Close Combat Mage

Chapter 36 – To Advance By Leaps And Bounds

Seeing Suo Jia’s fearful expression, the tears of the six red cloaks fell more violently. Each and every one of them looked at Suo Jia with big watery eyes that were both pleading and bitter, not saying a single word.

Suo Jia slowly calmed down after seeing this scene. Looking over them carefully, Suo Jia’s entire body began to shake violently. These six people in red cloaks were people he knew!

That’s right, these six people in red cloaks were those amongst the group of 36 fire wind warrior sisters. The one Suo Jia was most familiar with was the girl in red. She was amongst them, but even recognizing her took Suo Jia a long time.

Compared to three months ago, their appearances didn’t change much but… their faces that were originally covered with a hint of healthy red blush had completely changed.

After three months, those spiderweb-like red lines on their face had all cracked open, exposing the flesh under their skins on all sides of their faces. It seemed that after a long period of exposure to fire, the flesh under those cracks had already turned purple in color. The slightest hint of blood and colorless fluid could be seen flowing out from the cracks. Even ghosts weren’t as scary as them!

The six faces Suo Jia saw in front of him were uglier and more disgusting than a ghost’s. When compared with the sweet and charming girls from three months ago, Suo Jia could not believe that these girls were the same people. The difference was much too large!

Swallowing his saliva with difficulty, Suo Jia said in a rough voice: “What have you girls been doing the past three months? Why didn’t you come to get moisturized? If you had continued to do so, your conditions wouldn’t be so disastrous.”

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, the girls cried even harder, and one by one, they began to wail loudly. After a long time, the red clad girl opened her mouth to reply, “Our lecturer brought us to the magic beast forest to enter a 3 month long strength training. Thus, we turned into these states. You definitely have to save us!”

Laughing bitterly, Suo Jia said helplessly, “How do you want me to save you guys? Your skins have already been wounded to this extent; it is not something that can be recovered with a Moisture Technique. Also, I’m sure that the conditions of your bodies are not any better than that of your faces!”

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, the six girls suddenly began to tremble. It was very obvious that what Suo Jia had said was correct. Although they had been wearing clothes to cover their bodies [when exposed to the fires], how much use could clothes really be? Even though the states of their bodies were much better than the states of their faces, the skin on their bodies had also completely split open.

In reality, the reason they had worn cloaks was not for the sake of covering their faces. Once the skin on their bodies had been completely split open, they could no longer wear clothes that stuck closely to their skins. Even clothes made from soft fabrics would irritate their wounds with unbearable pain. The most important point was that once the fabrics mixed with the blood, the clothes would stick to their skins. At that point, if they wanted to remove their clothes, they would have to rip off their skin too!

The people outside didn’t know, but in reality, underneath their large cloaks, they weren’t wearing a stitch of clothing. Although fire-wind warriors were the continent’s strongest existences, they were forced to pay unimaginable prices to achieve their power!

Coldly looking at the six girls in front of him, Suo Jia said indifferently. “It’s not that I’m unwilling to help you, but with my current magic power, I can only heal one wound with the power contained in one Moisture Technique spell. You girls calculate it yourselves: how many wounds do you have all over your bodies? How can I possibly help you?”

“Moreover, even if I was willing to help you, so what? My power alone still has limits. At most, I can slow down the wounds’ progress. Ultimately, it will still result in your current appearances!” Suo Jia continued.

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, the six sisters were at a loss. It was true… even if Suo Jia was willing to wholeheartedly help them, he alone would not be able to fix the situation. Perhaps Suo Jia could help maintain one girl’s appearance; even if his power was enough, helping two girls was the limit. However, there were actually 36 sisters; how could he split his powers?

If Suo Jia simultaneously looked after all 36 sisters, then it would be as Suo Jia had stated previously. Even though he would be able to delay the wounds’ progression, under their training circumstances, they would soon revert back to their current appearances. It was only the difference of it happening slightly earlier or slightly later.

