Close Combat Mage

Chapter 82 The Glove’s New Use Pt. 2

Before this, Suo Jia had discovered a total of three unique aspects about this dagger. The first was how comfortable it was to use, the second was its ‘one with the blade’ feeling, and the third was that it didn’t reflect light. However, Suo Jia had finally discovered the dagger’s greatest secret — its ability to completely suppress its aura!

When he waved this dagger, for some unknown reason, it made absolutely no sound. Even a fruit knife’s blade, which normally would stay silent, would have to generate some type of sound when brandished vigorously. However, this dagger seemed to completely conceal all sounds.

Suo Jia was certain that this dagger was definitely not a common object. Because it was so comfortable to use, it made the dagger easier to control. The ‘one with the blade’ feeling allowed the user to bring out more of its strength and inflict greater damage. The lack of reflection made it impossible for the enemy to detect the weapon because of its glint in the light.

As for its ability to suppress its aura, this was the most extraordinary part of all. When Suo Jia used it, there wasn’t much use in this characteristic. However, if a thief used it, it would be a completely different story. Because thieves are proficient in concealment skills, they could completely hide their body’s presence until the moment they attacked.

However, with this dagger, no matter what kind of attack is used, the user wouldn’t generate a single sound. As long as they concealed their bloodlust, then their victim would have absolutely no clue how they died.

This dagger seemed entirely normal to the average person, and had absolutely no use to them. However, if this dagger ended up in the hands of a thief, this would become an irreplaceable Divine artifact!

The dagger was definitely not a Legendary-ranked item; it wasn’t even an Ideal-ranked one. However it was very clear that this was definitely specially created by some thief ancestor based on the unique abilities of a thief. This dagger pretty much existed for the sake of thieves.

In this world, only a few geniuses could have the opportunity to become a warrior or mage. Majority of the people could only choose to become an adventurer or a thief. By experiencing endless battles, they would be able to comprehend their own battle techniques.

In terms of numbers, the thief population was the greatest. Even the combined total number of mages and warriors couldn’t even reach half of the number of thieves that exist. A thief’s weapons and equipment prices were also imbalanced.

The average weapons and equipment used by thieves had little value. However, once a high grade thief equipment appeared, its price would be beyond what people could ever imagine.

Since there were more clients, all thief weapons and equipment were overused, and were used to their maximum potential in their line of work. However, there were very few good items. The polarization between the two ends were extreme; in the entire market, 99 would be trash, and the remaining 1 would be a treasure that people would smash others’ heads for.

Thieves strongly value ancestral history. For a thief, it is highly possible that his/her family has been in the business for 8 generations. Thus, all weapons and equipment were passed down generation after generation; very few originate from an outer source. That’s why the good items in the realm of thieves are pretty much all held by a few thief families that have longer histories. People outside of these families were rarely able to see these items.

However, just because it was rare, didn’t mean that it wasn’t impossible to encounter them. These thief weapons that had left behind legacies in history could perhaps be unearthed from other areas, and thus have the chance to appear in the market. These items were fought over by all thief families.

The thief occupation didn’t have powerful combat abilities, only proficient abilities in concealment. It could be said that their strength had concealment as its base. Their attack and defense was entirely dependent on equipment. Without any equipment, they had virtually no ability to attack or defend at all.

Perhaps a thief would be able to kill a mere chicken with a fruit knife. However, with a dragon-slaughtering dagger, the thief would easily be able to kill dragons. This was the extent of a thief’s dependence on weapons and equipment.

Historically, people have always thought of thieves the same way; when they are faced with a defenseless enemy, a perfect thief can conceal themselves in the shadows and brandish a deadly sharp blade to fell a great dragon with absolutely no preparation!

Suo Jia began to tremble in excitement as he looked at the dagger in his hand. Of course, he wasn’t getting excited from nothing. In this world, the thieves’ occupation had the most treasures. Average, minor thieves put aside, which one of the ancestral and influential thief families didn’t have a chestful of quality items?

It has to be pointed out that no matter whether it’s a magical beast egg or the various items sold in auctions, since ancient times, the majority of these items were stolen by thieves, or treasure hunters from magical beast lairs. There were many places and many things that only thieves and treasure hunters could enter to gain such items. Any other occupation, no matter how valiant they are, can only look on powerlessly from the sidelines.

For example, the Holy Light Emperor’s crown was an Epic-ranked item that had been stolen by a thief from a dragon’s lair without 12 Black Dragons noticing. If it had been any other occupation, even if it were an Epic-ranked mage and warrior combined, they would definitely be unable to fight against 12 Black Dragons!

