For the next three days,
Daeren repeated the same routine: getting up early to water the crops, petting the chicks, collecting eggs, and mining. Every day kept him busy.
It was exhausting, but the results were equally remarkable.
Daeren sat in front of the cottage, watching four furnaces glow and radiate heat as they smelted the hard-earned Copper Ore.
The mine had reached level 17.
The elevator stopped at levels 0, 5, 10, and 15.
He mined while crafting furnaces, leaving him with little stone and Copper Ore. He had only smelted six Copper Ingots.
Including the four currently being smelted, he would have ten altogether.
"I really am a superhuman!"
Thinking back on the hardships of the past few days, Daeren could not help sighing.
He had never noticed it in the game, but finding the entrance to the next level of the mine in reality was truly difficult.
He also had to stay alert for little monsters that might suddenly jump out.
He was stuck on level 17 because the monsters grew stronger and more numerous the deeper he went. With only a Rusty Sword and a ruined steel sword, they were becoming hard to handle.
When a slime occasionally ambushed him, he would even suffer minor injuries.
Daeren decided to be more cautious.
Of course, constant mining and fighting brought many benefits.
[Farmer: Daeren Targaryen] Farming: Level 1 Mining: Level 3 Foraging: Level 1 Fishing: Level 0 Combat: Level 2
His Mining and Combat levels had increased, with Mining even leaping to No. 1.
Besides unlocking various craftable items, they also greatly improved him personally.
Daeren loosely clenched his right hand and slowly drew Life Force into every fingerprint on his palm.
His control had improved!
In addition, he discovered that consuming Special Crops and leveling up did not directly increase his Life Force as he had imagined. Instead, they gradually improved his physique.
The stronger his physique, the more Life Force it could contain.
Like the relationship between a bottle and water.
Continuously using Life Force for mining and combat rapidly improved his control over it.
An increase in proficiency.
The Special Crops he normally ate replenished the Life Force he expended.
Farming produced Special Crops, mining improved the effectiveness of farming, combat protected his mining efforts, and Special Crops restored him when he grew tired. It formed a perfect cycle.
"If I keep this up, fencing Robert and hammering Rhaegar won't just be a dream."
Daeren amused himself amid the hardship.
He checked the System Panel:
Spring 9th, Tuesday, sunny, 7:30.
[Gold: 240]
"I won't mine today. Today, I'll harvest crops."
Daeren stood, stretched lazily, and headed toward the mature Farmland.
Potatoes took six days to mature. The time had come.
Pop~~ Pop pop~~
Every time he pulled up a Green Bean or one of the ten potato plants, a pleasant sound rang out.
At this sight,
Daeren could not help humming, "A bumper harvest of potatoes, a bumper harvest of potatoes..."
A harvest song belonging to old farmers alone.
Sure enough, singing made all the difference. The harvest was abundant.
One bunch of Silver Star Green Beans, ten normal-quality Potatoes, and seven Silver Star Potatoes.
His Farming level was too low, so he had not grown any Gold Star quality crops or higher.
Ding!
A System Panel notification appeared:
[You have some things to think about at the end of the day]
His Farming level had increased.
Having experienced the benefits of leveling up several times, Daeren simply moved his body a little before throwing himself back into work.
He sold off the entire harvest.
The Shipping Bin made gurgling noises as it accepted all the crops.
Daeren calculated silently.
He currently had 240 gold.
One hundred gold came from the [Getting Started] quest, one hundred from the [Forging Ahead] quest, and forty from selling one leek.
Over the past three days, he had completed two guidance quests.
[Forging Ahead: Now that your furnace has been built, you can begin forging.] --Use a furnace to forge a Copper Ingot.
This was the follow-up guidance quest for completing [Getting Started].
[Initiation: Kill 10 slimes, and you will qualify to enter the Explorers Guild.] --Kill 10 slimes.
Once he reached level 5 of the mine, he would receive a quest letter in the Mailbox the following morning.
The Explorer's Guild was not bad.
After killing ten slimes and joining, Daeren could buy or sell weapons through the Shipping Bin.
However, buying was outrageously expensive, while selling weapons meant being haggled down mercilessly.
Daeren would absolutely never buy a weapon, nor would he sell one.
Even though he currently only had a pitifully weak Rusty Sword.
Back to the point.
A bunch of Silver Star Green Beans sold for 50 gold, a normal-quality Potato sold for 80 gold, and a Silver Star Potato sold for 100 gold.
This harvest could sell for 1,550 gold.
Adding his savings of 240 gold, he would have 1,790 gold in total.
"There are still four days until Spring 13th..."
After calculating it all, Daeren was somewhat disappointed.
