174 Cerberus

Mr. Quinn made no effort to put on a business smile as he said, "Would you people be interested in a deal?" He kept petting the Fang, who scanned the surroundings. While Mr. Quinn hadn't drawn his bow, nor had he nocked an arrow to it, the group backed away from him and huddled together at the other side of the camp.

Elero was the first to whisper: "I don't know who he is or how he got into the swamp, but he seems like bad news. He has a demon by his side for crying out loud. He even tried to hide its heads from us."

"Well you would have probably attacked him if you saw the heads," Doevm countered. Elero shot a glare his way, but Doevm stood his ground. "Do you think that all demons are bad?"

"Isn't that a given?" Elero rebuked. "Demons kill humans and humans kill demons. I thought you were smart."

"I am," Doevm responded. "You would be too if you opened your eyes."

"I think we should at least hear him out," Thomas interrupted their bickering. "He had a chance to attack us with that wolf…Cerberus…whatever it is. My point is that he had the opportunity to attack us, but he didn't. Maybe we can trust him. He even knows where we are camped now."

"We don't know what kind of deal he is proposing." Doevm whispered.

"If he does anything, we are four while he only has his wolf," Frey whispered. "Although I think the two of them are stronger than they appear. Doevm, what should we do?"

"I can hear all of you," Mr. Quinn called over. He walked back to the center of his boat and pulled out a few pieces of paper, all filled with numbers and letters. "I can guess that none of you flipped that piece of paper over, the one General Marble gave you. Is that correct?"

"Keep your eyes on him," Doevm whispered. He pulled a scroll out of his spatial ring and flipped it to the back, where he found faint, scribbled words. He read them aloud: "Points can be exchanged for items at one of three shops found around the Swamp. Impersonating a shop is instant disqualification. – General Brandon Von Trike." Doevm finished reading it aloud and looked back to Mr. Quinn. "How come it looks so faint?"

Mr. Quinn scratched the back of his head: "General Alexander probably forgot about that part, forcing General Brandon Von Trike to add it in at the last second. You see, General Alexander is not the best at anything other than fighting. He tries though, no matter how much confusion it causes." He took a moment and let out a long sigh. "So, I see you have already collected some points." He pointed at the cooked meat. "As long as you have the majority of the corpse, it is still worth the same amount of points. I'll even throw in a few extra points if I can keep the bones."

"What can we exchange them for?" Thomas asked what the group had been thinking.

Doevm stroked his chin as he read through the menu. "I think we'll exchange for some points now…although I would like a little time to think." He looked at the group and nodded. They all sheathed their weapons.

"Well don't take too long," Mr. Quinn said. "I can only help a group for so long before I have to keep moving."

"Now you're just making stuff up," Elero said as she scanned down the menu. Her eyes widened at the four-digit numbers. "And these prices are absurd! How are we supposed to afford them?"

"No bargaining," Mr. Quinn said, his mood getting worse by the second. "The better the item, the more it costs. If you use them effectively, you get a profit. If not, you fall far, far behind."

"So we have 1000 points," Thomas said as he read down his menu. "meaning we can't afford a lot. I say we should save them for a bigger purchase like…there is an item that can track other groups or beasts. Or there is a map which details where we can find rare creatures."

Frey looked the menu up and down several times before he sighed, took out his book, and flipped through the pages. He put the menu next to a certain page and alternated his gazes between them. All the while he muttered curses under his breath. "Two zeroes make a hundred…Three make a thousand… But why is there a comma after three zeros?"

"Five minutes left." Mr. Quinn looked at the night sky. "Come on people. Other groups are done by now. Monster bait is 100 points. Those were usually a pretty popular option in the past events. Did you get injured? Healing potions are 75. 45 points for towels." Mr. Quinn kept glancing back at Fang. The wolf sat next to the bones, but he didn't even look at them, nor the group members.

"Why do we need a towel?" Frey asked.

