A man opened his eyes and looked around. He found himself in a room without a single source of light. With nothing else to do, he stood up and tried to search around to see if there was more to this than just empty infinite darkness. However, no matter how far he walked or how much he looked, there was nothing but the empty void.

Suddenly a bright light appeared in the middle of the room and he saw a large blacksmith hammer floating on top of an anvil.

The man looked at it for a bit and grabbed the handle. The bright light spread to his body and shone brighter and brighter until his vision was completely blocked by the light.

*Gasp*

Jim woke up from the dream and almost fell off of his bed.

"What a weird dream. Wait, what was it about?" he muttered, already forgetting everything he just saw. After a moment he shrugged and got dressed.

"Jim?! Are you up?! Dad needs you to get some milk!" Jim's mother yelled from downstairs.

"Coming!" Jim replied, getting dressed and grabbing his stuff. He quickly took the money from the table and walked towards the door.

"Hey, bro!" his sister yelled, running up to him.

"Hey sis? What's up?" he asked.

"Since you're going to the shop anyways, can I ask you to pick up some cranberry juice while you're there? Also olive oil! I'll be helping mom cook tonight and we're almost out."

Jim quickly turned towards her and pointed to the kitchen.

"I will do that as long as you listen to mom's instructions very carefully and don't burn down the kitchen again," he said, patting her head. Clara was only two years younger than him and was almost old enough to drink, but he still patted her on the head from time to time like he did when they were younger.

"I thought we agreed to never talk about the incident!" she exclaimed, pushing his hand away and pouting.

"C'mon. Don't make that face. You know I care about you and don't want you to burn yourself like the pizzeria that got burned down. Too bad it couldn't stay down."

"I know. But I have improved a bit since then!" she declared.

"What, you only burn half the kitchen this time?"

"HEY!" she yelled, punching him in the shoulder. Jim laughed as he opened up the door and left the house, with his sister slamming it shut behind him.

It was a sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. Jim put on his headphones and turned on some music as he walked into the busy streets.

But, as interesting as his trip to the store might have been, it was cut short by the screeching of tires and a bright light that Jim saw, before something large and heavy collided with his body.

"GASP!"

He felt the pain disappear as he fell onto a cold smooth marble floor instead of the rough hot concrete he was expecting. He felt around his body, but nothing seemed broken. If it was then the adrenaline was keeping the pain at bay for now.

"We did it! The summoning worked!" somebody exclaimed next to him.

Summoning?

Jim looked around and saw several hooded figures looking down at him. It was then he noticed that he was in a dark room rather than the city streets.

Where am I? Am I getting sacrificed by a cult or something? The last thing I remember is a large truck… I think? Did I get hit by a… oh my god I got truck-kuned.

"Where am I? Who are you?" Jim asked, getting up from the floor. He felt a weight on his side and reached towards it.

It was a small hammer that you could see a blacksmith use. If you went to a renaissance fair in middle school that is.

"What the hell is this?"

"That is your holy weapon, Crafting Tool Hero. We called out to it to summon us a hero to save us in this dire situation."

"Hero? Dire situation? Holy Weapon?" Jim's confusion continued to grow as he had a hard time processing everything that was happening.

"Perhaps it is best if we allow our king to explain the situation. Please, come this way!"

Jim looked around the room one last time before he was led down the hall of the castle. He saw a beautiful bustling town outside and large tall walls separating the town from the wilderness. Jim noticed how clean the air smelled compared to the smog filled air of the city.

Wow. What a view.

He was led to the throne room. It was a large round room with huge glass windows that made it possible to overlook the city from any angle. In the side furthest from the door was a large throne with two smaller thrones next to it. The largest throne was currently occupied by an old man with a golden crown on his head. He had a long elegant red robe, decorated with gold and jewels. He had a short trimmed white beard

"Greetings legendary hero. I am the king of this kingdom, Herbertus Rominov. Welcome to the kingdom of Jarvestia."

"Uh… it's an honor to meet you, your majesty? My name is Jim Carnell."

Jim wasn't sure how to refer to the king, but 'your majesty' seemed to be fine as the king smiled.

"The honor is all mine. It is not every day you get to meet a holy hero face to face. But let us get to the point. Our world is in danger and we need your help."

The king began explaining why Jim was summoned. A few weeks ago an old hourglass lit up and began to count down to something. As it has been several centuries since this has happened, the information on it was missing. The king gathered as many historians as he could to find any trace of information, however, by the time they found the origins of the hourglass, it was already too late.

The monsters appeared out of a crack in the sky and started to rampage in one of the kingdom's villages. Luckily the royal knight order was able to suppress the wave boss, but in the time it took them to arrive on the scene, too many lives have been lost. They knew that eventually the waves would become too much and so they summoned the holy hero to protect them.

"And so we had no choice but to summon a hero from another world. We hope you can understand our predicament."

"I see. But how do you expect me to fight?" Jim asked. As much as he wanted to help people like any other person, he did just get kidnapped and is now expected to fight a war for people he doesn't know.

"Well, let us begin with your status."

"My what?"

"It should be a small icon in the bottom right of your vision. Just focus on it for a moment."

Jim looked around for a moment before noticing the icon the king spoke about. It reminded him a lot of a menu icon he was used to seeing in games.

He focused on it and to his surprise a menu popped up in front of his eyes.

