Hell Mode: Volume 5, page 16
“Oh, look! There’s a golem speeding through the sand.” Allen now pointed toward a golem in the form of a ship with some adventures aboard that was swiftly parting the sands.
Meruru’s eyes sparkled with both surprise and excitement. “So cool!”
So that’s the effect of one of the movement slates.
Allen had heard about a few special slates from Meruru beforehand.
Types of Golem Slates
The five basic slates that are absolutely necessary to summon a golem: head, torso, left arm, right arm, and legs.
There are movement slates that transform golems into forms suitable for land, overwater, underwater, and air travel.
There are special slates that give golems unique properties, such as being able to attack or defend while mid-motion or transformation.
There was a particular special slate Meruru had mentioned that particularly captured Allen’s imagination.
No matter what it takes, we’ve definitely gotta find the slate that turns her golem into a friggin’ house!
Supposedly, a golem house was perfect for spending the night and was as tough as a fortress.
“Things are starting to get exciting now! Let’s go check how many medals we need to reach the next floor and then get to it!” Allen strode off with a skip in his step.
Hm, should we focus on gathering the five basic slates and then head right for the next floor? I wonder which floor would be the most efficient for everyone to level on. Oh, right, we gotta collect magic stones too. There’s so much to do, I can’t help getting excited! Is Dygragni a god?! Oh, right, he’s not quite a god yet.
The Gamers still had many more class promotions to go, so they had to do their best to level up while gathering golem slates. And in order to continue putting in requests for Rank D magic stones at the Adventurer’s Guild, they also had to earn at least one thousand gold every five days. Just thinking about the sheer number of things that had to be done made Allen positively giddy. It seemed this Tower of Tribulation had quite a bit of replay value.
Allen gave thanks to Dygragni inside his heart as he led his friends in search for the cube. They found it very quickly as, just like on Floor 2, it was within the same plaza they had arrived in. Before checking out Floor 3, however, Allen wanted to confirm the conditions to reach Floor 4.
“Greetings, No-life Gamers. I am Floor Operating System S301. Do you wish to travel to the next floor? Or do you wish to return to Floor 1?”
“Huh?” Wait a sec, are you serious?
“What’s wrong?” Krena looked at Allen, catching on to the surprise in his voice.
“Hold on. Let me confirm something.”
“’Kay.”
Allen turned back to the floating cube. “Excuse me. Can we not return to Floor 2?”
“My apologies. I can only send you to the next floor or Floor 1.”
“You can’t be— This means we’re gonna need a ton of medals!” What the heck? Is this Rank S dungeon a medal game?!
The other Gamers finally caught on to what Allen was so surprised about. Every time they climbed a floor, they needed to give medals to the cube. If they returned to Floor 1, however, they would need to prepare the same number of medals again to make it back to the last floor they had reached.
“Well, for now, please tell us what we need to go to the next floor.”
“Floor 4 it is. Please present four bronze medals and four iron medals.”
Damn, we don’t have a single medal on us right now. So we’re gonna need bronze medals again for Floor 4?
“What is with that requirement?!” Cecil protested, recalling how the party had spent half an entire day gathering medals just the day before. “Does that mean we’re going to need more and more medals?!”
The others in the party were dumbfounded at the realization that the higher the floor, the greater the quantity and quality of medals they would need. Here, too, Allen discovered why the Rank S dungeon was so difficult to clear.
Allen nodded thoughtfully. “It sounds like it. We are going to have to consider staying overnight in the dungeon, then.”
“So it seems,” Sophie agreed, putting a hand on her cheek with a frown.
The party had gone to the trouble of renting a house close to the dungeon, but apparently going home to sleep would cost them an unnecessary number of medals. They now looked at the other adventurers resting in the plaza with newfound comprehension, realizing they were probably there precisely because of this feature of the dungeon. There were probably many parties who were camping out for multiple nights at a time.
“Well, let’s get started gathering medals while familiarizing ourselves with this floor.”
Everyone hopped onto Bird Bs and took off into the sky under the astonished gazes of the other adventurers.
Hmm, there are quite a few adventurers all over the desert, but it’s not overly crowded. That’s good at least. Problem is, the only monsters I see are those already fighting with adventurers. Are the rest hiding under the sand? How can we find— Oh?
Through Bird E’s eyes, Allen spotted a group of a few dozen people approaching a hill-sized craggy peak.
What are they looking at? Oh! There’s a cave on the side of the mountain! Is something inside?
The adventurers began getting into formation in front of the large cave entrance. Two golems stepped forward, both with bowmen wearing light armor perched on their shoulders, as the rest stayed back a step. Allen could tell, even through his Summon’s eyes, how keyed up they were for the upcoming fight.
Two beastkin who were likely scouts slowly entered the hole. When they ran back out, they were being chased by a stream of scorpion monsters. Just as Allen was wondering how so many scorpions could fit inside a mountain of this size, a particularly massive one came out and the fighting began. Thanks to being in proper formation, however, the adventurers managed to maintain the upper hand.
