A Sign Of Hope

Upon re-entering the house, Renji found both Hinata and Reo next to a wounded child. "What happened to him?" He asked, curious to know how he got injured that badly.

"He was attacked by a Drakon during their mission to retrieve water and other food supplies from the surface." Hinata replied as she tended to the wounds of the boy.

"Retrieve huh? So that's what the old man was doing up there? Come to think of it, there's no way an old man would be suitable enough for that task, so what was he really doing up there?" He began interrogating the old man's grandson.

"Is the old man the one the system is referring to?" He said in his thoughts.

"Are you trying to imply something?" With a disheartening tone, Reo stood to his feet with slight anger. What Renji had said was basically the same thing as an accusation.

"What are you saying Renji?" Hinata also became confused, it was to be expected after all. They had no knowledge of the warning the system gave him.

"What was the old man doing up there if he was not tasked to retrieve food supplies and water?" Renji said with confidence, he wasn't afraid to shun the old man in front of his grandson. However it was just a guess to help reveal the true meaning of the system's message.

"If you must know." Tunlop said emerging from a room with the painkillers in hand.

"Ever since we managed to send that request for help, I always went to the surface with the hopes that a magic guild would be so kind enough to help us. Each passing day I took the risk alone, I couldn't allow Reo because he's the next heir to the throne. If anything should ever happen to me, at least I can die peacefully knowing my village is in great hands." He addressed the issue as he carefully fed Raymond the painkillers.

"Before I could give up, the gods answered my prayers and you two arrived." He added.

"And now that you're here, we finally have a chance at stopping the Drakons. It'll be highly appreciated if you don't go around throwing accusations." Reo pitched in, obviously still a bit upset by Renji's choice of words.

"And how do you propose we do that? Based on what you said earlier there has to be thousands of them, do you want us to murder a thousand plus of your villagers? I mean, I got no problem with that but how about you?" Renji folded his arms as he asked, as it stood mass murder was the only option one could think of to easily solve the situation.

Both the old man and Reo looked down, they had no answer to his question but they also didn't want to kill anymore of their people.

"T-the water..." Raymond uttered as he groaned heavily in pain.

"Raymond!" Reo exclaimed as he swiftly applied more warm towels on his wounds. "Don't talk, just let us treat your wounds." He added.

Renji approached Raymond and bent forward to examine his wounds. "What are you doing?" Reo inquired.

Examining his wounds, he found traces of a necrotizing agent laced at the point of entry of the cut. "Necrotic toxin." He said softly with a smile.

"Huh?" They all muttered as they heard words they could not understand.

"How long was it since he got attacked?"

"It's been almost three days." Reo replied.

Renji grabbed a hold of his injured arm gently. "It seems Raymond here has allowed for a new discovery, his wounds are laced with Necrotic toxins. It's a poison that causes excruciating pain when it mixes with bacteria. You were on the right track by using warm water to constantly clean his wounds. Do you have some shiso?" Renji requested immediately, shiso otherwise known as Perilla frutescens is an ancient Japanese herbal weed.

However he wasn't sure if something like that would exist in this world.

"Right away." Reo said as he rushed into the backroom and scoured through various medicinal herbs that they had, rushing out of the room with the requested item, he handed it over to Renji.

"Oh?" He said as he collected it, baffled that they indeed had some similarities with his old world. Dipping the herb in the bowl of warm water Reo used for the towel, he gently wiped the surface of Raymond's wounds first before cleaning it as a whole.

Raymond groaned heavily in pain as it was unbearable, but after the process was done his heavy breathing returned to normal. For the first time in nearly three days, Raymond was relaxed.

"A-amazing." Reo and Tunlop said in disbelief.

"How did you do that?" Hinata questioned his medical abilities.

Unknown to them, as a ninja in his previous world Renji had his fair share in the usage of neurotoxins and poison which he used to either kill or immobilize his target.

"Let's just say, I've had my fair share of poison. Thanks to our little friend here, we now know the claws of the Drakons are laced with a necrotic toxin. Probably a defense and offense mechanism which makes them highly formidable." Renji said, pointing out the new discovery.

"There's something in the water." Raymond spoke as he was finally set free from the pain that tortured him for days.

"The water? Are you referring to the Reaper's Pit?" Hinata said, wrapping the injured arm of the boy with bandages.

"Yes that's it, the Reaper's Pit." He confirmed.

"I see, the Reaper's Pit. The origins of the Drakons, if there really is something beneath the water then that could be what gives the pit the ability to grant superhuman strength and healing capabilities." Renji proclaimed as he stroke his chin gently.

"If that's true maybe it's possible to save the villagers!" Hinata exclaimed with excitement.

"Yeah, by destroying whatever's within the pit the effects on the villagers might probably be reversed or it might cause something even more deadly. It's a huge gamble but a far better option than mass murder." Renji added, chuckling softly as a solution had finally been reached.

Clenching her fist tightly, Hinata smiled radiantly as the mission had finally tipped in their favor. "All right then, let's pay a visit to the Reaper's Pit." She said aloud.