Night, 9:40 PM.
Sloshing through the muddy path, Daeron hurried home and pushed open the cabin door.
Bang!
The door slammed shut, locking out the night and the rain.
"What a haul!"
Daeron looked pumped. He took off his trusty straw hat—which had certainly earned its keep—and pulled out his first two spoils of war.
Slingshot: Critical Strike Chance: 0.02
Tundra Boots: Defense +2, Immunity +1
The first was a standard Slingshot. It could fire ammunition for ranged damage, accepting any type of ammo with a capacity of 999 rounds.
The second was a chest reward from Floor 40 of the mines. The quality was slightly better than leather boots, but their real value lay in their special insulation against the cold.
"With these two items, mining is going to be a lot easier."
Daeron was particularly fond of the Tundra Boots; they would effectively mitigate the biting chill of the frozen earth levels.
But those two pieces of gear were just the appetizer.
"Now, let's see if you actually work."
Daeron pulled out the golden Solar Essence.
The fire in the fireplace was burning low. The dragon egg sat amidst the embers, its red scales looking dull and heavy.
As Daeron approached the hearth, a log suddenly cracked, sending up a spark.
It felt like an omen.
Daeron's eyes shined with anticipation. He crouched down and held out the Solar Essence.
Hum!
The change was instant. The moment the essence touched the egg, it burst into blinding light.
Daeron flinched and closed his eyes against the glare.
In the moment he couldn't see, the Solar Essence melted rapidly, transforming into a stream of gentle, sun-warm energy that flooded into the dragon egg.
The egg seemed to gain a soul of its own, rocking gently in place.
Unfortunately, no one was there to witness the movement.
When Daeron opened his eyes, everything had returned to calm.
The Solar Essence was gone.
Looking into the fireplace, the dragon egg sat silent and still, as if nothing had happened.
"It worked!"
Daeron was ecstatic. He reached in with both hands to pull the egg out.
Sizzle...
The shell was scorching hot, searing the fingerprints on his palms and sending needle-like pain through his hands.
Daeron snapped back to reality and gently placed the egg back.
Looking closer, he noticed a subtle difference.
The red scales now had a sheen to them. The egg felt more alive, containing an incredibly dense concentration of vitality and fire magic.
This was something it had never had before.
Daeron's brow relaxed, and he couldn't suppress a grin. "I knew it. The system had to have a way to help hatch the egg."
If it didn't, it just meant his level was too low or he hadn't found the method yet.
Solar Essence: A special material dropped by Ghosts found between floors 40 and 80 of the mines.
In the Skull Cavern in the desert, several monsters also had a chance to drop it.
Daeron was a veteran farmer; he remembered the various uses of Solar Essence vividly.
In "Mr. Qi's Requests," unlocking the casino in the back of the Oasis store required completing a chain of quests.
One of those quests was [The Dragon's Last Meal].
The objective: Go to the desert, find the dragon skeleton that still stares at the sun even in death, and place a Solar Essence in its mouth.
Once completed, you could return to the farm and find the Club Card in the woodpile next to the farmhouse.
This proved that Solar Essence was linked to dragons!
"The dragon egg can use Solar Essence to incubate."
Daeron was trembling with excitement.
Hatching a dragon was his greatest wish.
The drop rate for Solar Essence was low, but not impossible to farm.
"I need to kill more Ghosts and get more essence."
Daeron observed the egg again and again, hopeful. "I don't know if one piece is enough. Collecting more can only be good for it."
It was getting late.
Under the table, Doro the puppy was already snoring.
Carrying his excitement with him, Daeron went to bed.
---
Early Morning, 2:00 AM.
The dead of night. The fine rain had stopped, and Dragon-Tongue Farm was silent.
Daeron was lying in bed, fast asleep.
Suddenly, a streak of fire cut across the sky, plummeting at fifteen kilometers per second, heading straight for the Dragon-Tongue Farm on the Bluegrass hills.
