The Mana-Reactive Blood Purification Circulation-Assist Bracelet

When the work was finished and he looked around, the practical seemed to have ended long ago. Every other forge in the room had gone cold, and even his own held nothing but a faint bed of embers.

"Hmm. I think Seonggu tried to talk to me..."

He had a hazy memory of Seonggu saying something, and of Jincheol answering him.

"I ought to thank Jincheol."

True to a B-Rank craftsman, he had apparently taken care that nothing broke Dohyeon's concentration.

The moment the bracelet he had been aiming for was complete, fatigue came down on him all at once. He stretched his arms out long—a knuckle cracked—and stared blankly at the materials and tools strewn around him.

"A B-Rank enchantment..."

In five years as an enchanter he had carved circuits beyond counting, but the company had never asked for anything except the precise reproduction of enchantments already proven—on designated equipment, to a designated effect, by a designated standard. Never once, as he had this time, had he puzzled out a circuit's structure from the ground up, reshaping even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the form of the gear itself until the enchantment was finished.

So that was why.

Even by his own reckoning, the work of the past month had been different from everything before.

The embers flared as Dohyeon coaxed the dying forge back to life.

I was going to head home like this, but...

He glanced around and picked up the tongs lying at one end of the workbench.

"Byeongsu's better at this sort of thing..."

The hammer rang out, bright and clean, and the lights of the practice room did not go dark until the night was deep.

The next morning, Dohyeon arrived at the instructors' office with a large box cradled against his chest, and knocked.

"Come in."

"Excuse me."

Choi Gwangcheol was drinking tea, just as before. At the sight of Dohyeon with the big box in his arms, the old master's eyes gleamed.

"That would be the piece you finished yesterday, I take it."

"Yes. You made allowances for me during class, so I was able to make something I'm satisfied with."

He offered the thanks as he set the box on the floor with a soft thump.

"You said last time you'd like to have a look, so I brought it."

"Let me have a look."

Master Choi had already drawn close. He took the bracelet Dohyeon offered, rested it in his palm, and for a long while said nothing at all. He studied the outer face, turned it over to examine the inside, and ran a fingernail along the seam of the plates until something gave a small click.

"...You made this separately?"

"Sorry?"

"The part the runes go into."

Dohyeon's expression brightened a little.

"Ah, yes. Carving them all at once made them interfere with each other, so I made the plates separately and assembled them at the end."

"Well, I'll be."

Choi ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Gwangcheol's gaze traveled along the fine circuits lining the bracelet's interior.

"So that's why you spent the last month killing yourself over nothing but that ring."

"...It's my first piece. I fussed over it a little."

"You rascal."

"That's a compliment, right?"

"In my own way."

Dohyeon huffed a laugh at the old master's reaction. If an A-Rank craftsman answered like that, it had to mean he had cleared the mark and then some.

"So. What is this thing?"

That Master Choi would ask him outright, without ever casting Appraisal, struck Dohyeon as only natural.

This must be his idea of romance, too.

"It's a health bracelet."

"Health?"

"Yes. It supports your vitality, and little by little it clears out the unnecessary matter that builds up in the blood vessels."

Choi Gwangcheol's hand went still.

"...Blood vessels?"

"Yes."

"And it eases the fatigue as well?"

"I put a Vitality rune in it, so to some extent, yes."

"...How is such a thing even possible?"

Equipment that cleaned the blood vessels. Master Choi had hammered iron his whole life, and he had never seen gear like this.

"The cost probably doesn't work out, so I doubt the companies ever even tried."

Even at Dohyeon's offhand tone, Master Choi only stared at the bracelet in silence. It was subtly different from the eye that had been examining the structure a moment ago, and Dohyeon did not miss it.

Is he envious?

Well, why wouldn't he be. Master Choi had entered the twilight of his years. A man who had spent a lifetime hammering iron before a forge could hardly have kept his body in good order, awakened or not.

"There's one more."

"What?"

Dohyeon opened the box he had set on the floor. The latch clicked, and out came a second bracelet, identical to the first—only the Detection rune and the Designation rune still unfinished. Master Choi's eyebrow twitched.

"Don't tell me—"

"I made it for you, Master."

Master Choi looked from the bracelet to Dohyeon, and back again.

"You."

"Yes, Master."

"The practice room suited you, I see."

Dohyeon kept his mouth shut. Only his eyes rolled, slow and guilty.

Right on the mark.

Choi Gwangcheol's eyes narrowed.

"A bribe?"

"A gift."

