Random Portals

Killing the Elder demon was an absolute pain. Steven stabbed the demon several times with his spear before giving up and changing into his spider form to finish him. Even then Steven ran his mana low multiple times while dealing with the demon. He didn’t want to think about how he killed the demon. He still could taste the demon’s brains, and he shivered at the thought of it. This spider shard was definitely affecting his judgment while in that form.

+66,666

When Steven received the essence for killing the Elder demon, he was confused and elated at the same time. Did they just kill the devil? When he asked Silvia about the number of essence he received, she didn’t seem to understand the significance of six and just told him that’s just how much essence he received and that it was likely his pet spider received the same, but maybe not since he dealt with the other half of the demon.

After sending the demon’s body to inventory, he found the unformed core in his shard tab. Silvia told him to use it, but. Steven wanted to wait. If the unformed cores were so difficult to come by, then maybe he would get another shard to upgrade in the future. One that was preferably an offensive magic spell. Opening his stat page, he looked it over.

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

Level- 31

Available Attribute ~2

Essence- 66,998

Essence required for next level 19,156

HP ~ 471

Stamina ~ 101

Mana ~ 923

Poise ~ 0 +35

Vitality ~ 20

Endurance ~ 16

Strength ~ 16

Dexterity ~ 23

Resistance ~ 17 +50

Spirit ~ 40

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.

He had completely forgotten about having two attribute points available. A couple more points in spirit could have made all the difference in the last fight. But that couldn’t be helped now. Even with the massive amount of essence he gained, he could only get three levels. But he would have five free attribute points. If he continued to gain around twenty mana for each spirit, he could roughly get one hundred more mana. But he would have to use all five points in spirit.

He felt that was probably the best thing to do, though his build was relying on mana to the extreme. If he ran out of mana in a fight, it was likely he would die. His health was just too low. And his only attack was in his spider form, which even used more mana. And after dealing with the Elder demon, he realized he could really use some more strength. Getting it to twenty would give him a boost in strength. But if he ran out of mana, then he couldn’t even be in that form. Steven let out a frustrated sigh. He had to use the points. There was no reason to go into the final boss fight with so many free attributes. He also needed to hurry, as Sorin could leave his throne room now. Making a hasty decision, he began placing all his points into spirit.

He hoped he didn’t make the wrong choice. Silvia then flew up to him and began silently looking over his stats. She didn’t comment, so he too just focused on his new stats.

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

Level- 34

Available Attribute ~0

Essence- 211

Essence required for next level 27,019

HP ~ 471

Stamina ~ 101

Mana ~ 998

Poise ~ 0 +35

Vitality ~ 20

Endurance ~ 16

Strength ~ 16

Dexterity ~ 23

Resistance ~ 17 +50

Spirit ~ 45

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.

He was getting a lot of mana now. He was so close to a thousand; Steven didn’t know why, but he really wanted to reach a thousand. With his Angelic Death shard, he was starting to feel pretty safe. The shard had saved him multiple times. Although remembering how both assassins figured out how the ability worked and managed to work around it. Made him realize he couldn’t completely rely on the shard even if he had plenty of mana. It only worked if he was going to take lethal damage. So he could still lose an arm or leg and then just slowly bleed out, or just do small amounts of damage to him. But if he could learn to activate it manually, with enough mana, he would be basically untouchable. Though he wasn’t sure what stat or stats, he needed to boost his reaction time. Now that he thought about it, dexterity was most likely the one.

But at the cost of twenty-seven thousand to level, attribute points would be difficult to come by.

“Okay, your mana is looking good,” Silvia said. “I think you are ready as you can be.”

Steven closed his stat page.

“Does this mean we are ready?”

“Yes, I need to talk with Sirus, then let’s finish this.”

As Silvia flew off, Nev walked over in her human form, along with a half dozen Mimic drones. Steven had hoped they all died, but it didn’t seem like he was that lucky.

He also seen a familiar drone. At least he thought that was the Drone he named. Steven just nodded as the drone bowed to him. Which seemed to excite the Drone.

“Master, look! Six of them survived!” Nev’s face was lit up with excitement.

Steven looked over the Mimic Drones and realized they were just as terrifying as ever.

“Let’s just hope they survive the last boss fight.” Steven said as he inwardly hoped they would all die. He absolutely hated mimics. He hadn’t forgotten about the mimic that nearly killed him and Eve. Steven had been planning ongoing back to kill it. But didn’t want Nev making more of those hideous creatures.

“I’m sure we missed some. Once the dungeon is completed, I will scour the dungeon for every last one.”

“Fantastic…” Steven said.

Silvia then flew over. “We are ready. Now remember the plan.”

A few moments later, Steven placed his hand on the two massive stone doors.

Would you like to enter Sorin’s throne room Yes/No?

Steven’s heart was beating out of his chest.

This was it. All he had to do was deal with this final boss and he could get out of this damned dungeon!

“Master, is everything okay?” Nev asked.

