Chapter 507 - Fish

The Lake City is quite basic. There are no walls or protections, only locks on some houses and arrays to prevent break-ins. It seems no one even considers the possibility of a lurker attack or the monsters in the lake.

All of the houses are made out of material reminiscent of frozen water, but it's not cold and there are no sharp angles. Instead, it feels weirdly warm to the touch and comfortable.

Some of these houses are unlocked, likely serving attendees, while locked ones probably belong to guilds or natives who move here seasonally to fish and trade with attendees.

You have reached a safe zone! Congratulations! The next time you enter Beyond you will appear here instead of the Entrance Floor until you reach a different safe zone.

In the center of the city, I also see a teleportation array and two thylarin, likely natives staying in the small house nearby.

"Let me guess, the guild is taking care of the teleportation array and charging 10k to move to the Entrance Floor," Lily notes with clear annoyance, likely already missing the shards she paid to get to the same entrance outpost as us.

Just imagine how many pets she could buy from Luna with so many shards.

"Yes. Starting now you can teleport to this safe zone or out of it... if you have shards," Leticia confirms.

As we are passing by, Luna growls at the two men.

That makes me wonder what experience they have with this way of transport.

We split, with Tess, Leticia, and Lucien heading to the merchants to check how much they could get for the items we got from the lurkers and if it's worth more than selling them to the system shop. There are even two pieces of damaged arcane items, but nothing that would interest me too much.

Meanwhile, the rest of us walk behind Luna, who leads us towards one of the bigger houses we enter.

The entire side of one of the walls is transparent, opening a view of the dark lake. The view isn't perfect but better than nothing, and I create a manablock chair and sit there. Lily and Sophie also get one each and sit nearby.

"What's your problem with me?" Sophie asks Jean out of nowhere.

The bulky man looks at her. "You're nothing more than a temporary nuisance."

"Do you think I will be hiding behind Noname? If you come at me, it will be me who fucks you up."

To that, he shakes his head. The calm, focused behavior he shows now is unlike how he behaved before.

"You have no chance against me," he says and then points at Lily, "you have no chance against me." Lastly, he points at me, "If we fought, you would lose. I hold myself back because of Leticia and the promise I made, but even if I don’t kill you now, the opportunity will come in the future."

"Even if you hate mind mages, Soph didn't do anything to you, you know that," Lily tries to join the conversation.

Instead of Jean, it's Lucien who answers. "Don't bother, once he is like that he won't change his mind."

Sophie doesn't answer, but I can see that look in her eyes. If it comes to her survival, she won't mind playing dirty or killing him before he kills her. I know she won't hesitate.

There is also something I have noticed: Luna avoiding Sophie as much as possible. It seems like even others from Earth are learning to fear or hate mind mages, something I consider very reasonable.

Sensing a familiar presence outside, I stand up, exiting through the door.

As suspected, it's Duncan, the young man with a massive bag on his back, following close to a group of a few natives and attendees. I notice a few Royal Blue B-rank identification emblems on some of these attendees. Demons. The group seems like a powerful one, likely from a deeper floor.

A few eyes glance my way, towards the crown especially, but no one tries to sense my body mana or something similar, it being considered rude. Just one of the demons senses my heart but doesn't linger on it for too long.

Duncan looks towards me as well, but glances over before his eyes tick back onto me in surprise and then a big smile.

He quickly tells something to the native next to him and leaves the group, rushing my way.

"Noname! I didn't expect to meet you in Lake City! Congratulations on reaching the safe zone. It's been long since I saw you, so I thought you might have died or gone deeper."

"Hey. It worked out that way, and we came here not long ago and will likely head towards the second safe zone soon."

"Oh, you seem to have found a nice group this time," he then looks around as if checking if no one is listening.

I form a barrier around us and add [Eclipse] to the mix, making sure no one can eavesdrop.

"You were always quick to understand," he smiles. "Listen, 1,000 shards and I will give you some nice info. If after a while you consider it valuable or it leads to some nice earnings, you can tip me, so you could say I'm giving it for cheap. What do you think?"

I guess the grind really never stops with this guy.

"Sure," I answer and transfer the shards to him.

"You probably have heard about fishing here, right?"

"Just a little bit."

"So, the group I joined has a few fresh B-ranks looking to make some shards. Usually, you would want A-ranks, but it's not the season so the pale purple, white, or golden fish won't be around. Yet, if you know where to look, you can still catch some, even though not as valuable, but good enough for a few B-ranks to spend their time."

"Continue."

