Merchant Crab

Chapter 195: Eye on the Prize

Balthazar’s groggy eyestalks jolted awake as he realized his precious gold bar was gone. Jumping onto his eight legs with a start, the crab looked around frantically,

The crab gave the one-eyed creature a stink eye of his own before exhaling sharply.

“Never mind that. Point is, I’m a giant crab and I became a merchant, so who says a colorblind cyclops can’t become a blacksmith?”

“The people from the village,” Brontus said, still with a blank expression on his face.

“Well, aside from those fools—”

“Me pa says so too.”

“What?”

“And me ma as well. They both say me should get a real job, like cave guard, or siege stone hurler.”

“Yes, well, that’s really—”

“There’s also me cousins saying me stupid for me dream. And me childhood friends. Me girlfriend too. And me ex-girlfriend. And her sister. The village beggar. The—”

“Alright! Enough!” Balthazar exclaimed, throwing his arms up. “Geez, kid, you need better friends… Maybe a better family too, while you’re at it.”

Letting out a long sigh, the crab walked closer to the sitting cyclops and placed a pincer on his shoulder—without pinching it this time.

“Look,” Balthazar started, in a more calm tone. “If I can give you a pinch of advice, do not listen to what others say you can or cannot do. I didn’t. Sure, it landed me in some hot water sometimes, but it also got me further than I ever dreamed of getting. Certainly much further than anyone would ever expect a crab from the side of the road could.”

Brontus stared at the merchant with his big, shiny eye and nodded slowly.

“But… don’t that mean me should not listen to what you saying now?”

Balthazar squinted his eyestalks and swallowed a groan of frustration.

“Just… don’t listen to what others have to say. How’s that?”

The creature’s face opened up into a big, dumb smile. “Me get it now!”

“Great…” the crab said, letting go of the cyclops and turning away.

He stared at his Backpack of Holding Stuff & Things for a moment before letting out another sigh.

The merchant reached all the way into the bag with a pincer, fishing around for something. What exactly, he did not yet know.

“Hold up,” he said to the cyclops as his claw found an item to grab. “I’ve got something for you.”

“You do?” the cyclops said with surprise.

“Yes,” the crab said as he pulled his arm out of the magical backpack. “I want you to have this…”

His eyestalks rose as he looked at the item in his pincer.

It was a tool.

Or at least Balthazar thought it was a tool.

It was hard to tell, on account of it being just a wooden handle with nothing else attached to it.

“Uh… this… tool.”

“Oooooh,” the impressed creature howled. “What kind of tool is it?”

The crab glanced at the useless shaft he was holding for a moment. “Why, it’s a smithing tool, of course.”

Brontus nodded with a thoughtful frown.

“Hmm, yes… but a tool to do what?”

“Many things!” the merchant said confidently. “It can serve multiple purposes of different kinds. It’s a very versatile tool. Every legendary blacksmith you've ever heard of has held one of these before, I assure you.”

The aspiring smith’s single eyebrow rose. “Really? Woah… Does it have a name?”

Balthazar looked at the completely unremarkable wooden handle again.

“Sure it does. It’s called… uh… Sundry!”

“Ooooh,” the cyclops said as he received the piece of worn wood into his hands. “I will become a master blacksmith for sure now that I wield the legendary Sundry! Thank you, crab!”

“Yeah, sure, don’t mention it,” the merchant said with a slightly awkward smile.

As Balthazar was about to close his backpack and strap it back onto his shell, his eyes spotted another item peeking out from it.

It was the used-up Golemancer’s Mark that Tweedus had given him to get inside the forge.

“Hey, Brontus, catch,” the crab said before tossing him the stony hexagon.

The cyclops caught the mark with his hands and looked at it, confused. “What is this?”

“It’s a chunk of metallic rock or something. It used to have some kind of magical effect in it, but I already used that up, so now it’s kind of useless. I figured you could use it to practice your smelting or whatever.”

Brontus brought the brown stone up to his nose and gave it a big sniff. As he did it, his eye went wide.

“This is good material!”

“It is?” the merchant said, cocking an eyestalk.

“Me nose knows!” the grinning brute said. “Thanks! Me go now! Me want to show master what me find! Bet master will be impressed and teach me smithing now!”

Without waiting for any goodbyes, the cyclops turned around and headed off into the forest, trampling bushes and breaking twigs as he went.

“Such a random encounter,” Balthazar muttered to himself as he strapped his backpack to his shell and started going back the same way he came. “At least I got my gold ingot back. That’s what—Bah!”

A figure stepped out of the woods in front of the crab, startling him.

“Rye!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?!”

“I woke up and you were missing, so I came looking for you,” the young adventurer replied.

“Oh, I… Hmm… How long have you been there?” the merchant asked awkwardly.

“Long enough,” Rye said, cracking a smile. “It’s nice to see you’ve learned to make new friends.”

“Oh, shut up!” said the crab. “That was a business opportunity, that’s all.”

“Mhmm, sure,” the archer said. “That’s why you gave him those things for free, right?”

Balthazar frowned in annoyance. “Not for free. That was an investment. It will pay off… at some point. In the future. You’ll see. I’m the merchant here, not you. You wouldn’t understand the intricacies of my business strategies.”

“If you say so,” said the young man, turning back to the woods with a sly grin on his face.

The crab went with him back to their camp, still frowning.

“Seriously, if you tell anyone back home about this, I’ll snip that ponytail of yours right off!”

“I wouldn’t dare to breathe a word,” Rye replied with a chuckle.

And so the crab and his friends got back on the road, traveling north along the coast for another three days and three nights, until they finally arrived at the foot of the mountain where the dragon had been seen.

The beast’s lair was finally within reach, and inside it, hopefully, Madeleine.