Close Combat Mage Chapter 318

School started today…well yesterday now, seeing as it’s 4am. (Jetlag really sucks >.<) As of now, there is no change in release rate, and there is still no exact schedule. Depending on my workload (I’m taking 7 classes this semester), release frequency may change, but I will make sure to notify you if it does.

Thanks for understanding.

Translated by: Taffy

Chapter 318 – Explosion of Wealth Overnight Pt. 1

The elder looked at Suo Jia in exasperation and bitterly smiled, “Of course not. Even if your innate gift was at the absolute top, you must also obtain high ranked Toughening Fruits. From my knowledge, our single rank 10 illusion Toughening Fruit is the only one within a thousand meter circumference, and you need to eat four of them to reach the completed state. Let me ask you…where would you go to get so many high ranked Toughening Fruits?”

“That’s…” Suo Jia finally calmed down after hearing the elder’s question. At the same time, the elder continued, “Moreover, don’t you know that humans have limits? Within a limited boundary, you can achieve an extremely rapid growth. However, after that limit, your growth will stop. You can’t possibly think that just eating these fruits would guarantee improvement, right? If that were the case, would I have stopped in this realm?”

Suo Jia shook his head in disappointment. Although he clearly knew that was impossible, Suo Jia still hoped for his idea just now to become reality. Unfortunately, nothing came so cheaply in this world.

Suo Jia bid farewell to the elder, cleaned up his things, then began to cultivate. The next morning, Suo Jia woke up very early because…today was the day he would head out.

Having heard that Suo Jia would get Xiangshui rice for everybody, all the villagers gathered around him early that morning to give him gifts. The elder even personally handed a credential of trust over to Suo Jia. It was only now that Suo Jia came to know that this elder was actually Enchanting Village’s chief!

Before leaving, Suo Jia stubbornly picked a Toughening Fruit and placed it within his interspatial bag, hoping that its internal environment could sustain the Toughening Fruit’s condition for a period of time. Unfortunately, the village head soon destroyed his dreams. Even if inside the interspatial ring, the magical fruits definitely wouldn’t last that long. They’d rot in two days at best.

Suo Jia could only take the fruit out in disappointment. There was no way he’d let the fruit mold in his interspatial ring. The elder saw Suo Jia’s crestfallen expression and helplessly shook his head. “Don’t be too upset, the Toughening Fruit isn’t some kind of rare fruit or anything. You can find them anywhere within the nearby thousand kilometer perimeter. As long as you recognize these fruits, you can pick them however much you want. Although most of them will be around rank 3 Toughening Fruits, these are definitely enough for you at the moment.”

The villagers all sent Suo Jia off as he left Enchanting Village. Together with the Diamond Dragon, Suo Jia made the first step of their journey. That armored chariot was finally disassembled by Suo Jia and stored inside the interspatial ring. If he tried to rush down the road, Suo Jia definitely wouldn’t be able to advance at all with his strength alone.

The reason the Greater Trade Routes were so terrifying was precisely because the magical beasts here were extremely powerful. Destroying a single one required using up a large amount of energy. It could be said that mages ranked below a Full-Fledged Mage weren’t qualified to come here. Even the weakest of magical beasts were impossible to eliminate. Before the magical beasts’ energy shields shattered, the mage’s magic power would be exhausted first.

Fortunately, Suo Jia had already reached the peak Great Mage realm. In particular, in terms of magic power, he’d far surpassed the Great Mage realm by severalfold. Even if he hadn’t used the four colored potions, Suo Jia definitely would’ve been able to destroy those magical beasts.

Before he’d gotten very far from the village, Suo Jia once again encountered a magical beast interception. There were seven Cyan Wolves roaring at him as they blocked his way. Their blood-red eyes were firmly locked onto Suo Jia, as well as the Diamond Dragon in his arms.

Suo Jia snorted. Having honed his strength for so long now, there was obviously no way Suo Jia would be afraid of these Cyan Wolves. With both his hands cupped around the Diamond Dragon, Suo Jia suddenly pushed it outwards. In that moment, the Diamond Dragon’s body was tossed high up several meters through the air. At the same time, Suo Jia shouted, “Stop sleeping, little pet. It’s time for battle!”

