Hell Mode: Volume 6, page 15
“But I...”
Mash was unsure of how to respond, yet he still wanted to do everything himself.
“In that case, just put these rings in your pouch and keep them for when you’re in some serious trouble.”
“My pouch? What’s that?”
Allen pulled a pouch out of Storage and put the rings in it before handing it over to Mash.
“There’s nothing wrong with trying to solve problems using your own abilities first and then relying on others for help if that doesn’t work.”
Tears began to form in Mash’s eyes.
“Thanks, Allen.”
“Winning is more important than anything else. And that goes double for when you need to protect those important to you. At those times, you can’t afford to hesitate or be picky about how you want to pull that off.”
“You’re... You’re right. Thank you.”
After his brother finally accepted the gift, Allen reached out and ruffled his hair. Mash looked down at the ground, embarrassed that this display of affection was happening in front of everyone else.
Allen stood up and looked around the room. It looked like everyone was chatting with one another and enjoying their time together with their families.
This is what I’m fighting to protect.
Allen would do absolutely anything within his power to protect the scene playing out in front of him. He had no intention of telling Rodin and the rest here that the world as they knew it might come to an end in a few years’ time or that the gods, with their emphasis on maintaining harmony, had no intention of aiding humanity. The No-life Gamers would use all the power available to them to stop the world from falling to ruin before they would ever have a chance to find out about it.
“I won’t be picky about how I do it either.”
Allen realized that the advice he had given his brother applied to himself just as well.
＊ ＊ ＊
Allen and the Gamers returned to their base the day following their coming-of-age ceremony. Thanks to the opportunity to see their families again, the whole team seemed to be in high spirits once again.
Guessing that there must be considerable demand for them in Helmios’s homeland of Giamut, Allen gave the Hero some Silver and Gold Beans. Giamut, like Rohzenheim, had been invaded by the Demon Lord Army, and the country’s forces had managed to take back the territory that had been captured, only for it to be later seized by the Demon Lord Army once again. While the invasion was no longer ongoing, there was no telling when it would begin anew, which was the reason behind Allen providing them with the Beans.
A barrier to keep monsters away was not necessarily effective in a war against an opponent who could unleash those monsters on a whim, however. After all, even if the bases and forts they maintained could keep the monsters away, were Allen a commander of the Demon Lord Army, he would either attack them from a distance or ignore these locations entirely in his invasion. Alternatively, he could use something like a Rank S ancient dragon to destroy the monster-free zones.
Knowing all this, Allen told Helmios that the Gold and Silver Beans would be most effective to use when a base’s defenses were about to fall, as they could be used to buy time for the soldiers to escape. Even if the Demon Lord Army took its time besieging a fortress, by using the Beans in such a way, the Giamutan forces would likely be able to regroup without suffering any serious loss in military strength. That would give them the opportunity to slowly chip away at the enemy’s strength and bide their time.
“So it was you who kindly provided these to us, Allen.”
Greta, a member of Helmios’s party, beamed cheerfully as she spoke. Ever since she had learned that Allen was capable of Summoning the angel Merus, her attitude toward him had changed.
“Listen, Greta.”
“Y-Yes?”
“These are from Rohzenheim.”
“Huh? But...”
Helmios spoke up next.
“Let’s just leave it at that, Greta.”
Helmios had picked up on what Allen was doing on his days off, during which he spent most of his time cooped up in his room by himself. While it certainly seemed strange, Helmios was well aware of just how much Allen had done for the adventurers over the past year, so he decided to not pursue the matter.
“Well, I guess we’re going to take on the mithril golem today.”
With that, Allen made his way toward the dining room exit. Before he could leave, however, a familiar voice rose up. Admiral Garara, the drunken dwarf lying on the sofa, had some more complaints to make known.
“Ha! Ye can’t even get close t’ it ’cause of its long-range attacks. All ye’re gonna achieve is adding more bodies t’ the mountain of corpses, boy. Ye best just give up now!”
Huh, interesting. So the next golem specializes in long-range attacks.
Up on Floor 5 of the temple was a table with indentations in it, meant for the medals they needed to collect. The Gamers had filled two of those indentations with the iron and bronze medals they had already collected. Considering how unlikely it was that any other parties would be coming out this way, they had put the medals in their slots as soon as they got them. If they could beat the mithril golem and get its mithril medal today, they would finally be able to face the final floor boss.
Using the cube, they teleported to the Mithril Zone.
“Just as I expected, this place is nearly identical to the Bronze and Iron Zones.” In the middle of the large, open hall with vaulted ceilings stood a massive golem made of mithril. “Let’s go!”
Allen and the others mounted their Bird Bs while Meruru called forth Tam-Tam and suited up. Once they got close, the mithril golem began to move.
It did not appear to be attacking, however. Instead, the golem folded both of its legs and stored both of its arms inside its body as if to turn itself into a large box. What used to be its shoulders unfolded like fans to become wings, and its head separated from its body, taking off into the air as it transformed into a ring that spun at high speed. Then, the mithril figure began to float into the air.
