A maid that came sometime later to clean, almost had a heart attack upon the sight of her master laying in a pool of his own blood, his life or death unknown. And, of course, she panicked as much as she could and then ran for help.
"Gerald!" Sera shouted after seeing him, with the rest right behind her. They were rendered speechless at the sight of a deathly pale Gerald.
"Oh my gosh! What happened to him?!" Xilia shouted and ran forward to help. The wound already stopped bleeding, but for all they knew, he could already be dead. He was cold to the touch too.
"I-I don't know! I-I found him like this when I came inside…" the maid stuttered in fear.
They quickly placed him on the bed while forcing him to drink some Healing Potions and prayed he would recover.
"Is he going to be okay?" Qiona asked with concern.
"Of course! This bastard can't die like this! He didn't teach me his magic yet!" Sera sternly said while barely holding back her tears. Their concern, although heart-touching, was unnecessary. He lost just about a tenth of his blood and was not in mortal danger. Though, there was something much worse that could have happened to him.
The Bone-Reforming Medicine was not for mortals – that's what he was. If his nanites didn't destroy most of the medicine, it would have been a miracle if his bones didn't completely disintegrate, making him suffocate under the weight of his own body.
Even if he somehow survived, he would have life-long painful bone deformities similar to cancers. What he didn't know was that the strength ranks that the people were using now were, in fact, incorrect.
In ancient times, before the person reached the now rank of Silver, they were all considered to have a Mortal Body. Then, after a person advanced over the now Silver Rank, they were considered to have Iron Body, and the Gold Rank would be Silver Body…
Basically, they shifted the entire ranking system by one entire rank downward, maybe even more. That's because the strength ranks of the past didn't work off of actual strength but from the quality of the body of the living being.
When Gerald tried to extract the Essence from the Minecrawler Queen, a Gold Rank beast, the essence came out silver in color. She was a Silver Body beast! And beasts in Iron Rank and below had black-colored Essence, the worst quality there is. And Silver Ranks had dark-gray-colored Essence due to their Iron Body.
It was complicated, and that's where the mistake originated from.
And Gerald, due to this misinformation, consumed the potion when he barely reached the first stages of Iron Body, while it was made for beings of Silver Body and above!
Luckily the ingredients he used weren't the best as the world didn't yet recover to its peak, and the nanites worked overtime to detoxify him as fast as possible, destroying many of themselves in the process. In total his body had to withstand somewhere around 5-10% of the potion's true destructive power.
Because it was weaker and short-lasting, Gerald started to recover quickly. He woke up the next day while the pain already greatly subsided. Now came waves of comfort that washed over his body, rebuilding his bones layer after layer, making them thicker and denser, while also making them more elastic.
Under great stress, they would first bend and deform a little, instead of shattering or breaking like normal. It was basically like a really tough rubber.
Another five days later, he was already like new, feeling even better than ever before!
"They weren't kidding… This hurt like hell! I'm not sure I want to go through that ever again…" Gerald said after checking out his body. Although he said so, he was still quite happy with the results. Little did he know he almost died due to his limited knowledge.
People say ignorance is bliss, and they are probably right…
***
Boom! Bang! Crack!
Sounds of heavy impacts and stones breaking sounded out in the forest.
Gerald was currently in midst of a training session while at the same time testing out his new body. Although the effects of the Bone-Reforming Medicine were diminished, they were still enough to make his bones strong enough so that he couldn't break them even if he tried.
Bam, bam, bam! Rumble!
Gerald threw many punches at once while having his body reinforced and buffed by all kinds of magic. Wind Body, Juggernaut, and increased gravity made him like a bulldozer, capable of crushing stone pillars with his bare hands.
"Wicked! I'm starting to feel all that suffering was worth it after all!" he mused and looked at his fist.
He still remembered the day he arrived on this planet, in that unknown forest, all alone… He fought with a wolf and almost got his hand bitten off. "Heh, I still lost it in the end…"
Those old enemies were long dead, but if he could fight them once again with his current body...they would be crushed under his fists!
Gerald flicked his hand and a handful of water was condensed out of the air, forming a pristine mirror.
"I look kind of rough." Gerald rubbed his cheeks covered with a thick beard. Together with a big body and rough skin, it made him look much older than he actually was.
"Hmm…" He took out a knife and dragged it over the surface of his skin. The blade produced a shrill scraping sound as it went over his magic-reinforced skin. The hairs weren't spared though. In only a minute flat he shaved it all off, revealing his old scars that didn't look that noticeable anymore.
He wiped off his sweat and reverted his training grounds back to their original appearance. He then wore his black cloak and his figure blurred and merged into the forest, disappearing from the place.
***
In a lavish room, decorated with gold and expensive ivory, silver, and white marble, four men were sitting around a massive table that had a map of the Kingdom of Myrtana laid out under a layer of glass. Many small, exquisitely made figurines sat on top of it, representing different strategic structures and people.
Each of them was dressed in expensive combat attire in accordance with their status.
There were five seats around the table, but only four of them were filled. The men sat on their seats in silence, sipping on the wine from golden cups. They were waiting for the last member to come.
Knock, knock!
A servant made himself known and knocked on the door before opening them, leading another richly dressed man inside. After the man entered, the servant left and closed the door behind him without saying a word.
The man immediately kneeled on one knee and made a military salute, "General Razor Northendark at your service, Your Majesty! Forgive me for being late, someone attempted to take my daughter's life!"
"It's fine…" King Roland III waved his hand indicating he was not bothered. "Family is important, you should always protect it!"
He gestured with his hand, "Come, sit! We have many things to discuss."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
After he sat down, the Kind spoke again, "Since you said there was an attempt on your daughter's life, why don't you tell us more about it?"
Razor Northendark nodded, "It was like this… I sent my little Aster to cultivate alone... Well, that place only had two dozen guards guarding it, but..." He then spoke of what happened based on what his daughter told him. Though he purposefully skipped the part about the Spirit Lake and about her being naked.
"After 'playing' with her for a while, he attacked! My poor girl suffered wounds all over her body, but luckily they weren't life-threatening. The guards heard the commotion and they immediately came to protect her, so the worst didn't happen…"
The King was quiet and seemingly deep in thought. He turned his gaze to another of the four generals. "Crag Carre, what's the situation on your part?"
The man called Crag nodded and sat straight, taking a few seconds to organize his thoughts. "Well… After the successful expedition to the Minecrawler nest near the border, we started excavating the buried temple, but it is going to take at least a few months to uncover it all," he said.
"Something that happened just recently, however, was a discovery near the iron mine at the Black-Iron Fort. My men managed to uncover a deposit of Mithril ore and partial remains of a few small Dragons…"