The Problems Start
When they arrived at God's Eye, Harwen was surprised to see that there were almost no remains of human activity from the past. The entire place was too silent, and even the shores, where a miniature port was constructed for transportation, were now deadly silent.
One didn't need to be any kind of genius to realize that something was wrong in this place, but it seemed that they didn't have much chance right now. Because the contact between the Harrenhal and God's Eye was cut; they were refused to investigate the situation.
If he returned with an empty hand, he was rather sure that his head would roll on the ground faster than he would be able to open his mouth to say something. So the only thing that remained was to move forward, no matter how he didn't want to.
Something deep inside him was telling Harwen that something was really, really bad here, but at the same time, there was nothing really much he could do about it. Returning back without completing the mission was equal to death because he would be executed for his incompetence.
In his later years, King Harren wasn't really known for his leniency with his subordinates, especially when they messed up something that was kind of important. The God's Eye was of the utmost importance to the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers.
"This place looks fucked up... there are even signs of the fight."
One of the Ironborn soldiers that was under him in the chain of command remarked as they arrived at the small village that was constructed at God's Eye. Even though God's Eye was rather a large island, there was only one settlement on the entire island, and it was this village that was near the miniature port.
And it didn't look good, because the entire place was burned down, but most surprisingly, there were no traces of corpses or anything. Which meant only one thing...
Whatever destroyed this place took the people with them, most probably after killing them, because there were large pools of blood, so most of the peasants were killed in this place.
"And what the fuck you wanna do about it? Return back? You get the block. Escape? Block at the best... we need to start searching for what has killed the people here and kill it..."
Harwen knew that this was probably the worst outcome as someone or something had massacred the locals on the God's Eye. Even though most of the people living in the God's Eye were just peasants and without any sort of militia, there were several hundred of them in the village.
Most, if not all, of them were serfs or slaves who were hunting in God's Eye and taking care of the herbs and plants for the Harrenhal. Meaning that if such a large village was massacred entirely, the enemy would be more numerous.
"Send in the Rivermen as the first wave; hopefully, the fishes will find the source of the problems and even the numbers quite a bit."
Within the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers, the social status of the people of the Riverlands was especially low, and most of them were living in terrible conditions under the rule of the Ironborn.
Unfortunately for the Riverland Lords, most of their manpower was destroyed many years ago due to the Riverlands often being the region where other Kingdoms waged war on each other.
Aside from that, when Harwyn Hardhand established the Kingdom of the Isles and Rivers when he won the Riverlands from King Arrec Durrandon, he also broke apart all of the professional soldiers of the Riverland Lords.
What they were remaining till this day, were mostly the half-trained Household Guards, and even then, they were in very strictly limited numbers as the Ironbrons were very paranoid about the potential rebellion from the Riverland; thus, anyone who showed even the slightest degree of disobedience, was immediately made example from.
Even though the Ironborns were also not the prime soldiers, they were still rather good killers, as all of them were pirates and marauders at sea. Compared to the levies, they were far better, and they even had superior equipment.
Due to that and some other factors, the Ironborn even, despite their smaller numbers, were able to suppress the Riverlands thoroughly.
"I will take care of it, boss."
One of the subordinates went to carry out his orders and organize the Rivermen to create the parties and start scouring the forest around the village.
The God's Eye was too huge for them to go in one day; even though it seemed small, it was still rather a big piece of land, and even with seven hundred men or so, it would take them around at least one week, most probably even two weeks to scout through the entire island.
Nevertheless, if the Riverland levies were doing the job, Harwen couldn't care less about their fate because they were not the Ironborn. In the end, it was just another way they controlled the locals, as they were sending them to fight the hardest battles and thus kill anyone who could oppose them in the future.
The rivermen were always put as the vanguard of every battle that the Kingdom fought, and when there were some dangerous jobs like this one, they would always be assigned to the rivermen.
Right now, the only ones who could at least partially be a threat to the iron-clad rule of the Ironborn were the local nobles, but they feared so much the Ironborn and their vengeance that they wouldn't dare to move an inch, much less betray their King no matter how they hated him.
Hopefully, they would be able to find the source of the death of the villages and serfs; in fact, Harwen thought that they were most probably caught by slavers who managed to sneak into the kingdom.
Or perhaps one of the Ironborn Lords secretly plundered the village... it wouldn't be the first time something like this happened as nobody really cared about it, as long as the people that were taken were not the Ironborn.
***
Somewhere else, around ten kilometers away from the village
"It seems that your plan would be successful... they are immediately heading towards the forest without any preparations."
