Random Portals

“Well, I’m a complete idiot.” Steven said with a goofy grin on his face.

Steven was relieved and felt like an idiot at the same time. He had more dark vision potions this whole time, only two, but he was more than happy for them. He also noticed if he focused on an item while inside his inventory, he received a brief description.

The health potion was a basic healing potion healing up to one hundred and fifty health over a minute and a half. Mana was also basic, but it only restored mana up to one hundred and took three mins to complete. Stamina was the oddest out of the bunch. It instantly filled the stamina bar to max and prevented the loss of mana for three minutes, but afterwards, it would halve stamina regeneration for the next three hours.

Steven hadn’t even paid any attention to stamina. He noticed it slowly go down when he fought zombies but it never reached half so he had just ignored the bar. It was easy to forget the bars were even there, as they were barely visible until he focused on them. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t really even fought anything yet. Not really, anyway. He had just been placing the zombies in storage and cheesing them to death, other than the first two.

Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, he tried to think of the best way the deal with the single axe and skeletal archer. Having only one axe swinging was significantly better than two, but he didn’t want any swinging axes. And no way in hell was he going to use his ability again till he had tons of mana. Steven was starting to realize how good his ability was. He just didn’t have time to stop it before it drained all his mana. He really needed to find someone to train him in mana control. Hopefully, all abilities weren’t this difficult. Looking back at the narrow path. He groaned. This was by far the hardest thing he had done so far. The spikes in the bottom of the pit were not helping, but at least it wasn’t as high up as the bridge he had jumped off.

“There better be some good loot back there!” Steven mumbled.

Eve had gave him some sort of throwing potions, so he went to open his inventory but remembered he placed those in his storage pocket. It only held three items and was now completely useless compared to his inventory ability. Pulling out the jars he looked them over.

“Well, that’s dumb. No description.”

It turned out his inventory was also a pseudo identification ability. He just had to place whatever he wanted to identify in his inventory. Placing the three jar looking bottles in his inventory, he found them under the throwable tab. They were apparently root snares and would grow roots out and entangle the target for up to sixty seconds, depending on the target’s strength. Steven imagined stronger foes could break out almost immediately. He also had a single potion bottle called ghost fire, but it gave no description other than this potion feeds on undead.

Steven was getting a bad feeling about his inventory ability. It seemed extremely powerful, and it was hard for him to believe that the chaos angel would give him such an ability without wanting something in return. It didn’t even use a shard slot. “Problem for another time, I suppose.”

Eventually, he started forming a plan to deal with the skeletal archer. It was a simple plan. He would use one of the root snare throwables and hopefully tangle up the skeleton and then run past the single swinging axe. If it looked like the skeleton would shoot him before he got close enough to throw the jar, he would just pull out a zombie in front of him to take the arrow, then simply pull it back into inventory. Not wanting to stay in this room any longer, Steven inched out on to the path. It was around forty feet to the other side. The remaining axe was swinging back-and-forth close to the center. He made his way across, keeping low on the path as it made him feel more comfortable.

When he made it past where the first axe had been, he seen the skeletal archer become alert. It didn’t seem to notice him yet, but instead of just standing there, it was now moving its head side to side. Steven wasn’t sure if he could hit the skeleton from this distance, especially with the axe swinging back and forth, but he didn’t want the skeleton shooting arrows at him. Pulling out the root snare that was basically a glass jar of roots filled with some sort of liquid, he took aim.

He hoped this would work. Waiting for the axe to go by, he tossed it in an underhand throw at the skeleton’s feet. It landed just as he planned. Unfortunately, the jar didn’t break and just rolled next to the skeleton.

The skeleton, on the other hand, wasn’t going to be outsmarted and jumped backwards, then took aim and shot at this new threat. The arrow missed, and it readied another arrow, only to miss that shot as well. At this point, Steven was starting to think the skeleton wasn’t really a threat after all. Not wanting to waste the distraction, he took a deep breath, waited for the axe to swing by, and froze up. He had a good few seconds to get past the slow swinging axe, but he was having a hard time building up the courage. Glancing back at the skeleton, he noticed three arrows stuck in the ground around the jar and the skeleton was getting ready for another shot. Steven did his best to pump himself up. Suddenly he scrambled towards the axe as quickly as he could while screaming a battle cry.

