With a worn-out rod on one arm, I arrived at the area that’s painted blue on the map… the shores of the sea.
I didn’t want to fish on the sandy beach, so I searched for a nearby pier, took a position there, and dropped the thread.
A long time has passed, and I have yet to get a single catch.
As far as I can tell from the description of the rod, it seems that I can catch a fish even if I don’t have an item called ‘fishing bait’ that increases the probability of catching fish. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to catch one at all.
Even if it’s in-game, it feels good to be idly fishing while gazing at the blue sky. The smell of seawater here isn’t inferior to the one in reality. Above all, the wind is gentle, the temperature is comfortable, and it can be said that it is really a good day for fishing.
In your typical game, the clouds in the sky don’t move at all. Even if they did move, their movement patterns are static. However, as far as I’ve seen, the clouds in this sky scatter, grow, and are blown away by the wind, just like in reality. Everything appears to have been generated by the calculations of some sort of physics engine.
“Hey, little lady! Your rod is being pulled by a fish!”
“Ooh? You’re right.”
The rod twitched as the tip continued to lightly vibrate. I immediately stood up and pulled on the rod. I didn’t use that much force, but it lifted easily.
[Acquired ‘Herring’]
A herring was added to the item column.
So it is possible to catch something using a worn-out rod without bait. As expected from a game.
“Thanks for letting me know… eh, he’s gone? Was he in a hurry?”
I wanted to thank the person who had given me the heads up earlier, but he wasn’t there anymore.It may be that he just happened to see the rod by chance while passing by.
Anyway, now that I knew I could catch fish, I cast the line again.
“Herring, huh. If I remember correctly, Kyoto cuisine has dishes that use herring.”
There were pots and frying pans in the tool shop. Perhaps I can prepare fish dishes with the cooking skill.
If there is herring, then there could be horse mackerel, mackerel, and sardines. If my fishing skill rank goes up, I might be able to catch tuna or sea bream.
By the way, I wonder what kind of tuna “tuna” refers to in this game. Is it albacore or bluefin tuna? Did they even put in varieties of tuna? I personally am pretty insistent in properly classifying the types of tuna though.
#Note: Had to take a plunge on what he was referring to by 「俺的にマグロの種類は譲れないんだが。」, I’ll apologize in advance if I’m wrong.
As I was thinking about such things, the tip of the pole twitched again.
[Acquired ‘Herring’]
Herring again… Herring roe, dried herring, herring soba, salted herring, and smoked herring. Oh, come to think of it, surströmming is also herring.
Surströmming, I’ve seen it on TV but never eaten it in real life. I doubt I would want to willingly eat it since it seemingly has some kind of smell to it. It wouldn’t hurt to acquire the cooking skill if I could get it in the first place. That way, I can make it myself whenever I want to, plus, I have to know what in-game herring tastes like.
†
“This is much easier than I thought.”
Two hours have passed since then, and the results are excellent. 7 herrings, 3 sardines, and 1 horse mackerel.
I don’t mean to mix realism into the game, but if this were reality, it would be a good catch. All of the fish I caught are edible.
“But… there sure is a difference in their sizes.”
I only caught one horse mackerel, so I can’t say for sure, but the 7 herrings do vary in size. those with more thickness and those with a longer length, I wonder if such differences are indicative of a standard that suggests the herring’s rarity, quality value, or the like.
Come to think of it, copper was sold at the tool shop, but if that is mined copper, then it’s possible that its purity is related to its quality value for the same reason.
Using ores of high purity would make better weapons and armor. Perhaps.
Now that I remember it, I have a Beginner’s Dismantling Knife. Maybe I can use it to dismantle the fish.
I pulled out the Beginner’s Dismantling Knife stored in the sheath attached to my waist and faced the herring.
“How do I use this anyway?”
I’ve never actually fileted fish, so I just went with what I knew. If I remember correctly, I’m supposed to scale the fish first.
I started scraping the herring with the back of the knife. Several scales peeled off not too long after.
[Acquired 4 Small Fish Scales]
Oh, isn’t this dismantling knife pretty useful? I like it. If this is how it goes, then the meat and bones are likely to become items as well. All right!
