Close Combat Mage
chapter-161

Previously, the little pet could be said to be closer to a bat than a dragon. It once had a tiny body that contrasted with its enormous wings. At that time, it had looked like a bat no matter what angle one looked at it from. If it was flying around at night, there was no way one would suspect that it was a dragon!

But now, although the little pet’s wings hadn’t changed, its body had undergone a major transformation. Previously, its entire body and wings together made it no larger than one’s fist. However, now its body alone was the size of a fist. Adding on its two wings, it had now grown to the size of two fists at the very least.

What shocked Suo Jia the most was that, having seemingly eaten something unknown, the little pet’s stomach had grown quite a bit. It now looked extremely full and round. It was no longer covered by soft skin; although it was still flexible and smooth, it was now covered densely with thin scales that glowed a bright blue.

“A Quack Chicken that has lost its feathers?” That’s right… at first glance, it did indeed look like a plucked Quack Chicken. Its body was plump, and its wings were fleshy as well. Looking at it now, Suo Jia was beginning to suspect that it couldn’t even fly up into the air.

As Suo Jia studied it, the little pet alertly opened its eyes, and cautiously watched Suo Jia. Its four claws hugged the crystal even tighter, and it was evident to see that it was afraid that Suo Jia would take his treasure away from him, despite clearly knowing that the treasure actually belonged to Suo Jia.

Originally…since the little pet seemed to like something so much, giving the item to it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. However, this Great Frost Wyrm’s crystal core was probably the only one that existed in the world. In addition…this crystal core was the highest level crystal core in the world as well; nothing could be compared to it. Not using this cold-condensing core would practically be a sin!

One couldn’t underestimate this cold-condensing core. It had an impact on the effects of Enchantment Zhiyao, and was equivalent to a mage apothecary’s staff. The higher the grade of the condensed magic fluid that the cold-condensing core produced, the better the effects. In other words, there was no cold-condensing core in the world better than this one. Suo Jia didn’t want to exchange it for anything, and there was nothing that could possibly be exchanged with it anyways.

After pondering this, Suo Jia directly placed the crystal onto the machine, completely ignoring the little pet still sprawled across of it. He then began to activate and channel the Magic Spring at the core.

First, he manufactured five bottles each of Magic and Spirit Potions. Although a typical person would have to consume 50% of their magic or spirit power per activation of the spell, Suo Jia only used 10%, so he was able to perform this task with ease! After creating these potions, he still had half of his magic and spirit power remaining.

Suo Jia then created 5 Endurance Potions in succession. In that moment, his magic and spirit power were completely drained at the same time. However, Suo Jia wasn’t concerned; he picked up a Magic Potion, and quickly swallowed the contents in the bottle. Just as he was prepared to drink his second bottle, he suddenly paused.

Originally…one bottle of Magic Potion could only recover around 50% of the user’s magic power. The recovered amount was set. However, Suo Jia suddenly discovered that after drinking only one bottle, his magic power had been completely replenished!

This was the first time that Suo Jia had personally used Zhiyao techniques, so he didn’t really have any experience. He also didn’t know exactly how much the Great Frost Wyrm’s icy core had helped. However, Suo Jia did know that a single bottle of Magic Potion had already recovered all of his magic power, and he had probably wasted some of the Magic Potion too.

Suo Jia then drank a bottle of Spirit Potion. As Suo Jia had expected….his spirit power was instantly replenished as well. Some of that had definitely been wasted as well, but he didn’t know how much.

Regardless of whether it was Magic Potion, Spirit Potion, or Endurance Potion, the amount they replenished the user by was a set amount. For Suo Jia, it was either magic power and spirit power each 50%, or the two summed to 50%. However, to any other person, it was a single value. The higher level the mage apothecary, the stronger the potion they produced was. A high level mage apothecary had to have high magic, spirit power, and a good Zhiyao machine, because if anyone used the potion they produced, the replenished amount would use half of the mage apothecary’s levels as its base.

In other words, if a Mage Saint drank a potion created by an Intermediate Mage apothecary, he probably would not feel any effects at all. The tiny bit of magic power the Mage Saint recovered would be negligible. However, if an Intermediate Mage drank a potion created by a Mage Saint apothecary, he would probably waste over 99% of its effects.

Of course, although mage apothecaries had existed in this world before, they had essentially all disappeared thousands of years ago. The class was really too unprofitable. A mage apothecary spent pretty much all of their time manufacturing potions, and that was practically their life partner. They used up their own magic power to help replenish others’ during battle.

It could be said that there were only 2 people that were suited to be mage apothecaries in this world. The first was the Atlantis Emperor, and the other was Suo Jia, since he was the user of the Atlantis set. Without reconstructing the Atlantis set, how could Suo Jia make a few bottles of potion per day?

