CHAPTER 40: LAMBODA BEAST

10 minutes later, Nick left Vexa’s place with a sour look on his face.

Out of the five options, he chose the one that seemed most suitable for him to attempt hunting with his current capabilities.

But the price Vexa asked for the information...

It practically drained Nick’s entire bank account.

In fact, it DID drain his bank account!

All those credits he had earned by working as bait for Dido were gone now, as he was forced to pay the hefty price of 90,000 credits. Though, he was extremely thankful for Vexa’s generosity in the open, as without her 10% discount she’d given him for being a first time customer (though its really in exchange for his personal information) Nick wouldn’t have been able to afford the price.

Instead, he’d have been forced to leave empty handed, and risk going out to try and find and hunt a Mutant Beast himself.

But knowing his previous streak with luck, that was the last thing he’d consider!

Instead of heading back to his apartment though, he instead hopped back on the maglev and hitched a ride back to the same teleporter he had came out of just a few hours prior.

It was midday, so Luna would be at school, leaving no reason for Nick to head back to his apartment when he could be spending his time more wisely by working towards enhancing his strength even further.

’Back to the hunt it is.’

***

A few hours later, in the Beast Domain.

Nick found himself once again in another forest, this time being quite dense and just as humid, leaving him all sticky and sweaty from the heat.

Overgrown vegetation was everywhere, and the sun contributed greatly to that, since the trees in this area were all rather tall and thin, with small canopies, leaving large openings in between for the sunlight to filter through.

Nick took this new environment in with every amount of dissatisfaction he could muster. The environment itself was far from his liking, but it was the area where the territory belonging to the type of Mutant Beast he’d chosen occupied, so he could only suck it up and carry on with his day.

As for the type of beast he’d chosen, after taking a brief glance at the small list he was offered and checking all available details, there was only one obvious choice in the end.

’The Lamboda Beasts.’

Having a rather unique name compared to the rather simple ’Wind Mantis’, ’White Ox’, ’Sabertooth Wolf’, type naming conventions he’d come across before, this beast also had unique properties about it.

Nick chose it because it had the weakest defence of all the available beasts in the area surrounding War Beast Sanctuary — just that they were not that popular among the Altered who knew about it due to their rarity.

Just like their name, they had a rather unique biology. Their entire outer layer of skin was made of wax...

Like candle wax, only much more dense and hardened.

When their skin hardened though, they became some of the toughest opponents to fight — as their defence became one of the hardest in any known Mutant beasts!

But they rarely ever entered such a state. Lamboda beasts preferred the warm, humid environment with plenty of sunlight paired with plenty of cover from the foliage for the very reason that they themselves despised hardening their skin.

The warm, humid air and direct sunlight allowed their wax-like skin to soften and become more malleable, making their lives much more comfortable and affording them a greater range of movement.

This was the exact reason Nick chose them, as in such a state, their skin wasn’t any tougher to pierce than the average Awakened Beast — which Nick was more than powerful enough to pierce, even when taking his Radiant Beast Spear out of the equation!

Of course, as with everything in life, there were some downsides to his choice...

There were never more than 10 of these Lamboda Beasts in their territory, which spanned an extremely large area covering hundreds of kilometres of land, which in itself began over a hundred kilometres to the north of the Sanctuary.

Compared to other Mutant Beast territories, where there could be over 500 of such beasts in the whole territory at peak times, the number of Lamboda beasts was just abysmal.

But Nick wasn’t that bothered about their numbers, as that wasn’t his major concern. After all, so what if there were 500 beasts on offer for him? At the end of the day, he’d only be able to absorb four of their beast cores before they no longer gave him any Soul Seeds.

Of course, the time he’d need to hunt four beasts when there were only 10 available was much longer than if he went to another, much more populated territory, but that wasn’t something Nick was worried about either.

He wasn’t on any time limit of sorts, like those rich elites like Dido and Beast Slayer.

Besides, he’d stay unbothered by other hunters as well.

The Beast Armament given by the Mutant Lamboda Beasts weren’t that desired and useful, which just deterred people from even bothering to venture into their territory even more.

If one was lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it...) to obtain a Beast Armament from a Lamboda Beast, all you’d find was a brand new Mutant rank candle in your possession...

There were absolutely no upsides or downsides to owning such a thing in 99.99% of scenarios, as all it did was provide a little bit of light with its never wilting flame. Since once lit, it would never go out — even through roaring winds or when drenched in water.

Only in situations where there was no light, such as if one was deep underground, or even underwater, since the presence of water didn’t affect whether the flame went out or not, would it be useful.

Which, to be quite frank, as an effect given by a Mutant rank Beast Armament was a complete and utter scam!

Nick wouldn’t have even considered this option if his goal for hunting them wasn’t solely for obtaining their beast cores.