I, Stone Golem, only want to forge.

Murphy watched from the sidelines, somewhat surprised by the sudden and inexplicable turn of events from friends to enemies.

But his gaze fell on the children wrapped in vines, and he glanced lightly at the injuries on their bodies.

"Ah, I hear children's voices. Are children boarding my ship? It's a pity I can't see them."

The giant beast said with some sadness.

"Oh, is that you, Uncle Big Fish?"

Suddenly, a child's voice reached Murphy and the giant beast's minds.

"Ah, although I know you're not calling me, you should call me Grandpa Big Fish. I'm a bit older than them."

The giant beast was both happy and a little jealous when it heard a child calling it, but in the end it still said excitedly.

"Grandpa Big Fish, are we going to die...?"

The childish voice suddenly asked.

Upon hearing this, the giant beast fell silent. After a long while, it asked Murphy.

"Stone Man, what does this kid mean? Why is he so eager to die just for talking to me? What's going on outside?"

"I don't know, let me ask."

Murphy couldn't figure out what had happened either, so he had no choice but to ask.

"So what happened?"

When Sri saw Murphy ask the question, he calmed his murderous intent slightly before slowly speaking.

"These children were captured and intended to be sold as slaves."

"Slaves? What made them capture them?" Murphy asked.

"Humans".

"Humans capturing other humans as slaves?"

Murphy paused for a long time before nodding thoughtfully, as if humans were capable of such a thing.

Just like how a stone man uses stones as weapons.

Some people consider themselves human, while others do not.

The only difference is that the stone in the former is not a stone person, while the person in the latter is a real person.

Murphy pondered for a moment, then summoned the seaweed stone golem again.

When the stone golem reappeared for some reason, its body had become more slender, or rather, more like seaweed.

"They're injured, should I treat them?" Murphy asked.

Although it was asking questions, it had already summoned Little Stone and sent it to the ship to find supplies that could be used for treatment.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Murphy!"

Siri immediately controlled the vines and gently placed the children on the ground.

Then he turned to Diaz beside him and said something extremely cold.

"Didn't you say you wanted to get to the bottom of this? Come with me."

After he finished speaking, the vines behind him wrapped around Diaz, and the two of them disappeared from the spot in an instant.

Seeing this, Murphy scratched his head, deciding to go and see what was going on after treating the children.

"Hello," it said to the children.

The other children didn't say anything; they just shrank behind the little girl holding the baby.

Although the little girl was not much bigger than the children around her, she seemed to have a more mature demeanor.

"Hello... um, what happened? Have we found a buyer?"

"Do you have anything to sell?" Murphy asked, looking puzzled.

"Huh?"

The little girl was stunned. She looked the stone man up and down, pondered for a while, and then decided that the stone man had no reason to tease her.

Perhaps some accident happened, causing me to fall into this strange place from the hands of those human traffickers?

However, judging from her current observation, the stone man doesn't seem to have any ill intentions towards her, and Grandpa Big Fish just said that the stone man won't hurt her.

So she swallowed hard and timidly began to speak.

"Um, my name is Lillian, Mr. Stone Man. What's your name?"

"Murphy, the craftsman."

After Murphy gave a brief self-introduction, he then asked...

"I can treat your illness, will there be payment?"

"Reward...do you mean...money? I don't have anything valuable on me, and the necklace my mother gave me was stolen...Yes, I'm sorry."

Upon hearing the word "reward," Lillian immediately lowered her head, her voice growing softer and softer.

She even started to cry, but she managed to suppress her emotions, though her voice trembled slightly.

"Compensation is compensation, not money," Murphy explained earnestly.

"Then... is this okay?"

A little boy next to Lillian timidly handed over a simple sword carved from a tree root.

But his voice betrayed a hint of unease. Although he liked this thing, it wasn't like he hadn't used it to treat illnesses before...

Apart from the occasional free medical consultations offered by the Vatican, or the doctors who travel to the countryside.

The cost of one medical visit could be enough to cover their food expenses for several months.

Murphy gently picked up the wooden sword with two fingers, held it in front of his eyes, examined it intently for a while, then waved it around before nodding in satisfaction.

"Can."

The little boy's eyes lit up immediately. He looked at the other children around him, and I nudged them and whispered a few words of advice.

"Hurry up, hurry up, get something out of here!"

The other children, however, were suffering from mental instability and physical weakness due to the torment they had endured in recent days.

But after being reminded like this, they all took out the things they had been using for emotional support in the past few days.

Something like a simple wooden comb, a worn-out, stained rag doll, or a few yellowed letters...

Murphy took them all, examined them carefully for a while, and then accepted them with satisfaction.

But Lillian didn't take anything out.

Of course, she certainly couldn't take the baby out of her arms by herself.

However, the baby couldn't get it out by himself, so Lillian helped him.

"Yes, I'm sorry... I really have nothing else to give you... But this child, you can still have this cloth; he always hugs it when he sleeps."

As Lillian spoke, she took a piece of cloth from the sleeping baby's arms and handed it to Murphy.

His outstretched hand was still trembling slightly, and his face showed nervousness, clearly afraid that Murphy would refuse.

After all, it didn't smell very good, and it was covered in baby drool and stains.

If those things could still be considered objects at best.

This is actually no different from garbage.

However, Murphy couldn't smell these things and didn't care about stains or anything like that.

It simply picked up the cloth, and then, as if possessed, pressed its fingers against the middle of the cloth and spun it around forcefully.

After twirling it on its fingertip for a while, it put it away and nodded.

"That works too."

After saying that, Murphy lifted a child up with one hand and gently infused the child with life force through water plants and stones.

Controlling the ice element, it freezes all the pus and inflammatory toxins oozing from the child's wound, then removes them along the cracked scab.

Just then, the little stone man ran over, carrying a basket of herbs and cloth on his head.

Murphy reached out and crushed the herbs, then infused them with life force.

Heat it up, then cool it slightly with ice, apply it to the child's cleaned wound, and then bandage it tightly.

Then they switched to the next child.

As it worked, it turned to Lillian and asked.

"Where is your payment?"

"I have nothing left to give."

Actually, there were more than just a few children who were caught and brought onto the boat.

Those who remained, lacking any spiritual support, all died.

However, Lillian is an exception; she is the oldest child, perhaps because she has always been called "older sister."

I inexplicably felt a sense of responsibility, thinking that I should take care of these children, and that's how I managed to stay alive until now, clinging to life by sheer willpower.

"Oh, then what should we do?" Murphy asked.

"Hair, is that okay?"

Lillian pinched her hair and asked, feeling incredibly embarrassed.

Her mother once said that her hair was beautiful, so she always kept it long...

If I had to say, this might be the most valuable thing she owns.

Although now...

Murphy followed Lillian's words and looked at the strand of hair in her hand.

Dry and greasy, covered in grime, with a strange smell, all stuck together because it hadn't been cleaned for so long.

"Give it to me after you're healed and have washed it."

Murphy thought for a while and decided that it would be too much trouble for him to wash himself, so he suggested that it would be better for the other side to wash themselves.

"Huh?"

Lillian paused, her chapped lips twitching slightly as if she wanted to say something, but before she could utter a word, she felt a slight stinging sensation in her nose and eyes.

She subconsciously let out a soft sob, but didn't cry.