In another world, Lu Mingfei is learning card making.

After three rounds of selection, the original 108 people were reduced to 14.

Of these fourteen, four were from the Knights' Academy, three from the Bachelors' Academy, and only two from the Fools' Academy—Lu Mingfei felt quite sorry for them.

In the game he just played, that unknown student actually had the strength to be among the top eight—whether it was the basic skill of summoning a magical spirit at the very end of a turn, or the magical spirit that had both buffing and offensive capabilities—

Even if Lu Mingfei weren't among the freshmen, winning the championship wouldn't have been difficult for him.

Unfortunately, they were out of luck and ran into Lu Mingfei, failing to even make it to the quarterfinals.

On the contrary, the House of Nobles...

Lu Mingfei looked at them.

One interesting feature was that while the other academy's advanceees stood together, the noble academy's advanceees maintained a distance large enough for a person to pass through. Lu Mingfei glanced at them, then at the four from the knight academy, and suddenly felt like laughing.

Without hesitation, Rong En punched Lu Mingfei in the ribs: "Lu, what are you laughing at?"

"I was laughing at the people here; I think I know them all." Lu Mingfei glanced at Rong En and Lai Si, then reached out and pulled the last person to his side.

"Let me introduce you all. This is Stuyvesant, a young talent from the Knights Academy."

"Hello." Stuart said in a haughty voice, his expression carefully composed.

"Hello, hello, my name is Rong En, and her name is Lai Si." Rong En patted his shoulder and gave his upper arm a good squeeze. "Wow, that's really strong. How did you get that?"

"Uh, I've been riding horses since I was little; my family are ranchers." Stuart subtly tugged at his sleeve. "To be honest, when I received my acceptance letter, I never imagined I'd have the talent to become a summoner..."

"To be honest, when I actually stepped onto the duel stage, my fingers were trembling with excitement."

"Everyone's fingers tremble with excitement when they first step into the dueling ring," Ron said, his eyebrows dancing. "Speaking of riding horses, I've never ridden one before... What's it like to ride a horse?"

"Honestly, it's nowhere near as good as teleportation," Stuart sighed. "Without a saddle, the horse will bounce you around so much your butt will hurt; with a saddle, your butt won't hurt as much, but the saddle will rub against your inner thighs, and after a while, that will also hurt..."

"It's nowhere near as good as the teleportation used by Saint Marian."

As Lais watched their conversation, her gaze naturally revealed the condescending look of a top student towards a struggling student.

She noticed Professor Liz walking up from the corner and quickly pulled Stuart and Ron away from their whispering.

Professor Liz clapped her hands, and all the students except the fourteen who had advanced were teleported to the stands to watch the duel on a large screen.

Then she gently squeezed her throat, and the magical amplification effect allowed her words to reach the ears of everyone present:

"Students, after the preliminary rounds, we will begin the second round of the St. Marian Newcomer Cup—"

"The quarterfinals and the championship duel!"

"Everyone present is entitled to choose a ring to occupy. Each person has two rounds of attacking opportunities, while the defender has ten minutes to rest after each round of fighting."

"Once all the challengers' opportunities below the ring have been used up, the students on the ring will become the 'Top Eight' of the Rookie Cup!"

The quarterfinalists will be drawn again and played in sequence until a champion is determined!

A commotion erupted from the stands. The Knights chanted in unison in support of Lu Mingfei, and the Fools' House followed suit—though with two of their students advancing, their chants were somewhat disorganized.

The Academy, however, lacked their enthusiasm and instead began debating which of their three qualifiers was stronger and had a better chance of making it into the top eight.

Only the House of Lords remained silent, with very little discussion, and even when it did occur, people subconsciously kept their voices down.

This scene is strange. If others were to look at it, the Knights Academy might actually have the most students advancing.

"So, are there any students who want to take over a ring?"

After explaining the competition rules, Professor Liz turned around and teleported to the students in the audience, leaving them with only one encouraging sentence to help them win the ring.

Lu Mingfei looked around, stepped onto the arena, and successfully became the first to occupy it.

"I'll do it!"

The next moment, a petite girl ran to the challenger's position. She clenched her left fist and pointed her right hand at Lu Mingfei's nose.

"I challenge you, Lu Mingfei!"

"Since you dared to force Asmon to go home, then I'll also knock you off the quarterfinals stage!"

"...Wait a minute." Lu Mingfei rubbed his temples. "Who told you I sent Asmon home?"

"Of course, Asmon himself told me!" Anna's voice grew louder.

Lu Mingfei rolled his eyes. Was this girl having some kind of mental problem? Why was she so eager to target him? She even dragged Asmon into it…

If Asmon returns and finds himself with an enemy out of nowhere, I wonder what his expression will be.

……

"Alright, now let's watch the first duel—Annabelle versus Lu Mingfei." Professor Liz manipulated the display screen, focusing it on the arena where Lu Mingfei stood.

"The challenger is Anna from the Noble Academy. She comes from the 'Bear of the Kingdom,' the Bell family. Before the expansion of magic card technology, the Bell family maintained the profession of barbarians, and the family members often have extremely strong physiques."

"The summoners from this family tend to prefer large, robust bear-type summons. Although none of them have achieved any success in individual competitions so far, they are extremely popular 'pressure-resistant' players in team matches."

"Annabelle used a polar bear as her magical spirit in the previous battles, which is a very typical 'Belle family' summon."

Professor Liz adjusted the display screen to Lu Mingfei's side, making sure his face filled the screen:

"The one defending the title is Lu Mingfei."

"The Hero's Son uses a female humanoid magical spirit and a brown slime. The known information is that if the slime is killed rashly, it will cause a huge explosion; while the humanoid spirit has the ability to instantly kill ordinary magical spirits."

"From this perspective, Lu Mingfei's card-making approach is actually a very typical 'card deck building' strategy: instead of pursuing the data or function of a single magical spirit, he creates several magical spirits and lets them play their respective roles."

As soon as the magical spirit signaled the start of the duel, Professor Liss immediately switched the display back to panoramic mode:

"Alright, let's start the timer and see just how big the gap is between the two sides in 'Summoning Magic'..."