Swear by the Goddess of Harvest (Please Vote!)

System: "Congratulations, Host, on successfully advancing to First-Order Mage. Achievement title function unlocked."

"Achievement: Become a First-Order Mage."

"Title: Fresh Magic Novice."

When Ron opened his eyes, he immediately received the system notification.

"This title would be better off not being given at all..." Ron rolled his eyes.

Fresh paired with novice—he was practically a novice among novices.

System: "For every achievement the Host completes, the system will grant a title matching that achievement and engrave its badge onto the System Panel."

Ron looked at the System Panel and, sure enough, saw a round badge in the upper-right corner. A vivid little green bird was engraved upon it.

"Title Effect: The first Wood Magic learned by the wearer has its effect doubled."

(This is a permanent effect and remains active even when the title is not equipped.)

"The effect is pretty good." Ron nodded and closed the System Panel.

He had only just become a First-Order Mage and had not even learned a single Wood Magic spell yet, so the title was not particularly useful to him for the time being.

Over the past few days, he had displayed the effects of his meditation outside the shop every afternoon.

Although other people could not actually see a mage's meditation effects, that was not Ron's objective.

He only needed them to sense the unusually dense elemental environment around them.

Ordinary people in an environment with a high elemental concentration would at most find their five senses becoming sharper, but mages were far more sensitive to the elements.

They could easily detect abnormal elemental distributions in their surroundings.

As a result, several mages had already come to ask about it over the past few days, though most were only half-convinced.

None of those mages belonged to any official organization. They were only First or Second Order, and the magical knowledge they had learned was far from systematic.

Most mages of this sort had not graduated from professional Magic Academies. Instead, they were apprentices trained by folk mages.

Their magical knowledge might not have amounted to much, but they understood how the world worked. They were always extremely cautious when faced with anything new.

Most importantly, they had no money!

The moment they heard that one Nether Orchid cost twenty gold coins, they would basically turn around and leave.

That made Ron realize that not every mage was so wealthy.

So after several days, he had not earned any business, but his magical cultivation had progressed wonderfully. With the help of Nether Orchid fruit and Nether Orchids, combined with the powerful Natural Meditation Method, Ron had successfully advanced to First-Order Mage within ten days of beginning meditation.

If Mason learned about this, his jaw would probably drop even further.

Ron stood up from the ground, casually brushed off his backside, picked up the Nether Orchid on the ground, and headed back into the shop.

Seeing Ron pack up and return to the shop, the people nearby gradually dispersed as well.

Most of them were ordinary people. They had only gathered because they found a mage's things novel and wanted to watch the excitement.

Now that there was nothing left to see, they all left.

"Wait!" A dwarf wearing a magical "robe" shouted from the crowd and hurried into the shop after him.

Ron looked at the dwarf who entered the shop, lowered his head politely, and asked, "Hello. How can I help you?"

Mason had not yet recovered from the Elemental Ocean Vortex he had seen earlier. Only now did he remember why he had entered the shop, and he immediately put on a stern expression.

"I heard about the effects of the flowers in your possession. They are remarkable—unbelievable."

"But forgive me for being blunt. As a professional teaching assistant at a Magic Academy, with the magical knowledge I have accumulated over decades, I have never heard of such a plant appearing in the magical world."

"Therefore, I have no choice but to suspect that you are playing tricks here in order to swindle money from mages."

Dwarves truly were a group who spoke bluntly and without the slightest tact, Ron thought, though he did not mind in the least.

This kind of straightforward exchange was actually the most effortless.

Moreover, unlike the amateur mages drawn in earlier, the dwarf mage before him had clearly graduated from a proper Magic Academy. As a teaching assistant, his salary definitely would not be low, and he should be able to afford twenty gold coins.

So Ron did not rush to explain. Instead, he extended a hand in polite greeting. "I am Ron Andre. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir, a teaching assistant mage from a Magic Academy."

"Uh..." Mason had not expected the young man before him to remain so calm in the face of his aggressive questioning. He developed a somewhat better impression of him, then reached out to shake Ron's hand. "I am Mason, a teaching assistant at Disode Magic Academy in Chaos City."

"Hello, Mason." Ron smiled at him. Rather than directly explaining the matter of the Nether Orchid, he said, "I am the Seventh Prince of the Human Empire. I came to Chaos City at my father's instruction, and the captain of the Glorious Mercenary Group personally ordered the purchase of this shop."

"So, Mage Mason, this is not merely my shop."

After hearing Ron's words, Mason's mind went blank for a moment.

Andre... Ron Andre...

The emperor of the Human Empire did seem to be surnamed Andre...

So the force behind this shop was actually the entire Human Empire!?

If that was the case, then it was not impossible for them to have discovered a plant capable of improving a mage's meditation efficiency...

Seeing the meaningful look in Ron's eyes, Mason instantly came up with countless speculations.

However, Andre was a common surname in the Human Empire. From the Human Emperor down to ordinary citizens, many people bore that surname.

So he still could not rule out the possibility that the young man before him was lying.

Mason calmed down and asked, "How can you guarantee the credibility of these words? I cannot believe you based on your word alone."

"I swear by my faith in the Goddess of Harvest that every word I have said is true." Ron pressed the tips of his index finger and thumb together, drew the symbol of a rice stalk over his chest, and spoke devoutly.

In this world, faith was a very serious matter. Swearing by the god one believed in required even greater caution.

As one of the three major faiths of the Human Empire, the Church of the Goddess of Harvest had originally been the faith of the original Ron Andre. Ron was merely making use of it now.

Besides, every word he had told Mason was indeed true. It was only that putting them together made it easy for others to draw certain conclusions.

In short, he had not lied.

Even if the Goddess of Harvest truly noticed a tiny believer like him, she would have nothing to criticize.

Sure enough, when Mason saw Ron swear directly by his own faith, his expression immediately turned solemn. In his heart, he now believed more than half of Ron's words.

Ron struck while the iron was hot and added, "If you still do not believe me, you can verify it at the Glorious Mercenary Group's office in Chaos City. The office administrator, Jasper, knows me, and he personally handled the purchase of this shop."

With things having reached this point, the initial suspicion in Mason's heart had basically vanished completely.