Random Portals

Steven took a deep breath. He was ready to be out of this dungeon and feel the sun on his face again. Also, having normal human food would be nice. Rations were getting old and without Eve around, that’s all he had. His mind kept going back to the Spider Queen. She planned to eat him when he reached level one-hundred. He was thinking he would be strong enough to deal with her by then, but if she could stock pile essence and just level a bunch, then she would likely be way out of his league just like she was now. He tried to push those thought aside for now.

“What’s wrong, Master? You look troubled.” Nev asked as she scooted closer to Steven.

Nev was ridiculously attractive. It made him want to forget all about the fact she was going to kill him one day. He wanted to ask her why they just couldn’t be friends, and why she wanted to eat him. But knew that conversation would get him nowhere.

“I’m just worried about Eve. All I know is she is alive. I dont know how she is doing. For all I Know they are torturing her.”

Eve lay on Steven’s bed while two large undead carried her around. At the beginning she had been terrified, but she had gotten use to the sentient undead. They had done absolutely nothing to her. Well, other than making her eat those small black orbs. She still wasn’t sure what that was all about. At first, she had thought it was to suppress her shards or something, but she still had full access to them. At least, she thought she did. She hadn’t tried, as the undead were way above her level to deal with, especially that general. That massive monstrosity was terrifying. But had been nothing but polite to her. He gave her orders and told her she was going to be used as a trading tool and she hadn’t seen him since. The orders were simple: don’t get off the bed aside from her bodily functions, and she had to ask and have escorts for that. Other wise she was to stay on the bed. She tried to sleep but found it difficult and instead worked on potions. The undead took nothing from her. Most likely because they didn’t see her as a threat. Now they were on the ninth floor. She heard fighting in the distance, but she never saw the fighting. She knew Steven would come for her, but she was worried he wouldn’t be able to handle the general if it came to a fight, although she knew a secret the undead didn’t. All Steven had to do was touch the general. There were plenty of places that weren’t covered in armor, and that would be it. He also had that annoying spider at his side. Nev, he called her. The damn spider was way too attractive, so much so it irritated Eve. She wished the spider wasn’t always right next to Steven. It was as if she was trying to keep her and Steven from being alone. However it didn’t matter now. She was now bound to him and wouldn’t be going anywhere. She smiled at that. Her smile quickly faded when she thought of the humans and elves destroying the home she had lived in her whole life. She didn’t understand why they had to do it. It’s not like they did anything to them. Eve’s thoughts were interrupted by the undead stopping their walk and placing the bed down. Another undead walked over and held out another black orb. She wasn’t sure how many they made her eat now. She tried to say she wasn’t hungry, but she knew if she refused too much, the undead would get aggressive. Eat it or be forced to eat it is what she was told. She didn’t want to go through that again. So she took the small orb and swallowed it. Soon after, the two undead picked the bed above their heads and began moving again.

The only thing Eve could figure out about the orb was that it kept her from getting hungry or thirsty. Maybe it was their way of feeding her. She wished she could ask Goskia he would surely know what it was.

With nothing else better to do, she continued brewing potions, though it was difficult as the undead didn’t care to give her a smooth ride. In fact, she was sure that they deliberately jerked her around to spill her potions from time to time. But it was what it was, and there was nothing she could do about it. One thing that continued to give her hope was the lone Spider-kin that crawled on the celling and watched her. She knew the Spider-kin wouldn’t be able to save her on its own, but it could let Steven know where she was.

Sorin smiled. His servant, the Elder Demon he hired, had finally woken up and started to pay attention to the intruder. It was annoying he couldn’t contact the demon. If it wasn’t for his wisp leaving that wouldn’t have been a problem, but he didn’t need to worry. The demon had things under control. He didn’t have dungeon sight, but could sense several challengers were approaching. Since there were so many challengers in the dungeon, he had access to summons he didn’t normally have. Such as two legendary beings from the underworld. Though he had to sacrifice most of his demons for the ritual but that was a small price to pay. Now even if the Undead General couldn’t handle Steven and his spider, then he wouldn’t need to worry.

Though that angelic being still gave him pause. But it never did anything but lurk in the background. Even he had a hard time following it with his dungeon sight. But no matter, his useless and over paid servant was finally going to earn its keep.

Steven was surprised that Sirus had agreed so quickly. They had already killed three knights. It took them a long time, but they eventually were able to take out the bound knights. Silvia had been worried he wouldn’t gain much essence, but that wasn’t the case. She said his inventory must count as him subduing the enemy and he got a large chunk of essences from the kills.

