Balthazar woke up near the end of the afternoon, his fluffy winter hat slightly crooked on his shell as he stood up and stretched his pincers into a yawn.

It had been a while since the merchant had allowed himself to take a nap in the middle of the day, but after an exhausting day trading with adventurers—and chomping on cinnamon puffs in between—the crab just couldn't keep his eyestalks up anymore. So he let himself collapse on a cushion, behind some storage shelves, while Henrietta took over the counter for the rest of the day.

He trusted the toad with his business, she had more than proved herself a capable trader already—even if not as skilled as the crustacean himself, of course—but it still pained him to leave trading experience on the counter.

Balthazar needed every bit of it he could get. Levels were harder to get now more than ever, and if he wanted to delve into the depths of the dungeon's mines, he would need a good few more of them just to feel comfortable setting foot down there again.

So the grinding continued. The grinding of coins rubbing together, that was.

"Uuuhhn…" Balthazar let out as another yawn came out of his mouth. "Brr, it got way colder while I was out visiting nap land."

Straightening his winter hat with one pincer and scratching his backside with the tip of the other, the groggy crab slowly scuttled his way to the middle of the bazaar.

Sunlight was scarce outside, and there were no clients around, as was usual by that time of the day. Henrietta seemed to have gone on a break, and Balthazar had the place all to himself.

"Well, crabapples," he said to himself as he approached the edge of the stone fire pit at the center of the bazaar. "No wonder it's so cold in here. They let the fire go out!"

With both claws on the sides of his shell, the merchant shook his carapace disapprovingly as he looked at the ash and charred bits of wood inside the stone circle.

"I guess I gotta do everything around here," muttered the grumpy crustacean as he scuttled away behind some crates.

After a moment, the crab reappeared carrying three wood logs in his arms. Trying to carefully keep the pile of firewood balanced, he made his way back to the fire pit at a wobbly pace.

"Phew, here we go," Balthazar said as he dumped the wood into the ashes. "Manual labor is hard."

Using both pincers with as much dexterity as he could muster, the crab attempted to place the three logs upright against each other in the shape of a pyramid.

It proved… challenging.

"Argh, it's even harder when you're built for pinching, not handling!"

After several minutes of much grumbling and frustration, where each log kept falling just as he managed to make the other two stay in position, Balthazar finally achieved a conical shape that vaguely resembled a tent.

"Good enough," he said with a frown while skittering away again. "Now, some kindling."

Reaching into an open box by the foot of a nearby table, the crab grabbed a pincerful of broken twigs, dry leaves, and small pine cones. Moving back to the fire pit, he placed the kindling under the upright logs with extreme care, the tip of his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he focused.

"Easy… easy… don't touch the logs, Balthazar."

After pulling his claws out from under the bonfire-to-be, the merchant breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"Phew," he whistled while wiping an imaginary bead of sweat off his shell. "I'm glad I'm not the one who has to do this every day. Now just have to light it and this place will be all cozy and warm again."

Balthazar looked left, looked right, down, and even up—for some reason not even he was sure about. Then he frowned his eyestalks.

"Where did Druma leave the flint and steel?"

The puzzled crustacean looked around the bazaar for several minutes, peeking under tables, inside boxes, up on shelves, and even inside a barrel, all without success.

Exhaling sharply, the merchant finally decided he had enough of trying to do things on his own.

"Druuuuuma?" he called.

After a moment, the familiar sound of small feet rapidly slapping against wooden floorboards came from the back of the bazaar, soon followed by the appearance of the bouncing tip of a wizard hat from behind the counter.

"Boss call Druma?" the grinning goblin said as he arrived next to the fire pit with his green cape fluttering behind him.

"Yes, I did," the cantankerous crustacean said with a weary sigh. "Where in the sugar glazes did you put the flint and steel?"

The goblin's eyes gleamed as his smile widened from ear to ear.

"Boss want to light fire?" he asked with palpable excitement.

"Clearly," Balthazar said, extending both claws toward the cold hearth in front of them.

"Druma can do that for boss!" the green assistant said, hopping from side to side with great enthusiasm.

"Thank you. That's all I—What are you doing?!"

The crab stared dumbfounded at his helper as the goblin stood hunched over the fire pit, teeth holding his tongue out the corner of his mouth and one eye closed as he gazed intensely at the kindling under the logs with both hands hovering above them.

"Druma light fire for boss!"

Balthazar sighed. "Is your hat not properly equipped to your head again? You need to go get the flint and steel first, in order to do that."

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The concentrating goblin grinned again without taking his eyes off the dry leaves and twigs.

"Druma want to show boss new trick Druma learn!"

Intrigued, the merchant cocked an eyestalk and leaned closer to see what his assistant was doing there.

The goblin brought his hands closer to the kindling, carefully, as if not to disturb the delicate arrangement the crab had constructed inside the fire pit.

With fingers curled as if grasping an invisible mango, Druma started breathing harder, his intense focus causing a trickle of sweat to run down the side of his face.

"Buddy, I'm not sure wha—"

Balthazar's words were abruptly cut off as he caught a glimpse of something happening between the goblin's hands.

A tiny flash of light at first, barely noticeable. Then it happened again—a spark.

Gritting his teeth, Druma's body began trembling as he stiffened his invisible grasp and his knuckles turned white. "Hhhng!"

The crab's eyestalks nearly shot off from his shell as he saw crackling electricity form between his loyal helper's hands, like a miniature lightning storm localized entirely within his grasp.

Like a bolt of lightning striking a forest's tree and starting a wildfire, one of the tiny white sparks created by the goblin hit a piece of the dry kindling, starting a chain reaction that set the whole pile ablaze.

