Hell Mode: Volume 5, page 22
“The more I think about this, the more it doesn’t make sense. If the deities simply handed out class promotions, there would be no need to fear the Demon Lord. So why didn’t they do this earlier? When he first showed up, even.”
And I highly doubt the idea never occurred to them before I brought it up.
Being promoted from a one-star class to a two-star class was a very significant boost in stats. Promoting ten thousand troops would greatly raise the possibility of defeating the Demon Lord Army.
As such, it seemed very strange to Allen that the deities were scrambling to introduce the class promotion system only now. His memories from his past life whispered to him that the process would very likely be gated by some sort of quest, but still, he felt things were not adding up.
Noticing Allen’s look, Rohzen shrugged. “Now that’s a thought, right? How strange. Ha ha.”
So he won’t tell. Maybe he actually doesn’t know. Or he can’t say. In any case, our priority right now is for Sophie to build a rapport with her spirits.
Allen’s mind continued racing as he looked at the juvenile fire spirit clinging to Sophie.
Chapter 13: The Power of a Spirit
Today, the No-life Gamers were going to step foot on Floor 4 for the first time. As they approached the Temple of Yanpany, the guard wordlessly looked at Sophie and the red salamander that she was cradling.
“Oh, come now, please settle down,” Sophie cooed.
“Au, au.”
Every once in a while, it would move its hands about and fuss a little.
It really is like a baby. And the guard is still staring.
The first time Sophie tried to enter with Salamander in her arms, the guard had stopped her, asking what it was and whether she was trying to bring a monster into the temple. This was the same guard who had stopped them the first time here due to how young they looked. He was doing his job properly by being careful about whom he let inside the temple.
Even when Sophie explained that it was a spirit, he continued eyeing her suspiciously and refused to budge.
Seeing this, Volmaar stepped up and brought his face so close to the guard’s it seemed they might kiss, growling, “Are we to take this as an indication of the Empire of Baukis’s rejection of the spirits?” As the personal attendant of Sophie, the princess whom all the elves expected to succeed the throne, his standing was quite high in Rohzenheim.
And yet the guard still stood firm.
That day, upon being informed of what had happened, the queen of Rohzenheim sent Baukis a letter through official channels asking for proper treatment of the spirits. Furthermore, she said she would raise the issue of treatment of spirits at the next Five Continent Alliance summit.
Thanks to this, the guard did not give the No-life Gamers any more trouble about Salamander. Since all this was for the purpose of eventually fighting the Demon Lord, Allen was not above relying on a little political browbeating.
After paying the Floor Operating System the needed medals, the party arrived on Floor 4.
“Is this it?” Allen knelt down. “Interesting, the ground really does have the texture of a leaf.”
“It even feels kinda soft,” Cecil said with a few firm stomps.
The ground on Floor 4 was green with lines that looked like leaf veins. The Gamers took a few steps and found it somewhat springy under their feet. However, it showed no signs of tearing no matter how much force they exerted, indicating that even if it was a leaf, it was a very thick one.
All this matches up with what Helmios said. Okay, Hawkins, come on out. Give me a view from the sky.
As Helmios’s party, Sacred, operated mainly on Floor 4, he had had a lot of information to share with Allen. Now Allen sent out a Bird E to confirm some of the intel for himself.
From up high, Allen could see that his party was currently standing on top of a massive lotus pad. The wider view offered by Farsight revealed that this floor was like an expansive sea with lotus pads dotting its surface. Adventurers and monsters could be found doing whatever on top of these pads.
That confirms that Floor 4 really is an ocean biome.
Allen announced to the party, “It’s just as Mr. Helmios described. Though it doesn’t make much difference to us if it’s sand or water, since we’ll be riding our Griffs regardless.”
“That’s true, I suppose.” Cecil nodded. “Should we also check to see if that cube will say what Mr. Helmios told us?” Because Allen kept calling the dungeon operation systems “cubes,” the rest of his party had also taken to referring to them as such.
