Close Combat Mage
chapter-32

Because she had previously underwent strict maid training, she quickly understood how she should treat the young master. As a general rule of thumb, little kids do not like being ignored; they love it when people take time to talk with them, especially when people dote on them and give them lots of praise. So the maid knew her young master wouldn’t feel happy if she didn’t talk to him. Only adults who liked peace and quiet maids would enjoy silence.

With a faint smile, the maid gathered her courage and asked, ““Young Master, it’s very late. Why haven’t you gone to bed yet? Why did you draw so many sketches? What are they for? Why do they all have the same design?”

Of course, the maid’s words immediately piqued Suo Jia’s interest. While chewing a bun, Suo Jia said vaguely, “Don’t look down on these diagrams, they are extremely difficult to draw. Currently, I’m researching which of these drawing methods is the fastest, simplest, and most energy-conserving!”

“Eh?” The maid scratched her head, and with a puzzled expression she looked at the strange diagrams. “Aren’t these drawings very simple already? Does this really require a whole night’s worth of research?”

“…”

Suo Jia began to choke on his food after he heard what the maid said. It wasn’t until after quite a long bout of hacking coughs did he finally manage to cough the food out, leaving him red in the face. “Don’t underestimate these diagrams! If you tried drawing them, you would understand how complex they really are. What’s more is that you have to be accurate. Look closely at the size and the proportion. All the arrays I have drawn are practically identical!”

Suo Jia reached for a pen and piece of white paper and pushed them towards the maid, saying impatiently, “If you don’t believe me , try drawing it yourself. It’s very complicated and extremely difficult to draw!”

“Right! I am extremely sorry Young Master. I was ignorant and had upset you. Young Master, this lowly maid of yours will not dare act so foolishly ever again!!” Looking at the Young Master’s completely red face, the maid thought that the Young Master was seething, and so she desperately tried to beg for forgiveness.

“What?” Suo Jia looked inquisitively at the maid, and with a questioning voice continued, “What is there to forgive or not to forgive? You didn’t do anything wrong; I just wanted to correct your mistake. Come…hold this pen, and try drawing it yourself. If you do so, you will understand what I’m talking about”

Seeing the Young Master’s persistence, the maid finally gave in and apprehensively picked up the pen. She looked at the diagram once again, and felt that what she thought was still true. Such a simple diagram couldn’t be that hard to draw, could it?

Seeing the girl beginning to draw, Suo Jia reached for the cup of water next to him to refresh himself. However, just before he was able to, he heard a female voice say, “Young…Young Master, I’ve finished drawing!”

“What! So quickly?” Hearing the maid’s voice, Suo Jia forgot about the cup and immediately turned around to look at the white paper.

Under Suo Jia’s inspection, that exact Six Pointed Star Array had cleanly appeared on the white paper. Even though it was not as precise as the one Suo Jia had drawn, it was obvious from first glance that without going through professional training, it was impossible to draw the Six Pointed Star Array so accurately!

Doubtfully looking at the maid, Suo Jia said in confusion, “Have you drawn this diagram before?”

Hearing the Young Master’s words, the maid shook her head in confusion. “No, I haven’t! In the past, I rarely went out; I spent every day helping my master prepare food. I’ve never drawn this before.”

Scratching his head in confusion, Suo Jia furrowed his brows and said, “Then how did you draw it so accurately? Draw it again for me. This time, I will watch carefully so that I can observe exactly how you drew this!”

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, the maid did not discuss any longer, and took the pen. After a few strokes, an exact Six Pointed Star Array was completed. She once again turned to look at Suo Jia, and saw that his mouth was gaping as if petrified, frozen in place.

Suo Jia’s mind had practically collapsed. If he had not personally witnessed it, he would have never in his lifetime imagined that the Six Pointed Star Array could be drawn in such a way!

The maid’s method of drawing was very simple; she first drew a triangle right-side up, and then drew another triangle upside down. These two triangles perfectly formed a Six Pointed Star Array when combined! This only required 6 strokes and it could be drawn very easily. Based on this new method of drawing, Suo Jia could finish drawing the entire Six Pointed Star Array in half a second. Moreover, the result was extremely accurate!

After his euphoria passed, Suo Jia’s whole body began to tremble. Perhaps other people wouldn’t understand, but Suo Jia knew that this drawing method was far too formidable.