Steven didn’t even realize that he was screaming until his throat and his entire body seized up. He was directly in the axe's path and all his muscles would do was twitch slightly. He stared wide eyed at the skeleton who was now trying to decide which was the greater threat, Steven or the jar of roots. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been for the massive axe that was fixing to cleave him in two. He willed himself to move, but he was frozen in place. A timer with a picture of a lightning bolt appeared next to his health bar.

Several things happened in the next moment. As the axe was about to make contact with Steven, time slowed to a crawl, or it was more accurate to say Steven, and the axe slowed. Suddenly, the axe shot away from him and fell into the pit below. Then his muscles began to tingle as the timer reached zero. He was slowly regaining movement, then an arrow slammed into his shoulder, knocking him off balance and into the spiked pit.

Steven suddenly appeared on the path, breathing hard. Another arrow flew over him and survival instincts kicked in. Steven stood up clutching at his shoulder that now had an arrow in it. With his other hand, he pulled out a zombie just in time for an arrow to thunk into it. He had planned to send it back to inventory, but to his surprise, the zombie took off towards the skeleton but fell into the pit after only a few steps.

Defeated level 5 zombie.

Essence gained 25.

Quickly minimizing the prompt, he made it a few more steps before he saw the skeleton began to aim again. Steven pulled out another zombie to take the arrow for him, but the skeleton completely missed. The zombie tried to turn towards him, so he pulled it back into inventory.

He was almost across by the time the skeleton readied its bow again. With each movement, Steven felt agonizing pain shoot through his body, but he did his best to ignore it just a little longer. Pulling out another zombie as the skeleton shot, it slammed into the zombie. Again, the zombie took off towards the skeleton. This time, the zombie made it the rest of the way and began trying to tackle and bite the skeleton. Steven would normally be curious to see the end result of this fight, but he had an arrow in his shoulder. Walking over, he placed the zombie, followed by the skeleton, into inventory. Pulling out a healing potion, he nearly dropped it from trembling so badly. He could feel the arrow inside him. It didn’t look like it went too deep because of the leather armor. But it sure felt like it went all the way through him. He knew he would have to pull the arrow out before he used the potion, but he couldn’t stop trembling at the thought of it.

Gripping the arrow with both hands, he screamed a ragged battle cry as he ripped the arrow from his body. It was more of a whimper than a battle cry, but no one was around to say any different. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to drink the potion or pour it over the wound, but as he had armor on that was a pain to take off, he just chugged it and hoped for the best. Within seconds, the pain started to recede, and he began to take deep breaths to calm himself.

That had been the closest to dying he had ever experienced. His hands were still trembling as he pulled out his water pipe. Steven was saving what he had for a special occasion. But this seemed like a good one. He only had enough for maybe three or four more uses.

He knew he should probably not be getting high in this place, but he needed to calm down, or at least that’s what he told himself. Remembering he had a health bar, he looked at it, but it was nearly full at this point. Steven supposed he would never know how close he came to dying. His Amulet of the Forsaken plunge Sirus gave him also saved his life there. If he would have remembered it, he wouldn’t have been so freaked out of falling.

Standing up, Steven looked around for traps. He didn’t see any obvious ones other than the pressure plate he had stepped on. There was a bow on the ground and three arrows stuck in the ground next to his root snare jar. It was a bit cracked, so he carefully reached down and sent it to inventory, along with the arrows. Walking over, he placed the bow into his inventory, then he turned towards the stairs carved into the cave wall leading up.

Once at the top of the stairs, Steven went into a small cavelike room. Three chests lined the side of the wall and a lightly glowing blue arch way lit up in the back.

