Merchant Crab-Chapter 213: Kicking Rocks

About an hour later, the crab stood by the edge of his pond, idly kicking rocks into the water as he stared down at the moon’s reflection on the surface. Were he a human with pockets, his pincers would likely be firmly buried inside them.

After trying everything he could think of to make his friends understand the origin of his peculiar abilities and the system behind them, Balthazar had no option but to accept it as a lost cause. They were completely unable to acknowledge the existence of the system no matter how he tried to explain it to them.

It seemed whatever mysterious power clouded the mind of every adventurer about their otherworldly origins also made sure to keep every local clueless about the system behind levels, skills, and everything else around them.

Every local except Balthazar.

But why me? He thought to himself.

“Nice moon tonight, eh?” a young man’s voice said, breaking Balthazar away from his thoughts.

The crab glanced back to see Rye walk to the edge of the water next to him, both hands in his pockets.

At least he had pockets, the lucky devil.

“Do you think any of what I said got through to them at all?” the merchant asked, eyes back on the pond.

“Honestly? No, I don’t think so,” Rye replied. “They’re clearly under their own kind of blocking effect from the system. Similar to how I was until that day in Condor.”

Balthazar sighed. “Do you think whatever concoction the Birdwatchers gave you would work on them?”

Rye pondered for a moment.

“I can’t be sure, but my guess would be no. They seem like two different effects on a different kind of… being. Whatever those guys brewed is probably suited for an adventurer’s mind fog, not for a local’s… mind block? Besides, would we really want to put Madeleine and the others through the experience of drinking that stuff? I know I wouldn’t.”

Giving the archer a quick glance, Balthazar thought back to the day they met with Ruby under the ruins of Condor, the painful reaction Rye had to the concoction, and the way the young man seemed forever changed after that experience.

“No, you’re right, I wouldn’t,” the merchant said. “Who knows what kind of terrible effects giving that stuff to a local could have.”

“Exactly. Thankfully, I doubt they go around giving that tea to just anyone. That would be really irresponsible,” said the adventurer.

“Heh. Considering some of the colorful locals I’ve met these past few months, I wouldn’t want to find out how much crazier they would get if given that weird brew. It might make them lose their marbles for good.”

They both chuckled in a slightly nervous way.

An awkward silence settled between the young man and the crab. Balthazar kicked a few more rocks into the water as he continued gazing emptily at the depths of his pond. Rye joined him, booting a round pebble into the water as his shoulders slumped forward, hands still in his pockets.

“So what do you intend to do now?” the adventurer asked after a while. “They didn’t seem to comprehend the whole system thing, but were really sold on the idea of you being an ascendant or whatever.”

Balthazar scoffed.

“I’ve got nothing to do with myths or legends. I’m a merchant trying to make coin. Don’t want anything to do with any heroics or adventurer nonsense. I’ll just carry on with business as usual. You can’t say I didn’t try telling them the truth.”

Rye let out a long sigh as he rolled his shoulders back. After a moment, he gazed at the dungeon entrance on the other side of the pond.

“We also still have that to worry about,” he said, gesturing with a nod toward the tunnel. “Any news from it yet?”

Balthazar told the archer about the parties of adventurers that went in, and the one that came out, badly beaten by the skeletons inside.

“Hmm, that makes sense,” the young man said, rubbing the hairs of his goatee.

“It does?” the crab said, cocking an eyestalk.

“Yes. You said the skeletons inside were around level 30. Very few things around this part of the continent are higher than level 20, which is why most adventurers move on to other areas once they level up beyond that. The average Ardville dweller isn’t going to be prepared to take on a dungeon this difficult. This only makes that place all the more strange. What is a dungeon like this doing here of all places?”

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Balthazar shrugged.

“I don’t know, but I’d really like to find out.”

Rye squinted at the crab with a gaze of suspicion. “You just want to get to the source of the chocolate, don’t you?”

“And the treasure,” the merchant added with a pincer pointed up. “Don’t forget that.”

The adventurer chuckled, and the crab joined him. After a moment, Balthazar glanced at the young man again.

“You’re level 28 now. Are you thinking of giving the mysterious Semla Dungeon a go?”

The archer grimaced slightly.

