NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 6: Main Mission 1
The five major cities in Westeros included King's Landing, Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown, and White Harbor. These were the five port cities that directly paid taxes to the Iron Throne, and they were also the most densely populated areas in Westeros.
Whenever a tournament was held in these cities, knights and mercenaries from all directions would flock to them, including some high nobles.
And jousting was the quintessential aristocratic game. Who could win the jousting championship in these cities—even in smaller ones like Gulltown (White Harbor, being in the North, didn't typically host jousting events)—if not the best (and wealthiest) knight?
Simply put, was it even appropriate for players who had just started to compete in this kind of formal lance competition?
Not to mention whether their strength was up to par, the specialized competition armor and horses for jousting weren't something knight players could currently afford.
Typically, the thickness of plate armor used for competitions was over 4mm, making its price far higher than actual combat plate armor, which was just over 2mm thick. Competition horses were first-class thoroughbred warhorses, often several times the price of ordinary warhorses.
And what did the Mercenary Knight players start with? An old chainmail suit and an ordinary tame horse.
Of course, if one was exceptionally skilled and brave, they could still sign up, but Ian felt he hadn't reached that level yet.
In his imagination, he would most likely participate in some minor sword competitions held in the castles of lesser nobles or in small towns.
"So, what does this 'Replace' option mean?" Ian asked in his mind.
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"We have designed at least three quest lines for each profession players can choose. Players can choose which one to complete after viewing all options. Once accepted, they cannot be changed."
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Hearing this, Ian clicked on Replace, secretly praying that the next mission would be more reliable.
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[Main Mission 1: Road of Robbers]
Mission description: People often say that hedge knights and robber knights are two sides of the same coin. Even if you have never been a robber, you are still affected by the infamous reputation of your peers. In this case, perhaps shedding that meaningless honor will be a better choice.
Mission goal: Loot the castle or manor of a wealthy knight, and plunder more than 100 golden dragons in total.
Mission reward: 5 points, 3 attribute points, 3 skill points.
[Accept] [Replace]
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"Plundering the castle of a wealthy knight? And plundering wealth worth more than 100 golden dragons?" Ian exhaled, his expression completely changing.
He felt a wave of despair wash over him.
Take the poorest knight's castle as an example. To sack such a castle, Ian would need to face at least one knight and one attendant.
It wasn't impossible for him to win in that scenario, but in this kind of knight's "castle" (if you could even call it that) so poor it couldn't afford a guard, the total loot would probably be less valuable than the knight's armor and horse.
If he wanted to rob 100 gold dragons, Ian couldn't imagine how many raids it would take.
What did 100 gold dragons even mean?
In the original book, after King Joffrey was poisoned at the Purple Wedding, Ser Adam Marbrand offered a reward for Sansa Stark, who was suspected of "collaborating with the Imp to kill the king." The reward offered was *only* that much!
A knight's top-tier equipment—a full set of high-quality plate armor, a high-quality longsword and warhammer, a warhorse, and two marching horses—only cost about 30 gold dragons in total.
Yet, throughout Westeros, only the wealthiest knights in the Reach, who owned manors and large tracts of land, or knights in the Westerlands with mines at home, could afford such a set of equipment. Even for them, acquiring such equipment would make their finances tight.
As for other regions, wealthy knights in the Vale mostly wore plate and chain armor, those in the Stormlands mostly wore plate armor, and knights in the Riverlands still primarily used chain armor, just as they had hundreds of years ago.
So this mission was actually designed for someone like Arthur Dayne, wasn't it? All he'd have to do is cut down six Kingsguard and strip their armor to complete the task, Ian thought absurdly.
Forcing himself to calm down, Ian clicked **[Replace]** with his last hope.
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[Main Mission 1: Golden Road]
Mission description: The first time you raised the sword in your hand for money instead of justice or lordship, you suddenly realized the truth of this world. Gold is the only true god; everything else is false.
Mission goal: Earn 1,000 gold dragons.
Mission reward: 5 points, 3 attribute points, 3 skill points.
[Accept] [Replace]
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"..." Now Ian felt completely numb.
Initially, 100 golden dragons had seemed ridiculous, but this time it was 1,000.
Although there were no restrictions on *how* to earn these 1,000 gold dragons, it was still *1,000 gold dragons*!
During the War of the Five Kings, Catelyn Tully secretly released Jaime, who was captured by the allied forces, asking him to return her two daughters when he returned to King's Landing. This act undoubtedly caused dissatisfaction among the people in the North and the Riverlands, throwing the allied forces into great passivity.
In this situation, the Lord of the Riverlands, Duke Edmure Tully of Riverrun, issued a wanted order for Jaime, with a bounty of 1,000 gold dragons (this was also the highest bounty ever seen in *Ice and Fire*).
At that time, Jaime was the commander of the royal army, the captain of the Kingsguard, one of the strongest knights in Westeros, the heir to the wealthiest Lannister family in Westeros, and the biological father of King Joffrey (crossed out). He was *only* worth 1,000 gold dragons.
Perhaps many people think that golden dragons are worthless when they see that Robert would provide 40,000 gold dragons as a bonus to the champion knight when he held a tournament in King's Landing.
But it's important to remember that the first volume of *Ice and Fire* was published in the last century. It's generally believed that this was an oversight caused by Mr. Martin not fully considering the economics in the early stages of writing the book.
In fact, after Robert's death, when Littlefinger approached Eddard Stark, he mentioned that 6,000 gold dragons was the amount needed to buy an entire city guard, and Eddard thought this number was reasonable.
In other words, 1,000 gold dragons was equivalent to buying one-sixth of a city's defense team.
It was basically nonsensical to ask early-game players to make this money out of thin air.
Suddenly, Ian had a terrible thought. After planning and designing such tasks, the developer didn't want them to complete the tasks at all, did he?
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**Note:** The currency exchange ratio in the world of Ice and Fire is: 1 gold dragon = 30 silver moons = 210 silver stags, 1 silver stag = 49 copper stars, 1 copper star = 8 copper pennies.
In addition, based on some data, the author estimates that the Golden Dragon is a medium-sized gold coin of 7.56g.
**Important point:** This data is only used as the setting for this book (!!!) and serves the subsequent plot. It is not intended as a verification of the original work or history, so please do not scrutinize it (let alone use current gold prices to estimate purchasing power).