“I’m just ready to get out of this dungeon, is all.” Steven selected yes. Instead of a flash of light and getting sucked into a barrier, the doors simply slowly opened and he stepped in.

The first thing he noticed was a large throne. It had several gems embedded in it. Then his eyes then fell on the dozen or so barely dressed female humans chained up in a line at the foot of the throne. At the end of said chain was who Steven assumed was Sorin. He had his foot propped up on one of the girl’s back holding a staff.

Steven didn’t get to even begin to understand what was going as a dozen undead knights charged him. At the same time, he saw a beam of red light shoot from the Vampire’s direction. He got a strange feeling from the beam of light. Somehow he knew his shard ability wouldn’t be triggered. He didn’t think he could dodge it either. Maybe he could pull out an undead to take the damage. Steven realized it was taking a long time for the spell to move through the air. That’s when he realized everything was frozen. Well, everything but him. Not wanting to waste time, he moved out of the path of the spell and was fixing to open a portal to send Sorin to inventory when a voice spoke.

“I presume you are Steven Odling, from the planet earth, yes?”

Steven quickly spotted the speaker. It would have been hard to miss the man with a black business suit holding a large scythe. Steven’s eyes widened when he realized the halo hovering above his head and the wings folded behind his back.

When looking at the Angel, Steven got a strong sense of death and he gulped. “Uh, Y-yeah I’m Steven.”

“Okay great,” The Angel said as he unrolled a scroll, “according to section C of article sixteen you are in violation of shard infringement and I will need to extract your Shard, Chaos portal of Undeath.” The angel then looked up from the scroll. “Do you agree to this willingly, or will we need to extract the shard forcefully from you?”

A chill ran down his spine. He glanced around. This was terrible timing. He didn’t know what was even happening. The Angel, however, waited patiently for Steven to respond.

After a long moment, Steven spoke. “Can I discuss this with my Wisp?”

The Angel’s brow furrowed. “You have a Wisp?”

“Yes.”

The Angel looked around, seemingly for the first time. Nothing caught his attention till his eyes fell on the red beam. After looking at it for a moment, he floated over to Sorin and looked at the Staff the vampire was holding.

Sorin had a strained look on his face, no doubt from casting that spell. Though he didn’t understand what the vampire had to do with talking with Silvia.

“This is odd,” Steven heard the Angel mutter to himself.

“Do you see?” A familiar voice echoed throughout the room.

Steven didn’t think he would be so happy to hear that voice. “Gideon!” Steven said as he whirled around.

Gideon floated in the air cross legged eating a purple apple. “Hello Steven.”

“Wait! Have you been there the whole time?” Steven asked.

Gideon didn’t answer he just looked on at the other Angel, who was now knelling with one knee on the ground.

“Forgive me Arc Angel Gideon! I was not aware you were present.”

“What are you doing here, exactly?” Gideon asked.

“I was given a Scroll Verdict.”

“I see. Bring it to me,” Gideon said.

Steven could do nothing other than watch. He had no idea what a Scroll Verdict was, but with the respect the Angel was giving Gideon, he felt that all this would work out. After all, Gideon had overseen all of his shards.

“This is wrong. Steven’s ability to send undead to his Soul Space is not a shard, but an awakened blessing. As for why you are trying to take his shard of…” Gideon stopped talking and turned to a seemingly random spot. After a couple of seconds, another Angel appeared.

“Orden, leave us.” The new Angel said.

Immediately, the Grim reaper looking Angel bowed, then vanished.

“What brings you here, Azorith?” Gideon asked.

Steven thought he saw Gideon wink at him, but it was difficult to tell.

“Stop playing games Gideon. You know exactly why I’m here.”

“Since Steven is the chosen of Chaos, then you agree that I can give him a shard, correct?” Gideon asked.

“You know the rules. It has to be random.” Azorith said.

“Naturally, Chaos would have it no other way.” Gideon said.

“Then I will proceed,” Azorith said. “Jabriel, show yourself.”

The sudden appearance of Jabriel surprised Steven, and he nearly jumped as the bound angel appeared right next to him, then casually walked towards Gideon and Azorith.

Steven then heard Jabriel’s voice in his head. “Thank you. I will one day repay my debt to you.”

This only confused Steven further. All he could do was watch as Jabriel approached and stood in front of Azorith. The Angel looked on with what Steven thought was disgust, but the next moment, the glowing chain bindings began to disintegrate. Once they were gone, Jabriel stretched his wings. “I’ll be going now,” Jabriel said.

Azorith looked like he wanted to protest, but said nothing. “It is done. I hope you understand this is on you, Gideon. Jabriel had over ten thousand years left of servitude.”

“Ah, that’s nothing really.” Gideon casually said.

“You are wasting your potential by working for Chaos!” Azorith said. “I’ll be leaving and I’ll let you finish up here. We can continue this discussion at the upcoming event.”

The Angel then vanished, but Steven barely noticed, as he was preoccupied with the empty feeling inside him. It was as if he had lost something.

“Sorry Steven, we knew it would come to this but father wished for Jabriel to be released and this was the only way.”

