Raiden looked at the rundown shop in front of him, before looking at all the other dazzling shops surrounding it, before looking at the rundown shop once again.
"Merchant Avenue, 48th Street, Shop No. 123. The address is correct. I am sure Sister Aria won't harm me. No harm in taking a look."
With that, he walked inside the shop, whose sign read "Verdant Mystery Beasts."
Inside, he was greeted with a boisterous atmosphere. There were people everywhere, crowding around and arguing with each other. The scene felt really lively and didn't match how the shop looked from the outside. Perhaps this was the Verdant Hollow style, a contrasting exterior and interior. This shop was like this; the Alliance building was the same.
"Greetings, sir, how may I help you? Are you looking to try your luck at our Mystery Egg Gambling?" A cute attendant approached him, speaking with a smile on her face.
"Mystery Egg Gambling?" He questioned.
"Ah, you must be a first-timer. We sell Terran eggs here, but with a special perk. For a modest fee, you can take part in Mystery Egg Gambling and buy an egg of a mysterious Terra Beast. People in the past have actually won a Mythical Black Dragon Egg from it!!"
Raiden felt speechless. So it was a gambling place. As for the Black Dragon Egg, that was definitely a hoax.
"Hello, umm, no. I'm not here to gamble. I was introduced by someone. I was told to meet someone called Old Man Tobias?" Raiden spoke in a reserved voice.
"Oh, so you are an esteemed guest of Master Tobias. Please follow me." While maintaining a professional smile, she started walking deeper inside the shop.
After a while, they reached the deepest section of the shop, which was separated by a big wall and a door.
Knock, Knock.
"Come in!"
The girl opened the sliding door before walking inside with Raiden, who was struck speechless by the view inside. He thought Old Man Tobias would be a dignified elder.
Instead, he found six elders sitting around a table playing cards against each other, while drinking beer.
One elder, who was wearing a suit, turned around and asked, "What is it?"
"Master Tobias, this gentleman was looking for you. He was introduced by someone."
"Huh? Who are you, brat? Can't you see I am busy with important work? Who introduced you to me?" Tobias asked with an irritated voice, feeling frustrated that his precious game had been interrupted.
Raiden suppressed the rising anger in his chest and proceeded to give him the letter Aria had written.
"Hello, Grandpa. Aria gave this letter to me, Aria Stormwind. She said you will understand what I want after reading it."
The old man took the letter before reading it casually.
Sigh
"That little girl, she doesn't visit me herself, but sends a smelly brat instead. Alright, you are dismissed. As for you, brat, follow me." The old man waved his hand at the girl, who bowed before leaving the room, and started walking without waiting for a reply.
"Hurry back, Tobi, or there won't be any sake left by the time you come back!" One of the old men yelled as Raiden hurried to keep up with Tobi, who just waved his hand at them.
After walking for a minute, they entered a spacious room. Inside, there were rows upon rows, all filled up with eggs of different shapes and sizes. There were at least a thousand eggs, all of them different from each other.
Old Man Tobias didn't pause for a second and kept walking inside before coming to a stop in front of a shelf that held 6 eggs.
"Aria explained your situation to me a little bit. You need money, right? Pick any one egg from here. Depending on how well you raise it, you can earn up to 100k a month or more with its help. Now hurry up."
Raiden felt he was struck with an immense blow. The favour Aria had given to him felt even heavier now. After resolving to pay her back, he started to study all the different eggs.
The first one was purple and black in colour, with a soft shell. The second, on the other hand, had a hard, scale-like texture and was golden in colour.
He started studying all six different eggs, looking for any signs that deemed one better than the others.
On the other hand, Tobias started to feel impatient. "What are you dilly-dallying for? Are you a woman? Hurry up and pick one already!"
Hearing his words, Raiden didn't waste much more time. He put his hand on top of an egg. It had a cloud-like pattern and texture, with violet-colored thunder strikes in it.
"This one, I choose this one."
The old man said nothing, just snapped his fingers before an egg incubator-like device appeared in his hands. He directly picked up the egg before storing it inside and gave it to Raiden.
"Alright, we are done here. Let's go back." The old man started walking back the way they came.
"Umm...how about the payment? Where do I pay?" Raiden asked in a hesitant voice.
Tobias just sneered at his question. "Payment? Can you even afford it? Even the cheapest one costs 50,000 Credits, with the most expensive one costing up to a Million Credits. Can you even afford to pay for it?"
Raiden felt speechless.
"Don't worry about money. I am not lacking this little bit of pocket change. Consider it a favour to my granddaughter's friend. Just ask her to visit her old grandpa as soon as possible. I don't care about smelly her parents' opinions, I just miss her."
Hearing Tobias's words, he understood.
Turns out Aria was this old man's granddaughter. No wonder he gave this egg away for free. She was secretly a wealthy family daughter. She had the potential to be his sugar mommy after all.
They walked back in silence before he reached the wall that separated this section.
"Thank you, Grandfather Tobias. I will not forget this favour. And I will make sure that Aria visits you soon."
Hearing his words, a pleased smile came onto the old man's face for the first time as he started caressing his goatee.
"By the way, I had a question. Can you tell me how much the egg I picked is worth?" Raiden questioned curiously.
Hearing his question, an amused smile came onto the old man's face as he answered in a strange voice.
"You are really lucky, you brat. Out of all the eggs that were worth up to a million credits, you ended up picking the cheapest one!"
Looking at the face of a youngster who was full of despair and unwillingness, Tobias felt even more joyful as he broke into laughter and shut the door on his face.