“Ah!”
I got overexcited and used too much force. The knife sliced straight into the body of the herring. The herring then disappeared without becoming meat or bones.
So this is a game world after all.
There was hardly much of a difference between what was going on and reality until now, so I’m a bit shaken. Anyway, I guess I’ll dismantle all the fish I got.
The result was 27 ‘Small Fish Scales’, 8 ‘Small Fish Bones’, 4 ‘Herring Meat’, 1 Herring Head’, 1 ‘Horse Mackerel Meat’, and 1 ‘Sardine Meat’.
I can’t help but feel like the amount of fish I caught and the amount of meat I got didn’t really match up, but I’ll accept it for now.
According to the item count, I got nearly four times what I caught.
By the way, dismantling also requires a lot of concentration. A small mistake is all it takes for it to disappear. Filleting took quite a bit of time for just 11 fish since I had to be careful with how I did it.
Well, I’m pretty sure that’ll improve once I get to learning the skills. Speaking of skills, I haven’t touched them yet. I displayed the status screen.
Name: Kizuna†Exceed Race: Spirit
Energy: 1300 Mana: 60 Serin: 0
Oh, my energy and mana are increasing without me doing anything. Why?
Ah, there was something like Energy Production in my skills. That must be why.
Skill: Energy Production I Mana Production I
Energy Production I → Energy Production II
Produce 100 energy per hour → Produce 200 energy per hour
Required mana for rank up: 10
Mana Production I → Mana Production II
Produce 5 mana per hour → Produce 10 mana per hour
Consume 0 energy per hour → Consume 150 energy per hour
Required mana for rank up: 25
“Ugh! I’ve wasted three hours!”
I immediately ranked up the two skills to II. My energy is now at 1150, and my mana is now at 30. Apparently, the energy consumption of skills occurs immediately after a rank up.
But when you think about it, wouldn’t it be nice to have more energy and mana every hour? I wonder if normal races had it easier to raise levels by hunting monsters.
Whatever. I’m a Spirit anyway, I’ll just have to work with this.
Looking at the skill column, I noticed that a skill, written in dimmed text, called “Fishing Mastery I” appeared. It seems like those three hours were not a waste. By the way, Dismantling Mastery has yet to appear, with me having only dismantled that amount of fish.
Wanting to get Fishing Mastery I, I peeked into its description.
Fishing Mastery I
Adds 10% bonus to all actions using the fishing rod
Consumes 100 energy per hour
Required mana for acquisition: 30
Acquisition conditions: Acquire more than 10 items with a fishing rod
Rank up condition: Acquire more than 100 items with a fishing rod
I barely have enough to acquire it, though my energy efficiency will drop to -50 every hour once I do. That’s bad. I could end up dying out of the blue. Let’s acquire Fishing Mastery after increasing the rank of Energy Production.
With that line of thought, I cast the line once more.
“Hmm?”
At the moment when the line was cast, an unbelievable amount of force began to pull on it.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa!?”
Due to it being a sudden occurrence, I ended up gripping the rod tightly, which led to my body, in the form of a girl’s, now getting dragged along.
Maybe it is because I lack the raw STR, or energy, as a Spirit, despite my efforts to hold on… I ended up falling into the sea. The sounds of bubbling foam accompanied my body’s sinking into the seawater.
For a moment, I saw a large fish, but it soon disappeared from sight.
Come on! Had I acquired Fishing Mastery, I might have been able to catch it!
The ones that get away are always the biggest, or so they say, but… in any case, I have to get back on land.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m now a game character, but I can hold my breath longer than I usually do. I returned to the bridge while staring at the small body of [Kizuna†Exceed], my avatar.
“Phew…”
My clothes were wet when I got on the bridge. It seems like there is detection for even this.
I mean, while looking at the item screen, I noticed that my energy had been reduced by 30 when I gave the status screen a quick check. I suppose falling into the sea is also included within this game’s damage detection?
“More than that, my fishing rod got taken away…”
This is exactly what it means to be dumbfounded. I never thought that the fishing rod I got from the initial funds and selling potions would disappear in such a short time.
“Hahaha… how dare you…”
It’s decided. I will definitely catch and eat it!
