The request seemed simple enough. Acquire two wyvern eggs from a nest in the Misty Valley hunting region and turn them in to the client for an easy 800gold. As Inbus headed home to ready himself for the trip, he decided to stop by the local eatery for a quick bite. No sense in starting a hunt on an empty stomach, and since it was only three buildings down from the local guild headquarters, Inbus thought it better to fill up his belly before filling his pack. That way he wouldn’t need to bring as much food and could save space for anything of use in the field.
Inbus was slightly taller than the average man, with light green eyes, hair the same shade of brown as a coconut, and a noticeable scar on his left cheek from his first hunt. He was very fit, as is often required in the hunting line of work, and made sure to stay that way with a tough 5:30 A.M. workout every other day. This consisted of a 3 mile jog to the not-so-nearby Targustan River, where he would then swim against the current for at least 30 minutes, followed by some 20 minute tree-climbing to build upper-body strength. The work-out would then end with about an hour of axe-blade training.

Walking into the eatery, Inbus made note of the specials listed outside. A filet of Queen Shrimp prepared the only way safe for consumption—grilled, with a small cut of rib meat from a Furnace Gator, which is actually healthier when served raw. Already knowing what he wanted, the waiter took Inbus’ order and left Inbus to wait for his meal. The building itself had an enormous boiling kettle on the roof that was often used for bigger meats and vegetables and the place as a whole had the atmosphere of a restaurant one would find on the coast. This was in spite of the fact the village itself was at least two or three hundred miles inland. Still the diner tried to fit the theme pretty well. There were three or four naval steering wheels on different parts of the walls, a few port holes as windows, there was even a giant anchor hanging in the middle of the ceiling as a chandelier, but that was about the extent of it. Most of the money went into buying and transporting the many exotic ingredients used in the dishes.
Ibus’ order was ready in about 8 minutes. As the servers brought it out, a tremendous scent of fish grilled under mangos and lemons filled the air. All it took was one look at the steaming Queen Shrimp tail and the soft, red glow of the gator-back ribs.
The good mood brought on by the wonderful meal was soon ruined by the bill. The Queen Shrimp alone cost 280gold. Add in the 250gold Gator ribs and the tip and Inbus was soon 540gold poorer. The price was pretty fair considering restaurants don’t often serve meat from beasts that fight back. They have to make money somehow, and recruiting hunters to supply enough of one particular meat to last even a week isn’t cheap. It isn’t made any easier since hunters willing to take a contract offering 300 to 400gold and a free meal as payment over any of the hundreds of contracts easily paying into the thousands in gold were hard to come by. Inbus would take a few restaurant requests on days when the guild contracts weren’t so abundant, though he mostly did it to help keep the restaurants stocked with higher quality meals for the real hunts.
After paying the bill, Inbus started for his house, deciding to review the contract again on the way. The client was an elderly medicine woman who needed the eggs to save her village from a life-threatening disease. According to the medicine lady, the disease causes blood to coagulate inside the body as it travels through the bloodstream. Eventually, the blood hardens, slowing blood flow throughout the body to the point where it halts completely. Apparently the eggs that were requested had yolks with powerful healing properties if mixed with the proper ingredients. Inbus realized just how serious the contract was and raced home to prepare for a quick departure.
Bursting through his door, Inbus stopped for only a moment to greet Mr. Piggers, a pig rescued during one of his hunts. The house was a simple one-room set-up with the only other room being a bathroom. There was single sized bed with solid blue sheets and two pillows, on the left was a simple nightstand with a keldeer-horn ornament and an oak table and chair a couple feet away, and to the right were two storage chests and a weapon rack. Both chests were about the size of a small book shelf and made organization simple with multiple compartments in which to keep things. Walking up to one of the chests, Inbus got out a few sharpening stones and some herbs for healing, while they really only dulled the pain and sped up the body’s natural healing process, any good hunter considered them a necessity. He then grabbed a pencil and map of the Misty Valley split into areas. Tired of the severe lack of creativity behind the area names, Inbus actually gave the each of the areas on the map its own name. Looking over the map, he eventually circled area 4, or what he knew as the Misty Valley breeding grounds, knowing it was an ideal area for almost any monster nest: cliffs large enough for flying wyverns to nest, numerous caves and crevices in the cliff face for land beasts, even a small lake nearby leading into the ocean. It was the ideal place to find any type of egg.
