Whatever Dame was thinking in his mind, he decided to trust Ricktor with his words, but before leaving, he had decided to give the others strict instructions.
"Simyon, you've been learning the forging techniques and more about refinement of the body. The thing is your body is more like that of a weapon."
"You need to put the body refinement technique and the weapon technique together to make them one and the same."
"So you're basically telling me I need to get beat up over and over again, right, even though I've now learned how to utilize Qi through my body to train my outer skin," Simyon replied.
"I knew you would get it. The thing is, the body and a weapon are different in many ways. For one, the body needs to heal once it's broken down, but you have the best person by your side." Dame looked at Safa and said nothing more.
Her healing abilities, and magic in general, it was all to be kept a secret, especially from someone like Ricktor. Right now, they didn't know whose side he was really on, but Dame didn't mind because hopefully, the training would benefit them both.
After saying those words, it was time for them to leave, but he had one more message for them.
"The two of us will be going to the seclusion room at the very end. That way, if we hear the others moving to attack, we can warn you straight away, so you need to get ready for anything," Dame explained.
The rest nodded, and Dame and Ricktor were off. They walked in, and finally, they had entered the room and stood opposite each other, staring into each other's eyes.
Ricktor took a step back, and so did Dame as well.
"Do you use a weapon?" Ricktor asked, placing his hand on the hilt.
"My weapons are my fists, and I don't think I need to tell you, you don't need to hold back. You should be fighting like your life is on the line."
Ricktor chuckled, and right there and then, he pulled the wooden sword out, and an eruption followed his blade.
It was a surprise attack, but Dame didn't move from his spot. He punched the sword right on point, and his other fist was almost touching Ricktor's face.
"If this was a real fight, you would have been dead," Dame commented.
"You really think so? If you want me to take this seriously, then you need to as well, and hit me!" Ricktor shouted as he quickly drew the blade back and thrust it up.
The visual Qi was activated like a volcano, but the strike had completely missed, and Dame had delivered a fist right into his stomach deep.
Spit came shooting out of Ricktor's mouth, but it wasn't just spit; a bit of blood was seen with it as well.
"Haha, that's it, that's what I wanted!" Ricktor said, smiling, and his Qi energy was rising right after the hit.
"You are one strange guy," Dame thought. "If only he liked getting hit as much as you did."
Thinking about a specific person, the group wasted no time in fighting against the statue once more. They each got into their position and stayed apart from each other, covering three of their sides.
Unlike when they were fighting against the other students, they needed to experience the fear of danger and get through all of this with their own strengths, which is why they were split this way.
"Alright, Stoney, attack!" Safa shouted.
Immediately, Stoney didn't pull out a sword and instead used his fists. These were the skills of the Lethal Bite Clan.
Liam had thrown his sword in the air, aiming to use the juggling arts, but a fist had hit the wooden sword away, right into the wall.
He had no choice but to spin, avoiding the attack. As the stone hit the fist, the whole seclusion room shook.
Safa thrust her spear several times, at three points. An attack that was meant to be a sure hit. The stone statue had managed to block two of them and got hit with the third, but the damage done to the statue was next to nothing.
From behind the statue, now it was Simyon's turn. He readied his fist and threw it right at the bottom of its leg.
"A hard body means that everything, every part of me, is a weapon as well, so I don't just take hits, but I can hit hard as well."
The statue lifted its foot and then stomped down on his arm, pinning it. Now in its hand was a sword, and as it swung it, visual Qi like that of a river smashed, sending Simyon flying, hitting the wall.
He could see the stone statue on him, the sword thrusting toward his chest; it then smashed right where his heart was, but was unable to pierce through his skin.
The statue continued to twist the sword as it pinned Simyon against the wall.
"Stoney, st-"
"No!" Simyon shouted at Safa, and then placed both of his hands on the sword. "If we want to get through this assessment, then we need to grow stronger as well."
"We can't just rely on Raze. Do you remember what happened when we were in the Demonic Faction back then? We could do nothing, and in the end, he helped us."
"We agreed to follow him, but the one thing we can't do if we follow him is be a hindrance to him. He's going to have more enemies on his back, so what we need to do is get stronger!"
While saying these words, Simyon could feel something. His dantian, it was growing and spreading through everywhere, and the earring he was wearing, it was starting to pulsate along with his body.
With a pulse, Simyon pushed through.
"Do you want that to happen again, that humiliation?" Simyon shouted.
Liam picked up the sword and tensed his fist. He remembered that feeling well; he remembered it because he had felt it more than once now.
The fire in his stomach was burning as well, and it was the same for Safa.
While the three of them had the same thoughts running through their heads, the Qi in their body, it was almost reacting with each other. All of it pulsating, their dantians growing, and soon, a strange mist started to rise out from the top of their heads, each of them bathed in color.
[Rare Rank Metal body has been achieved]
The ring glowed, and the power resonated with all of them in that moment, and finally, all of them had broken through to the third stage.
"ARGHH!" Simyon screamed at the top of his lungs, and so did Safa, as well as Liam as all three of them went to attack.
They could feel something had changed in them. They were already close to getting through to the next stage after being down here for so long.
They could feel they were nearly there, but what they didn't have was the determination to want it enough. To force their bodies into growing stronger in the time of need.
All three of them struck the statue, and when they did, all of them were flung back, like a rebound as each of their bodies hit the wall.
"What is happening? I thought we had just broken through to the third stage?" Liam said, rubbing the back of his head.
The statue was standing there, with the sword in its hand. A faint Qi, visual Qi, was flowing from all around its body.
Liam wasn't sure if his one good eye was working or not, but it almost felt like the statue had gotten stronger, and it had done so because they weren't the only ones that had managed to break through to the next stage.
A few doors down, in the furthest seclusion room, the ground was splattered with all sorts of blood, but the last few spits of blood while receiving punishment from Dame were black in color.
'This guy, I felt it before,' Dame thought. 'When I was fighting, he was carefully analyzing all of my punches. He's a natural talent, one of the best I've seen.
'He reminds me a lot of one of my brothers, which I don't like too much.'
With his weak body, Ricktor could feel it. He lifted up his sword, wiping the black blood from his mouth.
"I've reached the fifth stage, but it's not time to stop there; let's keep going!" Ricktor ordered.
