## Chapter five, Canfee?

“I’m glad to get answers to all my questions but first, can we eat? I’m famished,” I said while looking at all the amazing-smelling food I felt my mouth salivate on its own. “And tell me what all this is?” I pointed to all the meats, vegetables, and fruits that were overflowing the table now. “And is there any specific way you recommend that you eat the food?” And yes all that looked fantastic, but now I noticed the basket on a side table filled to the brim with what looked like a really small loaf of bread. It looked more like a baguette in size but it was formed as a loaf, a brown bread with a rich flavor of flour and something that smelled like raisins. Newly taken from the oven, warm and the smell was even better than all the rest. This looked like a real feast!

Ragnhild, still smiling, said, “I say we start with the bread” and took a loaf from the basket, broke it into two halves, and loaded it with meat that was wonderfully grilled to a perfect medium. The juices from the meat made that no butter was needed. “You take bread, some meat. It's from the Bronicurs, a herbivorous animal that is common throughout all of PAERD, and it’s famous for its succulent meat. Add some Sanfin.” She took something that looked just like salad. “The Sanfin’s best trait is that it adds a bit of spice and that pairs well with the meat and bread. That’s the most common way to eat Bronicur meat.” She finalized and handed me the bread and meat sandwich.

At that moment, I was so hungry that I took a big bite as soon as I got it in my hands. And wow with capital letters! The sandwich was all the things Ragnhild said, and then more. The taste, the texture, the aroma, everything, was just awesome, and yes some of my experience could be that I hadn’t eaten proper food since the evening before all this started. I never ate breakfast, only drank a couple of cups of coffee. I started drinking coffee on the long shifts I had when I was working extra to grind together money for me and mom.

I just devoured the sandwich in a few big bites and then looked up at the stunned look from Rondellen, Alfred, and Ragnhild. They had barely started to make their sandwiches and I had already eaten mine. So I just asked, “is it okay if I make one myself too? And this was just amazingly good!”

They all started laughing and Alfred said, “it was like you just inhaled the sandwich. I have never seen anything like it. I mean, yes, you told us you were famished but just wow.”

Ragnhild answered my question by giving me another loaf of bread and to me and pointed to the meat still laughing and smiling. “I’m glad you liked it! And while you are making yourself a sandwich I’ll tell you how the food ended up on the table. I used the skill [Teleport Item] Alfred and Rondellen told me that you just have gotten [Telekinesis], so I wanted to show you another legendary skill. As they told you, normally we don’t talk about skills just to anybody since it can be dangerous if the wrong person comes over the information. So if you had been a regular customer to Alfred that came for dinner we would have carried the food over here.

I looked her in her eyes and thanked her and then asked her, “What can you do with it? Is it only items in. dead things or can you teleport living things too?”

“Only items, no living beings. For that, you need the skill [Teleport Being] with which you can teleport yourself and other living beings, but same as with my skill, you need to have seen the location beforehand.” She answered.

“What is the range limit for those skills?” I was interested.

“There is no upper limit on the range, but of course, it depends on the level of the skill.”

“Do you know anything about my skill? What can I do with it, range, and so on? I saw you share a glance when I tried to lift the hammer back at the Smitty” I said and looked at Rondellen and Alfred.

Rondellen turned towards Alfred and with another laugh said “I told you he was an observant young man.”

“Yes, you did. Well, truth to be told, there is little known about [Telekinesis] but why we shared a look was that you with the skill at level one almost lifted an iron hammer. Let’s just say that you probably haven’t surprised us the last time. As far as we know, at level one, you can move smaller objects like a coin, not larger items.”

While we were talking we continued eating and I soon was starting to get satisfied or rather it felt like my stomach was bursting at the seams. After the first sandwich, I had eaten three more. But it was hard not to when it was so delicious. And that’s what I told my hosts.

Ragnhild handed me something she told me was a fruit that was good for digestion. It didn’t look like any fruit I had ever seen before. The fruit had a black skin on the outside, and it was formed like a square. She showed me how to cut the fruit in half and then just dug out the kernels from inside. It kind of looked like a pomegranate on the inside but shared nothing of its taste. Instead, the taste faintly reminded me of coffee.

