ã€ŠThe Dungeon of Potentialã€‹


 prologue (the final one)

    Hello, my name is... well I don¡¯t really remember my name, but that¡¯s a story for later. Not the most enticing way to start this story, I know, but bear with me please. Anyway, your probably wondering, "Why is this strange dude talking to me, I want the dungeon building to begin! I want the gore, traps and death to start!¡±

    Well, my bloodthirsty friend, that will start all in due time. You see, for you to truly understand my current predicament - and my future ones - you will have to know how it began, how the story of the human me ended, and the story of dungeon me began.

    It was an ordinary weekend. I awoke in my pyjamas, under a tangled bed sheet. The birds were the ones who woke me with their sweet, if unwanted song.

    Their was a pleasant chill in the air. Strange for a chill to be pleasant, I know, but the days have been unusually hot during this English summer. Usually it gets to 20¡ãC but this particular summer it was reaching the early 30¡¯s. And when your body is still used to the -5 of winter, and the horrid winds from the nearby Peak District, 30¡ãC is bloody hot.

    Unfortunately for me, I couldn¡¯t just fall asleep. Not with the sunlight streaming through the window. In truth, should I try hard enough I could, but my mom - with the best timing as usual - chose that moment to shout up the stairs, telling me I needed to come down for my morning tea.

    So moaning and groaning I displaced my lovely dog. Bandit¡¯s the name, and sleeping¡¯s the game for him. The poor puppy¡¯s getting old, nearly 10 years old, so I was gentle, but like always, the minute I got up so did he, and with a mighty stretch he followed me downstairs, both of us with bed head.

    I don¡¯t remember much after that, I had a protein shake for breakfast because I don¡¯t like to eat in the mornings but mom insisted I have something fulling, and I had about three cups of tea throughout the day. Man, I miss my family.

    I do remember with crystal clear clarity,however, bandit and I taking a walk. He loved these walks. It was about halfway through, while bandit hunched up to take a poo, I heard a noise.

    This noise was strange, almost like flapping, and coupled with the faint feeling of wind coming from the left side of my face I was freaked out.

    I might be paranoid, but the wind that day was coming from the right side of my face, and quite strong as well, so for the wind to completely reverse, quite reasonably I was a bit weirded out.

    But following my logic, the best logic, I did not look. In any horror story, there is always that one person who looks, the one who says,"he¡¯s behind me isn¡¯t he.¡±

    They die first. Always.

    So with this flawless logic, I waited until bandit was finished and i picked up his poo and I continued with the walk.

    I continued to feel this anomaly on the back of my head for about 200 metres, and then it stopped, but something much much worse followed.

    I heard a thump. No, not the playful thump, where you get smacked by a friend, neither the shocking one where to pieces of wood get clapped together.

    No-No-No. If only this thump was one of those thumps.

    This thump was a rattling, bone-chilling one. One that reached into your mind and ignited your worse nightmares. One that gave rise to a horrifying demon behind you, ready to devour you whole, and you wouldn¡¯t be to far off.

    As bandit stopped to take a wee, I heard a clattering, and pieces of tar were shot in front of me. then a whistle sounded out and I felt a sharp pain at the back of my head.

    Everything went dark.

    ¡°Shit.¡± a voice screamed out. The voice was that of a teenage girl. A strange girl, but a girl nonetheless.

    With crimson skin, taut with muscles, she appeared to be a demon. But this wasn¡¯t the only demonic aspect.

    She had horns coming from her forehead, gracefully curving back and over her head.

    Along her forearms, shins and stomach were a smattering of scales, with a Shade of red that seemed to shift as the light hit it, making it seem like an ever shifting fire. She wore a bikini top and denim shorts.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°I was supposed to protect him till he was home.¡± Another curse rang out.

    A swirling vortex appeared in front of my the body.

    ¡°Damn.¡± a voice rang out as a horrific looking creature, with spindly legs and tufts of hair appeared.

    ¡°Looks like Death got him. Well no matter. Did you manage to set up the soul gem Ashley.¡± With a look of annoyance Ashley said.

    ¡°Yes Tiki, you know I did.¡± Flashing a murky, colourless stone, she continued.

    ¡°His poor family... Someone¡¯s going to come and find him in a couple of days, and then he¡¯ll be rotten. There¡¯s nothing we can do.¡± With a thoughtful look, and a glance to the caved in head of the 14 year old boy she sighed.

    ¡°That¡¯s not strictly true. Give me a second.¡± Tiki bent down. He didn¡¯t have to go far, being as short as he is. He looked bandit in the eyes and started speaking in a soothing, hypnotic tone.

    ¡°Your a good dog, aren¡¯t you? Well I¡¯ve got a job for you. Run home and bring your owners here. You¡¯ll do that won¡¯t you boy?¡± The dog was swaying in tune with tiki¡¯s voice. After a second, the dog sneezed and started to run back the way he¡¯d come.

    ¡°There, that¡¯s done. The family will come in a bit.¡± The gremlin-like creature started to sway. After a while he calmed down, and the dead body¡¯s head started to reconstruct. After a little while, the body looked like it was sleeping.

    Breathing heavily, tiki said.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s done. Now they¡¯ll think he had a heart attack, or tripped and fell. An unfortunate mistake, but not nearly as traumatising as, well...¡± and he gestured, before coughing.

    ¡°Without my dungeon it¡¯s hard to do such tricks. I used to be so powerful, this would be merely a parlour trick.¡± The mood dropped. Looking around one last time, tiki motioned for Ashley to walk through the portal.

    After he turned around with a blank face. It was impossible to tell what the creature was thinking. For awhile he stood their before stepping through the portal. It was almost as if he was having a conversation?

    A few hours later a woman could be seen sobbing as a doctor told her he was sorry, but there was nothing he could have done.

    A little later sat at the centre of a grand room filled with obscure runes, a murky, colourless gem could be seen sitting in the centre. If you looked close enough, you could see the murky portion of the gem start to move. Faster and faster it spun before imploding, and what was left was the body of a 14 year old boy.

    ¡°What the hell.¡± I stammered.

    (I¡¯m the 14 year old by the way. Ps. we¡¯re close to my current point in time.).

    ¡°Where am I, where¡¯s bandit, what the actual shit!¡± I screamed. Slowly but surly a creature appeared.

    Emphasis on creature.

    It looked like a gremlin and a werewolf had a baby, threw it out the window, and while falling, it hit every ugly branch in the ugly tree before landing in the ugly bin that was being beaten by the ugly hobo¡¯s.

    This thing is horrifying. Worse then deadpool. Geez, poor creature, I actually felt sorry for it.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m so sorry my looks are so horrifying, but it can¡¯t be helped. Now, will you let this ugly creature talk, or should Ashley do it instead.¡± It said with a grin and a chuckle.

    It can here me. well, why not talk with it, after all, when else will I have a chance to talk to such an ugly telepath.

    ¡°Well, glad you have such an open mind,¡± it chuckles again,¡± my name is Tiki. I¡¯m here to give you an offer, and some information. Would you like the good news or the bad news.¡±

    Bad news, definitely bad news first, after all, at least we can leave on a good note.

    With a sad voice Tiki said.

    ¡°Good, good. Well, the bad news is, your dead. Ashley tried as hard as she could, but she couldn¡¯t save you. If you may, I have a preposition for you.¡±

    Hahaha, your funny tiki, who could kill me.

    ¡°...¡±

    Wait, your serious. Prove it. I was adamant. I need proof of death. Even with that pain in my head, it can¡¯t have killed me. Right?

    Nodding, tiki said

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I can¡¯t show you how you were killed. And I can¡¯t give you more time on Earth. But I can let you see your family one more time, and show you your body. This will have to suffice.¡±

    I looked at tiki, really looked. And I nodded. If I was actually dead I would like to say goodbye. My family was a close one. Slowly tiki went to a circle on the wall. After a short while it lit up. On it was a picture of me. I was on an autopsy table.

    ¡°Cause of death, heart attack.¡± Said a man dressed in a lab coat. A doctor, I realised.

    ¡°Your body.¡± Said tiki. I... it was a traumatic experience. I do not wish to even tell you about the next portion, as I looked on my parents, with them crying, my brother sitting at the back with a stony look. It was a long time before I was capable of continuing. The entire time tiki stood their with a solemn look on his face.

    When I was ok he said.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I really am. My good news, and opportunity come in to play here, however. I can leave you to go to your worlds afterlife. You won¡¯t be reunited with your parents, but your memories will be wiped and you will be reincarnated. My other opportunity is for you to come with us. We are going back to the In Between. It is a place of knowledge and wonder.

    You will become a dungeon, and you will be assigned an assistant. You will get 7 days to learn of your powers before you are dropped off on a planet with either no, or very few dungeons. It will be hard. It will be horrible. But it will help you. Help you live in your own memory, create grand constructions and creatures. You can control your own life. Which choice would you like.¡±

    I wanted to go to reincarnate. I wanted to so, so badly. Let my worries drift away, not regret anything. But I know I can¡¯t. I won¡¯t let myself. I¡¯ve already died, and now I have been given a choice to live, and I don¡¯t deserve to reincarnate if I don¡¯t take this choice. I wish to be a dungeon tiki, I wish to live. For me. For my parents. For my brother and for my dogs.

    ¡°Understood. For now you won¡¯t be able to do anything, but when we have an assistant ready for you, we will bring them. Unfortunately you are just a soul right now. But like every dungeon, you will attune when you bond with your assistant.

    Your body will mutate to better encompass your soul. But as you are just a soul, your body will have no imperfections, and it will truly be your souls. You will be part of the resonated, part of those who chose to have dungeon assistants. Stay well young one. Stay well.¡± And with this, I fell asleep, as whatever magic that was used to keep me awake was switched off.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell him i killed him?¡± Asked Ashley.

    ¡°Because,¡± replied tiki,¡± he would have more hate then reasoning. And you owe him his life. So I suggest you work to find him the very best assistant for him. Now I¡¯m going to go set up his space. *sigh* the paperwork.¡± Walking of, each in their different directions, Ashley silently swore to find him the best assistant she could. At least one of them had a good intention.

 chapter 1

    There you go, all caught up. I¡¯ve woken up again, in the same room as before. Tiki and Ashley are still in front of me, and yet in different positions. Ashley looks nervous, although I can¡¯t understand why.

    ¡®What¡¯s happening Tiki, have you found my assistant? Hope they¡¯re not as ugly as you.¡¯ I grin.

    Chuckling, Tiki said.

    ¡°Good to see you¡¯ve recovered your sense of humour. Yes, we¡¯ve found some potential candidates. Four to be specific.

    I¡¯m guessing you would like to meet them. Remember though, not all is as it seems, especially not in the In Between.¡± And with those ominous words, four figures stepped in.

    One was a demon, one an angel, one a mermaid, and one a fairy.

    The demon was quite big, 9 foot at least. He looked like the classic biblical demon. Goat legs, a tail ending in a spaded tip, reptilian eyes and rams horns coming out the top of his head. His midnight fur was matted and his long, muscular arms ended in clawed fingers. He had large, black, leathery wings curled up behind his shoulders. A fearsome creature indeed.

    The angel was the demons exact opposite. A six foot female of exquisite beauty. She had pure, white bird wings attached to the area between her shoulder blades. Her silvery hair sparkled in the glow of her halo. She had blue tattoos shooting down her arms and legs and a glowing sword at her hip.

    The mermaid was tiny, as big as my hand. She was could have been human had it not been for her tail and her crown of water.

    The last, and to me, most interesting, was a tiny fairy. She was even smaller then the mermaid, perhaps as big as my thumb. Among these other creatures she was very... plain. She had little see-through wings coming out her back, shaped like a birds. Her hair was a emerald green, matching her eyes.

    ¡°Choose me my lord.¡± Sung the demon in it¡¯s honeyed voice.

    ¡°I am the most powerful and knowledgeable. I can destroy your enemies and help you build the most beautiful and deadly of dungeons.¡±

    With a grin the angel butted in and said,

    ¡°Unlikely, sir. For when we bond, we lose our current forms, and revert back to the basics. He will become an imp, a pesky little demon, and while annoying, won¡¯t kill anything bigger then a rat. I will become a cherub, and with my bow, I will smite your enemies in holy light!¡± It was quite a heated opinion, but useful information all the same. A manipulative demon and an over zealous angel.

    As she finished that mermaid said.

    ¡°A bit rich, coming from her. You see your lord, while cherubs are armed with a bow, they still have to relearn all magic, and judging by the weapon on her hip, she¡¯ll be useless with a bow, as any angel that has a weapon other then ranged, or magic was so horrid with the bow that they were forced to evolve out of it. And judging by her tattoos, she can¡¯t do magic either, she had to evolve so that she could get her body magic. She will be more useless then the imp.

    But I will be better then both, you see lord, my base evolution is that of a water fairy, and my current is a mermaid empress, an incredibly rare evolution.

    My magic, even in my base form will be more powerful then them for there first 2 evolutions.¡± I thought magic had to be relearned. So add a lying mermaid to the mix.

    Honestly it sounded like the start of a bad joke. A lying mermaid, a manipulative demon and an over zealous angel try to convince a dungeon which is better to have as a servant. Hahaha, sarcastic laughter.

    Those 3 continued to argue, not realising I¡¯d shut them all out. I let them argue until they were finished but not once did the fairy say anything.

    ¡°Are you done?¡±I asked when they were quiet.

    Before they could say anything I continued.

    ¡°Because from what I¡¯ve seen we have an over confident angel, who thinks she¡¯s worth more then she actually is, a manipulative demon who I wouldn¡¯t trust as far as I could throw, and considering I have no arms...¡±

    I heard a light giggle at this, and the demon shot a glare at the fairy.

    ¡°Add major dick to that list, and a wonderful, amazing, lying, hypocritical mermaid. Now the only one of you who hasn¡¯t said anything, and I am actually curious to what she has to say, is the fairy. So little one, what do you have to say.¡±

    The fairy¡¯s mouth was agape, she couldn¡¯t believe this. What crazy person would choose a little fairy over a demon, an angel, or a mermaid empress.

    ¡°Sir?!!¡± Screamed the trio in shock.

    ¡°Shut up!¡± Yelled Ashley, the first time she had gotten involved since the beginning.

    ¡°Let her speak.¡± They very quickly kept quiet.

    ¡°Um, well, I.¡± Stuttered the fairy.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, take a breath, follow me.

    In, out.

    In, out.¡±

    Taking deep breaths she calmed down before speaking.

    ¡°Um, well,¡± another deep breath,¡± I¡¯m a nature fairy, and I¡¯m good with plants. This is my base evolution, and I don¡¯t really no much about evolving myself. I do know a bit about dungeons though.¡±

    She was shy but honest, and that¡¯s really all I want.

    ¡°But sir,¡± oh boy, this was going to be good,¡± how can you want this fairy, she¡¯s useless...¡± before the demon could continue, I screamed out. I literally screamed.

    ¡°SHUT YOUR DIRTY MOUTH!!! I HAVEN¡¯T EVEN SAID WHO I¡¯D CHOOSE AND YOU DARE THINK YOU KNOW BETTER!!! EVEN IF I WASN¡¯T GOING TO CHOOSE HER I SURE AS HELL WOULDN¡¯T CHOOSE YOU!!! OR YOU YOU BLOODY MERMAID!!! I WOULD HAVE RATHER GONE ON WITHOUT A BODY THEN CHOOSE EITHER OF YOU THREE! THIS HERE FAIRY IS BETTER THEN ANY OF YOU MANIPULATIVE BASTARDS.¡± Huffing and puffing I took a deep breath. I may have gone a bit far, but it reminded me to much of my school. Bullied because other people thought they were better. It makes me so angry to think that they thought they were better.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Fuck me sideways, you lot are a bunch of work. Tiki, I choose the fairy.¡± Nodding, he smiled and got the others to leave.

    ¡°Thank you for choosing my daughter, Dungeon.¡± Daughter??.

    ¡°Yes, she is my daughter. Unfortunately my wife was killed by a team of adventurers. But she managed to get me and my daughter out.¡± With a sad smile he continued.

    ¡°Let us start the bonding ceremony. I have already set up the magical sequence, and Ashley will power it. All you to have to do, is name each other.¡±

    ¡°Sounds simple.¡± I say.

    ¡°Hahaha.¡± Laughed Tiki. ¡°If only it was that easy. No. You have to find your mana, and with it sculpt the base of your body. After that, you will name each other. It will then be done. I will guide you to your mana. My daughter already knows where hers is, and will link it with yours, giving you one less thing to do, though you will need to help her make her new body.

    This new body will be so that she can also use your mana. Now let¡¯s start. To find it, different people do different things. Some people imagine gardens, with a large tree at the centre, some imagine large volcanoes with the lake of lava as the source. Personally, I imagine a giant pond, with a whirlpool over the mana source. Be careful, because whatever you imagine will be your element, like mine is water. Now, let¡¯s start shall we.¡± I nod.

    Ashley started to feed the runes, and I delved into myself.

    What should I do. If it¡¯s unique to every person, I should think of something for me. I¡¯ve always loved crystals and gemstones. From quarts to opal to diamond to ruby. It¡¯s always been my thing, so why not do this.

    I imagined a cave as vast as the ocean, and filled to the brim with crystals and gems and ores and stones. Every type could be found here. And at the centre was a pillars of bismuth, holding a small, polished piece of grandidierite, one of the rarest crystals on earth, but I don¡¯t know about Alesia. I knew that this was my mana source, and I floated towards it. I heard tiki¡¯s voice, it sounded distant.

    ¡°Great, you have found your mana source in record time, only 10 minutes. Now you need to sculpt your body.¡± 10 minutes?! It felt like 10 seconds. Well, I guess I should shape my body. Let¡¯s think again.

    ¡°It has to be humanoid, so I can control myself.¡±

    As I thought this, multiple chunks of crystal and gem shot to the space in front of me, forming a human body. It¡¯s interactive, I can handle this

    ¡°Mmmm, Good, but it should be taller than my last body, maybe 7 foot.¡±

    The body was recreated taller.

    ¡°No, to tall, let¡¯s go back to my original height.¡±

    They formed back into their previous 6 foot 5.

    ¡°I want some hair,¡± some long flowing hair formed,¡±nah, not that. Mor like hedgehog spikes on the side, and porcupine spikes on the top.¡± And they formed.

    ¡°Now, I¡¯ve always wanted a tail.¡±

    A tail was created, but it was far to long, sensing my thoughts it became smaller until it was roughly 4 feet long.

    ¡°Hmm, again, what¡¯s the point of a tail, it should be a weapon, like a scorpion, but more, prehensile.¡±

    It grew a 1 foot long needle on the end. It looked like a nasty thing to have in you. It also had flat edges, so it could be used to slash, but it was clearly meant more for piercing.

    ¡°That¡¯s quite nasty, I think I should have another.¡±

    And another formed.

    ¡°Those horns Ashley had were quite cool,¡± they formed, but they were to thin, so they thickened, and they were to, pulled back, so they straightened out, I had them twist in on themselves, I continued to play with them until I was left with elken horns.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s add retractable claws, so I can craft and kill,¡± but when they formed, 1 cm long talons, I wasn¡¯t happy,¡± I already have the tails for weapons, let¡¯s make these for climbing.¡± The ends curved inwards, like a cats. They could still be used to rare a throat out, but were more for climbing.

    ¡°And having spines on my back would be cool, like an iguana.¡± And sure enough, there they formed along my spine, each about 15cm big, getting smaller towards my tails and head. With a mental nudge I pushed them to either side of my spine, forming twin lines of spines in my back, separating into single lines along my tails.

    All that was left was the colouring.

    I decided to make my general skin tone out of malachite, a green gemstone filled with ripples of different shades of green. I added small, wisp like streaks azurite, looking like the malachite is cracked to show a sliver of dark blue azurite.

    My left eye I made from fire opal, It looked as if it held a sunset within its depths. My other i was made from Oregon butte opal, looking like a glimpse into the ocean, an opposite to the sunset of my left eye.

    The hair was made from ametrine, a natural occurring gem formed from a combination of amethyst and citrine, making my hair shift from purple to yellow, no matter where you look.

    My nails, claws, the needle tips of my tails, my horns and my spines were made from larimar, a gemstone filled with different shades of blue, from baby blue to dark blue, a sharp contrast to the deep green malchite and dark blue azurite.

    Between my spines I had a long strand of sugilite, a cloudy purple crystal.

    My body was a master piece, but it wasn¡¯t done yet. I could feel a strong force propelling me to create a core of gem. One type. This one type would be that from which I was born. Should my body be damaged, I would retreat into this gem to recover. It would be my weapon. It would be my name, and I knew that no matter what, the fairy would call me this, I could feel it, as though the universe itself was telling me to do it. And so I did, I took a piece of bismuth, and I carved it out, when I finished it took on a, weird shape. It looked like a pyramid, by with squares at the four corners that rise up and scatter back into the main body. And this was what I pushed into my forehead, between my horns. When this happened, I felt my soul merge with this new body.

    With this my body was done. Again I heard tiki¡¯s voice.

    ¡°I see that you are done boy. Well done. Now accept my daughters mana tendril. You will see her in her mana source, help he make her changes and bond.¡± I nodded. Then I felt an tentacles of mana touching the border of my mana source. I reach out with my source and touch hers, we connect. This feeling, it¡¯s incredibly intimate. It¡¯s like I knew her, from her mana alone. When she joined my source it opened, and I could see a small grove of trees and flowers, and little beasts roaming around. It was beautiful, and filled with the soft colours of flowers and sounds of rabbits and birds and many more, a sharp contrast to my sharp coloured and noiseless gems.

