After a te night, Balthazar was not too keen oing up with the sun, but m came, and with it the sound of Druma hitting rocks on wood and Blue fpping her wings.

  “Ugh, just five more minutes,” the crab grumbled while burying his fa his backpack.

  But it was too te, the damage had been done, and he could no longer unhear all the noises of nature surrounding him. Sleep was gone, and he would not be able to pinch it baatter how hard he might try.

  Groggy and grumpy, the crusta got up and decided to just accept his fate. At least he had something to make him feel just a little better.

  [You have reached level 19]

  [Choose a base stat to increase by 10]

  “Alright, let’s see…” he mumbled to himself, while chewing on a little dried fish.

  [Health: 200/200]

  [Stamina: 30/30]

  [Mana: 20/20]

  I should keep going with health. After all, I’m still alive, so that must mean I’m making the right choices.

  The zy crab looked past the text in his eyes, the goblin and the drake going through their own little routines.

  Look at them. Went to sleep as te as I did, but there they are, spry and full of energy. Must be nice.

  He looked at the stats on his system s again.

  Maybe just a little bit more stamina wouldn’t hurt…

  He thought back to the ghost and the zombie from the night before.

  Then agaier tired than dead.

  With a shrug, Balthazar selected the first stat and increased it by 10.

  [Health: 210/210]

  As healthy as a bull-crab!

  Taking a bigger bite off his breakfast fish, he carried on to the s.

  [You have 3 u attribute points]

  [Attributes:]

  [Strength: 5]

  [Endurance: 5]

  [Agility: 5]

  [Perception: 5]

  [Intellect: 10]

  [Charisma: 61]

  Mhmm, this is where it gets trickier. In fact…

  The traveling mert reached into his backpad retrieved the Scroll of Potential he had obtained from Sir Edmund’s treasure chest the night before.

  Maybe I should check this first, before I make any decisions on attributes.

  Setting the half-eaten fish down, the crab unfurled the piece of part as blinding glow hit his eyes.

  “Argh, why did I do that…” he moaned, while rubbing his sore eyestalks.

  Squinting, Balthazar tried to make out what the floating words in front of him said.

  [Revealing skill…]

  [All-Tongue]

  “Huh?!” said the squinting crab.

  For a moment, Balthazar pictured himself with a frog-like tongue.

  Eww, no thanks!

  After his eyes adapted to the brightness, he read the rest of the text.

  [All-Tongue]

  [Skill - C tier]

  [Requirements: 40 CHA, 20 INT]

  [Cost: 5 mana]

  [For 15 minutes, your tongue reayone’s ears. No, gross, not like that. Se beings will uand your words no matter their nguage.]

  [Would you like to learn this skill?]

  [Yes] [No]

  Hold on, never mind, this actually sounds pretty good. Much better than a bug-snatcher in my mouth.

  The crab excitedly moved his eyes to the firmation prompt, wheiced the required attributes.

  [Requirements: 40 CHA, 20 INT]

  Bah, really?!

  He pulled his attribute list back.

  [Intellect: 10]

  Great, I ’t eve right now. I’m ten points short, and a level up only gives me three to spend.

  Grumbling, he performed some quick math in his shell.

  I’d need ahree level ups to even take this skill!

  Begrudgingly, the mert spent the three points he currently had on his Intellect, raising it to 13.

  I just want to go baaxing my Charisma, but no, this system just has to keep pulling me away! Hmph, I guess it will be worth it. Being able to speak to any living thing is a huge perk for any mert, especially a traveling one!

  With no use for it at that moment, Balthazar rolled the scroll back up and stored it in his backpack, saving it for ter.

  “Druma, Blue,” he called. “Pack it up, we’re leaving. I want to reach this town soon, so hopefully I find the right way to get to the coast from there.”

  The trio returo the road, bathed by the warm sun of that autumn m and the sts of fruit trees, as the woods around them gradually turned from a wild, dense forest, into open fields of clearly man-made orchards.

  As Balthazar admired the colors of the season all around, with brown fields dotted by e foliage and golden leaves blowing in the wind, he spotted something appearing over the horizon.

  “There, that must be it!” he said.

  The tips of a few stoowers emerged over the hill ahead of them as they moved forward on the road, revealing their arrival back to civilization.

  “I ’t wait,” Balthazar joyfully decred. “I hope this time I at least get to explore the town for a bit longer without having to make a quick escape through the sewers.”

