Chapter Fourteen: Starting To Explore Great Haven

Gasping in shock, Matthew stumbled backwards, and he fell onto the chair that Karl had been sitting on. Placing his goggles back in place, Karl walked up to Matthew, who was looking at him in confusion and bewilderment.

"I don't know why I look like this or how I didn't die, but all I know is that I'm alive. I can think, I can move, and I can kind of feel. Also, I was was the one who had defeated the previous Guardian in the city, I had climbed onto that gigantic mushroom in the centre of the city."

"That was you! Our group had seen that happening, we thought that you might have been some kind of higher levelled member of the Association so we didn't go and help you." Matthew shouted out as he realized that they could have gone reunited with him even earlier if they had just chose to check on who was being pursued.

"Yes, that was indeed me, but wanna know who I saw awhile after I fell down the stem of the mushroom? I saw Jashuri! She killed 5 men after all of the Sporelings that followed me had been killed, she then cut open the Guardian's Treasure to get what was inside, but I was the only thing inside."

With his face deforming into one of not hatred, not anger, but absolute loathing, Matthew stood up slowly while clenching his fists, a current of wind raged around him. "I know, me and Kris had tried to kill her when we first found out that she was here, but she was and still is being protected by the Leader, and he is much stronger than both of us combined!"

Clenching his teeth tightly, Matthew said this, and after doing so he sat back down with a thud. "Trust me, we tried to kill her even after he said that he was protecting her, but every time we tried, he would magically show up somehow and save her. Even so, he still made us Generals because of our strength, even after we tried to kill Jashuri after he said we can't.

Anyway, nothing we can do at this moment, we will have another chance to try and kill her when the Leader hosts his party, at that time, with all 3 of us, we can kill her before the Leader shows up." Disappointed, Matthew was about to ask Karl in what he planned on doing, but he heard the door open behind him.

Turning around, he saw Kris enter the room, she had an expressionless look on her face as she walked in, but shock appeared on her face for a fraction of a second when she saw the scene inside. Holding his tongue, Matthew stood up and shook Karl's hand.

"Kris, this is Kral, he is indeed as strong as a General, he's much stronger than me." Stepping forward, Karl held out his hand to shake Kris's hand, he wanted to hug her and tell her that it was him, but he didn't.

So he just went with a handshake instead. Kris didn't shake his hand though, she just looked at him with her expressionless face, and that caused Karl to miss her face filled with smiles and happiness. Returning his hand to his side, he looked at her with love in his eyes, but no one knew for two reasons, the first being that he was wearing goggles, the second being that he didn't have eyes.

"Hello, I just came to see what was taking so long, and now that I know, I will head to the Generals Hall, goodbye." Turning around, she walked out with quick strides, and she walked quickly because she felt funny whenever she was around Karl.

Scratching his cheek, Matthew didn't have an explanation as for what just happened, so he just motioned for Karl to follow him as he walked out and followed Kris to the dedicated place for Generals in the association.

Inside the hall, there were two people other than Kris, both were men, they were identical twins. They had black hair and brown eyes, one had gentle facial features while the other had sharp facial features with eyes that scrutinized Karl the moment he walked in.

Pointing to the one with more gentle facial features, Matthew spoke in a whisper, "That is Greg and the other one is Thomas. They are the other two General level people that are with the Association, they had been some of the first people to actually start exploring outside of Great Haven."

Greg was dressed in leather robes with small inscriptions on the lapels while Thomas was dressed in bulky welded steel armour that had it's inscriptions all over the surface. Being 6' the both were the average height, but Thomas's armour weighed close to 200 kilograms.

Whenever he would want to get more armour or whenever he got stronger, he would head over to the workshop and get the crafters there to use magic and weld condensed steel plates to his armour, he has being doing this ever since he got the armour 2 months ago.

Walking towards them, Karl held out his hand for a handshake, Greg shook his hand while Thomas swatted it away. "My name is Kral, pleasure to meet you." "The pleasure is all mine." They exchanged a few words before Karl stepped back to beside Matthew.

The interior of the 'Generals Hall' was quite vibrant, there were 3 black leather couches that had enough space for five people each, a large table with a map of the Northwest Territories and the surrounding provinces that were held down by metal rods, and a large wooden box that had inscriptions all over it.

On the map were marked spots with words under each spot, some of the spots were named 'Guardian's Nest' while others were simply named 'Certain Death'. Pointing to one of the spots that said 'Guardians Nest' Karl looked at Matthew and spoke.

"Why is this spot called the 'Guardian's Nest'?" Because he didn't know that the Guardians had spawned in all the cities and towns in the world, Karl didn't know that every spot with the name 'Guardian's Nest' were actually towns and cities that have been completely destroyed and only have a single Guardian left inhabiting them.

