Chapter 34: A Prop (Expensive)

The smith took a red rod from a shelf. It was certainly made of iron, but only about thirty centimeters long. It was obviously nowhere near long enough.

“That’s clearly too short, old man.”

Diller shook his head, his tone saying not to make bad jokes.

“Just listen. This is a magic item called an extending iron rod. Channeling mana into it makes it grow longer.”

When the smith poured mana into it, the red rod suddenly began extending from both ends. By the time it stopped, it was more than two meters long.

“With this, you can place it in the mouth while it’s short and extend it from within. Getting a long rod into the creature’s mouth from the start would be almost impossible. I’ll use the remaining time to modify it so it can withstand the grand crocodile’s bite. But I can’t say how long it will hold.”

The smith scratched his head.

“Thank you very much!”

I bowed. He had produced a far better idea than anything I’d conceived.

“But this thing isn’t cheap. It was so expensive that nobody bought it. Seven million G. Can you lot pay that?”

Expensive! That was incredibly expensive! Almost all the money I’d worked so hard to earn would disappear… But this wasn’t the time to be stingy. Money couldn’t buy back a life.

“That’s fine. We’ll take it.”

I removed 7,000,000 G from the leather pouch.

“You’ve got quite a bit of money. That includes the cost of the modifications. I’ll get to work at once and make sure it’s ready by the day after tomorrow.”

“Please do.”

With this, we’d managed to assemble the tools needed to deal with the grand crocodile. Leaving the extending iron rod in the smith’s hands, we departed the workshop.

“Do we have more or less everything now?” Eve asked.

“I think we have the weapons themselves that we’ll need to defeat it. Now we have to work out a concrete plan.”

Honestly, I lacked combat experience. I would rely on Diller’s and Eve’s experience here.

“The plan itself isn’t bad,” Diller said. “The question is who’ll put the extending iron rod into its mouth, and who’ll throw in the bomb. If either one fails, it’s over.”

The more dangerous role was undoubtedly putting the rod into the grand crocodile’s mouth.

“I’ll be the one to put the rod in—”

“No, boss. Let me handle that. You have to get close to the grand crocodile to do it. I’m better than you at maneuvering around a monster like that. I want you to take the role of throwing the bomb into its mouth.”

It was difficult to argue against that. There was no doubt Diller’s ability to adapt in the heat of battle was superior to mine.

“Understood. I’m giving you the hardest job, Diller.”

“Then I’ll deal with the red crocodiles around it,” Eve said.

“I’ll focus on clearing away the small fry too,” Colin added.

Eve and Diller’s subordinate Colin would handle the surrounding enemies.

“I’m counting on you.”

『Will the horde attacking Delcour the day after tomorrow number more than five hundred?』

『Yes.』

『More than one thousand?』

『No.』

『More than eight hundred?』

『Yes.』

Between eight hundred and one thousand…

“Apparently, the horde coming the day after tomorrow numbers more than eight hundred. Does this town have the strength to defeat over eight hundred red crocodiles?”

“Hmm. I think there’ll be heavy casualties… So there are that many.”

We continued discussing our plans for the day after tomorrow.