Sometime later....

“Imp, imp, wake up!” I gently shook him. Or rather, I poked him in the chest with my fingers. No response. “Prime!”

“You called?” The imp immediately sat up straight. “Urgh, mana, I need mana...” He instantly started to complain, putting his hand to his forehead. Seems the natural instinct to respond my call only goes so far.

“Get up, you didn’t need all that mana in the first place.” I did him a favor, yes, that’s what I did.

“My mana... uh, my head feels heavy too. Don’t have any energy to talk...” The imp raised his hand a bit, before dropping it to the ground. Too exhausted to hold it up. See? Clearly an addiction problem.

“Lack of mana means you talk less? That is good to know, but for once I want you to talk, because I got some questions.”

“S-speak. This one shall try to answer your questions before death comes to claim its prize.... Ah, my mana...” He kept complaining and mumbling about his mana.

Mana this and mana that. It’s gone now, deal with it. Sure, you gathered it for ten thousand years and all, and I removed it in a few hours... If you put it like that, I’m the bad guy, aren’t I?

“While you rested, the dungeon has grown and we reached five thousand creatures! We also got three more moles. So, how are we doing? Are we going to the surface now?” I can’t wait. I wonder what the sun feels like. Is it like my own glow?

The imp gave me a blank stare. “...Are you crazy? You are still the weakest dungeon I have ever heard of! Aaah, my head!!” He massaged his temples. His shout apparently caused great headaches. “Don’t get me so agitated, please.”

No sun for me. Maybe it would burn me anyway. Maybe there is a reason I’m hiding underground, besides heroes wanting to kill me. Though, now that I think about it, that is a pretty good reason on its own. Actually, why do they want to kill me? Are they simply discriminating against all Hearts? One Heart did something stupid once, and now all must die? Or maybe the vast majority of Hearts are bad and I’m the exception?

“Sheesh, relax. So, what now? Are we just going to dig and rest and dig some more? There must be more to a dungeon than this? I know the passing of time does not affect us, but I still feel like doing something besides waiting.” Even immortal beings gets bored. And when they have endless time, they start to focus on odd stuff that no normal person would consider important. Of course, this is all assuming I don’t age. Would honestly be very surprised if I did.

“Of course! At this stage, however, you could be defeated by myself!” He puffed up his chest, pointing towards himself with his thumb. “Well, maybe not now, after I lost all my mana.” He deflated once again, returning to his previous ‘bag of potatoes’ posture and ‘almost dead’ state. “Can you return it, by the way? Because I lack so much mana, it feels like something crawled out from my head.” He wants it back? Well...

“Uh, I kinda spent it all...” It was worth it, I promise you.

“What? What could you possible spend-.” He briefly stopped and pointed towards himself, almost grunting out the next word. “My!” He stopped once again, returning to a more calmer tone. “Ten thousand years of mana gathering on?” The imp shook his head, his face wore an expression of disbelief, more accurately an ‘I can’t believe this shit’ expression.

Many things, if you have some imagination. As I recently realized, you can never have too much mana.

“Well, I helped out in the farms and getting the moles to breed. Then, I made a new item. A mirror.”

The imp opened his eyes wide, simply staring at my crystal in shock. It lasted for a whole ten seconds. “WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A MIRROR!!!” The imp shouted at the top of his lungs. No, really, it was the loudest thing I have ever heard. His voice even turned almost squeaky. Squeakier than normal that is.

“Aaah! My head!” He quickly massaged his temples. “Please, please, please, tell me you are joking? There are only two sentient beings in this place, and one of them doesn’t even have a body! Don’t tell me you wanted to see if you had a reflection... Ah, what kind of foolish Heart am I serving?” The imp covered his face with his hands.

“No, no, that’s not why. Though, I did check after I finished the mirror. In case you are wondering, I got no reflection.” It was weird to look into a mirror and not see yourself.

“Hmph, that was obvious.” He crossed his arms and looked away from my crystal.

“I made it for you!”

His expression, his breathing, his entire body froze. Then the imp turned towards my crystal with slow and jagged movements. His expression was still frozen stiff, but it slowly melted and the corner of his mouth pulled back into a grin. He blinked a few times, before fully melting the sudden ice that froze him.

“Wha-? For me?” His mouth twitched, trying hard to suppress the smile. “You made me a gift? Hehe, I don’t know what to say?” The smile finally won, and his face almost split in two by the wide grin. If he could, he would have blushed too, but unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, imps can’t.

But suddenly, the smile disappeared and his hairless eyebrows scrunched together, his lips tightly pressed. A hint of craziness appeared in his eyes. “You made me a mirror?! Why the flaming ancestral dungeon Heart would I want a mirror instead of my mana?!" The imp fiercely roared out, and raised both arms up in the air, before smashing with his fists down upon my crystal heart.

That huuuurts!!

If mana signature vision had been active at this point, one would have seen the fluctuations in his cloud color, from peaceful blue, to fierce red, back to peaceful blue.

“Um, ouch. Please refrain from hitting me.” I tried hard to suppress the pain and the instinct to scream.

“You deserve more than that, you know.” The imp rubbed his hands nervously, probably just realizing what he did.

“Okay, before you get too angry, let’s go.” I picked up the grumpy imp with my hand. He grunted and squealed some in protest, but he most likely enjoyed the feeling of leaving the ground. I placed him in front of a wall. On the wall, was a red silk sheet, covering a mirror. The back of the mirror was slightly pressed into the dirt wall, but it also rested on a small stand out of dirt, one that I dug out with my own hand. Digging out the small stand took a long time, and cost mana every second. The hand is not recommended for digging purposes.

