Close Combat Mage
Chapter 302: This Way, As Expected Pt. 1

Chapter 302 – This Way, As Expected Pt. 1

The idea of the Great Frost Wyrm pulling the chariot was immediately rejected by Suo Jia. Based on its current strength, it couldn’t possibly maintain its Diamond Dragon state for long. Didn’t that require using up magic power too? The little creature would soon use up all its energy, and would be unable to walk very far.

Suo Jia took a deep breath and gestured for the three people to leave. Afterwards…he sat cross-legged on a cushion, and continued to ponder this nonstop. After thinking about it back and forth, he finally sighed. It looked like…the only thing he could do was to create a simple magic automaton and use that to pull the chariot.

Ever since he’d first obtained the magic automatons, Suo Jia had been researching them this whole time. At the present, although Suo Jia still couldn’t create any powerful magic automatons, making a simple one to pull a chariot would be too easy. As long as it could move, it would be fine. Once one understood the principle, even a three year old child would be able to do it.

According to the conventional theories, Suo Jia quickly create a simple, humanoid magic automaton. Its body, head, arms, and legs had been made with everything needed available. Its two arms were connected to the chariot shaft, and its feet were planted on the ground. Once a magic core was embedded within to provide it power for propulsion, the automaton’s legs would be able to move, so it would be able to pull the chariot forwards.

However, Suo Jia soon discovered a problem. Although the bipedal humanoid automaton could pull the chariot, it was too simple and crude to have the ability to control balance. The automaton was originally not very balanced, so if it pulled the chariot, it would probably end up pulling it down a cliff.

To resolve this difficult issue, Suo Jia directly added another two legs to the automaton. At first glance it looked somewhat like a spider. It had four legs, but possessed the body, head, and arms of a human.

Suo Jia shook his head with a dry smile as he looked at the strange automaton. However…although it looked more on the uglier side, and was a tad odd, the support of the four legs indeed made it very stable. It wouldn’t sway from side to side and fall over. When the four legs moved, they could go in any direction extremely steadily.

Suo Jia felt slight disappointment at the sight of the four sharp-legged, spider-like magic automaton with a human body and head. He had never imagined that his first ever magic automaton creation in his lifetime would be this kind of freak. However…for the sake of dealing with the challenges ahead, he had no choice but to do this no matter how dissatisfied he was.

At the moment, this automaton was extremely crude. At a quick glance, it looked like it was a ton of worn out iron rods welded together, but…although it was rough, Suo Jia could guarantee that this automaton had definitely been created based on the most fundamental principles of the magic automaton creation art. Although such a basic thing was extremely simple, it also meant that it couldn’t possibly go wrong.

Despite the fact that it had many flaws, and was very rudimentary—aside from moving, it didn’t have any other abilities—it had some strong points. For example, it was simple, sturdy, stable, durable, hard to damage, hard to breakdown…

Pleased, Suo Jia pulled out the remaining sandworm skin and used a glue specifically for alchemy to stick this extremely tough and durable leather onto the outside of the magic automaton. Even its four sharp feet weren’t left out. Once the entire magic automaton was covered in the thousand year sandworm leather, it no longer seemed like a machine at a single glance, but rather more like a living magical beast!

Although the inside was exceptionally basic, once the leather covered that funny-looking inner composition, the strange model instead emitted a faint sinister aura, like the resurrection of an ancient magic god.

“Hehe…” Suo Jia smugly smiled. In order to strengthen the effects, Suo Jia added two sharp and piercing horns that stuck up backwards from the back of the magic automaton’s head. The reason he added these was simple; didn’t great dragons all have a pair of these things? Since they had them, how could Suo Jia’s magic automaton not?

Suo Jia’s heart suddenly stirred. A great dragon only had two horns. In order to increase effectiveness, he might as well put 3 horns on the magic automaton; wouldn’t that make it look mightier? Suo Jia excitedly busied himself. Soon after, a third sharp horn was slanted up backwards from the magic automaton’s forehead.

Suo Jia grew more and more excited at the sight of the crown-like, awe-inspiring horns pointing towards the back. He added long, piercing horns on the left and right shoulders of it as well. These didn’t really have any practical use, but it undoubtedly made it look more impressive!

Suo Jia was just that kind of person. Once something caught his interest, nothing could stop him. After he finished adding the horns to the shoulders, he shifted his focus on the automaton’s four sharp feet. Suo Jia added a piercing barb on each sharp foot that stretched from the tip of the foot to outside the knee. The barb gradually increased in length.

Finally, Suo Jia retracted his hands in satisfaction, and a magic god descended. Although it was still just something that pulled a chariot, its visual effects were enough to stun anyone!

Suo Jia studied the clear, awe-inspiring fellow and after some thought, firmly decided, “Hehe…this is the first magic automaton I’ve ever made, so I should give it a name. Yea…from today onwards, it’ll be called Baltic!”

Suo Jia pulled out a fire elemental magic core, preparing to inlay it in a spell array. As long as the magic core was fixed, the magic automaton would have the power of propulsion, and would be able to officially move around.

Suo Jia opened the hidden door on Baltic’s back. Just as he was about to set the fire elemental magic core, he suddenly changed his mind. Since it was being used to pull a chariot, the earth elemental monster core was obviously better to use. Moreover…this automaton was his first, so he had to use something better.

Suo Jia returned the fire elemental monster core back into his bag, and pulled out the thousand year sandworm monster core. Without any hesitation, he set it in the spell array on the automaton’s back.

The automaton’s propulsion was dependent on transforming the energy within the spell array’s monster core. The entire array allowed a total of six monster cores to be embedded: earth, water, fire, wind, light, dark, every type. At the same time…one could also set a main crystal in the center position. This crystal would set the magic automaton’s overall attribute.

Suo Jia thought about it for a bit then pressed the thousand year sandworm monster core into the spell array, the center of the hexagram. Then…he pulled out another six crystals of various types. Although these weren’t high ranked crystals, they were enough to propel Baltic.

After every monster core had been put into place, Baltic’s eyes suddenly lit up. With a flash of emerald light, Baltic’s body seemed to come to life as it lightly moved around. It was a pity that…Suo Jia knew that currently, this was just some machine. It couldn’t possibly gain its own consciousness yet.

When he looked at Baltic blankly standing in front of him, Suo Jia inwardly decided that in the future, he’d definitely gather six elemental peak-grade monster cores. With the push of these peak-grade cores, Baltic would be able to display an extreme amount of strength.

Of course, just monster cores weren’t enough. Suo Jia would also have to continue researching the art of magic automaton creation, and continue modifying Baltic to perfection. Otherwise, no matter how much power it had, it wouldn’t be able to display its full strength, and would just be useless.

Suo Jia completely inspected the entire war chariot and Baltic one more time. Although he wanted to immediately go research the art of automaton creation and alter Baltic, Suo Jia knew that he couldn’t skip straight to the end. Everything had to progress slowly. Currently, the most important part was passing through this crisis!

Half an hour later…

Under Suo Jia’s urge, Xiang Yun, Nicole, and Roger packed up their bags and entered Suo Jia’s chariot. Once they saw that the inside of such a small chariot actually had so much space, they endlessly sighed as they let out praises of admiration.

Suo Jia’s abilities had indeed far surpassed everyone’s expectations. In such a short amount of time, he had not only created a chariot from scratch, he’d also made a controllable magic automaton. In addition…the tiny-looking chariot actually had 40 ping of space, an unfathomable thought. With this chariot, passing through the Thorn Mice Plains was an easy matter.