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Ch.82: Secret Base
🕑 Added 2025-02-28 10:23:13 +0000 UTCWinterfell Castle
POV of Eddard Stark
Eddard Stark was lying on his bed with his wife after dinner when Maester Lewin asked for an audience and gave him a letter that was sent by none other than Lord Rickard Karstark.
After giving the letter, Maester Lewin bowed and left, leaving him with the letter which he quickly opened and started reading.
"What does the letter say my love?" his wife Catelyn asked from beside him.
He opened his mouth to tell her but then decided otherwise and gave the letter for her to read instead.
She quickly skimmed through the letter, a pensive expression growing on her face as she finished the letter.
"It seems like Lord Rickard Karstark is not happy that his subjects are leaving their lands to go to the Bolton Lands for better opportunities." She commented on the obvious.
"I doubt any lord will be happy if their smallfolk start leaving their lands to go to other lands." He said, remembering the similar letter of complaints he got from the Hornwoods and Manderlys. "But be as it may, we cannot punish the smallfolk for wanting to choose a better life. Nor can we stop them from going to greener pastures."
"So, what can we do?" his wife asked worriedly. After all, taking smallfolk from the land of other lords might not be counted as breaking the law but everyone could agree that it was morally wrong as it hurt the economy of the other lords whose economy was mostly based on the products produced by their smallfolk.
"As it is, Lord Bolton has not broken any of the King's Laws so I cannot intervene in this matter. Nor can I ask him to stop paying his workers so well that it might attract the other smallfolk from nearby lands." He told her.
"But I can see that this is not a matter that we can just leave be and hope it solves itself. I'll have to go to the Bolton Lands and see the situation for myself to make a decision before my lords start a civil war among themselves."
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Dreadfort Castle
POV of Domeric Bolton
Domeric was sitting in his solar while looking at the tattoo on his hand. He could feel that the Symbol of Deathly Hallows was about to replenish his magic again. This would be the third time after his tattoo upgraded to level 3.
Till now he has been very satisfied with the level 3 blue rewards. The first one was a magical core that could generate magic on its own without the need for an external source. With this magical core, he could say that he was now really free in this world.
He didn’t need to worry about going to magic-scarce areas of this world anymore. His magic could generate magic at the rate of an adult wizard from his past life and he could feel that it was growing and improving with each passing time.
But he couldn’t use the magical core to replenish his tattoo’s magic. So, he still needed to stay at magically dense places to replenish the Symbol of Deathly Hallow’s magic.
Well, being able to replenish the symbol's magic with its own reward would be like cheating. So, there were no shortcuts. He needed more Heart Trees to upgrade the symbol faster and improve its magic replenishment rate.
At least his magical core could replenish his soul-bound magical reserve item, Merlin’s Saphire. So, it was really a good reward.
As for his second level 3 reward, it was a book called ‘Path of Warlock”. With this knowledge, Domeric could become a magical swordsman and more importantly, he could create magical weapon-type focis.
Before he got this reward, he tried to learn the magical swordsman style but there was little improvement. At most, he was more proficient at using sword-wand dual style. He realized that his main problem was that he didn't have any weapons as a foci.
Without a foci weapon, all he could do to support his wand assaults with his sword or support his melee style with his wand casting. It was useful but he couldn’t call himself a magic swordsman just because of that.
He even tried to use Valyrian steel weapons to cast magic, but he wasn’t successful. Valyrian steel weapons were magical, that’s true, but they weren’t magical focis. At least not for his wizard-style casting. Maybe in the hands of real Valyrian magicians, they could be cast to magic but, in anybody else’s hands, they were just magical enchanted weapons that were very durable and sharp.
So finally getting a reward with the knowledge of magical melee styles and creating foci weapons was a boon to his magical swordsman style training.
At the moment, he was about to get another level 3 blue reward from his tattoo, and after 2 useful rewards, his expectations were high. He didn’t expect to get super-powerful items. All he wanted was to get some useful things.
After a while, the symbol’s magic was fully replenished, and without any more waiting Domeric dived into his tattoo with his consciousness. When he arrived at Endless Void, he first checked level one and level two rewards but there weren’t any rewards that especially piqued his interest.
There were some good ones but not enough for him to choose them instead of the level three blue reward. If there was a reward like a magical ink recipe that could be used for non-magical folk, he might even choose it without checking the level tree reward.
But there wasn’t any reward like that so they could wait in the endless void for a while. Until he needed them, or he didn’t get a good level three blue reward.
Domeric focused on the blue orb and the orb floated to him till it stopped in front of him. He extended his hand to the orb and the knowledge about the reward flowed into his mind. He had already a good idea of what the reward was when he saw it but with this knowledge, he was sure what it was.
This was a magical suitcase. Like Newt Scamander’s magical suitcase. A magical suitcase that can sustain lifeform inside with a stable environment.
This was a surprise for Domeric. When he got a book called ‘Conqueror of Space’ in the past, he also learned how to create these kinds of suitcases but there was a problem. These kinds of suitcases need to be created with magical materials, not just some spells and charms.
Domeric already was searching for the necessary materials to craft one, but he found only 10 percent of them. Because there weren’t many magical materials and magical creatures in this world. So, getting a magical suitcase was a good surprise for him.
With this reward, he could speed up some of his projects.
‘I have finally a mobile base that could be used as a research center and secret hideout. I can also raise my dragons there till they grow up. In the future, when I have a full-grown dragon, who can stand up to me? Well, I must find a way to hatch dragon eggs first, but you know what they say; If there is a will there is a way.’
And Domeric reached the blue orb and grabbed it with a silly grin on his face.
