Random Portals

Steven barely made it down the tunnel before he realized it was entirety to dark, so he walked back and grabbed a couple of the glow stones. The stones reminded him of the tree house and the comfy bed that it had. It wasn’t actually his place, but he felt a strong connection to it and wished he could go back. Better yet, he would love to sit on his couch in his room and watch some anime and smoke… The thought depressed him a bit. He stabbed a zombie in the back before sending it back to inventory.

Was he a drug addict? No, weed wasn’t bad, it was just a plant.

Right? He didn’t do any of the harder stuff. Though if he was being honest right now, he would probably try some if it was available.

Being trapped was taking its toll. Pulling out the same zombie, he stabbed it. And then stabbed it again.

+23

It wasn’t any different from alcohol, actually it was much better for you. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it’s definitely not addicting, but yet he craved a smoke. A sinking feeling of depression nagged at him.

+25

Maybe Eve had some, but this was not a video game. Should he really be smoking in this dungeon? He had nearly just died. This place was serious.

+19

It helped him focus, and that was that. Also, he really needed something to help deal with all the craziness his life had become. If Eve had some, then he would definitely use it, he would just not overdo it.

+21

Deciding to ask Eve about it when she woke up, he continued killing zombies one at a time. He had to move a few times as he killed them faster than the Dungeon could absorb them. He didn’t need to worry about running out. His daggers would break long before he ran out of zombies. It became reflex as he killed the zombies and he wondered what his aunt was doing. And what she thought about a literal wizard in his basement, he chuckled to himself.

Until he thought of her being so drunk, she probably didn’t even notice it wasn’t him. His thoughts got darker as he methodically killed zombies one at a time. His parents, his little sister they were all gone now. Why had he been the only one to survive?

“S-steven?” Eve said in a shaky voice. “what’s happening? Are there invisible undead? I can’t see anything. I just see them blink into existence right before you stab them.”

It would have been funny if not for Eve’s fearful voice. As he pulled his dagger out, the zombie collapsed to the ground.

+22

Eve stared wide eyed at the dozens of dead zombies in the tunnel. “How long have you been fighting?” Eve asked, looking around with a fear filled expression. While trying to see where the next zombie was going to appear.

“There are no invisible zombies.” Steven said.

“I just seen you kill a zombie that kept turning invisible each time you pulled your blade from it! What do you mean there are no invisible zombies? Am I losing my mind?” Eve asked while looking around wide-eyed.

“It’s an ability of mine! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you. Here watch.” Steven pulled out a zombie, then pulled it back into inventory at the same time Eve jumped back with a yelp.

“Were did it go?” Eve begin franticly looking around.

“Okay, look, there isn’t any immediate danger. Let me try to explain! You know how you have a bag of holding?” Eve nodded slowly, “well I have an ability that gives me that. It’s an inventory ability.”

Eve seemed to calm down slightly, “and this ability allows you to put undead in there? Is that safe?” Eve asked, concern replacing the fearful look.

“Yes, it does, and I think it’s safe. I was trying to get some of them out of my inventory and gain some essence.”

Eve’s face scrunched up in confusion, which Steven found incredibly cute for some reason.

“Why did you put them in there in the first place?”

“Well, I didn’t really have anyway other way to deal with them.”

“What do you mean, don’t you have an incredibly powerful Shard ability? I heard about your fight in the arena. And you were able to escape from that mimic.”

“It is an exceptional ability. I can’t deny that.” Steven stopped talking and looked at Eve. “wait, you heard about my fight in the arena?" Steven asked in confusion. "Never mind that now. My ability is useful, but I only have the one and besides I can only use it once before it takes almost all my mana. And it’s a defensive ability it doesn’t really do damage.”

“I- I don’t understand,” Eve said, clearly confused. “you just told me you had this inventory shard ability and this defensive shard ability but you only have one shard ability. Is one of these a talent?”

“Oh, no, my talent is stealth. Ive actually been meaning to ask about talents you never mentioned that before.”