Name: Jim Carnell

Class: Legendary Crafter Hero

Level: 1

"Woah!" Jim gasped in amazement at the display. His heart began to race as he looked over the displayed information. It looked just like the one he was used to while playing Leodine Online! Even the class reminded him of his gameplay style. He would spend most of his time gathering resources and mob drops and then spend hours crafting the best armor for every situation or raid for the guild he was in.

Jim began scrolling through the status, when the king interrupted him. He felt like he was just isekaid into his favorite game and the excitement was beginning to settle in.

"I see you're familiarizing yourself with the status. Can we rely on your help?"

"I got the gist now. If you get me a map I can start grinding and preparing for these 'waves'."

If his suspicion was correct, the waves would be similar to the ones in his world.

"There is no need for that. We have gathered some of the best materials for you to work with to help raise your crafting power."

My what?

Just as Jim was about to ask what the king meant, a help section of the menu popped up.

[Upgrade Method 1: Crafting Level

By crafting different items you will receive crafting exp. Crafting exp is used to raise crafting level, which boosts your stats and chance to upgrade the quality of items.]

I see. So instead of a crafting skill tree, I get a seperate level bar and upgradable bonuses. Sick!

"I see. So when should I start?" Jim asked, seeming eager to begin.

"There is little time to waste so let us start right away. Please escort the legendary hero to the guest chambers and show him the smithy."

A few knights walked up to Jim and led him to the lower floors. He was looking around in awe, admiring the beautiful design of the castle halls.

The hall he was led through turned sharply and Jim was face to face with tall marble and golden statues. Each of the statues had a large hammer somewhere on their body, each hammer slightly different from the rest, but all had a large ruby somewhere on the weapon. Under each statue was a sign with some kind of symbols written out in gold, and beside them were paintings with the person either slaying monsters, or holding up what looked like an artifact of sorts.

The first room he was led to was the smithy. It was fairly large, and well kept. There were several shelves full of tools, a furnace, an anvil and so many more things around the room. The tools seemed to be a bit worn out, but Jim felt a weird pressure when he tried to reach out for one.

One of the knights led him further into the smithy until they reached a wooden door, hidden by the shadows. Behind it was a staircase that reached into a luxurious bedroom filled with a closet, a king sized bed, a table, a chair, and so on.

"This is where you will be staying, hero."

"Wow. Sweet! And what about the food?"

"We will bring it up to your smithy. If you have any preferences or allergies, please inform us as soon as possible," the knight at the front said.

"No allergies, and I'm not picky."

"Then we shall leave you to rest for now. Until next time, hero."

The knights quickly left and Jim locked the door. With a heavy sigh he jumped on his bed and opened the status menu.

He had several things he needed to check. First off, his own status. The stats were lower than in his game, but not too low.

Next came magic and skills. For now the list was completely empty since he didn't have anything yet.

Below that were the list of upgrade methods and finally equipment.

The first one was called 'Quality Power'. It was simple to understand. The higher quality of the absorbed material or weapon, the better its stats.

Ok, easy enough. Next.

The third one allowed Jim to change the quality of each weapon form using 'energy', which could be obtained by destroying items.

Leodine online used money as fuel to upgrade the quality of weapons instead of some energy. But monsters drop a bunch of random items so I don't think getting energy will be a problem.

The fourth and last one was called 'Weapon Synthesis. It allowed the user to transfer special effects from one weapon form to another. However each weapon could only be used a certain number of times before they would lock up again. Also not every weapon could be used with another one.

Leodine online had a few blacksmith shops where you could combine some weapons. It would mostly just buff the stats of the strongest weapon, but occasionally you could get better effects as well. Well, other than some minor changes, it's the same as Leodine Online. I will definitely end up spending days experimenting with the last method. But what is this weapon form?

He pressed on equipment and then on the Crafting Tool Tree.

As soon as he did, a small icon appeared with the picture of his hammer on it. Then several lines branched out with empty icons appearing, then branching out further and further until Jim's whole point of view was covered in the large empty tree. He pressed on the small icon and took a look at the info.

Small Hammer N

Abilities Unmastered: +3 Attack

[O]

I guess the 'N' is the 'Normal' quality, and the thing at the bottom is slots for synthesis?

He tapped on the letter and a new option popped up.

[Upgrade Quality for energy?]
[You have: 0 energy]

Jim closed the option and pressed onto the slots at the bottom.

[Synthesize a weapon form?]

[You have 0 available hammers]

Below that were the stats, but they were all pretty low.

Jim looked around his status until he found 'Ability Mastery'.

[Every weapon form has its own special abilities. If they are used enough, a small portion will be added to the hero and will remain in use even after the weapon form is changed]

Ah, so if I use this long enough, I get a permanent attack buff. Sweet. And if I do that for every single weapon in this weapon tree, I should get strong pretty quickly.

Jim smiled and closed his status. He looked outside and saw that the sun had already set, so he quickly got undressed and collapsed into the soft covers of his new bed.

It was then that something that has been nagging him finally got to him and the happiness he felt before seemed to weaken by a bit.

I wonder how mom, dad, and my sister are? How will they react to the news when they find out I was hit by a truck? I hope they'll be ok.

With the thoughts of home fresh on his mind, he slowly drifted off to sleep, waiting excitedly for the next day.