Crops sold through the Shipping Bin could only be collected at 2:00 the next morning.
Among spring crops, Parsnip had the shortest growth time, yet it still took four days from planting to maturity.
Today was Spring 9th. If he wanted to gather funds before Spring 13th, he could not plant any more crops.
By tradition, Spring 13th was Easter.
Strawberry Seeds would be sold during the festival.
One Strawberry Seed cost 100 gold and took eight days to mature. After that, it could be harvested again every four days.
Strawberries sold for 120, 150, and 180 gold at normal, Silver Star, and Gold Star quality respectively.
If planted on Spring 13th, the strawberries would mature for the first time on Spring 21st and could be harvested again on the 25th.
That way, he could harvest two batches.
The returns would be higher than Cauliflower or Potatoes.
"I'm still short of 2,000 gold. If I can't farm, then I can only forage and fish."
Daeren wanted to save at least 2,000 gold before Spring 13th and buy twenty Strawberry Seeds in one go.
Two harvests would give him forty mature strawberries.
Even at the lowest normal quality, they could sell for 4,800 gold.
With that money, he could consider building a barn for dairy cows or buying more chicks.
"Prince, I've fed your horse."
Ser Jon entered the farm, leading the chestnut mare.
There was no stable on the farm, so the horse still needed someone to care for it.
Daeren rose. "Ser, I'll be going first."
He needed to return to King's Landing.
First, to ask about the City Guard position.
Second, to instruct the maester to prepare some medicine for injuries, which would come in handy when he went mining.
"Travel safely, Prince."
Ser Jon bade him farewell helplessly.
White marble for the castle's construction was being continuously delivered to the territory. He was responsible for receiving it and supervising the work.
King's Landing, the Red Keep.
Tower of the Hand.
A knock sounded at the door, and Pycelle entered after receiving permission.
"You're here, Grand Maester."
Tywin sat upright in his chair, using candle flame to melt wax and seal a letter.
Pycelle appeared highly respectful as he slowly asked, "My lord, what are your orders?"
"Here is a letter. I want you to send it by raven to Lord Hoster Tully at Riverrun."
Tywin blew on the seal on the envelope to dry it.
"This is...?"
Pycelle was somewhat tactless.
Tywin glanced at him and said, "You need not know. Simply do as I instruct."
"Yes, my lord."
Pycelle obediently took the letter and withdrew.
Grand Maester sounded impressive, but the position was actually a peculiar one. His influence on the Small Council depended entirely on the King's favor.
His duty was to provide the correct answers whenever the King had need of them.
Ordinarily, he prepared medicines, managed ravens, and kept other maesters out of the court...
A typical position with little actual authority and plenty of work.
Therefore, being ordered around by the all-powerful Lord Hand was only natural.
"An old fool full of useless scraps."
After the man left, Tywin snorted coldly.
He had pressured Pycelle into secretly siding with Lannister, but the old man had fobbed him off with every excuse imaginable.
He neither wished to be loyal to Aerys nor to swear allegiance to Tywin.
A shameless chameleon.
"I hope Lord Hoster can make a decision soon after receiving the letter."
Tywin considered his plans as he casually picked up government documents to deal with.
Ever since the Duskendale Defiance, Aerys's temperament had changed drastically, and the political landscape of the Seven Kingdoms had quietly shifted.
As far as he knew, Old Arryn of the Vale had taken in Robert of Storm's End and the second son of Duke Rickon Stark of The North as foster sons.
Duke Rickon's daughter had also become engaged to Robert Baratheon, who was still in the Vale.
Not long ago, Duke Rickon visited Riverrun and arranged a betrothal between his eldest son and Lord Hoster's eldest daughter.
What were they trying to do?
With political instincts as keen as Tywin's, he immediately saw that the four great houses of Falcon, Stag, Wolf, and Fish were forming connections.
What was it for?
There was no need to think. They were surely forming an alliance to guard against the Mad King on the Iron Throne.
Tywin saw it clearly, but he had no intention of exposing them.
On the contrary, he intended to join them.
His eldest son, Jaime Lannister, was serving as a retainer to Count Sumner Crakehall in Crakehall in The Westerlands.
He had already sent Count Sumner a letter, telling him to find an excuse to send Jaime to Riverrun to deliver a message.
The purpose was to arrange a marriage between Jaime and Lord Hoster's second daughter.
Then, the five great houses would be joined through marriage and form an alliance.
Aerys would not be able to act so arrogantly again.
"With Jaime's charm, won't he have that old fool Hoster's daughter completely smitten?"
Thinking of his eldest son's excellence, Tywin smiled proudly.
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