BOOM—!!
A massive crash shook the ground like an earthquake.
Miraculously, despite the deafening impact, the farm remained unharmed.
Daeron, deep in dreamland, was jolted awake by the noise. But before he could process what had happened, the heavy weight of sleep pinned him back down.
You must be in bed by 2:00 AM.
I'm not talking about the game—that's just reality for you.
Daeron fell into a deep slumber.
A sliver of moonlight shone through the window glass, hitting the Luck Ring on Daeron's left index finger, causing it to emit a faint, soft glow.
The dragon egg, resting by the bedside, absorbed the light once more.
Hum!
It might have been an illusion, but the golden specks and black spirals on the eggshell seemed to be breathing.
---
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
Spring 28, Sunday. Sunny. 8:30 AM.
On the last day of Spring, Daeron got up early to start his daily grind.
Petting chickens, collecting eggs, clearing weeds...
Cluck, cluck~~
"..."
Coconut and Grape clucked away, nuzzling against Daeron affectionately.
Daeron petted them thoroughly, praising them. "Good job, girls. You're both producing high-quality Large Eggs now."
The longer you raised animals and the happier they were, the better the quality of their produce.
Take chickens, for example.
A freshly matured chicken lays a regular egg every day. Over time, they start laying high-quality eggs, then Large Eggs, then high-quality Large Eggs.
Large Egg: 95g
Silver Star Large Egg: 118g
Gold Star Large Egg: 142g
Iridium Star Large Egg: 190g
After being raised for a month, the two chickens were consistently producing Gold Star Large Eggs worth 142 gold.
"When I have money later, I'll buy you some sisters to keep you company," Daeron joked.
Stepping out of the coop, he saw a red brick tower rising from the ground inside the wooden fence, standing there like a giant chimney.
For the past two days—Spring 26 and 27—the Silo had just been a wooden platform.
But stepping out today, the structure had suddenly appeared on the farm.
Daeron pulled out his scythe and went to work, swish-swish-swish, clearing the green grass inside the coop's fenced area.
As the green grass was cut, it turned into bundles of hay and automatically teleported into the Silo for storage.
"Perfect!"
Once only the blue grass remained near the coop, Daeron straightened up, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
It was pure satisfaction for a perfectionist.
Leaving the coop area, Daeron returned to the front of the cabin.
The four furnaces had finished their work; each had smelted an Iron Bar.
He took the bars, crafted the final four Basic Sprinklers, and placed them in specific farming spots.
He stuck to the 6x2 layout.
After harvesting the very last string of Green Beans for the season, Daeron gently patted the strawberry plants he had finished harvesting and walked toward the mailbox.
The mailbox was the same as always.
However, a purple, spherical meteorite had abruptly smashed into the dirt right next to it.
The meteorite was over a meter and a half in diameter. The shell was incredibly hard, with sharp amethyst crystals jutting out from beneath the rocky skin.
That's right.
Daeron had triggered the "Meteorite Event," one of the many random events in the system.
In the early hours of Spring 26, a meteorite from the heavens had fallen, landing with pinpoint accuracy next to the cabin on Dragon-Tongue Farm.
A few feet to the left, and Daeron would have been saying goodbye to the world.
Clang, clang!
Daeron, bold but careful, tapped the meteorite with his pickaxe. He muttered, "There's definitely Iridium Ore in there. And a chance for a Prismatic Shard."
"Too bad. To break this meteor open, I need at least a Gold Pickaxe."
The Prismatic Shard was one of the most precious materials in the early game of Stardew Valley.
If you took a Prismatic Shard to the desert, you could stand in the center of the three pillars and exchange it for the game's strongest weapon: the "Galaxy Sword."
"I wonder if the Dornish desert counts as the Calico Desert?"
Daeron let his imagination run wild.
He'd find out once he got to Dragonstone.
If Dragonstone turned out to be Ginger Island, then the Dornish deserts might just contain the Oasis.