Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) by Arthur Stone (top 5 books to read TXT) 📕

For each fish caught with the spoonbait, the basket of ORDER’s prizes included one greater standard universal state. Each of those, in turn, added a quarter-point to the value of Equilibrium, which now exceeded five as a result. This meant I could now unlock not two attributes above the standard limit, but a whopping five.

Unfortunately, the situation with the attributes themselves was far less stellar. My Stamina was at ninety-seven points, a measly three points short of one hundred, which would bring Stamina to level two. And then my currently inactive Agility would acquire its own, first level.

I was a hair’s breadth away from obtaining three native attribute levels. This would be a significant milestone. A few more milestones like it and my life would no longer be tied to the inexorably discharging amulet.

But level two Stamina would have to wait until tomorrow. All I could handle tonight was dinner followed by a furious bout of negotiations with the innkeeper and Old Shimi. I hadn’t dealt with the latter yet, but I knew he was the fort’s procurer of inexpensive spices.

Kote brains may not be sizable, but you couldn’t say the same about their livers. We had accumulated five-six pounds of it already, and though neither Beko nor I lacked for appetite, the supply nonetheless far exceeded demand. Besides, it wouldn’t be healthy to choke on one food type, no matter how nutrient dense. Variety was also important.

Perhaps I could trade Shimi some of our liver reserves for other spices. Our developing bodies could use a little bit of everything—even better, a lot of everything. And if the trade didn’t pan out, I’d swap the livers for some squares, and take those to the innkeeper. He had some spices for sale as well, so that would be my plan B.

And if I had any money left over, I would pay a visit to Guppy the following morning, which was becoming a kind of tradition. A part of my morning routine. I planned on asking him about a possible alternative to wild leek in relation to cord making. If the kote were to start ignoring the shore again, I’d need a lighter tackle that could be cast further.

I could also use a new spoonbait, one that was half the size of my current stock. I had observed an interesting phenomenon when smallish kote would notice the bait and follow it all the way to the shore, but wouldn’t bite. There were two possible explanations: either they suspected foul play, or the bait was too large for them. If the issue was indeed size, then solving it should drastically improve our success rate.

Chapter 22 Force Majeure

No Stat Changes

Morning greeted me with an unpleasant surprise. I had expected to wake up with four hundred twenty-two points of chi in my reservoir, or perhaps one point less. Instead, I was looking at four hundred nineteen.

This confirmed the glimmer of suspicion that had been gnawing at me since yesterday. Either my chi was starting to leak at a faster pace, or the pace of leakage hinged on the quantity of the chi. In other words, the more chi I had, the stronger the pressure on the reservoir, resulting in greater losses.

I wasn’t exactly one step from nullification, but the dynamic nature of the process was worrying. I decided not to use any chi symbols today. Plus, I had hoped to raise Agility and Stamina today, which would consume two hundred chi from my reservoir. I was curious to see if the sharp reduction would impact the pace of the leakage in any way.

Guppy left me without a lion’s share of my hard-earned squares. Instead, I had availed myself of a wooden roller with thread that was hard and smooth to the touch. Less than a millimeter thick, it was crafted from the web of some tropical spider, the cosmic price reflecting its durability and resistance to tears. Moreover, it wasn’t affected by dampness, and its light color made it inconspicuous in water. The thread was often used for surgery, jewel-crafting, shoemaking and other industries, including fishing. Specifically, it was considered the finest material with which to make fishing line, thanks to properties that didn’t scare away the sea dwellers. Most didn’t notice it at all, thinking that the bait was floating on its own.

In addition to the roller, I got a couple of thin strips of copper and bronze and then spent two hours fashioning one of them into  a primitive gyrating contraption with bent corners facing the opposite ways. Back in my first childhood, I had watched my grandfather pull in plenty of bass and pike with it, though all my efforts had usually yielded just weeds, or worse, branches of trees overhanging the river. In short, I was utterly terrible at it.

Then again, that river had been of middling fishing quality. Too much industry in the area, poor environmental conditions, and enough fishing enthusiasts to keep the supply of fish perpetually low. Granddad recalled better times, when none of those problems existed, and the pikes filling the river were large enough to scare away skinny-dippers, especially the male kind. And Blackriver had similar conditions, perhaps even better—at least for my purposes. I was set on redeeming my childhood failures.

I cracked a dry branch with a knife, then took one half and cut it into a winding board. Laying fishing line on it would certainly beat manually coiling it onto a small reel.

Oh, but I wish I had a spinning reel... Even the crudest, most basic one would do. Perhaps I could even manage to craft one someday, in the distant future, having availed myself of the right materials and skill. But today, I knew perfectly well that I couldn’t create anything even remotely decent that