The Rise of the Black Plain

Not long after Todd spotted Minos coming his way, the three people quickly moved hands and headed toward a private place where they could talk openly.

Obviously, the young member of the Cohen family was impressed with the current level of Minos and Abby. Still, aside from congratulating the two of them on such a feat, Todd hadn't invested much in the matter.

These singularities of a person's life would hardly be discussed publicly, especially among people who only had a business relationship.

So, he swallowed his curiosity didn't ask anything that wouldn't be answered.

Finally, he had the guests to a specific location where the walls had no ears. After all, even though this was the Cohen family property, there were always internal disputes, with members trying to take advantage of others.

So, Todd was just as much more cautious than he usually would, not just to protect the Black Plain but to safeguard his interests.

...

"Please have a seat." Todd commented to Minos and Abby as they arrived at a business room in the building where he and his grandfather did business.

The place was ordinary, like many other business officers that Minos had passed.

There were comfortable places for more than six people to talk and also a good view of the buildings of the headquarters of the Cohen family.

And soon, the couple was sitting on a large sofa, where Abby seated cross-legged, very close to young Stuart, but not leaning over that sofa. As for Minos, he had his back comfortably propped up on that furniture as he ran a hand over the back of his mate and looked at Todd, who was standing in front of them.

Minos then asked. "So, your grandfather is traveling, huh?"

"Yes, my grandfather is already retired from his activities, but now and then, he goes out to do business with old friends."

"I see… Well, you will soon surpass your grandfather's level. He must be very proud!" Minos praised him before finally starting to get serious. "But anyway, I didn't come here to talk about these things."

"As you can imagine, I want to do some business beyond what my territory has normally been doing with your family."

Hearing this, Todd smiled slightly, in a subtle way, without losing his etiquette. "I understand... And what exactly are we talking about?"

"Spiritual arrays, mostly. As you know, in my town there is a cultivation tower. Still, the number of vacancies we currently have is too small for our population. Therefore, I want to make a deal with you regarding the order of around 2,200 arrays."

"What?" Todd asked incredulously as he had his eyes wide open at the moment, his hands tightened around his knees.

He couldn't believe such a thing!

Even considering all the business done between the Cohen family store in the Dry City and the government of Minos, it didn't reach that number. Hence, this young merchant had been shocked by the number said by this person with brown hair.

And seeing Todd's reaction, Minos and Abby looked at each other for a moment and smiled. "Calm down. This number I quoted will not be paid now, nor do I expect it to be delivered all at once."

"I want you to make arrangements so that within two years, all these arrays have already been delivered." Minos said as he waited for the blonde man in front of him to recover from the shock.

The Dry City Cultivation Tower had been suffering from constant overcrowding since it was opened to the public in that town. Because of this and the fact that the population there kept growing, Minos needed to invest in that place as soon as possible.

That's because, if having a cultivation tower was considered a big positive point for any city, having such a thing but with few vacancies could be considered harmful!

At the very least, people wouldn't count a cultivation tower that never has free spaces as a positive thing, which can help convince someone who wants to move to that town.

And precisely for that reason, the sovereign of that territory needed to change the reality of that service little by little.

Such a thing couldn't be done overnight, and even this deal Minos was doing now couldn't solve the problem for good.

As Eda had commented to Dillian previously, the ideal number of spaces in that tower would be around ten times the current amount. However, the Black Plain could not afford such an investment in the short term...

But Minos would solve this by improving the offer of places in that tower little by little until finally reaching the numbers suggested by Eda.

Finally, after a brief moment, no longer able to contain his delight, Todd said. "Okay, hehe. But how will these arrays be divided? The types..."

They then began to talk about the details concerning the configuration of the arrays wanted by Minos and the specific quantities of each one of them. Most of these items served basically for the same thing, cultivation rooms, having only different classifications.

However, there were some distinct arrays relating to other activities unrelated to the affairs of the cultivation tower in that city. But most of them were medium-level grade-1 and high-level grade-1 arrays.

As for grade-2, these were not so numerous due to the significant difference in the amounts charged.

To sum up, Minos and Todd talked for a while, with the ruler of the Black Plain specifying that he wanted enough arrays for him to triple the capacity of the current cultivation tower.

And this already represented the most significant number of arrays in this agreement, exceeding 2,000 for this purpose alone.

Such a thing would cost over 20 million low-grade crystals and 500,000 medium-grade crystals!

As for the payment, Minos couldn't pay it in advance, as he didn't have these crystals on hand...

What had been agreed was that the Black Plain would pay these amounts monthly for the next two years.

Initially, they would pay the first four months in advance, and only after the fifth month would they start receiving the arrays.

That not only served to ensure that the Cohen family did not suffer a defrauded by Minos… But also to allow time for such a quantity of spiritual arrays to be produced.

This family would not send their subordinates out across the mainland making such purchases for Minos, which would be too expensive. Instead, what would be done was to gather a certain number of local array masters and give them the job of producing these items.

Such a thing could lower the total costs for that family, consequently increasing the profit of that organization.

And with that, both the Black Plain could have its items within the stipulated time, and the Cohen family could profit from such a deal!

As for the array masters, there were many in the region ruled by the Cohen family. After all, most of the arrays ordered by Minos were only grade-1 ones. So, it wouldn't be that difficult to get the experts, not even the materials!

Finally, Minos talked about some specific items he needed to reach the Dry City with greater frequency and quantities. Examples of Warrior-grade and Common-grade medicines used by the alchemists of that place.

Despite the fact that young Stuart had already begun planting Warrior-grade medicines in his territory, the plant he had acquired at the Peak of the Fog would not bear fruit for a long time. It would still take a few years for the first plants to bear fruit, so he would still need to externally import this type of resource.

Another reason is that there weren't even pills with different purposes, which required other ingredients.

Anyway, after talking about it, Minos's deal with Todd came to an end!

Before they left that property, Minos and Abby had just asked Todd a few questions about the best places for them to try to attract the experts from this town to the Dry City.

There were always people looking for opportunities everywhere, and that young man from the Cohen family was someone who knew about it and had naturally helped these great allies of his.