"Sir, your breakfast!"
Rose placed a tray on the table. There was a cup of tea, some bread, an omelette, and some bacon.
"Thanks, Rose!"
Tyler smiled and placed the file to the side. While eating his food, he took out the pineapple-shaped purple fruit and placed it on the table.
"Take this!"
Rose's eyes widened in shock. She immediately noticed what it was. Tyler had given her this fruit five months ago.
Thanks to that fruit, she was able to become a hunter, awakening Blood Manipulation.
"Sir, I have already consumed a Natural Fruit before." She trembled as she replied.
"But that's not going to be enough to help you reach Second Rank. To enter Second Rank, your ability must have three skills."
"Currently, you have already fulfilled that requirement, but you lack the necessary condensation of Natural Energy in your Ability Crystal."
"Take it and reach the Second Rank."
At this moment, Rose hesitated and said.
"But sir, aren't you also close to reaching Fourth Rank?"
Tyler felt helpless, but he nevertheless explained his situation to her.
"From Rank One to Three, a person needs to create a total of nine skills. But to reach the fourth rank, all of those skills need to be evolved."
"Skills are divided into five classes: Common Skill, Heroic Skill, Epic Skill, Legendary Skill, and Ultimate Skill."
"Right, we both possess Common Skills. To reach Fourth Rank, I need to combine nine of my Common Skills within my Ability Crystal and produce a Heroic Skill."
"Then, I would need to create eighteen more Skills and create two more Heroic Skills to reach Fourth Rank."
"Right now, my Ability Crystal is full of Natural Energy, so you assume I am ready to reach the next rank, but that is only the preparation to merge my nine skills."
"And, don't forget, I have two abilities that mean I need to go through this process twice to reach the Fourth Rank."
Hearing that, Rose was stunned.
"I never thought it would be so difficult to reach Fourth Rank. And, doesn't this mean having more abilities is bad for people?"
Tyler rubbed his head and replied.
"If it was really that good, why wouldn't people try to awaken multiple abilities? After all, you just need a Natural Fruit and a strong desire."
"Most of the time, you only see people with one ability. Because they don't have the time and resources to upgrade their secondary ability."
Rose finally took the fruit in her hand and said.
"Thank you so much, Sir!"
"Rose, you are the only one working for me. You are the only one I can trust. So, don't express your gratitude with words."
Tyler gave her a serious look and spoke.
In this entire mansion, there were only two people. He hadn't hired any other maids.
Not because he couldn't afford their services.
But he couldn't bring himself to trust them. Rose was one of the very few girls who stayed with Tyler to protect him a year ago.
She wasn't even a hunter, just a daughter of an ordinary maid.
But her courage and loyalty made Tyler, who was new to this world, safe.
Rose nodded and left the office.
After she left, Tyler finished his breakfast and started working on those files.
'Hmm! We have managed to earn six thousand gold coins this year through taxes. That being said, gold might not be useful soon enough.'
'But now I understand why those people, including my parents, didn't want to stay within a country.'
Taxes were too high.
One gold coin was enough to buy a hundred bread.
Hundred bread was enough to feed a hundred people for a meal.
An average income and property tax of a person were based on their income. So, the rich people would have to pay more than the poor people.
That's what rich people believed and left the protection of a country.
It wasn't true. Poor people also had to pay thirty percent of their income in income tax and twenty percent in property taxes.
That was inside most of the countries. In his city, the income and property taxes were halved.
That's why he was only able to produce six thousand gold coins.
'Then again, most of them have a very low income of ten gold coins a month. Only a few people have an income of fifty gold coins a month.'
'And, three hunters are the only ones with the income of a hundred gold coins a month.'
With six thousand gold coins, he could do a lot of things for this city. Most importantly, he could hire more hunters and go on an expedition for Natural Fruit.
After all, just leaving the city didn't mean he would stumble on a Natural Fruit. He had to venture into the forest of the east.
But this was risky. Any Rank Four Monster, and he would be done for.
More importantly, with six thousand gold coins, he could only hire a Rank Four Hunter and a Rank Two.
Rank One costs five hundred gold coins.
Rank Two costs one thousand gold coins.
Rank Three costs two thousand gold coins.
Rank Four costs five thousand gold coins.
Hunting was an occupation. They would leave the safe cities to venture into the dangerous world of monsters and spirits.
The outbreak that would normally take the lives of thousands of people was common inside the forest.
After some thought, he rejected the idea.
'No, I need to uplift the lives of people in my city. Even if I do want to venture into the forest, I will go with my own people.'
'It is much better than spending money on hunters. For now, I should focus those gold coins on developing the factories for wool, clothes, and sheep farming.'
'We are buying clothes from Azure Country, but the transportation cost has led to a huge spike in the price of the clothes.'
'In the previous winter, I had to spend almost five thousand gold coins on clothes alone.'
'That price would come down to one thousand if it were produced here. Seriously, hiring a hunter for transportation costs five times more.'
When he was planning for the future, the doors of his office opened violently, and a middle-aged man barged in.
His forehead was covered with sweat, and his breathing was rapid.
Tyler recognized this person. He was the chief security guard of the city. He was also the head of the Carter Family.
"City Lord, something crazy just happened.....I…just….heard….."
Tyler stood up and walked up to him. He pulled the man to a chair in front of his desk and said.
"First, take some rest, John! Then, we will talk about it."
John took heavy breaths as he rested on the chair. But after a while, he violently stood up and shouted.
"City Lord, our economy has crashed."
Tyler raised his eyebrows and said.
"What are you talking about? We still have a lot of reserves in the treasury."
"No, not just us, my Lord! Everyone, every country, every city, everyone's economy has crashed."
"A new currency called Soul Bill has appeared, and people are scrambling to transfer all of their gold to buy Soul Bills."
John screamed at the top of his lungs.
Tyler didn't react. Instead, he contemplated for a moment and asked.
"Is it a scam or have there been any results?"
John reacted. He almost forgot that Tyler was aware of this. It's just that this thing blew so quickly that he forgot that Tyler knew about it.
"No, no, it's not a scam. I had sent my trusted men to gather information about Soul Bills, and they have sent me the complete structure of Soul Bills."
"Oh no, I forgot to bring that here. My Lord, please wait for me! I will bring it here immediately."
Tyler simply nodded his head, and John ran out of the office.
After he left, Tyler placed his elbows on the table, putting his chin on the back of his hands as he thought.
'I never thought that idea was gonna be successful so soon. Now, the entire market capital is under the thumb of a hunter.'
'Originally, they were supposed to be hired personnel. But with this change, they can control the economy of a country with ease.'
'It was just an idea, a spark that I led six months ago. In just six months, it has already turned into a wildfire.'
'Rank Eight Hunter 'Diva'. It's crazy to think I met someone so powerful and survived.'
Even till this moment, Tyler was afraid of that man's aura. It was so overwhelming that he didn't find a single way to retreat.
If that man wasn't a good person, he would've died that day.
After all, many people were eyeing his wealth. But that encounter also taught him a lot of things.
Especially the power system of this world.
Including the abilities awakened from Natural Fruit, there were several methods to store those powers within certain symbols called runes.
And, these runes were forged together to create a Formation. He also learned an efficient way to improve his rank.