Night fell.
Inside the small house at Dragon Language Farm.
With the fireplace light flickering overhead, Daeron lay in bed with a dragon egg placed by his pillow.
He had saved up enough funds to buy Strawberry Seeds tomorrow.
Thanks to the probability of getting various gems from fishing treasure chests, his funds were much more abundant than planned.
"What will it take to make you hatch?"
Daeron tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and held the dragon egg to his chest.
It had been nearly a week.
The dragon egg showed no movement at all, as if it were impossible to hatch.
dragon egg: ... "You can definitely hatch; it's just that the method I'm using isn't correct."
Daeron looked it over again and again, talking to himself as he addressed the dragon egg.
Referring to the scenes of Daenerys hatching dragon eggs in the show, a necessary condition was blood sacrifice.
Daeron didn't quite agree with this method.
Setting aside whether the means were honorable or not, the main issue was that he didn't have a trustworthy blood witch or pyromancer to assist him.
If something went wrong, it would be easy to follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Aegon V.
"blood sacrifice is a way to re-endow inactive dragon eggs with life through bloody and cruel rituals, prompting them to break their shells."
"Or perhaps it's about awakening the lost life within the dragon egg; the situation is much the same."
Daeron held the dragon egg, his eyes hollow as his thoughts gradually drifted away.
The system panel should be able to help the dragon egg hatch!
In the game stardew valley, many quests and sources of materials are related to 'dragons.'
The fact that he hadn't found anything only meant that the farm was just starting out, and he couldn't access those rare items yet.
"I must brave the mines; metal bars are too important for early development."
"Once I craft sprinklers, I won't be confined to just one spot on the farm."
Daeron rubbed his brow, pulling his focus back.
He outlined a long-term plan.
Hatching eggs—farming.
Two important goals.
The initial difficulties of farming were basically over; all that was missing were sprinklers to replace manual labor.
As for hatching eggs... "I must find time to go to Dragonstone and the Citadel in Oldtown."
"The hatching rate of a single dragon egg is too low; I need to collect more eggs to hatch them together."
Daeron leaned toward rationality, focusing more on data and details.
He asked Count Owen to help keep an eye out for a ship capable of long-distance voyages.
It didn't matter if it was a bit broken or old.
As long as it could cross Blackwater Bay, it would surely be better than Fisherman Willy's boat in the game.
To be clear, the royal family had ships.
There was even a royal fleet stationed at Dragonstone.
But the command of this fleet was in the hands of his eldest brother, Rhaegar.
If Daeron asked the treasury for help, whether there was a ship was one thing, but his Father Aerys definitely wouldn't agree to him going to sea.
"Planting strawberries, sprinklers..."
With expectations for life, Daeron fell asleep with a hint of fatigue.
2:00 AM.
Daeron's eyes were closed, and the crackling sound of the dying fireplace flames was exceptionally conducive to sleep.
A ray of moonlight shone through the glass window into the small house, illuminating the lucky ring worn on his left index finger.
The golden crescent on the ring emitted a faint halo.
The dragon egg, placed by the pillow and illuminated by the light of the lucky ring, seemed to have its red scales gain a bit more luster.
The brilliant golden spots shone brightly, and the black spirals became even deeper.
Some kind of change was quietly arriving.
While Daeron was still sleeping, the panel automatically tallied the results.
[Farming: 0 Gold]
[Foraging: 60 Gold]
[Fishing: 752 Gold]
[Mining: 1900 Gold]
[Other: 40 Gold]
[Total: 2552 Gold]
...Spring Day 13, Saturday, Sunny, 6:00 AM.
"Cluck cluck cluck~~"
Accompanied by a rooster's crow, Daeron opened his eyes and got out of bed full of fighting spirit.
Today was the long-awaited Spring 13th, the important day to buy Strawberry Seeds and make his fortune.
"Buy Strawberry Seeds!"
Daeron checked the panel; his gold coin count had reached a staggering 4,542 gold coins.
