A month earlier...
Alchemist Davis, who had traveled from Stone Island with Minos and group, was getting to know Dry City.
Upon the group's arrival at the mansion in the central part of the city, Davis was accommodated in the local government officials' visiting area.
After resting for a while, Davis decided to explore the city. He had already seen the surrounding landscape and the nearby fields of plantations not far from the city during the journey with the group, but he had not yet seen the city itself and thus wanted to look up close.
However, the city itself did not catch Davis' attention as he was not familiar with it and did not know Dry City from before. So, he had no way of knowing if this place had been improved or not after Minos' arrival.
All he knew before was that the Black Plain had a notorious reputation for its infertile soil and that it was impossible to grow any type of plant!
And so, he was genuinely impressed with that.
Even though Minos claimed that this problem had already been solved by him, Davis found it hard to believe such words without seeing it for himself.
There were certain things that a person could believe only after seeing them with their own eyes!
Davis also noticed that the spiritual concentration in Dry City was significantly lower than that of Portland. He became aware of this after he started cultivating in the city and realizing that he could not feel the free energy in heaven and on earth at his current level which was 38.
After all, in Portland, the spiritual density was concentrated enough that it would still help in a trace amount without one trying to cultivate.
'Let me see what life is like in this place.'
Davis thought and then started walking the city streets, observing all the details carefully.
He noticed that the city's infrastructure was very well-prepared, and had the capacity to handle dozens of carriages at the same time, but he had seen none after leaving Minos' mansion.
'Mm, there aren't many spiritual beasts here, and the few that I saw were all low-level,' he thought to himself as he watched the movements on one of the streets.
Eventually following the street, Davis arrived at a bustling place, it was called Central Market which he knew after noticing the plaque on the huge three-story building having a large entrance.
And seeing the high activity in the building, Davis decided to enter and explore this place.
However, as soon as he stepped inside the building, Davis frowned and muttered to himself, "Such huge commotion just for buying apples?"
In one of the many stalls on the first floor of the Central Market, the one which had the most movement, he noticed that there was a large pile of apples and a plaque with a price tag of "20 crystals per kilo."
Several people were huddled together in this stall, yelling their orders as loudly as they could at the three attendants.
"I want 2 kilos."
"And I will have half a kilo."
While watching this, Davis stared at the scene with a perplexed look.
He had never seen people buying fruit in such a lively way, 'I don't understand, they act as if they're competing for a product on sale, but the price is just slightly lower than in Portland.'
Puzzled, Davis approached a woman who was waiting in the queue and asked her, "Madam, I'm sorry to bother you, but can you tell me why people are so excited to buy these apples?"
The woman looked at Davis giving a strange look and replied, "You do not know? I think this must be your first time here. I don't blame you. These are the last batch of apples planted in the Black Plain and the next will only be available in 3 months. So, everyone is excited and also in a hurry to buy them."
The woman then continued.
"If I were you, I wouldn't miss this opportunity. It won't be long until all the apples are snatched." saying that she placed her order with one of the attendants.
After hearing this, Davis became very curious and decided to get in line. He was here to get to explore the city and understanding why the inhabitants of this place valued the region's products so highly could be a lot helpful for him.
'Is this a way for them to express their pride in this region? It can't be it. This behavior is very exaggerated!' Davis thought to himself as he waited for his turn.
After a few minutes, he finally got what he wanted. He bought two large apples that cost him ten low-grade crystals. He then used some of his spiritual energy to clean the apple and then tasted it.
"Ugh?"
When he felt the amount of spiritual energy that the single bite of apple provided him, Davis immediately jumped in surprise.
"How can this be? That is surely a fruit with a high spiritual concentration! Something similar to this would cost about 60 low-grade crystals on Stone Island!" he murmured before taking another bite of the apple in his hand.
'Ah! So, that's why those people were in such a hurry to buy these apples…' Davis thought as he realized the significance these apples had for those people.
That is because foods with high spirituality could be as good as cultivating low-grade spiritual crystals!
This might not be a big deal for cultivators over level 50, but it was incredible for the people living in Black Plain.
Davis did not have much information about this place, but he knew that the inhabitants of Dry City, a place with low spiritual density, typically had a talent of at most Blue classification, with a few exceptionally gifted individuals showing up.
As a result, for those generally stuck below level 40, the spiritual energy contained in food was essential. Not only that, but even people with Golden talent valued the spiritual richness of their meals in the early stages because no one could use spiritual crystals if they were under level 20.
"Now I understand…" Davis muttered in a low voice. 'But how did they do that? As far as I know, cultures with a high spiritual concentration can only grow in regions with a high spiritual density…'
...
Davis continued to walk through Dry City as he got to know the place little by little. He did his observation for four days until finally, he had made his decision!
After observing that plants with a high spiritual concentration could grow in this region and conversing with various residents, he discovered the extent to which this city had changed after Minos' arrival. He was stunned, to say the least when he found that this place had been almost completely remodeled in just over a year.
Not only that, but he also learned that the city's spiritual energy was even lower earlier.
And when he heard about it, he even tried to cultivate in another part of the city which was unaffected by the spiritual gathering arrays to compare the difference.
But when he did that, he found that this place lacked spiritual energy more than he had thought of before. The city was only slightly better due to the various arrays that were constantly 'burning' low-grade crystals.
After doing all these observations, Davis finally concluded that Minos could keep the offer that he had previously made. He even believed that Dry City would have an excellent opportunity for an alchemist like him, who didn't want the support of large families.
Shortly after deciding, Davis met with Minos where the young Stuart worked out the last details which included the location of the alchemy store that Davis would run.
As for the resources that Davis would need to produce the spiritual pills, they would be provided by young Elen, at least until the Black Plain started planting some of these medicines.
Although there were several spiritual medicines in the Spatial Kingdom, they could not be used by someone like Davis who was at a low level. Consequently, this man could only start working by only importing these resources from other kingdoms.
After a few days passed, Davis opened his alchemy store and because of the agreement he had made with Minos, he could charge prices far below than normal market for pills sold especially to the people of Dry City.
To give a hint, low-level, medium-level, and high-level grade-1 pills were generally priced in the range of 100, 500, and 1,000 low-grade crystals, respectively.
However, Minos had made a deal in which he and Davis would charge only 30, 150, and 300 low-grade crystals for each pill sold in the Black Plain.
That was an effort to increase the strength of the population of Dry City and of the soldiers of the Black Plain Army. Besides, this action could also attract less talented people to migrate to this region.
That was necessary since people with less talent were best suited for labor in the fields of plantation. After all, it would be a waste to put someone with a high aptitude to simply grow grains...
Minos also did not intend to do this for a long time. Instead, he planned to give subsidies to some alchemists for 20 years.
After some time, the prices of the pills would increase and be closer to the values charged in other regions. However, when that happened, Dry City would already have other factors for attracting and keeping cultivators.
It didn't take long, and soon the masses of Dry City were very excited about the news of an alchemist opening a store in the city!
The rumor also said that the prices charged for the pills would be so low that even the farmers would be able to afford to buy these spiritual pills!