Cozy Isekai Craftsman, Ch 17

Joe decided to retreat back to The Rusty Nail. It was evening, and most of the customers had left at that point. Joe was eating his food, and Rick had finished his shift early.

Sitting next to Joe at the bar, Rick asked, "Really, a hellhound?"

Joe shrugged. "That's what Thomas said." He looked down at the pendant and the old man's head. As clear as day was a hellhound, a small dog with bat-like wings and the smell of sulfur.

"I should have realized that as soon as you mentioned the sulfur," Thomas said

"I hope this isn't something that me and my metal have to take care of. Hellhounds are incredibly dangerous,” Rick complained. “We already have enough to deal with at the moment.

"Thomas said hellhounds aren't demons," Joe replied.

Thomas supplied, “That's a common misconception, but they are from their plane of existence. What one is doing over here, I have no idea."

"I feel bad for Mrs. Cordon," Joe said. "She can't go back to her house yet."

"She'll be fine," Rick reassured him. "She loves hanging out with her grandchildren. And she's getting pampered constantly."

Joe had no reason to doubt Rick's information. The guards were a tight-knit group, fiercely loyal to their duty of protecting the town and keeping it secure. But they were also experts at spreading gossip. Any bit of news that made its way to one end of town would be whispered in hushed tones at the other end within minutes, carried on the belts and through the ears of the vigilant guards.

Joe couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of it. It was almost as if the guards had their own secret language, one that only they could understand. He imagined them passing rumors back and forth like a game of hot potato, each eager to be the first to spread the news.

Despite the potential dangers of such loose lips, Joe couldn't help but feel a sense of camaraderie with the guards. After all, they were just regular folks like him, trying to make their way in the world. And if a little bit of gossip was the price they paid for that sense of community, then so be it. I guess in a small backwater town like this, there wasn't really much to talk about except for goings-on like this.

Rick said. "You know, ever since you came here, we've had more and more exciting things."

Joe groaned. "It was pretty uneventful for a whole month when I was working on the mansion and cleaning people's houses. I still need to fix the leak in the basement. Anyway, you  make it seem like I'm a trouble magnet, so I hope you're wrong," he said.

"I'm just teasing you,"  Rick apologized, pouring Joe a glass of beer by leaning over the bar and handing it to him.

"I know, but it's still a problem that we need to solve. And with Grace gone, I guess I'm the closest thing to a ghost expert here," Joe said.

Thomas cleared his throat. "Of course, present. Thomas excluded, is the greatest ghost expert of all time, and the handsomest ghost, and the smartest ghost," Joe amended, but Thomas cut them off by saying, "That's enough now, boy."

Thomas asked, "What are you working on?"

Joe set a large piece of stone next to his plate on the table. Next to the huge piece of stone, which was about half the size of his torso, was a knife made out of metal. Joe finished his food and showed it to Thomas.

Joseph had painstakingly softened the large block of stone over the past week, using a variety of fabrics and tools to transfer the pliability of cloth into the stubborn rock. He had invested countless hours into the process, and his hands were sore and calloused from the effort. But finally, the stone had reached the perfect level of softness and malleability, and Joseph was ready to begin his work in earnest.

With a flick of his wrist, his knife sliced through the stone like butter, carving out intricate designs and shapes with ease. The knife, too, had been enhanced by Joseph's ability.

Rick watched in amazement as Joseph worked, his jaw hanging open in disbelief.

"That just doesn't look natural," Rick said.

Joe shrugged. "But it does look cool, right?"

Rick pointed a chicken leg at him. "Don't you start with that 'cool' now. Everybody at the gate is saying that. Now the whole town is gonna say 'cool'."

Joe gave him a sour face. "What's wrong with that? We're exchanging cultures."

Rick bit into his chicken and said with half a mouthful, "I don't mind the word. It's just that I hear it all the time from my kids, who chant it every single day. You have no idea what it's like being a parent."

Caroline, his wife, walked up from behind the bar and said, "Honey, please stop talking with your mouth full."

Rick swallowed and Caroline asked, "Did you deal with your dog situation?"

Joe kept chipping away at the stone, which made Carol look interested.

He said, "Not yet. Apparently, a hellhound."

"Oh, is it?" Caroline asked. She seemed disinterested and immune to all the weird things that were happening around Joe at this point.

Ava walked up and said, "That was the last customer who left. Can we do the testing now?"

Joe looked to Rick and asked, "Depends, is our resident guard ready to breathe these new flavored waters?"

Rick gave him a grand smile. "I will sacrifice my throat and body for the cause," he chuckled.

