Jack spent the entire day searching while grinding. He didn’t find any sign of the divine dragon. Not even a clue. He came back again to Darmos’ hut after the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
Darmos was by the lakeside, relaxing while fishing.
Jack ended up joining him fishing. There was a fishing skill under auxiliary skills, together with forage, lumbering, and mining. He almost never used any of these resource-gathering skills, so all of them were still in their starting basic apprentice grade.
He joined Darmos fishing not to upgrade his skill, he simply wanted to accompany the draconian. Darmos gave him a normal-grade fishing rod, as well as a few normal-grade baits. The fishing was done by casting the bait into the lake. He then waited until one of the fishes bit his bait. He would feel the vibration on his fishing rod once it happened. Everything was similar to real fishing until this part. The next part was more game-like. Two bars appeared, green and red. The green represented the fishing line’s HP which was full at the start, and the red represented stress to the fishing line caused by the captured fish, which was empty at the start.
The target was to reel the captured fish until one meter from the shore. Whenever Jack’s reeled in the fish, the red bar increased. If the red bar filled up completely, HP started going down. So, there were times when Jack had to stop reeling and just let the fish be. If HP was depleted, the line would break and the fish went free. If Jack didn’t reel and the fish swam too far away, it would also go free after reaching a certain distance even if the line’s HP was still full.
There would be a time when the fish fought vigorously. If Jack was reeling at that moment, the red bar could fill up abruptly. This was what happened on his first try. The sudden spike of the red bar was so sudden that it took Jack aback. Additionally, his fishing rod was a normal grade. It had very few HP. The line snapped just from that sudden stress.
“Crap! A normal-grade fishing rod is so weak?” Jack complained.
“There is also a chance that the fish that you captured just now was a higher grade. Hence, the stress applied to your fishing line was also stronger,” Peniel explained.
“Mma?|,” Jack nodded. The fishing line regenerated after three seconds interval, as if nothing ever happened. The bait was gone though, Jack had to put in a new bait. He then cast it into the lake again.
Jack and Darmos spent the evening chatting while fishing. All the while, Darmos caught a few fish while Jack caught zero.
Jack sighed. “Well, my fishing skill is still basic apprentice, so there is nothing to complain about,” he said.
“To tell you the truth, even if your skill is expert-grade, you still won’t be able to capture any fish in this lake,” Darmos said.
“Huh?” Jack was confused.
“The lowest grade of fish in this lake is super rare grade, you won’t catch anything with that basic fishing rod,” Darmos informed.
<br/>”a?| What grade is your fishing rod?” Jack asked.
“Super rare grade,” Darmos answered.
“F*ck! So, I have been wasting my entire time fishing just now? No wonder I caught nothing at all,” Jack uttered.
“But your fishing proficiency increased greatly, right?” Peniel said.
“Well, now that you said it. Yeah, just from this one evening, it has gone up to almost 70%. If I do this another evening, my fishing skill will increase to intermediate apprentice.”
“If you fish at other spots, it will take many days for you to acquire that amount of proficiency. This lake is indeed special if its lowest grade fish is super rare,” Peniel added.
“Now that you mention it, the players who fish in our guild headquarters’ lake do mention that the fish there is mostly uncommon and rare grade, but it still took them days of non-stop fishing to increase their fishing level the first time.”
“Hehe, you should consider yourself lucky that I even let you fish here,” Darmos exclaimed. “Normally, I will just chase strangers away.”
“You are only level ten, how do you chase anyone away?” Jack asked.
Darmos halted for a bit before replying, “I have my ways.” He then picked up the fish he had successfully acquired. He put them beside his campfire as he started the fire.
“Are you going to cook those fish for dinner?” Jack asked.
Darmos looked at Jack before he harrumphed, “Hmph!”
“Dude, if you want me to cook, just say it,” Jack said.
After a brief silence, Darmos left the fishes and stepped aside. Jack took out his cooking tools and started preparing. Among the new cooking recipes he had learned, some used fish ingredients. One of them was called Grilled Fish with Lemon and Salad. He was now cooking this dish. Knowing that Darmos ate a lot, he used all the available fish to cook several dishes. Darmos didn’t complain that Jack used up his fish.
When Darmos ate the dishes, Jack could see the old draconian was visibly enjoying them.
