Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~
chapter-136

Meteorite (Provisional)

It is now the end of September. The summer vacation will soon be over.

Cecile and Dogora were split up in the dungeon, but nothing like that has happened since. Everyone stayed within the range of the Transfer Trap’s magic circle as much as possible, and I also used summons to check for traps beforehand.

We also decided to not recruit a Thief or scout-related Talented person.

We did talk about recruiting new members though.

There are currently five of us in the party. We talked about adding more members, but we will basically continue with the five of us and invite any good fits if we find any.

My personal opinion was to find someone with a supporting Talent. Kiel and I have supporting skills, but we are not specialized in it. If we had someone who was skilled in supporting skills, our party would surely become even stronger.

Or we could have a tank. Kurena and Dogora both use large two-handed weapons. So, we do have use for a defense-specialist like a Warrior.

It’s summer vacation and everyone was probably already partying with their friends to conquer dungeons, so we’re not going to invite them, but if we found someone available and good enough, we were considering inviting him/her.

According to Viscount Granvelle, we would probably be sent to the same place on the battlefield. The situation on the battlefield changes from moment to moment, but it is said that the same grades and class of students often go to the same fortresses and other battlefields throughout the year.

I was told that there were only about three fortresses that the Kingdom was entrusted with. Most of the fortresses were guarded by the Empire. Since the Latash Kingdom and the Giamut Empire aren’t the only countries in the Central Continent, there are also fortresses guarded by other countries.

The fortress is divided between countries to defend. The reason for this, they say, is to strengthen the chain of command. If a General of Giamut Empire gives orders to the soldiers of the Latash Kingdom, their morale and obedience will drop and they won’t work well. If even the soldiers are also mixed up, they will not be able to exert their power as one. As a result, many fortresses have fallen in the past.

Since the time I discussed Kiel’s story with Viscount, I’ve had Poppo on standby at Viscount Granvelle’s mansion as much as possible. It is for contact purposes in case something happens.

I haven’t heard anything about Kiel, but I haven’t urged him either. The Viscount told me to leave it to him, so I will wait until things move. He has been to Royal Capital several times, so it seems that he is working on it.

We are working on the dungeon. We reached the bottom floor a while ago, but for better success rate, we decided to grind and level up a few more times before fighting the boss.

Since there was no point in blindly raising the level, we decided to increase everyone’s skill level to 5 before challenging the bottom floor. This would allow us to challenge it during the summer vacation.

And today is the day we enter the bottom floor of an A-class dungeon.

After eating at the base and having a quick chat with the servants who have gotten used to the place, we’re going to go to the dungeon, and if we can defeat the boss at the bottom floor of the A-class dungeon, I’ll finally be able to get close to getting the Mana Recovery Ring.

We entered the dungeon building and asked to be transferred to the bottom floor.

The large gate slowly opened and we entered the bottom floor boss room.

(Oh! Is it an Armor-type boss? I was really hoping for a Beast-type boss.)

There are various patterns to the bottom floor bosses. I checked the Adventurer’s Guild materials to see what kind of magical beasts were bottom floor bosses.

Dragon-type

• Strongest of all bottom floor bosses
• They use breath attacks over a wide area

Spirit-type

• Have high amount of mana
• Some bosses are immune to physical damage

Armor-type

• Have high physical damage resistance
• Have very high [Strength]

Beat-type

• Have almost no resistance
• Have high [Attack]

Insect-type

• Attacks with status conditions (debuffs)

Depending on the species and type of magical beast, their strength varies even within the same rank. The Orc King and the Madegarsh are both B-rank, but a Madegarsh is almost twice as strong as an Orc King.

Since the bottom floor bosses are randomly determined, I was worried if we would pull a Dragon-type, but there was a huge full plate Armor-type boss and 10 Orc Kings surrounding it. In addition, it seems that Dragon-type bosses rarely appear.

I was hoping for a Beast-type boss, which is the easiest to defeat, but I think the Armor-type, which specializes in defense, is not bad either.

“Hold on. I’ll change my cards.”

(Armor-type, Insects won’t work, so maybe this. The Poppo in the mansion’s time was about to expire, so I brought him back.)

Since the boss was an Armor-type, I changed the cards in the Holder. The magical beasts in the center of the room would not enter a fighting stance until we approached them. I opened the Grimoire at the entrance and changed the composition to the most appropriate one.

