Close Combat Mage

Chapter 203 – Velociraptor Knights Pt. 1

After thinking for a bit, Suo Jia finally made his decision. He abruptly raised his head and declared, “Everyone, hear my command. Immediately return to the army camp, and evolve the Mengmas!”

Having received Suo Jia’s orders, nobody showed the slightest hesitation. All the Mengma Knights simultaneously raised their blades to indicate that they had received the order, and then turned around and neatly walked towards the left camp.

After watching the Mengma Knights gradually disappear off into the distance, Naifa Lian turned to look at Suo Jia in astonishment. “Do you really know what you’re doing? If you want to evolve the Mengmas, you need a great amount of earth-type magic crystals. That’s because…the evolution of Mengmas into Velociraptors requires a massive amount of earth energy.”

Suo Jia nodded and firmly replied, “I know that. I understand that I need to pay a high price. Don’t worry, I’m commanding people to go procure earth-type magic crystals right now. At the same time, I’ll get them to escort your family to a secure location.”

Naifa Lian furrowed her brows and said, “”But, do you really believe that it is most appropriate to spend so much money to evolve them? Even if you don’t mind the loss of money, a Velociraptor’s survival capabilities cannot be compared to a Mengma’s!”

Suo Jia smiled and nodded. “I understand what you’re saying as well. Actually…for the sake of pursuing speed, Velociraptors give up their thick muscle and fat, substantially lowering their physical and magical defenses. However, that isn’t any of concern; I’ve already considered that. As long as a layer of armor is prepared for them, that weakness can be completely covered!”

“What!” Hearing Suo Jia’s words, Naifa Lian’s eyes opened wide with shock. Stupefied, she said, “What are you saying? You’re going to get a set of armor for the Velociraptors? How is that possible! No such armor exists in this world! Moreover, how much money would you need to spend?”

“Hehe…” With a cold chuckle, Suo Jia said in a low voice, “If one doesn’t exist, it can be designed. All armors are originally designed by people. As for money, I’m willing to spend any amount as long as I can quickly boost their strength and power!”

Suo Jia knit his brows together and did some calculations. If he really followed his previous words, his money actually wouldn’t be enough. After contemplating it for a while, Suo Jia finally came up with a solution. He had to immediately rush back now and create a batch of potions, then sell them at auctions for money!

When he returned to the city lord’s mansion, Suo Jia directly found Duo Mei, and ordered her to bring out the Magic Automatons from her interspatial ring. He then told her to lead the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes to escort Naifa Lian’s family out of Dawn City. As they returned, they would also have to procure a great amount of earth-type magic crystals! They had to be extremely fast…

After receiving this command, Duo Mei immediately spurred into action. Suo Jia secluded himself and began to create potions, splitting them up to sell at various auctions. Suo Jia believed that these kinds of potions that could replenish magic power and battle qi at any moment would surely be sold for a great amount.

A week later, the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes rushed back with a large amount of earth-type magic crystals. As for Naifa Lian’s family, they had already been transferred to an S-rank mercenary group for their escorts. Although the escort fee was extremely high, they’d definitely be safe. Suo Jia was no longer concerned with money, time was more important!

After receiving the large amount of earth-type crystals, the 5000 Mengma Knights all began to evolve their Mengmas. At the same time, Suo Jia finished producing all his potions, and began to organize the slave soldiers.

Although the slave soldiers were greater in number, their combat force was very small. They had the role of being cannon fodder. In reality, these slave soldiers were all those that had offended officials of the Empire. They had come here to receive their punishment; only after dying would they be free. This Dawn Fort was their prison.

Such a large amount of people consumed a great amount of army rations every day. In Suo Jia’s opinion, they were like termites. But he couldn’t release them either; even if he was a viscount, he didn’t have the power to pardon crimes.

Suo Jia had debated over this difficult problem for many days. However, he still hadn’t come up with a solution. Helpless, Suo Jia could only take his time to mull it over for longer. However, there was one point he was sure of: there was no reason for them to just eat every day without doing anything. They weren’t elderly people, and nobody could possibly take care of them.

But judging from the records, these slave soldiers had never eaten to their heart’s content before. Because of the fatty’s greed, he had simply made sure they didn’t starve to death. That’s why all the slave soldiers had pasty faces. One couldn’t completely blame the fatty for this; he had the same plan as Suo Jia. At the very least, they couldn’t just eat for free!

If it were just 1-2 of them, or even 100-200 of them, Suo Jia wouldn’t bother with them. But there were 100,000 people! How much did they eat in total per day? This number was absolutely shocking.

Suo Jia gathered all the slave soldiers together once more, then gave a string of orders. Firstly, Suo Jia wouldn’t be like the fatty, who didn’t let them eat as much as they wanted. However…wanting to just spend every day eating while idling wouldn’t be allowed either. They had to exchange food with labor! If they didn’t do any work, they wouldn’t get a single bite of food.

As he had time on his hands, Suo Jia split the 100,000 people into two groups. They didn’t have anything to do? Go renovate the city walls. The taller and thicker they were, the better. It was at least better than just lying around here every day. It would not only reinforce the city walls, but train their bodies as well, killing two birds with one stone.

A small group of slave soldiers obeyed Suo Jia’s command and headed straight outside of the city walls and began to excavate rocks. They then gathered the collected materials, then shipped these to the city walls to stack them up one by one. However, there were still 60,000 slave soldiers that turned a deaf ear to his orders. As slave soldiers, they never knew when they would die. For all they knew, a battle could explode tomorrow, and they’d die there. Thus, they weren’t willing to bother with labor. No matter what, they’d end up dying; was there any difference between dying early and dying late?

Originally, they believed that Suo Jia was simply going around implementing vigorous new policies, and using them to add to his own power. They had all already mentally prepared themselves to get killed. But strangely enough, Suo Jia didn’t seem to even notice their rebellious attitudes, and completely ignored them,

This ignoring meant completely not paying any mind to them in any way. Suo Jia didn’t punish them or reward them. Most importantly, he didn’t even provide food for them any longer. Only those that worked had the right to eat. In addition, they got to eat whole grain, snow-white buns until they were content! There was no limit!

That night, the slave soldiers that hadn’t worked smelled the delicious aroma on their companions’ bodies, and struggled hard to resist their hunger, constantly swallowing their saliva. People that hadn’t ever experienced going hungry would never understand this pain.

The next morning, the slave soldiers that hadn’t eaten much in the first place and had starved for an entire day could no longer endure it any longer. They set out to the working grounds and began to excavate the rock to transport it to the city walls. After working for an entire afternoon, it was finally time to eat. When they saw the snow-white buns and the side dishes, the slave soldiers all began to cry.

It was true that they didn’t care about life or death. However, they couldn’t ignore torture. Since they didn’t have the courage to kill themselves, they had to struggle to live. In addition, they discovered that the labor actually wasn’t that difficult. It was actually the opposite; the labor allowed them to grow. They no longer needed to hide away in their rooms and silently suffer from feelings of solitude and isolation again.