Chapter 225 - Escort - II (2/2)
”Well, there are some rare ones. Most of the star deer don't form large herds except in plain areas like this one,” said Barnabus pointing at the field. ”Most beasts that herd have societies. It is just that these managed to find a way to help their society grow without fighting other beasts.”
”Enough biology lessons. Let us search for the grass,” said Balthazar. ”We will try to steal the grass if possible, rather than attack the deer.”
”That won't help against our quest,” messaged Agua.
”I doubt it will work perfectly. I will scout ahead for the grass,” said Balthazar loudly. ”You guys keep close. With a fae in our ranks, he could quickly spot any skirmish and quickly lead you to help if necessary.”
”Let us first get the grass,” he messaged to his team. ”After that we will try to kill a few deer.”
Shadow pulled out a scope and asked Agua, ” You have one of these?”
”No.”
”Keep it and keep an eye out for me. If you find any of star blade grass, inform me this will make it faster,” said Shadow went into stealth and moved ahead towards the stream.
Though Barbabus informed him that the grass could be found by following deer, he didn't want to do so. He preferred to search for the blades of grass which the deer missed. It was hard work as he had to keep avoiding the deer while he searched for the grass. After half an hour he finally managed to find a blade of the grass and quickly plucked it.
”Acquired an adolescent blade of star blade grass.”
”Herbalism proficiency +1.”
”An adolescent blade of star blade grass?” wondered Balthazar and then a thought struck his mind and he checked the status of the quest and found the number of blades collected to still be zero. Suspicious, he went to Barnabus and asked about it.
”Of course, you would find an adolescent one. They are hardly useful to the coastal guard. The smell of mature ones would attract the deer and it would be shocking if they are left alone,” said Barnabus as if it was an obvious thing to know. Balthazar immediately understood that the NPC was getting back at him by hiding that information and making him work all this time.
”You couldn't have told that before?” snarled Shadow.
”I didn't expect that one wouldn't something so obvious,” answered the NPC.
”This means we have to fight the deer,” said Agua. He was glad about the fact that they had to fight the deer. He was taking a big risk and didn't want to lose any extra experience of points they might get. He was already at level 17, the same as the deer and didn't think that they would pose much danger as they had already killed few star deer before
”Fine. Let us attack directly,” said Shadow.
”Hopefully, Barnabus is good at evading the beasts,” he thought as they decided to start attacking beasts directly.
”We need to kill them quickly,” said Shadow as he started arranging the team. He was in the front along with the guardian. They planned to distract the deer while the fae elementalist flew in from the sky and harvested the grass.
They soon found a small group of three deer behaving as Barnabus explained. Shadow went into stealth and got close to one and put the daggers into its ears causing it to shriek in pain.
”Quick attack them before any others come,” shouted Agua as he commanded his team to attack the deer.
”Not an issue. The deer in the group work with each other, but the other deer won't reinforce them. They usually assume it is a predator and keep away,” said Barnabus. ”If it wasn't so then the entire plain would be ruled by this deer.”
”There are predators that can kill them in this plain?” asked Shadow. This was very important. All this time, he didn't find any beasts other than deer which were level 17.
”Sure, grassland tigers are one of the dangerous ones in this area, but we will kill them too when they come,” said Barnabus. Balthazar wanted to slap the NPC, but he put his focus on quickly killing the deer as they were the priority.
It took them only ten minutes to kill them and get the blade of grass. This time the grass was luckily a mature one and the quest got updated accordingly. Satisfied with it they continued to kill the deer. For every blade of grass, they had to kill a few of the star deer.
But no one cared. It wasn't hard and no one lost much health. Even Barnabus proved to be quite competent and managed deal as much damage as a player. The NPC was better than two other players in the team in terms of damage.
They were farming peacefully and over the time, there were a couple of instances when the NPC was attacked. As expected, he was not good at evading and took a bit of damage from the deer, but the guardian took over for Barnabus and kept him safe while the priest healed.
In this manner, they continued and quickly gather the required amount, but none of the team were satisfied and Barnabus also was helpful without grumbling. So, they continued to farm on the grassland, when the NPC received a sudden attack from behind.