Random Portals

Steven looked around. He had really gone overboard with the webs. Black blood and body parts still stuck to the webs. He was about to ask Silvia if the Spider shard was affecting his judgment, but had another question he wanted answered first. “Hey Silvia.”

“Yes.”

“So, is there a way to bypass the resistance on this Amulet so I don’t have to take it off?”

Silvia’s light brightened just a bit. “Yes, there absolutely is. You can not smoke that stuff. You told me it helped you concentrate, but that’s clearly not the case. Ive actually been meaning to talk to you about that. This is a dungeon. It may be the weakest dungeon with a Dungeon Lord, but it’s still a dungeon with a Dungeon lord! You need to take it seriously!”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now! I’ll just deal with my mana regeneration being halved for now. Besides, I have Nev now.”

“Steven! You can’t be serious. Both our lives are…”

“I SAID I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!” Steven sighed. “I just had too much yesterday, that’s all.”

“That wasn’t yesterday. It’s still the same day! Do you see what I mean?”

“I’m done with this conversation.” Steven said, turning to the spider Queen. “Nev, back me up here.”

Nevateb’s eyes went from the Wisp, then back to Steven before she spoke. “I serve Master Odling, and I see nothing wrong.”

“Oh, is see what you’re doing!” Silvia narrowed her eyes at the spider Queen.

“Silvia, can it! I’m not in the mood. We can talk about this later.”

“I’m trying to keep you alive! But, whatever,” Silvia’s light flickered wildly, “you know what? I’m done with this!” Silvia flew directly at Steven at full speed.

Nev immediately went on guard, but was too slow to react, soon as Silvia came in contact with Steven she vanished.

“Master. What just happen? Where did she go?”

Steven rolled his eyes. “She just went into my inventory and is just being dramatic. I really have no idea what has come over her.” Steven then pulled the water pipe out of his inventory. Taking off his Amulet he took a couple hits. He then put the amulet back on. “Damit!” Steven was contemplating just leaving the amulet off. But the armor was too good and halving his mana regeneration could get him killed, so he couldn’t switch between them all the time. He supposed the Wisp had a point. Steven decided to leave the spider Amulet on. He would figure this mess out when they were settled on the next floor. He felt kinda bad at yelling at the wisp. From what she said, her last master yelled at her a lot. Steven shook his head to clear it. He needed to concentrate.

“Do you know where the hidden room is on this floor?”

“I’m sorry Master, I do not. Though I can send drones out to start looking.”

“No, that’s fine. Those paths are nearly impossible to find.” Steven nearly pulled Silvia from his inventory, but decided he didn’t want to ask her for help right now. As that was probably what she was waiting for. “We will just skip this floor’s treasure for now.”

Nevateb led Steven into the boss room of the fourth floor. Now that he thought about it, this was his first time going through an actual boss room to reach the next floor. The Boss room looked the same as the second floor boss room when he encountered the adventures. It was basically a large cave room with some sort of stone tiled floor. On the other side, he saw the blue glowing door to the next floor. He should probably level up before he went to the next floor. The bosses of this floor each brought just a bit over a thousand essence which he supposed was only a single level at this point, but every bit helped. Curious how much essence he had, he focused on the counter.

5,367

This was not what Steven wanted to see. He assumed he would be able to reach level twenty like Silvia recommended, but seems gaining less essence from the kills was really adding up. When Silvia came out, he would be having a discussion with her about this. He had specifically asked if he needed to have Nev wait outside. Steven took a deep breath and sighed.

“Is everything okay, Master Odling?”

“Yea, it’s fine. I just don’t have enough essence to reach level twenty like I had planned.”

“Do you want me to go find some more dungeon monsters? i’m sure there are some the drones missed.”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t need much. It won’t take long when we get to the fifth floor.”

“It is incredible that you can see exactly how much essence you need without a seeing stone.”

“It is handy.” Steven said absently as he looked over his stat page.

Deciding now was as good as time as any, he leveled up to nineteen and placed his single attribute point into spirit.

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

Level- 19

Available Attribute ~0

Essence- 2,049

Essence required for next level 3,895

HP ~ 133

Stamina ~ 56

Mana ~ 347

Poise ~ 0 +35

Vitality ~ 10

Endurance ~ 7

Strength ~ 11

Dexterity ~ 14

Resistance ~ 10 +50

Spirit ~ 21

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.

His stats were looking pretty good. He was curious how the extra thirty-five poise would affect him, but hadn’t been in a situation to see what it even did.

He would also soon be able to get another shard and boost his stats a bit more, but more importantly, get a new ability! Though the boost to stats would be nice since he still had that Blighted staff he wanted to use, but was lacking the mana.

