Chapter 129 - Taking Stock

"Even the princess got hurt this time, look at her hands." 

"Yet another failed raid, is it actually that dangerous out there or are they just not that competent anymore?"

"Look at what they're carrying, another town was lost."

"Maybe they left the town to die and robbed it."

"Don't say that, you'll get executed for treason."

Merlin heard the various rumours as the group walked past the crowd, making their way inside the rangers guild. As Merlin entered the building, he received a notification telling him that he had completed the quest.

「You have completed the quest, "A cry for help.", rewards have been delivered.」

Tuli, who was talking to a couple of wounded rangers in the hall, noticed the expedition group that was just entering the building. "Boss, what happened?"

"Tuli, I'll explain in a moment, help our injured out." Callisto ordered, before walking further into the building in order to not block others trying to enter.

"The rest of you, bring everything you've scavenged to the mess hall." She shouted, before turning the corner and vanishing into a large room.

Merlin followed behind her, along with the rest of the expedition group, the room they entered was full of tables, more than enough to seat a large group of rangers at once. And there seemed to be an interconnected kitchen on the other side of the room.

"Unload everything you've got on the tables." She ordered while walking over to a table and stacking supplies on top of it. "When you've done that, for those of you who are hurt go see Tuli for medical treatment, the rest of you are dismissed."

Merlin did as he was told, unloading his backpack's contents onto one of the tables, and once he had done so, he threw his backpack into his inventory and began making his way to Tuli.

Tuli was in the medicine room crushing what little remained of the bloodgrass and falsofal. She turned around when she heard the door open, and then she saw Merlin.

"Merlin, what's the matter, are you injured too?" She asked, wiping beads of sweat from her brow.

"No, I'm fine." Merlin shook his head. "I came here to ask if you needed more help."

"Honestly, I don't think there's much you can help me with now." She said, "We're basically out of materials. But fortunately it doesn't seem like many people are seriously injured this time around. I assume the emergency treatment was courtesy of you?"

"Yeah, I used a bit of falsofal where I could. I didn't have much else to make anything stronger." Merlin said. "But do you need someone to go on a supply run? I've got plenty of bloodgrass and falsofal on me already, I can go get other things."

"We'd need about a kilogram each to fill our stock up, do you think you could get that much?" Tuli asked, while going back into mixing up potions.

"Yeah, I've got enough already, although I've got fresh falsofal, not dried. Do you need anything else?" Merlin asked after explaining.

"Oh, that's perfect." She said, "Well, if it isn't too strange, do you think you could fill up a few vials with your blood?"

A quest window appeared before Merlin.

┌───────────────────

[Uncommon Quest]

Taking stock I.

The last medical emergency used up what little remained of the rangers guild medicine stock. Tuli has requested that you assist with supplying materials to refill what is required.

She has also requested vials of your blood, for what purpose you are yet unsure, but three vials should be enough.

Provide Tuli with the materials she requested.

Bloodgrass: 2001/1000 grams

Falsofal: 1690/1000 grams

Vials of rose poison: 0/3

• Reward: 200 EXP, 200 Ranger Soul EXP.

└───────────────────

Merlin accepted the quest, taking notice that it was obviously the start of a quest chain due to the roman letter numbering system. He pulled a kilogram of falsofal and bloodgrass out of his inventory and placed them down on a table.

"Do you have the vials ready?" Merlin asked. "And preferably a funnel so I don't spill blood everywhere." 

Once she heard these words, Tuli quickly made her way towards a shelf, where she pulled out three vials and dashed to a different shelf to find what seemed to be a ceramic funnel. She then made her way towards Merlin with everything.

"Alright, I'll get this sorted. There's one kilogram of both plants for you." He said as he grabbed a vial rack and began setting up the three vials, uncorking each before balancing the funnel above the first one.

Merlin opened his inventory, pulling out his sharp hunters knife that he had bought recently. 

"I never would have imagined this knife's first use was going to be on me." Merlin groaned as he held his wrist above the funnel. "This soul is making up for my lack of an emo phase growing up I guess."

