No way to beat the merchant... yet. Haha, he was actually intended to have his whole own plotline but I just couldn't get around to it in time. Amazing job figuring out the black red-eyed cave one!
I plan to do a post-jam update to clean up the bugs and make this game a tad easier etc, and have even been advised to turn it into a full game, so if you're interested you'll have that to look forward to as well! I even develop things like this live on twitch [shameless self-plug haha]!