Alex's condition for Mystogan is easy. He just needs to tell the truth to Wendy. Alex has made sure to prevent Wendy from meeting Earthland Jellal to avoid confusion, but she needs to know the truth eventually and now is a good time.
Mystogan sighs and agrees. There will be enough time for Wendy and Mystogan to reunite and have good conversations. She will surely be happy because he is her saviour and she also has been looking for him all this time.
Alex leaves Mystogan to talk to Wendy and does his days normally. He takes jobs and has fun with his Guild Mates when he's free. There will be quite some time before the big Anima appears in Magnolia, so they have enough time to prepare.
Alex also keeps watching his Guild Mates to check the events that should happen before Edolas Arc. None of them happen as he has predicted. But something similar to one of the events happened.
Well, it's not really something similar. It's just that someone has the same idiotic thinking that became the reason for an event in the series. Natsu is stealing an S-Class job quest.
In the series, the S-Class job he stole was Galuna Island's quest. But that quest was there because of Moondrip Ritual done by Lyon's group. It doesn't happen now because Lyon doesn't have a reason to free the sealed Deliora.
That demon has died, after all, and the reason Lyon wanted to free Deliora was just to fight and kill it to show that he can surpass Ur. But Ur is still alive too, so he can go to fight her anytime to prove his strength and of course, he never wins so far.
Natsu still wants to take an S-Class job though and the job he takes is a quest to kill a monster. The location is in Caelum, a country located on a big island south of Fiore. So obviously, they need to use a ship to go there and it's bad news for Natsu.
Their team only has Natsu, Happy, and Lucy now. Wendy and Carla are their team members, but both of them are leaving the team temporarily to do some jobs with Mystogan. He decides to teach Wendy a few things before the Anima appears.
Anyway, because Natsu was hasty when stealing the quest, he didn't check what quest he stole and just took any quest paper he could grab. He didn't even realize that the target for this quest is a sea monster that obviously lives in the sea.
Now the problem is, they can't attack the monster from the land because it lives in the sea and only attacks ships. So they need to be on the sea to attack it and even then, it will be very difficult to even attack it because unless they can use underwater attacks, they can only wait for it to show up.
The biggest problem for Natsu though, is that they need to ride on boats or ships to fight the sea monster. After all, they can't stand on the water. Fighting it while swimming is also not an option because it's much better than them at swimming.
They have a solution though, that is for Happy to carry Natsu while flying. But then, they still can only wait for the sea monster to show up on the surface. Also, Happy can only carry Natsu, so Lucy will need to stay on the ship which will be very dangerous.
Well, her Celestial Spirits can help her, but she hardly can attack the sea monster when she already needs to focus on staying on the surface. Even using Aquarius's power, she can't really do much against the very powerful sea monster.
The sea monster is a giant Clam-like creature with some octopus-like tentacles hidden inside its shells. Its shells are very hard, so damaging it is very difficult and its attacks are very strong and fast. Furthermore, it can use powerful Water Magic to attack while staying underwater.
Basically, Natsu and Lucy can't even hit it properly most of the time, not to mention damaging it. Its shells are too hard to break off and it's smart enough to stay underwater most of the time when fighting them. Also, it can just run away and hide anytime it wants and they can't do anything about it.
Unlike in the story though, Makarov sends Alex to deal with this instead of Erza. While Erza volunteered herself to deal with them, Alex told her and Makarov that she isn't suited for this because the target is a sea monster.
Alex told them that while Natsu stole that job, people will still think that Fairy Tail has taken the job and they need to be responsible for it. So they need to clear it or it will be a failed quest record for their Guild.
They can punish Natsu's team later, but the job needs to be finished to keep their Guild's reputation. So Makarov agrees to send Alex for this and he even sends Erza too. Alex will be responsible for finishing the quest while Erza is responsible to discipline Natsu's team.
When they arrive in Caelum, Erza wants to capture Natsu's team quickly and discipline them. But Alex stops her and tells her to just watch for a while. After all, this is a good chance to teach Natsu how difficult and dangerous S-Class jobs truly are.
"Let him understand why we set difficult procedures to take S-Class jobs. He won't understand even if we explain it, so let him experience it himself."
Alex grins because this job is different from Galuna Island's job quest. That job was hardly an S-Class job. Their opponents weren't even S-Class Mages, just some rogue Mages with similar levels of power with them.
Well, if Deliora really got freed, then it would be an S-Class job. But Alex is sure that they won't be able to kill Deliora if that demon is revived, unless Deliora wasn't revived at full power. Even Alex still thinks that he and Ur were very lucky to kill Deliora back then.
This current job though, is a proper S-Class job with great difficulty. So Alex wants Natsu to see it for himself just how difficult a proper S-Class job can be and why the Guild set rules to take S-Class jobs.
Erza finally agrees after Alex gives her some good reasons. So they hide from team Natsu and just watch them struggle every day. After all, their team needs to lure the sea monster which is difficult enough and when they succeed, they can't even damage it properly.
The sea monster won't show up every day even when they lure it with good baits too. So they end up spending days without any good results. Even worse for Natsu, he needs to stay on the ship most of the time with his motion sickness because Happy can't fly all the time.
2 weeks pass and finally Natsu's spirit hits rock bottom. The sea monster is quite intelligent and lately it just snatched the bait they used then disappeared. They can't even fight it and only spend their time uselessly.
Natsu was still not giving up though, unlike his teammates. But even that only lasts for 3 more days because even he finally gives up. They get depressed and look very tired now after not having any results for more than 2 weeks.
Alex and Erza finally show up after watching the good show for more than 2 weeks. Erza shows up first and when Natsu's team sees Erza's face, they shiver and want to run immediately.
But Alex suddenly wraps his hands on Natsu's and Lucy's shoulders. Meteor also shows up with him to grab Happy, preventing them from running away. Cold sweats drench their clothes because they know they are doomed.
Erza starts to nag them while they sit on their knees and have some bricks stacked on their legs. They can only listen to her scolding with pale faces because she makes sure to tell them that she will discipline them after they return.
Erza's scolding lasts really long that Alex who hears it from the side almost falls asleep. Then after she finishes scolding them, they go to meet the Town's Mayor to explain the situation. About how Natsu's team stole the quest even though they aren't qualified for the job.
"T-then you won't be able to subjugate that monster?" The Mayor seems very disappointed, making Natsu's team feel very guilty. After all, that sea monster has hindered the town people who are mostly fishermen from catching expensive and highly demanded deep sea fish.
"Please don't worry about it. While these naughty kids aren't qualified for this job, me and her are proper S-Class Mages. Even if they did the quest without the Guild's approval, they are still taking the job under Fairy Tail Guild's name, so we will still do our responsibility. We will still subjugate that sea monster for you."
The Mayor seems happy when Alex says that. But he is still sceptical if they can defeat the sea monster. After all, the Mayor has seen Natsu's team power and they seem very powerful in his eyes. Yet they can't do anything against that sea monster.
But they are this town's only hope now because no other Mages are taking this quest even after it has been posted for 2 months. So the Mayor really hopes that Alex can kill the sea monster and he won't be disappointed.
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Ch. 162. The Last Resort (+ A picture of Shukaku's humanoid form design)