Random Portals

Steven didn’t waste any time as the undead General tried to understand what happed with his axe and opened a portal and sent Eve’s unconscious form through it.

“Take care of her.” Steven said to a drone.

An abomination went to attack the general again, but this time he just stomped his foot in front of the creature and earthen spikes pierced every inch of its body, lifting it up into the air.

Steven opened another portal and stabbed his spear at the back of the general. The undead turned just in time to grab the spear. He then jerked it through as Steven released the spear and closed the portal. He then looked at it with interest before he went to throw it at Steven. As soon as he did, his entire body seized up from lightning. That’s was when Nev, in her spider form, wrapped the General in webs from her position on the dungeon ceiling.

The General roared in defiance as he tried to break through the webbing. He struggled in vain for several seconds before his body started to grow. The webbing dug deep into the undead’s flesh as he continued to get larger and larger. Steven didn’t want to send him to inventory, as he wanted to question him about Eve. Deciding a few spear wounds shouldn’t kill the now monstrous general, he quickly called his spear back, snatching it out of the air as it flew to him. If I wasn’t for the situation, he might have smiled at such an amazing feature of his spear, but Steven couldn’t get the image of Eve’s blackened veins and unconscious form out of his mind. He quickly opened a portal and stabbed at the General.

To his surprise, the spear barely penetrated the undead’s skin.

The webs began snapping as the general continued to grow. His skin began to glow a deep red. Steven quit stabbing the General and backed up. Nev shot more webs, then she dropped onto the back of the General and in one fluid motion stabbed her front claws deep into both the General’s black eyes before she jumping away. At the same time, several earthen spikes shot from the ground directly where she just was.

Steven stood in shock as he watch the undead and Nev duke it out. Even without eyes, the General was still fighting back. Despite the General’s size, he was extremely quick. Steven couldn’t figure out how the Undead was able to even know where Nev was as he blasted spikes at the spider who dodged or just tanked the damage. The earth spikes vanished after they penetrated Nev leaving large holes in her carapace. Steven’s eyes bulged as her wounds closed at a visible rate.

“If she would get off the ground that Draugr wouldn’t be able to know where she was.” Silvia said.

“Should I send him to inventory? He has multiple gaps in his armor. It shouldn’t be difficult while he is distracted.”

“No, let’s watch the arachnid. I want to see what all she is capable of. It’s obvious she has been holding back with us. And we will eventually need to deal with her.”

No sooner than Silvia spoke, dozens of blue phantom swords formed above the Spider Queen. As she dodged and weaved around the undead’s attacks, the swords shot at the general, each one of them sinking deep into the flesh of the undead. Steven glanced at the General’s health bar. It was already at forty-three percent and quickly dropping with each phantom sword.

The General continued to try to fight but Steven could tell it was over now. The red glow was slowly leaving the General and Nev covered him in more webs as the phantom swords stopped firing and just hovered above her. Steven wasn’t sure if he could survive a single hit form one of those things. Soon the General was bound completely aside from his face. Steven wanted to ask Nev about the phantom swords, but there were more important things to deal with at the moment.

Steven walked over to the bound general, trusting in his shards to keep him safe. “How do I reverse what you did to Eve?”

As a response, the General spat black blood toward Steven.

“Tell me!” Steven demanded, as he opened a portal and had the drone carry Eve out.

“Let me,” Silvia said as she flew up to the undead’s face. “What did you say about my light earlier?”

“Silvia! Eve is dying!”

“Tell me, Mr. General, what did you do to her?”

“Fuck you Wisp! There will be more. The Undead will never stop. We always reclaim our own! Now your precious Naga belongs to the Undead.”

Steven punched the undead as hard as he could in his face, only to regret it immediately. “Tell me how to fix it!” Steven said, cradling his hand that was now probably fractured.

“Human, you can never reverse it.” The general said while trying to chuckle, but it came out more as a choked gargle. He then spat out more black blood. Steven hoped it was from his punch, but that was unlikely.