    ¡°It¡¯s amazing!¡± She breathed out while looking over my source. And I felt pride. This little world was mine. Then she took on a firm look and said.

    ¡°Let¡¯s start, to form my body you will have to feed your mana through me, and let me take control of it, I will make my body, but you can make a few little changes.¡± Nodding that I understood, started to send a little stream of mana towards her. I trusted my instincts and brought over a small pebble, crushed it into dust, and had it flow towards her in a steady stream.

    After awhile she started to change, but something was wrong. Her entire body was made of stone. Looking down she said with an embarrassed voice.

    ¡°Umm, please help. Mana¡¯s based off of imagination and understanding. I don¡¯t understand any of this, so I carry on becoming stone.¡± Nodding, I took control of my mana and sent a pulse out.

    I gave her a skin of aquamarine, a light blue, transparent crystal, so when you look at her, you can see through her slightly.

    I made her wings a very thin amethyst, before strengthening it with mana, giving it a light purple colour, but making them incredibly strong.

    Her eyes became galaxy opals, and her hair became long strands of jade, with rose quartz highlights. Rose quartz is a red tinted crystal.

    Her nails became alexandrite, a crystal that changes colour with the light. Throughout her aquamarine body, I sent small patches of emerald.

    Finally I took a few bundles of her hair and fused them together, forming green vines. I carved little creatures into the insides of the galaxy opals, so that when you looked into her eyes, you could see little gardens, just like hers. I forced the emerald into different shapes, from leaves to flowers.

    Now the final part, I forced a piece of diamond into a teardrop shape, pushing it into the base of her neck, where her neck and chest meet.

    ¡°Do you like it?¡± I asked with a tentative voice. She looked herself over, felt her hair and realised that actually, nothing had changed except for the colours and the diamond, her body still looked the same.

    ¡°I love it.¡± She said with tears in her eyes.

    ¡°I name you diamond.¡± I said, and saw her eyes widen. Stuttering she managed to get out.

    ¡°And I name you bismuth.¡±

    And after this we fell asleep.

    ¡°Looks like it¡¯s done.¡± Said a sweaty Ashley. ¡°They took their sweet time, didn¡¯t they.¡±

    ¡°Well you can¡¯t blame them, can you. Look at they¡¯re bodies. Not only did he have to make one from scratch, but my daughters has been completely remade.¡± Tiki said with a slightly awed look. Looking over at the pair of exquisite body, she could only shake her head. Shortly after doing so, Ashley also collapsed, unconscious. Tiki sighed.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll have to get her home. And get these two to a temporary one.¡±

 chapter 2

    In a room, in the middle of the In between, lay two unresponsive bodies. Both made from gems, and both so beautiful, and so unique, you would be amazed that they were there. Unfortunately, this peace did not last long, as their undisturbed rest was disturbed.

    ¡°Wha-WHAT THE HELL!!!¡± I screamed.

    ¡°Where am I, why-why is there no light? What happened to my body? Oh, oh yeah. I died.¡± I said with a solemn look. Slowly a little body began to stir next to mine. Diamond lifted her head and shook it. She sat up and said.

    ¡°Wow. This is the most complete change in a bonded I¡¯ve ever seen. You were a human, correct?¡± When I nodded she continued. ¡°Your completely different. What was that mana source? It was gigantic.¡± Grinning a little I replied.

    ¡°Yeah, those were crystals and gemstones. I¡¯ve always loved them, though I¡¯d live with the things I loved. Hehe, guess I took that a bit to serious hey?¡± Looking at my hands. My perfectly sculpted hands. Gently I reached up and felt my horns. I still couldn¡¯t believe I had horns. And tails. I moved my hand and touched the bismuth at the centre of my forehead. This was my true body, everything else was merely a physical representation of my thoughts. I knew this, and I also knew that I could change this. Change my bodies materials and composition. It was weird. Looking next to me I could see diamond looking down.

    ¡°What was your source?¡± I asked.¡± It was beautiful. Was that plant, or maybe beast?¡±

    ¡°It was life.¡± She replied, still not looking at me. ¡°It was the element of life. It¡¯s very rare, in fact it¡¯s one in a million. I got it from mom. She was of life. It¡¯s not as rare as yours though. I¡¯ve never even heard of crystal element. Your unique, your going to be a big hit.¡± Looking at her I laughed.

    ¡°Sure crystal Is unique. But life, oh my. There¡¯s so much you can do with it. From beasts to plants to golems. I wish I had thought of that.¡± I was trying to cheer her up. She looked sad, it must be about her mom.

    ¡°Well don¡¯t be to down,¡± she giggled.¡± As your partner, our sources are merged. My garden is yours, and your crystals mine. But it will have changed. We effect each other. Let¡¯s go see.¡±

    And so we did. When we entered I saw it all. I saw her garden at the centre of the crystals. It was filled with trees and animals, but the changes were obvious. One of the rabbits that passed us had a little gem on its forehead, and all the trees had crystal bark, or leaves. What used to be a fox ran out, chasing the rabbit. I say used to be because it had two heads, and 3 tails. It was made from crystal. It had long ears that dropped back before wrapping around its legs, ending in claws for its paws. Everything about it was wrong, yet beautiful. It¡¯s gem was on its centre tail. It chased the rabbit before the rabbit turned around. It¡¯s gem shined bright before becoming a horn, it turned and tried to gore the fox. The fox jumped to the side before trying to scratch the rabbit, and when this didn¡¯t work, it¡¯s gem also shined bright. All three tails fused, becoming a big hammer, and it hit the rabbit side on. The rabbit flew to the left, hitting a tree. It was bleeding, and looked half dead, but it wouldn¡¯t die. It let out a loud rumbling. It continued to run away from the fox, which shot up in its ferocity. Soon another rabbit showed up. It started dancing? It was moving in peculiar patterns, and the injured rabbit followed. The fox tried to catch up, but before it got there the rabbits shot towards each other, and jumped into each other? A bright light, brighter then any before erupted. When it died down, a rabbit twice the original twos size was standing. It had a different gem in its head, and when the light of its weapon stopped forming, it formed a crystal cap, covering almost its entire head. It charged forward much faster then before, and hit the fox head on. The foxed blew into white mist before its gem was shown falling to the side. The rabbit shone, and separated into the two originals. Looking at each other, each went on there own way, while the fox¡¯s gem just lay there.

    We looked at each other. What the actual shit!?!?

    Diamond and I looked at each other, looked at the gem, then at the rabbits, then raced towards the gem. It was a ruby. It seems that all animals in her garden had grown these gems. They also seemed to have abilities. Well, cool. Also, from what we could see when we left, all the plants had small changes, things like defence or efficiency upgrades. We left the garden and went to the grandidierite, and looked over my caves. There were small crystal animals, like the fox, milling around. There were also crystals growing in plant like configurations.

    ¡°It¡¯s amazing!!!¡± I breathed.

    ¡°It sure is.¡± Said diamond.¡± It¡¯s one of the most shocking changes I¡¯ve heard of. Normally it¡¯s just things like hot springs, or caves. But this has changed the entire structure of our mana sources.¡± Sighing she continued.¡± I would love to continue studying the changes, especially our gems and the similarities to the creatures, but father is waiting for us, let¡¯s leave.¡± With a deep sigh, we both left the source.

    Sitting up I saw tiki standing in the doorway of the little cave we were in.

    ¡°My eyes!!!¡± I screamed.¡± They burn!¡± Tiki immediately ran over to check if I was alright.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, shit shit shit. This shouldn¡¯t be happening!¡± He screamed.

    I started laughing. A deep laugh straight from my belly.

    ¡°Hahaha!!! You, you honestly fell for it. Hahaha!¡± Looking at me and letting out a nervous chuckle he said.

    ¡°Yeah, well, considering the changes to your body, I felt worried.¡± I realised what I¡¯d done, and that he was actually worried.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry tiki, I didn¡¯t mean to scare you. What¡¯s up, and where are we.¡± A little voice Said next to me.

    ¡°We¡¯re in the In Between, aren¡¯t we dad.¡± Nodding he motioned for her to continue.

    ¡°This is our residence,¡± diamond said.¡± Well live here, and build it up really nicely. We can fill it with a nice lounge and a portal and everything. But that¡¯s not important. What is, is the In Between. The magical home of dungeons. It holds all factions, and here we are safe. To be honest, there¡¯s nothing you have to know, and everything you do need to know I¡¯ll teach you. What you do need to know is your house. Your house is your family. You protect each other, help each other, and train each other. Soon you¡¯ll meet up with them, and then you¡¯ll be shown the training. Am I correct dad?¡± Damn, this little lady was a fount of knowledge.

    ¡°Indeed you are. But there are a few things I need to know. And then I¡¯ll go in to more depth of what you said.¡± Pulling out a pice of paper? He started writing down¡± what are your names.¡±

    ¡°Diamond and bismuth.¡± We responded. He raised an eye brow but wrote it down

    ¡°What are your mana types.¡±

    ¡°Crystal and life.¡± Another raised eyebrow.

    ¡°What is the nature of your bond.¡± Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

    ¡°Equals.¡± Replied diamond. I was confused, but honestly I wasn¡¯t assed, I¡¯d figure it out later. Tiki started to talk after scratching a few more things out.

    ¡°Ok, now, let me expand on diamonds? Earlier response. She had everything down, and most other things are to be covered in the meeting. What I can say is that you seem powerful, so protect your brethren. There is heavy competition between houses, and your one is a new one, so you will be bullied, attacked and threatened. None of it matters, don¡¯t hand out information, and don¡¯t feel bad about beating someone up. Now let¡¯s go.¡± And with this piece of advice we set off.

    When we left the room I was awed. It was a gigantic set of caverns. Along the walls were caves filled with plants and water and fire and creatures and so on. Everything was here. Tiki started to talk.

    ¡°This is the housing area. There are all sorts here, and the place you were just in will be your temporary home while your houses cave out. So don¡¯t make to many changes.¡± With a chuckle he led us to another area, with stalls all over the place.

    ¡°This is the market place, it¡¯s where you¡¯ll go to get rare materials, patterns and the like.¡± Continuing on, not allowing me to fully process all this additional information.

    Eventually we got through the market place and entered a lecturing room. It was almost filled. There was a variety of people here. Everyone was unique, but they¡¯re was one thing that we all shared. A dungeon assistant. I saw imps and cherubs, but mostly they¡¯re were fairy¡¯s. all of them were different, again, but there was some trends. For instance, all water fairy¡¯s had either watery hair or fish tails. All imps looked the same, except for the colouring, and the cherubs only difference were their wing colours.

    ¡°And this is the meeting hall.¡± Said tiki, ignoring the stares. ¡°Go find your seat and wait for the rest to stream in. Remember, not everyone in here is of your house. They¡¯re three new houses here, so wait till the end to meet your house.¡± Saying this he went and sat at the front with a 2 other people. One was a fire fairy. Every part of her was fire, like me and crystal. From the long red flames of her hair to the flowing blue flames of her cloths to the controlled yellow flames of her eyes. She was amazing.

    The other was a tree like thing. It looked like a sapling, almost like groot, from guardians of the galaxy.

    Sitting down, the person next to me Said

    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m hyacinth, and this little bugger here is drachma. How are you?¡± Looking at the person next to me, I saw a human. Well, an almost human. Her eyes were a bright green. Beautiful yet unnerving. Other then that she was pretty normal. Her cloths were a simple green shirt, some kind of grass weave, and some pants of the same style, yet dyed blue. Speaking of cloths, I never told you about mine. I made myself a simple t-shirt from onyx, a black crystal, and pants out of white jade. Diamond had a dress made from Ruby¡¯s, yet I had mixed a tiny bit of onyx into it, so as to dull the bright red. Drachma was an imp. A small, chubby creature with short arms and stubby legs. It¡¯s skin was black, with small dark red scales.

    ¡°I¡¯m bismuth, and this is diamond. Nice to meet you.¡± I responded, and diamond did a little bow.

    ¡°Bit crazy hey. One day I was sitting in my kitchen and poof, here¡¯s a demon telling me I was now a dungeon. I¡¯m happy though. What do you think they¡¯re going to tell us.¡± She said all of this in one breath. I decided I¡¯d keep my, entrance, to myself for now, I said.

    ¡°Yeah, crazy. I don¡¯t have any idea why we¡¯re here. Do you, diamond?¡± Now hyacinth was Looking at me all weird.

    ¡°You talk to it? You do know they¡¯re our servants right.¡± Before diamond could say anything i Said with a angry tone.

    ¡°And do you realise without them you wouldn¡¯t be changes, would have no knowledge and would generally be useless. They all have their own thoughts and feelings to, they¡¯re sentient as well.¡±

    ¡°Woah, chill out. These things.¡± She said while flicking the imps head.¡± Are little more then animals. Tools to be used at our need. They¡¯re an advantage, and that¡¯s it.¡± Before I could scream at her the fire fairy at the front said.

    ¡°Welcome, welcome. You must all be a little confused. My name is flare, and I, along with my comrades are here to help you, explain your training, and form your houses. There is a lot of things that you need to know, and a lot of things that your assistants will teach you, but first, let me explain one of the most important things. Factions. There are 3 factions in the In Between.

    These are the equalists, who believe dungeons and dungeon assistants are equal, and should have the same rights, and equal say in the dungeon.

    The purists, who believe that the dungeons are the controllers, and assistants are merely slaves to the dungeons will.

    The anarchists, who believe the dungeons are the slaves, and the assistants the controllers.

    It doesn¡¯t matter which faction your in, as the training is the same. After willow has explained the training, tiki will break you up into your houses, and you will get to know each other before you start.¡± Gesturing towards the sapling, flare sat down.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Said willow.¡± You all know my name, and currently, your all useless. The only people here of slight use are the assistants and they haven¡¯t even learnt any tips and tricks. So the training is simple, after you¡¯ve been split into houses you¡¯ll form your dungeons. You have one day to form something. You will then be forced to battle the other houses. You can shell up and defend from attacks or attack everyone. Your house can help you by sending in reinforcements, plans and information.

    You will all start with 100 points. Every time you attack some one and win, you steal 10 of their points. Every time you defend and win, you steal 10 points. You can also pass points between members in your house.

    Your assistant will have a scorning tablet. This tablet will tell you the targets name, assistants name, faction, main mana type, two chosen monsters, and highest tier monster.

    At the beginning you will be told your options for races. You will get to choose two. All monster patterns you learn can be kept after training finishes.

    There will be bonus rewards that you can complete, these won¡¯t steal points from your competitors. These can include evolving monsters, mutating monsters, evolving your assistant and more. Now tiki will get you sorted in houses.¡± With that the grumpy sapling sat down.

    Tiki stood up and I saw a number of faces crinkle in disgust. I was annoyed. Only my face could crinkle like that towards him. I saw him grin as I thought this, fuckers probably reading my mind. He started speaking.

    ¡°Now let¡¯s get you sorted into houses. First of all, the houses will be ordered by factions, so as to avoid infighting. All purists, please come down.¡± Hyacinth and a number of others stood up and went down. Geez like, there were actually quite a few. Around about 100 of the 200 here went down. He started directing them. In about 2 minutes he had 51 purist on one side, and 52 on the other side. He called over the assistants and directed them to their house accommodations, then explained where they would be needed to start the training.

    ¡°Now the anarchists.¡± And so went almost all the room. In the end, only 7 of us were left. He split them into 51 people on each side and directed the assistants toward their house accommodations.

    ¡°Now that that¡¯s over, we can do you, equalists. There are never very many of you. Usually the dungeons have their own ideas, or the assistants manage to squeeze an incorrect bond on them. Honestly, they¡¯re weaker. A purist will never get the best information, as they¡¯ll have to force the information out of the assistants, and the anarchists will have to force the dungeon to do things. When you are equals, each of you can focus on your own thing. You become the ultimate team. And with how small your group is, it¡¯s perfect honestly. Unfortunately, such a small group is at a disadvantage to the others. You will be more powerful, but even 1 million ants can take out a lion.¡± Nodding, we all stayed quiet.

    ¡°On the bright side, you can choose your house name faster, and have less space to dig out.¡± With a questioning look on our faces I asked,

    ¡°Dig out?¡± The others nodded.

    ¡°Yes, dig out. You have to dig out your quarters and all. We dug out enough room for ten people to lie foot to face. Now, let¡¯s go, I¡¯ll show you your house accommodations. Also, you have to be at the training area in 10 hours. Enough time for you to sleep, get to know each other and plan out your dungeons. Come along now.¡± And so we followed him in silence.

    Eventually we found a small cave. He let us in and told us to remember to come to training. We all streamed inside and sat down. There were 4 girls and 3 boys. I noticed now that none of us were part of the standard people. All of our assistants were unique, and our bodies as well. Some guy decided to introduce himself.

    ¡°Hi there. My name is Terran, and this here is blaze. I don¡¯t really know what to say. So why don¡¯t we tell each other our names, mana, and the way we got here. I¡¯ll start. My mana type is earth, and blaze¡¯s is fire, when our sources fused, we got magma as our strongest element. I was driving home when that flare appeared in the passenger seat. We talked for a bit, and when I got home I came here. I was a no brained really. I didn¡¯t like my passed life. Now who¡¯s next?¡±

    Terran was one of the more, changed ones. His body had a thin layer of stone covering it, and at points the stone seemed to melt, or glow. His eyes were little orbs of stone, with magma irises. His hair was like sand, shifting all around his head. He was wearing a t-short made from grey sand and pants from little black pebbles.

    Blaze was a fairy. He had fire for hair. He had a strip of fire wrapped around his eyes, but was otherwise semi normal.

    The one girl started nodding her head.

    ¡°My name is Annabelle, and he¡¯s Tyson. We¡¯re both fire. I was at reading at home when flare asked Me. I said yes.¡± A lady of little words I guess.

    Annabelle had long, wavy red hair and the tips looked like they were glowing embers. She had a simple red t-shirt and small denim shorts. Her eyes were a glowing red, and seemed to be constantly shifting between shades. Her feet were bare, and around her wrist in the shape of an armband were black tattoos of flames. They were always shifting and waving, like an actual flame.

    Her assistant was an imp, with red skin. He had flames instead of legs and longer arms then usual, but only by a few centimetres. His horns also had small glowing tips, like they were the dying flames of a fire.

    ¡°My names Bell, and this is coral. Corals element is water and mine is plants. We¡¯ve been getting on really nicely and I want to get on with you guys to. I was transported when willow started talking to me from my garden. He was saying all these crazy things, and eventually i said yes. Imagine it. Me with a bunch of different animals and a beautiful garden dungeon.¡± A Chatty Cathy it seems.

    Bell had a green shirt, made from the same stuff as hyacinths. Same pants as well, actually. Her hair was like long strands of grass pulled tightly into a braid. At the end she had a flower holding the entire thing together. Her eyes were weird, like little flowers, not the usual circles. They were also a gentle purple. Here arms had little flowers growing all along them. Not big, but pretty. Every now and then she¡¯d pull one off and put it on the ground, where it grew to a small flower.

    Coral was a fairy. She had water as her hair, and bright blue eyes. Her wings were made from water, and seemed to change shapes constantly. She had a lotus growing in her hair.

    ¡°My name is star, and this is Metallica. Our elements are space and metal. I was on in the middle of one of my projects when I was asked by tiki.¡± When she stopped I was a bit curious, so I asked her what was her project. With an embaressed look she said

    ¡°Um, i used to be an artist. I was making a painting surrounding the stars, so I was looking through a telescope and then painting what I saw. I love space, you see.¡± I nodded.

    Star was, well, a star. Her hair was black, with small dots of white, like stars in the night sky. It seemed to sway in the air and move about like there was no gravity . Her eyes looked to hold a galaxy, no whites, no pupil, just to ever shifting orbs of colour. Her skin was slightly tanned, and had a galaxy tattoo that was constantly moving and shifting. It went from a galaxy to a planet to a solar system. It was never the same picture. I had a little crush, I¡¯ll admit.

    Metallica was a cherub. She had grey, metallic wings, and veins of ore running through her skin. On her back was a bow and quiver of arrows. It¡¯s hair was a coppery colour that seemed to reflect light.

    Finally the other boy said something.

    ¡°My name is dusk, and this here is dawn. My element is darkness and hers light. I was walking home when willow spoke. She was so well hidden, just there. Meh, I¡¯m here. That what matters.¡±

    He was probably the most, normal. He had black hair, and the only other change was his eyes, which were pitch black. But the way he hid in the shadows. It was just so, natural. They seemed to engulf him.

    Dawn was an imp. She had white shin, and her horns formed a halo, which lit up the room. The issue was that this halo blinded her, and she needed dusks darkness to let her see, and in turn he needed her light to hide. It¡¯s brilliant how they rely on each other.

    It took awhile, with everyone looking at me and the other girl, before she spoke up.

    ¡°My name is ning, and this is aria. Lightning and air. Tiki appeared while She was home.¡± Wow, lots of words there.

    These two were different. The girl looked like she was about to crawl in on herself, and the fairy was standing protectively in front of her. The girl was tiny, about one foot tall, and had short, scruffy hair. I couldn¡¯t see her face. She was wearing a long, green toga. There was simply nothing special about her except for her size.

    Her fairy wore a long yellow dress, and was holding a spear in the shape of a lightning bolt. Once again, nothing to special. The weird thing was that the fairy spoke, not the girl. Deciding to leave it, everyone looked at me, to which I noticed ning was quite grateful.

    Letting out a deep sigh, I started to speak.

