Chapter 159: Fish are resources too

Ethan looked at the Lava Carp still thrashing on the stone, then turned toward Ruo Yan and asked very seriously:

"Can this fish be eaten?"

Ruo Yan had still been crouching down to inspect the armor on the Undead Mage’s shoulder, which was covered in lava residue.

Hearing that, she paused.

She raised her head and looked at the fish nearly two meters long, its transparent red scales continuously radiating heat, then looked back at Ethan as though trying to confirm whether he was genuinely asking this question.

Laira, who was already standing nearby with the Boundless Fishing Rod in hand, also turned around.

Her expression clearly became much more interested the moment she heard the words "can be eaten."

"I do not know," Ruo Yan replied after several seconds of silence. "It lives in the Lava Sea, so its body probably contains a large amount of elemental energy. If you really want to eat it, we should at least confirm whether it is poisonous first."

Ethan nodded, feeling that made sense.

He crouched beside the Lava Carp and placed his hand against the scorching scales covering its body.

The fish immediately struggled even harder.

Its large tail slammed against the stone, scattering small droplets of lava around them, but Ethan merely leaned aside to dodge before activating his ability.

"Decomposition."

A faint light rapidly spread from his palm.

The struggling Lava Carp gradually became transparent.

Layer after layer of blazing red scales separated from its body before transforming into particles of light and entering his storage space.

Within moments, not a trace of the fish remained on the stone.

Instead, several notifications appeared before Ethan.

[Obtained: Lava Material.]

[Obtained: Lava Crystal.]

[Obtained: Lava Crystal.]

Laira looked at the empty spot where the fish had been lying, then turned toward Ethan.

"Fish can be decomposed into materials too?"

"Apparently."

Ethan opened his storage space and took out one of the dark red crystals he had just obtained.

The crystal was only slightly larger than his thumb, but streams of energy resembling flowing lava slowly moved inside it.

Its temperature was not as high as the Lava Carp’s, yet the moment Ruo Yan saw it, she immediately stepped closer.

She took the crystal from him.

The instant her fingertip touched it, she sensed the pure fire element inside, and a trace of surprise appeared on her usually calm face.

"This is an Energy Crystal containing an element."

Ethan looked at her.

"Very valuable?"

"Not merely valuable."

Ruo Yan nodded slightly, her tone becoming serious.

"Ordinary Energy Crystals can only provide energy, but this one contains extremely concentrated lava element. It can be used in forging to increase the fire properties of equipment, and it can also serve as an additive when creating Magic Arrays or fire-type Magical Artifacts."

"If you gave this to a capable Forgemaster or Mage, its value would be far higher than the points that fish just gave us."

Ethan silently looked at the Lava Crystal in her hand.

Previously, he had only thought of this challenge as a bizarre fishing competition.

Only now did he realize that the creatures inside the Lava Sea were not merely targets for earning points.

Every fish could become a resource.

And if they truly managed to drag ashore the whale more than a hundred meters long that he had seen when first entering this place, the rewards they obtained might far exceed his imagination.

He slowly turned toward Laira.

"Keep fishing."

Laira’s eyes immediately lit up.

"I was thinking the same thing."

The Undead Mage, which had just sat up nearby, suddenly stopped moving.

Its bone armor still carried red burn marks where the fish had bitten into it, while the two streams of liquid Ruo Yan had previously explained as "condensed mana" had already dried beneath its eye sockets.

It had no expression.

However, the blue flames in its eyes clearly flickered twice, as if reminding everyone that it had just completed a dangerous mission.

Unfortunately, Laira merely looked at it and smiled brightly.

"This time, we will catch a bigger one."

The Undead Mage slowly turned its head toward Ruo Yan.

Under that gaze, Ruo Yan felt slightly guilty.

But after remembering the Lava Crystal in her hand, she could only sigh.

"I will try not to let it get dragged too deep."

The Undead Mage remained motionless.

It was a puppet.

It could not object.

Nor could it actually cry.

But as Ethan looked at the blue flames in its eye sockets, he somehow felt that if this thing had tear ducts, it would definitely be crying silently right now.

Mumu, standing nearby, seemed completely unaware of the Undead Mage’s tragic atmosphere.

It happily jumped onto Laira’s shoulder, and the halo above its head flashed.

Three seconds later, another notification appeared before Ethan.

