Balthazar woke up just as the sun appeared over the horizon.

  Hurriedly stuffing some leftover pie from the previous night in his mouth, the crab rushed his way across the bridge to the trading post.

  John, the carpenter, had promised to e down to the pond first thing in the m to get started on the roof, and Balthazar wao be up and running business before he got there. He would have no Ardville citizen running gossip about him being a zy crab who didn’t start his work day early. He wouldn’t give them that satisfa. Appearances matter.

  Sunlight was barely reag into the area yet, making it harder for Balthazar to find his feather duster amid the mess of items between some boxes. His pn was to give some shelves a good dusting before the old man arrived, and give a look of having been up for a while, w sihe early hours.

  If the inhabitants of the nearby town were going to talk about him, he’d make sure they’d talk about how much of a hard worker the crab was.

  And perhaps how good his shiny shell looked as well.

  “Aha!” he excimed, finally finding his duster shoved ihe leg of a tall steel boot.

  Grabbing the feather duster with his silver pincer, Balthazar turo finding a good spot to when a gravelly voice startled him.

  “M, crab.”

  “Bah!” Balthazar yelled out, his duster flying off his pincer as he saw a rge, shadowy figure appear by the entrance of his trading post, the faint light of the dawning sun not yet reag into that er.

  “Didn’t mean to scare ya,” John’s husky voice said, as he stepped forward out of the shade and picked up the duster that had nded near his feet. “Thought you’d be up and about by now, so I figured I’d e down early to get started on things.”

  “Right, yes,” Balthazar said, trying to pose himself after nearly having a heart attack that was in no way reted to his diet of mostly sweets. “I’ve been up for a while now, dos of things while waiting, even. I was just so focused on ing up that I didn’t hear you approag, that’s all. I’m wide awake.”

  “Now you surely are,” the man said, with a benevolent smile between his thick grizzly beard, as he hahe duster back to the crab. “If your fels are up too, I could get started on the first pilr.”

  “Uh, well, Bouldy won’t be a problem,” the mert said, taking the duster and gng back towards the tral islet. “That one doesn’t actually sleep. But Druma… that one is always hard to wake up early in the—”

  “M, boss!” the cheerful and wide awake goblied as he suddenly came hopping into the trading post. “Druma ready to work!”

  “What the…” the surprised crab excimed. “Since when do you willingly wake up this early?”

  “Druma ’t sleep,” the green helper said, tapping his feet, his oversized hat boung up and down on his head. “Druma want to help John and learn to work wood better.”

  Somehow, even after all that time, the small gobliement over things still mao surprise Balthazar. And not in a bad way.

  “Well then, good on you, Druma,” the crab said, before turning back to the old man. “Guess that means you got all you o get started.”

  “No wastin’ more time then,” John said, stepping forward towards the first er. “Sunlight doesn’t st forever. We got a lot of work to do before we got ourselves a proper roof.”

  Balthazar looked over at the sky. The m light was only now finally beginning to spread across the pond and fully turning night into day.

  Calling the golem over to join the group, the crab approached the area outside the trading post where they would be w. The tree trunks his two workers had previously gathered were piled horizontally on the ground, with many other smaller pieces of wood grouped nearby, o a cutting board, a work table, and a paraphernalia of other w materials that Druma had thrown together the day before uhe carpenter’s orders.

  “Alright,” John said, putting down his heavy toolbox on the w table and unlog it. “We’re going to start by turning those tree trunks into proper w pieces of wood for the support beams. That’s where the big guy will e in. With his strength to move them around easily and a good saill get that done in no time. Meanwhile, the little guy get started on digging a hole for the foundations. If you want a roof that doesn’t get toppled with the first gust of wind that hits it, you o have a proper, solid foundation.”

  Bouldy began lifting one of the trunks up onto his shoulder, while Druma quickly grabbed a shovel and made his way to the area where the first beam would be.

  “Alright, and what about me? Do you need me to do something?” Balthazar asked. “Maybe trae pns? Stand on some high vantage point and call out instrus? Go around making sure everyone works well together?”