I see, so there are monsters hiding in the rocky caves as well as under the sand. Hold on, is it the same on Floor 2? I do remember seeing super huge trees every few kilometers.
On a whim, Allen ordered the Bird E he had left on Floor 2 to head toward the closest giant tree. Sure enough, there was a large hollow in the trunk. The Summon flew to another tree and found a hollow inside it too. Apparently this was a feature that all these trees shared.
Ahh, so that’s where the treasure chests probably are. And monsters too, maybe? But the hollows are smaller than the caves, so maybe they only hold treasure chests. Either way, this is a major discovery!
“What’s wrong?” Meruru asked, finding it strange how Allen seemed to have frozen after making the Bird Bs hover in midair.
“I think I’ve just figured out how to beat this floor.”
Always ready with praise, Krena exclaimed, “Really?! That’s amazing!”
“Let’s head for that rocky mountain over there and test out my theory.”
Allen led his party to a mountain with no adventurers nearby. Sure enough, it had a huge cave.
“Let’s land here. Okay, guys, be careful. There might be monsters inside.”
The group got into position, with Krena and Dogora at the head. When everyone was ready, Allen sent a Spirit B inside. “Huh? There’s nothing in here.”
“Aw, so these caves can be empty too?” Cecil sounded a bit disappointed.
Contrary to the party’s expectations, Ellie soon reached the far end of the cave without finding anything. It really was just an empty cave.
“Guess there can be duds,” Allen shrugged. “Well, let’s try another mountain.”
One round of Farsight alone caught sight of more than a hundred mountains in the desert. So, the No-life Gamers formed up in front of another mountain and sent a Spirit B inside. But alas, she did not find anything in this one either.
Another miss. Hmm, now that I know what they’re doing, I realize there are a lot of adventurers aiming for these mountains like we are.
In fact, there were two main ways the other adventurers were handling this floor. One was to explore these mountains. The other was to wander around, hunting the monsters hiding under the sand. Allen determined the second way to be very inefficient for his party, as they did not have a golem with them, so he led the others to their third mountain.
This time, when Ellie reached the end, a magic circle made of geometrical shapes arranged like a language suddenly appeared, and scorpion-like monsters surged out from it with hair-raising cries of “Kishaaa!”
“Incoming!” Allen shouted, prompting his companions to brace themselves for battle.
The monsters charged out of the cave, and so the No-life Gamers dealt with them as previously planned, maintaining formation.
“Rah!” Krena brought her sword down upon the head of the first one, dashing it against the sand and making it burst with a splatter of bodily fluids.
Based on the amount of XP given, Allen announced, “It’s a Rank B monster. Total riffraff.” For the No-life Gamers, who had already killed millions of monsters during their time in Rohzenheim, Rank B monsters were not even a threat.
“Very well. Shall we clean them all up, then?”
“Yes please, Cecil. Go ham.”
The scorpions went down one by one in quick succession. When the giant one thrust its massive pincers forward, Dogora blocked them with his shield with a grunt. He lowered his center of gravity and tried to stand firm, but he ended up being pushed back, drawing ruts in the sand with his feet.
“That one’s probably Rank A. Hang in there, Dogora! Everyone else, hurry and finish off these trash mobs.”
Rank A monsters were significantly more powerful than Rank Bs. In this situation, finishing off the weaker monsters first meant everyone could focus their attacks on the big one and would lead to the party taking less damage overall.
“Guys, seriously! Please hurry!” Dogora groaned as he struggled to pin down an opponent ten times his size.
At that moment, another scorpion the same size as the one Dogora was dealing with appeared from the cave.
“Krena, there’s another one! Wait, huh?!”
“KISHAAAAAAA!”
Another scorpion even larger than those came out next, hissing ferociously. The tally now came to two large scorpions and one massive one.
“This one’s probably a floor boss. Even so, guys, try not to use your Extra Skills if you can help it! Oh, but Dogora, feel free to use yours anytime.”
“Yeah, yeah! Gee, thanks!”
The group had talked it out ahead of time and agreed that, because they were going through a Rank S dungeon, they would try to keep their Extra Skills available as much as possible. Extra Skills all had a cooldown time of a full day, and the party still had plenty of fights coming up later that day, possibly even ones with Rank S monsters. Dogora did not seem to appreciate Allen’s last line, though.
As Krena rushed over to deal with the second large scorpion, Allen sent a Rock B out to the floor boss. It was taking Krena and Dogora all they had merely to keep their opponents occupied; they lacked the strength to end things alone without the usage of their Extra Skills.
Cecil, who had been systematically going through the various elements in her repertoire, announced to the group, “These scorpions are weak to Ice Magic.” Just at that moment, a scorpion that had taken an icicle in its back curled up in blatant agony.
Oh? They have an element they’re weak to? That’s definitely helpful to know.
“Gotcha,” Allen replied. “Focus on taking down the one that Krena’s dealing with first, if you would. Sophie, can you try using water elemental Spirit Magic? Just to see if they’re weak to water too.”
