The Greed, The Demise, The Gains

It didn't take long for the Ironborn to start sending more and more men to the Isle of Faces because of what had happened to the last expedition. After the request of the Harwen, King Harren sent a few hundred more men to Isle of Faces. 

Right now, Harwen was in command of around two thousand men, of course, most of them being from the Riverlands, but around three hundred of them were of Ironborn origin. With more under Harwen's command, they started pushing the weird little green creatures that they termed as "Goblins" back until they found the entrance to the cavern. 

While the goblins were rather problematic to deal with, once they had more and more men on their side, they started clearing the goblins out until they found the place where they crawled to the surface. 

Then, the next part of his orders was to scout the underground cavern. Scouting that wretched place seemed like a lot of pain in the ass, but Harwen didn't care as he started sending the Riverland men into the cave. 

He wasn't stupid enough to send there the Ironborn, because he suspected that the place was swarming with the goblins and was just a problem. Still, the life of the serfs from the Riverlands didn't have much value, and they served in this role rather well.

Marwen was actually a very smart and cautious Ironborn; he wasn't like the other ones who were only thinking with their fists and swords. Most of the Ironborn were beyond stupid, and they were not really the smartest people around, even when compared to the rest of the peasants. 

Yet, Marwen has rather educated himself; as the bastard son of one of the Ironborn nobility, his father didn't have any heirs, so it was clear that it that he would inherit everything according to his father's wishes, so he was being educated rather well in most things that were needed for a proper lord.

From his very fundamental nature, he was a very cautious man, and he never took any chances, so from the start of this entire mission, he had very bad feelings about this, and he decided to trust his feelings. 

"Boss, some of the men have turned from the cave. And they brought some things back..."

One of the Ironborns directly under his command rushed back in a hurry because, finally, the first part of the "expedition" to the underground cave from which the monsters were coming had finally returned. 

"What did they bring?"

Marwen grew curious, and just as he asked, he heard shouts and panic from the outside of his tent, and everyone started screaming and shouting because evidently something was happening. 

And judging by the panic, it wasn't anything good.

Just as he exited his tent, he saw there a group of the Riverland levies that were fighting against the Ironborn and some other Riverland levies, as the entire encampment was a total mess, where everyone was killing everyone.

"What the hell has happened?!"

Marwen shouted at the Ironborn around him because a situation like this was absolutely incomprehensible.

"They returned from the cave with some strange glowing weapons and then started attacking the Ironborn... they seemed like they obtained the power of the elements themselves."

Hearing that, Marwen grits his teeth as he ordered more of his Ironborn soldiers to kill the Riverland men as soon as possible because the last thing that they wanted was for more of them to join the fight against the Ironborn.

He realized the gravity of the Ironborn rule in the Riverlands and how the locals hated and despised them. It would require only one small spark to ignite a rebellion against them. While it was true that the Ironborns ruled with the iron hand, they were severely outnumbered, and if the entire Riverlands rebelled, then it would be very hard to quell it down. 

Soon enough, more and more of the Ironborn raiders joined the fight, but it was rather a gruesome sight because Harwen noticed that many of the weapons that were wielded by the rebel Riverland men were glowing like fire and cutting through the armor like hot knives through butter. 

"Death to the occupants!"

Some of them fanatically shouted as they rushed towards the hordes of the Ironborn, killing many of them with the power of the weapons alone, but soon enough, they were overwhelmed by the numbers of the Ironborn.

Killed one by one.

When the last of the rebels was brought down, Marwen carefully went to the center of the slaughter and looked at the weapon that was being wielded by one of the rebel Riverland men. 

It was a weird-looking sword, with several runes on the blade, and they were crimson in color...

It was almost a mesmerizing sight to look at the magical weapon that seemed like anything from this world, as he picked up the sword and instantly felt power surging through his body like never before. 

It was almost surreal to feel the truth being told.

He understood why those lowly Riverland rats grew bold enough to dare attack the Ironborn. If they had more weapons like this, it was no wonder how they were able to overpower many men despite being barely able to hold a weapon.

One didn't need to be a genius to figure out where these weapons were coming from, and he eventually realized that they were from the same place as the goblins. As he sent the men searching for the source of goblins, it seemed that they found the goblins as well as these weapons.

This caused him to think.

Now, it seemed that sending men from the Riverlands to the caves was out of the question, and they would also need to reconsider the Ironborn they would be sending. Not every Ironborn was trustworthy to be holding such a weapon; many were far more ambitious for their own good.

Still, he could see if the Ironborn obtained more weapons like these... 

They were far superior to the Valyrian Steel.

