Random Portals

Steven woke up to someone beating on the door. He jumped up from the bed and went to open it. He knew better than to keep Sirus waiting.

He opened the door to see a glaring Sirus, well if you could call his normal dower face glaring, that is. Sirus’s eyes glanced at the water pipe on the table, but said nothing about it.

“Its time.” Sirus then turned and walked off.

Steven moved back into the room and touched the water pipe, willing it into his inventory, and then hurried after Sirus. He had the urge to take the bed, chair, and table. But this wasn’t a video game and there would be real world consciences. He was surprised that Sirus even woke him up for the meeting, although he would have rather slept in. Coffee or better yet espresso, was something he needed to find. Though he would settle for this world’s equivalent of caffeine.

After making his way downstairs while dreaming of a nice cup of coffee, he saw the three teen Naga all standing to attention.

“I do hope you have a pleasant day, sir.” Steven turned to see the Spider-kin behind the desk, a friendly smile on his multiple eyed face.

“Thank you. I hope you have a great day as well.” Steven said. The Spider-kin seemed pleasantly surprised by his remark. It was probably because he was used to dealing with Sirus’s all the time.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Steven turned to see Sirus standing at the door, waiting for him.

“I thought we were having a meeting?” Steven asked.

“Oh that, you missed it.” Sirus said, walking out the door.

Steven thought he saw a sly grin on Sirus’s face, but it was gone so quickly he wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination. No one spoke as they walked. The teen Naga continued to sneak glances at him. It seemed silly to not talk to each other. They were fixing to go take on a literal dungeon and fight monsters! Steven walked up next to the Naga that spoke for the others yesterday.

“Hey, what’s up?” Steven said.

The Naga then looked up as if some creature was about to attack. Then to Sirus, who was paying them no mind, and finally back to Steven.

“I-I am unsure. Most likely Spider-kin Sir.”

Steven rolled his eyes at the response. “My name is Steven. And what is yours?”

The teen Naga looked towards Sirus, who just continued to walk.

“I am Luneric, son of Baldric. It is an honor to meet you, Sir.”

The other two Naga didn’t even look in Steven’s direction.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Luneric.”

Luneric nodded in respect, and the rest of the trip went in awkward silence.

Steven stared blankly at the dungeon entrance. Now that there weren’t piles of zombie corpses lying around, he could get a good look. To Steven, it looked like someone built a random staircase made of stone leading down into the earth. The entrance was wide enough for them to all walk side by side, but everyone walked behind Sirus in a perfect line.

It quickly became dark as they descended the stairs, and Steven stopped walking. He could barely see his hand in front of his face. If they were attacked, he would be useless. In truth, he would be useless even if he could see. But he still needed to see.

“Uhh, Sirus?”

“Yes?”

“I can’t see anything. Do I just keep walking down or?”

A moment later Sirus’s face appeared in his vision, causing Steven to yelp and fall to his butt. This time Steven was positive he seen Sirus smirk.

“Here, use this. Maybe if you were present during the meeting, you would have been informed of this,” Sirus said, before turning, “Luneric, what is the first rule of dungeon delving.”

“To be informed, Sir!”

Steven ignored Sirus’s jab. He seemed to want others to learn from mistakes. That made sense, but he still could have told him and not acted like this. Steven drank the potion. He knew Eve made these, and he didn’t want to complain, but it was disgustingly thick and chunky. He reflexively chewed. The texture made Steven imagine he was drinking chunks of ground eyeball and he nearly gagged at the thought. He would have to ask Eve what was in the dark vision potions when he returned. On second thought, he didn’t really need to know.

Steven was about to ask when would it start working and how long it would last when a timer popped up in his top right corner.

Dark vision

23 hours 59 minutes 54 seconds

It was barely noticeable, and when he wasn’t focusing on it faded.

Steven’s eyes began to itch, and slowly he started to make out his surroundings. Which was just some old stone stairs leading down as far as he could see.

“Lets continue. I don’t want to fight the undead on the stairs if we don’t have to.” Sirus said.

After walking for what seemed like an hour, they arrived at a fog wall. Or, to be more accurate, a dim blue wall of foggy light.

“Okay, it is time. You know the plan, let’s go,” Sirus said.

Steven wanted to say he did in fact not know the plan but held his tongue. The teen Naga placed their hands on the misty blue fog wall and vanished one at a time.

“Okay, now you go. I’ll follow and do try to not get yourself killed.” Steven walked up to the fog wall and placed his hand on it, then received a prompt.

Would you like to enter, Undead Dungeon Domain Yes/No?

Steven selected yes, and he felt his body getting sucked into the light. It felt similar to the time he was summoned by the Chaos angel, just not nearly as intense.

Light blue filled Steven’s vision, then he was standing in a cave room with a few tunnels leading in various directions. To his surprise, the teen Naga was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, Steven revived a notification.

