeste and Mirya had come here.

After all, with the arrival of these Spiritual Kings, Minos was aware that it would be necessary for him to make such a service available in his Cultivation Tower. Otherwise, his city would not have what it took to serve people of such strength, something he wanted to attract to his side.

And as it was, such an option had been made available months ago, having already been used by Mirya and Mendy in the past, and would now be available to these five Spiritual Kings who had come from Odella.

As for the capacity of this room, it could receive up to 3 people simultaneously, which was something these people would have to split over the following months.

But at least they wouldn't have to pay exorbitant prices to use the collective cultivation room for 6th stage cultivators. That was because, unlike other cultivation towers, the one in Dry City only charged 3,000 low-grade crystals per day. Such an amount was six times the amount charged to local citizens, but only a quarter of that charged in other towns in the region!

And knowing this, these people were naturally pleased with this place. They had previously worried that they would have to live on the Black Plain for a whole year, as this place was famous for being poor in spiritual energy.

But with the current density of spiritual energy in this city and the possibility of using the Cultivation Tower rooms, living in Dry City had become much easier for these people.

Hence, Archer quickly reached his destination.

...

Meanwhile, Minos and Joey watched the second person from the Miller family learn that technique while they were talking about official matters.

"So, Mr. Joey, how is the progress of the construction of the border posts?" Minos asked with a curious expression on his face.

Joey then said. "Young master, Lieutenant Eda has finally managed to begin operations in the basement of the City of Waters government mansion."

Such a thing was part of the Independence Plan and depended tremendously on the surprise factor. Therefore, although Minos was in negotiations with the Stokes family and he had a good chance of getting approval from such an organization to build a border base in that city, waiting for this would not be ideal for the Black Plain.

After all, that town had royal forces from the Cromwell Kingdom stationed there, forces that the young Stuart did not wish to draw attention to... In fact, he wanted his base to be a secret, something he could use against such an organization if he had to fight against the Cromwell Kingdom!

Because of this factor, his soldiers could not act casually in that place. On the contrary, they had to be as careful as possible not to attract unnecessary attention. 

Consequently, Eda had had some problems starting the construction operation in the basement of the government mansion there.

Joey then continued. "But as we have a competent group working in that town, and we are prioritizing the delivery of the necessary resources to them, we have already completed more than 40% of that border post."

"Hmm, that's not bad. At this rate, in about three weeks, that base will be ready..." Minos muttered as he counted on his fingers. "What about the one in Yellow City?"

"The Yellow City secret base is already over 70% ready, young master." Joey said as he had a smile on his face. "That location gave almost no trouble to the team sent there, so they were able to advance the construction of that base very quickly."

"Great!"

Finally, in addition to those two bases, Minos' forces were still going to build one more post on the coast of the Black Plain, located in Maritime City. But since they had not yet dominated that location, they would not do that yet for the time being.

After thinking about these two bases and their future actions in Maritime City, Minos finally saw the second Spiritual King pass on the scroll from before and leave that property. This young man then asked, still paying attention in the same direction as before. "What about the renovations to our naval base?"

"About that, the base expansion has been finished, and in another week, the Cohen family will deliver the medium-level grade-2 defensive array that will be installed on that base."

"In fact, they will be making the deliveries of the defensive arrays of those three bases that the army will have soon, at that same time."

"I see..."

"Well, I expect we will greatly increase the number of our soldiers with this upcoming selection that will take place in the next few days. With that, we'll be able to send significant contingents to each of those border bases." Minos said in a low voice while planning in his mind how things should be in the future.

In addition to these bases on the Black Plain border, Minos knew that he would need more protection points around Dry City. After all, this town would need a safe space outside the dome to continue producing food and exporting it.

Otherwise, this city would run out of the needed resources for this young man to be able to maintain his citizens' current growth.

Hence, there was a need for temporary camps around this city, about a hundred kilometers away from the dome.  That would be the safety area where Dry City could continue producing and sending its resources to Stone Island.

And the posts would have the function of sending news to Dry City about enemy actions and making attacks against enemies who tried to invade this security area.

For that, the army needed a large number of soldiers scattered around this territory!

"Anyway, Mr. Joey, those are my orders for the moment. When part of these matters are concluded, you can come back to update me, and we can settle the army's future actions." Minos said, shortly after seeing that the last person of those four Miller family nobles had finished learning the basics of that technique from before.

"All right, young master. See you later."

"See you."

...

Minos had returned to his office after finishing his business with Joey and receiving the Silver-grade technique. Now, he wanted to settle some issues concerning local administration.

The population growth was currently not that great. However, this city still had many things going on simultaneously, things he needed to be aware of. For example, as the plans for Maritime City progressed, more and more people were incarcerated in the local prison.

On the other hand, beasts still attacked the local plantation fields from time to time, and as much as the mercenaries and hunters could handle it most of the time, now and then, the army had to be involved.

Anyway, there were several matters like these that the sovereign would need to pay attention to, and Minos did not fail to do such a thing!

'Ahh, after I sort that out, I'll see how Mirya is doing....' He thought to himself just before he sat down in his armchair and began to listen to Mia's voice.