The Rise of the Black Plain

After a few moments after the quick death of the level 77 elder, everyone in that mountaintop village received contract seals, making Minos' agreement with them official.

With that done, Minos would no longer worry about these people.

The contract seal he had signed with these people was not as strong as a Soul Contract, but as long as no one there became 100% stronger than him, they would be obligated to fulfill the agreement.

Minos was confident in his cultivation speed, so he wasn't bothered that his contract couldn't have the guarantee of the heavens and the lightning tribulation.

"Very well, you are now my subordinates. I will communicate with my people, and they will initiate contact with you." Minos said to the patriarch and Matriarch Vogel as he was already walking towards the entrance to the underground of this area. "But now I have other matters to attend to. Most of you can return to what you were doing."

"What does Your Majesty want here? Didn't you come to us because of us?" Abe's father questioned.

Minos smiled upon hearing that. "No, I am looking for a good place to live in seclusion, where an ancient organization probably abandoned long ago.

That place must contain some magnificent signs."

Minos had no way of knowing for sure that the Longus family was no longer in this area of Lusmait. But he felt this family had moved, as this would give the current generation more security to stand against him.

Hence, he was considering that there was more chance that this power had abandoned its former home in this area long ago.

"Magnificent signs?" The woman accompanying Minos beside her husband asked, looking at the Vogel patriarch.

He looked at his wife and shook his head, indicating he had no idea what it could be.

He said. "There is nothing like that here. At least I haven't seen anything that would draw the attention of someone like Your Majesty."

"Hmm, let me look at this place then," Minos said, sensing that probably the former site of the Longus family in this kingdom was not the current home of the Vogel family.

"It looks like we'll have to move more." Starclaw knew that there was a possibility that these people might not have noticed unique things around there, but from Minos' previous words, the message left behind shouldn't be that hard to find.

In this case, this was probably not the place they were looking for.

And in fact, this was not Minos' point of interest. After a few minutes of investigating the area, he and the bird realized that although the place contained good features, it must have been built less than 300,000 years ago, and there were no signs of powerful items there.

The site left by the Longus family in this place should be at least 800,000 years old since its construction and would undoubtedly have something to indicate the presence of very high-level items.

Realizing they would have to keep moving to find the Longus family's clues, Minos and Starclaw would soon decide to leave.

"Patriarch Vogel, pay attention to this region. I hope your information will help me in the future." Minos said while already standing on top of the bestial body of his mount.

Everyone in that village heard that and soon after saw him and that gray-feathered bird walking away from there.

Sighs spread through the surroundings, but since their lives had not been so significantly changed, they would soon return to their activities.

...

After leaving the Vogel family village, Minos and Starclaw would travel around for 5 hours, all the while scouring the surroundings of this coastal area of Lusmait.

By the time night was approaching, they had passed two other mountains with similar characteristics to the Vogel family's place but had no luck in finding the remains of the Longus family.

The current occupants of these two places were relatively weak beasts for the level of the kingdom they were in, so they had encountered no difficulties on these two brief visits.

With this, they were getting closer to the central area of the west coast of this kingdom.

Fortunately, the capital and most of the human cities in Lusmait were further north in the state, where they were closer to the larger cities of the Western Empire, this state's neighbor and great ally.

Lusmait and the Western Empire had very good relations, and people from both states could move freely through each other without major customs barriers.

Precisely because of this, the southernmost part of the kingdom, where Minos was investigating earlier, was less populated and with less human presence.

But as they approached this domain's most densely populated area, Minos and Starclaw slowly had to take alternate routes to avoid human groups.

They were doing this at the moment, standing at the base of a mountain while waiting for a human group ahead to move for them to continue their investigations.

Meanwhile, both took advantage of the stop to eat and rest a bit.

"I think the information you have may be wrong..." Starclaw commented to Minos, feeling they had already surveyed most of the area he had said such a place should be.

Minos also felt the same way and considered that perhaps the message he had received was not entirely sincere.

'Did that person trick me? Or did he just not give me all the answers?' He considered as he looked at the fire where some vegetables were grilling.

"It could be that I misunderstood. The place is not at the top of a mountain but at the bottom." He said to his mount after a few moments of thinking.

"Oh?" That creature looked around, scanning the mountain base where they were.

As she did so, she suddenly felt something and frowned.

"A place like that?" She pointed in the direction of a giant portal in front of a small stream at the base of that mountain.

Minos looked in the direction she pointed, where an ancient stone portal was.

When he looked closer, using his visual ability, he noticed a spatial distortion in that place. "That must be the place! Quick, let's see what's there!"

Quickly he and Starclaw moved in the direction of that portal in front of where a small stream passed at the foot of the mountain.

When they got there, Minos immediately walked over the water, passing over the spatial distortion that had there that made it look like that was just a mountain base.

"What?" Starclaw was surprised to realize that, in fact, that subtle distortion, which could barely be noticed if not observed closely, actually hid a totally different place.

In front of them was not the beginning of a mountain but a lake that led into the interior of that mountain, with an entrance about 300 meters from where they were standing.

...