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

Limb regeneration.

Or rather, the study of regeneration itself was a field that humans back in Tesseris—particularly Espers—had been extremely invested in.

While some were awakened with the ability to heal, they couldn’t possibly heal everyone, not when injuries had become part of daily life.

In Luca’s opinion, that obsession came from a number of things: the rising casualties from dungeon clearing and dungeon breaks, the inability to recover severed limbs from monsters, the failure of vessel-related experiments, and the complications that came with limb reattachment.

Yes, reattachments had come a long way—if the research he’d read was accurate. But that was assuming the limb could even be recovered.

And that was easier said than done, since monsters rarely cared to give things back. And if they did, would it even be in a recognizable condition?

Probably not.

Still, if researchers had managed to create something like Specimen 401, how could they not make new limbs?

Well, they actually could. The problem was that the process took too long.

And considering how time-sensitive reattachment was, it would have been impossible to beat the deadline.

More importantly, the government’s main concern wasn’t just about whether they could make limbs. It was about who they were making them for—especially when it came to their prized Espers.

Sure, recovery was possible for the lucky ones who had healers nearby when an injury occurred. But full functionality? That was another story.

And even if no complications arose, for the awakened—whose spiritual pathways were everything—there was always a chance that the connection would never recover properly.

That kind of failure spelled disaster.

So, in their desperation to uncover the secrets of regeneration, researchers had turned to nature.

Salamanders, sea stars, hydras, sponges, and sea anemones. Those had been the shining examples in every regeneration study.

Information and news about them were everywhere, so even as Lucas, it would have been impossible not to read or hear about them.

Though he hadn’t really seen them close enough until he himself ended up a prisoner and a test subject.

He remembered the tanks, the sterile smell of chemicals, and the faint conversations that slipped through glass walls.

Different purpose, same cruelty.

After seeing, observing, and fighting with this odd creature, the returnee couldn’t help but be reminded of certain creatures.

Cnidarians.

A diverse group of animals known for their cnidocytes—specialized stinging cells used for both defense and catching prey.

And out of the different Cnidarians, he couldn’t help but narrow it down to something more particular.

Sea anemones.

Obviously, the colossal creature in front of them didn’t look anything like those fuzzy, carpet-like sea anemones he’d once seen in books or tanks. But then again, if Pan-Pan and friends could grow bigger than ostriches, and Tortie the Sludgeborn Tortoise was basically a giant mountain, then couldn’t sea anemones also get a bit of an upgrade?

He tilted his head, thoughtful. ”Maybe they can,” he muttered to himself.

And so, Luca wondered if they could somehow confirm it.

”Brother, is it really a sea anemone?” Ollie asked with complete faith and zero biological understanding. The mop didn’t know what a sea anemone was, but if his good brother said it was, then it probably was one.

When Luca first mentioned that the creature seemed similar to one he’d seen before, his friends nearly stopped in surprise.

”What? Luca, have you fought something like that before?!” Jax shouted, his voice rising as he dodged a massive tentacle like his life depended on it.

The thought alone was horrifying. Once was bad enough. Twice? That was cursed luck.

But more than that, the redhead was internally mourning his peace of mind.

’It could’ve been such a cute child,’ he thought while swerving away from another tentacle, ’but the moment it tried eating me, it felt more like an animal!’

”Oh no!” Luca said brightly, as if that was good news. ”But back in Tesseris, I’ve seen several similar ones—”

”Several?!” Ollie practically squeaked.

What kind of dangerous wasteland was Tesseris for his fragile brother to encounter several of these monsters and live to tell the tale?!

”B-but back then,” Luca continued, completely oblivious to the mop’s mental breakdown, ”they were much cuter!”

”Cuter?!” Ollie was scandalized. His hair antenna almost stood upright in protest.

”Huh? Brother, I thought you’d like this one,” Luca said, dodging another incoming strike with smooth precision. ”It looks very imposing.”

”Oh no, Brother! It’s too imposing!” Ollie cried in despair. ”The tentacles, they don’t even look smooth, and the head—Mnnf!”

Static cut through the channel.

A short pause.

Then a muffled grunt.

Followed by silence.

After a few seconds, Ollie’s voice returned, sounding very put out. ”Brother, apparently I’m not allowed to talk about heads.”

Somewhere in the background, Kyle’s hand could probably be seen twitching in visible restraint.

Still, the mop bravely pressed on. ”Did all the monsters you saw before look like this?”

”No,” Luca replied casually, still slicing through a tentacle mid-swing. ”They were definitely smaller, more colorful, and didn’t try to eat people. But...”

He paused, thoughtful, almost fascinated as another massive limb regenerated before his eyes. ”There are familiar traits.”

Luca began to list the creature’s characteristics.

”Lives in an aquatic environment? Check.”

Well, it wasn’t so aquatic now that it had surfaced like this, but whoever said chicken bosses couldn’t lay golden eggs?

”Stinging cells used to capture prey? Also, a giant check.”

And then Luca added, with a thoughtful hum, ”When it’s not bending like that, the shape looks just like I remember. Hmm...”

The others went quiet.

Xavier finally broke the silence. ”Then what about the different attack formations earlier?”

Luca’s tone brightened immediately, as if someone had just asked him about his favorite subject. ”Ah, well, that’s because another trait of Cnidarians—of which sea anemones are a type—is that instead of having a centralized brain like humans, they have a nerve net. It’s a decentralized system that allows for highly localized and independent control of body parts.”

”So earlier,” Luca continued, sounding far too calm for someone discussing a monster the size of a fortress, ”when we attacked as a group, I wanted to check if the creature’s other movements would be affected by a major attack. But sure enough, they weren’t.”

”Then, when you made everyone split up earlier,” Kyle said, suddenly realizing it, ”you wanted to test if the tentacles would also split their focus, right?”

Luca nodded with a pleased smile. ”Exactly. I wanted to see if the tentacles could react individually rather than just as a collective body.”

”Then, Brother, about attacking it with its own tentacle?”

”Ah! That’s because the stingers are usually triggered by two things: there must be contact, and the next is that the creature must consider it as prey!”

”...”

”...”

That definitely didn’t sound nice as the glorified prey.

But apparently, the golden-eyed mecha pilot wasn’t done.

”There are actually a few other traits,” he said, voice picking up in excitement. ”Like radial symmetry and a gastrovascular cavity, but to confirm those, we’d need to see more!”

That ”see more” was far too cheerful for anyone’s liking.

Xavier’s eye twitched, but he still managed to ask, ”Luca, if it really is a sea anemone, how would that affect us?”

Luca perked up, thinking hard. ”Well, you see, sea anemones can reproduce both asexually and sexually, so—”

He never got to finish.

Because at that exact moment, the monstrous creature that had been suspiciously still suddenly moved.

The sea itself seemed to recoil as the aberrant beast convulsed, its enormous body buckling like a wave breaking over itself. Then, with a sound that could only be described as horrifyingly wet, it spat something out.

A massive, pulsing mass of bone, flesh, and goo shot from its mouth, flying across the air like a projectile the size of a hovercar.

”!!!”

The corruption level alone made one pilot and his little system scream with unsettling delight.

Then Luca, wide-eyed and breathless, muttered what had been echoing in his heart

”Yeah. If this isn’t a sea anemone, then what else could it possibly be?!”