Since we need to dig, might as well start doing it now. Now, where is he hiding?

*Slap!* A loud slapping sound echoed throughout the dungeon.

“Uwah!” The imp rolled around in the dirt. He stopped and slowly raised his head from the ground, trying to spot what awoke him. Fool, you will never discover the secret behind this haunted dungeon.

“Uh, my cheek feels odd.” The imp rubbed his left cheek.

“You mean where I slapped you?” Did it hurt? Held back a lot this time. A lot.

“Yeah, but it’s not pain. Something else...” He poked his cheek several times, testing his senses. “It’s completely numb! Can’t feel my finger at all.” He formed a fist and punched himself on the right cheek. “Ow! That hurt! Wrong side.” He spit out some black blood and repeated the process, this time on the correct side, the numb left side.

“Hehe, look!” He repeatedly banged his fist into the left side of his face, each punch containing more power than the last. The force from the punches twisted his head. With a wide smile, the imp said with a laugh: “It doesn’t hurt at all!” Blood dripped out from his mouth and down his throat. This caused the imp to suddenly cough, and blood spurted out, just like when squeezing a slightly empty ketchup bottle. Ketchup? The imp looked confused, wondering where all the blood came from.

Uh oh, did I rattle his brain too much? He lost all feelings on his left side? Oh, it could be that...

“Just because you don’t feel it, doesn’t mean you won’t get hurt. Anyway, I learned how to mana drain, guess it’s always on? That’s not good.” A bug sacrificed itself to test my theory, and it died a few seconds later.

The imp stopped playing around. He got up with some effort, his legs unsteady and leaning heavily against the wall. He wiped the blood from his mouth. “Yeah, please find a way to turn it off. My tiny nap did not cure my tiredness at all, in fact, I feel worse now, than before. I even feel somewhat dizzy.” The imp stretched his arms up high, towards the ceiling, and yawned. The yawn lasted for several seconds and he ended with smacking his lips and blinking. The reason you are so dizzy, might be related to your previous action, but hey, what do I know?

“I drained your mana, huh. Hm, you have quite a lot. In that brief moment of contact, I got more than ten moles.” Is this guy loaded? Literally, loaded with mana.

“Hah, don’t compare me, a magical being, to some mindless animal. Don’t forget that I’m over ten thousand years old. I have stored mana all this time and I’m quite strong compared to other imps." The imp said proudly with his chin raised up high. Then he seemed to remember something and lowered his head, a hint of worship appearing in his eyes. His voice turned a little meek as he said: "Well, not counting those that have served in the ancient dungeons for half of eternity.” Half of eternity? What kind of scale is that?

“So, you are not completely useless. You are an emergency mana bank.” And I won’t hesitate to make a withdrawal if needed.

“Uh, please don’t joke around like that. Remember, I’m your prime.” The imp looked up at me, in this case the ceiling, with some kind of eye technique. His eyes turned larger and moist. His lips quivered. His head tilted to the side. His hand were held together, close to his chest. I will name this technique: 'Imp eyes'. Damn, can’t resist those imp eyes, you are safe for now.

“Yeah, yeah, we got work to do. Here, take a look.” I sent the new design for a combined farm and living area directly to his mind. The area scheduled for digging was already marked, and sent to him together with the design.

He nodded and praised me. “You have been busy. This looks quite good. I will get right to it.”

“While you dig, I will work on this dirt pile and tame any new things we find. Dump your dirt here when you are full.” A small mountain of dirt already waited for me, practically begging for a mana drain.

“Kay~!” The imp brandished his pickaxe and swung into the wall with full force, using his entire body. He jumped up slightly as the pick struck the dirt wall, gouging out a large portion of the dirt block. He smiled with satisfaction. This was what he loved the most.

Dirt was easy to dig through. Even easier when it was ‘wild’ dirt. If a dungeon lived next to a normal dirt wall, they would automatically reinforce it with their mana. Wild dirt are the blocks beyond the dungeon's domain, the ones in the black unknown. We, or rather I, do the same thing of course, but it will take some more time for any real hardening to occur.

When we reach actual rock, or stone, we can improve the walls even more. If there is a wall one does not want to dig out, perhaps a huge amount of water behind it, the imps can use some kind of ancient spell to make the wall very hard to break though. A normal pick would not cut it. Pun intended.

