Close Combat Mage
chapter-317

Chapter 317 – Powerful Talent Pt. 2

Spirit’s Eye was a type of internal system magic. Due it being a practical-type magic, it was a magic that could never be lost even after a calamity, especially on the Greater Trade Routes. Moreover, it had become an essential magic to everyone.

Even though Spirit’s Eye was a vision type magic, it actually wasn’t something that only mages could activate. A person of any occupation could use it. With the Spirit’s Eye, one could determine the intensity of energy.

Of course, the Spirit’s Eye had a limit as well. An amateur couldn’t possibly see through an expert’s strength with it.On the other hand, an expert’s ability to see through the amateur was guaranteed. Although everyone knew the Spirit’s Eye, the limits to their observation depended on their levels of strength.

With the elder’s patient explanations, Suo Jia soon understood the secret mysteries of the Spirit’s Eye. With some special mantras and methods, one could definitely observe someone with their own level of strength, and things weaker than them as well.

Based on the methods the elder mentioned, Suo Jia activated the Spirit’s Eye. Immediately…a bright ring of light appeared around the elder. At the same time, a strip of energy appeared on the elder’s right side.

The elder saw that Suo Jia had successfully activated Spirit’s Eye, and smiled. “Right now, you should be able to see my energy strip, right? Through the Spirit’s Eye, that energy strip can be one of ten different colors. From lowest to highest, the colors are: scarlet, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, black, white, and multicolored. Correspondingly, these are various color levels of experts.”

Here, the elder paused for a moment, before continuing, “Of course…this order isn’t absolute. There are many people with low defensive color levels, but possess extremely powerful battle power. However…although people with low color levels aren’t necessarily weak, those with high color levels are definitely very fierce characters. That’s why you must be very careful from now on. If you encounter someone with high color level, you must be cautious. This indicates that they possess extremely powerful body strength, practically inhuman!”

Suo Jia was shocked when he looked at the elder and saw that his energy strip was actually blue colored. It was no wonder these first residents on the Greater Trade Routes could live here. That powerful defensive shield alone was enough to exhaust the opposite party’s energy.

Suo Jia turned around and looked at the surrounding Toughening Fruit trees. This time, Suo Jia soon understood the differences between them. With the Spirit’s Eye, an energy strip appeared next to each tree. The colors were either scarlet, orange, or yellow. Just as the elder had said, Suo Jia was undoubtedly supposed to have chosen the scarlet fruit, as that was the rank 1 fruit.

Suo Jia looked at his own body. There was also an energy strip in front of him but…it was clear, without any color. This meant that…Suo Jia’s body had absolutely no defensive ability. Any random blade could penetrate straight through his body.

In reality, Suo Jia also knew that, without eating Toughening Fruits, the human body’s strength was terrifyingly weak. Even a warrior couldn’t possibly block any attack. It could be said that relying on the body alone meant that the human had no strength to speak of, and wasn’t even comparable to a wild beast. At the very least, wild beasts still had tough leather.

Suo Jia looked over the Diamond Dragon. Just like Suo Jia, the Diamond Dragon’s energy strip was also clear. It didn’t have any hint of defensive energy at all. Although the Diamond Dragon was widely known for its defense, it was clearly only able to rely on a defense of 10 heavy Glacial Armor layers at the moment. Once the Glacial Armor shattered, the Diamond Dragon would be like a mere lamb.

Suo Jia grabbed a glowing, scarlet Toughening Fruit into the Diamond Dragon’s mouth. After sensing the object, the dragon happily closed its eyes, and with a large gulp, swallowed it whole.

Suo Jia watched as the energy strip next to the Diamond Dragon was quickly permeated with a scarlet mist. At the same time, a red streak appeared at the bottom of the energy strip.

The elder looked at the Diamond Dragon with interest and praised, “This little pet isn’t bad. It has a very fast absorption ability. You must take note that only after this entire energy strip has been filled with red color will it be able to eat the next rank fruit. Otherwise, complications will arise.”

Suo Jia nodded gratefully, and tossed the other Toughening Fruit in his hand into his mouth. In that instant, the sweet juice quickly dripped down along his throat, and an indescribably refreshing feeling arose from the center of his body.

From the corners of his eyes, he looked at himself, and saw a red mist surge forth into the energy strip exposed by the Spirit’s Eye. Its movement was even more violent and extreme than the Diamond Dragon’s.

“Aiya!” The elder exclaimed in shock and praised, “Heavens, you look so frail and weak, but your endurance is surprisingly strong!”

The elder sighed as he shook his head and continued, “Originally, I’d thought that you were a thief or a mage. But only now do I finally realize, you have to be a warrior. Aside from warriors, there are no other people that can possibly possess such long-lasting endurance. It’s really too amazing.”

“What? Wait, wait, wait, wait…” Suo Jia suddenly interrupted the other party and said with uncertainty, “What did you just say? You said I was a warrior? How is that possible…”

“Hehe…” The elder patted Suo Jia’s shoulders and smiled, “Don’t bother pretending any more. There’s no way you can keep up the act in front of me. At your age, possessing such high endurance is something that is rarely seen every century, even among warriors. With such a powerful physique, how would a mage be possible?”

“That’s…” Suo Jia couldn’t help but close his mouth. He knew that the only reason he had such powerful endurance was because back when he’d used magic potions, he’d consumed a great amount of Endurance Potions. However, this was unrelated to his physical strength. In reality, his physical strength wasn’t really high at all.

The elder continued, “Although everyone can only eat one Toughening Fruit per week, each person’s energy absorption rate is completely different. Those with more powerful endurance can absorb more, and reach much higher points.”

The elder thought for a bit before continuing, “For you, as long as you eat about four Toughening Fruits, you can reach the completed scarlet level realm. Your Diamond Dragon needs to eat six. You must know…you two already count as extremely gifted and outstanding figures!”

“Um…” Suo Jia hesitantly looked at the elder and asked, “Then how many Toughening Fruits must a typical person eat to complete the scarlet level?”

The old man muttered to himself for a bit before he knit his brows together and said, “That’s not a set number. Typically speaking, eating 10 fruits to complete the scarlet level would already make a person qualify as an expert. Some people need to eat hundreds to just barely complete the level. Although they all only eat one per week, some people must eat multiple to increase just a strand of energy, while you only need to eat one to increase by ¼!”

Suo Jia stared at the elder in shock, completely unable to believe it. Could such a good thing really happen? He was extremely astonished, especially after hearing that some people needed to eat 100 fruits to complete the scarlet level. If these people ate one fruit per week, then wouldn’t it take them two years to finish?

Suo Jia did a rough estimation; according to the process the elder had described, Suo Jia only need a month to complete the scarlet level, while the Diamond Dragon only need 1.5 months. Wasn’t that a bit too extreme? That was just too big of a difference. He was a genuine ice mage, not some kind of warrior.

Suo Jia raised his head to look at the elder, “If that’s really the case, then does that mean that every four fruits I eat, I’ll be able to go up an energy level?!”

The elder firmly nodded and happily said, “In reality, the speed at which you improve is directly related to your absorption talent. No matter which energy level you’re at, you’ll only need to eat four fruits to reach its maximum state!”

Suo Jia stared at the elder in shock and asked incredulously, “That means I only need 10 months to reach the illusion multicolored level! That doesn’t seem very likely!”