It's the sea.
It's fishing.
Swimming?
Nope.
Not happening.
I did not try to do the crawl stroke only to have my spider body flip over and nearly drown.
Absolutely not.
That didn't happen at all.
Sinking into the water is terrifying.
Just imagine it.
You're wearing a floatie around your waist, and you plunge headfirst into the water.
And the worst part? The floatie won't come off.
You kick your legs, but they just flail at empty air.
I thought I was going to die.
Not that I can die or anything.
Oh wait, no—that came out wrong.
There is no factual basis to the claim that I nearly died. I must have been hallucinating.
There is no way the magnificent me could ever nearly drown and die in the sea.
Ahahaha.
Now then, let's forget about that unfortunate accident and get back to fishing.
Just like last time, I slap on some random bait and cast the line into the sea.
A hit!
I caught one! I caught one!
As expected, this sea is basically an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Heavy resistance on the line.
This is the feeling of a big one!
Huh?
Wait, is catching a big one in this sea actually a bad thing?
Sure enough, what I caught was a Water Dragon.
Level 23, apparently.
About the same strength as the Earth Dragon, Geere.
And it's been hooked by yours truly and washed up onto the shore.
Ah, ah, yeah.
Sure, it's high level, and its stats are nothing to scoff at.
It has quite a few Skills, and it's roughly on par with Geere, so it's pretty strong.
That said, with where I'm at now, I could handle it in a straight fight without breaking a sweat.
In a straight fight.
Being a Water Dragon, it's, well, a water-type dragon.
It lives in the sea, so its combat ability underwater is top-notch.
But what happens when it comes onto land?
Answer: it flops around helplessly on the beach like a stranded fish.
Turns out this particular Water Dragon was the aquatic-specialized type.
It's not adapted to land at all.
It looks like a beached whale.
Honestly, before it even gets to fighting me, it looks like it'll die on its own if I just leave it there.
Is this really okay, Water Dragon?
The Water Dragon I caught last time was the amphibious type, though.
So it seems like Water Dragons vary in type depending on the evolutionary path they took.
The Earth Dragon didn't have any others of the same species around, so maybe dragons are one-of-a-kind.
Even setting that aside, looking at the Earth Dragon makes it clear there's a huge variety of types, so it's not surprising that Water Dragons come in many varieties too.
Among all those types, it would make perfect sense for some to be fully adapted to aquatic life with zero capability on land.
There might actually be more of those than not.
The aquatic dragon-type Monsters I caught last time were all based on sea creatures from Earth.
Of course they wouldn't be adapted to land.
And the Water Dragons that evolved from those would likely have many species that aren't adapted to land either.
They might be peerless powerhouses in the water but completely useless on land.
If the Earth Dragon is a stats-heavy combat-specialized type, then I suppose the Water Dragon would be the environment-specialized type, leveraging the sea itself as its home field.
While I was idly musing about all that, the Water Dragon was looking like it was about to kick the bucket.
It didn't even have the energy to thrash around anymore and was just twitching with little spasms.
Its HP had dropped considerably too.
At this rate, it'd be dead in a few more minutes.
Oh right?
It needs gill-breathing or it dies, doesn't it?
Yeah.
I didn't see anything.
Anyway, let's continue fishing.
As if nothing had happened, I cast my line back into the sea.
What I caught this time was that pufferfish-like thing the summoner had summoned before.
Ah, well, this one does have aquatic dragon Skills, so I guess it counts as an aquatic dragon.
But it's poisonous, huh.
Wait a second...
Last time I couldn't do anything fancy and just ate the whole thing, poison organs and all, but now with my humanoid hands, couldn't I skillfully extract just the organs?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained—let's give it a try.
First, I use the scythe to make a thin incision along its belly.
Then I shove my humanoid hands into the cut and pry it open.
I scoop out the insides.
I don't actually know which part of the pufferfish's organs contain the poison, so I'll just take out all of them.
Looking pretty good, huh?
I try eating the separated flesh.
Oh, nice, nice.
That distinctive bitter taste you get when you eat the poison is completely gone.
It's a clean, refreshing flavor.
...
Oh no.
It was so tasty I accidentally ate all of it.
The goal of making preserved food has turned into a snack binge.
Oh well.
No rush, I guess.
The Demon King is still in the middle of his epic battle with the Earth Dragon.
I figure that'll be decided sometime today.
Which means I still have plenty of time today.
It'll take several days for things to start crawling out of the Lowest Layer, and as long as I keep using Teleportation to run, there's no problem.
I'll spend the whole day fishing and relaxing.
But what should I do with these organs?
I have Status Ailment Nullification, so eating them wouldn't be a problem, but I already know they taste awful, so...
Hmm...
But leaving food behind goes against my principles.
I mean, parts like the scales that are obviously inedible are one thing, but poison or not, these are technically edible...
Well, I guess poison isn't really food, but I've been eating poisonous things since the moment I was born, so it's a bit late to worry about that now.
Alright.
Here goes.
Ugh, gross.
They say pufferfish poison is super potent and all.
The toxins in this world are fundamentally different from those on Earth, but with a Poison Attack Skill at Level 4, it's still undeniably strong stuff.
"Is it a hobby of yours to eat poison on purpose?"
I don't have any such hobby.
I'm only eating this because I can't stand to leave food behind.
Hm?
Who's there?
"It's been a while."
Standing there when I turned around was the Administrator, GülieDiedstDiez.