Dido

Nick stepped through the teleporter in a hurry, not wanting to catch the eyes of Beast Slayer or anyone associated with him.

Now that he knew Beast Slayer was unfortunately also from the same planet as him, there could be others from War Beast Sanctuary who were also from Terminus for all he knew.

This naturally left him feeling rather sick to the stomach, but there was nothing he could do about it for the time being.

'Did my shitty luck finally decide to have a change of heart? Going back to its old ways again…' Nick thought to himself despondently.

Whatever the case, Nick didn't let it distract or discourage him from continuing on with his goal of increasing his strength.

As the familiar sensation of teleporting to the beast domain washed away, Nick found himself once again confronted with the scenery of War Beast sanctuary.

…And its leader, standing right in front of the teleporter, eyeing Nick up and down with a sharp pair of eyes.

Dido was the leader of the War Beasts, who were also the most powerful and dominant force in the sanctuary, boasting a force stronger than even Beast Slayer and his Radiant Slayers.

She stood quite tall for a woman, at 175cm. Luscious, flowing black hair draped down her back in a ponytail; her skin was a brownish-tan colour, resembling the wear and tear she had to endure during her time in the Beast Domain, constantly under the brutal heat of the sun above. Her figure was not one to scoff at, not only were her muscles quite defined, but she had curves in all the right places.

If it weren't for the fact that she was a scarily powerful figure who stood at the top echelon of War Beast sanctuary, she would be bombarded with lust-filled glances from every man in the sanctuary.

Every man except for Nick, that was.

Nick completely ignored the beautiful woman standing barely a few metres away from him, not even bothering to spare her a glance as he walked straight past her towards the main road leading to the exit.

Seeing Dido around the sanctuary was nothing new to him, as he had caught sight of her many times before during the last three weeks there, as she spent most of her time in the Beast Domain either out hunting or busy managing the sanctuary anyway.

It was natural to see her at least once a day for someone like him, who always stayed so close in proximity to the sanctuary itself until very recently.

And frankly, Nick wasn't that concerned with her at all.

He had better things to worry about, like earning more money to take care of his sister.

However, it seems the universe had other plans for him this day.

"Hey, Waste of Space, come back over here. Can't you see the young miss was waiting for you?"

A voice called out to him from behind.

Rather reluctantly, Nick turned around upon hearing his unfortunate nickname being called.

The voice calling out to him came from suspiciously close to Dido, and so he wasn't too keen on finding out what would happen if he disregarded it…

Ignoring his hesitation, he turned around to face the woman who'd called out to him directly.

"Didn't you hear me call you? Come here and greet the young miss, quickly!" The young woman called once again, not hiding the sinister smile spread across her face.

'It's her… I forgot her name. The snake faced lady!'

It was impossible for Nick to remember the name of everyone in the sanctuary, considering there were tens of thousands of people staying there, but he at least recognised this woman's appearance.

Her eyes were slanted, and her tongue was split in the middle thanks to an injury she had endured earlier in her hunting days in the Beast Domain, which is why Nick, and many other people in the sanctuary called her the snake faced lady behind her back.

"Meylin, that's enough." Dido suddenly ended her period of silence to shut the woman up once and for all, though her face remained the same.

'Meylin, so that's her name.' Nick though offhandedly.

"We're missing one head for our expedition, so you can be our replacement. How lucky for you to be able to join the young miss' team on a hunt! You should be grateful for this opportunity, waste!" Meylin continued to throw out word after word, but Nick barely took them in after hearing the first sentence.

"Join you guys?" Nick asked confusedly, directing his gaze toward Dido for confirmation.

Dido sent him a simple nod of approval, showing she was serious about this.

However, Nick still wasn't convinced.

Or, to put it more simply, he just didn't want to join these guys!

In fact, they weren't even asking him; they were practically demanding him!

For one, they waited for him outside the teleporter to corner him right when he arrived, which wasn't exactly a good look considering they were 'asking' him to join them.

But most importantly, he didn't like Meylin's tone with him from the very start!

If you're going to ask someone for a favour, you might as well be polite about it!

"Why me? I'm weak, and I know you've got plenty of skilled fighters willing to tag along on an expedition with you guys. And even if you are somehow down 1 member, which I still highly doubt is true, choosing me just doesn't make sense." Nick asked in vigilance.

The more he thought about this situation, the more suspicious he became.

They weren't trying to lure him somewhere to kidnap him and sell him into slavery, right?

…Right?

No! Why would Dido, the leader of the strongest force in the entire sanctuary, need to stoop so low to earn some measly amount of credits? Nick doubted selling him as a slave would net more profit than simply hunting a few beasts…

"To put it bluntly, we'll be using you as bait." Dido spoke flatly, not even sugarcoating her words.

'Yeah no, I'm out of here.'

Nick made strides back towards the teleporter in hopes of making it back to the Federation.

He wasn't going to stick around while these crazy people tried to get him killed!

But an outstretched arm stopped him from making any further advances.

Nick looked to his left with a sheepish smile, locking eyes with Dido, who had just blocked him from leaving.