Random Portals

It wasn’t long before Steven was standing in front of the last hidden path. Nearly two hundred Naga stood behind Steven, all waiting for him and Sirus’s warriors to go in first.

“Alright. Let’s get going,” Silvia said. “Ill go in first and scope it out. Give me a few minutes before you go in.”

Silvia then flew into the dungeon wall and vanished. It was annoying that she couldn’t come back out and inform him of the situation, but he doubted Sorin’s trap would be in the hidden path, anyway.

After roughly five minutes passed, Steven looked over at Sirus. “Alright Nev and I will go first. You and your warriors should follow in about five minutes.”

“Understood.” Sirus said.

Steven looked back at Fidah, who was standing next to some drones that were carrying Eve on his bed. He nodded to her before turning and walking into the hidden path Nev right beside him.

The tunnel of death was exactly like the previous one, as far as he could tell. Dozens of spike traps leading to the other end of the hall.

Nev began covering the area with webs, causing spikes to shoot from the walls. Steven immediately noticed this room also had spikes coming from the celling and floors. He couldn’t help but think he would have died if the last room would have been this way.

It took Nev a bit longer than normal, but she had the entire hallway looking like a spider nest when she was done and, for some reason, Steven felt at home.

“Shards do influence us then.” Steven mumbled.

“What’s that, Master?” Nev asked from further up.

“It’s nothing.”

Steven walked to the end of the tunnel and stood next to Nev, looking out at the huge cavern. Several trees were somehow growing through the hard dungeon floor, but Steven didn’t question it. This world was full of strange things. A stream ran through the cavern, with water lilies growing in and all around the water. It was a beautiful sight.

“This is beautiful.” Nev said with a cute, innocent expression.

Steven looked at the Spider Queen in confusion. She was never the one to comment on the scenery. He was just about to mention that, but decided against it. Maybe she was just finally opening up, or she had seen enough of his memories to know how to manipulate him.

“It is quite breathtaking. It’s hard to believe all this is in an undead dungeon.” Steven finally said.

“Water lilies are my favorite flower, they can grow in the worst sorts of environments and can still be so beautiful, not to mention the silver lotuses. They are incredibly poisonous, enough so they could surpass even your boosted resistance.”

And there it was. It made sense to him now. The flowers were deadly poisonous. No wonder the spider Queen thought the scene was beautiful.

Nev turned towards him with a large smile plastered on her face. “Want to go swimming with me? I’ve had the drones make one of those swimming suits from the shows you liked to watch.”

Steven opened his mouth, but closed.

He wasn’t sure what to say. It actually would be nice to get in the water. Then his mind went to Eve, she surely would have enjoyed it… He was just about to respond when Silvia flew up.

“It’s completely clear! Nothing other than a few mimics still in chest form.”

“Terrible timing, Wisp,” Nev said. “We were having a moment.”

“Yeah, I could really careless, I don’t like you. Maybe if you weren’t planning on eating Steven then I could try an like you. But I promise ill do my best to mess up all your moments.”

Nev glared at the wisp for a moment before glaring at Steven.

“What?” Steven asked. Unsure if he was supposed to say something.

“I’m going to go deal with the mimics.” Nev said as she stomped off.

“Be carefull!” Steven said.

“Of coarse Master.” Nev said as she shifted into her spider form.

“Why must you provoke her?” Steven asked.

“Because she plans to eat you and send me back to the void.” Silvia said.

“Well, maybe we can convince her otherwise.” Steven said.

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

A flash of light had Steven turn around to see Sirus and his group of warriors entering. They all looked around at the webs wearily. Steven couldn’t blame them, it looked like a spider’s nest after all. A warm and cozy spider nest. Steven shook his head. “Silvia, do shards affect your personalty?”

“I told you that’s a complicated question, but the short answer is no. It doesn’t change you anymore than you learning to wield a spear.”

Steven just frowned.

“Honored Wisp,” Sirus said, with a bow. ”How does this area look?”

“See, why couldn’t you have gotten someone more respectful like him,” Silvia said before she turned to Sirus, “It’s completely safe other than the poisonous plants and the…”

A monstrous screech echoed throughout the cavern.

“Mimics,” Silvia continued, “although I believe Steven’s pet spider is dealing with them at this very moment.”

