With Melisandre joining them, Mufasa's journey seemed to gain a bit more color.
Along the way, she was responsible for teaching Mufasa Valyrian, Dothraki, and the ancient language of Asshai.
Mufasa shared with her the scrolls of insight he had once obtained from fire mages, water mages, and shadow mages.
"Ser Mufasa, I can teach you some low-level fire magic and shadow magic, but I cannot touch any water magic, as I am a priestess of the Lord of Light."
Melisandre's words filled Mufasa with joy; he could finally learn magic, even if it was only low-level.
Seizing the opportunity, Mufasa also checked her stats.
"Name: Melisandre"
"Identity: Priestess of the Lord of Light"
"Occupation: Priestess, Fire Mage, Shadow Mage, Seer"
"Strength: 8 points"
"Speed: 9 points"
"Intelligence: 25 points"
"Spirit: 40 points"
"Magic: 45 points"
"Talent: Shadow Assassin. Can birth shadow assassins using royal blood, killing invisibly."
"She has so many professions! Although her strength and speed are not at the peak of an adult, her magic and spirit are ridiculously high. And the Shadow Assassin talent, which can kill invisibly, is truly abnormal."
Mufasa suddenly regretted not checking Benerro's stats at the Temple of R'hllor; his magic power would definitely be higher than Melisandre's, possibly at a demigod level.
Although Mufasa's regret came too late, he decided that he would return to Volantis to check Benerro's stats when they came back.
"Thank you, Melisandre. I want to learn fire magic first. Is the simplest one a fireball spell?" Mufasa asked.
Melisandre shook her head.
"The fireball spell is also advanced fire magic. Low-level fire magic is the spark spell, which allows you to condense a spark to light firewood or weeds."
Mufasa was a little disappointed; he seemed to have forgotten that A Song of Ice and Fire was a low-magic world, despite having various gods.
But as the priests of the Lord of Light said, they were all false gods. The only true god was the Lord of Light.
Therefore, not everyone in this world could conjure fireballs by hand.
"Melisandre, please teach me the spark spell!" Mufasa looked into her ruby-like eyes.
The following days were a simple routine: learning magic, traveling, and resting at night.
Three months after departing from Volantis, Mufasa and his group finally arrived at the Valyrian Peninsula, although they had not yet officially reached Oros.
But they could already see the lingering red clouds in the sky ahead.
"Melisandre, why is it that after five hundred years, and with the fourteen volcanoes having stopped erupting, the weather here is still like the end of the world?"
Melisandre's beautiful eyes held vigilance as she looked towards the ruins of Valyria.
"There's something terrifying in there. I can feel a powerful magic, much stronger than mine, and much stronger than Benerro's. Ser Mufasa, you'd best not cross the Smoking Sea. Just search for what you want on this side, connected to the mainland."
"Understood! Thank you for the warning!"
Mufasa's magic power was not as high as Melisandre's, so he couldn't sense the distant threat, but he also felt that there was something ominous in the Smoking Sea.
"Podrick, tell everyone to gather here."
Podrick quickly assembled the hundred Lannister soldiers.
"Our destination is the mainland coast near the Smoking Sea. We will not be entering the Smoking Sea, so please rest assured." Mufasa first stated this, which greatly eased the soldiers' minds.
"Next, we will divide into ten groups, with ten people in each group, to search for city ruins. If anyone finds any treasure, I am willing to exchange it for half its value in gold dragons, and I will convert it to cash for you when we reach King's Landing."
Even with pirate looting, it's not a case of 'finders keepers'; everything must be handed over to the captain for unified distribution. Often, some people receive less than a tenth of the value of the treasures they found.
Mufasa's willingness to buy their found treasures for half the price of gold dragons was quite generous.
The ten groups set out on ten different routes.
Mufasa and Melisandre followed Podrick's group.
They eventually reached the seashore.
This sea was once land five hundred years ago, but after the volcanic eruption, half of the entire peninsula was separated by seawater.
"The smoke of the Smoking Sea is not ordinary mist. Everyone, do not get too close!" Mufasa warned.
"Ser Mufasa, is this smoke poisonous?" Podrick asked. He forgot to call Mufasa 'Lord' and was seeing such smoke for the first time, feeling shocked. Although the smoke wasn't black, it was so dense that one couldn't see anything beyond ten feet.
Mufasa nodded. He had read several Citadel books about the Smoking Sea, which stated that the smoke contained a large amount of unknown toxins, being the main cause of greyscale.
Moreover, there were many people on the islands here who had contracted greyscale but had not died. They were extremely dangerous and contagious, and most of them were from Volantis.
Although Volantis inherited the largest share of the Valyrian Empire's legacy, it also suffered greatly from greyscale due to its proximity to Valyria. Every year, they would send a large number of greyscale sufferers by ship to die here.
"Search along the coastline for the ruins of Oros. There should be traces of the House Constantine castle nearby. That is our destination."
The map Mufasa obtained from Belron Weasel at the old folks' home clearly indicated the power rankings of the forty dragonlord families and their former strongholds.
House Targaryen was ranked twenty-eighth, placing them in the middle-to-lower tier.
And while the Valyrian Freehold claimed that the forty dragonlord families jointly governed the entire empire,
only fourteen families held real power, each possessing their own volcano. These were the fourteen volcanoes that later erupted.
The other families were stationed in different locations.
House Constantine was ranked seventeenth, and their family stronghold was closest to the mainland, next to Oros.
Mufasa held a compass, but it had malfunctioned; it seemed some powerful force here was interfering with it.
Mufasa followed Melisandre's direction, and they arrived before a ruin. It was clear that this had once been a magnificent city, but now it lay in ruins.
"I can sense the power of fire somewhere in here, and also an evil power." Melisandre crouched down, pressing the palm of her right hand to the ground.
"What is this power of fire you speak of? Dragons, or dragon eggs? There can't be living dragons here, can there? Can dragons live for five hundred years?" Mufasa said, disbelievingly.
Balerion of House Targaryen only lived for two hundred years, and Vhagar lived for one hundred eighty years.
"What contains the power of fire might not only be dragons, but also firewyrms. According to our priestesses' conjectures, dragons were bred from Valyrian firewyrms and wyverns," Melisandre explained.
"Valyrians also bred creatures? Were they horse breeders before?" Mufasa asked.
"You're right. Valyrians were once nomadic horse-breeding people, just like the Dothraki. It's just that the Dothraki tamed horses, and the Valyrians tamed dragons," Melisandre added.
"Then where did they learn magic?"
Upon hearing this question, Melisandre frowned.
"Benerro said it's possible that ancient priests of the Lord of Light taught them magic, but this account only exists in rumors. The Temple of R'hllor has no written records."