The Rise of the Black Plain

While Minos was testing his mental toughness with Brooke, the lives of the hundreds of thousands of local inhabitants went on as usual.

Things in this city continued to flourish despite the difficult times this territory was experiencing.

But this was natural. After all, with the many protections this place had, the average citizen of this urban area had only to worry about living their lives.

Hence, even though they were in a territory in rebellion, the local population continued with their activities. Many were working to support their families, others cultivated, growing stronger while taking advantage of the opportunities of this city.

And believe it or not, some were experiencing the pleasures of life, enjoying the happiness of spiritual and economic development.

As was before the massive migration of people from Maritime City to here, Dry City continued to have no unemployed people, with only a tiny fraction of the population without paid occupations.

That was the fraction related to children, sick people, in other words, those unable to do any paid work.

Previously young Stuart and his local government team had accumulated enough spiritual crystals for massive hiring, which had helped them keep unemployment at 0%.

Because of this, such a thing had been possible to accomplish, and already for some months, every one of those who had come from Maritime City had integrated into the local community.

These people had their jobs, often more than one, by the way, getting used to the Dry City way of life, the rules, and the security provided by the local army and police.

With this, the city's services had undergone a significant transformation, with the improvement of some that had existed previously and the creation of new ones.

But while the increase in labor supply and the consequent increase in demand for existing and new services had greatly aided this development, there were other factors behind the current state of this city.

One of them was the level increase that local professionals constantly had. But there was something more relevant to this.

That was Dry City's interaction with Stone Island!

After the popularization of information regarding the high-quality Black Plain food traded through the Nash family, the Stone Island families allied with Elen had finally acted.

Some powers in that state had agreements with Minos that predicted  that they would send members of their organizations into his territory to open branches and develop local partnerships.

At first, the leaders of those organizations had thought that this would be an opportunity for their members and organizations to evolve, but it was the opposite... Instead, this opportunity was for Dry City professionals to learn, that is, to improve the quality of their services.

And this kind of 'information exchange' was essential. After all, as much as a given professional depended a lot on their skills for success, a few ways of running a business could completely change that individual's company or product.

Knowledge of management, advertising, etc., could completely differentiate a particular person's situation.

Not having specific knowledge, a person could have a great product. But, still, not knowing how to sell it or present it in the best way, he could not reach his target audience.

With this knowledge, he could even achieve similar success as professionals with better products than his own, but who did not have the same expertise.

That was just one example of how important these practices developed for many years by large families, or companies, could be for improving the services of certain professionals.

And for this, Minos had created that opportunity to bring to Dry City people from Stone Island, individuals related to hospitality, gastronomy, commerce in general.

But even though they did not get the opportunity they thought they would, the organizations of Stone Island had still gladly started sending people here.

Such an opportunity that the inhabitants of Dry City had gained from this was not bad for them either. After all, they could improve their ties with the local organizations and people!

With that, the families and organizations that had asked Elen to make agreements with Minos before, each of them by now had representatives in Dry City.

These people had opened branches of their organizations here, in which some local professionals had the opportunity to learn the practices developed in that state.

And with all this, local services had jumped in quality and variety!

...

The central area of Dry City...

On the main avenue in this city, there was a prominent local government building, which had been completely renovated in recent months.

Previously, such a place was responsible for the local economy, where many local government employees worked with the management of local resources.

But with the construction of a new place for that, this place had been enlarged, had more than doubled in size, and had gained a new facade.

Now, this building had many columns on two of its sides, while its front part, facing that avenue, had a large concrete square, where the symbol of the Black Plain was.

There, a substantial golden tree, more than 15 meters high, from its roots to its leaves wholly made of gold, filled that square space, embellishing that building.

But besides such a beautiful symbol, the names in gold on the highest part of that building were also eye-catching.

'Bank of the Black Plain,' said the letters on that part of the building.

And that was it. That was the bank that Minos wanted very much to open in his territory, something he would use to solve some problems in the future.

In any case, for now, the objective of this institution was much more straightforward, which was to attract the people of this city, the merchants, to adhere to the services of this new organization.

One could say that such a thing was an experiment. That is, Minos wanted to venture as a banker, and as such, sooner or later, he would have to take his institution outside the Dry City.

But if even here this did not work out, then his plans would fail!

Hence, the opening of this institution, which had happened in the last few days, was the test, the experiment that came before something bigger was developed.

In any case, this place was already open to the citizens. Therefore, people constantly passed through the front stairs of this place, heading towards the entrance to get to know this new service.

Banks were not necessarily strange institutions to the regional population, even to those low-income individuals who probably had never used such a service.

But since this was the Dry City, the local inhabitants would not rush to conclusions about any new establishment launched by the government!

Therefore, from its opening until this moment, local citizens came to this location to find out how this bank differed from the others in this region.

That is because, in general, regional banks had two main functions, which were not so useful for ordinary people. One was the exchange of crystals of different qualities. The other was the transfer of crystals, which was more frequent between influential organizations.

The first was an easy way to sell medium-grade crystals to those Spiritual Kings who might have to take salaries in low-grade crystals, which happened frequently.

The second was a safe and relatively quick way to make payments regarding big deals.

That is, considering that the banking institution was reliable, of course!

In any case, there were other options in regional banks, something that might exist in some institutions and not in others. But in general, these options were not very popular or good enough for the standard regional population.

Therefore, if that were all, this bank would fail!

Anyway, while this place was going through another ordinary day, with many people coming in to learn about the service, or even just to see this new building, two men were walking towards the reception area.

One of them appeared to be a man in his 30s, and the other was an elderly man with long white hair and a full mustache.

Both were wearing clothes from the Dry City Alchemists Guild. Both had the same rank indicated by a star symbol on their chests, showing that they were low-level grade-2 alchemists.

"Davis, why didn't you come here before? Unlike me, you have not been in seclusion for the past few days..." The old man said as he asked this person whom he had known for about five years since his coming here from Yellow City.

...