How do I know all this? Well, the imp talks, or rather, mumbles in his sleep. I hear everything in the dungeon, whether I like it or not. Besides, he is the only one that can form a voice, not just buzz around with their wings and the other noise the bugs make, so he stands out.

Either way, I have sensed small amounts of mana getting sucked up by the walls, so I figured something like that was happening. The details on that ancient spell are still unknown. His grades mentioned another kind of wall fortification, something that his lack of reach greatly affected. Negatively, of course. Have to ask him later what the difference is, but I'm guessing it's made by hand instead of using magic.

“Okay, all done! Should we let the moles design their own homes again?” The imp asked, just finished his digging. Just making sure, I guess. Better safe than sorry, I like that attitude. There are no stupid questions.

“Yeah, that is fine. Start making bug nests and place them according to the design. The actual nest designs is up to you. Mix it up.” I stopped a moment to think. “Should we plant new mushrooms?”

“We are running low on seeds. Only got two left.” The imp emptied the bag into his hand, and after the two seeds fell out, he held the bag upside down and shook it even more. Nothing else came out.

“No point then. Just grab one that's almost mature from Farm One. We can pump it full of mana, now that I have this mana drain.” How I ever survived without my mana drain before, is beyond me.

The imp ran over to Farm One, and in his haste, he stomped over dozens of bugs and even a small mushroom; one that only just managed to breach the surface. The mushroom splattered into pieces. Half sticking to the imp's foot, while the other half flying all over the farm area, causing the bugs to swarm on the small pieces.

“Ugh, be careful, or I’m making you pay for them...” With my recent discovery, I have new ways to threaten him.

“Eh, sorry, didn’t notice them, hehe.” The imp laughed a bit, as he stealthily dragged his foot in the dirt, scraping off the mushroom and bug bits, removing all the damning evidence of his murder. Too late for that.

His gaze swept the farm area, looking for the biggest mushroom. He found one and carefully tipped over to the chosen one on his toes, avoiding any needless deaths. He brushed off the surface dirt around the mushroom. He then inserted both of his hands deep into the dirt, all the way down to the roots of the mushroom, taking the entire root system with him, or as much as possible at least.

“Got it! Let’s go." The imp quickly ran back to the new area with the mushroom in his hands. The roots seemed to move towards him, but it could just be my imagination.

"Plant it in the center of the inner farm.” I told him, making sure he knew where to go.

The imp made a small hole in the dirt by doing a heel kick several times on the same spot, to soften and crack the hard dirt open, and then some more accurate digging with his toes. All while holding the mushroom above his head.

The mushroom roots twitched and slithered, like they were alive, and slowly reached for the imp’s neck. Just as the roots were about to circle the imp’s neck, he deemed the shallow dent in the ground adequate for his purpose, and stuffed the mushroom inside the hole. He then quickly covered over the roots and the mushroom's base with some dirt.

Maybe we should have prepared the hole first? Also, did my imagination run wild again? No, it must have.

“What now?” The imp asked. He scratched his neck, for some reason.

“You go and collect bugs from Farm One, while I put all my mana regeneration into this mushroom. Mana boosting it.” Maybe not all, but ninety percent, at least.

The imp did as told and ran back and forth between the different farms, taking as many of the roaming bugs he could carry. Many fell off during the trip, so it was quite inefficient.

“Why can’t I hold all these bugs?” He complained while holding them with crossed arms towards his body, while they crawled around or simply fell through the openings. Honestly, he carried more on his body, than in his arms.

A very large hercules beetle bug sat on the imp's bald head, pretending to be in command of this gigantic creature that moved them around. No, as I, somehow, sensed its thoughts, I could feel it did not pretend. I had declared that spot as his own territory. I sensed it was the Beetle King in Farm One. Looking at its size, the title was well deserved. It was the largest beetle we had, by at least two centimeters.

Once the imp arrived at the new farm, he shook his entire body, scraping off all the bugs. This agitated the Beetle King, and it bit and pinched the skin on top of the imp's head. The imp slammed his palm against his head in reflex, ending the reign of terror of King Hercules, first of his name. As the bug's life ended, I felt a small telepathic voice shout out, directly into my mind: "The Swarm will rise again!"

Since I had no idea what just happened, I decided to ignore it. The mushroom needed my full attention anyway.

We finished the bug transport and built all the nests needed. As we had expanded our dungeon area, new creatures fell inside. Amongst them was another female mole, but the male refused to touch her. He was very faithful to his own mate. Or perhaps the new female was just very ugly. Too bad I killed the other male, oh well.