“It is a shard ability all high-ranking undead have. It can’t be reversed without an undead doing it for you, and I have marked you as an enemy to the undead. No undead will help you. Now just finish me.”

Steven watched as his health ticked down to thirteen percent. Steven then touched the undead in the forehead with his index finger.

“We will have to question him later,” Steven looked up at Silvia. “is there anything we can do?”

Silvia flew over to Eve. “If the general wasn’t lying and it was a shard ability that done this, then maybe a high level being with a life shard could reverse this. However, it is unlikely you would get any church to help you, since you have the blessing of Chaos.”

“FUCK.” Steven shouted.

There was a long pause before Silvia spoke. “At least she isn’t dead.”

“That is true.“ Steven said, taking a deep breath. “If nothing else, I’ll just have to get a life shard myself. Will she be the same once she is turned?”

“Not to dash your hopes,” Silvia said, “But the only way to get a life shard is to go through a church and even then it’s not granted that you would get an ability to fix her. As for changing her, no, nothing will change that I’m aware of aside from her turning undead, her body will be cold instead of warm, I’m not sure if any of her shards will change, this is the first time that Ive been around something like this.”

Steven heard something behind him and readied himself for a fight, but calmed down when he saw Sirus.

“What happened?” Sirus asked, knelling down next to Eve.

“Some sort of shard ability that is turning her into an undead,” Steven said in a deadpan tone. “Silvia can explain it better than me.”

Steven barely paid any attention as he looked on while Sirus and Silvia spoke. At one point Goskia showed up and asked Steven a few questions that he absently answered before Goskia started examining Eve. He then used several potions on her. Having to wait between potions to not cause potion poisoning or at least that’s what Steven assumed. He didn’t feel like asking. She wasn’t in danger of dying, just becoming undead. He felt as though he let her down; she was his responsibility to protect, meaning this was his responsibility to fix.

Fidah showed up sometime later, asking Steven how he was and what happened to Eve exactly. He just told her to ask Silvia. He eventually found himself away from everyone but Nev, who always seemed to be there.

He wasn’t sure if he walked or Nev had carried him here.

“Master, I should explain why I didn’t tell you about my other shard abilities.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I asked.”

“I should still explain why I haven’t used it.”

“If you want to, but if I’m honest, right now, I just don’t really care.”

“I think it’s best I explain, as I may be able to help Evesakia.”

Steven looked up. “Help. How?”

“I have the mind weaver shard, likely why I dream your memories. But I can pull memories out of the Undead General’s mind and possibly find a way to fix her, or at least wake her up.”

Steven sat up straighter, “okay let’s do that then.”

“This brings me to why I’ve not used my magic. I don’t regenerate mana like you. Mine is much slower to recover and I have to eat to recover it. After the fight with the General, I’m now down to twenty-three percent of my mana.”

“I can get you mana potions from Goskia. Actually,” Steven pulled a mana potion form inventory, “I have a couple on hand.”

“I’m sorry, Master, but I’m classified as a monster and mana potions don’t work on me.”

Steven’s brow furrowed. “I’ve seen you use health potions?”

“Health potions are different. I can use those just not mana potions. I’m sorry, I fought a bit recklessly. Most of my mana consumption came from healing my wounds.”

“That can’t be helped now,” Steven said. “How long before you are back to full mana?”

“It will take me nearly a week.”

Steven’s eyes widened. “A week that is ridiculous. It only takes me a few hours to recover my mana from being empty.”

“Monsters and humans get different perks, but if you’re interested in that, I recommend talking with your wisp.”

“Maybe when I get some free time. But we have other things to deal with right now. Will you be able to help me finish this floor?”

“Yes, that won’t be an issue less we run into another level seventy being.”