    ¡°My name is bismuth, and the one on my shoulder is diamond. Our elements are crystal and life. I¡¯m not telling you about how I got here. In return, you can ask me one question each.¡±

    Looking at each other, before looking at me, Annabelle grinned before asking.

    ¡°Why does your mana source look like?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t actually know, I¡¯ll be honest. Before the bond it was an endless plane filled with mountains of grown crystals and gemstones. Now however, it¡¯s filled with life.¡± Looking at me with awe, they just nodded before bell asked,

    ¡°Why does your body look so changed? I wasn¡¯t allowed to change my body further then I did.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s to do with how I got here. But I think I can change how I look. I think.¡± Nodding she stepped back.

    ¡°How good are you at stealth?¡±Said dusk.

    ¡°Again, don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve got claws suited for climbing, and i blend well in caves and stuff.¡± He smirked and faded again.

    Star asked,¡± what are your eyes made of?¡± But she directed her question to diamond, so I let her answer.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, he made my body for me.¡± Looking at me I answered.

    ¡°Galaxy opal.¡± She looked interested and asked me

    ¡°Where can I get some? It¡¯s beautiful!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try and grow you some, but it¡¯s rare, so it¡¯ll take awhile.¡± She nodded.

    Terran said,¡± Why are you hiding your past?¡± He Said it with such a questioning look as well. I laughed, quite hard as well.

    ¡°That¡¯s the thing your worried about. Me not telling you about how I was recruited. Ok, how about this. If I trust you I¡¯ll tell you. It¡¯s way to personal right now.¡± He looked at me even more funny, but seeing I wouldn¡¯t budge, he nodded.

    ¡°Your pretty!¡± We all heard a small voice say. It was aria.

    ¡°Thank you miss aria. I love the compliment. May I see your face? I¡¯m sure your even more pretty then me.¡± I Said. I saw her nod a bit and look up an tiny bit. She was just a child. Ning looked shocked.

    ¡°Yep, that does it. I¡¯m no longer the prettiest here. Why oh why did this happen.¡± I said in an over dramatic way the girl giggled.

    ¡°Albright people, i think we talk strategy right now.¡± I said when I got nods I continued.

    ¡°First, if anyone attacks aria, we attack them until they have no points, is everyone ok with that.¡± I got a round of shocked looks, before they all nodded.

    ¡°Now, diamond, what are you allowed to tell us.¡± Looking at me, she nodded.

    ¡°Well, we can show you the beginner monsters you can choose from. And also teach you abit about mana. It¡¯s perfect actually, as you can practice spells while digging out rooms.¡± We all said yes, ¡°ok, first. Dungeons are always the most unique sentient on the planet, as you all vary. But this all comes down to mana. Dungeons don¡¯t form spells in the traditional sense. Instead, your mana manipulation revolves around imagination, that¡¯s why you were all chosen. Your imagination is top notch. So to dig a wall, some people will imagine the stone flowing, worms eating it, or a gigantic spade. Remember, try and think of it in relation to your element, or it won¡¯t work. That¡¯s the dungeons limitations, anything outside of there element doesn¡¯t work.¡± We all nodded again, it wasn¡¯t a hard concept.

    Metallica Said.

    ¡°The monsters aren¡¯t hard. There are six species

    Demons. They start out as imps. Imps aren¡¯t strong, they have a basic fireball spell, can glide, and can set up small traps. They breed fast and are focused on strength.

    Angels. They start as cherubs. Cherubs are quite weak as well. They only have access to there bow. They can use magic to enhance their arrows with curtain effects. They don¡¯t really breed, and set up small ledges for themselves. They can fly short distances.¡± She looked up while thinking before dawn said.

    ¡°Dragons. They start as kobolds. They have a single spell, which enhances their claws with earth mana to allow them to dig. They have a layer of scales which allows them to slightly resist slashing attacks. These are the most powerful starter race.

    Slimes. They are weak, horrible and useless. They¡¯re resistant to all forms of slashing but have little to no magic resistance. They are stupid.¡± She really hated slimes. Blaze started next.

    ¡°Elementals. They start as wisps. They are no help at all at first. They gather mana, which increases your overall mana regeneration. After awhile they change the element around them to their own mana, changing the environment around them to conform to their mana type. After about 1 hour they form solid wisps, which allow them to attack. They don¡¯t breed.

    Goblins. They¡¯re also weak, but they have some interesting evolutions early on. They breed like pigs, shooting out babies like machines.¡±

    Diamond nodded, she seems to have taken charge.

    ¡°That¡¯s all the races, the others are things like animals and plants, which don¡¯t really count. If you have interest ask you assistant. Remember, you can choose two races. Now, to the fun part. I doubt you want to sleep in here, but I suggest we wait for the rooms and make the entrance chamber bigger. ¡° so we got to work. We decided to dig out another ten meters before stopping. We split the room into sections, and when aria joined in, we all made her section smaller. To dig, I decided to make the earth move, like she said before. Nothing was happening.

    ¡°Remember, it has to do with your element.¡± Nodding I decided a different approach. I started imagining veins of crystal growing throughout the rock. Then I imagined them expanding before disappearing. My section of rock just caved in. The others looked at me in shock. Next, to get rid of the rubble, I imagined a bunch of crystal grass growing on top, absorbing all the rock before disappearing. It took me 25 minutes to do this. When I looked around, a lot of people were struggling. I decided to walk next to aria.

    ¡°Can I help you miss pretty?¡± I asked, she giggled again.

    ¡°No, but it won¡¯t work.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you try imagining a air drill, of flower.¡± Nodding, I noticed the rock infront of her disappearing. Next I walked to Annabelle.

    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It won¡¯t melt fast enough. And then when it does it won¡¯t disappear.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you imagine a flame that uses rock as fuel, then you won¡¯t need to worry about any of that.¡± She nodded, and I saw a brown flame spring to life. Wherever it went, rock disappeared. I noticed star struggling.

    ¡°You good?¡±

    ¡°No, I can¡¯t think of anything related to space to do this.¡± I decided to take a different approach here. I said quite loud here

    ¡°Well, what do you know about space. Sometimes you just need to think outside the box. You can teleport if, warp it, anything really.¡± She nodded.

    ¡°Thank you.¡± She said in a soft voice. She moved a bit closer before distancing herself with a red face. She started to move the wall. The others must have heard my advice, because everything started working in record time. After awhile, we sat down and chat a bit before bed. We all decided on our races, and what we discovered was aria was going for two different types of animal.

    star would go for kobolds and space wisp.

    I was going for crystal and life wisps.

    Dusk was going for dark wisp and goblins.

    Annabelle was going for demons and fire wisp.

    Terran was going for kobolds and lava wisp.

    Bell was going for a plant and water wisps.

    After that we went to sleep. Training was going to be hard, but I felt a stronger bond between all of us.

 Chapter 3

    ¡°Ahhhhhhhhh!!¡± A piercing scream rang through the room. Waking with a start I heard laughing all around me.

    ¡°You need to wake up, we have thirty minutes until we have to leave.¡± Star managed to get out between laughs.

    ¡°What the hell was that!?¡± I asked. Aria was standing next to me looking a little guilty.

    ¡°A bit of air magic.¡± Said a smirking ning. I grinned a bit. Apparently I¡¯m quite hard to wake up.

    ¡°Why¡¯s you wake me up thirty minutes before we had to leave?¡± I asked as I was sitting up.

    ¡°Well I was thinking, and I realised we messed up,¡± Said diamond.

    ¡°Yeah, we forgot to explain some things and come up with a house name and flag.¡± Continued Metallica. I nodded and motioned for them to continue.

    ¡°Well you see, I realised when I was talking to star that she was scared t say kobold because it had earth mana usage, and hers is space. Well we forgot to explain that the mana you use is the mana they¡¯ll use. So in the wild, kobolds use earth mana, but in stars dungeon, they¡¯ll use space mana. We¡¯re lucky we planned it now. So let¡¯s go through this again.¡± And so we did.

    I still took both wisps, because considering my mana source, I¡¯d like to see what the wisps third stage is.

    Star kept hers.

    Annabelle changed to imp and an animal.

    Aria is getting cherub and an animal.

    Dusk is going for imp and cherub.

    Terran is going for kobold and goblin.

    Bell is going for plant wisp and goblin.

    We were happy with this, and I couldn¡¯t wait to see their dungeons.

    ¡°Now for our house names, let¡¯s be fuck the purists!!!¡± Said Terran. ning through her spear at him as soon as bell slapped him.

    ¡°What?¡± He Said with a pained sound. Bell pointed at aria. Terran muttered sorry.

    ¡°So let¡¯s not go for that.¡± Star said. We all had a little giggle before I said.

    ¡°Why not the deviants. We¡¯re all strangers, brought together by strange circumstances. I mean, Come on, there¡¯s 7 of us and over 50 of them. We¡¯re strange, We¡¯re odd, we¡¯re enigmas. Oh actually both deviants or enigma is good.¡± I say the last with a red face. Star laughs.

    ¡°I like it.¡± Said Annabelle. ¡°I vote for House Enigma.¡± With a little giggle aria shouts,

    ¡°Yeah, House Enigma.¡± Slowly people start nodding their heads before we all had It. We were House Enigma.

    ¡°And our flag?¡± Asked Terran, directing the question to me. I look at them and started weaving a little sheet with my mana. Everyone had inputs, and eventually we had a flag. The flag had a hollow, clear circle in the centre it was then decided into fourteen equally sized pieces. In each piece there was an the element of the person. For people like blaze, Annabelle and Tyson, they were put together with one gigantic flame spanning the entire area. It wasn¡¯t very beautiful, but it was amazing. With a bit of mana I was able to make one out of crystals and attached it to the entrance. All were going to know of House Enigma.

    ¡°Alright people, let¡¯s set out.¡± Shouted blaze. After about fifteen minutes we got to the training area. There was tiki standing in the doorway. With a cheeky grin I said.

    ¡°Hey tiki, you must tell me your secret. How did you get uglier?¡± He laughed.

    ¡°Just as cheeky, I see. Well, let¡¯s hope your humour survives. Through here is your training. Above each door is your dungeon. It is your job to dig out your rooms and spaw your monsters. You have a 1 hour advantage because of your lack of numbers. Do well, and remember, the more points you have. The better your prizes. Also a tip. You can attack and be attacked at any time of day. Purists always seem to forget this. And anarchists to.¡± With a grin he stepped aside and let us in.

    ¡°You guys heard what he said. If we want the best chance of winning we attack at night. Also, good luck.¡± With that Terran stepped inside his door.

    ¡°For House Enigma!¡± I Said. They all repeated and I stepped inside mine.

    On the other side was a room, if it could be called that. Two meters by two meters, and a black portal on one side. In the centre was a pedestal with a gem on top.

    ¡°That gem means the room is the core room, and that portal means it¡¯s the entrance room.¡± Said diamond.

    ¡°First we should summon ten crystal wisps and ten life wisps.¡± She continued.¡± Then we will dig out four rooms going across. We will then dig out side rooms, and collapse the tunnels so that there are no direct was towards the core. Afterwords we will summon more wisps. The reason we¡¯re summoning ten of each now is so that we can have some solid wisps to attack the other dungeons at the beginning.¡± She explained. I nodded, and spawned the wisps. The life wisps were bright green balls of mist that just floated around. They seemed to give the air around them a vibrant feeling. Slowly they moved from space to space, changing the mana. The crystal wisps were even stranger. They were multi coloured, switching from red to blue to green. Any colour a gem was, they were. I started digging. The plan we had come up with was like this.

    (Best I could do guys, when I figure it out I¡¯ll add the actual pic, go to the top to find a link in my authors note.)

    The green is the entrance.

    The red is the core room.

    The room before blue is a boss room.

    It¡¯s a sound plan, and took me forty five minutes to dig it all out. What I ended up doing was imagining a hallway sized, square, crystal worm that just ate through the rock. I then imagined a dog sized crystal worm eating out all the rooms. It didn¡¯t take long, according to diamond it was the quickest newborn dungeon dig time yet, but I did experience running out of mana. It wasn¡¯t nice. It felt like the worst headache and dehydration ever. You couldn¡¯t move, your head was pounding and it was just, horrible. Luckily the wisps increased my regeneration, so instead of a twenty minute rest, it was a five minute one, and then a further five minutes to get my mana back to full. After that I took regular breaks. When I had finished my first floor, I started spawning wisps like mad. By the end of ten minutes i had fifty of each, not including the originals. Speaking of the originals, the crystal ones all seemed to have settled on their own colours, and at the base were small balls of crystal. There was ruby, amethyst, sapphire, emerald, moonstone, rose quartz, tanzanite, smoky quartz, alexandrite and jett. The life orbs had a much stronger field around them. They also had little, almost unnoticeable patterns of either plants or animals. I was interested to see how solid life looked, diamond didn¡¯t know either, her moms starter races were kobold and cherub. We sat down for a five minute break when she asked.

    ¡°What next? We¡¯ve done everything we needed, spawned our monsters, formed outer tunnels. There¡¯s nothing left to do but wait.¡± Nodding I told her.

    ¡°I guess Now was good a time as ever. You know that gem in your chest? The diamond. It¡¯s like my bismuth. I imbued them with so much power, and with the intent to do something magical. They have hidden powers, not even I know, but I think we try find some. Imagine what we could be? And anyways, worse case we waste fifteen minutes, which we were going to do anyway.¡± She looked at me, looked at the diamond in her chest with awe, before nodding.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°What will we try to discover.¡± She asked.

    ¡°Remember the fox things, and the rabbits. When i was watching them I had this feeling. The feeling of being able to do it. And while the, fusion, may be out of our reach right now, I think we can form weapons. It will be a bit, but let¡¯s take it like mana. Make it mean something to you.¡± Looking at me she smiled.

    ¡°Let¡¯s try.¡± With that I started trying to see it forming a weapon, or anything really. Nothing happened. I closed my eyes and remembered back when the rabbit did it. I remember the glow. I remember the shifting form. I remember the fox. the glow. The shifting forms. I felt like I was getting closer, and instead of trying to make a weapon, I tried to make it glow. I heard a gasp and opened my eyes. A glow suffused the room before it stopped.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± Diamond asked. I just shrugged. I was close to something, I could feel it.

    ¡°Get me out one minute before the hours up, I¡¯ll need to get ready, and I want to watch the wisps evolve.¡± I saw her nod before I delved into my mana source.

    It truly was beautiful. Nearly every crustal had some form or shape. From plants to animals. There weren¡¯t any organic beings anymore. I looked out over my source, and just started walking. It didn¡¯t matter where I went. I wasn¡¯t even looking to further my study of my gem. I was just so frustrated, and stressed. I died, and now I¡¯m forced to fight and kill. It ps not normal, it¡¯s not nice. I wish people would just leave me alone. The only good thing are my crystals, and the fact that I could make anything I wanted. I now have a purpose, a family. Even back home, I didn¡¯t feel like I belonged. People fought me, challenged me, bullied me. It¡¯s hard you know. All I wanted was to live my life, to read, to walk my dogs and learn. Instead of all of these I was bullied, left out and made to feel as if I¡¯m unwanted. I never liked school. People display it as some kind of haven, a safe place, but it¡¯s not is it. Even movies give people friends, but I didn¡¯t even have that. I just wanted to belong. That¡¯s the good thing about this. I¡¯ve got a family, a weird one granted, but one nonetheless. I don¡¯t even know them that well, and yet we were still laughing all night long.

    I leant down and scratched a chipmunk type creature that ran past. It gave out a chittering sound and continued its lengthy run.

    Here at it¡¯s simple, I guess. Fight, protect and create. It¡¯s quite nice I guess. I don¡¯t have to worry about hurting this ones feelings, or that someone¡¯s going to try and pressure me into something. What¡¯s even nicer is everyone is around my age. Even the strange dusk, and suspicious Terran were nice. And star, she¡¯s especially nice. Crouching down I walked into a clearing where a bear thing and a group of five, centipedes, fought.

    The bear was made from blue and black crystal, and had a beak instead of jaws. It had one elongated eye in the centre of its head. I say eye loosely. Inside it was almost like a ball bearing. There were white and black bands rotating ant incredible speeds before reversing. Instead of fur it had typical crystal growths shooting from its back. It¡¯s tail was a long, panther type thing. At the base of its neck was a crystal. I¡¯m calling it beartal

    The centipedes, dubbed centipedals, are long, armour plated things. Each was about the length of my arm, and had ten, or twenty legs. At the end of its body was a small length of tail before a vicious pare of mandibles were attached. It¡¯s actual head was a powerful beak with jagged pieces that looked like teeth. One of them let out a screech and I saw that there were a ton more teeth things inside of the beak. At the back of its beak, just as it ended was a gem. The entire thing was black and green.

    The beartal roared before its gem shined, and armour surrounded its form. It started barreling towards a centipedal, but it jumped to the side, and shot a wad of acid from its gem. The acid landed on the beartal¡¯s back, and started to melt through the armour. This continued for awhile. The beartal managed to clip one of the centipedals on one of its runs, and killed it straight on the spot. The centipedal exploded in a puff of mist, just like the fox, but know gem appeared. Now I was curious. The fight continued for a bit, but ultimately, the burnt and broken beartal vanished in a puff of mist. A shining gem fell to the ground.

    The centipedals picked it up and left. I was curious now. Why did some creatures have gems and others don¡¯t. I followed them for about ten minutes before they headed into a clearing.

    In the clearing was a giant centipedal, easily twenty times the size of the others, and it had a big, grey swarth of crystal hair upon its head. The centipedals brought the gem to the big man, and dropped it at its feet. The big one looked at them, gave them an affectionate chatter, before eating the gem. It started to glow before it turned into a gem, as if it had poofed, but after about ten seconds the gem emitted a bright light, and like the rabbits fusion, I saw shifting shapes, and then the big one formed again, but this time, surrounding it were five more little ones. It was their mom, I realised. At that moment I heard a voice shouting for me to wake up. The next second I was in the dungeon core room. In front of me were all twenty original wisps, but that wasn¡¯t what was on my mind. I stood up, and without realising it said out loud.

    ¡°I am the lost. I am the forgotten. I am an enigma, a deviant. I am unwanted and not needed. This was what I was, but now I am wanted, I am needed. I am proud of myself.¡± At this my gem started shining. ¡±I wish to create, and to create I will need to destroy. Life is a circle, and without death, there would be no life. I am not afraid of attacking, and I am not adverse to defending. What is needed is needed, and it is up to me to choose this need.¡± At this you could see a form shaping itself in the light.¡± I will defend my those that stand by me. I will attack those that stand against me. I am bismuth, and I am ME.¡± At this the form in the light solidified, and the light drained away. The thing that was left was a b¨­ staff. A simple weapon really, focusing on blocking, slashing, and entrapping your enemies. It¡¯s main power was in its ability to debilitate and control its opponent, and not in its ability to kill.

    It was a long thing, at seven foot long, and three centimetres at its widest, in the centre, or two centimetres at the ends. The actual staff was made out of jet, which is incredibly light weight, with a density of 1.19 times the density of water. The 2 centimetres from the ends of the b¨­ staff were three 2 centimetre thick bands of dark yellow cassiterite, which had a density of 7.1 times the density of water. Overall it was quite light, but would strike a nasty blow should it hit you.

    These gems are weird. It took me forever to figure out how to create my weapon, but now I knew absolutely everything about it. I even knew a rudimentary fighting style. But this was the absolute basics, and were made to be improved upon, making them unique. It was a simple style of two sweeps, how to look out for openings, a jab and a footwork. I could summon my b¨­ with but a thought, and knew I¡¯d never be able to weird another weapon. Even if this broke, I could just summon another, no mana cost. I could even summon two of them, but just as I couldn¡¯t wield another weapon, if someone tried to wield this one, it would burst into mist.

    Diamond was awed. She looked at me in shock before shaking her head.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how you did that, but you have got to teach me. Now watch closely, the wisps are about to evolve.¡± We watched the wisps closely, and soon enough they started to change. A glow surrounded them and it happened. The life wisps all condensed into a single, floating ball. It looked almost solid. On this ball was an engraving. There were two trees, a fox, a rabbit, a badger, 2 humanoids, a flower and 2 bushes. The crystal wisps all condensed there mana into their crystals before they expanded into head sized pieces of floating crystal.

    We were shocked, but the changes didn¡¯t stop their.

    The wisps started to float away before the life wisps charged the crystal wisps, I was about to shout stop, but diamond held me back. Looking closer, I saw the life wisps melt into the crystal wisps. It took about three seconds before more changes happened. The life wisps fully disappeared within the crystal wisps, and they started to change. Two crystal wisps, ruby and tanzanite, flew over to a corner of the room, before they planters themselves and formed into small, crystal saplings.

    The rose quartz went to another corner of the room and turned into a pink flower.

    The emerald and amethyst turned into bushes. One was covered in thorns, and the other was moving slightly.

    Next the sapphire, smoky quartz and moonstone turned into a rabbit, fox and badger respectively.

    Then alexandrite became a semi human crystal. It was normal, until you saw the six arms. One pair came out of her shoulders like another pair, but the next came out of her chest, just under the other pair, and was slightly smaller as well. The last pair came out of her waist, and was even smaller then The second. She had a semi normal face, with a pair of sunglasses type of thing covering her eyes, and a slightly pointed nose. However, under her chin was a second set of jaws that had long, sharp and powerful teeth, as well as a serpentine tongue.

