Water and earth elements stirred restlessly in the room, surging toward Ron's palm.
In just one or two seconds, the Nether Orchid seed went through the entire process of sprouting, growing, blooming, and bearing fruit—finally becoming a fully matured, deep violet Nether Orchid.
Ron blinked, momentarily stunned.
"…That's it?" he muttered in disbelief.
He checked his mana seed formation and found that about one-tenth of his total mana had been consumed.
He stored the Nether Orchid in his Backpack, then exchanged another Crimson-Gold Chrysanthemum seed and cast the Seed Acceleration Spell again.
A second later, a vibrant orange-red chrysanthemum bloomed in his palm.
This time, the spell had consumed about one-eighth of his mana.
Judging by this rate, while the Seed Acceleration Spell could rapidly grow a plant from seed to maturity, it clearly wasn't suitable for mass production.
If he wanted to grow a large quantity of Nether Orchids or Crimson-Gold Chrysanthemums, he'd still need to rely on the Cultivation Space.
Still, the effect was undeniably powerful—one second from seed to bloom? That was wild.
Ron clicked his tongue in amazement—then suddenly remembered something. Didn't he receive a title badge at some point?
He opened the System Panel—
[Title: Inexperienced Magic Rookie]
[Effect: The first wood-element spell learned by the wearer has double effectiveness.]
(This is a permanent effect and applies even when the title is not equipped.)
"No wonder…" Ron rubbed his chin. "I was wondering why it felt so overpowered."
Having found the reason, Ron exchanged a few more seeds and accelerated their growth one by one. By the time he was finished, his mana was nearly drained.
He smacked his lips, a little reluctant to stop.
Today's experience had been truly magical.
Since arriving in this world, it was the first time he'd actually used magic. His first real attempt at spellcasting.
Even though he had only used three basic Tier 1 spells, it had been an exhilarating, eye-opening experience.
It was nothing like playing games in his old world—no comparison between clicking a skill and actually casting a spell yourself.
With that thought, Ron's gaze drifted to Rainfall Spell and Earth Wave Spell in the Shop, and his fingers began to itch.
In addition to the Seed Acceleration Spell, he also had access to a wood-element spell called Plant Growth Spell.
The two spells had similar effects, but the Seed Acceleration Spell was Tier 1, while the Plant Growth Spell was Tier 2—a direct upgrade.
Ron was still only a Tier 1 Mage, so he couldn't technically cast Tier 2 spells yet.
So he shook his head with mock regret and muttered, "It's not that I don't want to exchange it, it's just that I'm still a Tier 1 Mage. I can't use it yet. No point wasting my Wealth Points."
System: "All items available in the Shop are within the host's usable range. Although the host is a Tier 1 Mage, the power of the Natural Meditation Technique enables compatibility with most Tier 2 spells classified as basic magic."
"…Uh." Ron was at a loss for words. Then he simply pretended not to hear it, flopped into his chair, and started flipping through a book.
Magic—and mages—were classified into four major tiers and seven ranks:
Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Legendary.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 = Basic
Tier 3 and Tier 4 = Intermediate
Tier 5 and Tier 6 = Advanced
Tier 7 = Legendary
So while Tier 1 and Tier 2 spells had their differences, both were still considered Basic. The gap wasn't as wide as between Tier 2 and Tier 3.
Given Ron's natural magic aptitude, the boost from the Natural Meditation Technique, and the system's support, he could probably manage a water-earth composite Tier 2 spell.
Still, the real reason he wasn't exchanging for Rainfall or Earth Wave had nothing to do with difficulty.
He just didn't want to waste his Wealth Points—that's all. And then the system just had to come out and explain everything in detail.
To be honest, Ron felt that of all the fixed items in the system's Shop, only the Cultivation Space was truly essential. The rest were optional.
On the other hand, temporary items like the Miracle of the Goddess of Harvest were far more valuable for his plans.
That's why he had always been cautious with how he spent his points.
Since the system could trigger Daily Quests based on his subconscious thoughts and even offer relevant items to aid in completing them, Ron was determined to make the most of this.
Unless necessary, he wouldn't recklessly burn through large sums of Wealth Points.
As he mused over this, he flipped through some books, then took a break to shower.
After returning to his study, he placed the Illya Special Edition Illustration Booklet from his Backpack onto the bookshelf, then took down a stack of blank cards and started sketching.
Earlier at dinner, Mason had asked whether Ron had more elemental cards. Since he had nothing urgent to do tonight, he figured he might as well make a few extra decks.
Thinking that these were for the mages at Chaos City Magic Academy, Ron took the time to draw different spell icons than the last batch.
That way, they'd have more variety in their spell duels.
In fact, if he was going to take this route, there was no need to stick to traditional playing card layouts at all. He didn't even need to use numbers.
After more than an hour of crafting, Ron had created a thick stack of elemental cards.
They featured all kinds of magical illustrations—not just green-element spells, but also white and black magic.
This instantly made the cards more diverse and interesting.
Looking through them, Ron chuckled. Did I just invent a new card game?
Unfortunately, he wasn't particularly invested in the "spell duel" gameplay. He'd let Mason, Harper, and the others tinker with the rules.
With that thought, he also made two standard decks of playing cards, each with simple water, fire, wind, and earth symbols—no fancy spell art.
A total of 108 cards. He kept these for himself and set aside the earlier batch of elemental cards as gifts for Mason and the others.
After all, they were his first group of friends since arriving in this world—might as well give them something.
"Just plain poker is a little dull though…" Ron stretched and began recalling some of the many tabletop games from his original world. His mind lit up with ideas.
"Since there's nothing urgent lately, maybe I'll try making a few fun games."
His eyes sparkled as inspiration hit. He pulled out another blank card and began drawing on it.
At the top, he sketched a voluptuous woman in green robes.
In the top-left corner, he wrote the word "God", and in the top-right corner, he drew three green magatama.
In the lower half of the card, he carefully wrote two abilities in small script:
[Harvest]: During your play phase, you may look at the hands of up to two players and take up to one Peach from each. Can only be used once per turn.
[Grace]: During your discard phase, you may distribute discarded cards to up to two players. If you give away more than two cards and you are not at full health, you may recover 1 HP.
Ron looked at the completed card and chuckled to himself. Then, with a flourish, he wrote a name along the left margin:
"Goddess of Harvest — Hervesta"
"Man… is this blasphemy?" he muttered, holding the card up to the light and admiring his work. "Turning a goddess into a card? No way this would ever go public… probably best to just play with it in private."