The Rise of the Black Plain

Arriving at the Gunaway Refuge, Minos' group quickly said goodbye to the people they had been traveling with for the past few months.

The level 109 serpent had proven to be as reliable as Minos had predicted, and nothing strange had happened in the middle of the group's journey, as the group of aliens they had encountered before reaching the north coast of Oqia had warned.

After disembarking at a large port on the island, the group soon set off in search of information on how to reach the Artificial Moon.

They already knew that the only organization on the island that offered travel to the Artificial Moon was Century Terminal. So they quickly sought out one of the stations of this large local group.

Century Terminal had several outposts around this large island. The main post, where the beings went to and from the artificial moon, was in the central part of the island. But around that area, there were a dozen branches where people interested in traveling to the artificial stellar body could get information and get in line to travel to that place.

As soon as Minos' group heard where they could find the nearest outpost, they made their way through the wide streets of the large city they had arrived in, a very diverse place with creatures of infinitely different races.

Most of the people in the streets were not natives of Zocarro but aliens who had recently arrived.

Once an alien arrives on the artificial moon, they wait for the moment to come to this island, where they can learn more about Zocarro and earn their first Qilnats to pay for the trip to Oqia.

Normally, it would take a few years to earn enough to go to Oqia, so the many aliens who arrived in this world every day spent a lot of time on this island.

Minos and his people noticed this when they saw a place even more diverse than Examire.

Even so, the vast majority of creatures here wanted to go either to Oqia or to the artificial moon. Only a few of them really wanted to stay on the island.

But that was to be expected. After all, Gunaway Refuge was a place completely dominated by Century Terminal, and there weren't many opportunities for anyone who wasn't a part of that great power.

As a result, the population of this place was constantly changing with the coming and going of aliens and natives of Zocarro.

Perhaps because of this, this place was extremely peaceful and well-organized, to the point that millions upon millions of beings of different origins were able to coexist there relatively well.

Anyway, after paying attention to the local peculiarities for a few minutes, the group of six people who were interested in going to the Spiritual World entered a large building in the coastal area where they had arrived.

As soon as they entered, they saw more than 200 reception stations where islanders, members of Century Terminal, were on hand to serve the new arrivals.

Despite the large flow of people coming and going, there were no lines. Once they picked up their ticket, they didn't even have to wait a minute before they were called to booth number 123.

"Welcome to Gunaway Refuge. Will your group be traveling to the Artificial Moon in this current composition? Will anyone else be going with you, or will one of you not be going?" A crustacean-shaped creature asked, getting right to the point.

"We are all going to the Artificial Moon. And it's just us." Minos confirmed.

A laser quickly scanned the bodies of the six people while the special artifact between the counter and the group emitted some signals. The attendant then said. "Well, we have an opening for you in 1,123 days. If you're interested, I can secure that reservation for 7 million Qilnats."

Minos and his staff exchanged some of their merit points for Qilnats before leaving the Armhands headquarters. They knew that the boat trip, transport to the Artificial Moon, and transport out of this galaxy would not be cheap.

That's why they had about 30 million Qilnats with them when they left Examire!

Minos immediately accepted this condition, obviously finding it problematic to have to wait another 1,123 days to leave this world.

He hadn't expected the queue for the artificial moon to be so long!

After paying, he asked. "Isn't there a way to travel sooner? I didn't expect it to take so long before we could leave."

The attendant said. "If your group had only 5 members, I could send them 500 days earlier. But with 6 people, I can only send them in 1,123 days."

"Huh? What if we split our group into two and traveled separately?" Minos asked with a strange expression.

"Then we can send them in 623 and 695 days." Said the creature. "But there will be an additional handling fee. You'll have to pay another 1 million Qilnats."

"Why is sending the whole group at once cheaper and more time-consuming?" Ruth asked curiously.

"Because we only have 5 places to go and 5 places to return from the Artificial Moon each day. To take 6 people at once, we'd have to change our schedule, and we can't change the list of reservations already made.

In short, I could only send them all together on a day when there weren't any reservations. But only 3 of us had that slot in 623 days and the other in 695 days. And so it's more expensive because there are two charges at the same time."

"So that's it." One of Minos' companions muttered.

"That's fine. I'll pay the extra fee." Minos accepted without further ado.

He would rather pay more and only have to wait 72 days to be with his companions on the Artificial Moon.

So they soon made their reservations to leave this place.

Minos asked the attendant before leaving the station. "By the way, where can I get information about destinations departing from Century Terminal?"

"You can get it right here in this building. Just go to the other side of the building where it says 'Information.'"

So the group made their way to that place and soon arrived in an area that looked like a museum, with several screens displaying information, furniture with artifacts, and models of solar systems, galaxies, in short, the places that could be easily reached from the Artificial Moon.

Minos and his group soon searched for the path that would lead them to the galaxy from which they knew they could get to the galaxy where The Adamant Land was located.

They soon found the information they were looking for.

After discovering the stopping points of the spaceship that would take them to the world closest to their target galaxy, they understood the dangers along the way, the interesting places to explore in the future, how to get to the place Minos' superior in Armhands had indicated, and how long it would take them to reach the Spiritual World!