Kujonin Chapter 30

Kujonin
Author: Hanakuroko
—

From the forest, a large stampede of masmaskarl that covered the ground surged this way.
We instantly fled to the boat.
The moment we were about to depart, thudthudthudthud, the echizzen that were tossed upwards came raining down.
The echizzen also rained down onto the island, and the large monsters opened their mouths and ate them.
Some of the large monsters stomp on the ground, and when the masmaskarl's movements are stopped, there are some who feed on them like they were scooping them up.
Truly the law of the jungle.1
Masmaskarl have no way to rise in power.
Even if they were going to run away, why did they come towards the sea?
I now understand how the large monsters sustain their large bodies.
But if this keeps up, then we'll be swallowed by the masmaskarl stampede.

Ayl can deal with personal combat and large monsters, but she probably can't deal with a stampede.
Looks like Velsa's gotten too close to the stampede for research purposes.
There's no one else other than me to deal with it.
I force Ayl and Velsa into the boat and stick a defensive barrier to it, then rang the Confusion Bell.
The surging masmaskarl began to cannibalize each other in confusion, and ones that suddenly had their levels surge upwards began to appear.
The large monsters that had their feet bitten began to spout blood, and the frenzied masmaskarl stampede continued to bite, aiming for blood.
The large monsters are conversely becoming the prey.
It's a complete reversal of the law of the jungle.
The weak are devouring the strong.

Small wounds can take a life.
Death screams resounded throughout the island; in a few seconds, the large haze turtle transformed into a skeleton and sh.e.l.l.
If it wasn't for the defensive barrier, me too; "Aa, I'd become like that, huh?" I thought, and a chill ran up my back.

At any rate, in order to exterminate the masmaskarl, it's necessary to reduce the number of individuals.
I retrieve the poison rat dumplings from the Item Bag and threw them into the forest.
The masmaskarl who at the poison rat dumplings died, and the masmaskarl who ate those corpses died.
However, that combo ended after only a few times.
By eating the corpses, the body developed a tolerance against the weakened poison, and they evolved into poison masmaskarl that carried poison within their bodies.
They're monsters.
They are capable of evolving within a matter of minutes.

I destroyed this island's ecosystem really quickly.
Even so, I install traps.
I'll use whatever I have.
When I ran out of the sticky board traps, I drew a magic circle directly on the ground and stopped the stampede.
I threw sleeping and paralysis Va○sen (smoke-type rodenticide) randomly at them.
Smoke rose from all over the area.
The smoke doesn't enter the defensive barrier, but my field of vision has been stolen.
When I looked with the Search Skill, I can tell that the masmaskarl stampede is gradually taking on bad statuses.

Deploying a wind magic magic circle, I dispersed the smoke into the depths of the island.
It took about 30 minutes.
All the monsters within the range of my Search Skill have taken on bad statuses.

Around when there was no more smoke, I undid my defensive barrier.
The echizzen have already descended into the sea.
Calling the two people within the boat, I go to clean up.
Other than the ones we left alive for Velsa to research, we'll incinerate them all.
Gathering them together, we burned them all at once.
When I thought there was nothing left but cinders, there was just small magic stones left of them.
The magic stones of evolved monsters are a different color; I retrieved them all, since I might be able to use them for something.
Walking around the island center, I went around burning the corpses of all the masmaskarl and echizzen that I could see.
Ayl beheaded all of the giant monsters that couldn't move and dismantled them.

The ones who had eaten masmaskarl or poison masmaskarl even a little bit were immediately burned, since poison might be circulating within their meat.

When all the monsters within 100 meters of the ship had disappeared, the sun set.

"I'm wiped out."

Ayl said while carving the meat off the large monsters.
All 3 of us share the sentiment.

We're on the beach near the ship, grilling meat and having dinner.
After dinner, I entered the jungle alone, wondering if there are any poison or sleeping medicine ingredients; I go to look for them.
If I leave things like this, we won't be able to deal with it if it happens again.

Ayl said, "It's better to get off this island fast," but Velsa said, "No, I haven't heard of this island before, so I'd like to research as much as I can."
Either way, the boat was damaged a little by the falling echizzen, so it will take some time to fix.
Thankfully there's an abundance of trees, so it's become a situation where I'm searching for suitable lumber.
Because of that, since we have to survive on this island, poison, sleep inducing medicine, and paralysis inducing medicine will be necessary, so I entered the jungle.

actually 'the weak become meat for the strong', which is usually translated as 'survival of the fittest', but I thought the 'law of the jungle' fit the situation better. This is purely my taste, so just letting you know.

… What the heck just happened?>