Random Portals

Kat had just finished eating some food cooked by Chen and his mother. She had been living the life of luxury lately, Chen and his mom was hesitant about coming to work for her at Steven’s house but after she gave them a large pile of gold as a sign-on bonus they quickly closed down their business and came to work for Kat. It took them some time to get used to a flying cat and a wizard, but what really caused issues was when Blank brought home a half Naga that had somehow gotten caught up in their portal. But Kat showered them with gold and they quickly got over it. Well, Chen’s mother did, and she kept Chen in line, so that’s all Kat cared about. She could have the best food at every meal. Kat didn’t think she would ever tire of this life. Part of her didn’t even want to go back. At least not yet, but she knew Blank was nearly ready now. Suddenly, Kat felt an odd sinking feeling, as if her connection with Blank was trying to be severed.

Blank jumped up from the couch, startling Shirem, who had been sitting there with him watching the scrying device. “Katarina! What’s happening?”

“I- I’m unsure. Something is happening to the Domain.” No sooner than Kat said this, both she and Blank received a notification.

Blank’s Domain has been overruled by, The Domain of Odling’s little harem. You no longer have any claim to, said Domain.

Kat could feel herself start to fade, although she didn’t feel like she was being sent back to the void but to some other place. Her eyes widened when she realized she was being sent to the village idiot.

Blank was in front of Kat. “I swear I will bring you back no matter what it takes.”

Kat smiled, “I know you will. I’m almost certain I’m being sent to that human.” Kat said as she began fading.

“I will make sure that damned human pays for taking you from me! I swear this by the god of Justice.”

Kat could hear but she couldn’t respond as she was already mostly faded. The next moment, she was in an odd place. Kat was quite old and had been to most places, but this was a place she did not know what was. There was no way out. There were also lots of odd things that made no sense, such as thousands of adolescent wisps and an undead Draugr assassin, along with several other undead. Not to mention all the odd items. Even stranger was that she couldn’t reach any of theses items or even the little Wisps for that matter even though they flew around right out of her reach looking down she also noticed she was no longer in her favorite cat form but had been forced transformed back into her original Wisp form. The only thing she knew that was powerful enough to do that was the void, but this was no void, and she was sure she hadn’t died. But what could be powerful enough to trap her?

Steven had calmed down when an odd sensation overtook him. He felt a tremendous pressure inside his storage. At first he thought it was the assassin trying to escape, but after he focused on the assassin, he could tell that he was still doing nothing. That’s when he noticed the powerful being that now resided in his inventory. Focusing on it, he seen the name. Elder Wisp, Katrina Ever Smile.

“Silvia…” Steven said, eyes wide. “We may have a problem.”

“It’s fine. The name isn’t really that important!”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. There is an Elder Wisp in my inventory…”

Silvia’s light nearly went out before it flared wildly. “What did you say?”

“I somehow have an Elder Wisp in my inventory. Should I try and pull it out?”

Silvia flew next to Steven. “Absolutely not. It could kill us both with a single thought! Elder Wisps are the most powerful Wisps in existence. It’s what I’m hoping to become.”

“Well, what do I do with it? I can’t just leave it there. What if it does something?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve been in your inventory and there is no way anything could affect it outside of divine intervention and I’m not so sure that could even affect it. Chaos gave you the highest blessing possible. For now, just leave it alone, and I’ll go in and check it out later.”

“Why later?”

“I- i’ve just never met an Elder Wisp, and I want to let it calm down after getting trapped… How exactly did you put it in your inventory?”

“I have no idea it just happen, I didn’t put it in there. Maybe Chaos did it for some reason.”

“I cannot fathom why but I suppose that’s the only thing that makes sense.” Silvia said.

“Should we delay the next floor a bit longer?”

“No, it should be fine. We are as ready as we can be. The next floor will just be you sending abominations to your inventory.”

“Oh yeah, I need to summon Jabriel before we go. I need to see what he is capable of.”

“I don’t like that prick!”

“I’m sorry, but for now, we are stuck with him.”

“Fine, I’ll play nice!” Silvia said.

“Thanks. I’m going to go talk with Nev and see if she wants Sirus to come along.”

“Sir, I’m sorry to bother you, but the Undead are here and they refuse to leave till they have Necros’s body.”

“This is the Assassins guild! Tell them we don’t have it and will inform them the moment we have received his body.”

Just then, the door fell in and a large undead ducked under the door frame. “Is this where the manager of this Assassins guild is? Sorry about the door. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength.”

“Uh, yes sir, I am Albert branch manager of this guild.”

“Oh, great,” the massive undead said, “I’m here for my nephew’s body. If you could kindly hand it over, we will be on our way.”

“I’m sorry to inform you, but we have not recovered the body of Necros at this time. B- but I can assure you we are in search of his body at this very moment.” Albert said.

