Random Portals

“Sirus, please explain what you mean by you lost Shirem in the dungeon.” Elder Vasuki asked.

“After Steven and I left.” Sirus started before getting interrupted.

“Steven?” Elder Vasuki asked.

“Shirem. Steven is what he wanted me to call him.”

“I see. Now explain what happen to him.” Elder Vasuki said.

“When I found the team I sent they were fighting the...” Sirus stopped talking as another Elder interrupted him.

“That is not what we asked. What happened to Shirem?”

Sirus sighed internally. “He went into the dungeon and vanished. That is all I know.”

“What do you mean, vanished?” Elder Vasuki asked, anger clearly written on his face.

“He did not appear in the dungeon with the rest of us,” Sirus said.

“How is that possible?”

“I do not know.” Sirus said hesitantly, he was becoming irritated. How was this his fault?

“Did you search for him?” Elder Vasuki asked.

“Yes, we did. As you know, the first floor is massive and there are multiple paths leading towards the second floor.”

“Are you saying you think he entered the second level?”

“Yes, I believe that is the case. As most of the zombies had wandered outside the dungeon, the first floor was significantly drained, so he might have stumbled onto a path leading to the second floor.”

“Wait, are you saying the dungeon monsters are leaving their dungeon?” Elder Vasuki asked.

“That’s preposterous!” Another Elder added.

“Agreed. Just gather more and go search for him.” Another Elder added.

“But.”

“No buts. Just do it!”

“Sirus,” Elder Vasukis said, “I know we are asking a lot of you and we appreciate your dedication to the clan. This matter with Shirem is of great importance. I’m sure you’re aware of the humans that have been spotted in our lands. We have reason to believe there will be conflict with them soon. We want you to bring Shirem out of the dungeon.”

Sirus’s eyes widened at the potential conflict. He hadn’t known this was even a possibility. Goblins, sure, but now the humans?

“I’m sure you know to keep this information to yourself. We do not want to start a panic.”

“Yes Elder Vasuki.” Sirus said, head bowed.

After the meeting, Sirus was furious. They blamed him for that damned human going missing. And wanted him to risk the lives of others to find him, and during a time the clan is threatened with war! What are they thinking? Sirus marched down the vine bridges, trying to get his emotions under control. He was the captain of the guard and had others who looked up to him. He had to act the part.

Sirus stopped by Goskia’s shop to get a few potions and other necessities before gathering an actual team to search for Steven.

“Hello Sirus, how’s the leveling going for Steven? Ive been meaning to talk to him about this new memory potion…” Goskia started.

“He is lost in the dungeon!”

“Lost in the dungeon! How is that possible?”

“I have no idea. The Elders are only interested in him because of his shard ability,” Sirus said with irritation, “oh and Goskia, let’s keep this between you and me okay. I don’t want.” Sirus stopped talking as Evesakia came running out of the back room.

“Steven is lost in the dungeon?” Evesakia asked, eyes wide with fear.

Sirus sighed. She was the last person he wanted to know about this. “What are you doing here?”

“We are working on a potion together.” Goskia said.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Eve asked. “I am more than happy to join the search.”

“We have it handled, but thank you. I am just gathering some supplies before we head out.”

Sirus got his supplies and exchanged a few more words with Goskia before he quickly left to gather a team.

“Okay, Evesakia, were where we?” Goskia asked as if nothing had happened.

“Actually, I have some things I need to do I had forgotten about,” Eve said as she gathered up her potions and ingredients.

“Off so soon? But we have barely made any head way today.” Goskia complained.

“I’ll be back, but this is urgent. I am sorry.” Eve said with an apologetic smile.

“Okay, okay. But do hurry back. And don’t worry about Steven, Sirus is quite capable.” Goskia sighed as he saw she was already running out the door.

