I Made an S-Rank Skillbook and Sold It
Ten years had passed since the age of Hunters and Gates began. The chaos stirred up by the Awakened had finally settled, and the death toll from gate appearances was falling in earnest. Hunters were, at last, coming to be regarded as one of the most envied professions on the planet.
It was right around then that a black Tower appeared in the capital of every nation on Earth.
Humanity found itself staring down the question of survival once more.
"Hahh."
Ha Dohyun had awakened a few days ago. At first, he had been over the moon. He'd been certain that good days were waiting just around the corner.
"Status window."
Production-type hunters were supposed to be treated reasonably well even at low ranks. All the more so if your unique skill was Skillbook Crafting.
Skillbook Crafting — F-Rank
Crafts terrible skillbooks.
Right. He'd heard that even an F-Rank version of the skill was supposed to be useful in its own way.
But in the age of the Tower, nothing was as it had been.
He checked the text message again.
A thinly veiled threat from the Korean government. Proof, if any were needed, that the fire had already reached their feet.
"...What the hell even is this."
Ha Dohyun grumbled under his breath.
As things stood, Korean hunters couldn't even take a overseas trip without special clearance. The reason the country had gotten this tight-fisted wasn't complicated.
Republic of Korea — Current Points: 38,000,000
It was all because of those damned Points.
Every six months, every nation on Earth had to prepare a quantity of Points equal to its population. Fall short, and gates would erupt across the country in proportion to the deficit. More than a few nations had already met their end that way.
Korea was currently short by well over ten million Points. Under ordinary circumstances, they would have managed just fine. The country had six S-rank hunters, after all.
The problem was that one of them had ended up in a hospital bed — and then two more had emigrated overseas. That was why Korea's future had gone pitch-black overnight. Their S-rank hunter count had been cut in half.
Fail to solve this, and the next two months were a foregone conclusion. Multiple S-rank gates were scheduled to tear open across the Seoul metropolitan area alone. It was, for all intents and purposes, a crisis of national survival.
And yet, even knowing all of that—
"...I'm an Artisan. An F-rank one, at that."
Ha Dohyun grumbled a little longer.
Production-type hunters didn't have an easy time earning Points inside the Tower. So the government had told him to make skillbooks instead — his unique skill was Skillbook Crafting, after all. In practice, a single skillbook took him about two hours. If he couldn't bring in Points himself, he was expected to crank out roughly six a day. The plan was to sell them overseas and convert the proceeds into Points.
...Apparently there were places that would actually buy F-rank skillbooks.
"Then again, if they weren't selling, they'd have shoved me into the Tower already."
The Korean government was doing everything it could. They were dumping patents, corporations, skillbooks — anything they could get their hands on — onto foreign buyers in a frantic scramble for Points. It was taking the foundation stone to prop up the roof. But they had no choice. They couldn't just sit there with their eyes open and watch the country die.
"Hahh. This isn't the time to be complaining."
Chest tight, Ha Dohyun logged onto the internet.
Resignation and grievance spilled from every corner of the internet.
The live chat under the nine o'clock news was no different.
Even the marketplace board where hunters did their business was the same.
"..."
Ha Dohyun felt a deep unease. Everyone had given in to despair. Was there truly no way out?
...Emigrate?
Honestly, he was F-rank. Unlikely anyone would take him. And even if they would, he didn't want to go. He just wanted to keep living here in Korea, together with everyone else.
"..."
He stared in silence at the ability he had awakened only days before.
Skillbook Crafting — F-Rank
Crafts terrible skillbooks.
F-rank. Crafts terrible skillbooks. Yeah. Even if he died and came back, there was no changing this.
"...Hahh."
He let out a long, useless sigh. And then, almost idly, he lifted the craft knife into the empty air.
It was a cheap thing he'd picked up at the market the night before.
If there were just one more stroke beneath that letter F...
Then it could at least be E-rank.
Scratch—
In that instant, something flashed through his mind.
Skillbook Crafting — E-Rank
Crafts ordinary skillbooks.
Ha Dohyun couldn't process what had just happened.
"What? What is this?"
The craft knife's mark had been left on the status window. Along with that flash of insight, a thread of knowledge seemed to have settled into his head. He had the distinct feeling that, right now, he could make an E-rank skillbook.
He swallowed.
"...No way?"
He lifted the craft knife into the air again. Anyone watching would have thought he'd lost his mind.
Swish. Swish.
He drew two diagonal lines crossing beside the letter E. There was just enough space for that, and no more.
That was the moment.
A tremendous rumble crashed through him—!!
An enormous volume of information began slamming into his mind.
"...!"
It was as if a vast hole had been punched in the middle of the ocean. Knowledge on a staggering scale was being sucked straight into his head.