“Huh? It’s flying?”
As the cylinder-shaped object flew toward the Gamers, two protrusions extended from it. Light flickered across the ends of the protrusions for a second, and a moment later, balls of light shot out of them.
“Watch out!”
Meruru sent Tam-Tam forward, using its body to protect her friends from the incoming shots.
“Hngh?! Augh!”
“Meruru!”
Tam-Tam stood with its arms crossed over its chest as the balls of light began to steadily chip away at its armor. The light also struck at its legs, tearing them out from under it and causing it to drop to its knees. From her crystal cockpit in Tam-Tam’s chest, Meruru prepared to swap out the spare arm slate in her magic disc.
“I’m up!”
Dogora hefted his massive shield and directed his Bird B to fly in between the floating mithril golem and Tam-Tam in an attempt to save his friend from the onslaught.
“Me too!”
Krena raised her weapon and launched toward the mithril golem, but unfortunately, the enemy fell back while still blasting away.
Even using Bird B’s Awakened Ability, Jet, was not enough to help her close in. Though Dogora was managing to use his shield to protect Tam-Tam from the incoming shots, neither Krena nor Merus was able to get close to the enemy, resulting in a deadlock.
Whoa. Griff I could understand, but even Merus’s stats aren’t high enough to get close enough?
“Hngah?!”
Dogora continued to deftly wield his massive shield as he intercepted the blasts. Thanks to his class promotions and his now-high endurance stat, he was able to use the adamantite shield with ease. However, the Bird B he was riding on took a shot head-on and Keel was not able to heal it in time, causing it to fade away in bubbles of light.
“Allen, I need another Griff!” Dogora called out as he tumbled through the air, and Allen quickly Summoned up a new Bird B to catch his friend.
Keel cast some healing magic while Dogora tried to right himself to get back into the fight. Meanwhile, Sophie and Volmaar worked to keep the mithril golem at bay by launching a volley of arrows at it.
“I’m not gonna sit this one out!”
Cecil released a volley of offensive magic, though none of the attacks found their mark due to her opponent’s tremendous speed. The mithril golem managed to maintain the perfect distance from the party as it ceaselessly pressed its attack. Never before had the Gamers faced an enemy that would fall back whenever they tried to go on the offensive.
Hmm, this is the first time we’ve encountered an enemy like this. Not only does it attack from range, but it’s fast, and it launches multiple attacks at once too. All right then, let’s see how it likes this!
Allen Summoned a Stone A.
“Rockanel, you’re up!”
* * *
Type: Stone
Rank: A
Name: Rockanel
HP: 10,000
MP: 8,000
Attack: 6,500
Endurance: 10,000
Agility: 7,000
Intelligence: 8,000
Luck: 9,800
Buffs: HP 200, Endurance 200, Damage Reduction
Ability: Absorb, Return from Death
Awakened Ability: Focused Bombardment
* * *
Stone A was made of hihiirokane and stood around fifteen meters tall, though it was much slimmer than its fellow Stone-type Summons. Instead of large shields, it was equipped with a buckler on each arm.
“Use Absorb!”
Upon using its Absorb Ability, the Stone A shot a barrage of hihiirokane spheres from its bucklers.
“Dogora, Krena, Merus, fall back!”
The two Gamers and the Summon retreated at Allen’s command just as the mithril golem began increasing the volume of its barrage. Dogora reflexively retook his defensive posture in front of Meruru, though the golem’s light bullets were quickly absorbed by the metallic spheres sent out by the Stone A.
Upon absorbing the balls of light, the metallic spheres briefly let off a scarlet glow, growing whiter and whiter as they absorbed more light. As they did so, small cracks began to form in Stone A’s body. Each individual crack was small, but they were rapidly increasing in number. Just when it looked like the Stone A was about to fall apart, all the cracks disappeared as if a clock had been reset.
Great, Return from Death worked!
Alas, the mithril golem’s onslaught did not end. The metallic orbs once again absorbed the shots, and new cracks began to form in the Stone A.
“I guess it’s about time, then.”
Allen stretched both hands out in front of him. The Stone A followed suit, mimicking his pose, and all of the metallic orbs began to assemble right in front of it. The resulting mass looked like a miniature sun.
Looks like I finally get to say it, huh.
Allen felt a certain lightness in his chest as he finally had the chance to utter a phrase he had been wanting to say for so long. After taking a deep breath, he shouted out his command.
“Mow it down!”
The Stone A’s eyes flashed and a beam of light shot from its outstretched hands toward the mithril golem. The afterimages were all that was left of the metallic orbs that hurtled through the air. They moved so quickly that the mithril golem did not have a chance to dodge the Stone A’s Awakened Ability, Focused Bombardment, and it was ripped to shreds.
Text appeared on the cover of Allen’s grimoire.
“Awesome! You took it out with one hit!”
Allen took a minute to think back over how they had won the battle.
“Yeah, it looks like the mithril golem had high Agility and Attack stats, but low Endurance. Rockanel’s Return from Death was a huge help too.”
