“You know, I have been thinking. What are we gonna do with those dead goats?” They are going to stink up my chamber soon. Not that I have a sense of smell, or do I? Something to think about for later.

“That was my gift to you, but...” The imp glanced at the two goat corpses lying in the corner.

“Yeah, not sure what I can do with that, so I was thinking to simply throw them to the bugs. They are currently set as ‘Do not touch’, but I can change that after you drag them to the farm area. The bugs would probably be happy.” I know I will be happy to see them gone.

“Good idea! They should love these goats. Even though many of them only eat plants, some might want meat too. Otherwise, they would have to feed on your mana to sustain themselves.”

Bugs that only eat meat? I should look into that, and tell them it’s fine to hunt the common bug types and eat the dead. Maybe even do a group hunt for a snake?

The imp quickly dragged the bodies, one at the time, to the mushroom farm. Even though I say quickly, since the goat was larger than him, it still took him a while. As soon as I allowed it, hundreds of bugs threw themselves at the corpses. Even the snakes stopped eating the bugs and joined the new feast. The snakes, lacking cutting teeth, had great trouble removing the flesh from the bodies, but by stealing from the bugs, they managed to get something to eat as well. Some snakes even swallowed the meat carrying bugs whole. The corpses shrunk rapidly, getting consumed at an alarming pace. Soon the bugs would be out of food again, forced to return to their mushroom diet.

“Now what?” And I’m out of ideas.

“Before we get a portal, there isn’t that much we can do. So, let’s just keep doing what we have done all along. Dig out some more space and see if something else is hiding there.” The imp licked the blood from his fingers. Apparently, he dragged the goats by the spot where he slit their throats, instead of say, the legs.

We dug out four straight lines from my chamber, in each direction. Each going about a hundred meters. We found more bugs and snakes. But also something new.

“Hey, got something new here. A larger green cloud, about your size. Perhaps a little bit smaller.” What can it be?

“Be careful. Don’t make it angry, we can't defeat it yet. Probably.” The imp tightened his grip on the pickaxe. He swallowed nervously. Clearly not much of a fighter.

“Eh, it will be fine. Watch, I learned a lot about the mind control when you were sleeping.” Preparing myself to attack I shouted out: “Surrender your mind!”

“Oh, scary.” The imp didn’t seem very impressed. “Did it actually help?”

“Makes it more fun, at least.” Though, his lack of reaction made me feel kinda silly doing it.

“Got it.” The imp nodded. He probably thinks I’m being weird.

“He, yes, I checked, can’t compete with me. I control over a thousand beings!”

“Is that relevant?” The imp scratched his head, starting to look a bit bored.

Damn, when I’m showing off something new, he doesn’t care. When he blabbers on, I must listen. Well, the incident at the start doesn’t count.

“Yep, found a way to channel their powers to help me. Like some kind of Hivemind or something similar. Can only do it with dominated creatures though.” However, a thousand bugs, is still just a thousand bugs. Not that helpful. If the bugs pooled their mental powers together, they could probably not even defeat the imp. Also, not sure how this would scale up. Only time will tell.

“Oh, didn’t think you could do that. Impressive. Now, bring this creature out, I want to see it.” He folded his arms to his chest and tapped with his feet. Guess I should tell it to hurry up.

“It’s on the way, should arrive about... now!” The earth burst out from the wall and a black blurry shadow jumped out from the hole. The creature landed on the ground and started sniffing. It moved over to the imp and sniffed his legs, making an odd facial expression, that I can only assume was a frown. It kept sniffing as it moved around. It made its way to my stairs and kept climbing them until it bumped into my crystal with its head. It stopped, reaching out with its little arms, hugging the crystal, and licked it with its little tongue.

“Err, what is it doing?” I’m in shock from its behaviour. Though, can’t say I dislike it.

“I think it’s blind. Must be using other senses to see.” The imp said, moving closer to get a better look at our newest member of the dungeon. A blind minion. Sounds useful.

“What is it? Some kind of mole?” Black, grey fur and about twenty centimeters in size. Something special about it was the hands, or in this case, the forepaws. They were in the shape of some kind of five-clawed spade. Clearly an expert in digging. The question is however, what else can it do? We already got a digger.

“Yep, looks like a normal mole that lives underground. There are many types of them, some even have odd-looking star-shaped noses. It must have sensed the mana and dug down here.” The imp poked the mole a few times, causing it to run to the other side of the crystal, trying to hide from the strange creature that attacked it. Another minion that is worthless in a fight, it seems. Hm, wait? Dug down?

“Do you know how deep down we are? Most big animals lives above ground, and if we could capture those, we would have quite the army.” I can see it. My animal army flooding the plains, killing everything in their way.

“I would not recommend searching for the surface before we got the portal and some proper monsters. The heroes would sense the breach and attack us. We can surface when we got the basics up. Don’t worry, you won’t be bored for long.”

Aww, my animal army dream. Crushed. Oh well, they would probably be hard to control. My vision of ultimate victory slowly changed into something else... I see... heroes... wielding torches? Oh, no! All my animals are running from the fire! They trample each other to death! Damn, let's scrap the mindless animal army plan for now.

