3 idiot chapter 126

 Episode 126. The Great Maw of the Swamp

"Go get it! Go, you guys! Secure the food!!"

"""Uoooooh!!!"""

Something… feels different from yesterday.
The "Forest" team led by Izley is unusually fired up.
Their pace is absurdly fast too.

"Meat secured!!"

"Disassemble immediately! Minami-san! We’re counting on you!"

"Uh, yes... I’ll instruct you, at least."

And so, our Minami is completely swamped.
Teaching over there, instructing over here.
Disassembly work is going on all over the place.
Most of the mages who were previously in support roles are now fully assigned to water duties—it’s that hectic.

"Uhh, so... is it really okay for us to be taking a break?"

"If the Hearty Eater gets close, the prey will run off. Just take it easy for now. The real battlefield will be at the cooking station."

Izley grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
Honestly, is this really okay?
But seeing everyone energetically hunting, it’d be a shame for us to step in and mess it up.
Technically, the request has already been fulfilled, so we could just go back…
But right now, it doesn’t look like the Forest team has any intention of leaving.

"One hour left! After that, we’ll start disassembling the dragon! Mages, prep to chill the body! Don’t let it spoil, no matter what!"

"""Rogeer!!!"""

Things have really gotten out of hand.
Sure, the meat was amazing.
But still.
Aren’t you guys maybe trying a little too hard?

It was enough to make me start thinking: “Let’s take it easy”, only to have—

ZUUUUN—a vibration shook my gut.

The forest around us started rustling, followed by shouts.

"Evacuate! Retreat, you idiots! Run for it, run!!"

People came charging out from the forest depths, yelling to the others as they made a beeline in our direction.

Looks like something bad just happened.

"What happened!?"

"Leader! We messed up! We went in too deep! Something crazy attacked us!"

"I’m asking you—what came out!?"

Izley and his clan members shouted frantically at each other.
But there was no time to chat leisurely.

"It’s coming... Hearty Eater, get ready for battle! Time to make up for all the slacking!"

"""Understood!"""

As we all grabbed our weapons and crouched into position—
The forest trees were mowed down, and “it” appeared.

Huge. Just, ridiculously huge.
Might even be a full size bigger than the “King Serpent” we fought before.

Its appearance...

"Uh... is that... a crocodile?"

"It’s got, like, dinosaur fins on its back..."

"Now that’s what I call a proper monster. I wonder if it’s edible though?"

I muttered without thinking, and everything around us turned chaotic.
Clan members scattered, even Izley had to turn his back to it, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Fall back and regroup! We can’t win if we’re spread out like this! Hey, Hearty Eater! What’re you doing!? You’d better run too—!"

"We’ll manage somehow. You focus on regrouping."

"Huh?"

"It’s big, yeah, but compared to sharks, whales, or dragons? It’s way smaller. And this is land—we’ve got solid footing."

"Wait... don’t tell me—you’re planning to hunt it?"

"Still, that mouth is massive. Head-on won’t work. What do you think, Leader?"

Even as we were chatting calmly, the monster kept closing in.
Oh wow, the whole “crocs are fast on land” thing is real, huh?
It looked like it was flailing, but it was actually moving pretty quick.

"Minami, spears. Two of them with rope."

"Understood, Master."

After receiving two shark-hunting harpoons from Minami, I crouched low and raised them high.

"At the signal, Saintess two in one, use Bind. You’ll freeze its movement for a second—hold it as tightly as you can."

"Got it!"

[Aye aye～]

After the lighthearted reply, I launched the first harpoon.

"Shaaaa!!"

The spear struck the beast’s snout, and it howled in pain, its steps slowing.

It’s working well—the barbed harpoon was made for sharks, meant for both hunting and restraining.
No way it’s coming out, and the rope’s plenty strong too.

"Got the lower jaw tooooo!!"

I hurled the second one, which slammed into its mouth and pierced deep into the flesh inside.

Alright. Time to get serious.

"Azuma! Take the other line!"

"Got it!"

With that, Azuma and I ran to either side, winding the rope around our arms as we widened the distance.

Which of course meant…

"Uwaaaah, that’s brutal..."

[That mouth is huge… I didn’t know they could even open that wide…]

With a good yank, the dumb-looking croc twisted its head sideways and opened its jaws wide.

Still, this thing is strong. I mean, of course it is!

"Saintess Duo!"

[Bind!]

Light wrapped around the croc’s body, pinning its limbs.

The sheer power to restrain that giant thing—those two are as ridiculous as ever.

You’d think we could just leave it to the Saintess from the start, but unfortunately, Kana can only affect the mind and use magic related to her “dragon” aspect.

As a mana tank, the role naturally falls to Nozomi alone.

Even though her capacity increased a lot after evolving into a “Dragonkin.”

Still, we can’t push everything onto her.

"Nishida! Minami! Disassemble itttt!"

"""Roger!"""

The light-footed duo jumped in.

Each wielding a massive new cleaver they just bought.

"I’m opening it all the way! Nishida-sama, support me!"

"Aye aye~! Straight from the back to the heart—let’s go all the way in!"

From that point on, the scene was just... awful.

The two landed on the croc’s back and started cutting in, getting drenched in spurting blood as they went deeper and deeper inside.

Naturally, the thing thrashed around like crazy, so the three of us—and one “something”?—held it down for dear life.

Even Azuma was getting yanked around, so you can imagine what it was like for me.

