8 Beginning of Agriculture 1

Minos has accomplished nothing crucial for Dry City in these past three days except for instructing his subordinates to start a census to discover the most talented people in the city. That was because it wouldn't be long before the current number of guards had to be increased.

In fact, the current number of guards was too small, but it could not be increased due to the lack of vacancies in the city. However, this will change in the future.

However, Minos was very excited about his future since he had reached level 4 last night. And today, he intended to put his theory to the test and solve the Black Plain problem.

Accompanied by his butler, Dillian, and two more guards, Minos left for the 100-meter hole in the west of the city. The two guards were adequately chosen by Dillian himself so that there was no leakage about what Minos would do.

Although the two had no way of discovering that a Divine-grade medicine would be buried there, but… it wasn't good to take any unnecessary risks. Other than them, there would be no more people present at the site.

After a few minutes of riding on spiritual beasts, the group reached the area, which had already been emptied.

Removing the Divine-grade medicine that looked like a carrot from his spatial ring, Minos then casually threw it in the hole. 

The young man waited for a while and then spoke to his butler, "Grandpa Dillian, try making the same move as before at the ground next to the hole. Let's see if that spiritual root will absorb the energy this time."

The middle-aged man nodded and followed the orders of his young master, carrying out the technique. Converging a significant amount of spiritual energy, he directed it to the terrain a few meters away from the hole just as Minos had asked to.

But this time, things didn't happen like their previous encounter.

Instead of the spiritual energy disappearing instantly after touching the ground like before, it simply created a hole just over a depth of a meter, clearly indicating that the spiritual root was no longer absorbing free energy in the soil!

After seeing such an ending, Dillian smiled and nodded at Minos in acknowledgement, "It looks like the issue has been resolved. The young master was right about the problem," he then turned to the two guards, "Now, you two, help me close this hole."

Finally witnessing this, Minos let out a sigh of relief and began to wait for the three men before him to fill the pit. After this, he now had a long job of building a thriving agricultural city ahead of him.

But he didn't want it to be just any agricultural region. No, it had to be a region with crops of high spiritual concentration. At least that was Minos' goal when ordering the construction of the artificial lake that would receive water from the Spatial Kingdom. 

And with the water from the Spatial Kingdom in the lake which was rich in spiritual energy and nutrients, farmers could irrigate crops planted in the Black Plain!

Minos also planned to collect the fallen dead leaves in the Spatial Kingdom and mix them with the natural fertilizer found in this region to produce a type of super fertilizer for these lands.

The items from the Spatial Kingdom would have a significant impact on the environment of the region.

"Grandpa Dillian, let's go back. We have to choose which crops we'll need to plant... Ah! I almost forgot, has the farming group been formed yet?" Minos initiated the conversation as the group returned to the mansion.

Dillian shook his head, "Although it hasn't fully formed yet, it should be ready before the artificial lake."

"Hmm, this is good. As for the crops, I decided that it would be better to start cultivating wheat, corn, and rice since in the northern region these three crops are in great demand and they also have a short harvest time."

Plantations in the Spiritual World produced a high yield per hectare and were also harvested rather quickly. Certainly, these values would be completely different in 'OTHER' locations, under different conditions...

For example, in this world, wheat, corn, and rice could be harvested 2-3 months after planting. As for the yield, it was between 9 and 15 tons per hectare, depending on the crop planted.

Dillian then nodded, "This seems to be the best option."

…

After returning to the mansion, the butler went to carry out his duties while Minos headed to his office to meet his secretary, Mia.

He had a few questions regarding developing agriculture in the region for exports, but he also intended to dominate the local market with his products, which should in theory, have more spiritual energy than the food sold in the city. 

And to achieve that, Minos resolved to divide his agricultural plan into two phases.

At first, he would prepare a smaller amount of land to produce the quantity sufficient for Dry City itself. And in the Second, he would start exporting.

This concept had two main reasons. Firstly, Minos wanted to increase the overall strength of his city, and secondly, he didn't have enough labor or even land for planting. 

Furthermore, Minos knew that it would take some time for all the soil of the Black Plain to be recovered enough for irrigation. And hell, the foremost thing was that they didn't have the seeds either!

