Random Portals

Steven woke up with a pounding headache surrounded by drones. Although these drones were naked. The first thing Steven noticed was their missing member. It was completely smooth, which confused him to no end. It’s not that he wanted to look there, it’s just they were all standing around him and he was on the ground looking up.

“My King,” one of the drones said, as he knelt down next to him, “inform the Queen that he is awake.” He said to another drone before turning back to Steven.

Another drone took off in a sprint. That’s when Steven seen Nev speaking with Sirus. Before he even had a chance to wonder when Sirus got here, a massive explosion went off, causing Steven to jump to his feet. As soon as he did, he clutched at his head. “Dam I need more mana!” Steven mumbled.

“My King, do you want me to get you a mana potion?”

“Uh, yeah, that would be great! I’ll take all the potions you can get.”

He didn’t expect the drone to actually find any potions, but watched in confusion as he dug around in a pile of clothes, weapons, and equipment. Pulling out several potions. The drone quickly brought them over to Steven. He placed them all in his inventory, not paying any attention to them, aside from the single mana potion that he downed. He was about to ask what was going on when another explosion went off, causing shards of something to sling everywhere.

Then Nev was next to him.

“Master,” Nev said as she changed to her human form and hugged him, “I was so worried.”

Steven awkwardly hugged her back while Sirus looked at him with wide eyes.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but we should do something about the knights.” Sirus said.

Nev turned with a furious expression.

“Your right. Shall we charge in together? My mana is full now.” Steven asked.

“Together?” Sirus asked.

“Are you with us?” Steven asked.

“Uh, is it not a suicided run?” Sirus asked.

Steven turned to Nev. “How many knights remain?”

“All of them are bound that we were fighting. The only remaining ones on this floor are the Mage Knight and Shield Knight.”

“We can do this,” Steven turned to a wide eyed Sirus, “focus on knocking off any piece of their armor, and focus completely on the Knights. I’m not worried about the minions. Can you do this?”

“Knock off a piece of their armor, but why?” Sirus asked.

“There is no time for foolish questions. Do as my Master says or i’ll…”

“Nev!”

The spider Queen lowered her head while Sirus looked on at the exchange in disbelief. “Yes, I’ll do my best to break the armor. Does it matter what armor?”

Another explosion had bone shards blast towards them and the spider Queen moved in front of Steven. A few bone shards stuck into her back, but she paid it no mind.

“Are you okay?” Steven asked.

“I’m fine, let’s go,” Nev said. “I’m tired of the pesky knights!” Nev changed back to her spider form as Sirus began charging up his heavy attack.

“Let’s do this,” Steven said as he changed into his spider form.

Steven seen Sirus gasp and stubbled back from the second massive spider.

“I need your help with this Sirus.” Steven mentally said as he charged in towards the Knights.

Steven followed directly behind the Queen as spells flew at them. The Queen tanked most of the spells, till a massive fireball flew towards them.

“Master, move to the celling.”

Steven Immediately shot a web to the dungeon ceiling, and the next moment he was continuing his charge on the ceiling behind the Queen.

Sirus was having a hard time wrapping his head around Steven being a giant spider.

“Did the Queen do something to him? No, that doesn’t seem right. Why would the Queen serve her own creation?” He shook his head. He had to concentrate. His heavy bone spear took three quarters of his mana and a lot of concentration. It should be enough to break a single piece of armor, but to be on the safe side, he condensed his mana as tightly as he could. He just hoped it was worth it. He was nearly ready to release his charged up attack at the Shield knight, he just needed to hold a bit longer to have it fully charged.

He was having a hard time trying to over look Steven being a spider, he was in shock and had so many questions. Had Steven been a spider this whole time? If he was a spider, it made more sense why the Queen was calling him Master.

Sirus watched as the Queen and Steven both moved to the ceiling and continued to charge. They had drawn all the aggro and the Shield Knight now had its back to him. He only needed a few more seconds now.

Sirus nearly lost concentration after Steven dropped from the ceiling and the shield and mage minions just started vanishing. It didn’t make any since he just touched them and they vanished. He shook head and finished focusing on his attack. It was time.

His bone spear, which was his most impactful shard ability, flew directly into the back of the Shield Knight. His eyes widened as a yellow glowing shield appeared from thin air and his bone spear slammed into it, fortunately his Shard ability shattered the barrier and slammed into the knight throwing the Knight into the dungeon wall and completely shattering the back of the Shield Knight’s chest piece. Although Sirus doubted he actually did much damage to the knight its self. But he had completed his task. He was lucky the barrier didn’t cause him to miss his target completely. He had been aiming for the arm piece, not the chest piece, but it had worked out.

Sirus pulled out his Katana, his mana was low, and he had already used one-to-many mana potions today. He went to charge in, but froze as Steven, in spider form, simply touched the Shield Knight before it had a chance to stand and it vanished. He blinked a few times in confusion, but quickly gathered himself and charged in. By the time Sirus made it and cut down one of the mage minions, the fight was over, and Steven was back in human form.

“Good work on the Shield Knight Sirus.” Steven said as he walked towards him.

“Uh, thank you.”

