Chapter 8: The Barren Manor
Regardless of whether these people who were observing his carriage wanted to understand the existing strength of his family, Aine felt that it was still necessary to make himself strong on the surface. Even if Ain was not afraid of the prying eyes of the nobles who were more powerful than him, he could still maintain the dignity that he and the Lannister family name deserved.
Marrington nodded, not questioning. In his mind, as long as Ain's instructions were not entirely wrong, they should be carried out as appropriate, let alone this matter that was beneficial to the decency of the Lannisters.
In fact, because of Ain's arcane training, the cost of running water has wiped out the dignity of the Lannister family. Originally, many of the expensive furnishings and furniture in the house were secretly sold by Malrington to subsidize the family, anyway, in the past five years, Ain was still young, and there were no elders in the family, so naturally there was no need to use the living room to meet guests. Even the restaurant with three meals a day has been basically simplified to the specifications of ordinary people - who can see the indecency of the interior if you don't enter the house anyway?
Again, what is the difference between nobles and commoners without decency.
It didn't take long for the road to start roughing, and Aine knew he was close to his manor. Because the desolation of the manor is not a phenomenon only found in the three hereditary manors under the name of the Lannister family, it can be said that there are more or less barren manors in this area, but some of the manors are not so barren, and they can barely provide a part of the output. So the path leading to the manor area has become somewhat broken.
If the manor could provide normal output, then there would definitely be a carriage between Winterfell and the manor. If the road is damaged, it will definitely be repaired in time, rather than letting it break as it is now, as long as it can ensure a certain traffic capacity.
Ain first checked the stability of the alchemy instrument, and then gave the horse an order to slow down through the psychic connection.
"Sir......" Malrington asked as soon as he felt the horse's progress slow down, fearing that something would happen to the horse summoned through the arcane.
"It's alright, Malrington." Aine still shook his head helplessly, in this world, people who have not really been in contact with the arcane always have some fear and awe of the arcane, "The horse I control, let it slow down." It is estimated that this section of the road has not been maintained for a long time, and it seems that the barrenness of the manor is getting more and more serious. ”
"Yes, sir, when there were signs of desolation before, our manor could barely grow some grain or ordinary crops, and by the time we went there recently, even weeds had grown." Malrington reluctantly came from outside the carriage with some emotion.
"Weeds don't grow ......," Ain muttered silently, and the situation was definitely simpler than Ain's expectation.
Originally, Ain thought that there was some force that stimulated the growth of weeds and made the manor barren, but now listening to Malrington, it can basically be concluded that it should be a cursed force or negative energy that caused the manor to be barren.
"Master, it's already outside the manor." Marrington stopped the carriage and, seeing that Aine had been silent for a long time, opened his mouth to speak.
"Hmm." Ain casually answered, pushed the door open and walked down.
The sight is completely different from the last time I came.
It was like walking into the desert of life, with nothing but dirt and stones.
The Lannisters' three hereditary estates were joined together, and it was only after the defeat in the Battle of the Flowers that the royal family and the council of nobles agreed to convert this former ancient battlefield, this extremely fertile land, into manor land. On a new manor land, the manors assigned to the same family are basically connected, which can be regarded as a certain compensation given by the kingdom and the noble council. After all, not everyone has that credit and gets three hereditary estates.
In the end, Ain did not choose to take the alchemy instrument off the carriage, because the alchemy instrument that Ain brought can only be used to analyze the magic energy in the soil.
Pulling out a handful of spellcasting materials from a pocket on the inside of the mage's robe, Ain immediately fell into a state of concentration.
Seeing that Ain didn't say a word, and took out some spell casting materials from the inside of his robe, Malinton knew that his master was already casting arcane arts. However, he also knew that he really couldn't help much, so he continued to sit in the carriage driver's seat, quietly watching Ain cast the spell.
This arcane arteon cast by Ain became "Detection Magic". Although it is only a zero-ring arcane, it can be judged by the caster's level and knowledge reserves, and whether there is arcane energy around it. If the caster is of sufficient level or knowledge, it is also possible to obtain the surrounding arcane energy directly through this arcane energy, which school of which arcane energy is caused by which school and where.
The arcane aura flashed in Ain's hand, but after focusing for a while, Ain silently shook his head.
As the casting focus was interrupted, the casting materials in Ain's hand instantly turned into ashes and disappeared without a trace.
"It's not an arcane effect......," Aine felt surprised for the second time since coming into this world. In the past five years or so, there really hasn't been anything that can surprise Aine except for the flowers I saw in the starry sky last time.
Originally, Ain's idea was that the changes in this manor must have something to do with Drew's spellcasters who studied the Necromancy. A few necromancers with a five-ring or six-ring attainment are enough to match the extremely negative energy environment here, and plant curses or blight effects on this area through arcane arts. The effects of curses and blight are indistinguishable, so even weeds cannot grow in this area.
"It's ......terrible to have no constant arcane vision, no true knowledge, no legends, no psychic vision," Aine cursed silently. If Ain had encountered this problem in the game of his previous life, it would have been most likely a spell caster with a legend, and he would have been able to understand what had happened in this land in just a few minutes.
Of course, in a situation where Aine can't even touch the second layer of the magic net, it's a bit unrealistic to think about anything that knows the legend. What's more, he doesn't know where to find the skill of casting spells yet, this is not the world of the game, and you can get a specialty by investing in a specialty point. All the specialties need to be learned on their own.
After revealing his helplessness, Aine could only honestly use the most conventional method to analyze. With a flick of the wand in his hand, a crooked skeleton rose from the ground.
The one-ring arcane first-level undead summoning technique is the best summoning arcane in this environment right now. Because in this gloomy place of negative energy, there is no need for materials at all to cast this arcane art. Directly extract the free negative energy in the air, and a crooked skeleton can be formed.
In fact, among the spell materials that Aine himself carried, he did not bring the bone powder necessary to cast the summoning spells of the Necromantic School.
A thought was sent to the skeleton through a telepathic connection, and although the skeleton summoned by this one-ring arcane did not have the ability to think autonomously, the order that Ain gave to dig a hole was still very easy.
Digging a hole actually allows Ain to better collect soil samples from the ground for analysis on the alchemy instrument, because the surface samples are often much more severely affected by the outside world.