This Again <<Earning a Living: Fishing>>

[Pinball 1]

USING x1 Yui's Grace (200*Tier EXP Boost) 
USING Mega Slime Farm (10% EXP Boost) 

                                                                                                                

The secondary professions had been released a while back. 

They were gathering roles, and they replaced the old, standard method of doing things. There was no harm in that, he didn't think. Things changed all the time. But it kept them working for things they had before, and from the standpoint of someone trapped in a game for the last however many years, he was hard pressed to view it as anything more than an unnecessary slog. Something to stall. If it wasn't a quality of life improvement, why integrate it? Nobody was going to have fun with it. The ones who did forget their situation. They were delusional. Obnoxious to be around, too, more likely than not. 

It was with an irritated mind and a dour expression that Pinball made his way to the lake. A man crouched beside the water... that's what he was looking for, if his information was right. A part of him wished he could have just stayed home and beat up slimes all day. It was funny how wasted time was usually more enjoyable. 

                                                                                                                 

Stats and Stuff: 

Spoiler

Level: 32 (Paragon Level 36)
Health: 780 | Energy: 116
DMG: 5  | ACC: 3  | EVA: 3  | BH: 39 
 
Skills:
 
Combat Skills:
► Battle Healing [30/30]
► Energist [8/8]
► Combat Mastery: Evasion [13/13]
 
Weapon Skills:
► Straight Sword [14/30] 
 
Utility Skills:
► Searching [30/30]
► Lockpicking [15/15]
► Extended Mod Limit [10/10]
► Quick Change [8/8] 
 
Extra Skills:
► Disguise
► Survival
► Hiding [22/30]
 
Familiar Skill: 
► Scouting Familiar [10/10]
 
Armor Skills:
►N/A
 
Modifiers:
► Dismantling
► Detect
► Tracking
► Reveal
► Untraceable
► Vanish
► Emergency Recovery 
 
Miscellaneous: 
► +1 LD to Searching, Lockpicking, Treasure Chests (Paragon) 
► Earn Col Equivalent to 15% of player’s EXP earned in a thread (Paragon) 
 
Inventory:
»[Equipped] [Demonic] Cold Fervor: +2 Freeze, Phase, Cursed 
»[Equipped] [Perfect] Warrior’s Focus: +3 ACC
»[Equipped] [Perfect] Cloak of the Harbingers: +3 LD 

Battle Ready: 
» [2x] Teleportation Crystal 
» [x5] Lacrimosa - HP Recovery III Crystal {Instant}
» [Demonic 1HSS] Jack’s Hellfire: Burn, Bleed, Blight, Cursed
» [Demonic 1HSS] Astral Blade: Holy, Fallen, +2 Damage
 
Housing Buffs: 
Squeaky Clean: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down)
Well Rested: -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. This can exceed normal Cook enhancement caps. Ex: A perfect T2 MIT food gives 35 MIT instead of 30.
Relaxed: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Item Stash: +1 BR Slot

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Pinball

[Pinball 1]

What he hadn't known was that the NPC's personality was... different. A very handsome young man with a friendly smile. Too friendly. It was weird being around something like that, even if they weren't real. But at the end of the day they were a Quest NPC, and Pinball wasn't really in the mood to offer up anything other than the bare minimum to keep the quest rolling. There was a bait he was supposed to get, but he had to prompt Mr. Gill as to what he was there for. 

"Fishing," Pinball said languidly, which in turn lead to the man's spiel about rainbow fish and holy bait. He accepted the magic tin with an expression growing increasingly haggard as the conversation went on. Gleaming Scales were supposed to be something special. It's what he was after. Well, that, and the materials. He wasn't sure what sort of things had changed. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Pinball

[Pinball 1]

Plucking a fishing rod from the rack set out for the beginners, Pinball made his way down the lake, admiring for a moment the glittering water and lush greenery around him. He felt that little bead of irritability in his chest begin to dwindle. The sort of thought that, well, while things couldn't possibly be any worse, there was at least comfort in knowing that what he was undertaking right now wouldn't end up killing him. From what he understood, there weren't giant monsters that were randomly fished up to beat him down intermittently. It was part of the reason he'd decided to give fishing another chance. Resting the rod behind his shoulder, Pinball waited a second before casting it into the lake and watching the line coast over still blue waters. With a muffled plop the bobber smacked the surface where it rested. Pinball took a seat in the grass. 

