Nathan sat on the lakeside silently. His hook sunk to the bottom. Inch by inch it sunk deeper and deeper until finally…

It wrapped around a solid object.

He reeled it in, pulling through the resistance of the water. With each reel, the object got closer to the surface. It was long. Easily a good three feet. Maybe more.

What could it be?

A katana flew out of the water and landed to his side.

E-Rank Katana: “Midnight Edge”

A step above your cousin’s cosplay katana, the Midnight Edge gleams with the faint promise of glory—though it might not quite deliver. Perfect for the emerging warrior, this blade feels almost too reliable for an E-rank, with a tempered edge that’s just sharp enough to cut down low-level monsters (and overgrown shrubbery).

“Damn it, another one,” he said.

Nathan chucked it into a pile of similar-looking katanas. Beside that pile was an assortment of various other weapons, artifacts, accessories, and so on.

Emi clapped loudly from her seated position on the ground. “Woo-hoo, nicely done, Nathan!”

“Where’s my gun?” Mara said. “Nathan, you promised me a new gun!”

Nathan cast the line again.

It’d been kind of a pain to figure out how to fish with one arm. He had to sit with crossed legs, maneuvering them to manipulate the rod.

Maybe the Pandora will make it so I don’t have to do it like this…

“It might take a few more hours, Mara, I’m sorry.”

Mara whined. “Unfair...”

Chad dropped to his knees.

“This is so stupid. Why does this work?” He slammed his fists against the ground. “Fishing should not be this OP!”

“You have a better weapon now. Why are you sad?” Bjorn rubbed a piece of cloth over his new E-rank war hammer.

“Because Nathan completely lucked out! If I’d known that fishing gives such ridiculous loot, I would’ve put my talent points into it as well!”

Nathan elected not to mention that he’d done so by accident… and that he had a thousand points.

I’m afraid my success would’ve been hard to replicate, Chad.

Chad groaned and looked over at the pile of garbage.

“Where do they come from, though?” Chad asked.

“I told you, it’s the fish mafia. They have caches all over the Nine Circles.”

“Firstly, that explanation is complete bullshit,” Chad said. “Secondly, even if I bought that—which I don’t—I was asking, like, where it came from in the first place. Who made it? Are there blacksmiths somewhere around here? Was it just created via quantum tunneling? The power of thought?”

Nathan opened his mouth to answer.

“I… have no clue, actually,” Nathan said.

“Isn’t it kind of convenient, too, that it’s all E-rank? Why aren’t we getting any, I don’t know, SSS+ rank?”

“I can answer that!” Emi said. “The system doesn’t like overpowered items relative to the circle, and it’ll go out of its way to make sure you don’t get to keep them. We know this because we brought in some of our magical weapons from home during our first apocalypse and they were all taken away.”

“How did it do that?” Chad said. “Did it, like, just teleport them—

“Apparently it summoned monsters from the seventh circle and just killed anyone who had one of our weapons.”

“Oh.”

“It was a massacre!” Emi said, a smile on her face. “Half the elf race taken out in one go. Generations later, we still remember the tale.”

A bird chirped. Mara clapped her hands.

Nathan coughed.

“I guess a bunch of katanas isn’t that bad,” he said.

“We can make do with E-rank stuff,” Chad said.

Nathan glanced at the water.

“I do want to get E+ if possible,” Nathan said. “I’m not sure why I’m having so much trouble.”

“Nathan, we’ve been here for two hours and we all have better gear already,” Chad said. “Don’t be greedy!”

It was kind of true. Chad had selected a new katana with some sort of fire enchantment. He also had an earring that increased his healing. Bjorn, as mentioned earlier, had a new war hammer. There was also some leather armor that he’d ended up taking. Emi had gotten a brand new staff that doubled her damage.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

…

Mara still hadn’t gotten a gun, much to her disappointment.

She already has 20 guns. I’m not sure why she’d need any more.

Nathan shook his head. It was an offense to his fishing prowess that he hadn’t gotten anything for her, though!

Well, nothing good. He’d actually gotten her some leather armor, but she was clearly uninterested in it. She still put it on, whining the whole time about her precious guns.

Nathan felt something materialize in the water.

His eyebrows shot into his head.

He manuevered his hook to catch it, then reeled it back up. Silver flashed through the water, a cling and clang entering his ears.

It flopped onto the ground.

A necklace?

Thin metal chains weaved through a hole in a small conch shell shard.

Conch Shell Necklace (E+ Rank)

Set Item (1 of 3)

Gifted by the Sea, this delicate necklace bears a small, iridescent conch shell that shimmers like ocean waves. A faint, comforting hum echoes within, a reminder of the sea’s watchful presence.

Tide’s Protection: Reduces incoming damage. The conch resonates with each strike, forming an invisible, shimmering barrier that softens the impact of enemy attacks.

Whisper of the Waves: In moments of peril, the necklace emits a soft, melodic hum, calming the wearer and briefly boosting their resilience.

Nathan blinked.

He looked into the water. He found it hard to believe that it was a mere coincidence. He’d gotten a tool designed to calm him right after he blew his lid and went on a rampage.

The sea was watching him.

It’s trying to help me?

Nathan had to repay it.

