Random Portals

Steven slowly crawled out of bed. Yesterday had been a failure; he didn’t reach level one, nor was he able to clear his mind and focus on mana. He had searched for a book about mana, but there were just so many books, and he couldn’t even reach most of them. Though he was sure he would find it, he had access to a literal wizard’s library, after all. He did find a book about portals he was curious about; maybe he would get to that today. But first, some food, and to reach level one.

After taking a long drag from his pipe, he made his way down the stairs and began scrounging around in the magical cabinets. It was strange how the cabinets weren’t even warm, but the plates stayed hot. Most of the food seemed to be the same. Steak or fish and a baked potato; some of the plates had beans and a few things Steven had no idea what it was. But there wasn’t much to choose from, despite there being a tremendous amount of it. Deciding to have fish and some sort of bean, he sat down to eat while thinking about casting spells. He wanted to feel the magic flow through his fingertips. If only he had magic, those damned mosquitoes wouldn’t be able to fly away.

Steven was determined he would make it to level one today! He didn’t need more than a dozen mosquitoes. Today was the day he would get to access his stat page and learn how this system worked. Then he could figure out how to cast spells. He would travel further out if he had to; nothing was going to stop him today. Well, except for that disgusting swamp water, no way in hell was he getting into that. He shivered at just the thought of it.

Making his way outside, he looked around, trying to figure out what direction to hunt the mosquitoes in. It was still dark out, but he could see a bit of light peeking through the tree canopy. The domain’s barrier covered roughly the size of a football field, or at least that’s what Steven presumed. Not all sides had dry land, however, and a good section of one side went directly into swamp water. Which was where he was currently looking. He thought he had seen a head pop out of the water, but the barrier made everything just a bit hazy. He looked out for several minutes but never saw anything, and he chalked it up to his imagination.

Steven took a long drag from his pipe and then made his way to a section of the barrier that was attached to dry land.

“Mosquito killing time.”

Would you like to leave Blanks Sanctuary at this time, Yes/No?

(Note: Blanks Sanctuary will lose its illusion barrier for 24 hours. Other defensive measures will remain in place.)

Standing on the other side of the barrier, Steven froze. There were dozens of mosquitoes flying around a puddle with some sort of plant growing out of it. Slowly, he crept forward. If he could just get a few, it would be a success.

As soon as he got within a few feet of the puddle, it was as if the mosquitoes all turned to look at him at once before flying away. He darted forward, slapping his hands together, trying to get even one before they flew over the swamp water and out of reach. A red dot in the corner of his vision lit up twice, informing him of two more kills.

“Well, that’s two more down, at least.”

Steven walked around for a good while in search of more before he finally gave up for the moment. He went back into the barrier and just waited to see if the mosquitoes would come back to the plant. As he waited, he looked over his latest notifications.

Defeated level 0 mosquito.

Essence gained 1.

89 out of 100 essences to level 1

Defeated level 0 mosquito.

Essence gained 1.

90 out of 100 essences to level 1

It took nearly an hour, but the puddle was full of mosquitoes again. He tried the same approach, but as soon as he got within ten feet of the puddle, it was as if all the mosquitoes collectively turned towards him and flew away. After this happened a couple more times and Steven cursed the heavens. Then an idea struck him.

“Wait, this is what they think happened to Shirem?”

“Yes. Now hurry before he goes back into the barrier.”

“I think the Elders are mistaken about this. There is no way that could be Shirem. He is a human!”

“You would be wise to not question the Elders, Kishrot.”

“Yes, yes, I know, but do you really think some sort of magic could force Shirem into that? I mean, what is he even doing? Chasing after mosquitoes pretending to be crocodiles?” Kishrot said, gesturing towards the human.

“Maybe that wizard turned him so he wouldn’t be a threat.”

“If that’s the case, the wizard did more than just turn him! Do you think there is even anything we can do for his mind at this point?”

“It is not our place to question the Elders. Just use your ability on the human so we can report back.”

“Okay, okay, I’m on it.”

“Well, it looks like we will have to wait for him to come back out of the barrier now.”

