Close Combat Mage
chapter-91

Chapter 91 – Revolving Frozen Gas Pt. 1

“Counterfeits!” Hearing Emma’s words, Suo Jia shook his head furiously, repeatedly rejecting, “No, no, I don’t want it for its appearance and shape, the most important thing is its quality. Getting counterfeits is definitely not the way to go.”

Faced with Suo Jia’s refusal, Emma laughed loudly before saying, “My intention was not to make a counterfeit, but instead to make a copy, as these two are completely different concepts. You know, in order to become one of the most successful businessmen, my father did business with the dwarves and sold weapons to make a fortune. Think about it, if the great masters from the dwarf race personally copied and produced this equipment, then would the quality be poor? As long as you are willing to put up the necessary funds, even if you need it to be stronger than the original, it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

Hearing Emma’s words, Suo Jia immediately urged Emma to lead him to the dwarven blacksmiths. Under Emma’s leadership, they arrived at the Holy Light dwarven smithery, and asked to meet with the dwarven smithing master.

Because of his relationship with Emma, Suo Jia was quickly allowed to meet with the most renowned, Master Han Sa. From the outside, although the dwarven master appeared to already be in his 70s, what intrigued Suo Jia was that his height was similar to Suo Jia’s. When they stood next to each other, no one would be able to tell who was taller.

Emma was clearly quite familiar with this heavily bearded individual, and when they met she immediately beckoned Suo Jia to explain his situation. Hearing Emma’s words, the dwarven blacksmith lifted his head. He swallowed a mouthful of wine, as he said to Suo Jia with a completely flushed face, “Can do, Holy Crossed Blades and Marshal’s Armors right? I can help you, but I don’t have anyway of procuring the materials. These two types of equipment are all made from special materials, and those are all rare and precious ores. In order to give Emma face, as long as you can obtain those precious ores, I’ll help you construct what you need free of charge.”

While speaking, the dwarf once again lifted his head and dragged a gulp of aged wine. With a breath that reeked of alcohol, he said, “If you cannot find the materials, then I have no other way either. Even if my skill level is high, it’s impossible to make such superior equipment with common iron and copper.”

After contemplating for a bit, Suo Jia firmly said, “Alright, I’ll go and collect these materials. However, can you give me a list explaining precisely what materials are needed?”

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, the old blacksmith grabbed some pen and paper before madly scribbling on the paper. Seeing the blacksmith writing endlessly, sweat began to gather profusely on his forehead.

Spatial Meteorite Iron, Thousand-year Chilled Steel, Volcanic Sanguine Copper, Cold Abyssal Stone… Wind Dragon tendons, Black Dragon scales, Azure Dragon fangs, Earth Dragon skin… warehouse metal and wood, Diamond Bamboo, Wind Fox Fur…

After writing for an entire minute, the old blacksmith finally stopped. Only after looking over the list one last time and filling in some more information did he give the white sheet of paper to Suo Jia and say, “Alright, this is basically all of it. I can begin forging once you obtain these things.”

Shuddering while taking the list of items, Suo Jia said while trembling, “Heavens, how can there be so many necessary items? How am I supposed to get all these things? Let me count… there’s actually more than forty different types of materials. It might take me ten years to find all of these!

“Eh….” Hiccuping, the dwarf blacksmith explained, “If you are able to collect all of these parts, then I can forge the Marshal’s Armors, as well as the superior peak-grade weapons ‘Holy Cross Blades’. If you can bring the people who are going to use these armors and weapons, then I can create equipment sets that are most appropriate for their unique characteristics and their body measurements.”

The old blacksmith gulped down another swig of wine, and said with his mouth still full, “If you cannot find all these things, then that’s no big deal either. I can use other materials as substitutions. However, its performance would decrease that way. The more materials you can find, the better the quality of the armor that I can make. If you cannot find a single material, then you might as well just randomly choose a few armors from this shop and leave.”

“Oh!” Suo Jia’s eyes lit up at the old blacksmith’s words. He stuffed the paper into his pocket and smiled, “That’s fine too. Since I’m already here, I couldn’t possibly leave without purchasing anything. Lead me to look around, and help me find some weapons similar to the Holy Cross Blades, as well as the Marshal’s Armors. I can afford to use up some time right now.”

Hearing that Suo Jia wanted to purchase something, the old blacksmith immediately recovered his spirit, and even smiled. He quickly led Suo Jia towards the back of the storehouse. While rushing there he said, “Haha….what did I say? These items are really hard to look for. Unless you find all of them, you’re better of just spending some money and buying the goods in this store instead.”

Suo Jia couldn’t help but smile bitterly at the old blacksmith’s words. He knew that the only reason there were so many items to look for and why he had been offered to have the equipment made for free was only because the old blacksmith wanted him to realize how hard it was and take back his decision. The ultimate objective was to get Suo Jia to pull out some money and spend it on the store’s goods.

Suo Jia said, “Hey, I have to make this clear. Buying is fine, but it’s only to temporarily reduce the urgency. I’ll definitely gather your materials. You’d better not forget your promise. If I do manage to find all the parts, you’ll have to help me create 36 sets of armors and weapons for free!”

As Suo Jia finished his words, Emma smiled and chimed in, “Don’t worry about that, Suo Jia. Dwarves strongly emphasize keeping promises. As long as they’ve said the words, they’ll be even willing to die just to carry them out. As long as you find those materials, this master will definitely not decline your request.”

“Yes, yes, yes…” The dwarf blacksmith nodded at these words and said, “That’s right, little fellow. Anything that I’ve already promised will be valid forever. Emma can be our witness. My words are completely true, and I will always keep to them. As long as you gather those materials, I will help you construct these items for free.”

At this point, the old fellow smiled sinisterly and said, “However, don’t say I didn’t remind you. If you only find some scattered few, I’m not going to serve you. You need to obtain at least 40 out of these 60 materials for me to help you. Otherwise, don’t blame me and say I go back on my words.”

Suo Jia bit his tongue in uncertainty. He knew that wanting to gather so many things was extremely difficult, to the point where the difficulty couldn’t be measured. He also didn’t know if after actually gathering all of these, would the armors and weapons created actually be powerful?

Suo Jia revealed these doubts to the old blacksmith. In response, the blacksmith widened his eyes and shouted, “What is a brat like you thinking about? I’m one of the four great dwarf masters. Plus, since the materials used are peak-grade, these equipment and armors couldn’t possibly be lacking!”

The old blacksmith snorted and resolutely said, “I can promise you that if you actually gather these materials, no matter whether it’s armor or weapons, they would at the very least be Legendary ranked. Moreover….I can also connect the blades and armors with spirits. This will allow them to mutually boost each other and cover each other’s weaknesses. It could also dig up a small portion of the power of Epic-ranked equipment sets!”