"Obviously I can't tell you much more about their plans; I have my reputation to upkeep! But from my own experience, I know that once you start fishing using a lure, plenty of smaller fish come to the surface all over the lake. The bigger ones will stay near the lure so the B-ranks will get their stuff, but if you are lucky you could catch one or two smaller ones."

"That indeed sounds interesting. How would you lure these smaller fish?"

Duncan smiles brightly and taps on his backpack.

With a sigh I ask, "How much?"

"Five thousand shards! I promise it’s worth it!"

"Here."

"Thank you!" He quickly puts the bag down while explaining, "Of course, proper lures are much more expensive and you need specialists to make them, but I have some of the materials they are made from. Not much, but should be enough for the smaller ones."

He hands me three small grape-like things. They are red and their surface is shriveled, and there is a strong scent to them. It's not unpleasant, but weird and hard to describe.

"You need to crush them all at once and mix them with a bit of mana, making it as concentrated as possible. Someone with Mana Potency would be great for that! It will strengthen the effect! See you back here in a day?"

"I'm not sure, but I will find you here before we leave."

"That works as well! Good luck!"

As he leaves, I cancel out the barrier around us and, walking back into the house, I observe the three weird fruits.

I smell them again before putting them carefully into one of my pockets.

Let's do some fishing.

***

All of us stand near the lake with plenty of other people. Likely close to the full population of this safe zone outpost. In the distance on the opposite side, the group of attendees and natives makes their preparations for the fishing.

Everything in Beyond moves quickly. They do not rest or slack around. Just an hour after arriving they are already on the move, ready to fight again.

"So we will fish as well?" Leticia asks, somewhat full of childish excitement.

It makes Luna poke her with her nose, but Leticia doesn't let it stop her.

"Are you excited for the fish, Luna? I thought you didn't like fishes," Leticia teases playfully.

"Leticia, each day you are confirming my theory that I'm human and you are the golden retriever more and more."

"I wouldn't mind!"

"Leticia."

"I love you too, Luna."

"Silly girl, I love you too." The sigh sounds very weird from the golden retriever.

"Done planting death flags?" Lucien impatiently interrupts and turns to me. "So you want us to help you fish?"

I nod. "I have paid five thousand shards for the information and ten thousand for the lure. I also made it all possible, so I will take 50% of whatever we make. The rest can be split among the group."

"I'm up for it," Tess answers before Lucien can, and when he looks at her annoyed, she shrugs and smiles. "Soph, Grumpy?"

"I don't mind."

"I also don't mind!"

"Me and Luna also think it's fair."

"Leticia... we could get more, you know," Luna complains.

"It's fine!"

Seeing that Jean doesn't complain, Lucien just sighs. "Fine, damn it."

With that last confirmation, we watch as the group sets the lure. Even though I'm not using my senses to the fullest, I can feel them compressing mana, likely to increase the efficiency of the lure.

It feels lacking.

After a minute of tense waiting, the surface of the lake near them ripples, a blue light sent through it. They make a formation, with natives moving away. There are 3 B-ranks and the rest is made up of 6 D- and C-ranks.

The dark water erupts, and a fish climbs out onto the lake’s surface. The lake’s unique properties allow it to stand on the surface, just as we do.

And yup, climbs.

The fish is reminiscent of a salmon but with three pairs of human arms. It is as big as a small house and its scales are gray with pale blue edges.

"Oh, they were quite lucky," one of the natives nearby mutters to the man sitting next to him.

"Looking at that color, I would guess 80 years."

"At least 110! Just look at the size and the length of the arms!"

"There is no way..."

I observe that monstrosity as it uses its arms to move on the surface of the lake and uses water jet-like attacks.

"No, even kids know the fewer colors and the paler the fish is, the older and stronger it is!" the native raises his voice at his friend.

As I move, the rest of the group moves as well as we run on the surface of the lake.

When I think we are far enough, I pull out the weird fruit. Within my arm an orb compresses, its color turning dark blue really quickly, and soon a mix of light blue and purple flows through—a tricolored, very densely compressed mana.

I stare at it for a moment.

Then I shrug and push further, the orb turning pitch black and reverberating in my hand as it tries to get out of control.

I squish the fruit and they release a juice that reacts to my mana; it flows around it, it touches it. That liquid turns a brilliant white and then drops onto the surface of the lake.

It takes only a few seconds but vibration is sent through the surface, the ripples reaching even the opposite side.

Something moves underneath with incredible speed and an arm pierces the surface. Human-like, enormous, and thin like a spire.

The fish pulls itself out—a salmon-like creature with six pairs of red eyes and three pairs of these creepy arms.

That fish is twice as big as the one the others lured, and its scales are of a single color only: pale blue.

[Fish - lvl ???]

***

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