“Don’t look at me like it’s my fault; we weren’t close enough for me to activate it anyway!” Kishrot said, “Why would the wizard give him access to his barrier anyway?”

“I don’t know! What I do know is that now we must wait because you were too slow; hopefully we don’t have to stay out here all night.”

It had taken Steven a couple of hours, but he had rigged up a simple trap above the puddle. He had even picked a few plants that looked similar from inside the barrier and placed them around the small puddle, hoping they would draw in more mosquitoes. The hardest part of his makeshift trap was finding rope. He ended up using a couple of sheets from the beds in the tree house. Using a knife from the kitchen, he cut the strips off and now had them tied to a few sticks he found. His plan was to wait for the mosquitoes to go into his trap, then pull the rope, dropping the sheet on the mosquitoes, then run over and squish them. He only hoped the mosquitoes would go under the sheet, as it wasn’t very high.

Steven had been lying on his stomach, staring at his trap, for what seemed like an hour. He was hot and sweaty and was becoming frustrated. He saw a couple of mosquitoes go into the trap, but he wanted to wait until there were enough of them to reach level one. Though he couldn’t be sure if it was mosquitoes that flew in or some other bugs. The problem was that he didn’t have a good vantage point, and maybe he should have used more sticks to make it bigger. Whatever the case, he was going to reach level one today!

He was trying to decide if he should leave and come back later or set the trap off and see what he got. When suddenly he felt something prick his neck, then something grabbed his leg and began to drag him towards the swamp water. His eyes widened in fear, and he tried to do something, anything, but his vision began to tunnel, and darkness took him before he could even kick at whatever grabbed him.

Katarina was completely lost; she was wearing the face of this ridiculous human that had trapped her and her master in this world at the most inopportune time. War was brewing, and they didn’t have time for this. That idiot had to just run right into the portal. They wouldn’t make that mistake again. Their only saving grace was that this world apparently had some powerful mage warriors; she only needed to find where they were.

There were humans everywhere in this strange stone-and-glass town. Though no one seemed to take her seriously when she asked about the mage warriors, maybe it was the face she was wearing; it wouldn’t surprise her. Steven was most likely the village idiot, and everyone kept their distance and did their best to ignore him. It was just their luck that the portal randomly opened in front of that guy. Kat was still unsure why Blank had to recruit the first person from this world he had seen, but that was his choice, she supposed.

She didn’t like wearing this face, but this was the face she was told to wear, so she would use it for now. If nothing else, she could at least get some food. The massive buildings made her feel small; she had never seen anything like this before, and she had been to several worlds. This world had some odd architecture, and she didn’t understand how the buildings didn’t fall over; it seemed like an absurd cost if they were using mana stones to keep them up. Especially with how weak the mana was here. It would take a tremendous amount of mana stones, not to mention most seemed to have lights that used up even more mana. She had asked several people on the street about it, along with where to find the mage Goku, but they only looked at her like she was an idiot. But she couldn’t get upset with them; after all, she was wearing the face of the village idiot, so she could understand.

There were just so many people that it shouldn’t be possible for all of them to know this face. Kat was starting to understand why the human ran through the portal without a thought. She was even starting to feel sorry for the guy, seeing as how everyone treated him. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath while trying not to think of the village idiot. There were plenty of other interesting things to look at. Kat was staring curiously at the metal carriages on the street when she got a whiff of something enticing and immediately started in that direction. She almost sprouted wings and flew there, but she was meant to be Steven, and he didn’t have wings, so she just walked at a fast pace. Her nose led her to a glass building. Walking towards the doors, they opened upon her approach.

“What a waste of mana stones.” She mumbled.

Her mood changed immediately once the smell filled her nose. She shivered in anticipation as her mouth began to water. Inside the building was a man handing out food to people in a line. There were several other lines with food vendors, but Kat only had eyes for this line. The sign read, Mr. Chen’s Wok Express. Kat thought the name was weird but didn’t care what the name was, if the food was as good as it smelled. She was tempted to bring this guy back to the domain with her.

