In another world, Lu Mingfei is learning card making.

"Okay, we can see that the first summoning time for both of them was extremely short:"

"Anna's summoning took only eight seconds, while Lu Mingfei was even faster, appearing within six seconds of the first round."

"We can see that none of the quarterfinalists' call-up times were actually more than ten seconds long—"

"And what about the other students? They usually take fifteen or sixteen seconds, and some even need twenty seconds to summon a card."

"What does this mean? It means that if you duel these people, when your first Spirit Card is summoned, their Magical Spirits will even be able to overcome summoning imbalance and use a finishing move!"

Professor Liz's voice echoed across the podium, drawing everyone's attention to the screen.

On the screen, a spirit in white robes and a polar bear with white fur are facing each other—no, it's not accurate to say they are facing each other.

Because at this moment, the polar bear was already pouncing on Lu Mingfei's summoned creature!

……

"In the name of Lu Mingfei, I summon!"

The tarragon slime inhaled the air, inflating like a balloon, and pushed aside the polar bear's descending claws. Lu Mingfei could sense through their magical connection that with just this one claw strike, the tarragon slime's 'magic power' released like a dam bursting—

Fortunately, the spirit of the pot recovered from the summoning disorder in the next moment. She immediately raised her hand and grabbed the polar bear, which transformed into a stream of light and ran into the spirit of the pot's jade bottle.

Seeing the polar bear being devoured, Anna simply gave up the match, conceded defeat, and jumped off the ring.

The other students wisely moved aside from Lu Mingfei's arena and began to compete for the other arenas.

So Lu Mingfei started watching other people's matches.

After the initial struggle, each of the eight arenas had its own defender. The four members of the Knights Academy—Lu Mingfei, Rong En, and Lai Si—each occupied one arena, as did the two members of the Fools' Academy.

Of the five members of the House of Nobles, only one chose to occupy the arena, while two members of the House of Scholars occupied the arena.

As for now, Stuart is challenging the Bachelor's Academy, while two students from the Fool's Academy are facing off against students from the Noble Academy. The remaining students from the Bachelor's Academy had their sights set on challenging Ron—oh, that's over.

There's no way around it, because this "highly poisonous item" can only be defeated by those who summon quickly enough to catch Ron's spirit summons. It tests your solid fundamental skills.

As for basic skills, Lu Mingfei is certain that, at least in summoning, Rong En is probably among the strongest.

—Lu Mingfei was able to achieve professional-level reflexes and summon his first level-one magical spirit in a single turn thanks to the help of Spark in his training. Keep in mind, Rong En didn't have Spark to help him learn!

His professional-level reflexes are entirely due to his own hard work, passion, and a little bit of necessary talent!

Lu Mingfei gave Rong En a thumbs-up, and Rong En grinned and gave Lu Mingfei a military salute.

……

Well, just like Lu Mingfei said before, while Ron is very strong in summoning, he is indeed lacking in other aspects.

For example, he currently only has one summon, and this summon's physique is at the level of a normal energy-level one summon.

With his solid fundamentals, he could still bully other students; however, in the top eight competition where everyone else also had strong fundamentals, his weaknesses would be magnified.

After being kicked to death by Anna's big bear, he couldn't find a worthy opponent among the remaining few and could only return to the audience with regret.

Stuwell faced a similar problem. Flying eagles were indeed troublesome, but swooping down, taking flight, and dropping them all took time, and during that time, others could deplete the magic power of his magical artifacts.

Therefore, only two people advanced to the Knights Academy in the end: Lu Mingfei and Lai Si.

The Academy had only one person left. Interestingly, the two who rushed to occupy the arena were eliminated in the end, while the one who hid below the stage successfully grabbed the arena. The Fool's House also had only one person left. In the end, the House of Nobles, which had estrangement from each other, occupied the most arenas, a total of four.

"Part Two, the quarterfinals' title defense, is over! Now let's move on to the final part of today—"

"Championship Duel!"

Professor Liz did not come down from the podium, but instead had the magical sprites floating in the sky relay her words:

"Alright, all eight quarterfinalists, please prepare yourselves—Group One, Leslie Kingster, versus Naya Felli!"

Lu Mingfei frowned. For some reason, the first thing that came to mind when he heard the name Nayafili was a dog—

This contestant does indeed possess some "dog-like" features. Her long braids are adorned with wolf fang pendants, and a very faint red line is drawn beneath her eyebrows, giving her entire face a somewhat "aggressive" appearance…

Well, it's more like a wolf than a dog.

This is quite rare in the "House of Fools," where the flower-clothed fools are usually not so aggressive.

"However, the good news is that the environment in the House of Fools is far better than that in the House of Nobles—at least they genuinely try to make friends, unlike the House of Nobles, which prefers to use adult 'standards' for making friends..."

Looking at the students cheering for Naya Phili in the stands, Lu Mingfei shifted his gaze to Lai Si.

After the pre-match exchange, both sides entered the preparation phase, summoning their first magical spirits approximately eight seconds apart. Lu Mingfei recognized Lais's magical spirit—it was the fairy spirit from the classroom—but Naya Fili's magical spirit was something he hadn't expected:

"Oh, a Legion Card?"

Looking at the three hungry wolves with their eerie pupils, Lu Mingfei couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Someone else has also created a Legion Card?"

—Although Lu Mingfei only said "subtle differences in feel" when refining, it doesn't mean that the differences in feel can be found so quickly.

Without the dual support of his [Major Specialization] and [Spark], Lu Ming might have had to craft two or even three digits of cards to get a feel for it before he could perceive this minute difference.

"Indeed, heroes are as numerous as carp crossing a river; there's a reason this school has become a top-tier institution. Although its curriculum is very basic, it seems its students are anything but..."

After a brief moment of reflection, Lu Mingfei turned his gaze to Lai Si. Like Rong En, she had only demonstrated her solid foundation before reaching the quarterfinals, without revealing any other notable qualities—

But without a doubt, she must be hiding something.

Lu Mingfei made a judgment almost instantly, and his attention became even more focused.

Lacey also made a judgment: her opponent wasn't someone she could bully with basic skills, so she took out another card from her side card holder and held it face down in her palm without hesitation.

"Spell! Midnight Bells!"