Silviaburlaxatrix was thousands of feet under the ground in the stronghold of the Wisps. It was the pride of many Wisps to be here, but she despised the stuffy cave. She didn’t understand why they couldn’t go live up above in the forest with the fairies like the stories talked about, but the council was too fearful to leave their sanctuary.

Silviaburlaxatrix stared up at the council of Wisps waiting for the information her Dungeon Lord sent her to gather. It had been hours and Sorin would no doubt be furious with her. But it wasn’t her fault this Steven fellow was apparently from a different world. A world with hardly any magic and the wisps were having a hard time gathering information on him. So she just waited patiently. She hated working for Domain holders but that was the way of the Wisps. It’s not like she had much of a choice anyway. The look on Sorin’s face when she had to go back and tell him the Wisps wanted more life force for the knowledge would be worth it, though. Until she thought about him throwing a hissy fit. She hated Dungeon lord Sorin with all of her being. But she was stuck with him. She hoped for his death so that she could be assigned another Domain holder.

Wisps fed off the power of the Domain without it they would shrivel up and die. But she didn’t think they needed so much. It didn’t make sense. What was the council doing with all the life force? Even now there were other Wisps from various worlds waiting to ask questions, each with offerings of life force from their Domain holders and this was going on nonstop.

As she floated there and the counsel looked down at her, she realized how weak and insignificant she was. A Wisp’s power was determined by their age and Domain holder and she was quite young, especially compared to the council members. All the younger Wisps were in the same position as her. Working for Domain holders at the cost of their Domains life force, though she didn’t get to keep any of it other than just enough to survive if she could get more than maybe she could grow stronger and possibly evolve. But It all went to the council to be divided amongst themselves. Silviaburlaxatrix pushed her thoughts aside as one of the council members finally spoke up.

“Little Sill, we have gotten all the information we could on this Steven Odling. It is not much we were lucky to get what we did. The Wisps on Steven’s world are few in number and primitive, making communication difficult.”

She stared up at the council member that spoke. She didn’t know the Wisps name as only council members were privy to other members’ names. Though they all knew her name and they still called her Sill or Silly, which irritated her to no end, but there was nothing to be done about it. Silviaburlaxatrix waited for the leader to speak and tell her the information she came for.

After an unnecessarily long pause, the brightest of the Wisps finally spoke.

“This Steven Odling has the touch of the divine on him. And not by those angels pretending to be gods. I’m talking about one of the originals. I would recommend convincing your Domain holder to not interfere with him. He only has a single shard, but the name of it evades us. He did not have a domain while on his planet, which is called earth. It also seems he gained his Domain within minutes of arriving on this world. That is all the information we can get on him at this time.”

Wisps didn’t gasp but their inner lights flickered when they were surprised or frighted and nearly every Wisp lit up at once. And mummers began to break out. Silviaburlaxatrix knew it was rare for wisps to be lacking information but, she was confused why so many council members were this surprised by the matter. Didn’t they help get that information? Putting those thoughts aside for now, she spoke up.

“He has invaded the domain that belongs to my Domain holder. We have no choice but to come into conflict with him.” Silviaburlaxatrix said.

After a moment, the brightest spoke again. “Where are you located, little Sill?”

Little Sill, urg! They knew her name! Calming her thoughts, she spoke. “In the Gia swamp lands.”

“I see. Unfortunately, you are the only Wisp in that area. And the only Domain holder in that area is this Dungeon lord Sorin, other than this new arrival. So we can not help you. There hasn’t been a Domain holder with the touch of the true divinity in a very long time. Their life force is more potent than regular Domain holders. Wisps cannot handle this unfiltered life force and will go mad. Turning them into unthinking abominations at best. If he succeeds in taking Dungeon Lord Sorin’s Domain it would be the end for you. If possible, we recommend you to abandon your Domain holder and bring your true body back home. After all, you have never soul bound yourself to your Domain holder and that maybe your only saving grace.”

“Abandon my Domain holder… But… that could permanently kill me? It would be impossible to make it all the way back before my light faded!”

