The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL]-Chapter 957: The Cost of Abundance

Dying corals.

Yep.

Honestly, Luca wouldn’t have even noticed it if he hadn’t been particularly scanning the area for his precious oysters.

Then again, even if he had seen such a thing, most people, especially those around him, wouldn’t have had any idea what was happening.

And yes, that would’ve applied to him too if not for a particularly memorable experience he once had back in Tesseris.

There was a time when certain kinds of corals were rumored to enhance the efficacy of pills. As one might expect, the people who wanted Luca to produce even better guiding pills demanded that he use those corals as ingredients.

Now, the little guide didn’t really have much of a choice back then. Despite the fact that the best way to produce a better guiding pill was actually to avoid other ingredients entirely, he still had to produce pills that were allegedly improved so they wouldn’t discover his secret.

What Luca only found out much later was that his "improved" guiding pill caused other guides to demand the same material from the Guiding Center so they could also produce pills that might elevate their status.

Safe to say, the government tried to keep up with the rate at which the corals were being harvested.

And in an attempt to grow those particular corals faster, they experimented with growth serums and various enhancement formulas.

Much to no avail.

It wasn’t something that happened right away.

But one day, Luca realized that the usual shipment of corals never arrived.

Instead, he received a magazine.

And that was when Luca first read about the concept of eutrophication.

It was also when he first realized that he needed to avoid saying he used materials that weren’t common or easily renewable. He might be punished for failing to produce better pills after being given rare materials, but he absolutely couldn’t afford another disaster like the one that happened.

While he hadn’t intended for it to happen and had never imagined something like that could actually occur, it still wouldn’t change the fact that his choice ended up resulting in destruction.

But so much for feeling bad about the past.

If he couldn’t do something about it before, then he ought to do something now. But what exactly was eutrophication in the first place?

The faces surrounding Luca on the raft showed clear curiosity after the golden-eyed cadet mentioned what they had done earlier.

Honestly, it was only because they had successfully carried out what could only be described as underwater first aid that the little explorer managed to regain his excitement.

Because if they hadn’t finished clearing as much of that seaweed earlier, Luca would’ve been worrying about the corals for who knew how long and wouldn’t have been able to enjoy their spoils at all.

But now that they’d cleared it out, he could finally explain the little he knew about the subject.

"Well, remember the corals that looked really pale earlier? Like they’d been bleached? I figured it was partly because of the sudden growth of algae. In this case, the seaweed we were trying to collect."

"Son, earlier you said they were dying?" asked the curious father, his brows furrowed.

"Yes, Papa. While hopefully they weren’t dead yet, when corals start looking like that, it usually means they’re in a really bad state that would likely lead to death."

"Then the seaweed... if they’re deadly, how could we possibly eat them?"

"!"

Well, that question resonated with everyone who had just finished hauling in a mound of seaweed in a hurry earlier.

How could anyone possibly eat something like that?

"Ah, that’s because the seaweed itself isn’t exactly deadly," Luca explained. "But because of eutrophication, or the overabundance of nutrients, algae can grow far more than they should and end up causing a lot of problems."

"There’s an overabundance of nutrients?"

"Overgrowth is bad?"

Several people murmured among themselves.

And Luca nodded before answering.

"I wouldn’t have noticed if not for the stark difference between what peeked out of the barrier and what lay behind it." Luca took a deep breath before continuing.

"Also... it probably has something to do with the nutrients ending up in the water because of our fields."

Safe to say, the mention of fields immediately made one redhead blurt out,

"What?! The fields?!"

If they hadn’t been sitting on a raft, Jax might’ve already stood up in distress.

"Yes, the farming plots," Luca explained quickly. "It’s probably accidental. The things we grow there are... um... growing really well."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Great soil, the addition of compost, and the abundance of spiritual energy no doubt contribute to the faster-than-normal growth rates that we enjoy. But since the land and the water are connected, some of those nutrients probably seep into the waters too."

The dungeon owner gestured toward the water around them.

"As you can see, the fish are also really big because of that. But sometimes too much of a good thing isn’t great when something needs balance."

"In this case, the seaweed grew a little too well. That’s great for us because we can eat it, but it’s not very good for the corals."

"Why?" Kyle asked.

"Because the seaweed blocks the sunlight," Luca replied simply. "Corals, specifically the organisms inside them, need light. If the seaweed grows too thick above them, the light wouldn’t reach them properly, so how could they photosynthesize on behalf of the corals?"

At that point, Luca suddenly turned toward the air.

"D-29, could you please show us the footage from earlier?"

A moment later, a holographic projection flickered into existence just above the raft.

The image displayed the underwater view they had seen earlier. Thick masses of reddish-purple seaweed swayed heavily in the currents while the corals beneath them appeared pale and washed out.

Luca pointed at the image.

"See? The corals that were paling were the ones directly under the thickest patches of seaweed."

Several people leaned closer to the projection.

"Oh..."

"And it could get even worse," Luca continued. "If the seaweed dies and just stays there, like if fish eat parts of it and leave the rest behind..."

He paused, visibly uneasy at the thought.

"Bacteria will start breaking it down. And when that happens, they use a lot of oxygen. That could leave parts of the water without enough oxygen for other things to survive."

It likely wouldn’t have happened right away, at least not in the dungeon space, since anything enhanced by spiritual energy tended to take much longer to break down. But it certainly could have happened if they had never caught wind of it.

Just imagine if they had only discovered it much later. Wouldn’t that have been horrible?

Luca shuddered slightly.

But the ones who reacted more strongly were the others on the raft, who now stared at the pile of seaweed they had collected with far greater concern.

"But don’t worry, everyone!" Luca quickly added. "If we make a farm for the seaweed or collect it regularly so it doesn’t pile up too much, we should be able to prevent that kind of problem."

"Ehh???"

"So we’re really going to eat that, brother?!" Ollie said as he stared at the strange seaweed with disbelief.

Honestly, the whole situation felt ironic.

How exactly were they solving the problem by farming even more of it?

Still, Luca wasn’t entirely wrong.

By creating controlled seaweed farms, they could sequester excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from the water, helping restore balance to the ecosystem.

But who could’ve predicted that solving such a problem would involve everyone rolling up their sleeves and creating unusual things?