Steven looked at the three chests warily. He really hoped one of those wasn’t a mimic. If it was a mimic, then it most likely wouldn’t be undead, meaning he couldn’t just place it into his inventory. And mimics were his bane, he had been killed by those mobs more than anything else.

Suddenly, he got an idea. Walking to the side of the chest as far as he could get from the lid, he hesitantly touched one finger to the chest. To his relief, it immediately went to inventory. Walking over to the next chest, he sent it to inventory as well. When he tried to send the last one, it didn’t work. Steven tried it one more time before a chill ran down his spine and he slowly backed away. Keeping an eye on the chest, he made his way to the lightly glowing door arch.

He placed his hand on what he assumed was a barrier to the next floor. As soon as he touched it, he received a prompt. He Immediately minimized it to look back at the chest. Once he realized the mimic wasn’t going to attack him, he opened it and quickly read over the prompt.

Would you like to enter the second floor of the, Undead Dungeon Yes/No?

Selecting yes, Steven stared warily at the remaining treasure chest till he felt his body getting sucked through the barrier.

Steven stood in another cave room similar to when he first entered the dungeon, although this room only had a single tunnel leading out. Turning back to the barrier, he wondered if it was a portal or did he just get sucked through the barrier.

He couldn’t see anything and didn’t think it was all that important, so he just turned his attention to the tunnel in front of him.

“But first loot!” He tried to see what was in the chest while in his inventory, but it didn’t seem to work that way.

He pulled the chest out of inventory while hoping it wasn’t some sort of undead mimic, though if it was, he could just send it back to inventory.

Hesitantly opening the chest, he was happy to find several items inside.

Two scrolls, a sword with a bone handle and a single ring with a few silver coins scattered at the bottom. Pulling everything into inventory, including the now empty chest, he opened the next chest. The second chest was similar, although this chest only had two items and a few loose coins. A single shard along with a lightly glowing green staff that made Steven’s eyes bulge. Oh, how he would love to cast magic. He Immediately sent everything to inventory and pulled up the staff’s description.

Staff of Nature’s Blight

Rarity- Unique

~ Effect]- Cast a blighted root snare that entangles all enemies in a 20 foot radius dealing blight damage to all enemies in area of effect.

~ Requirement]- Death shard.

~ Cost]- 420 mana per cast. Cast per day 2.

(Note- This staff has been corrupted by undeath. It was once wielded by a Dryad and sole guardian of the forest of Gia before she became corrupted by undeath and turned all that she guarded into a swamp land spanning hundreds miles in every direction.)

Steven blinked at the description. It differed greatly from the other descriptions he had read. For one, this one had a requirement, but maybe all weapons did. Whatever the case, he thought his shard may meet the requirements, since it had death in the name. The problem was the mana cost it was ridicules, and he only got two casts a day. And what was with the odd note at the bottom?

All in all, the staff was awesome and extremely powerful, or so he thought. Area of effect spells were always good. It also looked pretty cool in a simple way. It was a smooth solid black staff aside from the few words engraved on it. Steven couldn’t make heads or tails of the dimly glowing words.

He closed the description. He couldn’t use it anyway. Four twenty was a bit out of his reach at the moment, but he could reach it if he kept putting points in spirit. Also, four twenty was a great number. He turned his attention to the shard. He would need another one soon for when he reached level ten. Although he should be careful, the Elders may get angry with him, they really wanted him to use their shard for some reason. But did he really want those old farts to dictate his abilities?

Steven began pulling up the descriptions of his new items. Starting with the shard description.

Shard of Undeath

“Yep, definitely not using that!” Steven said. He didn’t understand why anyone would use that, especially after reading the note on the staff. Steven quickly dismissed the description, not that there was much of a description. Next, he pulled up the description of the sword.

Bone sword of weight

Rarity- Rare

~ Effect]- Can add or remove weight to blade.

~Cost]- Pay 60 stamina to add 10 pounds.

