Merchant Crab

Over the past several months, Balthazar had met all kinds of adventurers at his trading post.

From the burly type who loved to wield a large weapon and talk loudly, to the sneaky ones that liked clinging to the shadows and visit during quiet hours so they wouldn't meet others on the road.

From scholarly ones wearing robes, pointy hats, and carrying lots of books written in cryptic languages that held ancient magics, to the spry ones wearing flexible armor and carrying bows and daggers.

To the crab, most of them were a necessary nuisance, in order to gain the coin he so enjoyed collecting. Once in a while there would be the rare one that was tolerable, perhaps even some Balthazar liked, although he would never let them know that fact, lest they get the wrongful impression that earns them the privilege of a discount or something extreme like that.

Despite adventurers coming in all shapes and sizes, ranks and classes, personalities and degrees of annoyance, one fact was always true in all of them.

The desire to level up.

To them, it was their entire life's purpose. They all craved that sweet experience to bring them closer to the next higher number.

Be it through slaying the biggest beast they could find, or crafting the same item over and over again, there was little those silly humans wouldn’t do to progress to the next level, just so they could repeat the same process all over again for the next number.

To what purpose? Balthazar could not tell.

For while he had secretly shared their ability to gain levels, he never quite understood what the appeal was. Sure, picking some attributes to improve and a new skill was nice and all, but hardly something worth dedicating your entire life to.

Now, pastries and the accumulation of wealth? That the humble crab would have understood just fine.

Which was why the merchant watched with mixed feelings as the crowd of adventurers rushed down the hill, charging towards the red dragon with hunger for victory in their gazes.

They brandished their swords, maces, and axes. They readied their bows and charged their spells. All craving the rewards from slaying what was likely the biggest foe most of them had ever laid eyes upon.

“Fools,” the crab muttered. “All of them, complete fools.”

Throwing his pincers up into a half shrug, Balthazar turned to his group.

“Well, anyway, hopefully they’ll make for a good distraction for us!”

Rye looked outside while grasping his bow tightly in his hand and a hopeful smile grew on his face.

“I should get out there and help the fight. Maybe we got a chance, if everyone from the guild came out here to battle it.”

“What?!” Balthazar exclaimed. “Not you too! Focus, Rye.” The crab pulled at the young man’s arms with his claws, forcing the ranger to look at him. “Forget the stupid levels and remember what’s really important. Who you have to help protect.”

The adventurer blinked at the crab for a moment, confused, before turning his gaze to the baker leaning over the bazaar’s railings, looking outside with concern in her eyes.

He furrowed his brow. “You’re right, Balthazar. We need to get Madeleine to safety.”

“That’s more like it!”

Outside, the charging adventurers began encircling the dragon as the creature sunk its claws into the dirt of the plains and bared its fangs. Despite their numbers, it was clear the human forces were not enough to intimidate the ferocious beast.

Of the few standing on the road, two familiar adventurers stepped out of the formation and ran down the path to the bazaar.

One was a young woman in mixed leather armor with steel parts, while the other was a young man carrying a large sword strapped to his back and wearing nothing but a loincloth. No shirt, no pants, not even shoes.

“Crab!” the less modest one called, jogging down the path and waving one arm as he struggled to hold the sword against his back with the other.

Balthazar stared at Jack and Leah with a weirded out look as they entered the gazebo.

“Hey,” the girl said as she met the merchant’s confused gaze. “Don’t even ask. He still refuses to let go of that Sword of Heavy Might.”

“What are you guys doing here?” asked Balthazar, deciding there was no time to get into the boy’s heavy issues.

“Are you joking?” exclaimed Jack. “We’re here to slay the dragon, of course! Can you imagine the experience it will give?! And the loot!”

“And also to help the town and the surrounding inhabitants, like Balthazar here,” Leah quickly added, as she scowled at her friend.

“Oh, right, of course, that too, sure.”

Balthazar glanced at the pair through his monocle, not feeling too reassured by their intentions.

[Level 20 Swordsman]

[Level 19 Fighter]

“You guys are sure you’re up for that challenge?” the hesitant crab asked. “That’s a mighty dragon out there.”

“Don’t worry. There’s like a hundred of us here. We got this!” the confident young man said.

“We’ll do our best, we promise,” said Leah with a sincere smile.

The naked adventurer adjusted his loincloth and drew his oversized sword.

“Let’s do it!”

“Jack, wait, we…”

But the eager swordsman was already running back up to the road, straining to hold his sword up as he went.

Leah gave Balthazar’s group an apologetic shrug and pulled out her bow as she chased after him.

The crab and his four companions looked out towards the road and plains, where the adventurers were charging at the massive dragon.

First were the barbarians and heavily armored warriors, roaring as they ran at the creature’s legs with their battleaxes and longswords. The red reptilian was not impressed. Whipping its heavy tail, the level 75 menace knocked them all down in one fell swoop.