Promptly getting in line, she observed the others in front of her. They seemed to be giving the man green paper or placing some sort of thin object into a device. Kat was confused, but she stayed in line anyway. She had gold and silver; no matter the world, it should always be worth something; that’s what mana stones were made of, after all. In the worst-case scenario, she would offer this Chen fellow a weak shard, though she would have to keep that from Blank. On second thought, she should only offer silver or gold. She didn’t want to cause a ruckus; shards were quite rare even in her home world. Soon, she was at the front of the line.

“What can I get for you, sir?”

A manic grin fell over Kat’s face, and her eyes turned predatory. She then began to point out things that she wanted. Mr. Chen even let her taste a few things. Her eyes rolled back, and a shiver ran down her spine when she tried something the man called orange chicken. After pointing out numerous items, the man’s eyebrows rose, but he packaged up all the food, only asking the size she wanted for each dish. Kat told him the biggest he had each time.

“And how many drinks would you like with that, sir?” Mr. Chen asked.

“Two will suffice. Milk and wine, thank you,” Kat said, barely taking her eyes off all the boxes of food.

“Uh, sir, I’m sorry. We do not have milk or wine here.” Chen said with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

“Stop goofing around; the rest of us would like to get some food as well.” A lady from the line said. Kat turned to stare daggers at the lady, but then remembered she was indeed wearing the village idiot’s face, so she just sighed and turned back to Mr. Chen.

“Just give me whatever you like; your food is absolutely divine, so I’ll take whatever you suggest.”

Mr. Chen looked at her for a moment, and then the line that was forming. He sighed before he began to fill up two cups. As he did, Kat began placing all the items into her storage space as the crowed began to mummer.

“Is this some sort of magic trick?” A man said this from the crowd.

“It’s probably for one of those influencer videos; it’s what the world has come to now.” Another voice chimed in.

“Devil magic.” A lady said,.

Chen turned around to see what all the fuss was about and froze as Kat finished placing the last few to go boxes of food in her personal storage. Her space wasn’t large, and she had to pull out a couple of large fish from her storage to fit it all, but it was definitely worth it. The fish began to flop around on the counter. At this point, just about every person in the line was pointing some sort of small rectangular device at Kat. She didn’t sense any magic coming from them, so she just turned back to Mr. Chen, who was just standing there, eyes wide and mouth ajar.

“How much do I owe you? And you can keep the fish. I didn’t have enough storage space.”

“Uhh, I umm.” To Mr. Chen, it looked as though the young man in front of him was just plucking live fish right out of the air while making the togo boxes disappear.

“Chen! What going on? Line backing up.” An older woman said as she was walking out from the back. Once she was done swapping out the containers on the display, she slapped Chen on the back of the head. “We don’t sell live fish, you numbskull!” She grabbed the two fish still flopping on the counter. “Now get back work.” She then walked back out of sight with the two fish in tow.

“Yes, ma’am!” Chen placed the two sodas on the counter. “That will be eighty-six, ninety-seven, sir,” Chen said.

Kat had no idea what that meant. She didn’t have any lesser coins on her, only silver and gold. She then handed Mr. Chen two gold coins. He stared blankly at them for a long moment. “I’m sorry, sir, we can’t accept this.”

The old women walked back out, putting more food on display. “What going on? Why you not take care of other customers?” The old woman asked.

“This gentleman is trying to pay in gold,” Chen said.

The old woman looked at the gold in Chen’s hand, and her eyes widened. To Kat’s surprise, the old lady grabbed the coins and bit into them one at a time. “Yes, yes. We accept.” The old lady said. She then shooed Kat away as she slapped Chen on the back of the head again. Kat heard the old lady yelling at Chen as she left.

“What wrong with you? We always accept gold! Is worth much more than stupid paper money.”

“But mother, that man pulled a living fish out of thin air.” Chen pleaded.

“Stop your nonsense talk and get back to work. These people are hungry. Look!” The old women gestured to the line. “They got their phones out to distract from their hunger.”

Kat liked the old lady. She respected a no-nonsense kind of person when it came to food, though it was odd that she liked to eat gold.