  As the crab doubled his pace up the road, a shuffling sound from the side of the road made him stop and stare at the shrubbery lining the path, a soft breeze blowing through its dense foliage.

  “Hmm,” he said, squinting at the underbrush before shrugging aurning to his path.

  Another noise came from the bushes, and the armed mert turned around with a jump.

  “Who’s there?!”

  There was no response, save for the whistling of the wind.

  Unsatisfied with nature’s response, Balthazar approached the undergrowth carefully.

  With a cocked eyestalk, he gred at one bush in specific.

  “Hey, Blue,” the crab called, without taking his eyes off the shrub. “Get ready to ie this bush, will you? I don’t like the way it looks.”

  “Oh, alright, you got me!” excimed a voice, followed by the figure of a man standing up from the vegetation.

  Balthazar jumped back, startled and holding his pincers up as if he actually inteo fight. Which he certainly didn’t, because he knew he was a talker, not a fighter.

  “Who the hell are you?!” the crab blurted out.

  “Seriously?” the man standing up from the bush said. He was sy and was wearing traveling clothes with some leather padding, mostly brown and beige, with a logo patch of some kind stitched to the left side of his vest. His face was thin and bony, with a chevron mustache over his lip. “You don’t reize me?”

  The mert frowned. “Should I?”

  “It’s me, Rob!” the other said.

  “Rob?” Balthazar repeated, l his pincers. “Is that really you?!”

  “Of course it’s me! Do you nnize me?”

  “Since when do you have a mustache?!”

  Rob shook his head in bewilderment. “I’ve always had a mustache! How did you not notice?!”

  The crab rubbed his , thinking.

  “Are you sure? Maybe it’s because I’m so used to thinking of you as a talking bush.”

  The adventurer facepalmed. “You’re still as face blind as ever, I see.”

  “Well, not my fault you also ged your efit,” the annoyed mert retorted. “How am I supposed tnize you if you ge your clothes?!”

  “Oh, you noticed?” the suddenly proud human said, doing a little spin while still standing in the bush. “How do you like my hreads?”

  Balthazar looked at him with arched eyestalks. “What happeo your thief armor?”

  “Oh, I had to repce that,” Rob said. “I’m not a thief anymore.”

  “Say what?!”

  The adventurer puffed out his chest.

  “That’s right, you inspired me, made me believe that it’s oo te to make a ge and try something new in your life, so I got myself a ge of css!”

  The mert chuckled. “So what are you now, a beggar-css adventurer?”

  Rob’s chest defted, and his shoulders dropped forward as he scowled at the crab.

  “Really, man? e on…” he said. “I’m a courier now!”

  “Ah, close enough. Probably pays just as much,” Balthazar remarked. “So, what, your thieving days are over now?”

  “That’s right,” the novice courier said, regaining some of his previous pride. “Not that I was ever very good at it. I think my talents are much better used this way.”

  “Right, right,” the crab said. “So what are you doing in this neck of the woods anyway?”

  “I’m here for you, actually! You’re my first job. I got a letter for you!”

  “Oh, for me?” the surprised mert said. “Who sent it?”

  “It’s a letter from home! Yuys at the bazaar asked me to deliver it to you.”

  Rob reached into his vest arieved an envelope.

  Excited, Balthazar took the missive the courier was him and called out to his panions, “Hey, guys, look! It’s a letter from Hea and Tristan.”

  The drake approached zily, while the goblin hopped his way to the crab’s side with great glee.

  Nodding, the crusta began quietly reading through the message, with Druma looking over his shell.

  “Boss, boss,” the assistant said. “Druma don’t know how to read.”

  “ht,” said Balthazar. “Tristan wrote it, because, you know, Hea has no thumbs, but he says she’s there with him as he’s writing it. They say they miss us all and hope we are all well.”

  The goblin nodded along as his boss read the letter, with a wide grin on his face. “Druma miss his friends too!”

  “Repairs on the bazaar went well,” the crab tinued. “John got everything back up in p just a few days, and has siarted work on a few extensions.” He paused and lifted his gaze from the paper. “Extensions? Those better not be ing out of my pocket.”

  Rob, who was still standing with his legs ihe bush for whatever reaso out an amused chuckle as he crossed his arms. “I see you haven’t ged that much. Don’t worry, st time I was there I saw the old man w around the pce. They’re really turning it into an impressive trading outpost.”

  Balthazar’s shell swelled with pride and a bit of homesiess.

  “Oh, my precious bazaar and my beautiful pond,” he said, with a mencholic smile. “How I wish I could see them right now.”

