I just sat there staring down at my feet, even as Shadow and Rhonda were nuzzling me and sending me comfort through our link. It was a hard thing to grasp, one day I’m just a guy who barely became an adventurer only to barely survive some kind of sick right of passage… Then deal with that shit at the farm, now only to find out I’m supposed to be some Avatar for a deity…

I scratched my head and sighed as the feeling of a headache was pounding its way to the front of my head so I just laid back and started petting Shadow and Rhonda to take my mind off this.

“Meats ready James.” Rob said shortly after which thankfully shook the thoughts from my head as the smell of meat registered and my stomach growled like a beast.

I sat up and saw as Rob had pulled some plates from his pack and handed one to me that was covered in 3 huge pieces of meat. I gave my pets a piece each and as a trio we devoured until nothing but air was left, If I could eat the tasty smelling air I would’ve in a heartbeat I was that hungry.

By this time I saw Rob look over to the water and smile. “Looks like Big joe is taking off for the night, so it’s time for us to do a little night fishing. Grab your stuff and let’s go.”

He didn’t stay to hear anything I said and immediately started heading down to the waterside. I quickly followed since I was still super eager to try and catch me that Vacuum Bass. After setting up a chair and making sure I had a good grip on my pole, I cast out as far into the stream as I could and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more………

“Goddammit! At least by now I should have caught something right!?” I screamed at the water but only a small ripple was my reply.

“Hahaha, remember boy, fishing is as much patience as it is luck. You can be the luckiest bastard in the world but if your not patient then your luck means nothing. Same can be said for the opposite. But I’ll let you in on a little secret.” He waved over to me as he started to whisper. “If your eyes are good than you can see just where the fish are and actually aim for them. With this you can add skill to the equation.”

I looked between him and the water with increasing frustration. “How the hell am I supposed to ‘see’ the damn fish when they are underwater and I can’t see below the damn surface!”

“Easy like this.” He just nonchalantly flicks a cast out towards what seemed like a random location, then with a little wiggle of his fishing rod within seconds he was reeling in one of those Sparkies or whatever he called them. Wish I had a damn guide book or something to keep track of this. But he just held it up with a smile and said. “See, I told you just like that. Now do what I did and you’ll be catching in no time.”

I just stood there in utter disbelief as this asshole just told me to do what he did… Any dumbass can cast a fishing line, this wasn’t a world breaking discovery here.

“Ugh, ok so you know there is magic in this world right? People gained the ability to harness the elements?”

“Yes? And?” No shit sherlock, gonna tell me something I already know? Didn’t say this out loud but boy was it heavily implied.

He just looked at me as a flash of anger crossed his eyes. “Have you never read a freaking manga or something like that? You gained the ability to tame monsters using magic power, or inner ki, or whatever the hell else you want to call it… Either way close your damn eyes and focus on your heart dammit!” Rob yelled at me as he started to huff in anger.

I sighed but did as he said because it couldn’t hurt right? Very least I distract myself for a few minutes and maybe go to sleep. I reached up to my chest and felt my heart beating and focused on those beats, I formed a mental image in my mind of my body and imagined as where my heart was, a small spring of energy emerged and with every beat that energy would start to spread, first down my arms and hands where it would then circle around and flow down my body and legs all the way to my toes, there it would trace it’s way back through my organs and past my heart up into my brain than as if completing a circuit, that flow of energy would end up back at my heart where the whole rotation would start over again.

……..

Rob stared at this 20 something year old with wide eyes and a slack mouth as this young man just completed circulating his magic without any training whatsoever.

‘Maybe this kid really is something special? I had my doubts, but if he can do something like this first try… Just maybe he won’t end up like the others.’

…….

I opened my eyes and even though the night had fully encompassed the world, it was still filled with vibrant colors. The fire light was casting gentle orange light that covered everything in its reach while the moon above, ah the moon. I never really looked up at it, but the pale light from it shone onto the deep green of the tree leaves and bounced off of the rippling water. Looking at the water closer I could see a small spark under the surface only for a moment, but I knew that now was my chance. I picked up my rod and quickly cast in that direction and with a little luck I ended up close to that spark.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Within moments just like Rob, I was reeling in a Sparky.

“This…Wow.” Is all I could say as I turned to look at a Rob who had a huge smirk.

“And now your world is forever changed Jimmy boy. This feeling you have now will pass but what you see will remain as long as you keep that magic flowing around your body. You can focus it in certain parts of your body as well, but we can cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Haha, thank you Rob… I’m sorry I snapped at you before.” I said as I stared at the Sparky as he was still wiggling on my line. I grabbed it like I saw Rob do but tried to jump back as the shock was something I was definitely not prepared for. I thought it was going to be a small zap like static but it was much worse. I shut my eyes in pain as my hand instantly seized and wrapped around the fish and squeezed as the electricity kept zapping me until finally I heard a pop and all at once the zapping faded until my hand felt numb. I opened my eyes to see that there was blood from the Sparky flowing down my hand and dripping onto the ground below me.

