"After we reunite with them, we will be able to look for more relatives and friends in peace," Orz said, combing back his unruly black hair. "So… where are we, anyway?"
Ben took out their rough map. It was something that he drew based on their combined system maps.
Although they had 'digital' maps, it helped to mark them on paper, so they could add notes and details. There was also no distance function in the system maps, so they needed to draft it in order to triangulate their location accurately.
Ben's hand traced over the papyrus bought from Ferrol, his dark skin contrasting with its pale color. "Mapping things out, we are approximately almost 150 kilometers (10 o'clock) north of Fargo."
"That's a few days of normal travel, then."
"Assuming the terrain is decent and the mobs are manageable," Sean added. "Plus we have civilians with us, so it's best to assume it'll take twice as long."
"Hmn, that's true," Ben said, doing rough calculations. He also looked at the still empty parts of the map and was curious what else to fill it up with. He was also curious if the curve of the protection fog was an oblong, a circle, or something completely irregular.
From their travels, they had determined that the delineation of the 'protection area' was curved, at least from where they were.
They figured this out because when they went almost directly west of Fargo, they found an aboriginal village instead. It was a small territory called Suka Village, and someplace they didn't even bother to stay for more than ten minutes. However, when they went north from there, they found the Terran Diana Village.
They decided to go further northwest from there, ending up in the level 2 Terran village they were now in.
When they arrived, the territory was being attacked by a big mob, which was easily taken care of by a handful of them. This got them a good reputation from the get-go, making the task of gathering information much easier.
What was more, when people found out Ryan was his father's son, he became the de-facto leader of the guard group. Even the dozen or so soldiers—from different countries—followed his instructions. Of course, this had more to do with their show of strength than anything else.
While this made things easier for them to move, they certainly wouldn't be comfortable in just leaving it vulnerable, and this was another reason why they had stayed for so many days.
Anyway, they planned for both increasing Calming Village's defense capacity before they left, determining their potential route back to the captain by the way.
The discussion was cut short when an urgent knocking sounded at their door.
"Sirs! Please help us!!" they yelled, and the soldiers immediately let them in.
It was a few citizens bringing a few weak bodies over. "Please cover your mouths and noses with cloth!" they yelled, forgetting to mention in their flurry.
The soldiers' eyes twitched but did as they were asked, before looking over the patients.
The Village didn't have a surviving doctor or nurse and— although Minko's water element took the aggressive route—he did have some experience assisting medics. Among the five, he was the one with the most knowledge of this and people of the territory depended on him a lot, even if he had said plenty of disclaimers.
"What happened?" Minko asked, looking at the men. They had covered their mouths and noses with cloth, which were basically rags as no one had excess cloths anymore.
They brought in five people, and each one looked like they were gonna die.
Minko frowned, gently looking at the patients' faces and exposed skin. Everyone's skin had been dry for a while, but theirs were even a little flaky. Someone even showed signs of eczema on his neck and elbows. "Since when were they ?"
"It's been a while. Actually, it's for many. A lot of people are also vomiting, and the low level ones are showing worse symptoms like muscle cramps and spasms."
"What have you gathered so far?"
Since everyone was busy, it was an agreement not to bother the soldiers unless they did what they could. So it was assumed they had researched the source on their own before heading here in a panic.
"We couldn't find the connection between all of them!" The man said, sniffing. They had wells, but one of them had just been built and was used exclusively by a few 'victims'.
"Is there a new virus going around?" Someone asked, looking worried, and it also made everyone else fall anxious.
They didn't even have doctors or medicine. How would they be able to handle a pandemic?!
For the next few minutes, they waited tensely for Minko to finish studying the patients. When he stopped and heaved a deep breath, everyone else's stopped in nervousness.
"It's just salt deficiency," Minko said.
"I saw the exact symptoms during one of our missions back then."
His words made the ebony-haired man beside him kneel down and look closer as well.
"Damn," Orz said after a few moments. He was on the same mission and had indeed witnessed similar cases. "You're right."
That mission had to do with a rebel group hiding in the deep mountains. They encountered villagers there with the same problem.
It was pretty much an obsolete illness back in Terran, but here…
Speaking of which, salt deficiency wasn't much of a problem to the soldiers because their levels were raised high from the get-go (or else they wouldn't have survived). Then, they found towns with richer varieties of food soon after, allowing them to get their minimum required salt intake.
Terran territories didn't have that luxury. Not only did the people level up much slower (primarily due to the protection period), their resources were limited to a few types.
"So what do we do with them?"
"It'll be a lot of work and I lack professional knowledge to do it safety, but there can be various sources of salt even without the sea or salt mines.
"It's only in trace amounts and I'm not sure how much can help, especially the harsher cases, but until we find someone with deep knowledge about this, it's all we can do."
The others nodded in understanding. After so long in this place, their idealism and sense of entitlement had been worn down. Rather, the stubborn ones had likely died already, perished from their own arrogance.
"Animal blood, some plants, and even ashes can be sources. But, like I said, it'll come with risks."
"They'd die if we don't, so do we even have a choice?"
Minko sighed, nodding.
Before they could mobilize for this, however, another group of frantic people arrived to look for them.
Then another alarm, making them shake their heads. It was as if they didn't have enough problems…
"Aborigines! They were here and just got kicked out after causing chaos!"
"Now they're making a scene outside the territory!"
This made everyone's back straighten and stood up, prepared to deal with the problem. A lot happened during their meeting time, it seemed.
Especially, the visitors were hostile aborigines. This meant that they were looking at a war heading their way—and soon.