"SHHH! Don't walk so loudly kid! You'll scare the fishes!" angrily said one of the fishermen.
As Li Wei returned to the cottages, it was already 18:20. Walking back from the Abe's Forest took a lot longer than he expected. The night cycle had already begun. If not, he would still be in the forest collecting as many resources as possible.
As he arrived, he was surprised to find the fishermen still calmly waiting for fishes to take their baits without worries. The sun was already setting in the distance, but they all remained motionless.
He silently approached them but was still criticized for being too loud. Li Wei did not understand. He was already very careful to walk as quietly as possible and yet, they were still complaining.
"Just sit down and take a fishing rod! I'll bring you to your horse when we finish here. Now is the best time for the catch," said the kind man who allowed Li Wei to leave his horse in his garden.
Li Wei politely declined. He decided to go at a respectable distance from these fishermen and practice a cycle of the Gliding Steps. He was not particularly interested in fishing and preferred to use his time more effectively.
He quickly got in position and started moving according to the manual. Li Wei was already familiar with the movements but still, he only ended up with a completion rate of 74% which was even lower than before.
"How is that possible? Am I doing the wrong thing?" thought Li Wei. "What was different this time?"
He was clearly not satisfied with obtaining a lower completion rate than he would normally obtain. The completion rate was supposed to increase as the player got used to the movements but for him, it went down by about 15%.
Li Wei calmed down and spent a few minutes pondering about the Gliding Steps. He was certain that he replicated the movements in a better way than before. That could only mean that it was all due to the environment.
'But what was different between here and the nameless forest yesterday?' Li Wei quickly realized that it was the ground. Here, the area was very grassy. Although he could not confirm it, he believed that the grass might have interfered with the movements. It was only his theory, but he believed that the grasses might disturb the airflow around his feet. At that moment,
[System prompt: You have obtained some enlightenment about the Gliding Steps. Mastery points +10]
"This? What happened? 10 mastery points?"
With a quick look, he found that his Gliding Steps now had (65/100) mastery points which were higher than it needed to be. After his last set, his Gliding Steps was only showing (55/100), but after his enlightenment, it increased by 10.
"So I can improve my techniques by obtaining more information about them or by discovering small details like that? Maybe I should have a small discussion about it with Bright Sun when I get back," said Li Wei to himself. As he thought about her, he took the opportunity to ponder over how to improve the Gliding Steps' training for women.
"Maybe do this instead of that? Crouch here?" said Li Wei to himself. He was only blindly guessing but deep inside, he felt that his guesses were correct. It took him a few minutes as he wrote down his thoughts.
With nothing left to do, Li Wei was starting to get bored and decided to go back to the fishermen as quietly as possible. But despite all his efforts, he could not escape from their angry stares. The kind man named Andy immediately invited him to sit next to him and explained to him how to fish.
Li Wei silently listened to the instructions of the fisherman. They were relatively simple since he skipped over the details to avoid disturbing the others more than needed. With a quick movement, Li Wei threw the bait as far as possible and then silently waited. On the side, he could see the fisherman swiftly pull out their fishing rods, pulling large fishes with them and immediately using a net to catch them.
Even Andy quickly pulled a level 2 Salmon, not even 10 minutes after instructing Li Wei.
15 minutes later, everyone pulled out another fish again, except for Li Wei. He was intently looking at his fishing rod, but nothing was happening. "After the gnome and the Lake Fairy, now even the fishes find me repulsive!" said Li Wei to himself.
"You should pull out your fishing rod, I think your bait is already gone!" said Andy with an amused expression.
"What? No... It's impossible..." said Li Wei as he raised his fishing rod, but he immediately stopped as he noticed that effectively, the bait was gone.
"This... How? I did not feel anything" declared Li Wei.
"Hahaha! It's just a matter of feeling when the fish will pull the hook. Each location of the lake contains different types of fishes. Here, you'll find the sly ones that try to stealthily eat the baits. If you are looking for a contest of strength, then I would suggest you take a boat to the center of the lake... Here. Try again... this time, focus on your fishing rod and try to feel when the fish will eat the bait," Andy explained while handing another bait to Li Wei.
Their constant whisperings attracted the glares of the nearby fishermen, but they did not say anything. In fact, they were secretly amused at Li Wei's actions; to them, it was always fun to watch a newbie struggle.
Once again, Li Wei threw the bait and silently waited. This time, he looked closely at the position of the bait to see if any disturbances would occur there and his hands were firmly grabbing the fishing rod to feel the vibrations.
Time went by, but he did not feel anything. Andy did not say anything either, so Li Wei concluded that the fish did not eat his bait yet. But it did not last long before Andy once again spoke:
"Here, try this"
Hearing Andy's voice, Li Wei looked at him only to find that he was lending another bait to him. Full of doubts, Li Wei quickly pulled his fishing rod only to find that the bait was once again gone!
"F***! How is that possible?" said Li Wei to himself. "I should have picked improve sense instead of improve body coordination!"
Around him, several fishermen muffled their laughs.
Nevertheless, he still threw the bait and sat down to wait, focusing more than ever on the fishing rod.
