Somewhere in the capital of Stone Island, there was a large palace with a multicolored garden. At this moment, a young woman with blond hair and green eyes was sitting at one of the tables in this garden, having a cup of tea, calmly.
'I haven't gone out to do business in the Brown Kingdom for over a year… I wonder how far the Black Plain has developed.' The young woman thought to herself while curling a lock of hair with one hand.
That was Elen Nash, the merchant with whom Minos had made an exclusive deal.
At this moment, a beautiful woman was walking towards Elen with a worried face. She had blond hair and wore a green dress, which highlighted her sensual curves to the point of attracting even other women.
"Elen, I have some bad news. Unfortunately, we lost contact with our subordinates in the Kingdom of the Waves…" The beautiful woman then began to report the situation to Elen with a solemn look on her face.
…
At the same time, in the Brown Kingdom, in the principal city of the Red Valley, Otis Silva, the patriarch of the Silva family, was having a meeting with four other Spiritual Kings subordinates of his family.
They were in a well-lit and luxuriously decorated room. There were some high-end paintings on the walls, a large bookshelf on the left side of the room, a glass table in the center, two large sofas in front of each other, and an armchair at the end of the room, with its back to the balcony from the office.
At that moment, one of the subordinates, who looked younger and was sitting on one of the two sofas, said with a serious face. "Patriarch recently has been a lot of bandit activity in the region of the border between the Kingdom of the Waves and the Black Plain."
"Because of this, some of our 4th-stage subordinates disappeared a few weeks ago, along with the items that were being transported. Therefore, I recommend that we use a different route to get to the Kingdom of the Waves. This is at least in the short term until the situation returns to normal."
The patriarch frowned and spoke unhappily. "I heard about it, but I didn't think the situation would reach this point... Won't the Kingdom of the Waves do anything about it? If this continues, our business in the kingdom will be delayed!"
That was an essential issue for anyone who did business in the Kingdom of the Waves and was coming from the south of this kingdom. Between the Kingdom of the Waves and the Brown Kingdom, a mountain range divided them until the beginning of the Black Plain's territory. This made it considerably more challenging to travel by land in this region.
And since most of the trade between the kingdoms was transported by land, passing through the Black Plain region was the way that minimized the distance between the two states. Because of this, many traders who came from the Brown Kingdom and some from the Cromwell Kingdom used this stretch to reach the Kingdom of the Waves.
Otherwise, there would be a need to transport these resources across the sea, making transportation more expensive. This is because it was complicated to obtain marine spiritual beasts. Thus, the means of maritime transport were considerably slower and more expensive than land.
As for the border with the Black Plain, next to the Kingdom of the Waves, there was a place with a significant presence of criminal groups.
That was due to the lower spiritual density of the region, which distanced the interest of noble families in keeping those areas under control. However, this place was still considered better than the Black Plain, which is why there were not many groups of bandits in the territory of Minos.
As they continued to discuss matters of the utmost importance to the Silva family, an elderly man hurriedly entered the room.
That was a servant of the Silva family.
"Patriarch, something terrible has happened." He said while his face was ashen. In fact, he didn't want to have to deliver such news, but… Unfortunately, it happened on his shift.
While the servant was sweating coldly, Otis Silva looked at him with an ugly expression on his face and asked. "Why did you come in here like that? Don't you see that I have an important meeting?"
"I'm sorry, patriarch, but this is urgent. The sign of the young master Darell's soul has disappeared." The older man said as he lowered his head in fear. He was afraid of being killed just for delivering such news!
"Huh? What did you say?" Patriarch Otis asked in disbelief.
…
Meanwhile, two days went by quickly, and now Minos and his group had already returned to the city of Portland. Most of them had already recovered much of the superficial injuries and were now training behind closed doors in their rooms.
Minos had also purchased several spiritual healing pills to help his subordinates recover faster. He had also contacted other alchemists and made offers to attract them to his side.
However, no one showed great interest after he said that he is the sovereign of the Black Plain. After all, few would risk going to such a poor place.
But Minos was not unhappy with this, as he had already expected such a thing to happen. It would not be long before the news that his region had been recovered and was doing business here on the Stone Island spread in this region.
With that, Minos was confident that, even if these experts did not accept his offer now, it did not mean that they would not change their minds in the future.
'It seems that there is nothing else I can do here in Portland.' Minos thought to himself as he ate an apple and looked at the city's landscape through the window of the room where he was.
He didn't want to do a lot of business around here, as he would be heading to the Stone Island capital, Old Stone, shortly after that. Thus, he could buy the items necessary to develop the Black Plain in a place with better-rated products and higher quantities.
'I will wait just one more day before we leave. It will be better to give this time for my soldiers to recover fully.' Minos thought to himself before entering the Spatial Kingdom.
"I wonder how Ms. Elen is doing…" He spoke in a low voice as he walked to the house by the lake. He had a smile on his face as he thought of that young trader.
In fact, as a young teenager of 16-years-old, Minos could not help thinking of beauty as the young Elen. And with his reunion getting closer and closer, he had been thinking more and more about 'interacting' with the young blonde.
'Ahh, I better get rid of those thoughts and start my training…' Minos thought with a sly smile on his face.
…
After that, it was not long before Minos began to perform a series of repetitive movements besides the lake.
Spatial Sword!
Swooish!
Swooish!
The attack technique was activated dozens of times before Minos finally stopped to rest. He was covered in sweat and had spent most of his spiritual energy on this training session.
Glub! Glub! Glub!
He drank a jug filled with water while saying irregularly and breathing quickly. "Hu, hu, hu, it's getting more and more difficult to advance my sword technique. Hu, hu, hu, it's tough to have to activate it a thousand times…"
After a while, Minos began to cultivate to replenish his energies. He then started his defensive training after a few hours of cultivation.
Indestructible Body!
After activating his defensive technique dozens of times, Minos prepared to take the final blow of the session.
A blade of energy was launched in the direction of Minos.
Such an attack came from a high-level grade-1 spiritual array that Minos had bought in Portland in the past few days. This array emitted a blade attack equivalent to an attack by someone at level 39!
Swooish!
"Phew, hu, hu, hu, I'm going to stop here," Minos said aloud as he sat on the floor to rest.
...
Thus, a day quickly passed, and Minos finally decided to leave the Spatial Kingdom. All soldiers were fully recovered and ready to continue traveling at that time.
Minos left his room and called Sergeant Pyke. "Is everything ready for our trip to the Old Stone city?"
"Yes, young master. We rented three carriages here in Portland for the trip, and they are already at the entrance in the Olson Hotel." Pyke said calmly.
"Great, let's go then. We have nothing else to do in this city." Minos spoke as he walked to one of the elevators on the floor where his room was.
It didn't take long, and the entire group of 11 people left Portland, heading towards the central part of Stone Island.