“Of course. Let’s go.”
The Gamers approached the nearby cube to ask for the conditions for progressing to the next floor.
“Greetings, No-life Gamers. I am Floor Operating System S401. Do you wish to travel to the next floor? Or do you wish to return to Floor 1?”
“Next floor, please.”
“Floor Five it is. Please present five bronze medal variations, five iron medal variations, and five mithril medal variations.”
So this is what Helmios was talking about.
Up until now, the dungeon cubes had never shown any sort of discernment regarding the engravings on the backs of the medals when receiving them. However, proceeding to Floor 5 would require five medals with unique depictions. It was just as Helmios had said.
“So we can’t just bring five of the same kind of medals?” Allen asked to clarify one other detail.
“That is so. The requirement for traveling to Floor 5 is to bring five medals with different depictions on them.”
“And how many floor bosses are there on the second to fourth floors?”
“There are five on each floor.”
Cecil crossed her arms and sighed. “Mr. Helmios was right. We’ll have to kill the Rank S bosses in order to reach Floor 5.”
The five floor bosses on each floor that the cube mentioned included BB on Floor 2 and Scarlet on Floor 3. This requirement was the reason Helmios had given up trying to reach Floor 5. His party just might, if they were to go all out, manage to kill one of the Rank S floor bosses. However, doing so would require skirting very, very close to incurring casualties.
“All right, well, we’ve confirmed the conditions for reaching the next floor. It’s time to see what Floor 4 is like for ourselves.”
Allen needed more information about this floor in order to decide whether to stay here or return to Floor 3. And so out came the Bird Bs, taking the entire group high above the lotus pads.
“Looks like the dwarves are able to make it on this floor just fine,” Cecil commented. “Golems really are incredible.”
“Well, the dwarves have always managed to repel the Demon Lord Army out on the open sea,” Allen pointed out.
Down below, golems in the form of boats—a sight that the Gamers had grown familiar with on Floor 3—were parting the water as effortlessly as they had parted the sand dunes. The sight of a whole fleet of these facing the Demon Lord Army forces each year was probably a scene to behold indeed.
Currently, Meruru was flying on her own Bird B ahead of the rest of the party. For a while after she first rejoined the party, she had ridden with Allen and held a large shield in order to protect those in the back. However, now that she had her Iron Grade golem, she was riding solo, just like Krena and Dogora. Her golem was massive enough to act as a shield just standing up front, so she was working in tandem with the vanguard to add more variety to their battle tactics.
To no one’s surprise, Cecil had simply said, “Well, if Meruru’s not sitting here,” before reclaiming her place behind Allen as if it were only natural. While the back line consisted of her, Keel, Sophie, and Volmaar, it was not ideal for her to ride with Keel, as the party would lose both its mage and healer if anything happened to their mount, and there was no way Sophie and Volmaar would ride separately. Staying with Allen in the middle of the formation also gave Cecil the most freedom in terms of coordinating her attacks with other party members.
The Bird E scouting ahead spotted three monsters that looked like a cross between newts and dragons resting on top of a floating leaf.
“There are monsters this way!” Allen shouted loud enough for his whole party to hear.
Helmios also said that this floor has a lot of aquatic monsters, and that nearly everything on this floor is Rank A.
As the three members of the vanguard made a beeline for the monsters, Meruru held aloft her magic disc and shouted, “Tam-Tam, come forth!” Her golem promptly leaped out of the giant magic circle that had appeared above the lotus pad up ahead and sucked her inside when she got close enough on her mount.
Of course, the monsters were not just lying around. They noticed the golem when it appeared and immediately pounced at it. The twenty-meter-tall figure in turn reached out its long arm to hold down one of the monsters.
