Random Portals

Sirus left just an hour ago, so Steven was surprised to see a Naga appear on the map. He was still uncertain what experimental Naga meant, but it surely had something to do with how human the Naga were. Steven quickly finished up with the zombies he was dealing with and made his way to the entrance. He was trying to come up with an excuse why he didn’t wait at the entrance when he saw who it was.

“Eve?” Steven said, eyes wide with delight. “Did Sirus send you?”

Eve said nothing as she ran to Steven and hugged him.

“I-I thought you were lost! But you’re right here in the entrance!” Eve said, on the verge of tears and obvious confusion, “what are you doing? Let’s go. Everyone has been searching for you.”

“Did you not see Sirus? I’m trapped. The Dungeon won’t let me leave.”

Eve’s eyes widened in alarm, “what do you mean the Dungeon won’t let you leave?”

“Well, I just can’t leave the Dungeon till I’ve completed all ten floors. It just won’t let me. I wish I could leave! Trust me. What I wouldn’t give to have a bed, a bath and more of that kishishrot plant or what ever it's called.”

It took Steven a good ten minutes to explain that he could, in fact, not leave. Eve had even gone through the barrier and came back to show Steven how simple it was. Still not fully understanding what was going on. Once she finally calmed down, he explained about the Domain and why he couldn’t leave. She patiently listened as he spoke and seemed to hang on every word he said. The simple act of someone listening so intently to what he had to say made him feel cared for in a way he couldn’t explain. She only spoke when he was done with the basic rundown of what happen. Asking only a few questions. Such as what a Dungeon lord and Wisp were, but before Steven could answer Eve seemed to suddenly remember something.

“Did you say you talked to captain Sirus?”

“Yea, he said he was going to come back with supplies. I thought he sent you.”

Eve’s face turned a shade paler.

“I need to go! He will be furious if he finds me in here! I promise ill come back and we can…”

No sooner than she began to speak, the dungeon entrance began to glow and Eve stiffened.

“Well, come on then!” Steven said, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her. She then jumped up, and they ran. Now that there were no zombies between Steven and the hidden path, it didn’t take them no time to reach the illusion wall. “You will have to jump. it’s only about five feet! Stick your head in like this. So you can see what I’m talking about,” Steven said, while sticking his head into the illusionary wall. She did as he asked and it wasn’t but a few moments later before they were both standing in the hidden room.

“W-what is this place?”

“It’s a secret path to get to the second floor. I stumbled upon it while searching for treasure.”

“What! But how? How did you find this place?” Eve asked in disbelief.

“Never mind that now. You will be safe in here. Just don’t go to the second floor. And stay away from the traps. I’ve gotta get back. Sirus is probably already irritated.”

Steven then quickly made his way towards Sirus.

“I told you to wait here!”

“Sorry, I got bored and worked on clearing the floor. I think you’re right that the dungeon monsters can’t spawn while I’m in here. I haven’t seen any more appear on the map.”

Sirus opened his mouth to speak, no doubt to yell at him, but then closed it to process what Steven had just said. “So this map of yours, it shows you the location of every monster in this dungeon?”

“I believe so. It even shows a tiny footprint in which way the monster is walking.”

“let me take another look it.”

Steven almost said something about learning to ask instead of demanding something be done. But he quickly thought better of it. After Steven handed him the map, he stared at it for a solid five minutes before handing it back and shaking his head.

“I see nothing. I can’t even sense any magic from it.” Sirus then pulled out a small brown bag and handed it to Steven.

“What’s this?”

“A bag of holding. Courtesy of Goskia. I expect you to give it back to him as soon as possible. It has a capacity of ten items and is extremely valuable.”

“Oh. Well, you can just give it back to him yourself if you want,” Steven said as he sent all the contents to his storage by simply sticking his hand in the bag.

“Cool! I didn’t know if that would actually work.”

Sirus's eyes narrowed and Steven was starting to think that it was a bad idea to show Sirus his inventory ability.

“I know your chest armor has storage, but it can only hold a couple items. Did you absorb another shard?” Sirus asked.

Steven noted how Sirus wasn’t angry, so much as curious. “No, it’s just an ability I gained. I also got Lesser Stealth, but I leveled it to Basic Stealth.”

As Steven spoke, Sirus’s face twisted into a confused mess of shock and disbelief.

“You have Basic Stealth already? That’s impossible. . . Unless,” Sirus went silent, but before Steven could talk he spoke up, “Never mind your stealth ability. Tell me, what is this other ability you have?”

“Well, it’s just a simple inventory ability. It’s basically a bag of holding, but I don’t need a bag.”

“That’s incredible!” Sirus said with childlike enthusiasm. “how much space does it hold and what did you do to obtain this power? Is it a talent?”

Steven stared in shock at the normally dower Naga before he spoke.

“Uh, I’m unsure on both things. I’m sorry. Though I know how I got stealth. It was from sneaking around the zombies.”

