Raising his brow, Foster picked up the purple marble, “Really? How so?”

“That isn’t a crystal, it’s a pill. Whoever takes it gains the ‘Rock Armor’ spell… It lets you create, well, an armor of rock directly onto your or someone else’s skin. Obviously I don’t have to tell you why that is dangerous, you understand magic feedback well enough, anyway… If you learned this spell the regular way, this wouldn’t be an issue, but this pill will force the energy it fuses with into an elemental state for a moment, and if you’re not a high-tier mage, then you’re going to feel the effects of magic feedback instantly.” The hogmir explained, bitterly looking at his arms, which had been turned into rock due to magic feedback.

“…Magic feedback only happens with elemental mana, right? Focusing on the ‘mana’ bit for now. What if internal energy takes on that elemental aspect instead?”

Himkijl thought about it for a moment, “That… right, it could also fuse to internal energy to give you a similar martial skill instead. But only theoretically. Apparently, it was originally a golem core that was processed through the boss’ body, so it’s innately magical. It needs mana to dissolve and spread through the body, so it’s going to innately grab onto the mana afterward.”

Crossing his legs, Foster tried to think about the best course of action with something like this, “So then… the person I would like to give this to recently got a similar ability, ‘Bone Armor’. It’s a special ability he got after we cleared the ‘Fail’ type dungeon I mentioned. We were told that it can be either a martial skill or a spell, depending on the person. Now, for my friend, that became a martial skill, but it got ‘stuck’ because of the influence of mana inside of him.”

Raising his brows at the story, Himkijl considered the possibility, “So you’re saying that his mana is strong enough to be recognized by the skill, but not enough for him to consciously manipulate?”

“Yup. That’s literally it. I guess you’re not a mage for nothing, huh?” Foster replied, and Himkijl slightly grinned in response, “Flattering me, huh? Well, I’ll ignore that for now. But either way, people in the exact situation your friend is in might be the only ones that can use this safely. Mana is connected to the user’s mind. Only when they can consciously grasp it will it truly become useable as mana for spells and such. If he’s in a place between not being conscious of it at all, and slowly growing conscious of it, then that mana should be strong enough to activate the pill, but not strong enough for the elemental energies of the pill to grab onto it, so they will have to search for something else, which would be internal energy.”

Excited, or rather, ecstatic to hear that this pill was practically made for Octer, Foster was ready to rush back to the inn to give it to him. However, it seemed like Himkijl still had some concerns, “I heard of some magic towers that did experiments related to this to try and figure out magical feedback better, and while those people could assist in the casting of a spell, they were free from any sort of feedback, since the mana practically broke down the moment it was strained through the spell, and the people in question lost consciousness quite quickly after, and the further along they were in discovering their own mana, the stronger this was. In some cases, it even caused their heart to stop beating. Usually they’re fine when some of their mana recovers, but there’s obviously no recovering from… well, death.”

Foster thought about it for a moment. He himself couldn’t decide on this, but if Octer wanted to take the pill himself, then that was another story. Worst case, Foster might have to do some cpr, but that wasn’t an issue for him either. However, was it really worth it to take that sort of risk?

“But then again…” Himkijl pointed out, “It is just a low tier ability, and if the person in question has a low understanding and amount of mana, then maybe even if magical feedback were to occur, it might not occur too strongly in the first place. He certainly wouldn’t look like I do.” 

Letting out a loud sigh, Foster stood up, “Either way, if we’re doing this, then soon. Thanks for the help. And… I’ll update you in regard to the guild situation.” He said, as the boarman lightly smiled at him, “Thank you. I will make sure to prepare everyone here for the possibility, at least.” Himkijl said, while Foster could feel a pit form in his stomach. He didn’t want this many people to rely on him like this. Just as Foster was grabbing the cloak and ‘skill pill’, he noticed that Kir was having trouble still using his arm.

“…What kind of healing was used on his arm?” He asked. Octer and Lynol had drilled all kinds of information like this into his head, so he knew that there were at least some differences, “Ah, Rosalie uses magic of nature.”

“That was… erm… it uses, like, one’s own regenerative ability or something, right?” 

“Yes, exactly. It is strengthened, so it can heal things that the body usually couldn’t, but it often tends to leave behind some injuries still.” 

Foster thought about it for a moment. Somehow, it reminded him of how he was healed to the bare minimum while the system was installed in him. He approached the Orc, and placed his hand onto his arm, right where he had used the Bone Breaker martial skill last time. And his other hand, Foster placed onto his own chest, pushing it underneath his dress shirt to touch his own bare skin, and then took a deep breath.

He could feel his heartbeat, and it was as if the direction of his bloodflow changed, although it most likely didn’t. It felt like all his blood was flowing toward his other hand, and through his palm into Kir’s arm. Foster was feeling a bit dizzy, and could literally feel his health points decrease with every second. But soon, it seemed like it was enough, and he pulled his hand from the Orc’s arm, “It should be a bit better now. I hope, or that was for nothing.”

“Wait, what did you just do?” Himkijl asked, seeing Kir rub his hand over the arm that was injured just a few moments prior.

“I transfered some of my vitality to him or something. Apparently, it’s a more direct way of healing, so his arm should be feeling a lot better.” Foster explained, as Kir tightened his fist, soon nodding excitedly, “It feels better! My arm is strong!” He exclaimed, before watching Foster put his skeleton mask back onto his face.

“Glad to hear that. I will be making my way back now. Again, thanks for the help.” And with that, the door closed behind Foster as he left again, leaving Himkijl and Kir alone in the room. The hogmir looked at the orc, “That thing you wrote onto the bottom of the second page… Is that the truth?” He asked, as Kir slowly nodded in response.

“Yes. Someone… something, watching him. Very dark… evil…” Kir explained, looking down at the pages on the table. Soon, he added one more word in a tribal orcish tongue, “Brikilsk…”

Himkijl’s heart seemed to skip a beat the moment he heard that word. The fur covering his body stood on its end, while the hogmir couldn’t help but smile wrily out of nervosity, “Ah… maybe it was the wrong choice to ask him to form a guild for us….”