Merchant Crab

With a quiet plink, Balthazar watched the crossbow bolt hit the floor, its shaft broken in two and the tip cracked.

[Natural Armor: 0 damage taken]

“Really, miss?” said the crab with a frown, as he rubbed the area between his eyestalks. “Shoddily made stone-tip bolts? Those aren’t even good enough to pierce chitin! If you’d come to Balthazar’s Bazaar, you could have purchased some much better steel—”

“Just please don’t kill me!” cried the young adventurer, dropping the crossbow to the floor, along with her knees.

“What?! No! I’m not going to hurt you,” the merchant quickly said, waving his claws from side to side. “I’m not one of the skeletons, I swear. Not that they’re bad either. Well, I mean, technically they do set all those traps and… the point is, just stop crying, will you?!”

Lisa gasped, staring at the crab through teary eyes as she tried to contain her cries.

“It’s fine, all is fine, no need to be scared,” Balthazar quietly said, taking slow steps forward.

“What are you doing?!” whispered Jim from behind the pillar, out of the girl’s sight. “We’re not supposed to chat with the adventurers.”

“Let me try things my way,” the crab whispered back.

“Who… who are you talking to?” said the confused adventurer, still sitting on the floor.

“Nobody! Definitely no spooky skeletons in this room. Just me, talking to myself. But totally not in a crazy kind of way either!”

“You’re… strange. Who are you?” said Lisa, her crying hiccups slowly subsiding.

“Ah, of course, where are my manners!” the crustacean said while taking a quick bow. “I am Balthazar, a crab, a merchant, and a traveler. In that specific order.”

“A… crab merchant?”

“No, no. A merchant crab. The other way around would imply that I sell crabs, and that would just be weird, don’t you agree?”

For a split second, there was almost a hint of a smile on the girl’s lips, a tenuous glimmer of hope trying to blossom through the fear and despair in her eyes.

“You… you seem out of place down here. Did you get lost?” she asked, sounding slightly more at ease.

“Not really,” answered the crab. “Just doing some social visits, trying to do some business, uncover the secrets of the world. You know, everyday stuff. You’re the one who seems lost, however.”

The girl pulled her knees up against her chin, sitting with her arms hugging her legs.

“I was trying to find another way out of this place. I didn’t even want to come here. James was the one who convinced me. He was so excited by the idea of being an adventurer exploring dungeons, but I told him we were too weak and inexperienced. I should have never let him hire that bastard of a mage.”

Now standing next to her, Balthazar gave a couple of comforting pats on her shoulder with the side of his claw. “Hey, it’s alright. Everything will be alright.”

“How? I don’t know how to get out of here, and he’s out there, looking for me, wanting his payment.”

“Pfft, girl, you’ve come to the right crab. Swindling dumb adventurers is one of my specialties.” He paused and glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “Present company not included, of course. How about I help you get out of here?”

“But… how?” Lisa said, raising her face from between her knees, tears pooling around her eyes again.

“Oh no, don’t start crying again,” said Balthazar, quickly rummaging through his backpack. “Here, look, we’ll use this shiny, pretty thing!”

Pulling his claw out of his magical bag, the crab revealed a round metal object with a glass front and a spinning needle within.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a, uh… it’s a compass.”

“A compass?”

“Yes, it points the way north!”

“How is that going to help me get out of here?”

“I… hmm… I’m not sure, actually. But it sure is shiny, isn’t it?!”

The young adventurer took the small compass into her hand, turning it over and admiring it.

[The Gift of the Crab: success]

“It’s pretty. I like it,” said Lisa, a faint smile forming on her face, and this time, sticking around for more than just a second.

“Great! So, uh… do you wanna buy it, or…”

Suddenly, the girl and the crab jumped in place, startled by the wooden door slamming open behind them.

Like the cold, bitter air of a winter night, Reagan entered the room through the open doorway, a halo of pale light around him from the hovering orb above his head.

“There you are,” said the cryomancer, with a smile that was anything but warm.

Lisa scooted backwards on the floor, away from him, until her back was against a wall.

“I just want to leave, please,” she pleaded, anguish back in her eyes and voice.

“Sure, you can go, after I get my fill of loot, and you’ve done your job being a nice meat shield.”

The adventurer stepped forward, and his gaze landed on Balthazar.

