The Rise of the Black Plain

"What? Someone wants to see me?" Minos made a surprised face when he heard Julian's nephew. "Who is this person?"

"I think he's a ruler on the continent. A level 97 representative of the Crora Empire was the one who asked your name, Minos." This level 95 man said, making Emperor Stuart even more surprised.

Julian heard this while talking to a beast from the Continent of Beasts and mentally said to Minos and his nephew. 'You two should go through with this. But be careful what you say, and if anything strange happens or even if these people ask dangerous questions, alert me immediately.'

'All right.' The two said in mental communication with Julian and then left, along with Minos' companions on this journey.

Seeing Minos next to that level 95 man, the level 97 Demigod sent by the Emperor of the Crora Empire smiled and said. "Your Majesty Minos Stuart, it's a pleasure to meet you. This one is called Dale. I'm here to escort you to His Majesty Zac Crora. Please accompany me."

'Zac Crora?' Julian's nephew thought, knowing that this was the name of the emperor of the northernmost state of the Divine Continent. 'What would someone like him want with Minos?' He asked himself, somewhat curious but also worried.

All meetings of this event took place inside the large tent where the meeting had started, so in less than a minute, Minos and his group were in front of Emperor Crora's small hut.

Once there, Dale immediately made room for them to get to where their leader was sitting on a cushion on the floor.

Seeing that level 99 Demigod, Minos, and the other four at his side immediately made gestures of greeting, introducing themselves to Emperor Crora while bending down to avoid looking down at him.

Emperor Crora ignored Minos' companions and looked only at the brown-haired young man.

"Young Minos, I've been looking forward to meeting you." He said with a smile, making the wrinkles and expression lines on his face more friendly, making him look like a kind old man.

"Your Majesty must be joking. I'm just a nobody." Minos said sincerely.

No matter how high his talent and how significant his possessions were, compared to that man, he was no different than an ordinary person.

"Don't be so modest, young man. One day you'll get far enough to be respected by experts as strong or influential as me." Zac commented before addressing what he wanted to do with Minos.

"Anyway, I'm curious about you, young man. To enter the Pantheon of Honor as a Sage at such a young age is an impressive achievement. I'd like to know how you did it... I know people at level 95 who don't have the same privileges as you." He said as he looked at Minos, still with a friendly expression.

"I was lucky," Minos spoke. "The elder Julian found me, and he saw potential in me with his ability... That's all. Maybe others around the world are better than me in many ways but lack the opportunity to come in contact with an expert who doesn't want them dead."

"Hmm, luck definitely helps those with skills," Zac commented, not thinking it was a lie, even though Minos had skillfully hidden what Julian had seen in him.

Zac also recognized the ability of young people to deal with experts of his level, so he didn't press Minos since the young man had evaded the question without showing any ill will towards him. "And what do you think about this ice age that will hit us, young Minos? I know you have a large population to feed. How do you plan to deal with these times?"

"Sigh... It will be complicated. I believe the times ahead will be far worse than anyone can imagine, Your Majesty. Hundreds of millions of living beings, perhaps even more than a billion, will perish in the next 50 years.

So I'm not too excited. The challenges ahead will bring out the worst and the best in all of us." Minos answered without mentioning his concerns about the North Sea.

It wasn't interesting to talk about the fact that there might be beings from outside the Spiritual World threatening a world about to enter what might be the most extreme ice age of all.

There was a limit to how much bad information one could give to others without causing unnecessary misunderstandings and problems!

Hearing Minos' solemn tone, the emperor and his two right-hand men who stood with him looked earnestly at the young man before them, giving him room to say what was in his heart.

"But I have many plans to protect my state. As soon as I return to the Central Continent, I will begin internal migrations in my territory and focus on investing in the most important cities and agricultural fields.

I have many alliances throughout the Central Continent and beyond, so I intend to do business with my partners, establishing special routes and resource exchanges that will be good for my state.

I hope to have everything ready before the new ice age begins in 20 years."

"Hmm, that's the right thing to do," Zac commented before asking. "But how much food can you offer your allies, young Minos? I know you probably don't have many high-level medicine plantations, given the old reality of your state. So your state will probably have a good chance of success with food crops and low-level medicine."

Zac's logic was simple. The northern region of the Central Continent suffered from spiritual poverty, so even with the improvements Minos had made in recent decades, there shouldn't be any Saint medicine plantations there.

That meant there would be nothing to stop the Black Plain Empire from developing its foods and medicines, giving it an advantage in these productions over states that would have to wait for high-grade crops to mature.

Thus, while Minos would probably have few high-grade medicines, he would have plenty of food to trade!

If Minos had plenty of common food to trade, someone like him, the leader of the Crora Empire, would have high-level medicine to trade for common food!

His state was huge, with a population even larger than that of the Black Plain Empire but with less arable land than Minos' domains.

In other words, he would have to import food if he wanted his state to suffer less during the coming ice age.

Doing business with Minos might be the best thing for him and his state!

"Oh?"

...