Random Portals

Steven didn’t think about how awkward it would be to have several people just staring at him. He should have told Nev to cover their eyes with web but he didn’t want to ask now with all these people looking at him. Before long, there were over twenty soldiers hanging in front of him, and to Steven’s surprise, there were several females. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised. He had just imagined in a world full of swords and brute strength, the soldiers would be all males. Though with levels and shards, he imaged males and females were close to the same in strength.

The first person to speak was a woman with red hair. “What is going on? Are you helping us or are you against us?”

“How dare you speak to Master in such a tone?” Nev Hissed.

Steven stopped Nev before another person lost their head.

The question gave Steven an idea, and after a moment, he spoke. “I’m an adventure, I seen you lot were in some trouble so I thought I would help. This floor can be quite difficult. What brings you all in here?”

As soon as Steven said this, several of the soldiers began shouting for him to help others that were still fighting.

“Only the one who spoke to Master first has permission to speak.”

The talking abruptly stopped, the redhead also seemed to lose her will to speak as well.

Steven couldn’t blame her. Nev was terrifying. He was still adjusting to having a giant spider around, and he could even turn into a spider.

“You can speak. I don’t plan to harm you.” Steven said while looking at the redhead.

“I, umm…”

“What’s your name?” Steven asked.

“Fidah.”

Now that Steven was looking, she had pointed ears. “Wait, are you an elf?” Steven asked, a bit excitedly.

“Yes, I am a Woodland elf,” Fidah said.

“Oh! I’ve always wanted to meet a wood elf!” Steven then realized how strange he was acting, giving the circumstances, not to mention the way Nev was now looking at him.

“I could have got you one long time ago. I did not realize Master wanted one.” Nev said with narrowed eyes.

“It’s not like that Nev, it’s just there are so many stories of elves in my world and I used to dream of meeting them, along with dwarves.”

“The dwarves, I can understand they are a sturdy people and make the best of weapons and enchantments. Woodland elves are at the bottom of all elf hierarchies. Why would you want to meet one of those?”

“I would have you know,” Fidah said, “there is nothing different from high elves and woodland elves other than where we were born.”

Nev glared at the elf.

“See, Nev, there is nothing different. She can’t help where she was born.”

“My lord,” one of the older elves spoke up, “I am sorry to interrupt, but what are your intuitions with us?”

“You do not have permission to speak!” Nev said as she glared.

“Thats actually a good question. I was planning to go down and finishing the undead below.” Steven said.

Nev had them hanging in a position they couldn’t see what was happening below them. Steven felt bad for letting the rest of them die, but they didn’t need too many prisoners, and if he was going to play the part of an adventurer, about twenty was all he wanted. It’s not like he was lying, he was adventuring through this dungeon.

“Shall we go down and deal with them?”

“Yes, of course, Master.”

“Wait!” Fidah said. “What if you don’t return?”

“Then you will all die from starvation.” Nev said.

Steven rolled his eyes as Nev lowered them down. “Did you really need to scare them?”

“Master, I don’t like the way you look at the elf girl.”

“Oh, come on! Seriously?”

“You don’t plan to keep her like the half Naga pet, do you?”

“Keep her? I’m not sure what I would do with her. I don’t want slaves. And I’m not Keeping Eve. She is my friend and if she decides she doesn’t want to hang around me, then she can leave. I’m not forcing her to do anything.” Steven got the sense he shouldn’t have said that. It may have been better to just tell the spider Queen he was keeping Eve as a pet, as she seemed to accept that. He would now have to order Nev to not try and make Eve leave now.

Steven hung just above one of the abominations. The Sword Knight was just off to the left standing stoically and looked to be in bad shape but was still standing if barely, which was fine with him. It would be easier to kill later.

Steven dropped down while he changed into his spider form. It was much faster this way and wouldn’t take him no time to send the undead back to inventory.

Steven landed on one abomination, sending it to inventory immediately. The second one charged at him, only to be sent to inventory as well. The Sword knight noticed the commotion and also charged over.