“Yea, let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”

The next several days passed quickly. Steven wanted for Nev’s mana to recover. He didn’t ask where she got food and thought it best he didn’t. If she didn’t recover, then there was no way they could get out of this dungeon. Luckily for Steven, there was plenty of food for him, thanks to Goskia and his bag of holding. Which turned out only to hold food and plant like related food. Steven’s days blurred as he got into a routine. He would wake up, eat. Then start killing the undead from his inventory. It took a while, but he figured out he could kill the abominations by stabbing them with his spear and then sending them back to inventory before they could react. He had to do it before their innate healing ability triggered, but he got the hang of it fairly quick. His spear also would trigger randomly for extra damage. Once it happened three times in a row, another time it didn’t happen till his twentieth stab, making it truly random.

After he finished his morning abomination him, Sirus and Nev would go clear out a section of undead that the drones scouted out. Between them and Silvia being able to sense the dungeon monsters, it almost felt like cheating. Steven supposed it was since he just sent them to inventory and was able to fight them one at a time and in a favorable situation. He couldn’t imagine trying to fight the undead the way they were intended.

Clearing out a section of undead really just consisted of Steven hiding in stealth and opening portals up and sending all the undead to inventory aside from the armored knights, which was when Sirus and Nev put the work in. As soon as they shattered a piece of armor, he would open a portal and send it to inventory. Once they were finished up with clearing a section of undead, he would take a bound knight and let the Half Naga warriors along with Fidah kill it, allowing them to gain essence and allowing Steven to gain it passively.

He visited Eve each day, but she remained unconscious. Though the black veins had stopped pulsating so something was changing.

After about a week, when Nev’s mana was full, they tried to extract memories from the General, but it was mostly useless junk. She could only take his memories for a short time before her mana ran low, and they had to stop.

Days passed just like this. Steven’s favorite part of the day was talking with Eve, although she just lay there unconscious. He wondered if she would still like him when she found out he was not Shirem. He knew she still thought he was, but he pushed those thoughts aside. She was stuck with him now. The only way out of the Vassal contract was death, death to the Domain Holder or death to the servant.

Some days he told her about the monsters he fought, others he complained about only having one useful ability, which was his inventory ability. Other days, he just sat there. He knew it irritated Nev, but she planned to kill him and as much as he liked her, he needed to distance himself emotionally from the spider Queen, though it was hard since she was always there for him.

Silvia had told him that Eve should wake up any day now, but she said that after the first day.

The days were slow, but he was gaining essence, although slowly. He wanted to smoke or even drink something, but with the amulet, there was no point; he was starting to not like the thing, even as powerful as it was.

Silvia tried to get him to pull out the undead warriors as he would gain more essence from them, but he had a hard time convincing himself to kill a sentient being. It would be simple. He could just do it the way he did with the other undead. But they were just warriors following orders.

Steven couldn’t stop thinking about how terrifying it would be if he got pulled out from another dimension and stabbed by a lightning spear, only to be sent back to nothingness before he could respond. At least Steven assumed his inventory would seem like nothingness to them. He wondered if they could even think while in there.

He then remembered that an Elder Wisp was in his inventory and he asked Silvia if she thought the Wisp would know something. Silvia said the Elder wisp would absolutely know, but it was too big of a risk to pull it out, as there was no way to force it back in there. And it could possibly be some sort of trick from Sorin. Though she doubted he could get an Elder Wisp to help him. Silvia suggested they wait until they were both a bit stronger before pulling it out.

Days passed as Steven slowly gained essence. Eventually, he had run out of the knights from the lower floors and had to summon a knight from the ninth floor, which took the Naga warriors an entire day to kill. Steven was surprised by the difference and he wasn’t looking forward to killing abominations from the ninth floor.

Eventually, they had the entire floor cleared aside from the boss room. And Silvia gathered everyone that was relevant.

“We have a couple of options,” Silvia said. “we can fight the boss, which is a highly armored knight with armored knight minions. Or we can go through the hidden path.”

