After leaving the director's office, Ron shamelessly made his way to the laboratory of Professor Simmons, the Lightning-element legendary mage.
Under the "assault" of Nether Orchids infused with divine essence, Professor Simmons agreed to help record Lightning-element legendary spells.
Not only that, but Simmons also offered to introduce Ron to other legendary mages.
As for whether those introductions would succeed, that would depend on Ron himself.
Fortunately, there weren't many legendary-tier spells in the current Element Card pool, so recording them wouldn't be too difficult.
On top of that, Ron's identity as the Chosen of the Harvest Goddess allowed him to communicate with legendary mages on equal footing.
With the added leverage of divine Nether Orchids, completing the Mimic Grass recordings seemed very feasible.
After finishing the Lightning-element recordings, Ron left the Royal Capital Magic Academy and headed to the Magic Duel arena to check on things.
On the second day after the Gold Rank opened, only a little over twenty players had successfully reached Gold.
According to Nora's estimate, by the time the Magic Duel tournament began in a week, there would be around a hundred Gold-ranked players.
These would likely form the core group advancing into the elimination rounds.
Adding in the strongest Silver-ranked players would complete the lineup of 128 contestants.
As for Bronze-ranked players making a breakthrough, it was unlikely.
Unless someone was exceptionally talented and had just started playing, they had not yet had time to climb the ranks before the tournament began.
Otherwise, the top-tier competitors were already mostly visible through the ranking system.
Talents like Andy were rare—it was already fortunate to encounter one, and Ron wasn't expecting a second anytime soon.
Besides, completing the main quest was practically guaranteed now. As for how spectacular the event turned out, he wasn't overly concerned.
Aside from interesting ideas like the Grand Martial Arena, everything else had been handed over to Nora.
When Ron reached the second floor, he saw Eileen being approached by several noble youths, though she handled them politely.
Then he went up to the fourth floor and, sure enough, found Mia in the promotion zone.
After asking around, he learned that Princess Mia had already accumulated a win-loss difference of over twenty matches—about halfway to meeting the second Gold promotion requirement.
However, she seemed stuck at this stage—winning a few, then losing a few—unable to build momentum.
At this rate, whether she could reach Gold before the tournament remained uncertain.
Scanning the fourth floor, Ron recognized many faces.
These were the top players of the Magic Duel arena, and Nora had mentioned most of them before.
There were also familiar figures—Andy, Wardson, Rowell, Betty, and others.
After greeting those who were resting, Ron sat down to chat with them, asking if any areas in Magic Duel still needed improvement.
He stayed until noon before pulling Mia away from the fourth floor together with Nora, then headed to the nearby hotpot restaurant with Eileen for lunch.
When Mia saw him, she acted as if nothing had happened the previous night, cheerfully calling out "Ron~!"
Eileen, however, was clearly still affected by the "golden ice cream incident."
The moment she saw Ron, her cheeks flushed red, and her usual composed demeanor nearly fell apart.
Just thinking about how Mia had sneakily grabbed her chest at that exact moment when Ron opened the door made her face burn uncontrollably.
Although it had only lasted a second—and in that chaos, Ron might not have even properly seen anything—the thought of being exposed still made her uneasy.
Still, they were all adults. She couldn't dwell on it forever, so she buried the memory and joined the meal as if nothing had happened.
As for Nora, she had already completely forgotten about it.
After all, whatever embarrassment there was had long been "resolved" in bed with Ron.
Even though they still slept in nightwear and hadn't taken things all the way, Ron had already explored… quite thoroughly during their kisses.
Though Nora was still technically inexperienced, in this regard, she was clearly ahead of Mia and Eileen.
"Ron, are there still openings for commentators at your Magic Duel arena? I want to apply!" Mia said excitedly while eating hotpot.
Ron raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "If you want the role, I'd be thrilled to have you. No need to apply."
Originally, he had wanted Betty to serve as the lead commentator.
But Betty preferred to shine as a competitor—and as a Gold-ranked player, she certainly had the ability.
So Ron didn't force her.
At present, the arena only has four commentators.
Two were decent Magic Duel players with good speaking skills—but both were male.
The other two were the half-baked Soven and Rowell's girlfriend, Leticia.
Leticia had excellent looks and temperament, but her personality was too cold.
If she were paired with the other commentators, the atmosphere would likely be awkward—unless Soven worked hard to mediate.
Overall, the lineup felt a bit monotonous.
But now that Mia was willing to join, it was perfect.
With her around, even Leticia might loosen up a bit.
"But why do you suddenly want to be a commentator? Not planning to conquer the tournament anymore?" Ron teased.
"Hmph!" Mia puffed her cheeks. "Your arena's Gold Rank is way too hard!"
"Nora said there'll be around a hundred Gold players by the time the tournament starts."
"And I'm still not sure I can even reach Gold."
"If I end up not even making the elimination rounds and just sit in the audience, that'd be so boring."
"But if I'm a commentator—even if I lose—I can still sit on stage and explain the matches. That's way better than just watching."
Ron laughed and shook his head, then told Nora:
"Add Mia's name to the commentator list. This is great publicity—no reason not to use it."
Mia immediately widened her eyes. "Ron! That's so mean—you're already thinking of using me?!"
"How is that using you?" Ron replied innocently. "It's just efficient resource allocation."
"The Empire's only princess personally participates in the Magic Duel tournament, gets defeated, and then becomes a commentator—truly showcasing the game's charm."
"See? I even wrote your headline for you. Not bad, right?"
"How is that 'defeated'?!" Mia protested. "…At worst, it's a narrow loss!"
Ron shrugged. "That depends on your actual performance."