The Beast
Chapter 7: Riverdance
A Royal Road Fan Fiction… of sorts
By Halosty
“You know you’ll never level up fishing if you don’t have a fishing pole, little rabbit.” These were the first words that Roger heard the elf by the river speak.
Roger thought this elf was obviously crazy. Why would a rabbit want to level up in fishing. He generally knew what fishing was, and he saw no point. It was a waste of time that didn’t make him stronger. He didn’t care for that.
Roger tilted his head in an inquisitive fashion. Maybe there was something he was missing about fishing.
“Actually, little rabbit, I’ve recently obtained Intermediate level fishing. That means I can catch special fish, and my bait is 50% more effective! I even got an increase in reputation from it. Even my intelligence and wisdom increased from it, so I can use my special fishing skills more! I’m pretty awesome, aren’t I?”
Roger munched on some clovers nearby. Tasty, tasty clovers.
The elf, noticing Roger wasn’t impressed, sighed. “Not even a rabbit is impressed. Maybe I should find some way to switch to a respectable profession like warrior… at least the 2000 health I got from Intermediate fishing will help with that.”
Shortly afterwards, the elf found himself on his back, with a rabbit staring down at his face. He sighed again. “Great, even a rabbit will beat me in combat. Maybe I should just start a new character.”
Roger wasn’t able to communicate clearly with the silly elf, but he tried to get his point across by going over to the fishing rod the elf had set up, then back to the elf. Still lying on his back, the elf said, “You want fish? You didn’t seem interested before… besides, I thought rabbits ate vegetables?”
This time, Roger picked up the fishing rod in his mouth at an awkward angle. As he stood on the stupid elf, he used his fighting spirit to show his displeasure in his stupid, wrong guess. The elf just lay there trembling. “P-please don’t kill me. You can take the fishing rod if you want it! Just let me live!”
When Roger got off him to get a better angle for trying to pantomime what he wanted, the elf ran away. This time it was Roger’s turn to sigh. He didn’t care about the stupid fishing rod. He didn’t feel inspired to chase after the stupid elf though. He would somehow learn how to fish on his own.
Roger looked at the things left behind by the elf. There was a bucket with fish and water in it. Perhaps this person ate fish alive? Anyway, there was also another bucket, filled with worms. On the end of the fishing line was a hook with a worm on it.
Roger first took the worm off the hook and put it in the bucket. This wasn’t easy, but apparently with skill he should be able to do so without getting holes in the worms, since none of the ones in the bucket had holes.
Roger moved on to the next step of fishing. He couldn’t get the fish out of the bucket, so he knocked it over. Then, he put the hook in the hole he found in the mouth of the fish. This was a complicated task that would have been impossible without opposable thumbs, except for his high agility. Finally, he dragged the fishing line over into the water and dropped the fish in. Then he waited. He wasn’t exactly sure what was supposed to happen. Would the fish turn into a worm? That seemed unlikely. Maybe it would just swim off and he could catch the worms separately somehow.
He didn’t feel he was making any progress on the fishing skill at all. He watched the water, and noticed there were already a lot of fish in the water. Maybe he was supposed to take the fish out of the water? Roger tried lifting the fish on the string in and out of the water a whole bunch of times, but he still didn’t gain the fishing skill or any proficiency with it. Eventually, the line broke and the fish swam off.
Roger tried to figure out what he was supposed to do. Then he remembered the bucket. Maybe the point was to get fish into a bucket. Roger picked up the bucket by its handle, and dragged it with him. It was very awkward to move with. He got into the water and started swimming towards the fish, but they swam away much faster than he could catch them, especially with the bucket pulling on the water and slowing him down. Then, suddenly, he was in the middle of the river, and the current was too strong. He lost his grip on the bucket and was spun around in the current. By the time he got himself oriented, his bucket was nowhere to be seen, and he was probably almost a mile down the river.
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*Ding*
You have gained the Swimming skill!
You can swim faster, and it takes less stamina.
You have gained the Hold Breath skill!
You can hold your breath for longer, and don’t need to breathe as often.
Roger had accidentally picked up two skills on his adventure. He slogged back up the river towards the remaining bucket and fishing pole. He had no idea how to operate the fishing pole. Maybe fishing was really just catching worms and putting them in a bucket.
Roger tried his second method by digging holes in the soft, wet dirt near the river. He found quite a few earthworms, and put them in the bucket. He didn’t gain the fishing skill, but he got yet another one.
You have gained the Dig skill!
You can dig faster, and it takes less stamina. At higher levels you will be able to construct structures out of dirt.
Roger thought this last skill would be quite useful if he decided to make a burrow. He hadn’t been old enough to construct one of his own when he started his “adventuring career”.
Roger decided to try one last thing to learn fishing. He couldn’t get fish in the bucket by dragging it in the water with him, but he might still be able to fulfill the purpose of getting fish in the bucket. He dumped the worms into the water and filled the bucket. While normally it would be impossible for a rabbit to lift a bucket full of water, Roger had very little problem doing so.
Roger then dove into the water and chased after fish. He was much quicker without the bucket dragging him back, but the fish were better swimmers. He couldn’t get close enough to them to do anything to get them out of the river. Roger felt he was able to catch them, and didn’t give up. He slowly increased his Swimming and Hold Breath skills, and slightly before sunset they were beginner level two. Just as it hit twilight, Roger’s nighttime stats came into effect, and he was able to catch up to a fish, even pass it, and using his hind legs, he kicked it out of the water. It even ended up on the correct side of the river. He put it in the bucket.
You have gained the Fishing skill!
You will never be hungry* if you happen to be near a major source of water. You can get water and food* in rivers, lakes and seas. With each level of fishing gained your health will increase.
*Since you cannot digest meat, this does not apply to you.
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The Beast was happy to learn the fishing skill finally, but he had more important things to do now. He rushed off into the deeper parts of the forest to find more goblins.
In a way, he was slower in hunting because he couldn’t use stamina so carelessly as when Arasel was ready to feed him. However, it was also faster in a way because he didn’t have to wait for Cael’van to pull the monsters, or for Lailam to regenerate her mana. Plus, this way he got all the experience to himself. Well, except for the 20% that still went to Lailam.
As he got to the deepest parts of the forest, the number of goblins in each group started to be more than he could handle alone. After a particularly risky battle, The Beast decided to create traps for the goblins. Although he didn’t have many options for how to do this, he could dig pits to make it harder for them to reach him. From digging the holes, Roger got increases to his stamina and strength.
The pits worked, to some extent. Although the goblins rarely fell in, they had to walk between them to get to The Beast. This meant they had to fight him in smaller numbers again.
As a nice side effect of digging pits, he often found some tasty roots to eat. This helped him keep his satiety full, without having to leave the forest to go find clovers or carrots.
In the morning, the party was back online. Roger rejoined them quickly, with his innate knowledge of where Lailam was. He really preferred having buffs and hand fed carrots.
End Chapter 7: Riverdance.