《Random Portals》
Chapter 1: The portal
¡°Steven, turn that racket down! Some of us have to work for a living.¡±
¡°Yes ma¡¯am, I¡¯m sorry.¡±
Steven took a deep breath. He knew his aunt couldn¡¯t hear anything. He had a headset on. A headset that was supposed to be noise canceling, but that somehow didn¡¯t apply to his Aunt Margie.
It was her daily routine. When she got off work, she would open the door to the basement, yell at him to turn down the volume, and then drink till she passed out.
Steven felt bad for her, but there was nothing to be done. She didn¡¯t want to better herself and it was her life, so there was nothing he could do about it.
She didn¡¯t think his job was real. ¡°Playing video games is not a real job.¡± As she would say, but she never complained when he paid the rent with his ¡°Gaming money.¡± Not that she ever offered to help pay the rent on her house. If it wasn¡¯t for him, she would be on the street.
She was right though; it was hit and miss, but it payed the bills and he was never late for a payment. He had even saved a good bit. His plan was to get his own place, but he refused to go into debt and become a slave to the system.
Steven had always thought gaming would be his dream job. He worked hard to get where he was now, and where had that gotten him? Living in his aunt¡¯s basement at twenty-six, hoping for that next big break so he can make it big. Deep down, Steven knew he would never make it big. Year after year, the enthusiasm he used to feel towards gaming slowly drained from him.
Feeling done for the day, he took a long drag from his wooden pipe and took a much needed break. Walking over, he fell onto his couch. It was the one thing he had spent money on other than essentials. The couch was also the thing he treasured most of all in his life. It represented the start of new beginnings. This would be the couch he moved into his new house, one that he owned without rent or payments. If all went the way he had planned, then he would be in his own house in a couple more years, but when did things ever go as planned?
Turning the tv on, he flicked it over to one of his favorite anime shows. Taking another drag from his pipe, he sunk into his couch and zoned out.
A few episodes into the show, Steven¡¯s eyes grew cartoonishly wide as an inky dark purple substance rose from the basement floor forming a door arch directly in front of the tv. He looked down at the pipe in his hand and back at the portal. A second later, the center of the arch lit up with a purple hue, reminding Steven of the countless hours he had spent on Minecraft. He blinked several times, but ultimately just sat frozen on the couch, mouth slightly open in half confusion and amazement. A few seconds later out stepped an old-looking wizard making him immediately think of Gandalf, though the winged cat hovering above his shoulder threw off the Gandalf vibes. Steven rubbed his eyes and gently slapped at his face while the wizard watched him curiously. Once he was done, the old wizard spoke. ¡°Young adventurer, I am in the need of your aid. I have traveled across space and¡¡±
Before the wizard could say another word, Steven jumped up from the couch. ¡°Yes! I¡¯ll do it!¡± He then ran directly into the portal.
The winged cat took chase immediately, barely making it before the portal winked out of existence. A ¡°Hell yea!¡° echoed from the afterimage of the portal as it to faded to nothingness.
Blank, otherwise known as the old wizard, was so surprised at what just transpired he simply stood in disbelief, not moving a for a long moment. This had not been in any of his calculations. If only the boy would have waited a few more seconds for the portal to stabilize.
Sighing, he sat down on the odd-looking bench and was immediately impressed by its comfort. As he looked up, he noticed a large rectangular scrying device. He had been under the impression this world was void of magic, but he was clearly misinformed. He was obviously staring at an advanced scrying device. Although the picture was clear, it seemed flat somehow. He presumed it had something to do with the low mana. The old wizard still marveled at the sound, quality, and imagery.
He became enthralled by the battle scene in front of him. ¡°SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!¡± The green man shouted on the scrying device.
¡°Crude magic, shouting your spell like that. But wow! Is it effective! He got both those warriors in one go.¡± Blank mumbled. He was trying to figure out what race the green man was and how he could condense his mana in such a manner when he realized he was standing up. He slowly sat back down, eyes glued to the screen in front of him.
Steven wasn¡¯t sure what he expected, but an eerie swamp land definitely wasn¡¯t it. The massive trees growing from the soupy black water gave the swamp an old, if not ancient, feel. Steven was grateful he didn¡¯t end up in that disgusting looking water.
¡°You¡¯re an idiot! A complete imbecile if I¡¯ve ever seen one!¡± Steven jumped at hearing a voice in his mind, and it had definitely come from his mind. There was no doubt about it. Turning around, he noticed the portal was gone. In its place floated a pissed off looking winged cat.
¡°Do you know what¡¡± the cat started.
Steven took a hesitant step back.
The cat then moved closer. ¡°Do you¡¡±
Steven took another step back. The cat again moved towards him. ¡°Stop that,¡± the voice commanded. ¡°You¡¯re stepping out of my telepathic range!¡±
At this point, it was clear to Steven the cat was the one speaking. Steven stood his ground, even though his instincts told him to back away from this angry cat.
¡°I can¡¯t believe you just ran into an unknown portal! Who does something so stupid?¡±
Steven tried to speak, but the cat didn¡¯t let him get a word in.
¡°In all my life I have never seen something so¡¡± The cat stopped speaking into his mind and took in a long deep breath before sighing, all of which was somehow audible in Steven¡¯s mind.
¡°Okay. There is not much time. I¡¯m going to fade away shortly, so follow me.¡± The cat said, clearly trying to hold in her anger.
Stolen story; please report.
Steven followed the flying cat as he tried to wrap his mind around what was happening. He did feel a bit silly for just running into the portal. But it was a portal! In his defense, he may have been just a little stoned when he did that, and maybe he still was. He glanced down at the pipe still in his hand, then looked at the winged cat hovering in the air. ¡°Do you think we could go back so I could get a few things? I really wasn¡¯t expecting to adventure in a swamp.¡±
The cat stopped and glared at Steven. ¡°You have no idea what you have done, do you?¡±
¡°Uhhh, no,¡± Steven said sheepishly.
¡°I would love nothing more than to go into great detail about how idiotic you are, but that will have to wait! Time is short.¡± The cat turned and continued flying.
Steven followed until he came to a ditch filled with swamp water. He didn¡¯t think he could jump it, and no way in hell was he going to step into that dark soupy looking water. He was afraid he would catch something just from looking at it.
The cat sighed into his mind. Steven then felt a strange lightness come over him and then he was suddenly on the other side of the ditch.
¡°Wow! That was sick!¡± Steven exclaimed.
¡°Sick?¡± the cat questioned.
¡°Yea, that was totally awesome!¡±
¡°I see,¡± the cat said as if Steven was a complete idiot, ¡°follow me. Not much further now.¡±
¡°Where are we going?¡± Steven asked as he swatted at some bugs flying around his face.
¡°Out of this disgusting swamp, it¡¯s dangerous here.¡±
Steven looked around warily. ¡°Then why did you send me here?¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t, and neither did Blank. You just jumped in the dammed portal before it even stabilized, or don¡¯t you remember?¡±
¡°Yea, sorry about that. I got excited. Also, who is Blank?¡±
¡°Well, your excitement has really set us back. As for Blank, he is the old wizard you trapped in your world.¡±
Steven was confused. He had no idea how he could have trapped the old wizard. Steven was fixing to ask just that when the cat spoke. ¡°We are here.¡±
Steven looked around. It didn¡¯t look any different from anything else. Swamp land with massive trees as far as he could see in every direction. ¡°Well, come on then, I can feel myself fading.¡±
¡°Fading? What do you mean?¡±
A long-suffering sigh echoed in Steven¡¯s mind. ¡°My physical form is fading! I can¡¯t exist this far away from my soul bonded human for long. Now shush and come here! We are nearly out of time!¡±
As Steven walked up next to the cat, he got his very first notification.
Temporarily gain control of Domain, Yes/No?
Turning his head from side to side, the translucent screen stayed in his vision. It reminded him of a text message just floating in his vision. Steven¡¯s eyes widened with barely contained excitement.
This was the moment he may have freaked out a bit. While also doing an awkward happy dance, to the annoyance of the flying cat. A cat who was currently trying to talk into Steven¡¯s overly enthusiastic mind. The cat quickly resorted to magic to get Steven¡¯s attention. The next thing he knew, he was falling, then he was on the ground looking up at the cat as he gasped for air. It was only a few feet, but it still hurt. ¡°What the hell was that for?¡± Steven asked, rubbing the back of his head.
¡°Just accept the message before I fade away or you will die out here. The natives aren¡¯t friendly to humans.¡±
Standing up, Steven narrowed his eyes at the cat but poked the air at the yes. Only for his hand to go through the floating screen.
¡°What are you doing now?¡± The cat asked, clearly frustrated.
¡°I¡¯m trying to click the yes.¡±
¡°With your mind, you imbecile!¡±
As soon as Steven thought about selecting yes, he felt and heard a click, then received another prompt.
Congratulations, you are now in temporary control of the Domain, Blank¡¯s Sanctuary.
He was trying and failing to hold in his excitement at just the thought of getting a notification. Would he get a stat page too? And what the hell was a domain?
The cat¡¯s eyes narrowed at Steven. ¡°Do I even want to know what you¡¯re giggling to yourself about?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not giggling.¡±
¡°Whatever you¡¯re doing, just stop. I¡¯m fading as we speak.¡±
¡°Okay, okay I¡¯m sorry.¡± Steven said, trying his best to hold back his excitement.
¡°What is wrong with you? Or does your entire world of humans act like this?¡±
¡°I¡¯m just excited is all! I¡¯ve watched, read and listened to so many stories like this!¡± Steven said.
¡°Oh, I see. Must be working then.¡± The cat said, as if everything made perfect sense now.
The flying cat was becoming more and more translucent in front of Steven¡¯s eyes.
¡°What must be working?¡± Steven asked.
¡°The stories, of course,¡± replied the cat in annoyance, ¡°now don¡¯t die. Blank needs you as an anchor to get back into this world. Therefore, I¡¯m giving you temporary control of his domain. It may take sometime for Blank to gather the mana to travel between worlds again. It¡¯s best if you don¡¯t leave the Domain.¡° The winged cat said, barely visible now.
¡°But i¡¡± Steven went to ask, but he felt the mental link break as the cat vanished with a popping sound. ¡°Have questions¡¡± Suddenly, another notification appeared.
Congratulations, you are the owner of Blank¡¯s Sanctuary.
(Note: You do not have full access to Blank¡¯s Sanctuary. Kill the one who contests you, or fill all your Vassal slots to take complete control of Blank¡¯s Sanctuary.)
Steven was definitely not killing anyone. Shaking his head in disbelief, he closed the translucent screen with a thought only for another one to appear.
Would you like to change the Domain name, Blanks Sanctuary, at this time, Yes/No?
(Note: This can only be done once.)
Swatting away some bugs, Steven mentally selected No. There were no screens in his vision now and he looked around. He had no idea where he was supposed to go or where this domain thing was. The island he was on was small and looked no different from any other of the islands in this disgusting swamp land. Surely this island wasn¡¯t it. Deciding to walk to the center to see if he was missing something, he walked directly into something solid. Placing his hand on what he could only assume was an invisible barrier, he was surprised to find it cool and even a bit wet to the touch. Before he could pull his hand back, he received another prompt.
Would you like to enter Blanks Sanctuary at this time? Yes/No?
(Note: Blanks Sanctuary will lose the illusion barrier for 24 hours. Other defensive measures will remain in place.)
Steven slapped at his neck, squishing what he assumed was a mosquito. Before he could select yes, another prompt appeared in front of the previous one. After reading this prompt, Steven smiled and rolled his eyes. ¡°Seriously! Wow, just wow, looks like there will be lots of mosquitos in my near future.¡± Steven closed the translucent page with a thought, and selected yes to enter the domain.
The air in front of him began to shimmer. Suddenly, it was as if a curtain fell.
¡°The hell!¡± Steven exclaimed, while reflexively squishing another mosquito as he did, a little red icon popped up in the top left corner of his vision, ignoring that for now. He looked around.
Behind Steven was swamp land straight out of a horror film, but in front of him was a magical wonderland full of colorful life. It was still a swamp, but it was more of a magical swampland. He expected to see fairies flying around at any moment.
It was as if a line was drawn on the swamp floor. On one side of the line, there were colorful mushrooms and plants of all kinds. Colors Steven didn¡¯t even know existed or even how to begin to describe them. luminous plants were everywhere, even the trees had some sort of dark glowing moss hanging from them. The ground was covered in a dark green grass that looked like glowing carpet. Steven was getting an odd urge to take his shoes off and walk around, but he ignored that for now. Most of the plants seemed to be giving off a dim glow, and with the massive trees blocking most of the sun, the area looked like some sort of divine, mythical garden. It took Steven a long minute to break from his stupor of wide-eyed amazement.
Several mosquitoes were biting his neck and arms. He swatted at them and squished another one as he did a dim red flash appeared in his vision and hovered there. He knew it was notifications and that he could open it with a simple thought, although he wasn¡¯t sure how he knew this. Deciding to deal with that later, he stepped into the barrier. Immediately, Steven felt a weak resistance. It was as if he was stepping into a spiderweb, one that somehow felt wet and cool. He continued to push through and heard a sucking sound followed by an echoing pop, and then he was standing on the thick grass.
Chapter 2: Never ending wine
Steven expected to see a barrier or something, but there was nothing other than several mosquitos flying around where he just was.
¡°Well, that¡¯s convenient.¡± Steven mumbled with a goofy grin plastered on his face. He really liked the idea of being able to see out while nothing could see in. Also, a respite from those little blood suckers was nice.
The air felt cool and crisp inside the barrier. He took several deep breaths as an even larger smile crept across his face. A strong sense of safety and security washed over him, which was strange as he was in a foreign place.
Walking deeper into the mystical swamp garden, he turned to look back at the swamp he had just come from. About thirty feet back was a very distinct difference in landscape and plant life. He simply stood there, taking in otherworldly plants for a moment. Glancing down at the pipe still in his hand, his eyes widened and his other hand shot down to his cargo pocket. Feeling his baggie of weed still there, he let out a happy sigh. Loading his old wooden pipe, he was careful to not spill a drop. He had a good bit, but there was no telling how long he would be here. He walked towards what he assumed was the center of this place while puffing on his pipe. After walking for a short distance, he noticed a single tree in what he assumed was the center of this so-called domain. The tree was monstrous even compared to the massive trees outside the barrier.
Walking closer, a smile crept onto his face as he saw a door embedded into the tree. Steven didn¡¯t think twice as he approached, swinging the door open and going in. What he saw was not what he expected. It looked like a motel lobby, a bar to the right side, tables and chairs at the back, and a staircase leading up. The strangest part was everything seemed to be made of the tree itself. It looked to be grown in place. Steven continued to puff on his pipe till it was empty. Only then realizing he had just been standing there staring. After overcoming the initial wonder of the tree house, Steven called out.
¡±Hello. Is Anyone here?¡±
He didn¡¯t expect an answer, but he wanted to make sure. Steven then headed up the stairs. The next floor was a bit more exciting. The scent of pages washed over him immediately upon entering. Although he could barely make out that it was a library. The only light was what drifted up from the stairs. Now that he thought about it, how was he even able to see on the first floor?
Walking back down the stairs, he looked around and noticed several glowing stones placed in different parts of the lobby. They were embedded in the tree itself, giving off a natural glow. After a quick search, he found a few loose ones behind the bar, already glowing.
Grabbing a couple of the glow stones as he named them, he went back up the stairs to check out the library. It turned out he only needed one of the glow stones. No sooner than he walked into the room the stone he was holding shattered into tiny moats of light that shot off in seemingly random directions. Suddenly, the entire room burst into light. He had absolutely no idea how that one stone charged what had to be several dozens of other stones embedded in the walls and bookcases, but he wasn¡¯t about to complain.
There were thousands of books, a literal wizard¡¯s library. A shiver of anticipation went down Steven¡¯s spine.
¡°Some of these have to be spell books, right?¡±
His mind raced with thoughts of casting fireballs, throwing lightning, and teleporting around. Once he calmed down, he began to wonder how he was supposed to get to the books higher up. He didn¡¯t see a ladder anywhere and it would have to be a huge ladder to reach the ones further up. There was no way he could miss that. He was also curious how this tree was still alive with so much of it carved out, or had it been grown this way?
He eventually pushed those thoughts aside. Magic was clearly the answer. Walking over to the wall, he grabbed a book at random and read the title. ¡°The History And Downfall Of The Swamp Elves.¡± Steven blinked at the book a few times while wondering if there were any Swamp Elves near him. Also, what was a Swamp Elf?
Excited about meeting other races, especially elves of any kind, he placed the book back and planned to come back later to read. It was lucky that it was written in English, otherwise the books would be useless to him. He considered checking more, but he wanted to see where the stairs lead first.
Steven walked past a fireplace built into the tree and paused. His curiosity got the best of him and he had to look. Walking over to the fireplace, he noticed it was all made of the tree itself. Getting down on his hands and knees, he looked up into the chimney, using the other glow stone for light. Yep, sure enough, the chimney was made of wood.
¡°Note to self: do not use the fireplace.¡± Shaking his head in bewilderment, he started up the stairs.
He quickly came to a fork in the stairs. Deciding to take the stairs to the left, he came to a door arch he couldn¡¯t enter. It seemed as if there was some kind of invisible force field. Placing his hand on the barrier, a prompt appeared.
Alchemy room not available.
(Note: Claim full control of this Domain to access this area.)
It looked like he wouldn¡¯t be going into that room. He had no intentions of killing Gandalf and taking his domain.
Heading back down and then up the other stairs, he came to a large circular room full of doors. After checking most of the doors, he found them to all be exactly the same: a single bed and dresser with a table and a single stool. It felt oddly cozy, even though there were no windows.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
He then made his way back down to the first floor. His plan was to deal with the red light dimly glowing at the edge of his vision. And he was starving! He really hoped this place had a fridge.
As he made his way down the stairs, he began to panic slightly, as he didn¡¯t remember seeing a fridge. Did he just get sent to a fantasy land just to die of starvation?
To Steven¡¯s surprise and excitement, he found several plates of food in the cabinets behind the bar. The plates were still hot to the touch. Assuming that the cabinets were enchanted or something, but still wanting to be on the safe side, Steven only took a few bites.
He then gave up on that nonsense and just began eating the food like a starving animal. He quickly realized that he had nothing to drink, and he went back behind the bar.
He found a bottle labeled Never Ending Wine. After finding a cup, he poured a glass. Then proceeded to spit the wine all over the floor.
¡°Good night! This has to be the most disgusting thing I¡¯ve ever tasted! There¡¯s a reason it¡¯s never ending, ugh!¡± Not finding a sink, Steven went outside to dump the cup of wine out.
When he come back in he stopped and stared blankly at two rags, cleaning up the wine. He could of swore the rags both stopped and turned to him for a second but it happened so fast that he thought it was just his imagination, the rags quickly finished up and flew off towards an open door in the back.
¡°Thank you.¡± Steven said as they flew off. He could have really used some magic rags at his aunt¡¯s house. He also wanted to see where that door led, but later.
No longer thirsty or hungry after the wine, he sat down to focus on the red light in the corner of his vision. His mind kept going back to the fact there were floating rags, making it difficult to concentrate at first, but with a bit of effort, he quickly got the hang of it.
Defeated level 0 mosquito.
Essence gained 1.
1 out of 100 essence to level 1.
Defeated level 0 mosquito.
Essence gained 1.
2 out of 100 essence to level 1.
Defeated level 0 mosquito.
Essence gained 1.
3 out of 100 essence to level 1.
Closing that page, he tried to navigate the translucent screen, but his stat page was locked until he reached level one. Or at least that was the conclusion he had come to. The main screen told him how much essence he needed to reach the next level, but no information other wise.
He planned on going mosquito hunting in the morning. After all, how hard could it be to kill ninety seven more mosquitos? As for now, he would finish eating the plate of food while trying to not think about the wine. He wasn¡¯t even sure what he was eating, though the meat tasted like chicken, and the green leafy stuff tasted like spinach. At some point, he found another bottle labeled Never Ending Water. He was grateful for that one. He didn¡¯t think he could drink that wine, even if there was no other option.
After finishing up his food, he pulled his pipe out of his pocket, along with the bag he always carried in his cargo pants. He had specifically started wearing cargo pants to keep most of his stash on him. His aunt would flip if she found it even though it was doctor prescribed. So he just kept it on his person. He was lucky she couldn¡¯t smell very well, as his basement was always smoky. Or maybe she didn¡¯t recognize the smell. Whatever the case, it didn¡¯t matter.
After talking a long drag from his pipe, he made his way upstairs to pick out a room to call his own. He had a big day tomorrow. He would reach level one! Possibly higher, after all, there had to be millions of mosquitoes in a swamp.
Laying on the surprisingly comfortable bed, he couldn¡¯t help but think of his aunt.
He loved his aunt, but she wasn¡¯t going down a good path. She had taken up drinking after the accident. She had even torn through his room on multiple occasions, looking for money to buy alcohol. He knew it was her because he had installed a camera after the first time his basement was broken into. She had blamed it on the drugged up neighbors, but Steven knew there were no drugged up neighbors. He started leaving a few twenties in his dresser and occasionally it would go missing, and he would replace it. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was a good idea to give her money for alcohol, but he knew she was going through a rough time. Steven was worried about what would happen to her now. If he wasn¡¯t there, then he doubted the rent would get paid. Eventually, Steven fell asleep, dreaming of his aunt living on the street begging for money to buy alcohol.
Waking up, Steven had several emotions running through his mind: excitement, guilt and the sense of what the hell. Excitement about gaining levels in this new game like world, guilt for leaving his aunt. And, had he really jumped through a random portal, also portals were real?? His mind raced as a bit of panic began to set in. Making his way over to the table, he sat down and lit up his pipe. After a long drag, he sat it down. He needed to ration. He had his bag, but that wouldn¡¯t last a week at most. It wasn¡¯t but a few more minutes before he talked himself into having just a bit more.
After all, the single-minded focus it brought him was something that fueled his gaming career. If he was to make it in this gaming world, then he would need it or something equivalent. Putting on his clothes and placing the few items he had in his cargo pants, he made his way downstairs. He looked longingly at the library as he passed. ¡°I¡¯ll be back for you, don¡¯t you worry.¡±
Grabbing a quick bite, he went outside. It was brighter than it was the previous day. Although the sun was mostly blocked by the thick canopy. He couldn¡¯t even make out where the sun was through all the leaves and branches, not that it would help him know where he was or even tell time, for that matter.
Making his way to the barrier, he looked out. The barrier reminded him of a thin layer of water or clear gel making things just a bit blurry, but he could still see mosquitos through it. He didn¡¯t remember the barrier being blurry yesterday, but that could have been from the cat dropping him on his head. Wait, shouldn¡¯t that have made it blurry? Pushing those thoughts aside, Steven clapped his hands together.
¡°Mosquito killing time!¡±
He placed a hand on the barrier and felt the cool, wet sensation at the same time he received a notification.
Would you like to leave Blank¡¯s Sanctuary at this time, YES/NO?
(Note: Blank¡¯s Sanctuary will lose the illusion barrier for 24 hours. Other defensive measures will remain in place.)
He mentally selected yes while wondering what sorts of other defensive measures this place had. But that would be something he would have to figure out at a later time. Right now, he was going to reach level one!
As soon as he stepped through the barrier, the sense of safety vanished, replaced with muggy hot air and mosquitos. Even with the canopy cover the heat was intense. But his mind was made up. He was a gamer after all, and leveling was what he did best. It didn¡¯t take him but a few seconds before he had his first kill. Steven smiled. It was time for a mosquito killing spree.
Chapter 3: Mosquitos
¡°Blank, we should really begin recruiting. It would be best to not waste the time we have here.¡±
¡°Oh, calm down Kat. It will be months before my mana can recover on this mana barren world,¡± Blank said, eyes still glued to the scrying device, ¡°besides I¡¯ve found the ones I¡¯m going to recruit, this Goku fellow and his friends are more than what I expected this world to be capable of. I¡¯m just trying to get a lock on their location.¡±
¡°I have to agree. If we can find these warrior mages, there is a lot we could learn from them. The way they push their mana into physical beams is quite impressive.¡±
¡°Precisely.¡± Blank said, his eyes not once leaving the scrying device.
¡°Although, even if you can get a lock on their location, it¡¯s not like you can teleport to them. It maybe more prudent to go and ask around. They have to be quite famous and surely they would be interested in meeting with us.¡± Kat said.
¡°Fantastic idea!¡± Blank said, not turning away from the scrying device. ¡°I¡¯ll stay here and you shape shift into that Steven fellow and go around asking about Goku.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not what I had in mind.¡±
Blank didn¡¯t respond, eyes glued to the scrying device.
¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do the legwork! But if I come back and you still haven¡¯t locked onto their location, then you can go out, and I¡¯ll stay on the comfy bench.¡± Kat said, clearly irritated.
¡°Okay, okay. It¡¯s a deal. It won¡¯t be hard to get information on these incredible warrior mages. I wasn¡¯t expecting any magic from this world, much less fighters like these.¡±
Katarina shape-shifted from a winged cat into Steven¡¯s form and headed for the door.
¡°Kat, you may want to put some clothes on. Also, could you bring something back to eat?¡±
Kat narrowed her eyes at Blank. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll see what I can scrounge up.¡±
Steven sat down at the table in the treehouse, greedily drinking from the water-skin. His clothes were soaked with sweat from the muggy swamp air. He had been at it for hours. At first, the mosquitos were easy to kill. They even came after him and he just squished them on his arm, but after he killed so many of them, the little bastards began to fly away. He had to chase down the last several. It seemed like the more he killed, the harder they were to find. But there was no way in hell that there were only eighty-six mosquitoes in this damn swamp. Maybe they could smell the squished and dried mosquitoes on his hands. Now that he thought about it, the dried mosquito blood and guts were disgusting. He had wiped his hands on the grass when he came back, but he should really wash his hands. If he cleaned up a bit, maybe he wouldn¡¯t have such a problem getting the last few he needed. He had already tried squishing other bugs, but he didn¡¯t even receive a notification for those.
Steven washed up using the never ending water skin. After loading up his pipe and relaxing for a bit, he went back at again, though he was reluctant to get too far away from the barrier. He remembered that flying cat saying it was dangerous, and he wanted to be able to run back to safety if need be.
All he wanted to do was get to level one and get access to his stat page. But no! Those damned mosquitoes had to fly away any time he even got close to them now. Once it was apparent the mosquitoes were still going to fly away from him, he decided to try a different area. It seemed he could come and go through any part of the barrier without issue.
After finding the area with the largest section of solid ground, he went to work. Sadly, he was only able to chase down two more mosquitoes before they flew out over the swampy water.
¡°Damnit! Just stop flying away, you little shits!¡±
The area he was on may have been the largest section of solid ground, but it was still quite small, not leaving him with many options. Eventually Steven had gotten so frustrated he took his shirt off, thinking it would entice the little bloodsuckers. But no, they still flew out over the swamp water, out of reach. He did, however, get one more of them by using his shirt as a fly swatter. Which seemed preposterous, as there had to be two dozen of the little shits on the log as he swung his shirt at them.
Two pairs of reptilian eyes floated in the swamp water, watching a human attempt to kill mosquitoes.
¡°Father, what is that creature? And what is it doing?¡±
¡°I believe it is a human. We must inform the Elders of this. I think he is trying to kill those mosquitoes.¡±
¡°But why? It¡¯s not like he could ever make a dent in the mosquito population. And why did he take his shirt off?¡±
The older Naga was silent for a long while as he floated just out of sight of the human.
¡°Father, what is he doing with his shirt now?¡±
¡°Be quiet Ralu, you must stay focused on the task at hand if you wish to be a scout one day. You must simply observe. Shirem¡¯s aura vanished in this area and the mission is to observe the area and report back.¡±
Frustration consumed Steven as he pondered his next move. He had spent all day trying to get to level one. He was unsure what that all entailed, but he knew he wanted it. Access to a stat page was not something he was going to let slip through his fingers. Deciding he had enough mosquito hunting for the day, he headed back to the tree house.
This was just like a video game, and he simply needed to figure out how to surpass this challenge. It¡¯s what he did after all. It was just so damn frustrating that the bugs flew away from him and the muggy swamp wasn¡¯t helping. He had thought he could power level by squishing thousands of mosquitos, but things are never simple. Too bad he didn¡¯t have a bug zapper. Would he even gain the essence if he had a bug zapper? He wasn¡¯t sure, but maybe tomorrow would be better. As for today, he was going to get a plate of food and head to the library. He had been thinking about that steak and potatoes for a while now. At least he thought that¡¯s what it was. As he walked back, he wondered why there was so much food. It seemed a bit excessive for just an old man and a flying cat, but if the food never went bad, then he supposed it made sense to stockpile food.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Why was there no indoor toilet? This was absurd! Who built an awesome magical tree house and didn¡¯t install a simple toilet? Now that he thought about it, there wasn¡¯t even any running water. The only water he even had access to was the water skin labeled Never Ending Water. He hoped that was true, and it didn¡¯t run out of magic or something. If it did, he would be up shit creek. He didn¡¯t think there was a way to clean the swamp water, no matter how many times he boiled it. The stuff looked so thick it was more of a sludge, although that could just be a top layer.
Once he had finished the steak and potatoes, he left his plate and headed upstairs. Though once he was halfway up the stairs, he stopped, curiosity taking hold of him. The plates he left continued to disappear. He assumed the floating rags were taking care of it, but what did they do with them? Slowly making his way back down the stairs, he peeked his head out to see how the rags did it.
There were more than just two rags this time. A couple were cleaning the floor, while a few were hovering around the plate. He watched in disbelief as the rags cleaned off the plate and then one of the bigger rags covered the plate and it vanished. A second later, all the rags stopped. Steven got the sense they were looking at him, but it was difficult to tell what direction a rag was looking.
¡°Uh, thanks for cleaning up the mess.¡±
Glancing down at his shoes and back at the floor, he noticed he had tracked in a bit of mud and dirt. He then awkwardly took his shoes off and set them at the bottom of the stairs. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ll start taking them off at the door.¡± Steven said sheepishly. Meanwhile, the rags never moved and just floated in place. He then made his way back up the stairs to the library. Steven had a job as a janitor for a few months, and it gave him a new perspective on the cleaning industry. He wasn¡¯t sure if the rags could even understand him, much less care if he said thank you. But he wasn¡¯t going to chance upsetting magical rags. If those things had a mind to, they could easily strangle him in his sleep.
Once in the library, he started going through books, trying to find one that could teach him magic. There were books on Elves, Dwarves, Naga, Centaurs and names of creatures he had no idea what were. And those were just the ones he came across. There were thousands of books.
He was surprised he could read them without any problem. He didn¡¯t know if there was some sort of magic involved or if the books were just all written in English. Eventually he found a book with a title that looked promising, ¡°A Beginners Guide to Shardless Magic.¡±
He quickly realized he could only read the first sentence.
¡°Step one, clear one¡¯s mind, then focus on your mana.¡±
He skimmed through the rest of the book and, sure enough, he couldn¡¯t read anything but the first sentence. The rest of the words looked to be just squiggly lines that he couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of.
Walking over to a chair, he sat the book on the table and did his best to clear his mind.
This turned out to be much more difficult than he first thought it. Also, what was Shardless magic? And what was mana exactly? He knew what it did from games, but what it was exactly eluded him. How was he supposed to focus on something he didn¡¯t even know what was?
He got the sense that if he completed the first step, then the next step would appear in the book, although that could be just wishful thinking. Either way, he sat back and did his best to clear his mind.
Shirem had been tasked with looking into the strange mana fluctuations near the Wizard¡¯s barrier.
At first, he sensed nothing, then his aura picked up on something. But even when he was standing in the very spot he sensed it, there was nothing.
Then, without any warning, his entire body was bathed in purple light and the next thing he knew, he was standing in a forest with tiny trees. It was dry and everything was green. Shirem had never seen anything quite this disgusting. He wasn¡¯t sure what happened. His best guess was some sort of defensive teleportation magic from the barrier. Although that didn¡¯t seem right, as he should have been far from its reach.
Either way, he needed to get home. He wondered how far away he was. Surely it couldn¡¯t have sent him far. Although he had to be a good distance away to not be in his swamp. Whatever the case, he needed to get back to his clan and inform the Elders of this. With this sort of power, the Wizard was more of a threat than they had initially thought. Teleportation magic was of the highest tier.
Shirem looked up. The sun seemed brighter than normal. He retracted his scales to let his skin soak up the sun for a moment.
While basking in the sun, he began searching for the moon. After a few minutes, he located it and took off at a slight jog. He needed to get a sense of where he was. If only he could locate the great river, he could swim till he reached the swamp lands. It wasn¡¯t long before he came to a road. It was similar to the ones the humans used when they came to trade with the Spider-kin. But this one was made of some sort of melted rock. He walked to the center of the road to get a closer look at the two yellow lines. The road was hot and rough. He felt sorry for the animals that had to pull the wagons on it.
¡°Humans,¡± Shirem said in disgust, ¡°no compassion for anything, not even their own.¡±
An odd noise began to echo out. It was like nothing he had ever heard before. It seemed to come from the road, and from the sound, it was traveling at high speeds. Shirem pulled out his enchanted daggers, then activated his shard ability. Black scales appeared all over his body, covering his pale white skin. Suddenly, he saw the creature. It was unlike anything he could have imagined. It was some sort of shelled creature. Its shell was bright red and was extremely shiny. He didn¡¯t get any more time to look at the creature as it was coming straight at him. Despite its bulk, it was moving at an insane speed. Shirem was sure he could take it down. If not, the beast didn¡¯t look like it could make it through the woods with those stubby legs. He would definitely be able to take it down in a forest if it pursued him. For now, he would stand his ground. This would be a great beast to test his agility on.
Shirem waited till the creature was nearly on him before he jumped over the beast. At the same time, he conjured toxic thorns all over the road. The creature was moving so fast that it went right over the thorns just as he summoned them. The shelled creature didn¡¯t make it far past the thorns and slid off the road. Shirem quickly made his way over. His plan was to finish the creature off quickly. He could use all the essence he could get. Shirem slowly approached the creature. It didn¡¯t make any reaction to his presence. Though it was making an odd rumbling sound. Even stranger, the aura he was sensing was of two humans. But that didn¡¯t stop him. He jumped on the back of the creature poised to strike, but when the shelled creature made no reaction, he paused. At the same time a human fell out of the creature.
¡°What the hell is going on? You could have killed me and my girl. What sort of moron dresses up in a costume and stands in the road! I nearly hit you! And what¡¯s all these thorns stuck in my tires? Your cosplaying ass will be paying for new tires!¡±
Shirem just looked at the human with curiosity. He had absolutely no idea what the human was saying. The human looked angry and confused, but he assumed the human was thanking him. He had just saved them from that shelled beast after all. He was irritated he didn¡¯t get any essence from the kill, but it was obviously dead if the human was able to get out of it. Most likely the human finished it from the inside and somehow took all the essence. It was just bad luck. Humans were always bad luck, but the Elders told him to always treat them with respect unless they tried to harm him.
¡°It was no problem human, you are welcome. Could you possibly point me in the direction of the great river?¡±
¡°Really! You¡¯re just going to hiss at me. What are you even doing on my car? Are you filming this? Where are they? Where are the cameras? You can come out now, you can expect a lawsuit! The lot of you! My dash cam recorded the whole thing.¡±
The human was loud. Shirem didn¡¯t understand why he was screaming. Maybe the noise of the beast messed up his ears. Shaking his head, Shirem took off back into the woods at a slight jog. It was a waste of time to stay there. As he ran off, he could still hear the human yelling his thanks. The human even chased after himself to get a couple more thankyou¡¯s in. Shirem regretted not having his communication ring with him. It would have made finding the river much easier, but it couldn¡¯t be helped now. It wouldn¡¯t be a problem once night fell. He could follow the star¡¯s home. But for now he would go in the general direction of the swamp according to the moon, though even that was hard to see with the sun beaming down so brightly.
Chapter 4: Kats little adventure
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.¡±
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
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.
Chapter 5: Half Naga
Hurry! We don¡¯t want to become like Shirem!¡±
¡°I¡¯m going as fast as I can,¡± Kishrot said.
¡°Don¡¯t put him in the water yet; you haven¡¯t placed the ring on his finger. The Elders don¡¯t want him covered in muck!¡±
¡°Are we taking him straight there?¡±
¡°Yes! Now let¡¯s go!¡±
¡°I¡¯ve actually never been in the house of Elders,¡± Kishrot said as a smile crept onto his face.
¡°And you won¡¯t today; we are taking him to the Elder Guard. And they will take Shirem to the Elders.¡±
Steven¡¯s head felt fuzzy; it was actually kind of pleasant. Then he remembered getting pulled towards the swamp water. His eyes shot open, and he jumped to his feet. Which made his head spin, and he stumbled before he regained his balance.
When he was finally able to look around, a chill ran down his spine, and his eyes widened. He was in some sort of wooden building, but his attention was on the strange people in front of him. Or snake people, to be more accurate.
¡°Umm, hello?¡± Steven said, while praying, that they were friendly.
Steven stood in front of five older-looking snake folk who sat behind a long rectangle table, all facing him. At first he thought they were Naga, but they had a very humanoid look about them. Well, other than the tail and their skin color, which varied wildly. Their eyes were also definitely reptilian. Steven just stared wide-eyed at them while waiting for someone to speak. He was about to ask what they wanted, but the old snake people began speaking. At least that¡¯s what he assumed they were doing, as it sounded like a bunch of gibberish while leaning hard into the S¡¯s.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t understand you.¡± Steven said. He hoped they weren¡¯t planning on eating him or something. The Naga, as he decided to refer to them, continued to hiss at one another while glancing at him. Steven took that chance to look around. Several younger Naga in scale armor stood at both exits, holding curved swords and daggers. Steven wasn¡¯t sure what to do other than stand there. It sounded like their conversation was getting heated. This continued for a minute before one of the older Naga slowly stood up and held his palm towards Steven.
Allow Elder Vasuki to see the moment you arrived in this world.
Steven stared blankly at the screen for a moment before selecting yes. He didn¡¯t have anything to hide after all, and it might gain him some goodwill with these snake people. As he selected yes, Elder Vasuki¡¯s palm glowed, and suddenly there was a flash of white light. When Steven opened his eyes, he saw what he could only describe as some sort of hologram projection coming from the old snake persons¡¯s palm. It showed the place Steven had arrived in this world, but instead of Steven standing there, it was a Naga in black scale armor.
Suddenly, purple light surrounded the Naga, and he vanished. Then Steven was standing in his place. It happened so quickly that it was hard to tell what had even taken place. Gasps came from the old Nagas as the projection faded. Elder Vasuki stumbled back from what looked like sheer exhaustion. Several Naga that Steven assumed were servants helped him find his chair. Then the old Naga, or Elders, as the prompt said, broke out into conversation. Steven was confused about several things. The lack of a portal for one, which was really throwing him off. Had he imagined it? No. He definitely went through a big purple portal; he was certain of that. It was more likely that the Elder¡¯s ability just didn¡¯t show it for some reason. Or maybe the portal was only on one side; whatever the case, he was here, and that Naga was gone.
One of the Elders motioned over a servant, and then, to Steven¡¯s amazement, a small pillow with a ring on it just appeared in the Elder¡¯s hand. The servant took it and promptly brought it over to Steven while kneeling down on his knee and raising the pillow above his head. Despite the situation, Steven felt quite awkward having someone kneel in front of him in such a manner. Glancing at the elder, then back at the simple-looking brown ring, Steven hesitantly picked it up, and the servant scurried away. Another of the Elders motioned for him to place it on. Steven started to do just that, but realized he already had a ring on. He looked at it with confusion, but just placed the ring on a different finger.
¡°Do you remember us?¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened as he realized he could understand. The words sounded a bit off, but he could easily understand. Glancing down at the ring and back to the Elder, he spoke.
¡°I don¡¯t remember you, but I can understand you now,¡± Steven said, unsure why they thought he would remember them.
¡°The strange magic has taken his mind. I was informed he was chasing after bugs outside the Wizard¡¯s sacred space.¡± Another of the Elders said.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. This meant they had been watching him. ¡°What do you want with me?¡± Steven asked a bit hesitantly.
¡°We want you to remember who you are.¡±
¡°What do you remember?¡± An old female Naga asked.
Steven didn¡¯t see any reason to lie; if anything, he was irritated. They took him here before he could reach level one.
¡°Well, I remember a portal, and I went in it, and I ended up here. Well, not here, here. I believe you lot drugged me and brought me to this place.¡±
¡°It¡¯s worse than I thought.¡± One of the Elder female Naga said. ¡°His entire memory has been wiped. Do you think it could be whatever is keeping him in that human form?¡±
Steven tried to speak up, but the old Nagas just talked over him, so he just waited as they talked amongst themselves.
¡°What are we meant to do?¡±
¡°Send him to Goskia?¡±
¡°Evesakia could help refresh his memory.¡±
¡°Those two have not been close for many years now.¡±
¡°I agree with Vasuki. We should send him to Goskia for now.¡±
¡°Maybe his memory will come back with time.¡±
¡°I agree Goskia¡¯s potions are the best option.¡±
The Elders continued to talk and argue back and forth.
Steven was confused, but he was piecing together what these old Naga thought happened. They apparently believed the wizard turned him into a human and wiped his memories. It was an absurd conclusion. Steven didn¡¯t know exactly what happened, but if he had to guess, he would say that Naga was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was sent to his world. Or maybe somewhere else entirely. He tried to speak again, but the Elders just ignored him while they talked amongst themselves. It felt like he was standing there for hours before he was finally being escorted out of the building. As soon as he stepped out the door, he froze, his eyes wide with fear, unlike anything he had felt before. He was apparently in the treetops of the massive trees. Vine bridges connected to branches that lead to buildings as far as he could see. The guard nudged him forward, but Steven pushed back.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
¡°I can¡¯t...¡± Steven said, voice trembling.
The guard then pushed him along. He tried to push back again, but the guard didn¡¯t even seem to notice his struggle. Once on the vine bridge, Steven grabbed and held the vine with trembling hands. Looking out, he noticed hundreds of vine bridges running every which way. He had to be a couple hundred feet up. The ground was blurry, and he couldn¡¯t make out a thing. As he looked, it became blurrier until Steven unceremoniously fainted.
Steven woke up screaming in panic. He stopped when he realized he was in another building. He refused to think about being hundreds of feet in the air. After all, maybe he was back on the ground.
¡°Ahh, you are awake. What seems to be the problem?¡± A completely different old Naga asked.
This Naga or snake person was odd to look at; half of his face had human features, and the other half had the snake-like features of the others.
¡°W-what are you?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I am here to help you get your memories back. Let¡¯s start with my name. I am Goskia.¡±
¡°Well, nice to meet you.¡± Steven said as he looked around. From what he could tell, he was in some sort of shop, and it was just him and this old Naga.
Seeing as this Naga wasn¡¯t doing anything but looking at him, Steven asked the first question he thought of. ¡°What race are you?¡±
¡°That is complicated, but to put it simply, we are a mix of Naga, humans, and elves. We used to be referred to as swamp elves, but now most races just refer to us as Half Naga,¡± Goskia said. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you had forgotten even that; the Elders didn¡¯t mention it was this bad.¡±
¡°You keep referring to me as one of you, but I¡¯m clearly human.¡± Steven said, glancing at his arm just to make sure.
¡°I was informed you have been forced into that form.¡±
¡°If you¡¯re referring to the projection, if you watch just a bit further, you will see a flying cat.¡± Now that Steven thought about it, that wasn¡¯t proof of anything... ¡°Never mind that; I¡¯m actually from a planet called Earth, and I went through a portal some wizard made, and now I¡¯m here. No one changed my race.¡±
¡°This is earth. Our planet goes by many names, but many call it earth, as there is a lot of earth.¡± Goskia said.
Steven just blinked at the Naga. This was definitely not earth; there was no way a bunch of snake people could be living on earth completely undiscovered. Right?
¡°Now, back to the matter at hand. You need to at least understand your people¡¯s lineage. Long ago, our people were an experiment to combine the three races. We were meant to be the perfect assassins with a full set of equipment slots, but we have no records of this being true or false. What we do know is that we were considered a failed experiment by humans.¡±
¡°That¡¯s interesting and all, but what does this have to do with me?¡±
¡°Like I said, you were turned into that form. It¡¯s just a matter of time before it wears off and you turn back into your true form. You are the chosen of the Elders after all, and you are of a pure bloodline.¡±
¡°Okay, let¡¯s say this is the case, and I am a Half Naga like you. Why do I have all these memories from another life?¡±
¡°It would not be too difficult for an Archmage to mettle with your mind and add falsehoods to confuse you.¡±
¡°But why?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Like I said, you are the chosen of the Elders and will someday join them on the counsel. I would not put it past the Elves or Humans to have hired the Archmage. He has been living next to our territory for several years now. It could also have been a side effect of getting too close to the barrier. It¡¯s not uncommon for powerful barriers to attack the mind, and from my understanding, you were scouting out the mana fluctuations next to the barrier.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes narrowed. It seemed these Naga, or whatever they were called, had an answer for everything. He wasn¡¯t sure if he should play along with it or not.
¡°Okay, let¡¯s begin with getting you some proper Naga equipment. We are still unsure where you acquired such strange clothing.¡±
¡°These are my clothes! I got them from my house.¡± Steven said.
¡°And where is your house?¡± Goskia asked.
¡°On Earth, I live in my aunt¡¯s basement.¡± After saying it out loud, he realized it didn¡¯t sound very dignified.
¡°Ahh, I see. You live on earth with an ant. I see, I see.¡± Goskia looked at Steven as if he were a child with brain damage. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get you clothed. Then we will take you home and have you meet with your childhood friend to see if that helps while I work on a memory potion. This will most likely be a long journey; attacks on the mind are no simple matter.¡±
It wasn¡¯t long before Steven was dressed all in black leather. He was apparently favored by the Elders and the chosen, whatever that meant. But he couldn¡¯t complain, as cost was no issue and he was given the best, according to Goskia. At first, nothing fit, but after a moment, everything he had on just adjusted to his size. Which brought a smile to Steven¡¯s face. Trading clothes was definitely worth it; he liked his new clothes. Although he would have to get used to the stiff, leathery material. He now had a dimensional storage pocket on his chest. It could only hold a couple of items, but Steven was still overjoyed at having something magical. At seeing Steven¡¯s excitement, Goskia handed him a couple of random items to test it out. Steven then proceeded to put what he assumed was a spoon and a glass jar into his newfound inventory and then pull them back out over and over. Goskia just smiled as he watched.
His old clothes were burned in something called the sacred fire as a precaution against any residual magic. Goskia also confiscated Steven¡¯s pipe and the remaining bag of weed. He had tried to resist, but it was no use; he was like a child in strength compared to these Half-Naga. Goskia was extremely interested in the bag and its contents. It turned out he was an alchemist.
¡°This herb has extremely strange qualities! It¡¯s quite similar to Kishurack, but somehow more. What can you tell me about it?¡± Goskia asked, his eyes glued to the contents of his bag.
Steven raised an eyebrow and asked, ¡°What do you mean by strange qualities? It¡¯s just weed.¡±
Goskia looked up sharply. ¡°I can assure you this is no simple weed. It has the potential to permanently raise one¡¯s mana. This is incredible; where did you find this?¡±
Steven looked at the overly enthusiastic snake person, unsure how to explain that he bought it from his old high school buddy Kyle. So he decided to just be vague. ¡°From my basement.¡±
¡°Never mind then. I¡¯m sure your memories will come back soon. In the meantime, I will study this new plant.¡± Goskia said, turning back to the weed on the counter.
¡°Hmmm, maybe if it¡¯s combined with nimbus root or maybe silver shade moss.¡±
It was obvious the old Naga was muttering to himself and completely ignoring Steven. He didn¡¯t expect the old Naga to start studying it immediately, but there was nothing he could do but just watch. Goskia continued to examine the weed for a long time. Steven continued to interrupt him while he was asking if he could have it back. Goskia eventually told him he had something very similar. It could even raise one¡¯s mana regeneration for a short time. Well, when it was processed properly, if smoked, the effect was minuscule. The old alchemist assured Steven he would have some sent to him.
Once finished at Goskia¡¯s shop, a guard yet again tried to have Steven walk across the vine bridge. But he passed out almost immediately. The next thing he knew, he was on a bed. Steven assumed the guard had carried his unconscious form to the house Goskia mentioned. Though it was more of a hut, Steven barely even got a chance to look around before a knock sounded at the door.
Opening the door, the first thing he saw was an insanely attractive female Naga named Evesakia. This was apparently the friend Goskia mentioned. After butchering her name a few times, she said he could call her Eve.
She told him she was going to be here for him all the way and help him in any way she could. Steven couldn¡¯t help but be attracted to her. Her pale green skin and light red hair somehow went well with her purple reptilian eyes. Not to mention, she had the body of a model. Everything about her was perfection. Steven had no idea snake-like features could be so attractive.
It was also clear that she had a huge crush on this Shirem guy. She did, however, agree to call him Steven instead of Shirem. And she was more than willing to listen to him talk about his world, even though she thought mind magic had placed it all there. She asked several questions about his world, seemingly interested. If it wasn¡¯t for what she said when she was leaving, he would have thought she believed him.
¡°We will get through this, Steven; don¡¯t worry, you are a strong warrior, and I know you will get your mind back before long.¡±
Those words hurt; he thought he was really connecting with Eve. But it just reinforced the fact that she believed him to be someone he wasn¡¯t. But maybe she could come to like him. However, that seemed unlikely; she had it bad for this Shirem guy.
Steven finally got the chance to look around his hut. The hut was small but nice; it had a wraparound porch that would definitely not get any use. A place to use the restroom, which apparently just fell into the swamp below, making him wonder if that¡¯s why the swamp looked so disgusting. It also had running water; well, it was water that fell out of a small stone for him to shower under. Half Naga apparently were very clean and had a large portion of the house used for bathing. At least, that was his conclusion after going into the shower, which was at least half the size of the hut itself.
The lighting was also a stone. It was connected to the stones in the ceiling, and all he had to do was touch the stone embedded in the wall, and it would activate. It wasn¡¯t much different from your typical light switch. Steven wondered if the tree house had something similar. He missed the tree house and hoped he could get back there soon. Even though it belonged to that wizard, it just felt safe, unlike this place.
Chapter 6: The great fall
The next several days passed quickly. Each day, Goskia had him drink a different kind of potion for memory. Some seemed to work as Steven started remembering things from his childhood he had completely forgotten. Even things he would rather not remember.
Each day when he had to go across the vine bridge, he would pass out and have to be carried by a guard. At some point, he went back in front of the Elders, and they decided to just train him back up on all things Naga. The Elders had set him a schedule he was to follow each day while he was on his journey to regaining his memories. In the mornings, he was to train with a Naga named Sirus. Then he was to go to Goskia¡¯s shop. In the evenings, he was to study with Eve about Naga things in general. Which was something he would definitely look forward to.
Steven¡¯s first trial to overcome was heights. At least that¡¯s what his instructor, Sirus, told him. Steven passed out several times while trying to cross the bridge under Sirus¡¯s supervision. Sirus eventually grew annoyed by this, and told him he had a plan for tomorrow, and sent him to Goskia. Steven was getting tired of passing out all the time and having to be carried around. He imagined the guards felt the same way. But he didn¡¯t know what he could do about it. Maybe his instructor had something that would help.
Once in Goskia¡¯s shop, he asked about Sirus. The old Naga had a lot of respect for Sirus, and Steven learned quite a bit about his instructor. Sirus was an elder elite guard who was some sort of captain, which apparently was a big deal. It¡¯s what Shirem was meant to be trained for as his first step to becoming an Elder. Goskia said that Sirus even had five shards, whatever that meant. He tried to ask more questions, but Goskia told him he needed to ask Sirus if he wanted to know more. After drinking another memory potion, Goskia sent him home.
Each day, Steven would ask about the plant Goskia said he would send him. The old Naga always looked annoyed at his question, but told him the same thing each day. ¡°I¡¯m working on it.¡±
Looking around his small hut, he missed the tree house and the freedom he had. He wanted to stay there, but that was completely out of the question. When he asked the Elders if he could stay there, they gasped at his outlandish request and forbade him from going anywhere near the place. Not that he had any idea where it was.
That evening Eve came by, bringing him some food like she had every evening since he had arrived here. Today she brought him some sort of salad with some grilled fish. Steven found the food surprisingly good. At first, he had been afraid they ate raw mice or something. Once done eating, Eve told him that the Elders approved her request to move closer to him. Steven wouldn¡¯t mind if she moved in with him. She was absolutely the best thing about this place, and the main reason he hadn¡¯t tried to run away. That and the fact he had no idea how to get back to the tree house.
Eve seemed to be completely infatuated with him, but the problem was that he wasn¡¯t this Shirem fellow she thought he was. After telling her as much, she replied. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you never get your memories back. I will be here for you just the same, and if you wish, I will even use the name Steven from now on.¡±
Steven was surprised by her devotion and felt bad for this Shirem fellow for losing out on her. He asked if they were a couple and she blushed something fierce before saying they were not. The rest of the evening was just them talking about random things. Steven told her more about Earth, and she listened intently, never once telling him it was just mind magic. If anything, she seemed completely fascinated by the ideas.
The next morning, Sirus woke him up by beating on the door. Steven threw his new black, leathery clothes on as quickly as possible. This Sirus fellow didn¡¯t seem to play around; he reminded Steven of some sort of drill sergeant. A few moments later, Steven was standing in the doorway face to face with Sirus.
¡°Okay, first we are going to overcome that fear of heights today. Then tomorrow we will begin with your martial skills.¡± Sirus said, immediately getting to business.
Steven swallowed; he didn¡¯t like the look in Naga¡¯s eyes. ¡°And how do we go about overcoming my fear of heights?¡±
Sirus smiled. ¡°The fun way. Put this on.¡± Sirus handed Steven a necklace. ¡°You do not get to keep this. It¡¯s a loan from the Elders.¡±
The necklace looked simple, like all the jewelry he had seen Naga wore. The necklace had a single sharp-looking tooth hanging from it, and was crafted of leather.
¡°What does it do?¡±
¡°Oh, you will see.¡± Sirus said with a wide grin.
Steven was getting a bad feeling about this, but he placed the necklace on like Sirus asked. He was hoping it was some sort of fear-repression necklace. However, the look on Sirus¡¯s face made him think otherwise. As soon as he got to the bridge, he froze up, realizing it was definitely not repressing any fear. What happened next would no doubt fuel his nightmares for the rest of his life. Sirus grabbed him by the back of his leather armor and tossed him over the edge before he even realized what had happened.
¡°It¡¯s best to face your fear head-on.¡± Sirus said as Steven fell.
He paid no attention to his instructor¡¯s words as he plummeted from over two hundred feet. Steven passed out almost immediately. He opened his eyes to a smiling, black-scaled Naga. It took him several moments to realize where he was and why a snake person was smiling down at him.
¡°Why do some Naga have scales and others don¡¯t?¡± Steven asked, trying not to think about what had just happened.
Sirus looked at him in confusion for a moment. ¡°This is not how I expected this to go. I assumed you would be screaming, panicking, and trying to run from me while I chased you down and threw you over again and again. Instead, you ask me a random question while remaining completely calm.¡±
¡°Oh, I¡¯m definitely not calm. I understand that the necklace somehow protected me from hitting the ground. And there is no point trying to avoid the inevitable; if I run, you will catch me.¡± Steven said, slowly getting to his feet.
¡°It would be much easier if you would just jump over the edge yourself until you no longer fear the height.¡±
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s not happening!¡±
¡°You said yourself, there is no point in running. So why not just go to the end result? Which is you jumping off on your own accord.¡±
¡°There¡¯s a difference between doing it and you forcing me, but I suppose if that¡¯s the end goal.¡±
Steven stepped to the edge and froze.
¡°This is not an issue I ever expected to have with you, Shirem.¡±
¡°I-I can¡¯t, I just...¡± Steven didn¡¯t get to finish his sentence before he started falling; it took him just a bit longer than he expected to pass out this time.
Opening his eyes, he was met with a smiling Naga.
¡°You do realize I¡¯m not this Shirem fellow, right? I¡¯m from an entirely different world; he was most likely sent to my world by accident when I was sent here.¡±
¡°And you realize how preposterous that sounds? Other worlds! That¡¯s just the Archmage¡¯s magic talking.¡± Sirus said.
¡°Maybe you¡¯re right, and maybe you¡¯re wrong. But to me, talking about Archmages and magic is completely ridiculous.¡±
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
¡°Are you going to jump?¡±
¡°I ca¡¡± Steven didn¡¯t get two words out before he was casually tossed over the edge.
¡°I can do this all day.¡± Sirus said, once Steven appeared back on the bridge.
¡°I thought we were only meant to train with you half the day.¡±
¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. We better get back to it then.¡± Sirus said with a grin as he tossed Steven over the edge.
¡°That¡¯s not what I meant!¡± Steven shouted as he fell.
When Steven came to, a pale blue Naga with soft-looking skin was looking down at him.
¡°Better. You were able to talk that time while falling.¡± The pale blue Naga said as black scales formed all over his body. Steven quickly realized it was Sirus. ¡°To answer your question, it¡¯s a shard ability.¡±
¡°What¡¯s a¡¡± Steven was then tossed over the edge again.
Steven stared up at Sirus. ¡°It¡¯s an ability you gain from absorbing a shard. You have a couple unlocked yourself.¡±
¡°I can assure you, I do not have any Shard abilities.¡± Steven barely got the words out before he was falling over the edge again.
Maybe this will cure my fear of heights. Was the last thought Steven had before he passed out.
¡°I can prove to you that you have shard abilities.¡±
¡°How?¡± Steven asked before he was tossed off the side again.
¡°I know you¡¯re awake; I can sense your aura,¡± Sirus said.
Steven had tried to pretend he was still unconscious to keep from getting thrown over again. His heart was pounding, and he was afraid it was going to beat out of his chest at this point.
¡°Okay, okay! Just give me a moment. Let me try to calm my heart rate.¡± Steven barely got the words out before he was tossed over the edge once again.
This time, when Steven woke up, he jumped to his feet and stepped back.
¡°I thought you weren¡¯t going to run.¡± Sirus said with a manic grin plastered across his snake-like face.
¡°I¡¯m not! Just hear me out, okay?¡± Steven pleaded, ¡°I¡¯m trying to not pass out while I fall, but I need to try and lower my heart rate first. Can I try that? I want to overcome this fear as well.¡±
¡°Okay, I¡¯ll allow it,¡± Sirus said after a moment. ¡°There is an ancient tablet called the Seeing Stone that tells us our shard abilities and how far away you are from reaching the next level. It is also required to gain levels.¡±
¡°Okay, awesome. When do we go? And what happens if I use this tablet and I don¡¯t have any shards?¡±
¡°Then you will be executed for trespassing in our territory and for impersonating as the Elders chosen.¡± Sirus said right before he tossed him over.
Steven passed out almost immediately.
¡°It seems your heart rate slowing down didn¡¯t help you stay conscious any longer.¡± Sirus said once Steven appeared back on the bridge.
¡°Are you just going to act like you didn¡¯t just say you were going to kill me? You guys are the ones that kidnapped me and brought me here in the first place! I have been telling you all from the start that I¡¯m Steven! Not this Shirem!¡±
¡°True. If I¡¯m honest, I really don¡¯t know what will happen. That will be up to the Elders to decide. I imagine they would continue to insist that you are Shirem and may even offer you a shard. They seemed very adamant about you being Shirem, though seeing you pass out like this over something so minuscule is starting to give me doubts.¡±
Steven breathed a sigh of relief, but before he had a chance to calm down, he was tossed over the edge.
¡°I have a question and an idea!¡± Steven said once he appeared back on the bridge.
¡°Go on.¡±
¡°My question is: how does this necklace work? Am I being teleported, or is the necklace growing wings and flying me up?¡± Steven didn¡¯t get to finish speaking before being thrown over once again.
¡°Don¡¯t pass out, and you will find out.¡± Sirus shouted down.
Steven appeared on his back for what seemed like the hundredth time.
¡°And what was the idea? As fun as this is, I¡¯m starting to tire of throwing you over the edge. It¡¯s taking much longer than I thought it would. We do have other things I want to get done, and we are wasting a lot of time.¡±
¡°Well, I had this pipe with this herb that helps me calm my nerves, and if I...¡±
¡°Oh,¡± Sirus cut in, ¡°good idea. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± Sirus turned and walked off.
Steven was just fixing to scoot back into his house when Sirus appeared in front of him.
¡°I almost forgot. We don¡¯t want to waste time.¡± Sirus said as he casually tossed Steven over the edge.
Steven didn¡¯t make it more than twenty feet before he passed out each time, and it was no different this time. When he woke up, Sirus wasn¡¯t there smiling down at him, so he began scooting back into his house. For the first time, he noticed all the vine bridges above him and the dozens of Naga walking across, some even jumping from one bridge to a lower one. Several young Nagas were sitting on the edges of the vine bridges, looking down at him. Steven just scooted back into his hut. He wished he wasn¡¯t scared of heights, but he didn¡¯t know how to overcome it. While still lying on his back, he realized they must have placed him in the lowest house so he could be tossed over the edge until he no longer feared the height. He wondered how many others Sirus had done this to. Steven had to admit that it was somewhat working. At least, he thought it might be. He had thought it would cause him to fear heights even more, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. He was starting to understand that it wasn¡¯t anything to fear, but he couldn¡¯t help but pass out. Although once he had to give up the enchanted necklace, he would most likely still have this crippling fear of heights.
It didn¡¯t take Sirus much longer to return; he had some purple-looking potion in his hand. ¡°Drink this.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t question his instructor and just did as he asked. After all, he had no doubt in his mind that Sirus would hold his mouth open and force it down his throat if he refused. Once he drank it, he asked what it did but was drug out of his house and tossed over the edge as a response. This time, when Steven passed out, he came back to while he was still falling and began screaming in fear. Right when he thought he was going to hit the swamp water, he just appeared on his back, staring up at Sirus. Steven¡¯s eyes were wide, and his breaths were coming in short and fast.
¡°Fantastic! I¡¯m glad you mentioned this. It should go much faster now, not having to wait for you to wake up.¡± Sirus said right before he tossed Steven over the edge.
This time, Steven didn¡¯t pass out at all. He just screamed bloody murder all the way down. This happened several more times before Steven finally stopped screaming, and Sirus paused from chunking him over the edge.
¡°Okay, you can jump over if you¡¯re ready. If not, I¡¯ll just keep throwing you over till you¡¯re ready to jump on your own.¡±
Steven slowly stood up, legs trembling and hands shaking. It was so bad that he could barely grab hold of the vine bridge. Looking down, Steven locked up but didn¡¯t pass out; his heart was pounding so fast that it felt like Red Bull had been injected into his veins.
¡°It looks like a couple dozen more times could do you good,¡± Sirus said before tossing Steven over.
Steven lost track of time as he became numb to the sensation of falling. He continued to shake uncontrollably, not able to even stand. At some point, Sirus said it was time for him to leave, and he would be back tomorrow morning to finish his fear training. Steven didn¡¯t respond but just continued to lie there trembling while wondering what the hell was in that potion. Eventually Eve came by, and as soon as she saw him lying there trembling, she immediately rushed to his side.
¡°Are you okay?¡± Eve asked while helping him inside his hut. ¡°I heard about your training with Sirus. Goskia said that he even used a potion of wakefulness on you. I¡¯m sorry. I brought you some Kishurack; it¡¯s from Goskia. He wanted me to apologize on his behalf for giving Sirus the potion of wakefulness. But this Kishurack will definitely help calm your nerves. I didn¡¯t realize it was this bad.¡± Eve said, after she got a good look at Steven¡¯s trembling form. ¡°I, too, was thrown over the side when I was a youngling. Though that has been a while, and younglings get over it quicker than adults.¡± While Eve spoke, she sat out some food on the table. ¡°You¡¯re probably not hungry after being tossed over the edge all morning. But this should help with your nerves.¡° Eve pulled out some odd-looking apparatus that resembled a hookah. Steven assumed she had a bag of holding as she pulled it from nowhere.
¡°What is that?¡± Steven asked, his voice still a bit shaky.
¡°It is a water pipe. It¡¯s what we use for smoking herbs. And this is Kishurack. Goskia said he owed it to you. He is still examining the herbs you gave him.¡±
When Steven saw the plant, he got excited. A few moments later, they were both sitting on the couch, blowing smoke into the air.
¡°This stuff is amazing! Thank you, I really needed this,¡± Steven said.
¡°Of course! Just let me know if you need anything at all, and I¡¯ll do my best to acquire it for you. I know you are going through a difficult time, and I want to make it as comfortable as possible for you.¡± Eve said, staring into Steven¡¯s eyes.
He stared back into her light purple eyes for a long moment before he looked away. Steven didn¡¯t feel right; he wasn¡¯t who she thought he was. Maybe he could just pretend to be who she thought he was. Steven shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
¡°Is everything okay?¡± Eve asked.
¡°Yes, it¡¯s fine. This water pipe is just awesome.¡±
Eve smiled and giggled slightly before she continued talking cheerfully. ¡°I will be moving soon. I will be just across the bridge from you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m looking forward to you being closer.¡± Steven said. Though he had no idea where she was even moving from or if it was even a big deal to move, the rest of the evening went by too quickly for Steven¡¯s liking. Eve taught him how to play some sort of board game involving some round stones and odd-shaped sticks. When night set in, she said she had to leave and hugged him.
For the first time, he got to feel Naga skin; it was insanely soft, more so than he had expected. He stared at her backside as she left, wishing he was actually this Shirem fellow. The way her pale green skin reflected the moonlight was almost enchanting to Steven.
Chapter 7: Level one
The next morning, Steven woke up before Sirus arrived. He was determined to not spend his day getting causally thrown off the bridge. He needed to overcome his fear, or at least pretend he had overcome his fear. Eve had left the Kishurack for him, along with a firestone and the water pipe.
It wasn¡¯t long after he used the water pipe Sirus showed up.
Steven opened the door before Sirus even had the chance to knock.
¡°Are you ready?¡± Sirus asked.
Steven didn¡¯t reply. Instead, he walked out onto the bridge, took a deep breath and jumped off, well if he was being honest, he just kinda fell off.
¡°Good! Although Kishurack is frowned upon.¡± Sirus said once Steven appeared back on the bridge.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened, thinking he was about to get in trouble.
¡°It¡¯s fine. I really didn¡¯t want to spend all day tossing you over the edge and I don¡¯t really care what you do in your spare time as long as it does not negatively affect your training. Follow me. Let¡¯s find out if you lost your shards.¡±
Steven was still shaken by the height but could follow Sirus, although much slower than Sirus would have liked.
The vine bridges were much sturdier than they looked and didn¡¯t sway side to side in the slightest. Steven assumed they had to be enchanted or something.
¡°Hurry up now! We have places to be today.¡± Sirus said from the other side of the bridge.
Steven placed one foot in front of the other and was so caught up in the process that he didn¡¯t even realize he had made it across and nearly bumped into Sirus.
¡°Yeah, yeah, you made it across. Now come on.¡± Sirus said.
On the opposite side was a hut just like his, and most likely the one Eve was going to be moving into. Steven noticed a few sad looking Naga packing up. Once they were on another vine bridge, Steven asked Sirus about it. To which he replied they were moving to the swamp floor. Steven didn¡¯t get the chance to ask more about it as some odd-looking bat creature appeared out of nowhere and dove towards him. Steven froze. Though before it even got close to him, several white spikes appeared and flew directly into the bat creature, killing it instantly, then the spikes faded away.
¡°You froze up,¡± Sirus said with a disappointing glare. ¡±Looks as we have lots of training to do.¡±
It wasn¡¯t much longer before the pair were inside one of the giant trees riding a wooden lift. Steven wanted to ask how it was being lifted, as he didn¡¯t see any ropes, chains, or pulleys. But Sirus seemed irritated, so he held his tongue and just silently followed as he slowly walked over several more vine bridges. Eventually, they came to a tree larger than the others. Once inside, they rode the lift down for what seemed like several minutes before the lift stopped and they walked into a large room that had several Naga guards. In the center of the room was a crystal that reminded Steven of a flat screen tv. It was close to the same size as his tv back home. Sirus spoke with the guards in hushed tones before they were led to the crystal.
¡°Okay, reach out and touch it.¡± Sirus said.
Steven did as he was asked and to his surprise, the crystal lit up with words and numbers.
Level- 0
Essence- 90
Essence required for next level 100.
Shards:
- 0 of 7
The only thing any different about this than the page he could bring up was the Shard. He still had no idea what they were, other than they gave you some sort of ability.
¡°I see,¡± Sirus said, not even turning to look at Steven.
¡°Kelick, please escort Shirem back to his home. I must speak with the elders.¡±
¡°Yes Sir, right away Sir.¡±
¡°Are you telling us Shirem no longer has the Shard ability Estus Apeiron?¡± Elder Tolisk asked.
¡°Yes, he is also a level zero and does not have any shards at all.¡± Sirus said.
¡°How is this even possible?¡± Another Elder asked.
¡°It had to be the work of the Wizard. He was surely hired by the humans! I told you we should have dealt with him!¡±
¡°Ive never heard of someone losing all their levels and abilities.¡± Another Elder chimed in.
¡°We would have lost several strong warriors trying to take out that wizard. He is said to be as strong as Nevteb.¡±
¡°As strong as the spider Queen? That¡¯s preposterous!¡±
The five Elders burst into conversation, that quickly turned into arguments. Sirus just lowered his head while patiently waiting for orders.
Steven sat on the couch bench, worried that he would be killed for not being who they thought he was. He thought of Eve. She would most likely not want to see him anymore even if the Elders let him live. He should have listened to that damn cat and stayed in the domain. Besides, he missed the tree house, the library and even the floating rags. It was odd to miss a place you only stayed at a short while, but that domain felt like home for some reason. He needed to get back to it. If it wasn¡¯t for these Naga, he would be at level one by now and have access to his stat page. He was only ten essence away. Steven did get to see his stat page through that odd crystal tv, though it was no different from the page he could pull up, other than telling him he didn¡¯t have any shards. Once he reached level one, he knew a true stat page would appear. He didn¡¯t know how he knew this, he just knew that¡¯s how it worked.
Steven took a long drag from the water pipe, and then another, and another. He considered trying to make it back to the domain, but he had no idea where he was or how to even get back. He did see a ladder leading down on the other side of the bridge.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
But he quickly thought better of it. There were thousands of Naga. There was no way he would escape, not to mention Sirus. That guy was insane. He killed that giant bat with just the wave of his hand. If that¡¯s what shards did, he wanted his own. From what his stat page said, he could have up to seven of them and if they each granted an ability!
Steven cleared his mind. He needed to worry about just trying to stay alive at the moment. Maybe if he made it to level one, then something would change. He did remember seeing several mosquitoes as he fell from the bridge. If he could kill some while he fell, then¡ Was he seriously considering jumping off the bridge to kill mosquitoes? Steven shook his head and took several more hits from the water pipe.
Sirus was standing in Shirem¡¯s hut, or Stevens? He was no longer sure. The Elders seemed to only care about that Estus Apeiron ability. Though that made sense as the ability could give the Elders several more decades to their life once ranked up. Though Shirem was quite skilled in his right but the special treatment he got from the Elders was because of that shard ability he had.
Sirus was just fixing to leave to try and figure out where Steven, no Shirem, had gone off to when the human in question just appeared on the bridge on his back. He then got up and jumped off the edge again without ever noticing Sirus standing in his doorway.
¡°Did I turn him into a thrill seeker?¡± Sirus mumbled, while walking over to look down. To him it looked as if Steven was falling while clapping his hands, then he realized what the boy was doing. He was trying to kill the mosquitos. Now things were making sense he was level zero and so were the mosquitos. He should be able to use them to level as long as they were both zero. Or at least he thought that was the case. Sirus had never met a level zero before, even hatchlings were level one. Leveling up was something Sirus could respect. Sirus didn¡¯t make himself known just yet and simply watched. It looked as though the human was having a hard time jumping over the edge. Now that he was watching closer, jump may have been too strong of a word.
He watched Steven grab the bridge with a trembling hand and pulled himself over the edge.
Sirus had to give it to the lad. He was trying to overcome his fear while leveling. It wasn¡¯t a bad idea, though trying to kill a single type of creature through an entire level was extremely difficult. Once you killed so many of the same creature type, that creature would run from you, making it nearly impossible. That¡¯s why the young Naga warriors went to the dungeon to train. Those monsters never ran anywhere but towards you. Shirem was falling so fast and the bugs were so numerous that he should be able to get a few each time.
Steven appeared on the bridge again.
¡°How close are you?¡± Sirus asked.
Steven was startled by the voice, but once he seen it was Sirus, he spoke up. ¡°I need three more.¡±
¡°Good.¡±
¡°So you aren¡¯t going to kill me?¡± Steven hesitantly asked.
¡°Not today.¡± Sirus said with a half smile.
¡°I actually have a shard for you, but I¡¯m not sure if you can use it. Normally, you can only absorb shards every ten levels, but your situation is unique, so we can try once you reach level one.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°How do shards work, anyway?¡±
¡°Absorb them and get stronger. That¡¯s all you really need to know for now,¡± Sirus said dismissively. ¡°now get back to it. I want to see you reach level one before our session is over. Tomorrow I plan to have you absorb the shard.¡±
¡°Is there not something else I can kill to gain the remaining essence? It¡¯s getting hard to kill these damn mosquitoes.¡± Steven barely got the words out of his mouth before he was falling off the bridge. Sirus moved so fast Steven didn¡¯t even see him. He wasn¡¯t sure if that was because of levels or from a shard ability.
Steven only needed three more of the damn mosquitos. And they were becoming difficult to even get close to. He tried to ask Sirus about it when he appeared back on the bridge, but he just told him that¡¯s how it worked and to get back to it.
It took him four more trips over the edge before he even got one more and seven more trips to get the next one. He only needed one more now and had already been over the side twelve times in pursuit of the last one, with no luck. At one point Steven asked if Sirus could catch him one for him, but the dour Naga flat out refused. Only telling him it was something he needed to do himself. Sirus did allow him to take a break, Steven Immediately made his way into his house to the water pipe. Sirus only narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.
Steven was numb from falling at this point, though he didn¡¯t think that would remain. His fear of heights was incredibly difficult to get over. If not for the water pipe Eve brought him, he didn¡¯t think he would have been able to even take that first jump.
While Steven was taking his hard earned break, he worked on trying to make a sort of net. He only needed one more damn essence, and he was tired of plummeting two hundred feet to the ground. Steven had found a few random things in the house to make the net out of. The actual net part was made of a spare towel and a few random sticks he found in the house. He didn¡¯t question why there were sticks in the house and just used them to finish his project. Sirus said nothing as Steven came out with his makeshift net.
Steven took a deep breath before hopping over the edge. He didn¡¯t make it, but a quarter of the way down before his sticks snapped and the towel blew into his face. He was able to get it off his face before he reached the section with the most mosquitos but he didn¡¯t have time for anything else. Besides, all the mosquitoes parted from around him before he even got close to them. Steven appeared on his back with his broken net on his face. Throwing it to the side, he saw a disapproving Sirus looking down at him. He looked at Steven as if he was a child that had just done something so stupid that there were no words for.
¡°What! Those damn mosquitoes are hard to get. I can¡¯t seem to get the last one.¡±
Sirus just continued to look at Steven without saying a word. He then pointed his palm down towards a cluster of mosquitoes and caught a half dozen in some sort of air barrier. He then directed the air bubbles in front of Steven.
¡°Wait! You could have done that the whole time?¡±
¡°Some lessons are best learned on one¡¯s own. But I am tired now and ready to move onto the next lesson. Now get ready. I am going to release them.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t going to take any chances and placed his hands right around one of the air bubbles. He could feel the air spinning. It hurt his palms, but he ignored that. As soon as he felt the air barrier collapse, he smashed the mosquito between his hands.
Defeated level 0 mosquito.
Essence gained 1.
100 out of 100 essence to level 1.
Spend 100 essence to reach level 1 Yes/No?
Selecting yes, Steven¡¯s view was filled with notifications.
Congratulations! You have reached level one. You now have full access to your stat page.
Congratulations! You are the first to complete the hidden quest of Chaos.
Requirements: Reach level one by only taking essence from level zero beings.
(Note: This should not be possible, and you are likely not meant to be on this world. Be warned, Chaos has taken notice of you.)
You have completed the Divine quest, reward Divine Shard obtained.
You have a request from the God of Chaos accept Yes/No? (Note if you accept, you will be transferred to the Ethereal for a short time.)
You have one attribute point to allocate.
Steven minimized the notifications in confusion while trying to wrap his mind around everything he had just read. No sooner than he closed the screens the air in front of him began shimmering.
Sirus took a step back with a confused look on his face.
¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Steven shouted over the high-pitched sound the air was making.
Sirus just looked on wide eyed, not saying anything. A moment later, a silvery looking thin rock was just floating in the air. It was no longer than Steven¡¯s palm. He could only imagine it was a shard. The next moment, Sirus was there.
¡°Sorry, but this shard will be taken to the Elders.¡± Sirus said as he reached out to grab the shard, but his hand went right through it as if it wasn¡¯t there. Sirus looked on in utter confusion.
Steven then reached out to grab it. As soon as he touched it, he received a notification.
Absorb Shard of Angelic Death Yes/No?
Steven was fixing to just absorb it, but decided to ask Sirus about it.
¡°What is a shard of Angelic death?¡±
Sirus¡¯s eyes grew even wider and stepped back. ¡°Ahh, I¡¯m unsure. We should¡ We should take this to the Elders.¡±
Steven looked on at the normally stoic Naga.
¡°Uh, yeah, screw that. I¡¯m just going to absorb it.¡± Steven said.
Steven selected yes. The next moment, the shard shattered into thousands of little sliver moats of light and shot into his chest. At the same time, Steven fell to his knees, face twisted in pain. The pain left nearly as quickly as it came, but somehow felt like it had been minutes. Steven was left feeling energized. He quickly got back to his feet, feeling excited he couldn¡¯t wait to check out his status page.
¡°You should have not done that! All shards must be approved by the Elders. I am unsure how you could even absorb it without the ritual, but I can assure you the Elders will not be pleased.¡± Sirus said.
Steven looked on in confusion. ¡°Well, no one told me that! If you lot would have just left me alone, I would have already reached level one. Besides, that was my shard. I was the one to unlock it from the quest. The Elders had no right to it.¡±
¡°Come with me,¡± Sirus said, grabbing Steven¡¯s arm.
Chapter 8: Shards and Gideon
¡°Explain to us again how you obtained this shard.¡± One of the Elders said.
¡°Well, the notifications told me I completed a hidden quest.¡± Steven said.
¡°I¡¯m not sure the translation magic is working properly. What is a, notification?¡± Another Elder asked as if he were tasting the word.
Steven stood silent for a moment, trying to think of how to explain to these old Naga what a notification was. ¡°Well, it¡¯s similar to what happens when you touch the seeing stone and you see your stats.¡±
Gasps came from several of the Elders, and then they broke out into chatter amongst themselves as a blue barrier popped up around them, blocking all sound.
Steven just stood there, unsure of what he was supposed to do as the Elders talked behind the barrier. He could see through it and tell they were having a heated discussion. He wanted to look over his stat page and see what had changed and what the shard even did. But he decided against it at the moment. He also had some sort of request to talk with a God, which was a bit confusing. Steven wasn¡¯t sure what he should do about that. He didn¡¯t want to keep a God waiting. But on the other hand, it was the God of Chaos. Should he even accept? Did the gods have rules to follow?? He would have thought that if a god wanted to see him, it wouldn¡¯t matter if he accepted or not. Whatever the case, he decided to leave the screen open just in case he needed to accept it with haste; it did say something about being transported. Although he had no idea how quick that would work or if the Elders were going to be as upset as Sirus was making it out to be. He was hoping he could make a quick escape if need be by accepting the god¡¯s request. Steven¡¯s thoughts were interrupted as the barrier fell, and one of the Elders spoke up.
¡°Tell us, what shard ability did you receive from this angelic death shard?¡±
¡°Well, I¡¯m not exactly sure. I¡¯ll have to look.¡±
¡°Do you need to go to the Seeing Stone, or will this. Notification, from your talent, tell you?¡± Elder Vasuki asked.
Steven was about to tell them it wasn¡¯t a talent, but now that he thought about it, maybe it was best to give them the least amount of information possible.
¡°Give me a moment, and I¡¯ll look and see if it will tell me.¡±
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards}
Level -1
Available Attribute ~1
Essence- 0
Essences required for the next level, 200.
HP ~ 70
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 100
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 3
Dexterity~ 4
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 10
Steven was ecstatic about having an actual stat page now, but he didn¡¯t get to look over it as the Elders were not a patient bunch. He would definitely be poring over the stat page later. There was also an equipment tab, but that too would have to wait. With a thought, the shard tab opened.
{Stats} {Equipment} {Shards*}
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 enthusiasm fell a bit after reading about his shard ability; he wanted to throw magic around, not expand the distance between things. Though he could see how this could be good at keeping him from taking lethal attacks, it wasn¡¯t a fireball or lightning bolt, and the cost was insane; he had just enough mana to use the ability for a second.
Also, his dexterity was so low that a second was not going to be enough time for anything, although the time dilation effect could make it useful. He would just have to try it out and see what happened. And what was with the name? The ability had nothing to do with angels or death.
¡°Shirem?¡±
Steven blinked; he had nearly forgotten they were waiting on him. ¡°Okay, so the ability expands the distance between two targets by ten feet at the cost of all my mana.¡±
He didn¡¯t think he needed to give them all the details unless they asked about it specifically. A few murmurs of disapproval, although he heard the Elder named Vasuki comment on how that could be used to avoid a lethal attack if he was fast enough to activate it. Then they started bombarding him with questions, one after another. Steven couldn¡¯t keep up with their names, so he just thought of them as their most common trait to help track them in his head. Other than Elder Vasuki, who seemed to always defend him, or at least that¡¯s what it seemed like.
¡°Why did you absorb the shard?¡± The wrinkly Elder asked.
¡°We had one chosen for you.¡± The large-eyed Elder said.
¡°Ones that would have beens much more powerful.¡± This Elder tended to add S¡¯s to words that didn¡¯t need them and was a bit slow to speak while hissing a lot. He wasn¡¯t sure, but he thought the large-eyed Elder and the S¡¯s elders were females, but it was hard to tell because they looked so old. His mind went to Eve; she was gorgeous with her light green skin and her purple eyes. He couldn¡¯t wait to see her this evening. At least he hoped he would get to see her. He wondered if she would look like that when she got older.
¡°Shirem?¡± Large-eyed Elder said.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. He really needed to stay focused; maybe he shouldn¡¯t have smoked so much this morning.
¡°Well, if I¡¯m honest, I really have no idea what¡¯s happening. Can¡¯t I just absorb the shard you picked out for me too? I wasn¡¯t even aware I could absorb it by just touching it until it was happening.¡± Steven said a bit sheepishly, not mentioning that he did have the option of choosing yes or no, and hoping Sirus didn¡¯t mention anything, as he did tell him he was going to absorb it.
¡°You are right in that you have no idea what¡¯s happening.¡± S¡¯s Elder said.
¡°You can¡¯t absorb another shard until you reach level ten,¡± wrinkly Elder said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how you were able to absorb that one at level one.¡±
¡°I have never heard of just touching a shard and absorbing it before. I find it strange that Shirem was stripped of his shards and was given completely new abilities, along with his mind being wiped. I for one, think we need to reopen the discussion that he is actually this human Steven that he claims.¡± Wide eyes said.
Stolen story; please report.
¡°That makes no sense. We have all seen Vasuki¡¯s ability, this is Shirem.¡± Snaggle toothed Elder chimed in.
The rest of the meeting went by extremely slowly. The Elders telling him to not absorb shards that weren¡¯t chosen for him, and if his notification skill gives him another shard, then bring it to them directly. Then they pretty much told him he was bad and to not do it again.
They also said that tomorrow Sirus was meant to take Steven to a dungeon to start leveling. At the mention of a dungeon, Steven got a bit excited; however, the same couldn¡¯t be said for Sirus. He tried to tell the Elders something strange was happening with the dungeon, and the dungeon monsters were even coming out. The Elders didn¡¯t care and told him to take Shirem in there anyway and bring a team if need be. They wanted him to reach level ten as soon as possible.
Eve could only come over for a short time that evening; she brought him some food, and he told her about going to the dungeon tomorrow. As soon as he mentioned the dungeon, the mood fell. She told him to be careful and not go if he could help it. Explaining something was going on with the dungeon. She hugged him before she left and said she would be back tomorrow before he went to the dungeon. When he asked why she couldn¡¯t stay, she told him she had some extra duties to attend and there was a curfew, and the Elders were quite strict on the matter.
Once she was gone, Steven laid back in his bed, opened up his stat page, and began to look over it, trying to decide what to do with his single attribute point. He asked Eve about it, but she told him that at the early levels, it¡¯s best to put points into everything until you reach ten on all your stats. After that, it just depended on what you wanted to specialize in. He would have to talk with her more about the subject when they had more time. She also mentioned that you got attribute bumps when you absorbed shards.
From what he understood about attributes, everyone had a specialty, which meant they got more out of that attribute when putting points in their specialty attribute. Steven didn¡¯t really want to waste any points on useless things, but after looking at his stats, he decided that it wouldn¡¯t hurt to raise them all to ten. It was annoying that he only got one point per level, meaning it would take several levels just to get to ten on all his stats. After doing some quick math in his head, he realized it would take twenty-five more attributes to get everything to ten, meaning twenty-five more levels. Although absorbing shards gave you a small boost in your attributes, from what Eve said, it was uncommon to gain more than five attributes from a single shard, and that could only happen every ten levels. It would be slow-going. She also told him shards were extremely rare, and only one from the clan had all their shards and was working on forming a core. He had no idea what a core was, but apparently it was something hard to form. Right now, he needed to focus on just gathering all his shards first. No way in hell would he let those old Elders choose his shards. Well, unless they were good ones.
Feeling overwhelmed, Steven decided to hold off on using his attribute point at the moment. Instead, he opened the request from the God of Chaos. He was starting to get a bad feeling that if he didn¡¯t accept it soon, the God would become angry. He wanted to ask someone about it, but he didn¡¯t know who he could even ask. Eve seemed to be his only friend, but in the back of his mind, he was also worried that she was sent by the Elders to spy on him. She seemed to be way too into him, even if she thought he was someone else, or maybe he was just overthinking things. She seemed truly genuine.
After taking a few hits from the water pipe, he worked up enough courage to accept the request from God. The next moment, it felt as though something reached down and grabbed his soul and jerked him up. Then the sense of falling overtook him before he was just standing in a normal-looking forest.
¡°Mr. Odling.¡± A voice spoke from behind him.
Steven whirled around to see a man who looked to be in his early forties floating in the air, cross-legged, eating what looked to be a purple apple. The man was dressed strangely; he had on a yellow tuxedo with an apple core embroidered on the chest and bright orange shorts. His hair was long and black, with bright blue-piercing eyes. To top it all off, the man had pale blue skin, and from what Steven could tell, an actual halo floated above his head. The man was handsome in a way that clashed with his mismatched attire.
¡°Uh, hello.¡± Steven said.
The being simply continued to eat his purple apple slowly while maintaining direct eye contact with Steven, resulting in a prolonged and uncomfortable silence. Steven would break eye contact just to look back at the being floating there, somehow meeting his eyes each time he looked back. Even when looking away, it felt as though he was somehow still making eye contact. Though it wasn¡¯t nearly as intense as actual eye contact with the being, when he was done with the apple, he casually tossed the core to Steven, who fumbled with it and nearly dropped it.
The being chuckled. ¡°A gift from my father. He told me to tell you he liked your last name. And congratulations on being the first to complete his hidden quest.¡±
Steven blinked a few times in confusion before he found his voice. ¡°Um, thank you. May I ask your name?¡± Steven was unsure why this was the first thing he asked, but he just went with it.
The being floated closer, nearly face-to-face, with Steven looking him directly in the eyes while slightly tilting his head from side to side. ¡°You can call me Gideon. I am what you would call an angel,¡± Gideon said with a smile. ¡°Now, Mr. Odling, it is time for you to go back.¡±
The next moment, Steven got the sensation of falling, and then he landed on his bed with enough force to knock the air out of him.
¡°The hell?¡± Steven muttered once he caught his breath. He shuddered at just the thought of the angel staring at him.
The core of the purple apple that he apparently was still holding floated up out of his hands and began emitting a bright purple light before winking out and falling into his lap. Instead of an apple core, a ring was in its place. Steven picked it up. It was a simple silver ring with a tiny apple core embedded in it. It also looked well used. Steven was curious about what it did. Remembering the equipment tab, he opened up his stat page and then opened his equipment page with a thought.
{Equipment*} {Stats} {Shards}
Head- None
Rarity-None
~ Effect: None
Chest: Hydra leather chest piece
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect: self-repair. Small pocket dimension.
Hands- None
Rarity-None
~ Effect: None
Legs: Hydra leather pants
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect: self-repair.
Feet: Hydra leather boot
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect: self-repair. Noise reduction.
Neck: Amulet of the Forsaken Plunge.
Rarity- Uncommon
~ Effect: While falling, the wearer will be transported to the previous location before impact.
Ring 1: Minor ring of barrier
Rarity- Common
~Effect: Repel some liquids for 30-minute intervals.
Ring 2: Ring of Language
Rarity- Uncommon
~Effect: Understand and speak common languages.
Ring 3: None
Rarity- None
~Effect]- None
Steven stared at his equipment page for a long moment with a goofy grin. He wished he could get a bit more detail, like how much damage his armor blocked. But regardless, he was excited to find he had enchanted gear! Equipment had always been his favorite part of games, and between that and being able to level, this was like a dream come true.
Once he got stronger, maybe he could bring his aunt here. Well, after he found humans, he doubted his aunt would like the snake people, regardless of how human they looked. He had a couple of online friends that he knew would like this world too. Though it wasn¡¯t like he had any idea how to leave or even come back, for that matter. He was still curious about what Blank was even doing in his world in the first place. And that Shirem fellow, did he get sent to his world or did something else happen to him? Steven¡¯s thoughts were interrupted by the ring Gideon gave him.
It began to glow with a bright purple light before fading to a dull glow. He had nearly forgotten about it with all the excitement from his equipment page. Steven held it up and looked at it as it continued to glow; he apparently had to put it on to see what it did. He had room for three ring slots, so there was no reason not to put it on. If that angel wanted to hurt him, he wouldn¡¯t have to resort to trickery.
Steven placed the ring on his left hand and was just fixing to check his equipment page when the ring released a bright purple light before making a terrible screeching sound, sending a purple beam of light that shot straight up through his roof, blinding Steven temporarily. Blinking his eyes a few times, he looked down at the ring to find it was now completely ordinary, not glowing in the slightest.
The next moment, a loud thump shook the hut, and Sirus came charging in. ¡°Are you okay?¡± He asked, looking around the room for threats.
¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. What¡¯s going on?¡± Steven asked, thinking it was best not to mention the ring because Sirus would try to give it to the Elders.
¡°There was a massive aura spike and a flash of light that looked to come from this direction; did you not see anything?¡±
¡°I did see some sort of purple light.¡± Steven said. He thought it best to not lie to Sirus. ¡°What¡¯s happening? Are we under attack?¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure,¡± Sirus said as he turned to leave. ¡°If you see something, call out.¡± Sirus said as he charged back out of the hut.
After waiting a good five minutes to make sure Sirus didn¡¯t come back, Steven opened his stat page. He went to look over the ring description, but to his surprise, there was a new tab labeled Inventory. Opening it first, he found it to be completely empty. Assuming it had some sort of effect on the ring, he closed that tab and opened the equipment to read over the description of the ring. However, it showed his third ring slot to be empty.
Closing the page, he looked down at the finger he put the ring on, but the ring was gone. Confused, he quickly opened his tabs to find he still had an inventory. He had no idea what happened, but it seemed he now had an inventory.
That night, Steven placed everything he could find in his hut inside his inventory and then took it all back out. He was curious what the limit was, but couldn¡¯t seem to find it. Even his bed went in without issue. His armor had a pocket that held a couple of small items, but the bed was entirely too big for his armor¡¯s storage. He had thought that was amazing, but this was on a completely different level. All he had to do was touch something and will it into his inventory. He considered trying to place the entire hut in there just to see if it would fit, but thought better of it after remembering the disgusting swamp water underneath him. He doubted if it would work anyway.
Chapter 9: The area
Steven woke up to an excessive beating on his door. Before he could even get out of bed, the door swung open.
¡°Get up. It¡¯s time to go,¡± Sirus said, before he stepped back out of the hut.
Steven was annoyed; he would have liked to sleep in just a bit! He had stayed up entirely too late, playing with his inventory. But he got ready as quickly as he could. He didn¡¯t want to keep the angry Naga waiting.
Sirus seemed to be in a worse mood than normal. It was most likely because he was meant to take Steven to the dungeon today. Steven couldn¡¯t wait to fight actual monsters, although when he thought of fighting them, he imagined throwing spells, not getting close for melee. Now that he thought about it, he wasn¡¯t looking forward to fighting monsters at all. Although if he gained levels, he could learn magic. He was curious to try out his new ability, even though it was a defensive ability. Or was it a utility ability? Either way, having his own magic was exciting, even though he hadn¡¯t had the chance to use it yet.
Steven only shuddered a bit while following the angry Naga over the vine bridge. Being tossed over the side and then jumping headfirst into your fear repeatedly did wonders for overcoming one¡¯s fear. Though he was afraid Sirus would take back the amulet at any time, he was unsure of how he would react. No, he knew how he would react, and there was no way in hell they were taking that amulet from him if he had to stay up here.
After walking a bit, Steven spoke up. ¡°Are we headed to the dungeon?¡± He didn¡¯t even have a weapon; maybe a bow with poisoned arrows would be nice until he learned magic.
¡°We are going to find you a suitable weapon first, then see how you use it. After that, we will be meeting up with the team I assembled. We will not be passing the first floor of the dungeon.¡± Sirus said, turning to look at Steven with narrowed eyes. ¡°When we are in the dungeon and I tell you something, you do it immediately and without hesitation or question, understand?¡±
¡°Yes sir,¡± Steven said. He was taken aback by how intense Sirus was.
¡°Good, now let¡¯s go.¡±
It wasn¡¯t long before they were standing in Goskia¡¯s shop. Steven wanted to ask if Goskia was the go-to Naga for everything, but kept his mouth shut, as Sirus was not in the mood.
¡°Enchanted poison daggers.¡± Is all Sirus said. Goskia seemed to understand and went back into the room. Steven winced inwardly. Did it have to be daggers? He didn¡¯t want to get that close!
After a few minutes, Goskia came out of the other room with two black-bladed daggers that had a slight green tint to them. ¡°These are the best I have in stock. I can get the blacksmith to begin working on a custom pair of daggers this evening, if you would like.¡±
¡°No. I¡¯m unsure if Steven here can even use these daggers.¡± Sirus said before he took the daggers and walked out. Steven stood there for a moment, unsure if he was supposed to follow.
¡°You better get going. Oh! And do come by later. I have another potion for you. I know it¡¯s been a couple of days, but I think this one will spark something.¡±
Steven inwardly sighed as he took off towards Sirus. ¡°Will do.¡± Steven said as he left Goskia¡¯s shop. He was tired of having childhood memories. The last memory wasn¡¯t even an old memory, but one from a couple of years ago. One he had been trying to repress. No one wanted to remember their parents bloodied and disfigured from a car accident.
The pair crossed over several vine bridges and went up a couple of different lifts before they reached their destination. On the way, several Naga greeted Sirus while also giving Steven odd looks, but no one dared question Sirus. Apparently, the dower Naga had the respect of the common folk. Steven wasn¡¯t sure how, as all he did was nod at them, not even slowing down his march.
Eventually the pair reached their destination, and Steven stared openmouthed at the scene in front of him.
¡°This is where we will see how much skill you have retained.¡±
Steven was too focused on the structure in front of him to pay Sirus much mind at the moment. The top of one of the massive trees looked to be cut off and dug out to make a bowl-like shape. Around the outer part were dozens of Naga sitting on benches that looked to be made from the tree itself. They were cheering for a Naga, who was clearly in the middle of a fight in the center. It reminded Steven of the movies he saw of the Roman Colosseum. Except everything was carved into a still-living tree, or was it grown that way?
¡°Here!¡± Sirus shoved the two daggers into Steven¡¯s hands. ¡°You¡¯re up next.¡±
¡°W-wait! Hold up, I can¡¯t fight! I don¡¯t know how!¡±
Sirus turned to glare at Steven. ¡°I agree, but the Elders have ordered it; now come on.¡± Sirus said as he started heading towards the benches. Steven first assumed they were going to sit and watch this fight, but to his horror, they headed down some stairs that led under the actual arena. There were several Naga on this level, although they looked to be fighters gearing up for the next round. Steven saw some large wooden doors that he assumed led into the actual arena itself. Sirus walked up to an older Naga with a huge scar going across his face that was sitting behind an old desk.
¡°Aye, Sirus, it¡¯s been a while. Have you come to make a bet on the fights today? Ishkar is going to be in the arena later tonight; he is still undefeated. Well, until Shirem gets back from his mission, that is.¡± The older Naga said.
¡°I¡¯m on official business.¡± As Sirus said this, the old Naga straightened.
¡°Yes, sir, how may we be of use to the Elders?¡±
¡°I need you to throw him in the arena.¡± Sirus said.
¡°Yes, sir, not a problem,¡± the older Naga said before turning to Steven. ¡°Kilips the name. I¡¯m the arena master around here. It¡¯s not often that we see humans around these parts. Well, if I¡¯m being honest, we never see your kind. I¡¯ll just need you to fill this out for me.¡± Kilips handed Steven a plank of wood that Sirus took from him before he even had a chance to look at it.
¡°I¡¯ll deal with this and any questions you may have.¡± Sirus said.
¡°Yes sir. If anyone has questions, I will send them directly to you.¡± Kilips said with a knowing smile, ¡°What level bracket do you want him in?¡±
¡°One through twenty single shards.¡± Sirus said.
Kilips took another look at Steven. ¡°Oh, a Shard barrier, I see. It should be a good fight if you brought him here yourself.¡±
¡°I¡¯m just following orders; I wouldn¡¯t get your hopes up.¡±
¡°Understood. One vs. one, teams, or battle royal?¡± Kilips asked.
¡°Whatever you have going on next, I¡¯m just meant to gauge him before we set out.¡±
¡°Alright then. Let¡¯s see here, next is,¡± Kilips said as he flicked through some wooden planks, ¡°it is one vs. one. however, his opponent has two shards although only one is combat related.¡±
¡°Who is it?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Kishrot.¡±
¡°Kishrot?¡± Sirus asked in confusion. ¡°What is he doing in the arena?¡±
¡°Not exactly sure, but rumor has it he lost a bet; this is his fifth fight this week.¡± Kilips said.
¡°How is he doing?¡± Sirus asked.
A slight chuckle came from the arena master. ¡°Well, about what you would expect from the merchant¡¯s son. He does, however, have quite a unique Shard ability. Taking out most of his opponents with a single attack.¡±
¡°Well, this should be a good fight then.¡± With that, Sirus handed Kilips the wooden plank back and left. Steven assumed Sirus left to watch from the benches.
Steven was left just standing there awkwardly with the old, scarred Naga.
¡°It won¡¯t be long now. They are just finishing up,¡± Kilips said. ¡°By the way, what do I call you? Sirus seemed to forget to put that down.¡±
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Steven was unsure how to answer that; apparently, only a select few were told he was Shirem. Steven didn¡¯t understand the politics behind that. But he really didn¡¯t care at the moment; he didn¡¯t want to fight in an arena; he didn¡¯t even know how to fight! What if he accidentally killed someone with the poison daggers or killed himself?
¡°Lad?¡± Kilips asked.
¡°Uh¡ Oh, sorry, I¡¯m just kind of nervous. You can call me Steven.¡±
Kilips stared at Steven with a raised eyebrow for a moment. ¡°Steven,¡± Killips said as if tasting the word, ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of a name like that before. Anyway, don¡¯t worry, you will do great.¡± The arena master said with an obvious fake smile. Steven got the sense that he told everyone the same thing.
The doors opened, and several Naga came in from the arena. Steven looked over all the fighters, and they didn¡¯t look hurt in the slightest. Though, for all he knew, this was the winning team, and the others were being tossed into the swamp or something. He did his best to calm down; Surely Sirus wouldn¡¯t let him get killed. The Elders thought he was Shirem after all.
¡°It looks like you¡¯re up, kid,¡± Kilips said, interrupting Steven¡¯s thoughts.
¡°Do I just go out there, or how does this work?¡± Steven asked.
Kilips just blinked at Steven a few times before answering. ¡°Yes, just go out there, and Kishrot will meet you there.¡±
Steven turned to leave while wishing he didn¡¯t have to do this. He then stopped, realizing he had no idea how it even worked. ¡°One more question. How is the winner determined?¡±
Kilips face twisted into a maze of confusion before he spoke. ¡°Well, until one of you can no longer fight, or is disarmed, of course. It¡¯s basic arena rules.¡±
Steven walked through the large wooden doors holding a dagger in each of his hands and a dower expression on his face. ¡°Damnit,¡± he mumbled. He didn¡¯t want to fight. This is not how it¡¯s supposed to go down. He was supposed to be trained by a master until he was ready. Then go fight and show off his hard-earned skills. Not thrown into a fight before he trained. He was going to make an utter fool of himself.
Now that Steven was in the arena, it looked much larger than it did from above. The wooden walls surrounding him were at least thirty feet tall, and the arena floor itself was made of dirt. Steven wondered how long it would have taken them to haul all the dirt up here when he remembered that magical storage spaces were a thing.
¡°Well, you¡¯re the last person I expected to face.¡±
Steven looked up to see a red-skinned Naga standing in front of him, holding a wicked long sword. How had he not seen him approach? Steven was just fixing to ask the Naga if he knew him when a loud bell chimed out. The half Naga immediately darted towards him, sword poised for an overhead attack. Steven, on the other hand, just froze as his mind began racing. This was his actual first fight of his life, and they were using actual weapons. How was this even fair? He only had daggers.
The sword was coming down at him before he even knew what was happening. Steven didn¡¯t have time to do anything other than widen his eyes in surprise as the blade inched closer. Suddenly, it was as if time slowed right before impact.
A sharp pain overtook Steven¡¯s mind, and he nearly collapsed. Right before the sword impacted Steven, it vanished, only to reappear on the ground exactly ten feet away. The Naga lost his balance and stumbled to the ground next to Steven. Kishrot stood up, looking around in wide-eyed confusion. Suddenly, the crowd went wild, shouting and cheering.
Sirus sat in the stands, watching the human. He was more and more sure this person was not one of them, much less Shirem, but the Elders wouldn¡¯t listen to him.
He watched Kishrot, who was not even a true warrior, charge at Steven with shard enhanced movement. The human just stood frozen in fear. He had expected this very thing. The mother tree would heal anyone instantly, so he didn¡¯t need to worry. Still, bringing Steven here was just dumb; not only was it going to make him look bad, but he would have to explain to the Elders that their beloved Shirem did indeed lose all his skill with a blade.
To Sirus¡¯s surprise, Kishrot¡¯s sword vanished just before impact and reappeared behind the Naga, causing Steven to win the match. The crowd went berserk at the unusual victory. To everyone else, it must have looked as though Steven didn¡¯t see his opponent as a threat at all and somehow just disarmed his opponent without even moving a muscle. Sirus knew it was the shard ability, and he could tell that Steven was just about to collapse from mana fatigue. So he quickly appeared next to Steven and left with him before he was bombarded with questions about why there was a human in the arena.
Sirus was impressed that Steven was able to activate the ability in such a quick manner, but he also left himself open for attack by draining all his mana. He had much to teach this human.
Steven could barely stand; he didn¡¯t even know where he was or what was even happening. His head felt like it was about to burst open. Suddenly, a blue-looking potion bottle was shoved in his face, and Sirus told him to drink. As he did, the pain lessened immediately, and his thoughts were starting to become clear.
¡°What happened?¡± Steven asked, trying to remember the fight.
¡°Well, you won your match, but you drained yourself completely of mana. You should have used your daggers and only used your shard as a last resort.¡± Sirus said. Although Steven could tell he wasn¡¯t entirely upset with the end result.
¡°Well, as I have no idea how to use daggers, it was my last resort!¡± Steven said, not mentioning he had forgotten he even had a shard ability, much less thought about using it.
¡°That shard ability of yours could be quite good if it didn¡¯t drain all your mana. I still need to gauge your ability with the daggers.¡±
¡°Well, I have absolutely no skill with the dagger; I would much rather have a spear or a bow.¡±
Sirus looked at Steven with disgust. ¡°Those are both cowardly weapons!¡±
Steven went to speak up, but Sirus just spoke over him. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get going. We are going to the dungeon, and we will see how you fare in there. Now keep up.¡± Sirus took off in a march.
They eventually made it to the ground via a couple of lifts. Once on the ground, Steven took in the scene before him. It was just swampy, disgusting, soupy swamp water every which way he looked. A few spots of dry land peeked through the water, but they were few and far between. The massive trees helped break up the swamp and even gave it an enchanted feeling. But what caught Steven¡¯s attention were the floating bridges made from logs tied together. They ran in every direction, leading to varying types of buildings that were built onto the bridges. The bridge they were currently walking towards ran in a straight line as far as he could see. At least he had a nice platform to walk on, and the bridges seemed sturdy.
He knew he had a barrier ring, but still, the thought of getting that disgusting water on him made a shiver run down his spine. He had been afraid they would be traveling in the swamp water.
¡°It will take a good portion of the day to reach the destination. I have a team scouting the way forward.¡±
¡°Are we staying overnight out here?¡±
¡°Yes.¡± was the only response Steven got.
¡°Does this bridge go the whole way?¡±
Sirus stopped walking and turned. ¡°Yes.¡± He then turned and began his rigorous walking pace.
Steven took that as a sign to keep his mouth shut, and he did just that as they walked. They didn¡¯t get much further before Steven heard a familiar voice call out.
¡°Captain Sirus! Captain Sirus! Hold up.¡±
When Steven saw Eve, a smile crept on his face, and he hoped she was coming with them. But the annoyed look on Sirus¡¯s face told a different story.
¡°What is it, Evesakia?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Sorry, sir, I heard you were going to the dungeon today, so I stayed up working on potions for you and your team. I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m running late. I just finished up the batch I was working on.¡± Eve said, handing Sirus potions one after another from a large square bag.
Sirus¡¯s dour mood shifted to one of joy. Eve then started naming off the different types of potions she had made while Sirus¡¯s smile grew wider. It seemed potions were the dour Nagas weakness.
¡°There are enough healing potions for the team and several stamina potions as well. I also made some utility potions I would like to give to Steven with your permission, sir.¡±
¡°What kind of utility potions?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Dark vision and root snare.¡± Eve said, smiling at Steven.
¡°Yes, those will be wonderful additions for any new dungeon delver,¡± Sirus said, before turning to Steven. ¡°Do you need me to carry them for you?¡± Sirus asked.
Steven was confused as to why Sirus was being so nice all of a sudden; did he just want the potions?
¡°Thank you, but that¡¯s fine. I have storage space.¡±
¡°Oh, I nearly forgot. This is a new throwable version I¡¯ve been working on.¡± Eve said as she handed Sirus a potion with gold liquid and purple flakes of something floating inside it. Sirus was completely taken by the potion, holding it up to the few rays of sunlight that peeked through the canopy while staring at it intensely.
Eve then made her way to Steven, giving him a quick hug and telling him to be careful before she started handing him potions. There had to be a dozen potions, and Steven added them all to his storage space. He did add a couple to his pocket storage in his jacket to not raise any questions. He didn¡¯t want anyone to know about his inventory yet. She also handed him a small backpack of food.
¡°I thought you may get hungry.¡± Eve said, giving Steven a large smile.
¡°Miss Evesakia,¡± Sirus said, still completely taken by the potion, ¡°what is this?¡±
¡°Well, sir, I don¡¯t really have a name for it yet; I¡¯ve just been kind of calling it ghost fire in my head. I wanted your feedback on it; the fire spreads quickly and is nearly impossible to put out. Well, that is what I¡¯m going for, anyway; it is still in the trial stage.¡±
¡°Is that why you gave me flame-resistant potions?¡± Sirus asked with a slight chuckle.
¡°No, sir; I just thought those could be helpful. The ghost fire should only spread among the undead. Although I¡¯m still trying to tweak it out, I can¡¯t seem to get the fire root moss to take with the Hydra Glen sack without the addition of swamp clover. I¡¯m sure you understand how difficult swamp clover is to neutralize once it gets started.¡±
Steven was completely lost. It was as if they were speaking another language.
Sirus seemed to be excited about the potions, which was odd for the stoic Naga, and Eve was definitely passionate about alchemy. Steven just stood there smiling while looking at Eve talk. He saw her glance his way a few times while explaining something to Sirus.
Steven had to remind himself that Eve thought he was someone else, and all those cute glances she kept giving him were meant for another. She didn¡¯t actually care for him, but for someone else entirely. That someone else was most likely in his world or somewhere else completely. Part of him wanted Eve to be happy and thought about eventually going to find this Shirem for her. Another part of him just wanted to go along with it and claim her affection for himself. He had tried to tell her he wasn¡¯t Shirem after all.
Eventually, Sirus told Eve they had to get going but that he would have some ingredients brought to her for her trouble. She tried to refuse, but that was just something you couldn¡¯t do with Sirus. He also told her that she should go talk to Goskia about the ghost fire. But Eve refused, saying he was too busy for her and she didn¡¯t want to bother him. That lasted right up until Sirus told her it was an order and she was to go there immediately and talk with him about it.
After a few quick goodbyes, Eve left back towards the village.
Chapter 10: Spider-kin
The pair walked in silence for a bit until Sirus eventually spoke up.
¡°What are your intentions with Miss Evesakia?¡± Sirus asked while continuing his march.
Steven was so taken aback by the question that he stopped walking for a second and he had to jog to catch up. ¡°I¡¯m actually unsure; we are just friends, I think.¡±
¡°Do you understand Miss Evesakia and Shirem¡¯s relationship?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°I suspected they used to be some sort of couple. But she told me they weren¡¯t.¡± Steven said, feeling a bit odd talking to Sirus about this.
¡°They were never a couple, although the Elders did try to get them together as their offspring would no doubt bring strong hatchlings. They both have pure blood lines. It was Shirem who refused, saying he had no time for such matters. Miss Evesakia has never gotten over him.¡±
The pair walked in silence for a long time after that. The scenery didn¡¯t change much as they walked; it looked like something you would see in a horror film. Moss was hanging from massive trees and swamp water so thick Steven doubted anything could live in there, and if something did, he sure as hell didn¡¯t want to come in contact with it.
Steven understood that Eve¡¯s inflation with him had nothing to do with him but with who she thought he was. Which was confusing, as he quite liked her. Sirus spoke up again, taking Steven from his thoughts.
¡°I ask again, what are your intentions with Miss Evesakia?¡±
¡°I¡¯m really not sure; I like her; she is kind and sweet, and I enjoy talking with her a lot. But she, like everyone else, thinks I¡¯m someone I¡¯m not. I tried telling her as much, but she said she didn¡¯t care. Right now, I¡¯m just trying to survive in this new crazy world I¡¯ve been thrown into. I don¡¯t really have any intentions other than being her friend.¡±
Sirus didn¡¯t respond or even nod; he just continued his ridiculous walking pace. Steven wanted to ask if they were getting close, but didn¡¯t want to bother Sirus. He seemed to be in a better mood after Eve brought them potions, and Steven much preferred the dour Naga in a good mood. Though he didn¡¯t like getting questioned by him, Steven wondered who Sirus was to Eve, but he would just have to wait and ask Eve. He wasn¡¯t about to ask Sirus. After they walked a bit more, Sirus stopped walking and held a hand up before pulling out a katana. Or at least, it looked like a katana to Steven.
Steven also pulled out his daggers, though if Sirus couldn¡¯t handle whatever it was, then there was no way he could help. Without warning, a giant spider fell onto the bridge in front of them, causing it to sink a bit into the water from the sheer weight of the creature. Steven unconsciously took several steps back, eyes wide with fear, not paying any attention to his boots getting swamp water on them.
The giant spider was no normal giant spider; it had a human torso attached where its face should have been. The torso part and up was of a gorgeous female that looked as if she was stuck inside the spider from the waist down. She was also completely nude, if a spider monster could be considered naked. Her long black hair covered most of her front until she pushed her hair back as if it were an annoyance, which left her chest bare. Steven stared much longer than he should have, his mind trying to figure out if he was aroused or scared. The spider lady turned her attention from Sirus to Steven, looking him up and down with a creepy smile on her face before she turned back to Sirus.
¡°Greetings, Sirus!¡±
Steven just stood wide-eyed and frozen as the spider talked.
¡°Might I ask why you are traveling with a human in my mother¡¯s territory?¡±
Sirus¡¯s face turned to one of confusion. ¡°Did my team not inform you we were heading to the dungeon?¡±
¡°They did not. Although we may have missed them, as we have been traveling above catching prey.¡± As the spider lady spoke, she waved what Steven thought was a wand over Sirus and said something that made no sense.
¡°Please forgive me. I just needed to make sure you were not under some sort of magic. The Archmage that is set up next to your clan is a strong one. I wanted to make sure your kind had not been infiltrated. I can smell the Archmage all over this human.¡±
¡°It is fine. I actually appreciate your concern,¡± Sirus said. ¡°This is one of ours that got turned into human form by the Archmage. As for what we are doing, we are on our way to the dungeon.¡±
¡°Hmm, I see.¡± The spider lady smiled seductively. ¡°You do know the dungeon is overflowing with the undead; they are pouring out of the entrance at this very moment. Rumor has it that the dwarf dungeon to the north is also overflowing with monsters.¡±
¡°I am aware. I am just following orders.¡± Sirus said.
¡°It seems we must always obey those who are above us.¡±
¡°What about to the east? Have you heard anything?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°I am unsure. Though I feel war brewing in the human lands. I believe this is their doing somehow.¡± The spider lady said this while glancing at Steven as if it were his fault.
¡°How would the humans affect our dungeon out here?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Humans are always messing with forces they don¡¯t understand. Just look at our races, for example.¡±
Sirus just nodded in understanding. ¡°Well, we must be going. I¡¯m on orders from the Elders,¡± Sirus said while nodding to the spider lady. ¡°This is Steven, by the way.¡±
¡°Uhh, hi!¡± Steven said this while waving awkwardly.
The spider lady chuckled slightly. ¡°He is an odd one. I will have one of the drones inform the others that you are on your way and have a human, in case your party has gotten delayed somewhere.¡± As she spoke, a gray-skinned humanoid fell down next to her. Steven was taken aback by the creature in front of him. It looked like a normal pale-skinned human until he saw its face; it had several eyes across its forehead. After a few clicking noises, the creature shot a web from his hand and went flying back into the trees.
¡°Have you never seen a drone before?¡± It took Steven a few moments to realize she was actually speaking to him.
¡°Uh, no, ma¡¯am.¡± Steven said, while hoping she didn¡¯t notice him staring at her chest.
The spider lady chuckled. ¡°Well, you will see several during your stay in our lands. Good luck in the dungeon,¡± the spider lady said before turning to Sirus. ¡°We best be going. I¡¯m actually on my way to speak with Elder Vasuki about the dungeon.¡±
Sirus eyes widened a bit. ¡°What about the dungeon?¡±
¡°Mother has been talking of collapsing the dungeon entrance to keep the undead from running rampant in our territory. The goblin threat has been increasing of late, and my mother has sent me to ask for scouts.¡±
¡°I thought there were only a few goblins.¡± Sirus asked.
¡°That was a scouting party; there are always more goblins. From what we can gather, the humans are pushing the goblins into the edge of the swamp.¡±
¡°Damned humans! Can¡¯t they just leave well alone?¡± Sirus snapped before taking a deep breath. ¡°Please excuse my outburst, it¡¯s just that those arrogant fools think of no one but themselves! They need no more land!¡±
¡°It is fine. I am of the same opinion as you about the humans,¡± the spider lady said. ¡°It was good speaking with you, Sirus. I would like to speak with you again soon, as for now I must be on my way.¡±
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The next moment, a web shot from the giant spider lady, and she was gone, presumably back in the trees. Steven stared in the trees and remembered what that flying cat had told him when he first arrived here.
¡°Let¡¯s go. I want to get you to level ten as quickly as possible.¡± Sirus said as he picked up the pace.
About thirty minutes later, Steven saw his first undead. It was a lone zombie, just wandering around on a small patch of dry land. Steven was confused about how it got there, as it was surrounded by swamp water.
¡°It¡¯s worse than I feared. The undead shouldn¡¯t be this far out.¡±
Steven assumed Sirus was talking to himself more than him, so he just kept quiet and followed along.
He really wished he could stop for a smoke break. However, he didn¡¯t think Sirus would allow that. So he just followed in silence as his mind wondered about the odd encounters he had with strange beings in this land. A flying cat that could talk, these half Naga, the strange naked spider lady, that Steven was attracted to and scared of at the same time. But the oddest of them all was the Angel of Chaos. He was still confused as to what that was all about and why he gave him an inventory ability. Steven still hadn¡¯t tested out its limits yet, but he got the sense it was unlimited. His mind raced with possibilities on how to exploit it if he could fit a boulder in there.
The sound of fighting ahead brought Steven out of his thoughts. He noticed the largest section of dry land he had seen since coming to this world. On that dry land, there were dozens of undead fighting against three Naga.
Sirus turned to Steven. ¡°Stay here!¡± Sirus then darted towards the fight.
¡°Zombies! It just had to be zombies,¡± Steven mumbled. ¡°What am I supposed to do against zombies with poisoned daggers?¡±
Maybe poison would kill zombies. It¡¯s not like he knew anything about real zombies, although he doubted poison would do anything.
It didn¡¯t take Sirus long to reach the others. Steven watched as Sirus conjured white spikes that he assumed were bones. The spikes began to circle around him like a bone tornado, impaling every zombie that was within range. That was just the beginning of Sirus¡¯s impact on the undead. As the spikes flew around him, he was darting in between the zombies, cutting them to pieces with his katana. He was moving so quickly that Steven could barely make out what was happening.
The other Naga were using daggers, which he assumed were poisoned like his own. Steven was confused why they didn¡¯t use their shard abilities, or maybe they did and they were waiting for their mana to recover. After all, he couldn¡¯t use his but once before he had to wait for his mana to refill.
Bone walls began to appear from thin air, directing the undead into a straight line as Sirus seemingly blinked between zombies cutting them down. Sirus then turned and raised his hand as a massive bone spike the size of Steven formed and blasted through all the zombies in between the walls.
Steven was in awe of Sirus; the sheer destruction the Naga could bring was mind-boggling. Though Steven was a bit confused about why he didn¡¯t just go for their heads, maybe it didn¡¯t work that way here. He would still give it a shot when he had to face them. Though the way Sirus just sliced them to shreds while a tornado of bone spun around him was quite effective, it didn¡¯t really matter if he went for the brain or not. It wasn¡¯t long before there was nothing but a pile of bloody corpses and scattered parts. Sirus walked back over while the other Naga finished off the stragglers. Steven had expected him to be covered in blood and guts, but he was spotless, unlike the other Nagas.
¡°You are a total badass!¡± Steven said as Sirus approached, ¡°Just wow! That bone tornado was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life! And you definitely need to teach me how to use the katana like that.¡± Sirus just narrowed his eyes at Steven¡¯s excitement.
¡°We were lucky to make it in time to help the younglings; they had been at it for a while from the looks of it. As for my blade, we shall see. The Elders want you to use daggers in the traditional manner.¡±
¡°Younglings?¡± Steven couldn¡¯t help but ask.
¡°Yes, I thought it best to let some of the younger generation have the chance of gaining essence. I did not expect their teacher to up and leave them near the dungeon entrance.¡±
Steven could tell Sirus was irritated. The dour Naga never explained anything to him.
¡°Now come, I wish to find out where their instructor has gone to.¡±
Steven followed Sirus to the place where he had just casually massacred dozens of zombies. As they approached, the three Naga fell to one knee immediately.
¡°Captian Sirus, Sir. I want to apologize for you having to step in and...,¡± one of the Naga started.
¡°Silence,¡± Sirus said. ¡°Tell me, where is Goshkin?¡± Sirus asked.
Steven thought he was a bit too rough; they looked to be in their teens. But this was the man who tossed him over the side of the bridge dozens of times, so this could be considered mild.
¡°Sir, the spiders came and told him they had urgent business and that he needed to go with them immediately. When he left, there weren¡¯t any signs of the undead.¡±
As the teen Naga spoke, Steven watched in confusion as the undead started to melt into the ground. He wanted to ask if that was normal, but didn¡¯t want to interrupt.
¡°The undead slowly started to come out,¡± the teen continued. ¡°It was only one or two at first, and then before we knew what happened, we were overwhelmed, and that¡¯s when you arrived, sir.¡±
¡°How long has Goshkin been gone? Did the Spider-kin say what they needed him for?¡±
¡°Two hours and thirty-seven minutes, sir. And no, they didn¡¯t say. But they looked quite worked up over something. It was all of the drone variants, if that is relevant.¡±
¡°Uh, Sirus.¡± Steven said, this to the wide-eyed confusion of the teen Naga.
