Chapter 59: The Dungeon Boss & The Scapegoat Strategy

【Siegfried PoV】

The door to the boss chamber loomed ahead like the gates to my personal hell.

Massive stone slabs covered in glowing runes, pulsing with ancient magic that made my teeth ache just looking at them. The rest of the dungeon had been standard fare—traps, monsters, Elizabeth decapitating things, Lilith taking notes on decapitation efficiency. But this was different.

Boss chambers were where protagonists proved themselves, where epic battles happened and legends were born.

I hated every second of it.

The doors swung open with a grinding sound that echoed through the corridor, revealing a chamber so massive I couldn’t see the ceiling. Bones littered the floor, thousands of them, remnants of adventurers who’d tried and failed. The air smelled like death and old magic, a combination that made my stomach turn.

Then I saw it.

The Skeletal Dragon rose from a mountain of treasure at the far end of the chamber, bones reassembling themselves from scattered pieces. Each bone was the size of a tree trunk, held together by crackling dark energy that pulsed like a diseased heartbeat. Empty eye sockets blazed with purple fire.

The thing was massive, easily fifty feet tall, its wings spanning the entire width of the chamber.

“Finally, a worthy opponent.”

Elizabeth drew her sword, that familiar gleam of excitement in her eyes.

“I will defeat it and claim its skull for Eksu.”

She charged forward before anyone could stop her, blade flashing in a perfect strike aimed at the dragon’s spine. The sword connected with a sound like a bell ringing, but instead of cutting through bone, it bounced off harmlessly.

Elizabeth stumbled back, shock clear on her face.

“Impossible. Nothing has ever withstood my blade.”

The dragon’s jaw opened in what might’ve been a laugh, no sound emerging but the intent clear.

“Allow me.”

Lilith stepped forward, her hands already glowing with compressed magical energy. She released a focused beam of pure mana that should’ve vaporized the dragon’s skull.

The beam hit the bone and dissipated like water against glass.

Lilith’s eyes widened, the first genuine surprise I’d seen from her.

“The skeletal structure is immune to magical interference. The dark energy coating acts as a perfect nullification field.”

My blood ran cold.

A boss that was immune to both physical and magical attacks, the two primary combat methods in this entire world. That meant Elizabeth couldn’t cut it, Lilith couldn’t blast it, and I definitely couldn’t do anything because I was useless.

That meant—

《EMERGENCY SYSTEM QUEST ACTIVATED》

The notification blazed across my vision in angry red letters.

《QUEST: DEFEAT THE SKELETAL DRAGON》

《REQUIREMENT: EKSU MUST DEAL THE FINISHING BLOW》

《REWARD: +15% PROTAGONIST TRANSFER PROGRESS》

《FAILURE PENALTY: HOST WILL BECOME THE DRAGON’S CHEW TOY》

No.

No no no no no.

This was exactly the kind of forced protagonist moment I’d been trying to avoid for eight years. The system was dragging me back into the narrative, using threats and rewards to make me participate in the story I’d been desperately fleeing.

《TIMER: 5 MINUTES UNTIL PENALTY ACTIVATION》

The dragon’s attention shifted to me, those purple flames focusing with predatory interest.

I had no choice.

Fifteen percent progress would put me at thirty-five percent total, over a third of the way to freedom. And if I refused, I’d literally get eaten by an undead dragon.

I grabbed Eksu’s shoulder and shoved him forward.

“Go, Champion! Use your secret technique!”

【Eksu PoV】

“What secret technique?!”

I stumbled forward, Siegfried’s push sending me several steps closer to the massive dragon that was definitely about to kill me. My defense activated automatically, shimmering around me like a nervous shield that knew exactly how screwed we were.

“I don’t have a secret technique! I don’t have any techniques!”

The dragon’s skull tilted, examining me like I was an interesting snack.

“You can do this, darling!”

Elizabeth called from somewhere behind me, her voice full of confidence I absolutely did not share.

“Your defensive capabilities suggest untapped offensive potential!”

Lilith added, equally unhelpful.

I stood there frozen, my mind racing through every possible option and coming up with exactly zero good ideas. My 【Absolute Defense】 could protect me from attacks, but it didn’t help me fight back. I had no magic, no sword skills, no protagonist powers hidden in my back pocket.

I was just a guy with a really good shield and absolutely nothing else.

The dragon’s jaw opened, purple energy gathering in the back of its throat.

Oh no.

“Siegfried, I swear to god if I survive this I’m going to kill you!”