I was quick to ask if the fruit was always eaten fresh and if you got more alert when eating them. They told me that yes of course they were eaten fresh and yes how did I know you became more alert? I saw before me how I would roast and ground the kernels and make something that hopefully tasted close to coffee. That would have to come later though.

Because with all the excitement of the day that felt like it started two days ago. Now with my belly full of food, it felt harder and harder to keep my eyes open. I excused myself and thanked my hosts for everything. I made my way to the guesthouse and to the long-awaited bed where I promptly fell asleep with the robe on.

The next morning I woke up refreshed and felt good. But instead of jumping out of bed, I thought through the events of the last couple of days and remembered the spell for [Time].

*Time: 12.24*

So back on earth that would make it lunchtime, but somehow I didn’t think it was time for lunch just yet.

I checked my stats.

*Status:*

*Name: Green Raven*

*Level: 10*

*Coins: 1795 gold, 35 silver,*

*8 rusty copper.*

*Attributes:*

*Strength 10*

*Dexterity 10*

*Endurance 7*

*Vitality 10*

*Intelligence 10*

*Wisdom 30*

*Available points: 15*

*Health: 100/100*

*Stamina: 70/70*

*Mana: 30/30*

*Skills:*

*[Inspect item] level 2/10*

*[Inspect being] level 1/10*

*[Telekinesis] level 1*

I needed to get some help to decide on what I’d spend my remaining points on and what I should put them in. Only a noob puts points in every attribute after a certain level. You needed a base yes but after that, you put the points into the attributes that helped you to do the most of your skills. I thought I would ask my kind hosts at breakfast or when I saw them. There was so much I didn’t know about this world. How did you regenerate mana for example, did you regenerate health over time? There were of course more questions than that but I had to figure them out over time.

I tried [Telekinesis] on my pants that lay folded on a chair across the room. I remembered that the range at level 1 was 5 meters and it wasn’t more than 2 to the chair. I successfully got the pants over to the bed, but when I tried to move my shirt nothing happened. Probably out of mana I thought, but I had a big grin on my face, I did it! I moved something bigger than a flower! And then I got an idea.

*Toggle mana bar on*

A mana bar appeared in front of my eyes, with some tries I got it to stay exactly where I wanted it to.

*Toggle health bar on*

And did the same thing with it.

Now I had the mana- and health bar at the top left corner of my eye.

*Health bar:*

*100/100*

*Mana bar:*

*0/30*

After that I got up, dressed and folded the dinner robe, and went out of the guesthouse.

The door into the kitchen was open, and Alfred stood at the stove cooking something that both smelled and looked like bacon in one pan and eggs in another pan. The kitchen was a round quite large room with a table sitting in front of large glass windows. Behind the table almost in the center of the room was the stove. It didn’t look like something I had ever seen before. It wasn’t gas or fire. I didn’t think they had electricity yet. Nonetheless, somehow the food got cooked.

“Good morning,” I said with a smile, walking inside.

“Good morning lad, you can sit down at the table. Breakfast is almost ready.”

As I sat down, Rondellen came in from another door and occupied the chair next to me.

“Morning,” he said and stifled a yawn.

“Tired?” I asked.

Alfred responded, with a wink and a smile and said, “yeah, he is always so tired in the mornings. Ragnhild is even worse. If only there was something that would make them more alert in the mornings.”

I just jumped up from the chair and it almost toppled over, “What’s the name of that fruit I ate yesterday? And do you have more of it? I have an idea.”

The jump woke Rondellen up from his near slumber with a startled jerk, “uh what?”

Alfred just looked on with bemusement and answered, “yes, how many do need? And they are called Canfads.”

“Well, let’s take two for now. I want to try something, and if I succeed, Rondellen and Ragnhild will be more awake in the mornings.” I took a knife and split the two fruits into halves and got the kernels out, washed them, and dried them off on a cloth or what looked like a kitchen towel.

Then, I asked Alfred for a pan to roast them in. I roasted them lightly, and almost instantly the aroma started to wisp up from the pan. I looked at Alfred, and asked “do you feel the smell?” and with a motion of one of my hands, I let the aroma whiff up towards him. He had until now looked on with interest but without saying anything, but when the aroma reached his nostrils he said almost dreamingly “oh why have we never done anything like this?” And looked up into the ceiling. “This smell amazing Green Raven, how long should they roast, because that's what you call this process?”

