"So, why do I have this?"
Paruci frowns at my questions as she walks beside me.
Paruci: "Didn't you want to learn about fishing?"
"Yeah, but why my rod is a stick?"
Paruci: "Hey! That was my first rod, it's only natural for you to start with that too! It may look like just a stick to you, but that's very important to me."
"I literally saw you breaking it from a tree earlier…"
Paruci: "Eh?! You saw that--?" – She almost trips, quickly changing her gaze to the tree's canopy to think of an excuse, nervously cold sweating. – "-Ahem- It's still the same. You're a level one, so you can't wield a better rod than that! You need to level up first."
Level one!? Wait… does she know about proficiency levels? I thought NPCs couldn't see those game statistics… so the tools you can use are limited by it, I thought it only helped you to get better quality fish… is that the same for all the other jobs? – A smile widens on my face. – This is certainly helpful. I knew that accepting her invitation was worth the while. Any information I gather here will help me to survive in this mad world.
She dances over the dirt path, her hands all so happy to point at herself.
Paruci: "But… I am at [Supreme Master God] level, that's why I am powerful enough to have Excalibur with me!" – She presents her fishing rod, coated in silver and almost royal-looking with golden details in rounded lines and occasional roses entailed in dark-purple.
Oh… she is just making things up…
Paruci: "Don't be sad! I will be the one training you, then someday you will be able to wield my fishing rod too. And then, and then--, you'll pass it down to your next disciple, and he to the next! And Excalibur will forever be remembered as the legendary rod of Delajeci Paruci, huntress of the godfish!"
"God…fish?"
Paruci: "Yes, but of course, even fish have gods of their own. …I think."
I look at her without moving a muscle of my face.
Paruci: "And if I do find any of them…" – Her eyes suddenly burst into flames, staring deep into my skull. – "I'll fish them out."
…
"Sure… So, where is this lake you told me about? How far are we?"
Paruci: "Oh… hehe." – She glances to the sides, nervously fidgeting her fingers. – "I don't know…"
"You don't know how long or--? Wait… are we lost?"
She looks to the sides as fast as her accelerated heartbeat, quickening her walking pace.
"I thought you did this every day!! How you get lost in something you do every day!?!!?!?"
Paruci: "Don't scream at me!" – She halts and raises her hands in surrender, but she quickly lowers her head in sadness. – "I never had anyone accompanying me, so I got a little distracted… I always do it without thinking much about where to go, so…"
We spend a few seconds in silence until I sigh deeply in tiredness.
"Okay… what do you need to locate yourself? We walked for about thirty minutes now, we shouldn't have gone that far."
Paruci: "Ahm… Ahm… let me see…" – She searches for clues around her. – "We took the left path, then the middle one. Then the one with the old board…"
"…then we passed by a head-shaped rock, and after that, we crossed through a river."
Paruci: "Right!" – She hits her palm with her other hand, solving the mystery like a confident detective. – "We shouldn't have crossed the bridge, we should have followed the river!"
"AND WHY IN THE HELL YOU SAID TO CROSS THROUGH IT!?"
Paruci: "It's- it's because I wanted you to see the old temple… Please don't yell at me!"
What? That bathroom-like place with a broken roof and a fat stone statue of a sleeping man seated with his legs crossed?
"We are lost because of that rotten place?? What made you think I would like seeing that!?"
She looks at me with teary eyes, her aura overflowing with puppy sadness.
Paruci: "It's because…" – She sniffs, her voice cracking to hold back her tears. – "It's because I like it…"
I hit her right in the top of her head, my hand straight to chop her in half, though unfortunately it did nothing but make her cry louder.
"Ask me first at least! How much of an air-head are you to even forget we were going on the wrong path??"
She only lowers her head, her wolf ears down pleading for my mercy.
"Tsk. Whatever… Let's just go back, then. No use crying now."
I turn and start walking in heavy steps, but her small voice stops me.
