[SD:OA] Feeeshing - Chapter 4

From all sides, pods of dolphins rush in, with a trio of five meter long specimens rising up from under the sharkfolk fighting Sssally. Thei

From all sides, pods of dolphins rush in, with a trio of five meter long specimens rising up from under the sharkfolk fighting Sssally. Their jaws grabbing the now helpless being and ripping them apart. All while Sssally laughs.

Not that the arrival of these allies ended the fight right away. Those sharkfolk who are already onboard fight even more fiercely. No longer having the option to retreat into the water below.

This causes a few more serious wounds, but for all intents and purposes, the fight is over. The dolphins had driven away the sharkfolk and any underwater allies they might have brought with them. Though that did represent a certain obligation by the ship.

Sssally gets back to the Salty Baron as the dolphins circle the ship expectantly. “Bring out the fresssh feeesssh!”

And with that, every sailor who isn’t currently injured or helping said injured, jump to it and head below deck. Only to reappear loaded down with all the fish people had been pulling in over the last couple days. Well, all of the fish that are still fresh.

Whether filet or untouched, the fish is tossed overboard to the waiting dolphins below. In particular, two specimens so large they had to be cut into pieces just to get into the ship are hand delivered by Sssally to the three dolphins that had assisted her.

Of course, the clean up doesn’t stop, and Gem ends up being surprisingly helpful. Their claws are actually quite precise, if short, and handy for cutting the various ropes and clothes that need work. All the while, the dolphins follow the ship, dancing around it with three big ones even managing to jump over it a few times.

While this is happening, a crew member with both arms in a sling comes around to all the non-crew. “No more fishing for the day! With a double whammy of those kraken warped and our friends sticking around for a while, the fish will all be gone. No need to risk getting a hook in one of our allies.”

Gem finishes cutting a small hole in some canvas, then looks up. “What was up with those freaks? My friends got all bloody looking at them, and I was fine.”

The sailor shrugs, “Eh, corrupted water and air. Blood and mind. Not that mind stuff is corrupted. Our friends out there have it as well. Other than that though, you’d have to ask someone else.” And he continues around the ship.

Later that night, after a meal of preserved food, all the fresh stuff having been paid to the dolphins, Gem tells the rest about what she just learned.

Emrys taps his chin as he takes a moment to think it over. “Yeah, that would make sense. Squid are known for their ink, which is a water and earth combo. Krakens on the other hand have this mental mumbo jumbo stuff going on, but that doesn’t give them curse or mind control. What with the mind being connected to air and chaos. You know, free will.

“Corrupt the mental aspect with blood? That would be using an allied element to backdoor in Order which is the source of curses. And of course the blood is corrupted by this as well, seeing as it’s connected to Good. The kraken really have gone about being Evil in about the most backwards fashion.”

June, “Would have been easier to use the sea vents. The manifestation of fire and earth resisting or conquering, depends how you look at it, water.”

Gem tilts their head to the side, “That’s interesting, but what I’m getting from it is that I’m going to be super resistant to mind control.”

Samuel, “Wait, you haven’t gone and researched what you’re getting for being locked?”

Gem shrugs, “Eh, I’ll check it out, eventually. Right now I’m having fun!”

Samuel sighs, “Whatever. Oh, and not immune. A kraken shows up? Welcome to puppet town.”

Gem waves him off, “Meh, I’d be dead a hundred different ways. Going brain dead just adds to the stack.”

June, “I’d be a little more cautious. While getting mind controlled can lead to a quick trip or respawn. It can also lock you out of the game until either your body is killed or enough time has passed.”

Gem, “Fair. Though how does it work with locals? Because they get limited respawns and all. Be kind of freaky if you ended up with two of them.”

June, “Same as with us. Brain wipe gets a respawn and if there is a chance of recovery they are logged out. Though for them that means getting put into an Elysium sim or paused, whichever they prefer.”

Gem, “Well, whatever the case, I’m excited about what’s to come!”

The answer to that is fishing. These dolphins only stuck around for the rest of the day. The pod heading off around dusk, which meant come dawn, it was back to fishing.

Except by this point, they were further out to sea. Now, just being in deep water didn’t suddenly make all the fish weird. It did, however, open up the possibility to catch such oddities.

It starts normal enough. Gem has their line in the water and the line starts to oscillate. Like a sound wave, which is odd as it stays like that even after they pull the line tight to set the hook.

When Gem finally managed to land the catch, it looked like a normal enough fish. Had a sorta tuna vibe to it. Well, except for the fact that the fish’s mouth had tumor-like nodules. Except they weren’t tumors, but rather the source of the vibrations.

{

Species: Wave Blaster Deep Tuna

Tags: [Adolescent]

Level: 12

}

One sailor when they heard what the line had been doing actually wandered over. “Oh yeah, I’d say that’s about a meter and a half? Must have just grown into adolescents. Those tumors on the sides? Yeah, they sprout metal formations that are reminiscent of tuning forks. Good thing they stay deep because their sound waves can reduce an insufficiently protected hull to sawdust.”

Another day, Gem hooked a fish that ended up having elk horns. Seems it was some distant relative of the terrestrial elkbird. Which makes no sense, but magic doesn’t care.

