Having secured all the necessary credentials, Rheo took his school bag and stepped out of the house for the contract and licensing registration at the Monster Ranger Association.
The Association deals with many responsibilities like licensing, monster contracts, and also sold many monster pet in the store section.
As he walked out, the ray of the morning sun bathed Rheo with its golden light. A little breeze blew past his face as he hurried to board a cab.
Although there were Monster Breeder Stores where one could contract monsters—after all, one only needs a contract circle and a tamer command to contract monsters.
The tamer command was something taught in the first year of all middle schools, so pretty much everyone knows it.
However, only government-accredited Monster Breeder Stores, Monster Ranger Academies, and Monster Ranger Association are allowed to use contract circles.
The first two don't license people.
They only help them contract monsters. Only Monster Ranger Association can license people as Monster Rangers or Monster Breeders.
These Monster Breeders Stores are managed by Monster Breeders.
Rheo wished to become a certified Monster Breeder too, since they were exposed to monster gene formulas for evolving monsters.
In the Monster Breeder profession, monsters are kept, bred, evolved, and sold to prevent extinction. They are like conservationists of monsters. After all, it was Earth's creatures that became mutated.
If all these animals were killed just because they were monsters, the Earth would be greatly affected in terms of the oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon cycle.
Raizen let out a light screech as they passed by a big and grand Monster Breeder Store. There were many types of monsters on display in the store's glass storefront.
Rheo watched as some monsters looked like they had been fed about ten times this morning. They looked so chubby.
"That's why most monsters in breeder stores are usually overweight."
Rheo noticed a fat flamy-tail crocodile. It had a little red flame dancing at the tip of its tail which never seemed to die no matter how it moved about.
It went ahead and lay sprawlingly on its back after yawning a few times and burping out loudly. Its wide belly extended out as it relaxed on its back.
This action made Raizen let out a low screech that Rheo could barely hear. Perhaps it felt he was a master with no resources, giving it no choice but to hunt for non-nutritional prey while many monsters were enjoying themselves in Monster Breede Stores.
For a monster, non-monster species meat wasn't in any way nutritional—although some provide a meager amount of nutrients.
And nutrients aid growth and evolution, these formed the basic concept of monster gene formulas.
Even though Rheo heard the low screech, he just pretended he didn't hear. He didn't even bother to look at the bird's expression.
Looking at the flamy-tail crocodile, all its body was glowing with red veins, as if molten lava was flowing through them and not blood. And anytime it shifted relaxingly towards the side of the water pool in its big ecosystem-like cage, steam would evolve from the water poolside, spreading over the place like a steaming bathtub and blurring the view of Rheo as he looked through the glass cage.
"These monsters sure have it nice."
Rheo said as he walked faster away, noticing that the time was gone.
Getting a monster breeder license could let anyone access any public monster lair, so Rheo planned to take the license examination. However, most monster breeders that explore monster lair for catching new monster species don't venture alone. They partner with monster rangers—people who have contracted monsters, although only licensed ones are allowed to use their contracted monsters for battle. One could say, why don't they just become monster rangers, since a monster ranger can access public monster lairs, keep, breed, and evolve monsters? The only difference was that a monster ranger wasn't permitted to sell monsters, and they had little exposure to monster gene formulas for evolving monster grades—except for student monster rangers in the country's Ranger Academy.
The monster breeder store was quite grand with at least fifteen floors, however, this one was still a small scale one compared to other monster breeder stores with high ratings, Rheo knew the species of monsters kept in this fifteen-floor building couldn't be more than five hundred, compared to other stores with more than 5000 monster species on display, this was still a small scale monster breeder store.
But before he left the vicinity of this store, Rheo's eyes caught something quite intriguing.
Just at the corner of his eyes was a large poster, Rheo turned to look.
