Jim moved easily through the crowded streets of Hero's Crypt as he left his friends behind at the Hunter's Guild, having immediately chosen a Job from the Board and confirming it with Inkfingers as well as getting directions to the Cartographer's Guild. Unlike his friends that had only gone over what they'd tasked each other with, Jim had dug deeply into the world of Astrana and found that the Cartographer's Guild was always accepting new members and always paying them well for copies of the maps they made as they traipsed across the continent and found new sights and new settlements, or, more troublingly, new dens and territories of monsters and beasts. Combined with his membership with the Hunter's Guild, Jim fully expected to be able to earn all the money he needed as he followed his own goal in tandem with his ongoing race with his friends. Exploring the world was expensive work and likely to be dangerous, but who said it couldn't be profitable?

"And do you have any experience with cartography?" the secretary asked Jim as he finished filling out the paperwork she'd given him.

"Not really," Jim admitted. "I was hoping that I could get a short course in that so I didn't mess anything up. Assuming that it doesn't cost anything. I'm flat broke."

"Most of our members are," the Human woman sighed. "You'd think otherwise since everyone's always asking for maps and paying well, but they're not thinking of all the expenses that go into it. There's potions and antidotes that you need in case you run into trouble, and then there's all the equipment that you need to have on hand if you're going off the paths, not to mention the food and water expenses for those who can't trap and hunt. It's a logistical nightmare for anyone that's broke."

"That aside," she sighed again, heavily, "we do offer courses in cartography for free in the event of new members not knowing what to do. Follow me and we'll begin."

As the older woman led Jim into one of the rooms behind the counter, Jim noticed the sheer difference between this Guild and the Hunter's Guild that he'd come from. Where the Hunter's Guild had been full of NPCs and players moving through it, turning in and choosing Jobs, this one was empty of everyone but him and the secretary. The Hunter's Guild building had been large and boasted all the space that came from taking up an entire city block and rising five stories above the ground. The Cartographer's Guild building was barely three stories and shared its city block with two other buildings, one of them a smithy if the clanging metal was anything to go by.

"So, why is this Guild's building so much smaller than the others?" Jim couldn't help but ask the secretary as he followed her.

"They need more room and offer more varied services," she answered. "Except the Mercenary's Guild, they just need more room."

In silence, they entered the room she'd chosen and settled at the table in the center of the room.

"Now since you said you didn't have any experience with cartography, I'll start with the basics," the secretary said, pulling out blank papers and rolled maps.

Jim left the Cartographer's Guild nearly two hours later and checked his current stat sheet.

Jim

Half-elf (Wood Elf)

HP: 100% SP: 100% MP: 100%

Archer

Inventory:

Leather Armor(Equipped)

Simple Bow(Equipped)

Cheap Quiver(25/25)

Skinning knife

Currency: n/a

Perks:

Child of the Forest: Be at home within the forests

Darkvision: Maintain excellent vision in the dark

Learner: Learn lowest mastery of skills faster

Skills:

Examine: Study a target and determine race, name, or danger level

Cartography (Lesser): Create maps of the areas you've been. Exactness increases with skill.

Now that he had the Cartography skill, he felt more capable of making back his lost money. He tried not to blame Pear for that, but it was difficult. Just because he had been messed with by his AI helper wasn't a good reason to try and get drunk immediately after joining the game.

Sighing, Jim began to make his way to the gates leading out of the city so that he could get started on his Job and the Bounties that he'd grabbed from the Hunter's Guild. It should be easy enough to find some wolves and kill them while searching for signs of jackalopes. Thankfully, Inkfingers had been nice enough to let him look at what the jackalope looked like in his Bestiary that rested on his desk. Rabbits with deer antlers shouldn't be dangerous, right?

