Close Combat Mage

Chapter 30 – New Discovery

It was now time for afternoon class activities, and yet Suo Jia still could not find an answer to his problem. Miserably shaking his head, Suo Jia decided to temporarily stop thinking about it. For many things, if you cannot find a solution by thinking about it right now, then it is better to stop thinking about it. Time is precious, and using every minute to enhance yourself is crucial.

Lifting his head, he looked at the lighthearted little guy flying within a cloud of moisture. Suo Jia laughed with satisfaction; the little guy grew quickly during the past 3 or 4 months. Although it was still immature, it was already capable of flight!

All in all, this little guy was really quite fortunate. In this world, he was probably the only one lucky enough to receive several thousands of Moisture Techniques everyday. Although everyone had already learned the Swamp Technique at this point, casting spells from longer distances still needed work. Because of this, the little dragon could continue to enjoy the moisturizing rain for quite a while.

Currently, after three months of hard work, Suo Jia was capable of casting 60 Moisture Techniques in succession with a bit of energy left over. As for the other girls, although they weren’t as hardworking as Suo Jia, they still averaged at around 20 consecutive Moisture Techniques. A few girls were even able to cast 30 in succession.

Suo Jia had never casted the Moisture Technique in front of his other classmates. In general, as soon as he recovered some energy, he would immediately secretly cast a Moisture Technique on the little guy. Casting the Moisture Technique during class time was not an issue either, as he was very subtle while casting this spell and he didn’t need a staff.

Closing his eyes, Suo Jia worked hard to focus on the formation of the Swamp Technique. Suo Jia was not like other students that only focused on memorizing the formation after learning the technique. In his opinion, since all water magic relied on the same principles, they should also have similarities. If that was the case, then it would be much more effective if he could find out and understand what these similarities were.

So far, Suo Jia had only learned a total of two significant spells. One of them was the Moisture Technique, the other was the Swamp Technique. As for the Water Sphere and Aqua Aegis techniques, they fell under the category of water control and did not have much to do with magic spells.

During the past six months, Suo Jia had already cast the Moisture Technique more than ten thousand times. In regards to the Moisture Technique’s formation, he knew it like the back of his hand. With repeated learning and practice, he had already carved the magic formation firmly into the back of his mind. It had become a part of him.

Now Suo Jia was trying to compare the Moisture Technique with the Swamp Technique. He tried to find any similarities between the two techniques and distinguish the parts that were different, and afterwards attempted to understand them bit by bit.

To his surprise, he soon discovered that even though the magic formation of the two techniques were different, the frameworks were basically the same. Whether it was the Moisture Technique or the Swamp Technique, they were both developed using the same method.

By comparing the two, Suo Jia was able to discover the framework rather quickly. Sou Jia was very familiar with this framework. In reality, it was simply a Six Pointed Star Array.

Suo Jia realized that the Six Pointed Star Array was the basic diagram of all magic. This was the reason why you needed to stack other symbols on top of the formation to distinguish the characteristics of the water magic. This meant that other than this basic framework, there should be other similarities between the two techniques as well.

Suo Jia compared the Swamp Technique and Moisture Technique non-stop until finally, Suo Jia found a peculiar symbol. He tried out both magic formations by drawing them on the ground at the same time. To his surprise, he discovered that there were parts within the formation that overlapped completely. The Six Pointed Star Array was the only part that was identical between spells, the other symbols did not overlap!

After this discovery, the first thing Suo Jia did was to quickly draw out a Six Pointed Star Array. Afterwards, he drew the symbol that represented water. Drawing up until this part, the only symbol left in the whole formation was the Moisture Technique’s formation. In other words, this symbol represented the Moisture Technique.

Sure enough, the moment Suo Jia drew that symbol which represented the Moisture Technique, the whole magic spell formation suddenly lit up. A cluster of mist instantly appeared out of thin air and covered the small Frost Dragon. The casting this time turned out to be a success. That meant even if Suo Jia did not follow the teacher’s instructions, he could still successfully cast the Moisture Technique!

Everyone started learning magic a specific way: they would follow given sequences and patterns, learning it step by step. If one made a small error while performing magic this way, there was a good chance that the magic would fail. Who would have known that one could draw a magic spell formation in such a simple way!

