After Nick returned to the Beast Domain, he felt strangely refreshed.
He was all healed now after his encounter with a Radiant Whiteclaw Snake King, which he still couldn't believe he had survived. And he had sorted his situation with Luna out, freeing up much more time for himself to hunt in the Beast Domain.
Luna might be feeling sad about it right now, but she would be thankful to have made this choice in the future, when it really mattered.
But now that he was back in the War Beast Sanctuary, he was just too excited to try out his new Radiant Beast Armament weapon.
He was curious to find out how it would fare in a battle, especially against a beast.
But he was also a little nervous to find out what type of weapon it was, since he didn't even dare to summon it openly yet. Catching the eyes of someone who recognised it to be a Radiant rank Beast Armament was the last thing he wanted to happen.
…Especially since it was one he earned through a kill steal, one stolen from Dido, of all people.
This was something he'd take to the grave.
With his prowess, he was confident in facing Awakened beasts now, especially after finding out that he could outrun a Radiant beast, if he used sufficient tactics.
With his speed, he should theoretically be able to outrun most Mutant beasts, since the Sabertooth wolf was a speed focused beast, so it had higher speed than usual Mutant beasts.
Which was insane, when considering it was only an Awakened beast itself…
'That reminds me, how's my White Ox dagger doing?' Nick thought to himself, remembering that he had used it to jab at the Whiteclaw Snake King's insides however many times…
Just thinking that experience gave him quivers.
He summoned the dagger, and…
[Beast Armament of the Awakened Beast White Ox has been destroyed.]
'The fuck!?'
Nick checked the string of his data internally with urgency, and was distraught when he saw the Beast Armament was missing from his list of Beast Armaments as well…
Now, he was back down to two again.
'God fucking dammit! It must be because I used it to try and stab a Radiant Beast of all things! And so many fucking times at that! No wonder this shitty dagger broke.'
Inwardly, he knew that it was his fault, but that didn't stop his frustration from boiling over.
That was an Awakened Beast Armament! It was worth at least a good 25,000 credits, minimum. Maybe even all the way up to 100,000! That was as much as he'd earned for nearly losing his life to a Radiant Beast!
When thinking about how it was worth as much as his life, losing it stung even more.
But there was one silver lining.
He still had another weapon type Beast Armament, and Radiant rank at that.
Realistically, the dagger would have been shelved pretty quickly after he had acquired this Radiant rank Beast Armament.
He just didn't get why the Beast Domain had to be a dick about it and made him think it was still good! It could have at least informed him before summoning it that it was destroyed… rather than waiting till he tried summoning it again.
But now he knew that he could not only overexert his own body, but also his Beast Armaments too.
He'd be careful not to make the same mistake in the future, unless he was in a situation where it was either that or his death again.
He soon left the safety War Beast Sanctuary provided and made his way deeper into the Sabertooth Wolf territory in the Vaylan forest.
He was in search of more Awakened Sabertooth Wolves to kill. Not that he needed more of their Beast Armaments, though that would be nice to have when he eventually did decide to reveal them and sell them in the future.
Instead, he was there simply to fill his Soul Star up with more Awakened Soul Seeds, and with his Speed augmentation type Beast Armament, he didn't have to worry about their speed.
And considering that was their only strong suit, as their other qualities were weak even for Awakened beasts, they would be easy targets to kill.
Especially now that he had a Radiant Beast Weapon in his arsenal.
And now that he was far enough away from the War Beast Sanctuary that nobody would notice him, he decided it was finally time to summon it and see what type of weapon it is.
He watched with impatience as it formed into a spear, landing softly in his hand.
'Oh man… if Dido knew just what I had stolen from her… I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to kill me herself!'
He wished he could say he felt guilty for taking what was rightfully hers… but he didn't!
Fuck that! He put his life on the line for this Beast Armament!
Much like his previous Awakened White Ox dagger, this spear was pristine white.
'Do I just have a natural attraction for white coloured beasts?' Nick wondered, before continuing to study the spear.
This time, instead of being carved from ivory, it looked like it was straight up just a miniature version of the Whiteclaw Snake King that he had earned it from — just that instead of a head at the tip, a blade shaped like beast's head sat. The whole thing looked like it was covered in scales, and Nick was sure that it was probably made from the same material as the real Whiteclaw Snake King's scales.
He wanted to run his finger along it to test out how sharp it was, but felt like his whole finger might just be chopped off if he dared to try.
A Radiant Beast Weapon couldn't be underestimated.
Only when he had power nearing a Radiant Beast himself could he even entertain the thought of testing its power out on his own body.
But that day was far in the future — if ever.
He'd need to fill his Soul Core up to the max with Radiant Soul Seeds if he wanted to achieve that.
The only thing that set the new spear apart from the Whiteclaw Snake King itself was that it was missing the two signature arm appendages where it earned its Whiteclaw moniker from.
Overall, Nick was very satisfied with his new weapon.