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Merchant Crab
Merchant Crab · Book 1 · 2025
Audiobook available · 25 hr 10 min
Balthazar wants coins and pie, but he refuses to leave his pond. The giant crab sets up a business trading adventurers' loot.
From the publisher’s blurb
“One Adventurer’s junk is another Crab’s treasure.”Read the full description at Aethon Books
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What makes it funny?
Balthazar considers visitors rude intruders and takes particular offense at being mistaken for a stepping stone. His grand opinion of himself gives a crab's territorial complaints the weight of a personal scandal.
The comedy at work
The opening pairs Balthazar's indignation with physical misfortune: after tripping an overloaded adventurer, he scolds the injured man for making a mess. His concern for his pond persists through an alarming accident.
Try this if…
Trading supplies the central goal, while levels, attributes, and a character-creation scroll bring in game mechanics. Balthazar's refusal to travel makes his pond the starting point for his business.
Good to know
The opening uses serious injury as slapstick: an adventurer strikes his head on rocks and becomes unresponsive. This is the first Merchant Crab novel.
More funny LitRPG
Sources & further reading
- Apple Books lists Merchant Crab: A LitRPG Adventure (Unabridged) by H0st, narrated by Johnathan McClain, with length 25:10.
Book information
- Aethon Books' page identifies Merchant Crab by H0st, Merchant Crab Book 1, Page Count 698, ISBN13 9798274218030, and audiobook duration 25 hours 9 minutes.
Publisher
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Publisher
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Reading sample
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