Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~
chapter-128

Psychic

“Shouldn’t you just let Maria do what she wants while we eat?”

“No, thank you. Maria likes to be on my lap.”

“Yes, ~Death…”

(She’s completely domesticated. I’ve never owned a cat, but it’s like the relationship between a cat owner who loves his cat and a cat who wants to be free.)

Nina, Kiel’s younger sister, has been staying with Maria ever since she came to live at the base. Perhaps she feels lonely, or perhaps she likes Maria very much, but she sleeps with her.

We were in the middle of breakfast, when this conversation took place between Kiel and Nina.

Five days have passed since Kiel, Nina and their servants came to live in the base. It’s still a little awkward, but I think we’re getting used to it.

We’re currently working our way through three C-class dungeons every day. Thanks to the treasure chests that are rewards for defeating the bottom floor bosses, we’re earning about three Gold coins a day. One-sixth of that is the cost of managing the base, such as food and servants’ wages, so that’s 50 Silver coins a day.

Sometimes it’s pretty close, but I was not concerned about any of this. I believe that the financial issues would be resolved shortly.

“Come on, get ready. We’re going out to conquer the B-class dungeon today.”

Yes, because we’re about to conquer a B-class dungeon.

“”Oh!””

At my words, everyone who had finished eating responded. As we left the base, Kiel patted Nina on the head, who was looking at him anxiously. This was a regular event when we went out to the dungeon.

There were two B-class dungeons near the base.

The composition of the magical beasts that appear in B-class dungeons was unique, with some being insects and others being undead spirits, but we were attempting the insect-type this time. The reason for this was that the attacks of the magical beasts were easy to read and the only cause for concerns were traps such as poison and treasure chests.

Not long after we left the base, we saw the building of a B-class dungeon. The adventurers lined up looked stronger than those in the C-class dungeons.

Eighty percent of adventurers are able to conquer C-class dungeons.

Only 20% of the adventurers can conquer B-class dungeons because in B-class dungeons, if we run into a trap or something, we die. And it’s useless if we can’t defeat a B-rank magical beast, the lowest floor boss of the B-class dungeon.

It is said that without Talent, you will never be able to defeat the bottom floor boss of a B-class dungeon. They are mainly attacked by a party of many Talented adventurers.

B-rank dungeons are a wall that people without Talent cannot overcome.

In addition, we were told by the Adventurer’s Guild that 5 to 10 parties jointly participate to conquer an A-class dungeon.

When we entered the building of the B-class dungeon, the receptionist asked me if we were in the correct place, as it seemed unusual to have five young people in the building. We showed him our C-rank adventurer’s cards, and walked into the building.

“Welcome. This is B-304, the Dungeon Management System.”

Just like in the C-class dungeons, there was a cube-shaped object floating in the room when we entered.

Here too, we were told about the traps and other precautions. I wondered if this was a precautionary measure because of the large number of ~Deaths, so we listened until the end just to be sure.

There wasn’t any more information than what we found out yesterday, so I ask it to skip the information and let us into the dungeon.

“The atmosphere is no different from a C-class dungeon.”

Dogora, carrying an axe on his shoulder and looking around commented. It was a stone dungeon with cobblestones. I don’t know why, but it was not dark at all.

“Yes, but there are traps, too. Let’s move carefully.”

I gave everyone an antidote, just in case. If we take it beforehand, it will work for a day. It cost three Silver coins, so it’s not that cheap.

I summoned Eagle and started looking for a path. While searching for a path, I thought back to the explanation I received at the Adventurer’s Guild earlier.

About B-class dungeons in general

• B-class dungeons have 10 to 12 floors
• Travel time for one floor of a B-class dungeon is about 12 hours
• The upper floors of the dungeon are filled with D-rank magical beasts, while the lower floors are filled with C-rank magical beasts
• The bottom floor boss is a B-rank magical beast

(Let’s see, this is a dungeon with 12 floors, right? The minimum travel time is 12 hours, which means that if we walked at 5 kilometers per hour, it would be 660 kilometers to the 11th floor.)

I wanted to know how long it would take us to reach the next floor. This time we didn’t know the way, and we’re also going to hunt Mimics. And I also want to check a few things regarding my C-rank summons.

“I found the way. Come on out, then. Frans.”

“”Kyuuuui””

We started moving forward without using [Run Through] skill. Only D-rank magical beasts would appear, but there were traps to deal with, so we didn’t rush from the beginning.

And then it was time for lunch.

The clock magic tool cost 50 Gold coins, but I plan to buy it in a little while.

Right now, I judge time by how hungry I am. As you can imagine, if you go to the dungeon every week, you can usually tell by how hungry you are.

Even so, we were going at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour. We entered the dungeon around eight in the morning and made it two floors ahead before noon.

“We haven’t seen many treasure chests.”

Cecile said while eating bread. She has gotten used to eating outside in the past two months.

