Close Combat Mage
chapter-21

Chapter 21 – Having Strength But Not Time

Looking at Suo Jia’s weak expression, the girl wearing red clothes began to blush, and awkwardly said, “I understand; if I gave you ten gold everyday that would really be too little. However, we really cannot spend any more!”

With an uncomfortable expression, Suo Jia said with a wry smile, “When it comes to money, even if it was 10 gold coins per moisture instead of 10 gold coins per day, it would still be too little! The usual price is actually 100 gold coins for each Moisture Technique!”

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, the girl’s pretty face shook once, completely red in shame. Indeed… it was not that she did not know the actual prices, but even though they were all dual element talented girls, putting that aside their parents were actually all quite ordinary, not rich at all.

Seeing the girl’s embarrassed expression, Suo Jia replied calmly, “One of the reasons I set up this tent is indeed to make some money, but even more so it is to thank the divine God for his blessings. If it was purely for money, there is no way I would do something like this, at least not for a single piece of gold!”

Suo Jia’s words made her feel even more bashful. Ten pieces of gold each day really was an incomprehensible price, even to the point where even if Suo Jia changed his price right now to ten gold coins for everyone, there would still be many people lining up.

Although it was extremely embarrassing, for her future’s sake, she had to earnestly ask Suo Jia. “We really do understand that this amount of money is too little. However, this amount has been saved from our own lunch money funds; we have no means of getting any more.”

Pausing for a moment, the girl said in distress, “Wind and fire dual element warriors are very powerful, however they can only be females. The wind attribute allows the fire element to become more vigorous while at the same time… our skin is continuously ravaged. If you don’t help us, then we will be done for. In the future, although we can become the strongest warriors, at the same time we are bound to forever hide in our robes, not daring to show our true faces in front of others.”

Shaking his head with a sigh, Suo Jia knew that there were only two types of people that wrapped themselves in cloaks for the rest of their lives in this world: Necromancers and fire-wind dual element warriors!

Necromancers’ cloaks are gray, and fire-wind dual element warriors’ cloaks are red, with gold decorative designs on them. Even though it appears beautiful and mysterious, in reality if it wasn’t for the fact that they refused to face others, no girl would ever be able to bear hiding her own beauty.

Perhaps to a male, appearances definitely do not matter. Even if his skin is a bit rougher, he would not really pay much mind to it. Perhaps it would even make him seem a bit manlier.

However to a female, appearances are her second life. To a female, not having a beautiful appearance is a complete disaster. Especially for females, being covered from head to toe with scarlet red cracks deep in their skin is even more frightening than a ghost.

Currently, the strength of the red clad girl and her group of sisters have already entered a pretty high realm. Thus, the results of the ravaging winds and fires on their skin can already clearly be seen.

Under the devastation caused by the fire-wind dual elements, the dual element warriors that have finally become partners with their elements have skin that deteriorates ten times faster than that of a normal person’s, especially for those at the ages of 20-30. While gradually moving towards their peak strengths, their skin deteriorates to extreme limits. 30 year-old dual element warriors have creases throughout their whole bodies, and their faces are covered in deep gouges. Going by their appearances, they do not look any different from 100 year-old grannies.

Right now, after the world war has ended, the newest generation of dual element warriors such as the red clad girl and her fellow sisters are only around 18 years old. Even though they already have fixed strength, they have not yet reached their peak growth periods. Despite this, their skin has already started to form spider web thin cracks. If they continue at this rate, creases and cracks will begin to appear in quick succession soon.

Looking at the red clad girl from a distance, you would think that she is extremely beautiful. However once you get slightly closer to her, you would not dare to look at her face.

Under the attacks of fire and wind, the warm color of the girl’s oval shaped face was covered with small red lines, both dazzling and sparkling. Suo Jia knew that these lines would eventually become wrinkles, later on cracking open to reveal the tender flesh underneath. Once that time arrives, they will have to hide within their cloaks forever!

Historically, fire-wind dual element warriors have low assessments; their tempers were impatient and explosive, and the slightest offense aggravates them into killing people. In reality, this is directly related to the fact that they have to damage their appearances. For a girl as delicate as a flower and as precious as jade, seeing her sweet and charming appearance becoming creased and cracked bit by bit causes her to build up feelings of resentment. How can an ordinary person imagine this!

While thinking, Suo Jia sighed deeply. Seeing this, the red clad girl’s heart raced. She knew that Suo Jia’s decision would affect the second lives of all 35 of them. To them, their second lives were even more precious than their first!

Swallowing her saliva with difficulty, the girl said earnestly: “I know that the money we are giving you is too little, however we don’t have any money. You should also know that the school gives us 1 gold as lunch money to us fire-wind warriors. Between the 35 of us, if we each save 30 silver every day, then we can only gather together about 10 gold. We also want to squeeze out a bit more, but if we don’t eat our meals, there is no way we’d have enough energy to complete our frequent training!”

“Ai…” Sighing, Suo Jia helplessly looked at the red clad girl and replied: “I sympathize with your situation, however my own situation is not any better than yours. My mother and I live in a dark and damp room not even 20 square meters large, and my mother is also ill!”

Speaking up to that point, Suo Jia lifted his head and helplessly said: “I also really want to help you girls, but I need to attend classes. My time after school lets out is very limited and… a heart that takes pity on others will not help bring food to the table.”

Disappointed, the red clad girl’s eyes began to redden. She knew that her request was too naive. In this world, nobody has an easy life. Anyone could feel pity on others, but feelings of pity could not help bring food to the table. At times where Suo Jia could not even properly care for himself, he did not have the power to pity them.

Disappointingly handing over a gold coin, the red clad girl dejectedly walked out of the room. As soon as she left the tent, she was met directly with 35 pairs of awaiting eyes. Looking at her gathered sisters, the red clad girl sorrowfully shook her head.

Even though they didn’t have high hopes in the first place, after confirming that Suo Jia had not agreed, all the girls were unable to accept it. If their hopes had just never existed, then perhaps they would have been able to accept their fates. However when their hopes were right in front of them and yet they could only watch their wishes disappear in front of them, that type of disappointed feeling was really deadly!

During the next few minutes, Suo Jia was met with individual pleads over and over again, with all 35 of the girls rotating through to attempt again and again. However Suo Jia was powerless; it wasn’t that he didn’t want to help them but… he had to first solve his own problems before he could help solve theirs.

It is said that ‘poor people rely on their good virtue and their hard work, to surpass the world’s restrictions ’, but the current Suo Jia couldn’t afford to take pity on other people. He had to guarantee that the life of both mother and son could be sustained, so Suo Jia absolutely couldn’t act out of only kindness. The amount of unfortunate people were, after all, countless in this world. Suo Jia wasn’t unwilling to help, but he could only help as far as his capabilities could extend, and the request of the red clad girl already exceeded his current capabilities.

Suo Jia used his school hours every day to gain new knowledge about magic. After school ended, apart from practicing the Moisture Technique, Suo Jia would spend more time on experimenting and theorizing, trying to figure out the mysterious meanings of the water element.

Of course, taking away a bit of time every day to help the 35 girls moisturize their skin did not waste that much time. However, Suo Jia understood clearly that the most important thing was that once he helped these girls, how many times per year would he have to do it in the future? He would be unable to leave this burden, and the salary was too little. Suo Jia was unable to help care for them for the rest of their lives just from feelings of pity. Imagine, who would be willing to serve 35 people every day for decades practically for free? Pitying was fine, but one must act according to one’s means!