Suo Jia spent his time at home ever since he was young with no one to talk to. He did things the way he wanted to. Without thinking, he even went as far as changing the magic spell formation’s drawing sequence. If this news spread, it would definitely shock the entire world!

After a series of discussion and research, Suo Jia could finally confirm that following an exact sequence was not important. The most important part was that you had to be precise. As long as the formation was correct, the spell would be successfully executed.

Discovering this, Suo Jia was hesitant. If it didn’t matter how you drew it, then why did the teaching material require a certain diagram and drawing sequence? Was there actually some hidden meaning to this?

Doubtfully, Suo Jia carefully examined his research. Just by comparing the two, Suo Jia immediately discovered that the drawing sequence passed down by the teacher saved more time and was the most convenient method. If he followed the drawing sequence from before, Suo Jia wouldn’t be able to draw the magic formation within three seconds! There were too many details and repetitions.

While calculating silently, Suo Jia arrived at a conclusion quickly. If he followed the drawing sequence passed down by the teacher, then he only needed 24 strokes to complete the Water Moisture Technique’s formation. But if he followed the drawing sequence he created himself, he needed 28 strokes to finish the magic formation! Four additional strokes!

Arriving at this conclusion, Suo Jia couldn’t help but frown; there were advantages and disadvantages. Currently, Suo Jia couldn’t tell which was better.

The advantage of the traditional drawing sequences from the magic book was speed. The disadvantage was that they were hard to remember and practice. You needed to learn from scratch each time you learned a new type of magic, since the drawing sequence for each traditional magic diagram was different.

With Suo Jia’s method, it was easier to remember and practice. All he needed to do was to remember each symbol and what they represented. This was easier to remember and to practice, because in the end…the number of magical symbols were numerous, and spells would have many symbols that would serve as their basis.

Of course, this method wasn’t perfect at all. Its weak point was that the strokes to create the spell were more than the other method, and was slower to cast as well. When fighting against another, it was likely that the other spell would smash into you first, so this spellwork was in no way finished yet! In the middle of a battle, whoever cast their spell second would be the one destined to lose.

The traditional method had a shorter casting time, however it was hard to remember and practice while the new method was slower to cast, but was easier to remember and practice. After thinking about it for a long time, Suo Jia finally came to a conclusion; he would have to use his own method to cast spells!

As far as Suo Jia was concerned, all 18 spells of the Laws of Water were pretty much the same. The Moisture Technique was fine, and so was the Swamp Technique! They all used the same 6 pointed star formation and also used the same water symbols! The only major differing parts were the sections that didn’t overlap with each other.

Quickly drawing out the formation and the accompanying water symbols, Suo Jia filled in the symbol for the Moisture Technique soon after. Immediately…a fine rain began to drizzle down, as if the spring rain had come early.

Quelling his excitement, Suo Jia drew the foundation of the spell once more with the water symbols. And soon after, according to his memory, he drew the symbol for the Swamp Technique right on top of the diagram!

”Shuaa!” At the very instant when Suo Jia drew the final symbol, a soft echo was heard as he suddenly felt powerless. There was no response after that, so as he looked around his surrounding environment with doubt, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Embarrassed, Suo Jia scratched his head, he knew that this time, he had failed.

Continuing to watch and draw using the two methods, he began to think about the probability of success for the new method he came up with. Although there was a problem with how it could exist as a method, Suo Jia knew that wasn’t the reason why he didn’t succeed in casting the Swamp Technique; it was because the way he was writing and casting the spell wasn’t the standard way of doing so.

”Kyaaa!” As Suo Jia was internally despairing, a shriek was suddenly heard echoing throughout the training floors. As he looked up in shock, he could only see a chubby girl with a face full of fear as she stared at her own feet and continued to scream non-stop.

Puzzled about what was happening under the girl’s feet, he looked at both of her legs. Her legs had already been sucked into the ground, and although she was pulling at herself with all her strength, she was unable to pull herself out.

Fortunately, she wasn’t stuck too deeply, and the girls around her extended their arms to help. With a strenuous amount of effort, she was pulled out. However both of the girl’s shoes had remained stuck in the ground!