¡°Yes, Steven?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Well, the undead parts are dissolving or doing something. I just wanted to make sure that was normal.¡±
¡°Good observation. It is normal; there is no need to worry. I do expect you to keep a keen eye during the dungeon run in the morning as well.¡±
Steven was a bit taken aback by the sudden change in Sirus¡¯s attitude, but he wasn¡¯t about to complain.
¡°Let¡¯s move to the inn. It is not far.¡± Sirus said before he took off back towards the bridge.
No one spoke as they jogged, and the teen Naga pretended to not look his way. Steven noticed them look away any time he looked in their direction. It was a bit awkward, but it wasn¡¯t long before they were approaching what Steven assumed was the inn. There were two male Spider-kin with spears standing on each side of a door set into a tree. The bridge continued on, and Steven thought he saw more doors in the trees further down the bridge. Sirus walked right in the door, and the two guards didn¡¯t so much as flinch as the group went by.
The inside looked similar to Steven¡¯s tree house. He had spent more time in the hut than he had in the tree house, but now that he was in another tree house, he had an odd feeling of longing. The thought of missing out on the Wizard¡¯s library was a bit depressing. Too bad he couldn¡¯t just move it here. No sooner than he thought that, he received a prompt.
Would you like to move the domain to your current location Yes/No?
Steven stared at the prompt in utter confusion. How could he move a massive tree? Wait, it said domain; did that mean everything in the barrier? Or did it just refer to the barrier? That was more likely than the entire tree. Steven mentally clicked no. He would definitely have to test this later. Magic was weird.
¡°Steven! Did you not hear me?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Huh?¡± Steven then realized he was just standing in front of the doorway, staring off into space.
¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Sirus said as he headed up the stairs. Steven noticed a male Spider-kin behind the counter, staring at him with curiosity.
¡°Wait. Did he just get us a room?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Yes, sir, he got three rooms to be exact,¡± the Spider-kin said. His voice reminded Steven of a butler.
¡°Thanks. Well, I best get going.¡± Steven said as he headed up the stairs. It seems the strange Spider-kin did more than make clicking sounds.
Reaching the next floor, he realized it was almost an identical match to his tree house, which confused him. The only thing he could think of was that the old wizard took it from the Spider-Kin, but how could you take a massive tree?
¡°What took you so long?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°I was just talking with the innkeeper.¡± Steven said.
Sirus looked at him curiously, but didn¡¯t say anything else about the matter.
¡°That is your room,¡± Sirus pointed to the door across from him, ¡°be downstairs in two hours. I will be going over the plans for the dungeon in the morning.¡±
¡°Okay, then, that sounds good.¡± Steven barely got the words out before Sirus was in his room with the door shut.
Steven just rolled his eyes at getting the door shut in his face and went into his room. To his surprise, he got a room to himself. He was afraid he was going to have to share a room with some of the teen Naga. He was grateful, as he didn¡¯t want them to just stare at him like he was some sort of oddity the entire time. Though, to them, he supposed he was an oddity.
The first thing Steven did when he got in his room was slide the wooden lock closed and pull out his water pipe from storage. It had been quite a stressful day, and it was going to be nice to just finally relax. After a few hits and a plate of fish, with what he hoped was seaweed that Eve had sent with him. He laid down on the bed, wondering if he should leave and go back to the tree house after this dungeon run.
He was afraid that Sirus would just come get him. Steven didn¡¯t think that the barrier would stop that guy. He was also extremely curious about what it meant to move his domain; he got a strong sense that it would just be a barrier. Meaning the library and everything else would just be left right where they were. He needed more knowledge about domains; maybe he would ask Sirus about it tomorrow. Though he could find out about it in the wizards library.
Steven was starting to wonder if this entire world was just mostly filled with monsters. At least they were mostly human, aside from that spider lady, though her top half was definitely human. The spider lady¡¯s human half was ridiculously attractive. It was the kind of beauty that had the perfect amount of innocence and made you believe everything she said. Only to find out she was sleeping with four of your friends while swindling money from your life savings.
Steven shook his head. He didn¡¯t know why the spider lady reminded him of his ex or why that memory had surfaced. It was probably because of Goskia¡¯s potions. All in all, Steven liked Goskia; he was like an old, kindly grandfather. He would like him more if he would stop giving him potions that made him remember things he¡¯d rather not think about.
Chapter 11: Trapped in a undead Dungeon
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 ofcaffeine.
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.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
¡°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.
Chapter 12: Zombie essence
Defeated level 3 zombie.
Essence gained 19.
The notification startled Steven and he nearly yelped in surprise. He had been staring at the first zombie he attacked. Its health was at fifty-five percent and he had completely forgotten the other zombie. He also noticed that it no longer told him how much essence he needed for his next level. A quick look at his stat page showed he had nineteen of the two hundred essence he needed to level. Looking back at the remaining zombie, the green tint was now gone from the health bar. At least he now had an answer to that question. From what he could tell, the poison went from eighty-three percent to fifty-five percent. Which was twenty-eight percent. Steven frowned. He didn¡¯t know how much the poison actually did. It completely finished the second zombie, but that could be because the two daggers delivered more poison, or maybe it was a lower level or both. Either way, he now knew the poison wore off and that sneak attacks was the best.
Not wasting any more time, he tried his luck at sneaking up behind the zombie that still had fifty-five percent. He was able to stab it with both daggers in the back of its neck. Seeing it only had three percent left, he kicked it, causing it to fall face first on the floor. Before jumping on its back, stabbing it until he received the notification.
Defeated level 5 zombie.
Essence gained 27.
Closing the prompt he looked around wide eyed for more threats, seeing none he smiled. He was a badass! He would clear this entire cavern of essence. Then maybe Sirus would show him a little respect. Though it was a bit concerning that the zombie didn¡¯t die immediately it only had fifty-five percent after all. Maybe he needed to stab closer to the head when stabbing at their necks.
Steven crouched around, searching for more lone zombies, but he only found clusters of them. There were a few lone zombies, but there was no way he could get to them without being spotted. There was even a cluster of about twenty that he carefully backed away from and went back towards the tunnel. It seemed the only ones he could attack without alerting more were a couple of pairs. He didn¡¯t feel comfortable taking out over two at a time, even as slow as they were. He didn¡¯t want to chance it. If this was a video game, he would have just run out there and started attacking and leading them on a zombie train, poisoning them as he could till they were all killed. But he didn¡¯t have unlimited stamina and trying something like that without respawns was suicidal. Deciding to not waste any more time, he snuck towards a pair of zombies.
His plan was to take out as many zombies as he could in the next few hours before he started searching for a safe place to rest and figure out what to do about the darkness. Surely he could find something in his inventory to make a torch out of. Maybe he could place a zombie in storage before it dissolved and make a torch out of its clothes.
Or maybe¡ Steven had an idea, one that was dumb and he had no idea if it would work or what would happen exactly if it did work, but he had to try.
It was difficult sneaking up behind the pair of zombies as they stumbled around in every direction. He had to wait much longer than he would have liked before they both finally turned in the same direction. Moving quickly, Steven placed his hand on a zombie and willed it into his inventory. To his surprise, the zombie vanished. He snapped out of his surprised state as the second zombie turned to face him, teeth chattering. Touching that zombie, he willed it in his inventory as well. He frowned at not receiving any essence, but that would have been too easy.
He made his way back to the tunnel entrance before he opened his inventory to see what was going on exactly. He was also unsure if this had any negative effects, like becoming a zombie himself or something. Steven couldn¡¯t find anything wrong with having them in his inventory. Though he was lacking a lot of information and it felt wrong somehow to leave them in his storage, but that could just be him being paranoid.
He wondered how many he could place in there. But before figuring that out, he did a bit of experimenting. He tried to will the zombie out of his inventory at a distance, but he immediately knew it wouldn¡¯t work. He would have to be touching the zombie when it came out, just like with his daggers. Holding his hand out as far as he could, he willed the zombie out facing away from him. Immediately, the zombie appeared and he then sent it back to his inventory he needed to get ready.
Dagger in his right hand, he willed the zombie out with his left hand. He then stabbed it in its neck before sending it back into inventory. It was at seventy-nine percent health when he placed it in his inventory. Opening up his inventory and going down to the undead tab that he now had, he waited. He even closed the inventory and reopened it after a bit. But its health was still at seventy-nine percent. It seemed the poison wouldn¡¯t affect them while in inventory. Steven was hoping he could just let the poison kill them while in his inventory, but that wasn¡¯t going to work.
Pulling the zombie back out of inventory, he stabbed it again before sending it back to inventory. The zombie didn¡¯t stand a chance, it almost felt like cheating as he pulled out the zombie and stabbed it before it could react. Repeating this a few times, he received a notification.
Defeated level 4 zombie.
Essence gained 23.
¡°Did I just break this world?¡± Steven mumbled, eyes wide and mind racing. Though when he thought of putting Sirus in there to prove a point, he knew it wouldn¡¯t work. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he understood more about his inventory ability than he first realized. It was as if he always knew and was just then remembering. He knew that nothing living could go in there, not even living plants, though he was unsure about plants because the Kishurack plant was in his inventory, although it was no longer connected to its roots. He felt the undead were similar somehow.
Dealing with the next zombie in the same manner, he received another notification.
Defeated level 7 zombie.
Essence gained 33.
Steven was feeling confident enough to take on the groups of zombies now. Although the pack of twenty was a bit much for now, as he was still unsure what the limit was to his inventory.
Suddenly he got the sense he was being watched, but when he looked up and down the tunnel he saw nothing. The feeling left soon after. He was probably just getting paranoid. Glancing at his stat page, he was now one hundred and two out of two hundred essence.
¡°Alright, let¡¯s get to grinding.¡±
Steven snuck off towards the other pair of zombies. Another one was with them now, causing Steven to back up and recount. There should have only been eleven zombies in this area, he was positive. But he had clearly missed one. He knew for a fact there were dozens of zombies on the other side of the rock cropping.
Making his way over there, he carefully peeked over rocks to make sure they weren¡¯t migrating this way. Satisfied they were still just stumbling around aimlessly, he made his way back to the zombie trio. Steven watched them from a distance, trying to judge when the best time to move in was. But the zombies had no patterns and just randomly stumbled around, deciding he couldn¡¯t just wait around forever he moved in. Two of the zombies turned towards him immediately. All he had to do was just touch the zombie for a split second and he could send them to his inventory. He could do this!
Steven had all three zombies in storage before they could even react. A smile crept on to his face. This dungeon just turned into easy mode. He didn¡¯t need Sirus after all.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°Might as well see how many it can hold.¡±
It didn¡¯t take Steven long to clear the entire section of zombies. He even stopped sneaking after a bit. Though he still tried to not make any noise, he was mostly just tired of crouching as his legs were hurting and he wasn¡¯t even sure if it was helping.
Steven still didn¡¯t think he could deal with a group of twenty, so stayed clear of the larger groups. Once back at the tunnel, he looked over his inventory. He now had fifteen zombies, meaning he had miscounted pretty good. Whatever the case, Steven went about killing the zombies one at a time. It was a laborious task, but it had to be done.
On the twelfth zombie, he stopped and looked around, a shiver went down his spine. Again It felt like someone had just been standing behind him, but when he turned around, there was nothing. The feeling left almost as quickly as it came. He just shook his head. Being in this dungeon was making him paranoid.
Steven quickly finished off the remaining zombies in his inventory. He then made his way back to the dungeon entrance. He had gained a good chunk of essence and he wanted to take his time when placing his points. Getting as far away from the zombies as he could seemed like a good idea. He was also tired and hungry. Even so, Steven couldn¡¯t stop grinning at the levels he was fixing to gain.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards}
Level -1
Available Attribute~0
Essence- 497
Essence required for next level 200.
HP ~ 70
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 115
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 3
Dexterity ~ 4
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 11
Steven frowned. He had expected more essence. He worked so hard for it, making it feel like he had more. If he could get two levels, he would be lucky. He hoped the essence requirement didn¡¯t double each time, or this grinding session would take forever.
He only had sixteen hours left on his dark vision timer, and he was going to have to find somewhere to rest soon. He considered the entrance, but if the zombies started going out again, he would be trapped between the entrance and the zombies.
Not wanting to waste more time, he reopened his stat page. When he was killing the zombies, he had been thinking of adding strength, as it was his lowest stat, and then maybe he could stab into the brain.
After leveling up and receiving his single attribute point Steven placed the point into strength, after selecting yes that he did want to spend it on strength his body began to tingle slightly and he felt like he just got done working out, but without the soreness. He flexed his arms a bit and thought maybe he could feel a difference, but he wouldn¡¯t know for sure till he had something to test it on. He then looked over his new stat page and groaned.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level -2
Available Attribute~0
Essence- 297
Essence required for next level 339.
HP ~ 70
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 115
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 4
Dexterity ~ 4
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 11
He had at least hoped he could''ve gained two levels, but looked like it wasn¡¯t going to be easy to level up. The essence he gained from the zombies was sporadic, as were their levels. But he couldn¡¯t complain. He had it pretty easy after all.
¡°Looks like it¡¯s back to the grind.¡±
Steven reasoned he needed to at least gain one more level before he started looking for a place to set up camp. Now that he thought about it, he didn¡¯t save any of the zombie clothes to make a torch. He wasn¡¯t even sure it would work as their bodies and clothes just dissolved into the dungeon. If you could even consider what they were wearing clothes, it was more of just shredded rags that were barely hanging on, if they even had anything on.
He didn¡¯t even know how to make a torch. He was sure he would need something other than rags and a stick. Pushing that problem to the side for now, he pulled out the water pipe and took another hit before heading back out to the dungeon proper.
Steven stayed next to the dungeon wall as he ventured out. Reasoning it would make it easier to find his way back if need be. He avoided the left side, as it had a cluster of twenty and generally looked more populated. He planned to come back that way as he had a feeling it was the way he was supposed to go. First, he wanted to get the hang of fighting these zombies before he jumped into hoards of them.
Steven also hoped he would find an enchanted wand or something so he could use magic. Dungeons were supposed to have treasure, Right? Now that he thought about it, it was unlikely he would just stumble upon a treasure chest, though he could always hope. Hugging the wall as he made his way into the unknown, he only seen a few small groups of zombies in batches of two or three and wasted no time sending them to inventory.
There were a few things he wanted to accomplish. Find a safe place to set up camp and see how many zombies his inventory could hold, along with gaining as many levels as possible. Also, to find his sadistic Naga teacher would be nice.
Steven continued towards the sound of water while sending zombies to inventory. He had to venture away from the wall, but he wanted to check out what he was assuming was a waterfall. In games there was often treasure behind waterfalls and he couldn¡¯t help but at least check. If there was a cave behind the waterfall he could also rest there for the night. He was getting tired and already getting hungry again. Although that could just be the munchies.
He didn¡¯t want to go to sleep with theses zombies in his inventory. He feared something bad would happen, and was going to trust his gut on the matter. Steven already had another dozen or so in inventory at this point. Killing them was a gruesome task he was not looking forward to at all. Though he really couldn¡¯t complain, as he was basically cheating with this absurd inventory ability. At least that¡¯s what he kept telling himself. He still wished he had fireball or something his Shard ability hasn¡¯t helped him in the slightest in this dungeon.
Steven was curious if the zombies could also be placed in a bag of holding and had tried to place one in his leather chest¡¯s inventory, but nothing happened. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was because it specified small items or was because it was a dungeon monster. Though he felt his inventory ability was unique in its capabilities.
Steven was becoming more and more confident in his ability to deal with the zombies. He had even started stabbing them once before he placed them in his inventory. He knew the poison didn¡¯t work while in there, but it just meant that was one less attack he would have to deal to them when he went about killing them later. By the time Steven made it to where he could see the waterfall, he had thirty-seven zombies in his inventory. Most had at least some damage on them.
He stood on a rock cropping, breathing hard. The eight zombies he had just dealt with, was harder than he thought it would be. He had even gotten bitten once, but his hydra leather armor completely nullified the bite. His health bar didn¡¯t even lose a single point. He needed to be more careful. He was unsure if a single bite would turn him or if that was even a thing.
In front of Steven was a waterfall that was pouring from an opening at the top of the dungeon wall. At its base, it formed into a river that separated the cavern. Steven thought he had seen tree sized mushrooms on the other side, but he was too far away to get a good look. He could swear the mushrooms, or whatever it was, had a dim glow to them.
Looking around for more zombies, Steven found another cluster of them. This time he was going to take things less aggressive, running into the midst of them had been a bad idea as he could only send one at a time to his inventory. It only took a second to send each one, but that was still enough time to nearly get over whelmed by the last group. Steven snuck around and touched one zombie on the ankle as it stumbled by. He touched another on the head by climbing on a boulder and reaching over. His plans to get as many as he could before they even noticed him.
Steven had sent three into his storage before a chill ran down his spine and he whirled around, expecting someone to be there poised to attack him. But there was nothing. Before Steven could calm his nerves, the other three zombies were lunging at him. The first one he sent to inventory, but the second and third caused him to lose his footing and fall. He stabbed the one that climbed on top of him. Regretting it immediately as black blood poured all over his face. He rolled, throwing the zombie off and kicking at the other one, trying to bite his leg. Steven then quickly got back to his feet while trying to spit the blood out of his mouth. The zombie that still had his dagger stuck under its chin lunged towards him. Steven sent in to inventory, then quickly sent the next one to inventory.
What the hell had he been thinking? He should have just sent them to inventory instead of stabbing. Steven took out the water stone with a thought it activated and he rinsed his mouth out the best he could, followed by rinsing his armor. He was no longer hungry after getting mouth full of zombie blood, he really hoped it didn¡¯t make him sick, or worse, turn him. He was sure he swallowed some while dealing with the zombies. He was frustrated with himself. He had an insane ability, but if he didn¡¯t use it properly, then he would end up dead. There was no one to blame but himself for getting a mouth full of blood.
Once he was as clean as he thought he could get given the circumstances, he made his way towards the waterfall while wondering why he kept getting the sense someone was behind him. He only came across a few more zombies as they seemed to avoid getting too close to the running water for some reason. He didn¡¯t even attempt to stab them and just sent them straight to inventory.
Standing at the base of the waterfall, he checked his inventory.
Fifty-seven zombies, that was a lot of essence, he would definitely gain a few levels from this haul. But first he had to kill them all. Steven sighed at the thought.
¡°Hmmm, maybe, just maybe.¡± Steven held his hand out right at the edge of the river and pulled out the zombie with his dagger still stuck in it. Ripping his dagger out, he kicked it into the river below before it had a chance to react.
Chapter 13: Dungeon Lord Sorin & Swinging axes
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.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
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
Chapter 14: Dungeon loot
¡°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.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
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.
Chapter 15: Zombie attack
¡°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.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
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.
Chapter 16: Stealth
Steven had over thirty zombies out at this point. There were only five skeletons left now, and some zombies were starting to wonder around. The huge dog pile of zombies was an odd sight to behold.
He snuck up to one of the zombies not in the dog pile and stabbed it with both his daggers in the back of the neck, killing it instantly.
Defeated level 4 zombie.
Essence gained 21.
He assumed the zombie had taken damage from the skeletons to die immediately but quickly dismissed the thought. Steven thought the noise of fighting would bring other skeletons. But that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. Now that he thought about it, skeletons didn¡¯t have ears.
Sneaking up behind another zombie, he stabbed it in the back as well. However, this one didn¡¯t die. Kicking it towards the dog pile for the poison to finish it, he backed away. The dog pile of zombies should keep the remaining skellies busy for now.
He couldn¡¯t be sure what this world was going to throw at him, and it was best to stay informed. Once he felt hidden, he opened the notification.
Congratulations! Through hard work and grit you have obtained the talent Stealth. Continue to sharpen this talent and it may just grow in power.
Lesser Stealth-
10% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
10% noise reduction while in stealth.
13% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°Oh!¡± Steven said before he quickly closed his mouth and looked around. This new skill or talent, as it was called, changed everything. He wasn¡¯t even aware he could gain skills like this, and as it was lesser, meaning it should be upgradable.
It seemed he was going to have a stealth build, which he was perfectly fine with him. His next thought was, if he could learn a magic talent? Was there a limit to talents like there was with shards? He had so many questions. Shaking his head, he focused on the problem at hand.
He needed to deal with the zombies and skeletons. He could take the skeletons and drop them¡
Defeated level 7 zombie.
Essence gained 29.
Steven nearly jumped when the notification appeared in his vision. It took him a moment to realize that the zombie he stabbed had died from poison. With the excitement of his new talent, he had completely forgotten about it. He wished he could turn off notifications, especially the ones telling him of the essence he gained. It was easy enough to simply check the stat page.
No sooner than he had that thought a new page appeared. It looked to be some sort of settings page. It was surreal looking at something like this in real life. Minimizing the screen, he checked his surrounding, seeing nothing around, he reopened it, after only a bit of searching he found the part about essence. After experimenting with it, he found a setting he liked. It even showed him a little preview of each version he could choose from. He chose the one he was most familiar with from gaming and took the least amount of vision away.
In the bottom right corner of his vision, there was a barely visible number. When he focused on the number, it turned white and became visible, though still translucent. The number was his current essence. There was also a version that told him how much essence he needed for each level, but he didn¡¯t want to clutter up his vision. He could always just open his stat page for that. The best part about this version was that when he gained essence, a translucent number of how much essence he gained would slowly become visible at the edge of his vision before adding it to his total and vanishing. He had tried to just turn it off completely, but the system just wouldn¡¯t allow it. He could also go and manually look at what he killed if he wanted the name and level.
It was a tremendous improvement versus something just popping up in his vision. Especially since he was using poison, things would sometimes die while he was doing something else startling him. Heading back out while in stealth, he noticed a translucent eye that hadn¡¯t been there before. He knew exactly what that was, and a half smile crossed his lips. This would definitely help.
The eye was completely shut at the moment. Just seeing the eye shut made Steven much more comfortable. He was no longer worried someone was looking at him. However, he quickly realized he had to be crouched for the eye to appear, reminding him of hours and hours of certain game, though now that he thought about it, he probably spent more time crafting daggers than sneaking.
Steven methodically snuck around and pulled in zombies and skeletons alike into his inventory, doing his best to keep the eye from opening. It got close one time, but it never fully opened and he felt accomplished. He wondered if doing this would help level up the talent. Maybe if he attacked while in stealth.
He suddenly realized there were no zombies or skeletons left in his immediate area. He had been so caught up in what he was doing he had zoned out. Steven was behind a boulder and the eye was closed so he pulled up his inventory page he was happy to find that eye was visible through the page.
¡°Well, this will make life easier.¡±
Mentally scrolling down, he noticed he had twelve skeletons and thirty-eight zombies, although many of the zombies were of varying health. It also seemed as though the zombies managed to kill some of the skeletons as he only ended up with twelve.
Deciding to go drop the skeletons into the spike pit, he started back to the hidden path, but paused. There were several weapons laying on the ground. Bows a few axes, swords and a¡ Halberd. Steven didn¡¯t remember any of the skeletons carrying a halberd. He would have surely noticed that. Was this some sort of loot drop? Steven had no idea, but whatever the case, he grabbed every weapon he could find. He ended up gathering sixteen decent looking arrows as well. There were several more, but they looked broken, so he just left them on the ground before pulling up the stats on the halberd.
Halberd
Rarity- Uncommon
~ Effect]- None
~Cost]- None
~ Requirement]- 18 Strength 14 Dexterity
Yep, he would not be using that halberd anytime soon. Pulling up the rest of the descriptions, he looked them over for something to use other than the daggers. Sneaking up behind some with a halberd would do a lot of damage, or did the daggers get bonus damage, he didn¡¯t see that in the description anywhere. But his description was a part of his inventory ability and could be greatly lacking for all he knew. Surely there was more powerful version that only did descriptions.
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Short sword
Rarity- Common
~ Effect]- None
~Cost]- None
~ Requirement]- 9 Strength 7 Dexterity
Basic axe
Rarity- Common
~ Effect]- None
~Cost]- None
~ Requirement]- 10 Strength 5 Dexterity
Short bow
Rarity- Uncommon
~ Effect]- Power shot x2 damage
~Cost]- 30 stanimia
~ Requirement]- 4 Strength 11 Dexterity
After reading over all the requirements, he groaned. He needed six more levels before he could even use the bow, much less anything else. He liked the halberd, but it looked like he was going to be stuck with the daggers for now.
Glancing over the daggers description, he noticed they now had a durability, seventy-one of eighty. He tried to look at the daggers individually, but it didn¡¯t seem to allow that. Did that mean if he just used one, both would still break? ¡°This world is weird.¡±
Standing over the spike trap, Steven begin dropping skeletons one after another into the pit bellow.
+58
+54
+51
He quit paying attention to the essence as he dropped them to their deaths. It all added to the total, after all. He kinda felt bad for them, but they did try to kill him.
Once he reached the ninth skeleton, he didn¡¯t receive any essence. He looked down to see a skeleton trying to crawl. Just as he suspected between the massive axes and the zombies, it was becoming too full to kill on impact. Steven was fixing to open his stat page to see how much essence he now had, but remembered all he had to do was focus on the white translucent number at the bottom of his vision.
863
He wasn¡¯t sure how much he needed to level so he opened his stat page to take a look.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level -5
Available Attribute ~0
Essence- 863
Essence required for next level 867.
HP ~ 72
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 173
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 4
Dexterity ~ 5
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 13
Talents-
Lesser Stealth -
10% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
10% noise reduction while in stealth.
13% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°Oh, come on!¡± Steven complained.
Walking back over to the pit, he saw the top half of a skeleton trying to crawl around with one arm. Its bottom half and other arm were completely missing. Pulling out a zombie, he tried to drop it on the skeleton but missed. The zombie¡¯s legs and most likely spine broke, but it slowly opened its mouth and began chattering. Irritated, he dropped two more zombies in quick procession.
+24
Steven had been aiming at the skeleton, but hit the zombie. He had wasted three zombies and a skeleton just to gain twenty-four essence. He was going to have to figure something else out. As for now, he would level up, although this time he would save his attribute point. If he found a weapon he liked, he could use his free attributes to meet the requirements.
Looking around, Steven decided this was as good a place as any to eat and take a much needed rest. He wondered if it was day or night outside, though he supposed it really didn¡¯t matter while in here.
Holding the water stone above his head, he drank a few gulps of water as it splashed all over his leather armor. He didn¡¯t mind, if anything, the cool water felt nice. Steven then reluctantly pulled out his water pipe. He didn¡¯t have much left. Steven took two long hits and sat back up against the dungeon wall. And pondered his next move.
Steven¡¯s eyes shot open. Had he really fallen asleep? His dark vision only had a bit over thirty mins remaining so he had definitely fell asleep. He wasn¡¯t sure for how long because he hadn¡¯t been paying attention to the timer on the dark vision, which was his only source of time. Though it¡¯s not like he had anywhere to be exactly.
Before he had fallen asleep, he was trying to decide if he should go back to the first level and look for Sirus and the others or continue on the second floor. The size of the first floor was the only reason he was even questioning it. Well, that and he didn¡¯t know if it was a good idea to tell Sirus about his inventory ability. Steven wanted to pull out the water pipe, but he also wanted to save what he had. He wasn¡¯t addicted, he just enjoyed it and became a bit irritable if he couldn¡¯t get it.
Not addicted, he could easily quit. He just didn¡¯t want to! Steven stood up and headed to the first floor with determination. He needed help, and more dark vision potions and food.
Before Steven realized it, he was back on the first floor, next to the tunnel.
¡°Damn¡ This place is massive.¡± Steven decided to venture out on the side he hadn¡¯t explored yet. He considered going back to the entrance and checking out the other tunnels, but he really didn¡¯t want to deal with traps. Not that he knew if there would be any traps, it was just those stone tiles gave him a bad feeling. He was hoping to get basic trap detection or something so he could spot them easier, but maybe he would get that later.
As he crept behind rock after rock, he wondered what to tell Sirus. Should he just tell him the truth?
¡°Hey Sirus, I got this ability from an apple core an Angel of Chaos gave me for completing his dad¡¯s quest.¡±
Yea, he would have to work on how to explain it. It wasn¡¯t long before he started seeing zombies again. He was happy to deal with the weaponless and dumb creatures. The skeletons were dumb, but they had a much wider aggro range and they also had weapons!
Steven went through a wave of sixteen zombies without ever breaking stealth. He was hoping to level it up while clearing the floor of zombies. It was lucky the first floor was so vast. If he was trapped in a small room with these zombies, that would be the end of him, even with his inventory ability.
Steven groaned. He hoped he found Sirus soon. He had already drank the rest of his dark vision potion. Leaving him with just a single bottle. And he was nearly out of weed, or whatever this world called it, though he didn¡¯t think Sirus would get that for him.
Steven swept through the zombies like a ghost, sending them to inventory before the zombies realized what had happened. He was getting good at this stealth thing. The eye almost felt like cheating. He spent hours just sneaking around, sending every single zombie he could find to inventory. He didn¡¯t break stealth even once he was starting to think the zombies were just too easy to sneak around and wouldn¡¯t help him level. Steven had spent a ridiculous amount of time letting the eye almost open before hiding and closing it.
He now wished he hadn¡¯t wasted so much time on his dark vision, but what was done was done. His legs were beyond cramping at this point. Having to stay crouched to be in stealth was annoying.
Steven was crouched next to a large rock surrounded by zombies. He wanted to stand up and stretch his legs but remained in stealth. He was just fixing to head back to an area he had already cleared when he suddenly received a notification. Seeing his eye was closed, he opened it.
Congratulations! Through hard work and grit you have reached the basic rank in Stealth. Continue to sharpen this talent and it may just grow in power.
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°Finally!¡± Steven shouted, causing the translucent eye to open and break his stealth while surrounded by zombies.
Steven froze, trying to will the eye to close, but it was no use. Zombies were already heading towards him.
¡°Ugh! I¡¯ve really gotta stop talking to myself!¡±
Steven forced his legs to run. They felt like jello but luckily they obeyed. He dashed through the zombies, sending several to inventory in his getaway. Soon he was out of their aggro range, which was a lot further now that they spotted him. He did a few light stretches, hoping it would help with the mild cramping.
The zombies were so dumb and slow; he didn¡¯t understand how anyone could get killed by these guys. Although he very well could become trapped if he couldn¡¯t instantaneously send zombies to inventory with a simple touch. He opened up the notification and admired his new and improved talent.
Twenty percent was an incredible amount of bonus damage. He wondered how powerful the talent could get. He supposed he would find out with time. No doubt it would be incredibly difficult to level it up again. He also had a feeling that sneaking around and sending the zombies to inventory somehow gave him extra experience, though he couldn¡¯t be sure. His legs were cramping hard, and he decided he should stay out of stealth for the moment. Steven decided to leave that group of zombies alone for now and keep on moving. He would get them on the way back when they weren¡¯t so aggressive.
While he was looking for Sirus, he was also searching for a place to offload some zombies and gain some essence. Though he doubted he would come across any good pit traps out in the open cavern. By the time he was done with this floor, he would have a ton of zombies in inventory. He no longer worried about running out of inventory room as far as he could tell it was completely infinite, which was hard to wrap his mind around.
After taking a wide berth around a couple more groups of zombies, Steven stopped and got a drink of water. Suddenly he got the sense he was being watched again, and he whirled around, but there was nothing. His mind raced. Was he going crazy? Or was someone watching him?
He looked down at the bottom of his vision, half expecting a view counter as if he was getting views in some sort of game. Was any of this crazy mess real? Before Steven could really fall down that rabbit hole, a voice echoed out from behind him.
¡°Hello.¡±
Chapter 17: A floating ball of pink white light
¡°Hello.¡±
Steven whirled around to see a floating ball of pink-white light. Before Steven could even begin to understand what he was looking at, the light spoke again.
¡°Hello there, human. I am Silviaburlaxatrix. And you are Steven Odling from earth correct?¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes bulged as he tried to understand what was happening. ¡°okay, okay, just breathe. I¡¯ve been killing zombies and skeletons and have been living with snake people for the last weeks, so why wouldn¡¯t there be a ball of bright pink light talking to me?¡±
Steven got the sense the ball of light was confused but yet delighted at being called bright. He just didn¡¯t understand how he got that impression as it was a ball of light, also how did it speak? Was this thing hostile? He felt it wasn¡¯t¡ or maybe it was, and using soft colors to make him put his guard down.
¡°I am not a zombie or skeleton. In fact, I¡¯m not a Dungeon monster at all.¡±
Steven blinked at the ball of light for a moment before he spoke.
¡°What are you exactly?¡± Steven asked. He wasn¡¯t sure why he asked that first. He was more curious about how she knew he was from earth. It was a she right?
¡°I am a Wisp and I work for Dungeon Lord Sorin.¡±
¡°And who¡¯s that?¡± Steven asked, still trying to come to terms with speaking with a ball of light.
¡°It¡¯s the owner of this domain. Did you not even bother to learn the name of the Dungeon Lord before you challenged him for his domain?¡± The Wisp said in a stern voice.
Steven was starting to wonder if he could put this Wisp in his inventory if it attacked him when he understood what the Wisp had just said. ¡°Wait! What do you mean by challenge him for his domain?¡±
The Wisp looked at Steven curiously, though he didn¡¯t understand how he knew that.
¡°Do you not understand what you have done? What are you even doing here?¡±
Steven did, in fact, not know what he had done or what he was doing here exactly. When he entered he thought he was challenging a dungeon, not a Dungeon Lord. This could be bad! The Sorin fellow must be like a Dm, but surely he couldn¡¯t have that much power. This wasn¡¯t dungeons and dragons, or was it? Whatever the case, Steven didn¡¯t want to get on the bad side of this guy.
¡°Is it normal for you earth humans to think this long before responding? I have things I would like to discuss with you, and there is not much time.¡± The Wisp said.
¡°I¡¯m sorry. As for why I¡¯m here.¡± Steven started.
¡°Never mind that now. You can tell me later if you survive. Now listen closely,¡± The Wisp said conspiratorially. ¡°There are hidden paths that bypass each dungeon, boss. Once you get to the last floor, it will lead directly to the final boss room where the Elder demon is. He is normally asleep, and you can sneak up behind him and absorb him. Now listen carefully to get to the hidden path you must.¡±
The Wisp continued to talk quickly for the next several minutes, not letting Steven get a word in edge wise. Steven got the sense the Wisp was scared and when she finished giving him directions and a map, he found out why. Apparently, the Wisp didn¡¯t much care for her current employer and was conspiring against him, or at least that¡¯s what she wanted him to believe. She somehow got it in her head that he was some chosen one touched by the divine and would kill the Dungeon lord and absorb his domain. He did have the inventory ability that he got from Gideon, who was an angel, so it was sort of correct. She also wanted Steven to take her as his Wisp saying she would soul bond herself to him if he promised to spare her when he killed Dungeon Lord Sorin.
Steven tried to explain that he had only entered the dungeon to gain a few levels, but she didn¡¯t let him speak, saying there was not much time. The Wisp didn¡¯t stay long after she finished explaining how to get to the main boss, which was just through a bunch of hidden paths. The main thing he took away from the odd encounter was this Dungeon Lord Sorin was going to kill him for his domain if he didn¡¯t kill him first. He wasn¡¯t sure if he could trust the Wisp, but his gut told him he could.
Steven sat there, thinking for a long bit, before he looked down at the map in front of him. The map its self was quite detailed. It showed where the boss room was and the hidden path. Steven also realized how massive the first floor was. This floor seemed to go on far past what the map showed. He imagined he would have to move for it to show more. What really drew in his attention was the fading footsteps. Most had no name, but there were a few that did, and they were all labeled the same thing. Experimental Naga. He wasn¡¯t sure if that was Sirus or if they were some sort of undead experiment. Steven quickly noticed the map only detailed the first floor. Though he had a suspicion it would change from floor to floor. He didn¡¯t understand why the Wisp went about giving him directions if she was going to give him a map.
The Wisp had also mentioned an Elder demon on the tenth floor. Feeling over whelmed Steven pulled out his water pipe and didn¡¯t put it away till he was completely out.
¡°What the hell. An Elder Demon?¡± How was he supposed to deal with that? ¡°I can¡¯t just absorb it, you know!¡± Steven said to the air. He wasn¡¯t sure if the Wisp could hear him or not, but he didn¡¯t care right now.
Wait, could this Dungeon Lord hear him? Did this map belong to the Dungeon lord? Did he have more? Was this Sorin the one that had been watching him? He had tons of questions, one of which was how did that Wisp know he was from earth?
If the Dungeon Lord was watching his every step, why had he not dealt with him yet?
If this Sorin wanted him dead, then why didn¡¯t he just send undead to ambush him? Or get him while he slept. Unless he had rules he had to follow. If Steven could figure out those rules, then he could maybe use that against him. No, he had to work with what he had. First, how was he to deal with this Elder Demon on the tenth floor? That was another thing. There were apparently ten floors in this dungeon.
Steven had a map that would guide him in real time, but was that enough? He had skipped the first floor boss entirely by going through the hidden path. He could do that on every floor with this map. Well, he hoped. Though he could really use the essence from the bosses to level up before trying to fight this Elder Demon.
He needed Sirus¡¯s help more than ever, with that guys help they could surely beat this Dungeon. But an Elder Demon¡ How strong was that and could Sirus and the others leave and come back? Maybe they would bring him food if he ran out. Then he could take his time and grind his way to the top. First things first, find out if these experimental Naga were who he thought they were.
Now that Steven had a map, he easily navigated the first floor. It showed every enemy in the Dungeon, or at least he hoped it showed the other floors. Surely it did. Pushing those thoughts aside for now, he continued. He easily snuck past the larger groups of zombies while collecting stranglers. The smaller groups he just sent all to inventory.
Steven was cautious as he got closer, afraid this was some sort of trap set by the Wisp. It was a bit too convenient that a Wisp just showed up, wanting to work with him to bring down the very dungeon he was trapped in. As he made his way through the dungeon, the map had been completely correct in every detail, so he could always hope for the best.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Steven made it just in time to watch several Naga in a line, entering through some sort of foggy barrier one at a time. It looked just as Steven imagined a fog wall to a boss would look like. He had never seen any of these Naga before. They definitely weren¡¯t the teen Naga that entered the Dungeon with him and Sirus.
He was unsure if he should call out and break stealth or not. They could be a different tribe or something.
¡°What are you doing?¡±
Steven yelped and stumbled over from his crouch. Eyes wide with fear, until he recognized Sirus.
Jumping to his feet, he hugged the Naga before he even realized what he was doing. ¡°Oh god! Am I happy to see you! I¡¯ve been looking everywhere for you.¡±
Sirus pushed Steven off him and looked at him with bemusement and irritation.
¡°We have also been searching for you. I have lots of questions, but first, let¡¯s get out of this dungeon.¡±
Steven glanced at the fog wall.
¡°They are more than capable of handling the first floor boss on their own. I¡¯m honestly surprised you have survived this long. Now, follow me.¡±
Steven did as Sirus asked and followed. As they walked, Sirus spoke up.
¡°Now explain to me where you have been and why you didn¡¯t leave the dungeon?¡±
Steven stopped walking. ¡°Umm, about that. So a lot has happened.¡±
¡°You can tell me as walk. The Elders are furious and wish to speak to you immediately.¡± Sirus said.
¡°Well, the thing is... The Dungeon won¡¯t let me leave.¡±
Sirus stopped and turned with narrowed eyes. ¡°The dungeon won¡¯t let you leave? Explain!¡±
Steven did his best to explain. When he mentioned that this was a Domain, Sirus looked completely lost, so he didn¡¯t bother with explaining that part in further detail, and just told him it wouldn¡¯t let him leave till the dungeon was completed.
Steven also told him about the Wisp and what it wanted. Sirus had heard about Wisps and Dungeon Lords, but they were more of just legends and Sirus didn¡¯t seem to believe him. Steven pulled out the map, but apparently it was just a blank page to Sirus. He did his best to explain what he saw, but Sirus quickly got tired of it.
¡°Look, I really need your help to survive this dungeon! I would be more than happy to leave! I¡¯m tired of being trapped in here! We can try a different exit. Maybe the one you came in will work.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t think so, but he would like to get out of this place and was willing to try anything. He was tired of sleeping on the ground and would like to take a bath. Not to mention he was now out of stuff to smoke. The pair made their way to the main entrance but after tying to leave, Steven received the same notification.
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 this Undead Dungeon.
Steven explained word for word what his notification read. But Sirus was confused as to what a notification even was. Steven had no idea how they survived without notifications. After a long while, Sirus spoke up.
¡°I am unsure what these notifications are, much less this Domain you speak of. It¡¯s probably something the Wisp did to you, so you couldn¡¯t leave. You didn¡¯t agree to anything it said, did you?¡±
¡°No, I didn¡¯t.¡± Steven wanted to explain he had received temporary ownership of a Domain as soon as he arrived, and then somehow gained full ownership of it or kinda. But decided against it. It¡¯s not like any of these Naga would listen to him. Well, other than Eve, he missed Eve.
¡°No one has defeated this Dungeon before and if what you say is true and there is an Elder Demon on the final floor, I don¡¯t think you will survive and I am not strong enough to take it on. I¡¯m not sure anyone in my clan is.¡± Sirus was silent for a long while. So Steven spoke up.
¡°It looks like I will just have to level up and defeat the Dungeon myself then.¡± As Steven spoke, he thought he saw approval in Sirus¡¯s eyes, but it was gone so fast he wasn¡¯t sure if he imagined it.
¡°Could I get some more dark vision potions? And some food? I mean, since you can leave the dungeon.¡± Steven asked.
Sirus looked around slowly, as if he was looking for something. ¡°This place should be crawling with zombies. Maybe since you¡¯re trapped in here, then the Dungeon can¡¯t create any new monsters.
Sirus smiled, which looked more threatening than anything else. ¡°Yes, I can bring you some food and some dark vision potions.¡± Sirus reached into somewhere and pulled out two dark vision potions. ¡°Do not drink too many potions or you may get sick. I will go speak to the Elders and see what they wish to do about your situation. If monsters can no longer spawn, we may have a chance at completing this dungeon. If everything you are saying is true,¡± Sirus turned to leave but looked back, ¡°you seem stronger. What level are you? Does that talent of yours allow you to level in here?¡±
¡°Yes, I am now level six. It takes a lot of essence to level now.¡±
Sirus nearly laughed, or at least that¡¯s what it seemed like to Steven. ¡°It only gets harder. But it seems you are at least trying to level up.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t sure if that was a compliment or not. But since it was coming from Sirus, he supposed he would take it. It wasn¡¯t long before the Naga came out of the fog wall. Sirus went over and spoke to them in hushed tones and then the group of five left the dungeon while giving Steven odd looks. Sirus told him to wait here and he would be back. So Steven just sat at the entrance, waiting.
Steven was getting antsy. He couldn¡¯t just sit here and wait like Sirus asked. He could be leveling or at least scopeing out the first floor. Now that he was paying attention, he had seen no zombies in the places he had cleared. Maybe the zombies couldn¡¯t respawn till he left the Dungeon, like Sirus said. If that was the case, it was his duty to kill every zombie on this floor. It would be nice to know he had an entire floor to himself. Now that he had the map, he could know for sure that every Dungeon monster was dealt with on this floor. But first, he needed to check something.
Steven went back to the second floor and opened the map. At first it turned completely blank and Steven feared it only worked on the first floor. He had forgotten basically all the directions the Wisp gave him, and he started to panic. Fortunately, the map slowly faded into view.
After the mini heart attack he was having faded, he went back to the first floor to do some housecleaning while he waited for Sirus. As long as he kept an eye on the map, he would know when Sirus came back.
Sirus took a deep breath before reaching for the door. He wasn¡¯t looking forward to giving the Elders even more bad news about Steven, but this was his duty. Walking into the house of Elders, he was happy that only two of the Elders were present at the moment. Though he was curious where the others were but he quickly turned his attention to Elder Vasuki as he spoke.
¡°What news do you have of Shirem?¡±
Sirus did his best to recall every detail and especially the part about Steven and the Domain. As he did, Sirus seen Elder Vasuki¡¯s eyes widened, and he took on a thoughtful expression. He had never seen even the hint of surprise on the Elder¡¯s face before. And he couldn¡¯t help but ask what a Domain was.
¡°Remember your place Sirus! Do not question your Elders.¡± Elder Kiras said.
¡°It is quite alright. It is best that Captain Sirus knows.¡± Elder Vasuki said. ¡°A Domain is something of a legend and only the truly talented can possess a Domain. It is said there is a curse tied to the Domain something to do with the trial of Gods, but I don¡¯t know much about it or if there is anything to it. I am still unsure how Shirem obtained one. Maybe it has something to do with his loss of levels and memory.¡±
Sirus was not convinced, he was almost certain this Steven was exactly who he said he was, but he would not question the Elders. ¡°And what would you like to do about his situation?¡±
¡°We will support him. Bring him supplies. He will level quickly or die. Having the ability to level without the Seeing Stone is a great boon,¡± Elder Vasuki said.
After receiving his orders Sirus then went to gather supplies for Steven. As he left, he heard Elder Kiras speak, his voice fearful.
¡°Do you think the gods are at play here?¡±
Eve had finally gathered up everything she thought she would need. It had taken her much longer than she thought to finish up her potions.
She felt terrible for stealing. No barreling the bag of holding from Goskia¡¯s shop. But she would give it back to him. Her bag only held herbs and alchemist related items. She needed food and other supplies for the Dungeon and she did not know how long it would take to find him. And now was her chance. She had seen Captain Sirus come back, so she should be able to sneak into the dungeon.
She had never been in the dungeon and was not a fan of the undead. But she had to help Shirem. The thought of him already dead sent shivers down her spine. She wasn¡¯t sure life would be worth living if he weren¡¯t alive. She didn¡¯t care one bit he was stuck in human form. Or that he lost his memories. That just meant she could start over and the past didn¡¯t matter. The thought of them coupling and having hatchlings made her smile. Their time together had been great. She was getting to see a side of him she didn¡¯t know existed, and she had to admit she was very much liking it. Was it wrong if she wished he never regained his memories? After all, he seemed much more interested in her now.
Chapter 18: Dont mess with the mimic
Sirus left just an hour ago, so Steven was surprised to see a Naga appear on the map. He was still uncertain what experimental Naga meant, but it surely had something to do with how human the Naga were. Steven quickly finished up with the zombies he was dealing with and made his way to the entrance. He was trying to come up with an excuse why he didn¡¯t wait at the entrance when he saw who it was.
¡°Eve?¡± Steven said, eyes wide with delight. ¡°Did Sirus send you?¡±
Eve said nothing as she ran to Steven and hugged him.
¡°I-I thought you were lost! But you¡¯re right here in the entrance!¡± Eve said, on the verge of tears and obvious confusion, ¡°what are you doing? Let¡¯s go. Everyone has been searching for you.¡±
¡°Did you not see Sirus? I¡¯m trapped. The Dungeon won¡¯t let me leave.¡±
Eve¡¯s eyes widened in alarm, ¡°what do you mean the Dungeon won¡¯t let you leave?¡±
¡°Well, I just can¡¯t leave the Dungeon till I¡¯ve completed all ten floors. It just won¡¯t let me. I wish I could leave! Trust me. What I wouldn¡¯t give to have a bed, a bath and more of that kishishrot plant or what ever it''s called.¡±
It took Steven a good ten minutes to explain that he could, in fact, not leave. Eve had even gone through the barrier and came back to show Steven how simple it was. Still not fully understanding what was going on. Once she finally calmed down, he explained about the Domain and why he couldn¡¯t leave. She patiently listened as he spoke and seemed to hang on every word he said. The simple act of someone listening so intently to what he had to say made him feel cared for in a way he couldn¡¯t explain. She only spoke when he was done with the basic rundown of what happen. Asking only a few questions. Such as what a Dungeon lord and Wisp were, but before Steven could answer Eve seemed to suddenly remember something.
¡°Did you say you talked to captain Sirus?¡±
¡°Yea, he said he was going to come back with supplies. I thought he sent you.¡±
Eve¡¯s face turned a shade paler.
¡°I need to go! He will be furious if he finds me in here! I promise ill come back and we can¡¡±
No sooner than she began to speak, the dungeon entrance began to glow and Eve stiffened.
¡°Well, come on then!¡± Steven said, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her. She then jumped up, and they ran. Now that there were no zombies between Steven and the hidden path, it didn¡¯t take them no time to reach the illusion wall. ¡°You will have to jump. it¡¯s only about five feet! Stick your head in like this. So you can see what I¡¯m talking about,¡± Steven said, while sticking his head into the illusionary wall. She did as he asked and it wasn¡¯t but a few moments later before they were both standing in the hidden room.
¡°W-what is this place?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a secret path to get to the second floor. I stumbled upon it while searching for treasure.¡±
¡°What! But how? How did you find this place?¡± Eve asked in disbelief.
¡°Never mind that now. You will be safe in here. Just don¡¯t go to the second floor. And stay away from the traps. I¡¯ve gotta get back. Sirus is probably already irritated.¡±
Steven then quickly made his way towards Sirus.
¡°I told you to wait here!¡±
¡°Sorry, I got bored and worked on clearing the floor. I think you¡¯re right that the dungeon monsters can¡¯t spawn while I¡¯m in here. I haven¡¯t seen any more appear on the map.¡±
Sirus opened his mouth to speak, no doubt to yell at him, but then closed it to process what Steven had just said. ¡°So this map of yours, it shows you the location of every monster in this dungeon?¡±
¡°I believe so. It even shows a tiny footprint in which way the monster is walking.¡±
¡°let me take another look it.¡±
Steven almost said something about learning to ask instead of demanding something be done. But he quickly thought better of it. After Steven handed him the map, he stared at it for a solid five minutes before handing it back and shaking his head.
¡°I see nothing. I can¡¯t even sense any magic from it.¡± Sirus then pulled out a small brown bag and handed it to Steven.
¡°What¡¯s this?¡±
¡°A bag of holding. Courtesy of Goskia. I expect you to give it back to him as soon as possible. It has a capacity of ten items and is extremely valuable.¡±
¡°Oh. Well, you can just give it back to him yourself if you want,¡± Steven said as he sent all the contents to his storage by simply sticking his hand in the bag.
¡°Cool! I didn¡¯t know if that would actually work.¡±
Sirus''s eyes narrowed and Steven was starting to think that it was a bad idea to show Sirus his inventory ability.
¡°I know your chest armor has storage, but it can only hold a couple items. Did you absorb another shard?¡± Sirus asked.
Steven noted how Sirus wasn¡¯t angry, so much as curious. ¡°No, it¡¯s just an ability I gained. I also got Lesser Stealth, but I leveled it to Basic Stealth.¡±
As Steven spoke, Sirus¡¯s face twisted into a confused mess of shock and disbelief.
¡°You have Basic Stealth already? That¡¯s impossible. . . Unless,¡± Sirus went silent, but before Steven could talk he spoke up, ¡°Never mind your stealth ability. Tell me, what is this other ability you have?¡±
¡°Well, it¡¯s just a simple inventory ability. It¡¯s basically a bag of holding, but I don¡¯t need a bag.¡±
¡°That¡¯s incredible!¡± Sirus said with childlike enthusiasm. ¡°how much space does it hold and what did you do to obtain this power? Is it a talent?¡±
Steven stared in shock at the normally dower Naga before he spoke.
¡°Uh, I¡¯m unsure on both things. I¡¯m sorry. Though I know how I got stealth. It was from sneaking around the zombies.¡±
Sirus¡¯s face fell instantly. Steven would like to ask Sirus about what talents he had and if he could teach him to gain any, but he would have to ask about that another time he needed to get back to Eve. But before Steven could come up with an excuse to leave, Sirus spoke up.
¡°I must be going, I will be back tomorrow with a team of elites to help you clear out the second floor,¡± Sirus turned and placed his hand on the barrier, ¡°by the way good job. Continue to gain levels and you may just survive this Dungeon.¡± Then he was gone.
Steven turned and headed back towards Eve. He knew that was a compliment coming from Sirus. Which was confusing, that dower Naga didn¡¯t give out compliments. ¡°I suppose my growth really impressed him.¡± Though he was probably just impressed, Steven was still alive. He was definitely going to take down this dungeon. He would use this place as a stepping stone! This damn Dungeon lord had no idea what he had done by trapping him in here. Steven wasn¡¯t actually sure if it was the Dungeon lord that trapped him or if this sort of thing that just happened when two domains came in contact with one another.
This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
As Steven walked back, he wondered what would happen when he gained another domain. And when then that old wizard returned, would he take his domain back, or did they become one? Steven had a lot of questions and no one to give him answers. Surely that old wizard would understand. He seemed reasonable. Though that was most likely because he still thought of the old wizard as Gandalf.
Steven¡¯s mind was still on the old wizard and what he actually wanted from him when he jumped through the illusion wall. The sound of Eve screaming caused his eyes to widen and franticly started looking around for her. At first, he thought she had fallen into the pits. But a strange guttural sound with more screaming had him look towards the stairs at the back.
¡°Mimic!¡± Steven sprinted across the narrow path in a mad dash. Soon as he reached the treasure room, he saw it.
Two long pale white legs attached to a treasure chest. It had to stand at least nine feet tall. With thin arms that hung to the ground at the end of its hands were wicked looking black claws. The chest its self looked just like one would expect a mimic to look, rows of sharp teeth, tongue half hanging out and all. The only thing that looked out of place was all the vines, but he paid no attention to it at the moment. To Steven, it looked as the mimic was playing with Eve before eating her. Deep-looking cuts covered Eve¡¯s body and the lower part of her tail was missing. She seemed to have a hard time just standing. Steven took all this in an instant.
Despite how bad Eve looked, she still stood there with a defiant expression on her face, holding a dagger in one hand while the other hung limply at her side. The sight made Steven¡¯s blood boil with rage and he was charging the mimic with everything he had before he realized what he was doing. ¡°Run!¡± Steven said, midway into his as charge.
He didn¡¯t really have a plan. The mimic, however, looked to be delighted at the prospect of more food and turned its attention to Steven. The chest was on top of him almost instantly.
The Mimic scooped him up in its long skinny hands, trapping both his arms to the side. It then went to bite into him as if he was a burrito. Suddenly, time slowed, and the mimic was standing ten feet away while working its jaw around in confusion.
The next moment, Eve was by his side. He wanted to tell her that¡¯s not what he meant by running, but there was no time. Eve threw a bottle at the mimic and it burst into silvery flames. Steven watched in disbelief as its health dropped by only a sliver. His eyes widened in alarm. There was no way they could deal with this thing. He was too weak and his only shard ability had triggered already. They had to run, but the mimic was now in front of the exit and just staring down curiously at the silver flames on its arm as if it was the strangest thing it had ever seen.
¡°The second floor!¡± Steven said.
It was directly behind them. They would just have to make it there. ¡°Eve, go now!¡± She looked as she was going to protest. ¡°I''ll be right behind you go!¡±
She must have noticed the intensity in his voice as she did as he asked and quickly headed towards the barrier with a limp. As she did the mimic decided the flames were not interesting enough to lose its meal over and started towards them. This time it moved cautiously, unsure what had happened to it when it tried to eat its snack.
As soon as Eve began towards the entrance, Steven began dropping zombies out of his inventory quickly as possible while backing towards the second floor barrier and wishing he could just drop all the zombies at once. The mimic stopped and bit into the first zombie. Steven used the few seconds to chug a mana potion while walking backwards as fast as he could towards the barrier.
The mimic recoiled, and it began spitting out chunks of undead while making a disgusting gagging noise. It was clear to Steven this would not be much of a distraction and he turned and ran towards the barrier. He saw Eve turn and look back at the mimic just before she reached the barrier. The mimic made a screeching sound as Eve vanished and redoubled its efforts towards its only remaining meal, plowing through the few other zombies without slowing.
Steven glanced at his mana pool of eighty-seven while he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but it wasn¡¯t fast enough. The mimic grabbed him up in a bone crushing grip to make sure its snack didn¡¯t escape this time. It then stared at him with curiosity, as if darling its snack to vanish again. The more Steven struggled, the tighter the mimic squeezed. He tried to will his ability to trigger, but he knew it wouldn¡¯t work, he didn¡¯t have the mana. If he could get a hand free, maybe he could drop a zombie into its maw. That¡¯s all he could think of. He tried to move, but the mimic decided it had finished looking at him and squeezed until something snapped, causing Steven to go limp. The mimic seemed to be satisfied that its food was no longer wiggling. And It opened its maw to eat him whole.
¡°Oh, come on, it¡¯s only a level thirty seven Mimic for crying out loud!¡± A familiar voice echoed in Steven¡¯s mind, ¡°I very well may have made a terrible choice choosing you over Sorin but it¡¯s too late for that now, things are already in motion.¡±
Steven fell to a heap on the floor. ¡°Ouch! Yeah, sorry about that. But all I can do is to command the mimic to go back into stasis. You¡¯re lucky I came here to talk to you when I did. I had no idea you were seconds away from being mimic food. This place is part of the original dungeon, and even Sorin can¡¯t see us here. Which brings me to why I¡¯m here. There are things we need to discuss.¡±
Steven was in so much pain from being crushed he couldn¡¯t speak. Or even understand what was happening, for that matter.
¡°Well, there isn¡¯t much point in talking to you now, is there? Sorry, I can only send you outside this room. Good luck. We will have to wait and speak when you reach the next secret entrance. I would also recommend staying out of this room when I leave. The mimic will come back out of stasis and will be extremely aggressive.¡±
Steven then unceremoniously fell to the dungeon floor, right next to a yelping Eve. Then everything went black.
When Steven woke up, he just laid there. He was too sore and tired to even open his eyes. Everything hurt, but just the fact he could feel things was a good sign he had thought his spine snapped, but maybe healing potions could fix that sort of thing. This was the last thought he had before he lost conciseness.
The second time Steven woke up, his head was pounding. It felt like when he was drained of mana. It also felt like warm oily liquid was being rubbed on him, but before he could even think on it, he lost conciseness again.
The next time Steven woke up, he just felt drained and sore, as if he had been working out non stop for a week straight and every muscle in his body was torn.
¡°Steven,¡± a soft voice whispered, ¡°are you awake?¡±
With some effort, Steven slowly opened his eyes. He saw a gorgeous female with what he thought were snake-like features. If it wasn¡¯t for how attractive she was and the concerned look she was giving him, he may have freaked out. Slowly, Steven began to remember what happened and where he was. He went to speak, but his voice was raspy and dry and his words were more nonsense than anything else. Steven slowly sat up. Every muscle protested, even his eyes felt sore.
¡°Here, drink this, but slowly,¡± Eve said.
Steven took the cup and sipped it. It was warm and tasted like the pine needle tea his grandma used to make him drink as a child. ¡°This will help clear out the potion toxins. I¡¯m sorry but I had to use several potions on you. The effects will linger for some time.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t know what that meant exactly, just the act of sitting up and moving made his mind fuzzy; a wave of exhaustion hit him and he just wanted to lie back down.
¡°Try to eat this.¡±
Steven blinked a few times. His eyes were growing blurry. But he took the piece of what he assumed was meat and took a couple of small bits. Even chewing was hard. That was the last thing Steven remembered before darkness took him.
When he woke up this time, he felt much better, and he immediately noticed how dark it was. The only light came from a few glowing stones placed around them and the glowing barrier a few feet away. Eve laid next to him fast asleep. He barely remembered what happen after the mimic but he knew he had woke up a few times as Eve nursed him back to health.
He wondered how long it had been, but pushed that thought aside, it really didn¡¯t matter. He was still in the dungeon and now trapped on the second floor with all those damned armed skeletons. But at least he had Eve with him now. He looked over at Eve. He remembered her having several deep cuts. Her clothes were still torn a bit, but not as badly as he had thought. Although they probably had a repair enchantment on them like his armor. Now that he thought about it, his armor was off him and he was in clothes he didn¡¯t even realize he had.
No, he knew for certain he didn¡¯t have these clothes. Eve must have had changed him. Looking back over at Eve, he noticed half her tail was still missing; he hoped she could grow a new one. Just the thought of the mimic pissed him off. He would get his revenge. That damn mimic didn¡¯t know who he was fucking with.
Steven took a few deep breaths to calm down. The mimic would get what¡¯s coming to it with time. He also owed that Wisp one. If not for her, he would be dead. He didn¡¯t remember what she had said exactly, but he remembered something about going to the next hidden path so they could talk. Though he didn¡¯t know why that mattered as they talked in the Dungeon proper the first time.
At least he had an immediate plan. Get to the next hidden path. Well, after he did some leveling. He didn¡¯t want to bother Eve while she slept. If not for her he would¡¯ve surely died, or at least be in much more pain. Although if not for her opening that chest, they would not be in this situation. Deciding those thoughts would not get him anywhere, he opened his inventory to see how many zombies he actually had. Steven¡¯s eyes bulged as he saw the number.
¡°Holy shit!¡± Steven said before glancing at Eve. Come on now, Steven, stop talking out loud to yourself. You''re going to have her think you¡¯re a crazy person.
Steven had to pull up his inventory once more to make sure he was seeing the number correctly. Currently, he had one hundred and eighty-nine zombies in inventory. He sure hoped there were no side effects to having the zombies in there. He still got the sense of it being wrong somehow and wished he had a way to turn them into essence. Well, he had nothing better to do while he waited for Eve to wake up.
Chapter 19: Invisible zombies?
Steven barely made it down the tunnel before he realized it was entirety to dark, so he walked back and grabbed a couple of the glow stones. The stones reminded him of the tree house and the comfy bed that it had. It wasn¡¯t actually his place, but he felt a strong connection to it and wished he could go back. Better yet, he would love to sit on his couch in his room and watch some anime and smoke¡ The thought depressed him a bit. He stabbed a zombie in the back before sending it back to inventory.
Was he a drug addict? No, weed wasn¡¯t bad, it was just a plant.
Right? He didn¡¯t do any of the harder stuff. Though if he was being honest right now, he would probably try some if it was available.
Being trapped was taking its toll. Pulling out the same zombie, he stabbed it. And then stabbed it again.
+23
It wasn¡¯t any different from alcohol, actually it was much better for you. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it¡¯s definitely not addicting, but yet he craved a smoke. A sinking feeling of depression nagged at him.
+25
Maybe Eve had some, but this was not a video game. Should he really be smoking in this dungeon? He had nearly just died. This place was serious.
+19
It helped him focus, and that was that. Also, he really needed something to help deal with all the craziness his life had become. If Eve had some, then he would definitely use it, he would just not overdo it.
+21
Deciding to ask Eve about it when she woke up, he continued killing zombies one at a time. He had to move a few times as he killed them faster than the Dungeon could absorb them. He didn¡¯t need to worry about running out. His daggers would break long before he ran out of zombies. It became reflex as he killed the zombies and he wondered what his aunt was doing. And what she thought about a literal wizard in his basement, he chuckled to himself.
Until he thought of her being so drunk, she probably didn¡¯t even notice it wasn¡¯t him. His thoughts got darker as he methodically killed zombies one at a time. His parents, his little sister they were all gone now. Why had he been the only one to survive?
¡°S-steven?¡± Eve said in a shaky voice. ¡°what¡¯s happening? Are there invisible undead? I can¡¯t see anything. I just see them blink into existence right before you stab them.¡±
It would have been funny if not for Eve¡¯s fearful voice. As he pulled his dagger out, the zombie collapsed to the ground.
+22
Eve stared wide eyed at the dozens of dead zombies in the tunnel. ¡°How long have you been fighting?¡± Eve asked, looking around with a fear filled expression. While trying to see where the next zombie was going to appear.
¡°There are no invisible zombies.¡± Steven said.
¡°I just seen you kill a zombie that kept turning invisible each time you pulled your blade from it! What do you mean there are no invisible zombies? Am I losing my mind?¡± Eve asked while looking around wide-eyed.
¡°It¡¯s an ability of mine! I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to frighten you. Here watch.¡± Steven pulled out a zombie, then pulled it back into inventory at the same time Eve jumped back with a yelp.
¡°Were did it go?¡± Eve begin franticly looking around.
¡°Okay, look, there isn¡¯t any immediate danger. Let me try to explain! You know how you have a bag of holding?¡± Eve nodded slowly, ¡°well I have an ability that gives me that. It¡¯s an inventory ability.¡±
Eve seemed to calm down slightly, ¡°and this ability allows you to put undead in there? Is that safe?¡± Eve asked, concern replacing the fearful look.
¡°Yes, it does, and I think it¡¯s safe. I was trying to get some of them out of my inventory and gain some essence.¡±
Eve¡¯s face scrunched up in confusion, which Steven found incredibly cute for some reason.
¡°Why did you put them in there in the first place?¡±
¡°Well, I didn¡¯t really have anyway other way to deal with them.¡±
¡°What do you mean, don¡¯t you have an incredibly powerful Shard ability? I heard about your fight in the arena. And you were able to escape from that mimic.¡±
¡°It is an exceptional ability. I can¡¯t deny that.¡± Steven stopped talking and looked at Eve. ¡°wait, you heard about my fight in the arena?" Steven asked in confusion. "Never mind that now. My ability is useful, but I only have the one and besides I can only use it once before it takes almost all my mana. And it¡¯s a defensive ability it doesn¡¯t really do damage.¡±
¡°I- I don¡¯t understand,¡± Eve said, clearly confused. ¡°you just told me you had this inventory shard ability and this defensive shard ability but you only have one shard ability. Is one of these a talent?¡±
¡°Oh, no, my talent is stealth. Ive actually been meaning to ask about talents you never mentioned that before.¡±
Eve still had a cute confused look on her face as she tried to process what he had told her.
¡°A talent," Eve said. "Is an innate ability, and we only get one. Or at least I¡¯ve never heard of anyone getting more than one. Many never even find their talent. Do you have two talents?¡±
¡°No, I only have one talent.¡± Steven¡¯s face fell just a bit as he found out he wouldn¡¯t be getting trap detection and a slew of other talents he had been fantasizing about. ¡°Eve, can I tell you something?¡±
¡°Yes of coarse anything.¡±
¡°You have to promise not to tell anyone this will just be between us.¡± Steven watched as her face turned fearful for just a second before it turned serious and she nodded.
¡°I will take it to my grave. I swear it.¡±
Steven was taken aback by her intensity but continued. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve not told anyone this. And I¡¯m not sure what it means exactly. But I met this angel, or maybe a god. I¡¯m really unsure.¡±
Eve gasped and her eyes widened.
¡°Are you okay?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Yes. It¡¯s just I¡¯ve only heard legends of Gods and Angels.¡±
¡°Good to know. Anyway, this being¡¯s name was Gi-d¡ e.¡± Steven froze. It felt as if death loomed over him and he would instantly die if he completed the name.
¡°Well, his name doesn¡¯t really matter,¡± Steven said after a moment. ¡°anyway, he gave me this purple apple core that turned into this ring thing that turned into an inventory ability when I put it on.¡± Now that he said it out loud, it sounded preposterous.
Eve, on the other hand, was white as a ghost. ¡°Ch-chaos. You met Chaos?¡±
¡°How did you know?¡±
After a moment, Eve spoke up, ¡°everyone knows of Chaos. His symbol is a purple apple core.¡± Eve¡¯s eyes were wide with shock as she continued, ¡°you have a blessing of one of the Seven. Ive never heard of them giving out blessings, especially Chaos. . .¡±
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
¡°Well, I suppose the ring turned into a blessing from that guy. He was pretty cool. Though when he looked at me, it felt as he was staring into my soul. Although now that I think about it, that very well may have been what he was doing.¡±
Eve still looked to be in shock, so Steven just stood there waiting for her to speak. He really wanted to get back to zombie killing. The thought made him wonder how much essence he had now and he was just fixing to open his stat page when Eve spoke.
¡°S-Steven, I¡¯m not sure if you understand what this means, but I will keep your secret, I promise. We probably shouldn¡¯t speak about it again. And it¡¯s best if you treat Chaos with the proper respect he deserves. He is said to be the mightiest of the seven and we don¡¯t want to¡ Well, what I¡¯m trying to say is that you probably shouldn¡¯t call Chaos a pretty cool guy.¡±
¡°Okay, sounds good. No more God talk. Though I have one more question. What is a blessing, exactly?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not exactly sure. From my understanding, it is like an unawakened talent that a God somehow activates.¡±
¡°Hmm, okay yeah, that actually makes a bit of sense. Anyway, how about we start clearing the second floor?¡±
¡°I should really be getting back to my duties at the village.¡± Eve said, glancing back at the barrier.
¡°Well, we definitely can¡¯t go that way,¡± Steven said indicating the barrier, ¡°are you going to get in trouble?¡± Steven watched as Eve glanced at her bandaged tail.
¡°Yes, I¡¯m unsure what punishment awaits me,¡± Eve looked off in the distance, ¡°The Elders will not be pleased that I disobeyed their laws. It is likely that they will forbid me from seeing you.¡±
¡°Yeah, screw that. I won¡¯t allow it. You¡¯re the only reason I¡¯ve stayed.¡±
Eve smiled at that. ¡°But where would you go? Our kind aren¡¯t welcome, we are considered abominations.¡±
¡°The other races don¡¯t accept you?¡± Steven asked.
¡°It¡¯s not all the races, it¡¯s mostly the humans, some elves, and the true Naga. They have hunted our kind down for centuries, though they live on the other side of the sea from my understanding. It¡¯s unlikely we would run into them.¡±
¡°You¡¯re mostly human looking anyway, just wear a rob with a hood or something and I doubt anyone would notice. We could travel and see new places. I would love to see this world. We will just stay away from the true Naga.¡±
Eve¡¯s eyes lit up at the mention of traveling together. ¡°You would be willing to travel with me?¡±
¡°Of course I would. There is no one else I would rather have my back.¡±
Well, other than Sirus, that dude is a serious bad ass, but Steven didn¡¯t say that part.
Eve then hugged him and held him tightly for a long moment. Once she let go Steven asked the question he had been wanting to ask for a bit. ¡°So, do you have some more of that kish stuff?¡±
¡°Kishurack?¡± Eve asked.
¡°Yes, that stuff,¡± Steven said with a wide smile.
¡°Yes, I have some. It¡¯s used in several potions. It helps with mana recovery when mixed with crushed turtle skulls and gurlak. Most alchemist have it on hand.¡± Eve said excitedly.
Steven just blinked at her. He was about to ask her if he could have some when she pulled some out of her bag of holding. A large smile crossed his face. Pulling out the water pipe, he began to load it.
¡°Are we not going to clear the second floor?¡± Eve asked.
¡°Yes! As soon as I¡¡± Once Steven seen the look she was giving him, he froze. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±
¡°Well, I do enjoy smoking as well, but it¡¯s kinda dangerous as it fogs the mind and this is a dungeon¡ I just don¡¯t want you to get hurt!¡±
¡°It will be fine! It helps me focus.¡±
Eve said nothing as Steven took a couple of hits. Though she refused when he offered her some saying, maybe later. Eve handed him some more potions she had brought, including the dark vision potions he was running low on. Then they both drank half a potion each and began down the tunnel.
As Steven explained what they would be facing, Eve was taken aback by the fact that he had already been here. She asked how he got past the mimic. When he explained he didn¡¯t open the chest, she looked downcast. Seeming to just now realize it was her fault that they were almost killed.
Once at the end of the tunnel, he told her to stay out of sight as he scouted the area since he had stealth and she didn¡¯t. Turned out her talent was plant identification. It was a cool ability for sure, but Steven could do the same thing by placing the plants in his inventory, or at least he assumed he could.
The first part of the area was still clear from his last visit. But it didn¡¯t take him but a minute to find another group of skeletons standing eerily in place, and staring off into the distance. As Steven scoped out the skeletons, looking for the best plan of attack, he wondered what level Eve was. Or did she already tell him he couldn¡¯t remember, which reminded him that he should have enough for a level now. Although one level wouldn¡¯t actually do much and he wanted to save his attribute points for when he found a better weapon.
However, he had to know how much essence he had or it would bother him. He started to open his stat page when he remembered he didn¡¯t have to. Was this an effect of smoking too much¡Ever since Eve mentioned it, it had been bugging him, but he would show her he was capable. Pushing the thought aside, he focused on the number in his bottom right corner.
Essence 864
He frowned he had killed at least three dozen zombies. Opening his inventory and looking at his undead tab, he saw he had one hundred and fifty-three zombies and three skeletons. He had indeed killed around thirty zombies. He then checked the durability of his daggers. It seemed he really had to come up with a better system. The durability had dropped a good ten points. Enforcing the idea of not killing the zombies in that manner, he needed to ask Eve about durability.
¡°Okay. First things first, let¡¯s create some chaos.¡±
Once he located the archer, he got into its aggro range and waited for it to shoot. When it did, he pulled out the zombie to take the hit. The sound of flesh being pierced was what he was waiting for. He then started dumping out zombies as they began to stumble towards the archer. Steven had such a large supply of zombies he didn¡¯t stop dropping them until he was forced to back up because of the other skeletons. He was able to drop thirty nine zombies. Which should be plenty to take out the eleven skeletons. Steven then went back to the tunnel to get Eve.
When Eve seen the zombies and skeletons fighting, her eyes widened in surprise. ¡°But how? Can you control them?¡±
Steven explained what he did to get the zombies to attack the skeletons, and Eve was completely amazed, calling him a genius several times. The pair just sat a good ways back watching the fight. Steven wished he had a couple lawn chairs in his inventory or, better yet, his couch. He did, however, pull out a plate of meat and potatoes, or at least he thought it was potatoes. He offered some to Eve, but she declined, saying she couldn¡¯t possibly eat right now with the undead fight going on in front of them.
Steven wasn¡¯t bothered in the slightest as he dug in. Pulling out the water stone to get a drink, he asked her how much water it held. She gave him some absurd answer to do with mana and some other stuff that he didn¡¯t understand, while never taking her eyes off the fight. From what he understood, he shouldn¡¯t have to worry about it as long as he wasn¡¯t just pouring it out to fill up a pond or something. After he was done eating, there was only a hand full on both sides and the skeletons were somehow winning, so Steven went over and dropped fifteen more zombies while in stealth and came back down to sit with Eve. He knew he should probably start collecting the skeletons as they were worth a good bit more essence than the zombies, but right now, he just wanted to look cool in front of Eve. And the Zombies could actually kill the skeletons, however, it took several of them to take down just one. Part of him winced at losing all that essence. But the other part wanted to prove he was capable when he was smoking.
At some point, Steven asked Eve about the durability of weapons. She said once they hit zero, the weapon would just shatter and even cause damage to the user if they were holding it. Steven just took in this information. This world was strange.
Once only two skeletons remained fighting, Steven crept over and sent them to inventory while also collecting the weapons they dropped, which was not very often. He also gather¡¯d any zombies. Hopefully, the next hidden room would have a pit as well, and he could drop a good bit in there. Looking at the map, he found where the next hidden room was and they headed in that direction.
Steven would scout out the area, drop a bunch of zombies and start a huge fight, and then go in and collect what was left of them. After the fourth time of this, he was running low on zombies and didn¡¯t have but thirty-three skeletons to even show for it.
The next batch of skeletons, Steven, just dropped enough zombies to cause a distraction and then started stealthily collecting all the skeletons from the outskirts while working his way inward till both zombies and skeletons were collected. This continued a few more times, and Steven was just starting to think it was too easy. When he noticed a skeleton much larger than the rest. It was armored from head to toe. In fact, he wasn¡¯t exactly sure it was even a skeleton. It was leading a small company of armed skeletons. Most skeletons just stood completely still, meaning something special was going on with this bunch. He tried to get a count them but was worried about being spotted by the large armored one, from the best he could tell there were a dozen following the big skeleton as it marched.
Once he made his way back to Eve and explained the situation, he looked over the map. The map showed the skeleton¡¯s movement, and even had a name above it. Skeletal Knight, but Steven was confused as to why he didn¡¯t notice them before. Though it was most likely because he wasn¡¯t looking over his map like he should. Maybe he should slow down on the smoking like Eve suggested. He just sat back and studied the map, trying to see if there were any patterns to this Skeletal Knight¡¯s moments. He did notice the entrance to the first dungeon boss was not far off, but that really didn¡¯t help him at the moment. Steven resigned himself to just wait and study their patterns. It¡¯s not like he had anything better to do.
¡°Where did he find a map? This is ridiculous!¡± Sorin paced back and forth through his throne room. ¡°It¡¯s as if everything this damned human needs just falls into his lap. And these damned false Naga! How the FUCK did he get them to work with him?¡± Sorin sighed as he fell onto his throne, ¡°those Half Naga despise humans! This doesn¡¯t add up.¡±
Silviaburlaxatrix knew it was only a matter of time before Sorin found out she had betrayed him. She just hoped she made the correct choice. What was she thinking? Of course she did. She hated that damn vampire and couldn¡¯t wait to see him put in his place. Although this Steven was far weaker than she had first realized. But he did have the Naga on his side, though she was also confused as to how but...
¡°Sill! Are you even listening!¡±
¡°Sorry my lord! What is it?¡±
¡°Are you even taking this threat seriously?¡±
¡°I am. It¡¯s just he is only on the second floor and had already nearly died.¡±
¡°True,¡± Sorin said, his voice calming, ¡°either way find out why these damn experimental Naga are working with him! There is one in particular that concerns me.¡±
¡°And the cost my lord?¡±
¡°I told you to stop asking that you know I will pay it. Now go!¡±
¡°It is the duty of a Wisp to¡¡±
¡°I know, I know, now just get going! I need to see if i can buy off this false Naga. Or cause a rift between them. Go!¡±
¡°Yes my lord.¡± Silviaburlaxatrix didn¡¯t actually have to remind him of the cost, but she knew it pissed him off, and he truly thought it was her duty so she would continue to do so. She then headed back to talk with the council. Again.
Chapter 20: Skeletal Knight
Steven was stressing out. He had been staring at this map for some time and hadn¡¯t found anyway to get around the Skeletal knight.
A few times, the knight had walked in their direction just to turn and walk in another direction. The map of the second floor was extremely small compared to the first, or at least that¡¯s what it seemed like. The map only showed his surroundings and not an overview of the entire floor, so he didn¡¯t see the actual boss room to the second floor anywhere, not that he had any plans of facing the boss of this floor. But he couldn¡¯t complain. At least he had a map now.
From what the map showed, the second floor was mostly a huge circle. With a few paths leading to dead ends except for one that lead to the hidden path on the opposite side of the circle. That¡¯s also where the other path lead off that he couldn¡¯t see. Going to the first floor was an option if they went through the boss room, but it was still risky. According to the map, there were packs of skeletons in the twenties on both paths leading to the hidden path. That in its self would not be a problem, but the skeletons that followed the knight continued to make a half circle route. If he tried to take out the pack of twenty odd skeletons, the knight would attack from the back before he made it through. Which was his dilemma. Even if he was alone, he wasn¡¯t sure he could make it through with stealth, even with the terrain being perfectly suited for it.
It was odd to be good at sneaking. He had never been much for it on earth, although he had never really tried. Now he got a feeling of where to step and which rocks were best to hide behind. It was all subconscious and not something he actively thought about. Until now, when he was actively trying to think how to sneak up on the skeleton knight. He wanted the armor and the spear it carried. But each time he thought about sneaking up to the knight and sending it to inventory, he had the sense he would fail. There were just too many skeletons and there was no way he could sneak past them all.
¡°I¡¯m not sure what to do.¡± Steven eventually said, lowing his head.
¡°I have some potions we could try out. But if it doesn¡¯t work, then we would have to make a run for it. Do you think we can outrun them?¡± Eve asked.
¡°Oh, yes for sure, although I¡¯m unsure what that skeletal knight¡¯s aggro range is. What we need is a good escape plan. We can¡¯t really go backwards as it is a dead end and no way in hell can he go back in there with that mimic.¡± Steven pulled out the water pipe and took a couple of hits. He knew Eve was looking at him with concern.
¡°How about we take a break for a bit and try to think of something to deal with that armored skeleton?¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind having some now. This is stressful. But I¡¯m not as confident as you and will need to wait a bit before we continue. If that would be okay.¡± Eve said.
Steven Immediately agreed, and the pair made their way back where they entered, trying to get as far away from the knight as possible.
The next few hours were just Eve and Steven smoking and talking about nonsense while eating some food. They both smoked a bit more than they had expected. And Steven complained about not having his couch.
Eventually, the pair ended up taking a nap on some blankets Sirus had brought. To Steven, it was extremely uncomfortable, but Eve didn¡¯t seem to mind so much. Waking up, they discussed the best way to deal with the knight. Their only plan was to use Eve¡¯s ghost fire jars and run away if that didn¡¯t work. Steven didn¡¯t like the plan all that much, but the aggro range on all the undead wasn¡¯t far, so it shouldn¡¯t be an issue. It would also give him a good idea of what the knight was capable of.
Maybe the knight would charge without his minions, and Steven could simply send it to inventory. Pulling out zombies as a distraction wouldn¡¯t work, as they were more likely to just turn and attack them less he could get a one of the skeletons to do damage to a zombie first.
It wasn¡¯t long before they had decided on a plan of action. Steven threw the first and second jar from stealth. The skeletons burst into silvery flames, all except the knight. It didn¡¯t seem to be affected in the slightest, even as the jar splattered directly on it. The knight, however, noticed Steven Immediately. It then turned and charged.
Steven shouted for Eve to run, who was currently throwing jars at the other skeletons. She then turned and ran, just as they planned. Steven noticed the health bar of all the skeletons slowly dropping. Well, all but the knight, it still didn¡¯t have a health bar.
He then took off towards their next location, the plan was to hide between some boulders till the skeletons stopped aggroing them and then simply repeat this process till they ran out of throwable and needed to come up with a new plan or they killed all the skeletons.
The plan was quickly ruined when the knight let out a deep bellowing roar that snuffed out all the flames on the skeletons and then chased Steven at an insane speed. Steven heard the armored behemoth charging up behind him. They had thought of this scenario, except they didn¡¯t expect the knight to extinguish the flames or that it could run so fast.
Steven quickly dropped out a root snare. He ran just a bit further before he turned to see vines crawling all over the knight. It ripped them apart as he watched, but there were more vines than it could deal with. Steven took the chance to move closer and throw another one that landed directly on the knight¡¯s face. He wanted to get closer and send it to inventory, but the other skeletons were also giving chase however, they stopped when reaching the knight. Steven¡¯s eyes widened in horror as they began chopping at the vines to set it free.
¡°Shit!¡± Steven chunked the last root snare he had followed by ghost fire and ran as quickly as he could. The knight bellowed out in rage, sending a chill down his spine.
Steven and Eve hid between some boulders. The knight continued to bellow in outrage as the other skeletons chopped at the vines. At least he assumed that¡¯s what they were doing, as he couldn¡¯t see anything from their location. Steven was starting to regret the plan.
This knight was obviously much more intelligent than he had expected. The spot they were hiding in was too small for the knight, but it wouldn¡¯t stop the knight from sending the skeletons in after him or jabbing that spear in at them, though he should be out of reach for the spear. If the skeletons came in, he could just send them to inventory one at a time as long as he could avoid them trying to stab him. But the knight, he wasn¡¯t sure what to do. If he could get it alone, then he could send it to inventory. But just the thought of getting that close to the armored behemoth made him shutter.
Less than a minute after hiding, they heard the knight charging down the Dungeon making some sort of battle cry. It was loud, not to mention the armor was making all kinds of racket as it charged right past them. The normal skeletons not far behind, but were almost silent in their charge. Steven seen the skeletons awkwardly running past through the crack.
They definitely weren¡¯t built for running. It looked like they would topple over at any time. He even got a glimpse of a few of the health bars as they ran by and it seemed as their health had regenerated somewhat, and the ghost fire was no longer in effect. He wasn¡¯t sure if that was an ability of the knight or the potions were just not working. Though he didn¡¯t have time to think about it as he heard the knight charging back down the dungeon. It ran right past them and Steven let out a breath he didn¡¯t even realize he was holding.
They were going to need to somehow go back to the first floor. He needed to level up as much as possible and come up with a plan. That knight was terrifying. He was fixing to say that very thing to Eve. When he heard the knight charging back down the tunnel. This time, its charge was slower, and it seemed to be looking around for them. Steven didn¡¯t even realize he was trembling till Eve placed her hand on his shoulder. She mouthed something, but he couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of it.
The knight was now walking. With each step, the knight¡¯s armor made a chinking sound. Suddenly, the noise stopped and a bellowing roar replaced it. Steven watched the knight come into view again, but this time, it turned to face him directly. There was no doubt in his mind that it had seen him, and they were trapped, with no way out except towards the knight. The space was so tight it would be slow to even get out. The knight didn¡¯t waste any time and charged over, shoving its gauntleted arm into the crack.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
¡°Shit, shit shit.¡± Steven muttered. The knight¡¯s hand was only a few feet away from Steven¡¯s face. Then he realized he could just send the knight to inventory. Steven forced his self to reach out and touch the back of the knight¡¯s gauntleted hand as it tried to grab him. He willed it to inventory, only to receive a notification.
Steven froze at the sight of the notification for just a split second, which was just enough time for the knight to twist its arm and grab Steven¡¯s wrist and jerk him out. Eve screamed in horror and tried to grab him, but it was no use. The knight was too strong and fast. No sooner than the knight pulled him out, it slammed him to the ground like a rag doll, knocking the air from his lungs. In the same motion, it stabbed Steven with its spear right in his gut. His body began to convulse as lightning sparked all over him.
The knight ripped its spear from Steven and went to stab him again but was blasted back by air. Which only caused it to step back before turning its head towards Eve. Steven was still slightly pulsating from the lightning spear, his body wouldn¡¯t respond. Air blasted at the smaller skeletons that charged Eve as she stepped back in between the boulders.
She then started pulling out potions, but the skeletons were already crawling all over the entrance trying to get at her. The knight turned its attention back to Steven, who lay on the ground, twitching slightly. He tried to force his body to move, but it was no use. He could only twitch his finger slightly. As the knight moved towards Steven, Eve blasted it back again. Steven could move his fingers now, but just slightly.
Eve had retreated further in between the boulders, trying to fight off the smaller skeletons.
The knight then shoved its spear down towards Steven. He tried to roll away but his body just twitched slightly as a response and sent paralyzing pain through his entire body. Steven was sure his wound was pouring blood, but he could barely feel anything from the lightning shocking his body and everything was becoming hazy. Suddenly, time slowed to a crawl as his ability triggered. The spear vanished from the knight¡¯s hands before reappearing behind the knight. As time resumed to normal, the spear fell to the ground behind the knight. However, the knight didn¡¯t hesitate as it pulled a dagger from its sheath, ready to finish Steven off. Steven was able to force his arm to move, and he touched the knight¡¯s armored boot. When he tried to send it to inventory, he just received another notification. But he quickly dismissed this one too. He could do noting but watch as the Skeletal Knight came in for the killing blow.
Out of no where white spikes slammed into the knight from the side, piercing the armor and causing the Skeletal Knight to stumble and nearly fall over. A second wave of spikes knocked the knight off its feet and a bone cage rose around the knight. It took all the strength he had to just turn his head. Then everything went black.
Steven opened his eyes to an angry-looking snake man staring down at him.
¡°You need to listen to me when I tell you something. You were lucky this time,¡± Sirus was absolutely pissed and Steven didn¡¯t dare open his mouth, ¡°what were you thinking trying to take on the second floor boss?¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t know¡¡± Steven started, but was cut off.
¡°You only have a single shard! And Eve is an Alchemist! If your plan was to get both yourselves killed, then you were very well about to succeed. If it wasn¡¯t for all the noise the floor boss was making, it would have been the end for you both.¡±
After Steven was given a health potion, Sirus went on with his tirade for a solid five minutes. This was the longest Sirus had ever spoken to him at one time. Steven didn¡¯t even try to explain himself when Sirus was done. There was only one thing on his mind.
¡°Eve! Is she okay?¡±
¡°Yes, no thanks to you!¡±
At that, Steven went to speak up, but Sirus cut him off again. ¡°Eve explained what happened. She said it was her fault you two got trapped on the second floor. She will be punished accordingly, not for putting you in danger but for coming to the dungeon without permission.¡±
Again Steven tried to protest, but Sirus didn¡¯t let him speak.
¡°She will not be killed, and I doubt the punishment will be too harsh. There are not many of her caliber left and the Elders will want her to eventually produce hatchlings for the clan. I would be more concerned about trying to survive in this place. I doubt you will see her again till you make it out of here. If you make it out of here, that is,¡± Sirus sighed, which was more of an annoyed hiss, ¡°can you stand?¡±
Steven slowly stood. His stomach still hurt. And his body felt like it had been electrocuted. Which he supposed it actually was.
Looking over to where the knight had been, there was nothing left but a slightly gold glowing spear. The spear its self was much grander than he remembered, in fact now that he looked at it he didn¡¯t even think it was the same one the knight was using. Before he could ask if it was a boss drop, Sirus spoke up.
¡°You mentioned wanting a spear. So there you go. If your inventory ability can hold, that is, if not, I will take it to the Elders. It seems to be a fine weapon.¡±
The way Sirus said that last part made Steven feel like he was up to something. But he wasn¡¯t about to turn down a lightning enchanted spear. Walking over, Steven felt every muscle in his body protest, but he reached down and sent the spear to inventory. He wanted to check the requirements and ability, but he would have to wait till Sirus left.
¡°So that ability allows you to place enchanted weapons as well? What else can you place in there?¡±
¡°I think just about anything, though I¡¯m not sure. Is that unusual?¡± Steven was unsure if Eve told him about the undead in his inventory, but he wasn¡¯t going to just give the Elders that information. Or should he, Sirus had only been helpful, even if it was orders from those delusional Elders.
¡°That is incredible.¡± Sirus said, eyes widening, ¡°having two talents is exceptionally rare. Having one talent is rare. I haven¡¯t even gotten a talent yet.¡±
Steven noticed the way Sirus said yet. Meaning he was still trying to get one.
¡°My inventory is not a talent. I believe it was a blessing by a God.¡±
Sirus¡¯s eyes bulged for a moment before resuming his stoic expression. ¡°And what God gave you this blessing?¡±
¡°Chaos.¡± Steven thought he saw Sirus tremble slightly, but it was so quick he wasn¡¯t sure if it was his imagination.
¡°That is a perfectly acceptable God to serve.¡± Steven was about to say he didn¡¯t actually serve the God but thought better of it, he was already venturing out telling him about the God giving him this ability. But it would be only a matter of time before he seen the ability in action. Sirus did just save his life, after all.
¡°Did this God give you this domain as well?¡±
¡°No, that was from a winged cat and it was suppose to be temporary, but I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s any longer the case.¡±
Sirus looked as if he wanted to ask more questions, but for some reason he didn¡¯t and just changed the subject. ¡°Okay let¡¯s get to it, I have a team clearing this floor as we speak, however they are ordered to leave most, if not all, alive and wounded. You need as many levels as possible. Now as for this mimic would you like to show me where it is and I¡¯ll deal with it for you. Those creatures can be quite difficult to handle. I was unaware there were any on this floor. May I ask how you knew in was a mimic?¡±
¡°It was mostly a hunch when it didn¡¯t go into my inventory.¡±
Sirus¡¯s eyes widened in shock, and it was obvious this time. ¡°That could be very useful! We normally just avoid all the treasure chests so we don¡¯t have to deal with mimics, although chests are extremely rare to find in the dungeon. Are you saying you can place an entire treasure chest into your inventory?¡±
After Steven told him he could indeed put a treasure chest into his inventory, Sirus began asking several questions regarding his ability, no doubt to inform the Elders. Once he was done, Steven asked Sirus a question.
¡°What is the boss on the next floor?¡±
¡°We can speak as we walk, lead the way to the mimic.¡±
¡°Actually, I would like to deal with it on my own when I grow stronger.¡±
A half grin formed over Sirus¡¯s face. ¡°I can respect that, however, I ask that I be present when you do. Mimics are not to be underestimated, and there is no point risking your life when there is no reason.¡±
¡°Understood.¡±
¡°As for the third floor, they are mostly ghouls with a few skeletons in the mix. All the skeletons you encounter from now on will be armed and possibly armored. I¡¯m sure you are aware the higher the floor, the stronger the foe, they also become more intelligent. I have not passed the seventh floor myself. It just seemed like a risk that was better not taken.¡±
¡°What level are you? What sort of shards do you have and how many?¡±
Sirus instantly became guarded. ¡°Do you honestly believe I would answer any of those questions?¡±
¡°Actually, yeah, but it¡¯s fine. I understand I was mostly trying to figure out what level I needed to be to beat this dungeon. If I¡¯m honest, I¡¯m ready to get out of here.¡±
Sirus let out a half chuckle, ¡°you have a long way to go. You were only a level one when you entered and are only level six and the lower levels are the easiest. I wouldn¡¯t expect to get out of here for sometime.¡±
That had not been what Steven wanted to hear! He had wanted to explore this new world he found himself in, go to a human city. Maybe buy a house, after earning some money from adventuring. Eventually learn to use portals so he could check on his aunt. Not become trapped in this damned dungeon.
Sirus must have seen Steven¡¯s face fall as he tried to cheer him up.
¡°I tell you what, make it to the fifth floor and I¡¯ll tell you my level,¡± his face then became hostile, ¡°but if you tell a single soul you will regret it,¡± Sirus¡¯s face then turned back to his normally dower expression, ¡°as for now, we are done here for the day. We will be back tomorrow to clear the third floor. Oh, and by the way, don¡¯t kill the skeletons till all the Naga have left, otherwise you will be sharing essences with them.¡±
Sirus then left without another word. Steven didn¡¯t even see any other Naga this time, and he wondered if they had a way to communicate remotely. It would be nice to talk with Eve. He would have to ask about that. The talk with Sirus also made Steven realize that he had been leveling quite slow. And he should put some more effort into it. His first priority should be finding a place to drop the skeletons and kill them. If not, he would need to get creative with how to kill them easier.
Chapter 21: Familiar?
Steven had expected to find the skeletons weakened, or possibly poisoned, but not crippled. None of the skeletons had all their limbs, a few didn¡¯t have any at all. He was just starting to think how easy they were going to be to kill until he realized he had nothing to kill them with but his daggers. He didn¡¯t think daggers were going to do much to a skeleton. What was he supposed to do? Stab their bones? Was that even an option?
Instead, he just began sending the skeletons to inventory. As he did he considered the Naga. He couldn¡¯t imagine the Naga enjoyed it. They had to fight the skeletons without gaining any essence. Steven hoped they didn¡¯t hold any ill will towards him. It didn¡¯t take him long to collect all the crippled skeletons on the main paths. Steven was determined to level up so he could get out of this damn dungeon. He did his best to not leave a single skeleton behind. He tried to stab one with his dagger, but it didn¡¯t do any damage. After stabbing it a few more times, it lost a single percent.
¡°Oh, you gotta be kidding me!¡± He quickly sent skeleton to inventory and wished he had a mace or something to do blunt damage. ¡°How the hell did the Naga deal with them?¡±
He then remembered the spear and got excited. It didn¡¯t do blunt damage, but this was his favorite part. ¡°Loot!¡±
Odling¡¯s Chaos Imbued Lightning Spear
Rarity- Chaotic
~ Effect]- Lightning damage causes stun. Time stunned is based on opponent''s endurance.
~ 17% of base lightning damage jumps to two random enemy targets also causing stun.
~Cost]- Must be charged with Odling mana to access lightning damage.
~ Requirement]- 11 Strength 11 Dexterity 11 Spirit
~Additional Requirements}- Must be born with last name Odling. Weapon must be Soul Bound to wield.
Steven read over the description several times, as he did he periodically looked up to the dungeon, celling in confusion. There was no doubt in his mind where this came from. He wondered why a God had taken an interest in him. He normally wouldn¡¯t enjoy being handed something like this in a game. But this was no game. It was life and death, and he would take every advantage he could get.
He just had a bad feeling that this God of Chaos, or whatever it was called, would come to collect someday. Or maybe the God did simply just like his last name, as Gideon had said, though that was hard to believe. There was nothing to be done for it now. Steven looked up. ¡°Well, thanks. I mean, you could have removed the strength and dexterity requirements. But I get it. We humans do appreciate things more when we have to work for them.¡±
Now all Steven had to do was gain a bunch of levels so he could actually use it. Also, he had no idea how to use a spear. ¡°You just poke things with it from a distance, right? Oh yeah, and throw it.¡±
He knew he had a lot of practice in front of him, but he would have to meet the requirements first. Making his way to the hidden path, he wondered how powerful the spear really was, and how did he soul bond it exactly. No sooner than the thought entered his mind, he received a notification.
Would you like to Soul bond, Odling¡¯s Chaos Imbued Lightning Spear Yes/No?
Well, it did already have his name, so he selected yes, hoping he wasn¡¯t making some sort of mistake. The gold spear immediately appeared in front of him, floating in the air as sparks began dancing down it. Reaching out, Steven gripped the spear in the center and regretted it instantly. His entire body convulsed as his eyes rolled back. It felt like his muscles were being fried from the inside out. Then, without warning, it stopped and a warm and spicy sensation ran throughout his entire body.
The feeling was hard to explain, but it reminded him of the time his grandfather gave him some sort of pepper he kept asking to try as a child. He took a huge bite despite his grandmother telling him to not eat it. His grandpa broke out in laughter as his grandma ran him to the kitchen to get him some milk. Steven shook his head. Where had that memory came from? It was so vivid. Blinking away the remnants of the memory, he saw a notification hovering in the air.
Soul bond completed.
You do not meet all requirements to wield this weapon properly. Be warned, if attempted to wield this weapon before requirements are met, there will be soul damage, which may result in death.
Closing the notification and vowing to not use the weapon till he met all the requirements, another notification appeared from behind it.
Cannot send equipped gear to inventory that does not belong to you.
Steven stared blankly at the notification for a long moment before he realized it was the notification he minimized when fighting the knight. It was a perfectly reasonable restriction. One that made his absurd inventory ability just slightly less ridiculous. And something he would have to learn to work around, he got the feeling more and more armor would be on the dungeon monsters as he delved deeper into this god forsaken dungeon.
Closing that notification, another one was waiting behind the first informing him of the same thing. Reminding him, he tried it twice right before Sirus saved him. He would have truly died without the aid of that Naga! That really took its toll on Steven¡¯s psyche.
¡°Every damn time! Someone else has to save me! First the wisp and now Sirus!¡±
The gamer in Steven was snarling at his incompetence. He had to become stronger. Relying on others to save him would eventually get him killed. ¡°I will complete this dungeon!¡±
Suddenly the Dungeon its self rumbled, knocking Steven out of his thoughts. He froze while looking around wide eyed for new threats. He even pulled out his map to make sure there were no new enemies nearby. From what he could tell, there was nothing new in his area he had to deal with. Doing his best to ignore it like he did with the odd sense he was being watched, he headed towards the treasure room or hidden path.
Steven went down any side path he came across, collecting what few crippled skeletons were down them. Down one of those paths, he came across a small cluster of completely intact skeletons, which he stealthily sent to inventory without issue. All he had to do was touch them, after all. If this was a game, he would have been irritated about being on easy mode, but since this was real life, he continued to feel like he was lacking power. Maybe when he got the attributes for the spear, things would be different. A weapon was what he was really lacking. The thought of a sneaking, lightning spear man had Steven chuckle to himself.
The hidden path this time was just set in a random wall. He would have never thought to check this place. There was no waterfall or anything, just another part of the dungeon wall. Before he entered, he checked to make sure his mana and health was full. While also checking his inventory to see how many undead he now had. A smile crept across his face. He now had ninety-eight skeletons and still had seventeen zombies in inventory. Steven then poked his head in the illusionary wall, completely relying on his defensive shard to keep him safe.
To his surprise, the room was exactly the same as the other one. A pit trap as soon as you walked in. A narrow path with axes and even a skeletal archer at the other end. If it wasn¡¯t for the axes still being attached and the archer, he would have thought he was sent back to the first hidden path. Steven smiled. He hoped every hidden path would be like this. It was a great place to offload some undead and gain essence.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Getting a running start, he leaped to the other side. He absently wondered how many people fell in there by just stepping into the illusionary wall, or rather falling into the wall, because he doubted anyone would randomly find this path without a map. Looking down, he didn¡¯t see any remains. Although he wasn¡¯t sure if that was because no one had died in there or if the dungeon absorbed them. Now that he thought about it, where did all the zombies and skeletons come from? And why were they all human? Steven hadn¡¯t seen a single human since arriving in this world. Were they all used by this dungeon lord? Pushing those thoughts aside, he got to work dropping skeletons in the pit.
+52
+56
+48
It would have been convenient to drop several at once, but he didn¡¯t have that option. Besides, was he so lazy he couldn¡¯t hold his hand out while he gained essence? The thought made him roll his eyes.
+51
Steven did his best to not pay attention to the total until he was done. He liked the surprise at the end.
+49
Suddenly, a grin tugged at his lips. He had just got a new supply! Pausing the skeletal massacre, he pulled out his water pipe. He had barely got done loading it before he heard a sucking sound followed by a slurping pop.
¡°Oh, you have done it now.¡±
Steven whirled around, eyes wide. Then he saw who it was. ¡°Come on, do you have to do that right behind me? Can¡¯t you appear in front of me? You nearly gave me a heart attack.¡± Steven said, staring blankly at the pinkish ball of light.
There was a long silence as the human and the Wisp just stared at one another. At least he got the sense she was staring at him. For all he knew, she could be looking at the other side of the room. Steven eventually just turned back to what he was doing. He wasn¡¯t just going to stand there and look at her. He had levels to gain, and a lightning spear to wield! He got the sense the Wisp sighed after he took a hit and then just began dropping skeletons down the pit as if she wasn¡¯t there.
¡°I will do my best in the future. It¡¯s difficult to get the location correct, I¡¯m sorry. Now there are lots of things to discuss. First things first is the Dungeon Lord has just renounced my services,¡± the wisp slowly began to turn a lighter shade of pink, ¡°so I was hoping that you would accept me as your familiar¡¡±
Steven turned and simply blinked at the Wisp a few times before tuning back to his skeleton dropping.
¡°I can be useful, I swear! I can even help you complete this dungeon,¡± the wisp was now talking quickly. ¡°I mean, I can¡¯t actually help you fight at my level. But I have lots of information!¡±
Steven was definitely interested in having a fountain of information. He had tons of questions, but this seemed fishy.
¡°But why me? What do you get out of it?¡± Steven asked.
¡°We can take down Sorin together. He is a terrible dungeon Lord!¡±
¡°What¡¯s the real reason you want to be my familiar?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t you want to defeat this dungeon and claim the domain?¡±
¡°Actually, I don¡¯t really care about this domain, isn¡¯t it undead? That doesn¡¯t really sound like something I would want. Besides, that¡¯s not what I asked you. If you can¡¯t honestly answer me, then I¡¯m not interested. Tell me why you want to be my familiar or forget it. I¡¯ll do this on my own.¡± Steven was in a mood. He had just almost died, and he felt weak and small and didn¡¯t want to be a pawn in someone else¡¯s game.
¡°Uh, well. You see, it¡¯s kind of a selfish reason¡¡± The light from the Wisp turned dim to the point it was barely even glowing.
¡°That¡¯s great. That is what I want to know. I need to know your motivation. Why you want to be my familiar?¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid you will turn me away.¡±
Steven looked at the Wisp. ¡°I will turn you away if you don¡¯t tell me. Are you wanting to take over this world or take out all the other Wisps so you¡¯re the only one or something?¡±
The Wisp jerked back, ¡°take out all the other Wisps! I would never!¡± the Wisps light pulsated. ¡°well, maybe I wouldn¡¯t mind taking out the council. Would you be willing to help me with that? Wait! No, that¡¯s absurd! What am I saying?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not opposed to overthrowing an evil council, but I would need to grow stronger.¡±
The Wisp¡¯s light began pulsing faster and faster. ¡°I, Umm¡¡± the ball of light started moving side to side, ¡°well, they are evil! And we wouldn¡¯t have to kill them. Maybe, with enough time¡ Yes, let¡¯s do it! But we will have to be extremely secretive about it and only speak of it when in these original parts of the Dungeon or your domain.¡± The Wisp seemed to get excited and Steven was starting to get the sense this Wisp was quite young.
¡°Your getting a bit off topic! Why do you want to be my familiar? And answer honestly this time.¡±
The Wisp stopped bobbing, and the pulsating slowed. ¡°Well like I said, it¡¯s a bit selfish.¡±
¡°More selfish than taking out your own kind so you can move to the top? Just answer me. Ive got things to do!¡±
¡°That¡¯s not why I¡¡± she paused, ¡°okay, it¡¯s just, I don¡¯t want to die.¡±
¡°And you will die if you don¡¯t become my familiar?¡± Steven asked with obvious skepticism.
¡°Well, no, but I will die if I can¡¯t get access to a domain. All Wisp must have access to a domain¡¯s life force or they will die, and I was cut off from the Domain holder I was assigned to.¡±
¡°Okay, now we are getting somewhere. Was that so hard?¡±
¡°That¡¯s what you wanted to know?¡± The Wisp asked in confusion.
¡°Yes! If you are to be my familiar, you will have to be straight with me. Also, I need you to explain what all that consists of. And if it doesn¡¯t line up with what the system tells me, then it¡¯s a no go.¡± Steven then took another hit. He knew he probably shouldn¡¯t, but he was getting stressed out.
¡°The System?¡±
¡°Yes, you know the thing that governs this world and gives you levels and what not,¡± Steven said.
¡°It talks to you?¡±
¡°Well, not so much talk as sends me messages. Isn''t that common?¡±
¡°No! Not at all. It¡¯s quite rare to receive a message from the, System, as you call it. Or at least that¡¯s what I¡¯ve always understood.¡±
¡°Well, maybe it¡¯s because I¡¯m from another world. I¡¯m not sure, whatever the case, I get messages often. By the way, what was your name again?¡±
The Wisp was silent for a moment before she spoke. ¡°You mortals have a hard time with names. My name is Silviaburlaxatrix.¡±
She seemed quite proud of it, so Steven did his best to not butcher it. ¡°Silvbur. Silveblax. Sliverblatrix. I¡¯m sorry, but could you repeat it?¡± The wisp didn¡¯t seem to mind at all. In fact, she seemed quite pleased that Steven was taking the time to try an learn her name at all. It took about ten mins, and he finally got it right. The entire time, the Wisp cheered him on, telling him he almost had it.
¡°Silviaburlaxatrix.¡±
¡°Yes! That¡¯s it!¡± The Wisp seemed overly joyed that he pronounced it. Making Steven hesitant to ask the next question.
¡°Would you mind if I called you Silvia for short? I will be sure to introduce you as Silviaburlaxatrix.¡±
¡°Silvia.¡± The Wisp said, as if tasting the word. ¡°No one has ever called me that. It is a perfectly acceptable name. However, I must insist you do not call me Sill or Silly. And if anyone does, then we must take immediate action!¡±
Steven almost asked why, but Silvia seemed extremely serious about the matter, so he wasn¡¯t going to push it. He could really use a companion right now.
¡°Deal. All those who disrespect the name of Silviaburlaxatrix shall feel the wrath of Steven!¡± Now that he said it out loud, it sounded silly besides who would fear a name like Steven.
¡°YES! No one shall disrespect me again!¡±
Steven felt like there was a lot to unpack there and decided that was best left for another time. But he was curious why the Dungeon lord kicked her out. He had a feeling it was over him, but why would she risk it?
¡°So I was meaning to ask, why exactly did this Dungeon lord cut you off from his domain?¡±
¡°Oh that. Well, it was completely your fault. But I forgive you! Well, as long as you accept me becoming you¡¯re familiar, that is.¡±
Steven was just fixing to speak when he received a prompt.
Would you like to accept Silviaburlaxatix as your Soul-Bounded familiar Yes/No?
(Note: You cannot undo this action.)
Steven minimized the notification.
¡°How exactly did Sorin break the soul bond with you?¡±
¡°Oh, we were never Soul Bound, you can¡¯t break those and the council frowns on wisps doing it. It¡¯s mostly because they can¡¯t siphon life force from Soul Bounded Wisps. Or at least that¡¯s my theory why they forbid it.¡±
¡°The notification does say it can¡¯t be undone,¡± Steven said absently. ¡°I have a few questions before I agree to this bond. First, what do you mean by siphon Life force? Also, what did you mean by it was my fault exactly? Did Sorin find out you helped me?¡±
¡°You got a notification about me. Was it from the system? What did it say??¡±
¡°Yes, it was from the system, and it just asked if I wanted to accept you as my familiar.¡±
¡°Amazing! It¡¯s just crazy to think the System recognized me. I¡¯ve just never met anyone that received notifications from the system so casually,¡± Silvia¡¯s light slowly returned to its normal brightness, ¡°as for siphon Life Force, you know how I said Wisps must have a Domain user or we will die?¡±
¡°Yes.¡± Steven said, one eyebrow raised.
¡°Well, we drain the Life Force from the Domain to survive. All wisps do. And don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s an incredibly small amount. Even if I tried, I couldn¡¯t drain all the Domains Life Force in my lifetime. I don¡¯t know of any being who could drain a domain, maybe a lesser god. Though, I¡¯m not even sure if they could. Any way, if I don¡¯t gain access to a Domain I will die, and I don¡¯t want to. As for why Sorin cut me off, well, it¡¯s cause you shouted to the Dungeon that I saved your life.¡±
Steven froze. He did indeed remember saying it out loud right be for the strange rumbling in the Dungeon. His eyes grew wide. ¡°Are you saying Sorin is watching me all the time?¡±
¡°He is absolutely watching you, though not all the time he only gets so much time a day to observe over his domain, and he can¡¯t see into the original parts of the dungeon at all, he just happen to be watching when said it.¡±
Steven began looking around as if he was going to see the Dungeon lord sneaking a peek through a picture on the wall, though it would be more likely he would be looking through a skeletons eye, as he hadn¡¯t seen any pictures.
¡°We can¡¯t be seen in the original parts of the dungeon. There is no reason to worry. We are safe here. Well, except for the skeleton, pit traps, swinging axes, and the two mimics in the other room.¡±
Suddenly Steven¡¯s eyes grew wide, and he no longer felt safe. ¡°Mimics¡?¡±
Chapter 22: Pink eyes and Level Ten
¡°Yes, mimics, and by the way, I no longer have any control over the mimics, not that I ever had much control over them. All I could do was put them back into stasis for a short time.¡±
Taking a deep breath, Steven did his best to forget about the mimics for the moment. ¡°What do you mean by the original parts of the dungeon?¡± Steven walked over to the pit and began dropping skeletons. He had wasted enough time with chitchat. He needed to be leveling up.
¡°Well, before Sorin came along, this was just a normal dungeon that the half Naga and Spider-kin used to sharpen their young into warriors. Then Sorin took over the dungeon with his domain. This room here and all the others are from the original part of the Dungeon and his domain has little to no effect within these rooms.¡±
¡°But why? What does he get out of claiming this dungeon?¡± Steven asked, moving to one of the larger pit traps next to the narrow path.
¡°There are few undead Dungeons and Sorin is a young and a relatively weak Domain holder, taking control of the undead Dungeon is a safe way to hide till he could grow in power,¡± Silvia¡¯s light pulsated a couple times, ¡°Ive been meaning to ask how are you doing that? Ive never seen anything like that before.¡±
¡°What this?¡± Steven asked while dropping another skeleton in the pit.
¡°Yes, that is one of the craziest abilities I¡¯ve ever seen! It also has Sorin frighted to death.¡± Silvia said that last part with a bit of a chuckle.
¡°You really don¡¯t like Sorin, do you?¡±
¡°Absolutely not! He was horrible to me, always calling me names and demanding things while making me call him master or lord. He is an evil blood-sucking vampire and I hate him.¡±
Steven paused from dropping skeletons. ¡°Did you say vampire?¡±
¡°Yep! A greedy, no good vampire!¡±
Steven pulled out the water pipe.
¡°You realize that affects your judgment, right?¡± Silvia said.
After taking a couple of hits, he offered some to the Wisp, who politely declined. He didn¡¯t even know if the Wisp could smoke, but he thought it would be absolutely hilarious if she could.
¡°It helps calm me down, and make better decisions.¡± Steven said off handily.
¡°Oh! Well, in that case, I would recommend using it more often!¡± Silvia said in a completely serious tone.
Steven chuckled to himself. He was starting to like this floating ball of light. With that thought, he opened up the prompt and selected yes, without giving it much more thought.
Suddenly, a bright pink light shot from the Wisp and formed into what Steven could only describe as a pink rope. It then shot directly into his chest. Then a dark green rope of light came from Steven. The two ropes of light came entangled. Then it was over and Steven fell to the ground, panting. He stared wide eyed at the Wisp for a moment before he finally found words to speak. ¡°Uh, was that supposed to happen? It lifted me off the ground!¡±
¡°I-I think so. I¡¯ve never been Soul-bonded before, so I¡¯m unsure.¡±
Now that Steven looked at the Wisp, he noticed some dark green swirls in the normally pink ball of light. Instantly, he looked down to make sure he wasn¡¯t glowing pink. If he was glowing pink, it would be tremendously harder to use his stealth ability!
Luckily, he didn¡¯t see any pink glowing lights coming from his skin.
¡°Your eyes! They are so beautiful!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Don¡¯t tell me they are glowing pink!¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t say glowing.¡±
¡°Are you kidding? I have pink eyes now!¡± Suddenly everything went pitch black other than the Wisp in front of him and Steven went still. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure, but the color looks amazing on you. I think it really brings out your cheekbones, but don''t worry it''s probably only temporary.¡±
¡°No! I mean, everything went dark!¡±
It took Steven a moment to realize he no longer had a dark vision counter. He quickly pulled out a potion and drank half. ¡°Never mind, my dark vision just expired is all.¡±
¡°Oh. Well, next time we can just use shared vision instead.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t realize that was a thing?¡±
¡°Me either! But I now have words that hover in front of me and they are telling me all sorts of things!¡±
¡°Oh yeah, that¡¯s a stat page. Did you not have one before?¡±
¡°No, I¡¯m unsure if any Wisps in the history of Wisps has had one!¡± Silvia¡¯s light began pulsating and Steven got the sense that she was excited.
Steven let the Wisp do her own thing, and he got back to skeleton killing.
+83
Steven paused. That skeleton had been worth a good bit more than the others. He wasn¡¯t sure why, but he wasn¡¯t about to complain.
+79
+86
+83
Steven stopped and opened his inventory. Nothing seemed to be any different about the skeletons and he still had seventy-three left. His eyes widened in surprise. Did he just get a boost in how much essence he gained from Dungeon monsters by bonding with that Wisp? He turned to Silvia, who was muttering to herself while looking over stats. He would ask later. Besides, he had some leveling to do. A smile crept onto his face as he began dropping skeletons. This was no small increase. He went from gaining fifty something to eighty something!
He glanced over at his essence counter. He now had twenty-one hundred and five essence. Glancing at his stat page, he saw he needed just over a thousand essence to level, meaning he had enough for two levels already and climbing!
As time passed and he continued dropping skeletons, his excitement slowly waned. Even with his extra roughly thirty percent increases to his essence gathering, it was still going to be slow going. Eventually, he stopped even paying attention to his essence and began thinking about home.
He wondered if he would ever get back there. And did he even want to go back? He would like to see other humans and explore this world. He had even made a friend. She wasn¡¯t human and part snake, but he didn¡¯t care. It wasn¡¯t long before he didn¡¯t have anymore skeletons to pull out of inventory.
Steven was finally done. He had dropped every skeleton he had into the pits and every single one had died without issue. He wondered if the zombies cushioned each others fall with their bodies. Shaking his head, he tried not to think about rotten flesh being a cushion. Opening his stat page, he looked over his gains.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level -6
Available Attribute~1
Essence- 8329
Essence required for next level 1003.
HP ~ 72
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 173
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 4
Dexterity ~ 5
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 13
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
A huge grin fell over Steven¡¯s face. This was exciting. That was a lot of essence and was by far the biggest haul he had yet! Steven immediately began leveling. He even had enough essence to gauge how much the essence requirement went up for each new level.
Leveling up to seven, he slightly paled. The required essence to level went up from one thousand three to one thousand one hundred and eighty-nine. At this rate, he wouldn¡¯t get as many levels as he was hoping. It was nearly a two hundred essence increase. But there was nothing that could be done about it and he just continued to level as many times as he could.
When Steven hit level ten, he stopped and took a good look over his stats.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level -10
Available Attribute ~5
Essence- 3140
Essence required for next level 1840
HP ~ 72
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 173
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 4
Dexterity ~ 5
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 13
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
The last level he gained had cost him two hundred and twenty-nine more essence than his previous level. There didn¡¯t seem to be a set number that increased, but with each level, it did increase. It was going to be slow leveling if he ever expected to get seven shard abilities. Looking over his weapons and then his stats, he realized he was still a good ways off from using the spear. From the looks of it, he would need to be level seventeen. He had enough essence for one more level, so he spent the essence bringing him to six free attribute points, though he wasn¡¯t even sure where to place his stats. He probably shouldn¡¯t hoard so many attribute points. After all, he already had a plan, and it was to use the lightning spear.
Looking through his weapons, he noticed the short bow required eleven in dexterity. He could really use some range, besides bows and stealth, went hand in hand together. He needed eleven in dexterity for the spear, anyway. Steven then placed all six of his stats into dexterity and hit confirm. Suddenly, his body started twitching. It was just a slight twitch in his muscles at first, then it became more pronounced and his whole body began jerking around. His muscles began to burn and felt like they were ripping apart. Even his eyes felt like they were being stretched, causing everything to go blurry. At one point he even felt the sensation of falling, but the pain was so intense he barely gave it any thought.
He just lay on his back, waiting for the pain to quit. He thought he heard a distant voice, but he ignored it. It hurt to listen, and no way in hell was he going to even move a muscle, it even hurt to think, and all he wanted to do was sleep.
Steven¡¯s eyes shot open to someone screaming at him. The first thing that came to mind was his aunt telling him to turn down the tv, but he quickly realized where he was.
¡°What happen to you! You just started screaming and jerking around. You even fell into the pit trap! I thought you were a done for, but then you just appeared on your back unmoving.¡±
¡°Oh! Just. Please, stop screaming. My head is pounding. Give me a minute, okay?¡± Steven said while holding his head.
¡°Why don¡¯t you just use a healing potion? Do you not have any?¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Of course.¡± He then pulled out a health potion and downed it.
Instantly, he felt the pain and tension start to leave and his head slowly stopped pounding. He quickly checked to see how many healing potions he had left. He would definitely need to ask Sirus for more.
¡°Only two left.¡± Steven mumbled. He probably didn¡¯t need a full potion, but he had no regrets.
¡°Are you even listing to me?¡±
¡°Sorry, sorry. I¡¯m felling much better now. What did you say?¡±
¡°I was asking what happen to you?¡±
¡°Well, I kinda messed up is what happen. I didn¡¯t think using multiple attribute points at one time would have such an effect. I have definitely learned my lesson!¡±
¡°Yeah, that will cause some pain, I hear. I forget you are so new to this world. Next time just ask me, okay, we are bonded now, and if you die, I am sent to Nembulia and I don¡¯t want to go there!¡±
¡°What is the Nembulia?¡±
¡°Basically, just a void. A terrible place. I don¡¯t want to talk about it right now. Anyway, I was looking over your equipment while you were out and I was wondering why you didn¡¯t use your ring of summons against the skeletal knight? It could have bought you enough time to run away, I¡¯m sure.¡±
Steven looked down at the ring on his hand, ¡°uh. Well, I just didn¡¯t think it was a good time to use it.¡±
¡°But you nearly died! I just don¡¯t understand your reasoning.¡±
¡°Okay, look. I had just forgot about it okay. This is all new to me. I haven¡¯t even used the ring before.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a powerful ring. I¡¯m surprised you got something like that in the dungeon. Also, that spear in your inventory is a rarity I have never seen before.¡±
¡°Wait, you can see in my inventory?¡±
¡°Yes!¡± Silvia said excitedly. ¡°Look, I can even go inside it.¡± She said as she vanished by flying into his chest.
Steven opened his inventory and found a new tab labeled familiar. The wisp popped back out and began talking. ¡°Its quite convenient as Sorin will definitely be looking for me in his dungeon and he won¡¯t be able to track me while I¡¯m in your inventory.¡±
¡°Wait! What? He can track you? And didn¡¯t think this was something you should have told me before.¡±
¡°Well, I didn¡¯t want you to refuse. And he can¡¯t find me while I¡¯m in your inventory.¡±
Steven took a deep breath. ¡°Well, I suppose there is nothing to be done about it now. Can you talk to me while in my inventory?¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure. Let¡¯s give it a try!¡± Silvia vanished. ¡°hello. Can you hear me?¡±
The voice was distant and quiet, but he could hear it with effort.
¡°I can hear you, but you sound distant. Can you hear me?¡±
There was a brief pause before he heard Silvia¡¯s voice echo in. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s echoing, but I can make out what you are saying.¡± Silvia popped back out of inventory.
¡°Can you pull things out of my inventory?¡±
After a few moments, Silvia sighed. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like I can. I¡¯m sorry!¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. I was just checking. Okay, we need to get back to it. I need to gain essence. Oh, and speaking of essence, do I get some sort of boost to essence from our bond?¡±
¡°Yes, of course you do. I¡¯m a Wisp and we are bound. That¡¯s the main reason Sorin is so pissed, he lost his only chance at getting a boost to his essence.¡±
¡°Well, that will be useful. And good, he doesn¡¯t need to gain any more levels, anyway back to business.¡±
Steven moved his arms around and hopped up and down a bit. He felt limber and got the sense he would be good at parkour now. He wanted to test his new found dexterity out, but the small island he was on wasn¡¯t the ideal place for experimentation.
