Close Combat Mage Chapter 374

Translated by: Taffy
UNEDITED. I have not looked at it again even once after translating it, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes. If you notice any, please point them out in the comments below.

Announcement: I started my first day of class in hell yesterday. It’s an extremely fast paced class crammed into a month with lecture and lab every day and weekly exams. Because of this, I’m going to be stuck with studying furiously every day, and I will not have much other time to do anything. Therefore, I probably won’t be posting at all in the next month. Sorry for any mistakes in this chapter, as I didn’t have time to edit it.

tl;dr Temporary hiatus for a month while I struggle with school. I will start posting again in a month after I finish with my class.

Chapter 374 – A Major Transaction Pt.1

A burden? An inconvenience?!

Bitter tears slowly trickled down Roger's cheeks. When had he fallen to this point? Before…even when he'd just been a slave, he had been accepted publicly as the leader of a hundred thousand slaves. But now? He'd already become a no-good piece of trash?

Although Suo Jia, Xiang Yun, and Nicole hadn't complained about Roger, and Suo Jia had even blamed this failure entirely on himself, this was also precisely why Roger was having a harder time forgiving himself!

Roger really wanted to leave, but he owed Suo Jia way too much. As a man, leaving now would be like ignoring the favor he owed Suo Jia, and what kind of man would he be if he did that?

Roger tightly clenched his fists, his body shaking as he closed his eyes. Even Nicole was willing to risk her life to train more; as a grown man, there's no way he could lose to her, right? After all, they all had their own lives; if Nicole was willing to throw all stakes for this group, Roger had to go even further!

With a stamp, Roger's body leapt up and he jumped out the window. A few after-images appeared as his body swiftly leapt over the wall, disappearing without any other traces.

Putting aside the personal training Xiang Yun, Nicole, and Roger were going under, Suo Jia had returned to the inn at Illusion City and was lying down on a bed, gazing at the roof. His mind was swiftly calculating what to do next.

Suo Jia knew that he was still a long way before being able to defeat the opponent. It honestly wasn't something he could do within half a year at all. However, the problem was that they needed to challenge the killer once more in six months on this very day; Suo Jia had already declared this. If they didn't win then, everyone would die together there!

After thinking in silence for a long while, Suo Jia finally sat up, his eyes glowing with a fierce and sharp light of determination. He had finally resolved to use Exhaustion Training Method to improve his techniques again!

At the moment, Suo Jia was already seventeen years old. Roughly 8-9 years ago, he'd once used the Exhaustion Training Method to improve his strength, but Suo Jia had only used it for one period before stopping. Now…this technique seemed to be the only way that Suo Jia could rapidly boost his power!

Although he had decided what to do about training, that wasn't all Suo Jia planned to do. Focusing on that alone would be a waste of time, and how could he bear to do that? Training and earning money were both things that couldn't be interrupted, that was an absolute rule!

Of course, using the Exhaustion Training Method meant it was impossible to run back and forth doing business. The technique required one to expend all their magic power and spirit power and slowly recover. Once the power levels returned to a full state, a small but amazing growth in strength would appear!

If Suo Jia was out running errands while still drained or just after recovering, what would he be able to do against magical beasts? It would be equivalent to throwing his life away!

After thinking it over for a long time, Suo Jia was only able to come up with one way to earn money: to utilize his luck and help other people enhance their equipment. However, this had high production cost and Suo Jia only had around 60 million coins left.

Suo Jia pulled out a notebook and inspected it carefully. Written inside were detailed records of the results Suo Jia had after enhancing 500 pieces of equipment. Each success or failure had been duly recorded.

Luck wasn't something visible or tangible but rather illusory. However, that didn't mean it was patternless. Suo Jia wracked his brain over the numbers written, performing non-stop mental calculations!

Finally, he let out a long breath. After silently studying the notes and doing some math, Suo Jia's eyes lit up!

After organizing the data, he had concluded that the rate of success after two failures was 50%, after three was 65%, after four was 80%, and after five, was currently 100%. But judging by this pattern, the chance of success after five failures should actually be 95%!

Of course, the sixth try was an opportunity Suo Jia would never waste on someone else. Suo Jia's own equipment set hadn't yet completed enhancements, so why would he help someone else do theirs? But all the tries before five failures could be used to earn money!

Every hundred enhancements, there would be around 20 occurrences of two failures, 10 of three failures, 5 of four failures, and 1 of five failures. In addition, based on experience, it was highly likely that the attempt after four failures would succeed, about eight of ten tries. That meant it was profitable for Suo Jia to help others enhance their equipment!

