Chapter 694: She’s a Menance! [Bonus - ]

Chapter 694: She’s a Menance! [Bonus Chapter]

Inside, the chamber stretched for nearly eighty paces.

Long waist-high pedestals of carved black granite stood in neat, orderly rows, each fitted with custom velvet-lined bronze nests and glowing stabilization arrays designed to regulate humidity, heat, and elemental currents.

Standing near the third row of pedestals were two young women in their early twenties.

Both shared their mother’s pale complexion and sharp jawline, their long blue hair tied up into neat practical working braids.

They held soft polishing cloths and brass calipers, carefully dusting the surfaces of several massive ridged shells.

Hearing the heavy door unseal, both girls looked up, their faces brightening into identical cheerful grins.

"Mother!" the elder of the two greeted, setting her polishing cloth down on a bronze tray. "You’re down early! We’re almost finished checking the stabilization arrays for the fourth clutch... The heat runes on the fire-drake nests are holding steady at forty-two degrees."

The younger daughter tilted her head, noticing the uncharacteristic smile tugging at Selvane’s lips.

"Why are you looking so pleased with yourself? Did the guild finally sign the void-caravan leases?"

"Better," Selvane chuckled, stepping into the vault and waving her daughters toward the back wall. "Your grandfather finally got in touch."

Both girls froze, their eyes widening in sudden, delightful shock.

"Grandpa Musvi?! He’s actually alive?! Did he send a courier?!"

"Something like that," Selvane smirked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a copy of the folded letter Kara had agreed to carry. "He sent a very distinguished customer to our doorstep... but for now, Girls, stand aside for a moment and clear the aisle. We have private buyers browsing the reserves."

The two daughters immediately stepped back, bowing respectfully toward Kara and Rika, though their curious eyes lingered on Kara’s sharp tailored suit and the quiet intense beauty of the dark-haired girl beside her.

Selvane turned around, sweeping her arms wide to encompass the entire chamber with a proud, theatrical flourish that would have made her father weep with pride.

"Welcome, Lady White, to the private nurseries of the Silver Consortium! What you see here represents three centuries of meticulous procurement across twelve hunting zones... As you know, high-tier wild monsters mate with ferocious enthusiasm, but securing their unhatched progeny without cracking the core takes an art that few guilds can match... For a Beast Tamer who relies on soul-weaving, there is no finer cradle in the Sovereign Realm."

Selvane’s gaze drifted toward Rika, catching sight of the tiny golden head poking out from the green traveling cloak.

"Like that adorable little creature on your summon’s shoulder, for instance," Selvane said with an indulgent friendly smile. "A very handsome sparrow-kin! The plumage carries a lovely fire-elemental luster, quite hot for its small stature, I must say! I can tell she handles fire-attuned beasts exceptionally well... So why don’t we look at something complementary? A Flame-Crested Wyvern, perhaps? Or an Obsidian Hellhound egg from the southern volcanic trenches?"

Under the green cloak, something very small and very ancient puffed itself up to twice its size.

’Sparrow?’

...It took the insult personally.

Selvane turned away, walking toward the far left aisle to gesture at a cluster of glowing crimson shells resting on cushioned bronze plates.

Kara stood by the entrance, her violet eyes blinking once in quiet stunned disbelief.

’...A sparrow-kin?’ Silas thought, his brain stalling out for a fraction of a second. ’Did she just call a Phoenix... a handsome sparrow-kin?!’

He looked at Selvane’s casual unbothered back as she inspected a temperature gauge.

’Does this woman honestly have no idea what a Primordial Phoenix looks like?’

Then, a moment of objective clarity settled in.

’Actually... that makes complete sense,’ Silas reasoned, rubbing his chin beneath Kara’s disguise. ’Primordial Phoenixes haven’t been seen in the lower or sovereign realms since the First Era I think... Their line was considered conceptually extinct for thousands of years. Even when I was studying in the grand archives of Valoria Academy back in the human world, surrounded by centuries of beast encyclopedias and bestiaries, there wasn’t a single detailed anatomical illustration of a newborn phoenix... Nobody living in this era has ever laid eyes on one.’

Furthermore, Rika had been doing a masterful job of suppressing the bird’s divine pressure.

