Random Portals

Steven woke up the next morning to a giant sleeping spider using the foot of his bed as a pillow. It was only slightly terrifying looking at her now. He left the bed, careful to not wake Nev up. He was really impressed by how hard she had worked yesterday, never complaining once. If this continues, he will be out of this godforsaken dungeon in no time.

Silvia flew over and telling him she had to stop the arachnid from crawling into bed with him several times. Steven just rolled his eyes and walked away from their makeshift camp.

He began pulling out ghouls and killing them with his spear. After killing a few, he attempted to locate the durability of the weapon but couldn’t find it. Silvia also looked, but was confused when she didn’t see it either, she told him that Shard forged items self repaired so maybe this weapon did something similar but they wouldn’t know for sure till they got out of this dungeon and took to the dwarves to get it upgraded.

At some point, Nevateb woke up and immediately got back to work. But not before she kissed Steven on the cheek. Steven didn’t mind as long as she was in human form, although it annoyed Silvia to no end. He just told the wisp if the spider Queen was going to work for him so hard, he would deal with her quirks.

He was gaining less essence since Nev was binding them. But when Steven asked the wisp if he needed to have the Queen wait outside the dungeon, she told him it wasn’t really worth it as the monsters weren’t worth much essence.

When Nev brought the fourth floor boss, he would have her wait outside so he could kill the boss along with any drones that helped. He wanted to gain all the essence he could, but Silvia was right it would just slow down the progress for little gain. She could wait outside when the dungeon monsters brought more essence. He was sure the Queen would be happy to wait to do so. After all, the sooner he reached level seventy, the sooner she could start leveling again. And the sooner she could eat him...

For the rest of the day, Steven used his spear to kill undead. The spear was starting to feel less awkward in his hands now, but he still didn’t know how to use it properly in a fight. Although right now all he had to do was pull out a dungeon monster, then stab it. He even had enough time to stab with both hands.

Eventually Nev came back dragging the fourth floor boss. The drones were also dragging along many other lesser dungeon creatures in the form of zombies, skeletons, and ghouls.

The fourth floor boss its self was a massive monstrosity with three heads, one of a skeleton, zombie and ghoul. Or so Steven had thought at first. The Queen explained that there were actually three bosses they were just all warped up in her web together. That concerned Steven, but Nevateb wasn’t concerned in the slightest and said she would be back later. She was going to go outside and get something to eat and make more drones. Silvia and Steven then began trying to figure out the best way to deal with the boss, trio. He was concerned the lightning would tear the webs up eventually and he would have to deal with three bosses at once, though he could just send them to inventory.

Since Steven could still use his inventory while in spider form, he decided he would kill them by crushing, biting. If he had to, he could even web them up. Then Steven got a crazy idea. He basically had unlimited web while in his spider King form. He could just trap the entire area so the bosses couldn’t do anything without becoming stuck in webs and just kill them like a true spider.

That thought made Steven question himself. Was the spider form affecting his mind? There were various different ways to deal with the bosses, but for some reason this one appealed to him the most. The easiest way would be to send them to inventory and pull them out one at a time. But Steven gave into his spider urges as he began trapping the area, besides he needed the practice in his spider form, at least that’s what told himself.

Nevateb finished eating a few male humans. She had to do this if she planned to keep the drones coming. There were millions of drones spread out in her cities, but only a fraction of them were hers. Most were her daughters and although they obeyed her, if she ordered it, they could turn on her at the worst possible moment. Which is exactly how she took the throne from her mother, and why she needed to keep a large number of drones around. Most of her drones where scattered throughout the swamp lands keeping an eye on things for her.

There could only be one Queen after all, and she had killed several of her daughters that attempted to take her position over the years. It was foolish to try, as she was at max level. Although she feared her strongest daughters coming after her together. She had one daughter that had just reached sixty and there were a few more at fifty. If they were to join together, she didn’t think she could take them.

She would rather not kill her daughters. Which is why she was so adamant about becoming stronger. Her great grandmother had foretold a human from another world would one day come to these lands and he would be a Spider King. And together they would rule this world. Nevateb had her doubts, and she didn’t need males for anything but creating new drones. But when that Domain holder she was trying to manipulate actually gained the Spider King ability, she nearly freaked out.

It was such a glorious form! She had not expected his form to be so handsome. His carapace was so rigged, she could just imagine rubbing her hands over his rough carapace. And he was so big! Nevateb had been to the true spider clans, and she was larger than their Queens. In fact, she believed she was the largest spider on this planet. And his form was nearly the same size as her, and when he evolved the shard, the form would no doubt grow even beyond her size. The thought of her Master being larger than her made her…

“Mother! Are you listing?”

Nevateb turned towards one of her younger daughters. A small thing with her human half still in an egg sack. “What is it, child? I was just leaving to go back into the dungeon.”

Girls were much harder to raise than boys. She could tell anyone of her male children to slit their own throat and they wouldn’t hesitate. But girls! Too bad the males were all weak, well, aside from a few select drones, but they still had limits.

“Ive been trying to tell you that Kalicteb is waiting for you.”

Nevateb narrowed her eyes. “I see. Go tell your sister I’ll be down in a moment.”

