The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character Chapter 165 165: Boss Monster [3]

Okay.

Fine.

I got a little excited.

…Alright, way too excited.

But co on—if you had twenty high-grade magic bombs, all personally enhanced with your talent, and a monster that could tear apart half a city glaring at you like you were lunch—what else are you supposed to do?

Use them all.

Every. Single. One.

And I wasn't even halfway through yet.

Click. Glow. Toss.

Click. Glow. Toss.

BOOOOOM—!!!!

I could feel it—the way the mana swelled in each bomb the mont I activated my talent. Like I was breathing life into them. Giving them purpose.

Behind , soone muttered, "He's not… seriously going to use all twenty…"

Spoiler alert: I was.

"I AM!" I shouted without turning around. "WHY ELSE WOULD I BRING TWENTY IF I WASN'T GONNA USE TWENTY?!"

Another boom rocked the door, and dust rained down from the ceiling like a soft sprinkle warning us of an incoming cave-in. Mira shrieked and ducked behind a pillar. Violet looked like she'd just seen a war god descend.

Leo didn't say a word.

But his gaze? That sharp, calculating look he always had when things got serious?

Even he was rattled.

And Trent?

He backed up so far, he hit the wall. Literally. Thunked into it, eyes wide like saucers.

"I thought—" he stamred, "—I thought you were joking! You said you had a plan, not a suicide mission!"

"Jokes don't cost forty million credits, Trent!" I yelled over the sound of the next detonation. "This is strategy! Explosive, budget-annihilating, sanity-defying strategy!*"

BOOOOOOM!!!

The door cracked.

A jagged line crawled down the stone like a spiderweb.

The beetle roared again from inside, but now?

Now it sounded different.

Not rage.

Not challenge.

Panic.

"Oh my god," Mira whispered. "It's actually scared."

I turned to them slowly, eyes wide, grinning like I'd found the aning of life in a sack of dynamite.

"And you know what's really fun?" I said, voice shaking with laughter. "We're only at bomb number seventeen."

Leo blinked.

"seventeen…?"

I nodded solemnly. "Yep. Still got three more."

And then I cackled.

Like a man possessed. Like I was channeling the spirit of every mad alchemist who ever thought, "What if we made it go boom... but bigger?"

I didn't even need a weapon.

I was the weapon.

"Let show you all," I said, lifting another glowing orb. "This is what happens… when you bet against ."

And the seventeenth bomb flew—

Silken arc.

Golden glow.

The countdown to extinction continued.

----

Finally, the last bomb went off.

Twenty out of twenty.

Mission accomplished.

Kind of.

The air around was... weird. Quiet. Heavy. Almost like everyone had agreed not to talk about what just happened.

Most people wouldn't even look at . The few that did quickly glanced away the mont I t their eyes. Even Mira, who usually had sothing snarky to say, stayed dead silent.

I scratched the back of my neck and gave a small, awkward chuckle.

"…Yeah. Okay. Maybe I went a little overboard."

A long silence.

No one replied.

Fair.

Honestly, I had nothing to say for myself either. I was a bit crazy out there. Throwing bombs like I was so kind of maniac with a personal grudge against doors.

And you know what?

I kind of enjoyed it.

But still. Moving on.

After catching my breath and watching the last bit of smoke curl away from the half-destroyed stone wall, I gave Leo a small nod. Quiet. Almost subtle. Like we were both pretending I hadn't just tried to erase the door from existence.

He hesitated, then stepped forward and placed a hand on the cracked handle.

"Gr…oaaan."

The door creaked open slowly, dragging against the warped hinges. Smoke spilled out, curling along the floor like mist.

We all tensed.

I squinted through the haze, expecting to see… well, nothing.

Surely twenty bombs would've done the job, right?

Right?

Wrong.

A deep, ragged hiss echoed from inside.

And then we saw it.

Still standing.

The beetle.

Barely, but it was alive.

It stumbled into view, its massive body swaying, legs twitching. Cracks ran across its carapace—jagged lines like broken glass. Parts of its shell were scorched black, and smoke curled from several open wounds.

But its eyes still burned red.

And worst of all… its outer shell?

Still intact.

Shattered, scorched, dented, but not gone. Not broken enough.

"...You've gotta be kidding ," I muttered.

The silence behind cracked as Trent finally found his voice.

"You used twenty bombs! What is that thing made of?!"