“I don’t understand what is happening. Why was Jabriel released? Not that I’m opposed to him being free. It’s just. This was a bad time.” Steven said, gesturing around.

“You will receive a portal ability as recompense, although it will be random. I have no choice in the matter. However, just know that your portal ability will be nowhere near as good as Jabriel’s ability. Although it will be your power and you won’t have to rely on others. Portal abilities are extremely rare. Not even all gods have that ability.”

“Okay,” Steven said. “But could I maybe get a fireball or something instead?”

Gideon laughed for a long minute before he finally spoke. “No, I’m sorry that is not possible, but you still have Shard slots available, so maybe you can find one.”

Gideon then had three shards float up in front of Steven, or at least he thought they were shards. All he could see was the outline of them. The rest of the shard was invisible.

“Touch one and absorb it.”

“Right now?” Seven asked.

“Yes, and know once you touch one, the others will vanish.”

Steven reached out and touched the shard on the left.

Do you wish to absorb the Shard of the Chaotic portal Yes/No?

“Well, that doesn’t sound promising.” Steven mumbled before he selected yes.

Steven waited for the pain, but there was none.

Gideon seemed to notice and spoke up. “It is only replacing the empty Shard and should already be done. You won’t feel the usual sensation of absorbing it. Now ready yourself. I am fixing to leave and time will resume its normal time.”

“Wait! How is this fair? Our entire plan was to use my portal ability. I don’t even know what this one does.”

“This is true.” Gideon said.

“Does that mean I can go up behind Sorin and send him to inventory?”

“I’m sorry I can’t allow that there are other gods at play here. I could, however, allow you some time to read over your shard or maybe you could have time to do something else.”

Steven looked around the room. He could read over his shard description, but that wouldn’t help much. He would need to test it out before using it in a fight. “Could I maybe move the girls into another room?”

Gideon was no longer looking at him and had his backed turned to him, presumably finishing his apple.

Steven didn’t waste any time and ran over to the chained women. He saw Sorin there and part of him wanted to send the vampire to inventory, but he thought better of it. Gideon said he couldn’t allow that, and he didn’t want to anger that Angel.

Seeing a side room he could put the girls in, he walked over, but he wasn’t sure how to get them there since they were all chained together and time was frozen. He could just leave them there, but the dragons would no doubt kill them with their poison breath. And he didn’t want to worry about them. He then remembered the roots and summoned them on his shoulder, but after only holding two girls up with the roots he was toppling over, he was just not nearly strong enough. He didn’t want to waste more mana, but reluctantly changed into his spider form and quickly carried them to the other room. Soon as he finished, Gideon turned around and tossed his apple core behind him. It vanished before it hit the ground. “Well, it’s time.” Gideon said.

“Could I maybe get a little closer?” Steven asked as he inched towards Sorin.

“Unfortunately, no,” Gideon said, “However, you can sit on the throne as I leave if you would like.”

Steven looked at Gideon, who had a wide grin on his face. Steven said nothing and quickly made his way to the throne and sat down. It was a lot closer to Sorin, so he would take it.

No sooner than Steven sat down, he saw what looked like a portal arc slowly materializing, even as time was frozen. It was appearing right where he was standing before time froze.

“Well, that’s poor timing.” Gideon said as he vanished and time resumed.

The next few moments were utter chaos. Steven watched as Sorin’s face turned to confusion and he stumbled forwards as he no longer had the support of the girl under foot.

Then Steven’s eyes widened to the size of saucers when he saw the old Wizard Blank step out of the portal. Nev and Sirus stared at Steven with confused expressions on their face. As he was now sitting on the throne and Sorin was falling face first to the ground. However, all his attention was drawn to the old wizard. The red beam of magic cracked into Blank’s barrier and a loud echoing boom rattled the entire dungeon. The impact was so strong Steven felt his self being pushed back on the throne even at his distance. He thought he saw the vampire go flying across the room, but it was hard to tell with all the dust filling the room.

Steven was unsure what to do, so he just stayed put while the smoke cleared. He did, however, top off his mana with a potion.

Steven almost jumped out of his skin when one of the mimic drones spoke into his mind while standing right next to him. “My King, I am here to assist in any way necessary.”

Steven took in a sharp breath and shook his head.

“I need you to locate Dungeon Lord Sorin.”

“At once my King!”

Steven could now see well enough to make out a figure where the portal had been. It looked like the figure was running right towards him.

Steven then cursed himself for staying in the chair. Once the being got close enough, he seen it was a Naga, and instead of reacting, Steven just froze, as his mind tried to process why one of the Half Naga was charging at him with a dagger.

The next moment, the Half Naga appeared next to him and time slowed as the dagger vanished less than an inch from his throat. Snapping out of it and taking advantage of the confused Naga, he summoned both his roots on his shoulders.

Steven was surprised by how easily he could detain the Naga with his roots. He was use to enemies much stronger than him. As his roots drained mana from the Naga, a level and name appeared.

Shirem White Scale

Level 29