The Greatest Sinner

While Sitreg was tiding up his old forge and getting ready for work, Evan headed to one of the gun stores. Thanks to Fien, Evan knew where all the decent stores with a good selection were, so he quickly made his way to the right place.

<Hmm, looks pretty decent, but why is the name so unoriginal?> Evan thought to himself.

He was looking at a large two-story building with a name that spoke for itself, "Ore Paradise". The name was very similar to a restaurant he had visited not so long ago.

<Maybe this store belonged to Marcel, too?> With these thoughts, Evan opened the front door.

He turned out to be absolutely right. Just as Fien had said in Mossy Vulture, one-third of all the establishments and stores belonged to Marcel. So bumping into one of them was very easy.

Click.

Once inside, Evan was struck by the interior. Bright walls, crystal chandeliers, lots of stands with glass cases. It looked as if it was not a store, but a real museum, and the staff here were also dressed accordingly.

<Huh, this store probably does belong to Marcel. It's too similar to what I saw at his house.>

Not ten seconds later, a short girl with a pretty face approached Evan.

"Hello, can I help you?" As in the "Berry Paradise", the staff was not embarrassed by Evan's unkempt appearance.

The young man nodded and clearly said: "Five kilograms of "Black Iron", 300 grams of "Rain Steel", some oil of the "Volcanic Flower", and 100 grams of "Amber Powder."

Evan's order was quite large, but there were many more such materials to be found at the "Ore Paradise".

The girl was a little surprised at such a request, but after a second, she smiled and quickly said: "Sure, please follow me."

<It's time to do shopping>. Evan thought to himself and followed the girl.

They stopped at one of the stands where "Black Iron" was located. The girl put five identical pieces of iron into the store cart and went to the next stand. So after a couple of minutes, there were five pieces of "Black Iron", one small, blue piece of "Rain Steel", a bottle of red "Volcanic Flower" oil, and a bag of yellow "Amber Powder" in the cart.

While they were shopping, Evan saw a lot of interesting materials, but nothing super outstanding. Sure, there were expensive ores, oils, and various minerals, and there were plenty of them all. This only meant that they were easily renewable resources, without uniqueness.

That's when Evan realized why Sitreg had told him about the auction. It would be the only place to get something truly extraordinary.

After getting everything he needed, Evan headed to the cash register with the girl, and suddenly Evan remembered that he had forgotten something important.

"Excuse me, I also need some "Coal of Centennial Birch" Calmly Evan said.

The girl turned around and said thoughtfully: "Mister, pardon my rudeness, I take it you're going to forge weapons out of these materials?"

Evan simply nodded. He saw no point in going into detail and saying who was going to do the work.

Seeing that, the girl muttered: "Then, maybe, you'd like to see the smith hammers? There are many worthy choices for both beginners and masters of their craft."

<So, she thinks I'm going to learn blacksmithing? Hmm, I don't need a hammer, but...>.

Evan really didn't need a hammer, but when he thought about it he remembered the state of Sitreg's tool. He wasn`t going to buy the anvil, as Sitreg had it in good order, but his hammer looked quite unsightly.

Evan nodded and with a slight smile on his face, said: "Okay, I'll take your offer right after we take the coal."

"Okay"

After buying the coal, Evan and the girl headed to the second floor of the store. There were no weapons, armor, shields and such on the first floor, only materials.

Unfortunately, Evan had absolutely no knowledge of blacksmithing, so all he could rely on was his intuition and a keen eye. He didn't need to buy the best hammer in the world anyway. Just a good one would suffice. Moreover, compared to what Sitreg was using now, any hammer would look like a masterpiece.

"You can choose any one, but personally, I would recommend this one."

With these words, the girl pointed to a small hammer hanging on the wall. On the outside, it looked quite ordinary, nothing supernatural.

"Of course, it's a rather simple and common model, but of very high quality. Not rare, but good materials were used in its creation. I think it's one of the best options when viewed from the quality-price side."

The girl spoke at length about the hammer she offered. It was clear from her words that she has a lot of experience in sales.

<Hmm, she certainly speaks very well. I even wanted to buy this hammer. Nevertheless, her words do make sense. I don't know all the ins and outs, and I know basically nothing about blacksmithing. So, I have to choose a hammer that doesn't have any specific parameters.>

Evan's thought was simple. If he bought a specialized hammer, he would probably make the wrong choice. However, if he chose a hammer with all the parameters equally good, from the material to the price, the so-called "golden mean", he would most likely get a good tool in his hands.

So Evan looked around and pointed to one of the hammers, "I'll have that one, please."

Evan chose one similar to the one the girl had recommended to him. It also looked quite ordinary. The materials were different of course-they were better quality, but nothing unique. However its price was three times the price of the last one, 150 gold coins. This difference in price was because this hammer was better than the previous one in every way, which was why there was such a difference in price.

"Mister, are you sure?" The girl asked calmly.

Evan only nodded in response.

...

Evan paid exactly 400 gold coins for everything. It was actually a little more than that, but they gave him a small discount. Shopping in the "Ore Paradise" cost him a lot of money. It is worth noting that 400 gold coins was simply an astronomical sum for the average person.

If Sitreg hadn't found out how much money Evan actually had, he would have ordered the ingredients much cheaper. Of course, only 250 of the 400 coins went for the materials, but it was also an impressive sum.

The staff did not expect to see a credit card at such a man like Evan. But they calmly accepted the payment.

<Eh, unfortunately, just like in my past world, money is a very powerful force in this one, either> Evan thought to himself and headed for the exit of the store.

Click.

Evan walked out of "Ore Paradise" and with a backpack full of materials went in the direction of Sitreg's forge.

...

Click.

Evan opened the front door of the forge and said loudly: "Old man, take it all. Delivered in the best way." Saying this Evan put the backpack on the table.

"Oh, kid, you`ve got back so fast. I was just in time to clean up. Well, it's time to get to work."