Hell Mode: Volume 5, page 12
Allen made a noncommittal sound. “So he did.”
“Why’re you acting so blasé about it now? You were surprised too!”
“I mean, it is the guards’ job to keep an eye out and stop people that they think don’t belong from getting in. Most adventurers who look our age wouldn’t have a license, right? If he just let all of them through, they’d probably die the first day they stepped foot in the Rank S dungeon.”
Even though Cecil was getting in his face about it, Allen actually did not have any issue with the way the guard had handled the exchange just now.
Guards are supposed to stand at doorways. Oh man, I still remember how much trouble it was waiting for the guards to change shifts whenever sneaking in at night.
“Huh? I-I mean, you’re right, but... You looked surprised too.”
“Of course I was. Just now the guard confirmed that only those with a Rank S dungeon invitation card are allowed inside. And look how many adventurers there are here. The world sure is huge!”
Only now did Cecil take a good look around. The temple was packed with dwarves, humans, and beastkin alike. Back during their days at the Academy, their homeroom teacher had told them that Ratash no longer had any citizens powerful enough to enter the Rank S dungeon. And yet here there were so many, every last one powerful enough to have earned their right to be here.
“Would that perhaps be the reception desk?” Sophie gestured toward a row of counters.
Allen nodded. “Seems like it. Let’s go see what they can tell us.”
The No-life Gamers approached a counter being manned by a dwarf wearing priestlike robes.
“Oh my, such young adventurers. How may I help you today?”
I love how dwarves don’t have any sort of height complex.
“We’re about to give the Rank S dungeon a try, so we want to know more about it. Is this the right line?”
“Of course.” The priest suddenly noticed Meruru. “Oh? You have a dwarf among you.”
“Mm!” The dwarven girl beamed cheerfully.
“Are you perhaps a golem pilot?”
Good guess. Then again, she’s not holding a weapon or wearing any armor.
Meruru was not currently holding the spear and shield she had used during her time at the Ratashian Academy.
“Yep!” Meruru confirmed.
“Do you have a magic disc?”
“Nope, I don’t. I was told to return the one I used when I was in the navy.”
What’s a magic disc?
“I see. Would you like to rent one of ours?”
“Mm! Yes, please!”
The receptionist left his post for a bit, then came back holding what looked like a round black slab.
“Here it is. Please provide your adventurer card for registration purposes.”
What’s going on? I feel like I’m watching someone borrow a library book.
Unable to hold it in any longer, Allen interrupted Meruru’s conversation with the priest. “Excuse me. Um, what is a magic disc?”
The receptionist looked up. “Huh? Ah, this is a magic tool necessary for calling out a golem.”
“Yep, that’s right!”
“A magic tool for calling out a golem, you say.” Allen took a good look at the pitch-black slab with a metallic sheen on the counter. It was circular in shape, with one side being entirely smooth and the other having ten depressions. A strap or chain was attached to it as if it were a pocket watch.
Is something supposed to go into these grooves?
Meruru accepted the slab and happily hung it from her neck. Many of the other dwarves in the room were wearing similar pitch-black discs around their necks as well.
I can’t help but think that they look like a bunch of elementary kids who’re showing up for summer break morning radio exercises at the local park with their stamp cards hanging around their necks.
“I’m supposed to slot in slates that form golem parts into these grooves, right?” Meruru asked for confirmation’s sake.
The priest nodded. “Correct. You’ll be able to find such slates on Floor 2 and higher in this dungeon. The bosses in the surrounding Rank A dungeons also drop them on rare occasions.”
And there are grades to the golems too, if I remember correctly.
According to what Allen had heard, golems were ranked on a grading system that indicated their relative power, with a pilot’s Talent determining which rank they could control.
Golem Pilots’ Talents vs. Golem Ranks
Talos Pawn: can control up to Bronze Grade Golems
Talos Soldier: can control up to Iron Grade Golems
Talos General: can control up to Mithril Grade Golems
“I’ve heard that golems are in grades such as Bronze, Iron, and Mithril Grade,” Allen said. “Can the parts be used for all grades, or are they all distinct? We’re asking because Meruru here has the Talos General Talent, so...”
“T-Talos General?! Are you sure?!” The receptionist’s eyes flew wide open as he grabbed his counter with both hands and pulled himself forward to study Meruru closely from head to toe.
I see, so this is how valuable someone with a one-in-ten-million Talent is. I’ve heard that the more powerful golems can single-handedly kill a dragon.
The dwarves in line behind the No-life Gamers also started buzzing excitedly.
“Did you hear? That girl’s a Talos General!”
“Seriously?!”
Meruru turned around and replied brightly, “Mm-hm! Sure am!”
When he regained his composure, the priest cleared his throat and said, “The slates that a golem needs are indeed specific to its grade.”
“So we’d need bronze slates, mithril slates, and so on?”
“Yes. If you slot in a part that isn’t the same grade as the others, it will not work. To call forth a golem, you at least need a head, a left arm, a right arm, a torso, and a lower body. That makes a total of five parts.”