As Rob laughed at me I was prying my fingers open so I could drop the body. Almost as soon as I did, Rhonda swooped down and snatched it up and with a happy Kweh! She nudged my body. As thanks she got a little zap as the residual static lashed out at her. She jumped back before sending an angry glare at me.

“Hahaha, I was just shocked girl, did you think there wouldn’t be something left over just because the fish was dead? Our bodies are great conductors for electricity so let’s be careful of this guys ok?”

Rhonda just nodded but she sent a pleading for more of the … ‘Tingly fish?’

I opened my eyes wide as I looked at Rhonda with amazement! “Rhonda you want more of the Tingly fish!? They are called Sparkies.”

‘Sparkies?’

“Holy shit! Yea hahaha, that’s right.” I jumped for joy as I could actually hear Rhonda talking in my head. She had what sounded like a young adult woman’s voice that was confident but confused about the world around her.

“Hold on… Can you understand her?” Rob asked as he stared at me with a look of surprise.

“Yea, isn’t that great! I mean it’s in my head and I can hear actual words but yes I can understand her now.” I looked down at Shadow and held out my hand, he came over and I picked him up.

“What about you Shadow, what would you like?” I asked but unfortunately all I got was a slight hazy image of the cooked meat on a plate we just had.

“Well? Can you understand him too?”

I shook my head but smiled as even this was an improvement. “I can only get faint images from Shadow, but I think that has something to do with how young he is versus our bond.”

After putting down Shadow and promising to get him some more meat soon, I picked up my fishing rod again looked out towards the river looking for any signs of fish like before. It took a few moments but I spotted what looked like moonlight reflecting off something shiny like a scale as it crested the water before dunking back down again.

“There!” I yelled as I cast out and hit just above the still rippling spot and watched as just milliseconds passed before a small whirlpool formed under the line and it felt like I was going to get pulled into it even from all the way on the riverbank.

“Damn how lucky are you.” Rob said as he grabbed ahold of me and helped me to fight against what I hoped was the Vacuum bass.

Using Rob as an anchor I was able to solely focus on reeling in and after a ten incredibly exhausting minutes, I finally got this damn thing up onto land.

Boy was this thing a beauty. Silver scales that almost mirrored the moonlight itself and 2 huge dorsal fins that were tipped with spikes that I did not want to get any where near. It had 3 fins on each side and was as tall as I was and as big around a tree trunk!

“There ya have James, This right here is the Vacuum Bass. I’d say just by looking at it that it is at least 8-10 months old. It should have sucked up something in that time.” Rob pulled out a short sword and with a flash of his arm, he lopped the head off the fish. He then cut across the body and spilled out its guts right there. There was things like rocks the size of my fist, some skeletons of 4 legged creatures, I’m pretty sure that’s a broken shield I see as well….. There is no way all this came out from this things gut.

“Ahah! Here we go. This is what you need to look for if you ever get lucky again.” He held up a some kind of fleshy sac that was slightly transparent and inside it was something that appeared to be a rock? He ripped it open and indeed it was a rock, but it wasn’t a regular one, this rock was a deep grey, bordering on black, looking at it I could feel a slight pull from it like it was trying to suck me in.

“This right here is a super rare stone that only Vacuum Bass can grow. Think of it like what a pearl is except this thing is a key component in making something I think you would very much enjoy. Did you start to think how could all this fit inside its stomach? Well that’s because these guys have a unique stomach so to speak.”

“Hold on, are you telling me that this fish is basically a living spatial storage!”

“Ding ding ding. Right on the money, and this rock is something that when processed, can be used to make a storage container. I’m guessing by this size… It’d make a decent pouch or something similar?” He said as he held the stone up to the moonlight and inspected it.

“Can I see it for a minute?” I asked as I held my hand out. I had a hope about something and I needed to find out right now. He gave it to me and I pulled out my cube and put it right next to the stone and waited. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long before the cube started to vibrate like it usually did before opening a portal but instead of a person sized one, the cubes parts opened just big enough for me to put the stone through.

“Wait don’t do that!” Yelled Rob but it was too late as I had already threw it in.

“Dammit boy! That is worth a lot of money even for that size. AHHHH The fishing gear I could have gotten!!!” He yelled out dramatically, I however was smiling from ear to ear as a screen popped up in front of me.

[Skill stone of the Vacuum Fish absorbed]

[Skill [Spatial Storage] has been acquired]

[Spatial Storage – Able to hold any non-living object up to 100lbs, Maximum of 1000lb capacity.]