The Rusty Hammer

"Oh, so that's how you gain skills and titles. Hmm, thought it was supposed to be like the knee from games, y'know, like gain skills unlimitedly without rhyme or reason."

Simon waved this notion off, "Pfftt! This is stupid. Whoever thought of these concepts is stupid. Wouldn't this make the concept of jobs useless, making everyone overpowered?" Nodding his head in agreement, Lewis spoke out aloud, another issue he noticed.

"Umm, so about the Goblin Admir—"

"Say one more word, and your head goes clean off..."

Noticing anything very corroded axe in his hands, Lewis opted to shut his mouth, very wisely. Never ask a woman her age, and men their fetishes. Anyways, what is that about the hammer...

Clearing his throat, he raised his finger. "No, ask anything about my damn titles, and my wall might have a new decoration..."

"No, no, no. I'm just curious about your skill. What does it mean by 'Hammer of the Broken One'?"

Exasperated, Simon began explaining, "Huh, well if you must—wait, you can see

It!?"

Shocked, the dwarf took two steps back, gobsmacked that someone could he his skill for the first time. Tears began pouring out from his eyes, happy that someone could finally read his actual skill.

Noticing that something was weird, Lewis hurriedly knelt to Simon, concerned about his wellbeing. "Look, no need to cry... So tell me, what's wrong—"

"No one, *sob*, no one believed me when I told them the true name of my skill. Everyone saw it to be a rusty hammer. Still, I believe that I had the chance to make my father proud, my mother proud. Yet whatever I did, nothing seemed to work. I built a sword, sure, but it exploded as soon as it hit a monster. A pickaxe, boom! Nobody believed me..."

Seeing the poor dwarf wiping his tears away, for a sudden reason, Lewis told Simon his actual skill as well. "Hey, you know what, my skill's actual name is 'Hands of the Broken One', not 'Skillful Hands'. I swear, this only happened after I saw that weird corpse—"

Simon jolted back up. "You saw it as well!?" His voice hoarse, Simon, despite how dumb he seemed, knew something was up. Realising this runs deeper than it seems, Lewis stroked his chin, contemplating. "Oh well, no need to worry for now. We'll see to it when the time comes. Anyways, could you show me your hammer?"

Struggling for a brief moment, Simon finally renewed. Out of his pocket dimension, an old, rusty hammer is revealed. Upon seeing it, Lewis' hands started itching uncontrollably, urging him to smooth it out, to remove the rust on them.

Sensing the urgency, Lewis called out to Simon. "Quick, give me some rough sandpaper, now!" Sensing the anxiety within his voice, Simon quickly went back, bringing some for Lewis. He quickly went to the nearest workbench, where he began grinding and rubbing the hammer.

"Wha— stop it, stop i—!"

Just as he was about to go and grab the hammer from Lewis, it suddenly glowed. It glowed and glowed, until a large pillar of light emerged from it, piercing straight through the roof.

As the dust cleared, gone was the rusty hammer. In its place was a quaint, archaic hammer, etched with a plethora of sigils, emanating power from its very being.

Gazing in awe, Lewis handed the hammer to Simon, who began cradling it, tears of joy flooding out. "Well, here you go. I don't know what happened, but I had the sudden urge—"

"No, thank you. Thank you very much. I can't you enough for helping me..."

Scratching the back of his head, Lewis got embarrassed. "Well... no need to thank me. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Simon looked up from his hammer.

"Yeah. Could you please fix my FUCKING ROOF!"

Peering up, Lewis saw sunlight flooding down into the store, illuminating a very pissed off Simon

Oh crap...