Random Portals

Sorin was pissed. The more he thought about it, the more he became frustrated with himself. How could he not have any precautions set up to deal with a level one Domain holder in his dungeon? Now that same Domain holder was on the eighth floor with twenty more levels. The level gap between him and this Steven was the only thing that gave Sorin solace. Having twenty levels on him gave Sorin a huge edge. Though he doubted Steven could get past the Elder demon, even with that spider. Although he would have to be worry of that pesky Wisp. Sorin sat down on his throne and opened the dungeon scrying ability. It had been over a day since he could look in on Steven.

As soon as the ability activated, Sorin seen Steven stick his hand through some sort of black abyss and touch an abomination. Sorin’s eyes widened as the Abomination vanished. It wasn’t the way the creature vanished that bothered him. He had been trying to figure out how Steven dealt with his dungeon monsters so easily for a while now. But now this over powered human could use portals?

Sorin could barely contain his rage as he watched. His eyes glued to every move the human made, trying to figure out how he was using this portal magic.

Then he spotted it, some sort of angel that was bound. Sorin slowly began to tremble; he had only heard legends of angels. The beings were the strongest of all mortals and the next step to becoming a god. How did this Steven have one bound to him? There was no way he had it as a familiar… if it was truly his familiar he should just surrender now. It was foolish to fight against that sort of power, even if it had bindings.

Sorin took a few steading breaths. There had to be a way out of this. He couldn’t just give up, he would die when the Domain was taken from him. He wasn’t nearly strong enough to survive having it removed, much less ripped out of him. Sorin paid little attention to the images from the scrying ability as his mind raced. It just made no sense who was this Steven Odling not only did he have the spider Queen on his side, but he also took his Wisp, and now he has a bound angel creating high-level portals for him!

“Dungeon Lord Sorin, Sir.”

Sorin looked down at the young Draugr, he was trying to decided if he should punish the Draugr, when she spoke.

“There is an undead general waiting to speak with you, my Lord.”

Sorin thought this was an odd time for an undead general to want to talk to him. But this could be just what he needed.

“Bring my orb.” Sorin said.

“At once my lord!”

“Draugr.”

The Draugr immediately stopped as she stiffened, “yes. My lord.”

“You will call me Master from now on!”

“Y-yes, Im sorry Master, i…”

“Fetch my Orb!”

Sorin threw the orb into the air and a large humanoid undead appeared before him.

“Dungeon Lord Sorin,” the undead bowed to show his respect, “I am Tusk, General of the third battalion.”

Sorin nodded slightly in respect. It was a position that held great prestige inside the undead. Though it was nothing compared to an Undead Dungeon lord.

“As interesting as it is to meet an Undead General, one has to wonder why a general would contact me like this.”

“It’s regarding my nephew Necros, I wish to claim his body.”

Sorin’s face turned to a wicked smile. “I would be more than happy to assist you in finding your nephew’s body.”

“You know where his body is?”

“I do indeed, although you will need your soldiers to take his body if you want it back. The person who has your nephew’s body is currently invading my Dungeon.”

“My soldiers are ready to do whatever is necessary to bring our fallen home. Although it may take us some time to travel there so it is likely this invader will be long gone from your dungeon by then. I would compensate you if you could hold his body in the dungeon for us until we arrive. I would also be grateful if you let me kill the one that has taken my nephew.”

“No point in all that. How about I send you and ten of your finest warriors to the first floor of my Dungeon?”

Sorin watched as a grin fell over the huge undead. “Yes, that sounds acceptable. The undead kingdom will compensate you for your troubles. ”

“I know you will. Now hurry less you miss your prey. You will need to go to a portal chamber."

Steven sat on his bed with Fidah. His plan was to get to know this overly cute elf over the next couple days while the curse fadded, and what better way to do that than with alcohol and something strong to smoke. He still felt dumb for just accepting her without speaking to Silvia. The Wisp had not let him forget it, either. She would periodically fly by and tell him how dumb he was for wasting his vassal slot on the elf. Though she made sure not to do that while Nev was around. Nev asked if she could enthrall the soldiers again and Steven told her she could, aside from Fidah’s clan’s man.

Steven looked at the redheaded elf as she began coughing. “Sorry Mr. Odling, I have a much higher tolerance to alcohol than I do whatever this is,” she coughed again. “What is this, by the way?”

“Oh, I have no idea Nev brought it to me,” Steven nodded towards Eve, working at her station. “I’m sure Eve knows.”

“And you just trust the Spider completely?” Fidah asked shock written on her face.

“I know what she wants, so yes, yes I do. She has also made an oath to me. Just like you, she can’t do anything to harm me.”

“What about Miss Evesakia? Did she also make an oath?”

“I trust Eve without one.” Steven took another long drag, then handed it to Fidah.

“So what’s up with you and the clan’s man? I really don’t remember much from last night.”

Fidah froze. “You don’t remember…”

“No, not really, just what Silvia told me.”

