Over the past several months, Balthazar had met all kinds of adventurers at his trading post.

  From the burly type who loved to wield a rge on and talk loudly, to the sneaky ohat liked ging to the shadows and visit during quiet hours so they wouldn't meet others on the road.

  From schorly ones wearing robes, pointy hats, and carrying lots of books written in cryptiguages that held a magics, to the spry ones wearing flexible armor and carrying bows and daggers.

  To the crab, most of them were a necessary nuisance, in order to gain the he so enjoyed colleg. On a while there would be the rare ohat was tolerable, perhaps even some Balthazar liked, although he would never let them know that fact, lest they get the wrongful impression that earns them the privilege of a dist or somethireme like that.

  Despite adventurers ing in all shapes and sizes, ranks and csses, personalities and degrees of annoyance, one fact was always true in all of them.

  The desire to level up.

  To them, it was their entire life's purpose. They all craved that sweet experie them closer to the higher number.

  Be it through sying the biggest beast they could find, or crafting the same item over and ain, there was little those silly humans wouldn’t do tress to the level, just so they could repeat the same process all ain for the number.

  To urpose? Balthazar could not tell.

  For while he had secretly shared their ability to gain levels, he never quite uood what the appeal was. Sure, pig some attributes to improve and a new skill was nid all, but hardly something worth dedig your entire life to.

  Now, pastries and the accumution of wealth? That the humble crab would have uood just fine.

  Which was why the mert watched with mixed feelings as the crowd of adventurers rushed down the hill, charging towards the red dragon with hunger for victory in their gazes.

  They brandished their swords, maces, and axes. They readied their bows and charged their spells. All craving the rewards from sying what was likely the biggest foe most of them had ever id eyes upon.

  “Fools,” the crab muttered. “All of them, plete fools.”

  Throwing his pincers up into a half shrug, Balthazar turo his group.

  “Well, anyway, hopefully they’ll make food distra for us!”

  Rye looked outside while grasping his bow tightly in his hand and a hopeful smile grew on his face.

  “I should get out there ahe fight. Maybe we got a ce, if everyone from the guild came out here to battle it.”

  “What?!” Balthazar excimed. “Not you too! Focus, Rye.” The crab pulled at the young man’s arms with his cws, f the rao look at him. “Fet the stupid levels and remember what’s really important. Who you have to help protect.”

  The adventurer bli the crab for a moment, fused, before turning his gaze to the baker leaning over the bazaar’s railings, looking outside with in her eyes.

  He furrowed his brow. “You’re right, Balthazar. We o get Madeleio safety.”

  “That’s more like it!”

  Outside, the charging adventurers began encirg the dragon as the creature sunk its cws into the dirt of the pins and bared its fangs. Despite their numbers, it was clear the human forces were not enough to intimidate the ferocious beast.

  Of the few standing on the road, two familiar adventurers stepped out of the formation and ran dowh to the bazaar.

  One was a young woman in mixed leather armor with steel parts, while the other was a young man carrying a rge sword strapped to his bad wearing nothing but a loincloth. No shirt, no pants, not even shoes.

  “Crab!” the less modest one called, jogging dowh and waving one arm as he struggled to hold the swainst his back with the other.

  Balthazar stared at Jad Leah with a weirded out look as they ehe gazebo.

  “Hey,” the girl said as she met the mert’s fused gaze. “Don’t even ask. He still refuses to let go of that Sword of Heavy Might.”

  “What are you guys doing here?” asked Balthazar, deg there was no time to get into the boy’s heavy issues.

  “Are you joking?” excimed Jack. “We’re here to sy the dragon, of course! you imagihe experie will give?! And the loot!”

  “And also to help the town and the surrounding inhabitants, like Balthazar here,” Leah quickly added, as she scowled at her friend.

  “ht, of course, that too, sure.”

  Balthazar g the pair through his monocle, not feeling too reassured by their iions.

  [Level 20 Swordsman]

  [Level 19 Fighter]

  “You guys are sure you’re up for that challehe hesitant crab asked. “That’s a mighty dragon out there.”

  “Don’t worry. There’s like a hundred of us here. We got this!” the fident young man said.

  “We’ll do our best, we promise,” said Leah with a sincere smile.

  The naked adventurer adjusted his loincloth and drew his oversized sword.

  “Let’s do it!”

  “Jack, wait, we…”

  But the eager swordsman was already running back up to the road, straining to hold his sword up as he went.

  Leah gave Balthazar’s group an apologetic shrug and pulled out her bow as she chased after him.

  The crab and his four panions looked out towards the road and pins, where the adventurers were charging at the massive dragon.

  First were the barbarians and heavily armored warriors, r as they ran at the creature’s legs with their battleaxes and longswords. The red reptilian was not impressed. Whipping its heavy tail, the level 75 menaocked them all down in one fell swoop.

