Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~
chapter-115

Stray Recruitment (1)

Now that we’ve conquered a dungeon, I’ve decided to make it my daily routine to go to the bottom floor of the Class C dungeon once a day. Naturally, I go to the bottom floor even on days when I have Academy.

The boss of the dungeon is said to reappear every night at midnight even after it is defeated. The first steel sword dropped by the bottom floor boss we got was sold for two Gold coins.

Since the four of us are living together, it is a valuable source of income. We don’t want to be extravagant, but we eat out for all three meals, so it costs a lot of money. Kurena eats quite a bit, and we have to pay the Academy fees as well.

The magic stones obtained in the dungeon basically belong to me, so the reward of the lowest level boss we get is our funds to operate.

The reward of C-class boss generally sells for one to two Gold coins. The rewards come in a variety of weapons, armor, and recovery potions. It seems to be pretty random.

I plan to add another C-class dungeon to my routine after conquering it.

There are a total of six dungeons around the 15-minute walking distance from our base: three C-class dungeons, two B-class dungeons, and one A-class dungeon.

I have talked to others about increasing the number of bottom floor bosses I go around on a daily basis as we capture more dungeons in the future.

Everyone agreed on this, but Cecile had one suggestion.

She asked me if we should hire someone to do the housework in this large house. She wanted to hire a maid or a manservant to do the cleaning and such.

Naturally, there are many empty rooms that don’t need to be cleaned. So, everyone, including Cecile, cleans the common areas on the first floor, toilets, and water closets.

In the future, when I will have to go around four or five bottom floor bosses on a daily basis, I won’t be able to manage the base, including cleaning.

This was something that I had been thinking about as well. We ended up postponing it, saying that we would think about it when we reach that point.

It is now early May, two weeks after we conquered our first dungeon.

Classes begin again today for another four days at the Academy.

We can sit anywhere in this classroom, but the seats have generally been decided. I made sure to sit by a window. During class, I was going to convert the 10,000 D-rank magic stones I had gotten yesterday into 2,000 [Mana Fruit]s.

I can use <Create> and <Synthesis> in the classroom, but to turn a D-rank Grass summon into a [Mana Fruit], it needs to be on ground. Pretending to look outside the window, I worked on creating [Mana Fruit]s on the ground, which was not easily seen by people within a range of 50 meters. Chappy then picks up the [Mana Fruit] in its beak and puts it inside the <Inventory> page of the Grimoire.

“Good morning, Allen.”

“Good morning, Rifol.”

As soon as I took my seat, I was greeted by the student sitting in front of me, Rifol.

He is slim and slender looking, but he is the son of an Earl named something. The story goes that his father is a General. After discovering this source of information on the battlefield, I greeted him when he entered the classroom and tried to establish a relationship with him as a classmate.

Rather, I was approached in part by Rifol. His goal was probably not me, but the Master Swordsman Kurena, but after seeing the relationship between me and Kurena, he decided that it would be better to talk to me.

I think it’s also good to have a relationship that is based on mutual calculation.

“Allen, did you hear that?”

“What?”

“I heard that Master Swordsman Doberg is coming to give a class next month. I heard that the Hero will be coming with him as well.

(Oh! Master Swordsman Doberg’s class? Or rather, the Hero is coming to the Kingdom again? It’s been less than two months since the entrance exam, is he that free? No, of course not.)

The Demon King’s army is not always fighting on the battlefield. Fortresses are not attacked by magical beasts all the time. Recently, it seems that the fight with the Demon King’s army at fortresses happen only about once a year. In the past few years, the number of magical beasts has decreased due to the influence of the Hero, and the number of battles has gone from two or three times a year to one.

It happened because of the Hero.

The Hero and Doberg, the strongest in the Kingdom, are coming to the Academy to give lessons. The Academy has good transportation by Magic Ship. In addition, it seems that it is customary for the Hero to instruct the new students, perhaps to gain popularity, saying that he taught the students of the Academy well.

(That’s useful in this kind of situation. I’ll join the class.)