Seeing the six dumbstruck girls, Suo Jia let out a sigh, and said helplessly. “Today, I will help cast the Moisture Technique once on each of you sisters. I will not accept your money. Also, in the future, you should not look for me here, as I will no longer set up a vendor’s booth at this location.”

When they heard Suo Jia, the six girls desperately looked at one another. They did not accept Suo Jia’s kindness; instead they stood up like zombies and left the tent silently. They understand that the situation was pointless, as one Moisture Technique would only make them feel comfortable and reduce one crack only; there was not much use behind it.

Seeing the six girls leave blankly, Suo Jia closed his eyes in pain. Even though he pitied them in his heart, Suo Jia could not help them for no real cause or reason. They lost their appearances to trade for formidable power, and if Suo Jia helped them, he would not gain anything from it. This would be too unfair!

Even if Suo Jia actually did want to help, he was unable to. With just him alone, helping 36 girls would not show any results even if he was worked to death. Since that was the case, he might as well dissipate their vain attempts. If they didn’t have any hopes, then they would be able to live their lives with less regrets.

After the six girls had left, Suo Jia once again continued his work. The rest of the day went by smoothly, but Suo Jia’s heart was unable to calm down. He kept thinking back to his encounter with the group of beautiful girls, and Suo Jia could not help but feel pity for them.

With his new model of activation, Suo Jia recorded that within the entire day, he had moisturized 1000 customers and earned 1000 gold. In only one day, he had earned enough money for a month’s worth of living expenses. When Sixth Sister carried the huge bag of gold coins back home, all the girls including Eldest Sister could not help but gape at it with their mouths wide open. This money had been earned even faster than if it had been stolen!

However, the puzzling thing was that despite earning so much money, Suo Jia was strangely depressed. After finishing his plentiful dinner, Suo Jia returned to his room very early, and locked himself inside. Nobody knew what he was doing. Everyone thought that Suo Jia was simply tired, and left him be.

However in reality, Suo Jia was not tired. In fact, because his spirit power and magic power had been raised greatly by the Exhaustion Training Method, despite activating 1000 Moisture Techniques in succession today, he did not feel the slightest bit tired. The reason he was depressed was because of the pitiful six sisters in red. He could only sigh as he remembered how powerless he was in front of those girls.

What should be mentioned is that the Exhaustion Training Method cannot be practiced in succession; doing so would cause the body to collapse. Performing it once a week was the most reasonable pace, and also provided the best results. So throughout the day, Suo Jia had relied only on his first use of the Exhaustion Training Method.

The night passed uneventfully. The second morning, since Suo Jia had slept early, he naturally woke up early. Walking onto the balcony, he faced the rising sun, and stretched his waist lazily. Seeing the lush green trees in the distance, Suo Jia’s mood finally improved a bit.

As he was enjoying his time, Suo Jia suddenly discovered that in the direction of the fake mountain, it looked like there were many people moving. Moreover… that place seemed to have a pile of products. What were they doing?

Pondering for a bit, Suo Jia understood the situation. A few days ago, he had ordered Eldest Sister to contact a carpenter and build a wooden house. It seemed that the construction had already begun! While thinking this, Suo Jia impatiently changed his clothes, went downstairs, and flew towards the construction area.

Arriving in front of the construction area, he discovered that those swaying figures he had seen from the distance were surprisingly the six maid sisters and his mother. At that moment, the seven females were standing next to the construction site, gesturing at the site while talking. As for the workers, they had not yet arrived. The morning was still young, and the earliest they would begin arriving would be after breakfast time.

Seeing Suo Jia arrive, his mother’s eyes lit up, and said happily. “Suo Jia, this idea of yours is really a great one. Living in a wooden house is both healthy and refreshing, and with such an environment, it is really too awesome. You definitely have to let Mother stay in the room facing the flowing waterfall!”