Merlin finished playing with his inventory and made his way back to the rangers guild.
It was a lot more lively inside the rangers guild building than it was before. Fortunately it seemed as though the medicine was effective, and enough people were now on their feet to take care of the more critical patients and their dead.
Merlin walked past several rangers on his way to the briefing room. The room still had the scent of blood but it was much fainter than before, most likely because the wounded and dead had long evacuated the room.
As Merlin walked into the room he spotted Tuli and a few other rangers cleaning the room and spraying around a strong citrus-scented mist. Although they didn't know much about diseases, especially not at the level of modern medicine, it seemed they had at least a general idea about disinfectants and their benefits.
Merlin waited around while the team finished cleaning up the room, more people began crowding around as time passed. Merlin caught glimpses at each of the people standing around, some seemed excited, others anxious. He assumed that these people would be on the expedition, making them his teammates for the foreseeable future.
Eventually it came time for the briefing to begin. Merlin and the rest of the group entered the room and took a seat.
Once everyone had settled down, Callisto walked into the room and made her way up the elevated platform on the far side of the room.
"Is everybody here?" She asked while scanning over everybody present in the room. When her gaze fell on Merlin, she paused for a moment, before continuing on. "Very well, it seems we're all here, and hopefully all prepared."
"With that said, let us start the briefing." She announced, pulling up a map and hanging it up against the wall. "Our mission for today is to fulfil our obligation to the frontier town Acacesium who had requested aid from us several days ago."
"As many of you know, we have already sent a team out for this request, however they have not come back or sent word for several days now." She continued. "While Godric and his team love their drinks, it's unlike them to fail to contact us for an extended period of time. So it is very likely that they may have run into trouble."
"We will march into Acacesium, provide any assistance we can, and locate Godric's team, providing assistance if required." She announced, "And in the best case scenario, we'll just be dragging those alcoholics home."
After a deep breath, she continued once more.
"This team is comprised of three groups, and as such I don't expect perfect cohesion right away, but please be mindful to communicate with your teammates." She said, "There are a couple members from my team, those who weren't badly wounded and have rested enough to enter another mission, as well as a group of reserves who are rarely active on the field."But alongside those two, due to our low numbers, I've invited a handful of new recruits for the team, those I believe are competent enough to hold their own."
The meeting went on for another few minutes, this time pointing out the direction the group would take, alongside possible threats that one may come across in the wild.
"We will meet outside in ten minutes, please complete any last minute preparations during that time." Once the meeting was done, everybody quickly made their way out of the room and started getting ready.
Merlin made his way outside, where Callisto showed up moments later with her bow in hand.
"Do you not have a bow?" She asked Merlin.
"I do." He replied, quickly opening his inventory and pulling his longbow and a quiver of arrows out. "I just don't like carrying it around."
"Oh? I see." She said while staring at Merlin, "You're a traveller, that explains a few things."
"Like what?" He asked.
Callisto just stood there and motioned with her hands as if she were pointing at Merlin's entire body, from head to toe.
"Well, I suppose I stand out a little bit." Merlin said with a slight nod. He found it funny how Callisto seemed flabbergasted as he continued.
As the two talked, more people began leaving the rangers guild and pilling around, and once it seemed everyone had arrived, the group collectively made their way towards the gate into the frontier.
"Good day gentlemen." Callisto greeted the guards, who all returned her greeting and saluted her as she walked through the gate.
"We're going to be moving into the frontier, please be on guard and don't overexert yourself, it's a long journey ahead of us." She announced to the group as they marched.
The group began following the overgrown road that Merlin noticed the first time he stepped through the gate. The sun was roughly an hour away from reaching the highest point in the sky, meaning the group would arrive at the town just before noon in the best of circumstances.
Roughly twenty minutes into the walk, a majority of the group seemed to be doing fine, even most of the wounded individuals were looking energetic still.
Merlin caught sight of a couple individuals who found their way to the back of the group over time, and they appeared to be somewhat tired. They were the same ones who seemed excited when they were waiting around, so Merlin assumed they were the new recruits other than him.
Merlin was at the front of the pack alongside Callisto and two others, who seemed to be lightly wounded, meaning they were most likely a part of Callisto's original expedition team. The wounded individuals seemed calm, but Callisto herself was showing signs of anxiousness on her face, or rather, it just seemed like she was just feeling impatient.
Merlin caught a glimpse of movement and a silhouette in the patch of forest a slight distance away from the group. Nothing seemed to want to jump out yet, so he was keeping his attention locked on it just in case.
"What's the matter?" Callisto asked him, noticing that his attention was drawn away from the road.
"I saw movement and a silhouette in the forest to our left." Merlin said quietly, "I'm not sure if it was a wild animal or not."
As he said these words, one of the wounded rangers wrapped his arm around Merlin's neck and spoke while laughing. "Those trees over there? It's far enough away to where it's not a threat."
Merlin glanced over and saw another silhouette appear, he wasn't sure what was there in the forest, but they seemed to have an interest in the large group walking down the road.
"It's probably a kobold, nothing to worry about." The wounded ranger said as he pat Merlin's shoulder.
The silhouettes in the forest seemed to have vanished once Merlin turned away for a moment.
"See? They ran off, it was just a couple kobolds, those things are cowards." The ranger laughed before wandering off towards his other teammates. "Don't worry about a thing rookie. You've got plenty of experienced people around to watch your back, no need to get tense. Just relax and enjoy the trip."
Merlin disregarded the comment, and then he and the group continued on their way down the road. Roughly twenty minutes passed once more, and the group could finally see the outskirts of a town.
The town was fairly open, there were quite a few farms in the area, and several one story buildings. But as they got closer to the town, they began noticing that something wasn't quite right.
"Something's wrong." Callisto said in a worried tone, her eyes were scanning around the town.
"Where is everyone?" Another ranger asked, "This place looks abandoned."
The group ran towards the town and began searching through the buildings, but there was nobody in sight. Merlin entered one of the houses and began looking around, he noticed that besides a couple chairs being tipped over, the place appeared to have been lived in at least a few days prior to everyone vanishing. There was even food on the tables, although it was stone cold.
"It's like everyone just vanished." One of the rangers who came into the building with him whispered.
"Or more likely that they were abducted." Merlin replied.
As Merlin left the building, he approached a distressed looking Callisto, but from the corner of his eye, Merlin saw a large temple in the distance, and from what he could see it seemed to have been abandoned, as even from a distance he could see that the overgrowth had already reclaimed a significant portion of the external walls..
"What about the temple over there?" Merlin asked Callisto, "If something bad had happened, perhaps some of the villagers sought shelter in the temple."
Callisto's face contorted into anger when her eyes glanced towards the temple Merlin had mentioned, but then she turned to him and shook her head.
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