Merchant Crab-Chapter 219: The Duke of Dupe

A small man wearing a brown hooded cloak sat on a chair inside a damp cave, mumbling to himself in deranged amusement as he rocked back and forth on his seat.

Stopping his rocking suddenly, the man pulled a golden pocket watch from inside his vest and checked it. A toothy smile appeared under his mustache.

It was almost time.

The strange merchant stood up and began to pace back and forth inside the cave chamber he had been occupying for the past few weeks.

It was a far cry from the lavish living he had gotten used to—the mansions, the expensive furniture, the fancy clothing, the servants—but all that was in the past. His goals were different now. He cared about something far more valuable than mere common riches. Something that would let him have all of those things and much more once he acquired it.

“The system…” Antoine whispered under his breath.

The former guildmaster could not believe how blind he had been his whole life.

A power, a force, something so great had existed all around him all along and he had been completely unaware of it.

It made so much sense now. Why adventurers had always been special and treated differently. Because they were different.

They could see it. The system. The foolish idiots were blessed with it. Touched by its power.

Why them, though? What made these travelers from some faraway land worthy of it?

Antoine did not know. He could not understand. Not yet, at least. The concoction he drank that fateful day in the wizard’s lair had only let him see so much.

That woman, the one dressed in red, had promised him the tea would reveal the truth to him. That it would open his eyes to what he truly wanted to know. She promised that after that day, he would no longer be like everyone else. free𝑤ebnovel.com

A local.

The disgraced merchant despised that word now. That’s what set them apart. There were adventurers, and there were locals. The former were privileged, given access to the system that governed the world. They were given gifts, special skills, powers unachievable by anyone else. The latter were common rabble, simple pawns on the board, there to assist the adventurers, give them quests, trade with them, praise them—some were even meant for nothing more than to be punching bags, a stepping stone for adventurers to grow more powerful.

Sheep, all of them.

It disgusted Antoine that he would be lumped with those drones. To be a local.

“I was made for more,” he muttered behind grinding teeth. “I deserve more.”

The enchantress and her group left shortly after giving him the tea, providing him with little in terms of an explanation. All she let him know was that now that the blindfold had been pulled from his eyes, and he could see the world for what it was, Antoine would finally understand why the crab was special. And how to use that knowledge to his advantage.

“Why should a common, disgusting, mindless beast be allowed to have such a gift bestowed upon him?” the merchant ranted to the shadows around him, as was his growing habit. “This world isn’t fair.”

Antoine reached up with one hand, as if trying to grasp something that wasn’t there. He could see it. Glimpses of it. The system. Right there, under the surface of reality, between the fold of what was and what could be.

He desperately craved it. He wanted it. He needed it.

The disgraced merchant could not use it, however. That cruel world would not let him. The tea the woman in red gave him made Antoine aware enough to see the gaps, the cracks through which slivers of its light could be spotted. He was more aware now. When adventurers stopped to seemingly stare emptily at nothing, he could tell it wasn’t simply because they were dimwitted. They were using it. The system. Flashes of it flickered by, indecipherable glyphs and writing dancing past the corner of his sight. Teasing him. Taunting him.

The madman grunted and sputtered, frustrated ravings racing through his mind as they had been doing since his rude awakening.

“What reason could there be to allow a crab to have the sight? To be given access to such a primordial power. To perceive the threads of fate that weave the loom of destiny! Such a blessing, wasted on a worthless vermin.” Antoine started pacing. “It should be me. Me. Me. ME! Not him!”

A sound of boots scraping against gravel came from the entrance into his chamber, pulling the raving man’s attention away from his inner conflict.

“What?!” spat the former guildmaster upon seeing his bodyguard, Bruce, standing by the curtain at the entrance, his brow furrowed as he stared at the small deranged man before him.

“There’s… another one here to see you, Antoine,” the large, bald thug said in a low, husky voice.

“I’ve told you not to use my name around adventurers! They are to know me only as The Duke of Dupe!” Antoine barked. “And I have also told you I do not wish to see anyone this close to midnight. That includes you. Leave me!”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The muscular bodyguard groaned and then turned to leave, grunting and muttering something the merchant could not fully make out under his breath.

It mattered not. The brute could think and say whatever he wanted about Antoine. He was just another ignorant local. He served a purpose, being hired muscle and a way to spread the rumors around taverns and inns. So long as he kept being paid, he would continue doing as he was told.

Antoine smirked and then cackled quietly to himself.

Foolish adventurers. So easy to predict, to manipulate. They could not help it.

All it took was a rumor, a tale overheard at the counter of some seedy tavern, and they would take the bait. The promise of powerful, rare items at low prices? Irresistible to them. The idea that they had stumbled upon a secret merchant most did not know about, that they could take advantage of it to get ahead? It brought out the purest greed in them.

The fallen nobleman rubbed his fist with the fingers from his other hand, a twisted smile stretching under his mustache.

