With the Worn-Out Rod in hand, I arrived at the area on the map slathered in blue—the ocean. It didn’t feel right to just cast the line from the sandy shore, so I searched for a random pier, took my position, and dropped the thread.
Ten minutes passed... Not even a nibble.
Going off of the rod’s description, it was supposed to be possible to fish even without the Fishing Bait item, which increased the probability of getting a bite. Unfortunately, I was coming up short.
Still, when all was said and done, it felt nice to space out and stare at the blue sky. Even if it was all a game, the smell of the salty sea was in no way lesser than reality. Above all, the wind was gentle and the temperature divine; it truly was the perfect day for fishing.
In your typical game, the clouds in the sky would be stationary or would follow set movement patterns. But as far as I could tell by gazing out at them, these clouds seemed to operate on their own physics engine, causing them to come together, disperse, and drift in the breeze.
“Hey, lady. You’ve got one.”
“Oh? You’re right.”
The rod twitched with light vibrations coming from the tip. I immediately stood and pulled it up. Though I hadn’t put in too much force, it lifted all too easily.
Herring Acquired
A herring was added to my item list. Looks like you really can catch stuff with a stick, some string, and no bait. That’s a game for you.
“Thanks for telling... Oh, they’re gone already. Were they in a hurry?”
I tried to offer my thanks to whoever it was that called out to me, but they had unfortunately vanished. Perhaps they’d coincidentally stumbled upon me while they were running elsewhere.
In any case, I’d learned a thing or two about fishing. I dropped the line again.
“Herring, huh? I think I remember them being used in Kyoto-style cooking.”
There were pots and frying pans in the tool shop. Perhaps I’d be able to cook up some seafood dishes if I got a cooking skill.
If there’s herring, I might be able to catch mackerel, sardines, and horse mackerel too. Maybe even tuna and sea bream if my fishing skill goes up.
Incidentally, what sort of tuna would it be? Albacore, or bluefin? Did they even program in multiple species? Personally, I was quite particular about tuna species. As I let those thoughts consume me, the tip of the rod started tugging again.
Herring Acquired
It was another herring. Herring... Herring roe, sliced herring, herring soba, salted herring, smoked herring...oh, come to think of it, surströmming is made of herring too.
Surströmming... I’d seen it on TV before, but I’d never eaten it in real life. Apparently, the smell tended to linger something awful, so I wasn’t really keen on trying it anyway.
I’ll pick up some kind of cooking skill when I get the chance, I guess. And...if I ever feel like it, I’ll make it myself and see how it tastes in-game. I do need to know what game herring tastes like, after all.
†
“This is going much better than I thought.”
Two hours had passed since then, and I’d gotten quite a haul: seven herrings, three sardines, and one horse mackerel. Now, I wasn’t about to blend reality and fiction, but had this been the real world, it would have been considered a fine catch. Especially since every fish I caught was edible.
“But...they do vary in size.”
I only caught one horse mackerel, so I wasn’t so sure about that one, but the seven herrings did have some variety. Some were longer and some were wider.
Is there a rarity scale? Or maybe there is a quality rating, or something like that?
Thinking back, the tool shop had been selling copper along with everything else, but if that was mined, unrefined copper, then perhaps it came with a quality rating as well. The weapons and armor that used higher-purity ores would be the better ones. Probably.
Come to think of it, I’ve got that Beginner’s Dismantling Knife. The way things are going, I might be able to fillet the fish.
Drawing the sheathed dismantling knife from my hip, I faced a herring.
“How do I even do this?”
I’d never actually prepared fish before, so it was mostly guesswork. I believe you’re supposed to strip off the scales first.
Using the back of the knife, I started shaving away at the herring. There was a scraping sensation as a number of the scales were peeled off.
Small Fish Scale x4 Acquired
Oh, you’re a convenient knife, aren’t you? Glad to have you on the team. If scales are items, then the meat and bones are most likely items too. All right!
“Ah.”
I got a bit too hyped up and put in a little too much strength. The knife was embedded deep in the fish’s torso. And then, without yielding any meat or bone, the herring was gone. This truly was the world of a game after all. Everything leading up to it had hardly felt any different from reality, so I was a bit shaken up.