~ Requirement]- 28 Strength 14 Dexterity

“Oh, come on! Is there nothing I can use? I hate these dam daggers!” Irritated and curious what his daggers description actually was, he pulled them up for comparison.

Crudely enchanted Dagger

Rarity- Uncommon

~ Effect]- Deals poison. Damage is determined by targets vitality, high enough vitality may void all poison damage.

~Cost]- None

~ Requirement]- 2 Strength 3 Dexterity

“Well, these daggers totally suck!” He had been starting to think they were pretty good as they did okay against the zombies, but he would bet they had extremely low vitality if they even had any.

The bone sword was basic and powerful. If he had enough stamina he could add tons of weight mid swing. But he didn’t even meet the requirements. He pulled out the sword and played around with it a bit, but it felt awkward in his hands and he knew better than to try and activate the effect.

Just the thought of activating it gave him a dreadful feeling. Besides, he had learned his lesson from bottoming out his mana. He thought of pulling out the staff to look at, but there was no point. He didn’t even have half the required mana.

Lightning scroll x2

Rarity- Unknown

~ Effect]- Create a lightning spell over target area.

~Cost]- 50 mana per second. Up to 4.2 seconds.

~ Requirement]- None.

(Note- Affected area and damage of scroll is determined by the creator of scroll.)

Finally, something he could use, although he could only use it for three seconds at the moment, but he was still happy about something he could use. He was really hoping the ring was good. He still had an open slot for that.

Ring of summons

Rarity- Unique

~Effect]- Once per day summon a being to aid you in battle for five minutes.

(Note- level of summon may vary.)

Steven’s eyes widened. Now, this was something useful. The part about the level varying was odd, but Steven pulled the ring out and placed it on his finger. He also pulled up the description of the silver coins that he now had twelve of, but all it said was silver coin. The coins all had a picture of a tree on one side and a river on the other.

With all the loot taken care of, Steven cautiously made his way to the tunnel. He had really hit the jackpot with the treasure even if it was just the ring he felt it would have been worth it.

This tunnel also had the stone tiles on the floor. He was worried that it was going to be some sort of trap. Why else would it be there? The first floor, having nothing, was probably meant to have him let his guard down.

Steven was getting increasingly tired as he made his way down the tunnel, checking each tile. The sound of the waterfall lightly echoed through the tunnel, it sounded as he was getting further away from it. Once he made it to the end of the tunnel, he saw several skeletons with bows, some with swords, axes, and other weapons.

Several of the skeletons had random pieces of armor. Sighing, he made his way back to the entrance. It was as good of a place to take a nap as any. He was exhausted, and really didn’t want to sleep on the cold, hard floor with skeletons nearby. But he didn’t have a choice. Scarfing down a plate of food, he tried to get comfortable on the dungeon floor. The glow of the barrier leading back to the hidden room also made it hard to go to sleep.

“I should have taken that damn bed!”

Steven woke up to complete darkness. He looked around in a panic until he remembered where he was and what was happening. Pulling out a dark vision potion, he only drank half of it this time. He was happy to find he gained roughly twelve hours. He didn’t see the point of wasting it while he was asleep, after all.

Steven was trying to decide the best way to approach the skeletons when he remembered the way the zombie reacted when the skeleton shot it. Which gave Steven an idea of how to deal with all the armed skellies. He just wished he had more zombies. Now that he thought about it, why couldn’t he get more?

Walking over, he placed his hand on the barrier.

Would you like to enter the first floor of, Undead Dungeon Yes/No?

Steven selected yes.

He decided to drop the remaining undead into the spike pit. He was about to go get a bunch more anyway, and he wanted to get closer to the next level. Remembering he also had the skeleton, he dropped it over the side as well.

Defeated level 9 skeletal archer.

Essence gained 53.

Steven smiled at that he had really needed a new source of essence to level, and this skeleton was worth roughly twice as much as the zombies. Checking his stat page real quick, he saw he was now three sixty-five out of eight sixty seven.

Ready as he could be, he headed out of the secret path to get as many zombies as he could find.