There were slates that could grant golems additional abilities, and it was up to the golem pilot to pick and choose according to their preferred fighting style. It was pretty much the luck of the draw, and Allen resigned himself to the fact that they would probably end up drawing parts that they already had.
“What should we do if, say, we get multiple iron torso slates?”
“Some choose to keep spares in case their golem is damaged. If you determine that you do not need it, though, you can sell those parts to us here.”
Needless to say, the majority of adventurers entering this dungeon were not golem pilots, and the Temple of Yanpany bought all the slates that they had no use for. The pricing differed depending on part and grade, but most went for more than a hundred gold apiece.
As expected of loot from a Rank S dungeon.
The priest further explained that golem parts were the only thing that the temple handled. All other drops, such as magic stones obtained by killing monsters or equipment found inside treasure chests, had to be sold at the Adventurer’s Guild close by the temple.
He went on to recommend that the Gamers check out the Adventurer’s Guild should they want even more information. He then reminded them once again of the high death rate in the dungeon and warned them to not overextend themselves.
Everyone who walked into this temple had cleared five Rank A dungeons. Presumably, this meant they had the ability and presence of mind to research a dungeon before stepping foot in it.
“Thank you for the explanation. There’s still something that I want to know. Would you mind?”
“Please, ask me anything.”
“Is it possible to find magic discs inside the dungeon?”
“It is not. Lord Dygragni makes them himself and bestows them to this temple through us, his priests. You will not find them as drops within the dungeon.”
So this is the sole source of the magic discs.
“I see. Now, you just helped Meruru rent this magic disc. Is it possible to purchase one outright?”
Of course, Allen intended on having Meruru continue journeying with them in the future. And since she was a golem pilot, she needed a golem of her own. This was a problem that needed to be resolved.
“Um, I’m terribly sorry. Magic discs are considered Baukis’s national property. They are generally not for sale.”
“‘Generally’? As in, there are exceptions?”
“We can technically let you have one for ten thousand gold.”
Yeesh, talk about overcharging. That’s enough money to buy a magic ship. But I see, this is how Baukis has more than ten thousand golems that it can mobilize all at once.
Allen took away several things from his conversation with the priest. First, this temple was under Baukis’s management. Second, one of its main roles was to lend magic discs to golem pilots and collect golem parts from the dungeon. After all, even pilots sold them to the temple whenever they picked up parts that they already had. The reason that magic discs were generally only on a lending basis was so the country could demand their return in times of need, such as wartime. To buy one of these discs, one had to fork over ten thousand gold, an amount that could purchase a decent magic ship. There was little point in Allen equating this price with the value of money in his previous life, but he could not help doing so. He understood one gold to be worth around a hundred thousand yen; the receptionist was basically saying that it would cost one billion yen to buy a magic disc.
“Ten thousand gold? Understood. Please give me a moment to take it out.”
“What?” The receptionist blinked.
Allen positioned his grimoire above the counter, opened it to the Storage page, and flipped it over. The next moment, pouches filled with a hundred gold coins each—Allen kept his money this way for ease of trading—fell out in a quickly growing pile.
“This should be ten thousand gold. Please confirm it.”
Cecil sighed. “Yep, Allen’s being Allen again.” She had known this would happen from the start.
The receptionist asked for a moment and gathered a few colleagues to count the money together. After they confirmed the amount, he added information to Meruru’s adventurer card showing that she had purchased her magic disc and now had full ownership of it. The whole process took slightly under an hour.
“Th-Thank you...” Meruru was choking up a little with emotion. Even though she was familiar with Allen’s personality from their time together in Academy City, she still could not help feeling astonished and moved by his bold action.
“Don’t worry about it. We would’ve had to do it sooner or later anyway. Now, it’s gotten dark outside, so let’s put off visiting the Adventurer’s Guild until tomorrow.”
“That sounds good,” Cecil agreed. “Let’s find a place.”
And so the No-life Gamers checked into a hotel close to the temple and spent the night.
＊ ＊ ＊
The next day, after hitting up the Adventurer’s Guild, the party made their way to the Real Estate Guild and went through the process to rent a house near the temple. While hotels were great in that they provided meals and cleaning service, the party wanted a place where they would not have to worry about keeping away from prying eyes when doing things such as creating Blessings of Heaven. As soon as they received their keys, they headed to their new base.
According to the receptionist at the Real Estate Guild, most rentals in this city did not come furnished. This was due to the large variety of races living there who all had different body sizes and therefore needed different furniture. Sure enough, when the Gamers walked into their new place, they found it entirely empty. Because the dining room did not even have a table, they had no choice but to spread sheets out on the floor and sit on them in a circle.
Halfway into the meal, Allen suddenly said, “I have something to talk about. Feel free to keep eating while you listen.”
“Huh?” Krena looked his way as she took a big bite from a piece of bread.
“So, we’ve finally got everything in order and are ready to begin clearing the Rank S dungeon.”