“Those undead made this easy.” Steven said as he changed back into his human form. He then looked around at the carnage. Body parts slung every which way. He had done this, he knew he should be repulsed by it. But he wasn't. He felt a little bad for basically killing a few hundred people. He just needed to make sure he didn’t become the villain. As for the carnage in front of him, he wasn’t bothered in the slightest. There was no doubt in his mind this was from the spider shard.

Shaking his head, he turned to Nev.

“Hey Nev, why don’t you have the drones collect all the potions and anything else that’s useful while I go talk to Sirus.”

“Yes, Master. I would also like to get a bite to eat.”

He shivered at the thought. Eating sentient beings would be the line he would not cross. “Yea, sure, do what you need to do.”

Steven then took off at a jog towards Sirus. As he approached, he immediately noticed Silvia and several little wisps hovering around her. Silvia was next to Eve, talking. For some reason, the ball of pink and green ball of light had really taken a liking to Eve.

Sirus came out to meet Steven away from his warriors. It looked like he was only able to get about fifty to fight. Steven wasn’t too happy about Eve being put with fighters.

“We captured one as he ran. He didn’t even attempt to put up a fight and surrendered immediately.” Sirus said. “How did it go?”

“Good,” Steven said absently. “why is Eve here? She should be with the other non combats.”

“Eve is a capable fighter.” Sirus said.

“I don’t care! I want her in the back, where she will be safe.”

Sirus’s face quickly twisted to annoyance before he forcefully turned it neutral. “She insisted on being here. My niece can be quite the handful. Honestly, I assumed if we didn’t survive, then no one would survive the next floor, so I allowed it.”

Steven took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I don't mean to be so demanding. The spider Queen is starting to rub off on me. I may be spending too much time with her. But it can’t be helped.”

“About that,” Sirus said. “How is it possible she is serving you?”

“Thats a long story, but to give you the short version when you brought her to me, she basically said I would take her as my servant or die.”

“I still don’t get why she would want to,” Sirus looked to be fixing to ask another question, but Steven spoke up.

“So I captured roughly twenty of the soldiers. The rest are dead. I told the ones I captured that I was an adventure and saving them from the undead. Currently, they are hanging near the entrance, all wrapped in Nev’s webbing.”

“An adventure huh, and they believed you?” Sirus asked, “what do you plan on doing with them?”

“Well, I was thinking we still have a few floors to get through before we can get out of this hellhole so we could use them. If they want to survive they will need to help defeat this dungeon.”

“Or kill you.” Sirus said.

“If they Kill Steven,” Silvia said as she floated over, “this entire dungeon will become overflowed with undead the likes you have never seen and each and every one of you will die. I Imagine Sorin is fuming right now that yet another one of his plans failed.”

“The assassin plan almost had me. I’m still surprised I survived.” Steven said.

“Assassin?” Sirus asked.

“Another long story I have the assassin captured, so don’t worry about him.” Steven said.

“I think I’ll go talk with the prisoners.” Silvia said, as she started flying off.

“Wait! What are you going to talk about?” Steven asked.

“Going to make them believe you are an adventure, of course.” Silvia said.

“Okay then, just don’t harm Fidah or the elf with the spear.” Steven said.

Silvia’s light flickered. “I’m not that damned arachnid. I’m not going to hurt any of them.”

“Sorry.” Steven said.

“It’s fine. The spider Queen is a bad influence on you. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure not to hurt any of your new pets.”

“Steven!”

Steven turned to see Eve running towards him, and a smile slowly crept onto his face.

“Okay, listen up,” Silvia said as she flew up to the prisoners. “which one of you is Fidah?”

It was silent for a long moment before a redheaded elf spoke. “That would be me.”

“Of course it would be the attractive redheaded elf,” Silvia said. ”okay, well my bonded human has taken quite a liking to you. Along with an elf with a spear, but seeing how you are all covered in webs and none of you are holding a spear, he will have to pick you out for himself.”

“Um, excuse me, but are you a Wisp?” Fidah asked.

“Indeed, I am.”

Several gasps and murmurs broke out, but it quickly became quiet as the Spider Queen slowly pulled herself up behind the Wisp.

“And what are you doing with my prisoners?” Nev asked.

“I was just fixing to explain what was going to happen.”

“and that is?”

