The Good Teacher

Guy did not anticipate scoring an employee this early. Though it came as a surprise to him, it was a welcome one. To top it off, the employee brought with him a generous investment package. Unfortunately, Guy was unsure as to what Garlin expected with this engagement. What was Guy supposed to teach Furion?

'There's still time to hash out those details,' Guy shrugged. He had other things to worry about at the moment.

The 100000 gold that Garlin planned to invest was a bounteous cushion for Guy. Although Karmin's contribution would have been sufficient and Guy could have covered the rest with his own funds, it was always a welcome addition to having more capital when starting a venture.

Generally, one must use the capital invested to its fullest potential. To that end, it was often discouraged to hold back large portions of the invested capital and leave it stagnant. This did not mean that one had to fling money willy-nilly with no proper plan, but rather to investigate and research further so that the unused capital could find some function and could lead to greater returns down the line. This was what Guy learned from his Elder Sister.

According to her, the greatest fear of any new entrepreneur was ending up destitute - or back to where they started from. It is always a rush to suddenly see money streaming into their bank accounts after a fruitful run at schmoozing investors. Especially when one could never fathom seeing so many zeroes following a significant figure. Thus, it hurt equally, if not more, to see those digits diminishing with each purchase, be it of natural resources, human resources or machinery.

This was where she would repeat the worn-out phrase, "You need to spend money to make money."

Taking it at face value, one could easily scoff and dismiss the blasé and downright prodigal nature of that sentence. However, taking a step back and deconstructing it yields a crucial insight. While the invested capital remains in the bank account, it does nothing. It doesn't grow, nor does it yield anything beneficial. Sure, it is safer there as there is no chance of losing it. But by taking some time to evaluate the business opportunities and scope, one could use this stagnant capital to plant 'seeds' that could yield 'fruits' over a longer period, which in turn could exceed the capital at the time of investment. Better yet, these blooming 'plants' could proliferate and multiply! Agreed that there is always a chance of things falling apart and failing, but starting a business is anything but risk-free. As an entrepreneur, one needs to weigh these risks carefully and make smart and calculated moves. The ability to differentiate and evaluate the nature of these risks is a valuable skill that one is either born with or needs to cultivate through repeated trials and failures.

Guy was anything but a risk-taker, which was why till now he'd only approached people he knew or had some connection with. Was he scared of failure, of course! Who wasn't?

However, now he was about to step into the new ground filled with failures and dismissals galore.

As of this point, Guy had prepared most of the requirements to start a Sect. He'd secured a location, he'd decided on a name, he formulated a strategy for the Sect to sustain itself, heck he even had the backing of a mage powerhouse for safety. What remained was something of utmost importance to the Sect. In fact, without it, the Sect would not have a physical identity.

The only component left was the Sect's physical infrastructure - the buildings, setting, sanitation, and so on. A Sect could exist in name, encompassing the people that made it up. However, without a place to call their own and identify with, it would all be fleeting. Besides that, these infrastructures were necessary to organise the Sect.

Guy had conferred with Twilight Village's Head, and they were all for hosting the Sect there. Even the villagers were welcoming the opportunity, primarily because having a sect in close vicinity was often beneficial for any settlement. For one, the settlement would become exempt from paying taxes to the governing body, as the Sect would now have to assume responsibility for the settlement. Although, Twilight Village didn't really pay taxes to the Duchy, which was evidenced by the decrepit nature of the transportation logistics leading to this place. So in general, this was a benefit in the Village's favour. The second reason why the villagers were for it was that when it came time to recruit new blood into the fold, sects would often pick from applicants nearby. This meant that the locals had greater opportunities. Furthermore, While sect members weren't allowed to leave their sects without cause, being in close proximity to family was always a boon.

While the village was accommodating, Guy did not want his Sect's members to live in thatched and rickety housing, attend classes in unkempt fields or hills, wash in the spring and relieve themselves in a poorly maintained communal outhouse. He wanted to cultivate a sense of pride and belonging amongst the members. They had to feel that they were part of something greater and that they could rely on the Sect in times of need. While this relationship could be developed over time, often times a strong first impression can be used to skip that process.