Merlin sliced through his wrists without hesitation. He clenched his teeth, but fortunately his dagger was so sharp he barely felt it.

'Does the animal harvesting efficiency bonus take effect if I cut myself with it?' He wondered to himself, shaking his head at the stupid thought.

The blood dripped out quickly, filling all three vials in a matter of seconds. Merlin wrapped his mouth around the wound, preventing blood from spilling out everywhere. He received a notification telling him his quest had been completed.

「You have completed the quest, "Taking stock I.", rewards have been delivered.」

"Thank you!" Tuli said as she put the corks back on the vials. "This will help with potions for the time being, and I'd also like to run some tests on its reactions with other plants."

「You have earned +5 familiarity with Tuli.」

'She's really easy to raise familiarity with.' Merlin couldn't help but think to himself. 'Is she that friendly, or does she just really like people who share her interests?'

Once the wound on Merlin's wrist seemed to stop bleeding he removed his mouth from it, noticing that it had healed, but with a scar, much like many of his other wounds.

"Could I help you with anything else?" Merlin asked, hoping to get the next part of the chain quest right away.

"Well, I won't say no to more help, although you've done plenty already." Tuli said as she pulled two dark grey wrinkly seeds out of a jar and began crushing them into powder. "We're desperately in need of alanemine. Your blood works as a replacement, but we don't know the full extent of its effects yet, or how well or long it stores for. It'd be good if we had a nice stash of alanemine, about one kilogram would do."

"And while you're at it, if you could pick up a little bit of foxglove, not too much though, just a few hundred grams." She said, "There are a few medicines we use that require small amounts of it, plus I'd like to test its effects when mixed with your blood."

As Tuli finished talking, another quest window appeared before Merlin.

┌───────────────────

[Uncommon Quest]

Taking stock II.

The last medical emergency used up what little remained of the rangers guild medicine stock. Tuli has requested that you assist with supplying materials to refill what is required.

You've provided the a few so far, but this time she had asked for a few other materials.

The first plant she has requested is alanemine, a plant with long string-like white petals that can be used as a stabilising agent for Impletio, drastically reducing the risk of an overdose in potions and medication.

The next plant she has requested is Foxglove, a plant that sprouts purple bell-shaped flowers, the plant is dangerously poisonous, but Tuli swears there are positive health effects that can be extracted from it.

Provide Tuli with the materials she requested.

Alanemine: 0/1000 grams

Foxglove: 0/300 grams

• Reward: 200 EXP, 200 Ranger Soul EXP.

└───────────────────

"Alright, I'll get to it." Merlin said, accepting the quest. "I'll be back later."

Merlin grabbed his knife, casting cleanse on it before throwing it back into his inventory. He then said his goodbyes to Tuli before making his way out the door.

As he left the room, he noticed a few rangers hovering around, their eyes were glued down the hallway, near the entrance. Merlin could hear loud shouting coming from the entrance, so he began walking down the hallway towards it, as he had to go there anyway.

As he made his way down the hall, the hallway opened up into the waiting room at the front of the building. And within the waiting room was the familiar individual wearing gaudy clothes that Merlin saw in the crowd earlier.

From the fragments of conversation he was picking up out of context, this man seemed to be Baron Doolmet.

"...You should have visited my estate the second you returned and apologised in person, but you just ran off for another few hours, returning with more death. And yet you dared to send a mere letter to my estate." Baron Doolmet shouted, "In fact, you didn't even write the letter yourself, how dare you look down upon my household."

"Mind your tone Doolmet." Callisto roared back. "What right does a mere Baron have barging in and yelling at royalty and ordering them around. I'm not sure how lacking your education must have been, but I've got a pretty good idea considering how stupid your son was."

"You're just a glorified commoner with an ego the size of your stomach." Callisto continued. "You don't get to make demands here, and you're lucky you haven't received an arrow to the chest for how much grief your son had caused."

"Filthy half-blood." The baron grumbled back. "You still call yourself royalty when your mother was a commoner."

An arrow flew past the baron's head, burying itself into the door next to the fist indentation from the day before.

"Leave before I take your head for treason.." Callisto shouted while she nocked another arrow.