Adventurers had always used locals, it was their turn to be used now.

He checked his watch again. Nearly midnight.

It was almost time.

Antoine knelt down next to a freshly dug hole in the cave floor. In it was a large wood and iron chest covered with muddy stains.

Something else had come from his newly-found ability to see the world around him for what it really was. Antoine could now see himself much more clearly too.

He understood his role in that world. He was a merchant, and he was a guildmaster, at least until the damnable crab came along and disturbed his rightful place in the world.

Antoine could also sense things he could not perceive before. Like the strings that once puppeteered him. All the trading he had done over the years. All the money. So many strange things he had just taken for granted and never questioned.

They had never looked like anything to him.

But now that he could sense them, all it took was following that feeling in the back of his mind to reach what he found buried in that cave—the chest.

The merchant could not fully explain it, but that container was bound to him. It had been his whole life, it felt. Somehow, without ever realizing it, he had been using it all along, as if everything he had ever traded with his clients had at some point passed through that wood and iron box.

That chest was his chest.

Once he understood that, unlocking it was as easy as flipping a lid.

Weapons, armor, jewelry, tomes, potions, every familiar type of item from his years of trading was inside that box, somehow. It was as if he was looking at the source of his emporium’s inventory.

He knew he was not meant to know about it, certainly not use it directly either, but what right did the world have to deny him anything now, after it so cruelly took everything from him?

Antoine would not play by anyone’s rules but his own. And that included cheating to gain an advantage at every opportunity.

Which was exactly what he was about to do.

After much tinkering and testing, the merchant had found something rather intriguing about his chest. Through whatever magic that governed the container, it seemed its contents “updated” every day, at exactly midnight. Once he learned that, Antoine began prodding, testing its limitations and quirks.

Until he learned something unexpected.

When timed just right, at the very moment the clock strikes midnight, if the merchant added a new item into the chest exactly as it updated, something would happen that caused the item to duplicate itself inside.

Antoine had no explanation for whatever black magic caused it, but all he cared about was that this gave him an advantage, it gave him power, and he would use it as much as he could.

Reaching under his cloak, the merchant retrieved a dagger. Its grip was black as its wielder’s soul, and its silver blade polished enough to reflect the twisted smile on his face.

It was a fine piece, well crafted and worth a good sum. It cost Antoine several bags of gold to purchase it, but he cared little about costs now. All that mattered was to get his hands on better and better items to duplicate in his chest. While it was unfortunate that the chest did not seem able to duplicate currency like it did other items, coin was meaningless when he could sell endless copies of the same item to adventurers eager to get their hands on gear far beyond their capabilities.

The former guildmaster flipped the chest open and carefully placed the dagger inside, an impish grin dancing on his face.

Little by little, he would win. He would triumph over the beast that ruined his life.

He would keep providing those foolish adventurers with his duped gear before they head to that new dungeon next to the crab’s home, and they would slowly disturb everything around him.

“The merchant business has a fine balance,” Antoine muttered as he slowly lowered the lid of the chest with one hand and checked his watch with the other. “Something a dumb animal would never understand.”

He would keep getting his hands on better items, and he would keep duplicating and selling them every day. Soon enough adventurers would stop needing the crab’s trash. In time their unbalanced gear would throw off the delicate balance of the system around that place.

Chaos. Disarray. That’s all that mattered to the madman now. Anything that would cause trouble to the crab and his damnable companions. He would ruin everything around him like the creature had done to Antoine’s empire.

And after Antoine won, after his nemesis had been utterly defeated by his superior intellect and learned what losing all he had felt like, the guildmaster would take everything that was rightfully his back and then some. He would have the money, the power, the respect, the status. And he would take the system access from the crab. He would use it properly, he would level up, gain skills, become the richest—even richer than the king himself. That was his right. The world owed him that.

“Hahaha, almost time!” the raging lunatic cackled as the hands of the clock all moved together at the top of the display.

Just as the watch struck midnight, Antoine dropped the lid of the chest. The latch clicked and a sizzling sound came from within.

Antoine could see it so clearly now, thanks to the effects of whatever those birdwatchers had him drink. It was as if the whole world stuttered for the briefest of moments. The air felt thinner, lights dimmer, and reality stood still. It was unnervingly eerie, even for him.

The container blinked for that split second, and then it went back to normal, stains and everything.

The world was serene again, like nothing had happened.

With a disturbing grin spread across his face, the duke opened the chest and reached inside. In his right hand he held the original dagger he had just placed in the box, and in his left he held an identical copy of it, down to the fine details and imperfections of the polished metal.

Antoine laughed, throwing his head back, and as he did, the dagger in his left hand flickered, a corrupted green glow flashing across its surface faster than the blink of an eye. And then it looked perfectly normal again.

“Just you wait, crab. In time, I will take everything from you.”