Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~
chapter-253

The Fire Spirit Salamander defeated Dogora and the remaining magical beasts, and the Salamander's fire, which turned into a huge Fireball, could not be avoided, and Dogora was burned.

"Oh, hey. Are you okay?"

"I'm not okay. How many times have you done this? And why me every time?..."

Kiel jumped down from his B-rank Bird and used Recovery Magic on Dogora.

"Here, I have a spare pair of clothes. If they get burned too, we'll have to go back for more."

The lower half of Dogora's body was in a terrible state. I pulled out a spare pair of clothes from my <Inventory> and handed them to Dogora.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

"What? No, no."

"But..."

"I don't really care."

His face was red, probably because he didn't want people to see his lower body.

Bending over, Dogora used the clothes I had given him to desperately keep the lower half of his body in a blind spot from Sophie.

The expression on his face said that he didn't want an apology, he just wanted to get away from her.

"Sophie, your HP is half right now. Kiel, heal her."

(Did he take all of Sophie's [Mana] and half of her HP? That's outrageous.)

My Grimoire showed that Sophie's HP was down to half.

Once I told Kiel, he healed Sophie after Dogora.

"Auau!"

The Salamander, floating in the air, embraced Sophie, who had such a troubled expression on her face.

He hugged her chest, staring at Sophie with dull eyes and wagging his fiery tail.

Apparently, the expression on his face that said "I did it!", suggested that he wanted to be praised for the disaster he had just caused.

"Oh, thank you. Mr. Salamander."

In the situation, where the water had boiled over and still looked like a hot spring, I struggled to squeeze out a few words of thanks.

(How many times has this happened? I'm afraid Dogora might not be able to hold out much longer. But still, it's a hell of a lot more powerful when it consumes Sophie's HP as well.)

A little further away from everyone, near the center of the leaf, Dogora took off his armor and changed his clothes.

I had misjudged the Salamander's power since it was just an infant Spirit.

Spirits use the [Mana] of their users to influence the world.

The greater the amount of [Mana] consumed, the more power it exerts.

It was similar to Cecile's Extra Skill in that regard.

That time, it sucked up to half of Sophie's [Mana] and HP, resulting in a disaster like that.

"Sophie. I've told you many times, don't be in a hurry. The Spirit hears the User's voice well. They pick up on the sound of your anxiety, okay?"

"... Yes."

(Yes. Here it comes, Spirit God's friendly advice.)

Spirit God Rosen, who was on Sophie's shoulders, participated in the battle, but didn't answer the many questions I had, but was willing to play the role of advising Sophie, who had recently become a Spirit Mage.

Sophie had been asking the Salamander to fight throughout the beginning of the battle.

She was impatient with the Salamander, who hugged her and did not move, and gave him too strong of an instruction.

"If things continue as they are now, I wonder if we should wait for Sophie's next Talent change."

"That's good. If you're in the situation you are in now while dealing with an Infant Spirit, you might lose your life while dealing with a Spirit. Haha."

"That's a big deal."

(Is the Spirit next?)

When a Spirit is born, it is called an Infant Spirit, and from an Infant Spirit, it goes on to become a Spirit, a Great Spirit, a Spirit King, and a Spirit God.

Sophie could change her Talent one more time, so she would be able to manifest a Spirit then.

However, both me and the Spirit God believed that it would be dangerous if Sophie were to manifest Spirit when she couldn't even handle an Infant Spirit properly.

I had also heard from Gatoruga, a Spirit Mage, that communicating with Spirits took time.

If it was only Skill Experience that mattered, no matter how much the Spirit went out of control, the amount of [Mana] consumed seemed to be counted, so it was possible to change Talents.

However, we were talking about not pushing Sophie too hard because of what happened.

"Well, we borrowed the Ring from Mr. Helmios; we can keep it out all day."

(I didn't say when it's due, so I'm planning on keeping it.)

"Oh, thank you. Are you sure he doesn't mind?"

I decided to borrow Helmios' Mana Recovery Ring for Sophie's training of the Infant Spirit.

I also said that if Helmios wasn't going to conquer the dungeon, he didn't need it.