They had a system now. Steven and Nev would go out and clear a section of the undead, while Sirus and his team would stay in their last location and kill a bound knight. Steven was only gaining around three to six hundred essence for each one, but he was still gaining essence. And he had lots of undead. He was giving them the weaker knights from the previous floors. Sirus asked to take out an abomination, but Silvia told them his party was too weak since the regeneration was so high on them and it would take way too long, not to mention the essence was roughy the same.

It wasn’t long before Steven received a report from a drone informing him of an area already cleared of the undead. A quick check with Silvia let him know it wasn’t their doing, so they must be getting close to the path of the General. Steven’s heart began racing at the thought of getting Eve back. He sent several drones in that direction to scout it out. Steven wanted to go in that direction immediately, but he was talked out of it by Silvia and Sirus both. Saying they should all get some rest as they have been at it for almost twenty hours straight and they would need to meet up with the rest of the clan soon. Steven agreed, as he was tired, though he didn’t think he would be able to sleep. He also regretted his decision to not take the bed with him. A sleeping bag was just not the same, and the dungeon floor was cold and hard.

Steven lie there awake worrying about Eve for what seemed like hours. At some point he finally fell asleep, though it only felt like a few mins before Silvia was waking him up telling him the Naga had entered the floor and was setting up camp. And that he needed to get Fidah to killing the undead knights with Sirus and also limit them to only five or the essence would be so spread thin it wouldn’t be worth it.

Steven told her to deal with it and she flew off, happy to give others orders. No sooner than she left, a drone came running. The drone could hardly catch his breath and was trying to speak between gasps of air. Steven had to tell the drone to take a few seconds to catch his breath.

The drone informed him they had located the undead General along with Eve. He explained she was being carried around on a bed by the sentient undead and that she had several black veins running over her body.

He snarled, barely able to control his anger. “Show me where. Quickly!”

Steven took off at a dead sprint after the drone Nev directly behind him.

“Master, I’m not sure what sort of shards the Undead General has. But if he is a General he will have all his shards. If you can’t get close enough to touch him, then…”

“It’s fine. I just want to see,” Steven said, cutting her off, “besides, we can always just portal away.”

It wasn’t long before the drone fell over from sheer exhaustion. Steven was irritated, but Nev explained the drones would do their job to the best of their abilities till they literally fell over dead from exhaustion. Which made Steven feel bad for having the drone run so hard while leading them to Eve. Luckily, the drone didn’t die, but it was nearly five minutes before they were on their way again.

This time they were moving much slower, but they were getting close from what the Drone said. Soon they heard fighting, and they slowed to a crawl, each of them using stealth. Steven’s eyes widened when he saw the huge undead knocking the undead knights around like rag dolls. Several other undead were behind the large one, fighting off a few abominations. It was nice to see the dungeon didn’t show favorites, even to their own kind. Steven's eyes darted every which way, but he didn’t see Eve anywhere. He wanted to ask the drone where she was, but they were in stealth, and he didn’t want to break it. Instead, he watched the huge undead take on three knights, with a battle axe nearly the size of the undead himself. He assumed that was the general. He wished he had some way to appraise the undead, but he didn’t, so he just watched. The knights were relentless, but even at this distance, he could see large cracks forming over the knight’s armor. He wasn’t sure why the General didn’t focus on certain parts of the armor to shatter it, but from what Steven could tell, the general was enjoying the fight. It wasn’t long before the General had beaten one to a pulp, quickly followed by the other two. He then turned to face the abominations the others were fighting.

The General charged in, axe cutting deep into the first abomination, though Steven knew that it was just a minor wound that would heal within a minute. The general, however, didn’t stop and continued to hack at the abomination like a madman. Steven almost opened a portal and sent the General to inventory right then. But Nev must have had known what he was thinking and placed her hand on his shoulder and motioned for them to back up. Steven turned to watch the General still hacking at the abomination. He knew from experience that it would take a long while, even with that huge axe.

Steven backed up as Nev suggested, “What is it?” Steven asked.

“I believe it best we inform the wisp of this, she maybe able to get us a trade and we can avoid fighting. The general is quite powerful.”

“It’s not like he can do anything if I send him to inventory.”

“That may be true, but the undead will just send someone else. Not to mention we don’t know what sort of abilities the general has. He is at least the same level as me.”

“But what if it’s too late for Eve at that point? Do you know what those black veins are?”

Nev was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry, Master, I do not know. And I will follow your lead. I was just making a suggestion. One that I feel is the best course of action. That general is glowing with enchanted equipment, which could interfere with your portal magic.”

Steven took another look at the undead general, still hacking at the abomination. Steven took a deep breath. This undead piece of shit took Eve. He would take her back. If he could deal with the general, the rest of his warriors should be simple enough to manage: they weren’t any stronger than an abomination. Steven went to open a portal behind the General while he was still distracted.