Sirus’s face fell instantly. Steven would like to ask Sirus about what talents he had and if he could teach him to gain any, but he would have to ask about that another time he needed to get back to Eve. But before Steven could come up with an excuse to leave, Sirus spoke up.

“I must be going, I will be back tomorrow with a team of elites to help you clear out the second floor,” Sirus turned and placed his hand on the barrier, “by the way good job. Continue to gain levels and you may just survive this Dungeon.” Then he was gone.

Steven turned and headed back towards Eve. He knew that was a compliment coming from Sirus. Which was confusing, that dower Naga didn’t give out compliments. “I suppose my growth really impressed him.” Though he was probably just impressed, Steven was still alive. He was definitely going to take down this dungeon. He would use this place as a stepping stone! This damn Dungeon lord had no idea what he had done by trapping him in here. Steven wasn’t actually sure if it was the Dungeon lord that trapped him or if this sort of thing that just happened when two domains came in contact with one another.

As Steven walked back, he wondered what would happen when he gained another domain. And when then that old wizard returned, would he take his domain back, or did they become one? Steven had a lot of questions and no one to give him answers. Surely that old wizard would understand. He seemed reasonable. Though that was most likely because he still thought of the old wizard as Gandalf.

Steven’s mind was still on the old wizard and what he actually wanted from him when he jumped through the illusion wall. The sound of Eve screaming caused his eyes to widen and franticly started looking around for her. At first, he thought she had fallen into the pits. But a strange guttural sound with more screaming had him look towards the stairs at the back.

“Mimic!” Steven sprinted across the narrow path in a mad dash. Soon as he reached the treasure room, he saw it.

Two long pale white legs attached to a treasure chest. It had to stand at least nine feet tall. With thin arms that hung to the ground at the end of its hands were wicked looking black claws. The chest its self looked just like one would expect a mimic to look, rows of sharp teeth, tongue half hanging out and all. The only thing that looked out of place was all the vines, but he paid no attention to it at the moment. To Steven, it looked as the mimic was playing with Eve before eating her. Deep-looking cuts covered Eve’s body and the lower part of her tail was missing. She seemed to have a hard time just standing. Steven took all this in an instant.

Despite how bad Eve looked, she still stood there with a defiant expression on her face, holding a dagger in one hand while the other hung limply at her side. The sight made Steven’s blood boil with rage and he was charging the mimic with everything he had before he realized what he was doing. “Run!” Steven said, midway into his as charge.

He didn’t really have a plan. The mimic, however, looked to be delighted at the prospect of more food and turned its attention to Steven. The chest was on top of him almost instantly.

The Mimic scooped him up in its long skinny hands, trapping both his arms to the side. It then went to bite into him as if he was a burrito. Suddenly, time slowed, and the mimic was standing ten feet away while working its jaw around in confusion.

The next moment, Eve was by his side. He wanted to tell her that’s not what he meant by running, but there was no time. Eve threw a bottle at the mimic and it burst into silvery flames. Steven watched in disbelief as its health dropped by only a sliver. His eyes widened in alarm. There was no way they could deal with this thing. He was too weak and his only shard ability had triggered already. They had to run, but the mimic was now in front of the exit and just staring down curiously at the silver flames on its arm as if it was the strangest thing it had ever seen.

“The second floor!” Steven said.

It was directly behind them. They would just have to make it there. “Eve, go now!” She looked as she was going to protest. “I'll be right behind you go!”

She must have noticed the intensity in his voice as she did as he asked and quickly headed towards the barrier with a limp. As she did the mimic decided the flames were not interesting enough to lose its meal over and started towards them. This time it moved cautiously, unsure what had happened to it when it tried to eat its snack.

As soon as Eve began towards the entrance, Steven began dropping zombies out of his inventory quickly as possible while backing towards the second floor barrier and wishing he could just drop all the zombies at once. The mimic stopped and bit into the first zombie. Steven used the few seconds to chug a mana potion while walking backwards as fast as he could towards the barrier.

The mimic recoiled, and it began spitting out chunks of undead while making a disgusting gagging noise. It was clear to Steven this would not be much of a distraction and he turned and ran towards the barrier. He saw Eve turn and look back at the mimic just before she reached the barrier. The mimic made a screeching sound as Eve vanished and redoubled its efforts towards its only remaining meal, plowing through the few other zombies without slowing.

Steven glanced at his mana pool of eighty-seven while he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but it wasn’t fast enough. The mimic grabbed him up in a bone crushing grip to make sure its snack didn’t escape this time. It then stared at him with curiosity, as if darling its snack to vanish again. The more Steven struggled, the tighter the mimic squeezed. He tried to will his ability to trigger, but he knew it wouldn’t work, he didn’t have the mana. If he could get a hand free, maybe he could drop a zombie into its maw. That’s all he could think of. He tried to move, but the mimic decided it had finished looking at him and squeezed until something snapped, causing Steven to go limp. The mimic seemed to be satisfied that its food was no longer wiggling. And It opened its maw to eat him whole.

