The Rise of the Black Plain

After passing by the two foxes, Minos headed for the open ground in front of the lake house and then took out a golden scroll from his spatial ring. The scroll contained the technique he had chosen to learn at his stage of cultivation.

The technique was called Explosive Steps, a Golden-grade technique, consisting of 7 phases. The first phase of the technique could give the ability to a user to propel themselves at increasing speeds, the first phase could provide a speed of 50 meters per second and the last phase would reach a whooping speed of 1,600 meters per second!

Along with that, it could also increase the user's average flight speed by three times!

But for mastering this technique, the user would have to be already at the level of a Spiritual Emperor since only after attaining this level would one have the ability to fly.

Other than that, there was no time restriction for this technique. As long as the user could continue supplying spiritual energy, they would be able to travel vast distances, even on foot!

"Mounts? I don't need one! With my legs, I would be able to go around the world in just a few days!" Minos mused.

After reading this, Minos almost couldn't help but feel amused at whoever had left such a technique behind... But it indeed was very effective. After all, the high-level spiritual beasts would not serve as mounts in this world.

Even if someone possessed a very high level, having 6th stage mounts could already be considered the peak. Beyond that, these beasts were already considered as specialists, even within the human forces of the Central Continent.

After all, even if there may have been a particular bias among the humans of this continent, the forces were not so stupid enough to waste such beasts by treating them as mere mounts.

Generally, the powers that had beasts above the 6th stage allocated them as protectors. In a few cases, they could even govern certain places.

Anyway, if someone wanted to travel long distances, that person would probably need to adjust to the speed of weaker beasts or should walk their paths on their own. As a result, the technique that Minos had chosen seemed particularly interesting to him.

Minos soon started training in the technique, occasionally sprinting throughout the Spatial Kingdom.

He would dart from side to side while activating the technique and suddenly increasing his speed. This created a rather funny scene to watch, so much so that the two foxes couldn't help laughing after seeing the young Stuart constantly tumbling on the ground every now and then.

After all, it was pretty challenging getting used to such a sudden brutal change in speed. Before learning this technique, Minos could barely move at half the speed that this new technique allowed him to!

And as a result, while getting himself familiarized with the basics of the technique, Minos had fallen many times, sometimes even rolling across the ground for several meters.

"Au! Au!" Tiny Kyla commented to her mother as she rolled over on the ground as well.

Emlyn couldn't help but laugh, "He's not deliberately throwing himself on the ground!"

After doing this until he reached the ten kilometers mark, Minos finally stopped training after activating the technique for the last time.

It was undeniably an incredibly fast technique. For instance, the technique used by young Troy was of Silver-grade classification, but it only made his speed reach 40 meters per second. And although the difference is not so significant, it was worth knowing that Minos' technique had only reached the first phase right now...

After getting used to his new technique, the young Stuart rested for a while before beginning to train his old techniques.

He wanted to gauge just how much they had changed after he had leveled up!

Minos started with his support technique when he used some of his spiritual energy and activated it.

Devouring Art!

Simultaneously, the characteristic black ring started to rise to the sky from Minos' body while slowly expanding its range. This time, the black fog contained inside it was even more concentrated, and the noise being emitted from it was more noticeable.

The ring quickly extended to the surroundings, covering a radius of about 100 meters with Minos at its center, meanwhile, the young Stuart was absorbing the spiritual energy of an array that he had previously set up.

'Hmm, the conversion factor has increased to 30% of the energy absorbed!' Minos celebrated inwardly. Every single increase in this conversion factor meant that he could use his techniques even more efficiently in the battle!

With this improvement, Minos would need to spend even less of his own energy reserves, thereby increasing his fighting proficiency!

After that, Minos started to train his attack technique.

When activating, the space of around 80 meters with him as the center suddenly started freezing, as if time itself had come to a standstill. After doing that, he took a moment to enjoy the sight of many leaves suspended freely in the air.

If his technique's restrictive characteristic had continued to increase, it meant that it could affect even more enemies and was also more likely to prevent leaks from happening!