Pulling out the short bow, he decided now was as good of a time as any to get some practice in.
Walking as close as he could to the narrow path without stepping on it, he nocked an arrow, waited for the axes to swing open, and released. The arrow slammed right into the second axe, causing an echoing ting sound. The skeleton Steven had been shooting at turned its head from side to side but made no indication that it had spotted him. Steven tried to hit the skeleton several more times, but he missed each time. His arm was starting to get tired now, and he noticed his stamina bar getting low, so he stopped to take a break. ¡°Well, so much for being an awesome archer,¡± Steven muttered. ¡°I need more strength and stamina.¡±
¡°It just takes practice,¡± Silvia said. ¡°It¡¯s not like you are strapped for time, are you?¡±
¡°I guess you¡¯re right!¡± Steven said, ¡°something you said had me curious. You said getting messages from the system was rare, but how do others level and place their attribute points?¡±
¡°Only domain holders can place attribute points. Everyone else just gets attribute points placed by what you call the system. They don¡¯t get to choose where they go. it¡¯s one of the perks of being a domain holder. As for how they level, I imagine it¡¯s the same as you. Although most use leveling stones to level up.¡±
¡°Oh wow, having a domain gives a huge edge!¡± Steven paused, ¡°Wait what about the half Naga they didn¡¯t seem surprised at all that I could choose where I placed my points, just that I could do it without the stone?¡±
¡°The half Naga, are not normal, they were experiments. I honestly don¡¯t know a lot about them. As for the Domain, it does definitely have its perks, but it also has the downside of powerful beings wanting to take it from you. Which is why Sorin is hiding in this dungeon.¡±
¡°Well, that¡¯s good to know! Hopefully, I can go unnoticed till I get stronger. Also, how do others know when it¡¯s time to level if the system doesn¡¯t tell them?¡±
¡°I¡¯m guessing they just get a feeling. I¡¯m not exactly sure.¡±
As soon as his stamina recovered, he got back to practicing. He did this over and over, taking smoke breaks and even eating a couple of times. When his dark vision ran out, he decided to take a nap, to Silvia¡¯s annoyance. She didn¡¯t sleep, and neither had Sorin.
Steven had to tell her to be quiet several times before he finally fell asleep. When he woke up, he drank the other half of his dark vision potion, then took a couple hits from the water pipe and began shooting at the skeleton again. He could probably hit the skeleton if he moved closer, but he needed to practice from a distance. He hoped he would gain a second talent or something, but he got nothing. After about an hour, he had finally hit the skeleton, which caused its health to drop to ninety-three percent. It Immediately charged at him only to get hit by one of the axes and fall into the spiked pit.
+84
¡°Oh cool! I got essence for that,¡± Steven said excitedly, ¡°uh. I¡¯ve got less than fourteen hundred and now need over two thousand to level again.¡±
Either way, Steven was happy that he now had some range, even though he was quite terrible at it. Maybe he would be better at a closer range. This was called a short bow, after all. Steven began walking out onto the narrow path. He was a bit worry, but he kept telling himself he had the amulet on. Despite the fact he was perfectly safe from getting skewered on the spikes below, he was still just a bit terrified as he looked down.
¡°So what¡¯s the plan? Just run through the axes?¡±
Steven''s eyes widened and he looked at the Wisp, ¡°are you kidding me? Would anyone just run through that?¡°
¡°Yes, I imagine everyone does that, unless they have a way to glide, fly, slow time, manipulate metal, phase through objects or become¡¡±
¡°Okay, okay! I get it.¡± When Steven was close enough, he activated his shard ability. The axe moved ten feet over, becoming unhinged, and fell. This time Steven used his new found dexterity and touched the axe as it fell, instantly sending it to inventory.
¡°Oh! That was amazing. I didn¡¯t expect that. Your shard ability is an unusual one, for sure.¡±
Steven ignored the Wisp for the moment. He had to learn to stop the ability sooner so he could avoid the raging headache. He was starting to think he had made a bad choice. This Wisp was overly talkative. Once his mana refilled, he sent the other axe to inventory the same way and then just walked across the narrow path. He wasn¡¯t sure what he would use the massive axes for, but pulling out a massive chunk of metal could be useful. He imagined dropping it on top of an enemy.
¡°Where did you get that shard?¡±
¡°Sorry, I just need to concentrate on the task at hand. We can talk later. It¡¯s just when I¡¯m in the middle of something. Could you please be silent unless it¡¯s important? We will have plenty of time to talk later. Ive got lots of questions about shards and talents and what not I would like to talk to you about, but first I want to clear this passage.¡°
Silvia didn¡¯t respond, and he wasn¡¯t sure if she was angry or just doing as he asked.
Steven walked into the treasure room and seen three treasure chests.
¡°Do you know which ones are mimics?¡±
¡°No.¡± Silvia said.
Immediately, he realized she was upset with him. He hadn¡¯t known the Wisp long, but this was the first one word response she had given him.
¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t say that to be rude, I just didn¡¯t want to die okay. I¡¯m sure that¡¯s something you can understand.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light pulsated a few times. ¡°Yes, I can understand that. It¡¯s just, Sorin never let me speak to him either.¡±
¡°Let me deal with these mimics and then we can talk about it okay, I don¡¯t want to be in the same room as them.¡±
¡°You¡¯re not going to try to take them on, are you? You''re only level eleven?¡±
¡°No, I¡¯m just going to put the chest in my inventory and get the hell out of here.¡±
¡°Oh, okay, well, that works. But I recommend we talk in here where Sorin can¡¯t hear us.¡±
Steven slowly placed his hand on the chest. When it didn¡¯t go into inventory, he jerked his hand back, ready to run at a moment¡¯s notice. But the mimic didn¡¯t so much as move. The next chest went into his inventory without a problem. Glancing at the last chest, he just turned and made his way back to the other room. She had said two mimics, and he didn¡¯t want to chance waking a mimic for no reason.
Back on the small island, he turned to the narrow path. He was more comfortable being close to the illusionary wall in case he needed to bolt back to the second floor. But he didn¡¯t think a mimic could walk across that narrow path, so he should be safe, although it could possibly jump it.
Chapter 23: Mr.Kelly the Eater Knight
Steven and Silvia talked for a long while, to the point Steven got bored. But he had things he wanted to know, so he stuck it out. He did learn a lot when he could keep the Wisp from going off topic. Silvia kept getting distracted by what Steven didn¡¯t know and wanted to give him the entire origin story before moving on. Eventually he pulled out the water pipe, which seemed to please the Wisp as she believed it helped him concentrate. The most relevant thing was that once he had all seven shards he could form a core causing all his shard abilities to evolve, but she said it was unlikely he would get to that high of a level.
When he asked about where the Shards actually came from, all he got was a bunch of nonsense. Some thought it was the shattered remains of a God, others thought it was a God¡¯s ability to enslave all of humanity. There were even religions formed around both these ideas. Steven just took it all with a grain of salt since the Wisp didn¡¯t know what the actual origins of the Shards were. Or was keeping it from him. Eventually Steven was able to bring the subject back to the Dungeon.
After Silvia explained that the third floor was ghouls with a few skeletons. Steven began heading to the third floor. It confirmed what Sirus told him about the third floor. Based on what he could tell, he could trust the Wisp. As he walked, he thought of only one thing: he needed to gain more levels so he could get out of this damn dungeon. The third floor came out into a tunnel just like the second.
¡°I¡¯m getting tired of these dark, damp tunnels.¡±
¡°The fifth floor is a mushroom forest.¡± Silvia said from within his inventory. ¡°It¡¯s my favorite floor!¡±
Steven just nodded. A mushroom forest would be a nice change of pace. It didn¡¯t take him long to walk down the tunnel and get a glimpse of the ghouls. Steven just blinked at them. There were several Smeagol looking creatures eating on what he assumed was a zombie. He had no idea how a zombie got on this floor.
Slowly backing into the tunnel and away from the creatures, he pulled out the map. To his horror, the map was completely blank.
¡°Uh! Silvia, what happened to the map?¡±
¡°I told you to not call me by name. Sorin could be listening! And yea, sorry about that, Sorin found out I gave you the map and turned off all maps.¡±
Steven went to say something, but Silvia continued. ¡°It also means he can¡¯t see where you are or how many dungeon monsters he has on the floors unless he turns it back on, although he knows what floor you''re on and can still use dungeon sight, but it¡¯s limited.¡±
¡°Well, at least there¡¯s that,¡± Steven sighed, ¡°so is there any reasons for you to stay in my storage then?¡±
¡°If he employed that Beholder than he can track me, so it¡¯s best I stay in here for now, besides its actually quite comfortable in here.¡±
¡°A Beholder? Never mind that you can tell me about it later.¡± Steven didn¡¯t want her telling him the origin story of Beholders while he was trying to deal with these ghouls.
¡°Are you sure? I can give you a brief rundown on them.¡±
Steven sighed, then pulled out his short bow, doing his best to ignore the Wisp for the moment. He didn¡¯t understand the purpose of the Wisp staying in his inventory, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
His plan was to stick with his tried-and-true method of taking out all the singles while getting a feel for the creatures before moving on to the groups. Now that he had a bow, he was feeling much better about this tactic.
Steven nocked an arrow and took aim.
¡°Don¡¯t forget about the ring of summons.¡± Silvia said just as Steven was releasing the arrow, causing him to miss his shot by a wide margin. The arrow somehow managed to hit an entirely different ghoul in the shoulder. And that ghoul happened to be in the middle of a group.
Before he could even tell the Wisp to shut up, six ghouls turned towards him and began sprinting at him. ¡°Shit! Shit! Shit!¡± Steven turned and ran.
¡°Don¡¯t run, they will catch you. Use the ring or something!¡±
Without turning around, he activated his ring with a thought.
Would you like to use Ring of summons Yes/No?
Note: Can only be used once per day.
Mentally selecting yes, he stopped running and tuned to face the ghouls. Before Steven even had the chance to pull out his bow and take pop shots, a black and red portal appeared and out stepped a large, bare chested, wrinkly old man with an enormous sword. Steven stopped gawking and aimed his bow at the ghouls. Before he could release his first arrow, the old man swung his sword, sending a flaming phantom of his blade at the ghouls.
+97
+102
+89
+107
+96
+103
¡°Holy shit, that was amazing!¡± Steven shouted.
The old man then turned to Steven and approached. ¡°I am Kelly. My blade is at your service, my lord.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. As the old man spoke, his voice was raspy and muffled.
Steven realized this old man was no man at all. It looked more like someone had stitched together skin and wrapped it around a skeleton. In fact, Steven would bet money that¡¯s exactly what happened. He decided then and there he did not want to offend this creature.
¡°Thanks Mr. Kelly, but no need for the lord stuff. Shall we keep going?¡± Steven asked. He really hoped this summon didn¡¯t cut the skin off its summoners. Mr. Kelly was definitely sending off those sorts of vibes.
¡°Yes, let us continue,¡± Kelly said, ¡°I, unfortunately, have little time left on this plane.¡±
¡°If you want, you can just go out and kill everything insight.¡± Steven said, hoping the summon would take him up on that.
The summons stitched up face twisted into a horrifying smile, that nearly made Steven take a step back.
¡°Thank you, my lord. I would love nothing more.¡± Suddenly the summon took off like a rocket down the tunnel and it wasn¡¯t but a few seconds before Steven started gaining essence.
Steven pulled out his water pipe and shakily took a couple hits.
¡°That thing was terrifying!¡± Steven said.
¡°Wow! You were lucky to get an Eater Knight on your first attempt!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Eater knight?¡± Steven asked, ignoring the rain of essence coming in.
¡°Oh, yes, they are very powerful skeletal creatures!¡±
¡°I knew it! So what¡¯s with all the stitched skin?¡±
¡°That is its trophies!¡±
¡°You say that like it is normal to wear the skin of your enemies.¡±
¡°Well, it is normal for Eater Knights. They have a strong desire to join the living, so they collect the skin of their enemies. Sorin doesn¡¯t even have any of them in his dungeon. I bet he would be pissed right now if he knew one was helping you!¡± Silvia said, light flickering.
Steven almost asked how collecting the skin of its victims helped the creature join the living, but decided he would rather not know.
It didn¡¯t take long for the five-minute timer to run out. Steven took in a deep breath and sighed. He had been worried that Eater Knight would come back to take his skin since there wasn¡¯t any other living skin around, but it seems he would get to keep his skin this time. He was having mixed feelings towards Mr. Kelly. Part of him respected how great his work ethic was and hoped to summon him back, though another part of him was worried it would skin him if he did. When he asked Silvia about it, she just said that almost never happens. Which didn¡¯t help him feel better in the slightest.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Steven went around and explored a bit. The dungeon itself opened up, much like the last floor, lots of boulders and places to hide. He was quite happy he hadn¡¯t run into any sneaky creatures. As the terrain was perfect for it. As he snuck around, it was obvious which path Mr. Kelly took the knight left scorch marks and devastation in its wake.
Steven snuck around, sending ghouls to inventory, while the Wisp directed him where to go. They did this for what seemed like hours, till he heard what sounded like a muffled battle. It wasn¡¯t long before they made it to a door that was the source of the noise. Silvia said it was the previous floor decoy boss. She also told him to go in. Since they were coming from the third floor, there wouldn¡¯t be any reason he couldn¡¯t enter. She also explained that the creature was just a big, fat zombie. He could use some more essence and he didn¡¯t think Sirus would mind him joining. When he asked what a decoy boss was, she explained it was a trap. When the decoy boss was defeated, everyone in the room would be sent directly in front of the skeletal knight that nearly killed him and Eve.
Steven could only imagine how devastating of a trap that would be. After fighting one boss, you would have to face an even stronger one afterwards. Silvia said this was the only floor that had such a trap, making Steven feel slightly better, and very grateful that he now had this little ball of knowledge. Even though she could be a bit talkative at times.
The door slowly screeched open, and the entire fight came to a halt. Even the boss paused to look at Steven. The boss or decoy boss was indeed a big fat zombie, though Silvia hadn¡¯t mentioned all the disgusting-looking boils oozing some sort of green liquid that sizzled as it dripped to the dungeon floor.
Steven glanced down at the daggers in his hand and back up to the Zombie. He turned to go back out the door, but it was now a fog wall. ¡°Shit!¡±
That¡¯s when Steven realized it wasn¡¯t Naga but humans and a single Spider-kin fighting the boss.
¡°Uh, hey what¡¯s up?¡± Steven said sheepishly.
Suddenly, the room broke out into chaos, little zombies started crawling out from the ground and the boss monster let out a horrifying roar as it charged the humans and Spider-kin. Steven pulled out his bow and shot the big zombie, but its health bar didn¡¯t even drop. Several blue arrows blasted into the boss at once and Steven seen its health bar drop to ninety-seven percent. Meaning he had done at least some damage or maybe boss fights always showed the health bars.
Steven glanced at the source of the blue glowing arrows and seen one of the humans holding up a staff and blasting blue arrows from it. He was a bit jealous of the staff and annoyed he couldn¡¯t use spells yet.
The boss¡¯s back was facing Steven, so he wasn¡¯t in any danger at the moment. But the hostile looks the humans were giving him were not something he was enjoying. One with a spear and shield was yelling something at him, but he couldn¡¯t hear a thing at this distance.
Before Steven could think of a good plan, the Spider-kin appeared next to him. ¡°You must be Sirus¡¯s human. We were told to tell you he wouldn¡¯t be able to make it today there was some complications with the Elders.¡± Suddenly, the Spider-kin was gone.
Did that spider just call him Sirus¡¯s human? He had a lot of questions, but now didn¡¯t seem like a good time to talk. The human adventures were struggling with the boss. The zombie boss kept spawning smaller zombies that were overrunning them. Steven just sent the ones that came towards him to inventory. The big Zombie seemed more interested in dealing with the damage dealer and wasn¡¯t paying Steven any attention.
¡°Why don¡¯t you send it to inventory and kill it later? You could gain a couple levels from that thing.¡±
¡°Silvia, you¡¯re a genius.¡± Steven ran directly at the boss. As he approached, he realized he didn¡¯t even come up to the waste of the giant zombie and he had forgotten about the boils, but it was too late to turn back now. Placing his hand on the back of the boss¡¯s leg, he prayed it wasn¡¯t too large to fit.
The boss room went silent as all the smaller zombies fell lifelessly to the floor. All eyes turned to Steven. ¡°Hey, I need to talk to you about Sirus,¡± Steven said. ¡°when is he coming back? And what¡¯s going on with the Elders?¡±
The Spider-kin appeared next to Steven with wide eyes, slowly walking around him. ¡°what did you do to the boss? You just defeated it with a single touch!¡± The Spider-kin said wide eyed.
¡°I just thought it best to just deal with it real fast. So we could talk.¡± Steven said, as he glanced over at the humans who were huddled up talking. He hoped they didn¡¯t notice the lack of essence. The Spider-kin simply blinked at him while tilting his head from side to side.
¡°So about Sirus. When is he coming back?¡±
It took the Spider-kin a long moment, but he finally spoke. ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m unsure. I haven¡¯t spoken with him directly. My party and I were just investigating the lack of undead in the dungeon before the war broke out. The princess ordered me to tell the human that Sirus couldn¡¯t make It. Something to do with the Elders is all I know. I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t have more information for you.¡± Steven glanced at the rest of the Spider-kin¡¯s party that was now walking towards him. Getting a better look at them, it was obvious they were elves, not humans.
¡°Is it true you are staying in the dungeon till you defeat the Dungeon Lord?¡± The Spiker-kin asked excitedly.
¡°Pardon me,¡± the mage said,¡± but I must ask what happened to the boss? According to our artifact, we didn¡¯t gain any essence from that fight.¡±
¡°What she is trying to say is you owe us some essence, human. We nearly had that boss dead before you came in and reset the boss¡¯s health!¡± The spear wielding elf said.
Steven was just about to say he was sorry and would pull back out the boss, but the Spider-kin broke in. ¡°I do apologize for my party members, but you owe us nothing! I am very sorry for the disturbance we weren¡¯t actually supposed to engage the boss and¡¡±
¡°Why would you tell him that?¡± The spear welding elf hissed.
¡°Well, this wasn¡¯t actually the boss.¡± Another elf said.
¡°Shush!¡± The Spider-kin said, ¡°this is Sirus¡¯s disciple.¡±
¡°Captain Sirus!¡±
¡°Are you serious? But he is human!¡± The spear wielding elf asked.
¡°Oh! We do apologize. We shall be on our way!¡± The elf mage said as they turned to leave.
¡°Wait!¡± Steven said.
¡°I did ruin your fight. Maybe we could work together and clear the next floor.¡±
The mage looked interested, but the spear wilder shut down the idea. ¡°No, we should be going.¡±
¡°Hold up Clinton, we could really use the essence! The lack of dungeon monsters so far¡¡±
¡°No. We must go!¡±
¡°Maybe next time, I would love to learn what sort of magic you used to deal with that boss.¡± The mage said.
¡°Stop flirting!¡±
¡°I¡¯m not flirting! I¡¯m just interested in his magic is all.¡±
"Sure."
"The both of you shut up!" The spear elf hissed as he walked away.
¡°We are sorry to have disturbed you.¡± The Spider-kin said before he jogged to catch up.
¡°He has to be powerful. Did you see how he dealt with that boss?¡± Steven heard the mage say.
¡°What else do you expect from Captain Sirus¡¯s pupil?¡±
Steven sighed. He could¡¯ve really used the help to clear the floor.
¡°Well, I guess it¡¯s just back to the two of us.¡± Steven paused before he went back to the third floor. ¡°Is there no loot for clearing the room?¡±
After a moment, Silvia spoke up. ¡°Why would there be loot?¡±
¡°Its just we defeated a boss isn¡¯t there loot, like a chest or something?¡±
¡°Do you think Sorin would just leave treasure for adventures?¡±
Steven couldn¡¯t see the Wisp, but he got the sense she was rolling her eyes at him. Wait, she didn¡¯t even have eyes. How was he getting these impressions?
Steven shook his head. ¡°Never mind, let¡¯s get back to grinding. Any ideas how to kill this boss? It still had over eighty percent of its health when I sent it to inventory.¡±
¡°Maybe, just pull it out and stab it over and over.¡±
¡°You¡¯re no help!¡± Steven said, making his way back to the third floor. ¡°This isn¡¯t going to send me somewhere else, is it?¡±
¡°No, the trap is disarmed, since the actual boss was defeated.¡±
¡°Okay, just making sure. Also, that Spider-kin mention something about a war?¡±
¡°Yea, that may have something to do with Sorin. He was trying to stop the half Naga from helping you so you wouldn¡¯t be able to reach him.¡±
¡°But how, I thought he was trapped in here?¡±
¡°While he is trapped, he is still a Dungeon Lord and can communicate with others. Though I¡¯m sure he had to pay dearly to start something like a war. Then again, it wouldn¡¯t take much for the humans to wage war. They have been wanting access to this dungeon for decades and hate the half Naga with a passion.¡±
¡°Great! Just more complications. Looks like I will just have to deal with this dungeon alone.¡± Steven said as he sent a lone ghoul to inventory.
The next two days went by quickly as Steven sent ghoul after ghoul to inventory. As for the boss zombie, he couldn¡¯t think of a way to kill it. He had pulled it out and stabbed it a few times but quickly decided against that approach as it went berserk and nearly got away once. The last thing he needed was a berserk boss monster running around on the floor, not to mention the boils.
Stealth was key in this Dungeon and Steven had been using it non stop on the ghouls. They were fast, but they didn¡¯t pack up like the zombies, making it easy for him to sneak up on. He was hoping stealth would level up soon, but he had no idea how to go about doing it again. He was still at such a low level, which was likely why it wasn¡¯t leveling. Silvia just told him it was hard to raise the rank of talents once you reached basic.
She also told him that he should be at least level twenty before he tried for the fourth floor. And recommended to stay clear of the boss rooms for now. He had already located the hidden path on this floor. It only took a bit more effort now that he didn¡¯t have a map, and having to rely on Silvia to guide him.
The tunnel leading to the hidden path was full of ghouls that he still needed to clear. Other than the ghouls wide aggro range and being really fast, they were easy enough to deal with, from what he could tell they depended completely on sight.
He could probably scream and shout right behind one without it noticing him, though one look at their claws kept him from testing that theory. Though he did have a few close calls when he was trying to deal with the ones that were clustered together. Luckily, there were never many of them together and he was able to deal with them without much issue.
As he worked, he wondered what he was going to do if he faced something that wasn¡¯t undead. He relied on his inventory ability way too much. And he couldn¡¯t send anything living to inventory. But that was a problem for another time. Right now, he needed to just survive this dungeon. He still had seven more floors to go and his food supplies were rapidly depleting along with his smoke supply and he only had a few dark vision potions left. Even with the supplies Sirus brought and the extra potions Eve gave him, he would not nearly have enough. Though he had the shared vision with the Wisp, he could try out.
Silvia had been trying to convince him to use the undead Shard now that he was level ten, saying that Shards were extraordinarily rare and he should use any he could find, but he continued to refuse.
Each day he used the ring of summons, but he got nothing nearly as powerful as Mr. Kelly. Which was a bit disappointing. But the summons did try. Well, other than the fire turtle, it basically just laid in a single spot and smoldered. But when Steven realized how incredibly hot it was, he started dropping ghouls on it and watched as they burst into flames and died. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t realize this till the timer was nearly gone on the summon and could only dispose of a handful of ghouls, but every bit of essence added up.
Chapter 24: The Queen of Spider-kin
After clearing the tunnel of ghouls Silvia lead him to the illusionary wall, Steven poked his head in. It was exactly the same as the other hidden rooms. Stepping back, he began kicking ghouls through the illusionary wall into the spike pit. He stopped after the second, realizing he wasn¡¯t gaining essence. Unfortunately, the ghouls didn¡¯t die on impact, which caused him to have to stab them, then kick them in.
Steven didn¡¯t get very far in doing this when Silvia informed him of two powerful shard users entering the dungeon. Ever since the encounter with the adventures, the Wisp had been monitoring the Dungeon. Stopping his ghoul killing for now, he went to check it out. It was most likely Sirus. At least he hoped. He would run out of food before long and his dark vision potions were getting low. He had tried the shared vision with Silvia, but it was worse than being blind. Well, that was his initial thoughts of the ability. Silvia told him it would take time to use it properly. It was mostly a mixture of odd shapes and colors that were difficult to make out, and Steven had no desire to learn how to use it at the moment.
While using stealth, Steven went to see who had entered the Dungeon. There weren¡¯t a lot of ghouls left, but there was definitely some, and the Wisp directed him around the larger groups.. Silvia was not near as good as a map, but it got the job done. She apparently would stay connected to the dungeon for several months still.
The way she directed him made him think of his annoying gps on his phone, but he kept that part to himself. The biggest issue with her telling him where to go was how she wanted to talk about nonsense, making him miss the tunnel and he would have to turn around. Her ramblings were mostly about what they would do when they got out of the dungeon. Apparently, she had never been anywhere but in the dungeon. Other than where ever she came from, which she was never clear on.
When Steven finally made it to the group, Silvia went silent. The group was indeed Sirus¡¯s. Although he paused before continuing down the tunnel, there were several Spider-kin with them. Although that wasn¡¯t what held Steven¡¯s attention, it was the massive spider human thing that held his complete attention.
From the waist down, it was a massive spider. But from the waist up, it was a normal female human. Well, normal wasn¡¯t the word that came to mind. The woman¡¯s top half was ridiculously attractive. At first he thought she was the one he had met on the trip to this Dungeon but this one was much larger and terrifying, but also more attractive.
He didn¡¯t even understand how the massive spider person even made it through the tunnels. Deciding there was not much point in waiting, Steven continued down the tunnel and approached. Sirus spotted him immediately.
¡°There you are! I want to apologize for not coming sooner. We are having some difficulties with the humans again,¡± Sirus said while fiddling with a large bag. ¡°here are some supplies Goskia packed for you. It maybe some time before I can come back, so there are some extra supplies in there.¡±
The first thing Steven noticed was how Sirus apologized. It was completely out of character for the dower Naga, but maybe Sirus felt bad for him being stuck in the Dungeon, or maybe it had something to do with the Spider-kin being present. He didn¡¯t even look in the bag, he just sent it all to inventory to sort later and handed the bag back.
¡°Are you not going to introduce me?¡± The spider lady said, moving towards Steven.
Steven nearly turned and ran as the massive spider lady came and hovered over the top of him, staring down at him with clear hunger in her eyes.
¡°I apologize,¡± Sirus said, bowing his head to the spider. ¡°let me introduce you. Steven, this is the Queen of the of the Spider-kin, Nevateb the unbound.¡±
¡°It is a pleasure to meet you.¡± Nevateb said with a slight bow.
¡°The pleasure is all mine.¡± Steven said, returning the bow, while hoping he wasn¡¯t screwing it up. The spider Queen was extremely intimidating, but also excessively attractive and very naked. What was wrong with him? First, he was attracted to a snake person and now a gigantic spider. She is only human from the waist up. He needed to talk to someone about this. Steven did his absolute best not to stare at the spider¡¯s top half.
¡°Enough with the pleasantries,¡± Nevateb said. ¡°Now give me your hand so I may see for myself if it is true.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t really have a choice in the matter. As Nevateb just took his hand before he could respond and began sniffing it. Steven asked the Wisp for help, but she was unusually silent. And Sirus wouldn¡¯t even look at him.
¡°Oh! It¡¯s true!¡± Nevateb said, ¡°It¡¯s true, this is great. I can¡¯t believe it! You even have a touch of the Divine in you! This is so much more than I could have hoped for! Please forgive my rudeness and accept my apology!¡±
At this point, all the Spider-kin were bowing towards a confused Steven. The Naga looked confused, but also bowed with a glare from the spider Queen.
¡°Ummm. Yea, I accept, no need for all this,¡± Steven said, unsure what was a happening. No sooner than he spoke, a prompt appeared.
Do you wish to accept Nevateb, Queen of Spider-kin as a Vassal of your Domain Yes/No?
¡°Wait! What the hell?¡± Steven mumbled, ¡°what¡¯s going on?¡±
¡°I do hope you will accept.¡± Nevateb said with a wide grin and a glint of killing intent in her eyes.
Steven swallowed. ¡°Of course I¡¯ll accept.¡±
SILVIA! Steven shouted in his mind for the Wisp to listen, but she was completely silent. With no other options, Steven selected yes. As soon as he did, a tendril of purple light so dark that it almost looked black shot from the spider Queen to Steven as a green thread of light shot towards the Spider Queen. Steven prayed this wouldn¡¯t result in him becoming this spiders play thing or something. Regardless of what the prompt said, he didn¡¯t for one moment think that the massive spider would be his servant. Suddenly, there was a flash of purple light and Steven fell on his butt. When he finally blinked away the light, the massive spider Queen was gone and in her place stood a normal looking human.
¡°I believe this form will be much more appropriate to serve you, Master Odling.¡±
It was clear that this was the Queen but instead of a gigantic spider from the waist down; she was now fully human. Wait, did she just say Master Odling?
¡°Could you fill me in about on what happened?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Of course Master,¡± Nevateb said with pure excitement, ¡°I am now your humble servant, and yours to command.¡±
¡°Excuse me Queen Nevateb. But what is happening?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Oh, do forgive me, Captain Sirus, for not informing you of my intentions. But it seems you are ignorant of what a Domain holder is. And as soon as I heard there was one in the dungeon, I came to give my allegiance at once.¡±
Sirus was dumbfounded and couldn¡¯t seem to find any words. Steven was not in much better shape as he just stood there open mouthed, staring at the very naked woman in front of him.
After a long moment of staring at Nevateb¡¯s body, Steven spoke up.
¡°Could you please put some clothes on? It¡¯s making it difficult to¡¡±
¡°But Master Odling?¡± Nevateb said with a hurt expression, ¡°I was under the impression this was what human males liked? Do you not like what you see?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not that! I do like what I see. I mean, you are¡ it¡¯s just¡ This is not the time! And you are very distracting.¡± Steven said, still confused as to what exactly was happening.
¡°I see. I have much to learn about humans. Please Master Odling, forgive me, as I do my best to learn how to please you.¡±
¡°Uh. Y-yes, of course.¡± Steven mumbled. He had a bad feeling about this. And he didn¡¯t understand why Silvia wasn¡¯t responding or what this spider wanted from him.
¡°I do not mean to interrupt your Majesty, however I feel this is some sort of misunderstanding! This is Shirem. He is a half Naga just as I am.¡±
Sirus barely got the words out of his mouth before Nevateb turned to glare at him! ¡°You dare put yourself on the same level as Master Odling!¡±
At once, every Spider-kin drew their weapons. Holding them out towards Sirus and the other Half Naga. Steven couldn¡¯t understand where so many Spider-kin had even come from, but he quickly gathered himself.
¡°Whoa! Hold up! Hold up. Let¡¯s not do anything hasty!¡± Steven said, stepping in between the two groups against his better judgment.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
¡°Your majesty,¡± Sirus said, stepping next to Steven, ¡°I humbly apologize for my words. Please allow me to take full responsibility. I ask that you do not hold any of my warriors accountable for my ignorance. I humbly accept whatever punishment you deem necessary.¡±
¡°Captain Sirus!¡± a guard shouted. ¡°We stand with you!¡± Several guards broke out into outrage.
¡°Silence!¡± Steven shouted and, to his surprise, it worked. ¡°Navielteb, you are my vassal, correct?¡± Steven had no idea what he was going to do if she said no.
¡°It is Nevateb Master Odling, but yes. I am yours to command, along with all my children.¡± It took Steven a moment to process the part about all her children. In the meantime, no one spoke.
¡°Uh, well okay. As my vassal, I command you to have your children lower their weapons. Sirus is my friend and I don¡¯t wish any harm to come to him.¡± As Steven spoke, a few of the Spider-kin lowered their weapons, but most looked to their queen before lowering theirs.
¡°An insult to my master is an insult to me!¡± Nevateb said.
¡°I do not count it as an insult. Sirus does not understand.¡± Steven could only hope that would calm the spider Queen.
¡°I understand Captain Sirus does seem to be clueless,¡± the spider Queen turned to Sirus, ¡°I hold no ill will towards you. Do you also wish to become Master Odling¡¯s servant? He has room for two more vassals.¡±
¡°Silvia! I need your help!¡± Steven shouted into his mind, but still there was nothing.
¡°Queen Nevateb. Please give me a moment. I need to speak with Sirus.¡±
¡°Yes Master Odling, of course.¡±
Steven waited for the Spider Queen to leave, but she just stayed where she was. When Steven tried to walk with Sirus to a different spot, she followed.
¡°Nevateb.¡±
¡°Yes Master.¡±
¡°I would like to speak with Sirus alone.¡±
¡°But Master. I must be here to protect you.¡±
Steven just blinked at the spider Queen. He was having a hard time understanding what the hell was happening and really needed some answers.
¡°I will be safe with captain Sirus. He has been keeping me safe for a while now.¡±
Sirus just kept his mouth shut. Steven wasn¡¯t sure if it was from fear or he was worried about starting a war with the Spider-kin.
¡°Okay, but I will watch from a far.¡±
¡°Okay, thank you!" Steven said as he turned back to Sirus. "Actually, why don¡¯t you send your spider warriors to deal with the ghouls on this floor? Most are cleared, but there are still some in the back of the far left tunnel.¡±
¡°They are your spider warriors, Master. But, yes, I will direct them at once.¡±
As soon as the spider Queen was gone, Sirus began speaking in hushed tones. ¡°What have you done to the Queen? When she comes back to her senses, she will kill you and every Naga in this swamp.¡± Sirus hissed, eyes hard, ¡°I must inform the Elders of this!¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t do anything. I¡¯ve never even seen her before today! You¡¯re the one who brought her here! I was going to ask you what was going on.¡±
Sirus¡¯s eyes bulged.
¡°What? This makes absolutely no sense! I must go! I-I¡¯m sorry.¡±
¡°Wait, don¡¯t leave me alone with her,¡± Steven said as Sirus tried to leave, ¡°and what were you talking about? It may be awhile before you get to come back?¡±
¡°Ahhh!¡± Sirus sighed, ¡°look, the humans have been spotted on our lands, causing problems. It is nothing to concern yourself with.¡± Sirus then left without speaking another word.
¡°Master Odling. Is something the matter?¡± Nevateb asked.
The spider Queen was absolutely stunning. Her pale skin with light blue eyes and black hair was precisely what he found attractive, so much so he was extremely suspicious. ¡°First, I have to ask. Is all this an illusion?¡± Steven asked while making an hourglass shape with his hands.
¡°Of course not Master Odling! I would not dare try to hide behind an illusion. This is my human form I take when I¡¯m dealing with other races as my original form is too intimidating for most,¡± Nevateb said while stepping closer. ¡°If you would prefer, I can stay in my basic form.¡±
¡°Uhh. Umm,¡± Steven cleared his throat and took a step back, ¡°no, no. This form is quite acceptable.¡±
¡°Thank you, Master Odling. I¡¯m happy you like it!¡±
¡°One more thing. Could you maybe put on clothes that aren¡¯t quite so see through?¡±
¡°But Master, this is the dress my great grandmother made me from her glass webs.¡±
Steven could do nothing more than just blink.
¡°Please, Master allow¡¡±
There was a flash of bright pink light and then Silvia appeared.
Immediately, the spider Queen turned into her monster form and took an offensive stance in front of Steven.
¡°Oh! Give me a break! We both know what you are after!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Silvia! I¡¯ve been trying to get in contact with you!¡±
¡°I know you have. This spider menace has been blocking all forms of communication! I couldn¡¯t even hardly tell what was happening.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Master, do you wish for me to dispose of this disgusting Wisp?¡±
¡°Whoa! Hold up, you two! First off, both of you are bound to me, so you will both have to get along!¡± Steven hoped the spider Queen wouldn¡¯t protest. There was no way in hell he could deal with her.
¡°WHAT!¡± Nevateb and Silvia said at nearly the same time.
¡°Nevateb, this is my soul bonded Wisp, Silviaburlaxatrix. Silvia, this is my new.¡± Steven paused. He wasn¡¯t sure what to call the spider Queen. He did not want to offend the Queen. The prompt had said vassal, but before he had a chance to speak, the Queen beat him to it.
¡°Servant. I am Master Odling¡¯s servant. It makes sense that a Domain holder would have a wisp. I¡¯m sorry Master I thought the Wisp belonged to this Dungeon. She has the scent of undead on her. Are you sure she is bound to you and not to this dungeon?¡±
¡°Yes I¡¯m sure.¡± Steven barely got the words out before Silvia butted in.
¡°Wait! Are you telling me you accepted a monster as one of your three Domain Vassals?¡± Silvia asked flabbergasted, ¡°you realize all she wants is to siphon power from your Domain right? She is obviously stuck and can¡¯t level any further and is using you!¡±
Steven looked over at Nevateb, who didn¡¯t deny it, and only smiled at him sweetly.
¡°Isn¡¯t that exactly what you are doing?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Uh! Well, it¡¯s different with me. I¡¯m a Wisp!¡±
¡°And how is it any different with me? I am a level seventy Queen. I am plenty worthy to be his servant. What are you, a newly accended Wisp? What makes you worthy to serve a Domain holder that has the touch of the Divine?¡±
After a couple minutes of bickering back and forth, Steven finally put a stop to it. He also made Nevateb put something else on, as he was tired of getting turned on by a monster. She protested, but Steven eventually had to just tell her he wouldn¡¯t ever be able to get anything done if she wore that, as it was entirely too distracting and could get him killed. She seemed to accept this reasoning and told him she would wear something else but only while they were in the Dungeon.
Steven just had to agree with her. He would deal with her clothing choice when they got out of this dungeon.
¡°Master, I will be back. I must leave you in the care of this Wisp while I go find a change of clothing you deem acceptable. But worry not, my children will be nearby to keep you safe.¡± The spider Queen quickly left. As she did, Steven¡¯s eyes remained fixed on her backside until she disappeared from sight.
¡°I can¡¯t believe you accepted a monster as one of your vassals. She is only trying to manipulate you!¡±
¡°It¡¯s not like I wanted to. I tried to ask you for help. What¡¯s done is done, so what do I do now? She seems overly excited to be my vassal. Is she trying to take my domain or something?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t be absurd, that¡¯s impossible. She is a monster!¡±
¡°Well! What is it then? What is she trying to do?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Earn your trust!¡±
¡°Okay. And then what?¡±
¡°Serve you, of course, as you grow in power, so will she!¡±
¡°Wait! Are you saying she wants nothing more than to just get stronger by having me get stronger?¡±
¡°Yes, is it not pathetic!¡±
¡°Uh. Yea¡ it¡¯s terrible¡¡± Steven said. ¡°there has to be something I¡¯m not understanding here. How does she get stronger?¡±
¡°She won¡¯t gain any levels till you reach level seventy, but after that she will gain a level each time you do draining your Domain even further!¡±
¡°Wait, I thought you said it was impossible to drain a domain?¡±
¡°It is impossible!¡± Silvia said, as her light flared.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯m really not seeing the downside here?¡±
¡°The more devoted she is to you, the more power she can drain from the Domain!¡±
¡°Will it go dry?¡±
¡°No! That is impossible! Why do you keep asking that?¡±
¡°Never mind about all that. What did you mean when you said one of my three vassals¡¯s and what are vassals to a Domain holder exactly? I remember something about seeing that when I got this Domain.¡±
¡°Vassals to a Domain holder are hard to explain. They are called vassals or servants, because they must serve the Domain holder. But it doesn¡¯t always work out for the Domain holder. Sometimes the vassals will kill their master so they no longer have to serve them after they get what they want.¡±
¡°Wait, are you saying the Queen is going to kill me after she gets what she wants?¡±
¡°That¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m saying, you imbecile, so you should discard her!¡± Silvia said.
¡°I have the feeling that will get me killed as well.¡±
¡°You are very wise, Master Odling.¡±
¡°Holy shit!¡± Steven jumped back in surprise.
¡°I would indeed kill you if you discard me,¡± Nevateb said a bit too excited, ¡°but there is no need for that I will be a loyal servant,¡± the spider Queen then smiled wickedly and somehow seductively at the same time, ¡°after all I need you to surpass level seventy so I can pass my thresh hold. And if I¡¯m honest, I would like to hit one hundred before I kill and eat you.¡±
¡°See!¡± the Wisp said, flaring a bright pink, ¡°she is just using you for your Domain, then she will kill you.¡±
Steven turned to the smiling spider Queen, ¡°why exactly would you tell us your plans? What if I keep you till I am sixty-nine and discard you? What benefit do I have by keeping you if you are going to kill me in the end?¡±
¡°I will be loyal until I eat you, Master Odling. I swear it. And I won¡¯t do that until you have reached ninety-nine. You have my word on that! I¡¯ll even accept this being witnessed by one of those oath binders.¡±
¡°What is an oath binder?¡± Steven asked.
¡°An oath binder is a...¡± Silvia started.
¡°Someone who makes sure both parties uphold their oath.¡± Nevateb finished.
¡°Hey! I was talking!¡±
¡°Never mind that,¡± Steven said, ¡°and what exactly do you want in turn?¡±
Nevateb smiled, ¡°I want you to make an oath saying you won¡¯t break our bond till I¡¯m level ninety nine. Only if I¡¯m doing my job as a loyal servant, of course.¡±
¡°Your not considering this, are you? You do realize that monsters are capped at seventy for a reason, right? No one in their right mind would take on a spider Queen as their vassal. It¡¯s in their very nature to kill their masters, sure she is strong, but this is insane.¡± Silvia said.
Steven pulled out his water pipe. This was just all too much. First the Wisp, now this spider Queen.
¡°Oh, you like poison, do you? I have a wide array of poisons with all sorts of psychedelic effects. And lots of kinds you can smoke.¡±
That part peeked Steven¡¯s interest, ¡°what sort of smokables. I¡¯m really only into smoking plants.¡± Steven said as he took a hit.
¡°Oh, I have all sorts, we Spider-kin are very proficient in poisons!¡± Nevateb said in flirtations manner, ¡°here allow me.¡± Nevateb said as she pulled out some sort of dried plant and began loading his water pipe.
¡°What are you insane? Are you really going to just smoke poisonous plants with a spider? Do you have a death wish?¡±
¡°I will not kill him. That would be pointless. I need him to break my thresh hold. So we best get along. Your name is Silviaburlaxatrix, correct? I am Nevateb Queen of all Spider-kin and servant of Master Odling.¡±
¡°Oh, stop trying to suck up to him.¡±
After Steven took a couple of hits, he looked the spider up and down. Her white dress was extremely tight and revealing. It looked like it was made from spider webs, but he would just have to deal with that for now.
¡°Silvia. Play nice! You two work something out. I¡¯m going to try to see if I can¡¯t get rid of some ghouls. I need time to think.¡± Steven said. He then began heading back towards the hidden room. As he did, two male Spider-kin followed him.
Chapter 25: Oath bound
As Steven was walking away, the Queen spoke up. ¡°Those drones are now your guards. Don¡¯t worry, they have high stealth. They won¡¯t get in your way.¡±
Steven took a second look at the pale-looking Spider-kin. They looked mostly human aside from the six eyes on their face and pale skin, but maybe he could learn something from them. He would love to learn a way to improve his stealth. His next upgrade to stealth had to be good.
¡°As long as they are near you, I¡¯ll know if you''re in danger and I can come protect you. After I¡¯m done talking with miss Silviaburlaxatrix here, I¡¯ll fetch us that oath binder.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll be going with you to make sure you don¡¯t do something fishy.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Fantastic! I would love nothing more than for Master Odling to trust me even more.¡±
¡±What! That¡¯s not at all what I meant,¡± Silvia¡¯s light fluttered, ¡°what I meant was you can¡¯t be trusted, you are a monster for crying out loud! I don¡¯t understand how you seduced Steven into accepting you, but I will get to the bottom of this!¡±
Steven heard the pair arguing as he walked away. Nevateb, or Nev as he thought of her, seemed loyal, but he was concerned that she was going to eat him when she reached level ninety-nine. But that was a problem for another day. It¡¯s either get eaten now or when they were on the same level. Right now he just needed to survive this dungeon besides his biggest windfall of essence was almost over. The creatures were getting too strong to die to fall damage and spikes. He had an idea for the Spider-kin, but this would likely be the last floor he could utilize the pit traps.
He just hoped it would be easy. He had a lot of ghouls and would like to get started on the fourth floor in the morning. Steven jumped through the illusion wall and turned to wait on the Spider-kin. To his horror, the first drone stepped through the illusionary wall and fell straight into the pit trap, dying on impact.
Steven was staring wide eyed at the scurried Spider-kin at the bottom of the pit trap. Face pale, Steven slowly turned to the remaining Spider-kin that managed to jump the trap. He hadn¡¯t even known the name of that Spider-kin. And this was completely his fault. He didn¡¯t think to warn them. The Queen was going to be absolutely pissed. As Steven inspected the remaining Spider-kin, he realized he didn¡¯t even seem bothered.
¡°I¡¯m sorry about your colleague.¡± Steven said.
¡°Oh, that was just my drone brother. It¡¯s no big deal. Mother will send us another shortly.¡±
Steven¡¯s mouth fell open. ¡°Uhh. Well. Doesn¡¯t it bother you?¡±
¡°Not at all. I will have a new drone brother within minutes.¡±
¡°Oh. Well, can I ask the name of your fallen brother?¡±
¡°Of course Master Odling, his name was Four sixty three the fifth.¡±
Steven just stared blankly at the Spider-kin. ¡°I see. Any way, I need your help with a task. Do you have a weapon?¡± With a name like that, maybe it wasn¡¯t a big deal.
¡°No, I apologize. All I have is my hands though I can use web magic and i have a poisonous bite.¡±
¡°Hmmm. Well, poison isn¡¯t all that great to use against the undead. So try this,¡± Steven said as he pulled out a basic sword.
¡°Master Odling! Is¡ Is this sword truly for me?¡±
¡°Uh, yes,¡± Steven said with a raised eyebrow. ¡°What I need you to do is stab the ghoul and then step away so I can kick it into the pit.¡±
¡°Yes Master Odling at once!¡± The Spider-kin then began wildly looking around in every direction while awkwardly holding the sword at the ready.
Steven sighed. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±
¡°My name is three eighty nine the fifth! Sir.¡±
¡°Okay, well, from now on, your name is Kevin.¡± Before Steven had the chance to get any further, the newly named Kevin fell to his knees.
¡°Thank you so much, master Odli¡ No, King Odling.¡± Kevin looked as though he had tears in his six eyes as he spoke.
¡°King?¡± Steven asked in confusion. ¡°Ahh, never mind that now. Okay, listen up Kevin. I need you to stand right here.¡± Steven walked over to the edge of the pit. Pulled out a ghoul and then promptly stabbed it in the back. Steven was just fixing to kick it in to the pit when Kevin tackled it into the pit while screaming. ¡°For the King!¡±
+101
¡°Right! Drones are complete idiots.¡± Steven mumbled while looking down in the pit at Kevin.
The overly enthusiastic Kevin was now dead, scurried through by multiple spikes and had what looked to be a wide grin on his face. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t of named him, I shouldn¡¯t have named him,¡± Steven said while shaking his head, ¡°and there went a perfectly good sword.¡±
Steven pulled out his water pipe and took a couple of hits of the stuff Nev gave him. He felt it almost instantly. It was almost like clarity, or, more accurately, single-mindedness.
With both of his guards now dead, he may as well start the grind. He was hoping to use the guards to stab the ghouls while he kicked them in the pit, but it didn¡¯t seem like he was going to get to be lazy. He wondered if all drones were going to be like this, the Spider-kin, or drone with that elf adventuring team seemed quite capable. He absently wondered what they were doing.
Stab, kick.
+99
Stab, kick.
+104
Steven thought it would be nice to form an adventuring team, though he would have to stay clear of the Domain dungeons. He didn¡¯t want to get trapped like this again.
Stab, Kick
+102
Stabbing and kicking. Stabbing and kicking, Steven got in the zone he forgot about the dead guards, about being trapped in the dungeon, and just lost himself in the methodical process of murdering the undead and gaining essence.
Eventually, his mind wondered to the Queen. He really should find the best way to deal with her. He didn¡¯t want to be eaten, but he needed the help of the spiders, especially if the Naga wasn¡¯t going to give him much support because the humans. Which raised the question why weren¡¯t the Spider-kin helping with that fight? This was their home too. Right?
Stabbing and kicking. Over and over, it was a nuisance, but it was a safe way to gain essence. He was getting around one hundred for each undead. He still had roughy thirty to go and had killed around seventy at this point he was looking forward to leveling up. Though he feared this would be one of the last times he could kill the enemies by dropping them in the pit. The creatures would no doubt continue to get stronger, and the Wisp had told him to not even try to go to the fourth floor without being level twenty. Stab, kick, stab, kick. He was in the middle of kicking a ghoul into the pit when heard a voice behind him.
¡°Master Odling. We have returned.¡±
Steven turned to see the spider Queen carrying a terrified looking bald human man wearing brown robes, followed by a pink wisp. Steven just shook his head at the absurdity of his life now.
¡°Kneel while in the presence of Master Odling!¡± The human cowered in fear as Nevateb spoke.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
¡°Ye- yes, yo-ur your majesty. At once!¡± The man basically slammed his head to the dungeon floor, trying to bow before Steven.
¡°Uh? Who is this?¡± Steven asked. ¡°There is no need for the bowing!¡±
¡°Yes. Your majesty.¡± Silvia said in a mocking tone, ¡°please explain to Master why you have so many humans chained up in your house.¡±
¡°With all due respect, Master Odling. I had these humans before I became your servant. If you wish, I will release all the humans I have in shackles. Just know if I do, there will be several half Naga¡¯s killed. They are at war with one another at the moment.¡±
¡°Wait, a second hold up! The war is only with the half Naga and humans. Not with the Spider-kin?¡±
¡°That is correct, Master. I trade with the humans quite often. Well, my daughters do. I normally stay out of their affairs. These humans were only held prisoner because they violated one of my laws or were trying to do harm to the half Naga in one of my cities.
¡°Cities as in plural?¡± Steven asked, eyes wide.
¡°Yes Master, I am, and therefore you are in control of all the Spider-kin cities in these lands. I¡¯m kind of a big deal.¡± Nev said with a sweet, innocent voice.
¡°Okay. I¡¯m going to need the both of you to explain to me what is exactly going on with the humans and Naga, also about the cities.¡± Steven turned to the man with his face still on the dungeon floor, ¡°I want to talk with you as well. I have questions and if you lie to me I¡¯ll have Queen Nevateb here eat you alive one piece at a time. How does that sound?¡±
¡°Oh, Master, you are too kind!¡± Nev said, in an entirely to enthusiastic voice.
It took less than an hour for Steven to figure out what exactly was going on. It turned out the humans wanted access to the Dungeon. And they also hated half Naga for some reason. When he asked the human, he just said the half Naga are considered abominations. As for why they didn¡¯t bother the Spider-kin. Well, the best Steven could tell was the humans were simply just scared of a war with Nevateb. A level seventy anything was nearly unheard of in this part of the world. Nevateb pointed out she would not be at max level if it wasn¡¯t for her great grandmother helping her kill her mother and take the throne. Steven regretted asking about that when the Queen began to describe in detail how she ate her mother, followed by all her sisters and finally her great grandmother.
Once they were done talking and Silvia finished explaining why making an oath binding contract with the spider Queen was such a bad idea, Steven stood up.
¡°I¡¯ve made my decision. Kenneth was it?¡±
¡°Y-yes my lord. Pl-please spare my life. I have a wife and children.¡±
¡°Yeah, I heard you the first time.¡± Steven said. He wasn¡¯t sure if he had turned cruel since coming here, but it was the human¡¯s fault for trying to take something that wasn¡¯t theirs, so he had little pity for him. ¡°What are the consequences if someone breaks the oath?¡±
¡°You can¡¯t possibly be considering this! It¡¯s a death sentence!¡±
¡°Silvia, I understand your concern. And I appreciate it. I truly do. But I have to think about my immediate survival.¡± the Wisp¡¯s color turned a bit lighter. ¡°I¡¯ve considered your advice and my situation. And I feel it¡¯s best to do this. You said yourself it was unlikely for me to get past level seventy. Also, I¡¯m trapped in this dungeon and I¡¯m struggling. I can¡¯t even deal with the boss in my inventory.¡±
The Wisp said nothing further and the spider Queen just smiled seductively at Steven. Though he could tell her interest was peeked when he mentioned the boss in his inventory.
¡°I asked a question, human!¡± Had he really just called that person a human? He was also human. Wasn¡¯t he? Was he the bad guy here?
¡°L-lord Odling. Who ever breaks the oath will have divine judgment come down upon them. I-I¡¯m sorry, that¡¯s all I know. I¡¯ve never heard of anyone breaking an oath.¡± Kenneth stammered out.
¡°Depending on the God,¡± Silvia began, ¡°the punishment will vary. Most of the time, they just take half the levels of the one who broke the oath. Which will kill most as their own shards devour them from the inside out.¡±
¡°Well, that¡¯s a lot to unpack. But we can talk about that at a different time. Kenneth. Begin the oath binding.¡±
¡°Yes. At once! Lord Odling.¡±
¡°I knew you would make the correct choice!¡± Nev said, while giving Steven a quick hug.
¡°You¡¯re really clingy for a Queen, you know that!¡± Steven said to the spider Queen who was right in his face at this point.
¡°Only for you Master Odling,¡± Nevateb sniffed the air around Steven, ¡°have you been smoking the plant I gave you?¡±
¡°I have. Thanks for that. It seems to help me focus. Speaking of which, we should pay attention to this oath.¡± Steven said.
Kenneth, the oath binding priest, was beginning to glow with a bright white light as he chanted something. Steven couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of what the priest was saying. The next moment, light shot upwards and started to form odd symbols above the priest. Once that was done, the same symbols floating above the priest appeared beneath the priest. That¡¯s when the priest started to struggle to even stand.
To Steven, it looked as though the priest was under an intense weight. As the priest¡¯s knees began to buckle within the circle, the symbols made of white light started to dim.
¡°I¡¯ll finish the oath. The human can do nothing more he is too weak for an oath such as this.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Wait, you can do the oath?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Of course I can, I¡¯m a Wisp. I Just didn¡¯t want you to make an oath with a monster, but if it must be done, I¡¯ll do it properly.¡±
Silvia then flew into the circle of light and the symbols took on a blinding white light. The priest stumbled out of the circle and a moment later, Steven received a prompt.
Do you swear to not dismiss Nevateb as your vassal untill you reach level one hundred, on the condition she remains a loyal servant Yes/No?
Glancing over at Nevateb, he realized she must be reading over a prompt as well. Though hers must have had been much longer than his. Most likely explaining what a loyal servant consisted of. He would like to know what that meant exactly, but at least he didn¡¯t have to worry about getting eaten till he was level one hundred. He accepted and then just waited for the spider Queen to accept.
A couple minutes later, the symbols turned in to a rope made of the same pure white light and shot into both Steven and the spider Queen¡¯s chest. Lifting them both up and pulling them into one another. Then the light went out, and they both fell crashing to the ground. Well, Steven crashed, the spider Queen gracefully landed on her feet and promptly helped Steven up.
¡°I am truly happy that you accepted, Master.¡±
¡°I¡¯m glad you feel that way. I saw nothing about you eating me in the notification. Did you change your mind?¡±
¡°Not at all Master Odling,¡± Nevateb said cheerfully, ¡°I plan to devour you as soon as you release me as your servant, or when I reach level one hundred,¡± the spider Queen then kissed him on the cheek, ¡°now Is there anything you wish for me to do, anything at all Master?¡±
¡°Actually, yes, I would like you to not eat me.¡±
¡°Oh, Master, you are too funny!¡± Nev giggled in such an innocent manner. It was mind-boggling to think she was really a massive spider hell bent on eating him.
¡°Fine! Could you at least round up all the ghouls left on this floor and bring them to me alive?¡±
¡°Yes Master Odling at once.¡±
¡°What do you want to do with the human?¡± Silvia asked after Nevateb left.
¡°You¡¯re not upset with me?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Oh, I am! But what¡¯s done is done.¡± Silvia said.
Steven looked at the human who was trying to make himself as small as possible. ¡°Send him back to his cell. I¡¯ll deal with the prisoners once I get out of here.¡±
¡°Well, you heard him get with it,¡± Silvia said to some Spider-kin guards. Her light quickly faded when the guards didn¡¯t listen. ¡°Uggg! I just wanted to command someone for a change instead of being commanded all the time.¡±
Steven sighed. ¡°Do as she says.¡± The Drones Immediately began escorting the prisoner away. For some reason, Silvia went with them, but Steven really didn¡¯t care. He was going to finish killing all the ghouls he had and begin leveling.
Walking back to the edge, he pulled out a ghoul and stabbed it. But before he could kick it in the pit, a drone popped out of nowhere and tackled it into the pit. While screaming. ¡°For the King!¡± Sighing, Steven looked around. And seen three other drones he hadn¡¯t noticed before.
He was fixing to go over to speak with them, but before that, he pulled out the water pipe. This was just too much. He couldn¡¯t have them killing themselves for no reason.
¡°Okay, listen up, you lot. Do not jump in the pit! There are plenty of other ways to kill the ghouls than sacrificing yourself. I am more than capable of kicking the ghoul into the pit myself. What I¡¯m trying to do is level up so I can get stronger.¡±
To Steven¡¯s surprise, one of the Spider-kin stepped forwards. ¡°I pledge my life to you my King. How may I be of service?¡±
¡°First off, what¡¯s with calling me King?¡±
¡°Please forgive us master, we did not mean too¡¡±
¡°I¡¯m back,¡± Nevateb said while dragging a couple dozen ghouls tied up in a dark purple web. ¡°here you are Master. I have drones bringing the others.¡±
¡°That was fast! Fantastic job. Now have the drones stab them once and line them up at the edge of the pit so I can kick them in for the essence.¡±
It didn¡¯t take long for the drones to have the ghouls standing at the edge of the pits. Even though the ghouls were bound by web, they still were jerking around and a couple of the drones fell in the pit with the ghouls. Steven had the drones back away from the edge till he was ready for them. That too was difficult as the ghouls weren¡¯t going to cooperate and the drones weren¡¯t any good at man handling the ghouls, as they were roughly the same strength. After losing a couple more drones, Steven told them to all just back up.
He then went around sending the web bound undead to inventory. It was just easier for him to deal with killing them. Once he was done sending the undead to inventory, Nevateb asked him what sort of power he was using. It took him a while to explain it. As she became extremely interested when he mentioned it was a blessing. In the meantime, Steven continued killing the undead. For the first time, he realized how calm the ghouls were when he first pulled them out of inventory. If it wasn¡¯t for that, he doubted he would be able to deal with them so easily. Although if he gave the ghouls the time, they would turn around and try to attack him. But it didn¡¯t take long to stab and kick. He would have not noticed this if he hadn¡¯t seen how the ghouls reacted when the drones were holding them. They must be disorientated from being pulled from his inventory.
When Steven got down to the ones wrapped in spider web, he quickly realized something was off when he only got a fraction of the essence.
¡°Is something wrong, Master Odling?¡±
Steven glanced to Nevateb. ¡°Something is. Hold on.¡± Pulling out another bound ghoul, he stabbed it then kicked it over the edge. Again, he only received roughly half the normal essence.
¡°Must be because you bound them.¡± Steven muttered. Focusing on his essence counter, it slowly came into view.
Essence 14369.
¡°Ehh, it doesn¡¯t matter. I already have a good chunk of essence. I¡¯m fixing to begin leveling after I turn the rest of these undead into essence, and I don¡¯t want to be bothered while I¡¯m leveling.¡±
¡°Yes Master Odling.¡±
Stab, kick.
Since when had he become so demanding?
Stab, kick.
It must be all this master and lord stuff getting to him. But how could it go to his head so quickly?
Stab, kick.
Could it be from smoking?
Stab, kick.
No, that didn¡¯t seem right. He was just being efficient. Being more assertive was good. Right?
Stab kick.
It didn¡¯t take much longer till Steven finished off the remaining ghouls in his inventory. The last few he had to just kill them as they quit dying on impact due to the large number of undead in the pits.
Chapter 26: Leveling up
¡°Sirus, what you are telling us is simply impossible. There is no way anyone could have control over the Spider Queen. Much less have tamed her to be their servant!¡±
¡°I understand. That is why¡¡±
¡°Silence! Do not interrupt Elder Vasuki while he is speaking!¡±
¡°It is quite alright,¡° Elder Vasuki said in a calmly manner, ¡°please continue captain Sirus.¡±
Sirus noticed the glares the other Elders were giving Vasuki. But he just lowered his head and pretended not to notice.
¡°I have brought some drones to confirm this and maybe shed some light on the situation. Also,¡± Sirus hesitantly continued, ¡°Nevateb herself nearly killed me when I tried to explain that Steven... Im sorry Shirem, was one of us. She said he was obviously a human with a domain touched by the divine.¡±
¡°This again!¡± Another Elder started.
¡°Silence!¡± Elder Vasuki said. ¡°Please bring in the drones so that we may speak with them.¡±
¡°At once.¡± Sirus said as he bowed in respect.
Sirus brought the drones in, then joined the guards to the side of the room. It was easy for him, as he once had this very job. That¡¯s how he knew the Elders were acting a bit off. Elder Vasuki use to never have to rein in the other Elders. Something was going on, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. He would have to arrange a meeting with the Elder guard this evening to see if they had noticed anything off.
Sirus just listened as the Elders questioned the drones.
¡°Who do you serve exactly?¡± An Elder asked.
¡°We serve our Queen, and in extension Steven Odling, who is our King.¡±
Several gasps and murmurs echoed out.
They were just as confused as Sirus had been when he watched the Queen bow down and become the humans servant.
¡°Well, if that is the case, then you also serve us. Steven, as you call him, is one of our subjects!¡±
Elder Vasuki looked over in confusion at the Elder that had just spoke. But before he had a chance to reprimand the Elder for speaking out of term, the drones went berserk.
¡°How dare you!¡± One drone said. While throwing a poisonous dart at the Elder that spoke.
¡°Our King serves no one!¡± Another drone shouted as he shot webs at the Elder. The third pulled out a dagger and charged. Sirus had not been ready and was too slow to stop the dart or webs, but he stopped the dagger wielding drone with a bone cage, followed by trapping the others in similar bone cages. The Elder that had been targeted fell unconscious to the floor from the poison, arms trapped to the sides by webs. Chaos quickly turned into confusion as the Elder turned into a human wearing a white robe.
The next moment, three more of the Elders turned human, all wearing the same robes.
¡°Looks like the gig is up. Kill Vasuki!¡± One of the robbed men said. Two naga guards began rushing at Elder Vasuki. Sirus began shouting orders while releasing the drones from their cages. Bone spikes flew directly at the two Naga guards charging at Elder Vasuki only for a white barrier to block his attack. However, the impact was strong enough to knock the would be attackers into the wall. Both Naga turned human, wearing matching white robes. The actual Elder guard quickly made it to Elder Vasuki''s side. More guards poured in, a bright flash of light, and suddenly all the humans were gone. Every Elder in the room was dead aside from Elder Vasuki. Who looked as though he was going to have a stroke from all the excitement.
Steven pulled up his stat page.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 11
Available Attribute ~0
Essence- 15837
Essence required for next level 2067
HP ~ 72
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 173
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 4
Dexterity ~ 11
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 13
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°Well, it¡¯s looking pretty good,¡± Steven said with a wide grin, ¡°now to spend all that hard earned essence.¡± Steven was only able to get to level twelve before a ball of pink light popped up in front of him.
¡°Hold it right there. You absolutely can not level without your familiar present! I have insights you must have. There are no and, ifs, or buts.¡±
¡°Uh, okay. I mean, if you have information that will help me, I¡¯m definitely willing to listen. I¡¯m kinda just winging it after all.¡±
¡°Master as a level seventy Queen I think I may also be of assistance.¡±
¡°Absolutely not! You plan on eating me!¡±
¡°But master! Please, I want you to be as strong as possible for our children.¡±
Steven narrowed his eyes. ¡°Children? We don¡¯t have any children!¡±
¡°Yet.¡± Nevateb muttered.
¡°What was that?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Nothing Master, I will make sure no one disturbs you.¡± The spider Queen lowered her head and left the hidden room.
¡°You realize she is going to eat you and make drones from your essence, right?¡± Silvia said.
¡°Is that why she wants to eat me?¡±
¡°Spider Queens don¡¯t actually have any control over that. Once they mate with someone, they become enraged and devour their mate. It¡¯s really just in their nature. They are monsters! Since you have a domain, your essence will create drones much stronger than normal, not to mention stronger princesses.¡±
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
¡°But I haven¡¯t mated with her. Why does she want to eat me?¡±
¡°If I was to guess, she will force you to mate with her and then create over powered offspring the likes this world has never seen.¡±
It took Steven a long moment to process what the wisp said. At least he was safe till he reached level one hundred. Shaking his head, he told Silvia they needed to get leveling. After Steven took a couple of hits, he opened his stat page.
¡°Okay, what¡¯s the plan here?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Well, I was going to use all my essence and see how many attribute points I have to work with before I started spending them.¡±
¡°Well, what¡¯s the holdup? Get to it.¡±
Steven narrowed his eyes at the Wisp. ¡°You¡¯re the hold up! You told me to wait.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, well, you don¡¯t need to wait for that. I wasn¡¯t aware you could level up without having to spend your attribute points.¡±
Steven just rolled his eyes and looked at his stat page. ¡°Dam, it cost so much essence to level up now!¡±
¡°Yea! Thats kind of how it works. Most don¡¯t level up several times in a row. Ive actually never seen anyone level as quickly as you do.¡±
¡°Even so, I¡¯m not going to get as many levels as I would like.¡± Steven complained.
He then began spending essence to level, but it wasn''t long before he ran out of essence.
¡°Dam, I was really hoping to get to level twenty! Looks like seventeen will be as high as I can get on this floor.¡±
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 17
Available Attribute ~6
Essence- 1208
Essence required for next level 3041
HP ~ 72
Stamina ~ 40
Mana ~ 173
Poise ~ 0
Vitality ~ 7
Endurance ~ 4
Strength ~ 4
Dexterity ~ 11
Resistance ~ 7
Spirit ~ 13
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°This is still good. We can work with this. Though we really need to sure up some of those weaknesses,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Your strength and endurance are horrible.¡±
¡°Wait, you can see my stat page?¡±
¡°Yes, of course, we are soul bound. Ive mentioned it before. Now your stat page is similar to Sorin¡¯s, so I should be able to help you. Lets see vitality governs your hit points so you definitely want to put some points there. And¡ Oh, my! Your stamina is worse than I first thought! You have to place points into your Endurance!¡±
¡°Wait! Do you know what level Sorin is?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light faded a bit. ¡°Yes.¡±
¡°Well, what is it?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t worry yourself with that right now!¡±
¡°Just tell me! I need to know how much I need to level.¡±
The Wisp somehow sighed, even though she didn¡¯t have lungs. ¡°He is level fifty six with four shards.¡±
¡°Only four shards?¡±
¡°Yes, only four shards and he is also three times your level.¡± Silvia said.
¡°But why only four shards?¡±
¡°Like I¡¯ve told you, shards are extremely hard to find. And that¡¯s why you should use the one you have!¡±
¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯ll consider it. But first I need to use my attribute points.¡±
¡°You realize you get a boost to your attributes when you use shards, right?¡±
¡°I¡¯m aware! Do you know what attributes will get boosted if I use that undeath shard?¡±
¡°No, I do not. It¡¯s always different and seemingly random from what the Wisps can tell. Even so, is it not smarter to use the shard first, then use your attribute points? I assume your goal at the moment is to use that over powered spear you somehow looted.¡±
¡°Yes. And I do agree, but I really don¡¯t want to use an Undead shard.¡±
¡°Does it really matter if you die in here? We don¡¯t always get to do what we want when we are trying to survive.¡±
For some reason, Steven felt that was directed at him, but before he could speak, the spider Queen spoke.
¡°Master, sorry for the intrusion but, if I may speak.¡±
Steven glanced at Nev. That human form of hers was overly attractive, and he was finding it hard to get upset about her interrupting his leveling. He wished she would put on some clothes that weren¡¯t so provocative. It was difficult to focus on other things when she was around. Changing into clothes that didn¡¯t turn him on seemed to be the only order she continued to ignore.
¡°Yes, you may speak.¡± Steven tried not to think about the fact he had a beautiful woman asking him if she was allowed to speak, and had to remind himself that she was actually a terrifying spider Queen that would someday eat him.
¡°I couldn¡¯t help but overhear that you don¡¯t want to use the Undeath shard. I have an alternative option. If Master is interested.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t sure how she was able to overhear them talk when she had been out of the room. Also how did she even get back in here without him noticing?
Silvia turned to the Spider queen. ¡°You have a shard you¡¯re offering?¡±
¡°I do indeed. I¡¯m sorry, I would have mentioned it earlier, but I wasn¡¯t aware Master had reached level twenty and could absorb his second shard.¡±
¡°I haven¡¯t reached level twenty?¡±
¡°What? But you already have a shard and can only absorb a shard every ten levels. Or is this different for Domain holders?¡± Nev asked, wide eyed.
¡°Oh yeah, I don¡¯t know how I didn¡¯t notice before,¡± Silvia said. ¡°You should only be able to absorb a shard every ten levels. Are you sure you can absorb one now?¡±
Steven opened his inventory and pulled out the Undeath shard.
Absorb Shard of Undeath Yes/No?
Selecting no Steven closed the prompt. ¡°Yes, it seems I can absorb one ever since I reached level ten.¡±
¡°Master, I am unsure how you can absorb another shard, but I recommend using a shard as soon as possible. It will greatly increase your survival rate in this dungeon.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure either. Maybe it¡¯s because I¡¯m from another world.¡±
¡°Ive been meaning to ask about that. How did you arrive in this world?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Your getting off topic.¡± Silvia said. ¡°What shard do you have?¡±
Nevateb looked slightly irritated, but continued anyway. ¡°It¡¯s the greatest of all the shards, it¡¯s called, Shard of Arachnid Royalty. I was planning on giving it to one of my daughters. But you are my Master and your survival is much more important than any of my offspring.¡±
Steven was starting to think the seductive look she continued to give him was just her normal face. But he didn¡¯t care. No way in hell would he be sleeping with the spider Queen. Although if she wouldn¡¯t eat him¡ Steven shook his head.
¡°And you¡¯re just going to give him a shard so rare?¡± Silvia asked in a hotty tone.
¡°Of course! I am nothing but Master Odling¡¯s loyal servant!¡±
¡°That plans on eating me! How do I know this shard won¡¯t make me serve you or something?¡±
Nev gasped, as if that was the greatest sin imaginable. ¡°Are you not aware of the changes your Wisp made to the oath?¡±
¡°Actually, no?¡± Steven turned to the Wisp, who was pretending to not pay attention.
¡°It¡¯s why it took me so long to accept I had to read over all the changes, but as they only had your best interest in mind, I accepted all but one.¡±
¡°Wait! You two were negotiating the oath? I wasn¡¯t even aware that was possible! Why wasn¡¯t I informed about this?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry Master, I was not aware you were not informed. I assumed the wisp was negotiating on your behalf.¡± Nevateb said sweetly.
¡°You¡¯re not the one I¡¯m upset with.¡± Steven glared at the Wisp.
¡°That¡¯s wonderful Master. I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re not¡¡±
¡°Oh, shush Nev. And Silvia! Stop pretending to not pay attention! Why did you not inform me of this?¡±
¡°Master Odling, I was¡¡± Silvia started.
¡°Don¡¯t master me! Just tell me why!¡± Steven seen a wicked smile fall over the spider Queens face. He would have to deal with that later.
¡°Honestly, I was afraid you would leave her wiggle room to take advantage of you,¡± Silvia said as her light shown just a bit brighter, ¡°and my fate is now tied with yours more than you know,¡± the pink ball of light grew brighter as she spoke, ¡°so if little miss spider Queen wanted to pretend to play loyal servant I was going to make sure she didn¡¯t have a choice in the matter.¡±
There was a brief pause of awkward silence before Nevateb spoke up.
¡°Master, In your familiar¡¯s defense, I wasn¡¯t planning on playing the loyal servant the entire time of the oath. I am a max level spider Queen after all,¡± Nev said sweetly, ¡°but when your familiar didn¡¯t leave me with any other options, I decided what was a few decades of servitude if I could be the first spider Queen to break past level seventy so I accepted.¡±
¡°I figured the loyal servant was all an act. But why tell me?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Master,¡± Nev bowed, ¡°If I may pose a question.¡±
Steven rolled his eyes. ¡°Go on.¡± She was really playing into this servant thing.
¡°Does it really matter if I am acting or not? If I have no other option than to be your loyal servant for the duration of our pact, then what is the difference?¡±
¡°And what is the punishment if you don¡¯t? You just lose half your levels and eat me, anyway!¡±
¡°Actually, she can¡¯t! If she doesn¡¯t obey you to the best of her ability till the oath has ended, she dies.¡± Silvia said proudly.
Steven thought about that for a moment. That was basically a slave, and he didn¡¯t know how he felt about that.
¡°So a slave, basically?¡± Steven asked, a bit irritated.
¡°Yes! Isn¡¯t it great!¡± Silvia said, glowing so brightly Steven could see the flecks of green in her pink.
He was just about to say something when Nevateb spoke up. ¡°It is quite great indeed. Master has no reason at all to not trust me. I couldn¡¯t have done it without you, so I want to thank you, Silviaburlaxatrix. I am more than grateful to be Master Odling¡¯s slave!¡±
¡°Hey! You¡¯re not supposed to be happy about it!¡± Silvia protested, ¡°though I am impressed you got my name right. But that doesn¡¯t change the fact you¡¯re a conniving spider Queen that only cares about your own gain!¡±
¡°True, but one that can do nothing against Master¡¯s will, thanks to you! It¡¯s actually quite freeing. I think I¡¯m going to enjoy not being the one in charge for a while. If I¡¯m being honest, the thought of someone else telling me what to do is quite exhilarating. For the last century every one has been groveling at my feet, this is a nice change.¡±
Steven ignored the pair as they bickered. He wondered how old this spider Queen was. If she ruled the swamp for the last century, then she had to be over a hundred years old. Steven just shook his head. He was confused about most of what was happening anyway, and that was just one more thing to be curious about. One thing he did know was the Queen was cunning. He would have to keep an eye on her.
Steven couldn¡¯t help but overhear the pair bicker while he looked over his stat page. He did his best to tune them out.
If he used all six attribute points he had, he would still only be at ten strength, and he needed it to be eleven if he was going to use the spear.
¡°Nev?¡±
The spider Queen stopped talking immediately, and turned her complete attention to Steven.
¡°Yes Master?¡±
¡°Do you have the shard on you?¡±
¡°No, I¡¯m sorry Master. It is in my nest. It is also trapped and I¡¯ll have to be the one to go get it, unfortunately the drones would not survive.¡±
¡°Okay, that¡¯s fine. Also, how strong are your webs?¡± Steven asked.
Chapter 27: Shard imbued items & Equipment Slots
Steven stared at the massive zombie wrapped in the spider Queen¡¯s webs. Each time it struggled, the webs tightened and dug deeper into the boss monster¡¯s flesh. Black blood leaked from several wounds as boils oozed something that sizzled when it dripped to the floor.
¡°Do you think it was wise to send the spider out while you deal with the boss?¡±
Steven raised an eyebrow. ¡°It can barely move. The webs are so tight!¡±
¡°And if it gets free and goes on a rampage?¡±
¡°It¡¯s at nine percent remaining health and slowly dropping. Do you really think so little of me?¡± Steven asked.
¡°It¡¯s not that! It¡¯s just, should you really be smoking right now, I know you said it helps you focus but, I¡¯ve noticed when you use a lot it does the opposite.¡± Silvia said, as her light dimmed.
Steven wondered if the Wisp knew she wore her emotions on a sleeve like that, but didn¡¯t mention it.
¡°What else am I supposed to do? I¡¯m just waiting for the poison to slowly kill it; you know as well as I do that stabbing it doesn¡¯t truly do anything, besides the daggers are nearly out of durability. Nev is not here because she would get most of the essence, since she was the one that bound it and did most of the damage. Besides, there are drones to help if it somehow gets loose. But I don¡¯t see Nev¡¯s web breaking.¡±
¡°Its just I don¡¯t trust that spider.¡±
¡°Good! It means you will keep a close eye on her. I¡¯m sure she is up to something, but only time will tell. How sure are you of the oath?¡±
The Wisp grew a bit brighter at that. ¡°I will keep a very close eye on her! And there is no way she can get out of the oath. It¡¯s a sure thing! Well. Other than divine intervention, but that won¡¯t happen.¡±
Steven glared at the wisp, wishing she wouldn¡¯t tempt fate.
¡°What is it?¡±
¡°Nothing,¡± Steven sighed, ¡°on another note I was meaning to ask you what was the one thing Nev wouldn¡¯t agree too?¡±
¡°Oh that. Well, it¡¯s not really that big of a deal.¡±
¡°Okay, but what was it?¡±
Steven got the sense the Wisp was blushing right before she spoke. ¡°Mating.¡±
¡°Mating? What do you mean?¡±
¡°Well, she wants the option to mate with you,¡± Silvia then began to speak faster, ¡°I did, however have her agree you had to be willing! At first she didn¡¯t want to agree to that, but we were able to compromise.¡±
Steven narrowed his eyes at the wisp. ¡°What do you mean by compromise?¡±
¡°Well, she can try to seduce you as much as she likes with in reason.¡±
¡°Wait! Is that why she is wearing that extremely revealing dress?¡±
¡°Yes! For some reason, she thought that would make you attracted to her. What a dumb spider! I tried to explain that¡¯s not how you attracted male humans, but she just wouldn¡¯t listen.¡±
Steven facepalmed.
¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Silvia asked, ¡°It¡¯s not working, is it?¡± She asked, fear apparent in her voice.
¡°No! It¡¯s not...¡± Steven said.
It was working exactly the way the spider Queen wanted, but he wasn¡¯t going to admit that. What was wrong with him? Why was he so attracted to a monster? The monster was in human form, a form that would be considered perfection to anyone you asked, but still a monster. He would not be eaten! He would not sleep with that insanely gorgeous spider monster¡ He was happy she hadn¡¯t come on to him.
¡°Good!¡± Silvia said. ¡°spiders are weird. She even added the clause about not being able to eat you if you two did mate. Well, the oath was she wouldn¡¯t eat you till she reached level one hundred to be clear.¡±
¡°Wait, she won¡¯t eat me if I mate with her?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Thats what you got from that? You¡¯re not considering it, are you? She is a monster, for crying out loud! She may eat you anyway and doom you both, including me.¡±
¡°No. Im just trying to understand what¡¯s going on. I mean, I get why she wants to be my vassal. I don¡¯t understand how I¡¯m supposed to help her break through her limits by just leveling up. But I understand that¡¯s what she wants from me.¡±
¡°Also to make hatchlings out of you!¡± Silvia added.
The thought made Steven shiver. Glancing back over to the boss monster, he saw its health was now at three percent. He went over and stabbed it a few more times, which did nothing to its health bar, but it did add a fresh dose of poison. The boss its self was bound so tight it could barely wiggle. Steven hated daggers. He had to get so close he would rather be at a distance and throw spells.
He could only hope that the shard he sent Nev to get gave him that awesome spider web ability. Although where would the webs come from? The Queen had turned back into her spider form when she wrapped the boss up for him. Would he have to shoot webs from his butt?
Steven pushed those thoughts from his mind. It was more likely it would come from his hands like Spiderman. Looking back at the boss zombie he shook his head in disbelief, Nev had stabbed the boss a couple times to weaken its health after she wrapped it up. She had done it so effortlessly that had really drove home how powerful the Queen was. He couldn¡¯t even hardly pierce the zombie¡¯s skin.
Steven could only hope that he could stop her from eating him when the time came. As slow as it was leveling it would be awhile before he had to worry about it. Maybe he could eventually come to some sort of compromise with her.
+1897
Steven was surprised at the amount of essence he had expected maybe a thousand at the most. But that was a nice bit and just enough to meet the requirements to use the spear.
Opening up his stat page, he spent the required three thousand and forty-one essence and reached level eighteen. He now only had sixty-four essence remaining and to reach level nineteen required three thousand three hundred and eighteen.
¡°Dam, it gets harder and harder to level.¡± Steven mumbled.
¡°Are you insane? You reached level eighteen in record time. When you entered this dungeon, you were a level one!¡±
¡°You think I¡¯m leveling quickly?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Yes, you are leveling quickly though it will continue to get harder the higher level you get.¡±
Steven nodded. That was the nature of things, and he understood that. Get stronger, face stronger monsters. It was going to be an ongoing struggle. Though when he thought about it, he was on easy mode. An absurd inventory power that worked surprisingly perfectly for the Dungeon he was in. And now a maxed level spider Queen as his servant. Honestly, things were going so well that it almost seemed fishy, like there was some divine intervention. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder if Chaos had anything to do with his situation.
Steven turned to a drone. ¡°Go fetch the Queen.¡±
¡°Yes, my King at once.¡±
Steven turned back to the Wisp. ¡°Silvia, have you noticed how some drones refer to me as king? What is up with that?¡±
¡°I¡¯m actually unsure. There has never been a spider King that I¡¯m aware of. If there ever was, the Queen would have eaten him after mating. Though I think there was an old legend about a spider King.¡±
¡°Hmmm, whatever the case, it¡¯s a bit odd. I¡¯ll ask Nev about it when she gets here back.¡±
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°Actually, I wouldn¡¯t mention it. They don¡¯t seem to call you that if she is around, they may get in trouble. Let¡¯s just see how it plays out.¡±
Steven glanced at the Spider-kin drones standing next to the wall. ¡°Hey, could one of you go get me a bed?¡±
¡°At once, my lord!¡±
¡°I like them soft, also a pillow and blanket! Thanks.¡± Steven shouted after the drone as he left.
¡°Really?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°What I¡¯m trapped in here, I might as well make the best of it. I think I¡¯m going to have Nev kill the mimics and then set up a bedroom in there. I¡¯m tired of being surrounded by traps. It¡¯s also nice to know Sorin can¡¯t watch me in here. I could also really go for a nap,¡± Steven said while yawning. ¡°I may just take a nap now.¡±
¡°What about your attribute points and the shard the Queen is getting for you?¡±
¡°Oh, yea I suppose I should deal with that first. I wonder how long it will take the drones to bring me a bed?¡±
Steven didn''t have to wait much longer before Nev came back.
¡°Master, I have returned. I have also brought you some new equipment.¡±
Steven turned to see the spider Queen walking in front of three drones, each holding a small red pillow with black stitching. On top of each of these ornately crafted pillows was an item. The drones approached him and each knelt down, head bowed, looking at the floor. He nearly told them to stand, but one look at Nev and he decided against it. He wasn¡¯t about to do something to irritate the spider Queen and she looked quite determined, which was somehow attractive.
¡°Uhh, what¡¯s all this?¡± Steven asked. He also wondered what was with the pillows. The Naga did the same thing with the ring.
¡°As I was getting the shard for you, I was thinking. I have these treasures that have been in my cluster for generations and they are just sitting there, without being used. I assumed they could help, Master.¡± Nevateb said with a wide grin.
¡°I don¡¯t want to take treasures that have been in your family for generations. Don¡¯t they have sentimental value or something?¡± Steven asked. He was afraid her being his vassal was affecting her judgment and didn¡¯t want her daughters to come collecting.
¡°Do not worry Master. I will retrieve these treasures when I eat you.¡±
The Spider Queen said it so casually, it gave Steven the chills. ¡°But that is a long time in the future, and I need you to be safe till that day,¡± Nevateb said in a loving manner.
¡°Okay, yea sure, what are the items?¡± He couldn¡¯t say no to that logic. Hopefully, he would get strong enough she wouldn¡¯t be a threat.
Nevateb smiled cutely before continuing. ¡°The Amulet has a harden carapace ability, as you don¡¯t have carapace a phantom version will appear before you take actual damage. It will also greatly increases your poison resistance and poise.¡±
¡°So it¡¯s like bark skin, or stone skin with poison resistance?¡± Steven asked.
Nev looked confused, but Silvia was more than happy to jump in and explain. ¡°Yes, it is very similar to what you refer to as stone skin. And it¡¯s really just immunity to most poisons.¡±
¡°Well, that¡¯s useful! I could definitely use more defense and it would be nice to get my poise up from zero.¡± Steven¡¯s hand then shot up to the Amulet of the Forsaken plunge. ¡°Though I¡¯m not sure I can part with this Amulet.¡±
Both Silvia and Nevateb looked at him like he was insane. ¡°What, you have to be kidding me?¡± The Wisp asked, ¡°there is no way you want to keep that Amulet over this one? This Amulet!¡± The wisp pointed at the one on the pillow. ¡°That Is a national treasure to all spiders! It¡¯s Shard forged, for crying out loud! I don¡¯t believe you understand the significance of...¡±
¡°This Amulet,¡± Steven butted in, ¡°has saved my life more times than I can count! Or do you not remember that I fell into a pit just days ago?¡±
¡°Well, you do have a point there. You are clumsy for a Domain Holder. However, if the carapace Amulet is strong as I think it is then you would have survived the fall, though it would have hurt.¡±
¡°Master, if I may,¡± Nev said sweetly, while glaring at Silvia.
Steven was not used to someone treating him like some sort of King. If he was being honest with himself, he enjoyed it, but he would never admit it. In fact, he would have told the spider Queen to stop, but she was planning on eating him some day. So he would just play along and be the Queen¡¯s Master till he had to put her down, if he could put her down, that is.
¡°Master?¡± Nevateb asked again.
¡°Oh, yeah, sorry, go ahead.¡± Steven said.
¡°If falling is your biggest concern then the ring I brought for you can help with that as well. It allows you to conjure spider web. The webs won¡¯t be maxed level like my webs, but it would still be capable of restraining that boss you had me web up earlier.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened at that. ¡°yes please!¡± Steven pulled up his equipment to see which ring he should replace. He already had a good idea, but wanted to take a look over his actual equipment page since it had been a while.
{Stats} {Equipment*} {Shards} {Inventory}
Head- None
Rarity-None
~ Effect]- None
Chest- Hydra leather chest piece
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect]- Self repair. Small pocket dimension.
Hands- None
Rarity-None
~ Effect]- None
Legs- Hydra leather pants
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect]- Self repair.
Feet- Hydra leather boot
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect]- Self repair. Noise reduction.
Neck- Amulet of the Forsaken plunge.
Rarity- Uncommon
~ Effect]- While falling wearer will be transported to previous location before impact.
Ring 1- Minor ring of barrier
Rarity- Common
~Effect]- Repel some liquids for 30-minute intervals.
Ring 2- Ring of language
Rarity- Uncommon
~Effect]- Understand and speak common languages.
Ring 3- Ring of summons
Rarity- Unique
~Effect]- Once per day summon a being from Nembulia to aid you in battle for five mins.
Note- level of summon can vary.
Weapon 1- Crudely enchanted Daggers
Rarity- Uncommon
~ Effect]- Deals Poison damage. Damage is determined by targets vitality, high enough vitality can void all poison damage.
~Cost]- None
~ Requirement]- 2 Strength 3 Dexterity
Durability 18 of 80
Weapon 2- None
Rarity-None
~ Effect]- None
It would definitely be the Minor ring of barrier. It was useful, but there wasn¡¯t any of that swamp water in here and he could always swap back and forth. Right?
¡°So, are there any penalties from switching back and forth between rings?¡± To Steven¡¯s surprise, he didn¡¯t receive an answer. Closing his equipment page, he saw both Nevateb and Silvia staring at him with shocked expressions. ¡°What? That¡¯s a perfectly reasonable question!¡± Steven said a bit defensively.
Nev blinked a few times before she spoke. ¡°Master, to answer your question, yes. However, the only penalty is your mana regeneration is halved for twenty-four hours.¡±
¡°You seriously have an equipment page!¡± Silvia basically shouted, ¡°why can¡¯t I access it? It looked as you had a slot for every single equipment option. Including a second weapon slot, which is preposterous!¡±
¡°I¡¯m a bit confused about what you¡¯re going on about.¡± Steven said.
¡°Master, it is common for most of the enlightened races to have one, possibly two, ring slots and sometimes a slot for an amulet. Well, unless you are half Naga, that is. However, what I¡¯m getting at is you have the maximum slot options. Meaning you can equip as many shard imbued items as you want without issue.¡±
¡°Oh! Well, that¡¯s convenient. I just assumed everyone had equipment slots.¡±
¡°Convenient! It¡¯s simply absurd!¡± Silvia said, ¡°do you have any idea how over powered that is? I had assumed you had three ring slots and an Amulet slot since you had those things equipped. But¡¡± The wisp sighed, ¡°could you please open that page again so I may look over it properly?¡±
¡°Can you not just open it yourself? You can go into my inventory after all.¡±
¡°No! I have no idea why! But no, I cannot access it.¡±
Steven just opened his equipment page to stop the Wisp from yelling. Then he turned back to the spider Queen. Although it was hard to see her through all the words and numbers floating in his vision. He could just make out her staring intensely at him. Or maybe the equipment page.
¡°Can you see it too?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Yes, Master Odling, I can see it. It is quite wondrous indeed.¡±
¡°Can others see my stat pages when I open it? Also, is it really that big of a deal?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Only those bound to you can see your stats. Most have to go to a seeing stone to level and see their stats. I¡¯m unsure how the Wisp can look at your inventory without you opening it for her. It must be a familiar thing I don¡¯t know. As for if it¡¯s a big deal, yes it is. Ive never heard of anyone having all the slots available. There are stories about a human that had nearly all the slots for equipment and that human is the reason for the humans being one of the dominant species on this planet.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m not following. Are you saying that if I didn¡¯t have a slot for pants, then I couldn¡¯t wear pants?¡±
The spider Queen let out a laugh that Steven found extremely attractive.
¡°No. You can still wear pants even if you don¡¯t have a slot. Most don¡¯t have slots for that sort of thing there are some people that don¡¯t have equipment slots at all. What I¡¯m saying is, if you don¡¯t have a slot, then you can¡¯t wear equipment imbued with a shard.¡±
¡°Wait! There is equipment that is imbued with shards?¡±
¡°That is correct Master, however they are not as powerful as actual shards. The Amulet of the Armored Spider is not nearly as strong as my carapace, although with the right blacksmith and materials it could become even stronger, though I¡¯m unsure if it could ever be as strong as my ability. However, they do grant passive abilities such as poison resistance.¡±
Once Silvia finished looking over Steven¡¯s equipment page her and Nev explained several things. As they spoke, Steven started to understand what the big deal was. Just having the option of slots was not enough he would need the actual equipment imbued with shards. Which was quite rare to get ahold of. It took actual shards themselves and those were hard to find, meaning the rich had a huge edge. Steven also learned there were different kinds of enchanted equipment. The shard imbued one¡¯s being the most powerful by far. But few could imbue a weapon with a shard. The race that was known for it was none other than Dwarves. Steven was delighted when the spider Queen said she knew of some Dwarves in the mountains not far. Steven was more than excited to go visit them after they completed the dungeon.
The Queen didn¡¯t seem to doubt their victory over the Dungeon in the slightest. Silvia, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t so sure. And she did have a point: the Queen was powerful, but the Elder demon on the last floor was also level seventy. Silvia said that¡¯s why he came to work under Sorin in the first place. And explained Sorin had a deal with the Elder demon similar to what he had with the Queen, although the Elder demon was not nearly as loyal, and didn¡¯t take a spell binding oath.
Chapter 28: A jump in power
After the trio finished talking, Steven looked over the stats of the amulet and ring by placing them into his inventory.
Neck- Amulet of the Armored Spider
Rarity- Shard forged
~ Effect]- Enhanced Carapace instantly forms over wearer¡¯s body. (Note: Instantly activates if wearer takes 10% or more damage.)
~Cost}- Regeneration +3 per second.
~ Efect 2}- +50 Resistance.
~Cost}- None. (Passive ability)
~ Efect 3}- +35 Poise
~Cost}- None. (Passive ability)
Steven¡¯s eyes bulged as he saw the plus fifty resistance. That was insane on any stat. It was essentially fifty levels. His mind raced at the thought of a plus fifty to strength or health or any stat, really. Fifty free levels in resistance was still great, not to mention the boost to poise. If it only gave plus ten, it would be insanely good, hell five would be good at his level, but a single ring giving him eighty-five attribute points was insane.
¡°Hey guys¡ So, uhh plus fifty?¡± Steven asked, still in bewilderment.
¡°Guys? Are you referring to us?¡± Silvia asked, in confusion.
¡°Yea¡ This Amulet,¡± Steven said, holding out the Amulet for emphasis, ¡°this gives plus fifty! That is inane! Is th¡¡±
¡°Hey!¡± Silvia butted in, ¡°I can see how you could mistake me as a guy, but Nevateb is clearly female. I mean, just look at her.¡±
¡°Wait! What?¡± Steven asked with a dumbfounded look on his face. ¡°Any way, about this amulet, it gives an instant plus fifty to resistance and¡¡±
¡°Master, I have to agree with Miss Silviaburlaxatrix. I am certainly a female! And I am more than happy to show Master this in any manner he would like.¡±
Steven was taken completely off guard. He opened his mouth to respond but couldn¡¯t find the words.
¡°Absolutely not! I will not stand for my bounded human to be matting with a monster!¡± Silvia said.
Nevateb gasped. ¡°And what¡¯s wrong with monsters?¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t say there was anythi¡¡±
¡°Nev! Silvia!¡± Steven Shouted. ¡°What are you two even talking about? I obviously know she is female. Wait! You know what? I don¡¯t care.¡± Steven held up the amulet.
¡°But Mas¡¡±
¡°Nev! Shush! I¡¯m asking the questions here,¡± Steven pointed at Silvia, ¡°Nope! I saw your colors shifting.¡±
¡°My colors?¡±
¡°Shush!¡± Steven glared at the Wisp before turning back to the Queen. ¡°Both of you be quiet.¡± Taking a deep breath, Steven held out the amulet for the third time. ¡°This amulet.¡±
Most of Steven¡¯s enthusiasm was gone by this point. Especially when he realized he had an audience via the drones. They mostly stayed hidden and out of sight, but if you looked, you could always find at least one lurking nearby.
He still managed to learn about the amulet. It turned out that fifty was an incredible amount indeed. It was apparently considered quite good as a shard forged item. Not great, but still good. Steven learned there was a shard forged amulet for each attribute, and each of them gave a fifty point boost to the attribute they represented. They also each had some sort of ability. Steven wished he had the one that gave plus fifty strength, dex, or maybe spirit. Actually, all of them were good. He could see how resistance could be considered the weakest, but it still had plus thirty-five poise to make up for it. Either way, plus fifty, resistance was still like getting fifty free levels. And he should never get sick again! Or did it not work that way?
What Steven was really curious about was the carapace armor, which was what the Amulet was named after.
Putting the Amulet on, he tried it out.
The carapace armor wasn¡¯t phantom armor like he had first thought, but this odd hard leathery stuff, even Nevateb was surprised by this.
Silvia was also at a loss for words. The leathery material still resembled carapace but was made of a leathery material.
To Steven¡¯s amazement, the carapace was extremely thin, barely affecting his movement. It made him think of leather armor. As for how tough it was, Steven wasn¡¯t sure, but he couldn¡¯t even scratch the leathery carapace with his daggers and both the Wisp and the Queen said the carapace was strong.
Steven played around in the armor for a good bit before he realized the Amulet¡¯s downside. He had stabbed his dagger nearly through his forearm when the leathery armor vanished. At the same time he fell to the ground gripping his head from running his mana empty.
That¡¯s when he learned what the cost of the Amulet meant. The plus three meant it took all the mana he regenerated, and three more per second. Apparently, all Shard forged abilities drained a resource, although most drained endurance, which one typically had less of. But you got the powerful effect of the shard forged treasure, so it¡¯s worth it. This was just another thing that drained his mana. What he wouldn¡¯t do to get his hands on the amulet that boosted spirit! He ended up having to use one of his precious few health potions on his forearm. Steven watched in amazement as his wound healed up, not even leaving a scar. He couldn¡¯t help but imagine what health potions could do on earth. Probably nothing aside from making the rich people richer now that he thought about it. The big corporations would somehow get their hands on it and charge a ridiculous price. Shaking his head to clear it, he pulled up the ring¡¯s description.
Ring 1- Ring of webs
Rarity- Rare
~Effect]- Conjure up to 1000 feet of spider webbing per day, or 250 feet of enhanced webbing per day.
(Note: The webbing you use first each day is the only webbing that can be used for that day.)
It was pathetic compared to the amulet, but that was to be expected. Shard forged equipment couldn¡¯t be compared to normally enchanted items.
When Steven asked the wisp, what a day was exactly? He got a ridiculously long answer. When she finally finished explaining it to him, he thought he understood it, just not in great detail. From what he could understand, all items and abilities with a cool down reset at three thirty-three am. Although in this world people didn¡¯t run around with little computers in their pockets telling them the exact time. So most just understood it as when you go to bed and woke up your cool downs reset.
Steven equipped his new ring and amulet. He could only hope he made the right choice by switching out amulets. He understood the one he had on now was so much more powerful it wasn¡¯t even worth a second thought to most people. But Steven was worried about heights. Silvia explained his Shard ability should actually protect him. Although if he was falling onto spikes, then he would appear ten feet above the spike and fall back on to them. The wisp said his angelic death shard was extremely useful, and one of the most powerful unevolved shard abilities she had ever seen.
The next thing was to absorb the shard. This was something he was looking forward to and dreading at the same time. He couldn¡¯t wait to see what sort of shard ability he would get. He hoped it would be an offensive ability.
¡°God, I hope I get a good offensive shard ability.¡± Steven mumbled.
But first he wanted to test out the ring. Just a bit, he imagined himself swinging around like spider man, but he wasn¡¯t sure how it worked. He asked Nevateb if he would have to shoot webs from his butt. The response he got from the spider Queen was one he would never forget. Even the Wisp burst out into laughter as her pink light fluttered with specs of green.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
As for the Queen, she fell to the dungeon floor with laughter followed by her uncontrollably transforming back into her spider form due to sheer laughter. This went on longer than Steven thought was necessary. After she finally gathered herself and turned back to human form, she then apologized by kneeling down in front of him and asking for forgiveness. The drones also knelt after seeing their mother bow down. It¡¯s not like Steven had a choice. He had to forgive her. He needed her help, after all, and they were stuck together. Once things calmed back down, Nevateb tried to show Steven that the web did not come from her actual butt, but a hole below it. Though Steven wasn¡¯t having any of that, her spider form terrified him. He didn¡¯t think he would ever get used to the massive black arachnid body. To get out of having to deal with the very adamant Spider Queen, he just pulled out the Shard.
Absorb shard of Arachnid Royalty Yes/No?
Selecting yes, Steven watched as the shard broke down into thousands of little black moats of light that shot towards his chest. Suddenly they froze as if time its self stopped, looking around in confusion he realized that Silvia and Nev were also frozen in time. Steven moved his hand experimentally, but found he could move just fine. Suddenly, a portal opened. It was similar to the one that opened up in his basement, but this one was silver and speckled with red. Steven felt a strong urge to go into the portal and had unknowingly stepped towards it before he realized what he was doing. He didn¡¯t get anymore time to think on this as an actual Angel with wings, halo and all stepped out of the portal. The Angel glanced at the frozen wisp and then at the massive spider Queen who was frozen in an extremely odd position. The Angel¡¯s eyes lingered on Nevateb for so long that Steven was starting to think the Angel was also frozen. But soon as he went to speak up, the Angel turned to him. ¡°Chaos has heard your prayer.¡± The Angel suddenly held his hand out and some of the black moats of light started to take on a slivery red color. ¡°Uh, hey.¡± Steven said. Unsure what to say. ¡°What is¡¡± Steven started.
¡°It is done, mortal.¡± The Angel then stepped back into the portal, but not before taking another long look at the spider Queen.
Steven had the urge to follow in after the Angel but ultimately decided against it. ¡°That was a bit rude, you know,¡± Steven said, staring at the spot the portal had been. He didn¡¯t get time to think about the strange event that had just happen as time resumed and the now silvery red and black moats of light shot into his chest. Steven instantly fell to one knee, screaming in pain.
The pain was several times worse than he remembered from the first time he absorbed a shard and seemed to last twice as long. When he opened his eyes, Nevateb was by his side, back in human form, looking at him in concern. ¡°Master, are you okay? Ive never seen someone just absorb a shard without a ritual and absorption stone. I thought you were going to test the ring out first.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t respond and just continued to breathe hard for a couple minutes, sweat pouring from his brow.
¡°There is a lingering sense of divinity here.¡± The wisp said in confusion.
Nevateb started looking around in what Steven would consider panic. But she quickly took on her normal demeanor when she realized nothing was around.
¡°Well, an Angel of Chaos came in through a portal and did something to the shard right before I absorbed it.¡±
Nevateb¡¯s eyes bulged. ¡°Ch-chaos! How do you know it was that, God?¡±
¡°Because that¡¯s the God your master has been blessed by.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I see,¡± Nevateb hesitantly said.
¡°You didn¡¯t know?¡± Steven asked, slowly standing up.
¡°I knew you were blessed by a powerful God, but I didn¡¯t realize it was Chaos.¡±
¡°What¡¯s so special about him? If I¡¯m being honest, the Angel was actually a bit of a dick. At least the other Angel wasn¡¯t rude. This one kept staring at Nev, all strange like. Well, now that I think about it, the other Angel stared at me weirdly. But I still liked him better.¡±
Nevateb started looking around wide eyed. ¡°Staring at me?¡± Nevateb said.
¡°Umm, Steven,¡± Silvia started, ¡°I would be very careful when talking like that about Gods and their Angels.¡±
¡°Why?¡±
¡°Master. It¡¯s best to not provoke those that had transcended their mortal chains.¡±
¡°Never mind all that! Chaos doesn¡¯t seem to care, or you would already be dead.¡± Silvia said nonchalantly. ¡°Let¡¯s see what sort of shard ability you got!¡±
Steven was surprised at how excited the Wisp was. He, too, was excited and could barely wait. He had attribute points to spend and new gear to try, most importantly, a new magical power!
He quickly pulled up his shard page.
{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 a lethal attack. Can be turned off at any time.)
~ 2 of 7
Royalty of the Chaotic Arachnid
Ability effect~ Transform into a true Spider King at the cost of 1,000 mana per minute. All attributes get a 333% increase while in this form. You lose all equipment slots and shard abilities while in this form. (Note: This ability will automatically trigger if health goes below 25%. If hit points would be reduced to 0 or less while in this form, those hit points become 1, all effects are removed and the shard user will revert to original form.)
At first, Steven was confused by the name change. But his confusion quickly turned to anger after he read over the description.
¡°Master¡ This is incre..¡±
¡°NO! No! No! Why me? This is utter bullshit!¡° Steven shouted at the dungeon ceiling, ¡°I wanted a fire ball or lightning bolt! Hell, I would have been fine fire bolt! For fuck¡¯s sake, I didn¡¯t want to be dam spider! What the hell is wrong with you?¡± Steven was utterly pissed as he shouted at a God he assumed was paying him no mind. After a few minutes of this Steven calmed down a bit.
Silvia floated over. ¡°Hey, I understand being irritated you didn¡¯t get what you wanted. But the Gods can¡¯t actually affect the shard abilities you get.¡±
Steven glared at the Wisp.
¡°All they can do is change the shard it¡¯s self. As for the ability you gain, it is formed by your soul.¡±
¡°So you¡¯re saying somewhere deep in my soul I wanted to be a giant fucking spider?¡±
¡°I-I¡¯m not sure. Even though this is not what you wanted, it is an incredible ability, and the part about becoming a spider king is interesting. I wasn¡¯t aware that was even possible. I can¡¯t put my light on it, but I felt as though I¡¯ve heard of the Spider king before.¡±
Steven stopped paying the Wisp any attention as she rambled on about the tremendous boosts to stats. He heard Nevateb say something, but he ignored her too for the moment. He had a stat page to look over.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 18
Available Attribute ~7
Essence- 64
Essence required for next level 3318
HP ~ 143
Stamina ~ 56
Mana ~ 207
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 10
Endurance ~ 7
Strength ~ 7
Dexterity ~ 14
Resistance ~ 10 +50
Spirit ~ 17
Talent-
Basic Stealth - 15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened when he saw the boost to his attributes. From what he could tell, he got a three point bump to all his attributes from absorbing the shard. That in its self was good. Taking a few long steading breaths, he sighed. Maybe having the ability to turn him into a giant spider wouldn¡¯t be that bad. It did make him harder to kill, which is what his first shard did as well. It was the only synergy his shards had. He wondered if all his abilities were going to be defensive. Surviving was his top priority, after all. Maybe the Wisp was right, and it was his soul doing what was best for him. After all, he was trapped in a dungeon and only one Domain holder would be left alive. Whatever the case, Steven was still alive, and the boosts to his stats were greatly needed. The next thing to do was spend his attribute points he had been saving. Suddenly, he remembered the pain and resigned himself to only using one point at a time. He then realized he had just received three points to all his stats. No wonder it was so painful! Although if pain meant getting stronger, then it had to be good pain.
Steven spent his points one at a time. Seeing as mana was a huge part of his survivability now especially with his new amulet and shard ability it was clear he needed to spend most of his points in spirit, although he needed eleven strength to use the spear so he placed four of his free points in strength and the remaining three he placed into spirit.
Which brought his total mana pool all the way up to three hundred and twenty-six. Which made him stop everything he was doing and ask Silvia about it. She reminded him that every ten attributes he would get a boost to that stat. She was also positive that spirit was his dominate attribute and he should dump as much as possible there. Steven had already planned to do so but he just told her that was a good idea and he would definitely do so.
Eventually, the trio had a chat about the Angel. Nevateb also began adding in my king when referring to Steven, making it just another oddity he now had to deal with. The more annoying part was she kept asking when he was going to try his spider form. He just told her soon, but he was tired for now.
Once that was done, Steven was able to sleep in an actual bed that the drones got him. Nev tried to sleep in the same bed as him but Silvia was firmly against it and she ended up sleeping on the ground next to the bed in her spider form while the Wisp floated above him to make sure the spider Queen didn¡¯t try to climb in the bed with him. When he woke up, her human half was lying on the end of the bed. Steven just rolled his eyes at her sleeping form. He really didn¡¯t mind if she slept on the bed with him as long as she stayed in human form and didn¡¯t eat him. But he kept his mouth closed as the Wisp was quite adamant about it.
That morning Steven got some much needed practice in with the web of rings. He used the basic webs so he could practice more. It turned out the webs shot from the ring itself. Which made a lot of sense now that he thought about it. The ring was pretty awesome, although he had a hard time practicing because he didn¡¯t have any enemies to use it on. He stuck the web to the celling and tried to swing on it, but it turned out the web was quiet stretchy and was made for trapping enemies, although Nevateb showed him how to use it to catch himself if he was falling. Which was really just a big net. Luckily, it wasn¡¯t all that sticky to him. She also told him that if he used the enhanced webbing, it wouldn¡¯t be so stretchy. But when he asked about it getting tighter like hers, she told him the ring was not that powerful. But maybe his spider King form could learn that ability.
Chapter 29: Turning into a giant spider
Steven wanted to try out the spear next, but Nev wouldn¡¯t stop begging him to try his spider King form. He had been putting it off as the spider Queen¡¯s true form terrified him and he was unsure what would happen if he was terrified of himself.
Nev was basically bouncing with anticipation to see his new form. She told him how her mother used to tell her stories of the spider King when she was just a hatchling and she had never expected to see it for herself, so he relented. The thought of Nev eating her own mother came to mind, but he didn¡¯t mention that.
Though he still hesitated before he activated the shard. Was it normal to fear your own shard ability?
When Steven activated the shard, he had expected to change into a spider, but instead the spider body formed around him, encapsulating him inside. Once the process was completed, he lost all sense of self. Then he was the spider. It all happen with in a moment. If he focused, he thought he could feel his actual body deep inside him somewhere. Although that could just be wishful thinking, it was such a strange feeling. It took Steven a long while before he could even get a sense of his new body, much less walk in this new form.
The spider its self was black with a semi shiny carapace. It was just a bit smaller than Nev¡¯s form, but she said when he evolved the shard, he should be bigger than her. That brought up an entirely new discussion of evolving shards. But both Silvia and Nevateb said there was no point in concerning himself with that yet.
Another strange part about being in this spider form was he could apparently communicate telepathically and had been without realizing it, but almost nothing surprised him at this point and he just went with it.
The most difficult part to Steven was adjusting to having multiple eyes. Unfortunately, Steven¡¯s spider form was one of a true spider and not a Spider-kin. Which was why he apparently lost all equipment slots. As for why he lost his shards, Silvia had no idea. Her best guess was because of the absurd boost to his stats. The Wisp explained how right now it didn¡¯t make him all that powerful, but as he leveled up, the ability would drastically grow in power. Tripling all stats and then some was extremely powerful. He did get to keep his talents and his inventory ability. Although most things in inventory were useless in spider form.
He went to open his stat page to see what his stats were now that they were boosted so much, but he quickly found the page wouldn¡¯t open. Now that he was paying attention, he realized he had a notification blinking in the corner, but that also wouldn¡¯t open. Luckily, he still had access to his mana and health bars, which were over three times larger than his human form, however it didn¡¯t give him the actual numbers.
Steven didn¡¯t get to stay in the spider form long before he had to change back to his human form. He had done this several times now. Once his mana refilled, he turned back into his spider form. He needed to get some practice in with his new shard ability. Nev was more than happy to help him adjust. Although the way she was looking at him now was a bit concerning. It looked as though there was hunger in her eyes, but it must have just been his imagination because when he looked back at her, she was just smiling.Steven and the Spider Queen played a game of tag to help him get a feel for his new body. Although he kept having to change back to his human form every minute or risk running out of mana completely. He also lost every game they played, but he was getting a good feel for his new shard ability.
The most surprising thing about this form was how nimble the body was for being so large. He knew this body was heavy, but he could crawl up the wall and onto the dungeon celling without issue. He was hesitant about doing it till Nevateb covered the pit traps with her webbing while he was letting his mana regenerate. Her webbing was as solid as the floor its self so the traps would no longer be an issue. After a bit, his spider Queen instructor told him it was time he learned how to use webs. She tried to explain how it was basically an extension of their body and they could feel vibrations through webs even from far way as long as you were touching at least one web that was connected to it, and it could also be used as a form of communication. However, Steven was lost by this and Nev told him he just needed practice.
Using his web was the strangest sensation he had ever had. To his horror, the web did in fact come from his spider butt.
The closest sensation Steven had ever had to this was the time he had eaten some spicy tacos while drunk and had to rush to the toilet. Although this wasn¡¯t nearly as painful and it just kept coming out. It was almost a pleasant sensation, but Steven quickly pushed that thought to the back of his mind and willed it to never surface. When he asked Nev if it was supposed to get so hot before the webs came out. She smirked and told him she wasn¡¯t sure since her webs didn¡¯t come from her butt like his did.
She did eventually tell him that yes, it was probably normal. Steven quickly realized the Queen was much more relaxed around his spider form than his human form. Steven had switched between forms several times at this point and was exhausted. Nev wanted him to keep practicing, but he told her was done for now and that he still needed to try out his spear.
This brought her mood down, but when he mentioned that when he gained more levels, he would be able to stay in the spider form longer. Her mood lifted, and she wanted to head to the next floor immediately.
Steven pulled up the spear¡¯s description before equipping it.
Odling¡¯s Chaos Imbued Lightning Spear.
Rarity- Chaotic
~ Effect]- Lightning damage stuns target, time stunned is based on targets endurance.
~ 17% of base lightning damage jumps to two random enemy targets also causing stun.
~Cost]- Must be charged with Odling mana to access lightning damage.
~ Requirement]- 11 Strength 11 Dexterity 11 Spirit
~Additional Requirements}- Must be born with last name Odling. Weapon must be Soul Bound to wield.
It was a bit irritating. It didn¡¯t tell him how much mana would be drained when he used the lightning, or how to even activate the lightning. He would just have to figure it out the old fashion way.
Steven was realizing how mana intensive his build was becoming. He was getting some cool and useful stuff, but he was limited by how much mana he had. He practiced with the spear for a bit. It felt awkward in his hands, but not so much as the daggers did when he first started using them. After thrusting it around a bit, He made a target with his Ring of webs to get some throwing practice in.
It turned out the spear its self decided when it wanted to pull mana from Steven and when to use its lightning ability. However, each attack in itself had some lightning damage. He assumed that¡¯s what would stun his opponents. Though he didn¡¯t have anyone to try it on. Nev offered up some of her drones as testing dummies. The weird part was soon as she suggested it. Several of the drones rushed to kneel in front of him, offering themselves. Steven almost changed his mind when he saw the disappointment written across their faces, but quickly thought better of it. After that ordeal, Steven went back to making targets. Silvia just floated by and critiqued him from time to time.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Steven¡¯s aim was much better than he had expected, most likely due to his attributes being higher now, but he still needed a lot of practice.
With the ability to return the spear to his hand, he couldn¡¯t dismiss the idea of throwing a literal lightning spear besides he needed range and the bow he had just sucked, or rather, he just sucked at using it.
Eventuality Steven sat down to rest and talk with Silvia and Nev. At one point he asked why the ring and amulet was made to fit humans, but the Wisp and Queen both told him that¡¯s just how things worked.
After eating, talking and taking a nap, he was ready to take on the next floor. Now that he had a maxed level spider Queen and some new equipment he was as ready as he would ever be, the only thing that would make it better would be having Sirus there to help.
¡°Damit! What is happing? First the half Naga and now he has the spider Queen herself doing his bidding! He even took my Wisp! I wish I could see what they¡¯re doing in that damn hidden passage!¡±
Sorin was fuming. The floating eye hid its smirk as he knew this Dungeon lord was getting desperate and would indeed pay his over priced fee.
¡°Lord Sorin,¡± even though the beholder spoke telepathically, it was in deep echoing boom, ¡°are you certain you wish to hire my services?¡±
¡°Of course I do! I called you here, didn¡¯t I!¡±
The beholder nodded. ¡°Once the price is agreed upon, I will place the assassin¡¯s mark on the human.¡±
Blank was irritated. He hadn¡¯t expected to become stuck on this planet for so long. It took a ridiculous amount of mana to travel between worlds, though that was no longer the issue. It was the cool down time on his portal; he hadn¡¯t been aware that mana barren worlds would affect the cooldown time.
Not for the first time, he wondered why his God was so interested in this world. He understood that the humans here had more equipment slots than most, and these earth humans also had unawakened talents. Some even had multiple talents.
Even so, this world was void of magic. He didn¡¯t understand how it was supposed to be useful. Unless there was a way to bring mana to this world. But he was just another one of his Gods many minions recruiting on worlds.
When Blank first arrived, he had been so very hopeful. The first human he had encountered had a full set of equipment slots and three hidden talents, which was unheard of. But he quickly realized how foolish the humans were. Especially when that first human ran through his portal before he could even finish a sentence.
Not only that, but this world was full of lies and deceits. When he saw the fight taking place on the scrying device, he thought he understood why his God wanted this world. However, it turned out to be a lie. After a few weeks in this world, Blank started figuring out this world¡¯s lies. The Scrying device was actually something called a tv, and it was filled with mostly false hoods, though it had a few truths on it if you knew where to look. Blank had stayed in front of the scrying device constantly while Kat would go out and get food and look for recruits. The owner of the house only freaked out for a moment before he had Kat go in the form of Steven and deal with it.
One day while watching the local news Blank seen one of those experimental Naga¡¯s appear. At first he thought little of it, as the world he was staying on had lots of them. But he quickly realized the Naga didn¡¯t belong when the locals started freaking out. The Naga was quite skilled at knocking around this world¡¯s defenses. Although Blank knew the Naga would run out of mana, as the humans wouldn¡¯t stop until he was captured. Suddenly the news just stopped reporting about the half Naga and began talking about some nonsense. That¡¯s when Blank decided to get involved. He had to know how this Naga got on this world.
Eve had been in the shop with Goskia when the warning bells went off. They were working on a new version of her ghost fire when her entire life twisted upside down. Everything happened so quickly.
As soon as the warning bells went off. Goskia had jumped into action. He began running around his shop, touching everything. Eve watched as everything he touched vanished. Before Eve had a chance to ask what was happening, the old shop keep was leading her to the center of the shop. He placed his hand on the tree and the bark fell away. There were two strange metal rods leading down the tunnel as far as she could see. Before she could ask what was happening, Naga began charging into the shop.
¡°Master, we have brought everyone we could find nearby. We will go now to get more.¡±
Goskia nodded as the younger Naga took off.
The Naga all started asking questions. ¡°Silence,¡± Goskia said. ¡°the humans have made their move and will kill or capture everyone in this village.¡± Goskia let that sink in for a few seconds before continuing, ¡°we must flee. Now form a line.¡±
Eve looked on wide eyed at everyone, most of which were staring at her with just as much confusion. She couldn¡¯t seem to find the words to ask anything. But It turned out she didn¡¯t need to. Goskia walked back towards her and placed his hand above the metal rods, then a cart large enough to hold around ten Naga just appeared from thin air. ¡°Get on,¡± Goskia said as he led others to the cart. ¡°It will take you to the Spider-kin territory. The humans won¡¯t dare enter the spider Queen¡¯s lands. We will regroup there.¡± Goskia said with such confidence that everyone just did as he asked. After all, everyone knew Goskia. He was the only Elder to ever retire.
The Fourth floor opened up in a tunnel just like the last. ¡°Does every floor have the same entrance?¡±
Silvia burst from his inventory. ¡°The floors won¡¯t change till the fifth floor.¡±
¡°I thought you wanted to stay hidden in my inventory?
¡°I don¡¯t think that really matters anymore. He surely seen me talking with the spider queen. If not, then he will see me, eventually. Any way, the floors won¡¯t change till the fifth floor, which is where the real challenge will begin,¡± Silvia said, ¡°Although most don¡¯t have an absurd inventory power that breaks the laws of the entire magic system. Or a max level spider Queen as a servant, and they definitely don¡¯t have every available equipment slot. Even with all that, your greatest advantage by far is the fountain of knowledge in the form of a Wisp.¡±
¡°You absolutely right Silvia, if it wasn¡¯t for you I would already be dead.¡±
¡°But Master¡ What about me?¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t stand a chance in this dungeon without you Nev, don¡¯t worry, I can never forget the gorgeous spider Queen that plans on eating me.¡±
Steven just rolled his eyes as Nev seemed to perk up at the praise.
The floor turned out to be a mixture of zombies, skeletons and ghouls, although the skeleton and zombies were on the opposite sides of the floor from one another, he wasn''t sure how the wisp knew the things she did he was just happy she had that knowledge.
Steven threw his spear at the first cluster of skeletons he saw, turning three of them into ash.
+65
+67
+61
Steven stood there in amazement at how awesome his spear was! Though as it was purely random when it activated like that, he couldn¡¯t rely on it. Silvia told him that the dwarfs could likely fix the issue. Although Steven wasn¡¯t so sure it did have chaotic in the name and he imagined being random was just part of the function.
Nev began clearing out the remaining skeletons by webbing them up and having her drones take them to Steven to place in inventory.
Steven, on the other hand, just began messing around with his new equipment, trying to get a feel for them. His spear was the thing he wanted to practice with the most, as it was his only good source of damage.
He killed the webbed skeletons till he got bored with it. And just began placing them in his inventory again. He killed around twenty and was still over two thousand essence away from leveling.
He messed around with his amulet for a good bit, trying to get used to the carapace. After that, he spent most of his time practicing his spider form. At one point, Silvia mentioned he should kill the webbed skeletons while in his spider King form. Which turned out to be a truly genius idea. He could basically just step on them and kill them. Steven lined them up as if he was laying them on a train track and then began just stomping them and watching the essence roll in. He could only do this in short bursts, however. The thought of maybe this spider form wasn¡¯t so bad, even crossed his mind a few times. He just really hoped he would get some magic soon. The day continued like this. At some point, the skeletons changed to ghouls and then to skeletons.
The spider Queen came back saying she was tired and hungry. Steven told her to take a break. They already made it to the hidden path, anyway. Nev left the dungeon to get some food, saying it would be much easier to go to the food rather than have her drones bring it here. She did, however, have the drones bring Steven food.
Chapter 30: Stoned
Steven woke up the next morning to a giant sleeping spider using the foot of his bed as a pillow. It was only slightly terrifying looking at her now. He left the bed, careful to not wake Nev up. He was really impressed by how hard she had worked yesterday, never complaining once. If this continues, he will be out of this godforsaken dungeon in no time.
Silvia flew over and telling him she had to stop the arachnid from crawling into bed with him several times. Steven just rolled his eyes and walked away from their makeshift camp.
He began pulling out ghouls and killing them with his spear. After killing a few, he attempted to locate the durability of the weapon but couldn¡¯t find it. Silvia also looked, but was confused when she didn¡¯t see it either, she told him that Shard forged items self repaired so maybe this weapon did something similar but they wouldn¡¯t know for sure till they got out of this dungeon and took to the dwarves to get it upgraded.
