Close Combat Mage
chapter-300

Seeing the densely packed group of green-furred mice, the three men standing at the peak of the hill couldn’t help but feel goosebumps rise on their skins. Although they weren’t like girls that were more innately terrified of such things, the number of creatures below them was simply too many. There was absolutely no person that could possibly remain indifferent after seeing such a sight.

“Pshew, pshew, pshew…” The three of them watched as that group of green-furred mice continued chasing behind Nicole without stopping. As they gave chase, they shot out green needles that flew towards Nicole like arrows.

After Suo Jia had run closer, he immediately raised his guard to inspect the scene closely. Although these green-furred mice weren’t large in size, about the size of a housecat, the needles they shot out could actually pierce through rock! This…

A typical archer definitely wouldn’t be able to shoot an arrow through rock. However, these green-furred mice could easily do so with their needles. Most importantly, these needles had a terrifying shooting range of around 50m. If Nicole’s speed wasn’t fast enough, she would’ve been shot into a porcupine ages ago.

“No!” Suo Jia shouted loudly, not daring to tarry. He quickly summoned the Diamond Dragon. At the moment, only it could disregard these green mice. If anyone else tried to go up, they wouldn’t possibly be able to block the thousands of collective attacks!

Having understood Suo Jia’s intent, the previously napping little creature lifted its head to yawn once. With Suo Jia’s prompting, it quickly condensed its Glacial Armor layer by layer. A few seconds after, a tall and sturdy Diamond Dragon with thick Glacial Armor appeared on the mountain peak.

The Diamond Dragon’s intelligence had already surpassed that of a 7-year-old child. At the moment, its IQ was near that of a 10-year-old. When it saw Nicole’s state, it immediately flew into the sky without any urging from Suo Jia. When it landed, it stood directly behind Nicole, blocking those green-furred mice from their advances.

The Diamond Dragon faced the green-furred mice rushing over like a river, and opened its large mouth in disdain, completely ignoring the green needles coming towards it. It lowered its head, and a white, hazy cold air instantly flowed towards the group of mice. Wherever it passed through, green-furred mice would be shrunken into a bunch of ice cubes before they could even realize what had happened.

However, the Diamond Dragon was alone, after all. There were just too many green-furred mice. In the blink of an eye, the surface of the Diamond Dragon’s huge body was completely covered in green needles. In a mere moment, the Diamond Dragon looked like it had grown a short layer of green fur.

However, the Diamond Dragon didn’t pay any mind to this kind of attack. With the protection of the Glacial Armor over a meter thick, the Diamond Dragon wasn’t at all afraid of long-ranged attacks. Unless this meter-thick, beyond sturdy Glacial Armor was punctured, the Diamond Dragon wouldn’t even be able to feel any type of long-ranged attack.

At the sight of the green-furred mice rushing over like a tide, Suo Jia didn’t dare to tarry. With a lift of his right hand, he instantly activated an Ice Roar to work together with the Diamond Dragon and clear out the green-furred mice crawling all along the hillside.

Fortunately, Nicole hadn’t alarmed that many of the mice, only those within a perimeter of 100 square meters. With the combination attacks of Suo Jia and the Diamond Dragon, the mice were soon completely wiped out.

As Suo Jia looked at the green-furred mice that now filled the ground, he let out the breath he had been holding and wiped away the sweat on his forehead as he said, “Heavens! What are these things? There are so many of them, and they can even shoot out such sharp needles. This is too frightening!”

Roger and Xiang Yun shook their heads, their complexions ashen. They understood well that if it had been them that had gone out, they definitely wouldn’t have been able to hold these guys back. One couldn’t just underestimate them because of their small size…each of them was the equivalent of an advanced archer. This group of green-furred mice could at the very least go against thousands of high-level archers!

When they looked down the hill, all that filled their range of vision from the bottom of their feet all the way to the boundless distance were these green-furred mice. It was a really horrifying sight.

Suo Jia could tell from Roger’s and Xiang Yun’s blank expressions that asking them about this matter would be like asking a blind person; the only one that really knew what had happened was Nicole. With this, Suo Jia shifted his gaze over to her.

