After getting the documents that he wanted, Alaric headed upstairs into the main guild hall. The documents he obtained weren't plenty.
The stack of newspaper clipping consisted about twenty clippings, and the book on fishing legends was about 150 pages long. It looked like there would be some stuff to go off on.
Alaric asked for a piece of paper to take notes on, and he received it. He started by browsing through the newspaper clippings.
"Fisherman fishes up an orb of the sun"
Alaric was familiar with this one. The man who had fished it up had since became an archmage due to the power of the orb. Alaric would like to fish up a sun orb, but unfortunately the article had no information regarding what the fisherman did. It described it as a "random miracle".
"Old woman dies in tragic accident after fishing up Thirty legged amphibious shark in river. Shark goes on murder spree of thirty five people in a small village"
Alaric looked at this article with a grim expression. Although there were some things that could be fished up that were immensely beneficial, it could also lead to death of one's self as well as others around them. He also recalled a personal anecdote of one of his classmates who's parent had died when a boat was swallowed whole by a titan leech.
There were many disgusting and horrible sea creatures, but some of them still had value.
"Young boy fishes in pond, dies of adrenaline overdose after eating what he fished up."
This one caught Alarics attention. Reading the article, it seemed that the pond was in a muddy area where animals often drowned. That might have something to do with this fish. But this fish, if it was an Esoteric Fish, didn't seem intensely useful. Maybe as a poison, but poison could be found easier.
Alaric wrote a note saying "Adrenaline fish".
Alaric skimmed through the articles to find other things that would be feasible. The more powerful the thing that was fished up, the less likely there was to be any information in the article as to how it was obtained. The fishers likely went through intense interrogation after they had fished up whatever they had.
Many of the articles were about tragedies, people fishing up dangerous beasts that killed them or mutilated them. This was the side of Esoteric Fishing that made it so dangerous. There was intense risk involved in fishing through unconventional means.
For traditional fishermen who used the traditional methods to catch traditional fish, this was seldom an issue.
In the stack of clippings, there were two articles other than the adrenaline fish one that Alaric noted down. The others were either too unlikely or consisted of things to not fish up.
"Fisherman fishes up fire breathing fish, scientists appalled"
This article seemed the most feasible. The fisherman was using an experimental boat with a new engine, and was able to fish up a fire breathing fish.
"I could make that into a flamethrower…." Alaric salivated at the thought. Other than to kill people, it would be invaluable for construction workers and chefs if he could find a way to refine it. Precise methods of applying heat were not common now, and would be intensely valuable. This right now was Alarics number one pick to try out. He would just have to figure out what he would need to do to fish it up.
The last one that interested Alaric was one titled "Man gets eaten by strange sea monster, monster size increases rapidly before its death by the Wolf Slayer guild Naval Sect."
This one interested Alaric for a couple reasons. There was of course, some danger involved in fishing it up. The beast was obviously capable of killing people. But… the exponential growth part interested him. If he could find a way to somehow control the beast, it would seem to be a powerful source of food, possibly on a high security farm.
The prospect of a dangerous fish like that would also be too dangerous for other people to attempt, so in a perfect world Alaric would want a monopoly on the fish.
Alaric now had three main ideas he got from the Articles.
Adrenaline Fish
Flame Fish
Growth Fish
Now he had a start. If he could find a way to properly utilize these, he would be able to turn a profit.
He could return to the other articles if these three didn't work out for him.
He now went into the legends book. This was going to be likely extremely exaggerated, but within the 150 pages, there at least had to be some basis of truth in it. There would have to be.
Alaric opened the book to the table of contents. It was organized by time period. Because of the long course of history, there were an assortment of things from different time periods. While much usually got destroyed of the past, there were always a few things that would be able to make it into the new age.
Some of these Alaric had heard of. Like many cultures, tales that had dual meanings were common. There was often a moral or lesson contained in them that solidified the values and knowledge that was essential to any given culture.
He skimmed over the ones he had already heard from his parents and his school. While there were many tales told, a select few were relate to fishing, and even less had any basis in Esoteric Fishing.
He decided to go more niche. There were plenty of stories in the book from different parts of the world. Assuming that people near the ocean and large bodies of water would know the best, Alaric opened the book to a tale from the island country of Northern Stoneland. This island country was wide, and had a long coastline. It was somewhat regular in terms of heat, so Alaric deemed it similar enough to the climate he was in.
He opened the story of "The crew of the Ship of Stone"