Close Combat Mage

Chapter 165 - Is This Showing Love? Part 1

Despite seeing the dumbstruck group of girls, Suo Jia’s expression was completely undisturbed. He tossed the small bottle in his hand, and narrowed his eyes, “You don’t need to be that shocked. Our objective is the Greater Trade Routes, so using some unusual things is to be expected.”

Suo Jia suddenly raised his head to stare hard at the girls in front of him and said, “Originally, I had prepared to go out with you all this time to practice. However, I’ve changed my mind. Our most important task right now is to earn money to maximize equipment. Once every one of us possesses a set of Legendary ranked or higher equipment, it will be time for me to leave.”

The girls’ eyes all lit up at Suo Jia’s words. At first, these words didn’t seem very significant or amazing; wasn’t it just a set of Legendary ranked equipment? However, when considered closely, they realized just how ridiculous this was.

Suo Jia’s one set was different from other’s. He included jewelry, armor, weapons, and anything that carried magic cores within them. Otherwise, how could the Angelic Six Winged Phoenixes’ currently worn sets be said to be incomplete?

Ten sets of armor and weapons were already together. It wasn’t only above Legendary ranked, but even half an Epic ranked. However, this didn’t include high-grade jewelry, so it couldn’t be called complete in Suo Jia’s mind.

But the question now was, aside from the Fire Phoenix set, no other magic equipment specially created for the fire wind girls to simultaneously boost the fire and wind attributes existed in this world. Suo Jia knew that if he wanted to gain such things, then he had to go find a blacksmith and create them from scratch!

All magic armor and weapons were crafted by a blacksmith; this was without question. However, all pieces of jewelry were made by alchemists, and all potions were created by mage apothecaries with Enchantment Zhiyao. If one wanted to obtain something, they’d have to go find the appropriate person to do so.

Originally, Suo Jia had prepared to adventure with the girls. But he knew that he had to first resolve the problem with these pieces of jewelry. Although alchemy still existed, learning it wasn’t a mainstream practice. During the last world war, too many alchemy techniques had been lost. There were no longer any people that could create outstanding and superior grade alchemy products anymore.

Although Suo Jia could still technically bring the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes adventuring through the Greater Trade Routes, this was too rushed. Lacking an entire set of jewelry to aid them meant their strength would have a gap of two times, or even greater. In addition, their training speed would slow down by twofold. This wasn’t a result that Suo Jia wanted to witness.

Moreover, Suo Jia had also considered other things in his decision to stay behind. Firstly, he hadn’t yet managed to gather all the pieces of the Atlantis equipment set. Secondly, the Fire Phoenix set hadn’t been completed either. Thirdly, he hadn’t yet earned enough money. Fourthly…he had prepared to test out some alchemy techniques. If he could learn it, he would be able to customize a set of jewelry according to the girls’ measurements and unique traits.

And the last reason, as well as the most important one, was that Suo Jia didn’t think that he could follow the current Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes; their speed was just too fast. They were able to rush through routes of thousands of miles in just a single week. As a water mage, Suo Jia couldn’t possibly keep up with them. Thus, Suo Jia had already decided that once he broke through to the Great Mage realm, he’d be able to go out and travel.

Suo Jia stressed, “Also, you will continue to deliver goods for me. Within a short amount of time, you need to earn as much money as possible, and raise your strength to the greatest level. At the same time…raise your levels as a merchant group, mercenary group, and thief group!”

“Ah!” The girls all cried out in astonishment. After staring blankly at Suo Jia for a while, #1 murmured, “Young Master, our current levels of strength are still too low. There’s no way we can become a good merchant bodyguard group. If we try again, we’ll be faced with the same problems we did before.”

“Hmph!” With a snort, Suo Jia coldly said, “There’s no way that would happen. This time… you don’t even need to escort them. Your first and foremost task will be to earn more money. That’s why…you won’t be escorting mercenary groups, but acting as thieves. I want you to steal as much as possible without stopping! Hehe…it’s no big deal, looting the money is much faster.”

“But…” #1 frowned and said in concern, “If nobody protects the merchant group, then they’ll be completely helpless when they encounter thieves. Aside from running, they won’t be able to do anything else!”

“Hehe…” With a dark chuckle, Suo Jia said, “You don’t need to do anything. Once a thief group tries to steal from a merchant group, you can just let them go as long as you hire people to run after their trail. Then immediately put up a mercenary flag, and go ahead and decimate the thieves, as well as steal all their hidden loot. Don’t they love to steal? In that case, we should also let them taste the experience of being stolen from!”

