The rat returned to Alaric's house in the night, assuming a sleeping position next to Alaric.
Alaric woke up in the early morning. He saw that the rat was still sleeping, and decided to not awake it.
Alaric decided to do his normal morning routine. He went into the river to wash off, and got on a new change of clothes.
He had a quick breakfast and got ready for the day. Today he wasn't planning on fishing. He was planning on doing some contemplation about his future fishing.
Alaric went to the pool and looked at the fish inside. He had three fish inside. There were still three weeks in the month, so there would be ample time to dedicate to new activities.
Alaric accredited his success here to his dedication mentally to fishing, as well as the rod. Alaric felt properly attuned to fishing at this point.
He needed more fish though. The curse emphasized this more to him.
"If i'm still in the positives in terms of the curse, and I have increased luck, I want to use it to fish up some more fish. Drunkard fish are fine, but since I know a guaranteed way to fish them up, I need to broaden. Not all fish are going to be this easy to figure out how to fish up." Alaric thought. He definitely wanted to get some new fish.
Depending on the fish, they would either bring individual benefits to Alaric, or bring in money for Alaric. To categorize them further, there would be different kinds of fish aswell. For fish that would bring individual benefits to Alaric, sometimes only one would be needed. But for the ones that would bring in money, repetition would be emphasized.
Alaric contemplated his list of fish that he had come up with before. He tried to remember.
"There was the fire fish. I don't completely understand its mechanics, so whether it will be something that only I will use or if I can sell it in a large quantity, that will be seen once I fish it up." Alaric thought about the fire fish.
"I also know that in general it would be attracted to fire producing goods. I have a couple things of gasoline as well as lamps and things that contain fire. I don't exactly know how that is going to work with water, but I'll see." Alaric felt moderately prepared to fish up this fish.
"The other one I want to try fishing up is the shotgun. If it is literally a fishable shotgun, that seems like an easy way to make money. The ingredient mentioned in the story was a rusty sword. I did buy a bunch of shitty weapons in bulk, so I could try those out too." This was another possibility for Alaric's fishing. Having a weapon like that, as long as the mechanics operated somewhat normally. But that was unlikely.
"I know that sometimes the things that are fished up aren't explicitly fish related always. Like that sun orb guy." Alaric contemplated other Esoteric Fishermen.
"But I feel like that sun orb guy is sketchy. I bet he's just backed by some party that staged the fishing. Nobody actually saw him fishing it up..." Alaric thought. There was always the possibility of strange conspiracies in the Esoteric Fishing experience.
"There were a couple other fish that I would be able to try fishing up, but I'll pause on them for now." Alaric called back on the other fish he had researched.
"For the rest of the day, I'll plan out exactly my course of action for the next two fish. I'll start with the fire fish." Alaric went back inside his cramped house and took a look at what exactly he had in terms of fire supplies.
First of all, he had a small tank of just gasoline. He also had some matches and lighters. He had some lamps and lanterns as well, but he didn't feel like using them. They had utility to Alaric and he would only use them if everything else didn't work.
"I need to do a little brainstorming now. So it's fire related, so I would likely need to create a fire. I'm thinking of two major ways that I could do this. First of all, I could just tie a match to a string and hope it jumps up. Alternatively, I could make a little gasoline spill on the water and light it on fire. I could also try making a fire on the shore and fishing from the shore. I don't have to rely completely on the boat. I'll just try both. If I think of another way to incorporate fire, I'll do that later." Alaric finished his brief brainstorming session.
He decided on starting a fire on the water as the most likely way to attract the fish. He just needed to time it on a nice and warm day, as well as a day where it wouldn't be raining. Those were the only two real conditions that he had.
"The other one is the shotgun. I can't really tell how metaphorical the rusty sword is. I can try it literally, and use a rusty sword. I have a couple of those laying around. If it's a metaphor, it would need to be a tool that isn't cared for? Something I discarded?" Alaric thought. He looked around the room to see if there was anything that matched that description.
"I mean, I have that monkey sword. Since I got it I haven't really used it much, I kind of just have it laying around. I wonder if that counts as discarded or not. It's rotting a little too. The little fleshy bits that remain are becoming rotten. Maybe I should use that." With new inspiration, Alaric came up with two ideas for the shotgun. He could now either use a rusty sword, or use the sword that he decided to not use.
Now Alaric would be able to go into the next day with some new ideas for fishing.