They soon broke through the covering of trees. When Kits eyes landed on the lake, he realised why the lake was called Red velvet. The lake was a deep red colour. The bottom of the lake looked like it had red velvet covering the floor.
Kit couldn’t tell from here if the water was really red or if it was clear and the red came from whatever was on the lake floor.
Kit had never seen anything quite like it before. He stared in amazement. He wanted to get closer so his curiosity about the water would be solved. He went to walk towards the water but was stopped by an arm blocking his way. Kit’s eye travelled up the arm all the way up to the owner. Grandpa had an amused expression on his face.
“Sword Kit.”
“Ahh sorry, I got distracted by the water.”
Kit pulled his sword from his sheath and started to pay attention to his surroundings. Sounds started to enter his ears as he became alert. He could hear the croaking of frogs and chirps of the birds. Kit looked around to see if he could see one of the Black spotted frogs Grandpa had told him about.
Not too far from where they were standing, a large number of the amphibians were gathered. They were half the size of Kit with black spots covering their red bodies. Kit could see their slimy skin from where he was. The wet goo covering their bodies glinted in the sun. He wondered how they would attack.
Kit didn’t have to wait long for the answer. He could see a figure heading towards the large frogs already. One side of Kit’s mouth lifted, and he let out a soft snort.
“Figures.”
Kit watched Mars descend upon the monsters. He soon found out what he would have to be cautious of. Thick long tongues started to shoot towards Mars, he nimbly dodged out of the way as he closed in to attack.
Kit followed the figure into the fray. He knew if he just stood there Mars would finish them all off. Soon Kit was dodging leathery tongues. Kit felt they were more like whips. Even when they collided with his body, they felt like strong leather instead of a slimy tongue.
- 100 health
- 100 health
Kit felt repulsed each time he failed to dodge an attack. Large globs of saliva were starting to cover his body along with welts form the impact from the disgusting tongues. Kit tried to focus on his attacking instead of his slimy clothing.
He soon got into a rhythm and began to attack the large frogs. Kit practiced his side attacks as he used his sword. He focused on controlling the blade as he sliced the frogs.
- 160 damage
- 160 damage
Kit happily watched the numbers flash before his eyes each time his sword connected with the frog’s body. Soon blood and slime started accumulate on his clothes. The familiar sensation sent a shiver down his spine. No matter how many times it happened, the thought of being covered in blood and body matter still repulsed him.
As Kit was attacking the frogs, he couldn’t manage to dodge all the flying tongues thrown his way. He was starting to become a red potted human. Each time one landed, Kit would lose his rhythm and 100 health. He was starting to become frustrated. As Kit was cursing the slimy amphibians he heard Mars laughing.
“Kit, these guys are fun.”
Kit looked over at Mars and a pang of jealousy erupted. Mars was having a great time dodging each flying tongue. How the hell has he not received a slap from one of these disgusting things yet?
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not covered in spit.”
Kit grunted at Mars. He received laughter in return.
“You need to work harder on your dodging ability then you won’t have that problem.”
Kit received no sympathy from Mars. He wanted to weep at the unfairness. When would his ability catch up? At this moment Kit was glad he had received the speed boost from his boots. He didn’t think he would even fair this well without the added speed to help him dodge.
With the tongues lashing out at him Kit began to realise how important raising his speed and agility as well as his attack would be for fighting. Kit began to think of other ways to counter the flying tongues.
Kit decided he would solve the problem by removing the offending appendages from the body!
Kit changed his target from landing a strike on the frog’s body to removing their tongues. Soon a pile of tongues was scattered on the ground. Kit felt a sense of satisfaction at the sight. This feeling didn’t last long. Soon huge globs of spit were flying through the air towards him.
“What the fun loving potato crisps is going on! How are they spitting without a tongue?”
Kit wanted to stamp his foot and throw a tantrum, unfortunately the frogs didn’t allow him the time to wallow in his frustrations.
The flying spit did no damage to him so Kit ignored the huge globs soaring his way and focused on attacking a single frog. Soon Kit was dealing the last blow to the slimy amphibian.
Ding!
[Black spotted frog Killed]
6 x Black spotted frog legs.
3,000 experience, 100 bronze crowns.
“Succulent French cuisine! I can make something with these hopping spit balls.”
