The wind lashed at exposed skin with icy fingers as Rye brought his gloved hands up to his neck, trying to quickly wrap his green and blue wool scarf tighter and higher, until it covered the tip of his nose and muffled his breath.

The climate was colder and more unforgiving that time of the year the further north he went, but that did not fray the young archer's resolve. Even in harsh weather, he still felt most alive when traveling and exploring the world. Scouting was an intrinsic part of who he was, and nothing got his excitement going in the morning quite like the prospect of getting on the trail and discovering new places.

As the adventurer exited the snow-covered forest he had been traveling through and the faint warmth of the timid sun touched his skin, he found himself wondering if he was like that in his previous life too. Was his occupation related to exploration in his old world? Was it perhaps just a hobby he enjoyed? Or could it be that he did not even like traveling back then, and it had just been something he learned to love after arriving on Heartha?

Wandering questions like those would often find their way into his thoughts while he traveled alone. As much as he tried not to dwell on it, it couldn't be helped. How much of who he was now compared to who he used to be? The question always itched in the back of his mind.

"Heh, best to leave what I can't do anything about in the past," Rye said to himself as he climbed the beaten path over a small hill. "And instead focus on what I can do something about in the present."

He stopped atop the peak of the small hill and placed a shielding hand over his eyes as a smile stretched between his mustache and goatee.

"There she is," the adventurer said, eyeing a small settlement on the horizon.

The young ranger wasn't just a skilled scout, he was also adept at tracking. And while he usually only tracked wild animals, this time he was seeking something else. Something potentially far more dangerous.

After setting off from Boulder's Point on his mission to find the adventurer who defeated Beatrix and was apparently seeking some kind of revenge on Balthazar, Rye's first order of business was to travel to the red dragon's former lair.

His thinking was that, without any other clues as to his whereabouts, the best way to pick this Warren guy's trail would be to visit the last location he had been seen at.

Once he made the climb up to the lair where he and the crab's party found Madeleine baking for the dragon, the archer finally realized just how serious of a threat Ren really was.

Seeing the scar left on Beatrix's neck was one thing, but as he examined the empty chamber up on the side of a mountain, he could tell that whoever passed through there was a force to be reckoned with—and one Rye hoped he'd never have to fight himself.

The first detail he had noticed were two indentations on the stone floor, surrounded by circular scorch marks. Those, he deduced, marked the spot where the challenger activated his skills and powered up his charge.

After tracing the motions in his mind, the ranger followed the clues to a massive gash on the wall of the lair, right behind where he recalled the dragon had stood when they met her. The attack had been so powerful, it cut right through the side of the mountain, leaving small gaps in the wall through which the bright sky outside could be seen.

Having seen the aftermath of their encounter, Rye was surprised the dragon had managed to survive at all. Especially considering all that power came from an indirect strike of the adventurer's weapon.

"I would have fled too," the archer muttered to himself.

Once he finished learning all he could from the lair and returned to the outside, the ranger took some time to consider what Ren's next move would have most likely been.

After giving it some thought, he figured that the most logical move for someone strong enough to defeat a red dragon would be to move further north, where higher level challenges lie.

Ridiculously powerful as he was, the guy was still an adventurer, so the archer felt confident that his target would seek out the closest town or village north in order to resupply and find his way up the continent.

And that was exactly where Rye went.

As he approached it, the crab's friend saw that the settlement was small, barely the size of one of Ardville's districts. They had no walls, and by the looks of it, Rye figured they mostly made a living off cattle and farming.

"If Ren passed through here, he certainly wouldn't stay long," the young man said quietly, figuring the other adventurer would find the place of little interest aside from maybe a quick rest spot.

As the archer trudged through the muddy snow of the road leading into the center of the village, he stopped to look at a wanted poster on a wooden pillar, curious if it would provide some kind of lead. Alas, all it offered was the promise of a gold reward for anyone who helped capture some gang of thugs called "The Scissor Bandits," who were apparently robbing people on the roads.

