Close Combat Mage
chapter-16

With the escort of several girls, Suo Jia led the group towards the direction of the training area. Along the way, other girls who had heard of the news came along as well. After a few other groups joined, by the time they arrived at the entrance of the training area all the girls in his class had already gathered without a single one missing.

If any other male saw that hundreds of tender and lovely young girls were escorting a single boy, he would be jealous to death. However, the current Suo Jia, besides from the forced smile on his face, was not at all happy about it. He didn’t want to do anything at the moment besides rest. Even if he was made of metal, his body could not endure using the Moisture Technique 28 times consecutively.

Just as the girls entering the training area were about to tell the administrators to release some magical beasts for them to practice on, Suo Jia’s eyes suddenly brightened. He had thought of a very good solution.

Not all magical beasts could accept endless amounts of the Moisture Technique. When things lean too far on one extreme, they can only move in the opposite direction*. After too much of the Moisture Technique, the organism might actually become less healthy and even eventually die.

Among magical beasts, only water elemental magical beasts can accept more Moisture Techniques. However, there are also limits; if the magical beast is instead of the fire element, using the Moisture Technique on it too much can lead to death on the spot.

Preventing the girls from requesting a magical beast, Suo Jia scooped out the diamond sleeping deeply in his pocket, and gently placed in on the table. Moreover, he made sure to place a warm animal skin on top of it. This loving action shocked the girls around him. A male that had such a tender side was difficult to imagine.

After he covered the dragon well with the animal skin, Suo Jia turned around and warmly laughed: “There’s no need to ask the school to release a magical beast, that requires a rental fee. Everyone can just use my magical pet for their purposes.”

Before Suo Jia finished speaking, a group of girls had already surrounded the little diamond, closely inspecting it. The little pet had pale blue skin, a chubby body, and was tender and squishy. What’s more, while sleeping deeply, it had a sparkling and translucent bubble on its nose that expanded and shrank with its breathing, making it beyond adorable.

Girls usually have two characteristics: the first is that they have no resistance to beautiful things. However compared to this, the second characteristic is that to girls, the thing that has an even stronger effect than beauty was—-cuteness!

It may be true that a mature Frost Wyrm has absolutely no cute parts at all. However no matter what, as of now, this little pet that cannot even be called a Frost Wyrm yet is extremely adorable.

A group of girls surrounded the Diamond Dragon in admiration. All of them wanted to hold the little pet close to them. Unfortunately it was not their magical pet, how could they be allowed to hold it like that?

Seeing that the girls had pretty much completely forgotten their original goal and was now focusing only on the diamond, Suo Jia laughed tiredly, without trying to stop them. Even though the diamond enjoyed the effects of the Moisture Technique, there weren’t any practical effects. Letting the dragon feel more comfortable was good, but even if it didn’t, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

While thinking, Suo Jia sat down in a nearby chair. Exhausted, he closed his eyes, and secretly began to rest. He could not waste any time; if he wanted to quickly improve his magic power, then he had to practice endlessly, and thus needed to spend every second he could spare to rest.

After a while, all the girls finally noticed the silent Suo Jia sitting on the side. Seeing him have so much patience, although the girls did not say anything, they had a sense of appreciation in their hearts. From young to old, regardless of whether they were youths or elders, nobody has ever had as much patience towards them as this young boy. Little did they know that Suo Jia was not extremely patient, but was rather currently resting; he was really just way too tired.

Finally, under the urges of all the other girls, Xue Er once again walked up to Suo Jia. Once he was awake, the so-called magic study that had been delayed for so long was finally starting!

Although everyone knew how to cast this spell, they all had their own ideas and experiences. Only by comparing and learning from each other as well as using each other’s strengths to make up for their own weaknesses could they cause their own magic abilities to flourish. Within all the professions, discussing and collaborating between mages was the most frequent.

All the girls surrounded the Diamond Dragon in a large circle, and then started to use the Moisture Technique in the Diamond Dragon’s direction. This way, while practicing your own magic, you can also watch other people use their magic as well. A mage’s learning process is based on constant comparing, learning, reforming, and always adjusting.

Learning magic was only a start. Why was some people able to use magic faster than others despite casting the same type of magic? Why are some people’s magics more powerful than others? All of these aspects rely on individual feelings.

Hundreds of Moisture Techniques were used at the same time. Countless fine mists combined into one large piece, the haze then raining down over the Diamond Dragon’s body. The moisture entered its body, and a magnificent rainbow enveloped the Diamond Dragon.

“Ji!” Feeling the coolness on its body, the Diamond Dragon suddenly woke from its deep slumber, happily raising its head to look at the rainbow above it. It then excitedly began to totter around the large table, flapping the soft pair of wings on its back as hard as it could, and moved its pair of short front claws as if it was trying to grab onto something.

Seeing the chubby little pet’s adorable movements, all the girls could not help smiling with their eyes. One after another, they said: “Ya! This little pet is too cute. Look at its movements; it’s too funny. Aiya…it fell! Will it get hurt?”

These words however, were only said after resting a bit after using the Moisture Technique. The children qualified to enter this school all knew that they had to study diligently. After all….they could not enter Holy Light Academy purely through talent; they had to have the mentality to study well too.

Discussing while resting was fine, but once their spirit powers recovered, they would immediately start using the Moisture Technique again. Even though there were girls constantly stopping, there were always other girls simultaneously starting to use the Moisture Technique again as well.

The thin mist formed a cloud-like mass of air, gradually floating in a lively way towards the Diamond Dragon and enveloping it. All the people could hear the happy sounds of the little pet within the clouds.

Once everyone’s spirit powers were exhausted and they were unable to perform another Moisture Technique, the little pet would lie down in satisfaction on the ground, unable to get back up. It may have been an illusion, but after receiving thousands of Moisture Techniques, the little pet’s body seemed to have gotten thicker by a whole circle! (TL Note: “circle” is commonly used as a symbol of measurement in Chinese to represent girth or thickness of circumference.)

After continuously releasing more than ten Moisture Techniques, all the girls had gotten tired. However, even though their spirits were tired, everyone actually felt very satisfied. To have all their friends doing what they enjoyed together was a very happy occasion.

Everyone sat down in nearby seats, all of them discussing their insights and the experiences they had gained; the eight year-olds had not yet learned filthy characteristics like selfishness. Even if a few girls were selfish, within such an environment and atmosphere, they gradually released their darker inner thoughts, and started to discuss with everyone else.

Magus was not profession that rely on physical strength. Typically speaking, a mage’s body was very weak; a mage’s strength relied on his/her spirit power, magic power, and ability to use magic, not the body.

To the left of the training area’s entrance was a resting room. At present, all the girls had unconsciously or subconsciously used Suo Jia as the center to sit down. Perhaps it had to do with Suo Jia’s and Xue Er’s actions during their battle, but the girls had already subconsciously deemed the two as the most powerful people in the class. It could also be said that first impressions were simply too significant.

Even though they did not yet understand love, nor had they reached the age of the first awakening of love, all the girls felt that talking with boys held more meaning than talking with other girls. After all….talking with girls could be done at any time, whether in class or in the dorms.

After talking for about half an hour all the way up until class started, everyone’s spirit power had pretty much recovered. All the girls were reluctant to part and escorted Suo Jia back to classroom for the start of afternoon classes. In addition, everyone decided that from then on, they would hold this type of activity every afternoon, until the day they would all graduate.