“What is it you’ve found here?” he said with a smirk.

“Hey, pal, why don’t you stop being a scumbag and just let the poor girl go?” said the hard shelled merchant.

“A giant talking crab?” Reagan said, raising both eyebrows in amused surprise. “Now that’s a rare find for sure. Well done, little Lisa.”

The man’s demeanor was making Balthazar angrier by the second. Dumb adventurers, foolish adventurers, even incompetent ones, those the crab had learned to deal with, tolerate, and even accept. But the rare ones that were evil, just purely, needlessly cruel, like this one, he simply could not stomach.

Something about seeing those with more power stepping on those below them made his blood boil, and as a cold-blooded crustacean, that was not an easy feat to achieve.

“Alright, girl, get up,” Balthazar said. “I’m taking you back to the exit.”

Lisa glanced back and forth between the mage and the crab, hesitating.

“Really?” said Reagan with a sudden laugh. “I guess this crab can talk but not listen. She has a debt to pay, and since her stupid friend already got himself killed in the first room, she will have to do the rest of the job by triggering every trap standing between me and some easy money. She’s not going anywhere.”

Balthazar frowned. “Yes, she is.”

The cryomancer laughed even harder. “Says who? A ridiculous crab wearing a backpack who thinks he’s threatening?”

“Yes,” said the crab wearing a backpack, “him and the squad of armed skeletons guarding this dungeon, so you’d better just get lost and leave us be.”

[The Gift of the Crab: failure]

“Nice try, but I’m not some novice adventurer you can easily fool into running away scared,” the smug mage said. “I know this place is a beginner’s dungeon. Every being in here is weak and way below my level, which is exactly why I enjoy coming with idiots like those two into places like these. Cheap but easy loot I can get, plus whatever I snag from their bodies after they invariably get themselves killed, and I barely need to lift a finger or risk my own skin.”

Damn it, I can’t take this guy in an actual fight, and he’s too smart to trick so easily.

“Now get up, I’m tired of wasting my time,” he barked at the girl, while turning back to the door.

Lisa stood up, but did not seem willing to follow him.

“I… I won’t go with you,” she said in a trembling voice. “I’m leaving with the crab.”

Balthazar looked up at her. Attagirl! Show him you won’t be pushed around.

Reagan glared back at the adventurer. “Is that so?”

“Y-yes,” she said, standing up straight and raising her voice. “I’m going to leave here and go back to town.”

Yes, good job, you tell him!

“And once I’m there, I’ll make sure everybody knows who you are and what you do to new adventurers like James and me!”

Nooo! Don’t tell him that!

Reagan turned back to her, and it was as if the already cold, damp air of the crypt suddenly grew even icier, the condensation of Lisa’s shaky breath billowing out of her mouth as she shrunk back in place under his gaze.

“And how do you plan to do that?” he said, slowly walking towards the girl.

“I… I…” the scared adventurer stuttered, slowly backing away from the advancing mage.

“Who’s going to help you? That crab?”

The cryomancer laughed as he pointed a finger at Balthazar, his eyes still fixed on Lisa’s as he moved in closer.

The young adventurer continued backing away from him as she clutched the satchel around her chest, holding it up between her and the mage, like an ineffective shield.

“Please,” she pleaded in a trembling voice, “I’ll do what you want, just don’t turn me into an ice cube.”

Reagan leaned down, bringing his face closer to hers. “Too late. You can’t leave anymore.”

Moving one foot to the side, the man pressed a slightly higher stone on the floor, which sank with a quiet click of pieces snapping together under the weight of his step.

Balthazar’s eyestalks stood up. Oh, no.

Several cogs and pulleys creaked and moved under the cobblestone floor as the mage took a step back, while the girl stood frozen in place, looking at him with confusion in her eyes.

Her eyes widened, and a gasp escaped her mouth, but it was too late. The floor plate under her feet split in two, opening a hole into a deep well.

Lisa threw her arms up as gravity pulled her down, the satchel in her grasp going flying across the room as she screamed, the echoes of it quickly fading in the distance as she disappeared into the dark depths below.

With a quick thump, the trap closed back up and the lowered stone went back into place, everything looking like nothing had just happened.

“That’s one less thing for me to worry about later,” said Reagan, brushing his gloved hands like someone proud of a job well done.