Kit heard Mars laugh at his outburst.
“Then we should kill as many of them as possible. I want to try frogs’ legs.”
Mars and Kit soon whittled the group of monsters down as Mars was finishing of the last monster, Kit was assessing his clothes. He wondered what his chance of being able to clean himself inside the lake was. He decided to go and ask Grandpa, the old man had been watching the fight not too far away.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Grandpa is it safe to enter the water, I need to wash myself.”
“Kit do you even have to ask, of course it’s not safe. You would be eaten in no time, look at your puny stats. Besides you are immune to poison right now so the frog’s saliva won’t be a problem to stay on your skin.”
“So that’s why they didn’t seem that hard to kill. Is the poison from their saliva their most powerful attack?”
Grandpa smiled at Kit, he was pleased that Kit was learning fast.
“That’s right. The frogs have a strong poison mixed in with their saliva. If you hadn’t had your magical drink, you would be dead right now with being covered in so much of their spit.”
Kit was very happy that he had gone through 5 minutes of pain to keep the drink down. He looked down at his slimy body and sighed. It looked like he would have to walk around in an uncomfortable state this morning.
Kit trudged over to grandpa with a squelching sound and sat down. He was exhausted from the fight. He would have to work on increasing his stamina as well. Kit took a swig of beer from a bottle he pulled from his pouch and waited for it to rejuvenate his stamina.
“Now that you have finished the little frogs off, let’s get to catching some creatures from the lake.”
Grandpa started pulling out equipment from his bag. A large pile of traps and four fishing rods sat at Grandpa’s feet. Kit stared at the equipment with an open mouth. Kit could tell Grandpa was an avid fisherman just from the equipment.
Kit became animated looking at the pile, he picked up a small wire cage with a funnel shaped entrance.
“Grandpa what’s this one for?”
“Ahh that one is for the red velvet shrimp. The larger cages are for the Mountain lobster and Crying crabs. The fishing rods we will use for the red velvet catfish. We will need to catch the catfish first so we can use it for bait in the traps.”
Kit had only been fishing a couple of times with his father when he was younger. He was familiar with a fishing rod, but not the traps. Grandpa gave them instructions on how to use the magic fishing rod and traps.
Then the party set to work on catching some red velvet catfish.
Kit applied the bait to the hook and cast his line. He knew from the experience from his previous fishing attempts that it would take a while to actually catch a fish. He sat on the bank and started to make plans about what to create while he waited to hook a fish.
Just as Kit was about to make a list of potential meals, his line started to shake.
“Grandpa I’ve got something on my line already!”
Kit moved to reel his catch in. As he was frantically trying to wind the fish in. Delight coursed through him. He felt his adrenaline rise with his struggles to not lose the fish. Kit watched the end of his fishing rod bend at the weight from the fish. Kit was a little worried that the rod or fishing line might break form the strain.
Soon Kit saw a fish thrashing in the water getting closer to him with each wind of the fishing reel. He felt his pulse rise with his building eagerness to see what was on the end of his hook. Grandpa came up next to him to look at the fish.
“Bring him in a little more and I’ll scoop it up.”
Kit pulled hard on the rod with his arms. The closer the fish got to the shore the more strength he had to use to hold onto the rod. Kit thought that Grandpa would use a net to catch the thrashing fish.
Kit blinked in confusion as Grandpa pulled out his staff. Grandpa pointed his staff at the fish and lifted the fish out of the water.
Kit fell backwards, he had forgotten to stop pulling on the rod. The momentum caused him to fall when the weight of the fish was no longer countering his weight.
Ding!
[Skill learned: Novice angler]
Player has just gained a little insight into fishing, player is not a complete disaster at fishing.
+ 5 Intelligence
+ 3 Agility
Grandpa chuckled at Kit sprawled on the ground. Kit groaned and rubbed his bottom. He should have known Grandpa would use magic to bring the fish ashore. His eyes flashed over the notification and a smile spread across his face.
“Sorry Kit my boy, next time I will do a count so you will be ready. Now that we have a catfish, we can start to set some of the traps.”
Kit scrambled up to look inside the net, the notification forgotten in his haste. He couldn’t wait to see what the fish looked like. Inside the net was a giant pink Catfish covered in tiny red spots. It was about a meter in size and had two cat like whiskers hanging from its mouth.
