Just as Mufasa and Melisandre were about to explore a ruin, Podrick ran up to them, his face covered in sweat.
"Ser Mufasa, a monster, there's a monster! We saw a monster!"
"Podrick, don't panic. Where is the monster?" Mufasa quickly asked.
"In the smoke, a huge tentacle reached out and snatched a soldier away. Then I—we heard his screams, screams of agony as if from the seven hells!"
Podrick was clearly terrified; he looked completely disheveled.
"Take me there!"
Podrick walked forward unsteadily, and Mufasa eventually supported him as they reached the spot where they had seen the monster in the smoke.
There were eight other people, all staring in horror at the long, indistinct tentacle lurking in the smoke.
Mufasa vaguely saw something like a long snake.
"A sea monster, but why only one tentacle? Logically, if it were a giant octopus or squid, it should have eight or ten tentacles."
As Mufasa was pondering, the tentacle in the smoke reached out again, this time targeting Mufasa.
"Watch out!" Podrick shouted, tackling Mufasa to the ground.
The tentacle lashed out like a steel whip but failed to grab Mufasa.
"You saved me, Podrick! Truly worthy of being the Lannisters' most loyal friend!" Mufasa said.
Podrick's complexion improved considerably.
"Ser Mufasa, we should leave this place immediately, or at least stay out of reach of the monster in the smoke. We don't want to die for nothing."
"You're right, we'll retreat."
Mufasa ordered a retreat of a mile. Then he gathered the other nine groups, and only after all the groups had assembled did Mufasa realize the heavy losses: out of a hundred soldiers, only eighty remained.
Twenty men were lost directly.
"This place is truly terrifying, more terrifying than war," a young soldier said, crouching on the ground and trembling, his hands clasped over his head.
"Yes, it's too terrifying. What took our comrade was not any creature we've ever seen. It must be an evil god, an evil god of the sea," an older soldier said.
"Everyone calm down. Let's first figure out the sea tentacle's range of activity and timing, and then we'll find a way to search when it's dormant," Mufasa said.
He guessed that since the monster was in the sea and didn't come ashore, it meant it was unwilling or even unable to come ashore.
Mufasa then sent men to shoot arrows into the smoke with bows to attract the sea monster and test the length of its tentacles. It was about fifteen zhang, with one zhang being roughly three meters, so fifteen zhang was about forty-five meters.
"Everyone, stay at least one hundred meters from the coast and continue the search. If you unfortunately die, your family will receive two thousand gold dragons in compensation."
Mufasa stated.
The search mission resumed. Mufasa did not participate in the search; he checked his remaining popularity points and found he still had over a thousand.
He decided to use them all to see if he could draw anything good.
The ten-pull began, and the huge wheel started spinning. Mufasa called for a stop after ten breaths.
He obtained the following items:
One red crystal for enhancing magic, ten bottles of wildfire made by a pyromancer, one hundred gold dragons, one thousand silver stags, one handheld scorpion crossbow, one scroll of wind, one hundred bottles of rum, ten bottles of all-purpose trauma medicine, one point increase in strength, and one point increase in spirit.
Mufasa immediately used the last two prizes. He felt his strength increase slightly, and his previously tense mind relaxed.
"So I can draw various stat points! Does this mean I can keep adding points? But the probability of drawing them seems low!" Mufasa thought.
Mufasa put away all the gold dragons, silver stags, trauma medicine, and rum. He only took out the handheld scorpion crossbow.
"The range is actually a hundred meters! It's so small, yet its range is so far! I think little Joff will like this toy!" Mufasa thought.
However, he then remembered that Joffrey seemed to have a somewhat crazy nature and decided not to give it to him.
If a crazy person gets hold of a killing weapon, someone is bound to suffer.
Mufasa then took out the red crystal.
"It increases magic power. With this, my speed of cultivating magic should be very fast."
"The Scroll of Wind can create a strong wind to disperse the smoke. I'll try it before I leave to see if it can clear the smoke and reveal the monster in the smoky sea."
"Wildfire is very dangerous! I'd better use it carefully!"
Mufasa took out all the rum, deciding to reward them, as their water supply was almost depleted, and they hadn't eaten fruit for many days, so everyone was lacking vitamins.
Mufasa did not explore personally. He used his warging abilities to possess a small bird and surveyed the area from above.
Suddenly, the small bird Mufasa possessed saw another bird, a black bird, a raven.
"A raven? Why would a raven be here?" Mufasa wondered.
Mufasa controlled the small bird to fly towards the raven. When he got close to it, he saw that it had three eyes on its forehead.
Then Mufasa was shaken out by a powerful force, and his consciousness returned to his body.
"That raven, could it be the Three-Eyed Raven, the Green Seer? What is he doing here?" Mufasa rubbed his slightly throbbing head.
"He could directly shake my consciousness back, his mental and magical power must be extremely high. Definitely higher than Melisandre's," Mufasa thought.
Mufasa tried again to possess an animal but felt something trying to grow in his head, accompanied by a heart-stabbing pain. These two pains simultaneously made Mufasa roll on the ground, fortunately, no one else saw him.
"How can this be? Am I cursed?" Mufasa felt a little scared. Was it the monster in the smoky sea, or the Three-Eyed Raven?
Mufasa opened a bottle of rum and drank it; he needed to calm his nerves.
An hour later, the soldiers returned one after another, having found nothing and looking disheveled. Everyone had cracked lips, exhausted, hungry, and thirsty.
Mufasa offered them rum.
Everyone was a bit surprised.
"Didn't we finish all the alcohol seven days ago? How is there still rum?"
"I am Ser Mufasa, blessed by the Seven Gods and the Lord of Light! They bestow miracles upon me when I need them!" Mufasa said.
Although everyone knew Mufasa was boasting, a sip of rum was incredibly refreshing.
After everyone had their fill, they started a fire and cooked. They still had plenty of dry rations, so they wouldn't run out of food anytime soon.