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.

“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.