"…my name is Jack. I came here because—"
"You want to make a weapon. Why else would anyone come here?"
"Well…yeah that sounds about right. But…my request is a bit different."
"If you got the cash I'll do it. Just show me the material."
"Well, the thing is, I don't want a new weapon, I need you to fix an old one. Using this."
Jack pulled out the brilliant shard of green. Big enough to make a longsword out of the broken sword.
"…the hell is that?"
"Its the shard of a dragons scale."
"How the hell did you end up with something like that? I've only forged a single blade with a dragon scale. And it was for one of the strongest hunters in the world. You're not an S-Rank hunter, I can tell. I know every S-Rank hunter. So how'd you get your hands on it?"
"…I can't tell you."
"Very well then. Give it here."
Jack handed him the scale. Raphael gave it a good look. And then paused for a moment.
"Yeah, nah. I can't use my skill on this."
"What? Why?"
"This material is too strong and it seems like it has some kind of mana barrier, and looking at you, it's made so it can only make contact with specific mana signatures. Like yours. If you want to make it. You're gonna have to do it yourself?"
"What? But how am I going to do that? I'm not a blacksmith…"
Raphael sighed and walked over to him, handing the scale back.
"I'll show you a little secret of mine."
Raphael put his hand out. And there it was. A glowing golden rift. Jack was confused.
'How did this man just conjure a gate?'
"Yeah, you're probably confused. Just step on in.'
Jack stepped into the rift. Behind Raphael. And stepped into a glorious golden building. Lined with weapons and everything a smithy would need. The best materials a man could ever get.
"This is my skills domain. In here, the flow of time is different. That's why I can make those weapons fast enough. I can't teach you. But you can teach yourself. A month is here is a single day. I suppose if you're a fast learner you'll be done by next week."
Raphael just left him. Stuck in the domain.
"Wait— shit…I can't leave here, even if I tried…"
Jack turned around and walked over to the furnace. He picked up a hammer and put on some gloves. There had to be an infinite amount of material there. So he put the scale down. And started hitting it with the hammer. Nothing happened.
[Skill Learned: Beginner Smithing (Level 1).]
'Wait, what? I learned how to do smithing just from hitting the scale?"
The knowledge of a beginner blacksmith began to flood his mind. So he hilt the scale again. This time more precise.
[Skill: Beginner Smithing leveled up -> Beginner Smithing (Level 2)]
'Ah… I see, this is going to take a while, isn't it?'