Close Combat Mage
chapter-138

Taking a deep breath, Suo Jia waved his right hand and quickly activated the Mysterious Ice Arrow. At the same time, a strange, transparent, blue halo appeared in front of Suo Jia. The halo was covered with odd symbols, and a few mysterious lines as well. In the center of the halo was a cross-shaped front sight. At closer inspection, it was clearly a reverse cross!

Not daring to delay any longer, Suo Jia quickly locked onto the magic target. At the same time, the Mysterious Ice Arrow instantly activated. With a whistle, a sharp arrow of ice with the thickness of a chopstick rapidly advanced, flashing past like a mirage with the help of a sharp push.

“Chi….” There was a sharp, ear-piercing whistle as it hit the target, but the target didn’t move at all. Doubtful, Suo Jia walked up to the target and examined it more closely. The next instant….Suo Jia’s jaw dropped in shock.

Before learning the four major auxiliary magics, the Ice Arrow could only pierce through 10 cm. But now, the 20 cm long Ice Arrow had completely disappeared from sight. The only thing remaining in sight was the end of its tail that poked out.

Suo Jia nodded to himself in excitement. He knew that rapidly pushing the Ice Arrow forwards could double its speed, as well as attack explosively. It could also double the Mysterious Ice Arrow’s impact force and penetrability. Although this was still only a rank 4 spell, with the support of the four major auxiliary magics, the Mysterious Ice Arrow would most likely surpass several ranked magics in terms of formidability!

Regardless of whether we were talking about how accurate, how controlled, or how fast its flying speed, or its attack level was at, it far surpassed that of others. Moreover, no matter whether it was the four major auxiliary magics or the Mysterious Ice Arrow, Suo Jia had only just learned them. As he continuously used it, his level of familiarity would also increase. Everything would continue to improve, and continue to reach even more extreme levels!

Among the different systems of magic, the ones that had healing effects were the water and light elements. In terms of just healing effects alone, the two were completely equivalent. Both could recover the injured area to its perfect state. However, in terms of healing speed, the difference between the two was too great.

The light element could instantly heal any injury, regardless of its size. As soon as light magic was used, the wound would immediately recover to a state as perfect as it was before. However, the water element magic wouldn’t be the same. In comparison, its speed was extremely slow. The smallest wound would still take at least 2-3 seconds to recover. Any larger wounds would require around a dozen seconds of time.

Of course, in terms of daily life, the light element and water element weren’t very different, as both could heal wounds. But if one was in the middle of battle, the light element was much more dominant. No matter what injury it was, it would instantly recover perfectly. But the water element couldn’t do the same. Once one was injured, it couldn’t be healed within 8-10 seconds.

Typically speaking, while healing, people would normally use the light element, not the water element. The water element just couldn’t be compared to the light element in terms of healing!

However, although the light element did indeed excel at healing, the water element also had irreplaceable advantages. Special tricks could be used, such as gathering the Hydration Technique, and then storing it into a bottle for one to carry. Once one was injured, they could directly use the Hydration Technique in the bottle to heal themselves. Once the Hydration Technique was sprayed onto the wound, everything would be ok. There was absolutely no need for a mage to be by one’s side.

The light element couldn’t do such a thing. Think about it, how could light be gathered? How would it be stored? Such a thing could be seen, but couldn’t be touched. It wasn’t a substance like water, and was completely vague and unknown; it was nothingness. This was how the water element was stronger than the light element.

Magical Alchemy was the combination of Hydration Techniques. With the special method and equipment, the Hydration Technique could be gathered and stored. This substance that was brimming with vitality could be used to heal one’s wounds at any point in time. Turning magic into potion was the so-called magical alchemy!

During the next few days, Suo Jia didn’t continue to blindly look around bazaars. Instead, he handed this task to Sixth Sister. This whole time, Sixth Sister had always accompanied Suo Jia whenever he went out, so she knew what Suo Jia knew. In terms of choosing treasures, they each had their own merits, and both had bountiful experience in it. Moreover, Sixth Sister was naturally cautious, and so comparatively speaking, her chances of success were higher.

Suo Jia first went to the dwarf’s blacksmithery and placed an order for a set of special equipment. He then went to the carpenter to order some small accessories. Afterwards, he spent a large amount of money to gather a huge pile of high-ranked water elemental magic crystals.

Finally, Suo Jia hired some construction workers to completely change the underwater training area into a magical alchemy factory. Then….Suo Jia rushed over to the City Government building and applied for a shop in front of the White Villa, changing it into a place that sold all sorts of goods! This project operation was really a shop of miscellaneous goods as it had everything from magical artifacts to all types of merchandise.

Because of Suo Jia’s relationship with Wen Ya, such a minor thing was as easy as simply saying a sentence. Even the cost of the alterations was excused. After all….such a small amount of money wasn’t even enough to buy a dish. Even if Suo Jia wanted to pay Wen Ya back, Wen Ya would find it embarrassing to accept it.

Afterwards, Suo Jia rushed over to Emma’s household and asked Emma to use her family’s propaganda system to help advertise his store. Emma’s father didn’t reject this request. To him, Suo Jia’s request was so small-scale that Emma’s father didn’t care about it in the slightest. In addition, the project operation was different because it didn’t give rise to any competition issues. Therefore, Emma’s father obviously wouldn’t reject this proposal.