“You… you just killed that girl,” the shocked crab said, still staring at the place where the hole was a moment before.

The adventurer cocked an uncaring eyebrow. “Technically, gravity did. I merely facilitated the process. Not sure why you’d care, you’re a monster creature, humans dying should mean little to you.”

Balthazar’s eyestalks moved over to the despicable man. “I only see one monster in this room.”

Reagan stared at the merchant for a moment, a half surprised, half amused expression on his face, before suddenly bursting out laughing.

“Oh, that is just hilarious!” he said, wiping the corner of his eye. “You must really be quite the unique creature, if you’re that naive. Not sure how things are in whatever hole you crawled from, but out here in this world, you don’t get to make it as a higher level adventurer by being nice or morally upright. You either take advantage, or you get taken advantage of. Law of the jungle, little crab.”

A system notification surprised the crab out of nowhere.

[Adventurer slain. Assist experience awarded.]

[You have reached level 17!]

The hell?! I had nothing to do with that!

Was the system counting the use of his trait to distract the girl as something that led to her tragic fate? Was it because her attack on him technically made it count as them being engaged in combat? Or was it simply the fact that he stood by doing nothing while she was pushed into a trap that made the merchant an accessory to the act? He did not know, but what he knew was that this was not the time to be worrying about systems or levels up, not with Reagan still there.

Balthazar felt a revolting knot in the pit of his stomach, and for once he was sure it had nothing to do with a lack of pastries, but he was also sure there was little he could do against that odious human.

“But never mind her, her stupid friend, or even whatever worthless other loot this place might have,” the mage said, setting his sights back on the crustacean and stepping towards him. “You’re a big, talking, apparently somewhat sapient crab. I’ve never seen anything like that. You have to be quite unique. And valuable.”

Uh-oh, this guy is looking at me like I’m a loot chest he wants to crack open.

Turning around, Balthazar started skittering his way to the back wall where he had entered the room from, but after just a couple of steps, a wheezing sound made him instinctively duck.

With his shell pressed against the floor, the crab looked up, just in time to spot a sharp spike of ice shooting over him and hitting the wall somewhere on the other side of the room.

The crab glanced back, and he saw Reagan was already casting again, a shard of solid ice forming between his hands amidst a swirling spiral of snowy air.

Balthazar launched himself forward, taking cover behind a stone coffin as the second ice spike zip past where he had been a moment before and hit a nearby pillar, chipping a large chunk off of it and sending fragments of rock flying everywhere.

Those are no shoddy stone-tip bolts. My shell definitely can’t take a hit from something like that!

“Come out, come out, little crab,” the caster’s voice said from the other side of the room as his steps slowly grew closer, accompanied by the sizzle of the charged ice between his hands. “I can’t wait to find out how much I can sell your parts for.”

Trying to push aside his curiosity about how much coin his body parts would fetch in the black market, Balthazar looked around looking for some way out of the trouble he’d gotten himself into.

He was halfway to the end of the room where the secret passage he had come from was, but in order to get there, he’d have to risk running in front of the mage’s sights, and probably be turned into a crab popsicle. Even if he got there, the merchant realized he had lost track of where exactly the door was, and there was little chance Reagan would just give him time to examine the wall until he found it again.

No, I need to get rid of him first, but how am I going to… Wait! I just got a level up a moment ago!

A rattling sound came from between the pillars next to Balthazar, where the faint light could not quite reach, and a moment later, a tall skeleton charged forward, running at the human with a rusty hatchet in his hand.

“RAAAH!” yelled Jim as he broke into a mad sprint that caught the mage by surprise.

“What the—” exclaimed Reagan, right before releasing his charged ice spike towards the skeleton.

The projectile shot at its new target and Balthazar watched from behind cover with his jaw dropped as the naked skeleton lunged forward, and somehow the ice spike flew right between the empty space of his hip bone and disappeared on the other side of the room.

“No dangly bits…” muttered the awestruck crab.

But the skeleton’s impressive stroke of luck was short-lived, as before he could strike at the adventurer with his axe, the caster had already woven a new spell, and a sudden wall of solid ice appeared between him and Jim.

Halfway through his strike, the undead’s axe hit the ice shield, its blade becoming stuck in it. Jim pulled at it, trying to get it out, but with no success.

