"Have you caught any fish?" the old man sitting beside him asked with a smile.
"No!"
Kasso answered flatly.
Ever since he had come to this world, he had lost track of how much time had passed. The old man came back with a full catch every day, but Kasso couldn't catch a single fish.
In his previous life, he'd heard a famous saying among anglers: if a fish was messing with you, you couldn't let it get away with it. If necessary, you could give the fish in the river a taste of what it felt like to be stunned.
But even after entering this "illusion," Kasso had kept Mr. Popo's words in mind: he had to go with the flow and let his mind guide his body.
Kasso looked down on crooked methods like electrofishing and dynamite fishing. So what if he got skunked? At worst, he could just buy a fish at the market and take it home!
"Young man, you have to calm your mind if you want to catch fish!"
As he spoke, the old man caught another fish.
Kasso turned his head and glanced over. By now, he was used to it.
Calm his mind?
The old man's words sent a flash of insight through Kasso's mind.
Back in the Heavenly Realm, Mr. Popo had told him many things about the essentials of training for the third stage, and Kasso had kept his words in mind.
That was why he did everything in this world as he pleased, going with the flow. But Mr. Popo had said to let his mind guide his body. How was he supposed to do that?
Hearing the old man's words, Kasso finally understood.
This stage of training was the third stage. As the name suggested, the first two