Chapter 532 Fishing Competition

"Hey, I caught one!"

"A bite, a bite!"

"Shut up, you're scaring all my fish away!"

The shouts of the adventurers mingled with the roar of the tide crashing against the shore, filling the air with a lively atmosphere.

This was a large fishery located southeast of Stodd, the Isle of a Thousand Piles.

Hundreds of Water-Iron Wood Piles were arranged in rings, layered one after another and driven straight into the seabed. Cables and wide-meshed fishing nets could be vaguely seen connecting some of the closer piles.

The Isle of a Thousand Piles was located in the core of a reef region. Its uniquely advantageous geographical position, boasting vast expanses of shallow sea nearby, along with ample sunlight and the rich nutrients brought by the Water-Iron Wood forests, made the fishery resources around the island extraordinarily abundant.

Sunlight pierced straight through the clear water, revealing schools of sea fish darting among the piles. It looked as if one could snatch up a couple just by reaching in.

This was also one of the economic pillars the Pile Dwellers relied on for survival.

Right now, however, there were no fishermen in this fishery, and even the nets and cables used for aquaculture had mostly been removed.

Taking their place was a massive, noisy, and disorderly crowd of adventurers.

With the Lunar Tide Banquet approaching, this fishery had been commandeered by "Algae Scale" Dodd's forces and turned into a venue for celebration activities.

The first of five events required to qualify for the final lottery was being held right here.

A middle-aged man in formal attire, sporting a meticulously trimmed goatee, stood by the shore and smiled. "Time limit: three hours."

"As long as you catch a total haul worth more than one gold coin within the time limit, you pass."

It didn't sound like much. A single gold coin was hardly a significant sum to any adventurer present.

Many of them would spend more than that just ordering a few bottles of fine wine and gorging themselves at a tavern.

But converting a gold coin into its equivalent value in fish was a staggering task.

Unless they caught special Rare or Unique fish species, even pulling up a massive basket of ordinary sea fish would hardly be enough to hit that total.

Not to mention the three-hour time limit.

Without a doubt, this was quite a difficult task.

But evidently, the prizes of "combat techniques" and "enchanted equipment" mentioned by the goateed man were far too enticing for the adventurers.

Fully aware of the daunting task, the adventurers still geared themselves up, enthusiastically casting their lines into the sea.

Xia Nan stood by the sea with his [Albatross Type III Fishing Rod - 1015 Model] resting on his shoulder, his emotions surging.

He had to admit, he truly hadn't expected there to be this kind of fishing event on the island.

For a moment, he couldn't help but feel a little inspired.

After all, during his time traveling the Southern Archipelagos, he had developed quite an interest in fishing and had poured effort into studying it, acquiring a wealth of related knowledge.

Although his fishing luck was often rather poor, he could still, to some extent, call himself an "experienced angler."

Now, coinciding with the Lunar Tide Banquet, his days in the Southern Archipelagos were drawing to a close. A Fishing Competition like this could serve as the perfect capstone to his time here, a way to validate his improvement and gains in angling.

Xia Nan took this very seriously.

He deliberately found a secluded corner and took out the professional fishing rod he kept stored inside his [White Flask] pocket watch. The members of the Blade of Vengeance Fleet had already learned this was a spatial storage item back when he acquired it during the battle at Twin Canyon, thanks to his candid explanation, so he didn't need to worry about exposing it to Sasha and Alton.

Of course, while participating in the event, he hadn't forgotten his main job of gathering intelligence. He took the opportunity to size up the noteworthy adventurers on the scene.

That half-elf over there who had just caught a silver barracuda was likely a Rogue with a Class Level around lv3, judging by his crisp, powerful reeling motion.

Was the half-orc beside him a teammate? Despite appearing to have a similar or even higher Class Level, his fishing skills were clearly much worse, and even his casting posture was completely off—

As his gaze swept along the shore, Xia Nan's eyes suddenly paused, locking onto an extremely stocky figure.

The man sported the complex braided beard common among dwarves, adorned with decorative copper rings and iron clasps. His muscles perfectly fit the world's stereotype of a dwarf—swollen and solid as bedrock, with sharp, defined contours.

The bizarre part, however, was the man's height. He wasn't short at all, standing around 1.65 meters tall, looking exactly like a proportionately scaled-up dwarf.

Tattoos could even be seen peeking out from his collar and along his arms.