This was where the new influx of capital would come into use. Guy had already performed an anticipatory land survey and drafted a rough sketch of what he wanted the Sect to look like. His initial plan was to build the essentials such as living accommodations, a lecture building, a place for practising magic, and a public bath. He even plotted out the available land on the mountainside where he wanted these buildings to be placed after clearing the forestry in that area. Guy wasn't planning to introduce the Outer, Inner and Core sect divisions and wanted to utilise experience and knowledge as the factors that generated the hierarchy, thus the theme he went for was approachable and accessible. There were no gates that blocked passage between locations, nor did he plan to implement them in the future.

As the Sect generated revenue, Guy planned to build additional buildings that offered more functions. Such as a Library so that Guy could offload all the books in his RoK for the Sect members to read. Just like hoarding money, there was no benefit in keeping knowledge locked away. Guy also wanted to create an Idea Forge Building - something like a freewheeling maker-space where members could pursue whatever caught their fancy. He would populate that building with tools and resources useful for rapid prototyping and getting what was in their minds into reality. Guy wanted to establish multiple specialised Research Buildings, where members could pursue their interests in any field of study. They could investigate the wonders of nature in all its forms, biology, physics, chemistry and so on, whatever caught their fancy.

Guy had many such ideas in his mind but was lacking in the resources to implement them. But with this new influx of cash, Guy could extend from the necessities and requisition for some of the more specialised buildings like that Library and the Idea Forge.

What followed that day, and lasted for half a week, were a series of quotation inquiries from a myriad of different construction companies established in Radiant City. Before contracting a company to realise his Sect, Guy had to first find one that could cater to his needs at a realistic price. Even if he was quite literally swimming in money, Guy was an ardent believer in frugality. Rather, he believed that it was unnecessary to spend more than what was required - something hard to find amongst children of the rich. It was a personality built through experience roaming around the more impoverished parts of the world

Needless to say, finding a suitable contractor was an onerous task, which Guy despised. The first few he visited happened to only cater to the high-end market segment. They didn't even let him get past the welcoming room. The ones that followed were more receptive, but started to flounder and inflate their ask as he started to put forth his ideas and requirements. To an extent, Guy understood their apprehension. After all, some unknown bloke from an unknown village asking to build a Sect with so many requests ought to raise some red flags.

There were just too many expenditures the contractors had to endure such as transporting the resources to the required location, storing those resources, hiring and transporting builders, and so on. Even with Guy's exhaustive promises and more than thorough contracts, those old souls with years of experience in their back pockets were quick to dismiss him either upfront or with an unmanageable bill.

It was the new and upcoming builders that offered manageable quotes. Guy wanted to use the same builder for all of the buildings to preserve a common signature. Thankfully one upcoming company, Blue's Constructions (a rather simple name given the owner was last-named Blue), took on the project along with all of Guy's requests. Guy then contracted two other companies, Dream Builders (whose owner was last-named Dream), and Brave Infrastructures (whose owner's wife was first-named Brave) to build a proper road and logistics for sanitation and necessities respectively. Of course, the latter two were of greater importance, since having a serviceable road would augment the ease with which the building resources could be transported back and forth.

During this time, Guy also managed to lock down the investments from Karmin and Garlin, amounting to a generous 250000 gold coins from them both, with Guy adding his own whopping 250000 gold coins to balance their investment so that he could secure the 51% of his company's majority shares. Though public trading and limited liability companies didn't exist in this world, it never hurt to be careful and cover all bases. After all, business isn't built on trust, but on benefits.

Overall, within a hectic month, Guy managed to set the development of his Sect into motion. Hopefully, within the coming three months, it would all be finished just in time for them to attend the Solar Sect Alliance Conference in the Empire's capital to officially establish the True World Sect.