The Rise of the Black Plain

As Minos and Abby continued their journey to Dahlia, Elen and Elena's bodyguards were going through a critical time in their journey right now.

After leaving Athela, they had headed towards the mountainous regions of the central part of that state, the closest place with forests dangerous enough for them to lessen the chances of being caught by the Allen family spies.

And after taking advantage of the initial advantage gained during Athela's escape, those two men had managed to make it safely into the middle of this mountainous region.

In this part of their trajectory, they had found an ideal place to hide from their pursuers temporarily.

Due to the fact that this mountainous region was vast and had numerous caves, the two had been very careful, avoiding leaving tracks as much as possible until they found a place where their pursuers could take days to find them.

That was not an open area, and because of that earlier advantage, they had managed to distance themselves even further from their enemies in this place.

However, this was only a temporary measure. With more people in that group and the fact that the two bodyguards couldn't increase their speed any further, sooner or later, the enemy group would catch them!

And because of that, these two had decided to find this place to stop.

That's because Elen's bodyguard, Eduard, had finally felt he was going to level up!

Consequently, as this was the best alternative for both of them, they had decided to take a chance on it so that one of them would reach level 50!

With this, the differences in power between each group would be considerably reduced, and these two men would have a much better chance of overcoming this situation.

Anyway, at this time, Eduard was diligently cultivating in one of the caves in this mountainous region, feeling closer and closer to advancing to the 6th stage of cultivation.

He didn't have medium-grade crystals with him, but he had a good chance of successfully reaching the next step even without that item. After all, he had the Black-grade talent, something that gave him more than a 50% chance of succeeding, even considering he had nothing but low-grade crystals to help him.

And while Eduard was sitting in a meditative position in that cave, Elena's bodyguard watched the place.

This man was very anxious, and now and then, he would come and go from that place, checking the surroundings and getting ready to fight.

They had already been in this same place for a few days, and because of that, the time for them to be found shouldn't be far away.

In fact, such a thing could happen at any time!

So, this man could hardly rest while waiting apprehensively for the advance of Eduard or the arrival of the Allen family spies. Whichever happened first would define the future of these two.

Especially this man, who was watching the surroundings...

'Come on, Eduard! If you take too long, we'll both get killed!' He thought to himself.

However, before he could hear the typical sound of the level advance resonate in that place, coming from Eduard, that bodyguard detected the sound of footsteps reverberating through the walls of that cave.

'Shit! They are already here!' He thought for a moment, looking apprehensively to the exit of that place and then to Eduard.

That was the crucial moment for the two of them, and they would likely have an uphill battle ahead.

...

Quickly an entire week passed.

By this time, Minos and Abby were finally arriving in Dahlia, having crossed most of the central mountains of the Kingdom of the Waves.

This place was right in the middle of this region, in the vicinity of several forests rich in plant biodiversity, something directly related to the development of this region.

Such things had driven the local development towards alchemy due to the natural presence of many medicines and components necessary for refining pills.

The natural soil could be considered very rich, with the presence of rare minerals and substances beneficial for the maturation of plant organisms, as in the cases of food and medicine.

And besides such a point, the presence of an area of average spiritual concentration made this region very prone to developing these resources and the appearance of powerful spiritual beasts.

Such a thing was also needed in the refining of certain pills!

From the blood of a beast to the bones and even certain parts of the bodies of these beings, they could play a crucial role in refining a specific pill. In fact, any part of the bodies of beasts could have its uses in the Spiritual World.

Because of all that, this state's most prominent alchemy guild was created in this region, a place where alchemists could develop without the need for constant resource imports.

But this place wasn't just about alchemists. No, other professions were also very well developed in this region, including that of blacksmiths...

After all, this was a mountainous region full of mining resources, things often used to produce artifacts made by blacksmiths!

And as for other professions, like any large city in the northern part of the Central Continent, this place had quality services for people of all budgets.

But even if many local guilds and associations were specializing in all professions, this could not compare to the development of the alchemical sector. That's because, just because of the Warrior-grade and King-grade medicine plantations in this region, this alone already generating an income superior to all the other areas combined!

In fact, in this region, there were dozens of families focused on producing medicines, with territories capable of allocating tens of thousands of plants of this type.

That was obviously a necessary measure to maintain the regular supply of these medicines. After all, the maturation time of medicines could be as long as the life expectancy of the cultivators in this northern region of the Central Continent.

And with no extensive plantations ready to produce fruit at all times, not only would these families fail, but the entire region would be in chaos.

But luckily, there were places like this mountainous region where the necessary conditions for this type of large-scale plantations worked out.

Anyway, Minos and Abby finally saw the big city that was in front of them.

The place was similar to the capital of Stone Island, Old Stone, due to the presence of many hills and the construction model full of buildings.

But Dahlia wasn't as big as the town where Elen and Elena came from, as this place in the Kingdom of the Waves only had about 2 million inhabitants.

And upon seeing this place, soon the couple sent Ebba to the Spatial Kingdom and headed into that city.

However, at this point, the two were a little different than usual. The two youths were wearing masks to cover their faces...

That was because of the previous incident, in which the two princes had seen the faces of both Abby and Minos. Therefore, if the two didn't want to be tracked to the Dry City, they would need to use these items until they left the Kingdom of the Waves.

The incident took place a few days ago, and those two princes would likely have many problems to resolve in the short term. But both were royalties, with many subordinates and regional support.

Those two young men from the Walker family would undoubtedly try to discover the origin of the ruler of the Black Plain after that fight.

So, Minos and Abby couldn't risk one of those two identifying them in one of those cities they were going to pass.

And soon, the couple was sitting on the leather seats of a carriage, being taken to the place where they would stay in this region.

"Ahh, I wonder if older sister Eda has already reached level 50…" Abby commented to Minos as she leaned her face against one of his shoulders.

"Probably not… But I think by the time we get there, she'll have just leveled up. Hehe, so you better get ready to meet a 'new' Eda." Minos said to Abby.

After that, they started talking about some less relevant subjects until they finally reached their destination.