The story was strange, but Alaric was able to get some useful information from it.
While likely not 1:1, the bait used to fish up the objects may be useful to know. Even if it wasn't exact, it would be worth thinking of the general ideas.
The six fish and the bait used are as follows:
Beer fish - Bottle of alcohol
Food fish - Unlisted
Healing fish - Strange plant
Gold fish - Gold bar
Entertainment fish - Joke book
Shotgun - Rusty sword
The two most compelling to Alaric were the shotgun fish and the beer fish.
The beer fish had an accessible form of bait. Alaric was of drinking age in his country, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to buy a bottle of alcohol.
The shotgun fish also seemed interesting, a rusty sword could be easily found.
Of the two, Alaric would want to do the beer fish more. The rusty sword seemed more metaphorical. Of course, Alaric would still try it, but it didn't seem extremely likely.
But the beer fish had limited utility. If it could truly generate infinite alcohol, it could be sold, but that was unlikely. If it just produced alcoholic saliva or something similar, it wouldn't be overwhelmingly useful.
In stories like this, there wouldn't be any extreme fishing techniques. From what Alaric could assume, the truly earth shattering fish could only be obtained from serious effort, and the easier it was to fish up the fish, the lesser the effect present.
Reportedly, there was an ancient fisherman who killed his entire crew to use as bait to catch a giant fish. As far as Alaric knew, he wasn't able to fish it up, and he was sent to an asylum.
Because of the amount of information, and dilution of the truth over time, one would need to be careful to not be rash in what they sacrifice for the cause of fishing.
The inclusion of a shotgun interested Alaric in the story. Because of the technology level of the world being highly variable, it was interesting to Alaric that the modern invention of the shotgun was something that was actually reinvented from an old idea.
Alaric now needed to make his choice.
His first two picks were going to be the fire fish, and the beer fish.
He kept the adrenaline fish and the shotgun in his back pocket as side expenditures,
Now he needed to create ideas.
The fire fish was likely related to fishing with something fire related.
"It should be something like gas, matches, something like that." Alaric thought.
"And the beer fish should just be alcohol, I can buy some cheap stuff and it should be fine…."
He looked at his money, and estimated how much he had left.
He had about four hundred charred left.
Alaric had spent most of it on the boat that would be coming soon.
In the time in between, Alaric would buy some possible bait.
He mapped out his schedule.
-Get bait
-Get boat
-Second half pound of flesh
Alaric went back down to the archives in the basement.
"I don't need these clippings anymore." :Alaric told the woman.
"Good. Bring book back two week." The woman said dismissively.
She took the clippings and returned them back to. The newspaper area.
The other newspaper articles were all positive. Mostly about economics and the fishing market. Most of the people in the guild were dedicated, full time fishermen, so they would have to understand the fishing economy in order to know how to properly sell.
The guild was very old as well, so there were plenty of newspaper clippings from the entire history, yet only about a handful that suggested Esoteric origins.
As Alaric was leaving with the myth book in hand, he saw someone come out of the door for higher clearance.
The man actually had a strange appearance. He was wearing a large bulky green vest with a camo print on it. On his side was a pistol, but it didn't look like any pistol Alaric was familiar with. He had a large white beard, and was covering most of his body in a large cloak.
The man seemed to be in a hurry, and he quickly left the room.
"Who was he?" Alaric questioned the desk woman after he had completely left.
"Central continent guild member." The woman said, glancing up briefly before going back to the work.
She said it as if she knew more, but couldn't disclose anything further.
Alaric inferred that he was an Esoteric Fisherman.
Wearing a full body cloak like that usually meant that he had something to hide underneath, likely a prominent symbol that would recognize him as a member of a certain organization.
Alaric contemplated following him, but it was probably a bad idea. People like that weren't people who you should mess with.
Like the worm person, they were likely a part of an organization that had a strong backing, either by a guild or government.
Alaric now decided to head out again. He had been reading for a while, and was getting tired. His attention span wasn't long enough for the whole day.
He decided that he would grab his rat and head out. Maybe go to a bar to get a drink.
Alaric headed out of the guild with the book.
He didn't end up using any of the tools he brought, they were kind of useless to bring.
After he headed out of the door, he found the rat on top of one of the fish gargoyles. He picked the rat up and headed out.
He went into his pack and took out some meat for the rat. He felt bad for leaving it out. He seriously started to feel attached to the rat.
It was the first companion he had made ever, including his family.
Alaric started on his way back while looking for a place to get a drink.
Walking on the road with the rat, all he could think of was fish and alcohol. The perfect combination for a lonely man and a rat.
Alaric didn't know if rats could have alcohol, but he would give it some anyways.