The Knightly Elven… Spider?

I decided I’d go fishing.

The experience I got from that one fish wasn’t half bad. I got the bright idea of using my ice lance spell to try to kill them while they were still in the water. How I was going to get them out was a different story, but I would worry about that later.

In hindsight, I should have probably taken this spell earlier. I could have avoided the backlash I experienced with that squirrel earlier.

The spell itself was a simple icicle that shot forward in a straight line. The reason I decided to use that instead of a fireball when shooting it into a stream of water couldn’t be more obvious.

In my rage, I’d actually spent quite a bit of mana casting two unnecessary fireballs. I should learn to control my temper, I couldn’t use spells without thinking like that. 

I decided to wait a bit before casting spells. In the meantime, I would try to get fish to jump out of the water like the other one.

I thought about making a net, if only for a brief moment, and quickly concluded that it would require too much silk to span this stream. I estimated it to be about six feet across. I wasn’t even going to try.

A hook might work, but I’d have to ask Cellestra for one. Baiting them would simply be faster.

I did create a small line of silk with a small ball of thread at the end. I then lowered the knotty end into the water and moved it slightly in order to attract fish.

I saw a couple of fish swim in the crystal clear water. Most of them were entirely red, like the one I’d killed, but there were a few more common fish in there as well. I saw several fairly large goldfish pass me by.

I believe I even saw a pike, although it passed too quickly for me to confirm.

It was a big one too.

I seemed to get little attention, but eventually, one of the red fish seemed to be interested in my bait. I pulled in the line with my pedipalps and waved as if to taunt the fish when it got close.

Its attention was caught.

It jumped out of the water, and I jumped to the side. I repeated the same actions I’d taken before and simply kept it away from the water long enough for it to die.

Nice.

I thought about dragging the fish towards the nearest tree and hiding it under the nearby vegetation but decided I was going to try to catch more of these anyway. If anything, this would prevent birds from trying to eat me. They could simply take a fish instead. I was going to assume they preferred something with more… meat on it.

I continued my fishing trip.

After a minute or three, the fish seemed to lose strength. Instead of trying to bite me when I got close, it was now solely focused on getting back to the water. I saw my chance and grabbed the red fish’s tail with my pedipalps and tried pulling it back.

This fish was immensely strong and was able to drag itself, even as I tried pulling it back. I slowed it down significantly, and I hoped it would be enough before it got to safety.

Its strength waned further, and I started to get the upper hand. My strength became enough to keep it in one place.

I’d won.

A minute or so after that, it flopped over to a side and a blue square popped up.

This was an excellent catch. I couldn’t wait to see Cellestra’s face when I showed up with a fish that was this many times my own size.

Before going back, I wanted to at least try to get a bit more experience with my spells. 

I looked up to the sky and noticed the sun starting to get close to the horizon. I had no idea it was this late already.

Had I been so invested in all this hunting that the time had simply slipped me by?

I disregarded the thought for now and skittered back to the edge of the stream. There were still plenty of fish about.

I readied my ice lance cast and fired at the nearest fish. The icicle pierced the water but missed the fish I’d targeted.

It was then I forgot something important when spearfishing.

One had to aim lower than where the fish actually was. I didn’t quite know how it worked, but I’d picked that little fact up from someone in a tavern after duties once.

I estimated that I could cast the ice lance spell twice more before running into mana issues. I was a bit disappointed I had not remembered this simple hunting trick earlier, but there was no point in dwelling on it.

I disregarded the messages as I wanted to fire my last spell before heading back to the elf’s home for the night. If I lingered here too long, another bird may steal the prize that I had secured for us. 

I saw another reaperfish approach the corpse of the other reaperfish. The dead fish’s blood got mixed in the water and seemed to get attention from the other nearby carnivorous fish.

I should have thought of this earlier.

I cursed at myself for not thinking about it. I mean, I had done the same thing with the moths earlier. 

I was definitely going to exploit this tomorrow.

I should be able to get my next evolution the next day. After that, I would have to see if these fish still gave as much experience. Their experience was great, but it was severely limited by the fact that I couldn’t use too many spells in quick succession, and they didn’t seem to be extremely interested in a piece of silk.

They were interested in me, but only if they got very close. I wondered if their eyesight was as terrible as mine had been when I first woke up as a spider.

I could perhaps use some part of the previously caught fish as bait in order to lure them out of the water…

That should work.

I took aim at one of the fish who was now eagerly eating its dead species member. I fired my ice lance and watched it skewer the fish.

With that, I quickly skittered back to the large fish I’d killed and started dragging it behind me as I ran over to Cellestra’s house as quickly as I could.

Which turned out to be not that fast with a fish as large as this in tow.

I was lucky my legs were quite powerful, otherwise, this would have been impossible.

I also made sure to watch for birds in the sky. There was no way I was going to let anyone try to take this from me.

While moving through the grass in the clearing outside the wooden building, I saw Cellestra exit. She seemed like she wanted to move to the nearest tree first, but once she noticed me, she gasped and instead walked up to me.

I knew she’d be impressed.