After they finished the bandits, the carriage continued its way to the Coastal City.
The whole journey took one more day. When they reached the city, Tyler opened the curtains and stared out.
The entire coastal city was surrounded by massive walls, creating a big fortress. Even the entire mining section was inside the walls, making it safe.
But he noticed on its south was the sea where fishmen resided, on its north was the road they took, where bandits could be found, on its east was a hill, while west was full of forest.
The hill was big enough to give cover to the city from the different races that lived on the eastern side.
This forest was directly connected to Star Forest, which was also the biggest forest in the Red Hog Country.
Because of its large size, many parts of the country were connected to the forest from one direction.
As his carriage stopped at the gate, Alfred walked out, and soon, the carriage continued moving inside.
"What are you thinking, Young Master?"
Erena curiously asked.
Tyler waved his hand and said.
"Just some ideas!"
He knew the conditions of the miners. Every miner was a Mana Condensation Realm cultivator.
They would work for forty years and get a retirement. During their retirement, they wouldn't get a pension.
But earnings from mining were very high.
On average, a miner could earn anywhere from two spirit stones to five, based on his work and position.
Some other workers, like security guards, builders, and farmers, didn't even earn spirit stones. They could earn around fifty gold coins a day.
The value of gold wasn't high in this world. Even after tens of thousands of years, humanity had mined less than twenty percent of the world's gold reserve.
Although the total gold hadn't been calculated, their clan had over five thousand metric tons of gold.
And, gold coins weren't one hundred percent made out of gold.
Because of this, the cost of making a gold coin was several times lower than the actual cost of the gold of the same size.
Compared to gold coins, Spirit Stones were considered a better form of currency. And one spirit stone equaled one hundred gold coins.
In other words, miners could earn anywhere from two hundred gold coins a day to five hundred.
This was a huge income for the miner's family. So, even though they didn't receive a pension, they could still support their family.
This was done since mining wasn't an easy job, and they didn't want the miners to cause any trouble in the mines.
After all, every single miner was a supernatural being.
But Tyler realized he could take this situation to increase the income of the city. Before even coming here, he had one simple plan.
Turn this mining area into his permanent base.
To do that, he had to improve this city after all; it was surrounded by dangers.
But what could he do? He couldn't just force those retired miners to work again. He had to find a solution.
Originally, he didn't have any. After all, he wasn't very familiar with cultivators.
But during their ride, Tyler learned a lot about Mana Guns and Missiles. This piqued his interest, and he asked Alfred about another weapon, 'Grenades'.
It turned out grenades weren't produced in large quantities in this country. There was one major problem with the grenade.
Mana Grenade worked by infusing mana into the core of a ball and releasing it through impact.
But this created one big problem. Unlike Missiles, grenades were small, so they couldn't fit arrays to increase the potency of the mana.
Without that method, the amount of mana required to cause destruction would increase tremendously.
And unlike missiles, grenades would only work in a short area, making them incredibly useless.
A cultivator had to input eighty percent of his mana to make the grenade workable.
Then, if he couldn't take down all of his enemies with a single grenade, he would face his enemies with only twenty of his mana.
It was a huge risk that nobody was willing to take. Tyler understood why nobody tried to optimize those arrays or even improve the grenade.
This was a world of cultivators. If they could solve it using their own powers, they wouldn't try to build something new.
Even those Mana Guns and Missiles were created due to their immense usefulness.
Mana Guns were more prominent weapons for Mana Condensation Realm cultivators, while Missiles were weapons of mass destruction.
But Grenade had no use.
Not in a traditional sense. Because when Tyler was thinking about the city, he realized he had an actual blueprint for a business.
Grenades weren't supposed to be used for normal battles. They were used in an emergency or for a specific purpose.
So, he could start a production of grenades, and he could sell them.
There was one problem. He had to input the mana into the grenade beforehand. And, he couldn't waste his time.
Nobody would waste their time on something like this.
Nobody except for those retired people.
This was rather easy to understand. He needed to improve the economy of his city while also increasing his resources.
So, asking those people to spend their mana on a daily basis and earn a spirit stone every day would not only make them useful but also help them earn some money.
And, he could use that mana to create grenades and sell them to the market. He had to solve one problem.
He had to make a different trigger for the grenade so it wouldn't explode when they were inputting mana.
This was also another reason why grenades weren't used by cultivators.
He also had another idea. He wanted to make an array that could absorb and store the mana from those people at any time.
Let workers make the outer layer of the grenade, infuse the mana into it, then sell it on the market.
This whole process would require a proper industry chain. If possible, he wanted to make the process of infusing mana instantaneous and completed by an array.
Of course, this was just an idea for now. He had many things to figure out. Unless he made that array, he wouldn't start this business.
This was just a side plan for now.
While he was thinking about it, the carriage stopped in front of a large mansion. Tyler and Erena walked out.
The mansion was white and had three floors. There was a large pool on the side and a properly trimmed garden.
Nearly five maids and five butlers were waiting for him just outside the mansion.
Standing in front of the mansion was a middle-aged man who was talking to Alfred.
When he saw Tyler, he immediately rushed in front of him and bowed his head.
"Welcome to the Coastal City, Young Master!"
"Mr. Garvin! I have heard about you. You have been keeping this city stable for a long time. Nice to meet you!"
Tyler smiled as he raised his hand.
Garvin also broke out a smile and shook his hand.
"You flatter me, Young Master! I never thought you would choose this city."
"Well, considering my talent, it is already good that the Elders agree to give me this city. And, I am flattering you."
"You have done a good job. If you would like to stay and work under me, I will happily accept you."
Tyler said, without hiding any intentions to keep this man. After all, he wasn't going to waste most of his time handling the city's affairs.
Since this man had done everything well, he could just dump official business on this man and focus on cultivation.
Garvin couldn't help but feel a bit hesitant.
After all, there had been sightings of the fishmen. He didn't want to put his family at risk.
He had B-Grade Technique, but since he came from the branch family, he had a chance to supervise and manage this city.
He had done quite a good job. He also got married, reached the peak of the Treasured Body Realm, and even had two children.
After nearly staying here for twenty years, he wanted to leave, especially since his son and daughter had also awakened the B-Grade technique.
Now that he had a chance to leave, he certainly didn't want to stay and face those fishmen.
Tyler understood his hesitation and turned his eyes to Alfred.
"Don't worry, Garvin! With Alfred here, fishmen are not a problem."
At this moment, Alfred released a small portion of his aura, so vast and powerful that Garvin started sweating immediately.
'This power! Soul Sublimation Realm! Absolutely Soul Sublimation Realm! But why? Why would the family send a Soul Sublimation Realm cultivator as his bodyguard?'
'Isn't his talent low? Shouldn't they send a powerhouse like him to protect more talented children?'
Garvin's heartbeat soared. He didn't want to stay here, but he also didn't want to offend a Soul Sublimation Realm cultivator.
"It seems like you really want to leave. You can just say so!"