“One hundred and thirty-six… one hundred and thirty-seven… one hundred and thirty… damn it!”

  The crab threw the ba the table with frustration.

  “This was a lot easier to t when I could see totals right in front of my eye.”

  Balthazar was having a hard time adapting baore natural state. After months of being a civilized crab, returning to a more primitive state resenting challenges. Doing basic mathematics like any regur crab was one of them.

  “Maybe I could just go get the monocle for a moment,” he said to himself. “Use it just for a quick peek, then put it right back. I’m sure it would be fine.”

  He looked longingly at the other side of the pond, at his tent where the hiding hole taining the monocle was.

  “No, stop it! Keep it together, Balthazar!” the crab reprimanded. “You’re a big crab who don’t need no system. You do this like the crabs of old used to.”

  He wondered for a moment whether there had ever been any other mert crabs before him. Maybe he was the test in a long and proud lineage of ercial crustas, and they had just been fotten by the history books because none of them could write with their pincers. And obviously, humans ’t be trusted to keep records of proper crab legends.

  And then he wondered if he was the first crab with a system, if there had been others before him, and what might have happeo them.

  Shuddering at the thought of one day disappearing, leaving his precious pond abandoned, for someone else to take as their own, Balthazar took a deep breath and swiped the s into his money bag. He would resist the temptation, he would not keep pushing his luck by using that faulty system.

  “One hundred pert anic crab, that’s me.”

  He stopped and looked down at his own pincers and shell.

  “Well, nearly.”

  Avoiding the system was ohing, but going through another painful molting was too much. The e finish would have to stay for the time being.

  As the crab was about to cross the bridge, an adventurer walked into the trading post.

  He was young, but had a tired out look to his face, framed by ratty hair. His body nguage made him seem nervous and jumpy, his arms crossed, hands tightly held under his armpits, eyes darting everywhere, as if looking for something.

  “ I help you?” the suspiert asked.

  The man’s gaze jumped to Balthazar.

  “You, uh… you the mert here?” the jumpy adventurer inquired.

  “Yes, that’s me. Guessing you must be new around these parts, if you gotta ask that.”

  “Nice, uh… nice pce you got here,” the other said, while stepping forward, closer to the crab. “Must be doing well for yourself.”

  “’t pin,” Balthazar said. “Well, I could. And I often do. But never mind that. What are you after? Buying or selling?”

  The odd man tinued looking around and licked his lips before talking.

  “Maybe… maybe selling, yeah. You buy much? Could you afford something expensive?”

  “Depends. If it’s worth it, I might,” said the mert, still eyeing the man up and down. “Why? What do you got?”

  The sketchy adventurer pulled a dagger from the back of his belt and gripped it tightly with his gloved hand, tip fag forward.

  “I got this here dagger,” he said in a low voice, eyes now fixed on the crab. “I think you should give me all your money in exge for not getting stabbed by it.”

  One question occurred to Balthazar at that moment: “really?”

  First, because he couldn’t believe an adventurer was being idiotiough to rob him, even if he was new around the area.

  And sed, because it had to happely the day he had given up on using the monocle and the system.

  The man didn’t look like much, but looks could be deceiving, and Balthazar had no way to know what level he erhaps having the guts to threaten and attempt to rob him in broad daylight like that meant he was strong enough to do it, or maybe he was just new enough to not know better.

  Without the moo check, giving him a pinewhere painful seemed like a risk.

  Balthazar gnced back towards the other side of the bridge. Could he make it in time? Likely not, he wasn’t built for speed, and the mist was too close to evade.

  Calling for the golem wouldn’t do him much good either, as by the time Bouldy reached them, Balthazar could have already been turned into a crab kebab.

  And using speed charisma seemed like too much of a gamble when having the tip of a bde so close to your soft parts.

  Gng at the table o them, Balthazar sa with his drink from earlier, still unfinished.

  When life gives you lemonade…

  With a quick move of his silver pihe crab grabbed the cup of lemonade and tossed its tents at the face of the robber.

  “Argh! My eyes!” he yelled, raising both hands to his face.

  Balthazar took the opportunity. Making a run for the bridge, he skittered across while shouting to the other side.

  “A little help over here!”

  Druma was o be seen, probably colleg wood from somewhere else nearby.

  Blue zily lifted her head from her pillow, looked at the crab, and the back to napping, much to the crab’s irritation.

  Bouldy stood up from the sandy shore and looked towards the bridge.

  “Get over here!” the panting mert yelled at the golem.