“What do you think about my new shard ability? At first I didn’t like the idea of becoming a giant spider, but I think it’s growing on me, it definitely has its perks.”

Sirus eyes bulged. “You mean to tell me that is a Shard ability?”

“What about me, Master? Did I do a good job?”

“Of course you did Nev, there is no way we could have managed without you.”

Sirus watched in disbelief as the spider Queen shivered in delight at Steven’s praise.

What was going on? The Queen is acting like a young hatchling in love. Wait, that must be it. The Queen had fallen for Steven, no that couldn’t be it. That made no sense. Sirus had to admit the Spider Queen was quite attractive in her human form, but then he remembered how moments ago she was eating his warriors. And he shook his head. Did she have some sort of ability to make males find her attractive?

“Hey Sirus, are you okay?” Steven asked.

Sirus shook his head. “Yeah, sorry. Mana fatigue.”

“Tell me about it. I can’t seem to get enough mana,” Steven said. “Hey, I hate to ask this but you wouldn’t happen to have any food, would you? I’m starving.”

Sirus paled. Did the young princess send him to this place to have his clan become spider food? He took a step back. At any moment, the two beings in front of him could turn into monstrous spiders and eat him and his entire clan.

“Eve used to bring me this baked fish and some sort of salad. I’ve really been dreaming about that lately, but I’ll take whatever you got!” Steven said.

“Wait! You want baked fish??” Sirus asked, with wide eyes.

“Well, at this point, I could eat a horse, but if you have any food, I would greatly appreciate it. It’s been a couple of days since I’ve had a complete meal.”

“Horse? I’m not sure what that is,” Sirus seen the way spider Queen was glaring at him, “well I don’t have any backed fish on me, but I’m sure Eve does, she is actually the one in charge of the food, well her and Goskia. I do have this however.” Sirus pulled out some dried rations and handed it to Steven, who took it and began eating it like a starved animal. After he devoured a few of the strips of dried meat and drank some water from a stone, he turned to the Queen.

“Nev want some.”

“No, Master, I am not hungry at the moment.” The Queen said as Steven began eating the rest of the dried meat.

The Queen narrowed her eyes at Sirus, and he gulped slightly. He got the sense that if he said anything about the Queen eating his dead warriors, he would be next. Just then, his warriors ran over.

“Captain, are you okay?”

“Yes, I am fine. How are you holding up?” Sirus asked.

“Not too bad now. The drones gave us health potions. Though we are both out of mana, and can’t have any potions for the rest of the day.”

“Come, let Steven eat and speak to the Queen.” Sirus said as he led his two remaining warriors to the other side of the tunnel.

“Listen up, don’t mention anything about the Queen trying to eat you.” Sirus said in a low voice.

“Eat us?” One of the warriors asked in confusion.

“The drones already have explained they were trying to keep us from getting caught up in a fight with other knights.”

“Thats why they brought us back. We were just so frighted we were panicking.” The second warrior explained.

Sirus opened his mouth to say something when he saw dozens of lights appearing in the corner of his vision. He turned to see what was going on and seen dozens of the fifth floor wisps were pouring from Steven’s chest.

His heart sank as his eyes widened. “run!” his two warriors didn’t need to be told twice as they sprinted back towards the entrance. Sirus was just about to do the same, but paused as he noticed that the Queen nor Steven made a move. If anything, the Queen looked annoyed.

Then a large pink Wisp with a green hue appeared.

“Sorry it took so long.”

Sirus heard a female voice in his mind, plain as day.

“It was hard to convince the little guys to come out, but I got two hundred and twenty-three to come out and help.” The voice sounded proud.

All the wisps were lined up behind the larger one in front of Steven, as if they were waiting for orders. It took Sirus a moment to realize that was exactly what they were doing. He couldn’t hear what Steven said, but the larger Wisp started to float around and Sirus got a strong sense the Wisp was looking at him, but that very well could have been his imagination.

“Seems I was too late then. Alright back in you go. No, stop your complaining you were the ones that took so long, you should had came out when I asked. Next time, be ready.”

Sirus didn’t think anything would surprise him more than Steven turning into a massive spider. But watching a couple hundred of Wisps fly into Steven’s chest and vanish was causing the normally stoic Naga’s brain to spasm. The next moment, Steven fell to one knee and clutched his head as the Wisps stopped.

“Oh, yeah, that’s my fault. I didn’t think about it draining your mana when they went back in.”

Sirus couldn’t tell what the spider Queen was saying, but she was obviously pissed. He was thinking about walking over, but after seeing the Queen getting angry, he decided against it.

The next moment, the large Wisp was floating in front of him.

“I’m mostly just using this as an excuse to get away from that annoying arachnid,” the Wisp said. “I’ve heard all about you, Sirus. My name is Silviaburlaxatrix. Nice to meet you.”

“Hello miss Silviaburlaxatrix, I am honored to meet such a legendary being. I am Sirus of the Elder clan.” Sirus said while bowing his head.

“Oh! Aren’t you a charmer! I like this one.” the next moment, the Wisp was back in front of Steven. “can we keep him? You still have two slots available. He is just fifteen levels away from reaching seventy.”

Sirus just blinked in confusion. “Keep me?”