Tucking the map away into his pack, Inbus snatched any other necessities needed, put on his armor, and grabbed his switch-axe. It was a weapon of his own design that he was trying to get registered as an official hunting weapon by the guild. Until further notice from the guild, only he was authorized to use it, and that was only because he created the thing. It was basically battle axe and a great sword all in one. On one side was an enormous axe-head connected to a trigger at the hilt that, when pulled, brought the axe-head down towards the base. As the axe-head went down, the inside of it turned a gear near the top connected to a large blade on the back. The gear brought the blade over the top to the other side of the mechanism where it connected with the now lowered axe-head and locked in place. To switch it back to an axe one simply had to turn the gear the other way by pulling the handle-like grip that sprang up from the hilt as the blade switched sides. Inbus made sure the switch-axe was good and sharp and, after double-checking to see if he had everything, headed out the door.
On his way back to the guild headquarters, thoughts swarmed Inbus’ head as he imagined what the extra reward might be. Inbus found it sad that some hunters needed extra incentive for quests where people’s lives were on the line, but while he would happily do these quests for free as often as he could, he was still happy to accept the often rare bonuses. They were sometimes a new set of armor, or some super exotic materials for weapon improvement. There was also the chance that the success of this contract would finally get his switch-axe authorized as an official hunter’s weapon by the guild. No matter what it was, the reward would always be rare and could always be put to good use. With a strengthened sense of enthusiasm pulsing through Inbus’ body, he reached the guild building and headed in side, ready to go out and save a village.
“What do you mean I’m too late?” Inbus said; disbelief plastered on his face.
“Look, I’m sorry sir but another hunter came by earlier who was ready to leave immediately and something this urgent just cannot wait.”
While the guild woman made an excellent point, Inbus was not about to give up so easily.
“But I’d already accepted the quest! You even said you would hold it in reserve for me while I went home!”
“Yes, and I did so under the assumption that you would be back in thirty to forty five minutes, at most. You, sir, were gone for over an hour and a half. Plus, you never actually paid the guild’s required acceptance fee, so technically you never accepted the quest at all.”
Knowing he was beaten, Inbus simply stood in front of the desk with blank look on his face. Eventually his head hit the desk in despair, “Great. Just…great.”
Whether out of pity or just wanting to keep him from holding up the line, the guild woman cleared her throat to get Inbus’ attention.
“Sir, if it pleases you, I could offer you another contract we just received. The request arrived about twenty minutes ago and so far no one has volunteered.”
Not even bothering to look up from the desk, Inbus mumbled “Sure…fine…whatever.”
“Excellent! Here is all the information you will need. All you need to do is pay the 150gold acceptance fee and you’ll be all set.”
Finally picking his head up after grabbing the contract info, Inbus fished out the payment from his pack and dropped it in front of the Guild maiden.
“All right then. Everything appears to be in order. Good luck to you sir and happy hunting!”

Heading out the door, Inbus realized that he hadn’t so much as even glanced at the quest he had accepted. He looked at the section containing the note from the client which read, “Summer is nearly over and gone. With winter fast approaching we need to restock on Ursanox meat before they go into hiding to hibernate. Normally meat from about seven or eight of the beasts would be enough, but this winter has been promised to be brutal. Meat from sixteen of them will be needed if we are to keep in stock until spring.”
A restaurant supply contract. With a sigh, Inbus stuffed the contract back into his pack and started out toward the nearby hills where most of the beasts would be. At least there would be free food in the end.