* * *
Name: Tam-Tam
Pilot: Meruru
Rank: Iron Grade
HP: 3,000 + 1,800
MP: 3,000 + 1,800
Attack: 3,000 + 5,800
Endurance: 3,000 + 3,800
Agility: 3,000
Intelligence: 3,000
Luck: 3,000
* * *
The Gamers had found a Gigantify slate back on Floor 3. This slate took up two slots but doubled both the golem’s stats and size. In addition, because Meruru had maxed out her skill levels, her golem now had the Endurance to hold even Rank A monsters at bay. Although Krena’s and Dogora’s Attack was still higher when they wielded their weapons, Tam-Tam had way more Endurance than anyone else in the party and was therefore filling its role as tank very well. Unfortunately, there were downsides, as maintaining a Gigantified golem cost double the amount of MP.
While Meruru’s golem kept the monsters occupied, Krena and Dogora moved in. Cecil and Volmaar assisted them with long-range attacks, taking the monsters out one after another.
“Hell yeah, you’re the last one!” Dogora charged toward the remaining monster.
Suddenly, Sophie cried out, her voice filled with alarm. “Huh?! No, please, w—” She lost consciousness midsentence, collapsing against the neck of the Bird B she was riding.
“P-Princess Sophialohneeee!” Volmaar reached forward to grab his charge so she would not fall off.
What just— Ah!
“Dogora, dodge it! Incoming from behind you!” Allen also shouted in a fluster.
However, it was too late. A giant ball of flames shot forward from the back of the party’s formation, heading straight for the monster that Dogora was about to attack.
“Huh— YEEEOWCH!”
This was, of course, Salamander. It rushed ahead, dragging along the superheated air around it, and instantly reduced Dogora’s Bird B to bubbles of light. The boy leaped off in a hurry, but unfortunately was not fast enough to avoid getting his rear end burned. The spirit grazed Tam-Tam’s arm before it reduced the final monster to nothing but cinders. It went on to burn a hole in the lotus pad and vaporize the water underneath, causing a large burst of steam to shoot up through the hole.
When Sophie regained consciousness, she immediately began apologizing profusely, tears at the corner of her eyes. “I’m so sorry, everyone! I went and did it again.”
Allen’s group peered down at the expanding hole in the lotus pad and the violently churning water it revealed. Through the billow clouds of steam, they caught brief glances here and there of what truly looked like hell.
＊ ＊ ＊
Thankfully, Dogora had managed to get out of the way of the attack from Salamander, the juvenile fire spirit; his behind, however, ended up completely roasted. Upon landing on the giant leaf, he writhed around in agony, clutching his butt.
“H-Hey man, you okay?” Keel leaped down onto the leaf and rushed over to cast Healing Magic on Dogora’s bared buttocks.
“The hell do you think?!” Dogora retorted. “How many times has this been?! And why is it me every time?!”
“Here ya go, extra underwear. This is the last pair; if they get ruined too, we’ll have to go buy more.” Allen took out a pair of boxers and handed it over.
Sophie also landed on the leaf and bowed profusely. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“Huh? Oh, nah, it’s fine.” Dogora turned away with a red face, bent over.
Sophie said, “B-But...” and was about to continue, but Dogora insisted, “Seriously, it’s fine!” while desperately raising and lowering his boxers to hide the lower half of his body.
During this time, Allen checked up on Sophie’s Status in his Grimoire. Her MP’s gone to zero, and she lost half her HP. Absolutely nuts.
“Keel, make sure to heal Sophie too, please.”
Keel nodded. Once he finished with Dogora, he then tended to Sophie.
“Au, au!”
Salamander appeared from the surface of the water that, though no longer bubbling, was still giving off steam. After evaporating the excess water off its skin, it glided through the air and into Sophie’s embrace. Unable to comprehend from her obvious body language that she was dejected and on the verge of tears, it looked up at her with its beady eyes and wagged its tail vigorously as if begging to be praised.
With the scene of chaos from just now still fresh in her mind, Sophie had to summon all her patience to manage the words, “Th-Thank you, Salamander.”
How many times does this make? I think Dogora’s butt might be nearing its limit. But wow, when Salamander takes Sophie’s HP too, the power of its attack is incredible.
