"Okay then, who's going to go first?"
Qiona bravely stepped forward and volunteered to be the testing dummy.
"Qiona, be careful!" Xilia urged her. She felt anxious for her little sister.
Gerald smiled and said a few words to comfort her. Nothing bad was going to happen when he was around. Then, at his command, Qiona expelled all Mana from inside her body and sat down on the soft grass. Gerald also sat down behind her and placed his palm on her back, before slowly sending Mana to her.
"Extend your palm and guide the energy through you and out. Imagine holding a flame in your hands and just push it out with your mind!" He closed his eyes and made sure to guide her accurately on every step.
With his mind being so much more powerful than the rest, he was able to take some control of the Mana inside a person near him, if they didn't resist.
Qiona circulated his Mana through her body for a few minutes, before she was able to push it out and a small flame ignited on her palm. When she did so, Gerald gave her some more of his energy to make the flame grow bigger and brighter.
The little Dark Elf girl furrowed her brows and started to sweat as great amounts of Mana traveled through her. She was currently a medium for Gerald's magic and was trying to feel all the peculiar differences of Fire magic.
"Phew, good job!" Gerald exhaled and removed his hand from Qiona's back. She was slightly pale and sweaty but was otherwise fine.
The test was a partial success. By giving her a taste of Fire Element for a long time, her body and mind remembered how it felt and with a little practice and effort, she would be able to produce it as well.
Mana around them was without Elements, and only after going through a caster's mind and body, It would change to suit their needs. This was partially why it was difficult to control multiple Elements at once. You had to concentrate and imagine something you didn't have any experience in prior.
Qiona's ability to feel Mana also rose a tiny bit as she now had more experience in dealing with it.
Next was Xilia. She nervously approached him and sat down. Just like her sister, Gerald sent Mana surging through her to make her familiar with it. However, since she was older and stronger, in both mind and body, he could be more aggressive in his approach.
Flames spewed out of both her hands and although she was scared of getting burned, she preserved until the end, getting a big boost in her understanding of Fire magic.
He did the same with Elly and Sera, although the latter had a problem with keeping her magic stable. Gerald had to stop a few times as the flames came close to going out of control more than once.
"What is going on? Are you doing this on purpose?" he questioned her. He felt something resisting magic in her body, preventing it from being executed correctly.
"No! I just… I just can't keep my magic stable for more than a few seconds, okay?!" Sera shouted with tears forming in her eyes. "Let's just stop, I'm hopeless anyway!"
Gerald caressed his beard in deep thought. It is true that Sera was quite a mess when it came to magic, but he clearly remembered her casting a spell successfully against a Silverback on their first big hunt…
"When did this problem start? When was the first time you noticed this problem? Was it from birth or…?" Gerald inquired.
"First time?" Searching through her memories, Sera stared into space for a second before her face contorted in fear and her entire body shook before she burst into tears.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Xilia quickly hugged her and helped her sit down, before glaring at Gerald. "Hey, what did you do to her?!" Clearly, they became close friends during the time he was absent.
"Hmm," Gerald stroked his beard, completely unconcerned with Xilia's gaze. "Is it some internal trauma? Maybe a psychological barrier? Did she experience something terrible in her youth?" He mumbled more to himself than anything, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear him.
"What do you mean?" Xilia questioned loudly, "Are you saying that it's all just in her head?!"
"Quite possibly, actually!" Gerald said. "She might not be even aware of it, but if there was some traumatic experience that concerned magic, it's quite possible her mind would try to get rid of it… One of the ways to do so is to prevent her from experiencing the same thing that led to it… In this case, she is possibly subconsciously stopping herself from using magic."
"Really?" Xilia gasped, "Then how do we fix it?"
"I don't know," Gerald answered simply. Although he was extremely diversified in his knowledge, psychology was not something he studied before. He barely had some surface knowledge.
"You don't? Then...what should we do?" Xilia asked with concern for her friend.
Gerald simply shrugged his shoulders, this time he really didn't know. "Sera, can you tell us what happened?" he later asked. Maybe he could think of something after hearing the details, but Sera, unfortunately, started to cry even more and shook her head vigorously.
"Hmm… Some sort of defensive mechanism to stop her reliving the traumatic experience?" He scratched his cheek and sighed, "We will stop here for today girls, you are dismissed! I'll be in my lab if anyone needs me."
He wasn't that good at comforting people, especially if he didn't know what was wrong, so he decided to leave that part in a more capable woman's hands. He had plenty of stuff to do anyway, and if Sera didn't want to talk about her experiences, he certainly wasn't going to push her.
"Now, where was I?"
He sat on his comfortable seat and placed a Space Pouch on the table. He barely had any time to read a few books he received from Bishop Argoch and he was curious as to what secrets were contained within the rest.
He took them all out and placed them on the table, forming many tall stacks. There was one book in particular that attracted his attention. As he held it in his hand he couldn't help but smile.
[Basics of Body Strengthening Magic]
"Now that's what I needed! Hahaha…" After laughing for a bit to get his excitement out of his system, Gerald opened the book and read it.
His eyes zoomed across the lines of words on the pages and he flipped through the book at an amazing speed. He was well versed in speed reading but often preferred to take it slow. He finished the fifty-something pages in ten minutes and then closed his eyes to think.
"Hmm, I see… It's just like Stone Body or Wind Body… Increasing the toughness and hardness of cells, and making them work faster… And now with this…" He held the book in front of his face.
"With this, I can probably deploy 100% of my muscle fibers! It would usually be unwise to do that as it would put a massive strain on your muscles and ligaments, but hehe..."
After understanding how the magic worked, Mana inside him surged and he felt himself getting more control over his body. Blood flowed to his extremities and filled his flesh, giving him a feeling of pressure and power inside his muscle.
"Hooo… It feels so nice! Hup!" Standing in the middle of the room, he crouched down and jumped up vertically with all he had. The floorboards creaked from the pressure and he was almost able to touch the ceiling that was nearly five meters above him.
"Haha, almost two-meter vertical jump from a crouching position!" Gerald laughed at the increase in raw power. Doing a few more tests, he confirmed that his strength about doubled with this magic, although it was not the limit of what his body could achieve.
The only problem was that he felt like pushing further would bring some serious risks to his ligaments as they were not yet strong enough to withstand so much force put on them.
Releasing the strengthening magic, he almost collapsed on the floor. The pain and fatigue of over-exertion hit him all at once and he subconsciously let out a quiet groan.
"Dampening the pain while in use, huh? That's interesting... Also, ouch!"