“You dare challenge my might?” it roared.

Next were those wielding bows, crossbows, slingshots, and any other form of ranged weapon.

Arrows, bolts, and many other projectiles started flying at the dragon like a flock of birds passing in front of the cloudy sky.

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Snarling with irritation, the beast batted one wing from the side, kicking up a cloud of dust and blowing back all the incoming attacks.

“Cease this provocation and deliver to me what is mine or you shall all pay the price!”

Wielders of magic stepped in. Those with healing magics or other forms of support skills came to the aid of the ones felled by the tail whip or wing strike. The rest began casting their attack spells, aiming at the gigantic foe standing before them.

Fire sizzled, lightning crackled, ice hissed, and a rainbow light show overpowered the glow of the sun itself around the area before they all started slinging their spells in a chaotic cacophony of sounds and blinding flashes.

The dragon made no move to stop the incoming strikes, and for a split second, it felt as if this charge might be more successful than the previous, but that hope quickly dimmed as the first spells reached their target.

Bolts of fire hit the rough red scales with no effect, arcs of electricity ricocheted off the creature’s hide, ice shards melted into harmless steam just by coming close to the dragon’s body, and not a single flinch came from the giant lizard.

For once, Balthazar wished human books had also been wrong about draconic creatures' high resistance to most forms of magic.

The spellcasters looked in awe at the inefficiency of their magics and exchanged glances at one another, as if looking for any ideas on what to do next.

“My patience runs thin, humans,” warned the angry dragon. “I have given you plenty of time. I grow tired of your childish attempts at confronting—ARGH!”

The creature roared in pain and its tail smacked the ground, causing the mages standing closer to it to wobble on their legs and quickly run back to the other adventurers.

Underneath the mighty being was a small human figure, standing next to one of its legs.

Jack, in all of his nakedness, had sneaked up on the dragon and landed a blow to its ankle with his sword, which he was now dislodging from the creature’s flesh with great difficulty.

“Jack!” Leah called out from the larger group of adventurers. “What are you doing, you fool?! Leave that stupid sword and run!”

With one last pull, the hero in the nude pulled his blade from the dragon and fell back on the ground, just in time to evade the creature’s angry stomping.

“Your homes shall burn for this, humans!”

The enraged lizard whipped its tail around, trying to hit the pesky human who dared draw blood from it, but Jack took advantage of the creature’s blind spot underneath its body and scurried away into some grass and then through a bush, rolling out onto the road with his precious sword strapped around his sweaty torso.

“Guys,” Madeleine said, pulling Balthazar out of his spectator trance. “I hate to say it, but I’m not sure even all of those adventurers will be able to handle that dragon.”

The crab knew she was right. Glancing over the groups of adventurers spread around the road and plains, Balthazar could see many numbers above their heads through his monocle, but barely any of them were even close to being half the dragon’s level.

Despite their quantity, they all lacked the individual quality to defeat a level 75 red dragon.

“Madeleine is right,” Rye said in a deflated tone. “None of us stands a chance against that thing. If the whole guild came out and they’ve barely made a scratch on it, what’s there left to try?”

Balthazar exhaled sharply as his mind raced.

As much as his pride and confidence wanted to make him say that was no big deal, he knew this time was different. They had gotten lucky against the dark mage, and he was only level 35. They had nothing against a dragon that dwarfed even his stone golem in size, that could easily swallow a young drake whole, and they had no magic staff powerful enough to make it even flinch. Nothing.

What was a crab to do against such a threat?

Balthazar looked at his own golden reflection on a shiny platter in a nearby shelf and frowned at himself.

“I’m the boss of this pond, damn it!”

Balthazar looked up at the furious dragon, as it roared and swung its tail at the dispersing groups of adventurers, trying to swat them away like annoying flies.

He was not about to let a giant lizard wreck his little slice of heaven and kill off most of his clientele just like that. Not while he still had a say in it.

He brought up his system screen and looked at his list of skills. There was still one unspent skill point there, ever since he reached level 15 and the damnable thing claimed he had reached the maximum level. He had told himself he would save that point for when the time was right, to use it wisely.

His wisdom told him that time was now.

He looked at his skills.

[Charisma: S(+5)]

[Medium Armor: A]

[Speech: A]

[Reading: B]

[Fishing: C]

[Imbuing: C]

[Leadership: B]

[Slashing Weapons: C]

He knew there was no skill he could spend one point on that would ever allow him to defeat a dragon on his own, but thankfully, he was not alone.

All those people around him in that moment didn’t need a strong crab or even a merchant crab. They needed a leader.

Filled with conviction, Balthazar spent his last skill point upgrading his Leadership from a B to an A before turning and facing his friends.