The dragon released its breath attack, a torrent of Cursed Fire that turned the air itself black. The flames weren’t normal fire—they twisted and writhed like living things, radiating wrongness that made every instinct scream at me to run.

I couldn’t run.

My legs were frozen, my body locked in place by pure terror.

I did the only thing I could do—I threw my arms up to cover my face and prayed my defense would hold.

The Cursed Fire hit my barrier.

For a split second I felt the heat, felt the malevolent energy trying to burn through my soul itself. Then my 【Absolute Defense】 did something it had never done before.

It reflected.

The flames bounced off my barrier like they’d hit a mirror, redirecting back toward the source at twice the speed. The Cursed Fire engulfed the dragon’s skull, spreading down its spine and through every bone. The dark energy holding it together combusted, igniting like gasoline.

The dragon tried to roar but the sound came out as a wheeze.

Its bones glowed white-hot, cracks spreading through the ancient skeleton like a broken window. The purple flames in its eye sockets flickered and died.

The entire dragon collapsed into ash, disintegrating so completely that only a pile of gray powder remained where a fifty-foot monster had stood seconds ago.

Silence filled the chamber.

I slowly lowered my arms, staring at the ash pile with my mouth hanging open.

“What just happened?”

【Siegfried PoV】

Eksu had just accidentally defeated the boss.

The boy had literally done nothing except exist and his defense had somehow turned the dragon’s most powerful attack into a suicide move. The Cursed Fire, legendary for being impossible to defend against, had bounced off him like a tennis ball.

《QUEST COMPLETE》

《REWARD: +15% PROTAGONIST TRANSFER PROGRESS》

《CURRENT PROGRESS: 35%》

The notification sang in my vision, beautiful and perfect.

But I couldn’t celebrate yet because everyone was staring at Eksu with expressions ranging from shock to academic fascination to romantic admiration.

I had to sell this, had to make them believe this was intentional.

“Incredible!”

I threw my hands up, putting every ounce of fake enthusiasm into my voice.

“He used the Reverse Void Counter technique! I’ve only read about it in ancient texts!”

Eksu turned to look at me, his expression clearly saying ‘what the hell are you talking about.’

I ignored him and continued.

“By allowing the attack to make contact with his defense, he calculated the exact vector and angle needed to reflect it back with amplified force!”

“The Reverse Void Counter?”

Lilith’s notebook was out instantly, her pencil flying across the page.

“I’ve never encountered that technique in any magical literature.”

“It’s extremely rare, passed down through only a few master warriors.”

I was making this up as I went, pulling random words together and hoping they sounded legitimate.

“The user must have perfect control over their defensive capabilities and an instinctive understanding of energy vectors.”

Lilith’s eyes lit up with that dangerous gleam that meant she’d found a new research subject.

“He manipulated the vector of the thermal energy by creating a perfect reflective surface at the molecular level. The angle of incidence equaled the angle of reflection, but he added a compression factor that amplified the return force exponentially.”

She was building on my lie, adding scientific explanation that made absolutely no sense but sounded impressive.

“Genius. Pure tactical genius.”

“That was amazing, darling!”

Elizabeth rushed to Eksu’s side, her face flushed with excitement.

“You’ve been hiding your true strength this entire time! That technique was flawless!”

“I didn’t—”

“So humble, even in victory.”

She cut him off, clearly hearing what she wanted to hear.

“A true warrior doesn’t boast about his capabilities.”

Eksu looked at me with an expression of pure betrayal, but I just grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

The system had given me fifteen percent progress, Eksu had survived without actually having to fight, and everyone believed he’d used some legendary technique instead of just standing there terrified.

This was what I called a complete victory.

“We should document this.”

Lilith was still writing, her notebook filling with diagrams and calculations.

“If the Reverse Void Counter can be replicated, it would revolutionize defensive combat theory. Eksu, I’ll need to run extensive tests.”

“No tests!”

Eksu’s voice cracked.

“No more experiments! I just want to leave this dungeon and never think about dragons again!”

The treasure pile where the dragon had been began to glow, magical items revealing themselves now that the boss was defeated. Gold coins, enchanted weapons, rare artifacts—the standard dungeon loot that would’ve made any adventurer rich.

But I only cared about one thing.

Thirty-five percent progress meant I was over a third of the way to freedom, to finally escaping this protagonist role and letting Eksu take the burden.

I glanced at him, watching as Elizabeth and Lilith crowded around him with congratulations and requests and romantic attention.

Sorry buddy, I thought, but better you than me.

The dragon’s ashes stirred in a sudden breeze, scattering across the chamber floor like snow.