“I like your human form better,” Silvia said before she turned back to the webbed soldiers, “as I was fixing to explain before I was so rudely interrupted. You lot have disturbed my bonded humans dungeon delving. And in doing so, I and my rude companion here will be charging you with helping us complete the remainder of this dungeon.”

“You can’t be serious!” A soldier said.

“This is not what I signed up for!” Another soldier said.

“I’m not throwing my life away in this dungeon.”

“Yea! We barely survived the undead at the entrance. We will not be your fodder.”

“Do we get a part of the loot?” Fidah asked.

“Silence!” Nev said.

“Oh fantastic job, I’ll leave them in your capable mandibles, I mean hands,” Silvia said as she flew off. “Oh by the way, Nevateb, Steven wants the attractive red-headed elf left alive.”

Silvia watched as the Spider Queen barely held in a snarl.

“Have fun now.” Silvia said as she flew off back towards Steven. She had no doubt that every single one of the prisoners would be more than willing to corporate after that arachnid was done with them. It was unlikely they were going to believe Steven was an adventure, not with that spider around but she tired.

She saw Steven talking with Sirus and an older half Naga, so she flew right up next to Steven. She chuckled inwardly as Steven yelped at her sudden appearance.

“Dammit Silvia, I told you not to do that. I’m going to put a bell on you next time.”

“Nev is getting the prisoners ready for the next floor.”

Steven’s eyes widened. “Are you sure that’s okay?”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Silvia said. “Any way I need to talk to you about something.”

“Can’t it wait? I’m busy.”

“It’s perfectly fine. If you need to speak with the honored Wisp, we can discuss this afterwards. There is no rush anymore.” Sirus said.

“That would be wonderful,” Silvia said. “Come along, Steven. We have things to discuss before the next floor.”

Once they were mid ways back to the entrance, Steven spoke. “What’s this about?”

“What level are you now?” Silvia asked.

“Level nineteen, I haven’t leveled since the last time you seen my stats.”

“Well, it’s time I’m sure you have enough essence to get a level or two. If not, then pull some monsters out of your overpowered inventory. It’s time to reach level twenty so you can use the shard you have, you’re too weak to be going on the eighth floor. If it wasn’t for your inventory ability, there is no way you would have made it this far.”

“You have a point there.This inventory ability is really coming in handy in this dungeon.” Steven said as he pulled up his stat page.

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

Level- 19

Available Attribute ~0

Essence- 5,739

Essence required for next level 3,895

HP ~ 143

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.

“You have less essence than I thought. I was thinking you would get essence for all the soldiers you killed, but I suppose that all went to Sorin, as it’s his dungeon. Well, either way, you still need to level up and then use that shard.”

“Really? He got the essence for that?”

“Yes, it is one of the perks of being a Dungeon Lord. But don’t worry, it likely didn’t even give him a level, most the soldiers were level twenty and less, meaning they were relatively weak.”

“Wait, I’m not even level twenty yet.”

“And you are weak! Though you have a few key advantages such as your blessing and shard abilities, not to mention you have that arachnid at your beck and call. Most of the soldiers only had one shard, even the few that were past level thirty only had two. Now you need to use that shard. It may give you an edge in this dungeon.”

Steven sighed. “I really don’t want to absorb something that has Undead in its name.”

“And I don’t want you to die due to the lack of mana! Do you not realize how incredibly rare shards are? Not to mention how many times you have come close to dying.”

“Okay, okay! Let me level up.”

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

Level- 20

Available Attribute ~1

Essence- 1844

Essence required for next level 4,567

HP ~ 143

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.

“I can’t wait to be out of this dungeon, so I can smoke for a month straight!” Steven sighed, “so should I place my attribute point in vitality or spirit?”

“You should absorb your shard then decide, as you will get a boost to your attribute.”

Silvia watched as the shard appeared in Steven’s hand. She always found herself amazed at how overpowered that ability was. While there were bags of holding and similar enchantments, this was something else entirely.

“It’s not going to turn me into an undead or something, is it?”

What a silly human. Sometimes she forgot this human was not from this world. “No, it will not. Body altering shards are the rarest of all the shards and are considered legendary by most. The fact that arachnid gave you that shard is mind-boggling in its self.”

