"Is it that important for you to know? They are just normal tamed beasts. Nothing special." Rudra said while averting his eyes.
"If they are not special then what is the use of having them? I can just get you some powerful rare ones instead. I can't get you King-grade beasts, those are difficult to find and even more difficult to tame. But some powerful General-Grade or some of the weaker Royal-grade ones should not be a problem." Maya said as she started making plans on behalf of Rudra.
Rudra sighed in exasperation as he heard his sister toss out words like General-Grade and Royal-Grade as if they were weeds you can find anywhere you look.
Grades of beasts determined the maximum limit of their stats and the power of their skills. They were divided into ten main grades based on the ranking humanity had decided to observe the threat level they posed.
The grades of the beast from weakest to strongest were Common, Soldier, General, Noble, Royal, King, Emperor, Legendary, Mythical, and Divine. Mythical-Grade beasts were only seen once during the early years of the new age when the portals first appeared. Divine-Grade was a theoretical rank made for any possible beasts that may emerge in the future who are stronger than Mythical-grade.
Currently, according to the rumours, the highest grade possessed by any of the beasts tamed by humanity was Legendary Rank. It was said to be owned by the captain of the strongest beast tamer team in New York base in the United States.
The species of that Legendary-grade beast was Light Angel, one of the extremely rare tamed beasts that were completely humanoid in appearance. It even had enough intelligence to learn the human language, converse with humans, and make its own rational decisions by discussing with its tamer.
It had agreed to be tamed willingly due to its tamer's special taming skill that greatly boosted the power of beasts that had an affinity to light. Such luck made people immensely jealous, especially when most of the world considered it a blessing to even awaken a common taming skill.
Bringing his wandering attention back to the situation at hand, Rudra glared weakly at his dominating sister.
"Maya, I am happy with my tamed beasts, they suit my taming ability very well. You don't need to find such high-grade beasts for me. I am not strong enough to handle them."
"Don't worry about that." Maya said, "I will find good beasts for you and take care of making them obedient. You just have to keep quiet and bond with them."
Having no other choice, Rudra decided to play his final card as a means to stop her, "Maya!! I have awoken as a Card-Type tamer. That is the reason I don't want such high-grade beasts."
His revelation finally shut Maya up, making her look at him in shock and confusion. Rudra nodded and sighed with relief internally. If she started interfering so much with his beast-taming career then she would come to know about the variant nature of his ability. And he was not ready for others to know about it yet.
"Look, I am grateful for your good intentions. I know you want me to be safe. But I know how to take care of myself. I will just find a bunch of common-grade beasts for myself and do some low-level Beast Tamer missions. I am satisfied with that and you don't need to worry about me anymore." Rudra said as he got up and turned around to leave.
However, a hand suddenly rushed forward and grabbed his arm in a vice-grip. Rudra winced and turned back, only to be greeted with a cold and ferocious expression on Maya's face.
"If you are a card-type tamer then all the more reason for you to shut up and listen to me. What gave you the nerve to start countering me huh?" Maya said in a low chilling tone.
Before Rudra could say anything else, Maya dragged Rudra towards her car. She opened the door without saying a word and threw him in like a bag of potatoes.
"Ouch, Maya!! What are you doing?" Rudra asked.
"Taking you to my Team's Training Base. I will test if your Tamed Beasts are any good. If not then you will let them go and bond with the ones I get you."
"If you are sentimental about them then you don't have to let them go. I am sure you don't have a lack of slots as a Card-Type Tamer. Just keep them and also bond with the ones I bring you." Maya said as she drove at high speeds towards their destination.
Rudra tried to protest many times but Maya turned a deaf ear to him. She drove towards the outskirts of Delhi Base and Rudra started recognizing a few landmarks.
"Hey. Isn't this the way to your farmhouse? Are we going there to train?" Rudra asked.
"No. We earned a lot from our recent missions. So the team decided to buy the entire area in a fifty-kilometre radius and we constructed our homes and our Team's Training Base here." Maya said offhandedly.
