Random Portals

The current quickly took the zombie downstream and out of sight. He waited, but never received a notification. Deciding things couldn’t be that easy, he went back to inspecting the waterfall. He was trying to see if there was some way to get behind it. But it didn’t seem to be possible and there was no way he was going to swim under it. The current was way too strong. Besides, he didn’t think he could swim in his armor. Thinking maybe there was a hidden path or illusionary wall, he walked over to the Dungeon wall and started tapping on the stone with his hand. He was just about to give up, not wanting to get any closer to the water falling from above, when to his surprise, his hand went through the rock.

Stepping back, Steven looked at the solid rock wall. It looked perfectly normal. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but in games the illusionary wall would vanish, shimmer, or do something. Regardless if this world had game like mechanics, he had to remember it was not a game. Walking back over, he stuck his hand into solid stone again. It looked as if he was missing an arm. Pulling it back out, he looked at his arm. He hoped this wasn’t a trap. He was just fixing to step into the illusion wall when he decided to kick a zombie in first. Pulling a zombie out of his inventory, he kicked it and sent it stumbling into the illusion. Steven waited for a few seconds and was just fixing to step in when he received a notification.

Defeated level 6 zombie.

Essence gained 28.

Steven whirled around, eyes wide. “What the hell. Gideon if that’s you, could you please not. I’m trying to survive this dungeon, and this overwhelming sense of you watching me is really distracting.”

Steven had no idea if it was Gideon, but it had a similar feeling, although not nearly as intense. But that could be because the angel was only spying on him and not here in person. After waiting for a response to no avail, he got back to the illusion. He wanted to stick his head in there to see what was going on, but thought better of it. After all, that zombie had died. He would see if he could get rid of a few more zombies first. Hopefully, they would deal with whatever sort of trap was on the other side. Steven was sure it was a trap, as if it was some sort of dungeon monster. It shouldn’t kill its own kind. Or at least that’s what he assumed. Kicking another zombie in the illusion, he received another notification.

Defeated level 8 zombie.

Essence gained 37

“Alrighty then, let’s begin.”

Steven still had fifty-four zombies and was more than happy to kick them all in there. Once they stopped dying, he would go in and see what was going on. If he ran out, he would just collect more zombies and kick them in. After all, this was much easier than stabbing them.

“What in the seven hells is happening? Is this spacial magic? Where is he sending my zombies? How can he just will them where ever he wants? This is absurd! And how the fuck did he find that old part of the dungeon?” Sorin shouted at one of his servants.

“M-my lord, I’m sorry, but I do not know the answers. I am just as baffled as you are. My only guess is that he is working for another Dungeon lord, or perhaps the Church of the Light.”

“Send someone to find out! I want answers! How can a level one have a Domain not to mention just waltz into my dungeon acting like he owns the place and start mysteriously zapping away all my undead?” Sorin said, as paced back and forth in his throne room.

Sorin was furious. This was the second time his domain had been contested this year. Most Dungeon lords never had their domains threatened at all. He had never recovered from the first time. He had barely fought off the old wizard that tried to take his domain. If Sorin was telling the truth, the wizard just gave up and left when they met in the main hall. The old wizard just turned and walked away. Sorin’s servants thought it was because the wizard feared him. But Sorin knew better. After that, he made a contract with an Elder Demon to serve as the boss monster for his dungeon.

Sorin did not know how the wizard could simply walk away from a contested domain. It shouldn’t be possible, no matter how powerful he was. He just hoped he would never see that old man again. Sorin would never forget the look the human gave him. It was as if he wasn’t worth killing.

“Where is that Demon Zargwrath?” Sorin asked his Wisp.

“I believe he is in the boss room, Master.”

“Well, fetch him. Immediately.”

“Uh. My lord, I- I’m sorry, but your domain is being contested.”

“And!” Sorin said, dragging the word out.

“Well, when a domain is being contested, you can not communicate or move forces between floors.” The Wisp’s pink light faded sightly as she spoke.

Sorin stood up and backhanded one of the skeletal knights across his throne room before turning to the Wisp. “I do not! Need you. To explain. How my dungeon works,” Sorin said in a forceful calm manner, “I AM DUNGEON LORD SORIN!” Sorin kicked a treasure chest causing gold and jewels to scatter across the floor, the undead guards not flinching in the slightest. He then went and sat back down on his throne.

There were still ten floors and an Elder Demon this Domain holder would have to get through before he could even reach him. That, however, didn’t give Sorin much solace, as he was getting a bad feeling about this human.

