Reel Inventory

Winston stayed up for the entire night, shielding his room with spirituality and experimenting with the shinsu. He also spent the valuable time getting familiar with all of his abilities more and practising cogitation.

The illusion making of Swindler coupled with the Trickmaster is surely making for a great combination. And combined with the body control of a clown, I would surely be a nightmare to fight with in close combat. Winston chuckled in his heart.

Then, a baang appeared in the air in front of him. At first, it was a simple ball of light that floated around him at moderate speeds. Then, the baang itself, or the shinsu inside it began to morph up and slowly spread outwards, slowly spreading over towards Winston's fist.

Winston's face was full of concentration, his gaze unwavering. The shinsu baang eventually enveloped his arm on the outside as he focused on the shinsu flowing through his own body.

Shinsu flowed through everything that exists in the tower. Controlling the shinsu in the tower is termed as shinsu control, which itself has 2 types, Flow control; which entails following the flow of the shinsu and enhancing it to achieve various results, and Reverse Flow Control; which includes reversing the streamline flow of the shinsu and ceasing control over it to achieve various results.

What he was doing at this moment was an application of Flow control, body reinforcement.

The ranker Hex had shown them the same ability just yesterday, and now, Winston had completely reverse engineered the entire process through his ability to 'read' the flow of shinsu!

Body reinforcement included the strengthening of the flow of shinsu through one's own body, increasing physical capabilities through different body parts and boosting combat effectiveness, healing, etc. tremendously.

Winston popped his neck, feeling the flowing power through his body.

I can get used to this. He smiled and chuckled.

~~~

"Alright! Today we shall learn about reel inventories!" The ranker yelled in the air, overlooking the entire training ground where regulars were scattered like dots.

"The reel inventory is one of the most important tools of a fisherman! In a way, it is something that even defines what a fisherman is! So mastery over it is a must have to pass the final selection!" As her words landed, Winston felt the air get... heavier?

He looked around warily.

"All of you have already been provided with an E-ranked reel inventory, filled with two needles and a single hook! Everyone, set your inventory to visible mode!" The ranker spoke again.

"Armed Inventory, visible mode." Winston muttered. With that said, a floating object appeared beside him. It was flat like a table and shaped like an elongated wave, holding various assortment of weapons on the inner end along with a strange contraption at one of the ends. It was the armed inventory with the reel installed into it!

Winston scanned the thing for a moment before breaking off his sight from it.

"Reel inventories can be used for a variety of tasks! The most important of which is to attack from afar and grab objects with it! However, the most extensive usage of the reel inventory is to pierce targets straight through with a needle!" The ranker said. She floated down from the sky and an inventory appeared at her side. Then, one of the needles from her inventory floated up by herself.

"A proficient fisherman can automatically control all the movements of the reel through shinsu, essentially making for an entirety seperate opponent for the enemy to face alongside you." She extended her hand downwards towards the ground.

Winston walked over and peered over the edge a bit.

It was unlike yesterday when a clear ground could be seen. Now, under them was a complete liquid background, akin to a flowing river. Mist covered the river from their sight, blocking off the vision and making it appear like an infinitely deep chasm.

"But even at your levels, the trajectory of the reel can be changed along the path, but it can be extremely difficult for your level. For some, it might not happen at all." Holding the needle in her hand, she threw the needle downwards with a howl of the wind.

Whooosh!

The needle rushed forward with unquestionable momentum, appearing too fast to be seen for Winston.

The needle cascaded downwards, plunging right into the river.

"What we will be doing today is practising with the reel inventory. As you can see, under you is a flowing river. There are various small shinhueh in the river. Your task is to catch a single one with the reel inventory." The needle pulled back through the reel, pulling back the entire wire as well as the needle that had impaled a fish like creature.

"Anyone that can catch a fish... will be awarded 5000 points." As her words landed, Winston suddenly felt himself feeling extremely motivated.

"Let's go! I'll catch those fishes alright!" He heard Endorsi yell from the pillar right beside him.

"Then, begin!"

The regulars were somewhat hesitant, but then they gradually began to walk to the precipice and shoot down their needles.

Winston observed their moves, finding each of them to be blindly throwing in their needles.

Winston looked down again. Indeed, it was quite difficult and improbable that one of the regulars would spot the shinhueh from up here with all the mist blocking it. Possibly, the ranker had foreseen this and purposefully given a difficult test.

Just then, Winston felt as if someone was observing him.

He turned his head to look, finding the ranker turn her head to look elsewhere.

So it's meant to guage my spirit vision? Is that it? Winston felt a bit unwilling, but couldn't shake off the allure of 5000 points.

He shook his head.

I'll observe some more for now. He decided.

"Well well, if it isn't Mr. I'm-not-one-of-the-ten-great-families!" He heard someone behind him yell.

He turned back, only to find the one and only Endorsi Jahad on the same pillar as him.

"You jumped the pillar?" Winston feigned a bit of surprise. Then, he chuckled. "I guess that's the least I should expect from a princess of Jahad." He nodded.

Endorsi smiled at him.

"Why don't you clear out the mist down there?" She asked with her chin raised.

Winston raised an eyebrow.

"You mean?"

"You can use shinsu right? You fired off a baang in the crown game. Use it to clear out the fog!" She exclaimed.

Winston shook his head and smiled politely.

"My control isn't good enough to do that yet." He said truthfully. And even if he could, doing so would only take away the advantage of his spirit vision.

Endorsi clicked her tongue.

"I think your just making excuses." She pouted.

"Think of it as you will." Winston replied.

Then, Endorsi's eyes overtook a competitive glint. "Say, why don't we have a little match?" She said.

Winston's interest was piqued.

"Match?"

"Yes. How about we see who can catch the most amount of shinhueh?" She asked with a toothy grin.

Winston grinned a bit in response, then, he turned to the right.

"I think your relative has something to say about it." He said.

To their right, a green skinned young girl had appeared, in her hands a blood red needle that connected to the arms inventory.

She held a glare on her face, directed at the other Princess of Jahad.

Family Drama I see... Winston mused.

"What say you? Lizard?" Endorsi asked her, ignoring her glare on her face.

"And what would happen if I won?" Anaak challenged mockingly.

"You? Win?" Endorsi's sarcastic remark came right along.

Anaak grew a vein on her forehead, gnashing her teeth together.

"You... freak eyes!" She said.

"Who are you calling freak eyes you jerk!" Endorsi roared.

Well, they're easily riled up... a beyonder of the hunter pathway would have a field day with them. Winston lampooned.

Then, he clapped his hands, turning their attention to them.

"Ladies ladies." He spoke. "How about instead of fighting with insults, we do some competitive exercise?" Winston said, grabbing a needle from his inventory.

"What say you? We can all bet a set amount of points. The losers have to pay the winner the exact amount." Winston grinned.

Anaak and Endorsi looked at each other.

"Deal!" "Deal!" Both of them agreed without any hesitation.

Winston's smile almost widened in giddiness.

"How much will you wager?" He put his hand on his hip, asking non chalantly.

"I will bet 800!" Anaak said without missing a beat.

Damn! She has that much? I should've scammed her harder! Winston complained in his heart, but his facial expressions didn't express the same turmoil.

Winston looked towards Endorsi, finding her nodding.

"I have no problem with that amount." Seeing their seeming disregard for money, Winston felt a bit salty. If he was still on Earth, he too didn't care about any money. Because he was rich! But now, he was as poor as he could be! Oh, the tragedy!

He sighed in his heart.

"Then, let us proceed." He smiled.

In the sky, the ranker observed their interaction with interest.

"Ehhhh~ he's my type... I don't mind expressing a bit of favoritism.." She muttered to herself as she saw the three figures get ready for the competition.

She sighed.

"Let's see how this turns out."

