The Rise of the Black Plain

While Marvin Nash talked to the Stone Island leaders, Elen was in Old Stone dealing with her family's many issues.

After months since House Nash's change of position in the war against the Allen family, Elen had worked hard and managed to recover some of her family's losses.

Of course, the human damage would be difficult to recover in a short time since the high-level cultivators lost in the war would take time to have their replacements.

However, the damage related to market loss and property damage could be recovered more quickly. That is, with the escape of the Allen House members, the Nashs had one less competitor in this state.

But Elen had not only been busy in this period trying to recover her family. She had also had to work hard to find ways to avoid harming the sales of the Black Plain resources.

After all, Minos and his forces depended considerably on the crystals coming from Stone Island for their continued development.

With that, to circumvent the economic sanctions against Stone Island and the ongoing trade war, Elen had had to work hard to continue selling large quantities of food coming from the Black Plain.

Some of these resources were going to the noble families of this state, which had vowed not to buy resources from outside the Black Plain as a measure of support.

But the numbers involving these families were not enough to consume the entire supply. So, most of the products coming from the Black Plain were sold directly to the common populace.

Therefore, even with the help of those families, Elen had taken the trouble of subdividing her store network to reach communities in all parts of Stone Island.

However, regardless of her efforts, it was undeniable that Minos had still been harmed in this period. After all, as much as subdividing the products into more shops might increase demand; there was a cost in transporting these resources to more distant places.

It would be much cheaper to sell everything in one market than in, let's say, a hundred.

The cost of logistics could not be ignored!

So, one way or another, Minos and the Black Plain were not profiting as much as they could from sales to this state!

...

Elen was currently visiting the estate of the Neel family, the Stone Island blacksmith organization of which her young friend Elena was a descendant.

And as Elen walked through that well-organized area, with green parts and some indications that there was mining going on in the surroundings, she was thinking about what she should do.

'After resolving this matter, I need to see with my father how our forces are and when we can act more aggressively...'

'Without the Allen family on Stone Island, this vacuum of power and such an opportunity will not be easy for us to take advantage of.' She thought about this, analyzing the fact that even though her family was at an advantage at the moment, they had lost a lot of power in the war.

Consequently, other local organizations, among them noble families that had not been involved in the war, could use the opportunity to ignore the wishes of House Nash.

That worried her!

But as Elen thought about how to solve this problem, her beautiful blond hair fluttered as suddenly a giant flying beast landed in her vicinity, creating strong winds.

"Young Elen? It looks like I wasn't late..." The old man on top of that newly arrived beast said this while having a smile on his face.

"Hmm, I just got here, uncle Francis." She replied as she tidied her hair.

"Oh? That's nice..."

"Well, first, let me congratulate you on reaching level 52." He said in satisfaction, punctuating this fundamental characteristic, something Elen had achieved because of her large reserves of crystals.

After years of trading with Minos, that woman had gathered a few million low-grade crystals, which had guaranteed her a good cultivation speed by regional standards.

"Hmm, thank you."

"Anyway, I know you're very busy lately, so let's not waste too much time." He said, already indicating that young woman to follow him around that property.

"My Neel family is working hard to deliver the orders from our alliance's allies, but the lack of certain resources has simply gotten in our way recently."

Stone Island was specialized in producing spiritual items made by blacksmiths due to its mineral wealth. However, this did not mean that there was no shortage or importation of certain ores!

Quite the opposite, there were many regional exchanges of resources needed to produce those items. After all, not all types of products could be made with the same ingredients, methods, etc.

And since Stone Island was one of the smallest states in terms of area in this part of the Central Continent, there was a shortage of some materials.

Thus, because of the sanctions imposed by other regional states on Stone Island, it was more difficult for this family of blacksmiths to keep the orders from their allies within the previously promised deadlines.

"I understand..."

"But I have a suggestion that I would like the Neel family to look into its feasibility."

"Oh?" He said in surprise, curious to know what would come next. "What is it?"

Elen then said. "In Dry City, there is a member of the Black Plain Army who can 'recover' certain materials from artifacts produced by blacksmiths."

"My suggestion is that the Neel family try to decrease the production of new items from the materials in your stocks and try to do business with Minos."

"If that is possible, we can decrease the current demand and give preference to producing higher-level weaponry, specifically those with the hardest  resources to obtain now."

After hearing this, that man's eyes narrowed as he was amazed that there was someone capable of doing such a thing. "Is that truly possible?"

"Yes."

"But can that person retrieve materials from any kind of weapon?" He asked, still surprised.

"Not exactly."

"This Black Plain Army soldier has an innate ability that can do such a thing. But she is only at level 43, so her capabilities are limited."

"However, she can retrieve items useful in developing even low-level grade-2 artifacts."

"I see..." That Neel family elder commented as he understood about this.

Such a thing was awe-inspiring, but it still could not influence the production of items for people like them, Spiritual Kings. However, it could help save some resources that could be useful in higher-level artifacts.

Hence, even if Alina's skill was not yet able to solve their problems completely, it could already create some relief in local production.

"Well, I'll look into that with the other elders. But I believe we can follow your suggestion, young Elen."

"Sigh... That's good."

"By the way, how is the status of Minos' ordered sword?" She asked, remembering that she had acted on behalf of Minos and the Neel family to negotiate that weapon and the agreement between the parties.

The elder then replied. "I believe it can be in his hands in six months."

"All that?" She asked.

"Unfortunately..."

"Before the war, there was a line, and our friend from the Black Plain was nowhere near the beginning of it. And since no one had predicted that a war would break out, bringing the current consequences, we respected the previous agreement, following the order of orders."

"Because of that, we were only able to start producing that weapon a few months ago, but in that time, we were already under the current sanctions..." He justified.

It was not every day that a group of blacksmiths received an order for a weapon of that type. And since the resources involved in such items were more expensive and rare to find in the region, production took much longer than for lower-ranked items.

Because of this, there were long queues for that, and the production time was several times longer than that of a medium-level grade-2 item.

"So, that's how it is..." Elen regretted the information.

'Anyway, Minos will probably be fine even without that weapon.'

'At least that's what those newspapers make it sound like...' So she thought, as she remembered the sensationalism those regional media put around the figure of Minos.