The time for my reward, for all my hard work, had finally arrived. It was time for the mushroom to release its spores. Ah, there it goes!

A cloud of tiny, tiny white spores flew up and I grabbed several pinches of them with my hand, and sprinkled them over the rest of the farm.

The imp on the other hand... He laid on his stomach, right next to the mushroom, and rested his head on his hands, watching the mushroom slowly grow. He finished his work long before me, so he had nothing to do. Honestly, unless I tell him to dig, he genuinely got nothing to do.

When the spore release finally happened, he got so surprised, he took a deep breath, sucking up ten percent of the total amount of spores.

In his panic, he ran through the cloud, flailing his arms around, not to mention, stomping on the mushroom, crushing it to pieces. He tried to scream, but couldn't let any sound out. He grabbed his throat, and violently pointed towards his wide open mouth.

His clothes will turn into a mushroom land, but I’m quite curious if the things that entered his nose and mouth will grow. After coughing and sneezing for a while, the imp finally seemed to calm down and stopped to rest.

“Ugh, don’t feel so good...” He swayed with his upper body, before finally falling to the ground. Arms and legs spread out, even his tongue rolled out. He passed out. Uh-oh. This might be serious.

I switched to my new 'mana vision' mode. I managed to combine the recently discovered vision mode, that I used to see the mana inside the dirt, named 'natural mana', with mana signatures. Natural mana now have a faint yellow glow instead, with higher density having a richer color. It has the same color as the areas designated for digging, but since I can’t have both turned on at once, it’s not a problem. The natural mana’s yellow glow goes away if any life forms draws near, to make it more clear. Living beings mana are glowing stronger, but with same three color as always.

Hmm, there are green spores moving around inside his body. Seems they are looking for a place to latch on to. The spores planted themselves on the imp’s organs and veins and slowly sucked his mana.

The horror! I wanted to do that. Leave my, I mean, his mana alone! Can’t I dominate the plants? Never tried. Let’s try on a grown mushroom first.

I targeted one of the mushrooms from Farm One and it was a piece of cake. It barely resisted, and quickly got converted from a green, to a blue mana cloud.

Now for the spores. I have to target them from inside the imp. Ah, got one. They offer no resistance, but they might be mindless and won’t listen to my commands. Stop! Release! Leave his body! Nope, no use. Brain-dead. Is my only choice to drain them to death? It will affect the imp too, but I have no choice.

Mmm, juicy mana... Haha, soon I will have more mana than what I started with! The problem is, I’m draining the mana from all over his body, instead of focusing on where the spores are. Or rather, the mana flows from all over his body to fill the large void I create as I drain him. It will turn into a war of attrition with the spores, and that is something the imp won’t survive.

I grabbed the imp and zoomed in on the mana veins. His body contained countless of them, and they sprawled the entire body, like tree branches. The spores followed these to find a strong mana source in the body. If I do this...

One of my fingernails changed into a thin syringe needle. I injected the needle into one of the more harmless looking mana veins, and managed to suck it dry. Success! The spores connect and feeds directly from these veins. This meant my mana drain could now reach the spores directly.

By injecting the needle closely to where the spores resided, the negative effects of the mana drain were greatly reduced. I worked quickly, and soon, there was only one left. The last spore sat on the top of the head, just below the skin. Since it took me a while to clean the spores up, it had managed to take root, spreading its thin roots out over the skull bone.

Hehe, if this thing sprouts through the skin, it will be too funny for me to remove. If it decides to squeeze the skull to the reach the brain... Well, some risks are worth taking. Hmm, the imp looks like he lost a lot of mana.

The imp was deathly pale, his breathing shallow and entire body drenched in sweat. The seemingly random seizures scared me every time they happened. While he came out of the blue, claiming he was my Prime, I can't say I dislike him, nor do I want him to die. I have a feeling I would be screwed without him. After all, he does all the work and have all the knowledge about the world.

I gently placed him down next to my crystal heart, to maximize the amount of mana the imp could absorb. It looked like ninety-five percent of his mana got drained, if comparing the amount of glowing he had before.

Oh well, my mana storage is overflowing at least, but I still don’t feel anywhere near full, assuming there even is a limit. Unfortunately, the garbage tier creatures I got right now are the only things I can spend my mana on. Which is something I don’t want to do. Maybe I can return it to the imp? Should be possible. He is my minion.

Ah, but I have an even better idea, hehehe....