Gerald swiftly put on a pair of pants and ran out of the room.
After barging into the girls' room without knocking he shouted, "Xilia, Sera, I need your help with something!"
If we ignore the fact that he frightened them when he violently opened the door, the girls almost dropped their jaws to the floor when they saw him.
"Gerald…! Wha- Why are you naked?!" Xilia reacted first and used her hand to cover Qiona's eyes.
"Hmm?" Gerald looked down because of her scream and then frowned, "Is there something wrong with your eyes? I clearly have pants on."
"Gerald! Why are you here? And even if you are not completely naked, you are clearly not far from it!" Sera scolded him. She turned her burning red face away and averted her gaze from his tight leather pants which didn't leave much room for imagination.
Gerald rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever, we can deal with this later. I need your help now, so take your swords and follow me outside." He left the room and headed to the back garden.
"I didn't know he was such an amazing body on top of powerful magic…" Elly murmured quietly after he left.
"He did not, at least not when I last saw it…" Sera answered.
"What do you mean?"
Sera sighed, "Ah, I feel like he changed a lot after losing his hand, and although I thought I knew him well at first, now I feel like he is already out of my reach. And to think he didn't know almost anything about magic a few months ago… Sigh!"
"What? He didn't know anything? Are you serious?!" Both Xilia and Elly were surprised and wanted to know more.
"Let's go see what he wants first. We can talk about that stuff later," Sera said and headed out after grabbing her sword.
Xilia and Elly dropped their books and followed her outside. Gerald was already waiting for them, standing on the grass barefooted.
"Finally, I thought I will have to come and get you," he smiled.
"What is the meaning of this, Gerald?"
Instead of answering, he simply made a fist and showed them a provoking smile. "Come, strike me!"
"What?"
"Don't 'what' me! Take your sword and strike me!" he shouted.
The girly exchanged confused glances and then Xilia stepped forwards with her hand on the sword grip.
"Are you sure? Where should I hit you? And what if you get hurt?" she asked with a brow raised in a disapproving manner.
"Anywhere is fine, don't worry about me."
Xilia nodded and swallowed hard. She unsheathed her sword and swung it at his bare chest. However, just before striking him, she subconsciously slowed down, resulting in little more than a light tap with the blade.
Gerald grunted in displeasure when he felt her strike. "I said strike me, not tickle me! What is this, are you a warrior or a small child? Strike me with all you got, don't hold back!"
"Oh, o-okay!" Realizing her mistakes, Xilia gritted her teeth and chanted the Wind Body spell. Her hands became a blur as she struck out with the sword with all she had.
Clang!
A sound of metal striking metal sounded out when her blade collided with Gerald's shoulder and a little piece of the sharp edge on her sword even chipped off.
"Eh?!"
Xilia looked at her sword dumbfoundedly and then at his shoulder. It felt like striking an iron plate, but his skin didn't have even a slight scratch. Only the color of his skin became slightly paler from the strike, before quickly returning back to normal.
"What kind of sorcery is this?!" Xilia exclaimed.
"Body-reinforcement magic… Pretty cool, huh?" Gerald replied as he rubbed his shoulder. "I felt that a little."
"A little?!"
"Woooooah…"
Sera stared at his body with intense longing burning in her eyes. She desired his magic more than anything.
"Okay, now I want you to attack me all at once! You can use weapons or magic, it doesn't matter. Show me how much you improved!" Gerald gestured to them with his hand. He was itching to see how far he can push this Iron Body.
Following his instructions, the girls all picked up their weapons and gear and prepared to attack.
"Wind Blade!"
"Ice Spike!"
"Stone Spear!"
All three of them cast their spells at once and then ran forward to attack immediately after.
Woosh! Clang! Bam!
They banged on his body and sliced across his skin, but Gerald remained unmoving, even laughing and taunting at their futile attempts.
"Is this all you can do?! I can barely feel it!" Swords bounced off his skin and spells shattered upon impact, all while being incapable of leaving a single scratch.
Eventually, after exhausting their stamina, Gerald lifted his hands, "Alright, that's enough, thank you! You can go and take a rest now."
"Huff, huff… What kind of monster are you?!"
Exhausted and irritated, Xilia was unwilling to admit her weakness. With all her sword skills and magical abilities, she was still incapable of hurting him.
She clearly remembered the first time they fought in that dark room at the Warrior's Guild. She was quite capable of wounding him back then, and there was still a scar from her spell on his chest proving that fact… However now it seemed like he became an unmoving mountain laughing at her pathetic attempts of trying to hurt him.
"Don't think too much about it… I'll teach you all I know eventually, but now it's not the time. Even if you knew how I did it, you wouldn't be able to replicate it because your body is still too weak."
He returned to his room and laid down on the bed. He might seem fine on the outside, but his body was hurting on the inside. Another half an hour later, his skin was all black and blue, full of bruises, and his muscles felt swollen and sore.
It was not because of the weapon strikes, instead, it was a consequence of overusing the Iron Body spell. Although his body became stronger, it was still not enough to support this massive amount of Mana flowing through it for a long time and it started to damage and destroy his cells.
"Hehe… This pain is nothing!" Gerald laughed. Although in reality the pain already immobilized him and every movement resulted in excruciating suffering, he was still too happy not to smile.
Iron Body was a good spell, but that was only the first half. There was still the Diamond Heart that protected his internal organs from harm.
Gerald already tried to use it once to test it out. It only lasted for a second but he already felt like his heart was going to explode and his entire body collapsed in that instant, making him puke blood.
He felt dread just thinking about it so he promised himself that he will never use it unless he reaches at least the middle Silver Ranks.
Iron Heart, on the other hand, was similar to Iron Body in terms of making his organs have metal-like durability. He wasn't sure why these Combat Arts seemed to be mixed, but the ancient people had to have a reason.
Anyway, he cast Recovery on himself and swallowed another Essence Core since he had nothing better to do while resting. He already almost used up all of his reserves of Essence Cores, so he decided to get a few more after getting better.