Author Note: I just realised, I haven’t posted any images of Raiden so far. So here you go, guys:

Raiden, Intercity Finals

"Welcome to the Egg Compendium of Alliance. You are Raiden Ashford, right? We were just waiting for you."

"Waiting for me?" Raiden asked, confused.

"Yes, you are the last one left. The compendium only opens very rarely after all. One of these times is the intercity competition. Another time is when university admissions are finalised. But enough about that, please come with me." The woman who was sitting behind the counter smiled and led Raiden inside the castle.

Raiden and Woolie looked around everywhere, as they marvelled at the place. The castle gave off the feeling of richness and antiquity, with guards wearing professional uniforms every few hundred meters.

"Ahem, so miss..."

"Call me Tina." The woman answered with a professional smile as she kept leading them inside.

"Miss Tina, how do these eggs get chosen? Can I get to pick any one of them all? Where do you source them from??" Raiden asked curiously.

The woman chuckled as she answered his question. "Source, huh? Well, we have multiple sources. Our main major source is the wilderness. All the Battle Masters who go into the wilderness end up finding eggs of different kinds of Terra Beasts. They can choose to take it with them or sell it to the Alliance for Alliance points, or AP for short. That’s our main source here. Other than that, there are some major families who sell us the eggs they cultivate themselves, as well as other businesses and the ones we cultivate ourselves. Only the best of the best end up here at Alliance."

Tina answered naturally as they walked even deeper into the castle, before being stopped at a giant wooden door, where two men were standing as guards.

"Halt, please provide the permission slip." One of the guards stepped forward and talked to the woman, who naturally produced a permission out of her hands.

Beep.

"Alright, you are free to go. Please take the left to enter A2." The man scanned the document with a scanner before handing it back to her, who nodded and walked inside with Raiden and Woolie, who really wanted to run free here, but this human kept holding onto him tightly, not letting him run free.

"Miss Tina, you were telling us about AP. What is that?" Raiden asked, hearing this term for the first time.

"I guess you’ve never been to wilderness after becoming the Battle Master, huh. Well, the Alliance Points are the official currency that is used inside the Alliance to exchange rare stuff. Things that can’t be found easily or bought for credits, you can buy them with Alliance Points. This includes, but is not limited to, eggs, rare foods, power-up items, and even one-on-one guidance from the president of Alliance Head, who is the only Nuclear-level Battle Master in the world."

Tina answered with a smile as she led them deeper in, moving towards the A2 level. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Guidance from Alliance Head?" Raiden gulped. Even someone like him, who didn’t care about the world, knew who they were. The strongest person in humanity and the absolute ceiling of power in this world.

"Yes, you can get him to dance to your tunes, granted, as long as you have sufficient Alliance Points." Tina laughed softly as she answered.

"Anyways, you can learn that stuff later. We have arrived."

They came to a stop in front of a gigantic wooden door, the biggest Raiden as ever seen in his life. The door was at least a hundred meters tall and wide, looking like a giant looming over them.

"Woolie~" ( •͈૦•͈ )

As if detecting the people in front of it, the door hummed to life with a mechanical whirl, slowly lifting up in the air, until it stopped after 10 meters.

"Let’s go, your future partner is waiting inside." Tina led the way inside, with Raiden and curious Woolie following behind her.

As soon as they entered, the door lowered itself back down, trapping them inside.

But Raiden’s focus wasn’t on that. It was on eggs that filled up his vision. Everywhere he looked, there were rows upon rows of Terra Beast eggs, stacked up for hundreds of meters, ceiling high.

There were at least a million Terra Beasts’ eggs here, a scale so grand that he had never seen it before.

"You want me to choose between these?? Are you kidding me? Even the most decisive person will get choice paralysis just by looking at this shit." Raiden spoke indecorously.