After finishing all this, Suo Jia gathered all of the girls in his class and began to advance in magical alchemy. After all, they could only sell things for a decent amount of money if they had merchandise.

The large steel machines within the underwater training area stood in the middle for a long time. The topmost part of the machine was assembled by 200 million gold’s worth of water elemental magic crystals to form a magic crystal ball. This entire crystal ball was comprised of thousands of magic crystals, and there were small chinks and holes everywhere. In total, it was 1 meter in diameter!

Next to the machine was an opening. Outside of the opening was a large wooden trough that had countless fire elemental magic crystals stored within it. The trough was connected to the outside of the steel machine’s opening. Once the machine started, these magic crystals would all be consumed.

The hundred water mages were also Suo Jia’s classmates. At the moment, they were currently standing in a circle around the large steel machine with their blue staffs raised. A blue glow sparkled in the air as hundreds of Moisture Techniques were instantly activated. The entire training area had become a single Hydration Technique.

As the rains formed clouds, the large magic crystals on the topmost part of the machine began to glow. At the same time, all of the Hydration Techniques quickly gathered at the magic crystals, as if drawn in by a powerful attraction force. They all entered the magic crystal ball through the chinks and holes in the formation, and disappeared without a trace,

The next instant….a thin stream of water flowed out of the bottom of the magic crystal ball. It followed a duct and flowed out from the bottom of the machine. Meanwhile, the entire steel machine began to move, and the fire elemental magic crystals in the wooden trough outside began to enter through the opening of the machine, one after another.

“Pata…Pata….Pata….” Finally, after a series of repeated soft echoes, small, red bottles began to fall out of an exit slot on the side of the machine. These red water crystal type bottles were only about the size of one’s thumb, and they were filled with a transparent fluid. These were the finished products of the magical alchemy — Recovery Potion!

In reality, it was the Hydration Technique that had been condensed by the water elemental crystal ball stored within the bottles. As for the bottles themselves, they were actually made from the powder of fire elemental magic crystals mixed with some special, congealing substances. Only fire elemental magic crystals could maintain the Hydration Technique’s vitality. If any other vessels were used, the Hydration Technique would most likely become normal water, and wouldn’t have any healing effects at all.

What was strange was that water trumped fire. This was something everyone knew. However, maintaining the water’s vitality required a fire elemental magic crystal. The fire magical crystals within the wooden trough had all been delivered into the steel machine to be crushed into a powder, mixed with congealing substances, then compressed into the shape of a small bottle. These bottles were then filled with Hydration Techniques, which became the bottled Recovery Potion!

Reaching out to grab one of the small, red bottles and looking at the red fluid it contained, Suo Jia couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. The manufacturing costs of this small bottle, not accounting for the amount of manual labor, already reached 100 gold. When manual labor was factored in, how much were they supposed to sell it for to reach obvious profit? If they sold too little, then the bottles wouldn’t have been worth spending so much effort into making them.

Seeing the machine endlessly spit out small bottles, Suo Jia knit his brows together. Eldest Sister’s operation plans had too great of an impact on him. Although making the bottles right now didn’t require much effort, Suo Jia still stuck to the ideal that they were playing around with expensive values. Either way, business was about monopolies. No matter how much money he asked for, there still wouldn’t be anyone who would dare call it expensive.

Although typically speaking, this bottle of potion wasn’t worth much money, it could save one’s life at a critical moment! A killing strike naturally inflicted damage, but even that could be healed. No matter if it was protecting one’s life vs. standing at a critical moment, or recovering one’s combat strength and defeating the enemy vs. running away from the danger, one had to admit that the value of this bottle of potion was priceless in one’s life!

Gently tossing around the little bottle in his hand, Suo Jia suddenly gripped his hands into fists. There was no point in making too many. For the moment, he’d set the profit to 10,000 times the cost. A bottle of potion would be worth 1 million gold, regardless of whether one wanted to buy it or not. Suo Jia believed that as long as it had the ability, all warriors would be willing to buy this bottle to carry around. After all, it was equivalent to having an extra life!

While Suo Jia thought this, over a thousand bottles of potion had already been produced. As he looked at the large pile of completed potions, Suo Jia couldn’t help but break into a smile. Although these things didn’t seem of much worth here, if he brought them outside, it would become a treasure that people would smash other’s heads over. At this thought, Suo Jia raised his head and began to laugh out loud.

Unfortunately, Suo Jia’s ideas were obstructed by Eldest Sister in the end. Profiting by 10,000 times was too greedy. In addition, the production and marketing costs would be out of proportion. Although this method could temporarily allow him to earn quite a sum, it would quickly reach a limit. After all…..people who could afford to buy potion worth 1 million still had their limits. Thus, Suo Jia couldn’t possibly sell these potions for very long. Oftentimes, one didn’t earn more money because the price was greater. Its price had to be appropriate for its use; only then would one earn a lot of gold.

Think about it; if you sold a bottle for 1 million gold now, in the future, its value would drop to 100,000 due to the excessive supply. At that point, would you be deemed as trustworthy? Wouldn’t everyone curse you? Although your goods are of a high quality and unique to your family, Suo Jia was still of a noble rank after all, so he obviously had to take into account other considerations, like his reputation!