The Rise of the Black Plain

Two more days passed...

After this period, all the beasts bought by Lee and Alison's group had already disembarked in Dry City.

And not only did these many beasts join the forces of this city, but the people coming from that kingdom with Peter's group had also started to live in Dry City.

They were not very numerous, so they had effortlessly found places to live here.

Among them were the people from the crew of that cargo ship and some beast tamers brought to work in this city.

And even though a short time had passed since their arrival in such a place, most of them were already adapted to their new home, although they had not agreed to come here...

Anyway, after the beast tamers' techniques were distributed among the libraries of the city and the local army headquarters, a new option arose for the local inhabitants.

And this was an excellent opportunity for these tamers, who could be the forerunners of this spiritual profession in the Black Plain. So, they were not dissatisfied to be in this place, and some were already putting their plans into practice.

Some of them, who already had Black-grade techniques, had decided to continue as freelances since that was the way their short-term gains seemed most significant.

As for those with lower grade techniques, they had promptly begun the procedure to enter the ranks of the Black Plain Army.

Hence, some beast tamers were already assisting in making those beasts' contracts official with soldiers in the army, of course, with those of higher leadership and greater authority in that organization.

Beasts could be free of contracts, but such an option made communication between humans and them very difficult, especially for those below the 5th stage.

Therefore, all beasts below level 40 had to make contracts with army soldiers to be as helpful as possible when they were needed.

That had been the beginning for the newcomers to Dry City, be they human or beasts.

In the case of Lee, Alison, and Peter, all three have earned a week off to spend with their respective families. As for Maxwell, before joining Minos' army, this young man had taken the time to get to know this city in the middle of the Black Plain.

He had been positively surprised by all the local might, something that, until a few days ago, he could not have imagined, even considering the power of Minos.

After all, being powerful did not imply being a good ruler!

So, there was no way for Maxwell to know for sure how good Dry City already was, even considering the comments of Lee, Alison, and Peter.

But after having learned the basics about this city, he had wasted no time and had soon joined Minos' forces.

He wanted revenge, and now that he had seen that this place could genuinely help him with that, he only had in mind training to become stronger!

...

While the newcomers to Dry City were living their lives in this new place with anticipation for the future, Minos was in his office.

He was sitting in his armchair, behind a beautiful glass desk. But at the moment, he was facing away from this piece of furniture, looking out the office window.

Minos had a quiet expression on his face as he looked up at the blue sky of Dry City, thinking about something that unfortunately had not happened.

'She didn't come...' He pondered this, at the same time curious about such a person but disappointed not to hear from her.

Minos had realized how that mysterious woman had turned out upon being touched by him. So, he had thought that she would definitely come to Dry City, and he could understand a little more about her identity.

But after the period agreed between the two, such a person had not given any sign, and this young man no longer had any expectations of seeing her again.

With that, he was, in a way, disappointed.

"Tsk!"

'I wonder what happened?'

'Was she angry because I didn't do what she wanted in the middle of nowhere? Or did she lose the courage to give herself to me?'

'It's easy to say and do certain things in the heat of the moment... But what about when her heat has diminished?'

'Did her rationality prevent her from coming here?'

'What a volatile woman!' He thought about this as he finished analyzing Talia's behavior.

Minos was disappointed, but that was less for what had not happened between the two of them and more for the mystery he had not been able to solve.

After all, he already had an exciting number of women in Dry City with whom he could have fun.

On the other hand, lately, he could not even handle all of them, so it would not make much difference to him to do that with that stranger, even considering his libertine personality!

But knowing more about the person who had set a trap for him was very relevant, especially considering that an outside organization had already attacked him!

She might not be interested in taking his life, but others definitely would be.

Because of this, he needed to understand variables like her and prepare himself for what would happen from now on.

But even though he was disappointed with Talia's timidity, Minos was glad that he had come across her.

That was because he was now thinking twice more before giving his orders, considering the possibility of outside intervention.

He genuinely believed that, at least in the short term, actions by outside powers would still be infrequent since the church would hardly allow such a thing.

But he felt that things would only get worse as time went on!

Therefore, he and his soldiers needed to be prepared to deal with people who might have high-level grade-2 or even grade-3 arrays in hand!

After meeting with Talia, this young man concluded that such an array she used could only be a grade-3 one.

And he had fallen entirely into her trap!

So, if instead of a, shall we say, unoffensive array, she had used one that could perhaps hurt her target, then that could have been the end of Minos.

With that in mind, he was much more careful now!

"That's truly worrying..." He muttered just before he heard someone knock on the door of that office.

"Young master, I'm here to update you on some information," Joey said as he entered that place just after Minos had authorized him to do so.

"Oh? Is there good news?" He asked as he greeted that old level 47 man.

Joey then sat down in an armchair across Minos' desk, smiling. He ran his hand through his white beard and said. "There is, young master..."

He then began to update Minos on the soldiers in the Elite Squad, as several of them had made advances in the last two weeks.

On the other hand, he also updated the young sovereign on the army's total numbers, which had improved in terms of average level as much as they had not changed much in recent months.

"... Finally, just a day ago, Lieutenant Celeste achieved a breakthrough, finally reaching level 56." He finished, pleased to be able to inform Minos of such a thing.

"Level 56, huh?"

"Hahaha, our situation will soon change, old Joey!" Minos said aloud, pleased to hear that.

That was because if Celeste had reached level 56, then that meant that she was now even stronger than the ordinary level 59 Spiritual Kings of this region!

Such a thing was great for the forces of Dry City!

With this, the number of top regional individuals in Dry City's allied forces had once again increased, leaving young Stuart even closer to completing the first step of his ambition.

To win his territory independence!

"Well, is there anything else good? Or should I now prepare for the bad news?" Minos asked in good humor.

"No..." Joey laughed not to cry. "Other than what I've already talked about, I have nothing but bad news, young master."

"I figured that would be the case."

He then became a little more serious and said. "Well, start with the worst part..."