The Rise of the Black Plain

After Mia said this, Minos took his attention from the papers in his hands and turned his face to this woman. "Oh? Well, I will accompany her."

He then got up from where he was sitting and walked towards his office waiting room. At the same time, Mia returned to her own table.

"Mendy, I haven't seen you in a couple of days. How are you?" Young Stuart asked this with a smile on his face just after seeing a beautiful woman, dressed in a blue dress, standing in the center of that waiting room.

With her noble and provocative look, Mendy was as impressive as ever, something she had learned from Viola and Mirya... But despite being charming, today, she wasn't here to flirt with Minos.

Today she wanted to conclude that deal with the Black Plain!

That was something that she and Minos hadn't finished before due to this young man's insistence that she needed to know the Dry City better before such a thing.

As she had been here for over a week, this young woman had concluded that she knew enough about this city to be able to understand her limits a little better. As such, she didn't care too much about Minos' casual comment and just gave him a standard response.

"I'm fine. The Dry City can already be considered a very nice place... And you?"

"Hmm, I'm as good as I was yesterday... Anyway, you're here to talk about official business, right?" He asked while making some hand gestures, indicating for this young woman to accompany him on a walk.

As the two of them started walking toward the exit of that property, Mendy answered him. "Yes, I think I already know enough about your city's potential. So, there is no longer any need to wait to complete our negotiation."

"So? What did you think?"

Hearing Minos' question, Mendy paused to ponder this for a short moment and then began to speak. "Well, this place has a lot of potentials. If you have enough time, you can turn the Black Plain into the strongest place in our region because of this public library and soldiers trained in Black-grade techniques."

"As for the other positive points, apart from agriculture, although they are also great and make this place more attractive, they are only secondary. The most important thing is the local strength and the quality of the professionals. Something related to the quality of the techniques learned."

"And the local agriculture can supply these many people under your command to get stronger quickly. But, anyway, in general, there are almost only positive points, except for one thing!"

She then steadily looked into Minos' eyes as she walked side-by-side with him on one of the sidewalks in that central part of the Dry City. "Your behavior is quite clear to me, Minos. You certainly intend to fight anyone to keep this place. And the problem is just that!"

"If you want to keep this all to yourself, then I don't think you'll have enough time to develop this place before too many enemies surround it. Hence, there is a risk that is not small in doing long-term business with you..."

"Hmm..." Minos nodded as he continued to walk through that central part of town.

Mendy then ended her speech. "Given the risks of this location causing us significant problems, I believe that even if this place has a lot of potentials, you will need to provide us with substantial guarantees. Only then will family leaders agree to do business with you."

There was a big difference between Minos's relationship with the Stokes family and his relationship with the Nash and Cohen families. That is, these two powers only sold or bought things for the Black Plain while not getting involved in bigger problems.

At the very least, even if the Black Plain were to become a common enemy of the region's noble houses, these two powers would not be considered Minos' cronies. After all, they were just making mercantile trades.

However, what Minos wanted from the Stokes family was much riskier and could easily be seen as a fighting alliance in the eyes of the regional families. Because of this distinction, Mendy did not believe that her family would just agree to do business with the Black Plain, as was the case with those two families.

With such an agreement, they could become targets of the Black Plains' enemies very quickly!

"Hmm, I was expecting you would say something like that." Minos smiled at her and then directed her to one of the parts of his army's headquarters where soldiers often fought.

At that moment, the young girlfriend of this sovereign, Abby, was in the center of a fighting stage, battling against twenty soldiers of level 40.

Abby had already reached level 48 and continued to have her constant fights against soldiers above level 40. And that's what she was doing right now, something Mendy and Minos were watching from afar.

"Do you see how much Abby puts pressure on those soldiers? How hard do you think this is?" He calmly  asked as he pointed to his girlfriend's balanced battle.

Hearing this, Mendy frowned, finding this change of topic rather odd. But she then began to pay attention to that battle and responded to Minos sincerely. "Well, it can't be easy."

"I would have a hard time doing this against these well-trained soldiers used to fighting together."

"So, what do you think a fight between you and Abby would be like?"

"What?" She said in surprise, realizing that she had ignored a vital part of this situation. 'This... This woman is only at level 48, but she's having a good fight in a situation that a level 50 Spiritual King would have problems with!'

Gulp!

After thinking about it some more, she spoke again. "I do not know. Maybe she would beat me. Maybe the result would be a draw or even my victory. But, any of these, it wouldn't be unfair."

"Exactly." He said, turning to her and staring into her eyes. "Mendy, this is what I offer your Stokes family. An opportunity for some of its members to achieve such combat proficiency."

"That's true?" She asked in disbelief.

"Hmm. And for those people you send here, I'm just going to demand that they don't leave the Dry City for six years. After that, they can decide to stay or leave..."

"Wait a moment." She screamed in shock and then asked. "When you say we will send people here, does that mean they will become your soldiers?"

Minos shook his head and smiled. "No. There is even a possibility of that happening, but what I propose is to train your members until they reach the combat proficiency of my Elite Squad soldiers."

"The Black Plain Army Elite Squad currently has 50 members, and they all have proficiencies as good as Abby's. But, of course, they're at lower levels than she is, so they're weaker..."

"But even so, all of these soldiers will be able to face someone like the current you, level 50, when they have similar cultivations to hers, level 48."

"I promise the same combat capability to the members you send here. However, these people will not be obligated to become my subordinates or carry out any missions. My soldiers will only teach them." He finished his explanation, still looking into Mendy's eyes.

'That... That looks truly tempting!' Mendy thought to herself as she looked once more at Abby's battle.

She thought that if her family had Spiritual Kings with such proficiency, they could become a great power quickly!

"How many people are we talking about here?" She asked, soon after realizing that this was much better than the things she had thought to ask for.

"Two people every six years for the next 30 years. In other words, I will help your family to have ten people like that. Nothing more than that, and I won't receive them all at once." Minos answered her thoughtfully.

The time left for this young man was little. He desperately needed to increase his network, do more business, and gain allies. That's why he was willing to give so much!

He could try to propose to this young woman that her family members join his army. But in the short term, this might seem a lot more advantageous to him than the Stokes family. Therefore, as there were many doubts here, Minos had left this offer aside.

As for teaching Silver-grade techniques to people who wouldn't even be his subordinates, well, that was within his means, considering the conditions raised by him. That is because he would not teach a large number of people of that power at once. Would not simply teach them all the techniques at once, nor would he let them out of the Dry City for a period!

And with that, even if these people didn't join the army in the future, it wouldn't do him any harm. After all, in 30 years, the Black Plain would already be a great local force...

At least that was young Stuart's projection!

Furthermore, these people would only learn these techniques but would not gain any copies of them. Hence, only those ten people would gain something here. Therefore, there is no possibility of more people in that power to learn such techniques!

On the other hand, there was a strong possibility that those sent here would realize that joining the local army would be more valuable.

After all, they would see the Black Plain developed close, as well as the strength of the local soldiers. And considering the high possibility that these people will want even more power in the future, the army would become the fastest and easiest way for them to achieve that!

Hence, Minos wasn't too concerned about giving more than he should in this deal!

Gulp!

....