  “You dare challenge my might?” it roared.

  were those wielding bows, crossbows, slingshots, and any other form ed on.

  Arrows, bolts, and many other projectiles started flying at the dragon like a flock of birds passing in front of the cloudy sky.

  Snarling with irritation, the beast batted one wing from the side, kig up a cloud of dust and blowing back all the ining attacks.

  “Cease this provocation and deliver to me what is mine or you shall all pay the price!”

  Wielders of magic stepped in. Those with healing magics or other forms of support skills came to the aid of the ones felled by the tail whip or wing strike. The rest began casting their attack spells, aiming at the gigantic foe standing before them.

  Fire sizzled, lightning crackled, ice hissed, and a rainbow light show overpowered the glow of the sun itself around the area before they all started slinging their spells in a chaotic cacophony of sounds and blinding fshes.

  The dragon made no move to stop the ining strikes, and for a split sed, it felt as if this charge might be more successful than the previous, but that hope quickly dimmed as the first spells reached their target.

  Bolts of fire hit the rough red scales with no effect, arcs of electricity ricocheted off the creature’s hide, ice shards melted into harmless steam just by ing close to the dragon’s body, and not a single flinch came from the giant lizard.

  For once, Balthazar wished human books had also been wrong about draic creatures' high resistao most forms of magic.

  The spellcasters looked i the inefficy of their magid exged g one another, as if looking for any ideas on what to do .

  “My patience runs thin, humans,” warhe angry dragon. “I have given you plenty of time. I grow tired of your childish attempts at fronting—ARGH!”

  The creature roared in pain and its tail smacked the ground, causing the mages standing closer to it to wobble on their legs and quickly run back to the other adventurers.

  Underh the mighty being was a small human figure, standio one of its legs.

  Jack, in all of his nakedness, had sneaked up on the dragon and nded a blow to its ah his sword, which he was now dislodging from the creature’s flesh with great difficulty.

  “Jack!” Leah called out from the rger group of adventurers. “What are you doing, you fool?! Leave that stupid sword and run!”

  With o pull, the hero in the nude pulled his bde from the dragon and fell ba the ground, just in time to evade the creature’s angry stomping.

  “Your homes shall burn for this, humans!”

  The enraged lizard whipped its tail around, trying to hit the pesky human who dared draw blood from it, but Jack took advantage of the creature’s blind spot underh its body and scurried away into some grass and then through a bush, rolling out onto the road with his precious sword strapped around his sweaty torso.

  “Guys,” Madeleine said, pulling Balthazar out of his spectator trance. “I hate to say it, but I’m not sure even all of those adventurers will be able to hahat dragon.”

  The crab knew she was right. Gng over the groups of adventurers spread around the road and pins, Balthazar could see many numbers above their heads through his monocle, but barely any of them were even close to being half the dragon’s level.

  Despite their quantity, they all cked the individual quality to defeat a level 75 red dragon.

  “Madeleine is right,” Rye said in a defted tone. “None of us stands a ce against that thing. If the whole guild came out and they’ve barely made a scrat it, what’s there left to try?”

  Balthazar exhaled sharply as his mind raced.

  As much as his pride and fidence wao make him say that was no big deal, he khis time was different. They had gotten lucky against the dark mage, and he was only level 35. They had nothing against a dragon that dwarfed even his stone golem in size, that could easily swallow a young drake whole, and they had no magic staff powerful enough to make it even flinothing.

  What was a crab to do against such a threat?

  Balthazar looked at his own golden refle on a shiny ptter in a nearby shelf and frow himself.

  “I’m the boss of this pond, damn it!”

  Balthazar looked up at the furious dragon, as it roared and swung its tail at the dispersing groups of adventurers, trying to swat them away like annoying flies.

  He was not about to let a giant lizard wreck his little slice of heaven and kill off most of his tele just like that. Not while he still had a say in it.

  He brought up his system s and looked at his list of skills. There was still one u skill point there, ever since he reached level 15 and the damhing cimed he had reached the maximum level. He had told himself he would save that point for wheime was right, to use it wisely.

  His wisdom told him that time was now.

  He looked at his skills.

  [Charisma: S(+5)]

  [Medium Armor: A]

  [Speech: A]

  [Reading: B]

  [Fishing: C]

  [Imbuing: C]

  [Leadership: B]

  [Sshing ons: C]

  He khere was no skill he could spend one point on that would ever allow him to defeat a dragon on his own, but thankfully, he was not alone.

  All those people around him in that moment didn’t need a strong crab or even a mert crab. They needed a leader.

  Filled with vi, Balthazar spent his st skill point upgrading his Leadership from a B to an A before turning and fag his friends.

  “Alright, hear me out!” he excimed to the other four. “I ’t believe I’m saying this, but we gotta keep all those adventurers alive.”

