<h4>Chapter 21: Ground Work</h4>


    The three of them had just arrived at the cart to see they were almost thest ones to arrive; the only person missing was Mandy. When Stan saw them he said, " Alright looks like we''re ready to go. How was your first day Lake?"


    Lake was confused, was Mandy already in the cart? "It was good. Is Mandy in the cart already?" After Lake asked this everyone startedughing, after a few seconds Stan said, "You''re barking up the wrong treed. That girl ain''t interested in anything but leveling up."


    Lake understood now why they wereughing, they all thought he was interested in Mandy. Dan patted Lake on the shoulder and said "Don''t feel too bad I liked her the first time I saw her as well. But I found out soon enough it''s best to leave her be. On our first day Jeff sat next to her and she let him fall out the back of the cart and it''s the only time I''ve seen her smile. The only thing I''ve seen her talk about is joining the Royal guards."


    Lake didn''t care enough to clear up this misunderstanding so he just said, "Thanks for the advice, But you still didn''t answer my question, are we just leaving her here?" Dan shook his head Like his persuasion had failed and said, " She stays overnight, she''lle back with us tomorrow."


    This was a good idea. He should do this as well. He bet there were a lot more monsters at night and with his night vision he would have an advantage, but he wasn''t prepared to do it tonight he had no food with him, and the tea he had made was almost out.


    So this was something for the future. Seeing Dan start to get into the cart Lake followed suit, and soon everyone was in the back. Lake felt the cart start to move. Now he had an hour to kill and he also needed to talk to Dan about the beetle hunt, but first he should make small talk.


    "So did you two kill any of those monsters on the side of the cart?" Dan started shaking his head and said, "The deer and the boar. We killed a few other things but nothing worth bringing home. What about you, did you just help Kyle and Mary today?"


    Lake shook his head and said, "I was unlucky today only killed stuff I wouldn''t eat." Everyone nodded after he said that. "That''s how hunting is. You never know what''s going to happen, but at least you made some money." said Jeff. "Tell them about that kill you got."


    After Kyle said this Lake could tell everyone''s attention was on him. Lake guessed hunters loved good hunting stories. Instead of telling them right away Lake pulled out the core from the bear.


    "I''d never harvested a core before because I''ve always killed small things like rats or bugs, so after I killed a goblin I went to ask Kyle how to get a core out without digging around in them. And once I got back I saw something was eating the goblin. Seeing that it hadn''t noticed me I sneak attacked it, and managed to kill it in one blow."


    Lake could tell Dan and Jeff were loving his story. "So what was it?" Instead of answering he handed the core to Dan. "It was a bear and a good sized one." Lake really didn''t know if that was true but why not pretend. "Wow this core is probably worth 80 gold at the least."


    This estimate was close to Kyles, so Lake guessed it was pretty close to the right amount. Getting the core back from Dan, Lake held it for a while and felt how much stronger it was than the goblins. It was pretty cool, it felt almost hot, but Lake could tell there wasn''t actually any heating off of it, so he assumed it was Magic. "I can see why you didn''t bother bringing it to the cart. I bet it was huge."


    Lake felt this was a good time to ask about the beetle hunt. It didn''t take long to convince Dan he actually seemed to like the idea. Like Lake had thought Kyle said he would take care of the nning, so nowke just had to wait for the opportunity to steal some kills.


    Now that all the talking was out of the way, Lake felt it was a good time to check the new jobs he had gotten. Lake started with the archer job because it felt like it was more likely to have been tampered with.


    Archer (U) Lv.0/10


    On level up:


    Agility 2


    Dexterity 4


    Perception 3


    Exp conditions:


    Kills


    Bonus Exp conditions:


    X3 Kills


    X10 Headshot Kills


    Skills from job:


    And he was right it was shown some attention quickly going over its details Lake moved on to spearman.


    Spearman (C) Lv.0/10


    On level up:


    Strength 1


    Agility 1


    Exp conditions:


    Kills


    Bonus Exp conditions:


    X2 Spear kills


    Skills from job:


    Lake was a little disappointed to see Spearman wasn''t special in any way he had been enjoying using the spear. Maybe this would be what he would put his gold writing in in the future, but he understood it really didn''t go with the whole thief aesthetic. Tomorrow he would put some effort into Leveling up Archer to the first level at least.