“Did that thing just say eat, then try to correct himself?” one of the members of the group say in a low tone. Geralt simply laughs this mans remark off and shakes his head side to side.

“No, I’m sure they said meet and not eat.”

Geralt tries his best to smile as innocently as possible, to help make up for Nekesh’s ferocious looking body.

“Right… Well Mr. or Mrs. Nekesh, where are we expected to go now?” Another member in the group says with a suspicious tone, not completely buying this situation.

“Well…”

Nekesh tries his best to formulate the most effective plan in killing their play. They could lead them towards where those other humans went, the ones that killed the last group, but that might lead to their own death.

The only place Nekesh knows really is where they fought the dragon woman and old man, but there was a way further down into the cave there.

Nekesh figures if they takes the humans further into the cave, they will start to die on their own and Nekesh and eat them all.

“We go back that way.” Nekesh says as he points in a direction with the cave system.

“We just came from that way!” a woman from within the group of 25 humans yell. Geralt raises his hand to placate the woman.

“We simply met Nekesh on his way to our new home. It was safer to move to Nekesh considering the monsters within the cave system.” Geralt says without even stuttering for a second.

“Ohhhh! So we met up with this creature for guidance and protect. He is kind of like Smeagol from Lord of the Rings!”

Geralt snaps his fingers at this point!

“Exactly! Now you know why I’m not afraid of him!”

“Makes sense! Let’s go Smeagol!”

Having associated Nekesh with a weaker character from a movie, most of the suspicion the humans had against Nekesh is gone. Geralt thinks on the inside about how dumb all of these people are considering Smeagol betrayed Frodo in the end, and Geralt plans to do the same.

Nekesh and Geralt lead the group deeper into the cave.

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Geralt and Nekesh are walking slightly in front of the group at the request of Geralt. Geralt told the group this was for their own safety, but the truth is that Geralt wanted to talk to Nekesh.

“Look, I figured you probably just want to eat us right?” Geralt says with a whisper to Nekesh.

Nekesh is stunned at from the straightfowardness of the human, but nods their head yes in response. Geralt sighs and looks at Nekesh seriously.

“I don’t care if you eat them all to be honest. I’m just here to get as strong as possible. Maybe we could even work out a deal.”

“A deal?” Nekesh asks with an intrigued voice.

“Yes, a deal. I bring people for you to eat, you help me get stronger. How about it?” Geralt asks as he puts out his hand. Nekesh looks at the hand with a confused gaze. Before long he opens his mouth and tries to bit Geralt’s hand off.

Quickly reacting, Geralt pulls his hands back and yells.

“I didn’t mean take my hand. I meant shake my hand!”

The rest of the group are confused by this display, but just chalk it up to a difference in culture between whatever Nekesh is and Geralt.

Nekesh clasps Geralt’s hand and shakes it. The deal has been made, and one of the most terrifying duos within the caves is created.

*****************************************************

Above Ground

****************************************************

Atral looks over at Carl while she shyly shifts her feet around. Carl nearly has a stroke when he looks at the bill Atral accrued while he spent 30 minutes in the bathroom.

“He did you eat a whole pig in 30 minutes!” He yells.

“5 minutes…”

“YOU ATE A WHOLE PIG IN 5 MINUTES?” Carl yells within the restaurant. Atral flinches back at Carl’s yelling and he stops himself, not wanting to hurt the young girl’s feelings.

“It’s okay, just consider it a gift, but I’ll have to teach you how to ration out your food.”

“Alright… So what are we doing now?” Atral asks as they leave the restaurant after Carl paid around $530 worth of food.

“We need to get you a master of some kind, so you can train.”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“I do, she’s a mean woman, but she is kind deep down. She might cuss you out but I’m sure she will teach you everything you need to learn.”

“Don’t worry, I’m used to mean and strict teachers.” Atral says as she puffs out her chest with confidence.

****************************************************

A good distance away, 4 people receive a message. A dragonkin archer, a monkey man monk, a gnome assassin, and a human rogue all look at their systems.

A message was sent by The Archiver.

‘A special event is happening within Nashville! If you make it there within the next week you will receive a decent reward!’

They look towards the middle of the continent of Iakos. They are all within a weeks travel of the capital, and decide it would be best to see what is going on over there.

With that, all of the champions are set to meet within a week.

Surely no one will cause utter chaos…