I haven't played the game in awhile, but I think it's called something like "enchant weapon", which is very misleading. Many items besides weapons come with charm slots. If you were able to insert a charm into an item, then you took the skill somewhere along the line.
As for surviving without traps, that's not hard to do, really. I think I only used traps in one game myself. Of course, it does help to be familiar withh DD, too
Nightowl