Enchanter 1
"We've secured an enchanter. His name is Kim Seungmin, and he's coming to the guild tomorrow."
The day after receiving the materials, I got a call from Lee Musin saying he'd found an enchanter. The name immediately brought up the info from the documents.
Kim Seungmin was 42 years old, the oldest among the enchanters, and one of the most well-known for handling external affairs. According to the materials Lee Musin sent, he was mild-mannered with a good sense of humor, serving as the main point of contact for the enchanters with the outside world.
"Thank you, Bureau Chief—"
"No need. I hope you learn well."
With that, the call ended, and I spent the day wishing tomorrow would come sooner.
"Hello. I'm Kim Seungmin. It's an honor to meet the famous leatherworker."
As expected from the documents, Kim Seungmin had a gentle personality. Even though I looked younger, he bowed first. I liked him right away and bowed back in greeting.
"Thank you for coming all this way. And since I'll be the one learning from you, please treat me casually."
"No, this feels more comfortable for me."
After the initial greetings, the lesson began right away.
"Before we dive in, may I ask how much you know about magic pattern engraving?"
"Um... sorry, but I know nothing."
At my answer, Kim Seungmin looked like he'd expected that and said,
But what came next made me tilt my head in confusion.
"Just as I thought. If you knew even a little about magic pattern engraving, you wouldn't want to learn it."
It wasn't sarcastic. It genuinely sounded like, 'Why on earth would anyone want to learn magic pattern engraving?'
"What do you mean by that?"
"Ah, you'll find out as we go. More importantly, please don't give up halfway—I hope you stick with it for a long time. That way, I can delay going back to that hellhole. Looking forward to working with you."
Kim Seungmin said another cryptic thing, but this time it felt sincere, with a serious expression. Why did he want me to learn for a long time? And what was this "hellhole"?
I thought his cheekiness was a bit much, but we got into the real lesson.
"Magic pattern engraving is simple. You look at the pattern and copy it—that's it. Vellum. Ah! As a leatherworker, you must know about vellum, right?"
I'd heard about vellum in passing from Ha Geonmin before, but I learned properly while studying enchanters this time. Vellum was made by butchering monsters with all their mana removed—opposite to regular butchering—and then refining it with an enchanter's mana.
"Yes, I know it well."
"This magic pattern is applied to vellum, armor, shields, and such. Weapons aren't common because the patterns wear out easily. Sometimes we get requests for bows and ranged weapons, but we usually turn them down due to the difficulty. And what's needed for engraving is mana ink..."
Finally, the info I'd been waiting for.
"Mana ink is made by refining monster blood, herbs, and antidote potions. Depending on the herbs used, it's divided into lower and upper grade. Lower grade for vellum, upper grade for armor and shields."
According to Kim Seungmin's explanation, vellum had no other hunter's mana, so lower-grade ink worked. But armor and shields held another hunter's mana, so upper-grade ink was needed to harmonize with it.
"And, not sure if you know, but our country can't produce upper-grade mana ink on its own."
"Is it because of Ohiarrehua?"
"You knew. That's not the only reason, but it's the biggest one."
Kim Seungmin gave a bitter smile.
With his confirmation, yesterday's memory resurfaced.
'You know the dungeon's internal environment is linked to the area where it spawns, right? So volcanoes or polar regions have unique herbs. One is called Ohiarrehua.'
It was the herb Seo Taeju had mentioned offhand. Ohiarrehua only appeared in volcano-zone dungeons—not all, just active volcanoes, and only some of those. The problem? 60% of those dungeons were in Japan, the rest scattered worldwide.
"Ohiarrehua has been globally restricted for export for ages. We make some upper-grade ink with what we have, but supplies from other countries are limited, so we're heavily dependent on Japan."
Kim Seungmin continued, looking frustrated.
Japan used upper-grade ink as an excuse to demand outrageous terms, and they had no choice but to accept, even if it stung. Sometimes they even demanded magic patterns.
"Wait, you accepted those terms?"
I said, dumbfounded.
To enchanters, magic patterns were everything—unlike other production classes. Leatherworkers needed monster corpses, blacksmiths ore, but those were easy to get. Magic patterns? From dungeon treasure chests only, and not even all of them. Extreme drop rates, and duplicates too, so learning a new one yearly was rare.
That's why enchanters banded together for survival. Most countries had one workshop like ours; even the US had only three.
Workshops shared patterns freely, but leavers signed an Oath of Covenant not to use or share them outside. Penalty: death.
With that level of security, demanding patterns for exports was absurd.
"No, we never gave up magic patterns."
"As expected."
It was obvious they couldn't, but proposing it meant no real intent to export.
This wasn't in yesterday's materials.
'Damn, that pisses me off.'
Hearing it directly from him ignited anger beyond the documents. Even for another country it'd annoy me, but Japan? It boiled over. And though not my problem, it felt personal.
'No, it is my problem now.'
I didn't know if NPC class could adapt enchanter skills or what changes it'd bring, but I hoped it'd solve this. If not, I'd find another way. The rage wouldn't settle otherwise.
"Well, if you have no more questions, let's try engraving. We'll start with the basic Light pattern on vellum using lower-grade mana ink. First, precautions."
I pushed the mana ink issue aside and focused.
"The key is copying perfectly—dot size, line length, everything. Proportions must be exact. Enchanters become human photocopiers, adjustable-scale ones."
His expression was dead serious. But this unglamorous reality clashed with my fantasy of enchanters, leaving me awkward.
But warnings weren't over.
"Also, if you mess up? No fixes. Erase completely and start over."
For a split second, madness flashed in his eyes, startling me. A bad feeling crept in—maybe I'd chosen wrong.
His first words echoed: 'If you knew anything, you wouldn't want to learn.'
And confirmation came quick.
After explaining, he showed a leather-bound book.
"This has the Light pattern. Five pages total..."
The first page showed the full pattern; the next four enlarged quadrants. Grades depended on divisions—higher meant more.
But seeing Light—the "basic" one—made me nauseous, regretting my choice like bile.
Unknown geometric motifs filled it: large circle with midsize and small ones inside, bizarre shapes between, lines and forms crisscrossing.
Ugh! Staring made my eyes ache; I blurted at Kim Seungmin,
"A person drew this? And it's basic?"
His lip twitched up.
"Yes, definitely basic. New enchanters start here. That's why I asked if you knew anything."
"Even so, how? Proportions exact, and redo from scratch on errors..."
I panicked, forgetting I'd chosen this.
Unlike leatherwork or herb prep, it was fundamentally different. With my notoriously bad handwriting and Picasso-level drawing from school, it terrified me.
"Everything's hard at first. Light contains all basic shapes for every pattern. Master it, and others follow easily."
Normally, I'd expect him to say "quit if you hate it," but he persuaded patiently. Snapping back,
'Right. Just copy. NPC skills might enable perfect replication.'
"Got it. Just copy this, right?"
"Yes. I brought vellum and engraving pen. Practice, so don't worry about mistakes—finish it once."
He handed materials.
Whew. Deep breath, pen in hand, I drew a circle on vellum.
Then, the awaited alert—but not wholly good.
NPC Class effect activated.
Magic pattern engraving ability unlocked.
Magic pattern activation limited to learned patterns.
Learned patterns registered in Magic Pattern Shop for reuse anytime.
Acquire magic pattern Light by permanently consuming 10 Intelligence?
[Yes / No]
'Wh-what the hell. Permanent consumption? And Intelligence of all things?'
To be continued in the next chapter...