“That will be 76 gold.”

  “Oh, wow, really? I didn’t expect it to e to such a high total.”

  “Indeed. Your shopping list retty long.”

  “Yes, I guess it was…”

  “Just because you’re buying so much, I’ll even throw you a special gift in there, free of charge.”

  The crab rummaged through a box until he found a rabbit’s foot tied to a rope.

  “A good luck charm, just for you!”

  “Really? he young man standing in the middle of the trading post said. “I really could do with having some luck. I haven’t looted anythi in days.”

  Splitting a few s from his pouch, the smiling adventurer paid the crab, stuffed his ri in his chest pocket, and picked up the box full with the items he had just purchased.

  “Thanks, Balthazar. See you ter!”

  The mert gave the t a nod and watched him leave while pig the s with his silver pincer, carefully depositing ea a small bag.

  “Heh, ‘good luck charm.’ Another day, another sucker.”

  As he finished colleg his payment, a familiar eye floater appeared in front of Balthazar’s vision.

  [You have reached level 10!]

  “Well, look at that. Guess I must have been doing good business, if I’m already leveling up again.”

  Casually moving his eyes around the prompts while his cws stashed the money away, Balthazar increased his Intelligeo 20 and swiftly moved on to the skills menu.

  Taking a moment to resider, he hesitated before seleg his Reading skill again. Sure, he enjoyed reading, but given how long eaew level up seemed to take the higher they went, should he think twice about his iments? The smart business crab side of his brain told him that yes, he likely should.

  He thought back to the night the thieves came to his trading post, and the blow he took to his shell from the big one’s club. It brought him far too close to being a goner. While his pristine gold finish was intact afterwards, the same could not have been said about his soft insides.

  Not even his bodyguard golem could protect him at every turn, so perhaps iing in his own personal defenses wasn’t such a bad idea. After all, he never went anywhere without his shell, so making it better was an iment in security.

  “Alright, enough inner debating, armor it is!”

  Seleg his Medium Armor skill, Balthazar applied his one point into it, bringing it from B tier to an A.

  Feeling a brief numbness in his joints, the crab shook with a shiver at the feeling of his shell tightening slightly around his body.

  “Ooh, that tickled!”

  vinced he was feeling sturdier, Balthazar went back to his status page, where he noticed his Adept Mert css was blinking. With curiosity and fshi in his eyes, he selected it.

  [Select a css perk]

  “Oh! Something new? Maybe it’s tied to reag level 10?”

  With a hint of excitement at the prospect of getting some new advantage for his trading business, he pressed the option with his eyes.

  [Select a perk for css: Mert]

  [TO-DO]

  [TO-DO]

  [TO-DO]

  [TO-DO]

  “To… do?” the crab slowly muttered, before raising his voi exasperation. “What the hell does this thing mean?! This system isn’t just unhelpful, it’s also zy?! Is there even a point to these levels?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Balthazar froze in pce for a sed, pincers in the air, halfway through his outburst, before quickly turning to the voice.

  A tall woman with red hair tied into a tight bun stood at the entrance of his trading post, wearing a long, dark red robe with plex embroidered details of a stilting golden color.

  The mert cautiously peered at the woman through his monocle, and she returhe gaze with her own, her dark green eyes looking at the crab from behind a pair of thin gsses, as if pierg his shell and seeing straight through him.

  [Level 32 Entress]

  “ I… help you?” Balthazar carefully said. He felt like a little crab who had just been caught ping what he shouldn’t.

  “Did I hear you say something about a system, and levels?” the woman asked, with a clear and calm voice that yet still revealed a hint of sizzling curiosity u.

  “I… I think you must have heard wrong,” the nervous crab replied.

  He wasn’t sure how to expin his outburst, and he wasn’t too keen oing into the specifics of the stupid thing in his eyes that gave him numbers and the ability to speak and read, as well as occasionally frustrating him to no end.

  “No, I don’t believe I did,” the entress said, calmly stepping closer to him with a perfectly straight posture, the wide sleeves of her robe held together in front of it, cealing her hands. “What does a crab know about the system? And, as a matter of fact, why is a crab talking in the first pce?”

