The Four Great Houses: Eagle, Deer, Wolf, and Fish

For the next three days, Daeren repeated the same routine: waking up early to water the plants, pet the chicks, collect eggs, and mine. He was busy every day.

It was tiring, but the results were significant.

Daeren sat in front of his cabin, watching four Furnaces glow as they smelted the Copper Ore he had worked so hard to obtain.

The mine had reached level 17.

The elevator levels were 0, 5, 10, and 15.

While mining, he had also crafted Furnaces. He was running low on stone and Copper Ore, so he only smelted six Copper Ingots.

Including the four currently smelting, he would have ten in total.

"I'm a superhero!"

Recalling the hardships of the past few days, Daeren couldn't help but sigh.

He hadn't realized it in the game, but finding the entrance to the next level of the mine in reality was truly difficult.

He also had to constantly guard against monsters that might pop out.

He was stuck at mine level 17 because the monsters grew stronger and more numerous the deeper he went. His rusty longsword and worn-out steel sword were no longer enough to deal with them.

Occasionally, he would be ambushed by slimes and sustain minor injuries.

Daeren decided to play it safe.

Of course, there were many benefits to continuous mining and fighting.

[Farmer: Daeren Targaryen]
Farming: Level 1
Mining: Level 3
Gathering: Level 1
Fishing: Level 0
Combat: Level 2

His Mining and Combat levels had increased. His Mining level had even leaped to ON.1.

Besides unlocking various crafting recipes, there were also significant personal improvements.

Daeren loosely clenched his right hand, slowly channeling Vitality to adhere to every fingerprint on his palm.

Control had improved!

Furthermore, he discovered that consuming special crops and leveling up didn't increase his Vitality as he imagined. Instead, it subtly improved his physique.

The stronger his physique, the more Vitality he could hold.

It was like the relationship between a bottle and water.

Constantly using Vitality for mining and combat quickly improved his mastery of Vitality.

Proficiency had increased.

The special crops he ate normally replenished the Vitality he consumed.

Harvesting special crops through farming, increasing farming efficiency through mining, protecting mining with combat, and using special crops when tired formed a perfect closed loop.

"If I persevere, challenging Robert with a sword and smashing Rhaegar with a hammer will no longer be a dream."

Daeren found solace in self-deprecating humor.

Checking his status panel:

Spring, Day 9, Tuesday, Sunny, 7:30 AM.

[Gold: 240]

"No mining today. Today, I'll harvest."

Daeren stood up, stretched, and walked towards the Farmland where the crops were ripe.

The Potatoes had a six-day growth cycle, and their time was up.

Pop~~ Pop-pop~~

A Green Bean and ten Potato sprouts made a pleasant sound with each pull.

At this sight, Daeren couldn't help but hum, "Potato a bountiful harvest, Potato a bountiful harvest..."

A harvest song exclusively for old farmers.

Singing made all the difference; the harvest was abundant.

A string of Silver Star quality Green Beans, ten normal quality Potatoes, and seven Silver Star quality Potatoes.

Due to his low Farming level, he hadn't grown any Gold Star quality or higher.

Ding!

A panel notification appeared:

[You have some matters to consider by the end of today.]

Farming level increased.

Benefiting from several level increases, Daeren simply stretched his body and returned to work.

He sold all the harvested crops.

The selling box made a glug glug sound as it took in all the crops.

Daeren calculated silently.

Currently, he had 240 gold.

100 gold came from the [Start Forging] quest, 100 gold from the [Blacksmithing] quest, and 40 gold from selling a Leek.

During these three days, he had completed two guidance quests.

[Blacksmithing: Now that your Furnace is built, you can start blacksmithing.] -- Used the Furnace to forge a Copper Ingot.

This was a follow-up guidance quest to completing [Start Forging].

[Initiation: You are eligible to join the Adventurer's Guild after killing 10 Slimes.] -- Killed 10 Slimes.

Reaching the 5th level of the mine, he would receive a quest letter in his Mailbox the next morning.

The Adventurer's Guild was good.

Daeren killed 10 Slimes to join, allowing him to buy or sell weapons from the selling box.

However, buying was prohibitively expensive, and selling weapons meant being severely underpriced.

Daeren absolutely would not buy a weapon, nor would he sell one.

Even though he currently only possessed a Rusty Sword with pitifully low attack power.

Getting back to the point.

A bunch of Silver Star quality Green Beans sold for 50 gold, a normal quality Potato for 80 gold, and a Silver Star quality Potato for 100 gold.

A harvest of crops could sell for 1550 gold.

Adding his current savings of 240 gold, that made a total of 1790 gold.

"There are still four days until Spring 13th..."

