The Only Male Student in the Academy

025. Defeat the Blatta Dungeon (1)

My face is reflected in Claire’s sunset-colored eyes looking at me.

Close enough to see it clearly.

If there was no such thing as a sense of crisis.

Only his instincts as a man would have remained here.

“What is it?”

“Didn’t you hear? If Ariel beats Alex, I can drop out. Surely that’s the condition I put in the first place, right?”

Claire smiles.

What should I say to that?

While hesitating about that, Alex comes over and pulls Claire off.

“Oh, Claire-sama…! Why are you doing this… Claire-sama doesn’t have to drop out because of a guy like this…!”

“Alex, in order to ask someone to risk their life, you have to risk the same yourself.”

“Yes…?”

Alex tilts his head at Claire’s mysterious words.

“But when it comes to Alex’s life, isn’t that a good thing? Ariel won’t accept a bet even if you risk something like that.”

“What is that…”

“My life is more important to Alex than his own? Then I’ll bet it. My life.”

Claire slipped away from Alex’s hand and pushed Alex back.

As if to be left out of the story.

“So, what are you going to do, Ariel? Are you going to risk each other’s lives or not?”

“Don’t ask when you know.”

I answered that.

What if I beat Alex in front of everyone?

How is it? He’ll be the boy who expelled Claire.

You will truly become a public enemy.

But is that all?

The Marquess of Entirus will also contact you. Why did you expel our child?

“What~. Are you a coward? That’s what Ariel said first.”

“It must be common for each other. You and I are the same that we didn’t mean it.”

“Hmm~. That’s right.”

Claire nodded as if she understood.

Then he took two or three steps back and fell to his knees.

“Hey, Mr. Claire?!”

Alex is surprised.

No, it wasn’t just Alex who was surprised. All the students of Magic Combat Department B class are looking this way.

Despite being stared at, Claire doesn’t pay any attention to it.

I just politely bowed my head.

“Princess Ariel Beheritt, I did not properly manage my trustees and caused them a nuisance.”

I apologize.

Claire’s polite voice that I’ve never heard before. Formal tone.

You can’t see his face because he has his head down, but that’s why it’s shocking.

This guy can do these things.

She would do anything to get me into trouble.

If you don’t call it madness, what should you call it?

“We will formally apologize. We will crack down on this in the future.”

Today is a later departure than usual.

Pack your luggage and close the door meticulously.

‘I gradually narrowed the encirclement and sat down.’

As I moved to the warp gate, I remembered what happened during the day.

-“I made Claire apologize.”

-“You made Miss Claire kneel? Are you crazy?”

-“No matter how much it is. It’s too much to do.”

-“A coward who can’t keep his word.”

With that feeling, I renewed the low point of my evaluation today.

It must be so.

Claire is the prince’s henchman, after all.

‘… No, she was a princess in this world.’

Whether it is the princess or the prince, the essence is the same after all. That Claire had tremendous power at the academy.

Except for the crown prince, no one can keep Claire in check.

The prince and Claire are even close to each other, so everyone bends over to take Claire’s side.

Not only that.

Claire even blocked my operation.

-“As an apology for this incident, I will order Alex Falto to probation.”

-“I won’t come out of the dormitory outside of minimum class hours.”

-“So you can rest assured that you will never come face-to-face with Prince Ariel Beheritt.”

Perhaps Claire had a vague idea of my relationship with Alex.

That’s why they completely excluded Alex.

What was expected?

I couldn’t ask Alex to challenge me for a long time. To be honest, it took a week or so, so it should be considered that the role has already been completed.

This week.

We have to make a deal with Claire within this week.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Marie. Did you wait long?”

I spoke to Marie who was waiting at the warp gate.

Marie hesitantly as usual, she approaches me.

“Oh, no… I-I’m back right now, so it’s okay…”

It was an obvious lie. That’s why I came much later than the promised time.

But she didn’t bother to point it out.

From now on, every minute and every second is a waste.

“Before the dungeon raid, I have something to say. It’s about the raid on the Blatta dungeon and future party activities.”

“Uh…, Lord, an important story?”

“Yes, it’s an important story. We won’t proceed with raiding the Blatta Dungeon any more after today.”

Marie is taken aback by my words.

“Uh, uh…? That…, Chu, we originally planned to attack within 14 days…? Oh, isn’t there still some time left?”

“Yes, but I have a situation that needs to be done quickly.”

“That’s right…”

“And after clearing the Blatta Dungeon, I want to clear the underground canal.”

“To the groundwater…?”

Marie tilts her head at the first word I said.

I nod my head once and explain.

“There is a wide underground waterway under the Philea Academy building. However, it has been neglected for a long time, so the dungeon is in progress.”

“I-I know that… But why is it all of a sudden…?”

“There’s a good reason for that. I’ll explain it to you after the midterms.”

That was all I could say.

I have to make a deal with Claire. But for that to happen, two conditions are required.

The first is the specifications.

Claire has excellent skills enough to appear as a boss in the ‘Prince’s Conundrum’ event. I heard that he joined the student knights, but there are few people including Claire who became members of the student knights during their freshman year.

