The Rise of the Black Plain

In the blink of an eye, four years have passed since Minos' group entered Armhands!

In this period, the group from the Spiritual World had worked hard and faced tremendous difficulties because of how they had started their journey as members of the guild.

The problems that Minos got into as soon as he started working as a Law Enforcer were added to the problems that anyone would have in this force if they wanted to grow.

The competitiveness in such a place was extreme, and the group experienced it well during this period, especially in the first year after Oxo's challenge to Minos when things were rather difficult for all of them.

However, amid the problems that Minos brought to his entire group at that time, he also brought many opportunities to everyone who came from the Spiritual World to Zocarro with him!

Through the many merit points he earned after defeating Oxo, Minos created more than 60 missions throughout their first year in Armhans for Elite Soldiers to help his comrades in different ways.

Oxo had gotten serious back then, and Minos really couldn't get anyone to do business within Armhands apart from his own guild. He couldn't buy anything for himself using his many merit points.

However, he did manage to create many missions for members of higher rank, power, and influence in the outer area of that guild to help their teammates.

These included teaching missions, missions to help carry out the duties of their teammates, and even missions for one to buy and collect resources on behalf of the group.

Minos had spent most of his little over 100,000 merit points from Oxo on these missions, which had significantly helped his teammates in the midst of their own difficulties.

In addition, he and his group continued to cultivate and use the resources they had before going to Armhands, and as such, several members of the group advanced during this period.

Now the group had 9 Sovereigns, 7 of them at level 100 and 2 at level 101. Meanwhile, apart from Minos and Ruth, everyone else was at level 99.

Ruth had reached level 95 most recently, while Minos had reached level 96 shortly before she got her advancement.

It wasn't just their levels that had improved. During this period, Minos, Maximillian, and two other Sovereigns in the group managed to promote themselves to the rank of Rank-and-File Soldier.

The others were still Recruits simply because there weren't enough Rank-and-File Soldier positions available for everyone to take the promotion exam. But they all already had the amount of merit points needed for their respective exams and were just waiting for the opportunity to arise.

Minos and Maximillian were already preparing to take the test for promotion to the rank of Elite Soldier, so there were bound to be two new Rank-and-File Soldiers vacancies in the next few years for some of them to apply for.

Amidst all this, Minos and Ruth learned a lot about their professions, having finally gone from being students in the fields of clairvoyance and medicine to becoming professionals in these areas.

As for the spiritual professionals who came to the guild with them, they had all improved their skills considerably and were on the threshold between the edge of the Spiritual World and the next level available in Zocarro.

As such, they were still at the Armhands headquarters, striving to improve, gain merit, and eventually become internal guild members.

...

Minos woke up this morning next to his beautiful naked wife and smiled as he opened his eyes and saw the large room he and Ruth had gotten over the last few months.

They hadn't wasted their merit points on frivolous things, but the competition in Armhands was tough, and sooner or later, one would use their points to improve their lives a little inside this headquarters.

Minos and Ruth had invested 12,000 merit points in this 55-square-meter room, where they had enough space for themselves and were very comfortable.

No one in their group had been challenged in recent years to earn another large amount of merit points like Minos had done at the time. But with more than four years serving Armhands, they had all earned plenty of points to make some strategic expenditures.

Ruth currently had more than 35,000 merit points on her record, enough for her to pass the exam for promotion and still invest in cultivation items.

Meanwhile, Minos currently had 55,000 merit points, an amount he would allocate in large part when he took the test to become an Elite Soldier.

He already had the confidence to compete with the other Rank-and-File Soldiers for this rank. Still, there were no such vacancies at the moment, so he was waiting for the right time to act.

He has continued his work as a Law Enforcer since then, having grown to the point where he now leads a team of Law Enforcement Hall guards.

He still occasionally got into trouble for his exploits in his early days as a Law Enforcer, but as he grew stronger and more influential within the guild, some of the problems diminished. Some persisted, but in general, his life had been promising enough for him to wake up every morning with a smile on his face.

"Good morning, Ruth." He kissed his beautiful wife.

"Good morning, darling." She kissed him with a smile, already excited to wake up because of their current situation.

"Are you looking forward to leaving this place?" He asked.

Their group had been given an opportunity to carry out a mission outside the guild, something rare but which could happen under certain circumstances.

Some members of Armhands had recently been involved in a small war with a force from a city a few weeks' journey from Examire, which had created the current situation in which external members were being given chances to act outside the headquarters.

The Minos, Maximillian, and Ruth group had accepted one of these missions, which they would leave the headquarters to solve in the late afternoon.

Having been in this place for four years without leaving, Ruth was a little anxious about this first experience outside the guild in years.

"Hmm. Aren't you? This is not only a chance for us to breathe a little better in a different place but also to gather a lot of merit points.

Every act we do on a special mission like this can earn us extra points." She said, without even thinking about the possibility of escape, since the parasites in their bodies would prevent them from doing so, and a supervisor would also accompany them.

Minos smiled at her in agreement. That really was an opportunity for them to collect merit points!