  The baker, the rahe goblin, and even the golem stared at the crab, unblinking.

  “Here’s the pn: Druma and Madeleine will start grabbing potions from the crates back there. We should still have a good supply of fire resistaions that we distribute to some of the front line adventurers in case things get heated. Rye, run up to the road ahem know to form a rear guard here to resupply. Health, stamina, mana potions, bandages, quick supplies, whatever they need we’ll provide to keep them in the fight. Just make sure you remind them they’ll still have to pay for them ter! Maybe with a dist, but that’s all! Meanwhile, I’ll coordihings from here while Bouldy covers me. Maybe one of these books I never finished has something about dragon weaknesses.”

  With surprising readiness, the group nodded and quickly started enag Balthazar’s orders.

  Rye ran up to the road, while the rest spread around the bazaar.

  “Hey Balthazar, you guys help us?”

  The crab turo see two figures ing in through the bazaar’s entrance. Leah came in with Jack’s arm over her shoulder as the young man struggled to walk forward, his feet dragging at every step.

  “Hey, crab,” the out of breath adventurer said. “Did you see me striking that dragon out there? Pretty epic, right?” He coughed and winced. “I’m kinda running oy now, though.”

  “He barely walk, let alone lift his damn sword,” said Leah, helping her friend sit down on a nearby chair, his sword falling to the floor o him with a loud g.

  Balthazar reached behind the ter and pulled a small wooden crate with several colorful bottles inside.

  “Here, stamina potion, that will get you ba your feet,” the hurried mert told the swordsman, handing him a rge bottle filled with a green liquid.

  Jack took a swig and his eyes widened as the liquid went down his throat.

  “It must really be the end times, if you’re handing out free items like that,” Leah said, eyebrows raised high.

  “Oh, shut it, will you?” He grabbed two more bottles from the crate, one e, the other white. “Take these too. This is fire resistance. I’m sure you don’t need me to expin that ohe other is something that should help you keep your sword up.”

  Jack frowned. “What is it?”

  “It’s called a Feather Potion. It will increase your carrying capacity, hopefully making—”

  Without hesitation, the young adventurer snatched the bottle from the crab’s pincer and hastily gulped its dense liquid down.

  Shooting up from his seat, Jack stood ba his feet with a smile on his fad a twinkle in his eyes. “I feel good as new! Let’s get back out there and teach that dragon a lesson!”

  Leah looked at her panion with wide eyes. “What the hell was in that potion?”

  “Heh, a little lizardy secret. Don’t worry about it.”

  Standio them, Bouldy leaned down and effortlessly picked the Sword of Heavy Might off the floor with his stony fingers.

  “Friend,” the golem said with a friendly smile, as he offered the bde back to the swordsman.

  “Woah. You’re strong,” said Jack, looking up at the boulder with awe. “Thanks.”

  The young man looked behind the crab, towards some of the broken shelves.

  “Hey, you think I could have that too?” he said, pointing at somethiween the unsorted junk piled o the debris.

  Balthazar turo see what he ointing at. “You’re serious?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I have a good feeling about it, for some reason.”

  “You know what, sure, why not? It’s yours, for free, even.”

  Balthazar picked up the horned helmet from the junk pile, the worn out iron one, with a small dent and cra the forehead, and gave it to the fident adventurer, who promptly put it on his head.

  “Alright, I’m ready!” he said, taking the sword from the golem and holding it up with both hands, striking a power pose before making his way back out the bazaar, his fighter friend quickly running behind so she wouldn’t lose sight of him.

  As they ran out, a small group of adventurers came in with Rye looking for aid.

  Madeleine and Druma teo their needs as more came p in and out, all seeking to resupply iher stamina, mana, arrows, or whatever else the crab’s bazaar could spare, all while the battle tinued raging on outside.

  As the small groups of adventurers came in and out, Balthazar would list them the ots on a dragon’s body off an old tome of knowledge he had found uhe rubble of his roof, tell the archers where they should position themselves for better support, and even draw quiation patterns on the wooden floor with the tip of his cw for the brawlers and magic types to advan the field.

  The thing that felt strao the crab wasn’t how naturally all of that was ing from him, it was the fact that they were listening to him and following his pns.

  Maybe what those dim-witted adventurers were missing all along was the right crab to lead them.

  Ahem all the right items at the right prices, of course.

  “They’re putting up a good fight out there,” said Rye, a hint of hope returning to his expression as he helped the crab distribute more stacks of arrows.

  But suddenly, a thunderous boom came from outside, and they all rushed to look over the fence.

  The dragon had taken flight once more, beating its wings as it hovered above the adventurers.

  “ENOUGH!” it roared.

  Its neck began glowing as it opes maw, and a torrent of fmes swirled from within, ready to be unleashed upon the crowd beh.