He reached into his inventory and took out one of the rarer fish that he’d caught—an E+ rank. He’d been planning to cook it, but this was probably a better use.

He kneeled down and let the fish slip into the water. It fell to the bottom before disintegrating into white flecks, like floating, fading stars in the water.

It disappeared entirely.

A breeze kicked up from nowhere, stirring the trees overhead. It brushed against Nathan’s body, wrapping around him like a gentle embrace, the smell of salt and the sea filling his lungs.

It vanished as quickly as it came.

Emi sniffed. “Are we near the ocean?”

“What was that? Where did that breeze come from?” Chad said.

Do I really want to tell them about any of this stuff?

No, not really.

Nathan looked back at Chad and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Chad stared at Nathan for a few seconds. His gaze was hidden by the sunglasses, but Nathan got the overwhelming feeling that he was being sized up in real-time.

Nathan turned back around and cast his line back into the lake.

Another hour ticked by. The rest of the group had stopped watching Nathan at this point, the novelty of fishing having worn off.

His thoughts were quiet. The sunset swept across the sky, red painting the air like the brushstrokes of a master artist.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps from behind him.

“So.” Chad sat down. “You got another fishing rod?”

“You want to learn how to do it?” Nathan said.

“Might make for good content.” Chad pulled out his phone and clicked the recording button. “What’s up chat? Today we’re here with Nathan—the guy at the top of the rankings.”

Nathan hesitantly raised his hand. “Hi?”

“Today, we’re gonna be fishing. I think this meta is broken AF and that Nathan is cheating, honestly, so I’m gonna prove it. ”

Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Ok.” He reached into his inventory and pulled out his starting fishing rod. He tossed it toward Chad. “Sure, prove that fishing is dumb.”

Chad caught the rod and stared at it. “Where’s the reel?”

“Doesn’t come with one. Good luck.”

Chad cast out his line. They sat there for several minutes in dead silence.

“You’re scaring away the loot,” Chad said.

“I’m scaring away the loot and causing them to hook onto my own fishing rod?” Nathan tugged on his pole, revealing he’d caught yet another katana. “Okay, I’m starting to wonder where on earth these are coming from, too.”

“Any luck with your class quests, by the way?” Chad said.

Nathan reached up and scratched his cheek.

He had attempted messing with Ocean’s Embrace earlier during a break. The description and the whole healing thing were considerably attractive to Nathan after watching someone die in front of him. He’d stood in the lake for a few minutes. After that, he’d tried to heal a small fish… only for it to end with the fish dying.

Nathan shook away the thoughts.

“No, not much luck,” he said.

A few more minutes passed. Chad stared into the water.

“You know, I’ve seen some screwed-up things, but that took the cake,” Chad said.

“What, your lack of fishing skill?”

Chad laughed—it was a dry, dead thing.

“No,” he said. “I’m talking about the people who were locked up underground.”

Nathan’s shoulders slumped.

“Shit,” Nathan said.

“And then afterward, I killed someone, Nathan. I’m a murderer.”

Nathan was silent.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Chad sighed.

“No, I’m sorry. It was inevitable, I think. Besides, I shouldn’t be trauma-dumping on you like this. I just needed to process it.”

“I hope you know you’re still recording.”

“Nah, I switched it off a while ago. Sitting down and saying nothing is actually pretty crap content.”

Nathan idly adjusted his fishing rod’s position.

“We’re probably going to kill more people if we want to survive,” Nathan said. “I think that’s just reality now.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

“I think if you were happy about it, you’d be a monster.”

Like me.

Chad didn’t respond, instead pulling his string out of the water.

“Damn, absolutely nothing,” he said. “You’re totally cheating, aren’t you?”

I mean, a thousand talent points might as well be cheating…

“Yes. I have hacked the System in order to give me tons of loot via fishing,” Nathan said. “Fear me.”

Chad snorted.

The two were quiet as they continued to fish.

----------------------------------------

Nathan adjusted his position on the ground. He was lying flat on his stomach, underneath a convenient bush on top of a hill.

Up ahead, a camp with a few dozen people walked around. They were constructing a watchtower of some sort; lumber was being moved from place to place.

“Guards on the watchtower and the north and south end,” Bjorn had his eye up against a spyglass. “Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“We just can’t get overconfident,” Chad said.

“And the priority is the prisoners!” Emi shout-whispered. “We’ve got to make sure they don’t get harmed.”

Nathan popped open his menu.

Stats:

Strength: 10 (+47) = 37

Dexterity: 28 (+3) = 31

Constitution: 30 (+5) = 35

Magic: 3 (+5) = 8

Luck: 12 (+46) = 58

Soul: 10 (+20) = 30

Available Stats: 60

Did Nathan want to distribute his available stats? He was still largely over-leveled, it seemed, given how easily he crushed the entire camp earlier.

I’ll put ten in everything except magic.

Stats:

Strength: 20 (+47) = 47

Dexterity: 38 (+3) = 41

Constitution: 40 (+5) = 45

Magic: 3 (+5) = 8

Luck: 22 (+46) = 68

Soul: 20 (+20) = 40

Available Stats: 10

A rush of power washed down Nathan’s spine. He could feel strength in his veins and power in his muscles.

“Alright, let’s head in,” Nathan said.