“I thought you never knew what the shard was going to do?”

“You don’t, but some are more likely to give you certain abilities. Now just absorb the shard!”

“Okay, fine! I hope its bone spear or something. I still need some form of attack.”

Silvia watched as the strange wording from the system appeared in front of Steven.

Absorb Shard of Undeath Yes/No?

Steven then looked at her as if to make sure it was really okay.

“Yes, go on, it will be fine, my life is entwined with yours. If anyone has your best interest in mind, it would be me. I need you to survive, and grow strong if for nothing else than my own survival.”

The human closed his eyes before he reopened them. The shard lit up before suddenly it started breaking down into tiny purple moats of light and shot into Steven’s chest.

“I wonder what sort of shard he will get?”

Silvia just floated there waiting for her bonded human to awake.

Silvia didn’t know why it was taking him so long to wake up. It had been a long while now she was considering calling over the arachnid so they could move him somewhere else. No sooner than she thought that his eyes shot open and he gasped and jumped to his feet.

“What the hell!” Steven looked every which way as if he was just being pursued.

“Uh, is everything okay?” Silvia asked.

Steven was breathing hard. “Yeah, I was just visited by another angel, was all. This time he took me somewhere to pick out my new familiar. Well, it was more he told me to pick a specific one.”

“New familiar? An angel”

“Yea, apparently that’s what my new shard ability is.” Steven said.

“Oh, I see. Well, familiar shards are also extremely rare.”

“Yea, maybe but I really need some sort of attack, all I have is my spider form,” Steven looked towards the dungeon ceiling, “Is it too much to ask for to have a simple fire ball or bone spear I mean come on are you trying to get me killed?”

Suddenly there was a silvery flicker of light, and a voice spoke. “Do not question Chaos? For you are but a mere mortal.”

Silvia froze. She had never felt so small, not even before the council of Wisps. This silver light was greater than anything she had ever seen. It deserved the up most respect. She didn’t even deserve to be in its presence.

“Well, if your dad would stop doing questionable things, I wouldn’t have to question him.” Steven said.

Silvia nearly fainted at his response. She went to reprimand him for speaking out of his station, but found she could not speak.

“You should hold your tongue mortal, father may hold favor towards you now, but there may be a time his favor is removed from you and when that day comes...” Suddenly a silvery, red light in the form of flames engulfed the bright silver light and it vanished. In its place stood another being.

“Mr. Odling, you should really not provoke the young. They are foolish and have been known to take actions they should not. I am sorry you are not happy with the shard ability that you have received, but do know Chaos had nothing to do with the ability that you received. All father has done was make the potential greater. The actually ability comes from your soul and not even Chaos can affect that.”

“It's nice to see you again. The last two angels have been total pricks. I would much rather deal with you, even though you that creepy stare. Anyway thanks for clarifying, I guess I have nothing but my own soul to blame for not getting a good shard ability. I still have a few more shards to go. So I’m sure my soul will give me something useful eventually.”

Silvia couldn’t believe the amount of light that was coming from this being. She had thought the other light was bright, but this one was of true divinity. Wait, how was Steven talking to this light so causally, she couldn’t even speak a single word in this lights presents. She really hoped Steven didn’t provoke this being, as there would be nothing that could keep its wrath from them. To Silvia’s surprise, the light smiled at Steven.

“It seems you are doing well here, even though you have gotten yourself trapped.” The light turned to take in the dungeon as if for the first time, then he noticed Silvia.

The lights stare was so intense Silvia barely kept consciousness, luckily he turned back towards Steven.

“It seems you are in good company,” The light said, “now it is time for me to leave, but before I do father wanted me to tell you he has a task for you once you have collected all eight of your shards. And also to thank you for taking on Jabrial as you're familiar.”

Then the light vanished. “Wait, did you say eight?” Steven asked, but didn’t receive an answer.

Silvia was frozen in shock. Did that light really just look at her and say Steven was in good company? That was the most beautiful light she had ever seen! She had her doubts about joining Steven, but all those doubts melted away. She was right where she needed to be! Silvia had to ask that light how it got so bright.