“Master Odling, are you ready?”

“Oh, yeah. Let’s go,” Steven said as he started walking across the room. “Silvia said the next floor was a mushroom forest, but she didn’t mention what the dungeon monsters were.”

“The fifth floor is a beautiful floor. You shouldn’t even need those dark vision potions. There are many glowing plants. As for the dungeon monsters, well, they are adolescent Wisps. They aren’t really that dangerous, but if enough of them gather together, then they can cause a lot of light damage. Enough to even take me out, if they all came at once, but the little creatures never work together, so it won’t be an issue.”

“Adolescent Wisps? Is that similar to Silvia?”

“Silvia is not an Adolescent, she is a true Wisp meaning she is quite rare and unique. I’m really not the best one to explain the difference. The only thing I really know about adolescent Wisps is they normally stay at that stage. On rare occasions, a true wisp may rise up among them. Although that Wisp is normally shunned and has a hard time fitting in Wisp society, or at least that’s what my grandmother told me, she had a Wisp as a friend when she was young.”

“Okay, thanks. And ill have to ask Silvia about it later. I’m also a bit confused what Wisps are doing in an undead dungeon.” Steven stepped up next the glowing door.

“That would be another question best suited for Silvia, as I am unsure, Master.”

“Well, fifth floor, here we come.” Placing his hand on the door, he received a prompt.

Would you like to enter the 5th floor Yes/No?

(Note: as you are a Domain holder, you will not be able to access previous floors upon entering the 5th.)

Steven only hesitated for a moment before he selected yes and was sucked into the portal door.

The first thing he noticed was lots of bright blurry spots. Nev was right when she said it was bright. He had to cover his eyes and look away. It didn’t make any senses he had seen lights when using the dark vision potion before and it wasn’t nearly this blinding. Glancing up at the dark vision counter, he saw he had just a bit under an hour left.

“Master, are you okay?”

“Yea, it’s just the dark vision is acting up with all the lights.”

“Those are enemy Wisps, but don’t worry, I will take care of them.”

Steven was completely relying on the Spider Queen here. He couldn’t see a thing. He would have to wait for the timer to run out on the dark vision before he could even see properly to face the Wisps, though he was unsure if he could fight them if they were young versions of Silvia he really needed to talk to her.

“What!” Nev said. “What are you doing here?”

“Steven, hurry bac…” Silvia shouted into his mind before everything went completely silent. Steven’s eyes shot open, but there was nothing, not even the glimmer of light anywhere.

“Hello? Silvia! What happened?”

“Don’t bother, you are in my world now.” A deep voice echoed out through the darkness.

Steven looked in every direction but couldn’t make out anything. Absolutely everything was black. If it wasn’t for the timer and essence counter, he would think he went blind.

“Please let me introduce myself. I am Necros the unseen. I do apologies for this inconvenience, but you are my mark. Why they hired me in to take out a level nineteen is baffling. But a mark is a mark, I suppose.”

The next moment, Steven felt his shard ability activate and heard something clatter to the ground. His eyes were wide as he tried to find his attacker in this void. He pulled his lightning spear out and began jabbing it and swinging it around, but only hit the air.

“Oh, my! How interesting! It seems you have somehow disarmed me.” The voice seemed to be more amused than worried, which only caused Steven to freak out all the more.

“Thats also quite the interesting spear you have there.”

Steven was completely blind. His heart was beating out of his chest. Was he fixing to die?

“Silvia! I’m sorry, okay. Please help!”

Steven heard a sigh, but it wasn’t from the Wisp.

“If you are referring to the spider Queen she can’t help you here. Lucky for me, I would not want to tangle with that monster. Though I am curious how you managed to get such a monster to obey you. If you would be willing to share, I will make this as painless as possible.”

Steven stabbed his spear in the area he thought the voice came from, but hit nothing. He even tried to stab the ground, hoping it would cause the spear to spark even for a second, but that to was met with nothing. Before Steven had time to process that, his ability triggered, and he heard his attacker curse. But he paid it no mind as he look at his mana pool.

147 of 347

His ability would only trigger once more, then he would be dead. At least his mana was full when he entered.

“I must say you are the hardest level nineteen I have ever killed. I’m not exactly sure how you are able to disarm me so causally. You never even flinched. Meaning it must be a shard ability, and if that’s the case it will be using resources and you can’t keep this up for long.”

For some reason, this guy wanted to talk. Maybe if Steven could buy some time, Nev could get to him.

“May I ask who sent you?” Steven asked, trying to keep his voice from trembling.

“Sorry, but I can’t answer that. But you seem to be a decent person, so I have a question for you.”

Steven was trembling at this point. He had never felt so helpless. “Okay, ask away.” Steven said as he pulled out a mana potion, only for it to immediately shatter.