“What is that? Is this s-silk? Damn, that is extra expensive to produce from mana, you fool!” The imp pointed towards the silk sheet. Luckily, he could restrain himself from attacking it.

“Oh, it is? That explains the troubles I had creating it.” Maybe I should have noticed something was wrong, but it was only the second item I ever made, and the mirror was just as bothersome. “Anyway, now I’m going to remove the silk sheet, you just stand right there.” With a quick and smooth motion, I uncovered the mirror and put the silk in my hand for safekeeping. “Tada!!”

“...!! What the...” The imp slowly raised his hand towards the top of his head, to touch the thing there. “You, you!” His first reaction was anger. But, just as he was about to smash the mirror with his fist, he stopped. He shook his head slowly, probably thinking: ‘That’s where my mana went, can’t destroy it!’. Or the instinct of not destroying my property kicked in.

The imp leaned forward, closer to the mirror. He poked the mushroom, and shivered as he did. With eyes wide open, he did it several times more. The imp turned and twisted his body, trying to see how it looked from other angles.

On his head, grew one of the light blue mushrooms we used in our farms. The stem was slightly thicker than normal, probably to counter the sudden movements of the imp. The cap had the normal convex shape, but was also slightly larger. On the cap were, unless you knew about them, invisible flaps that the spores shot out from. The darker, blue colored gills, ran down the stem for a few centimeters. The root system was visible under his skin, like veins. They spread out over the head, down to the start of his forehead and ears and all the way down to his neck. This mushroom also glowed slightly in the dark, unlike the other of its kind. Possibly something to do with the large amount of mana it got access to. Its size and glow gave it a majestic look, making it appear like it was the King of its kind.

The imp stroked his now bumpy skin, tracing the roots to their ends, with his fingers.

He can feel with it? Well, it’s part of his body now. His mana flows through both the mushroom and him.

“You know, at first I hated this thing, but now, I quite like it.” The imp smiled once again.

“Eh, really?” I blurted out the first thing on my mind.

“Not worth ten thousand years of mana.” His reflection in the mirror gave me an angry stare. “But, since I have it, might aswell keep it. It’s like I have hair now.” He laughed to himself. It was more of the disturbing kind of laughs. “All imps are bald, but now, I got something on my head that's just as good as hair or horns. Maybe even better.”

Well, I’m speechless.

“Oh, so you like it? You are welcome, I guess.” I’m a benevolent Heart, after all. I take good care of my minions.

“Yes, I quite like it. But you know, did you really have to waste all my mana on a mirror and that stupid silk sheet? I’m more upset about that, than the fact you grew a mushroom on my head.”

“Didn’t want to half ass it, you know. Besides, I had a lot of mana, and nothing to spend it on. What was I supposed to do? Just let it sit? Unused mana is wasted mana, as I always say.” Don’t think I have ever said that, but he probably won’t notice.

“You have never said that.” He rolled his eyes. Hard to see, since they are completely black, but by observing them closely, it’s possible to see the eyes move. “Also, if there is one true thing in this world, it’s that one can’t have too much mana. Do you know what it costs to create a portal?”

He noticed it. He is getting smarter? Or am I turning dumber? Hm... Who is infecting who?

“Nope, tell me.” I have no idea. The only frame of reference I have is the silk and the mirror.

“About the amount an imp can gather in ten thousand years by natural absorption...” The imp held up all eight fingers, then lowered all but two. Then he repeated that several times. Yeah, think I got it the first time, you can stop now... Anyway, such an exact number, and I just spent that exact amount. What a coincidence.

“Ouch, that’s a lot.”

“Plus, everyday it’s around one thousand years of mana to maintain it.” The imp held up a single finger. What? Is he serious?

“How are we gonna afford that?” How many bugs worth of rent would that take?

“One way is to have a large stockpile of mana to burn, while you work on getting residents and livestock from the portal to increase the amount of income.” The imp channeled his inner teacher, like he always did when he felt I needed to know things, and prepared himself for a long session of ‘Questions and Answers’.

“Still, that is way too much. Who can afford that?” I don’t believe it. Are we really ‘the bottom of the barrel’ material?

“Every other clan and dungeon?” The imp said bluntly. “Most even have multiple.”

“What are we going to do?” I can only trust in the imp now.

“Well, we can sit on our hands and wait, and slowly expand to gain mana.” Pass.

“How big is the average dungeon?” We have a few rooms... we are in the top, right?

“I don’t know about the ‘average’, but the great dungeons have millions of minions and the ancient ones have literally countless. Smaller dungeons, probably around hundred thousand?” The imp looked a little unsure when he spoke. "Never been in any dungeon but this one, so only got some references from books."

How can it be literally countless? Either their maths skills are about the same level as the imp, or it changes to quickly for them to count accurately. But still, they could just round it up to the nearest billion, or trillion or whatever they got.

“What are we ranked as?” Some kind of small dungeon perhaps? Maybe they have some kind of alphabetical ranking system?

“Unranked. By the way, they don’t normally count beings smaller than an imp. Which is all you got.”

Okay, then. We are nothing, it seems. A bug in a world of giants. However, being a bug has its advantages. You won’t attract attention and can sneak around the giants and crawl inside their ears and lay eggs. What a terrifying thought. Must find some bugs that can do that for defense purposes.

Also, the imps are a race that seems to almost worship the Hearts, so it’s possible they are exaggerating in their teachings. Come to think of it, I got no real proof that any of what this guy says is true. Maybe he got sent to hinder my development? Maybe I’m just being paranoid...

“Let’s follow your suggestion then...” Not like I have any other choice.