“There’s this itch in me that makes me want to explore it, yes—I think it’s something no adventurer can avoid—but at the same time, I feel other responsibilities now. I want to find out more about what brought me here and why. I also want to make sure Madeleine is safe. That nothing like that day with the dragon happens again with me being powerless to stop it.”

Balthazar nodded quietly.

“But,” Rye continued, “I also can’t shake the feeling that both of those things involve finding out more about this mountain.”

“So you’re going in there?”

The archer crossed his arms, contemplating the gaping hole on the side of the mountain.

“Not alone, that’s for sure.”

The merchant’s gaze followed the adventurer’s, and he stared at the tunnel for a moment too, considering something he had never really stopped to think about before.

“Hey, how come I’ve never seen you in a party with other adventurers?” he asked.

Rye uncrossed his arms and leaned down to pick up a small stone off the ground.

“Oh, I tried joining other newbies like me early on,” the young man said, weighing the smooth, flat stone in his hand. “Didn’t usually last long, though.”

The crab looked up at the boy, who was not looking back at him.

Balthazar wondered why he felt different from other adventurers the merchant usually met. Was it because they had known each other for a while and gone through so much together? Or could it be because of the effects of the Birdwatcher’s mind fog clearing concoction that made the archer aware of things all those other airheads running around were blissfully ignorant about? Whichever the case, it felt odd to not see an adventurer as a nuisance for once. It was almost… nice.

“Why not?” the curious crustacean asked. “Didn’t take you for someone who dislikes having others around. I thought that was more my thing.”

Rye chuckled as he pulled his arm back.

“No, nothing like that. I just never really found a team I fit in with. Most other adventurers only care about slaying and looting. It’s all about getting treasure and gaining more experience to level up.” He took a swift swing forward with his arm and sent the flat stone flying over the pond’s surface, making it skip on the water more than half a dozen times before it finally sank with a loud plop. “I’ve always been more fond of exploring new places, seeing the amazing sights this world has to offer, and enjoying every new thing I find. Leveling up is nice and helpful, but has always been a secondary thing for me.”

“Nice. You gotta teach me how to do that sometime,” Balthazar said, watching the ripples left by the skipping rock. “So, how do you intend to explore this dungeon if you don’t have a party and don’t want to go in alone?”

“I’m not sure yet,” the archer replied as he started looking for another rock. “I may have to try finding a few other adventurers with good sense and decent experience to join me.”

The crab let out a loud cackle. “Hah! Good luck with that.”

Rye forced a half-smile as he sifted through some stones in the gravel.

“What about you? Are you not planning to go back in? If you and your party went in, I wouldn’t mind joining.”

Balthazar pondered for a moment. “I don’t know. I thought about it, after those other guys came back out and I realized that if I want something done right I probably need to do it myself.”

“You should!” Rye said. “If I could find a couple of decent adventurers too in addition to your guys, I think we could stand a good chance of getting somewhere in there.”

“You think so?” asked the crab.

“Of course!” replied the adventurer. “Especially with Bouldy on our side. Isn’t he like level 30 or something?”

“Level 40, actually.”

“Even better!” exclaimed Rye, bouncing a stone up and down on his hand. “He would be a great asset on our side and make the whole thing a lot easier, I’m sure.”

The young man’s suggestion kept swelling in Balthazar’s mind, like a souffle soaring in the oven. Maybe he was right. Maybe they should all go into the dungeon together and get to the bottom of the mystery. After all, what couldn’t the crab and his friends achieve together?

“You know what? You’re right,” the merchant said with a snap of his claw. “Why leave the task to some dim-witted adventurers who don’t know what they’re doing? We should get our own expedition party going and find the source of the choc—I mean, the source of this mystery!”

The archer clapped his hands together and smiled.

“That’s the spirit! But hey, speaking of Bouldy, where is he anyway? He hasn’t made it back home yet?”

“Nope. Not yet,” replied the crab.

“It’s been a few days,” said Rye, raising an eyebrow. “Aren’t you worried something happened on the way here?”

Balthazar looked up at the sky. After everything he had been through to get his friend back, he would have expected to be extremely worried about his whereabouts or whether something might have happened to him and Pebbles.

Yet, he felt not a worry in his heart.

“Nah,” the crab said to the archer, his gaze still up on the pale moon above as he smiled. “Don’t ask me how, but I just know that wherever Bouldy is out there, he and Pebbles are doing just fine, and I will see them again soon enough.”