“I vote we go through the hidden path. There is no reason to risk death when we are so close.” Sirus said.

“I have to agree.” Steven said, “I want to finish this dungeon as quickly as possible.”

“Going through the hidden path is likely the best idea however, I believe there is a trap waiting for us on the other side of the hidden room, there is no other reason they didn’t send the demons to attack us on this floor.”

“What’s to say there isn’t a trap after the boss room as well?” Goskia asked.

“There isn’t, and this is just speculation on my part. I don’t know what awaits us on the tenth floor, aside from an elder demon that we must kill to get to Sorin.

“Hidden path it is then, if your people are fine with that.” Steven said, looking over at Goskia and Elder Vasuki.

“Yes, that sounds like a plan. Let us finish this,” Elder Vasuki said.

“Okay then,” Silvia said, “Prepare to leave. We will head in tomorrow.”

Silvia then flew right in to Steven’s face, who barley reacted. “Come on, we need to get you to level thirty tonight.”

“Why tomorrow? I wanted to have Nev take more memories from the General.”

“Steven, that is a useless endeavor. It is unlikely you will find anything useful in his memories, it’s obvious the General has been trained to resist mental attacks, which is exactly what the arachnid is doing. If you want to help Eve the best thing we can do is get out of this dungeon and go to a church or possibly a Necromancer if any still live.”

“I thought you said they wouldn’t help me because of my blessing, and a Necromancer?”

“It is unlikely, but If Ive learned anything about you sentient beings, it is that your greedy. Silver, gold and possibly a shard should get someone to help you. Necromancers should be our last choice if the churches fail us.”

“I suppose you have a point.” Steven said as he followed Silvia.

“There is something important I’ve been meaning to talk to you about,” Silvia said.

“Oh, what’s that?”

“Shard upgrades.”

“Thats something that happens when you reach level seventy, right?”

“Yes, and no. When you gather all your shards, you can choose to evolve one. Upgrading a shard just makes the shard slightly better. Do it enough times, then it will evolve. But upgrading shards is extremely difficult.”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“You need to kill a level seventy or higher being that has all seven shards, and then extract their unformed core. With that, you will be able to upgrade a shard.”

Silence hung in the air for a long moment. Before Steven started to look around for Nev.

“Your spider is likely feeding on more Half Naga to recover her mana.”

“It has to be done,” Steven sighed, “I don’t like it, but we can’t go to the tenth floor with her mana drained.”

“You don’t have to convince me. Your survival is the only thing I’m worried about.”

“You need to kill the general. I’m almost certain you can extract his unformed core through your inventory ability. And not have to deal with getting a ritualist.”

“I’m… Unsure if I can do it,” Steven balled his fist, “I don’t think I can kill something that can’t even fight back.”

“The abominations you kill every morning can’t fight back.”

“Thats not what I mean. Those creatures are unthinking dungeon monsters. The general can talk and think.”

“He also turned miss Evesakia into an undead that still hasn’t woken up yet.”

A chill ran down Steven’s spine, and his face twisted in anger. “Yes, he did do that.”

“If you plan to help Eve, and her save her remaining people, you need to be as strong as possible. It is likely we will walk into a trap when we leave the hidden room and possibly in the hidden room its self, and you’re too weak as you are. Undead you have an advantage over, but to demons, you are just a level twenty nine nobody.”

+997

Steven glanced down at his essence counter. “seems the Half Naga and Fidah killed another bound knight. They will be wanting another.” Steven said as he began walking towards the area they had set up for killing them.

“And after that, we need to deal with this, general.” Silvia said.

“Once I give them another knight to kill, we will talk about it more.” Steven said.

As Steven walked, he pulled up his stat page.

{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}

Level- 29

Available Attribute ~9

Essence- 9,683

Essence required for next level 14,967

HP ~ 267

Stamina ~ 81

Mana ~ 471

Poise ~ 0 +35

Vitality ~ 16

Endurance ~ 13

Strength ~ 13

Dexterity ~ 20

Resistance ~ 14 +50

Spirit ~ 28

Talent-

Basic Stealth -

15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.

