In the blink of an eye, more than six months had passed!
On this day, it was cold in the Black Plain Empire, a type of weather that was becoming increasingly common in the northern region of the Central Continent.
As the ice age approached its "beginning," the characteristics of the Spiritual World became colder.
The ice age wouldn't start overnight. It would gradually reveal itself to the world, and on the day predicted by the elves, it would suddenly intensify when it reached a certain stage in its development.
But that day was still several years away, and the current temperatures were not cold enough to damage crops worldwide.
But even so, the local population already knew what climate change meant. With each cold day that hit, the locals became more worried, and many moved to prepare for the future.
But while ordinary people were huddled together in the major cities at the heart of the Black Plain Empire, a group of powerful experts were gathered in Dry City, ignoring the cold that day.
In this group were several sea and land beasts, all in their humanoid forms, who had just reunited in front of one of the exits of the local defense dome.
Since some hadn't seen each other for several months, the conversations were rather animated, with some talking about their experiences on the Central Continent, while others only talked about their local progress.
Those who hadn't made any progress while traveling with Minos had finally improved their strength a bit and managed to advance one level.
As for those who had already advanced with Minos' help, none of them had made any significant progress during that time.
It wasn't easy to advance to the 10th stage!
However, some of the beings who had previously come to Dry City to wait for Minos' return had made progress and were now ready to join his crew.
Among them, a level 92 sea beast was the last of Minos' 50 crewmates to arrive and wait for his crew leader to leave.
"Am I too late?" The man with the colorful scales asked as he greeted his companions.
"No. Minos has scheduled our departure for nightfall. So there's still time." One of the mermaids said as everyone there felt the thrill of being about to embark on the most dangerous journey of their lives.
Even the dragon in the group was a little excited, anxious to see the treacherous North Sea, rumored to be dangerous even for Demigods.
"Where is Minos?" The last one to arrive asked.
The leader of the group of Sea Folk there answered. "He has just returned from his retreat. He's saying goodbye to his family and his government."
Titus heard this as he stood next to Bella, anxious to leave for the North Sea, for after this journey, it would be time for Minos and him to do their experiments.
Titus had already heard all of Minos' theories. He agreed on the procedure they would follow after the emperor reached level 90. As such, he was among the dozens of powerful beings there, including the group's Gorgon, who was at his and Bella's side.
Apart from them, the only being who couldn't be considered strong there was a crippled human, Grant, who had come from the Western Empire to join Minos' group on the journey to the North Sea.
Even without his powers, Grant wanted to return to that place and see for himself what had caused his misery.
Whether he would die for risking so much, he didn't know. But this man was willing to die to find the truth!
So he, too, stood among these powerful beings, a little nervous but not afraid.
'Time for the truth.' He thought to himself, confident Minos would keep him alive at least until they could face the enemies he believed were behind the strange phenomena in the North Sea.
...
While the group of adventurers waited for Minos at one of the exits of Dry City, he was currently in his imperial palace with all the relevant members of his family and government.
In addition to his children and wives and some of the children's grandparents and great-grandparents, there was the strongest group of specialists in the empire, with people from the army and the imperial government.
Some of Minos' old companions, like Eda, Elena, Elen, Eduard, and Regina, were among his relatives, as well as Maisie, Patience, Angelica, Oswald, and Ruth's relatives.
Sarah was next to George, who had recently reached level 88 and was still above the level of his father-in-law, who was currently at level 87.
As for Kendrick, he was there with his two girlfriends and was currently at level 65.
As for the rest, Minos' family members hadn't made much progress in the past few months, with only Gloria having reached level 85 and Abby and Ruth close to it.
Finally, after bidding farewell to his family, friends, and subordinates, Minos gave a few orders to the Demigods there and offered some important advice in case the war in the South ended in his absence.
Vico and Maximillian's war was still unresolved, as neither had yet failed or returned from seclusion.
So Minos had to prepare his people in case one of them ended the war while he was in the North Sea.
Having taken care of that, he kissed wives before walking with Ruth to the exit of his palace.
Halfway there, Minos saw old Joey, who was currently level 73.
Remembering the story of this old man who had been kidnapped as a child and had long been traumatized by the experience, he smiled and said in this soldier's mind.
'Joey, I will find out if what happened to you has anything to do with the enemy I expect to find in the North Sea. If our expectations are correct, we will prepare our revenge against them.'
Upon hearing this, Joey smiled as he thanked Minos, murmuring to him since he couldn't send a message to his sovereign's mind.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. I hope you have a safe journey and come back even stronger." Joey said.
Minos smiled as he nodded to old Joey, feeling he had a good chance of returning successfully from the North Sea and being even stronger when he came back to Dry City.
So he and Ruth soon left the imperial palace and arrived where the dozens of crewmembers were waiting for them.
