Vincent was excited, for a very long time he had been passionate about fishing ever since he was young, he sometimes went alone and sometimes with friends, but he never had the chance to teach anyone
finally, he had a grandson that was willing to learn, his friends always bragged about how well they taught their children or grandchildren, and he was always at a disadvantage in those conversations, but soon he will be able to talk about his own experience
because his grandson finally became 5 years old, and he could finally bring him fishing
Vincent had disappeared that morning because he had to finally retrieve the gift he had custom-made for Daniel, the refiner was supposed to have it done a week ago, but the materials he requested turned out to be hard to find in just five years, in the end, he had to put up a mission and last year a group of mercenaries finally found the main ingredient the divine white jade bamboo, but the refinement with those high-grade materials wasn't something that could be done in a day
finally, he received a call and went to the refiner to retrieve the finished product, then he went to scout various locations that would be good for Daniel's first fishing trip, he wanted the first grandfather-grandson fishing trip to be special but at the same time he couldn't repeat the same mistake and bring him where he wouldn't be able to do any fishing
that afternoon Daniel woke up and went to have lunch as usual, but when he came out again after lunch he found Vincent with a long cylinder wrapped in colorful paper with little fishes on it
Vincent gave him the cylinder, and said "good birthday Daniel"
Daniel said "you already wished me a happy birthday yesterday grandpa" while taking the gift
Vincent smiled and said "I know, but your gift wasn't ready yesterday, open it"
daniel unwrapped the gift and found a sturdy cylinder 1,10 mt long made to be worn as a backpack with a zipper closing the top, as he opened it he took out a 1 mt cyan pole, who seemed to be made to fit in his hand, Daniel was really happy because he already knew what it was, it was clearly a fishing pole
Vincent said "you can use your soul power to leave an imprint on it, and then use it to control the length of the rod, different situations require different lengths"
Daniel's eyes were already sparkling, he did as told and soon after with a flick of his wrist the fishing rod grew to 4 mt, and Daniel said surprised "it's so light I can barely feel it I love it, grandpa, when can we go?"
Vincent kept smiling and said "hehe it depends on you, before going I have to teach you the knots, so that you can prepare it to catch a fish"
Daniel said "let's do it" he wanted to go fishing since he was 1 year old, so he was excited, but what he didn't know was that Vincent was even more excited than he was
Vincent waved his hand and a table with 2 chairs facing each other appeared on the lakeshore, on top of the table, to both right and left a lot of drawers were present, each of them contained different fishing gear: hooks, floaters, sinkers, swivels, lines, everything a fisherman would ever need
so Vincent sit down and invited Daniel to sit in front of him then he started to show him how to make a pole fishing rig, and explained
"We are going to fish in a small shallow lake halfway up mount Kelipor, to catch a type of carp called rice carp because of the color and the small dimension, an adult generally weights around 150 to 200 grams, they are a brilliant type of spiritual beast, but they are also very weak, perfect to be your first catch"
after a start like this Daniel was really excited, and greedily listened to every word
vincent continued his explanation "being after a very smart fish, we will use two different kinds of line, an ultralight floater, small sinkers to stabilize it, a swivel, and one n°25 hook, now follow me, first take your pole the length his perfect as it is now"
Daniel took the pole and looked at vincent who continued
"now for the mainline, we will use this really good monofilament, made from the silk of a rare kind of arachnid spiritual beast, look this is how you tie the line to the connector"
Daniel watched vincent tie a simple loop knot and connect it to his pole connector, then he measured the length, and 35 cm shorter than the pole he cut the mainline, passing the spool and a little scissors to Daniel, who did the same thing with a terrifying mechanical precision
Vincent nodded and said "very good now take this" passing Daniel a really light floater, some really tiny sleeves, some small spheres broke in the middle, and a little swivel then continued the lesson
"now follow me, take the floater, insert the line through that small loop on it, then insert the little sleeves that will hold the floater later, good, now insert the sleeves already on the line on the floater to hold it on the line, and now slide it up, out of the way, good job kiddo, now take the sinker and put the line through the split in it"
Daniel was following him easily, Vincent was being thorough with his explanation, so he put the line through the crack and like Vincent showed him, clamped it down to close it on the line, the difference was Vincent did it by hand while Daniel used some little pliers
Vincent said "good now try in the lake if it floats and remember, it will stick up a little because there is the weight of the bait to consider"
Daniel happily ran to the lake, for the first time maybe since he was born, he was finally acting his age
daniel said "look grandpa it works" he was excited, seeing the fishing float vertical in the water
Vincent said "I see it, are you ready for the next part? it's also the difficult part"
Daniel said "I am" full of determination and around him, soul energy seemed to have caught on fire, literal pale green flames were burning around him sucking all the white strands of soul energy like a vacuum, but he was so concentrated he didn't even notice
Vincent also saw it but totally ignored it, he was too blissful right now to worry about whatever that was, so he continued his explanation as if nothing happened
