General Artemis

Artemis stood tall, overshadowing the other guards on the wall by almost two heads. At two meters ten he was one of the largest men in the city. From his spot he watched the city, that slowly but surely awoke. It was still early in the morning and the sun would rise soon enough. Until then the city would be crawling and noisy again. Sometimes he liked to stand a night shift with his underling guards, just to prove that he had not grown to be a despicable noble that just watched out for his own gain.

Generally Artemis only wanted two things: hone his skills in training and prove them in a fight. Just yesterday he had beaten a rank 30 knight, which was evidence to himself that he was still the strongest fighter in the capital. Sadly currently there were no knights above level thirty resident to the city. To his own displeasure he was not allowed to leave the city and search for strong foes. His position as General just did not fit his wishes. Late last night he had asked permission to enter the dungeon. Hopefully the emperor would allow it, he had been all too strict with the guilds lately.

Staring into the city and looking all over it never really grew boring. Just to see all the architecture that the different quarters had to offer took over a month. Studying their details could take you a lifetime. The city was huge and as diverse as it’s people. Cultures of multiple kingdoms and countless areas of the continent called Kaeron their home. Impressive things like the giant city walls that had to be built every couple hundred years, just to keep the growing population inside secure walls. Or the impressive aquäducts the engineers built from the mountainside all the way into the city. Aside from the poorer housing districts, most homes had flowing water, baths and toilets. No other city on the continent was so well designed. They mostly had no such luxury and spent their lifetime growing up in a heap of rubbish. Like...

“General.”

Artemis turned around and let the train of thought escape. A young recruit had been sent with a message. No, two in fact. He was able to see the second scroll he still had in his pockets.

“Yes. What is it?”

“Sir, I have a urgent message from the emperor...” He reached for his second scroll and continued to speak. “..and the city guard picked up a rogue that seemingly tried to climb the walls towards the palace. They desire your judgement, the man is currently under strict arrest.”

Normally this would have been seen as an assassination attempt, but if he just let all the rogues that tried something like that be killed no one would come to try again and that would be bori… make his men slacking off. Artemis sometimes enjoyed it to jump down the walls and chase the bastards down. “Break his arms and legs and let the next merchant bring him to the rogue district. Is that all?”

The young man fidgeted nervously. “Yes, Sir.”

“Alright, dismissed.”

As the recruit left, the General went back towards the edge of the wall, and continued to overshadow the city. While he was standing guard, he broke the royal seal of the scroll and slowly began to unfold it. It was unusual. Normally the emperor was too lazy to write something up for him. And they all knew he hated to read. Not that he was bad at it, words just confused him when they were not said out loud.

Dear Artemis,

as a General of the Holy Army of Carramar We, the Emperor, can and will not permit you to test your own powers in the dungeon. Your absence will be noticed by friends and foe alike and our morale will crumble as theirs will rise. We order you hereby to not enter the dungeon and remain on guard. We sense more and more unrest, following our current political agenda and We want you present.

Burn this message after receiving it. Report back to Us at the end of the week.

H.

The “H” in the end was the signature of his emperor. Normally there would be a long title listed up, but that would have been a waste on Artemis anyway, which most likely was the reason he left it out. The General sighted and went to burn the message. Confusing as always. Luckily he did not have to go far. On the palace walls fire shards lit small hanging fires all year. When the job was done he turned to speak to his guards with a loud, firm tone.

“Who want’s to die for me?”

All guards stepped back, turned around and saluted him with their right fists on their heart and they lefts on their daggers. “We all serve the pleasure of the General.”

Artemis nodded. “Very good. You all have seen the boy bring me a scroll and message. If someone asks about a messenger, he was never here. You have not seen anything and you don’t remember anything. Other than that you will be silent. Understood?”

“YESSIR!”, they yelled out loudly. Their eyes shined with pure, loyal duty.

“I will be absent for some time. Maybe I will not return. If someone asks: I went to go get a drink. It was wonderful training you. Attention dismissed, return to post.”

“Thank you, SIR!” They turned and stood guard again, as if nothing happened.

Artemis knew he could count on them in this regard. In training he had given them the most senseless jobs in the entire universe, just to make guarding seem enjoyable. Now they would do anything, without thinking. Like a good soldier. He really wanted to test his strength now. For over two decades he had not been in a real fight. Training everyday he challenged countless strong knights and rogues, all no match for his skills, no one able to subdue him. It was time to bend the rules. He was loyal, but he could not stand the boredom any longer.

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Soon thereafter he had left the royal keep and turned his steps upwards, the last four hundreds of meters to the hilltop, on which the great city of Kaeron lied. Guards opened gates automatically as they saw him approach, and he was only stopped at the last gate, right before the dungeon. Arrived there, he knocked on the heavy, three meter thick wooden gate. It shook in its angles.

“Who the fuck was that?” The voice of Cortis of house Zhall. The former recruit, that had served under Artemis. Bright mind, but a real lover of curses. After his training he made it all the way to guarding officer. Most likely vitamin R. Relationships were to most likely to gain you a promotion, unless you gained war trophies. And sadly there was no war.

“The Lord of Carnage, Sir.” A young guard looked down to the other side, where Coris most likely stood. “Shall we let him pass?”

“Seven Hells. Yes! Let him pass you twat, before he decides the bring down the fucking gate!”

