"Okay! I like your attitude, I really don't know how advanced your fishing knowledge is, but since I'm your master from now on, I'll just tell you something. Take all that knowledge and throw it away, from today your new training in this world will begin and my teachings do not need extra things, I will completely reform you and make you a fisherman who will be respected in every place in the world!" It was obvious that Carmen's enthusiasm was through the roof at that moment, but it was precisely those comments that managed to spread that same emotion to Blake who, heeding what she said, threw everything he thought he knew about fishing to the bottom of his thoughts with no chance to return. "And to begin with, I need to pass on the basics so that you can defend yourself in this cruel world."
"Basic concepts?" Blake didn't understand exactly what Carmen meant by that, so he searched for an answer.
"Exactly! The first thing you need to fish is what you could call your best friend, so what we need is a rod! And as an initiation gift and for being my first apprentice, you will have the honor of receiving something very special, catch it!" Without expecting it, Blake quickly had to raise his hands and catch whatever it was that Carmen had thrown at him so that later the system would sound, resolving his doubts.
[Acquired: Cheap Pole.]
"Good catch! Now that you have met the first requirement, the second is practice, come on, go to where all the magic comes from!" And not caring if Blake had anything to say, Carmen began to walk away until she reached the shore of the huge lake that seemed to sparkle with the sunlight, and, not knowing what to do, Blake could only follow in her footsteps. "Well, pay attention apprentice, I'm sure you can see those shadows in the lake, right?"
"Yes, I see them." Blake could feel the left shadows in the lake at the same time that an old memory resurfaced in his mind that he really didn't want to remember.
"In case you were wondering, yes, those shadows are fish, although, not all of them can be, do you understand?"
"I understand."
"Now what I'm going to tell you next you must keep a secret! It's even possible to find fish in the sand, isn't that amazing!?" Blake didn't know what to say, firstly because he didn't really understand how fish could possibly exist in the sand, and secondly because Carmen hadn't even bothered to turn down the volume when she herself had said earlier that it was a secret.
"Fish... In the sand?"
"Yes, but the real secret is where to find them, that will be completely up to you!"
"I see..." That information, although difficult to believe, did not prevent Blake from being interested in finding out if it was true or not.
"Let's continue, once you have all your equipment ready and you have glimpsed your target, all you have to do is cast the bait from your rod and wait for the fish to be attracted to it, you must not be impatient! if you're lucky, it'll take the bait and that's where the fun begins, JUST PUSH, PUSH HARD! YOU DON'T HAVE TO HOLD BACK, YOU SHOULD BE AS ROUGH AS YOU CAN, JUST KEEP IT UP AND!... AHHH!!..."
"Carmen, are you alright?!" The sudden screams worried Blake quite a bit.
"Pant… Pant… Sorry, I got carried away for the moment, but you must have fully understood what I meant."
'To be honest, no…'
"Well, just remember to be very patient, fishing may look easy, but it's incredibly difficult to master!"
"Now... I think it's true..." Blake was beginning to doubt how correct the teaching she was being given was.
"So, how about you try to catch your first fish?!"
"Right now?"
"Sure, we can't waste the lake right now! But in case you're wondering, this isn't the only place to fish, I already told you, you can also go to the complex if you want to catch something specific, now we're in spring and if you want to know what fish there are in this season you can always ask Carlos, you can even try to fish in the Privera forest, but the monsters could make things a bit difficult for you."
"Is good to know."
"Then don't waste any more time, I want to see what a great specimen my apprentice's first catch will be! Come on! Come on!!" And with blows to the back that seemed like they would break something, Blake sighed and focused on the lake in front of him.
'Well, first let's see if the rod has anything special.' And following his thought, the familiar system screen appeared.
{Cheap Pole. Level 1.
Old and battered fishing rod. It does its job, but not very well.
ATK +1 and M.ATK +3 when equipped
Selling Price: 130G.}
"It may not look like the best rod in the world, but it actually means a lot to me, it's the first rod I made myself, so you have to take care of it like a member of your family, do you understand, apprentice." Leaving his thoughts sideways, which would very possibly make Carmen angry, Blake held the rod firmly in his hands and turned his attention to a rather large shadow that was close to him.
Remembering the instructions from earlier, he raised the rod above his head to the next instant cast the bait close to where that shadow was, and wait for the next step to occur, and just a second after that shadow was close enough, Blake had to push away to fight the force of said shadow once it took the bait.
Blake believed that he had caught something really huge since the force with which he was pulling was not enough to gain ground against that shadow, he even thought that he would have to use some skill to lighten things up, but the instant that the full force of his body went straight to the side making it fall to the ground and the voice of the system sounded at the same time that a shadow flew out attached to the rod, it was enough for that little battle to come to an end quickly.
[Fishing skill, increased.]
'Is fishing also a skill?' But before any more questions were generated in his mind by the words of the system, the sound of something falling into the water and something jumping out of the sand was enough to fully draw his attention.