"Those are towns or cities that have been completely destroyed and only have the Guardian, or in some rare cases Guardians, left roaming the area. We have never killed a Guardian before, no one has... that we know of."

The last part of Matthew's sentence was directed at Karl since he now knew that the Guardian in the city had been killed by him. "We know that a new Guardian appears after the previous one dies because our intel gatherers have seen the previous Guardians be swarmed and killed by the smaller Sporelings once a month."

Confused as to why that would happen, Karl just looked at other spots on the map while wondering if he would ever need to go to any of these locations, and if what he has seen in his dreams will come true, then he will end up going there at one point.

"Anyway, we need to set off on another levelling expedition, would you like to come with us Kral?" Turning to Matthew questioningly, he was looking for an explanation, but then he guessed what it was and didn't need one.

"No, I think I want to explore Great Haven first, I want to see how life is in a Safe Haven before making any decisions." The Kris and the twins were confused as to what he meant, wasn't he from Great Haven?

"Kral had a dispute with a group shortly after we were first moved here, they then threw him out of Great Haven and left him to fend for himself. He eventually made it to one of the cities, Kevin and his group picked him up when they went for a clothing run."

Realization dawned upon all three but the only person who's face changed was Greg's since he was a very empathetic person. "I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm sure that you'll find that it is quite nice here at Great Haven, we would be very grateful if you decided to stay with us, and if not then we would understand why."

Waving goodbye to the group of four, he was about to head out the door when Matthew stopped him and gave him an emblem of an eight sided star with the number 4 engraved in the centre of it. "This will signify your status as a General, always it wear somewhere on your chest, they can't be replicated so don't worry."

Taking the emblem, Karl put it on his chest and walked out the door, he then started walking out of the Association. Exiting the door leading into the main hall, all the chatter got quieter and stopped in a matter of seconds.

Walking forward, people automatically created a path for him in whichever direction he went, they were in awe of the his status as a General, especially since he was a new General. Stepping out of the Association, Karl started heading down towards the main area of Great Haven.

Kevin, Henrietta, and Gary had seen Karl exit the building with a new emblem on his chest, and they were all stunned. Slapping his thigh, Kevin exclaimed, "I knew it! I knew he was at the level of a General, luckily I had made the effort to be kind to him, or else I probably wouldn't be here right now."

Many eyes turned to him as he exclaimed, all of which were filled with curiosity, but no one made an effort to go up and ask the trio anything since they were afraid of incurring the wrath of a new General.

Some people dressed in all black had left a minute after Karl left the building, they were tailing him to see what he was going to do in Great Haven. All Generals had a group of higher levelled individuals following behind them, monitoring their movements, so they could report back to the Leader if they do anything unbefitting of a General.

Previous Generals had taken the chance to abuse their power and threaten people for money, equipment, or even themselves. The most vile General, who was imprisoned a ways below the 20 kilometre tall mushroom, had committed the most vile of deeds when he obtained the status of General.

Taking advantage of men and women, he would rape them and kill them before doing unspeakable things to their bodies after death. The Leader had no idea he was doing this until he had barged in on him doing so when he needed all the Generals for an emergency meeting.

Upon seeing what he was doing, the Leader had immediately chopped of his hands and broke his legs, after doing so, while the General was still in foaming at the mouth in pain, he got as many magic users as possible to create as deep of a hole as they could.

After the hole was made, the Leader brought him down the hole while also bringing many chains with him, he emerged from the hole 15 minutes later, and he told the magic users to fill in the hole. Even though he had defeated the General, the Leader couldn't forgive himself for not noticing the actions that were being done earlier.

He was especially regretful since the last victims were a brother and sister who were only 14 years old, but he could never forgive himself for not seeing it sooner. He had young kids of his own, before the world became what it is now, and to see kids being defiled in such a way made him imagine how he would have felt if they had been his own kids in that situation.

Even trying to imagine his children going through what all the victims must have went through caused him to shudder in disgust and self loathing. The day that he did that, he made a new rule, anyone who abuses their power like that will be imprisoned underground or put outside with all of the mutated animals and plants.

Those kinds of events only happened 2 more times, the people who committed those crimes were newer Generals who had thought that they were above that rule, but they weren't. And so, they were imprisoned below the mushroom, just like the first General, never to be seen again."

(AN. There will be a major plot twist at the hall and anyone who can guess what it is will receive an imaginary pat on the back from me. It will probably be expected by some, but most probably won't guess it. Anyway, I will say the same things as in my other one, any mistakes? Leave a comment so I can eliminate them. Peace out!)