The bell above Elara's door croaked. Leo stopped restocking his cleaning supplies, watching from the back room's threshold as a young man stumbled into the apothecary, his arms wrapped protectively around a bulky, cloth-wrapped object.
The newcomer had grease smudged on his cheek and the bright, slightly desperate look of someone about to deliver a sales pitch. He approached Elara's counter with a too-wide smile.
"Ms. Elara! Good morning! I've made a breakthrough. A portafilter that reads the user's intent and adjusts the mana flow for a perfectly personalized extraction. It's empathy-powered!"
Elara took a slow sip of her tea, her expression unchanging. "Empathy," she repeated, the word flat and dead.
"Yes! It senses what you need!" He began unwrapping the object with frantic energy, revealing a heavily modified portafilter. Wires snaked from its base, and delicate crystal filaments were embedded in the brass. It was a mess, but a fascinating one.
"What I need," Elara said, "is for you to stop bringing your junk into my shop. No one wants a machine that knows how they feel, boy. They just want caffeine."
The young man's shoulders slumped. The desperate energy drained from him, leaving behind a palpable disappointment. "It just needs a real test," he mumbled, staring at his invention.
Leo focused, and his
[DEVICE: EMPATHY-DRIVEN PORTAFILTER (PROTOTYPE). CONDITION: RAW/UNREFINED. POTENTIAL: EXCEPTIONAL - TIER 3.]
The words "TIER 3" glowed with a soft, golden light he hadn't seen before. This wasn't junk. This was raw, unpolished genius. A core breach of the status quo. Corporate R&D would kill for it, then bury it for being too innovative to be cheap.
As the artificer turned to leave, defeat in every step, Leo spoke up. "Wait."
Both Elara and the young man looked at him. Elara raised a skeptical eyebrow.
Leo kept his eyes on the inventor. "Let me see it."
Hesitantly, the young man handed the portafilter over. It was lighter than it looked, a complex puzzle of magic and mechanics. Leo could feel a faint, inquisitive hum from the crystal filaments. It was listening.
"It's brilliant," Leo said, and meant it. "The design is… unorthodox. But the core idea is solid."
The young man blinked. "You think so? No one else does. They say it's inefficient."
"They're wrong," Leo stated. He looked from the portafilter to the inventor's hopeful face. This was a risk. But the System rewarded creativity. And what was more creative than this? "I'm opening a café. A proper one. I need equipment that can do things the corporate stuff can't." He met the young man's eyes. "What's your name?"
"Kai."
"I'm Leo. Here's my offer, Kai. You help me build this place. You help me fit it out, keep the machines running, and test your inventions. In return, you have a home for your work. A real one. We'll be partners."
Kai stared at him, his mouth slightly open. He looked from Leo to the portafilter and back again. The hope in his eyes was no longer desperate, but kindling into something solid. "A home?" he repeated, his voice quiet.
"A home," Leo confirmed.
Kai's face split into a wide, genuine grin. He thrust out a hand, a smear of grease still visible on his thumb. "Partners."
As their hands clasped, a new, warm chime sounded in Leo's mind. The text that scrolled across his vision was edged in intertwining silver and gold.
[STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP FORMED.]
[SYNERGY DETECTED: HEART-CRAFT + INGENUITY.]
Leo released Kai's hand. The artificer was already chattering, pulling a multi-tool from his pocket and gesturing at the old espresso machine.
"Okay, first, the gasket on that thing is prehistoric. We can fix that. And the steam wand? It could use a resonant frequency modulator to texture the milk…"
Leo listened, a dry smile touching his lips. He had a business, a cynical landlord, and now a genius artificer who talked to machines. It was chaos.
But for the first time, it felt like a team.