The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1163: Premium Treatment

Oh, well, nothing much.

Just a bit of plucking here and a little picking there, and Luca, who, to everyone else, momentarily looked as though he’d developed the expression of a complete maniac, giggled happily as he watched Tortie beautifully produce more mushrooms as he munched away.

It didn’t matter whether he ate chickweed, hibiscus flowers, or collard greens, because in the end they all produced that sweet, sweet sound.

And with it came mushroom after mushroom.

In the mind of the Kyros heir, wasn’t this simply the greatest thing ever?

Now, even if Tortie continued eating his impressive weight in greens every single day, it’d practically all cancel itself out with the steady stream of mushrooms sprouting from his shell. Nobody could quite tell whether the phenomenon had anything to do with the fact that the guardian beast once carried an entire ecosystem on his back, but Luca had long since learned that questioning blessings too much was not the way to go. Better not to jinx himself by pestering Tortie with unnecessary questions while the guardian beast was still happily eating.

After all, the implications were simply too good.

Not only would the mushrooms become an incredible supplement for the Cindermoss Burrowers, helping them produce even richer soil, but given Tortie’s frankly terrifying appetite, wouldn’t this practically make him a walking mushroom farm?

Sure, it’d probably take a little experimentation since the mushrooms seemed to change depending on what Tortie ate, but wasn’t that even better? Different flowers and vegetables meant different mushrooms, and different mushrooms meant variety. Variety meant options, and options usually meant money.

Lots of money.

By the time Luca reached that conclusion, he was already smiling brightly enough for everyone around him to grow concerned. The dungeon owner looked so thoroughly pleased with the results that he generously hid away the rather effective (abominable) get-along shirts, much to everyone else’s relief.

It was around then, after quietly watching Tortie sprout yet another mushroom with almost suspicious consistency, that Killian finally spoke.

"Luca, those Luxury Pet Food boxes... they were limited-time items, weren’t they?"

The dungeon owner, who’d been busily running around, offering the guardian beast various vegetables while occasionally fanning him for no reason other than that he felt he deserved premium treatment, suddenly stopped in his tracks as Killian’s question brought him back to reality.

Because...

Right.

The Luxury Pet Food was a limited-time item.

Back then, it’d honestly felt a little excessive. They’d spent three hundred thousand CP on something they couldn’t even confidently explain the purpose of, and while the price still hurt somewhere deep inside Luca’s money-grubbing soul, at least now he could finally understand why it’d been priced that way.

The problem was that understanding the price didn’t make obtaining more any easier.

Even if they carefully saved enough CP for another purchase, there was no guarantee it’d ever appear on the Trove again.

"You’re right," Luca admitted, his earlier excitement dimming considerably. "We originally had about thirty servings since there were ten pieces in each box." He paused to do the math in his head before continuing, "Theoretically, if the Elders don’t find anything wrong with giving them another serving later on, we’ve still got several more rounds."

His expression gradually turned thoughtful.

"But..." His gaze drifted toward the water sprite happily bobbing around Minister Kordell’s shoulder. "I’m worried about the little sprite."

Everyone instinctively followed his eyes.

"The others have always been able to eat other things," Luca continued, "but that one only seemed interested in the Pet Food. What if it’s actually dependent on it?"

If that were the case, wouldn’t it eventually starve once it ran out of food, even if it decided to reserve every remaining serving of the pet food exclusively for it?

Thankfully, Elder Feng seemed to understand his concern and offered a suggestion, "I believe we should try with spiritual energy crystals soon enough."

"Huh? As in the same spiritual energy crystals we use?"

"Yes, ideally that."

"But Elder Feng, earlier..." Luca thought about all the rejected items that he was certain contained enough spiritual energy, so why hadn’t they worked?

"Spirits could be rather finicky sometimes, and getting them into a stable state would usually take a lot of trial and error, so I already believe we got lucky with this pet food when normally it would be a challenge finding something appropriate."

As if understanding and agreeing to the Elder’s sentiment, the little sprite actually bounced twice, much to everyone’s disbelieving looks.

"Provided the sprite survives its earliest stages of growth, nurturing and advancing it eventually becomes a matter of who has the greater reserves of energy crystals. Of course, that’s only after it matures enough to absorb such vast amounts of spiritual energy. Until then, we can only hope we have enough of that pet food to carry it through. Once it reaches that point, our concerns should lessen considerably."

"Thank goodness, then."

Minister Kordell couldn’t help voicing his relief. He’d already expressed his gratitude earlier, yet the news was reassuring enough that he felt tempted to thank everyone all over again.

But just as he was about to...

The dungeon owner suddenly frowned.

Then completely froze.

"Ah!"

Everyone looked toward him.

"But on the same note—" Luca’s eyes widened in alarm as they shifted toward the tiny Queen Bee currently perched atop Jax’s shoulder. "What about the baby? Now that she’s broken through, what is she supposed to eat?"

Safe to say...

That question instantly silenced quite a few people.

Particularly several first-time grandparents whose thoughts immediately veered toward considerably more practical concerns.

What did Queen bees that looked rather humanoid yet remained bee-like eat?

How often?

Would she need milk?

Honey?

Something entirely different?

More importantly...

Who’d get to prepare her first proper meal?

Truthfully, everyone had the best of intentions, and Luca certainly wasn’t wrong for bringing up the subject.

Little did they know, however, that worrying about her meals would soon become the least of everyone’s concerns, as Jax—who had eventually woken up refreshed, unaware, and completely unbothered by the changes around him—would eventually give the go-signal for the little Queen to finally receive her long-awaited serving.

And boy, was that another fruitful trip right back to the sick bed, this time for both the redhead and the Empire’s Chief of Staff, courtesy of something as spectacularly unusual as vertigo for space-exploring human beings.

"..."

Yes.

Literal vertigo.

Then again, who wouldn’t succumb to something like that after seeing of