"Nothing worth looking into," the adventurer mumbled with disappointment before moving on.

Rye continued heading further into the settlement when a group of children ran past him in a playful hurry, laughing and yelling as kids do. Glancing at the last boy, the ranger's keen eyes spotted something in his hand that caught his attention.

"Hey there," the adventurer said to the child, offering a friendly smile. "That's a neat wooden sculpture you have there. Is it a crab?"

The boy stopped next to the archer, clutching the figurine in his hands as he looked up.

"Yeah, it is," he said. "You ever seen a real crab, mister?"

Rye nodded. "Sure have. I'm even friends with one! Where did you get yours, though?"

"A guy with hair bright like fire passed through here yesterday and gave us all one each," the kid said, pointing to his friends who were waiting for him down the road. "He looked funny. Sounded funny too."

"Huh… Interesting," the archer said. "By the way, does your village have a quest board?"

The child scratched the side of his head with the edge of his wooden crab.

"You mean, like, for adventurers?"

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"Yes!" said the ranger. "One of those."

"Yeah, right there, mister," the young villager said, now pointing the other way, toward the settlement's center.

"Aha!" Rye said, making his way there with haste. "Thanks, kid!"

The notice board stood in front of the local tavern. It was small and had a single oil lantern hanging above it, providing a dim light that illuminated the few postings pinned to the wood.

The archer's eyes scanned the quests listed quickly, for once not looking for a job to take himself, but rather something that would seem likely to have caught Ren's interest.

Unfortunately, none of the quests offered were even remotely appealing to a level 30 archer, let alone someone strong enough to defeat a level 75 dragon in combat.

There were the typical fetch jobs, with someone asking for a kind soul to go down some well to retrieve their family heirloom, or whatever else the locals kept carelessly dropping into wells, for some reason. There were also the jobs for killing wild wolves that were threatening the livestock, as per usual. And even some weird quest about finding a missing purple chicken.

But nothing that would fit an adventurer as powerful as Warren.

As Rye sighed and pulled his gaze away from the board with his hopes dashed, he noticed the kid from before standing a few paces behind him, staring at the bow and quiver on his back with a wonderstruck expression.

"Are you, like… a real adventurer?" the young boy asked, pointing at the archer with the same hand that still held a crab figurine.

With an amused chuckle, Rye replied, "I certainly try to be!"

The kid kept gawking at him with his mouth half open.

"So you're like that mister that passed through town a few weeks ago with the shiny armor and big sword, asking about the way north?"

Rye's eyebrows jumped, and a big smile appeared on his face.

"An adventurer in shiny armor and carrying a big sword, eh? What else can you tell me about him?"

***

"Alright, Bouldy, just hold still, I promise this won't hurt," Balthazar said.

"Friend?" the golem inquired, tilting his head at the crab.

They were outside the back of the bazaar, in an open area cleared of any snow by Druma earlier, and Balthazar was fiddling frantically inside his backpack, seeking something he could not find.

"Ah, here we go!" he finally said, pulling both pincers out of the backpack.

In them, the crab held a second salt crystal, about the same size as the one he had used to imbue himself earlier.

Balancing the salt rock in one claw while reaching for the golem's leg with the other, Balthazar selected his Imbuing skill, hoping for the best.

"Come on, tell me this will work now…" he muttered before activating the skill.

[Imbuing failed. Insufficient material.]

The crab's eyestalks curved inward as he processed the text in his sight.

"Wait… It failed because there isn't enough material, not because the target entity isn't compatible." A smile appeared on Balthazar's face as he looked up at Bouldy. "You know what that means, buddy? It means you can be imbued now!"

"Friend?" the puzzled golem said.

"But damn," said the merchant, "if a crystal this big worked to imbue me but not you, that must be because your size requires more material."

His smile faded and was replaced by a frown of disappointment as the crab realized he would have to put his dreams of walking around with a shiny golden bodyguard in tow would have to be put on hold.

