The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] - Chapter 307

Chapter 307: Core Problem

On the other hand, one little system turned mecha would have loved to be lectured about gentlemanliness and bedside manners instead of facing an almost one-way ticket to hell.

D-29 was not having a good day.

From having to escape such a perilous location to journeying to the barren lands, it did not expect an additional set of hurdles.

Beasts. Loads of them.

Apparently, the beasts were also instinctively running towards the same location. And if so, did that mean that whatever was rising from underground didn’t discriminate between challengers and beasts?

But what about systems?

Can’t there be an exception? Thought D-29 as Luca swung his arm to fight off another lunging beast.

But what to do when the real issue was not the monsters but the host?

See, halfway through the battle, they noticed something interesting about the slain creatures.

“Host!” D-29 squawked in panic as it swerved to avoid the claws of a crimson, scale-plated cat-beast that had just finished eating the remains of another.

But before Luca could answer, he ended up busy dodging a stone-armored serpent that had grown a second jaw.

Halfway through the chaos, Luca had paused just long enough to observe something disturbing—newer beasts arriving weren’t attacking indiscriminately. No, they went straight for the fallen.

More specifically, they were going for their heads.

“???”

“Why are they eating each other?” Ollie shouted from behind a shield of energy, his voice high and horrified. “That’s already double dead!”

It was not an ideal situation and was frankly disconcerting, especially for Ollie, who was seeing a battlefield like this for the first time.

While they had encountered many monsters earlier, it was only now that they were fighting back.

But then something worse happened as those chomping beasts seemed to have gotten a power-up after doing just that.

Luca witnessed it and tried thinking about the possible reasons for the beasts’ actions until he remembered the beast cores.

The beasts he fought before also had energy cores, but theirs were corrupted during the time he got them.

But what about these ones?

“Brother… I think they’re eating the cores,” Luca muttered, his eyes squinting as he saw one do just that.

“What cores?” Ollie asked, flinching as a winged beast swooped too close to the mecha he was on, only to be narrowly avoided by Kyle.

“It’s where they store energy, much like humans.”

“But more than storing energy, for high-grade cores, they usually retain the attribute of the beast,” explained Luca, who remembered seeing insane advertisements of weapons with S-grade beast cores back in Tesseris.

“Wait, what?!” Ollie squeaked.

It’s coming as a surprise to them because, for a while now, not enough energy has been circulating everywhere that even if they looked for cores, they likely won’t find any on many of the beasts.

And if they do, they likely wouldn’t be of a high enough level to use.

If so, shouldn’t they be collecting these crystals for themselves? Luca blinked, then tilted his head as he thought about it.

They should.

Really, really should.

“Brother, if we can collect these, we should be able to make weapons with unique traits.” Luca exhaled as he awakened the spirit of a money-grubber in his brother.

“Say, what now?!” Ollie practically wiggled in his seat, forcing Kyle to manually keep him in place.

“Hey, stop doing that or they’ll be collecting our cores instead!”

“But Kyle! You heard my brother, right?!” He looked up at Kyle as he gathered the stars in his eyes.

The poor adjutant and driver had no choice but to sigh.

“I heard him. We’ll collect what we can, especially from the more powerful ones.”

“Yes! I knew you had it in you~” exclaimed Ollie, whose hair antenna was doing a wild rotation.

But just before they could start this new enterprise, D-29 decided to fess up.

“Well, Host! If you’re doing that, you should also collect these materials, most if not all are showing up as rare based on my limited capacity.”

In particular, you might want the following:

1. Beast Core

2. Crystallized Bone Marrow

3. Adaptive Chitin

4. Blood-Etched Horn

5. Mutated Optical Tissue

There was a long pause after D-29 displayed the list.

Then the two brothers turned slowly toward the battlefield, blinking in awe.

“We could maybe… make something with those,” Luca said, a little breathless.

“And I could probably organize them into tiers based on price per piece,” Ollie said, voice cracking with excitement. “For labeling!”

“Labeling is important,” Luca agreed.

“It’s so important,” Ollie whispered back.

Another beast collapsed nearby with a thud, revealing a faintly glowing core by its skull.

The two brothers stared.

And Kyle did not have to see it to know what was going to happen next.

Luca had vastly changed his methods of fighting, making sure to make clean cuts that won’t damage the loot’s marketability.

And Ollie?

The blonde mop was out there telling Kyle how to cut up a beast, depending on what he thought he could do with it.

They were still scared. Still wide-eyed.

But the determination of two money-grubbers who’d just discovered profitability could not be stopped.

A beast growled from afar.

They perked up.

“…Do you think that one has a horn drop?” Ollie asked.

“Maybe a Grade A core, brother,” Luca whispered.

It was a muted exchange before they went off.

But Kyle thought they weren’t going off as warriors.

But as very polite, extremely earnest, mildly terrified treasure goblins on a crafting mission.

And he was an unfortunate pilot for one.

But this job would have been very popular for one prince who would’ve been satisfied if only he’d been asked to pick up loot from the ground.

Instead, he has had to pick up his heart from the floor a few times.

“So, you’re close to our Young Lord, right? Then could you tell us about his popularity?” Gisella looked at the poor prince pointedly.

“Popularity?”

“Yes. It’s been a problem for the members of this family. We’re not that wary of monsters but of people trying to take our lords and ladies.” Gisella practically hissed, and Xavier felt it hit his right lung.

“Gis, if you say that, you’re going to make it difficult for my son to find the next Duchess,” chuckled the Duchess, who was in a good mood despite all this.

“Your Grace, I don’t think it prevented the Duke from finding you.”

And that guy had nearly been chained up because he wouldn’t let up.

“Also, how difficult would it be to find a good enough duchess for our adorable Young Lord?”

“How could you say that when you haven’t even seen him again?” Asked Cece, who thought that her friend had gone bonkers.

“That’s just it.”

“He was adorable even when he wasn’t well yet, so how much more adorable could he get now that he’s well?! I tell you, I’d likely have my hands full with flies once we’re out of here.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that, my son’s rather young. Also, with Leander hovering around like a death trap, do you really think you’d need to worry about it?” Reassured the Duchess.

All valid points. Xavier thought.

All valid, had the heir not been married off to the Imperial Crown Prince.

And this was mainly the biggest reason why he hadn’t come out with their relationship.

Who would be the actual heir to the Duchy of Kyros when their heir happens to be the de facto Imperial Crown Princess?