"...Uh. Huh."
He sat there blankly for a moment. Then Ha Dohyun rose from his seat, still swaying on his feet.
"...I can't believe that actually worked."
He wanted to pour this sensation into a skillbook as soon as possible.
Mana-infused parchment? He didn't have any. Magically treated pigment? None of that either. An artisan-grade artifact carving knife? Also no.
"Ah, shit. Where the hell am I supposed to engrave a mana circuit, then."
He muttered to himself for a while. Even so, the vast knowledge now residing in his mind yielded a solution. He rummaged through a bulging plastic bag in the corner of the fridge.
Right. The pig skin he'd bought at the market. He'd meant to cook it, then left it sitting there because it looked like it would splatter too much oil.
"...Huh."
He had a feeling he could engrave a mana circuit into pig skin. Skillbooks were, after all, closer to disposable scroll-type artifacts made from animal hide.
He started carving a mana circuit directly into the pig skin. The work required reversing the flow by engraving the circuit itself — and as it happened, the faint grain of residual mana still clinging to the hide was clearly visible to his eyes.
Scratch. Scratch.
He focused. The more he concentrated, the more the craft knife seemed to come alive in his hand, breathing. He imbued the circuit with the property of sharpness. He imbued it with sharpness once more. And again, he imbued it with sharpness. He kept reversing the flow of mana, watching every change unfold in real time.
Pig skin had never been made to hold a circuit. Even so, he was certain it would work.
A short while later, he completed a basic circuit.
◈ An incomplete skillbook made from pig skin.
◈ Upon use, sharpens the edge of a weapon.
Given the limits of the material, the effect would only last six hours even after the skillbook was used.
"...I feel like I can do better than this."
The flow was vividly clear. Watching it with his own two eyes, he could perceive it in even finer detail. It was still riddled with gaps. The circuit he'd constructed was clumsy at its foundation — the framework sloppy, mana leaking from it in patches. It was like looking at a hut held up by a single load-bearing pillar, its walls already crumbling. Less a building than a ruin, really.
He began adding mana circuits, reinforcing every weakness.
Shhk-shhk-shhk—
His hands moved faster and faster.
B-Rank · 3-Hour Temporary Skillbook
(……)
It had reached B-rank.
"...This isn't enough."
The pig skin was already in tatters. And yet, packed densely across its surface, he could clearly see spaces where he could still carve with even greater precision.
He started again. Rather than stretching the duration, he designed with a focus on extreme, absolute sharpness.
Shhk-shhk-shhk-shhk—!
The speed at which he worked the craft knife climbed higher and higher. He lost himself in the work, unaware of the passing time. The pig skin had been transformed into something close to a rag — a consequence of how finely he had engraved the circuits. He was driving the mana into a single point, forging an edge of the utmost keenness.
He looked deeper. The internal structure had taken on the shape of a sharp spire — solid outer walls with a roof driven to an extreme, piercing height.
It was complete.
"...Heh. Heheheh."
A laugh spilled out of him, unbidden, from sheer satisfaction. He'd heard that no one had ever succeeded in making an S-rank skillbook. It stood to reason — an Artisan who could produce S-rank skillbooks at will would already be doing the work of several S-rank hunters.
He glanced at the wall clock and jolted.
"What?"
Barely fifteen minutes had passed. It had felt like hours.
"Holy shit. Is this for real?"
Other people spent two hours on this work, and he was doing it in fifteen minutes? That meant even if he made six a day, he'd be done in about ninety minutes. So this was EX-RankSkillbook Crafting...?
"..."
He quietly clenched and unclenched his fist a few times. All at once, Ha Dohyun felt the weight of what he now possessed. With this ability... he might just be able to pull Korea back from the brink of collapse. He'd even been able to interfere with the status window itself.
"Wait. Could this work too?"
He brought the craft knife toward the Monomolecular Sword skillbook.
S-Rank · 5-Minute Temporary Skillbook
"Hmm. Yeah, that doesn't feel right."
There wasn't even space to carve extra letters beside the rank. And even if he forced it, he didn't have the sense that anything good would come of it. He was certain it would just break, with no effect at all. Better to just sell the thing.
He opened the marketplace board and started writing a listing. One thing tripped him up.
"Quality Certification? It says I should get this?"
Ha Dohyun slowly read through the notice.
Item ranks cannot be verified through the marketplace listing alone.
For valuable items, please spend Points to obtain a separate Quality Certification!
"...Ah. Hmm."
Ha Dohyun looked down at the S-rank skillbook he had carved — the pig skin. No matter how you looked at it, it was just pig skin. And as for applying for Quality Certification... he didn't have any Points to begin with.
"Tch. I was overthinking it. Guess I just have to post it as-is."
Surely someone out there would recognize its true worth.