A day soon passed by, and Nick had surprisingly gotten quite lucky in his hunt.
He'd sought out to find at least 1 Awakened Sabertooth Wolf before calling it a day and returning back to the Sanctuary, but whether through luck, or just his natural disposition to attract danger, he'd managed to find 3 instead!
Nick suspected that it was the latter reason he found them, as all three of them chanced upon him first and tried stalking him before pouncing at him…
Just that he wouldn't fall for the same trick this time, dodging their surprise attacks with ease thanks to his Beast Augmentation boosting his speed.
Well… that was only useful in dodging their attacks though; the real deal breaker that allowed Nick to take down the Awakened Sabertooth Wolves rather easily was his new Beast Weapon.
Living up to its Radiant rank, all it took was one swift strike to each of the Sabertooth Wolves' necks to kill them instantly.
There wasn't even so much as a scuff on Nick's clothes by the time the battles ended, and they rarely even lasted longer than a few seconds.
The results were as follows:
[Awakened Beast Sabertooth Wolf killed.]
[No Beast Armament of the Awakened Sabertooth Wolf acquired.]
[Consume the beast core to gain up to 50 Soul Seeds.]
…
[Awakened Beast Sabertooth Wolf killed.]
[No Beast Armament of the Awakened Sabertooth Wolf acquired.]
[Consume the beast core to gain up to 50 Soul Seeds.]
…
[Awakened Beast Sabertooth Wolf killed.]
[No Beast Armament of the Awakened Sabertooth Wolf acquired.]
[Consume the beast core to gain up to 50 Soul Seeds.]
It seemed his lucky streak with Beast Armaments had run out, not gaining another from his three recent kills. But Nick wasn't too fussed with that. He already had his own, and didn't really need another.
They would just sit and rot in his status until some point in the future where either somebody else found out about them, or he revealed the information on them himself.
Although there was no limit to the number of Beast Armaments one could hold in their status, he just wasn't willing to do that as he wouldn't even be able to sell them in the short term.
But, on the bright side, he did gain three new beast cores! That was the reason he'd even set out to hunt them in the first place, so he wasn't bothered by the lack of Beast Armaments at all.
As for his gains from the Beast Cores…
[Awakened Sabertooth Wolf Beast Core consumed. 25 Awakened Soul Seeds gained.]
The first one was quite disappointing, only getting half of the maximum amount one could get.
[Awakened Sabertooth Wolf Beast Core consumed. 39 Awakened Soul Seeds gained.]
The second was much better, leaving him more satisfied with that kill.
As for the last…
[Awakened Sabertooth Wolf Beast Core consumed. 2 Awakened Soul Seeds gained.]
He didn't even want to think about the pitiful number he'd gained from that Beast Core.
It was a complete waste of an opportunity — since he could only hunt four of the same type and rank of beast before the gains from any subsequent beast cores would just be abysmal.
Meaning that in total, he now had a total of 212 Soul Seeds in his Soul Star, bringing his Awakened Soul Seeds up to 145.
His gains would have been much higher if his luck wasn't so shit, but he couldn't do anything other than to suck it up and move on.
***
On his way back to the War Beast Sanctuary, Nick swung his spear casually, getting used to its weight and the feeling of holding it.
But he quickly spotted something interesting in the distance.
'Beast Slayer…'
He was quite a ways off from the Sanctuary still, so he was interested to see just that Beast Slayer and his group of Radiant Slayers were doing nearby, and looking so serious at that.
It wasn't just Beast Slayer and his gang of lackeys though, some other unknown Altered were tagging along with him as well, although their faces clearly portrayed that their participation might not have been so willing…
In the past, if Nick saw Beast Slayer and so many of his gang outside of the Sanctuary, he would had ran and hidden wherever he could just to not be noticed by them.
But now that he had some strength to his name, things were different.
'Beast Slayer mobilising so many of his gang and heading outside of the Sanctuary can only mean one thing — he's out to hunt a Radiant Beast!'
Nick felt his greed kick in when the word 'Radiant' popped to mind.
His memory of his cooperation with Dido and the War Beast gang popped to mind, and his incredible luck of obtaining a Radiant Beast Armament through his accidental kill steal.
But what if… what if the next time, his kill steal wouldn't be an accident?
And who better a target than Beast Slayer himself.
A cruel smile crept itself onto Nick's face when he imagined how furious Beast Slayer would be if he found out his kill was stolen from him.
'Looks like I won't be heading back to the Federation for at least another few days. Oh well, plans change all the time!'
Nick quietly followed behind them, doing his utmost to make sure that his tracks were covered and he was far enough away to not be spotted.
He'd already deduced that those likely unwilling participants were in the same, or similar situation that Nick fell into with the War Beasts, being bait to lure out a Radiant Beast.
But knowing the difference in leadership between the two gangs… Nick wasn't so sure those poor fellows at the front of the Radiant Slayer gang were going to return back to the Sanctuary alive…
Nick felt some pity for them, but he was no self righteous hero. He wasn't going to jump out at the last minute to save them just because he felt some degree of pity for them.