Eve still had a cute confused look on her face as she tried to process what he had told her.

“A talent," Eve said. "Is an innate ability, and we only get one. Or at least I’ve never heard of anyone getting more than one. Many never even find their talent. Do you have two talents?”

“No, I only have one talent.” Steven’s face fell just a bit as he found out he wouldn’t be getting trap detection and a slew of other talents he had been fantasizing about. “Eve, can I tell you something?”

“Yes of coarse anything.”

“You have to promise not to tell anyone this will just be between us.” Steven watched as her face turned fearful for just a second before it turned serious and she nodded.

“I will take it to my grave. I swear it.”

Steven was taken aback by her intensity but continued. “Okay, I’ve not told anyone this. And I’m not sure what it means exactly. But I met this angel, or maybe a god. I’m really unsure.”

Eve gasped and her eyes widened.

“Are you okay?” Steven asked.

“Yes. It’s just I’ve only heard legends of Gods and Angels.”

“Good to know. Anyway, this being’s name was Gi-d… e.” Steven froze. It felt as if death loomed over him and he would instantly die if he completed the name.

“Well, his name doesn’t really matter,” Steven said after a moment. “anyway, he gave me this purple apple core that turned into this ring thing that turned into an inventory ability when I put it on.” Now that he said it out loud, it sounded preposterous.

Eve, on the other hand, was white as a ghost. “Ch-chaos. You met Chaos?”

“How did you know?”

After a moment, Eve spoke up, “everyone knows of Chaos. His symbol is a purple apple core.” Eve’s eyes were wide with shock as she continued, “you have a blessing of one of the Seven. Ive never heard of them giving out blessings, especially Chaos. . .”

“Well, I suppose the ring turned into a blessing from that guy. He was pretty cool. Though when he looked at me, it felt as he was staring into my soul. Although now that I think about it, that very well may have been what he was doing.”

Eve still looked to be in shock, so Steven just stood there waiting for her to speak. He really wanted to get back to zombie killing. The thought made him wonder how much essence he had now and he was just fixing to open his stat page when Eve spoke.

“S-Steven, I’m not sure if you understand what this means, but I will keep your secret, I promise. We probably shouldn’t speak about it again. And it’s best if you treat Chaos with the proper respect he deserves. He is said to be the mightiest of the seven and we don’t want to… Well, what I’m trying to say is that you probably shouldn’t call Chaos a pretty cool guy.”

“Okay, sounds good. No more God talk. Though I have one more question. What is a blessing, exactly?”

“I’m not exactly sure. From my understanding, it is like an unawakened talent that a God somehow activates.”

“Hmm, okay yeah, that actually makes a bit of sense. Anyway, how about we start clearing the second floor?”

“I should really be getting back to my duties at the village.” Eve said, glancing back at the barrier.

“Well, we definitely can’t go that way,” Steven said indicating the barrier, “are you going to get in trouble?” Steven watched as Eve glanced at her bandaged tail.

“Yes, I’m unsure what punishment awaits me,” Eve looked off in the distance, “The Elders will not be pleased that I disobeyed their laws. It is likely that they will forbid me from seeing you.”

“Yeah, screw that. I won’t allow it. You’re the only reason I’ve stayed.”

Eve smiled at that. “But where would you go? Our kind aren’t welcome, we are considered abominations.”

“The other races don’t accept you?” Steven asked.

“It’s not all the races, it’s mostly the humans, some elves, and the true Naga. They have hunted our kind down for centuries, though they live on the other side of the sea from my understanding. It’s unlikely we would run into them.”

“You’re mostly human looking anyway, just wear a rob with a hood or something and I doubt anyone would notice. We could travel and see new places. I would love to see this world. We will just stay away from the true Naga.”

Eve’s eyes lit up at the mention of traveling together. “You would be willing to travel with me?”

“Of course I would. There is no one else I would rather have my back.”