Hearing Suo Jia’s voice…the Diamond Dragon suddenly opened its eyes in midair and happily chirped. An azure glow burst forth as layer after layer of Glacial Armor began to surround its body.

“Rumble!” With a fierce boom, the Diamond Dragon finally landed back down onto the ground. The weight of its enormous, thick and solid body seemed to cause the entire ground to shake for a moment.

A blue figure stabilized itself, then appeared on the Diamond Dragon’s left shoulder with a flash. If one looked closer, they’d realize that it was Suo Jia. At the moment….Suo Jia was standing on the 6 meter high Diamond Dragon’s shoulder. With a smile, Suo Jia activated Spirit’s Eye and surveyed the Cyan Wolves’ defensive energy shield statistics.

In reality, the energy shield produced by the Toughening Fruits had its own name on the Greater Trade Routes—Life Protection. It had the same value as a life! One had to use up something with the value of a life in order to fatally harm another living creature.

Suo Jia saw that the Cyan Wolves’ Life Protection was scarlet colored, and he shook his head in disdain. Suo Jia hadn’t imagined that these things’ Life Protections were only scarlet level; they were really too weak.

Suo Jia didn’t actually activate Ice Roar. For the sake of better understanding Life Protection, Suo Jia obviously wouldn’t let such a chance pass by. After all…these Cyan Wolves couldn’t be compared to the Crimson Bears. All the wolves had was high speed. Their attack power wasn’t very strong, and they had absolutely no way of inflicting any substantial damage on the Diamond Dragon.

Suo Jia stretched his right hand forward, and a Mysterious Ice Arrow glittering with blue light instantly sprung out from his hand, and accurately hit the shoulder blade of a Cyan Wolf. With a flash of brilliant blue light, 1/10 of the Cyan Wolf’s energy strip had disappeared!

“Ack!” Suo Jia couldn’t help but let out a strange shout at this sight. Originally…Suo Jia had thought that if it took a month to complete the scarlet level, it would be really weak. But in reality, Suo Jia’s full strength Mysterious Ice Arrow could only reduce 1/10 of the Cyan Wolf’s Life Protection. That was too ridiculous!

Suo Jia waved his hand, two Ice Roars were instantly activated in succession amidst the pack of seven Cyan Wolves. Hundred of piercing ice blades whooshed in a circle, slashing at the pack of wolves.

At closer inspection, the Cyan Wolves’ red energy strips were sharply decreasing under the Ice Roar’s attack. Once the Ice Roar finally finished its devastation, the seven Cyan Wolves all collapsed on the ground. Even their corpses had been frozen into ice cubes!

Suo Jia frowned. He knew that in terms of single attacks, he needed 10 to eliminate them. If he used AoE attacks, like the Ice Roar, he needed 20 of those ice blade storms cutting at them continuously to break through their Life Protections.

Suo Jia began to ponder this deeply. These Cyan Wolves were the weakest magical beasts on the Greater Trade Routes, and were scarlet level monsters. But these weakest beasts had already consumed so much of Suo Jia’s energy. If their numbers were just slightly greater, wouldn’t Suo Jia’s energy be completely exhausted?

Suo Jia had learned from the village chief that while the Cyan Wolves were the weakest, they often moved in packs of 10 at minimum, and thousands at maximum. Suo Jia could ascertain that a pack of only 100 of these wolves would be enough to force Suo Jia to miserably flee.

With this knowledge, Suo Jia would have to act more careful in the future. Fortunately, Suo Jia had detailed maps. These had been developed by adventurers, and allowed him to evade places where powerful magical beasts gathered. It marked the safest path. Even if he encountered magical beasts here, they wouldn’t be very powerful.

He swiftly progressed on his journey. Finally…after a week had passed, Suo Jia was delighted to discover that his own Life Protection had reached the ¼ level, as expected. The Diamond Dragon hadn’t slacked either, and his energy strip now had a red line that marked the ? part.

Suo Jia calculated that a week had already passed, so he thoroughly searched the area. As expected, he very easily found rank 1 Toughening Fruits. After both he and the Diamond Dragon ate one, that red mist once again rushed into the Life Protection energy strips.

Chapter end