Random Portals

“Explain to us again how you obtained this shard.” One of the Elders said.

“Well, the notifications told me I completed a hidden quest.” Steven said.

“I’m not sure the translation magic is working properly. What is a, notification?” Another Elder asked as if he were tasting the word.

Steven stood silent for a moment, trying to think of how to explain to these old Naga what a notification was. “Well, it’s similar to what happens when you touch the seeing stone and you see your stats.”

Gasps came from several of the Elders, and then they broke out into chatter amongst themselves as a blue barrier popped up around them, blocking all sound.

Steven just stood there, unsure of what he was supposed to do as the Elders talked behind the barrier. He could see through it and tell they were having a heated discussion. He wanted to look over his stat page and see what had changed and what the shard even did. But he decided against it at the moment. He also had some sort of request to talk with a God, which was a bit confusing. Steven wasn’t sure what he should do about that. He didn’t want to keep a God waiting. But on the other hand, it was the God of Chaos. Should he even accept? Did the gods have rules to follow?? He would have thought that if a god wanted to see him, it wouldn’t matter if he accepted or not. Whatever the case, he decided to leave the screen open just in case he needed to accept it with haste; it did say something about being transported. Although he had no idea how quick that would work or if the Elders were going to be as upset as Sirus was making it out to be. He was hoping he could make a quick escape if need be by accepting the god’s request. Steven’s thoughts were interrupted as the barrier fell, and one of the Elders spoke up.

“Tell us, what shard ability did you receive from this angelic death shard?”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure. I’ll have to look.”

“Do you need to go to the Seeing Stone, or will this. Notification, from your talent, tell you?” Elder Vasuki asked.

Steven was about to tell them it wasn’t a talent, but now that he thought about it, maybe it was best to give them the least amount of information possible.

“Give me a moment, and I’ll look and see if it will tell me.”

{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards}

Level -1

Available Attribute ~1

Essence- 0

Essences required for the next level, 200.

HP ~ 70

Stamina ~ 40

Mana ~ 100

Poise ~ 0

Vitality ~ 7

Endurance ~ 4

Strength ~ 3

Dexterity~ 4

Resistance ~ 7

Spirit ~ 10

Steven was ecstatic about having an actual stat page now, but he didn’t get to look over it as the Elders were not a patient bunch. He would definitely be poring over the stat page later. There was also an equipment tab, but that too would have to wait. With a thought, the shard tab opened.

{Stats} {Equipment} {Shards*}

Shards:

1 of 7

Angelic Death-

Ability effect~ Expands the distance by 10 feet between two distinct targets while dilating time for both targets at the cost of 100 mana per second.

(Note: Ability will trigger automatically when user is about to take lethal damage. Can be turned off at any time.)

His enthusiasm fell a bit after reading about his shard ability; he wanted to throw magic around, not expand the distance between things. Though he could see how this could be good at keeping him from taking lethal attacks, it wasn’t a fireball or lightning bolt, and the cost was insane; he had just enough mana to use the ability for a second.

Also, his dexterity was so low that a second was not going to be enough time for anything, although the time dilation effect could make it useful. He would just have to try it out and see what happened. And what was with the name? The ability had nothing to do with angels or death.

“Shirem?”

Steven blinked; he had nearly forgotten they were waiting on him. “Okay, so the ability expands the distance between two targets by ten feet at the cost of all my mana.”

He didn’t think he needed to give them all the details unless they asked about it specifically. A few murmurs of disapproval, although he heard the Elder named Vasuki comment on how that could be used to avoid a lethal attack if he was fast enough to activate it. Then they started bombarding him with questions, one after another. Steven couldn’t keep up with their names, so he just thought of them as their most common trait to help track them in his head. Other than Elder Vasuki, who seemed to always defend him, or at least that’s what it seemed like.

“Why did you absorb the shard?” The wrinkly Elder asked.

“We had one chosen for you.” The large-eyed Elder said.

“Ones that would have beens much more powerful.” This Elder tended to add S’s to words that didn’t need them and was a bit slow to speak while hissing a lot. He wasn’t sure, but he thought the large-eyed Elder and the S’s elders were females, but it was hard to tell because they looked so old. His mind went to Eve; she was gorgeous with her light green skin and her purple eyes. He couldn’t wait to see her this evening. At least he hoped he would get to see her. He wondered if she would look like that when she got older.

“Shirem?” Large-eyed Elder said.

Steven’s eyes widened. He really needed to stay focused; maybe he shouldn’t have smoked so much this morning.

“Well, if I’m honest, I really have no idea what’s happening. Can’t I just absorb the shard you picked out for me too? I wasn’t even aware I could absorb it by just touching it until it was happening.” Steven said a bit sheepishly, not mentioning that he did have the option of choosing yes or no, and hoping Sirus didn’t mention anything, as he did tell him he was going to absorb it.