“Uh, well. We were once meant to be married… But that was a long time ago! And I promise I no longer have any feelings for him now. Not anymore than I do for anyone in my clan. I belong to you now, I promise!”

The way she spoke made Steven feel as though she feared him. And he didn’t like that, but had no idea what to say. He wanted to tell her she was her own person and could do as she pleased, but she was one of his vassals now and nothing could break that but death. Either his death or hers.

“Please don’t hurt him…” Fidah blurted out.

“I’m not going to hurt him, don’t worry.”

It was silent for a long while. At some point Eve brought over another tonic, and sat down next to him with a wide smile. “I’m happy to get to be part of this with you.”

“And I’m glad to have you with me, although I worry about your safety.” Steven said.

“I promise to grow stronger, so you never have to worry about me again. That being said, Goskia gave me a shard as a going away present. I honestly thought he would be mad that I left.”

“Oh,” Steven’s eyes widened. “What kind of shard?”

“It is called the Shard of the winged beast. I would be more than willing to give it to you so you can grow stronger.”

“Absolutely not. I need you to grow stronger! Why haven’t you absorbed it yet?”

“I don’t know how to do the ritual and Goskia didn’t offer.” Eve said.

“Oh, that’s simple. Ill get Silvia to guide you through it, lets get that shard in you. I want you, along with all my comrades, to have all their shards.”

Fidah’s eyes widened. “Do you plan to have me get all my shards as well?”

“Indeed, I do. You aren’t as useful as you could be to me. Just look how amazing Nev is! I need you both to be on her level.” Steven didn’t add that he needed them to help protect him from the spider Queen once he reached level ninety nine.

“But how will we get that many shards?” Fidah asked.

“Ill figure it out, besides I have a fountain of knowledge in the form of a ball of light.” Steven said.

“And that beautifully bright ball of light,” Silvia said as she flew next to Steven’s face, “is telling you to take that shard!”

Steven swatted at Silvia and missed completely.

“Hey, what did you do that for?”

“I told you to stop flying right into my face. You can easily just fly to the side or something. You have all of this,” Steven gestured around the open cavern they were in, “why do you have to get right in my face?”

Silvia harrumphed, “It’s not my fault you put your big head where I want to be.”

Steven sighed, “oh come…”

“Steven does not have a big head! It is perfectly normal.” Eve said with just a bit of heat behind her words.

There was a brief silence before Fidah spoke. “You should really watch how you speak towards the Ancient Wisp.”

Steven turned to say something, but Silvia beat him to it.

“It seems the elf knows how to respect her betters.”

Steven nearly told Fidah to tell Silvia her light was dim, but thought better of it.

“Okay, that’s enough. Silvia, I need you to help Eve with the ritual for her shard.”

“Well, I vote you absorb it instead,” Silvia looked at Fidah, “and what about you?”

Fidah looked at Steven and back a the Wisp. “I-I. Uh, well i…”

“Oh, leave the poor elf out of it. I didn’t say anything about voting.”

“I do have to agree with Silvia. I think it would be best if you had all your shards before worrying about me.”

“Eve,” Steven smiled, “the stronger you are, the more you can help keep me alive. Besides, I can’t even absorb another shard for a while.”

“If you killed the undead in your inventory, you would have more than enough essence.” Silvia said.

“I don’t have a good way to deal with them at this time.” Steven said.

“You could just stab them over and over again.”

“Inventory?” Fidah asked.

“I’m not doing that again. I don’t want to ruin perfectly good weapons.”

“You probably just want to find a cliff so you can drop them off using the least amount of effort as possible.” Silvia said, as her light flickered.

“Well, yes, actually, that would be very ideal.” Steven said with a confused expression on his face.

“You are the laziest overpowered Domain holder I’ve ever heard of! And if you don’t stop being so lazy, you're going to get the both of us killed. If not now, then when we are out of this dungeon and you don’t have such an enormous advantage against your foes.”

Steven opened his mouth to speak, but closed it. Was this something that had been bothering the Wisp or was this about the incident with the portal? He did get lucky with the whale thing, but he probably would have survived, right?

“Are you even listing to me?”

Steven’s eyes widened. He had smoked way too much for this conversation right now. “I’m sorry. What would you have me do?” Asking girls what they wanted him to do was always a good way to calm them down. At least, he hoped.

“I want you to start by gaining more levels. You are entirely too weak right now to be going onto the ninth floor,” Silvia’s light dimmed, “remember how I told you the dungeon boss was an Elder demon?”

“Yea, I remember.”

“Well, it is likely that there are demons on the ninth floor. The ninth and tenth floor are linked unlike the rest of the dungeon, so troops can be sent to the ninth floor during times of a dungeon lock down. The good news is they can’t be sent back to the tenth. But I’m sure the ninth floor will be crawling with demons and undead alike. Sorin is a pathetic weakling, but I can assure you he will not go down without a fight.” Silvia turned and flew up to the dungeon ceiling. “That’s right Sorin, you heard me. I called you a pathetic weakling!”