Jim stalked the wolf carefully, mentally cursing his lack of preparedness as he nocked his second to last arrow. The wolves weren't difficult to hunt, they moved through the forest with the ease of predators that knew they were the top of the food chain. The problem was that Jim wasn't as good with a bow as he would have liked. If he missed a shot then the wolf he was stalking would attack him and because he was on the ground with them, that meant they would charge him and tackle him to the ground, a maneuver that often ended with his skinning knife in their throat, scratches and bite marks covering his arms, and at least two of his arrows snapped. The only good thing about this whole endeavor was that he had improved drastically in his archery skills since he'd started; he's also managed to learn the basics of tracking and had taken down nearly fifteen wolves now. After this wolf was dead, he would be turning back to return to the city, hopefully before night fell and he was stuck outside the city walls.

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Drawing the arrow's fletching to his cheek, Jim breathed in slowly and deeply, eyes on the wolf when he saw it. A small form, not unlike a rabbit, dashed from the underbrush and went for the wolf's throat with all the vicious hatred of something that had once been prey. Before the wolf could react to the darting figure, its throat was ripped open and its blood sprayed out, covering the forest floor in dark red as Jim's eyes attempted to track the still moving blur. Finally, as the wolf fell to the ground, dead, the blur stopped moving and Jim was able to study it in detail. As he'd thought when he saw the size of the blur, it was a rabbit though it also had a set of antlers crowning its head. These antlers dripped with blood as the rabbit turned back to the wolf and began to sniff at its kill before beginning to nibble at the still wet, exposed meat at the wolf's throat.

Jackalope: A dangerous killer rabbit with antlers

"Guess that's my new target," Jim muttered to himself as he took aim at the rabbit after using Examine on it. "Please don't miss."

With a slight snap, the arrow sprang from the bow's string and flew across the distance with ease before piercing into the jackalope's chest.

"Please be dead," Jim breathed to himself as he nocked his last arrow and began to rise from his kneeling position behind the bush he'd been resting behind. "Please be dead."

As Jim rose to his full height, he realized he'd made a mistake as another blur darted out from the brush and charged him.

Having learned from another time when a wolf ambushed him as he approached one that he'd managed to take down, Jim dove to the side before the new jackalope could reach him, rather than plant his feet and attempt a shot at the fast moving blur. As the blur whizzed past him with great speed, Jim tossed his bow and last arrow aside and drew his skinning knife. The blade was shorter than he'd have liked, but it was the best he had for close quarters and it looked like the newest jackalope wasn't going to let him take a shot with his bow as it moved around a tree in a wide turn and darted back toward him.

As the murder rabbit dashed for him, Jim kicked a large, semi-rotted branch at the rabbit and watched as it managed to flip just so and fall onto the jackalope's head with a crack before splitting into pieces. The jackalope barely noticed the distraction.

Cursing his stupidity, Jim dove to the side again and reached for a fist sized stone that rested closeby as the jackalope again darted by and once again put a tree between itself and him as it turned once more. As the jackalope charged him once again, Jim pulled back his arm and whipped the stone at the charging creature with all his strength. A wet crack sounded through the area as the jackalope plowed into the dead leaves and grass that covered the ground before coming to a stop nearly five feet away from him.

Without waiting to see if another forest creature was approaching, Jim dashed to his discarded bow and arrow before putting his back to the nearest tree and nocking the arrow. Belatedly, he realized it was broken from being thrown and with a disgusted sigh tossed it aside as he studied the area for a new threat. When nothing showed up, he finally unstrung his bow and placed it in his empty quiver.

His only weapon in his hand, Jim approached the second jackalope and grabbed it by the antlers before carrying it over to the first jackalope and the wolf before beginning to skin all three of the creatures. From the wolf, he took the skin, teeth, and claws, before removing the choicest cuts of meat around the shoulders and flanks. Not for the first time or even the last, he wished that he'd studied more about how to field dress meat like this. Most of it was wasted in his inexperienced hands. Finished with the wolf, he turned to the jackalopes and repeated the process, taking the skin and antlers from both creatures before wrapping the meat in the cheap cloth he'd been given for transporting edible meat back to the stall owner he'd talked to.

With a groan, Jim examined the broken arrow that had snapped inside the first jackalope when it hit its rib, and tossed it away. All he could do was hope that he'd be able to keep out of sight for any other hungry animals.

