308 I Can Do Whatever I Want Because I’m Rich! (1/2)
”My fireball will tear you apart!”
”Ha! Taste my gunfire!”
In Arlo's arena, a high-level mage was dueling with a ranger. Normally speaking, the ranger would continuously adjust the distance and angle between them, making all sorts of fancy movements to dodge the mage's spells in order to find a chance at landing a winning attack. However, if the ranger happened to have a steed, the ranger would have an even greater advantage in mobility and the number of their attacks.
Meanwhile, the typical tactics of a high-level mage were the opposite. The mage would cast a bunch of defensive magic spells on themselves and then summon a bunch of cannon fodder. They would finally balance attack and defense magic spells and search for a chance to defeat the opponent.
This was still a duel between an elf ranger and a mage. However, the spectators didn't really understand what was going on this time.
This purple-haired elf ranger wasn't wielding the elves' typical weapon, an enchanted longbow. Instead, this ranger was wielding a dwarven gun that the elves typically looked down upon as being unreliable—it would often self-destruct and explode. Nor was this ranger using a typical forest's holy unicorn as the steed. Instead, the ranger rode on a boomingly loud Iron Horse.
This royal elf [1]1 was wearing a black punk-style jacket and a leather cap. One hand skillfully controlled the Iron Horse in rapidly circling around the arena, jumping around, going up the wall, making sudden stops, standing on one wheel, and all sorts of other fancy tricks.
His other hand held a silver shotgun, and he continuously attacked his opponent whenever he saw an opening. Compared to dwarven firearms' typically lead bullets with low attack power, this gun used high-quality diamond bullets with an outer covering of silver and magic paint. The bullets glimmered in all different sorts of colors.
The handsome elf ranger seemed to be extremely confident in his own skills. His movements were quite smooth, and he would occasionally swing his shotgun in midair, causing the ammo to automatically reload. His hair that flowed in the wind made him look really cool. Many female audience members shrieked their support for him.
Yet the elf ranger's opponent didn't care about any of his actions. This mage clad in silver armor ignored all of the ranger's attacks and merely stood still. The mage casted all sorts of spells such as blizzard magic, frost magic, hail magic, and ice pillar magic. Lots of high-level area of effect magic spells rained down, as if this mage possessed limitless amounts of mana.
Meanwhile, the ranger's magical shotgun would shoot large holes into the arena's walls and ground with every missed bullet, but they merely bounced off the mage's armor with blinding sparks. Concurrently, the mage's constant bombardment of AOE magic caused the Iron Horse-riding ranger to have to dash all around the arena.
The ranger's attack power wasn't low at all. The Gold-ranked ranger Ade was already skilled enough with the shotgun to use the elves' special magic arrow techniques with it. The only reason the mage was able to ignore his attacks was that the mage's armor had a ridiculously high defense power.
The mage was wearing silver armor that covered his entire body. The fact that every last bit of skin was covered meant that nobody could even see his face. Under the obsidian crystal face mask was an expression that was as calm as still water. The armor's outer layer shone with a special glow that was unique to mithril. Magic enchantments on the armor provided it with an additional three protective layers of defense, while the attention-grabbing dragon crystal on the armor's chest emanated frighteningly powerful waves of mana. No matter how rich anyone was, they would all shout ”just where did this mega-rich person come from!” upon seeing such a suit of armor.
Also, the silver thorned rose emblem on the mecha armor's back doubtlessly indicated that this mecha armor was Thorn Garden's newest product: I Can Do Whatever I Want Because I'm Rich! #1. Yep, from a certain standpoint, this somewhat strange name I had given to this suit of mithril was the best explanation of its properties.
The mecha armor's internal batteries provided force, ice, and thunder; three different types of defensive layers. The thick armor was constructed entirely out of mithril, the best magical metal of all. These four combined layers of physical and magical defense caused Ade's magical diamond bullets to be unable to pierce the armor even the slightest bit. The bullets hit the armor in a continuous stream only to ricochet off of it. They were deflected by the magical barriers as well, causing Ade to become quite frustrated.
It was simple common sense that a duel when one side was completely unable to harm the other would mean that it would be one-sided. Unless something happened to overturn the situation, the popular elf ranger Ade, who was currently on a winning streak in the arena, was destined to lose.
”It's over!”
When Ade's Iron Horse drove over a layer of ice created by some blizzard magic, the wheels suddenly went skidding. Right when Ade lost control of his Iron Horse, a prison of ice descended upon him. Now that the elf was trapped with nowhere to go—an easy target for the mage's next major spell—Ade unhesitatingly rose his hands up in surrender.
”…That mage has won fifteen duels in a row. Even 'Blood Moon Hunter' Ade has lost to him, and it's still so one-sided. That armor is just ridiculous.”
In the Cloud Tower, the mages and warriors that loved to fight had the arena as one of their few source of entertainment. The arena was also one of the very few places where mages would actually gamble in the Mage Country. The Abo Arena was one such arena where countless duels would happen every day. The types of duels included training duels for gaining practical experience, duels to simply see who was better, duels between teacher and student for the purpose of teaching, and of course duels between enemies that were seriously trying to kill each other. However, today's duel was the most common type of duel, just a regular duel that spectators could gamble on who the winner would be.