Paruci: "Wait… I think we can use a shortcut." – Her instincts talk through her mouth as she remembers something helpful. – "This path goes above the lake we need to go, if we just go south from here, we'll be able to get there in a few minutes."
"Okay… and you know where south is?"
She whimpers, lowering her head once more, her tail rolling between her legs.
"Tsk. Don't worry, I can roughly tell where." – I activate my divine vision, a grey ping going all around me and sucking the world of all its colors. – "There… was around north." – I point at the red sun creepily resting over the north mountains – "if we went west by a little, and the mountains are this distant…" – I keep mentalizing my memories of the game map as best as I can, drawing points and lines to where I currently am, the direction the red sun is, and calculating where is the true north, and so at its exact opposite… – "Then south is around there."
Paruci cleans her tears and her gaze follows my finger, pointing at the forest at our left.
Paruci: "You sure?" – she says skeptically.
"Now, you are doubting me?..." – I say with my arms crossed and my feet tapping on the floor.
Paruci gulps her doubts, accepts them, and so we walk down the slight slope.
In less than five minutes, the giant lake is in our sight, glittering with the sunlight at its surface, its clean blue color spreading far in the middle of the forest in the shape of an eye, almost like the earth itself had it open to watch the sky above.
Paruci: "You were actually right!" – She says jumping as we walk around the shore. – "It's Mer's Lake!"
"Of course I was, we went mostly towards west, going to the right from that road wouldn't make sense, all I did was to point which angle we should take at left."
But of course, she wasn't listening to me. Paruci is playing in the cold water, wetting her leather sandals and toes while spinning and dancing as if she was a child… --Oh, wait… that's right.
"How old are you?"
Her eyes widen in surprise at me.
Paruci: "Huh, what with the sudden question?" – She blushes slightly, avoiding my cold stare. – "I'm not a kid you know, I'm just hyperactive. I'm becoming an adult next year, thank you very much." – She pouts like a kid.
"Next year… if wolfkin adulthood is at age of ten, then…"
Paruci: "That's right, I'm nine!" – She says grinning from one ear to the other, raising nine fingers in front of her face.
And yet, she looks nineteen…
"Damn the wolfkins and their double growth rate…" – I clench my hands in anger. – "How in the hell are you one level above me? Even if you lived through it all, to reach level seventy-six… you would need to have done at least some hundreds of dungeons worth of XP."
She turns static, letting the small wave creep below wet her feet and go back to the enormous body of water behind her.
Paruci: "Level seventy-six?... Dungeons?" – She looks completely confused at me. – "…XP?"
I stare at her, the only emotion coming from my eyes being of deep disappointment.
"How did you survive through all these years?"
Paruci: "H-Hey! I'm strong you know! Just because I don't know any of those strange mage-thing words it doesn't mean I'm worthless!"
"Okay, stop squealing and let's keep going at it." – My eyes scan the lake from one corner to the other. – "Where's the boat you told me about?"
Her adventurous smile challenges me.
Paruci: "Oh, right down to business, ey?"
She chuckles in triumph as she walks to the forest with a knight's step, proud that I'm so interested in fishing.
Paruci: "It's right… here!" – She pounces into a big bush, instantly disappearing from my sight and making it move erratically.
Small green leaves and pink petals fly out of it, and then a painful high-pitched squeak comes from it.
Paruci: "Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't know you were living in there!"
An angry light-brown squirrel pops out to the shore, its floppy ears and red eyes like an infuriated rabbit, it jumps and dashes away before going back into the forest from another small entry point.
Paruci: "There you go!" – She drags a boat against the gravel ground as if it was made of cardboard, pushing the gravel on its path towards the water.
"That?"
The boat had only two seats and a chest-box in the middle, probably to place the fish or fishing tools. Though space isn't the issue, what really bothers me is its decaying state, with green moss growing brown barnacles and mushrooms of all colors and shapes at its bottom. Its wooden carcass and insides were at their breaking point through rotting to crumble altogether. And even though I said there were two places to sit, one of the wood boards was broken and a blue bucket was turned upside down to be used as a seat.
