Landfall

In the boiling, dark green seawater, the wreckage of buildings lay half-submerged like the skeletons of giant beasts. Beneath the murky surface, the dim red glow of magma was visible.

The boat threaded its way through the wreckage in the shallows. Now and then, a bizarre fish flashed past and vanished into the ruined buildings.

Reefs and shallow waters barred the large ship from approaching, leaving several small boats to ferry people to the Cursed Land in batches.

By the time Aegon set foot on land again, he was among the fifth group to reach the Cursed Land.

Along the coast, rotting shipwrecks lay stranded. Dark green waves battered them, while fragments of unidentified bones rose and fell with the tide.

Once the last person jumped ashore, the boat headed back to collect the next group. They would have to wait here until everyone had assembled before heading deeper into the ruins together.

As the boat departed, Aegon and the others moved on, making their way up the shore.

Not far from the debris-strewn shoreline, the mercenaries who had arrived before him had gathered and already set up a fairly substantial... camp?

Aegon looked around in surprise. Wasn't that a little too fast?

If they had simply lit a few campfires and sat around them, calling it a temporary camp would have made sense.

But they had even erected a fenced perimeter, enclosing a sizable clearing, with more than a dozen tents of varying sizes pitched inside. Were they settling in here? Planning an extended stay?

Aegon was puzzled. He might have come with the fifth group, but surely he hadn't arrived that much later than the others?

And they had already thrown together a whole camp?

He even spotted several large pots set up in the center of the camp. Firewood crackled beneath them, and steaming soup bubbled inside.

Wait, they were already getting ready to eat?

It wasn't that Aegon was some insatiably curious child. In a place this strange, he couldn't afford the slightest carelessness! Especially when this entire expedition was shrouded in mystery.

Even if the first group had started building the camp the moment they stepped ashore, putting up fences, pitching tents, and even cooking a meal should have taken a good few hours. Besides, where had they gotten the materials?

Their efficiency was almost unnaturally high.

Unless... they hadn't done any of it!

As suspicions crowded his mind and he scanned the camp warily, a familiar figure hurried over from beside a campfire, brimming with excitement.

"Brother Hayne, praise the Seven! You've finally made it to this damned place!" Henry's plump, round face was covered in sweat, but his smile was utterly sincere. His belly jiggled beneath his iron armor as he ran.

Something about those words sounded odd to Aegon. And the faith of the Seven-was this fat fellow from Westeros?

He certainly hadn't seen that coming!

Until now, the fellow had spoken the language of the Free Cities, even with a trace of a Volantis accent.

"Ugh, this damned place is nothing but rocks and bones. Sitting down really hurts!

"See that camp? Saved us a whole lot of work!"

At that, Aegon surveyed their surroundings and asked casually, "You lot work fast. You're almost ready to eat already?"

Henry gave him a look that said he'd stumbled into a bargain, then lowered his voice with an air of conspiratorial excitement. "Fast? Not at all! We arrived with the third group, and guess what? This camp was already standing here! The fences, the fire pits, even the holes for the tent stakes were all ready-made! All we did was clean up a bit, add some firewood, and set the pots up! Heh, saved us some trouble, eh?"

Just as I thought! Aegon's suspicion had been confirmed. This was no hastily built camp, but a repeatedly used outpost.

Who owned this outpost, and who had built it? Aegon already had an answer in mind.

"Come sit over here! Perfect timing-the soup's just finished!" Henry enthusiastically took Aegon by the arm and led him to a large rock a little farther from the campfire, in a relatively quiet spot.

Like an eager serving boy, he hurried over to the large pot, picked up two clay bowls with chipped rims, and laboriously scooped out two generous ladlefuls of thick, bubbling soup. Chunks of white fish, no longer recognizable in their original form, bobbed among unidentified roots before he brought the bowls over to Aegon.

Aegon held a bowl beneath his nose and sniffed. A salty, fishy odor wafted up, tinged with sulfur.

The corner of Aegon's mouth twitched. Whoever had cooked this soup was truly something-apparently, anything could go in the pot. Weren't they worried that fish from the Smoking Sea might be contaminated and poisonous? More importantly, someone had dared to cook it, and others actually dared to eat it!

Aegon looked toward the figure busy beside the iron pot. As though sensing his gaze, the cook turned and met his eyes.

Apparently misunderstanding and thinking Aegon enjoyed the food, the cook lifted his chin smugly and tapped the iron pot with his ladle, seemingly waiting for praise.

The corner of Aegon's mouth twitched again. He looked away and paid the cook no further attention. While he and that "genius" had exchanged glances, Henry had gotten up and gone off to do something, leaving only the two bowls of salty, fishy soup on the large rock.

Leaving the fish soup untouched, Aegon summoned the system panel to check his current check-in mission.

The system had clearly stated that he needed to check in deep within the Valyrian Ruins. They had only just landed, so he still had a long way to go!

Still, Aegon opened the system panel to take a look. Check in deep within? Where exactly was that? How far into the Valyrian Ruins did he have to go? He would have to open the system manually and check whether he had reached a valid check-in location.

Aegon was thoroughly exasperated with this system. It couldn't even explain a mission properly. If it hadn't kept him alive and effectively saved his life, he would have started cursing it out long ago-even if it didn't have any intelligence.

Ding. With a notification chime, a panel visible only to Aegon appeared before his eyes.

Name: Aegon Targaryen

Strength: 20 (Assessment: You are very strong, but have not yet reached the human peak. There is still room for improvement.)

Spirit: 67 (Assessment: Your spirit is exceptionally powerful. When you sense them, perhaps they have noticed you too!)

Agility: 20 (Assessment: Twice the agility of an ordinary person lets you seize the initiative at every turn.)

Constitution: 23 (A healthy body means you rarely fall ill. Except for curses?)

Current status: Cursed (Notice: The souls consumed by blood and fire still curse those of the dragonlord bloodline who set foot upon this land!)

Current draws remaining: 0

Current check-in location: Deep within the Valyrian Ruins (In progress)

Ding. Host detected approaching the check-in location. Map Guidance Function activated.

Enable? Yes/No.

Aegon stared at the system panel in surprise. It had proved him wrong that quickly-a new function had just unlocked!

He also noticed that his attribute assessments had changed, but the new function mattered more for now.

Looking at the newly added Map Guidance Function, Aegon clicked "Yes" without hesitation.

As the system panel closed automatically, he glanced around in puzzlement.

Nothing had changed. Then, suddenly, an intuition guided him to raise his head and look toward the ruins behind him.

If the Smoking Sea and the coastline it had swallowed were a damp, sweltering, dark green abyss, then the depths of the Valyrian Ruins were a terrifying inferno of molten rock.

Dark red magma surged deep within cracks in the earth. Swelling volcanoes spewed waves of scorching heat and poisonous smoke, staining everything in sight an ominous crimson.

And deep within that crimson was a faint glimmer of gold-

Guiding his way!