We were back in the Second City.
“This place hasn’t changed much since the first time we came here.”
“You could say that, although there seem to be fewer people than before.”
With the Third City of Cal Mira and with Mikakage now available, it was only natural that fewer players were using this place as their base of operations.
Still, it wasn’t completely desolate. A fair few had stayed behind.
“Let’s see... Tsumugi and Yamikage are staying at that same inn we used before, right?”
Glancing at the Second City’s nightscape and river, I retraced my memory to search out the inn we’d stayed at last time.
“If you want to fish, you should do it after we’ve reunited.”
“I know, I know. I’m too tired for that anyway.”
We hadn’t gotten to do that much fishing in the Forest of Everlasting Darkness, so doing a bit more in a safe spot wasn’t the worst idea. I wasn’t going to forget about setting crab traps either.
“You can catch sweetfish and cherry trout here. Since I’ve got a decent cooking rank, I can grill up some salt-roasted sweetfish for us.”
“That brings back memories. Yes, I might have you fish some up later.”
“Leave it to me. Honestly, I don’t feel inclined to eat any of what we’ve been pulling in lately.”
With all those dark-attribute fish, I was starting to really appreciate normal fish again.
As we chatted about this and that and walked into the inn, Tsumugi spotted us.
“Ah, welcome back, bro. You were out late.”
“We ran into a secret quest on the way back.”
“Huh?! Without me?”
“Yeah, somehow or other.”
I began telling her about our battle with the Dark Lord Lizardman.
“And even in the fishing department, Shouko pulled it off!”
I gave a proud thumbs-up as I reported on Shouko landing a lord.
Heh heh heh... My disciple grows stronger with each passing moment.
“I don’t really get why you’re the one puffing out your chest on that one, but congrats, Shouko!”
“Also, I caught something that was probably added in the last update. It’s called a Dark Salmon.”
I slickly pulled it out of my inventory to show it off.
“Whoa, it’s pitch-black. Is it tasty?”