Cannot attach materia using Materia Melder

Yes, I'm a noob to the game (level 23 Arcanist) and have been trying to meld materia using a Materia Melder NPC for nearly an hour...

I right click on the NPC Materia Melder and all that occurs is dialog - "Me? Why, I'm but a humble servant of Master Mutamix, charged with aiding those who wish to avail themselves of the power of materia but lack the skills to do so. If you know more, mayhap it would be best if you sought out Swynbroes at the Bonfire in Central Thanalan."

No other options are displayed.

I have:

• Empty materia slots
• Materia to the correct level for the item
• Gil
• I'm (slowly) building up my craft skill so that I can do the quest

The am currently wearing the items that I'd like to meld the materia to, but I'm also experiencing the same issue when the items are not being worn.

I'm sure that it's something super simple... but not too sure what I'm doing wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

I think (not 100% sure) that you need to complete the quest that unlocks the ability for you to melds materia yourself. Even though you're not melding it on your own you still need to unlock the capability to do it before the NPCs will do it.

Oh, is that really the case? It seems counter-intuitive if that's the case, in that the only way for the NPC to have the ability is once you unlock the ability to do it yourself... why get the NPC to do it if you can do it yourself?

I am not crafter and it's taking time for me to build up the skill, I thought I could throw gil at a NPC to meld the materia for me until I (finally) get the skill.

You are talking about two different things. You dont' need to have a crafter levelled to unlock melding, it's (sort of) a trait that you acquire whislt levelling (MSQ or job quests take care of that). On the other hand, you do need to have a crafter levelled to meld your gear yourself, that's where the NPCs become handy.

On second thought, not 100% sure either.

Have you, perhaps, sought out Swynbroes in Central Thanalan to complete the requisite quest?

The NPC melder doesn't have the same capability as you when melding. They're both worse and potentially much better at melding than you at it. I.e. they can't do advanced melding at all and they aren't restricted by your crafting levels.

The quest is presented as a tutorial about materia in general that just happens to unlock the ability to melds items yourself. This is why I suspect it's required to be able to use the npc melders.

In any event, I wouldn't worry about melding stuff and level 23 since it's definitely not needed and you'll be going through gear really fast. No harm in doing it of course, I just wouldn't stress over it.