Close Combat Mage
chapter-291

Chapter 291 – Establishing a Team Leader Pt. 1

During the following few days, Suo Jia stayed locked up in his room adding the finishing touches to the Dragon Boots and War Dragon Legguards. Using alchemy, he engraved magic spell arrays into the equipment so that they shadowed and linked to each other, forming a small Epic ranked equipment set.

The reason Suo Jia did it personally was because he had grasped auxiliary magics that nobody else knew. He carved out the magic arrays for Berserk Impact. With its boost, the impact force of Roger’s legs was increased by twofold!

As for the War Dragon Legguards, Suo Jia had engraved the Acceleration Drive spell array onto them. This magic was originally meant to boost magic activation speed, but after being engraved onto the legguards, the speed of Roger’s legs were increased instead.

It could be said that just based on these two factors alone, Roger’s leg speed and force would be doubled after wearing the equipment. This was already equivalent to a Legendary ranked equipment. But Suo Jia wasn’t satisfied with just that.

Roger was a wind attributed warrior, an expert in the wind elemental battle qi. Thus, Suo Jia also carved the Tornado Wind magic array onto the legguards. The centripetal speed of the legs were its fastest state. Engraving this array was equivalent to Roger having mastered the Tornado Wind magic. Using this, Roger’s attack power would definitely increase exponentially!

As for the Dragon Boots, Suo Jia had also added extra features as well. He’d carved the Shattering Strike formation, which was actually an ultimate battle skill that berserkers used. When activated by an Advanced Berserker, it could smash even iron into smithereens.

Finally, after completing the last adjustment, Suo Jia presented the two perfect magic equipments to Roger. Seeing the black and gold equipments, Roger excitedly grabbed them and returned to his room to change into them.

Soon afterwards, Roger walked over with a sullen expression and weakly said to Suo Jia, “Please, Boss, can you change the trousers to black? I don’t like yellow!”

“Eh…” After blanking standing there for a moment, Suo Jia silently reached out to grab the trousers and after some adjustments, dyed them black. Under the sun’s rays, the pitch-black trousers seemed to glow.

Roger excitedly snatched them away and went back to change once more. Not long after, Roger complacently walked out wearing the black trousers and the glinting black combat boots on his feet.

“Wow!” Suo Jia, Xiang Yun, and Nicole couldn’t help but cry out at Roger’s clothes. After looking Roger up and down, Xiang Yun sighed in admiration, “I didn’t realize before that your legs were actually so long! They’re completely disproportional to your body!”

“Hehe…” Roger smugly smiled and arrogantly declared, “Everyone in my family has long legs. How about it? Am I good-looking enough?”

“Tch…” Nicole said in disdain, “You’re not even a girl, yet you get so conceited over long legs? Long-legged beauties are distinguished, but long-legged men…just sounds strange.”

Roger immediately frowned as he said in a low voice, “A girl like you just doesn’t understand how to appreciate things. Long-legged men and long-legged women are equally charming!”

Nicole surveyed Roger and then shook her head. “Why don’t I feel anything? In my eyes, you’re just like a long-legged partridge, not good-looking at all!”

Nicole tilted her head and looked at Roger’s trousers. “However, your pants are quite stylish. They’re both black and glossy; they definitely give off a cool feel.”

“Hmph!” Roger coldy snorted, ignoring Nicole. At this time, Xiang Yun’s voice rang out lowly, “Alright, Roger, now that your equipment has been repaired, why don’t we fight another round?”

“Huhu…” Sharply scissor-kicking the air, Roger confidently replied, “If you want to come at me, go ahead. I’ll accompany you whenever you’d like!”

Xiang Yun nodded and turned around to look at Nicole and Suo Jia. “If we go a bit further ahead, we should be entering the Greater Trade Routes. Before that, should we elect a leader? Otherwise, a pack of dragons without a leader will be completely lacking in cohesion and teamwork. We won’t be able to gather any of our fighting strength!”

“Hm?” Nicole stared at Xiang Yun in confusion and said, “Does that still need an election? The boss is naturally Suo Jia, right, Roger?”