Balthazar’s eyestalks jumped. What am I doing? This is my chance.

The crab turned to the dark side of the room, but immediately came to a stop again.

I can’t just leave Jim and run away like a coward. I mean, I definitely want to, but… argh, there’s got to be something I can do!

As if a candle had just lit up above his shell, Balthazar brought up his system screen.

It’s a long shot, but it’s not like I have any other skills.

[You have reached level 17]

[Choose a base stat to increase by 10]

[Health: 190/190]

[Stamina: 30/30]

[Mana: 10/10]

I doubt 10 more health will save me from those ice spikes, but more mana should let me use my new skill.

[Mana: 20/20]

Near the center of the room, Jim continued trying to pull his weapon from the ice wall, while a sound of howling wind grew louder from the other side.

[You have 3 unspent attribute points]

[Attributes:]

[Strength: 5]

[Endurance: 5]

[Agility: 5]

[Perception: 5]

[Intellect: 5]

[Charisma: 60]

Argh, this feels like such a waste, but what other choice do I have right now?

[Intellect: 8]

Whatever Reagan was casting on the other side of his wall of ice was clearly something big, as the wild gale ravaging from behind the frost grew deafeningly loud.

Come on, come on!

As fast as his eyes allowed, Balthazar navigated through the system’s screens, trying to reach his list of available skills, which listed only one.

[Imbuing]

[Skill - F tier]

[Requirements: 10 CHA, 8 INT]

[Cost: 15 mana]

[Absorbs a compatible held material, temporarily infusing its properties into your body to gain different bonuses depending on the type, quality, rarity, and amount of material used.]

“This better work. I hate wasting money!”

Reaching into his Bag of Holding Money, the crab pulled a single golden coin.

Carefully holding it between his pincers, the merchant tried to activate the Imbuing skill as the sound of cracking ice came from behind his shelter.

[Insufficient material amount]

“Oh come on!” exclaimed the frustrated crab.

Grumbling, he reached into his coin purse again, pulling a few more coins and holding them all between his pincers with a sense of urgency.

[Can only imbue one item at a time]

“You have got to be kidding me!” Balthazar blurted out.

As if aligned with his outburst, the wall of ice separating Reagan from Jim shattered loudly, making the skeleton stumble back as the hatchet he was trying to retrieve went flying across the room.

A miniature blizzard erupted from the cryomancer’s hands now, a cone of pure hail and freezing winds aimed at the naked skeleton as he tried to weather the storm and reach the caster.

Balthazar peeked from behind one of the stone tombs, his eyes teary from the frosty gale reaching him, watching as Jim’s bones quickly grew icicles all around them, and his march slowed down with each struggling step.

In just a few moments, his entire skeleton had become completely frozen in place, surrounded by a crystallized block of ice, like a bizarre sculpture of macabre taste.

Crap, not again!

Ceasing his casting, Reagan flexed his gloved fingers as he casually walked around his latest victim.

“Now where did my prize go?” the smug mage asked loudly in a mocking tone.

The crab shoved both claws into his backpack, searching for something, anything that he thought could work with the only skill he had to use.

No, no, that’s useless. So is that. And that. Why do I only deal in junk?!

Reagan’s steps grew closer, and Balthazar knew he would be found any second now.

Curses! Why didn’t I bring an ingot of gold or even iron with me? Sure, they’re heavy, and not like I would expect someone to buy them on the road, but damn it, I could use one right now! Blasted hindsight!

Pulling his pincers out of the pack, the merchant did a double take to the other side of the pillars with his eyestalks. There, across the room, behind another stone coffin, right on the edge of where the light reached, rested a dropped brown bag.

The satchel the girl was carrying!

Seeing the shadow of the mage appearing over his hiding spot, the cornered crab decided there was no time for decisions.

Skittering as fast as he could from behind one tomb to the other, the crustacean launched himself at the satchel, grabbing it between his claws as he landed.

“There you are!” yelled Reagan.

Please tell me there’s something I can use in here!

Balthazar dared not turn his eyestalks, but he could hear the sound of another ice spell forming in the cryomancer’s hands as his claws desperately reached down into the satchel, grasping for anything that the system would accept.

Until his pincers finally gripped something.

“You’re mine now, little crab!”

[Imbuing activated: Voidwood absorbed]