The usage of the term “clear” was intentional. For everyone else in this city, it was common sense that the Tower of Tribulation was to be challenged, not cleared. If half of the people who challenged the dungeon died in their first year, the number of sacrifices necessary to beat it would be astronomical. Allen had used the word “challenge” when talking to the king of Ratash and Foreign Minister Nukakai to avoid making waves. However, he now told his companions that reaching the very end of this Rank S dungeon and defeating the last boss that lay in wait had been his intention from the very start.
“Yep!” Krena’s grin conveyed that she would not have it any other way.
“With that in mind, there’s something that I want to ask you all.”
The serious look on Allen’s face caught Dogora and Keel off guard, as they had assumed this was a normal discussion regarding their formation or strategy tomorrow. They did their best to focus.
Cecil had a similar reaction. “Is something the matter?”
“I’m pretty sure that even after we clear this dungeon, we’ll still have a tough time fighting Demonic Deities.”
“Huh?! What do you mean?! Explain!”
“Sorry, I might have phrased that badly. I’m not saying we definitely can’t win. Hmm...let me use Rehzel as an example.” The way Allen saw it, their chances of beating Rehzel before his transformation—if Helmios had not been around—was around ten percent. “In short, Rehzel was so powerful that we had almost no chance against him. I know it’s said that monsters get a lot stronger when you jump a rank, but that was miles above a mere Rank A.”
Not once had Rehzel called himself Rank S, but his strength was significantly superior to normal demons, who were Rank A. So, even if the No-life Gamers managed to completely deck themselves out with equipment from the Rank S dungeon, Allen did not think they had a guaranteed shot against someone like Rehzel.
Dogora frowned. “Huh? How would you know? We haven’t even gotten in yet.”
“Well, Hero Helmios had a five-star Talent and was wearing a full set of gear that he had gathered from this dungeon. Of course, he didn’t clear it, but even if he did, it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference.”
“Oh right, that’s true.”
“All of you carried over half of your stats from before your class promotion, but that’s still nowhere near enough for us to comfortably beat a Demonic Deity.”
By my estimation, if everyone in the party maxes out their levels and skill levels and is wearing orichalcum from head to toe, then we might have a fifty percent chance of winning. Maybe a little below that.
“Even so, we still have to go through this dungeon, right?” Cecil asked.
“Of course. The way I see it, our adventure’s only just begun.”
“Adventure?” Krena tilted her head, now munching on a fresh piece of bread.
“Yep! An adventure. This is an adventure for killing the Demon Lord. Getting caught up in the war during our student years was just a side thing. This Rank S dungeon is the first real step of our party’s adventure.”
Krena paused eating. “I see. So this dungeon is still only the beginning for us.”
“That’s right. We’re going to clear this Rank S dungeon and claim every last drop of power it can give us. However, even once we do, we’re still far from done.”
“We’ve gotta level up as fast as we can, then!” Krena clenched both her fists, brimming with enthusiasm. The memory of how the fight against Rehzel had gone now served as fuel for Krena to constantly push herself to improve.
Looks like the girl who was only fooling around with a sword at first is slowly growing up. Now she’s found a proper reason to swing that sword of hers.
“One thing that’ll be different if we ever encounter a Demonic Deity again is that we have Meruru with us now. We still have no idea just how powerful a golem is, but that’s something we can see for ourselves inside.”
Meruru puffed out her chest. “Tam-Tam is suuuper powerful! It’s gonna knock your socks off!”
“Who’s Tam-Tam?” I don’t know anyone by that name.
“Tam-Tam is my golem! I set that as the name when they issued me one during the war!”
“I see. Well, names are important. Tam-Tam. Okay, I’ll remember it.”
“Yep!”
Hmm, she’s got good naming sense, just like me.
“You said the golem you used was Iron Grade, right?”
“Mm-hm! They didn’t have a spare Mithril Grade.”
As a Talos General, Meruru had the ability to pilot Mithril Grade golems. The fact that she was not issued one likely meant Baukis had more Talos Generals than Mithril Grade golems. Although her Talent was said to be one in ten million, the dwarven nation had a population of two hundred million; it would not be surprising if there were other Talos Generals besides Meruru. It was either that, or because the majority of Baukis’s golem army was Bronze Grade and Iron Grade, they simply did not have enough parts to field all that many Mithril Grade golems.
“We’ll prioritize finding parts for Meruru’s golem. When that’s done, we’ll focus on maxing out everyone’s levels and skill levels as soon as possible. The bottleneck will probably be the skill levels, so use your skills as often as possible, everyone.”
By Allen’s estimates, it would take more than three months to max all the levels for everyone in the party. Based on that, he was planning on sticking around this dungeon for a year.
“Fingers crossed the Demon Lord Army doesn’t attack again during that time.”
“I’m pretty sure that won’t happen, Cecil. Not after it lost so many troops. In fact, they probably won’t show up again for the rest of the year.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
The Demon Lord Army forces that attacked Giamut and Baukis had been beaten back, meaning that some portion of it had simply retreated. Those that were sent to Rohzenheim, however, had been almost entirely wiped out, including both the original three million plus the four million sent as reinforcements.
“One more thing—Dogora, you’ve gotta learn how to use your Extra Skill.”
