Close Combat Mage
chapter-171

Chapter 171 – Arduous Training Pt. 1

The girls didn’t dare hold back against each other. Their levels of understanding towards each other were unlike any others’. They had always trained together since they were 8 years old. During the last 2-3 years, they had been together day and night. They knew as much about each other as they knew themselves.

If they were faced against other people, perhaps they would brazenly keep their cloaks on while battling. However, faced against each other, where there was little difference between their strengths, they didn’t dare to keep their cloaks on. Wearing the cloaks barely affected them, but in this situation, the slightest bit of difference could determine the outcome of the battle!

Finally, the two girls slowly removed their cloaks under everyone’s gazes. Immediately…two bright glows shone in the center of the arena. When the audience saw the two human-shaped glows, they were instantly shocked!

“That…what is that?” The headmaster stood up in astonishment as he stared at the two figures in disbelief.

Suo Jia glanced at the headmaster while shaking his head with a bitter smile. He knew…that an entire set of Legendary ranked equipment was indeed extremely terrifying. Moreover, two complete sets had just appeared at the same time!

Most importantly, these two Legendary ranked equipment sets were glittering. Although all magic equipments Legendary-ranked and above glowed in some way…it was normally a faint, hazy light. It was definitely not like the eye-piercing, bright glow that these sets had.

A linkage was necessary for the equipment to light up like this. The two sets had linked closely together, which was why they glowed so intensely. Moreover, the glows covered the girls from head to toe. It was evident that they did not only have Legendary ranked equipment, but a completely linked Legendary equipment set!

Dumbfounded, the headmaster said to Suo Jia incredulously, “That isn’t possible. How exactly did you do that? This is the first time I ever heard that Legendary-ranked equipment sets can form links!”

Suo Jia merely smiled in reply as he continued to gaze at the girls. Those two equipment sets had used up an entire year of Suo Jia’s income. This also included the hundreds of thousands of riches that the Angels groups had earned!

Indeed, going by typical methods, it was impossible to collect an entirely linked equipment set. However, Suo Jia had used his great wealth to achieve it; moreover, he had compiled two completely linked sets! Historically, these two sets were the only Legendary ranked equipment sets that had ever been completely linked!

Suo Jia’s method was extremely simple. No matter who it was, as long as they had a water elemental Legendary ranked equipment, it would be exchanged at the White Villa for two things. Faced with such benefits, nobody could possibly reject the offer. One piece of equipment could be exchanged for two; this kind of offer was something that even idiots wouldn’t refuse.

Thus, during the past 6 months, Suo Jia had gathered a total of over 2000 pieces of water elemental Legendary ranked equipment. This number already far surpassed the total number of Legendary ranked equipment within Holy Light Empire by around four times. It could be seen that this movement had shaken the entire world!

Of course, Suo Jia alone didn’t have that great of an ability, nor did he have much credibility. Only after paying a large amount of promised fees and costs did Suo Jia earn the Adventure Union’s protection, which allowed him to go through with this operation.

From amidst the 2000 pieces of Legendary ranked equipment, Suo Jia chose out 2 sets that were comprised of 40 interlinked pieces of Legendary ranked equipment. Not only were they linked, they were also extremely compatible with each other. This formed the most well fitted, most powerful linkages! Swapping around and pairing two equipment set pieces for all possible combinations had taken 3 months’ time. After all 2000+ Legendary equipment sets had been assembled appropriately, the completely linked Legendary equipment sets had appeared.

Everyone knew that Legendary ranked magic equipments were 20% or more powerful than Epic ranked equipments in terms of boosting effects. Now that completely linked sets had appeared, these effects had exponentially increased even further. In terms of might, it had already surpassed Epic ranked equipments by around 50%-60%. The only thing that it was lacking was the ability to aid advancing in training, which was inferior to an Epic ranked equipment’s ability by 50%.

However, that was the only thing. These two equipment sets could already be on par with the Atlantis set. Their total power was both 200. The difference was that the Legendary ranked equipment set had 150 in magic formidability, and 50 in accelerating training, while Epic ranked equipment had 100 in magic formidability, and 100 is accelerating training. Which one was better or worse couldn’t exactly be judged.

