After eating his fill, Mufasa went off alone to practice the Spark spell.
He stood before a patch of weeds, extending his right hand forward, palm facing down, reciting the incantation Melisandre had taught him.
A cluster of sparks appeared; Mufasa held them in his palm, then threw them.
The weeds at his feet immediately caught fire.
"The Spark spell is learned, but its power... it doesn't seem strong enough to kill anyone," Mufasa thought, somewhat troubled.
He had tested it: throwing a handful of sparks onto a person only resulted in a slight burning sensation, and then they were fine.
Unless it was highly flammable material like dry grass or cotton, sparks alone couldn't ignite it.
Even a slightly thicker piece of firewood would be difficult to light.
After finishing his practice with the Spark spell, Mufasa began practicing his swordsmanship.
With a fine sword like Light Roar, how could he not put it to good use!
Mufasa began practicing his swordsmanship independently in an open space. Half an hour later, Melisandre appeared before him.
"Ser Mufasa. If you have mastered the Spark spell, we can move on to learning a new form of magic!"
"New magic? Yes, yes!"
Mufasa immediately became interested.
The two sat facing each other. Melisandre demonstrated the new magic for Mufasa: the Fire Butterfly spell.
"The Fire Butterfly is much more powerful than the Spark spell, and it can be used for long-range attacks. Look at that wine flagon about thirty feet away."
Melisandre pointed at an empty rum bottle. She delicately twisted her left hand and pointed her finger toward the flagon.
A fiery red butterfly flew out from her palm, slammed into the flagon, and instantly shattered it.
"See, what do you think of its power?" Melisandre asked, withdrawing her hand and looking at Mufasa.
"While it might not be lethal, it's definitely useful for catching someone off guard," Mufasa replied.
The power of the Fire Butterfly spell was roughly equivalent to smashing a wine bottle over someone's head—it wouldn't kill them, but it would cause significant pain.
If aimed at the face, especially the eyes, it could potentially cause blindness.
"I will now teach you the specific incantation and hand gestures."
Mufasa studied with Melisandre for another two hours, mastering the spell and the gestures. He then began practicing on his own.
As night fell, the temperature dropped, and the stars shone brightly. The night sky was clear, without clouds, and the moonlight bathed the earth, coating everything in a layer of silver.
"Now, let's continue searching the ruins! The treasure hunt continues!"
Mufasa personally led the remaining soldiers, who began to split up to search for the former site of the House of Constantine.
Although the location was supposedly near Oros, five hundred years had passed, and it was possible the site had been buried by sand and wind.
Mufasa and Melisandre arrived at the spot where she had previously sensed the fiery power.
"The evil energy inside is gone. How strange," Melisandre remarked after sensing the area again.
"Is the fiery power still there?" Mufasa asked.
"It is, but it is much weaker! Like a newborn infant! It is no longer as strong as before," she continued.
"It seems the treasure buried in these ruins has either been taken or destroyed!"
Mufasa strongly suspected that the monsters of the Smoking Sea, including the Three-Eyed Raven and the greenseer, had not appeared here by chance.
"Take me to see the source of the fire," Mufasa requested.
Melisandre led him through layers of ruins until they reached a cave entrance bearing clear signs of excavation.
"These claw marks—they look fresh? And they are so large. Could it be..." Mufasa looked at the entrance, which resembled a dragon's lair, and a thought involuntarily rose in his mind.
"It's a dragon lair! Not only are there signs of excavation, but there are also signs of a struggle!"
Melisandre pointed to the nearby stone pillars, blackened by fire, and the broken walls.
"We were right nearby, why didn't we hear anything?" Mufasa asked.
"Perhaps the dragon was controlled! Controlled by magic," Melisandre hypothesized.
"Come, follow me inside and let's see what is in this dragon lair."
Mufasa picked up a wooden stick wrapped with cloth, lit it with a Spark spell, and led the way into the lair.
The interior of the lair was a long, narrow tunnel filled with a strange odor. Mufasa had grown up in King's Landing, accustomed to the smell of horse urine, but even he was choked by the stench here.
"Cough, cough, cough! Truly worthy of a dragon! The smell is overwhelming!"
Deep inside the lair, Mufasa saw five oval-shaped stones of varying colors. Their patterns were beautiful.
"These are dragon eggs!"
This was Mufasa's first time seeing dragon eggs. When he was in King's Landing, he had visited the Dragonpit and seen the dragon bones there, which were black due to their high iron content.
"Melisandre, are these dragon eggs?" Mufasa asked.
Melisandre walked over gently and picked up one of the eggs with both hands; she couldn't hold it with just one.
"I can tell you with certainty, Mufasa, these are dragon eggs. But you cannot hatch them!"
Melisandre offered Mufasa hope, only to immediately dash it.
"Only descendants of the Dragon Kings can ride dragons! But even among the Dragon King descendants, some can never hatch an egg in their lifetime. They are called the Dragon-Abandoned, those rejected by the great beasts."
Mufasa did not lose interest.
"Who says I can't ride a dragon? Even if they are just eggs now, and even if I don't have the blood of the Dragon Kings, the Valyrians went from being a nomadic tribe to a dragon-riding race—there's no reason others can't do the same!' Mufasa declared."
Although Melisandre didn't know where Mufasa found such confidence, she refrained from refuting him again.
He placed all five dragon eggs into a sack, and then they left the lair.
Mufasa had come to the ruins of Valyria specifically to find dragon eggs and the sword Light Roar.
As for searching for 'treasure,' that was just talk; even if there were treasures, they had most likely been swallowed by the lava during the volcanic eruption. There was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance that anything remained perfectly intact, waiting to be claimed.
Mufasa was preparing to leave the next day, but he hadn't expected Podrick to bring him a pleasant surprise.
"Guildmaster, while we were searching one section of the ruins, the ground collapsed, revealing a bottomless pit," Podrick reported, rushing over.
"Is there treasure inside?" Mufasa asked. He assumed this was a natural sinkhole and likely unrelated to any treasure.
"Yes! We found many antiques!"
Hearing that antiques had been found, Mufasa's interest remained low.
Antiques in times of peace, gold in times of strife, food in times of apocalypse.
Antiques weren't worth much now, and given the noticeable aesthetic differences between Westerosi and Valyrian tastes, even a large haul of antiques would be difficult to sell.
"Come on, take me to see!"
Mufasa arrived at the site of the massive sinkhole. He noticed that the collapsed area wasn't actually very large; it looked more like the ground had given way as a monster tried to burrow out from below.
"Wait until dawn before we conduct a wider search down there! Tell everyone currently below to come up,' Mufasa commanded."
The following morning, Mufasa and the others guarding the collapsed pit woke up.
After a quick meal, they returned to the edge of the pit.
"We will build a Three-Army Bridge! Then we can send a large number of people down to search," Mufasa announced.
"What is a Three-Army Bridge?" someone asked.
Mufasa personally drew the structure of the Three-Army Bridge on the ground for them: it used three wooden poles crossed over one another to distribute the load, allowing passage in three directions.
"What a clever design! If we follow that logic, is there also a Four-Army Bridge?" Melisandre inquired.
"Truly worthy of the Lord of Light's priestess! You understand immediately!" Mufasa praised.
"Let's start building the bridge! Make sure it is sturdy! Otherwise, if we run into danger, we won't be able to get back up."