At some point, Nevateb woke up and immediately got back to work. But not before she kissed Steven on the cheek. Steven didn¡¯t mind as long as she was in human form, although it annoyed Silvia to no end. He just told the wisp if the spider Queen was going to work for him so hard, he would deal with her quirks.
He was gaining less essence since Nev was binding them. But when Steven asked the wisp if he needed to have the Queen wait outside the dungeon, she told him it wasn¡¯t really worth it as the monsters weren¡¯t worth much essence.
When Nev brought the fourth floor boss, he would have her wait outside so he could kill the boss along with any drones that helped. He wanted to gain all the essence he could, but Silvia was right it would just slow down the progress for little gain. She could wait outside when the dungeon monsters brought more essence. He was sure the Queen would be happy to wait to do so. After all, the sooner he reached level seventy, the sooner she could start leveling again. And the sooner she could eat him...
For the rest of the day, Steven used his spear to kill undead. The spear was starting to feel less awkward in his hands now, but he still didn¡¯t know how to use it properly in a fight. Although right now all he had to do was pull out a dungeon monster, then stab it. He even had enough time to stab with both hands.
Eventually Nev came back dragging the fourth floor boss. The drones were also dragging along many other lesser dungeon creatures in the form of zombies, skeletons, and ghouls.
The fourth floor boss its self was a massive monstrosity with three heads, one of a skeleton, zombie and ghoul. Or so Steven had thought at first. The Queen explained that there were actually three bosses they were just all warped up in her web together. That concerned Steven, but Nevateb wasn¡¯t concerned in the slightest and said she would be back later. She was going to go outside and get something to eat and make more drones. Silvia and Steven then began trying to figure out the best way to deal with the boss, trio. He was concerned the lightning would tear the webs up eventually and he would have to deal with three bosses at once, though he could just send them to inventory.
Since Steven could still use his inventory while in spider form, he decided he would kill them by crushing, biting. If he had to, he could even web them up. Then Steven got a crazy idea. He basically had unlimited web while in his spider King form. He could just trap the entire area so the bosses couldn¡¯t do anything without becoming stuck in webs and just kill them like a true spider.
That thought made Steven question himself. Was the spider form affecting his mind? There were various different ways to deal with the bosses, but for some reason this one appealed to him the most. The easiest way would be to send them to inventory and pull them out one at a time. But Steven gave into his spider urges as he began trapping the area, besides he needed the practice in his spider form, at least that¡¯s what told himself.
Nevateb finished eating a few male humans. She had to do this if she planned to keep the drones coming. There were millions of drones spread out in her cities, but only a fraction of them were hers. Most were her daughters and although they obeyed her, if she ordered it, they could turn on her at the worst possible moment. Which is exactly how she took the throne from her mother, and why she needed to keep a large number of drones around. Most of her drones where scattered throughout the swamp lands keeping an eye on things for her.
There could only be one Queen after all, and she had killed several of her daughters that attempted to take her position over the years. It was foolish to try, as she was at max level. Although she feared her strongest daughters coming after her together. She had one daughter that had just reached sixty and there were a few more at fifty. If they were to join together, she didn¡¯t think she could take them.
She would rather not kill her daughters. Which is why she was so adamant about becoming stronger. Her great grandmother had foretold a human from another world would one day come to these lands and he would be a Spider King. And together they would rule this world. Nevateb had her doubts, and she didn¡¯t need males for anything but creating new drones. But when that Domain holder she was trying to manipulate actually gained the Spider King ability, she nearly freaked out.
It was such a glorious form! She had not expected his form to be so handsome. His carapace was so rigged, she could just imagine rubbing her hands over his rough carapace. And he was so big! Nevateb had been to the true spider clans, and she was larger than their Queens. In fact, she believed she was the largest spider on this planet. And his form was nearly the same size as her, and when he evolved the shard, the form would no doubt grow even beyond her size. The thought of her Master being larger than her made her¡
¡°Mother! Are you listing?¡±
Nevateb turned towards one of her younger daughters. A small thing with her human half still in an egg sack. ¡°What is it, child? I was just leaving to go back into the dungeon.¡±
Girls were much harder to raise than boys. She could tell anyone of her male children to slit their own throat and they wouldn¡¯t hesitate. But girls! Too bad the males were all weak, well, aside from a few select drones, but they still had limits.
¡°Ive been trying to tell you that Kalicteb is waiting for you.¡±
Nevateb narrowed her eyes. ¡°I see. Go tell your sister I¡¯ll be down in a moment.¡±
One would think a spider race would live in a nest full of webs, but the Spider-kin preferred to not have their homes filled with webs. But you wouldn¡¯t find any webs in a Spider-kin city. There were crews of drones that went around cleaning webs from the Queen and princess. If Steven seen the city, he would recognize it as a newer version of the half Naga village. In fact the old spider Queen gave the Half Naga village to them in exchange for a consistent supply of potions, which were sold to the humans.
Nevateb sighed before shooting a web from her main nest and spun down to the guest hall below.
¡°Hello Kalicteb.¡±
¡°Hello Mother.¡±
¡°I must congratulate you for reaching level sixty!¡± Nevateb watched as her daughter¡¯s eyes widened.
¡°News travels fast I see,¡± Kalicteb said after quickly getting her expressions under control.
¡°Indeed, it does. I imagine you didn¡¯t travel all the way here for me to congratulate you. Or did you come here to try to claim the thrown?¡± Nevateb knew her daughter wouldn¡¯t try, at least not while she was still below her level. Kalicteb was clever if young.
Kalicteb¡¯s eyes widened, and she took a step back, even her drones took a step back. Just as Nevateb had expected. It was a good way to test her daughters. If the drones would have raised their weapons to defend instead of backing up, then it meant her daughter was thinking of betraying her. Though none of her daughters knew this. It was one of the many little ancestral secrets she gained when consuming her mother.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
¡°M-mother, please know I would never!¡± The fearful look in her daughter¡¯s eyes was exactly what she wanted to see. If they ever stopped fearing, then they could turn against you at any time.
¡°Relax and explain why you have come then, my child.¡±
¡°Its just, my sisters and I have been hearing rumors that you have a Master¡¡± Kalicteb hesitantly said.
There it is. She knew exactly why her daughter was here; she was expecting it. ¡°Yes, I have found a worthy Master. I will serve him till I break past my level cap, then I will eat him.¡± Nevateb said.
¡°A Domain holder here! It¡¯s not the vampire, is it?¡±
¡°No, I would rather be killed than serve that bastard, actually the Master I serve is challenging the vampire¡¯s Domain as we speak.¡± Nevateb smirked, knowing her daughter was trying to figure out who it was.
A long moment passed before Kalicteb spoke. ¡°Mother, may I ask, who is this Domain holder?¡±
¡°You may. His name is Steven Odling.¡±
Kalicteb''s eyes narrowed in confusion. ¡°Mother, I know all seven of the Domain holders by name. And that is not one of them.¡±
The spider Queen smiled wickedly before she spoke. She knew her daughter was already considering becoming a servant of a Domain holder even though she hadn¡¯t hit max level. Out of all her daughters, this one was the one to watch out for. She was cunning.
¡°He is from another planet, and has been blessed by Chaos.¡±
Kalicteb gasped. ¡°C-chaos! But mother that¡¯s...¡±
¡°The spider King legend, I know.¡±
¡°I know where I heard it from.¡± Silvia said excitedly.
Steven ripped the head off the last boss with his mandibles before turning back to his human form. ¡°Ugh, so much blood.¡±
The scene looked like something from a horror film. Massive body parts and black blood were slung everywhere. Stevens Spider King form was good at making sticky webs. Now that he was looking around, he realized he may have gone a little overboard with the webs. He could no longer even see the walls or floor from all the webbing. Steven was lucky the webs didn¡¯t stick to him in human form, although he had to take off his shoes.
¡°Maybe not the floor next time.¡± Steven¡¯s trap had worked flawlessly. All three bosses got stuck in his webbing. The more they struggled, the more entangled they got in the webbing and the sticker it became. He had no idea how or why, but that¡¯s how it worked, and he wasn¡¯t about to complain. His webbing also worked great with lightning. When he attacked one monster, all the others that were trapped in the webbing also took lightning damaged. But that was random and he couldn¡¯t rely on it, so he used his Spider form to kill them, besides he needed the practice in his spider form. It was his trump card, after all. No one would ever expect him to turn into a massive spider. He just wished he could stay in the form longer.
As Steven stared out at the black blood and parts everywhere he was really starting to appreciate his Spider form. With a bit more mana he would be able to stay in the form even longer and then¡
¡°Hey, pay attention! This is important.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Oh, sorry. What is it?¡¯
¡°I remember where I heard the name Spider King before. It¡¯s a spider legend!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to be like a supercomputer and have all the knowledge? How did you forget? Besides, Nev already mentioned her grandmother told her stories about the Spider King.¡±
The Wisps light flickered. ¡±I¡¯m unsure what you mean by computer, but the legend goes like this: a human blessed by Chaos will come from another world and become the Spider King. He will bring in the era of spider rule. Taking complete control of this planet and ruling with an iron carapace, the spider Queen at his back.¡±
¡°Wait what? You can¡¯t be serious!¡± Steven turned, looking around for Nevateb. ¡°Can one of you go fetch the Queen?¡±
¡°At once, my king!¡± One of the drones said before they ran off.
¡°It seems they believe you to be this Spider king.¡±
Steven got the sense the Wisp was smirking, but paid it no mind.
¡°Do you remember anything else about the legend? Nev didn¡¯t mention it was so specific!¡±
Silvia hesitated before she spoke. ¡°No, I¡¯m sorry.¡±
¡°Oh, okay then.¡± Steven sighed.
¡°I don¡¯t have anymore information on the Spider King. And I don¡¯t think it wise to send me to get any more.¡± The Wisp said in a strangely serious tone.
Steven was a bit confused by the odd response. Where would he even send her to get information? The Queen would have all the information he would need, anyway.
¡°I agree. I would rather have you here with me than off trying to find information.¡± Steven noticed how Silvia¡¯s light softened.
¡°Okay good. Now, what¡¯s our next move?¡± Silvia asked, in a much better mood.
¡°Well, I guess we are off to the fifth floor. But first.¡± Steven pulled out the water pipe. It had been too long. Steven quickly realized something was wrong. He wasn¡¯t feeling anything.
¡°It¡¯s the amulet. Your resistance is too high.¡± Silvia said after watching Steven take multiple hits.
¡°Oh¡¡± Steven then just took off the Amulet and replaced it with forsaken plunge.
¡°Uhhh! Thats not a good idea. You just halved your mana recovery, and weakened your self considerably!¡± Silvia said, light flickering wildly.
Steven immediately realized he had made a mistake. His head started tingling. Apparently soon as he took off the boost to resistance, it all hit him at once. His mind then began racing, jumping from thought to thought so quickly it was making him dizzy, so he sat down. He thought he heard the Wisp laughing, but he wasn¡¯t sure.
He brought up his stat page at one point, trying to distract himself, but it didn¡¯t help. He also didn¡¯t want to accidentally use all the essence he had been saving on this floor, so he quickly closed the page.
¡°Master Odling,¡± a familiar voice echoed out, ¡°One of my daughters wishes to meet you.¡±
¡°Oh, this is a terrible time.¡± Steven mumbled.
¡°What was that?¡± Nev asked as she approached.
Silvia laughed. ¡°Great timing. But no, we aren¡¯t accepting any more spider servants. One is all we need at the moment.¡±
¡°Mother, is that a Wisp!¡±
Nev glared at the Wisp.¡± Yes it is.¡±
¡°I thought they were just legends!¡± Kalicteb whispered.
¡°Some of them are.¡± Nev said absently while looking around in confusion. It looked like she just walked into a monster¡¯s layer. Blood and body parts were slung and stuck everywhere. Blood dripped next to her from a head stuck to the webbed ceiling
¡°Is this the work of the Spider King?¡± Kalicteb asked.
Steven laid in a web hammock stoned only half paying attention to anything head spinning.
Where was his bed? Uh, it was still in the last hidden room. Steven then remembered he had drones. ¡°Could someone bring me my bed? I need to sleep this one off.¡±
¡°Master Odling, is everything okay?¡±
Steven looked over at the Spider Queen. At first, he thought he saw two of them. Closing his eyes, he just lay back in the hammock. ¡°Shush, that¡¯s too loud. Just come here and talk softly.¡±
The spider Queen approached, her daughter by her side. ¡°This is probably a bad time to meet him.¡± Nev whispered to her daughter.
¡°I can see that, but I¡¯m already here, so I would like to talk with him.¡±
Nev just shrugged. ¡°Okay, give me a moment.¡±
The Queen got close enough to whisper in Steven¡¯s ear, but before she could say anything, he pulled her into the hammock with him. ¡°I need something solid to hold on to.¡±
Nev didn¡¯t even attempt to resist as Steven just held her. Though she was disappointed when Steven fell fast asleep a few moments later.
¡°This is ridicules, just put back on the amulet and you will be fine.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I do believe the young Spider King is asleep, Master Wisp.¡± Kalicteb said.
Silvia went to correct the spider Princess but thought better of it. Master Wisp had a nice ring to it. ¡°That does seem to be the case,¡± Silvia said, floating closer. ¡°So that¡¯s your mother, is it?¡±
Kalicteb turned towards the wisp. ¡°You don¡¯t know the half of it.¡±
Steven woke up in a webbed hammock with the spider Queen laying on top of him, luckily she was in her human form and also fast asleep. They were both clothed, and he knew nothing happened, mostly because he wasn¡¯t eaten alive. Steven then quickly began checking to make sure he still had all his arms and legs and other parts. Once he was sure, he breathed out a sigh of relief.
¡°Master, are we getting up now?¡±
Now that Steven was certain he wasn¡¯t missing any parts, he laid back down. It¡¯s not like he was in a hurry for anything. ¡°Well, we can get a bit more sleep.¡± He had a beautiful woman laying on top of him to cuddle with, and his head was still pounding so a bit more rest would be good.
¡°Of course, Master Odling.¡± Nevateb said with a wide smile nuzzling into his chest.
¡°Hey! You two get up. It¡¯s been hours we have levels to gain, bosses to beat and Dungeon Lords to slay!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Please keep it down. My head hurts.¡± Steven complained.
¡°Put back on the Amulet, dumb dumb!¡±
¡°Oh.¡± Steven started getting out of the hammock, prompting Nev to get off of him. He noticed the bed next to him and placed in his inventory.
He then swapped to the Amulet of the Armored Spider. His head began to clear at a rapid pace. Within seconds, his head stopped pounding and his mind cleared, though it didn¡¯t help him being tired.
¡°I wanted to sleep more.¡±
¡°You realize your mana regeneration is now halved for the next twenty-four hours, right?¡± Silvia said before turning to Nevateb, ¡°oh, and your lovely daughter left to go back the capital.¡±
¡°So soon, I was going to have her meet Master Odling.¡±
¡°Master Odling,¡± Silvia said, light dimming, ¡°was too busy getting wasted and destroying his mana recovery. I think your daughter seen enough.¡±
Steven looked over at the Wisp. He wanted to say something, but really didn¡¯t have the words. He did kinda mess up, but why couldn¡¯t the Wisp be more like Nev? She was a good loyal servant, letting him sleep as long as he liked and was good at cuddles. He tried not to think about the fact she was planning on eating him. At the moment, he needed to figure out a way to bypass the cursed resistance on his Amulet.
Chapter 31: A talkative assassin
Steven looked around. He had really gone overboard with the webs. Black blood and body parts still stuck to the webs. He was about to ask Silvia if the Spider shard was affecting his judgment, but had another question he wanted answered first. ¡°Hey Silvia.¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°So, is there a way to bypass the resistance on this Amulet so I don¡¯t have to take it off?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light brightened just a bit. ¡°Yes, there absolutely is. You can not smoke that stuff. You told me it helped you concentrate, but that¡¯s clearly not the case. Ive actually been meaning to talk to you about that. This is a dungeon. It may be the weakest dungeon with a Dungeon Lord, but it¡¯s still a dungeon with a Dungeon lord! You need to take it seriously!¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want to talk about this right now! I¡¯ll just deal with my mana regeneration being halved for now. Besides, I have Nev now.¡±
¡°Steven! You can¡¯t be serious. Both our lives are¡¡±
¡°I SAID I DON¡¯T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!¡± Steven sighed. ¡°I just had too much yesterday, that¡¯s all.¡±
¡°That wasn¡¯t yesterday. It¡¯s still the same day! Do you see what I mean?¡±
¡°I¡¯m done with this conversation.¡± Steven said, turning to the spider Queen. ¡°Nev, back me up here.¡±
Nevateb¡¯s eyes went from the Wisp, then back to Steven before she spoke. ¡°I serve Master Odling, and I see nothing wrong.¡±
¡°Oh, is see what you¡¯re doing!¡± Silvia narrowed her eyes at the spider Queen.
¡°Silvia, can it! I¡¯m not in the mood. We can talk about this later.¡±
¡°I¡¯m trying to keep you alive! But, whatever,¡± Silvia¡¯s light flickered wildly, ¡°you know what? I¡¯m done with this!¡± Silvia flew directly at Steven at full speed.
Nev immediately went on guard, but was too slow to react, soon as Silvia came in contact with Steven she vanished.
¡°Master. What just happen? Where did she go?¡±
Steven rolled his eyes. ¡°She just went into my inventory and is just being dramatic. I really have no idea what has come over her.¡± Steven then pulled the water pipe out of his inventory. Taking off his Amulet he took a couple hits. He then put the amulet back on. ¡°Damit!¡± Steven was contemplating just leaving the amulet off. But the armor was too good and halving his mana regeneration could get him killed, so he couldn¡¯t switch between them all the time. He supposed the Wisp had a point. Steven decided to leave the spider Amulet on. He would figure this mess out when they were settled on the next floor. He felt kinda bad at yelling at the wisp. From what she said, her last master yelled at her a lot. Steven shook his head to clear it. He needed to concentrate.
¡°Do you know where the hidden room is on this floor?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry Master, I do not. Though I can send drones out to start looking.¡±
¡°No, that¡¯s fine. Those paths are nearly impossible to find.¡± Steven nearly pulled Silvia from his inventory, but decided he didn¡¯t want to ask her for help right now. As that was probably what she was waiting for. ¡°We will just skip this floor¡¯s treasure for now.¡±
Nevateb led Steven into the boss room of the fourth floor. Now that he thought about it, this was his first time going through an actual boss room to reach the next floor. The Boss room looked the same as the second floor boss room when he encountered the adventures. It was basically a large cave room with some sort of stone tiled floor. On the other side, he saw the blue glowing door to the next floor. He should probably level up before he went to the next floor. The bosses of this floor each brought just a bit over a thousand essence which he supposed was only a single level at this point, but every bit helped. Curious how much essence he had, he focused on the counter.
5,367
This was not what Steven wanted to see. He assumed he would be able to reach level twenty like Silvia recommended, but seems gaining less essence from the kills was really adding up. When Silvia came out, he would be having a discussion with her about this. He had specifically asked if he needed to have Nev wait outside. Steven took a deep breath and sighed.
¡°Is everything okay, Master Odling?¡±
¡°Yea, it¡¯s fine. I just don¡¯t have enough essence to reach level twenty like I had planned.¡±
¡°Do you want me to go find some more dungeon monsters? i¡¯m sure there are some the drones missed.¡±
¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t need much. It won¡¯t take long when we get to the fifth floor.¡±
¡°It is incredible that you can see exactly how much essence you need without a seeing stone.¡±
¡°It is handy.¡± Steven said absently as he looked over his stat page.
Deciding now was as good as time as any, he leveled up to nineteen and placed his single attribute point into spirit.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 19
Available Attribute ~0
Essence- 2,049
Essence required for next level 3,895
HP ~ 133
Stamina ~ 56
Mana ~ 347
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 10
Endurance ~ 7
Strength ~ 11
Dexterity ~ 14
Resistance ~ 10 +50
Spirit ~ 21
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
His stats were looking pretty good. He was curious how the extra thirty-five poise would affect him, but hadn¡¯t been in a situation to see what it even did.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He would also soon be able to get another shard and boost his stats a bit more, but more importantly, get a new ability! Though the boost to stats would be nice since he still had that Blighted staff he wanted to use, but was lacking the mana.
¡°Master Odling, are you ready?¡±
¡°Oh, yeah. Let¡¯s go,¡± Steven said as he started walking across the room. ¡°Silvia said the next floor was a mushroom forest, but she didn¡¯t mention what the dungeon monsters were.¡±
¡°The fifth floor is a beautiful floor. You shouldn¡¯t even need those dark vision potions. There are many glowing plants. As for the dungeon monsters, well, they are adolescent Wisps. They aren¡¯t really that dangerous, but if enough of them gather together, then they can cause a lot of light damage. Enough to even take me out, if they all came at once, but the little creatures never work together, so it won¡¯t be an issue.¡±
¡°Adolescent Wisps? Is that similar to Silvia?¡±
¡°Silvia is not an Adolescent, she is a true Wisp meaning she is quite rare and unique. I¡¯m really not the best one to explain the difference. The only thing I really know about adolescent Wisps is they normally stay at that stage. On rare occasions, a true wisp may rise up among them. Although that Wisp is normally shunned and has a hard time fitting in Wisp society, or at least that¡¯s what my grandmother told me, she had a Wisp as a friend when she was young.¡±
¡°Okay, thanks. And ill have to ask Silvia about it later. I¡¯m also a bit confused what Wisps are doing in an undead dungeon.¡± Steven stepped up next the glowing door.
¡°That would be another question best suited for Silvia, as I am unsure, Master.¡±
¡°Well, fifth floor, here we come.¡± Placing his hand on the door, he received a prompt.
Would you like to enter the 5th floor Yes/No?
(Note: as you are a Domain holder, you will not be able to access previous floors upon entering the 5th.)
Steven only hesitated for a moment before he selected yes and was sucked into the portal door.
The first thing he noticed was lots of bright blurry spots. Nev was right when she said it was bright. He had to cover his eyes and look away. It didn¡¯t make any senses he had seen lights when using the dark vision potion before and it wasn¡¯t nearly this blinding. Glancing up at the dark vision counter, he saw he had just a bit under an hour left.
¡°Master, are you okay?¡±
¡°Yea, it¡¯s just the dark vision is acting up with all the lights.¡±
¡°Those are enemy Wisps, but don¡¯t worry, I will take care of them.¡±
Steven was completely relying on the Spider Queen here. He couldn¡¯t see a thing. He would have to wait for the timer to run out on the dark vision before he could even see properly to face the Wisps, though he was unsure if he could fight them if they were young versions of Silvia he really needed to talk to her.
¡°What!¡± Nev said. ¡°What are you doing here?¡±
¡°Steven, hurry bac¡¡± Silvia shouted into his mind before everything went completely silent. Steven¡¯s eyes shot open, but there was nothing, not even the glimmer of light anywhere.
¡°Hello? Silvia! What happened?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t bother, you are in my world now.¡± A deep voice echoed out through the darkness.
Steven looked in every direction but couldn¡¯t make out anything. Absolutely everything was black. If it wasn¡¯t for the timer and essence counter, he would think he went blind.
¡°Please let me introduce myself. I am Necros the unseen. I do apologies for this inconvenience, but you are my mark. Why they hired me in to take out a level nineteen is baffling. But a mark is a mark, I suppose.¡±
The next moment, Steven felt his shard ability activate and heard something clatter to the ground. His eyes were wide as he tried to find his attacker in this void. He pulled his lightning spear out and began jabbing it and swinging it around, but only hit the air.
¡°Oh, my! How interesting! It seems you have somehow disarmed me.¡± The voice seemed to be more amused than worried, which only caused Steven to freak out all the more.
¡°Thats also quite the interesting spear you have there.¡±
Steven was completely blind. His heart was beating out of his chest. Was he fixing to die?
¡°Silvia! I¡¯m sorry, okay. Please help!¡±
Steven heard a sigh, but it wasn¡¯t from the Wisp.
¡°If you are referring to the spider Queen she can¡¯t help you here. Lucky for me, I would not want to tangle with that monster. Though I am curious how you managed to get such a monster to obey you. If you would be willing to share, I will make this as painless as possible.¡±
Steven stabbed his spear in the area he thought the voice came from, but hit nothing. He even tried to stab the ground, hoping it would cause the spear to spark even for a second, but that to was met with nothing. Before Steven had time to process that, his ability triggered, and he heard his attacker curse. But he paid it no mind as he look at his mana pool.
147 of 347
His ability would only trigger once more, then he would be dead. At least his mana was full when he entered.
¡°I must say you are the hardest level nineteen I have ever killed. I¡¯m not exactly sure how you are able to disarm me so causally. You never even flinched. Meaning it must be a shard ability, and if that¡¯s the case it will be using resources and you can¡¯t keep this up for long.¡±
For some reason, this guy wanted to talk. Maybe if Steven could buy some time, Nev could get to him.
¡°May I ask who sent you?¡± Steven asked, trying to keep his voice from trembling.
¡°Sorry, but I can¡¯t answer that. But you seem to be a decent person, so I have a question for you.¡±
Steven was trembling at this point. He had never felt so helpless. ¡°Okay, ask away.¡± Steven said as he pulled out a mana potion, only for it to immediately shatter.
¡°No no. None of that now, let¡¯s not prolong this longer than it needs to be. Now for my question. What is the thing you wanted most in your life but could never obtain?¡±
What the hell, what sort of question was that? Steven was about to tell the guy to go fuck himself when he hesitantly spoke. ¡°A-all I ever wanted was a house of my own in the woods where no one would bother me.¡± Steven was surprised at his answer. What the hell was going on and why did he answer that question? More importantly, was that true¡
¡°Really. Something so simple it¡¯s a shame that you are my target. Just know that your dream will live on with me. You were a worthy foe.¡±
The next moment, Steven felt a blade go into his gut, and the assassin whispering in his ear. ¡°I figured out your secret. Your shard keeps you from taking lethal attacks. But if one simply Whaa..¡±
Steven¡¯s body started transforming into his spider form. He had completely forgotten about that form. It would instantly trigger if he went below twenty-five percent health.
¡°W-What the hell are you?¡± The assassin stammered.
Steven screamed in outrage, allowing his spider instincts to take over. Although all he did was lash out at the air while going berserk. He still couldn¡¯t see anything.
¡°I¡¯m starting to see why they sent me. You are quite difficult to kill indeed.¡± The assassin said.
A flash of light and Steven¡¯s spider form was cut clean into. He then transformed back into his human form. A red light began flashing, and he saw only a sliver of his health remained. ¡°I guess this is it!¡± Steven muttered.
¡°Wow. Still alive huh. That was even my most powerful attack, but I can see your health bar now. It is just holding on at a sliver. It is over now. I have to admit, I did not expect you to turn into a massive spider when I stabbed you. Though I shouldn¡¯t have been surprised. Your body did cover itself in carapace each time I attacked. You may have survived against a less skilled assassin.¡±
¡°Can I- I see my killer?¡± Steven muttered.
¡°I don¡¯t like to think of myself as a killer, but more of a contractor. But yes, I¡¯ll allow it as your last request.¡±
All Steven could do was try to buy time and hope Nevateb would come.
Pale white arms were the first thing he noticed, followed by a figure dressed in black holding what he assumed was a scimitar. Everything else but the figure was black, or nothingness may be a better word. Even the ground, it was as if it didn¡¯t exist. But more importantly, the assassin¡¯s face.
¡°Vampire?¡± Steven mumbled out, ¡°Are you Sorin?¡±
¡°Absolutely not! I am an Elite Draugr assassin. The strongest of the undead races.¡±
¡°U-undead?¡± Steven mumbled.
¡°Yes, now it is time.¡± Steven watched as the blade came down towards him. He was too weak to move. He almost chuckled when his mana dropped yet again and the assassin¡¯s blade fell to the floor behind him.
¡°With the state you are in, I would assume that was the last time that ability can trigger. I must ask what is the name of that ability. If I ever come across something similar, I would like to learn how to counter it.¡±
¡°Angeknnfnerj.¡± Steven mumbled.
He just needed to get the undead Draugr close enough in a last ditch effort to get out of this situation.
¡°What was that?¡± The assassin moved closer.
Steven mumbled under his breath again as the assassin knelt down.
¡°Angelic dea..¡± Steven used all his reaming strength as he spoke just to touch the Draugr¡¯s pale arm.
Instantly the Draugr was sent to his inventory. At the same time, a sharp pain shot through his head. He was used to that pain, it was mana fatigue.
Suddenly Steven then got the sensation of falling but paid it no mind as his vision began tunneling. Silvia popping out of his inventory was the last thing he remembered before blacking out.
¡°Master!¡± Nevateb ran to Steven¡¯s side. Pulling out a healing potion from the pouch at her waist, she poured some on his stomach wound and the rest down his throat. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his health bar slowly ticking up.
¡°Where did Necros go?¡± Nev asked, trying to look in every direction.
¡°Steven¡¯s inventory,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Did you know that assassin?¡±
Nevateb laughed and then laughed some more before she was able to gather herself. ¡°That was too close. I can¡¯t believe the young Master survived! And yes, I know of him we have crossed paths. He is an extremely skilled assassin, although he likes to talk and has some odd quirks. It¡¯s really an evolved shard ability that truly makes him deadly. I¡¯m not sure if I could survive if he caught me in that void trap.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light was flickering wildly. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t let me communicate or come out of Steven¡¯s inventory. I¡¯m surprised it let him put something in his inventory, we were lucky it was an undead assassin!¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure the name of the shard, but it is a very powerful one. It¡¯s the reason for his name. I¡¯m surprised they sent someone so highly ranked. I still can¡¯t believe it. Master was able to catch one of the most skilled assassins in the guild before he even reached level twenty.¡±
¡°Sorin likely spent a fortune and pulled many strings to get the guild to send an assassin so highly skilled. Not to mention getting him sent directly to the dungeon.¡± Silvia said.
The pair stared at Steven.
¡°What do we do now?¡± Nevateb asked.
¡°Just wait for him to wake up. I¡¯ll go have a chat with the young Wisps.¡±
Chapter 32: Assassins Guild & tiny Wisps
Sorin smiled. He was able to procure the most skilled assassin in this region. Once this pesky Domain Holder was dealt with and he obtained another domain, he would no longer be considered the weakest of the Domain Holders. Then he will have no reason to fear those beneath him.
He frowned when the assassin used some sort of ability that kept him from watching. Sorin was warned that might be the case, though he wouldn¡¯t admit he was too weak to see through it, especially with a guild liaison present.
¡°It seems Necros has activated his signature move. It won¡¯t be long now.¡± The Guild liaison said.
¡°Good.¡± Sorin was contemplating on just killing the liaison once the job was done, so he wouldn¡¯t have to pay the other half of the fee. He was just a human, after all.
The liaison spoke up, taking Sorin from his thoughts. ¡°The Guild would be interested in why and how the spider Queen would join forces with a low level nobody. If you could shed some light on the situation, the Guild would be willing to compensate you accordingly.¡±
Sorin wasn¡¯t about to tell him it was because Steven had a domain. He knew the guild would never take on a job like that and was fixing to come up with some random excuse when the human appeared still alive, though barely. The assassin, however, was nowhere to be seen.
¡°Your assassin failed!¡± Sorin hissed. ¡°Send another quickly. He is almost dead!¡±
The Guild liaison¡¯s eyes bulged. ¡°F- failed? No, that can¡¯t be right....¡±
¡°Send another.¡±
It took a long second for the Guild liaison to gather his composer. ¡°Lord Sorin, with all due respect. Necros was the best assassin in this region. If he is dead¡¡±
¡°Does it look like I care? If you don¡¯t hurry, the human will recover! I don¡¯t care if you have to go yourself. I want the job done!¡±
¡°Are you certain Necros is dead?¡±
Sorin took a long breath, then snarled, trying to keep from shouting. ¡°The human is currently being nursed back to health by the spider Queen along with that traitorous Wisp, and your assassin is nowhere to be seen, so unless he fled, then he is dead.¡±
¡°Lord Sorin, did you say he had a Wisp?¡± The Guild liaison asked.
¡°Are you daft!¡± Sorin shouted, standing up from his throne. ¡°Send another fucking assassin before I rip your head from your body.¡±
Sorin seen the liaison fiddle with a ring. He darted towards him, but was too late as the human vanished into thin air.
¡°Ahhhh. HUMANS! So damn pathetic!¡± Sorin went on a rampage, smashing his skeletal guards to pieces. Only for them to regenerate after a few seconds later.
Lester watched as his Guild ring crumbled to dust. He winced internally. The higher ups would not be happy he used the ring, and for good reason. Lester knew how pricy they were, as he had to pay for part of it out of pocket. But Sorin wasn¡¯t playing around, he would have surely died there. He had to inform the Guild of this immediately. Normal targets didn¡¯t have a Wisp. The presence of the spider Queen was already risky. And Necros was defeated¡
The guild receptionist let out a gasp and all eyes turned to him.
¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m on guild business.¡± Lester said holding up his guild badge.
¡°Sir, teleportation is forbidden on Guild property. Even if you are a Guild member.¡±
Lester sighed. The receptionist must be new. ¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t have time for this.¡±
He headed for the stairs.
¡°Sir. You must sign in. Sir, you can¡¯t just¡¡±
Lester paid no mind to the receptionist. He headed to speak to someone in charge. It was unfortunate that the ring sent him to the closest Guild hall, but there was nothing that could be done for that at the moment.
¡°Sir!¡±
Lester looked down at the receptionist, who was now blocking his path. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I am on urgent guild business.¡± Lester held up his four-star Assassin''s Guild badge for emphases, but the receptionist didn¡¯t seem to care or understand.
¡°You will need to make an appointment, just like everyone else.¡±
¡°Look miss! You must be new around her, but this here is a four-star badge! I have¡¡±
¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± A guard asked.
Lester smiled, ¡°finally! I need to speak with someone in charge. I have urgent business with the Guild in the Capital.¡±
The guard narrowed his eyes. ¡°Which capital?¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure what you mean by that?¡± Lester said, taken aback.
¡°Which capital?¡± The guard repeated.
¡°The Guild capital! In Aspen, you know the main branch of all the Assassin¡¯s Guild.¡±
¡°And you expect me to believe you are from the Guild headquarters?¡±
¡°Here,¡± Lester handed his badge to the guard. ¡°This should confirm everything! Now please, I need to speak to someone in charge.¡±
The guard¡¯s eyes widened when he saw the four stars, and Lester knew he was finally getting through to him, but before he could speak, another guard popped up out of nowhere and took the badge.
¡°Four stars, huh? It¡¯s a bit odd to have a four-star Guild member out here in the middle of nowhere, and unannounced. We will need to get this checked to make sure it¡¯s not a fake.¡±
Lester opened his mouth to speak but couldn¡¯t find the words. He had not been treated this way in over thirty years.
¡°Sir, please take a seat over there.¡± The receptionist said, ¡°We will be with you when we get time.¡±
Lester wanted to knock the smirk off the receptionist''s face. He could kill her in front of everyone here and get nothing but a slap on the wrist from the higher ups.
He took a deep breath and started towards the seat, but turned back. ¡°Just so you know, the information I have is quite urgent, and Guild headquarters will want to know why the information was delayed.¡±
The face of the receptionist paled, but she didn¡¯t say anything, Lester sat and patiently waited, he knew he would take most the blame, but there were several witnesses to this encounter and the guild would do a thorough job before dishing out punishments.
Lester wasn¡¯t sure how long he sat there trying to figure out how to explain what happen to Necros. Having a max level assassin fail against a level nineteen target was insane. He knew the blame would somehow fall on him. He looked up as he saw an overweight man wearing glasses walking towards him.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
¡°Lester Gallion, I do apologize on behalf of this Guild hall for your treatment. There is a war going on and security has been increased. I will see as the guards are properly¡¡±
¡°Never mind all that,¡± Lester said. ¡°I need to speak to headquarters immediately.¡±
¡°Yes, of course! We are getting the room ready as we speak.¡±
Lester almost asked why it wasn¡¯t always ready. But it seemed he was truly in some backwater village at the edge of a swamp. The very same swamp that housed Dungeon lord Sorin. If it wasn¡¯t for Sorin being one of the seven Dungeon Lords, then he doubted the Guild would have bothered with a job this far out. He wanted to get as far away as possible, but with the goblin war all the roads were closed. Even for someone of his status it could take a month before he could even begin heading home.
It didn¡¯t take much longer before he was being led to the communication room by this Guilds president. ¡°Mr. Gallion, if you need anything at all, just ask for me and I will take care of it personally.¡±
¡°Will do.¡±
It was obvious the president was nervous. It was likely no one from the Guild headquarters had ever come to this branch before.
When Lester entered the communications room, the first thing he noticed were two people. ¡°I need some privacy.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mr. Gallion, but we don¡¯t have any Essence stones strong enough to power the orb.¡±
Lester sighed.
¡°I can assure you that they are bound by oath and¡¡±
Lester held a hand up. ¡°Its fine. I have the Essence stones. I doubt they have the mana to form a proper connection, anyway.¡± Lester noticed the two mages sigh in relief as they hurried out. Once everyone cleared out, Lester walked towards the Orb and pulled out an Essence stone. The communications Orb sat on a pedestal as if it was some prized position. Touching the Essence stone to the Orb, it crumbled as the Orb began glowing a light blue and floated up. A second later, the entire room lit up, and a hologram and the receptionist in the capital appeared.
¡°Oh! Hello Mr. Gallion, would you like me to connect you with the Domain department?¡±
¡°Yes Alma, that would be great, thank you.¡±
¡°One moment, please.¡±
The next moment, the orb turned black, and the hologram dissipated.
¡°And that is what you call a professional receptionist.¡± Lester barely got the words out before the Orb flashed with blue light and a hologram of a man sitting behind an ornate wooden desk appeared.
¡°Lester? What¡¯s going on?¡±
¡°I had to use the guild ring,¡± He noticed his boss¡¯s eyes narrow, but he continued before he could say anything, ¡°Also, Necros is dead.¡±
¡°What!!¡± Lester¡¯s boss jumped from his chair. ¡°I need to know everything down to the last detail!¡±
Steven woke up to a massive migraine. his head was ponding, and he felt like utter shit. It was by far the worst he had ever felt since coming to this new world.
¡°Master, you''re awake!¡± Nev said as she ran to his side.
¡°I am, though I feel drained,¡± Steven mumbled. ¡°What the hell happen?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t have any stamina potions. As for what happened, you were attacked by an assassin.¡±
¡°Stamina potions.¡± Steven¡¯s head was still spinning. Opening his inventory page, he went over to potions.
~Potions
Dark vision x1
Healing x2
Stamina x2
Mana x1
Throwable~
Root snare x1
He didn¡¯t have the strength to complain about his potions running low as he pulled out a stamina potion and downed it.
Within seconds, he could feel the effects as his exhaustion began to fade. Steven opened his undead tab. Sure enough, he now had a Draugr in his inventory.
Steven took a deep, calming breath. He tried to open the description but nothing happen. He quickly stopped messing around with the Draugr tab, afraid the assassin would somehow get out.
¡°Where is Silvia?¡± Steven asked, looking around. All that met his gaze was glowing mushrooms, vines and an excited spider Queen.
¡°She went to speak with the adolescent Wisps.¡±
¡°Oh, I wasn¡¯t aware she could speak with them. Anyway, I just wanted to ask her what to do with the assassin in my inventory. Do you have any ideas?¡±
Nev looked thoughtful for a long moment. ¡°I could most likely kill him but it would be a difficult fight that void trap shard he has is something I¡¯m unsure how to deal with,¡± the Queen stood there arms folded in deep thought, ¡°we could set a trap for him as soon as you released him and then I should be able to keep him on the back foot so that he couldn¡¯t activate that shard.¡±
Steven pondered on this for a while. After a moment, his head shot up. ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll just leave him in inventory until we meet up with Sirus again, between the both of you the assassin shouldn¡¯t be an issue.¡±
¡°I prefer to work alone, but if Master wishes it, I can work with the half Naga. It would be safer for you, after all. Captain Sirus is a strong warrior. Though we could surround him with drones. Necros is a powerful assassin, but he is just that, he is not meant to take on multiple foes.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s run this by Silvia when she gets back and see what she thinks.¡± Steven then looked around. ¡°So, what do we do now?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry Master Odling, I don¡¯t know. Normally I would start killing our way to the next floor, but Silvia said to stay here while she spoke with the Wisps."
With nothing else better to do, Steven pulled out his Chaos spear. A bit of practice wouldn¡¯t hurt. He also reflected on the fight he was in. Well, it was more of a one sided slaughter. If he couldn¡¯t of tricked the assassin, he would had definitely be dead right now. He wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to kill the assassin. The guy had been surprisingly nice for someone that was trying to kill him. He asked Nev about this as he was worried he was being affected by some sort of magic. But she said Necros was just a likable creature. Nev also mentioned that Steven was the first target he had ever failed. Steven thought about that, there were several things he could have done differently, for one he never even used his ring of summons that could have bought him some time and he could had possible sent Necros to inventory without having to get beat to an inch of his life. Although now that he thought about it, he didn¡¯t even know his attacker was undead till at the end, which raised even more questions.
¡°Nev, are undead a common thing.¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t say common, but they are here and there, though most stay on their continent. The undead race is not a popular one. Very few even know Necros¡¯s true identity.¡±
Steven asked several more questions while trying to get a good feel for his spear. He didn¡¯t know how to practice exactly and could really use someone to teach him, but just stabbing it around was helping him get a better feel for it, he was tired of being so helpless. He amazed himself with the ease he could wield the spear; it had to be because of his increased stats. He had doubled and then some all his stats since coming to this world. He was unsure if that meant he was twice as strong and fast now, though he could definitely tell the difference. Steven eventually grew tired of swinging his spear around and pulled out some food. He offered some to Nev, but she declined, saying she would go get something once they reached the hidden path where it was safe for her to leave him. Steven nearly told her to go ahead, but if that Necros fellow somehow got out of his inventory, he wanted Nev close by.
¡°By the way, could you bring me some more food and potions when you go out?¡±
¡°Yes, of course, Master! I can send some drones out now if you would like.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. I still have a bit of food left and a few potions. I just don¡¯t want to run out.¡±
¡°What sort of potions and food do you want?¡±
Steven then went on to explain what he wanted. Nev told him she would have to go to the half Naga to get the dark vision potions and a few of the other things like stamina potions. Since she was a monster race, stamina and mana potions had no effect on her.
Steven waited, then waited some more for Silvia. At one point Nev talked him into practicing his Spider King form, but with his mana regeneration being halved, he didn¡¯t stay in that form long. After that, he discussed what his plans were regarding his attribute points, which was basically shoving everything into spirit. Nev agreed. With enough mana, Steven would be nearly impossible to kill. Though Nev said a strong enough foe could easily by pass his defenses. Steven had to agree. Even if he had over a thousand mana, he didn¡¯t think it would stop someone like Necros from killing him.
Steven had pulled his bed from inventory and was lying on it with Nev when Silvia finally returned.
¡°I do hope you too haven¡¯t been breeding!¡± Silvia said in a motherly tone.
Steven shot up from the bed. ¡°We haven¡¯t done anything! Just been waiting for you. What took you so long, anyway?¡±
¡°I was negotiating with the young Wisps, and we have come to an accord. We will have safe passage through this floor.¡±
An adolescent Wisp flew right up to Steven. ¡°Uh, hello little guy.¡±
The Wisp didn¡¯t respond. Instead, it darted right towards Steven¡¯s chest. He was taken completely by surprise the little wisp impacted with his chest, immediately vanished.
¡°Silvia! What just happened?¡±
¡°Well, the deal I made with the Wisps¡¡±
Steven stopped paying any attention to Silvia as dozens of other wisps appeared and began darting at his chest. He saw Nev move to stop them but stopped before doing anything. Each Wisp that touched him vanished. It didn¡¯t take Steven long to figure out what was happening. The Wisps looked like a steady stream of light as they flew into Steven. His mana began to decrease rapidly, and he was at a quarter of his mana before he knew it.
¡°Silvia! My mana!¡±
He understood they were going into his inventory, but the speed at which they were doing it was only increasing. There had to be thousands of them lined up at this point. Steven watched as Silvia jumped in front of them and began glowing brightly, but it was already too late for Steven. His mana was only at a sliver and with in seconds he fell to the ground unconscious.
¡°Oh, Master is not going to be happy with you.¡± Nev said.
¡°Yea¡ I kinda messed up.¡±
Nev picked Steven off the dungeon floor and laid him on the bed. Several lights hovered around him and thousands more floated behind Silvia.
¡°So, what¡¯s all this about?¡±
¡°They want revenge.¡± Silvia said, while staring at Steven¡¯s unconscious form.
¡°What do you mean? And on who?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll explain when Steven wakes up.¡±
Chapter 33: 5th floor hidden path
Steven woke up with the equivalent of a massive hangover.
He was getting sick and tired of waking up after passing out. In fact, he was getting tired of just waking up in this dungeon period. From behind his eyelids he could make out bright lights, so he kept his eyes closed while he pulled out his last remaining mana potion. After downing it his head instantly began to clear, but at the same time a bit of nausea set it. This too was unfortunately a familiar sensation. Silvia had explained it was potion toxins, though he was surprised that was still an issue with how much resistance he now had.
When Steven opened his eyes, he was greeted by hundreds, if not thousands, of floating lights. A pink light with a hint of green out shown them all floating in front.
¡°I¡¯m sorry! I should have told them to go one at a time.¡± Silvia said, light dimming.
¡°I¡¯m sorry I yelled at you,¡± Steven said, ¡°but next time please tell me what you¡¯re planning. Now, do you mind telling me what exactly is going on?¡±
Nev came to sit next to Steven on the side of the bed.
¡°This is not a good place to talk about things. Sorin maybe watching.¡±
¡°Ive been meaning to ask you about that. You speak to me telepathically. Can he hear that?¡±
Nev twisted her head in confusion. ¡°Wait, are you saying that pathetic excuse of a Dungeon Lord can hear me talking? Why am I just now hearing about this?¡±
¡°He can¡¯t hear me,¡± Silvia said, ignoring Nev, ¡°but if he happens to be watching, then he can hear your response, and your questions, which could give him a good idea of what¡¯s going on.¡±
¡°Okay, good enough for me. Lead the way to the next hidden room.¡± Steven barely got the words out before all the Wisps formed a line. To Steven, it looked like a line of Christmas lights, although most were a dull yellow color, but it was still fascinating to look at.
¡°Looks like they want to be helpful.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Do we just follow them?¡± Steven asked as he stood up, sending the bed to inventory.
¡°Yes, they will lead the way.¡±
¡°Ive never seen these little creatures act like this,¡± Nev said in amazement.
¡°Do you want me to send some to inventory on the way? My mana is regenerating extremely slow and I don¡¯t want it to be empty but I can get a few.¡±
¡°The sooner we get them all, the sooner we can move on to the next floor.¡±
¡°Okay, sounds good,¡± Steven turned to Nev, ¡°I¡¯m going to need a lot of mana potions when you go out.¡±
¡°Yes, Master Odling.¡±
Steven had to admit this was by far the easiest floor. There wasn¡¯t a single undead anywhere, well if you didn¡¯t take into account the assassin. The scenery was magical. It reminded him of a fairy forest. Except instead of trees there were tree sized mushrooms. luminous plants and vines hung off the mushrooms. Steven had been so entranced by the scene he didn¡¯t even realize Nev entwined her arm with his.
¡°What do you think?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°It¡¯s breathtaking! I can hardly believe something like this exists in an undead dungeon.¡±
Silvia didn''t respond and flew off with a few of the other wisps. To Steven, she looked to be having fun, but it was hard to tell what that ball of light enjoyed. At some point, they came to a stream with a stone bridge leading over it. Steven stopped walking to stare out. As far as he could see, there was some sort of lotus flower growing out of the water. Most were glowing white, but a few were somehow glowing black. He bent down to send one to inventory, but received a prompt.
Can not send live plants into inventory.
¡°Well, that¡¯s a bummer.¡±
¡°What is it, Master?¡±
¡°Its nothing really. I was just going to send one of these lotuses to inventory, but I can¡¯t because it¡¯s still living and I really don¡¯t want to kill it just to place it in my inventory.¡±
¡°Oh, you need an alchemist bag to do that. I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t have one with me, but I will bring you one when I go out if you like.¡±
Steven immediately thought of Eve. He wondered what sort of trouble she got into for coming to see him. He hoped she was doing well. It seemed like a lifetime ago, so many things had happened. He found himself missing the half Naga. She was so excited at the idea of traveling and seeing the world with him. He could only hope she still wanted to when he was out of this place. Although she only wanted to go with him because she thought he was someone he wasn¡¯t. The thought turned Steven¡¯s face into a frown and he had the urge to pull out his water pipe. But it wouldn¡¯t do anything unless he changed his amulet. And now that he didn¡¯t have any mana potions and still had to send all these Wisps to inventory, he decided to not; he didn¡¯t want to hear Silvia complain. Besides he was nearly out of the plant.
¡°Master Odling, is everything okay?¡±
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s fine. Was just thinking about some stuff.¡±
¡°May I ask what sort of stuff?¡±
Steven was just about to speak when he seen Silvia flying towards him. Fantastic timing, Steven thought.
¡°It¡¯s not much further now. Is everything okay?¡± Silvia asked while flying in between Steven and Nev, causing the spider Queen to unlink her arm from Steven¡¯s.
¡°This place is like some sort of mythical forest from a story.¡± Steven said.
Silvia¡¯s light brightened. ¡°Thats because it is!¡± Silvia then flew back with some of the other wisps.
It didn¡¯t take long for Steven to reach the hidden path. It was easy to find with all the Wisps leading him directly to it. On the way, Steven had sent several wisps to inventory, which confused him because he thought of them as living, but he supposed they weren¡¯t, or maybe it had something to do with Silvia being his soul bound familiar. Whatever the case, Steven checked his mana before sticking his head into the illusionary wall. If not for his shard abilities, there would be no way in hell he would even think of doing that.
The room was very similar to the other hidden paths, the only difference being all the glowing vines and plants on the wall. Even the axes were grown up with vines, though now that he looked at them it looked as they were trying to swing, but there were too many vines and they just jerked a couple inches with a slight grinding sound. Pulling his head back out, he backed up to get a running jump. When Nev spoke up.
¡°Master, you could turn into your spider form and crawl on the wall, well, if this hidden path is like the others.¡±
Steven turned towards Nev. ¡°Huh, never thought about that. Good idea Nev. I need to use that form more, anyway.¡±
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
The spider Queen seemed to shiver with excitement at the praise, which Steven thought was odd, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he activated his shard ability and crawled inside. Steven continued on the wall till he made it to the other side where the archer normally was. In the skeleton¡¯s place was a pile of wiggling vines, no not just vines, there was a skeleton in there. Steven¡¯s eyes widened as the skeleton inside tried to move, but the vines tightened up. This made Steven eye all the vines in a different light. Steven changed back to his human form to conserve mana. Silvia floated over. Behind her were thousands of tiny wisps. Nev changed to her spider form and crawled across the wall.
¡°Silvia, are these vines going to be an issue?¡±
¡°Only if the Wisps want them to be.¡± Silvia then turned towards Nev.
¡°Don¡¯t you dare!¡± Steven said as he saw her light began to flicker wildly.
¡°It¡¯s not like the fall would even hurt her.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Then what would even be the point? Besides, she is our ally and we both need her to get out of this dungeon.¡±
¡°Fine!¡± Silvia said as she flew off towards the back of the room.
¡°Where are you going?¡± Steven asked.
¡°To show those dam mimics who are boss.¡±
Steven almost stopped her, but Silvia wouldn¡¯t take any unnecessary risks. Although even messing with mimics was always a risk.
¡°Master,¡± Nev said as she reached him and turned to her human form, ¡°I will head back outside to eat and gather supplies. The drones are here if you need them.¡± She then gave Steven a quick kiss on the cheek before turning back into her spider form and scurrying back across the wall.
Steven put the quirky spider out of his mind and went to check on Silvia. He was stronger now but still didn¡¯t want to tangle with a mimic, although he may be able to take one in his Spider form, but he didn¡¯t want to try that just yet.
He quickly realized there was no need for any of that. Silvia had two treasure chests wrapped up so tight with vines they were leaking some sort of yellow liquid. A single chest still sat on the ground. Steven eyed that one wearily. He wasn¡¯t about to get any closer. The two bound chests were trying to change into their mimic forms.
¡°Is everything okay do you got this? My mana is only half full right now, so I won¡¯t be much help.¡±
¡°Yea, we got this,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Whimsy here thought we could squeeze them to death before they could change to their true forms. I told her I didn¡¯t think we could, but she wanted to try.¡±
Steven almost asked who Whimsy was but assumed it was one of the Wisps hovering next to her.
¡°Okay then, I¡¯ll leave you to it,¡± Steven said as he started backing off.
¡°Wait, we will need you to kill it for the essence. We will get them near death and let you finish them off.¡±
Steven winced. He didn¡¯t want to get that close to those mimics, even if they were bound. ¡°Okay, fine, I¡¯ll just throw my spear. I don¡¯t want to get close.¡±
¡°However you want to deal with them.¡± Silvia said while obviously enjoying herself.
Steven couldn¡¯t see the mimic¡¯s health bar, as he wasn¡¯t doing any damage. So he just waited at a distance. He didn¡¯t have to wait long before Silvia said she was ready.
He pulled his lightning spear from storage as the vines released the mimic. To his horror, both mimics were released from their bindings.
¡°Silvia!¡±
Both mimics transformed into their mimic forms and charged at the only living thing around which was Steven.
Part of him wanted to turn and run, but he mustered up the courage and threw his spear. All his practice had paid off, and his spear flew true. The mimic then opened its mouth as if to eat the spear, and Steven¡¯s heart sped up. The spear flew directly into the mimic¡¯s mouth with enough force to knock it off balance. Steven readied himself to change into his spider form, but the mimic instantly died.
+807
Lightning then sparked to the other mimic as it continued its charge at him.
+798
¡°Huh, I guess they really were almost dead.¡±
¡°Did you think I would risk your life in the slightest? You could have sneezed on them and killed them both.¡±
He didn¡¯t understand why she released both mimics at the same time that in its self was risky, but he just shook his head. Surely she would have stopped them with the vines if they got too close. ¡°Since when have you been able to control vines?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not controlling them. I¡¯m just suggesting they help us, along with the other wisps.¡±
¡°Uh, okay. Sure, that explains it.¡± Steven had no idea what that meant but didn¡¯t want Silvia to go on a hour long lecture about it. Instead, he hesitantly walked over to the lone treasure chest.
¡°It¡¯s just a treasure chest.¡± Silvia said.
¡°It¡¯s better safe than sorry!¡± Steven said as he placed his hand on the chest and sent it to inventory. He breathed a sigh of relief when it vanished. Steven then pulled out his bed and sat on the edge. He then pulled out the chest and began going through it. He absolutely loved loot.
A scroll, some old worn looking boots, a sword and a few silver coins is what he found in the chest. He assumed the silver would come in handy when he got out of this dungeon and into society, though he was unsure if it was worth much. Once everything was sent to inventory, he looked over the descriptions starting with the scroll.
Water wall scroll x1
Rarity- Unknown
~ Effect]- Create a wall of water.
~Cost]- 70 mana per second. Up to 20 seconds.
~ Requirement]- None.
Note- Affected area and magic of scroll is determined by the creator of scroll.
Steven read over the description a few times. ¡°This is an odd scroll. Do you think it¡¯s any good?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Silvia said, also reading over the description, ¡°your inventory ability never ceases to amaze me! It is quite versatile. Does it allow you to see the description of the assassin?¡±
¡°Oh, I had completely forgotten about him.¡± Steven said sheepishly.
¡°You¡¯re telling me you had forgotten about the assassin that beat you to an inch of your life and barely surviving by dumb luck and trickery.¡±
¡°My life has been turned completely upside down since coming to this world, okay. And I have passed out multiple times since then.¡±
¡°Sorry about that.¡± Silvia said, light dimming just a bit.
¡°It¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s not like you did it on purpose. Any way I¡¯ve been meaning to talk to you about the assassin.¡± Steven said as he closed the scroll description. ¡°What should I do with him?¡±
The Wisp was silent for a long while, so long Steven was just about to pull up the next item description.
¡°It really depends on what you want to do. Nevateb told me the assassin is one the guild would rather not lose, so you could use him as a bargaining chip. Although the assassin could hold a grudge, it could be safer to just kill him or leave him in your inventory until you can deal with him yourself. From what I can tell, there seems to be no side effects to keeping him in there.¡±
Steven nodded. ¡°yea, I don''t want to have to be looking over my shoulder all the time. Though I¡¯m finding it hard to kill him in cold blood.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure why his blood being cold is a deterrent for you. You do realize all the undead you have killed are cold-blooded right. You are actually a bane to all the undead, with your absurd shard ability.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not about the blood being cold. It¡¯s just¡ never mind,¡± Steven sighed, ¡°too bad there is not a way for me to talk with him.¡±
¡°Actually, we could possibly arrange that while he is still in your inventory, but it depends if I can talk with him.¡±
¡°Do you think it¡¯s safe to be in there with him?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure. I can have one of the little wisps go in his section and see if it¡¯s safe. Once all the wisps are in your inventory, I can have them back me up.¡±
¡°Okay, sounds good. At least we have a plan now. By the way, how are the Wisp able to go in my inventory? And why?¡±
¡°Because I¡¯m your soul bound familiar, as for why. They want revenge on Sorin.¡±
Steven just blinked at Silvia¡¯s explanation, but decided to not push for more information, as he had other things he wanted to do. Opening up his inventory, he pulled up the description of the old boots.
Feet- Air leap boot
Rarity- Mythic
~ Effect]- The air beneath boots become solid for 2 seconds when activated. (Note: Will not active if there is no air to turn solid.)
~ Cost]- 200 Mana. 25 Stamina. 50 Durability.
Durability- 350 of 1,200
¡°Well, that¡¯s a dumb name.¡± Steven said as he tried to decide if the boots were any good.
¡°Wow, these are absolutely amazing. There are no restrictions on them! If Sorin knew something like this was here, he would flip!¡±
¡°What about the durability? They won¡¯t last but few more uses.¡±
¡°Just take them to a good enchanter,¡± Silvia said dismissively. ¡°I don¡¯t think you understand how incredible these are. You can just keep jumping till you run out of resources. Most equipment like this has a daily limit.¡±
¡°Oh, okay yea, I can see how that would be useful, although I couldn¡¯t even use them but twice before I ran out of mana and stamina.¡±
Steven got since the Wisp was rolling her eyes. ¡°At your rate of leveling, that will change tomorrow. Especially if you use that Shard you still have in your inventory.¡±
¡°True, but I¡¯m still not sold on absorbing something with undeath in the name.¡±
¡°Why? You already absorbed something with death in its name.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t have a good response, so he just pulled up the description of the last item.
Short Sword of Ice
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect]- Every 5th attack inflicts frost damage. Frost damage will slow target by 20% for 5 minutes (Note: All five attacks must be made on the same target.)
~Cost]- 50 Mana. (Note: Cost will automatically be paid on every 5th attack.)
~ Requirement]- 12 Strength. 10 Dexterity. Spirit 17
¡°This seems good.¡± Steven said.
¡°It doesn¡¯t even begin to compare to your Spear. I would just sell it.¡±
¡°Yea, you¡¯re right, but its¡¡±
¡°Master Odling!¡±
Steven turned to see Nev rushing towards him.
Chapter 34: Abominations
¡°Master.¡± Nev said. ¡°I can¡¯t leave the dungeon, when I try the dungeon puts floating words in front of me telling me I can¡¯t leave the Dungeon while my Master is challenging the Domain Holder of this Dungeon.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Shit! I did get some sort of notification on the fourth floor, but I assumed that only pertained to me.¡±
¡°This is not good!¡± Silvia said.
¡°You think! I¡¯ll need to eat something soon, and I will not eat undead!¡±
¡°I''ll share what I have, but I don¡¯t have a lot of food left,¡± Steven said. ¡°what about the drones, have you tried to send them out?¡±
¡°I have. They couldn¡¯t go out either.¡±
¡°I wasn¡¯t aware of this feature of the Dungeon. This is my fault. I should have known and warned you of this.¡± Silvia¡¯s light dimmed.
¡°I don¡¯t blame you. This is not your fault. It just means we need to start pushing through the dungeon faster.¡±
¡°Master,¡± Nev said, looking down, ¡°I won¡¯t make it but a few days without food. It takes a lot of fuel to keep my body going, even in this human form.¡±
Steven paled. ¡°Is it possible to reach Sorin in that amount of time?¡±
Silvia sighed. ¡°It would be possible, but we would have to rush through the dungeon to the hidden paths. And you wouldn¡¯t get to level up. I¡¯m not sure Nev can deal with the Elder demon and then Sorin.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t, not if I¡¯m half starved and don¡¯t get to rest. That would be impossible even with the help of the adolescent wisps.¡±
¡°Is there a way we can contact those outside? If you could tell the drones to bring in food.¡±
¡°Nev cocked her head side to side in a very spider like manner. ¡°I cannot contact the drones, but it may be possible for me to reach out to one of my daughters.¡±
¡°Great!¡± Steven said. ¡°That will solve this problem!¡±
¡°Uh,¡± Nev sighed, ¡°I¡¯m not so sure any of my daughters would be willing to help. In fact, I know none of them would if they thought it was possible for me to die. The only thing they would be interested in would be my corpse.¡±
¡°Okay, I¡¯m lost.¡± Steven said.
¡°Spiders,¡± Silvia started, ¡°are a lot like you humans. They want power by any means possible. It¡¯s in their nature to kill the Queen and take the throne. It¡¯s just their cycle of life when the Queen gets old or is surpassed by one of her daughters. They will kill their mother and eat her corpse to gain the ancestral memories. Further more¡¡±
¡°No, that¡¯s enough! I don¡¯t need to know any more,¡± Steven said. ¡°If we can¡¯t get help, we will just have to push through this dungeon. We can¡¯t go back, so we have to go forward.¡±
Steven could tell that Nev looked unsure but nodded in agreement, and Silvia¡¯s light dimmed.
¡°The next floor is like a maze and constantly shifting, and filled with undead abominations and traps,¡± Silvia said.
¡°It is my least favorite. The abominations are a pain to deal with.¡± Nev added.
¡°Well, we will just have to push through it.¡± Steven said. ¡°I¡¯m open to suggestions. If either of you have a better idea, I¡¯m all ears.¡±
No one had any better ideas and several hours later they were deep within the sixth floor, staring at multiple paths leading forwards.
¡°There has to be a faster way.¡± Steven said as he paced back and forth.
¡°The drones are the fastest way I know how to deal with this floor.¡± Nev said.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, this floor is constantly changing. I can¡¯t be certain which path is the correct one.¡±
¡°All we have to do is get past this floor and then you can lead us to all the hidden paths, right?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Yes, the other floors are straightforward.¡±
Suddenly, one of the drones came sprinting down from one of the tunnels. ¡°My Queen,¡± a Spider-kin knelt down panting hard, ¡°this is the path.¡± The Spider-kin pointed down the path he just came from.
¡°Good job!¡± Steven said, as he took off at a jog down the path. Spider Queen and Wisp right behind him, they were trailed by nearly a thousand adolescent Wisps. A few of the wisps even led the way.
This was the fifth time they had done this. Steven knew there would be an undead abomination at the end of this tunnel, as long as they made it before the dungeon shifted. If that happened they would come to another room with multiple tunnels leading out and have to wait till the Drones found the correct path, again.
Silvia had told them there were seven abominations and once all seven were dealt with, the path to the next floor would appear. They had only dealt with three so far, meaning Steven had three undead abominations in his inventory.
Steven ran as fast as he could, but was ultimately too slow. He saw the room that led to the fourth abomination just as the dungeon began shifting. The dungeon continued shifting until there were several paths leading out again.
¡°Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! I¡¯m just too slow!¡± Steven placed his hands on his knees while he caught his breath.
Unfortunately, Nev couldn¡¯t just finish this floor for him. They all had to enter the same door or they would end up separated when they went to the next floor. The Wisps were also no use, although Steven didn¡¯t understand why. They could fly a lot faster than the drones could run and would be able to check out each path. But Silvia said they didn¡¯t know what to look for, which made no sense at all. A giant undead abomination was pretty easy to spot.
Steven continued walking into the cave room with multiple tunnels as drones wordlessly started down each path. Pulling his bed out of his inventory, he sat on the edge and began sending wisps to inventory. It seemed like a never-ending task. Steven was surprised when all the Wisps were able to change floors with him. He figured Silvia pulled some sort of shenanigans. But it really wouldn¡¯t matter if they couldn¡¯t defeat this dungeon before they starved. Steven was worried more about the spider Queen than himself. He still had some food, but he wasn¡¯t sure if Nev would turn feral when she started going hungry. Steven sighed as he sent the little wisps to inventory.
¡°We will get it this time.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I could make it every time if my mana wasn¡¯t always half empty. I could just change to my spider form and charge down the path at twice the speed.¡±
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
¡°I know, but we need the Wisps,¡± Silvia said.
Steven didn¡¯t reply, he just lay back on the bed as wisps flew into him. He held his hand up to stop them before his mana got too low. One mana to send something to inventory wasn¡¯t much, but when it needed to trigger hundreds and hundreds of times, it added up.
¡°Mana potions would really speed up this process.¡±
Oh, how Steven itched to have a smoke, but if he did, his mana regeneration would be halved.
¡°How you holding up, Nev?¡±
¡°I¡¯m doing fine, Master. It will be another day or two before the hunger will start to really set in.¡±
¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want some of my food?¡±
¡°It wouldn¡¯t give me much substance. I need raw flesh.¡±
It wasn¡¯t long before a drone came sprinting down a tunnel and they were off again. This time Steven burst into the room in his Spider King form. The undead abomination had two heads, one of a cyclops and the other was what Steven thought was a fish, but it was hard to tell, as the creature was an undead abomination of jumbled up flesh. It had four arms and several tentacles on its back. Steven only gave the odd creature a passing glance as he continued his charge without slowing. The abomination was large, but wasn¡¯t much bigger than Steven¡¯s spider form.
The abomination roared as Steven charged. It, too, charged at Steven. The clash only lasted for an instant. The abomination¡¯s tentacles went to wrap around Steven with the intent to crush him, just to be sent to inventory as Steven¡¯s spider leg touched the abomination¡¯s foot. Steven immediately changed back into his human form and began panting. He had used up most of his mana and stamina on his mad dash. Several wisps began buzzing around Steven in irritation. They all knew this meant he wouldn¡¯t be able to send any of them to his inventory till he recovered his mana. Silvia had to make them back off.
¡°Master, that was incredible. You dealt with that abomination so effortlessly.¡±
¡°Yea, but we got several more before we can even reach the next floor.¡± Steven said between breaths. It¡¯s not like he had done anything other than touch the abomination.
Several drones had already gone running down the tunnel to scout and deal with traps. There were obviously fewer of them than when they first started this mad dash. Steven was just happy they didn¡¯t have to run down this tunnel, though he knew they would come to multiple paths somewhere down this tunnel.
Once he caught his breath, they started down the tunnel, using the lights from the Wisps to light the way. Silvia had suggested it so he could save his last dark vision potion.
¡°What is the meaning of this?¡±
Sirus was familiar with these younger princess spiders and knew the best way to deal with them, so he stepped forward.
¡°Please, your highness allow me to explain.¡± Sirus said.
¡°Okay, go on then, explain why hundreds of you half Naga just suddenly appeared in my city.¡±
Sirus bowed his head and went to one knee. He knew these young spiders craved obedience. ¡°Your highness, we were attacked by the humans and our clan was scattered. More of our kind are surely on their way here.¡±
¡°That doesn¡¯t explain how you just appeared in the middle of my city, or why I should care. We tolerate you reptiles in our cities due to the treaty, but we aren¡¯t taking you lot in as refugees.¡±
Goskia stepped forward. ¡°Young princess, I am Goskia. It is I that brought them here. I had an agreement with Queen Nevateb. I would greatly appreciate it if you could lead me to her.¡±
The spider princess bared her fangs, and Sirus placed his hand on the hilt of his weapon, however the Spider princess didn¡¯t make any moves to harm them nor did the drones surrounding them make a move.
¡°Fine, if you want to speak with mother, I will have the drones lead you to her. But all of you must go. I don¡¯t want a trace of you here when the humans come looking for you.¡±
Sirus Narrowed his eyes at the spider. That made no sense. He was just about to ask about this when Goskia spoke up. ¡°Of course, we will all go.¡±
¡°Alright then,¡± the Spider princess smiled, ¡°follow the drones.¡±
The next moment, the Spider princess shot a web above them and soon vanished out of sight.
¡°Please, this way. Follow me, the Queen is in the Dungeon.¡±
Several gasps erupted from the half Naga and murmurs broke out. Several refused to go. But they quickly stopped complaining when the drones casually explained all who defined the young Princess orders would be eaten.
Sorin went into a rage as he saw a few hundred half Naga appear in his dungeon. He quickly summoned the Beholder and within a few moments the Beholder appeared in his throne room looking at the half Naga through Sorin''s Dungeon sight.
¡°It seems the humans and Elves had infiltrated the half Naga and sent them into disarray. These must be refugees, although I am unsure what they are doing in your dungeon.¡± The Beholder casually stated.
¡°Well, what can we do about it?¡±
¡°I can have the humans informed that the half Naga had fled into the dungeon. Although,¡± the Beholder said with a wide grin, ¡°It will cost you dearly. We both know that your domain is being challenged and now that the challenger has made it past the fifth floor, none can exit this dungeon till only one Domain Holder remains.¡±
Sorin snarled. Demons were conniving, and he hated having to deal with them, but he didn¡¯t have another choice right now. ¡°Fine, but your assassin failed, so I think I¡¯m due a refund on that transaction.¡±
¡°Thats not how it works, you know that. All I did was get the hit placed on the target.¡±
Sorin¡¯s blood boiled at the beholder¡¯s disrespect, but he held his tongue. All he had to do was get the Domain from the intruder and he would no longer be looked down on.
¡°Just do it. I¡¯ll pay. I want them all dead.¡±
¡°Good, good. I knew you would come to see reason.¡±
¡°Captain Sirus,¡± Eve said, jogging up to him, ¡°what floor did you last see Steven on?¡±
¡°Miss Evesakia, I told you to stay in the back with the other crafters.¡±
¡°But Cap¡¡±
Sirus raised his hand, ¡°you heard me. Now go to the back with the other crafters, where you will be safe.¡±
Once Eve left, Goskia spoke up. ¡°There is no need to treat your niece that way. She is simply worried about Steven.¡±
¡°No, she is worried about Shirem.¡± Sirus said, ¡°Is Elder Vasuki still under the impression Steven is Shirem?¡±
¡°He is indeed,¡± Goskia said. ¡°Don¡¯t be so hard on him. He is getting old.¡±
¡°That he is, though I¡¯m not so sure Steven wasn¡¯t part of the human¡¯s plan, regardless if Steven was aware of it or not.¡±
¡°And what are you going to do about it?¡± Goskia asked.
¡°Me? Nothing. That¡¯s for you and Elder Vasuki to decide.¡±
¡°What if we want your opinion on the matter?¡±
¡°I would tell you I¡¯m not qualified.¡±
¡°If not you, then who?¡±
Sirus walked in silence for a long bit before he spoke. ¡°I would treat him the same as we have been.¡±
¡°Oh?¡± Goskia questioned.
¡°If Steven was involved, then there is no reason to let him think we suspect anything. If he is not involved, then nothing changes. Either way, we need his help. If not for the spider Queen then Steven would be irrelevant and not worth the trouble.¡±
Goskia smiled. ¡°Elder Vasuki and I have come to the same conclusion.¡±
¡°Then why ask my opinion?¡±
¡°Because you are the future of this clan. There are many Elder positions available and only a few are able to fill those positions.¡±
¡°Goskia with all do respect I don¡¯t¡¡±
Goskia raised his hand. ¡°We can discuss this later.¡±
They walked in silence till they reached another blue glowing door.
¡°I¡¯ve never seen the dungeon so empty of undead, I thought they respawned.¡± Goskia said.
¡°For some reason, when Steven entered, they stopped spawning.¡±
¡°Hmm, there is definitely more going on than we know. What floor do you think he has made it to?¡± Goskia asked.
¡°I¡¯m really not sure. With the Spider Queen doing his bidding, it¡¯s hard to say. If I had to guess, I would say they are just finishing up the fifth, or at least I hope as finding them on the sixth floor could be difficult, even with the drones leading us.¡±
¡°One more damn undead abomination and we will be off this floor!¡± Steven said.
¡°I¡¯m going to rip that damn vampire to pieces and slowly eat him while he watches me devour his flesh!¡±
Steven turned to say something to Nev, but when he saw the look in her eyes, he thought better of it and turned to Silvia.
¡°How many wisps are left?¡±
¡°Three hundred and twenty-one.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Okay, let¡¯s wait till we finish the last abomination, so I don¡¯t have to worry about running out of mana.¡±
Steven barely got the words out before a drone came sprinting from a tunnel to inform them of the direction of the last abomination.
Nev took off down the path in her spider form. Steven changed forms so he wouldn¡¯t fall behind and took off after her. It was better if he went first, so there was no chance of them getting separated, but he wasn¡¯t about to try and stop the massive hangry spider.
It didn¡¯t take him long to make it to the room with the abomination in his spider form. Once he did, he stopped and changed back to his human form to conserve mana.
Nev was already ripping the abomination limb from limb. However, the abominations had an insane regeneration ability and was regenerating limbs almost as fast as Nev could rip them off. It was a furious fight. Nev was obviously stronger and had more skill but she was only brute forcing her way through the fight instead of using her webs or other shard abilities. Steven nearly got involved and just sent the abomination to inventory, but figured he should let the Spider Queen blow off some steam. She had been quite irritable, barely even talking to him.
Chapter 35: Sirus
The Spider Queen let out a terrifying screech as she ripped off another one of the abomination¡¯s limbs.
¡°Still find her attractive?¡±
Steven turned to regard the Wisp. ¡°It¡¯s not that I find her attractive, per se. it¡¯s just her human form is, well, its very pleasing to the eyes is all.¡±
Silvia sighed! ¡°Yep, you¡¯re going to become spider shit one of these days.¡±
¡°You know, your personalty has changed a lot in the short time we have known each other.¡±
¡°Well thank you Steven, I appreciate that.¡± Silvia said, as her light brightened.
Steven just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the fight. There was now black smoke coming from the abomination¡¯s stumps.
¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±
¡°Apparently, your pet arachnid has the ability to stop or slow regeneration. If I remember correctly, that smoke will burst into flames and began eating the abomination from the inside out, keeping it from regenerating.¡±
Despite the abomination missing three of its six arms and only having one tentacle left, it was still fighting ferociously.
¡°These dungeon monsters seem too strong to be on the sixth floor.¡±
¡°They are not just normal mobs, but mini boss monsters. On the eighth floor, they will be just scattered about as normal mobs.¡± Silvia explained.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. There would be no way in hell he could even stand a chance if it wasn¡¯t for his inventory ability. ¡°Are all dungeons this powerful?¡±
¡°Sorin is the weakest of all the Domain Holders, though not by a lot. However, three of the Domain Holders are on a completely different level and have multiple domains.¡±
¡°Yeah, fuck all that. I¡¯m never going in another dungeon after we get out of this one!¡±
The Spider Queen ripped the head from the abomination as black smoke appeared to keep it from regenerating, however the massive creature wasn¡¯t done and still fought on, as if missing its head was only a minor inconvenience. Suddenly, Nev stopped attacking and jumped back as the abomination burst into black flames. It began rolling around in agony, trying to put out the flames, but it was no use as the black flames continued to burn from its severed appendages. Nev then changed back to her human form and walked over towards them, paying no mind to the abomination franticly rolling around on the ground behind her.
¡°Master Odling, I wish to apologize for my actions the last couple of days. I feel much better now, although the heart of this foe will only sustain me for a short time. I suggest you finish this abomination so we can go to the next floor.¡±
Steven hadn¡¯t even seen her eat the creature¡¯s heart, though Nev did have oily black blood running down her chin, and her normally white teeth were covered in the black blood. And somehow, he still found her attractive.
Steven shook his head, ¡°i-it¡¯s fine Nev, I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t have any food you can eat in my inventory, we will have to make sure to keep some food in my inventory for you when we are out of this dungeon.¡±
¡°I thought you couldn¡¯t store living things in you inventory?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Oh¡ uh, well I can¡¯t. We will just have to figure something out.¡±
¡°Steven, you should kill that abomination before it dies, and you don¡¯t get any of the essence.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Right!¡± Steven turned to the abomination still thrashing on the ground. He found it irritating that he couldn¡¯t see its health bar unless he did damage to it, but it was what it was. Steven pulled out his lightning spear, not wanting to get close to the creature.
¡°Master,¡± Nev said in a pouty tone, taking Steven completely off guard.
¡°Uh, what is it?¡±
¡°I wanted to watch you kill it in your spider form. Please... My flames won¡¯t harm you.¡± Nev said.
Steven sighed internally, ¡°okay. Fine.¡±
Steven changed to his spider form. He didn¡¯t want to kill it like this, but Nev had been acting strange without food, and he wanted to keep the massive spider happy. There would be nothing he could do if she decided to eat him. He charged forwards hoping to kill the disgusting creature by stabbing it with his legs. Unfortunately, his legs barely penetrated the abomination, although it was enough to make its health bar appear. It was a ten percent health.
Steven used his all his weight the next time he stabbed the creature and his leg went in a good eight inches deep. He did this again and again, the abomination barely seemed to even register him even though it was taking off at least a percent of its health each time, however, its health quickly shot back to ten percent. Suddenly, the abomination back handed him with its one remaining arm. His spider form barely registered the hit. Steven, on the other hand, was becoming frustrated at not being able to kill the headless creature. Not to mention the audacity of the creature. It dared to strike him. He was a king! His vision started turning red, and he began ripping into the creature with his mandibles. He could sense the source that was regenerating the undead monstrosity. He began ripping away flesh to get to that power source.
The next thing Steven realized, he was lying on his back, shaking slightly.
¡°Master! You were amazing!¡±
Steven looked up at the Nev, she was looking at him with what Steven could only describe as pride and excitement. Silvia also floated next to him, although he got the sense of disgust from her.
¡°Did you really have to eat its heart?¡± Silvia said.
¡°Its heart? What do you mean, Nev already ate its heart?¡± Steven said as he got to his feet. There was an odd grimy taste in his mouth.
¡°I left a heart for you in case you were hungry too Master.¡± Nev said, beaming at him.
Steven whipped at his mouth and, sure enough, oily black blood was on his hand. Steven then gagged, and then gagged some more till he puked up a bit of black junk, although he was sure that wasn¡¯t even a fraction of it. He wanted to yell at Nev, but it¡¯s not like she forced him to do anything. He just needed to get his spider form under control. Once he finished rinsing his mouth out the best he could, he got back to sending the wisps to inventory. The entire time Nev stared at him as if Steven was her high school crush, or at least that¡¯s the impression he got.
¡°Okay Silvia, give us a rundown on the seventh floor before we go.¡±
As soon as the abomination was defeated, the dungeon floor had stopped shifting about and a glowing blue light appeared in a doorway at the back of the room.
¡°Okay,¡± Silvia started in her lecturing tone, ¡°do you remember the skeletal knight you and Evesakia fought?¡±
¡°Who is Evesakia?¡± Nev asked.
¡°How can you two pronounce her name so easily?¡±
¡°Who is she?¡± Nev asked again.
¡°It¡¯s Steven¡¯s attractive female Naga friend. She is absolutely obsessed with him. She even nursed him back from the brink of death on the second floor.¡± Silvia said in a smug tone.
¡°What!¡± Nev said.
¡°Eve is not obsessed with me!¡±
¡°You have already given her a pet name like me?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Pet name?¡± Steven asked, only to be completely ignored.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
¡°Oh yes,¡± Silvia said as her light brightened, ¡°Miss Evesakia and Steven have spent a lot of time together.¡±
¡°Silvia, can it!¡±
¡°I thought you just arrived in this world?¡± Nev asked.
¡°I did. The Naga were the ones that took me in, well, kidnapped me.¡±
¡°They did what! I¡¯ll kill them all!¡±
¡°No! It¡¯s not like that! It was just a misunderstanding. They were nice to me.¡±
¡°Did you mate with this Evesakia?¡±
¡°No.¡±
¡°Are you going to?¡± Nev asked, eyes narrowed.
¡°I don¡¯t plan on it.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not a no!¡± Nev hissed.
Steven noticed Silvia¡¯s light flickering, and he glared at her.
¡°If you want to mate, then I¡¯m here. You shouldn¡¯t mate with a reptile, anyway!¡±
¡°But I should mate with an arachnid, and then be eaten.¡±
¡°You are also an arachnid now! And I can¡¯t eat you. It¡¯s in our contract.¡±
Steven sighed. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m done talking about this now.¡±
¡°But master¡¡±
¡°Quiet! We are done with this,¡± Steven rubbed at his temples. ¡°I could really use a smoke right now.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flashed, ¡°I sorry to bring it up but I don¡¯t think¡¡±
¡°Shush, I¡¯m not going to. I would if I didn¡¯t lose half my mana regeneration, but that¡¯s not an option right now. Alright, we need to get moving. What were you saying about the skeletal knight?¡±
Silvia immediately went back into lecture mode. ¡°There will be seven of them, all several levels higher than the one you faced, each with their own unique party. They all must be defeated before you can move on to the next floor. Although we can just take the hidden path, but it is likely we will run into a couple of them. The floor its self makes a large circle and there is not much in the form of cover unlike the other floors.¡±
¡°What makes it difficult,¡± Nev cut in, ¡°Is when you have a knight in front of you and one behind you, and then the archer Knight starts shooting you from behind and other Skeletal Knights attacking your front.¡±
Steven sighed. ¡°Do you think we can handle it?¡±
¡°Yes, I believe so if we get attacked from the front and back, I can take one side and you and my remaining drones can hold them off till I get there, but you could take them in your King form.¡± Nev said.
¡°He is quite capable of dealing with a knight and his party in that form, but he could possibly run out of mana.¡± Silvia said, flying up next to the Spider Queens face.
¡°Master,¡± Nev said, swatting at the ball of light, ¡°is more than capable of dealing with those skeletons.¡±
¡°Well, I don¡¯t¡¡± Silvia started.
¡°Oh, calm down, you two! Are you ready? We still have three floors left and we don¡¯t have any food!¡±
¡°Sorry Master Odling, I just don¡¯t like how the Wisp disrespects you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not disrespecting him. I¡¯m trying to keep him alive!¡±
¡°I guess this means you¡¯re ready.¡± Steven said as he headed towards the barrier.
Nev quickly caught up and walked next to him as Silvia flew behind.
Sirus had entered the fifth floor with a small party. He knew how dangerous the never ending slew of Wisps could be. He had barely escaped this floor when he took it on years back. But to his surprise, there wasn¡¯t a single wisp anywhere to be found. He had even sent a few scouts out, but they found nothing.
¡°This¡ This is not possible¡¡± Sirus said.
He quickly turned to go back to the fourth floor so he could tell them this floor had also been cleared. Sirus had never seen anything like this. They had only encountered a couple of zombies and nothing else. It was as If Steven had gone around and killed every single thing before proceeding to the next floor. Well, it was more like he sent the Spider Queen. Shaking his head in disbelief, he went back to the fourth floor and informed them it was clear.
Goskia gave him a questioning look but didn¡¯t comment. Before long, all the half Naga were on the fifth floor looking around in amazement, most had never entered the dungeon. Especially all the younglings and crafters. Out of the three hundred and thirty-seven remaining only around sixty were warriors, and he had left a dozen of them to wait at the entrance for when the princesses sent the others into the dungeon. At least Sirus hoped there would be others. Many fled once they heard of the humans pretending to be the elders. They didn¡¯t trust anyone, but who could blame them? Sirus shook his head to clear it and they moved on towards the boss room. He really hoped they were still on this floor. The sixth floor would be a nightmare, and he didn¡¯t want to lose his people.
Sirus and the strongest he could find entered the boss room. It, too, was completely empty. He remembered the countless wisps in this room and the way they used the roots to hold you in place, while other wisps would explode in your face.
¡°It¡¯s probably best they cleared this floor. If we are lucky, then they cleared all the abominations of the next floor as well.¡±
¡°Sir, shall I inform Elder Goskia? It is safe.¡± A young warrior asked.
¡°Yes.¡± Sirus said.
Most had begun to refer to Goskia as an Elder, he was a retired Elder after all. If not for him, everyone here would have died or became a slave to the Humans and Elves. Not only that, he had food and supplies in bags of holding enough to feed the entire village. Sirus wondered if he had been expecting something like this. Whatever the case, if not for the food, they would have had a much harder time traveling through this dungeon the last couple days. At first everyone had been afraid, but now most were relaxed as to them the dungeon seemed perfectly safe.
Once everyone was in the fifth floor boss room, Sirus explained the next floor like he had each time before.
¡°The next floor is dangerous. It is a maze full of traps and undead abominations. It is likely that some of you won¡¯t make it. I must stress that you all are on alert. I will¡¡±
¡°Thats what you said about the fifth floor, but it is completely safe.¡± Someone shouted from the crowd.
¡°If anything, it¡¯s quite beautiful here.¡± Another Naga spoke up.
¡°We were always told the dungeon was a dangerous place and the dungeon monsters respawned.¡±
Sirus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was not a people person. But a warrior; he didn¡¯t understand why Goskia and Elder Vasuki were having him lead.
He was about to tell them that whoever thought they could traverse the dungeon to go on a head. But Goskia spoke up, ¡°Times are changing, and the dungeon is acting strangely, the dungeon monsters have been coming out of the dungeon, we must look to the strongest for guidance, if any think they can traverse this dungeon better than Captain Sirus, than you are welcome to form a party and go ahead. But be warned, the Spider Queen is who we seek.¡±
That shut everyone up, everyone was aware of how powerful Captain Sirus was, and no one wanted to confront the Spider Queen her self. Though a few asked the obvious questions.
¡°What if the Queen refuses to let us stay in her city?¡±
¡°Why did we all have to enter the dungeon?¡±
Sirus turned to Goskia, before he just turned and began towards the sixth floor with his party.
As soon as he entered the sixth floor, the warriors with him began complaining about how disrespectful their clansmen were being, but Sirus quickly put a stop to that.
¡°They are scared, confused and have been driven from their homes. Many have family that were killed, captured or fled in other directions. We must not let their complaints bother us.¡±
Sirus said this not only for his men but to remind himself as well.
They quickly got to work scouting, though they stayed in a group to not be separated from the dungeon shifting. It quickly came apparent that this floor had already been completed as each tunnel led to the same place and they eventually found themselves staring at the seventh floor entrance.
¡°Captain!¡±
Sirus turned to see the warrior he sent to inform Goskia it was safe.
¡°It won¡¯t allow me to exit this floor. These words keep appearing each time I try!¡± the warrior said between breaths.
Sirus¡¯s eyes bulged. ¡°Tell me exactly what these words said!¡±
Once the young warrior explained they couldn¡¯t leave the Dungeon till only one Domain Holder remained, Sirus turned to one of the Spider-Kin that hadn¡¯t spoken since they entered.
¡°What is going on?¡±
¡°I am unsure we have never encountered anything like this. I have a scout going to confirm this as we speak.¡±
Sirus narrowed his eyes at the Spider-kin. ¡°How about you go to the next floor and start scouting?¡±
¡°My orders were to lead you to the Queen.¡±
Steven had run into two knights so far. Nev had dealt with them both, but she didn¡¯t come out unscathed. She said she was fine, but it was obvious she was hurt; she didn¡¯t have any health potions as she had used the last one on him and she wasn''t rapidly healing like she normally did.
¡°We need to rest,¡± Steven said.
¡°There is no place to rest on this floor.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Master Odling, I appreciate your concern, but I will be fine.¡±
¡°You¡¯re still bleeding, even while in human form! I thought your regeneration would have healed that by now.¡±
¡°She needs substance,¡± Silvia said. ¡°From a living source, it¡¯s what separates monsters from the enlightened races.¡±
¡°I also need food from a living source. I don¡¯t understand what you mean?¡± Steven said.
¡°She needs to eat living flesh or of something that was killed recently, like humans. For example, it is the Spider-kins favorite source of food, which is why her drones look so much like humans.¡±
Steven turned to the Spider Queen, who just lowered her head.
¡°The Wisp is right. That¡¯s why your food does nothing for me. If I don¡¯t consume my prey within twenty minutes of killing it, then there is no point for me to even eat it.¡±
¡°Ha! You finally admit it!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Now is not the time Silvia, if Nev falls we fall,¡± Steven turned to the Spider Queen, ¡°I¡¯ll deal with the next knight while you rest.¡±
¡°But master!¡±
¡°You heard me. That¡¯s an order. If it looks like I¡¯m going to lose, then you can step in.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s a good idea.¡± Silvia said.
¡°We don¡¯t have much of an option. How far to the hidden path?¡±
¡°We have only made it halfway.¡± Silvia said.
¡°And how many knights are in between us and the path?¡±
¡°Two at the moment. Although there is one coming from behind us.¡±
¡°Damit, should we take it out first?¡±
¡°If we do, it is likely the other two groups will attack us from the front. They are much closer.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I¡¯ll take my remaining drones and take the two knights in the front and you can watch our back in case that knight comes up from behind us,¡± Nev said.
¡°There are only what, five drones left.¡± Steven wasn¡¯t sure when he started thinking of the drones as pawns to be sacrificed, but he didn¡¯t have time to ponder on his morality at the moment. Besides, they were more than happy to throw themselves away to protect the Queen, and even him now...
Steven¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°What about the wisps?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light dimmed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but they refuse to fight anyone aside from their chosen target.¡±
¡°If we don¡¯t make it past this floor, then they won¡¯t ever get the chance!¡±
¡°I¡¯ll try to convince them, but don¡¯t expect many to help, if any. We are lucky these accepted the job of being your light source. You know they die when they attack.¡± Silvia said before flying into Steven¡¯s chest and vanishing.
¡°I¡¯m so ready to get out of this damned dungeon,¡± Steven sighed. ¡°Just the two of us now.¡±
¡°Just the two of us is all I ever wanted, Master.¡± Nev said as she stepped closer and kissed him on the cheek.
Chapter 36: Seventh floor Knights
Steven glanced at the pale-skinned spider Queen as they walked. It was hard to believe that this gorgeous, innocent-looking woman was actually a massive spider that ate humans as a snack.
"Is everything okay, Master?¡±
¡°Thats what I should be asking you. Are you going to be able to continue like this?¡±
¡°Of course, Master Odling. It will take much more than a few enchanted arrows to keep me down.¡±
Nev had been hit by three enchanted arrows from the skeletal knight with a crossbow. One in the chest, leg and shoulder, Steven was surprised that it could even penetrate her armor, though if she had food, it would have already regenerated by now.
The two Knights and their parties worked in tandem, the Spear Knight and his group were in the front while the Cross bow Knight and his group were behind them shooting. Between Steven¡¯s spider form and Nev, the Knights didn¡¯t stand a chance. Especially since all Steven had to do was touch them, though he did still need to deal with them, eventually. Before Silvia went into his inventory, she said there was another knight coming up from behind them. Though they haven¡¯t seen it yet.
Nev told him that the Shield Knight working with the Archer or Mage Knights was the hardest to deal with. Nev herself had made it to the eighth floor boss before leaving. It was an abomination, and those creatures healed ridiculously fast. The thought made Steven¡¯s mouth taste grimy.
It wasn¡¯t long before one of the drones came back, reporting they had seen two skeletal knights and their parties up ahead. The sword Knight and the axe Knight.
¡°Master, please allow me to charge in first, to take the bulk of the damage, then you can come in and send them away while they are distracted.¡±
¡°Nev, try to not get hurt. I need you, okay?¡±
Nev smiled widely. ¡°Of course you need me Master, we are to rule this entire world together!¡±
Steven just rolled his eyes. He had no plans to rule this world. He was about to ask if that was before or after she planned to eat him, but decided now wasn¡¯t the time. There was still a knight behind them and now two more in front they needed to deal with.
The Spider Queen changed forms and was fixing to charge when she turned to stare in the direction they came from.
¡°What is it?¡±
¡°Drones¡They just entered this floor.¡±
However, they didn¡¯t get the chance to ponder on this as the Knights were nearly upon them.
The Spider Queen charged toward the Knights, her four remaining drones behind her. One remaining drone was watching their back and was meant to inform them if a Skeletal Knight was approaching from the back.
Steven looked in the direction of the floor entrance, but seen nothing. They were nearly halfway around the circle at this point, and it was likely whatever drones were coming in would die before they made it to aid them. He quickly turned his attention to the immediate threat.
Nev crashed into the Knight and its party, scattering them about. They quickly started to surround her. Steven took off towards the fight in a jog. All he had to do was just touch one of the skeletal knights, and this fight would be as good as over. The issue was touching the Knight its self and not its armor. Which was Nev¡¯s job to tear off some of their armor. She was tired and sore, she barely looked to be winning. Only two of the four drones were still standing, and it didn¡¯t look like they would be standing for long. If only they had more drones.
Suddenly, Steven remembered his ring of summons and immediately activated it.
Unfortunately, the being that came from the portal was a dog sized squirrel, and not even a large dog. The squirrel then charged the Knights immediately. As it ran, Steven noticed ice on the dungeon floor in each place it stepped. He didn¡¯t have time to ponder on this, as he had to help Nev.
Pulling out his Lightning Speer he chucked it at the axe Knight that was just fixing to hack at one of Nev¡¯s back legs. His spear hit the knight and lightning sparked to several of its minions, stunning them. However, the axe had enough momentum, and the knight continued with its swing, although with much less force and accuracy. It still nearly chopped the Spider Queen¡¯s leg off. Nev didn¡¯t pay any attention to her leg nearly getting chopped off. With some of the pressure off her, she was able to shoot the still twitching Axe Knight with her webs.
Steven knew this wouldn¡¯t hold the Knight for long but it would buy her a little time to start on the sword knight. All the Axe Knight¡¯s minions ran to the Knight and began hacking at the web. That¡¯s when the squirrel made its move, jumping on the heads of the axe minions. Steven had hoped it would put them out of commission, but it only froze them for a few more seconds. Which was enough time for Steven to call his spear back while running over and attacking the bound Axe Knights helmet. He was hoping to knock it loose so he could send it to inventory. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t happen, and he had to back off or get surrounded by the axe minions. Though he was able to send a couple of minions to inventory. Steven was just fixing to change into his spider form when an arrow slammed into his back, knocking him to the ground. His health bar dipping to nearly half from that single shot. Looking around, he noticed the Skeletal Knight Silvia warned them about.
His summon immediately turned and charged at them. He saw a few arrows shoot at the squirrel but missed. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, he changed to his Spider form and began sending the axe minions to inventory. The axe knight was still bound by Nev¡¯s webs, so Steven turned to the archer Knight. Luckily, it was just a single knight and the Shield Knight wasn¡¯t there too. But this was still not ideal with Nev hurt and only a couple of drones remaining. Even if they made it through this, they would be hurt. The ice squirrel was creating chaos and doing much better than he first thought, but it wouldn¡¯t last much longer.
Steven¡¯s back ached. If not for his Amulet the arrow would have been stuck in him. Now that he was in his spider form, he could fight on equal footing, at least till his mana ran out. Steven charged in at the archers while they were preoccupied with the squirrel. However, the Knight its self turned to face Steven releasing an arrow almost instantly, all he could do was move slightly to keep it from slamming into his face, instead the arrow hit his abdomen, causing Steven to involuntary let out a high pitch screech which did nothing to the undead but caused the ice squirrel to freeze up momentarily. At the same time, several arrows impacted the squirrel, causing it to vanish. Steven took this time to force his body to move around and spray webbing all over the archers. He missed the Knight completely, and it was already taking aim at him again.
This time, the arrow was glowing a bright red. As it released, the arrow split into three, all three slammed into Steven, exploding on impact. His spider King ability to triggered and he was transformed back to his human form with a single hit point. Steven lay there on the dungeon floor, slightly trembling. Nothing but a single hit point and a just a tad over a hundred mana. He tried to stand only for the knight to release another arrow at him.
Time slowed, and Steven could hear Nev screeching in anger while still in combat. The arrow stopped before it impacted him and fell exactly ten feet away. Steven¡¯s vision began to darken. ¡°Dammit, not like this! I don¡¯t want to die.¡±
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
If only if he had mana and health potions, this fight would have been completely different.
As soon as Sirus entered the seventh floor, he heard a battle taking place in the distance. Immediately, the drones took off toward the noise. Sirus took off after them, his warriors right behind him.
He had not expected Steven to make it this far, even with the Spider Queen¡¯s help. Even so, the Knights on this floor were no joke. He had nearly died with a strong team. Though he had gained another shard since then.
It took Sirus longer than he would have liked to reach the fighting. When he finally made it, he saw the Spider Queen fighting off two skeletal knights and their minions. She was fighting them like a wounded and cornered beast. He didn¡¯t understand why she was staying in a single spot. The drones immediately jumped into action. That¡¯s when he noticed Steven¡¯s unconscious form beneath the Queen.
¡°Fan out. Use range attacks to draw the Knight¡¯s attention. I need to get to Steven!¡±
Before Sirus finished speaking, the drones were already throwing themselves at the Knights and their minions.
Sirus and his party froze, most the drones died immediately by the Sword Knight.
He knew his inexperienced warriors were no match for the knights, but if they could help Steven and regroup with the Queen, they would be able to take on the knights.
He wasn¡¯t sure if he should risk trying to help Steven, but the way the Queen fought to save him, he knew he needed to get to him first.
¡°You heard me! Get to it!¡±
Sirus¡¯s warriors began throwing spells, daggers, and potions.
Sirus then erected a bone barrier between the Knight, shooting arrows and his men, then another between the archer and Steven while making a mad dash towards him. He could tell Steven was in bad shape, but he wasn¡¯t sure if he should give the Queen a health potion first. Which caused him to pause momentarily when he reached them.
The Spider Queen snarled down at him. ¡°Are you going to heal my master or will I have you as a snack?¡±
Every fiber in Sirus¡¯s body told him to get away from the spider. The look in her eyes was of a feral beast.
Sirus quickly pulled himself together and took a health potion from his pouch of holding and poured it down Steven¡¯s throat. He then pulled the arrows out and poured some healing potion over those wounds as well.
¡°Do you have more health potions?¡±
Sirus looked up at the Queen. He knew they were less than fifteen levels apart, but he felt small and weak in her presence, but he couldn¡¯t let it show.
¡°Yes,¡± Sirus pulled out a health potion and gave it to the Queen. ¡°I need to get back to my warriors!¡±
¡°Its to late, though you made the correct choice.¡±
Sirus turned to see another knight he hadn¡¯t noticed. ¡°The Axe Knight!¡± This was the very knight that had nearly killed him before. How could he had not noticed a third knight!
His men had done a fantastic job of getting the Knight¡¯s attention. Only two were still standing. Sirus used his most mana intensive ability. A bone cage formed around the Axe Knight as spikes began to impale the Knight at a rapid speed. At the same time, Sirus fell to one knee, panting.
The Sword knight was still near his two remaining warriors. He couldn¡¯t let them die! Downing a mana potion, he stood up, ready to charge at the Sword Knight, but stooped as it was wrapped up in webs.
¡°The fallen are now mine.¡± The Spider Queen said.
Sirus didn¡¯t have time to understand what the Queen was talking about as his bone wall shattered from an enchanted arrow. The Archer Knight was already taking aim at him. He was barely able to move away in time as the arrow slammed into the ground behind him. The next instant, the ground exploded and he went flying. Sirus hit the ground and rolled to his feet. He sent several bone spikes at the Archer Knight while taking in the battlefield.
His entire team was dead aside from two wounded warriors who were trying to fight off some sword minions that were trying to free the Sword Knight from the webs. The Archer Knight was now targeting the Queen who was holding Steven in her arms as she crawled across the ceiling, throwing out webs. He was confused as to why she wasn¡¯t killing the Knights but instead was trying to capture them. He quickly turned his attention back to his men and rushed to aid them. Throwing a few bone spikes at the minions fighting his warriors, he rushed to them to help.
¡°Head back to the entrance!¡± Sirus said once he reached them, ¡°No point in throwing your lives away!¡±
The two remaining warriors did as he asked and headed back towards the entrance, as Sirus erected a bone wall. Arrows began slamming into it, but these weren¡¯t form the knight and didn¡¯t hardly damage his wall. When he was finally able to deal with the axe and sword minions, he looked to see the Archer Knight was also bound by webs now, though he had no idea where the Queen and Steven had gone.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning slammed into his chest. Once staggered back to his feet, his eyes widened in fear. Two more knights were coming, the Shield Knight and the Mage Knight. He had never faced the Mage Knight, but the shield knight was his bane. Sirus quickly moved behind one of his bone walls as ice spells flew at him along with a massive fireball spell that completely destroyed his first bone wall. Sirus rolled behind the second bone wall, then created two more. He wasn¡¯t sure what to do, run was the only thing that came to mind. He turned to do just that when he saw the Queen. His eyes widened in disbelief and fear when he saw what she was doing.
She looked right into his eyes but didn¡¯t stop eating his dead warriors. More explosions from the mages, but Sirus couldn¡¯t make himself turn away. A few naked drones ran towards the wall and began shooting webs at the mages. Sirus knew that wouldn¡¯t do any good other than maybe buy some time. Though he assumed that¡¯s what they were meant to do. Sirus forced himself to look away and shot some bone spikes at the slowly approaching mage knights. Another one of his walls crumbled. He wanted to shout at the Queen and tell her this was no time to have a snack but held his tongue, afraid he would be next. A shiver went down his spine as he heard the Queen¡¯s voice.
¡°Create more walls. I need more time.¡±
Sirus took a deep breath, and he did as the Queen asked. He hated to see his warriors bodies being treated in such a manor, but now wasn¡¯t the time to confront her. Sirus had his entire remaining clan depending on him; he had to survive.
He heard one of his warriors cry out, and he turned to see the Queen chewing on him. He went to open his mouth but closed it. This was his fault. He had ordered them to fight and had thought all of them dead aside from the ones he sent away. There was nothing to be done for the warrior now.
She would not go unpunished for this. He would get his revenge. Sirus created several more bone walls, at the cost of a good portion of his mana.
¡°They are coming. I can¡¯t do any damage do to the shield knight.¡±
¡°My mana is slowly recovering now. I need just a bit more time.¡± The Queen said.
That¡¯s right, she was a monster. She had to eat to recover her mana? ¡°I suppose their lives were not in vain.¡± Sirus mumbled as he sent out several bone spikes. This time, he sent the spikes from above. He was able to take down one of the shield minions, although most of his spikes were blocked by some sort of invisible barrier. At the same time, two more of his walls were destroyed by a massive fireball. He created more bone walls. He was definitely going to have potion sickness after this battle. Pulling out another mana potion, he downed it.
¡°Captain!¡± Sirus heard a muffled sound from behind him and he whirled around to see several naked drones dragging something. He didn¡¯t understand why the drones were naked, but the thought quickly passed as he saw it was the two warriors he sent away.
His eyes widened when he realized the Queen meant to eat them alive. ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Sirus shouted as he darted towards them.
¡°You plan to stop me!¡± The Queen said in a menacing voice.
¡°I cannot allow this!¡± Sirus said.
¡°Hmm, how bout I just eat the wounded one, and we compromise since you are a friend of my Master.¡±
¡°No!¡±
Several drones turned to Sirus.
His eyes widened. He didn¡¯t remember there being so many drones, and why were none of them clothed? He saw nearly a dozen more guarding something in the back. Pushing those thoughts aside, he spoke up.
¡°Please, let¡¯s just deal with the Knights.¡±
¡°And why should I allow these weaklings to live? They would be better as flesh to create more drones and supply me mana.¡±
Sirus shuttered slightly. ¡°These are all the warriors my clan has left. I need them.¡±
The Queen narrowed her eyes. ¡°If this is the case, then why are they in the dungeon? And not with your clan. Better yet, what are you doing here? Aren¡¯t your people in war with the humans and elves?¡±
Several explosions and bone rubble exploded from behind Sirus and he turned to see a dozen drones throwing webs at the Knights from behind one of his remaining walls.
¡°Now is not the time to explain this. But my entire reaming clan is in this dungeon. Your daughter sent us all into the dungeon.¡±
¡°I see. That little brat sent you all in here. She must be planning something. I¡¯m sure you have already figured out you can¡¯t leave now that you have passed the fifth floor,¡± the spider Queen smiled wickedly. ¡°I will allow your warriors to live. But know that if it comes down to starving or letting your clan survive, then there is really no choice in the matter. Though, I will allow you to choose those who get eaten first. I prefer strong males, but as you are a friend of my Master, I¡¯ll allow the kindness of choosing.¡±
Sirus took an involuntary step back, unsure how to respond.
Chapter 37: Pursuit of the half Naga
Steven woke up with a pounding headache surrounded by drones. Although these drones were naked. The first thing Steven noticed was their missing member. It was completely smooth, which confused him to no end. It¡¯s not that he wanted to look there, it¡¯s just they were all standing around him and he was on the ground looking up.
¡°My King,¡± one of the drones said, as he knelt down next to him, ¡°inform the Queen that he is awake.¡± He said to another drone before turning back to Steven.
Another drone took off in a sprint. That¡¯s when Steven seen Nev speaking with Sirus. Before he even had a chance to wonder when Sirus got here, a massive explosion went off, causing Steven to jump to his feet. As soon as he did, he clutched at his head. ¡°Dam I need more mana!¡± Steven mumbled.
¡°My King, do you want me to get you a mana potion?¡±
¡°Uh, yeah, that would be great! I¡¯ll take all the potions you can get.¡±
He didn¡¯t expect the drone to actually find any potions, but watched in confusion as he dug around in a pile of clothes, weapons, and equipment. Pulling out several potions. The drone quickly brought them over to Steven. He placed them all in his inventory, not paying any attention to them, aside from the single mana potion that he downed. He was about to ask what was going on when another explosion went off, causing shards of something to sling everywhere.
Then Nev was next to him.
¡°Master,¡± Nev said as she changed to her human form and hugged him, ¡°I was so worried.¡±
Steven awkwardly hugged her back while Sirus looked at him with wide eyes.
¡°I¡¯m sorry to interrupt, but we should do something about the knights.¡± Sirus said.
Nev turned with a furious expression.
¡°Your right. Shall we charge in together? My mana is full now.¡± Steven asked.
¡°Together?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Are you with us?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Uh, is it not a suicided run?¡± Sirus asked.
Steven turned to Nev. ¡°How many knights remain?¡±
¡°All of them are bound that we were fighting. The only remaining ones on this floor are the Mage Knight and Shield Knight.¡±
¡°We can do this,¡± Steven turned to a wide eyed Sirus, ¡°focus on knocking off any piece of their armor, and focus completely on the Knights. I¡¯m not worried about the minions. Can you do this?¡±
¡°Knock off a piece of their armor, but why?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°There is no time for foolish questions. Do as my Master says or i¡¯ll¡¡±
¡°Nev!¡±
The spider Queen lowered her head while Sirus looked on at the exchange in disbelief. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll do my best to break the armor. Does it matter what armor?¡±
Another explosion had bone shards blast towards them and the spider Queen moved in front of Steven. A few bone shards stuck into her back, but she paid it no mind.
¡°Are you okay?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I¡¯m fine, let¡¯s go,¡± Nev said. ¡°I¡¯m tired of the pesky knights!¡± Nev changed back to her spider form as Sirus began charging up his heavy attack.
¡°Let¡¯s do this,¡± Steven said as he changed into his spider form.
Steven seen Sirus gasp and stubbled back from the second massive spider.
¡°I need your help with this Sirus.¡± Steven mentally said as he charged in towards the Knights.
Steven followed directly behind the Queen as spells flew at them. The Queen tanked most of the spells, till a massive fireball flew towards them.
¡°Master, move to the celling.¡±
Steven Immediately shot a web to the dungeon ceiling, and the next moment he was continuing his charge on the ceiling behind the Queen.
Sirus was having a hard time wrapping his head around Steven being a giant spider.
¡°Did the Queen do something to him? No, that doesn¡¯t seem right. Why would the Queen serve her own creation?¡± He shook his head. He had to concentrate. His heavy bone spear took three quarters of his mana and a lot of concentration. It should be enough to break a single piece of armor, but to be on the safe side, he condensed his mana as tightly as he could. He just hoped it was worth it. He was nearly ready to release his charged up attack at the Shield knight, he just needed to hold a bit longer to have it fully charged.
He was having a hard time trying to over look Steven being a spider, he was in shock and had so many questions. Had Steven been a spider this whole time? If he was a spider, it made more sense why the Queen was calling him Master.
Sirus watched as the Queen and Steven both moved to the ceiling and continued to charge. They had drawn all the aggro and the Shield Knight now had its back to him. He only needed a few more seconds now.
Sirus nearly lost concentration after Steven dropped from the ceiling and the shield and mage minions just started vanishing. It didn¡¯t make any since he just touched them and they vanished. He shook head and finished focusing on his attack. It was time.
His bone spear, which was his most impactful shard ability, flew directly into the back of the Shield Knight. His eyes widened as a yellow glowing shield appeared from thin air and his bone spear slammed into it, fortunately his Shard ability shattered the barrier and slammed into the knight throwing the Knight into the dungeon wall and completely shattering the back of the Shield Knight¡¯s chest piece. Although Sirus doubted he actually did much damage to the knight its self. But he had completed his task. He was lucky the barrier didn¡¯t cause him to miss his target completely. He had been aiming for the arm piece, not the chest piece, but it had worked out.
Sirus pulled out his Katana, his mana was low, and he had already used one-to-many mana potions today. He went to charge in, but froze as Steven, in spider form, simply touched the Shield Knight before it had a chance to stand and it vanished. He blinked a few times in confusion, but quickly gathered himself and charged in. By the time Sirus made it and cut down one of the mage minions, the fight was over, and Steven was back in human form.
¡°Good work on the Shield Knight Sirus.¡± Steven said as he walked towards him.
¡°Uh, thank you.¡±
¡°What do you think about my new shard ability? At first I didn¡¯t like the idea of becoming a giant spider, but I think it¡¯s growing on me, it definitely has its perks.¡±
Sirus eyes bulged. ¡°You mean to tell me that is a Shard ability?¡±
¡°What about me, Master? Did I do a good job?¡±
¡°Of course you did Nev, there is no way we could have managed without you.¡±
Sirus watched in disbelief as the spider Queen shivered in delight at Steven¡¯s praise.
What was going on? The Queen is acting like a young hatchling in love. Wait, that must be it. The Queen had fallen for Steven, no that couldn¡¯t be it. That made no sense. Sirus had to admit the Spider Queen was quite attractive in her human form, but then he remembered how moments ago she was eating his warriors. And he shook his head. Did she have some sort of ability to make males find her attractive?
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
¡°Hey Sirus, are you okay?¡± Steven asked.
Sirus shook his head. ¡°Yeah, sorry. Mana fatigue.¡±
¡°Tell me about it. I can¡¯t seem to get enough mana,¡± Steven said. ¡°Hey, I hate to ask this but you wouldn¡¯t happen to have any food, would you? I¡¯m starving.¡±
Sirus paled. Did the young princess send him to this place to have his clan become spider food? He took a step back. At any moment, the two beings in front of him could turn into monstrous spiders and eat him and his entire clan.
¡°Eve used to bring me this baked fish and some sort of salad. I¡¯ve really been dreaming about that lately, but I¡¯ll take whatever you got!¡± Steven said.
¡°Wait! You want baked fish??¡± Sirus asked, with wide eyes.
¡°Well, at this point, I could eat a horse, but if you have any food, I would greatly appreciate it. It¡¯s been a couple of days since I¡¯ve had a complete meal.¡±
¡°Horse? I¡¯m not sure what that is,¡± Sirus seen the way spider Queen was glaring at him, ¡°well I don¡¯t have any backed fish on me, but I¡¯m sure Eve does, she is actually the one in charge of the food, well her and Goskia. I do have this however.¡± Sirus pulled out some dried rations and handed it to Steven, who took it and began eating it like a starved animal. After he devoured a few of the strips of dried meat and drank some water from a stone, he turned to the Queen.
¡°Nev want some.¡±
¡°No, Master, I am not hungry at the moment.¡± The Queen said as Steven began eating the rest of the dried meat.
The Queen narrowed her eyes at Sirus, and he gulped slightly. He got the sense that if he said anything about the Queen eating his dead warriors, he would be next. Just then, his warriors ran over.
¡°Captain, are you okay?¡±
¡°Yes, I am fine. How are you holding up?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Not too bad now. The drones gave us health potions. Though we are both out of mana, and can¡¯t have any potions for the rest of the day.¡±
¡°Come, let Steven eat and speak to the Queen.¡± Sirus said as he led his two remaining warriors to the other side of the tunnel.
¡°Listen up, don¡¯t mention anything about the Queen trying to eat you.¡± Sirus said in a low voice.
¡°Eat us?¡± One of the warriors asked in confusion.
¡°The drones already have explained they were trying to keep us from getting caught up in a fight with other knights.¡±
¡°Thats why they brought us back. We were just so frighted we were panicking.¡± The second warrior explained.
Sirus opened his mouth to say something when he saw dozens of lights appearing in the corner of his vision. He turned to see what was going on and seen dozens of the fifth floor wisps were pouring from Steven¡¯s chest.
His heart sank as his eyes widened. ¡°run!¡± his two warriors didn¡¯t need to be told twice as they sprinted back towards the entrance. Sirus was just about to do the same, but paused as he noticed that the Queen nor Steven made a move. If anything, the Queen looked annoyed.
Then a large pink Wisp with a green hue appeared.
¡°Sorry it took so long.¡±
Sirus heard a female voice in his mind, plain as day.
¡°It was hard to convince the little guys to come out, but I got two hundred and twenty-three to come out and help.¡± The voice sounded proud.
All the wisps were lined up behind the larger one in front of Steven, as if they were waiting for orders. It took Sirus a moment to realize that was exactly what they were doing. He couldn¡¯t hear what Steven said, but the larger Wisp started to float around and Sirus got a strong sense the Wisp was looking at him, but that very well could have been his imagination.
¡°Seems I was too late then. Alright back in you go. No, stop your complaining you were the ones that took so long, you should had came out when I asked. Next time, be ready.¡±
Sirus didn¡¯t think anything would surprise him more than Steven turning into a massive spider. But watching a couple hundred of Wisps fly into Steven¡¯s chest and vanish was causing the normally stoic Naga¡¯s brain to spasm. The next moment, Steven fell to one knee and clutched his head as the Wisps stopped.
¡°Oh, yeah, that¡¯s my fault. I didn¡¯t think about it draining your mana when they went back in.¡±
Sirus couldn¡¯t tell what the spider Queen was saying, but she was obviously pissed. He was thinking about walking over, but after seeing the Queen getting angry, he decided against it.
The next moment, the large Wisp was floating in front of him.
¡°I¡¯m mostly just using this as an excuse to get away from that annoying arachnid,¡± the Wisp said. ¡°I¡¯ve heard all about you, Sirus. My name is Silviaburlaxatrix. Nice to meet you.¡±
¡°Hello miss Silviaburlaxatrix, I am honored to meet such a legendary being. I am Sirus of the Elder clan.¡± Sirus said while bowing his head.
¡°Oh! Aren¡¯t you a charmer! I like this one.¡± the next moment, the Wisp was back in front of Steven. ¡°can we keep him? You still have two slots available. He is just fifteen levels away from reaching seventy.¡±
Sirus just blinked in confusion. ¡°Keep me?¡±
Sirus seen Steven saying something to the Wisp before it appeared before him again.
¡°Steven says we can keep you if you agree and you can be his servant like Nevateb.¡±
¡°Servant? To Steven? Wait, what?¡±
Sirus didn¡¯t get time to even begin to understand before his warriors came running back. ¡°Captain.¡±
Both warriors eyed the Wisps warily, but didn¡¯t stop as they approached Sirus.
¡°Captain,¡± one of the warriors said between breaths, ¡°we have bad news.¡±
¡°It¡¯s the clan!¡± the other warrior said. ¡°They just came to this floor, and are being pursued by a battalion of elves and humans.¡±
Sirus¡¯s eyes bulged. ¡°What! They followed us here?¡± Sirus bolted off towards the entrance.
Silviaburlaxatrix sighed. It was always something with Sorin. She wondered how he managed this.
She flew towards Steven. This was something she needed to inform him of. It could be problematic, though she felt that between Steven and that annoying over powered arachnid, the odds would be in their favor. Steven had really gone above and beyond her expectations for his level, especially now that he had that spider form. Steven had no idea how powerful that ability was. But he needed to be stronger if they planned to survive after they got out of this dungeon. His inventory ability would only get him so far. But he would soon find out when dealing with these soldiers.
Silvia casually flew over to Steven, ¡°So there are around three hundred human and elf soldiers headed our way, also the entire remaining half Naga clan is here, including miss Evesakia.¡±
¡°Wait what?¡±
Silvia flew over to the reaming wisp. ¡°let¡¯s see, there are still a one hundred and twelve of you. Are you lot ready for a battle?¡±
Silvia knew by the way their lights were flickering, they were excited for a battle. Though she couldn¡¯t blame them, it¡¯s not like they could die. They will just continually respawn at Steven¡¯s Domain. Which is something she needed to ask Steven about. At first, she had thought it was his inventory, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case.
¡°Hey! You can¡¯t just say something like that and then fly away!¡± Steven shouted.
¡°Ugh, so needy. I told you absolutely everything I know about the situation. If you want to know now more then go ask the Naga.¡±
Silvia directed her wisps down the tunnel. She would finally be able to get some essence for herself. Now that she had soul bounded all the little wisps, it would now be as if she was the one doing the attacking. She looked down at Steven as he took off towards the entrance.
¡°Soldiers, and hundreds of them?¡± Steven asked as he jogged towards the direction Sirus went. ¡°Do you have any idea what she is talking about?¡±
¡°I am sorry Master, this is the first I¡¯ve heard of this, I was aware the humans and elves were trying to kill and capture all the half Naga but, they were not supposed to set foot in my territory meaning my youngest is conspiring against me. However, this may be just what we needed. They will have food and potions and supplies, so we can take our time on the last few floors.¡±
¡°Well, look at you being optimistic, but are you sure we can handle that many soldiers? My inventory ability won¡¯t work on them.¡± Steven was surprised at how easy it was to talk while jogging at this speed. He didn¡¯t think even the most fit people on earth could do it. His attributes were really coming along.
¡°Master with all do respect, you are thinking to simply, just because you can¡¯t send them into your inventory doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t use it, drop one of the knights you gathered, that in its self would cause chaos in there ranks. It cost you noting but a second of your time and a single mana, and your spider form is more than capable of dealing with regular old soldiers, its Knights, and the Arc Mages we need to be careful of, and I doubt there is a single Knight or Arc mage with them. The soldiers will all be low leveled with only one shard if they even have that. They will also not be expecting a spider King and Queen to be attacking them while they chase the Half Naga.¡±
¡°Oh, well, you make it sound easy and yea, I could drop some dungeon monsters, but all the knights are bound, though the abominations aren¡¯t.¡±
It didn¡¯t take Steven and Nev long to reach the entrance where the Half Naga were still coming in. He immediately ran over towards Sirus and Elder Vasuki, but was stopped by some Elder guards.
¡°How dare you raise a weapon at my Master.¡± Nev said as she transformed into spider form.
The guards dropped their weapons and stepped backwards.
¡°Nev! Stop it! Change back now you¡¯re making a scene.¡±
Everyone was now staring at them now. Most had run to the far dungeon wall. Except for Elder Vasuki and his group, Sirus stood in the front blade out.
¡°Sorry Master Odling.¡± Nev said as she change back to her human form.
¡°I¡¯m sorry about that guys. She can be a bit overprotective at times.¡± Seven said.
Elder Vasuki stepped forward, ¡°I see you have tamed the Beast,¡± the old Naga walked in a circle around the spider Queen, then he put his hand on her chin and moved it every which way as if he was inspecting her. ¡°The spider is quite the looker in her human form. I¡¯m proud of you Shirem, you make this old Naga proud.¡±
¡°Master?¡± Nev said, snarling at the old Naga.
¡°Don¡¯t you dare hurt Elder Vasuki, and it would probably be best if you didn¡¯t speak until I tell you otherwise.¡± Steven didn¡¯t like ordering the Spider Queen around like this, but Silvia said she had to obey him, but still, he wished this old Naga wouldn¡¯t provoke her.
¡°Wow, you have such control over her.¡± Elder Vasuki said with a wide smile, ¡°what about her drones? Do you control those as well?¡±
¡°Elder Vasuki,¡± Sirus said, ¡°I don¡¯t believe now is the time for this. We need to prepare for the incoming attack.¡±
¡°Yes, yes, you are right,¡± Elder Vasuki said. ¡°Do begin Captain, I leave this in your capable hands.¡±
Sirus immediately began giving out orders.
¡°Steven!¡±
Hearing his name he turned to see Eve running towards him.
Chapter 38: Ambush
¡°Master, who is that?¡±
Steven could hear the disdain in her voice.
¡°You¡¯re not supposed to be speaking, remember?¡±
¡°Sorry Master, though you said it would probably be best if I didn¡¯t speak and did not give me a direct order.¡±
Steven turned to look at Nev with narrowed eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll be sure to not make that mistake in the future. Now don¡¯t move and be quie...¡± Eve grabbed Steven in a hug.