“You are right in that you have no idea what’s happening.” S’s Elder said.

“You can’t absorb another shard until you reach level ten,” wrinkly Elder said. “I’m not sure how you were able to absorb that one at level one.”

“I have never heard of just touching a shard and absorbing it before. I find it strange that Shirem was stripped of his shards and was given completely new abilities, along with his mind being wiped. I for one, think we need to reopen the discussion that he is actually this human Steven that he claims.” Wide eyes said.

“That makes no sense. We have all seen Vasuki’s ability, this is Shirem.” Snaggle toothed Elder chimed in.

The rest of the meeting went by extremely slowly. The Elders telling him to not absorb shards that weren’t chosen for him, and if his notification skill gives him another shard, then bring it to them directly. Then they pretty much told him he was bad and to not do it again.

They also said that tomorrow Sirus was meant to take Steven to a dungeon to start leveling. At the mention of a dungeon, Steven got a bit excited; however, the same couldn’t be said for Sirus. He tried to tell the Elders something strange was happening with the dungeon, and the dungeon monsters were even coming out. The Elders didn’t care and told him to take Shirem in there anyway and bring a team if need be. They wanted him to reach level ten as soon as possible.

Eve could only come over for a short time that evening; she brought him some food, and he told her about going to the dungeon tomorrow. As soon as he mentioned the dungeon, the mood fell. She told him to be careful and not go if he could help it. Explaining something was going on with the dungeon. She hugged him before she left and said she would be back tomorrow before he went to the dungeon. When he asked why she couldn’t stay, she told him she had some extra duties to attend and there was a curfew, and the Elders were quite strict on the matter.

Once she was gone, Steven laid back in his bed, opened up his stat page, and began to look over it, trying to decide what to do with his single attribute point. He asked Eve about it, but she told him that at the early levels, it’s best to put points into everything until you reach ten on all your stats. After that, it just depended on what you wanted to specialize in. He would have to talk with her more about the subject when they had more time. She also mentioned that you got attribute bumps when you absorbed shards.

From what he understood about attributes, everyone had a specialty, which meant they got more out of that attribute when putting points in their specialty attribute. Steven didn’t really want to waste any points on useless things, but after looking at his stats, he decided that it wouldn’t hurt to raise them all to ten. It was annoying that he only got one point per level, meaning it would take several levels just to get to ten on all his stats. After doing some quick math in his head, he realized it would take twenty-five more attributes to get everything to ten, meaning twenty-five more levels. Although absorbing shards gave you a small boost in your attributes, from what Eve said, it was uncommon to gain more than five attributes from a single shard, and that could only happen every ten levels. It would be slow-going. She also told him shards were extremely rare, and only one from the clan had all their shards and was working on forming a core. He had no idea what a core was, but apparently it was something hard to form. Right now, he needed to focus on just gathering all his shards first. No way in hell would he let those old Elders choose his shards. Well, unless they were good ones.

Feeling overwhelmed, Steven decided to hold off on using his attribute point at the moment. Instead, he opened the request from the God of Chaos. He was starting to get a bad feeling that if he didn’t accept it soon, the God would become angry. He wanted to ask someone about it, but he didn’t know who he could even ask. Eve seemed to be his only friend, but in the back of his mind, he was also worried that she was sent by the Elders to spy on him. She seemed to be way too into him, even if she thought he was someone else, or maybe he was just overthinking things. She seemed truly genuine.

After taking a few hits from the water pipe, he worked up enough courage to accept the request from God. The next moment, it felt as though something reached down and grabbed his soul and jerked him up. Then the sense of falling overtook him before he was just standing in a normal-looking forest.

“Mr. Odling.” A voice spoke from behind him.

Steven whirled around to see a man who looked to be in his early forties floating in the air, cross-legged, eating what looked to be a purple apple. The man was dressed strangely; he had on a yellow tuxedo with an apple core embroidered on the chest and bright orange shorts. His hair was long and black, with bright blue-piercing eyes. To top it all off, the man had pale blue skin, and from what Steven could tell, an actual halo floated above his head. The man was handsome in a way that clashed with his mismatched attire.

“Uh, hello.” Steven said.

The being simply continued to eat his purple apple slowly while maintaining direct eye contact with Steven, resulting in a prolonged and uncomfortable silence. Steven would break eye contact just to look back at the being floating there, somehow meeting his eyes each time he looked back. Even when looking away, it felt as though he was somehow still making eye contact. Though it wasn’t nearly as intense as actual eye contact with the being, when he was done with the apple, he casually tossed the core to Steven, who fumbled with it and nearly dropped it.

The being chuckled. “A gift from my father. He told me to tell you he liked your last name. And congratulations on being the first to complete his hidden quest.”

