Close Combat Mage

Chapter 110 – Full Body Equipment Pt. 2

Suo Jia frowned as he looked at the competition timetable that was handed to him by the judge. Because nobody in the 8-13 age groups were taking part in the competition, Suo Jia was the only challenger among these age groups. The first person that Suo Jia could challenge was actually a 14 year old fire mage!

Suo Jia tightly knitted his brows. Even though 14 year olds were not that old, Suo Jia was still only 8 years old. The opposing side’s age was almost two times his age. Most importantly, within Suo Jia’s 8 years of life, there were 4-5 years where he didn’t understand or remember anything.

In introspect, even though the opposing side was only 14 years old, they had spent 6, almost 7 years, in the academy But what about Suo Jia? He had only attended the academy for barely a year. The time they spent within the academy to learn and cultivate was 7 times more than Suo Jia had! Furthermore, they were one of the powerful fire mages.

A fire mage was the most powerful among the other mage classes. They possessed the most powerful attacking spells, as well as the highest destructive power! Nobody dared to confront a fire mage. As a mage trainee, their formidability could not be questioned.

The fire mage apprentices had already grasped the Fire Ball, Sea of Fire, and Soulfire Circle magics. On the other hand, fire mage trainees knew the Great Fireball, Fire Wall, and the Raging Flames of Defiance; this meant that the power of their Fire Arts were greatly raised.

After muttering to himself for a bit, Suo Jia was able to reach a definitive decision: his first opponent would be a 14 year old fire mage. Seeing that Suo Jia had chosen him, the fire mage couldn’t help but look excited. In his opinion, Suo Jia’s noble rank would undoubtedly become his!

Perhaps some people would wonder; since everyone already knew that Suo Jia had displayed his abilities that were on the mage trainee level, then why was his opponent confident enough to dare to face off against Suo Jia?

Actually, aside from the winners of the 17-18 year old groups, as long as any other grade victors took part in this competition, they were definitely unyielding. They weren’t even afraid of fighting those three years older than them; how could they possible be afraid of one three years younger? Just like Suo Jia, they had absolute self-confidence, hence they were brave enough to come forth. Otherwise, who would dare to play around with their nobility rank?

After Suo Jia had chosen his opponent, one by one, the others began to leave the arena, and the entire area grew silent. Although the thousands of students were gathered around to watch, none of them made a sound.

Arrogantly sticking out his chest, the fire mage gently stretched his arm towards his back and pulled out his staff. Immediately…..a sparkling, translucent fire staff surrounded by a red glow came into view.

Suo Jia suddenly frowned at the opposite party’s staff. He had seen this staff before; Suo Jia had recently run around to view various warrior weapon stores and the bazaar to look around. Suo Jia’s understanding and knowledge about weapons and magic equipment was now extremely extensive.

This staff seemed to have been carved out of crystal; it was quite a good one. Although it wasn’t a High-ranked staff, it was still undoubtedly the best possible option for a mage trainee. There were more than 100 million other staffs better than this one. However, Suo Jia knew that no matter how superior the staff was, if one cannot draw out all the power within it, it’d be pointless even if one used it as a hammer.

This was an Ideal-ranked staff, with a price of around ten million gold coins. Its special feature was that it could compress fire. It could notably shrink a huge Fire Ball, increasing its speed. Most importantly, once the tiny Fire Ball hit its target, all of its compressed energy would be released in an instant, causing a violent explosion!

If one were to say that the Freezing Staff could allow one to turn a Water Sphere into an Ice Sphere, directly jumping into the ranks of ice system spells, then this Concentrated Flame Staff’s ability would be to allow a normal Fire Ball to condense into a tiny fire essence. This would result in a middle rank spell — Violent Fire Ball.

That was not all there was to it. If one looked at the other party, his ten white fingers were all sporting bright red rings. Suo Jia noticed that each of those fingers wore a Ruby Ring, and in total, increased the fire mage’s fire system power by 50%! In addition, each of those Ruby Rings could lessen fire system spells’ magic power consumption by 5%. With the ten rings added together, it reduced the magic consumption by 50%.

The most ridiculous part was that the fire mage had a row of holes on his earlobes and wore 5 pairs of Lightning Flint Earrings on each ear. These earrings could increase the speed and power of fire magic by 50%.

This was far from all he had. The opponent’s wrist was densely packed with a total of ten bracelets, five on the right and five on the left. It raised the fire mage’s control over fire system magic by 100%, and increased the casting speed by 100%!

