The Rise of the Black Plain

A few days passed quickly...

In a medium-sized city in the north of the Central Continent, there was a beach that stretched for almost half of that place, from which many coconut trees could be seen by anyone passing by.

That was a lovely setting for the kind of person who liked the beaches and seaside life. The natural beauty, the typical food of these regions, all this made this part of the city very attractive for locals and those passing through.

On the other hand, the rest of the coastal part of this place was the ports of this region. In this part, many ships that often came and went from this city docked at various points, where they loaded and unloaded different types of products.

And such a place was huge, with a capacity to allocate more than 40 large ships at once!

Other than that, the many smaller ships that were moored in these local ports created a beautiful image to be seen for whoever was in the higher altitude part of this coastal city. It was as if these many naval types of transport formed a beautiful mosaic that made this city much more pleasing to the eye.

In the midst of all this, around 300,000 inhabitants lived in this city, where more than 60,000 more passed through here daily, bringing or seeking resources at the local port.

Many items were coming and going from this place. Most of them were minerals and food. But even if they were not the highest value-added goods, they still employed hundreds of millions of people in this part of the continent. Therefore, this was something of great importance.

As a result, a city marked by being a connection between modes of transport, such as this one, had to deal with a very high flow of people, typical of the trade of those two types of products, in addition, of course, to the massive entry of crystals in the local economy!

And as in any part of the continent, the crystals would speak louder and dictate many rules and attitudes.

Things were no different in this place.

Although not located in the best part of this northern region of the Central Continent, this city had a collection of millions of crystals per year in taxes. So, naturally, the lifestyle here was far superior to that of the region's surroundings, to the point where it could be compared to the standard of some typical neighborhoods of large regional cities!

That ranged from the offer of many different types of professionals, even a few grade-2 specialists from the most acclaimed specializations, to the presence of high value-added products in the many local stores.

But this good side of this city was limited to only a tiny part of the local population and, of course, the rulers of this area.

That's because the local masses, ordinary people who couldn't afford to pay for high-quality services even if they worked for decades, just survived in this place. Many of them worked day and night, sometimes sacrificing their cultivation times to bring a few extra crystals to their families.

But despite this not being ideal for them, this city was the only one with possibilities nearby...

On the other hand, many had been in this city for generations and did not want to put their lives at risk on the roads of the Spiritual World in the futile hope of finding places with better opportunities.

Resigned, this was the perfect word to describe the people of the contracting Maritime City!

...

At one of several royal guard posts in the Maritime City, many guards gathered in a large building shaped like a fort, near one end of that city, on the north side of the coast.

Altogether, there were 8 locations like this, spread across this medium-sized city. Adding all these forces, about a thousand guards of the royal family were stationed here, cultivators responsible for delimiting the presence of such power on this western edge of the Brown Kingdom.

Seven of them contained only 100 guards at each post, while the last but not least gathered 300 soldiers, the strongest in this place, those led directly by the Spiritual King stationed in this city!

This fort was the only one that was not on the outskirts of this city, being located right in the center of this urban area, close to the heart of this city.

But while the fort in the center of the Maritime City was the best protected and most powerful, the other seven locations had the most local activities.

After all, typical jobs were the most frequent to be done, and weaker people, as in the case of soldiers at these posts, usually had to take care of these matters...

Consequently, these seven locations were no less important than the central post of this organization in this city!

Anyway, the night had already arrived in this region, and several of the royal guards of the northmost fort of this city had already changed shifts at this point.

And soon, it wasn't long before the various guards at this location began to carry out their preventive inspections, something that happened every time there was a change on shifts.

"Oh, I still haven't got used to working at night..." One of the many guards in this place, who was currently patrolling one of the outer walls of this fort, commented this to his only partner while yawning and scratching his eyes. "Oh, I'm too sleepy, man!"

"Hahaha, Orson, you're going to get used to this sooner or later. It's annoying to switch from daytime to nighttime, but after a few days, you get used to it." The other man, who wore standard royal guard armor, told his companion this.

"Yes, I think you are right. I was just sent here from the capital and had the misfortune of taking a night shift right away. Ah, life is full of stones on the way..."

The two guards continued to talk about these common matters as they did their responsibility.

But while those two people were calmly doing their jobs, there was a group of more than 100 people in the vicinity of this fort, scattered in different directions and camouflaged with the adjacent terrain.

This large group seemed to be just watching this place calmly while trying to keep as quiet as possible so as not to draw the attention of the people in that fort.

"Humbert, we've been here for two hours! When are we going to act?" One of several Black Plain Army soldiers surrounding this place whispered this to the Sergeant in charge of this large group.

"Let's wait another hour. Several of the guards on the enemy side have just started their shifts and are at a moment of heightened vigilance."

"Let's wait a little longer until they feel comfortable and let their guard down!" Humbert promptly responded to the person who had asked him so that she would pass on his orders further.

This man had received the order from Minos a few days ago to lead the first group that would participate in this mission, one of the parts of the Maritime City invasion plan!

That was officially the start of the attacks!

After weeks of preparation, the administrative soldiers of young Stuart's army had finally adjusted the Maritime City invasion plan to the data collected in the previous investigation. And with that done, the attack groups had quickly been formed and prepared for the start of the operation today.

To begin with, they would take this first post and send each of the enemy guards at this location to the Dry City, where most of them would undergo interrogation by administrative soldiers.

However, for those strongest, the leaders, the plan was to prioritize their interrogation, taking them to a specific place on the outskirts of the Maritime City. There, Abby was already waiting to fulfill her responsibility in this mission!

That was a delicate operation and needed to be done with care and agility, so unwanted attention was not attracted. And for that, a force composed of many Spiritual Generals, above level 43, had been appointed for this purpose.

They were more numerous, and their collective strength was also superior to that of their enemies. With that, the Dry City was taking its first big step towards independence!