"When I get those blasted arcade addicts, I'll flatten them to Medals-!" - Garami

"I'm not sure that's how it works." - Mira

"All I know is that the fishes do not like grumbling, so think happy thoughts if you want a bite." - Alf

Try saying that again after you've caught something. At all.

"By the way, why are we fishing again?" - Mira

True. We met that Alf fellow yesterday, so why're we joining him on his fishing trip?

Specifically, we're on a beach far from the Knocker's Grotto. This was Alf's original goal, a place filled with treacherous reefs that prevent ships from entering the island. The reefs stretch around the island, preventing boats from going to port anywhere but in the south.

This location here has even more of these ship destroyers than the rest of the island, but in return, many different kinds of fish are known to live here. The place is even so protected that stuff similar to seaweed is starting to grow here.

"Now, now. Fishing is a good way to settle your thoughts and get things together. It's not because I thought it would be a pain to drag the fish back to the town on my own..." - Alf

"I heard that!" - Garami

"Garami, there's no point in getting angry here. Not when 91% of the fish has your name on them." - Mira

TCH! We don't have a reason to ditch this guy! Blast my good fishing luck!

"...HOLD ON! Why are there fishes here!?" - Garami

"Because we're in a lake?" - Mira

"Not that! Wasn't this place a dried-up wasteland just a few weeks ago?" - Garami

"Allow me to explain!" - Bloom

Whoa-! She suddenly appeared again. And Alf is...not complaining about the commotion. Heck, is he napping right now? While holding his fishing rod? Sleep fishing? Is that a thing?

"Sometimes, when ecosystems try to recover after great disasters, the World System may use that land's excessive aether to spawn creatures fitting for the mentioned ecosystem if that is deemed necessary. The fishes that you have caught must have been recently spawned to fill the lake with life again." - Bloom

"Oh, maybe that's the reason why this place is drained of juice?" - Mira

"Stupid fishes!" - Garami

I gave a loud shout, and as if ridiculing Alf's advice from before, I got a bite at the same time. Another fishie to me. Not that I wanted one. ...Hmm? Strange. I can't pull it up.

"I think I got a big one." - Garami

"Uh-oh. That's the cue for a fish-type monster to appear." - Mira

You have to love this monster-infested fantasy world...

*Splash!*

And as ordered, a giant fishie jumped out of the water with its huge jaws opened and aimed at...hold on! That's no fishie! It's a shark!

"Whoa-!" - Garami

I dodged the shark's biting attack, at the cost of my fishing rod, and dragged out my Thaumaturgy Scythe in preparation for making some sharkfin soup. Mira also got her weapon ready, but I doubt either of us needed to. The shark is a fish on land now, literally. Its jumping power came back to...?

"Is that shark swimming in the sand?" - Garami

"It sure is..." - Mira

The shark shows no sign of slowing down as it buried its body into the beach's sandbank. Hold on, I think I've seen this... instead, I've written about this!

"Crap! It's a Desert Shark!" - Garami

"Of course it is! As if the Desert Tunas aren't bad enough!" - Mira

Both of those creatures are my freaking creations! They were part of one of the requests for monster designs I did in that limbo-like place I was in before I reincarnated! The request was for a "monster-line of fish-type monsters who can live in both the desert and the sea"! Why didn't I notice before now!? Velantas having these bastards living here is so apparent when you just take your time to think about it!

"Incoming!" - Mira

The shark's fin sticking out of the sand came rushing towards us, but-

"No, it's a fake!" - Garami

I fired a [Darkness Bullet] toward a seemly innocent piece of sand, which then erupted into a sand geyser. The shark fin disappeared at the same time, and from the blasted sand jumped the shark out.

"It made a moving decoy!?" - Mira

"Of course it did! The Desert Tuna attacks with speed as it swims through the sand, but the Desert Shark moves with strength and cunning! Make a single mistake and it will tear you apart!" - Garami

The Tuna is the race's E-rank evolution while the Shark is the evolved D-rank monster. They are not only bigger and tougher, but they got more tricks up their sleeves..., I mean, their fins. Speaking of tougher, that bullet from before only startled the Shark, nothing else. This is gonna be difficult...

"Here it comes!" - Garami

The Shark didn't waste any time as it stormed towards us like an under-sand torpedo. I'm trying to inflict various ailments onto it with my Magic Eyes, but will they work on a creature one racial rank higher than me? I should have designed it weaker.

*Crash!*

"...Huh?" - Garami & Mira

What's going on? The Shark suddenly stopped. The reason must be that loud sound we heard just now, but what did the Shark hit?

"Hmph, it seems today's catch is a little too lively." - Alf

"Old man, did you do that?" - Mira

"Old-!? I'm still in my early 20s!" - Alf

Mira, that was too low of a blow. Alf is at most a young adult. That dark-brown hair and that youthful, yet somewhat tired face of his aren't any good evidence to call him "old".

"What did you do?" - Garami

"Oh, against the Shark? I created a wall of ice underground. It is one of my oldest tricks, even if placing one under the sand is a new take on it, but it's one of my oldest tricks in the book. It wasn't that hard." - Alf

Ice, you say. True, he did use some cold-related moves back when I fought him in the cave. He must have let the skill's effect travel underneath the ground, through the sand, before ending up as a solid wall of ice that the Shark ran into.

Speaking of the Shark, it's just finished surfacing from the sand. With a bloody nose. It must have crashed nose-first into the ice wall. Ouch.

