55 Chance of a Lifetime

In a trendy restaurant which was frequently visited by the farmers in the city, a group of four men actively talked about their daily activities in the plantations of the Black Plain while having lunch. These men were the ordinary inhabitants of Dry City, people who had White talent.

One of the men, who had long gray hair, changed the subject and asked, "Old Roy, you reached level 29 a long time ago, didn't you?"

The man named Roy, who appeared to be the oldest in the group, looked at his friend and replied, "Yes, I reached that level about 39 years ago. What's the point of talking about it now, Errol?"

Errol, unfazed, continued with excitement, "You must have heard the rumor that an alchemist opened a store here in Dry City. At first, I was still doubtful about it, but this morning I saw a really long queue coming out of a store, not much away from Mr. Minos' mansion."

"After I found it peculiar, I waited for a while and asked one of the people who had left the store as to why he was in that queue." Errol said, looking at the other three men who were eating with most of their attention towards him and then continued, "From the person I asked, I found out that an alchemist is taking orders for making grade-1 spiritual pills!"

"Oh! So, it is true. As expected, Mr. Minos is extraordinarily efficient," gasped one of the other two, who were with the group.

"What about the prices? I heard it was a lot cheaper than normal, is that true as well?" asked the other old man.

Errol then replied with a smile, "Yes, it is a lot cheaper. For example, a medium-level grade-1 pill, which can help someone break from level 29 to 30, costs 150 low-grade crystals!"

Old Roy, who was drinking from a large mug of beer, almost spat out the full mouth of beer after hearing this. He then got up from his chair and asked with a serious face, "What? Are you sure about this?"

Errol smiled and confirmed the news, "Hmm, why would I lie to you."

Upon hearing his friend's answer, Roy burst out laughing and then said it aloud before hurriedly leaving the restaurant, "Hahaha, well, you can wait for me in the field. I'm going to visit this store!"

After that, Roy quickly left the restaurant and headed for the central part of the city. He was very excited by the prospect of buying a medium-level grade-1 spiritual pill that would be able to help him break through his bottleneck, one that had lasted for almost three decades.

And although that pill was still going to cost a good deal of his savings, it was still worth a lot. He had collected about 300 crystals during the past year while working as a farmer for the local government.

And raising his strength would enable him to work more efficiently and even earn a salary increase!

Of course, that still wasn't the best part. For someone with White talent, Roy was limited by level 29. Without outside help, he would never be able to advance any further, and he was almost 200 years old at this point!

At such an age, he could live at most for another 50 years. However, with a 4th stage breakthrough spiritual pill, he could increase his life expectancy to a whopping 450 years!

And that was why he was in such a hurry to get the spiritual pill, since any chance of salvation would be pursued with all the will of his being, like an old man at the end of his life,

...

As Roy made his way to Davis's alchemical store, several other people in the city received the same news as Roy and Errol's group.

That was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the hundreds of Dry City residents who had already reached their bottlenecks and were growing old.

It didn't take long, as orders for medium-level grade-1 spiritual pills, specialized in advancing from the 3rd to the 4th stage, surpassed the thousands order mark!

'As expected, with such a low price, even people who have not yet reached their bottleneck would buy these pills to use them at the right time,' Davis thought to himself after seeing the sheer number of orders that the secretary he had hired passed to him.

'Hmm, with such demand, even if I have all the resources, it will still take me about four months just to produce these pills...' Davis sighed internally. He was happy that his business had finally taken off, but there was a lot of work ahead for him to do.

...

Meanwhile, Minos had just finished his training within the Spatial Kingdom and had broken through to level 35.

However, he did not want to remain entirely focused on just cultivating at this time. According to his calculations, the Spiritual Tournament was less than five months away, and he still had to solve the problem on the north side of the border.

And for this reason, he had decided to settle some more of the pending matters in the Black Plain before finally leaving to confront these groups of criminals at the borders.

First, he had held a meeting with all the soldiers who had already attained the rank of Sergeant, Butler Dillian, and some other influential members of Dry City administration.

This meeting would decide that Dry City was going to establish a port base on the maritime coast of the Black Plain, and this base would initially be controlled by the Black Plain Army until a city was constructed in that place.

And for the time being, they had no interest in establishing this city, as this could have negative implications for the Black Plain. For example, the first problem was that they did not have enough population even for the affairs of Dry City, let alone a port city...

And along with that they also did not want to risk attracting the attention of Maritime City by building a city that could compete with it. Thus, for now, this place would only serve as a branch base of the Black Plain Army, which would have the purpose of receiving and sending products to merchant Elen Nash to and from Stone Island.

It was then decided that this place would be built during the remaining two months until the beginning of the next harvest. And until that time, the site would be guarded by a group of 3 Sergeants, 10 Corporals, and 20 Soldiers, who would change shifts from time to time.

In the meeting, they also decided to increase the area for the plantation for the next harvest. Currently, the unemployed population of Dry City could only supply a workforce that could add another 100 hectares, resulting in a total of 200 hectares of land for plantations.

As for if they wanted to increase that area, they would have to attract the border populations of the Black Plain first because it would be of no use unless they had a workforce available during that period.

After the meeting was concluded, Ruth watched everything curiously, got up from her chair, and asked Minos with a curious face, "And then? Shall we leave for the Kingdom of Waves? I'm curious to see you in action."

Ruth was curious about Minos' real strength as she had never seen him fight before.

When they were on Stone Island, she was separated from him in the only fight he had after they both met, so she didn't know if Minos was able to beat Luke because he had some powerful external means or if it was indeed his own power.

And with her noticing Minos rising faster and faster, which only made Ruth's curiosity grow even more. So this mission was a golden chance for her since they could face many criminals.

'I will not leave you even a bit in that place. I want to see if you can keep hiding from me!' Ruth thought, looking away from Minos with the corners of her mouth slightly curled up.

She also wanted to know the degree of Minos' techniques because his cultivation speed was very abnormal. As far as she knew, even if someone had a Golden talent it was not possible for them to cultivate so fast without the help of a high-level technique.

So, if Minos had only one Black talent, where could he have found his cultivation technique? It certainly couldn't come from Albert. As for Minos' mother, Ruth knew that although there was one Golden-grade technique in the Gray Clouds Sect, it was not a cultivation technique!

So, Minos' mother couldn't have helped him with that either. Ruth would ask all these questions to herself almost every single time she saw Minos' further increase in strength, making her get more and more interested in his secret...

After that, Minos left to meet beautiful Elen who had been staying at the mansion the entire time and had decided to wait for Minos to continue this trip to the Kingdom of Waves.

Despite having her interests, she would prefer to wait a little longer and spend more time with this miraculous ally that she had made as it wouldn't cause harm to have more people helping with this task, even if her bodyguard was already at level 48.

Meanwhile, Minos entered through the apartment door where Elen was staying and greeted the man in silver armor before approaching the blonde woman while she was enjoying the view of Dry City through a large glass window.

"It is time for us to leave. My group will be completely prepared within 2 days," Minos said seriously.