“Alright, hear me out!” he exclaimed to the other four. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we gotta keep all those adventurers alive.”

The baker, the ranger, the goblin, and even the golem stared at the crab, unblinking.

“Here’s the plan: Druma and Madeleine will start grabbing potions from the crates back there. We should still have a good supply of fire resistance potions that we can distribute to some of the front line adventurers in case things get heated. Rye, run up to the road and let them know to form a rear guard here to resupply. Health, stamina, mana potions, bandages, quick supplies, whatever they need we’ll provide to keep them in the fight. Just make sure you remind them they’ll still have to pay for them later! Maybe with a discount, but that’s all! Meanwhile, I’ll coordinate things from here while Bouldy covers me. Maybe one of these books I never finished has something about dragon weaknesses.”

With surprising readiness, the group nodded and quickly started enacting Balthazar’s orders.

Rye ran up to the road, while the rest spread around the bazaar.

“Hey Balthazar, can you guys help us?”

The crab turned to see two figures coming in through the bazaar’s entrance. Leah came in with Jack’s arm over her shoulder as the young man struggled to walk forward, his feet dragging at every step.

“Hey, crab,” the out of breath adventurer said. “Did you see me striking that dragon out there? Pretty epic, right?” He coughed and winced. “I’m kinda running on empty now, though.”

“He can barely walk, let alone lift his damn sword,” said Leah, helping her friend sit down on a nearby chair, his sword falling to the floor next to him with a loud clang.

Balthazar reached behind the counter and pulled a small wooden crate with several colorful bottles inside.

“Here, stamina potion, that will get you back on your feet,” the hurried merchant told the swordsman, handing him a large bottle filled with a green liquid.

Jack took a swig and his eyes widened as the liquid went down his throat.

“It must really be the end times, if you’re handing out free items like that,” Leah said, eyebrows raised high.

“Oh, shut it, will you?” He grabbed two more bottles from the crate, one orange, the other white. “Take these too. This is fire resistance. I’m sure you don’t need me to explain that one. The other is something that should help you keep your sword up.”

Jack frowned. “What is it?”

“It’s called a Feather Potion. It will increase your carrying capacity, hopefully making—”

Without hesitation, the young adventurer snatched the bottle from the crab’s pincer and hastily gulped its dense liquid down.

Shooting up from his seat, Jack stood back on his feet with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. “I feel good as new! Let’s get back out there and teach that dragon a lesson!”

Leah looked at her companion with wide eyes. “What the hell was in that potion?”

“Heh, a little lizardy secret. Don’t worry about it.”

Standing next to them, Bouldy leaned down and effortlessly picked the Sword of Heavy Might off the floor with his stony fingers.

“Friend,” the golem said with a friendly smile, as he offered the blade back to the swordsman.

“Woah. You’re strong,” said Jack, looking up at the boulder with awe. “Thanks.”

The young man looked behind the crab, towards some of the broken shelves.

“Hey, you think I could have that too?” he said, pointing at something between the unsorted junk piled next to the debris.

Balthazar turned to see what he was pointing at. “You’re serious?”

“Yeah, I think so. I have a good feeling about it, for some reason.”

“You know what, sure, why not? It’s yours, for free, even.”

Balthazar picked up the horned helmet from the junk pile, the worn out iron one, with a small dent and crack on the forehead, and gave it to the confident adventurer, who promptly put it on his head.

“Alright, I’m ready!” he said, taking the sword from the golem and holding it up with both hands, striking a power pose before making his way back out the bazaar, his fighter friend quickly running behind so she wouldn’t lose sight of him.

As they ran out, a small group of adventurers came in with Rye looking for aid.

Madeleine and Druma tended to their needs as more came pouring in and out, all seeking to resupply in either stamina, mana, arrows, or whatever else the crab’s bazaar could spare, all while the battle continued raging on outside.

As the small groups of adventurers came in and out, Balthazar would list them the weak spots on a dragon’s body off an old tome of knowledge he had found under the rubble of his roof, tell the archers where they should position themselves for better support, and even draw quick formation patterns on the wooden floor with the tip of his claw for the brawlers and magic types to advance on the field.

The thing that felt strangest to the crab wasn’t how naturally all of that was coming from him, it was the fact that they were listening to him and following his plans.

Maybe what those dim-witted adventurers were missing all along was the right crab to lead them.

And sell them all the right items at the right prices, of course.

“They’re putting up a good fight out there,” said Rye, a hint of hope returning to his expression as he helped the crab distribute more stacks of arrows.

But suddenly, a thunderous boom came from outside, and they all rushed to look over the fence.

The dragon had taken flight once more, beating its wings as it hovered above the adventurers.

“ENOUGH!” it roared.

Its neck began glowing as it opened its maw, and a torrent of flames swirled from within, ready to be unleashed upon the crowd beneath.