I, Stone Golem, only want to forge.

Sylvia glanced at the village chief in her arms, but the village chief remained silent.

He simply tilted his head slightly, signaling her to continue.

Sylvia immediately did as she was told, and spoke:

"What brings Mr. Murphy here so suddenly? Is it for the waterworks project contract?"

Lynn replied from the other end:

"Of course, that's one of the reasons."

However, Mr. Murphy also wanted to learn about career-related matters, so he wanted to visit the professional union and, incidentally, meet the village chief.

Sylvia glanced down at the village chief, who wagged his tail, indicating his agreement.

"Yes, you're very welcome."

After receiving consent, Lynn hung up the phone.

Sylvia looked at the village chief and whispered a few words.

The general idea was that they were asking the village chief if there would be enough people to receive guests.

The village chief shook his head and pointed to himself with his tail.

"I can do it."

Upon hearing this, Sylvia licked her teeth, somewhat speechless.

How can this cat and this rock communicate?

However, these unique creatures probably have their own ways of communicating, so there's no need for her to interfere.

After nodding slightly, he turned his gaze to Will.

"When Fina and Miss Ella were busy inside, they said that if you two came, they would let you in. I still have some things to take care of, so please excuse me for now."

After saying this, Sylvia bowed and left, intending to make arrangements at the Professionals' Association first.

Roy and Will, who remained, looked at each other for a while without saying anything, and then pushed open the back door of the clinic and stepped inside first.

Inside the clinic, Fina and another nun were seen seeing patients at the front desk.

Meanwhile, Ella was alone in the background, using magic to manipulate four or five vessels, some identical and some different, to concoct medicine.

When Ella saw the two of them come in, she didn't even look up and just said one sentence.

"Go and help process the medicinal herbs over there first."

After hearing this, Roy and Will immediately got to work without hesitation.

However, while working, Will asked:

"I heard this is typhoid fever, caused by a curse. How can it be cured? By feeding it holy water?"

Ella nodded first, then shook her head.

"We need to start by using holy water to dispel the curse, but in addition, we also need medicines with strong heat properties to restore the blood in the body that has been assimilated by the ice element crystals back to its original state."

"With so many people, the village's medicine reserves probably aren't enough, right?"

"Impossible. This curse of ice element crystals requires an astonishing amount of heat-relieving medicine, so other medicines are needed to alleviate it. In the end, the number is definitely not small."

Ella continued working, but her tone carried a hint of worry.

"Can it be shipped from somewhere else?"

Will frowned and said.

"Vell, your territories are all located near the banks of the Kulun River, and even those a little further away rely on tributaries..."

Roy's expression grew even more serious as he thought of another aspect.

This river water isn't just used by people in this area; residents along the riverbanks also use it.

But the village chiefs of those villages are not this magical cat.

They were even less fortunate to have a highly skilled nun priestess arrive.

They would most likely treat it as a common cold, and after taking ordinary medicine and receiving treatment from the priest, they would leave it aside.

More importantly!

The Kulun River flows from northeast to southwest.

In other words, the ice crystals coming from the north may have already assimilated the upstream areas as well.

We can even think about it on a larger scale: is it really only the Kulun River that has been affected in this way? What about the other rivers?

Even these adventurers, who travel all over the country and are the most well-informed, have only just become aware of this matter.

It's even less likely that other districts will be able to take any precautions.

This seemingly simple case of typhoid fever could very well spread to the entire southern urban cluster.

Will, prompted by Roy's words, immediately realized what was going on and asked Ella.

"Have you reported this matter?"

Ella quickly replied.

"Fina has already reported it to the church, and the village chief has also been contacted by the Mage Association. It's just that the nobles..."

The words were not finished, but everyone present understood the meaning.

Apart from the capital and its satellite cities, the territories of nobles were generally highly autonomous.

Therefore, it is impossible for them to help each other without expecting anything in return.

Either you are related by blood, or you have a relationship of mutual benefit or religious faith, etc.

Otherwise, you must offer a corresponding return, or it won't matter if everyone in the territory dies.

Every year, large numbers of people are expelled from the capital city area and flow into various territories.

Then they lived for several generations, and then they all died out.

Then repeat continuously.

"I know a few elders who should be able to help. I'll let them know when the time comes."

After a long silence, Will finally let out a deep sigh.

"Even if the disease is cured, there will still be problems with drinking water. No one knows how many ice crystals are in the river. Even if such a large river can be temporarily purified, as long as those ice crystals don't disappear, the same thing will happen again."

Roy, however, only added insult to injury by pouring cold water on the situation.

"I can only guarantee what happens within my territory. Anyway, the Kulun River leads to the capital, and those people up there will naturally handle it."

But Will's tone didn't soften at all; he simply added another sentence.

"It's just a matter of how long it will take..."

How long it takes for those in positions of authority to resolve a problem depends not on how long it takes for them to discover it, but on how long it takes for the problem to affect them.

Everyone understood this perfectly well, so they fell silent again, and no one said anything more.

Some time passed.

A slight commotion suddenly broke out in the consultation area, followed by Fina's voice.

"Ella, come here for a second!"

Ella immediately stopped what she was doing, hurriedly pushed open the curtain, and rushed to the front.

The first thing you see is Fina sitting on a bench, her body covered in frost.

In front of Fina was a little boy of eight or nine years old, who was struggling to help a woman.

The woman was probably his mother, but her skin was frighteningly white, and the areas where the blood vessels and meridians converged were even reddish-purple.

Her hair and the spaces between her fingers were covered in frost, just like Fina's.

The little boy saw that during Fina's treatment, frost suddenly formed on her body, just like on his mother.

He panicked immediately, stammering and struggling for a long time before finally managing to utter a single, halting sentence.

"I...Mom, you...um, I...I'll pay for it. I won't go to the doctor anymore. I'll take my mom home and I'll pay you back."

The more he spoke, the paler his face became. He was already tired from supporting his mother, and his legs began to give way, causing him to sway unsteadily.

Her eyes, already covered in dark circles, began to redden, as if she was about to cry.

……

On the other side...

Murphy thought for a moment after the village chief agreed to his request to go.

The reasons for going to the village were actually not just those two.

The remaining two are shipbuilding...

And collect all the ice crystals and spiders—these things might not be of much use to other life forms.

But for Murphy...

The former is the core fuel of the Cursed Furnace, while the latter is the raw material for the Spider Planting System.

However, when similar creations are asked to be forged again, they will not generate new abilities, but will instead provide proficiency or level to the original abilities.

"Mr. Murphy, when are you planning to go? What do you need to prepare?" Lynn asked.

Murphy nodded.

It planned to return to the cave first and build a device that could directly convert the ice crystal curse into liquid curse fuel.