Paruci: "What are you waiting for? Come on in!" – She said already jumping in and taking the best spot.
"Are you sure that's safe? We should take another one."
Paruci: "Another one?" – She laughs. – "As if I would betray my old partner here!" – She slaps the boat twice, the wood molding itself to the palm of her hand for a few seconds before puffing back to normal.
"If your partner doesn't betray you first and drowns you."
Paruci: "Ah? It's a saying, the boat isn't alive for it to drown me." – She giggles innocently. – "Don't be such a kid."
I warily go on board it, one leg at a time, carefully not to touch the mushy wood.
"Ergh…"
My cloak swipes through the outside of the boat, a green smudge marking the insides of the dark cloth.
"Oh, fucking great…"
I take off my scout's cloak and fold it before sitting, fully uncovering my grey adventurer's long-sleeved shirt with hard leather plates marking the cloth from underneath in arrow-like stripes, each patch made in a way that allows me to move without much trouble while protecting me; and below, my dark-brown pants with black belts all over to hold the many bags around my waist and thigh.
"Tsk. Now I'll have to wash it later." – I say resting my cloak on my lap, the green stain facing up.
Paruci: "Woaah..." – Her eyes dazzle as she examines my body. – "I never imagined you were wearing such strange clothes beneath that."
"Eh? This is good equipment, damn you. It's only a rare tier but I made them myself, modified solely for this character's traits and class!"
Paruci: "Wooooah!" – Her eyes brighten even more. – "You know how to sew too?? So cool!"
My eyes flinch in embarrassment.
"Err… not exactly. It's more like magic summoning."
Paruci: "WOOOOHAAAAAT!? You can summon clothes??? Like from thin air??"
"Something like that, yes."
Paruci: "Give me one too, then!"
"No! You crazy? I need resources to make them, it's not cheap. Besides, after I went in-- after the heroes disappeared, I can't do that anymore."
Paruci: "Aaaaauhhh…" – she howls in sadness. – "And here I thought you could do something cool for once."
A one-sided contempt smirk comes to my face.
"Is that so…"
I take a time to relax and then I turn around in confusion.
"Wait, how are we moving? I thought you needed to row it."
Paruci: "No, no. No rowing in my boat, it doesn't like the friction. Last time we tried, that place you're sitting on broke and launched me on the water."
I look down, analyzing the broken wooden board at the sides of my blue bucket seat.
"So, this is its story, huh?"
Paruci: "I use magic. I think where it needs to go. And it goes. No trouble."
"That simple? How someone make a telepathic boat like this?"
Paruci: "Telepakick? I don't know. My father was the one who brought it, maybe you can ask him. But I doubt he will remember it."
"Yeah, I can see how old it is by the looks of it." – I feel the boat crackle below me. – "I doubt whoever sold it is still around on the market."
Paruci: "Okay. Now… have your rod ready."
"My rod? You mean the stick?"
Paruci leans down, opening the box in the middle of us and showing its insides. Fishing lines, hooks, and baits are separated from a round spot which I think is to place the fish in.
Paruci: "Here a level one hook… and a level one string."
"You're just giving me the worst ones you can find… and shouldn't I have a bait?"
Paruci: "No bait. No, no, no. That's cheating. My father only allowed me to use baits after five years of training."
All my motivation goes down the drain.
"I don't want to be here for five years."
Paruci: "I said the same thing when I was a kid. But that's the only way to improve yourself the way of the legends!"
"…I think your father was just afraid you would fall in the water if a fish really came."
Paruci: "Now, stop talking." – She lowers her voice into a serious tone, ducking her head to come closer. – "We are near the middle of the lake, where the most dangerous fish are. If you make too much noise, the Chupacabra laying dormant below will eat you alive."
Hah…? Chupacabra...?
I duck to whisper seriously at her.