He also realized that both his attack and defensive techniques were approaching a domain in which he could freely choose to whom the effect of his technique would be applied. He could prevent his technique from siphoning the spiritual energy from his allies and ensure that his companions were not affected by the Spatial Sword's restraint!

However, he believed that he could only achieve these things in the next phase when he also reached level 50. But since that was a long way off, Minos had put that idea aside for now.

Minos also trained his defensive technique, but among all the techniques, this was the one that showed the slightest improvement.

It had only further increased the resistance that his body would receive upon activating it. Still, it had not yet reached the point where the young Stuart could use it to attack. No, that was something which would still take more time for him to achieve...

After his rigorous training session, Minos sat down with the two foxes to rest.

"Emlyn, how long do you think it will take you to reach the 6th stage?" Minos inquired curiously as he cradled tiny Kyla in his hands.

"I believe it will happen in less than two months..."

Spiritual beasts had remarkable cultivation speeds due to their heightened compatibility with natural spiritual energy.

Nine-tailed Foxes, in particular, could cultivate almost as fast as a human who had Silver talent and was also using Silver-grade cultivation techniques.

However, that didn't apply universally to all the beast races. For example, the extraordinary speed of the Nine-tailed Foxes originated from their classification and that was why they had such good cultivation speeds. But even if they had a higher affinity for spiritual energy, it didn't mean that these beasts were generally stronger than humans.

That's because, billions of years ago, when the world was still young and lacked a well-established cultivation system, one of the earliest humans to cultivate created what would become the first cultivation technique!

Before that, humans cultivated without techniques, which was similar to the cultivation of the beasts, but that was thousands of times more difficult since humanity's natural aptitude was not great for this type of activity.

In terms of increasing innate aptitude, it was: humans, spiritual beasts, and elves.

Elves had innate abilities, while spiritual beasts had monstrous physical strengths, and some also had unique skills. Humans, on the other hand, were the least proficient in cultivation.

However, even before there was contact between the three primary races of this world, the first human techniques had already been in circulation on the Central Continent for a long time!

That allowed humanity to continue to survive and thrive, even after having a lower aptitude compared to elves and beasts. Anyway, humankind had dealt with this disadvantage by creating cultivation techniques.

The first technique was classified as White-grade. But, these techniques continued to get better and better through countless years, having reached its summit with the first God of humanity, Henricus Longus!

Anyway, all these efforts had bridged up the tremendous initial difference between the three dominant species of this world. But still, beasts and elves were naturally more blessed by the heavens and didn't need to rely on techniques in order to cultivate as fast as humans!

Anyway, after spending some time talking to the foxes, Minos left the Spatial Kingdom, promising tiny Kyla that he would bring her friend here.

The little fox had become friends with young Alison, so she missed playing with her.

Emlyn had translated everything for her daughter so that she would understand what he had said.

'Ah, now that I've increased my level, I have to worry about dealing with some bureaucratic issues...' Minos pondered as he made his way towards his office.

He had accumulated a good amount of crystals and so he wished to start some projects for Dry City. On this trip to the Cromwell Kingdom, he had come across many ideas that he wanted to implement here.

One of his plans was to build a cultivation tower and a fighting arena. By doing so, Minos hoped to enhance the speed of the city's citizens while also stimulating them for battles.

Engaging in fights could improve the speed of cultivation. But even if it did not, cultivators could still be able to improve their understanding of their respective techniques. And as an incentive, Minos would reward the best fighters in the arena, encouraging these people to appreciate and participate in the battles hosted in the city's arena!

Minos also had many other plans for the city, but they would still need time and more resources. So, for now, he wanted to focus only on these two projects until he could do more.

And among some of the things that Minos wanted to do as soon as possible, was to increase the number of alchemists in the city. Unfortunately, currently, there were only two of them, and from what he had heard, lately, they were barely getting even the time to breathe…

Moreover,Dry City still didn't have any array master or blacksmith. That also needed to be resolved as soon as possible since this place was already big enough, yet didn't have anything like this...