"It's not a regular towel," Mr. Quinn responded. "It absorbs all water on a surface faster than a sponge. Surely, you've all been concerned about your equipment rusting. A towel could help."

All heads, except for Doevm's, snapped down to their weapons. A round of curses rang out. "Can we get a towel please?" Thomas asked.

"That leaves us with a little over nine hundred," Doevm said. "I want a few monster baits. A replacement weapon for my crappy spear would be nice when it breaks in the future." He pulled out his spear and displayed its slightly bent shape. Fang immediately sprung forward, growling. Mr. Quinn held out a hand and he sat, whimpering a bit.

"Sorry, he's pretty protective," Mr. Quinn said.

"Noted," Doevm said. "Does anyone else want anything? If not, I want to ask for a few healing potions and a vision potion to look through the fog." The rest of the group shook their heads. "Then I'll ask for three healing potions, the vision potion…and I'll get a light crystal just because I don't want to waste points."

"Got it," Mr. Quinn said. "Please hand over your kills so I can confirm the points." Thomas pulled out the mutated Bullfrog but before he could hand it over, Doevm put a hand in front of him. "What is it?" Mr. Quinn said with the last of his patience. "I assure you; I am not tricking you. This is a shop and you will get what you pay for. Just show the payment and this can be over. I'm tired of waiting for groups when it doesn't even matter…"

Doevm's head perked up. His expression turned from various states until finally landing on a forced smile. He looked over to Fang. "Mr. Quinn. The Cerberus seems awfully on edge, don't you think?" Frey shut his book and put it back into his spatial ring. "But earlier, when the four of us pulled weapons on you, he didn't react at all."

"I should really learn to keep my mouth shut," Mr. Quinn took a few steps back. "Let's hurry this up. You have corpses, right? If you have the majority of the body, they count. I'll only take them after the deal is done of course. You just have to agree, unless you need something else?" He glanced over to Doevm and the rest. "Did you guys have any more corpses to exchange for points?"

Doevm rolled his shoulders back and stretched out his arms and legs. "Well, we did have something more." He turned to Frey. "Didn't we have four more creatures? We found them around here, didn't we?"

Thomas raised an eyebrow but before he could object, Frey nodded: "I think I left them in my spatial ring. Let me just go through my things." Frey reached into his spatial ring and pulled out his helmet. He cursed. "I always leave so much stuff in here that I can't tell which is which. I better not let this get dirty." He said as he put the helmet on his head. Next, he pulled out his greaves and put them on as well.

"And I think I hid something inside a weapon pouch," Doevm said before taking some things out of his spatial ring as well, beginning with his sash of throwing knives. He inspected each slot before sliding the throwing knife back in and wrapping the belt around him. Elero reached down and began disassembling one of her braces. Thomas looked at all of them and cocked his head to the side. He turned back to Mr. Quinn, who simply stood there - suppressing a smile.

"And Mr. Quinn," Doevm said as he attached his dagger belt. "Can you tell me about the groups you encountered today?"

"No sir," Mr. Quinn shrugged. "As an unbiased judge, I cannot interfere in the competition by providing actions or information on any other team, even if points are offered up." His smile got a little wider and he nodded. "You really are everything General Alexander told me about and more."

Thomas looked back at his group members, who were slowly gearing up. Turning back to Mr. Quinn one more time, he noticed that his hand was wrapped tightly around the nape of Fang's neck. Fang let the bone fall from his mouth as he stared into the dark swamp. Its tail stopped wagging.

"That's a shame," Doevm said as he attached his armor. "Because if I couldn't get help from you, I would want to find any method I could to get an advantage out of you. And while you couldn't help me directly, other groups would inevitably go to you. Meaning, if I followed you, other groups would come to me."

Four figures jumped out of the trees around them at the same time that the realization set into Thomas's mind. He fumbled out his spear just before a sword slashed out. While he parried the blow, he was pushed to the ground. His unprotected back scraped against the many jagged white stones. Fang growled but Mr. Quinn pulled him back along with the boat.