Chapter 19: Wait, I’m getting paid?
This brought them back to their original reason for ’asking’ Nick to join their expedition.
Sure, he was to be their bait, but not in the traditional sense.
They had been hunting a beast called a Whiteclaw Snake King for the last few weeks.
King was a Moniker usually given to Radiant Beasts, since they were basically the king of any territory they occupied.
Though not all of them had such a moniker.
...The Federation was weird with their naming senses.
But anyway, even though the War Beasts had been hunting this beast for weeks already, their biggest obstacle wasn’t the beast’s strength or abilities, as one might expect from a Radiant Beast, but the fact that they couldn’t even track it down!
They knew it was present in the area it was discovered in, its just that whenever they showed up to hunt it, it was nowhere to be seen.
The best result they had seen in all these weeks was just finding the Whiteclaw Snake’s shedded skin. This was enough to keep their confidence up in hunting it though.
It had claimed a territory about 20 kilometres away from War Beast Sanctuary, so it was by far the closest Radiant Beast to the Sanctuary.
They had to chance upon it during one of their hunts if they were persistent enough, was what everyone thought.
But the Nick came along with his abysmal luck, and plans changed.
Why rely on their mediocre luck to find the beast in maybe another few weeks, when they could use Nick’s absolutely rock bottom luck to lure it out way earlier?
The way they saw it, if they sent Nick into its territory alone while they followed close enough behind him to not be detected, it should show itself right away.
With Nick’s natural disposition to attract calamity wherever he goes, everyone had high hopes that as the only calamity in the area, he would naturally attract the Whiteclaw Snake King over when he enters.
One could call it a foolproof plan... if they were a fool themselves.
Naturally, Nick shouldered the most risk as the bait at the beginning.
But the War Beasts, and Dido herself, had spent several dozen minutes reassuring him over and over again that after the initial surprise of it appearing, he wouldn’t be in any more danger than if he were just on a normal hunt.
They had confidence in their strength, and were even more confident that they could kill the beast should it appear.
Nick didn’t doubt this claim, as they had already killed several Radiant Beasts in the past, and without bait on those occasions either.
If they didn’t need bait to kill them back then, then what reason other than to just make the beast appear, would they need one this time?
The reason was simple — they didn’t. It just made the job of finding it much, much easier.
The beast itself was relatively well known in the Federation, as they were among the more commonly found Radiant Beasts.
It might be odd to hear ’claw’ and ’snake’ in the same name, but the Beast Domain was just as odd.
The Whiteclaw Snake King was more of an elongated lizard than a snake, since it was basically just a snake with four legs.
As for the Whiteclaw part of its name, this came from the especially long claws at the end of those four legs. Their claws were so sharp that they could cut through the hull of a pretty strong Starship with ease, and they were built to resist space debris while moving at extremely high speeds.
***
"We’re coming up on its territory shortly, so lets get things prepared before we venture any further." Dido spoke up as the expeditionary group arrived near the border of the Snake King’s territory.
They didn’t dare to enter the territory itself, fearing that the moment Nick stepped foot in there, he might attract the beast’s ire before they were able to prepare.
This wouldn’t do anyone any good.
"Okay, so the plan is that you enter its territory, act like a maddened beast taking out its anger on the environment for a bit, and the moment we detect any sign of the beast nearing, we’ll signal you to retreat." Dido spoke.
"After that, everything will be down to us. You can fall back to safety and wait for us to finish the beast off. All you have to do is act as bait, that’s easy enough for you?" Dido asked Nick, though she didn’t seemed to concerned with his answer.
She seemed confident enough that the job would get done whether he found it doable or not.
"No questions, just one thing I have to say." Nick cleared his throat.
"I won’t be doing this for free. This is a Radiant Beast we’re talking about, after all! No matter how confident you are in using your strength and abilities to kill the beast, that doesn’t directly correlate to being able to keep me alive. I expect to be paid, generously, considering I’m the only one here really at risk of dying." Nick laid out his thoughts to everyone present, though Dido was the only one he was really speaking to.
She was the leader, and had the final say with what happened after all.
A few moments of silence and a few scornful glances from Meylin passed before Nick received an answer.
"How much are we talking?" Dido asked simply.
Nick thought for a few moments, internally giddy that she was actually willing to consider this deal.
In actuality, he was just trying his luck here, which had already proven to be useless in the past — he wasn’t expecting them to actually agree to his ’demand.’
Nick would just he happy enough if he could return back to the Federation in one piece, being paid wasn’t even on his mind until just a moment ago.
"A hundred thous-"
"Deal."
Dido cut Nick off with her agreement before he could even finish speaking.
"No, w..wait! M-maybe we’re being a little hasty here! Negotiations should be considered more carefully, don’t you think?!"
Dido ignored him and turned back to face the Whiteclaw Snake King’s territory, a tiny smirk creeping its way on her face when nobody was looking.
’Shit, was my offer too low?? I knew I should have gone higher. I should have said a million credits instead!! Goddammit!’