  The man chuckled.

  “Nah, I think we’ll work better without a foreman walking around the build site,” he said. “Sorry. Without a forecrab. Let me do my thing and you do yours. Feel free to do your business and trading while we work. I’ll let you know if we need a pincer with something.”

  The carpenter adjusted his smoking pipe into work mode and began rolling up his sleeves.

  “Well, if you’re sure… I guess I’ll be over there,” Balthazar said, slowly walking away.

  He wasn’t necessarily ied in doing any manual bor, but he still didn’t quite enjoy being excluded from the group activity.

  Long had been the way sihat lone crab who would loathe the idea of sharing the same space with anyone, let alone doing things in a group.

  If Balthazar didn’t take care, others might start getting the idea he even enjoys having pany.

  Couldn’t have that. hing he khey’d be expeg a dist.

  Freeloaders, the lot of them.

  And right on cue, as the crab returo the ptform, an adveepped through the entrance.

  He was an imposing man, mainly around the waist area, which was nearly the same size as the crab’s entire circumference. He had a thick mustache and his face was sweating profusely as he dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief, despite the ess of that m and his light clothing.

  He wore a loose tunic shirt stained with sweat and very stretched out burp pants, the only piece of armor on him being his steel boots.

  “Holy tarts, he’s ing for my pastries. I better hide them,” the crab whispered under his breath while eyeing him through his monocle.

  [Level 21 Horseman Fighter]

  Balthazar took a moment to pity whatever the man’s mount might be.

  “Oof! Good m, good crab!” the panting maed. “Are you ope?”

  “Hello. Yes, sure. e on in, make yourself at home,” Balthazar responded, before l his voice back to a whisper. “Just please don’t sit on anything.”

  “Oh, thank goodness. I was just heading out onto the road when misforturuck me and my chest armor broke,” the rge adventurer said. “Total loss. All straps on it ripped apart and the lining pletely torn. Unbelievable, it’s the third time it happehis month. I’m never going back to that armorer. Clearly his quality is shoddy.”

  “And then they say I ck self-awareness,” the mert muttered.

  “What’s that?” the man asked.

  “Nothing, nothing. Say, have you sidered that maybe the problem is… well, never mind, not my pake observations. What I do for you?”

  “Well, if it wasn’t obvious enough, I was hoping you had a rept chest piece, so I don’t have to go back up to town.”

  “Chest armor then, is it?” Balthazar hesitantly said. “Sure thing. Let’s see what we get you.”

  The crab looked through his dispyed pieces of armor. Finding something that would fit the man was going to be a challenge.

  “How about this iro pte?” he said, pig up the armor from a shelf and presenting it to the t. “Basic, but guarao protect your… softer areas.”

  “Maybe, maybe,” said the horseman. “I’ll have to try it on first.”

  “Be my guest.”

  The man started pulling at his shirt and undoing the first buttons on it.

  “Aaaaalright, I don’t o see this. I’m going to give you some privacy while you ge and go che some… work.”

  The crab hurriedly skittered away from the se ao che on the progress by the outside er.

  “Hey, guys, how’s the… pilr…”

  Balthazar gazed in surprise at the support beam that had not only already been made, but also pced into the ground and fully held in pce by a solid base built around it.

  “I was… I was just here a few moments ago,” the befuddled crab said. “How in the hell did you guys already do all this while I was away?!”

  “Elbow grease,” said John while putting down his hammer oable. “Your fels here being hard workers helps too.”

  “Yes, but… still… how?” Balthazar asked, fusion spinning around inside his shell.

  “A little help, please?!” a voice yelled from the ter of the trading post.

  Quickly running back, the crab found his t trying his best to fit the iron pte around his rge torso. Unsuccessfully.

  “I ot seem to fasten these straps on the side,” he said, huffing and puffing. “Are you sure this piece is not defective?”

  “Uh, no… certainly not defective, at least not yet,” Balthazar said, looking at the stretg leather with .

  “Well, ’t you do anything? Get a breastpte stretcher or something!”

  “A… what?”