Ever since they had stepped into Central City, the Beast Goddess had kept her own recovering aura wrapped tightly around the fledgling, dampening its boundless celestial heat to look like nothing more than a faint harmless ember.

If the bird’s full primordial power were unleashed right now, the defensive wards in this room would shatter like cheap glass, and every single egg in this vault would be bowing its shell in terror.

Kara cleared her throat, stepping forward to catch up with Selvane.

"What other elemental assortments do you currently have in stock?" Kara asked smoothly, her eyes scanning the long rows of pedestals. "My companion’s soul is vast and remarkably versatile. We aren’t limiting ourselves to simple fire beasts. In fact... we require quite a substantial quantity."

"Oh?" Selvane turned, her eyes gleaming with mercantile greed. "A bulk purchase? Well now, you’re speaking my language! We have earth-core behemoths, sea-serpents, storm-feathered rocs, shadow-stalkers—"

While Selvane was eagerly listing off the lineages, Kara leaned down slightly.

Her black bangs brushed against Rika’s ear as she whispered, her voice dropping into an imperceptible telepathic murmur.

"Rika. Don’t look at the tags or the price tiers... Use your to sense the internal bloodline power, the purity of the embryonic mana, and the potential of their spiritual foundations... Pick the ones with the highest ceilings and pick as many as your instincts scream for. I’ll handle the rest."

Selvane, who was mid-sentence about a Frost-Tusked Boar egg, caught the whispered exchange out of the corner of her eye.

Her gray eyes narrowed slightly with a faint prickle of unease brushing against her instincts.

’Why do I suddenly feel...’ Selvane thought, watching the subtle, dangerous smirk on Kara’s face. ’...like this transaction is about to cause me an ungodly amount of stress?’

Rika straightened her posture.

Her vivid emerald eyes ignited with a sharp brilliant golden spark as her childish demeanor was instantly replaced by a terrifying new feeling... The Goddess Of Beasts was... motivated.

She looked up at Selvane, offering a bright deceptive smile.

"Madame Selvane," Rika chirped politely, her voice sweet as honey. "May I inspect the pedestals directly? A Beast Tamer must feel the breath of the shell to know if the soul aligns with her pathways."

Selvane waved a relaxed dismissive hand.

"Of course, little one! Take your time. Browse as much as you like. Though I must remind you, the auction begins in five hours, so try to keep your selection to three or four at most... Replacing pre-auction lots on short notice is a massive headache for my inventory clerks."

"Understood!" Rika beamed.

She trotted down the central aisle, her boots clicking softly against the basalt floor.

She stopped before a wide circular granite pedestal located near the center of the hall.

Resting upon a bed of insulated silver moss was an egg roughly the size of a watermelon.

The shell was a deep crackling azure, covered in crystalline scales that emitted static sparks of lightning mana into the air.

Rika read the brass plaque bolted to the pedestal.

Selvane stepped up beside her, nodding approvingly.

"Ah, an exceptional eye! That is an unhatched Thunder Drakeling... Captured from the high cliffs of the Storm-Rift Archipelago. When it reaches maturity, its wingspan exceeds forty paces, and its breath can liquefy iron gates. Physiologically, it is the closest surviving biological cousin to true dragons available in the modern trade registers. As you likely know, most dragons are extinct, even the crimson lineages, with the exception of the one in your own territory, Lady White. Everything else in the modern registers is a cousin at best... This is as close as most people will ever get."

Rika stared at the azure shell.

Her emerald eyes sparkled like stars and her heart fluttering with childish joy as she recognized the volatile draconic marrow slumbering beneath the scales.

’A thunder drake...!’ Rika squealed internally. ’It’s not a true dragon, but the dormant bloodline has nine distinct draconic nodes! Master’s power can easily ignite them!’

Rika turned her head toward Selvane, shaking her head with an excited, breathless grin.

"I want this one!" Rika declared.

"A splendid choice," Selvane smiled, pulling a small silver marking stylus from her pocket to write the lot number down. "I’ll have my daughters crate it for transit—"

SWOOSH!

Before Selvane could touch the parchment, Rika plunged both of her small hands into the silver moss as she hoisted the massive eighty-pound azure drakeling egg completely off the pedestal with the effortless physical strength of a divine being, and with a joyful full-bodied heave, she threw the egg straight up into the air.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Selvane shrieked, her jaw dropping in horror as the priceless fragile shell soared toward the vaulted ceiling.