FISHING: ID#209495 CD: 1 LD: 20 (Nope) 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Pinball

[Pinball 1]

No bites. The little bobber of the inexpensive fishing rod remained floating gently in more or less the exact spot he'd cast it to. Normally, he'd reel it in and recast. He didn't usually have much patience for the crunchy, systematic grinding disguised as cute little hobbies. But as his lingering resentment for literally everything faded away (for whatever reason), he began to adopt a different mindset. He was relaxed. He wasn't in danger. Nobody was hunting him and he wasn't hunting anybody else. The peace and quiet he loved so dearly was all around him. 

So instead of hurriedly and frustratingly yanking the line back to land, Pinball let it drift there. He buried the end of the pole in the soft earth beside him. It stuck out like a reed, swaying gently. If something pulled, he'd notice, and could pick it back up then. For now, though? He leaned back, rested the back of his head in his hands, and slowly -- hesitantly -- closed his eyes. 

FISHING: ID#209496 CD: 4 LD: 4 (Nope) 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Pinball

[Pinball 1]

The sun shone red behind his eyelids, but even still, sleep took him shortly. There was something about the breeze, the rustling of grass and leaves, the soft and steady lapping of waves at the shore that made the temptation of rest irresistible. He wasn't the type of person that would fall asleep out in the open -- much less unguarded. The fact that he did would alarm him, but it would also come as a massive relief. When was the last time he'd napped? When was the last time he'd slept without anxiety? 

He woke up to the sound of fishing line spinning rapidly in its axle. 

Quick as he could, he snatched up the flexing rod, pulling in whatever creature had tried making off with Gill's special bait. He pulled and reeled it in with a sense of familiarity. Despite the bad memories and constant beatdowns associated with Fishing, he'd done it before, back when it was still just a skill and not its own profession. 

FISHING: ID#209497 CD: 10 LD: 17 (Gleaming Scale Acquired) 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Pinball

[Pinball 1]

Pinball whistled. 

It really was a rainbow fish, wasn't? The sun was catching its brilliant scales like a disco ball. It hurt to look at. Every inch of the floundering creature shone with a blinding radiance. He squinted, winced, and brought it to the shade, where it was a little more bearable to look at. The gleaming scale was supposed to be rare, but Pinball had caught a whole fish -- was he supposed to kill it? Was it supposed to add to his inventory? Or was he just supposed to pluck one off and let it go...? That last one sounded majorly uncomfortable. It wasn't long until Cardinal answered for him. In a flash of blue light, the fish turned to dust, and a pop-up relayed the gathered material to him. 

That was easy. And quicker than he'd thought it was going to be. Maybe the bait really was special. 

[Pinball 1]

Shouldering the rod with a huff, Pinball considered his options. The lake was really quite large, and a dazzling blue. For a brief moment he felt the urge to strip and jump in, but with a blush and an embarrassed shake of his head he disregarded that as an option. What if people saw him? What a wild sight that would be. A half-naked player with an orange cursor hovering above his head having a fun day at the beach. Sort of funny, maybe, but not really what he was here for. 

He looked back to Gill's general area, wondering if he should just turn in the quest and head off. 

For some reason that didn't feel possible. It was too early. That left everything else around him. The grass around the lake was lush and green and rolled into the verdant woods like the tide itself, crashing down against bark and stone like waves against a rocky coastline. 

Setting the rod down where he could find it later, Pinball brushed off his pants and started to walk. 

[Pinball 1]

The chirping of birds. A chill breeze. The shadows of the trees danced along the forest path, beckoning him further into the woods. Somewhere, he could hear a stream. Somewhere, he heard the snap of a twig. A deer? A rabbit? Something else? He didn't let himself linger for too long on these little noises. They were all a part of a whole. For a long time now, the quiet ambience of the forest had been his only real companion -- other than Zomekko, of course. But the shadowy cat was mute, and sometimes the silence could be deafening. He liked the sounds of the forests. Of the marshes. Of the caverns. Anywhere that the chattering of voices were not audible, anywhere the paths ended were where you would find him. The lower floors were safer, but there wasn't a single one Pinball hadn't walked through thrice over. These winding roads led to nowhere, and he figured he liked it that way. 