On the nearby hill, amidst the dense trees, two figures were standing as they were observing the forces of the local humans as they were entering the dense forests of God's Eyes, almost immediately after disembarking from the ships.
"Mostly because the enemy is stupid, Sir Artorias. If they were more cautious, they would be heading right toward the large swath of goblins, but alas, they also had one trump card, which are their levies..."
One of the figures was wearing ornamental silver armor, while the other had a Victoria-style suit and trenchcoat. Obviously, when Archaon registered that the Ironborn from the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers were coming to God's Eye, he immediately went out from the Dungeon to watch the show.
Even though the Dungeon Fairy Yihi was worried sick about him because she was constantly pestering him that the outside world was not a place for the Dungeon Overlord and that the Dungeon Overlord should remain within the safety of the Dungeon.
Even if he was the ordinary Dungeon Master, she would be freaking out, much less said about the Dungeon Overlord, which was being that was rumored to be even higher than the Dungeon Masters.
Yet her foolish master, at least in her opinion, went to the surface world.
However, after he promised her to bring back some bees, she was easily roped into his little adventure and even encouraged him to bring her a big beehive for her to play with.
"You see, those people who are entering the forest are actually just peasants that are enslaved by those ones clad in that weird wet maritime armor, if you could call like that..."
Seeing that the Sir Artorias, the Abysswalker, wasn't catching up on Archaon's words, the Dungeon Overlord proceeded to explain everything that he knew about the Ironborn and their culture.
Archaon was always calling Artorias and Ornstain with the Sir before their names as a form of respect for the two of them because they were genius powerhouses and were the most skilled and most powerful knights of the Lands of the Ancient Lords under Lord Gwyn.
So it was his form of showing respect, not to mention he also noticed that both of them were taking their Knighthood very seriously and lived according to the tenets of their Chivalry Creed.
"You seemed to be targeting the Ironborn specifically, My Lord."
Archaon just nodded to the statement of the Silver Knight because the Ironborn were indeed his true target.
For many reasons, they were the least liked in Westeros, so if he lured them to attack the Dungeon and they all perished there, nobody would do anything about that; even if the Dungeon represented danger, nobody would rationalize attacking after they destroyed the Ironborn.
At the same time, he wanted to add the Harrenhal to his Dungeon as the foundation of his future city. Thus, the Ironborn and the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers were destined to fall for these reasons.
Especially, the number of the Dungeon Echoes that he could get from the entire population of the Ironborn would be staggering, as he planned to open one Dungeon Gate also on the Iron Islands when he got the initial Dungeon Echoes.
Archaon knew that Artorias greatly despised the slavers and similar ink, but at the same time, he, despite the men and the so-called Knights of the Riverlands, even more than he had the Ironborn themselves due to their despicable practices.
For someone who lived and died by the Tenents of the Chilvary, when he found out that there were people calling themselves Knights but doing nothing as their own people were pressed, killed, tortured, exploited and raped, or some even joined the side of the Ironborn, he wished to kill them even more than the Ironborn themselves.
In his opinion, they were a disgrace to every single proper knight out there.
The knight's honor cannot be tarnished, and apparently, these people dared to call themselves one despite ignoring everything that Knighthood stands for, which was something abominable for both Ornstein and Artorias.
"Yes... We need to visit our Dungeon and not throw everything they have in hopes of destroying it. With this strategy, we would be on more resources in the long run; we could remain in this world for decades, perhaps even centuries, who knows. The Ironborn are the perfect targets because they are reavers who only plunder, rape, and kill; nobody would be hurrying to avenge their demise."
Archaon knew that if the warring kingdoms united, they would have enough manpower to overpower his Dungeon and exterminate the creatures. In the end, he wasn't that powerful to resist tens of thousands of soldiers, no matter how weak they were.
He predicted that they would still be powerful enough to push him into the 4th Layer, essentially forcing him to remain in the 4th Layer of the Dungeon, which would greatly limit his ability to make Blood Echoes.
If such a case happened, Archaon would need to train until he was strong enough to break through the barricades and break entire armies alone.
Humans were tricky because, in the face of the great danger and extinction-level threats, they tended to stick together and fight with extreme tenacity to death. Something that he hoped to avoid if possible, and this wasn't accounting into the equation various factors.
As they were observing the humans that were starting to search through the surroundings of the village that was burned down by the goblins that Archaon released from the Dungeon, he noticed that the goblins were already preparing their ambush on the humans.
While they were observing the show, suddenly, many notifications started appearing through the system windows.
[Congratulations! Your Dungeon Creature has killed Level 1 Being. You have obtained 10 Dungeon Echoes.]