Then there was the time Gem struggled with the line for three and a half hours, only to pull up a fish the size of a classic minnow. Which is odd not only because of the fight the fish put up, but also the fact the hook Gem used is at least three times the size of the supposed minnow.

June’s analysis didn’t even work on the thing, though not because of level. It took elevating things all the way to Sssally before the mystery was solved.

Sssally took one look at the tiny fish and laughed. “You caught an abyssal gravitro faux-minnow fry. Your assay isn’t working because the fish’s bloodline is blocking it. This one will need to be preserved as is. We try cutting the fish open and chances are the fish winds up too big to fit in any of the holds.”

Later that night, Emrys fills the group in a little bit more. “Did a little research. Seems they’re popular for making high end storage devices. Seems they’re ‘bigger on the inside’ and naturally offset the weight. Fully grown they’re still that size, but can have an island’s worth of mass hidden away.”

Though those distinct species of fish are not the majority of the oddities Gem is fishing out. Most of their catches are instead normal fish, but odd. A [Warped] Tunas with eel-like mouth tentacles. An [Odd] swordfish except their “sword” is hollowed out and acting like a blowgun for envenomed spikes. There was even a jellyfish with a shark’s mouth.

This wasn’t even the result of some Kraken or other underwater terror. The deep sea just tended to collect a bunch of magic. It’s like how the sea became so salty, except with magic. And once you have that much magic packed into one place? Well, nature takes a back seat even more than usual.

Gem didn’t mind the strange fish. They did however have one complaint.

{

Gain Fishing (Y/N)

}

“Why is my first self learned skill FISHING?!?” Though they still did take it.

Samuel, “And why did you learn it, but not the rest of us?”

A nearby sailor laughed, “Luck O’ the Sea, boyo!”

Another sailor calls over, “Ignore Simon, fishing is one of those talent skills. Surprised even one of you got it. Though I guess seeing what they’ve been pulling in, it makes some sense.”

June, “Oh, it’s a talent skill.”

Samuel, “I’ve been pretty active online, but I’ve never heard of anything referred to as a talent skill.”

Emrys, “I might have heard it under a different name?”

June nods, “Talent skills isn’t some official term. As you might have noticed, you don’t need the skill to fish. And the skill? It doesn’t make the fish you catch magically of a higher quality.

“Well, the SAI who designed how skills work decided that certain skills, like fishing, shouldn’t be special. So you can’t learn them, you just have to be innately skilled at them and the skill is more about self reinforcement.”

Emrys, “Ah, yeah, I heard them called achievement skills. For fishing, I’d guess it assists with arm strength and the durability of your rod and line. Oh, and achievement because levels in them are more about what achievements you’ve had with the skill. Gem, give it a check, I’m going to guess you already have a few levels because of what you’ve caught.”

Gem frowns and pulls up the skill.

{

Fishing lv4

}

Emrys looks over their shoulder, “Yep, that seems about right. You’ve caught some pretty fancy fish, but nothing fully grown that was too unique. Not quite halfway to the cap is pretty decent.”

Gem, “So it’s an achievement? Like, I guess since there isn’t a skill limit, whatever, but why?”

June shrugs, “The makers learned their lesson from the SciFi game. People expect certain things to have a skill and will complain if it doesn’t exist. Nevermind the fact that some things just are. Though it did leave open the chance for fun and silly skills.

“Rumor is there’s a guy with the skill for breathing. It doesn’t DO anything, except maybe help a little against lung based ailments and protection from smoke inhalation. Still amusing, though.”

The first sailor to speak up mentions, “I heard they could evolve like normal skills.”

June scoffs, “Bah, they don’t. There are simply more specific skills in case someone has a very particular talent. So maybe someone might not be the best at regular fishing, but maybe they get an Ice Fishing skill. It isn’t an evolved skill.”

From there, the conversation devolved into a general chat about skills.

Gem mostly tunes that out as plans percolate through their brain. Even if the skills were meant to be more like an achievement, they Did have an effect. So what if they played around with that a little?

Next morning, Gem comes out of their room with a strange selection of “fishing line”. More like they took some scrap rope that was around from the attack and unraveled that rope. Some of the line looked like it might not even be able to hold itself, let alone survive a fish nibbling on a hook. Which was the point.

In fact, that line was the last made, but not because Gem hadn’t tried earlier. They had actually made that size line for their very first. Except having been made from a rough boat’s rope, it couldn’t survive its own weight.

So how was the line staying together? Simple enough, Gem had to make it and wind the thread into a fishing pole’s reel right from the start. To treat the thread as the active line being used that their new skill reinforced it.

This led to a String of hilarious failures. That thinnest thread didn’t survive getting wet, even without a hook on it. The next couple lines couldn’t handle a pebble. It wasn’t until the line was getting close to the normal fishing line’s size that it held up.

Which was amazing, considering how rough the “custom” lines were. They really shouldn’t have done so well. Though calling their performance “well done” is purely a factor of comparing them to how they should have done instead of a proper string. Though one of the last test lines actually managed to hook a fish and last long enough for a few turns for the reel. Then it snapped.

This left Gem with a final test. With a crazed grin, they attach a big hook to a line as thick as a pinky. Not that this isn’t done, just not with a regular fishing pole.

Squirming Runes - Chapter 3

Gem Having A Bad Fishing Day - Chapter 5