General Artemis

Artemis had trouble passing the staircase. It was very narrow and a broad man like himself was hardly able to walk normally. Other than the space problem there was nothing to complain about. The stone was emitting some kind of natural glow, so the stairs were very well visible.

They were big enough as well so he would not to easily misstep on them, which was nice. Artemis normally had trouble walking staircases. His iron boots allowed enough feeling, though they slipped sometimes, if they or the stone beneath was wet. Normal stone ground never had this problem, as it was not polished and entirely flat. So far the general really liked the dungeon and he was really curious what wonders he could find on the second floor.

Sadly the stairs went on for a solid hour, sometimes they went left, right or turned like crazy. His head was spinning almost when they finally broadened and started to go upwards again. Hopefully this was not a sick joke of the dungeon, where he came out in the same room he started in. Luckily he quickly came to a broad hall, where the stairs ended. A giant table made from solid, black marmor stood before him. Engraved on it he found the imperial language that was written down in a very old fashioned way. Artemis needed quite some time to decipher it.

Traveler.

Beware the horrors to come.

The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.

Take this cube to ease your travels.

It stores any physical equipment while inside the dungeon.

And indeed there lied a small black cube right next to the writings. It looked like a normal stone cube, nothing special. Until he found the combination. Pressing the upper and lower side at the same time very hard opened it. Dark fog poured out from the small opening on top. Unsure how to use it Artemis put a shard on top of it. The smoke greedily swallowed the small thing. But how could he get the damn thing back now? Just thinking it made the cube smack the shard right at his forehead.

As he had figured out everything Artemis laid off his weapons, his shield that was part of his armor on the back and stored the cube at his waist.

The general wanted to prove himself, find a challenge. Most of all he was really curious about how many floors he was able to clear while only using his left hand. It had been a long time ago that someone defeated him in a fight. Certainly the dungeon would defeat him at some point.

First his left, then both his hands and finally his weapons. Either Artemis would give up somewhere along the way or he would die. Death had not scared him for over ten years now. He longed for it, waited for this next journey. But he would die fighting against someone stronger, not fall asleep as an old man in his bed.

Artemis walked around the giant stone table and headed for the entrance to the second floor. Seven very long and very wide stairs led up to a whole new world.

A cavern so high, the ceiling was not visible. Either that or the dungeon made it appear that way. A full moon and stars were lighting up the cavern, even clouds sometimes covered them. If Artemis had not been climbing downwards for over an hour he could not have believed that he actually was underground. A dirt road led through a giant forest. It was unbelievable. The general felt like he was standing in front of a forest deep within the northern lands. What dangers would the dungeon throw at him here? Bears? Trolls? A dungeon could literally create anything to kill him. Ambush predators, traps, poison, flying foes and undead. From dragon to mouse everything was possible.

Artemis knew thinking too much about it was not a smart thing to do. Fear influenced performance. He stepped onto the road that led down into the cavern and looked ahead. About fifteen meters further down the broad forest road started to lead all the way through the woods. It was clear that this path was intended to be followed. Most likely something would try to get him off the road at some point soon. And put him right into harm's way.

But just waiting would not give him any more information anyway. So Artemis just started walking down the road casually, calm. He would end anything coming his way.

Once he passed the entry to the forest, he saw that the layout was very well thought through. Small bushes between the trees would make it annoying, if not impossible to break into the forest. However wild animals could still attack from the small openings. Clearly he would have to deal with no bears or trolls. That would have been too much for the second floor anyway. Quickly Artemis realised something was stalking him. It did not took long and a lone wolf stood behind him. Watching, not moving. The general remembered the writing on the stone table.

Beware the horrors to come.

The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.

Clearly the second floor was all about wolves. They would most likely come at him as a group. Artemis was not scared, he had dealt with the beasts before. This floor would not pose a threat. As he passed further down the road more and more of them appeared. The first time they attacked was as a pack of seven. At a road curve they surrounded him. Then slowly approached from all sides and backed off immediately whenever the general stepped in their direction.

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Whenever he tried to walk further down the road they tried to attack from a side he was not looking at. If he stepped to attack them they backed off. Quickly it was clear they were trying to make him tired. Any adventurer stepping in this floor alone without experience would be chased down, tried out by their constant threats or run into the woods.

Artemis was really curious what would happen once he went off road. He pretended to attack a wolf and broke through their formation. Quickly he jumped through thick bushes and while he jumped over roots and stones the wolves were hard on his heels. After a couple of seconds running away the dungeon floor broke away from under him. The generals reflexes saved him from dropping into a pit of spikes. He had been expecting something like this.

The spikes would most likely not have penetrated his steel plate armor, but he would have sustained some damage for sure. Heading further into the woods a huge tree trunk on some ropes swung after him. It was basically a wooden hammer trying to nail him. A lot more such traps appeared and Artemis had now a clear and very clean understanding what the dungeon wanted. Stand your ground. Fight together and defeat the wolves in a war of attrition. Too bad he was all alone. The general had found out the floor secrets.