Sirus seen Steven saying something to the Wisp before it appeared before him again.

“Steven says we can keep you if you agree and you can be his servant like Nevateb.”

“Servant? To Steven? Wait, what?”

Sirus didn’t get time to even begin to understand before his warriors came running back. “Captain.”

Both warriors eyed the Wisps warily, but didn’t stop as they approached Sirus.

“Captain,” one of the warriors said between breaths, “we have bad news.”

“It’s the clan!” the other warrior said. “They just came to this floor, and are being pursued by a battalion of elves and humans.”

Sirus’s eyes bulged. “What! They followed us here?” Sirus bolted off towards the entrance.

Silviaburlaxatrix sighed. It was always something with Sorin. She wondered how he managed this.

She flew towards Steven. This was something she needed to inform him of. It could be problematic, though she felt that between Steven and that annoying over powered arachnid, the odds would be in their favor. Steven had really gone above and beyond her expectations for his level, especially now that he had that spider form. Steven had no idea how powerful that ability was. But he needed to be stronger if they planned to survive after they got out of this dungeon. His inventory ability would only get him so far. But he would soon find out when dealing with these soldiers.

Silvia casually flew over to Steven, “So there are around three hundred human and elf soldiers headed our way, also the entire remaining half Naga clan is here, including miss Evesakia.”

“Wait what?”

Silvia flew over to the reaming wisp. “let’s see, there are still a one hundred and twelve of you. Are you lot ready for a battle?”

Silvia knew by the way their lights were flickering, they were excited for a battle. Though she couldn’t blame them, it’s not like they could die. They will just continually respawn at Steven’s Domain. Which is something she needed to ask Steven about. At first, she had thought it was his inventory, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Hey! You can’t just say something like that and then fly away!” Steven shouted.

“Ugh, so needy. I told you absolutely everything I know about the situation. If you want to know now more then go ask the Naga.”

Silvia directed her wisps down the tunnel. She would finally be able to get some essence for herself. Now that she had soul bounded all the little wisps, it would now be as if she was the one doing the attacking. She looked down at Steven as he took off towards the entrance.

“Soldiers, and hundreds of them?” Steven asked as he jogged towards the direction Sirus went. “Do you have any idea what she is talking about?”

“I am sorry Master, this is the first I’ve heard of this, I was aware the humans and elves were trying to kill and capture all the half Naga but, they were not supposed to set foot in my territory meaning my youngest is conspiring against me. However, this may be just what we needed. They will have food and potions and supplies, so we can take our time on the last few floors.”

“Well, look at you being optimistic, but are you sure we can handle that many soldiers? My inventory ability won’t work on them.” Steven was surprised at how easy it was to talk while jogging at this speed. He didn’t think even the most fit people on earth could do it. His attributes were really coming along.

“Master with all do respect, you are thinking to simply, just because you can’t send them into your inventory doesn’t mean you can’t use it, drop one of the knights you gathered, that in its self would cause chaos in there ranks. It cost you noting but a second of your time and a single mana, and your spider form is more than capable of dealing with regular old soldiers, its Knights, and the Arc Mages we need to be careful of, and I doubt there is a single Knight or Arc mage with them. The soldiers will all be low leveled with only one shard if they even have that. They will also not be expecting a spider King and Queen to be attacking them while they chase the Half Naga.”

“Oh, well, you make it sound easy and yea, I could drop some dungeon monsters, but all the knights are bound, though the abominations aren’t.”

It didn’t take Steven and Nev long to reach the entrance where the Half Naga were still coming in. He immediately ran over towards Sirus and Elder Vasuki, but was stopped by some Elder guards.

“How dare you raise a weapon at my Master.” Nev said as she transformed into spider form.

The guards dropped their weapons and stepped backwards.

“Nev! Stop it! Change back now you’re making a scene.”

Everyone was now staring at them now. Most had run to the far dungeon wall. Except for Elder Vasuki and his group, Sirus stood in the front blade out.

“Sorry Master Odling.” Nev said as she change back to her human form.

“I’m sorry about that guys. She can be a bit overprotective at times.” Seven said.

Elder Vasuki stepped forward, “I see you have tamed the Beast,” the old Naga walked in a circle around the spider Queen, then he put his hand on her chin and moved it every which way as if he was inspecting her. “The spider is quite the looker in her human form. I’m proud of you Shirem, you make this old Naga proud.”

“Master?” Nev said, snarling at the old Naga.

“Don’t you dare hurt Elder Vasuki, and it would probably be best if you didn’t speak until I tell you otherwise.” Steven didn’t like ordering the Spider Queen around like this, but Silvia said she had to obey him, but still, he wished this old Naga wouldn’t provoke her.

“Wow, you have such control over her.” Elder Vasuki said with a wide smile, “what about her drones? Do you control those as well?”

“Elder Vasuki,” Sirus said, “I don’t believe now is the time for this. We need to prepare for the incoming attack.”

“Yes, yes, you are right,” Elder Vasuki said. “Do begin Captain, I leave this in your capable hands.”

Sirus immediately began giving out orders.

“Steven!”

Hearing his name he turned to see Eve running towards him.