I gave him about 100 [Blessing of Heaven]s to borrow.

If he had so much, he would be able to deal with any traps in the dungeon, and I told him that if he were to run low on [Blessing of Heaven]s, I was willing to ask Rosenheim to give him some.

Thanks to the Ring that looked like minen, Sophie's mood had improved a lot, which was another story.

And Cecile's bad mood was yet another story.

"Is Merle okay?"

"Yes, I can fix this much."

Because of the huge size of the Golem, the Salamander's Fireball damaged the Golem's body slightly.

[Name] Merle

[Age] 14

[Talent] Magic Rock General

[Level] 60

[Strength] 1677＋1800

[Mana] 2420+1800

[Attack] 782

[Endurance] 1318 + 1800

[Agility] 782

[Intelligence] 2420+1800

[Luck] 1503

[Skills] Magic Rock General <6>, Rocket Arm <6>, Piercing Fist <6>, Light-flux Sword <6>, Repair <6>, Alloy <2>, Spearmanship <3>, Shield Art<3>

[Extra] Combination (Right Arm)

Skill Level

[Rocket Arm] 6

[Piercing Fist] 6

[Light-flux sword] 6

[Repair] 6

The last skill that Merle got, which was already maxed, was <Repair>.

Golems could get destroyed while fighting against magical beasts.

There were many A-rank magical beasts in the S-class dungeon, so the Golem was constantly being damaged.

There were two ways to fix the damage to the Golem.

The first was to replace the Stone Slab of the part that got damaged with a new one.

For example, if the right hand of a Golem were to be damaged, the damage could be repaired by removing the damaged Stone Slab and replacing it with a new Stone Slab.

Of course, if a damaged Stone Slab were to be re-fitted again, the arm would remain damaged.

And the other was was to use the last skill that Merle learned: <Repair>

<Repair> allowed Merle to repair the damage done to the Golem by consuming her [Mana].

The downside was that the repair was not instantaneous.

If we wanted to fix it right away, we had to fit a spare, undamaged Stone Slab.

If we had time to fix it, Merle could use <Repair>.

We weren't in any emergency at the moment, so Merle was going to use <Repair>.

"Oh? There's a Treasure Chest!"

Dogora, who was dressing in the distance, noticed a Treasure Chest placed in the center of a leaf.

Suddenly, Kiel rushed to see it too.

(Kiel, there's a chance that it's a magical beast, so don't you dare open it.)

Kiel had a hard time not opening a Treasure chest that he had seen.

Since we were in a dungeon, the Treasure Chest might be a trap set for a magical beast.

In fact, there had been many times since we entered the S-class dungeon that an A-rank magical beast called Abyss Box was mimicking them.

Dogora also seemed to have noticed my sigh and understood.

He opened the Treasure Chest before Kiel arrived, saying that he had more [Endurance].

"Oh, it's a Ring. What Ring is this?"

Dogora came to where the rest of us were and gave me the Ring.

"Oh, it's a high-ranking Ring. This one increased [Intelligence] by 3,000."

(Oh, that's a good start for Day 1. I have heard that the S-rank Bosses are not worth the effort, but this is the best place in terms of items and experience).

I confirmed with the help of my Grimoire that the Ring increased my [Intelligence] by 3,000.

The Rings we had found before had a status increase of 1000, but in the 4th floor, Rings that increased status by 3000 could be found.

Since an individual could equip 2 Rings at once, our status could increase at once.

"Then, let's see. This is for Kie... as planned."

"Oh, come on, I don't need it."

When I tried to hand it to Kiel, Kiel showed both of his palms and shook his head.

Because Cecile was giving me and Kiel death glares.

"... then Cecile."

Lagging behind Kiel, I also sensed danger to my life.

"Hmmm...is that okay? Thank you."

Cecile looked happy when I handed her the Ring.

(Hm, well, it would be more efficient to give it to Cecile to increase our firepower than to give it to Kiel at this time. Now we just need to find the Orichalcum on this floor.)

While Sophie had a big challenge ahead of her, Allen changed his strategy for the 4th floor.