Random Portals

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.

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.