Welcome Domain holder. Do to you owning a Domain, you can not leave this dungeon till you have obtained this Domain as your own, or relinquish the one you hold.

Steven stared blankly at the notification. He was starting to realize he should have told Sirus about having a Domain, but how was he supposed to know something like this would happen? Closing the notification, he waited for Sirus.

And waited. It had been long enough now Steven was worrying he was on his own in this dungeon. One that he knew nothing about other than there was undead, because he missed the damn meeting.

“Shit, shit, shit. Okay, calm down Steven, you can do this. Maybe Sirus will find you.”

The thought of Sirus irritated him. He could have at least told him a bit about the dungeon on the thirty-minute walk to the dungeon. Not to mention the treck down the stairs. It’s not like he meant to fall asleep and miss the meeting.

The first thing he thought of was his food supplies. He only had a bit of food Eve brought him for his journey. Maybe he could make it last a few days. Luckily, he had the water stone he took from his hut, though he had no idea how it worked and it could be almost empty for all he knew. He also had the fire stone, so maybe he could find something to cook if it came to that. Though he doubted it since this was an undead dungeon, and he wasn’t about to eat undead.

Steven took a deep breath. “Maybe it won’t be so bad.” Then he remembered all the zombies that had been outside the dungeon and was just about to call out for Sirus but thought better of it. Bringing a hoard of zombies down on himself would be a terrible idea. Glancing at the timer of his dark vision, he realized he was on a clock. He would need to find shelter and a light source. His best bet was to just survive and gain a few levels if he could. Turning around, he saw the light blue glow of the dungeon entrance. Placing his hand on it, a prompt appeared.

Would you like to relinquish your Domain to the Undead Dungeon Yes/No?

Note: Relinquishing your Domain will turn you into an undead beholden to the Undead Dungeon Lord.

Steven quickly selected no. “Who the hell would do that?” Steven blurted out before he decided he really shouldn’t be talking so loud or even out loud for that matter. He was lucky he hadn’t been attacked yet.

Pulling out the water pipe, he took a long drag.

“Undead Dungeon lord, huh? That doesn’t sound to friendly.”

After silently berating himself for continuing to talk aloud, he turned his attention to the paths in front of him. He had no idea which path to take, but he had to choose one. He had already wasted about forty minutes of his dark vision waiting on Sirus and every minute mattered. Steven didn’t want to be blind in this place. Hopefully, he could complete this dungeon and get out by this evening, though he doubted it. But it shouldn’t be too hard if Sirus was sending teen warriors down here to train.

Three different paths, and they all looked the same. Deciding to start with the one on the left because he always started with the left in games. He took off at a slow walk while trying to not make any noise. He thought about pulling his daggers out but he could pull them out instantly with just a thought, so there really wasn’t much point. That Chaos Angel had been weird, but if it wasn’t for his inventory ability, he would be up shit creek right now.

The tunnel was big enough you could drive a bus through it. It also looked like someone dug it out with a pickaxe. The walls were jagged, with sharp rocks protruding out here and there. The floor, on the other hand, was made of some sort of stone tiles. Which had Steven worried about every stone tile he stepped on. He could just imagine stepping on a pressure plate and an enormous axe swinging down from the ceiling, or poison darts coming from the walls. He hoped that wasn’t the case. This was an undead dungeon after all it would be unwise to have traps that killed your own undead. That’s what Steven told himself anyway, but it didn’t stop him from slowly checking each tile as he made his way through the tunnel. He also checked the celling for swinging axes but seen nothing. He wanted to make sure the path back was clear of traps in case he had to make a run for it. As Steven made his way down the tunnel, he was getting concerned. He should have ran into traps, undead or something by now. Maybe all the zombies went outside and this area was cleared. If he was lucky, the whole dungeon would be empty and he could just walk right up and take the domain and get out of here. Although now that he thought about it he had no idea how to take the domain, maybe it would be similar to how he got Blanks Domain. Also, what the hell was a domain exactly?

He tried not to think at how irritated Sirus was going to be if he got out of here. No, when he got out of here he would just fane ignorance. He didn’t know what was supposed to happen anyway, since he missed the meeting. The Elders would probably take his side on that.

After about twenty-five minutes of twists and turns and checking everywhere for traps, the tunnel finally opened up into the dungeon proper. Fifty-foot ceilings and a vast opening that seemed to have no end. The sense of dread filled Steven. How the hell was he supposed to know which way to go? He stared out, trying to get a sense of the land. He heard the distant sound of water running and the occasional sound of wings flapping. Large jagged rocks protruded from the dungeon floor, cutting off large sections of the cave from getting a good view. Then he saw movement. A lone zombie was stumbling around, and Steven knew there would be more. He wondered how much essence each zombie would give him. If he could get one zombie at a time to follow him into the tunnel, he could take it out and hopefully not alert the others. Now to figure out how to just attract one at a time.