As time passed, we expanded the dungeon some more. We dug out another farm area and an empty room. Not sure what to use the empty for at the moment, but hey, more space can't hurt. We planted some of the mushroom seeds on the new farm and built a few more nests. The new farm had the same design as the old one, including the nest placements. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Every time we dug out a wall, the creatures inside also fell out and entered my dungeon's domain. Instead of searching for them, we could simply mine out the wall they lived in. This made taking over them quite simple. The bugs and other neutral creatures normally kept away from the block that directly touched my domain. Mainly to avoid accidentally digging into my dungeon, because they did not actually want me to dominate their little minds. They only wanted some of the mana that I released out into my surroundings. Sadly for them, it did not matter much, since I could see them three blocks away.

However, a small problem arose. After some observing we discovered the mole liked to eat snakes and worms, which was fine, since we need to cull their numbers anyway. The problem was that the mole had nowhere to live. Since the mole was blind, it felt wrong to place it amongst the extremely numerous bugs, that would constantly crawl upon it and confuse it with countless scents and sounds. Also, the mole might damage the mushrooms when chasing the snakes. We needed a new room. But how does a mole live? Underground in tunnels and with total darkness?

So, the entire room became a nest. We first dug it out completely, thereby expanding our borders. Then the imp did his magic and filled it up again. We used some mana to keep the dirt from escaping the room. A dominated creature won’t leave the dungeon area unless told, so the mole could not dig into the border walls. We made no nest design of any kind, we just told the mole that it could live inside this room. I say we, but the imp did all the work, though, I feel like I should deserve a large part of the credit. After all, I was the one that told him to dig. Teamwork.

The mole happily dug in when told it could live inside that room. When hungry, it would go to one of the farms, and grab a snake that lived by the entrance. This meant it would not be confused by the mass of bugs or risk hurting any mushrooms. At the same time, the snakes kept the bugs from leaving the farm area.

We found two more moles skulking around the borders and brought them in. They quickly started breeding. By supplying them with mana, a dominated creature could be ordered to breed rapidly. This meant we could maintain the numbers of all animals even if someone preyed on them. Within some limits, of course. It's not some kind of magical miracle thing, but rather a way to boost their bodies natural abilities to the absolute maximum of what the body could handle. So far, most, if not all, our creatures have been found and dominated by me, and things will continue like that for quite some time.

“Phew, finally done with that. I’m almost out of mana! Isn’t there any way to regain some? Well, not counting the fact that I could cut supply or something like that.” I want to expand. Even with mana boost, it still takes some time to create a new animal the natural way. That’s why I don’t really want to consume my minions. Yet.

“Well, we got all this dirt lying around. We could convert it to mana.” The imp spawned in a fist full of dirt from his storage into his hand. He closed his fist, letting the dirt slowly trickle down to the ground. He kept it up for over a minute, making me wonder just how much dirt he had in his hand. Then I remembered he could spawn in more dirt at will. I decided to ignore his tricks.

“Oh, right. How does that work?”

The imp looked up into the ceiling with a disappointed face. He must have hoped I would ask him how he did the 'endless dirt from a closed fist' magic trick. He brushed off the dirt from his hand and began to explain. “There are a few ways.” The imp raised a finger. “First: Using a ritual and magic circle to offer the dirt to the gods. Not very good for the long-term, since such offerings would upset the gods. But they will still pay a small amount of mana for it, since it’s an offering, after all."

The imp raised a second finger. "Second: Similar, but in a proper temple, with a godly water mirror that you can dump it in. The gods will pay you more when using a temple, but they still won’t like it."

He raised a third finger. "Third: A portal. You simply dump it in. Some mana might be released from the portal, but it will be neutral mana and will slowly spread throughout the dungeon, but you can’t use it. Other beings can though. For them, it’s all the same. And then you can take it from them, which makes it yours."

He raised his fourth and last finger. "Forth: Sell it for around one gold per ton. Some traders still trade like this, but they used to get a lot more. Usually beginners or people who emptied their stocks and would simply return with an empty wagon anyway. Even with our racial skill, it's still kinda bothersome to transport the dirt to the wagons, not to mention finding a trader that wants to trade in this primitive way."

He raised his fifth finger... eh wait, he closed all his four fingers, making a hand blade. I guess that counts as a fifth finger... "Fifth: Matter converter. This costs mana, but can be worth it if you are desperate for something specific. Turn the dirt into something else. The rarer the item you turn it into, the more expensive it will be. Like, iron ore is not that expensive, but going straight to steel would be.” He looked at his hand and shrugged. He stopped talking. What does that mean? Did he finish or did he simply run out of fingers and other combinations? Sigh.

“Hm, it’s all impossible or a bad idea. Can’t I just absorb it myself? If my theory is correct, then the dirt is mainly mana? If I suck up all the mana from the dirt, shouldn’t it disappear? A mana drain?” This way I can simply convert it to mana directly. Genius.