“‘Well, for what it’s worth, I guess we are prioritizing dungeon conquer fist. From the looks of it, there aren’t that many treasure chests on each floor.”

I expect there to be only a few treasure chests on each floor, with a minimum distance of 60 kilometers between them. If there is no treasure chest on the shortest route, we probably won’t find them.

We’ve been ignoring the treasure chests in C-class dungeons, but I still don’t remember seeing many of them.

Then we travelled through one more floor in the afternoon and finally found one on the fourth floor.

“Oh! A treasure chest!”

Kiel shouted as he saw a treasure chest at the back of a small room. Everyone stopped Kiel as he leaned forward. We have taken measures to prevent poison, but that treasure chest could be a Mimic.

“Okay, well, Maria, why don’t you open it up a little bit?”

“Yes, ~Death!”

Maria fluffed her way to the treasure chest.

We have no one in the party who can disarm traps, so the plan was to have Maria check the treasure chests for traps.

I have other summons that have limbs, but they can’t speak. Besides, Maria can pass through walls, so she can see inside treasure chests without opening them. It means that if it was a trap, we wouldn’t have to open it.

Everyone was nervously watching Maria heading for the treasure chest. Kiel was waiting to cast a recovery spell. Kiel’s magic is naturally effective on my summons.

Summons can also recover their health and strength with my medicines.

As Kiel has grown to level 30, I don’t need to use [Grass of Life] at all.

Rather than a need, the rank of the magical beasts that appeared up to this point was only C at the highest, and they didn’t have any use since Kiel could heal them immediately.

[Name] Kiel

[Age] 12

[Talent] Priest

[Level] 30

[Strength] 397

[Mana] 749

[Attack] 298

[Endurance] 421

[Agility] 479

[Intelligence] 661

[Luck] 603

Skills: Priest<2>, Heal <2>, Resolute <2>, Swordsmanship <3>

[Extra Skill] God Drop

{TLN: I personally interpreted it as great drops from magical beasts. “神の雫” is the kanji. }

[Experience] 26,550/30,000

Skill level

[Priest] 2

[Heal] 2

[Resolute] 2

Skill Experience

[Heal] 28/100

[Resolute] 15/100

(His skills are growing nicely. I think he learned Recovery Magic by going to Church and praying.)

Kiel had a <Priest> Level 1 and a <Heal> Level 1 when I recruited him. Like Cecile, his <Priest> became Level 2 when he reached Level 10.

There seems to be a level cap for skills.

Then I went to the church and prayed to get the skill too. Normally, we would have to pay an offering, but due to the Church’s and the Academy’s connection, we students didn’t have to offer anything.

In addition, the amount of recovered health was directly dependent on [Intelligence]. I haven’t been able to verify this, but Kiel learned it in his afternoon class. The reason why we couldn’t verify it was because no one took that much damage.

While I was thinking about this, Maria reached the treasure chest. I also looked at the treasure chest closely via using <Sharing> on Maria.

It was a plain wooden box. It could be one of the following three things:

• Real treasure chest
• Trap
• Mimic

As for how to tell them apart, I was going to see what was inside the treasure chest without opening it. Maria could slip through matter. I don’t know what the walls of the dungeon were made up of, but Maria was able to slip through them normally.

If it’s a treasure chest, we will open it. If it’s a trap, we will leave it as it is. But what should we do if it’s a Mimic?

Maria buried her hands and face in the chest.

“Grr!”

Maria buried her face in a little and suddenly the mouth of the treasure chest opened with a bang. The rim was lined with countless large teeth that looked like saws.

“It’s a Mimic!”

“Hah! Die, ~Death! [Psychic]!”

I was surprised to see a treasure chest suddenly attacking Maria. A gray, round, volleyball-sized sphere rose from Maria’s hand and headed towards the Mimic with great speed.

“GUAA-AH!!!”

“~Death by ~Death! ~Death!

Every time the Mimic was hit by Maria’ special skill [Psychic], it blew up. Without any mercy, Maria continued to shoot. Even after blowing it up to the edge of the wall, the attacks didn’t stop, and finally the Mimic stopped moving. It seemed to have died.

“You have defeated one Mimic. You have acquired 20,000 Experience Points.”

(Hmmm… an strengthened Maria can defeat a B-rank magical beast using only half of her mana?)

Considering Maria’s strength, her mana fully recovered in 6 hours.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Seriously? Mimic is a B-rank magical beast, isn’t it?”

Dogora was astonished. In the meantime, the Mimic turned into a B-rank magic stone and a Mithril spear. It seems that it was true that Mimics sometimes drop items when defeated.

“Whoa! There’s a spear!”

Kurena got a Fran and picked up the spear and magic stone. This spear would sell for about 50 Gold coins.

This is how Allen and his friends proceeded to conquer the B-class dungeon.

Translator’s Corner

Thanks for reading.