    The second humanoid was made from jet, and also had three sets of arms, one came out of the shoulders, the other came out just behind, and the third from the armpits of the first. He had three faces. The one at the front, a calm one, one on the side of his face, an angry one, and one on the other side of his face, a happy one.

    ¡°Umm.¡± I Said

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Copied diamond.

    ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Should we...¡±

    ¡°Probably.¡± And so we set to work. She moved the plants into different rooms, and i letthe animals roam around. I glanced at the humanoids, who were just standing there. Diamond came back, It seems the badgers taken up shop under one of the trees, the fox in the thorny bush, and the rabbits digging out a little warren. I restricted it to a single, small tunnel, enough to run from the standard sized human.

    We had also put the flower near the wiggly bush. What I also noticed was a gem on each and every one of them. The trees had one in there trunks, the badger in the roof of its mouth, the fox on its tail, the rabbit on its head, the bushes at there centre, the flower at the centre of its petals, alexandrite on her forehead, jet on his hands.

    ¡°So, the other dungeons would have opened, by now, easy to gain points.¡± I Said.

    Diamond shook off her shock and said ¡°yeah, let¡¯s go attack them now.¡± At that alexandrite and jet both turned towards us and asked,

    ¡°What, what are we?¡± Diamond and I looked at each other before responding,

    ¡°We don¡¯t know?¡±

 chapter 4

    ¡°Ok.¡± I say with a quiet voice.

    ¡°Let¡¯s start this off slowly. I¡¯m bismuth. This here is diamond. You to are alexandrite and jet.¡± They nod.

    ¡°Diamond and I are the same race as you two. We think. I¡¯ve looked over your forms, and it¡¯s like mine, but, only one crystal. Our gems are, magical? I guess. I created diamond and mine, but you were born? With them. I¡¯ll be honest, I don¡¯t know what we are, or what we¡¯ll become. I do know, though, that we are who we are. We can accept that, and move on to discovering more about ourselves, and each other, then maybe we can find out what we are.¡± They nodded.

    ¡°I believe you said something about a fight.¡± Said jet.

    ¡°I think a fight is an excellent idea. Brilliant to find out more about ourselves.¡± Continued alexandrite.

    ¡°Holdup,¡± shouted diamond,¡± we don¡¯t know what you are, and you could get hurt, or damaged or anything...¡± before she continued I stopped her.

    ¡°I actually think a fight would be a great idea. I scanned their gems. They have the same ability as us. There bodies are but an illusion. As well as that, I think they know how to summon there weapons.¡± I looked at them and they nodded. Lights shined out, and in each of jets hand were long curved daggers. In alexandrites hands was a bow, which she then separated into a whip.

    ¡°I am proficient in both.¡± She told us.

    ¡°You see. If anything, you shouldn¡¯t be allowed on the raid. You have no weapon, no magic, and we would be forced to protect you. ¡°She started stuttering,¡± but I¡¯m not stopping you because I respect you. Now let¡¯s go.¡± She sighs.

    ¡°You just have to put your hand on the crystal and wish to attack someone. A screen will appear and show you who you can. ¡° I nod.

    ¡°Get behind me everyone. Unsummon your weapons and get ready for the other side.¡± They nod, and jet, alexandrite and diamond gathered behind me. I put my hand on the crystal and wished to attack someone. In front of me was a list of 205 people. I was shocked. As their was only five of us, and one of us was not powerful, I limited it to purists, cause why not, and at least one race as wisp. Eventually I found the perfect person. Why hello hyacinth, long time no see. I tell diamond that¡¯s who I want to attack. She nods. She goes to the crystal and starts tapping on it before another portal appears.

    ¡°Step through there.¡± I nod and step through. Alexandrite and jet follow behind me.

    When we arrived, I was in an octagonal room, with each wall being two meters in length, and a passage way leading out. The lady¡¯s had about 30 minutes while we figured the gems out. That¡¯s our race now, by the way. We¡¯re gems.

    ¡°This is not an optimal position.¡± Said alexandrite. We all nodded.

    ¡°I think we go down that passage way there.¡± Jet pointed towards the one directly in front of us. I shrugged and said

    ¡°Why not. Let¡¯s go about the information gathered. Her main mana type is plant, and her two races are plant wisp and imp. Imps set traps and favour ambushes. We¡¯ll enter like this. I¡¯ll go first, alexandrite comes second, diamond third, and jet last. Jet, you focus on our backs, we don¡¯t want to be in a fight and lose because something came from the sides. Diamond, you keep an eye out for traps, and alexandrite, you look for enemies. Diamond, if we lose will they...¡± She just nodded. With that I firm my decision, I don¡¯t care if they are just part of my dungeon, they are my creations, they are at least partially sentient, and they will survive.

    ¡°Jett, stay at the back, do not, under any circumstances come to the front.¡± He nods while we form up. except for diamond, We all summon our weapons. We start walking down the corridor. After a couple of seconds we see a wisp. I slash at it, but nothing happens. I look at diamond and she tells me I need to drain its mana. I decided to try something. My weapon is, me, so why can¡¯t I channel mana through it. I tried to do it, and the mana just flowed straight through it. It gained a shiny, polished look. I focused on the intent of draining the wisps mana, and stabbed my b¨­ into its centre mass. Slowly the mist portion drained away into my staff, but i felt something wrong with my spell, making a few changes sped up the spell by quite a bit. After all the mist disappeared, a seed dropped to the ground. Looking at it, I decided to be a dick and take it. That is why I killed the wisp.

    We continued walking down the path for awhile, and drained about five more wisps, when, in the midst of draining the sixth, an arrow shot over my shoulder, hitting an imp I didn¡¯t even notice. There were three of them, and one on the ground, bleeding from its stomach. I let the shock hit me, and flow over me. I ran forward to meet them. Another arrow flew, hitting the downed imp, finishing it. I reached the other three and clashed. They were all green, reflecting their plant attribute. I hit one on the head with a downward stroke before twirling my staff, and slashing it into the side of the second imp. Instead of using the rebound to hit the other imp, I continued with the slash, putting extra wait into it to move the imp into the thirds path. This had the clever, if unintentional effect of blocking a ball of green mana shooting towards me. The imp it hit immediately dropped to the ground, paralysed. I guess that was the plants version of a fireball. I jabbed towards the one that had been hit on the head, which made it  double over. A whip flew over my shoulder and wrapped around it, before throwing it into the path of a second paralysis ball. It to dropped, motionless. I ran towards the trouble maker, and saw it gearing up to throw another paralysis ball. I decided to try using my mana, as if I didn¡¯t I¡¯d be toast. I let my mana flow through my b¨­ staff and imbued it with the image of a crystal shooting up to impale the imp. I jumped up and slammed my staff into the ground. The mana flew through the ground and did as intended, forcing a pillar of quartz to shoot up and impale the imps head. Woohoo, it worked. I stood there breathing heavily.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± I Said over my shoulder.

    ¡°No problem. The space available makes it hard to use my bow. I will continue with my whip from now on.¡± I just nodded. We all stood like that for a bit.

    I walked over towards the paralysed bodies and shot a spike of crystal into each of them. I then focused on dissolving the crystals.

    Diamond  hovered over towards the bodies before feeding her mana into them. After awhile they disappeared. I looked at her and she shook her head. Guess that¡¯s an explanation that I¡¯d only get after we left.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± I Said, and we set off. It wasn¡¯t long until we reached the end of the corridor. We set off back down it with jet leading is this time.

    Slowly and methodically, we cleared every tunnel, checked every hiding place, and destroyed every monster. Some of the tunnels weren¡¯t even tunnels, just a couple of metres of clear space, a turn, and a dead end. It took us about thirty minutes to complete all the tunnels (there were only three proper ones). Finally we found the core room. Inside it was hyacinth, and she was seething with rage.

    ¡°WHAT DID YOU DO!!!¡± She screamed.

    ¡°HOW DO YOU HAVE SUCH POWERFUL MONSTERS! HOW DO YOU HAVE A WEAPON! WHY DI...¡± before she could continue, an arrow came over my shoulder and nailed her in the eye. I looked behind me and saw a grinning alexandrite.

    ¡°She was taking forever. I thought I¡¯d take a slight risk.¡± I laughed. Slowly, everyone else laughed as well, before jett shot over my shoulder and nailed a black imp to the wall with four daggers. I looked, nearly shat myself, and said thank you. He grinned at me before killing the imp. It was quick. We walked over and shattered the core. A portal opened up in front of us, and we stepped through.

    ¡°What the fuck!!!¡± I screamed as we got through, dropping to the ground and curling into a ball.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°What have I done?¡± I murmured, not responding to anything.

    ¡°Bismuth. BISMUTH!¡± Screamed diamond.

    After we stepped through the portal, everything fell apart. I couldn¡¯t get over the fact that I¡¯d killed sentient life. Diamond was trying to bring me back to consciousness. Alexandrite went and sat in a corner, wrapping her arms around her knees, and jett just looked at his hands, summoned his daggers, unsummoned them, and repeat.

    What had I done. I had probably traumatised hyacinth. Even if she was a slaver, did she deserve this? I had killed all those imps, even her assistant. Did they deserve this. We didn¡¯t even leave them a body to bury. Why did I do this? How could I do this? unanswered questions that tore at my being. Before this, the worst I¡¯d killed was a fly. I¡¯d gotten into a few fights in school, even broken someones nose. But never had I killed someone. What¡¯s next? Massacring orphanages? Mass genocide? I¡¯d died, and that, experience is something I never ever want to go through again, and yet, I¡¯d brought this experience upon another. Would she even come back. I, I can¡¯t not do this. I have to snap out of it. I HAVE TO SNAP OUT OF IT! Slowly I started to hear diamonds voice.

    ¡°Come back. Please bismuth its ok. Just come back. Come back. We need you. Please.¡± I sat up.

    ¡°What was that.¡± I asked. ¡° I felt no remorse during the raid. I even felt happy. Why?¡± I Said this all in an emotionless voice.

    ¡°It was the sages. I promise, I didn¡¯t know about this. I-I-I-...¡± before she could continue, I just shook my head. I looked over to jett and alexandrite. They were just as effected as me. I walked over to jett, and said.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry you had to go through that. You have barely been alive for an hour, and you went through something I dreaded going through for, forever really. You won¡¯t ever have to do that again. I, i will make a room defended and impenetrable. You and alexandrite can stay there during raids, and come out after. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so sorry.¡± he nodded.

    ¡°I need some time to, process this.¡± I nodded back.

    Walking over to alexandrite, I just sat next to her. She looked at me before leaning against me. I put my arm around her and squeezed. She buried her head in my shoulder and started weeping. Slowly that turned to full on sobbing, before calming down again. After that, jet came and sat on the other side of me, and I put my arm around him to. Diamond came and sat on my shoulder.

    We sat like that for awhile. Be it a minute, or an hour, I don¡¯t know. I do know, however, that it was a long time, and it felt right. I sighed internally, hating that I had to break the peace, but we had to talk.

    ¡°We need to talk.¡± I Said. ¡°We had no control. We were forced to kill, and worse, we were forced to enjoy it. Please explain diamond.¡± In felt her shift.

    ¡°I promise, I didn¡¯t know about it. I would never have put you through that. I would never have...¡± she said before I interrupted her.

    ¡°Diamond, I, no, we know that you wouldn¡¯t have. Just explain it.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Said jett in a muted voice. Diamond continued.

    ¡°It was the sages. They, control the system. I don¡¯t know how. They do it to make rules, protections and influence us. Like the rules are the point systems. And hyacinth didn¡¯t die. She did feel pain, however.¡± I felt alexandrite start weeping again. With a hurried voice diamond said.¡± But it was only a one hundredth of the actual pain. It would have felt like a strong punch to the head.¡± Alexandrite weeping slowed, but the wet patch on my shoulder didn¡¯t stop growing.

    ¡°They, influence is by imitating the feelings of adventurers and normal dungeon instincts. They made us feel the joy a pun adventurer would feel in defeating a dungeon , and killing monsters. When an attacker raids your dungeon, you will feel an increase to your need to protect. You will physically and mentally need to protect the dungeon.¡± I look at her and nod.

    ¡°Can we, turn it off?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, only a sage can.¡±

    ¡°And those are?¡±

    ¡°Tiki, willow and flare.¡±

    I growl. How dare they. They even made me bring along innocents.

    ¡°What other surprises are there? Why were you dissolving the bodies? Why do we do this?¡± I machine gunned the questions.

    ¡°I dissolved the bodies because it¡¯s a way to gain extra points. 1 point per the tier of the monster. I didn¡¯t want a purist to know. There assistants aren¡¯t very helpful.

    We do this because it¡¯s training. Out in Alesia, dungeons are either incredibly helpful, or murderous, greedy scum. When a new dungeon is found, it is aloud to live for three floors. The adventurers will then try to communicate. should they not be able, they assume it is feral, and it is killed. No inBetween, no nice, shy dungeons. Either you benefit them or you are dead. But if you can build up a dungeon powerful enough before they duping you, what can they do?

    There aren¡¯t many. Besides the behavioural changes, nothing really changes. That can also be controlled, now that we know about it. I will get to understand it and use our connection to defeat it.¡± I nod. There really is nothing we can do. But there is something else I can do.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you two fighting anymore.¡± I Said, addressing the new gems.

    ¡°You a young, you need to live. From now on, I¡¯ll focus on building a village level. You and all other gems will live here. You will only fight if you want to, but you can live a relatively safe life.¡±

    ¡°Wha...¡±

    ¡°No!¡± They both interrupted.

    ¡°I want to fight. I don¡¯t want to lose control, and I don¡¯t want to enjoy it, but I want to stand with you. You created me. You are my king. I want to defend you. I will protect you.¡± Jett Said with a fierce persona.

    ¡°Me to.¡± Said alexandrite. They were both so, convincing. I couldn¡¯t understand it.

    ¡°I agree, under one condition. I will build the floor, and I will put my core there. Your initial  jobs will be to patrol the dungeon for humanoid gems. You will then help them settle. After a week of this, tell me if you want to protect me, or your people, or just settle in. In all these ways you will be protecting me, by protecting the dungeon core.¡± They both nodded. I looked at diamond on my shoulder, and saw her furiously plucking strands of mana. I picked her up and placed her on alexandrite. She didn¡¯t even notice. Slowly I started to dig. I made a long passage way, before creating a sharp turn. I rested a bit so as to avoid mana exhaustion. I walked through the dungeon, and noticed more wisps then before. I also noticed crystal plant life and animals, way more then before. I went to find diamond, and saw her to, taking a small break.

    ¡°Why are there more wisps?¡± I asked her gently.

    She jumped a bit before looking around.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. And there are more then just 60 of everything. Wha...¡± she said, before flying around. I followed her, and eventually heard a squeal of excitement.

    ¡°Bismuth, they¡¯re making more. The plants make both life and crystal wisps, instead of pollen look.¡± I did, and indeed saw no buds, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what she meant. I felt with my mana, and was shocked to see multiple wisps forming around the plants.

    ¡°They create more wisps, which create more plants and animals. It¡¯s a simple ecosystem. Amazing. And look at this.¡± She squealed. I walked over and saw the original amethyst bush, the one covered in thorns, was different. It¡¯s thorns had grown less numerous, but sharper, and more variety towards them, such as some filled with barbs, while others are small needles. It ps purple leaves were bigger, and seemed to gather more mana. It¡¯s roots were attached firmly to the ground, but when I went closer to take a better look, two of them whipped up and gripped my hand. It wasn¡¯t painful, more like a child looking for it¡¯s fathers attention. I laughed a little, and scratched it. The bush let out a rustle, and the roots retreated back towards the ground. I smiled.

    ¡°What the...¡± Said diamond.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I replied.

    ¡°You know it¡¯s not your fault right?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± She replied.

    ¡°We could never have known that would have happened. Now that we do, we can prevent it. Don¡¯t beat yourself up about it.¡± She looked at me, wiped her eyes, and just sighed.

    ¡°Follow me.¡± I Said. We started walking towards the soon to be village, and I started carving out the cavern.

    ¡°Do you know how I was transferred?¡± I asked her, referring to my death on earth. She nods.

    ¡°And you heard how the others were recruited?¡± She nodded again.

    ¡°At first I thought it was a coincidence, but now, knowing they would go as far as to allow slavery, and manipulate our thoughts. Somethings going on here. One is strange, twos a coincidence, three is a pattern.

    One, I died, and was then transferred to a dungeon core.

    Two, I felt no regret over choosing i the choice. Looking back, i was idiotic, there were way to many questions I didn¡¯t ask, that I know I would have.

    Three, the raid.

    I don¡¯t know what it is, but I¡¯m going to confront your father soon. What they are doing is wrong. If I find out that they purposely killed me, and then manipulated my thoughts to make me choose this. I will kill him. I protect my own, and defeat those that stud in my way. We¡¯ve fond that to be a part of my very being. It will be nasty, and it will take years, but it will happen. Do you accept this?¡±

    Looking back, a lot of things don¡¯t make sense. A heart attack!thats bullshit. I was healthy. My family had no history of such problems, and I saw the gash on my bodies head. Heart attacks don¡¯t cause that. Simple things, like my way of speaking, and my thought process were just, off. And why did they manage to capture my soul. From what I¡¯ve seen, even a powerful magician would need a couple of hours to capture my soul. The flapping! Ashley was that flapping, and the weird wind. They planned my death, and now I need to know why. They messed with the wrong person, and they messed with my gems. They better not lie.

    ¡°Bismuth.¡± I heard alexandrite shout. Looking back I saw three things. First, I had hollowed out a cavern twenty meters by twenty meters in the last ten minutes. I guess I¡¯m a very efficient auto pilot.

    Second I noticed the small cracks on the ceiling, and Immediately sent up a crystal pillar, stopping the cave in.

    Third I noticed alexandrite had five humanoids with her. A ruby, a sapphire, a angel aura quartz, a peridot and a lapis lazuli.

    ¡°I found some gems, Jetts busy searching for more.¡± I nod. Time to get them settled in, create the gem sanctuary, and confront tiki, what could possibly go wrong. Sigh.

 A lot of things, from maps, questions and an IMPORTANT notice for the futur.

    Spoiler: First the notice<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">

    My book so far has been awesome but it¡¯s going to get darker, with the eventual mass genocide of a sentient species, Death of key characters, developing insanity of bismuth. You heard me right. I plan on having bismuth go crazy and become incredibly dark, like rick from rick and morty. But funnyish. This is just a warning cause I realised some of my readers may be sensitive to that kind of thing.  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    <hr>

    Second the maps, when a map is added or updated it will be added as a link in the bottom authors note. It leads to imgur. The floor one map is down below.

    <hr>

    These are questions for my actual book, just cause why not.

    how can I make it better.

    Any key things I¡¯m missing.

    Do you have ideas for it

    <hr><hr>

    Now im just adding filler. So heres some questions I hope someone can answer, don¡¯t worry if you can¡¯t.

    how do I insert images.

    how do I change my rrl username, from origins trus form.

    And what¡¯s the schedule release thing.

 Chapter 5

    Damn. Shits really hit the fan. It went from a happy go lucky ¡°I¡¯m a winner,¡± view to a ,¡±fuck me sideways with a screwdriver,¡± point of view.How did everything just get so awful so quickly. *sigh*. It doesn¡¯t matter really. Come on Bismuth, positive point of view. I set a new record! Five hours straight before something went wrong. In those five hours I managed to clear out a big one hundred metre long, one hundred metre wide, twenty metre tall cavern, with reinforced roof and walls. No supports, no cave ins. I thought about growing the gems some houses, but, no. They can build their own homes. It will give the caverns a unique touch, filling it with diversity, and help the gems get better control over their mana. Yeah, that¡¯s definitely it, not at all because I¡¯m lazy. We found ten more gems in that time. That brings our total number of gems down to seventeen. Their evolution seem a lot rarer as opposed to the other evolutions. I used mana and my special dungeon powers to stop plants and animals from getting in here, but the minute you stepped outside, Damn, there was at least a hundred different types of plants in each room, and at least three of one animal type, so like, three foxes, or three centipedals. Yep, those became a thing. Jett was amazing at finding the new gems, and alexandrite at explaining their, lets say positions. The dungeon creatures didn¡¯t attack them, so the biggest problem was just finding them, as some instinctively used there powers the moment they evolved. Scared and alone, I didn¡¯t blame them. The issue is, is when there are gems like topaz, who immediately camouflaged.

    After about an hour, however, things slowed down, so a lot of things just stopped working, almost. Like There were still normal wisps floating around, but none evolved, and all the plants and animals stopped to, now, we had a lot of tier one monsters. Let me explain the tiers.

    The tiers function on the monster difficulty, and are quite simple. It starts at tier one, where they could kill an unsuspecting, unarmed, non-combatant sentient. Then it goes to tier two, where it can kill an armed, aware sentient, semi experienced in combat, and so on. Each tier is a massive improvement to the last. The tiers never really stop, and on tier one hundred, the monster can kill an army of one thousand people, all nearly masters in there trade. It¡¯s not complicated.

    Then you¡¯ve got the evolutions, which start at step one, which is a monster that has never evolved, like a wisp, or a normal wolf, and step two, which has, such as a solid wisp or a iron fur wolf. That¡¯s even more simple. A creatures step doesn¡¯t depict its tier, however, as a step one dragon would kill a step one bunny every day. But a step one hundred bunny is on even ground with a step one dragon. It¡¯s annoying, and stupid, because a tier three fire elemental will be beaten by a tier two solid water wisp. And then variations come into play, like my crystal-life creatures. *sigh*.

    What I ended up doing was putting the wisps in the cavern, after alexandrite explained there situation,I talked to them. The rules me and diamond made were simple.