“There you are! What do you think you’re doing, running off on your own like that?” Silvia shouted in his mind.

Steven moved back out of sight and seen Silvia floating there, light flaring.

“How was it you could find me but not the General?” Steven asked.

“Because he has some sort of shard ability that blocks me or possibly a shard imbued item, I’m not exactly sure. He is a general in the undead army, its surely common practice to have something that keeps you from being tracked. Any way, how about you let me try to talk with him again and see if I can’t make a trade of sorts.”

“Okay, but if he harmed Eve…”

“You will what? Send him to your inventory and then make him pay years later when you can catch up to his level.”

Steven wanted to say something, but he really had nothing to say since the wisp was right.

“Okay, go on then.” Steven said.

Silvia’s light flickered, and she flew off so quickly Steven couldn’t follow her movements. He briefly wondered if she was getting faster.

“Hello again, General.” Silvia said.

Silvia nearly chuckled when the general jerked around to look at her in surprise, only to get stabbed through the shoulder by a tentacle. He snarled, then grabbed the tentacle and chopped it off with a swing of his massive axe.

“Not a good time, little Wisp.”

“It’s always a good time to be in the presence of a Wisp.”

The general didn’t respond as he continued fighting the abomination.

“You have something I want back.” Silvia said.

The general buried his axe into the abomination, and it finally ceased to fight back.

“These damed abominations are a nuisance,” the general said, slinging the black blood off his axe and turning to the Wisp. “It seems we both have something the other wants.”

“What ever shall we do?” Silvia said.

“We trade?“ The general said as he looked back at his men fighting the other two abominations.

“Let me see her.” Silvia said.

“Let me see my nephew!”

“No,” Silvia said, light fluttering, “do you not see how you are the one in the wrong here? You stole an innocent Half Naga. Steven was defending himself from an assassin attack. What would you do if an assassin attacked you? Just let them kill you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, of course I wouldn’t. Many assassins have tried, but here I stand.”

“And you hold Steven at fault for not letting the assassin kill him?”

The General snarled, “What are you playing at, wisp. Let’s trade and be done with it so I can leave.”

“I want you to swear that you won’t let your nephew try to finish the job once he is released.”

The General’s eyes widened. “So it’s true then,” a smile formed on his lips, “The boy lives.”

“He does, do you swear? It will be oath bound, you or your nephew can never come after Steven again or anyone he holds dear, you will also not be able to hire and…”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. You will make me give an oath that I can’t weasel out of. Yes, I will make the oath, but I want to see him first, also I want the same oath from him. I don’t want this Steven coming after me or my kind for any reason.”

“No, and no. You have my word your nephew is well. The word of a wisp is plenty.”

The general’s face turned furious. “I know your word is good, but do you expect me to make an oath and trust the human you serve will hold up his end and not come after me?”

“He will not come after you without reason. Now take me to Evesakia. Steven’s patients runs thin.”

“His patients runs thin! You dare mock me!”

Silvia was just about to make a snarky comment when she seen the General’s men began to vanish one after another. She sighed. That human was too unpredictable. Looked like she had no choice but to go along with it.

“Hmmm, well, it’s your choice. I tried to solve this peacefully.” Silvia said.

“My men and I won’t have a problem taking out a low level Domain Holder. As For this Half Naga, I think Ill just keep her and take her as another wife.”

“Oh, my, that was not a wise thing to say. Steven cares for that Half Naga quite a lot.”

“And what will he do? His spider is a threat, sure, but she can’t take us all out. I brought warriors specifically to combat the Queen.”

“Oh, and where are these warriors you speak of?” Silvia asked, light flickering.

The General’s brow creased in confusion, “The warriors behind me, and what is going on with your light? I’ve met Wisps before and…”

Just then, the general turned and in one fluid motion caught a tentacle and imbedded his axe deep into the abomination. The general then looked around in utter confusion. “Where are my warriors?”

The look on his stupid undead face was glorious and Silvia was just fixing to say something when Steven appeared from a portal holding Eve. “What did you do to her?”

The General stepped back in shock. “Portal magic…“

“Fix it! Now.” Steven demanded.

“It’s best you let me deal with him. I’ll figure this out.” Silvia said.

The general picked up his axe as he started to chuckle. “You’re really only level twenty, and you think you can order me around? Your Half Naga pet is mine now. She is a pretty little thing and will soon be another of my undead concubines.” The general then threw his axe at Steven, who tried to move but was entirely too slow. Right before the massive axe hit Steven, it stopped as if frozen in time before shooting ten feet to the side and clattered to the ground.

“Wh-what!” The General exclaimed eyes furious.