I can join any class I want. Just when I think I heard some valuable information from the General’s son, Rifol, our homeroom teacher walked into the classroom.

There is a homeroom class before the morning Liberal Arts class.

“Oh, I’ll give you the heads-up. Listen carefully.”

In a rather casual manner, he gave us some of the information for the day. And then…

“Hey, you guys have been at the Academy for a month now. Have you gotten to know everyone in the classroom?”

The students were puzzled by the question, the purpose of which was unclear.

“As some of you may know, there will be a dungeon conquest assignment during the summer break in August and September.

(Hmm?)

“You can conquer any dungeon you want, but anyone who hasn’t done so during the summer vacation will be expelled.”

I heard a girl’s voice saying “Oh no!” in a small voice.

“I’ll tell you the conditions of the dungeon conquer. You may invite first-year students from other classrooms, but the party must have less than eight members. You can’t hire adventurers or anyone else outside the Academy, and you can’t have second-year students or other upperclassmen help you. If you cheat, it will be recorded on your adventurer’s card. Anyone who cheats will also be expelled.”

Hearing the word “expelled” made the students buzz even more. Some of them were unconcerned; they must have known that the assignment would be given during the summer break of their first year.

“‘Yeah, because last year about 20 people died in the dungeon during summer vacation, you’d better do your research before you go.”

The noise changed from a whisper to a scream. The homeroom teacher didn’t talk about the mechanics of the dungeon or the difficulty of the dungeon at all. He just let the students do everything from gathering friends to gathering information.

(I see, that’s it.)

While everyone was buzzing about it, I came up with a theory as to why he was letting us attack the dungeon.

It would be to send non-noble students to the battlefield.

I had been wondering if this was the case since about a month ago, when the students were instructed not to use honorifics with each other. I had also stopped using honorifics and titles with Cecile. I’m sure everyone else has done the same.

No honorifics, no status barriers, just Nobles and commoners working together to complete a tough task for one goal. There would be similar challenges next year and the year after that. And the students will be given a lesson in the history of the Demon King next year. The Nobles would then ask their party members for their service. The friends who endured the severe ordeal and ate from the same pot may die in the battlefield and that will motivate the commoners to hollow their Noble friends.

The Academy wants one Noble to lead seven commoners to the battlefield, and that seems to be the goal of the Five Continents Alliance.

Only 300 Nobles graduate each year, leading several times as many commoners as there are Talented adventurers, and mercenaries. And the number of people going into battle will range from three hundred to several thousand.

“Whoa!”

As I was thinking about this, a man stood up from his seat. He gave me a look that said, “What’s going on?”

“My name is Hector! And I’m looking for friends to help me conquer a dungeon! I’m looking for Swordsmen, Spearmen, and Axe Knights! I’ll close the recruitment once there are eight of us!”

A man who called himself Hector, a big, burly man, started this recruitment camp. Someone shouted, “I’m in!”. Then someone else, who was watching, started recruiting as well.

(I still have to stop the homeroom teacher.)

The homeroom teacher, who was the kind of person who talks with fists rather than mouth, crossed his arms and didn’t stop this situation.

(This is a total wild goose chase.)

There are many who are jumping on this train who don’t want to be left behind by their friends. I got a sense of déjà vu in this noisy situation of this wild recruitment.

In my previous life, I often saw this scene. It’s not uncommon to need friends and form parties in online games. I remember frantically typing in the chat room to recruit others.

In the world of online games, there is basically a friend function that allows you to register players you have met in the game as friends. That’s why I always went hunting with my friends that I met through the friend function.

However, there were times when I needed to recruit a companion for a short term, such as one item collection or one hunt. This is called stray recruitment. In some games, it is also called a temporary party.

That’s what’s happening right now, right in front of my eyes.

(Good grief, amateurs. I’m going to show you what I can do after screaming for two hours every day to get friends to a temporary party. Let’s see what this stray recruitment is all about.)

Allen stood up slowly.

Translator’s Corner

Thanks for reading.