In a trendy restaurant among farmers in the city, a group of 4 men actively talked about their daily activities in the plantations of the Black Plain while having lunch. These were ordinary inhabitants in the Dry City, people who had White talent.
One of the men, who had long gray hair, changed the subject and said. "Old Roy, you've reached level 29 a long time ago, right?"
The man named Roy, who appeared to be the oldest in the group, looked at his friend and replied. "Yes, I reached this level 39 years ago. So, what's the point of talking about it now, Errol?"
"You must have heard the rumor that an alchemist opened a store here, in the Dry City. At first, I still doubted it, but this morning I saw a huge queue coming out of a store, not far from Mr. Minos' mansion."
"After I saw this, I waited for a while and asked one of the people who had left the store why those people were in that queue." Old Errol said, looking at the other three men who were eating. He then continued. "I found out from that person that I asked that an alchemist is taking orders for grade-1 spiritual pills!"
"Oh! So, it's true. As expected, Mr. Minos is extraordinarily efficient." Said one of the other two men, who were with the group.
"What about the prices? I heard it was a lot cheaper than normal, is that right?" The other old man asked.
Errol then replied with a smile on his face. "Yes, it is a lot cheaper. For example, a medium-level grade-1 pill, which can help someone break from level 29 to 30, costs 150 low-grade crystals!"
Old Roy, who was drinking from a large mug of beer, almost spit out a full mouth after hearing this. He then got up from his chair and asked with a serious face. "What? Are you sure about this?"
Errol smiled and said. "Hmm, I wouldn't lie to you."
Upon hearing this answer, Roy burst out laughing and then said it aloud before leaving the restaurant. "Hahaha, well, you can wait for me in the field. I'm going to visit this store!"
After that, Roy quickly left the restaurant and headed for the central part of the city. He was very excited by the idea that he could buy a medium-level grade-1 spiritual pill that would be able to help him break through his bottleneck.
And although that pill still cost a good deal of his economies, it was still worth a lot. He had collected about 300 crystals during the past year while working as a farmer for the local government.
And by raising his strength, he could do more at work and even earn a salary increase!
Of course, that still wasn't the best part. As someone with White talent, Roy was limited by level 29, and without outside help, he would not be able to advance any further, and he was almost 200-years-old at this point!
At such an age, he could live at most another 50 years. However, with a 4th stage breakthrough spiritual pill, he could increase his life expectancy to 450 years!
And that was why he was in such a hurry. Like an old man at the end of his life, any chance of salvation would be pursued with all the will of his being.
...
As Roy headed for Davis's alchemical store, many other people received the same news as Roy and Errol's group.
That was a chance of a lifetime for hundreds of residents of the Dry City, who had already reached their bottlenecks and were continuing to get old.
It didn't take long, and orders for medium-level grade-1 spiritual pills, specialized in advancing from the 3rd to the 4th stage, surpassed the thousands mark!
'As expected, with such a low price, even people who have not yet reached their bottleneck would buy these pills to use them at the right time.' Davis thought to himself as he saw the number of orders that the secretary he had hired passed to him.
'Hmm, with such demand, even if I have all the resources, it will still take me about four months just to produce these pills...' Davis sighed internally. He was happy that his business finally took off, but there was a lot of work ahead.
...
At that time, Minos had just left his training within the Spatial Kingdom, where he had broken through to level 35.
He did not want to remain focused on just cultivating at that time. According to his count, the Spiritual Tournament was less than five months away, and he still had to solve the problem on the north side of the border.
For this reason, he had decided to settle some more pending matters on the Black Plain before finally leaving to confront these groups of criminals on the border.
To begin with, he had held a meeting in the presence of the soldiers who had already attained the rank of Sergeant, with butler Dillian and some influential members of the Dry City administration.
At this meeting, it was decided that the Dry City would establish a port base on the maritime coast of the Black Plain. This base would be controlled initially by the Black Plain Army until a city in that place was constructed.
For the time being, they had no interest in establishing this city, which could have negative implications for the Black Plain. For example, the first problem was that they did not have enough population even for the affairs of the Dry City, let alone a port city...
They also did not want to risk attracting the attention of the Maritime City by building a city that could compete with its. Thus, for now, this place would be just a branch base of the Black Plain Army, which would have the purpose of receiving and sending products to the merchant Elen Nash from Stone Island.
It was decided that this place would be built in the remaining two months until the beginning of the next harvest. And at that time, the site would be guarded by a group of 3 Sergeants, 10 Corporals, and 20 Soldiers, who would change shifts from time to time.
They also decided to increase the cultivated area for the next harvest. Currently, the unemployed population of the Dry City could supply a workforce that could add another 100 hectares, resulting in a total of 200.
As for if they wanted to increase that area, they would have to attract the border populations of the Black Plain first. This is because there would be no more workforce available after that period.
After the meeting ended, Ruth watched everything curiously, got up from her chair, and asked Minos with a curious face. "And then? Shall we leave for the Kingdom of the Waves? I'm curious to see you in action."
Ruth wanted to find out what Minos' real strength was. That's because she had never seen him fight.
When they were on Stone Island, she was separated from him in the only fight he had after they had both met. But she didn't know if Minos had beaten Luke because he had some powerful external means or if it was indeed his own power.
And with her observing Minos moving faster and faster only made Ruth's curiosity grow even more. So, it was a golden chance for her since they could face many criminals during this mission.
'I will not leave you in that place. I want to see if you can keep hiding from me!' Ruth thought as she looked away from Minos, with the corners of her mouth slightly up.
She also wanted to know what the degree of Minos' techniques was. That's because his cultivation speed was very abnormal. As far as she knew, even someone with a Golden talent could not cultivate so fast without a high-level technique.
So, if Minos had only one Black talent, where had he found his cultivation technique? It certainly couldn't come from Albert. As for Minos' mother, Ruth knew that in the Gray Cloud Sect, there was a single Golden-grade technique, but it was not a cultivation technique!
So, Minos' mother couldn't have helped him with that either. Ruth asked all these questions to herself almost every time she saw Minos increase in strength. So, she was getting more and more interested in him...
After that, Minos left to meet the beautiful Elen. She had been staying at the mansion this entire time and had decided to wait for Minos to make this trip to the Kingdom of the Waves.
Despite having her interests, she would prefer to wait a little longer and then spend more time with this miraculous ally that she had made. And it wouldn't be a bad thing to have more people helping with this task.
Even if her bodyguard was already at level 48, it didn't hurt to be careful!
At that moment, Minos entered through the apartment door where Elen was staying. He then greeted the man in silver armor and went towards the blonde woman, who enjoyed the view of the Dry City through a large glass window.
"It is time for us to leave. My group will be ready in 2 days." Minos said seriously.