When things got really bad, we got extra support from the Saintess and managed to hold on.

Then suddenly, the croc shuddered more violently than ever.

And—

"Got the magic stone!!"

"Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone! Is anyone hurt!?"

The two of them reappeared from the croc’s back, soaked completely red.

Yeah. That was awful.

This method of hunting is seriously messed up.

"Damn it... If my charge lance hadn’t broken, I could’ve made that way easier..."

"Can’t be helped. It got wrecked during the whale hunt. Snapped clean in two."

"I still can’t believe that thing broke... Well, no use crying over it. Heeey, good work, everyone!"

Waving at the two blood-covered hunters, I finally let go of the rope that had given me such a hard time.

Ugh, my shoulders are wrecked.

Rotating them in big circles as I welcomed the two back—

"Master, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

I wiped the blood off Minami’s face with my hand, and she gave me a very serious expression.

"There’s no room left in the magic bag for this huge thing."

"Yeah, that’s a huge problem."

Out of the frying pan and into the fire—that’s probably the perfect phrase for this situation.

---

A few days after Izley and the others entered the forest.

One of the clan members came rushing back to the guild in a panic.

Judging by the look on his face, this was definitely an emergency.

Maybe they ran into some unexpected monster, or maybe something happened to Izley.

The thought filled me with dread.

He was out of breath, panting and trembling as he clung to the counter and said—

"Please! I need a cart, lend me a cart! Wait, it won’t work in the forest... then big sheets! A tarp, anything! Just something to help carry it!"

…Yep. Definitely an emergency.

If they need to wrap something up and carry it, then there must be casualties—or at least a ton of injured people.

Grinding my teeth, I walked up to him.

"We’ll send people from the guild. How many are there? How long can they hold out? What kind of medicine do they need?"

When I spoke, his face lit up with hope.

He’d probably run all this way nonstop for the sake of his comrades.

He’d still have to act as a guide—but first, we needed to get him some water, and a little rest…

"How long it'll last, huh... I'm not too sure. We're desperately freezing it right now, so I think it should be fine for the moment... No medicine needed. But if possible, it'd be a huge help if you could lend us a mage who can use ice-type magic!"

"Wait—what? You're freezing it? If you're freezing it, won’t it die? Or wait, is it already dead, and you're trying to stop it from rotting?"

"It’s dead!! That’s why we want to bring it back quickly before it starts to rot!!"

"Tch, so there really were casualties… Alright, everyone get ready! Round up all available Walkers!"

When I shouted out the instructions, all the staff sitting at the counter stood up and began loudly calling out to the surrounding Walkers. Some dug through records to find people who could use ice magic like he’d mentioned, while others went to fetch Walkers on vacation who weren’t currently at the guild.

"Th-thank you so much... Now the leader won’t bite my head off..."

So said the Walker belonging to the Forest Clan as he sat down on the spot.

"That means Izley is safe, right? Tell me—what happened?"

I walked up to him and met his gaze.

"We got our hands on some huge meat. Real massive stuff. So they told me to go borrow something to carry it back before it spoils... The Hearty Eater’s magic bag is full, and ours are nowhere near big enough to fit that thing. We were totally stumped... Haha, really, thank you so much, Branch Chief."

The young Walker gave a tired smile.

Okay. Let’s take a breath here.

"Any casualties?"

"Zero. Seriously, the Hearty Eater is a monster."

"...And what exactly are you trying to haul back?"

"A Spino-Crocodile. And not just any, a high-rank one. It’s ridiculously huge..."

Lately, I’ve been wondering why everything has to be this exhausting.

An “otherworlder” tied to royalty keeps showing up at the guild every single day. Some big-shot merchant’s talking about being a guarantor for a bunch of shady weirdos.

Then you’ve got maniacs dragging the corpse of a higher-tier “Sea Reaper” and a Phantom Whale back by boat.

And now this? A high-rank Spino-Crocodile?

A notoriously dangerous magical beast nicknamed “Maw of the Swamp,” and huge on top of that.

Just how deep into the forest did you people go?

That’s not a zone you’re even supposed to be in unless you’re looking to die.

I have so many things I want to yell at you for. But before that...

"Of course it’s the Hearty Eater again…"

"They’re insane, aren’t they?"

"‘They’re insane’?! Don’t just casually say that, idiot! Stop giving me these half-baked reports! Ugh, fine—send out a guild-wide notice! Zero casualties! Not a real emergency! Call up anyone good at transport! Apparently, we’ve got to haul a massive lump of meat out of the forest!"

Ugh, I hate this.

I am relieved that just having them around wards off all these threats. Honestly, with the kind of monsters we’ve had showing up lately, it’s practically a miracle.

Thanks to them taking care of those “abnormalities,” the forest and the sea can finally go back to normal.

And yeah, I am grateful. But at this rate, I’m not gonna survive this job.

Maybe if I stick with it for a few years I’ll get used to it? No, no way. My stomach won’t last that long.

Alright, I’ll rewrite the letter I was going to send via Longbird.

Maybe if I ask him, “Could you send that over here?” he’ll finally panic a little.

That’s how I’ll get his attention.

If he actually comes, though, my lifespan’s going to burn out faster than a cigarette.

"Haaah... Seriously. I thought they might be some kind of unsung hero, but maybe they’re actually a master of ‘tormenting the Branch Chief’..."

Ever since they arrived, my stomach's been in knots every single day.

With that bitter thought, I shoved a foul-tasting antacid down my throat.

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