“Where?” The Undead asked.

“I’m sorry I don’t understand the question.” Albert did not know where the guards were and how such a behemoth could just waltz right into his office.

“Where is my nephew’s body?”

“W-well, that is classified information. I’m sorry but…”

The undead took a step forward. “Let me ask you one more time. Where is my nephew’s body?”

Albert swallowed hard. He wasn’t supposed to deal with this sort of problem.

“The last known location of the assassin Necros was the Undead dungeon owned by Dungeon Lord Sorin.”

The undead’s eyes narrowed, “are you saying you don’t even know if my nephew is dead?”

“Apologies, but all I have is reports. I was not there myself. I could…”

“That’s enough. Thank you for your corporation. We will be leaving now.”

Albert watched as the huge undead ducked out of his office. He then just stared blankly at the massive hole in the wall where the door used to be.

“Where was the security team while all this was going on?” Albert asked his assistant.

“Sir, I do believe they all left the building.”

“Left! To do what? That’s against guild policy! Bring me the head of security at once.”

Albert didn’t have to wait long for the head of security to arrive and was ready to pour out his frustrations.

“Before you reprimanded me, I would like to explain why we left the premises.”

Albert snarled, “okay go on, enlighten me!”

“First off, there were hundreds of undead and we were told if we didn’t stand down, they would kill everyone in this city. Not only that, they said if we could somehow fight them off, then it would be war with the undead. They apparently only wanted a body of one of their fallen.”

Albert’s eyes widened in shock. “W-war! But… that’s preposterous over a single body?”

“I’m just relaying what they said sir. I was also ordered to stand aside by the citi’s council. If I’m not mistaken, many of the city guard were killed or hurt as the Undead entered the city.”

“What! Why is the first I’m hearing of this?” Albert asked.

“From my understanding, the undead came here immediately upon entry.”

Albert was at a loss for words. He had to report this to the higher ups.

Steven threw his spear through a small black portal that came through another portal and in stuck into the back of an abomination that went limp and fell down as the lightning sparked over it's body.

“Oh, how I wish I could make it do that every time.” Steven walked over and sent the abomination to inventory. This was the fifth one he had sent to inventory so far. Nev and the soldiers were only watching at the moment, and Silvia was critiquing the fallen angel on his portals. Jabriel just ignored the Wisp for the most part, though, he explained himself to the Wisp much more than Steven thought he would.

“Can you not make the portals bigger? We both know Steven is not that good with the spear and that’s a small target for him to hit.” Silvia said.

“I could make the portals bigger, yes, but If I do so, then I won’t be able to create as many portals. I am limited to Mr. Odlings power level after all.” Jabriel said.

“Oh, I can understand that. He is quite low leveled for this area.”

“Indeed, though I have to admit he is quite formidable for only being a level twenty.” Jabriel said.

Steven was a bit annoyed that his familiar would talk with Silvia but would barely give him the time of day when it came to a conversation. But he had to admit that the portals he created were always on point. Steven didn’t even have to tell him where to place the portals, he just did it based on his intent. But when he asked if Jabriel could read his mind, the familiar just told him no. Steven knew there was a limit to how many portals his familiar could create each day, but Jabriel only told him it was based on his power. Steven was sure he knew and was just being difficult, but there was nothing he could do about it. As Steven was getting use to the portals, he caught Jabriel sneaking glances at Nev, which was odd, yes she was absolutely gorgeous, but wasn’t female angels even more attractive? And she was in her massive spider form. Pushing those thoughts aside, he moved forward. There was no point in trying to be stealthy like he normally did, there was just too many people following him.

Eve had convinced him to let her tag along, but she was with Nev, Fidah, and the soldiers. Fidah had gotten upset when she found out Nev had done something to her clan’s man, and only calmed down when Steven had explained it wasn’t permanent. He also had to keep her clansman safe now. If Steven was honest, he liked it better when it was just him, Nev, and Silvia. But now he had two more servants to worry about. Not to mention the half Naga that would enter the eighth floor with them relatively soon.

A portal opened in front of Steven, and he placed his hand in it. His hand then appeared on the other side of the cavern from within another portal. He touched the abomination, and it vanished. Steven was feeling a bit overpowered, but he knew he could only do this to the undead, and apparently Wisps, which was confusing. He had asked Jabriel about the random Elder wisp in his inventory, but he just shrugged and said that’s an odd thing to happen. Though he seemed interested in how his inventory worked. Steven pulled in and out his bed a few times to indulging Jabriel’s curiosity in hopes it would benefit him later. After all, one day Jabriel would no longer be bound. After a bit, Jabriel said it acted similarly to a portal, and he wanted to study on it further when they had time. All and all the eight floor was extremely easy, Nev hadn’t even got involved yet, aside from cheering him on. The largest issue was he wasn’t gaining any essence for just sending them to inventory and he desperately needed more levels and attributes points.