  “Because... it would be very difficult to have a trading business without talking? Ha ha,” Balthazar said, attempting to act casual, and finding out he was not very good at it.

  “Don’t py dumb,” she said, stopping in front of him and staring down into his eyes. “You know more than you should, don’t you?”

  “Sounds to me like maybe you’re the one looking to know more than you should,” the crab retorted with defiance. If she was going to press him for information, he was going to do the same to her. Or at the very least attempt to.

  Her eyebrows rose.

  “Maybe we have something in on there.” A hint of a smile appeared on the er of her lips. “Tell me, what do you know about adventurers?”

  “I know most of you are a pain in my backside all day. Why?”

  “Very funny. I meant what do you know about where all these adventurers e from?”

  “How should I know? Isn’t it supposed to be like some nd of the gods, or sent from far away in times of great whatever? You tell me.”

  “Curious,” the entress said, looking disappointed. “Just like all the other locals, you don’t seem to question it at all.”

  “Question it? Lady, try ‘not g’ instead. Wherever you all came from is none of my business, so long as it’s not my pond. But what does any of that have to do with systems and levels?”

  “Oh? Revealing your hand there now, dear crab.” She looked amused now. “So you don’t know they have everything to do with each other.”

  Balthazar wasn’t sure how he could have possibly revealed something he didn’t have, but at that moment he did not care to ask either. His curiosity had been piqued. What did those reckless and dimwitted adventurers have to do with his gained abilities?

  “How so?” the crab asked.

  “You seem to uand levels. Have you never wondered why only adventurer’s levels increase, but everyone else’s does not?”

  “Oh, I… never actually paid enough attention to that,” Balthazar said, looking up while trying to search through his ret memories. “So others don’t level up like we do?”

  “Very iing,” the robed woman said, a smile fully f on her lips. “So you admit you level up?”

  The mert opened his mouth for a moment and then closed it again. She got him good, and he hadn’t even noticed. Whoever this entress was, she was clever.

  “Who are you, anyway?” he asked, his mind in a frenzy tain the upper hand, or at least buy some time to think.

  “Nobody special. Just another adverying to make it in this world,” she casually said. “My name is Ruby. Pleased to meet you.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m Balthazar, and I’m just a crab trying to earn some .”

  “Now, don’t be so modest,” Ruby quickly said. “A regur crab wouldn’t care for money. And you’re not some adventurer in disguise, I tell. So what is it that makes you so… special?”

  Balthazar tried to read the woman, but he could not decipher what her iions were. Yet his curiosity now grew, after finding someone arently knew of this strange system. Then he remembered his supposed charisma.

  “You're right, I'm very special,” he finally said, attempting to sound fident and resple. “But what is it you think I know?”

  She chuckled.

  “Are y to use your charisma on me?” she asked, looking amused. “You should know, while it be a useful skill, the higher the differen levels, and the higher the Intelligence of the other, the less effit it is.”

  The crab exhaled sharply, but refused to respond.

  “That’s an iing golden shell you have. It’s not an entment, I’d certainly know if it was. So, does that mean it’s perhaps an imbuing? Curious, I’ve never seen one like it in all my time here. It’s also supposed to be a temporary upgrade, but I’ve been hearing about a golden crab for days on the road. You ’t possibly have enough gold to be maintaining it permaly for so long. You’d be rich as a king if you did. What’s the trick?”

  “Temporary? What are you talking about?” Balthazar asked with a fused expression. The entress looked slightly disappointed again.

  “Apparently, you know evehan me. A, you seem to have far more knowledge than you’re meant to.”

  “Meant to?”

  “Yes. You locals are all created for a specific purpose, if you’re oo believe iiny,’ ‘divine will,’ or any of that. You don’t need a system, skills, or to level up. As you were created, so you shall be, no choio freedom.”

  “Well excuse me, I make my own choices. Thank you very much.”