Roger nodded without any hesitation, “Of course. I’ve never served anyone but Young Master Suo Jia. He’s also the only person I’ll ever call Boss in my lifetime.”

Suo Jia couldn’t help but furrow his brows at this discussion. He knew that although he and Xiang Yun had already been acquainted for a while, Xiang Yun clearly didn’t obey him. This couldn’t be blamed on Xiang Yun though…after all, Suo Jia hadn’t shown any of his ability. On what basis was Xiang Yun supposed to be convinced on?

Of course, Suo Jia could adopt some kind of election method, where the lesser one complies to the greater one. If one wasn’t pleased with this, they could leave. However, Suo Jia didn’t really want to do this. Xiang Yun was a loyal and responsible hot-blooded man. If Suo Jia lost this kind of friend, he’d regret it for the rest of his life. That’s why, Xiang Yun was a companion that couldn’t be lost no matter what.

Suo Jia knew that the current Xiang Yun felt that only strength was enjoyable. Unless Suo Jia displayed enough strength to convince Xiang Yun, there was no way Xiang Yun would willingly obey Suo Jia.

Suo Jia knew of Xiang Yun’s past. Although not flourishing anymore, Xiang Yun had originally been the son of some leader. How could he easily concede to being another’s subordinate? He wholeheartedly aimed to become the world’s strongest warrior!

Suo Jia raised his head to keep Nicole and Roger in check. He then looked at Xiang Yun seriously and said, “Your words are indeed reasonable. We do need to elect a leader, someone that has everyone’s trust. This is the only way we can form a strong group and display everyone’s true mights!”

Suo Jia paused for a bit before continuing, “Right now, I’d like to hear your opinions on how exactly we should elect the boss.”

“Clang!” With a fierce clang, Xiang Yun unsheathed the Chasm Moon Blade on his back. He pointed the tip towards the ground as he declared “We’re all warriors. If we want to gain others’ trust, we must naturally select the best through fights. The saying that warriors are seniors should be a universally understood principle!”

Suo Jia nodded with a smile and firmly replied, “Very good. I also agree with your method. However, there’s one part I don’t quite agree with.”

“Oh? What part?” Xiang Yun asked curiously.

Suo Jia levelly looked at Xiang Yun and said, “Although you’re right in saying warriors are the seniors, that situation doesn’t apply here. We’re all friends, brothers. No matter who’s strong or who’s weak, we’re all equal. The only person we need to choose is someone that’s responsible and can take charge of matters. Although they’re called Boss, everyone’s actually independent, equal, and as close as brothers!”

“Hey!” Nicole retorted, “Aren’t you being a bit sexist! Don’t sisters count?”

“That…” Suo Jia awkwardly rubbed his head and chuckled, “Girls can also be brothers. Hehe…if you really insist, then I guess I can say as close as brothers and sisters. That should be fine, right?”

Nicole nodded in satisfaction and stated, “Yea. This was a first offense so I won’t look into it. In the future, you can’t forget to include us girls in your words!”

Suo Jia sweatdropped and rubbed his head as he hurriedly returned to the original topic, “In reality, anyone can be this Boss figure. It’s just dividing the work up differently. However…since you suggested using martial power to resolve this, let me ask you: If new members join the group later, do we need to re-compete every single time to choose the strongest person as Boss?”

“That…” Xiang Yun couldn’t help but stutter for a bit. That’s right…did that mean every time a new comrade joined, they’d have a contest to see who was the strongest to become the new Boss? That seemed a bit too strange.

Seeing Xiang Yun’s frown, Suo Jia continued, “You should know that if the leader of a group isn’t stable, internal conflicts will arise. Putting aside the possibility of the group being unable to display its true strength, there’s a chance that the group can’t even hold!”

“Yea…” Furiously nodding, Xiang Yun said with an experienced tone, “That’s right. My hometown was just like that. Every time the Emperor was replaced, there would be a huge turmoil. Thus, many dynasties ended up collapsing like that.”

“Mhmm…” Suo Jia nodded with certainty and firmly added, “Who becomes the Boss isn’t the problem. But once they’re chosen, the position cannot be changed, no matter how powerful future experts that join may be. Once the Boss is elected, we must all unconditionally obey him. Do you agree with this?”