Darkness. Darkness all around me… Floating around in the darkness…

How much time has passed? What is time? So tired…

Don’t disturb me…

……….

“Preparing the sacrifice…” A voice said. It was a fairly high-pitched voice, probably from a small being.

*Meh-eh-eh! Meh-eh-eh!

Aaa, that feels... good? Or is it unpleasant? Can’t tell the difference.

“It’s working. It’s starting to glow. Keep up the blood flow. Gotta make sure everything gets covered.”

*Thump!

A small, flickering light broke through the darkness.

What is happening? Light?

I felt oddly drawn towards the light, like it was sucking me in. I didn’t resist, but simply followed with the flow.

*Thump!

My mind and vision swirled constantly, until I could finally see an image. A small dimly lit room, illuminated by a light source I could not see.

A small hairless two-legged and two-armed creature, with two big dark eyes, watched something, staring at it intently. The creature used its hand to smear some kind of liquid on whatever it watched.

*Thump!

“Need to bring the other one and keep it up.” It mumbled to itself.

*Meh-eh-eh! Meh-eh-eh!

*Thump!

The world slowly changed in color, no longer in grainy black and white.

The animal, the liquid comes from it. It's red... blood? The strange creature is using the blood on something. It seems to be close to me. No, not just close to me…

Ah, I see. It’s me.

*Thump, thump, thump! The beating got faster and faster, until it reached a stable rhythm.

The light source in the room grew brighter and brighter, until all the darkness in the room got expelled. The creature stopped, throwing the, now dead, animal to the side.

“Oh, great Heart, hear me! I have come to serve you!” The creature bowed and stood still in that position, waiting for an answer.

“...Heart, you hear me?” After two minutes of waiting, the creature got impatient. It moved closer to the glowing and pulsing crystal. The beating slowed down to a more stable 'once every thirty second' tempo.

The creature reached out with its hand and gently tapped the crystal. “Hello? I know you are awake, it’s not like you can pretend to be sleeping anymore.”

“...Who are you and why do you disturb me?” I replied, in a soundless voice, but it seems the creature heard it, because it startled in shock and quickly moved back.

The creature returned to its former position with a bow, and said: “Greetings, Heart, I’m your Prime, and have arrived to serve you. I’m sorry for the delay.”

“Prime? Serve me?” Once again I spoke with no sound. Have a feeling since I don’t have a mouth, I instead use a mental connection to this creature to communicate. Well, no matter, since it works, let’s just go with it.

“Yes!” The creature said with a wide smile, while nodding vigorously. “Now, let’s get to work. You first need to learn how to operate the dungeon, and for that you need to learn how to control yourself!”

“Control?” What is this thing talking about?

“Yes, focus on your mind. Don’t try to move your body. Hearts got a special view that they can use inside their dungeons. Try to float up, into the ceiling.”

What is going on? Eh, no point in trying to understand it. Let’s just do as he says…

...

“I have no idea what I’m doing. Some help?” This is ridiculous.

“Uh, well, I don’t know the details, I’m not a Heart, as you can see. Back in school they taught us some of the basics, so we could know how the Heart saw the world. They said to focus on moving your mind, or something. I couldn’t understand it, so I kinda forgot about it.” The creature shrugged with its thin arms.

“Helpful, but I will try.” I closed my eyes, or at least I tried, but nothing happened. The odd creature still took up most of my view. Hmm, seems like it works differently than what one would assume. It feels like I’m locked in a box, can’t even turn my head or change my current vision.

My mind, huh. Am I only a mind? In a focused but relaxed manner, I emptied my mind and tried to feel like I was floating. Like I was weightless, and nothing could hold me down. With an unsteady pace, I finally managed to move up into the ceiling.

“Hey, it worked, I can see everything from above now.” I could even adjust it slightly and rotate. Huh, is that me? A white, glowing crystal, with a red pulsating heart, made out of actual flesh, inside it. Creepy. The light from the crystal dimmed significantly each time the heart beat, only to return to its former strength immediately afterwards.

“I have many more things to teach you. Learnt it from school, in case you are wondering.”

“School? What?”

“Yes, let me tell you my story…” The creature began to talk and talk. About his struggles in school. How the winged imps bullied him. How he had to repeat school for ten thousand years. But finally one day, the day of the compatible test he took every decade, he passed the test. A dungeon Heart accepted him. The supervising teacher spurted out his coffee on him in surprise, but he didn’t even notice the burning hot liquid. I sensed the end of the story approaching, so I began to pay attention again.

“I was so happy! Finally, finally I had a Heart that wanted me!” The creature beamed with happiness.

“Uh huh. And who was that?”

“You! You, of course! Haha, you joker.” The creature pointed its thin finger at me, while laughing. Not sure if it actually thought it was funny, or if it really hoped it was just a joke.

“Oh, oh right, of course, that is why you are here. But I can’t remember anything about accepting you?”

“Eh, what do you mean?” The creature looked puzzled. “You were sent a request for accepting me as your Prime. All unattended Hearts were, but you, only you, said yes.”

Hmm, what is it talking about? Let me think… Oh. As I thought back to a certain event, I finally realized my mistake…

“Do you accept imp xxx as your Prime imp?” “Do you accept imp xxx as your Prime imp?” “Do you accept imp xxx as your Prime imp?” “Request to see his grades if needed.”

This thing, no, voice, kept bothering me, so in my anger, I accepted it without thinking.

“Yes, yes, shut up! You woke me up!”

“Request accepted, will arrive within the month.”

“Fine, go away!”

I went back to sleep immediately after.

Returning to the present…

“Right, I remember now. So, what do you do?” Though, that voice seemed to lack a fairly important detail. Or maybe he doesn’t have a name?