The next day, Jack went out again to search for Broidrireg while farming exp and essences at the same time. The summit of this mountain was rather huge. It was not a mountain with a pointed tip, but a rather large area surface for a summit. There was a lot of ground to cover. The full-day Jack spent yesterday only covered around one-third of the summit. He was now searching in the area he had not traversed yesterday.
However, he still didn’t find what he was looking for. In the evening, he returned to Darmos’ hut.
The guy was fishing again. Jack again accompanied him. After their fishing session, Jack’s fishing skill increased to intermediate apprentice.
Jack did the cooking again for dinner. He had some meat ingredients in his inventory, they are the stock from his previous loots. So, he cooked some meat dishes in addition to the fish one. Darmos was happy with the new dish.
On the third day, Jack explored the remaining area. However, his search was still fruitless. Jack was depressed. He wondered if he missed some spots in his previous search. Peniel informed him that the divine dragon would be nesting in some sort of a cave. This cave would need to be large enough to accommodate its gargantuan body. Yet, Jack found no such cave.
Perhaps the entrance was hidden? He wondered.
He went to search again the next morning, scouring the place he had looked before. This time, he paid attention to things that might obscure the entrance to a cave, such as thick vegetation on a cliff, areas with lush trees, even underneath a lake or waterfall, he went to check the ones near Darmos’ hut.
He dove into the lake and looked around. He then swam to the waterfall and looked behind it. Nothing.
Darmos asked what the hell Jack was doing swimming around his lake. Jack simply answered that he needed the bath.
Jack did the cooking every night. Both Jack and Darmos preferred this way. Jack had tasted Darmos’ cooking and it was not something he could stomach.
Jack also found out that this new native friend of his loved to play pranks. Some morning when Jack woke up, he found his face covered with leaves and dirt. He had to clean his face in the lake. Numerous times when he walked past Darmos, the old dude would intentionally shoot out the foot to trip him up.
After a while, Jack played some pranks back on Darmos. He stole some things from Darmos’ hut and hid them away. Only when the draconian noticed it and search around that Jack reveal the hiding place to him. In the morning if Jack woke earlier, he would wait by the door. When he sensed the draconian coming out, he would give the draconian a scare.
In the end, he spent eight days without producing any result other than the pranks between the two were getting more creative by the day. And also, his fishing skill went up another level, it was now an advanced apprentice.
Jack sighed. “Hey Peniel, are you sure that Broidrireg dude is really on this mountain?” Jack asked. He was now fishing with Darmos again beside the small lake.
“Hey! Call him the mighty Broidrireg!” Darmos demanded.
“Yes, I’m sure. This mountain’s summit is his lair,” Peniel said. “A draconian beastmaster who wanted to receive dragonification had to come here for initiation.”
“Then how come we can’t even find his shadow?” Jack sighed again.
“No fish is taking my bait because of your constant sighing,” Darmos complained.
“Screw this. We have been eating fish almost every day. I got a super rare cooking ingredient today, draconic meat,” Jack announced as he took out a huge chunk of meat. It was a drop from one of the drackcatrice he killed today. “I should be able to cook this using recipe for meat. What say you? Shall we eat some draconic delicacy?”
Darmos eyed the meat for a while before saying, “Not interested.”
“Huh? Are you sure?” Jack asked. Usually, the old dude would be joyful when there was a new kind of food to try.
“I also advise against it. That is a super rare ingredient,” Peniel said. “It will be a waste using it just for a meal. Better give it to your high-level cook friend. Maybe she has a recipe that can better utilize that meat.”
“Hm, okay,” Jack said and stored the draconic meat.
After they finished their meal, Jack did his mana manipulation and mana concealment training routine while Darmos sat by the side and watched.
When Jack took out his camouflage tent and was about to rest, Darmos said to him, “Open your map.”
“Huh?” Jack was baffled by the sudden request.
“Open your map,” Darmos said again.
Jack accessed his status window and opened the map interface. Darmos came by and marked a spot.
“Go there tomorrow,” Darmos said.
“What’s there?” Jack asked.
“You want to meet the mighty Broidrireg, didn’t you? Then go there,” Darmos replied. “However, whether he agreed to give you the dragonification trial or not, that will be up to him.”