At one point Steven had Nev and the soldiers along with Eve and Fidah, set up camp, as him and Jabriel finished clearing out this floor. Nev surprisingly agreed. She just said to come back to get her before they entered the hidden path on this floor.

Steven was excited to see what sorts of things he would get out of another chest. But he focused all his attention on clearing out the floor for the time being. The half Naga would be entering soon and a single abomination could take out half the clan before they could take it down, even with Sirus there would surely be casualties so Steven did his best to clear out the dungeon floor. Silvia also followed and continued to critique Jabriel. The odd thing was the bound angel never once complained and even explained himself more than Steven thought he should.

“Okay,” Silvia said as she flew next to Steven, “this batch here is the last of the abominations I sense on this floor.”

Steven nodded, then glanced at Jabriel, who just stood back with his normal expression of blankness. Four abominations were on the other side of this cavern. Steven was glad this floor was full of large caverns. It made it much easier to deal with these abominations. Not that mattered now that he now had portals. An inky black portal opened and Steven stuck his hand in and sent one of the abominations to inventory, he then did the same to the second, but when he reached into the portal to send the third abomination to inventory his hand felt like if burst into flames, he tried to pull his arm out but it wouldn’t budge. Steven couldn’t help but let out a whimper of pain, which was just enough for both abominations to look towards him.

“Hey! Release the portal! What are you doing?” Silvia shouted at Jabriel.

“I can not. He must dismiss the portal himself.” Jabriel said in his normal mono toned voice.

Silvia sent an adolescent wisp away as she darted towards Steven.

Steven seen the abominations charging his direction, he also seen his hand burning in some sort of black flame on the other side of the cavern.

“You need to release the portal!” Silvia said as she appeared next to him.

Steven gritted his teeth. “I don’t know how!”

Silvia looked between him and the charging abominations, and seem to make a choice. The next moment, tiny wisps bombarded the two charging abominations, exploding each time they came in contact with one.

Steven winced in pain as he tried to pull his hand out again. He knew the bombardment of adolescent wisps wouldn’t last long. Only a few came out to help on the last floor, and the way the abominations regenerated, the dam undead would be back at him before he knew it. The thought of cutting his own arm off crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. Steven was having a hard time thinking over the constant pain of the black flames. His mind went to his ring that shot webs, but quickly realized that wouldn’t work as his hand with the ring was on the other side of the cavern. The explosions from the wisps were slowing down now and it would only be a matter of time before the abominations regenerated and were charging at him once again. All he would have to do would be touch the undead, although he would likely take a few hits in the process as he was stuck in place. His ability would trigger and he would turn into his Spider king form, but what would happen if a portal was in the center of his spider body after he changed? He may instantly die. The wisps had stopped attacking, and the abominations were already healing up. Steven activated his ring of summons. The next moment, a giant blue whale appeared and fell onto the two abominations. This was the first time he had seen a whale in person and the thing was massive. It looked odd in the cavern the creature barely fit. If Steven wasn’t in so much pain, he would have felt bad for it. But as for now, all he could do was be grateful that he bought a few more minutes to get out of this situation. Steven glanced back at the bound angel, who seemed to be getting chewed out by Silvia.

Steven let out a frustrated cry as he tried to pull his hand out of the portal once again, but it was no use. It didn’t even budge. Jabriel and Silvia then came over. “Tell him!” Silvia said, “tell him what you told me.”

Jabriel wouldn’t meet Steven’s eyes as he spoke. “I am sorry, but I can not dismiss this portal until tomorrow.”

“Are you saying I’m stuck like this till tomorrow?” Steven gritted his teeth from the pain as he spoke.

“I am afraid so, Mr. Odling. There shouldn’t be any lingering damage from the portal as long as you can manage the pain. But all my portal abilities are on cool down.”

“That’s not all,” Silvia butted in, “our friendly bound angel also knew his portal magic was getting low but didn’t mention it.”

“I thought it would be enough to deal with the few remaining dungeon monsters.” Jabriel said.

Steven paid no mind to the familiar as he looked at his count down for his summon. If he wasn’t in so much pain, he would laugh at the fact he summoned a whale, and it landed on top of the dungeon monsters.

“Silvia, I need Nev’s help. The summon only has a bit over a minute on it.”

“Ive already sent for her.”

It wasn’t but a few moments later when Steven seen Nev charging towards him in her spider form at the same time the timer ran out on his summon and the whale vanished. Nev went straight after the two remaining abominations. Steven only paid half attention, as the pain from his hand was too intense. Before Steven even realized what was going on, both abominations were bound by webs and dangling from the dungeon ceiling upside down and Nev was by his side.

“Master, are you okay?”