1,790 gold was saved from the bumper potato harvest, and 2,552 gold was from fishing earnings.
Of that, selling lake fish only earned 725 gold.
The bulk was in the mining category, from selling gems found in fishing treasure chests.
Diamond: Sells for 750 gold.
Emerald: Sells for 200 gold.
He got two of each from the fishing chests, making a huge profit of 1,900 gold.
"4,542 gold, enough to buy 45 Strawberry Seeds."
The corners of Daeron's mouth curled up as he went straight to the shipping bin outside.
Clink clink clink!
With the sound of gold coins scattering, his gold count plummeted to 42 gold.
In exchange, he got 45 Strawberry Seeds.
"Today is the Egg Festival, and there's an Egg Hunt competition. First, I'll till the plots for the strawberries."
With a clear plan, Daeron went out carrying his scythe and hoe.
Passing by the chest, he took out some stones to craft 12 "stone path" floorings.
The scythe cleared the weeds, and the hoe tilled the plots.
The 12 smooth "stone path" floorings were laid out in order, 6 horizontal and 2 vertical.
Around each "stone path" flooring, he left a 3x3 open space.
He tilled one plot of farmland each to the top, bottom, left, and right, forming a cross shape.
"Mission accomplished."
Daeron wiped the sweat from his brow, looking with satisfaction at the spaces reserved for the sprinklers.
Basic Sprinkler: Irrigates four plots of farmland every morning.
Placing one Basic Sprinkler on a "stone path" flooring would perfectly irrigate the four surrounding plots.
By reserving the positions now, once he mined more copper and iron ore later, he could put them to use immediately.
"The annual Egg Festival—the Egg Hunt part is essential."
Daeron checked the panel.
8:30 AM, it was still early.
The Egg Hunt was the entertainment segment of the Egg Festival; whoever won the championship would receive a mysterious grand prize.
Daeron was determined to win.
The mailbox had given a prompt in advance that one could not participate in the Egg Hunt alone.
If there weren't enough people, it would be automatically canceled.
But Daeron could invite people to join.
The condition was that the participants could not exceed the legal age for marriage.
The legal age of modern society.
22 for males, 21 for females.
"Those two little brats are getting lucky."
Daeron smiled slightly.
He was, of course, inviting his sister Shae and his two foolish younger brothers.
10:10 AM.
Daeron finished planting the strawberries, and along the way, he petted the chickens and picked up eggs.
After a brief contemplation, he cleared some more weeds.
Dragon Language Farm was still in an undeveloped state, with weeds, debris, and logs everywhere, and most of the area covered in trees.
It was his sister Shae and his two brothers' first time out; he didn't want them to get lost before they even found any eggs.
Before long.
Ser Jon drove an exquisite carriage and stopped at the farm entrance.
"Are they here?"
Daeron went to meet them.
The carriage curtain was lifted, and a strand of smooth silver-gold curls fell first, followed by Shae's beautiful face.
"Oh, charge!"
..."
Viserys gave a strange cry and jumped down from the carriage clutching a small wooden sword.
Daeron's eyelid twitched slightly.
"Second Brother."
Jaehaerys also poked his head out and greeted him with a smile.
"Let me help you."
Daeron reached out, grabbed his brother's waist, and easily lifted him down from the carriage.
When it was Shae's turn, she looked at the height between the carriage and the ground, bent her knees slightly, and opened her arms.
Daeron carried her down and asked Ser Jon, "Was the journey smooth?"
Ever since Father Aerys's madness worsened, his desire to control his children had reached its peak.
Even on the day Rhaegar got married, the younger siblings were not allowed to go to the Great Sept of Baelor to attend the wedding.
Ser Jon was about to speak.
"It was very smooth; Father happened to go to Mother's room."
Shae's voice was very soft as she said indifferently, "However, we ran into Cersei Lannister on the way. She blocked us and wouldn't let us leave, insisting on coming along."
Daeron: ...
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