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“You sure?”

“Argh! Never mind that,” exclaimed the crab.

“Just tell us where this dragon was,” said Rye.

The man placed the handles of the cart down and stretched his back.

“Why? You two got a death wish?” he said.

“Please, it’s very important,” pleaded the ranger.

Balthazar was already sizing up the man’s ankles, but thankfully for him, the traveler decided to spill the information.

“Fine, it’s your funeral. There’s a small village back up this road I’m coming from. You’ll know it when you see the cloud of smoke. It’s a couple of hours walk away, probably faster if you’re not hauling a big cart with you.”

“Thank you,” Rye quickly said, before taking off in the direction the traveler pointed with a hurried step.

The crab skittered behind him, trying to keep up, with the goblin and drake following along.

The man watched on as the peculiar group of travelers passed by, scratching the side of his face with a slightly bewildered look.

“And I thought nobody would believe I saw a dragon. Wait until I tell people about this encounter.” He paused for a moment, thinking, as the group disappeared up the road. “Wait, that was a crab. A talking crab. Could it have been…”

“Hey, Rye, wait up,” said the merchant, struggling to keep up with the young man’s quick steps.

“What is it, Balthazar?” he replied without slowing down, eyes still fixed on the path ahead. “You heard the man, the village is this way. There’s no time to waste, or we might lose the dragon’s trail.”

“Yes, but you know that thing can fly, right? It’s been hours too, it’s probably long gone already.”

Rye came to a sudden stop and turned to face the crab.

“And? Do you have a better lead? What do you suggest we do? Just ignore this? Madeleine is out there, waiting for our help. We need

to find this dragon!”

Balthazar hesitated for a moment, eyes glancing at the ground.

He knew the boy was right, of course, and he agreed completely. Yet, he also knew that as they were, they stood no chance against such a creature. Whether through might or smarts, they had no way to overcome the dragon and rescue the baker, which was why the crab’s plan involved gaining access to the system again before anything else.

As much as he always disliked the damnable thing, Balthazar knew the only way they could win that fight would be to play by its rules, levels, and skills. The red dragon would not be something he could overcome by simply talking to it.

The crab knew he would need more power. A lot more.

“I hear you, Rye,” he started. “And you’re right, but at the moment I don’t think I would be of much help with chasing a big flying lizard. Look at me, lots of legs, but not great at using them. I think it might be better if we just split up for now. You go chase this village lead at your own pace, which I’m sure will be much swifter without me, and I’ll go down to that beach, chase my own lead on something I’m hoping will help us.”

The young man looked at the crab with a less tense expression. “Are you sure?”

“Pfft, of course I am, Rye,” said Balthazar. “When have you ever seen me not being sure? Now go on, get going quickly, before that fiery trail goes cold!”

“Alright, once you’re done there come to the village and figure out which direction the dragon went from the villagers, that’s where I’ll be heading too. If that fails… I’ll just find you. Don’t worry, I have pretty good scouting skills, I’m sure I can find a giant crab on the road. See you soon.”

Wasting no more time, the young adventurer broke into a brisk jog up the road.

The crab looked around at the endless wilderness around him. It all still felt very alien to him, being away from home, in such unfamiliar places.

“Wait a minute… where am I supposed to go?!” exclaimed the merchant. “Rye!”

The ranger turned around, already a ways off into the distance.

“Which way is Star Beach?” shouted the crab with both claws around his mouth, somehow missing the fact he didn’t have palms to amplify his voice.

“West!” Rye replied from up the road.

“Alright, alright…” muttered the crab, looking around.

The adventurer stood there for a moment, watching the crab, before shouting again. “You don’t know which way is west, do you?”

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“Nope!”

“It’s that way,” yelled Rye, pointing to the crab’s left. “Just follow that road until you see the coast.”

“Great! Thanks!” Balthazar yelled back, before heading in the pointed direction.

As the crab and his two companions continued on down the road, Balthazar pondered on what he had gotten himself into.

Out there, in the outside world, chasing a dangerous beast, and trying to find a way to get back the stupid system he never wanted in the first place.

Past me would have called present me crazy if he could see me now.

Then again, Balthazar recalled that old him also used to collect common rocks and eat raw fish without seasoning, so he figured that crab’s opinion wasn’t of much concern to him now.

I wonder what this ocean will be like. Can’t be that much bigger than my pond. I bet those silly human writers exaggerated it, as they always do.

Balthazar had never seen the sea. Or the desert. Or a latrine. Basically, if it did not exist near his pond, he likely had never seen it, but he made sure to read lots about them from whatever books he could get his claws on from the piles of loot adventurers brought around his place.

Ever since he gained the ability to read human texts, he made it one of his daily activities to learn as much as possible about their world. He often wondered why most adventurers were always so keen on selling books like cheap junk instead of reading them too, but given what he had learned about their kind, chances were most of them would get bored after two pages and want to go back to whacking things with their sword.