Xia Nan guessed the man might be a "half-dwarf" possessing both dwarven and other racial bloodlines. That would explain how he had such height while still retaining dwarven traits.

Of course, what truly caught his attention wasn't just the half-dwarf's appearance, but the solid, heavy aura the man exuded under Xia Nan's Perception.

Its intensity was nearly on par with Lorraine's. Setting aside his actual combat prowess, his Class Level was probably around lv6 or lv7.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

While he was lost in thought, Sasha, the Tabaxi traveling with him, was dragged to the edge of the fishery by an eager Alton.

"Xia Nan, hurry, hurry! We only have three hours!" The small guy looked eager to give it a try, forcefully casting his line as he spoke.

Unlike the careful preparation and focused attitudes of the other adventurers, Alton was exceptionally casual. Even his fishing rod was borrowed from the owner of a nearby tackle shop. He hadn't prepared any special bait, nor had he chummed the water beforehand; he just used the most common kind of artificial lure.

Naturally, there was no need to worry.

Honestly, the fact that he even bothered to attach a lure to the hook showed he was taking this somewhat seriously.

After all, Xia Nan had once seen the small guy catch a fish on a completely bare hook.

And indeed, that proved to be the case—

Before Alton could even finish his greeting, his bobber—which had just hit the water and hadn't even surfaced to steady itself—suddenly sank, pulling the rod into a tight bend.

"Hehe, hooked one!"

Xia Nan figured Alton wouldn't even need half an hour to meet the one-gold-coin requirement.

At the same time, Sasha had also chosen his fishing spot.

Don't be fooled by the Tabaxi's usual aversion to getting in the water.

In reality, Sasha was a hidden master angler aboard the Blade of Vengeance.

The Tabaxi might despise the sticky sensation of wet fur, but—he loved to eat fish.

According to the other crew members, whenever he got a craving in the past, he would frequently fish from the deck during voyages for an extra meal, and with high efficiency.

It was only after Xia Nan and Alton boarded the ship and frequently pulled in substantial quantities of sea fish—mostly thanks to the latter—that he reduced his own fishing trips.

Right now, the slender Tabaxi sat on the Water-Iron Wood platform by the shore with a practiced, leisurely posture.

His jewel-like cat eyes were slightly narrowed, and his long tail swayed gently behind him.

Even if his luck wasn't as ridiculous as Alton's and he didn't land a fish immediately, seeing his confident, familiar demeanor made it obvious there was no need to worry about him.

Unexpectedly yet completely logically, out of their group of three, Xia Nan was the one most likely to fail the task.

His mind involuntarily flashed back to his dismal fishing hauls as of late. He quietly exhaled, steadying his emotions.

He shifted his eyes, his gaze sweeping across the area.

These were all adventurers who had been active at sea for years. Even if they had no great interest in angling, most had picked up the relevant skills through constant exposure. Coupled with the rich local fishery resources, surprised shouts of reeling in catches echoed endlessly along the shore.

Xia Nan wasn't swayed by the people around him. He didn't act rashly, instead displaying considerable patience and restraint.

Knowing his fishing luck had been poor lately, he reasoned that he had to perform perfectly in all other controllable aspects to bridge the gap between himself and the rest.

It sounded complicated, but it boiled down to just three points.

One, selecting a fishing spot.

This fishery on the Isle of a Thousand Piles was divided by hundreds of Water-Iron Wood Piles, disrupting the natural flow of the seawater. The currents collided around the piles to create whirlpools, the moss on the pile surfaces attracted plankton, and the crevices at the bottom housed crustaceans. It was a foraging and resting ground for countless small fish.

If he wanted to catch fish more efficiently, his best spot to cast would be near a Water-Iron Wood Pile.

Two, observing the fish activity.

The nearby waters were teeming with fishery resources and supported a massive, intersecting variety of fish. The bright sunlight and clear shallows made it easy to distinguish the species swimming beneath the surface.

It looked chaotic, but in reality, the number and ratio of fish around each pile differed accordingly.

Some might be swarming with schools of small fish, while others had a higher concentration of large, predatory species.

How should he choose?

This came down to the participant's own strategy.

One gold coin's worth of sea fish.

It could be two Rare fish worth five silver coins each, or a hundred of the most common fish worth one copper coin apiece.

Xia Nan's ultimate choice was to fish for a mix, spreading rain and dew equally.

While using the low-value common fish as a guaranteed baseline, he wouldn't give up his pursuit of those high-value species either.