Suo Jia grabbed a paper and pen and did some more calculations. In the end, Suo Jia concluded that every hundred attempts, there would be around five occurrences of four successive failures, which could be used to enhance up to rank seven. Although there was only an 85% chance of success, Suo Jia believed that there'd be people willing to risk it at a suitable price!

Based on a 30% chance success rate, enhancing equipment to rank six would require three hundred million. Each rank seven gem cost a hundred million, and at 30% chance, nobody knew how many gems would be needed to successfully reach rank seven. Any failed enhancements on equipment rank six and below didn't affect the equipment itself, but rank seven and above failures meant the equipment's rank would fall back to zero.

Statistically, there were actually many people on the Greater Trade Routes that had rank six magic equipment sets. But there were extremely few that had rank seven ones. With a 70% risk of failing that would result in starting all over, most people didn't dare try unless they had an extremely large amount of money.

But Suo Jia didn't have this issue. Suo Jia had at least an 80% chance success. Out of every ten tries, eight would succeed and only two would fail–no pressure at all! This was the data that Suo Jia had gotten from enhancing over 500 pieces of equipment, so it was definitely reliable!

Suo Jia's current problem was how much he should be charging. By norm, enhancing equipment to rank six required three gems each of ranks 1-6, totaling three hundred million coins. With the addition of three rank seven gems, it would cost six hundred million coins total, assuming that all resulted in success! But in reality, Suo Jia only needed two hundred million to enhance the equipment!

Of course, Suo Jia wasn't an idiot. Although this kind of business would earn him money, he didn't forget to calculate in possible failure. Six hundred million wasn't that much to begin with; Suo Jia could earn 1.4 billion just from a single shipment of pickaxes. If someone paid him six hundred million to enhance an equipment from rank six to seven, Suo Jia would definitely refuse!

In reality, although the difference between the ranks was only one, it was also the most troublesome transition. According to records, the unluckiest person in history had failed to upgrade to rank seven 74 times in a row. In the end, the person lost his family fortune and stopped trying.

After contemplating this matter for a long while, Suo Jia finally made his decision. He would offer to enhance to rank seven for two billion. Although it was possible that nobody would be willing to pay this extremely high price, Suo Jia would rather lower the price later rather than ask for less now, as that would lead to a loss of the income he should've made.

Excitedly jumping off his bed, he prepared his things and rushed to Illusion City's Adventurer Union. Spending ten million coins, he asked them to send out the news that he would enhance equipment for only two billion, guaranteeing that it would be boosted to rank seven. The Adventurer Union would acknowledge a collateral that Suo Jia would have to pay if the enhancement failed, all the way until it reached rank seven!

As for the transport of the equipment, the Adventurer Union would be responsible for that as well. There were air delivery services on the Greater Trade Routes, with Lightning Falcons as the fastest carriers. There would be a scheduled flight every day. Although they couldn't carry very large things, smaller sized items weren't a problem.

After sending out this news, Suo Jia rushed to the auction house and spend another ten million to rent out their largest and most luxurious workspace for half a year. Within it were a bedroom, bathroom, and a living room. It could be said that everything one could possibly need was supplied. This was a perfect security measure. If anything was stolen from there, the auction house would compensate for all losses tenfold!

The reason Suo Jia did this was because there definitely wouldn't be anyone that would dare to display bad behavior in this kind of place. Anyone that did would definitely end up on the Adventurer Union's list of tasks for the entire world to hunt them down. At the moment, the person that held the record for staying uncaught while on that list was an Epic ranked hero on the Greater Trade Routes. However, he'd only managed to stay on the run for about six years.

Suo Jia nailed the large sign he'd made last time onto the door, and returned to the bedroom to begin the Exhaustion Training Method. After all…this was the safest place to do it, even more secure than his home. Even if he became completely drained, nobody would dare to cause trouble here. The Adventurer Guild's top three hitmen were SSS ranked! They'd be able to assassinate even an Epic ranked hero.

After spending an hour, Suo Jia had used up all his magic power and spirit power in that room. He dizzily rested for half an hour before opening the doors and starting his business.

Although his face was deathly pale, spirit exceptionally drained, Suo Jia couldn't help but grow excited when he saw that huge hoard of people outside. However, Suo Jia would first only accept rank one equipment! This would minimize production costs.

The only reason he was accepting losses as he waited for guaranteed successive failures to occur after hundreds of attempts was to search for the tell-tale patterns! Once he witness it happening, he'd start to enhance the equipment of the customers that had paid two billion.

Chapter end