Nathan decided to start his morning by fishing. He wanted to get his 1000 casts in.
He wasn’t planning to catch something.
It seemed that his Luck disagreed with his intentions.
Nathan grunted and pulled back. A wooden box sailed through the air before crashing into the ground with a loud bang and spilling its contents all over the ground. Nathan winced at the noise. He cracked his eyes open and took a closer look
Seed packets and vegetables. Nathan picked up a radish and inspected it closely. Despite the crash, it was still in good condition. He put it down and grabbed up one of the seed packets. They were unlabeled.
Wait, he had [Basic Inspect], right?
Nathan used his skills on each of the seeds.
[Normal Potato Seeds]
A bunch of normal potato seeds.
[Normal Strawberry Seeds]
A bunch of normal strawberry seeds.
[Normal Carrot Seeds]
A bunch of normal carrot seeds.
I was hoping that they would be magic or something.
Nathan rubbed his chin.
How long did it typically take for plants to mature? He was getting tired of eating nothing but raw fish…
He wandered up to the surface. Overhead, the sun was already starting to beat down on him, causing sweat to appear and stick his clothes to his skin.
Nathan dug out several rows of small holes all along the ground with his hands. He planted a few of the seeds in each hole. The process took about two hours, and by the time he was done, the sun had already reached the midpoint in the sky.
It was absolutely boiling, the air had turned arid and he could already feel the sunburn seeping into his skin.
“Not done yet,” he muttered.
Luckily, he hadn’t been attacked by any monsters. He wasn’t sure why they were avoiding him. Maybe because of the cave and the snail? Either way, he was glad for the relief.
He wandered back to the cavern and tried scooping handfuls of water up to his new seeds. Nathan quickly decided this was an awful idea and it would take forever.
That’s when Nathan had a very good idea.
He opened up his inventory halfway into the lake.
Instantly, the lake started flowing into the inventory. After only a few seconds, he’d gotten a ‘stack’ of 99 water, whatever the hell that meant.
Nathan headed back up top. He opened up his inventory and stared at it. He reached in, then pulled out, getting a cupful of water.
“Well, that works,” he said.
He went around and poured water over every plant. If he didn’t know any better, he could’ve sworn the soil had twitched as he poured the water into it.
Once he was done, he returned to the underground and stared at his radishes. He picked up two of the radishes and walked over to the deeper reaches of the cavern, where the snail resided.
He put the radishes in front of the snail. It looked at them curiously, then moved forward. A crunch echoed out, and Nathan heard a ping.
[Quest Complete!]
[Feed the Snail!]
Description: The snail is extremely hangry! If it doesn’t receive food, it’ll become sad. Find something for the snail to eat!
Rewards: [Shell of Protection] (Copper) Skill Seal, A small amount of EXP
The snail floated into the air.
Nathan watched it and blinked.
The snail glowed and spun around in the air, then faded before his eyes.
Nathan stood there for several minutes.
“Okay, what the hell did I just see?” he said.
Did he at least get the [Shell of Protection] thing? He popped open his menu to check, only to see that it hadn’t shown up. He frowned and scratched the back of his head.
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Something glimmered out of the corner of his eye. On the stone where the snail had sat, there was a small copper medallion of some sort.
Nathan stepped forward and picked it up. Once he did so, a small pop-up appeared.
[Would you like to learn the skill SHELL OF PROTECTION (Copper)?]
Accept/Deny
Nathan blinked and clicked Accept. There was no reason to deny it, right?
The copper medallion burst into shards of light right in front of his eyes. He felt a warm presence pass through his chest and instinctively knew that he’d learned a new skill.
He opened up his menu to confirm.
Skill List:
[Reel] (Diamond+)
[Bait] (Diamond)
[Cast] (Diamond)
[Basic Inspect] (Copper)
[Shell of Protection] (Copper)
He’d gotten it. The question, then, was it worth it? Was it worth giving up his hard-earned radishes in exchange for this mysterious skill?
Nathan reached out and clicked it to view more information.
[Shell of Protection] (Copper Rank)
Acquired by showing kindness to a gastropod. Who knew snails were so generous?
Creates a shimmering, slightly slimy barrier that can absorb one F-rank attack before dissipating in a shower of iridescent bubbles. The protection recharges every 24 hours, presumably while you sleep – just like how snails do most of their important business.
Effectiveness: Blocks one attack from a Copper-ranked creature
Cooldown: 24 hours
Side effects: May occasionally emit a faint scent of lettuce
Well, that seemed useful. Aside from the whole lettuce smell thing. That seemed less useful.