It wasn’t long before Steven was certain he had spotted every zombie in his immediate area. Eleven zombies and only two of them he thought he had a chance of luring away without having more follow. His heart pounded in his chest. Was he really going to do this? The only ability he had was a onetime use that kept him from dying at the cost of all his mana and a massive headache. That reminded him he still had one point left. Steven backed into the tunnel and opened his stats. He needed every advantage he could get. He should really put it into dexterity so he could move around better, as the actual dungeon floor didn’t have the nice stone tiles to walk on. But he would no doubt have his ability trigger and use all his mana, causing him to get a massive migraine and nearly pass out. There was no way he was turning off the ability it was the matter of life and death and he needed to think properly. Steven reasoned that if it didn’t take all his mana, it wouldn’t be such a devastating headache. He placed his single point into spirit while praying that spirit was indeed the one that governed mana. He sighed in relief when he saw his mana was now one fifteen. Now he would at least have fifteen mana when it triggered. All he could do was hope that was the correct choice. Steven had been itching to practice his ability and get the hang of it, but after the migraine he got the first time he decided it was best to wait till he had more mana, not that he had a chance to practice anyway.

Sneaking the best he could, which really just consisted of him crouching and taking odd steps, he made his way to the closest zombie. He was currently hiding behind a rock right next to one of the lone zombies stumbling around. Steven was nearly frozen in fear. This was his first fight with a monster and it was with an undead.

His plan would immediately fall to shit if this zombie could somehow alert the others. The other zombies were far enough away he didn’t think they would notice and with the distant sound of running water, he thought it should help muffle the sound.

Clearing his mind the best he could, he took a slow deep breath. This was no different from when he forced himself off that vine bridge. He could do this! Steven forced himself out from behind the rock. The zombie was facing away from him and didn’t seem to notice. Steven didn’t waste any time and aimed his dagger at the zombie’s head. If he was lucky, it would just die immediately. If not, he would lure it to the tunnel. And if the other zombies were alerted, he would run back down the tunnel and into another. Now that he thought about it, he really should have checked out the other tunnels first.

Jabbing his dagger into the zombie’s skull as hard as he could, his eyes widened when it only went in an inch or so before it stopped dead. It had looked much easier in movies. Quickly sending his dagger back to inventory, he barely paid attention to the red health bar that appeared above the zombie’s head and he ran as fast as he could back to the tunnel, not turning around till he made it. Once in the tunnel, he turned and was relieved to see there were no zombies lunging at him. The zombie he attacked was stumbling around nearly in the same place it was when he took off running. A health bar now hovered above its head and even at this distance, Steven had no problem seeing the health bar. He could even clearly read the eighty-three percent. He assumed that meant it had eighty-three percent of its health remaining.

That’s convenient. Steven thought, before he started looking around to make sure he didn’t aggro any other zombies. Finding the coast clear, he looked back at the zombie he attack its health was now at eighty-two percent. He was starting to think he had mistaken the first time, so he waited and eventually the bar dropped to eighty-one percent.

Apparently, poison did work for how long he had no idea, but at least it worked. He could do this. The zombies were slow and extremely dumb, just what he looked for in an enemy. A sly smile fell over Steven’s face. Deciding to leave that zombie to see how long the poison would last, he turned his attention to the second lone zombie. This time he didn’t crouch as far down and just lowered his body to make his self smaller. He was lucky there were so many large rocks to hide around. Steven waited till the zombie turned away before he attacked. This time he pulled out both his daggers, shoved them into the back of the zombie’s neck and twisted as he pulled them out, hoping for extra damage. He then dismissed the daggers and ran back towards the tunnel but stopped and hide behind a bolder. Peeking around the bolder, he saw the zombie stumbling around looking for what attacked it, or maybe it already forgot and was just stumbling around normally. He was lucky the zombies didn’t make noises other than their feet on the dungeon floor and the bit of teeth chattering.

The health bar was at thirty-nine percent. After looking around to make sure none of the distant zombies noticed him, he tried to sneak up behind the same zombie to finish it, but the zombie seemed to notice him immediately. Steven then took off at a dead sprint towards the tunnel. Once he had made it, he turned to see the zombie had only made it halfway towards him before it started to aimlessly wander around.

This was better than he could have hoped for. The aggro range on these zombies was extremely low, making Steven wonder why the teen Naga just didn’t run away. Although once attacked it seemed the zombie went on alert. Looking back at the first zombie he attacked, he watched as it’s health ticked down to seventy-eight percent, meaning the poison was still active. Deciding it was a good idea to see how long the poison would last, he waited. Looking over the zombie’s health bar, he noticed a slight green tint to the bar, though he was unsure if that was from it being a zombie or from the poison. The zombies did have a slight green tint to their skin.

While waiting to see how much damage the poison did Steven began scoping out other potential experience, or essence, as it was called here. He saw no more lone zombies, and he didn’t feel like he would be capable of taking on more than one at a time yet. He wanted to get a better feel for what their capabilities were before he tried to deal with more than one at a time.