The crab gazed thoughtfully at the stone-like egg, its rough surface looking like the darkened scales of an old lizard, with tiny shimmering specks of crystal appearance refleg light in a blue tohat captivated him to no end.

  Balthazar knew little about eggs, especially of that kind. Despite having presumably hatched from one himself, he never really had ao educate him on such matters. He once found a se in a book that talked about crab mating and crab roe, but the details of that are best left untouched, for they would not be family friendly.

  What he also knew was that eggs were where birds came from, but somehow he was certain what he had there was not a bird’s egg. It was too… beautiful to be that.

  However, as much as Balthazar despised the wretched flying creatures, one small thing he had to cede about them: their eggs were essential to the making of most of his favorite pastries.

  Which made the act of crag an egg all the more satisfying. One tributes to the making of a delicious baked good, while at the same time preventing another of the wretched creatures from ever even being born. He was sure there was some saying that could be made out of that there, something to do with birds, aing two for one, but the crab couldn't think of anything specific at that moment, so he figured it would be best to leave it for ter.

  Debating whether he was more fasated by its glimmer, or his curiosity about what was inside, Balthazar picked up the egg and weighed it up and down.

  “Hmm, pretty heavy. Doesn’t feel hollow at all.”

  Curiosity won, and the crab decided he o know what that thing tained.

  Struggling to his iron pincer around the egg, he used his silver cw, carefully adjusting the position until it was firmly secure in his grasp.

  “Alright, now just a little squeeze to make it crack…”

  Balthazar pressed once.

  Balthazar pressed twice.

  At the third press he was already straining to squeeze any harder, and the hard stone surface was showing no signs of giving in to his mighty pincer.

  “What the hell is this made of?” he said with a slight panting.

  With the ping approach produg s, Balthazar tried bashing the top of it with the blunt side of his right pincer.

  Growing increasingly annoyed with each strike, the crab hammered at the thing over and over, without so much as a dent being made.

  “No wohis thing passed through so many hands,” the flustered crusta said. “I bet none of them could do anything with it, so they just kept selling it to the sucker.”

  Refusing to accept defeat, aermio prevail where less clever humans failed, he sidered what other ways he could try to get to his prize.

  Balthazar looked over to Bouldy. The golem would likely be able to crush the thing with just one hand, but brute force would probably not be the right approach there, as whatever was inside would probably end up destroyed, too.

  As he often did, the crab thought back to all the books he had retly read, looking for the one piece of information that might help him crack the case.

  With a snap of his left pincer, Balthazar perked up. “That’s it!”

  He hurriedly crossed the bridge with the egg.

  The mert had found very early on that he wasn’t destio be a baker himself, or a cook, given his ck of puny, delicate hands, but there were still times where he would read a cookbook, even if just to pass the time, when every other piece of literature was already ed.

  It was a basic recipe from one such book that he remembered. Out of the many ways humans had to prepare eggs, baking was just ohey’d fry them, stir them, and even… boil them.

  That had to do the trick. If he were to boil the hard egg in hot water for long enough, it would eventually soften up, and who knows, perhaps he’d find what he was really hoping for all along: a rare aic delicacy. After all, if eggs were present in so many of his beloved pastries, they would likely be delicious on their own, too.

  Besides, eating it might send a powerful message to any passing birds.

  Asserting dominance was important.

  Taking an iron grill and pg it over the coals of the fire pit, the crab then used a few strikes of his cw against a stoo set some tinder abze and start the fire.

  Balthazar grabbed a cooking pot and filled it with water from the pond, before carefully pg it on the grill, over the already crag fire.

  He had ried cooking anything at all, having always enjoyed his meals of fish raw, and ter his pastries made by someone else, but now that he was attempting it, he was surprised at how easy it was.

  “Now just going to wait until the water starts boiling and—“

  [Cooking…]

  The text appeared in front of his eyes as he pced a lid over the pot, much to his surprise.

  “That’s a thing?”

  He wouldn’t have expected such a basic task to have anything to do with the system or any skills, but thought little of it. After all, how hard could boiling an egg be?

  [Cooking failed]

  [Result: [Burned Water]]

  “Burned… water?” the incredulous crab repeated. “How the hell is that even possible?!”

  Lifting the lid, Balthazar looked io find the cooking pot empty again.

  “Are you kidding me?! I would think this stupid system would give me helpful skills, not make me fail at basic things!”

  Cursing the system in his thoughts, Balthazar sidered his options once more.

  Since his Cooking skill being an F apparently made him pletely useless at any kind of cooking, he didn’t want to risk trying to boil the egg and losing it forever.

  Then, an idea of how to circumvent the system occurred to him.

  Moving the grill and cooking pot aside, Balthazar picked up the egg and carefully id it over the sizzling coals.

