Taking the Tailor's Path in Earnest (2)
Unfortunately, this world had no such thing as spider farming the way modern Earth did.
He would have to literally wander the forests and caves outside the city and gather them himself — no easy task by any stretch.
But.
Here, too, luck was on his side.
After poking around here and there, Seo Hwarang stumbled upon a small cave halfway up the mountain. And what do you know —
[Hunt the Giant Spiders (C-rank)]
Description: The cave discovered halfway up the mountain is a nesting ground for Giant Spiders. The Giant Spiders carry venom, and their webs are so tough and resilient that they trap and devour other monsters. These spiders are threatening the surrounding ecosystem and must be dealt with. Slay the Giant Spiders within the cave.
🎯 Objective: Defeat Giant Spiders (0/10)
🎁 Reward: 10 gold coins, Giant Spider Fang (Rare)
⏳ Time Limit: None
Wow.
Jackpot.
Ten gold coins was worth roughly forty million won, and on top of that, it was offering a Rare item. How could he possibly turn his back on that?
Obviously, he couldn't resist!
Seo Hwarang marched straight in and took a look. It was, quite literally, a spiderweb paradise.
Whoa, this is...
He shouldn't kill them.
Best to just collect as much as possible first and deal with the spiders later.
The problem, of course, was that this was his first C-rank.
D-rank and below had been easy — but would C-rank be just as manageable?
- Kyaaaaaaah!
- Kyeeeeeeeh!
The moment he stepped inside, the Giant Spiders began to reveal themselves one by one. Massive black bodies and five pairs of glinting eyes flashed toward him.
Ugh, gross.
These were no idle stares.
They brimmed with killing intent — the eyes of predators sizing up their next meal.
But still.
Something felt off.
No fear welled up in him at all.
It had been the same back when he faced the Black Wolf Bandit Gang — and what did that mean?
Didn't it mean he could deal with these things just as easily?
Seo Hwarang decided to draw their attention first.
Spiders mainly eat insects, right?
1st Circle.
Master Veil of Deception.
Veil of Deception!
An illusion spell honed to its absolute limit bloomed from Seo Hwarang's hand. Phantoms of countless giant insects filled the spiders' field of vision.
- Kyeeeeeeeh!
The creatures went berserk, hurling themselves at the apparitions. Whether to wrap up their prey nice and tight, they spewed out endless trails of webbing as well.
Easy profit.
All he had to do now was harvest the stuff.
And since an accident could always happen mid-harvest —
1st Circle.
Master Magic Shield.
He layered Magic Shield over his body in a double barrier and kept it running continuously. Harvesting was exactly like shearing wool: slice all the webs off the cave ceiling with Wind Cutter, then gather them into a single pile with Telekinesis. Collection complete!
- Kyee!
- Kyee?
A short while later, the spiders, freed from the illusion, were left wearing expressions of utter confusion. The webbing they'd worked so hard to spin had all vanished — and the delicious insects had evaporated like a mirage.
Having gathered wool and spiderwebs since morning, Seo Hwarang hauled the whole mountain of it over to the tailor shop.
"Ahhh, so satisfying."
Looking at the heaped wool and spiderwebs, a smile bloomed across his face. This stuff would fetch a pretty penny if he sold it — but sell it he could not. These were precious materials destined for proficiency grinding.
"Let's get right to it."
Seo Hwarang swiftly began the preliminary work of drawing out thread. The method differed from material to material. For spiderwebs, the first order of business was eliminating the stickiness.
Vrrrm!
First, he conjured a Magic Shield around his hands. Anti-stick protection, after all — no way was he handling filthy webbing bare-handed.
Next —
Scrub, scrub!
He coated his hands with a magical solution and rubbed the webs down section by section, stripping out impurities and banishing the stickiness. This step was the most important of all — the process that made the spiderwebs both tough and supple.
Lower Weaving proficiency increased by 1.
Ahh, beautiful.
His proficiency climbed steadily even in the gaps of the work. Next up?
Streeetch, snap!
Seo Hwarang hung the bundle of spiderweb on a wooden frame and began drawing it out long. This was the refining stage — refined properly, the web transformed into thread that was slender yet remarkably tough. Then he mounted the finished thread onto the spinning machine. He used the one in the tailor shop, which looked much like a large spinning wheel.
"Phew."
Seo Hwarang wiped the sweat from his brow.
This was no light labor. He could practically feel muscle building and fat burning — decent exercise, all things considered.
Truthfully, a material reinforcement skill would be handy right about now.
But he hadn't learned that one yet, so — pass!
It was fine. No use fretting about flying before he could even crawl properly. First, learn to crawl the right way.
Ziiiip!
Once the thin thread was drawn out, he cut it into appropriate lengths. And there it was — spider-silk thread, complete!
Seo Hwarang pulled off the remarkable feat of turning that day's entire spiderweb haul into thread in a mere three hours.
Next — the wool!
First, he washed the clumped raw fleece. Ordinarily, you'd remove the grease and impurities with hot water and soap, but Seo Hwarang opted for a far simpler approach.
1st Circle.
Master Aqua Splash.
Master Aqua Splash
A surging wave — doubling as a full-load washing machine.
KWA-GA-GA-GA-GA!
A washing machine powered by a wave. What should have taken rinse after rinse after rinse was handled in one clean sweep of Aqua Splash. A colossal savings of time!
Next — carding.
Wool tangles easily, so this was the step of teasing it apart and arranging the fibers evenly. Simple enough. To put it plainly, it was combing — and thankfully, the tailor shop had the equipment for it.
