Close Combat Mage
chapter-311

Suo Jia faced the slowly nearing Crimson Bears and slightly pushed off the ground with his feet, his body suddenly leaping into the air. He stretched his right hand and instantly sent out an Ice Roar devastating the pack of bears. Hundreds of ice blades whizzed through the pack, cutting everything as they flew around.

The Crimson Bears didn’t really care about the cuts inflicted by the hundreds of ice blades. They began to gather around Suo Jia, attempting to launch an attack on him. Unfortunately, Suo Jia was floating mid-air, so it was impossible to touch him.

While mid-air, Suo Jia kept changing its position, trying to gather the 30 Crimson Bears into one giant group. Only by doing this could Suo Jia could use Ice Roar to affect all the Crimson Bears at once.

A magician was quite frightening. Their strength lay within their formidable magical power, especially during an AoE attack, like Ice Roar. With Suo Jia’s current strength, he could casually cast Ice Roar within a perimeter of 10 meters in diameter, forming a Frostsaber Purgatory. A single Ice Roar was sufficient to release hundreds of ice blades, enough to go up against a hundreds of attacks from a same level thief!

The pale-blue-colored ice blades spun around, incessantly cutting into the Crimson Bears. Each time the ice blade made contact with a bear’s body, there would be a burst of glittering blue light as large groups of ice blades wildly whirled around. The energy shields around the Crimson Bears grew thinner and thinner.

Finally, after Suo Jia had activated the ninth Ice Roar, all of the bears’ energy shields simultaneously vanished. Having lost their energy shields, while these magic beasts were extremely tough, they couldn’t possibly put up a resistance against Suo Jia’s magic attacks.

Suo Jia watched as all the ice blades penetrated the Crimson Bears’ bodies. Stream after stream of scarlet blood flew out of these bodies, and the bears instantly turned into a true depiction of their name of ‘blood-colored bears’!

Suo Jia lightly stamped his right foot, and his body twisted in strange ways back to the top of the war chariot. Seeing the pile of bear corpses strewn across a 20 meter radius, Suo Jia couldn’t help but smile confidently. In terms of ability to kill groups of magical beasts, neither Xiang Yun or Roger could ever compare to Suo Jia!

“Papapa….” A crisp sound of applause rang from behind Suo Jia. He turned around in surprise, only to see Nicole, Roger, and Xiang Yun having gathered around the chariot door at some point, and currently looking at him in admiration.

Actually, there was no way they couldn’t have gone to see the Crimson Bears at least once after encountering so many. However, this single glance had allowed them to enjoy a good show for free. Suo Jia’s terrifying AoE attacks had completely shocked all three of them!

Xiang Yun looked at Suo Jin incredulously and shook his head as he sighed, “Is that magic? It’s really too mystical. To think that you could simultaneously attack 30 large bears…isn’t that too frightening, too unrivalled?”

“Tch…” Nicole curled her lip in disdain and said, “Of course. In reality, any occupation can be unrivalled, it just depends on how strong you are. For example, we treasure hunters cannot massacre enemies in batches like mages, but we have our own personal strength. If we really went against anyone, we wouldn’t fear them!”

“Mmm…” Roger nodded in agreement. “Nicole is right. Every occupation can be the most powerful. The crucial point is the person’s inner qualities. Captain is indeed formidable, but we’re also very powerful.”

Suo Jia smiled, and paid little mind to the three fellows’ debate behind him. Their words were clearly superfluous. Every occupation had a favorable scope for its abilities. Everyone had to come together and make up for each other’s weak points in order to create the strongest group.

Suo Jia thoughtfully looked at the piles of corpses in front of him and silently re-entered the chariot. The other three exchanged glances and then followed behind Suo Jia, entering the chariot behind him.

Suo Jia stretched out a hand and gestured at everyone to sit down. He then excitedly said, “Hey! I suddenly thought of an idea. Since those magical beasts were able to use magic shields after eating the Toughening Fruits, then what happens if humans eat it?”

Nicole firmly said, “I can answer that. In reality, the Toughening Fruits are one of the normal magical fruits. However, their effects depend on one’s physical strength. Mages and thieves are recommended not to eat them because their physical strength is so low that they can’t display the effects at all, making it too much of a waste.”

