After fiercely condemning the damn pay-to-win system in his heart, Ron began thinking about the next main quest—
Organize a Magic Duel tournament.
Right now, Element Cards already have a large audience, but the number of people who actually played Magic Duels was probably still quite small.
The first reason was that not everyone had studied magic.
Although Magic Duels were essentially just a card game wrapped in the skin of "magic," leveraging the "magic" IP—
Most people would already be discouraged just by seeing the word "magic," without even bothering to understand it further.
After all, many of them had likely been stumped by some obscure magical theory before.
It was like failing calculus in the past, and then someone telling you there's a fun strategy game about calculus—you probably wouldn't be very interested.
The second reason was that the Magic Codex for Magic Duels was too difficult to memorize.
There were over fifty different spells, with intricate relationships of mutual generation and restraint, along with compound spells formed through combinations.
Even though this had already been simplified to the extreme compared to the full magic system, for those not good at such games, playing Magic Duels was basically torture.
And even if you painstakingly memorized the Magic Codex, you still needed an opponent of equal strength. Otherwise, you wouldn't experience the fun of a duel at all.
Playing against someone who had to keep flipping through the codex while making moves would mean waiting several minutes for each turn—what's the point of playing like that?
It was like a top student painstakingly explaining a solution process to a struggling student, only for the latter to not absorb anything and instead fixate on one question:
"Why did you say this angle is 90 degrees at the start?"
The top student sighs and taps the problem: "Because the question states it's a right angle!"
That's what happens when there's a mismatch in ability.
Fortunately, the requirements for the main quest weren't too outrageous.
More than 100 participants and more than 1,000 spectators.
Not too high, but not too low either.
Because the current players of Magic Duels were basically nobles with a foundation in magic.
And getting nobles to participate in a seemingly meaningless competition was obviously much harder than getting them to spend money on Element Cards.
So the first thing Ron needed to do was make Magic: Duels feel meaningful.
At the same time, he needed to find ways to expand his audience.
Even if it was harder for commoners to learn, it would still be fine as long as they could watch.
Don't understand it?
Ron himself didn't even play LOL in his previous life, but he still enjoyed watching matches—because of the flashy skills and the dramatic disappearing health bars, which created strong visual stimulation.
So for Magic Duels, he needed to think of ways to amplify certain gameplay elements through other means to enhance the audience's sensory experience.
For example, each player could have three green lights above their head. Whenever they were hit by an opponent, one green light would instantly turn red, accompanied by a sharp "beep."
This kind of sensory stimulation would give spectators a different kind of excitement compared to the players.
Besides that, there were probably other methods—he could discuss it later with Kiel and hear what this business genius had in mind.
Thinking about it this way, this main quest didn't seem that difficult after all.
He also wondered what exactly the reward "Devouring Magic Bamboo" would be.
It sounded pretty powerful.
At present, aside from this main quest, there was only one side quest left—with the reward "Phantom Willow Seeds"—which required making hotpot restaurants popular throughout the entire Empire.
That would probably take quite a long time to complete.
Ron wasn't counting on it for now.
In any case, Mia and Lyle had been steadily pushing things forward. His Spice Pine seasoning could be supplied in bulk at any time, and the Gold Reserve Bank had plenty of funds.
In the next few days, hotpot restaurants in the northern and eastern regions should begin opening one after another.
He could just check on their progress when he had time.
Aside from Element Cards and hotpot restaurants, the main focus now was the "Element Potato."
Ron took a light blue leaf and a pale yellow leaf, put them into his mouth, and chewed.
Soon, he felt a refreshing coolness in his mind, as if he could cast magic with just a glance.
An increase in casting speed…
Ron quietly savored the sensation before chewing the tender leaves thoroughly and swallowing them.
The taste was slightly bitter, but not unbearable. If it could temporarily enhance one's strength in dangerous situations, no one would care about that.
However, while temporarily improving magic's power, speed, and precision were all great effects, for Ron, none of them were as important as one thing—
Element Potatoes replacing elemental stones.
He had many ideas from his previous world, but due to his limited knowledge, differences like this world, and issues like the production and cost of elemental stones—
All of his ideas had been rejected by Illya.
The root cause, in the end, was that elemental stones were too scarce.
So if Element Potatoes could truly replace elemental stones, then for Ron, it would be equivalent to gaining access to an infinite energy source.
After all, once the cultivation space was unlocked, it essentially became a free farming base—and far more reliable than certain farms, at least no one would come steal the crops.
