After Minos received members of some of the major races of the Continent of Beast in his capital, a whole year passed, and his agreements with the Phoenixes, Mammoths, and Dragons were confirmed.
During this time, he had also reached similar agreements with the Marine Empire, which had sent a group of representatives to negotiate with him months after his meeting with the six beasts earlier.
As for the Sky Whales, they hadn't made up their minds yet, but they already knew why Minos wanted to invite them to Dry City.
The Black Plain Empire was already working on its partnerships with the Elves, Dragons, Mammoths, Sea Folk, and Phoenixes, which was hard to ignore. But as much as the Sky Whales more or less understood that he wanted a partnership and that it could be beneficial to all, these beings were more resistant to making a deal with him.
The Sky Whales had made great progress in their studies, which focused on their special characteristics and great strength. This race was one of the least likely to use external devices in battle in the Spiritual World, so whatever Minos might offer them would not be so advantageous to them.
Because of this difference, the Sky Whale group still hadn't contacted Minos directly, even after more than a year since the young man's invitation.
That was unfortunate for Minos, as he wanted to make deals with all the major players in the current technological development of the Spiritual World. However, this didn't affect his plans negatively.
After another year of working with the elves and a few months with their new partners, Minos and his state had made new advances in practically every possible field.
Things they hadn't understood before were becoming clearer to his people, and the army's soldiers were gaining better resources, techniques, and technologies.
Because of these agreements and the fact he didn't have to share what he achieved through his allies with the elves, Minos had once again gained an advantage over the members of the world's most intelligent race!
Meanwhile, his family continued to level up.
...
In the empire's capital, Minos was at the army headquarters in the combat and demonstration arena of this high-level local facility.
There were some professional spiritual Demigods with him, people between levels 90 and 92, the strongest in the empire.
On the other hand, some 9th-stage soldiers were fighting on the battlefield in that area, using not only items based on alien technologies but also new ways of using their powers and techniques.
Among them were Lee and Alison, who had volunteered to serve as guinea pigs for the tests that had been conducted over the past few months based on what the state had discovered with the help of the beasts from the Continent of Beast.
Both Lee and Alison had already reached level 80. They had been studying the new methods with the knowledge of the Dragons, Phoenixes, and Elves, which only a small portion of the empire's soldiers had access to at that time.
For each level of cultivation between the 8th and 9th stages, only four people in the army had been given the opportunity to help the state's spiritual experts improve what they had done so far!
Thus, even though those two were nobles of the empire, they were there to help, but they were also there to take advantage of the opportunity to be among the first to use the empire's new methods.
"Incredible," Minos said as he watched the low-level 9th-stage soldiers struggle with the mid-level 9th-stage soldiers who had not yet gained access to the new methods developed locally. "Even with similar talents and techniques, these soldiers, who have had access to the deepening of our ancient techniques through the discoveries of our allies, are displaying combat powers far above normal."
Until a few decades ago, a warrior's strength in the Spiritual World depended first and foremost on their level. Second, one's combat power would be greatly influenced by the characteristics of one's innate ability, which may or may not be of the martial arts type. Third, the quality of one's techniques made the most difference in combat, which might or might not allow cultivators to fight above their level.
But most people didn't have innate martial arts skills, and the quality of most people's techniques was more or less the same: Black grade. Therefore, cultivators at the same level usually had fairly balanced powers, and fighting someone above their level was rare.
However, with the discoveries made by Minos' professionals and the members of the tribes of Elves, Dragons, Phoenixes, etc., this had changed!
By combining the knowledge of many different beings and adapting it to human reality, Minos' group had arrived at methods capable of making people with similar techniques and common characteristics but different levels capable of fighting as equals!
That meant if they made all the soldiers in the empire learn what they had developed so far, the strength of the entire empire could be increased by several levels, even without the soldiers having to progress!
That's why Minos couldn't help but get excited when he saw weaker soldiers fighting against stronger soldiers, seeing in front of him the realization of years of hard work by his forces.
One of the leaders in improving the empire's techniques, a Demigod from the Longus family, smiled at his leader's comment. "This is not all. We will improve much more in the coming years, Your Majesty. As remarkable as the current progress is, we are only at the beginning of revising the army's techniques.
What's more, the level of our soldiers continues to improve. The stronger they get, the better our results in terms of understanding, and the easier it will be to understand things we didn't understand before.
Several other professionals besides Minos and this man nodded in agreement while some watched the battle of those with new types of artifacts.
"We haven't done a proper test with a warrior equipped with our new ways of seeing the world and the laws of nature, with the new weapons and armor. I believe that a level 80 Sage can single-handedly take on level 84 Sages under these circumstances." Said one of the men to Minos.
Then, this level 92 old man became more serious. "For now, we've only managed to improve Silver-grade techniques and low-level 4th-grade resources. However, if one day we improve superior techniques and items, we may be able to produce things that will give Your Majesty the ability to fight against high-level Demigods."
They hadn't been able to develop things that could affect the power level of someone like Minos, but they were aiming for that breakthrough!