Stone A’s Ability, Absorb, allowed it to soak up damage from ranged attacks using magic spheres, then fire off those spheres once they had transformed the attacks into magical energy and stored it. Of course, there was a limit to how much damage it could absorb, and if it reached that limit, the Stone A would be destroyed. Furthermore, this damage could not be healed using recovery magic or items. It could only be healed using Stone A’s other Ability, Return from Death.
When Return from Death was used, which happened automatically and had a ten percent chance of success, the damage suffered by the Stone A due to Absorb was healed and the absorption limit was reset. The Summon would then also be able to take in and store twice as much damage as before.
Its Awakened Ability, Focused Bombardment, which Allen had used to defeat the mithril golem, launched all of the attack-absorbing hihiirokane orbs at the enemy. It was both a magical and physical attack, and if a large amount of damage had been absorbed with the help of Return from Death, it was unbelievably powerful.
I’m guessing the mithril golem was weak to physical attacks, judging by the way it was running away.
Were it strong against physical attacks, there would have been no reason for it to keep withdrawing like that. Allen figured that you could tell a lot about an enemy’s characteristics from its behavior.
Also, Absorb and Focused Bombardment fit my fighting style perfectly.
All of Allen’s Stone-type Summons had been impressive thus far, but the Abilities and Awakened Ability of this Rank A Stone Summon were exactly what Allen had been dreaming of. Absorb could protect allies from long-range attacks covering a wide area, while Focused Bombardment could strike a powerful blow to a single massive enemy. This made it possible for Allen, who was already able to fight against large numbers of enemies at once, to concentrate on one point with an impressive show of firepower, which had been his only weak point.
Looks like I’m already preparing for my battle against the Demon Lord.
If there was one drawback, it was that Absorb could not completely absorb attacks from Rank S or higher enemies; only about seventy percent of the mithril golem’s long-range attacks had gotten absorbed. If it were not for Meruru’s Tam-Tam and the spirits who answered Sophie’s prayers, the remaining thirty percent would have reached the party.
“Whoa, hey! Looks like we got a silver chest!”
Keel burst out in excitement at the sight of the silver chest placed where the mithril golem had fallen moments before. When they opened it, they found a ring.
Huh, another ring?
Allen slipped it onto his finger to test it out and watched as his Attack stat rocketed up 5,000 points.
What the party had learned from their travels around Floor 5 was that apparently 3,000 was not the maximum for stat buffs provided by rings. Silver chests appeared at a rate of about one in ten, and when they did, they generally contained rings that boosted a stat by 5,000 points. Though he had acquired a full collection so far, he wanted enough rings to outfit each member of the party with at least twenty.
Farther off in the distance, another cube had appeared, this one with a wooden chest with the mithril medal inside.
“Looks like we finally got a full set,” Cecil said.
“It sure does. I guess we should head out of this zone, then.”
After speaking to the cube, the Gamers were teleported to the massive hall on Floor 5.
“So what’re we gonna do?” Krena asked Allen. “Are you going to place the medal in?”
“Yeah, I think so. I want to see what happens.”
Allen then pressed the mithril medal into the deep indentation in the table, just as he had done with the others. He could feel the medal being practically pulled away from his fingers as it entered the slot. A moment later, four torches in the large hall all lit in unison.
“Whoa!”
Looks like we’ve got all the medals we need.
Allen and the party then made their way to the cube that would teleport them to the final floor boss.
“I don’t anticipate any problems, but you should still ready yourselves just in case.”
He had no intention of battling the final floor boss just yet, but he figured they could not be too careful. The potato-faced Dogora nodded and hefted his greataxe and shield.
Allen addressed the cube. “Excuse me.”
“I am Final Floor Boss Transfer System S505. The three requisite medals have been placed in the table. One party may face the final floor boss. Will you begin the challenge?”
Huh?
Cecil followed up with a question of her own.
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘one party’? How many parties can face the final floor boss at once?”
“Up to four parties, with a maximum of fifty total members.”
“If you have one of each type of medal, then only one party can join. So that means that if you had four of each medal type, four parties could join?”
“You are correct.”
That explains why the indentations were so deep.
Allen wanted to learn a little more about how this system worked.
“Is there any difference in how strong the final floor boss is if you fight it as one party or as four parties?”
“There is no difference.”
“Does the prize earned from defeating the final floor boss change depending on how many parties fight it?”
“There is no difference. Four prizes are granted for conquering the final floor boss regardless of how many parties fight. However, as the final floor boss has yet to be defeated, three standard prizes and one special prize will be granted upon its vanquishing. The details of this special prize are to be decided upon after negotiating with Dungeon Master Dygragni.”
In other words, there would be four prizes granted for defeating the final floor boss regardless of how many parties fought against it. That meant that if they fought it together with three other parties, the four total prizes, including the special prize for the first completion, would be split among the four parties. Or, if they did it on their own, then they could take home all the prizes.
“Are we allowed to decide which party gets the special prize?”
“We are not involved in how the prizes are divided. However, when teleporting to the zone where the final floor boss is located, you will first need to determine a leader for teleportation purposes.”