Not even the fabled, legendary Valyrian Steel gave the power like this. 

***

[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.]

He dismissed the notifications from the System as he returned to the observations of the happenings on the surface, especially in the encampment of the humans that were sent to investigate the situation on Isle of Faces.

Archaon was very surprised by how everything was going according to the plan. However, he was rather surprised that the Riverlend lives, which managed to get their hands on the weapons from the Dungeon, were actually fighting back against the Ironborn.

While he understood the situation well, he didn't think that his weapons would have such an effect on the people there. The moment the humans obtained the weapons from the Dungeon, they immediately got drunk on its power. 

In a split of a split second, when they returned to the encampment, they immediately started slaughtering any Ironborn that they saw. While it was undoubtedly at least partially surprising, it wasn't something that was totally unexpected, considering the hatred that the people of the Riverland felt for the Ironborn. 

In the end, the raiders still won and managed to bring the Riverland's men down and kill them while also obtaining their weapons, which was something that Archaon greatly hoped for. 

He knew that human greed would eventually motivate the Ironborn to attack the Dungeon en masse to obtain powerful magical weapons. From what he knew, King Harren Hoare was very ambitious, greedy, and rather stupid, which was one of the most common combinations among the Ironborn. 

He would for sure order the full invasion of Isle of Faces without caring about anything else in the world, and the consequences could be dammed. There were rumors that the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers was seeking to expand its borders, which was rather foolish in the Archaon's opinion as they barely had enough manpower to properly enforce the order in their own territory right now.

Further expansion would weaken them even more because the local Lords hated the Ironborn with great zeal, and the actual numbers of the Ironborn were not really that high.

Among all of the warring kingdoms in the continent of Westeros, the one with the lowest numbers was the Ironborn, though they were compensating for the lack of numbers with the fact that almost every person on the Islands could wield a weapon, be it man or woman.

Right now, after the goblins have slaughtered the village of the serfs and also some levies that were sent into the Dungeon, Archaon has something around 8,000 Dungeon Echoes, which was a nice sum as he was pondering what he should do with them.

While he wanted to use them for something, he refrained from doing so because it would be wiser to save them for later usage. Even though 8,000 Dungeon Echoes seemed like a lot, it actually wasn't that much. 

With enough time, he would be able to gather more of the Dungeon Echoes, and he also would need a lot of Dungeon Echoes for the restructualization of the Dungeon when he managed to swallow the entire God's Eye and Harrenhal.

The establishment of a new Layer of the dando would cost a loss because, this time, he would need to personally create it with the use of the Dungeon Echoes, and that would be rather costly.

"They should be returning soon in a far greater numbers... it's time to prepare some traps as welcome gifts."

Archaon muttered as he went to find his wayward Dungeon Fairy, who was most probably playing in the 3rd Layer of the Dungeon with the tarasque Terminus or with the bees that she had on that Layer as well.

Still, even though the Dungeon Fairy was rather mischievous and disobedient most of the time, she was doing her job very well. Archaon knew that Fairies were mischievous by nature, especially the younger ones that were just born; they were very playful and most often couldn't remain in one place for a long time.

Archaon didn't really care because as long as she was doing her job as she should, he wouldn't really care about what else she was doing. And even though Yihi was one very playful and mischievous Fairy, she was also a very good Dungeon Fairy and managed the Dungeon very well.

In truth, its state was far above his expectations at first.

He then went to the 3rd Layer of the Dungeon, the Garden Lair, where he found Yihi playing with the tarasque Terminus. He almost found it comical when he saw how the small and tiny Dungeon Fairy was chasing around an enormous creature like tarasque.

Even though Terminus was still in the juvenile phase of his growth, it was a huge creature, bigger than a smaller house already. The tarasque's could grow to ridiculous proportions, not smaller than True Dragons at the height of their power. 

"Yihi, stop playing with the poor creature and come here... we have a job to do."

Archaon shouted at his Dungeon Fairy, who reluctantly stopped playing with the tarasque and slowly flew to Archaon, with her head down and pouting that he had stopped her fun. 

"Master is such a meanie, stopping Yihi when she was playing."

She pouted even more as she kept flying around Archaon, her sad expression written over her face when her playtime was disrupted. Fairies ôlikle her liked to play, but there were not many creatures within the Dungeon who could actually play with her. 

While it was true that her master played with her from time to time, he was also pretty occupied by training and getting stronger, and she couldn't really play with those armored knights as they were no fun. 

So the only ones whom she could bother are the Dungeon Creatures like the Tarasque or playing pranks on the goblins and kobolds in the Tower of Storms and Cavern of Bureoza.

