The Rise of the Black Plain

While some hunters patrolled the Dry City's fields, protecting the perimeter from beasts, the mercenary guild was already open in the town by this time.

But unlike what had happened with each of the local service openings, there wasn't a crowd in front of the mercenary guild building.

No, the movement was intense, but there was no crowd in that part of town. But this was not strange. After all, this place offers informal jobs, and every adult resident of the Dry City already had at least one job.

Because of this, even though many were curious to know this new place, there was no great rush to do so. It wasn't like this new location was going to offer techniques that could increase cultivation speed or special 'tickets' to use the Cultivation Tower for free...

If it were something unmissable and crucial for these people's lives, they would definitely crowd in front of this new service, just to try to be the first. But as this would be an ordinary building with job offers, they could wait!

Anyway, several people passing in front of this new service were coming and going from this building. Many were on their day off, and it wouldn't hurt to spend a few minutes getting to know a new place, where there wasn't even a queue to get in!

...

In the central region of the Dry City, about five blocks from the city's government mansion, there was a building the size of a small arena with a somewhat different shape.

This building looked like a section of a hemisphere, with two arches, one following a spherical pattern and the other a hyperbolic one above the roof of this place. In these two arches, if one looked closely, one would see several small luminous arrays, which could emit different colors.

And below the arches, on the spherical roof of this building, there were some attractive reliefs, which looked like silhouettes of people fighting, guns, and the local plains. By day, as at present, this ceiling looked like a black and white painting, very well detailed.

However, when it was night, with the lights from the two arches, each figure would have special lighting, forming a beautiful picture.

Other than that, around this place, there was a small lawn that covered the limits of the building, with the sidewalk of that block on which such a site was built. The place was wide open. There was no kind of fence or wall surrounding it.

And finally, there was a big stone name not far from the entrance, in the middle of the lawn, saying, 'Mercenary Guild.'

At this moment, people were coming and going from the main entrance to this building, in an intense flow, but not enough to cause any commotion.

People who entered this place were curious and talked a lot as if they were waiting to see. As for those who left, many of them had determined expressions and actively conversed with each other.

"This place is fascinating. Did you see that rating? Level 50 are only classified as 'D-' to 'C-' class." A man commented to his friend.

"Truth. It seems that Mr. Minos plans to elevate the town to a higher level than our region!" The other said with a twinkle in her eyes as she remembered the classification of this place.

Minos had asked that people who would organize this system consider the maximum cultivation as being level 89. And the minimum level required for someone to fulfill the guild's missions would be 30.

Minos had decided such a thing following the memoirs of Henricus Longus, which showed some organizations like these in high-level empires at the era of this specialist.

At that time, people above that cultivation level were leaders of large organizations and families, so no one was willing to do mercenary service from level 90 onwards.

But that's not because of pride or anything like that. The problem is that from level 90 onwards, any people could have greater earnings, becoming sovereigns, elders and leaders of families and sects, etc.

In other words, mercenary guilds were unable to pay people of that level. After all, there weren't many living beings at the 10th stage of cultivation. Therefore, there would be almost no missions.

Consequently, he had considered this limit for the local mercenary guild.

As for the cultivators of the 9th stage, in first-tier empires like the Western Empire, there were as many people from that stage as there were Spiritual Kings in the north of the Central Continent!

Because of this, despite being few, jobs for people at this stage of cultivation existed and could yield a lot for cultivators like that.

Many of these people were subordinates or less prestigious elders and needed alternative means to develop themselves.

Because of this, for people below level 89, it was worth doing mercenary missions.

And while those two friends were leaving the building, talking aloud, two old men were entering that place. Upon hearing the conversation of these two youths, the two suddenly looked back while frowning tightly.

"What?" One of them exclaimed in shock.

It wasn't every day that Spiritual Kings would be despised like that in the northern region of the Central Continent...

And even though these two men were just ordinary citizens of the Dry City, they knew how powerful and influential the cultivators of the 6th stage were in this part of the continent.

"Old Milton, I think I'm delusional. Those two youths truly said that…" One of them was saying something when he was suddenly interrupted by his friend.

"Hmm, you're not delusional. I heard the same." The other said.

They understood the classification present in mercenary guilds very well because it was the same as the subdivision made by the spiritual academies to designate the name of each class.

The first classes, those with children around 6-years-old and starting their studies, would be class F, while those with students around 10 would be class SS. Students stayed in each class for around six months, following the four years of study in the following order: F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS.

Such a thing had been copied by the spiritual academies, as the first mercenary guild had appeared many years before the first spiritual academy.

And after that moment of doubt that these two elder figures passed at the entrance of the mercenary guild, they soon followed to the interior of that place.

And upon entering that place, the two immediately came across a large hall, which seemed to occupy the first half of this building, dividing this semi-spherical place into two halves.

Several tables and chairs were in the center of the first part, with entirely black screens covering the walls, while a few had a lot of information.

In addition, the place was fully illuminated by sunlight, which passed through the roof there, which was made of a type of glass, completely transparent. There were dozens of panes connected to a metal frame that was covered by small lighting arrays.

In this first part, available to the general public, on the side that divided the building into two halves, there was a large reception, with about 20 people attending.

A large screen was in the middle of the wall behind the reception, displaying crucial information about this location. This screen was rectangular, and its highest part was glued to the ceiling and the lowest, 3 meters from the reception floor.

It was vertical and had a ranking, most of it, and some minor information at the bottom of the screen.

Other than that, the place had location marks to tell users how to get to each part of the building. "Administration... Reception... Restrooms... Private rooms... Rewards room... Financial..." One of them read information from one of those marks, which indicated the way to each location.

And seeing these indications and many people moving around inside that place, the two old men finally decided to go to the reception to understand some of the information they had read.

There were some terms on the side screens of that place that neither of them had understood, so it would simply be better for both of them to know that with the help of an attendant.