Catgirls And Dungeons (Yuri)-Chapter 251 - 251: Eris is filthy rich!

So, in the end, the Devouring Core is both a blessing and a curse.
On one hand, the person can absorb and cultivate mana at a monstrous speed, far beyond what most people could ever achieve.
But on the other hand… if they don't know how to properly manage that power, it becomes a death sentence.
If they don't train seriously, or fail to get strong enough to hunt and afford high-quality food, or if they simply don't even know they have this rare condition...
Then their fate is almost certain.
Death.
Sooner or later, their body will break down, devoured by their own core.
...
But now that I know I have a Devouring Core, dealing with it… honestly isn't that hard!
All I need to do is eat food that's packed with both nutrients and mana. As long as the core is satisfied, it won't steal energy from my body anymore. And that means, finally, I can grow stronger! Maybe even build some real muscle, instead of being a stick with limbs!
However…
There's just one small problem.
"Eris…" I glance over at her. "H-How much did that wyvern egg cost?"
"Hm?" She tilts her head, thinking for a second. "Well, given that wyverns only mate once every ten years, and they lay just one egg per cycle… yeah, they're pretty rare actually. I think it was around one million crowns?"
…
Eh?
WHAT.
"ONE MILLION?!" I screech, my voice breaking into a squeak.
My hands fly to my head, clutching at my hair as I stagger backward, practically shaking in my boots. My soul has left my body. My vision is going white. My brain has thrown up the blue screen of death.
One. Single. Egg.
Cost a million crowns!?
And I just slurped it up like a happy little dumpling!
Yeah… dealing with a Devouring Core is easy, huh?
Just eat an one-million crown egg every single freaking day!
Haha…
Hahaha…
I finally get it now, why only one in tens of millions of people have this condition.
Because it's basically unaffordable.
A Devouring Core demands too much. You'd need to eat like royalty every day just to survive. Forget building muscle or becoming strong, most people probably can't even keep living! They waste away, drained by their own mana cores before they even know what's wrong.
They never get the chance to grow up.
They probably die young, unrecognized, unmarried. The trait doesn't even get passed down.
Survival of the richest, I guess.
But then I glance at Eris…
She's just sitting there sipping tea casually, totally unfazed, not even a twitch.
In fact, she's the one who suggested I eat two or even three wyvern eggs a day!
Then again… this is Eris we're talking about.
She did buy this giant mansion for 690 million crowns. On a whim! Just because I said I liked the crimson flowers…
Haha.
Is this what it's like to be ultra-rich?
To have money so massive, so ridiculous, that prices don't even register anymore?
To have the power to afford literally anything in the world?
It honestly feels surreal.
My girlfriend isn't just rich.
She's stupid rich!
"Hey, I still have a ton of money! This much is nothing," Eris says, waving her hand casually. "So don't worry! Besides… it's not even really my money."
Oh—right!
She did mention it before.
Most of her wealth actually came from looting Lucian's corpse after she killed him. All the money, treasure, magical items, and who-knows-what-else stuffed into his dimensional ring like a bottomless criminal piggy bank now belongs to her.
Apparently, that bastard had been using his position as the Shadowfang Guildmaster to rake in an absurd amount of dirty profits.
He was also a big player in Aphaeleon, running all sorts of illegal schemes.
Black market trades, banned magical substances, underground arenas, slave networks… Lucian had his hands in everything.
So yeah, it's no wonder his net worth was off-the-charts insane.
Now that I think about it, Eris never actually told me how much she got from him.
Maybe I didn't want to know. But now, my curiosity's winning.
"J-just curious… how much did you get from Lucian?" I ask hesitantly.
"Hmmm… probably around… 15 billion crowns," Eris replies, completely calm.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"
My whole soul leaves my body for a second time.
F-F-Fifteen… billion crowns?!
Oh shit…
I get it now.
With that kind of money, she could literally buy ten of these mansions and still have more than enough left over to bathe in gold if she wanted!
"And I haven't even sold any of his stuff yet," Eris adds casually. "Lucian had this little obsession with collecting rare and powerful equipment. There are probably hundreds of Legendary items, and even a few Sacred-grade relics, all just sitting in his inventory. If I sold them all, I could probably squeeze out another ten billion crowns, easy…"
"Ha… haha…" I laugh, but it comes out more like a wheeze. My hands grip the edge of the table like I'm trying to anchor myself to reality.
"So don't worry. These mere wyvern eggs? I can definitely afford them! The only problem is whether there's enough supply," Eris says with a smug little grin as she takes another sip of tea.
"Y-yeah..." I nod, trying to look normal, even though my brain is completely overheating.
