Merchant Crab
Chapter 232: Enlightening

“What is it?” Rye asked, stepping next to the crab.

“I think it’s the missing power source for this floor,” Balthazar said as he carefully slid his claws under the pulsing orb.

The power core was lighter than the merchant expected given its size. The texture felt like touching a glassy stone that had been polished to absolute perfection, and while the surface was cold, the crab could feel a subtle warmth emanating from the inside.

“Any idea where that belongs?” the archer asked.

“Not really,” Balthazar replied, his eyes still fixed on the shiny orb held in his pincers. “But as I’m holding it, I feel a sort of pull, like it wants to guide me somewhere. It’s hard to explain.”

A cold feeling ran down the crab’s entire body as he felt the steel imbuement shed off his chitin, leaving him sore and hurting around every joint.

Wincing, Balthazar checked his system.

[Health: 110/300]

Ouch. That was too close for my taste.

Putting the orb down on a cradle of bones, the merchant reached into his backpack to retrieve a health potion.

“Bleh!” he exclaimed, throwing his tongue out in disgust after chugging the red liquid. “Why do these things have to taste so awful?!”

“I know, right?” Rye said. “It would be the best invention ever if there were potions that tasted like Madeleine’s pastries!”

“Hah!” said Balthazar as he picked the power core back up. “Forget that—I want to heal from eating pastries!”

They both laughed and turned, looking for the rest of their group.

“Hey, are you guys alright?” the crab asked, approaching Leah, who was standing with her hand on Jack’s shoulder as he crouched in front of his greatsword with a pensive expression.

The girl glanced back without a word, worry creasing her brow as she rubbed her friend’s shoulder to comfort him.

“It’s… it’s over,” Jack muttered, interlocking his fingers and resting his chin on them.

“What is?” Balthazar asked as he watched the adventurer stare emptily at the Sword of Heavy Might that was still stuck to the floor in front of them.

“I can’t lift it anymore,” the swordsman replied, a defeated look shadowing his eyes. “After slaying the colossus, my sword has finally become too heavy for me to carry. It’s all over.”

The merchant peered through his monocle, despite already knowing what the adventurer was talking about.

[Sword of Heavy Might]

[+1 to damage and weight per enemy slain]

“Come on, Jack,” Leah said in a quiet and comforting tone. “We can always get you a new sword.”

“You know it’s not that simple, Leah,” the young man said, dropping his head. “That sword was my signature weapon. My blade of legend. No other can ever feel as right in my hands as that one.”

“Geez, it’s just a sword with a questionable enchantment that he got from a crab on the side of a road,” the crab whispered to the archer next to him. “Attached much?”

“Give him a break, Balthazar,” Rye whispered back. “It has sentimental value to him.”

The crustacean thought about his collection of pebbles he carried around everywhere along with his gold and how he would feel if he lost one of them.

“Hey now,” the merchant said, stepping next to the swordsman. “I’m sure we can figure a solution for you. I’ve got plenty of strength potions back at the bazaar, for example.”

“And what, I’ll have to stay under the effects of those potions forever? How’s that going to work?”

His partner patted his shoulder gently. “We will figure something out, but for now we can’t stay here. We need to keep going.”

“I can’t just leave it here,” the sad young man said, gesturing toward the greatsword.

A stone head lowered itself next to the swordsman, facing him with its eyes closed and a warm smile.

“Friend,” Bouldy said gently.

The golem stood back straight and approached the greatsword sticking out of the stone floor.

Wrapping his thick stone hands around the weapon, the giant gritted his teeth and he pulled with everything he had. After a moment of strain where it felt like the ground underneath his feet was about to crack from how much force he was using, Bouldy pulled the blade out with a sharp shing!

Jack stood back up with a gasp. “You did it!”

“Friend,” the smiling golem said, giving the young man a thumbs up while carefully holding the greatsword horizontally in his arms.

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“Alright, Bouldy will carry your sword until we get back,” Balthazar said. “Now let’s get moving. I found this shiny thing over there, and I think it wants me to take it somewhere.”

“Hey, wait a minute,” said Rye, near the line between their lights and the dungeon’s darkness. “What about this thing?”

The others came closer to look over his shoulder.

The blacksteel sword that had been at the heart of the bone abomination lay on the floor, motionless and still oozing a black substance that was as thick as tar. Everyone’s faces had an expression of discomfort and disgust at the sight of the corrupting muck seeping out of the hilt.

“What is that stuff?” Leah asked, her lips curled.

“I have no idea, but I wouldn’t touch it,” said Rye.

Jack’s shoulders rolled with a shudder. “I had no intention to. That is one sword I wouldn’t wanna touch. Looks nasty as hell.”

Balthazar stared at the corrupted item on the floor, intrigued. What caused that? Where did it come from?

“What should we even do with it?” the crab said.

An angry growl passed next to the crustacean right before a flash of azure fire forced him to shield his eyes with his pincers.

Blue stood over the sword, wings spread wide open and neck stretched far up as she unleashed a furious torrent of flames down on the corrupted blade.

The black substance sizzled under the bright blue fire of the angry drake, quickly wasting away and vanishing bit by bit with what sounded like a cry of pure hatred.

