The thing which bothered him most was the fact that the smell of the star blade grass would attract other beasts. They needed to cover it up for them to retreat. With a horse they would be easily spotted by other beast and when they come close it would be close to impossible that they wouldn't smell the star blade grass.
"The main problem as Barnabus reminded us during the fight is to cover up the scent of the blades of grass that we have. Though it is in our bags it appears that these beasts are exceptionally sensitive towards the smell. Any ideas?" asked Shadow.
None of the players in the team had any solution. To them, this was a game and they found it a bit ridiculous that Shadow was taking such things seriously.
"It is true, even the star deer would attack us. They will surely come close to us once they see the horse as we are new beings impeding on their territory. After that, they will attack us when the smell the star blade grass," said Barnabus. "This is a known thing to have some method to prevent them from smelling it."
"Yes, since you are quite knowledgeable, I believe that you would have a method or two to handle this scenario, right?" asked Shadow. He also didn't have any method and he started the conversation only in hopes that Barnabus might give them some hint. He was sure that it would cause casualties when more than 10 deer would attack them, especially with Barnabus incapacitated and riding on a horse.
"The blood of the tiger is the best deterrent. These beasts have a high sense of smell. They will attack us due to the smell of the star grass but collect a few samples of the blood of the grassland tiger and wipe it on yourselves. They will think that we are strong predators who could kill a grassland tiger and wouldn't mess with us. That will keep them at bay, but a few stronger groups might still get attracted and try to test our strength," explained Barnabus.
"Is that enough?"
"It is if we are fast enough. There are both pros and cons to this method. The advantage is that it would keep the deer afraid of provoking us," said Barnabus. "But it might attract more of the grassland tigers too. They could consider us a challenge. So, we need to make haste. If both the smells drift to the deer. They would run away, and it is best if we move away before they could make a decision. As we haven't seen any tigers except that one on the way, I doubt we will run into them if we follow the same path. The only situation where we might have to fight is if there are any star deer in the direction of the town."
"That makes sense," said Balthazar as he quickly informed the others to do as Barnabus suggested. Though the fighting in the game was gory as it was in the preliminary stages of the game, the default option was to clear any blood or other disgusting fluids that fall on them during the fight. It was necessary for the players to not be disgusted by it.
The players in the team didn't feel like doing it as they felt it to be barbaric action and closely smelling it was a bit nauseous to them. Though Balthazar knew of such tricks he couldn't suggest as such a suggestion from him would make the players new to the game think that he is some kind of a freak. But as they heard from the NPC to do it, they followed his instructions as they thought it would make their mission easier.
There were a few things that need to be kept in mind when fighting docile beasts like deer. First, they only attack when provoked. They prefer to stick to their own and group together when they come into contact with any other beasts unless they are agitated.
This implied that adventurers could always escape their territory, if they avoid them. But the star deer considers anything that has the scent of star blade grass to be a hostile that were coveting the grass and thus, due to the nature of the mission, they couldn't escape without fighting the deer if they keep the star blade grass.
The other adventurers in Balthazar's current team didn't really consider the mission to be of a very high importance. To them it was just another mission in another game. If they find it too hard, they would just die and it wasn't of much importance to them, but to Balthazar it was necessary to find a way to get Barnabus back to the town as he would have a hard time getting reputation with the town and the coastal guard.
Along the way they came across a few star deer as they had a horse. They could always duck and cover from the deer in the grass and attack isolated deer, but with a tall horse standing out it was no longer easy to do the same. With them standing out the star deer soon started to attack them actively.
Previously, they were the ones who were attacking the deer, but the team realized that it was much harder to fight them when the deer actively attacked them. Luckily, Shadow already had enough experience to deal with such scenarios.
He kept the team running while they used only long-distance attacks on the ground near the beasts to deter them instead of injuring them. He also had poison arrows which he used on beasts if they came too close. He used the fast-acting poison that he obtained from the beasts in the Greybark marshlands so that the others would immediately notice the effect on their peer beasts and be more reluctant to chase after them.
With these few tricks they managed to get away from the grasslands in quick and agile fashion. Despite it just being a quick getaway and them not even actively engaging any beasts, they had to move much faster than before as they were afraid that the tiger might come again. After they got out of the grassland, they finally took some rest and began to consume bread and water to regain their stamina.
