Redshirt to the rescue.

John finally arrived at the place, it was a huge building with a gigantic parking lot. Thankfully, the racks to park bikes were just near the entrance, and he wouldn't have to walk all that distance.

John took a shopping cart at the entrance, figuring he would have more to buy than he could carry. The place was in some sense more alien to him that the Illusion barriers where he fought fantasy creatures. His dad wasn't into mechanics or home improvement, and he had never set foot in such a store before, let alone this one.

He needed a few things but didn't know where to look for them or which of them were better.

He started pushing the cart as he walked in front of the first of the dozens of oversized aisles of the shop. The only thing he had found so far was a bunch of garbage bag rolls; he had an idea he wanted to try to bring back a lot of water into his realm, and those were supposed to be water tight and reinforced.

"So, nope, don't need carpeting or paint or wallpaper or curtains or decorative vases... Where the hell do they hide the fun stuff?" he muttered under his breath

"Can I help you?" he heard from behind him. He turned back to face a tall girl in a red polo shirt. She had muscular arms covered in tattoos, very short, brown hair and a few piercings on her face. She might be physically impressive but looked very welcoming and was smiling at him.

Donna Ford
Lvl 10 Handy Girl
<Double Hammer Donna>
31 years old
+25 rp

"Well, you just might. I don't really know my way around here. I got a small piece of land as an inheritance, but it's pretty wild. I'm not used to things like that, but I figured it would be a good way to learn. I would need some tools to cut trees, move rocks around, dig a few holes, tear down an old shack and then build a new one," he explained, giving a likely explanation for what he wanted to do.

"My name is Donna, welcome to the tool barn. This is a pretty big project if you are a beginner, but I would be glad to show you around and give you advice on what you will need. Before starting to build, you'll have to prepare the place and clean the obstacles. You talked about digging, can you easily access the place? We have a rental service for heavy machinery like excavators," she proposed.

John was following her with his shopping cart. She looked competent and had a pretty high level for someone so young that had no powers. And the fact that she wasn't a sexy bombshell would prevent him from getting distracted.

"I'd like to dig a cellar for the cabin I will build, but I don't think I could bring a big machine like that to this place. The other reason I decided to start doing it is that I could use the exercise, and I figured I would rather do something useful rather than simply pay to work out at a gym," he explained.

"That makes a lot of sense, old school manual work then. I would still insist on a nail gun and electric saw for the building part; you will have enough exercise carrying the materials, and hitting nails or cutting planks by hand would really slow you down. Don't worry we have very affordable models. Speaking of which, what kind of budget did you have in mind for this?" asked Donna.

"Well, I have no idea how much it would cost by the time it is finished, but I figured it would take a while to get there, so I could do it in stages. How much do you figure, just to get started?" he asked her.

"Well, those things are not cheap and often it is better to buy one good tool that will last ten years than 5 or 6 cheap ones that you'll keep replacing. It will still be a few hundred dollars, depending on how much you want to buy to start with. Ah, we're here: this is the outdoor section with all your gardening and digging tools. Let's see what you could use," she explained.

She started to explain the advantages and drawbacks of different brands and models to John who was listening with interest to what she had to say. He ended up putting in his cart a 45$ heavy duty shovel, a 40$ pickaxe with a hoe on the back of the pick and a 75$ kit (on discount, whose contents would cost 100$ sold separately) containing an axe, a hatchet and a sharpening tool that could be used on both or even on other blades. Each tool was from a Scandinavian brand that John never heard about before but was assured was one of the best and came with a 10 year warranty.

After picking a large crowbar of a rack for 10$ (it was the store brand model, but it wasn't a really complex thing so no need to buy some good quality), John reflected that he would be better prepared if he ever found himself again against zombies or skeletons. The axe was made to cut wood and not to fight, so it would be difficult to use it properly, but the hatchet could be handy, and the blunt **** of the crowbar or the piercing capability of the pickaxe would be really effective.

He also got a kit of strings and sticks to draw lines and dig straight holes, two buckets, a roll of rope and a small book that would give him all he needed to know about how to dig holes properly and cut small trees to clean a terrain. It cost him another 60$.

"I don't know how much you want to spend on this, do you want to take a look at a few more things? If there are a lot of plants on the lot you might want this, it would help you get access to it more easily too," she said, handing him something in a plastic blister.

This was a nice and very sharp looking machete, with a black grip and teeth on the back of the blade to be used as a saw. Another tool that could double as a side weapon and would be useful in the woods. John looked at the price tag on it, and at 25$ it looked like an honest price. John could have stolen all of this from the store, but it didn't deserve to lose hundreds of dollars of equipment. He preferred taking money from those that deserved it (bullies or criminals) and spend it to buy things. (Not forgetting the income from his quests.)

"I'm sure it will get a lot of use. I was thinking that oh..." john had stopped right in the middle of his thought.

On the rack of the next section of the aisle, he could admire dozens of chainsaws of various sizes. Images of him, cutting down waves of enemies with a chainsaw, passed in his mind...

Until he remembered the night he had spent researching it online years ago. Chainsaws were not really good weapons. Too heavy to handle well, as dangerous for their wielder as for the enemy, reliant on fuel and useless without it, they would cut easily, but hitting with them or getting parried by a hard weapon would derail the chain and damage it easily. Of course in a few months, if he managed to craft a mana powered chainsword that wouldn't have these drawbacks, it would be another thing. There was also the fact that his weapon having a motor would ruin all his perks from his rogue attributes.

"I won't stop you from buying one, but a chainsaw is a very dangerous tool, especially for someone that isn't used to handle power tools. We have an area at the back of the store where we offer short demonstrations and courses on how to use them. If you're still interested next time, I could show you how to use one. I think you have enough to get started on cleaning the terrain. Do you need anything else?" she asked.

John realized that it had been a very long time since he had such a long conversation with a girl he didn't want to fuck (women such as Mrs Wentworth didn't count). He was listening to her and didn't even spend his time looking at her boobs despite their generous size under her tight red polo shirt.

"Do you sell camping equipment?" he asked.

A few minutes later he had a very large backpack (big enough for all that he bought), a small foldable tent, a camping stove and a pair of large tool belts with a bunch of pouches and attachment points. And he had increased his bill by 180$.

He followed Donna to a computer; there she scanned all the articles that he had picked, and he was stacking them in an ordered fashion in the large bag. Without his recent strength increase, he would have had a lot of trouble carrying this.

He was happy that she would get the commission on what she sold him, and she was so nice and helpful that he tipped her 40$ on top of the 400$ he had spent at the store. He hadn't looked at crafting tools this time, but he would come back, and his cover story wouldn't explain why he would need them at this point. Maybe he should look for another store for them to not raise suspicion.

She thanked him for the tip and ecouraged him to come back and ask for her if he needed any further advice. She probably made him buy things that were more pricey than he needed, but it wasn't that expensive, and as long as he got quality stuff, he didn't mind it at all.

Riding his bike with the heavy bag on his back was tricky, but he only needed to do it past the corner of the store. Once out of sight, he put it in his inventory and rode full speed towards the nearby forest, using some mana to propel the bike.