While everyone was thinking this, the two girls had already begun fighting. Under everyone’s gazes, both parties began to fiercely burst out attacks at each other. Ice Arrow, World of Ice and Snow, Rainstorm, Water Arrow…various types of magics whizzed back and forth between the two people, exploding around each other. At that moment, it was completely impossible to differentiate the outcome of the battle.

These basic magics weren’t the only things flying about. After their equipments had linked completely, the two girls’ magic hadn’t only become more formidable, but their activation speeds had also increased. More importantly, the linking granted them the ability to activate large-scale AOE magic attacks that were beyond powerful! The audience could only dumbly watch the scene in front of them.

“Ai…” Suo Jia sighed and shook his head as he watched the two girls blast attacks at each other. Originally…he had thought that the outcome would’ve been able to be determined by this point. However, he hadn’t imagined that there still wouldn’t be a difference to be seen, and that the result would remain unknown. If a clear outcome wanted to be known, both sides would have to suffer in the end!

If Suo Jia could see this, the headmaster and referee could obviously tell as well. No matter how formidable Suo Jia was, he was still, after all, very young. How could the 80 some year old headmaster and the 60 some year old referee be any inferior? In terms of experience and knowledge alone, Suo Jia was still very lacking.

“Dong!” A loud sound of a bell rang out, and the two girls unwillingly stopped. This was a rule of the tournament; once the bell rang, any that dared to continue moving would immediately be stripped of their qualifications to participate in the competition, and must forfeit the match! That’s why nobody dared to violate the rules. Once they lost the competition, they’d essentially be losing a noble rank. Who dared to risk such a thing?

Seeing the two girls stop, the referee tilted his head, and then said a few words to the headmaster. Afterwards…the referee gravely turned around and declared the outcome of the battle as….a tie! Neither of the girls needed to lose their a noble rank, nor would they gain one.

Aimi and Aila could only bitterly smile at each other at this result as they helplessly exchanged glances. They knew that although in terms of skills, the two had some faint differences, with respect to this competition alone, Aila undoubtedly predominated. An ice mage was more suitable for single-elimination open tournaments like these, while water mages were more suited for group battles!

However, after the appearance of two completely linked Legendary ranked equipment sets, there was absolutely no way of determining who was stronger. Their abilities were still unable to allow them to break through the defenses of the completely linked Legendary equipment. Continuing to blast attacks at each other would be meaningless.

Of course, people could say that in such a case, they could just remove their equipments and fight. However, this clashed with Suo Jia’s opinion. To him, a person’s strength didn’t rely on just their physical body. True strength depended on a person’s original strength with the addition of the might of magic equipment and one’s ability to utilize it.

This is like comparing two miners. You cannot ask both parties to throw away their picks and fight with their bare fists. Although it may be fair, the outcome wouldn’t be reliant on the two people’s true strengths!

Actually, Suo Jia wasn’t the only one who thought that way. The academy, as well as the entire world, thought the same. When two people were dueling, prohibiting magic equipment was pointless. As long as one side could kill the opponent, they could use whatever they wanted. In the first place, magic equipment was a factor in one’s strength.

Perhaps people would look down on Suo Jia, since he had some stupid money that just served to show off that he was a hedonistic son of rich parents. If he was stripped of his money, his formidability might cease to exist.

However, Suo Jia completely ignored such discussions. These magic equipments weren’t things that he just picked up. For the sake of exchanging several equipments, Suo Jia had used up a whole year’s worth of his income to obtain the pieces of those two Legendary ranked equipment sets. Such great investments would naturally give back rewards. Good tools were the prerequisite to the successful execution of a job, after all.

Although Suo Jia was not satisfied with the outcome of the competition, he didn’t really want the girls to keep going until a victor emerged. Sometimes, being locked at a stalemate would motivate the two girls’ fighting spirits, and make them more determined to surpass each other’s targets. This would make them work even harder.