So I walked my way to the end of the fish market.

I didn't know when I first arrived but the market was set up so the freshest food was seen as soon as you arrived and the farther you walked into the market the older the heartbeasts got.

By age, I mean age since caught. After all there was a rainbow colored octopus being sold at the very front that was boasted to be a thousand years old. And that if a deep-sea fisherman consumed it they would gain the ability to breathe underwater.

Of course, everyone knew they were just upselling it if you fell in the water in the deep sea. It didn't matter if you could breathe you were gonna be consumed.

As I walked through the colorful arrangements of monstrous fish stacked on lairs of ice I wondered too myself. Are they called specials because there about too start losing freshness?

I would soon find out there, was a stall that was the last vendor apparently it was tasked with getting rid of all the food that was about to expire.

"Hello" I greeted the old man behind the counter.

"Good day young man, what could I assist you with today." He was summing me up.

"Do you cook the heart beast that you sell here for no extra charge?"

"That depends on how busy my vendor is I get paid by the island so ill cook you a meal if there's nobody else around to sell too.

Your in luck as well the island has gifted me with the only mana furnace on the island. It doesn't improve the dish but it brings out the maximum potential. That's the only real benefit to my vendor."

So the old man at the beginning hadn't been finessing me. This was the correct path.

"I want the most nourishing and oldest heartbeast you can find it doesn't matter the taste for 100 sea coins," I said

He gave me the oddest expression and replied with "the way I see it a youngling like you is better off saving up to be a deep sea king instead of spending his money on such an odd request."

"But eating nourishing food is related to the ability I got," he seemed to understand after I said that.

"Well then I have just the thing for you but it requires some willpower." The wizened old man said as he reached under the table and pulled out a jar with an inch long sardine in it.

"It will be the worst taste of your life and you will get horribly sick for a week. But it should be able to keep you full for two months and it might even grant you an ability. But the ability might be actively bad for your current ability. That's why I'm able to recommend this to you and why it's so cheap. The side effects can truly be hideous. And the scariest part is the ability won't even manifest itself until you trigger it so it could go off at a truly horrible time." The man said

I handed him the sea coins and said "you will cook it for me right?"

"Of course I will but be warned the ability you get might be enhanced this way even if its a bad one." He said as he turned on the furnace and put the sardine on a skillet and slid it to the flames.

I waited there in silence thinking over my decision. What if I got an ability that made it so I couldn't control when sunspot went off. That would be horrible and it was a one in a thousand possibilities after all I was a gambling man.

"Here you go young man," he said as if to break me out of my trance.

"How should I eat it?" I asked

"I suggest you throw caution to the wind and swallow it whole right here right now," he said with meaningful eyes. He must have known from my clothing that 90 sea coins was quite a lot for me.

I agreed, a man must have courage.

I swallowed it whole, nothing seemed to have happened.

"haha, your fate is sealed young man your body naturally senses the benefits to eating that and won't even throw it up. I suggest you go home and take the rest of the day off."

Intention was best expressed in a sentence that was neither too long nor too short.

"I'll remember this kidness," I said as I spun on my heels and walked away.

With everything taken care of and a path laid out for me, I felt significantly less weight on my shoulders. I had already decided that instead of saving up for the black sun ability. It was a better idea to scale by going to the outpost that created ability rings.

The game was afoot, I would say but the thing that truly echoed through my heart. I murmured under my breath

"Look at me now family, look at me now"