~~~

They all took their turns except for Winston to throw their respective weapons into the flooding river.

However, because of the mist blocking the view and the constant turbulence of the water below, they couldn't hit anything, their needles floating needlessly in the waters.

Winston quietly watched as they fought over needless things and enjoyed their banter to some extent. It served to be good entertainment.

It was interesting how the princess duo could randomly find things to fight over, even during a friendly wager and competition.

It was pretty obvious that they did not think anyone would be able to complete the competition. One would have to be some sort of super prodigy to do so on the first day of the fisherman training.

"What are you doing? Nervous competing with a princess?" Endorsi said with a smile.

Winston laughed a bit.

"No no." He got up from his seating position. Then, he walked to the precipice and activated his spirit vision.

Immediately, a blend of waves and colours exploded in his eyes. He saw several silhouettes of fishes moving about the entire river, swimming leisurely.

With the body control of the clown, Winston effortlessly twirled around the needle in his hand and held it above his head.

Having the intuition of all three pathways combined, the body control of a clown and the dexterity from the swindler and clown, Winston could easily be considered as a master marksman, bordering on inhumane levels.

Hooooo~

He breathed out, calming his emotions.

"Don't sweat it. It's alright to not be able to beat the princess of Jahad." Endorsi said simply, though from her tone, one could detect the slightest hint of annoyance at not being able to hit anything.

Winston didn't say anything.

Locking onto a target, he tightened his muscles and fired.

Whooooosh!

The needle launched like a bullet, going straight into the water and right through a shinhueh, piercing it without problem.

Winston smirked.

"Well, princess. Looks like your skill isn't up to par." He chortled. Seeing Endorsi and Anaak's confused stares, he pulled up the needle, and the shinhueh along with it.

Amid the surprised gazes of every regular present, along with the ranker Hex, Winston held up the shinhueh on his needle into the air, a smile on his face.

"Winston Heath is the first one to catch the fish! For completing the task in just a day, I personally award him with 6000 points!" Hex declared.

As the regulars' gaze turned from surprise and amazement to envy and jealousy, Winston looked at the princesses.

Both of them sat wide eyes and open mouthed, unwilling to believe their eyes.

~~~

A/N: In the webtoon, after seeing Khun taking the hide and seek test, Hex said the same thing about Khun that she did about Winston. Something along the lines of, 'that boy is my type, too bad he isn't a fisherman. If he was I would've treated him better.'

Also, drop some stones.