“Yes, this is called roasting, you could put them on a steel plate and roast them in an enclosed hot space, that we back on Earth call Owen, but such a small amount of ‘beans’ as this, a pan works fine.”

“Beans?” He asked.

“Yes, back on Earth we have this thing called Coffee and it's made from Coffee-beans. I drank loads of it, it makes you feel more alert along with its great taste.” After I roasted them I poured them out on another cloth and then I let them cool down.

“Alfred, do you have something to grind the kernels with?”

“Grind? What is that?” Alfred answered with a puzzled look.

“It’s something you use to mash or pulverize the kernels.” I said, “but maybe I can use a knife and just hack them into small pieces? Yes, let’s try that.” I got a knife from Alfred and started the process. Soon, I had something that almost looked like grounded coffee beans but was different since the kernels from the Confad turned green when roasted. Meanwhile, I had asked Alfred to boil some water. “Normally I’d have a filter now but let’s try it like this,” and looked around, yesterday you served something in goblets, do you have something that you pour hot beverages in?” I asked.

“Hot beverages? Why would you want to drink something hot?” He almost frowned. “And what is a filter?”

I explained what a filter was, and what a cup could look like, and after a bit of rummaging, Alfred gave me something that Stone Bucks back home would be proud of. I then put some of the roasted and pulverized kernels in the ‘cup’ and then poured the hot water into it. After a little while, I said, “okay it’s time for the answer to the question, did I succeed in making what we on earth call coffee?” First, I smelled it. It had a nice aroma, not like coffee but more like a fruity tea, and then I took a sip.

Alfred looked on, “well don’t let me hang here, did it work? Is it any good?”

I answered with an almost heavenly expression on my face. “Try for yourself,“ I said and gave him the cup.

First, he took a careful sip, same as I had done. But after that, he started drinking with a mesmerized look on his face. “Green Raven, what have you done, lad? This is amazing! How did you come up with something like this?!” His words were spilling out of him. “I feel so refreshed and alert! Rondellen!” His powerful voice reverberated through the room and Rondellen nearly fell off his chair. He had more or less been sleeping while I had prepared the ‘coffee’.

“Uh, yes Alfred what is it? He asked with an unsteady voice.

“Here,” Alfred said and gave Rondellen the cup, “take a sip of this.”

A bit unsure he did as Alfred told him, but after the first sip, his face transformed from a sleepyhead to an alert man. Then, just for a second ago, the dozing man now sat up straight and was awake.

“I’m almost speechless, what is this, Alfred? Never mind give me more, this is fantastic.”

“It’s Green Raven, he made it from the kernels of the Canfads.” He then turned to me and asked, “that is a good question, what do you call it?”

“Back on earth we have coffee beans and we just call it coffee. But how about we call it canfee?”

“Yes, Canfee is a good name,” Alfred said as Ragnhild’s sleepy form materialized sitting on a chair at the kitchen table.

“Canfee? What are you talking about?” She asked Alfred sleepily.

“Here darling, taste this!” He said and gave her a new cup filled with more Canfee.

She looked a bit suspicious at the content of the mug but took a sip and then another.

“What is this? It’s fantastic. Why haven’t you made this before? I feel so refreshed and alert.”

We all started laughing, and I explained what I had made and the process for it. And then I got a thought. “What is bread made of? Is it flour? How do you make the flour?”

What they told me reminded me of how they made flour back on earth back in the old days. “So,” I said and looked at Alfred, “can you make something like what you use for making flour but smaller? So we can use it to ground-up Canfad kernels.”

He looked thoughtfully at me and responded, “yes I can probably make something like that.”

“Well you must!” both Rondellen and Ragnhild exclaimed at the same time. And we all started laughing again.

After we settled down, Alfred brought out breakfast. We sat down and had what looked just like bacon and eggs. I was just about to ask what they were called when Rondellen looked at me and then turned into the same old man that I first met back on the road. He looked like he would keel over any second. Then he gave me a wink and was back to normal.

“I used a skill called [Cloaking]. It's useful when you want to deceive people. Or not show them your real self.”

“Not bad,” I said, with a smile, “now I’ve got all my questions answered.”

I had been keeping track of my mana bar and now it was back to full, so I had regeneration of mana. But it was slow, and I still wondered if you would regenerate your health.