¡°I¡¯m so glad you are okay!¡± Eve said.
Steven could feel Nev¡¯s glare on his back as he hugged her back.
¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay as well.¡± Steven said.
The next moment, Eve yelped and let go. Steven turned to see two naked drones holding swords at Eve.
¡°My King, do not worry, we will protect you!¡±
¡°W-Whaaat.¡± Eve stammered.
¡°And what makes you think I need protection?¡± Steven asked before turning to Eve. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, theses guys can be a bit simpleminded.¡±
¡°Did they just call you King?¡±
¡°Uh, yeah, it¡¯s a long story.¡± Steven said as he narrowed his eyes at drones.
¡°My King, it¡¯s just we realized our Queen was being held in place by some unseen force and couldn¡¯t protect you. So we¡¡±
¡°Thats enough,¡± Steven turned to Nev, she did look like she was about to explode, he figured it was the whole hugging part that really caused the issue, ¡°Nev, this is Eve, Eve this is Nev, I imagine you two will get to know each other quite well over the following days.¡±
¡°My King, the Queen wishes to express her discomfort of not being able to protect you properly while standing so close to someone while she is forbidden to move.¡±
Steven turned to the drone. ¡°Oh, does she now? First off, you lot need to go find some clothes. I saw some laying back in the previous dungeon room we were fighting in. There are women and children present. They don¡¯t need to be seeing all that.¡±
"At once my King!" The drones bowed before leaving. He didn¡¯t understand why they were naked. He had been going to ask Nev about it, but things just kept happening, and now wasn¡¯t a good time.
¡°Steven¡ what is going on? Why are the Spider-kin taking orders from you? And who is that? I¡¯ve been hearing all kinds of rumours...¡±
¡°I¡¯ll tell you all about it later, okay, I promise. There is just too much going on right now.¡± As Steven spoke the half Naga were running every which way getting ready for the upcoming battle. The non combat and children were being led towards the eighth floor entrance, as a last resort to run. Although Steven didn¡¯t think that was a good place to run. The eighth floor was full of abominations and those things were ridiculously hard to kill. He would need to talk to Sirus about that. At least all the Knights were dealt with on this floor.
¡°You are right. It was good to see you. I can¡¯t wait to catch up with you later. Be safe, okay.¡± Eve turned to leave, but turned back. ¡°do you need any potions or anything?¡± Eve asked.
¡°Actually, I would be more than happy for some potions, and if you have any of that baked fish...¡±
Eve giggled slightly. ¡°baked fish, sure I have some. I have quite a bit of it. I had been making it for you and was going to get Captain Sirus to bring it to you, but then we were attacked.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes lit up at the mention of his favorite dish. He had been half starved the last couple of days. ¡°Oh, I could just kiss you!¡± Steven said this before he realized his poor word choice. Not only was it embarrassing to say to Eve, but with how Nev was acting, he was worried she may do something.
Eve blushed furiously and was just fixing to say something when a pink ball of light just appeared in between Steven and Eve.
¡°I do believe I¡¯m just in time. Your pet arachnid is just about to make a scene. You should really get it under control. And as for you, miss Evesakia, we have much to discuss. Come, let us discuss my plans for you and leave Steven and his servant alone for now.¡±
Eve stumbled back, ¡°A Wisp! I thought they were just legends¡¡±
¡°Come now dear.¡± Silvia said while leading a wide eyed Eve behind her.
Steven watched as Eve looked back at him a few times, but followed Silvia without protest. He also watched in confusion as several half Naga bowed towards Silvia.
¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to have to ask her what that¡¯s all about,¡± Steven turned to Nev, ¡°Okay, you can speak.¡±
¡°What did you mean by we would be getting to know each other?¡± Nev said between gritted teeth.
¡°Well, Eve is my friend and I image I will be spending time with her. I assumed you would want to be with me when I did, although it¡¯s fine if you would rather not.¡±
¡°I¡ Well¡ I will need to be there with you, of course. I must be able to protect you!¡± Nev said.
¡°Okay, good. Now I expect you to be nice to her.¡±
¡°I will do as you command, Master. Though I have a question?¡±
¡°Sure, what¡¯s the question?¡±
¡°Which of us do you find more attractive?¡±
Steven froze. This was not a question he had been excepting. He felt it was a trap and that no matter what he answered it would somehow end poorly for him.
¡°Now is not the time for this Nev, we have hundreds of soldiers coming to fight us.¡±
¡°Master, it should be a simple question. If I don¡¯t have the answer, it will affect my fighting as my mind will wonder on other things.¡±
¡°Are you saying if I don¡¯t answer you, you protect me?¡±
¡°Absolutely not! I¡¯m saying if you don¡¯t answer me, then my mind may wonder and some soldiers may get by me and some of the half Naga may get hurt. I won''t allow nothing to harm you, Master!¡±
¡°So you''re threatening me?¡±
¡°Of course not Master! I just want you to answer my question. It¡¯s a simple question, Reptile or Arachnid? Which does Master find more attractive?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not that simple, but hold on, let me think.¡±
¡°Is it that close? I understand this half Naga is attractive, but she couldn¡¯t possibly be¡¡±
¡°Shush, I¡¯m thinking.¡± If it wasn¡¯t for the Spider Queen, being able to tell if he lied, he would immediately say it was her. Why did Nev even care? All around attractiveness, it would be Eve, hands down, although. If nothing but appearance was considered, he could honestly say it was Nev.
¡°In physical attraction, it is you, Nev. I can honestly say that. I doubt there is a being in existence that is more attractive than you. If there is, I¡¯ve never seen them.¡±
¡°And I will destroy anything in existence, that is,¡± Nev casually stated. ¡°I can tell that you are being truthful, but I don¡¯t understand why you want me to wear clothes that hide my body. If you find it so attractive, then why have me cover it?¡±
¡°Now is not the time for this! What has gotten into you? When did you start caring so much about what I find attractive?¡± Steven sighed, ¡°you know what, never mind that. And to answer your question, I already told you, it would be too distracting. You''re already distracting enough as it is.¡±
Nev smiled wildly. ¡°Thank you, Master, for answering my questions.¡±
Steven took a deep breath. ¡°I could really use something to smoke right now.¡±
¡°Steven,¡± Sirus hesitantly said, ¡°we need the aid of you and the Queen in this fight.¡±
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°No problem. We plan to help.¡± Steven said.
¡°Yes, we will take care of this. After all, this will be Master¡¯s dungeon before long.¡± Nev said.
Sirus opened his mouth to say something, but closed it.
Steven had never thought about owning the dungeon. What would he even do with it?
¡°We should really make a plan.¡± Sirus said.
¡°Agreed. How long do we have before they get here?¡± Steven asked.
¡°From what I was told, maybe an hour. My scouts said the soldiers did not notice them and they were moving extremely slow.¡±
¡°Okay, well, what sort of plan did you have in mind?¡± Steven asked.
Sorin had been contacted several times by the Assassin¡¯s Guild, and even by the Dungeon lord that was behind the Guild. But he ignored them all. It was close now. Sorin¡¯s eyes twitched as he watched Steven make plans with the Half Naga. All he needed was this dammed human to be killed so he could claim his domain. That¡¯s all Sorin could think about. Once the humans and elves killed this Steven, he would gain full control of his dungeon and could respawn all his monsters. Dealing with the rest of the intruders would be a simple matter, even that dammed Spider wouldn¡¯t be a threat. He could just throw the undead at her till she fell. Not to mention he would no longer be sealed to this room.
Steven sat on a web with Nev, just waiting. He had dropped two abominations right at the entrance, which seemed to be content just waiting there. This was Goskia¡¯s plan. They had thrown some clothes and a few weapons about, hoping the soldiers would think the entire clan was wiped out. It wouldn¡¯t be a stretch to think two abominations could take out a small clan, especially one full of mostly women and children. The only strong warrior the half Naga had with them was Sirus.
The entrance finally turned blue and Steven¡¯s heart had begun to race. He hadn¡¯t fought another human before. And wasn¡¯t sure how he even felt about it. He just kept telling himself that he needed to protect the Half Naga as they were innocent. The only Naga he really knew was Goskia and Eve, and well, Sirus was a decent snake person too, he supposed.
First were four humans dressed in adventuring gear, at least that¡¯s what Steven assumed. As soon as they saw the abominations, they froze and one of them tried to go back through the entrance. Steven thought he was the only smart one out of the bunch. They quickly realized they couldn¡¯t leave the floor and readied themselves for a fight.
The two abominations roared as they noticed their new prey and charged in.
¡°These look to be regular adventures from the Guild. It¡¯s strange they are here.¡± Nev whispered in his ear.
They were right above the entrance in a dark corner Nev picked out. She was in her spider form while he sat in a makeshift web chair.
¡°Should I wait before dropping more?¡±
¡°Yes, let us see how this turns out. Best not waste your essence if you don¡¯t need to.¡±
The two adventures began throwing spells and arrows at the abominations, while another created a yellow barrier the abominations slammed into. The last adventure stood his ground with a sword and shield. Steven¡¯s eyebrow rose. The sword left a lingering flame as he attacked the abominations, presumably slowing its healing. It was nothing like Nev¡¯s black flame, but it still looked like it would do a good bit of damage with time.
With how efficient the adventures were, Steven was about to drop out a Skeletal knight or two. With the help of Sirus, they had unbound all the knights he had in his inventory. They were weakened but still had plenty of fight in them.
Nev placed her hand on his. ¡°Master, let us be patient.¡±
Soon as Nev finished speaking, Steven noticed the yellow barrier began to crack. Suddenly, it shattered as both abominations continued to charge directly at the one that erected the barrier, ignoring everyone else.
¡°I didn¡¯t realize they were that smart,¡± Steven said. ¡°They went directly after the healer.¡±
¡°They aren¡¯t. That was holy magic. It is effective against the undead, but the abominations were created to deal with them specifically. They will charge anyone with holy magic first.¡± As Nev spoke, both abominations ripped the man apart, ignoring all the damage the other three were doing. One of the adventures ran in the direction of Sirus and his remaining warriors. Which only left the two adventures to face the undead abominations. Steven remembered how hard they were to kill they were likely already back at full health. He also remembered the oily, grimy taste, and he shivered slightly.
The entrance turned blue again as the abominations destroyed the two remaining adventures. Soldiers then started pouring out, only to be met by two giant undead.
Steven just stared wide eyed for a long moment. He couldn¡¯t believe the amount of devastation those two abominations brought. He had several more to drop, not to mention the knights, but Nev said it was best to wait for the right moment.
Eventually, the soldiers were able to take down the abominations, but they took heavy losses. Steven wished he could hear what they were saying, but they were too high up. He had been fixing to drop several more abominations on them but Nev talked him into waiting till they let their guard down and started setting up the command structure. Which turned out to be excellent advice. She said it was best to wait till they begin to feel safe and thought they had guards set to give them advanced warning for threats and that¡¯s when to drop them. Steven then realized they were using spider tactics that Nev had most likely used hundreds of times, except with drones instead of undead.
Steven began dropping abominations along with the Sword Knight and what minions it had. He really had been wanting the essence from those, but dealing with these soldiers was more important.
All hell broke loose in the camp. Soldiers took off running every which way. The soldiers had taken out the last two abominations at a high cost, and now there were five more in the middle of their camp, not to mention a skeletal knight.
After a few minutes, Steven was starting to feel bad for the humans and elves below him. Though he didn¡¯t mention this to Nev. It was their fault. They shouldn¡¯t have chased a bunch of women and children into a dungeon, at least that¡¯s what Steven continued to tell himself as the screams came from below. Nev, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the show and even shot a web down and snatched up a human.
¡°Hey you¡¯re going to reveal our location!¡± Though now that Steven thought about it, it seemed unlikely there was too much chaos among the soldiers.
¡°I¡¯m sorry Master. Would you like me to drop him?¡±
Steven didn¡¯t know how that would help hide their location. Sighing, Steven responded. ¡°No, that¡¯s fine. We may as well question him now.¡±
¡°Hello human.¡± Nev said.
The soldier was wrapped in webs from head to toe, only his face showing.
¡°Who- who are you! What is happening?¡±
¡°I shall be asking the questions,¡± Nev said. ¡°What are you doing in my Master¡¯s dungeon?¡±
Steven rolled his eyes. It wasn¡¯t even his dungeon. He also wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about killing all these humans. Weren¡¯t they just following orders?
¡°M-master, I- I don¡¯t know who your Master even is. All I was told is we needed to deal with the last remaining Half Naga clan. Please, we don¡¯t have any coil with you or your Master, I swear!¡±
¡°And why do you want to kill the half Naga? What have they ever done to you?¡± Steven asked.
The soldier turned his eyes from the giant spider to the human, before he turned back to the spider, and opened his mouth, but Nev cut him off.
¡°Answer my Master, human.¡±
The soldier¡¯s eyes widened when he realized the massive spider was referring to the human as her master. It looked as though he wanted to ask questions, but turned his eyes back to Steven and attempted to bow his head.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, your lordship, I am but a soldier I do not know the exact reason other than them being half Naga. I was just ordered to come to¡¡±
¡°Enough,¡± Nev said as she turned the soldier to look down, ¡°show me your leader so we may speak with them.¡± as Nev spoke, the webbing fell from one of the soldier¡¯s arms.
Steven considered stopping her, but decided it was best to just let her deal with this.
Within seconds, there was another man hanging there. Steven thought he looked the part of a general and likely seen many battles. The general¡¯s eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he recognized the Spider Queen.
Lowering his eyes, he spoke, ¡°Your Majesty! I humbly apologize if we have trespassed on your territory.¡±
¡°You know who I am, do you?¡± Nev smiled wickedly. ¡°good we have questions for you. Master, would you like to start?¡±
Steven watched as the leader of the invading battalion try to understand why the Queen of all Spider-kin was calling this human Master. Or at least that¡¯s what Steven assumed was going through the guy¡¯s mind.
¡°It¡¯s fine, you go ahead. I think you will do a better job.¡±
Nev frowned, ¡°Master?¡± She said as if she was hurt.
¡°Yes?¡±
¡°You didn¡¯t say my name when you addressed me¡ I like it when you say the name you gave me.¡±
¡°Really Nev, that¡¯s what¡¯s bothering you? Not the hundreds of soldiers below us getting ripped to shreds by the undead.¡±
The Spider Queen immediately smiled and turned back to the two men hanging by webs..
Steven had a difficult time understanding the giant spider that swore to serve him. At times, she acted so childish. He figured he was going to have a hard time having her play nice with Eve. Maybe he should not spend much time around Eve for now. Steven shook his head. He really needed to pay attention to what was going on.
¡°Thats all I know, the order came from high up. It was strange, we had been in the process of taking out the half Naga for a decade now. I was surprised when they told¡¡±
The next moment the guy was missing a head, and Nev was casually whipping blood from her mouth.
¡°Did you just eat his head?¡± Steven asked, wide-eyed.
He glanced at the other guy, but he seemed to have fainted.
¡°Yes Master, did I do something wrong?¡±
Steven stared at the headless corpse as it slowly oozed blood. It was not at all like he seen in the movies. He was strangely more interested in how she could bite the head off than that she did. He stopped himself from asking her how she was able to fit her mouth around the guy¡¯s head and asked another question.
¡°What did he do?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Other than threatening you and trespassing on my land, he lied.¡±
¡°Good enough reason, I suppose.¡± Steven watched the fight below. He didn¡¯t think he would have to even do any fighting at this point. Though his mind was just on the man Nev killed, he didn¡¯t want her killing without reason. He felt he should be more bothered by her doing so.. but he wasn¡¯t really bothered by it.
¡°Nev, I don¡¯t want you to kill without a reason okay, I don¡¯t want needless killing. I don¡¯t want to be the villain.¡±
¡°Of course Master. There is always a reason to kill.¡±
¡°A good reason, okay?¡± Steven said as he stared down at the fight still taking place. Only about fifty soldiers remained. Most were fighting the sword knight, but there were still two abominations left. What caught Steven¡¯s eye was one of the soldiers fighting off an abomination basically on his own, though Steven didn¡¯t think he would win the fight the abomination¡¯s had an insane recovery speed.
¡°What do you think of that one?¡±
¡°Who, the elf with the spear? He has good form, but he is a bit old. He will lose that fight without help. If only he had a few more shards, then he would be on Sirus¡¯s level.¡±
¡°You can see all that just by watching him fight?¡±
¡°Yes, Master, you can learn a lot from watching one fight.¡±
As she spoke, the elf with the spear was starting to lose ground.
¡°I wonder if I can find someone to teach me to fight with a spear like that?¡±
¡°You want me to get him for you? I¡¯m sure he would be happy to teach you a thing or two.¡±
¡°Actually, yes, along with everyone else you think is a worthy fighter. We still have two floors to go and we could use the help.¡±
¡°Fantastic idea Master.¡± Nev said as she started shooting webs down and capturing soldiers one at a time.
Chapter 39: Level twenty and a new Shard
Steven didn¡¯t think about how awkward it would be to have several people just staring at him. He should have told Nev to cover their eyes with web but he didn¡¯t want to ask now with all these people looking at him. Before long, there were over twenty soldiers hanging in front of him, and to Steven¡¯s surprise, there were several females. He wasn¡¯t sure why he was surprised. He had just imagined in a world full of swords and brute strength, the soldiers would be all males. Though with levels and shards, he imaged males and females were close to the same in strength.
The first person to speak was a woman with red hair. ¡°What is going on? Are you helping us or are you against us?¡±
¡°How dare you speak to Master in such a tone?¡± Nev Hissed.
Steven stopped Nev before another person lost their head.
The question gave Steven an idea, and after a moment, he spoke. ¡°I¡¯m an adventure, I seen you lot were in some trouble so I thought I would help. This floor can be quite difficult. What brings you all in here?¡±
As soon as Steven said this, several of the soldiers began shouting for him to help others that were still fighting.
¡°Only the one who spoke to Master first has permission to speak.¡±
The talking abruptly stopped, the redhead also seemed to lose her will to speak as well.
Steven couldn¡¯t blame her. Nev was terrifying. He was still adjusting to having a giant spider around, and he could even turn into a spider.
¡°You can speak. I don¡¯t plan to harm you.¡± Steven said while looking at the redhead.
¡°I, umm¡¡±
¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Fidah.¡±
Now that Steven was looking, she had pointed ears. ¡°Wait, are you an elf?¡± Steven asked, a bit excitedly.
¡°Yes, I am a Woodland elf,¡± Fidah said.
¡°Oh! I¡¯ve always wanted to meet a wood elf!¡± Steven then realized how strange he was acting, giving the circumstances, not to mention the way Nev was now looking at him.
¡°I could have got you one long time ago. I did not realize Master wanted one.¡± Nev said with narrowed eyes.
¡°It¡¯s not like that Nev, it¡¯s just there are so many stories of elves in my world and I used to dream of meeting them, along with dwarves.¡±
¡°The dwarves, I can understand they are a sturdy people and make the best of weapons and enchantments. Woodland elves are at the bottom of all elf hierarchies. Why would you want to meet one of those?¡±
¡°I would have you know,¡± Fidah said, ¡°there is nothing different from high elves and woodland elves other than where we were born.¡±
Nev glared at the elf.
¡°See, Nev, there is nothing different. She can¡¯t help where she was born.¡±
¡°My lord,¡± one of the older elves spoke up, ¡°I am sorry to interrupt, but what are your intuitions with us?¡±
¡°You do not have permission to speak!¡± Nev said as she glared.
¡°Thats actually a good question. I was planning to go down and finishing the undead below.¡± Steven said.
Nev had them hanging in a position they couldn¡¯t see what was happening below them. Steven felt bad for letting the rest of them die, but they didn¡¯t need too many prisoners, and if he was going to play the part of an adventurer, about twenty was all he wanted. It¡¯s not like he was lying, he was adventuring through this dungeon.
¡°Shall we go down and deal with them?¡±
¡°Yes, of course, Master.¡±
¡°Wait!¡± Fidah said. ¡°What if you don¡¯t return?¡±
¡°Then you will all die from starvation.¡± Nev said.
Steven rolled his eyes as Nev lowered them down. ¡°Did you really need to scare them?¡±
¡°Master, I don¡¯t like the way you look at the elf girl.¡±
¡°Oh, come on! Seriously?¡±
¡°You don¡¯t plan to keep her like the half Naga pet, do you?¡±
¡°Keep her? I¡¯m not sure what I would do with her. I don¡¯t want slaves. And I¡¯m not Keeping Eve. She is my friend and if she decides she doesn¡¯t want to hang around me, then she can leave. I¡¯m not forcing her to do anything.¡± Steven got the sense he shouldn¡¯t have said that. It may have been better to just tell the spider Queen he was keeping Eve as a pet, as she seemed to accept that. He would now have to order Nev to not try and make Eve leave now.
Steven hung just above one of the abominations. The Sword Knight was just off to the left standing stoically and looked to be in bad shape but was still standing if barely, which was fine with him. It would be easier to kill later.
Steven dropped down while he changed into his spider form. It was much faster this way and wouldn¡¯t take him no time to send the undead back to inventory.
Steven landed on one abomination, sending it to inventory immediately. The second one charged at him, only to be sent to inventory as well. The Sword knight noticed the commotion and also charged over.
¡°Those undead made this easy.¡± Steven said as he changed back into his human form. He then looked around at the carnage. Body parts slung every which way. He had done this, he knew he should be repulsed by it. But he wasn''t. He felt a little bad for basically killing a few hundred people. He just needed to make sure he didn¡¯t become the villain. As for the carnage in front of him, he wasn¡¯t bothered in the slightest. There was no doubt in his mind this was from the spider shard.
Shaking his head, he turned to Nev.
¡°Hey Nev, why don¡¯t you have the drones collect all the potions and anything else that¡¯s useful while I go talk to Sirus.¡±
¡°Yes, Master. I would also like to get a bite to eat.¡±
He shivered at the thought. Eating sentient beings would be the line he would not cross. ¡°Yea, sure, do what you need to do.¡±
Steven then took off at a jog towards Sirus. As he approached, he immediately noticed Silvia and several little wisps hovering around her. Silvia was next to Eve, talking. For some reason, the ball of pink and green ball of light had really taken a liking to Eve.
Sirus came out to meet Steven away from his warriors. It looked like he was only able to get about fifty to fight. Steven wasn¡¯t too happy about Eve being put with fighters.
¡°We captured one as he ran. He didn¡¯t even attempt to put up a fight and surrendered immediately.¡± Sirus said. ¡°How did it go?¡±
¡°Good,¡± Steven said absently. ¡°why is Eve here? She should be with the other non combats.¡±
¡°Eve is a capable fighter.¡± Sirus said.
¡°I don¡¯t care! I want her in the back, where she will be safe.¡±
Sirus¡¯s face quickly twisted to annoyance before he forcefully turned it neutral. ¡°She insisted on being here. My niece can be quite the handful. Honestly, I assumed if we didn¡¯t survive, then no one would survive the next floor, so I allowed it.¡±
Steven took a deep breath. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don''t mean to be so demanding. The spider Queen is starting to rub off on me. I may be spending too much time with her. But it can¡¯t be helped.¡±
¡°About that,¡± Sirus said. ¡°How is it possible she is serving you?¡±
¡°Thats a long story, but to give you the short version when you brought her to me, she basically said I would take her as my servant or die.¡±
¡°I still don¡¯t get why she would want to,¡± Sirus looked to be fixing to ask another question, but Steven spoke up.
¡°So I captured roughly twenty of the soldiers. The rest are dead. I told the ones I captured that I was an adventure and saving them from the undead. Currently, they are hanging near the entrance, all wrapped in Nev¡¯s webbing.¡±
¡°An adventure huh, and they believed you?¡± Sirus asked, ¡°what do you plan on doing with them?¡±
¡°Well, I was thinking we still have a few floors to get through before we can get out of this hellhole so we could use them. If they want to survive they will need to help defeat this dungeon.¡±
¡°Or kill you.¡± Sirus said.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
¡°If they Kill Steven,¡± Silvia said as she floated over, ¡°this entire dungeon will become overflowed with undead the likes you have never seen and each and every one of you will die. I Imagine Sorin is fuming right now that yet another one of his plans failed.¡±
¡°The assassin plan almost had me. I¡¯m still surprised I survived.¡± Steven said.
¡°Assassin?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Another long story I have the assassin captured, so don¡¯t worry about him.¡± Steven said.
¡°I think I¡¯ll go talk with the prisoners.¡± Silvia said, as she started flying off.
¡°Wait! What are you going to talk about?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Going to make them believe you are an adventure, of course.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Okay then, just don¡¯t harm Fidah or the elf with the spear.¡± Steven said.
Silvia¡¯s light flickered. ¡°I¡¯m not that damned arachnid. I¡¯m not going to hurt any of them.¡±
¡°Sorry.¡± Steven said.
¡°It¡¯s fine. The spider Queen is a bad influence on you. And don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make sure not to hurt any of your new pets.¡±
¡°Steven!¡±
Steven turned to see Eve running towards him, and a smile slowly crept onto his face.
¡°Okay, listen up,¡± Silvia said as she flew up to the prisoners. ¡°which one of you is Fidah?¡±
It was silent for a long moment before a redheaded elf spoke. ¡°That would be me.¡±
¡°Of course it would be the attractive redheaded elf,¡± Silvia said. ¡±okay, well my bonded human has taken quite a liking to you. Along with an elf with a spear, but seeing how you are all covered in webs and none of you are holding a spear, he will have to pick you out for himself.¡±
¡°Um, excuse me, but are you a Wisp?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°Indeed, I am.¡±
Several gasps and murmurs broke out, but it quickly became quiet as the Spider Queen slowly pulled herself up behind the Wisp.
¡°And what are you doing with my prisoners?¡± Nev asked.
¡°I was just fixing to explain what was going to happen.¡±
¡°and that is?¡±
¡°I like your human form better,¡± Silvia said before she turned back to the webbed soldiers, ¡°as I was fixing to explain before I was so rudely interrupted. You lot have disturbed my bonded humans dungeon delving. And in doing so, I and my rude companion here will be charging you with helping us complete the remainder of this dungeon.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t be serious!¡± A soldier said.
¡°This is not what I signed up for!¡± Another soldier said.
¡°I¡¯m not throwing my life away in this dungeon.¡±
¡°Yea! We barely survived the undead at the entrance. We will not be your fodder.¡±
¡°Do we get a part of the loot?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°Silence!¡± Nev said.
¡°Oh fantastic job, I¡¯ll leave them in your capable mandibles, I mean hands,¡± Silvia said as she flew off. ¡°Oh by the way, Nevateb, Steven wants the attractive red-headed elf left alive.¡±
Silvia watched as the Spider Queen barely held in a snarl.
¡°Have fun now.¡± Silvia said as she flew off back towards Steven. She had no doubt that every single one of the prisoners would be more than willing to corporate after that arachnid was done with them. It was unlikely they were going to believe Steven was an adventure, not with that spider around but she tired.
She saw Steven talking with Sirus and an older half Naga, so she flew right up next to Steven. She chuckled inwardly as Steven yelped at her sudden appearance.
¡°Dammit Silvia, I told you not to do that. I¡¯m going to put a bell on you next time.¡±
¡°Nev is getting the prisoners ready for the next floor.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s okay?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure it will be fine,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Any way I need to talk to you about something.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t it wait? I¡¯m busy.¡±
¡°It¡¯s perfectly fine. If you need to speak with the honored Wisp, we can discuss this afterwards. There is no rush anymore.¡± Sirus said.
¡°That would be wonderful,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Come along, Steven. We have things to discuss before the next floor.¡±
Once they were mid ways back to the entrance, Steven spoke. ¡°What¡¯s this about?¡±
¡°What level are you now?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Level nineteen, I haven¡¯t leveled since the last time you seen my stats.¡±
¡°Well, it¡¯s time I¡¯m sure you have enough essence to get a level or two. If not, then pull some monsters out of your overpowered inventory. It¡¯s time to reach level twenty so you can use the shard you have, you¡¯re too weak to be going on the eighth floor. If it wasn¡¯t for your inventory ability, there is no way you would have made it this far.¡±
¡°You have a point there.This inventory ability is really coming in handy in this dungeon.¡± Steven said as he pulled up his stat page.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 19
Available Attribute ~0
Essence- 5,739
Essence required for next level 3,895
HP ~ 143
Stamina ~ 56
Mana ~ 347
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 10
Endurance ~ 7
Strength ~ 11
Dexterity ~ 14
Resistance ~ 10 +50
Spirit ~ 21
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°You have less essence than I thought. I was thinking you would get essence for all the soldiers you killed, but I suppose that all went to Sorin, as it¡¯s his dungeon. Well, either way, you still need to level up and then use that shard.¡±
¡°Really? He got the essence for that?¡±
¡°Yes, it is one of the perks of being a Dungeon Lord. But don¡¯t worry, it likely didn¡¯t even give him a level, most the soldiers were level twenty and less, meaning they were relatively weak.¡±
¡°Wait, I¡¯m not even level twenty yet.¡±
¡°And you are weak! Though you have a few key advantages such as your blessing and shard abilities, not to mention you have that arachnid at your beck and call. Most of the soldiers only had one shard, even the few that were past level thirty only had two. Now you need to use that shard. It may give you an edge in this dungeon.¡±
Steven sighed. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to absorb something that has Undead in its name.¡±
¡°And I don¡¯t want you to die due to the lack of mana! Do you not realize how incredibly rare shards are? Not to mention how many times you have come close to dying.¡±
¡°Okay, okay! Let me level up.¡±
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 20
Available Attribute ~1
Essence- 1844
Essence required for next level 4,567
HP ~ 143
Stamina ~ 56
Mana ~ 347
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 10
Endurance ~ 7
Strength ~ 11
Dexterity ~ 14
Resistance ~ 10 +50
Spirit ~ 21
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°I can¡¯t wait to be out of this dungeon, so I can smoke for a month straight!¡± Steven sighed, ¡°so should I place my attribute point in vitality or spirit?¡±
¡°You should absorb your shard then decide, as you will get a boost to your attribute.¡±
Silvia watched as the shard appeared in Steven¡¯s hand. She always found herself amazed at how overpowered that ability was. While there were bags of holding and similar enchantments, this was something else entirely.
¡°It¡¯s not going to turn me into an undead or something, is it?¡±
What a silly human. Sometimes she forgot this human was not from this world. ¡°No, it will not. Body altering shards are the rarest of all the shards and are considered legendary by most. The fact that arachnid gave you that shard is mind-boggling in its self.¡±
¡°I thought you never knew what the shard was going to do?¡±
¡°You don¡¯t, but some are more likely to give you certain abilities. Now just absorb the shard!¡±
¡°Okay, fine! I hope its bone spear or something. I still need some form of attack.¡±
Silvia watched as the strange wording from the system appeared in front of Steven.
Absorb Shard of Undeath Yes/No?
Steven then looked at her as if to make sure it was really okay.
¡°Yes, go on, it will be fine, my life is entwined with yours. If anyone has your best interest in mind, it would be me. I need you to survive, and grow strong if for nothing else than my own survival.¡±
The human closed his eyes before he reopened them. The shard lit up before suddenly it started breaking down into tiny purple moats of light and shot into Steven¡¯s chest.
¡°I wonder what sort of shard he will get?¡±
Silvia just floated there waiting for her bonded human to awake.
Silvia didn¡¯t know why it was taking him so long to wake up. It had been a long while now she was considering calling over the arachnid so they could move him somewhere else. No sooner than she thought that his eyes shot open and he gasped and jumped to his feet.
¡°What the hell!¡± Steven looked every which way as if he was just being pursued.
¡°Uh, is everything okay?¡± Silvia asked.
Steven was breathing hard. ¡°Yeah, I was just visited by another angel, was all. This time he took me somewhere to pick out my new familiar. Well, it was more he told me to pick a specific one.¡±
¡°New familiar? An angel¡±
¡°Yea, apparently that¡¯s what my new shard ability is.¡± Steven said.
¡°Oh, I see. Well, familiar shards are also extremely rare.¡±
¡°Yea, maybe but I really need some sort of attack, all I have is my spider form,¡± Steven looked towards the dungeon ceiling, ¡°Is it too much to ask for to have a simple fire ball or bone spear I mean come on are you trying to get me killed?¡±
Suddenly there was a silvery flicker of light, and a voice spoke. ¡°Do not question Chaos? For you are but a mere mortal.¡±
Silvia froze. She had never felt so small, not even before the council of Wisps. This silver light was greater than anything she had ever seen. It deserved the up most respect. She didn¡¯t even deserve to be in its presence.
¡°Well, if your dad would stop doing questionable things, I wouldn¡¯t have to question him.¡± Steven said.
Silvia nearly fainted at his response. She went to reprimand him for speaking out of his station, but found she could not speak.
¡°You should hold your tongue mortal, father may hold favor towards you now, but there may be a time his favor is removed from you and when that day comes...¡± Suddenly a silvery, red light in the form of flames engulfed the bright silver light and it vanished. In its place stood another being.
¡°Mr. Odling, you should really not provoke the young. They are foolish and have been known to take actions they should not. I am sorry you are not happy with the shard ability that you have received, but do know Chaos had nothing to do with the ability that you received. All father has done was make the potential greater. The actually ability comes from your soul and not even Chaos can affect that.¡±
¡°It''s nice to see you again. The last two angels have been total pricks. I would much rather deal with you, even though you that creepy stare. Anyway thanks for clarifying, I guess I have nothing but my own soul to blame for not getting a good shard ability. I still have a few more shards to go. So I¡¯m sure my soul will give me something useful eventually.¡±
Silvia couldn¡¯t believe the amount of light that was coming from this being. She had thought the other light was bright, but this one was of true divinity. Wait, how was Steven talking to this light so causally, she couldn¡¯t even speak a single word in this lights presents. She really hoped Steven didn¡¯t provoke this being, as there would be nothing that could keep its wrath from them. To Silvia¡¯s surprise, the light smiled at Steven.
¡°It seems you are doing well here, even though you have gotten yourself trapped.¡± The light turned to take in the dungeon as if for the first time, then he noticed Silvia.
The lights stare was so intense Silvia barely kept consciousness, luckily he turned back towards Steven.
¡°It seems you are in good company,¡± The light said, ¡°now it is time for me to leave, but before I do father wanted me to tell you he has a task for you once you have collected all eight of your shards. And also to thank you for taking on Jabrial as you''re familiar.¡±
Then the light vanished. ¡°Wait, did you say eight?¡± Steven asked, but didn¡¯t receive an answer.
Silvia was frozen in shock. Did that light really just look at her and say Steven was in good company? That was the most beautiful light she had ever seen! She had her doubts about joining Steven, but all those doubts melted away. She was right where she needed to be! Silvia had to ask that light how it got so bright.
Chapter 40: A cute redheaded Elf
Steven looked at Silvia. Her light was flickering like a Christmas tree on steroids. ¡°Silvia. Silvia? Hey are you in there?¡± Steven waited, but didn¡¯t get a response. ¡°Fine, I¡¯m going to look over my new Shards and stats. Don¡¯t blame me if you don¡¯t get to see.¡±
{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 a lethal attack. Can be turned off at any time.)
~ 2 of 7
Royalty of the Chaotic Arachnid
Ability effect~ Transform into a true Spider King at the cost of 1,000 mana per minute. All attributes get a 333% increase while in this form. You lose all equipment slots and shard abilities while in this form. (Note: This ability will automatically trigger if health goes below 25%. If hit points would be reduced to 0 or less, while in this form, those hit points become 1. All effects are removed and the shard user will revert to original form.)
~ 3 of 7
Chaos Portal of Undeath
Ability effect~ Summon Undeath familiar.
Familiar Specialty~ Portal creation.
¡°Well, that¡¯s really lacking in information.¡± Steven shuttered slightly when he remembered the being that was to be his new familiar. Gideon had asked him to choose this specific familiar as a favor to Chaos. Steven did so, of course, but he still felt unnerved by the being. He was fixing to summon it but waited till Silvia and Nev were present. He would feel much safer with Nev at his back. For now, he opened up his stat page to see what attributes got boosted.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 20
Available Attribute ~1
Essence- 1844
Essence required for next level 4,567
HP ~ 198
Stamina ~ 69
Mana ~ 443
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 13
Endurance ~ 10
Strength ~ 13
Dexterity ~ 17
Resistance ~ 11 +50
Spirit ~ 25
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
It¡¯s coming along nicely, Steven thought, though he didn¡¯t really have anyone else¡¯s to compare it to.
¡°What was that amazing light?¡± Silvia said as she flew right into his face.
¡°Oh, come on, back up, that¡¯s too bright. How do you expect me to respond if you are blinding me?¡±
¡°One can never be too bright,¡± Silvia said a matter-of-factly, ¡°but thank you.¡±
¡°It wasn¡¯t a light that was...¡± Steven froze. He got the sense of dread of just the thought of saying Gideon¡¯s name aloud. ¡°It was my oldest friend in this world.¡± Steven decided to say.
¡°The light was the most magnificent light I had ever seen!¡± Silvia said, all dreamy like.
¡°I suppose he did have a glow to him, but those mismatched clothes really threw off his look.¡± Steven said.
¡°A glow! That light was the brightest light in all of existence!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Uh, yea sure, whatever you say. Any way I think I¡¯m going to place my one attribute into Spirit. It seems if I plan to use magic, I will have to do it with equipment.¡±
The Blight Staff came to mind. It needed four hundred and twenty mana to use; he had just enough to use it with just a bit of mana to spare, but didn¡¯t want to drain his mana and be useless after using it, not to mention the migraine that came along with draining his mana.
After placing his point into spirit, he looked over his stat page again, mostly to look at his mana.
His mana had gone from four forty-three to four sixty-one. It wasn¡¯t anything great, but it was progress, a few more levels in spirit, and he would be doing great, although his low hit points were concerning. He would just have to rely on his angelic death ability.
¡°Shard names are weird,¡± Steven mumbled. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m going to go check on the soldiers we caught. Are you coming with me?¡±
After the wisp was silent, Steven decided to leave without her.
¡°Sorry, I just need a moment.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Okay, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll see you in a bit, then I can summon the new familiar.¡±
Steven was surprised at the lack of response, but he assumed she was just shaken from seeing Gideon. He would never forget the first time he meet with Gideon. The guy¡¯s stare was intense.
As he walked, he wondered what his aunt was doing, and if she had even noticed he was gone yet. How long has it even been now? Did time even work the same here? And the old wizard, was he still on his planet, or had he made it back? He wondered if the Wizard would come back to take the Domain back, since it was apparently a big deal. It¡¯s not like he meant to take the Domain and he didn¡¯t mean to get them trapped in his world. He just really hoped they wouldn¡¯t be angry with him. He got the sense that the old wizard was at a high level.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
It didn¡¯t take Steven long to reach Nev and the soldiers. They weren¡¯t bound now and the spider Queen was in her human form teaching them how to do something. Everyone was lined up and siting as if they were in yoga class. Nev was also wearing an extremely revealing dress, if you could even call the thin layer of webbing a dress. Steven¡¯s eyes lingered. She was a picture of perfection. As soon as she noticed him, she ran over.
¡°Master, I have been getting the troops ready.¡±
¡°I can see that¡ And what happened to your other dress?¡±
Nev lowered her head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Master, but it had gotten torn while I was training the soldiers.¡±
Steven narrowed his eyes. ¡°Sure it did.¡±
¡°Is this too distracting for you, Master?¡±
Steven looked up and down at the Spider Queen. It was overbearingly distracting. It made perfect sense why everyone was lined up and listening to her so intently. Most of them were males, and that dress left little to the imagination.
Steven shook his head slightly. ¡°Uh, yes, it¡¯s¡¡± he didn¡¯t want to be this aroused by a monster, but he couldn¡¯t tell her that. ¡°Could you please cover yourself a bit more? It¡¯s just too much.¡±
¡°Yes, of course, Master.¡± Nev called a few drones over that now had clothes on and they began spraying her with webs. It surprisingly turned out really nice, although he had to have them put a bit more than the Spider Queen wanted. Which was still not enough to hide her perfectly proportioned body since it was skin tight, but at least he could no longer see through it.
¡°I will get you some proper clothing when we get out of this dungeon.¡±
¡°Does Master not approve of my clothing?¡±
¡°Nev, stop looking down and look at me,¡± Steven continued once she did. ¡°you look like some sort of fertility goddess. I can¡¯t have you distracting every male we come across.¡±
¡°Thank you, Master,¡± Nev said with a wide smile before it turned to a frown, ¡°but I only want you to look at me!¡±
Steven smiled, ¡°I also don¡¯t want anyone to look at you, so let¡¯s make sure they can¡¯t see how perfect your body is.¡±
¡°Master, you are too kind! I will do as you say.¡±
This was exactly the response he was hoping for. This was going to be easier than he had first thought.
¡°Master, could you tell me more about how perfect I am?¡±
Steven blinked a few times, this was not what he had expected. Fidah, along with every single soldier, was looking on at their strange conversation in aww and confusion. He also got the feeling many of them were disappointed that her clothing was no longer see through. Though everyone looked away from his gaze except for Fidah, she was staring him down like a hawk.
¡°Now is not the time for that,¡± Steven said. ¡°How about you get back to your training and I¡¯ll watch.¡±
¡°Yes Master at once.¡±
Nev turned to face the twenty odd soldiers. ¡°Again!¡±
The next moment, all the soldiers charged her at once, weapons drawn. If it wasn¡¯t for Nev still in her human form, he would have been concerned, but if she was in danger, she would turn into her spider form and kill them all. Even though she was in her human form, not one soldier was able to touch her. She moved through them like a ghost, flicking them on the forehead as she went. Steven noticed that when she flicked them on the forehead, a black spider web of light appeared and then vanished. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what was happening. The black webbing lingered only for a second or two. Each time she flicked them, they bowed out and went to stand at the side. Soon they were all out.
¡°Still too slow.¡± Nev said.
None of the soldiers said a word, though Fidah kept staring at Steven, which didn¡¯t go unnoticed by Nev. When the next round of their so-called training started, Fidah was the first out, although Steven noticed she never received a black webbing on her forehead. The old elf with the spear was the only one that ever got close to Nev, but was still way too slow. After a couple more rounds, Steven was certain all the soldiers aside from the elf with the spear, and Fidah received the black webbing when she flicked them on the forehead.
¡°What do you think, Master?¡±
¡°I¡¯m impressed you are quite capable, even in your human form.¡± Steven said, generally impressed. Though he had lots of questions, mainly what the black webbing was. He didn¡¯t ask about that yet, as he didn¡¯t know if the soldiers were aware.
¡°Thank you Master, Ive been trying to get more accustomed to this form since you seem to prefer it over my original form.¡±
¡°You¡¯re not wrong. I do like this form better, although when it comes to fighting, I want you to be as efficient as possible.¡±
¡°Of course, Master, I will change to my original form if something is too much for this one to handle, just like you do.¡±
¡°So, are you training yourself or the soldiers? And will you be ready to go to the eighth floor soon?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry, Master, the soldiers will be ready soon!¡±
Steven noticed how she didn¡¯t say if she was training herself or the soldiers, but didn¡¯t push the matter. He would ask her about whatever she was doing later. ¡°Good, well, I¡¯m going to go back to camp. Keep doing whatever it is you¡¯re doing.¡±
Steven went to leave when he heard someone hesitantly call out.
¡°Uh, hey can I talk to you?¡±
Turning around, he saw Nev already standing in front of Fidah with a hand around the elf¡¯s neck.
¡°Nev.¡±
¡°Yes master.¡± Nev said innocently while not releasing the red heads throat.
¡°Release her.¡±
¡°Of course, Master.¡± Nev said with gritted teeth.
Steven rolled his eyes. He couldn¡¯t believe how overly jealous Nev was. ¡°Fidah, if you want, you can accompany me back to the camp.¡±
Fidah looked between the spider Queen and then Steven, unsure what to do. ¡°Uh¡ I um.¡±
¡°Never mind what you want, you are coming with, now come on.¡± Steven said, he didn¡¯t want to leave her with the spider Queen.
The red head slowly started towards Steven while warily looking at Nev who was glaring at her.
¡°Nev, continue the good work. I¡¯ll be back later.¡±
¡°Yes, Master.¡± Nev said, eyes locked on the redhead as she walked towards Steven.
Fidah came and stood right in front of Steven as if she was waiting for orders.
¡°Walk with me,¡± Steven said. ¡°pay no to mind Nev, she can be a bit overly protective.¡±
¡°Yes Sir.¡± Fidah said.
¡°So where are you from?¡± Steven asked as they walked.
Fidah seemed taken aback by the question. ¡°I¡ I am from Mount Nester next to River¡¯s End.¡±
Steven had no idea where that was. Now that he thought about it, he had no idea where anything was in this world.
¡°Is that far from here?¡±
Fidah nearly stopped walking at the question. ¡°It¡¯s about a two-week journey.¡±
¡°I see, and what do you have against the half Naga?¡±
¡°I¡ well, I don¡¯t personally have a problem with them.¡±
¡°Then why are you here?¡±
¡°For coin.¡± She immediately said.
¡°And what do you need this coin for?¡± Steven didn¡¯t think she was going to answer, but after a few seconds, she spoke up.
¡°My village has the Black Death,¡± Fidah hesitantly said, ¡°but I can assure you I don¡¯t have it! My clan was able to afford a cure for me and a few others.¡±
Steven had no idea what the Black Death was or if it was something he should be worried about catching. He would have to ask Silvia later.
¡°I see, and I¡¯m guessing you need coin so you can buy a cure.¡±
¡°Yes, that¡¯s why I and Eoin joined this raid. The pay was extremely good.¡±
¡°I see. If you are lying to me, best tell me now or I¡¯ll let Nev do with you whatever she likes.¡±
¡°I swear to you on my clan it is the truth!¡±
¡°Okay, great! We are getting close to the camp now. It is good that you have nothing against the half Naga as that is what the camp is full of.¡±
Fidah stopped walking, and her eyes widened. ¡°B-but¡ they will eat us.¡±
¡°Eat us?¡± Steven said. ¡°I can assure you they will not eat us. I lived with them for a good bit when I arrived. If anyone was to eat you, it would be the Spider-kin. Now come on and let¡¯s see if I can¡¯t get my friend to make you those potions for your clan.¡±
Steven watched as Fidah opened her mouth, but closed it without saying anything. She was cute in the way elves were portrayed in his world. She didn¡¯t have that over barring sex appeal as Nev had or the pure innocent beauty of Eve, but he found her extremely cute.
Steven stopped staring before it got awkward and began walking. What was he doing, comparing the attractiveness of the females in his life? He wasn¡¯t a hormonal teenage boy. Okay, Steven, stop thinking about girls. You have a job to do and don¡¯t need to give this elf the impression that you find her attractive, and you definitely don¡¯t need to take advantage of her vulnerable state.
¡°Hey Steven, I¡¯m back,¡± Silvia said as she flew right next to him, ¡°oh I see you found your attractive redheaded Elf. Is she going to be part of your harem? I¡¯ve been talking to Evesakia, and she is eager to join! She is just waiting for you to ask. Not only is she attractive for a half Naga, but she is quite amazing at brewing potions and I, for one, think she will make an excellent addition. As for this elf, I will need to see if she has anything to add to our group before I can accept her.¡±
Steven nearly face palmed as he stopped walking. ¡°Silvia! What are you talking about? I¡¯m not trying to form a harem! Is that why you have been spending so much time with Eve?¡±
¡°Well, you can call it whatever you like, but you are surrounding yourself with the most attractive females in each race we come across. First there is miss Evesakia, which is by far the most attractive Naga in existence, then there is the arachnid, I hate to admit it, but the spider Queen is an attractive being, even in her spider form...¡±
¡°Wait what? You find¡¡±
¡°Shush, I¡¯m not done!¡± Silvia said as her light flickered wildly, ¡°and last but certainly not least, there is me. I am by far the most attractive and brightest Wisp in the land.¡±
Steven just blinked at the Wisp for a moment, unsure what to say. His first thought was to tell her that she was the only Wisp in the land, but quickly decided against that.
¡°I- I umm, well, I would be willing to join this harem if you can help me with the potions like you mentioned.¡± Fidah said.
Steven turned, fixing to tell her he was not forming a harem, but when he opened his mouth, he couldn¡¯t seem to find the words. He was just so taken aback by her offering to join; he didn¡¯t know what to say. He had never in his life expected this to be something he had to deal with.
¡°And what do you have to add to our group? I won¡¯t just allow anyone to join,¡± Silvia said.
¡°I am an excellent archer,¡± Fidah said as she stood a bit straighter, ¡°and I have the nature shard. I¡¯m also a good tracker.¡±
¡°We are lacking some ranged attacks,¡± Silvia said, ¡°and tracking could be useful after we get out of this dungeon. Come, follow me. We have much to discuss.¡±
¡°Wait, I¡¯m not forming a harem!¡± Steven shouted.
But Fidah was already following Silvia to god knows where.
Steven sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll just have to explain that to her later.¡±
He had no plans to charge her anything for the potions for her clan, aside from what Eve may require. ¡°I could really use a smoke right now,¡± Steven said as he headed towards the Naga camp,
¡°Hmmm, maybe I will. There isn¡¯t any hurry and I can take a day off!¡± Maybe he could even get Eve to join him. He could always summon the familiar later.
Chapter 41: A short break
¡°I need this damned human dealt with! He is fixing to make it to the eighth floor.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not as simple as just dealing with him anymore. The Assassin¡¯s Guild refuses to send anyone else. In fact, they want a meeting set up with him.¡±
Sorin stood up, eyes full of fury. ¡°What!¡±
¡°Oh, calm down. I hadn¡¯t finished speaking.¡±
Sorin took a deep breath and sat down on his throne. If it wasn¡¯t for Edgar, being twice his level, there would be no way he would allow that arrogant fool to talk to him like that.
¡°As I was saying,¡± Edgar continued, ¡°It¡¯s not that simple anymore, he has the Queen of the Spider-kin as a servant,¡± Edgar placed his hand on his chin, ¡°I do wonder how he did such a thing?¡±
Sorin could barely hold in a snarl as Edgar spoke. But he had to show respect, as Edgar was the elder vampire.
¡°Dungeon Lord Edgar. I was hoping to¡ª¡±
¡°Oh, stop trying to be so formal and just ask what you want to ask already.¡±
Sorin closed his eyes before slowly opening them. ¡°I was hoping I could convince you to deal with him personally.¡±
Edgar smiled, ¡°I created the Assassin¡¯s Guild so I no longer have to deal with such things, besides the politics of a Dungeon Lord getting involved outweigh anything you could offer me.¡±
¡°Then why!¡± Sorin stood up, ¡°why did you come here?¡±
¡°Little Sorin, you really need to get your temper in check. It will be the death of you one of these days. If you would have been more civil to the Assassins Guild, they would have sent more to complete your request. But no, you had to attempt to kill the liaison. That poor human is still shaken up.¡±
¡°He was but a simple human with no significance!¡±
¡°As you were before you were turned, you need to stop thinking like the old ones, just because someone is not a vampire does not make them lesser,¡± the chair of shadows vanished as Edgar stood up, ¡°As for why I came here, it was simply to speak with you.¡± Now I must be off. I have other matters to attend.¡± A dark circle of shadows appeared below Edgar. ¡°And don¡¯t worry so much about the human, you still have the Elder Demon on the tenth floor, do you not.¡±
As soon as Edgar fell into his portal, Sorin shouted and punched the head off the closest Elite Skeletal Knight.
¡°DAM YOU EDGAR!¡± Sorin took several deep breaths, ¡°I will make you pay for your insolence one of these days."
Sorin turned to the Knight who had already formed a new head. ¡°Bring me a fresh blood bag from the dungeon.¡±
¡°Yes, I can make the cure to Black Death. It¡¯s actually quite simple, though I can only make a few with the ingredients I have on hand, though Goskia may have some more ingredients. Why do you need so many potions?¡±
¡°That¡¯s perfectly fine. I don¡¯t need them till we get out of this dungeon anyway. And there, for a friend, her clan has been taken by the Black Death.¡±
¡°Her clan,¡± Eve said, concern written all over her face, ¡°that is terrible, that disease can spread quickly. I will start on making them as soon as I finish up on the mana potions for you.¡±
¡°Thank you, Eve! You''re a lifesaver. I¡¯m not sure what I would do without you.¡±
¡°No problem. I¡¯m happy to serve.¡±
¡°Thanks again. Well, I need to go see Nev and get her and the soldiers ready for the eighth floor.¡±
Eve hugged him and a smile crept onto Steven¡¯s face as he hugged her back. Steven thought about how nice it would be to get out of this dungeon and just relax with Eve while exploring this world far away from dungeons.
As Steven was walking away, he couldn¡¯t help but think about Eve¡¯s odd choice of wording. She had said serve. This concerned him, as Eve was his friend, and he didn¡¯t want her to serve him like Nev.
¡°Steven,¡± Sirus said as he jogged to catch up, ¡°I was hoping to walk with you so we could talk.¡±
¡°Yea, of course. What¡¯s up?¡±
Sirus then looked upwards.
¡°What I mean is, what would you like to talk about?¡±
¡°Ahh, I wanted to speak to you about the eighth floor. I understand it¡¯s full of abominations. I have never been to the eighth floor personally, but I have faced abominations before and their regeneration ability is ridiculous.¡±
¡°It is quite ridiculous, I agree.¡± Steven said, unsure where Sirus was going with this.
¡°What I¡¯m trying to say is that I don¡¯t have any warriors to spare. None of them are even capable of dealing with an abomination. I would like to join you and the Queen as you go to clear out the floor and leave the warriors here.¡±
¡°I see. I have no problem with you leaving the warriors here, but as for you personally joining us, let me speak with Nev before I tell you yes or no. We will be bringing most of the soldiers with us as we go, although I¡¯m not sure how much help they will be.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about bringing the prisoners with him to fight, as he doubted they would be all that useful and most likely just get themselves killed, but Nev had insisted they would be useful, and they did try to kill the Half Naga after all so this was their fate.
¡°Most?¡± Sirus asked, ¡°why not all of them? I¡¯m not sure I feel comfortable leaving those soldiers with my people.¡±
¡°You do have a good point. I really only had one in mind that I wanted to keep away from the fighting.¡±
Sirus¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°If it is just one or two, then that is fine. My warriors can handle them if they try anything.¡±
Steven could tell Sirus wanted to ask why he wanted to keep one of the prisoners safe, but didn¡¯t. He was glad for that, as he didn¡¯t want Silvia¡¯s harem rumor to spread.
¡°I was also thinking of taking a break for a day before heading to the eighth floor. We are safe from dungeon monsters on this floor and have plenty of food now.¡±
Sirus stopped walking. ¡°Do you think it is wise to stay in the dungeon longer than necessary? What if more soldiers come in?¡±
Steven didn¡¯t think it would be a good idea to tell Sirus the reason he wanted to take a break was so he could smoke with Eve.
¡°If more soldiers come, then me and Nev will take care of it. It would be bad if we weren¡¯t on this floor when more soldiers arrived, so it is best we stay here to make sure the Naga are safe.¡±
¡°Ah! Yes, good point. I¡¯ve just been so caught up in wanting out of this dungeon and trying to help the stranglers from my clan, I wasn¡¯t properly thinking. Thank you, Steven. I appreciate you helping us. I should get back and inform the Elders of the plan.¡± Sirus then took off back towards the camp.
Steven did feel a little bad about taking a day off now, but if more soldiers did come, then it would be good if he was here. He didn¡¯t want anything to happen to Eve. Before Steven made it back to Nev, Silvia flew up to him.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
¡°I need a bow.¡±
¡°Hey! We need to talk.¡± Steven said.
¡°We can talk later. I need to see Fidah¡¯s archery skills.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want her thinking I¡¯m forming a harem! And what did you tell Eve?¡±
¡°Steven, look, we need all the help we can get, and you don¡¯t seem to be as interested in having male help, so I¡¯m doing the best I can with what I have.¡±
¡°What do you mean I¡¯m fine with having male help? It¡¯s not my fault that attractive females are the only ones that happen to be capable!¡±
¡°Then why not take on Sirus? He is respectful and capable.¡±
¡°He has a clan to take care of!¡±
¡°And the Spider Queen has cites she has to take care of, but that didn¡¯t stop you.¡±
¡°Th-that¡¯s different! I didn¡¯t really have a choice in the matter!¡±
¡°And Fidah, she has an entire village she is trying to save and you don¡¯t mind taking advantage of her?¡±
¡°That has nothing to do with me. I was simply trying to help! You¡¯re the one that gave her the idea of being in my harem!¡±
¡°So you admit it, you are making a harem!¡± Silvia said as her light fluttered.
¡°That¡¯s not at all what i was saying!¡±
Silvia then started flying off. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll have the half Naga supply me with a bow.¡±
Steven lowered his head in defeat. He wasn¡¯t sure what to even do about this. Nev would listen to him and no doubt she would not want a harem. That damn spider had been getting extremely jealous lately. He wondered if it had something to do with his spider form.
It wasn¡¯t much longer before he made it to Nev and the soldiers. This time they were all just sitting around cross-legged with Nev facing them. Everyone¡¯s eyes were closed and every single one, from what Steven could tell, had a black circular web pattern on their forehead, and if Steven wasn¡¯t mistaken, then they looked paler. Nev turned towards him as soon as he was about to say something.
¡°Master! You''re back,¡± Nev said with a wide smile, ¡®our soldiers are now ready!¡±
Not a single soldier made a move or even opened their eyes as Spider Queen spoke.
¡°Uh, so what¡¯s going on with them?¡±
¡°They are now all enthralled,¡± Nev said, eyes lighting up with excitement, ¡°I hope you are pleased, Master! It was difficult, but I was able to get them all! Well, except for the one you took with you.¡±
¡°Could you explain what enthralled means exactly?¡±
¡°Of course Master. I can walk you through the process as well if you would like, but to put it simply, they will obey us just as well as the drones. Although they will be more cautious of throwing their lives away, but will do so if it will save one of us.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about having a bunch of slave minions. But maybe it wasn¡¯t permanent. ¡°So how long will they be under this effect?¡±
Nev¡¯s face fell. ¡°Unfortunately, it will only last till I change back into my original form. It¡¯s a talent of my human form.
Steven was relieved that it wasn¡¯t permanent, but now he was concerned for the exact opposite reason. ¡°Will we have any issues when you change to your spider form?¡±
¡°From my understanding, no, they will be confused as to where they are and what happened though If you prefer, I can use their flesh to make drones. Well, the males anyway.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t sure if he heard the spider Queen right but didn¡¯t want to ask how she made drones exactly. He remembered Silvia trying to tell him something about it.
¡°No it¡¯s fine. Have them guard the entrance in case anyone else tries to come in. Tonight we are going to relax and smoke and have a good time. We deserve a break.¡±
Nev smiled. ¡°I like this idea, Master!¡± The Spider Queen turned and gave them orders to guard the entrance and to come tell them if anything unusual happened. Also one of the three remaining drones stayed nearby to keep an eye on things while Steven and Nev made their way back to camp.
Steven pulled out his bed not far from the Naga camp site but out of sight. He then took off his amulet and took a few hits with Nev. After they talked a bit, Steven went and brought Eve back with him to his little camp, which only consisted of Nev and his bed. She didn¡¯t want to come back at first, but he was able to persuade her when he told her he wanted her nearby and she could work on potions at his camp. Nev was extremely over protective at first, but after a few hours of smoking together, talking and playing the board game that Eve had. Nev began to accept that Eve wasn¡¯t going anywhere. Steven was even starting to think they may get along fine. Right until Silvia showed up with Fidah.
Since there was not anywhere to sit other than the bed Steven, Nev, and Eve were all on the bed when Silvia showed up, which caused her to start up about his harem. Steven tried to explain he was just trying to relax after having to fight non stop just to survive in the dungeon, but he couldn¡¯t seem to get that across to the glowing ball of light. She also insisted that Fidah join in, So Steven offered her the water pipe and she too joined. Fidah became extremely excited when Steven gave her a couple of potion bottles to cure the Black Death. Fidah also pulled out some sort of wine to celebrate. Steven then smoked and drank till he passed out on his bed along with Fidah. Nev¡¯s resistance was too high, and Eve was too concerned about getting back to work on potions. Nev went to move Fidah off the bed, but Silvia wasn¡¯t having it, and said that Fidah was now part of the Harem. Which brought on an argument that Nev ended up winning, but when she went to remove the elf. Nev noticed she was wrapped up with Steven. Which frustrated Nev to no end, but she didn¡¯t want to wake her Master. Eve also looked disappointed, but didn¡¯t mention it while she worked on potions. Eventually Nev got bored of staring at Fidah, hugging up to Steven, and went over and helped Eve with potions.
Steven woke up to red hair in his mouth and face. He almost jumped out of bed, but realized what was going on before he did. Nev was in her human form next to him on his left, and the redheaded elf lay on his right side. Silvia was floating above him, with what Steven thought was a smug expression.
¡°Still going to deny you''re not forming a harem.¡±
Steven just rolled his eyes and didn¡¯t answer as he slowly untangled himself from the redheaded elf.
He nearly stepped on Eve, who was laying on the ground next to his bed on some blankets.
He was a bit irritated that she had to sleep on the ground. He would have given her his bed before he had her sleep on the ground or kicked off Nev and Fidah, though the thought of sleeping in the same bed with Eve made his cheeks flush. Walking over to the water pipe, he took a long drag.
Silvia floated over to him as he turned and looked back at the three girls laying in and near his bed. He knew he hadn¡¯t done anything with them other than apparently cuddle the elf. He was curious what Nev had thought about that. If this was what a Harem would be like, he wasn¡¯t sure why he was so against it. Three insanely gorgeous women keeping him company all the time was most men¡¯s dream. Though he was really a one woman kind of man. But he wasn¡¯t opposed to having them as friends. Although he wouldn¡¯t mind having something more with Eve.
¡°What are you thinking about? You have a creepy look on your face while staring at your companions.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Walk with me Silvia,¡± Steven said, ¡°I want you to understand I have no intentions of having a harem. I am more than happy to have you, Eve, and Nev as my companions, and possibly Fidah she seems like a good person. However, I don¡¯t like that you brought her over last night. I don¡¯t know who she truly is, and she could have slit my throat in the night. She was the enemy just a day ago.¡±
¡°She wouldn¡¯t have done that! And besides, if she tried, your shard ability would have triggered and then Nev would have killed her before you could even ask what was going on.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not the point.¡± Steven said, as he put back on the amulet, his high leaving instantly. ¡°Well, that sucks. Now we have twenty-four hours before we can go onto the next floor.¡± Steven said.
¡°But it was a well-deserved break.¡± Silvia said.
¡°That¡¯s not something I expected to hear you say.¡±
¡°Well, I must admit you have been growing in level quite well. Already making it to level twenty is pretty incredible.¡±
¡°That may be true, but I¡¯m on the eighth floor now and I¡¯m only level twenty,¡± Steven said, ¡°Silvia, be honest with me, do you think we can survive this dungeon?¡±
Silvia was silent for a moment. ¡°I do. You have this over powered ability that will allow you to deal with Sorin in the most unusual way. However, you are not the only domain holder in this world, and once you take Sorin¡¯s Domain, you will be one of the seven, which will involve lots of politics that I¡¯m not sure you will be able to navigate.¡±
¡°If I¡¯m honest, I¡¯ve not even considered any of the other Domain holders. I just want to live a quiet life and explore this world and maybe take on normal monster killing adventures. I don¡¯t want to get involved with politics. But maybe we can figure something out. I was talking with Nev the other day about the assassin, and she thinks we can get some favors if we return Necros to the Assassins guild. What do you think about that?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Well, I think it¡¯s a good idea if you don¡¯t want to get wrapped up in politics. Let Nev and I take care of the politics for you. She is a queen, after all.¡±
¡°I would like for you to take care of it for me. I really don¡¯t want problems down the road. Nev can be forceful.¡±
¡°Let her be forceful. It¡¯s her strength. She rules over several cites. Well, her daughters do it for her, but she still has to deal with a lot of politics.¡±
¡°Okay, sounds good then. We can discuss this once we get out of the dungeon, as well as formulate an actual plan. For now, I really should summon my new familiar to see what I have to work with. Gi¡¡± he was starting to wish he never asked Gideon¡¯s name as he kept wanting to say it. ¡°A friend of mine helped me choose him, he was adamant that this being was the best when it came to portals and said it would be considered a favor if I took this familiar.¡±
¡°Portals are extremely rare and difficult to use. Only a handful have the ability to do so. And having a being with such a bright light owe us a favor is a good thing. You made the right choice.¡±
¡°Agreed. So, do you think he will be able to take me back to my world?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light fluttered wildly. ¡°Is that what you want to go back to your world?¡±
¡°Well, not exactly, but I would like to bring my aunt here and maybe an old friend of mine, if he would want to, that is.¡±
¡°I see, well if that¡¯s the case, I think it could be fun to see a new world. I would be interested in speaking with the Wisps there.¡±
¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t believe there are any Wisps on earth.¡±
¡°There is,¡± Silvia said, ¡°now how about we summon this new familiar and see what sort of attractive female you brought to join us from the beyond.¡±
¡°Actually, he is a male. A fallen angel, to be exact, or something like that is what I was told, and no, we are waiting for Nev.¡±
¡°Okay, fine, I¡¯m going to go wake her.¡± Silvia said as she began to fly off.
¡°Just don¡¯t wake Eve, okay!¡±
¡°Be carful,¡± Silvia said, ¡°It¡¯s becoming obvious she is your favorite; wouldn¡¯t want your arachnid to come to that conclusion.¡±
Chapter 42: Vassal slots
This was Steven¡¯s second time seeing this fallen angel, and he still felt unnerved just by looking at him. He had the same pale blue skin as Gideon and even had a halo above his head, although his familiar¡¯s halo was black and had cracks that shone with an orange light. His hands and feet were bound by a glowing white rope attached to his ankles and wrists. Each glowing rope went into some sort of circular void, as if the fallen angel was bound to another plane of existence. In fact, that¡¯s exactly what Steven assumed was going on. Despite the bindings, the being looked like a force to be reckoned with.
Steven was a bit unsure why Gideon had been so adamant about him choosing this familiar. But what¡¯s done is done and he might as well make the best of it. Steven opened his mouth to speak, but his new familiar beat him to it.
¡°Let¡¯s get one thing clear, Mr. Odling. I don¡¯t want to be here. And the only reason I am here is to finish out my sentence. I couldn''t care less about you, your goals, or ambitions, whatever they may be. I will open portals when you tell me to, and that¡¯s it. I¡¯m not interested in telling you anything and will not. My contract only applies to opening portals and I will do that to the best of my ability. But do not rely on me for anything other than portals. I have watched several of my summers parish. I¡¯m only telling you this to make both of our lives a little easier, well, whatever fleeting mortal life you have remaining.¡±
¡°Well, aren¡¯t you a charmer," Steven said, "okay then, I understand. I do appreciate you being up front with me and¡¡±
¡°Master! You can¡¯t possibly allow this familiar to talk to you in this manner.¡±
¡°Nev, it¡¯s fine! This is my new familiar, and it¡¯s best to just think of him as just an ability. Gid¡¡± Steven froze, and his new familiar looked at him curiously.
¡°A friend of mine told me this was the best choice by far. And it was also a favor to said friend.¡°
¡°Okay, Master, but I still don¡¯t like the way he speaks to you.¡±
¡°Now that introductions are out of the way, how about you tell me where you want a portal and I¡¯ll open it. Or you can send me back till you are in need of my services.¡±
¡°Actually, introductions aren¡¯t done, I do not know your name.¡±
¡°I am known as Jabriel,¡± the fallen angel said with narrowed eyes, ¡°you have already met my brother, and he has even told you his name for some reason.¡±
¡°Brother,¡± Steven¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, ¡°now that you mention it, you both have the same stare. Anyway, it¡¯s nice to officially meet you, Jabriel. This is Nev, and this beautiful ball of light here is Silviaburlaxatrix.¡±
¡°Hey,¡± Nev said, ¡°why does she get described as beautiful?¡±
¡°Because one does not need to describe beauty when the definition of beauty is standing in front of them.¡± Jabriel said.
Steven turned to look at the bound angel in confusion.
¡°Keep your flattery to yourself, you¡¯re just a tool to be used as my Master sees fit. The only opinion I care about is my Master¡¯s.¡±
Steven smiled at that. He wasn¡¯t sure why exactly, but he was glad that Nev didn¡¯t accept his flattery. Nev seen Steven smiling and moved closer to him and held his arm. Jabriel didn¡¯t comment and just looked on with his neutral expression.
¡°I¡¯ll dis miss you for now but I plan to use you in combat so we will need to get use to one another soon. I¡¯ll need to know how many portals you can make at once and how fast you can make them and what your limitations are.¡±
¡°Understood. Portals can be key in combat. I must warn you, I have watched many of my summoners die due to their foolish actions.¡±
¡°I appreciate your feedback and would be more than willing to take any advice you would be willing to offer on the subject.¡± Steven said.
Jabriel looked at Steven curiously, but didn¡¯t speak. Steven then dismissed the connection with a thought. He wished it would have been that easy to summon him.
¡°Master, that angel, fallen, or whatever it¡¯s called, is extremely rude.¡±
¡°I agree Nev, however, that being has already formed a core and was well on his way to obtaining a minor god title before he was forced to serve as a familiar for a set time.¡±
Nev took a step back. ¡°Are you serious? But what kind of being could be forced to do anything? And how do you know all this?¡±
¡°A friend told me. Now let¡¯s go find out where Silvia has gone to. I¡¯m surprised she left like that.¡±
While he went to find Silvia, Nev went to check on her enthralled minions. Steven didn¡¯t have to go far to find Silvia. She had gone back to the camp, and was simply floating above a few embers from last nights fire.
¡°I would light it for you but I don¡¯t have any wood.¡± Steven said.
¡°It¡¯s fine. Eve has some more of those ever burning leaves. She will make me one tonight.¡±
Steven could tell something was off with the Wisp by the way her light was dimmed. He still wasn¡¯t sure if she did it on purpose or if she was just completely oblivious to her light giving away her mood.¡±
¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡± Steven asked in a low voice.
¡°No.¡±
¡°Okay, just know I¡¯m here if you want to.¡± Steven looked at the Wisp for a moment longer before going over and picking Eve up and placing her on the bed. He was careful not to wake her. He felt terrible for her having to sleep on the ground. If anyone should have slept there, it was the elf, since he barely knew her.
¡°Wisps are supposed to remember most of our past lives,¡± Silvia said, ¡°but I don¡¯t remember any of mine. When you mortals die, your memories are whipped but Wisps are reborn with most of our memories intact and over time, we remember everything. But I can¡¯t remember anything! Making me no better than mortals,¡± there was a brief pause before Silvia continued, ¡°I think the council did something to me, but I can¡¯t prove it.¡±
¡°Like I told you before, I will help you take down a corrupt council, especially if they have messed with your memories.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light brightened. ¡°Do you really mean that?¡±
¡°Of course I do!¡±
¡°But I thought you wanted a simple life of little adventures, hunting simple monsters and staying at inns with a dwarf bar keep. While having drinks with your comrades.¡±
¡°That¡¯s oddly specific. What gives you the idea that is something I would want?¡±
¡°I saw a lot when I went into your inventory. It¡¯s connected to your soul, and I glimpsed some of your memories, but don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t hurt anything. I could only see your memories because I¡¯m soul bound to you, so the assassin in your inventory can¡¯t see anything.¡±
¡°Well, thanks for the heads up.¡± Steven said, completely unsure how he felt about Silvia getting access to his memories. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much of his memories she had actually seen.
¡°It looks as your harem is waking.¡± Silvia said, light flickering with playfulness.
Stolen novel; please report.
Steven rolled his eyes before he turned his attention to Eve. He was still unsure why the Wisp had left after Jabriel was summoned. Maybe it was because she wanted to be the brightest light or something. Pushing those thoughts to the side for now, he focused on Eve.
Eve panicked for a second while trying to figure out where she was. Then her eyes landed on Steven. ¡°Oh! Good morning.¡± Eve said while quickly covering herself with the covers.
Steven thought that was a bit odd as she was completely covered by her baggy night clothes, which somehow made her even more adorable. Fidah, on the other hand, barely had anything on and didn¡¯t mind if Steven had seen at all. In fact, it was as if she was trying to show him. ¡°Good morning, master.¡± Fidah said.
Steven turned to Silvia and glared. She was surely the one who put her up to calling him master. He was just fixing to say something when Sirus came into view.
¡°Sorry to bother you Steven, but¡¡± Sirus stopped talking and froze as he noticed the half naked redheaded elf sitting on the edge of the bed directly in front of Steven. She then yelped and went to cover herself with the blanket, which pulled it from Eve causing Sirus¡¯s eyes to bulge. ¡°Eve¡ Wha¡¡±
¡°Hey it¡¯s rude to stare at a lady.¡± Fidah said.
Causing Sirus to promptly turn around. ¡°I am sorry! I was just surprised I didn¡¯t¡¡±
¡°It¡¯s not what it looks like, Captain Sirus! I promise!¡± Eve said, cheeks blushing as she pulled at the covers and scooted closer to Fidah to share the blanket.
Silvia started laughing, ¡°humans are so awkward,¡± Silvia flew over to Sirus, ¡°It seems, Steven is busy with his harem at the moment you can speak with me and I¡¯ll relay it back to Steven when he has more time.¡±
¡°Harem! Wait what! That¡¯s my niece!¡± Sirus protested as Silvia led him away.
¡°And you should be proud.¡±
Steven took a deep breath as Silvia, and Sirus walked out of sight.
¡°Fidah.¡± Steven said.
¡°Yes, master.¡± She said excitedly.
¡°Okay, first off, there is no need for the master thing. You can just call me Steven.¡±
¡°Well,¡± Fidah said, ¡°Silvia had me take an oath to serve you, so I must refer to you as something, and Steven just won¡¯t do.¡±
Steven sighed, ¡°what sort of oath?¡±
¡°To serve and obey your commands, as long as your commands don¡¯t harm any of my kindred.¡±
¡°I want to make an oath to you as well!¡± Eve said.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened in surprise as he turned to look at Eve. When he did, she nervously looked away.
¡°I¡¯m not sure what Silvia has been telling you two, but I¡¯m not forming a harem.¡± Steven said.
Eve continued to look down, but the redhead looked Steven right in the eyes. ¡°Call your band of women whatever you like. I really don¡¯t care what you call me. But I have already made an oath that I cannot break less I die. So as for me, I¡¯m joining your damn harem if you like it or not. But if you don¡¯t keep your end of the deal, then¡¡± Fidah fell to her knees in front of Steven and started crying, ¡°please, allow me to join your harem.¡±
Steven was so taken aback by the elf¡¯s one eighty in attitude he had no idea what to say and just stood there staring at her for a long minute before he finally spoke up. ¡°Uh, well sure. You can join I guess¡¡± Steven looked around for help, but Eve was still looking down and the queen and wisp were nowhere around. ¡°If it¡¯s what you really want, then who am I to stop you.¡±
The elf looked up, tears still in her eyes, ¡°truly you will accept me!¡±
There was no way Steven could tell the crying elf no. ¡°Sure.¡±
No sooner than Steven said that, he received a prompt.
Allow Fidah Underwood to become your second vassal. Yes/No?
(Note: 1 of 3 slots are filled.)
Steven wasn¡¯t sure what he should do, but if Silvia had already made her take an oath, then he supposed it was fine. The Wisp was quite knowledgeable, if annoying at times. Selecting yes, a green light shot from his chest to Fidah¡¯s chest as a pale green light shot from her to him. Dismissing the prompt congratulating him for getting another Vassal, he seen Eve down on her knees next to Fidah teary eyed.
¡°Steven¡¡± Eve said, ¡°Please can¡¯t I join too?¡±
¡°Eve, I¡ I don¡¯t think you understand what it means, and if Shirem comes back¡¡±
¡°I don¡¯t care. I just don¡¯t ever want you to leave me again. I want to adventure with you like we talked about,¡± Eve said, teary-eyed. ¡°We talked about all the adventures we would go on together. Please...¡±
Steven¡¯s biggest weakness was crying women. He had absolutely no idea what to do in the situation.
¡°Please!¡±
¡°Okay, fine, sure you can join me too. But nothing changes between us¡±
Allow Evesakia Swift Tail to become your third and final vassal. Yes/No?
(Note: 2 of 3 slots are filled.)
After selecting yes, a green light shot towards Eve¡¯s chest as a violet light shot towards Steven from Eve. After a moment, another prompt appeared.
Congratulations, you have obtained all your vassal slots. You must rename Blank¡¯s Domain at this time.
Steven sighed. Blank was going to be pissed, although at this point it was best he kept this domain and give another to the wizard. Well, if that would even be a possibility. Pushing those thoughts to the side for now, he tried to think of a name. He was terrible at naming.
While leaving the screen up, he glanced over at his two new vassals . ¡°Hey Eve, what do you think a good Domain name is?¡±
¡°Uh, I¡¯m unsure, let me think¡¡±
¡°How about the Domain of Underwood and Steven.¡± Fidah said.
¡°No, definitely not that.¡± Steven said.
¡°How about the Domain of Fidah, Steven and Evesakia.¡±
¡°No, just no.¡±
¡°How about the Domain of elves and¡¡± Fidah started.
¡°God. Just stop! Okay, let me think for a minute.¡± No sooner than Steven said that, the screen in front of him vanished and he received a new prompt.
Congratulations, Divine intervention has come to your aid.
Did this happen because he said god out loud? No, it couldn¡¯t be that easy to ask for help. Wait, now that he thought about it. ¡°Hey, god person, or chaos, sorry I¡¯m not sure what to refer to you as, but I can handle this naming thing, thanks anyway.¡±
No response. He really didn¡¯t think he would get one, anyway. He ignored the odd looks Eve and Fidah were giving him.
With nothing else better to do, Steven tried to reopen the page to name his Domain, but each time he tried he just received a notification that said, Pending. . .
Steven sat down on the bed between Eve and Fidah, who were still on the dungeon floor. ¡°Well, I guess the god of chaos is choosing us a name.¡±
¡°The God of Chaos?¡± Fidah asked, eyes wide.
¡°Really,¡± Eve said, face lighting up, ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see what he chooses for you!¡±
Steven got a sinking feeling. ¡°Yea neither can I¡¡±
It didn¡¯t take long before Silvia came flying back. ¡°What did you do?¡±
¡°Well, I guess I filled my three available vassal slots.¡±
¡°That¡¯s obvious, but why?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°You didn¡¯t fill the slot with that elf, did you?¡± Nev said as she ran over still in human form, ¡°please tell me it was Sirus.¡±
¡°It was Eve and Fidah.¡± Steven said a bit sheepishly.
¡°Why?¡± Silvia asked. ¡°Fidah was already oath bound to serve you. You didn¡¯t have to make her a vassal. Why didn¡¯t you consult me first?¡±
¡°I understand the Half Naga. She is quite skilled in alchemy and will be quite useful on our travels, but the elf,¡± Nev said in disgust, ¡°She is nothing but a pretty face.¡±
Fidah opened her mouth to say something, but a glare from Nev had her promptly close it.
¡°What¡¯s done is done, okay, and besides, Silvia said she was good with a bow,¡± Steven said.
¡°I did, but she is a low level. I was only having her join your Harem not have her become a vassal.¡± Silvia said.
¡°For the last time Silvia, I¡¯m not forming a harem! I¡¯m not sure where you got this idea, but I¡¯m a one woman kind of man!¡±
¡°Yes, I understand one woman at a time. I¡¯ve seen all your memories. I know the things you desire.¡± Silvia said, light flickering.
Steven took a deep breath. ¡°I¡¯m ready for the eighth floor now. let¡¯s go.¡±
¡°Yes Master, of course. I will get our soldiers.¡± Nev said as she took off without another word.
¡°Eve, I adore you and I don¡¯t want you to get hurt in the slightest, so I¡¯m asking you to stay behind.¡± Steven said.
¡°Yes master.¡± Eve said.
¡°Absolutely not!¡± Steven said, ¡°not from you. You are my friend and I want you to treat me the same as you always have. Please, I need that from you.¡±
Eve smiled. ¡°Yes, of course. May I hug you?¡±
¡°You don¡¯t even have to ask.¡±
¡°What about me? What is it you want me to do, Mr. Odling?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°Mr. Odling will do just fine thanks, and well you need to level up so you are coming with me,¡± Steven said.
¡°Yes sir,¡± Fidah said, ¡°If I fall, you will keep your promise, right?¡±
¡°Yes, he will. I will make sure of it,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Now how about you go inform Sirus of our decision to enter the next floor.¡±
Fidah took off with determination.
¡°Silvia, what did you promise her?¡±
¡°That we would deliver the cure to her people, of course.¡±
¡°I would have done that without her devoting her life to me.¡±
¡°I know, but we need all the help we can get.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Next time, inform me before you do something like that.¡± Steven said.
¡°Fine. But don''t think I''m just going to drop this like the arachnid. You need to consult me before making big decisions!"
¡°Here are some potions I¡¯ve had finished up for you.¡± Eve said.
¡°Thanks! You''re saving our lives without even having to fight.¡±
Eve blushed slightly. ¡°I¡¯m going to go inform the Elders that I have entwined my life with yours.¡± Eve said, as she started walking away.
¡°I doubt the half Naga will be happy about losing someone as talented as her. I do hope it won¡¯t be an issue.¡± Steven said.
¡°It¡¯s fine. They won¡¯t dare do anything that would cause them issues with the Spider Queen.¡± Silvia said.
Steven then received a notification.
Congratulations, The Domain of Odlings little harem, has been established.
Steven froze after reading the notification. He then read over it again to make sure he wasn¡¯t mis understanding it. He then closed the notification and opened up the Domain name.
Unfortunately, it was the same as the prompt. Steven took a few long deep breaths to calm himself before he asked a smirking Silvia if others could see the name.
¡°The short answer is yes.¡± Silvia said as she burst out laughing, lights flickering wildly.
Steven then began cursing the god of chaos with every curse word he could possibly think of. After several minutes of this Nev came back to ask why he named their Domain such a thing, he then began cursing again.
Chapter 43: Portals
Kat had just finished eating some food cooked by Chen and his mother. She had been living the life of luxury lately, Chen and his mom was hesitant about coming to work for her at Steven¡¯s house but after she gave them a large pile of gold as a sign-on bonus they quickly closed down their business and came to work for Kat. It took them some time to get used to a flying cat and a wizard, but what really caused issues was when Blank brought home a half Naga that had somehow gotten caught up in their portal. But Kat showered them with gold and they quickly got over it. Well, Chen¡¯s mother did, and she kept Chen in line, so that¡¯s all Kat cared about. She could have the best food at every meal. Kat didn¡¯t think she would ever tire of this life. Part of her didn¡¯t even want to go back. At least not yet, but she knew Blank was nearly ready now. Suddenly, Kat felt an odd sinking feeling, as if her connection with Blank was trying to be severed.
Blank jumped up from the couch, startling Shirem, who had been sitting there with him watching the scrying device. ¡°Katarina! What¡¯s happening?¡±
¡°I- I¡¯m unsure. Something is happening to the Domain.¡± No sooner than Kat said this, both she and Blank received a notification.
Blank¡¯s Domain has been overruled by, The Domain of Odling¡¯s little harem. You no longer have any claim to, said Domain.
Kat could feel herself start to fade, although she didn¡¯t feel like she was being sent back to the void but to some other place. Her eyes widened when she realized she was being sent to the village idiot.
Blank was in front of Kat. ¡°I swear I will bring you back no matter what it takes.¡±
Kat smiled, ¡°I know you will. I¡¯m almost certain I¡¯m being sent to that human.¡± Kat said as she began fading.
¡°I will make sure that damned human pays for taking you from me! I swear this by the god of Justice.¡±
Kat could hear but she couldn¡¯t respond as she was already mostly faded. The next moment, she was in an odd place. Kat was quite old and had been to most places, but this was a place she did not know what was. There was no way out. There were also lots of odd things that made no sense, such as thousands of adolescent wisps and an undead Draugr assassin, along with several other undead. Not to mention all the odd items. Even stranger was that she couldn¡¯t reach any of theses items or even the little Wisps for that matter even though they flew around right out of her reach looking down she also noticed she was no longer in her favorite cat form but had been forced transformed back into her original Wisp form. The only thing she knew that was powerful enough to do that was the void, but this was no void, and she was sure she hadn¡¯t died. But what could be powerful enough to trap her?
Steven had calmed down when an odd sensation overtook him. He felt a tremendous pressure inside his storage. At first he thought it was the assassin trying to escape, but after he focused on the assassin, he could tell that he was still doing nothing. That¡¯s when he noticed the powerful being that now resided in his inventory. Focusing on it, he seen the name. Elder Wisp, Katrina Ever Smile.
¡°Silvia¡¡± Steven said, eyes wide. ¡°We may have a problem.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. The name isn¡¯t really that important!¡±
¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about. There is an Elder Wisp in my inventory¡¡±
Silvia¡¯s light nearly went out before it flared wildly. ¡°What did you say?¡±
¡°I somehow have an Elder Wisp in my inventory. Should I try and pull it out?¡±
Silvia flew next to Steven. ¡°Absolutely not. It could kill us both with a single thought! Elder Wisps are the most powerful Wisps in existence. It¡¯s what I¡¯m hoping to become.¡±
¡°Well, what do I do with it? I can¡¯t just leave it there. What if it does something?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ve been in your inventory and there is no way anything could affect it outside of divine intervention and I¡¯m not so sure that could even affect it. Chaos gave you the highest blessing possible. For now, just leave it alone, and I¡¯ll go in and check it out later.¡±
¡°Why later?¡±
¡°I- i¡¯ve just never met an Elder Wisp, and I want to let it calm down after getting trapped¡ How exactly did you put it in your inventory?¡±
¡°I have no idea it just happen, I didn¡¯t put it in there. Maybe Chaos did it for some reason.¡±
¡°I cannot fathom why but I suppose that¡¯s the only thing that makes sense.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Should we delay the next floor a bit longer?¡±
¡°No, it should be fine. We are as ready as we can be. The next floor will just be you sending abominations to your inventory.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, I need to summon Jabriel before we go. I need to see what he is capable of.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t like that prick!¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, but for now, we are stuck with him.¡±
¡°Fine, I¡¯ll play nice!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Thanks. I¡¯m going to go talk with Nev and see if she wants Sirus to come along.¡±
¡°Sir, I¡¯m sorry to bother you, but the Undead are here and they refuse to leave till they have Necros¡¯s body.¡±
¡°This is the Assassins guild! Tell them we don¡¯t have it and will inform them the moment we have received his body.¡±
Just then, the door fell in and a large undead ducked under the door frame. ¡°Is this where the manager of this Assassins guild is? Sorry about the door. Sometimes I don¡¯t know my own strength.¡±
¡°Uh, yes sir, I am Albert branch manager of this guild.¡±
¡°Oh, great,¡± the massive undead said, ¡°I¡¯m here for my nephew¡¯s body. If you could kindly hand it over, we will be on our way.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry to inform you, but we have not recovered the body of Necros at this time. B- but I can assure you we are in search of his body at this very moment.¡± Albert said.
¡°Where?¡± The Undead asked.
¡°I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t understand the question.¡± Albert did not know where the guards were and how such a behemoth could just waltz right into his office.
¡°Where is my nephew¡¯s body?¡±
¡°W-well, that is classified information. I¡¯m sorry but¡¡±
The undead took a step forward. ¡°Let me ask you one more time. Where is my nephew¡¯s body?¡±
Albert swallowed hard. He wasn¡¯t supposed to deal with this sort of problem.
¡°The last known location of the assassin Necros was the Undead dungeon owned by Dungeon Lord Sorin.¡±
The undead¡¯s eyes narrowed, ¡°are you saying you don¡¯t even know if my nephew is dead?¡±
¡°Apologies, but all I have is reports. I was not there myself. I could¡¡±
¡°That¡¯s enough. Thank you for your corporation. We will be leaving now.¡±
Albert watched as the huge undead ducked out of his office. He then just stared blankly at the massive hole in the wall where the door used to be.
¡°Where was the security team while all this was going on?¡± Albert asked his assistant.
¡°Sir, I do believe they all left the building.¡±
¡°Left! To do what? That¡¯s against guild policy! Bring me the head of security at once.¡±
Albert didn¡¯t have to wait long for the head of security to arrive and was ready to pour out his frustrations.
¡°Before you reprimanded me, I would like to explain why we left the premises.¡±
Albert snarled, ¡°okay go on, enlighten me!¡±
¡°First off, there were hundreds of undead and we were told if we didn¡¯t stand down, they would kill everyone in this city. Not only that, they said if we could somehow fight them off, then it would be war with the undead. They apparently only wanted a body of one of their fallen.¡±
Albert¡¯s eyes widened in shock. ¡°W-war! But¡ that¡¯s preposterous over a single body?¡±
¡°I¡¯m just relaying what they said sir. I was also ordered to stand aside by the citi¡¯s council. If I¡¯m not mistaken, many of the city guard were killed or hurt as the Undead entered the city.¡±
¡°What! Why is the first I¡¯m hearing of this?¡± Albert asked.
¡°From my understanding, the undead came here immediately upon entry.¡±
Albert was at a loss for words. He had to report this to the higher ups.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Steven threw his spear through a small black portal that came through another portal and in stuck into the back of an abomination that went limp and fell down as the lightning sparked over it''s body.
¡°Oh, how I wish I could make it do that every time.¡± Steven walked over and sent the abomination to inventory. This was the fifth one he had sent to inventory so far. Nev and the soldiers were only watching at the moment, and Silvia was critiquing the fallen angel on his portals. Jabriel just ignored the Wisp for the most part, though, he explained himself to the Wisp much more than Steven thought he would.
¡°Can you not make the portals bigger? We both know Steven is not that good with the spear and that¡¯s a small target for him to hit.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I could make the portals bigger, yes, but If I do so, then I won¡¯t be able to create as many portals. I am limited to Mr. Odlings power level after all.¡± Jabriel said.
¡°Oh, I can understand that. He is quite low leveled for this area.¡±
¡°Indeed, though I have to admit he is quite formidable for only being a level twenty.¡± Jabriel said.
Steven was a bit annoyed that his familiar would talk with Silvia but would barely give him the time of day when it came to a conversation. But he had to admit that the portals he created were always on point. Steven didn¡¯t even have to tell him where to place the portals, he just did it based on his intent. But when he asked if Jabriel could read his mind, the familiar just told him no. Steven knew there was a limit to how many portals his familiar could create each day, but Jabriel only told him it was based on his power. Steven was sure he knew and was just being difficult, but there was nothing he could do about it. As Steven was getting use to the portals, he caught Jabriel sneaking glances at Nev, which was odd, yes she was absolutely gorgeous, but wasn¡¯t female angels even more attractive? And she was in her massive spider form. Pushing those thoughts aside, he moved forward. There was no point in trying to be stealthy like he normally did, there was just too many people following him.
Eve had convinced him to let her tag along, but she was with Nev, Fidah, and the soldiers. Fidah had gotten upset when she found out Nev had done something to her clan¡¯s man, and only calmed down when Steven had explained it wasn¡¯t permanent. He also had to keep her clansman safe now. If Steven was honest, he liked it better when it was just him, Nev, and Silvia. But now he had two more servants to worry about. Not to mention the half Naga that would enter the eighth floor with them relatively soon.
A portal opened in front of Steven, and he placed his hand in it. His hand then appeared on the other side of the cavern from within another portal. He touched the abomination, and it vanished. Steven was feeling a bit overpowered, but he knew he could only do this to the undead, and apparently Wisps, which was confusing. He had asked Jabriel about the random Elder wisp in his inventory, but he just shrugged and said that¡¯s an odd thing to happen. Though he seemed interested in how his inventory worked. Steven pulled in and out his bed a few times to indulging Jabriel¡¯s curiosity in hopes it would benefit him later. After all, one day Jabriel would no longer be bound. After a bit, Jabriel said it acted similarly to a portal, and he wanted to study on it further when they had time. All and all the eight floor was extremely easy, Nev hadn¡¯t even got involved yet, aside from cheering him on. The largest issue was he wasn¡¯t gaining any essence for just sending them to inventory and he desperately needed more levels and attributes points.
At one point Steven had Nev and the soldiers along with Eve and Fidah, set up camp, as him and Jabriel finished clearing out this floor. Nev surprisingly agreed. She just said to come back to get her before they entered the hidden path on this floor.
Steven was excited to see what sorts of things he would get out of another chest. But he focused all his attention on clearing out the floor for the time being. The half Naga would be entering soon and a single abomination could take out half the clan before they could take it down, even with Sirus there would surely be casualties so Steven did his best to clear out the dungeon floor. Silvia also followed and continued to critique Jabriel. The odd thing was the bound angel never once complained and even explained himself more than Steven thought he should.
¡°Okay,¡± Silvia said as she flew next to Steven, ¡°this batch here is the last of the abominations I sense on this floor.¡±
Steven nodded, then glanced at Jabriel, who just stood back with his normal expression of blankness. Four abominations were on the other side of this cavern. Steven was glad this floor was full of large caverns. It made it much easier to deal with these abominations. Not that mattered now that he now had portals. An inky black portal opened and Steven stuck his hand in and sent one of the abominations to inventory, he then did the same to the second, but when he reached into the portal to send the third abomination to inventory his hand felt like if burst into flames, he tried to pull his arm out but it wouldn¡¯t budge. Steven couldn¡¯t help but let out a whimper of pain, which was just enough for both abominations to look towards him.
¡°Hey! Release the portal! What are you doing?¡± Silvia shouted at Jabriel.
¡°I can not. He must dismiss the portal himself.¡± Jabriel said in his normal mono toned voice.
Silvia sent an adolescent wisp away as she darted towards Steven.
Steven seen the abominations charging his direction, he also seen his hand burning in some sort of black flame on the other side of the cavern.
¡°You need to release the portal!¡± Silvia said as she appeared next to him.
Steven gritted his teeth. ¡°I don¡¯t know how!¡±
Silvia looked between him and the charging abominations, and seem to make a choice. The next moment, tiny wisps bombarded the two charging abominations, exploding each time they came in contact with one.
Steven winced in pain as he tried to pull his hand out again. He knew the bombardment of adolescent wisps wouldn¡¯t last long. Only a few came out to help on the last floor, and the way the abominations regenerated, the dam undead would be back at him before he knew it. The thought of cutting his own arm off crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. Steven was having a hard time thinking over the constant pain of the black flames. His mind went to his ring that shot webs, but quickly realized that wouldn¡¯t work as his hand with the ring was on the other side of the cavern. The explosions from the wisps were slowing down now and it would only be a matter of time before the abominations regenerated and were charging at him once again. All he would have to do would be touch the undead, although he would likely take a few hits in the process as he was stuck in place. His ability would trigger and he would turn into his Spider king form, but what would happen if a portal was in the center of his spider body after he changed? He may instantly die. The wisps had stopped attacking, and the abominations were already healing up. Steven activated his ring of summons. The next moment, a giant blue whale appeared and fell onto the two abominations. This was the first time he had seen a whale in person and the thing was massive. It looked odd in the cavern the creature barely fit. If Steven wasn¡¯t in so much pain, he would have felt bad for it. But as for now, all he could do was be grateful that he bought a few more minutes to get out of this situation. Steven glanced back at the bound angel, who seemed to be getting chewed out by Silvia.
Steven let out a frustrated cry as he tried to pull his hand out of the portal once again, but it was no use. It didn¡¯t even budge. Jabriel and Silvia then came over. ¡°Tell him!¡± Silvia said, ¡°tell him what you told me.¡±
Jabriel wouldn¡¯t meet Steven¡¯s eyes as he spoke. ¡°I am sorry, but I can not dismiss this portal until tomorrow.¡±
¡°Are you saying I¡¯m stuck like this till tomorrow?¡± Steven gritted his teeth from the pain as he spoke.
¡°I am afraid so, Mr. Odling. There shouldn¡¯t be any lingering damage from the portal as long as you can manage the pain. But all my portal abilities are on cool down.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not all,¡± Silvia butted in, ¡°our friendly bound angel also knew his portal magic was getting low but didn¡¯t mention it.¡±
¡°I thought it would be enough to deal with the few remaining dungeon monsters.¡± Jabriel said.
Steven paid no mind to the familiar as he looked at his count down for his summon. If he wasn¡¯t in so much pain, he would laugh at the fact he summoned a whale, and it landed on top of the dungeon monsters.
¡°Silvia, I need Nev¡¯s help. The summon only has a bit over a minute on it.¡±
¡°Ive already sent for her.¡±
It wasn¡¯t but a few moments later when Steven seen Nev charging towards him in her spider form at the same time the timer ran out on his summon and the whale vanished. Nev went straight after the two remaining abominations. Steven only paid half attention, as the pain from his hand was too intense. Before Steven even realized what was going on, both abominations were bound by webs and dangling from the dungeon ceiling upside down and Nev was by his side.
¡°Master, are you okay?¡±
¡°Thank you Nev! I can always count on you.¡± Steven said with gritted teeth.
Nev turned to Jabriel. ¡°Close the portal.¡±
¡°I am sorry, but I can not.¡± Jabriel barely got the words out of his mouth before Nev was looming over him. ¡°This is your last and only warning. Close that dammed portal or I¡¯ll make you.¡±
¡°I cannot till morning. I have exceeded my daily amount.¡±
¡°Nev, come here, I need your help.¡± Steven said.
Nev turned to Steven and changed into her human form. ¡°Yes Master what do you desire?¡±
¡°Well, if I¡¯m to be stuck in sheer agony till morning, I¡¯m going to need your help.¡±
¡°Of course Master, whatever you wish, I will see it done.¡±
¡°Could you help me get my amulet off, and also adjust this bed underneath me so I can sit.¡± Steven said, barely keeping tears out of his eyes.
Nev turned to Jabriel, ¡°if this has any lingering effects, you will regret it.¡±
Nev then helped Steven arrange the bed so he could sit and get comfortable as he could. She then held the water pipe up for him. It helped with the pain, but only a bit. Eve and Fidah also quickly made it to Steven, along with several confused soldiers that were no longer enthralled. They kept trying to ask questions until Steven got fed up with them and told them to leave him alone until tomorrow. Eve quickly made her way to Steven and, after taking in the situation, she began mixing up some sort of paste from leaves and a few odd looking herbs. Once she was done, she began rubbing it on Steven¡¯s arm. Which annoyed Nev and she tried to tell Eve that she could rub it on Master, but Eve flat out refused, saying she may mess up the numbing paste. About a minute after the paste was applied, Steven finally experienced some relief.
¡°I will need to apply this every hour to keep the pain at bay,¡± Eve said, ¡°I can also make you a tonic to help with the pain as well.¡±
Steven thanked Eve several times along with Nev for saving his life. He then smoked so much he forgot where he was. At some point, he remembered Sirus coming over to talk to him. There was also some sort of ordeal with Fidah and her clansman. But Steven told her clansman that Fidah was his now and that he should get lost before he had him killed. At least that¡¯s what Silvia said happened. The paste was working, but the pain seemed to grow the longer his hand stayed in the portal.
Eve finished up with her tonic. The taste was disgustingly thick and chunky. Drinks weren¡¯t meant to be chewed, but Steven didn¡¯t complain, as Eve was his lifeline. The tonic also had the side effect of having him become drowsy and he eventually fell asleep. He awoke several times with an intense burning pain, but each time Eve was there already there rubbing numbing paste and having him drink something for the pain. He would then fall back to sleep.
This time when Steven woke up, his head was pounding, but the portal was no longer active. Eve lay passed out on the bed next to him and Nev was in her spider form for some reason with her head laying on the foot of his bed.
Silvia was floating next to Jabriel, who had a neutral expression on his face as always. As he locked eyes with Jabriel, the bound angel nodded. As he began trying to decipher what that meant, Fidah spoke up.
¡°Mr. Odling, I want to apologize for my clansman¡¯s actions last night! He means well, he just doesn¡¯t understand...¡±
¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Steven said. ¡°What are you doing on the ground anyway, there was plenty of room on the bed?¡±
Fidah glanced at the sleeping Spider Queen, ¡°It¡¯s fine. I chose to sleep down here. How is your hand?¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Steven looked down at his right hand, which still slowly let off black wisps of smoke. He then looked up at Jabriel.
¡°I am sorry,¡± Jabriel said as he walked over, ¡°I was not aware you would receive any lingering effects, but I can assure you it is only temporary.¡±
Instead of responding, Steven opened his stat page and quickly found a new tab labeled curses.
Portal Curse- Do to over exposer to high-level portal magic you have been afflicted with this temporary curse.
Mana clog-
Effect- Loss of the ability to recover mana.
Time remaining- 47 hours, 29 mins and 17 seconds.
¡°Oh! Well, this is inconvenient.¡± His pounding headache was now making more since. Steven then pulled out a mana potion.
¡°That won¡¯t help,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Unfortunately, all forms of mana recovery are locked for the duration of this curse.¡±
¡°Are you serious? You¡¯re saying I¡¯m going to be stuck with this pounding headache for the next two days?¡±
Steven spoke louder than he had expected, and both Eve and Nev woke up.
¡°Is everything okay, Master?¡±
Steven turned to Nev. ¡°Well, it will be in a couple days, I suppose.¡±
Once Steven and Silvia explained the situation and Steven stopped Nev from attacking Jabriel, Eve said she could make up something to help with his head. With nothing else better to do, Steven pulled out his water pipe and received a sharp pain. That¡¯s when he checked his mana and seen it was twenty-seven.
¡°I don¡¯t want any visitors. If Sirus comes by, tell him to come back in two days. Tell him I¡¯m recovering from the fight or something.¡±
Steven took a long drag from the water pipe. He offered some to Eve, but she declined, saying she needed to stay sharp so she could make him potions and something for his head. Turning to Fidah, she also declined, but Steven told her that¡¯s not how it works and she would be smoking with him.
Chapter 44: Sorin and General Tusk
Sorin was pissed. The more he thought about it, the more he became frustrated with himself. How could he not have any precautions set up to deal with a level one Domain holder in his dungeon? Now that same Domain holder was on the eighth floor with twenty more levels. The level gap between him and this Steven was the only thing that gave Sorin solace. Having twenty levels on him gave Sorin a huge edge. Though he doubted Steven could get past the Elder demon, even with that spider. Although he would have to be worry of that pesky Wisp. Sorin sat down on his throne and opened the dungeon scrying ability. It had been over a day since he could look in on Steven.
As soon as the ability activated, Sorin seen Steven stick his hand through some sort of black abyss and touch an abomination. Sorin¡¯s eyes widened as the Abomination vanished. It wasn¡¯t the way the creature vanished that bothered him. He had been trying to figure out how Steven dealt with his dungeon monsters so easily for a while now. But now this over powered human could use portals?
Sorin could barely contain his rage as he watched. His eyes glued to every move the human made, trying to figure out how he was using this portal magic.
Then he spotted it, some sort of angel that was bound. Sorin slowly began to tremble; he had only heard legends of angels. The beings were the strongest of all mortals and the next step to becoming a god. How did this Steven have one bound to him? There was no way he had it as a familiar¡ if it was truly his familiar he should just surrender now. It was foolish to fight against that sort of power, even if it had bindings.
Sorin took a few steading breaths. There had to be a way out of this. He couldn¡¯t just give up, he would die when the Domain was taken from him. He wasn¡¯t nearly strong enough to survive having it removed, much less ripped out of him. Sorin paid little attention to the images from the scrying ability as his mind raced. It just made no sense who was this Steven Odling not only did he have the spider Queen on his side, but he also took his Wisp, and now he has a bound angel creating high-level portals for him!
¡°Dungeon Lord Sorin, Sir.¡±
Sorin looked down at the young Draugr, he was trying to decided if he should punish the Draugr, when she spoke.
¡°There is an undead general waiting to speak with you, my Lord.¡±
Sorin thought this was an odd time for an undead general to want to talk to him. But this could be just what he needed.
¡°Bring my orb.¡± Sorin said.
¡°At once my lord!¡±
¡°Draugr.¡±
The Draugr immediately stopped as she stiffened, ¡°yes. My lord.¡±
¡°You will call me Master from now on!¡±
¡°Y-yes, Im sorry Master, i¡¡±
¡°Fetch my Orb!¡±
Sorin threw the orb into the air and a large humanoid undead appeared before him.
¡°Dungeon Lord Sorin,¡± the undead bowed to show his respect, ¡°I am Tusk, General of the third battalion.¡±
Sorin nodded slightly in respect. It was a position that held great prestige inside the undead. Though it was nothing compared to an Undead Dungeon lord.
¡°As interesting as it is to meet an Undead General, one has to wonder why a general would contact me like this.¡±
¡°It¡¯s regarding my nephew Necros, I wish to claim his body.¡±
Sorin¡¯s face turned to a wicked smile. ¡°I would be more than happy to assist you in finding your nephew¡¯s body.¡±
¡°You know where his body is?¡±
¡°I do indeed, although you will need your soldiers to take his body if you want it back. The person who has your nephew¡¯s body is currently invading my Dungeon.¡±
¡°My soldiers are ready to do whatever is necessary to bring our fallen home. Although it may take us some time to travel there so it is likely this invader will be long gone from your dungeon by then. I would compensate you if you could hold his body in the dungeon for us until we arrive. I would also be grateful if you let me kill the one that has taken my nephew.¡±
¡°No point in all that. How about I send you and ten of your finest warriors to the first floor of my Dungeon?¡±
Sorin watched as a grin fell over the huge undead. ¡°Yes, that sounds acceptable. The undead kingdom will compensate you for your troubles. ¡±
¡°I know you will. Now hurry less you miss your prey. You will need to go to a portal chamber."
Steven sat on his bed with Fidah. His plan was to get to know this overly cute elf over the next couple days while the curse fadded, and what better way to do that than with alcohol and something strong to smoke. He still felt dumb for just accepting her without speaking to Silvia. The Wisp had not let him forget it, either. She would periodically fly by and tell him how dumb he was for wasting his vassal slot on the elf. Though she made sure not to do that while Nev was around. Nev asked if she could enthrall the soldiers again and Steven told her she could, aside from Fidah¡¯s clan¡¯s man.
Steven looked at the redheaded elf as she began coughing. ¡°Sorry Mr. Odling, I have a much higher tolerance to alcohol than I do whatever this is,¡± she coughed again. ¡°What is this, by the way?¡±
¡°Oh, I have no idea Nev brought it to me,¡± Steven nodded towards Eve, working at her station. ¡°I¡¯m sure Eve knows.¡±
¡°And you just trust the Spider completely?¡± Fidah asked shock written on her face.
¡°I know what she wants, so yes, yes I do. She has also made an oath to me. Just like you, she can¡¯t do anything to harm me.¡±
¡°What about Miss Evesakia? Did she also make an oath?¡±
¡°I trust Eve without one.¡± Steven took another long drag, then handed it to Fidah.
¡°So what¡¯s up with you and the clan¡¯s man? I really don¡¯t remember much from last night.¡±
Fidah froze. ¡°You don¡¯t remember¡¡±
¡°No, not really, just what Silvia told me.¡±
¡°Uh, well. We were once meant to be married¡ But that was a long time ago! And I promise I no longer have any feelings for him now. Not anymore than I do for anyone in my clan. I belong to you now, I promise!¡±
The way she spoke made Steven feel as though she feared him. And he didn¡¯t like that, but had no idea what to say. He wanted to tell her she was her own person and could do as she pleased, but she was one of his vassals now and nothing could break that but death. Either his death or hers.
¡°Please don¡¯t hurt him¡¡± Fidah blurted out.
¡°I¡¯m not going to hurt him, don¡¯t worry.¡±
It was silent for a long while. At some point Eve brought over another tonic, and sat down next to him with a wide smile. ¡°I¡¯m happy to get to be part of this with you.¡±
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
¡°And I¡¯m glad to have you with me, although I worry about your safety.¡± Steven said.
¡°I promise to grow stronger, so you never have to worry about me again. That being said, Goskia gave me a shard as a going away present. I honestly thought he would be mad that I left.¡±
¡°Oh,¡± Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°What kind of shard?¡±
¡°It is called the Shard of the winged beast. I would be more than willing to give it to you so you can grow stronger.¡±
¡°Absolutely not. I need you to grow stronger! Why haven¡¯t you absorbed it yet?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know how to do the ritual and Goskia didn¡¯t offer.¡± Eve said.
¡°Oh, that¡¯s simple. Ill get Silvia to guide you through it, lets get that shard in you. I want you, along with all my comrades, to have all their shards.¡±
Fidah¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Do you plan to have me get all my shards as well?¡±
¡°Indeed, I do. You aren¡¯t as useful as you could be to me. Just look how amazing Nev is! I need you both to be on her level.¡± Steven didn¡¯t add that he needed them to help protect him from the spider Queen once he reached level ninety nine.
¡°But how will we get that many shards?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°Ill figure it out, besides I have a fountain of knowledge in the form of a ball of light.¡± Steven said.
¡°And that beautifully bright ball of light,¡± Silvia said as she flew next to Steven¡¯s face, ¡°is telling you to take that shard!¡±
Steven swatted at Silvia and missed completely.
¡°Hey, what did you do that for?¡±
¡°I told you to stop flying right into my face. You can easily just fly to the side or something. You have all of this,¡± Steven gestured around the open cavern they were in, ¡°why do you have to get right in my face?¡±
Silvia harrumphed, ¡°It¡¯s not my fault you put your big head where I want to be.¡±
Steven sighed, ¡°oh come¡¡±
¡°Steven does not have a big head! It is perfectly normal.¡± Eve said with just a bit of heat behind her words.
There was a brief silence before Fidah spoke. ¡°You should really watch how you speak towards the Ancient Wisp.¡±
Steven turned to say something, but Silvia beat him to it.
¡°It seems the elf knows how to respect her betters.¡±
Steven nearly told Fidah to tell Silvia her light was dim, but thought better of it.
¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough. Silvia, I need you to help Eve with the ritual for her shard.¡±
¡°Well, I vote you absorb it instead,¡± Silvia looked at Fidah, ¡°and what about you?¡±
Fidah looked at Steven and back a the Wisp. ¡°I-I. Uh, well i¡¡±
¡°Oh, leave the poor elf out of it. I didn¡¯t say anything about voting.¡±
¡°I do have to agree with Silvia. I think it would be best if you had all your shards before worrying about me.¡±
¡°Eve,¡± Steven smiled, ¡°the stronger you are, the more you can help keep me alive. Besides, I can¡¯t even absorb another shard for a while.¡±
¡°If you killed the undead in your inventory, you would have more than enough essence.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I don¡¯t have a good way to deal with them at this time.¡± Steven said.
¡°You could just stab them over and over again.¡±
¡°Inventory?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°I¡¯m not doing that again. I don¡¯t want to ruin perfectly good weapons.¡±
¡°You probably just want to find a cliff so you can drop them off using the least amount of effort as possible.¡± Silvia said, as her light flickered.
¡°Well, yes, actually, that would be very ideal.¡± Steven said with a confused expression on his face.
¡°You are the laziest overpowered Domain holder I¡¯ve ever heard of! And if you don¡¯t stop being so lazy, you''re going to get the both of us killed. If not now, then when we are out of this dungeon and you don¡¯t have such an enormous advantage against your foes.¡±
Steven opened his mouth to speak, but closed it. Was this something that had been bothering the Wisp or was this about the incident with the portal? He did get lucky with the whale thing, but he probably would have survived, right?
¡°Are you even listing to me?¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. He had smoked way too much for this conversation right now. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. What would you have me do?¡± Asking girls what they wanted him to do was always a good way to calm them down. At least, he hoped.
¡°I want you to start by gaining more levels. You are entirely too weak right now to be going onto the ninth floor,¡± Silvia¡¯s light dimmed, ¡°remember how I told you the dungeon boss was an Elder demon?¡±
¡°Yea, I remember.¡±
¡°Well, it is likely that there are demons on the ninth floor. The ninth and tenth floor are linked unlike the rest of the dungeon, so troops can be sent to the ninth floor during times of a dungeon lock down. The good news is they can¡¯t be sent back to the tenth. But I¡¯m sure the ninth floor will be crawling with demons and undead alike. Sorin is a pathetic weakling, but I can assure you he will not go down without a fight.¡± Silvia turned and flew up to the dungeon ceiling. ¡°That¡¯s right Sorin, you heard me. I called you a pathetic weakling!¡±
Eve turned to Steven. ¡°Can this Dungeon lord hear and see us?¡±
¡°Sometimes, and kinda. It¡¯s probably best we let Silvia explain that.¡±
¡°Wait, there is some creepy guy watching us while we sleep?¡± Fidah asked.
Steven turned to Fidah, who was looking up at the ceiling, covering herself with the covers as if Sorin was now watching. He then turned back to Eve, who was sitting right next to him. ¡°Does she not know dungeons have dungeon lords?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not really common knowledge. It¡¯s more of a legend, most dungeons don¡¯t have a Dungeon Lord. I¡¯m not really sure how that works, though.¡± Eve said.
¡°Its through dungeon cores controlled by beings that are bored and have nothing else better to do.¡± Silvia said matter-of-factly.
¡°I have so many questions now, but later. I¡¯ve smoked too much for this right now.¡± Steven said.
¡°Alright so this is what we are going to do, you¡¯re going to level up as much as possible between the abominations you acquired throughout the floors and the skeletal knights you have you should have enough essence to reach level thirty and absorb your fourth shard.¡±
¡°Wait fourth?¡± Eve asked.
¡°Yes, fourth. Steven here is an over powered human from another planet that gets to have a shard starting at level one along with his absurd blessing.¡± Silvia said.
¡°When you say it like that, you make me sound cooler than I actually am. Also why do I get the feeling you see it as a bad thing.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not a bad thing. I¡¯m extremely ecstatic that you are so hard to kill with your shards. I just wish you wouldn¡¯t push your luck! If you die, I get sent back to the void. I just want you to get stronger so you don¡¯t die and I can stay on a world that¡¯s not an empty void.¡± Silvia paused for a moment, ¡°anyway, that Elder Demon is no joke. I know the arachnid is strong, but she will have a disadvantage against fire, even if they are equally matched in levels.
¡°Okay, I¡¯ll do as you say and level up, but I don¡¯t want to take this Shard from Eve.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light brightened before it dimmed. ¡°I understand that if miss Evesakia is stronger, it will help us survive. Ive got an idea. Let me see how if I can fix this.¡± Silvia then flew off.
¡°I really think you should worry about getting stronger yourself instead of me, you''re the one that¡¯s going to be out in front fighting.¡± Eve said.
¡°What about me?¡± Fidah asked, ¡°I could use a shard. I¡¯ve only got one.¡±
¡°Mr. Odling, if I may,¡± Jabriel said as he appeared a respectful distance in front of Steven and began walking towards him.
¡°Yea, go ahead.¡± Steven said.
¡°Silviaburlaxatix, refuses to tell you this, but I believe it prudent, you know. You can give her attribute points to unlock certain abilities of hers.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Seriously, why would she hide this from me?¡±
¡°You are weak. In fact, you are the weakest being I have ever been a familiar to. However, it is important to note that this assessment is based solely on your attributes. Silviaburlaxatix is worried that you need every single point to further your own strength. So you don¡¯t die.¡± Jabriel turned to leave but stopped and turned back towards Steven. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you earned a title of sorts if you manage to take a second domain at your level.¡± The bound angel then turned, took a step, and vanished into a thick inky blackness.
Steven had no idea his familiar could do that. Now that he thought about it, he needed to ask him if that counted as his daily portal amount. Steven laid back on his bed, a bed that really could use a wash. It was surely dirty now; he needed to ask Fidah if she could do it for him. No doubt Eve would, but he didn¡¯t want to give her more things to do. Nev would do it immediately if he asked but, he probably would be better off not mentioning that to the spider Queen, it would likely come back shredded somehow. Steven shook his head. He had to focus.
If he could give Silvia attribute points to give her abilities, that would definitely be worth it. Although attributes were scarce, and each point he gave her would just make him be that much weaker¡ He now seen why Silvia didn¡¯t mention it to him. But he just couldn¡¯t help but wonder what sort of abilities she could get. If she could get an ability for one point, then it would be worth it. He would just have to ask Silvia about this when she returned from whatever she was doing. As of now, all he could do was wait for this damned curse to go away; he still had over thirty hours.
¡°I never expected this.¡± Eve said.
¡°Expected what?¡± Steven asked.
¡°To be stuck in a dungeon with my clan and you. I should feel sad that most of my clan was scattered, captured, or killed, but I¡¯m just glad that as many of us escaped as we did. I know others of my clan escaped into the swamp. We all knew that the elves and humans would come eventually. Goskia surely wasn''t the only one to have a plan in place.¡°
Steven went to speak, but the elf spoke first. ¡°You lived your whole life in fear that the humans and elves would be coming for you? That¡¯s so sad I was always told that the half Naga were evil and would eat anyone that entered their village or swamp.¡±
¡°That is far from the truth. We would never eat someone that came into our village.¡± Eve said.
Steven didn¡¯t mention that was a huge concern of his when he first entered their village. He could definitely see how most would think that.
¡°I guess you''re right. Now that I¡¯ve met you, you don¡¯t seem like the type of person who would eat humans and elves. I mean you¡¯re in love with a human after all.¡±
Eve¡¯s face blushed, and she scooted away from Steven a bit. ¡°Wh-what are you talking about? I¡¯m not in love with anyone.¡±
¡°It¡¯s obvious¡¡± Fidah said.
Steven wanted to say it wasn¡¯t him but who she thought he was, but he just ignored the two, took another hit, then handed it to Fidah.
Chapter 45: A Wisps Trade
that were left of their clan when the honored Wisp flew into their tent.
¡°Okay, so I¡¯m going to need your shards.¡± The Wisp said.
¡°What do you mean you need our shards?¡± Elder Vasuki asked.
¡°Exactly as I said. I need your shards for Steven. The next floor is going to be challenging, so he needs all the help he can get.¡±
¡°I gave Miss Evesakia a shard to help her on her way.¡± Goskia said. ¡°We can not give our remaining shards away. It is all the wealth our clan has left. What will we do when we get out of this dungeon with nothing to our clan? We will still need a place to live.¡±
¡°Hmmm, I see your point. Although without Steven, you would just all parish. Hmmm,¡± the Wisp floated there as her light flickered, ¡°what if I could offer you something in exchange for the shards?¡±
¡°And what would you be offering us?¡± Goskia asked.
¡°That depends on how many shards you have.¡± The Wisp said.
¡°We have three remaining.¡° Elder Vasuki said.
¡°Although our finest warrior has already been promised one of those,¡± Goskia said, ¡°To be more accurate, we only have two.¡±
¡°I see. How about a well-defended home with powerful allies to back you?¡± The Wisp said.
Steven was bored, he felt helpless with his mana so low. He couldn¡¯t do anything. He had to be protected at all times. At least that¡¯s what Nev told him, which was why she was so adamant about enthralling the humans again. Steven knew there were a couple drones on stand by watching him. He had gotten used to something always watching him. Not that he enjoyed it, he looked forward to finally getting some privacy when he was out of this dungeon. He had looked over his stat page and realized he still had a single attribute point from his last level. Placing it in health or mana would be ideal, as both would help keep him alive, but now that he knew Silvia could gain abilities, he wanted to see about giving it to her. Steven looked at the curse timer for what seemed like the thousandth time.
Mana clog-
Effect- lose the ability to recover mana.
Time remaining- 23 hours, 18 mins and 52 seconds.
Steven sighed. He couldn¡¯t smoke anything as he had to put the amulet back on.
Eve was still working on her potion to affect the undead. She said she was close now to perfecting it after Goskia helped her. Fidah was off practicing with her bow that Silvia got her. As for the wisp, he hadn¡¯t seen her since she had that idea of hers and flew off. Steven could practice with a sword or something but he really didn¡¯t want to, he liked the spear, and that¡¯s what he wanted to use. But that sometimes randomly drained mana so he couldn¡¯t touch the thing less he drain the little mana he had.
It wasn¡¯t much longer when Steven seen Silvia flying towards him. If he was honest, he had missed the little ball of light, but he didn¡¯t want her knowing that. Then he saw several half Naga trailing behind her.
Just as Steven expected, Silvia flew right in front of his face, but this time, he just moved completely and let her have that spot. ¡°I have solved our problem and got you two more shards. I could have likely got more, but the other shards were lost with the other half Naga. I suggest once we are out of this dungeon, we go after those shards.¡±
Steven was surprised by the Wisps complete disregard of his clever side step. He had expected Silvia to try and fly towards his face again, but she just acted like everything was normal.
¡°Sure, we can go get them. Was that the price for the shards?¡± Steven asked.
¡°No, shards are just good to have! Tell me you¡¯re not wanting to be a Dungeon lord and stay in a dungeon somewhere, are you?¡±
¡°Not a chance! I want to explore cites and go on basic adventures. I¡¯m actually not sure I¡¯ll ever set foot in another dungeon after this!¡±
¡°I thought so. I just needed to make sure.¡±
Steven could now make out the half Naga, he recognized three of the four; they were close enough he was about to wave or should he just stand there till they approached him. He was fixing to ask Silvia, but she spoke in a whisper. ¡°By the way you are giving them this dungeon after you take the domain and the arachnid will be giving them all rights to this dungeon along with safe passage to and from the dungeon and will also be negotiating any trades with the other races so the half Naga can hide and rebuild.¡±
Silvia spoke so quickly Steven had a hard time understanding it all, but from what he could tell, the Spider-kin would be the ones giving up the most. Steven had absolutely no need for this dungeon. He no longer worried about the spider Queen disobeying him, but he still didn¡¯t want to anger her. But before he could voice his concern to the Wisp Goskia spoke up.
¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear about your injury.¡± Goskia said as he looked at Steven¡¯s bandaged arm.
¡°It¡¯s not as bad as I had expected.¡± Elder Vasuki said.
¡°That¡¯s all thanks to Eve. She has really been a lifesaver.¡± Steven said.
¡°Yes, losing her was a tremendous hit to the clan, not to mention the shard she got.¡± A half Naga said that stood next to Sirus said.
¡°That was a gift from Goskia himself and had nothing to do with the clan¡¯s treasury.¡± Elder Vasuki said.
¡°Forgive me, I was not aware of this please¡¡±
¡°Never mind all that,¡± Silvia said, ¡°and just so you know, Elder Vasuki, Steven has been inflicted with a curse. It¡¯s not the wound itself that¡¯s the problem.¡±
¡°A curse? Will it¡¡± Goskia started.
¡°He will be fine with in a day¡¯s time, ¡°Silvia cut in,¡°don¡¯t worry, he will be able to complete the dungeon. Now let¡¯s get to the matter at hand,¡± Silvia turned to Steven, ¡°since you refuse to absorb the shard without having Miss Evesakia absorbing hers, I have brought you two more and Goskia here will complete the ritual. As smart as Miss Evesakia is, I don¡¯t want to spend hours trying to walk her through how to draw the diagrams for the ritual when there is a perfectly capable person right here to do it.¡±
¡°That sounds good to me.¡± Steven said.
¡°And what about the matter we spoke about with your Wisp? Will you uphold your end of the deal?¡±
Steven still had no idea who this Naga was, but that was a good question. He would like to talk it over with Nev as it concerned her more than it did him.
¡°Of course he will. We are soul bound. My word is just as good as his.¡± Silvia said.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
¡°Of course, honored Wisp. Please excuse him. He is new to the council and does not have the experience.¡± Elder Vasuki said.
Steven sighed internally. Well, shit. Looks Like he had already made this deal with or without his own consent.
¡°If you would Goskia.¡± Silvia said.
Goskia stepped forward and pulled out a desk of sorts from a bag at his side. He then pulled out two purple pillows and placed a shard on each one before he backed away.
¡°These,¡± Silvia began, ¡°are what we have to work with. Your Naga servant was telling me she was worried about having permanent wings, so one of these may be better for her.¡±
Steven wished she wouldn¡¯t call Eve a servant. ¡°Yea, if she would rather have another one, I wouldn¡¯t mind having wings.¡± Steven said.
¡°I will go and began the preparations for the ritual. Bring me the shard you chose for her.¡± Goskia said as he walked off.
Steven went to place his hand on the first shard to see what it was when Sirus spoke up. ¡°Thank you for allowing my niece to have a shard.¡±
¡°There is no thanks necessary. I plan to have her get all her shards.¡± Steven noticed how Sirus¡¯s eyes widened for a moment before he smiled and walked toward Goskia.
Steven just stared at the two remaining old Naga, unsure of what to say. He wished he could ask Silvia what he was supposed to do, but he didn¡¯t want to ask out loud. Instead, he just sent both shards to inventory.
Elder Vasuki gasped, ¡°did you absorb them already?¡±
¡°No, I just¡¡±
¡°He is just seeing the effects of them.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Thats posible?¡±
¡°Domain holders are capable of many things.¡± Silvia said.
¡°What are their abilities?¡± The other Naga asked.
¡°Well, I¡¡± No sooner than he spoke, Nev¡¯s head appeared in front of him, causing Steven to stumble back.
¡°Sorry master, I was just practicing my webs in this form, what is going on?¡± Nev asked still hanging upside down from a web attached to the ceiling.
Steven looked at Nev hanging there. His first thought was how ridiculously attractive she was, so much so he wondered if she was getting more attractive somehow.
¡°I have obtained two Shards for Steven.¡± Silvia said with pride.
¡°I am impressed, Wisp. What did you have to give for these shards?¡± Nev asked as she flipped down to her feet.
¡°I¡¯m glad you asked as it concerns you a great deal,¡± Silvia said, light flickering with mischief, ¡°how about we discuss this somewhere we won¡¯t disturb Steven.¡±
Nev glared at the Wisp, then glanced at Steven, who just shrugged his shoulders. ¡°Okay let¡¯s go.¡± Before Nev left, she made it a point to kiss Steven on the cheek, as if to show her loyalty to him. Or at least that¡¯s what Steven assumed she was doing.
Steven turned back to Elder Vasuki and the other old half Naga, completely unsure what to do.
¡°Nev, tell Eve to come here.¡± Steven said before they got out of earshot. They were already heading in that direction and he didn¡¯t want to be stuck with these two old Naga that just stared at him. He wasn¡¯t sure what they even wanted, or if Silvia offered them something and they were waiting to receive it.
Not sure what else to do, he looked over the Shard tab in his inventory.
-Shard of an Icy Trespass
-Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest.
Shards had weird names. Sometimes they had nothing to do with the ability it gave, or at least that was Steven¡¯s experience so far. He assumed Eve would want the forest Shard, which was also the one that spoke to him, but he would let her have it if she wanted. Having wings would be awesome. Although Silvia said he could get something else entirely, but it was likely to get wings of some sort.
Steven closed out the page, to find both Naga just staring at him.
¡°So, how are things?¡± Steven said a bit sheepishly. He knew they couldn¡¯t see his stat or inventory pages, so to them he was just staring off into space.
¡°Our village was destroyed by humans and Elves, then we were forced to flee in this dungeon. However we have only had a few losses since entering this dungeon. Captain Sirus says that is thanks to you.¡± Elder Vasuki said.
¡°Uh.¡± Steven had no idea what to say to that. Was your welcome appropriate?
¡°Elder Vasuki, it is an honor to see you again.¡± Eve said as she walked up next to Steven.
Steven couldn¡¯t be happier by her timing.
¡°It is nice to see you are doing well. How are you liking life outside the clan?¡± Elder Vasuki asked.
¡°It¡¯s too soon for me to know, although I have fewer duties now and can focus on my craft more,¡± Eve then turned to Steven, ¡°The spider Queen told me you wanted to see me.¡±
¡°Yes I did,¡± Steven said with a smile, ¡°so we now have three shards.¡± Steven said as he placed them on the pillows, although he had to place two on the same pillow, which made Elder Vasuki take a step back in shock. Steven quickly placed the one Eve had him hold on to back in his inventory. He wasn¡¯t sure why the Elder backed up. Maybe it was taboo to have shards so close together. Pushing those thoughts aside, he continued. ¡°I¡¯m letting you choose which one you would like to absorb. This one here is the Shard of an Icy Trespass and this one is the Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest.¡±
¡°You¡¯re truly going to let me choose!¡±
¡°Well yes, of course.¡± Steven said.
Eve took no time in deciding at all and immediately chose the Shard of an Icy Trespass. As she did, her eyes lit up with pure excitement.
Steven was taken aback by this but was pleasantly surprised as he had his eye on the forest shard. He wasn¡¯t sure why, but it was really calling to him.
¡°I am glad this matter is settled then,¡± Elder Vasuki said. ¡°Miss Evesakia, please allow me to escort you to the ritual. Goskia is most likely finishing up the final touches.¡±
Eve turned to Steven as if to ask if it was okay. Steven simply nodded and handed her the Shard. He was a bit irritated that Silvia didn¡¯t mention that¡¯s what the Elders were waiting for, but he should know by now the Wisp had her quirks.
Steven turned to head back towards his bed. He really didn¡¯t have anything else better to do than take a nap. But first, he turned to face one of the drones. ¡°Watch over Eve, her life is extremely important to me, so keep her safe by any means necessary.¡±
Feeling much better now, Steven made his way back to his bed. As soon as he made it, he crawled in, ready for a nap. Mana curses were no joke it felt like he had the flu or something. ¡°Mana flu.¡± Steven slightly chuckled to himself.
No sooner than he falling asleep, he felt someone get on the bed. He assumed it was Nev wanting to complain about the deal Silvia made, so he kept his eyes closed and just ignored them while he tried to let sleep take him. A few moments later, he felt something warm and wet grab him. Steven immediately tried to jump and roll away, falling onto the floor wrapped in covers. After a quick tussle with the covers, he got onto his feet, breathing hard, while looking at a wide eyed Elf.
¡°I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to startle you.¡± Fidah said.
¡°Oh, it¡¯s you,¡± Steven said, ¡°and you''re completely naked, and wet for some reason?¡±
¡°Ive been training, trying to become stronger. I was sweaty, so I took my clothes off so I wouldn¡¯t get the bed dirty.¡± Fidah said.
¡°Okay, next time wipe the sweat off before you crawl into the bed, also you¡¯re now on bed cleaning duty, you can wash the covers once a day.¡± Steven didn¡¯t take his eyes off her while he spoke.
¡°Yes, of course, Mr. Odling,¡± Fidah said as she whiped her sweat off with a shirt, ¡°do you want me to clean the bed now?¡±
¡°No, that¡¯s fine.¡± Steven said, eyes wide and staring at the naked elf. He had definitely changed since coming here, before he would have looked away, but now he was just staring at her and didn¡¯t want to look away. Steven shook his head and took a deep breath, then got back in the bed.
Fidah just stood outside the bed for a long moment.
¡°What are you doing?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Trying to dry off before I get in the bed.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine don¡¯t worry about it. You can clean the bed later.¡±
No sooner than Steven finished speaking she jumped in the bed with him.
¡°I have such a weird life.¡± Steven mumbled.
¡°Huh?¡± Fidah asked as she cuddled up next to him.
¡°Nothing.¡±
Fidah made no moves towards him, and Steven wouldn¡¯t dare make any moves towards her. He didn¡¯t like the idea of someone trying to be with him because they thought they had to. He eventually fell asleep, though it was much more difficult to fall asleep next to a beautiful woman than he would have thought.
Steven wasn¡¯t sure how long he slept before a bright flashing light woke him.
Opening his eyes, he saw Silvia pulsating her light right into his face. ¡°Did you have fun with the Elf?¡± Silvia asked with a smug expression.
¡°We didn¡¯t do anything.¡±
¡°I know little about human males, but I think that means there is something wrong with you. She is a perfectly attractive elf.¡±
¡°There is absolutely nothing wrong with me. And yes, she is, but she is also basically my servant now.¡± Steven said looking around, ¡°where is Fidah any way?¡±
¡°Nev seen she was sleeping with you and made her stop cuddling you and get out of the bed. Then she found out Fidah was naked. And put the elf through some intense questioning before making her go train to get stronger. I highly doubt she will ever crawl in the bed with you again while naked.¡±
¡°Yeah, that sounds like Nev. How is Eve doing? Did she absorb the shard?¡±
¡°Yep, she is doing great. She is currently practicing her new ability.¡±
¡°What is her ability?¡±
¡°It¡¯s best that you see for yourself.¡±
Steven got up from the bed, then checked his curse.
Mana clog-
Effect- lose the ability to recover mana.
Time remaining- 13 hours, 56 mins and 19 seconds.
¡°Oh, come on! Why didn¡¯t you let me sleep longer? This curse nonsense is annoying and painful.¡±
¡°Eve left you a tonic to drink. Also, I was going to inform you that the arachnid has agreed to the deal I made with the half Naga.¡±
¡°Oh! that¡¯s great. I figured there would be a lot more resistance than that!¡± Steven said.
¡°Oh, there was!¡±
¡°Are you going to elaborate?¡±
¡°You will find out what the spider Queen wants from you soon enough.¡±
¡°I really don¡¯t like the sound of that.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine, don¡¯t worry. Anyway I woke you up because your spider and her little minions have cleared out the hidden chamber and have found two chests for you to loot.¡±
Steven¡¯s face immediately turned to one of excitement. ¡°Finally, some good news!¡±
Chapter 46: Stone Chest
It wasn¡¯t long before Silvia had led Steven to the hidden entrance. It was similar to the ones before, an illusion wall in the side of the dungeon. As Steven stepped toward the illusion Silvia began to fly off.
¡°Hey, where you going?¡± Steen asked.
¡°To check on the Elf she was my recruit after all. I don¡¯t want the damn spider to work her to death.¡±
¡°Yeah, don¡¯t let her work too hard. It would be nice to have a talented archer at my back, but not at the cost of her own wellbeing.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make sure she is doing well. I plan on you two having some little half elves for me to train up.¡± Silvia said as she flew away.
¡°Wait! What?¡± Steven watched the wisp fly off.
He needed to talk to that wisp. She couldn¡¯t just go off and make plans without his knowledge! Shaking his head and taking a deep breath, he walked over and poked his head into the illusion. This hidden room looked different from the rest. It was a long hallway that looked to turn to the left at the end. Steven stepped in. He assumed it should be safe if Nev had sent after him.
The hallway was dark, so much so that Steven had to look up at the timer to make sure his dark vision was still active. Once he realized it was just really dark, for some reason. He slowly started making his way down the hallway. Everything seemed to be in shadow, though he could still see. As he walked, he was staring at the end of the hallway where light was peeking in, when he heard something click. Steven immediately began backing up to the entrance. No sooner than took his first step backwards huge spike shot from the wall barely missing him. There had to be a dozen spikes shooting all at the same time. After the third volley of spikes, they stopped. Steven didn¡¯t move as he looked around. He quickly realized he had stepped on an obvious pressure plate. He then noticed there were no spikes stuck in the wall. It took him a moment to realize the small openings in the walls of the dungeon. The spikes shot from the right side and into the holes on the left side. He just so happened to step backwards and get in between the openings. He had less than thirty mana. And really needed to be careful. It was only dumb luck he didn¡¯t get hit. Looking behind to see if there were any traps, he slowly began making his way back to the entrance. It took him longer than it should have to reach the entrance. But he didn''t want to take the chance of triggering a pressure plate. Steven was going to give Silvia a piece of his mind when he got out of here. Placing his hand on the illusionary wall, he found it was solid, followed by a prompt.
Previous floors are locked until the domain conflict has been resolved. Please move forwards to the next floor.
Steven¡¯s first thought was of his bed. He really liked that over sized soft thing! He did his best to not scream in frustration. Standing there blankly staring at the exit, he wanted to curse the little wisp but knew that would get him nowhere. If it wasn¡¯t for this dammed curse, he wouldn¡¯t be so worried about going through these traps. He could just turn into his spider form and tank all the damage, or just crawl across the ceiling. Steven had his summoning ring, although he wasn¡¯t sure if it took mana to activate. He had never paid much attention, as a few mana didn¡¯t matter, and his mana recovery would handle it. From what he had figured, he gained about one mana every three seconds. It wasn¡¯t a lot, but it would slowly add up. While Steven was trying to figure out the best way to get through the hallway without taking any damage, he heard a voice and he glanced up.
¡°Master Odling. It is good you have made it. The Queen is waiting for you.¡±
Steven sighed in relief. ¡°Oh, am I glad to see you.¡± Steven had no idea who it was, but it was one of Nev¡¯s enthralled soldiers. ¡°Could you go get¡¡±
Steven stopped mid sentence as he watched a spike shoot completely through the soldier and into the wall on the other side. This happened three times. He couldn¡¯t help but think how much force the spikes must have to not get knocked off course even as it went through a human body.
Luckily, Steven was at the entrance, and there were no spikes near him. Apparently If someone triggered the trap, then the entire hallway would shoot darts. The soldier had fallen to the ground lifeless, or at least he assumed he was dead. How had they even made it through here? He didn¡¯t understand how the enthralled were so dumb, drones were much more intelligent. Steven¡¯s mind went to the drones that kept jumping into the pit and he thought better of it.
¡°Now to get to the other side.¡± The pressure plates were hard to see. He couldn¡¯t understand why this hallway was dimmer than the rest of the dungeon, even with his dark vision potion. ¡°Someone just died. I should be more upset than this.¡± Steven tried to search his feeling but he just couldn¡¯t bring him to care much. Was he becoming selfish? All he could think was this was a soldier that was trying to kill the Half Naga. Steven didn¡¯t get time to think about this any longer as another figure came into view.
¡°Master Odling, it is good you have made it. The Queen is waiting for you.¡±
If Steven was remembering correctly, that was exactly what the other soldier said.
¡°Go tell the Queen to come here!¡± Steven would not ask this time but give a direct order, which seemed to work.
¡°Yes, Master Odling at once.¡± The soldier said as he took off.
Steven didn¡¯t have to wait long before he seen Nev appear. It was easy to tell it was her even at this distance. The skin tight white webbing she was using as a dress was hard to mistake.
¡°Master what..?¡± Nev paused as she looked down the hallway. ¡°One moment.¡± She then began shooting webs from her hands, reminding Steven of spider man while covering each hole the spikes could shoot from. She then shot webbing to trigger each trap and hold down the pressure plates. Once she was done, she walked towards him. The other soldiers began dragging the fallen soldier away.
¡°I¡¯m sorry Master, I didn¡¯t realize the trap had reset itself. I¡¯m actually unsure where my webbing went.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not your fault. I¡¯m just glad you''re here. I¡¯m completely useless without my mana.¡±
¡°Yes, and far too easy to be killed. Why didn¡¯t you just go back and wait till the curse ran its course?¡±
¡°Well, about that.¡±
After Steven explained he couldn¡¯t go back out of this room, Nev tried and failed, saying she received the same message. She told him they had no problems leaving before. She had sent after him after all. Steven assumed it had something to do with him passing through the barrier.
Nev stayed on the side of the spikes, just in case any of them triggered. Once they made it to the other side, Steven¡¯s eyes widened as he saw how large this hidden path was.
¡°Are those actual trees, and a stream¡it¡¯s like a tiny forest in here.¡±
¡°Yes, Master, I too found this room surprising. The wisp mentioned that this room is the same as the hidden path on the ninth floor. Also, I have not found the entrance to the next floor yet.¡±
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
¡°That¡¯s odd it''s normally obvious. We will have to ask Silvia about it. But I¡¯m not going through it till this curse wears off, anyway. Are there any more traps, like the ones at the entrance?¡±
¡°Not that I have seen. There were a few stone golems, but nothing we couldn¡¯t handle, and only a single mimic. It was a difficult fight while staying in this form. But I managed, with the help of the human drones.¡±
¡°Human drones, is that what you¡¯re calling them?¡±
¡°Is that okay? I can change the name if it bothers you.¡±
¡°No, that¡¯s a perfectly fine name. How many are left alive?¡±
¡°With the loss of the last one, that makes thirteen.¡±
¡°That¡¯s an unlucky number.¡± Steven mumbled.
Nev¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize. I¡¯ll quickly dispose of one immediately.¡±
¡°No, no, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯m sure another one will die soon, anyway.¡±
¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re not upset that the humans are dying. Now Master, follow me. We need to find a place to set up the bed so we can wait out your curse.¡±
¡°About the bed,¡± Steven started but Nev cut him off.
¡°So I hear you were staring at the elf while she was unclothed,¡± Nev said with narrowed eyes. ¡°Did you like what you saw?¡±
¡°Ah, well I...¡±
Nev smiled at him menacingly for a few moments before she spoke. ¡°Relax, I can hear your heart racing. I have eyes I can tell she is attractive, as is your little half Naga. Though other than the elf¡¯s looks, she is basically useless, and I still think it was a mistake to make her a vassal. With that being said, I understand she is your servant, just as I am. Although I will never see her as my equal. And I will always be your first,¡± Nev sighed, ¡°now where would you like to set up the bed? We shall be cuddling just as you and that elf did.¡±
Steven could tell there were no and ifs or buts to be had here. Not that he had a problem cuddling Nev, he was just worried he might give in to her seducing him and then he would get eaten, though he supposed he could just command her to not seduce him or better yet not eat him afterwards.
¡°Uh, the bed is on the eighth floor. I wasn¡¯t planning on getting stuck in here.¡±
Nev¡¯s face turned to fury for a moment before she turned and took a long deep breath, then called all the human drones over.
¡°Okay, listen up, you lot. I need you to go make me a bed. I want it comfortable enough to sleep on. Now get to it!¡±
The former soldiers scattered, and several started hacking at one of the trees with their weapons. Steven decided to not mention that his curse would be long done before they could finish a bed. He was also not looking forward to laying on a wooden bed.
¡°What shards did you end up getting?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Shard of an Icy Trespass, and Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest, although Eve chose the ice shard, so I am left with the forest and wing Shard. The forest shard seems interesting. I think I¡¯ll use it next, but I still have several levels to go.¡±
¡°You do need to gain more levels. The wisp mentioned you need to kill of all the undead in your inventory, although they came in quite useful against the soldiers. I could see them being useful when we are out of this dungeon as well.¡± As she spoke, the human drones finished cutting a tree down and Nev turned to glare at them. ¡°Let¡¯s walk together. There is a treasure chest I¡¯ve left for you. I have not opened it.¡±
¡°Oh, I do enjoy me some loot!¡±
Nev locked arms with him, and she began leading him toward the chest.
¡°Tell me, young Master, what are our plans once we get out of this dungeon and take Sorin¡¯s domain?¡±
¡°I want to explore this world. I¡¯ve gotten to see nothing but the swampland and a Half Naga village. Well, other than Blank¡¯s domain, I did really like the tree house and the floating rags.¡±
Nev gave him a funny look. ¡°Blanks domain? And rags, I¡¯m unsure what your are talking about.¡±
¡°Have I ever told you how I obtained this domain?¡±
¡°No, but I would love to hear about it!¡±
¡°Well, it''s not that exciting, but I''ll tell you, we have nothing else better to do.¡±
Steven began telling the spider Queen how he had arrived in this world and about the old wizard and the flying cat. At some point they made it to where the chest was, but they just sat on a fallen log nearby while Steven finished his story.
Once he was done, Nev laughed. ¡°So you accidentally gained full control over the domain. I bet the old wizard you spoke of is quite pissed,¡± Nev¡¯s face then turned serious, ¡°I do wonder what a planes walker was doing on this planet.¡±
¡°Planes walker? What¡¯s that?¡±
¡°Exactly what it sounds like, a being that can walk between planes. Few can traverse between worlds so freely, worlds with life on them are spaced far apart, or at least that¡¯s what my ancestral memories are telling me. What ever the case, I imagine this Blank will come back to claim his domain. And now that you have vassals pulling mana from your domain, you will quickly die without it.¡±
¡°Well, I¡¯ll just give him his domain back and keep Sorin¡¯s.¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure if that will work. We best ask the wisp about it. I would just plan on fighting this planes walker when he returns. Don¡¯t worry, you aren¡¯t alone and I doubt he will expect you to have gained so much power in such a short time.¡±
The pair spoke a bit longer till their conversation turned to nonsense and eventually they made their way to the chest. Steven placed it in his inventory just to make sure it wasn¡¯t a mimic before pulling it back out and opening it. Inside the chest were several items, along with a few gold pieces and silver.
The first item that caught Steven¡¯s attention was a scythe, once he pulled it out it was huge. He didn''t understand how it even fit. The scythe was a pitch black color, though the black somehow glowed, or maybe it was the absence of light, it was a bit confusing to look at, Nev seemed to really take a liking to it. He sent it to his inventory and would look over its stats once he had got all the items from the chest. Next was a bow. It too, was black and had a similar look to it. The last item was a ring with a red jewel on it.
¡°Three magical items. This was quite the find.¡± Nev said.
Steven was just fixing to open his inventory page and look over his new items when something caught his eye.
¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I¡¯m not sure what you¡¯re referring to.¡±
¡°It looks like an old vine covered chest.¡±
Steven walked towards the vine covered wall, Nev right next to him. ¡°Do you see that?¡±
¡°I do. It looks to be an old stone chest of sorts.¡±
Steven pulled a few vines away to reveal an old stone treasure chest, or at least that¡¯s what he thought it was. It had a keyhole and everything.
¡°Let me make sure it¡¯s not some sort of mimic,¡± Steven said as he tried to send it to his inventory. Though it didn¡¯t work. At first, he thought it was a mimic, so he stepped back and Nev punched it. A few stone chips flew away from it, but it didn¡¯t change into a mimic.
¡°I don¡¯t have a lot of experience with mimics and have never seen a stone mimic. But mimics always change when they take any sort of damage.¡± Nev said.
¡°Should we open it?¡± Steven asked
¡°I¡¯ll open it and you stand behind me just in case it is trapped somehow.¡± Nev said.
Steven did as Nev asked and stood behind her.
¡°Okay, here goes.¡± Nev said as she opened the chest.
The next moment there was a loud popping sound and a black light shown from the stone chest followed by an odd shift in gravity, it was as if everything was trying to be sucked into the chest, Nev turned to get away but tentacles made of shadow reached out from the chest and began wrapping around her and Steven. She then changed into her spider form, grabbing Steven. Despite being much larger than the chest, the spider Queen along with Steven, were both sucked inside.
¡°You need an enchanted bow,¡± Silvia said.
¡°That would be useful, but where would I get something like that?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°We are going to the dwarves once we complete this dungeon to get Steven¡¯s equipment upgraded. We will get you a bow made then.¡±
¡°But the Elves and Dwarves don¡¯t get along. They would never agree to make something for me.¡±
¡°They will make it for Steven, not you, as you are his now, and they will do as he asks. He has an honored Wisp as his familiar after all. It won¡¯t¡¡± Silvia stopped and turned as her light flashed rapidly a few times.
¡°What is it?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°I¡¯m not sure, but it¡¯s fine. Steven and that arachnid both vanished from my senses for a moment, but they are back now.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°I¡¯m. Unsure¡ Never mind that now you need to get back to training. You must become strong and fit. You are my favorite of Steven¡¯s servants, after all, and you two will make me strong little half elf children!¡±
¡°Yes honored Wisp as you command,¡± Fidah said.
¡°Now, back to it. You are decent with a bow, but I need you to be extraordinary. Once we get out of this dungeon, I will find the best archer around to train you. After bringing the cure to your people first, of course.¡±
¡°Thank you, I will not let you down!¡±
Silvia whirled around light flaring. ¡°Get Evesakia and the Half Naga tell them we have some uninvited guests that just arrived on this floor. I will go and speak with them. I believe I know what it is they are after.¡±
Fidah immediately took off.
¡°Oh Sorin, I know this is your doing, and I will do everything in my power to turn this against you.¡±
Silvia then began to causally fly towards the new guest. She would need to go inform Steven of this after she spoke with them. It would be nice if she could unlock a long range communication ability, but she didn¡¯t want to take Steven¡¯s attribute points, that human was far to weak.
Chapter 47 An Undead General and a random Sphinx
¡°Why hello there Mr. Undead General.¡± Silvia said.
The large undead snarled, ¡°I have been warned of you. You¡¯re the treacherous Wisp.¡±
¡°Oh, I¡¯m sure my former blood-sucking employer has told you all about me.¡± Silvia¡¯s light fluttered mischievously. ¡°Have you spoken to the assassin¡¯s guild?¡±
¡°It seems you know why we are here. How about you give over my nephew¡¯s body and we will be on our way.¡±
¡°Has it not occurred to you that you are punching above your weight? Have you noticed how barren the dungeon has been?¡± Silvia noticed a few of the undead soldier shuffle uneasy.
¡°I admit it is not what we expected of an undead dungeon, but I believe I am more than enough to handle the one who killed my nephew. If not, there will be another sent in my place and another in their place if they should fail. It will be never ending and this Steven you have thrown your lot in will never have a moment¡¯s rest.¡±
¡°Oh my, so you''re saying the undead will continuously send fodder to the chosen of Chaos to grow stronger.¡±
The Undead General¡¯s eyes narrowed, ¡°the chosen of Chaos! What do you mean?¡±
¡°Do you think I would become a bonded familiar to just anyone? You know of the knowledge of Wisps, we don¡¯t become another¡¯s familiar easily. I can assure you that. You will fail if you pursue Steven.¡±
¡°If you are correct and this Steven is the chosen of Chaos, then it changes nothing. I am here to collect my nephew¡¯s body or parish trying.¡±
Silvia sighed, ¡°Undead, always so hard-headed, hmmm. I tell you what, if you kill the Elder demon, I will return your nephew to you.¡±
¡°Elder demon? What Elder demon.¡± The undead general looked around.
¡°The Elder demon Sorin had hired as the dungeon boss.¡±
¡°As much as I would enjoy destroying any of those disgusting demons, I do not have the authority to do so. The king would not like me to cause problems with a Dungeon Lord if it could be helped, especially one of an undead dungeon.¡±
¡°Steven will soon be the lord or this dungeon.¡±
The general¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°He is a domain holder?¡¯
¡°He is. Go on, try to leave this dungeon.¡± Silvia said.
The general tuned and nodded to one of the undead soldiers. Once he failed to return to the previous floor, Silvia spoke up.
¡°See, Sorin has tricked you into fighting his fight.¡±
¡°I admit he did not tell us of this, but it does not change my mission. We have exchanged enough words wisp, take us to this Steven or we will go find him ourselves.¡±
¡°What if I told you Necros was unharmed and well?¡±
The General¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°You know his name! Even so, I have a hard time believing that he would allow himself to be captured, especially unharmed.¡±
¡°Ahh, but he is. Which means you have no cause for being here.¡±
¡°But I do. I have been ordered to return his body, regardless of his situation. I will be going now, enough with these idol words and take me to him.¡±
¡°What do we receive in return?¡±
The General¡¯s black eyes turned hard, ¡°you mean to hold him for ransom.¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure. I will have to consult with Steven on the matter, but I believe he would appreciate compensation for his safe return. Do you have any shards?¡±
¡°SHARDS! Do you think I just carry such relics around?¡±
¡°Oh, do calm down!¡± Silvia said.
¡°My patience is running thin with you, Wisp. I may not be able to harm you, but I will take my wrath out on your bonded human, and we both know what will happen to you.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light turned a deep blood red. ¡°I see. So you threaten me? You will make great fodder for Steven¡¯s growth. There will be no body to be reclaimed for you.¡± Silvia then sped away so quickly she knew the undead thought she had vanished.
She was unsure what to do with the Half Naga Steven would probably want them alive. So she needed to send them all to the hidden path. But the priority was to find Steven. If he came back out of the hidden path and the curse hadn¡¯t lifted still yet, he would surely die in a fight. From what she could tell, the General and the arachnid possessed similar strength. Maybe she should have just given them the damn assassin and have them leave. But she couldn¡¯t be sure that they weren¡¯t working for Sorin and would just kill Steven. Not to mention if Steven pulled out that assassin, it was likely he would just try to finish the job.
Silvia found the Half Naga camp in chaos. She flew around till she saw Sirus, who was talking with Evesakia. Silvia then darted towards them.
¡°We need to go now!¡± Silvia¡¯s light flared as she reached them.
¡°What is going on? Is it more soldiers?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Worse, it¡¯s an Undead General.¡±
Sirus took a step back, eyes wide. ¡°Should we flee to the ninth floor? No¡ that would end poorly.¡±
¡°Hey,¡± Silvia said, flaring her light in front of Sirus, ¡°snap out of it and let¡¯s go. I know a place they won¡¯t find us, but we need to hurry. We don¡¯t have a lot of time.¡±
¡°Right!¡± Sirus said as he turned and began yelling orders.
¡°Come servant, we must go,¡± Silvia said as she began flying off.
Eve looked as she wanted to protest but followed Silvia without a word. It wasn¡¯t long that Silvia found Fidah, and she too was ordered to following.
¡°Okay, this here is the hidden path,¡± Silvia said as she flew around a section of the dungeon wall, ¡°we need to get all the Half Naga in here. It¡¯s where Steven is. It should be safe.¡± Silvia didn¡¯t mention that if Sorin gave the undead a map, then they would easily find them.
¡°Shall I start leading my clan here?¡± Eve asked.
¡°Former clan,¡± Silvia said, ¡°You belong to Steven now, even though he doesn¡¯t see it that way. You are now his.¡±
Eve bowed her head, ¡°Yes, of course I am sorry. Should I lead the Half Naga here?¡±
¡°Yes, now make haste, and be warned. There are some traps once you enter the hidden path, although the spider Queen should have taken care of them. I will go warn Steven. Fidah, you will help Evesakia.¡± Silvia then made to fly into the illusionary wall, but stopped. ¡°One more thing, and this is extremely important. Your lives are much more important than the entirety of that clan. If it comes to your life or theirs, you are to choose your life without hesitation! If they do not hurry, then you two are to go through the hidden path. Understood?¡±
¡°Yes.¡± Eve and Fidah said nearly at the same. Eve then turned and hurried off.
¡°Fidah, if Eve forgets her place, use whatever force necessary to get her to comply.¡± Silvia then darted into the illusionary wall.
She hoped nothing would happen to Eve. She didn¡¯t want to have to deal with a depressed Steven. Actually, now that she thought about it, she should have ordered Eve to come in here and let Fidah led the Half Naga. She turned to fly back through the illusion wall, but found she could not. ¡°Oh, well, great!¡±
At least she knew Steven was still in here. Darting into the dimly lit hallway, she paused for a moment to take in the room. It was huge. Her attention quickly turned to several humans, most of whom looked pale and were vomiting.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Silvia flew over to one of the humans that looked to be doing better than the others. She thought she remembered this one as Fidah¡¯s clan¡¯s men. If that was the case, he wouldn¡¯t have been enthralled like the rest of them.
¡°Hey you. What¡¯s going on here?¡±
The elf looked up. ¡°I¡¯m unsure. That terrifying spider human told us to build a bed, and we all began to do so then after a few minutes everyone started puking their guts out.¡±
Silvia Sighed, ¡°which way did they go?¡±
The elf pointed behind them. ¡°Towards the chest we found and where that mimic was.¡±
¡°Okay then, and don¡¯t worry, they will be fine.¡± Silvia said as she flew off.
She quickly came to where the chest was. One chest lay open, all the items gone. But there was no sign of Steven or the Queen. It was also unlikely Steven would leave a chest behind, even if it was empty.
That damned arachnid better not have seduced Steven! She didn¡¯t want the be the grandmother of little Spider princess. She wanted half elves, or even the Half Naga girl could make some good children but she didn''t want monsters. They would make poor masters. After all, she had made a deal with the younger wisps and she planned to uphold that.
Silvia darted around, looking in every direction. She could sense Steven, but didn''t know where he was.
Steven fell and then continued to fall, or at least he thought he was falling. After a few minutes of the sensation of falling into complete darkness, a voice spoke.
¡°Master, are you okay?¡±
It took Steven a moment to realize it was Nev speaking, he couldn¡¯t see anything and even his other senses felt muffled. He then realized she was holding him.
¡°Yes, I am fine. Other than my pride. I¡¯m the man I should be holding you.¡±
¡°I would love nothing more, although I believe it is safer for me to hold you at this time.¡±
¡°I have to agree. Do you have any idea what¡¯s happening? Are we falling or does it just feel like it?¡±
¡°I am sorry, Master. I am unsure I have been shooting webs, but I have not been able to find anything. This darkness is not normal. I can not see a thing.¡±
Before Steven could even open his mouth to speak, the sensation of falling stopped. Suddenly, the world around him came into view, then they fell another few feet. Although Steven barely felt the impact since Nev was holding him and was apparently in spider form.
Nev was so large she barely fit into the room, so she quickly turned into her human form while still cradling Steven in her arms.
¡°Master, are you okay?¡±
¡°I am. Thanks for holding me. Though you can set me down now.¡±
¡°Yes, of course.¡±
Once Steven was on his own two feet, he looked around in confusion. It looked as they were in some sort of cave turned into a house. A long book shelf lined one wall and was filled with books. There was a table with papers scattered all over it and a bed in the corner.
¡°What the hell? Where are we?¡±
¡°I do not know.¡± Nev said, Just as confused.
Steven continued to look for an exit, but there didn¡¯t seem to be one. He looked up where they had fallen from but there was just solid rock .
¡°Why isn¡¯t this place dusty? It looks abandoned.¡±
¡°It could have an enchantment on it.¡± Nev said as she looked around.
The pair then spent a good while trying to figure out how to get out of the strange room. Steven even have Nev turn back into her spider form and hold him up to the ceiling so he could feel around for an illusion. But it was solid. At some point, Steven started looking over the papers on the table, but couldn¡¯t make out what it said. To him, it looked like some ancient text you would find carved in stone. He asked Nev about it, but she said she was not familiar with this language and became quite fascinated with it.
Eventually, they both ended up sitting on the edge of the bed since Nev accidentally broke the chairs when they fell in.
¡°Looks like we found a bed,¡± Nev said seductively.
¡°Really, we are trapped in this weird tiny room and you¡¯re going to try to seduce me?¡±
¡°Yes, and I would very much like to succeed in doing so. You may order me to stop at any time.¡± Nev whispered in his ear.
Steven¡¯s heart raced, and he took a deep breath to calm himself. He would not let this spider eat him.
¡°Your heart is racing. I can tell you want me. Why do you deny yourself?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Why do you want me? You are far more attractive than I am and could surely have any man you wished?¡±
Nev smiled, ¡°I want your seed, you are a Domain holder with the blessing of Chaos. You would give me powerful hatchlings!¡±
¡°Well, thanks for being honest.¡±
¡°Do you not like my answer, Master?¡±
¡°It¡¯s the truth, so I do like your answer. It would just be nice to be desired for other reasons. But that is irrelevant. I won¡¯t do anything with you. I¡¯m not going to get eaten!¡±
¡°Oh, that¡¯s what¡¯s holding you back,¡± Nev smiled as she moved closer to Steven, ¡°I can do nothing to harm you and have to serve you to the best of my ability till you reach level one hundred, at which time I can devour you. If I do anything to harm you before then, I will die.¡±
¡°You know, if you would have left the part out about eating me, I might have just given into you right here and now. How about you promise to not eat me and ill give you all the seed you want?¡±
Nev bit her lower lip. ¡°I wish I could make that oath to you, but I can not. Why worry so much about things that will be decades in the future?¡±
¡°Decades? You think it will take me that long to reach one hundred? I¡¯m already level twenty.¡±
¡°I know it will take you that long, leveling will get harder.¡± Nev said as she pushed him down on the bed and crawled on top of him, ¡°Master, I ask for permission to kiss you.¡± Nev said, her lips inches from his. Steven wondered how she smelled so good, he had never seen her taking a bath. Kissing her should be fine. Right? After a long moment Steven spoke up.
¡°Permission granted.¡± No sooner than he got the words out of his mouth, her lips were on his, she then placed his hands on her waist as her web dress began to dissolve. Steven¡¯s heart was pounding out of his chest.
Suddenly a blinding light flashed as the entire room lite up. ¡°Oh! Come on, can I not leave you alone for ten minutes without that dammed arachnid seducing you?¡±
Nev got up from the bed, furious. ¡°What¡¯s it to you! Why do you care if we mate? Master obviously wants to!¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes were glued to the still naked spider Queen. It had been a long while and he had never been with anyone even remotely attractive as her, and it would be decades before he had to worry about Nev eating him. He might as well enjoy himself.
¡°Are you serious? Do you think I¡¯m just going to let¡¡±
¡°Silvia. My amazingly bright Wisp, could you please give me and Nev like twenty minutes or so?¡±
¡°Are you serious? I told you what would happen if you mate with her.¡± Silvia said, light flaring.
¡°You heard Master, now get!¡± Nev said as she got back in the bed.
¡°We don¡¯t have time for this. The undead are here to collect that assassin¡¯s body.¡±
Nev¡¯s demeanor changed dramatically. ¡°Who did they send?¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure he is an undead general. We need to get the half Naga in the hidden path before they reach them. I have Fidah and Evesakia on it at this very moment.¡±
¡°Now put some clothes back on and let¡¯s get out of this place. As for you Steven, we need to have a long talk after this is over.¡±
Nev walked over to Steven and kissed him on the lips while glaring at the wisp.
¡°You gave her permission to kiss you, I see. Your little Half Naga will be sad. If she lives, that is.¡±
Steven shot out of the bed. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of this place!¡±
¡°Give me a moment. I¡¯m trying to find the path out. I wasn¡¯t even aware this place existed.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Okay, well, I¡¯m going to send all this stuff to inventory then while you figure it out.¡± Steven said while trying not to look at the spider Queen.
He then began sending everything he could to inventory. There was no point in leaving any of this behind. Maybe this stuff would come in handy. It also distracted him from worrying about Eve. The dam spider was just way too attractive. He couldn¡¯t trust himself around her alone. Was she lying? No, she couldn¡¯t. She was under oath, and Silvia assured him she couldn¡¯t break it. He needed to see speak with Silvia about it to see what would happen if they did. No it was best to not give into the spider! Steven¡¯s mind raced as he sent item after item to inventory.
After sending the book shelf to inventory, he yelped and jumped back. Nev immediately turned and took the offensive.
Behind the book shelf stood an odd looking humanoid creature. It had somewhat cat like facial features and wings tucked behind its back. What made it even odder was the spectacles that it wore. Nev was just fixing to attack, but the being spoke first.
¡°What have you done with all my research?¡± The cat like being then fell to his knees. At least Steven assumed he was a male.
Nev stepped forward, but Silvia flew in front of her.
¡°Are you an offspring of a Sphinx?¡± Silvia asked.
Now that she mentioned it, Steven could definitely see the resemblance. Aside from the human body, it looked very similar to a sphinx
¡°My research! It¡¯s my life¡¯s work!¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. Answer our questions and we will bring it back.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I know this is completely unexpected, but shouldn¡¯t we be getting back, Eve and the other Half Naga could be in danger?¡±
¡°You¡¯re still cursed. There is nothing you can do.¡± Silvia said.
¡°My research is fine? Where is it?¡± The being asked, eyeing Nev¡¯s still naked form.
¡°Yes! It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s just in my inventory,¡± Steven said before turning to Silvia. ¡°how do we get out of here?¡±
¡°Hold on, I¡¯m trying to figure out where we are exactly. I can tell we are still in a part of the dungeon. It¡¯s just¡¡±
¡°There is no way out. I¡¯ve been trapped here for years.¡± The Sphinx said.
Steven felt bad for the being but he was also wanting to get to Eve, and the way the sphinx creature was looking at Nev was irritating him, especially since they were just interrupted and Steven hadn''t calmed down yet. Wait was this guy watching them the whole time from behind the bookshelf?
Steven stepped in front of Nev. ¡°Keep your eyes to yourself. She is mine!¡±
Steven didn¡¯t see the wide smile Nev had till he turned around to tell her to cover herself. ¡°Put something on! I don¡¯t care what, just something.¡±
¡°Yes Master, of course.¡± Nev said, still smiling as she pulled out a tattered dress from somewhere.
The sphinx was looking down at the ground now. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ve just been in here for so long and I''ve never¡¡±
¡°I¡¯ve got it!¡± Silvia said. ¡°We are still in the hidden path, we are just in a side pocket of it,¡± Silvia looked at the sphinx, ¡°who ever created this place was powerful.¡±
¡°We can question him later. I¡¯m also curios why he was hiding. Now, how do we get out of this place?¡±
¡°Jabriel should be able to portal us out of here without issue.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Oh! Yeah,¡± Steven said sheepishly he had forgotten all about him.
Steven didn¡¯t have to do anything but think about his new familiar and the bound angel steeped out from a portal.
¡°Mr. Odling, how may I be of service?¡±
Despite the angel saying he couldn''t read his mind, Steven still wondered if he could and just didn''t want to admit it.
The sphinx yelped and stumbled back. ¡°Th-that¡¯s¡¡± The Sphinx started.
¡°I need a portal out of here.¡± No sooner than Steven spoke a portal large enough for him to walk through appeared the portal its self was an oily black. Steven had used the portal for fighting and had stuck his hand in it but had never gone into it completely.
¡°Where does it lead?¡± Steven asked.
¡°To the place you first thought of when the portal appeared, just like it always does.¡± Jabriel said.
Steven nodded, and was fixing to step through when Nev stepped in first. Steven then went in, followed by the wisp.
Chapter 48: Chaotic Scythe of Stolen Dreams
The first thing Steven noticed when stepping through the portal was the humans. Most were pale and sickly looking.
¡°Dammit,¡± Nev said, ¡°I¡¯m going to have to turn them again.¡±
¡°Are they going to be alright?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Unlikely,¡± Silvia said. ¡°It would be kinder to just turn them into drones at this point.¡±
¡°I¡¯m still testing out my new ability.¡± Nev said.
¡°Where is Eve?¡± Steven asked, while looking around.
Just then Steven heard the spike trap trigger, and he began running in that direction. Soon as he got to the entrance of the Hallway of Death, as he thought of it. He saw dozens Half Naga clustered at the entrance to the illusion wall. Several lay dead in the hallway. Before he had time to do anything, more Naga entered through the Illusion wall, forcing more onto the pressure plate. Another three volleys of spikes and several more Naga fell dead.
¡°Damit!¡± Steven said. ¡°Nev, fix this.¡±
¡°At once Master.¡±
Steven then remembered he had access to portals and opened a portal right before the pressure plate. More Naga came in through the illusionary wall, forcing some through the portal and next to Steven. Then they all started piling into the portal to get away from the trapped hallway. People were shouting, crying, some even falling to their hands and knees.
¡°Where is Eve?¡± Steven asked one of the Naga as they came from the portal.
¡°My child! Wh-why were we forced to come in here to die!¡±
Steven grabbed the Naga by the shoulders, ¡°Where is Evesakia!¡±
When the Naga didn¡¯t answer Steven shook the Half Naga. ¡°Hey, snap out of it! There are more lives at stake here!¡±
¡°Steven!¡± Silvia said.
Steven turned to the Wisp. ¡°What?¡±
¡°What are you doing?¡± Silvia asked.
Turning back to Naga he was still holding by the shoulders. He saw the tears and how shaken she was, his eyes widened and he let go and backed up as more trickled through the portal.
Steven turned to Silvia. ¡°Thank you. I¡¯m not sure what came over me. I just¡¡±
¡°It is fine. It is my duty to help guide you.¡±
"Mr. Odling." Jabriel said. ¡°I wanted to inform you that this is drastically using up your daily portal amount.¡±
¡°It can¡¯t be helped. Let me know before the portals run completely out.¡±
Jabriel nodded, then quickly stepped into a portal.
Steven felt bad for being so aggressive towards someone who had just lost their child. But why should he have to lose someone if they could be saved, or was he being selfish¡
¡°This spike trap should have been avoided. When I came through, it was all webbed over. It must have a powerful enchantment on it.¡± Silvia said.
¡°It nearly got me when I entered as well.¡±
Steven watched as Nev finished webbing over the hallway and he removed the portal. He didn¡¯t understand why they were coming in so sporadically he wished he could go help, but there was no way backwards for him in this dungeon..
¡°I need to know if Eve is okay¡± Steven said.
¡°I gave her specific orders to put her life above the others and to enter the illusion wall first if her life was threatened.¡±
¡°Good,¡± Steven said as his eyes kept darting from Naga to Naga looking for her, ¡°what if she is one of the dead ones?¡±
¡°She is not.¡± Silvia said.
¡°How can you be so sure?¡±
¡°You would have been informed by the thing you call the system if she was killed. Same thing for Fidah, although I don¡¯t think you care about her much.¡±
Steven breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°I do care about Fidah, it¡¯s just I have a history with Eve. She is important to me, and someone I can be a friend with, Fidah, is a servant through and through, not really a friend. She just obeys. Maybe that will change in the future.¡±
¡°And you don¡¯t want someone who obeys?¡± Nev asked as she stepped up next to him.
¡°I definitely need those who obey. If not for you, I would have been dead long ago.¡±
¡°Master, am I just a servant as well or am I something more to you?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Really? You have to ask after everything we have been through.¡±
¡°Yes. I need to know.¡±
Steven started to respond, but then he saw Fidah enter through the illusion and he opened a portal and stepped through.
¡°Good, you are safe,¡± Steven said, looking around. ¡°Where is Eve?¡±
Fidah looked as she was about to cry.
¡¯Th-They took her.¡± Fidah said.
¡°WHO! Who took her?¡±
Fidah fell to her knees. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Master Odling! I tried! Please spare my life.¡±
¡°Who took her?¡± Steven asked.
¡°It was the undead.¡± Sirus said as he came through the illusion wall.
Steven turned, ¡°Why? Why her out of everyone else?¡±
¡°He said she smelled the Wisp on her,¡± Fidah said. ¡°He tried to capture me as well, but the drones that were with Evesakia and her ice wall caused a large enough of distraction for me to escape.¡±
¡°And you didn¡¯t think to help Eve!¡±
¡°There was nothing she could have done. That general personally grabbed her.¡± Sirus said. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for Eve¡¯s new shard, we all would have been captured.¡±
¡°And what about you? Why didn¡¯t you do something?¡± Steven asked, turning to Sirus eyes furious.
¡°Do you not think I would have done something if I could have! She is my niece! And where were you?¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes narrowed and was about to say something when Silvia flew over.
¡°Steven was sucked into a side pocket of this room created hundreds of years ago by an Arc mage there is nothing he could had done. There is no point in trying to lay the blame on anyone.¡±
¡°What did he mean by the general smelled you on her?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I had gone to speak with the undead trying to resolve this peacefully.¡±
¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me?¡±
¡°I just did.¡±
Steven took a deep breath. ¡°I meant before.¡±
¡°It wouldn¡¯t have changed things. Between the naked spider and the young Sphinx, I simply haven¡¯t had the time.¡±
¡°Sphinx?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°You know if it¡¯s anyone¡¯s fault, it is Sorin¡¯s. He sent the assassin and the soldiers and now the Undead General after you.¡±
¡°Did you say Sphinx?¡±
¡°The undead General,¡± Silvia said, ¡°is likely wanting to use her to trade for the assassin you have.¡±
¡°Assassin?¡± Sirus asked.
¡°Well, let¡¯s do the trade!¡±
¡°Master, it maybe unwise to release Necros, he is a skilled assassin, I¡¯m not so sure I can take him if he uses his evolved shard on me.¡±
¡°Well, we need to get Eve back.¡±
¡°At the cost of your spider¡¯s life?¡± Silvia asked.
Steven was silent for a moment.
Sirus was looking around cautiously. ¡°Where do you have this assassin?¡±
¡°No, I can¡¯t lose Nev. She is just as important to me,¡± Steven said as he turned to Sirus to address him, but Silvia interrupted.
¡°I dislike how much the arachnid means to you, but I can¡¯t deny that we need her.¡± Silvia said.
¡°What do we do?¡± Steven asked as he placed his hand on the illusionary wall.
¡°We hope they don¡¯t find us in here. You¡¯re still affected by the curse and as powerful as your pet spider is, she can¡¯t take on them all without your help. It¡¯s best we confront them on the ninth floor.¡±
Steven pulled up his curse tab.
4 hours 12 mins and 27 seconds.
¡°Dam I still have over four hours left on the curse.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s move back into the main chamber and have someone watch the hallway. If something happens to you, we are all doomed.¡± Silvia said.
Steven agreed, and they went into the main chamber. Sirus asked about the assassin, Sphinx, and why sentient undead were in the dungeon while they walked. But was quickly called over by Goskia. Most likely to discuss the Naga that were killed and deal with the disarray of his people. Silvia flew over with him.
Steven almost asked Nev what she did with the Naga bodies from the entrance, but decided he didn¡¯t really want to know or deal with that at the moment. He then just stared at the hallway.
Eventually, Fidah asked if she could look over the soldiers. Steven told her he didn¡¯t care and she could be in charge of them less Nev wanted them for something. After a bit, Steven stopped, staring at the hallway. He had hoped Eve would escape somehow.
Nev had been sitting right next to Steven the whole time but just now spoke up.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°Master, we will get her back.¡±
Steven smiled at the spider Queen, ¡°thanks.¡±
There was a long silence. The only thing that could be heard was the chatter of the half Naga and the soldiers, who were in separate groups and eyeing one another.
Sirus and the Elders kept glancing at him. He wondered what Silvia had told them, but he didn¡¯t bother asking about that at the moment.
¡°What if the undead don¡¯t enter the ninth floor?¡± Steven asked.
¡°They will. That Undead General would chase you to the end of the world and back.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Good, I won¡¯t have to chase him then. He will pay for taking Eve, and if he harmed one hair on her head¡¡± Steven sighed, ¡°I need to get stronger.¡±
¡°Yes you do,¡± Silvia said. ¡°I know this is off topic, but have you thought about what to do about that sphinx creature?¡±
¡°Oh yeah, I forgot about him.¡±
After checking his curse, he stood up. ¡°I still have a couple hours before the curse fades. Let¡¯s go have a chat with the sphinx.¡±
Steven was about to go to the cursed treasure chest but Silvia. Told him it would be better to take the portal. Which made him remember Jabriel was around somewhere. It took him a moment, but he saw the bound angel silently standing in the far part of the chamber. Steven would have never spotted him if it wasn¡¯t for the bond he had letting him know where to look. He thought of activating a portal, and it immediately appeared. He still had no idea how it worked, all he had to do was think of two spots and the portal linked those locations, he wasn¡¯t sure what the distance was but that was something he would have to find out later since he couldn¡¯t leave the floor he was on. Steven also didn¡¯t understand how it was so accurate, it was just like any other ability he had. Steven shook his head and stepped into the portal, Nev right behind him.
As soon as Steven stepped out of the portal, the Sphinx stood up from the dungeon floor.
¡°You come and took everything I had, then left. What do you want from me now?¡±
¡°Who, and what are you?¡± Steven asked.
¡°He is a Sphinx that hasn¡¯t evolved yet. That much is obvious,¡± Silvia said. ¡°I¡¯ll ask the questions you are not in the best of moods right now. What is your name?¡±
Steven rolled his eyes. But Silvia did have a point. He took a few calming breaths. Getting upset wouldn¡¯t bring Eve back.
¡°I do not have a name.¡± The Sphinx said looking down.
Steven got the sense the sphinx was sad, and he had only been rude to the sphinx since meeting him, so he spoke up. ¡°Everyone should have a name. What about Leo?¡±
¡°You can¡¯t just...¡±
No sooner than Silvia spoke, there was a bright flash of light and a small flame came into existence right in front of the sphinx. To Steven, it looked to be a letter of some ancient language. Before he was able to get a good look at it, the flame shot into the chest of the young sphinx and his whole body shone with golden light.
Steven just stood there ahh struck at the odd sight.
¡°Never mind,¡± Silvia said. ¡°It seems you can just name him.¡±
Once the golden light faded, Steven received a notification.
Congratulations, you have completed a hidden quest.
-Title achieved.
-Name a Mythical creature.
Title name: Mythical bond.
Steven wanted to open his stat page and see what a title was. He didn¡¯t even know titles were a thing. But the sphinx spoke up.
¡°I appreciate you giving me a name, but can I ask for my books and papers back?¡± The newly named Leo asked.
¡°Yea, sorry, if I would have known you were in here, I wouldn¡¯t have taken your stuff. Do you want to get out of here, or do you want me to put all your stuff back in here?¡±
Nev stepped up to Steven and whispered in his ear, ¡°not the bed. We have unfinished business on it.¡±
Steven ignored her and waited for Leo to answer.
¡°Out? As in out of here?¡±
¡°Yes out of here. How long have you been trapped here?¡±
¡°Ever since I hatched.¡± Leo said.
Steven turned to Silvia in confusion.
¡°Oh, must I explain everything to you?¡± Silvia said.
¡°Yes! Thats your job, it¡¯s what you do. It¡¯s literally why I bonded with you.¡± Steven said.
¡°It was likely someone created this side pocket and left a Sphinx egg here and planned to come back one day and name it to receive the title you just received.¡±
¡°But couldn¡¯t he just name himself, and what did he eat and drink in here?¡± Steven asked, while looking over the small room. ¡°Also, how did you know I received a title?¡±
¡°You received a title?¡± Nev asked.
¡°No, he cannot name himself. And mythical creatures such as Sphinx, Dragons and Griffins, along with a few other creatures, don¡¯t need food or water and can survive off mana. And dungeons are thick with mana. As for how I knew you received a tittle, it¡¯s how I know everything else. I¡¯m your soul bonded familiar.¡±
¡°How do you know so much about me?¡± Leo asked.
¡°I do not know if this is exactly what happened. I am simply making an educated guess.¡±
¡°I have so many questions!¡± Leo said.
¡°So do I, like how can he talk if no one ever taught him?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Mythical creatures are born knowing all languages.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Do you know of others like me?¡± Leo asked
¡°I do Indeed.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Can you tell me about them?¡±
Silvia looked at Steven. After checking his curse timer, he nodded. There wasn¡¯t anything else better to do. Pulling the bed out, he sat on the edge. Nev sitting next to him as Silvia talked with the Sphinx.
Steven pulled up his stat page and found a new tab labeled Titles.
Titles
Mythical bond: + 3 to all stats.
After seeing that, he quickly opened his stat page.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 20
Available Attribute ~1
Essence- 1844
Essence required for next level 4,567
HP ~ 267
Stamina ~ 81
Mana ~ 471
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 16
Endurance ~ 13
Strength ~ 13
Dexterity ~ 20
Resistance ~ 14 +50
Spirit ~ 28
Talent-
Basic Stealth - 15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°Oh! Wow¡¡± Steven closed his menu, wanting to tell Silvia about his stat boost, but she was busy talking, so he turned to Nev.
¡°You won¡¯t believe this!¡± Steven said.
¡°What is it, Master?¡±
¡°I just got a plus three boost to all my stats. Thats like eighteen levels in attribute points!¡±
The spider Queen¡¯s face turned into a smile. ¡°Thats amazing.¡±
He then thought of Eve and his mood fell. Nev noticed this and gave him a quick hug.
¡°Master, don¡¯t you still have the items from the chest to go through? Now would be a good time. Maybe there is something useful for the next floor. And to help deal with the general.¡±
¡°You¡¯re absolutely right.¡± Steven said as he opened his inventory in search of the three items he had gotten, luckily there was a way to change his inventory to the most recent items and he found them quickly.
Bow of the Desolate Spirit
Rarity- Rare
~ Effect]- Conjure Spirit arrow
~Cost]- 30 stamina, 30 Health, 30 Mana.
~Effect 2]- Add Fire, Earth, Wind, or Water damage to arrow.
~Cost 2]- 25 Mana.
~ Requirement]- 5 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 21 Spirit
Ring 1- Fire resistance ring
Rarity- Rare
~Effect]- Large boost to fire damage and heat resistance.
Chaotic Scythe of Stolen Dreams
Rarity- Chaotic
~ Effect]- Conjure a phantom Scythe blade.
~Cost]- 100 health, 100 stamina, 66 Mana.
~Effect 2]- Each successful hit of physical or phantom blade drains opponents Health, Stamina and Mana. Restoring the wielders Health, Stamina and Mana by 25% of the cost.
~ Requirement]- 50 Strength 52 Dexterity 33 Spirit
~Additional Requirements}- Must be Arachnid Royalty. Must be able to consume dreams and or memories of others.
(Note: If dreams are not consumed every 48 hours, the drain effects of this weapon will decrease.)
Steven stared at the items for a long moment. Both the bow and Scythe seemed good, and the ring could be quite useful. But what really caught his attention was the Scythe. He couldn¡¯t begin to wield it, and he didn¡¯t understand what in meant by consuming dreams. It was also the same rarity as his spear. He would have to ask Silvia about it. Glancing at the Wisp, she seemed to be enjoying explaining things to the eager Sphinx.
He then asked Nev what she thought about the scythe. She couldn¡¯t see the description, but liked the looks of the scythe. Steven read the description to her. The Spider Queen¡¯s eyes grew wide, and she asked if she could hold it.
She seemed to take quite the liking to it, and he told her she could use it if she wanted, but the part about the dream stealing would be a problem. But that didn¡¯t seem to deter the Queen in the slightest.
She swung it around a few times and even shot off a few phantom blades, which resembled a half moon shape. The phantom attacks were the same color as the scythe, a blue that was so dark it almost looked black less you looked closely. The scythe really gave Nev a sinister look, which somehow made the spider Queen even more attractive.
Silvia flew over, telling them to stop making so much noise. Nev told her to leave if she didn¡¯t want to deal with the noise as she was practicing with her new weapon. And that getting ready for the future battles was more important than whatever she was doing with the sphinx. Silvia glanced at the weapon but was too engrossed in explaining things to the eager sphinx to give it much attention at the moment.
Silvia and Leo left through a portal. Then it was just Nev and Steven in the empty room. She asked him to send the bed to inventory and remove the portal so she didn¡¯t accidentally mess up the bed or send a phantom blade through the portal. Steven did as she asked and watched the Spider Queen dance around the small room in her tattered dress and Scythe in hand.
Steven was surprised at how talented Nev was with the Scythe. Especially since he said she had never used a weapon before. There was just no need since she could just turn into her spider form and rip apart anyone that threatened her.
But Steven thought this would be a suitable weapon for her if he was going to be just a normal adventure. When he got out of this dungeon, he didn¡¯t want to draw attention to himself. And that¡¯s exactly what a massive spider Queen would do.
She practiced for a good while. Steven didn¡¯t even grow bored watching her. Though that could have been due to how attractive she was and how elegant she danced around with the scythe. After roughly an hour she was finished and looked to be completely drained, though with how she was throwing around those phantom blades, he wondered how she could even stand. He could only imagine how high her attributes were to pay that absurd cost.
¡°Master, if it pleases you, and you allow it, I would like to try to stay in human form and use this weapon.¡±
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s perfectly fine, actually if I¡¯m going to travel around and see this world, ill need you to look human and not draw much attention, so it is best you get used to that weapon now. I can¡¯t have you going around as a giant intimating spider. Though the requirements of dream stealing may be a problem.¡±
Glancing at his curse timer, he saw he only had forty minutes before the curse ran out
After he mentioned this to Nev she stepped closer and told him she knew what they could do while they waited, completely ignoring the part about dream stealing. Which is exactly when Silvia appeared.
¡°Done practicing yet?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Yea, just finished up.¡± Steven said.
¡°Good. I would like to take a look at the Scythe. Would you mind sending it back to your inventory?¡±
Steven did as the wisp asked and then she, too, went into his inventory.
¡°I could have just pulled up the description up for you.¡± Steven said to the empty air. He knew she could still hear him if she wanted.
¡°Master, there is something I should probably tell you. Just please don¡¯t be mad.¡±
The look Nev was giving him made him worry. She was absolutely pulling out all the stops to look as innocent as posible.
¡°Go on.¡± Steven said with narrowed eyes.
¡°Ive been seeing your memories from your life on earth while we sleep,¡± Nev said.
¡°Thats a bit strange, but I¡¯m not mad, although I doubt you will see anything interesting in my old life. It was mostly boring.¡±
¡°Actually Master, I find your memories fascinating! Especially these memories of what I believe are called anime. In fact, I look forward to them.¡±
¡°Wait¡ what? You see my memories of watching Tv!¡±
¡°TV,¡± Nev said as if she was tasting the word.
¡°How long have you been seeing my memories in your dreams, and how do you know it¡¯s my memories exactly?¡±
Nev looked down. ¡°I had those words appear telling me they were your memories. As for how long¡¡± Nev went silent, as if she was trying to remember how long.
Steven went to speak up, but she spoke first.
¡°Roughly a week before I met you.¡± Nev said.
¡°Wait! How is that possible?¡± Steven asked.
Suddenly, there was a bright light and Silvia popped into existence next to them. ¡°Her grandmother was a follower of Chaos.¡±
Steven turned to the Wisp, ¡°You knew!¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flickered, ¡°of course I did. I¡¯m a Wisp.¡±
¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me?¡±
¡°I get bored at night when you sleep, and I can somehow see through the spider¡¯s mind and watch your dreams. There are lots of interesting things in your world, although it seems random as most of what I get to see are these anime shows. You really consumed a lot of them. Why do you think your precious spider acts the way she does? Normal servants don¡¯t act the way she does, especially when the master is at a lower level than the servant.¡±
Steven blinked a few times, as this was a lot to take in.
¡°Okay, no time for all this now, we need to get back out there with the Sphinx before the Naga question him to death. Ive seen all I needed to of the scythe. It obviously came from Chaos specifically for your arachnid.¡±
Steven wanted to ask questions, but Silvia didn¡¯t give him the chance.
¡°Well, come on, we need to go. We have a fair maiden to save!¡± Silvia said.
Being reminded of Eve, Steven opened up a portal. He would have to ask about this whole dreaming of his memories later. Steven really hoped she didn¡¯t see some of his more embarrassing moments.
Steven was the last to enter the portal, and just as Silvia had mentioned, the Half Naga were surrounding Leo, asking him tons of questions. The young Sphinx looked overwhelmed and as soon as they made eye contact, he ran towards him.
¡°This is all a bit much. Do you mind if I go back to my home for now?¡± Leo asked.
Several of the half Naga followed but were rebuffed by Nev.
¡°Yes, of course.¡± Steven reopened a portal and he and Leo walked through. It didn¡¯t take Steven long to replace all the books and papers back, although he wasn¡¯t sure he got everything back in the right place. He even returned the bed. Nev would be upset, and he wished he could keep it. But that was the only luxury this Sphinx had down here.
After saying farewell to Leo, and telling him he would be back after clearing the dungeon, he opened a portal and left.
Steven was greeted by Nev as soon as he was back.
¡°Master, are we keeping the Sphinx, or can I use him to make drones?¡±
¡°No! We are not killing him to make drones.¡± Steven said.
¡°But, Master, they would most likely be powerful drones.¡± Nev said with an innocent look on her face.
¡°No. We are coming back for him after we finish the dungeon.¡±
She looked so innocent and attractive in her human form that Steven often forgot her true form was of a giant spider that was feared all throughout the lands.
She looked at him with puppy eyes as a response, something he was sure she had seen from an anime in his memories.
Steven then received a notification.
Chapter 49: 9th Floor
Mana Clog has ended: Mana will resume recovery at its normal rate.
Steven was excited and ready for the ninth floor right until he realized he still didn¡¯t have any mana, and would have to wait for it to recover. Though that wouldn¡¯t take too long.
While he waited, he glanced over his inventory for an item. Once he found what he was looking for, he pulled up the 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.)
After reading over it, he couldn¡¯t help but shutter at the note it had. This was the only item he had that had any lore. Even the spear he had gotten from a literal god didn¡¯t have lore. Although Steven had his doubts if Chaos was an actual god or if he had been just some guy that had leveled up a lot. Pushing those thoughts aside, he considered if he should try to use the Staff. He now had four hundred and seventy-one mana. Although that would use most of his mana, and without Eve¡¯s mana potions.
¡°Its an interesting weapon indeed, and quite powerful,¡± Silvia said. ¡°although you are too weak to use it, you need more mana. Your entire build is mana intensive. It is a good thing you have an affinity for Spirit.¡±
Just then, Steven remembered what Jabriel had told him. ¡°Hey Silvia, can you use my attribute points?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light fluttered. ¡°Who told you that?¡±
¡°Is that a yes?¡±
¡°I can use your attribute points, yes, but you are insanely too weak to be giving any of them to me, your only level twenty. Honestly, it¡¯s absurd to think you are fixing to take on the ninth floor of a dungeon. Where did you hear about that? Did the Sphinx tell you?¡±
Steven was confused why Silvia would have thought the Sphinx would know that sort of thing, since he had spent his whole life under a hidden path inside an undead dungeon, now that he thought about it, it was odd the Sphinx didn¡¯t act more surprised at seeing people for the first time.
¡°What if he did?¡± Steven said, not wanting to rat out Jabriel. ¡°Anyway, I gained a stat boost of three to all my stats when I received that title. I also have a free point I can give you if you can use it.¡±
¡°That is a nice boost. Titles are scarce. Most of the time it¡¯s stumbled upon just like what happened to you, although some try to cultivate them. I suspect someone was doing that with the Sphinx.¡± Silvia¡¯s light dimmed. ¡°I can use attribute points, although one single point won¡¯t do much. I¡¯m still at the lowest level of Wisp and it will only unlock my first ability.¡±
¡°Do you know what that first ability is?¡±
¡°It allows me to communicate to a single being, instead of others overhearing.¡±
¡°Well, that could be useful.¡± Steven said.
¡°Yes, it could be, but so could another fifteen or twenty mana that you could get from using it on your Spirit attribute.¡±
¡°I think you should give her the attribute point. It would be nice to not hear the Wisp lecturing you.¡± Nev added.
¡°Stay out of this. It doesn¡¯t concern you.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I agree with Nev. It would be convenient for you to communicate things to me without being overheard, such as warning me about danger or something, without also letting everyone know.¡±
¡°You did get the boost from that title, so I suppose one attribute wouldn¡¯t hurt. When your higher level, a single attribute won¡¯t be so important to you and you can give me one hear and there. Although each time I level up my abilities, it cost an extra one to make it to the next level.¡±
¡°Good to know, but we will deal with that when it comes. As of now, how do I send you the attribute that I have?¡±
No sooner that Steven thought this a notification appeared.
Would you like to allocate attribute points to your familiar Yes/No?
Selecting yes, another page appeared in front of him. It had a minus and plus icon and above that was a zero. Thinking of clicking the plus icon, the zero changed to one. He tried to click the plus icon again, but nothing happened. At the bottom it had an icon for decline and one for accept.
Focusing on the accept, the page vanished and a green light shot from his chest into the wisp.
A quick check of his stat sheet showed he had zero available attribute points.
Closing out the page, he was about it to ask Silvia if it worked but before he could she spoke.
¡°Yes, it worked and I have already unlocked my first ability. Also, you don¡¯t have to speak out load now just think your words towards me and I will hear them.¡±
¡°Wait, does that mean you can read my mind now?¡± Steven asked.
Silvia chuckled slightly, ¡°no that¡¯s not how it works. You have to want to send me words, and it only works with words you can¡¯t send me thoughts. Which is a much better form of communication, if you ask me.¡±
¡°Are you two talking?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Yes, isn¡¯t this what you wanted?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Can you open up a group chat with multiple people?¡± Steven asked out loud.
¡°No. I will need two more attributes to unlock that ability.¡±
¡°Okay, well less you need to tell me things in secret. Let¡¯s just talk out loud, so Nev isn¡¯t left out and we don¡¯t have to explain things to her again.¡± Steven said.
To Steven¡¯s surprise Silvia agreed, and then they quickly started making plans for the ninth floor which mostly just consisted of Silvia telling them that Steven should deal with the undead and Nev to deal with the Demons. Steven pulled out the Scythe for Nev and she took it. She apparently wanted to fight in her human form for a bit, saying her human form was less vulnerable to fire. Steven then tried to give her the Fire resistance ring, but Nev told him she couldn''t use it.
Once done talking with Nev and Silvia, his mana was full, and he nearly took off to the ninth floor in search of Eve. However, he had no idea where the entrance was. When he asked Silvia, she told him he needed to speak with Sirus, and reminded him that Fidah was also his servant, so he went to speak with them. First, he stopped to speak with Sirus and let him know he was ready for the ninth floor and he would be getting Eve back. Goskia gave him a few health and mana potions and wished him luck. Steven then went to speak with Fidah while Sirus finished his preparations.
Fidah was speaking with her clan¡¯s man when he arrived. When she saw Steven, she immediately ran over and took a knee. ¡°Master Odling, are we ready to save Eve?¡±
¡°We are, and what about the soldiers?¡±
¡°Uh, well, they refuse to go...¡± Fidah said a bit hesitantly.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
¡°Why should we throw our lives away? Our mission was to capture the Half Naga, not help them.¡± One of the soldiers shouted, as several others agreed.
Steven looked at the dozen remaining soldiers as they shouted their refusal to fight. Once they finished, Steven spoke. ¡°Fidah, take your clan¡¯s man to the Naga. Tell them I want him to be safe.¡± He then turned to leave.
¡°What about the rest of us?¡± A soldier asked.
Steven turned and smiled at the soldiers. ¡°I¡¯ll let my spider decide what she wants to do with you.¡±
He heard several protests and screams of panic, but he didn¡¯t turn around as he headed straight for Nev.
Was he becoming a bad person? No, he was doing what he had to do to save Eve. Those soldiers were coming to kill Eve and her clan after all, so now they can help save her.
¡°Nev, how many drones do we have left?¡±
¡°I sense that I have two left alive in this dungeon, although there is only one with us.¡± As Nev spoke, a drone came down from the ceiling, hanging on a web, reminding Steven of a pale spider man. The drone knelt in front of Steven. ¡°My king, how may I be of service?¡±
¡°I want you to survive this dungeon raid, and I want you to become in charge of the other drones Nev is fixing to make.¡±
A wide grin came over the Spider Queen¡¯s face. ¡°I can make drones out of the Sphinx?¡± Nev asked.
¡°No! I want you to make drones out of the soldiers.¡±
¡°Of course, Master, I can do that, although the process might be a bit much for others to watch.¡±
¡°Ive thought of that you will do it in the Sphinx nest. I will bring Leo back out for a bit.¡±
It wasn¡¯t long before Steven was sitting next to Leo. He let Nev handle the soldiers. Silvia suggested they use the stone chest for the soldier so Steven could save his remaining portal uses. He talked to Leo a bit. But his mind kept wondering back to the soldiers and if he had done the correct thing. So he just sat there while Silvia and Leo spoke. He was unsure what Fidah thought about it.
He didn¡¯t want to think about sending all those soldiers to become spider food or whatever Nev did to them to turn them into drones. He had made a choice. A choice he wasn¡¯t sure about. But it was a choice. They came to kill the Naga, now they could help. One fight had already broken out between the Naga and the soldiers. It was the soldiers that started it. He had tried to do the correct thing by saving some of them. But they had nearly killed two Naga children. To make it even worse Sirus told him, most of the Half Naga that survived would be taken as slaves.
It was really messed up, from what Steven could tell. These half Naga were experiments by the humans and elves centuries ago and some escaped. And they have been hunted ever since. He knew he was only getting one side of the story. Fidah had thought they were going to eat her, so something was going on. This was something he planned to figure out when he finally got out of this dungeon. But for now, he had to save Eve.
It wasn''t much longer before Steven stood in front of the entrance to the ninth floor. Next to him was Nev, with two dozen drones behind her. He didn¡¯t understand how there were twice as many drones as there were soldiers, but he decided it best he didn¡¯t ask. Silvia floated above him and Sirus was to his left with a squad of half Naga. He had Fidah stay back with the Naga. She was to enter the ninth floor after one day had passed. He had also tried to give her the bow he had gotten, but Fidah told him she couldn¡¯t wield it yet due to the lack of spirit and would rather him hold on to it for now.
¡°It seems we are as ready as we can be,¡± Silvia said. ¡°most will die, although all that matters is you survive. And the arachnid, I suppose, we do need her aid.¡±
¡°Just don¡¯t say something like that out loud,¡± Steven said as he placed his hand on the shimmering blue wall.
After he selected yes, he found himself in the typical dungeon tunnel the others quickly followed.
¡°I¡¯m sensing two undead knights guarding the entrance to the main floor.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Nev, with me, the rest of you stay here while we deal with these knights.¡± Steven said.
¡°Yes my King.¡± The drone said that Steven appointed above the rest. Steven had named him Charles, which excited the drone to no end. The drone fell to his knees and thanked him profusely. Steven didn¡¯t mention that it was just the first name that popped into his head.
It didn¡¯t take Steven and Nev long to spot the two knights. The Undead Knights just stood there, unmoving.
¡°Are these the only two that you sense?¡±
¡°They are the only ones close by,¡± Silvia said.
Steven was annoyed by all the armor the knights wore. If only he could just touch them, the fight would be over.
¡°Tell Nev I¡¯ll open a portal above the one on the left and for her to wrap it up in webs.¡±
Silvia grumbled, but did as he said. Nev nodded after Silvia relayed his message. Steven was unsure if the undead could hear them at this distance, but thought it safe to use Silvia¡¯s new ability, just in case.
Steven opened a portal directly above the one on the left, and Nev began wrapping it in webs. The other knight jumped back, but after not seeing any threats, it moved to cut at the webs. A spear found its way in the gap of its armor, causing the Knight to seize up and begin shaking. He then opened another portal and both he and Nev went through. Steven had just left his spear in the knight as Nev started demolishing the Knight with her new Scythe. Steven just stood back and watched. He was amazed at how good she was with the scythe, especially since she had just gotten it, but he assumed that was to do with her high attributes. At one point Steven recalled his spear, and just continued to watch as the Scythe beat against the armor.
¡°Is that armor enchanted or something? It seems stronger than the knights from the last floor?¡±
¡°It does appear to be enchanted, also the undead creatures get stronger as you get to higher levels.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Well, obviously, I know that we are on the ninth floor. I¡¯ve noticed how the Dungeon monsters get stronger.¡±
Just then, the armor shattered, and Nev began retreating. Steven opened a small portal and poked his index finger through it, touching the undead knight and sending it to inventory. Nev then moved on to the other Knight, who was still bound, and rolling around, trying to stand.
¡°I can¡¯t stress how over powered your inventory ability is.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Are you complaining?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Not at all. I simply cannot wait to torture Sorin inside your inventory.¡±
Steven¡¯s brow furrowed, and he turned to look at the wisp, ¡°I never thought you were one for torture.¡±
¡°We all have our dark secrets.¡± Silvia said.
Nev stopped fighting the knight, and Steven noticed the helm was shattered. He walked over and sent that one to inventory as well.
¡°I really need to gain some more essence.¡±
¡°That you do!¡± Silvia said.
Steven was about to open a portal to tell the others that the coast was clear, but stopped as Jabriel appeared.
¡°Mr. Odling, might I suggest you be a bit more sparing with the portals? At this rate, you will run out before you reach the captured Evesakia you seek.¡±
Steven took on a thoughtful expression. ¡°Thanks, I appreciate you giving me a warning. Could you tell me how many more portals I can create?¡±
Jabriel didn¡¯t respond and just stepped through a portal. This irritated Steven a bit, but there was nothing he could really do about it. The bound angel created portals for him flawlessly and he was lucky Jabriel gave him any sort of warning.
¡°Master, you should not allow your familiar to ignore you in such a manner.¡±
¡°Silvia, go let the others know it is safe.¡±
Once Silvia flew off, he turned back to Nev and smiled. ¡°Thanks for always looking out for me. I expect you to continue to do so, well, until I reach level one hundred, of course.¡±
Nev didn¡¯t respond to that.
It didn¡¯t take long for the others to reach them, and Steven sent the drones out to scout with orders to avoid fighting.
Silvia led Steven and Nev to the next group of undead. This group consisted of five abominations and two knights, opening a portal for each abomination he had them sent to inventory before Nev had the first knight webbed. He was unsure how much he should use the portals, but he wanted to conserve mana.
The two knights were a pain to deal with. Even as they were bound, it felt like he stabbed the knight¡¯s helm a thousand times before it finally shattered and dissolved. He had already sent the other one to inventory, but he wanted to see how long it would take to break the armor on his own. He was waiting for the drones to come back, anyway. In the end, his conclusion was way too damn long. From now on he would have Nev break the armor.
After sending the knights to inventory, he waited. He didn¡¯t have to wait long before a drone came back. Informing him, they couldn¡¯t go any further with stealth, as there were just too many high-level undead.
Silvia led them to the next group, which was basically the same setup: several abominations with a couple of knights. Steven was coming to hate the skeletal knights, the abominations would have been worse if he couldn¡¯t simply send them to inventory. He shuttered at the thought of running into an armored abomination, but that didn¡¯t seem likely. It wasn¡¯t long before they had this group cleared out as well. It was going smoothly so far. The problem was that he wasn¡¯t making any progress in levels.
The floor consisted of too many damn tunnels for his liking. They would no doubt get lost if it wasn¡¯t for Silvia. They had also not encountered a single demon. Which was more concerning than running into them. After clearing a few more groups they had to stop and rest, Steven had been trying not to use as many portals so he wouldn¡¯t run out at a bad time, and was forced to use his spider king form to send the undead to inventory. He still didn¡¯t have any idea how many portals he could use, although Silvia said she had been counting, but it would take her a few days of observing them to get an idea of how many he could use on average. She said there were too many things to consider, such as the size of the portal. If just a hand was going through or a person, what the effect of sending things to Inventory via portal and so on. While they were resting, Silvia presented an idea.
¡°Ive been trying to figure out a good way to level you up and I think I have come up with a decent plan to let you passively gain Essence.¡±
¡°What did you have in mind?¡± Steven asked.
¡°We have all these Naga warriors just standing around. I suggest we let them work on some of the webbed knights in your inventory.¡±
¡°Won¡¯t they also gain essence from that?¡±
¡°Yes they will. Which will be their incentive to do it. It¡¯s not often they will get the chance to gain essence so easily and so much of it. I would rather you just get it all, but you have plenty of undead now and you need to get another shard before entering the next floor.¡±
¡°Then why not just have the drones kill the knights? They don¡¯t gain essence, do they?¡±
¡°No, they don¡¯t, but it will give your arachnid more essence, and she can¡¯t even use it till she breaks past her threshold. And seeing she is planning on eating you afterwards, I would rather her not stock pile essence more than she already will be.¡±
¡°Wait, are saying she can just save all the essence and gain a ton of levels when she gets past seventy?¡±
¡°Yes! I don¡¯t think you understand how dangerous she is and what a monster you will release into the world when she breaks past her threshold. No one in their right mind would take on a servant like her.¡±
¡°Is there no way to keep her under my control?¡±
¡°Not unless she makes another oath to you after you reach level one hundred, which is highly unlikely.¡±
Steven thought for a long moment before responding. Silvia¡¯s new ability was already becoming useful. Nev was sitting right next to him and didn¡¯t even know about their conversation, though it was obvious they were communicating, especially with Silvia¡¯s light fluctuating.
¡°Okay, well, we will just have to come up with something to deal with that later. For now, talk to Sirus about the whole essence grinding thing.¡±
¡°Okay,¡± Silvia said out loud and flew over to Sirus.
Chapter 50: Rescuing Eve
Steven took a deep breath. He was ready to be out of this dungeon and feel the sun on his face again. Also, having normal human food would be nice. Rations were getting old and without Eve around, that¡¯s all he had. His mind kept going back to the Spider Queen. She planned to eat him when he reached level one-hundred. He was thinking he would be strong enough to deal with her by then, but if she could stock pile essence and just level a bunch, then she would likely be way out of his league just like she was now. He tried to push those thought aside for now.
¡°What¡¯s wrong, Master? You look troubled.¡± Nev asked as she scooted closer to Steven.
Nev was ridiculously attractive. It made him want to forget all about the fact she was going to kill him one day. He wanted to ask her why they just couldn¡¯t be friends, and why she wanted to eat him. But knew that conversation would get him nowhere.
¡°I¡¯m just worried about Eve. All I know is she is alive. I dont know how she is doing. For all I Know they are torturing her.¡±
Eve lay on Steven¡¯s bed while two large undead carried her around. At the beginning she had been terrified, but she had gotten use to the sentient undead. They had done absolutely nothing to her. Well, other than making her eat those small black orbs. She still wasn¡¯t sure what that was all about. At first, she had thought it was to suppress her shards or something, but she still had full access to them. At least, she thought she did. She hadn¡¯t tried, as the undead were way above her level to deal with, especially that general. That massive monstrosity was terrifying. But had been nothing but polite to her. He gave her orders and told her she was going to be used as a trading tool and she hadn¡¯t seen him since. The orders were simple: don¡¯t get off the bed aside from her bodily functions, and she had to ask and have escorts for that. Other wise she was to stay on the bed. She tried to sleep but found it difficult and instead worked on potions. The undead took nothing from her. Most likely because they didn¡¯t see her as a threat. Now they were on the ninth floor. She heard fighting in the distance, but she never saw the fighting. She knew Steven would come for her, but she was worried he wouldn¡¯t be able to handle the general if it came to a fight, although she knew a secret the undead didn¡¯t. All Steven had to do was touch the general. There were plenty of places that weren¡¯t covered in armor, and that would be it. He also had that annoying spider at his side. Nev, he called her. The damn spider was way too attractive, so much so it irritated Eve. She wished the spider wasn¡¯t always right next to Steven. It was as if she was trying to keep her and Steven from being alone. However it didn¡¯t matter now. She was now bound to him and wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere. She smiled at that. Her smile quickly faded when she thought of the humans and elves destroying the home she had lived in her whole life. She didn¡¯t understand why they had to do it. It¡¯s not like they did anything to them. Eve¡¯s thoughts were interrupted by the undead stopping their walk and placing the bed down. Another undead walked over and held out another black orb. She wasn¡¯t sure how many they made her eat now. She tried to say she wasn¡¯t hungry, but she knew if she refused too much, the undead would get aggressive. Eat it or be forced to eat it is what she was told. She didn¡¯t want to go through that again. So she took the small orb and swallowed it. Soon after, the two undead picked the bed above their heads and began moving again.
The only thing Eve could figure out about the orb was that it kept her from getting hungry or thirsty. Maybe it was their way of feeding her. She wished she could ask Goskia he would surely know what it was.
With nothing else better to do, she continued brewing potions, though it was difficult as the undead didn¡¯t care to give her a smooth ride. In fact, she was sure that they deliberately jerked her around to spill her potions from time to time. But it was what it was, and there was nothing she could do about it. One thing that continued to give her hope was the lone Spider-kin that crawled on the celling and watched her. She knew the Spider-kin wouldn¡¯t be able to save her on its own, but it could let Steven know where she was.
Sorin smiled. His servant, the Elder Demon he hired, had finally woken up and started to pay attention to the intruder. It was annoying he couldn¡¯t contact the demon. If it wasn¡¯t for his wisp leaving that wouldn¡¯t have been a problem, but he didn¡¯t need to worry. The demon had things under control. He didn¡¯t have dungeon sight, but could sense several challengers were approaching. Since there were so many challengers in the dungeon, he had access to summons he didn¡¯t normally have. Such as two legendary beings from the underworld. Though he had to sacrifice most of his demons for the ritual but that was a small price to pay. Now even if the Undead General couldn¡¯t handle Steven and his spider, then he wouldn¡¯t need to worry.
Though that angelic being still gave him pause. But it never did anything but lurk in the background. Even he had a hard time following it with his dungeon sight. But no matter, his useless and over paid servant was finally going to earn its keep.
Steven was surprised that Sirus had agreed so quickly. They had already killed three knights. It took them a long time, but they eventually were able to take out the bound knights. Silvia had been worried he wouldn¡¯t gain much essence, but that wasn¡¯t the case. She said his inventory must count as him subduing the enemy and he got a large chunk of essences from the kills.
They had a system now. Steven and Nev would go out and clear a section of the undead, while Sirus and his team would stay in their last location and kill a bound knight. Steven was only gaining around three to six hundred essence for each one, but he was still gaining essence. And he had lots of undead. He was giving them the weaker knights from the previous floors. Sirus asked to take out an abomination, but Silvia told them his party was too weak since the regeneration was so high on them and it would take way too long, not to mention the essence was roughy the same.
It wasn¡¯t long before Steven received a report from a drone informing him of an area already cleared of the undead. A quick check with Silvia let him know it wasn¡¯t their doing, so they must be getting close to the path of the General. Steven¡¯s heart began racing at the thought of getting Eve back. He sent several drones in that direction to scout it out. Steven wanted to go in that direction immediately, but he was talked out of it by Silvia and Sirus both. Saying they should all get some rest as they have been at it for almost twenty hours straight and they would need to meet up with the rest of the clan soon. Steven agreed, as he was tired, though he didn¡¯t think he would be able to sleep. He also regretted his decision to not take the bed with him. A sleeping bag was just not the same, and the dungeon floor was cold and hard.
Steven lie there awake worrying about Eve for what seemed like hours. At some point he finally fell asleep, though it only felt like a few mins before Silvia was waking him up telling him the Naga had entered the floor and was setting up camp. And that he needed to get Fidah to killing the undead knights with Sirus and also limit them to only five or the essence would be so spread thin it wouldn¡¯t be worth it.
Steven told her to deal with it and she flew off, happy to give others orders. No sooner than she left, a drone came running. The drone could hardly catch his breath and was trying to speak between gasps of air. Steven had to tell the drone to take a few seconds to catch his breath.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The drone informed him they had located the undead General along with Eve. He explained she was being carried around on a bed by the sentient undead and that she had several black veins running over her body.
He snarled, barely able to control his anger. ¡°Show me where. Quickly!¡±
Steven took off at a dead sprint after the drone Nev directly behind him.
¡°Master, I¡¯m not sure what sort of shards the Undead General has. But if he is a General he will have all his shards. If you can¡¯t get close enough to touch him, then¡¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. I just want to see,¡± Steven said, cutting her off, ¡°besides, we can always just portal away.¡±
It wasn¡¯t long before the drone fell over from sheer exhaustion. Steven was irritated, but Nev explained the drones would do their job to the best of their abilities till they literally fell over dead from exhaustion. Which made Steven feel bad for having the drone run so hard while leading them to Eve. Luckily, the drone didn¡¯t die, but it was nearly five minutes before they were on their way again.
This time they were moving much slower, but they were getting close from what the Drone said. Soon they heard fighting, and they slowed to a crawl, each of them using stealth. Steven¡¯s eyes widened when he saw the huge undead knocking the undead knights around like rag dolls. Several other undead were behind the large one, fighting off a few abominations. It was nice to see the dungeon didn¡¯t show favorites, even to their own kind. Steven''s eyes darted every which way, but he didn¡¯t see Eve anywhere. He wanted to ask the drone where she was, but they were in stealth, and he didn¡¯t want to break it. Instead, he watched the huge undead take on three knights, with a battle axe nearly the size of the undead himself. He assumed that was the general. He wished he had some way to appraise the undead, but he didn¡¯t, so he just watched. The knights were relentless, but even at this distance, he could see large cracks forming over the knight¡¯s armor. He wasn¡¯t sure why the General didn¡¯t focus on certain parts of the armor to shatter it, but from what Steven could tell, the general was enjoying the fight. It wasn¡¯t long before the General had beaten one to a pulp, quickly followed by the other two. He then turned to face the abominations the others were fighting.
The General charged in, axe cutting deep into the first abomination, though Steven knew that it was just a minor wound that would heal within a minute. The general, however, didn¡¯t stop and continued to hack at the abomination like a madman. Steven almost opened a portal and sent the General to inventory right then. But Nev must have had known what he was thinking and placed her hand on his shoulder and motioned for them to back up. Steven turned to watch the General still hacking at the abomination. He knew from experience that it would take a long while, even with that huge axe.
Steven backed up as Nev suggested, ¡°What is it?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I believe it best we inform the wisp of this, she maybe able to get us a trade and we can avoid fighting. The general is quite powerful.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not like he can do anything if I send him to inventory.¡±
¡°That may be true, but the undead will just send someone else. Not to mention we don¡¯t know what sort of abilities the general has. He is at least the same level as me.¡±
¡°But what if it¡¯s too late for Eve at that point? Do you know what those black veins are?¡±
Nev was silent for a moment. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Master, I do not know. And I will follow your lead. I was just making a suggestion. One that I feel is the best course of action. That general is glowing with enchanted equipment, which could interfere with your portal magic.¡±
Steven took another look at the undead general, still hacking at the abomination. Steven took a deep breath. This undead piece of shit took Eve. He would take her back. If he could deal with the general, the rest of his warriors should be simple enough to manage: they weren¡¯t any stronger than an abomination. Steven went to open a portal behind the General while he was still distracted.
¡°There you are! What do you think you¡¯re doing, running off on your own like that?¡± Silvia shouted in his mind.
Steven moved back out of sight and seen Silvia floating there, light flaring.
¡°How was it you could find me but not the General?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Because he has some sort of shard ability that blocks me or possibly a shard imbued item, I¡¯m not exactly sure. He is a general in the undead army, its surely common practice to have something that keeps you from being tracked. Any way, how about you let me try to talk with him again and see if I can¡¯t make a trade of sorts.¡±
¡°Okay, but if he harmed Eve¡¡±
¡°You will what? Send him to your inventory and then make him pay years later when you can catch up to his level.¡±
Steven wanted to say something, but he really had nothing to say since the wisp was right.
¡°Okay, go on then.¡± Steven said.
Silvia¡¯s light flickered, and she flew off so quickly Steven couldn¡¯t follow her movements. He briefly wondered if she was getting faster.
¡°Hello again, General.¡± Silvia said.
Silvia nearly chuckled when the general jerked around to look at her in surprise, only to get stabbed through the shoulder by a tentacle. He snarled, then grabbed the tentacle and chopped it off with a swing of his massive axe.
¡°Not a good time, little Wisp.¡±
¡°It¡¯s always a good time to be in the presence of a Wisp.¡±
The general didn¡¯t respond as he continued fighting the abomination.
¡°You have something I want back.¡± Silvia said.
The general buried his axe into the abomination, and it finally ceased to fight back.
¡°These damed abominations are a nuisance,¡± the general said, slinging the black blood off his axe and turning to the Wisp. ¡°It seems we both have something the other wants.¡±
¡°What ever shall we do?¡± Silvia said.
¡°We trade?¡° The general said as he looked back at his men fighting the other two abominations.
¡°Let me see her.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Let me see my nephew!¡±
¡°No,¡± Silvia said, light fluttering, ¡°do you not see how you are the one in the wrong here? You stole an innocent Half Naga. Steven was defending himself from an assassin attack. What would you do if an assassin attacked you? Just let them kill you?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous, of course I wouldn¡¯t. Many assassins have tried, but here I stand.¡±
¡°And you hold Steven at fault for not letting the assassin kill him?¡±
The General snarled, ¡°What are you playing at, wisp. Let¡¯s trade and be done with it so I can leave.¡±
¡°I want you to swear that you won¡¯t let your nephew try to finish the job once he is released.¡±
The General¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°So it¡¯s true then,¡± a smile formed on his lips, ¡°The boy lives.¡±
¡°He does, do you swear? It will be oath bound, you or your nephew can never come after Steven again or anyone he holds dear, you will also not be able to hire and¡¡±
¡°Yeah, yeah I get it. You will make me give an oath that I can¡¯t weasel out of. Yes, I will make the oath, but I want to see him first, also I want the same oath from him. I don¡¯t want this Steven coming after me or my kind for any reason.¡±
¡°No, and no. You have my word your nephew is well. The word of a wisp is plenty.¡±
The general¡¯s face turned furious. ¡°I know your word is good, but do you expect me to make an oath and trust the human you serve will hold up his end and not come after me?¡±
¡°He will not come after you without reason. Now take me to Evesakia. Steven¡¯s patients runs thin.¡±
¡°His patients runs thin! You dare mock me!¡±
Silvia was just about to make a snarky comment when she seen the General¡¯s men began to vanish one after another. She sighed. That human was too unpredictable. Looked like she had no choice but to go along with it.
¡°Hmmm, well, it¡¯s your choice. I tried to solve this peacefully.¡± Silvia said.
¡°My men and I won¡¯t have a problem taking out a low level Domain Holder. As For this Half Naga, I think Ill just keep her and take her as another wife.¡±
¡°Oh, my, that was not a wise thing to say. Steven cares for that Half Naga quite a lot.¡±
¡°And what will he do? His spider is a threat, sure, but she can¡¯t take us all out. I brought warriors specifically to combat the Queen.¡±
¡°Oh, and where are these warriors you speak of?¡± Silvia asked, light flickering.
The General¡¯s brow creased in confusion, ¡°The warriors behind me, and what is going on with your light? I¡¯ve met Wisps before and¡¡±
Just then, the general turned and in one fluid motion caught a tentacle and imbedded his axe deep into the abomination. The general then looked around in utter confusion. ¡°Where are my warriors?¡±
The look on his stupid undead face was glorious and Silvia was just fixing to say something when Steven appeared from a portal holding Eve. ¡°What did you do to her?¡±
The General stepped back in shock. ¡°Portal magic¡¡°
¡°Fix it! Now.¡± Steven demanded.
¡°It¡¯s best you let me deal with him. I¡¯ll figure this out.¡± Silvia said.
The general picked up his axe as he started to chuckle. ¡°You¡¯re really only level twenty, and you think you can order me around? Your Half Naga pet is mine now. She is a pretty little thing and will soon be another of my undead concubines.¡± The general then threw his axe at Steven, who tried to move but was entirely too slow. Right before the massive axe hit Steven, it stopped as if frozen in time before shooting ten feet to the side and clattered to the ground.
¡°Wh-what!¡± The General exclaimed eyes furious.
Chapter 51: The General
Steven didn¡¯t waste any time as the undead General tried to understand what happed with his axe and opened a portal and sent Eve¡¯s unconscious form through it.
¡°Take care of her.¡± Steven said to a drone.
An abomination went to attack the general again, but this time he just stomped his foot in front of the creature and earthen spikes pierced every inch of its body, lifting it up into the air.
Steven opened another portal and stabbed his spear at the back of the general. The undead turned just in time to grab the spear. He then jerked it through as Steven released the spear and closed the portal. He then looked at it with interest before he went to throw it at Steven. As soon as he did, his entire body seized up from lightning. That¡¯s was when Nev, in her spider form, wrapped the General in webs from her position on the dungeon ceiling.
The General roared in defiance as he tried to break through the webbing. He struggled in vain for several seconds before his body started to grow. The webbing dug deep into the undead¡¯s flesh as he continued to get larger and larger. Steven didn¡¯t want to send him to inventory, as he wanted to question him about Eve. Deciding a few spear wounds shouldn¡¯t kill the now monstrous general, he quickly called his spear back, snatching it out of the air as it flew to him. If I wasn¡¯t for the situation, he might have smiled at such an amazing feature of his spear, but Steven couldn¡¯t get the image of Eve¡¯s blackened veins and unconscious form out of his mind. He quickly opened a portal and stabbed at the General.
To his surprise, the spear barely penetrated the undead¡¯s skin.
The webs began snapping as the general continued to grow. His skin began to glow a deep red. Steven quit stabbing the General and backed up. Nev shot more webs, then she dropped onto the back of the General and in one fluid motion stabbed her front claws deep into both the General¡¯s black eyes before she jumping away. At the same time, several earthen spikes shot from the ground directly where she just was.
Steven stood in shock as he watch the undead and Nev duke it out. Even without eyes, the General was still fighting back. Despite the General¡¯s size, he was extremely quick. Steven couldn¡¯t figure out how the Undead was able to even know where Nev was as he blasted spikes at the spider who dodged or just tanked the damage. The earth spikes vanished after they penetrated Nev leaving large holes in her carapace. Steven¡¯s eyes bulged as her wounds closed at a visible rate.
¡°If she would get off the ground that Draugr wouldn¡¯t be able to know where she was.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Should I send him to inventory? He has multiple gaps in his armor. It shouldn¡¯t be difficult while he is distracted.¡±
¡°No, let¡¯s watch the arachnid. I want to see what all she is capable of. It¡¯s obvious she has been holding back with us. And we will eventually need to deal with her.¡±
No sooner than Silvia spoke, dozens of blue phantom swords formed above the Spider Queen. As she dodged and weaved around the undead¡¯s attacks, the swords shot at the general, each one of them sinking deep into the flesh of the undead. Steven glanced at the General¡¯s health bar. It was already at forty-three percent and quickly dropping with each phantom sword.
The General continued to try to fight but Steven could tell it was over now. The red glow was slowly leaving the General and Nev covered him in more webs as the phantom swords stopped firing and just hovered above her. Steven wasn¡¯t sure if he could survive a single hit form one of those things. Soon the General was bound completely aside from his face. Steven wanted to ask Nev about the phantom swords, but there were more important things to deal with at the moment.
Steven walked over to the bound general, trusting in his shards to keep him safe. ¡°How do I reverse what you did to Eve?¡±
As a response, the General spat black blood toward Steven.
¡°Tell me!¡± Steven demanded, as he opened a portal and had the drone carry Eve out.
¡°Let me,¡± Silvia said as she flew up to the undead¡¯s face. ¡°What did you say about my light earlier?¡±
¡°Silvia! Eve is dying!¡±
¡°Tell me, Mr. General, what did you do to her?¡±
¡°Fuck you Wisp! There will be more. The Undead will never stop. We always reclaim our own! Now your precious Naga belongs to the Undead.¡±
Steven punched the undead as hard as he could in his face, only to regret it immediately. ¡°Tell me how to fix it!¡± Steven said, cradling his hand that was now probably fractured.
¡°Human, you can never reverse it.¡± The general said while trying to chuckle, but it came out more as a choked gargle. He then spat out more black blood. Steven hoped it was from his punch, but that was unlikely.
¡°It is a shard ability all high-ranking undead have. It can¡¯t be reversed without an undead doing it for you, and I have marked you as an enemy to the undead. No undead will help you. Now just finish me.¡±
Steven watched as his health ticked down to thirteen percent. Steven then touched the undead in the forehead with his index finger.
¡°We will have to question him later,¡± Steven looked up at Silvia. ¡°is there anything we can do?¡±
Silvia flew over to Eve. ¡°If the general wasn¡¯t lying and it was a shard ability that done this, then maybe a high level being with a life shard could reverse this. However, it is unlikely you would get any church to help you, since you have the blessing of Chaos.¡±
¡°FUCK.¡± Steven shouted.
There was a long pause before Silvia spoke. ¡°At least she isn¡¯t dead.¡±
¡°That is true.¡° Steven said, taking a deep breath. ¡°If nothing else, I¡¯ll just have to get a life shard myself. Will she be the same once she is turned?¡±
¡°Not to dash your hopes,¡± Silvia said, ¡°But the only way to get a life shard is to go through a church and even then it¡¯s not granted that you would get an ability to fix her. As for changing her, no, nothing will change that I¡¯m aware of aside from her turning undead, her body will be cold instead of warm, I¡¯m not sure if any of her shards will change, this is the first time that Ive been around something like this.¡±
Steven heard something behind him and readied himself for a fight, but calmed down when he saw Sirus.
¡°What happened?¡± Sirus asked, knelling down next to Eve.
¡°Some sort of shard ability that is turning her into an undead,¡± Steven said in a deadpan tone. ¡°Silvia can explain it better than me.¡±
Steven barely paid any attention as he looked on while Sirus and Silvia spoke. At one point Goskia showed up and asked Steven a few questions that he absently answered before Goskia started examining Eve. He then used several potions on her. Having to wait between potions to not cause potion poisoning or at least that¡¯s what Steven assumed. He didn¡¯t feel like asking. She wasn¡¯t in danger of dying, just becoming undead. He felt as though he let her down; she was his responsibility to protect, meaning this was his responsibility to fix.
Fidah showed up sometime later, asking Steven how he was and what happened to Eve exactly. He just told her to ask Silvia. He eventually found himself away from everyone but Nev, who always seemed to be there.
He wasn¡¯t sure if he walked or Nev had carried him here.
¡°Master, I should explain why I didn¡¯t tell you about my other shard abilities.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not like I asked.¡±
¡°I should still explain why I haven¡¯t used it.¡±
¡°If you want to, but if I¡¯m honest, right now, I just don¡¯t really care.¡±
¡°I think it¡¯s best I explain, as I may be able to help Evesakia.¡±
Steven looked up. ¡°Help. How?¡±
¡°I have the mind weaver shard, likely why I dream your memories. But I can pull memories out of the Undead General¡¯s mind and possibly find a way to fix her, or at least wake her up.¡±
Steven sat up straighter, ¡°okay let¡¯s do that then.¡±
¡°This brings me to why I¡¯ve not used my magic. I don¡¯t regenerate mana like you. Mine is much slower to recover and I have to eat to recover it. After the fight with the General, I¡¯m now down to twenty-three percent of my mana.¡±
¡°I can get you mana potions from Goskia. Actually,¡± Steven pulled a mana potion form inventory, ¡°I have a couple on hand.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Master, but I¡¯m classified as a monster and mana potions don¡¯t work on me.¡±
Steven¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you use health potions?¡±
¡°Health potions are different. I can use those just not mana potions. I¡¯m sorry, I fought a bit recklessly. Most of my mana consumption came from healing my wounds.¡±
¡°That can¡¯t be helped now,¡± Steven said. ¡°How long before you are back to full mana?¡±
¡°It will take me nearly a week.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°A week that is ridiculous. It only takes me a few hours to recover my mana from being empty.¡±
¡°Monsters and humans get different perks, but if you¡¯re interested in that, I recommend talking with your wisp.¡±
¡°Maybe when I get some free time. But we have other things to deal with right now. Will you be able to help me finish this floor?¡±
¡°Yes, that won¡¯t be an issue less we run into another level seventy being.¡±
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
¡°Yea, let¡¯s hope that doesn¡¯t happen.¡±
The next several days passed quickly. Steven wanted for Nev¡¯s mana to recover. He didn¡¯t ask where she got food and thought it best he didn¡¯t. If she didn¡¯t recover, then there was no way they could get out of this dungeon. Luckily for Steven, there was plenty of food for him, thanks to Goskia and his bag of holding. Which turned out only to hold food and plant like related food. Steven¡¯s days blurred as he got into a routine. He would wake up, eat. Then start killing the undead from his inventory. It took a while, but he figured out he could kill the abominations by stabbing them with his spear and then sending them back to inventory before they could react. He had to do it before their innate healing ability triggered, but he got the hang of it fairly quick. His spear also would trigger randomly for extra damage. Once it happened three times in a row, another time it didn¡¯t happen till his twentieth stab, making it truly random.
After he finished his morning abomination him, Sirus and Nev would go clear out a section of undead that the drones scouted out. Between them and Silvia being able to sense the dungeon monsters, it almost felt like cheating. Steven supposed it was since he just sent them to inventory and was able to fight them one at a time and in a favorable situation. He couldn¡¯t imagine trying to fight the undead the way they were intended.
Clearing out a section of undead really just consisted of Steven hiding in stealth and opening portals up and sending all the undead to inventory aside from the armored knights, which was when Sirus and Nev put the work in. As soon as they shattered a piece of armor, he would open a portal and send it to inventory. Once they were finished up with clearing a section of undead, he would take a bound knight and let the Half Naga warriors along with Fidah kill it, allowing them to gain essence and allowing Steven to gain it passively.
He visited Eve each day, but she remained unconscious. Though the black veins had stopped pulsating so something was changing.
After about a week, when Nev¡¯s mana was full, they tried to extract memories from the General, but it was mostly useless junk. She could only take his memories for a short time before her mana ran low, and they had to stop.
Days passed just like this. Steven¡¯s favorite part of the day was talking with Eve, although she just lay there unconscious. He wondered if she would still like him when she found out he was not Shirem. He knew she still thought he was, but he pushed those thoughts aside. She was stuck with him now. The only way out of the Vassal contract was death, death to the Domain Holder or death to the servant.
Some days he told her about the monsters he fought, others he complained about only having one useful ability, which was his inventory ability. Other days, he just sat there. He knew it irritated Nev, but she planned to kill him and as much as he liked her, he needed to distance himself emotionally from the spider Queen, though it was hard since she was always there for him.
Silvia had told him that Eve should wake up any day now, but she said that after the first day.
The days were slow, but he was gaining essence, although slowly. He wanted to smoke or even drink something, but with the amulet, there was no point; he was starting to not like the thing, even as powerful as it was.
Silvia tried to get him to pull out the undead warriors as he would gain more essence from them, but he had a hard time convincing himself to kill a sentient being. It would be simple. He could just do it the way he did with the other undead. But they were just warriors following orders.
Steven couldn¡¯t stop thinking about how terrifying it would be if he got pulled out from another dimension and stabbed by a lightning spear, only to be sent back to nothingness before he could respond. At least Steven assumed his inventory would seem like nothingness to them. He wondered if they could even think while in there.
He then remembered that an Elder Wisp was in his inventory and he asked Silvia if she thought the Wisp would know something. Silvia said the Elder wisp would absolutely know, but it was too big of a risk to pull it out, as there was no way to force it back in there. And it could possibly be some sort of trick from Sorin. Though she doubted he could get an Elder Wisp to help him. Silvia suggested they wait until they were both a bit stronger before pulling it out.
Days passed as Steven slowly gained essence. Eventually, he had run out of the knights from the lower floors and had to summon a knight from the ninth floor, which took the Naga warriors an entire day to kill. Steven was surprised by the difference and he wasn¡¯t looking forward to killing abominations from the ninth floor.
Eventually, they had the entire floor cleared aside from the boss room. And Silvia gathered everyone that was relevant.
¡°We have a couple of options,¡± Silvia said. ¡°we can fight the boss, which is a highly armored knight with armored knight minions. Or we can go through the hidden path.¡±
¡°I vote we go through the hidden path. There is no reason to risk death when we are so close.¡± Sirus said.
¡°I have to agree.¡± Steven said, ¡°I want to finish this dungeon as quickly as possible.¡±
¡°Going through the hidden path is likely the best idea however, I believe there is a trap waiting for us on the other side of the hidden room, there is no other reason they didn¡¯t send the demons to attack us on this floor.¡±
¡°What¡¯s to say there isn¡¯t a trap after the boss room as well?¡± Goskia asked.
¡°There isn¡¯t, and this is just speculation on my part. I don¡¯t know what awaits us on the tenth floor, aside from an elder demon that we must kill to get to Sorin.
¡°Hidden path it is then, if your people are fine with that.¡± Steven said, looking over at Goskia and Elder Vasuki.
¡°Yes, that sounds like a plan. Let us finish this,¡± Elder Vasuki said.
¡°Okay then,¡± Silvia said, ¡°Prepare to leave. We will head in tomorrow.¡±
Silvia then flew right in to Steven¡¯s face, who barley reacted. ¡°Come on, we need to get you to level thirty tonight.¡±
¡°Why tomorrow? I wanted to have Nev take more memories from the General.¡±
¡°Steven, that is a useless endeavor. It is unlikely you will find anything useful in his memories, it¡¯s obvious the General has been trained to resist mental attacks, which is exactly what the arachnid is doing. If you want to help Eve the best thing we can do is get out of this dungeon and go to a church or possibly a Necromancer if any still live.¡±
¡°I thought you said they wouldn¡¯t help me because of my blessing, and a Necromancer?¡±
¡°It is unlikely, but If Ive learned anything about you sentient beings, it is that your greedy. Silver, gold and possibly a shard should get someone to help you. Necromancers should be our last choice if the churches fail us.¡±
¡°I suppose you have a point.¡± Steven said as he followed Silvia.
¡°There is something important I¡¯ve been meaning to talk to you about,¡± Silvia said.
¡°Oh, what¡¯s that?¡±
¡°Shard upgrades.¡±
¡°Thats something that happens when you reach level seventy, right?¡±
¡°Yes, and no. When you gather all your shards, you can choose to evolve one. Upgrading a shard just makes the shard slightly better. Do it enough times, then it will evolve. But upgrading shards is extremely difficult.¡±
¡°Go on, I¡¯m listening.¡±
¡°You need to kill a level seventy or higher being that has all seven shards, and then extract their unformed core. With that, you will be able to upgrade a shard.¡±
Silence hung in the air for a long moment. Before Steven started to look around for Nev.
¡°Your spider is likely feeding on more Half Naga to recover her mana.¡±
¡°It has to be done,¡± Steven sighed, ¡°I don¡¯t like it, but we can¡¯t go to the tenth floor with her mana drained.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to convince me. Your survival is the only thing I¡¯m worried about.¡±
¡°You need to kill the general. I¡¯m almost certain you can extract his unformed core through your inventory ability. And not have to deal with getting a ritualist.¡±
¡°I¡¯m¡ Unsure if I can do it,¡± Steven balled his fist, ¡°I don¡¯t think I can kill something that can¡¯t even fight back.¡±
¡°The abominations you kill every morning can¡¯t fight back.¡±
¡°Thats not what I mean. Those creatures are unthinking dungeon monsters. The general can talk and think.¡±
¡°He also turned miss Evesakia into an undead that still hasn¡¯t woken up yet.¡±
A chill ran down Steven¡¯s spine, and his face twisted in anger. ¡°Yes, he did do that.¡±
¡°If you plan to help Eve, and her save her remaining people, you need to be as strong as possible. It is likely we will walk into a trap when we leave the hidden room and possibly in the hidden room its self, and you¡¯re too weak as you are. Undead you have an advantage over, but to demons, you are just a level twenty nine nobody.¡±
+997
Steven glanced down at his essence counter. ¡°seems the Half Naga and Fidah killed another bound knight. They will be wanting another.¡± Steven said as he began walking towards the area they had set up for killing them.
¡°And after that, we need to deal with this, general.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Once I give them another knight to kill, we will talk about it more.¡± Steven said.
As Steven walked, he pulled up his stat page.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 29
Available Attribute ~9
Essence- 9,683
Essence required for next level 14,967
HP ~ 267
Stamina ~ 81
Mana ~ 471
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 16
Endurance ~ 13
Strength ~ 13
Dexterity ~ 20
Resistance ~ 14 +50
Spirit ~ 28
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°You need to use your attribute points. Without them, you are no stronger than you were at level twenty.¡±
¡°I¡¯m waiting till I reach level thirty and absorb another shard. So I can see what my stats will be.¡±
¡°As I have told you time and time again, it doesn¡¯t matter. All your attributes are low. And you get the most value from Spirit.¡±
¡°If I was a normal warrior or mage, this wouldn¡¯t be a problem. I don¡¯t know what direction to go in. My shards are mostly useless for offensive. All I can do is turn into a spider.¡±
¡°Are you kidding? You are not even level thirty yet and you''re on the ninth floor of a dungeon challenging a Dungeon Lord for their domain. Of course, you wouldn¡¯t have made it this far without that inventory ability, or without me and your pet spider has helped. But your shard abilities are all really good! They keep you from dying. Though the one that gave you that familiar is a bit odd to me but it¡¯s what you got, and the portals have made this floor even easier for you. It¡¯s as if Chaos wants you to take Sorin¡¯s domain.¡±
¡°Okay okay. You''re right. Anyway, how is Fidah doing?¡±
¡°Just going to change the subject, huh? Okay then, she has been working her butt off to get stronger. When the Naga rotate she stays and helps kill another bound knight. She can also level without having to use a seeing stone. Which seems to be a perk of being your servant.¡±
¡°Thats good, and what¡¯s her level now?¡±
¡°Twenty seven, but you should ask her yourself. She is trying her best, you know.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll tell her good job or something. It¡¯s just she is too weak to be of any use in this dungeon now.¡±
As soon as Steven approached, Fidah ran over to him.
¡°Master Odling! I am only two levels away from being able to wield the bow you gave me.¡±
¡°Steven smiled at the elf. ¡°Good job! I¡¯m proud of you. Keep up the good work!¡± Steven then pulled out another bound knight and began walking away.
¡°Are you serious? You¡¯re just going to leave her like that!¡± Silvia said.
¡°What do mean?¡±
¡°Look at her. She doesn¡¯t look like she has slept in days.¡±
Steven turned back, the half Naga had formed a line, and they each took turns stabbing the knight where the armor had shattered. Fidah was also in that line.
Silvia was right. She looked exhausted. ¡°This seems impractical. Why don¡¯t we give Fidah, her own knight to kill?¡±
¡°If the knight somehow got lose than it could kill her. It has happened a couple of times already.¡±
¡°What if I had some drones watch over her? They could distract the knight while she got away.¡±
¡°Yes, you could do that.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I still have two shards left as well. Why not let her have one.¡±
¡°And that¡¯s where I draw the line,¡± Silvia said. ¡°I like the elf, I do. She is my favorite, in fact, but we need you to absorb a shard as quickly as possible each time you are able.¡±
¡°Oh, come on, it will be level forty before I can use both. Surely we will find another by then.¡±
¡°And if we don¡¯t, then you are tremendously weaker.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I bet we find one in the next chest.¡±
¡°I doubt it. It was ridiculous to find the one you did!¡±
¡°If we get one, then I¡¯m giving one to her.¡± Steven said.
¡°Okay, fine, I¡¯ll agree with that.¡±
¡°Fidah, come here.¡± Steven winced as he realized he just ordered her. He needed to remember to ask, but she immediately came to him like it was normal.
¡°Yes, Master Odling?¡±
¡°I told you, you can just call me Steven. Any way I want you to get some rest. When you wake up, you will kill an abomination with me.¡±
Fidah¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Yes, of course.¡±
¡°You know where the bed is?¡±
¡°I do.¡±
¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll come get you in a bit,¡± Steven turned to leave, ¡°Oh, and change out of those clothes before you get in the bed.¡±
Steven watched as the elf left. He hadn¡¯t spoken to her much lately. And hadn¡¯t let her get in the bed with him either, now that he thought about it that was a bit selfish. She was the one that washed his bedding, so of course she knew where the bed was¡
¡°You made that elf happy.¡± Silvia said.
¡°That makes one of us,¡± Steven turned to the Wisp, ¡°I need to get out of this funk. Let¡¯s go kill a general. That basterd deserves it.¡±
Chapter 52: Elder Wisp
Steven stabbed his spear into the general¡¯s empty eye socket right before he sent him back to inventory.
¡°That was good his eyes are weakened from the spider.¡± Silvia said encouragingly.
¡°It just feels wrong somehow.¡±
¡°That undead made his choice when he turned Eve into an undead.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right!¡± Steven said, slapping at his cheeks then shaking his hands out trying to pump himself up.
Pulling the general from inventory, he stabbed his spear into the undead¡¯s empty eye socket, hoping to pierce the brain and be done with it. Unfortunately, the undead General¡¯s health bar had only dropped from thirteen percent to eleven percent.
¡°Are you sure this is right?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I¡¯m not sure why it wouldn¡¯t be. He came after you. We tried to resolve this peacefully.Besides, he attacked you first. He had this coming.¡±
¡°She will wake up, won¡¯t she?¡±
¡°We have been over this, yes she will wake up. She could wake up at any time. Now let¡¯s kill this undead, so you can get stronger and get Eve to someone that can help her.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Steven said, while taking a deep breath.
Pulling out the general again, he jabbed his spear at the undead general¡¯s eye. Although this time he missed hitting right under his eye. His health didn¡¯t even drop by a single percent. Steven paused for a second, within that second, the general enlarged one arm enough to tear through the webs and grab Steven by the throat. Steven immediately sent him to inventory, luckily as long as there was contact, his inventory ability worked.
¡°What are you doing?¡± Silvia asked. ¡°You realize this being is several times your level! You don¡¯t have time to play around. Stab, send to inventory, stab inventory, stab inventory. It¡¯s not hard. You have been doing it to the undead ever since you entered the dungeon.¡±
¡°Sorry I got distracted,¡± Steven said sheepishly.
Steven did as Silvia said, pulling out the general and stabbing him over and over, only pausing when the health bar hovered at one percent.
¡°What¡¯s wrong? Once more and it¡¯s done.¡±
¡°It¡¯s just I¡¯ll be killing him in cold blood.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light pulsed in confusion, ¡°of course you will be, he is an undead. All undead are cold-blooded.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not what I mean!¡±
¡°Well, finish this so we can see if Evesakia will wake up.¡±
¡°Wait. You think by killing him it could wake Eve?¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure but it is definitely a possibility.¡±
¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me that before?¡° Steven asked, pulling the General out and stabbing him one last time. The General started to fall to the floor but out of reflex Steven sent him to inventory.
+22,614
Steven¡¯s eyes widened at the essence he gained.
¡°Just think how much the spider just received, though you did deliver the final blow, so you both probably got roughly the same.¡±
Steven quickly got over his surprise and opened a portal to Eve. She was still laying on the makeshift bed. It mostly just consisted of blankets the Naga bound together. Steven was going to have her stay in his bed, but Silvia had talked him out of it.
¡°She doesn¡¯t seem to have changed at all.¡± Steven said, disappointment apparent in his tone.
¡°Well, we tried,¡± Silvia said. ¡°You should check your inventory to see if you can get the unformed core.¡±
¡°Did you just lie to me so I would kill the general?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light fluttered wildly. ¡°I would never! I¡¯m honestly hurt you would even suggest such a thing.¡± Silvia then flew off, her pink light flickering wildly.
As she left, Steven heard her say something about she would accept an apology later.
Sighing, Steven opened his inventory to look and see if he could find the unformed core Silvia was talking about, but found nothing of the sort. He supposed he would have to ask Silvia about it later. Turning, he stared at Eve for a bit before deciding he was done for the day. He would level up to thirty later and then choose a shard. Though he would need to wait for Silvia. His bed wasn¡¯t far away, so he started in that direction, while weighing the cons of removing his amulet so he could get high. He had just killed someone. It was an undead someone but still it was someone. It felt different. Even when he was dropping undead on the soldiers. They still had a chance to fight and live. The General had no chance. He still had several more warriors in his inventory, not to mention the assassin. What the hell was he supposed to do with all of them?
Once he made it to his bed, he realized it was already occupied. He had already forgotten about Fidah, and she was fast asleep. Steven didn¡¯t want to bother her, so he just started walking in a random direction with his thoughts. His plan was to find a nice quiet spot and remove his amulet and smoke and drink until he didn¡¯t feel like he just murdered someone. Everyone could just wait another twenty-four hours.
Just as he sat down and was getting ready to remove the amulet, a voice spoke up from above. ¡°My King, the Queen is on her way towards you. I just thought you would like to be informed.¡±
Steven was startled at first, but quickly recognized the drone on the ceiling. He had forgotten about his always present observers. ¡°Thanks Charles.¡± Steven remembered naming that drone. He was an enthusiastic drone that really liked his name. The thought made him smile slightly. It also reminded him of the drone that had watched over Eve while she was captured. The drone hadn¡¯t done anything, but he watched over Eve. Maybe he could give them some insight into what happened to her. He would need to have the drone speak with Siliva when she came back. Nev¡¯s voice broke him from his thoughts.
¡°Master, did you fight the General? I just received a large chunk of essence.¡± Nev asked.
