Cozy Issekai Craftsman ch 4

As the morning light trickled in through the window, Joe slowly opened his eyes, feeling as if he had emerged from a cocoon of restful slumber. He stretched his limbs, feeling every muscle and bone in his body come to life. It was a feeling he had long forgotten since the cancer took hold of him.

As he sat up, he felt a rush of energy coursing through his veins, like a wave of warm sunlight on a cold winter day. His mind raced with possibilities of what he could achieve today, and he eagerly swung his legs off the bed, ready to take on the world.

Joe reached out to touch the plush pillow next to him, feeling its softness and the gentle rise and fall of its fibers. Then, he ran his hand over the comforter, its warmth enveloping him like a comforting hug. He pressed his hand firmly onto the pillow and the other onto the comforter, transferring the softness from one to the other.

However, he was surprised that the comforter ended up taking more softness from the pillow rather than evening out to their original numbers from the day before.

"Oh," Joe said. "Looks like I ran into another limitation for my power."

Undeterred, he continued his experiment, focusing all of his attention on the pillow and comforter. He tried transferring their qualities back and forth, but no matter how hard he tried, the numbers just wouldn't balance out. It took six more attempts before he finally succeeded, and he let out a triumphant cheer.

"That's good to know," he said to himself, a smile spreading across his face.

He knew that transferring properties between objects was far from an exact science, and that the process was still shrouded in mystery. But he was determined to learn more, to unlock the full potential of his power.

With newfound confidence, Joe decided to push his limits even further. He concentrated all of his energy on the pillow, willing every last bit of softness into the comforter. To his amazement, the pillow transformed into a hard, stone-like object, while the comforter became the fluffiest, most luxurious thing he had ever felt.

But as he marveled at his creation, he noticed that there was still some softness left in the pillow, as if it were holding onto a small piece of itself. Puzzled, he stared at the objects in front of him, wondering what could be causing this strange phenomenon.Just then, a new screen appeared before him, illuminating the mysteries of his power and offering a tantalizing glimpse of what lay ahead.

[With your new power, you lack control. The more you use the power, the more control you will have over those specific items]

“It comes down to not just knowledge of the item, but how often I transfer properties from one item to the next,” he guessed. He had a feeling that the more in tune he was with that specific property regardless of the item, the more control he would have over it.

A new screen appeared.

[Certain items are only able to take on a property from another item up to a certain degree. This may change as your power grows]

Joe blinked the ability away. All the screens were gone.

Joe's mind raced with wonder as he stared at the glowing screen before him, trying to make sense of the mystical intelligence that seemed to be guiding him. Was it the manifestation of his own power, or a gift from the goddess Quinn herself?

With newfound confidence, he began to experiment with his powers, transferring the softness back and forth between the pillow and comforter with ease. This time, it only took two tries to even them out, and a wave of excitement rushed through him.

"We'll all be damned. It works," he exclaimed, before quickly correcting himself with a nervous chuckle. "I take that back. I don't know if there are demons in this world or if there's hell, but please don't damn me."

A strange sensation rippled through his body, starting from the center of his chest and spreading outwards like a warm, comforting embrace. He knew without a doubt that it was Quinn, reaching out to soothe his fears and reassure him that he was on the right path. He locked the door behind him when he left the room, and went downstairs.

At the bar, sitting on one of the stools, was the young woman who had been waiting and pulling drinks from the day before. She turned around with a lazy spin on the stool, realizing that someone had broken her morning silence. Her curly dark brown hair bounced when she turned, and there was something about her eyes that were captivating, but he couldn’t quite place what it was.

Joe waved his hand at her and said, "Hey, I saw you yesterday. I'm Joe, the new cook, at least for the day."

He kept his voice friendly and a little hushed. He didn't want to wake any of the guests up. The woman with the long curly hair nodded in reply, her voice equally pleasant and quiet.

She said, "My name is Ava. I'm the waitress extraordinaire. You're up early. I thought Caroline would have to wake up a city boy like yourself on her own."

Joe walked over and leaned against the bar, wondering where the smell was coming from. There was a large pot next to Ava. He asked, "What makes you think I'm a city boy?"

His voice wasn't combative, and her grin showed him that she didn't find him argumentative at all.

Ava said, "Soft hands. You rarely see that in this part of the country."

Joe nodded. Caroline had said the same thing. He said, "You know that's fair. But just because I have soft hands doesn't mean I don't know how to do hard work."

Ava gave him a once-over and said, "Well, we'll see."

She leaned back towards whatever she was holding in her hand before Joe had interrupted her. It was a small clay mug that had black liquid in it.

Joe felt his mouth drop open. "That’s coffee!"

Ava gave him an odd look. She said, "What? They don't have coffee where you're from?"

Joe said, "Yeah, we do. I just didn't think I'd see it."

