Close Combat Mage
chapter-332

Chapter 332 – Magic Automaton Baltic Pt. 1

A bit over a month ago, the Crimson Bears had been able to very easily rip apart the Diamond Dragon and smash it into pieces. But now, a month later, with the Diamond Dragon’s evolved armor and its new ability—Flash Freezing, it could completely ignore all attacks.

The Freezing Fruit could drastically lower the Diamond Dragon’s body temperature. Although the rate at which the cold air dispersed remained the same, the total amount of freezing air within the Diamond Dragon’s body had changed. Over the course of time, the Diamond Dragon had become able to maintain its transformation for 30 minutes at a time.

Three days. Suo Jia had only taken three days to rush back to Prairie Fire City. Whenever he encountered any magical beasts obstructing his path, the Diamond Dragon could just plow through them like a large truck. Before the magical beasts could even dodge, they’d pretty much be buried underneath the Diamond Dragon’s feet.

Without any delays, Suo Jia directly stored 1000 barrels of wine and then turned back to rush towards Icebound City. He did this constantly for a month up until the day before the monthly auction before stopping his shipping. At this point, the money in Suo Jia’s possession had already reached 100 million Trade Route coins!

Within this month, Suo Jia’s Life Protection had reached the gold level. But outside of his expectations, the Diamond Dragon’s Freezing energy hadn’t filled in the slightest. In reality, that blue energy strip only occupied a fifth of the entire strip.

Suo Jia could only race to a library and start researching materials. If it were any other place, these kinds of materials might be difficult to find. However, since Icebound City was the source of production for the Freezing Fruits, researching resources about the Freezing Fruits were as easy as turning over one’s palm.

The materials indicated that unlike other magic fruits, the Freezing Fruits’ unique trait was that the slower they reacted, the better. It was like water, acting opposite from other matter. While other matter would expand with heat and contract when cooled, water did the opposite.

The Diamond Dragon’s innate talent was something that could never be doubted. There was no other creature talented in the ice element that could possibly even come close to rivaling the Diamond Dragon. The higher the innate skill, the slower its rate in which which its energy strip filled up became.

If if were Suo Jia that was eating these fruits, it was possible that a month would be enough to complete the first realm. But that same first realm was determined by the completely different effects the Freezing Fruits had.

If 100 people simultaneously used the Freezing Fruits, the activated abilities would all produce different effects. Those with greater talent would have more lowered temperatures, while those with less talent would have less lowered temperatures. The exact values couldn’t be measured, so there weren’t actual numbers, but the difference could be clearly felt.

Now, the Diamond Dragon’s energy improvement was extremely slow. While others had already completed one energy strip, the Diamond Dragon had only filled ⅕. However, when it activated Flash Freezing, its cooling level was much greater than a normal person’s. Advancement rate was inversely proportional to cooling degree.

Four rank one Freezing Fruits could only fill ⅕ of the Diamond Dragon’s energy strip. In other words, the dragon still needed 16 rank one Freezing Fruits. That would cost at least 1.6 million coins!

This may seem cheap, but it was only a rank one Freezing Fruit. Rank two Freezing Fruits would be around 100,000 coins, rank three would be a million, and who knew where one was supposed to find the money for those above rank three.

Suo Jia looked up materials on the Freezing Fruits and furrowed his brows. According to calculations, the Diamond Dragon would need 5 months of time to advance to the second level. Wasn’t that a bit too slow?

Originally, Suo Jia had prepared to start using the Freezing Fruits for his own special ability on this trip. But now, Suo Jia was suddenly hesitant.

Higher talent meant slower energy growth rate, but energy consumption would be greater. Lower talent would mean increased energy growth rate, but energy consumption would be less. Did Suo Jia wish to have greater talent or less talent?

Suo Jia would rather have lower talent, and at least be able grow faster, and use the energy even if it wasn’t all used, unlike the Diamond Dragon. Although the effects on energy were strong, eating the Freezing Fruits for a month only resulted in accumulating such a little amount of energy. This minor amount wasn’t anywhere near enough to use.