  “Exactly!” the robed woman said, excitement makiake her hands out of her oversized sleeves. “What happehat led you to break the norm? How did you unlock access to a system only meant for those sent here from other worlds?”

  “Other worlds?” Balthazar repeated, his eyes fixed on hers. It was she who slipped up this time.

  “Ah, my turn to tip my hand. I suppose we’re even now,” Ruby said, returning to her straight posture. “Yes, other worlds. I would expect it shouldn’t take much thinking to figure out all these adventurers running around doly belong.”

  “Then where did you all e from?” the increasingly curious crab inquired.

  “Many pces, from different lives. Brought here by some unknowy ag like some benevolent being, giving us a gift. But while others might readily accept that flimsy excuse and take the opportunity at a new life in this fantastiew world, there are a few like me who want to know more. To know the truth behind the veil. The ao the real question. Do you know what that question is, Balthazar?”

  The entress stared Balthazar down with an intense gaze, a fire burning in her eyes, begging for him to answer.

  Balthazar’s eyes widened, and he hesitated for a moment before speaking.

  “What… what is the in of pastries?” the crab finally said, his eyes shining with wonder.

  The woman froze, staring at him for a moment. “What?”

  Ruby rubbed the bridge of her ween her eyes, looking frustrated.

  “Why would that be the question that es to your mind, crab?” she slowly said, trying to remain calm and collected. “Or, in fact, don’t ahat. It’s not important. No, the real question is why are all these adventurers bei here, with the ability to level up and beore powerful, while everyone else ot? We all strive to reach as high of a level as we , but barely anyone ever even es close to 100. What would even happen if someone did? What is the purpose, the objective, that whoever is behind this whole charade is trying to achieve?”

  “Oh,” Balthazar said. “Uh, sure, I guess that would be my question. What does that got to do with me, though?”

  “Don’t you get it?” the woman said, raising her void opening her arms. “You got something you’re not supposed to have. You gained access to a system not meant for you. That means the system has fws that be pulled at. Whatever you did could be the ao the whole mystery I’ve been trying to solve for so long!”

  “Yeeeees… look, miss, that seems fasating and all, but holy, it sounds like a ‘you’ problem, not mine,” Balthazar said while sidestepping away from her. “Big global spiracies, diviies, all that stuff. It’s not my bag at all. I’m very tent with my little pond and have enough with my daily worries, so if you could leave me out of it and fet we even had this versation, I’d prefer it that way.”

  Ruby shook her head in disapproval.

  “You really don’t uand. Part of you is still ging to the fort of your routihe safety of stig to your assigned role. You ot ig forever. The question is there, eventually you will want aoo. If only—”

  She paused, her eyes looking up at the sky, where a flock of birds assing.

  Balthazar followed her gaze, and saw a handful of the pesky creatures breaking away from the group and perg themselves up on the branches of his tree, looking in their dire.

  “Stupid little pests!” the crab pined, attempting to shoo the creatures away with a towel in his pincer.

  “Yes, an annoyance, indeed,” the entress said, her eyes still fixed on the birds.

  Suddenly, she leaned down very close to the crab's fad spoke in a quid hushed tone. “Be mindful of whom you discuss these things with. You ot be sure if they are friend or foe, and even if the former, simply making them aware of more than they are supposed to know could put them i danger.”

  As quickly as she leaned, she returo her straight posture and ged demeanor back to an indifferent tone.

  “It would seem you’re too preoccupied at the moment, and my time is also scarce. I truly wish you will e around regarding what we’ve discussed, and that perhaps ime we meet, it shall be under mreeable circumstances. Farewell.”

  Balthazar stared, dumbfounded, as the red woman quickly made her way out.

  “Hey, wait a moment!” the crab said, chasing after her to the road. “It’s not like you have to leave so abruptly, you didn’t even buy some—”

  As he turhe er and reached the road, he found it deserted, not a sign of the entress or anyone else.

  “Could have at least bought a lucky charm before leaving,” Balthazar muttered to himself, as he threw the towel over his shell and turned back to his pond, where the tree was y once again, all the birds having seemingly flown away.