Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~
chapter-147

It is now the end of March, almost three months after we conquered our second A-class dungeon.

We came to this Academy City around this time last year.

The year has passed in a blink of an eye.

Soon, we will be in our second year.

Right now the five of us are deep in the third A-class dungeon, having just finished defeating a B-rank magical beast that attacked us.

“Oh? It went up.”

“Yeah, your Level has gone up.”

(Oh, yeah, Kurena finally reached it, too. Now, all four of them are Level capped.)

Kurena noticed a strange feeling that I call Leveling up. Her Level has reached 60. Her status has increased, but her status column in the Grimoire is a bit different from before.

[Name] Kurena

[Age] 13

[Talent] Master Swordsman

[Level] 60

[Strength] 2440 + 1800

[Mana] 954

[Attack] 2440 + 1800

[Endurance] 1712 + 1800

[Agility] 1648 + 1800

[Intellect] 974

[Luck] 1195

Skills: Master Swordsmanship <6>, Slash <6>, Flying Slash <6>, Crimson Lotus Break <6>, Thunder Sword <6>, Bold <2>, Swordsmanship <6>

[Extra] Limit Break

Skill Level

[Master Swordsmanship] 6

[Slash] 6

[Flying Slash] 6

[Crimson Lotus Break] 6

[Thunder Sword] 6

[Name] Cecil Granvelle

[Age] 13

[Talent] Mage

[Level] 60

[Strength] 1028

[Mana] 1736 + 1200

[Attack] 659

[Endurance] 842

[Agility] 1019 + 1200

[Intelligence] 2390 + 1200

[Luck] 960

Skills: Mage <6>, Fire <6>, Earth <6>, Wind <6>, Water <6>, Wisdom <2>, Kumite <3>

[Extra] Small Meteorite

Skill Level

[Magic] 6

[Fire Magic] 6

[Earth Magic] 6

[Wind Magic] 6

[Water Magic] 6

[Name] Dogora

[Age] 13

[Talent] Axe Knight

[Level] 60

[Strength] 1322 + 600

[Mana] 716

[Attack] 1741 + 600

[Endurance] 1145

[Agility] 724

[Intellect] 482

[Luck] 783

Skills: Axe Knight <6>, Full-Body <6>, Axe Throw <6>, Explosive Strike <6>, Avalanche Crush <6>, Fighting Spirit <2>, Axemanship <5>

[Extra] Body and Soul

Skill Level

[Axe Knight] 6

[Full-Body] 6

[Axe Throw] 6

[Explosive Strike] 6

[Avalanche Crush] 6

[Name] Kiel

[Age] 13

[Talent] Priest

[Level] 60

[Strength] 787

[Mana] 1499 + 600

[Attack] 598

[Endurance] 841

[Agility] 959

[Intelligence] 1321 + 600

[Luck] 1203

Skills: Priest <6>, Heal <6>, Resolute <6>, Cure <6>, Magic Wall <6>, Faith <2>, Swordsmanship <3>

[Extra] God’s Drop

Skill Level

[Priest] 6

[Heal] 6

[Resolute] 6

[Cure] 6

[Magic Wall] 6

The [Experience] column and [Skill Experience] category has disappeared from their status. It disappeared at the end of March, except for mine, as I have not reached Level 60 yet.

I think their max Level is 60 and skill Level is 6 since it’s not going up. <Swordsmanship> never was in the [Skill Experience] category so it might go up, but I don’t know at the moment.

Our party, except for me, have reached our maximum Level and Talent-based skills after a year of dungeon raids. I call this state ‘Level Cap’.

The A-class dungeon is large and long, so we decided to find a small room and make today a field trip. We have a few more days of spring vacation left, so I’m glad to have more time to devote to this project.

Everyone was preparing for the field trip and cooking together.

However, it was a wild cookout with five people who had little to no experience in cooking.

I took some wood out of <Inventory> and started a fire.

I also have dozens of drinks in barrels that can fit in my 30cm <Inventory> space.

Over the course of the year, I feel like I’ve gradually been able to improve my outdoor set.

“So you’re saying we can’t get stronger?”

Dogora talked to me as he bit into the meat.

“I don’t think “can’t get stronger” is the right word. It means that your Level and Skill Levels are up to the maximum and they can’t get any higher.”

“No, it’s the same.”

While saying it’s different, I ate a piece of hard bread warmed over the fire.

(This is totally reaching the Level Cap.)

When II was playing games in my previous life, there was no such thing as a game without a Level Cap. All games had a Level Cap; some only went up to 50, others up to 999.

I think they’ve reached the max Level.

I still remember a game where I was stuck at Level 80 for about two years without releasing it was the max Level.

Cap is an upper limit placed on your Level or Skill Level.

One question I have is why did they reach the Level Cap in just one year.

(Maybe, it’s because the Demon King raised the rank of all magical beasts by one?)

I have always thought that magical beasts give a lot of experience points since I was a child. My theory is that since the Demon King made all the magical beasts one rank stronger, then the experience points they give also got correspondingly higher.

The experience given by all magical beasts, including those in the dungeon, must have increased by one rank.

E Rank, Horned Rabbit, Experience 1→10

D Rank, Goblin, Experience 20→200

C Rank, Great Boar, Experience 100→1000

B Rank, Orc King, Experience 2500→25000

A Rank, Great Warrior, Experience 60000→600000

If the experience given is ten times the original strength of the magical beast, then the speed of Leveling up is also ten times.