Anyway, let’s try cutting up all the fish I got.
As a result, I ended up with twenty-seven Small Fish Scales, eight Small Fish Bones, four Herring Meat, one Herring Head, one Horse Mackerel Meat, and a Sardine Meat. A part of me felt like the amount I fished wasn’t really matching up with the amount of meat in my bag, but so be it. But if we are going purely off item count, that was nearly four times what I caught.
By the way, dismantling required quite a bit of concentration. A small mistake was all it took for the fish to disappear. Going at it with the utmost care, it took quite a bit of time to fillet eleven fish.
Well, I’m sure I’ll get some buff to dismantling once I learn the right skills.
Speaking of skills, I hadn’t touched them yet. I pulled up the stat screen.
Name: Kizuna†Exceed / Race: Spirit
Energy: 1300 / Mana: 65 / Serin: 0
Oh? My Energy and Mana went up without me doing anything. Why? Oh, right, that skill did say something about generating Energy.
Skills: Energy Production I, Mana Production I
Energy Production I → Energy Production II
Generate 100 Energy per hour → Generate 200 Energy per hour.
Required Mana to Upgrade: 10
Mana Production I → Mana Production II
Generate 5 Mana per hour → Generate 10 Mana per hour.
0 Energy consumed per hour → 150 Energy consumed per hour
Required Mana to Upgrade: 25
“Whoa! I just wasted three hours!”
I quickly upgraded both of the skills to Rank II. My Energy dropped to 1150, and my Mana to 30. Apparently, a skill’s Energy consumption took effect immediately after it was upgraded.
But now that I’m looking at it, isn’t it a good thing to have my Energy and Mana increase every hour? Or is it faster for the normal races to hunt monsters and level up? Which is it? Well, either way, I’m a Spirit. I need to make do with what I have.
Staring long and hard at the skill list, I noticed that Fishing Mastery had been added in grayed-out text. It seemed that my three wasted hours weren’t a complete waste after all. Incidentally, taking apart that much fish wasn’t enough to manifest Dismantling Mastery.
Before picking it up, I took a look at the skill’s description.
Fishing Mastery I
10% bonus to all actions using a fishing rod.
100 Energy consumed per hour.
Required Mana to Acquire: 30
Unlock condition: Obtain 10 or more items using a fishing rod.
Upgrade condition: Obtain 100 or more items using a fishing rod.
I’d just barely managed to unlock it, but if I picked it up, my Energy gain would actually end up at negative 50 per hour. That was a no-go. I could end up dying out of the blue if I didn’t devise some way to get out of this downward spiral.
Thus, I decided to get Fishing Mastery once I’d gotten my Energy Production high enough to cancel it out. And with that in mind, I sent down the line once more.
“Hmm?”
The moment the thread touched the water, I was suddenly pulled with incredible might.
“Whoa! Wah!”
It had happened so suddenly that I’d reflexively strengthened my grip on the rod, and so my body—the body of a little girl—was yanked along like I barely existed. I simply lacked the strength—or in Spirit terms, the Energy. Though I tried bracing my feet, it did nothing and I consequently took a tumble.
There was a splash, then a burbling sound as my body was submerged in salty seawater. For a moment, I saw a massive fish, but it quickly disappeared from sight.
Come on! I might have been able to catch it if I’d just picked up Fishing Mastery.
The biggest fish is always the one that got away... Or so they say. In any case, I had to climb back up onto land. Perhaps because I was now a game character, I could hold my breath for a lot longer than usual. I gazed at the reflection, the small body of my avatar Kizuna†Exceed, as I climbed out of the water and returned to the pier.
“Phew...”
My clothes were sopping wet as I climbed up. It even showed as a status on all my items.
Since I was staring at the item screen, I decided to check my stats while I was at it—and found that my Energy had dropped by 30. So I took damage from falling into the ocean, huh?
“But more importantly, it made off with my fishing rod.”
This was truly what it meant to be taken by surprise. I never thought that the fishing rod I’d spent all my starting money on, and even sold potions to obtain, would be lost in such a short span of time.
“Ha ha ha... You’ve got some nerve...”
It’s decided. I’m going to catch that fish... And eat it!