"I commend your father for raising you. He sure did his best to keep you behaved."
Paruci: "Oh, you can thank him later. He's my master, he taught all I know. But now… let's focus, you'll throw the hook on the water, but first, you need to knot it at the end of the string. Oh, and you need to wrap the string on the fishing rod too."
"Why are you explaining it all backward? You're lucky that I already knew all that."
Paruci: "Oh, how many years of experience do you have?"
"None, I only saw how people did it a few times."
Paruci: "So, no talking back to me. I'm your senior."
"But I'm right."
Paruci: "Shhhhh."
"You--"
Paruci: "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." – She looks at me with dark anger, pointing a finger down. – "The Chupacabra."
I blink slowly, holding my anger in and nodding tiredly.
Better to not argue. Or this will extend more than necessary.
She turns her back to me, eager to start.
Paruci: "Okay, to make it fair, each one of us will face one side. And we will throw the hook at the same time." – She gazes to the front of the boat. – "Whoever takes more fish wins."
"Right." – I hesitantly turn to the opposite side.
The both of us stare at each other over our shoulders, fishing rods tightly in both hands.
Paruci: "Three… Two… One…" – she whispers 'loudly'. – "Now!"
Paruci lifts from her seat with emotion, swinging the rod with everything she has, the fine string slide through the metal cogs of her weapon and quickly propels with red magic, cutting the air in an arc above her head and reaching the ultimate spot at the middle of the lake. The float stays above the surface as a blue light circles around it like a clock, making the hook descend to the perfect level with the latest fishing magic tech someone can buy. Below the water level, it's possible to see faint lightning twinkling from its sinker, calling the nearby fishes' attention every few seconds or so.
I, on the other hand, lazily throw the small hook with my own hands and the string follows flimsy a few meters away, it knots itself a few times as it came out of the roll laying over my folded cloak before reaching a few meters behind the boat. The silver metal hits the water and submerges slowly, the string sinking bit by bit nearer and nearer to me. Because there is no floater to keep it still, the underneath hook travels all so calmly to lay below the tip of my rod's range.
Paruci looks down at me with a wide grin.
Paruci: "Not too bad. For a newbie."
"Shut up."
The container in the middle of the boat only grew over the hours, blue scaled sharp fish, brown with long fins, others with big black eyes, and some smaller ones like sardines. But of course, all of those were caught by the radiant Paruci and her legendary fishing rod named Excalibur.
Luckily, I needed to meditate on some other matters so I could easily ignore her victory barks over my ears every time a fish slapped my back and fell over the pile of caught prey. All creatures paralyzed by the magic of her hook, hopelessly looking at me for mercy, all to die soon after.
So magic is important even for jobs like this.
Before, Ave said that the wolfkins could farm vegetables daily with magic, the blacksmiths also need to deal with ascended items with powers, and even fishing is improved by it.
From what I know, Paruci has Poisoning Blades. The same type of wrapping magic as my Freezing Blades or Flaming Blades. You activate it and your hits receive extra elemental damage. Though in her case it causes to add a poison status effect that damages you over time and can slow or even paralyze you. These poor fishes had no chance once they took the bait.
Because it's a temporary magic effect, it should be eatable after a while, so it's perfect for hunting.
I guess the metal hook is considered the blade of her weapon. Damn, maybe she can even fight with that fishing rod for all I know. And thinking about it, it might be a fairly dangerous foe to go against. Its movements are too quick and the range too wide. It wouldn't paralyze me as fast as those fishes, but with enough stacks of poison, anyone would be done for.
I look back. Paruci is smiling merrily at her floater, proud of herself to have caught as many fish as she already took.
Is she like that… every time? Or is this a lucky day?... Well, I'm already here, so why not start a conversation?
"Paruci…"
Something pulls my string.
"What--"
It pulls more, and more, suddenly growing stronger with every pull. I quickly grab the stick with both hands, needing to use my legs to go against it.
"I caught something!"
