Chapter 12 Instead of Becoming an Adventurer I Chose to Fish

Instead of running back, I decided to take a leisurely walk. Today was a hard day, my hands were still burning from the constant vibration the pickaxe caused every time I hit the stone wall. But it was also a bit too early to just go to bed, even though tomorrow I would need to wake up quite early.

While there were some people on the road, they were far enough away that they didn’t notice when I took out some bread and ate. Technically, now I had my two chase skills, so I could do some relaxing fishing without trying to chase levels for the fishing profession without messing anything up.

Using some of the bread, I started to make bread balls until I had filled up one slot completely. This inventory of mine was at times quite weird. Currently, I have ten small bread balls, perfect to put on a hook, in one slot, but all of them could easily fit into one of my palms.

On the other hand, I could have an entire loaf of bread in one slot, easily taking up a lot more space, but not only that, I could add more into that slot until I had ten loaves of bread. I wonder what’s the biggest item I could stack, but that testing will need to be done later on.

Around the training grounds, I noticed more animals, especially dogs. Some of them were really cute, but I wondered why they were here, who were their owners? Were they training or something? It seemed like there were more and more humans from Earth showing up who had animals.

As I was walking near the compound towards the other side of the town, occasionally I glanced down the roads that led deeper into it. While some of the workshops were in the compound and some outside the town, there were plenty spread around all over the town itself. I will need to take some time to just walk through the town to make myself acquainted with it.

Eventually, I made it to the lake. Now I know that you could fish not only in the canal part but also in the lake proper, it’s just that with the fishing rods at hand, you most likely wouldn’t be able to catch any.

There was also a limit of one fish per day that could be caught from the lake, but you could keep it or sell it. That booklet was quite useful. Some other workshops also had some perks, like the smithy, where you could keep one of the knives that you made yourself.

It would probably be best to practice before you decide to keep one so you could actually get some use out of the knife you make.

Once again, I was fishing with bread balls. When everyone else caught a fish about every ten minutes, for me it was about thirty to forty-five. When I had two fish, I stopped, as that was plenty of time to let my mind settle.

When I killed the fish, the looting skill didn’t trigger. Apparently, it wasn’t guaranteed, which made sense—otherwise, this skill would be way too overpowered.

The next morning, I was well awake before sunrise. Once again, there wasn’t anything to prepare for what’s to come, but I did notice that I was starting to run out of clean clothing. A lot of the stuff we were doing was pretty dirty.

Heading outside, it didn’t take long for me to once again walk along the same road I came into town from the mine yesterday. This time, my destination was closer to the dungeon-then the town, but not by too much.

As I made it here, I saw about six other people waiting. A few didn’t seem happy that I had shown up, but they also didn’t say anything. We waited here a bit longer until I saw movement near the forest edge.

The forest here was a bit strange, it was a lot thicker than anywhere else, so I wondered how we were going to enter it to start placing traps. The person that walked out where the forest was a bit less dense was a tall woman who had what looked like three foxes behind her.

The instructor said, “So there’s seven of you; each will get 15 snares. Come and pick them up.” Her voice was clear, but it did not seem to carry for long, which was a weird combination. Was it so that her voice didn’t disturb the wildlife?

When it was my turn she made out of nowhere 15 snares appear. I took them, realizing she must have her own inventory skill. The snares themselves were mostly made out of some type of wire.

“You six, you already know what to do?” All of them nodded. “Will go on then, today it’s the red markers.”

Just like that, all of them left towards the forest edge, each one separated, going towards different sections. The instructor looked towards me.

“You follow me. How much do you know about trapping?”

“Basically nothing,” I answered back, which didn’t faze her.

“So let's start with the basics. We will be using a simple snare trap and we will be catching root rabbits.”

She then explained how the trap worked. It really was quite simple: I just had to anchor it to an already placed anchor then place the noose carefully around the entrance. After which when the rabbit moved through that location this snare would tighten around its neck, killing it.

“Do you know what a root rabbit is and why as a whole it's important to control creature populations?”

I could guess, but I didn’t know exactly, so I shook my head.

“There are a lot of popular animals that we have spread to each world. The reason why is because we understand how they might mutate because of mana.”

“These particular rabbits are quite dangerous because they can breed extremely fast, which of course makes them quite good for a renewable source of trapping experience and everything else one can get from these rabbits.”

“Wait, so why are they dangerous?” I asked, a bit confused, as all of that just sounded like upside.

