The Rise of the Black Plain



Upon arriving in the area where the three yachts were, the attendant immediately gave Minos a brief description of each of them. "Sir, these are the only models in our store that match your current needs.

The first of them, the least of all, costs 159,000 high-grade crystals. It is the best choice for fast, short-range, low-passenger travel.

Its comfort is at the highest level one can have on a boat for up to 4 people. It has a master bedroom with a bathroom with a bathtub, a secondary bedroom, and two other bathrooms. There is a small galley, plus the common areas that any yacht like this would have."

She presented the first option, the one with the highest speed among all these boats but the shortest possible range.

These vessels operated through spiritual arrays, so it had a range of how far they could go with a single load of spiritual crystals. 

Some gave up range for speed, and others the opposite. Therefore, this boat consumed more crystals than the others to move and reach its destinations.

At the same time, since it was smaller in every way, the leisure, training, and storage spaces were not large.

As such, this was an ideal option for short trips, not long ones as Minos intended to make.

The woman saw that her client was paying attention to her words and presented the second yacht. "This yacht, on the other hand, costs 219,000 high-grade crystals and has twice the capacity of the previous one in terms of area.

It is not as fast as the first, but it has the capacity to go much further and is an ideal option for mid-range trips.

Finally, the third model is the largest of all, with six bedrooms, two kitchens, one small and one large, a swimming pool, a living room, and eight bathrooms. It is ideal for long-range travel and can comfortably accommodate up to 25 people.

This option has a lower compartment capable of storing live fish for crew consumption and costs only 345,000 high-grade crystals."

Minos looked at the last two options, impressed with how expensive the last option was, which was worth almost 3.5 billion low-grade crystals.

That was enough to build a small city with everything needed to host Spiritual Emperors in the Black Plain Empire comfortably!

But the value was not unfair considering the capabilities of that craft!

In addition to having the quality of an imperial palace, it could cross the sea between continents and had several arrays that not only gave the motor power needed for a journey. It also had defensive items, items that increased the concentration of spiritual energy inside the ship, training space, and storage places for water beasts.

Not every living thing could be preserved in spatial rings for later consumption. Some had to be kept alive until the moment of being devoured. So it was interesting to have such a storage option if one wanted to feed on fish meat during a long sea voyage.

However, there were not only advantages to the largest yacht. It was large and therefore needed more than one person to pilot it, which did not interest Minos as much.

The second option, on the other hand, besides being a little faster than the last one, Minos thought would be enough for him to get to his destination without needing a larger crew.

With that yacht, a single person could travel alone easily.

"Hmm, these yachts are beautiful, especially the last one." Minos complimented. "But today, I will take the medium-sized one. It will fulfill my needs better."

Hearing that, that attendant did not insist on convincing Minos to buy the larger boat, which she would get the best commission of all.

So she smiled at him and escorted him to a room where she would make his purchase official.

"For when do you wish to receive your yacht, sir? We only have that one unit I just showed you of that model. So depending on what you wish to change on your yacht, the time to delivery can vary quite a bit...

But with the payment of some fees, we can speed up the delivery of your yacht."

Minos said. "I want to receive it now. I don't need any changes to be made. The way it is, it works for me."

"For immediate delivery, we charge a 1% fee on the yacht's value because we have to do some surveys before we deliver it." She said. "So you have to pay 221,000 high-grade crystals and 19 medium-grade crystals."

"Hmm..." Minos agreed and soon after made the payment.

"Very well, give me a few minutes to make the sale of this unit official for you, sir." She added, smiling, as she had a 1% commission on the value of the sales she made. "It will take us 3 hours after that to finish checking that all the arrays are working.

If there are no problems, you can receive your yacht afterward."

Minos saw no problem with this since it was within the period that he could stay in this city without attracting trouble for himself.

With that, he would soon receive the necessary papers to remove this yacht later and leave that place to shop in the meantime.

When he got his yacht, Minos intended to leave for the Ancestral Sea, from where he felt he would travel for at least weeks until he reached his destination.

He would prepare for this period when he would be away from the mainland by buying items for emergencies on the high seas.

The sea, whatever it was, had its dangers. Even the pacific South Sea could be dangerous for low-level people who did not prepare. 

In the same way, as it was dangerous to travel through forests because of beast territories, it was complicated to travel through the sea, where one would have even more difficulty distinguishing which areas belonged to whom.

Sea beasts also had clashes, disputes over territories, grudges, vendettas, and disputes over females. So battles could occur anywhere, which could greatly harm unprepared people traveling above these areas under combat.

Unlike fights on the ground, it was much more difficult to perceive one at sea because of the large amount of water in the surroundings.

The water in the Spiritual World could absorb spiritual energy, something of benefit to creatures that drank a lot of water. Still, it also acted as a barrier against those trying to scan the surroundings of the sea.

So it was very easy for a human vessel to suddenly run into an underwater battle, even with the vigilance of its crew members!

Minos knew this and would soon do what was necessary to prepare for his first voyage on the high seas!