Merchant Crab: A LitRPG Adventure by H0st

Author:H0st [H0st]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2025-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

FIFTY-TWO

INDIRECT DECLARATION OF INDIRECT WAR

Balthazar sipped on his lemonade from atop a boulder as he watched the sunlight flooding the golden plains across from his pond. The wind rolled over the grass, causing ripples not too different from the ones on the water behind the crab. The sky was a pale blue, and while it was still far from cold, the weather no longer felt as warm anymore, indicating the incoming end of summer.

Putting his cup down on the rock, Balthazar brought up his system.

“Might as well take care of this now,” he said to himself as he checked his thirteenth level.

[Level 13]

[Attribute Points: 1]

[Skill Points: 1]

[Strength: 3] [+]

[Agility: 2] [+]

[Intelligence: 22] [+]

“Gee, I wonder what I’ll pick this time,” the crab said sarcastically. “At this point, investing into Strength or Agility would just feel like a waste of time.”

Pressing the plus sign next to his Intelligence attribute, he increased it to 23.

Then he leisurely rolled his eyes to the skills menu.

“Hmm,” Balthazar said while rubbing his chin with one pincer and taking another sip from his cup with the other. “I already put a point into this Leadership skill. I might as well not let that go to waste and keep going. It could still prove useful.”

With the concept of the sunken cost fallacy completely unknown to him, the crab spent his skill point on the Leadership skill.

Satisfied with his choices, he looked over at his status screen.

[Status]

[Name: Balthazar]

[Race: Crab]

[Class: Adept Merchant]

[Level: 13]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 3]

[Agility: 2]

[Intelligence: 23]

[Skills]

[Charisma: S(+5)]

[Medium Armor: A]

[Speech: A]

[Reading: B]

[Fishing: C]

[Imbuing: C]

[Leadership: C]

[Slashing Weapons: C]

More out of curiosity than anything else, Balthazar selected his class again.

[Select a perk for class: Merchant]

Sadly, the list of options below continued empty and unselectable.

“Figures,” he said. “If only there was someone I could complain to about this.”

Alas, the crab had no other option but to accept that Scrolls of Character Creation did not seem to come with customer support.

Going back to the previous screen, Balthazar stared at one of his other skills, Imbuing, and thought back to his conversation with Tweedus.

“I wonder if imbuing Bouldy could actually work.”

Hopping off the boulder, the crab skittered his way to a group of crates.

“Only one way to find out!”

Rummaging through the contents of a crate with his right claw, Balthazar retrieved an iron ingot from within. It was a rough and unrefined piece of metal, but it would do fine for his experiment.

Crossing the bridge, the crab went looking for his friend. Thankfully, a golem nearly as tall as two adult men wasn’t difficult to spot in a mostly open area as his pond, even while crouching down by the water, as Bouldy was.

Walking up to the rock giant, Balthazar found him observing the swimming fish as usual, occasionally dipping a finger into the water and swirling it around to get their attention.

“Hey, Bouldy,” the crab said. “Stop playing with my food for a moment. I need you for something.”

“Friend?” the golem asked as he took his finger out of the water and turned his attention to Balthazar.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.