Vosbites had just returned from a visit to the elves not long ago and happened to be free.
After accepting Ron's divine Nether Orchid seed, he "reluctantly" agreed to Ron's request.
Originally, Ron had thought—since he had already "bribed" Vosbites, a legendary fire-element mage—why not just have him handle all fire-element magic recordings in one go?
Only then did he learn that after reaching the legendary tier, mages underwent a fundamental transformation.
Even when casting ordinary spells, their magic differed in nature from that of lower-tier mages.
Moreover, depending on each mage's personal path of understanding, these changes varied greatly.
For example, the same legendary fire spell—
When cast by Vosbites, every inch of flame carried intense explosive properties.
But if another legendary fire mage cast it, the flames might instead emphasize continuous burning.
After finishing with Vosbites, Ron visited the two vice deans.
Because Ron had "taken away" two elven saintesses, the elven vice dean didn't seem very inclined to be friendly.
However, as a Chosen One of a goddess, Ron's status was essentially on par with the elves' Tree of Life.
So under Ron's not-too-excessive "small request," the elven vice dean still helped complete the recordings.
As for the dwarven vice dean, he was even easier to deal with.
Ron barely had to ask before the other party readily agreed—without putting on any airs of a legendary mage.
Unfortunately, he specialized in white magic and wasn't proficient in the four elemental branches of arcane magic.
Still, Ron shamelessly recorded several commonly used legendary-tier white magic spells.
According to Kiel's suggestion, future versions of Element Cards would include white and black magic.
These recordings would come in handy then.
Even if they couldn't be used immediately in matches, they could later be displayed on the streets using Mimic Grass to attract buyers.
And if nothing else, Ron could enjoy watching them himself when bored.
After leaving the Royal Capital Magic Academy, Ron headed to the private experimental area outside the City of Chaos.
"Your Highness Ron, Ilene didn't give you too much trouble, did she?" Edith asked with a grin.
Ron shot her a sidelong glance. "Because you two came with me, the way she looked at me—I swear she wanted to eat me alive."
"Hahaha!" Edith burst out laughing. "According to elven customs, Ilene is a direct elder to both Illya and me. Of course she's protective."
"Direct elder?" Ron asked curiously. "You mean elves born from the same branch?"
"Exactly. Ilene was born over a hundred years earlier than we, from the same part of the Mother Tree's main trunk," Edith explained.
"I'd really like to see that someday," Ron mused.
According to books, all elves lived on the Tree of Life.
Its sheer size covered dozens of kilometers, sheltering hundreds of millions of elves.
Its branches served as roads, homes were built upon it, and they drank dew from its leaves…
It sounded like a paradise.
"It's not as wonderful as you humans imagine," Edith shook her head. "Your books exaggerate things—or only describe the good parts."
"Elves still need to use the bathroom, you know. We also hunt and eat meat."
"Not like those books that say even our waste smells pleasant."
"Just thinking about that makes me feel sick."
"Those descriptions are clearly written by people who either never went there or only stayed a few days."
"If you actually lived there for a while, you'd definitely miss human cities."
"Uh… right." Ron coughed awkwardly, changing the subject. "How's Harper's experiment going? Everything smooth?"
"It's too early to tell."
Edith pulled out today's data. "There's still too little data. We'll probably need at least a month of continuous experimentation before drawing any conclusions."
"Honestly, I'm starting to believe Harper's research."
"Especially after reviewing both his and Illya's work—I've started forming some ideas of my own."
Ron raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear it."
Edith thought for a moment, then said:
"Illya is researching why different elements can transform into each other."
"There are clearly six distinct elements in nature, yet within Element Potatoes, they can convert between each other."
"That suggests there's some shared underlying property that allows this transformation."
"Meanwhile, Harper is studying whether magic power can safely revert into elements."
"That made me think—how exactly do elements transform into magic power in the first place?"
"Normally, mages absorb ambient elements through meditation, drawing them into their minds and converting them into magic power via the mana seed."
"Similarly, magic arrays can also convert elements into pure magic power."
"So why is it that when we try to reverse magic power back into elements, problems occur?"
"How is this related to the forward transformation?"
Edith's explanation nearly made Ron dizzy.
With his humanities background from his previous life, this was… a bit much.
It sounded vaguely like electromagnetism—electricity generating magnetism and vice versa.
But the explosive nature of reversing magic power into elements also reminded him of nuclear reactions.
Still—
Trying to apply real-world physics directly here clearly didn't work.
The research mindset might overlap, but the fundamental rules were likely completely different.
So Ron didn't speculate further, to avoid misleading them.
At most, he could provide general guidance.
"What about Illya? I want to talk to her about something."
"She should be in the lab. I'll take you there."
When they found Illya, she was leaning over a desk, studying experimental notes.
Ever since discovering elemental transformation, she had been trying to replicate the process outside of Element Potatoes.
But so far, she hadn't made any progress.
"Want to take a break and work on something else for a bit? Staying stuck on this isn't always helpful," Ron said after greeting her.
Illya put down her notes and rubbed her temples. "Does Your Highness Ron have a suggestion?"