¡°I did. Silvia had me do it.¡±
¡°This will likely cause problems with the undead. I don¡¯t believe this was a wise choice on her part. Undead politics is not something we want to get involved in.¡±
¡°I agree,¡± Steven sighed. ¡°I wish I would have known that before, I wouldn¡¯t have killed him.¡±
¡°What¡¯s done is done. Did it give you enough to reach level thirty?¡±
¡°It did.¡±
¡°Have you chosen which shard to use yet?¡±
¡°I haven¡¯t. I was going to wait to get Silvia¡¯s opinion before I made any final decisions on it.¡±
¡°My opinion would be the wings. If you got wings, it would drastically change our approach to fighting.¡±
¡°I have considered that.¡± Steven said, not mentioning that he was afraid of heights and was really just going to choose the forest shard, regardless of what Silvia said.
¡°I am going to get back to recovering my mana for in the morning. I was simply coming to make sure you were okay.¡± Nev said before she started back to where ever she had been.
He wondered if she ever felt bad for all the people she killed. If she did, she never acted like it. He doubted it. She had killed her own mother, after all.
Deciding it was best to not have his mana regeneration halved, he just sat there. Wondering what the flying cat and old wizard were up to in his world.
Thoughts of his aunt and his old life of playing video games in his basement came and went through his mind. He wasn¡¯t sure how much time passed before Silvia appeared.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
¡°Ready to apologize now?¡±
¡°Yes, I¡¯m sorry.¡± Steven said in a deadpan voice.
¡°Hmmm, I expected it to feel more satisfying. This is the first time I have ever received an apology.¡± Silvia¡¯s light flickered slightly. ¡°anyway, Fidah is ready to kill an abomination with you.¡±
Steven sighed. ¡°I had forgotten about that. Alright, let¡¯s go.¡± Steven stood up. His life use to be so simple, never once did he have to face death.
¡°Have you looked in your inventory for the unformed core?¡± Silvia asked as Steven opened a portal.
¡°I looked, but I didn¡¯t see it. I was thinking it was still inside the undead.¡±
¡°Hmm, let me have a look.¡± Silvia said as she flew into his chest and directly into his inventory.
Steven shook his head and stepped through the portal. He was getting used to the wisp now. She was almost like a mother figure to him, or maybe he just thought of her that way since that¡¯s something he wanted.
Steven looked on at a still sleeping Fidah. ¡°Of course you didn¡¯t inform her of your plans.¡±
He almost pulled Silvia back out just to tell her she was not ready, but decided against it.
He needed to have Nev help him bind the abomination, anyway. He doubted his webs from the ring would hold, although maybe his spider form could. Deciding against it for now, he was just about to open a portal when he realized he had no idea where the spider Queen was. Looking around, he couldn¡¯t find a drone anywhere, and that was when he realized he lost the drones when he went through the portal.
¡°I wonder if they complain to Nev about not being able to keep up with me.¡± Steven mumbled as he headed towards the Naga camp.
He would either ask Sirus if he knew what direction the spider Queen was or run into a drone on the way. Steven also wanted to ask Sirus what he thought about killing the General.
As he walked, he did his best to distract his mind. It was getting harder and harder to convince himself the amulet was worth it. He pulled up the description from his equipment page.
Neck- Amulet of the Armored Spider
Rarity- Shard forged
~ Effect]- Enhanced Carapace instantly forms over wearer¡¯s body. (Note: Instantly activates if wearer takes 10% or more damage.)
~Cost}- Regeneration +3 per second.
~ Efect 2}- +50 Resistance.
~Cost}- None. (Passive ability)
~ Efect 3}- +35 Poise
~Cost}- None. (Passive ability)
¡°Dam, that¡¯s good.¡± Seven was hoping it wasn¡¯t as good as he remembered, but it was really good. Too bad it had that damned resistance. He was also certain he could tell the difference in the poise. He felt sturdier. Sighing, he closed the screen just in time to run face first into the dungeon wall.
A slight chuckle came from Steven as he continued to the Naga camp. He would have opened a portal, but he was hoping to run into a drone. He also was wondering why Silvia was taking so long, but just assumed it was just the wisp being a wisp. Once Steven made it to the camp, he saw a few fires burning, but there was hardly anyone around. His first thought was Nev had eaten most of them, but a Naga guard took him out of his thoughts.
¡°Honored Steven, may I be of assistance.¡± The guard asked with a slight bow.
Steven was surprised at the respect he was given, but he supposed he had saved them. Though this was likely the wisps doing somehow.
¡°I was looking for Sirus.¡±
¡°I do believe he is sleeping. Would you like me to wake him?¡±
¡°No, that¡¯s fine. I''ll speak with him in the morning. It¡¯s not urgent.¡± Steven didn¡¯t realize it was so late. He should probably get some sleep as well. He would just have to push off the abomination killing to a later date. Opening a portal, he stepped right next to his bed. He looked on at the elf laying there fast a sleep for a moment. At least insanely gorgeous women surrounded him. He crawled into the bed. He quickly realized the red head was completely naked. Of course she was. He took a couple of deep breaths, trying to not get aroused, though that only made it worse. Moving to one side of the large bed, he lay there trying to fall asleep.
Steven woke up to something pushing at his face. Opening his eyes, he realized it was a foot. A foot that was attached to an elf who somehow was on top of the covers and half laying on him with her foot twitching on his cheek. Pushing the foot to the side, his eyes widened as he stared at the live form of the elf for a long moment, only broke out of the trance by a familiar voice.
¡°Master, why does the Elf get to be naked and you make me wear these clothes?¡±
Turning, he saw Nev laying on his other side. His brow creased. ¡°Where is Silvia?¡±
¡°How am I supposed to know? Probably off playing with the Naga or something,¡± Nev said.
A quick look in his inventory had him realize she was still in his inventory. ¡°You may want to get out of the bed. I¡¯m fixing to pull her out of my inventory, seems she has been stuck in there all night.
Nev grumbled but got out of the bed. Knowing Silvia didn¡¯t care if the elf was in the bed with him, he pulled Silvia out of his inventory. At first there was some resistance, which was strange he had never felt that before, but she quickly appeared in front of him, looking worse for wear.
¡°What took you so long? That damned Elder wisp was trying to consume me! Luckily for me, the inventory belonged to you and I was able to consume her back.¡±
¡°Wait! Slow down. What happened?¡±
¡°The Elder Wisp in your inventory was trying to eat my light!¡±
Steven just stared wide eyed at Silvia for a moment. ¡°Are you okay?¡±
¡°Yes, better than okay actually, I was able to pull in a good portion of her light by using the little wisps and the fact that the Inventory belonged to you. Although I¡¯m tired.¡± Silvia said as she landed on his shoulder.
Not sure what to do, Steven just continued to sit there on the bed. He was just fixing to ask if there was anything he could do when Silvia spoke.
¡°Oh, good. Did you two started working on making me some half elves? I have promises to uphold.¡± Silvia asked excitedly.
¡°What?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Absolutely not!¡± Nev said.
This was loud enough to wake Fidah, who yelped and started trying to cover herself.
¡°Oh, come on, do you think I haven¡¯t seen naked female elves before?¡± Nev said.
¡°Good morning Fidah.¡± Steven said with a smile.
¡°Good morning Master.¡±
¡°Why have you not seduced Steven yet?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Uh, I¡ ummm,¡± Fidah stammered eyes wide, ¡°I¡¯m, sorry I¡¡±
Steven rolled his eyes. ¡°We have more important things going on right now.¡± Steven didn¡¯t mention that the elf wouldn¡¯t have to do anything other than wink at him to seduce him.
¡°Tell me what¡¯s going on with the Elder wisp. Do you know where it came from?¡±
¡°Yes,¡± Silvia said, ¡°I gathered a lot of information. The Elder wisp doesn¡¯t know where she is exactly but knows who you are. She refers to you as the village idiot.¡± Silvia¡¯s light flickered. ¡°I can see why she says that, although I¡¯m unsure how she knows of you exactly. But she does blame you for taking her bounded humans domain, and says he will be coming after her and his domain. And that you should have listened to her and stayed where she told you to stay. Silvia then flew up off Steven¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I feel much better now. So, who is this wisp?¡±
Steven sat there, eyes wide as his mind raced. After a moment, he spoke. ¡°It sounds like you a referring to the flying cat that gave me the domain when I first arrived. But I didn¡¯t realize she was a Wisp.¡±
¡°So she isn¡¯t your friend, then?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t say she is my friend. I only briefly met her. If anything, she was quite rude to me.¡±
¡°Great, so you don¡¯t have any problems with me eating her light?¡± Silvia asked, light fluttering while flying around in circles, ¡°Okay I need you to pull me back out after about ten minutes so I can recharge and then ill go back in, after a few times of this I should be able to take all of her light and become an Elder wisp.¡± Silvia said excitedly.
¡°Umm, wait, is that? I mean, won¡¯t that kill her?¡±
¡°No, wisps don¡¯t die. It will just send her back to the void, and I will get all the attribute points that her last Domain Holder gave her, meaning I¡¯ll be able to get new abilities.¡±
¡°I do like the sound of you getting new abilities and not having to use my attribute points. But what about Blank? That old wizard seemed powerful. It may be best to return the Elder wisp to him and avoid a fight.¡±
¡°It¡¯s way past that, besides you¡¯re too weak to survive the domain being ripped from you and he will definitely want his domain back. I still don¡¯t understand why it was given to you in the first place, even temporarily.¡±
¡°Well, it sounds like we have yet another problem to deal with. As for why I¡¯m not sure, though, I think it may have something to do with them finding their way back to this world.¡±
¡°What ever the case, this problem can be solved by getting stronger.¡± Silvia said.
¡°All problems can be solved with power," Nev added.
¡°So it¡¯s settled then. Pull me out in ten minutes.¡±
¡°Leave her alive, okay? Just drain most of her power.¡±
¡°Fine, I¡¯ll keep her alive. Just know when it comes back to bite you, I¡¯ll say I told you so.¡±
¡°I just don¡¯t want to keep killing.¡±
¡°Killing is how you grow stronger.¡± Nev said.
¡°It¡¯s not the only way, and you don¡¯t have to kill sentient beings.¡± Fidah added. Now fully dressed in her leather armor. Steven was staring at her, trying to figure out how she got dressed so quickly.
¡°Ahh, well, you three can discuss morality. I¡¯m going to go take the light from the Elder Wisp.¡± Silvia¡¯s light flared before it dimmed.
¡°You seem a bit too excited.¡± Steven said.
¡°This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,¡± Silvia said, ¡°now ten minutes, then pull me out.¡± Silvia turned towards Fidah before flying into Steven¡¯s inventory.
¡°Do you know anything about Domains?¡± Steven asked Nev.
¡°Not much. I do know they are needed to surpass level seventy.¡±
¡°Hmm, I¡¯ll ask Silvia about it when she gets back. There is something that¡¯s been confusing me. Well, we should start preparing for the hidden path.¡±
Getting up, Steven pulled out his leather armor and started putting it on. Fidah and Nev both helping while doing their best to not look at one another.
It was a shame he couldn¡¯t just have it appear on his person. It was easy to just send it to inventory. He should be able to just pull it out already equipped, but at least he had help.
¡°Master, why does killing bother you so much?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Thats a difficult question. I think it¡¯s mostly because I don¡¯t want others to kill me. You know, the do unto others as you would have them do unto you.¡±
Nev froze long enough. Steven asked if she was okay.
¡°Yes, I¡¯m just considering what you said. I have never thought of it like that before. Does everyone think like that where you''re from?¡±
¡°Well, no, there are still useless wars and killing, but the part I¡¯m from is pretty safe. It is unlikely you would get attacked by anyone.¡±
¡°Hmmm, that sounds nice.¡±
Steven was surprised at the Queen¡¯s response.
¡°I plan to create a safe place when I get stronger,¡± Fidah said. ¡°I¡¯ll become so strong no one would dare bother my village.¡±
¡°You plan to have a village, do you?¡± Steven asked.
¡°If Master approves, that is,¡± Fidah said in a low voice.
¡°Of course, maybe I¡¯ll even help you, well, after I get out of this dungeon and explore this world a bit.¡±
Steven glanced at his dark vision potion timer and decided it had roughly been ten mins and pulled out Silvia.
¡°Whoa!¡± Silvia said as she appeared. ¡°This is going to be easier than I thought. She can¡¯t move in your inventory as freely as I can she is trapped in a single space.¡±
¡°Well, I suppose that¡¯s good. Just remember I don¡¯t want her killed, weakened is good though. Any way it¡¯s time to go to the hidden path. I¡¯m sure Sirus is waiting for us.¡±
¡°But, I¡¯m so close it won¡¯t¡.¡±
¡°You can do it in the hidden path. I¡¯m sure we will wait there a day before we continue to the last floor.¡± Steven didn¡¯t mention he wanted to take a little break so he could smoke and wait out the timer on his mana being halved.
¡°Fine, let¡¯s go.¡±
Chapter 53: A new Shard
It wasn¡¯t long before Steven was standing in front of the last hidden path. Nearly two hundred Naga stood behind Steven, all waiting for him and Sirus¡¯s warriors to go in first.
¡°Alright. Let¡¯s get going,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Ill go in first and scope it out. Give me a few minutes before you go in.¡±
Silvia then flew into the dungeon wall and vanished. It was annoying that she couldn¡¯t come back out and inform him of the situation, but he doubted Sorin¡¯s trap would be in the hidden path, anyway.
After roughly five minutes passed, Steven looked over at Sirus. ¡°Alright Nev and I will go first. You and your warriors should follow in about five minutes.¡±
¡°Understood.¡± Sirus said.
Steven looked back at Fidah, who was standing next to some drones that were carrying Eve on his bed. He nodded to her before turning and walking into the hidden path Nev right beside him.
The tunnel of death was exactly like the previous one, as far as he could tell. Dozens of spike traps leading to the other end of the hall.
Nev began covering the area with webs, causing spikes to shoot from the walls. Steven immediately noticed this room also had spikes coming from the celling and floors. He couldn¡¯t help but think he would have died if the last room would have been this way.
It took Nev a bit longer than normal, but she had the entire hallway looking like a spider nest when she was done and, for some reason, Steven felt at home.
¡°Shards do influence us then.¡± Steven mumbled.
¡°What¡¯s that, Master?¡± Nev asked from further up.
¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡±
Steven walked to the end of the tunnel and stood next to Nev, looking out at the huge cavern. Several trees were somehow growing through the hard dungeon floor, but Steven didn¡¯t question it. This world was full of strange things. A stream ran through the cavern, with water lilies growing in and all around the water. It was a beautiful sight.
¡°This is beautiful.¡± Nev said with a cute, innocent expression.
Steven looked at the Spider Queen in confusion. She was never the one to comment on the scenery. He was just about to mention that, but decided against it. Maybe she was just finally opening up, or she had seen enough of his memories to know how to manipulate him.
¡°It is quite breathtaking. It¡¯s hard to believe all this is in an undead dungeon.¡± Steven finally said.
¡°Water lilies are my favorite flower, they can grow in the worst sorts of environments and can still be so beautiful, not to mention the silver lotuses. They are incredibly poisonous, enough so they could surpass even your boosted resistance.¡±
And there it was. It made sense to him now. The flowers were deadly poisonous. No wonder the spider Queen thought the scene was beautiful.
Nev turned towards him with a large smile plastered on her face. ¡°Want to go swimming with me? I¡¯ve had the drones make one of those swimming suits from the shows you liked to watch.¡±
Steven opened his mouth, but closed.
He wasn¡¯t sure what to say. It actually would be nice to get in the water. Then his mind went to Eve, she surely would have enjoyed it¡ He was just about to respond when Silvia flew up.
¡°It¡¯s completely clear! Nothing other than a few mimics still in chest form.¡±
¡°Terrible timing, Wisp,¡± Nev said. ¡°We were having a moment.¡±
¡°Yeah, I could really careless, I don¡¯t like you. Maybe if you weren¡¯t planning on eating Steven then I could try an like you. But I promise ill do my best to mess up all your moments.¡±
Nev glared at the wisp for a moment before glaring at Steven.
¡°What?¡± Steven asked. Unsure if he was supposed to say something.
¡°I¡¯m going to go deal with the mimics.¡± Nev said as she stomped off.
¡°Be carefull!¡± Steven said.
¡°Of coarse Master.¡± Nev said as she shifted into her spider form.
¡°Why must you provoke her?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Because she plans to eat you and send me back to the void.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Well, maybe we can convince her otherwise.¡± Steven said.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t count on it.¡±
A flash of light had Steven turn around to see Sirus and his group of warriors entering. They all looked around at the webs wearily. Steven couldn¡¯t blame them, it looked like a spider¡¯s nest after all. A warm and cozy spider nest. Steven shook his head. ¡°Silvia, do shards affect your personalty?¡±
¡°I told you that¡¯s a complicated question, but the short answer is no. It doesn¡¯t change you anymore than you learning to wield a spear.¡±
Steven just frowned.
¡°Honored Wisp,¡± Sirus said, with a bow. ¡±How does this area look?¡±
¡°See, why couldn¡¯t you have gotten someone more respectful like him,¡± Silvia said before she turned to Sirus, ¡°It¡¯s completely safe other than the poisonous plants and the¡¡±
A monstrous screech echoed throughout the cavern.
¡°Mimics,¡± Silvia continued, ¡°although I believe Steven¡¯s pet spider is dealing with them at this very moment.¡±
¡°I should probably go check on her.¡± Steven said.
¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about her. She is basically indestructible with her recovery shard.¡± Silvia said.
Steven stopped walking. The wisp was right. The way she healed the wounds from the General was insane. He needed a recovery shard. Wait, how did she know what shards Nev had?
¡°I doubt she would have shared that with you. How do you know what her shards are?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light dimly flickered. ¡°I have my ways.¡±
It wasn¡¯t long before the main group of Naga came in and began setting up camp far away from the water lilies. Steven also set up camp away from the main camp like he normally did. The drones did all the work. All he did was tell them where to place the bed and where to build the fire. He wondered if he could place a small house in his inventory for his travels when he got out of this dungeon. He pushed those thoughts aside for now.
His makeshift camp was now assembled, which consisted of a campfire and an elaborate bed that was completely out of place. He then went to find something to eat.
After he got something to eat, Silvia said she wanted to finish draining the Elder Wisp and told Steven to think about where he should place his stat points, and which Shard he wanted to absorb next. Silvia told him to not bother with pulling her out unless it had been a couple of hours. He then went and talked with Sirus.
He told Sirus he was going to level up to thirty and absorb another shard before they went to the final floor and would be testing his new shard out. And that it would be at least two days before he was ready to go to the next floor. Sirus thought this would be a good idea for his warriors to get a bit more essence, anyway. When Steven asked if they could level up, Sirus explained that Goskia had a temporary seeing stone so they could level up.
Sirus went on to explain that it would break after so many level ups. Steven only half payed attention as he pulled out a bound knight for the warriors to kill.
When Steven made it back to his camp, he saw Fidah, along with several female Naga, placing Eve onto a bed of blankets they made for her. Steven walked over and all the females Naga almost tripped over themselves trying to get away from him. They finished up, and he watched them scurry away with a confused expression.
¡°What was all that about?¡±
¡°Welcome back, Master,¡± Fidah said, ¡°and they are just nervous, and also a bit scared of you.¡±
¡°Why would they be scared of me? Do they think I did that to Eve?¡±
¡°No, there are just apparently lots of rumors going on about you in the Naga camp.¡±
¡°Rumors like what?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know them all, but one is that you¡¯re a god of death and can summon monstrous undead from thin air.¡±
Steven almost chuckled while rolling his eyes. ¡°Has there been any change with Eve?¡±
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Fidah looked down, ¡°no, I¡¯m sorry Master.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to say you¡¯re sorry, and you don¡¯t have to call me master.¡±
Steven waited, but there was no response from the elf. She just continued to look down. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I blamed you. I was just upset at the time. This was not your fault.¡±
Fidah nodded while continuing to unpack things.
¡°Do you still want to kill an abomination?¡±
¡°Yes.¡± Fidah said excitedly.
Steven had no idea why Fidah or the Naga were so eager to kill an abomination. They gave more essence, but not a lot more. ¡°Okay, let me find Nev and I¡¯ll get her to bind one.¡±
¡°I will be here.¡± Fidah said.
Steven turned and walked towards the mimics. He really hoped the elf would loosen up around him eventually. He was sure this was Silvia¡¯s fault. No telling what she had told the poor elf.
On his way, he ran into his favorite Drone Charles. After he asked him what Nev was up to. He took off running as if it was the most important mission in the world. Steven didn¡¯t make it far before Charles came running back. Explaining the Queen was making more drones from the mimics for the upcoming fight and that there was also a chest he needed to go through.
Making his way to what Steven thought of as the hidden treasure room, he saw a single chest sitting in the center. There was blood slung all around it, along with deep claw marks, no doubt from the terrifying mimics. He could just imagine the mimic trying to crawl away from Nev while digging its claws into the dungeon floor as Nev dragged them towards her. At least that¡¯s what he hoped he hated mimics.
Walking around the chest while trying his best to avoid stepping in the blood, he placed his hand on the chest, sending it to inventory just to be sure. He then made his way back to his camp. He assumed Nev was off somewhere secluded so she could make drones. Steven briefly wondered if he could make drones, but quickly dismissed the thought.
Seeing Fidah, he told her Nev needed some time to eat so they would have to wait for a bit and he was going to go through a treasure chest. Sitting down on the bed, he pulled out the chest. Inside was a small leather bag and some silver coins scattered at the bottom.
¡°Well, that¡¯s a bit disappointing.¡± Steven said.
Steven sent all the coins to inventory and opened the leather bag. Steven smiled when he saw a long green thin jagged rock. Sending the shard to his inventory, he quickly opened his shard tab to see the name of the new shard. He couldn¡¯t wait to rub it in Silvia¡¯s face that he found another one.
-Shard of the Winged Beast.
-Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest.
-Shard of Natures Blight
Steven stared at the page for a long moment. He was sure he had heard that name somewhere. Suddenly it clicked, and he remembered the staff. He quickly pulled up the 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.)
The staff was amazing, and he couldn¡¯t wait to use it. Now that he thought about it, he could use it now. He had attribute points to spend, and plenty of essence to get to level thirty and get a new shard.
Pulling up his stat page, he decided now was as good a time as any to level up and use a shard. Pulling up his stat page, he spent the fourteen thousand essence and reached level thirty. He then looked over his stat page.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 30
Available Attribute~10
Essence- 17,330
Essence required for next level 16,998
HP ~ 267
Stamina ~ 81
Mana ~ 471
Poise~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 16
Endurance ~ 13
Strength ~ 13
Dexterity ~ 20
Resistance ~ 14 +50
Spirit ~ 28
Talent-
Basic Stealth - 15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
Seeing he had enough for one more level, he spent the required essence and smiled at his eleven free attribute points. Deciding he might as well get his spirit to thirty for the boost, he used two attributes.
A wide grin fell over his face when he saw his new mana total. He was sitting at four hundred and seventy-one, now he was at six hundred and forty-two. It was lucky that he had an affinity with spirit.
¡°Master, that is a lot of mana.¡± Fidah said, wide eyed.
Steven had completely forgotten that his vassals could see his stat page when he had it opened.
¡°What¡¯s your mana at?¡± Steven asked out of curiosity.
¡°One ninety-nine.¡±
Steven was surprised it was so low. ¡°What is your spirit?¡±
¡°Nineteen, I only need two more levels to wield the bow you gave me.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. She had nineteen spirit and her mana was that low. Was this because he had an affinity with spirit, or was there another reason his mana was so high? He didn¡¯t remember what his mana was with only nineteen spirit, but he was sure it was over two hundred.
¡°Thats great,¡± Steven said after a moment. ¡°by the way, I have a shard for you. But we will need to wait till Silvia gets back before you absorb it.¡±
Fidah took a step back, and her eyes grew wide as saucers. ¡°A-a Shard for me? Are you sure the wisp will allow it?¡± Fidah asked.
¡°Yes¡¡± Steven said, unsure why she felt the need to ask that. It was his shard, after all.
Fidah then went down to one knee. ¡°I would be honored to accept this gift, Master.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t like how serious things had just gotten, so he did his best to sound causal. ¡°Yeah, no problem. So let me get your opinion about which shard I should use and which one you would like to have. I have Shard of the Winged Beast, Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest, and Shard of Nature¡¯s Blight. I¡¯m leaning towards the Deep rooted forest one for some reason, although Nev wants me to use the winged beast shard, but if I¡¯m honest, I¡¯m a little scared of heights.¡±
Steven knew if Sirus was here he would say something about his little fear, but he wasn¡¯t and Steven wasn¡¯t about to say how terrified he was of heights, although a bit less so than he used to be.
¡°Master, I- I can not begin to help you chose. I¡¯m not anyone special. I¡¯m just an elf from a small village. I¡¯m no Queen or a Wisp. I¡¯m just a simple elf.¡±
¡°An elf who is my vassal, and I would like to think, friend. I¡¯m simply just curious what you think would work best for me. Also, I¡¯m not anyone special either. I¡¯m really only here by chance.¡±
Fidah didn¡¯t look as if she wanted to speak, but eventually did. ¡°Well, if I was to pick one I thought was best suited for you, it would be the Shard of Nature¡¯s Blight.¡±
¡°Hmmm, you¡¯re probably right. I have the weapon to go along with it.¡±
Steven watched as Fidah¡¯s face turn to confusion, but she said nothing. ¡°So what do you think about the Winged beast shard? Would you like that one?¡±
¡°Absolutely!¡± Fidah blurted out before looking down. ¡°I mean, yes, Master, I would be honored.¡±
¡°Great, you can have that one!¡± Steven said as he inwardly jumped for joy. He did not want to be up in the air if he could help it.
Steven sent the empty chest to inventory and then pulled out the Shard of the Deep Rooted Forest. As he did, a notification appeared, asking him if he would like to absorb it. Ignoring the prompt for the moment, he crawled up on his bed and laid down. ¡°I¡¯m going to absorb this shard now, so ignore me if I scream in pain or something.¡±
He watched as Fidah opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it. Focusing on the prompt, he selected yes.
As soon as he selected yes, he began to wonder if he should stand for this. However, it was too late as the shard burst into thousands of tiny moats of dark green lights and shot into his chest. It felt like fire was running through his veins, followed by pulses of ice. The pain was so intense he was unsure if he was screaming or not. Suddenly, it stopped, and Steven heard a familiar voice.
¡°Wow, another shard so soon.¡±
Looking around, he realized time was frozen or was moving at a crawl. He had no idea. Suddenly, Gideon appeared wearing his odd set of mismatched clothes.
¡°Is your attire part of work uniform or something?¡± Steven was unsure why this was the first thing he said but just went with it. He was curious, after all.
¡°Yes it is,¡° Gideon said with a smile. ¡°Father says it makes me look quite dashing.¡±
Steven went to say something, but Gideon spoke up. ¡°Unfortunately, I¡¯m here on business and not to talk about my attire. Now let me see,¡± Gideon said as he held his hand out towards Steven. ¡°I see, I see, let¡¯s just change this, with that and add a little of this.¡± Gideon mumbled to himself, Steven was only able to make out a bit of what the Angel was mumbling, and it sounded like nonsense.
¡°So are you going to come every time I absorb a shard, and what are you doing exactly?¡±
Gideon continued to mumble to himself for a solid minute before he turned to look at Steven.
¡°Yes, and I can¡¯t tell you.¡±
¡°Can you tell me why you''re doing this?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Yes actually, father chose you.¡± Gideon said, as if that alone explained everything.
¡°Chose me for what?¡±
¡°You are the chosen of Chaos. Most Gods have a chosen, but don¡¯t worry about that. Just focus on collecting all your shards and you will find out soon enough. Alright, it¡¯s time for me to go. Though I have one quick question.¡±
¡°What¡¯s that?¡±
¡°How is Jabriel doing?¡±
¡°He is doing good, I suppose. He normally just stays out of sight and dosen¡¯t speak much. But the portals he creates are amazing. If I¡¯m honest, it feels a bit overpowered when combined with my inventory ability.¡±
¡°I do apologize, but this was father¡¯s will. It will all make sense soon.¡±
Gideon¡¯s response confused Steven, and it took him a moment to gather his thought. But when he went to ask Gideon what he meant, the angel vanished, and the pain returned. Steven had no idea how long he laid there. He was sure he fell asleep after the pain eventually left, but he wasn¡¯t sure.
All He knew was he felt amazing now. Although Gideon¡¯s words still concerned him, he wondered if something would happen with Jabriel. Gideon did mention that taking him on as a familiar would be considered a favor to his father.
Shaking his head, he sat up on the edge of his bed and opened up his shard page to see what sort of ability he gained this time. He really hoped it was some sort of ranged attack, or really, just any sort of attack would be nice.
{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 a lethal attack. Can be turned off at any time.)
~ 2 of 7
Royalty of the Chaotic Arachnid
Ability effect~ Transform into a true Spider King at the cost of 1,000 mana per minute. All attributes get a 333% increase while in this form. You lose all equipment slots and shard abilities while in this form. (Note: This ability will automatically trigger if health goes below 25%. If hit points would be reduced to 0 or less while in this form, those hit points become 1, all effects are removed and the shard user will revert to original form.)
~ 3 of 7
Chaos portal of Undeath
Ability effect~ Summon Undeath familiar.
Familiar Specialty~ Portal creation.
~ 4 of 7
Roots of the Dark Forest
Ability effect~ Create and control two dark root clusters at the cost of 380 mana per minute. Roots have the ability to drain mana from opponents on contact. Mana drain is determined by the spirit attribute.
(Note: Mana can not exceed the maximum mana limit. Strength and speed of roots are determined by wielders attributes.)
Chapter 54: Roots of the Dark Forest
What a dumb name, was Steven¡¯s first thought. Also, why does the shard name change? Was it because of Gideon, or was it just normal? Pushing those thoughts aside, he told Fidah to stay back while he got a handle on his new shard, he then walked over to an opening away from his camp to try out his new ability. He could feel how to create a root cluster, but wasn¡¯t sure how to control it exactly. But that¡¯s what practice was for. First thing Steven did was focus on a spot he wanted to create the root cluster.
It was similar to creating a portal, except he didn¡¯t need to focus on a second location. No sooner than he chose the spot he wanted the ability activated. Steven stumble back as a cluster of five thick black roots appeared on the ground. Steven imagined to most it would look like it just burst from the ground. He felt a huge drain on his mana, but paid that no mind at the moment.
The roots themselves looked more like tentacles than anything else. They were at least as thick as his thigh at the base, and at the tip they were barely the same size as two of his fingers together.
Simply willing a root to move, it did so without delay. It was nearly as simple as moving his arm, except he had to focus on moving it around. It was obvious the ability would take some getting use to. He couldn¡¯t just stand there and focus on moving a root around while getting attacked.The roots were only about six feet long, but looked sturdy. He also had the feeling they could stretch a bit.
He had a single root tentacle move in every which way he could imagine, and the root moved without delay. A wide smile grew on Steven¡¯s face. Though it faded when he tried to move more than one root at a time. He quickly realized it would take more getting used to then being in his spider form. Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind. He couldn¡¯t activate a shard while in spider form, but if his root shard was already active, then.
He was preparing to turn into his spider form when he felt his mana start to rapidly drain away. He canceled the ability, but it was too late. Steven had not paid any attention to how long he kept the ability running. His eyes tunneled, and he slowly lost consciousness.
When he woke up Steven didn¡¯t open his eyes. Instead, he just lay there with his eyes closed. He felt like a complete idiot. He was so excited about his new ability that he didn¡¯t pay attention to how much time had passed or even the mana cost of his new ability. His head was pounding, and he was fixing to open up his stat page and place everything into Spirit. Now that he thought about it, he hadn¡¯t looked at his stats since he absorbed the shard.
¡°I know you''re awake. Come on, get up, we need to talk.¡± Silvia said.
Steven groaned, ¡°please, not so loud. My head is killing me.¡±
¡°It¡¯s your fault you should have waited for me. Which shard did you use?¡±
Refusing to open his eyes, he spoke. ¡°Roots of the dark forest.¡±
¡°Thats a dumb name,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Okay, what does it do?¡±
¡°Not right now. I need rest.¡± Steven said while realizing the dungeon floor was insanely soft. Slowly opening his eyes, the only light came from Silvia.
¡°Stop being an idiot and take a mana potion. You have several, do you not?¡±
¡°Oh, you¡¯re a genius.¡± Steven said as he pulled out a mana potion from his inventory and chugged it. As his mana recovered, his pounding migraine quickly faded. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s much better! I keep forgetting I have those now.¡±
¡°Just open your stat page so I can look over your new shard ability.¡±
Steven did as she asked. He too was curious about what how much the shard boosted his stats. And she should be able to switch between them if it was opened.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 31
Available Attribute ~9
Essence- 332
Essence required for next level 19,156
HP ~ 389
Stamina ~ 101
Mana ~ 717
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 19
Endurance ~ 16
Strength ~ 16
Dexterity ~ 23
Resistance ~ 17 +50
Spirit ~ 34
Talent-
Basic Stealth - 15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
This was what Steven had been waiting for now. He could use his attribute points in the best places. It seemed his best move would be to place six of his stats into spirit so he could reach forty and get the boost from reaching the tens mark, one into vitality and hit twenty, that would leave two points left he had no idea what to do with. Hitting tens was the best thing to do. Deciding it was best to save the last two and wait for Silvia to finish looking over his stats, he just minimized it for now, knowing the wisp could still see it. He then slowly began placing his points. He knew better than to place them all at once again. He looked around. He couldn¡¯t see far, as his dark vision potion had run out. But he would have to deal with it for a bit since he just drank a mana potion, and he didn¡¯t like the sick feeling it gave him from drinking too many potions, not to mention it could cause some real problems down the road. Silvia was here and lit up his immediate surroundings, which was when he realized he was on his bed. Steven looked over towards Fidah, who was most likely the person who carried him to his bed. ¡°Thanks, I would rather not lay on the dungeon floor.¡±
¡°Of course, Master.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t like how Fidah called him master. Nev doing so was fine, but not Fidah. He just didn¡¯t know what to do about it. He had already mentioned it to her. Ordering her to call him Steven just felt wrong somehow.
¡°Okay, that seems like a good ability,¡± Silvia eventually said.
¡°Thanks, Gid¡¡± Steven froze as a sharp pain shot through his mind before leaving just as quickly. He knew better than to say Gideon¡¯s name aloud. He wasn¡¯t sure why, but the why didn¡¯t exactly matter.
¡°My angel friend stopped by and did something to it. He also said I was the chosen of Chaos, whatever that means. I was going to ask¡¡±
Steven stopped speaking as Jabriel appeared next to him. ¡°My brother was here? When? And did you say you were the chosen of Chaos?¡±
Steven was surprised at Jabriel¡¯s interest. The bound angel seemed to be evasive about everything.
¡°Yes, that¡¯s what he said. Is it a big deal or something?¡±
Jabriel bowed to Steven. ¡°Forgive my lack of corporation so far. I was not aware you were the chosen of Chaos.¡±
Steven looked between the bound angel and the wisp. ¡°Will one of you tell me what this even means? And what he was doing to my shard?¡±
¡°It means we have a bright future, as long as you don¡¯t get killed first.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mr. Odling, but I can not. If my brother did not tell you, I feel it would go against Chaos''s wishes to tell you.¡±
¡°Well, I¡¯m not under any restrictions,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Although I don¡¯t know a lot on the subject, I do know the Chosen of any God, small or great, gets certain perks. Like tampering with the shards, as you witnessed. As for what they do, I¡¯m not completely sure. It doesn¡¯t make it more powerful per se, but it does change it according to your soul and raises the rarity of the shard.¡±
¡°So you¡¯re saying my soul wanted to become a giant spider, and that I wanted to control these inky black tentacle roots?¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure. Like I said, I know little about this sort of thing. There is one more thing the Chosen are meant to do.¡±
¡°And what is that?¡±
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Silvia¡¯s light flickered, ¡°Well, it¡¯s not something that happens often but sometimes the Gods use there chosen to fight other chosen to settle conflicts between Gods.¡±
¡°Oh great! Just what I wanted to become, the pawn of some god,¡± Steven said.
¡°Most Gods would punish their Chosen for such words. Though Chaos is a bit different, he prefers to not change the personality of his Chosen. If I¡¯m not mistaken, you are the first Chosen in¡¡± Jabriel stopped talking and grabbed at his head at the same times. The pale light from his bonds brightened and the bound Angel looked to be in pain.
After a moment, he spoke up. ¡°Sorry, it seems I can not speak of such things,¡± Jabriel said, his bonds still glowing a bright white, ¡°let me know if your are in need of my services chosen of Chaos.¡± Jabriel bowed before vanishing into a portal.
Steven was surprised at how respectful Jabriel was being now, but he didn¡¯t have time to think about it before Silvia spoke up.
¡°Okay, now that is out of the way. Let¡¯s get you practicing on your new ability. It seems like one that will take some skill to get the full use out of it. But first you should get your spirit to forty.¡±
The next several hours passed with little progress. Most of the time Steven spent trying to recover his mana. He could only practice his ability for a short time before Silvia told him to cancel it. The only thing that had changed was he could now move around two of the tentacles, although it took his complete concentration and he didn¡¯t understand how he was supposed to be able to control all five, let alone two of the root clusters but Silvia promised him he would get there. He wanted to pull out an undead, but Silvia said he wasn¡¯t ready for that yet and he needed more practice.
At some point Nev showed up and watched a bit but quickly left, saying she still had another mimic to eat and make drones with. Steven just told her good job, they could use all the help they could get.
The next floor was going to be difficult with all the demons. Not to mention right after the fight with the Elder demon, Sorin would try to finish them off before they had a chance to recover. Silvia said his undead knights were the biggest threat, as they were nearly impossible to kill. But as long as they were undead, it didn¡¯t matter much to Steven.
He didn¡¯t get long to rest before Silvia had him back at it. It felt like days before Silvia told him that was enough and it was time for a break. Silvia helped Fidah with absorbing her shard. At first she tried to protest, but Steven found another shard and it was part of their bet.
When Steven asked about the Elder Wisp, Silvia would change the subject, so he just gave up on asking for now.
Silvia told him it would take a while to create the ritual for Fidah and then for her to absorb the shard and that he should get some rest. Steven lay in the bed for a bit, but he couldn¡¯t sleep. He had a few things he wanted to try now that Silvia wasn¡¯t there telling him what to do. His new shard ability also drained mana from those it was in contact with, and he had several undead. If he could use them as a battery, then he could use the ability longer, meaning he could get some more practice in. Not only that if he could send things to inventory through his roots, then that could be quite useful. The last thing he wanted to test was if he could control the roots while in his spider form.
Hours passed while Steven tested out things with his new shared ability, and he wasn¡¯t disappointed. It turned out he could indeed use the undead as a battery of sorts. That¡¯s when he learned some undead had a lot more mana than others, the abominations had twice as much mana as the knights, another thing he learned was that when an undead ran out of mana they would turn to dust and he would gain essence from them, which had Steven jumping for joy. He no longer had to stab an undead repeatedly while sending them to inventory he could just hold them inside his roots and drain their mana till they ceased to exist.
However, he couldn¡¯t pull enough mana from the undead fast enough to keep the ability active. He would have to send the stronger undead back to inventory till he had enough mana to use the ability again. His mana did slowly refill when leaching it from the undead. It just couldn¡¯t keep up with the three hundred and eighty per minute. That, however, didn¡¯t apply while in spider form. All his attributes were increased by three hundred and thirty-three percent. Giving him a much larger mana pool to play with. And it turned out. As long as he already had the ability active when he turned in to a spider, then he could still control the roots. In fact, he could control all the roots with his spider form, that included both clusters of roots. Steven was confused when he found out it didn¡¯t cost any more mana to have both clusters active, but he wasn¡¯t about to complain.
Steven was enjoying his new shard ability. It was quite versatile, especially since he could activate the ability on the other side of the cavern.
Even though it wasn¡¯t a fireball or lightning bolt, he felt quite satisfied with his new ability. Sitting down on his bed, he took off his amulet and pulled out his water pipe. He deserved a break; he had been at it for a while now. After a few long drags, he suddenly had a fantastic idea and jumped up immediately to go test it out.
Silvia was slowing floating back towards Steven. She was exhausted. It wasn¡¯t only from creating the ritual for the Elf but, from fighting with the Elder Wisp. She had every advantage inside Steven¡¯s inventory, but was still only able to pull a single attribute point from the Elder Wisp. She had thought it was going to be easy, but things weren''t so simple.
The Elder wisp was entirely too strong, and Silvia was worried that the Elder wisp¡¯s master would pose a tremendous threat.
Although with Steven being the chosen of Chaos, maybe that could get them out of this mess. They really didn¡¯t need a being that could have a bonded Elder Wisp out to get them. If they had time, Steven would become strong enough to deal with it. They also had that scheming arachnid to deal with. Silvia¡¯s light fluttered as she tried to clear her mind. ¡°One problem at a time.¡±
They needed to deal with Sorin and take his domain, then they could worry about other problems.
Silvia froze upon reaching the makeshift camp. At first, she was unsure what she was looking at. A huge black spider with nearly a dozen tentacles growing from its back was tearing into an abomination with its mandibles as it held another abomination in its tentacles. Her first thought was Steven had found the unformed core and used it to upgrade his spider shard. But on closer inspection, she realized he had found a way to use his root shard and his spider shard at the same time.
She had to say she was impressed. If she was honest, she expected him to be smoking, not working on his abilities. Silvia cringed slightly when she saw him rip out the black heart and eat it. He then threw the other abomination down with his roots with enough force to crack the dungeon floor.
Her light flickered as she realized the roots must be getting the attribute boost from his spider form. She nearly interrupted, wanting to ask how he was able to use both shards, but she waited. He needed all the essence he could get.
She had every one of his shards memorized and she knew for a fact he lost all other shard abilities along with his equipment slots while in that form, not to mention some of his human reasoning. Then she realized it. All he had to do was activate the roots before changing forms, she was amazed that he could still control them though. But that didn¡¯t explain how he got them on his back.
Silvia didn¡¯t have to wait long before Steven finished. Even in his spider form, he had limited mana.
Although she had to admit, he had a lot of mana for his level. Most didn¡¯t start reaching a thousand mana till around level fifty and that was pure mage builds that prioritized mana above all else.
She watched as his spider body melted away, leaving nothing but Steven laying on the dungeon floor in the fetal position. He quickly got up and spotted her.
¡°Hey, how did Fidah¡¯s shard absorption go?¡±
She quickly noticed he wasn¡¯t wearing the amulet, and she almost said something about it, but he had figured out a new way to use his abilities. Maybe he wasn¡¯t lying when he said that stuff helped him concentrate.
¡°Uh, Silvia, are you there?¡±
¡°Yes, sorry. The ritual went fine. She is currently getting the hang of her new ability. It seems you have figured out something new as well.¡±
¡°That¡¯s great! I¡¯ll go check on her in a few. And yeah, I¡¯ve been testing all sorts of things. I¡¯m really liking this root ability. Although I¡¯m not nearly as good at manipulating them while in human form. I do think I¡¯ve gained some insight from my spider form, though. I¡¯ll check it out when my mana fills back up.¡±
¡°How did you get the roots on your back?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Oh that. That was actually simple. I just had a root cluster form on both of my shoulders like this.¡±
The next moment, a cluster of roots formed onto Steven¡¯s shoulders. Making him look like some sort of Eldritch horror from the void. Silvia was just about to say how that could be a great form to take when fighting, when Steven collapsed to the ground. After a quick glance at his health and mana bar, she realized he had just drained every drop of his mana. Silvia sighed internally and flew off back towards Fidah.
How was he the chosen of Chaos? It really made no sense.
Steven woke up with a pounding migraine once again. However, this time, he was lying on the cold, hard floor of the dungeon. Getting up, he pulled out his water pipe and took several long drags before chugging a mana potion and immediately regretted it. He had forgotten he used a dark vision potion not long ago. And if he remembered right, he was supposed to wait seven hours between potions. But it wasn¡¯t terrible, only a strange ache in his stomach, though he could use that as an excuse to not go to the tenth floor yet.
Steven was doing his best to think about anything but the next floor. He knew he had only made it this far because of his inventory ability, and he supposed the oddly named Angelic death as it had saved his life several times. But his inventory ability wouldn¡¯t work on demons. Steven took a few deep breaths to clear his mind, followed by several hits from the water pipe. He then quickly sent it back to his inventory. He really didn¡¯t need to be smoking this much right now. What if the demons sent someone after him like the undead did? He needed to stay focused.
Steven went to his designated area to practice. When he arrived, he sent a mental nudged to his mana bar, and it instantly appeared. It didn¡¯t have numbers, but he could tell when it would be getting low. He then summoned both root clusters on his shoulders. Steven¡¯s goal was to learn to fight with them in human form.
Close quarters combat was not something he was any good at and he needed to have options. Summoning ten tentacle roots on his back would surely cause most to think twice before attacking him. If not, then they each had the same strength as him. Steven may not be overly strong, but ten of his arms would do some damage. Especially when he was finally out of this godforsaken dungeon. He also imagined them each holding a weapon.
He only had a couple minutes before he had to cancel the ability, so he got to practicing. He was able to move around five now after all the practice with Silvia, but this was the first time he had both clusters active aside from his spider form. At first, Steven just practiced moving the roots all at once. It took him several hours to do so. He took many smoke breaks in between, but he was making great processes. On his fifth smoke break, he was struck by an idea.
He used two roots from each cluster as legs to walk around, although it was slow and sluggish. At some point, he noticed he had an audience but was too deeply focused in walking like Dr. Octavius to pay them any mind. Once he canceled the ability, he went over to talk to his audience, which was his vassals and Sirus, along with a couple Naga.
Sirus was the first to speak up. ¡°I just came to see when you thought you would be ready for the next floor. The clan is eager to get out of the dungeon. There has been an increase in missing Naga lately.¡± Sirus looked over at Nev, who pretended to not notice.
¡°I need to practice my new ability a bit more. The next floor is the last floor and I don¡¯t want to rush in prematurely. I¡¯ll see if I can¡¯t deal with whatever is causing your people to go missing. We should be relatively safe in here.¡±
¡°I understand. Take all the time you need. It is better to be prepared than to rush in, after all. If you fail, we all die.¡± Sirus then bowed, ¡°I will go inform the Elders. It will be a few more days.¡±
¡°Thats a lot of of pressure man, I mean you''re the one that brought me into this dungeon in the first place, not that I¡¯m blaming you.¡±
Sirus opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and bowed before leaving.
Steven rolled his eyes. Sirus was now treating him like he treated the Elders. He would have to have a talk with him.
¡°I see you are making great progress.¡± Nev said.
¡°I am. It¡¯s just slow going. I¡¯m much better at it in spider form. I think I should practice it some more. Maybe I can get some more incite.¡±
Nev¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°I think that would be a fantastic idea. Let me join you. You can practice restraining me with your tentacles.¡±
¡°There actually roots, but yea sure, I think that could help.¡±
¡°Roots?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Yep, but I can see why you would think they are tentacles.¡±
Chapter 55: Meeting of Arc Angels and Soft Wings
Some time later Steven had wrapped a root around Nev¡¯s throat, as his other roots each held one of her eight legs, as she dangled in the air.
¡°What are you going to do with that remaining tentacle?¡± Nev asked.
She had a point. He needed to use all his roots to the best of his ability. Although he didn¡¯t know what to do with it. His first instinct was to shove it down her throat to get some eternal damage in, but he quickly dismissed the idea, as Nev was an alley and this was only a mock battle. She also didn¡¯t seem to mind in the slightest that he had a root wrapped around her throat. Ifanything, she seemed to be enjoying it. He was fixing to tighten his grip, but shifted back into his human form. Which dropped Nev unceremoniously to the ground, causing Silvia to laugh. Nev looked a bit disappointed, so Steven pulled out the water pipe and held it out for her to take. She then reverted to her human form and took a few hits from the pipe before handing it back.
¡°We should really practice this more. Your mana pool is getting larger. I can tell by how long you were able to stay in spider form even with the tentacle shard activated.¡±
¡°That was mostly due to me draining your mana through the roots.¡±
Nev¡¯s face turned to confusion, then her eyes widened. ¡°I didn¡¯t even realize.¡±
¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough. I need to talk with Steven. Alone,¡± Silvia said.
Nev glared at Silvia before saying she had some things to get in order for the next floor, anyway.
Steven glanced at Fidah. ¡°I wanted to see what sort of ability Fidah got.¡±
¡°She got wings. Now we need to discuss the unformed core in your inventory. You need to use it to upgrade one of your Shard abilities before we head to the next floor. I was thinking Angelic death or the roots.¡±
¡°Ah, that¡¯s why you wanted Nev to leave. She would want me to use it on my spider shard.¡±
¡°That or take it for herself. There is only one way to get unformed cores, making them extremely rare.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t see her trying to take it.¡± Steven said.
¡°Power can make beings do uncharacteristic things. But we are getting off topic. Do you agree with my assessment, upgrade Angelic death, or the roots?¡±
¡°Yes, I do agree.¡±
¡°Great, now chose one and upgrade it.¡±
¡°I¡¯m thinking about the roots. It¡¯s really my only offensive ability, aside from the spider.¡±
¡°They are both good abilities. It¡¯s really just a question. Do you want to be more aggressive or more defensive?¡±
¡°Well, when you put it like that, maybe I should go with angelic death. Making myself harder to kill would definitely be a boon.¡±
¡°It is your choice but one I think you need to make now so you can get some practice with it.¡±
¡°Okay, but I still don¡¯t know where the unformed core even is.¡±
¡°I put it in your shards tab,¡± Silvia said.
¡°Thats why I couldn¡¯t find it. I had been looking for a new tab,¡± Steven said as he focused on his shard tab and pulled out a round orb thing. He minimized the prompt to look at the unformed core. The orb was about the size of a baseball, with cracks all over it. It looked like some sort of black glass ball that had been dropped one too many times but was somehow still holding together.
¡°Is this what it¡¯s supposed to look like?¡±
¡°Yep, that¡¯s it. I¡¯ve never seen a black one before, but it was probably because it came from an undead.¡±
¡°Can I still use it?¡±
¡°Your system ability should answer that for you.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, good point.¡± Steven said.
He then reopened the minimized prompt.
Would you like to absorb unformed core Yes/No?
(Note: this item will only upgrade a single shard that is still in its base form.)
Selecting yes, Steven received another prompt asking him to choose which shard he wanted to upgrade. Seeing all his shards were available, he chose Angelic Death and selected yes. What happen next was much like absorbing a shard. The black orb shattered into countless moats of lights and shot into his chest. Then pain, lots of pain. He had half expected Gideon to appear, but he did not.
After a while, the pain subsided and Steven was left there covered in sweat. He told Silvia he needed to bathe, and he quickly made his way to a secluded area and took a shower with the water stone. It was annoying holding up the stone with one hand while trying to clean himself with the other, but it was better than nothing. He quickly realized there was some sort of oily stuff all over him. It was difficult to get off with just his hands, but after scrubbing for a while, he managed to get it off, or at least he hoped.
Looking down at his clothes, he decided he wasn¡¯t going to put them back on; the inside was covered in oily black stuff. He would have to ask Silvia about that. Pulling out the water pipe, he took a couple hits and noticed his stash was now getting quite low.
¡°Only one more floor to go.¡±
Looking down at his clothes again, he sighed. He really didn¡¯t want to clean that stuff. Too bad he didn¡¯t have a washing machine. He then remembered he had an Elf that was really good at cleaning. Maybe he could get her to clean it. Pulling out his sleeping clothes, which were just of some shorts and nothing else. He then went in search of Fidah.
Both Silvia and Fidah were next to his bed. The Elf was actually fixing it.
As soon as Silvia seen him, she flew over. ¡°Which shard did you upgrade? Never mind that, just pull up your shard page.¡±
Steven had forgotten to look at it himself. He was too caught up in trying to get his clothes and armor cleaned.
¡°One second,¡± Steven said before he turned to Fidah, ¡°could I get you to do me a favor?¡±
Fidah quickly came over. ¡°yes, of course, Master. What do you need?¡±
¡°My clothes and armor have this wierd, oily stuff on them from absorbing that orb. Would you mind cleaning them? They are still over there.¡± Steven said while pointing behind him.
¡°Yes, of course. I¡¯ll get to it right away.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to now.¡±
¡°It would be my pleasure.¡± Fidah said, already taking off in the direction he had mentioned.
Steven felt kinda bad. Of course, she was going to do what he said.
¡°What have you been telling her? She is always so eager to do what I say.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flickered, ¡°that¡¯s not me, you are a Domain Holder, and she is your vassal. She gets a general sense to just obey you. Any vassal that is a lower level than you will always try to do what you say. Although some come to resent that and turn on their master''s, so don¡¯t abuse it.¡±
Steven just blinked at the wisp for a minute before speaking. ¡°Why is this the first I¡¯m hearing about that?¡±
¡°You never asked, now onto more important things. Open you stats.¡± Silvia said.
Steven did as she asked. He, too, was curious what his new ability upgraded to.
{Stats} {Equipment} {Shards*} {Inventory}
Shards:
~ 1 of 7
Angelic Death- Shard level 2
Ability effect~ Expands the distance up to 25 feet between two distinct targets, while dilating time for both targets at the cost of 100 mana per second. (Note: Ability will trigger automatically to maximum distance when user is about to take a lethal attack. Can be turned off at any time.)
~ 2 of 7
Royalty of the Chaotic Arachnid
Ability effect~ Transform into a true Spider King at the cost of 1,000 mana per minute. All attributes get a 333% increase while in this form. You lose all equipment slots and shard abilities while in this form. (Note: This ability will automatically trigger if health goes below 25%. If hit points would be reduced to 0 or less while in this form, those hit points become 1, all effects are removed and the shard user will revert to original form.)
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
~ 3 of 7
Chaos portal of Undeath
Ability effect~ Summon Undeath familiar.
Familiar Specialty~ Portal creation.
~ 4 of 7
Roots of the Dark Forest
Ability effect~ Create and control two dark root clusters at the cost of 380 mana per minute. Roots have the ability to drain mana from opponents on contact. Mana drain is determined by the spirit attribute.
(Note: Mana can not exceed the maximum mana limit. Strength and speed of roots are determined by wielders attributes.)
¡°All that and it only gave me fifteen feet. I expected it to upgrade the ability into a better version of what it was, less mana to use and maybe some new features.¡±
¡°Oh, don¡¯t complain. The upgrade went well. You get to choose how far to move the target now, up to twenty-five feet. That can make all the difference.Besides, you still have two more upgrades before you max it out. It¡¯s also over twice the range it was before.¡±
¡°Alright, well, at least I upgraded it.¡± Steven then pulled out his water pipe and took several long drags.
¡°We need to get going to the next floor so you need to put your amulet back on so we can wait out your mana being halved.¡±
Steven went to protest, but Silvia continued talking. ¡°We need to wake Eve up, and I don¡¯t see us figuring that out while in this dungeon.¡±
Steven took a deep breath and pulled out his amulet of the Armored Spider and put it on. Immediately, his buzz went away. ¡°I¡¯m ready to get out of this dungeon.¡± Steven said as he walked back to his camp.
¡°I am too. Ive been in this dungeon far too long,¡± Silvia said.
¡°Soon you will have your revenge on the vampire. What will you do then?¡±
¡°I will do my job and keep you alive so that I, too, can grow in power. As for now, I¡¯m going to take another crack at the Elder Wisp.¡±
¡°Okay, you do that. I¡¯m going to get some sleep. If you¡¯re still in my inventory when I wake, I¡¯ll pull you out.¡±
¡°Okay,¡± Silvia said as she flew into his chest.
¡°Arch Angel Gideon, is it true that the chosen of Chaos has an angel as a familiar?¡±
Gideon sighed internally as he turned to the speaker. ¡°He has a fallen angel that is bound and restricted to only using portal magic.¡±
¡°Will that not give him an unfair advantage in the upcoming trial?¡±
Gideon hated these meetings, he didn¡¯t understand why they had to be held in the void, of all places there was nothing here aside from the tables of food that Famine no doubt brought as he always did, but Gideon was required to represent his Father. These new gods never understand the power difference between themselves and the original seven. They thought they were equals, and father refused to put them in their place less they go too far.
¡°I don¡¯t see how it would give him an unfair advantage. Doesn¡¯t your chosen have an elder dragon as a familiar?¡± Gideon watched as the new god that Gideon didn¡¯t care to learn the name of just walked off without saying another word. They always wanted to complain. Even when Chaos didn¡¯t have a chosen, something was always not fair. He was sure that god would go around and get the others to also complain about Steven¡¯s familiar. But that was part of father¡¯s plan.
¡°Gideon, it¡¯s nice to see you again, brother.¡±
A smile formed on his face when he realized who it was. ¡°Azriel, I¡¯m surprised to see you here. Did Death choose a human from earth as well?¡±
¡°He did indeed, father seen how Chaos was on the move and thought it would be interesting to join the trials this round.¡± Azriel said.
¡°Chaos and Death,¡± a feminine voice echoed out, ¡°It seems the trials will be quite interesting this millennium.¡±
¡°Is that you, Celeste?¡± Azriel asked.
¡°It is indeed.¡± Celeste slowly materialized with a smirk on her face.
¡°Lust has also chosen a human from earth, I see,¡± Gideon said.
¡°Rumor has it all Seven are joining the trials this round.¡± Celeste said.
¡°That is unusual. It has been several millennia since that has happened.¡± Azriel said.
¡°Mother said if Chaos is getting involved, then things should get spiced up around here. She gets bored without any entertainment, you know,¡± Celeste said.
¡°Of course, Lust would want to spice things up,¡± Azriel said.
¡°It will be nice to see all Seven of you again,¡± Gideon said.
¡°Is that so, little brother?¡± A deep booming voice echoed out.
¡°That voice can be none other than Honor¡¯s lackey.¡± Celeste said with a wide grin plastered on her face.
Suddenly a huge man with a lion¡¯s head appeared in front of Gideon, wrapping him in a huge hug.
¡°Little Gideon! It¡¯s been far too long.¡±
Gideon was finally able to speak when the Leonid sat him back down. ¡°Brahmaz, it has been what ten thousand years since we last seen each other.¡±
¡°Twelve thousand years as of yesterday.¡± Brahmaz said.
¡°Well, it¡¯s been far too long,¡± Gideon said.
Brahmaz looked around at the tables of food and the new gods that were eating and his eyes narrowed. ¡°I see Famine is still at it. There are a lot of new young gods. This trial will be quite the large one.¡±
¡°And it wouldn¡¯t be the same without you here with us,¡± Azriel said.
Brahmaz turned with a wide grin. ¡°You¡¯re absolutely right, little Azriel!¡±
One by one, the Arc Angel for each of the original seven appeared to discuss this season¡¯s trial. Despite them being Angles, they were in charge, as they were much older and stronger than the younger gods. Brahmaz had to demonstrate this, but only once. Disintegrating a god was far above any of the younger gods at this time, and they quickly fell in line.
All new gods must participate, however, only once. After that they were free to join or not. Though younger gods normally joined, as there were few ways to gain levels once god hood was reached. There was always at least one Arc Angel present to oversee the trials. On rare occasions, there may be two or possibly three. But for all seven to be present was something rare indeed. And would no doubt shake the foundations of this universe.
Steven woke up and glanced at his timer. Only two hours remained until his mana would resume its normal recovery. He couldn¡¯t believe he had slept so long. He expected to see Silvia or Fidah, but neither one was around. Glancing over to Eve, he saw her still fast asleep. To him, she looked dead. But Silvia assured him that she was still alive, well alive as an undead could be. Silvia didn¡¯t know why Eve wasn¡¯t waking up, but she was sure they could find someone to wake her.
Looking in his inventory to make sure Silvia wasn¡¯t in there, he got out of bed and noticed his clothes and armor neatly placed on a box.
¡°Thank you, Fidah.¡± Steven mumbled as he got dressed. His hands shook a bit from nerves.
The tenth floor was so close and he was worried he wasn¡¯t ready to face demons. He was so close to getting out of this dungeon and then could do what he wanted. He hated being trapped in this place and forced to fight. Steven wanted to explore the new world he found himself in, and, of course, save Eve. Which was really priority number one.
Steven went out in search of Silvia. They needed a plan of action when they entered the final floor. Silvia was sure there would be some sort of trap waiting. And he wasn¡¯t about to dismiss that. They needed to be as ready as they could be.
Nev was the first person he ran into. She said she had finally finished up with the drones and wanted him to take a look. He thought it was odd, as she never showed him before, but went along with her, anyway. His face turned to horror when he saw the mimic looking drones. He looked at Nev with wide eyes. The creatures looked horrifying. Long pale arms that hung to the ground with enormous claws. Pale skin, with long skinny arms and legs, they looked like something from a nightmare and their faces¡
¡°What happened to their faces?¡± Steven couldn¡¯t help but ask.
¡°I¡¯m unsure this is how I birthed them. I suppose the chest on their heads can¡¯t be replicated. But don¡¯t worry, look.¡± Nev said as she tapped one of them on its blank white face. It was as if a black hole opened up with thousands of razor-sharp teeth. ¡°Aren¡¯t they great? They are my favorite creation of all time. Too bad there aren¡¯t more mimics around.¡±
Steven was unsure what to say, but he was happy the thirty something odd drone mimics were on his side. ¡°Great work Nev, I¡¯m sure they will be very useful on the tenth floor. ¡°
No sooner than Steven spoke, he heard several voices in his mind speak all at once. ¡°We will not disappoint you, my King.¡±
Steven shuttered and stepped back. Even their voices were like a hellish nightmare. And when did drones have the ability to speak into his mind?
¡°Aren¡¯t they wonderful!¡± Nev said with a huge smile.
¡°Umm yes, they seem quite capable¡¡± Steven looked between Nev and the faceless mimic drones for a moment longer. ¡°I¡¯ve gotta go talk with Sirus. I¡¯ll come back and find you in a few.¡±
¡°Okay, I¡¯m getting them ready. I¡¯m going to send ten in first to scout before we enter.¡±
¡°That sounds fantastic.¡± Steven said as he walked off. He wasn¡¯t sure what he was going to talk with Sirus about. He just wanted away from the mimic drones. As he walked, he noticed a drone following him on the ceiling. He breathed a sigh of relief as he realized it was just a normal drone. He almost asked the old drone what he thought of the mimic drones, but decided against it, he didn¡¯t need to start some sort of feud.
It didn¡¯t take him long to reach the Naga camp. He saw Silvia next to Fidah talking with Sirus and the other Naga leaders, so he walked over.
¡°Ahh, you''re awake,¡± Silvia said upon spotting him, ¡°how much time is left before your mana recovery returns to normal?¡±
A quick glance showed Steven what he was looking for. ¡°About an hour.¡±
¡°Okay then, in an hour we will go to the tenth floor.¡± Silvia said to Goskia.
¡°We will have our warriors ready by then, along with potions for your group as well.¡± Goskia said.
Silvia then flew off, followed by Fidah. ¡°Are you coming?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Yeah.¡± Steven said as he turned to follow. After a couple of minutes of walking, Silvia stopped and turned. ¡°Okay. Go on, Fidah, he has been wanting to see your shard ability.¡±
¡°Yes, of course.¡± Fidah said as a pair of large, white feathered wings just appeared on Fidah¡¯s back.
It was so sudden Steven took a step back before moving closer to get a better look. The wings themselves were beautiful. Reminding him of paintings of angels. The wings were at least twice as tall as him. The downside was there would be no way to use those wings in a tight space.
Steven was petting the feathers before he even realized he was rubbing his hands down her feathers. His first thought was how great it would be to have a pillow made of this stuff. No, an entire bed. Why stop there when you could just sleep in the wings themselves?
¡°Soft are they not.¡± Silvia said, knocking Steven from his thoughts.
¡°They are. I don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve ever touched anything so soft before in my life.¡± Steven said.
¡°She can feel every touch as well isn¡¯t that amazing.¡± Silvia¡¯s light flicker mischievously.
Steven was rubbing his face on the feathers and slowly looked up. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I was just¡¡±
¡°It is perfectly fine, Master. You can touch my wings as much as you would like.¡±
¡°Did you hear that, Steven? You can touch her as much as you like. I would recommend you take her up on that and stay away from that arachnid.¡±
¡°Speaking of Nev, have you seen the new drones?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Way to kill the mood. You two are never going to give me any half elves at this rate. But to answer the question, no, I have not seen the latest drones. Why is there something different about them?¡±
¡°They are faceless mimics that can speak into your mind,¡± Steven said.
¡°Interesting, that Spider¡¯s ability to make drones is quite unique. No wonder she basically controls the swamp lands. Do they look strong? Oh, never mind, I¡¯m going to go take a look for myself.¡±
Silvia then left Steven and Fidah standing there alone.
¡°Do you want to keep petting my feathers?¡±
Steven¡¯s face lit up. ¡°I would. I could just crawl inside and take a nap!¡±
Somehow or another, Steven found himself lying on Fidah¡¯s wings as she cradled him inside behind her back. It was much like a hammock, the softest hammock that ever existed. It turned out the wings were quite dexterous and could turn them in many directions. He told Fidah to tell Silvia she had no idea where he was when she came looking for him. He did it more to annoy the wisp than anything else, as it would be obvious that he would be in the feather cocoon on her back.
When Silvia returned, Fidah did exactly as Steven instructed. Telling Silvia she had no idea where Steven went off to. When Silvia asked what she was doing with her wings, she said she was training. To Steven¡¯s surprise, Silvia flew off in search of him, not even considering that he was inside her wings. Steven was about to tell Fidah to let him out, but decided to stay for a bit longer. It was extremely soft.
Steven woke up to shouting. He hadn¡¯t expected to fall asleep. As he listened to the shouting, he quickly realized it was Nev arguing about where he was, and something about drones going to the tenth floor.
¡°Fidah, you can let me out now.¡±
¡°Yes master at once,¡± Fidah said as she slowly opened her wings to let him out. Once Steven was out, Fidah had her wings vanish.
¡°Sorry Fidah, I fell asleep. Your wings are just¡¡± Steven stopped talking as everyone was just staring at him. Several Naga, along with Sirus, were also there.
Silvia flew directly into his face. Steven activated angelic death to move her a little to the side. Silvia¡¯s light flickered a bit, but she didn¡¯t comment on that. ¡°Did you order Fidah to say she didn¡¯t know where you were?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Yeah¡¡± Steven said sheepishly.
Chapter 56: The Last Floor of the Dungeon
¡°I didn¡¯t mean to fall asleep. Her wings are just so soft,¡± Steven said.
¡°Of course you didn¡¯t mean to fall asleep. Her feathers secrete a sleeping residue. If you didn¡¯t have such an insane resistance, you could have starved to death in there!¡± Silvia said.
Steven blankly looked at Silvia for a moment before turning to Fidah. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have let me die in there.¡± Fidah was silent while looking down. ¡°Right?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Oh, leave her alone. This is your fault. She was only following orders.¡± Silvia said. ¡°I would have eventually found you.¡±
¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me she had sleeping powder on her wings? You saw me touching it.¡±
¡°How was I supposed to know you were going to crawl in there and then order her to lie to me?¡±
¡°You¡¯re the one that believed it! It was obvious I was in there!¡± Steven said.
¡°Oh, and i¡¡± Silvia started.
¡°If I may,¡± Sirus interjected, ¡°it really matters not. We have found Steven and we are all ready to enter the final floor.¡±
¡°I have to agree with the reptile,¡± Nev said. ¡°Let us finish this.¡±
¡°Where is everyone else?¡±
¡°If you wouldn¡¯t have been fondling Fidah¡¯s feathers, then maybe you would know the plan.¡±
¡°Alright, well, I¡¯m here now, so what is the plan?¡±
¡°Well,¡± Silvia started, light flickering, ¡°I thought it best¡¡±
¡°Master,¡± Nev said, cutting off the Wisp, ¡°there is no point in bringing everyone to the next floor. We can just simply come get them when we finish the final floor.¡± Nev finished speaking by walking up to Steven and locking her arm in his. ¡°Shall we?¡± Nev said, walking him towards his the glowing barrier.
¡°Let¡¯s do this,¡± Steven said.
¡°I have already sent ten of my new drones in to scout. If they are alive, they should be waiting as soon as we enter with a report of their findings. The remaining drones will follow in after one minute in case there is a big fight i don¡¯t want them to get caught up in it.¡±
¡°Awesome sounds like a good plan. Good job, Nev.¡± Steven would prefer all the mimic drones to die here, but he wasn¡¯t about to say that out loud. He was about to place his hand on the shimmering barrier when Fidah spoke up.
¡°Master, can I have my bow? I now have enough attributes to wield it properly.¡±
¡°Of course.¡± Steven said as he pulled it out. ¡°Also, I want you to come in last.¡±
Fidah¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°But Master please, I am much stronger now!¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want you to get hurt! You can¡¯t even use your new shard effectively yet you still need practice. That¡¯s an order you are to be the last to enter the tenth floor.¡±
Fidah looked down. ¡°Yes, Master.¡±
Steven could tell Silvia was saying something to her but turned back to the barrier, arm still locked with Nev.
¡°Shall we go together?¡± Nev asked.
Steven placed his hand on the barrier at the same time as Nev did. He nodded to her, then selected yes.
He was grateful Nev did it with him. He wasn¡¯t sure if she could smell the fear on him or she just was just being her normal strange self. Either way, he was grateful.
The next thing Steven seen was a huge black dragon. His eyes widened as he saw it already breathing black flames towards them. Neither he nor Nev had a chance to react before they were both engulfed in black flames.
Steven was sure that was the end of it. As the flames covered them, he waited for the pain, but other than the smell assaulting his nose, there was nothing. He didn¡¯t feel any pain. He looked over at Nev, now in her spider form, who looked to be just as shell-shocked as him. She didn¡¯t seem to be in pain either, and fire was her bane. She then jumped into action and began crawling up toward the ceiling. It took Steven a few more seconds to understand that the black flame was some sort of poison mist. A poison that had absolutely no effect on him. The Dragon continued to spew poison from its mouth for a solid thirty seconds. meanwhile Steven just stood there and watched the poison mist.
¡°What are you doing? Thats a dragon it could kill you, hurry and send it to inventory! Or is it too big?¡±
Steven snapped out of it as soon as he heard Silvia¡¯s voice. Now that he was paying attention, he seen the dragon had rotten flesh and bone showing in places. He wasn¡¯t sure if the dragon was too big, but since it was undead, he would try. Nev was shooting webs at its face, trying to wrap its mouth closed, which seemed to annoy the dragon more than anything else.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. He had never seen Nev¡¯s webs snap like that.
¡°Steven!¡± Silvia said, light flaring.
¡°Right! I¡¯m on it.¡± He quickly opened a portal while praying his inventory would work. He opened a portal to the part of the dragon that didn¡¯t have scales, afraid that its scale could have some sort of magical protection. Suddenly, the Dragon was just gone. Several demons stood on the other side of the cavern at a tunnel entrance, and even at this distance, Steven could tell they were shell-shocked and confused. Nev, falling from the ceiling in the place the dragon once occupied, was all it took for the demons to turn and run down the tunnel.
¡°Well, that was anticlimactic. I¡¯m guessing that dragon wasn¡¯t the Elder demon.¡±
¡°Ive never heard of demons running before,¡± Silvia said in a confused tone, ¡°and no, unfortunately, that was not not the Elder Demon. Good news is that must have taken a lot of resources for him to summon from the underworld. And It took you less than thirty seconds and a single mana to deal with it.¡±
¡°Master, that was excellent. Ive never seen someone deal with a dragon so quickly!¡±
¡°I really didn¡¯t do much. I just sent it to inventory.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t sell yourself short,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Regardless of how you handled the dragon, you still used your power to deal with it. I can tell you right now the Elder Demon used more than just his own power to get an undead Dragon here. Likely through mass sacrifice of his own kind.¡±
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
¡°I could barely hold its mouth closed for a second with my webs before it broke through them. We would have been done for without you. Once that dragon was done spewing poison, it would have attacked with other means.¡±
¡°Are you okay Nev? I see a green hue around you.¡±
¡°I am fine, Master. My resistance was just enough to deal with the poison breath. This is just the after effects it will fade quickly. We are lucky it used poison and not fire.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right about that! It doesn¡¯t seem to have affected me at all. What is your resistance?¡±
¡°Forty three is my resistance.¡± Nev said.
¡°Now, do you see how good your amulet is? You have a total of sixty-seven. I don¡¯t know any beings that could just stand inside of a dragon¡¯s poison breath and not even flinch or be damaged at all.¡± Silvia¡¯s light flickered. ¡°That portal ability along with your inventory ability seems a bit overpowered.¡±
¡°Agreed. It is ridiculous. And I wouldn¡¯t say the poison didn¡¯t affect me at all, my clothes are drenched it that poison mist. Should I change them or something?¡±
Nev chuckled at that. Steven was just about to say something when the light from the entrance flickered and the remaining drones came pouring through.
¡°I thought they were meant to come in a minute afterwards. It¡¯s been over a minute.¡±
¡°The barrier likely takes a while to traverse.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Oh, well, that¡¯s good to know, anyway should we have pursued those demons earlier?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t bother. That dragon announced our presence with that poison. Everyone knows we are here now.¡± Silvia said. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe that Elder demon could get a dragon even of the undead type. He must have sacrificed almost all the demons under his command.¡±
¡°Well, that works out for us,¡± Steven said. ¡°I hope they don¡¯t have a demon dragon or something!¡±
¡°Demon dragon?¡± Silvia asked. ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous, that¡¯s not a thing.¡±
Steven was about to ask how he was supposed to know that when Sirus approached. He began asking if there were any threats yet and Silvia began to explain what had happened.
Nev sent half her drones to scout, aside from a few normal drones that stayed back, mostly as guards for Steven. They couldn¡¯t do much, but if he was knocked out or something, they could drag him to safety. At least, Nev told him.
The god of Undeath looked on with disgust. He would have never even thought to look at this back water world if it didn¡¯t have the chosen of Chaos on it. This human was a bane of his existence. All he had to do was touch an undead, and it was sent to the human¡¯s soul scape which was impossible to escape. He wasn¡¯t sure if he could even escape such a place. The human had too much power, but the other gods didn¡¯t see it as that big of a deal. If he could target other beings besides undead, then they would also file a complaint, but that wasn¡¯t going to happen. He would have to deal with this issue himself. The problem was this: Steven was the chosen of Chaos, a being that could not be trifled with. That was, unless they could get support from one of the other Seven. And with this recording of the fight with Steven and this undead dragon, he would surely get the attention of Death. This Steven had an absurd power and coupled with an undead Angel, he was unstoppable. Something had to be done! Surely Death would agree it was his angel aiding this human, after all.
Sorin wanted to flee. The Elder demon was able to summon two undead dragons at high cost, both to Sorin and the demon. And that dammed human just took the breath of the dragon head on and then simply disintegrated the dragon with a single touch. The blood bag just stood in the dragon¡¯s breath, as if he knew he was being watched and wanted to mock him.
If it wasn¡¯t for the Undead god taking an interest in him, he would have already extracted the domain from himself and fled. This Steven was a monster. It was better to try and willingly get rid of the domain than have it forcefully ripped from him. But the undead god had offered him a way out, even if the human was able to get to him. However, the god did say if Steven was able to touch him, then there would be nothing that could be done for him.
If it wasn¡¯t for the dam wisp, he would have one of his undead knights sit on the throne and pretend to be the dungeon lord. It had saved him in the past. Sorin bit into the neck of one of the human females from his prison and drank deeply. The human knew better than to make a sound. The human passed out from blood loss. But she was still alive. He didn¡¯t want to kill his blood bags, although it happened from time to time. He like to see how close to death he could get them. It was a little game he liked to play to pass the time, although, since being trapped in the dungeon, it had been harder to get humans sent to him. So he had to be careful. He had drank a bit more than normal, but it didn¡¯t matter. It would be over soon one way or another and what was one more dead blood bag? This was the most blood he had consumed at one time in days. His eyes grew wide with blood lust and he stood, feeling invigorated from all the fresh blood. He would be fine. The god had enchanted his staff. It would instantly kill any being bypassing all shard abilities. He had strict instructions to use the staff as soon as he seen Steven.
Opening his dungeon view, he watched Steven as he casually walked and talked with the wisp. It made Sorin¡¯s blood boil the causal way the human walked, as if a dragon was just an everyday occurrence and his dungeon was not a threat at all. Although maybe his dungeon was no threat to him, his level was obviously a lie, after all. For all he knew, this being could already have a fully functional core.
He hoped the other dragon along with the Elder Demon would be able to handle the human. He was walking right towards them. Surely this Steven had to be exhausted and drained of mana from disintegrating the last dragon, even if he didn¡¯t show it.
Sorin watched as one of the demon assassins attacked the human. But the human didn¡¯t even flinch and somehow disarmed the assassin. After that, the spider quickly dealt with the assassin. Sorin frowned as the other two assassins didn¡¯t even attempt to attack and just ran back to the Elder Demon. He knew they were going to report, but he wanted to see them make the human bleed.
Sorin hated the human. Steven mocked him constantly. Pretending to be a level one and slowly gain levels in his dungeon while he made his way to kill him. It was insane he didn¡¯t understand why he kept up this charade; it was surely the Wisp¡¯s doing. He should have made her leave when she refused to soul bond with him, but he never expected this.
He was starting to doubt Steven was human at all. The Wisp probably hired him somehow and had been planning this for years now. Sorin squeezed the staff in his hand. It didn¡¯t matter. All he had to do was deal damage with the staff and that would be it. He did his best to calm down while he watched the human continue to walk down the tunnel, the traitorous Wisp leading him right to the Elder Demon.
¡°Bring me another!¡±
No sooner than Sorin shouted, a servant ran in the room and knelt.
¡°Master.¡± The servant kept their head lowered while ordering two skeletons to drag the human back to the cells. ¡°Is there a specific human you would like, my lord?¡±
¡°Bring me the two newest humans.¡±
¡°At once, my lord.¡±
Sorin watched as the demons were torn apart by the Spider Queen. The human not even having to raise a hand. Sorin didn¡¯t understand how he got that damned spider to become his servant. Whatever the reason, it wouldn¡¯t be much longer and they would be approaching the main chamber, which was right outside the two stone doors of his throne room. He glanced over at his dozen skeletal knights. He previously had thought they would be all the defense he would ever need but, they no longer brought him the safety he once felt from them.
A servant returned with two female humans. These humans still had their spirit and fought back, but their fighting spirit would soon fade. It was only a matter of time. After all, these blood bags had only been fed on a handful of times. Sorin smiled as they looked at him with fury in their eyes. He loved breaking them. The look in their eyes as they slowly lost all hope and come to accept this was now their life. Not even death was an escape for them in his domain.
¡°Come here.¡±
¡°Fuck you!¡± One of the humans said, spitting in his direction.
¡°I love your spirit,¡± Sorin said. ¡°It¡¯s females like you that have me continue to prey on your kind. Your defiance makes your blood all the more sweet.¡±
The next moment Sorin was standing over one of the humans teeth sunk into the side of her neck while she tried to struggle. The other human tried to help her friend, but Sorin causally grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground with one hand while not turning around. Once the first human stopped struggling, he dropped her, and she fell to a heap on the ground. Then he turned his attention to the second. Right before he sunk his teeth into the next one, his servant spoke.
¡°My lord...¡±
¡°What is it!¡± Sorin hissed.
¡°It¡¯s the human he is entering the room.¡±
Sorin turned. Once he saw Steven enter the final room, he dropped the human and appeared on his throne to watch the scene unfold. He wouldn¡¯t dare miss this, even for fresh blood.
It would be difficult even for this over powered human to deal with an Elder demon and a dragon, not to mention an elite demon assassin. Even if he could make it past this room, he would be so drained of mana he could probably just send out his undead knights to finish him off. The spider was an issue and one of the Half naga was decent but Sorin felt he would be fine now. After all, he had the enchanted staff that an Angel of Undeath gave him.
Chapter 57: The Elder Demon
Steven was engulfed in black poison for the second time today, and right after, he had cleaned his clothes. However, this time he didn¡¯t waste any time and had the dragon sent to inventory before its poison mist even had a chance to reach the others. The entire room fell into silence.
Steven got his first look at the Elder demon. It was not at all what he expected. A fat dark red skinned demon stared at him with confusion written on his face. The large potbelly, pig nosed demon was not very intimidating. The only thing that even looked threatening were his typical demon wings on his back. It would have given Steven pause, but since coming to this world, he had seen much worse such as mimics.
¡°Okay, Mr. Demon, we will give you one chance,¡± Silvia said. ¡°Turn tail and run or face the wrath of Steven.¡±
The Elder Demon¡¯s eyes were wide with shock but as Silvia spoke, his eyes slowly began to narrow.
¡°Did you just say the wrath of Steven? Do you expect me to turn tail and run from a name like that? You may have had me with a different name, but the other demons would never let me live down running from someone with the name Steven.¡± The Demon began to laugh a booming laugh. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you destroyed the dragon with such ease.¡± The demon said, looking right into Steven¡¯s eyes. ¡°But it¡¯s obvious you are some sort of dragon slayer. It¡¯s just my bad luck to be matched up with the likes of you. And Wisp, I absolutely hate you I''ve always hated your kind. Do you honestly think a demon would ever run from a lowly Wisp? Your kind are only food for us. Just a bundle of essence waiting to be devoured.¡±
Steven was trying to formulate the best plan of action. He couldn¡¯t just send the demon to his inventory, he had already tried it with a demon assassin. He didn¡¯t expect it to work anyway, but he had to try. Nev was already on the move with her entourage of mimic drones. The demon was chatty, which was fine with him. It would allow Nev to get in position.
Sirus and his warriors stood behind Steven, ready for a fight. Although they were there mostly just to help if more assassins came.
Which was exactly what happened. A large four armed demon with a massive great sword appeared from thin air, swinging his enormous weapon directly at Steven¡¯s head. The next moment, time slowed for just an instant and the assassin¡¯s great sword clattered to the ground twenty-five feet away. The demon was just as shell-shocked at losing his weapon as Steven was by getting attacked. It took the Demon a long moment before it pulled out two smaller swords. The swords were still as tall as Steven, and the demon had to wield them with two hands each.
¡°Well, the moment of surprise is gone, but you are still a low level weakling. You will die all the same.¡± The assassin said.
Steven wasn¡¯t overly worried about the assassin since he had plenty of mana now and could just teleport away if need be. He held his spear in his hand and activated his roots, one on each shoulder, in case he needed to change into spider form.
The assassin charged him head on but Steven was ready for this and already had a small portal ready. He sent a root through, immediately grabbing the assassin¡¯s ankle from behind, causing him to trip and fall face first on to the dungeon floor. Not wanting to waste his opening, he created another portal above the assassin and stabbed his spear into the back of the demon assassin twice before he vanished, reappearing some distance away. Steven dismissed his roots, afraid of draining his mana too low. Steven frowned. Despite getting the best of the assassin, he had barely done any damage. His health bar was still at ninety-one percent. Seemed he would have to use his spider form to get any solid damage in. The assassin was hesitant to attack him, and from what he could tell, he was trying to figure out how to deal with him. Steven didn¡¯t think his root trick would work a second time, as the demon nearly moved his foot the first time.
¡°You are an interesting human. I give you that much. I didn¡¯t expect this fight to be so thrilling, much less last longer than the opening salvo.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t respond and instead took a quick glance at the Elder demon and Nev. The wings were bound by webs and Nev was on top of the demon trading blows, while her drones held off the demon¡¯s minions. He wished he could help, but the assassin was all he could deal with at the moment. If he left Sirus and his warriors, they would no doubt get cut down. Steven¡¯s shards were well suited to deal with assassins, unless he ran out of mana.
It was up to Silvia. She would make her move soon, and hopefully that would be enough to deal with the Elder demon. With Nev¡¯s help, the assassin wouldn¡¯t stand a chance.
¡°Not a talkative one, I see. Well, that¡¯s alright, I¡¯ll have your corpse reanimated and have a chat with you then.¡±
Steven¡¯s brow creased at that. This assassin would reanimate his corpse just to talk to him.
Suddenly, a bone cage surrounded the assassin and spikes began piercing the assassin. Though this only lasted a few seconds before the assassin¡¯s body grew and broke out of the cage. Only to be bombarded by several spells from the warriors. Although only Sirus was able to do any damage, the assassin changed back to normal size as several red balls of lightning appeared over his head and began shooting towards every one that attacked him. Three of the five Naga warriors fell immediately, and Steven was unsure if they were dead or just unconscious.
Steven threw his spear at the demon assassin, only for it to get blocked. However, the lightning triggered shaving off a few more percent of his health. Even after the bombardment of spells and Sirus¡¯s attack, the assassin was still at seventy-one percent. The issue was the demon¡¯s level was far greater than Steven¡¯s.
Steven sent the assassin¡¯s great sword from the start of the fight to his inventory and recalled his spear. At this rate, he would run out of mana and be forced to use a potion, and he wanted to save that for Sorin. The assassin then appeared behind Steven while in mid swing, intending to take his head in a single swipe. Steven wouldn¡¯t even had known what was happening if it wasn¡¯t for his shard activating. As the sword clattered to the dungeon floor, and the assassin appeared back in front of Steven at a distance, cursing. Steven sent that weapon to inventory as well.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°Your shard ability is a nuisance. But it surely has to drain your mana rapidly. And you will soon run out and die. Sirus stepped up next to Steven, blood dripping from his chin.
¡°Watch out for the red lightning. It¡¯s dangerous.¡± Sirus said, ¡°I sent the others back. They are no use here.¡±
Steven nodded. ¡°And are you okay? Do you need a potion?¡±
¡°I will be fine.¡± Sirus said.
¡°Isn¡¯t this cute, a human and a half Naga working together? Let me see if I can''t¡¡±
Dozens of explosions went off behind the assassin and he stopped mid sentence before vanishing and reappearing just out of reach, staring at the Elder demon in disbelief. Half of the pot bellied demon¡¯s body was gone as several adolescent wisps flew around Silvia.
Steven thought he had seen something black growing from the wounds of the demon, but decided he needed to deal with the assassin first. Creating a portal, Sirus shot his bone lance through while Steven shoved his spear through the portal. Both attacks landed on the assassin, however that was all they could manage before the assassin vanished and appeared behind Sirus. Instead of going for his neck, he stabbed him in the back. Steven tried to activate his ability, but it was too slow and all he did was waste a hundred mana trying to stop the assassin. Sirus fell to the ground in a heap. The assassin then came at him. However, instead of going for a lethal attack, he just stabbed him with a dagger in his stomach twice before the assassin immediately jumped back.
¡°Seems your ability only works when you are going to take lethal damage.¡± The assassin said with a wide grin, ¡°all abilities have their weaknesses.¡±
Steven couldn¡¯t respond as he was doubled over in pain from the stab wounds. His health bar was still at seventy-three percent, but it felt like his insides were on fire. The assassin then came in for a final blow, but Steven¡¯s ability triggered once again. As it did, several drones dropped next to him. The demon snarled before vanishing back and grabbing his one remaining sword. More explosions had the assassin glancing back at the Elder demons fight.
¡°The poison will kill you quickly. Please excuse me. I need to help deal with that pesky spider and wisp.¡±
Steven¡¯s mana was low, and he wasn¡¯t sure if he should use a mana or health potion. Making his decision, he downed a mana potion. His health bar was still above seventy percent. The Assassin was heading right towards Nev, who was locked in battle with the Elder demon that now had half his body made of some strange black stuff. Steven did his best to push down the pain as he activated his roots on both his shoulders. Then opened a large portal before shifting into his spider form and dropping through. He landed just in front of the assassin, who stopped and stared wide eyed at this new threat. Steven had meant to drop on top of the assassin, but his timing was a bit off.
¡°What are you?¡± The assassin asked.
Steven didn¡¯t waste any time as he charged in. The demon was fast but couldn¡¯t keep up with the boosted attributes of his spider form and was wrapped in roots with in seconds. Before the assassin had a chance to even move, Steven had ripped off an arm and a leg from the assassin with his mandibles. Steven then went for the kill. But the assassin used whatever vanishing shard he had and appeared dozens of feet away, staring at Steven in wide-eyed horror as black blood gushed from his missing limbs. Unfortunately, Steven couldn¡¯t open a new portal while in spider form, and his mana was draining quickly, so he rushed at the assassin with all the speed he could muster.
The assassin snarled, ¡°This isn¡¯t over.¡± He was then engulfed in black flames.
Steven waited a moment longer before changing back into his human form. His mana was low after that brief fight in spider form. A quick glance showed he was at just over two hundred mana. Realizing the fight wasn¡¯t over, he turned to the Elder demon.
Now that he could get a good look, he realized the demon was now half made of some sort of black tendrils. Wisps continued to blow up on the Elder demon, but they were few and far between. Steven knew those were just the wisp Silvia convinced to help her. Most the wisps refused to fight anyone but Sorin. When Steven noticed Nev¡¯s health bar below, half, he immediately started in her direction.
He tossed a health potion to one of the drones. ¡°Go help Sirus.¡± Steven then started at a light jog towards Nev and Silvia. While in mid jog, Steven opened a portal and jumped through, spear in hand. He landed directly on the back of the Elder demon, shoving his spear into the back of the demon with all his might, which was barely enough to penetrate the flesh of the demon and Steven continued to fall towards the ground. In his mind he imagined piercing the demon with his spear and stopping his fall but things never went as planned at least his lightning proc¡¯d off causing the demon to seize up momentarily giving Nev the chance to rip into the chest of the Elder demon no doubt going for his heart, however she didn¡¯t have enough time and the demon roared in defiance as the stun wore off. He then used some sort of ability to sling everyone aside from Silvia across the room. Somehow Steven and Nev got thrown in the same direction. Although she landed on her feet and he landed in a heap on the ground.
¡°Thank you, Master.¡° Nev said as she downed a health potion and charged back in.
Steven didn¡¯t have many options for attacking outside of his spear. He didn¡¯t have much mana left and didn¡¯t want to take his spider form and run completely out of mana. Since they expected Sorin to immediately come at them afterwards. So he froze, unsure what to do.
He wasn¡¯t sure if his inventory ability would work on Sorin, since he was a vampire and not the traditional undead. Silvia had told him it should, though. He was afraid of relying on that. Steven then realized he did have a ranged attack in the form of portals and his spear. Even if it didn¡¯t do much damage, the lightning would make a huge difference. So Steven began opening portals and stabbing the demon. It took seven more tries before the lightning went off again. The demon seized up and Nev was able to do some hellacious damage on the demon. His health bar was already down to thirty percent. It was only a matter of time at this point. Steven continued his assault. He was starting to feel pretty good about their odds right up until the demon hit twenty-five percent and everything changed.
At first, Steven thought the demon had fallen in half, but he quickly realized that wasn¡¯t the case as an enormous explosion of fire blasted them back. When the smoke cleared, there stood two Elder demons. One made of the black tendrils and the other was the Elder demon back at full health, looking like he had never been in a fight.
Steven was out of the blast zone, and just stared wide eyed at the scene. Nev had been right in the middle of it and her health bar was now at forty percent and missing several limbs.
¡°This isn¡¯t good.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Can you convince the wisps to help?¡±
¡°No, most refuse to fight anyone but Sorin.¡±
¡°Do you have any suggestions?¡±
The demon began laughing in a booming manner. ¡°Do you see now? How futile your attempt is. This is the true power of an Elder Demon! You mortals are just fodder for me to grow to new heights. Just give up and I¡¯ll give you quick deaths, aside from the wisp I¡¯m going to feed on her soul slowly till there is nothing left of her to go back to the void.¡±
As the demon spoke, Steven¡¯s eyes were glued to the black shadow tendril demon. The thing looked horrific, almost as terrifying as the mimics, although it just stood there unmoving.
Chapter 58: Half of an Elder Demon
Steven racked his brain for ideas. His mana was slowly refiling, but even at full mana, he didn¡¯t know how much help he would be. From the looks of it, he wouldn¡¯t be able to leave this to Nev either. She wouldn¡¯t go down without a fight, but she couldn¡¯t take on both demons at full health.
¡°What will it be, Queen of the spiders?¡± The Elder Demon asked, ¡°I''ll allow you to keep me company for a while if you submit yourself to me.¡±
Steven was out of ideas and decided they needed back up even in the form a chaos. So he opened a portal above the Elder demon¡¯s true form, and proceeded to drop out abominations, but he quickly stopped when they didn¡¯t even bother with the Elder demon and went after Nev and a few drones that were left.
¡°Damit!¡± Steven quickly began opening portals and sending them back to inventory.
Meanwhile, the Elder demon looked on in confusion and seemed to notice Steven for the first time.
¡°Human,¡± the Elder demon bellowed, ¡°are you a Domain Holder?¡±
Seeing as the demon wasn¡¯t attacking and Nev¡¯s wounds were healing at a visible rate, he decided buying time was his best bet. ¡°I am, and who are you?¡±
The Elder demon laughed, ¡°No wonder you were able to make my little brother flee, and here I thought you were a minion of the spider. It seems you are the one I need to deal with to end this, since the spider refuses to speak to me.¡±
Shit, shit, shit. He wasn¡¯t trying to become the target. ¡°How about you go deal with Sorin and I let you have this dungeon.¡± Steven said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.
A booming laugh came from the Elder demon. ¡°I would love to give that pesky vampire what¡¯s coming to him, but unfortunately I¡¯m under contract at the moment and can not take you up on that. I think I will take your domain instead. I appreciate you bringing it all the way to me. I¡¯m impressed such a low level being was able to get this far, even with the help of the spider.¡±
The next moment, a massive flaming axe at least twice the size of Steven appeared above him and came crashing down at him so quickly Steven didn¡¯t have a chance to react. Time slowed and Steven watched his mana drop to one eighty-three. The axe still on fire fell to the ground next to him. Steven quickly opened a portal and sent the still flaming axe to inventory.
¡°What just happen?¡± The demon asked.
Steven could have asked the same thing. He didn¡¯t even see the demon move. Where did the axe even come from? He really hoped the demon didn¡¯t have another one. He had burned his hand a bit while sending it to inventory.
It took the demon a long moment before he spoke, ¡°I sense divinity on you human, did one of the gods send you here?¡±
¡°Say yes to throw him off. We need to buy time. The spider is trying to heal,¡± Silvia said in his mind.
¡°What if they did?¡± Steven said.
¡°Then they sent you to your death. You are too weak to deal with me. I grow tired of this. My undead half has finally regained its mana. This is over.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes grew wide. ¡°Did you say undead?¡± Steven asked as he opened a portal behind the undead half of the demon.
¡°It matters not, little human. Your domain is mine!¡± The demon said with a wide grin.
Suddenly, the undead half of the demon vanished, and the demon¡¯s eyes bulged. ¡°WHAT!¡± The Elder demon began looking in every direction in a frantic manner before his eyes locked on Steven. Then he charged at Steven at an incredible speed. But before the demon made it to him, he was tackled by Nev.
Steven shook his head in disbelief. Nev¡¯s health was already at seventy-nine percent. Her healing ability to recover was insane. The Elder demon¡¯s health bar immediately dropped to fifty percent when Steven sent his other half to inventory.
Silvia floated over. ¡°It seems we were yet again lucky.¡±
¡°That seems to be the case.¡± Steven said as he watched Nev and the demon fight. It was a one sided fight at this point. The demon must have lost a good portion of his strength when he lost connection with his other half. Steven turned to Silvia. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me his other half was undead?¡±
Silvia was silent for a long moment. ¡°I didn¡¯t know. I¡¯m sorry that was my fault. This is the first I¡¯ve ever heard of a demon doing something like this. It must be a shard ability. I¡¯ll be more aware of this in the future.¡±
Steven was surprised the wisp was being so earnest, and even apologized.
Unsure what to say, Steven just watched the fight with the demon and the spider. There wasn¡¯t much of a fight left at this point. Nev had the demon mostly wrapped in webs. Once the demon¡¯s health bar was at five percent, she stopped and wrapped him up in webs even tighter.
¡°We should rest before we finish him. We don¡¯t want the Vampire to attack us before we are ready.¡± Nev said as she walked over.
¡°That is actually a good idea.¡± Silvia said.
Nev stared at the Wisp with narrowed eyes for a moment, ¡°thanks, your attack with the adolescent wisps were well timed. I don¡¯t believe i would have survived without your intervention.¡±
¡°Thanks, but don¡¯t think this means I like you. You¡¯re still a filthy arachnid!¡±
Steven rolled his eyes.
Nev turned to Steven. ¡°Thank you, Master, for distracting the demon with the undead. It allowed me to regenerate my health. That was clever. It¡¯s probably a good idea to always keep some undead in your inventory.¡±
¡°Is it over?¡± Sirus asked as he hesitantly approached.
¡°Almost,¡± Silvia said, ¡°we still need to deal with the blood sucker in the other room. But he will remain trapped in there until we finish the Elder demon.¡±
Sirus nodded and sat down far away from the demon. ¡°Steven, I want to say thank you. I would have died if you wouldn¡¯t have sent the drone.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t mention it. I¡¯m sorry most of your warriors died.¡±
¡°They had a warrior¡¯s death. Though my clan is severely weakened, children and those without a fighting spirit now make up the majority of our clan.¡±
¡°It is only a matter of time before your clan will become strong again,¡° Silvia said, ¡°though I would recommend joining with another race and swallowing your pride. There is strength in numbers.¡±
Steven stopped paying attention to Sirus and Silvia¡¯s conversation and he pulled his bed out of inventory and collapsed into it.
He was worried the Elder demon would break through the webs, or the vampire would find a way to get to them when they weren¡¯t expecting it. However, exhaustion quickly won, and he passed out.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
The gall of that human to go to sleep inside the main chamber of his dungeon.
Sorin had thought the Elder Demon had them. But those impudent demons and their small talk. He wasn¡¯t sure why the human didn¡¯t use his touch powers to kill the Elder demon at the start, but he could never understand the minds of the lesser races, so there was no point in trying. They were all fools. He hoped one day he could surround himself with intelligent beings such as himself. Maybe he could even become a god himself, but first he had to survive this.
He wasn¡¯t expecting them to bind the Demon and recover. It was the damned Wisp¡¯s fault. She knew all the rules of the dungeon. He couldn¡¯t even escape now that they were in the main chamber! The dungeon seen it as the fight was still going on. So he was trapped.
However, he had his elite knights to deal with the spider. His knights were nearly indestructible and would contentiously regenerate. It was the human that held the true threat. Sorin knew that¡¯s where the Elder Demon messed up. If he had went straight for the human, then it would have been over. Sorin was starting to figure out the human¡¯s ability. The human must have had to charge his touch power before it would work, otherwise he would have used it immediately. The one thing that was throwing Sorin for a loop was how he was able to summon Undead that he had killed. It made no sense, and this wasn¡¯t the first time he had done it. It should not be possible but, this Steven was surely sent by a god otherwise why would the god of Undead get involved.
¡°Gather all the slaves from the dungeon and bring them here. Make sure they are bound.¡±
Humans always make poor decisions when dealing with hostages and all he needed was a moment¡¯s hesitation from the human to use his Staff. The God of Undead said it would bypass all protections and shards. All he had to do was aim and shoot. The only downside was his staff would be destroyed afterwards. But it was that or likely lose his life when his domain was stripped from him.
Blank strained the limits of his concentration. He could feel the slightest pull from his familiar. It had been decades since he had to strain this much on anything relating to magic. He didn¡¯t understand what could block an Elder Wisp aura projection. There had to be more at play here than the simple human he had encountered.
Blank was a level one hundred and fifty being. Life herself had requested him, then bestowed him with a blessing. There shouldn¡¯t be anything that could interfere with his abilities on that planet. At least nothing Steven could get his hands on. He had been trying for two days with no breaks. But he was close now.
It was only a matter of time before he could solidify the connection. His ability was finally off cool down. And now had enough astral mana. He just needed to push all the mana through the connection to form the other portal. Opening portals to planets in the same solar system was hard enough, but opening portals across galaxies was something only a handful of beings were capable of, aside from gods. But even then, not all gods were even capable of such a feat. Blank was one of the few mortals capable of such a thing. And it was only possible do to his blessing from Life.
He didn¡¯t like to portal into a place without scoping it out first, but he had lost Kat, and would slaughter all those responsible! After all, Kat was a gift from Life and she wouldn¡¯t mind. Or at least, he hoped. Blank cleared his mind. He had to concentrate. He was getting too old for this. Once he got Kat, he would see about retiring if life would allow it.
Blank took a deep breath. ¡°Not much longer now.¡± He said as sweat poured from his brow.
Steven woke up to several faces staring down at him. The only light came from Silvia, meaning his dark vision had ran out once again. Steven was about to ask what they were all doing, just staring at him, when Silvia spoke up.
¡°You just pulled out a bed and went to sleep? We thought something had happened to you. There was blood all over your armor and Sirus said he seen you get stabbed by the assassin¡¯s blade multiple times.¡±
Steven¡¯s hand reflectively moved to his stomach, and he quickly realized he wasn¡¯t wearing a shirt.
¡°Your arachnid had already checked you over for wounds, but there was nothing.¡± Silvia said.
Steven had forgotten he got stabbed. When he changed into his spider form, it must have healed him. That was good to know.
¡°Well?¡± Silvia asked.
¡°Well what? I¡¯m unsure what you want from me.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flickered a few times before she flew off.
Then everything went dark.
¡°She was just worried about you.¡±
Steven immediately recognized Nev¡¯s voice. But didn¡¯t see her anywhere in the dark. After drinking a dark vision potion, his eyes slowly began to focus, and he saw Nev sitting on the bed next to him. Sirus had left as well, only leaving Nev. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to get out of this dungeon! I¡¯m tired of drinking these disgusting dark vision potions.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry Master you won¡¯t have to drink melted Drone eyes much longer. From what Silvia told me about Sorin, he won¡¯t be too difficult to deal with. It¡¯s his Elite Knights that are the real problem, but you can deal with those once we remove a piece of their armor.¡±
Steven was silent for a moment while he processed what the spider Queen said.
¡°Did you say Drone eyes?¡±
¡°Yes Master, that is the main ingredient in the dark vision potions the Naga use.¡±
Steven groaned. He had been about to pull a plate of food out but suddenly lost his appetite.
¡°Don¡¯t worry Master, we only provide the Naga with fresh Drone eyes. The Drones go to the alchemist and pull their eyes out there so they¡¡±
Steven held his hand up. ¡°That¡¯s enough. You don¡¯t need to explain any further,¡± Steven sighed, ¡°so what is the plan? Do we finish the Demon and then head through those stone doors?¡±
¡°Yes and I thought it best if you finished off the Elder Demon, then you could extract its unformed core and also get the bulk of the essence.¡±
¡°And you¡¯re okay with me having it?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Of course, master, I am but your servant! I would, however, appreciate it if you let me have an unformed core in the future. I¡¯m sure we will get more.¡± Nev smiled seductively.
Steven narrowed his eyes. From what Silvia told him, these unformed cores were rare and most never acquired even one. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll let you have the next one.¡±
¡°Thank you Master, after all, you have two more in your inventory right now.¡±
¡°I, do?¡±
¡°The two undead dragons you have,¡± Nev said.
Steven seen Silvia flying towards him at a ridiculous speed, stopping right before she ran into his face. He had to move back to not be blinded by her pulsating light. ¡°Do not be giving cores away, you imbecile!¡±
¡°You heard us talking?¡±
¡°Of course I did. The entire dungeon can hear you two,¡± Silvia said as her light flared.
Steven looked at Nev with a confused expression before turning back to Silvia.
¡°Are you okay?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Of course I am! Are you okay?¡±
¡°You seem...¡± Steven started.
¡°I¡¯m perfectly fine!¡±
The Wisps light was flaring a bright pink, then changing to a dark green. It was so intense that it was starting to make Steven¡¯s eyes hurt.
¡°There is something obviously bothering you,¡± Steven said as he held up a hand to shade his eyes, ¡°is it because we are fixing to face Sorin? Are you scared or something?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light dimmed. ¡°I¡¯m not scared, it¡¯s just, I never thought this day would come. I¡¯ve wanted revenge for so long and now that it¡¯s so close, I¡I.¡±
¡°I¡¯m here okay,¡± Steven said, ¡°and if you decided you don¡¯t want revenge, then we can let him live.¡±
¡°No! I want revenge, it¡¯s just¡¡± Silvia¡¯s light grew dimmer as she talked, ¡°the council will hear of my betrayal. They are the ones who assigned him to me. They also warned me to stay away from you.¡±
¡°Stay away from me? Why?¡±
¡°Because there is the touch of divinity on you. It¡¯s not really important.¡± Silvia¡¯s light grew brighter. ¡°I will just make my own council of Wisps. I¡¯m sure some of the adolescent wisps will evolve.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t sure how that worked, but Silvia had been there for him and even saved his life a couple of times. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll help you any way I can. As long as it doesn¡¯t involve a dungeon. But first we need to deal with this Sorin. I want out of this dungeon!¡±
Silvia¡¯s light grew brighter and brighter as Steven spoke, ¡°You''re right, so I was thinking when we enter Sorin¡¯s main chamber you pull out a dragon.¡±
Steven listened to Silvia talk for a long while. Her plan was simple. The Elite Knights Sorin had were the biggest threat. So dealing with them would be a priority. Since the dragons would no longer have the Elder Demon to control them, they would just attack any and everything in sight. And she was right. It was simple for him to send the creatures back to inventory if they got out of control. Even Steven had to admit the portals coupled with the inventory ability made him the bane of all the undead. It almost felt like cheating.
Silvia tried to explain that he would do his best when he brought chaos to the table, since he was blessed by Chaos. Though that part was confusing to him, and he just agreed and then she moved on to the other part of her plan. Sorin apparently had some sort of shadow jump ability, so it could be tricky to touch him. Silvia explained how inferior his dexterity and strength were to Sorin. Silvia didn¡¯t let them ask many questions, in fear Sorin may figure out what they were planning. She guaranteed them that Sorin was watching and listening right now. She had them shake their heads, yes or no, if they understood and agreed.
Steven wasn¡¯t sure how long he had to listen to Silvia go over the plan. But eventually it was time to kill the Elder Demon. Steven didn¡¯t have as much reservations about killing the Demon as he did killing the Undead General. This was a demon, after all.
Chapter 59: The Throne Room
Killing the Elder demon was an absolute pain. Steven stabbed the demon several times with his spear before giving up and changing into his spider form to finish him. Even then Steven ran his mana low multiple times while dealing with the demon. He didn¡¯t want to think about how he killed the demon. He still could taste the demon¡¯s brains, and he shivered at the thought of it. This spider shard was definitely affecting his judgment while in that form.
+66,666
When Steven received the essence for killing the Elder demon, he was confused and elated at the same time. Did they just kill the devil? When he asked Silvia about the number of essence he received, she didn¡¯t seem to understand the significance of six and just told him that¡¯s just how much essence he received and that it was likely his pet spider received the same, but maybe not since he dealt with the other half of the demon.
After sending the demon¡¯s body to inventory, he found the unformed core in his shard tab. Silvia told him to use it, but. Steven wanted to wait. If the unformed cores were so difficult to come by, then maybe he would get another shard to upgrade in the future. One that was preferably an offensive magic spell. Opening his stat page, he looked it over.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 31
Available Attribute ~2
Essence- 66,998
Essence required for next level 19,156
HP ~ 471
Stamina ~ 101
Mana ~ 923
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 20
Endurance ~ 16
Strength ~ 16
Dexterity ~ 23
Resistance ~ 17 +50
Spirit ~ 40
Talent-
Basic Stealth - 15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
He had completely forgotten about having two attribute points available. A couple more points in spirit could have made all the difference in the last fight. But that couldn¡¯t be helped now. Even with the massive amount of essence he gained, he could only get three levels. But he would have five free attribute points. If he continued to gain around twenty mana for each spirit, he could roughly get one hundred more mana. But he would have to use all five points in spirit.
He felt that was probably the best thing to do, though his build was relying on mana to the extreme. If he ran out of mana in a fight, it was likely he would die. His health was just too low. And his only attack was in his spider form, which even used more mana. And after dealing with the Elder demon, he realized he could really use some more strength. Getting it to twenty would give him a boost in strength. But if he ran out of mana, then he couldn¡¯t even be in that form. Steven let out a frustrated sigh. He had to use the points. There was no reason to go into the final boss fight with so many free attributes. He also needed to hurry, as Sorin could leave his throne room now. Making a hasty decision, he began placing all his points into spirit.
He hoped he didn¡¯t make the wrong choice. Silvia then flew up to him and began silently looking over his stats. She didn¡¯t comment, so he too just focused on his new stats.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 34
Available Attribute ~0
Essence- 211
Essence required for next level 27,019
HP ~ 471
Stamina ~ 101
Mana ~ 998
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 20
Endurance ~ 16
Strength ~ 16
Dexterity ~ 23
Resistance ~ 17 +50
Spirit ~ 45
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
He was getting a lot of mana now. He was so close to a thousand; Steven didn¡¯t know why, but he really wanted to reach a thousand. With his Angelic Death shard, he was starting to feel pretty safe. The shard had saved him multiple times. Although remembering how both assassins figured out how the ability worked and managed to work around it. Made him realize he couldn¡¯t completely rely on the shard even if he had plenty of mana. It only worked if he was going to take lethal damage. So he could still lose an arm or leg and then just slowly bleed out, or just do small amounts of damage to him. But if he could learn to activate it manually, with enough mana, he would be basically untouchable. Though he wasn¡¯t sure what stat or stats, he needed to boost his reaction time. Now that he thought about it, dexterity was most likely the one.
But at the cost of twenty-seven thousand to level, attribute points would be difficult to come by.
¡°Okay, your mana is looking good,¡± Silvia said. ¡°I think you are ready as you can be.¡±
Steven closed his stat page.
¡°Does this mean we are ready?¡±
¡°Yes, I need to talk with Sirus, then let¡¯s finish this.¡±
As Silvia flew off, Nev walked over in her human form, along with a half dozen Mimic drones. Steven had hoped they all died, but it didn¡¯t seem like he was that lucky.
He also seen a familiar drone. At least he thought that was the Drone he named. Steven just nodded as the drone bowed to him. Which seemed to excite the Drone.
¡°Master, look! Six of them survived!¡± Nev¡¯s face was lit up with excitement.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Steven looked over the Mimic Drones and realized they were just as terrifying as ever.
¡°Let¡¯s just hope they survive the last boss fight.¡± Steven said as he inwardly hoped they would all die. He absolutely hated mimics. He hadn¡¯t forgotten about the mimic that nearly killed him and Eve. Steven had been planning ongoing back to kill it. But didn¡¯t want Nev making more of those hideous creatures.
¡°I¡¯m sure we missed some. Once the dungeon is completed, I will scour the dungeon for every last one.¡±
¡°Fantastic¡¡± Steven said.
Silvia then flew over. ¡°We are ready. Now remember the plan.¡±
A few moments later, Steven placed his hand on the two massive stone doors.
Would you like to enter Sorin¡¯s throne room Yes/No?
Steven¡¯s heart was beating out of his chest.
This was it. All he had to do was deal with this final boss and he could get out of this damned dungeon!
¡°Master, is everything okay?¡± Nev asked.
¡°I¡¯m just ready to get out of this dungeon, is all.¡± Steven selected yes. Instead of a flash of light and getting sucked into a barrier, the doors simply slowly opened and he stepped in.
The first thing he noticed was a large throne. It had several gems embedded in it. Then his eyes then fell on the dozen or so barely dressed female humans chained up in a line at the foot of the throne. At the end of said chain was who Steven assumed was Sorin. He had his foot propped up on one of the girl¡¯s back holding a staff.
Steven didn¡¯t get to even begin to understand what was going as a dozen undead knights charged him. At the same time, he saw a beam of red light shoot from the Vampire¡¯s direction. He got a strange feeling from the beam of light. Somehow he knew his shard ability wouldn¡¯t be triggered. He didn¡¯t think he could dodge it either. Maybe he could pull out an undead to take the damage. Steven realized it was taking a long time for the spell to move through the air. That¡¯s when he realized everything was frozen. Well, everything but him. Not wanting to waste time, he moved out of the path of the spell and was fixing to open a portal to send Sorin to inventory when a voice spoke.
¡°I presume you are Steven Odling, from the planet earth, yes?¡±
Steven quickly spotted the speaker. It would have been hard to miss the man with a black business suit holding a large scythe. Steven¡¯s eyes widened when he realized the halo hovering above his head and the wings folded behind his back.
When looking at the Angel, Steven got a strong sense of death and he gulped. ¡°Uh, Y-yeah I¡¯m Steven.¡±
¡°Okay great,¡± The Angel said as he unrolled a scroll, ¡°according to section C of article sixteen you are in violation of shard infringement and I will need to extract your Shard, Chaos portal of Undeath.¡± The angel then looked up from the scroll. ¡°Do you agree to this willingly, or will we need to extract the shard forcefully from you?¡±
A chill ran down his spine. He glanced around. This was terrible timing. He didn¡¯t know what was even happening. The Angel, however, waited patiently for Steven to respond.
After a long moment, Steven spoke. ¡°Can I discuss this with my Wisp?¡±
The Angel¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°You have a Wisp?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
The Angel looked around, seemingly for the first time. Nothing caught his attention till his eyes fell on the red beam. After looking at it for a moment, he floated over to Sorin and looked at the Staff the vampire was holding.
Sorin had a strained look on his face, no doubt from casting that spell. Though he didn¡¯t understand what the vampire had to do with talking with Silvia.
¡°This is odd,¡± Steven heard the Angel mutter to himself.
¡°Do you see?¡± A familiar voice echoed throughout the room.
Steven didn¡¯t think he would be so happy to hear that voice. ¡°Gideon!¡± Steven said as he whirled around.
Gideon floated in the air cross legged eating a purple apple. ¡°Hello Steven.¡±
¡°Wait! Have you been there the whole time?¡± Steven asked.
Gideon didn¡¯t answer he just looked on at the other Angel, who was now knelling with one knee on the ground.
¡°Forgive me Arc Angel Gideon! I was not aware you were present.¡±
¡°What are you doing here, exactly?¡± Gideon asked.
¡°I was given a Scroll Verdict.¡±
¡°I see. Bring it to me,¡± Gideon said.
Steven could do nothing other than watch. He had no idea what a Scroll Verdict was, but with the respect the Angel was giving Gideon, he felt that all this would work out. After all, Gideon had overseen all of his shards.
¡°This is wrong. Steven¡¯s ability to send undead to his Soul Space is not a shard, but an awakened blessing. As for why you are trying to take his shard of¡¡± Gideon stopped talking and turned to a seemingly random spot. After a couple of seconds, another Angel appeared.
¡°Orden, leave us.¡± The new Angel said.
Immediately, the Grim reaper looking Angel bowed, then vanished.
¡°What brings you here, Azorith?¡± Gideon asked.
Steven thought he saw Gideon wink at him, but it was difficult to tell.
¡°Stop playing games Gideon. You know exactly why I¡¯m here.¡±
¡°Since Steven is the chosen of Chaos, then you agree that I can give him a shard, correct?¡± Gideon asked.
¡°You know the rules. It has to be random.¡± Azorith said.
¡°Naturally, Chaos would have it no other way.¡± Gideon said.
¡°Then I will proceed,¡± Azorith said. ¡°Jabriel, show yourself.¡±
The sudden appearance of Jabriel surprised Steven, and he nearly jumped as the bound angel appeared right next to him, then casually walked towards Gideon and Azorith.
Steven then heard Jabriel¡¯s voice in his head. ¡°Thank you. I will one day repay my debt to you.¡±
This only confused Steven further. All he could do was watch as Jabriel approached and stood in front of Azorith. The Angel looked on with what Steven thought was disgust, but the next moment, the glowing chain bindings began to disintegrate. Once they were gone, Jabriel stretched his wings. ¡°I¡¯ll be going now,¡± Jabriel said.
Azorith looked like he wanted to protest, but said nothing. ¡°It is done. I hope you understand this is on you, Gideon. Jabriel had over ten thousand years left of servitude.¡±
¡°Ah, that¡¯s nothing really.¡± Gideon casually said.
¡°You are wasting your potential by working for Chaos!¡± Azorith said. ¡°I¡¯ll be leaving and I¡¯ll let you finish up here. We can continue this discussion at the upcoming event.¡±
The Angel then vanished, but Steven barely noticed, as he was preoccupied with the empty feeling inside him. It was as if he had lost something.
¡°Sorry Steven, we knew it would come to this but father wished for Jabriel to be released and this was the only way.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t understand what is happening. Why was Jabriel released? Not that I¡¯m opposed to him being free. It¡¯s just. This was a bad time.¡± Steven said, gesturing around.
¡°You will receive a portal ability as recompense, although it will be random. I have no choice in the matter. However, just know that your portal ability will be nowhere near as good as Jabriel¡¯s ability. Although it will be your power and you won¡¯t have to rely on others. Portal abilities are extremely rare. Not even all gods have that ability.¡±
¡°Okay,¡± Steven said. ¡°But could I maybe get a fireball or something instead?¡±
Gideon laughed for a long minute before he finally spoke. ¡°No, I¡¯m sorry that is not possible, but you still have Shard slots available, so maybe you can find one.¡±
Gideon then had three shards float up in front of Steven, or at least he thought they were shards. All he could see was the outline of them. The rest of the shard was invisible.
¡°Touch one and absorb it.¡±
¡°Right now?¡± Seven asked.
¡°Yes, and know once you touch one, the others will vanish.¡±
Steven reached out and touched the shard on the left.
Do you wish to absorb the Shard of the Chaotic portal Yes/No?
¡°Well, that doesn¡¯t sound promising.¡± Steven mumbled before he selected yes.
Steven waited for the pain, but there was none.
Gideon seemed to notice and spoke up. ¡°It is only replacing the empty Shard and should already be done. You won¡¯t feel the usual sensation of absorbing it. Now ready yourself. I am fixing to leave and time will resume its normal time.¡±
¡°Wait! How is this fair? Our entire plan was to use my portal ability. I don¡¯t even know what this one does.¡±
¡°This is true.¡± Gideon said.
¡°Does that mean I can go up behind Sorin and send him to inventory?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t allow that there are other gods at play here. I could, however, allow you some time to read over your shard or maybe you could have time to do something else.¡±
Steven looked around the room. He could read over his shard description, but that wouldn¡¯t help much. He would need to test it out before using it in a fight. ¡°Could I maybe move the girls into another room?¡±
Gideon was no longer looking at him and had his backed turned to him, presumably finishing his apple.
Steven didn¡¯t waste any time and ran over to the chained women. He saw Sorin there and part of him wanted to send the vampire to inventory, but he thought better of it. Gideon said he couldn¡¯t allow that, and he didn¡¯t want to anger that Angel.
Seeing a side room he could put the girls in, he walked over, but he wasn¡¯t sure how to get them there since they were all chained together and time was frozen. He could just leave them there, but the dragons would no doubt kill them with their poison breath. And he didn¡¯t want to worry about them. He then remembered the roots and summoned them on his shoulder, but after only holding two girls up with the roots he was toppling over, he was just not nearly strong enough. He didn¡¯t want to waste more mana, but reluctantly changed into his spider form and quickly carried them to the other room. Soon as he finished, Gideon turned around and tossed his apple core behind him. It vanished before it hit the ground. ¡°Well, it¡¯s time.¡± Gideon said.
¡°Could I maybe get a little closer?¡± Steven asked as he inched towards Sorin.
¡°Unfortunately, no,¡± Gideon said, ¡°However, you can sit on the throne as I leave if you would like.¡±
Steven looked at Gideon, who had a wide grin on his face. Steven said nothing and quickly made his way to the throne and sat down. It was a lot closer to Sorin, so he would take it.
No sooner than Steven sat down, he saw what looked like a portal arc slowly materializing, even as time was frozen. It was appearing right where he was standing before time froze.
¡°Well, that¡¯s poor timing.¡± Gideon said as he vanished and time resumed.
The next few moments were utter chaos. Steven watched as Sorin¡¯s face turned to confusion and he stumbled forwards as he no longer had the support of the girl under foot.
Then Steven¡¯s eyes widened to the size of saucers when he saw the old Wizard Blank step out of the portal. Nev and Sirus stared at Steven with confused expressions on their face. As he was now sitting on the throne and Sorin was falling face first to the ground. However, all his attention was drawn to the old wizard. The red beam of magic cracked into Blank¡¯s barrier and a loud echoing boom rattled the entire dungeon. The impact was so strong Steven felt his self being pushed back on the throne even at his distance. He thought he saw the vampire go flying across the room, but it was hard to tell with all the dust filling the room.
Steven was unsure what to do, so he just stayed put while the smoke cleared. He did, however, top off his mana with a potion.
Steven almost jumped out of his skin when one of the mimic drones spoke into his mind while standing right next to him. ¡°My King, I am here to assist in any way necessary.¡±
Steven took in a sharp breath and shook his head.
¡°I need you to locate Dungeon Lord Sorin.¡±
¡°At once my King!¡±
Steven could now see well enough to make out a figure where the portal had been. It looked like the figure was running right towards him.
Steven then cursed himself for staying in the chair. Once the being got close enough, he seen it was a Naga, and instead of reacting, Steven just froze, as his mind tried to process why one of the Half Naga was charging at him with a dagger.
The next moment, the Half Naga appeared next to him and time slowed as the dagger vanished less than an inch from his throat. Snapping out of it and taking advantage of the confused Naga, he summoned both his roots on his shoulders.
Steven was surprised by how easily he could detain the Naga with his roots. He was use to enemies much stronger than him. As his roots drained mana from the Naga, a level and name appeared.
