After lunch, Jin continued his tour of the village with Helga as his guide.
"Are there any stores here?" Jin asked, curious about the local economy.
"There’s one shop that handles daily necessities. Other than that, a peddler comes through once a month."
"I see."
Jin felt a pang of nostalgia, remembering how Roland used to make his rounds through Kaina Village in much the same way.
"Look, that’s the place," Helga said, interrupting his thoughts.
"Oh."
The shop had a wide storefront and the cluttered, practical atmosphere of a general store.
"Hello, ma'am!" Helga called out to a middle-aged woman tending the counter in the back. The woman was short and plump, with strands of white starting to weave through her hair.
"Oh, if it isn't Helga. And who’s this?"
"This is Jin-san. He’s our... freeloader?"
Jin gave a wry smile at her choice of words. "Could you at least call me a guest?"
Helga flashed a mischievous grin and turned back to the shopkeeper. "So he says."
"I’m not quite sure I follow, but he’s staying at the Village Chief’s place, right? Looking to buy something?"
"Well, I don't actually have any money on me at the moment," Jin admitted.
"Then you can just have Helga pay for it."
"You’ve got a sharp mind for business, ma'am," Jin remarked.
"Jin, jokes aside, is there anything you actually need?" Helga asked.
"I can't think of anything immediately, but..."
"Then why don't you take a look around? If you see something you want, just let me know."
"Alright."
Jin began browsing the shelves. He saw agricultural tools like hoes, spades, sickles, and billhooks, alongside various baskets and strainers. There were kitchen supplies like pots and knives, as well as cleaning implements: brooms, dustpans, straw mats, and scrub brushes. He also found tableware like plates, small bowls, wooden spoons, and forks. There were even wooden chopsticks.
Near the back, he found sacks of grain—wheat flour, barley, and buckwheat—as well as work clothes and shoes in various sizes.
"You really do have a bit of everything," Jin noted.
"Of course. We carry just about everything the village needs to keep running," the shopkeeper said with a chuckle, her belly shaking slightly.
"Do you happen to carry magi-stones or magi-crystals?" Jin asked tentatively.
"We don't stock anything that expensive. No one here could use them anyway. You’d probably have to ask the peddler, Lorenz, if you wanted something like that."
"It seems magi-stones aren't mined much on this continent to begin with," Helga added.
"I see..." Jin felt a touch of disappointment.
"Ma'am, you in?"
Another customer walked through the door. It was a young man with a bow slung across his back and a billhook at his waist. He stood about 180 centimeters tall with a sturdy, powerful build.
"I'm here!" the shopkeeper shouted back.
"Be a bit scary if there were two of you....Oh, Helga. You're here too. Who’s the guy?"
"Hey, Isaac. Back already?"
"Yeah. Managed to bring down two horned deer."
"That’s impressive. Jin, this is my childhood friend, Isaac. He’s a hunter. Isaac, this is Jin. He’s a magi and our... guest?"
"I don’t know why you said that like a question, but... anyway, nice to meet you, Jin."
"Nice to meet you too."
The shopkeeper cut in. "So, Isaac, what brings you in?"
"Oh, right. My billhook got a chip in it. I came to buy a whetstone."
"A whetstone? Hang on a second... Ah, sorry. It looks like we’re fresh out."
"Tch, really?" Isaac pulled the old billhook from his belt and stared at it regretfully.
"Why don't you just get a new one?" Helga suggested.
Isaac shook his head. "My old man gave me this one. I’m going to use it until it’s completely worn out. Only then will I think about buying a new one."
"You’re as stubborn as he was. You really take after your father."
"Well, I am his son."
The two engaged in the easy, comfortable banter of lifelong friends. Jin, having noticed something of interest, spoke up.
"Is stone material difficult to find around here?"
Isaac turned to him. "Stone? Hmm, yeah. If you dig around here, all you get is soil and sand."
"I see... didn't you say there was a river? Wouldn't there be stones there?"
"I mean, there are stones on the riverbank, but what about them?"
"What do you mean? You just need to find a stone suitable for use as a whetstone."
"Wait... are whetstones just in the river? Can you actually make them?"
"You can... or rather, that's where they come from in the first place."
"Is that so..."
Jin felt a flicker of concern regarding the village’s level of education—or perhaps it was just a lack of general practical wisdom.
"I see, so this is the riverbank."
Jin, Helga, and Isaac had arrived at the banks of the Noshina River, about an hour’s walk from Taji Village.
"Middle reaches, leaning slightly toward the upstream side, I’d say," Jin murmured, judging by the size of the stones scattered about.
On average, the stones were about the size of a human head, though some were large enough that a person couldn't wrap their arms around them.
"Can you really tell just by looking?" Isaac watched with a puzzled expression as Jin walked among the stones, occasionally running his hand over their surfaces.
In reality, Jin was using Analyze to check the composition of each rock.
"Yeah. This one and this one should make excellent whetstones."
Jin pointed out two boulders that were quite large—essentially small rocks.
"Hey, hold on. We can't carry stones that big back to the village."
"Don't worry, I'll process them here....Shaping. Shaping. Shaping."
"What!?"
Isaac watched, utterly stunned, as the massive rocks were sliced into neat, rectangular blocks in the blink of an eye.
"The stone here is high quality. It’s not just quartz; there are corundum particles mixed in, and the grain size is remarkably uniform."
"..."
From the two boulders, Jin produced over a dozen whetstones.
"These are rough-grade, and these are medium-grade. I couldn't find anything fine enough for a finishing stone....Hm? What's wrong?"
Helga and Isaac stood frozen, completely speechless after witnessing Jin's effortless craftsmanship.