Chapter 152 - Preparation For The Second Expedition

Merlin accepted the quest and looked back up at Callisto. 

"Please get prepared and meet us in the briefing room." She spoke before walking off and turning down a hallway.

Merlin believed himself to be prepared already, but then he remembered back to a few minutes ago when he found himself without a socially acceptable way of healing himself.

'I should probably go make potions, I need to stop putting that off.' He thought to himself.

Merlin turned around and made his way out of the guild building, he turned and started walking towards the merchants association. The morning air was rather cold against his skin, so he took the warm panther cloak out of his inventory and equipped it.

Although he had used it as part of his disguise, he felt like those who could possibly know about it were situated within Macedonia and all held positions that basically meant they couldn't leave the city. So his identity would most likely be safe in Megalopolis or within towns west of the wall.

His paranoia was rather pointless to begin with, it was just him being overly cautious as usual. Those who had the remote chance of identifying him through that single detail were on his side anyway, or were the kids he saved.

He made his way down the hill, walking past several villagers who were minding their own business and going about their day. He made his way to the merchants association building and walked inside.

As usual, he was greeted by a cashier near the door. The cashier greeted Merlin and then pointed him in the direction of water skins. The water skins were only two silver each, so Merlin picked up two, costing him four silver and leaving him with twelve gold and ten silver coins.

After finalising his purchase, he made his way out of the building and towards one of the many wells situated around the city where he could fill both water skins.

His next destination was a little store that was full of potted plants, the herb shop he visited before and learnt the herbalism skill from. As Merlin entered the store, he was once again hit with the overpowering stench of herbs, and a little old lady was inside tending to her plants, only noticing Merlin after the door closed behind him.

"Oh, hello again dear, are you here for another lesson?" The old lady asked.

"No, I'd like to take a look at your wares please." Merlin said, "I'm specifically looking for Alanemine and Impletio, about five hundred grams of each would do me well."

"Well you're in luck, I just finished wrapping the new supply." She said, vanishing behind a stack of very leafy plants.

She came back later with two wrapped packages, both were labelled with large black letters, one as "imp" and the other as "alan".

"Five hundred of each, a silver per package." She said as she placed both packages on a table. Merlin paid the old lady two silver and received both packages in return.

He gave his farewells before leaving the store and making his way towards the rangers guild building once more.

He entered the building and walked down the hallway further within the building. He noticed that a few rangers had started gathering near the briefing room, although they were clearly early.

Instead of joining the group, Merlin turned down another hallway and walked into the medicine room.

There he saw a very bored looking Tuli sitting around on a chair, swirling around a test tube. The test tube contained a single seed that had sunk to the bottom of what Merlin could assume was some form of acid, based on how the seed was breaking apart and dissolving.

"Hey Tuli. I take it you've been doing tests on yew berry seeds?" Merlin asked with a hint of sarcasm as both of them turned to stare at the table that was covered in a handful of the red flesh part of the yew berry, they had been stripped of their seed and abandoned on the table.

"Very observant." Tuli responded with a slight laugh. "Are you hungry? I don't have much use for the fruit part."

"I'll pass." Merlin shook his head, even though they were technically safe to eat, consuming them wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. "I'm just here to ask if I could use the room to brew a couple potions."

"Yeah, go right ahead." Tuli nodded.

Merlin began pulling his ingredients out and spent the next four minutes brewing up just enough potion to fill eleven of his twelve glass vials. As he was cleaning up he glanced back over to his stream chat, where he saw Quinn playfully paying him out.

┌───────────────────

[MOD] Quinntessential: Look at you living your best life.

[MOD] Quinntessential: This game was practically made for that flower obsession of yours.

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Callisto poked her head into the room a few minutes later and informed Merlin that the briefing was about to start.

He said goodbye to Tuli and followed Callisto down the hallway and into the room. He took a seat and waited for the briefing to start.

Looking around, this group was almost entirely comprised of experienced looking rangers, those who were on Callisto's original team. There were also a few dotted around the room who Merlin recognised from his time in the last expedition, they were clearly reserve members, but were the most skilled of the bunch. Outside of Merlin, there wasn't a single rookie to be seen.

"Alright, it seems everyone is here." Callisto announced as she took to the stage, or more accurately, the slightly elevated platform on the far end of the room.

She pulled out a map and hung it up on the wall, then with a long stick she pointed to a small dot quite far south-east from where Megalopolis was marked.

"Our target for this expedition is Farncombe, as you all know, this means we will be delving quite deep into the frontier." She spoke out with a loud, confident voice. "Those of you who do not believe that you are up for the task, please speak up now so we can fill your spot immediately."

She waited for a moment, but nobody spoke up, so she continued speaking.

"We have received a request for assistance from Farncombe, as one of their scouts seemed to have found a massive army of orcs within the nearby lands. Such a sight usually means that a warlord has taken power, which means it isn't long before they start attacking nearby settlements to expand their territory." She explained. "Our task for this mission is to make our way to Farncombe and assist them with fighting off the potential orc invasion. And, if possible, hunting down the warlord and ending his reign early."

"I've begun preparing wagons for our expedition, but we wont be able to make it there in a single day." She announced, "And due to our recent loss of Acacesium and the walled off city Charisia not responding to outside communication, we'll have to extend our march to Parrhasia, where we will rest before setting off for Farncombe once more."

"Let us pray that Parrhasia hasn't befallen a similar fate. We haven't received any communication from them in a short while, and our scouts aren't yet required to return." She grumbled. "So there is a small chance we will be camping out for the night, please prepare accordingly."

"This team is comprised mostly of my original expedition team, but you'll notice a couple unfamiliar faces in the mix. I can vouch for the ability of every single one of you, and I expect you to work together well." She said, "We will meet outside in twenty minutes, please make any final adjustments with this new information and prepare to set off within that time frame."

"You're all dismissed." She announced, causing everyone in the briefing room to scatter and prepare.

Merlin also stood up from his chair and made his way to the exit. While everyone else was rushing to their dorms, Merlin left the building and waited outside, where he was joined by Callisto moments later.

'Well, this is a familiar feeling.' Merlin thought to himself.

He noticed that a few of the nearby residents seemed curious as to what the princess was up to now. 

Merlin glanced at chat, and they seemed to be hyped up after that briefing, most likely because it signalled the arrival of combat in the near future, something different from the walking and alchemy simulator that took up most of Merlin's day so far.

Little did they know that they had an even longer walking simulator ahead of them, wagons weren't nearly as powerful as they likely hoped.

A little while later, as many of the rangers started gathering around Callisto, a group of two-horse wagons started making their way down the street, each pulling up in-front of the rangers guild building. All of the drivers were gruff looking rangers that Merlin saw during the briefing.

As the crowd of civilians became larger as more curious individuals gathered around, Callisto ordered everyone to pile onto the wagons before Merlin and herself also climbed into one.

With a single order, each wagon began moving towards the gate in a single line formation. The guards gave the group a salute as the wagons made their way past them.

The road was slightly bumpy, but even after ten minutes of travel it wasn't that uncomfortable of a ride, for a horse-drawn wagon's standards anyway.. The group continued down the road, with most of the rangers that Merlin could see looking out towards the wilderness surrounding them.