Daeren calculated, feeling a bit disappointed.

Crops sold through the selling box would only have their proceeds collected at 2:00 AM the next day.

Among spring crops, the Parsnip, with the shortest growth time, still took four days from planting to maturity.

Today was the ninth day of spring. To raise funds before the thirteenth, he couldn't plant any more crops.

According to tradition, Spring 13th was "Easter."

Strawberry seeds would be on sale during the festival.

A single Strawberry seed cost 100 gold, took 8 days to mature, and could be harvested again every 4 days thereafter.

The selling price of Strawberries, for normal, Silver Star, and Gold Star quality, was: 120/150/180.

Planting on the 13th of Spring, the first Strawberry harvest would be on the 21st of Spring, with another harvest on the 25th.

This way, he could get two harvests.

The profit was higher than Broccoli or Potatoes.

"I'm still a bit short of 2000 gold. Since I can't farm, my only options are foraging and fishing."

Daeren needed to save at least 2000 gold before Spring 13th to buy 20 Strawberry seeds in one go.

Two harvests would yield 40 mature Strawberries.

Even if they were all the lowest-priced normal quality, they would sell for 4800 gold.

With that money, he could consider building a Barn to raise Cows, or buying more chickens.

"Prince, your horse has been fed."

Ser Jon walked into the farm, leading the chestnut mare.

The farm had no stable, so the horses still needed someone to care for them.

Daeren stood up. "Sir, I'll be leaving now."

He had to return to King's Landing.

Firstly, to inquire about the City Guard position.

Secondly, to instruct the scholar to prepare some medicinal herbs, which would be useful when going into the mines.

"Travel safely, Prince."

Ser Jon bid farewell with a sigh.

White marble, the material for building castles, was being transported to the territory in an endless stream. He was responsible for its reception and supervision.

King's Landing, Red Keep.

Tower of the Hand.

A knock on the door. Pycelle entered after receiving permission.

"You're here, Grand Maester."

Tywin sat on his chair, using candlelight to melt wax, which he then pressed onto a letter.

Pycelle showed great respect, slowly saying, "My lord, what is your command?"

"Here is a letter. I want you to send it via raven to Duke Hoster Tully of Riverrun."

Tywin blew dry the seal on the letter.

"This is...?"

Pycelle was a bit tactless.

Tywin glanced at him and said, "You don't need to know. Just do as I command."

"Yes, my lord."

Pycelle obediently took the letter and withdrew.

Though called Grand Maester, his position was precarious, his influence in the small council depending entirely on the King's favor.

His duty was to provide correct answers when the King needed them.

Otherwise, he was responsible for dispensing potions, managing the ravens, and preventing other maesters within the court...

Typically, a position with little power but plenty of work.

Therefore, being ordered around by the overwhelmingly powerful Hand of the King was only natural.

"A dried-up old fossil full of useless trivia."

After the man left, Tywin snorted coldly.

He had pressured Pycelle to secretly support the Lannisters, but had been met with various excuses.

Pycelle neither wanted to be loyal to Aerys nor to him.

A shameful chameleon.

"I hope Lord Hoster will make a swift decision after receiving the letter."

Tywin pondered his schemes while handling state affairs.

Since the Duskendale rebellion, Aerys's temperament had changed drastically, and the political landscape of the Seven Kingdoms had subtly shifted.

As far as he knew, Old Arryn of the Vale had adopted Robert, the Duke of Storm's End, and the second son of Duke Rickon Stark of the North as his wards.

Furthermore, Duke Rickon's daughter was betrothed to Robert Baratheon, who was still in the Vale.

Not long ago, Duke Rickon visited Riverrun, arranging for his eldest son to be betrothed to Lord Hoster's eldest daughter.

What were they trying to achieve?

With his keen political senses, Tywin immediately saw that the four great houses of the Eagle, Deer, Wolf, and Fish were colluding.

What was their goal?

There was no need to guess; it was undoubtedly to form an alliance and guard against the Mad King on the Iron Throne.

Tywin saw it clearly but had no intention of exposing it.

On the contrary, he intended to join them.

His eldest son, Jaime Lannister, was currently a squire to Earl Sumner Crakehall in Crakehall, The Westerlands.

He had already written to Earl Sumner, asking him to find an excuse to send his eldest son, Jaime, to Riverrun with a letter.

The purpose was to arrange a marriage between his eldest son, Jaime, and Lord Hoster's second daughter.

When that happened, the five great houses would intermarry, forming an alliance.

Aerys would no longer be able to act so arrogantly.

"With Jaime's charm and gallantry, he'll surely captivate Hoster's daughter."

Thinking of his son's excellence, Tywin smiled with pride.