Moreover, this Enchantment Zhiyao wasn’t something that anyone could learn. A person could study it for their entire life, and still be unable to produce a single bottle of potion. Some people were successful, but had to spend 30-40 years studying it. The only exceptions were those that had that mysterious blue glove, which the Atlantis Emperor and Suo Jia possessed. Only then could they learn Enchantment Zhiyao so quickly, and activate it immediately.

A mage apothecary was an extremely formidable class. Manufacturing potions for years meant that one tempered their magic and spirit powers to an extreme level. A mage apothecary was actually an abnormal existence; once they had trained to a certain realm, they’d be able to produce potions without rest. If they ran out of magic and spirit power, they could use their own potions to replenish it. Although the consumption was large, and the results were limited, they’d be able to manufacture potions endlessly. What did this mean?

A mage apothecary would seldom use other magics throughout their entire life. In addition, these magics were all related to creating the potions. However, their proficiency with other magics, their magic power, and their spirit power were all top ranked compared to other mages. When attacking, they could activate the three great magics: Magic Explosion, Spirit Fission, and Body Disintegration.

In reality, if someone ceaselessly activated Magic Spring at a person, the person’s internal magic power would increase to extreme levels, and then explode. This was Magic Explosion. Similarly, if one’s spirit power rose to levels that were too high, their spirit would undergo fission and split apart, and they’d become crippled. Naturally, that meant the Body Disintegration was when one’s physical power exploded, leading to ** organ failure.

However, such powerful existences were really too rare. Even a person that managed to master only one of these three great magics would probably have spent their whole life to do so. In addition, even if 100 people tried to learn them, there might not be a single person that ended up successful. As for learning all three great magics at the same time, this was something that had never been heard of before.

That’s why this class, although considered OP, had never produced any OP experts. It was only a theoretical existence. Unless three mage apothecaries worked together, there was no way for the three magics to appear at the same time. However…where was one supposed to find three mage apothecaries?

Fundamentally speaking, these three great magics were destined to be impossible to popularize. They consumed too much inner magic and spirit power, to the point where one would have to meditate for half a day in order to completely recover. As one’s strength increased, the time they were required to spend for recovery also grew longer. At such a rate, there could possibly come a day where one could only produce 2 bottles of potion per day! The other time would all be spent on meditating to recover.

But Suo Jia was different. With the help of the Atlantis set and his unique magic activation method, he had lowered the spell’s consumption rate by a substantial margin. That’s why he could definitely become an unprecedented potion farmer!

Potion farming was constant work. For example, one would make 5 bottles of Magic Potions, then 5 bottles of Spirit Potions, and finally 5 bottles of Endurance Potions. Afterwards, one bottle of each would be consumed to return one to their previous, completely recovered state, and then they’d begin making potions once more. This process was repeated continuously!

Actually, all mage apothecaries trained this way. However…they spent majority of the time using the potions they created to exchange them for other types of potions. For example, producing Magic Potions required the exchanging of Spirit Potions and Endurance Potions, while producing Spirit Potions required the exchanging for Magic Potions and Endurance Potions.

Suo Jia stayed in the room for the entire day. After using up a large amount of magic crystals, 30,000 bottles of various colored potions appeared in front of Suo Jia. The blue water elemental crystal powder had been condensed into Magic Potions, the yellow wind elemental crystal powder had been condensed into Spirit Potions, and the green earth elemental crystal powder had been condensed into Endurance Potions. Now that he had 30,000 bottles of potions, hehe…

Different potions had to be stored in different bottles. Magic Potions required water elemental magic, spirit potions required wind elemental magic, and Endurance Potions required earth elemental magic. As for Life Potions, they used fire elemental magic. The potion type could be distinguished after a single glance, which was precisely why potion effects could be maintained for eternity, and even slowly improve.

Suo Jia left the secret room to go ask Lan Ruo if she had any news. After learning that nothing had happened, Suo Jia quickly rushed back to the secret room once more to continue making potions. The first reason for doing so was because he had nothing else to do, and secondly…after spending all of yesterday making potions, Suo Jia had discovered that his magic and spirit powers had faintly increased by a tiny bit. Although the feeling was hazy, Suo Jia was sure that it wasn’t an illusion.

As expected, after another day had passed, there were already 70,000 potions sitting in front of Suo Jia. At the same time, Suo Jia could now clearly sense that his magic power had increased by an increment! It had gone up by about 3%. Such an improvement rate was a bit too extreme, right?

In order to confirm that it wasn’t an illusion, Suo Jia left the White Villa and headed towards Holy Light City’s class union. There… he would be able to confirm his qualifications as a mage, as well as take tests that measured his magic power, spirit power, physical power, and even the formidability of his magic!