“It’s because of how fast they breed and grow. If we didn't catch them constantly, then in a month they would have eaten the surrounding forest and the grasslands here barren. Soon there would be thousands upon thousands of them.”

My steps faltered as I started to understand how dangerous these creatures could actually be. “Wait, then why would you even keep them alive?”

“If you can manage them, they are a great source of resources and experience. Mutations like this could happen all the time. It's one of the tasks of adventurers to hunt down mutations that start to take over ecosystems, restoring the order that was before.”

She explained more about that, which was quite fascinating. Honestly, I would have liked to hear more, but we reached the forest edge, after which she started to show me how to set up the snares. There were three different colours near where the underbrush was loose enough that rabbits could get through.

“You see, we need to keep some of the openings clear so that the rabbits go eat the grass here, and bring back some to their burrows. This way we wouldn't catch all of them.”

This system seemed really well thought out, but also quite cold and pragmatic.

“Before you place the trap rub your hands against the tree bark and the surrounding vegetation. This will help mask your scent.

I did as she said, then started setting up the traps. She continued to teach me as we went.

It didn't take too long to finish placing every trap. Almost every red spot was filled with snares across the entire wood line. Seems that the more people that show up, the less experience you get each day.

“As we wait, would you like me to teach you some basic survival skills? Otherwise, things could get boring,” she asked, and I quickly agreed.

Before she started, she seemed to somehow communicate with her foxes, who ran into the parts of the forest that weren’t so thick and didn't have any markings.

“Not all rabbits will come through here. While we try to make the rest of the edges of this forest area as thick as possible so that the rabbits can only come through here, sometimes they still find ways of getting through. My swift foxes will find and hunt those down as we can't let them spread anywhere else.”

“Do you have an animal-controlling class or something like that?” I asked.

“No, no,” she said, half giggling.

“Just a simple animal bond skill. If you have Keeper and Trapping leveled, there’s a chance that that skill might appear. If an animal is willing, you can then form a bond with it so you can both grow together. Rolorg has an elemental bonded using that skill.”

I guess my face was blank enough that she explained further. “He’s in charge of the mine. Still don’t know how he managed to convince one to bond with him, and he won’t tell the story.”

What followed was some very basic survival training that I actually knew myself pretty well, until up to a point when things started to get crazy.

“Just so you know, you can only count on your knowledge for areas that are in constant use. Even then, mutations can happen overnight. This is why, when you get the chance, always buy a testing stone.”

She then pulled out from her pocket a stone that was quite flat but easily fit into one’s hand. She let me handle it, and the texture was quite coarse. She then pulled out some berries.

“Quite a while ago I picked them from the same spot, just a few feet apart. Look at this.” She then scraped one of the berries onto the stone, but there was no reaction. Then she took from the other pile, and almost immediately as she scraped it against the stone the juice and pulp of the berry started to bubble and foam.

“These stones are extremely important. They are hard to make, but because of their usefulness, there is usually a large supply available almost everywhere. What they do is detect anything that would be harmful for us and show it with a reaction. Without them, no one could survive in the wilderness if you are going to forage for any food. I even recommend using this with water, as it will even show if that’s good for drinking.”

I now made a habit of keeping some of my note papers in one of the inside breast pockets, and I immediately pulled them out and wrote onto them.

!!!Buy a testing stone‼!

“Thank you, I will keep this in mind.”

When the sun finally properly started to show, changing the twilight of the world into something brighter, it didn’t take long for the noise of the forest to change. The lecturer didn’t stop talking as she pressed how important it was to always listen, as it could tell you so much about what’s happening around you.

We all watched as rabbits started to rush out of the forest. They were a lot smaller than I was used to and a lot sleeker, I guess would be the proper word. It didn’t take long before our traps were filled, but we weren’t allowed to approach yet.

An hour of observation later, things started to quiet down, and I was amazed at how much grass had disappeared. How would they not run out of it if, in just one day, the rabbits took so much grass?

After we finished killing all the rabbits who had survived in the snares, I soon found out how the grass was maintained. The lecturer herself started to do something which sprouted new grass that quickly started to grow. It would probably take her a couple of hours to finish, but still, that was amazing to watch.

So there really was proper magic. That made me rethink a couple of plans of mine. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to join the Adventurers Guild, but probably picking a combat class would still be the best choice for survival. I had been thinking of taking some close-combat class, but perhaps I could do magic instead as how could magic not be the most powerful?