Oh my gods…
This is insane…
My girlfriend is a freaking multi-billionaire!
_______________________________
It takes me a few minutes to fully process everything.
My brain's still spinning from the whole "Devouring Core" revelation, but as the shock begins to fade, more questions start bubbling up in my head.
"…Eris," I glance at her, brows furrowed. "Why don't you eat these wyvern eggs too?"
"Oh, because I just love watching you eat the whole thing!" she says with a wink and a teasing grin.
"Hehe, that's sweet," I smile… then immediately narrow my eyes. "But nuh-uh! Give me the real reason!"
I mean, seriously, she's insanely rich. She could easily afford hundreds of these eggs without blinking. And yet, she only took one tiny bite, just to sample it, and didn't touch it again.
That doesn't add up. Not at all!
Yeah, no way I'm falling for one of her cutesy brush-offs again. Not after that pregnancy prank. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, well… okay, maybe I already have been fooled twice, but still!
Eris lets out a small sigh and finally leans back in her chair.
"Alright," she says.
"Well?" I press gently.
"It's because I simply can't," she replies.
"…What do you mean, can't?" I blink.
"Because the egg is too potent," she explains patiently. "There's a natural limit to how much mana any core can absorb within a certain time frame. And in my case… my core can't process it nearly as fast as yours can."
She pauses, giving me a meaningful look before continuing.
"If I tried to eat the whole thing, one of three things would happen: One, most of the mana would go to waste because my core wouldn't absorb it fast enough. Two, I'd get a really awful stomachache. And three, if I pushed my luck, there's a chance I could trigger mana overload syndrome!"
My ears twitch. That sounds pretty familiar actually!
"M-Mana overload syndrome?" I echo.
"Yeah." Eris nods. "You've probably heard of it before, right?"
"Oh right!"
I remember now.
If a mage absorbs too much mana at once, they can fall into what's called a mana overload state. Their body temperature rises to dangerously high levels, and mana starts leaking into their organs, causing internal damage. It's like having a bomb go off inside your body!
"But… you've got a four-ring core," I murmur. "Even that's not strong enough to handle a single egg?"
"Nope," Eris says, shaking her head. "That just shows how absurd your Devouring Core really is."
"Oh...," I breathe, my eyes widening.
"And another thing," she adds, tapping her spoon against her cup. "The mana in a wyvern egg isn't refined or stabilized like a processed mana stone. It's raw, unfiltered, and carry the violent nature of a high ranked magical beast. Most cores can't handle that kind of energy without purification. But your Devouring Core? It will just eats it like candy!"
Oh!
Now it makes perfect sense.
Eris kept asking me earlier how I was feeling, not just out of curiosity. She was checking, making sure I could actually handle it.
And I did.
Somehow… I did.
And that's how Eris was able to confirm it.
I really do have a Devouring Core.
"After all, a single wyvern egg contains about the same amount of mana as an S-rank mana stone," Eris continues, resting her cheek in her hand. "Even at my level, it would take me a few whole days to fully absorb something like that."
"Wait—S-rank? That much?" I gasp, eyes wide.
"Yep!" Eris nods, smiling.
"I-I see…" I murmur, my brain still struggling to catch up. A whole S-rank mana stone… inside my belly? No wonder I felt like a lightbulb!
And then—
"You're probably saving money too, you know!" Eris adds with a sly grin, her tone suddenly mischievous.
"W-what do you mean?" I blink at her.
"Guess how much an S-rank mana stone costs," she says, smirking as she takes another sip of her tea.
I rack my brain.
Let's see…
I remember reading about mana stone prices once.
Hmmm...
C rank stone costs around 100 crowns
B rank is average at 5000 crowns, that's literally 50x the price!
Then… if the increase is at the same rate, an A rank one would sell for 250 thousands crowns!
And that means… S rank stone…
WHAT?
OVER TWELVE MILLION?!
"I-I don't know..." I stammer. "T-Twelve million?"
"It's actually twenty million per S-rank stone," Eris says casually.
"WHAT?!"
My jaw practically hits the table.
"Then... how come my wyvern egg is just one million?! That's literally twenty times cheaper!"
"It's simple," Eris explains. "Because you don't need to refine the egg's mana! You just cook it and eat it, done! But an S-rank mana stone? It has to go through heavy purification to make it usable for cultivation! That takes time, resources, and experienced mana-processing experts. And their fees are no joke at that level."
"Oh crap..." I start shaking. "So... even though my Devouring Core sounds like a bottomless pit at first… it's actually saving me money?!"
"Absolutely!" Eris says proudly, that smug smile never leaving her face. "Feeling better now?"
"Nn!"