[Pinball 1]

The scenery was pretty, and Pinball took it all in quietly. There was something to the tranquility that he felt wasn't going to leave the lake with him. He'd have to savor it. As he walked through emerald glades, the lake a glittering sapphire jewel beside him, Pinball considered the road ahead. 
He thought about the frontlines. He couldn't remember what progress was looking like, but he was sure that it looked a lot different than what it did before the game's update. Were they still making progress? Was everybody still active? Pinball mulled it over, but came to the conclusion rather quickly that those were questions he wouldn't get the answers to unless he went and found them out for himself. Maybe he would, but right now, that didn't seem very preferable. There were also thoughts about a certain someone that crossed his mind, and a long overdue apology. 

[Pinball 1]

But those thoughts particularly were gently brushed away to their own corner of his mind. 

He came to a stop beside the lake again, looking out across the water. He remembered once, during some quest or another, he'd swam to the bottom of the lake and been chased out by some crustacean looking creature that lived there. Maybe he should go check again someday and see what that was about. He'd never fought a boss underwater, save for that one quest where he'd had to fight while in a boat... and kept getting knocked into the water because of it. There was a big difference between taking swings out of and underwater, though, and he was sure that killing anything like that would be unusually difficult. 

Sunken treasure sounded pretty cool though. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to just take a peak, at least. He rolled his shoulders, gave the water one last look, and kept walking. 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Pinball

[Pinball 1]

Pinball kept steady on his walk through the surrounding forest, keeping an eye out for any "dangerous" creatures prone to attacking him. Wolves, bears, or whatever else passed for hostile on the First Floor. He was not much of a fighter anymore. He had a few ranks in his Sword Skill, but it wasn't at a Grandmaster level. He kept enough points in it where he would be able to defend himself if attacked, but not enough to actually deal much damage or land a killing blow on anything particularly formidable. It was how he liked it, though. He'd fought so much, for so long, and it hadn't always been against mobs. Plagued by remorse and disheartened by the world's inability to rewind, he'd decided to do the only thing you really could do -- move on. Try to be better. But he'd never forget the wrongs he'd committed. The atrocities. 

[Pinball 1]

No. They'd always be with him. 

Pinball took a seat somewhere nice and grassy. He'd figured it make a good spot to rest some more. Only about half an hour or so had passed since he'd completed the quest he had yet to turn it. He hadn't done anything of any real substance with that time, though, instead allowing his mind to wander as he drifted aimlessly through the sun dappled woodlands. Now he stopped, leaning against the trunk of a towering tree, watching the shades of green shift in vibrancy as the leaves swayed and the sun caught them differently. 

Idly plucking some blades of grass from the ground, Pinball's train of thought eventually derailed into oblivion, leaving his waking mind as quiet as the surrounding landscape. He shifted his absent gaze to the blades of grass between his fingers, pulling them apart and tossing them back into the grass. 

[Pinball 1]

He'd been wandering for a long time. A very long time. Too long. 

Taking up this quest was the closest he'd gotten to "getting back into things" in the last several... days? Months? Years? It all blended together like a weird soup. His memories were the ingredients, and they were hard to pick apart and properly identify under the haze of broth covering it all. What he did know for a fact, though, is that he hadn't done anything particularly of worth through any  of it. There were things he hadn't done, promises he had yet to keep, and a lot of things he HAD done that were better off left unsaid. It was past high time that he got back to work and finished things. If he didn't do them soon, he never would. And that, Pinball thought, was probably a far worse fate than his self inflicted exile had ever been. 

[Pinball 1]

But he wasn't going to fight like he had before. He didn't trust himself. 

He'd gimped his damage output intentionally, instead focusing on skills he thought he needed, and skills that would help him do what needed to be done. Skills that he thought had the potential to help people other than himself. It was a small act of penance for sins much too heavy to bear, and he knew that no amount of repentance would ease that burden. When all was said and done, and the game had been won, Pinball knew what had to happen. He stood, then, flicking free the last few flecks of grass that had stuck to his finger. He stretched, took a deep breath, rolled his neck. He looked back out towards the forest, towards the path he had taken from the lake, and started to walk again. Back towards the water. The trees gave way and he traveled unimpeded. 