By then, with a continuous supply of Element Potatoes, it would be like he controlled his own elemental stone mine.
Of course, at this stage, he couldn't actually use Element Potatoes to disrupt the monopoly of elemental stones on the market.
First, there was only one cultivation space per element. Even with accelerated time flow, the total daily production would still be limited.
Second, the industry chain behind elemental stones—from mining to transportation to sales—was extremely complex. It wasn't something he could afford to provoke right now.
For now, self-sufficiency was enough.
His visit to the Magic Academy today was simply to consult Illya—to see whether there were any functional or structural differences between Element Potatoes and elemental stones that he might have overlooked.
At the same time, he wanted to check on Harper, who had been severely injured in the previous laboratory explosion.
When the carriage arrived at the academy entrance, Ron got down and entered. He didn't find Harper in the infirmary; the staff on duty said he had already recovered.
Thinking about it, that made sense. After receiving treatment from the Vice Principal—a legendary elf—and with Ron's Scalevine leaves for recovery, healing within a few days was normal.
So Ron left the infirmary and headed to the experimental zone.
The lab that had exploded earlier had already been rebuilt, but he didn't find Harper there.
He went to Edith in Professor Hicks' laboratory and asked about Harper's whereabouts.
"Him…" Edith looked troubled. "Ever since he woke up, he's been a bit overexcited. He even went to the Principal's office—no idea what he said."
"But after coming out, he completely changed. He became quiet, barely speaks, and doesn't even stay in the lab anymore."
"He's probably at the cemetery halfway up the mountain right now."
"The cemetery?" Ron was surprised.
But he didn't ask further. After saying goodbye to Edith, he headed toward the cemetery.
The first trial meditation potion using Nether Orchid as the main ingredient had been made by Harper.
The new explosive potion using Crimson-Gold Chrysanthemum as a stabilizer had also been researched by Harper.
And the foundational studies on Scalevine, scale leaves, and other plants had all been done by Harper for free.
Over these days, Harper had helped him a lot.
Even though Ron now had his own laboratory at the Royal Capital Magic Academy, since something seemed to have happened to Harper, he naturally had to check in and show concern.
He made his way to the cemetery, and from afar, he could already see Harper's back.
Harper stood in the small square at the cemetery entrance.
In front of the square stood a massive rectangular stone monument, engraved with the names of one renowned mage after another.
Harper just stood there blankly, looking up at the names of those predecessors.
Walking up, Ron patted Harper on the shoulder. He didn't speak immediately, just signaling that he was there.
Harper glanced at Ron, his eyes flickering slightly, before looking back up at the monument.
"If something's troubling you, just say it. I'll do my best to help if I can. Standing here wasting time like this isn't much use."
Harper shook his head, remaining silent—completely unlike his usual straightforward self.
"I heard from Edith that you went to the Principal's office, and came out like this. What did the Principal say to you?"
Harper's lips moved slightly, but he still said nothing.
"Let me guess," Ron said casually. "Edith said you were unusually excited right after waking up. That means you must have discovered something during that explosion?"
Harper glanced at Ron again, hesitating to speak.
"That explosion destroyed several labs, and even a prodigy like you nearly got killed. That shows just how dangerous the experiment was."
"So the Principal forbade you from continuing that line of research?"
Harper shook his head, hesitated, then nodded, and finally sighed. "It's nothing… maybe I really am too crazy… just stop guessing…"
Ron stared at Harper with a faint smile. "I don't think that's what you really believe."
"I don't understand this field much, but you can still tell me. Even if it's just to vent."
"Experiments are inherently risky. Your persistence isn't necessarily wrong, and the Principal banning you for everyone's safety—including yours—also isn't necessarily wrong."
"It's just a difference in perspective."
Harper fell silent for a moment, then looked up at the monument again and said:
"I believe that in that explosion, I caught a glimpse of the controllability of reversing magic power back into elements."
"I think my line of thinking is correct—but I currently have no way to prove it properly."
"The only way is to keep repeating the previous explosion and search for the answer within it."
"But the Principal thinks that's too dangerous and too absurd."
"Because the irreversibility of magic power is one of the fundamental principles of the magical world. It serves as the foundation—even the cornerstone—of countless magical theories."
"These theories have functioned up to now without any flaws."
"So the irreversibility of magic power should naturally hold."
"Even I… still hold that view."
"But…"