Chapter 11 - Open Sesa-Billy

Billy’s Gift didn’t bring him to the fourth wolf. In fact, it brought him to something much more interesting. In a not so particularly interesting part of the forest, next to a not so special looking tree, there was a portal. An actual, gods forsaken portal. A tear in the universe. A swirling, white gateway into the beyond. A door leading to treasure. And it didn’t even have the decency to be in a beautiful clearing or next to a calm lake. It was just… there. Next to a bush, across from a tree.

As far as Billy could tell, the portal was new. Portals appeared, then grew stronger as they were left alone. They would also change color to indicate their threat level and, eventually, warp the landscape around them, sending a foreboding red beam into the sky, heralding the doom of all townsfolk in the vicinity. This portal was white, almost transparent, and hadn’t altered anything around it, as far as Billy could tell.

Now, the question was, did he go in now or wait? If he told the Adventurer’s Guild or the Mage’s Guild, they would surely reward him. He could wait for it to change color, then face a harder but more rewarding challenge. Or he could go in now and just accept whatever challenge he faced. As a white portal, the challenge was most likely F-ranked. If he waited for it to fester a bit, he could face an E-ranked challenge, but could he win? Probably not, if he was honest with himself.

He resolved to watch the portal a bit as his mana recovered some more. After an hour, it seemed to grow denser, more a part of the world. It seemed to solidify, going from mostly transparent to translucent. That was, from see-through to not so see-through. After another hour, it grew completely opaque. No seeing through at all. As he waited a few more minutes, he started getting antsy. At this rate, the portal would probably rank up within the hour.

Billy checked his mana pool. It was almost full. He waited a handful more minutes, hefted his shield, squeezed his wand, clenched his cheeks and charged the portal with a roar. “Open sesame, mother f-” as soon as his foot touched the edge of the portal, he was teleported away.

Before he could register that he was being teleported, Billy was in a conveniently large, circular clearing in a forest. In front of him were his opponents. Three boars were pawing at the ground, getting ready to charge. Behind them was the most out of place treasure chest he had ever seen. Loot!

As the lead boar started to charge, Billy shot quick fire bolts into the faces of the two flanking boars, trying to blind them. Then, he pointed his wand to the lead boar, but he wasn’t quick enough to send anything towards it. He threw himself to the side as the boar rushed past.

The other two were rubbing their charred faces against the ground, trying to put out the lingering embers, so Billy focused on the more immediate threat. He sent a large gout of flame at the boar as it banked, turning around for a second pass. He tried his best to keep the flame on his opponent, but his aim was spotty at best. Still, he managed to scorch the beast quite a bit. Unfortunately, it didn’t slow it down too much.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

With a squeal, it charged again, hooves sinking deeply into the mossy ground. Did pigs have feet or hooves? No time for that. He shook his head to clear it.

Seeing an opportunity, Billy braced himself against his shield and reinforced its enchantment with a stream of mana. Right before impact, the boar seemed to glow faintly, as well. It impacted the shield with a thunderclap of clashing skills. Billy felt a chunk of mana get ripped out of his mana pool and shunted straight into keeping the shield in one piece. It worked, but it also brought his mana down to just under half of his maximum in an instant.

He peeked around the side of his shield, pressed his wand up into the dazed boar’s snout, booping the snoot, then he blasted it with a stream of fire. He tried condensing the stream so that it didn’t spray as wide. It sort of worked. As the angle the fire shot out narrowed slightly, the stream of fire seemed to grow denser. The boar never got the chance to shake off its stunned state before exploding in glittering particles.

The two other boars conveniently decided to attack at that moment. They darted in, one from each side. Billy grinned as he sent a quick cone of fire at each conveniently located boar. Then, as they were about to slam into him, their tusks glowing red, he dove forwards and tried to roll. His shield dug uncomfortably into his side, turning his roll into more of a tumble.

A large boom shook the clearing. Branches and leaves fell from the trees. The ground shook, causing Billy to lose his footing slightly. When he finally stabilized and turned around, he was just in time to catch the tail end of the despawning boars, tiny bits flying off in the wind.

Just then, Billy heard a click. He looked over to see the treasure chest’s lock falling to the ground. He walked over and opened the chest. As he did, a torrent of mana rushed into him, filling his mana pool, then stretching it to the point that it was almost uncomfortable. Power! There was now a constant pressure squeezing his chest that seemingly wasn’t going away. He felt like a shy kid being forced over and over again to speak in front of the class. Except, you know, without the whole school thing and plus some magic powers.

In addition to the mana cramp or whatever, Billy also received a pair of boots. He quickly threw off his old, probably stolen, boots and put on the new ones. They shrank a bit to conform to his feet and then expertly tied themselves, looking all fancy and new and shit. Odd, none of the stories had ever mentioned that magical boots laced themselves.

Just as he was about to test the boots, he was flung out of the clearing, exiting the white portal and landing on his back on the mossy forest floor. He would probably have to watch where he entered portals if they all rudely ejected their occupants. He wouldn’t want to be thrown out of a portal and off of a ledge. Looking around, he found that the portal had dissipated. He knew that some portals could be held open longer with some shenanigans (mostly the right skills), but he didn't know of anyone who could do such a thing.

Scrubbing the dirt from himself as best he could, Billy looked down at his new boots. He sent the tiniest trickle of mana into them. They glowed a dull white, but then… nothing. He put a little more mana into them, then jumped a little. Instead of jumping a few centimeters, he was propelled a good two feet. Oh yeah, boots of jumpy jump, acquired! Further testing required.

Billy wreaked havoc through the forest, using his boots and his newly filled mana pool to blast himself forward while hunkering behind his shield. Even the sturdiest of branches gave way to his might. When he was down to a quarter of his mana, he slacked, deciding to go for a more sedate walking speed the rest of the way to town. He turned in his quest, begrudgingly accepting a reduced amount of silver coins since he hadn’t technically killed all of the wolves. Then, he set off towards Farmer Tim’s. They needed to have a chit chat. A little heart to heart. A yarn.