“Eh, you a new Heart? Well, you look a bit smaller than the ones back in school, so probably. It doesn’t matter, I never served a Heart before either. We can both explore how it works together!” It said, still having a big grin in its face.

Well, if you just taught me how to control myself, that should be a clue. Ah, but maybe there is more to it than that. Maybe other Hearts lose their memories, maybe I have lost mine? It hardly matters now.

“Uh, sure…” It is way to excited, better do as it says for now. Maybe it will calm down.

“Let’s work hard!” With shaking arms, the creature clenched its small fists.

“So, what’s with the goat blood, not to mention, you brought the entire goat here?” Seriously. In fact, it brought two.

“Eh, I thought you Hearts loved those things?” Tilting its head, the creature looked at me questionably.

“Well, I don’t know, didn’t find it particularly pleasant.” Honestly, I didn’t feel much at all. Maybe it’s more the principle of not wanting to have blood smeared all over my body, or in this case, my crystal.

“Ah, but it woke you up, didn’t it?” The creature grinned. Probably thinking: ‘Haha, gotcha!’

“That’s true, I guess.” Maybe a bucket of water could have produced the same results, but now we will never know. This is how all those odd traditions start out, isn't it? It worked once, better keep doing it, just to be safe.

“…”

“...”

A silent moment for a change. Already much better. But this imp, or whatever it is, seems like it decided to wait for me to say something.

“So, uh, tell me about yourself. You never answered it before.”

“Hm? It was all in my grades. Didn’t you check them before?”

“Maybe…? But, tell me anyway. I want to hear it from you.”

“Oh, a Heart that wants to talk with his minions! How lucky I am. I just love talking. Guess that is why you accepted me. Heh, I remember back in school, how the teachers hated me for always talking during the classes.” The imp snickered to himself, before continuing with his story.

“They always threw me out! But you are different! You love to listen to me! Anyways, where was I?” The imp spoke while gesturing wildly and changed from one emotion to the next in an instant.

Oh, finally back on topic? This guy, I think he is a guy at least, really likes to talk about irrelevant things.

“As I was saying, the teachers always threw me out, but I didn’t mind. The classes were so boring anyway. I went to the plaza and talked with the other students. It was always packed when I got there. Of course, everyone was busy so they couldn’t stay for long. They had to go somewhere else when I arrived and started talking to them. When the plaza emptied, I went to the library or cafeteria... and there I… after that I…”

…

*tick tick

“Hey, you listening?” The imp stood right next to me, my crystal, pressing his face hard against it, slobbering his drool all over the place. He tapped the crystal, with his claw like fingernails, to get my attention.

“Ouch!” That hurt, surprisingly enough. Guess, I’m actually really sensitive. Makes me wonder, what happens if a piece of dirt or stone falls down from the ceiling, and lands on me? I won't shatter, will I?

“Hey, you fell asleep?” The imp backed up again, no longer invading my personal space. His saliva still stuck on my crystal, though. Hey, aren’t you going to wipe that off?

“Uh, sorry, tired, I guess. So, you were saying?”

“Ah, what was the last thing you heard?”

“Oh, something about getting thrown out of the class and going to an empty plaza?” I wasn’t really listening.

“Hm, so at the start then.” The imp stroked his chin while seemingly staring up into nothingness. The imp thought for a bit, calculating things in his small mind. “You missed about… three hours?”

“Three hours?! Three hours? You talked for three hours?” Imp-impossible...

“Ah, don’t worry, I can repeat it all again.” The imp reassured me. Somehow, he made it sound like he was actually worried for me. That I would be upset if I missed out on this story. “So, back at school, the teachers disliked me for always talking during class and always threw me out but I-” Oh no!

“Hold it! Let’s leave that story for another time. For now, tell me about your skills and actual job here in this place.”

“Aw, but the other story is much funnier.” The imp said with a sad tone and lowered head. He fidgeted with his fingers. Seems really he wanted to tell his story again.

“I don’t care. That is for later. Also, tell me my purpose. What am I and what do I do?” The most important question. It has been on my mind for quite some time, by that I mean a few minutes. But considering how old I am; a few minutes is a large part of my entire life. ...What is the meaning of my life?

I shook my vision, since I got no head. Feels like I got sidetracked there for a moment.

“Uh, fine, here are my grades.” The imp flicked with his wrist. A large box popped up in front of my vision. For now, let's put it aside. “And, your job is to maintain and control this dungeon and try to take over this land. Or something like that.” The imp shrugged.

“Take over?” His explanation covered the bare essentials, but I would prefer some details too.

“Yes, but first try to survive. The heroes, forces of good, as they call themselves, will try to stop and destroy you.” The imp’s formerly playful expression, turned into a serious one. He spat on the ground. “They are the bad guys, coming into our homes and killing us. Calling us monsters. Well, we called ourselves monsters before that, but it used to be a good thing, instead of the insult they turned it into.” The imp’s formerly serious expression, turned into an angry one. He spat on the ground again, but this time, he also stomped on the spit with his foot. Pretending it was a hero perhaps? Anyway, that doesn’t seem like an acceptable behaviour from a Prime.

“How do I stop them from stopping me?”

“With your army, of course. Expand this place and attract others to fight for you. Me and my underlings will help you with digging, mining, cleaning, construction, transporting, and so on. Everything except fighting and traps. We can set up the traps though, just not make them.”

“Everything?” Don’t really wanna trust this guy with the entire work list in the dungeon.

“Well, at first. Later, when you get actual experts at different jobs, you should probably let them do their jobs. However, for mining and digging and cleaning, we are the best! No dungeon can survive without an imp group working in the background, trust me on that.” The imp puffed his chest. Seems he was proud of something, just not sure what.

I took this chance to look over the grades… If I could, I would be covered in sweat. Especially those last lines...