"I ASKED YOU WHERE IS HE!? HOW DID YOU LOSE A GUY WITH A LARGE HAMMER IN A F*CKING CASTLE?!"
The king yelled at his servants. It has been over 4 hours since the hammer hero has gone missing and the knights were running around wildly trying to find him around the castle. The king sent out as many scouts as he could and paced back and forth, his crown held tightly in his hands.
"I assure you that if he is within the country, we will find him."
"YOU SHOULD HAVE FOUND HIM HOURS AGO! HE HAS A RED SHIRT! FROM ANOTHER WORLD! HE STICKS OUT LIKE A SORE F*CKING THUMB!"
"Your majesty, please calm down, it will be alright."
"How can it be alright?!" he said, collapsing onto his throne. "If the other countries get their filthy hands on our hero, it's over for us!"
The advisor continued to try to calm the king down, but it was no use.
The king suddenly jumped on his feet and ran towards the door.
"Sire, what are you doing?"
"If the knights can't find him, I will!" he yelled back, opening the door so fast the highest seemed to bend. However before he could take a step forward, a familiar face looked at him, hand out to grab the door handle.
"O~k. This was not the right room," Jim said, awkwardly tucking his hand into his pocket. He was almost completely covered in mushroom liquids and a piece of a mushroom head was stuck to his shoe.
The king took a step back in surprise, a wave of relief washing over him. He smiled for a moment before collapsing onto the ground.
"Uh… is he ok?"
The advisor ran up to the king with some knights and they helped the king back to his throne. One of the knights closed the door to the throne room and another walked up to Jim.
"May I ask where you were for the last few hours?"
"I went out on a hunt," Jim replied, rubbing his neck. "You guys got a shower here somewhere?"
"Please inform us if you go out for whatever reason. If you go missing or kidnapped by another country, we won't be able to find you."
"Fair enough. I'll try to not disappear like that again."
"Good. Now, let me show you the showers."
[]—
Jim walked out of the shower room, now dressed in this world's clothes which was just a really dull colored shirt and pants. However his status stopped saying otherworldly clothes so that's progress. Though the clothes still didn't give any bonuses. But he did level up to level 11 in one day.
He returned to the smithy and looked at the copied weapons from before. He copied them before leaving, but they didn't unlock until he hit level 10.
Small Chisel N
Abilities Unmastered: Metal Carving Skill 1
[O]
Small Tongs N
Abilities Unmastered: Temperature Regulation 1
[O]
Small Flathead Hammer N
Abilities Unmastered: Craft Quality 1
[O]
According to the help manual, metal carving skill would help him carve things out of metal, while temperature regulation helps to keep materials from either not heating up enough or overheating by showing him the temperature of the material. Nothing too ground breaking, but they were good to have nevertheless. However, it was the last one that made Jim smile.
Crafting quality is supposed to upgrade the quality of the crafted work by 1 rank… Meaning that even if he messed up and got poor quality, he would still get at least a Normal quality result.
But it would be better to test it instead of explaining it. Jim fired up the furnace and pulled out a bit of iron. He launched the poor quality iron band into the corner across the room and began working.
He equipped the thongs and threw a steel ingot into the heated furnace. The second his tongs connected with the ingot, he could see its temperature. Or at least the temperature range. Jim hoped that he could find a higher level of the bonuses he got later.
Jim took out the ingot and began to hammer it with the copied flathead hammer until the metal cooled. Then he threw it back into the furnace and took out the notebook the blacksmith gave him.
After an hour of reheating and beating the metal into shape, Jim could finally see it resemble a sword.
Not bad for a first attempt at a weapon. Not bad at all.
He took out the notebook the blacksmith left him, but he still couldn't understand anything it said.
*PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
John dumped the sword into water until the sword stopped steaming. Then, he kept it there for another minute until he was sure that the sword cooled down enough to hold it. He picked it up and dropped it onto the table, waiting for the notifications to roll in.
However, it never came. Instead, a small light surrounded his hammer and the sword before him.
Steel Sword
Quality: Normal
[+5 Crafting Exp]
Sweet! The stats on this sword are better. It even gives me more exp.
Satisfied, John left the sword on the table and jumped into his bed, falling asleep with ease.
[]—
"So he really did it, huh? He summoned the hero."
A man was overlooking the buildings below him as he leaned on the window. He played around with a ring in his hands, the gem on the top glowing dimly.
"Get down from there," the man said, seemingly to no one. Yet, with the sound of soft rustling of fabric, a cloaked figure appeared before him.
"What can I do for you?" it spoke, bowing down to the ring bearer.
"Find the location where they are keeping the hero. I want every detail of that place. The routine of the hero, the schedule of the knights, the levels, everything. Once you have that, report back to me and gather whoever you need to get the hero to me. Understood?"
"Sneak in, gather info, report back, break the hero out, drag him here," the cloaked figure replied.
"Good. Now get going," the man replied, grabbing a small gold coin out of the air and tossing it to the cloaked figure. With the sound of rustling fabric, the cloaked figure disappeared once more, as if they were never there to begin with.
The man with the ring leaned on the window again, overlooking the quiet sleeping town before him.