The boy walked leisurely along the stream, passing through the slanting rays of morning sunlight filtering down from the tall trees. Golden light struck the water's surface, scattering glittering reflections as if someone had sprinkled fine shards of glass across the gently flowing stream. The sight was breathtaking enough to make him forget to breathe. The water was so clear he could see all the way to the bottom: smooth pebbles, dark clay, and the shadows of tiny fish deftly swimming against the current.
"What a rare sight. Water this clear? Back home, it was darker than armpit hair."
He muttered to himself in a good mood before stepping into the shallows to gauge the depth. Icy water flowed over his toes, then slowly climbed across his feet and up to his ankles, stopping halfway up his shins. The deepest point reached about knee height. The streambed was sandy clay interspersed with gravel that was slippery against both his hands and feet, so he had to be careful not to lose his balance.
Fish of various sizes swam past from time to time. Some reflected the sunlight until their scales flashed brightly. Tiny shrimp hid in the gaps between rocks, while miniature crabs crawled slowly and cautiously along the streambed.
"I wonder if there are any freshwater clams?" he asked himself.
Judging from the soil and the clarity of the water, he was fairly confident. He had read a little about it before, and ecosystems like this had a good chance of containing all sorts of aquatic life. Along the bank, he could still see traces of the receding water. Moist soil appeared in layers, marking the water levels from earlier periods.
He took off his shirt and draped it over a large rock, then began patiently bending down and straightening up as he turned over the rocks one by one. Nothing under this one. Nothing under that one either. But it wasn't as if he found nothing at all. Tiny shrimp, fry, and several kinds of miniature crabs appeared before his eyes. They were too small to make a meal, but there were enough of them to lift his spirits. This stream was more abundant than he'd expected. Maybe today, he would finally get to eat some real meat.
Once he grew more confident, he slowly waded a little deeper and repeated the process with patience until—
"Whoa!"
Under one of the rocks, two shrimp about the size of an adult's index finger were hiding. Their shells were noticeably thicker and sturdier than the shrimp from his old home. The boy's heart immediately began pounding harder. Should he call them river shrimp? Whatever species they were in this world, it didn't matter. He didn't have time to worry about the biological details right now.
He slowly bent down, spreading both hands to carefully surround his targets. "Easy... take it slow." The gap between his hands gradually narrowed. The shrimp hadn't noticed him yet.
Whoosh!
He clapped his hands together.
"Damn it!"
Nash cursed when one of them sprang free and escaped in an instant. But the other was still wriggling inside his cupped hands. Joy surged through his chest. He hurried back to shore, dropped it into a basket, and sat down to admire his first catch with a huge grin.
"Heh-heh. My first trophy. That's badass."
But the shrimp had no intention of giving up so easily. It quickly climbed up the side of the basket. "Hey, quit messing around." Nash glanced around and spotted a large piece of bark lying beneath a nearby tree. He picked it up, covered the mouth of the basket, and placed a rock on top to hold it firmly in place.
A thought suddenly struck him. A pot! The orphanage had pots.
He hurried back to the open wooden building, which had been constructed merely to provide shelter from the sun and rain. There were no walls dividing it into rooms. Several metal pots sat beside the fireplace, blackened by soot and age. They had wide mouths and curved handles for hanging.
"Found one." He picked a pot he could manage to carry and hurried back to the stream.
Once he arrived, he scooped a little water into the pot, put the shrimp inside, covered the opening with bark, and weighed it down securely with a rock. One safely contained. Then he went back into the water, bending and straightening as he turned over rocks, repeating the process without growing tired until the sun slowly climbed higher.
Before long, he found another kind of shrimp. It had large, thick, sturdy claws and a shape similar to a crayfish. "Holy crap, this one's the real deal." He used a piece of wood to test it. Its claw rose and snapped shut.
Snap!
His other hand, coming around from behind, shot forward and pinned its body firmly beneath his palm. He had caught it.
"Yahoo!"
He quickly tossed it into the pot. Water splashed softly. Time passed, and the sunlight began to beat down fiercely. The two kinds of shrimp totaled sixteen. Then the count rose to twenty-three. There were crabs here and there, but they were still too small, so he chose to leave them alone.
"It's this abundant, and nobody comes here to forage?" he said.
He had seen a few people fishing, but no one turning over rocks to look for shrimp or clams. A thought flashed through his mind. "Or are these things poisonous?" The body's original owner's memories contained no information about poison. He would keep them for now. If they turned out to be inedible, he could release them later.
When the sun stood directly overhead, he stood looking at the pot with satisfaction. But he also knew he couldn't harvest this much every day. "When's their breeding season, anyway? If I knew, I'd avoid that period. But whatever. I'll worry about it later. Hahaha!"
Suddenly—
[Learned ability: 'river shrimp gathering']
[Talent effect activated]
[Ability 'river shrimp gathering' developed into 'master of river shrimp gathering']
[Received ability: 'understand the freshwater shrimp life cycle']
[Talent effect activated]
[Ability 'understand the freshwater shrimp life cycle' developed into 'master of the shrimp life cycle']
The moment the notifications ended, an enormous flood of knowledge poured into his mind like a broken dam. Images of life cycles, spawning, migration periods, seasons to avoid, and impacts on the ecosystem overlapped in rapid, violent succession.
"Aaaagh!"
Pain shot through his skull, no different from when the body's memories had fused with his own. He collapsed onto the ground, clutching his head tightly with both hands and gasping for breath.
"Do I have to get a headache every single time?!"
His faint complaint mingled with the gentle sound of flowing water. The stream remained peaceful, and sunlight still glittered across its surface, as if the entire world had never noticed the turmoil taking place inside the boy's head.