“I should probably go check on her.” Steven said.

“Oh, don’t worry about her. She is basically indestructible with her recovery shard.” Silvia said.

Steven stopped walking. The wisp was right. The way she healed the wounds from the General was insane. He needed a recovery shard. Wait, how did she know what shards Nev had?

“I doubt she would have shared that with you. How do you know what her shards are?”

Silvia’s light dimly flickered. “I have my ways.”

It wasn’t long before the main group of Naga came in and began setting up camp far away from the water lilies. Steven also set up camp away from the main camp like he normally did. The drones did all the work. All he did was tell them where to place the bed and where to build the fire. He wondered if he could place a small house in his inventory for his travels when he got out of this dungeon. He pushed those thoughts aside for now.

His makeshift camp was now assembled, which consisted of a campfire and an elaborate bed that was completely out of place. He then went to find something to eat.

After he got something to eat, Silvia said she wanted to finish draining the Elder Wisp and told Steven to think about where he should place his stat points, and which Shard he wanted to absorb next. Silvia told him to not bother with pulling her out unless it had been a couple of hours. He then went and talked with Sirus.

He told Sirus he was going to level up to thirty and absorb another shard before they went to the final floor and would be testing his new shard out. And that it would be at least two days before he was ready to go to the next floor. Sirus thought this would be a good idea for his warriors to get a bit more essence, anyway. When Steven asked if they could level up, Sirus explained that Goskia had a temporary seeing stone so they could level up.

Sirus went on to explain that it would break after so many level ups. Steven only half payed attention as he pulled out a bound knight for the warriors to kill.

When Steven made it back to his camp, he saw Fidah, along with several female Naga, placing Eve onto a bed of blankets they made for her. Steven walked over and all the females Naga almost tripped over themselves trying to get away from him. They finished up, and he watched them scurry away with a confused expression.

“What was all that about?”

“Welcome back, Master,” Fidah said, “and they are just nervous, and also a bit scared of you.”

“Why would they be scared of me? Do they think I did that to Eve?”

“No, there are just apparently lots of rumors going on about you in the Naga camp.”

“Rumors like what?” Steven asked.

“I don’t know them all, but one is that you’re a god of death and can summon monstrous undead from thin air.”

Steven almost chuckled while rolling his eyes. “Has there been any change with Eve?”

Fidah looked down, “no, I’m sorry Master.”

“You don’t have to say you’re sorry, and you don’t have to call me master.”

Steven waited, but there was no response from the elf. She just continued to look down. “I’m sorry I blamed you. I was just upset at the time. This was not your fault.”

Fidah nodded while continuing to unpack things.

“Do you still want to kill an abomination?”

“Yes.” Fidah said excitedly.

Steven had no idea why Fidah or the Naga were so eager to kill an abomination. They gave more essence, but not a lot more. “Okay, let me find Nev and I’ll get her to bind one.”

“I will be here.” Fidah said.

Steven turned and walked towards the mimics. He really hoped the elf would loosen up around him eventually. He was sure this was Silvia’s fault. No telling what she had told the poor elf.

On his way, he ran into his favorite Drone Charles. After he asked him what Nev was up to. He took off running as if it was the most important mission in the world. Steven didn’t make it far before Charles came running back. Explaining the Queen was making more drones from the mimics for the upcoming fight and that there was also a chest he needed to go through.

Making his way to what Steven thought of as the hidden treasure room, he saw a single chest sitting in the center. There was blood slung all around it, along with deep claw marks, no doubt from the terrifying mimics. He could just imagine the mimic trying to crawl away from Nev while digging its claws into the dungeon floor as Nev dragged them towards her. At least that’s what he hoped he hated mimics.

Walking around the chest while trying his best to avoid stepping in the blood, he placed his hand on the chest, sending it to inventory just to be sure. He then made his way back to his camp. He assumed Nev was off somewhere secluded so she could make drones. Steven briefly wondered if he could make drones, but quickly dismissed the thought.

Seeing Fidah, he told her Nev needed some time to eat so they would have to wait for a bit and he was going to go through a treasure chest. Sitting down on the bed, he pulled out the chest. Inside was a small leather bag and some silver coins scattered at the bottom.