“Hmm?” Suo Jia looked at Nicole and asked in interest, “Don’t talk so in such a vague and generalized manner. What do you personally think?”

Nicole nodded and continued, “The effects of the Toughening Fruits are restricted by the physical body’s strength; the strength of the energy shield is directly proportional to one’s physical strength. If a mage ate the fruit, they wouldn’t have a very strong shield. However, if a warrior ate it, it would be an entirely different story. The energy shield would strengthen with their physical power, and make them even tougher!”

“Mmm…” Suo Jia nodded in disappointment, then turned around to say to Xiang Yun and Roger. “In that case, Nicole and I won’t be eating those things. However, you guys don’t need to hold back from eating some more.”

The eyes of Roger and Xiang Yun couldn’t help but brighten in excitement at these words. As they dreamed about using their own energy shields, Nicole said, “This idea is indeed not bad, but…although these Toughening Fruits are pretty normal, you can only eat one a week. In addition…more than a day cannot be allowed to pass between the point of harvest and consumption. Otherwise, the effects will be instantly lost.”

“That…” Suo Jia, Roger, and Xiang Yun couldn’t help but wear bitter expressions of disappointment on their faces.

Nicole laughed at their faces and said, “That’s why, although Toughening Fruits aren’t rare, eating a couple requires luck. In addition…because of its time restrictions, the value of these fruits aren’t very low either. Rank 1 fruits require 1000 Trade Route coins! Rank 2 require 5000, Rank 3 require 10,000, and those above Rank 3 don’t have any set amounts, just depends on pure luck.”

Suo Jia nodded in understanding and fiercely waved a hand as he loudly declared, “Alright. Although we don’t understand these fruits too well, the residents definitely do. We should hurry up and advance to the next city as quickly as possible. I believe that there will definitely be somewhere where we will be able to find out the effects of these Toughening Fruits.”

With a little motivation, everyone’s spirits had instantly soared. After rushing through three roads, they finally reached outside a relay station, Greater Trade Routes’ first village—Enchanting Village.

Enchanting Village wasn’t very large, with only about 400 residents. It was a typical hunting village. The village residents made a living off hunting; the surrounding forests had countless magical beasts as their hunting targets.

Suo Jia’s party smoothly entered the village. However, what they found strange was that upon their arrival, not only did nobody come speak to them, but rather, everyone hid. One by one, doors and windows were closed; they even ignored knocks on the doors.

Nicole couldn’t help but sigh and dejectedly speak, “These are all indigenous people from the Greater Trade Routes villages. They definitely don’t have good impressions of adventurers. Wanting to conduct a business transaction with them will be extremely difficult. I wanted to hurry up and earn their trust, but this is clearly an incompletable task, which was precisely why the merchant groups didn’t want us to come here.”

“Damn…” Suo Jia couldn’t help but feel dizzy at Nicole’s words. Those entering under the status of a merchant had to earn the trust of the indigenous people. They had to complete at least 10 transactions at every checkpoint, and receive over 10 village trustee documents in order to pass.

Suo Jia furrowed his brows and pondered it for a bit. Back then, the reason they’d chosen to enter as a merchant group was firstly because the merchant groups encompassed all the other identities’ merits without the faults. Secondly, it was because Suo Jia was very confident in his commerce abilities. Moreover, he enjoyed this line of work.

After thinking it over for a bit, Suo Jia suddenly clapped his hands and took out the large pouch containing Trade Route coins from his interspatial ring. He flipped the pouch upside down, causing the 100,000+ Trade Route coins to fall on the limestone path at his feet. He then loudly yelled, “To all the fellow villages, please don’t be afraid, We are merchants, and have come to acquire some special local products. Please, relax, we have no ill intentions!”

After seeing Suo Jia loudly shouting, and then looking back at the pile of money at Suo Jia’s feet, Nicole and the others immediately understood. Suo Jia’s actions were based on profits. He was using money to draw the residents out. As long as someone was willing to take the lead and come out first, the following matters would logically complete themselves as well.