He focused back on the human, who was casually kicking his zombies into one of the illusionary walls. Sorin fumed as zombie after zombie was kicked into the room. Not only did Sorin have to spend resources to create more undead, he had to wait till the Domain holder was out of the dungeon before he could create anymore. Meanwhile, the human continued to gain essence.

“How the fuck did he find that entrance!” Sorin took a deep calming breath, “Sill, please find out everything you can on this Domain holder.”

“Yes Master, I will go speak with the council of Wisps.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Do it!” Sorin demanded.

“And the matter of the price, my Lord?” The Wisp asked.

Sorin paled slightly but did his best to hide it. “Ill pay it. Now go!”

Thirty-three zombies and eight hundred and ninety-six essence later, the zombies quite dying. He had kicked three more in after the fact just to be on the safe side, but didn’t gain any more essence.

Deciding to get as many levels as he could before he went through the illusion. He opened his stat page and began leaving up, but he was only able to level twice.

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

Level -4

Available Attribute ~2

Essence- 458

Essence required for next level 623.

HP ~ 70

Stamina ~ 40

Mana ~ 115

Poise ~ 0

Vitality ~ 7

Endurance ~ 4

Strength ~ 4

Dexterity ~ 4

Resistance ~ 7

Spirit ~ 11

“Seems it’s going to be a grind to get to level ten.” He now understood why Sirus was so irritated when he was ordered to get him to level ten.

Steven had an absurd ability against the undead and it was still a grind to level. Not only that, the essence required seemed to be completely random or just beyond his math skills. Pushing those thoughts aside, Steven placed one point into spirit as his plan was to become a mage after all, and placed his remaining point into dexterity, then selected yes. Steven’s eyes widened when he saw the jump in mana he got from that single point. It had been one fifteen and now was one forty-seven. This must be what Eve was telling him. Everyone had one attribute that they were more attuned with his must be spirit which is exactly what he needed to become a mage. He would need to place more points there, although the first time he only received fifteen mana. He resolved to keep an eye on it.

He now had enough mana he could test out his Angelic death ability without the side effect of a migraine. Though he had to be careful and not keep the ability active as it would drain one hundred mana every second to slow time. Steven tried to remember what happened when the ability triggered last time, but the only thing he could remember clearly was the pain and, well, the sword falling exactly ten feet behind his opponent.

“Focus on the task at hand!” Taking a deep breath, Steven focused on the illusionary wall.

“Lets do this.” Steven sighed, then walked right up to the illusionary wall and stuck his head in. As quickly as he put his head in, he pulled it out. “Well, fuck me!”

Steven pulled out the water pipe, then took a couple of hits while wincing at his dwindling supplies. “Well, I probably shouldn’t have taken two hits. But what the hell.” Steven mumbled as he took a few steps back and ran towards the illusionary wall, jumping right as he entered.

He landed on a small island of sorts. Looking back at the illusionary entrance, Steven looked down at the dozens of zombies in the pit trap. Most were dead, but the last three were just crawling around on top of the others, trying to climb up the pit towards him. He didn’t need to worry about that, as the pit was entirely too deep for them to get out.

If he would have just stepped in through the illusion, he would had fell and died on impact. Steven then turned his attention to the scene in front of him. A narrow path lead to a staircase leading out of sight. Steven was sure something good would be there. The path itself was no wider than his forearm, and on either side was a pit filled with spikes. There were also two massive axes swinging back and forth across the path. To top it all off, there was also a skeleton with a bow on the other side of the swinging axes.

The skeleton didn’t seem to notice him yet. He assumed it would probably start shooting at him at the worst possible time. How he wished he had a range ability. Now that he was thinking about it, what was the range on his ability? He really needed to practice his ability. Expanding the distance of things didn’t seem all that useful, but if he could move a person ten feet in any direction, that could be devastating.

Could he just move the skeleton forward and have it fall into the pit? Excited at the possibility of his ability, he tried to activate it, but got the feeling he was too far away. Carefully he stepped onto the path and inched closer till he was only a few feet in front of the axes. The skeleton continued to look off into space, not moving in the slightest. When he tried to activate his ability on the skeleton this time, he received a prompt but immediately minimized it. He couldn’t afford to be distracted on this narrow path. Inching back to solid ground, he checked to make sure the skeleton wasn’t fixing to shoot him and opened the notification.

Can not target living or undead beings that are higher level than you.

“Well, that’s good to know, a bit inconvenient. But at least I know it’s possible.”

With that, Steven held his hand over the pit and began dropping zombies into the pit below. Smiling as the easy xp rolled in.