"After we are finished with the work, you can return to playing with the Dungeon Creatures, but for now, we need to place some traps around the Tower of Storm because we are awaiting visitors... a lot of visitors."

Suddenly, the Dungeon Fairy grew concerned hearing that a large number of enemies would be attacking the Dungeon. 

"Are the bad humans coming?"

Archaon could even sense a bit of fear in her voice because Dungeon Faires generally feared humans as the most evil abominations out there. For the Fairies, the humans were evil creatures that came to their homes, destroyed their places, and killed the Fairies, or captured them for their evil plans.

"Yes, they are, and they are going to arrive in great numbers. So, we need to prepare more traps for the incoming humans to quell their numbers a bit. In the end, we need to preserve the Dungeon Creatures so we can release them into the outside world to conquer more territory for the Dungeon to expand."

Yihi, as the Dungeon Fairy, was most obviously excited about the prospect of expanding the Dungeon because if the Dungeon expanded, it would get stronger, and the stronger the Dungeon became, then the more benefits the Dungeon Fairy would receive.

There were even legends that, through the evolution of the Dungeons to a higher level, even the Dungeon Fairy tied to the Dungeon would have a solid chance to evolve and become a Fairy Queen. 

"Then let's work! Yihihihi!!!"

The small Dungeon Fairy flew around him several times as she flapped her wings happily as they headed towards the Dungeon Heart. Seeing her being so enthusiastic made Archaon smile as he soon enough followed the Dungeon Fairy to the Dungeon Heart to make final modifications to the Tower of Storms.

They needed to add more traps, adjust the existing ones and also add more rewards. Now that he had obtained more than 6,000 Dungeon Echoes or so, Archaon decided to invest some of it into the development of the 1st Layer of the Dungeon and make the Tower of Storms even more appealing to human greed.

While it certainly pained his heart to let all those Dungeon Echoes go, it was a rather necessary investment into the Tower of Storms because he needed to put there more treasure chests with similar enchanted weapons like the ones that were already captured by the levies of the Riverland several hours ago.

Only then would the Ironborn be overwhelmed by the greed for such weapons and start entering the Dungeon en masse, which would bring him many more Dungeon Echoes.

He needed the Ironborn to obtain many more weapons so they would overlook the losses of life on their end and return to the Dungeon. With the number of goblins that were inhabiting the Tower of Storms, he seriously doubted that they would be enough to break through the Tower of Storms on their own.

At the same time, if the humans from the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers send in several thousand men, then it should be enough for the humans to reach the 2nd Layer of the Dungeon, the Cavern of Bureoza. 

When Archaon was finished with the trap placement in the 1st Layer, the Tower of Storms, and also placing the treasure chests, he invested another 3,000 Dungeon Echoes into the endeavor to strengthen the 1st Layer, and there were many more treasure chests across the entire Tower of Storms.

Some of them were even placed in such ways that they could be easily found by the incoming humans because Archaon wanted them to buy some things for free, which would then ignite their greed, and they would then move forward, deeper into the Dungeon.

"And it is done..."

Archaon sighed in relief when he finished all of the things that needed to be done while his companion, the Dungoen Fairy Yihi, was already sleeping on the Dungoen Heart, clearly tired from all of this work.

"Damm... you play all day, and yet you become tired as death wood after a short time of work."

He muttered as he went to talk with the two former Knights of the Lord Gwyn, Artorias the Abysswalker and Ornstein the Dragonslayer. Because they would be having a lot of invaders in the Dungeon and a lot of them, he wasn't taking any chances.

Even though the defenses of the Dungeon were top notch and the protection mechanisms that were on the 3rd Layer Garden Lair were something that was almost impossible to overcome without the usage of very advanced Magic to locate and capture all of the parts of the key that would unlock the entrance to the 4th Layer the Overlord's Shrine. 

He walked through the white corridors of the Overlord's Shrine, on the red carpet that was on the ground as he headed towards the training rooms in the Overlord's Shrine. While he was confident in the defenses, he wasn't risking the life of Yihi and the existence of the Dungeon Heart under any circumstances, no matter how small the chances were.

During the time he spent in the Dungeon, he actually came to like the Dungeon Fairy very much; the little creature always knew how to brighten his day with something. She was always a cheerful and positive little creature, always with a positive outlook on life, something that was really fascinating to him.

So he went to the two knights to order them to be on standby and guard Yihi during the time there was an invasion in the Dungeon. In the future, he needed to obtain a guardian directly for the Dungeon Fairy who could protect her all the time and without any rest.