In reality, the Freezing Fruit’s special trait was the same as the Diamond Dragon’s; greater talent meant it could be very powerful, to the extent of being unrivaled, but it needed a very long time. Less talent meant faster advancement rate, but their abilities would only be average.

Suo Jia pondered back and forth, but still couldn’t decide. Finally…he thought it through; he couldn’t keep wasting time like this. If he didn’t quickly choose his ability, Roger and the others would be nearly unrivalled while Suo Jia wouldn’t have even started yet.

The Toughening Fruits were the only fruits compatible with others. While this was established, it’s important to realize that Toughening Fruits could be used at the same time as other magic fruits.

Suo Jia closed the book and turned to leave the library. After resting for a bit, Suo Jia rushed back to the auction at 8pm and bought 20 rank 1 Freezing Fruits at once, pretty much buying ¾ of the auction’s rank 1 Freezing Fruit stock!

Once all the Freezing Fruits were stored in the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box, Suo Jia left the auction house and headed straight towards the residence he’d just bought in Icebound City. Today…he’d start using the fruits.

Upon returning to his luxurious residence, Suo Jia entered a training room and opened the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box to pull out a Freezing Fruit. He tossed it over to the Diamond Dragon, then threw one into his own mouth, closing his eyes and silently enjoying it. What he hadn’t noticed that the fruit he’d eaten hadn’t been blue in color, but light purple! However…the blue Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box and the other Freezing Fruits had concealed it. Moreover, Suo Jia hadn’t really been paying attention, and had immediately gulped it down.

While Suo Jia was quietly sensing the changes in his body, the auction house was currently in a mess. The reason was simple: a Heaven tier, rarely seen magic fruit had mysteriously disappeared!

Magic fruits weren’t just divided by tier and rank; there were other classifications. In reality, each magic fruit’s quantities was different. Some were more common, others were not. Freezing Fruits counted as being in the medium range with respect to numbers. They weren’t lacking, so their value was very normal.

Originally, the climax of the auction was supposed to be a rare, extremely priceless Control Fruit. Its ability was to boost the user’s controlling ability over water and ice.

The Control Fruit was also called the Ice Control Fruit, and counted as a variant type. Its numbers were extremely small, so its value reached the extent where a single one cost 10 million. Moreover, it wasn’t in any city! The chances of a variant type appearing were very small.

For some reason, when the auction house had brought this climax item onstage, the auctioneer was shocked to discover that the Control Fruit had somehow changed into a normal Freezing Fruit!

Putting aside how the auction house was trying to figure out the reason, Suo Jia had just finally begun to feel the changes from eating the fruit. A purple mist began to surge out from Suo Jia’s energy strip. Without a question, Suo Jia’s talent in control was extremely great.

“Hm?” Suo Jia stared at the purple mist in confusion. Why was it this color? From the books and materials, the energy produced from the Freezing Fruits should be a dark blue. How could it be purple?

After thinking about it for a bit, Suo Jia suddenly remembered that in the book introducing Freezing Fruits, it had mentioned the name of type of fruit, the Control Fruit. From outer appearance, this fruit was pretty much the same as a Freezing Fruit, but it had a pale purple glow. It counted as a variation of the Freezing Fruit.

Suo Jia stared at the purple mist within his energy strip, and couldn’t help but break out into a sweat. It looked like…he’d accidentally mistaken the Control Fruit as a Freezing Fruit and had eaten it.

Suo Jia bitterly smiled as he looked at the purple energy strip. Regretting it now was useless, he’d already eaten it. He couldn’t just throw it back up, right? It had already digested, the only thing he could do was wait until he excreted it naturally.

Suo Jia took a deep breath and closed his eyes. With a tug of his hand, a long ice stream once again appeared in Suo Jia’s hands. After focusing for a bit, Suo Jia suddenly activated his control ability!