"Haha, of course not. It’s impossible to pick one like this. You have two options to choose from. One is picking using the database, another one is blind picks." Tina answered with a laugh as she pulled out a foldable tablet from her pocket. She opened something from it before handing it to Raiden, while picking another one herself.

"Here, you can browse by category and types of Terra Beast. All of them are at least children of Diamond Tier Terrans, with a few Mythical Tier ones mixed in."

Raiden opened the tablet before he started browsing curiously.

Woolie, who also wanted to take a look, climbed on top of his head, peering curiously onto the tablet downwards:

Kun Fish (Evolves into Yin-Yang Kun Peng)

Garuda (Evolves into Golden Winged Garuda)

Sea Serpent (Evolves into Leviathan)

Cub Grizzly (Evolves into Golden Claw Terror Grizzly)

Two-Headed Snake (Evolves into a Hydra)

Looking at hundreds of Terran Beasts, Raiden’s eyes started spinning. He even saw a Phoenix and Dragon in the catalogue, the rarest Terra Beasts of the lot.

He was sure that if he sold any of these outside, they would fetch at least a few hundred million credits, enough to pay back his loan. But alas, it was not allowed. Anyone who is found doing so will be blacklisted and thrown in jail. So he gave up on that thought.

He even noticed a lot of filters in the list, which you can use to find out Terra Beasts by habitat, elements, powers, size, etc. But none for parents. He put it aside for a moment before asking another question of Tina.

"This is the first option. What about the Blind Picks??"

"Blind picks are exactly what it sounds like, you pick the egg blindly from a number of options in front of you," Tina answered patiently.

"Isn’t that the worst option?? What if I get a bad pick?" Raiden asked.

"There is a difference between picking from the database and blind picking. If you use the computer to pick a specific one, you have no way of knowing whether the Terran comes from a Diamond Terra Beast or a Mythical one. While all the eggs in Blind Picks are Mythical Cubs guaranteed!!" Tina spoke confidently.

"What’s the difference between the two? Isn’t it better to pick a good species that is born from a Platinum Tier Terra than a bad one from a Mythical one??"

"Of course, there is a difference!!" Tina yelled, as if baffled, how can someone ask such a question.

"If a Terra Beast is born from a Diamond Tier Terran, they are guaranteed to reach Platinum Tier in their natural growth cycle as long as nothing goes wrong, with a chance of moving even higher depending on the Battle Master."

"But any Terra Beast born to a Mythical Tier is guaranteed to reach Diamond Tier. So even if you are a shitty and nonsense kind of Battle Master, you can just kick back and relax and let your Terra Beast pull you up to Diamond while lying down." Tina answered, pausing to drink some water.

"So what will you pick?" She questioned Raiden.

Raiden fell into a dilemma. On one hand, he could pick any kind of Terra Beast he wanted. Something is known for being peaceful and healing, and not another battle junkie like Woolie. On the other hand, he loved the idea of kicking back and letting the Terra Beast rise him to the top.

"Can I touch the eggs of Terra Beasts in Blind Pick??" Raiden questioned.

"Of course you can."

"I will choose the Blind Picks then." This sealed the deal for Raiden. He can use his system cheat code to detect the race and potential of eggs, using it to pick the best one.

A knowing smile appeared on Tina’s face as she looked at him.

"Alright, please follow me." She started walking inside once again, followed by Raiden and Woolie as they moved deeper into the room.

The further in Raiden walked, the fewer the eggs on the shelves became, until they reached the deepest section of the room, where only around 30 Eggs were present, each one of them looking extraordinary.

Each and every single egg had a distinct pattern and shine to it, along with a different atmosphere.

For example, the leftmost egg had a dark scale-like pattern to it, with two volcano rings going around it. Just by going near it, you could feel the heat radiating from it, confirming it as a fire-type Terran.

"Alright, this is it. Go on, take your pick. Don’t be shy now."

Raiden took a deep breath before stepping forward and putting his hand on top of the egg in front of him.

{Ding!! Detecting a new Terra Beast!!}

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