She snorted. "You make it sound like it's a delicacy. But yeah, we have coffee out here. Although it might not match up to your delicate city boy tastes."

As Joe chuckled and settled onto the barstool next to Ava, the wooden seat creaked under his weight. Ava grabbed a chipped mug from beneath the counter and set it down in front of him, its rough surface inviting his fingertips. She gestured towards the large pot, and Joe leaned over to catch a whiff of the steaming brew inside. The aroma was heavenly, like a warm embrace on a cold day.

Ava leaned closer over the bar, revealing the fine lines around her eyes that spoke of someone who smiled often. From beneath the counter, she produced a small glass jar filled with cool cream and a ceramic bowl brimming with sugar crystals. She slid them towards him, her eyes studying him as if he were a subject under test.

Joe's sweet tooth was no secret, and he didn't hesitate to dip his spoon into the sugar bowl, grabbing heaping spoonfuls of the granules. He watched with delight as the white crystals dissolved into the hot coffee, swirling into a sweet, aromatic concoction. Then, he tipped the small glass jar and allowed a delicate stream of cream to flow into his mug, swirling and blending into the dark liquid.

As he took a sip, the rich and velvety texture of the coffee danced on his tongue, leaving a bittersweet aftertaste. He savored the moment, feeling as though he had discovered a new world of flavor. Ava watched him with a knowing smile, as if she had known all along that he would succumb to the temptation of a little sweetness in his coffee.

She raised an eyebrow and said, "That’s a lot of sugar."

"I like what I like," Joe replied without shame. He noticed that Ava didn't just sip her coffee, but her tongue flicked against the top of the liquid, like a dog lapping against a bowl of water. It was delicate and quick.

She quipped, "What, you've never seen a lizard kin before?"

Joe blinked, "Lizard kin?"

She laughed, then quieted down, realizing she might have woken someone up. "Yeah, that's my folk. While you humans are descended from monkeys or apes or whatever, we are descended from the noble lizard."

Ava blinked at him a couple of times and her green-hazel eyes took on a darker green color. Her round pupils flattened to a near-vertical slit before going back to a human pupil shape.

Joe found himself leaning in, fascinated. He pulled himself back and said, "Oh, sorry. I don't mean to be rude. That was really cool."

Ava blinked at him a couple of times and turned her head to the side, curls bouncing against her head. "Cool, as in cold? That an insult?"

Joe shook his head. "No, cool means nice or pleasant or a number of positive things."

Ava gave him a once-over to double-check if he was lying, then grinned. "Cool. I like that. Cool like a summer breeze."

Joe nodded. An idea came to him that he'd been wanting to test out since the day before, but he didn't really have a chance. This was the perfect time.

"So, I'm going to be cooking today, but I'm also a wizard," he said. It was an awkward way to introduce his ability, and he had never been a great conversationalist, but Ava seemed to take the bait.

She said, "Yeah, I heard about that from Rick. He said you do magic, which is kind of like sorcery but not really. Even he didn't know."

Joe shrugged. "I don't know enough about sorcery to say how different we are, but my ability is probably much more mundane."

She said, "You have an ability that's mundane? Sounds like an oxymoron."

Joe replied, "Maybe. Here, I'll show you. Pass me your mug, please."

She looked a little wary, but pushed it over to him. He held both mugs, one in each hand, and focused on his power and some of the screens above them. To his delight, he got two screens instead of four.

He had expected to get one screen each for the liquid in the coffee and then a separate one for each of the mugs. But instead, he got two separate screens, each of them saying [a cup of coffee] with their various properties.

Joe's had more properties on his list, which made sense because it had sweetness from the sugar and cream. He said, "All right, now watch this," and focused on transferring the qualities of his sweetness from his cup to hers. The numbers flew over from one screen to the other. He felt himself grinning like a schoolboy and tried his best not to say, "I can't believe that worked."

One thing he had proven at that moment was that he didn't need to touch the item directly, which was the liquid of the coffee. For some reason, his ability recognized both the cup and the liquid as one whole item, each with their own separate properties and combined properties.

Joe wondered what that could extend to in the future. This was convenient.

She raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you supposed to be doing something? Are you trying to summon a demon or turn my cup of coffee into a phoenix?"

Joe felt himself blushing. He pushed her coffee mug back to her. He said, “No. Again, like I said, it's not really that impressive. But take a sip.”

She looked at his cup and then back at him. "What did you do?" she asked.

"I didn't poison it, if that's what you're asking," he replied. "Here, try it."

Ava took a sip of her coffee, a little tentatively, but there was a playfulness in her expression, like a kid being introduced to something new. Her eyes widened and the pupils of her iris squeezed into lizard-like slits before going back into almost human, round pupils. "It's sweet, but I didn't put any sugar in it," she said.

Joe grinned. "Exactly. That's my power."

