The Insider System

Chapter 12: The Death of Anonymity

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Arriving at the meeting spot Lake saw 5 other people were there already. Walking up to them Sam said " Who's leading the hunt today?" An older man walked out of the group and said " I am, Sam." Sam walked up to the older man and handed him the letter. After the man read it he walked up to Lake and said, " I'm Stan, I was told you don't have anything with you and you need an actual weapon to hunt with, so come with me."

Stan started walking into the shed following him inside. Lake saw a bunch of things he wanted. "Wallace said you can take some things on credit and he'll pay us back later." Lake couldn't help thinking how helpful befriending Sam had been so far. He would have to remember to become friends with powerful people's kids in the future.

Lake started to rummage around and after a while settled on a spear and he also took a flask. They had bows but Lake decided to pace himself; he felt the spear was just a step above his shovel. "Is that all you want? You should really take a bow with you."

Lake decided to be honest and said, " I don't know how to use it." Stan looked a little confused and asked, " If you don't know how to use a bow, why do you want to go hunting with us?" Lake decided to be less honest and said, " I only need a few more levels to join a guild." Lake saw as the confusion left Stan's face " So what guild are you trying to join." Lake really didn't know anything about guilds, so he answered in a way where Stan could tell him, Lake held up the spear. " So you're a Spearman. You gonna join the fighters guild?" Lake thought the fighters guild sounded good so he nodded his head. " Still you should take a bow, you can practice while you're out there."

Shrugging Lake picked up a bow and a few arrows. " There's a lot of downtime while you're hunting so you can take potshots at small animals while you're looking for actual prey. It's a good way to unlock the Archer and Hunter jobs and if you want we can stop by the hunters guild so you can change your job once you max spearman."

Seeing Lake was done filling his flak, Stan said, "Alright let's go. We have an hour's ride to get to the forest so the sooner we leave the better." Going back outside Lake saw everyone was getting into the cart that was parked next to the shed, Lake also took a look at the horse that was pulling the cart and was blown away, it was huge. In a fight Lake felt he would stand no chance, even if you gave him a week to level up.

This made Lake wonder if Animals and monsters leveled up to, maybe this horse was just a high level. Pulling himself into the cart Lake saw every seat was taken except one, with no other choice Lake sat down. He didn't start talking right away; he was hoping to wait till later once the conversation was already going to ask some questions. Lake was trying to avoid questions about him because they might notice how unsure he was of what was considered common knowledge in this world.

So Lake decided to close his eyes, and pretend to sleep. Soon the cart started to move. After about a minute of nothing but the sound of the cart moving, Lake heard Stan who was driving the cart yell out, " Hold on!" Lake felt a jerk from the sudden acceleration, and he would have fallen out of the cart if it wasn't for the person next to him holding him in his seat, opening his eyes. He looked over to see a man probably in his mid 20s grabbing his shirt. " Thank you, I wasn't expecting the cart to be this fast." The boy started laughing and said "You're lucky you sat next to me, if it had been Mandy she would have let you fall."

The reason Lake sat next to him had nothing to do with luck, but whatever he still owed him so he decided not to point it out. It would be Lake's good deed of the day. Lake looked at the woman on the other side of the cart and decided she did look like someone who would have let him fall.

Looking back Lake saw the hand that had grabbed him was now outstretched waiting for a handshake. Not wanting to be rude Lake reached over with his left hand and shook it. "My name's Dan. Nice to meet you." Suddenly Lake saw the person next to Dan reach over for a handshake " Hello I'm Jeff. I'm Dan's brother."

This wasn't good, getting to know people usually entailed questions. After shaking their hands Lake said " My names Lake." He was hoping if he was curt the conversation would end here. But Dan didn't seem to care at all and said, "Where you from?" Damn, Lake's worst nightmare, an overly nice person.