"There is no way I miss it again! Those guys can even hold two fishing rods at a time!" said Li Wei to himself
...
1 hour later, Andy finally stood up and packed his fishing rods with a leisurely expression. "Let's go, come with me, let's meet the others at the bonfire."
"What? Already? But I did not catch anything yet!" exclaimed Li Wei. Over the last hour, Andy kept giving him baits at regular intervals but he himself still did not feel anything when his bait would disappear.
Even the fishes seemed to make fun of him as they ate his bait more and more often. But despite all his efforts, he still did not feel anything when they would eat the bait.
"What? Do you think it is that easy to catch a fish? You only spent 1 hour on it while we all spent years mastering our techniques. At least, you attracted more fishes by giving away free baits! You can try again tomorrow. For now, it's time to relax. Believe it or not, fishing is not as easy as everyone thinks. It can even be considered an art!" said Andy while leading the way towards the cottages.
Li Wei naturally followed, he was very frustrated at his consecutive failures, especially when he saw that all the other fishermen were regularly catching fishes and looking at him with amused faces. Each time they would pull out a fish, Li Wei would get more and more depressed.
Although the fishermen looked unfriendly when they were fishing, their attitude completely changed afterward. They warmly greeted Li Wei and invited him to their daily bonfire to share a meal and some drinks. He was even invited to spend the night at Andy's cottage.
Li Wei naturally agreed. He would not say no to the comfort of a cottage compared to sleeping under the tent.
The fishermen quickly gathered some woods and set up their bonfire. Despite their appearances, they were very strong and could easily carry the logs. They were all at least level 20, and one of them was even a mage that lit up the bonfire with a swing of his hand.
They all settled down as they started to take out the catch of the day and several bottles of wine. Li Wei was quickly invited to sit by the bonfire with them.
"There. Have a drink!" said a fisherman named Collin while passing a dark opaque bottle to Li Wei.
The latter clumsily grabbed the bottle and stared at it. He was not a huge fan of alcohol. The few times he actually tried some due to peer pressure, he ended up getting in trouble. But now, in this situation, he chose to be polite. He quickly took a sip and passed the bottle to the next person.
The taste of wine invaded his mouth as his throat was burning. And a few moments later, a warm and comfortable feeling spread through his body. It did not take long before the bottle returned into his hands and he immediately took another sip. At the same time, the fishermen started roasting their catch of the day and Li Wei was offered some since their catch was abundant.
With good alcohol and food, everybody relaxed, and they loudly chatted. Li Wei quickly mixed into the group as more and more alcohol passed through his hands.
...
"Ahhh! My head!"
Li Wei woke up as he was assaulted by a terrible headache. "F***! What happened last night?" said Li Wei as he looked around him.
He was confused to find himself in an unknown environment. He was lying on a large bed in a very cozy room. It took him some time to recall that he was invited last night to sleep at Andy's place. As he got off the bed, he quickly checked that everything was alright. He did not lose any level and all his equipment and items were there; nothing was missing.
'I was lucky that Andy did not have any bad intentions…'
Li Wei sat down for a moment as his head was spinning. He noticed a glass of water on his bedside table. Without hesitation, he quickly drank it and immediately started to feel better.
"Mmm" he leaned against the wall for a moment before walking towards the exit.
As he went out, Li Wei found Andy in his garden. The sun was already up, and Andy was taking care of his horse, feeding it some apples.
"You are finally up! Don't worry, I took care of your horse. She did not lack anything but you, you are really bad at drinking!" said Andy as he laughed.
Li Wei did not know what to say. He was extremely embarrassed to have acted as a freeloader and even neglected his horse. "Thank you, Andy! I don't know what to say... I..."
"Don't mention it! You should eat something and then we can go to the lake for the competition. I was going to wake you up but fortunately, I do not need to do so anymore. Hurry up or we will be late," said Andy while patting the horse.
"A competition? What competition?" replied Li Wei.
"The fishing competition of course! Do you not remember? Today, we are holding our monthly competition; the one to catch the most salmons will win. Everyone will be participating."
"Oh, but what does that have to do with me?" asked Li Wei, he truly did not recall anything that happened last night after he drunk from that dark opaque bottle.
"What it has to do with you? You said you would participate and declared that you were the best fisherman there and that you would crush everyone today! It was a really funny scene, especially since you did so by butchering a salmon," answered Andy.
"Really? I was drunk at that time. You should not take what I said seriously," answered Li Wei but at the same time, he was having a bad premonition.
"What? Don't tell me you are planning on bailing out now? When you said that, old Lloyds and Kevin naturally got heated and you ended up betting 25 gold each. Many others pitched in and the money prize is now 600 gold."
"What did you say? 25 gold!!?? And in a fishing competition? How is that possible? I don't even have 25 gold… I only have 18…" said Li Wei as he felt his hands getting wet.
"Yeah, you said that yesterday! But you also said you would put in some of your items to compensate for the lack of gold. We agreed because you are only a newbie, " answered Andy with a laugh.
"What? Andy. Are you serious?"