Poachers

Vae had left for her home back in Silverdore, her companions had come to visit the City and sold her on the idea of opening a school for adventurers. They had quite a bit of funding from their excursions and Vae had been well compensated for her time at the Shop.

"I know your leaving, but you should pay closer attention to people following you. I'm glad I could help you both. Be safe." It caught her by surprise when he gave her a hug, Errit was not a very affectionate person.

The Shop had lost its bouncer, she was doing it out of kindness and a feeling of indebtedness, but the time had passed. Errit placed a new sign outside. "Now Hiring." Before he could finish writing on the sign board, people were gathering. He kept going. "Now Hiring Doorman, and two appraisers."

People were questioning the second part. Vae was gone, they had all noticed the distinct lack of her sexy appearance on the stool outside of the door but none of them thought he would hire other appraisers. An appraiser could make the contribution points on their own, if they were able to find business. Kinky Appraisal had a booming clientele, competing with them was a somewhat difficult thing to do.

The first few days there was no response, but a traveling ship caravan brought new people to the port. Among them were a troop of Beastkin, Poocha and Lupinians primarily filled their ranks but a few Minaur and Ursinian had also made their way. "The Ursinians never use to leave the forests and villages of their ancestors but all of that changed 35 years ago during the great wars." There was a Poocha Girl who was watching Errit while Errit was watching all of them. Her voice spooked him a bit when it came from over his shoulder.

He spun, alarmed. The Chains didn't autoattack, it was very concerning for him. "Its not nice to sneak up on people." Errit's voice showed his opinion about the exchange.

"Is that what I'm doing?" She walked closer and smelled the mask. "You smell like someone I know. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'll let you know when I figure that out!" She bounced around the alleyway and landed on the rooftop then left.

'Well, that's new.' Errit approached the captain of the lead vessel. "Can I trouble you for a moment?" He had a proposal, more of an interest in the Maps they had aboard.

"You want maps? I don't mind if you take a look, but I can't give them to you or sell them. I just don't have a replacement." The Captain unrolled them onto the decking.

Errit scanned them for anything that would help him in the future. There were trade routes marked on the maps, the few of them that were there all had different writing and drawing styles. Some of the maps were crude, other were sophisticated masterpieces. The one that interested him the most were the ultra high prospective maps of the continent. Taking out a sheet of paper he quickly marked a few places and his location on a rough sketch of the map. "Thank you. I really needed that." Errit took out a rock and passed it over. "This is Sponge Ore, its a little rare but its only worth 100CP. They make great patches for boats, just shove it in a leak."

The Captain nodded and took the ore, it didn't look like much but leaks were death sentences for boats. "No problem, I saw you watching the people disembarking my boat. Are you looking for someone in particular? Friends, Girlfriend?"

The Inquiry was innocent enough, Errit shrugged. "I just wanted to know who came in, I'm looking for new employees."

"ahh, well good luck to you." The Captain mounted his Pegoy and rode into town.

Errit pulled out the Cart and started into the wetlands, there were better uses of his time.

֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍

"OOh, that's a nice one." Errit started to enjoy his walks and picking, sometimes the strangest of plants would emerge. Many times throughout the night he entered and exited the pocked dimension, he was storing anything new into the space. The Treants had all grown significantly, there were an abundance of fruits. He collected the loose fruit to sell to the depository, there were only 2000 writs remaining until he reached level 6.

'Level 6 could get work in the Capital, or even Zao City.' Errit felt invigorated, renewed with purpose and ready to push through it. He picked as he went along and then found a group of people by the water's edge. They were picking eggs. Their operation didn't look sloppy, when he approached they were very evasive. Showing no interest in him, they tried leaving.

Errit followed from a distance and checked the nests they had been hitting. They were all the same type of bird. 'maybe they are hunting, but why just the eggs?' He watched them kill the parents, then take the eggs. There was no interest shown in the Birds, only their eggs. 'poachers? smugglers?' Errit threw a spear. It landed in the tree next to the upcoming nest, the birds fled and took their eggs. "What's with stealing the eggs?" he shouted.

"What business is it of yours? Get lost." The groups leader barked orders and pulled the spear from the tree. "This is a nice spear, I'll keep it." He stored it away, gloating.

Errit tilted his head. An Arrow flew past his ear. The chains reacted, Errit was thrown into the trees above by the chains and he hid among the canopy. Chains flew out from behind the leaves and tore the arms from their leader. He screamed. "Don't just stand there." The Chains brought the man's arms back to Errit.

"I think I'll keep them." Errit's voice seemed to echo in the night. The Storage ring was attached, he took it off, stored the arms away and searched the ring while the wandering chains made short work of the rest.

When the chains stopped moving, the bodies were laying on the Jungle Floor. 'I hate poachers' Errit thought to himself, cleaned up the battlefield, stored away his victory loot and went back to gathering materials.