The first guests

"-cker!" I swear as it's obvious that even if I were to grind like a madman my stats would never catch up with those of the Hero. "Hey! Dark Goddesses bitches! I want a do over! No one ever told me about this bullshit!" I scream to the air like a madman but unsurprisingly there's no response and the only sound in the ruined throne room that can be heard is the one of Ariel's not so subtle snicker.

"You know is not too late to have a change of heart and fight on the side of the Light, sure you may look a little scary and very hideous but maybe with time humans will start to tolerate you." Ariel says with such an innocent tone that I'm not sure if he is being sincere or if he is making fun of me.

I'm seriously considering just abandoning this fool's errand and just stay holed up in this castle for the rest of my life when I hear an alarm sound inside my head and the Dungeon menu pops up in front of me with a message right in the middle:

"Invaders detected"

I use my hand to click the alert window blocking the menu and I see the entire castle layout as some kind of hologram as if it were a videogame map, 2 bright blue dots occupy the throne room and when I touch them, they display my information and stats along with Ariel's. Scattered through the dungeon I see around a dozen of smaller blue dots; I touch one of them and it displays the name -Lesser Imp (LV 1)- This must be the minions that the dungeon generated for me. Finally, I click at the main entrance area on the map where 2 bright red dots are advancing and a live video of that area appears in front of me and I can see the intruders:

"Are you sure we are ready to do a dungeon quest on our own Ed? Shouldn't we start with something easier and less dangerous like, I don't know, a goblin extermination quest?" The short, cute girl that is wielding a simple magical staff asks the blue haired swordsman marching in front of her.

"Don't worry Lucy, according to the Guild this is the easiest, least dangerous dungeon in the region, it just has a few Lesser Imps and a weak demon that claimed it as its lair, nothing we can't handle. Besides the other adventurers won't ever stop treating us like children until we start doing jobs on our own, and with your healing magic and my sword skills there's no way we can be defeated!" The swordsman responds with confidence as he continues advancing and opens the door to the castle keep.

"Easiest...Least dangerous.... weak demon...." I mutter as I see the couple of adventurers opening their way and start exploring my dungeon.

"Hey! Belphu- uh what was it... Bel!? Are you okay? Weren't you about to abandon this whole Demon King business and turn over a new leaf? Ariel pokes my arm trying to get my attention.

"Those noobs! How dare they insult MY dungeon and insult ME like that!" I scream, shocking Ariel with my sudden outburst. "I'll show them!" I drag my hand across 6 of the smaller blue points in the map, as if I were just selecting a group of units from a Real Time Strategy game and I command them to flank the two adventurers.

I watch the action unfold on the magical screen in front of me, the girl falls behind just a few steps and an opportunity to strike appears.

"Ahhh! Ed help me!"

The scream from his companion reaches Edmund's ears and he turns around to see that Lucy has been surrounded by Lesser Imps, she doesn't know any offensive spells so she is waving her staff like a club trying to keep the small imps away but two jump on her back and hold her arms so she can't move.

"Lucy! Get off her!" He slashes the two imps between them and then grabs the two on Lucy's back and throws them against a wall, the impact is strong enough to defeat them and they disappear in a shadowy black mist that quickly disperses through the air.

"Are you ok Lucy?" Edmund asks concerned to the sobbing girl but before she can answer the two remaining imps slash his back with their sharp claws causing him to let out a grunt of pain as they laugh mockingly at him.

"You little bastards!" Raging, Edmund grabs his sword and dispatches the last two imps before wincing from the pain of his wounds.

"Oh Ed! here let me heal you" Lucy grabs her staff and chants an incantation causing the gem at the top of her staff to let out a warm green light that soothes Edmund's pain and heals his wounds.

"Thanks Lucy, I didn't expect an ambush like that." says Edmund as he moves his arms making sure he can still fight.

"I'm sorry I was caught off guard, and because of me you...you..." Lucy starts sobbing while seeing the small scars that remain on Edmund's back

"Hey, don't worry, what did I tell you as long as we work together there's no way we can lose!" Edmund cheers the distressed girl

"Yes, you're right!" Lucy dries up her tears and nods at him.

After catching their breath for a moment, the adventurer duo pass through the main hall and climb the stairs leading to the throne room.

"These imps are so fucking useless!" I yell, the six blue dots that represented the Lesser Imps are grayed out and crossed out with a small timer that indicates how long it will take for them to respawn.

"Well, they are LESSER Imps for a reason, what did you expect?" Ariel comments as he seems to enjoy seeing me throw a tantrum.

"I guess it's time to see what this body can do." Ignoring the sassy angel I select the other 6 Lesser Imps and summon them to the Throne Room and then I click at the Armory tab from the menu, it's filled with basic weapons and I pick a 2-handed sword that immediately materializes in my hand, is plain and poorly maintained, its stats are incredibly low but it will do for now, then I prepare myself to meet the two intruders in the throne room.