“Thank you Nev! I can always count on you.” Steven said with gritted teeth.

Nev turned to Jabriel. “Close the portal.”

“I am sorry, but I can not.” Jabriel barely got the words out of his mouth before Nev was looming over him. “This is your last and only warning. Close that dammed portal or I’ll make you.”

“I cannot till morning. I have exceeded my daily amount.”

“Nev, come here, I need your help.” Steven said.

Nev turned to Steven and changed into her human form. “Yes Master what do you desire?”

“Well, if I’m to be stuck in sheer agony till morning, I’m going to need your help.”

“Of course Master, whatever you wish, I will see it done.”

“Could you help me get my amulet off, and also adjust this bed underneath me so I can sit.” Steven said, barely keeping tears out of his eyes.

Nev turned to Jabriel, “if this has any lingering effects, you will regret it.”

Nev then helped Steven arrange the bed so he could sit and get comfortable as he could. She then held the water pipe up for him. It helped with the pain, but only a bit. Eve and Fidah also quickly made it to Steven, along with several confused soldiers that were no longer enthralled. They kept trying to ask questions until Steven got fed up with them and told them to leave him alone until tomorrow. Eve quickly made her way to Steven and, after taking in the situation, she began mixing up some sort of paste from leaves and a few odd looking herbs. Once she was done, she began rubbing it on Steven’s arm. Which annoyed Nev and she tried to tell Eve that she could rub it on Master, but Eve flat out refused, saying she may mess up the numbing paste. About a minute after the paste was applied, Steven finally experienced some relief.

“I will need to apply this every hour to keep the pain at bay,” Eve said, “I can also make you a tonic to help with the pain as well.”

Steven thanked Eve several times along with Nev for saving his life. He then smoked so much he forgot where he was. At some point, he remembered Sirus coming over to talk to him. There was also some sort of ordeal with Fidah and her clansman. But Steven told her clansman that Fidah was his now and that he should get lost before he had him killed. At least that’s what Silvia said happened. The paste was working, but the pain seemed to grow the longer his hand stayed in the portal.

Eve finished up with her tonic. The taste was disgustingly thick and chunky. Drinks weren’t meant to be chewed, but Steven didn’t complain, as Eve was his lifeline. The tonic also had the side effect of having him become drowsy and he eventually fell asleep. He awoke several times with an intense burning pain, but each time Eve was there already there rubbing numbing paste and having him drink something for the pain. He would then fall back to sleep.

This time when Steven woke up, his head was pounding, but the portal was no longer active. Eve lay passed out on the bed next to him and Nev was in her spider form for some reason with her head laying on the foot of his bed.

Silvia was floating next to Jabriel, who had a neutral expression on his face as always. As he locked eyes with Jabriel, the bound angel nodded. As he began trying to decipher what that meant, Fidah spoke up.

“Mr. Odling, I want to apologize for my clansman’s actions last night! He means well, he just doesn’t understand...”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Steven said. “What are you doing on the ground anyway, there was plenty of room on the bed?”

Fidah glanced at the sleeping Spider Queen, “It’s fine. I chose to sleep down here. How is your hand?”

“It’s fine.” Steven looked down at his right hand, which still slowly let off black wisps of smoke. He then looked up at Jabriel.

“I am sorry,” Jabriel said as he walked over, “I was not aware you would receive any lingering effects, but I can assure you it is only temporary.”

Instead of responding, Steven opened his stat page and quickly found a new tab labeled curses.

Portal Curse- Do to over exposer to high-level portal magic you have been afflicted with this temporary curse.

Mana clog-

Effect- Loss of the ability to recover mana.

Time remaining- 47 hours, 29 mins and 17 seconds.

“Oh! Well, this is inconvenient.” His pounding headache was now making more since. Steven then pulled out a mana potion.

“That won’t help,” Silvia said. “Unfortunately, all forms of mana recovery are locked for the duration of this curse.”

“Are you serious? You’re saying I’m going to be stuck with this pounding headache for the next two days?”

Steven spoke louder than he had expected, and both Eve and Nev woke up.

“Is everything okay, Master?”

Steven turned to Nev. “Well, it will be in a couple days, I suppose.”

Once Steven and Silvia explained the situation and Steven stopped Nev from attacking Jabriel, Eve said she could make up something to help with his head. With nothing else better to do, Steven pulled out his water pipe and received a sharp pain. That’s when he checked his mana and seen it was twenty-seven.

“I don’t want any visitors. If Sirus comes by, tell him to come back in two days. Tell him I’m recovering from the fight or something.”

Steven took a long drag from the water pipe. He offered some to Eve, but she declined, saying she needed to stay sharp so she could make him potions and something for his head. Turning to Fidah, she also declined, but Steven told her that’s not how it works and she would be smoking with him.