Later, in the library, I did read up on some magical classes like Mage, but they were all basically just ranged damage dealers, as the skills close-combat users used were often stronger. To me using a skill did not seem like real magic even if it looked like it. That was a bit disappointing.

After that, I did some training. After that it was time for some sleep and another day of trapping. Today I had gotten five skill levels; probably tomorrow I will get three, and then hopefully the day after that the rest to finish up trapping.

The next day there were eight of us, but I still managed to get my three professional levels. Afterwards, I did run into my three dwarven friends who wanted me to join them on their visit to the mine the next day. Apparently, something I would like was going to happen there.

No matter how much I asked, they wouldn’t reveal that secret, so I promised to meet up with them near the dungeon.

It was my third day of trapping. This time there were only six of us. Each one of us got quite a lot of snares, and I was quite looking forward to finally getting to level ten.

The rabbits didn’t die at the same time, but my looting skill still hadn’t triggered, which was getting a bit annoying. Finally, I hit level ten, and I think my happiness clued the lecturer in.

“So, level ten. Would you like to see your choices?”

I was a bit confused. She didn’t say anything else; she just smiled brightly while pulling one of her sleeves up. There was a vambrace there that had quite a long black crystal that looked awfully similar to what the system obelisks were made out of.

“You can’t make your choice with it, but you can see what options are available.”

As I touched the crystal, the choice option and the option to view my status page did show up. I picked the choice option, which quickly showed me the three skill options I had available:

Novice Creature Bond

Hidden Snare

Traceless Scent I

No looting this time. The Traceless Scent wasn’t the worst, but Novice Creature Bond, that sounded quite similar to the one that the lecturer talked about, which allowed her to have three foxes under her command. That lecturer that ran the mine should also have a skill like this to have an elemental bonded to him.

“Thank you,” I said to the lecturer, not just allowing me to see the choice immediately, but for all of it.

Instead of walking towards the town, I headed further out towards the dungeon. Would I like to have a bond with an animal? I didn’t actually know the answer to that, but I wouldn’t have to make that choice immediately, I had plenty of time.

The dwarves were waiting for me as I reached near the dungeon. After our greetings, we started to walk towards the mine without them even now telling me what we were there to do. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a group of people half-surrounding someone.

All of a sudden, a flame ball shot out of that person’s hand, hitting a rock that was most likely fifty feet away. The flames covered the entire area, with the rock even having a bit of damage.

“Did you see that? Was that like a flame ball skill?”

“That’s nothing special. Mage class can get that quite early on,” Aru said.

“But then why are there so many people around him if it’s nothing special?”

Aru looked towards the person who had fired the flame ball. Then he stopped moving as that person once again held his hand up and seemed to be saying something.

We all stopped and looked. As he finished saying something, another flame ball shot out, hitting the rock, this time cracking it into multiple pieces.

“I stand corrected. That is impressive. He’s actually using a proper spell. If he keeps it up, he will have a bright future.”

“Wait, what do you mean by a proper spell?” I asked, as I hadn’t found anything that said that mages got spells, only skills.

“A spell is something a person manipulates to bring to life, unlike skills, which you use by simply flexing that part of you.”

What followed was an explanation of the difference between mages and wizards. Turns out there was proper magic. It also sounded powerful.

“Wait, then why wouldn’t that be the first lecture? From what you’ve described, this type of magic is incredibly powerful.”

“You can’t do any spells without a class, and you don’t have to have a specific class to cast spells, so it’s not that pressing. Most also can’t really do anything complex. Anyways, I’m pretty sure that before selecting a class all of this is explained.”

My mind raced. This was something that I needed to learn more about. What if I could use spells?

My musings were interrupted, we finally reached near the mine, only for it to have been quartered off with closed signs everywhere.

I looked towards the dwarves, trying to understand what we were doing here, but they just told me to wait and see.

It took about 30 minutes, but then I finally saw it, and I was thankful that they brought me here. From one of the entrances that used to be boarded up, a creature emerged that was hard to explain.

It was like it was made out of flexible copper, but you could somewhat see through it. A person was near it, indicating with his hands for it to come out. It was incredibly large. I think if it just rolled a bit, there would be nothing left of me but paste.

The copper elemental switching its location only took about 10 minutes, but every second of it was true magic.

“Thank you, guys.”

“It’s as amazing to us as it’s to you.”