The Rise of the Black Plain

Minos' group was here in this place to follow the first matches of the selection. Each of them had a high position within the army, and for this, at least at times, to be present at this event would be something necessary.

Minos, as a leader, may see something in these soldiers that piques his interest, something that may provide him with new ideas and a means of meeting future soldiers.  There were always one or two people with interesting innate abilities, even among ordinary people like these soldiers.

In Minos' army, there were already several like that. There was one with an innate skill aimed at hand-to-hand combat, another with an ability focused on mental power, another that could sense fluctuations of the soul, and so on.

Not only would combat skills be helpful in the army, but a support skill, like this man's ability to sense the fluctuations of the soul, could completely change some situations. For example, this individual could quickly tell when someone lied, and with that, he was very compatible in interrogation work!

There was always the possibility that one of the Minos soldiers might not have realized the usefulness of some skills. After all, these people didn't have the knowledge of this young man.

Consequently, something could have been overlooked in the previous stages, and he was here to watch a part of the fights, to assess this issue.

Of course, the young sovereign would not spend his entire week just watching the fights of these competitors and soldiers. No, he would see a few battles a day and get the report on the others from one of his subordinates.

At the very least, he would end up knowing, one way or another, the most exciting fights of each group in the selection.

And as for Dillian, he was on duty during this last part of the selection. That is, during all battles, he would stay in this arena to support those competitors and soldiers who needed his help.

And while these fights didn't involve significant risk to the participants, some soldiers would fight more than once during the week. Because of this, to maximize the recovery rate for these individuals, Dillian would treat them daily.

The contingent of the Black Plain Army, at this very moment, is just over 2,400 soldiers, while the number of competitors is around 3,500. Given this difference and the fact that some soldiers needed to fulfill their responsibilities, or were not compatible with those competition rules, many of these soldiers would fight 2, 3, or even 4 times this week.

The group of 5th stage soldiers was the only one large enough to maintain the Dry City defenses and participate in this selection. As for the others, the most sensitive group were soldiers from the 3rd stage of cultivation.

For this group, many were not within the required level, somewhere between levels 22 and 24. But, on the other hand, this group only had about 700 soldiers in total, considering all of this stage, while their competitors were more than 2 thousand!

For this reason, the selection organization had done all the necessary planning for this, putting these soldiers to fight on different days. At least that way, they could have the minimum time needed to rest.

And finally, Eda was currently the strongest soldier in the army, with a level 48 cultivation, almost reaching level 49. And because she spent nearly all of her time inside headquarters, she had decided to come to watch this competition.

At least during her rest time between training and the few responsibilities she had at the moment, she had decided to come here to have a look.

This woman found it fascinating to witness such an event, and given her future position as the primary Lieutenant in the army, Eda was interested in learning about the strength of her future subordinates. In the future, when she reached level 50, she would have leadership power and might have to command groups of Seargents.

So, seeing these battles, especially those on the first day, would be very important to her. Today most of the fights would be those competitors between levels 37 and 41. That is, those who were already in the 5th stage or almost there.

Hence, this was the reason she was here!

...

Some more time passed, and around 50 competitors had already passed through that stage. Of these competitors, just over half had managed to pass successfully, with only one tie occurred.

As for this one, the result of the referees had been 4vs1 in favor of the competitor, and that person had managed to enter the select group of approved.

And seeing another fight end, finally, Eda commented to Minos and Dillian. "A lot of these competitors don't know how to fight... I've seen a lot of basic mistakes, and some are barely used to using weapons."

"Hmm, but that's to be expected. Unlike those who prepare early for battle, most of these people were just ordinary citizens until recently." Dillian commented as he looked in his mate's direction.

"Some of them have been training seriously to improve their characteristics for less than a year. Before that, they had probably only been concerned with cultivating."

Hearing this, Minos nodded his head in agreement. "Grandpa Dillian is right. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone who passed has been or is a hunter. It is difficult to learn how to use a weapon in such a short time. Especially when you have already passed your prime learning age and still have to worry about working and ensuring your family's survival."

"Hmm." Dillian made a noise of agreement as he massaged his mustache. "In less than 15 days, we are going to open the city's mercenary guild. With this new option, I believe the quality of the competitors in the next team will increase a lot. At the very least, many of those who don't pass will have more opportunities to train their fighting capacities." He said while looking at Eda.

"It truly makes sense. But even if some of the passers aren't that impressive, I think I can fix them in no time." Eda commented.

She had rather liked the order of things in Minos's army. The fact that there were regular battles between soldiers and that in the future, there was already a plan for these soldiers to learn to fight in groups against stronger opponents was very positive.

These ordinary people could quickly get used to battles with constant fights, reaching a decent and necessary level.

And Eda liked that characteristic, mainly because there wasn't something like that in noble families!

Or rather, there was the possibility of fights between subordinates, nobles, as well as internal competitions. However, this was something more occasional, infrequent to happen.

At the very least, there was no such stringent requirement as in Minos' army.

As an example, in the Miller family, there were only two indoor competitions per year. And as for the possibility of fights outside of that competition, well, that was totally up to the members of that organization. If someone wanted to, they could do it, but there was no pressure from the family for that to happen.

Of course, many would strive to improve their own positions without the need for outside pressure. However, not everyone was like that...

Sometimes, some people would need someone forcing them, for him to develop to his full potential!

Minos then commented. "I believe that the competitors of the 3rd stage of cultivation will have more interesting fights. Even though they are weaker, most of them are in the ideal range for learning. They are people who have already gained an understanding of the battles, proportional to their levels."

"Hmm, that makes sense. Suppose we were to compare cultivation and understanding with a pot and water. In this case, these competitors we've seen fighting are big pots, which are almost empty. The weaker competitors, on the other hand, are smaller vessels that are proportionately fuller." Eda agreed with Minos.

"Some of them may have trained the same amount of time as these higher-level competitors. The result is that their level is more compatible with their understanding of battles..."

And as the three watched the fights and occasionally chatted about what they saw, time began to pass.

...

Quickly, two days passed, and at this point, the third day of fights had already started!