Caroline walked around the bar and sat next to Rick. The tavern owner lifted several drafts of beer onto the table and several other spices. She pulled out a piece of paper, pen, quill, and a small container of ink, and started writing columns down to have them on the piece of paper.

Ava said, "Her grandfather should have a good day."

Thomas turned so that way he could see his granddaughter and he said, "Yes, I did. He saw a hellhound today."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, that sounds interesting. I'll have to have you tell me later. But right now, we're going to do a taste test."

Thomas smiled. "And I'll hold you to that."

Caroline asked, "Are you ready, Joe?"

Joe pushed his plate away and set down the giant piece of stone that he was carving. The knife in his hand was as sharp as ever, and he meticulously chipped away at the edges to form a fine, pointy end. He paused, inspecting his work, before picking up a spice from the plate in front of him. The aroma wafted up to his nose, and he closed his eyes, savoring the scent. With his other hand, he touched the spice and concentrated, his ability kicking in. A window appeared in front of him, and he summoned Caroline over.

"Can you read the list, please?" Joe asked, his eyes still closed as he focused on the spice's properties.

Caroline nodded and read off the different properties and their corresponding numbers, her voice filled with excitement. Joe couldn't wait to combine the flavors in the perfect ratio to create something truly exceptional.

Joe touched the beer and the spice, going down the list of spices one at a time, transferring the appropriate number of points from the spice into the beer.

Caroline said, "That's all of them for A. You ready for B?"

Joe replied, "Yep," and touched the next row of spices, transferring it to the other beer. It took about a minute, and soon he was done.

A couple of weeks before, Joe had spent a grueling half hour trying to get the proportions right. But now, he was a master of controlling the percentages of the properties from the spices into the beer. He sliced and diced the spices with precision, maximizing their potency with a flick of his wrist. His ability had grown stronger, allowing him to manipulate the properties of the spices with ease, just like he had done with the soup and the soil in his backyard.

Finally, when he was done, Ava clapped and said, "Okay, I call beer B."

Rick smiled and said, "Perfect. I call beer A."

Joe pushed the beers among them, and Rick and Eva tested them by drinking halfway through the beer. Rick let out a big belch, and Caroline slapped him on the head, but it was soft, and Rick smiled.

Ava let out a small burp, to which Thomas said, "Mind your manners, young lady."

Ava replied, "My apologies, Patriarch," and then Rick and Eva switched the beers. He said, "Sip them again."

Everyone else was silent while they finished, and then Joe asked, "So, thoughts?" Rick said, "Like I said yesterday, it has to be beer A. Savory is where it's at. If you like things that are too sweet, you'll feel like it roasted your teeth. Having too much of a sweet thing isn't that great?"

Ava rolled her eyes and said, "Of course you'd say that. Beer B is better. Yes, it's sweeter than beer A, but it's easier to wash down at the end of the day when people want to relax and calm down. Having something sweet feels like a reward."

Joe replied, "That is a good point." Reed complained and said, "You're only saying that because you think he's pretty."

Joe shook his head and said, "Her being pretty has nothing to do with the fact that she made a good point. You need to make a good argument for your beer A if we're going to keep it." Rick crossed his arms in defense and said, "Savoriness sells well with everything."

It was a simple statement, but Joe thought about it and said, "You know, that's kind of true."

Carolina asked, "Why can't we do both of them?"

Joe said, "Because it'd be more work, not for me, but for you guys. You'd have to keep them tallied and make sure that they don't run out at the same time because the people who come in here expecting the sweet but you've run out of the barrel for it, we'll be forced to get the savory one. And of course, the savory one is better than the regular beer, but they'll be disappointed."

Thomas said, "Disappointment is when your expectations don't match your experience."

"Well said," Caroline replied. She thought about it for a moment and then said, "Why don't we do both?"

Rick asked, "What do you mean, at the same time like mix them together?"

Joe said, "No. We could do one at a time. Buy it per season. So right now, it's the middle of the summer. We choose one for that summer. And then when September hits around for fall, we choose the other beer. And you do that every single year. After a couple of years, people will associate that season with that taste."

Everyone stared at him. Thomas broke the silence and said, "That's very well thought out, boy. You would have made a good merchant.

Joe chuckled, he said, "Not my idea. It’s something that we had back on my home planet. In my Earth, technically, this is my Earth now, but you know what I mean?"

Caroline seemed to be in thought, and both Rick and Ava looked to her for the decision. After a while, she said, "Okay. I think we'll do Joe's idea. We'll do beer A."