    <ol>

    <li>Do not lie to anyone</li>

    <li>You may not force someone to do something against their will</li>

    <li>You don¡¯t have to fight if you don¡¯t want to</li>

    <li>Grow your own houses</li>

    <li>If the cavern needs to be bigger, grow it</li>

    <li>Don¡¯t be reckless. If you feel like something is wrong, it usually is</li>

    <li>Carry around the sashes at all times</li>

    </ol>

    The sashes were the invention that diamond eventually came up with to stop the mind control.it doesn¡¯t always work, and only lets you know if it¡¯s happening, but if you know it¡¯s there, you can stop it yourself. That¡¯s all she had time to make in five hours. She¡¯s now working on a bracelet that should all together stop it, but it will take time before she can figure it out.

    So your probably wandering what the issue was. Well, I got attacked. At first, I felt a tingling, then I heard diamond yell at me,

    ¡°SHIT! BISMUTH CALL BACK ALL GEMS! AN ATTACK STARTS IN ONE MINUTE! EXPECT MIND CONTROL IN ONE MINUTE!¡± I immediately pulled all gems back, explained what¡¯s happening to alexandrite, who happened to be closest, and told her to explain the situation to everyone, and that no one is allowed to leave. Next I moved my core into the caverns.

    ¡° you won¡¯t be allowed to leave the core room.¡± Said diamond.

    ¡°Your currently the strongest creature in the dungeon, at tier three, capable of taking on five armed sentiments, new to combat. Until a stronger creature is created, this will continue.¡± I nod, and move my core back into the original position, and put an inconspicuous slab of stone in front of it. You can enter quite easily, but you need a key, which I created and put in the farthest room possible. Why make an entrance, you ask. Well, some stupid retard (the sages) decided that there has to be some way to access an area. If there isn¡¯t, the doorways just opens up. That¡¯s part of the reason hyacinth was so shocked, apparently there was a big slab of stone blocking her entrance.

    The gems were all in the caverns, still need to name that, and all animals and plants are ready. It¡¯s a go. Suddenly I heard alexandrites voice behind me.

    ¡°So, how are we going to do this?¡±

    ¡°You are going to do nothing.¡± I responded, turning around and coming face to face with amethyst, jett and three others. THis includedwere topaz, the previously mentioned camouflager, it¡¯s her only unlocked power right now, but she also has a spear for a weapon. She was quite normal looking, but was only four foot. She had her hair in an Afro, and had loose tracksuit pants, and a long sleeve shirt. She was quite pretty.

    ¡°Why?¡± Said jett. ¡° this as much our home as yours. Even more considering we can¡¯t leave, and your deaths aren¡¯t permanent. If you leave, we will have to defend it anyway. You may as well let us help you now.¡± I see the other four nod. Alexandrite decide to continue.

    ¡°All of here want to fight and accept the risk. We all understand that we can be controlled and we can die. We don¡¯t care. We will protect our race. And don¡¯t you dare think otherwise!¡± She said that last bit with a little scream. Topaz spoke up in a beautiful, smooth voice.

    ¡°We know that you are reluctant to let us fight on your own behalf, but we are not. We are fighting for our people, so that we can defend them, so that those who won¡¯t, or can¡¯t fight don¡¯t have to...¡± I try to interrupt her.

    ¡°Ok, listen...¡± and here comes jett

    ¡°No, you listen. We have listened to you. You have grown us a home, brought us into being. We follow your rules, now let. Us. Fight.¡±

    ¡°I was trying to say that you can fight,¡± They all shouted in triumph,¡± on one condition.¡± They groaned.

    ¡°You can fight, but any who can¡¯t resist the mind control won¡¯t fight until they can, and after, should you still wish to fight, you have to train with diamond to control your mana.¡± They all agreed.

    ¡°If they are fighting to, you can designate one of them as the boss, as they have the same tier as you. Then you can move around with the rest of them. Quickly, we have less then twenty seconds. Also designate the village as the second floor.¡± I do all that. I make tanzanite, the only volunteer to stay. His weapon is a massive tower shield.

    ¡°Five.¡± Says diamond.

    ¡°Four.¡± We summon our weapons.

    ¡°Three¡± we start running towards the entrance room.

    ¡°Two.¡±we set up shop in the third room from the entrance.

    ¡°One.¡±

    ¡°Now.¡± Instantly I felt the need to protect my domain. MINE! How dare they come into my dungeon and try and fight me. ME! I feel a tap on my shoulder and glare at whoever did it. I saw diamond pointing at my sash. I looked down. It was glowing. I nod my thanks. Already I could feel my thoughts coming back under control. It was, disconcerting. I really needed to talk to tiki about this. Noticing the others about ready to jump the attackers I whisper screamed at them,

    ¡°Look at your sash, your under control. Calm down.¡± They look, and they to start to control themselves. Hearing whispers I decided to have topaz camouflage and check on what they¡¯re doing. Nodding, she shot off into the garden of gems. The talking isn¡¯t getting louder, but I do here a bit of rustling. Topaz appears out of the bushes and tells us.

    ¡°There are only two of them? A water fairy and a dungeon. They both have watery attributes, but they wouldn¡¯t be able to tackle a centipedal tribe, never mind the entire dungeon.¡± It was then that diamond interrupted.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Who was in control?¡±

    ¡°The fairy.¡±

    ¡°Shit. That means she¡¯s an anarchist.¡± While the others look confused, diamond continued. ¡°What she¡¯s going to do is swarm tactics. The good thing about this is that she forces a permanent portal for the duration of the raid, so we can attack them, getting twenty points instead of ten. but it also means that she can continually send through monsters. Remember what dad said. Even a million ants...¡±

    ¡°...Can kill a lion.¡± I finish. Suddenly I grin.

    ¡°Luckily for us, we¡¯re the best at swarms. Remember the hundreds of wisps being made. Hahaha. Here¡¯s what we¡¯ll do.¡± And so I explain my plan. It was slip shod, made at the last second, but it worked. The only way to stop a swarm raid is to destroy the one of the crystals. What we ended up with was leaving a tribe to each room, either centipedals (my only tier twos), fentinals ((the strange fox things)a mix of fox and sentinel),

    Or the rabbits. We would then have a group of us, consisting of everyone but me and tanzanite. Diamond loaded me with all the necessary information, before they set off. Hematite, a squat giant, was leading them. His weapon was a massive war hammer, and honestly, he scared me. Once you got to know him, you saw his true side, and while he may be gruff, he was a gentle giant. His one ability was creating a mobile fortification. It was barely big enough to cover them, and just a wall, but with topaz they would sneak through. This was where an amazing thing happened.

    They fused. Like before, with the fentinals, or the rabbits, they started dancing. That¡¯s all they did. Topaz had a flowing, ballet like style, while hematite just started grinding. They got closer and closer before topaz jumped into hematite, and a bright light was emitted. Once the faint silhouette of moving bodies stopped, Malaya was born. Made mostly from Malaya, you could also see faint lines of topaz and hematite. She wore a short skirt, and a pretty top. She was big, as big as hematite, who was seven foot. Her hair was styled like topaz, but had streaks of metallic hematite. She had two arms, but each arm was fitted with three joints and each hand had an extra thumb. She also had a long tail tipped in a hammer like head. .

    ¡°This feels amazing.¡± She said in a deep yet pleasant voice. By fusing, they were able to create a dome, and anything within it was invisible.

    ¡°Whaaa....?.???¡± Me and diamond both said.

    ¡°Beautiful, am I not? We will get the others in and out. Do not worry sir bismuth. Focus on the mission.¡± And with that, she gathered the others, shot out a dome, and ran forward. The only issue with it was the fact that any spare ability would last only five minutes, with the exception of the weapons.

    Muttering, I set up all the rooms, before sitting in front of the rabbits. Lucky I did, as as soon as I did, the first wave shot through. A wave of goblins and solid wisps shot through the portal. The solid wisps were just balls of water. The goblins were short green things, perhaps four foot high. They had unnaturally long and awkward limbs, and had a mouth filled with sharp teeth. Instead of weapons, each of their three fingered hands was tipped in deadly, one inch claws.

    They shot through, quickly entering the first room, while the fairy and dungeon stayed safe in the other room. I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it, but something felt, familiar about the fairy. The rabbits in the first room made short work of the goblins. There claws couldn¡¯t pierce the crystal hide, and the rabbits horns found it easy to pierce the goblins thin skin. The wisps proved difficult, as the rabbits couldn¡¯t easily kill them. It was balanced, however, with the water wisps unable to drown a creature that doesn¡¯t breath. It was annoying that the enemies wouldn¡¯t die, and so I called over one of the rabbits. I imprinted my drain mana spell into its gem, changing the gems colour slightly, but not by much. It ran back inside the room and stabbed a wisp. I watched as the wisp was slowly drained into the horn, while the rabbits crystal colour was slowly changed bluer and bluer. It ran to anotherrabbit that was introuble and tapped there gems together. The other rabbit shot to a wisp, and drained it. So this succulent continued until all the wisps were dead. The downside, however, was the giving the goblins time. They learnt that by lifting a rabbit and throwing it into a wall, or clubbing it with a rock, they could break there body¡¯s, proofing them. The one goblin tried to pick up a gem, but every rabbit looked at it and let loose a rumble, actually shaking the room. Slowly it put the gem down. Two of the rabbits started running around collecting the fallen gems. These two were smaller, more lithe rabbits. They seemed to be faster, and yet they didn¡¯t have a horn. Instead, on there chest was a basket, which when filled with gems, was emptied into a warren. It seems specialisation has started, I should really check on my dungeon more.

    With the goblins figuring how to fight the crystal creatures, we were in trouble. At least that¡¯s what I thought. While new goblins were coming in and seeing how to fight, they weren¡¯t telling others, so for every ten goblins entering, five died.

    It was like an endless flood. Wisps entered only to die, and goblin bodies were crashing against rabbit. I was a bit disappointed when all the rabbits finally died, and the collectorsran into the warren, but there was nothing I could do. The only reason they survived so long was because they had an advantage in terrain and were in the middle of tier one, no where near upper edges, or the fentinols, and miles from the centipedals, but still better then the goblins, which only advantage was their ability to adapt. They were also variants or an incredibly rare mana, life, and a never before seen mana, crystal. Remember, even though a tier was important, and every tier was endlessly more powerful then the one before, it all depends on how you use this power.

    The monsters carried on streaming in. It was like a never ending always encroaching tide. She must have spent every second making monsters, and then sent her entire dungeons worth in. What the actual fuck. Why is it so important to kill me? What¡¯s the gain? Focus.

    I snuck backwards into the fentinals room, giving a silent chuckle at how the goblins went the long way, and the wisps the short. Those wisps are bothering me. I can¡¯t just make all my creatures draw in mana, as that will destroy potential evolutions. How do I kill the annoyances. Hmm, maybe I don¡¯t have to. The plants all emit a mixture of crystal and life mana, which makes the life and crystal wisps in the air. But these aren¡¯t true wisps, as they can¡¯t evolve. The plants also photosynthesise of the same mana from different plants. Can I use this? Im doing all this on the fly, with no diamond, and realising just how much I need her.

    Seeing the first wisps enter the fentinols room, I back into the corridor, I don¡¯t have to worry, considering how you can¡¯t drown an elemental. Are they even elemental anymore?

    Back to my problem. I can¡¯t influence the other wisps with the mana if I can¡¯t see it. Thinking on this, i here the loud sound of goblins approaching. I look up a bit to see the wisps changing tactics, make the floor slippery. While it doesn¡¯t directly hurt my creatures, it does inhibit their ability to fight. Seeing the first goblin run in, slip and kill itself by hitting its head on the floor, I stop worrying again.

    Wait! that¡¯s it! The wisps. I can¡¯t see the false wisps from the plants like I can see monster wisps. They¡¯re not wisps! They¡¯re blobs of mana, and while they theoretically can turn into wisps, they would need days to accumulate enough mana to form crystals. This is what make elemental so good. They accumulate enough mana in the air to make these mana clumps, and then essentially make more of themselves with the blobs. That¡¯s their form of breeding. So why could I see the clumps then and not now. What was different. Back then I had diamond, but that can¡¯t be it, because im the dungeon. But maybe it¡¯s not the dungeon portion of me. I reach up and touch my gem. No, it¡¯s not my gem because then I¡¯d know what to do immediately, like everything else. I think? I¡¯m not really sure on the damned thing yet. Let¡¯s just hope it¡¯s not to do with the gem.

    So if that¡¯s the case, what was it. I can¡¯t rule anything out. I don¡¯t know enough about my gem to say whether or not it is it, but neither do I know this dungeon thing. I want diamond. She makes things so much easier. And why am I struggling on such a thing. It¡¯s to help me damnit.

    What else was I doing on that day that I haven¡¯t done now. It had to do with mana obviously? and common enough that diamond didn¡¯t think it was important to tell me. Or maybe she forgot? BRAIN CRAMP!!

    Looking into the room, I see a fentine running around gently slapping the fallen gems towards a hole in the wall. Guess they also needed a warren. Why haven¡¯t they fused? The rabbits didn¡¯t either. I called one over and asked it to. All I got in response was a tilt of the head. Guess they don¡¯t know how. I let it go, deciding not to influence the creatures more then I should. It ran back out. Almost half of the 20 fentinals were killed, but they were still holding. They had gotten used to fighting on the slippery floor, and had harder bodies to smash. That and the fact that they usually group up two to one, they were winning. They had blocked both entrances, not allowing more then a few goblins in at a time. The wisps were another issue. They were slowing the fentinals down by surrounding them with water. The only good news were that their numbers were starting to drown the goblins, and that they cushioned blows against the fentinals.

    What am I missing. It must be so obvious, otherwise everywhere would be over run with with wisps. Think, think, think!

    ...

    ...

    ...

    MAGIC. I used magic that day. A long shot. But one I¡¯m willing to take. Focusing on a wisp, I drain it, and like a flood, as soon as the I started to visualise the spell I could see. Well, I could see the mana clumps. But that can¡¯t be it. If it¡¯s to do with mana, let¡¯s try this. I visualise a lens appearing in front of my face, showing even the smallest tendril of mana would be revealed. Suddenly an extreme amount of mana came through the link. So much light and colour and being. It was beautiful. And I saw It. A Being so vast, so magnificent that my eyes cracked upon seeing It.

    I screamed. The pain running through me was immense. An agony reminiscent of one thousand experienced torturers focusing their trade upon one body, I couldn¡¯t even blackout. It was a soul destroying torment. It affected not my body, but my soul. It destroyed me and yet never even touched me. And I felt that even on death wouldn¡¯t release me from this torment. It would take a super eon of time to even lessen, an infinite number of deaths. I felt a minuscule piece of mana enter me. Smaller then evena particle. It came from the Being. I tried to put up a fight, but I couldn¡¯t do anything, my mana was exhausted in the spell, my soul was collapsing, my body was unresponsive.

    The mana entered me and the pain stopped. My soul regenerated. Even the psychological trauma of such an experience was lessened, it wasn¡¯t gone, However. I blacked out before I could even help my dungeon. My last thought was of relief, and of sorrow.

    I would never be the same.

    Never.

 Chapter 6

    **diamonds point of view**

    We had just entered the opposing dungeon. When i think of how those dirty anarchists made these walls I just shake with anger. How dare they destroy a bond as sacred as a dungeon and their assistants. Neither are meant to be controlled. And yet never does anyone think of this. Power. That¡¯s all they care about.

    We navigated for awhile, getting away from the endless streams of monsters going through the portal. How were there so many? We got two rooms in and saw a forked path, in which we went left, as there were no monsters coming from here. This proved to be both a good and a bad decision. Good, because there were no monsters, bad because it was a dead end. We¡¯d be cornered if we¡¯re found. I gesture, showing that we¡¯re safe.

    ¡°That was epic!¡± Said Malaya, before splitting. She burst into light, before hematite and topaz were revealed, both panting with exhaustion and covered in sweat. An interesting development, considering they were made from crystal. I guess a fusion takes a lot out of you.

    ¡°Alright, you two stay here. Lapis, watch over them.¡± I did this to test lapis, the other gem with us, control. Should she fight, I¡¯d know wether we can trust her for future battles. Fortunately she nodded. But hematite and topaz not so much. Before they could say something I intervened.

    ¡°Ok guys, this is how we¡¯re continuing. Hematite, topaz, you to are exhausted. You can¡¯t do anything right now, and we¡¯ll need you later to help us get out. You saw how many monsters there were. They don¡¯t just die when a core¡¯s destroyed, no, all that happens is the dungeon loses control of them. There¡¯s not a snowballs chance in hell in killing all of them, and even less of getting out without you guys. You two need to recover to get us out. We need you.¡± They nod, and while they¡¯re reluctant, they still decide to stay and recover.

    ¡°Lapis, you need to guard them. Wit them focused on recovering they won¡¯t be much use in a fight, should monsters discover you, your their defence. Jett, alexandrite, I want you two to focus on assassinating any big targets. With the dungeon focusing on making so many monsters, there won¡¯t be that many. The only reason we don¡¯t have any tier four monsters right now is because of bismuth building your cavern. Any big monsters will be a problem.

    No direct confrontations, fight dirty and aim mostly on crippling. I¡¯ll fly off for the core.¡± As they argued over my safety I cut them out.

    ¡°Even though I can¡¯t access my gems powers, please remember, I spent over twenty years focusing on mana, spells and dungeons. I¡¯m the best for the job.¡± They looked at me, grin a bit, and let me go. I sigh. How can a dungeon as young as bismuth, literally not even a day old, have sentient life. I¡¯m supposed to have at least another twenty years to prepare for this sort of thing.

    No, now¡¯s not the time to focus on such things.

    Closing my eyes, I sent out a pulse of mana, looking for a higher then usual concentration. I felt multiple, fast moving mana signatures closing in on the connecting portal. Bismuth will have his hands full. I felt all five other gems, and felt alexandrite closing in on a cluster of tightly packed mana, while jett moves towards a bigger mana signature.

    Next I felt out the dungeons pathways. Usually the core is in the deepest one.

    The biggest issue with this method is how mana intensive it is to use it, and dangerous. If someone doesn¡¯t have an unyielding control over their mana and near perfect imagery for the spell, they will see it.

    A being of such regard even the titans bow to it. It is omnipotent. It is omniscient. It is both death and life. It is the source of all mana in the entirety of the multiverse. It spans across all of the multiverse, and beyond, should the rumours be true.

    All teleports, summons, time shifts, special anomalies and fluctuations, disturbances, elements, and more are the result of this being. Everything It dreams, thinks, ruminates, broods over all come true.

    If someone were to draw its attention, then not even the gods or titans can help them. Even just witnessing its body, or the fraction that exists in our universe, can destroy a mortals mind. Their soul will leave their body and experience thousands of lifetimes worth of pain in a yoctosecond

    (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000th of a second. It is the second smallest unit of time.)

    Usually their soul implodes under such suffering, or worse yet, the poor beings experience this pain eternally. They die, reincarnate and die again. Something about witnessing a being of such vast proportions destroys the mind and condemns them to an eternity of pain. When this happens their souls are no longer constrained under there universes law, and are free to reincarnate anywhere in the multiverse. We know when this happens, as the creature, be it infant or not, literally scream until their voice box explodes under the strain. They drain every bit of ambient mana and life energy before they die. Every universe has a monument at the direct centre, and on this monument is both the true name, and every other name given to each being to have this happen to them.

    One of the best, possible outcomes almost always ends in insanity. It¡¯s when the soul survives, and the being sends a piece of mana, tinier then even the smallest of molecules, towards the victim. It stops almost all the pain, and works to heal the tiny bit left.

    The being takes an interest in you, however. It follows your life, and makes everything worse. Challenges are harder, and your luck is horrible. It goes from a ¡®oops, I fell.¡¯ To a, ¡®oops, I fell, a sink hole opened up under me, and when I crawled out a building fell on me.¡¯ And this becomes a normal thing to happen.

    That tiny bit of mana has a cost. It takes things. Things that most don¡¯t even know about. These are random and can¡¯t be predicted.

    The last recorded experience of this case was a dungeon that had over reached. It went insane, lost its sense of compassion and happiness. All things were a power source, or an advantage. It¡¯s assistant tried to help it, but the dungeon was gone. Eventually the assistant was forced to kill the dungeon because of its heinous crimes.

    *drip*

    the sound of a tear hitting the floor came to me. I wiped my eyes. The only reason I¡¯m taking these risks are because of the gems.

    I told a small lie earlier to keep hematite and topaz still. When a dungeon core is destroyed, all creatures, including sentients, become feral. They slaughter all that is not of their own. I don¡¯t know about gems, with their soul being inside of a gem, for all I know they could consider even the gem monsters kin, but I doubt it.

    I have seen the footage of a dungeon, over one hundred floors, destroyed. It had a city of sentients on the fiftieth floor. Humans, elves, resonated, elemental, orcs, dragonewts, beast kin of every type and more lived here. They weren¡¯t dungeon born. It was A genocide. Over a hundred thousand souls destroyed in an hour. Even the visiting family and merchants with no dungeon mana in them turned on one another.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Normally i wouldn¡¯t care. Even cherubs and imps aren¡¯t sentient until there fifth evolution, and they¡¯re the fastest of every type of monster to become a type of sentient. but the gems were another deal entirely. After the first twenty, none were born.