“As you wish, Lord Allen.”
When facing three opponents at least Rank A in strength, it made sense to strategically eliminate them one by one. Allen helped Dogora hold out as Sophie, Cecil, and Volmaar whittled down the health of Krena’s scorpion.
Should I secure more Summon slots to deal with situations like this?
Allen could call out seventy Summons max. Of this number, he could really only use ten at the moment. He kept thirty Fish Bs, which buffed his MP, in his grimoire for the sake of earning skill XP. Another twenty slots were taken up by the Insect As and Dragon As still in Rohzenheim that were mopping up remnants of the Demon Lord Army. Around ten slots were split between the Spirit Bs that facilitated long-distance information sharing and the Beast Bs that were busy helping with Rodin Village’s development. The Bird Es he was scouting with and the Bird Bs the party were traveling on counted toward the few remaining slots.
No, me holding back now leads to greater efficiency in the future. Don’t give in to temptation, me.
Allen had made the conscious choice to not bring out as many Summons, hoping that this would become a growth opportunity for his companions. The No-life Gamers had cleared numerous dungeons during their time in Academy City and gotten much better at fighting while participating in the war in Rohzenheim. Their teamwork was far smoother now than ever before. However, there were no one-size-fits-all solutions on battlefields, and even a manner of fighting thought to be the most suitable imaginable could end up becoming useless after a class promotion. It was a learned skill being able to adapt a strategy that best suited the situation and the specs of those fighting.
In between casting Healing Magic, Keel told Allen, “It’s getting tough keeping everyone’s HP topped up by myself.”
“I’m sure it’s not easy being the healer,” Allen replied, “but try thinking of this as practice.”
During the war, the Gamers had used Blessings of Heaven like they were limitless resources, but they were now trying their best not to use any at all. Instead, it was Seeds of Magic—which restored 1,000 MP for all party members within fifty meters—that they were spamming, since Allen would be obtaining a large number of Rank D magic stones. Allen activated some himself periodically to ensure that Keel could keep casting his Healing Magic nonstop.
Before long, the two Rank A scorpions died.
I lost two Mirrors during that, but they managed to leave quite a bit of damage on the boss.
“Good job taking down the two Rank As, guys! I’ve weakened the last one for you, so let’s finish it off!”
Everyone focused their attacks on the massive scorpion who had appeared last. Allen had ordered his Stone Bs to use Total Reflect each time the scorpion launched a particularly powerful blow. It was not all that intelligent and never wised up to the fact that it should not be using big attacks, so this had happened three times. As a result, the monster’s body bore cracks all over, and it was spurting bodily fluids.
“Uh, Allen, this big one isn’t Rank S, is it?” Cecil asked worriedly.
“Nah, it’s just upper Rank A,” Allen asserted. He had known this even before the fighting began.
Seeing how sure Allen was, Cecil decided to take him at his word. “Well, it does look quite weakened. It’s definitely no match for the red insect from yesterday.”
The giant scorpion writhed as Krena and Dogora prioritized attacking where its armor was already cracked. At the same time, Sophie, Cecil, and Volmaar maintained a barrage from a distance, interfering with the monster’s attempts to use its large pincers and massive barbed tail on the two vanguards.
Eventually, the floor boss collapsed on the patch of sand soaked with its own goo and stopped moving.
When the boss faded into glowing bubbles, it left behind a Rank A magic stone and an iron medal bearing a scorpion engraving. Just like the dungeons in Academy City, monsters in dungeons did not drop materials. Anyone who wanted to obtain materials from monsters would have to find them outside of a dungeon.
“The medal proves that really was a floor boss.” Allen nodded in satisfaction.
“Oh?! Nice. Would never say no to two hundred gold coins!” Keel replied, rushing forward from the back to get a closer look.
Allen picked up the medal and said slowly, “So, this alone is worth two hundred gold, huh. Little wonder everyone tries to get into this dungeon.”
If I converted all the medals we need to go to Floor 4 from Floor 3 to a monetary amount, it would be 1,200 gold coins total.
“I feel like my sense of money is getting skewed just by being here,” Cecil sighed. “But then again, maybe it’s already beyond saving after all the time I’ve spent with Allen.”
“Are we gonna enter the cave?” Krena asked.
Allen shook his head. “There’s nothing left in there.” He had already sent Spirit B inside one more time after the scorpions stopped coming out.
“’Kay, then let’s go to the next one!”
Even though she had just finished a fight, Krena was already raring to go. She gripped her greatsword tightly and pumped her other fist.
“We’re going that way next.” Always thinking ahead even during battle, Allen had already sent another Spirit B off to confirm their next target.
And so the No-life Gamers set off for another rocky mountain in search of more magic stones and medals.
Chapter 10: Memories of the Past
Three days had passed since the No-life Gamers first stepped foot inside the Rank S dungeon. Before leaving their house for the dungeon that morning, Allen had informed everyone that they would be staying inside for four days and three nights.