“Well, that’s a bit disappointing.” Steven said.

Steven sent all the coins to inventory and opened the leather bag. Steven smiled when he saw a long green thin jagged rock. Sending the shard to his inventory, he quickly opened his shard tab to see the name of the new shard. He couldn’t wait to rub it in Silvia’s face that he found another one.

-Shard of the Winged Beast.

-Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest.

-Shard of Natures Blight

Steven stared at the page for a long moment. He was sure he had heard that name somewhere. Suddenly it clicked, and he remembered the staff. He quickly pulled up the description.

Staff of Nature’s Blight

Rarity- Unique

~ Effect]- Cast a blighted root snare that entangles all enemies in a 20 foot radius dealing blight damage to all enemies in area of effect.

~ Requirement]- Death shard.

~ Cost]- 420 mana per cast. Cast per day 2.

(Note- This staff has been corrupted by undeath. It was once wielded by a Dryad and sole guardian of the forest of Gia before she became corrupted by undeath and turned all that she guarded into a swamp land spanning hundreds miles in every direction.)

The staff was amazing, and he couldn’t wait to use it. Now that he thought about it, he could use it now. He had attribute points to spend, and plenty of essence to get to level thirty and get a new shard.

Pulling up his stat page, he decided now was as good a time as any to level up and use a shard. Pulling up his stat page, he spent the fourteen thousand essence and reached level thirty. He then looked over his stat page.

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

Level- 30

Available Attribute ~10

Essence- 17,330

Essence required for next level 16,998

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.

Seeing he had enough for one more level, he spent the required essence and smiled at his eleven free attribute points. Deciding he might as well get his spirit to thirty for the boost, he used two attributes.

A wide grin fell over his face when he saw his new mana total. He was sitting at four hundred and seventy-one, now he was at six hundred and forty-two. It was lucky that he had an affinity with spirit.

“Master, that is a lot of mana.” Fidah said, wide eyed.

Steven had completely forgotten that his vassals could see his stat page when he had it opened.

“What’s your mana at?” Steven asked out of curiosity.

“One ninety-nine.”

Steven was surprised it was so low. “What is your spirit?”

“Nineteen, I only need two more levels to wield the bow you gave me.”

Steven’s eyes widened in surprise. She had nineteen spirit and her mana was that low. Was this because he had an affinity with spirit, or was there another reason his mana was so high? He didn’t remember what his mana was with only nineteen spirit, but he was sure it was over two hundred.

“Thats great,” Steven said after a moment. “by the way, I have a shard for you. But we will need to wait till Silvia gets back before you absorb it.”

Fidah took a step back, and her eyes grew wide as saucers. “A-a Shard for me? Are you sure the wisp will allow it?” Fidah asked.

“Yes…” Steven said, unsure why she felt the need to ask that. It was his shard, after all.

Fidah then went down to one knee. “I would be honored to accept this gift, Master.”

Steven didn’t like how serious things had just gotten, so he did his best to sound causal. “Yeah, no problem. So let me get your opinion about which shard I should use and which one you would like to have. I have Shard of the Winged Beast, Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest, and Shard of Nature’s Blight. I’m leaning towards the Deep rooted forest one for some reason, although Nev wants me to use the winged beast shard, but if I’m honest, I’m a little scared of heights.”

Steven knew if Sirus was here he would say something about his little fear, but he wasn’t and Steven wasn’t about to say how terrified he was of heights, although a bit less so than he used to be.

“Master, I- I can not begin to help you chose. I’m not anyone special. I’m just an elf from a small village. I’m no Queen or a Wisp. I’m just a simple elf.”

“An elf who is my vassal, and I would like to think, friend. I’m simply just curious what you think would work best for me. Also, I’m not anyone special either. I’m really only here by chance.”

Fidah didn’t look as if she wanted to speak, but eventually did. “Well, if I was to pick one I thought was best suited for you, it would be the Shard of Nature’s Blight.”

“Hmmm, you’re probably right. I have the weapon to go along with it.”

Steven watched as Fidah’s face turn to confusion, but she said nothing. “So what do you think about the Winged beast shard? Would you like that one?”

“Absolutely!” Fidah blurted out before looking down. “I mean, yes, Master, I would be honored.”