[Pinball 1]

It didn't take long for the water to come back into view. The woods ended rather abruptly and gave way to a stretch of grass, and then the water started. Pinball did not pay much attention to the water. Instead he turned his attention back to the little cottage in the distance, where he knew that Gill was waiting. He wondered what exactly that particular NPC did while he was waiting. Examine fishing rods? Mess with bait? Sit around lounging? Sometimes it was just funnier to imagine they stayed perfectly still, staring off into space and doing nothing, like in the older MMOs he'd grown used to growing up. Unfortunately -- or fortunately, when you considered the already fragile sanity of Aincrad's inhabitants -- NPCs were a bit more human than that, and so Gill was more likely than not doing fisherman stuff than he was mindless robot things. What a bummer. 

[Pinball 1]

The walk back was uneventful. His mind went blank as he walked beside the shore, and all those other super descriptive words used to describe scenery in the most expeditious way possible. At the risk of sounding monotonous, Pinball wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do now. Usually quests weren't completed so quickly. Usually, there was a certain timeframe that was expected of a player before they could turn in a quest. How was that going to translate here? Was he going to get another objective? Would he be able to turn in the quest early? And what exactly was keeping him from turning in a quest early in the first place? Pinball shook it off. It wouldn't do to get distracted at the finish line -- especially not over such reality-warping thoughts such as those. With a tired but triumphant feeling in his chest, Pinball continued to Gill. 

[Pinball 1]

Pinball walked up to the man with the rainbow fish bait tin in hand. Gill had his back turned to him, but that didn't stop Pinball from rudely whistling to catch his attention. The fisherman turned to face him with that same (annoyingly) handsome smile he'd introduced himself with. "I caught your fish," Pinball said languidly, "got that scale off it and everything. Bait worked." 

Gill laughed. "I knew you could do it!" After smacking him companionably on the back, Anthony gave Pinball a quick wink. "I knew there was something special about you from the moment I saw you. As a gift from me to you, you should keep the scale. Just don't go giving it away now, because the next time you want one, you'll have to fish without my special bait." 

It was at that point Anthony Gill reached for the tin he'd held outstretched, and when Pinball pulled back. 

[Pinball 1]

"Wait." 

Pinball pulled the tin away from Gill's reach, holding it behind him. A look of genuine confusion came over Anthony's face then, and Pinball couldn't tell if it was intentionally programmed or not. Surely it was. There was no way the people who made the quest hadn't expected what happened next to happen. 

He continued to keep it away from Anthony, looking deadpan towards the man who grew increasingly perplexed as time passed. "Why should I give it back at all if your bait is so special?" 

"B-because it's mine? You just borrowed it." 
"..." 
"...Because it's the right thing to do?" 
Pinball wasn't impressed. 

"The bait is special," Anthony explained again, "it's blessed. One of a kind!" 
"And isn't that just all the more reason I should keep it? I mean, if the scales are so rare, I don't see what's keeping me from just... using this for them." 

[Pinball 1]

Pinball was honestly just having fun with it now. 

"You'll run out eventually," Anthony scoffed, as if that was going to change his mind any. 
"Maybe," Pinball admitted, "but if I do as well with it as I did back there, I feel like I'll make more than my fair share of profit in scales." 

With a huff and a glower, Anthony shook his head, frustrated. Pinball continued, a wry smile growing on his face. Somewhere deep down inside of him, Pinball was enjoying the exchange; it reminded him of days long past. "Would it help if I bought it off you?" 

"It's not for sale." 

"But it's not really up to you in the end, is it?" Pinball smugly shrugged. "Way I see it you're either getting paid for it, or watching me leave with this fancy bait." He sort of tossed the tin up and down in his palm. 
 

[Pinball 1]

Anthony was slowly looking less frustrated and more angry, and Pinball figured now was time to call it quits. 

"Relax," he said. "I'm just messing with you." 

Without further warning, Pinball tossed the tin can back towards Gill, who, much to his benefit, caught it with one hand. Pinball snorted, his eyes half-closed as he stretched. After a few silent moments where Gill took the opportunity to pocket the tin, the man finally spoke up. 

"Right." His words were slow and the words felt meticulously enunciated. Pinball watched one of the man's fingers slowly curl into a tight, white-knuckled fist. He glanced between the fist and the man's face. Was he about to get jumped? He'd probably deserve it, to be completely honest. But Gill didn't move to strike him. He continued his slow reply. "If you're ever in the area again, don't be afraid to visit. You know you're always welcome."

Edited June 14, 2022 by Pinball