  Gng back over his shell, he saw the furious adventurer wiping the liquid off his fad look for the crab through squinting eyes. Grinding his teeth, the man started sprinting after him through the bridge, dagger still in hand.

  “Friend?” Bouldy asked, as he met Balthazar at the end of the bridge.

  “Not… not friend! Bad man... Keep him away from… from me!” Balthazar straio say between gasps for air.

  Unfortunately, a diet of pastries and a plete ck of cardio made for a very out of shape crab who bees winded from a short run for his life.

  Bouldy took a rge step over the crab and stood between him and the bridge.

  When the running adventurer got to the end of the footpath, he stopped in front of the boulder that blocked his way, squinting his bloodshot eyes to focus on what was in front of him.

  As his vision cleared, he slowly looked up, until the boulder’s face, which had no smile to offer, met him.

  “Oh shi—”

  With one swift flick of his stone fihe golem sent the robber shooting back towards the trading post until a stack of wooden crates stopped him with a loud crash.

  The pond remained a profanity-free area for another day.

  “Oof, thanks for the assist, buddy,” the crab said, taking a deep breath.

  “Friend,” said the golem, giving a smile and a thumbs up.

  “Boss, boss!” yelled the goblin, running in from the e of the pond with his staff in hand. “Druma hear screaming. What happen?”

  “Oh, I’m afraid you’re te to the party,” Balthazar responded. “Some idiot had the bright idea of robbing me. Don’t worry, it’s already been taken care of, thanks to Bouldy.”

  The mert looked down at the red cushion where Blue was lying, head resting over her wings, eyes barely open, zily looking at the otion around her as if offehat her nap was being interrupted.

  “No thanks to you!” Balthazar pined. “I could have been stabbed, you know?”

  The drake closed her eyes again auro her nap. For a creature with wings for arms, and the ability to breathe fire, she was quite good at giving the cold shoulder.

  “Hmph, one day something will really happen to me and then you’ll miss me,” the resentful crab muttered.

  He turo the goblin, who utting the staff on his back again.

  “Druma, get some rope and tie that moron up. I’ll ask the adventurers who pass by to take him up to town ahem deal with it. I’ll join you in a moment.”

  While the goblin scampered to the other side of the bridge and the golem returo his fish gazing, the crab went into his tent and lifted the cover over his hiding hole.

  Pig up his monocle, he stepped back outside and peered through the lens, fog on the unscious adventurer being tied up by the goblin oher side of the pond.

  [Level 4 Rogue]

  “Are you kidding me?! I could have just pihe dagger out of his hand!”

  ***

  Later that day, Balthazar sat by the water, biting away at a rge chocote chip cookie, still in a sour mood.

  “What a stupid idea!” he started, crumbs flying out of his mouth as he spoke. “How am I supposed to do anything now without all this system stuff? It’s too ingrained into everything I do. I’m just another crab without it. A very smart and handsome crab, sure, but not much else.”

  He picked a pebble with his silver pincer and threw it at the pond in frustration. The stone skipped three times on the surface before sinking with a loud plop.

  “I could never even do that before!” the crab pined, looking at his left pincer. “And it’s all thanks to this system. Blessing, curse, I don’t even know anymore. I just know I’m stuck with it now. Depe on it like an addict. Me! Who never had an addi in his life!”

  Balthazar shoved another cookie in his mouth before tinuing.

  “I shouldn’t have listeo you. Trying to ighis thing would never work.”

  The golem sittio him on the shore tilted his head, puzzled. “Friend?”

  “Just imagine how bad things could go ter when that taxman es back here, and I’m not using every advantage I .”

  The crab shook his head and readjusted his monocle as he chewed.

  “Fine, you win, system,” Balthazar said, to nobody in particur. “We will have to just learn to live with each other. That means you o stop crapping out ooo.”

  Hesitantly, he pressed the level up prompt in the er of his vision, as if expeg it to blow his eyes up.

  His eyes remained intact, unsurprisingly.

  “Well, I guess let’s just get this over with,” the crab said while navigating through his attributes and skills. “Intelligence is a no-brainer. I need as much of it as I against su enemy as that ior.”

  Increasing his Intelligence from 20 to 21, Balthazar felt exactly as he did before: an unappreciated genius of trade.

  “I really hope that makes an actual difference,” he said with a sigh. “And as for skills… I’ll just hope for the best and py it safe. Time to get that rank A Speech.”

  Finishing his skill allocation and closing all the menus, Balthazar stared off into the distance.

  “I’m really going to need all the finesse and ing I muster to beat that tax ior tomorrow.”

  H0st