anwhile, elsewhere in the War Beast Sanctuary.
Nick was ntally preparing himself for a lengthy argunt, should things co down to that.
At the mont, he was leaning on the wooden counter with a heavy look on his face, as the last few tis he had visited this place had all turned out to be sour mories for him.
He watched so staff carry away the Lamboda Beast’s corpse to be examined, while he waited eagerly for the results to co back to him.
’This fucking butchery better not try and rip off again!’ Nick scowled internally, thinking back to the previous tis he had visited with the Mundane Beast corpses, and the corpse of the Awakened White Ox.
All of those tis, he had been scamd, given significantly less than the market price of those beasts.
He was determined not to fall for the sa sches as before, though, now that he was dealing with the corpse of a Mutant Beast!
He could stomach losing a couple thousand from an Awakened Beast’s corpse, but the amount of money involved when dealing with Mutant Beasts was too much to even consider taking the unfavourable offer!
"Ssss... This little runt actually managed to bring in a Mutant Beast this ti... Just what has he been up to outside of the Sanctuary!?"
Naturally, murmurs from other custors who weren’t there to witness Nick returning through the gates dragging the Lamboda Beast, began to spread like wildfire.
The Lamboda Beast was just too recognisable amongst the other veteran Altered, so the attention ca naturally.
However, after waiting a few more minutes for the good news to reach his ears, Nick’s face turned into a grimace as he noticed the sa clerk from his deal with the Awakened White Ox walking towards him, with the sa snarky smile he rembered from last ti.
’Not this fucker again. What was his na...? Marco? This fucker better not try and pull another stunt like last ti!’
"It’s a Mutant class, so that’s confird." Marco started speaking when he reached within earshot of Nick, not caring whether Nick wanted to keep their conversation private or not, as he spoke loud enough for everyone else in the beast processing centre to hear him loud and clear.
Nick nodded in agreent, as that was blatantly obvious to all the Veterans already there.
Marco was just trying to inform those who weren’t aware it was a Mutant Beast, which would bring even more attention to Nick!
Marco gave him that sa smug grin when he realised Nick saw through his words.
"We’ve assessed the materials, and... well, it’s not in the best condition, Kid. Bit of bruising on the right shoulder, so damage to the bones. And its throat is completely destroyed. We’ll give you 25,000 for the lot."
Nick’s expression turned stone cold.
"Twenty five thousand?" he repeated slowly, confirming if he’d heard correctly, even though he obviously had.
Marco nodded.
"Yeah. Market’s been a little dry lately, especially for these Lamboda Beasts. Not much demand for them. You should be happy anyone’s willing to take it at all."
Nick leaned further over the counter towards Marco, with his tone quickly becoming sharp and steely.
"Try again."
Marco blinked.
"Excuse ?"
"I’ll give you one last chance to ’recalculate’ the price." Nick responded, voice quickly turning threatening.
"BAHAHAH! Do you really think you scare , kid?" Marco mocked as he laughed his heart out.
However his expression returned to normal in no ti, even looking deadpan as he delivered his next line:
"25,000, that’s already the highest we can go. Its the final price."
Nick so wanted to summon his spear right then and pierce Marco’s annoying face, but reeled his fury in.
However, he didn’t stop his anger from showing externally.
His hand clenched into a tight fist on the counter, with the wood beneath it bending ever so slightly under the pressure.
He took a deep breath, then levelled Marco with a stare sharp enough to cut steel.
"You’re lying." Nick nearly growled he was so angry. "There was no bruising on the shoulder, the bones were completely untouched, and the throat — while pierced — was clean. It wasn’t anywhere near the sort of ’totally destroyed’ that you described it to be. Its in a near perfect state."
Marco rolled his eyes, clearly unfazed.
"Look, kid. You dragged it across half the Beast Domain to get here. You probably just didn’t notice the damage while you were exhausting yourself to return here."
’Wrong answer.’
Nick pushed off from the counter, with his voice rising enough to grab the attention of everyone else nearby who hadn’t been entirely focused on their ensuing argunt.
"Then, let’s do this the right way. Return my beast’s corpse. I’ll examine it right here in the open, for everyone to see."
Marco’s smugness never left him, but he did seem to waver for just a brief mont.
A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his brow, as this was completely outside of his expectations when dealing with clients like Nick.
All other tis, they could do nothing but cave in to their intimidation and scams, since they were too weak to do anything about them.
But was Nick that weak little ’Waste’ he used to be when he first entered the Beast Domain?
Only he knew of his achievents and strength, so everyone else still assud so.
Marco glanced toward the back, where the exam rooms were located. Then back to Nick.
"That’s not how—"
"Now." Nick snapped.
"No transaction has been made between you and yet, so you have no rights or claims to keep holding the corpse if I’ve requested you to return it. So, return it. Right fucking now!" Nick barked.
His shouts even started to attract people from outside, wanting to see what all the commotion was about.
When everyone there spent their monotonous days in and out hunting beasts, the rare monts like this were drama occurred was sothing they all enjoyed to witness.
However, as the victim of all this, Nick couldn’t be anymore enraged.
Or so he thought...
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