One would think a spider race would live in a nest full of webs, but the Spider-kin preferred to not have their homes filled with webs. But you wouldn’t find any webs in a Spider-kin city. There were crews of drones that went around cleaning webs from the Queen and princess. If Steven seen the city, he would recognize it as a newer version of the half Naga village. In fact the old spider Queen gave the Half Naga village to them in exchange for a consistent supply of potions, which were sold to the humans.

Nevateb sighed before shooting a web from her main nest and spun down to the guest hall below.

“Hello Kalicteb.”

“Hello Mother.”

“I must congratulate you for reaching level sixty!” Nevateb watched as her daughter’s eyes widened.

“News travels fast I see,” Kalicteb said after quickly getting her expressions under control.

“Indeed, it does. I imagine you didn’t travel all the way here for me to congratulate you. Or did you come here to try to claim the thrown?” Nevateb knew her daughter wouldn’t try, at least not while she was still below her level. Kalicteb was clever if young.

Kalicteb’s eyes widened, and she took a step back, even her drones took a step back. Just as Nevateb had expected. It was a good way to test her daughters. If the drones would have raised their weapons to defend instead of backing up, then it meant her daughter was thinking of betraying her. Though none of her daughters knew this. It was one of the many little ancestral secrets she gained when consuming her mother.

“M-mother, please know I would never!” The fearful look in her daughter’s eyes was exactly what she wanted to see. If they ever stopped fearing, then they could turn against you at any time.

“Relax and explain why you have come then, my child.”

“Its just, my sisters and I have been hearing rumors that you have a Master…” Kalicteb hesitantly said.

There it is. She knew exactly why her daughter was here; she was expecting it. “Yes, I have found a worthy Master. I will serve him till I break past my level cap, then I will eat him.” Nevateb said.

“A Domain holder here! It’s not the vampire, is it?”

“No, I would rather be killed than serve that bastard, actually the Master I serve is challenging the vampire’s Domain as we speak.” Nevateb smirked, knowing her daughter was trying to figure out who it was.

A long moment passed before Kalicteb spoke. “Mother, may I ask, who is this Domain holder?”

“You may. His name is Steven Odling.”

Kalicteb's eyes narrowed in confusion. “Mother, I know all seven of the Domain holders by name. And that is not one of them.”

The spider Queen smiled wickedly before she spoke. She knew her daughter was already considering becoming a servant of a Domain holder even though she hadn’t hit max level. Out of all her daughters, this one was the one to watch out for. She was cunning.

“He is from another planet, and has been blessed by Chaos.”

Kalicteb gasped. “C-chaos! But mother that’s...”

“The spider King legend, I know.”

“I know where I heard it from.” Silvia said excitedly.

Steven ripped the head off the last boss with his mandibles before turning back to his human form. “Ugh, so much blood.”

The scene looked like something from a horror film. Massive body parts and black blood were slung everywhere. Stevens Spider King form was good at making sticky webs. Now that he was looking around, he realized he may have gone a little overboard with the webs. He could no longer even see the walls or floor from all the webbing. Steven was lucky the webs didn’t stick to him in human form, although he had to take off his shoes.

“Maybe not the floor next time.” Steven’s trap had worked flawlessly. All three bosses got stuck in his webbing. The more they struggled, the more entangled they got in the webbing and the sticker it became. He had no idea how or why, but that’s how it worked, and he wasn’t about to complain. His webbing also worked great with lightning. When he attacked one monster, all the others that were trapped in the webbing also took lightning damaged. But that was random and he couldn’t rely on it, so he used his Spider form to kill them, besides he needed the practice in his spider form. It was his trump card, after all. No one would ever expect him to turn into a massive spider. He just wished he could stay in the form longer.

As Steven stared out at the black blood and parts everywhere he was really starting to appreciate his Spider form. With a bit more mana he would be able to stay in the form even longer and then…

“Hey, pay attention! This is important.” Silvia said.

“Oh, sorry. What is it?’

“I remember where I heard the name Spider King before. It’s a spider legend!” Silvia said.

“Aren’t you supposed to be like a supercomputer and have all the knowledge? How did you forget? Besides, Nev already mentioned her grandmother told her stories about the Spider King.”

The Wisps light flickered. ”I’m unsure what you mean by computer, but the legend goes like this: a human blessed by Chaos will come from another world and become the Spider King. He will bring in the era of spider rule. Taking complete control of this planet and ruling with an iron carapace, the spider Queen at his back.”

“Wait what? You can’t be serious!” Steven turned, looking around for Nevateb. “Can one of you go fetch the Queen?”

“At once, my king!” One of the drones said before they ran off.

“It seems they believe you to be this Spider king.”

Steven got the sense the Wisp was smirking, but paid it no mind.

“Do you remember anything else about the legend? Nev didn’t mention it was so specific!”

Silvia hesitated before she spoke. “No, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, okay then.” Steven sighed.

“I don’t have anymore information on the Spider King. And I don’t think it wise to send me to get any more.” The Wisp said in a strangely serious tone.

Steven was a bit confused by the odd response. Where would he even send her to get information? The Queen would have all the information he would need, anyway.