Truly an uncultured kind, thought the crab, gently shaking his shell as he broke off a piece of bread from the loaf he got in town and stuffing it in his mouth.

After some more time walking and amusing himself with thoughts of how dumb humans were, Balthazar stopped, looking at the map he had brought along, trying to make sense of its drawings relative to where he was.

He knew where his pond was on it, he etched a little “X” on it to mark it before, and from there he could easily tell Ardville was directly above it, but everything else beyond that and maybe the neighboring mountain was basically fog to him. He knew west was left, however, and that a beach would be by the edge of the land on the piece of parchment, so he pressed on the same way, hoping to not miss any bodies of water on the way.

Finally, the crab saw something over the horizon that made him raise an eyestalk.

A shimmering line of clear blue appeared over the distance, between the green hill where his road was headed and the orange afternoon sky.

“What is that?” pondered the curious crab, placing one claw above his eyes as he squinted at the horizon.

Skittering ahead with more hurried steps, Balthazar made it to the top of the hill, finally seeing what was on the other side: a small beach with white sands and a few palm trees, bathed by the calm waves of the crystal blue sea that extended as far as the eye could see over the distant horizon.

The crab’s eyestalks slowly raised as his jaw lowered.

“That is one big pond…”

Quickening their pace too, Druma and Blue caught up to him over the grassy hill.

“Look at all that, guys,” Balthazar said to them, pointing a pincer at the ocean. “Can you imagine how much fish there is in there?”

“Druma don’t like sea,” said the goblin. “Big deep water and Druma is bad swimmer.”

The drake gazed at the sea with her deep golden eyes, her expression mildly less disinterested than her usual glare.

Taking a deep breath, the merchant looked down at the sandy coast again.

This was it, the place where all adventurers started in this world, arriving from… wherever mad place adventurers originated from. If there was one place Balthazar could hope to find a Scroll of Character Creation again, this would be it.

“Alright,” the crab said, “you two stay here and watch the road in case Rye comes back, or someone else shows up. I’ll go down there alone and take care of something no one else can do for me.”

Blue lingered around between the hill and the road, examining her surroundings and showing little interest in what was being said, while Druma gave the crab an energetic salute.

“Yes, yes, boss! Druma watch road while boss go pee in the sea!”

Balthazar carefully skittered his way down the sandy side of the hill onto the beach. He had sand at his pond too, but it surprised him how abundant and much more loose it was in this place, the tips of his eight legs sinking into it as he walked. Despite the strangeness of it all, something within the crab made him feel comfortable, like a primordial sensation in the depths of his brain that made him feel at home in that place.

My pond is still better, though.

Finally making it to the shore, the crab tentatively stepped onto the wet sand where the waves lazily came and went, dipping one of his legs into the foamy water as it reached forward towards him.

“Oh!” he said as the wave washed over his leg and splashed onto his shell.

He was used to water, he had plenty of it at home, but the water of the pond was still and predictable. This water moved and seemed to have a life and will of its own. Despite his usual distaste for anything new and unfamiliar, the crab was finding it hard to dislike this new experience, and the more he felt the waves, the more inviting the water became.

Land crab or not, Balthazar could not ignore his connection to the water, and how natural it felt to simply sit down and feel the water wash over him, even letting himself make a few bubbles here and there, after carefully making sure no one else was around to see it.

After a long day’s journey, which felt like a trip around the world for someone who had never gone anywhere before, it felt nice to just take a moment to relax in the water and think about his pond back home.

It’s still better there. At least the water is less salty. Balthazar assured himself.

Finally standing up, the merchant reminded himself of why he was there, and that there was no time to be taking long baths.

As he meandered around the beach, taking in the sights for the first time, the crab started realizing that, as cozy as it all was, there wasn’t exactly much around the place. No buildings, no people. No roads, no signs. What exactly was a new adventurer supposed to do at that place?

The only thing he had spotted so far were a few strange creatures lying flat on the wet sand as the waves came and went.

Balthazar had never seen such things. Mostly immobile, they looked fleshy and spongy, with a bright red color that was almost pink, and strangest of all, they were shaped like stars.

As was usually the crab’s priority, he quickly came to the conclusion that they did not look very appetizing.

Stepping closer to one of the starfish scattered throughout the shore, Balthazar looked down at the creature with curious interest.

“Hmm, what are these things?”

As he tentatively reached down to perform a crab’s usual scientific analysis—poke the thing with a pincer and see what happens—the floppy star-shaped invertebrate suddenly launched itself upwards at Balthazar’s face, firmly gluing its entire body to it as the crab fell backwards, kicking and screaming muffled yells, fighting to pull the killer starfish off.