“I’ll have to remember this place.” Steven said, as he dropped zombie after zombie down to the pit. He decided to keep ten. They were great for testing traps after all and could be useful to have on hand. Which allowed him to drop eleven zombies in the pit. Though he still got a sense of unease at leaving zombies in his inventory too long. It was as if the zombies were stinking up his inventory. Pushing those thoughts aside, he leveled up and placed his point in Spirit. He then glanced at the skeleton. Seeing it was still oblivious to his presence, he looked over his stat page.

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

Level -5

Available Attribute~0

Essence- 99

Essence required for next level 867.

HP ~ 70

Stamina ~ 40

Mana ~ 173

Poise ~ 0

Vitality ~ 7

Endurance ~ 4

Strength ~ 4

Dexterity ~ 5

Resistance ~ 7

Spirit ~ 13

He needed to ask someone if he was getting a lot of mana from his spirit attribute or if this was just normal. Steven felt like he was getting a lot of mana, but wasn’t exactly sure. He also needed to find something worth more essence. All the zombies were in the low to high twenties and it took a lot of them to level up at this point. Closing his stat page, he looked at the skeleton. “And how much essence are you worth?”

The skeleton, however, didn’t answer or even acknowledge Steven’s question. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to set the bow down and jump into that pit for me?”

Seeing as the skeleton wasn’t going to make this easy for him, he inched back out on the pathway. He assumed the skeleton would start shooting at him when he reached a certain point. It would probably be when he was in-between the swinging axes. But he didn’t need to get that far to activate his ability. As soon as he was close enough, he tried to activate his ability again, only to receive another prompt. Minimizing it immediately, he made his way back to solid ground and read over it.

Can not target living or undead beings that are higher level than you.

He had hoped the skeleton would have been at a lower level than him now.

“Yeah, okay then. Time to try something else.”

Slowly making his way back out on the path he focused on the two axes, Steven then used his ability. He tried to break one of them by moving off its hinges, but nothing happened. He focused on the axe, moving ten feet towards the dungeon wall, but again, nothing. He then opened up his shard page and read over it again. He was clearly missing something.

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

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 eyes suddenly widened. Of course, he had to target two things. It was so simple If he wanted to drop the skeleton in the pit, he would have to target a specific spot to move the skeleton from. Although that didn’t help him as the skeleton was still a higher level than him, but if he targeted the axe and the celling.

A second later, the axe slowed to a crawl and then just appeared hovering over the pit for a split second before falling down below with an echoing crash. Steven had released the ability as quickly as he could, but still fell to one knee, nearly falling off the path. His head pounded. He tried to ignore it till he made it to solid ground. Feeling dizzy, he decided to crawl back.

Once he made it to solid ground, he fell over to his back, holding his head. Glancing at his mana, he noticed it was at zero. He tried to pull a potion from inventory but it failed and sent shock waves of pain through his head, making it twice as painful. Steven could do nothing but hold his head in sheer agony while curled up in the fetal position.

Steven eventually opened his eyes. His head still pounding, but now it was just a normal migraine. He had no idea how long he had been out of it. Looking at his mana, it was now at seven. His dark vision only had four hours and forty mins left, but he ignored that at the moment.

He would like to figure out how quickly his mana regenerated. But that too was for another time. He opened his inventory and pulled out a mana potion. Before he used it, he glanced back at his mana. Just as he thought, his mana was down to six. He chugged the mana potion and watched as his mana bar steadily crawl up. As it did, the pressure on his mind lifted. Steven also got a little timer next to his mana bar for three hours. He assumed that was how long it would be before he could use anther mana potion. Even the thought of taking another one made him feel a bit nauseas. It was also good to know that pulling things out of inventory used mana. It was only a single mana, but that single mana could be all the difference, as he just experienced.

“Mana crash is no joke.”

Hitting zero mana was painful, but trying to use mana when you didn’t have any would cause him to pass out. He was just glad he didn’t try and pull out a mana potion while on the path. Steven shook his heads while taking a deep breath to clear his mind.

“Oh, and by the way, thanks for not shooting me. And no hard feelings when I use one of your bones as a torch handle.” The skeleton didn’t respond. It just stood there without a care in the world. Well, that was till Steven got into its aggro range. Then it would go crazy. He was lucky that’s how it worked here or he would be dead.

Steven opened his inventory to count how many mana potions he had. His inventory was a bit too organized if you asked him. He would have rather everything be in one place. Instead, there were several different tabs inside his inventory. It seemed to just create new tabs for each type of thing he placed in there. Though if he thought about what he wanted, then he didn’t have to deal with the tabs and the item would just appear in his hand. But to do that, he had to know what was in his inventory. Mentally opening the potions tab, Steven read over what he had.

-Potions

Dark vision x2

Healing x3

Stamina x2

Mana x2