Allen began analyzing what had just happened while watching Dogora, who had gone off a distance to change, from the corner of his eye.
The spirits of this world expended their contracted Spirit User’s MP to use their abilities. In other words, the power they wielded depended on how much MP they used. This was similar in principle to Cecil’s Extra Skill. What was different, however, was that it was up to the spirit to decide how much MP it would use.
This time, Salamander had managed its impressive attack because it had taken all of Sophie’s MP and even half her HP. Anyone who underestimated a juvenile spirit could very well get burned—or worse.
“Sophie, I’ve said this many times, but being impatient doesn’t help,” Rohzen chided in a gentle voice. “Spirits listen closely to their User’s voices. Salamander picked up on the unease in your tone.”
“U-Understood, Lord Rohzen.”
There we go again, our dear Spirit God’s preferential advice-giving!
Even though Spirit God Rohzen never answered any of Allen’s questions, he had started proactively offering Sophie advice after she became a Spirit User.
Ever since the start of the fight, Sophie had been trying to give Salamander orders; however, it had remained glued to her side, seemingly unresponsive. When she started getting impatient, she unconsciously put too much force in her voice, and the spirit responded accordingly.
“If things remain this way, maybe we should put off Sophie’s next class promotion for a while,” Allen mused out loud.
“That’s actually a good idea,” Rohzen agreed. “Remember, this was all caused by a juvenile spirit—an adult spirit could kill Dogora here. Ha ha.”
“Now that would be a problem.” Hmm, so the next tier up is called adult spirit.
All spirits were born as nascent spirits. They then gradually evolved into adult spirits, grand spirits, spirit kings, and spirit gods. Although the elves called him “the” God of Spirits, Rohzen was actually just one spirit god among countless others.
The next time Sophie would promote her class, she would gain the ability to materialize adult spirits. However, if she was having this much trouble handling juvenile spirits, things might become even more dire were she to deal with adult spirits. This was a worry that Rohzen and Allen shared.
Gatoluuga had said that it took him a long time before he reached the point where he could communicate with his spirits without issue. If their priorities were solely to raise Sophie’s skills and promote her class, then the consequences would not matter. For each MP her spirits used, she gained her an equal amount of XP, so letting her spirits do whatever they pleased would be in line with their goals. However, it was a problem so long as her spirits continued rampaging because the consequences were very much real. Given all this, everyone was in agreement that her class promotion should be put on the back burner for now.
“You know what? Here, Sophie, have Helmios’s ring. Being able to keep your spirits materialized all day should help somewhat.” Allen handed Sophie the MP Recovery Ring that he had received from the Hero.
“Th-Thank you, Lord Allen. Are you sure about this?”
Well, he didn’t specify how long I could keep it, so I don’t actually plan on ever giving it back.
Helmios had given up trying to reach Floor 5. So, because he figured he would not need his MP Recovery Ring for the near future, he had traded it with Allen for a hundred Blessings of Heaven. With that many of them, his party would be able to handle any traps they fell to, and Allen had told him that he could always go through Rohzenheim to ask for more should his stock ever run low.
As a result, Sophie got to wear matching rings with Allen. This put her in extremely good spirits, but that was a story for another time. At the same time, Cecil’s mood turned extremely sour, but this too was another story for another time.
“You okay, Meruru?” Allen asked, worried about the damage that Tam-Tam had taken when Salamander grazed its arm just now.
“Mm-hm! I can repair this by myself,” Meruru replied.
* * *
Name: Meruru
Age: 14
Class: Talos General
Level: 60
HP: 1,677 + 1,800
MP: 2,420 + 1,800
Attack: 782 + 1,800
Endurance: 1,318 + 1,800
Agility: 782
Intelligence: 2,420
Luck: 1,503
Skills: Talos General {6}, Flying Arm {6}, Drill Punch {6}, Laser Sword {6}, Repair {6}, Alloy {2}, Spear Mastery {3}, Shield Mastery {3}