Nicole patted her chest, still in a panicked state as she said, “This should be the lowest level magical beast on the Greater Trade Routes…Thorn Mice! God…I’ve only read about these in books before. I hadn’t imagined that there would actually be so many of them!”

“Thorn Mice?” The three males furrowed their brows, glancing over questioningly at Nicole.

Nicole nodded, still frightened as she gripped her chest to reply, “That’s right, these should be Thorn Mice, a creature distinctive to the Greater Trade Routes. They can release paralyzing needles. Once pierced by one of these, you will enter a state of paralysis. If you’ve been struck by too many, your body’s abilities will be completely destroyed, and you will never be able to recover from this paralyzed state!”

“Heavens!” The three guys couldn’t help but gasp at Nicole’s words. What was that? This was only the lowest level magical beast on the Greater Trade Routes, yet it was already this terrifying. That ridiculous amount in particular was enough to make anyone stupefied.

Nicole continued, “These Thorn Mice have amazing reproductive abilities. In around three months, they are able to give birth to a bunch of offspring; one nest normally has around 10 mice. After just two months, they can mature into adults. Their superior reproductive abilities make it impossible to eliminate them. The more you kill, the more appear. This is the first checkpoint at the Greater Trade Routes!”

Suo Jia blankly looked at the seemingly boundless plains and murmured, “Heavens, can anyone tell me exactly how many Thorn Mice are here? This is clearly impossible to pass!”

Nicole’s face was ashen as she nodded and bitterly said, “As a conservative estimate, there are over 100 million Thorn Mice gathered here. After factoring in their reproductive abilities, it’s impossible for us to finish wiping them all out, even if we continue in our next lives!”

“Mmm…” Suo Jia nodded, deep in thought as he said, “That’s right. Under current circumstances, we would need some dozen extremely powerful Magisters present to clear the way with long-ranged magics, and then use extremely fast movements to rush over before the Thorn Mice regather together. Otherwise, this is certain death!”

Everyone fell silent at Suo Jia’s words. It was very clear to see that Suo Jia reached this requirement, but just relying on him alone was definitely impossible. Even if Suo Jia could kill the Thorn Mice in front of them and successfully open a path, who would be responsible for the Thorn Mice coming to surround them from the left, right, and back? The sky would be filled with piercing rain. It was possible that everyone would be killed in their spots as soon as they tried to leave the hill.

After a long period of silence, Xiang Yun turned around to say to Nicole, “That can’t be right. If this place was really so ruthless, how do other groups pass through? Don’t tell me…all the other groups have so many Advanced Mages?”

Nicole shook her head and solemnly replied, “Under typical circumstances, there definitely wouldn’t be so many Thorn Mice. According to the records, there should only be a few thousands of Thorn Mice gathered here at most. But judging from our current situation, it looks like some mouse plague!”

Everyone present almost fell over at Nicole’s words. Mouse plague was a type of natural disaster that would inevitably occur every several years. This didn’t just include mice, locusts, ants, etc would all similarly break out.

Typically, locusts were always present, but their numbers weren’t very high. But with a plague, the number of locusts would be extreme. When they flew, they would cover the entire sky. From a distance, they’d look like a black cloud.

When everyone looked at the densely packed Thorn Mice covering the plains, they agreed with Nicole’s guess. The mouse plague was the only possible explanation. If this was actually a typical situation, then nobody would ever be able to even dream of entering.

“Thump, thump, thump…” As everyone’s spirits fell, the deep sound of footsteps came from the bottom of the hill. All four people turned around towards the direction of the sound in shock; the Diamond Dragon had returned.

When he looked at the Diamond Dragon covered in thick Glacial Armor, Roger sighed in envy, “***, that Great Frost Wyrm is really awesome. If each of us had a Glacial Armor like that, we’d be able to charge through without restraint.”

“Glacial Armor?” An idea suddenly flashed through Suo Jia’s mind. He seemed to have thought of something, but when he pondered it more closely, the idea disappeared again. Exactly what kind of method was it?