“It is better than the alternative.”

“But what if I can handle it? Wouldn’t it be better than to lose my light?”

“Oh, little Sill. How silly you are,” several council members laughed at this, “do you think of all the Wisps that you can handle the domain of one chosen by divinity? Do you think you’re better than all of us?” more laughter and sneering came from the council. “I doubt even our most elite could handle it. And you, a Silly little wisp still on her first evolution, thinks she could handle it?”

“I was just saying would it not be better to try than to surely cease to exist.” Silviaburlaxatrix tried to will them to understand, but the council just laughed.

“Enough!” The brightest flared. “This is no joking matter! Silviaburlaxatrix, I am sorry it has come to this. I and the council hope you succeed in coming home. Now it is time for you to leave.”

Despite the words of the brightest, Silviaburlaxatrix knew the others on the council couldn't care less if she survived. It’s not like the life force she brought in was significant. Compared to the countless worlds, the wisps occupied the world she was assigned to had a low number of Domain holders. Not to mention Sorin was considered a low tier Domain holder.

Steven’s zombie catching went smoother than he had expected. Now that he understood their aggro range and how far he had to run to make them just completely forget he existed, he was able to get every zombie around the area. He was worry of going too far away from the area he was familiar with. The last thing he wanted to do was get lost. Besides, he figured fifty eight zombies would be plenty. Part of him thought about taking the zombies and dropping them in the spike pit for levels, but it took so many of them now. And he needed them for the skeletons! At least he hoped his plan would work. If not, he would just turn them into essence.

He only had one and a half dark vision potions and he was still unsure how deep this dungeon even went.

Making his way back to the second floor, he wondered if there were multiple paths to the second floor. There were multiple paths leading from the dungeon entrance. “I wonder what Sirus is up to?” Steven mumbled. He was sure the dower Naga was somewhere cursing his name.

Peaking out at the skeletons from the tunnel entrance, he saw them all just standing perfectly still, unlike the roaming zombies. At first, he thought this floor was going to be easier, but without the skeletons randomly stumbling around, they all just stood facing the entrance. And he had no idea of their aggro range. Now that he thought about it, he did know their range, at least the range of the archer. He had gotten nearly twenty feet from the archer before it noticed him, but he didn’t know if that was all skeletons or if that changed according to levels or even how the non archers would respond. Steven counted seventeen skeletons. Although only eight of them were looking his direction.

“Why couldn’t this floor be zombies too?” Steven shushed himself. Why was he talking to himself so much? Continuing to peek out from behind the tunnel entrance, he tried to decide the best way to approach the situation.

He didn’t want to fight skeletons with weapons, though not all of them even had weapons, but more than half of them did and the majority were archers. Steven’s hand reflexively reached up to his chest, where he had gotten shot. To his surprise, the armor had nearly repaired itself. Well, at least he had that going for him.

Staying as far away as possible and sneaking towards the only skeletal archer that was away from the others, he prayed his plan would work. If not, his only escape plan was to run back to the first floor, but he wasn’t even sure if it would let him back down if he was in a combat.

Steven did his best to position himself where he could see most of the skellies while also facing the archer. He wasn’t exactly sure if this would work, but he had a strong feeling it would. Eventually, he got the archer’s attention, and the skeleton began to take aim.

Pulling out a zombie to take the arrow, Steven inwardly groaned as the shot missed and the zombie began to turn towards him. Pulling the zombie back into his inventory, he looked around wide eyed, trying to take in everything at once.

After realizing none of the other skellies noticed, he focused on the archer that was just starting to take aim again. A few seconds after pulling out the zombie shield, he heard the arrow thunk into the zombie. The zombie then started towards the archer, teeth chattering.

The skeleton went for another arrow but was tackled by the heavier zombie. After all, the zombie had a skeleton and flesh. The zombie was biting the skeleton, but it didn’t seem to affect the skeleton in the slightest.