After a few seconds of everyone staring speechless at Blue’s outburst, she stopped.

The fire and smoke dispersed, leaving nothing but an unrecognizable pile of molten metal and ashes, with no signs of any black sludge left. After a contemptuous hmph, the drake walked back to her spot between Bouldy and Druma.

“Well, I guess that answers my question,” Balthazar said with a shrug. “Let’s get moving out of here now.”

The group pushed on through the darkness with the crab at the front, holding the power core in his pincers and letting its strange warmth guide him in the right direction.

“Oh, damn it!” Jack exclaimed after several minutes of walking.

“What is it?!” Rye asked, reaching back for his bow and looking around with wide eyes. “More skeletons?”

“No, no,” the naked swordsman said. “I just realized I forgot to grab those sunglasses from that first skeleton. Bummer. I bet they would have looked sick on me.”

The archer put his bow back and rolled his eyes at the swordsman’s partner, who shrugged in return.

“I’ll never be able to get all this glitter off my armor,” Leah sighed, looking under her arms as she walked. “It was that damn monster’s final curse onto us—an explosion of glitter. And no spell or potion can cleanse it, either!”

“I don’t know, I kinda like it,” Balthazar commented absent-mindedly as he walked forward with the orb in his pincers. “Gives me a nice shiny sparkle.”

“You and your love for shiny things,” Rye remarked with a chuckle.

“Why did it explode into glitter, though?” asked Leah. “In fact, why do all of these savage skeletons in here look like they were throwing a party back before they became undead?”

The crab shrugged without turning back to look at her. “I don’t know, maybe they died from too much partying.”

Jack chortled. “Best way to go!”

Balthazar came to a sudden halt, forcing the line behind him to stop too.

“I can see something up ahead,” the merchant muttered, pointing a pincer forward. “And I can feel the orb pulling toward it.”

Rye moved past the crab, torch held up, each step careful and silent.

“Is that… a fountain?!” the archer said, squinting at the vague shape in the darkness as he slowly brought his light closer.

The group fanned out into a half circle surrounding the strange monument, bathing it in the light of their torches.

A circular basin formed the base upon which a complex lattice spiral made of polished stone stood, stretching toward the ceiling and opening up at the very top into four pointed limbs with an empty space between them.

“Too bad it’s completely dry,” Jack said, running a finger through the thick layer of dust inside the basin.

“Oh,” Balthazar exclaimed with surprise as the gentle thrumming from the orb in his pincers turned into intense vibration. “I think this is it.”

He let go of the power core, and to everyone’s surprise, the perfectly round ball floated up, like a balloon drifting in the breeze.

The orb hovered above the carved spiral of the fountain for a moment before gently landing in the empty socket created by the tips that looked like stone fingers.

The power core pulsed for a few seconds, its glow intensifying with each flash of light, and then it froze, unmoving and unblinking.

Balthazar frowned. “Well, great! It broke just like—”

A high-pitched ping rang out through the halls as the orb sent out a shockwave of energy that startled the seven dungeon explorers. Blinding white light filled the space around them, forcing each one to cover their eyes and let out a cry of discomfort at the sudden brightness that overwhelmed their vision.

With teary eyes, Balthazar raised his eyestalks from behind his claws and tried to make sense of his surroundings.

The halls that had been pitch-black a moment before were now bathed in pure white light. The ceiling far above their heads was dotted with countless hanging braziers spread evenly in between each pillar, but the light itself seemed to come from every direction, as if the very halls were the source of their own brightness.

Without the shroud of darkness, the crab could finally see the full scale of the floor around him. Rows of pillars stretched out as far as his eyes could see, supporting countless sections of halls and empty atriums, all the way to the edge, where the outer walls they could not find before were.

The merchant’s eyestalks rose with surprise. They were walls of pristine white marble. It was as if they were in a completely different place now that the lights were on and the full magnificence of the architecture around them was visible.

Despite the dust and disrepair, it was clear to Balthazar that those halls had once been a sight to behold.

“Holy moly, this place is huge,” Jack said, looking around with his mouth open in awe.

“And beautiful,” remarked Leah. “I never would have expected it to look like this—what with all the darkness and skeletons before.”

“Hey, Balthazar?” Rye called, noticing that the crab had climbed inside the empty basin of the fountain and was staring up at the power core. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah… All fine,” the merchant muttered without taking his eyes off the orb.

A low rumbling was coming from beneath the floor, like something slowly rising up toward the fountain spiral. The white stone sitting atop the lattice sculpture was now stable in its glow, emanating pure light in every direction, but something about it felt like it was calling the crab.

It was more than just the crustacean’s usual attraction for shiny things. The power core beckoned him, like someone signaling you closer to share a quiet secret.

Without stopping to think, Balthazar found himself stretching his arm up, the tip of his pincer reaching out to touch the smooth stone surface of the orb.

His chitin connected with the power core, but this time, the blinding white light filled not the halls, but his eyes.

The crab felt himself pulled away without moving a single step from where he stood.

His mind spiraled down, far, far away. Into a dream. A dream of a memory. A memory of another.