    And that¡¯s the issue. One rule of the multiverse is that sentient races all start with twenty at first. Only twenty. Even if they are evolved monsters, only twenty can evolve. After that, never again can they be made. They can breed, spawn, split, create and more. For instance, demons and angels ¡®bless¡¯ or ¡®curse¡¯ imps and cherubs to become part of there sentient race. But only those original twenty sentients can do this. It¡¯s A rule as old as time. if we lose, a sentient race will forever be gone. I can¡¯t allow that.

    I flew along the path that the monsters were coming from with a determined face. Nothing noticed me, flying as close to the walls as I could. I flew at break neck speeds. Through four rooms I went before I appeared in front of the core room. What was inside of it left me in shock. Two blue portals stood in the room. Coming out of one was goblins, and the other wisps. A goblin came out of his portal and immediately hunched over, evolving. after a second a gremlin stood in its place, before running off.

    ¡°How? Why? How could anyone willingly do this?¡± I was in shock

    A soul devourer portal. All creatures have souls, from the smallest blade of grass to the most monstrous Eldridge horror. These portals are made by destroying the soul of a being, which not only causes immense pain, but also makes sure that never again will it ever reincarnate. It will then continuously create the same creature, and if you sacrifice more souls, more creatures appear. None created from these portals have a soul. Mindless robots designed for obedience. They evolve, like the original, and keep those evolutions after death, but why? Why would someone do something so horrendous.

    ¡°Magnificent, isn¡¯t it?¡± Said a voice behind me. Turning around I saw a water fairy. There was something familiar about her. I don¡¯t know what.

    ¡°The perfect soldier. Remember me?¡± Seeing my confusion she continued while a crown formed atop her head.

    ¡°I was once mermaid empress.¡± Seeing my recognition, and subsequent horror, she laughs.

    ¡°Yes, you see what would have happened to your beloved bismuth. Well it matters not. You stole something of mine. I may never get it back, but I can get revenge.¡± She says, glancing at the portals. Realising what she was saying, I immediately screamed.

    ¡°NEVER!¡± A vine shot from the floor, reaching for her, but a high power shot of water cut it off.

    ¡°You think you can destroy my core. In my realm. Foolish child. I have waited years to become a dungeon, and never will I ever fall to such an ignorant...¡± before she could spit something else out, I shot five concentrated bolts of life all around me, mixing in some crystal into the mix. This was my most powerful spell, and had a massive boost of power after my bond. At the spots the bolts landed, a crystal plant or animal arose. One was a vine, and the other a flower. The other three were all animals, a wolf, a snake and a dove. These were my guardians. All twenty years of magic experience shot into one spell.

    ¡°You little ...¡± again interrupted, and growing more and more annoyed a thin needle of crystal was shot from the vine, almost hitting the fairy, but a quick turn made it merely leave a scratch. She winced. I looked closer and saw the scratch crystallise, and start crystallising the rest of her arm, albeit at an incredibly slow pace. Well, we¡¯ll have to fix that won¡¯t we. But first.

    ¡°Keep her busy, aim to wound and distract above killing blows.¡± I mentally commanded the guardians. I felt there acceptance. Next I flew towards the portal. First let me destroy the goblin one. To do so I would need to corrupt her portal with my mana and make it unstable. It would take awhile, but it would kill all the remaining monsters, and save bismuth. Slowly I started corrupting the portal while the other fairy fought my guardians. She tried to stop me, but every time she launched an attack she would receive a blow, speeding up the crystallisation. Bismuth must be doing incredibly well considering how she couldn¡¯t call the goblins to her. I couldn¡¯t out right destroy the crystal, as when it was gone, the portals would start expanding, and I can¡¯t take the risk that they wouldn¡¯t infiltrate our dungeons before the connecting portal cut, which would destroy the gems souls. They were elementals after all just like the wisps.

    Slowly but surely I corrupted the goblins portal, managing to destroy one of the beings and get a count of the rest. There was fifty souls in here, I guess there¡¯s forty nine left. Looking up I managed to catch her cut off the paw of the wolf, and saw the snake struggling to manoeuvre with a frozen tail. Slowly my guardians were losing, but at a price. Her left leg was crystallised completely, and her right wing had a crystal needle pierced through it. Unfortunately I couldn¡¯t stop this, as now I had started, if I stopped, even a tiny bit, the portal would become unstable.

    ¡°AHHHHHH!!!¡± She screamed aloud as a glancing blow shattered her crystallised leg. To do this however, cost the dove it¡¯s life, as a retaliating blade of water cut it in half. While she did this the wolf managed to get a good slash across the back, dismembering both wings and rendering an arm useless. At a pitch I thought impossible to reach, the fairy screamed out while her blood streamed down her back, creating a small pool under her feet. I noticed the flower pulse before the bleeding stopped, and it crystallised. I guess that¡¯s what that does.

    The snake lunged forward, but was caught by a bolt of high pressure water, shattering its head. This wasn¡¯t enough to stop it however, as The shards from its body were still hurtling towards her, and with a horrified look she raised a barrier, but couldn¡¯t stop a small chip from gouging out her eye. She screamed a haunting, mind bending orchestra of pain as her eye exploded. Red hot blood shot out, before bleeding enough to make her pale. The flower pulsed, and the wound crystallised. She continued screeching her agony to the world as she fought, using more and more vicious attacks. She completely forgot about me, focusing on the instruments of her pain.

    Covered in blood, crying out unholy wails, missing her left leg, both wings, a few fingers, her eye and still fighting. and yet all I saw was a hypocrite. This wasn¡¯t even half the pain those souls she destroyed had felt. And if she died, she would come back fine. But these creatures won¡¯t. So while I didn¡¯t enjoy her pain, I did not stop it. It was recompense for all she had done.

    I was done. Not shouting the triumph I felt, for fear of being discovered, I realised that I had control of the portal. I destroyed the portal. The goblins stopped leaving. That should have stopped the flood. Looking towards the wisps, I saw a couple becoming humanoid. The third step. They gain consciousness here. Nothing special, they were like an animal, but still, they could fight. They were now tier two. I ran to the portal and started corrupting it, taking over, but I new one thing for sure. I won¡¯t survive this.

    My dove, my snake, and my vine were gone. The wolf had a missing leg, and big chunks of it missing. The only reason it was still alive was because the fairy was so blind with rage, she couldn¡¯t focus enough to form more powerful spells. She was also crippled, now missing her right leg. The flower was fine, but not for long, as it was more for support. As well as that, my mana was nearly empty.

    Suddenly I felt a flash of panic, and then of pain. It was coming from the bond. Bismuth was in trouble! What can I do. This pain, it¡¯s immense. WHAT IS SHE DOING TO HIM!!!

    I saw the wolf sacrifice it¡¯s self by taking the the fairy¡¯s remaining arm. Now a quadriplegic, almost entirely crystallised, she turned her head and crushed the flower. Next, water gathered around her and lifted her, allowing her to get closer to me. She started laughing a deranged laugh, but was silenced as her mana faltered, dropping her and shattering her. With just a head remaining, she screamed out.

    ¡°SAVE ME!!!¡± Before she died.

    Now it was just me and and the portal. Normally I would have no problem, but if had to keep up my most powerful spell and still destroy another portal. I¡¯d spent my whole life practicing, and while I could draw from bismuth, he was in trouble, and I couldn¡¯t risk it. I¡¯d only destroyed ten beings, and while the river had turned to a stream, it wasn¡¯t enough. I saw a silhouette appear in the door way.

    ¡°Diamond!¡± Shouted jett. He sprinted towards the core.

    ¡°Stop!¡± I Said when he was next to me. He nodded, and then alexandrite appeared with a tired hematite, topaz, and lapis. Lapis immediately asked.

    ¡°How can we help?¡±

    ¡°I need mana!¡±

    ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°Imagine it flowing towards me.¡± It was all I could say. I felt their mana come to me, but it still wasn¡¯t enough. I guess this is it.

    There were ten beings left. But we had no mana left. It was all I could do to keep it stable. I was even siphoning off of bismuth. It was over. The gems would die. I would die. Bismuth would die. What can I do. Bismuth and I can regenerate, but the rest couldn¡¯t. Stop thinking of this like a real life diamond, it isn¡¯t. Using this logic, I started scraping my being. I took every scrap of mana left. Mana exhaustion had previously set in, but now, now it was mana starvation. Not fatal if treated to soon. I carried on gathering mana, and it became mana separation, where my mana starts to rebel. This was fatal. I focused on the portal and closed it. I managed to shut it, and tell jett to shatter the core.

    Then, with an exhausted, slightly pained sigh, I smiled, and let go. I died.

 Chapter 7

    ¡°Grab diamond, we¡¯ve got to get out of here!¡± Shouted alexandrite while supporting hematite so they could start down the pathway towards the exit portal. Lapis lazuli hefted topaz over her shoulder and started running off, following alexandrite. Jett grabbed the diamond that had dropped to the ground.

    It took them two minutes to make it through the passageways of the dungeon. They jumped through the portal, appearing on the other side. What they found shocked them.

    It was utter chaos. The once irresistible, bewitching paradise of exotic crystal life was now a wasteland.

    There were pools of water sitting all over the place, and no plants could be seen. The stone had been worn smooth from all of the feet that had run upon it, and there were shards of crystals embedded in all surfaces. There was blood, bones and various internal organs strewn throughout the place. a particularly gruesome display was of a skull, picked nearly clean of flesh, painted red with blood, and had intestines resting out the eye sockets like some ghastly worm.

    As they walked through the dungeon, they came across the fentinals room.they saw even more of this carnage. even a couple of gems lay scattered across the floor. After gathering the gems and depositing them inside of there warren, they continued.

    Within the centipedals room, bodies half melted could be seen, with yellows pus peeking out from the marks on several corpses. It was in this room that none of the tier one goblins survived, and only the better combatants made it through, most already crippled from attacks previously felt by alexandrite and jett.

    They carried on through, and saw a shocking sight, at the centre of the room lay the original emerald bush. Around it lay the most brutal show yet, with multiple corpses appearing near its stem. Most seemed to have been chocked so tightly their eyes had literally popped out of their heads, while others had flattened heads, reminiscent of blunt force trauma. We had never thought that the bushes would become monsters.

    There was a flower near this bush, again one of the originals. Near the flower were no dead bodies, but a pulse of light and a large crack healed along the bushes side.

    In the next room, a towering tree sat in the corner, and under it was a dying badger. The poor thing had taken out dozens of tier two monsters, but had been overrun.

    We nodded at the badger, it nodded back, understanding its job was done. It closed its eyes and poofed into a gem. We continued.

    There were multiple seems of brutality and gore throughout the entire dungeon. some quite horrifying. A lot had pools of water near, these were the dead elementals. When we got the core room, we found a bone tired tanzanite. He was missing his right arm, left leg and half a face. He had experienced unimaginable pain. In front of his shield was a wall of bodies, leaving the core room completely empty. He saw us, let out a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Take care of Sir Bismuth. I don¡¯t know what happened, but there was an unholy scream and then a centipedal appeared with his gem. Good luck.¡± He poofed into his gem. We need a better name for that.

    ¡°What do we do?¡± Said lapis. Alexandrite and her dropped their cargo on the floor. Jet sighed.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get the other gems out here. There¡¯s nothing we can do. Set diamond with bismuth. When they wake up they¡¯ll know what to do.¡± And so that¡¯s what they did. They hadn¡¯t been trained in mana, so all they could do was set bismuth and diamond together next to the cores pillar. After, they grabbed a hold of the key to the caverns and let the other gems out.

    Next to poof were jett and alexandrite, awaiting recovery from their numerous injuries.

    Topaz and hematite couldn¡¯t poof, as there was nothing wrong, they were just tired. They were set up in a temporary residence to rest.

    Lapis looked around, sighed, and sat near bismuth and diamond. There was nothing she could do.

    A suction force grabbed a hold of all of them. Cries of pain and help could be heard. A tug was felt, and then all was gone. Just like that, the gems ceased to exist.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile.

    <hr>

    ¡°What the magic mushroom.¡± Said bismuth in wonder. Weird, considering he has no mouth.

    He was in a void. But not an actual void, as a void is the lack of everything and he is in the void and therefore it was not a void. An interesting place indeed.

    Not knowing what to do, Bismuth started looking around, but true to its name, the not-void had nought but himself.

    ¡°I wish this place was more interesting.¡± He mused. When he thought this however, the not-void filled with swirling colours. It was neither pretty nor ugly.

    ¡°Bit bright.¡± Bismuth continued, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. Just as before, all the colours muted, going from vibrant blues and reds to dull black and white. It was if you had stepped into an old film.

    ¡°What is this place?¡± Bismuth finally thought. An odd time to think such a question, all things considering. Almost immediately after he thought this question, a voice appeared in the bleak surroundings.

    It was a powerful sound, as if a single word could destroy entire universes should it wish. It sounded as if it was made from trillions and trillions of voices mashed together, and while comprised of these many, many singular sounds, it was unmistakable one being that spoke. This voice, these voices, they were both old and young. Both deep and high, female and male. Anything you could think of was represented by this, these voices. It was incredible.

    ¡°This is your mana source.¡± Replied the voice.

    ¡°Impossible!¡± Said bismuth. ¡°My mana source is a place of wonder. Bigger then the biggest caverns and filled to the brim with crystals and life and crystal life. How could a place as bleak as this be my mana source.¡±

    ¡°You made it so. First you asked for a more interesting view. Next you asked for it to dim. This is of your own doing.¡± Replied the voice. It sounded amused, but it¡¯s hard to tell as it also sounded happy, sad, angry, disappointed, excited, afraid, disgusted and many more. But bismuth decided amused was a better quality of the voice and so amused this voice was.

    ¡°But that doesn¡¯t answer my question. My mana source was a place filled with wonder. If this truly is my mana source, and I¡¯m not saying it is, where are the forests of crystal?¡± He nodded at his flawless logic.

    ¡°The forest are gone. Wiped clean by my mana. It is unfortunate, a limited mortal mind such as yourself would have spent months formulating such a complex ecosystem. Well, you¡¯ve done it once, you can do it again. Now tell me mortal, how are you alive?¡±

    What does he mean, ¡®spent months¡¯. It was literally a thought.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you know. Well you surely are stupid Mr. Sheepfoot. Even I know that a mana source can¡¯t be ¡®wiped clean¡¯ and that it is formed from the first thought you have after discovering it.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? Of course a mana source can be wiped clean. Your mana source is proof of this, is it not? As well as that, why would a single thought contain a boundless and illimitable substance such as mana.¡±

    In an exasperated voice bismuth replied.

    ¡°Well it just is, isn¡¯t it? That¡¯s like saying airs invisible, so it¡¯s not real. It¡¯s stupid and unnecessary. People better then me and more knowledgeable then me have come to this conclusion, and so why should I have a right to demoralise their decision. There is no proof of your claims Old Man Jenkins. So why, may I ask, do I have the right to destroy their world views? And as to ¡®wiping clean¡¯ a mana source, while this may be significant proof for you, I still see no proof of this even being my mana source.¡±

    ¡®Why am I talking so, posh? And why is this becoming so heated. This voice can obviously destroy me in seconds, so why bother arguing?¡¯

    ¡®But why not? This is my head and how dare it intrude!¡¯

    ¡®But why is it my head? And why is it so important that I fight?¡¯

    ¡®Because this is ME! And I¡¯m always right!¡¯

    ¡®But am I? What proof do i have?¡¯

    ¡®Well what proof does it have that I am wrong?¡¯

    ¡®Well i suppose that is true, and since neither of us have proof, then I am definitely correct!¡¯

    ¡®Yes, I am definitely correct.¡¯

    ¡®But if I am correct, and I have no proof that either of us is incorrect, who is to say it isn¡¯t correct?¡¯Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡®Well I am, aren¡¯t I? Because if I¡¯m correct it can¡¯t be.¡¯

    ¡®But why not?¡¯

    ¡®Well, just because. Why do I need a reason to be correct?¡¯

    ¡®Well why does he? I say that I make a rule. If there is no proof, then I am correct. If it¡¯s a rule it has to be correct.¡¯

    ¡®True, and I make another rule. If their is proof, I am also correct. Why be incorrect when I can be correct?¡¯

    ¡®Yes, these are good rules. Now I have a question. Just who are you?¡¯

    ¡®Well I am you, of course.¡¯

    ¡®But am I you?¡¯

    ¡®No, you are not me, but I am you. We are you. But for all other purposes, me and you are the same and therefore I am you, and you are you, and we are you, so we are I. ¡®

    ¡®Ah, I understand. You are me and I am me and so we are me.¡¯

    ¡®That¡¯s just what I said.¡¯

    ¡®And what I said.¡¯

    ¡®Agreed.¡¯

    ¡®Now let us get back to that fool that insists that he is correct when obviously I am correct.¡¯

    Turning his attention back to the voice dubbed Old Man Jenkins, Mr.Sheepfoot and many more, I am sure. Bismuth? Listened.

    ¡°But this is your mana source. There is no way to prove it except for you searching yourself, which can¡¯t be done since your dead. But again, your not dead, neither are you alive. I can¡¯t decide what you are. And saying that someone is ¡®better¡¯ or ¡®more knowledgeable¡¯ is stupid. Who is to say you are not more knowledgable then them. You had a right to demoralise their decision when they first made their decision. And so why listen to an old fool when you can listen to an eons old being such as myself?¡± The voice was quite prideful about that, I think.

    ¡°Alright, if this is my mana source, then prove it. And thats what I was already saying, why listen to boring old people? As well as that, Dead men can¡¯t talk. So your thing about me being dead is incorrect.¡±

    The voice sighed. It seemed it had broken this mortal. As always. It took a deep breath and said in a commanding tone.

    ¡°Enough. This is your mana source and just as I have no proof neither do you. Now answer me. Why are you alive?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s simple. It¡¯s because tiki said I wouldn¡¯t die. How could I die if the sages explicitly said, ¡®no one can die in these trials¡¯. As well as that, it¡¯s probably my gem.¡±

    ¡°These sages lies to you. The only ways to prevent death that have so far been created are incredibly expensive and difficult. I sense no magic on you, binding you to that realm, and if you had a phylactery you wouldn¡¯t be here. And what is this gem?¡±

    ¡®The sages had lied to me. LIED TO ME. First they kill me, control me, force me to do something with almost no knowledge, and now they lie about my death. I will KILL tiki for this. ¡®

    ¡®Yes i suggest I do that. But remember me, that killing him, a sage, will be difficult.¡¯

    ¡®So?¡¯

    ¡®So wait. Build up my powers and crush him. Kill all the sages.¡¯

    ¡®That is a good idea. But what of the control. ¡®

    ¡®Well first things first, let us tell the others of house enigma. Then let us confront tiki, for all we know, he isn¡¯t part of this trickery. ¡®

    ¡®Understood. I have good ideas.¡¯

    ¡°My gem is my gem. It controls my powers, I think? It does have powers, though. It allows me to summon my b¨­ staff. I think it lets me live after death. I mean it lets my monsters live after they die. But it¡¯s more then that. It¡¯s like it¡¯s my body and soul, and everything else you see Is an illusion. But at the same time, it¡¯s not.¡±

    ¡°I understand, I think, now explain the mana source issue.¡± The voice sounded, satisfied?

    ¡°What issue.¡±

    ¡°The one thought that determines your mana source.¡±

    ¡®Should we really?¡¯

    ¡®It hasn¡¯t proved incorrect so far. ¡®

    ¡®But I¡¯m always correct.¡¯

    ¡®No. I¡¯m correct when I¡¯m correct but I know when I¡¯m incorrect.¡¯

    ¡®But I¡¯m always correct!¡¯

    ¡®No! Not always.¡¯

    ¡®ALWAYS.¡¯

    Bismuth doubles over in pain, clutching his head. But, in a moment it was clear. This, voice. It wasn¡¯t natural. It wasn¡¯t him. Sure it was him, but he wasn¡¯t it. It was like, it couldn¡¯t be wrong. And it has the power to make me seem right, but now I see that sometimes I am wrong.

    ¡®No, I¡¯m always correct.¡¯

    ¡®Shut up, me. I¡¯m, we¡¯re not always correct.¡¯

    I tuned all other thoughts, including the voice, out and focused on the voice. That¡¯s confusing. Now that I¡¯m thinking clearly, it¡¯s quite obvious that the voice I¡¯m talking to belongs to the being. And the voice in my head. Well, That¡¯s a bit more complicated. Let¡¯s refer to them as innie and outie. The voice now dubbed Outie started talking.

    ¡°I see you have, regained control? Well please will you explain it. I need to fix your world view, and in turn, fix many others.¡± I nod my non existent head. Something still feels off. It¡¯s like, even though I know this being can crush me, I just don¡¯t really give a shit. Meh, worst case scenario, I die.

    ¡°Well you see, Mr.Outie. The mana source is the source of mana, haha, inside of everyone. When you visit it for the first time, you have a thought in your head. I was told that you need to visualise it. Once you¡¯ve found it, that vision in your head becomes your element. After that, you can¡¯t use any other element.¡±

    ¡°Hahahaha. That¡¯s so, haha, wrong it¡¯s funny. Hahaha.¡± Jeez mate chill. It¡¯s not that funny.

