Chapter 98: Let’s all fish together
Translator: Tseirp
Fishing is quite profound. There are three skills related to fishing, the common skills ‘Reel’ and ‘Fish’ as well as the unique skill for Fisherman and Angler, ‘Advanced Fishing’.
I had raised ‘Reel’ up to level 3. That was because upon raising ‘Reel’ up to level 3, I would acquire ‘Improved visibility in water’. The effect was, just like its name, to able to ignore some of the light refraction and turbidity and acquire clear vision in water.
With that, I could identify the number of fishes in the water and be able to fish efficiently.
Whereas the common skill ‘Swimming’ confers better mobility and a certain degree of combat ability in water but have no influence on vision. The other skill that can acquire ‘Improved visibility in water’ are ‘Underwater fighting technique’, the advanced skill of ‘Swimming’, but it is an inherent skill for most warrior-type divine protections so I could not use it.
Underwater is a very difficult environment to fight in. With the same equipment on land, you would not be able to move your body well and would not even be able to swing your weapon. Probably only piercing would be effective when using a sword. The best option would be to not fight underwater.
However, there are some situations where there is no choice but to fight underwater. Countless monsters inhabit the underwater world just the same as on land and it is an unavoidable fact for those who make a living through the fishing industry or transportation via water.
The difficulty in bypassing the ‘Wall at the End of the Earth’ sea route was because the sea to the east of Zoltan, in addition to being home to many storms, was the habitat for extremely large sea monsters.
Named as the King of Storms, there were sea demons such as the Kraken, Deep Serpent, Great White, Shark Octopus, as well as, said to be the kin of the mythical Leviathan, huge sea dragons which possess the skill to change their form.
When fighting against extremely large monsters, we would be powerless if they attack from directly beneath the ship. In such cases, we would have no choice but to dive into the sea and deal with them in their forte, underwater battle.
For that reason, fishing was kind of my forte.
“Wahhh, it’s a big fish.”
I placed the fishes which I caught in the box beside me containing seawater. I currently had six fishes.
“Grrr.”
Lit glared at the float being bounced by the sea with frustration.
Kukuku, no fish would come close regardless of your skill if you release such murderous intent.
We were fishing at a pier out over the sea near Zoltan. That was a place for travelling merchants who peddle their wares to coastal villages or on rivers to unload their goods. Since utilizing Zoltan’s harbor would incur a fee, merchants selling daily necessities load or unload goods to or from their own boats here.
“Also, Ruti.”
“What?”
“The aim of fishing is not to target fishes in the sea with a needle with pinpoint accuracy.”
Ruti’s fishing creel already had more than 30 fishes.
Her fishing method was to throw a threaded needle without any bait into the sea, piercing the fish directly and pulling them up.
It was an outrageous method but the sea up to a 50 meter area was well within her range and she was getting 100% accuracy. But that was definitely not fishing.
“But fishing is quicker this way.”
“Of course it would be.”
Ruti looked at me quizzically.
Well, Ruti never fished before after all.
“All right, Ruti. Let me teach you how to fish.”
I stood up.
“When fishing during holiday, the goal is not the number of fish but to enjoy the act of fishing.”
“Enjoy the act of fishing?”
I readjusted Ruti’s fishing pole.
The bait was blue worm, an earthworm-like worm. Fish often bite with that bait and it was easy to obtain but there were people who do not wish to touch the wriggly blue worms. Tise seemed like she hated it too so she was using small prawns as bait instead of the blue worms.
I thread the float and weight through the fishing line and pinned the blue worm on the hook.
“This is how you place the bait on the hook. Basically, it is better if you pierce the bait up to the root of the hook.”
“Okay.”
“You do not need to toss it as far as possible. You can just toss it nearby and wait for the fishes to come.”
“Really?”
“Tossing it vigorously might cause the bait to fall off and the fishes we are targeting are not that large. Here there are thread fin fishes who are able to deftly extract the bait from the hook as well. You will have to occasionally confirm that your hook still has a bait. As such, this time, toss it just in front of you and fish leisurely as you watch the float.”