"So, do you think we will get any reputation for this quest?" asked Aqua as he slumped his back along a tree and sat down on the ground. "It was far too dangerous for any kind and we need to be considered lucky for being able to escape in time."
"The NPC is the son of the town. You will get some reputation for bringing him safely back. Don't worry too much," said Shadow. "Take some rest and be prepared for the sale of the antivenom. How is it going on by the way? Did you contact them recently?"
"Ya. I did most of them were bought by the raiders and ronins as we have guessed, but they were for a good price. They already told that they were just the middlemen and those guys might come looking for you," warned Agua.
"It had to happen sooner or later," said Shadow offhandedly. He wasn't much worried about the guild pressuring him. He was more worried about the Knuckers. Though he had to sell the potions to get money and get into the eyes of the Valhalla Raiders, he was worried that they would be able to kill the Knuckers sooner or later. The only thing on his mind was to get to level 20 and the other thing was to think of a way to subdue the knuckers. Currently, he could only think of using the Valhalla Raiders.
"Ya, they will come looking for you, i.e., Fleet-footed Rogue" said Agua. "It would be quite hard to refuse them and continue to work in the town. So, any plans?"
"I will work with them as freelance," replied Shadow.
"You really think that they would be cool with that?" asked Agua sarcastically. He was quite confident that they would refuse his potions to be sent to anyone other than them. Freelance means that other players would also get access to his antivenom which was definitely not acceptable to them.
"Not an issue. I will tell them that I have already signed a contract with you guys to produce a certain number of antidotes per day. It wouldn't be much of an issue, but I will have to probably increase the amount of time I spend on making the antidotes," said Shadow.
"They would just offer to cancel the contract or force us to cancel it," said Agua. "That is a stupid idea."
"Not if I tell them that the price of the contract was me losing my proficiency and in return you were going to sell auction my potions and give me 50% of the profit along with materials required. My name is not known or famous. I am a new player who just started in this game," said Shadow. "From the perspective of a player trying to build a new guild, it is a good contract, and they can't say anything about it."
"Why not?" retorted Agua irritated. "They won't care about morals and the like and will force the guild to disband by attacking us."
"Ah, don't worry about that. I know how to handle the bulling kind. They need to be just threatened properly with a good amount of incentive. As long as they get the lion's share they will be appeased. That is just the way they are operating in the town. They are just a bit more greedy than the usual guilds."
"Screw it, do as you will," said Agua. He felt that Shadow was either overconfident or has appropriate way to deal with them and doesn't want to tell him about it. If it was the second thing, it was reasonable for him to behave so. If not, he would sooner or later learn his lesson and be a bit more co-operative. Either way, it was just the beginning of the game and they had more time to change things later.
"Cool. Now, let us get going," said Shadow. "We had enough rest."
After the grassland, the rest of the journey wasn't much eventful. They encountered a few more beasts but they were lower level beasts than them and could be taken care of while protecting Barnabus without any mishaps.
As they reached the gates of the town, they found a group of about 20 people monitoring the people entering the town. They were clearly stopping and talking to everyone about something.
"They are checking for you," said Agua pointing at them.
"That was obvious," replied Shadow. "Your men informed you about it."
"Ya, they told that about 2 or 3 guys waiting at the gates. This is more than twenty," said Agua.
"I am counting on them to sell my goods while they are so bad at counting," joked Balthazar.
"Stop your nonsense and decide what to do?" asked Agua.
"Just let me talk to them," said Shadow as they as they went closer. He moved ahead of the other players and the horse as they came to the gate to meet them. One of the players from the raiders guild also came forward as he noticed their names which he was searching for.
"That is Hard Head, a berserker from the raiders," said Agua as they came close. "He is like the stupidest guy and just blindly listens to orders. He is usually sent to force other players to submit. This is going to be hard."
"What about the others?" asked Fleet-footed Rogue (that was the disguise he had used on him as he came to the town). Though he had put on a disguise, he needed to finish the talk fast as he couldn't have the disguise on for a long time. So, he needed as much of information as required.
"He usually doesn't allow others to talk when he is talking," said Agua. "You can guess from his Id about his personality, can't you?"
"You don't have much info about them. Do you?" said Balthazar as he looked at the others behind Hard Head. "Don't worry, I found someone whom I could use."
He found the guardian Grand Puba among the few who are behind Hard Head. He was clearly sent by the Ardent Ronins. Balthazar found him a reasonable player and looking at him he understood that they had chance to negotiate.