“Great, you can have that one!” Steven said as he inwardly jumped for joy. He did not want to be up in the air if he could help it.

Steven sent the empty chest to inventory and then pulled out the Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest. As he did, a notification appeared, asking him if he would like to absorb it. Ignoring the prompt for the moment, he crawled up on his bed and laid down. “I’m going to absorb this shard now, so ignore me if I scream in pain or something.”

He watched as Fidah opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it. Focusing on the prompt, he selected yes.

As soon as he selected yes, he began to wonder if he should stand for this. However, it was too late as the shard burst into thousands of tiny moats of dark green lights and shot into his chest. It felt like fire was running through his veins, followed by pulses of ice. The pain was so intense he was unsure if he was screaming or not. Suddenly, it stopped, and Steven heard a familiar voice.

“Wow, another shard so soon.”

Looking around, he realized time was frozen or was moving at a crawl. He had no idea. Suddenly, Gideon appeared wearing his odd set of mismatched clothes.

“Is your attire part of work uniform or something?” Steven was unsure why this was the first thing he said but just went with it. He was curious, after all.

“Yes it is,“ Gideon said with a smile. “Father says it makes me look quite dashing.”

Steven went to say something, but Gideon spoke up. “Unfortunately, I’m here on business and not to talk about my attire. Now let me see,” Gideon said as he held his hand out towards Steven. “I see, I see, let’s just change this, with that and add a little of this.” Gideon mumbled to himself, Steven was only able to make out a bit of what the Angel was mumbling, and it sounded like nonsense.

“So are you going to come every time I absorb a shard, and what are you doing exactly?”

Gideon continued to mumble to himself for a solid minute before he turned to look at Steven.

“Yes, and I can’t tell you.”

“Can you tell me why you're doing this?” Steven asked.

“Yes actually, father chose you.” Gideon said, as if that alone explained everything.

“Chose me for what?”

“You are the chosen of Chaos. Most Gods have a chosen, but don’t worry about that. Just focus on collecting all your shards and you will find out soon enough. Alright, it’s time for me to go. Though I have one quick question.”

“What’s that?”

“How is Jabriel doing?”

“He is doing good, I suppose. He normally just stays out of sight and dosen’t speak much. But the portals he creates are amazing. If I’m honest, it feels a bit overpowered when combined with my inventory ability.”

“I do apologize, but this was father’s will. It will all make sense soon.”

Gideon’s response confused Steven, and it took him a moment to gather his thought. But when he went to ask Gideon what he meant, the angel vanished, and the pain returned. Steven had no idea how long he laid there. He was sure he fell asleep after the pain eventually left, but he wasn’t sure.

All He knew was he felt amazing now. Although Gideon’s words still concerned him, he wondered if something would happen with Jabriel. Gideon did mention that taking him on as a familiar would be considered a favor to his father.

Shaking his head, he sat up on the edge of his bed and opened up his shard page to see what sort of ability he gained this time. He really hoped it was some sort of ranged attack, or really, just any sort of attack would be nice.

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

Shards:

~ 1 of 7

Angelic Death-

Ability effect~ Expands the distance by 10 feet between two distinct targets, while dilating time for both targets at the cost of 100 mana per second. (Note: Ability will trigger automatically when user is about to take a lethal attack. Can be turned off at any time.)

~ 2 of 7

Royalty of the Chaotic Arachnid

Ability effect~ Transform into a true Spider King at the cost of 1,000 mana per minute. All attributes get a 333% increase while in this form. You lose all equipment slots and shard abilities while in this form. (Note: This ability will automatically trigger if health goes below 25%. If hit points would be reduced to 0 or less while in this form, those hit points become 1, all effects are removed and the shard user will revert to original form.)

~ 3 of 7

Chaos portal of Undeath

Ability effect~ Summon Undeath familiar.

Familiar Specialty~ Portal creation.

~ 4 of 7

Roots of the Dark Forest

Ability effect~ Create and control two dark root clusters at the cost of 380 mana per minute. Roots have the ability to drain mana from opponents on contact. Mana drain is determined by the spirit attribute.

(Note: Mana can not exceed the maximum mana limit. Strength and speed of roots are determined by wielders attributes.)