15% noise reduction while in stealth.

20% more damage when attacking in stealth.

“You need to use your attribute points. Without them, you are no stronger than you were at level twenty.”

“I’m waiting till I reach level thirty and absorb another shard. So I can see what my stats will be.”

“As I have told you time and time again, it doesn’t matter. All your attributes are low. And you get the most value from Spirit.”

“If I was a normal warrior or mage, this wouldn’t be a problem. I don’t know what direction to go in. My shards are mostly useless for offensive. All I can do is turn into a spider.”

“Are you kidding? You are not even level thirty yet and you're on the ninth floor of a dungeon challenging a Dungeon Lord for their domain. Of course, you wouldn’t have made it this far without that inventory ability, or without me and your pet spider has helped. But your shard abilities are all really good! They keep you from dying. Though the one that gave you that familiar is a bit odd to me but it’s what you got, and the portals have made this floor even easier for you. It’s as if Chaos wants you to take Sorin’s domain.”

“Okay okay. You're right. Anyway, how is Fidah doing?”

“Just going to change the subject, huh? Okay then, she has been working her butt off to get stronger. When the Naga rotate she stays and helps kill another bound knight. She can also level without having to use a seeing stone. Which seems to be a perk of being your servant.”

“Thats good, and what’s her level now?”

“Twenty seven, but you should ask her yourself. She is trying her best, you know.”

“I’ll tell her good job or something. It’s just she is too weak to be of any use in this dungeon now.”

As soon as Steven approached, Fidah ran over to him.

“Master Odling! I am only two levels away from being able to wield the bow you gave me.”

“Steven smiled at the elf. “Good job! I’m proud of you. Keep up the good work!” Steven then pulled out another bound knight and began walking away.

“Are you serious? You’re just going to leave her like that!” Silvia said.

“What do mean?”

“Look at her. She doesn’t look like she has slept in days.”

Steven turned back, the half Naga had formed a line, and they each took turns stabbing the knight where the armor had shattered. Fidah was also in that line.

Silvia was right. She looked exhausted. “This seems impractical. Why don’t we give Fidah, her own knight to kill?”

“If the knight somehow got lose than it could kill her. It has happened a couple of times already.”

“What if I had some drones watch over her? They could distract the knight while she got away.”

“Yes, you could do that.” Silvia said.

“I still have two shards left as well. Why not let her have one.”

“And that’s where I draw the line,” Silvia said. “I like the elf, I do. She is my favorite, in fact, but we need you to absorb a shard as quickly as possible each time you are able.”

“Oh, come on, it will be level forty before I can use both. Surely we will find another by then.”

“And if we don’t, then you are tremendously weaker.” Silvia said.

“I bet we find one in the next chest.”

“I doubt it. It was ridiculous to find the one you did!”

“If we get one, then I’m giving one to her.” Steven said.

“Okay, fine, I’ll agree with that.”

“Fidah, come here.” Steven winced as he realized he just ordered her. He needed to remember to ask, but she immediately came to him like it was normal.

“Yes, Master Odling?”

“I told you, you can just call me Steven. Any way I want you to get some rest. When you wake up, you will kill an abomination with me.”

Fidah’s eyes widened. “Yes, of course.”

“You know where the bed is?”

“I do.”

“Alright then, I’ll come get you in a bit,” Steven turned to leave, “Oh, and change out of those clothes before you get in the bed.”

Steven watched as the elf left. He hadn’t spoken to her much lately. And hadn’t let her get in the bed with him either, now that he thought about it that was a bit selfish. She was the one that washed his bedding, so of course she knew where the bed was…

“You made that elf happy.” Silvia said.

“That makes one of us,” Steven turned to the Wisp, “I need to get out of this funk. Let’s go kill a general. That basterd deserves it.”