The savory beer for the summer, for the fall, and we'll do the sweet beer for the summer. Ava leaped up from her seat. "Yay, I won!"

Rick melodramatically threw his head into his hands and pretended to cry. "No! I've been bested, defeated at the hands of our evil waitress." He pointed an accusatory finger at Ava, and Ava pretended to have been shot by an arrow and collapsed to the floor. She got up. Everyone laughed.

Joe asked, "So there we have it. Sweet for summer, savory for the fall. A little for the fall one. I do have an idea for the tastes."

Rick frowned, "But it's perfect."

Joe continued, "When the fall comes, you'll see what I mean. We'll add maybe a taste of pumpkin or oranges. Something fruity, but keep the savoriness as well. So that way, this contrast gives it more complexity."

Rick’s eyes shot Ava a grin, and said, “Cool."

Ava pointed at Rick. "He said it."

Rick pretended that he didn't hear her. He leaned forward and kissed Caroline on the cheek. "All this was made possible because my lovely wife and tavern owner negotiated a good deal with our beer supplier."

"Give a round of applause!" Everybody clapped, including Thomas from inside of his locket. Caroline did a fun little curtsy. "It was an easy deal. We had informed him of Joe's capabilities."

Luckily, he's local, and it doesn't break. Joe's pact to inform others outside of the town about his power. Joe nodded. He said, "I'm glad it worked out that way. If it was somebody that wasn't local, then this could be a more complicated issue. I'm glad that he's getting a cut out of this."

Caroline's head turned. "Didn't you say that you could do the taste with coffee as well? We don't have to worry about informing the coffee bean supplier since they're out of town. We can do whatever you want with the taste."

Ava’s eyes lit up. "Oh, we can make different flavors and make a coffee tavern."

Joe said, "A cafe?"

Ava looked confused. "No, a coffee tavern. We could call it Legends and Lattes."

Joe said, “We should probably stick to one thing at a time and do it well, and then go from there. For now, I don't mind making different flavors for you guys. But if we introduced coffee to the game, it could be a whole other thing.”

Rick asked, "Was coffee big back in your world?"

Joe rolled his eyes. "You have no idea. It was much bigger than beer, and there were several establishments in each city, maybe dozens, advertising their own coffee."

Ava said "Wow, that's amazing. Although I can't imagine everybody being obsessed with coffee."

"Like Joe said," Thomas interjected. "Neither can I. But there you have it."

Joe said to Caroline. "When you say you want your coffee in the morning, you say your coffee, right? Not 'a coffee'."

Caroline nodded. "Yeah, I need it. It's mine," she said, in a possessive way that reminded Joe of Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

He grinned and said, "Exactly.'"

Thomas spoke up. "Once again, Joe shows his acumen for business. If someone identifies an item as theirs or as a possession, that's a perfect opportunity to make money. 'It is my coffee. These are my children.' Anything that people have ownership of, they value, and anything that people value, you can sell to them. Right?"

"Exactly what I meant," Joe said.

Rick asked, "And that would be a bad thing?"

Joe shook his head. "Not at first, but over time, people would demand orders, and you'd have to make the supply to meet that demand. And at that point, you're just trying to make more money for money's sake."

Caroline went quiet. She said, "That's a good point. We have a good life right now, and we have savings as well. There's no need to make more money just to make more money."

Joe nodded. He said, "Also, back on my planet, it was theorized that cafes, or what you might call a coffee tavern, was the cause of revolutions."

"What, like wars?" blinked Caroline.

Joe nodded gravely. "Before coffee, people only drink beer, water, and wine. Alcohol slows you down, makes you groggy, and makes you want to sleep. Coffee does the opposite. It makes you wake up. Imagine everybody at night drinking coffee instead of drinking beer to go to bed."

Thomas said, "People will talk about problems that they have, and they'd be energized to try to tackle those problems, even if those solutions weren't that great. Then they act on those problems with the renewed energy of coffee. And thus, you have revolutionaries."

Joe said, "Right again."

Thomas, sighed from inside of his locket, said, "All this talk of food makes me miss eating and drinking. I'm hungry, just thinking about it. Everyone needs to eat, even ghosts."

Ava frowned and said, "I'm sorry, grandfather. I'm sure Joe will find a way to allow you to touch and feel again."

Joe said, "Hey, wait a minute. Say what you said again."

Thomas said, "You mean about food, how I miss eating?"

Joe nodded. He said, "Yes, that's it. I think that's the answer."

Caroline said, "You’re talking about the hellhound."

Joe said, "Yes, everybody likes food. Everybody has to eat. I’m going to win that hellhound's heart with food."