Quickly he stopped running and waited for the wolves. Overeager from the chase they ran to attack instead of being sneaky. Six got their heads crushed or their ribcages broken in by Artemis punches. The seventh ran away. All dead enemies disappeared and they only left splinters and shards behind like the slimes in the first floor. One of them dropped a teeth, which was new.

After Artemis headed back to the road slowly the amount of wolves chasing him increased. He did not bother with them and just continued his way. Seven, twelve, twenty eight, their numbers just kept increasing. Sometimes they vanished in the forest stalking him from behind the bushes, more often than that they just tried to slow him down with fake attacks while surrounding him.

Whenever they actually tried to bite him the general smacked them with his left by quickly turning and executing his attack. Bloody muzzles and broken wolf teeth were the result. He avoided killing them with one punch. Having to pick up shards while dealing with those pests would be annoying now.

After a while Artemis reached the end of the cavern. A rather huge clearing appeared there. Hundreds of meters in diameter and hundreds of wolves followed him. He was surrounded on every side, about thirty to fifty wolves any way he looked. It was a small army. And they would attack him soon. The general was certain, since the dungeon made them think this way. They would rather lay down their lives to deny him entrance instead of letting him pass casually.

It would have been easy to take out his greatsword and cut them all down like a scythe cut down corn. But he wanted the challenge. Or better said the warm up. Mere wolves did not pose any threat to a warrior like him.

It was time to stop this act of playing the weak one. Artemis gathered his energy and killing instinct. Then he cracked his head and hand and dashed right on forward. A small dust cloud remained where he stood just a second ago. He bashed the head of a wolf in, three meters away from where he started. The creatures just reacted far too slowly and quickly Artemis dashes and constant punches with incredible speed had killed dozens of them. Finally all of the wolves attacked in an all out engage.

The general just stood his ground and constantly killed wolf after wolf with punches and sometimes kicks. Making the least amount of movement necessary he turned and hit turned and hit again continuously until not a single wolf was left alive.

It would have been a real mountain of corpses, but since the dead animals disappeared like the slimes did there was just a field of small shards all over the place.

Gathering all those small magic shards was quite the hassle. By now Artemis was sure that he made more money than he normally earned in a whole month. Maybe even two or three. Why the king did not try to exploit the dungeon more was beyond him. There were so many strong experienced military fighters, the benefits of them entering the dungeon were clear to the general. Why did the emperor not let them?

Had the guilds really such a tight grasp on everything? It never appeared that way to the general before. Guilds sent groups, they payed taxes, everything kept quiet. Something was definitely off.

Artemis shook the feeling and continued to the cave at the end of the cavern. Now, what would the endboss be like? Maybe a giant wolf? When he entered the cave he saw something scary. The whole floor was covered with skulls. Over and over, piled and stacked up. Some human, other were those of wolves, bears and trolls. A graveyard was a joke compared to this. Did the dungeon just create the skeletons to make the room feel more intimidating?

Or was the boss really so dangerous? The big smile on the first floor was not nearly dangerous enough to cause something like this. Then the pile of skulls shifted. It moved everywhere. What was going on?

Artemis tried to move to wherever the floor remained calm and waited. Ready to dash away. Then a giant snake head appeared at the other end of the room. Slowly but surely it’s body elevated out of the skull garden. A pale, white body with a pitch black back, covered in thorns. It’s yellow glaring eyes watched the generals every move. The head was at least one and a half meter in diameter and the body was over twenty meters long. Such a huge snake just could not possibly exist anywhere in the world.

Now he knew that the skulls were created by the dungeon, a snake would not leave anything behind and devour it’s prey completely. It was hard to move on this pile of shifting skulls. Moving on sand would have been easier.

Then the snake attacked. It’s head sprung forward aiming to knock Artemis down. Quickly he brought up his left hand and tried to stop the attack, but the shifting ground did not allow for it. The beast shoved him all the way towards a wall, where the general finally was able to regain footing. Then the snake opened its maw and showed teeth. The opportunity was clear. Artemis grabbed one tooth and pulled the snake's head to the ground.

It was not able to bite, since its fang would pierce the lower part of the mouth, it it did. Realising that it was pinned down the whole, huge body started to move wildly. While Artemis stepped on the giant snake right behind the head with his left foot he parried hits from the moving body with his left arm or dodged them. The beast was no match for him, he had seen stronger attacks. Continuously he increased the pressure on the beast's neck, until the body grew limb.

Then he switched his feet and stepped onto it with his right. That allowed his left hand to strike effectively. Like thunder it crushed onto the head, and like lightning it struck right on through. The body started to disappear and a medium sized necro shard appeared. Very rare and valuable. With this Artemis could have bought a small house.

Now another door opened at the end of the cave.

The third floor waited for him.