Well, other than Sirus, that dude is a serious bad ass, but Steven didn’t say that part.

Eve then hugged him and held him tightly for a long moment. Once she let go Steven asked the question he had been wanting to ask for a bit. “So, do you have some more of that kish stuff?”

“Kishurack?” Eve asked.

“Yes, that stuff,” Steven said with a wide smile.

“Yes, I have some. It’s used in several potions. It helps with mana recovery when mixed with crushed turtle skulls and gurlak. Most alchemist have it on hand.” Eve said excitedly.

Steven just blinked at her. He was about to ask her if he could have some when she pulled some out of her bag of holding. A large smile crossed his face. Pulling out the water pipe, he began to load it.

“Are we not going to clear the second floor?” Eve asked.

“Yes! As soon as I…” Once Steven seen the look she was giving him, he froze. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, I do enjoy smoking as well, but it’s kinda dangerous as it fogs the mind and this is a dungeon… I just don’t want you to get hurt!”

“It will be fine! It helps me focus.”

Eve said nothing as Steven took a couple of hits. Though she refused when he offered her some saying, maybe later. Eve handed him some more potions she had brought, including the dark vision potions he was running low on. Then they both drank half a potion each and began down the tunnel.

As Steven explained what they would be facing, Eve was taken aback by the fact that he had already been here. She asked how he got past the mimic. When he explained he didn’t open the chest, she looked downcast. Seeming to just now realize it was her fault that they were almost killed.

Once at the end of the tunnel, he told her to stay out of sight as he scouted the area since he had stealth and she didn’t. Turned out her talent was plant identification. It was a cool ability for sure, but Steven could do the same thing by placing the plants in his inventory, or at least he assumed he could.

The first part of the area was still clear from his last visit. But it didn’t take him but a minute to find another group of skeletons standing eerily in place, and staring off into the distance. As Steven scoped out the skeletons, looking for the best plan of attack, he wondered what level Eve was. Or did she already tell him he couldn’t remember, which reminded him that he should have enough for a level now. Although one level wouldn’t actually do much and he wanted to save his attribute points for when he found a better weapon.

However, he had to know how much essence he had or it would bother him. He started to open his stat page when he remembered he didn’t have to. Was this an effect of smoking too much…Ever since Eve mentioned it, it had been bugging him, but he would show her he was capable. Pushing the thought aside, he focused on the number in his bottom right corner.

Essence 864

He frowned he had killed at least three dozen zombies. Opening his inventory and looking at his undead tab, he saw he had one hundred and fifty-three zombies and three skeletons. He had indeed killed around thirty zombies. He then checked the durability of his daggers. It seemed he really had to come up with a better system. The durability had dropped a good ten points. Enforcing the idea of not killing the zombies in that manner, he needed to ask Eve about durability.

“Okay. First things first, let’s create some chaos.”

Once he located the archer, he got into its aggro range and waited for it to shoot. When it did, he pulled out the zombie to take the hit. The sound of flesh being pierced was what he was waiting for. He then started dumping out zombies as they began to stumble towards the archer. Steven had such a large supply of zombies he didn’t stop dropping them until he was forced to back up because of the other skeletons. He was able to drop thirty nine zombies. Which should be plenty to take out the eleven skeletons. Steven then went back to the tunnel to get Eve.

When Eve seen the zombies and skeletons fighting, her eyes widened in surprise. “But how? Can you control them?”

Steven explained what he did to get the zombies to attack the skeletons, and Eve was completely amazed, calling him a genius several times. The pair just sat a good ways back watching the fight. Steven wished he had a couple lawn chairs in his inventory or, better yet, his couch. He did, however, pull out a plate of meat and potatoes, or at least he thought it was potatoes. He offered some to Eve, but she declined, saying she couldn’t possibly eat right now with the undead fight going on in front of them.