Nathan scratched his chin. He wanted to test it… but he’d need to find something dangerous first. Maybe he could regain some of his honor and go kill one of the surviving Mutant Sheep?
He headed back to the lake and sat down. Beside him was one radish. Nathan picked it up and took a bit, and the flavor exploded in his mouth. Compared to the fish he’d been eating for the past four days, it might as well have been a luxury home-baked cinnamon roll.
Nathan popped open his quests menu to double-check his time.
Day 4/15
Nathan’s eyes narrowed. He still hadn’t so much as seen the Gliding Eel. Not only that, but he was still at Level 12, not even close to the monster’s insane level 37.
Nathan laid down and curled into a ball. There was only one choice, and he knew it.
He had to go hunting again. This time, things would be different, he wouldn’t run away.
At least, he hoped.
Sleep took him away.
----------------------------------------
When Nathan woke up, the very first thing he did was head up and check on his plants. When he saw what had happened, his jaw dropped.
His plants were still alive. Not only that but overnight, they’d exploded out of the ground as fresh green sprouts.
“I don’t think plants are supposed to grow this fast,” he said.
Nathan suspected that it was either the soil or the water. Nathan doubted it was the soil because everything else seemed to be dead. The whole surface was a hellscape. The only thing that made sense was the water.
This was a little bit concerning, considering that he’d been drinking nothing but that water for the past several days. Would he sprout wings or something? Explode?
Nathan pushed it out of his mind. There was no point in freaking out about it. He’d either die or he wouldn’t.
After watering his plants again, he headed back down to the cavern to get through the rest of his morning routine. In the back of his head, he was already starting to get nervous. His heart rate increased.
He would be heading back out into the wilderness to try his hand at hunting again.
The serene lake water greeted him at the bottom of the cavern. He did his hour of casting, putting him at 3000/10000. It wouldn’t be long before he got Diamond+ with [Reel].
Nathan did one final cast, not expecting anything to come about from it.
Then his line got a gentle tug.
He blinked and pulled back, hooking it around the object. He drew it backward. Whatever it was kept getting caught on the ground. Whatever the object was, it must’ve been large and unwieldy.
“A giant sword?” he said. “Come on, with my high strength stat, it would be perfect—“
Out plopped a long fishing rod. It was double the length of Nathan’s wooden one and twice as thick. The rod was made of some kind of glimmering metal. The whole thing had a certain aura of power radiating around it.
Most importantly, however, it had an actual reel. No more swinging the rod and grabbing the string to get his catches out of the water.
Nathan used [Basic Inspect].
[Metal Fishing Rod] (E-rank)
For the angler who's tired of explaining why they came back with broken equipment instead of fish.
A surprisingly sturdy fishing rod made entirely of metal, because someone finally asked "What if we made fishing unnecessarily hardcore?" Comes with a reel that makes satisfying clicking sounds to convince nearby fishermen you know what you're doing.Enchanted to survive both your terrible casting technique and that inevitable moment when you try to use it as an impromptu weapon against a slime that interrupted your peaceful fishing session. Not to mention, it comes with a magical bob that only appears when thrown into the water. Pretty cool, right?
Manufacturer's Note: While technically capable of bonking monsters, we remind users that this is a fishing rod, not a quarterstaff. Please stop sending us testimonials about "that awesome time I pole-vaulted over a goblin."
Catch Rate: +10%
Catch Difficulty: -5%
Damage: Low (E-rank) (But hey, at least you won't break it trying!)
Nathan reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was glad that he’d gotten something with such good stats, but the idea of using a fishing rod as a weapon just seemed all sorts of bizarre to him. The fact that someone had apparently done so in the past was also more than a little strange.
He picked up the fishing rod.
Heavy.
The reel clattered inside of its casing. Nathan experimented with a button on the side, causing the hook to fall.
It slammed into the ground with a loud bang, carving a hole in the stone.
Nathan blinked.
He reeled the hook back in and swung the rod out, clicking the button at the same time and allowing it to sail out into the air.
Unfortunately, he overestimated his strength. The hook flew across the lake and smashed the edge of the cavern. The stone broke apart, creating a crater and causing a rockslide into the cavern lake. The sound exploded across Nathan’s ears.
Nathan’s jaw dropped. Just how powerful was this fishing pole!?
He reeled back in the hook, sending rubble that had gotten hooked flying into the air.
Nathan stared at the fishing pole for a little bit longer. He’d been wondering about using the sword in combat, but… compared to this thing, the sword might as well have been a kitchen knife.
He nodded to himself. This would be his weapon from now on.
A… a fishing rod.
Nathan sighed. No more excuses. It was time to head topside and find something to kill.