40 Stupid

(A/N: let's be honest here, even if I don't finish 8 chapters by today, writing 5 chapters in one day is a great feat in of itself. You can't deny. Right? However, I shall still do my best to charge towards that 8 chapter mark. Mark my words. I'll prove to all you doubters!)

"So what did you mean to the other two knights when you said, there is always a bigger fish in the pond?" Asked Sarah. "Cause the two knights seem to be struggling a lot."

"Basically, I gave them a small bait to catch an F or E ranked sea monster. They would then use this F or E ranked sea monster as bait to attract a D or C ranked monster which they would then catch. That's why I call it the "always a bigger fish in the pond" method cause what we are essentially doing is climbing the food chain until we snag what we want."

"Sir phantom, I think we have completely closed the circle," helpfully pointed out Sarah.

"It would seem that is so, Miss Sarah," agreed Will.

"All the bait is gone as well, even the turtles," said Sarah as she pointed towards the 2 blood B ranked mana stones a couple C ranked stones as well.

"I have noticed," replied Will calmly.

"What do we do now?"

"If we have ran out of bait, and the circle has been closed," Will said as he cracked his neck and performed a few stretches. "That means that it's time for phase 2 of netting."

"Phase 2?" Asked Sarah with a tilt of her head.

"Yes, Phase two," repeated Will as he steered the boat to the nearest net float. "We will now begin to slowly close in the net one anchor at a time."

"Why do we have to shrink the circle, sir phantom?" Questioned Sarah.

"Have you ever heard of the term, "shooting fish in a barrel"?" Inquired Will with a smirk as he grabbed the net float and dragged over the net anchor to the next net anchor.

"Isn't that supposed to be an idiom for something that is really easy to do?"

"Yes, that is correct. What I am trying to do is slightly similar to that," said Will as he placed the anchor he had picked up next to the other anchor before he started pulling up the other anchor. "Except, instead of shooting fish in a barrel, we will be mass murdering fish in a small enclosed area."

"M- mass murdering?" Repeated Sarah with a frightened expression.

"Yes, mass murdering," answered Will as he completely pulled up one anchor and proceeded to repeat his step once again: Drag an anchor along the net and pull one up to make the circle smaller. The smaller the circle gets, the more concentrated the sea monsters get and then in one fell swoop, we can get them all and pull them onto our boat and run away."

"R-run away? What do you mean by run away?" Asked Sarah with a concerned look.

"Don't worry about it, miss Sarah," Will said with a reassuring smile. "That is phase three."

"Phase three?"

"Although there may be a small amount of danger to our lives, I promise you that most of us won't die and a few of us will not be severely injured."

"Won't die!? Severely Injured?"

"See?" Said Will with a wide grin, "you get the point. Now if you may, will you call in the other three? Tell them to finish up whatever they are doing in ten minutes. It's about time we head home for the night."

"B- but-"

"Time is ticking. Phase three will happen in about twenty minutes. We need to be ready by then."

"A- alright sir phantom, I shall tell them to come back at once."

As Sarah went to one side of the boat to scream at the three knights, Will continued to shrink the circle over and over again until he was left with an area of about a thousand cubic meters worth of sea captured within his net. By the time he had finished, all three knights had returned and were staring patiently at Will along with Sarah and awaited for orders.

Will gave the four others a small smile before snapping his fingers and summoning Rina. "Rina, we are about to begin phase three. Do you know what to do?"

Rina gave Will a cute little salute and yelled, "sir yes sir! Shall I begin immediately Will?"

"That would be great," Will answered with a nod. "And remember, safety is the most important thing."

"Aye aye captain!" Yelled Rina before she dissolved into a thousand droplets and fell over the side of the ship.

Right after Rina had disappeared to do goddess knows what, Will didn't start slacking and started throwing another net on top of the ring of net floats.

"Excuse me, sir phantom, but what exactly are you trying to accomplish," asked Sarah with a slightly worried look. "And could you please explain what phase 3 exactly is?"

"Well," said Will as he tied the net he just threw onto the back of his boat, "what I am doing is basically sealing the lid on the jar while Rina is tying the nets together at the bottom of the sea floor. Phase three is where we agitate a mana stone under water to kill a massive amount of sea creatures all at once."

Will took out the C or B ranked mana stone he had received as a gift from the lifeguard earlier from his pocket and flashed it towards Sarah and the others with a grin. "It's a half chewed mana stone. Can't be sold in regular markets as mana stones become highly fragile and reactive when they are shattered through unnatural means. However, they do make great explosives."

Will gave each and every person a wild grin before saying, "so.... who wants to see the sea go boom?"