Steven wondered where the skeleton was even getting the arrows, as he didn’t see a quiver or anything. He quickly dismissed the thought and pulled out a second zombie before he turned and made his way back to the tunnel as fast as he could. When he tucked himself back into the tunnel, he looked out at the scene before him. The zombie was still on top of the skeleton, gnawing away. The second zombie was also making its way towards the skeleton. Steven breathed a sigh of relief. He was worried the other zombies wouldn’t aggro a skeleton if it wasn’t attacked first, but it seemed he didn't need to worry.

The commotion started drawing the attention of the other skeletons. At first only the ones that were nearby, but soon there were several skeletons heading towards the two zombies. Steven wished he would have pulled out about ten zombies. But he didn’t know if it was going to work. Both zombies were on top of the single skeleton biting. It was almost funny; the zombies didn’t seem to be doing any damage, or at least there was no health bar. He wasn’t sure if that was because he wasn’t the one that done the damage or if they just weren’t doing any damage. Whatever the case, this was definitely a success. It meant his plan would work.

He tried to decide if he should pull zombies out now but thought better of it. He knew the zombies range, and he was way out of it. It didn’t take long for the armed skeletons to tear the two zombies into pieces. Steven was annoyed he didn’t gain any essence, but that would have been too easy. He waited for the skeletons to finish hacking at the zombie parts. After a short time, the skeletons began to stare off into the distance with a blank expression.

Luckily, the skeletons stayed where they were. Many were turned away from him, meaning he should be able to just send those to inventory without issue. Although that would only deal with a few of them, and he doubted they would leave their backs to him as he approached.

Not wanting to waste time, Steven spotted a lone skeletal archer. He wasn’t as confident in blocking a sword strike with a zombie, so he stuck to the archers for now. Though now that he thought about it, that could be quite useful with practice. He doubted anyone would expect a random zombie to appear mid fight to block an attack. Better yet, he wished he had some sort of way to control the undead that would be extremely useful right now, but he couldn’t complain, as he was already cheesing his way through this dungeon.

The sound of the arrow thunking into undead flesh was exactly what Steven was waiting for. The zombie began chattering its teeth and stumbling towards the skeleton. He then pulled out as many zombies as he could before the other skeletons noticed. It was slower than he thought it would be and he could only get ten of them out before he had to back up into the tunnel to hide. He had wanted to drop about thirty of them, but ten would have to do.

This time all hell broke loose as skeletons and zombies fought one another. It was an all out war at this point, or at least that’s how Steven felt. This was the largest battle he had ever seen in real life.

He was more than happy to exploit this dungeon’s weakness. This was probably why the zombies and skeletons were separated in the first place. The dungeon really shouldn’t have monsters that would fight one another. Though the zombies wouldn’t attack unless they were attacked first, and he doubted many people had a way to dump a bunch of zombies out like he could.

Steven crept just close enough to drop out more zombies. The next part of his plan was simply to pull all the skeletons into his inventory while they were preoccupied with the zombies.

Crouching down, he began to make the rounds pulling in skeletons. He was careful to only pull in the ones that were on the outskirts of the fight so the others wouldn’t notice him. Which turned out to be all archers as they stayed at the back to shoot arrows. He didn’t even have to go very far as they just lined up with their backs turned to the tunnel he was hiding in.

The skeletons were destroying the zombies, but the zombies were relentless and didn’t stop trying to bite till they were cut or smashed to pieces. After he pulled in six archers, he sent more zombies out to join the fray.

As he was sneaking around, he received a notification, but dismissed it immediately. He couldn’t afford to get distracted. In the back of his mind, he feared that at any time, both the zombies and skeletons would see him and decide to attack him instead of each other.

Continuing to sneak around, Steven had pulled in twelve skeletons. Leaving only five skeletons that were now being dog piled by the zombies. He was certain there were more skeletons just out of sight and he could only pray they wouldn’t come over.