“Maybe? We didn't learn advanced spells and such things in school. Only the common and free spells and techniques. Imagine buying the licenses for all the students. Too expensive, even for the Great Imp Clan. The strongest spells are too expensive to learn, so you have to discover them on your own. The strong won’t give up their advantages for free, or at all. Maybe we can buy some of the cheaper ones, when we get a trader. The best would be if you could figure it out on your own though. Try it out. I don’t know how you see the world, but nothing is impossible for a powerful Heart.” He stopped talking for a moment and looked like he was thinking.

The imp began to tell me a story. “I heard a story about a hero, powerful and mighty, that slaughtered his way into a dungeon with his party.” The imp waved his ‘bug sucker’ around, like a sword, pretending he was the hero.

“The dungeon gathered all its fighters together for a large battle. Just as the lines were about to crash into each other, the Heart transformed the hero into a chicken! Then the Heart summoned a lightning bolt to strike their healers.” The imp added plenty of hand motions to his storytelling. His fingers smashed into each other, just like the battle lines. The finger lightning rained down upon the dirt figure healers. He even walked around like a chicken.

“That caused their party to fall into chaos and they easily got wiped out. The hero got captured, and lived out the rest of his days in torture and constant mana drain. He finally died of natural causes at the age of three hundred twenty!” The imp looked like he had great respect for that Heart. His eyes sparkled and he clenched both his fists as he spoke about the fate of the hero.

“Three hundred and twenty? Wait, how long does a human live?” That doesn’t seem right. That abnormal number made me forget his, let's be honest, quite impressive and immersive storytelling.

“Normally about hundred years. They really are short-lived, you know. He was so powerful that he lived much longer. If he had not spent around two hundred fifty years as a prisoner, being starved, tortured and mana drained almost daily, he might had lived double that.” The imp stopped again, immersed in his imagination; how wonderful it must have been to live in that dungeon. He shook his head as he returned from the dreamland, coming back to my barren and tiny dungeon.

“That dungeon got so famous, that its tourism industry exploded in popularity. They even held public torture sessions of the famous hero. Thousands had died by his hands, so many were rightfully enraged and gladly paid the expensive ticket price to watch him suffer.”

“What happened next?” Now I’m curious. Public torture sessions? That’s genius. I need to study what other dungeons have done to become truly successful. No need to reinvent the wheel when I can just... take someone else's wheel. Yeah, that old saying.

The imp shrugged and said: “Well, the heroes got scared and stopped attacking that dungeon and once the hero died, their popularity dropped, and they had to sell their knowledge about the 'transform' and 'lightning' spell. With the mana and gold they got from the spell sales, they invested into broader fields of income. They had invested so much into that, and only that, hero tourism that it took a long time for them to stabilize again. Being too broad and generic, makes you not stand out amongst the rest of the dungeons, but focusing too much on a single thing, to stand out, can sink you, if it fails.” Good point. However, I don’t think having bugs and mushrooms is worth much anyway.

“Anyway, my point is that, they had a unique spell that they researched on their own. I don’t know if your mana drain idea is unique, but I highly doubt it. It’s probably a rare spell and would be expensive if we wanted to buy the knowledge.” He smiled and said: “Why don’t you research that while I go to sleep again?”

“Uh, sure. Just give me a bunch of dirt before you go.” While he is a lazy bastard, I don’t need him right now. I still don’t know if he actually needs to sleep or not, but for now, I should probably let him do as he wants.

“Here!” The imp waved with his hand and my entire chamber filled up with dirt. The dirt covered my crystal, killing the only light source, and plunged the entire dungeon into darkness.

“Thanks, I guess...” Hm, now, how do I do this? We also need some other light sources, it seems. Torches? Fire seems like a bad idea in this closed space. Maybe we can buy some glowing crystals later. Also, good thing the ceiling is so high here, otherwise the dirt would have burst into the hallways. Well, I actually used some mana to keep the dirt inside my chamber, don't want dirt all over the hallways. Wait, speaking of mana. What is this feeling?

"Hold it!" I shouted to the imp.

"Uh? What?" The imp stopped in the middle of his digging.

"Something happened. My mana regeneration just jumped up."

“Hm? Oh, I dumped off some dirt, so it no longer takes as much mana to store it.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“Errr, you see. As your Prime, I have some liberties, some decisions I can take without asking you. So, I decided to not bother you with this silly question, and simply made it so all my mana usage uses up your mana, instead of mine. I also made it so the same rule applies to all the imps.” The imp said, rubbing his hands together. Seemingly, a little bit nervous. Why would he be that?

“Not sure what that all means, but okay. How much mana do you use?”

“Oh, not so much. Hey, look, I finished doing my task here, so I’m gonna go and do something else now. Ah, I just remembered I must go and check on the mushrooms! Bye! Work hard on that dirt now!” The imp frantically dug through the dirt and left my chamber, walking away unusually quickly. He filled up the hole he created with dirt again, sealing me in. Not that some dirt can seal me in, but whatever.

What a good and hard-working imp. Now, let’s get to this dirt, I really need more mana.