Kit watched as Grandpa took the fish from the net and started to chop the fish into pieces. Two thirds of the fish was cut into large chunks and the remaining third grandpa mushed into a something resembling a paste.
Kit watched with fascination as Grandpa started to set the traps. He explained to Kit how to set them as he worked. Once Kit understood he helped Grandpa with baiting the traps. Grandpa then picked up two traps and motioned for Kit to do the same.
“We can put them in the water now. I’ll show you the best spot for each of the traps.”
Kit followed the old man and soon all the traps were in the water. They returned to their original spot. Kit realised that Twix and Mars were doing the same thing that he and Grandpa had just done. A smile bloomed on his face.
He would have a good supply of ingredients at the end of the day!
“Now the traps are set we just have to give the bait time to lure the crustations inside. Now it’s time to catch some more fish. It shouldn’t take long. These catfish have a weakness for the bait I use so it doesn’t take long to snag one as you experienced earlier.”
“I thought I had just been lucky to hook one so quickly. Grandpa you’re amazing if your bait works this quickly all the time.” Grandpa practically glowed with Kit’s praise. His eyes were shinning with delight.
“Thank you, Kit. As you know fishing is my favourite hobby, I have honed my skills with bait for years. Now let’s cast a line.”
They continued to catch more fish. After catching his second fish, Kit began to wonder how they would keep the fish fresh. Grandpa soon answered his question when he pulled out a large fish tank from his bag. Kit blinked in astonishment at the glass tank.
“Umm Grandpa are we putting the fish in there?”
“Yes, how else are we going to keep them fresh.” Grandpa looked at Kit like he was being silly for even asking.
“But how will we transport the fish back. I didn’t think you could put live things into storage bags.”
Grandpa laughed at Kit and a twinkle emerged in his eyes. Grandpa then took out his staff and pointed it at the tank. It lifted off the ground.
Grandpa manoeuvred the tank into the water and filled the tank. He then placed it back on the ground with a soft thud. Through the whole process Grandpa didn’t spill any of the water.
Kit started to laugh in childish delight.
“Amazing!”
Kit couldn’t help but to clap his hands. This game brought him so many pleasures. He always looked forward to seeing anything to do with magic. At times like this he wished magic was also in the real world. With the problem of transportation of the fish solved, Kit happily dived back into fishing.
Soon the tank was filled with large fish swimming inside.
“I think that’s all we can fit inside for this tank. Let’s go and see how the traps are doing. Then we can go and find the other two.”
“Ok.”
Kit happily followed Grandpa back to the traps. They came to the funnel shaped net first. When Grandpa pulled it from the water, Kit could see a creature with a semitransparent blue body and a flexible tail shaped like a fan. Kit felt his mouth start to water at the sight of the shrimp. He couldn’t wait to start cooking.
Grandpa pulled out a smaller tank and put the shrimp inside. They then moved onto the next trap. This time it was one of the larger traps. When Grandpa floated the trap out of the water Kit felt a thrill run through his body. Inside was a large red lobster with two large pincers. It was the size of his whole arm.
Kit laughed at the sight of the lobster. It made him so happy seeing the muscular tails flapping up and down. The building excitement was starting to make him jittery. He couldn’t wait to go to the next trap. Grandpa took out a new glass tank from his bag and two tanks floated behind them as they moved on.
They collected a few more traps before Kit finally was able to see a Crying crab. He soon found out why they were called Crying crabs. As Grandpa lifted a trap from the water the sound of wailing emerged with the tank. Kit quickly covered his ears.
Grandpa quickly stashed the crabs into another glass tank. Once they were safely inside the sound stopped and Kit could get a closer look at the pink crabs. The crustation had 10 legs with two large pincers at the front of its body. The hard shell was covered in white speckles. The sight made Kit want to race back to his restaurant to start his experiments.
“Grandpa how long till we can go back?”
“Kit you have barley done anything to raise your swordsman levels today. We won’t go back until you kill a few more monsters. Let’s finish collecting the traps then we can find the other two and start your training again.”
Kit could only put his growing excitement to the side. He knew that they always stopped around lunch time to head back. He could only wait until then to release his enthusiasm to create something new.