“No no. None of that now, let’s not prolong this longer than it needs to be. Now for my question. What is the thing you wanted most in your life but could never obtain?”

What the hell, what sort of question was that? Steven was about to tell the guy to go fuck himself when he hesitantly spoke. “A-all I ever wanted was a house of my own in the woods where no one would bother me.” Steven was surprised at his answer. What the hell was going on and why did he answer that question? More importantly, was that true…

“Really. Something so simple it’s a shame that you are my target. Just know that your dream will live on with me. You were a worthy foe.”

The next moment, Steven felt a blade go into his gut, and the assassin whispering in his ear. “I figured out your secret. Your shard keeps you from taking lethal attacks. But if one simply Whaa..”

Steven’s body started transforming into his spider form. He had completely forgotten about that form. It would instantly trigger if he went below twenty-five percent health.

“W-What the hell are you?” The assassin stammered.

Steven screamed in outrage, allowing his spider instincts to take over. Although all he did was lash out at the air while going berserk. He still couldn’t see anything.

“I’m starting to see why they sent me. You are quite difficult to kill indeed.” The assassin said.

A flash of light and Steven’s spider form was cut clean into. He then transformed back into his human form. A red light began flashing, and he saw only a sliver of his health remained. “I guess this is it!” Steven muttered.

“Wow. Still alive huh. That was even my most powerful attack, but I can see your health bar now. It is just holding on at a sliver. It is over now. I have to admit, I did not expect you to turn into a massive spider when I stabbed you. Though I shouldn’t have been surprised. Your body did cover itself in carapace each time I attacked. You may have survived against a less skilled assassin.”

“Can I- I see my killer?” Steven muttered.

“I don’t like to think of myself as a killer, but more of a contractor. But yes, I’ll allow it as your last request.”

All Steven could do was try to buy time and hope Nevateb would come.

Pale white arms were the first thing he noticed, followed by a figure dressed in black holding what he assumed was a scimitar. Everything else but the figure was black, or nothingness may be a better word. Even the ground, it was as if it didn’t exist. But more importantly, the assassin’s face.

“Vampire?” Steven mumbled out, “Are you Sorin?”

“Absolutely not! I am an Elite Draugr assassin. The strongest of the undead races.”

“U-undead?” Steven mumbled.

“Yes, now it is time.” Steven watched as the blade came down towards him. He was too weak to move. He almost chuckled when his mana dropped yet again and the assassin’s blade fell to the floor behind him.

“With the state you are in, I would assume that was the last time that ability can trigger. I must ask what is the name of that ability. If I ever come across something similar, I would like to learn how to counter it.”

“Angeknnfnerj.” Steven mumbled.

He just needed to get the undead Draugr close enough in a last ditch effort to get out of this situation.

“What was that?” The assassin moved closer.

Steven mumbled under his breath again as the assassin knelt down.

“Angelic dea..” Steven used all his reaming strength as he spoke just to touch the Draugr’s pale arm.

Instantly the Draugr was sent to his inventory. At the same time, a sharp pain shot through his head. He was used to that pain, it was mana fatigue.

Suddenly Steven then got the sensation of falling but paid it no mind as his vision began tunneling. Silvia popping out of his inventory was the last thing he remembered before blacking out.

“Master!” Nevateb ran to Steven’s side. Pulling out a healing potion from the pouch at her waist, she poured some on his stomach wound and the rest down his throat. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his health bar slowly ticking up.

“Where did Necros go?” Nev asked, trying to look in every direction.

“Steven’s inventory,” Silvia said. “Did you know that assassin?”

Nevateb laughed and then laughed some more before she was able to gather herself. “That was too close. I can’t believe the young Master survived! And yes, I know of him we have crossed paths. He is an extremely skilled assassin, although he likes to talk and has some odd quirks. It’s really an evolved shard ability that truly makes him deadly. I’m not sure if I could survive if he caught me in that void trap.”

Silvia’s light was flickering wildly. “It wouldn’t let me communicate or come out of Steven’s inventory. I’m surprised it let him put something in his inventory, we were lucky it was an undead assassin!”

“I’m not sure the name of the shard, but it is a very powerful one. It’s the reason for his name. I’m surprised they sent someone so highly ranked. I still can’t believe it. Master was able to catch one of the most skilled assassins in the guild before he even reached level twenty.”

“Sorin likely spent a fortune and pulled many strings to get the guild to send an assassin so highly skilled. Not to mention getting him sent directly to the dungeon.” Silvia said.

The pair stared at Steven.

“What do we do now?” Nevateb asked.

“Just wait for him to wake up. I’ll go have a chat with the young Wisps.”