After entering the previous store, Minos made some purchases of space stabilization arrays and those that generated defensive barriers, such as those in the Dry City Dome.
He knew that soon he would have floating islands in his state, so he already planned to improve the local defenses by combining these arrays with the islands that should already begin to appear.
He intended to prevent even Spiritual Sages from being able to enter the core of his territory without his permission, so without realizing it, he spent over 400,000 high-grade crystals, surprising his traveling companion with his purchasing power.
But Ella told him nothing more about this waste of resources on something that would soon be meaningless to him.
She had already made her opinion clear to Minos and would not waste her time repeating the same things to him all the time.
Anyway, with the arrays he had in mind purchased and stored in his spatial ring, Minos went about his business in this city for the next three days.
He was not overly challenged in this place since this was a place where men could live, which naturally helped cover his tracks a bit. But some noble women had found out about his presence in this city and had arranged to meet him and propose challenges.
After some effort, Minos managed to deal with them, going ahead with his plans regarding this city that also had many resident beast tamers.
Many beasts were already living in the main part of the current Black Plain, a great thing that helped the empire's forces a great deal to maintain control over their territory. But recently, several new races were migrating to those areas further north on the continent, where some resources necessary for the survival of these species did not exist.
So Minos was searching for seeds of some different kinds of plants that he didn't have on the Black Plain, as well as cultivation resources for some of these beasts.
Ella struggled to direct him to the right places in those two days, watching Minos spend even more crystals, far more than he should have already received since arriving in the Flowers Kingdom.
With this experience of hers at Minos' side, Ella's curiosity about him and the Black Plain grew as the days passed.
However, when she questioned him about his resources, all he answered was that he had his own story.
Anyway, they would spend a whole week in Zerona before Minos finished acquiring what he thought was necessary to ensure the subsistence of the new beasts in his forces for quite a while.
As long as more specimens of different races didn't join the empire in the short term, he wouldn't need to buy things like that for a while.
...
After leaving Zerona, Minos, and Ella traveled for some time until they reached a forested region near the coast of the Flowers Kingdom, not far from the state capital.
There was a waterfall over 50 meters high, a beautiful place full of plant life in the surroundings, but also beasts of various types, most of them peaceful.
Traveling alongside one of the kingdom's warriors, Minos didn't have to worry about any beasts attacking him since these beings were all loyal to the royal family.
None of them would stand in the way of a noblewoman, and since Minos had secured the right to have Ella's protection, beasts in his way would not try anything against him either.
This had been preventing him from fighting beasts along his path, something he didn't like much since he preferred to fight his way, training and getting stronger.
Unfortunately, even though he had asked Ella and the beasts on his path for this, none of them had agreed to fight him as he wanted.
Luckily, some women on his way to their present location wished to test some of his strength and helped him a little.
Anyway, currently, he and Ella were sitting together with the group of the woman they had most recently met on their way, one who, despite the possibility of making a challenge, she did not.
Strangely enough, this person ate quietly beside Minos, Ella, and their group mates.
"So, Minos, soon you will reach the Flowers City and lose your freedom. Is there anything you will regret having done or not yet done?" The leader of that group asked, looking at Minos with a smile.
She herself did not like men. She much preferred women, those lovely, soft-skinned, smelly, good-to-kiss beings.
She might have a breeding ability envied throughout the Spiritual World, but she genuinely had no desire to breed.
Few people knew this, so despite thoughts contrary to the ideas of the royal family, this woman kept her freedom.
Minos could tell the difference between this woman and the others and took her question in jest. "That's not going to happen. But if it did, I would regret several things I haven't done yet."
"Like what?" She asked as the others looked at him with interest.
"For example, being unable to develop my state to the peak. Another thing is not being able to discover the secrets of the North Sea on my own." He said sincerely.
"The secrets of the North Sea? That's quite a peculiar goal." That woman, level 79, said with interest. "It is said that such an area is so dangerous that it would be better to try to steal a dragon's lair than to go there willingly."
Dragons' lairs always had one or another member of that species keeping watch over the riches of the lair's owner. As such, they were dangerous places!
"Yes, that's precisely why I want to find out what's behind it...
Mere natural phenomena wouldn't scare even Spiritual Sages." Minos commented, imagining the day he could travel to the North Sea and solve some of the doubts in his heart.
Dana looked at him and said. "You are peculiar, haha.
Anyway, if you're interested in that, you should seek the help of the Spiritual Church."
"What do you mean?" He questioned.
"Don't you know? The Church has more detailed information about that place than other powers on the continent." Dana said. "It seems they found the remnants of a shipwreck of a high-level crew that passed through that place.
The strongest on that ship left some hints behind, even considering how chaotic that place is.
They made it to the Church headquarters, causing that organization to ban travel by its members in the vicinity of the North Sea 23,000 years ago."
"So they know about what's behind that?"
"I'm not sure. But they know more than they admit... So you should look for them to find out more.
Of course, if you survive and can go after it, haha. Otherwise, you're really going to regret it a lot." Dana laughed, ignoring that Minos' words implied that he had no regrets about his accomplishments.
Meanwhile, this fellow clenched his fists, thinking about the only possibility in front of him.
The strengthening of Gloria's faction!
...
