The next morning followed the usual routine—morning training, sparring with Husky, then heading upstairs to shower and have breakfast.
With nothing urgent to do, Ron pulled Husky into a few rounds of Legendary Kill.
After this period of recovery, Husky's Battle Aura Vortex had begun to gradually repair itself.
It likely wouldn't be long before it could resume basic operation.
Additionally, thanks to the open and tolerant atmosphere of the City of Chaos, Husky had made some new friends.
Every evening, a few teaching assistants from the Royal Capital Magic Academy would gather in the tavern's second-floor tabletop room to play cards.
Occasionally, when they were short on players, they would invite staff members to join in.
After all, the tabletop room had been open for quite a while, and they were practically the only regulars.
So the staff would sometimes take on the role of "fill-in players."
But one time, one staff member was on leave, another was busy attending to a rare guest downstairs, and a third had been called away by Nora.
In the end, Husky was dragged in as the substitute that night.
And that… turned into a problem.
On the battlefield of Legendary Kill, Husky went on a rampage, showing no mercy whatsoever and completely disregarding the players' experience, winning again and again.
For some reason, the teaching assistants seemed to develop a strange tendency.
The more they were crushed by Husky, the more they wanted to play with him.
They didn't even care about the previously popular, cute female staff members anymore.
"Teaching the apprentice only to starve the master…" Ron sighed as he watched his three character cards get eliminated one by one.
Back in his previous life, he wasn't particularly skilled at games like this—just an average player.
Earlier, even though Husky had been improving steadily, Ron could still use tricky strategies to beat him.
But now, that no longer worked.
Husky had already learned all of Ron's tricks, and while Ron didn't have much time to study the game, Husky was getting nightly practice with those teaching assistants.
Unless luck was on his side, Ron was no longer Husky's opponent.
"Have you thought about what you'll do in the future?" Ron asked casually while shuffling the cards.
Husky clumsily helped with his wolf paws.
In this regard, Ron clearly had the advantage.
"I don't know," Husky answered honestly. "I'm the only one left. There's nothing I can do."
"I'm not asking about revenge," Ron corrected. "I mean, setting that aside—after staying here for a while, have you thought about doing anything else?"
"What do you mean?" Husky froze.
Although he often said that taking revenge against the Seven Red Fang Tribes and the Beastman Royal Court was nothing but a fantasy, the seed of vengeance still lay deep within him.
Reason just told him that now wasn't the time.
As for anything else?
What could be more important than avenging his people?
Ron didn't answer immediately and began dealing the cards.
A human trying to counsel a beastfolk—it felt a bit strange, no matter how you looked at it.
To Ron, Husky's life or death didn't really matter.
Once he recovered, he could leave at any time and pursue his revenge.
But that would be a waste.
Opposing the Red Fang Tribes and the Beastman Royal Court?
Even legendary-tier experts wouldn't entertain such thoughts.
That essentially meant standing against the entire beastfolk race.
"Have you ever seriously thought about why your tribe was wiped out?" Ron said slowly after a moment of consideration.
"What's the root cause behind it?"
"If you don't understand that and just rush off for revenge, spilling your blood on some nameless snowfield in the Frozen Tundra…"
"…would that really be what your people wanted?"
Husky fell silent.
Ron didn't press further.
If it had happened to him, he probably wouldn't have handled it any better.
In the end, it was up to Husky himself.
…
After the spring hunt ended, people gradually returned from the Forest of Freyst to the Royal Capital, only then hearing about the events between Ron and the Magic Academy.
By this time, the promotion of the Magic Duel tournament had reached a fever pitch—almost overshadowing last month's Spring Martial Tournament.
After all, while commoners could participate in the Spring Martial Tournament, they were still warriors or mages—people who had already formed a Battle Aura Vortex or a mana seed.
The Magic Duel tournament was different.
No matter your status, as long as you could play magic duels, you could register!
And as long as you made it into the knockout stage, you were guaranteed to win prize money—ranging from dozens to hundreds of gold coins!
For many commoners, that was a lifetime's worth of income.
Even for relatively well-off families, it would take years—if not over a decade—to accumulate such savings.
During the Spring Martial Tournament, they could only watch from the sidelines, filled with envy.
Now, they had a chance to become participants themselves—and compete for rewards even greater than those of the Spring Martial Tournament.
This sparked wave after wave of heated discussion.
The magic battle arena's daily traffic grew more and more outrageous.
Ron observed all this calmly, without getting overly excited.
This surge would eventually die down.
After all, only 128 people could make it into the knockout stage.
Most people simply couldn't seize this "leap over the dragon gate" opportunity.
Currently, the number of Silver-tier players across the third and fourth floors has already exceeded 400.
These were players whose strength had been proven through promotion matches.
Those 128 spots would almost certainly come from among them.
Of course, there was always the slim possibility of a few prodigies rapidly improving in just over ten days—rising from Bronze to Silver.
But the chances were low.
Even having three or four such cases would be a lot.
Compared to the thousands of daily participants, the probability was negligible.
But this wasn't something Ron needed to worry about.
He organized this tournament purely to complete the system's main quest.
Now that the requirements were basically met, he didn't care much about the finer details.
After lunch, Ron boarded a carriage and headed toward the outskirts of the City of Chaos.
It was now March 14th, and the Mana–Element Reaction zone in his private experimental area was about to be officially put into use.
Since it was tied to a side quest, Ron naturally had to inspect it personally.
According to Harper, the safety testing of the reaction zone would be fully completed by that afternoon.
On the way, Ron stopped by the suburban factory to check on operations.
After fully mastering the efficient use of Heartvine, the factory had expanded further—acquiring several nearby buildings without increasing its workforce.
This was all thanks to Heartvine's powerful capabilities.
The emergence of plant-based assembly lines meant that productivity had begun to be liberated.
Although this was still limited to a single suburban factory and hadn't spread elsewhere, its significance was entirely different.
The great nobles of the Royal Capital hadn't yet realized that a new era was approaching—
But Ron had already begun laying the groundwork in Tansen City.
With Guy overseeing the new cultivation zones and factories there, it wouldn't be long before Ron replicated this entire setup.
At that point, Tansen City would become his second production base.
After finishing his inspection, Ron arrived at the private experimental area and found Harper conducting the final stage of testing.
"The final test is essentially a small-scale real experiment," Harper explained. "This time, I'll input a tiny amount of real magic power into the reaction zone and convert it into elemental form."
"If the energy and resulting explosion during the process can be fully neutralized by the system, then the safety measures are basically sound."
"Of course, this test needs to be repeated at least ten times, with intervals of over fifteen minutes. Even a single failure means we have to redo everything."
Ron nodded in understanding.
He looked up at the massive circular structure of the reaction zone.
The building had a plain gray-white exterior, nothing remarkable except for its sheer size.
But once inside, it was a different story.
The interior was filled with highly advanced-looking magical devices.
Various instruments operated around a massive central sphere, making Ron feel as if he had stepped into a futuristic research facility.
The final tests began shortly after.
Everything proceeded smoothly.
After about three hours, as Harper announced, "The experiment is a success," a system notification sounded in Ron's mind—
[Side Quest] — [Build Private Experimental Area]
[System: "Congratulations, host. Mission complete. Reward 'Mimic Grass Seed and its cultivation method' has been stored in the [Inventory]."]
[System: "Follow-up side quest triggered."]
[Side Quest] — [Exploring the Relationship Between Magic Power and Elements]:
["Objective: Through research in the private experimental area, successfully uncover the fundamental relationship between magic power and elements."]
["Reward: Ironpine Seed and its cultivation method."]