“I agree. I would rather have you here with me than off trying to find information.” Steven noticed how Silvia’s light softened.

“Okay good. Now, what’s our next move?” Silvia asked, in a much better mood.

“Well, I guess we are off to the fifth floor. But first.” Steven pulled out the water pipe. It had been too long. Steven quickly realized something was wrong. He wasn’t feeling anything.

“It’s the amulet. Your resistance is too high.” Silvia said after watching Steven take multiple hits.

“Oh…” Steven then just took off the Amulet and replaced it with forsaken plunge.

“Uhhh! Thats not a good idea. You just halved your mana recovery, and weakened your self considerably!” Silvia said, light flickering wildly.

Steven immediately realized he had made a mistake. His head started tingling. Apparently soon as he took off the boost to resistance, it all hit him at once. His mind then began racing, jumping from thought to thought so quickly it was making him dizzy, so he sat down. He thought he heard the Wisp laughing, but he wasn’t sure.

He brought up his stat page at one point, trying to distract himself, but it didn’t help. He also didn’t want to accidentally use all the essence he had been saving on this floor, so he quickly closed the page.

“Master Odling,” a familiar voice echoed out, “One of my daughters wishes to meet you.”

“Oh, this is a terrible time.” Steven mumbled.

“What was that?” Nev asked as she approached.

Silvia laughed. “Great timing. But no, we aren’t accepting any more spider servants. One is all we need at the moment.”

“Mother, is that a Wisp!”

Nev glared at the Wisp.” Yes it is.”

“I thought they were just legends!” Kalicteb whispered.

“Some of them are.” Nev said absently while looking around in confusion. It looked like she just walked into a monster’s layer. Blood and body parts were slung and stuck everywhere. Blood dripped next to her from a head stuck to the webbed ceiling

“Is this the work of the Spider King?” Kalicteb asked.

Steven laid in a web hammock stoned only half paying attention to anything head spinning.

Where was his bed? Uh, it was still in the last hidden room. Steven then remembered he had drones. “Could someone bring me my bed? I need to sleep this one off.”

“Master Odling, is everything okay?”

Steven looked over at the Spider Queen. At first, he thought he saw two of them. Closing his eyes, he just lay back in the hammock. “Shush, that’s too loud. Just come here and talk softly.”

The spider Queen approached, her daughter by her side. “This is probably a bad time to meet him.” Nev whispered to her daughter.

“I can see that, but I’m already here, so I would like to talk with him.”

Nev just shrugged. “Okay, give me a moment.”

The Queen got close enough to whisper in Steven’s ear, but before she could say anything, he pulled her into the hammock with him. “I need something solid to hold on to.”

Nev didn’t even attempt to resist as Steven just held her. Though she was disappointed when Steven fell fast asleep a few moments later.

“This is ridicules, just put back on the amulet and you will be fine.” Silvia said.

“I do believe the young Spider King is asleep, Master Wisp.” Kalicteb said.

Silvia went to correct the spider Princess but thought better of it. Master Wisp had a nice ring to it. “That does seem to be the case,” Silvia said, floating closer. “So that’s your mother, is it?”

Kalicteb turned towards the wisp. “You don’t know the half of it.”

Steven woke up in a webbed hammock with the spider Queen laying on top of him, luckily she was in her human form and also fast asleep. They were both clothed, and he knew nothing happened, mostly because he wasn’t eaten alive. Steven then quickly began checking to make sure he still had all his arms and legs and other parts. Once he was sure, he breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Master, are we getting up now?”

Now that Steven was certain he wasn’t missing any parts, he laid back down. It’s not like he was in a hurry for anything. “Well, we can get a bit more sleep.” He had a beautiful woman laying on top of him to cuddle with, and his head was still pounding so a bit more rest would be good.

“Of course, Master Odling.” Nevateb said with a wide smile nuzzling into his chest.

“Hey! You two get up. It’s been hours we have levels to gain, bosses to beat and Dungeon Lords to slay!” Silvia said.

“Please keep it down. My head hurts.” Steven complained.

“Put back on the Amulet, dumb dumb!”

“Oh.” Steven started getting out of the hammock, prompting Nev to get off of him. He noticed the bed next to him and placed in his inventory.

He then swapped to the Amulet of the Armored Spider. His head began to clear at a rapid pace. Within seconds, his head stopped pounding and his mind cleared, though it didn’t help him being tired.

“I wanted to sleep more.”

“You realize your mana regeneration is now halved for the next twenty-four hours, right?” Silvia said before turning to Nevateb, “oh, and your lovely daughter left to go back the capital.”

“So soon, I was going to have her meet Master Odling.”

“Master Odling,” Silvia said, light dimming, “was too busy getting wasted and destroying his mana recovery. I think your daughter seen enough.”

Steven looked over at the Wisp. He wanted to say something, but really didn’t have the words. He did kinda mess up, but why couldn’t the Wisp be more like Nev? She was a good loyal servant, letting him sleep as long as he liked and was good at cuddles. He tried not to think about the fact she was planning on eating him. At the moment, he needed to figure out a way to bypass the cursed resistance on his Amulet.