Vincent immediately understood what Daniel wanted but before any of them could talk, someone else had arrived with her own query
Sophia looked at Daniel and asked "when do you want to heal that woman?"
Daniel immediately responded "later or tomorrow now I have an appointment to go fishing with grandpa"
Almony spent more than 200 years in that glass jar she could wait a couple of days more, maybe even after the scheduled meeting
in fact, Tickles ability was charged too, but he kept it in case they asked him to show it at the meeting in a couple of days, for now, all Daniel cared about was going fishing
Sophia said "ok, have fun" and went to tend to her own business, even if they cured Almony now, it would take a while before she can be sent wherever she came from, if she even has the coordinates, skurians are pirates and nomads, she could not know where to find her people
as Sophia walked out Vincent laughed in resignation and said "let's go prepare the new fishing rig"
Daniel and Vincent went to the usual spot on the lakeshore and the table appeared
VIncent took out some stuff and said "we are going fishing in a subterranean lake this time, that means a lake deep underground"
Daniel's eyes were already sparkling as he said "I already know that, are there big fishes inside?"
Vincent said "the ones we are going after are bottom-feeding predators called shadow catfish but if we are lucky we could catch a crystal sturgeon these two are the ones worth keeping in this lake, anyway the fishing rig we are going to construct today is based on these weights"
Vincent showed Daniel differently shaped fishing weights pyramids, bullets, diamonds, spheres, and many others then said "the shape on the weight it's chosen based on the line you're using and the type of terrain, in this case, a generic egg-shaped sinker will work perfectly because the floor has no particular structure"
Vincent took out 4 n°10 hooks, a spool of robust arachnid silk line like the one Daniel used on the fishing reel, another spool of wire fishing line that it's less robust but more resistant to tearing from the teeth of the fish, and some swivels, then gave daniel half of it along with an egg-shaped sinker
like before Vincent showed everything and Daniel followed, he said "take the line from your fishing rod and tie this swivel, it has a clip so you can change rig easily if you go fishing somewhere else"
Vincent watched Daniel tie the knot and then continued "take this robust line and make a loop to attach it to the clip, then after 50 inches tie the first three-way swivel and after another 50 inches tie the second one, and after a last 50 inches tie the egg sinker by passing the small metal ring with a loop knot and sliding the sinker in the loop"
Daniel swiftly did as Vincent showed and in a few minutes they were already at the last step so vincent continued "take the wire fishing line, cut 2 40 inches pieces, and tie everything together using the knots from the last time, its easier if you tie the hook before tying the line on the swivels"
soon the rig was ready, and Daniel happily tried a cast in the lake before tying the ready rig onto a spongy disk
soon later Vincent teleported himself and Daniel to a secondary location before changing face again and taking out the boat, the misdirection was necessary since the eyes pointed at them weren't just those of the reporters now
but that wasn't important at the moment, they were already on their way to go fishing and nobody was gonna stop them, or better, they didn't have enough information about what it was they were hiding to risk attacking a member of the Specter household even if they somehow were recognized
soon the boat arrived at the foot of mount kelipor, Vincent put it away and flew bringing Daniel with him, because to hide the now very famous fassa v 4 with fluffy skin, Daniel was wearing normal clothes and lost his ability to fly
soon they were descending in a ravine just a km or so east of the mountain, from there they went down at least 700 mt before a hole in the wall of the ravine could be seen leading inside a cave, and after following a descending serpentine course they finally arrived
different from what Daniel thought when Vincent said underground lake this place was very well illuminated by bioluminescent fungi and crystals
the water gave the sensation of being extremely pure, but some threatening shadows could be seen moving around in the water, and some of them were very big
Vincent saw Daniel keeping an eye on those shadows and said "don't worry, they don't care about you"
Daniel asked "what are they?"
