Chapter 3: Bricks

I woke up to the smell of food, someone once again placed food near my door. I had my fill and headed to the shop owner.

Once I was there, the man had an angry look on his face.

"Kid, yesterday, you took those tools, I thought you belonged to the Xuan Fu temple, but apparently you have been kicked out. I won't ask you to give them back, but I won't forgive you if you try to scam me for more of my items."

Hmm, I guess he must have learned the news from the Village Head, but no matter, I was lucky enough to check my pockets yesterday, I had a purse I didn't even notice I had tucked inside my robes. It didn't jingle due to being covered in cotton, but it had a good deal of silver and gold coins.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take anything from you without payment, but you offered before I could pay you. How much are those tools worth anyway?" I asked.

"Two Bronze Jins."

"Right," I replied and pulled out the cost and handed it to him. The man's angry expression immediately turned to friendly and he was more than happy to serve. It was true, money is god, and everyone loves worshiping it.

"I'll be needing more things," I said.

"Like what?" the man asked.

"I'll need an anvil, and a more hammers, the bigger the better. Also shovels, pickaxes,"

"I only have one of each," the man said, "As for the anvil, I don't have one, you'll not find any anvil in this area, but I do have a big slab of iron you can use. Are you planning on opening a forge?"

"For now, it's for personal use," I replied and then waited for the man to bring me the stuff.

"Also, do you have iron ingots?"

"Iron Ingots? What are those?" he asked.

I shook my head, "Do you have anything that has iron in it and you don't need, even iron ore is good."

"Well, for now, I do have some rusty broken axes, shovels, that no one will be using, as for iron ore, you'll have to wait for the City Messenger to come by, you can give him a letter and an advanced payment and he will send someone to deliver it for you."

"Is he trustworthy?" I asked.

"Of course, he is appointed by the City Lord. I can write your letter for you. How much do you need?"

"At least two hundred pounds for a start,"

"Pound? I have never heard of that young master. What is a pound?"

I looked around and saw a quite hefty and large potato, I weighed it in my hand and handed it to him, about this weight." I said

"Oh, that's close to half a Kilogram, so you need about a hundred Kilograms?"

"Uh, yes,"

"If I remember it's one silver for fifty kilograms of iron, that'll be two silvers if you have them."

"Here, and this is your commission," I said and added a few bronze coins to him.

The payment was two silvers and ten bronze Jins, five for the tools, and five for the merchant. He was rather happy. I grabbed the tools and took them back to my shed, then came back for the square iron slab the man had, thankfully it was not miss proportioned as it had a few sides that looked as if they were cut by a sword.

I grabbed the slab, it was heavy, but not too heavy for me. I managed to bring all the tools back to my place and began planning my work.

First, to make strong tools, I'll need a furnace, and the best one for these types is a blast furnace. Sadly, the blast furnace will need a lot of time to construct and a lot of clay. I can probably make one, I already know the method and idea behind it.

Second, I'll need firewood, a lot of it. the forest here is enough to satisfy my need, but I'll also