The necklace worn around the opponent’s neck was hidden by the clothes, making Suo Jia unable to identify it. However, Suo Jia was able to estimate that the fire mage was wearing four or five necklaces from the chain that was revealed around the neck. At the very least, it could increase the opposing party’s magic recovery speed by 100%. Adding on to the Ruby Rings that increased his magic power by 50%, the fire mage could most likely madly release unlimited explosions.

Seeing this scene, Suo Jia couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. Could this guy still be considered human? He was practically a moving fortress armed to the limit. Even though it completely neglected the defence, the opponent had enough firepower to crush any kinds of attacks.

Laughing bitterly, Suo Jia couldn’t help but shake his head to himself. It was not that he never thought of arming himself with equipment, it was just that he had never thought about equipping himself to the brim like his opponent. With this, grasping victory would be much easier.

However, as the hero who was going to create a new history, the only consequences of doing this was people ridiculing him. That would be equal to placing himself on the stage to let people curse and sneer at him. How could one be considered a hero if they relied on equipment and magic items to win?

On the other hand, the fire mage evidently did not have this problem. He had only thought about obtaining that nobility title, and for that sake, he had not spared any cost, as he covered his entire body with magic equipment. Although these were all middle-rank mage equipment, they were still all Ideal-ranked magic equipment. Adding together all of the equipment the fire mage wore today, it was worth even more than several hundred millions.

Suo Jia cherished his reputation, so he would never allow himself to fall to this level. Moreover… magic items were just like opium; once one got accustomed to it, they wouldn’t be able to break away from it. The spell would just be relying on the magic item’s effects to be cast. One would slowly lose all their creativity and imagination. There would be no need to cultivate so much, and all of one’s spirit power would be used on the magic equipment.

Suo Jia also paid close attention to magic equipment, but the ones he picked were all auxiliary equipment. Atlantis’ Wisdom always kept him in a meditative state, Faerie’s Soul gave him a faerie’s physique, and Frost’s Sigh increased the effects of the Ice and Snow Pact by 100%. The only item that had any use in actual combat was the interspatial ring, and that was Suo Jia’s lifesaving treasure.

While Suo Jia was observing his opponent, the opponent was also observing him. When the fire mage saw that Suo Jia was empty handed from top to bottom, not carrying any magic equipment, he could not help but laugh with confidence. After wearing his entire set of magic equipment, the fire mage’s strength had already increased to that of an elementary mage’s. It didn’t matter if his opponent was a 17-18 year old expert, the fire mage still had enough confidence to fight against them, let alone an eight year old child!

Beneath the platform, the female lecturer, Aila, and Aimi were all jumping up and down from anxiety. Aila and Aimi were cursing the shameless fire mage for using too many magic artifacts. Even if he beat his opponent this way, it would have no relevance to his actual strength. His opponent would fall to the magic items.

The female instructor scolded Suo Jia because she had already warned this youngster repeatedly; no matter what, he should at least get a staff. But look at him now, that guy had actually gone onto the stage empty handed. Did he think of himself as a boxer?

On the other side, Duke Wen Sha was stroking his chin as he sat in his VIP seat, his gaze locked onto Suo Jia. Duke Wen Sha didn’t think that the fire mage’s usage of magic equipment was unfair; that was still strength. The experienced Duke Wen Sha only looked for results, no matter the methods. The reality was just like this; in a war, the loser was always in the wrong. Nobody ever bothered to listen to the loser’s complaints, and would only sing praises to the victor.

However, as a veteran expert, Duke Wen Sha also knew that a true expert wouldn’t lose to inanimate objects. Although the great 7 experts had all used complete Epic-ranked equipment sets, they would’ve still been extremely formidable without their equipment as well. They were using the equipment, rather than the equipment using them; their original strength was above the equipment’s. Otherwise, how could they truly harness the magic item’s power?

However, this fire mage no doubt had become strong due to magic equipment. Rather than saying that he was using magic equipment, it was more accurate to say that the magic equipment was using him.

Duke Wen Sha was very curious and looked at Suo Jia attentively; just how did this empty handed youngster plan to defeat the fire mage who was equipped to the brim? Seeing the calm expression on Suo Jia’s face, Duke Wen Sha firmly believed that Suo Jia wouldn’t lose if he was as awesome as his daughter had described. At the very least, he wouldn’t lose very badly.