“You’re all pretty strong now that you have Level 6 skills, but I don’t think it’s your limit.”

“Not our limit, is it?”

(I was surprised to see that when at Level 6, I got the same status increase as others got when their Level reached 3. My <Summon> is Level 6. If it’s an increase in stats, then the Master Swordsmen receives 1200 points increase. Well, they have two less valuable skills than I do.)

It seems that the increase in status varies depending on the rarity of the Talent.

• 1-Star Talent, Axe Knight and Priest will increase their 2 stats by 600, for a total of 1200.
• 2-Star Talent, Mage will increase 3 stats by 1200, for a total of 3600.
• 3-Star Talent, Master Swordsman will increase 4 stats by 1800, for a total of 7200.
• 8-star Talent, Summoner will increase status by a total of 6000.

Normal Mode seems to have a status increase at Skill Level 3 and 6.

The two increases seem to go up quite a bit, but it seems that valuable skill slots are being used to increase status, which seems different from mine, who gets new skills every time I gain a Skill Level.

Thanks to this, I feel like I have much less skill than others, who have the same skill Level of 6.

I have been thinking about what to do since I have known that there are Level Caps.

For now, our possible ways of getting stronger are:

• Activate Extra skills at will.
• Get Orichalcum weapons and armor, and status-enhancing rings from the Gold Chests.

“First, we all need to be able to use our Extra skills at will.”

I had told them all that there is a special skill called Extra Skill that everyone has. They were skeptical about it, but after Kurena used it against the Dragon, they believed me.

We will be in our second year starting next month, so we’ll have to learn it in class. The battle between the homeroom teacher and Kurena will also get more intense. I wonder if he would teach her about skills like he said.

“Also, our weapons, armor, and rings have all come from Silver Chests in the past six months. But we haven’t gotten to the Gold Chest equipment yet, have we?”

Silver Chests come out at a rate of 1 in 10. Thanks to this, Kurena, Dogora and I are now equipped with Adamantite weapons.

The Silver Chest Ring increases two status.

Only one Ring can be equipped on each hand and others will have no effect.

Some of our armor and Rings are still from the Wooden Chests, but I predict that if we continue to go around the bottom floor bosses of A-class dungeons like normal, they will all be replaced by Silver Chest equipment in less than six months.

As for Gold Chests, we haven’t found any since we defeated the Dragon in January.

Currently, Kiel wears the Health Recovery ring.

B-rank and above magical beasts are wise and frequently target healers.

The next two targets are Allen, the leader, and Cecil, the range magician.

Kiel’s [Endurance] is only a fraction of Dogora’s, not to mention Kurena’s, so if he is targeted by more than one of them, he will die in a matter of seconds.

I’m trying not to let that happen by being near him, but since it seems to be a world where there is no resurrection after death, I want to put it on the person who is most likely to die.

The second would be Cecil, the third would be Dogora, the fourth would be me, and the last would be Kurena. This is the order that I think I will follow in case we get more Health Recovery Rings.

“Does that mean we have to look for as many Gold Chests as possible?”

Cecil spoke to confirm our future plans. It seemed that everyone was more than a little shocked to find out that they couldn’t get any stronger.

“Of course. But if the probability of getting one is so low, we might as well think about buying some in the auction. The Ring that comes out from the Gold Chest seems to have a higher stats than the Silver Chest.”

There are only two years left until we enter the battlefield. If we only get a few Gold Chests a year, then we can’t equip everyone well.

We need to check the auction listings every month to see if there are any Gold Chest-quality items up for grabs.

“We need to look for Orichalcum weapons as well.”

Kurena was also listening to the conversation as she washed her food. Kurena was probably the most shocked member after learning about the Cap.

“But, Kurena, you can’t find Orichalcum at auctions, and the Adventurer’s Guild has no idea how to get it. I don’t know why they only said there was a possibility of it appearing in dungeons.”

Kiel naturally joined in the conversation.

Unlike the Gold Chest Rings, I don’t know how to get the Orichalcum weapons at all. I was told that they might be found in the Gold Chests of A-class dungeons. I don’t know if the Gold Chests themselves are infrequent, or if there isn’t enough information about them.

Maybe we need to go to the S-class dungeon.

“‘Yes, you’re right. In order to be strong, you have to explore all possibilities of any information. You need to look into rumors and unclear information. There may be other great items besides Orichalcum weapons and Rings.”

“That’s right. But it is probably in high demand because of the Demon King and his army. So, we might never get any.”

The Demon King has appeared and caused a great deal of damage to the world. Cecile thought that to fight against the Demon King they would use every Orichalcum weapon they could find which increased its demand.

“No, there’s always more, maybe in the S-class dungeon. A rich person might have one in their house as a decoration or in their attique without knowing about it.”

This is the best part of becoming stronger.

It is possible that the truth has been perverted and shaped to the level of folklore and rumor.

Any information that could make us stronger, we should research until we are sure of its authenticity. There were many opinions, such as we should all check out the Academy library once.

(Now, we can’t just use common sense in your research. I need to really think about how to make my party stronger. That’s why I was reincarnated.)

I’ve been thinking about how to become stronger since my previous life. Maybe that’s all I have been thinking about. That’s probably why I was reincarnated and can keep my memories of my previous life.

Allen and his friends were looking for a way to get stronger, after reaching the Level Cap in just one year.