  “A breastpte stretcher!” the stricted maed. “You know, to… adjust the breastpte to my… physique.”

  “I don’t think that’s a thing,” said the skeptical crab.

  “Are you sure? I could swear I heard about them somewhere before,” the adventurer said, his face turning armingly red. “Well then, damn it, help me out of this thing before I stop breathing!”

  Balthazar pulled at the front of the chest piece with all his strength until it finally dislodged itself from the man’s ‘robust’ figure.

  “Oh, phew, that’s a relief,” he said, taking a deep breath and leaning down with his hands on his knees. “Alright, what else you got that is a more… muscur size?”

  “Ehh… I’m afraid this is as big a size as I have,” Balthazar said. “But perhaps something less rigid and a bit more… stretchy?”

  “Alright, firetchy sounds good,” the other said, standing back straight and fanning himself with his hand. “Bring it on.”

  The mert returo the shelf and put away the now very sweaty iron pte while retrieving a brown piece of armor.

  “Here, let’s try this leather doublet.”

  The t put each arm through the doublet with difficulty and then attempted t it together at the front. The leather creaked uhe strain of being stretched over the man’s immeorso. With beads of sweat rolling down his face, he finally mao button it up halfway down the front befiving up doing the rest.

  “Not too bad looking, huh?” he said.

  The white fabric of his tunic earing from the spaces between each button as he moved around, and Balthazar suspected that had the doublet a mouth, it would be screaming for dear life.

  “I like it,” the horseman said. “Gives me a very… athletic look.”

  As he moved to flex an arm, oton at the very front of the doublet suddenly shot out with great force, whizzing right past the crab’s shell and hitting a metal helmet on a shelf with a loud plink.

  They both looked i the button’s trajectory, which shot up after ricocheting off the helmet and hit a bird that was flying by above. With a loud squawk, the bird dropped limp from the sky and nded motionless on the tral islet, right in front of the red cushion where Blue was asleep, startling her awake. The drake lifted her head and looked at the bird first and then around and up, fused by the sudden food delivery.

  “… you do that again?” the baffled crab asked.

  “Bah! It’s no use!” the man said, while angrily taking off the doublet. “This won’t do either. It clearly ot tain my… muscuture. Surely you must have something else?”

  Balthazar gnced back at his shelves. “Hmm… only thing I could imagine might fit you would be some robes, but…”

  “Sure, whatever, just let me try them,” the impatient t said, motioning with his hand for the crab to give them to him.

  The mert gave him the biggest size of robes he had in stod watched as he put them on.

  “Ah! Much better. This fits nicely and is not restrictive at all. Very fortable, too.”

  “Yes, but like I was saying, those are wizard robes.”

  “Hmm, that’s inve. I am a fighter, after all.”

  “What are you fighting? Hunger?” the crab said under his breath.

  “Did you say something?”

  “No, no. Just agreeing that it’s a shame those robes don’t work very well for a fighter.”

  “Hmm,” the man pondered, while looking at his loose sleeves. “Perhaps I should just wear these. What’s the worst that could happen, anyway? I’m a more than capable warrior. I have no need for armor if I never let arike me. Really, if anything, the armor only restricts my agility in bat.”

  “You sure that’s the only thirig it?”

  “That’s it!” the other said, ign the crab’s question. “I shall start a rend! A robed fighter. Ha-ha! People will remember this moment as the beginning of something new, crab. How much for the robe?”

  “I’m sure they will,” Balthazar said. “And the robe costs 15 gold. 16, if you ask me to fold it for you.”

  Pocketing the payment into his money bag, the mert watched his satisfied (with himself) t leave, his s held high as he strutted away in his new wizard robe.

  “Oh well, at least he ’t say I persuaded him into that one,” said the crab, as he walked back to the build site.

  “Where did everybody go?”

  Balthazar looked around, fused by the absence of the carpenter or his assistants, until he looked to the other er of the ptform and saw them all there, with yet another support beam already fully built.

  “How in the hell do all those keep showing up all finished every time I turn around?!”

  H0st