"And the practice room?"

"It'd be nice to keep using it."

"And that isn't a bribe?"

"I'm not saying you have to."

If Master Choi had not allowed him the practice room, Dohyeon would have spent all his time wearing out his shoes in search of a forge. Calling it a gift had not been an empty courtesy. He meant it.

Master Choi let out a disbelieving little laugh.

"Seems iron wasn't all you learned at Cheongeun Workshop."

"I didn't learn iron there, actually."

"Handy with a retort, too."

He said it that way, but a faint smile had caught at the corner of his mouth. Had he still been master of Baekcheol Workshop, he might have looked on such behavior with displeasure. Now, with all of that set down, it was a little different. A young man asking so smoothly, and bringing in return a thing made by his own hands—the sight was welcome.

He'd make a fine grandson-in-law...

The skill was there, and a mind that suited him. The boy could stand rigid as iron, and still knew when to bend. Wondering whether the youth would resent him if he introduced his granddaughter, Master Choi held out a hand.

"Give it here."

Dohyeon handed over the bracelet.

"Then the practice room..."

"Use it. Only see that you don't interfere with class."

"Thank you."

As if that were the word he had been waiting for, Dohyeon bowed, then opened the bag he had brought. It rustled.

"...And what is it this time?"

"I have to finish it."

From the bag came a small alcohol swab and a disposable syringe. Master Choi's expression hardened.

"What do you mean to do?"

"I'll draw just a little blood."

"...You said you were giving me a bracelet. Why are you asking for blood?"

"Because it's custom-made."

Dohyeon answered as if it were nothing, tearing open the syringe packaging.

"I have to match the Detection rune and the Designation rune to you, Master."

"Right now, you mean?"

"Doing it now is the fastest."

Master Choi watched him prepare for a moment.

"I'm only asking, just in case..."

He hesitated, then forced the rest out.

"You never had it tested for safety, or for compatibility. Did you."

"What's that?"

At the sight of Dohyeon tilting his head with a perfectly innocent look, Master Choi sighed and rolled up his sleeve.

"Craftsmen. Every last one of them."

"A little is enough."

"Did it never once occur to you that a thing of your own making might be flawed?"

"Me?"

The reaction—as if Choi had said something absurd—left the old master with nothing to say.

"In all my seventy years I've met every sort of character there is, but precious few the likes of you."

"That's a compliment, right?"

"...In my own way."

A short while later, Dohyeon held the syringe of drawn blood up to the light. It was the same process he had used with Byeongsu. He was not putting the blood itself into the enchantment. It was a sample, meant to read the unique mana signature the wearer had left behind in it. From the bag he drew two titanium plates that had yet to take a rune—one for Detection, and one for Designation.

"I only need to match these two to you, Master."

The engraving needle began to travel across the plate, scratching softly. Watching how the blood before him responded, Dohyeon adjusted the mana baseline by small degrees. Into the Detection rune he inscribed Master Choi's blood and its mana characteristics. Into the Designation rune he carved a condition that would filter only what fell outside that baseline—substances that were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠unnecessary, or accumulated in excess. The needle scratched on. The final stroke followed, and a low hum rose and settled.

"Done."

He seated the two finished plates, one after the other, into the empty mounts inside the bracelet. Click—Detection. Click—Designation. The mana circuit ran on through the Decomposition rune and the Circulation rune he had completed in advance. A deeper hum, and the four runes flashed once, brief and bright, before the light went out.

Dohyeon held the bracelet out.

"Now it's truly yours, Master."

Master Choi took it and gazed at it in silence.

"...Appraisal."

"Decomposing waste with mana..."

The bracelet's structure is sound, and so is the circuit. It should be all right.

Master Choi was a blacksmith, but he was a craftsman who had remained in active practice for nearly fifty years. Even outside his own specialty, he could confirm the state of a mana circuit, and whether it functioned.

"No risk of the blood vessels tearing, you say?"

"Fortunately you're an A-Rank awakened, Master, so you don't need to worry about that at all."

At Dohyeon's confident words, Master Choi slipped the bracelet onto his wrist. The clasp shut with a metallic click.

"...I don't imagine I'll feel much of it."

Dohyeon gave an awkward little smile, as if there were nothing to be done about it.

"Unless you get a blood test, the only thing you'll really feel is probably the Vitality rune."

"I'll put the bracelet to good use."

"Yes, Master. I'll be on my way."

Leaving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Master Choi to turn the bracelet this way and that—as if it had already found favor—Dohyeon took his leave.