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

But if there was a benefit to Duke Leander’s new obsession, it was the fact that he had laid low from bugging the fishes.

They were the same ones who clearly needed a break from the back-to-back fish dishes that were enjoyed for a few days.

For days, those scaly innocents lived in a state of dread—not because of natural predators but because of their regular assailant.

The fish knew.

They could feel the pressure.

Thankfully, Elder Pao Xi’s abilities had considerably improved the condition of the aquatic creatures. The significant boom in fertility and growth was promising, but it was not the answer to more long-term sustainability issues.

Given the current growth and fertility levels, this was especially true if they ever attempted to breed in the wild, as this might result in overcrowding.

So, one guild leader decided to look for possible solutions.

And that was great and all, if not for one particular mop lamenting his fate.

It was one thing to buy the facility but another to build it from scratch. And yet, there he was—a mechanic who part-timed as a student—having to learn a new blueprint for this aquaponics farm.

Now, that was not the problem. He was generally okay with blueprints, especially quality-of-life ones. His issue was understanding the reasoning behind the build.

In fact, the very concept of farming with soil had been very new to him, and now the soil was being replaced by fish poop water?!

Ollie was struggling to understand why.

Add the fact that they didn’t exactly know about edible fish until very recently, and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.

Especially when the partner-in-crime and good brother learned incredibly fast.

”So, brother, you’re saying we’re gonna farm...with that?”

Luca nodded, eyes still fixed on the physical book he held before him. ”Not exactly just poop. Oh well—technically, yes, but also no. Hmm...”

Jax, Duke Leander, the four bony elders, and even Tortie (reluctantly) gathered around, forming a semi-circle like schoolchildren as Luca stood and showed the visual interface modeled by D-29.

”So this,” Luca said, gesturing to the hologram, ”is aquaponics. It’s a hybrid system. You raise fish in a tank like this one—”

The image showed a large water container with fat, contented fish.

”Obviously, these fish would produce waste, which happens to have ammonia. And in high concentrations, this could really be toxic to the fish that would be submerged in that water.”

Ollie blinked slowly. ”And we want to keep that water?”

”Yes. But only because ideally, we’re going to nitrify the water so that we can convert the ammonia into nitrites, then nitrates. And as you all have likely learned, plants really like that.”

Jax’s hand shot up. ”So the poop gets turned into plant food?”

”More or less, yes.”

The image shifted to reveal pipes connected from the fish tank to planter beds full of lush greens.

”These vegetable beds sit on top of or beside the fish tanks.”

”The goal is for the plant roots to clean the water by absorbing the nutrients. Then eventually, the cleaned water would return to the fish.”

Duke Leander leaned forward, squinting at the screen. ”So... fish feed the plants... and the plants clean up after the fish?”

”Exactly.”

”!”

”Brilliant,” whispered Elder Shen, who now looked personally offended that no one had told him about this sooner.

”Look, Elder Feng, the soil isn’t needed anymore! I told you, long ago—”

”Oh, shut up! With the Lord here, even your medicine is redundant!” Rebutted Elder Feng, who wanted to clock Elder Wei.

Luca scratched his cheek sheepishly. ”To be honest, I just read about it recently. I found a book in the Trove when I searched for sustainable fish farming.”

The problem I had with the other available farms was that they would require us to change the water.

But right now, we’re using spiritual water, and it’s likely not infinite.

”So, I was hoping for something that would save us resources,” he admitted. ”Something that produced food sustainably. But more than anything, something that we can try to replicate.”

The learning pupils were shocked by this goal of replication, except for the mop, who was in on it the moment his brother suffered the CP loss.

That explained why Ollie was now clutching a blueprint that cost them 100,000 CP.

”We could’ve just bought the facility,” he continued. ”But to have hope of replicating this outside, we must study the blueprints.”

The facility alone was a whopping 250,000 CP for a modular aquaponic complex I, but Luca regrettably shelled out more because it made the most sense out of all the options.

Yes, it was expensive.

But it was also an investment.

”If this works,” Luca said, ”we can replicate it off-world. We’ll be able to build farms anywhere.”

And that was when the project truly became something else.

For one, Luca encountered a bit of an issue when it came to the nitrifying bacteria and this was why he wanted to ask everyone’s opinion.

He shocked everyone by announcing that maybe they should open this facility in the Sanctuary for now.

His main reasoning was how difficult it would be to teach the people about this type of farming when it was inaccessible to them.

After all, even these guys were finding it outrageous.

Also, he figured that while the facility was likely automated, a large number of people would still need to learn this if they ever hoped to meet higher production demands.

Well, that was according to Xavier.

And the little entrepreneur thought so, too.

But more importantly, because Luca needed help. While the unactivated nitrifying bacteria could be bought from the Trove right now, it was going to be impossible to do this off-space if they can’t culture this.

Now, he honestly had no idea how difficult that would be.

Luca only knew the basics from school. Frankly, he was praying that the bacteria culture wasn’t so different that no one would be able to recognize the samples he would ask them to look at.

Thankfully, he was right.

For when the Duchy’s researchers saw what they were asked to replicate, they were only momentarily confused.

It was a tense moment, but when they confirmed that they could do it, Luca realized they might actually be able to begin this construction!

But what do you know, they weren’t the only ones busy with construction efforts.