  Waiting for a moment with both pincers in the air over the egg, ready to take it out of the pit at the first sign of dahe crab observed attentively, but appeared in his eyes.

  “Ah, take that!” the proud crusta excimed, to some imaginary presence. “Outsmarted you again! This doesn’t t as cooking.”

  Watg the scaly rock being caressed by the fmes, with still no signs of any ge, Balthazar let out a long sigh.

  “Well, this is b to watch.”

  Startled by a bell toll, the mert snapped out of his egg trao see Rye and Madeleine arriving.

  “You guys are here already? I must have lost track of time,” Balthazar said, looking up at the sun’s position as he walked towards the pair.

  “Yes, we are,” Madeleine said, looking slightly stressed. “Now you tell us what was sent you had some random adventurer deliver me that message and make me e down here on purpose to meet with you when you know I’m up to my neck with orders?”

  “We’re kind of worried, Balthazar,” Rye added. “Is there something bad going on?”

  Balthazar g the archer for a moment. He appeared to be ag as his usual self. Did he even remember their previous versation? Whichever the case, he didn’t seem as disturbed or fused as when they had st seen each other, which was somewhat of a relief.

  “Calm down, you two,” the crab said. “There is something bad going on, but don’t worry, I’ve got a pn. And I’ll need your help in particur, Madeleine.”

  “My help?” she asked, pointing a fi herself while looking puzzled. “With what?”

  “Let’s sit down. It will make sense once I expihing.”

  ***

  An hour had passed, as the trio of spirators discussed Balthazar’s pween ses and slices of pie.

  “Right, so are you two clear on what I io do?” the crab asked, while pg two heavy pouches in Madeleine’s hands.

  “Yes, I guess so,” the baker relutly said. “But I still don’t like that yiving me all this money, Balthazar. This is a lot. It will cover a whole month of rent, and then some.”

  “I’m not giving it to you, Madeleine. You should know by now I’m not the type to be giving money away,” the gilded mert retorted. “This is an advance pay for the lots of work you will do for me in the few days.”

  The girl pouted slightly while looking down.

  “Do you work for free now?”

  She shook her head.

  “Don’t you he money for rent?”

  She nodded.

  “Then stuing. I’m paying you for your services, that’s all. Besides, it's in my best io make sure your business doesn't go under. Who would make me delicious pies and other pastries then?”

  “Fine,” she ceded, in a way that resembled a small child.

  “Told you, stubborn,” Rye said with a shrug and an apologetic smile.

  “I know,” said Balthazar, turning to the young man. “As for you, you got the list of what I hink you’ll be able t them over in time?”

  Rye raised a small piece of part where he had noted what the crab required. “Got it right here. Don’t worry, I’ll get everything.”

  “Excellent,” Balthazar said. “Then it’s settled. Let’s put pio work ahis pn moving.”

  “Sure thing,” said the archer. “I think if I hurry back to town, I could still get a couple of these things before nightfall.”

  “And I o hurry too,” Madeleine added. “I got to finish my remaining orders for tomorrow before I dedicate myself full time to yours. And I also o get a lot of ingredients from the market first thing in the m. I’m going to need so much flour and sugar, not to mention all the eggs.”

  “The egg!” Balthazar shouted, with a sudden jump ihat startled the girl and the boy in front of him.

  The crab hurriedly skittered his way to the fire pit. “Oh no, oh no. I pletely fot about the egg!”

  “What egg? What are you talking about?” a fused Rye asked.

  “This thing!” an exasperated Balthazar said, pointing to the charred bck ro the middle of the fire as the other two moved closer.

  “That’s an egg?” the archer questioned.

  “What were y to do with it?!” the founded baker said.

  “First, I tried to crack it open, but that didn’t work,” the crab expined, while attempting to fan the fmes down, but only stoking them even higher. “So then I tried to boil it, or cook it, or something that would let me open the damn thing. Most of the stuff you make uses eggs. I figured there was a good ce it would be a delicacy!”

  “What?!” Madeleine said. “That’s not how it works, and that’s not how you cook eggs either, Balthazar!”

  “Guys…” Rye said.

  “Will you two stop and just help me get it out of the fire?!”

  “Guys?”

  “Stop fanning the fire. You’re making it worse!”

  “Guys!”

  “What?!” the crab and the baker said in unison.

  “Why is it shaking?” Rye said, pointing at the egg in the fire pit.

  The other two turned back to look at the fire.

  As the e fmes swirled around the surface of the rugged shell, some of them briefly fred blue. With an increasing shaking, a craed he top of the egg.

  The trio watched with bated breath as the crack spread, until finally a thick k fell off, produg a small hole in the surface.

  From within, a scaly blue eyelid opened, revealing a yellow lizard-like eye, looking up at the sky for the first time.