A regular duel would mean that battles wouldn't be to the death, and both sides would be wagering something on it. This would help both sides gain combat experience as well as help the victor obtain tangible benefits and reputation. However, since most mages weren't interested in personally entering the arena, most arena duel participants were actually in warrior and ranger-type job classes despite this being the Mage Country. The participants of these duels were typically non-mage residents of the Mage Country or some mage's bodyguards.
The ranger Ade was the bodyguard of an royal elf prince. Ade was considered a famous ranger back in his hometown, and after he purchased an Iron Horse and magical shotgun from Thorn Garden, he was able to speedily learn a series of self-taught high-speed Iron Horse riding and shooting skills. Many of his opponents that actually had higher power level rankings than he did were all defeated by his high-speed, high-mobility attacking style.
However, after Ade reached ten consecutive victories, he met the most difficult opponent he had ever faced in the arena—this mage who wore a full-body mithril mecha armor. This mage's armor would make even a dragon seem poor in comparison.
The mage didn't need to pay any attention to his own positioning or cast any defensive magic spells. He merely had to stand there without moving in his heavy mecha armor, and none of his opponents in the arena had been able to break through its defense. Then, the mage would simply utter long magical incantations at his leisure and act as a stationary artillery. If the mage ran out of mana, he could even replenish his mana using the mecha armor's battery packs. With ridiculously high defense and nearly limitless mana, it was definitely a shameless tactic.
”Go, I'm Ridiculously Rich!”
”Be careful, a dragon might rob you when you go outdoors!”
The spectators were cheering on this newly rising arena star. ”I'm Ridiculously Rich” was the nickname that this mage signed up for arena battles with, and nobody knew the mage's real identity. Even though the mage was clearly using only Silver rank magic spells at best, he managed to forcefully defeat many powerful opponents, including two who were at the Legend rank!
If Ade's self-mastered, self-taught new techniques based on the new technology gave evidence that new technologies could improve combat strength, then I'm Ridiculously Rich proved an even more basic maxim of the world: the rich would always be the most powerful.
When this mage in the brilliantly shining silver armor strode back to his personal resting area in the arena, he suddenly collapsed on the ground, as the armor started venting large amounts of steam from its exhaust pipes.
Meanwhile, several gnome and goblin engineers had long since been ready and waiting. They immediately started working on the armor's maintenance. When the armor's helmet was removed, a younger face than one might expect was revealed underneath.
”Cohen, how do you feel?”
That's right, the real identity of ”I'm Ridiculously Rich” wasn't a high-level archmage. Instead, he was my acolyte, Cohen, a Four Elemental Swordcaster who barely even counted as a Silver ranker.
”…With a dragon crystal's mana replenishing my own mana, I can basically cast spells without ever running out of mana. But dragon crystals are so expensive…”
”No worries. Just have fun out there and treat it as valuable experience. As for the dragon crystal and other magical materials? Relax. Someone else is footing the bill for us.”
In my previous world, war was always the greatest stimulant for technological innovation. Only when humans were forced to the brink would they bring out their unreliable and untested technologies and think of methods to use these undeveloped technologies for slaughtering the enemy.
Magical engineering was a new area of science that was born as a result of war as well, and it, too, was destined to grow through war. The resulting products were immensely popular when I started selling them through Thorn Garden for the first time. For example, the two types of mechas which I named after elements from Star Wars, the Sith Warriors and Jedis, became highly accoladed right after I started selling them on the market.
I actually didn't expect how popular my Star Wars mechas would become. I hadn't even intended to make them the store's main products because although both mecha types greatly increased the pilot's mobility and defensive power, not to mention they were equipped with portable batteries, the fact of the matter was that they were still constructed out of ordinary metals. This would have an evident impact on the efficiency of casting spells. Although the Four Elemental Swordcasters and Magic Gunners that relied on ”outside help” for their magical combat strength could ignore the interference of metal on mana, pure mages obviously wouldn't find these Star Wars mechas to be the most efficient environment to cast magic spells in.
What I underestimated was… just how rich the mages were!
Indeed. Current technology was limited, but the mages' wealth was limitless. As long as I changed out every part in a Star Wars mecha to the highest quality materials available, there would be a huge difference in quality even if the blueprint for the mecha was identical. Ultimately, the highest quality materials were all magical. The resulting mecha armor would be on an entirely different level if all the parts were exchanged for the highest-quality magical materials.
Metal affected casting spells? Well, it wouldn't affect casting spells if it was the highest quality magic metal, mithril! This mecha armor was constructed entirely out of the best quality mithril crafted by master alchemists. Of course, it was just slightly more expensive than usual, approximately one hundred times more expensive than gold.
Lacking mana replenishment magic materials? What about equipping it with a basketful of dragon crystals! There were also plenty of phoenix feathers and great demon's hearts! We could even sell you giant wolf king skins by the dozen as long as you have the money. We were even capable of supplying inferno dragon eyes, which could only be found in the lower dimensions.
You don't know how to etch defensive magical spell arrays? Emblem of Endless Truth level enchanter archmages can do that for you. Would you like to have the spell ”Absolute Defense,” ”Precise Long-Distance Teleportation,” or ”Meteor Rain” etched into your personal mecha armor as defense spells? What? You only want to etch some four-circle magic spells? You dare to look down on us?