She stared at him as if he was some kind of idiot. "Your sorcery is to make things sweet?" she asked.

Joe wanted to slap his palm against his face. "No, I can transfer the qualities of one thing to another."

She looked back at his coffee, then at hers, then back at his. "Cool," she said, testing the word.

Joe did a fist pump. "Yes, you got it right. That's exactly how you use it."

She tested the word again on her lips. "Cool. Cool."

Ava chuckled, enjoying the new word.

Joe nodded.

Ava added, “I think your power's neat but not cool, if I'm using that right. Mag…magic, right?"

Joe nodded.

"Yeah, magic, but there are cool things I can do with it too," he said, looking around. "Do the kids wake up around this time?"

Ava blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Do they go to school or something?" Joe explained. "In my land, in Chicago, all the kids were forced to go to school for a little over a decade and learn reading, writing, among other things, like history and stuff. We'd spend all day there, and sometimes we'd have to go longer before we could even get a job."

Ava's mouth hung open, and it was the first time Joe got to see her tongue move. It seemed to move on its own, like a cat's tail.

She closed her mouth as if embarrassed, and she said, "Let me get this straight. They make you learn a bunch of stuff before you can get a job. So that way, when you do get the job, you have to learn how to do that job?"

Joe thought about it for a moment. And then he said, "Yeah, now that you say it that way, it seems kind of dumb."

Ava nodded. "I can see why you left. Hard to make coin if you’re not allowed to make coin."

Joe changed the subject. He said, "I'm glad Caroline's giving me a chance today.”

Ava asked, “So, you can cook, right?"

Joe nodded. He said, "Yeah. When I was younger, I did a couple of stints in the kitchen. I also did work on different parts of the restaurant. I kind of did that for about five or six years before figuring out what it is that I want to do."

Ava blinked. "I thought you would have been in school. How old are you?"

Joe realized what he just said and he said, "I'm twenty."

"Oh, I get it. You were in school for a while. Then when you got out of school, you worked in restaurants." She seemed to have gotten it right, and Joe didn't want to correct her. It was impolite.

He said, "Yeah, that's about it."

There were some footsteps behind them, and it was Caroline. She had thick legs, the kind of legs from standing all day and hustling about. Her arms were thick as well from hard work. There were some scars on them, maybe from cooking or doing maintenance work. She said, "Oh, good. You're up."

She walked over without saying anything else. She grabbed herself a mug and poured a cup of coffee, then drank it in silence. Joe noted that she liked her coffee black.

Ava said, "Oh, Caroline, have Joe show you his power, his magic."

Joe beamed, trying to look as innocent as possible. Caroline paused for a second, but then she said, "Okay."

Joe transferred the sweetness from his coffee to hers.

When she sipped it, she gave him a hard, serious stare. Although her tone was light, she said, "Don't you ever, ever do that to my coffee again. Ever."

Joe gulped. "No ma'am."

She let out a sigh and said, "I can already think of a few ways that we can use you for the kitchen, but let's not get fancy. For now, we're going to drink our coffee, and I'll show you the kitchen and what your responsibilities are at different times of the day."

Joe replied, "Aye, aye, captain."

Caroline and Ava seemed to take that in stride. Apparently, they had the same phrase here too. Joe kept the grin to himself behind his mug.

Then he had an idea, one that came to him from the night before, but he had never had enough time to really explain it. He said, "Oh, yeah, here. Let me do this for you. Wait here for a second."

He got up, walked out of the door, and found a handful of pebbles on the ground near the tavern. He pocketed them and then realized he probably needed more pebbles throughout the day. He grabbed more pebbles and put them in his other pocket. He walked back inside to Caroline and Ava, who were giving each other confused expressions.

Caroline asked, "More magic?"

He nodded and said, "Yes."

He held one pebble in his hand while walking over to one of the stools. He brought up both screens, one for the stool and one for the pebble. He scrolled down the pebble screen and saw the words "toughness" and "density" on it.

With a brief effort, he transferred the toughness and density of the pebble from his hand to the stool that he touched with his other hand. Nothing visibly changed, except for the numbers on the screen. Apparently, he was the only one who could see them because Caroline or Ava didn't seem to show any signs that they could.

Joe wanted to add one more thing for a fact. He transferred the color of the stone to the stool. He was only able to transfer about 0.7 points of the color to the stool, but it made a visible enough change that Caroline gasped and Ava covered her mouth.

Ava said, "You can change colors too? You turned the stool into stone!"

Joe shook his head and said, "No, not really. I just gave it the color." He trailed off and explained his abilities to them.

When he finished, Caroline stared at him for a long moment. She said, "That's not mundane. That's amazing."

Joe said, "I know, right?"

Ava gave Joe a knowing look and said, "Cool."

Caroline shot her an odd look and said, "Cool? What do you mean by cool?"

Joe grinned. He had a lot to teach this new world.

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