The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL]-Chapter 956: A Very Urgent Harvest

While beings from all over the universe experienced cold sweats, fevered dreams, well-wishes, and devoted prayers for snacks as they tried to recover from that day’s festivities or losses, the person who caused all of it was busy with something else.

Contrary to the assumption that the mastermind behind all such greatness was plotting his next steps for some grand takeover, one Luca Kyros simply couldn’t be bothered with something that wasn’t as important.

Especially in the face of something he personally found very exciting, how could he choose to focus on something else?!

"Pwah!"

A head suddenly burst out of the water as droplets flew everywhere.

"It’s here! It’s finally here! We actually got it!"

Luca waved around a dripping clump of reddish-purple seaweed with so much enthusiasm that the people floating on the nearby rafts immediately turned toward him.

The mass in his hand glistened under the sunlight. It was a tangled lump of thin, delicate strands that looked almost like wrinkled silk soaked in water. Its color shifted between dark crimson and deep violet as it dripped and swayed in Luca’s grip.

Next to him, several other heads began popping out of the water.

One of them pressed a button on the side of his mask, and the faint shimmer of a protective oxygen bubble surrounding him quietly vanished.

"Luca," Xavier said calmly as he deactivated the mask from his face, "you forgot to put back your oxygen mask earlier."

"Oh! Sorry!" Luca replied immediately and apologetically. "I got a little too excited!"

By this point, the rafts surrounding them had already begun drifting closer.

"Brother! You’re back!"

The loud voice of a certain blonde rang out from one of the rafts as Ollie leaned forward eagerly.

However, the moment the raft drifted close enough, his excitement shifted into confusion.

He pointed directly at the strange thing Luca was proudly holding.

"Umm, brother... what’s that?"

"Oh, this?" Luca said as he climbed over the edge of the raft with the excitement of a child eager to show his spoils. Water splashed lightly as he settled himself on the side. "This is the seaweed I was telling you about!"

"What?" Ollie blinked.

"That’s a seaweed?"

The blonde stared at the clump in Luca’s hands with deep suspicion.

Honestly, he really knew nothing about seaweeds, but when he did get the chance to play in the water, the submerged plants closer to land were mostly green and looked like underwater shrubs.

But this one that his good brother really liked looked rather... questionable? 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Instead, it resembled thin, leathery ribbons layered atop one another, each sheet delicate but strangely tough, almost like translucent crimson paper crumpled together by the tide. The edges were uneven and slightly frilled, and when Luca shifted it in the light, the entire mass shimmered with a deep reddish-purple sheen.

If anything, to the curious blonde, it looked more like something pulled straight from a monster’s nest than something anyone would voluntarily eat.

It was honestly a little intimidating, despite it ironically being less threatening than a wiggly tentacle.

Ahem!

__

Well, in a way, Luca had comparable thoughts. But in his case, it was more related to suspension of disbelief.

Before the entire operation even started, the excited dungeon owner and perfectly spoiled wife vibrated silently in place as he watched Xavier and the other adults use the equipment his husband had commissioned specifically for today’s endeavor.

They checked for possible dangers.

They checked for issues with the water quality.

Then they checked again.

And again.

And then about three more times while plotting the best location for entry before finally giving in to Luca’s request to see it himself.

So armed with gear and trackers that were probably overkill thanks to one worried father who wanted to arm his child with everything imaginable, the golden-eyed explorer finally managed to bounce his way toward those new treasures.

And thankfully, he did.

He was really hoping to be right.

But at the same time, he really had his doubts, because from the limited information he had, such a thing was supposed to grow mostly in shallow coastal waters where it usually attached to rocks.

More than that, the seaweed he remembered hearing about shouldn’t really be found together with oysters that, if Luca was correct in his assumption, should normally be located in deeper parts of the ocean.

So up until the moment he could finally see it with his own eyes, he had reservations and questions that desperately needed to be quelled.

Not that it was impossible for such a seaweed to even be found deeper underwater, but with temperatures also being off, wasn’t that really odd?

But lo and behold, when they finally arrived, Luca figured he might actually be right despite the oddity of the situation.

So what exactly was happening?

The curious dungeon owner actually muttered his concerns aloud and, surprisingly, received an answer from his mother, who had joined them but was riding in a submersible as backup.

"Son, it might have something to do with the way the dungeon expands."

"Huh?"

"Wasn’t that a similar concern with the vegetation that normally wouldn’t be found together?" Duchess Amelia said through their communication channel, and it had Luca thinking that, sure enough, the elders had mentioned that too.

However, just when Luca was contemplating what that could possibly mean for them and for the dungeon, he got distracted for several reasons.

"?!"

While he had already experienced his first shock after seeing the exponential growth of the seaweed when he first visited through his consciousness, what surprised him now was the difference between the growth behind the barrier and the kind of growth experienced by the ones that had managed to peek out.

"Wow!"

It was like a spindly body suddenly growing enormous arms!

Was that the effect of spiritual energy?

"Host! It seems like behind the barrier, the growth rate is much lower because the area we still can’t access only uses enough spiritual energy to stay in hibernation."

Luca looked around and couldn’t help but believe D-29, because it was as if the ones that made it past the barrier had received an extremely potent fertilizer.

Now, the others who came with Luca were thankfully used to hearing giggling and random gasping. By now, they were well aware that the little money-grubber was probably seeing and thinking things they couldn’t possibly think of.

They were just glad that he was really happy with whatever he was doing. With such mirth, who would dare say anything, really?

However, what they didn’t expect was for Luca to suddenly screech out of nowhere.

"Son! What is it?!" asked the concerned father, who immediately prepared for an attack of some sort, only to be told to hurry.

"Everyone! We need to hurry!"

"Huh? Hurry for what?"

The Duke, the Duchess, the Imperial Crown Prince, Kyle, Jax, and even the Marshal looked around alertly until Luca suddenly said,

"We need to take out as much of the seaweed as possible!"

"Eh?"

Kyle, for one, breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that this was just very much like his mop, who would rush the moment he saw anything he could hoard. Honestly, if he weren’t too scared, his little star would’ve also joined them in the water.

But then the adjutant was pulled away from his thoughts because Luca suddenly blurted,

"They’re going to kill the corals and the oysters! We need to move fast!"

"What?!"

Safe to say, they had absolutely no idea what was happening, except for the fact that their underwater expedition had suddenly turned from sightseeing into harvesting leafy things under the dictatorship of one Luca Kyros.

But how could Luca not worry when he spotted it earlier?

How would he live with himself if he didn’t fix such a mortifying problem?