Steven wasn’t bothered in the slightest as he dug in. Pulling out the water stone to get a drink, he asked her how much water it held. She gave him some absurd answer to do with mana and some other stuff that he didn’t understand, while never taking her eyes off the fight. From what he understood, he shouldn’t have to worry about it as long as he wasn’t just pouring it out to fill up a pond or something. After he was done eating, there was only a hand full on both sides and the skeletons were somehow winning, so Steven went over and dropped fifteen more zombies while in stealth and came back down to sit with Eve. He knew he should probably start collecting the skeletons as they were worth a good bit more essence than the zombies, but right now, he just wanted to look cool in front of Eve. And the Zombies could actually kill the skeletons, however, it took several of them to take down just one. Part of him winced at losing all that essence. But the other part wanted to prove he was capable when he was smoking.

At some point, Steven asked Eve about the durability of weapons. She said once they hit zero, the weapon would just shatter and even cause damage to the user if they were holding it. Steven just took in this information. This world was strange.

Once only two skeletons remained fighting, Steven crept over and sent them to inventory while also collecting the weapons they dropped, which was not very often. He also gather’d any zombies. Hopefully, the next hidden room would have a pit as well, and he could drop a good bit in there. Looking at the map, he found where the next hidden room was and they headed in that direction.

Steven would scout out the area, drop a bunch of zombies and start a huge fight, and then go in and collect what was left of them. After the fourth time of this, he was running low on zombies and didn’t have but thirty-three skeletons to even show for it.

The next batch of skeletons, Steven, just dropped enough zombies to cause a distraction and then started stealthily collecting all the skeletons from the outskirts while working his way inward till both zombies and skeletons were collected. This continued a few more times, and Steven was just starting to think it was too easy. When he noticed a skeleton much larger than the rest. It was armored from head to toe. In fact, he wasn’t exactly sure it was even a skeleton. It was leading a small company of armed skeletons. Most skeletons just stood completely still, meaning something special was going on with this bunch. He tried to get a count them but was worried about being spotted by the large armored one, from the best he could tell there were a dozen following the big skeleton as it marched.

Once he made his way back to Eve and explained the situation, he looked over the map. The map showed the skeleton’s movement, and even had a name above it. Skeletal Knight, but Steven was confused as to why he didn’t notice them before. Though it was most likely because he wasn’t looking over his map like he should. Maybe he should slow down on the smoking like Eve suggested. He just sat back and studied the map, trying to see if there were any patterns to this Skeletal Knight’s moments. He did notice the entrance to the first dungeon boss was not far off, but that really didn’t help him at the moment. Steven resigned himself to just wait and study their patterns. It’s not like he had anything better to do.

“Where did he find a map? This is ridiculous!” Sorin paced back and forth through his throne room. “It’s as if everything this damned human needs just falls into his lap. And these damned false Naga! How the FUCK did he get them to work with him?” Sorin sighed as he fell onto his throne, “those Half Naga despise humans! This doesn’t add up.”

Silviaburlaxatrix knew it was only a matter of time before Sorin found out she had betrayed him. She just hoped she made the correct choice. What was she thinking? Of course she did. She hated that damn vampire and couldn’t wait to see him put in his place. Although this Steven was far weaker than she had first realized. But he did have the Naga on his side, though she was also confused as to how but...

“Sill! Are you even listening!”

“Sorry my lord! What is it?”

“Are you even taking this threat seriously?”

“I am. It’s just he is only on the second floor and had already nearly died.”

“True,” Sorin said, his voice calming, “either way find out why these damn experimental Naga are working with him! There is one in particular that concerns me.”

“And the cost my lord?”

“I told you to stop asking that you know I will pay it. Now go!”

“It is the duty of a Wisp to…”

“I know, I know, now just get going! I need to see if i can buy off this false Naga. Or cause a rift between them. Go!”

“Yes my lord.” Silviaburlaxatrix didn’t actually have to remind him of the cost, but she knew it pissed him off, and he truly thought it was her duty so she would continue to do so. She then headed back to talk with the council. Again.