The Rise of the Black Plain

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

In this period, the phase of fights between competitors of the selection for new army recruits had already ended!

And at the end of this part of this competition, of the little less than 5,000 participants, around 3,500 of them had managed to reach the minimum to remain in the selection.

The requirements of the previous stage were not absurd. Because of that, many people had managed to achieve a winning margin of more than 50%. Moreover, as in the case of Alina, many of these people were at the end of their respective stages, which helped them beat those competitors of lower levels.

As for those few competitors who were already in the 5th stage of cultivation, almost all were between levels 40 and 41.

But this difference was also expected.

Most of the competitors were people from the Dry City and the Yellow City, not very strong places. With that and the fact that they only train with Blue-grade techniques and don't have as many resources as the soldiers of the local army, these people naturally had smaller cultivations.

Even though there were already citizens in the Spiritual General stage in the Dry City, they were all at the beginning of this cultivation stage due to these circumstances!

And the fights for these competitors had been the most competitive of all. But this is not just because they are the strongest, but because of the slight difference between each competitor's levels in these groups.

But in the end, about 70 people from this strongest group had reached the last part of the selection to compete for the 50 positions of the future new sergeants.

However, as much as there may seem to be little competition here, that's not exactly true!

There were 50 vacancies, but depending on the outcome, even just a new soldier of the Sergeant rank could be recruited. That is, the army was no longer trying to fill its vacancies, regardless of the candidates' prowess.

It was no longer enough solely to have a good level of cultivation!

The soldiers had to be the fittest. If there were no one like that in the group of competitors, then Minos army would have to wait until the next opportunity to recruit more people!

After all, the first moment when the army would recruit without too many demands had passed. From this point forward, each of the new members of the Black Plain Army would have to have a certain quality that would make them worthy of the investment.

Finally, of those about 70 people, as long as they managed to win their matches, 50 of them could join Minos' organization.

If 51 of them were able to meet this requirement, then there would be a tiebreaker, considering the cultivation level. And for the eventual unlucky one who ended up in the 51st position, they would have to wait for the next time...

As for the competitors in the 3rd and 4th stages of cultivation, the same would be true for them. For the first, they would have 800 vacancies, with more than 2,000 competitors in this group. As for the last one, there were more than a thousand and only 400 places to compete.

After the end of this part, the competitors would have another week to prepare themselves and rest. After that, the fights between competitors and soldiers would begin to take place in the arena of the headquarters, where everything would be resolved in at most another week!

And amid this extraordinary period for the Dry City, the population was very excited. Thousands of people witnessed the selection of local soldiers for the first time. And they also gained a better understanding of the competition at this event.

Previously the selection was made entirely within the walls of the headquarters, and only the competitors and soldiers knew what happens. But this was not done to hide the entire procedure from the citizens. No, after all, there was nothing extraordinary about the selection, especially concerning the fights.

The problem is that there were few candidates before, and the strength level was generally much lower. So, it wasn't interesting to take it to the rest of the city.

Another problem was that the Arena of the City itself had just been completed.

Even though many competitors had been eliminated from the event, the city still had a very positive atmosphere. Of the more than 3,500 competitors still in the selection and more than 1,000 from the 1st and 2nd stage that had already been approved, they all had families and friends supporting them.

Because of this, even though only less than 5,000 people were in a favorable situation in this selection, more than 40,000 people were looking forward to this event. Such a thing was not small, being more than 30% of the population of the current Dry City!

But amidst this positive feeling, local citizens continued their activities.

...

The day was pleasant in the Dry City, with a cloudless sky and a gentle breeze that passed through the city streets from time to time.

In the midst of this, the sun was at the highest position in the local sky, while the city center was experiencing its usual bustle.

People were coming and going from shops and utilities, some on weaker spiritual beasts, others walking, and even some on simpler carriages.

The whole scenario would resemble a big city, but without any locomotion problems related to bad planning. Unlike issues of this type, all flows, whether from people, beasts or vehicles, flowed smoothly, without causing a disturbance.

And at one point in the center of the Dry City, there was a store with four floors, where a big sign with the name Cohen could be seen. From this place, people were occasionally entering. But, in contrast, others came out there, carrying various objects, sometimes small, sometimes as big as one person.

The Cohen family store had been open in the Dry City since Minos' trip to participate in the Spiritual Tournament.

This site had been open for almost a year. In the meantime, it had undergone several renovations, having reached its current size after these changes.

At first, it was just a tiny place to import resources from the Kingdom of the Waves, such as arrays and spiritual weapons. However, after arriving in the Dry City, this branch of the Cohen family had received many orders from the government and the population.

And of the 3 initial employees who had been sent here, today, this store already had 45 people who worked directly on the store or brought resources from the Kingdom of the Waves to here.

Along with importing several resources, the store already had a sufficient supply of things on hand to ensure that customers received their items immediately after purchase.

In general, such items available for immediate delivery followed the consumption patterns of the citizens of the Dry City. Therefore, these things are sold very quickly and at a low cost, such as lighting arrays, heating, cooling, common everyday utensils, etc.

There were also items from other professions, but they were the minority in the shop. Things like weapons and peculiar spiritual artifacts were not very successful with the standard population, as they were considered unnecessary.

After all, what good would a weapon be in the hands of a farmer? He could defend himself, yes, of course. But when he didn't even have a house of his own to live in or arrays to improve his quality of life, would it be worth buying such an item?

It wouldn't be.

And even if someone dreamed of stopping to be a farmer, for who knows, becoming a soldier, it could be done without weapons!

After all, some techniques did not require the use of these artifacts!

Finally, due to these local preferences, the Cohen family store did not have a large inventory for other types of items, in addition to those already mentioned.

But, of course, there was always the possibility of importing these items, perhaps in short supply or small quantities at this location. The transportation itself was not that expensive, as the Cohen family had already established a weekly trade route to this town, always sending new resources here.

Thus, even for citizens who were only interested in importing small, low-value items, they would still not need to worry about high transportation costs.

Anyway, two older men were getting to know this store for the first time after moving to the Dry City from the City of Waters.