Merchant Crab

Balthazar rushed to the clay container as Druma set it down on the floor, mouth salivating in anticipation. He had sent his assistant out on a mission earlier that day—to find and collect as much of the chocolate as he could from the area around Boulder’s Point.

The merchant did not know exactly how, but the chunks that flew out and the rivers of chocolate that flowed down from Semla Mountain had somehow missed the crab’s pond entirely in their path of delicious destruction after its eruption. The same could not be said about everywhere else around the mountain.

Large fragments of petrified fudge were scattered all around the fields, some even reaching the neighboring plains. Brown puddles of bubbling chocolaty goodness dotted the base of the mountain all around. Looking in the distance toward the Black Forest revealed that even the trees there had been sprinkled with a shower of sweet delight.

There was chocolate everywhere, ripe for the taking, and Balthazar had no intention of letting it go to waste.

With gluttony in his eyes, the crab peered over the basin, head filled with images of all the treats Madeleine would soon prepare for him with the chocolate.

To say nothing of all the gold he would make selling genuine “Volcanic Chocolate” to every adventurer passing through. It was always a good day when something fulfilled the merchant’s two biggest life goals—eating and trading.

Balthazar’s excitement quickly turned into a frown as he saw the chocolate up close.

There was dirt all over it, small branches and dead leaves sticking out of some of the solidified chunks, and most of the chocolate seemed to be mixed with copious amounts of ash.

“What the hell is this?” the crab said, picking up a piece of chocolate with his pincer and examining the tiny pebbles and gravel fused with it.

Balthazar’s shell dropped slightly. “So it’s all dirty like this?”

His assistant gave him an affirmative shrug. “Druma think is fine, if boss just eat around rocks and leaves.”

The merchant cocked an eyestalk at him, but reluctantly brought the small piece of chocolate up to his mouth and took a small nibble.

“Pwah!” Balthazar exclaimed, spitting it out immediately. “Pfft! It’s full of ash!”

Druma looked at his boss and then down at the container full of dirty chocolate chunks. Once again, he shrugged, and grabbed a piece from the basin.

“Druma think it still good!” the goblin said, taking a big bite of chocolate and smiling at the crab with a brown toothy grin.

Balthazar looked at his assistant with a slight wince.

The crab might be a wild animal, but he still had standards. Chocolate tainted with dirt and other debris was just not going to work for him.

Dang it. I should have seen this coming. The molten chocolate flowed down through rocky cliffs, over muddy fields, and between bushes and trees. Of course it was going to pick up all sorts of trash. Not to mention all the ash that fell into it. I’m never going to get all of that out!

He stared thoughtfully at the chocolate samples in the clay container. All that chocolate outside his home, and none of it was edible. The simple thought of such a waste made the crab feel weary. What cruel twist of fate, that he would be surrounded by so much delicious sweetness, and not a chunk to eat. Like a parched castaway lost at sea, with water all around him but not a drop to drink.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

While the goblin continued to happily chew away at the tainted cocoa, Balthazar began pondering.

All that spilled chocolate was no good, but he knew there was still more inside the mountain. Even now the volcano continued to spill forth small trickles of brown liquid from its summit, just in a much less violent manner after the first eruption.

Collecting it as it reaches the surface isn’t really practical. The merchant considered.

Not only was the mountaintop too far up for anyone to reach without a long and treacherous climb, but bringing any cargo down would be a challenge. Even for someone capable of flying, like Blue, the danger would still be too great. The smoke was thick up there, probably making the already thin air unbreathable, and the extreme heat would be a hazard. Even if the drake could tolerate it thanks to being a draconic creature, it’s not as if she could collect the chocolate all on her own. She lacked a pair of dexterous pincers. Or at the very least opposable thumbs, inferior as they were.

No matter what angle Balthazar considered, getting the chocolate from the volcano’s mouth was simply too reckless and impractical.

That just leaves my original plan.

The merchant turned to look through his bazaar’s back door, toward the dungeon entrance on the other side of his pond.

Getting to the chocolate at its source was the only option. If he could find where the sweet substance was originating from, he would be able to claim it for himself at its purest form.

But that means I’ll have to count on those nincompoops to clear those halls.

Balthazar groaned internally. Relying on adventurers was the last thing he wanted to do. Most of them probably did not even know how to tie their own boots without having to use a skill scroll to learn it first.

“Well, the chocolate itself was a disappointment,” the crab said to his assistant, “but you did good, Druma. Thanks.”

The happy goblin nodded vigorously as he finished swallowing a mouthful of dirty chocolate, his oversized wizard hat bobbing precariously on his head as usual.

The merchant raised an eyestalk at the piece of gear, giving it a look through his golden monocle.

[Hat of Enlightenment]

[+2 Intellect]

“Hmm,” he mused, recalling the day he inherited that piece of headwear from a young wizard who had experienced an unfortunate encounter with the hard ground outside his pond.

Back then, long before Balthazar had even met Druma yet, he had attempted to wear the hat, but of course, the system had not allowed him to do so. Now that he had gained a trait for it, he was sure he would be able to equip it.

He watched his loyal assistant as he carried the basin away, a big grin on his scrawny face as always.

Nah. I couldn’t take it away from the poor guy. What would I need 2 extra Intellect for anyway?

Dismissing his thoughts with a small wave of his pincer, the crab turned around and stepped outside.

“At least a dozen adventurer parties have gone inside that dungeon since this morning,” he said. “I wonder how long until we will hear anything back about what they found.”

Balthazar walked down the short path to the water as he took his monocle and put it back in his waist pouch, safe and sound where it wouldn’t get knocked off his eyes and shattered like the last one.

Standing by the edge of the pond with his claws held together behind his back, the merchant stared off into the distance, taking a deep breath and feeling the fresh air of his home that he had missed so much.

It was shaping up to be an extremely cold winter. The chill and subsequent shiver that ran down his chitin told him so.

Balthazar did not remember ever feeling the cold bothering him like that, but he chalked it up to the burdens of getting old.

“Hmm?” he said, his gaze caught by movement coming from the dungeon’s entrance across the water.

A group of humans was coming out of the dark tunnel, led by an adventurer in a sleeveless vest. It was the first group of adventurers that had gone inside that morning.

“Aha! They’re back already,” said the crab, hurrying to meet them, eager to learn about their findings as he was.

But as the party got closer and he took a better look at them, Balthazar realized something was wrong and he frowned.

“The hell happened to them?!”