“Oh, come on, it’s only a level thirty seven Mimic for crying out loud!” A familiar voice echoed in Steven’s mind, “I very well may have made a terrible choice choosing you over Sorin but it’s too late for that now, things are already in motion.”

Steven fell to a heap on the floor. “Ouch! Yeah, sorry about that. But all I can do is to command the mimic to go back into stasis. You’re lucky I came here to talk to you when I did. I had no idea you were seconds away from being mimic food. This place is part of the original dungeon, and even Sorin can’t see us here. Which brings me to why I’m here. There are things we need to discuss.”

Steven was in so much pain from being crushed he couldn’t speak. Or even understand what was happening, for that matter.

“Well, there isn’t much point in talking to you now, is there? Sorry, I can only send you outside this room. Good luck. We will have to wait and speak when you reach the next secret entrance. I would also recommend staying out of this room when I leave. The mimic will come back out of stasis and will be extremely aggressive.”

Steven then unceremoniously fell to the dungeon floor, right next to a yelping Eve. Then everything went black.

When Steven woke up, he just laid there. He was too sore and tired to even open his eyes. Everything hurt, but just the fact he could feel things was a good sign he had thought his spine snapped, but maybe healing potions could fix that sort of thing. This was the last thought he had before he lost conciseness.

The second time Steven woke up, his head was pounding. It felt like when he was drained of mana. It also felt like warm oily liquid was being rubbed on him, but before he could even think on it, he lost conciseness again.

The next time Steven woke up, he just felt drained and sore, as if he had been working out non stop for a week straight and every muscle in his body was torn.

“Steven,” a soft voice whispered, “are you awake?”

With some effort, Steven slowly opened his eyes. He saw a gorgeous female with what he thought were snake-like features. If it wasn’t for how attractive she was and the concerned look she was giving him, he may have freaked out. Slowly, Steven began to remember what happened and where he was. He went to speak, but his voice was raspy and dry and his words were more nonsense than anything else. Steven slowly sat up. Every muscle protested, even his eyes felt sore.

“Here, drink this, but slowly,” Eve said.

Steven took the cup and sipped it. It was warm and tasted like the pine needle tea his grandma used to make him drink as a child. “This will help clear out the potion toxins. I’m sorry but I had to use several potions on you. The effects will linger for some time.”

Steven didn’t know what that meant exactly, just the act of sitting up and moving made his mind fuzzy; a wave of exhaustion hit him and he just wanted to lie back down.

“Try to eat this.”

Steven blinked a few times. His eyes were growing blurry. But he took the piece of what he assumed was meat and took a couple of small bits. Even chewing was hard. That was the last thing Steven remembered before darkness took him.

When he woke up this time, he felt much better, and he immediately noticed how dark it was. The only light came from a few glowing stones placed around them and the glowing barrier a few feet away. Eve laid next to him fast asleep. He barely remembered what happen after the mimic but he knew he had woke up a few times as Eve nursed him back to health.

He wondered how long it had been, but pushed that thought aside, it really didn’t matter. He was still in the dungeon and now trapped on the second floor with all those damned armed skeletons. But at least he had Eve with him now. He looked over at Eve. He remembered her having several deep cuts. Her clothes were still torn a bit, but not as badly as he had thought. Although they probably had a repair enchantment on them like his armor. Now that he thought about it, his armor was off him and he was in clothes he didn’t even realize he had.

No, he knew for certain he didn’t have these clothes. Eve must have had changed him. Looking back over at Eve, he noticed half her tail was still missing; he hoped she could grow a new one. Just the thought of the mimic pissed him off. He would get his revenge. That damn mimic didn’t know who he was fucking with.

Steven took a few deep breaths to calm down. The mimic would get what’s coming to it with time. He also owed that Wisp one. If not for her, he would be dead. He didn’t remember what she had said exactly, but he remembered something about going to the next hidden path so they could talk. Though he didn’t know why that mattered as they talked in the Dungeon proper the first time.

At least he had an immediate plan. Get to the next hidden path. Well, after he did some leveling. He didn’t want to bother Eve while she slept. If not for her he would’ve surely died, or at least be in much more pain. Although if not for her opening that chest, they would not be in this situation. Deciding those thoughts would not get him anywhere, he opened his inventory to see how many zombies he actually had. Steven’s eyes bulged as he saw the number.

“Holy shit!” Steven said before glancing at Eve. Come on now, Steven, stop talking out loud to yourself. You're going to have her think you’re a crazy person.

Steven had to pull up his inventory once more to make sure he was seeing the number correctly. Currently, he had one hundred and eighty-nine zombies in inventory. He sure hoped there were no side effects to having the zombies in there. He still got the sense of it being wrong somehow and wished he had a way to turn them into essence. Well, he had nothing better to do while he waited for Eve to wake up.