[Name] Allen

[Age] 12

[Talent] Summoner

[Level] 49

[Strength] 1240+1300

[Mana] 1940+70

[Attack] 682 + 1000

[Endurance] 682 + 1250

[Agility] 1273 + 250

[Intelligence] 1950+1270

[Luck] 1273

Skills: Summon <6>, Create <6>, Synthesis <6>, Strengthening <6>, Awakening <6>, Grimoire Expansion <5>, Inventory, Sharing, Delete, Swordsmanship <3>, Throwing <3>

[Experience] 41,121,254 / 400,000,000

Skill Level

[Summon] 6

[Create] 6

[Synthesis] 6

[Strengthening] 6

[Awakening] 6

Skill Experience

[Create] 1,200,626 / 100,000,000

[Synthesis] 5,100,545/100,000,000

[Strengthening] 30,916,320/100,000,000

[Awakening] 6,282,500/100,000,000

Summons acquired:

[Insect] CDEFGH

[Beast] CDEFGH

[Bird] CDEFG

[Grass] CDEF

[Stone] CDE

[Fish] CD

[Spirit] C

Holder

[Insect]

[Beast] 20 C-ranks

[Bird] 5 C-ranks

[Grass]

[Stone] 10 E-ranks, 4 C-ranks

[Fish] 1 C-rank, 1 D-rank

[Spirit] 19 C-ranks

We have been trying to conquer this dungeon since April, and during this time I have reached Level 49.

Most of the experience I’ve earned has come from this A-class dungeon.

B-rank magical beasts give a lot of experience, around 40,000 per magical beast, and every day three Summon Squads hunt them in the lower floors of A-class dungeons.

However, unlike B-class dungeons, it hasn’t been going well, as they often get caught in Transfer Traps and I lose track of where they are, or they step on a Summon Trap and get wiped out by dozens of B-rank magical beasts.

If I let them hunt for a day, around 30% of the summons will be killed by the end.

Also, the magical beast that mimics the chests in the A-class dungeon is not B-rank magical beast Mimic, but an A-rank Abyss Box.

The Abyss Box is ridiculously strong. I find them occasionally, but my Summon Squad gets wiped out 50% of the time.

When defeated, they drop items worth 100 Gold coins or more at a rate of about once every two Abyss Boxes.

This Abyss Box is said to be a mid-tier among A-ranks.

It has also appeared in front of us in this dungeon, and we joined forces with each other to defeat it.

We might lose today’s battle if we aren’t careful.

Before starting the fight, I had everyone mount Frans. Since we were going to finish within an hour, I activated [Sprint]. Both Kurena and Dogora have gotten used to attacking magical beasts while [Sprint] is active.

The five of us move even closer together.

“We should stop now. If we get any closer, the boss is going to start moving.”

At my, the five Frans stopped. Then, four C-rank Stones came out. They have full plate bodies made of steel, with huge shields and spears. The C-rank Stones can attack, but they are mainly defensive.

I activated their special skill [Substitute] which increased our defense, Cecile and Kiel in particular.

“Then I’ll attack as planned. When that attack is over, Kurena and Dogora will move forward.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, I get it.”

Both Dogora and Kurena tightened their grip on their weapons with both hands and waited for me to attack.

“Cecile.”

“Yeah? What?”

It wasn’t the plan to talk to Cecile, so Cecile reacted a bit surprised.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to borrow your skill’s name for a moment.”

“What? Like I said before, you don’t have to ask.”

This wasn’t the first time Cecile and I had this conversation. I also borrowed her skill’s name when we defeated the Abyss Box.

Cecile sighed, wondering what’s so great about it.

With Cecile behind me, I stretched out my hands, my heart pounding.

Normally, Cecile uses magic to start the battle against the bottom floor boss. But today, I was going to make the first attack.

Because the attack I was about to use surpassed Cecile’s magic.

(Well, let’s begin!)

“[Meteorite] (Provisional)!”

When I said “[Meteorite] (Provisional)!”, 10 E-rank Stone summons appeared above the bottom floor boss and the ten magical beasts surrounding it, and began to free fall.

The magical beasts reacted when the E-rank Stones appeared all of a sudden and managed to move for a moment. However, that movement was only momentary.

“Okay, Kabeo, [Self-Destruct]!”

With my order, Kabeos, with their gray, lacquered body, suddenly turned bright red. It was momentary but it clearly indicated high temperature.

And before the bottom floor boss and magical beasts could make a move,

BO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-M!

The red-hot fragments of Kabeos and the blast hit the magical beasts with a shocking sound.

A shockwave struck us as if it were momentarily pressing down on our faces.

“Oh! Did you defeat the boss already?”

It was so powerful that Kiel was convinced of our victory.

“‘No, the boss is still alive. It’s coming at us!”

The bottom boss was damaged, but it didn’t seem to be defeated. It rushed at us, emitting smoke from its entire body.

At the same time, Kurena and Dogora moved forward. The battle against the bottom floor boss started.

Translator’s Corner

Thanks for reading.