“Mu, that sounds difficult.”
“Enjoying that difficulty is part of the joy of fishing too.”
Ruti took the fishing pole from me and dropped the hooked bait into the sea.
It swayed and bobbed above the waves. Sea birds cried and flew overhead in the sky.
“The weather is nice today.”
“Yup.”
Zoltan’s winter sea was cold but beautiful.
When winter comes, the wind would blow from the ‘Wall at the End of the World’ and the surface of the sea would be pushed onto the coast, causing the deep sea water to appear on the surface.
Even without my skill, I could peer into the clear blue sea and see colored tropical fish native to the subtropics swimming in between corals and the forest of sea anemones.
“What a marvelous sight.”
I said as I looked at the sea.
I didn’t explain anything about my thoughts when I muttered those words but Ruti who was beside me as well as Lit who was slightly further away both nodded in agreement.
“Zoltan is interesting.”
“That’s right.”
They said with gentle smiles.
☆☆
“I think it’s about time for lunch.”
“All right! I was already hungry.”
Tanta was the first to react to my words.
“Jeez, I can’t catch up to Red at all.”
Lit said with a pursed lip before she laughed happily.
“Ruti?”
Ruti, who had been staring at the float all this while, reluctantly pulled the fishing line up and released the fishing pole.
“Fun.”
Ruti only fished up two after I taught her. That was quite successful for a beginner but I was worried that she wouldn’t find it fun but it seemed like I was worrying too much.
Ruti was initially puzzled by her failure to fish well but after the fish started biting one after the other, she seemed to have understood the joy in leisurely waiting for the fish to bite.
Tise was splendid in that aspect. She had only caught one fish. But it was a huge fish that could not fit inside the basket we brought.
She ignored the small fry and at a glance seemed to be fishing absentmindedly but she was quite impressive.
We surrounded the bento.
“What did you make?”
“Various stuff.”
Inside the bento were sandwiches, tomato salads, omelet, roast beef, and hamburger steaks. And the drink was milk.
“Wow, it’s so colorful.”
Without delay, Tanta extended his fork to the roast beef.
Lit started with the hamburger steak while Ruti and Tise started with the tomato salad.
“Red, wasn’t it tough making all of this?”
“Hn, well, I got carried away.”
My mental state was in top form since last night to this morning.
“Ehehe ... ”
Lit hurriedly covered her grin.
My lips turned into a grin as well when I saw her and I quickly covered mine as well.
“Ah, look! It’s a ship!”
Tanta shouted. I looked at the sea in the direction Tanta was pointing at.
There was a galley with two square sails moving forward with countless oars spread over three layers propelling the boat forward in an orderly fashion.
“That’s a warship.”
It did not belong to Zoltan. Zoltan only had three sail boats so there was no way I could be mistaken.
” ... That is a Veronia warship.”
I closely observed and noticed that there were fewer oars on the highest row. That was a feature of the southern galley ships of Veronia.
That was designed such that with their high deck position, when positioned beside an opponent ship, they could one-sidedly fire arrows from the higher position.
Originally, around 80 years back, Veronia fielded warships designed to counter pirates who prefer hand-to-hand combat but it was ironic that now, the pirates of the Avalon Continent were using that warship because of its melee capability.
It was now an old ship but the Pirate Geyserik snatched one when it was still a new model and terrorized the southern regions, putting his name down in history as a Pirate Champion. For that reason, those vessels were still being used in Veronia as active warships.
“They are not pirates, right?”
Tanta asked worriedly.
“There is still a possibility that they are pirates but the pirates around this region use mid to small size galleys. I don’t recall there being any pirates who possess such warships.”
Furthermore, when Danan traveled via boat, he sunk a large number of pirate ships. The pirates along Zoltan’s sea routes should be hiding themselves at the moment.
“That ship is not capable of traveling eastward so I wonder what business it has with Zoltan.”
I picked up a sandwich with my hand and stared at the Veronia warship as it moved away and idly imagined the ship’s purpose.