Because of this, the bait he selected was a relatively basic small insect lure.

The final point was chumming the water.

To a certain extent, this fishery didn't actually require the practice of "chumming."

Those Water-Iron Wood Piles driven into the seabed each served as a natural feeding ground, with schools of fish living and moving around them as their core.

However, Xia Nan didn't settle for that. He took a few minutes to specifically purchase some professional chum from the same tackle shop where Alton had rented his rod.

According to the shop owner, it was made from a large amount of shell powder and fish bones mixed with grain and grease, yielding outstanding results.

Thinking of this, he felt a twinge of regret.

Unfortunately, both the [Tide-Surge Lure Pole] and the "Spotted Whale" had already been returned long before he departed from Barracuda Bay.

Otherwise, they would have come in perfectly handy right about now.

Weighing these thoughts, he moved his feet, leaving the entrance area and heading deeper into the fishery to find a suitable spot.

However, before he could locate his ideal fishing spot, a bizarre disturbance from a patch of water further ahead in the fishery caught his attention under his Perception.

To be honest, compared to the entrance, this area was exceptionally remote and deserted, with hardly any adventurers in sight.

As for the reason, it was naturally due to the few, scattered Water-Iron Wood Piles poking out of the surface.

As natural chumming locations, fewer piles meant fewer schools of fish gathering there.

Xia Nan certainly wouldn't have chosen to cast his line here.

But the next second, drawn by the inexplicable activity in the water, he changed his mind.

He could see the placid seawater reacting as if influenced by some invisible force. Ripples churned across the surface, and the originally clear water gradually turned murky, as if sand and mud from the seabed were being churned upward.

Schools of fish from all directions were quietly converging on this stretch of water.

This familiar scene caused Xia Nan's expression to suddenly turn strange.

He focused his attention and looked toward the center of the rippling water.

Sure enough, entering his sight was an incredibly familiar stone spear suspended right in the seawater.

'[Tide-Surge Lure Pole]!?'

'Why is it here?'

While feeling astonished, his gaze instinctively swept across the nearby shore.

Just as he expected, in the most desolate and secluded corner, a middle-aged man holding a bone-white fishing rod and wearing a brownish-green hooded cloak appeared in Xia Nan's line of sight.

"Ellison?"

Ellison Morton, the man who once carried the key to the [Dream Weaving Corridor], the son of the Lyle Morton that Xia Nan was tracking, and also Lorraine's older brother.

He remembered that when they first met, the man had been fishing from the cliffs of Cliff Rock Island, just as he was doing now.

Xia Nan's later interaction with the collector Auriel, which had allowed him to trade for the [Proof of Diligence], had also stemmed from this weathered middle-aged man's introduction.

Xia Nan had assumed he wouldn't attend this Lunar Tide Banquet.

After all, even though he and Lorraine were biological siblings, their relationship was hardly close.

One treated the death of their father, Lyle Morton, as reality, pouring her efforts into taking practical action for revenge.

The other clung to hope, believing Lyle had only faked his death, and searched the seas for relevant clues.

Their differing beliefs and concepts had driven the two further and further apart.

The host of this Lunar Tide Banquet was "Algae Scale" Dodd, who was also the target of Lorraine's revenge.

But for Ellison, while he might hold just as much hatred for this powerful and ruthless pirate, most of his energy was spent searching for traces of his father.

Given his past, even somewhat dispirited style of doing things, he clearly wouldn't participate in an event like this.

Previously, during their voyage, Xia Nan had even talked with Lorraine about whether Ellison would show up on Stodd Island.

She had given him a definitive no.

Yet right now, this decadent middle-aged man had appeared before him, here on Stodd, the Isle of a Thousand Piles, where the Lunar Tide Banquet was being held.

'Why?'

He might have been confused.

But thanks to his sharp Perception, the second that question surfaced in his thoughts, Xia Nan faintly arrived at an answer.

He had no intention of hiding his identity and walked straight over.

In fact, the other party probably already knew he would be attending this Lunar Tide Banquet as a temporary member of the Blade of Vengeance Fleet.

Turning his head at the sound of approaching footsteps, Ellison saw Xia Nan walking over with his fishing rod on his shoulder.

Ellison paused for a moment, but then, as expected, showed no particular astonishment.

He gave a slight nod and greeted him with a natural expression. "Have a seat."

"No rush. The chum hasn't settled yet. Give it two minutes before you cast your line."