"I don't even want to imagine how much an ingot big enough to cover your body would cost me," the merchant said, shaking his shell from side to side rapidly. "No way!"

Tapping on his chin with the tip of a pincer, Balthazar looked around in search of inspiration. He needed a material compatible with his imbuing skill, and in sufficient amount to work on a giant golem.

"Hmm, what if…"

Skittering to the side of Madeleine's new kitchen, the crab pulled back the large sheet covering some of the leftover materials that John and Mason had left after construction was finished.

"Hey, Bouldy, help me pull one of these out, will you?" he said to the golem.

"Friend," the living construct replied before reaching down with one hand and pulling out a large glass pane similar to the ones used for the kitchen windows.

"Alright, now hold it just like that while I do my thing," Balthazar said, touching the glass with one pincer while the other grabbed the golem's rocky leg.

[Imbuing activated: Stone Golem imbued with Glass]

[Warning! Target's Primordium has integrated with imbued material.]

"Oh? What does that mean?" exclaimed the crab, before looking up at his stone friend.

The glass pane they had been holding on to was gone, and Bouldy looked down at his arms and the rest of his body with a surprised expression. His usual dark brown rock tone had been replaced by a slightly transparent rock body with a subtle green sheen to it.

Right away, Balthazar could tell the golem's imbuing worked differently from his own. While the crab would take on the full appearance of the imbued material onto his chitin, Bouldy's Primordium body seemed to instead mix with the glass, rather than being covered or replaced by it.

The golem was clearly still made of stone, but the Primordium rock was now… glassy, too.

[Imbuing - Glass]

[Duration: 6 minutes]

[Effect: 25% chance to reflect spells. -25 physical defense.]

"Huh, interesting," the crab said to himself as he read the system description. "Not exactly the most useful effect, but then again, it's just common glass."

"Friend?" Bouldy asked, still staring down at his own hands with eyes wide open.

"It's fine, buddy," said Balthazar. "You will go back to normal in a few minutes."

"Friend…"

"What do you mean, you feel stiff? You're made of rock!"

After some minutes of examination and poking around with his claws, Balthazar watched as the glass finish vanished from the golem's body and it returned to its usual primordial rock material.

"Well," the crab said, "this is nice and all, but it still leaves the problem of getting enough of a specific material to imbue you with. While an iron or steel golem sounds awesome in combat, that would be really expensive for what would just be a few minutes in effect. I guess there's a reason most adventurers don't pursue this skill…"

After racking his brain for a while trying to think of what materials he could possibly get in large enough quantities that would be both useful and not too expensive, the merchant suddenly jumped in place with an epiphany.

"Wait here, I need to test one more thing!" Balthazar said to his golem before running inside.

After a minute, the crab reappeared with a large plate of cake in one pincer.

"Friend?" Bouldy said with an inquisitive glare.

Placing the plate down on the ground and moving the tip of his pincer so it was touching the outer layer of the cake, Balthazar reached for the golem's leg once again.

[Imbuing failed. Incompatible material.]

The annoyed crustacean frowned.

"Oh, come on! I was hoping the whole Primordium integration mumbo jumbo would make this work!"

Feeling stubborn, the crab mashed the activation option on his imbuing skill a few more times, more out of frustration than anything else.

[Imbuing failed. Incompatible material.]

[Imbuing failed. Incompatible material.]

[Imbuing failed. Incompatible material.]

[Seriously, just stop trying, it's cake.]

[Imbuing failed. Incompatible material.]

[Imbuing failed. Incompatible material.]

"F-friend?" Bouldy asked, looking down at Balthazar with a slightly concerned expression.

"Huh? What?!" the crab exclaimed, quickly pulling his pincer away from the stone leg. "No, no! Come on, it was all just part of the… experiment."

"Friend?"

"Oh, don't be such a drama queen! Nobody was going to take a bite at you!"

Realizing something was missing, Balthazar cocked an eyestalk and looked up at the golem's shoulders.

"Wait a minute. Where did you leave Pebbles?"

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