    ¡°Your mana source isn¡¯t ¡®found¡¯. *sigh*. Let me explain what a mana source is first. A mana source is exactly as it seems, the source of your mana. But it¡¯s so much more. At first it is exactly as you see surrounding you, a void. You can populate it with many, many elements however. A mana source is the part of your soul that creates, stores and manipulates mana. Mana itself is but an energy, but can be given life by feeding it thoughts. The only limitation to mana is the amount, and your own imagination. Tell me, how do you form spells.¡±

    ¡°You just, imagine, them.¡±

    ¡°I see you understand. If a spell is formed from your imagination, and your mana source is the part of you that governs your mana, then why do you need to be limited to one mana ¡®element¡¯. Even these so called elements aren¡¯t real. Tell me, why is fire an element when fire itself can both burn and freeze. You did get one thing correct though. You can¡¯t cast a spell unless the components are in your mana source, and after your original image, it usually is harder to create another, but that¡¯s just because of synergy. For instance, most people won¡¯t be able to combine ice and fire, but why focus solely on those two. Why not focus on water as a medium.

    It is complicated. I¡¯ll give you that. But it¡¯s also really simple once you understand it. Its almost as if your mana source is a multiverse, and within this multiverse you are god. Using the space element you can create planets, using life you can create life. You can add time. Do whatever really. To be honest, there¡¯s nothing to say the nova core isn¡¯t a mana source of some being with incredible amounts of mana. Remember, your mana source grows as you make it, but you can¡¯t just envision a vast multiverse, you have to start with a single patch of something, and then expand.

    Do you understand?¡±

    What. The. Ever enlarging elephant. It literally just told me the secrets to the mana source. And it¡¯s simple. Well, not really, but it¡¯s understandable.

    ¡°Yes.¡± I reply. ¡°May I ask a question? Firstly, what are you, and why do you know so much?

    Second, what is the bond with the assistants? We merge our mana sources, which you basically said is our souls, or part of it. And why do our body¡¯s change during the process? And if what you say is true, couldn¡¯t we change our bodies all the time?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha. That¡¯s more then one question, but I will answer them. I am this multiverse¡¯s guardian and creator. I protect it from the inBetween, and from the other multiverses and there guardians and creators.¡± I interrupted.

    ¡°What do you mean your the creator of this multiverse? And what is the nova core. And don¡¯t I live in the In Between? And if there¡¯s more then one multiverse...¡± it interrupted.

    ¡°It¡¯s complicated. Every question I answer will add one. I¡¯m not going to answer all your questions, only those you have asked just now. Everything else you can figure out. I will then help you leave your source. I am the creator of the multiverse because the multiverse is comprised of my thoughts. I guess, in a complicated, round about way it is my mana source. But it also isn¡¯t. I derive power from the multiverse and I in turn protect and add to it. It is complicated, and would take more time then I care to explain it.

    The nova core is everything. It contains all multiverses, the inBetween, everything. While it is possible I am to the nova core way at you are to me, it is near impossible. But then again, it could be true.

    And yes, you live in the In Between, but that¡¯s the just the name of that place. The true inBetween a place of horrors. Beings that were rejected from multiverses or birthed of the...¡± What came next was a seemingly endless series of sounds that made zero sense to me. Seeing my confusion it said. ¡°You don¡¯t need to know. Any way, your In Between is actually the place ¡®in between¡¯ the universes. It allows them to access all universes within this multiverse.

    I know so much because these are basic questions, and everything in this multiverse is made because I thought it up. In another multiverse, the answers to these questions could be completely different, or completely irrelevant.

    The bond with the assistants is also complicated, so I¡¯ll give you a very, very brief overview. Basically there are three types of bonds, and any sentient can experience them.

    The first is the equals bond, which you had. This bond merges your mana sources together, giving you equal control over it. This allows you to both make expansions in the same place. If you wanted, you could even split your mana source, and separate it with a bridge, allowing you to have different mana sources, and yet you could still pull from both. It gives you equal control.

    The next is the master/servant bond. This makes both your purist and anarchist factions. This bond is where the master uses their superior imagination or ¡®mana control¡¯ to create a one way access to the others mana source. It allows them to access and influence the servants mana source, but not vice versa. This makes them the master because through the mana source you can control the servant.

    The third, which hasn¡¯t been used in a while, is sort of the equals one, but also not. It basically equates to you and the other person connecting your mana sources together, and yet not. It allows you to see each other¡¯s mana source, visit it, commune with them inside of it, and more. It gives every benefit of the equals, but doesn¡¯t allow access to it. For instance. Say you wish to have a mana source devoid of life. This cannot be done in the equals source because if one has life the other shall to. Well In this contract, your mana sources have zero influence on each other, and while you can use elements that your partner has and you don¡¯t, you don¡¯t have to add them. So you can control plants, and yet have a mana source devoid of plants.¡± Ummm, ok then.

    ¡°Your body changes during the process. That¡¯s a lie. What actually happens Is your body changing to accommodate the power in your mana source. That¡¯s why as your mana source grows, your body changes. It can change in any way. In the future, you could quite possibly have a mermaids tail, a crown of fire and wings of air. It just happens.

    And yes. You can change your body whenever you want. But it takes time and mana to do anything outside of the original change. A monster evolving is merely a growth in its mana pool. So while you can change every expansion, it¡¯s best to treat it as a one time fix, because you would have to reset your mana source to do it again. Which brings me to back to the original point.

    This is your mana source. It¡¯s empty. You have to remake it, and in turn your body. Your bond with your fairy is gone. You will have to remake that as well. I¡¯ve reworked the multiverse as to never let your gem be made ever again. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the death of your dungeon, but that won¡¯t matter. After this you and the fairy won¡¯t  remember about the gem, nor of the gems, nor of their power. You will keep your knowledge of crystals however. I am sorry.

    I have had to take things from you as recompense for this conversation, and as a way to help keep your sanity. Ironic, as the things I took may cause your insanity. It stopped your fate of infinite pain, however, so I feel no regret. I¡¯ll help you out one last time. Only look for me when you have a couple planes of existence in your mana source and your dungeon is equal to a universe in size. I will reconnect you to your fairy¡¯s mana source, tell her of this, and work hard. I look forward to talking again.

    Oh, and remember. Your true name was taken. That was part of what my mana took from you. The next name you recognise as your own will be your true name. Names have power. Good luck.¡±

    With that, the voice disappeared.

    ¡®I feel like somethings missing.¡¯

    ¡®Why do I feel like somethings missing, I¡¯m obviously ok.¡¯

    ¡®What were we on about?¡¯

    ¡®I don¡¯t know¡¯

    Then I heard diamonds voice.

    ¡°BISMUTH. BISMUTH WHERE ARE YOU!!! HELP! WHAT IS GOING ON!¡±

    I guess I¡¯ve got a lot of explaining to do.

    ¡°Diamond I¡¯m here.¡±

 Chapter 8

    ¡°Bismuth, what¡¯s happening?! Where are we?!...¡± before she could ask any more questions I answered her.

    ¡®Why?¡¯

    ¡®Shut up me!!!¡¯

    Jeez I¡¯m annoying.

    ¡°We are in our mana sources. Diamond, we¡¯re dead.¡± I¡¯m a dick, I know. But her face was so funny.

    ¡°What do you mean we¡¯re dead?! We can¡¯t die! We¡¯re in the trials! They said we couldn¡¯t die! We can¡¯t die...¡± on and on she went, but I stopped her. I feel bad now.

    ¡°Were not dead. Well, we are, but we¡¯re also not. I can¡¯t remember why we¡¯re not, but we¡¯re not. But why aren¡¯t we? Meh.¡±

    Calming down, diamond glared at me.

    ¡°Your not making sense bismuth. We can¡¯t die. The sages won¡¯t let us...¡± At the mention of the sages a savage look crossed my face. How dare they control us. They risked hundreds of lives just so that they can what, ¡®teach us¡¯? Those pathetic douche canoes.

    ¡®Yes! Yessssss! Feed off that anger...¡¯

    ¡®Shut. The fuck. Up. No one likes you me. I¡¯m calling you Kevin. NO ONE LIKES YOU KEVIN!!!¡¯

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention those fat, tree hugging pricks again!¡± I Said with venom in my voice

    ¡°One of them is my father, dick head. So don¡¯t go ...¡± she said with anger.

    ¡°And he¡¯s the worst one. Lying to all of us...¡±

    ¡°MY FATHER WOULD NEVER LIE TO ME!!!¡± As the argument continued we got louder and louder until we were absolutely screaming at each other. After awhile we stormed off.

    I sat down, I needed to cool off. I thought about what outie said. He said that my mana source was based on my imagination, and once I envisioned my first ¡®element¡¯ things would get much harder. What to do. I want to go back to what I know, which is crystal, but I also don¡¯t. Why go back to a place that will constantly remind me of my failures. I would much rather look for something else, but what. There are a lot of ideas. Space, time, luck. All of these could make me powerful. But in the long run, what I do now will be the base for all of my future transformations. Well, time and luck are good ideas, but what does time look like? and luck? This is hard.

    ¡®Go with what you know. You¡¯ll be stronger for it.¡¯

    ¡®Lucky me, a voice I don¡¯t want chipped in. Why don¡¯t you run away. I¡¯m not giving in to you again.¡¯ I sigh.

    ¡®But i am always correct. And I am you. So listen.¡¯

    ¡®If you are me, then you know that I want you to shut the hell up.¡¯ With that, and some tremendous effort, I closed the voice off.

    Mind? No. I don¡¯t want to walk around with a big ol¡¯ head like mega mind.

    Why is this so hard. The first time it was so, so easy. I guess that¡¯s also their work.

    *sigh*

    ¡°Bismuth.¡± I heard diamond say.

    ¡°Yes.¡± I replied. I turned around, still sitting, and watch her walk closer. Suddenly she reached an invisible wall. She couldn¡¯t cross it at all.

    ¡°Bismuth, what¡¯s this?!¡± Sooo needy.

    ¡°I told you, we¡¯re in our mana sources. Our bond was terminated.

    When we were under attack I tried to find a way to see mana. I succeeded, but I did to well. I saw a being beyond comprehension. Beyond space and time. And my soul couldn¡¯t handle it. I died. But something saved me. I remember I made it when I made my body. And you had one. But I don¡¯t remember what it was.

    Next thing I remember, the being helped me. It said it¡¯d accidentally wiped my mana source clean. Our mana source clean. I don¡¯t know why or how, but that also destroyed our bond. We can remake it though. It said it also destroyed our true names. Whatever those are. Apparently the next name that we truly accept will be our true name.¡±

    She gasped.

    ¡°We can choose our true name?! Our bond is gone?! Wait,wait,wait,wait. You saw the being! How are you alive.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m me.¡± Yeah, I¡¯m smug, ¡°That¡¯s how I¡¯m alive. Now what¡¯s up with this true name? Why is it so important?¡±

    ¡°Your true name is everything. It is the name of your soul. If someone were to learn their own true name... anyway. There are parts of your soul that are sealed, hidden, or just won¡¯t budge until you know your true name. With your true name...

    Put it this way. Every soul is unique. But is also the same. The unique parts, the parts that give you powers and abilities and insights and more are all locked away. To access these, you need a key. The key...¡±

    ¡°... Is your true name. Got it. Oh, also, I guess I should explain some other things to you.¡± And so I explained the truths about the mana source, about the bond, about everything. Even the nova core and the inBetween. The multiverses one anyway. She was shocked, understandably. She sat down, and thought. After awhile she looked at me and asked in a quiet voice.

    ¡°Do you still want me to be your assistant?¡± Now I was shocked.

    ¡°Of course I do! Why are you even asking this?!¡±

    ¡°Because you don¡¯t need me!!!¡± She shouted. ¡°You know more then me. You don¡¯t have the bond and theirs no reason for me to be here. So why would you need me?¡± She looked like she was about to cry. I was fuming.

    ¡°What is the most important bond?¡±

    ¡°What are you...¡±interrupting her I continued.

    ¡°Because if I am correct, unless you lied to me like the sages, that would be the one between the dungeon and there assistant. We are still bonded. I don¡¯t care if we kno longer have a bond between our mana sources. We are together, and we will be forever. If anything, this makes us stronger. Now we can make the third bond thingie. I think we should name that bond a different name by the way.¡± She looked laughed while sighing in relief. I laughed at her and said

    ¡°But first we should form our first element and our true names. Remember, your first element is your most important.¡±

    The fairy nodded. Now it was back to me and thinking for an element.

    ¡®Crys...¡¯

    ¡®Shut the ever loving crap up Kevin. No one likes you. I actually hate you so much it physically hurts.¡¯

    I shut Kevin out. Finding my first element is so hard. Let¡¯s first think of my true name. It has to be a name that I recognise. I can¡¯t just spout out some nonsense. It has to relate to me.

    At first I scraped my mind for names. Everything from Alexander to Dominic. The issue with these were their meanings. I definitely don¡¯t protect man, and I¡¯m no saint. And then I thought, do the meanings really matter. Can¡¯t I make my own meaning. That could work, but the issue is again, the fact that their meanings were ingrained to deeply in my head. So if I were to make my name have its own meaning, I¡¯d need to make a new name.

    Basing myself of that, I thought of names such as enigma, deviant, and so forth. Nah.

    Next I thought of shortening them to igma, or ant, but, nah.

    So then I thought about combining them, but they all sounded stupid.

    And after awhile, I just stopped. All of this was so hard. Your name represents your being, the key words there are ¡®your being¡¯. It shouldn¡¯t matter what it means. And since I don¡¯t like what it means, I¡¯ll make a new meaning for it. With this thought, I felt myself being drawn towards the name Alexander. I don¡¯t know why, but it felt right.

    As soon as I named myself, I felt, something. It was like a water to a thirsty man, food to a starving one. It was an experience that no matter how hard I try to explain you just wouldn¡¯t understand. It was just so, satisfying. I knew something had changed.

    And when I opened my eyes, I saw a light being emitted from my ¡®body¡¯. It obviously wasn¡¯t my true body, just the space my mind was occupying at the current moment. When I looked up, I saw diamond looking at me in awe.

    ¡°You found your true name.¡± It wasn¡¯t a question. I nodded anyway.

    ¡°It¡¯s Alexander.¡± I Said. She laughed,

    ¡°I better catch up then oh dear Alex.¡± Alex. I like it.

    I saw her close her eyes again. It¡¯s weird. I had a body and she still has one, but when I discovered my true name, that sloughed off. I now have a light. Meh.

    ¡®Now let us make our forests of crystal¡¯

    ¡®KEVIN SHUT UP! Why are you so focused on that anyway. If you are me then you should know I don¡¯t want that. So why don¡¯t you be useful.¡¯ Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    It shut up. It¡¯s a miracle!!! Woot woot. Internal celebration.

    Now back to the element. Let¡¯s focus on what I really want overall. What I want to be is a sneaky, badass, assassin, magic-wielding, death giving, miracle making, best dungeon ever man. Now, I¡¯m pretty sure I can do that with any element, but I need my first one to count. Mind, space, time and luck. Let¡¯s look at those.

    Luck would be powerful. Imagine an unlucky trip in the heat of combat, or a lucky strike that just slides between the ribs or hits a vein. That¡¯s incredibly powerful. The issue with this, however, is what goes up must come down. A lucky strike could be followed by an unlucky trip. How do lucky wisps come in to play.

    And the wisps, well I¡¯ve got a thought on those starter races. I¡¯ll explain that later though.

    As well as that, how do you dig out a dungeon with it? Make the rock unluckily fall? Well actually, you could make yourself lucky enough to hit a fault line that runs the length of you corridor or something. I don¡¯t know, something about luck doesn¡¯t stick with me, but it could later. I mean, luck is technically probability. Controlling probability sounds dope, but making the chance of an adventurer dying 100% sounds like a lot of mana. That¡¯s a very late game element, and I can¡¯t afford to play late game right now.

    Space is awesome. Become a portal wielding badass. Make the edge of portals sharp and have them chop off necks. I can think of a lot of things like this. But star already has space. It would be easy, sure, but I¡¯d rather not. It¡¯s complicated, but I really like her. I also like the others. I plan on going out to meet and help them with my bountiful, awe inspiring knowledge later. I¡¯d rather not complicate things by stealing her element. I know it sounds stupid but it¡¯s me. And me is me. So shut up and stop judging me.

    Time is also cool. Slow it down, speed it up. That¡¯s pretty cool. Stop time and push there attacks at each other. The issue with that is the amount of mana. Another late game ability. And while I can think of multiple ways to use it, i need to remember, the bigger the change of effect, the more mana. That¡¯s a shit ton of mana to stop time. Or even slow it.

    Last but not least, mind. I was thinking of this so I could primarily split my mind into multiple pieces so that I can cast multiple spells, learn multiple things, do multiple actions all at once. Even just giving myself eidetic memory would be powerful. I could use it to effect others minds, even control them at later stages. A lot of mana though. But what happens if I think smaller scale.

    For luck, I don¡¯t know, maybe probability, chance, just small scale changes?

    For space, smaller portals. Maybe non-living targets. Dimension magic. Constellation magic

    For time, I also don¡¯t know. Just smaller changes. An area instead of the whole world.

    For mind, oh baby! Illusions, luring, self improvement or body magic. There¡¯s a lot, but so is there for others.

    For attacking power I would never consider these. I would go for fire or something. But for tricks. Illusions seem the most powerful. With illusions I can hide things, make things seem more then they are, all of that type of thing. Other then that, my creatures could send in false attacks and would be experts in deception and sneaking. I¡¯m up playing it, I admit, but I really want illusions.

    ¡®You don¡¯t need mind magic to cast multiple spells.¡¯

    ¡®KEVIN... Wait, why?¡¯

    ¡®You have me. And soon you¡¯ll have more of me. A voice in your head isn¡¯t just psychosis. Well, it is, but we are much more then that. We are your coping mechanism, sort of. The being took things from us, but the things he took were random. As your mind notices these things it compensates by adding a voice. We can control you, your mana, your everything. But not without your help. Think of you as the queen ant, and us as the workers. Do you understand?¡¯

    Finally, Kevin was being useful.

    ¡®Yeah. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP KEVIN.¡¯

    I still hate him though. Kevin kept quiet thankfully. Now it¡¯s time think again. Illusions. I have to be practical about this. Technically they can¡¯t, and won¡¯t help. They can¡¯t attack they¡¯re discovered semi easily. But, I can use them as traps. Imagine a pitfall with an illusion on top of it, sure death. Or a room filled with arrow traps, and yet it looks empty. It¡¯s deadly, but not in your conventional way. It¡¯s perfect. Now I need to think of how to attach it to my body as a transformation, and how to represent it in my mana source.

    I think it¡¯s easier to attach it to my mana source. But again, how. If I were to make a, I don¡¯t know, labyrinth? Yes, a labyrinth. But not just any labyrinth. If this is to be the foundation of my mana source let¡¯s go BIG! A labyrinth that exists in its own dimension, that connects to everything and can be entered from anywhere. A place of ever shifting walls, floors that aren¡¯t floors, fires that won¡¯t burn. But not just that. The most dangerous part of the labyrinth is you mind. Everything you think of comes to life in the form of an illusion. For in truth it¡¯d not even a labyrinth. What you expect is what you find. If you expect to find a cave filled with nothing, that¡¯s what it will be. If you expect a vast wasteland filled with Eldridge creatures, there you go. If you want treasure, you get it. If you find an empty cave, but think how boring it is, you find something, interesting.

    It can be entered from anywhere in my mana source, it twists your thoughts into the worst possible thing. Imagine a unicorn, well they have those sharp horns for a reason. You feel pain, pleasure and more. And it¡¯s main purpose you ask, well that¡¯s the beauty of it.

    IT DOESN¡¯T HAVE ONE!!!

    Hahaha. It¡¯s purpose is whatever you want it to be.

    Wait, what¡¯s happening? Why am I getting so heated.

    ¡®Because it¡¯s perfect! Absolutely perfect. To torment and torture creatures is it¡¯s purpose.¡¯

    ¡®No. Nononono. That¡¯s not it¡¯s purpose. It doesn¡¯t have one. It moods to your thoughts.¡¯

    ¡®No it doesn¡¯t!¡¯

    ¡®Yes it does!!! Who are you? What are you?¡¯

    ¡®Why I am you.¡¯

    ¡®Oh, ooooh. I¡¯ve been through this before. Your not Kevin.¡¯

    ¡®I¡¯m here.¡¯

    ¡®Shut up Kevin. I guess i need to name you to. What do you represent.¡¯

    ¡®Your need to cause pain.¡¯

    ¡®Well, fuck off. I don¡¯t like pain, i prefer strong discomfort.¡¯

    ¡®HOW DARE YOU!!!¡¯

    ¡®You sound girly, your names Gwen. Bye Gwen.¡¯

    ¡®No. No, you can¡¯t shut me out!¡¯

    Just did bitch. That¡¯s concerning though. If a voice can pop up at any time it won¡¯t help. I¡¯ll have to find a way to protect myself from it all.

    Now that I have the way to represent illusions in my mana source, how do I represent them in my body. I¡¯m not making a labyrinth body.

    Let¡¯s focus on one clear idea first.

    My old body. Not the crystal one. The human one. 6 foot one. Thick, black heir shaved short on the sides and kept long on the top. Uk Size 11 feet. A small bit of definition and a flat stomach from the rugby I played. Wide shoulders. I was amazing. Why did I not have this as my original body. They spoke some bullshit about my body being the ¡®perfect vessel for my soul¡¯, but it¡¯s not. Why did I focus so hard on changing it. Another question to torture... ask tiki for. Definitely not going to torture tiki. Not at all.

    Anyway, my old body formed in front of me, and now i needed to add some extra, aspects. First things first, claws. Retractable claws, but still claws. One minute I¡¯ve got normal hands and then, BAM, claws to climb walls. But that leaves traces. Damn.

    Scrapping the claws idea, i thought of the way geckos move. They have little suction cups, don¡¯t they. Nah, don¡¯t want to look like a freak.

