In another world, Lu Mingfei is learning card making.

"Ha ya—"

With a sharp cry, a shriveled, short monster wearing a red hat and with a ferocious face appeared in the summoning area.

Unfortunately, a woman in white was already standing gracefully opposite him.

The spirit of the pot pointed, and the red hat transformed into a stream of light and entered the bottle, where it was instantly refined.

Brian glanced at Lu Mingfei, whose expression was indifferent, then at Hu Ling, whose face was cold and aloof, and couldn't help but sigh:

"I surrender."

The magical device spun rapidly, and then its radiance vanished.

Lu Mingfei stepped off the stage and shook hands with Brian:

"Actually, your Pokémon isn't bad, it's just that your basic skills are a bit lacking."

Recalling the spirit panel written on the magic card he had just seen, Lu Mingfei couldn't help but sigh.

【Red Hat】

【✪】【100/100/200】

[Race: Spirit] [Attribute: Evil]

[Ultimate Move: Evil Scythe]

【Evil Scythe: Passive Skill - The Red Hat's scythe possesses an unnatural magical effect, allowing basic attacks to ignore enemy armor and drain blood from enemies to replenish itself】

The Red Hat born from a normal environment is completely different from the Magical Spirit Red Hat summoned using spell cards.

Take the one Lu Mingfei saw as an example: it did not wear heavy iron boots, nor did it need blood to replenish its magic power—although it still had this function, it was no longer a necessity for maintaining its existence.

It's unclear whether this "replenishing magic power" can only replenish one's own magic power pool or can create fake magic power. If it's the latter, then it could even be comparable to some level 2 spirit cards—and even take on corresponding responsibilities in a real duel.

"But Brian, your summoning speed is too slow." Lu Mingfei shook his head. "It takes you fifteen or sixteen seconds to summon a level one card. How long will it take you to summon a level two card?"

"Even without mentioning 'instant summoning,' you should at least be able to summon a level 1 card in the second turn, right?"

Faced with Lu Mingfei's question, Brian could only smile helplessly.

One round is equivalent to six seconds, but that doesn't mean all students can summon a level one card in the first round like Lu Mingfei and Rong En.

It's important to know that the "final practical exam" for the first-year summoning class involves summoning a standard level 1 card provided by the academy. Even for the final exam, the standard for excellence is summoning within ten seconds.

"Only a summoner who aspires to become a professional duelist would master summoning magic to this level, right?"

Brian shook hands with Lu Mingfei one last time, then left the ring and walked away with his friends.

……

A competition with over a hundred people, even with eight arenas operating simultaneously, would still take a considerable amount of time.

Lu Mingfei and Rong En reunited and traveled together between the eight arenas. Since Lu Mingfei only wanted to look around and didn't care which academy was fighting, Rong En took the lead.

"Let's study the Noble Academy's magic cards! Even if we lose in the competition, we can't lose to the Noble Academy!"

Supported by this idea, Lu Mingfei and Rong En watched the arena from a distance like thieves, their attention focused entirely on the outstanding students from the aristocratic academy.

—Well, to be precise, it's Ron's attention that's focused on the House of Nobles. Lu Mingfei is now more inclined to study their 'commonalities,' and has indeed discerned something:

"The cards from the Knights Academy tend to go to one extreme: if they're offensive, they focus solely on offense; if they're defensive, they focus solely on defense; and if they have any special features, they focus solely on those features. My 'Charging Fighting Knight,' Ron's Piper, or that eagle, are all based on similar ideas..."

"The cards from the Noble Academy often focus on developing 'all-around' single cards, or low-level, high-stat elves. These could be giant snakes, fully armed warriors, or even just a bear..."

Lu Mingfei looked at the polar bear-shaped elf that Anna had summoned and shook his head.

"The students in the Bachelor's Academy seem to prefer 'exquisite' magical spirits. They don't seem to have much faith in the magical spirits' inherent limited intelligence, but rather in their own manipulation—regardless of victory or defeat, they often issue a long string of commands, completely disregarding the magical spirits' processing limits..."

"As for the last one, the Fool's Institution—they don't seem to have any intention of using magical spirits in battle? I only see chefs and ingredients in their decks anyway..."

Lu Mingfei rubbed his forehead.

—No wonder Ron only planned to watch the Noble Academy matches, and even just the matches between the Noble Academy and the Knight Academy. The other two academies would be utterly uninteresting to watch.

Well, actually, some matches in the Knights' Academy and the Noble Academy are just as uninteresting.

Good duelists are often equally excellent when they fight; but those who are less skilled each have their own problems when they fight.

Especially when two relatively weak duelists are placed on the stage, Lu Mingfei can only think of one analogy:

"I feel like I can see two zones wriggling..."

Lu Mingfei closed his eyes, no longer watching the two snakes tearing at each other on the field—this was an internal war within the House of Nobles, not only was it not entertaining at all, but Lu Mingfei couldn't even sense anything that could be called "the art of command" in it.

Fortunately, another duel had just ended, and a new announcement echoed throughout the venue:

"Ring number eight, number 108 versus number 120."

Lu Mingfei said goodbye to Rong En and ran onto stage number eight, where he was joined by a student from the Fool's House.

As the announcer said, "The contestants are beginning to communicate," students from all four departments walked towards Arena Number Eight at the same time.

—In the first round of duels, the students had a pretty good grasp of each player's specific tactics and began to discuss which student had the strongest cards.

Undoubtedly, although the final winner is still undecided, Lu Mingfei is undoubtedly a hot topic of discussion. Coupled with his title of "Son of the Warrior," almost all the students who were free at this time had gathered around the number eight arena where Lu Mingfei was.

Lu Mingfei's opponent was a student from the Fool's House. Lu Mingfei thought for a moment but couldn't recall any battle scene in his mind—this meant either the student was just an ordinary student who defeated another ordinary or even mediocre opponent, or the time of his battle overlapped with the time of Lu Mingfei's own battle.

Thinking of this, Lu Mingfei relaxed for a while, rubbing several cards in his pocket with his fingers, pondering which one he could throw out.

After exchanging greetings, the other person held the card in their palm and suddenly asked a question:

"Are you truly the son of a hero?"