Still seemed to like curse words. When the huge, solid doors finally shifted to make room for entrance, Artemis nodded thankfully to the guard on top, over twenty meters above him. Then he stepped through the opening. Cortis greeted him by saluting. Artemis swung his left around him and pulled him along, down the way to the dungeon entry.

“How are ya, Cortis? Everything alright, now that I can’t bully you anymore? Hah!”

The younger guarding officer shook his head. “Now that I got rid of your training, I have to deal with all sorts of fuckers. Trying to climb walls, smuggle people in with their luggage, not paying their fucking taxes. I tell you, royal guard is the better job. So much fucking annoyance from the guilds, all the goddamn time. At least nowadays it’s much more calm. Emperor doesn’t let a lot of parties in anymore. He’s pressuring the cunt ass guilds.”

Artemis laughed. “Hah, you got weak. I tell you, just keep calm and your job is the easiest in the city. You don’t need to follow me by the way, I will leave through the northern gate anyway?” It was amusing of the General how much the smaller guy struggled, just to get out of this friendly hugging walk. “Nice seeing you again, Cortis. See ya later.”

“Yea, yeah. Fuck you too.” A smiling sound lied over those words, they were spoken in friendship. If he had talked to Artemis that was near any other person, he would have caved his head in. But Cortis knew that. Gotta protect your own status as a strong leader. He hit him on the shoulder and nearly knocked him over. “See you later Cortis.”

“Mhm. Sir.”

Artemis continued his walk up the hilltop. It was about two hundred fifty meters from gate to the dungeon entrance, and he was able to see the small pine forest. It surrounded the legendary grey and brown boulder, that pierced over thirty meter into the air. Painted by hundreds of artists all over the empire it grew to be the most famous place in the world. Every child that was educated, every military member and all citizens of Kaeron had already seen it. Yet so few actually were allowed to enter or visit.

The General was here quite often, since he had to fight groups of adventurers sometimes, that did not pay their taxes or stirred unrest. Although he possessed former experience of being near the entrance, Artemis still felt nervous when he stepped through the pines alone and approached the famous doorway. He felt every step up the stairs consciously and his unrest grew as he passed the pillars that were carved out of the stone, seemingly holding up the weight of all the mass above.

Once he stepped into the dark the feeling stopped. When he turned around the entry was not blocked, although Artemis was unable to look through, back out into the world. When he stepped further forward a new world came to vision. A very broad staircase led down a couple of meters where a huge crystal cave started. The crystals seemed to glow from the inside and lit up the cave in a blue, purple and green light. Artemis had never seen anything like it. The ground consisted of grey stone. Solid rock, which allowed no growth of any plants. Maybe the glowing light was not enough to produce moss, or other small plants though?

Carefully the General looked down the cave. He did not see any monsters as of yet. How far would he be able to get in this new world? This test of his? After all people enter this as a six man group. As this was the first time he entered, without permission even, he was really uncertain. Carefully he took steps down the dungeon looking left and right, waiting for walls to spew out monsters. As nothing happened for a good fifty meters he kept getting more and more nervous.

When something liquidish dropped from the ceiling he really freaked out for a second. It had hit his back and he was scared that it could have been acid. As there was no pain he threw that thought out again. Looking to the ceiling he tried to identify what was going on. Blue junks of smile were hanging from the crystals. What were those things? Suddenly more and more started to fall down to the floor. Even the one on his back ran down his back and got stuck on his knee.

Artemis used his left to pick it up while evading the others. The slime was not liquid, it seemed more like a solid, living thing, that only moved to appear liquid. When he tried to grab it, his finger slid in and right through. How could he kill those things? He observed them more carefully and found a small blue pearl inside. Crushing it destroyed the slime in his hand and it’s remains disappeared. Even the crushed pearl returned to nothing. Then a small needle like rock appeared. A shard. Very small and seemingly of the Splinter-Grade.

It was the lowest grade and it’s color made it clear that it was a water type. Mages with this element affiliation would pay a lot of money to get their hands on these shards. Now Artemis finally realised why the guilds fought so hard to get as many people in the dungeon as possible. As there were a lot of slimes filling the cave he decided to go and crush them all. After all he would not be allowed to enter the dungeon anymore after his little journey. Crushing slime after slime and looting their splinters through dozens of caves, he finally encountered a new addition.

Red slimes. Unlike their blue relatives those seemed to follow a plan. In groups of five to ten they dashed towards Artemis, throwing themselves everywhere, trying to choke him out. He barely felt them. He just crushed those that targeted his face first and went about crushing the remaining as well. Some even dropped some Small-Shard-Grade shards a couple of times. The elements they dropped really seemed to be random, and he found some that he could use by himself later on as well. Clearing cave after cave, tunnel after tunnel he finally reached the last room and the floor boss.

A huge green slime, twice the size of Artemis lied in waiting. It was easy to see why people died even on the first floor. Low level arrows and weapons would not reach the core of the slime easily and a lot must have died from suffocation throughout the years. Additionally it moved rather quickly.

For the General this was child's play. He dashed forward, right into the slime, moved around easily, barely hindered. Then he grabbed the core with his left and crushed it. So far he only had used his left hand in this dungeon and he was curious how far he could get like this. A door opened in the back of the room. It’s staircase led downwards.