Eve turned to Steven. “Can this Dungeon lord hear and see us?”

“Sometimes, and kinda. It’s probably best we let Silvia explain that.”

“Wait, there is some creepy guy watching us while we sleep?” Fidah asked.

Steven turned to Fidah, who was looking up at the ceiling, covering herself with the covers as if Sorin was now watching. He then turned back to Eve, who was sitting right next to him. “Does she not know dungeons have dungeon lords?”

“It’s not really common knowledge. It’s more of a legend, most dungeons don’t have a Dungeon Lord. I’m not really sure how that works, though.” Eve said.

“Its through dungeon cores controlled by beings that are bored and have nothing else better to do.” Silvia said matter-of-factly.

“I have so many questions now, but later. I’ve smoked too much for this right now.” Steven said.

“Alright so this is what we are going to do, you’re going to level up as much as possible between the abominations you acquired throughout the floors and the skeletal knights you have you should have enough essence to reach level thirty and absorb your fourth shard.”

“Wait fourth?” Eve asked.

“Yes, fourth. Steven here is an over powered human from another planet that gets to have a shard starting at level one along with his absurd blessing.” Silvia said.

“When you say it like that, you make me sound cooler than I actually am. Also why do I get the feeling you see it as a bad thing.”

“It’s not a bad thing. I’m extremely ecstatic that you are so hard to kill with your shards. I just wish you wouldn’t push your luck! If you die, I get sent back to the void. I just want you to get stronger so you don’t die and I can stay on a world that’s not an empty void.” Silvia paused for a moment, “anyway, that Elder Demon is no joke. I know the arachnid is strong, but she will have a disadvantage against fire, even if they are equally matched in levels.

“Okay, I’ll do as you say and level up, but I don’t want to take this Shard from Eve.”

Silvia’s light brightened before it dimmed. “I understand that if miss Evesakia is stronger, it will help us survive. Ive got an idea. Let me see how if I can fix this.” Silvia then flew off.

“I really think you should worry about getting stronger yourself instead of me, you're the one that’s going to be out in front fighting.” Eve said.

“What about me?” Fidah asked, “I could use a shard. I’ve only got one.”

“Mr. Odling, if I may,” Jabriel said as he appeared a respectful distance in front of Steven and began walking towards him.

“Yea, go ahead.” Steven said.

“Silviaburlaxatix, refuses to tell you this, but I believe it prudent, you know. You can give her attribute points to unlock certain abilities of hers.”

Steven’s eyes widened. “Seriously, why would she hide this from me?”

“You are weak. In fact, you are the weakest being I have ever been a familiar to. However, it is important to note that this assessment is based solely on your attributes. Silviaburlaxatix is worried that you need every single point to further your own strength. So you don’t die.” Jabriel turned to leave but stopped and turned back towards Steven. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you earned a title of sorts if you manage to take a second domain at your level.” The bound angel then turned, took a step, and vanished into a thick inky blackness.

Steven had no idea his familiar could do that. Now that he thought about it, he needed to ask him if that counted as his daily portal amount. Steven laid back on his bed, a bed that really could use a wash. It was surely dirty now; he needed to ask Fidah if she could do it for him. No doubt Eve would, but he didn’t want to give her more things to do. Nev would do it immediately if he asked but, he probably would be better off not mentioning that to the spider Queen, it would likely come back shredded somehow. Steven shook his head. He had to focus.

If he could give Silvia attribute points to give her abilities, that would definitely be worth it. Although attributes were scarce, and each point he gave her would just make him be that much weaker… He now seen why Silvia didn’t mention it to him. But he just couldn’t help but wonder what sort of abilities she could get. If she could get an ability for one point, then it would be worth it. He would just have to ask Silvia about this when she returned from whatever she was doing. As of now, all he could do was wait for this damned curse to go away; he still had over thirty hours.

“I never expected this.” Eve said.

“Expected what?” Steven asked.

“To be stuck in a dungeon with my clan and you. I should feel sad that most of my clan was scattered, captured, or killed, but I’m just glad that as many of us escaped as we did. I know others of my clan escaped into the swamp. We all knew that the elves and humans would come eventually. Goskia surely wasn't the only one to have a plan in place.“

Steven went to speak, but the elf spoke first. “You lived your whole life in fear that the humans and elves would be coming for you? That’s so sad I was always told that the half Naga were evil and would eat anyone that entered their village or swamp.”

“That is far from the truth. We would never eat someone that came into our village.” Eve said.

Steven didn’t mention that was a huge concern of his when he first entered their village. He could definitely see how most would think that.

“I guess you're right. Now that I’ve met you, you don’t seem like the type of person who would eat humans and elves. I mean you’re in love with a human after all.”

Eve’s face blushed, and she scooted away from Steven a bit. “Wh-what are you talking about? I’m not in love with anyone.”

“It’s obvious…” Fidah said.

Steven wanted to say it wasn’t him but who she thought he was, but he just ignored the two, took another hit, then handed it to Fidah.