Starlight Necromancer

Foster looked at Samria with a suspicious frown. That offer definitely sounded intriguing, but at the same time, it seemed too good to be true.

"For free? Not at a reduced price?" Foster asked confused, and Samria immediately shook his head, "No, no, I'm not planning to sell this stuff anyway. I'm a researcher, not a merchant. Knowledge is the only money I need!"

"Really, now. As for me, money is the only money I need." He replied quickly, quickly turning toward Kyla, "What do you think?"

Slowly, she turned her head toward Foster, even though her eyes were still locked onto the man that was gathering a bunch of different scrolls and books on the table in front of them, "Well, I didn't notice any weird fluctuation... excitement, sure, but as far as I can tell, there wasn't anything hidden behind his words."

"Meaning that this is a good deal?"

"That... I don't know yet. It depends on what the items are, I guess? And this might still just be a trick that comes as second nature to him... he might be a scammer?" Kyla suggested, and Foster looked at the back of the excited necromancer rushing through the room. He thought about it for a moment. All the scammers that he personally knew all had a certain air about them. They were calm and calculating in their actions. And if Kyla was right, then this whole way that Samria acted wasn't just an act, but this was truly just him. He didn't seem to be a scammer to Foster.

"Right, so, what sorta stuff do you want me to test for you?" Foster asked, "And before you say anything, this isn't me agreeing yet. I just want to know what I'd be signing up for."

Samria looked at Foster with a broad smile, and walked over to open the small wooden box that he placed on the table just earlier. Inside were a pair of black gloves with white stitches and lines all over it. 

"..." Foster looked at them confused, "You trying to get into fashion or something? I don't know if I'm the best one to test this stuff, then."

Samria laughed out loud, and shook his head, "Of course not! They're a similar thing to the gloves that I'm wearing. They're made to change the flow of magic to slow down the speed at which you experience magical feedback."

"Oh... well, I don't need them, then. I don't need to worry about that, I have a high resistance against necromancy anyway." Foster pointed out bluntly, and Samria looked at him in shock, "Necromancy resistance? Really? In that case, then- Oh, yes, I do have an even better idea!" Immediately, Samria closed the box and practically threw it across the room, before he quickly grabbed another, older, dustier box from one of the shelves. He opened it up while walking over toward Foster and Kyla.

"These here were a prototype pair, one of the first that I made. Normally, gloves like these work by pulling the magic outward to lower the impact on the physical body of the user, but these don't do that. Instead, I completely focused on the secondary objective of such gloves, and that is the increase in manipulative ability the user has over their magic. If you don't need to worry about magical feedback as much, then this is the perfect chance to study this secondary effect and improve it in future models." Samria explained in an excited tone, and Foster slightly raised his brow. Samria turned around to go grab something else, while Foster pulled the gloves out of the box, and quickly tried them on. They seemed to fit perfectly, as if they were made for him.

Once more, he tried to activate the 'Chilling Touch' spell. Immediately, he could notice a difference. Usually, the cold energy took a while to gather in his hand. It was comparable to trying to pour out honey. But now? In comparison to before, it felt like water was pouring down into his hand. And not just that. The energy that was practically just eminating from his hand before, now wrapped itself around it like a veil.

"Huh, nice." Foster said with a light grin on his face, as Samria turned to look at him again. With a shocked, nervous expression, he stared at him and his hands, "Wait, you- you al-already put them on?"

"...yeah, sorry. Should I not have done that?" Foster asked confused, and Samria slowly approached him, "It... doesn't hurt?"

Foster's smile immediately disappeared, as he stared at Samria, "The fuck is that supposed to mean? Is it supposed to hurt?!"

"No, no, it's not supposed to hurt! But still, it often tends to sting the user... or well, me, at least, I guess... It has a few... errors, since it's a prototype and all." Samria explained nervously, "But hey! If it doesn't hurt, that means there's no need to worry about it potentially fusing to your skin permanently! So that's great!"

Foster slowly closed his eyes, and pulled the gloves off his hands. And a moment later, he was already pulling Samria up by his collar, "Listen here, you little shit. The next time you give me something that can potentially fuse. With. My. Skin. You will fucking tell me!" He yelled out, and Samria nervously looked up at him, quickly nodding his head, "Of course, of course! I mean, that's why I have these undergloves to make sure it doesn't happen! I meant to give them to you! B-But since you are resistant to necromancy, it seems like the gloves aren't able to affect you like that! So that's good to know, right?"

Grinding his teeth, Foster let go of Samria's collar, and walked back over to the gloves. It seemed like he wouldn't need to worry about any sort of side-effect from those gloves then. He was still pissed off, though.

"If at any point I get hurt by one of the things you give me, you owe me much more than a few scrolls, alright?" Foster asked with a deep glare, and Samria didn't hesitate for a moment to agree to that. Annoyed, Foster just held onto the gloves for a moment, and then looked at the necromancer next to him again, "Anything else you want me to test, then?" 

"N-Not for now! But here, you can have the scrolls. These are all low-tier necromancy spells though, so you might want to see if you can get scrolls for some other regular spells. Those are always good to have... right?"

Foster clicked his tongue and looked at the scrolls, trying to unroll some of them to get a closer look. Meanwhile, Kyla finally asked some questions that Foster was now clearly too annoyed to ask himself.

"You probably know a bit about non-necromancy spells too, right?" She asked, and Samria turned toward her with a broad smile, "Yup! Most magic shares a lot of common points."

Kyla slowly nodded, "Right, so... Our friend recently got this martial skill, right? But it's a special sort, because while it is a martial skill, it's also a spell at the same time. It was explained to us that it depends on the expertise of the one that gets it, and that the same skill can be used by mages and martial artists."

"Oh! I've heard about those, yes! I'm pretty sure I saw a book or two about those in the library." Samria replied, and Kyla raised her brows surprised, "Really? Great! So, anyway, while our friend was using that skill, it used stamina like any normal martial skill. But then, he apparently used some mana as well, and the skill got 'stuck', sort of, and even though the skill wasn't active anymore, the effect was still there."

Samria crossed his arms and started to think, "That... sounds interesting. I haven't heard about something specifically like this, but I also don't know much about the topic. But it makes sense. The activation of martial skills and spells isn't all too different. Both depend on the image of the user, and the main difference between the two is the feeling that internal energy, or stamina, and mana give off to the user. It's a little different for everyone, so it could be that a certain aspect that this friend of yours relies on to activate martial skills is also something that he would use to activate spells. Does he have any ability to use magic at all?"

"Not that I know of, no..."

"Right, then if he had never used magic before, it sounds logical to me. He wouldn't know about how to properly use his mana, so he can't fully differentiate between the use of the two. Usually it wouldn't matter, but for that sort of skill... that sort of overlap could definitely cause issues." Samria explained, and to Kyla and Foster both, it seemed to make a lot of sense. Slowly, Foster turned back around, "So, what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again?"

Samria crossed his arms, "Your friend could try to practice mana manipulation. Or even just trying to directly manipulate his internal energy would help too. As long as he can figure out the difference between mana and internal energy in the field of activation for that skill? That should be enough. If it's not, then you should try to look for experts in that field, or look for the books about it."

"That's more than we knew before, at least." Foster sighed, picking up as many of the scrolls as he could hold.. Because he wasn't going to leave any of them behind, especially after Samria practically nearly crippled his hands. 

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