"now look carefully this is the knot I use to tie the line to the swivel, the Grinner knot, it's important to wet it, at this point to avoid the heat and friction from ruining your line"
once again Daniel followed Vincent's every move perfectly even liking the line to wet it and avoid any damage, so Vincent continued the explanation
"good job, we are almost done, now we will use the second line, this one it's from a very rare spiritual beast a water silkworm, this line becomes invisible underwater and it's perfect to trick smart fishes like the rice carp, but it's also delicate, if you are too rough it will snap and the fish will escape, so we will start doing another Grinner knot on the other side of the swivel, but this time being extra careful, then measure till the end of the pole, should be roughly 40 cm and cut, now the really hard part, at least for me since I have adult-sized fingers"
Vincent took out two hooks who were so tiny that could be barely seen and 2 short bamboo sticks with a v shape at the end, that pointed toward the inside, and said
"this is a tool to tie hooks, it makes it easier, especially with the smaller ones like this one, there are still sizes 27 and 30 that are smaller, but for this fish, it's better to use a size 25, look it's used like this"
Vincent showed how it was done and Daniel copied it perfectly, completing the rig, and said
"good job kiddo you did it, let's pack our gear and go to mount kelipor"
Daniel and Vincent put away their poles, and the table, then they walked towards the portal to exit the dimension, once they were out Daniel expected Vincent to teleport them to their destination like he always did, but instead, he took a little flying boat out and helped Daniel in
noticing his confusion, Vincent said "if I use my cultivation fishing there is no challenge, I can literally see where the fish are, and the exact moment they are biting, this kills every bit of fun, so I wear this" he said showing a bracelet "I can still use my powers if I need to, but my senses become those of a normal person, so using teleportation it's out of the question if I have to bring you along, that's the same reason we don't use indestructible line or stuff like that to go fishing"
Daniel nodded he understood why the blocked sense and the imperfect gear but still asked asked "why can't we teleport?"
Vincent looked straight at Daniel and said "teleportation it's a treacherous ability, more than once using it without my senses I found myself buried underground or inside a volcano, I can't risk that while I'm transporting you"
Daniel said "I understand" obviously he knew the family treated him differently, but this time wasn't that they didn't trust him, but that Vincent didn't trust himself, this made Daniel who was already really happy today feel warm inside
the boat was very fast, but also comfortable, it wasn't making noises, and some invisible energy field stopped the wind, for the first time, Daniel saw the majestic specter mountain outside the specter dimension
Daniel asked "it's so beautiful outside, why am I always inside?"
Vincent while driving said "partly it's because we don't know if you are going to be fine, after all, we still have no idea of what the mutation did to you, even Sophia couldn't figure it out, we only know that you are a lot smarter than you should be at your age"
than after hesitating for a moment, Vincent continued "and another big part was to protect you from the reporters, those animals are always hunting for a scoop, so we kept your birth a secret, it was actually something we decided long before you were born, after all, no one in the specter family can appear in public without being assaulted by them"
Daniel said "I know that you are the president but isn't it a little exaggerated?"
Vincent started to laugh wildly and said "hahaha, the problem this generation it's not me, but your parents, and grandmother have you never seen the news?"
Daniel said "well no, I always had something to do, I never bothered"
Vincent looked at him, then animatedly said "maybe it's a good thing you didn't, nothing good ever comes out when the press it's involved, they always distort everything I say, that's why I don't grant interviews anymore, and your grandmother its the same, since she came back at least a 1000 requests for interviews arrived every day, they are sharks who will do anything for views"
Daniel was thinking about downloading the app, but after hearing what Vincent said, he went back to admire the landscape, but then he realized something and asked "then won't they find us, since we are outside?"
Vincent made a strange smile and said "don't worry about it I already took precautions"
in the central square, on a giant billboard was written "I Vincent specter went fishing, if I see one reporter around me, I'll carefully take care of him" simple and concise, 99.9% of the reporters took a day off to stay with their families and most of them didn't even leave their houses
but a fearless 0.1% was scouting all well-known fishing spots where witnesses saw Vincent or where they knew he went in the past, everyone wanted the scoop about Sophia coming back
generally, the people of the sun federation lived so long they were bored out of their minds, and everything that was even remotely interesting had a terrifying following
in the meantime Vincent was smirking as he said that everything was taken care of, so Daniel just went back to look at the landscape, verulus was a beautiful planet
after a while, daniel asked " is that mount kelipor?"
Vincent surprised asked "how do you know?"
Daniel said "geography lessons"
and vincent said " hahaha smart as usual, you are right, this is mount kelipor we will land shortly near the lake, before that I have to change how I look a little"
vincent passed a hand over his face and his purple eyes became cyan his face changed form a little and his black hair changed the style
Vincent asked "how do I look?"
Daniel said "nice eye color"
Vincent laughed and said "thanks kiddo, it took me three years to learn this technique to perfection, with this, even those fearless reporters that will look for me will be disappointed, let's go"