And now it's changing targets from the two of us to Alf. It must have sensed who created the ice wall somehow. And it has a grudge to boot.

"Ehm, I can stop it, but defeating it is out of the question." - Alf

"In that case..." - Garami

I can spend some of the gems to enhance the Thaumaturgy Scythe's attack power. Even if it feels sorta like wasting them on this random monster who appeared...

"Just make it freeze, then leave it to us!" - Mira

Huh!? When did I tell Mira that I have the attack power to defeat something like that Shark?

"The pun aside, I got it!" - Alf

Right then, the Shark moved toward Alf. It must have been agitated by his voice or something like that, but anyway. The huge man-eating fish is sliding over the sandbank at high speed. Alf stabbed the ground with his fishing rod, which caused light-blue energy to color the ground before going toward the Shark.

After distancing itself from Alf, the light collected itself into circles and created walls of ice in those locations. The Shark crashed into the barriers, one by one, but this time, it must have been bracing itself for the impact, as it continued even after crushing the icy blockades.

Alf noticed the Shark's non-stop approach, so he hurriedly created more walls in front of him. The sliding Shark crashed into them, and just 1 wall away before it could reach Alf, Mira jumped into the scene. H-hey! I haven't prepared the gems yet!

I tried to follow Mira, but before anything else, Mira raised her sword with her silver right... When did her right arm turn silver?!

Right as the Shark was about to crash into the ice wall, Mira slashed at the maneater. The sword was bathed in the same silver light as her arm was, and the visual effect of the [Lightforce Edge] skill she sometimes use. I know it's supposed to enhance slashing attacks by using the Light attribute...but did it always look that impressive? It looks 3 times more forceful now than before.

And then, the surprise happened. Mira's slash cut through the Shark's tough hide and gave it a large wound on the side. The Shark looked like it was in pain, and its speed slowed down so much that it couldn't break through the final ice wall.

Before it could get up again, I threw lots of webbing onto it in hope of keeping it on the spot, even if I'm not sure if sand is such a good thing to try and stick monsters with through the sticky webbings, but it seems to do the trick. Or maybe the wound was big enough to weaken it to the point it couldn't stand up anyway? Whatever. It's better to be safe than sorry.

And just as I'd expected, the extensive bleeding had caused the Shark's HP to run out. A System Message that told me that I'd grown another level appeared in front of me, so it must have done the trick.

"And we've won," said Mira, prolly because she's obtained a similar message. "So, are these guys any good?"

"Unfortunately, they aren't. The Desert Sharks have lost a lot of the umami that the Desert Tuna is famous for." - Alf

Mira gave an underhanded "Tch!" in response to Alf's answer. Thinking about it, both the Tuna and the Shark must have been common monsters during the drought period...?

"Hey, hold on. You're saying that you haven't encountered a Shark before today?" - Garami

"No. I've only fished for Tunas. That changed on so many different levels today." - Mira

"Desert Sharks are quite rare, as they are such a relatively new addition to this country's ecosystem. Which makes it quite strange for one to appear here." - Alf

"You think so?" - Mira

"According to my information, there should have been no monster-type fish in these waters. Also...do you not find it strange for there to be vegetation already growing on this island?" - Alf

"What are you referring to?" - Garami

"All the islands in this lake country have access to their storage of attribute-based aether. That is what gives them their unique biome. There is for example Tree Sea Island which was covered in a jungle even during the drought thanks to its abounding amount of Wood-type aether, or Plain Island which has less the amount, but still is one of the finest grasslands on the continent." - Alf

"And other than those two exceptions, it is strange for Little Wasteland to have any greenery at all?" - Mira

"Yes, that is... HOLY MACKEREL!!" - Alf

"What's wrong-, YIKES!" - Mira

They took the words outta my mouth. The corpse of the Desert Shark is melting! Did it turn into a popsicle from crashing into so many ice walls?

Actually, rather than melting like ice, it seems more like it's turning into grey goo. ...Hold on...

I turned my attention to the buckets of fish we'd caught. They're still swimming in the lake water we'd prepared, as we didn't have time to gut them since my fishing luck was too extraordinary today. Not that I'm happy about it. Anyway, let's try out my theory.

"Garami, why are you gutting... Holy carp!" - Alf

"Wasn't it mackerel? But I second your opinion." - Mira

And I third it. The fish I silenced turned into grey goo, just like the Shark. As a further experiment, I snatched some of the seaweed and stamped it to pieces. Sure enough, it turned into goo after not too long.

"...What is going on here." - Alf

That's what I wanna know...

"Should we try to see if there's something wrong with the water here?" - Mira

"And risk getting affected by whatever that changed fishes and plants? It is better to leave this to the hands of professionals." - Alf

"Hey, who did you say told you about this place being good for fishing?" - Garami

"Who, you ask? ...I did hear about this place from several people, but only as part of a selection of recommendations...oh." - Alf

"You remembered something?" - Garami

"Yes. There was one person recently who said I should try visiting this place...and that person was someone named Blot." - Alf

Oh, right. Those two must know each other. Blot did say that one of the guards, aka Alf, asked Blot to deliver that warning regarding the bugged card to me if Blot ever saw me.

"Alright, we got a suspicious lead here. Let's go and smoke out that weasel!" - Mira

Yeah. That Blot-guy is too suspicious. Time for some search and destroy..., I mean, interrogation.

...And I lost my time to ask Mira about that silver arm! What was that? Hmm...