[Congratulations! Your Dungeon Creature has killed Level 1 Being. You have obtained 10 Dungeon Echoes.]
[Congratulations! Your Dungeon Creature has killed Level 1 Being. You have obtained 10 Dungeon Echoes.]
[Congratulations! Your Dungeon Creature has killed Level 1 Being. You have obtained 10 Dungeon Echoes.]
[Congratulations! Your Dungeon Creature has killed Level 1 Being. You have obtained 10 Dungeon Echoes.]
[Congratulations! Your Dungeon Creature has killed Level 1 Being. You have obtained 10 Dungeon Echoes.]
...
There were around several hundred of them because Archaon ordered the goblins to drag the humans into the Dungeon and only kill them once they were in the Dungeon.
Unfortunately, the Dungeon Territory was reaching the ends of the God's Eye where the village was located, so they needed to bring them back with them. The expansion of the Dungeon Territory would be something that would happen only in the future; right now, he didn't have enough resources for such a project.
Still, from killing the villagers, he got around 5,000 Blood Echoes, which was a very nice sum, considering that he barely had any Blood Echoes. Yet, at the same time, it would be enough to buy some Low-Class Creatures, but if he really wanted, he could buy some Level 3 Dungeon Creatures.
If he obtains 10 Dungeon Echoes from the Level 1 being, then to create a Level 1 being costs approximately ten times that.
***
Saying that he had a bad day would be an underestimation of the feeling that Harwen had right now. Since they arrived at God's Eye, he had a very nasty feeling about the entire place and the reason why they were there.
When they found the only settlement burned down with only blood remaining in the place, it was burned down and nothing that remained from it. The best thing about the entire situation was the fact that they couldn't find even a single corpse of the villagers, meaning that they were taken.
And during the entire time they were in this dammed place, he had a certain feeling that they were being watched. It was that weird feeling that had developed after several years of fighting and participating in the conflicts, and it had already saved his life several times.
"There's something ahead!"
Harwen heard one of the rivermen shouting as they were going through the surrounding woods around the village, trying to find the trace of whatever had attacked and destroyed the village for several hours already but without any significant result.
When he looked at the way of the voice, he noticed that something was indeed moving in the bushes, and it looked small. As several men went there to find out what it was, suddenly, wooden spikes pierced through their necks as small creatures rushed at them, holding crude weapons.
They were around 1 meter tall, and they would be heavier than 25kg because they looked pretty small. They had flat faces, sloped back foreheads, broad noses, pointed ears, and small, sharp fangs. Their eyes varied in color from red to yellow, and their skin color also ranged from yellow through any shade of orange to a deep red, though they also came in shades of green.
They were dressed in dark leather pieces of something that was reminiscent of the armor but wasn't entirely armor because it looked terrible and was also in terrible shape. Still, goblins attacked the incoming humans with obvious ferocity and brutality as they rushed toward the unprepared levies.
While the creatures were small, they were extremely agile and fast, much faster than the average human, and what they lacked in the aspect of physical strength, they were made for in their speed and agility.
One needed to know that the physical strength of even a Level 1 goblin was far superior to the humans that were fighting against the goblins right now because even these lowly Level 1 goblins had a good number of Magic Power inside their bodies.
The present Magical Power inside their bodies was making them much stronger than the average humans in this world that didn't have any Magic Power inside their bodies or they bodies weren't even exploded to the Magic Power at all.
Harwen looked at the little creatures in wonder and dread, because it took them only a few minutes to massacre around twenty of the levies. Still, soon enough, even the goblins started falling one by one, after they were hit by the arrows or when those who were killed with the weapons started killing them one by one.
Finally, within the next ten minutes, they managed to kill the last of the little green creatures as the Ironborn started commanding the Riverland levies on the matters and directing them on how to fight more effectively.
Against training fighters, the goblins were not really much of an opponent because while the goblins were fast and rather strong, their greatest downside was that they were not skilled fighters, and the maximum they could do was to carry out some ambush.
"Dammit, we lost around forty men, though fortunately, almost all of them were from the Riverlands."
Hearing that made Harwen sigh in relief because, fortunately, only two Ironborn died from the ambush of the green little creatures, and all other losses were of the Riverlands, so they were not really that important in the great scheme of things.
"We need to regroup and think of another plan... it seems that we have the culprit behind the attack on the village."
Harwen knew that this was the time to create a real strategy and deal with the unknown creatures that were terrorizing the entire God's Eye.
"Also, sends back a message to the Harrenhal that we found out the root of the problems and that they should send more men. Preferably the Rivermen in case things get ugly."