As a result, he planned to prepare a small plot of land, begin planting, sell it in the domestic market, earn a profit, and then reinvest it to create a cycle capable of sustaining growth. However, he also recognized that it would take years until they could reach the foreign market with significant participation.

Anyway, that was the plan.

After Mia arrived in the office, Minos asked with a smile on his face.

"Mia, can you tell me who I should talk to so that I can get the food consumption data of the inhabitants in Dry City?" 

Mia shook her head, "No one in the local government takes care of this matter exclusively."

But seeing Minos' lips purse, she added further, "But young master, I can help you with it."

Minos nodded, "Okay, so I want you to list the average consumption of rice, wheat, and corn in our city as soon as possible."

"Okay, I'll finish it as quickly as I can," quickly responding, Mia rushed out of the office.

After that, Minos decided to go for a walk in the city and have a closer look at the life of Dry City and maybe also stop by to eat somewhere.

However, to his disappointment, he found nothing that caught his eye, even though problems were typically seen anywhere, he saw nothing other than people solving their affairs.

It seemed that besides surviving, people here didn't do much more than that in this place. Or that they had just accepted the situation and stopped caring or taking an interest in anything.

It was a genuinely bizarre place!

"Hmm, I better go back and cultivate…"

Finally, he decided to go back to the mansion and continue his cultivation instead.

…

Two more days passed, and Minos was now at level 5, and the lake was also completely constructed, with half of it being filled with the waters found in the region.

After hearing about this, Minos emptied the three spatial rings that he had obtained in the Spatial Kingdom and filled them with water from there and poured it into the lake beside the city.

After repeating this process a few times, the young man finished filling the artificial lake. Now all that was left to do was to transform the soil and then start cultivating the crops.

…

Meanwhile, in Dry City, a rumor was circulating rapidly.

According to the rumor, the sovereign of the Black Plain who had recently arrived was now hiring 200 people for local agriculture!

A group of people was discussing this topic in a particular place in the city.

"Absurd! What does this brat think he's doing? What does he want farmers for? Does he think that he can grow crops in this region just because he wants to?" said a person aloud.

"Hehehe, maybe no one has informed him about the situation here. It's no wonder that he accepted a position in a place like this," another commented with disdain.

"Tsk, I heard that they found a way to recover the soil. My cousin works in the City Guard, as you know. He told me that ever since this Minos Stuart took over local power, the guards were ordered to build an artificial lake and a big hole on the west side of the city."

"According to the commander, the problem in our region would be solved after these two things were done," said a young man, who stood in the middle of the group.

"And do you believe in such a thing? In the thousands of years of history, nobody has been able to figure out how to resolve this situation. So, tell me how this young man did it?" another questioned dubiously.

"I don't know how, but they're supposedly going to pay 40 low-grade crystals a month," added someone who seemed quite interested in that payment rather than the work.

'If it's true, I'll surely join the group!' some thought to themselves upon hearing this piece of news.

Similar conversations like such were also occurring across the city. Most of the people were doubtful, but there were also some who hoped that the rumors were true. 

…

Elsewhere in the city, a young woman was sitting on a porch. She was wearing a blue dress, had blond hair, and mesmerizing green eyes. She was a merchant who was passing through Dry City and was also someone from Stone Island who was on her way back from a business trip in the Brown Kingdom.

She listened to an employee of the hotel that she was staying at while the guy was talking regarding the actions of the new sovereign of the city, this caused her to contemplate about how this young ruler might solve the problem of the Black Plain.

"Minos Stuart, huh… Interesting, I want to see what you can do. If the rumor is true, maybe I can start doing business here before the news even gets out…

Eduard, we're going to stay in this city for the next month. I want to see if this rumor is indeed true," she said to her bodyguard.

"Are you sure, Ms. Elen? This place doesn't seem to be worth it," the bodyguard replied.

His words caused Ms. Elen to give him a look before taking a glance at Dry City as she muttered.

"Hmph, if the rumor proves to be true, then it's well worth it. And I won't lose anything by staying here just for this time."