"There ya are, boy," the Dwarven stall owner greeted him as he walked down the street. "Good haul for ya?"

"I guess," Jim answered the bearded man that rose to his chest. "First time I've done this sort of thing, so I don't know how well I did. Other than bad."

"Well, let's see what ya've got for me," the Dwarf grinned at him as Jim reached into his bag and began to pull out the wolf meat.

"I managed to get fifteen wolves, but it wasn't until after the fifth that I stopped ruining the meat," Jim told him as he offered the meat to the stall owner. "How much are you willing to offer?"

"Hmmm," the Dwarf studied the meat critically, turning it over and examining all sides carefully before setting it back down. "I'll take the lot for three irons and four coppers."

"What about a flat four irons?" Jim asked. "I need to get new arrows and hopefully a dagger."

"Three irons and six coppers," the Dwarf countered. "And I'll give ya a recipe for a good stew my Nana used to make."

"Three and eight," Jim said. "And you throw in an easy recipe for me to follow while camping."

"Deal," the Dwarf said after a moment, sticking his hand out to Jim to shake. "Just give me a moment to get your money."

"I'll be here," Jim told him. Soon enough the Dwarf was holding out the agreed on payment and a small card.

"Three iron, eight copper, and a fish skewer recipe," he said to James. "Don't go giving that to every Nancy and Drew ya meet out there. Family recipe. And if ya find yourself with more meats ya want to sell, come find old Spicefire. I'll give ya good deals."

"I'll keep it close to my chest," James promised as he accepted his payment. "Pleasure doing business."

Money in his wallet, Jim began to make his way to the Hunter's Guild to turn in his Job and Bounties before he made his way back to the Barfing Minotaur.

"Well young man," Inkfingers said as Jim told him he'd finished some Jobs, "most new members take much longer before they come back with completed Jobs. Follow me."

With a short hop, Inkfingers departed his desk and waved for Jim to follow him into one of the backrooms where he indicated for Jim to place his haul on the table in the center of the room.

"Fifteen wolves, brought the hides, claws, and teeth," Jim said, placing the bounty on the table. "That's three completions of the bounty, right?"

"Indeed, indeed," Inkfingers nodded as he inspected the teeth and claws carefully before flipping the hides over randomly. "Anything else?"

"Managed to find ten Goblin Eyes, five Hound's Tail, fifteen Mage's Grass, and ten Walking Widows," Jim said, carefully placing the collected herbs on the table. "Got some more of all of those but not enough to finish another of their bounties."

"We'll still pay you for them," Inkfingers assured Jim as he examined the herbs critically for any excessive damage or rot. "Go ahead and add them to the pile."

"And the last thing I got was the Job I picked up," Jim told him. "Hunting Jackalopes. Managed to get two of them even though the Job was only for one."

"It's good you got both of them then," Inkfingers told Jim as he put the antlers and skins on the nearly full table. "If they were a breeding pair and both hunting, it means that they hadn't spawned any other little terrors. If you'd only gotten one and left the other it would have left the area dangerous, especially if you'd seen it and left it alone. The Guild will match the Job's reward for the second one."

"Now, I've totalled your payment for all this up and it all comes to one bronze, three irons, and two coppers," Inkfingers said as he hopped off the table and led Jim out of the room. "Do you need me to break it all down?"

"No, I got it," Jim said. "Five irons for the jackalope Job, doubled from the two irons, five coppers; five irons for three completions of the Hunting Wolves Bounty; and three irons and two coppers for all the herbs, right?"

"Ah, a young man smart enough to know his figures," Inkfingers said with a smile. "That's good. We once had an Orc boy join our Guild that couldn't read, write, or figure and that poor boy was taken advantage of by some rather unsavory characters in the Guild before he was used as bait in a Job they weren't ready for. I still think about him and wish I'd done more."

Jim wasn't sure what to say to the older Gnome that seemed lost in his own memories as he counted out the money Jim had earned.

"Take care of yourself, Jim," Inkfingers told him as he gripped his wrist and placed the coins in his palm one by one. "I've seen more promising young men than that Orc be hurt in this line of work. Be careful."