[Mumu has activated Endless Blessing.]

[Buff acquired: Stable Pull.]

[When pulling a target, the chance of being interrupted is slightly reduced.]

Ethan looked at the notification, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.

Previously, Mumu had already generated Fishing Luck, Bait Attraction, and Steady Angler in succession.

At first glance, none of those buffs seemed especially powerful.

But a new effect appeared every three seconds, and all of them adapted to the current situation.

With nearly forty-eight hours still remaining in the challenge, the advantage Mumu created would become increasingly obvious.

Laira did not wait long.

She held the Boundless Fishing Rod and deliberately used slightly less strength this time, but when the Undead Mage was thrown outward, Ruo Yan still closed her eyes unconsciously.

The skeletal figure flew in an arc across the blazing red sky before falling into the Lava Sea.

The moment it touched the surface, several pale golden streams of energy created by Mumu quickly wrapped around the fishing line.

Not long afterward, the lava surface began trembling again.

Laira pulled on the fishing rod.

Ethan watched the constantly changing buff notifications before him.

Meanwhile, Ruo Yan maintained the Soul Thread connecting her to the Undead Mage to prevent it from being dragged too far away by another fish.

With Bait Attraction and Fishing Luck active, the fish in the surrounding area clearly began approaching more willingly.

In less than ten minutes, Laira pulled another lava fish onto the stone shore, then caught a creature resembling an eel nearly four meters long.

Although neither target was as large as the whale they had seen earlier, their score continued rising.

On the ranking board, Ethan Ashford’s name remained firmly in first place from beginning to end, while the gap between him and everyone else gradually widened.

...

In another part of the Lava Sea, the atmosphere on the large stone island was completely different.

More than thirty participants had spent nearly half an hour negotiating with the four Crabfolk to obtain pieces of meat from the tips of their pincers as bait.

The fresh red crab meat was now completely wrapped in energy.

Otherwise, if it were thrown directly into the Lava Sea, the terrifying temperature would burn it away before it could attract any creature.

But that layer of energy could not last forever.

A Dark Elf frowned as he looked at the piece of crab meat in his hand.

The glow surrounding it had visibly weakened, while the meat inside was gradually darkening.

They did not have a puppet capable of standing motionless in lava like the Undead Mage.

Nor did they possess a Decomposition ability capable of turning their catches into resources afterward.

All they had was temporary bait, fishing rods of varying quality, and time that continued slipping away.

At that moment, the ranking board in the sky lit up again.

Ethan Ashford remained at the top.

The score beside his name had increased once more.

A lion-headed Beastkin stared at the notification for several seconds before clenching his fist.

"Him again."

The Elf holding the Epic fishing rod nearby could no longer maintain his calm expression either.

He had the best fishing rod on the island, yet he still had not caught a single target.

Meanwhile, that human had used a skeleton as bait and then continuously increased his score in front of everyone.

"We cannot let him continue like this," a nonhuman with two curved horns said in a low voice. "If the gap grows any wider, even if we manage to catch fish later, we might not be able to catch up."

"What are you planning to do?" the Dark Elf asked, turning his head.

The horned nonhuman looked toward the island where Ethan was staying.

He did not mention fighting.

Everyone had personally witnessed someone violate the rules and get swallowed by the lava whale.

He was not stupid enough to challenge the Absolute Rules of the Lava Sea.

But the rules only prohibited deliberately attacking, injuring, or killing other participants.

They did not say they could not disturb the surface of the sea.

They did not say they could not create waves.

Nor did they say they were forbidden from standing near someone else while fishing.

"We do not need to fight him," he slowly said. "We only need to make sure he cannot catch any fish."

Everyone on the island fell silent in thought.

After a while, the lion-headed Beastkin was the first to nod.

"One group goes to interfere with him. The rest stay here and continue fishing with the Crabfolk meat. If the bait really is about to spoil, we cannot place all our hopes on stopping him."

The proposal was quickly accepted.

Not long afterward, a group of nonhumans left the stone island and headed toward Ethan with cold expressions.

The remaining participants began preparing their bait.

Only the four Crabfolk stayed behind, looking at the missing sections of their pincers, then at the people holding pieces of their flesh.

Finally, one Crabfolk let out an extremely quiet sound.

"Kra..."

It felt that perhaps this challenge was not particularly suitable for the Crabfolk.