There were a few groups that were already formed while some of the witches and wizards went in alone. A large shop seemed to be open and Alex walked over to check it out.
"What do you sell here?"
"Nothing at the moment. You hunters will have to sell the Demiguise first before we resell anything."
"Oh, okay. What are the prices?"
"A dead one will give you about a thousand Galleons while a live Demiguise will fetch you ten times the first one."
"That's a pretty … big jump in prices."
"Isn't it obvious? The hair on the beast's body is used to craft invisibility cloaks and no one knows how to use its other parts so everything else is wasted.
You can harvest its skin every four years so the amount of profit you can make in the long term cannot compare.
Also, the fur of a dead Demiguise isn't as good as the fur taken from a live one."
"Understood… Can I sell a live demiguise but keep all of its fur?"
"Yes. That's what everyone else does. The cost is the same. Keep in mind that it is better to hunt in the day and retreat at night as it is extremely dangerous at that time and most of the people who hunt Demiguise meet their end at night."
"Alright, thank you." Alex said and headed off towards the depths of the forest.
After walking for a while, he pointed the wand at himself and used a bunch of charms. His body turned almost invisible while his sense of hearing, sight and smell were heightened.
'If only I had some glasses, I would've charmed them to give me infrared vision… but ugh, I don't like this feeling.', he thought as he felt weirdly nauseous which lasted for a while. It took him almost an hour to get used to it but after he was, he began walking in a random direction.
After almost an hour of wandering into the forest, he spotted an ape like creature with large eyes and thick black fur covering its whole body. Just a single glance was enough for him to know that it was the Demiguise. The creature seemed to have not yet spotted him so Alex slowly inched closer.
When he reached the right distance, he pointed his wand at the ground under the Demiguise and in just a second, the ground spurted a few thick tentacles and the area below the Demiguise's legs began to work like quick sand as it slowly pulled the creature inwards.
Unfortunately for the demiguise, it was too late to run. It became invisible but the rock tentacles didn't leave it enough space to escape as they slowly got closer and even if it had the ability to, it wouldn't be able to get out of the ground which had pulled it down until it covered its knees.
A few minutes passed and the Demiguise was tied up to a tree with transfigured ropes made of rock.
"Hmm… this won't last that long … I guess I'll have to use transmutation for this thing. Although I'm not so proficient in this subject, I should be able to do simple things with the help of runes and ritual magic."
Alex sat down as he muttered and drew a few runes on the ground before he used his wand to brand the same runes on the trees that were fifty meters from him as the centre.
The runes appeared on numerous trees except the one that was used to capture the Demiguise. One by one, the leaves began to fall off from the trees that had the rune marks and ten minutes later, the trees were bare.
Alex looked around and went back to work, 'Final step…'
The trees began to uproot themselves and began to twist themselves into long ropes that had a thickness of an adult arm. While the process seemed slow, Alex was patient as it would help it out greatly later on.
Almost an hour later, a circle was formed in the forest which had no trees except for one. He then made the surface smooth with magic as it looked irregular due to the uprooting of all the trees.
He touched his bracelet and three long ropes shot out before they began swirling around him.
The runes that Alex used simply helped him manipulate the ropes without the assistance of his wand and he considered it a huge help in actual battles whether it was against humans or other species.
He re-casted all the charms he needed and headed off, this time he was faster than before as he knew that he had to catch the Demiguise by surprise. The demiguise weren't an aggressive bunch as they mostly kept to themselves but unfortunately for them, their hair was extremely useful.
He found another one after he searched for two hours and used the ropes to trap it. This time, he was faster in capturing it and after everything was done, he brought out about twenty of the ropes from his bracelet.
The ropes then weaved together and formed a carpet according to Alex's wishes. He pushed the Demiguise on top of it before climbing on and then headed off to the place where he left the other one.
Alex then searched and hunted till the evening when he decided to head back with four Demiguises. He walked for the whole distance and used transfiguration on trees to bind the creatures.
He did not want the people to know that he could use transmutation and about two hours later, he reached the gathering site. He saw that most of them had caught two or three demiguises but most of them were teams of three and the ones who went alone had only one or two.
Alex went straight to the store and sold them off for forty thousand Galleons while everyone looked at him. It took the store owner about five minutes to take off all the fur and process it.
"Here you go. The fur is in its best condition and the Demiguises aren't hurt too much. You seem to be proficient in capturing Magical beasts."
"Ah… haha. I just set up traps here and there. I was just lucky today. Anyways, I think todays harvest is enough for me so I would like to leave this place."
"Alright, here you go. This portkey will send you back to the transporter."
"Thank you.", Alex said and toughed the opened tin can that was floating in front of him.