The Legend of the Fishermen of Sicily

Leo lacks the skill and experience to find sea urchins during the day, but he possesses a unique skill called "Weakness Strike," which he can use underwater.

Sea urchins are really hard to find, but there are plenty of fish underwater.

Among the equipment Rosalia gave him was a homemade "weapon," and Leo decided to go fishing at sea.

He was so frustrated from searching for sea urchins that he took it out on these fish.

Harpoon fishing is one of the oldest fishing methods used by humankind, originally involving throwing sharpened wooden sticks.

For thousands of years, harpoons, spears, and tridents have been used for fishing or hunting at sea, as evidenced by cave paintings, biblical records, and accounts from ancient historians of various countries.

Interestingly, thousands of years later, the core weapon design has remained almost unchanged. It's just that iron harpoon heads appeared later, and people tied ropes to the harpoons to turn them into harpoons.

When Leo was learning to scuba dive, his instructor told him that fishermen in some areas can fish at depths of 25-40 meters.

There is also an extreme sport called "bluewater diving fishing," which requires divers to hunt large pelagic fish such as tuna, marlin, and mackerel in deep-sea areas.

Rosalia has a cordless free-throwing harpoon that is 1 meter long and more than 3 centimeters in diameter. The handle is made of local hardwood, and it is slightly thicker in the hand and tapers to a thinner tip.

The fork head is a classic trident, which is also the fork head style of most handheld harpoons. Its advantage is a high hit rate, but its disadvantage is high water resistance, making it troublesome to catch fish.

However, since he had something handy, Leo didn't care about being picky.

We can't just grab it with our bare hands... that would be too barbaric.

Holding the trident harpoon, Leo suddenly felt the confidence of a "sea god," but he didn't rush into the water. Instead, he took deep breaths, stretched his lungs, and adjusted his state.

Diving is inherently dangerous, and now, during a dive, you also have to throw harpoons, which means that the consumption of physical strength and breath will be doubled. You must be in the best condition before you can start.

As he adjusted his breathing, Leo closed his eyes and reminded himself of the key points of diving.

"Release all your muscles, and breathe slowly, deeply, and evenly."

"Remember to check the direction of the water flow before going down; do not go against the current."

"Then, imagine yourself as a piece of melted butter—"

Leo suddenly bent over, leaning his upper body completely over the ship, then his feet left the ground and he remained suspended in mid-air.

*Thump—*

He used gravity to bring his body underwater, as smooth as melted butter.

This is the classic "duck dive" method, which allows you to reach a depth of 4 meters with almost no effort. In the blink of an eye, the reef is right in front of you.

A perfect entry into the water is only the first step.

The key is to hunt fish below.

During the day, fish also like to hide in the crevices of rocks or in shady places, but they are large and easier to find. These fish are very afraid of people. When Leo comes down, they usually swim away warily and leave the effective attack range.

Leo's gaze fell on a European sea bass that was swimming slowly along the bottom of the reef, about 4 meters away.

Next... the hunt begins!

Leo has never studied fishing, and it's estimated that there are very few training courses like that in the world.

However, this was not unfamiliar to him—he had spent more than half a month "fighting" in the water.

Based on his experience catching Atlantic blue crabs in shallow waters, Leo developed his own set of "hunting experience".

Once you spot an Atlantic blue crab, don't move or attack immediately. You must first remain still and blend into the environment, but keep your hands ready to attack at any time—Leo floats in the water, arms half-extended, raising the harpoon.

Integrating into the environment is the first step; the second step is to observe the enemy's condition and approach stealthily.

Atlantic blue crabs have a very narrow field of vision, so the beachcombing blogger said that as long as you go around behind it, you can hit it every time. If the fish is outside its attack range, you can sneak up on it when it is not paying attention. Leo was watching the sea bass closely and saw that its head moved in the opposite direction. Grabbing the rock wall, the fish 'drifted' over without anyone noticing.

4 meters, 3 meters, 2 meters, 1 meter...

What followed was as simple as it gets.

Since his arms are always in a ready-to-throw position, Leo only needs to aim at the target, tighten his core, then twist his waist and hips, using his hips and back to drive his arms, and throw the harpoon with all his might—go for it!

The rest is up to [weakness exploitation]!

*Whoosh—*

All the fish around were scared away by the harpoon that flew out at high speed... including the sea bass!

It darted away and disappeared in a flash.

Leo blew bubbles as he rose rapidly to the surface.

As soon as he got out of the water, he burst into loud laughter, like a lunatic.

"As expected, it's been around for a while, and the harpoon is now 3 centimeters off to the left. But I've already mastered the technique, and the 'hunting experience' I've learned from Atlantic blue crabs can still be used."

After laughing for a while, Leo nimbly darted into the sea with his trident.

This time, Leo set his sights on a small silverfish that was only 10 centimeters long.

Blend into the environment, observe the enemy, and silently approach...

He adjusted the aim of the harpoon slightly, then raised his hand and brought it down!

*Whoosh—*

The fish that had just gathered were once again startled and scattered by the high-speed harpoon.

One meter away from Leo, a silverfish carrying a huge trident slowly sank down.

After successfully achieving the "first kill", Leo immediately opened the system and found that the "emerging talent" had changed to "(1/30)".

He floated to the surface again, bubbling away.

This time, as soon as he came out of the water, Leo laughed even louder than before.

His name may not necessarily reach every corner of Sicily.

But he can make that name fly to every corner of the Mediterranean Sea.

Tremble, Mediterranean!

Your Aquaman has arrived!!

......

Andrea saved a limited-edition lemon-flavored summer ice cream for Leo.

But Leo didn't show up, and Andrei wouldn't let the boss sell the last portion.

This ice cream was kept from the afternoon until evening, and then from evening until night.

Every few tens of minutes, the boss would come out and ask, "Where is he? Hasn't he come back yet?"

Andrei would always reply, "It'll be soon, don't worry."

Then the surrounding villagers would ask a round of questions—who are you waiting for, and where did you go?

After hearing the whole story, everyone gave a passionate comment: "Another reckless outsider has arrived."

The next day at the fish market, nosy villagers kept intentionally or unintentionally getting close to Aesop, asking him:

"Did you receive the sea urchins today?"

Aesop replied, bewildered:

"No, I don't cooperate with fishermen who catch sea urchins."

Then those people would leave with strange smiles.

As more and more people came to ask, Aesop became a little suspicious, but he couldn't figure out why.

But what aroused his suspicion the most was—

"Why isn't Leo here yet? He usually arrives very early."