Paruci: "Pull it! Oh my God, oh my God! It's your first! Pull it, pull it back!"
"I'm trying dammit!"
I feel my feet sliding on the wood together with the old bucket I'm seating on until my boots slap against the corners of the old boat, the entire thing almost turns forward and sinks into the water but Paruci is fast enough to get up and counterbalance the weight on the other side, and so the boat's shell hits the water once more. The monster on the other side of my string begins to move the boat forward with its constant fight.
Paruci: "Spin it! Spin the rod to pick the string back!"
I spin it with the force I can muster, but I'm using most of what I have only to keep my grip.
"It's not working! You need to help me!"
Paruci: "I can't! If I move the boat capsizes!"
The thing pulls even more, even harder, the boat start gaining speed and begins moving in circles in the lake.
"What the-- HELL!!" – The strength I'm using exceeds one of a normal human already, all to not fall on the water. – "DAMMIIIIIT!!"
Instead of spinning it, I try to pull it with all I have. And instinctively, I activate my Freezing Blades to try copying Paruci's magic. I feel it traveling through the pulling string, going over each knot and reaching the other end underwater.
"Come here!!!!"
I pull, all my muscles contracting it to move back, I fill my strength gauge to hit its overlimit… but then… the stick breaks.
The string quickly unwinds in the air in front of me, letting the creature go.
"Oh no, you won't!"
I grip the strings in my hands tighter, the ones that were attached to the stick before, and I coil what is in front of me with both hands and arms, wrapping it all around my body.
"DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY HOURS I SPENT HERE!? NOW YOU'LL COME WITH ME!!"
Paruci: "You can do it! Pull it, Strider!! Pull it!!!" – She raises her fist in the air, a big exhilarated smile on her face.
My Freezing magic amplifies, the string in my body almost cutting through the fabric of my gloves and sleeves. Some strings rip each other apart like tight guitar cords being released from their tension.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
I pull it out of the water, the shadow of the enormous creature going over the boat and blocking the sun.
Paruci: "That can't be…"
Paruci gazes at it, all in slow motion, the creature arching over so elegantly above our heads as drops of water reflect the sunlight all around us. It's bigger than an elephant but thin like a fish, with blue smooth skin and a teethed-tail of a shark. A whale-like cry resonates in the air as it tries to open its mouth, its beak resembling a long spear projecting out of its head, having a small hook stuck on its tip as the fishing string wraps it tightly close, ice frosting it whole.
It falls heavily on the other side of the boat, and soon, it begins to pull me again, now a little weaker than before but still forcing my boots to slide to where Paruci is.
Paruci: "That's a Nehenipada!" – She looks in amusement at me, the biggest smile widening on her face. – "A Mommy one at that!"
The boat starts to turn from its head, but Paruci manages to almost kick the other side to balance it again, making it move like a jetski.
I amplify my freezing magic even more, sensing my energy bar falling quickly to fifty percent at the corner of my eyes.
Paruci: "Hahahaa… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!... HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAAHHA!!!"
I pull with all I had left, my energy quickly descends to a quarter. I spin it to my side, steering the creature's direction to go out of the water, the creature leaps out and flips through the air. But this time, the giant fish leaps against the forest. It flies like a spear cutting the wind, and with a thud, the giant creature falls on its back at the lake's shore.
"Ah HA!... That's right!... You - stay there!"
I use up to the tenth percent of my magic to keep on freezing it, the enormous fish squirms around, my arms completely numb and wrapped in knots with stray strings all around.
I pant heavily and the lake fell silent, after a full minute, the fighting was settled for good and Paruci howled happily ever after.
And with that…
The entire village could dine a Giant Nehecipada together.
Paruci gladly gave me the credits for the catch, but she couldn't help herself to boast to everyone about how her "apprentice" managed to quickly learn from her ultimate teaching techniques.
And for the first time, I could try that legendary fish people were fighting over a few days back…
It's actually… amazing. For a fish dish.
But I still prefer chicken.