After arriving at the Card Research Institute, Ron took back the Mimic Grass he had left there yesterday and checked the newly recorded materials through his consciousness.
Aside from a large number of useless background scenes, it had already stored recordings of over fifty types of magic. As long as Ron gave a command, the Mimic Grass could instantly reproduce the corresponding image.
He picked a few seeds from the Mimic Grass, planning to bring them back to the dimensional space in Ron's Wonderful Flower Shop to mass-produce backups.
Just in case something happened to this one—he didn't want to redo all the recordings from scratch.
Accompanying the mages to the academy's designated spell-testing area, Ron watched them record spells while simultaneously testing the Mimic Grass' projection.
He soon discovered something interesting—
When Mimic Grass simulated an image, it didn't need to match the original size. The projection could be freely scaled—
as long as it remained within the range of the mimic particles.
In other words, if enough Mimic Grass fruits were used to spread mimic particles across a large area, then even a simple fist-sized Water Control Spell could be projected into something as large as an elephant-sized water sphere.
This discovery immediately sparked a new idea.
Previously, Nora had asked why they didn't simply book the Grand Martial Arena as the venue for the Magic Duel tournament.
At that time, Mimic Grass didn't exist yet, and Magic Duel wasn't nearly as popular as it was now.
Ron had even doubted whether the audience would exceed four digits.
The Grand Martial Arena, on the other hand, could accommodate tens of thousands of spectators at once.
If only a sparse handful of people showed up, it would look embarrassingly empty.
There was also the issue of viewing experience.
The arena was grand, designed for intense battles between multiple third-tier warriors and mages at once.
But Magic Duel?
Before Mimic Grass, it was just two people standing on stage playing cards.
From the audience seats, you couldn't even see their hands clearly. No matter how passionate the commentator was, it wouldn't be enough to engage the crowd.
With both issues combined, the situation would only get worse.
That's why Ron had chosen to build a dedicated venue on Moonview Street instead of using the more imposing Grand Martial Arena.
But now—
Things were different.
First, the number of registered participants for the Magic Duel tournament was already approaching 1,500.
According to Kiel's investigation, the number of spectators could very well exceed ten thousand.
In that case, the Moonview Street venue—with a maximum capacity of just over 2,000—would be insufficient.
For Ron, 2,000 spectators would already be enough to complete the main quest, so there was no need to complicate things.
However, the second issue remained—the visual experience.
Now, Mimic Grass had solved that problem entirely.
With its flexible scaling and vivid projections, there was no longer any concern about presentation quality.
If anything, Ron now had to worry whether the magic would look too real and scare the audience.
With that thought, he took his leave of the mages and headed straight to the academy's administrative director.
They had met several times before and even done business together.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Ron asked directly:
"What's the process for booking the Grand Martial Arena? And roughly how much does it cost per day?"
The director was clearly caught off guard.
But since the Royal Capital Magic Academy regularly co-hosted the Spring Martial Tournament with the First Military Academy, he was well-versed in such matters and quickly answered:
"The Grand Martial Arena is built and maintained by the empire. Its daily upkeep requires funding."
"However, those costs are usually covered by the empire, since the venue is primarily used for official events."
"That said, when it's not in use, it can be rented out."
"As for the cost, it depends on your usage."
"The base expenses include pre-event setup, cleaning staff, security personnel, and refreshments for private viewing boxes…"
"Additionally, if your event causes significant damage to the arena—like during the Spring Martial Tournament—then post-match repairs by professionals will incur extra charges."
The director listed various expenses.
Altogether, including the largest portion—the rental fee—it would cost several hundred gold coins per day.
For events like the Spring Martial Tournament, which lasted over a month, the total cost of renting the arena alone reached twenty to thirty thousand gold coins.
"…That cheap?" Ron muttered.
Director: "?"
Several hundred gold coins per day is cheap?!
Do you even understand what gold coins are?
Of course, what the director didn't know was that with Ron's "cheat-level" money printer—his flower shop—he truly didn't care about such amounts.
After all, his plants had virtually no production cost.
For a normal person, even growing something like Nether Orchid or Crimson-Gold Chrysanthemum would require significant upfront investment.
But for Ron, the cultivation space handled everything.
Otherwise, selling a Nether Orchid for 20 gold coins might only yield a profit of a few coins.
His current income would shrink drastically.
"If you find the price acceptable, Your Highness," the director continued, "you can apply through the Imperial Logistics Department and pay a deposit to reserve it."
"Recently, there haven't been any major imperial events, so the arena is completely free. Your application should have no issues."
"In fact, they'd probably welcome someone using it for a few more days—it helps offset maintenance costs."
Ron thanked him, chatted a bit more, and then left.
Booking the Grand Martial Arena wasn't urgent.
He was just gathering information.
There was no way he'd do something like the Spring Martial Tournament—renting the venue from the very start and running it for an entire month.
That would just be throwing money away.
After all, the preliminaries and early rounds wouldn't be particularly exciting due to uneven skill levels.
And if he used Mimic Grass's full visual effects from the beginning, a month-long sensory overload would likely lead to audience fatigue.
On the other hand, not using Mimic Grass early on would make hosting those rounds in the Grand Martial Arena a complete waste.
So Ron decided—
Once the tournament officially began, he would observe the audience turnout first.
Then decide whether to move the later stages to the Grand Martial Arena.