Nick's brain short circuited. What was he supposed to think? He was just some lowly runt at the bottom of the food chain in his Sanctuary, and the wider Federation as a whole.
It was already known that Mundane Sabertooth Wolves had speed reaching that which Awakened beasts showcased.
But this…
This was just too absurd!
'This is seriously broken! I've essentially received an Awakened Beast Armament with the power of a Mutant Beast Armament!'
The only downside appeared to be that the stamina cost for using this ability seemed rather steep.
In fact, he received only 1 second of use for every Awakened Soul Seed he had…
Meaning he could only access this incredible speed for 79 seconds at most…
The pros still massively outweighed the cons, though.
Nick practically had money bags for eyes at this point.
The prices of Beast Armaments, depending on type, rank and so on varied massively.
Mundane Beast Armaments typically went for anywhere between 5000 - 15,000 credits.
Awakened Beast Armaments from anywhere between 25,000 - 100,000 credits.
Mutant, however, was… in an entirely different realm.
They could go as low as 500,000 and as high as millions of credits!
This was way out of Nick's price range, and he would never in a million years even think about buying such a thing.
But, what he had on his hands here was perhaps even more valuable!
Mutant Beast Armaments were so expensive as the cost of procuring them was so high — since hiring Altered powerful enough to potentially risk their lives hunting dozens of Mutant beasts came at a steep price. Not to mention the fact that Mutant beasts were much rarer to come across, and only lived much farther in the wilderness than people were generally willing to go.
But if Nick was right about the Awakened Sabertooth Wolf not being some sort of anomaly, and there being more out there in Vaylan forest, then such a problem wouldn't exist for him!
Vaylan forest was only a couple dozen kilometres away from War Beast Sanctuary, and the risk of procuring the Beast Armament was nothing compared to hunting actual Mutant beasts!
Besides how hard and life threatening the fight had been for Nick, the reality was that hunting the Awakened Sabertooth Wolf had been much easier for him than his fight against the Awakened White Ox had been.
Yes, he was stronger and had better equipment in his fight with the Sabertooth Wolf, but with how weak its defences were, Even if he used an ordinary dagger, he could slice through the beast's hide with just a bit more effort.
And now, his chances were even higher thanks to his new Beast Armament.
The fact of the matter was, the price people would be willing to pay for this Awakened Beast Armament could rival or net even more than the lower valued Mutant Beast Armaments could.
Mutant Beast Armaments weren't something he had ever even considered achievable for him.
And they still weren't, not until he at least maxes out on Awakened Soul Seeds.
But with this new Beast Armament, his chances of escape if he came across an overwhelmingly powerful opponent were exponentially increased.
Of course, he'd still be as helpless as pigs to slaughter if he encountered a Radiant beast, but as long as he didn't come across a speed related Mutant beast, he had decent chances of escape.
However, despite knowing all of this, Nick's face didn't portray the emotions one might expect of someone who was about to be rich.
That was because he knew things wouldn't be that easy.
Right now, he was 90% certain that he was the only person from War Beast Sanctuary who knew that these Awakened Sabertooth Wolves and their incredible Beast Armaments existed. Well, the only person alive, at least…
The question was, however, was he willing to spread the information about these?
He didn't even need to do that, he could just spend a few weeks in Vaylan forest searching and hunting for Awakened Sabertooth Wolves, which he felt relatively confident he could do now.
His speed could match their speed now, so their advantage was nullified.
Sure, he was restricted by time, but 79 seconds was still plenty for him to kill one.
His first fight with the Sabertooth Wolf had barely lasted a few dozen seconds itself.
After just a few weeks of hunting, he could bring in another few Awakened Sabertooth Wolf beast armaments if he was lucky.
But even this plan had its flaw.
Such a thing wouldn't go unnoticed in War Beast Sanctuary, and even his home world, Planet Terminus.
If he suddenly sold off multiple Beast Armaments with power above their rank over a short time span, people would start to get curious and demand to know their source.
Powerful people…
Nick was still a nobody in front of people like Beast Slayer, or the leader of the War Beasts, so he would be helpless in front of them.
Besides, they wouldn't even have to do much interrogation, as one short investigation would lead them find Nick making multiple trips to Vaylan forest. Not to mention the name of the Beast Armament would be a dead giveaway to anyone who knew War Beast Sanctuary.
The plan just wasn't feasible.
Right now, Nick's biggest advantage would be his speed.
Would he just be willing to give away information about his biggest advantage like that?
'Hell no!'
Which led him down a singular path forwards, unfortunately.
Nick looked over at the unmoving corpse of the Sabertooth Wolf and sighed with regret and a pained look.
He would have to leave it there for some beasts to scavenge overnight.
He couldn't bring the corpse back with him to the Sanctuary, as the moment he handed it over to the butchers to handle, his secret would be revealed.
This was the opposite of what he wanted.
'This sucks! That corpse is worth at least 20,000 credits…'
Losing all that potential profit hurt him, deeply, more than any pain or verbal abuse from those in War Beast Sanctuary ever could…
But it had to be done.
Those people didn't deserve to know about such a gold mine right at their doorstep.
If Nick couldn't take advantage of it, then nobody could!
It was petty, but what did he care?