Starting from zero: growing up with knowledge from another world

Chapter 9

I woke up before the sun had risen and decided to do my morning routine that I had to skip while traveling. I had started enchanting my dagger with gravity magic during practice to help improve my grip strength and overall strength since I was still too small to wield a short sword properly. Having built up a sweat, I poured tepid water over my head, which was quite refreshing. I then went in to wipe myself off before getting ready for the day.

On my way to my room, I ran into Jay, who invited me to have breakfast with him before heading to the Valeria magic tool workshop. I quickly got ready and went with Jay, and surprisingly, we got breakfast from a food cart on the way to the aforementioned workshop. When we got to the workshop, we entered to find a small area with a counter and a few items on display below it, with a young woman and toddler behind the counter.

When she saw Jay walk in, she quickly got up and called 'dad' through a side door in a very loud voice. We did not have to wait for long before the dad in question, Tristan, as I quickly found out, came through the door. Tristan was a well-built, average-height guy, around his mid 40's if I had to guess, his hair and beard were dark brown and slightly messy, and his skin was a bronze color from obviously long sunlight exposure.

"What're ye yellin' about lass? The dead would'a heard ya callin' for me." He said to his daughter with a slight scowl after having been interrupted from whatever it is he was doing.

"It's been a while, Tristan. I see you are the same as always." Jay said with a warm smile on his face.

"Hmm? Jay? What're ya doin' 'ere? Issit already that time? Who's the boy ya got with ya? Well, don' jus' stand around, come on back, I won't bite. GAHAHA" He laughed heartily while turning around and walking back through the door. I'm not sure what it is with burly dudes and laughing like that. A bunch of adventurers and even the guild master laughed like that. With multiple strange thoughts running through my head, we followed Tristan through the door.

Through the door was the workshop, and as soon as we were through the door, Tristan began showing new and improved magic tools while explaining what they were for or what was done to improve them. Occasionally he would show a product or explain one that really impressed me, but most of what he showed were variations of common magic tools.

About halfway through the warehouse, I saw what appeared to be kitchen magic tools. Upon seeing them, I turned toward them and walked over, inspecting them thoroughly and finding that they were more convenient than a wood-burning stove or oven, but only slightly. They still used flames and weren't very adjustable, but using a magic stone is still easier than cutting and burning wood. While I was inspecting these, Tristan and Jay came up behind me without me noticing.

"That's a magic stove an' oven for restaurants and nobles' houses, not somethin' an average person'd use." Said Tristan, using only a slightly less blunt tone with me than with Jay. I guess he was trying not to scare me or something, not that I found him particularly scary.

"The basic design isn't bad, and the magic circuit is fairly advanced, I particularly like this part of the circuit that deals with mana conversion, but you're losing efficiency in the output control mechanism," I said, only sparing a glance at them, before turning and pointing out the flaws and virtues that I had notices. "Honestly, there is still a lot of room for improvement. The problem is that you are still stuck on the whole 'food is cooked over a fire' part. You need to broaden your view if you want to create better home appliance magic tools."

Tristan stared at me dumbfounded with wide eyes and jaw hanging loosely. It didn't look like he was going to reboot on his own, so I signaled to Jay, who then smacked him on the back, causing him to jump and come back to reality.