Rudra sighed as he leaned back in his seat. He was numb at this point. His sister was just beyond his understanding. He just watched his silence as they drove up to a huge campus that looked like one of the training bases for the army previously.
Maya drove to a large gymnasium-like building and stopped her car. She gestured for Rudra to get out before parking her car. She then led him into the building, arriving at a huge training arena.
Rudra watched with wide eyes, taking in every inch of this luxurious training area for Tamed Beasts. There were various specialized tools and courses specifically made for Tamed Beasts. There was even high-grade Tamed Beast food just stocked up casually in the feeding area.
'.. and here, on the other hand, I have to carefully choose what even I could afford to eat the next day.' Rudra thought depressed.
"Rudra, come here." Maya stood before a power-measuring device and gestured, "Summon your beast and have it attack the device."
Rudra glanced at the device and recognized how it worked. The target area of this device was made of powerful defensive material. There was special high-powered shock absorbing and measuring devices inside it that would measure the power of the attacks used by the tamed beasts.
"Fine. As you wish." Rudra said as he prepared to summon his tamed beasts. He thought he would keep it a secret for a while longer, but maybe it was fine if he only revealed it to Maya.
"Summoning: Mutated Worker Ant!!" Mutated Worker Ant card disappeared from the cardholder in his mental space and appeared in his hand. The next moment, it transformed into a wave of energy that manifested into a bus-sized ant with a steely grey carapace, red eyes, rapidly twitching antennae, and a pair of giant mandibles.
"Is that… A Mutated Worker Ant? But… how is it possible for a Mutated Worker Ant to grow so big? Usually, they are the size of a small car at max growth!!! Plus, that carapace seems to have a way higher defence than what should be possible for this grade of the beast!" Maya exclaimed in shock.
"Watch this, Maya," Rudra said as he connected to Mutated Worker Ant through its mental link as his tamed beast. Without even needing to say anything, the Mutated Worker Ant seemed to understand Rudra's thoughts and emotions perfectly.
This synchronization was a result of the Absolute Obedience skill Mutated Worker Ant had obtained. With the presence of this skill, Rudra had control over it that was comparable to a Queen Ant that rules a hive.
Rudra directed the Mutated Worker Ant towards the power measuring device. With a mental command, Mutated Worker Ant rushed towards the device swiftly and used Iron Tackle. Iron Tackle strengthened the power produced by the charging speed of Mutated Worker Ant, resulting in a huge booming sound that echoed in the gymnasium.
The screen that was placed behind the device immediately started showing some statistics. Finally, it displayed the result of the evaluation of the Mutated Worker Ant's attack.
"Soldier-Grade 2.3%?!! A Mutated Worker Ant did a cross-level attack?" Maya exclaimed as she turned toward Rudra with a glare.
"Rudra!! What have you been up to? Did you borrow credits at a large amount from some loan shark to buy some kind of variant Mutated Worker Ant? If you are willing to spend so much on this tamed beast you could have probably got a genuine Soldier-Grade Beast at that price!!"
"You keep lecturing me about money yet don't you have any brains left over while making your own decisions? What were you thinking, dumbass?!!" Maya said while fuming.
"Sister, calm down for a moment and listen to me." Rudra said as he raised his hands in surrender, "There is something I have not told you about my power."
"What do you mean?" Maya asked.
"My beast-taming ability is not as simple as the usual Card-Type taming abilities," Rudra explained.
"First of all, I have my number of taming slots surpassing 300 even though I just awakened. Secondly, I seem to be able to able to make my tamed beasts grow while they are still in their card form."
"Most importantly, I seem to be able to give them passive benefits of the increased growth rate of stats, the reduced energy requirement for grading up, and increased chances for acquiring new and powerful skills."
"It is because of a combination of these that a common Mutated Worker Ant has become like what you see in front of you," Rudra said with a smile.
As Maya digested what Rudra had just told her, a mesmerizing smile spread across her face, "Things just got interesting."