The Rise of the Black Plain

'Army sergeants, join the selection that will occur in 1 year and become a member of the Elite Squad!' Robin read this flashy poster that was stuck on that mural near where they passed.

And seeing such a thing, she soon became interested and approached there, beginning to read the smaller print of it.

At the same time, in which the young blonde with a small body was doing this, the other four people who were getting to know this place along with her noticed Robin's change and stopped too. "Robin, did you see something?" Old Joey asked.

Upon hearing this, Robin, who was still reading those letters, just said something, not even bothering to turn to look at him. "See this!"

Her tone was excited, and it even looked like she couldn't believe the information in front of her. She had already thought it incredible that she could learn more Black-grade techniques in this place's library, but now she saw that this wasn't even the best this army had to offer.

Anyway, the group quickly gathered around that mural, where several newsletters, maps were located. After that, the four promptly began to read the information from that poster in front of Robin.

'Salary 50% higher...'

'20 places will be offered in a selection for soldiers of the rank Sergeant...'

'Medium-level grade-2 equipment...'

'3-year training...'

'Silver-grade techniques...'

"What?" Abby exclaimed shockingly, still looking at that poster with wide eyes. She couldn't believe what was written there.

This so-called Elite Squad would be just unbelievable!

All the benefits cited in that poster were, to say the least, incredible in this region of the Central Continent.

The salaries of the present local army were already considerably higher than that received by subordinates of large noble families. However, this special squad would pay even more than that. 'With these salaries, these 20 soldiers will already receive almost as much as an important descendant of the noble families of our region!' Abby thought about it for a moment.

However, she couldn't be too impressed with this fact, as the other conditions were even more devastating. Moreover, such medium-level grade-2 artifacts weren't cheap at all and were even rarer than Minos' earlier sword.

Even in the very wealthy Miller family, they could only arm their subordinates with items of that rank when those individuals reached the 6th stage of cultivation!

In fact, there were fewer than 20 weapons of that rank in Abby's family!

But here was a sign, making a promise that it would arm 20 people with these items...

Abby couldn't help but be impressed by this. 'So, you mean that in a maximum of 4 years, Minos is already thinking about reaching such a level? How is he going to buy so many items in such a short time?' She wondered inwardly.

And for that matter, it wasn't just Abby who was shocked at this point. All four of these people who were with her also thought the same.

After all, it was common knowledge in this part of the Central Continent that it wouldn't be easy to buy grade-2 items, even if someone had the crystals!

The proportion of blacksmiths capable of producing items of this level and the number of potential customers was genuinely impressive.

While there were millions of people between the end of the 5th stage and the beginning of the 6th in this region, there were only a few thousand blacksmiths in this range of strength.

But that wasn't the only problem. In addition to the lack of labor to produce these weapons, the issue of producing these artifacts also made things difficult. After all, durable items such as items took much longer to be created!

Lastly, although there was no shortage of materials, these resources were unevenly divided. Moreover, several of them already had owners, not interested in selling them!

Some families of blacksmiths had their control regions, where they mined the items present in those regions.

Thus, if an essential item were present in the territory of a family of blacksmiths, then they would most likely not sell such resource...

With that, it wasn't so easy to get all the resources needed to develop spiritual artifacts!

There were many trades involved in each resource valuable to essential professions such as blacksmithing, and this delayed the production of these items.

And finally, many of these items that were already pre-fabricated were in the hands of powerful cultivators, close to level 50.

People who would hardly be killed in these areas since high-level conflicts were scarcer around here.

In general, problems of violence were more concentrated among those below the end of stage 5 of cultivation, something like between levels 30 and 47.

Under that, the cultivators were very weak. Generally, they didn't fight, and above that, they were less numerous, much stronger, and more relevant. In this case, the fights were less constant for both sides.

Of course, conflicts were going on here and there, but that's because the north of the Central Continent was huge. More than 2 billion people lived in this region, and the territory had more than 50 million square kilometers.

Because of this size, indeed, when looked at as a whole, there would be several small 'spots' of conflict happening at any given time. However, when looked at more closely, certain regions could face centuries of peace without significant disputes.

Anyway, due to all this, it was not easy to find weapons of the level promised by that advertisement in these areas, whether new or used.

'But if they can keep that last promise, then I don't doubt anything about it…' Barbara thought to herself as she pondered about the possibility of learning Silver-grade techniques.

Such techniques were scarce in this region of the Central Continent. Even the strongest families rarely managed to have more than one of these. And not only that, even major powers like the Miller family could have none of these!

Such techniques mainly were legacies of the oldest families in this region, which mainly were royal houses. Other than that, there were few cases like that of the Nash family, who had been lucky enough to win the favor of an expert from the Western Empire.

Because of this, even though some regional powers were almost as rich as the royal families, like Abby's family, they couldn't obtain something like this. After all, techniques of this quality would not be sold under any circumstances!

In fact, even if a family with a member in one of the Flaming Empire's sects, they could forget about the idea of ​​achieving something like that.

Each Silver-grade technique requires a million medium-grade crystals, which the regional powers of this place could not afford even if they spent everything they had accumulated throughout their history!

So, even if one were to try to venture outside of this region, getting techniques from that classification wouldn't be accessible at all.

And because of that, everyone there had shocked expressions right now.

They had processed one piece of information at a time as they read that poster. But, after all, it was just impossible for these five not to think about the implications of each of those benefits.

So, they had been more and more amazed, at the same time, as they thought about every point in this matter.

Even old Joey, who had no pretensions to getting involved in belligerent matters, had been a little stirred up by it. 'Incredible! I can almost feel the urge to fight deep within my being…'  He thought to himself.

At the same time, Eda was trying to process this whole matter when she suddenly said something. "It says here that there will be this 3-year training, in a special place, better than the cultivation rooms. What do you think of this?"

And on hearing this point raised by Eda, the four who were close to her suddenly realized that they hadn't thought of it. 'It is true! How could I let such a thing pass?' They wondered inwardly.

Abby then said. "Does he plan to build specific cultivation rooms for the 6th stage of cultivation?"

"Maybe that's the meaning. In fact, rooms for Spiritual Kings are better than those available in the Dry City, but the difference shouldn't be that big. At least not to the point where it can be used alongside these other benefits." Barbara commented, remembering the time she saw one of these rooms at the Schmidt family's headquarters.

"It's true. The cultivation room that my parents use isn't as often better than the one I use…" Abby saw the problem with her suggestion and soon left it behind. 'Anyway, you truly surprised me, Minos!'

Old Joey then smiled at the four of them and said as he massaged his chin. "I think for now it doesn't matter. After all, everything else is already pretty good, so it doesn't make much difference if the promised place is truly that good."

"You must prepare for this. That will be a great opportunity for you!"