Chapter 323: Not Even in Death

Three familiar figures stood in front of Balthazar, staring at him with expressions of surprise that matched his own.

“How… How are you here?!” the baffled merchant said.

Standing between the flowery bushes and tall trees were three adventurers the crab had met recently.

He had talked with them.

He had gotten to know them a little.

He had even traveled with them through the jungle for a few hours.

And he had also watched them be completely destroyed by an angry minotaur.

“Look, it’s the crab again!” said Garrick, the bigger one of the trio, pointing a meaty finger at Balthazar. “Nice hat!”

“I watched you three be taken out by that angry beast in the jungle,” Balthazar said. “How are you alive?! There’s no way you all survived what I witnessed back there!”

The three humans exchanged quick glances and half-shrugs as if confused by the crab’s own confusion.

“Ah, it appears our crustacean friend is not in the know yet,” said the Trader with a grin on his face and the glint in his eyes of someone who saw an opportunity.

“What are you talking about?” Balthazar asked.

“There is a very good reason why our formerly fallen friends here are back to standing among us again,” the tradesman said coyly, waving the old journal in his hand back and forth.

“And let me guess,” the crab muttered. “The answer is right there in that strategy guide, isn’t it?”

The Trader’s eyes narrowed as his grin widened.

“Clever as always, mate.”

Balthazar exhaled quietly. It was just business. A negotiation. He knew not to take it personally. But it still frustrated him to no end that the Trader kept getting one up on him.

It wounded the merchant in his softest spot behind all his hard chitin—his pride.

Fine, fine! Balthazar thought. I can try to learn more about those sub-classes later on anyway.

Meanwhile, figuring out how three recently squashed adventurers were back to being alive and strolling out of the jungle like nothing felt like a more pressing matter.

“Go on, spill,” said the crab. “What’s the explanation for this?”

He took a few steps closer to the trio and sniffed.

“They certainly don’t smell undead to me. Looking pretty solid too, so not ghosts either.”

He narrowed his monocled eye on them, but as expected, he saw nothing unexpected.

[Warrior - Level 38]

[Ranger - Level 38]

[Wizard - Level 38]

Same exact classes and levels as before. They hadn’t even gained any levels since last time.

“So, you have chosen this as the piece of information you wish to know for returning this latest marble to me?” the Trader asked, still grinning.

Balthazar exhaled sharply.

“Yeah, sure, fine. I agree.”

The Trader flipped the little notebook open and trailed his fingers across the pages until he found the section he was looking for.

“Ah, here it is. I knew I’d find it,” he said while reading and nodding.

Balthazar waited as the man kept silently reading and bobbing his head.

“Well?!” the crab finally exclaimed.

With a sudden snap, the Trader shut the journal and turned his gaze back to Balthazar.

“The answer is very simple, if you think about it.”

The merchant rolled his eyestalks.

“You just told me a few moments ago to not think too hard about things, so why don’t you just tell me?”

“Haha! Did you forget how this island is not too keen on letting those who come here leave?”

Balthazar’s eyestalks started to frown and the tradesman leaned in closer.

“Did you think something as mundane as dying would let those adventurers escape Battershoal?”

“Wait…” said the crab. “You mean to tell me…”

“That not even in death you may escape Battershoal. If an adventurer dies on this island, they just go right back to where they started,” the hooded man said.

Balthazar turned to the three adventurers, then to the Trader, and then back to them.

“Is this true?!”

Rowan, the ranger, shrugged. “Yep.”

“We all woke up on the shore of that beach, soaked as the day we first arrived on this island,” the warrior, Garrick, explained.

“Rather unpleasant, I must say!” Cedric added.

“So let me get this straight,” said the befuddled crustacean. “On Battershoal… you cannot die?!”

“Oh, no, no, no,” the smiling trader said. “You very much can die, mate.”

“And it’s incredibly unpleasant, I must add!” reinforced the wizard. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Fine, whatever!” Balthazar said. “But the point is, you die and then just reappear on the starting beach, unscathed, like it was nothing? Like you’re just… immortal?!”

The Trader tapped his fingers together as if pondering his answer.

“Not… quite. There is a price to pay for perishing.”

“A price?” asked the merchant.

“Yes. And a steep one.”

“What price could be too high to pay for never having to worry about dying?” the crab exclaimed, throwing his pincers out. “That’s just way too good! I’m sure anyone would pay any amount of gold for immortality. Any inconvenience, any discomfort, would be worth it for always coming back to life. I cannot imagine any consequence that would make me afraid of dying after learning—”

“The price is you leave all your belongings behind when you perish,” the Trader stated plainly.

“Oh dear lord…” the crab whispered, his expression instantly turning grave.

“Indeed,” the cowled man said. “Anything you carried or were wearing when you died is left behind on the spot where you fell. You reappear on the beach, alive and well, yes, but all your belongings are claimed by the island.”

“That’s right. We woke up buck naked on that beach!” Garrick said, with a strangely proud grin on his face.

“We had undergarments, you brute,” said Cedric. “You just chose to take them off immediately.”

“They were soaked! I didn’t want to catch a cold,” the warrior said.

