Chapter 128 - A Cry For Help - V

'That explains the clear difficulty spike.' Merlin thought as he watched the notification disappear. 'But what issue did we solve? We just destroyed the statues, it's not like we saved the villagers.'

Merlin made his way over to Callisto, who was panting heavily and holding her wounded fists.

He reached down and grabbed his goblin hexer's staff, throwing it back into his inventory before taking out his herbalist kit, placing it on the stone floor beside her.

"I didn't bring any water with me, damn." He mumbled to himself. He turned towards Callisto and asked her if she had any water.

He was instructed to grab the waterskin attached to her belt, a water bottle of sorts made from animal skin. Merlin shook it around and found that it was almost full.

He reached into his herbalist's kit and pulled out the mortar and pestle, before looking through his inventory once more.

"I don't have fuel for a fire, so this'll have to do." He sighed as he pulled roughly ten grams of falsofal from his inventory.

In his hands was a bundle of large pink leaves, Merlin balled them up tight and put them in the mortar before he began grinding them with his pestle.

As the pink flower petals were ground up, they began releasing a slimy gel, and once Merlin was done that ten grams had produced a significant amount of this gel. Merlin reached into the mortal and took a handful of the gel before reaching for Callisto's hands.

"This might sting at first." He said as he began covering her bloodied and shredded hands with the gel. Her blood was mixing with the gel and getting all over Merlin's hands, but he didn't mind.

Callisto seemed to recoil from the stinging sensation at first, but moments after she calmed down, the cooling effect of the gel had taken over.

Merlin cast cleanse on himself, ridding his hands of the gunk, before he went back to the mortar and started pouring water into it. He mixed the water with what was left of the falsofal gel in the mortar before bringing the mortar to Callisto.

"Drink it." He said as he held the mortar's rim to Callisto's mouth while helping her sit up.

Callisto drank the contents before laying back down, it seemed that the falsofal was doing its work. Although it was only a mild healing effect, as he didn't have the equipment to boil water and make a proper potion.

'All the tools required, what a scam.' Merlin thought to himself when he stared at the herbalist's kit.

Merlin began running around to each of the rangers, providing medical assistance where necessary. And after about one hundred grams of falsofal later, everyone in the room had been treated. Merlin returned the waterskin to Callisto before he started wandering around checking up on everyone's condition.

A large group began making their way into the temple with their weapons drawn, but they were quickly identified to be the other group of rangers, those who stayed outside.

Once the other rangers realised there was no threats inside the temple, they put their weapons down and began spreading out within the temple. Merlin had made his way back over to Callisto as one of the rangers from her original expedition team approached her.

"Boss, I'm sorry." He said as he dropped to his knees beside her. "We suddenly got attacked by an ogre while searching the surrounding forests."

The ranger signalled a couple other rangers to approach, there were three of them carrying what seemed to be a body each, but two of the bodies were covered in a black robe.

"Yolal was the first to fall, he was hit by the ogre, and we couldn't save him in time." The ranger continued, "But besides the ogre, we were attacked by two individuals. They were surprisingly powerful, but truthfully they caught us by surprise while we were dealing with the ogre. All the enemies have been subdued, but we've suffered losses."

The three bodies were placed on the ground, and by this time Callisto had sat up and began inspecting the bodies.

Merlin recognised the ranger called Yolal. He was the jerk who started treating him like baggage when Merlin mentioned the silhouettes in the distance.

His eyes then locked onto the hooded figures, and he felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Callisto tore one of the hoods off the dead assailants, only to find that what should have been a human's face was partially green and covered in warts. One of the eyes was bulging out of its socket and the nose was bulbous.

It was a hideous sight, but both Merlin and Callisto had the same angered expression on their faces, while everyone else showed disgust.

"They're cultists, goblin mutants." Callisto said as she inspected the other one, noticing similar features. "But why would they only send out fodder if they've set up such an elaborate golem trap? And how did they get an ogre so far east? This doesn't make sense."

Callisto's mumbling was cut short when one of the reserves approached and immediately began talking, he seemed to be somewhat panicked. "Excuse me, do we have any more medicine available? There are too many injured for what little supplies we brought."

"I'll take care of it." Merlin stood up and began following the ranger to the new group of wounded, leaving Callisto and the other rangers to talk. He borrowed a couple water skins and used up roughly two hundred more grams of falsofal, but eventually everyone had been healed.

As he helped the last person drink the medicine he provided, he received a notification.

「You've been granted the title, "The Philanthropic Pharmacist."」

'Oh, I've got it already?' Merlin thought to himself as he opened the title up to read its stats, 'Did it perhaps count the emergency care quest too?'

┌───────────────────

[The Philanthropic Pharmacist.]

You don't shy away from providing medical care to the residents of this world who are in need.

• Healing effects for crafted consumables: +5%

• Charisma: +1

└───────────────────

'I guess it must have.' He thought as he swiped the information window away.

Merlin approached the last person who lent him their waterskin, he made sure not to use too much of one waterskin so that they still had water left to drink, so he borrowed several of them.

He received several thanks as he checked up on the people he healed, and eventually enough people were mobile enough to carry or support those who still couldn't, including the few rangers who had lost their lives.

"We'll make our way back to the village and begin stocking up." Callisto ordered, "Take whatever supplies you can. They'll just go to waste otherwise."

The group began marching out of the temple, and made their way towards the town. As the group continued moving, more and more people started healing enough to move on their own, until it was just a few seriously injured who required being carried or supported, and the dead.

The group began resting at the town, they began scavenging the houses, searching for anything they could possibly use.

Most of what they harvested were consumables, there were food items, barrels and bottles of alcohol, a very sparse amount of medication. But besides food, there were a few tools and weapons that could be looted, mostly farming tools and kitchen utensils.

"Can you store any of this?" Callisto asked Merlin as the rangers began making a pile of loot in the centre of the village.

"Unfortunately no. There are specific requirements for something to be stored, and it's finicky at the best of times." Merlin said while shaking his head.

"Well it looks like we're carrying it all." She said. "Alright everyone, start picking up anything you can carry and then lets move out."

Merlin pulled out his strong leather backpack and started loading it up with as much supplies as he could manage.

The group all picked up anything they could carry. Those who weren't as wounded carried the most, while those who could barely stand on their own weren't given much to carry.

The group moved much slower than they did while making their way to town due to all the injured rangers, so after thirty minutes had passed, they were barely half way.

"Two failed expeditions in a row, I'm not going to hear the end of this." Callisto groaned as they marched back towards the city, "I'll need to get Tuli to send messengers to inform each expedition team out in the field that Acacesium is no longer a safe location."

"Not to mention, I'll have to put up with that damn baron, he's most likely heard about his useless son's fate by now." She mumbled. "I should just shoot him."

Merlin just awkwardly laughed as they continued on their way. Fortunately it didn't seem like the conditions of any of the other rangers was getting worse, so they eventually made it back to the city, a little over an hour after they left the town.

As they made their way through the gates, greeting the guards, Callisto's face crumpled as she saw a crowd forming.

"Here they are again, always ready to judge." She muttered under her breath, barely audible to the point only Merlin and a couple others around her could just hear it. "Damn vultures."

As they walked past the crowd, Merlin could hear faint whispers talking about another failure, and he even heard a couple mentioning him. He stared into the crowd, noticing a particularly hideous man wearing gaudy clothes that were clearly three sizes too small, and he seemed to be shooting Callisto a nasty glare.