Roy executed eight nekkers and two nekker warriors with unprecedented ease. Letho stayed out of his way and only dealt the fatal blow to the stragglers. He was trying to regain his strength. Once they were done, the duo went into the tunnel to finish the remaining nekkers that had fallen for the paralyzing poison’s effect.

In the end, Letho’s crude trap helped them execute twenty nekkers and five nekker warriors in less than fifteen minutes. Aside from getting drenched in sweat and his hands getting numb, Roy sustained zero wounds.

A nekker warrior would grant him thirty EXP, while a nekker granted him twenty. The massacre netted him a total of five hundred and fifty EXP, and his EXP bar was at 1080/1500. I’ll level up soon at this rate. His face was scarlet, his breath shallow.

Letho gave him a glare and warned, “Don’t take them lightly, boy. Three nekkers will spell the end of you with how you are now.”

I see. I can kill one with my crossbow, one with Fear, but I’ll have to fight the last one in close quarter combat.

“You only managed to kill them easily because of the geographical advantage. This is an exception, not the rule.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Roy nodded in calm solemnity. “I was just thinking about something great.”

“Not to burst your bubble, but stop dreaming now. The guards are all dead. That’s the cue for our entrance.” Letho led the way, and the duo went to the end of the tunnel, leaving the bodies behind.

Eventually, they came to a clearing where all the crisscrossing tunnels congregated, and the tunnel that led deeper into Smiack was across the clearing. The duo searched the bodies and clothing around the place and managed to scavenge a hundred crowns. They kept it in their pockets before bowing to the dead.

“We won’t take your money for nothing. You’ll have a place to rest in peace once we’re done with our business here.” Roy scanned the area and tensed up when he saw what was in the northeast area.

A group of pyramids stood there, but they were made out of skeletons, and the tallest of them measured two feet. Every pyramid had at least thirty skulls, mostly from humans, dwarves, elves, and gnomes. Some came from small animals like mice and lizards. When the duo looked closer, they noticed the murky nekker fluid between the skulls that made the connection between them stronger. They were like some sick, crude, unfinished projects a madman created in an attempt to provoke. The empty holes where the eyes should’ve been spoke of unimaginable terror the owner must have gone through moments before their death.

“The nekkers did this? Why? To brag?” Roy tensed up, his eyes gleaming with horror and anger.

On the other hand, Letho stayed calm. “Humans are just food for nekkers, just like how livestock is to us. Rule of the jungle, boy. Don’t let it get to you. Remember, all you have to do is kill them.”

“You’re right.” Roy took a deep breath and steeled his resolve to finish the mission. They’re just EXP to me too. 

At the same time, Letho said, “Let’s take a look. The nest should be there, and that’s what we came for.”

The nekkers’ nest was built like a weird underground beehive, and their inner side measured three or four feet wide —  enough for a few nekkers to move in and out at the same time. Letho stepped on the nest and brushed against the bouncy, uneven exterior. “Nekkers would usually give some of their prey to the nest, even if it was their brethren. That provides nutrients for the nest so it can give birth to new nekkers.”

“Like the amniotic fluid.” Roy craned his neck to take a look. He’d always had the urge to pry a nekker nest open to take a look inside when he’d toss a bomb into it in the Witcher game, and his wish would be granted at long last.

I wonder what’s inside it. What he saw was a layer of black slurry squirming slowly, as if it were being stirred by an unseen hand. If Roy squinted, he could vaguely see a few pieces of decayed flesh floating on the surface. The stench smelled like rotten salted fish and feces that had been left under the sun for two weeks, but they didn’t react to it, since they were already numb to the smell.

The cavity above the slurry looked like the insides of a living creature. Roy could see veins throbbing rhythmically within the walls, and two nekker fetuses were sticking to it, connected by the umbilical cords on their bellies. The nekkers were greedily absorbing the nutrients from the nest, and they looked like human babies from the outside of the layer of skin that was protecting them. Their eyes were closed, and they were curled up in a fetal position. However, they were larger than human babies, and their skin was an eerie blackish-green.

“Had your fill? Time for business.”

“This nest is alive, isn’t it? Just like how a queen bee would give birth to the young and command the workers to work.”

Letho took out the last bomb, Grapeshot. “Yes, but I’m not sure if it’s sentient. A lot of species had come to our world after the Conjunction of the Spheres. Many of them still remain a mystery despite our sorcerers’ best efforts at researching them, even after a few centuries. Point is, new nekkers will be born in a week and run rampant in the tunnels if we don’t destroy it.”

Roy took the bomb from Letho and shook it, and then he hesitated. “There are two nekker babies in it.”

“Do you feel pity for them?”

“No, just wishing it’d be twenty or two hundred instead. That’d make this a lot more satisfying.” Roy thought about the pyramid that was made out of pure cruelty, and he slipped the bomb into the black slurry. Then, he hunkered down and covered his ears not a moment too soon, because he heard a dull roar a moment later. Reminds me of the time I tossed firecrackers into a fish pond.

He looked up, and what greeted him was an eruption of slurry, limbs, and flesh. And then it rained down, spreading the stench through the air. Roy could vaguely hear a shriek of despair from the nest, and the skull that covered the surface squirmed for a moment before shriveling up like a raisin. Finally, it turned into dust, and nothing but a layer of skin remained.

The nest burped, and smoke billowed. At the same time, Roy saw a message indicating that a hundred and ten EXP were added to his bar. So baby nekkers are worth five, while normal nekkers are worth thirty. Nekker warriors are forty EXP each, while the nest is a hundred. 

‘Level 3 Witcher (1190/1500).’

He noticed the number of types of monsters he had to kill to rank up had changed from five to seven. So nekkers and the nest are two different types? He was looking forward to the next hunt.