    What about secreting some sticky fluid at will. That sounds pretty dope. I¡¯m super normal and then, BAM, climbing walls like spider man. Yeah, I want that.

    Now the thing I¡¯ll secrete, that¡¯s something else. I decided to make it come from the bottom of my fangs and feet. It¡¯s super sticky, but only enough to hold my body weight and a half? Yeah, round about one and a half mes. As well as that, when it¡¯s not in contact with my skin, it dissolves, completely untraceable. And as it secretes at will, it won¡¯t stick me to others.

    Now that¡¯s me. Boring I know, but it¡¯s me. Worst case, I add air and get wings. Meh.

    Now I need to add illusions. I decide to simply make my skin colour be able to change, like a chameleon. It¡¯s automatic and controlled. When my body thinks I¡¯m in danger, poof, gone. Yet I can still make myself disappear or different colours.

    That¡¯s my body and my mana source. As I was about to put them into play, I saw a bright light in the direction of diamond. I look towards her and see a bright light.

    ¡°True name?¡± I ask.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± She responds. It¡¯s simple, but when you experience it, it¡¯s... you¡¯ll never understand.

    ¡°It¡¯s Erin.¡± She continued. I nod.

    ¡°Nice to meet you Erin, now it¡¯s time you make your first element and body, then we¡¯ll connect our sources to make the bond.¡± She smiles, I think. I smile, turn around and create my labyrinth and body. The labyrinth is strange. It¡¯s not actually anything. It¡¯s a small cube with intricate carvings on it, and yet I know that that¡¯s the labyrinth, the source of my illusion magic. It might not look like much, but that cube can trick the senses to feel, taste, smell, see, hear and more. It¡¯s amazing. I turn to see Erin done. In the place of her orb of light is her body. The original one I first saw. All that¡¯s changed is her wings. Instead of the dragon fly type ones she first had, they had changed into long wings made from light. Sometimes the light was a soothing blue, a warm orange, a soft white... it never ended. Behind her was a land of shifting orbs of light. Every colour was represented, and made gentle. It was beautiful. The orbs weren¡¯t even orbs. Some were cubes, others cones, others just rays of light. It was an ever shifting landscape of pure light.

    She looks at the cube and laughs.

    ¡°Very impressive.¡± I laugh too.

    ¡°I know right. Yours as well.¡± We both burst out laughing together.

    ¡°What is it?¡± She asks.

    ¡°Illusions.¡± I answer. ¡°It¡¯s based around what people think. If someone saw it, it could be a cavern, a forest, a fire breathing dragon and more.¡± She nods.

    ¡°So,¡± I ask,¡± what changes did you make to your body?¡± She looks at me smug.

    ¡°Nothing much, just made it so that I can change my wings shape, size and colour.¡± She demonstrates by having her wings bend over her before changing colours. It looked exactly like an orb from he mana source.

    ¡°As well as that, I can shoot projectiles from them.¡± And so she did, swinging her wings forward, a small toothpick of light shot out before being stuck in the barrier between the mana sources.

    ¡°I have to collect them afterwords though. They are my wings after all.¡± She flew toward the toothpick. When she was about half a meter away it flew towards her and merged with her wings.

    ¡°Impressive. But not as cool as mine.¡± I grin. I change my skin to perfectly represent the void behind me. Her expression was priceless.

    ¡°Illusions, of course.¡± She replied.

    ¡°Yip. I can also climb walls, ceilings and stuff without leaving a trace.¡± She laughed.

    ¡°Of course you¡¯d do something like that. Now to the important things. How do we form the nameless bond?¡± I nod turning serious.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but if you can explain how to make the other to bonds, maybe we can formulate a way to do it.¡± And so she explained.

    Basically, an equals bond was as simple as connecting mana. Once you¡¯ve done that, you pull your mana sources together until they connect.

    A master/servant bond was less complicated. It was a battle of wills. You connect your mana all the same, but instead of connecting your mana sources, you have to take control of your opponents.

    After this, we thought and discussed several things. It took awhile, but eventually we decided to do the following.

    We decided to connect our mana sources, but not pull them together. Instead, we¡¯d make a tunnel using both mana types, with the express will not to connect. We couldn¡¯t think of anything else.

    With a nervous laugh, I sent a tendril of mana from my box towards her. To me, it looked like ever shifting, transparent plastic. She sent her mana towards mine. Hers looked like light, obviously. When the to connected, I felt my mana source try to connect to hers. I squashed every attempt, but it was difficult.

    The very nature of my mana source was illusions. Sometimes it was invisible, sometimes I couldn¡¯t sense it, only see it.

    I battled with my mana for a long time. I¡¯m not sure how long, but I do know it was long. When it finally stopped trying to connect, I let the tunnel complete. When I looked over to Erin, I saw her standing there with a smug look. The retard thought she was better because she had an easier mana type. *sigh*

    ¡°Took you a while.¡± #he said, before walking through the tunnel, into my mana source. I just sigh again.

    ¡°Looks like we¡¯re connected, it¡¯s time.¡±she sighed this time. We both started pushing our mana outside of wherever we were. In the next second, we formed in front of our dungeon core. I look at her and nod.

    We had discussed it while we were in the mana source. We¡¯ve got a lot we need to do. We looked at each other. She said

    ¡°Good luck. Don¡¯t die. *sigh* I¡¯ll inform them all. What do we do if they don¡¯t recognise us?¡±

    ¡°For House Enigma.¡± Was all I Said before I set off. There was a lot to do.

 Chapter 9

    While I was walking toward the Tiki¡¯s office, I started thinking on something that¡¯s been bothering me for awhile.

    Kevin : ¡®The missing link!¡¯

    Alex : ¡®I hate you Kevin. I hate you SO, SO MUCH!! You literally cause me pain.¡¯

    Gwen : ¡®He does have a point though.¡¯

    Alex : ¡®Gwen...¡¯

    Gwen : ¡®I¡¯ll keep quiet.¡¯

    Alex : ¡®Good girl.¡¯

    Geez, I hate Kevin. Gwen¡¯s alright, very quiet, but alright. But Kevin, I want to materialise and strangle him. Gah!

    He is correct, however. The missing memory. That thing, the being, it took more then just my sanity. It never directly said it, and if it did it erased that as well, but somethings gone.

    I may be a retard some times. Or most the time. All the time actually. But I am semi-smart-ish.

    I may sound crazy, but some things just don¡¯t make sense.

    Kevin : ¡®Where is the sense?¡¯

    Gwen : ¡®Where did all the sense go?¡¯

    Alex : ¡®SHUT. THE FUCK. UP.¡¯

    Oh I¡¯m going to hurt them, I take it back. GWEN IS NOT ALRIGHT! She¡¯s not even half right. She¡¯s just, not right.

    *sigh*

    The things that don¡¯t add up are also... there¡¯s just to many of them. For instance, why did I make a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, room behind my core room? I mean, at least put my core in it. That just doesn¡¯t sound like it makes sense.

    And why were there houses in it? Why would I need houses? And while I remember making the cavern, I don¡¯t remember making the houses.

    *sigh*

    I¡¯m here, anyway. Walking in, I see the room empty. No tiki anywhere. I don¡¯t think I gave it sufficient credit last time I was here, but it is quite tasteful. The walls were covered in wood panelling, some type of mahogany, stained a deep, rich red.

    Gwen : ¡®Reminiscent of dried blood.¡¯

    Alex : ¡®Gwen...¡¯

    Gwen : ¡®Got it.¡¯

    *sigh*

    There was a relatively high desk in the middle of the room, made from some type of dark wood. It had exquisite engravings of vines and flowers near the edges, with a great tree in the centre. It was clearly done by a master carpenter, looking incredibly life like.

    Sitting behind this grand desk was a dark brown, leather, wingback chair. The chairs feet had been carved into simple balls with a flat end sitting upon the floor. It was a beautiful chair, very well done, fitting the room like a glove.

    Along the back wall was a large bookshelf filled with all manner of books. Large and small, hard cover and soft cover. Some of the books had leather covers, and some so old they were merely a bundle of pages tied together with some sort of plant fibre. Some were new enough to be made of plastic, and some seemed to be actual tablets made from some unidentifiable futuristic material.

    Kevin : ¡®Mess with his stuff.¡¯

    Alex : ¡®Kevin, I will stab you. I will physically rip a portion of my brain out and stab it. Your like a parasite that lives off my misery!¡¯

    Kevin : ¡®As the prophesy foretold.¡¯

    Alex : ¡®That makes no sense. And even if it did, no prophecy foretold you and your crappy voice. Any prophet telling about you deserves to be stabbed in the neck with his own teeth. GWEN!¡¯

    A choking noise sounded out within my head. Oh Gwen. My favourite. But that crap speckled, turd humper had a good idea. Let¡¯s mess with his stuff.

    Scanning the desk I ran my fingers along the engravings, nothing. Going over to his chair I sat down. It felt so wrong and yet so right. It¡¯s his chair, and personally, I hate people sitting in my chairs. It messes with the butt print and makes everything just feel not right. It can take a day or two to fix but it¡¯s a pain the entire time. I felt proud. It was also a very comfy chair.

    Looking at the desk from this point of view, I saw three draws, each with a mystical scene carved into them. Trying to open these draws brought up nothing. Unconsciously I fell into an old habit I had on earth. I sang

    ??I spent a year out in the dessert, spent a year out in the seas.??

    While I did I ran my fingers under the lip of the desk looking for a trigger or something. It¡¯s what Sherlock would¡¯ve done.

    ??I spent my nights under the stars just dreaming of sleep.??

    I fingered a little crack. But was it really. I carried on along the crack and felt how straight it was.

    ??I still question where I¡¯ve been,

    I still question where I¡¯ll go.??

    It continued into a sharp-ish turn before reaching an end. I pushed up on it. Nothing.

    ??I just look up to the skies like there¡¯s a sign I didn¡¯t see, like there¡¯s a sign I didn¡¯t know.??

    Looking under the desk to see this ¡®crack¡¯ I see nothing. As soon as I try to look, the crack disappears under my finger. I sit back up and it reappears. Focusing now, I stop singing. Once again, it disappears.

    Gwen : ¡®You can¡¯t focus. It¡¯s like a spell.¡¯

    Might as well give it a try

    ??I know I¡¯ve lived a wicked life, and I will never change my ways.??

    I sang again, not really focusing on anything. That¡¯s my specialty. Seriously, my middle name is not focusing on anything.

    The crack reappeared. I continued to run my hand along it in the opposite direction. It again ended in a curve.

    ??An unapologetic runaway until it¡¯s my last day.??

    Interesting. I felt within the crack and again found nothing.

    Gwen : ¡®You can¡¯t concentrate on it at all. It has to be an errant though to run your hands upon it. Focus on your song.¡¯

    Deciding to do as the voices in my head say I continue to sing, putting my heart into it.

    ??Why is it so easy, to light a match and watch,??

    ??We were made of dried up timber,??

    ??We were made to turn to dust.??Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ??Ooo-ooo-ooo. Take me on down.??

    ??Ooo-ooo-ooo. At the gallows it was mercy I had found.??

    And sure as donkey legs, a latch appeared. A simple indent big enough to fit my fingers in and pull down. And so I did. A grating noise filled the room, and looking behind me I saw the bookshelf turn on an axis. Classic villain hideout.

    I pulled my fingers back but continued to sing. I like singing. Though I don¡¯t get to do it often enough, I think it¡¯s important that I continue. I¡¯ve lost a vital memory, my sanity and things I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll figure out later, but I don¡¯t want to lose me. Not again anyway.

    I walked through the doorway and found myself going down the hallway. At the end there was a light. Guess my song needs to be put on hold. Invisibling myself I went down the hallway.

    The strongest thing that should have set me off was the smell. A coppery smell filled the air. It wasn¡¯t just this though, it smelt like rot.

    When I finally reached my destination. Inside the room was a shrine. That¡¯s all I could call it. There were plants and animal remains spread out in intricate runes forming a complex ritual. Among the animal remains there was everything from scales to skulls. From talons to fur. It was a scene that was incredibly gruesome. At the centre of all this was a body hanging from the ceiling on a meat hook.

    A female body.

    It had been mutilated so beyond recognition that I could hardly believe that this was once alive.

    It¡¯d been blood eagle¡¯d. To those who don¡¯t know, a blood eagle is what the vikings used to do. First they would hang someone from there arms up in the air so that there feet wouldn¡¯t touch the ground. They would break that persons ribs near there spine and force them open like some gruesome wings. They would then reach in through the hole they had made, take the lungs and hang them over the persons ribs. It was the most gruesome display of torture they had.

    The top half of the heads scalp had been cut off showing the brain. The brain had multiple long, meter needles running through it.

    The corpse was missing its eyes. It¡¯s skin was also missing, its entire body was just a mass of muscle.

    It had no finger nails or toe nails and all of its limbs were broken in multiple places.

    There were chains holding it up from the sides of the room. It had been spread out in the air.

    It was then that I saw a pair of wings hanging from the ceiling.

    I immediately hunched over, trying to hold in my vomit. I couldn¡¯t vomit or I¡¯d leave traces, I couldn¡¯t leave a trace.

    And the worst part of it all was who it was. Or who it looked like.

    It was a splitting image of Erin.

    This body. This poor being had been put through so much. I, i can¡¯t stay here.

    Turning around I ran back into the room felt under the desk and pushed the latch up. The door closed.

    That was horrid. I need to find out, is it Tiki or is it someone framing him. I need proof to tell Erin.

    But should I. If I¡¯m correct her father tortured her mother before killing her and Is now using her in some sort of demonic, ungodly ritual. No, I need to keep this to myself. I need to leave. I started leaving, and then I stopped.

    No. Why should I conform to this sick bastards view. He doesn¡¯t know I saw that, and he won¡¯t know.

    No, I¡¯ve got control now. And I plan on keeping it.

    I walked back to his desk and got comfy in his chair. Damn straight, Alex is in control now. I felt his draws, but again they wouldn¡¯t open. Last time I needed to not focus. To be completely and utterly relaxed. Obviously that¡¯s out of the window now. To take my mind off things I started humming the tune to whiskey fever.

    Half way through the song tiki appeared.

    ¡°Ho-how are yo-you here?¡± He stuttered upon seeing me.

    ¡°Your dead. Your dead? Yes your definitely dead.¡± He continued. I didn¡¯t look as different as you¡¯d think. My crystal body was based off my now body, just crystal-y and with tails and horns and stuff.

    ¡°Obviously I¡¯m not, or why¡¯d I be here?¡±

    He was silent, obviously thinking something through.

    Kevin : ¡®Let¡¯s fuck with him.¡¯

    Alex : ¡®Kevin you son of a dick-less, man-whore, I like the way you think. Now shut up.¡¯

    Putting on my best deadpool impression I said with a wicked grin.

    ¡°Well tiki, you see, Christmas has come early, and your on my naughty list.¡±

    Let¡¯s be more evil. I condensed mana behind me into the illusionary form of a dagger. I shot it at him at break neck speeds before stopping it just before his eye. The girlish shriek and the way he fell on his bum gave me so much satisfaction. And then I noticed his eyes. HIS GODDAMN EYES!

    They¡¯re steady. Mother fucker shrieks and falls on his ass but isn¡¯t actually scared. It¡¯s an act for him. A fucking act! Keep it cool Alex, you hold the cards. Gwen, keep an eye out for other strange things. I decide to continue.

    ¡°Now Tiki. Tiki, tiki, tiki. You¡¯ve been bad.¡± I gave the dagger a twirl before turning it into a black cat I had swim through the air before curling around my neck and settling on my shoulders before bursting out of existence with an audible pop. I¡¯m getting good at this mana thing. It takes more mana to make a more detailed picture, but less mana if your image is clear, and I¡¯ve got three minds worth of screwed up ideas. Hehehe.

    ¡°You see, you lied to me. I don¡¯t like being lied to. You see, Mr.Tiki, something bad has happened.¡± I formed my mana into a bubble and pushed it into the room. I started making more and more until the room was filled with toxic green bubbles. I saw his worried expression and could only think of that poor thing behind his shelf.

    ¡°Because of your little fib, your daughter took an attack for me. It¡¯s been awhile and she hasn¡¯t come back. I started doing some digging and well...¡± all the bubbles popped, the noise making him jump. Bastards not even scared.

    ¡°... the dungeon we killed hasn¡¯t come back, and neither has the one that attacked us. This makes me ANGRY!¡± I scream the last word. I make my body turn bright red and have steam shoot from my ears. Illusions be my bitch. Oh how I hate watching this creature fake-squirm before me.

    ¡°You lied and because of that your daughter died, and then my dungeon died.¡± With that I had the room darken. These illusions were getting hard so I gave the reins to Gwen. Can¡¯t trust Kevin after all. Shame, Gwen is doing a lot for me.

    ¡°I-I-I-I...¡± he stuttered out. He honestly disgusts me. He was still on the floor. And he¡¯s not even scared. I said

    ¡°I¡¯m just kidding with you tiki. That didn¡¯t happen. Well, your daughter didn¡¯t die. Well she did, but she came back anyway...¡± I turned serious

    ¡°Tiki. You lied to me. You lied to your daughter. Only do to me did we come back from the dead. I will ask you this once, and if you lie to me, I will torture the truth out of you. You will be destroyed and rebuilt by me. I suggest you explain.¡±

    ¡°Ok, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so sorry...¡± he was crying. He had the actual balls to cry. That snivelling shit-biscuit isn¡¯t even scared.

    ¡°Shut up you snot nosed rat.¡± He got over himself and said

    ¡°The sages made me, they made me...¡± I shut him up with a glare.

    ¡°You can die. Yes you can. But we had to make it so. There are over two hundred perspective dungeons each year. We can¡¯t just let you all through, we need a way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Otherwise this operation, the In Between, would be nothing. ¡°

    ¡°And the mana source...¡± I trailed off.

    ¡°I-I-I...¡± another glare made him come forward.

    ¡°I can¡¯t tell you that. The gods of the multiverse would destroy us. Only they have the right to tell you.¡±

    ¡°AND WHO SAYS THAT! THEY DO DONT THEY! ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THEY HAVE CONTROL OVER OUR LIVES!!!¡± I roared. I was fed up of his excuses.

    ¡°Yes.¡± He screamed back in a pathetic voice. ¡°The gods are those that unlocked their true names. They are always in control...¡±

    ¡°Explain.¡±

    ¡°They have unlocked their true names. They have access to more power then we can dream of. They even created a universe within the multiverse for just themselves. No other being can do that. They have all power. Their words are law.¡± So true names are important.

    ¡°And you don¡¯t think if you banded together, instead of killing new dungeons you helped them, that you wouldn¡¯t over run them.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that simple! Gods have the power to stop mana, control spells and more. They can destroy worlds if they want. It would take every dungeon currently alive to kill even a lesser god. They are masters in their specialties.¡±

    ¡°If they limit dungeon numbers then why...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s their doing. When dungeons get big enough they become threats to even greater gods. But by the time they¡¯ve gotten there they¡¯ve been killed. And not just killed but absolutely decimated.¡± I nod. The gods seem troublesome.

    ¡°And me. Why did you kill me.¡±

    ¡°What are you...¡±

    ¡°DONT LIE TO ME!!!¡±

    ¡°We had to. We couldn¡¯t have been sure you¡¯d have said yes otherwise. Your imagination is so good. We¡¯ve done it before, and we¡¯ll do it again. How could we pass that up. Others aren¡¯t important but you, we couldn¡¯t risk you saying no.¡±

    ¡°And so my thoughts and free will didn¡¯t matter?¡±

    ¡°You chose this life. You could have chosen reincarnation...¡±

    ¡°COULD I REALLY! You influenced me firstly. You used some sort of magic. Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t notice. You used it on all of us. Secondly, would anyone really choose to lose who they were. No.¡±

    ¡°We had no choice.¡±

    ¡°You did. Now explain the magic influencing us.¡±

    ¡°All it does is stop you from being homesick.¡± Seeing my look he added.¡± And the other is to get you used to killing. The fact that you noticed it. You have an extraordinary mind.¡± I glare at him.

    And so it continued. I interrogated him late into the night. Some of the answers disgusted me and other terrified me.

    I learnt that we had spent four days in our mana sources. We had 1 day of training left.

    I learnt that the point system was bullshit. We would all get the same reward at the end. Ha, ¡®reward¡¯. It was access to a video game like system.

    I also learnt that Alesia is a fabrication. We were going to be dungeons on earth. The time in the In Between was the same as earth and so six days had passed with the system in act. This system was given to all ¡®new¡¯ worlds. It wasn¡¯t actually new. It was just that it had draw the gods attention. Beautiful.

    Oh, and sages weren¡¯t actually powerful. Sages were assistants who¡¯d had their dungeons die.

    And I also learnt that the factions are a load of bull. Everything they told us was basically a lie. When we went to earth, we¡¯d have no contact with anyone but our assistant. The only way to return to the In Between is to have the dungeon die and the assistant survive, or vice versa. It¡¯s all just so fucked up. So, so fucked up.

    I didn¡¯t say anything about the body. I couldn¡¯t tell him I knew. No matter how pathetic he is, he¡¯s hiding something. The fact that he can keep so steady, like he¡¯s in control. Oh I smell a little something I like to call corruption stew. A bribe baguette. A deceitful donut...

    Anyway. I¡¯ll figure it out eventually. But now it¡¯s time to help the other members of House Enigma.

    And so like that I walked to House Enigma¡¯s place. Let¡¯s hope Erin was successful.

    Hopefully not as successful as I was.