Steven blinked a few times in confusion before he found his voice. “Um, thank you. May I ask your name?” Steven was unsure why this was the first thing he asked, but he just went with it.

The being floated closer, nearly face-to-face, with Steven looking him directly in the eyes while slightly tilting his head from side to side. “You can call me Gideon. I am what you would call an angel,” Gideon said with a smile. “Now, Mr. Odling, it is time for you to go back.”

The next moment, Steven got the sensation of falling, and then he landed on his bed with enough force to knock the air out of him.

“The hell?” Steven muttered once he caught his breath. He shuddered at just the thought of the angel staring at him.

The core of the purple apple that he apparently was still holding floated up out of his hands and began emitting a bright purple light before winking out and falling into his lap. Instead of an apple core, a ring was in its place. Steven picked it up. It was a simple silver ring with a tiny apple core embedded in it. It also looked well used. Steven was curious about what it did. Remembering the equipment tab, he opened up his stat page and then opened his equipment page with a thought.

{Equipment*} {Stats} {Shards}

Head- None

Rarity-None

~ Effect: None

Chest: Hydra leather chest piece

Rarity- Rare

~ Effect: self-repair. Small pocket dimension.

Hands- None

Rarity-None

~ Effect: None

Legs: Hydra leather pants

Rarity- Rare

~ Effect: self-repair.

Feet: Hydra leather boot

Rarity- Rare

~ Effect: self-repair. Noise reduction.

Neck: Amulet of the Forsaken Plunge.

Rarity- Uncommon

~ Effect: While falling, the wearer will be transported to the previous location before impact.

Ring 1: Minor ring of barrier

Rarity- Common

~Effect: Repel some liquids for 30-minute intervals.

Ring 2: Ring of Language

Rarity- Uncommon

~Effect: Understand and speak common languages.

Ring 3: None

Rarity- None

~Effect]- None

Steven stared at his equipment page for a long moment with a goofy grin. He wished he could get a bit more detail, like how much damage his armor blocked. But regardless, he was excited to find he had enchanted gear! Equipment had always been his favorite part of games, and between that and being able to level, this was like a dream come true.

Once he got stronger, maybe he could bring his aunt here. Well, after he found humans, he doubted his aunt would like the snake people, regardless of how human they looked. He had a couple of online friends that he knew would like this world too. Though it wasn’t like he had any idea how to leave or even come back, for that matter. He was still curious about what Blank was even doing in his world in the first place. And that Shirem fellow, did he get sent to his world or did something else happen to him? Steven’s thoughts were interrupted by the ring Gideon gave him.

It began to glow with a bright purple light before fading to a dull glow. He had nearly forgotten about it with all the excitement from his equipment page. Steven held it up and looked at it as it continued to glow; he apparently had to put it on to see what it did. He had room for three ring slots, so there was no reason not to put it on. If that angel wanted to hurt him, he wouldn’t have to resort to trickery.

Steven placed the ring on his left hand and was just fixing to check his equipment page when the ring released a bright purple light before making a terrible screeching sound, sending a purple beam of light that shot straight up through his roof, blinding Steven temporarily. Blinking his eyes a few times, he looked down at the ring to find it was now completely ordinary, not glowing in the slightest.

The next moment, a loud thump shook the hut, and Sirus came charging in. “Are you okay?” He asked, looking around the room for threats.

“Yeah, I’m fine. What’s going on?” Steven asked, thinking it was best not to mention the ring because Sirus would try to give it to the Elders.

“There was a massive aura spike and a flash of light that looked to come from this direction; did you not see anything?”

“I did see some sort of purple light.” Steven said. He thought it best to not lie to Sirus. “What’s happening? Are we under attack?”

“I’m unsure,” Sirus said as he turned to leave. “If you see something, call out.” Sirus said as he charged back out of the hut.

After waiting a good five minutes to make sure Sirus didn’t come back, Steven opened his stat page. He went to look over the ring description, but to his surprise, there was a new tab labeled Inventory. Opening it first, he found it to be completely empty. Assuming it had some sort of effect on the ring, he closed that tab and opened the equipment to read over the description of the ring. However, it showed his third ring slot to be empty.

Closing the page, he looked down at the finger he put the ring on, but the ring was gone. Confused, he quickly opened his tabs to find he still had an inventory. He had no idea what happened, but it seemed he now had an inventory.

That night, Steven placed everything he could find in his hut inside his inventory and then took it all back out. He was curious what the limit was, but couldn’t seem to find it. Even his bed went in without issue. His armor had a pocket that held a couple of small items, but the bed was entirely too big for his armor’s storage. He had thought that was amazing, but this was on a completely different level. All he had to do was touch something and will it into his inventory. He considered trying to place the entire hut in there just to see if it would fit, but thought better of it after remembering the disgusting swamp water underneath him. He doubted if it would work anyway.