The moment they stepped inside, the Room of Requirement revealed itself in full.
On the far left stood a row of wooden dummies—perfect for practicing offensive spells.
Straight ahead, a long table held all sorts of small trinkets—targets for functional charms.
To the right, two towering bookshelves overflowed with volumes on spells and enchantments.
This was the training chamber Arthur had envisioned before opening the door—a comprehensive practice room for magic.
"All right," Arthur said, strolling over to the shelves and pulling out a book he hadn't read yet. "Here you can cast to your heart's content. No one will disturb you."
"Brilliant! Thanks, cousin!" Hermione's face lit up, and she eagerly launched into her grand project of sharpening her Transfiguration.
Meanwhile, Arthur sat comfortably, flipping through his book. Every so often he'd rise to test a spell from its pages against one of the dummies. For a while, the room buzzed with a quiet harmony: the rustle of pages, the flicker of wands, the occasional crackle of magic.
But as he read, Arthur's mind wandered.
How exactly did the Room of Requirement meet every wizard's needs?
So far, he had never encountered magic that could conjure objects from nothing.
Back in second year, Malfoy had conjured a snake during the dueling club—but that was Transfiguration, a summoning of sorts, not true creation ex nihilo.
That meant… perhaps everything in the Room wasn't newly created at all. Perhaps it was drawn from somewhere else within the castle.
If so, then theoretically he could use the Room to "pull in" books from the Restricted Section—without ever setting foot there himself.
A far safer method than sneaking around at night, risking not just Filch and his cat, but Dumbledore himself.
Arthur didn't believe for a second that the Restricted Section was unguarded. Surely it was laced with wards and detection spells. If Dumbledore caught him sniffing about, he'd no longer be seen as a precocious young wizard—but as the next Tom Riddle, a dangerous boy to watch closely, maybe even… "handle" if necessary.
But if the Room of Requirement summoned the books for him? Dumbledore would never suspect.
And of course, Arthur didn't plan to risk it with his real body. His external avatar could appear anywhere he'd been before—perfect for quiet experiments in the dead of night.
No rush, though. The library itself was vast and he hadn't even begun to exhaust its safer shelves. The Restricted Section could wait.
"Cousin, let's go—it's time for dinner," Hermione's voice pulled him back.
"Right, right, let's go!" Arthur set his book down.
After all, in life, only food and beauty were truly not to be missed.
That night, Arthur finally completed his second playthrough of Plants vs. Zombies, including every mini-game.
[Congratulations, host. You have cleared Plants vs. Zombies.]
[Reward unlocked: The Zen Garden]
[Zen Garden: A private space of 1,000 cubic meters. Time dilation ratio: 10:1 (ten days inside per one day outside). Can be expanded by planting special flora, which may also accelerate time.]
A golden, ancient-looking key appeared within his system space—the vessel of the Zen Garden.
With his will, Arthur could now peer inside, control every detail within, or open a portal with the key and step directly into his new domain.
He was more than satisfied.
His favorite genre had always been farming simulators. Now the system had handed him the ultimate one—a garden with limitless potential.
"Shame I don't have any seeds on hand," he muttered. "Otherwise I'd test it out immediately."
[System tip: The host may manifest plants from the in-game card collection. Seeds will be provided accordingly.]
"Well then," Arthur grinned, pulling up the in-game encyclopedia. His eyes swept across the colorful lineup of plants before settling on a small white blossom.
"System, this one. Marigold."
[Manifestation complete. Acquired: Marigold Seed ×1]
Arthur blinked. "…One? Just one seed? Stingy much?"
[Patience, host. Read the description before you judge.]
Frowning, Arthur checked the seed's details.
[Marigold Seed: Matures in 24 hours. Produces 1 Galleon per day upon maturity.]
His jaw dropped. "What the—?! One Galleon a day?! With time dilation, that's ten Galleons daily! And once the ratio increases, the yield will skyrocket…"
With this, he'd never again need to sell raw materials for cash. Everything could be reserved for alchemical experiments.
Speaking of materials, the corpse of Agheel the dragon was still sitting in his system space. He couldn't exactly stash it in reality—and if he dumped it in-game, it'd vanish back to the Erdtree.
Now, though, he could build an alchemy lab inside the Zen Garden and experiment freely.
Here, as master of the space, even if something exploded, he could instantly relocate the blast elsewhere. No danger of collateral damage.
What better workshop could a wizard ask for?
In the past, he'd ruined more than a few alchemy tools back in Post Town because of accidents like these—costing him time and material to rebuild everything from scratch.
He planted the marigold seed. Within minutes, a tender green shoot pushed up from the soil. The Zen Garden expanded by a square meter, though the time ratio remained unchanged.
Satisfied, Arthur let it be and slipped into the Lands Between again, continuing his sweeping conquest.
Nearly a month had passed in-game. He had cleared most of the Weeping Peninsula. Thankfully, Castle Morne's layout wasn't too complex. Otherwise, with his poor sense of direction, he might still be wandering.
The system maps only sketched terrain broadly—they gave no details of castles or dungeons.
Sometimes he even worried: when the time came to explore Leyndell's sewers, would he ever find his way back out?
Today's target was the Lion Guardian boss at the southern tip of the peninsula.
Calling it a boss was perhaps overstating things—it was fast, agile, hit hard, sure. A nightmare for melee fighters. But Arthur was a mage.
A quick ring of his Spirit Calling Bell summoned his trusty hounds, while he blasted from afar. Before long, the creature was down.
These days, bosses rarely troubled him—he fell far more often to ambushes in cramped spaces, where monsters leapt from behind and sometimes kicked him right off cliffs.
Death by fall damage—Miyazaki's favorite joke.
Defeating the hybrid lion earned him an achievement and one more manifestation attempt.
This was why he had come south rather than pushing toward Liurnia.
"Magnificent… the Erdtree never fails to awe."
Seated at a Site of Grace, Arthur gazed up at the golden tree, visible no matter where one stood in the Lands Between.
"Wait—the Erdtree! What about planting its seed in my Zen Garden?"
Excitement jolted through him. He immediately logged out—leaving a very puzzled Melina watching his sudden disappearance.
In reality, he transferred a Golden Seed from his system inventory into the Zen Garden. He had looted it earlier in Castle Morne.
Staring at the patch of soil where he planted it, Arthur asked, "System, why isn't anything happening?"
[System prompt: The Erdtree requires special energy to grow. Each type of energy it absorbs enhances the Zen Garden.]
"Such as?"
[For example, the Great Runes of the Lands Between.]
"Perfect. System, manifest my rare items list."
The system faltered. …This wasn't how things were supposed to go. The idea had been to coax him into manifesting Great Runes one by one. But Arthur had remembered the catch-all category.
[Manifestation complete. Rare items integrated with system inventory.]
At once, Arthur willed Godrick's Great Rune into the Garden. He had already restored it at the Divine Tower of Limgrave.
The moment it touched the soil, the Rune shattered, dissolving into countless motes of golden light, which the seed eagerly absorbed.
In no time, the sprout broke earth, stretching skyward. It grew until it reached the height of a man, then paused.
And the Zen Garden surged outward—expanding tenfold in area. Its time dilation doubled, from tenfold to twenty.
[Erdtree Sapling: Born of the Lands Between. By absorbing special energies, it will continue to grow. With each energy, it can also produce a pure droplet imbued with that essence.]
Looking closer, Arthur spotted a fist-sized orb glimmering among the golden leaves—so well hidden he'd nearly missed it.