In order to defeat Claire, I needed to grow up, so I went around the Blatta Dungeon with Marie.

And the second is Claire’s weakness.

That weakness lies at the end of the dungeon as underground water.

“Uh, yes… Ah, ok…. If Ariel needs to go, I’ll go too…”

Marie lightly agreed without asking further. It is also comfortable through the words well.

But soon, Marie puts on a worried expression.

“Ha, but… This is our first time going to the third floor of the Bletar Dungeon…? Oh, can we finish the raid within today…?”

“I’ve been thinking about the strategy, so there’s no problem.”

Briefly explaining the operation to Marie, we descended to the third floor.

What I saw as soon as I came down was, of course, a group of kobolds.

Two Guardians, three Warriors, two Archers, two Sorcerers, and one Shaman.

Besides that, there are three other types of kobolds, one each.

A kobold scout who seems to have a slender body but looks nimble.

A kobold rider riding a wolf.

And a kobold commander with a flag on his back.

There are 14 kobolds in total.

“Um, are you really okay with this strategy…?”

Marie asks before the fight.

“No problem.”

With that said, I threw the bomb.

Then he threw a bomb.

Then he threw another bomb.

One more bomb was thrown.

Two more bombs were thrown.

-Kwagagaga River!

– Boom!!!

– Kwaaang!!

It explodes.

Popping, popping, popping, popping again.

Every time a bomb is thrown, sparks rise and the smell of gunpowder stings your nose.

Caught in the explosion, kobolds’ bodies are shattered in an instant, and meat is scattered all over the place.

I don’t know if all the kobolds died well because the rising dust obscured my view.

But it must have been incapacitated.

I gestured to Marie.

“Go.”

Right away, I took Marie with me.

Marie desperately follows me, still wearing a worried face.

If you do that, kobolds will appear again and block your path.

Then throw a bomb.

Throw, throw, throw, throw, throw again.

Explosions occur everywhere you go, and you are covered with the smell of gunpowder.

—–

[Mountain Eater]

Crafting Rating: 8

Quality: Good

Attack Power: High

: A bomb named ‘Mountain Eater’ because it was made to cut down a mountain. The momentary strong explosive power is especially important.

—–

It can also be said to be an alchemist’s special move.

Most jobs fight using skills, but alchemists fight using items.

What this means is that, unlike other jobs, it is possible to shoot.

There is no cooldown and no mana consumption to attack.

In theory, it means that it is a job that can attack infinitely in a moment.

No matter how high the level was, there was no way that even the kobolds on the 3rd floor of the Blatta Dungeon could withstand such an attack.

“Eh, Ariel… Uh, aren’t there going to be a shortage of items if we keep going like this…?”

Marie raised a voice of concern when she saw me continuing to throw bombs.

Yes. There was a reason why I hadn’t used this kind of strategy until now.

In order for the alchemist to attack infinitely at once, the bombs must also be infinite.

However, the inventory is limited, so the bombs will run out someday.

Then.

“You can supply it.”

I brought out a new item.

—–

[Warp Gate Creation Order]

: A scroll that allows you to install a warp gate in your current location. Once used, the order book disappears.

You can get 100,000 gold when you resell it at the shop.

—–

A crack suddenly appears in a blank space.

I grabbed Marie’s hand and dragged her into the crack.

The view was distorted and the scenery changed.

“Eh… Eh…?”

Marie makes a dumbfounded face as if she doesn’t understand what’s going on.

Leaving Mari alone like that, I pack the lighter bag.

“Uh, over there…. Eh, Ariel…. W, where is this…?”

“It’s the basement of a building. It’s an ownerless building, so I’m using it for personal use.”

“Bar, the warp gate just came into being… Did you write the order for the warp gate…?”

“That’s right.”

“Isn’t that very expensive…?”

I nodded.

“They cost 300,000 gold each. So I only got about 10.”

“10 Each…?!”

“Anyway, since we’ve finished supplying the items, let’s go right away.”

“Uh, yes…”

With a bewildered expression, Marie followed me back to the Blatta Dungeon.

After that, they fought with the same tactics.

Throw bombs to blow kobolds away if they get in the way.

Then, when the bombs run out, activate the warp gate order book again to supply the items.

I kept repeating that.

It was a battle that could never be said to be a victory of intelligence.

Unable to feel even a hint of intellect, literally ignorance itself.

It would be more accurate to describe it as the victory of capitalism.

It was such a fight.

The smell of gunpowder stung my nose, so I got used to it. The smell permeates even the clothes, which is a bit unpleasant.

There was no such thing as a crisis.

But the amount of money spent today would be enormous. If you think about it that way, I think it was a good thing.

It’s a relief that Ariel is the son of a rich family.

Can you turn money into power?

“It will arrive soon.”

At some point, I stopped meeting the kobold troops.

As the frequency of monster appearances decreases, the roads gradually become more rugged.

If you want to enter a narrow street.

Someday, we find a cavity the size of a playground.

There is a huge kobold there.

I know the name of that monster.

Elder kobold.

This is the name of the boss monster in Bletar Dungeon.