Chapter 826 Chapter 825: Aiding Custodia (1)
?Unsurprisingly, our first patrol ended rather uneventfully and quietly, with Leraie and I creating large wagons to store the wheat before pulling them back to the city alongside Jackie and Harry, the four of us exerting even more physical effort as we transported a large amount of grain back to Custodia to be used for bread.
We had decided that the grain alone would be the best thing to harvest at the moment, so we left the orchards alone for now and instead returned before the two hour mark passed, ensuring we would return within the timeframe that Satanya had given us.
Bland and tedious to the extreme, but when it was over it was something that we could appreciate, the sheer amount of golden grain resting inside the wagon enough to make those long two hours worth it since this would feed the humans for many days to come on its own.
When we returned to Custodia, the other two teams were preparing to head out as well, the three Demons and two humans in each group talking quietly amongst themselves as they reviewed their assignments and got to know one another.
As we were storing the bountiful harvest away into the hall that everyone lived in, Jahi and Anput returned with their teams, the Demoness carrying a giant green furred deer of some kind across her shoulders, whilst Anput had a few fat birds hanging from her shoulders as well; the others were hauling sleds laden with logs back into the city, all five of them displaying their haul proudly.
"Wow... That's..."
Mary stood in front of us, the mature woman appraising both of our hauls with wide eyes, her surprise at this one singular expedition from both of us yielding so much becoming as clear as crystal as she shook her head in wonder.
"Quite a bit... So much wheat! And that deer! It's a monster, isn't it?! And yet..! Wow..."
Those birds that Anput had hunted were the most abundant - Stone Beak Dodo's - which were fat birds about three feet tall and a foot wide, with claw studded wings and sharp talons waiting to rend flesh, though the deadliest part of them was their jagged, heavy beak that threatened to snap bone with one crunch.
Four of them appeared at once, and I listened to their screech once before swiftly lopping their heads off, before getting to work in butcher the meaty birds, which were an abundant source of protein and soft feathers.
Then there was the other two monsters that approached us as well, with the first being the more worrying of the two.
Silently getting within a dozen feet of me, a scaled, camouflaged monster crept closer and closer, not alerting me until it was almost too late as it hissed, causing me to turn towards it and raise a shield of ice, which blocked a gobbet of acidic spit that sizzled against the barrier.
A crest of feathers flared around its neck as it raised its head, the monster looking like a cross between a Komodo Dragon and a feline as it began to run forwards at a high speed, baring its serrated fangs and long forked tongue.
Sadly for it I was faster, and I used the curved edge of my Khopesh to slit its throat, revealing the venom sac that flared as it tried to spit again, only to realize it couldn't now that its throat was cut in two.
Not the strongest physically, but instead rather hard to spot and able to get close to me without alerting me, which was worrying in and of itself, meaning it was a damn good hunter since it wasn't spotted until the last moment.
As for the last monster, it was a basic cat like monster that had stone claws and a nasty set of teeth, though it was rather weak and small compared to the others.
Of the three, that Viridian Latro was the most dangerous monster, whilst the Rock Ocelot was cute and the Stone Beak Dodo were wonderful sources of food.
The others managed to get a few trees felled and cut into logs, while Leone had a satchel of herbs that she could use to brew into some basic potions, meaning this was quite the haul as well.