I didn't answer. I was too busy staring at the beetle's body… and the faint, eerie green glow pulsing under its shell.

Well… it was alive.

But it wasn't exactly charging at us like so enraged boss monster anymore, so that was sothing.

Its legs wobbled with every step, its massive body swaying like it might collapse at any second. Smoke still trailed off its back, and the hissing sound it made was more pitiful than threatening.

Not ideal, but hey — at least we weren't imdiately going to die.

"That's… actually kind of sad now," Ama whispered behind .

I shrugged, brushing off the ash on my sleeves. "It's still breathing. I call that a design flaw."

"Twenty bombs…" Leo muttered beside , squinting at the limping beetle. "It's effective, but I'm not sure about its efficiency."

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He had his spear in hand, the tip glowing faintly as he infused it with magic. Typical Leo — calm, asured, painfully practical.

I bet he was already calculating the cost of every bomb in terms of contribution points and loot distribution.

And I couldn't bla him.

I an, he probably couldn't afford twenty high-grade magic bombs even if he sold everything he'd gotten from the mobs we'd hunted this week. So yeah, from his perspective, this whole thing must've looked like a psychotic waste of resources.

But I had my reasons, okay?

I grinned, nudging him with my elbow. "Hey, co on. This place has a real reward room, rember? I was just making sure we get in there safely. I was looking out for you, Leo."

He shot a look.

Not quite annoyed, but definitely skeptical.

"…By nuking the door and half the hallway?"

"Details."

The beetle let out another ragged groan — more like a wheeze this ti — and took a half-step forward before collapsing with a heavy thud. Dust billowed up, and a few of the others flinched.

I tilted my head, watching it twitch.

"Think it's dead now?"

Leo didn't answer. He just stepped forward, lowered his spear, and drove it straight into the thing's head with a clean, final motion.

The beetle shuddered once. Then went still.

Everyone relaxed.

Leo wiped the tip of his spear clean on the beetle's cracked shell and looked back at .

"No more bombs, right?"

I raised both hands. "I'm out, I swear."

He narrowed his eyes, clearly not believing — and probably for good reason — but he didn't press it.

Fair enough.

With the path clear, we turned our attention to the heavy stone door behind where the beetle had stood.

Now ca the real prize.

The reward room.

"Well, the boss is down. Ti to see if all that bomb money was worth it," I muttered under my breath, brushing so soot off my coat.

To my surprise, everyone's expression brightened — like they'd just rembered why we were even risking our necks down here.

Even Leo looked a little hopeful.

Sure, we'd made so decent cash off materials along the way, but the real appeal of dungeons was always the reward room. That one mysterious place that made you feel like maybe — just maybe — you'd hit the jackpot.

Of course, this wasn't so fantasy ga where every difficult dungeon handed out legendary loot like candy. Reality had no pity system. Sotis you went through hell and ca out with nothing but a sore back and mild trauma.

But after everything we went through today?

I was feeling lucky.

And they wouldn't regret following today — I'd make sure of it.

At the far end of the boss chamber, another massive stone door stood waiting. It looked almost identical to the one we blew our way into earlier, except this one wasn't guarded by a flaming murder-beetle.

Just the sight of it made my heart thud a little faster.

"They say empty vessels make the most noise," Violet murmured as we approached, running her fingers along the smooth stone. "But this one's been awfully quiet."

"You're right," Leo added, glancing at the subtle runes etched into the doorfra. "Feels like it's hiding sothing big. We might actually have sothing good in here."

The door creaked open slowly, heavy and deliberate. A soft blue glow spilled out from within.

Leo and Violet stepped inside first, their expressions shifting from curiosity to quiet amazent.

"…Huh."

That sound from Leo — half-gasp, half-breath — was rare enough to make the rest of us hurry in behind him.

And there, right in the center of the room, lit by a gentle, pulsating light, was a spear.

Not just any weapon — no.

This one looked like sothing straight out of a king's armory. The shaft was black and silver, laced with veins of glowing azure energy. The head of the spear shimred with a strange, liquid-like light, sharp enough to split air.

It was… beautiful.

Even Leo — calm, logical, "we-need-to-be-smart-about-resources" Leo — was staring at it with a kind of wonder I'd never seen on his face before.

I couldn't help but grin.

"See?" I whispered. "Told you the bombs were worth it."