“Like I said, it was all very, very unpleasant,” said the wizard, shaking his head as a shiver ran down his body.

Balthazar, still trying to process everything he had just learned, looked closer at the party of three in front of him. Only now did he notice they were not actually wearing the same gear as before. Their clothes and few pieces of armor were much lower grade, most of their equipment was missing, and the weapons they carried now were a far cry from the ones they used during their fight with the minotaur.

“Yeah…” said Rowan, noticing the merchant’s gaze. “We had to make do with what we looted on the way here. Maybe you’d like to sell us some better equipment?”

“Do you have any coin?” the crab asked flatly.

“Uhm… not really,” the ranger replied.

“Then I would not.”

“We don’t even know exactly where in the jungle we fell to that thing,” Garrick said.

“Maybe if we hadn’t been so distracted by a certain peculiar crab, our navigator could have kept a better track of where we were!” jabbed Cedric.

“Hey! Not fair,” Rowan quickly said. “None of what happened is mine or Balthazar’s fault. We were just way underprepared to face that thing. I told you guys this island was way above our levels, but you guys didn’t want to listen when I suggested grinding some more on the continent before getting on that ship!”

“I love me a good challenge,” the grinning warrior said, puffing out his chest.

Their conversation quickly spiraled into a three-way argument about who was to blame for their defeat, the tactical mistakes they had made during their encounter with the minotaur, and Garrick’s reprehensible comfort with running around naked.

Balthazar soon tuned out their bickering and turned to his own thoughts.

Could that rule about reappearing on the beach upon dying even apply to him? They were adventurers, while the crab was… something else? Maybe? Not even he was sure anymore.

But more important than that was, even if it did apply to him too, would it mean losing all of his stuff?

No way. I don’t even want to imagine losing all my wares, all my food, my hat, my gold… Well, maybe not that last one, thankfully. Druma is taking good care of it… I hope.

He shook his shell, trying to put away all the bad thoughts he did not need in his mind at that moment.

If he had lived all of his life doing his best to avoid dying, that’s just what he would keep doing. Sure, being immortal could be nice, but if it meant losing his precious wares, then he would just keep on valuing his life—and his stuff.

“Hey, why don’t you come with us?” Rowan asked, causing Balthazar to snap out of his pondering.

“We didn’t discuss that among ourselves first, Rowan!” Cedric exclaimed. “Last time that crab joined us we ended up as a gruesome new form of decoration in the jungle.”

“I like the crab!” said Garrick, grinning widely and giving two thumbs up.

“It wasn’t Balthazar’s fault we failed,” the ranger said calmly. “If anything, we should be seeking his help. After all, he’s the one who survived the minotaur after we fell.”

“Hmm, that raises a good question,” said Cedric, rubbing his chin and turning to Balthazar. “How did you manage to beat that beast, crab?”

The merchant shrugged.

“I didn’t. I just ran away.”

“Oh,” the wizard said, looking part impressed, part disappointed.

“Yeah… Maybe we should have considered that strategy,” Rowan said jokingly.

“What are you guys even doing out here on this spot anyway?” Balthazar finally thought of asking. “Did you get lost wandering the jungle?”

“Ah, we were thinking of venturing into these ruins, actually,” Cedric said.

The crab looked back toward the broken stone structure sticking out of the jungle and the hole he had climbed out of.

“Broken Whisk?” he said. “You guys know the entrance is on the other side, right?”

“We… did not know that,” an embarrassed Rowan admitted.

“But maybe that’s good!” exclaimed Garrick. “We sneak in through the back and get the good loot at the end right away, without having to explore the whole thing.”

“But that’s the best part of going into dungeons and ruins!” the ranger protested.

“Well, I wouldn’t recommend it,” Balthazar said. “All you’re going to find are skeletons, cobwebs, and an unreasonable amount of letters from a dead man.”

“Wait, you have been there already?” Cedric asked, his eyes lighting up with interest. “And you survived it? Alone?”

The crab raised his pincers in a smug little shrug.

“It wasn’t too challenging. For me. You guys might have some trouble with it, but hey, if you want to try going down there and breaking a leg, go ahead. As it turns out, it’s not even like dying matters to you fellas anyway.”

“So there’s no chance you’ll come down there with us as a guide?” Rowan asked.

“Nope! No way. I remember what happened last time I tagged along with you three. I’ll pass. Balthazar is better off adventuring on his own!”

“Heh,” said the Trader. “Balthazar is also starting to talk in the third person, it seems.”

The merchant glanced at the man with a disapproving glare.

“The next marble of yours I find will be traded on my terms.”

The Trader chuckled, his shoulders bouncing slightly.

“I’ll be waiting for you, mate,” he said. “Off to the Proving Grounds to find your scroll, I take it?”

“Yes,” said Balthazar. “And I’m sure you will somehow show up there before I can, won’t you?”

The Trader chuckled again but gave no verbal answer, just tipped his head to the merchant before turning back to his boxes and sacks of wares.

After wishing the trio of very unprepared adventurers good luck for whatever it was worth, the crab set off back into the jungle, heading northwest, to look for a statue, with nothing but a hat, a monocle, a backpack, and the company of a barnacle that spoke too many words and a pet rock that spoke none.