“Wa!” The girls cried out in excitement. That’s right… how could they have forgotten that? They were not only members of a merchant group, but also of a thief group and a mercenary group as well. No matter who they were faced against, they could just keep stealing, and stealing, and stealing…

Seeing the girls’ jubilant expressions, Suo Jia smiled and said, “Remember, the most important thing is to hoard money. Being a mercenary group is just a pretense. Normally, if you don’t have anything else to do, you must go steal from other merchant groups. An endless business like this will earn the most money. And if our merchant group gets looted, you will immediately kill your way to the thieves’ den, decimate all of them, and take all their belongings!”

“Mm, mm, mm…” All the girls excitedly nodded in response. If they did this, they would be able to fight endlessly every day. That way, they would not only gain battle experience, but raise their strength as well. Most importantly, the profits they could earn from this endless business were too great.

While all the girls were thinking this, Suo Jia walked to the side of the wall, and used his finger to point to an enormous map that hung there. “Everyone, look at this. The three cities Glory City, Tidal Granary City, and White Fields City, are all strategic commerce towns. They are the central hubs of communications in all of Holy Light Empire, as well as the most flourishing areas in the entire world. The income of all three cities makes up over 60% of all of Holy Light Empire’s economy!”

“Mm, mm, mm…” The girls nodded in agreement. After all, they had run quite a few trips around the cities to deliver goods, so they at least knew this basic knowledge.

Suo Jia continued, “Glory City is the center core of Holy Light Empire, and is definitely the center of trade, the gathering area of the entire world’s goods and merchandise. It then dispatches and spread the goods to all over the world. Every day, tens of thousands of merchant groups enter and exit that city!”

Tidal Granary City was Holy Light Empire’s sole port city, where shipping and transporting goods were extremely well developed; they distributed goods to all parts of the empire. However, they had higher requirements for their merchandise, so the types of goods they accepted were limited. On the other hand, the quality was definitely high. In addition, they were all expensive in value, and when shipped across distant seas, the goods that were returned in exchange were luxury goods with superior quality, and thus also extremely expensive.

White Fields City was a city in Holy Light Empire’s border region. This place was a strategic commercial city between Holy Light Empire and other empires and dukedoms. The entire world’s goods were also transported here, and then sold to neighboring kingdoms of various sizes. At the same time, it admitted the influx of merchandise from abroad as well.

“Pa!” After abruptly slamming his hand onto the map, Suo Jia pointed to the drawing and said, “Glory City, Tidal Granary City, and White Fields City form a perfect triangle. What you girls need to do is to take control of all three trade routes. I hope that in half a year, nobody will dare to even touch the flag attached to our merchant caravans. At the same time…whenever any merchant group passes through any of the three routes, they will have to pay us a fee!”

Suo Jia then turned around and asked the girls, “How about it? Are you girls able to complete this request?”

#1 silently stood up and said resolutely, “We don’t know if we can complete Young Master’s request after half a year. However…I can guarantee that any thief group that tries to steal from our merchant group will be completely decimated. Any mercenary groups that pass through the three main routes will become our inescapable targets!”

They continued to discuss this throughout the night. At dawn, Suo Jia finally ordered them to go rest. He sat within the secret room, contemplating the situation further. Although he had already thought through these plans ages ago, it was still, after all, a huge movement. It wouldn’t do if he was careless.

In accordance to Suo Jia’s ideas, these girls would set these three cities as their objectives. They would rob the merchant groups near here, and then after looting them, deliver the goods to the city behind them. Aside from the required fee of paying Holy Light City 20% of their income, they’d have a net profit of 80%. They would even save the costs of purchasing the goods.

At the same time, the merchant group would form three large groups for cargo transportation and circulate through the three cities to trade goods. They wouldn’t have escorts; they’d just stick up the banner of the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes. If any thief group dared to steal from them, there wouldn’t be any need to resist; as long as they secretly trailed the thieves and located their hideout, everything would work out. All the people involved in the looting would be killed. The entire thief group had to be completely eradicated.

That way, although they only had 36 representatives, they could simultaneously raise their levels as a merchant, thief, and mercenary group. This would make Suo Jia’s great objective of taking over the Gold Triangle come true.

“Bang bang bang…” A heavy knocking sound could be heard from outside the door. Suo Jia knew that this meant the girl had arrived. He took a deep breath and called, “Come in, the door is unlocked!”