Seeing the Young Master’s dumbstruck expression, the maid could not help but panic. She gently asked Suo Jia, “Young Master! Have I drawn this wrong somehow?”

“Eh!” Suddenly aroused from his daze, Suo Jia was simply unable to reply to the maid’s words. Instead, he extended his right hand as fast as lightning and quickly used the maid’s previous method to draw out the Six Pointed Star Array. Afterwards, to represent the water element, he used the Moisture Technique’s symbol to quickly fill the diagram. He circled it with his right hand and the Moisture Technique was activated!

In silence, a cluster of fine rain mist started to form over the maid’s head. Seeing this scene, Suo Jia let out a loud cheer. He jumped up in excitement and grabbed the startled maid and started to jump around the room.

The maid let out a slight breath of relief. Although she still did not know why the young master was so happy, it was obvious that he was no longer angry. Thinking that this was a very good thing, the maid also began to laugh in a relaxed manner.

To Suo Jia, this discovery was enough to change his entire life, even if it was only a maid who had discovered it. Suo Jia clearly understood that because he was single-minded from what he was taught, he never would have drawn a Six Pointed Star Array by drawing two triangles. In Suo Jia’s eyes, the Six Pointed Star Array was extremely complex. However, in the eyes of a maid who didn’t know magic, it was nothing more than the combination of two simple triangles.

Suo Jia was definitely sure that this was the simplest, fastest, and the most convenient way to draw it. There was no other method that could simplify the Six Pointed Star Array further; this was the best method.

With such a method of drawing, Suo Jia only needed to remember the Moisture Technique’s simple representative symbol as well as the Swamp Technique’s two symbols. The basic Six Pointed Star Array added onto the water element’s symbols, as well as magic’s generic symbols, could activate various types of water magic!

This might be hard to believe, but in reality using the new method prevented the activation time from extending, even managing to greatly reduce it! Up until now, the Moisture Technique had traditionally used a model of 3 seconds. Now that it was reduced to a new model of 2 seconds, it could essentially be activated within the blink of an eye!

Moreover, the most important part of the new activation model was that the necessary amount of spirit power became ridiculously low. As for the procedures for activating magic, aside from the general magic symbols, the basic Six Pointed Star Array and the water element symbols were identical. Once practiced enough, they could be drawn subconsciously and would not require any consumption of spirit power.

If one method works, a hundred methods will work as well. With the new model, once it is mastered with one type of water magic, it is equivalent to mastering all types of water magic. The only difference is the general magic symbols. Different magic symbols reveal different results in the magic.

In terms of the traditional model, the diagram for the Swamp Technique is two or three times more complicated than that of the Moisture Technique. Being able to activate the Swamp Technique within 6 seconds means that the person was definitely an expert. However, with Suo Jia’s new method, the Swamp Technique had only one more symbol compared to the Moisture Technique. Within 3 seconds, Suo Jia could fully activate the Swamp Technique.

After some organization, Suo Jia split the new model into 3 parts. The first part included the basic foundation of all magic: the Six Pointed Star Array. The second part used the water attribute’s marks: the water element’s symbols. The third part represented the magic’s specific categorical classification symbols!

Among these, the first and second parts were the exact same for every technique. Only the third part was completely different. For example, the Moisture Technique had only one specific categorical classification symbol, while the Swamp Technique had two!

After analyzing up to this point, Suo Jia could not help but wrinkle his brows; was this a coincidence? The first-rank magic, the Moisture Technique, had exactly only one specific symbol; the second-rank magic, the Swamp Technique, coincidentally had two specific symbols!

In order to verify his suspicious, Suo Jia quickly pulled out the magic book distributed by the school. Page after page, he flipped through the book, all the while looking for clues. The first page was the Moisture Technique, the second page was the Swamp Technique, and the third page was the representative magic he remembered his teacher had performed: the Ice Sphere Technique. This magic qualified as a third-rank magic!

Taking a deep breath, Suo Jia continued to read. Firstly, the basic spell array was completely identical; it was still a Six Pointed Star Array. The water element symbols were also the same. Upon reading further, the three different symbols were finally within Suo Jia’s line of sight!

After impatiently flipping page after page, Suo Jia realized it was just as he had thought; the magic spell rank was determined by the number of symbols. The highest ranked magic spell was rank 12: Absolute Zero! With the foundation array, after water element symbols as well as other rank 12 elemental symbols were added, the rank 12 magic would be completed!