Demon World Boba Shop: A Cozy Fantasy Novel

Ghuda went to a table to enjoy his day off, immediately pulling out some sketch pads and working on ideas for improved poles. Not everyone liked to think about work during their off-time, but Arthur had learned that demons were generally the type to do so. Because their jobs weren’t stressful, people’s zones of what I have to do and what I want to do tended to have significant overlap.

Mizu, notably, never stopped thinking about wells unless she was embarrassed. As a result, Arthur tried to embarrass her a lot when he could without being mean.

The next group of customers, all combat clases, got a full load of whatever majicka Arthur could spare, shoveled into several cups of combat-enhancing tea. Fighting teas were pretty hard, as magical teas went. Arthur’s process for making a tea that actually did something or fixed something involved a lot of visualization, which was fine in most cases but hard when it came to running at, stabbing, and crushing scary monsters. That just wasn’t his thing.

Still, he did his best to at least get the gist of it while putting in whatever workarounds he could. The group got a tea that amplified their personal athletics as much as possible, with a slight buff to both judgment and bravery. That would let them get their jobs done a little faster, which was the main thing at the moment.

“How far out are you all going today?” Arthur asked Corbin, who was along for the ride with the other warrior-types today.

“Miles and miles,” Corbin said. “Well into the city-side of the road.”

That was a bit of local slang that had popped up in the last year. The town side of the road was the amount of thoroughfare that Coldbrook had managed to put up before their road connected with the old-world, city-built roads. It wasn’t exactly halfway from Coldbrook to the nearest city but working the city-side of the road meant they were much further out than Arthur would have expected.

“That far? You guys have been fast. I can’t believe you’ve cleared that many dungeons.”

“Well, it’s easier now that we have them all cataloged. The really hard part was dragging Spiky and Leena through them so they could identify what we were actually fighting. Most of the monsters around here aren’t like what we’ve dealt with before, so once we knew their weak spots, it got much easier,” Corbin laughed.

“That’s not even the big news.” Lily came up behind them. “Stop burying the big story, Corbin. Tell him about Rumble.”

Rumble was a Prata, one who Arthur had once helped by getting his mother Daisy out of a pickle. Daisy had considered the debt of saving both of their lives big enough that she had made a pact with Arthur that obligated both of them to protect the other’s interests when possible. Rumble had made no such pact, but had grown up so thoroughly surrounded by demons that he was now an ally by personal choice.

The two bear-like creatures had prowled the outskirts of the area controlled by the town since then, keeping the local population of dangerous beasts to a minimum as Rumble got bigger and bigger and bigger.

“Oh, Rumble? What’s he up to?”

“He followed us into the dungeon the other day,” Corbin said. “And had a hell of a time, at least judging by the noises he made. I think he ate four of them. We barely got any experience at all.”

“Is that a problem?” Arthur said. “I could try talking to Daisy. I don’t know how much she understands, but she might do something.”

“Not at all.” Corbin waved off the worry with a sweep of his hand. “Speed is more important right now anyway. He rips through monsters so much faster than you’d think, even with how big he is. If he keeps helping, we should be able to clear an extra dungeon a day, maybe more.”

That was a big deal. Monster waves were the product of overflowing dungeons. They could never clear all of them, since there were so many of them out in the wilderness. And when a monster wave hit a dungeon that otherwise wouldn’t have overflowed, it sucked out whatever monsters the dungeon had. Spiky had called it sympathetic overflow, which sounded nice right up until Arthur understood what it was. The more dungeons the team could clear and keep cleared in the coming weeks, the better off the city would be when the wave hit.

Arthur finished dumping majicka into the drinks, helped along by Lily’s ambient mana-lantern ability as he did.

The past year in Coldbrook had been good to Lily, and her skills were now at the point where they had gone from a hard-to-notice buff to something big enough that Arthur could notice when it wasn’t there. After a bit more banter, Corbin managed to pry his group away for another hard day’s worth of combat.

Lily did a couple of turns around the shop straightening things, then posted up on a stool as Arthur made her some tea. He had a particular concoction he made for her, not a named drink but something that he suspected was as close to a personal unique as he could get while still being able to make it every single day.

Sugar Majicka Tea

For the young demon on the go, food energy is always, always at a premium. This tea uses the sweetest juices, a mild pepped tea, and the heaviest creams. Most of your teas are about a quarter of a meal, all by themselves. This is a full meal that fits in around the corners of another full meal, a food-bomb with the predictable result of the drinker feeling very, very full.

In addition to the ingredients, this tea has been majicka-enhanced to push the user’s majicka regeneration as high as possible for as long as possible. This effect is very slight to slight, and lasts for four hours.

All demons ate a lot of food, but Lily was now officially hitting growth spurts and had been sucking down provisions like a starving man dropped into a hot dog factory. This beverage was no exception. She took it down like a hyena, or whatever the demon world equivalent of a hyena was.

“Ah, that’s good.” Lily sat back after drinking it, rubbing her stomach. “You really are a magic man, you know that?”

“I do try. What’s on the docket for today, work-wise?” Arthur asked.

“Well, I can’t help the stampers much. They’re reshaping the ground outside the gate. And Karra got my help yesterday building the wall, but today the mortar needs time to set. I’m thinking about helping Rhodia or the farmers.” Lily scoffed at something as she chewed the last of the ice from her drink. “And of course I still can’t help the warriors because of this stupid skill.”

Arthur loved the skill that Lily called stupid. It was as if the system could read his mind and help keep his little orphan friend safe. Lily’s majicka-lantern group-enhancing skill didn’t work very well in combat situations, unless her life was actually being threatened in an unavoidable way. Otherwise, he was convinced that she would have dived into the dungeons every day, exposing her cute feathered head to danger whenever possible.

“Rhodia or the farmers both sound like good choices. And tomorrow, help Ghuda. He’s going to be working with Puka and maybe Milo all at once. It’s weird, so it should be good experience. Plus, you have those ideas.” Arthur bumped her little brilliant head with his finger. “They can probably use the help.”

“Oooh.” Lily perked up and puffed up her chest at the thought of being more than a portable magic-reservoir. When she could understand things that were going on and improve the process with her input, it was more than just a leveling tactic. It made her feel more useful, and it legitimately helped the people with what they were doing. Newer, odder projects were especially good for that. “Yes, I absolutely will. What are they doing?”

“Making the front of the town spikier, I think. I’m not sure of all the details but I’m betting eventually they’ll be working with the stampers too. Maybe even the wall-building corps.”

“What about you? Gonna go out there?” Lily asked.

“No.” Arthur shook his head. “Stop testing me. I’m staying here as much as I can for the next few days. I got the message.”

“Good,” Lily said. “Now remember to make yourself some tea, too. You can’t do all this on an empty stomach. I’ll have some breakfast sent over.”

Arthur did make himself some tea, just a strong pepped thing to give him the energy to keep up with the morning rush. For whatever reason, his own teas didn’t work on him that well when it came to enhancing performance, and usually, his majicka was better spent on someone else who was doing something bigger and better that day.

The good news about that was that his efficiency was at all-time highs. He couldn’t give every single customer an enhanced tea, but every hour or so he could push out several drinks that helped a couple people to some extent or another.

Arthur could have charged extra for those, but he didn’t. The people he selected to get them were usually so happy that they tipped plenty. His purse was now overflowing, filled with more coins than he had good uses for. As he finished up with the last of the morning rush, shopping was at the top of the to-do list. There were neat things to buy, and he had kept so busy in the last several months he hadn’t bought anything yet.

And it wouldn’t do to depress the local economy, now would it?