The two daughters gasped, diving forward with outstretched hands...

FLASH!

Kara moved like a phantom.

Her tailored silhouette blurred across the basalt floor, slipping through the air with effortless grace as she leaped six feet off the ground, her one slender hand catching the heavy azure egg mid-arc and pinning it against her ribs with the delicate weightless precision of a master juggler.

The moment the shell touched her palm, a subtle spatial ripple rolled across her Lord Inventory.

SHING!

The Thunder Drakeling egg vanished into thin air.

Selvane froze mid-shriek with her eyes bulging.

"Wait... where did it—"

She didn’t get to finish the thought as Rika was already running.

The petite Beast Goddess moved like a gremlin through the pristine aisles, her green cloak fluttering behind her as her sharp golden-flecked eyes locked onto the highest-potential shells in the room.

She reached a pedestal on the left containing a jet-black shadowy egg wrapped in mist which was an unhatched Deep Abyss Shadow Stalker from it’s nametag.

YANK! TOSS!

The seventy-pound black egg flew through the air.

"Rika, another!" Kara laughed, her black bangs whipping as she blurred across the aisle, catching the black shell with one hand and sending it straight into her Lord Inventory.

SHING!

Rika darted to the right, skidding across the polished floor toward a shimmering, pearlescent shell pulsing with raw tidal energy, a juvenile Leviathan Trench-Crawler.

LIFT! HEAVE! SHING!

Kara caught it mid-fall, slipping it into the void.

"STOP! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" Selvane yelled, her spectacles askew, her hands clutching her head as her daughters screamed in panic. "THOSE ARE RESERVED LOTS! THOSE ARE WORTH MILLIONS OF SPIRIT CREDITS!"

Rika didn’t stop.

She vaulted over a granite barrier, her hands snatching a massive molten-gold egg pulsing with pure earth magma, a Magma-Core Behemoth, and hurled it over her shoulder.

CATCH! SHING!

Then an emerald-green egg pulsing with spatial wind, a Void-Winged Roc.

TOSS! CATCH! SHING!

Then a radiant, violet shell etched with ancient psionic runes, an Astral Mind-Flayer Chimera.

HEAVE! CATCH! SHING!

Within the span of twenty seconds, twelve of the most expensive, rarest highest-tier beast eggs in the entire nursery had been plucked from their pedestals like ripe apples, hurled into the air, and swallowed into the boundless void of Kara White’s Lord Inventory.

Rika slid to a halt before the final pedestal at the far end of the vault as resting in the center was an ancient, petrified-looking shell of dark obsidian, covered in strange spiral carvings that hummed with a terrifying gravity.

Rika hoisted the massive boulder-like egg with both arms, spinning around, and hurled it straight toward Kara’s chest.

FWHUMP!

Kara caught the heavy obsidian shell against her shoulder, hugging it against her chest with her one arm and an easy effortless chuckle.

SHING!

The twelfth egg vanished into the Lord Inventory.

Kara landed lightly on her polished leather boots in the center of the devastated aisle.

She turned around, brushing a stray lock of black hair from her forehead, and offered Selvane a dazzling and totally unapologetic smile.

"Well, Madame Selvane," Kara purred smoothly, adjusting the cuffs of her midnight-blue suit, "that concludes our private selection... I must apologize for the rushed pace, but my companion and I are operating under a remarkably tight schedule today."

Selvane stood frozen three paces away.

Her jaw hung so low it nearly touched her collarbones.

Her eyes were completely glazed over with her hands clutching handfuls of her own electric-blue hair as she stared at the empty, barren pedestals lining her prized nursery.

"A-And... the payment...?" Selvane choked out, her voice cracking with hysterical disbelief. "The... the nearly a billion Spirit credits...?"

Kara’s smile widened, brilliant and predatory.

"As for the bill," Kara said with an airy flick of her wrist, "the World Council will pay... Send the ledger to the Directorate’s Emergency Contingency Fund, and note that Lady Kara White authorized the requisition as partial compensation for North Khemet. They won’t object at all..."

She said it the way other people mentioned the weather and before Selvane could even draw enough breath to scream...