~Monster breeder needed, apply within! First-class monster breeder salary with perks; annual ten Supreme Dollars with evolution of pets to next stage, and daily feeding of pets, lower-class could also apply: annual payment of fifty thousand Earth Coins and daily feeding of pets~
Seeing such a large amount paid to first-class monster breeder workers, Rheo's eyes widened with surprise.
"They seemed generous for a small-scale monster breeder store, even first-class monster breeders could only receive this much as perks from the government"
Rheo didn't know what happened but Raizen was screeching lightly beside him, its eyes locked on the poster as if it saw something interesting.
But then his brain recollected what the poster said about daily feeding.
But for someone to collect ten Supreme Dollars annually wasn't a small money.
During the cataclysm, when humans were starting to reclaim their territories and were managing the small inhabitable portion of the Earth, humans had come to share the same currency, the Earth coin being the currency used in daily transactions and the Supreme Dollar was the elite one which has small circulation, only high ranking officials, monster rangers and breeders could earn such currency.
In today's world, ten thousand Earth coins equaled one Supreme Dollar.
When Rheo's father, he had received about fifty Supreme Dollars from the New Pearl government, however, it wasn't because he had squandered everything that made him broke, instead, he planned to use it for his sister's school fees, the best school of her choice.
That was why he had worked for the money he used for the contract registration.
Rheo heaved a heavy sigh as he gave the poster another long gaze.
He knew he needed this monster ranger license for entry into ranger academy, all the basic requirements of students would be taken care of but he would still need money for evolving Raizen grade, and for monster gene formula materials, so Rheo knew he needed to save money up for resumption.
"Raizen, don't worry, you remembered the news we read last week, about the upcoming guardian monster license examination?"
The thunder falcon jumped from his shoulder and hovered in front of him, its eyes sparkled with anticipation.
"Let's get licensed as monster breeder then take the job"
Rheo threw a punch in celebration, and Raizen did a twist in the air, clearly happy by this latest development, after all, it could get fed with nutritional foods.
After reaching the association, Rheo saw many youngsters with their pets.
He had guessed what happened, these youngsters like him, were aspirants of monster rangers into Monster Ranger Academy, the same year as him, and they have come to obtain their license.
It all makes sense, after all, school resumption is in one month and a few weeks.
The association initially opened contract registration solely for academy aspirants today so it all made sense that there was this much crowd of youngsters.
One skinny boy with silver-rimmed glasses had his monster hooked at the front door of the association.
The entrance was big but it seemed this monster was a mega size, its rear end looked like a boar, and with the sound it was making from the inside, Rheo realized it was a boar-type monster, many bulky youths were pushing it but it seems its body was hooked.
The skinny owner looked worried, his face flushing with embarrassment.
Rheo walked up to him,
"Brother, you have it hard, having this mega monster as a pet"
The boy refused to meet his gaze, he looked down with a clouded expression.
He didn't even bother to join the bulky youngsters who were pushing at the monster's butt, but having this many helping hands, Rheo realized he must be a popular kid.
Just then, Rheo noticed a man walk out from the side of the association building with his Monster pet, it was a fairy-type monster, and according to the man's dress, he seemed to be part of the association official.
"Wow! A fairy-type monster, I have never seen one"
All the young female aspirants erupted.
"I have read it in books, it is a fairyfly"
Even Rheo couldn't help but want to take a view of it, fairy-type monsters were super rare!
This monster had two pairs of wings that let it hover just beside the man's face, the wings were glowing with a golden light and this miniature, feminine, and humanoid monster had a small wand in its little right hand.
The combination of the master and monster pet looked strange, after all, one could only imagine a cute youngster as the tamer of such a delicate monster.
But, it was seriously unfair to call this delicate creature a monster.
However, in the view of humans, when there are creatures with powers that go beyond their understanding, these creatures are nothing but monsters.
What even surprised everyone was that Fairy-type monsters are not only rare but could also use nature magic, a very rare monster aptitude!
"Which dungeon depth has this man reached to find such a monster and even tame it? He isn't in any way cute" Rheo was surprised.