The door creaked as I stepped inside, shoving it fully open. I didn’t bother closing it, as the sight of a long line of players tipped me off to the inevitable flood that would soon be arriving. Quietly taking my place at the end of the line, unnoticed by those in front of me, I briefly observed my surroundings. “Caldwell’s Cartographical Emporium”, as the little shop was named, was home to countless maps and cartography supplies: rolls of parchment were stuffed across an entire wall, perhaps surpassing a thousand rolls altogether, while inkwells and compasses alike were stuffed beneath the front counter. A young man stood behind that very same counter, speaking to the player at the front of the line.

“The city map is 30 copper, that’s as low as it goes. Any other cartographer will tell you the exact same thing.”

“How are we supposed to afford Hunter’s Guild membership and a map!?”

The player was turning red in the face, and the rest of the line muttered in agreement. The shopkeeper sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

“Copper isn’t that hard to make, man, I can’t go any lower.”

The entire line grumbled at this, but each slowly dug out the copper for a city map, evidently unable to pass up such an essential. Each made their way back out the door, ignoring me completely, but the last man in line paused right in front of me, staring me down.

“You’re the one who took first Hunter membership, right? How the hell did you pull that off?”

I shrugged at him, entirely unsure what was so amazing about it.

“I just talked to the nearest NPC, got ahold of a map, and got moving - anyone else could have done the same, I just did it faster.”

At that point, the shopkeeper turned to me, while the player just shook his head in wonder and walked out of the shop.

“What can I do for you? City map?”

Shaking my head, I gestured over to the wall of map rolls.

“Do you mind if I glance at the Eastern Forest map? I’m all out of copper, but I’ll come back and buy it once I claim my first bounty.”

He shrugged, nodding in the same direction as my gesture.

“Go ahead, should be on the wall over there, near the left side. Maps are organized left to right based on their proximity to the city. I keep the city map behind the counter, though, since it’s such a hot commodity.”

With a nod in thanks, I strolled over to the wall of maps. Tags dangled from each map roll, with labels like “Kanin Depths” or “Region Map: Elf Kingdoms”. I soon found a tag with “Eastern Forest” scrawled across it, all the way to the left of the wall just as promised. The roll slid out of its cubby with minimal effort, and I carefully slid the tag’s string off of it, spreading it out on a nearby table. Almost all of the parchment was tinted a deep shade of green, dominated by heavily wooded area. Brown lines signified paths through the forest, with one wide road stretching across the entire region from west to east, boldly marked as “King’s Road”. There were also occasional details marked on the map, like beast dens or well-known ruins, but the Eastern Forest overall seemed pretty uninteresting - the typical starting region.

I took the opportunity to pull out the bounties I had been given at the Hunter’s Guild, so that I could decide which to chase after first.

[Mass Bounty, Lightfoot Hunting (Rank: Basic) - Hunt 50 Lightfoots and turn in their antlers to receive the bounty. Lightfoots are small herbivores that reside all throughout the Eastern Forest, and are exceedingly common. Reward: 100 XP, 50 Silver (Note: 1 silver is equivalent to 10 copper)]

[Takedown Bounty, Prey King (Rank: Basic) - Hunt down and eliminate the Prey King, an elusive animal that lurks in the western half of the Eastern Forest. The Prey King is known to attack merchants and travelers on the main road, along with wanderers in the forest. All spoils of battle will belong to the hunter. Reward: 200 XP, 100 Silver

[Harvest Bounty, Lesser Ares Fruit (Rank: Basic) - Find and harvest 48 Lesser Ares Fruits, a valuable fruit that increases body strength upon consumption. Lesser Ares Fruits can be found at the center of the forest, where greater dangers are present, so please remain alert! Reward: 50 XP, 48 Gold (Note: 1 gold is equivalent to 100 silver)

~That’s a convenient line-up of quests - the difficulty progression seems pretty clear. Lightfoot hunting it is, then!~

The so-called “Takedown” bounty seemed out of my league for the moment, since the beast would undoubtedly be strong if it warranted its own bounty. The “Harvest” bounty was much the same - no fruit worth a whole gold coin, 1000 copper a piece, could be simple for a starting character to obtain.

~Well, that means I don’t need this map for the moment, since they’re supposed to be all over the forest…~

I rolled up the map decisively, replacing the tag and string in their original position. With a brief wave to the shopkeeper, who responded with a slight smile and a wave in return, I pushed the map back into its place on the wall and quickly departed.

**********************************************************

My right shoulder tensed. My breathing slowed. My longbow’s motion slowed, as the nocked arrow aligned with my target. A rabbit-like creature nibbled at the base of a tree, munching on some plant that grew abundantly in the area. The only differences that I could make out in this animal, presumably the Lightfoot, were its large, sharp-looking antlers on its head.

~Best not let it get close enough to use those.~

Without hesitation, my right hand suddenly snapped open, the bowstring springing taut and sending the arrow flying. It streaked toward its target, the quiet whistling as it pierced through the air making the Lightfoot’s ears perk up just as the arrow reached its destination.

[Level 1 Beast “Lightfoot” Killed. XP Gained: 10.]

“That’s one,” I murmured to myself as I carefully approached the Lightfoot’s corpse, though it was now replaced with two items laid out on the ground: [Basic Arrow (Used)], and [Lightfoot Corpse (Skinnable)].

[Touch your dagger to the corpse to skin it, separating it into multiple items.]

“Convenient instructions…” I muttered, drawing my dagger and tapping the edge of the blade to the corpse. With a brief flash of light, it was suddenly replaced by multiple items:

- Lightfoot Meat

- Lightfoot Pelt (Small)

- Lightfoot Antlers

“Simple enough.”

I swept them all into my inventory, nocking another arrow on my bow as I strolled deeper into the forest.