  L his eyestalks back to the letter, the crab tinued reading through its tents.

  “Business is going well. Adventurers have been visiting in droves every day. The bazaar is more popur than ever, and everyone is always asking for the famous talking crab.”

  He paused and ughed.

  “Hah! I always said a talking toad didn’t quite have the same charm as a crab.”

  He went back to the letter.

  “Hea has been fog on the daily maintenance of the bazaar, while Tristan has been keeping himself busy overseeing the retioween Boulder’s Point and Ardville. Mayor Bergen has been true to his word, and business has been going smoothly with the town. Great. They also say there has been no big trouble ever since I left. Also great. They hope our journey is going well and hope to hear from us soon.”

  “That’s right,” the courier piped up. “They asked me to see if you’d have any message to send bae.”

  “Right,” said Balthazar. “I don’t think it makes much seo draft a letter right here, but you probably just take my message a to them, ’t you?”

  “Of course,” said the bushed adventurer. “I got a great memory. Tell me what you wao tell them.”

  The mert pondered for a moment.

  “Tell them we miss them too, that I’m gd to hear my trading post hasn’t burned down agai, and that I ’t wait to go bad see it and them again.”

  The cross-armed human nodded along as the crab spoke. “Mhmm. Don’t worry, it’s all going into the memory box up here.”

  “Oh, and also say hello to John for me! And tell Hea and Tristan to make sure the old guy is accepting payment for his work this time, even if just in the form of lunch. But don’t pay him too much either!”

  Rob chuckled. “Sure, sure.”

  “Other than that, yeah… I think that’s all. I’ve been to lots of pces, seen some crazy things, and ’t wait to share the stories with them. We are still looking for the dragon. No leads yet, unfortunately, but I’m still determio find Madeleine and won’t be giving up. Oh, ahem know I got a lead on someone who help me with Bouldy. I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear that.”

  “Got it,” the courier said. “Hey, and what about Rye? Wasn’t he with you when you left? What happeo him?”

  Balthazar’s smile faded slightly at the mention of the archer.

  “Ah, that’s right, they’ll probably ask about him too,” the retit crab said. “We… We split up for now. He wao go his own way, do his own thing for a while. It’s… plicated. We will meet again at some point, though. I hope. Tell them Rye is alright, they shouldn’t worry.”

  The former thief nodded, his previous smile repced with a serious expression. “Uood. I’ll tell them that, then.”

  The mert let out a long sigh and looked up at the adventurer again. “Right, and I think that’s all. Just tell them you found us well and safe. We werely sure where we were for a while, but now that we found… Hey, wait a minute. How the hell did you find me all the way out there?!”

  Rob’s chest puffed out again, and he pced a hand over his new pat his chest. “I’m a courier, that's what we do!”

  Balthazar stared at the man with an expressionless face. “That doesn’t really ahe question.”

  The human’s chest defted slightly and he shrugged. “Yeah, I’m gonna be ho, I’m irely sure how it works myself either.”

  “Bah, whatever,” said the crusta, throwing his arms up. “Doesn’t really matter right now anyway. Got more important things to focus on. Like reag that towhere!”

  Turning to where the crab ointing, Rob pced a hand over his brow and gazed at the looming buildings in the distance.

  “Oh yeah, I should go there after I take care of some errands too. They must have a courier post that I should che with.”

  “Well, alright, maybe we’ll see each ain there before you leave.”

  With a few nods and waves, the crab’s party said their goodbyes to the thief turned courier, before heading back to their route towards the own ahead of them.

  After a few mihe mert finally got a proper look at the settlement. From the outside, it looked about as big or evehan Ardville, with old but colorful brick walls proteg it, and a lowered bridge over a moat leading to the entrance.

  This pce looks busy. Balthazar thought as he watched the droves of people ing in and out, p onto the many splitting roads.

  As the group made their way through the bridge, a town guard ial pte armor stepped forward to intercept them.

  Oh, here we go again…

  “Hey there,” the crab said before the man could open his mouth. “Yes, I am a talking crab, and I assure you that my friends and I are—”

  “Greetings, travelers,” the guard said, cutting Balthazar off. “Are you visiting for business or leisure?”

  The crab blinked a couple of times. “Well, I… I’m a mert, so—”

  “Ah, excellent!” said the man with a nod. “So it’s business.”

  “I… guess?”

  “Merts are always wele here.”

  The guard stepped aside aended an arm towards the entrance.

  “Wele to the city of Marquessa.”