CHAPTER 47: HOT SHIT

"Lucky?" he echoed, thinking his thoughts aloud.

"You think dragging a Mutant Beast across the Beast Domain, across hundreds of kilometres and strolling in through the front gate, not just with the corpse still intact, but with not a single sign of injury either, can be explained by luck?"

Krug’s grin froze on his face.

"I-I just mean..."

Beast Slayer’s glare shut him up.

In actuality, he could see where Krug’s reasoning came from — after all, Nick being completely unscathed and uninjured would make anyone think he couldn’t have possibly obtained that Mutant Beast corpse through his own effort.

’Something about this situation doesn’t add up...’ Beast Slayer thought.

’There’s no way that waste could have done something only veterans and talented people could do, hunting a Mutant Beast alone — unless he received external help!’

He felt like he was coming closer and closer to the real answer for this unexpected situation.

’Perhaps I was right! Maybe that bitch Dido really did accept him into the War Beasts! The reason still evades me, but its already commonly known she forced him to work with her at taking down that Whiteclaw Snake King...’

A small scowl formed on his face, when he remembered how Dido had framed him for that kill steal.

The notion that Nick had already worked with Dido and the War Beasts before strengthened his argument massively.

He didn’t know what could possibly possess Dido to invite him... Unless she had found out something about the kid that he hadn’t.

’Yeah, that would explain it. Lamboda Beasts are relatively weak amongst Mutant Beasts, that Waste could have killed one solo if he was supplied stronger Beast Armaments and training by the War Beasts.’

By now, he’d also recalled the reason he’d even sent Krug to watch the gate in the first place.

"Are you absolutely certain that the beast he was dragging was a Lamboda Beast?" He questioned Krug one more time.

"100% sir! You can go around and ask anyone who was by the entrance at that time! It’s hard not to recognise such a unique beast if you know the Mutant Beasts in the vicinity of our Sanctuary!" Krug replied with absolute confidence.

Beast Slayer sent Krug back out after that; he had heard enough of his report now.

Krug returned back to his duty of watching the gate, while Beast Slayer fell into deep thought.

’Dido and her goons wouldn’t need to pay an information broker to find any Mutant Beast territories in this area, since they already have more information than anybody else about this place. But that kid? It makes perfect sense.’

The pieces of the puzzle gradually started to connect in his mind.

’Are you telling me this Waste of an Altered is from the same planet as me!?’

The conclusion he came to was one he didn’t like the idea of one bit.

Even being associated with Nick in such a minor way was embarrassing for him; he’d rather find out Dido lived on the same planet than someone as weak and useless as Nick!

Even when reading through Krug’s unfinished report of everyone else who had come through the gate with a Mutant Beast corpse, Nick was the one who fit the bill the most.

Everyone else all returned in groups, and they were already well acquainted with the War Beast Sanctuary, as they had all been there for over a year already, compared to Nick barely even being there a month.

They wouldn’t need to pay an information broker to find information about Mutant Beast territories, since they would have already found some on their own after spending so long in the Beast Domain.

Nick was quite literally the perfect suspect.

Beast Slayer’s lips curled into a scowl, teeth grinding together audibly in the silent hall.

"Perfect suspect, my ass." He muttered.

"Perfect problem is more like it."

He pushed himself up from the throne-like chair. The aches of his body still lingered from the fight with the Wind Mantis, but right now, irritation drowned out that pain.

Pacing across the stone floor, he mulled over the growing knot in his gut.

’If that runt really did get his hands on a Mutant Beast, then he can no longer be underestimated. He’s a threat now, with connections to Dido no less...’

Sure, Beast Slayer hated weaklings, and that was a well known fact.

But he hated people who threatened his status even more.

If Nick somehow turned out to not only not be the weakling he had branded him to be, but also a recruit of Dido’s, jumping straight from the bottom to the top of War Beast Sanctuary’s hierarchy, it would be a huge embarrassment for him.

The thought of Dido’s face twisting in laughter and mocking derision when he next saw her sent his anger into a frenzy.

"Was that little fucker hiding his strength this whole time, or did that bitch Dido really invest that heavily in him!?" He roared as he knocked over a few tables and chairs in the spacious hall.

Luckily, the good thing was that he now knew that Nick was also from Terminus, so tracking him down was much easier, as well as finding out his real-world name and information.

Nick might have found himself associated with Dido now, but that connection meant jack shit in the real world, where the distance between the two was probably farther than his chances of ever reaching Radiant Rank!

Nick’s connection to the War Beasts could only help him in the Beast Domain, and only when inside War Beast Sanctuary at that.

But when he was in the real world, or outside the Sanctuary?

Beast Slayer was already formulating all kinds of plans to deal with him.

If Dido wanted to embarrass him by recruiting and strengthening someone he had publicly declared the Sanctuary’s weakest Altered, then he would completely waste her efforts and credits by killing him before they could increase his strength any further!

Nick remained blissfully unaware of the hot shit he had inadvertently found himself falling into, all over a mere misunderstanding...