Vincent responded "mostly shadow Arowana, this place is full of dark, earth ad water elemental energy, most of the fish inside this lake cultivate either a branch of the dark element or of the earth element"
Daniel nodded but at the same time was thinking about all the fishes in the sea of retak, not one of them was a spiritual beast apart for the giant squid that was still at too low of a stage to know which element he would cultivate
while he was thinking Vincent guided him to the shore of the lake and took out two chairs that had an incorporated fishing rood holster
when Daniel saw vincent take out the pole rod, he took out his fishing rod that with a flick of the wrist grew 3 mt and started unraveling the fishing rig
soon everything was ready Vincent took out a plastic container the size of a shoebox and dug out a plump grey worm that was squirming energetically, he soon demonstrated how to dress them on the hook properly and then cast the line in the lake before fixing the rod on the holster
Daniel followed the same steps and soon he was casting his line in the lake, but he was too excited and let go of the line too soon, at the second attempt he managed to throw the line properly and fixed the rod on the holster
Vincent started to explain "we don't need to be silent here because the fish can't hear us down there, to see when the fish are biting you have to see the tip of the pole, sorry I meant rod, when it starts tugging lightly, the fish it's nibbling at your bait, before starting to retrieve the line you have to give a good pull to make sure to hook them"
Daniel nodded and asked "can't we attach a bell on it so it sounds when it bites"
Vincent said "of course, you can, you want one?"
Daniel nodded and Vincent passed him a small bell with a clip to be attached at the peak of the rod and the wait started
ten minutes passed with no nibbling signs but neither Daniel nor Vincent had any problem with that, while they were alone they started talking about the seafood Daniel was raising
when Daniel talked about the toxins in their bodies Vincent said "that's nothing, just ask your grandma to cast purification, every alchemist knows how to purify toxins and venoms"
Daniel shook his head and said "Nah, I took on the project to practice the knowledge sister chaos passed to me, if I cheat it kind of defeats the purpose, even if I would like to have the ability like her to make everything grow in a few minutes"
Vincent with some interest asked "what do you mean?"
Daniel answered "the jellyfish got pregnant and the new jellyfish grew to adulthood, the entire process took 1 or 2 minutes, I really don't know how she did it, after 40 times making small modifications each time it was like the jellyfish evolved into a higher life order, but in the end, since she introduced artificial DNA, all the jellyfish will die in time, any way to do the same thing I would have taken at least 2 or 3 years just to wait for the jellyfish to mate and grow every time"
Vincent said "it could be a time-related innate ability or a small-time accelerating formation, you see slowing time it's very hard, one of the hardest things, but making a small area where the time goes faster it's actually pretty easy for a formation expert"
Daniel said "translated to technology how advanced do you think it should be to make any kind of time-traveling technology"
Vincent said "I really have no idea, travelling in the past it's impossible as universal punishment would descend on any living thing the moment it joins a past timestream, but any idiot with an energy shield could travel in the future through a wormhole, anyway time-related skills are usually used to attack or research and in extremely rare cases when everything it's right and after a lot of preparation a tenth stage cultivator would be able to rewind time in a small area until the time in which he had made the preparations, but he wouldn't travel back he would bring what was past to the present, and any possible clones that would happen would still be smited by the universal punishment"
Daniel lost himself thinking for a while then said "what about a small box where the time goes faster to grow things"
Vincent said "sixth or seventh stage formation experts are able to do it, usually the spiritual plant fields here on Verulus are prepared by eight stage formation masters, but a particularly brilliant genius might be able to do the same at a lower stage, you're aunt Wilhelmina it's one of those geniuses, too bad she went nuts, cough I meant she lost her mind"
Daniel asked "what happened?"
Vincent sighed and said "honestly I'm not too sure, personally I think she was born with a defective personality, but popular opinion it's that our father spoiled her rotten until she thought that everyone owed her everything she wanted"
Daniel wanted to ask more but Vincent seemed to have lost himself in his memories
a few moments later the little bell trembled and a soft chime sound came out of it, Daniel swiftly removed it and held the fishing rod, as they previously discussed
a moment later another bite came and Daniel tugged the rod with all the strength he could muster, the reel started to make strange sounds as the line was pulled out at an alarming rate, while the tip of the rod bent down toward the water
sadly what ate the hook was certainly not what Vincent was planning, because unable to make any resistance at all, Daniel was pulled inside the lake unwilling to let go of his fishing rod