Drrrrrk!
Two large rotating drums, bristling with viciously hooked metal teeth.
1st Circle.
Master Telekinesis.
Seo Hwarang transferred the wool onto the drums and packed it in. The fibers lined up in a smooth, even spread. From here on, it was exactly the same as the spiderwebs — just feed it into the spinning machine and draw out the thread.
Lower Weaving proficiency increased by 1.
Very nice.
Working in bulk really did seem to send the proficiency climbing fast.
Drrrrrk!
Edwin stepped outside for a brief break, drawn by the racket drifting in from the yard. Then his jaw hit the floor.
Wh-what in the world?! How is there that much wool and spiderweb?!
What he had demanded of the boy at the start hadn't amounted to so much as the grime on a wyvern's claw. The materials were so plentiful they practically formed a garden of their own.
But the sheer quantity was the lesser surprise.
How did he haul all of that over here?
It was nothing short of astonishing. And more than that —
He spun all of that by himself?
Ordinarily, a workload that size would have an entire army of craftsmen laboring over it from dawn to dusk — and even then it would take days.
Curiosity got the better of Edwin. He forgot he was even in the middle of tailoring and stood transfixed by the sight. The more he watched, the deeper his admiration grew. And when he saw the moment the boy washed the wool with a wave of Aqua Splash, then moved mountains of heavy fleece all at once with Telekinesis —
Madness!
His mouth simply fell open.
I thought he was a mere apprentice — he's a mage?
And no ordinary mage, either.
What ordinary mage in this world commanded a wave like that to wash wool, or lifted objects that heavy as casually as moving pebbles?
At the very least, 4th Circle.
Skill enough to have made a name for himself anywhere with magic alone. Talent that could be applied to any field at a moment's notice!
Why would someone like that call himself a trainee?
Before he knew it, Edwin's posture had turned deferential. He clasped his hands together, carefully and respectfully.
A 4th-Circle mage was practically minor nobility. Best not to sour his mood and invite who knew what kind of retaliation.
A full five hours.
Seo Hwarang had produced an ocean of thread! Now he moved on to weaving cloth.
One strand, then two. He mounted the threads onto the loom one after another, and the weaving machine whirred to life, knitting the fabric together in tight, orderly patterns.
Shhhrrrrrrr.
Oooh.
Edwin Taylor marveled inwardly. As the loom began moving to a steady rhythm, Seo Hwarang wove the threads together before his very eyes, stacking each crossing with methodical precision.
Creak-clack!
The sound of the loom rang through the air. The long warp threads swayed horizontally as the weft threaded through them with fluid grace.
Astonishing handwork, plain and simple.
Th-that's impossible!
Edwin was stunned. The boy was following the counted-thread technique he'd demanded — precisely, to the letter.
Ras-ras, click-click.
The threads arrayed themselves densely, and the fabric's surface took shape with delicate, uniform perfection. The warp rose upward, the weft darted through at speed, and the cloth gradually emerged in a clean vertical pattern.
Swish, swish.
The loom's shuttle darted busily back and forth, driving the weft home, while the reed swung down with firm force to pack each new line tight.
Creak!
With each sound of threads intertwining and knotting together, another line of texture was born. A pattern as serene and flowing as gentle ripples was being etched into the cloth.
This is easy?
That was Seo Hwarang's honest assessment. All he was doing was executing what he had read and fully absorbed from books — and it was working beautifully.
Am I a genius?
It had been the same with cooking. Now that he actually tried it, everything came together with an almost unsettling ease.
To be honest, I already knew the weaving methods.
He'd read about them before, after all — in books from Earth. If anything, vaguely modern, more advanced techniques than what the skillbooks here contained still lingered in his memory.
Shhhrrrrr!
"Nice."
Riding the crisp, cheerful rhythm of the loom, he brought his fingertips to the fabric taking shape beneath them.
"Oh."
Seo Hwarang smiled. A texture both soft and resilient — exactly as the books had described.
At this level, surely even that old man Edwin would have to give him some credit?
Two hours slipped by like that. And there they were — fabrics finished with flawless, zero-error precision, stacked in a neat, lovely pile. Immaculately completed counted-thread weave, glinting faintly where the sunlight caught its surface.
The finished cloth was like a living work of art.
An unbelievable achievement has been accomplished.
Higher Weaving has produced Superior Thread.
Higher Weaving proficiency increased by 10.
Higher Weaving has produced Superior Cloth.
Higher Weaving proficiency increased by 10.
Higher Weaving proficiency increased by 10.
......
Huh?
Seo Hwarang's eyes went wide. His proficiency had begun climbing in a steady cascade.
I never heard about anything like this?
Earth had its lifestyle-craft awakeners too, so he'd done some rough research back in the day — but this was a phenomenon he'd never once come across.
Is this what it feels like when a magic skill's proficiency jumps from 60 to 80 all at once?
"Wow......"
It upgraded this fast?
It had been barely two days since he'd properly started! As mentioned before, the finest tailor on Earth only ranked at the early stages of the upper tier — and this boy had hit Intermediate in two days.
Seo Hwarang was growing more than a little unnerved.
Skill Book Collector.
Just how broken was this class?
Edwin Taylor walked up to him, staring in open astonishment.
"Bravo!"
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
He applauded with genuine delight.
"In all my years, I have never seen weaving this flawless. You were a remarkable man all along, weren't you? Far more than some mere trainee!"
The look in Edwin's eyes as he gazed at Seo Hwarang was that of a man beholding an honored guest.