As Suo Jia looked at the dagger in his hands, he knew that this dagger was beyond important to a thief. It could increase their control over weapons, as well as their attack abilities and damage output. It also didn’t reflect any light. Most importantly, it could eliminate any sounds; when used to steal, it was impossible for one to do anything to prevent it!

However, Suo Jia knew that to a thief, a dagger’s sharpness was extremely important as well. If a thief was given a wooden blade, then how could he possibly kill a thick-skinned magical beast? Not only would the skin be impenetrable, the dagger would break as well. If this is the case, then what use would amazing concealment abilities be?

Closely examining the blade of the dagger, Suo Jia couldn’t help but frown. It was no good….it seemed that this dagger was not sharp at all. It was completely blunt. After some tests, he concluded that it even had difficulty cutting through a wooden chopstick. This…..

Shaking his head in disappointment, Suo Jia tried to cut the table with the dagger’s sharp point. In the end, it made Suo Jia feel more despair. Although it was still somewhat sharp, it was no different from a normal dagger. With Suo Jia’s power, it couldn’t cut through the 1 centimeter thick table at all.

Looking at the dusky dagger in his hand, Suo Jia could not help but inwardly feel regret. Although this dagger had many mystical abilities, it wasn’t very sharp. This made the dagger extremely disappointing. If it were only a bit sharper, this dagger would be a completely different story; its value would be immeasurable.

Wait!

Amidst his disappointment, Suo Jia’s eyes lit up as he thought of a possibility. Although….the dagger itself wasn’t sharp, what if it were activated along with battle qi?

Suo Jia knew that many weapons were not originally sharp; only after imbuing it with battle qi, would any results show. In reality, most warriors’ weapons were the same. After imbuing battle qi into their weapons, they would be able to completely overcome any obstacle. Without the battle qi, it was only a blunt blade.

While thinking of this, it raised Suo Jia’s last trace of hope. Unfortunately….Suo Jia didn’t have battle qi; he only had magic power, and magic power couldn’t be used to drive warrior weapons. Magic power could only drive magic staffs.

He helplessly threw dagger into the interspatial ring. He knew that if he wanted to see if the dagger could be driven by battle qi, he’d have to wait for the fire wind warriors to rush back. They were all able to use battle qi!

Suo Jia stood up, and looked outside. The sky had already begun to darken. Not daring to delay any longer, Suo Jia quickly left the small office room, and rushed over to the underwater training area. No matter what, he couldn’t abandon his training.

Soon after, Suo Jia had reached the training area. He first practiced the Moisture, Swamp, Ice Sphere, and the Glacial Armor Techniques. After he had finished warming up, he began to train in the Ice and Snow Pact. This was of the utmost importance.

The Ice and Snow Pact was really a method using the heart to combine existences. On the one hand, it used the subjective consciousness to sense, and on the other hand, it used the hands to control the ice’s spirits. While training, it seemed that there was an ash-blue cold stream constantly rising and spiraling around between his hands.

Just like the fire wind warriors, although Suo Jia trained in the ice elements, he still had to endure the attack of the frigid air. Ice and fire was similar; both were merciless, and didn’t differentiate friend from foe. No matter whether it was the caster or the enemy, both suffered from the same attack. You can control fire, but the fire will still burn you. You can control ice, but the ice will still freeze you!

It was precisely for this reason that training the Ice and Snow Pact was such a painful process. The lower the temperature, the more pain one had to endure. The pain of such frigidness was something that only others who had experienced it would be able to understand.

While training the Ice and Snow Pact, Suo Jia had tossed the cold stream back and forth between his hands. After wearing the blue glove, Suo Jia was delighted to discover that although it had no defensive capabilities, this glove could completely isolate the coldness. His right hand wearing the glove couldn’t feel that bone-chilling coldness of the stream.

In his delight, Suo Jia no longer tossed the stream back to his left hand, and kept it jumping around on his right hand. After a while, the bright blue ice stream began to leap up like a flame. Yet Suo Jia was completely unable to feel the pain of its frigidness.

“Could it be….that blocking temperature is the glove’s greatest characteristic? If it’s like this, then to those that train the Ice and Snow Pact, this is an absolute treasure!” Suo Jia thought ecstatically.

Lightly prodding the icy flame, and putting all of his effort into sensing the ice’s spirits, Suo Jia became completely absorbed into it. Once the coldness had stopped attacking Suo Jia, he had finally wholeheartedly connected with the ice spirits.

Ice spirits were really just a different form of ice element. People said that ice was sleeping water, and the ice spirits were really just uncommunicative water elements. Although the two had different names, in reality, ice and water were the same substance, just with different forms.

In other words, water was an awake person, while ice was a sleeping person. Where the exact differences were could only be understood through the Ice and Snow Pact. Once one was able to completely discern the exact differences between the two forms, then the peak of training in the Ice and Snow Pact had been reached.