Landlord-Fighting Magic Variant—"Magic-Fighting"!

Ron played a few rounds of Fight the Landlord with a bewildered expression.

Or rather, a magically modified version of it—"Fight the Magic."

In the end, he was crushed in a landslide defeat.

Harper was a master of the principles behind every type of magic, and he had a thorough grasp of the logic of mutual generation and restriction.

No matter what cards Ron played, Harper could always find an incredibly tricky way to break them.

His consecutive fire-type "34567" straight flush was simply extinguished by a single legendary water-type magic card from Harper: Ocean Domain.

His bomb of four Kings was absorbed by Harper's "Little Joker," the god of elements Element, which even backfired and reflected the bomb right back at him.

Ron was left laughing and crying at the same time.

He had initially wanted to explain the rules again, but as they played, he felt there was no need; it was just for entertainment, and there was no need to be too serious.

Besides, the way Harper and Edith were playing was actually quite interesting.

It was just that his magic level was completely crushed.

Except for Edith, who could hold her own against Harper, Ron—a novice who hadn't even learned a single spell—was completely unable to compete with these two veteran mages in this regard.

Eventually, Ron gave up his seat, and Mason, who had finished ordering, took over. The three mages then began a truly evenly matched game of "Fight the Magic."

However, Mason and Edith's moves were still quite standard; only Harper had a particularly large number of unconventional ideas.

Mason played an earth-type "8," a fourth-tier spell: Rock Bastion Shield.

Harper immediately played a fire-type "5," a third-tier spell: Fire Dragon Technique, and a water-type "6," a third-tier spell: Heavenly Cluster Water Pillar.

Mason frowned immediately: "That won't work, right? Fire Dragon Technique and Heavenly Cluster Water Pillar combined form the thunder-type third-tier spell Heavenly Vertical Thunder Dragon; it can't break through my Rock Bastion Shield head-on."

"Who said this was a composite spell?" Harper rolled his eyes. "The Fire Dragon Technique and the Heavenly Cluster Water Pillar are attacking the Rock Bastion Shield from two different directions. The temperature difference between the front and back will be too great, and your Rock Bastion Shield will collapse from the inside on its own. I've done this experiment before; if you don't believe me, you can go check my magic report."

"Damn! There's such a theory?" Mason looked skeptical. "Isn't Rock Bastion Shield supposed to be the strongest fourth-tier defense?"

"How outdated is that concept of yours?" Harper sneered. "Continue, continue, do you want this hand?"

Edith, sitting to the side, played a wind-type "K," a seventh-tier legendary spell: Storm Tornado, using absolute power to crush Harper's cards.

Harper chuckled and played an earth-type "3," a second-tier spell: Burrowing Technique. "The Storm Tornado has unparalleled power, but it has one obvious weakness: the damage it deals underground is almost negligible. Burrowing Technique can dodge it directly."

Sitting on the side, Ron watched the thoughtful, frowning expressions on Edith and Mason's faces and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

When he was the one being crushed earlier, he felt quite aggrieved, but now, he found it hilarious no matter how he looked at it.

It was simply killing him with laughter!

At this moment, Lyle walked out from the kitchen carrying the roasted meat.

Mason immediately threw his cards onto the table: "The roasted meat is here, no more playing, no more playing!"

Edith took the opportunity to throw her cards down and scrambled them all over the table until it was impossible to tell which cards had been played and which hadn't: "Let's eat the roasted meat."

Harper smacked his lips, still feeling a bit unsatisfied, but since Edith had said so, he put down his cards, though he still muttered: "I still had many moves I hadn't used yet..."

Ron shook his head with a smile while collecting the Elemental Cards from the table.

"These Elemental Cards of yours are quite interesting, though there are still too few spells. Otherwise, there should be many more combination strategies to use," Harper commented as he watched Ron pack the cards.

That's not how I originally played this game... Ron rolled his eyes.

"Eh? Is this roasted meat?" Edith saw the plate Lyle brought over, filled with skewers of aromatic meat that whetted one's appetite, and couldn't help but ask curiously.

"This is the specialty of this shop. Eating it this way is much better than the original roasted meat," Mason volunteered to introduce it. "And they use special seasonings; the flavor is a hundred times stronger than salt! You'll know once you taste it."

Harper and Edith were skeptical until they tasted a skewer, at which point they were immediately conquered by the alluring flavor, just like Mason.

"Mmm... this is so delicious." Edith exhaled a puff of hot air, chewed the skewer slowly, and immediately picked up another one from the table.

After Harper finished one, he picked up another to examine it closely, muttering to himself: "What kind of seasoning is this?"

Ron and Lyle exchanged a glance and smiled without saying a word.

The recipe for the seasoning was a secret of the barbecue shop, so naturally, they wouldn't answer Harper's question.

Although this recipe would eventually be exposed, they wanted to keep it secret for as long as possible, which was why Ron had specifically instructed Lyle.

Having tasted the new version of the roasted meat, Mason and the others were all satisfied.

Even Edith, who didn't usually care for meat, felt the trip was worth it.

"Do you want to buy a Nether Orchid to take back? The Nether Orchid in the lab will eventually be used up. You can buy one for your own use; the effect is very good." After finishing the meat, Mason started drumming up business for Ron again.

Harper shook his head: "With my talent, why would I need this? Just suppressing my realm in daily life is already troublesome enough."

Mason's teeth ached hearing that; he suddenly wanted to punch this guy.

However, Harper was telling the truth. His magical talent was indeed very high, but because he was deeply interested in magic research, he had been suppressing his own realm, vowing not to advance to the next tier until he had thoroughly researched the magic of his current one.

Otherwise, at his age of over forty, he would probably already be a powerful sixth-tier mage, just like Professor Hicks.

Edith, on the other hand, was somewhat moved. She looked at Ron and said, "I want to buy a Nether Orchid. Is it convenient for you now?"

"Of course it's convenient." Ron smiled immediately. With business coming to his door, he naturally wouldn't turn it away.

Seeing that Edith was going to buy a Nether Orchid, Harper quickly changed his tune: "Then I'll buy one too!"

"You really have no bottom line, do you..." Mason shot Harper a look of disgust and couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Edith was probably already used to Harper's attitude and couldn't even be bothered to pay him any mind.

And so, after paying the bill, they left the barbecue restaurant.

On the way back to the Flower Shop, Ron didn't know what he suddenly thought of, but he subconsciously glanced at the alley between the two shops and immediately saw a thin, small figure standing next to a trash can, secretly gnawing on the leftover food he had eaten at noon.

Noticing Ron's gaze, the thin, small figure wearing a tattered robe and a burlap hat immediately ran off in the opposite direction.

Ron frowned and shook his head, bringing Mason and the others back to the shop.

After collecting 40 gold coins, Ron successfully sold another two Nether Orchids.

[Main Quest]--[Open for business, sell one hundred Nether Orchids]:

"Completion progress 8/100."

System: "Please actively complete the quest, host."

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