The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] novel Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Upgrade Requirements

It was tempting to take the pills now. However, he figured he'd do it after checking on the rest of his space. But Luca's musings were interrupted by the clucking of chickens.

*Buk buk buk buk ba-gawk!*

This excited Luca, only to be greeted by chickens the size of turkeys that were barrelling towards him.

"!"

Luca feared for his life and jumped on a rock before noticing a familiar animal.

"Pan pan! Is that you?"

"Bok! Boooook!"

"What happened to you guys? Why are you so fa—, I meant big," Luca remembered, being pecked to near baldness, and decided to pick his words well.

Last he remembered they were supposed to be the size of regular chickens. But he had no time to ponder on it when his eyes landed on a giant watermelon.

No, it wasn't just big.

That's the size of a mature pig, alright?!

"D-29, are you back yet?" Luca tried pinging for D-29, wanting to know why he's got super-sized crops and animals.

When he did not receive a response, Luca decided to postpone the question and continued to look around his old garden plots.

Luca was continuously gobsmacked by the sight before him. While he was overjoyed with the amount of food based on his estimate, he wasn't sure if these were safe to eat.

What if he became like Pan-pan and the other chickies?

It was only after inspecting the overgrown crops and fruits that D-29 finally piped up.

"Host! I apologize, the synchronization took longer than expected! But I've returned with some news!"

"Finally, I wanted to ask you a few things, too. But, what did you gather while you were gone?"

D-29 finally felt a bit useful and decided to show the diagram to its host.

"We now have access to this part of the Dungeon, and with this comes the interface." Honestly, D-29 was still thinking about how to deliver the news it obtained but figured it would first discuss the good news.

Luca looked at the projection of his space. He was amazed at how it looked like a 3D map of the entire place.

"This is what we have access to as of now."

"And you're saying this is the mouth of the dungeon?"

"Yes, host. Like the outdoor garden to a house."

"Then where's the house?" Luca couldn't help but ask as he looked for anything unfamiliar in the projection.

"That's just it, host." If systems had faces, D-29 would look extremely embarrassed as of now.

"Is there a problem?"

"Apparently, what we have access to are the Base functions, practically Level 0."

Luca felt like he was missing something important but could only listen to D-29's bashful explanations.

"We need to collect the required points to access the Level 1 functions."

"Points? Do we have to pay?" Luca, the little money-grubber, was visibly worried about his little stash.

Thankfully, D-29 hurriedly explained that it didn't require any Star coins but a totally different currency.

"Host, we need Corruption Points or CP. I thought we'd need spiritual energy similar to the barrier, but when the manual showed more instructions, I discovered that it was asking for this instead."

"Where do we get these Corruption Points?"

D-29 felt like hiding, feeling more and more incompetent as it kept on responding to the questions.

"I have yet to determine where we could get the points, host. I apologize."

Luca's happiness dampened a bit, but this was still better than nothing. And if D-29 could do a little more than just exist, that should be better than when they first started.

[INITIALIZING SCAN]

[SCAN COMPLETE]

With this alone, there shouldn't be any fear of starving to death. All Luca had to do was to think about different recipes and survive on this.

"Pan-pan and the others surely worked hard over the years!" Luca muttered as he browsed the inventory panels.

"Are these edible?"

"Yes, Host. Based on my earlier assessment, these should be safe for consumption. But you might want to take it slow because these are really brimming with spiritual energy."

Luca took D-29's warning to heart but couldn't resist the complaints of his stomach.

__

Like the chickens, the eggs were enormous, and Luca thought these might be ostrich eggs instead.

"Uhm, Host, I think I also found the problem with this world."

"Problem? There's a problem with this world?" Luca paused his cooking after hearing something alarming. _{ƒreewebηoveℓ.com}

"Remember the weird fruits you first tasted? And how your online shop was suddenly doing so well?"

"Well, Host, that's because there's barely any spiritual energy left in the environment. The people of this era almost solely depend on their innate spiritual energy for everything."

Luca craned his neck at that. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem. But how do they upgrade their ranks? And what do they do when they get hurt or deplete their innate reserves?

"The interstellar people know of spiritual fruits but save for preserved relics or accidental finds from uncharted planets. Most people haven't really seen one in the last few decades."

"What?! Is that why Ollie reacted like that?!"

"Yes, Host."

His mind raced with possible problems stemming from the lack of spiritual energy in nature.

But more than anything, Luca shivered at the realization that he could've died shortly after coming to this world without his space.

A world without naturally occurring spiritual energy would've killed someone like him who desperately needed an infusion of enormous energy.