Elder Kacai didn't fly very far. He stopped nearby, hovering above a nearby lake.
"In order to earn the right to speak to the Grand Elder, you will need to earn the trust of every village on Namek. You do that by passing each of our tests."
"You mean the Dragon Ball trials? I just want to speak to the Grand Elder Guru. Is there any way we could just skip them and speak to him for a moment." I had to try. The fact was, I really didn't want to do these trials.
But Kacai shook his head. "I told you. The Grand Elder is ancient, and slowly dying. His life energy is so low that you will never be able to detect him unless Nail allows it, or one of us shows you the way. We cannot allow untrustworthy outsiders to meet with him."
"So, we need to gain your trust through these trials." I finished for him.
"This is pointless." Lynn muttered aloud. In response, a bit of a smile played across Kacai's face in amusement.
"We're not fighting a battle, guys. We're building something. When we left the target planet, we agreed to be better than the rest of our species. We start by learning." I reminded them.
"You're not wrong, but…" It didn't sit right with her. That was her Saiyan instincts.
It didn't quite sit right with me, either. "These tests… If we complete them, I want the Dragon Balls, too."
"You know quite a bit… for an outsider. Yet you didn't demand them until you already had to take the trials… For every test you pass, the elder of the village will give you their Dragon Ball."
"What's a Dragon Ball?" Pepper asked. I didn't bother answering, and neither did Kacai.
"What is our first trial?" I cut to the chase.
In response, Elder Kacai pointed down toward the water below. "Our ancient treasure is down below. Find it, and you will earn the favor of my village."
"Let's just finish this fast, then." Pepper said, killing her flight and just allowing herself to fall down toward the surface of the water.
"Pepper!" Tater shouted, causing her to hover for a moment to see what was up. Luckily, Tater had stopped her just in time. The moment she stopped falling, a gigantic whale-like fish erupted from the water, snapping its jaws within inches of Pepper's feet before splashing back into the water, having barely missed.
"..." We all stared in silence for a moment. Tater was the first one to speak. "You know, for some reason, that made me really hungry."
As if the dam had been broken, we all began laughing at that. The laughter didn't last long, though. "Tarble, can I ask a favor?"
"...You want to do this alone, don't you?" I realized from the look on his face.
"We're not as strong as you and Pepper. If this is some sort of Namekian training that can help close that gap, then… Let us do it." Beside Tater, Tommy and Lynn nodded, too.
Clearly, this was getting to them. It had been fine when it'd been just me who was ten times stronger than them, but now, I was the strongest Saiyan currently alive, and even Pepper was four or five times stronger than them.
I had my reservations. The chances were, this wasn't actually the kind of training that Tater was expecting…
But we all needed to grow stronger. I needed to learn to rely on my team. They needed to learn to overcome their base Saiyan instincts, telling them that everything was beneath them.
"If you need help, just come find us. Pepper, let's go back to the landing site." I replied with a nod.
Pepper paused for a moment before sighing in agreement. "I never much cared for water, anyways."
As Pepper and I flew away, I looked back at the triplets one last time, as they dropped closer to the water.
I was just in time to see Tater get swallowed by a giant fish.
I shook my head with a snort, not bothering to change course. I didn't see the point in turning back to save him, the only things on this planet capable of harming Tater were the Namekians themselves. The strength of a planet's wildlife was generally affected by two things, the planet's gravity, and the competition surrounding survival, like food and water.
On Namek, the gravity was just a bit higher than Earth's, though food was rather scarce. As a result, the strongest thing around wasn't much stronger than a T-Rex from Earth. Other than the Namekians themselves, of course. You couldn't gauge true martial artists by the planet that they lived on.
About a minute after Tater was swallowed by the fish, we heard a distant rumbling as his energy quickly rose for a few seconds before settling back down.