The Rise of the Black Plain

After arriving in Dry City, Peter has been living quite well lately. He was a young man from an ordinary family who had failed to get a position in any of the noble families in his kingdom...

Therefore, he had to go through numerous hurdles to reach his current level.

Until he met Minos, Peter had traveled for many months while engaged in training and providing various mercenary services. And it was due to all these reasons that he was immensely satisfied and enjoyed his short time in the Black Plain Army even more.

Upon his arrival in Dry City, Peter had been assigned to Minos' forces, receiving the rank of Sergeant position immediately. As a result, he had already received his first salary of 800 low-grade spiritual crystals!

This was an unprecedented gain for him since he had never obtained so many crystals this quickly in all his life till now. But that was not the best part. Not at all, the real highlight after entering the Black Plain Army was his right to learn any Black-grade technique from the army's exclusive library.

And, of course, for having the privilege to learn these techniques in the library, he had to leave his techniques behind so as to increase the availability of techniques of that degree for the future members of the army.

He also handed over his Blue-grade techniques willingly to the Dry City administration so that the technique would be available to ordinary citizens.

This was the system Minos had implemented for the soldiers. In exchange for receiving new Black-grade techniques from the most varied specializations, all they had to do was to deliver their previous Black-grade and Blue-grade techniques.

This was rather a good exchange between both sides since most of these people didn't even have any Black-grade techniques. While some had one, it would just be of one type, which was not of much use, so in return for getting a new technique of different specialization, they had to share their own. Because of this, dozens of such techniques were at their disposal now!

Since learning the superior Black-grade techniques, no soldier paid much attention to the Blue-grade techniques. Therefore, neither Peter nor any other soldier had complained about this system, aware that this was a fair exchange in which both parties gave something and received something significant in return!

But Peter was also very excited about the prices of items that were sold within the city. It was all considerably a lot cheaper than in those places he had already been to. And because of this, in the period of just over a month since his arrival here, Peter had already made up his mind to return to his hometown, in the Kingdom of Waves, and bring his family back with him!

He hadn't seen them in about two years, so he had to act as soon as possible. His family didn't even know if he was alive or dead, and he was also unaware of the circumstances they might be in.

After all, there would always be unknown risks in this vast world, which made it essential for him to reach out to his family.

Had he joined one of the Flaming Empire sects, Peter would have managed to inform his family about it. However, this was not the case. Therefore, he was already preparing to speak with Minos about his trip to the Kingdom of Waves.

Since he was now a subordinate of the young Stuart, he couldn't leave without his permission.

Hence, after he woke up this morning, Peter headed straight to Minos' office which was in the mansion at the center of the city.

Peter was not living in the visiting area of that place since he had already found a small apartment on the west side of the town instead.

And with the salary of a Sergeant, he had managed to get this apartment in one of the areas affected by one of the low-level grade-2 gathering arrays, which was operational in the city.

So, he enjoyed living in one of the best places to live in Dry City without having to rely on being a guest at Minos' mansion, which made him feel a bit awkward since he was now a subordinate and not a guest.

After walking for a while, Peter encountered numerous people along the way, primarily on the route along the city's main avenue, which connected his neighborhood to the central business district, which contained most of the public buildings of the city.

The Dry City already had over 100 thousand inhabitants, so the influx of people on the streets was growing. But that was not all. The city still had a limited area due to the fact that almost everyone preferred to live in the areas that were under the influence of the spiritual gathering array, leading it to have a considerable population movement and concentration.

And even after reaching the mark of 100 thousand inhabitants, Dry City had barely recovered all its previous territory from before the arrival of Minos.

As a result, the place had a very big flow of people and spiritual beasts at the moment, which gave a feeling of the city being much bigger than it actually was!

Grrr!

Amidst his walk, beasts' sounds could be heard while some carriages passed the street at a reasonable speed. Notably, Minos was not the only one to have this means of transport; several citizens also owned their own carriages as well!

This change happened after the population of Yellow City was completely absorbed by Dry City, which also brought the wealthiest people along with it. And although they were not overly extravagant, several merchants in that city had simpler carriages.

Finally, after walking through this bustling city, Peter arrived in front of Minos' mansion.

Many soldiers were already coming and going on the scene, even if it was early hours of the morning.

The sky was serene blue at the time, and there lingered a medicinal smell in the air, which was not strange due to the close proximity of the stores of the two alchemists in this city to Minos' mansion.

Anyway, the weather was perfect today, neither cold nor hot, reminiscent of a spring morning.

Finally, Peter went through the mansion's garden and headed straight to the administrative area.

Shortly after that, he finally arrived in front of Minos' office, where Secretary Mia was already working hard. Currently, she was donned in a red dress while her hair was elegantly tied up in a ponytail.

Mia seemed to be getting more and more beautiful, highlighting her sensual body even more. Seeing her, Peter couldn't help but think, 'Ahh! It's always good to see Ms. Mia...'

Sensing that someone had arrived, Mia quickly turned her gaze forward and then saw the young Peter, who was wearing the typical outfit provided to the Sergeants.

The uniform had a golden tree symbol on its left shoulder, while some bands indicated the rank within the army on the part that was close to its right shoulder. There was also the name that the soldier preferred to be called at the height of the right chest, entirely in black.

Mia then looked at him and asked with a friendly smile on her face. "Ehh, Sergeant Peter, what can I help you with?"

"Hello, Secretary Mia. I am here to speak twitch, Mr. Minos," Peter said formally. Although he only called Minos by name before, he was now the young Stuart's subordinate, so he should use a more formal way when referring to Minos.

Of course, if they were alone, Peter wouldn't care much about it since the two were about the same age, and Minos also did not seem to care about this.

"Oh? Well, please wait for a moment. Let me see if he's available," After saying this, Mia immediately entered Minos' office, leaving Peter outside to wait at the reception.

After some time, Mia walked out and gestured for Peter to go ahead. He thanked her and made his way to meet the young Stuart.

Minos, who was currently sitting in his chair while reading some papers on his desk, looked at the young man who had entered his office and simply pointed to a chair before saying, "Have a seat."

"I heard that you wanted to speak with me. Did you have to face any problems?"

After sitting down and listening to Minos' question, Peter shook his head in denial and smiled. "No, on the contrary, everything is going very well for me here."

"And because of that, I wanted to travel to my hometown and bring my family here," Peter explained with a smile on his face. This was a place that was perhaps even better for him and his family than one of the sects of the Flaming Empire.

After all, he had only a Black talent, which would be quite ordinary if he got anywhere in the empire. However, it was completely different in the Black Plain. Here, he was one of the very few who had such talent. So, he was given a treatment that could even be better than he would receive if he went to one of those sects that organized the Spiritual Tournament!

More importantly, the other members of his family only had Blue-grade talent, so it would be dangerous for them to live in an empire. In contrast, living in Dry City would be quite different, here they would be free to live their lives in the best way while also getting all kinds of support from Minos' government!

Minos contemplated Peter's request and replied with a smile, "Oh... It's fine. I will instruct Mia to prepare a notice for the Black Plain Army headquarters, granting you to have a four-month leave. Will that work for you?"

That was the kind of thing he intended in the first place. If every new inhabitant of Dry City endeavored to bring their families here without drawing much attention, of course, it would be perfect for Minos.

After all, considering the vastness of his territory, he would undoubtedly need millions of people in the future!

Upon hearing this, Peter's face lit up.