With a smoldering ember now glowing under the pyramid of logs, Druma finally released his grasp over the pit and let himself fall back onto the floor, sitting on the floor panting but with a proud grin on his face.

"Sweet butterscotch!" exclaimed the stunned crab. "How did you just do that, Druma?!"

The goblin stood back onto his feet smiling and hopping with excitement. "Druma cast spell from book from sir wizard!"

"But… I… You… But…" Balthazar stammered, his eyestalks snapping back and forth between his friend and the now-burning bonfire.

"Druma finally good enough at reading to finish one page from book!" the proud assistant said. "Druma want to make boss proud with surprise after trying to cast spark spell for days!"

The crab remained perplexed at the sudden revelation from his green helper, his mouth partially open in disbelief.

It made no sense. He had been helping the goblin learn how to read, mostly to humor him and make him happy, but he never had any expectations that would let him get anywhere with his magical aspirations.

Even if he learned how to read the spell's page, there's no way that would let him suddenly cast it.

Failing to come up with any logical explanation, Balthazar brought up his system screen in order to check his party's status. Reaching the portion that displayed Druma's stats, he double-checked his attributes.

[Health: 60/60]

[Stamina: 90/90]

[Mana: 0/0]

As the merchant expected, they were unchanged.

He has no mana, how the hell could he possibly cast anything?! The baffled crustacean thought.

Balthazar's brain raced inside his carapace as he watched the exhilarated goblin make a little celebratory dance in front of the fire that now roared at the center of the bazaar.

While he had no interest in the arcane arts himself, the crab still knew that, by definition, mages need mana in order to cast any kind of spells, no matter how small. If someone has no mana, they cannot cast, simple as that.

Yet, the very happy goblin in front of him had just defied that very notion right before his eyes.

"How…" muttered the merchant, pinching his chin thoughtfully.

Skittering away, the merchant grabbed the tome that Tweedus had gifted Druma the last time they had met and brought it back next to the pit.

Flipping it open, he found the page for the spell the goblin had just used, [Spark], and quickly scanned through its contents.

Nothing in its long and tedious explanation mentioned anything relevant to solve the mystery, and only made the whole thing more puzzling once Balthazar confirmed that the novice-level spell did, in fact, have a cost of 5 mana to cast.

But he has zero max mana!

The crab exhaled sharply, frustrated by the inability to find an answer.

He looked at the wizard hat bouncing up and down on Druma's head. Quickly reaching for an equipping his Monocle of Exposition, Balthazar inspected the old piece of headgear.

[Wizard Hat of Enlightenment]

[+2 Intellect]

It was still the same effect as always, since the day he retrieved it from the body of a wizard who flew too high up above the crab's home so many moons ago.

That's not it…

Then his eyes went to the other piece of enchanted equipment the aspiring wizard was wearing—the cape.

The crab's eyestalks slowly rose as he recalled what the old piece of tattered cloth Tweedus gave to the goblin was enchanted with.

[Ancient Arcane Cape of the Novice]

[Arcane spells cost 10 less mana to cast]

"Wait a minute…" Balthazar whispered as his eyes widened.

He had never paid it any mind since that day at the old loon's lair, because he just thought it was a common piece of mage gear the wizard had lying around and that he offered Druma just to make him happy.

But now that one crucial detail clicked in his brain.

Fueled by his epiphany, the merchant rushed to one of his shelves, the one that contained most of the bazaar's equipment aimed at spellcasters.

He grabbed a cheap pair of brown gloves off the shelf and looked at them through his monocle.

[Novice Mage Gloves]

[Novice-level spells cost 10% less mana to cast]

"Nooo?" he muttered, gloves still hanging from his claws.

He tossed them back into the pile and dug for another item.

[Aspiring Mage Hood]

[Increases maximum mana by 5%]

"There's no way…"

Rummaging through all of his mage apparel items, Balthazar quickly realized what now felt so obvious.

All other enchanted pieces of equipment relating to magic applied their effects on a percentage, but Druma's cape reduced spell costs by a flat amount.

"How did I not realize that before?" said the crab. "So a cheap novice spell like this Spark one, which costs 5 mana by default, will become free due to the cape 10-mana reduction."

He watched the cape whipping around behind the goblin as he celebrated his first spell casting.

Wait a minute! But that doesn't explain how he can cast magical spells in the first place. You need to have some kind of spellcaster class in order to use magic. And Druma never had a class.

Realizing he had rushed through his assistant's stat screen without paying any attention to anything that wasn't his mana earlier, Balthazar brought the screen back up and slowly scrolled through the text until he reached the goblin's sheet.

"Lemon curds! I can't believe it!" the flummoxed crustacean exclaimed quietly.

[Name: Druma]

[Race: Goblin]

[Level: 3]

[Class: Wizard Apprentice]

"You're a wizard, Druma!"

The goblin stopped hopping from side to side and stared blank-faced at the crab with both arms dropped to the sides of his body.

"Druma is a what?"

"A wizard!" replied the crab. "Like Tweedus!"

The goblin's smile slowly reappeared on his face as his eyes widened, big and shiny.

"Druma is real wizard? Like sir wizard who give Druma the magic book?"

"Yes!"

The goblin exploded into pure gleeful celebration, arms thrown into the air as he hopped up and down, laughing and cheering.

Balthazar had no idea how a local goblin had just gained a system class, but in that moment, he wasn't too concerned with it either. He was content with just watching his assistant's joy at his achievement.

One small, nagging question wouldn't leave the back of his mind, however.

Did Tweedus know what would happen when he gave him the tome and the cape?

If he ever saw the crazy old wizard again, he would have to remember to ask him.

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