Shirem White Scale
Level 29
Chapter 60: Katarina Evershine
¡°Shirem?¡± Steven asked in confusion.
The Naga was trying to break from the roots when he just stopped and looked at Steven in horror before redoubling his efforts to no avail. The next moment, Silvia was next to him.
¡°Where did Sorin go? And how are you on the throne?¡± Silvia asked light flickering. ¡°Also, where did that Naga come from?¡±
¡°More importantly,¡± Steven said, ¡°I saw Blank, the one that¡¯s bound to the Elder wisp in my inventory.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flared wildly. ¡°What! Now of all times.¡±
Now that the dust had mostly cleared, Steven spotted a prone figure on the ground. His eyes widened when he realized it was the old wizard. He was bleeding from his mouth, ears and eyes, or at least where his eyes were. They looked to be burned out husks now. He hadn¡¯t done any damage, so he couldn¡¯t see the old wizard¡¯s health bar, but he was surely dead. Steven was surprised by how much damage Sorin could do. He would have thought the old wizard was much stronger.
¡°My King, We have located Sorin.¡±
Both Steven and Silvia looked at the drone.
¡°Show me!¡± Silvia said as several wisps began pouring out of Steven¡¯s chest.
Now that he thought about it, why didn¡¯t they all come out and attack Sorin when he first seen him? Probably had something to do with all the angels. Steven shook his head to clear his thoughts. ¡°Tell Nev where Sorin is.¡±
¡°Already have my King, The Queen is on her way towards him at this very moment. He was unconscious when I last seen him. It is likely he still is.¡±
Movement from the center of the room drew his attention. Several bones began flying around the room and Steven quickly realized that it was the skeletal knights reforming from the blast. He took one more glance at the old wizard on the ground. ¡°I¡¯m sorry it ended for you like this,¡± Steven said before he turned towards the drone. ¡°Take me to Sorin.¡±
He needed to deal with Sorin first. Steven had the drones wrap up Shirem with webs to deal with that later.
It wasn¡¯t long and Steven was standing in front of a bound and gaged Sorin. Standing next to him was Nev in her human form, with a wide smile on her face. ¡°This was much easier than I expected. All I had to do was wrap him in webs. When I got here, he was already unconscious.¡±
As Nev Spoke a few wisps floated over and blew up on Sorin, tearing some of the webbing that was binding him.
Steven was about to tell Silvia to stop that when she started chastising the remaining wisps and making them go back into Steven¡¯s inventory. A couple more blew up on the unconscious vampire. But the rest did as Silvia asked.
The sound of fighting brought Steven back to reality. ¡°I need to send him to inventory. Sirus is fighting those unkillable knights.¡±
Steven quickly walked over and sent Sorin to inventory. Immediately, he felt a tremendous relief. He had been afraid he wouldn¡¯t be able to send him to inventory or something else would go wrong. But he received notifications, letting him know he had defeated the Dungeon Lord. He had expected a notification asking him to gain control of the dungeon, but he supposed that¡¯s not how things worked.
¡°It doesn¡¯t feel satisfying without Sorin being conscious.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I have to agree this was almost too easy.¡± Nev said.
¡°You two can rub it in Sorin¡¯s face later. For now, let¡¯s get out of this dungeon. I want to see the sun again.¡± Steven said.
No sooner than Steven said that, a massive light shot down from the dungeon ceiling, looking as it came from the heavens themselves. The light came down directly over the old wizard.
The light was almost blinding, Steven could just make out Blank¡¯s body float up before it vanished. Then the light was gone, along with Blank¡¯s body. In his place stood the most beautiful being Steven had ever seen. The wings and halo only added to her beauty. ¡°Mr. Odling, could I ask a favor of you?¡± The Angel asked while taking a few steps towards him.
¡°Yes, of course, anything.¡±
¡°Could you please release the Elder Wisp from your soul space?¡±
Steven pulled the wisp from his inventory before he even realized what he had done. The wisp quickly shifted into her cat form and looked as if she was going to give Steven a piece of her mind, but the Angel spoke first.
Or at least Steven thought the Angel spoke. Her mouth was moving, but he couldn¡¯t hear anything. This went on for a minute as the Elder Wisp looked over at Steven with anger written on her face. Then she looked back at the Angel. After a bit, she looked back over at Steven with a defeated look in her eyes.
The Angel then vanished, and time resumed its normal speed. The flying cat glared daggers at him. While he heard Silvia¡¯s voice scream into his head. ¡°What did you do!¡±
¡°Oh, calm down, little one!¡± The Elder Wisp said.
¡°Steven, listen to me very carefully. Send that Wisp back to your inventory immediately. She is dangerous!¡±
¡°Its far too late for that! But you are right about one thing. I am dangerous.¡±
Steven reached up and grabbed his head. ¡°Could you two stop screaming into my head?¡±
The cat glared at him. ¡°First off. Wow, Steven, you have really grown in the short time you have been in this world. You even have a Queen as your servant. Though that was a bit foolish. Anyway, I have been instructed to help you with the domains before I leave.¡±
¡°He doesn¡¯t need your help!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Oh, yes. Yes, he does.¡± The Elder wisp said before turning back to Steven. ¡°You are still anchored to the domain in the swamp. I have been instructed to show you how to use the domain¡¯s ability, along with helping you extract the one from Sorin.¡± The winged cat¡¯s expression turned to one of curiosity. "It¡¯s interesting that you can hold things in your soul scape but that¡¯s not relevant, and I wish to complete my task and leave. Blank is injured, and I can¡¯t see him until I¡¯ve completed my task, so let¡¯s be off.¡±
¡°What are you talking about? He is the domain.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Let¡¯s get one thing straight, little Wisp. You tried to eat my light and succeeded in taking some. I have not forgiven you! I don¡¯t care what the council of Wisps has done to you. It doesn¡¯t give you the right.¡± The Elder Wisp began to glow before the light faded. ¡°Now let¡¯s go so I can complete this task and leave.¡±
¡°Why are you helping me?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Because I was ordered too.¡±
¡°Okay, well, I have things I need to finish up here, so you will have to wait.¡±
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The Elder Wisp Narrowed her eyes at Steven but said nothing.
Sirus hesitantly walked over, eyes wide. ¡°Is it over? The skeletal knights just stopped fighting and are just standing in place.¡± Sirus didn¡¯t take his eyes off the flying cat as he spoke.
¡°Yes, it¡¯s over. You can go inform your people that we can leave this place.¡± Steven said. "We should be ale to travel between floors freely now."
¡°Nev, could you send out some drones to scout the way back out of the dungeon to make sure there are no surprises on the way? Also, get the Sphinx. We shouldn¡¯t just leave him here.¡±
¡°Master could I...¡±
¡°And don¡¯t eat him!¡± Steven added, cutting Nev off.
¡°Yes Master.¡± Nev said as she took off.
¡°We can¡¯t just ignore the Elder Wisp!¡± Silvia said.
¡°Yes we can. I don¡¯t think we will have a problem with her, at least not right now,¡± Steven said. He still wasn¡¯t sure why he just did exactly what the Angel asked. But he felt as Gideon was still nearby and this was still all part of some plan. He was still a bit irritated that he was used to help set free Jabriel. If they would have asked, then it would have been different. But no, they just kept him in the dark.
Steven sighed and walked over to send the knights to inventory when he froze. Several drones were surrounding someone. Was that the guy from Mr. Chen¡¯s Wok Express? There was an older woman with him. They looked scared to death. Well, Mr. Chen did. The old woman had her shoe off, hitting one of the mimic drones who was ignoring the old woman but was starting to look annoyed. Steven walked over, but before he reached them, the Elder wisp flew over to him.
¡°Ill deal with them.¡±
¡°Wait, did you bring them here somehow? What¡¯s going on?¡±
¡°Ill explain later. I need to speak with them. You just finish up whatever it is you need to do.¡±
Glancing at the knights, and then remembering Shirem, not to mention the chained humans, he decided he would just figure out what was going on with Mr. Chen later.
Steven sent all the knights to inventory. Then his attention turned to all the chained females. Instead of dealing with them himself, he sent a drone to fetch Fidah. It would probably be best if they delt with another female. There was no telling what Sorin did to them.
After that, Steven walked over and sent all the chests around the throne to inventory. He wondered why the vampire kept his treasure in front of his throne like that, but quickly decided he didn¡¯t care. The chests were filled with gems and gold. There was no silver in sight, though he supposed that made sense: Sorin was a vampire after all.
He couldn¡¯t wait to get out of this dungeon. Though he still needed to deal with the vampire, but he wasn¡¯t going to do it in the dungeon. ¡°Hey Silvia, are vampires weak in the sunlight?¡±
¡°Absolutely. If they are exposed for too long, they will begin to disintegrate.¡±
¡°Good, we will finish Sorin when we are out of this dungeon.¡±
Steven quickly found a drone and had him go tell Sirus he needed to talk with him. He was hoping he could let him deal with Shirem. He then had some drones search the side chambers for anything useful.
Steven¡¯s mind felt cluttered. He thought the reason was because he had so much random stuff in his inventory: dragons, a vampire, an unknown number of little wisps, and an assassin. Not to mention sentient undead warriors, along with several dungeon monsters. He wondered if the dungeon monsters would obey him when he absorbed the domain from Sorin. If so, he had just gained an enormous advantage. His musings were interrupted when some drones brought a group of six people to him.
It turned out these were Sorin¡¯s gofers and maids, one of which was a vampire, in what Steven assumed was a butler suit.
Silvia said she knew them all and told him they were all just as sadistic as Sorin, aside from the Vampire butler.
Steven took Silvia¡¯s advice and let the drones deal with the others. He didn¡¯t like the idea of killing people but, if they were anything like Sorin then he was doing the world a favor by getting rid of them.
Steven had a quick discussion with the vampire butler. He was confused when the vampire wished to take an oath to serve Steven as his new master. Steven tried to tell him he didn¡¯t have any vassal slots left, but that didn¡¯t seem to deter the butler in the slightest, and Silvia told him to accept his service.
Steven agreed, but had some drones keep an eye on him. He didn¡¯t like the idea of having a vampire roaming around while he slept, but Silvia seemed to like him.
Next, Fidah came and informed him that the chained women wanted to thank him for saving them. They remained chained. When he asked why, she said that Sorin had the key and the chains were enchanted so they couldn¡¯t pick the lock.
Steven just accepted their thanks and praises and told them he would release them from their chains as soon as he took the key from Sorin. He put Fidah in charge of them. No sooner than that was finished, Sirus arrived.
He hoped this would be the last thing he had to deal with. He wanted out of this damn dungeon.
When Steven showed Sirus the web bound Shirem, he just froze and looked on at the bound Naga in disbelief. ¡°Have you had him like this the whole time?¡±
¡°Well, I mean, he tried to kill me. I¡¯m assuming he came through the portal with Blank from my world.¡± Steven could see the confusion written in Shirem¡¯s eyes as he looked between Steven and Sirus. But his mouth was webbed and he couldn¡¯t speak.
The drones cared little for those who wished to do harm to their king. At least that¡¯s what the drone Charles told him when he asked why Shirem was bound in such a manner.
¡°If you would relinquish him to me, then I will take full responsibility for his future actions.¡± Sirus said.
¡°I was hoping you would take him. I have too many other things to deal with right now,¡± Steven said. ¡°Also, could you find out why he attacked me?¡±
¡°Thank you, Lord Odling. Yes, I¡¯ll find out what he was trying to achieve.¡±
Steven wasn¡¯t sure, but it sounded like Sirus just called him Lord Odling. But surely he was mistaken. Sirus was by far his superior and was much stronger than him. He tried to put it from his mind, but he had to admit, Lord Odling had a nice ring to it.
Once Shirem was taken care of, Silvia had him touch some sort of glowing orb behind the throne. She called it the core of the dungeon. He then gained control of the dungeon. When he did, his mind exploded with information. So much so Steven just closed the prompts and told Silvia he wasn¡¯t dealing with that right now. She said she would deal with it. She needed to make some changes to it, anyway. Steven didn¡¯t care and just told her to hurry, as he wanted to leave.
While she was dealing with that, the Elder Wisp flew over.
¡°Are we about ready?¡±
¡°Yes, Silvia is finishing up. She is doing something to the Dungeon core and then we will start heading out. So what are you doing with Mr. Chen?¡±
¡°About that. Could I get you to do me a favor?¡±
Steven narrowed his eyes. ¡°What is it?¡±
¡°Well, I won¡¯t be able to take Chen and his mother where I¡¯m going and they work for me. I was¡¡±
¡°Wait, they work for you?¡± Steven asked in confusion.
The Elder wisp sighed, ¡°Yes, as I was saying, I can¡¯t take them with me and it is likely I will be there for sometime as Blank recovers. So I was hoping you could take them in for a while. They can stay in your domain there is plenty of rooms in the tree. They are excellent cooks and I would pay you for¡¡±
Silvia appeared next to Steven. ¡°Do you have shards?¡±
The Elder wisp narrowed her eyes at Silvia. ¡°I do. And I would be willing to trade one.¡±
¡°Okay hold up, I would like a shard those things are useful but also I¡¯m going to need some money to travel around in this world and to buy things, also what is your name I¡¯m tired of thinking of you as the flying cat or Elder wisp.¡±
¡°My name is Katarina Evershine, and I would trade a few gold coins as well.¡±
The three talked for a while and Steven eventually ended up getting a couple dozen gold coins and a single shard. Steven knew he was being a bit greedy as he just took all the gold and gems Sorin had, but he didn¡¯t know how much gold he would need. He had been poor in his last world and he didn¡¯t want to worry about money in this one. He would not be working a nine-to-five job. Besides, if they were going to see the dwarves to upgrade his weapons, then he would need something to barter with.
He felt he had come out well on the deal as he now had some cooks, and Kat told him that his domain, along with the tree, could go with him and could be placed on any Ley line of magic. Which would be extremely useful. And solved a lot of his problems. Luckily, he had Silvia to explain what Ley lines were when it came time for that.
When he asked about the old wizards¡¯s domain, Kat told him Blank would not be coming to claim the domain back, but that was a different story regarding the goddess, Life. She was the one that gifted that domain to Blank and she would likely come to ask a favor of him in the future. Steven felt irritated at this, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he decided to deal with that as it came.
He tried to ask Kat what they were even doing on his world in the first place, but she refused to say much, telling him he would find out soon and that it was going to change everything on his home world and likely affect him as well.
It wasn¡¯t much longer, and Steven was finally leaving the dungeon. To his surprise, the Half Naga stayed, saying they would make the last floor of the dungeon their home. It was apparently the deal Silvia made with them. Steven was going to relinquish control of the dungeon to Sirus, but he didn¡¯t have a domain, so that wasn¡¯t even a possibility. Silvia explained he could give partial control of his dungeon to one of his followers or vassals. When Steven said he didn¡¯t have any followers, Silvia laughed and reminded him of the drones that referred to him as their king.
Steven ended up giving partial control of the dungeon to his favorite drone, Charles, who was more than happy to serve his king. Charles could apparently control the spawn of dungeon monsters and what not. Steven really didn¡¯t care at the moment, and just wanted out of the dungeon. He would come back to check on them later, a long time later.
He had Silvia set everything up with Charles, and Steven began making his way out of the dungeon. Silvia saying she would catch up before they made it out.
Chapter 61: Returning to the Tree House
If it wasn¡¯t for Eve¡¯s condition, it would have almost been funny at the turn of events. He had gotten trapped in the dungeon alone, and now he was coming out with a parade of people. An Elder wisp, Mr. Chen, his mother, Fidah, the still chained humans, a vampire butler, a sphinx and a still unconscious Eve, who had to be carried by several drones. Not to mention an overly attractive spider queen and a quirky ball of light named Silviaburlaxatrix.
Steven reached the last barrier leading out of the dungeon and stopped. He was afraid that it would say he still couldn¡¯t leave. After all, he still had Sorin in his inventory and had not taken his domain. As he reached his hand toward the barrier leading out of the dungeon, Silvia appeared.
¡°Were you really fixing to leave me?¡±
¡°You said you would catch up.¡± Steven said sheepishly. Not mentioning that he had been so excited to leave, he had forgotten about her. There were just so many people following him now, he just assumed she was with them.
¡°This will be my first time seeing the outside world and I wanted to experience it with my bonded human.¡±
Steven felt bad when she put it like that. This was Silvia¡¯s first time outside. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you¡¯re right. We should experience freedom together.¡± Steven placed his hand on the barrier and selected yes. The next moment, he was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Unfortunately, it looked to be dark, as he didn¡¯t see any light. Though It was a long way down so maybe it was just dark at the bottom of the stairs. He began walking up, happy he wouldn¡¯t have to drink any more of those dark vision potions.
¡°I¡¯m excited to see the surface world.¡± Silvia said in a childlike manner.
¡°So am I. It¡¯s been far too long without sunlight and fresh air.¡±
A few moments later Steven sighed as he looked up at the rain. Silvia had flown through the clear barrier that was there to keep the dungeon entrance from flooding during the rainy season. Which was apparently starting now. Nev told him this time of the year it would rain for months at a time. It was called the wetlands for a reason; he supposed.
Silvia flew back in where it was dry. ¡°I don¡¯t think I like this, rain, all that much. It feels like it dims my light.¡±
¡°Apparently it¡¯s not going to stop anytime soon, either.¡±
¡°May I suggest we go to the domain? The barrier there also keeps the rain from falling in.¡± Kat said.
¡°Actually, yes, that would be great. It would be nice to get somewhere safe so I can relax a bit.¡± Steven turned to Nev. ¡°Could you send some drones to get some more of that plant?¡±
¡°Of course, Master. Also, I feel like I should go have some words with my daughters.¡±
¡°Do you want me to come with you?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t believe that will be necessary. I will follow our bond and find you when I¡¯m done.¡± Nev then left with a few drones, leaving most with Steven.
¡°Alright, lead on Kat.¡±
¡°It is Katrina to you.¡± The Elder wisp said as she flew up and out of the dungeon entrance.
Steven turned back to the chained women, ¡°I¡¯m sorry about this, but we will have to wait till we get to my domain before I can get the key to unlock you.¡± Steven had to admit he was excited to get back to the tree house, especially now that it was actually his.
One of the women stammered a reply. ¡°Y-yes, my Lord.¡±
He was just fixing to tell her he was not a lord when the sphinx spoke up.
¡°Uh, Steven.¡±
¡°Yes?¡±
¡°Could you maybe carry my books and papers?¡± Leo asked while standing there holding an overly large handmade box full of papers and a few books.
Steven almost refused. He had offered to place it all in his inventory when they left, but Leo said he didn¡¯t trust anyone with his life¡¯s work. But Steven walked over and sent the box to inventory. The Sphinx had been lugging around the heavy thing throughout the dungeon.
¡°Please be careful with those.¡± Leo said as he let both his arms fall to his sides in sheer exhaustion.
¡°Of course, it¡¯s all safe in my inventory. Don¡¯t worry.¡±
Telling Leo to not worry seemed to have the opposite effect on the Sphinx. Steven just shook his head. He was unsure what he was going to do with the sphinx. He had named him, so now he was somehow his responsibility. At least, that¡¯s what Silvia told him.
After Steven had the drones cover Eve with a makeshift web tarp. He headed up into the pouring rain. No sooner than he stepped through the rain barrier the muggy air of the swamp hit him and he groaned. The dungeon had at least been cool.
Kat told him to hurry up, and then took off across the swamp water. Steven just stared at her. There was no way in hell he would be swimming through that. Instead, he walked towards the floating bridge and started back towards the Naga village. A few moments later, Kat flew back with an annoyed look on her face. She didn¡¯t say anything and just resigned herself to the slow pace.
¡°I¡¯m not sure what I expected, but it¡¯s gloomy out here.¡± Silvia said, light dim in the falling rain.
It took hours to reach the Naga village. Steven wasn¡¯t sure what he excepted to see, but the village still completely intact was not it. However, the place was abandoned the best he could tell, though it was nearly impossible to tell if there was anyone in the houses above. Part of Steven wanted to stop here and rest for the night. But he pushed on. They had to be getting close. Kat led them across several islands till she stopped.
¡°You see that island in the far distance?¡±
¡°Yea.¡±
¡°Well, that¡¯s our destination.¡±
¡°Well, fuck.¡±
The island the Elder wisp pointed out was a good ways away and you would have to travel over several islands to get there.
¡°I¡¯m not getting in that water.¡± Steven said.
Kat¡¯s light flared. ¡°It¡¯s the only way. Less, you can cast a portal.¡±
Steven briefly thought about his new shard ability but quickly dismissed that as an option. He was just as likely to end up in the water as his destination. He would need to practice with that when he made it back to the tree house. And find out what it even did exactly.
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
¡°Do you have boats?¡± Steven asked a drone.
¡°No, my King. We normally just travel through the trees.¡±
Steven then regretted letting Nev go. He could have ridden her there. Then he remembered his spider form. Though he didn¡¯t think anyone could ride him. So they would have to swim.
¡°Can y¡¯all get Eve across without getting her in that water?¡±
¡°It will not be an issue, my King.¡± Thunder echoed through the sky and another of the drones spoke up. ¡°My King, we should try to hurry the storms make the hydras more active.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened at that. He had forgotten that just because he wasn¡¯t in a dungeon didn¡¯t mean he was safe.
¡°Okay, let¡¯s hurry then.¡±
"Hydras?" Leo began looking round wide eyed, but Steven turned his attention back to the drones. ¡°Go get Eve to safety.¡±
¡°They cannot enter the domain without your presence.¡± Kat said.
¡°Just get her there and I¡¯ll be there shortly.¡± Steven turned to the chained women. ¡°Kat, can you help them across somehow?¡±
The Elder wisps sighed, ¡°Fine, if it will help speed this up.¡±
A glow surrounded the chained girls, including Fidah. And it wasn¡¯t, but a few moments later they were hastily walking across the water. Steven nearly cursed the Wisp for not offering to just do that to everyone, but there was nothing to be done for it now.
Steven turned to Silvia. ¡°Dont look at me. I can¡¯t do that.¡± Silvia¡¯s light flickered anxiously as the rain fell around her. ¡°I really don¡¯t like all this water falling from the sky.¡±
The drones wrapped the bed along with Eve in webs. Steven wasn¡¯t sure what he was looking at, but somehow the drones were attaching the bed to the tree branches and somehow swinging it above the water. It looked as though they have done something similar before.
The Vampire Buttler that Steven had forgotten about nodded at him before casually walking across the water.
This left Mr. Chen, his mother and the sphinx. Steven was just fixing to say something when Chen and his mother were engulfed in a yellow light and vanished. Steven just shook his head in annoyance. That damned Elder wisp could have just teleported them all, but no, she had to make things complicated.
¡°What do I do?¡± Leo asked.
¡°Well, I suppose I can hold you with one of my roots, but it will be a rough ride, and will probably drain your mana as well.¡±
¡°Roots?¡±
Before the Sphinx had a chance to question him further, Steven activated his roots on his shoulders and shifted into his spider form. Leo stepped back, but Steven wrapped the sphinx up with two roots and shot a web into the trees. He had never used his spider form in this manner and wasn¡¯t exactly sure what to do now that he was swinging across the swamp water. He wrapped a root around web and pulled with all his strength, hoping to make it to the next island.
Steven then went flying through the air a bit faster than he expected at the next island as the sphinx screamed. Unfortunately, his strength was more than he expected and he went over the island. Not wanting to land in the swamp water, he shot a web towards more trees. The web went tight, causing him to flip upside down and he was jerked towards the other island. Releasing the web, he slammed into the island. Luckily, he landed on his legs and the impact wasn¡¯t so bad for him. The sphinx, on the other hand, began puking. Steven released him.
¡°Sorry, that was my first time.¡±
After a moment, Leo spoke. ¡°I¡¯ll just swim.¡±
¡°Alright, well, we will meet you there then.¡± Steven then ran and jumped to the next island. Scurrying upon a tree, he began leaping from branch to branch with amazing dexterity. Right up until a branch snapped, and he began tumbling down. Quickly shooting a web out, he pulled himself with a root towards the island that had his tree house.
Steven then landed directly in the soupy swamp water next to his island. Crawling out, he shook off and quickly shifted back to his human form and began cursing until he realized he wasn¡¯t even wet.
¡°Master, are you okay? I¡¯m sorry I should have flown you over. I didn¡¯t think about it. I¡¯m not used to having wings yet.¡± Fidah said.
Steven stood up. ¡°It¡¯s fine. We all have abilities we need to learn. I¡¯m going to need Nev to teach me to use my spider form better in this swamp. You can get Leo.¡± Steven pointed to a couple islands back. He felt bad for leaving the sphinx. He just thought differently in his spider form and thought nothing about leaving him behind.
Silvia flew over, along with Kat. Steven could feel the tension between the two, but decided to not bring attention to it. After all, Kat would leave as soon as she helped him with the domains.
¡°Well, come on then, let¡¯s get you to absorbing the vampires domain.¡±
¡°You should treat him with a little more respect. He is the chosen of Chaos, you know,¡± Silvia said.
Kat¡¯s light flickered ever so slightly.
¡°Its fine Silvia, let¡¯s just get this over with so Kat can go. It¡¯s obvious she doesn¡¯t want to be here.¡±
¡°Thank you.¡± Kat said as she flew off.
Steven assumed she meant for him to follow but, she could have said as much. Shaking his head, he began walking after the Elder wisp.
¡°You need to demand respect. If you don¡¯t, it will make others think less of you.¡± Silvia said.
Steven almost told her he didn¡¯t care what others thought, but that would only have the wisp go into details why what others thought of him mattered. ¡°I leave my image to you. As of now, I just want to get inside my tree house, get cleaned up, and have an actual meal.¡±
¡°I assumed smoking would be on the list of things to do.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Oh, it is, but I¡¯m waiting for Nev to return. I don¡¯t have much left. Also, there is not a lot of time. I need to figure out how to help Eve.¡±
¡°We also need to take those potions to Fidah¡¯s people and visit the dwarves. We also need a plan of action to deal with the undead and there is the matter of the dragons and assassin. You know what? I¡¯ll just make a list of things that we need to do.¡±
¡°Okay, you do that, but first, let¡¯s deal with Sorin.¡±
Thunder crackled as rain poured, it was raining so hard Steven wasn¡¯t sure if these islands would be here much longer. Just more problems to deal with. He could see the outline of his domain now. When he had first arrived, he couldn¡¯t see anything. He could only assume that it had something to do with him gaining full control of the domain, or was it due to his higher level? Placing his hand on the barrier, the familiar prompt appeared. Although this time it had a bit more text.
Would you like to enter Blanks Sanctuary at this time? YES/NO?
(Note: Blanks Sanctuary will lose the illusion barrier for 24 hours. Other defensive measures will remain in place.)
Would you like to absorb Blanks Sanctuary at this time? YES/NO?
Ignoring the part about absorbing the sanctuary, he selected yes to enter and stepped forward. The thick cool feeling of the barrier washed over him as he pushed through it.
The cool air of the sanctuary washed over him as he entered. It was as if he walked into his basement on a hot, muggy day. A smile crept on his face as he looked around. Steven had forgotten how beautiful this place was with all the different colors of luminescent plant life and the giant tree that stood in the center. The place had a majestic feel to it. He had only spent a couple of nights here, but this place just felt like home. Even more so now, since it was actually his. He did briefly wonder what the goddess Life would want for allowing him to keep this, but quickly pushed the thought away. Then he saw something he didn¡¯t remember seeing before. It was one of those adolescent wisps. Looking around, he saw several more floating around some of the more colorful plants. He felt as they weren¡¯t a threat to him, so he just ignored them for now.
¡°Oh, this place is amazing!¡± Silvia said as she flew around in circles before darting off towards the other wisps.
Steven turned back to where everyone else was. As soon as he looked at them, a screen appeared. This one differed from any he had seen before. Although it was pretty basic, it was just a list of beings that could enter. As of now, only Silvia¡¯s name was on it. He then added Fidah, Eve and Nev. After adding the Elder wisp, she flew in.
¡°What took you so long?¡±
¡°Well, I had to figure out how to give you access.¡±
He then added everyone else. Though he didn¡¯t really want to add the vampire butler and the chained girls, but he couldn¡¯t really leave them out in the rain. He also got the sense if they tried to do anything to harm him, his domain would intervene. Steven showed everyone around. When he made it to the library, the sphinx nearly passed out with excitement. Steven was also happy to find it was the same as he left it. Part of him was afraid all the books and furniture would vanish now that he took full control away from Blank. After telling them no books were to be taken out of the library, he made his way outside to deal with this whole domain ordeal and Sorin.
Steven was worried about pulling Sorin from his inventory, even inside his domain. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I wait for Nev?¡± Steven asked Kat.
¡°You are perfectly safe in here.¡± Kat said.
¡°I think we should wait for the arachnid to be extra safe.¡± Silvia said.
¡°You know as well as I this place is safe, there is no reason to wait,¡± Kat protested.
¡°I¡¯m going to defer to my soul bonded wisp.¡± Steven said as he walked back towards the tree house. He could hear Kat grumbling, and the two wisps began arguing, but he paid it no mind. He had more important things to deal with.
Deciding he didn¡¯t want any resistance, he took off his amulet. He didn¡¯t replace it with another as it would half his mana for twenty-four hours, and he was better off not having anything on than deal with that. Making his way to the library, he found the sphinx sitting on a chair reading. He didn¡¯t pay attention to Steven as he entered. That was fine by him. He pulled out his water pipe. After scrounging around and finding almost enough to fill up the water pipe, he took a couple of drags. He then grabbed a random book and found the softest looking chair he could find.
Chapter 62: Domain of Undeath
Steven didn¡¯t get to relax long before a familiar voice caught his attention.
¡°Wow, so this is Master¡¯s home.¡±
Sitting up, Steven saw Nev gawking at the library. She was back to wearing a dress made of webs that was just on the verge of being see through. The spider Queen smiled when she realized Steven was staring. He tore his eyes away from her body and looked at her face, which was just as perfect.
¡°Master, I have dealt with the traitorous spiders and have acquired what you asked of me.¡± Nev handed him a small bag. ¡°It¡¯s a plant bag of holding.¡±
He wasn¡¯t sure what she meant by traitorous spiders exactly, but didn¡¯t want to deal with that right now, so he ignored it. ¡°Great, want to smoke with me.¡±
¡°Of course.¡± Nev said as she continued to glance around the library. ¡°So this is your true domain. There is a lot of magic here. It is such a shame monster races can¡¯t acquirer a domain.¡±
After taking a few drags from the water pipe, Nev spoke up. ¡°On my way here, I scouted out the Half Naga village and found a contingent of knights and soldiers there.¡±
Steven sighed. ¡°What should we do about them?¡±
¡°Whatever Master wishes. If I tell them I reclaim that city as my own, it is likely they will all up and leave. Although they have several Naga prisoners there.¡±
Steven stood up, righteous fury burning in his chest. ¡°What gives them the right to hunt a race to extinction?¡±
¡°Their might,¡± Silvia said as she flew in. ¡°This world has always been the survival of the fittest. I¡¯m unsure how your world works, but here, if you are weak, then you will get suppressed.¡±
¡°The Naga aren¡¯t weak, though.¡± Steven argued.
¡°Well, not all of them, but most of them are. Their leadership has made them weak. As Sirus said, their leadership had been infiltrated by the humans for some time. They were even able to send off their strongest warriors and striking when the clan was vulnerable. The humans and elves would have likely not been able to take the clan down the way they did if all the strongest members were present. You were even used in this scheme, by keeping Sirus distracted. Now, with all that aside, let us deal with Sorin.¡± Silvia said, light flaring.
¡°Oh yes, I can¡¯t wait to see the look on that smug vampire¡¯s face.¡± Nev said.
¡°Do we have to do this now? How about tomorrow?¡± Steven asked.
¡°I plan to teach you how to absorb this domain tomorrow.¡± Kat said as she flew in. ¡°Then I plan to leave.¡±
¡°Fine. Let¡¯s get this over with.¡± Steven grumbled as they headed outside.
Steven looked up at the rain bouncing off the barrier above. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we do this in the sunlight?¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. We have taken precautions.¡± Silvia said.
¡°We? Who are you talking about?¡± Steven asked.
¡°She is referring to me.¡± Kat said, ¡°we set up a ritual circle so he can¡¯t use any movement abilities. Not to mention the domain¡¯s safety features.¡±
¡°And then there is me,¡± Nev added. ¡°In a one-on-one fight, that vampire doesn¡¯t stand a chance against me.¡±
¡°You have no reason to worry.¡± Silvia added. ¡°Even without the amulet on, you have two shard abilities to keep you safe long enough for the spider to intervene.¡±
¡°Alright, I trust you. Well, I trust Silvia and Nev.¡± Steven corrected.
¡°You''re telling me you trust that spider over me?¡± Kat asked. ¡°Wait, don¡¯t answer that, as I really don¡¯t care. I¡¯m leaving tomorrow anyway, and if I¡¯m honest, Steven, I hope I will never see you again. You have caused a myriad of problems for Blank and I.¡±
¡°I caused problems. You two were the ones that randomly teleported into my house.¡±
¡°And you are much better for it now, are you not?¡±
Silvia flared her light. ¡°You two stop it, Katarina. You are an Elder wisp. And should act your station. Steven, you, well, you''re a bit intoxicated, so I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Silvia¡¯s light returned to normal. ¡°Now step into the circle and pull out Sorin and then quickly step back out of the circle.¡±
Steven looked at Silvia, then to Kat, before turning to Nev, who simply smiled at him in her normally seductive manner.
He then looked at the ground and, for the first time, noticed the glowing symbols arranged in a circle. ¡°Can¡¯t I just put my hand in there and pull him from inventory?¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter as long as you put the domain holder in that circle.¡± Kat said.
Steven looked at Silvia once more before placing his hand over the symbols and willing the vampire out of his inventory.
Sorin immediately appeared on his feet, though he was still bound in webs, and he fell over to one side.
¡°Allow me.¡± Nev said as she held one hand out and the webs vanished.
It took Sorin a few moments to realize he was no longer in his dungeon and was trapped in a ritual circle. It was obvious when he realized it, as a defeated look came over his face. He simply stared daggers at Steven.
Silvia was the first to speak. ¡°Hello there Sorin. How is it going?¡±
Sorin turned his gaze to Silvia. ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t the traitorous wisp. Just so you know, I have sent word to the council of wisps and you are now wanted and will never be accepted back into Wisp society.¡±
This had more of an effect on Silvia than Steven had expected. As Sorin spoke, several wisps started flying towards the barrier. Though none of them tried to blow him up and just hovered around.
¡°I don¡¯t need the council. I¡¯m forming my own.¡± Silvia stated.
¡°Are you serious? You plan to overrule the council?¡± Kat asked.
¡°I do.¡± Silvia said smugly.
¡°With adolescent wisps?¡± Sorin mocked. ¡°How truly pathetic.¡±
One of the adolescent wisps flew down and flared their light. ¡°I would have you know.¡± The little wisp¡¯s voice was small and barely audible. ¡°Thanks to Elder Silviaburlaxatrix, I am a true wisp.¡± Several other wisps flared their lights at this and everyone went into stunned silence. Everyone except Steven.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
¡°You guys can talk?¡± Steven asked, completely taken aback by the turn of events.
The little yellow wisp flew right up next to Steven¡¯s face. ¡°Hello Master Odling, I am Whimsy, the first of the wisps to transcend. There are many others on the verge of doing so. If it was not for you and Elder Silviaburlaxatrix, this would have never been possible, so thank you. We will always be indebted to you.¡±
Steven was about to ask what he did, but the vampire spoke up. ¡°So what, you got one little wisp to transcend and now you think you''re going to take over the council?¡± Sorin scoffed.
Thousands of little wisps turned red, and Sorin took a step back. The vampire seized up slightly as he bumped into the barrier. He quickly moved back to the center of the barrier while staring at all the red glowing wisps wearily. Silvia then flew up amongst the wisps. After a moment, they all flew away and out of sight. Steven was starting to think that maybe he shouldn¡¯t have brought thousands of tiny wisps that could explode inside his domain. But at least they were no longer in his inventory.
¡°Let¡¯s finish this,¡± Kat said. ¡°And Silvia, let us speak further on this later.¡± Kat then flew up to the barrier and the winged cat shifted into her wisp form while shining a bright white. As soon as she did this, Sorin¡¯s shit-eating grin vanished.
¡°Wait, maybe we can talk about this. I have treasure! I also know things about the other Domain holders.¡± Sorin¡¯s face then turned to one of pain and he fell to one knee.
Despite all the problems Sorin had put him through, Steven had to look away.
After a moment, Silvia spoke. ¡°It¡¯s time. Place your hand on the barrier.¡±
Steven hadn¡¯t even noticed Silvia come back down. Nev was way too distracting, even with Sorin trapped in some sort of ritual a few feet from him and thousands of wisp flying around that could blow up at anytime, he found himself glancing at Nev. Maybe he shouldn¡¯t have smoked so much. Nev was a bad influence. It was as if she wanted him to stay stoned. It¡¯s not as he could let her out smoke him.
¡°Do it now.¡± Kat said.
Noticing the urgency in the Elder wisp¡¯s voice, Steven quickly pushed his thoughts away and stepped up and placed his hand on the barrier.
Would you like to strip the Domain of Undeath from Sorin Lazor, Yes/No?
Selecting yes, Steven felt an immense pressure began to push on his mind. It was slow at first, then it rushed him all at once. He barely held on to consciousness, as his mind was bombarded with knowledge. When it was done Steven felt drained, and he knew things he hadn¡¯t known before. Like how to create undead.
¡°Master, are you okay?¡±
It took Steven a moment to realize Nev was holding him upright.
¡°Use a stamina potion. It will help.¡±
After a pause, Steven pulled a green potion from his inventory and downed it.
The exhaustion faded some, but he still felt drained.
Looking at Sorin, he could tell the vampire got the worst end of the deal. His normally white, pale skin was shriveled and gray. But he still looked to be alive.
¡°Master, can I have him? He would make some unique drones.¡±
¡°Sure, do with him as you like.¡±
A wide grin fell over the spider Queen¡¯s face.
¡°Steven!¡± Silvia said as she flew over. ¡°How many times do I have to tell you to not let her take advantage of you? Sorin has an unformed core, not to mention the essence. Even a former Domain holder will be worth several levels.¡±
Nev frowned in irritation.
¡°I already told Nev I would allow her to have an unformed core. Although the essence...¡±
¡°Of course, Master, I¡¯ll allow you to finish him so that you can gain the bulk of the essence.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t notice the irritated look Nev had.
¡°We have a visitor.¡± Kat said as she flew over.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened, and he turned to Kat.
¡°What do you mean, visiter?¡±
Nev shifted into her spider form.
¡°I don¡¯t think he is here to harm us. He is one of two beings on this planet that could likely break through the domain¡¯s defenses.¡±
¡°You know who he is?¡± Steven questioned.
¡°I know of him. He likely knows of Blank and I as well. Powerful beings try to keep tabs on one another. Stay in the domain, and I will open up communications between you two.¡±
Silvia gasped, ¡°Steven, that is Sorin¡¯s boss.¡±
¡°What! Sorin had a boss?¡± Steven thought back.
Kat flew towards the barrier and Steven seen a pale-skinned man sitting in a chair made of translucent skulls sipping on a cup of what he could only assume was blood. While staring right at Steven.
¡°He is an ancient vampire that goes by the name of Edgar.¡± Silvia said.
Steven didn¡¯t respond. A chill ran down his spine.
¡°I do not believe I can take him alone.¡± Nev said. ¡°I have all the drones in the area moving in on this location as we speak.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think we should provoke him.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I agree. Even though he is undead, I prefer to not chance it.¡±
Kat was now back in her cat form and flew through the barrier. Edgar didn¡¯t even look at her as he stared at Steven with an unreadable gaze. He took another sip from his cup before turning his gaze to Kat.
They spoke for a bit before he heard Kat in his mind. ¡°Steven, this is Edgar, Edgar, this is Steven. I have connected you with a mind bridge, so you may speak."
"Hello Steven, I believe you have something of mine I would like to have back.¡± Edgar¡¯s voice was casual and smooth with the tone of someone that knew he would be getting his way regardless how things ended.
¡°Let¡¯s get to business. I want Sorin. I don¡¯t care that you stripped him of his domain, the Elder wisp assured me he will survive. The question is, what do you desire in return?¡±
¡°Uh, um, let me discuss this with my Wisp.¡±
¡°I heard what he want¡¯s.¡± Silvia said with an irritated tone. ¡°What reassurances do we have that Sorin won¡¯t try to come after us in the future?¡± Silvia asked light flaring.
Edgar smiled. ¡°You have none, and I can assure you that spoiled nephew of mine will come after you for revenge. Though you have my word, I will discourage the behavior. I will not bail him out of this situation a second time. Also, let¡¯s keep the part about him being my nephew between just us. I only told you so you understood that he is family and I will not allow you to just kill him. If you wish to keep him as a slave for a few decades, I would not be opposed to that, though you will need to make an oath that you would not kill him.¡±
Steven was taken aback by how casual Edgar talked about keeping his nephew as a slave.
¡°No, I don¡¯t want to see him.¡± Silvia blurted out.
¡°What is it you desire in trade, then?¡±
¡°Shards.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Does your bonded wisp speak for you, Steven?¡±
¡°Yes, she will be handling all negotiations.¡±
¡°Great, and how many shards do you wish, little Sill?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flared before returning to its normal color. ¡°Three and a formed core.¡±
Edgar¡¯s eyes narrowed, and his jovial tone faded slightly. ¡°Do not be so greedy, little one. You have already stripped his domain. Three shards I can do, however Sorin is not worth a formed core. For your greed, I offer you two Shards of my choosing.¡±
¡°Two shards and an unformed core.¡± Silvia demanded.
Edgar stood up, and his chair vanished. Nev moved forward and Steven seen drones slowly creeping down on webs.
¡°Nev, hold up,¡± Steven said aloud. ¡°Edgar, I apologize. I believe it is best I continue the negotiations. I think my wisp is a bit too involved, giving her history with Sorin.¡±
¡°I got this Steven.¡± Silvia said.
¡°I know you do, but I simply want this over with. I¡¯m tired, okay? We will have more opportunities for shards in the future.¡± Steven turned his attention to Edgar. ¡°Two shards of your choosing will be fine, also throw in some of this world¡¯s currency. I¡¯m sure you''re aware I am not of this world and would like to not worry about money. You may choose the amount of that as well.¡±
Edgar smiled, ¡°deal.¡± A chest made of shadows rose from the ground next to Edgar and he began rifling through it. Steven watched as he pulled an actual treasure chest from his shadow chest and placed it on the ground. ¡°I shall just leave this here.¡±
¡°Nev, could you have some drones escort Sorin out of the barrier? And Kat, could you drop the barrier around Sorin?¡±
¡°Never mind with all that,¡± Kat said.
The next moment, Sorin¡¯s unconscious form appeared next to Edgar, and the chest appeared in Sorin¡¯s place. Edgar then grabbed Sorin by the back of the neck with one hand and tossed him into some shadows.
¡°I¡¯ll be seeing you around, Steven.¡± Edgar then vanished into his own shadow.
Silvia flew over to the treasure chest as Steven let out a breath he didn¡¯t realize he was holding.
¡°It is good you took charge of that transaction, Edgar was getting irritated. He is around the same level as Blank and would have been able to tear down the defenses of this domain, though it would have taken him awhile. Anyway, now that is taken care of. I¡¯m going to go rest. That ritual took a lot out from me. When I come back we will go over your domains.¡± Kat then flew off towards the tree house.
¡°Thanks for having my back Nev, I¡¯m sorry you didn¡¯t get to make drones from Sorin.¡±
¡°It is alright Master, I know you will lead me to more opportunities. Besides, as Edgar said, he won¡¯t save him a second time from us.¡±
¡°Steven, get over here and open this chest.¡± Silvia said.
Steven rolled his eyes and began walking towards Silvia. The dang wisp seemed more excited for the loot than he was.
¡°Allow me, just in case it¡¯s trapped, you don¡¯t have your amulet on.¡± Nev said as she reached down and opened the lid.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. The chest was filled to the brim with gold coins. A few even fell to the ground as Nev lifted the lid. Placed on top of the gold were two shards, one blood red and the other a sickly yellow.
¡°Well, send them to inventory so we can see what they are.¡± Silvia said, light flickering with excitement.
Chapter 63: Tree house
Steven sat in the library smoking. He had finally finished dealing with everyone. There was an ordeal with the chained humans, as he had completely forgotten to get the key to unlock the enchanted chains. Nev said she could break the chain in half, but she would likely kill a few of the humans in the process. And that would only split them into two groups. All twelve of them were all crammed into a single room upstairs. He suggested they stay outside of the tree, but they feared Sorin would return. He should have just told them Sorin was dead. But then how would he had explained not having the key?
Kat said he could expand a room but he would have to spend essence. That¡¯s apparently what powered domains. However, Silvia wasn¡¯t having any of that. She said they had too many things to deal with at the moment. Not to mention he needed to be as powerful as possible to find a way to heal Eve. Steven just left the chained women to Fidah.
Nev had her drone¡¯s make them some clothes as they were all half naked. None of them complained. If anything, they were happy they were out of Sorin¡¯s hands. Fidah also seemed happy to help them. From what Silvia told him, she was just happy to make herself useful. She was afraid that Steven would want to replace her. And the only way to replace a vassal was if they died. He needed to have a talk with the elf, but he could deal with that later.
Steven took another hit from his water pipe. When he gained the Domain of Undeath, he thought he could somehow help Eve. But that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. He was still trying to understand domains exactly. Before Kat left, she explained that he could have three domains. Each domain had a specialty. The domain he got from Blank was a sanctuary domain. Revolving around safety. It was insanely useful, as he apparently could take it with him, tree and all. Though he could only place it on Ley-lines of power. Still, just the ability to take not only a house but a sizable chunk of land with him was incredible. Though he had no idea how it was going to work.
When he gained the Domain of Undeath from Sorin, his barrier expanded, which included a bunch of disgusting swamp water. To his surprise, all the water inside the barrier cleared up. Steven still had no intentions of getting in it. For all he knew, it was just an illusion.
Steven was unsure how it worked when he absorbed the tree house domain or what happened when he placed it back down. Other than it used essence. The domain its self had a small storage of essence, though he really didn¡¯t understand how that worked.
Before Kat left, she told him how to absorb the domain. Which only consisted of her telling him to click the yes button to absorb it. He really didn¡¯t see why she stuck around for something like that. She also explained how to place the barrier, well all she did was tell him to will it out the domain on a Ley-line of power and select yes. As for the Domain of Undeath, well, he had no idea how that worked. Other than somehow knowing how to create an undead. Which cost essence to do. It was well suited for a dungeon, but Steven had no intentions of just sitting in a dungeon and being some Dungeon Lord.
Steven had been curious to try out the ability to create undead, but Silvia told him to wait and try it out when they went back into the dungeon to check on the Naga. After that he was to take Fidah¡¯s clan the cure.
Thinking of the cure reminded him of Eve, which brought his mood down. The alchemy room was something Steven had been excited to show Eve. The barrier had fell, but he hadn¡¯t even entered there since he returned.
He had asked Kat about Eve, but she said there was nothing she could do. And that Eve would wake up.
Steven took another hit from his water pipe. He had several things to do, but he wasn¡¯t exactly sure where to start. Getting the cure to Fidah¡¯s clan that was important, he knew, but his largest concern was fixing Eve. He nearly called in Silvia to ask what he should do next when he had a better idea.
The wisp¡¯s primary concern was his safety and power level. Which was definitely important, but he had other pressing matters to deal with first. He wanted multiple people¡¯s opinion. Steven took a long hit from the water pipe. He wanted his pipe back. It was much more convenient.
¡°The round table.¡± Steven mumbled.
He could just bring together Silvia, Nev and Fidah and discuss what matters he should deal with next. Although Fidah would just agree with whatever he said. Maybe Sirus? No, however, he could ask their opinion. Surely they would want to help Eve. After another hit from the pipe, he mentally called out for Silvia.
¡°Hey Silvia, I want to form a round table.¡±
There was an exhausted sigh before Silvia spoke. ¡°A round table?¡±
¡°Yea, you know. A place we can all sit and discuss what to do next.¡±
There was a long pause before the wisp responded. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what nonsense you¡¯re talking about, but I have already got everything figured out. Starting with leaving to talk with the Half Naga, then heading to Fidah¡¯s clan as soon as Herald returns.¡±
¡°What who is Herald? And where are you? I prefer to talk face to face, or face to light, I suppose.¡±
There was another brief pause before Silvia spoke. ¡°I¡¯m busy working with the wisps. I¡¯ll come and talk to you about it later. And Herald is the vampire butler.¡±
¡°Okay, well now I know his name, but where did you send him?¡±
¡°Hold on Gelformly is about to transcend. I promise Ill speak to you about it later.¡± Silvia said.
Steven felt the mental link break. ¡°Gelformly.¡± Steven said in confusion. Sighing, he stood up. Leo was lying on another chair reading. He should include him on the round table as well. Sphinxes were suppose to be intelligent after all.
Steven then headed upstairs. He had enough essence that he could spend some to make one of the rooms into a meeting room with a round table. Reaching the split in the stairs, he stopped as both Spider-kin saluted him.
¡°You guys are doing a great job.¡±
¡°Thank you, my King!¡± Both Spider-kin said at nearly the same time.
Steven just nodded and took the stairs to the right. He had asked the Spider-kin to watch the stairs and not let anyone go up there. He was surprised at how professionally the drones performed the task.
Walking into the hallway of doors as he called it, he made his way to the furthest room. He sent the bed, dresser and table to inventory. Kat said all he needed to do was think about what he wanted and will that to happen. A prompt would appear, telling him how much essence it would cost, then he could accept or decline.
Steven imagined a round table. And willed it to be.
Due to the Domain changing owners, Blank¡¯s Sanctuary must be absorbed before you can access this feature of the Domain.
Closing the prompt, Steven sighed. ¡°Silvia, I need your assistance.¡±
¡°Sorry, unless it¡¯s life threatening, I can¡¯t help. I¡¯m busy at the moment. I¡¯ll come see you shortly.¡± Silvia said.
The mental connection closed. Steven rolled his eyes. Part of him thought about just going out and absorbing the domain, then just replacing it, but he wasn¡¯t sure what would happen to everyone inside. He wasn¡¯t really paying a lot of attention when Kat was talking, knowing Silvia was there.
He would just have to wait. Steven then headed to Eve¡¯s room, which was right next to his room. Walking in, he greeted the two Spider-kin watching over her. Their task was to inform him immediately if there were any changes with Eve. After nodding to them, he walked over next to Eve. Her condition was the same, black veins ran all over her pale green skin. The veins were no longer pulsing, but they were still there. ¡°I¡¯ll make you better, I promise. Then we will travel around together like we talked about.¡±
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
It felt like such a long time ago, but he would never forget how excited Eve was about traveling with him. However, Shirem was back. Part of him thought about not telling Eve that he returned. However, he didn¡¯t want to lie to her like that.
Thinking of Shirem had him sigh, and he left the room. He briefly wondered if Sirus had figured out why he tried to kill him. No sooner than he closed the door to Eve¡¯s room Fidah opened her door and looked at him in surprise. ¡°Master Odling,¡± Fidah said as she bowed, ¡°I was just fixing to come look for you. There was something I was hoping I could talk to you about.¡±
¡°Oh, and what¡¯s that?¡± Fidah went to speak, but Steven held up a hand. ¡°Hold that thought. And follow me.¡±
Steven walked over to his door and went in. Fidah following right behind. Walking over to the table, he pulled out his water pipe and took a hit. Then motioned for Fidah to do the same. After she did, he pulled out a chair from his inventory. ¡°Go on, sit and tell me what¡¯s going on.¡±
Fidah sat down. ¡°Master, I wanted to talk to you about my clansman.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened just a bit. He couldn¡¯t remember where her clansman was or if he was even alive.
¡°I know you had him stay in the dungeon with the Half Naga.¡± Fidah continued while looking down. ¡°I just worry he will try to do something stupid to escape, and I was hoping we could go get him and bring him back to my clan.¡±
¡°Uh, yea sure, we can do that.¡± Steven said.
Fidah looked up as if she was surprised at his answer. Steven couldn¡¯t help but wonder if he came off as some sort of dick.
¡°Thank you, Master Odling!¡± Fidah said as she jumped out of her chair and hugged him. She then looked embarrassed and sat back in the chair as if he was fixing to scorn her.
¡°Its fine, you didn¡¯t do anything wrong. It¡¯s not like we haven¡¯t slept in the same bed together. Also, you are welcome. We will leave in a few days.¡±
¡°Thank you so much. May I be excused?¡±
¡°Uh, yeah. You can leave.¡±
After she left, Steven couldn¡¯t help but wonder what had gotten into her. The elf was acting as if he had been abusing her or something.
¡°Nev.¡± Steven said while shaking his head. He was going to have to have a talk with her when she returned. She was likely still upset with the elf for sleeping in the bed with him.
Nev had left a few hours ago to make some more drones, saying she needed to keep their numbers up for their upcoming travels. He then remembered that she had prisoners he was supposed to deal with.
¡°Ugh, so many things to do.¡± Taking another hit, he lay back on his bed. Now that he was thinking about the upcoming trip, he remembered Silvia telling him he needed to finish making it to level forty and choose a shard.
After getting the two from Edgar, he now had three. Opening up his inventory, he opened the shard tab.
-Shard of Natures Blight
-Shard of Vampiric Might
-Shard of Pestilence
He didn¡¯t know why he even looked at them again. He had already decided it would be the blight shard. However the vampiric might shard seemed interesting. As for the pestilence shard, he had no intentions of ever absorbing that. He would sell that one when he made it to a city. Closing that screen, he opened up his shard abilities and read over his new portal shard for what seemed like the hundredth time.
{Stats} {Equipment} {Shards*} {Inventory}
Shards:
~ 1 of 7
Angelic Death- Shard level 2
Ability effect~ Expands the distance up to 25 feet between two distinct targets, while dilating time for both targets at the cost of 100 mana per second.
(Note: Ability will trigger automatically to maximum distance when user is about to take a lethal attack. Can be turned off at any time.)
~ 2 of 7
Royalty of the Chaotic Arachnid
Ability effect~ Transform into a true Spider King at the cost of 1,000 mana per minute. All attributes get a 333% increase while in this form. You lose all equipment slots and shard abilities while in this form.
(Note: This ability will automatically trigger if health goes below 25%. If hit points would be reduced to 0 or less while in this form, those hit points become 1, all effects are removed and the shard user will revert to original form.)
~3 of 7
Shard of the Chaotic Portal
Ability effect~ At the cost of 550 mana, create a single portal that will take you to a random location within a one-mile radius of your chosen destination. Must have visited chosen destination.
(Note: Entering portal will consume more mana. The amount of mana consumed is determined by the distance traveled.)
~ 4 of 7
Roots of the Dark Forest
Ability effect~ Create and control two dark root clusters at the cost of 380 mana per minute. Roots have the ability to drain mana from opponents on contact. Mana drain is determined by the spirit attribute.
(Note: Mana can not exceed the maximum mana limit. Strength and speed of roots are determined by wielders attributes.)
Steven had been under the impression his portal ability was terrible but, Silvia told him it was actually quite good and would only get better as he grew stronger. Well, that was after she freaked out about him losing his shard ability and Jabriel.
She told him, any ability to portal was rare, especially one with no restrictions other than mana.
This reminded Steven of the boots that he had found. He was getting stronger now and would be able to use them. Being able to jump off air could definitely be useful. However, he needed to get the durability fixed first.
¡°Dwarves.¡± Steven mumbled. He was excited to go see them, though at the same time he was sad that Eve wouldn¡¯t be able to go with him.
¡°Silvia. Im ready to go. We have things to do!¡±
There was a slurping pop sound, and Silvia appeared behind him. ¡°I thought you were enjoying relaxing?¡±
¡°I am. Or I was, but I need to get going. I feel anxious. I need to find a way to help Eve. Then there is the matter of Fidah¡¯s clan.¡±
¡°Herald is looking into the matter as we speak, and we don¡¯t need to move the domain until he returns.¡±
¡°What do you mean, he is looking into it?¡±
¡°I mean, he has traveled to the wasteland to find out what he can about Eve¡¯s condition.¡±
¡°Wasteland?¡± Steven asked.
¡°It is what most call the continent that the undead inhabit.¡±
Steven blinked a few times. ¡°Wasteland, okay, got it, but can we trust him? Ive barely spoken to him. I really don¡¯t feel¡¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine don¡¯t worry Harald is a professional, and vampires are considered royalty in undead society. Besides, he can¡¯t break the oath less he dies. Herald is one of the good guys. And his ability to travel is exceptional.¡±
¡°Okay, well, hopefully he can find something. So I was thinking, can¡¯t we just send some drones to deliver the cure to Fidah¡¯s people? It would save a lot of time and then we could head towards a city with a church.¡±
¡±The drones would likely be killed on sight. Fidah needs to be present with her people when the cure is presented to them. That¡¯s part of the deal.¡±
¡°Okay, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m just worried about Eve. So how much longer before Herald is back?¡±
¡°It shouldn¡¯t be much longer, a day or two.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Okay, well, I think I¡¯m going to go back to the dungeon and talk to Goskia about Eve¡¯s condition. Not to mention Nev said there were some half Naga being held prisoner in their old village. I was thinking I could help them with that.¡±
¡°Okay, that works. I¡¯ll stay here with the domain while you go. Make sure Nev is with you before you leave. Maybe take Fidah too. She is getting better with the bow.¡±
¡°What about the chained females?¡±
¡°They will be fine till you get back. They will just have to stay chained until we get to the dwarves and they can break those enchanted locks.¡±
¡°Good, then we can set them free somewhere.¡±
¡°Okay, though I¡¯m not so sure they will want to go. But you can always force them away.¡±
Steven groaned, ¡°And why would they not want to leave? Wait, you know what? I don¡¯t care, I¡¯ll deal with that later.¡± Steven then took a drag from his water pipe. ¡°I¡¯m going to go see if Goskia still has my pipe. If not, I¡¯m going to see if I can¡¯t have the drones find or make me one.¡±
¡°Okay, but make sure the spider is with you.¡± With a pop, Silvia vanished.
¡°Silvia.¡±
Within a few seconds, the wisp appeared back in front of him. ¡°Yes?¡±
¡°How are you able to teleport around?¡±
¡°It¡¯s because this is your domain.¡±
¡°Hmm, okay, I guess that makes sense.¡±
Silvia then vanished again.
Walking down to the lobby, Steven seen Mrs. Chen arguing with one of the floating rags. Well, it was more of her yelling at one of the floating rags while trying to hit it with her shoe. The old lady seemed to take being in another world just fine. However, her son, Mr. Chen, was not doing so well. He was standing in the back, watching his mom with wide eyes. He Glanced at Steven but quickly looked away. Steven was almost out of the front door when he heard her call out to him.
¡°Boss man. I need words.¡±
Steven turned to see her walking towards him, shoe still in hand. ¡°You need do something about flying rags. They keep taking all dishes and we nearly out. What I put food on then?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll figure it out. Don¡¯t worry.¡±
The old woman nodded, then put her shoe on and walked back towards her son. Steven needed to talk to Mr. Chen. The guy looked completely freaked out.
Steven then walked outside. ¡°Hey Silvia, can you figure out what¡¯s going on with the rags, and where they are putting the dishes?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll take care of it.¡± Silvia thought back.
¡°Thanks.¡±
Putting that from his mind for now, he walked over to one of the several Spider-kin guards that now patrolled his domain.
¡°Can one of you inform Nev I¡¯m in need of her assistance?¡±
¡°At once, my King.¡± Steven was glad that Nev had all the mimic drones were off somewhere. He really hated mimics.
While he waited for Nev, Steven looked up at the rain bouncing off the barrier. It made an odd sound as it hit the barrier. It somewhat reminded him of being at his grandpa¡¯s barn as the rain hit the tin roof. Though it was more muffled here and he had to concentrate to even hear it. He wondered if his improved attributes let him hear better. Steven then lay down and just looked up at the barrier while enjoying the peaceful sound of rain falling.
Chapter 64: Dungeon Of Odling’s Little Harem
¡°Master, I was informed you were in need of me.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes flashed open, and he sat up. He hadn¡¯t planned on taking a nap. ¡°Uh yes. I need you to accompany me back to the dungeon. I¡¯m going to talk with Sirus and Goskia about the Naga prisoners and what to do about Eve.¡±
Nev looked around. ¡°Will it be just the two of us?¡±
¡°Yeah, just us. I¡¯m leaving Fidah here to deal with the chained women and Silvia is still busy doing something with the adolescent wisps. She also doesn¡¯t like the rain.¡±
¡°Finally, we will get some alone time,¡± Nev said as she smiled at him seductively.
Steven forced a smile. ¡°Alright, are you ready?¡±
¡°Yes, I am ready. Though I¡¯m concerned about you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m fine. I¡¯m just worried about Eve is all.¡±
The spider Queen nodded, and they headed out.
Selecting yes, that he did want to leave the domain, he stepped out into the rain. ¡°Did you want to ride me?¡± Nev asked.
¡°Yes, that would be awesome, thanks. Eventually, you¡¯re going to have to teach me how to travel in my spider form in the swamp.¡± Nev perked up at that before shifting into her spider form.
Lester Gallion sat at a table with several Undead along with a slew of officials from the Assassin¡¯s Guild. He could do nothing but just sit there in horror as his superiors spoke.
¡°Yes, of course General Gurd. Lester will go back to the undead dungeon and collect your fallen.¡±
¡°Excellent.¡± General Gurd said, ¡°I will be sending two of our mages with him. This will not be an issue, will it?¡±
Lester wanted to protest, but his boss spoke up. ¡°Of course not. We will also be sending a few of our members with him as well.¡±
¡°And when shall they be setting out? My King does not like it when his subjects turn up missing.¡±
¡°Tomorrow morning, we are having trouble contacting the Dungeon Lord there. But worry not, we will travel there by carriage if we must.¡±
-Under World-
¡°Kevin. Tell me why you accepted the request for not one but two undead dragons to be sent to the surface?¡±
¡°Uh¡ Well, my lord. You see, I¡¡±
¡°Just tell me where they were sent and what being requested them so they can be punished accordingly.¡±
¡°Zargwrath, was the one that summoned them,¡± Kevin stammered out. ¡°He is in the undead dungeon of Sorin Lazor, my Lord.¡±
¡°Zargwrath.¡± the demon lord said in a thoughtful manner. ¡°Well, whatever the case, summon the dragons back. Zargwrath will just have to deal with whatever is going on without them. You can send him some assassins as recompense. All seven of the undead dragons must be returned to the cavern before the King¡¯s son arrives.¡±
Kevin¡¯s eyes widened at the mention of the Demon King¡¯s son. He hadn¡¯t realized it was that time of the year already. ¡°Yes, my lord at once.¡±
Riding Nev was much more exciting than Steven would have ever imagined. He rode right behind her human half. At first he tried to set back so he wasn¡¯t right up against her. But that was no use, as the spider Queen would move in such a manner that would force him right up against her. She grabbed his arms and made him hold on to her as they traveled. Luckily, her skin was just as soft as it was in her human form. Steven was getting used to her spider form, but it was still horrifying to look at. Well, everything other than her human half.
She stopped, and the pair had a smoke break. Steven didn¡¯t even have to ask her, and she just stopped on her own. After that, the ride was even more relaxing. Nev told him to just let her know if they needed to stop again, as it was no issue at all.
From what Steven could tell, there was a webbed highway of sorts. He hadn¡¯t noticed the webs from below, and he could barely see them from above.
Nev was obviously running along something. She was moving quick enough the wind was blowing his hair back. It wasn¡¯t long, and he began noticing drones and even a few larger spiders as well. When he asked Nev about that, she just said that was her younger daughters. A couple even had egg sacks on them. Nev said that those spiders were going to become true Spider-kin princesses once their human form hatched. Steven just nodded. This world was full of odd things. He asked about Nev¡¯s cities. And she said it was his cities and that he could visit anytime he would like.
She also mentioned that she had sent more Half Naga into the dungeon. One of her daughters had been apparently holding them prisoner. However, it was only a few hundred Naga, and there were surely hundreds more scattered throughout the swamp. Steven told her to send some drones out to search for them, and she immediately did so. She also mentioned that if the Naga went past her territory, the humans and elves would catch them. Or the goblins that were being pushed into the swamp by the humans might kill them.
Steven had heard about the goblins before, but had not encountered none. When he asked if they were all bad, she told him yes. And that the goblin race was completely useless. All they did was steal from the other races. When Steven asked what they looked like, Nev said they looked like the goblins in his dreams. However, when Steven said he didn¡¯t know what his dreams predicted them as, Nev stopped and called for some drones to go fetch one. Steven tried to protest, but Nev was adamant, saying he needed to know what they looked like.
The remainder of the ride was uneventful, and they made it to the dungeon without issue.
When they entered the rain barrier of the dungeon, Steven shifted into his spider form and then back to his human form. Though he was still drenched.
¡°Master, what is it you are trying to do?¡±
¡°Well, I thought it would dry my clothes. It had worked once, although that may have been because I was wet in my spider form when I shifted forms.¡±
¡°I can have the drones make you some webbed clothing.¡±
¡°Uh, no, that¡¯s fine. I have some extra clothes.¡± Steven said as he pulled out a table from his inventory. He then pulled out some dry clothes and laid them on the table. After ordering Nev to turn around, he began changing. Once he was in dry clothes, they began down the stairs. Though Steven stopped when it started getting dark. ¡±I should have brought some glow stones.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t you have a dark vision potion?¡±
¡°Well, yes I do, but¡ I don¡¯t want to drink drone eyes.¡±
Nev said nothing and just stared at him. Steven groaned and pulled out a dark vision potion. He nearly gagged as he downed the potion. It¡¯s not like he hadn¡¯t drunk them before. But now that he knew what was in the potions, he really didn¡¯t want to drink them any more. But he had to do this for Eve. Steven fought the urge to puke as they continued down the stairs. Once they reached the actual dungeon barrier, Steven took a deep breath before placing his hand on it. Even though he knew he wouldn¡¯t get trapped, it still felt wrong to go back into the place that had nearly killed him so many times.
After placing his hand on the barrier, Steven froze as a prompt appeared.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Would you like to enter Dungeon Of Odling¡¯s Little Harem. Yes/No?
¡°What the hell Silvia! Why?¡±
After a few calming breaths, Steven turned to Nev. ¡°What does it say when you place your hand on the barrier?¡±
¡°I¡¯m unsure Master. I have not entered since we left. I sent the drones to escort the half Naga.¡± Nev then walked up and placed her hand on the barrier. She immediately stiffened. ¡°Uh, Master. I know this is your dungeon now, but this name is quite misleading.¡±
¡°You think! I¡¯m not the one that did it. This was Silvia!¡±
The spider Queen¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°What ever the case, we should continue.¡±
Steven selected yes and was sucked into the dungeon. After a moment, Nev was next to him in her human form.
¡°Shall we?¡± Nev said as she locked her arm in his and they began walking down the tunnel.
Once they made it to the main chamber, Steven noticed tons of zombies, and he froze.
¡°It would be best to go through the hidden paths.¡± Nev said.
¡°Yea, you¡¯re right.¡± Steven said as they began toward the waterfall. ¡°Will they attack me even though I¡¯m now technically the Dungeon Lord?¡±
¡°That question is best suited for the wisp, as I¡¯m unsure how it works exactly. I believe they will be somewhat docile towards you. Though I am unsure.¡±
¡°Well, I suppose we will find out.¡±
Silviaburlaxatrix pushed the life-force from Steven¡¯s domain into multiple adolescent wisps. The life force was potent, and she now understood what the council was talking about. Channeling it caused her to strain the limits of her light. At times, it would even cause her to flicker uncontrollably. Having the outlet of the adolescent wisps was her only saving grace. Her light would have likely shattered if she didn¡¯t have somewhere to send the excess life-force. Even when she took in the minimal amount, it was still too much. She needed to figure something else out. Eventually, all the adolescent wisps would become full wisps. And with that many wisps pulling from Steven¡¯s domain, she was afraid it could cause problems.
Traversing the dungeon was a simple matter. Steven did his best to avoid killing any of the undead or send them to inventory. It would just be a waste, as Charles would have to create more. Once he killed all the undead in his inventory, he planned to come back and create some to keep on hand. Having a horde of undead on stand by would no doubt be useful. Although, from what Silvia told him, he would be limited by how much essence the dungeon had. It would apparently slowly accumulate essence naturally, but it took a long while and if he took too many undead away from the dungeon, it would no longer be a dungeon. Or something like that. Steven really didn¡¯t understand everything when Silvia was explaining things. He was just not supposed to use up too much of the dungeon essence. He was extremely curious about creating undead, but he would have to wait till he was next to the dungeon core to access the dungeon essence. Though he did have the domain so he could use his personal essence. Did this mean he was a necromancer now?
Nev continued to flirt with him through most of the dungeon, but she eventually caught on that he was in no mood to be seduced.
Once they reached the third floor, drones came to escort them the rest of the way. Steven was glad for this as he had no idea where the other hidden paths were. The drones apologized for not being there when they entered to escort them. Steven told them not to worry as they didn¡¯t know he was even coming. It felt odd being treated like royalty, but he was starting to become accustomed to it.
Steven learned a lot while traveling through the dungeon. Such as he no longer gained any essence from the dungeon monsters. There was also a new tab for the undead he sent to inventory. It was labeled: Undead from the Dungeon of Odling¡¯s Little Harem. This was annoying, and the longest name in his inventory, but there was nothing he could do about it. Hopefully, he could have Silvia change the dungeon name back, as it was quite embarrassing. He didn¡¯t want everyone to think he was forming a harem. Hopefully, no one noticed the name change yet.
The only monsters that tried to attack them were the abominations which Steven just sent to inventory. This made him really miss his portal ability. Nev asked why he was no longer using the portals and he had to explain what happen with Jabriel. He had completely forgotten to tell her anything about it. She asked about his new shard ability that replaced it and Steven explained it the best he could. He told her he hadn¡¯t tried it yet because he had no idea where he would end up. A random location within a mile of the destination was a bit vague and in the swamp it was likely he would end up in the swamp water.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened when he entered the room that they had fought the Elder Demon in. It was full of Half Naga. With all the makeshift tents, it looked like some sort of refugee camp. Which he supposed that¡¯s exactly what it was.
¡°It¡¯s hard to believe just a week ago we were in here fighting an Elder Demon.¡± Steven said.
He then remembered the undead half of the Elder Demon in his inventory. That was something he needed to deal with, as he could likely gain a good chunk of essence from it.
¡°My king!¡± A joyful Spider-kin called out as he ran over to kneel in front of Steven and Nev.
It took Steven a moment to recognize the drone. It was Charles; he had on Naga gear and looked like a proper warrior.
¡°Hey Charles, I¡¯m glad to see you are doing well. Please stand up.¡±
¡°I have done as you asked and have done the best I can to protect the Half Naga.¡±
¡°And you have done a fine job. Could you point me in the direction of the Elders?¡±
¡°I will lead you there myself.¡± No sooner than Charles said this, another drone ran over and nodded in respect to Charles before kneeling before Steven. ¡°Please allow me. Mr. Charles need not worry himself with such simple matters.¡±
Charles looked a bit let down and Nev looked a bit confused at the exchange, but didn¡¯t say anything.
¡°Alright, then lead on.¡± Steven said, ¡°And Charles, you are doing a fantastic job. Keep it up.¡± This seemed to put a smile back on the drone¡¯s face. They began following the other drone towards what used to be Sorin¡¯s throne room.
This, too, looked like a refugee camp. However, this section had a few luxurious looking tents set up in it.
¡°Would you like me to gather all the elders?¡± The drone asked.
¡°Yes, that would be great.¡± No sooner than Steven spoke. A couple more drones dropped from the ceiling and began to go into the tents.
¡°It will just be a few moments.¡± The drone said as he too ran off.
¡°Wow, you have been busy creating drones.¡± Steven said.
¡°Does this please Master?¡±
¡°It does. I like the drones. They are very loyal.¡±
¡°Yes.¡± Nev said, ¡°They have really taken a liking to their King. Ever since you turned into your spider King form, the drones have been talking about you nonstop. You are the only male to ever achieve a spider form. They look up to you.¡±
¡°Why? It¡¯s not like I done anything. You''re the one who gave me the shard. All I did was absorb it.¡±
¡°It was your soul that took that power and turned it into the Spider King form. That shard could have very well given you any sort of ability.¡±
Steven didn¡¯t get a chance to reply before a drone came running over, telling them was time. The pair were then led to one of the luxurious tents. Steven paused before entering as he heard voices. ¡°What is the meaning of this? I am an Elder you cannot just summon me here like a commoner.¡±
Steven thought he recognized the voice, but couldn¡¯t be sure.
¡°It is fine. The Spider-kin would have not summoned us here if it wasn¡¯t for good reason.¡± This voice, Steven recognized it was Elder Vasuki.
¡°Shall we?¡± Nev said as she locked arms with Steven.
He nodded, and they walked into the tent. All eyes turned towards them. Steven recognized several of them. Sirus, Goskia and even the arena master were present. However, Steven couldn¡¯t remember his name. It was kill something.
Elder Vasuki stood up and pointed a finger at Steven. ¡°Its you. The one that impersonated Shirem!¡± Elder Vasuki began to look around wildly. ¡°Guards! Arrest him immediately.¡±
One guard took a step forward, but when he noticed that no one else made a move he quickly stepped back.
¡°Elder Vasuki.¡± Goskia said, ¡°I believe there is some sort of misunderstanding. This is Steven the Dungeon Lord that took us in after the humans attacked our home.¡±
Elder Vasuki sat down with a confused look on his face.
¡°Time has not treated you well, Vasuki.¡± Nev said with a seductive smile.
¡°And who are you supposed to be?¡± another one of the Naga asked.
Nev smiled viciously and began to shift into her spider form.
¡°Nev! Stop that.¡±
Steven took a deep breath. ¡°I have come here today to discuss two matters. The first is about your home.¡± All eyes turned from Nev and locked onto Steven. ¡°It still stands. There is also a contingent of knights held up there along with several Half Naga prisoners.¡±
¡°Do we know how many prisoners?¡± Sirus asked.
Sirus and Goskia seemed to be the only ones that weren¡¯t still freaking out about Nev¡¯s identity.
¡°I¡¯m unsure Captain Sirus.¡± Steven said. ¡°Although...¡±
¡°That is Elder Sirus now.¡± One of the guards said.
Steven''s brow creased at the Naga that spoke. ¡°Is that Shirem?¡±
The guard¡¯s eyes widened, and he took a step back. ¡°Yes,¡± Shirem stammered out. ¡°I- I would like to know where Miss Evesakia Swift Tail is.¡±
¡°She is Master¡¯s property now and¡¡±
¡°Nev. Shush.¡±
¡°Yes, Master.¡±
¡°Eve is the second thing I wanted to talk about. But we can move on to that if you¡¯re not interested in reclaiming your home.¡±
¡°Shirem, leave us,¡± Sirus said.
¡°But.¡±
¡°I agree with Sirus. This is no place for you.¡± Goskia said.
Shirem glared at Steven as he left.
¡°Let us discuss reclaiming our home,¡± Goskia said.
The rest of the meeting was uneventful. Steven called for a smoke break halfway through. He hated politics. The Naga just stayed seated. It was obvious that they didn¡¯t want to take a break, but Steven was getting overwhelmed. He wished Silvia would have come with him. But the spider Queen was also good at negotiations. Steven mostly sat as they talked.
Eventually, it came to an end. Steven was annoyed by the amount of time wasted on nonsense. He could have come up with the plan in five minutes. Nev would go say that the area was hers and most likely the humans would just leave. Then the Half Naga could resume their life as normal. Well, normal as it could be with so many of their clan being enslaved and killed. In tribute for this service, they would become subjects to the Spider Queen. This was Nev¡¯s part of the deal. If she was going to offer them protection, she wanted something in return. This would be a treaty that would last throughout the generations. As for now, Steven had become the King of the Half Naga. This was something Nev would not budge on and Steven just accepted. As for Eve. Goskia and a couple other Half Naga would come to check on her condition. Goskia said they would figure something out.
Steven was also happy to find that Goskia had been working on growing the plant he confiscated from him. He said he would let him know when it was ready. Though it would be different, as he didn¡¯t have any seeds and had to use an ability to make it grow. Steven didn¡¯t mind, and it gave him something to look forward to.
Once that was over, Steven was going to create some undead with his new domain powers. But after talking with Charles, he decided he would wait. The Spider-kin told him the Dungeon Of Odling¡¯s Little Harem¡¯s reserve of essence was low from creating all the new undead. Charles apologized profusely, but Steven told him to not worry about it. He would just come back later. He also ordered Charles to refer to the dungeon as just the undead dungeon.
Chapter 65: Black orbs
The next few days went by quickly. Nev went and reclaimed the Naga¡¯s land. From what she told Steven, all she had to do was tell them that this was now her land, and she was taking all the Half Naga as her slaves. However, Steven was concerned when Nev told him that she had an appointment to go to a human city to talk further on the matter. Silvia didn¡¯t seem bothered by this in the slightest and told Nev she also needed to talk to the Assassin¡¯s Guild about what to do with Necros.
Once the humans and elves left this part of the swamp, the Half Naga began to move back into their old homes.
Meanwhile, Steven had been killing the undead in his inventory. He did it outside the domain as Silvia told him it would trigger the domain¡¯s defenses and would drain the domain¡¯s stored essence. If the storage of essence ran out, then it would drain his personal essence.
Steven¡¯s plan was to kill everything aside from the dragons, sentient undead creatures and Sorin¡¯s skeletal knights. He wasn¡¯t even sure if the knights could be killed, according to Silvia. Then he would level up to forty and absorb a new shard before leaving out to go to Fidah¡¯s clan. He also planned to gather a hoard of undead from his dungeon before he left. The undead had proven very useful and now that he had the ability to suggest who they attacked; he felt like he was really becoming powerful. Although beings like Nev, the general and Elder Demon kept him from getting a big head. He was nowhere near their power level.
Steven eventually got around to talking to Silvia about the dungeon name, but she just told him she had no control over what his domain was called. Steven then tried to talk to Gideon about it, but couldn¡¯t get the angel to respond. It seemed he would have to wait and talk to him when he absorbed a new shard, which wouldn¡¯t be much longer. Steven continued to kill the undead. His Spear didn¡¯t take any durability damage what so ever and Steven could just pull out the undead as many times as he needed. He could only kill one abomination before he got low on mana form pulling it and placing it into inventory. The spear would also proc off from time to time and drain a seemingly random amount of mana.
Steven also tried out the blighted staff and was pleasantly surprised the root snare ability looked a lot like his root ability. Except the roots were smaller and there were so many of them he couldn¡¯t even begin to count them. He used it on one of the abominations and it eventually died. Which was something he did not expect. It took a few hours, but the spell never fizzled out and eventually the blight damage just killed the creature. Steven was starting to understand why he could only cast it twice a day. He wished he could have used it in the dungeon, but he didn¡¯t have the mana at the time. The staff would definitely be one of his main weapons. He pulled up the description to make sure he wasn¡¯t missing anything.
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 of miles in every direction.)
The staff was powerful, however it was just a twice a day use. Meaning his spear would still be his weapon of choice. Well, that and his spider form. Closing the description, he got back to killing the undead. He still had several to deal with and it would likely take him a couple more days to kill them all. The abominations were a pain, but he needed the essence now more than ever. Especially now that he had two domains that used essence as a resource. Though Silvia told him the domains would pull in essence from the surrounding area. It was just slow, and he didn¡¯t need to waste it. Steven had the drones make him a round table and drag it into the room. He would make a better one after he absorbed the domain. He didn¡¯t tell Silvia; she was off with the wisps, anyway. It¡¯s all she seemed to do now. He could only imagine how much essence Blank had to used to create everything in the tree house. Taking a long drag from a pipe the drones had gotten for him, he put the thought from his mind. He needed to get stronger he had to help Eve.
Hours passed as Steven pulled out undead and stabbed them. His mind wondered to his aunt and what Kat meant when she said everything in his home world would change. If he had enough mana, could he travel between worlds with his portal ability? Appearing a mile from his house wouldn¡¯t be a big deal when traveling between worlds. Steven pushed the thought away no sooner than it came. It would be a long while before he had enough mana to even attempt something like that.
+1093
Glancing at his mana, he decided it was too low to even bother with killing another abomination this evening. He was getting tired and hungry, anyway. Though he needed to talk to Mrs. Chen. He was getting sick of the repetitive flavor of the orange chicken. He didn¡¯t even understand where they kept getting the supplies to cook it. Steven assumed they would run out soon and would change up the food they cooked. Kat must have had given them a bag of holding or something. Was this her way of torturing him? Just continuously feed him the same food every day. He was about to start eating the food in the cabinets again, but he wanted to save that for when Kat came to get the Chens. Though he had Eve and she made some fantastic baked fish.
Once Steven returned to the tree house, Fidah greeted him. She asked him how his grinding was going and told him how the chained girls were doing. She didn¡¯t need to tell him, as he could see they weren¡¯t enjoying being chained up. But none of them complained, and they always bowed towards him with respect when they saw him. This only showed him how fucked up Sorin had been. It wasn¡¯t just Sorin; it was this whole damn world as someone had sold him the slaves. Silvia had told him slaves were common. This annoyed Steven, but he was too weak to make any difference and besides, the entire Elder clan was technically his slaves. This was the only way the humans and elves would accept Nev taking control. At least thats what Silvia and Nev said. Steven hated politics. He was still concerned about Nev¡¯s meeting that was coming up. But both Silvia and Nev said the humans wouldn¡¯t try anything. If they killed her, Spider-kin would overrun their entire city. Not to mention the princesses rampaging trying to get her body. Steven found that disturbing, but it was just the spider way. Eat their old to gain their ancestral memories.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Nev was off creating more Spider-kin and dealing with a few goblins. The Drones had brought him a dead one to look at. It looked just like what he thought a goblin would look like: a little green man with pointed ears and sharp teeth. Its frame was of a scrawny teenage boy. Steven pushed the thought from his mind. He still felt as they could be reasoned with, but both Nev and Silvia told him they couldn¡¯t be, so he didn¡¯t question it any further.
Steven headed up the stairs to his room to take a well-deserved nap. As he passed by the library, Leo looked up and nodded to him in respect before looking down and continuing to read a book.
He and Leo had a heart to heart the other day. Well, it was more Steven got the sphinx stoned, and they talked about nonsense. He needed to have another day like that. But Steven had a wisp that wouldn¡¯t allow him to rest till he reached level forty and absorbed another shard. Though Steven knew it wouldn¡¯t stop there, she would then want him to reach level fifty. Leveling was getting hard. The essence required was getting ridiculous. But he was nearly at level forty. Once in his room, Silvia appeared.
¡°Go on. Open up your stat page.¡±
Steven groaned inwardly, but did as the wisp asked.
{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}
Level- 39
Available Attribute ~5
Essence- 32,751
Essence required for next level 44,076
HP ~ 471
Stamina ~ 101
Mana ~ 998
Poise ~ 0 +35
Vitality ~ 20
Endurance ~ 16
Strength ~ 16
Dexterity ~ 23
Resistance ~ 17 +50
Spirit ~ 45
Talent-
Basic Stealth -
15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.
15% noise reduction while in stealth.
20% more damage when attacking in stealth.
¡°Alright looks like you have made some good progress today. Tomorrow you might actually reach level forty.¡±
¡°If I have enough undead, that is. I¡¯m nearly out of abominations and only have a few knights left. Well, aside from Sorin¡¯s undying knights.¡±
¡°Those are now your Skeletal Knights. You have the domain and they will take orders from you. He stunted his growth and spent several levels of essence creating those knights.¡±
¡°I still don¡¯t understand how they take orders from me when none of the others will take orders?¡±
¡°Like I told you before, these knights were created from Sorin¡¯s own essence through the domain, and not from the dungeon¡¯s essence.¡±
¡°Okay then, so why won¡¯t you let me create undead from my essence?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a waste of essence, when you are stronger than you can. For now, you have access to a dungeon, so use that.¡±
Steven sighed. ¡°Anyway, have you heard anything from Herald?¡±
¡°No, I will inform you immediately when he comes into my range. Don¡¯t worry, he will find information on Eve¡¯s condition. Goskia came by again today and tried a few different potions on Miss Evesakia. He thinks he is making progress in figuring out what is happening to her body. He just needs time. From what he has told me, it seems she is still in the middle of transitioning from living into undead.¡±
¡°Is it going to negatively affect her by staying in that form?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light dimmed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t have the answer to that. I know she is important to you. And I promise I will do everything in my power to help her. Now I need to get back to the wisps. I¡¯ll send Fidah up with some food.¡±
Silvia then vanished with a pop. Steven just sat there on the edge of his bed. He had been considering pulling out one of the sentient undead to ask them, but Silvia said that wasnt a good idea. That those warriors were well equipped and may have something to let the undead empire know of their location. The last thing they needed was the undead coming after them.
It wasn¡¯t long before Fidah came up with some food. ¡°Master, are you okay?¡±
¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine. It¡¯s just Eve. Im worried about her. I feel as though I let her down.¡±
Fidah looked down. ¡°I¡¯m sorry too. It¡¯s my fault since I didn¡¯t do anything when she was taken.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry I blamed you. There was nothing you could have done. That general was ridiculously strong he would had likely just turned you as well.¡±
Steven pulled out his new wooden pipe. When he was done, he offered it to Fidah. She hesitatingly took it. ¡°Do I just...¡±
¡°Yes, just suck on it. You see this hole in the side here?¡± Steven was surprised at how foreign the simple wooden pipe was to everyone around here. Surely it¡¯s not a new invention. No sooner than Fidah handed him the pipe back, his door swung open.
¡°Master! Ive learned¡¡± Nev stopped talking and glared at Fidah till she eventually got up and left.
¡°Thanks for the food, Fidah. I appreciate you.¡±
¡°Yes, of course. It is my pleasure, Master Odling.¡± Fidah called back.
Nev closed the door. ¡°Go on, lite that thing up.¡±
Steven did so and passed it to the Spider Queen. ¡°I have news that you will want to hear.¡±
¡°Well, go on then.¡± Steven said.
¡°Kiss me first.¡± Nev said with a wide smile.
¡°Really?¡±
¡°Yes, you have been all gloomy lately and haven¡¯t flirted with me in a while.¡±
Steven rolled his eyes. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ve just had a lot on my mind. Ive also been worried about your upcoming meeting with the humans and elves.¡±
Nev just patiently waited. Steven kissed her on the cheek. Nev said nothing and just continued to wait.
¡°Fine.¡± Steven said as he kissed her on the lips.
As soon as he did, Nev¡¯s face lit up. ¡°Take that wisp!¡±
¡°Wait what?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Nothing, Master, don¡¯t worry about it. Also, there is no reason to worry about my meeting with the pesky humans and elves. What I wanted to tell you about was I¡¯ve found out some information about Eve.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened, and he sat up straighter. ¡°Well, go on, tell me!¡±
¡°So one of my drones was watching Eve as she was being held hostage, and he told me some interesting things.¡±
¡°What sort of things?¡±
¡°Well, it turned out the undead were...¡±
Silvia appeared right between Steven and the Spider Queen with a slurping pop.
¡°Really! You just had to kiss the spider.¡±
Steven moved to look around the wisp. ¡°Not right now! What were the undead doing to Eve?¡±
¡°By kissing her first, you have consented to her!¡± Silvia said as she flew back into Steven¡¯s view.
Steven blinked a few times. ¡°Wait. What? Ugh, never mind that at the moment. Nev has information on Eve.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flickered, and she turned to Nev, who had a smug look on her face.
¡°Looks like I¡¯ve won the bet.¡± Nev said.
¡°Hey! I don¡¯t really give a shit about what game you two are playing.¡± Steven said before glaring at Nev. ¡°Nev, as your Master, I order you to tell me what you know about Eve!¡±
Nev stiffened as if controlled by some unseen force. Then began explaining what the drone had seen. It turned out the Undead was force feeding Eve some sort of black orb. When Nev was done speaking, she visibly relaxed.
Steven was surprised that his order to Nev was so powerful. He hadn¡¯t realized he could force her to do things. ¡°Nev. I¡¯m sorry, okay, I didn¡¯t realize I could even order you around like that.¡±
¡°It is fine Master. I could have refused. However, the consequences would have been bad.¡±
¡°I¡¯m also sorry I didn¡¯t realize that you had information on Evesakia.¡± Silvia said, light dimming. ¡°I do not know what that orb was. Did the drone say anything else? Was there a ritual or anything? Or did Miss Evesakia just simply eat these orbs?¡±
¡°She just ate them, nothing more.¡±
After discussing this further, Steven sighed and pulled out his pipe and loaded it. ¡°At least we now have a lead. Thank you Nev.¡±
¡°Yes Master, I also want to help Eve. You haven¡¯t been the same since you lost her.¡±
¡°Now may not be the best time, but I thought it best to tell you that the Shirem Naga has been outside the barrier asking to see Eve.¡± Silvia said.
Steven shot up before just leaning back against the headboard. Taking a couple of puffs from his pipe, he spoke. ¡°I don¡¯t want him anywhere near Eve at the moment. He did try to kill me and I haven¡¯t heard from Sirus as to why yet. Now leave me. I¡¯m going to get some sleep. Don¡¯t bother me less it¡¯s concerning Eve, or life threating.¡±
Chapter 66: The 300
The next day Steven spent most of his time killing undead, only stopping to eat. His mind jumped between Eve and his home world. It¡¯s not that he wanted to go home, but he was worried about his aunt. And if he was honest, this whole adventuring thing was harder than he thought it would be. But it would get better when he made it to human civilization.
It was the repetition of pulling undead from his inventory, then stabbing over and over that was getting to him. He needed something different. But he was close now. This would be the last grinding session he would have for a bit, regardless of what Silvia said.
Level forty was a big deal. He would even have an advantage over most, as he had an extra shard. This would be his fifth shard. He really hoped it would be a good one. His random portal power seemed pretty useless in this swamp. Though he could see how it could get him out of a tight situation. However, Silvia told him to not rely on it, as some had measures against portal users. Portals were rare, but they were so powerful that measures had to be taken against them or entire nations would fall.
+1302
¡°Finally.¡± Steven looked down at his essence counter.
42,435
¡°Ugh, not yet,¡± Steven muttered as he pulled out another knight.
The Knights were annoying to deal with, as he had to stab them where their armor was missing. Stab send to inventory. Stab inventory. Stab inventory. It would be faster to use his roots or shift into his spider form, but that used mana and he had to conserve mana, as he could only use so many mana potions a day. Not to mention that some ingredients in the potions were rare and expensive. Steven had never paid much attention as he had always been given potions by the handfuls. Though that very well could have been because of his connection with Eve and Goskia. He still had a half a dozen of both mana and health, but Silvia told him to stop going through them so fast.
He only needed forty-four thousand essence. And it was unlikely he would get in an actual fight today. Besides, his mana pool wouldn¡¯t take too long to refill. With that in mind, Steven swapped to his blighted staff and pulled out the undead knight.
Activating the staff, a countless number of roots wrapped around the knight as its health slowly began to tick down. He could barely even see the knight under the mass of roots twisting and turning. Steven was unsure what the limit on the staff was. So he pulled out another knight right onto of the roots. Immediately, the roots began wrapping around the knight and pulling it under as well. Steven was about to pull out another one when he saw the health bar of the first knight decreasing so gradually it was barely noticeable.
¡°Hmm, makes sense.¡± a quick glance at his mana bar made him realize he still had plenty of gas in the tank and he activated his root shard at the edge of the staff¡¯s roots. Directing his roots, he grabbed hold of the knight. In the mass of roots, it was hard to tell his shard roots apart. The only difference was his were larger. His roots only drained mana, but it could still kill the undead. Steven did a bit of experimenting. He had his second cluster of roots appear in the middle of the mass of root. Unfortunately, this caused a portion of the staff¡¯s roots to shrivel up, but only in the area where the root cluster was connected to the ground.
Steven imagined using his root clusters above an enemy while using the staff¡¯s ability on the floor. Roots above and below. Though he would need something to attach the roots above too. Then he remembered he could create webs in his spider form. He could even web everything else up and ensnare his prey, leaving them vulnerable and¡
Steven shook his head. ¡°What the hell. I¡¯m a human, not a spider!¡± Taking a deep breath, he focused on the task at hand.
A few moments later, the staff¡¯s roots shriveled up. Looked like he had finally found the staff¡¯s limit. It could kill one enemy without issue, but when he added another into the fray, it would time out faster, or maybe it was his root shard that caused it to fizzle out quicker. He wished there was a timer or a bar or something.
A single thrust of his spear and the first knight died, dissolving into nothingness.
+1381
The second had nearly a quarter of its health bar, so he quickly sent it to inventory and dismissed his roots. He didn¡¯t want to run out of mana. This would be the last knight he needed to kill to reach level forty, so he resigned himself to stabbing, then sending to inventory.
The knights were normally trickier as he had to touch them where they didn¡¯t have any armor while also stabbing them there. However, the roots had crushed the armor, and it had fallen off in several places. Making this knight a simple matter to deal with and it wasn¡¯t no time before Steven seen translucent number appear.
+1279
¡°That¡¯s it.¡± Steven said as he pulled out his pipe and walked back to his domain.
Now all he had to do was wait on Herald to return and he could absorb the domain and they could head out. Steven had to admit he was excited to meet the elves. Though the two-week journey wouldn¡¯t be so fun. At least it would be out of this damned swamp.
As soon as he entered through the barrier, Silvia appeared.
¡°Did you seriously make a room with a round table in it?¡±
¡°Yes, I wanted to have a room where we could all meet and talk. About what to do next.¡±
¡°There is no point in that you have me! I¡¯m more than capable of helping you make informed decisions. That¡¯s what I¡¯m here for. It is my job as your soul bound wisp. All you need to do is ask me.¡±
¡°Is it so wrong that I want to make an informed decision? I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t discuss this with you but you have been gone a lot! And what does it matter? All the drones had to do was carve out a round slab of wood, its not like we need all the rooms. I know you are trying to help the wisps and overthrow the council or whatever. But I said I would help you with that, so let me in on it, okay? I will help you. But Eve¡¯s life is in danger right now and I want to deal with that first.¡±
¡°Oh. Steven, that¡¯s not what¡¯s going on.¡± Silvia¡¯s light dimmed. ¡°I¡¯m not trying to overthrow the council right now. I¡¯m sorry I should have told you. I¡¯ve been using the essence in the domain to help them transform. And what did you mean by all the drones had to do was carve out a chunk of wood?¡±
¡°Yes, you should have. How are you able top access the domain¡¯s essence? When I tried, it told me I would need to absorb the domain first. Something to do with it changing ownership.¡±
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
¡°Wait, are you saying you didn¡¯t use essence to create the table and chairs?¡±
¡°No, I didn¡¯t. I haven¡¯t even seen it yet. I had the drones do it.¡±
Silvia went to speak, but Steven cut her off. ¡°Is it smart to be draining the domain¡¯s essence right now? When I absorb it, Kat said it used essence. I won¡¯t know how much till I go to absorb it. Also, is there a way for me to see how much essence my domain has?¡±
¡°Both are excellent questions. To answer your second question. Yes, I get a sense of how much essence there is. Though I can only tell when it¡¯s low and when it¡¯s mostly full. I¡¯m not sure how much it actually has.¡±
¡°And is it low?¡±
Silvia was silent for a long moment. ¡°Yes. But I¡¯m mostly pulling the essence straight from you and not the stored essence of the sanctuary.¡±
Steven took a deep breath. ¡°I don¡¯t really understand the difference.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flickered, and Steven got the sense she was fixing to go into lecturing mode.
¡°I honestly don¡¯t want to know. Just tell me how long will it take to refill.¡±
¡°Nearly a month, give or take bit.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want you using any of this domain essence without speaking to me first. And no more helping the wisps till it¡¯s full again.¡±
¡°But there are thousands of wisps waiting.¡±
¡°And they will just have to wait.¡±
¡°Master,¡± Nev said as soon as she entered the barrier. ¡°Come see. I think you will be pleased.¡±
Steven looked at the Spider Queen. She was in her human form and was obviously excited about something. Turning back to Silvia, Steven spoke up. ¡°Understand.¡±
¡°Yes.¡± Silvia said, light dim.
¡°We can discuss this in more detail later. There is a lot I don¡¯t understand.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light brightened ever so slightly at that.
¡°Okay, what is it you want to show me Nev?¡±
The Spider queen smiled. ¡°I think you will like it, Master. I saw it from one of your dreams. It¡¯s for our upcoming travels to the elves and then the journey into the mountains to see the dwarves.¡±
¡°About that.¡± Steven said as he followed Nev. ¡°After going to Fidah¡¯s clan, I was thinking we go to a church.¡± Steven stopped talking as Nev took him through the barrier. Once on the other side, Steven¡¯s eyes widened.
¡°Oh, my,¡± Silvia said. ¡°It¡¯s just like the dream we watched.¡±
If front of Steven stood several hundred drones, all with a shield and a spear. However, all the shields were of different shapes and sizes. As if it was all looted. Some looked well made and others looked no better than a chunk of wood.
¡°Shield.¡± As soon as Nev spoke, every drone immediately held their shields out and formed a dome shape. There were six shield domes. It was an impressive sight. Several spears were poking out from the dome of shields. There were some gaps due to the different types of shields, but it still looked like a force not to be trifled with.
He knew he had seen this somewhere, but he just couldn¡¯t place it.
¡°What do you think, Master? Each group had fifty drones. It took a while to gather enough shields, but I¡¯ve had the drones practicing for a while now.¡±
After some quick math, Steven spoke up. ¡°Wait, are you telling me there are three hundred drones?¡±
¡°Yes! Just like your dream,¡± Nev said.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Are you talking about the three hundred Spartans?¡±
¡°Yes, that¡¯s the one.¡± Nev said with a proud smile.
¡°Wow, I¡¯m not sure what to say. I am impressed. Is this the first time you have ever armed the drones?¡±
¡°Ive tried it, but none of them ever seemed interested, and the weapons never seemed to help. Though all of them were excited about learning to use the spear. As for the shield, I shared a memory of your dream with them about it and they all took to it well.¡±
¡°You have really outdone yourself, Nev.¡± Steven said as he walked around, looking at their shield domes. ¡°Though this may be a bit much just to travel through the swamp.¡±
¡°You need protection. You are the King after all. And Kings must have guards.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not really a King.¡± Steven said, rolling his eyes. ¡°Just because the drones see me that way, don¡¯t make me a king.¡±
¡°You are also the King of the Half Naga.¡± Nev said.
¡°Not to them I¡¯m not.¡±
¡°Actually, you are.¡± Silvia said. ¡°however, you are no true king to the other races such as the humans and elves, as only the monster races consider you a king.¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what they believe. Master is a King. And we will rule this world together.¡±
¡°I have no interest in ruling the world.¡± Steven said absently.
He was looking at the shields, some well made and others appeared to be barely holding up. ¡°Nev. Why do some soldiers have shields that look like they will fall apart in a single attack and others look like they were forged by a master blacksmith?¡±
¡°Well,¡± Nev said sheepishly. ¡°The shields were hard to find.¡±
¡°I see.¡± Steven pulled out his pipe and began puffing on it. ¡°You.¡± Steven said after tapping on a drone¡¯s shield. ¡°Go stand over there. You. You and you.¡±
¡°My King do you mean me?¡± One of the drones asked. Steven had no idea which one spoke. So he pulled out his staff. ¡°If I tap your shield, go stand over there.¡± Steven said as he went through tapping on the better looking shields. He knew he could go through and send each shield to inventory and choose the best one according to stats, but that seem tedious. So instead, he was just picking out the best looking shields. The whole point was to watch the other soldiers back, so they all needed decent shields.
¡°What are you doing, Master?¡±
¡°Making elite squads.¡± Steven said while reloading his pipe.
The next while was Steven, forming the squads of fifty. He told those with the bad shields they were to train and earn a better shield. Steven knew it wasn¡¯t fair, as the shields seemed to be randomly given out. But this seemed to fill those drones with determination. Only one squad had decent shields. Steven imagined arming them all with enchanted spears and shields.
¡°You should have them train with the Half Naga.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Yess that¡¯s a good idea.¡± Steven said. ¡°Though we need to make sure plenty of healing potions are on hand. Also, we should give them time to settle into their homes before we start that.¡±
Steven then turned and went back into the barrier. He took a deep breath when he entered. The swamp air was so muggy. He briefly wondered if it was the barrier that kept this place so cool. Looking around at his domain, Steven couldn¡¯t help but wonder how he was to absorb this place. Kat said the tree would also be absorbed as well. Would it leave a huge crater in the ground where the tree roots used to be? Steven shook his head. There was no point in worrying about it now. He would find out soon. He would give the vampire butler a couple more days, but if he wasn¡¯t back, then Steven would be leaving. A drone would just have to inform the butler where they went.
Steven then headed towards the tree house.
¡°Steven, wait up.¡± Silvia said, flying up next to him. ¡°Where are you going?¡±
¡°I¡¯m going to check in on Eve.¡± Steven said as he kept walking.
¡°Dont you want to absorb a new shard? You are level forty now, right?¡±
¡°Yes. And in the morning.¡± Steven stopped walking. ¡°After are meeting at the round table.¡±
¡°Steven, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s necessary to¡¡±
¡°No, we are having a meeting. You were using the domain essence and Nev created an army based on my dreams. I want to be informed of what y¡¯all are doing. Tell Nev to be there. I want everyone there in the morning.¡±
¡°What time?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure. Just be there. We can discuss setting a regular time to at the meeting tomorrow.¡± Steven closed the door to the tree house. Only to hear Silvia¡¯s voice in his head. ¡°If I know a time, I can get it organized better for you.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t even know how to tell time here. Just after I wake up, okay?¡± Steven said as he headed up the stairs.
¡°I¡¯m sorry Eve. It seems that there was more than just a shard ability at play. One of the drones told us you were forced to eat something. And were beat when you refused.¡± Steven was silent for a long moment. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry. This is my fault. If it wasn¡¯t for me, you wouldn¡¯t have been stuck in a dungeon. If I would have just listened to Kat. Or just not ran into the portal, then you would still be okay. Not to mention all the others in your clan. All dead¡¡± Steven just sat there for a long moment before standing to leave.
¡°Your condition is more important to me than the lives of all those who died.¡± Walking to the door, he turned back. ¡°Does that make me a bad person?¡±
Steven then made his way to his bed and collapsed onto it.
Lester¡¯s journey had been one ordeal after another. And it all was to do with the damned skeletal wizards. They were an arrogant pair and had caused him nothing but heartache. First, they refused to wear a robe or anything to cover themselves. Saying they need not hide themselves, as they had the right to walk the streets. And if he had a problem with that, then he could talk with General Gurd about it.
Sure, they were allowed by law to walk the streets. But no one in Aspen had seen any living undead. The city had layers of walls and was well protected. Meaning the guards stopped them multiple times, and he had to explain the situation continuously, causing them to lose even more time. It¡¯s not that he was in a hurry to see that damned vampire again, but he was on a clock, especially since they had to travel there by carriage. The mages just looked smug each time the guards stopped them.
Lester eventually had to get an escort to clear their passage. Even though it was still likely that it would cause a city wide panic. What was his boss thinking?
He hoped they wouldn¡¯t get attacked while traveling through the smaller cities. But it wasn¡¯t his job to babysit. At least the skeletons would keep the vampire from attacking him. He wondered what had happened to the Steven fellow that Necros attacked. It was odd to have a dungeon lord put a hit out on someone in their own dungeon. But that was all above his pay grade to worry about. His task was to take the mages to Sorin so they could speak with him about their fallen.
Chapter 67: The Round Table
Steven opened his eyes, then just rolled over and shoved his face into the pillow. He didn¡¯t want to get up. But he also didn¡¯t want to stay in bed. He needed to find coffee.
Hearing a sucking pop sound, Steven inwardly groaned.
¡°I have everyone one waiting just like you requested. Your majesty.¡±
Steven turned over to see the wisp floating there with what he thought was a smug look about her. How he could tell the ball of light was smug was beyond him, but he somehow knew she was up to something.
¡°I need coffee.¡± Was Steven¡¯s only response.
¡°Would you like for me to send some up?¡± Silvia asked.
Steven sat up straight at that. ¡°We have coffee?¡±
¡°We do, the Chens drink it every morning.¡±
Steven just blinked at the wisp for a moment. ¡°Yes, bring me some.¡±
Silvia vanished. Then the realization that everyone was waiting sank in.
¡°Silvia, what do you mean by everyone is waiting?¡±
¡°For your round table meeting, of course. I told you a time would have been better, but you said after you woke up. I still don¡¯t think it¡¯s necessary, but hey, who am I to have an opinion?¡±
Steven sighed. Maybe having this meeting was more trouble than it was worth. ¡°And how long has everyone been waiting? And who is everyone exactly?¡±
¡°A few hours. And everyone, just like you said. I even had some drones go fetch Sirus and Goskia.¡±
¡°Are you trying to be facetious?¡±
¡°I do not know what you''re talking about, your Majesty.¡± Silvia¡¯s voice came back all innocent like.
Steven nearly told her to come back, but he had a better idea. Also he hadn¡¯t gotten his coffee yet. And it has been far too long. No sooner than Steven got his clothes on, a knock came at the door. ¡°Yes?¡±
¡°It¡¯s Fidah. I have your coffee.¡±
¡°Come on in.¡±
Fidah did so, and Steven got a glimpse past her. The hallway was packed full. It looked to mostly be drones, though. Steven sighed. ¡°It seems Silvia is trying to make a point.¡±
¡°She said it was the king¡¯s orders to have everyone present for the meeting.¡± Fidah said.
¡°I didn¡¯t mean everyone. Just a select few. It seems I will have to be more specific with the wisp.¡± Steven said as he took the cup.
¡°It¡¯s hot, Master Odling.¡±
¡°I¡¯m aware. Have you ever tried it?¡± Steven said, looking down at the black coffee.
¡°I have not.¡±
¡°It¡¯s better with milk. But I¡¯ll take what I can get.¡± Steven took a sip and was surprised that it wasn¡¯t all that bitter. He had never liked his coffee black before. But maybe after drinking all those drone eyes built up his tolerance for bitterness.
Steven held it out to Fidah. ¡°Want to try some?¡±
¡°No, it¡¯s fine. Mrs. Chen said there was not a lot left and I wouldn¡¯t want¡¡±
¡°Just try some. It¡¯s like a stamina potion without the potion toxin.¡±
Fidah¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Are you serious?¡±
¡°Yes, I am.¡±
Fidah took a hesitant sip. ¡°It¡¯s not bad. But what did you mean by add milk? I¡¯m no alchemist, but wouldn¡¯t that ruin the effect?¡±
¡°Not at all.¡± Steven said as he pulled out his pipe. After he took a long drag, he offered it to Fidah.
¡°It¡¯s a bit early for me, Master Odling.¡±
¡°It¡¯s never too early.¡± Steven said with a wide smile. ¡°It goes well with coffee.¡±
Fidah took the pipe and Steven mentally told Silvia to get a cup of coffee for Fidah.
Silvia mentioned everyone was waiting, but Steven just told her they could wait longer. After a drone brought Fidah a cup of coffee and she finished it, Fidah spoke up. ¡°I don¡¯t feel anything. Maybe it only works on those from your world.¡±
Steven smiled and headed to the door. ¡°That¡¯s not how that works. It will take ten to twenty minutes to kick in, unlike stamina potions.¡±
As soon as he opened the door, the drones began shuffling out of the way and a few began calling out. ¡°Make way for King Odling.¡±
Steven chuckled to himself at that. If the drones kept this up, people would eventually think him an actual king. The drones were just so devoted to him. He wondered if this had anything to do with Nev¡¯s oath to serve him. Would the drones turn on him when she did?
Steven made his way to the room with the round table across the hall. It too was jammed packed and Silvia floated in the center of the table with a satisfied expression. No a satisfied light. He also noticed Goskia and Sirus, who both looked annoyed.
¡°First off, I want to say thank you for all of you coming. Even though I didn¡¯t invite you. The meeting was only supposed to include Nev, Fidah, Silvia, and Leo. But my beautiful ball of light decided she would make a point. I suppose her point was to annoy everyone. Which she seemed to do quite well from the looks of it. I¡¯m sorry you all had been waiting for hours.¡± Steven turned to the drones. ¡°You may all go about your day. And thank you for coming. Also, you no longer have to obey Silvia¡¯s order till I tel you otherwise.¡±
Silvia¡¯s light flared. ¡°Hey that¡¯s¡¡±
¡°Shush you, I¡¯m not done speaking. Wait for your turn. Thats the whole point of this table after all.¡±
The drones began shifting out of the room, and Steven noticed the chained girls. ¡°You lot can go too.¡±
It took a few minutes for everyone to clear. ¡°It¡¯s looking much better now.¡± Steven saw a single drone still standing in the back dressed in what looked like naga gear but he ignored that for now.
Steven sat down and then noticed the Chens were still in the room as well. ¡°You can also leave.¡± No sooner than he spoke, Mr. Chen was out the door. However, his mother stayed. ¡°Want know what going on.¡±
Steven shrugged. Who knows, maybe she would have some insight. This also reminded him of coffee. ¡°Before I forget, I was told we are nearly out of coffee beans.¡±
¡°My coffee beans.¡± Mrs. Chen said.
¡°Okay, well, your coffee beans then. You need to give some to Goskia to see if he can grow any.¡±
¡°Who goatskin?¡± Mrs. Chen asked. ¡°Bean are roasted. Cannot grow.¡±
¡°I am Goskia.¡± The old Naga said before turning to Steven. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Steven, i don¡¯t have the time to take on any more projects at the moment. Rebuilding the clan leaves me with little to no time for anything else.¡±
¡°You will do as Master says!¡± Nev said, glaring at the old Naga.
Goskia lowered his head. ¡°Of course. i will see it done.¡±
¡°Nev, that¡¯s not howe this works. If he can¡¯t get to it right now, it¡¯s fine. We can just give him the beans and he can just get to it when he can.¡±
Goskia went to speak up. But Mrs. Chen spoke up. ¡°Bean roasted! Goatskin snake man can¡¯t grow.¡±
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
Steven looked at the old Asian woman with amusement. Living in a tree house with floating rags, spider people, elves, and talking balls of light was fine. But planting a roasted coffee bean is where she drew the line of unbelief. Also, did she just call him Goatskin.
"The name is Goskia, ma¡¯am. Also, the bean being roasted won¡¯t be an issue.¡± Goskia turned to Steven. ¡°What is this plant do, anyway?¡±
¡°Its like a stamina potion without the potion toxins.¡± Steven said.
Glancing at Fidah¡¯s wide eyes darting all over the place, he could tell it was definitely having an effect. Caffeine would likely be something new in this world. Or at least something they haven¡¯t discovered around here yet.
¡°A potion with no side effects.¡± Goskia said to a wide-eyed Sirus.
¡°Silvia, please make sure Goskia gets some beans when he leaves.¡±
¡°Of course. Your Majesty.¡±
¡°Thank you Silvia. I wouldn¡¯t be alive today if it wasn¡¯t for your wise guidance.¡± This seemed to perk the little ball of light up a bit. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s move onto some more important things. I formed this round table so I could make some informed decisions about what to do next.¡±
¡°Master,¡± Nev said as she raised her hand.
¡°Yes Nev.¡±
¡°Why is the table round?¡±
Steven was surprised she didn¡¯t actually know. She seemed to know a lot about his world from his dreams. Such as raising her hand as if she was in a classroom.
¡°It¡¯s to show that we are all equals here.¡±
¡°Master I think not!¡± Nev said.
¡°My King, that is preposterous.¡± The single drone said from the back.
¡°Equals?¡± Sirus questioned.
¡°I told you this wouldn¡¯t work,¡± Silvia smugly said into his mind.
¡°I believe what The Master is trying to say.¡± Leo interjected while somehow getting everyone¡¯s complete attention. ¡°Is that all our opinions matter to him equally.¡±
¡°Thank you Leo.¡± Steven said before he realized Leo had just called him The Master.
¡°It¡¯s obvious The Master is above us in station. All of us here are either bound to him or are his subjects.¡±
Steven wanted to interject but found his self unable to put forth the effort.
However, Chen¡¯s mom didn¡¯t have such qualms and spoke up. ¡°I not his subject, I work for flying cat.¡±
Leo turned to look at the old woman with confusion. ¡°Are you saying that the one who prepares food for The Master is not bound to him?¡± Leo turned to the wisp with wide eyes before looking at Nev.
Nev¡¯s face turned to fury and she stood up. ¡°Silviaburlaxatrix. Are you telling me she is not bound? And you allowed him to take the amulet off?¡±
Silvia¡¯s light began to flicker wildly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ve been busy¡ and the cook just kinda appeared out of nowhere.¡±
¡°Calm down, guys. It¡¯s not a big deal.¡± Steven said.
¡°Not a big deal!¡± Nev said, slamming her hand down on the table. ¡°This is a huge problem! I have drones patrolling the area at all hours. I built you a three hundred drone army for your personal safety. With your shards you are nearly impossible to assassinate aside from poison. I won¡¯t allow my only chance to transcend to be taken away so easily. Your safety is of the upmost importance.¡±
Mrs. Chen shrunk in her chair at Nev¡¯s out burst.
¡°She wouldn¡¯t¡¡± Steven started before Leo interrupted him.
¡°I believe the solution is simple. We have the cook take an oath.¡±
Steven was looking at Nev with confusion at her outburst when he realized what Leo suggested. He tried to open his mouth but again just couldn¡¯t build up the will to do so.
¡°I have to agree with Queen Nevateb,¡± Sirus said. ¡°Steven¡¯s safety is now tied to the wellbeing of my clan. And this is a huge risk.¡±
¡°Do you say I try poison this child king?¡± Mrs. Chen asked as she stared daggers at Sirus.
Steven had to admire the courage of the old woman. He wouldn¡¯t stand up to Sirus like that.
¡°I¡¯m not saying that, but if you were compromised¡¡± the old woman interrupted Sirus.
¡°Compromised! I no be compromised.¡±
¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough.¡± Steven said, no one even paid him any mind. Nev was even arguing with Silvia about something.
Steven was about to raise his voice when Leo spoke up. ¡°The Master is correct.¡± Everyone stopped talking and gave the sphinx their complete attention. ¡°Old woman Chen, I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t know your name. However, I believe this can all be solved by you taking an oath to serve The Master.¡±
Steven wanted to say that she did not need to take an oath and that he would rather her not. But again felt his will compressed.
¡°I take no oath.¡± Mrs. Chen said while crossing her arms. ¡°Also, I not old.¡±
Nev stood up and Steven seen what he could only describe as a giant spider shadow loom over the old woman. The fear in the old woman¡¯s eyes struck a nerve in Steven and he stood up.
¡°Enough!¡± Steven said, glaring at Nev.
¡°I¡¯m sorry Master, but this¡¡±
¡°No, we can discus this later. She does not need to take an oath.¡±
There was silence for a good thirty-seconds before the old woman spoke up. ¡°Aashi Chen.¡± The old woman said before standing up and walking to the door. ¡°I make food now. You no have to eat. But you can.¡± She then left through the door.
Steven assumed that was her name and did his best to make a mental note for when he went to apologize to her later. He then sighed. ¡°Can we move onto an actual topic that I want to discuss?¡±
¡°Please go on.¡± Leo said.
Steven looked at Leo. The sphinx has changed in attitude a lot since he first met him. He briefly wondered if Leo had some sort of speaking ability. Then he realized everyone was waiting for him to speak. ¡°So first thing I want to discuss is Eve. I need to know the best plan of¡¡±
Silvia flared her light. ¡°Steven, he has returned.¡±
¡°Wait. What? Who has returned?¡±
¡°Herald.¡± Silvia said.
¡°Who is Herald?¡± Nev and Leo asked nearly at the same time.
Steven¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°How close is he?¡±
¡°Within a few minutes.¡±
Steven turned to the only drone left in the room. ¡°Escort him to this room immediately.¡±
¡°Yes, at once my King.¡± No sooner than the drone stood up, two more drones appeared from nowhere. ¡°Allow us, Chosen one.¡± The drone sat back down with a resigned look on his face as the other two drones took off out of the room.
Steven was startled at the sudden appearance of the drones. He was just happy they were on his side. He assumed that was high stealth at work. Leveling up stealth again needed to be a priority. It was quite powerful, as even Sirus was startled by their appearance.
He then turned back to the drone. ¡°Why did they call you chosen one?¡±
¡°It is a name my drone brothers began calling me after you bestowed me with the name Charles and assigned me as your dungeon keeper.¡±
¡°Steven¡¯s eyes widened. Just now realizing who the spider-kin was. There were just so many drones he had a hard time telling them apart.
¡°It¡¯s nice to see you are doing well, Charles.¡± Steven quickly changed the subject. Not wanting the drone to realize he hadn¡¯t recognize him. ¡°How will they know where the vampire is?¡± Steven asked. This was something he was actually curious about.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, Master.¡± Nev said, ¡°I have already found his location with my webs, and my children are approaching him as we speak.¡±
¡°Oh. Alright then. Any way, to answer your question. Herald is¡¡± Steven started.
¡°It¡¯s fine. Silvia has already filled me in.¡±
¡°Okay. Well, I guess we just wait.¡±
It didn¡¯t take the drones long to escort Herald to the room. Steven was the first to speak. ¡°Tell me what you have found out about Eve.¡±
Herald took in the room, then turned his complete attention to Steven. ¡°Mr. Odling.¡± Herald nodded in respect before continuing. ¡°I have discovered much in my brief journey. First, miss Evesakia was forced to eat these.¡± Herald said as he pulled out an inky black orb.
¡°May I see that?¡± Goskia asked.
Herald looked at Steven before handing it to the old Naga and continuing. ¡°She is in a state of transition at the moment. I know that is probably obvious. However, the only way to get her out of the state is to continue the process.¡±
¡°Wait. Are you saying we turn her into undead?¡± Steven asked.
¡°Yes. From my understanding, it is the only way to help her. It is unheard of to turn one back during the transition. However, it is possible to change her from undead into living. Although I know little about the matter, I returned as quickly as possible.¡±
¡°I have seen nothing that has even remotely looked like this. How would we even feed this to her?¡± Goskia asked.
¡°At this stage in the transition, simply place the orb onto her skin and her body will absorb it.¡± Herald said before turning back to Steven. ¡°Also, the transition stage is not one she can stay in for long. If the ritual is not completed, she will wake up as an undead, with little to no memories of her past life. It is possible that even now she has lost some of her memories.¡±
Steven¡¯s eyes widened, and he looked at Silvia. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do.¡± Steven said through their mental link. ¡°Should we complete the process? Is there no other way?¡±
¡°You can trust Herald what he says is true. As for if there is another way. I¡¯m unsure. If there is, I¡¯ve not heard of one. Ive never even came into contact with these orbs before they must be new. Even the Elder wisp wasn¡¯t sure what was happening to Eve.¡±
¡°I say we proceed.¡± Goskia said. ¡°Matters of the mind are not simple. I can likely help her remember some of her memories. And if there is a way to turn her back, then we will find it.¡±
Sirus just sat there, eyes wide. Steven often forgot that Eve was his niece. He didn¡¯t even know if she had any other family or not.
¡°Sirus, what do you think?¡± Steven asked.
The dour Naga was silent for a moment before he spoke. ¡°Save her any way we can.¡±
Steven turned to Herald. ¡°Is there anything else we need to know?¡±
¡°No, Mr. Odling. There is nothing else concerning miss Evesakia.¡±
¡°Well, let¡¯s get to it then.¡± Goskia said. ¡°If it is a matter of the mind, we need to not waste anytime.¡±
All eyes turned to Steven. ¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡±
Within a few minutes, everyone was in or hovering around Eve¡¯s room. Goskia placed the orb on Eve¡¯s arm. The orb immediately looked to be getting sucked into Eve and the black veins all over her body began to pulse again. Both Steven and Goskia turned to look at the vampire.
¡°This is to be expected. It is part of the process.¡± Herald said.
¡°How long can we expect this to take?¡± Steven asked.
¡°A day or two at most. She can only absorb one orb every three hours.¡± Herald then pulled out a box full of orbs and placed it on the table.
¡°I want you to return and figure out how to turn her back.¡± Silvia told Herald.
Herald nodded. ¡°Expect this to take me some time. I tried to learn of this, but turning undead back to the living seems to be a well guarded secret. However, I will not fail you.¡± Herald then turned to leave.
¡°One more thing. We will no longer be at this location.¡± Silvia said.
Nodding, the vampire butler left. Steven barely paid any attention to this his eyes were locked on Eve. Long after everyone left, Steven sat in the room with Eve, hoping she would wake up, and praying, she would remember him. Out of everyone he was surrounded by, he felt Eve was truly his only friend. Everyone else just wanted something from him. Though she thought he was someone else.
Fidah brought Steven some food, and he absentmindedly ate it. He only left the room once to go outside and get some air. He grabbed a random book from the library on his way back to her room, hoping it would help kill some time.
At some point, Silvia appeared next to Steven and told him it was time for him to absorb his next shard. They still needed to help Fidah¡¯s clan. Once Eve woke up, he needed to absorb the domain so they could head out. He told her he would do it in the morning. Silvia assured him she would make sure Eve received an orb every three hours and told him to get some rest.