Hell Mode: Volume 6, page 25
A short distance away, Prince Zeu, now in his normal form, stood upright, his shoulders shaking slightly.
“Y-Your son pulled it off, father.”
While he usually referred to himself in a royal manner and to his father as “the king,” the words that came out of his mouth had a childlike tone to them. It seemed as if he were overcome with emotion due to having somehow managed to overcome the trial given to him that Temi had deemed insurmountable. The Ten Heroic Beasts, including a sobbing General Hoba, stood around their prince, congratulating him on his victory.
Meanwhile, Meruru and the other golem pilots gathered around Admiral Garara. “We pulled it off, men. Now it’s time t’ pour one out for those we’ve lost.”
The dwarves all closed their eyes in response to Garara’s words, recalling their deceased comrades. The thought of those who had given their lives so that the golem pilots could escape had been with them as they risked their own to do the same during this most recent battle. Had even one of the golem pilots not been so selfless, the supercombined golems would not have been able to operate properly, and there would have surely been casualties.
Goldino’s body finally faded away, leaving behind a Rank S magic stone. Then, Cecil approached Allen. “What’s wrong, Cecil? You don’t look very happy.”
“I wasn’t able to beat it,” she replied.
“Well, everyone was too close together. You couldn’t really use it to its full potential.”
This had happened once before too. When Cecil’s Intelligence stat shot up to outrageous levels thanks to Blessing of the Sovereign of Spirits, Allen was left stunned at the hundred-meter Petit Meteor she had created. Her Extra Skill was not exactly suited to large-scale battles.
“I guess you’re right, but... Hey, look.”
Over Allen’s shoulder, Cecil spotted her potato-headed friend. He was just standing there, looking down at the ground with a dejected expression on his face.
Krena approached the two, a sad expression on her face. “Looks like something’s bothering Dogora.”
It seemed as if Dogora was once again upset with himself at how he had held up in battle.
“I guess we weren’t able to make much use of you in the battle.”
“Wh-What did you say?! Why you...”
“Don’t worry about it,” Allen continued. “Volmaar wasn’t able to participate much either.”
“Hey, now,” Volmaar quipped back. “But I guess you’re not wrong.”
Volmaar, an archer, was not able to do much in battles against golems and the like because they were strong against piercing attacks. However, this meant little to him, as his primary concern was keeping Sophie safe.
That’s just how things go, I suppose. Some classes are a better fit for certain situations than others. More to the point, it was hard for Dogora to help out in the fight since he can’t use his Extra Skill, but it’s not like he was useless.
Dogora had undoubtedly been useful in the battle against Goldino. Between the three class promotions he had undergone and all the gear he had equipped, his Attack stat was on par with that of the Ten Heroic Beasts and even Helmios’s party members. In addition, thanks to the fact that he had been fighting with the No-life Gamers since their time back at the Academy, he knew exactly when to press the attack and when to fall back. He and Krena, his partner in the party’s vanguard position, acted in sync with one another, and he even had an uncanny knack for subconsciously picking up on the timing of Keel’s healing spells. He was certainly a skilled member of the team.
Still, that’s not enough to convince Dogora of his contribution.
Allen, looking over at his dejected friend, decided it was time to nip this one in the bud.
“What’s the problem, Dogora? You didn’t join the battle just so you could finally be a hero, did you?” He wanted to make sure that Dogora was not going to use this victory—as part of a large party he did not assemble and following a strategy he did not devise—to have people hail him as a hero. On top of that, he wanted to imply that Dogora was not ready to be one yet.
Dogora’s eyes went wide at this. “Hell no!” He locked eyes with Allen and his gaze said it all: he wanted to overcome his inability to use his Extra Skill and become a hero with his own strength.
“Well, I think it’s about time we head back. I want to claim my reward.” Allen then turned away from Dogora and called out to the other parties so they could teleport out.
“Just you wait and see,” Dogora whispered to himself while staring at Allen’s back.
After picking up the Rank S magic stone in the hallway, Allen and the others all returned to the large, open area. The cube that would return them to Floor 5 was located farther down the hallway, and another cube had appeared in the room once the boss was defeated, which would teleport them directly to Floor 1 to claim their reward.
Using his Bird A, Allen teleported everyone to the room together so he could hurry to his prize. In the room, the party found not only the cube, but also a chest they had not seen before.
The cube addressed the group the moment they approached.
“Congratulations on your victory over the fin—”
“Whoa!” Keel interrupted the cube before it could finish what it was saying. “You guys seeing this?! Look how it sparkles! Oh yeah!”
“As always, he’s a real sucker for shiny things,” Cecil said, rolling her eyes.
Keel was not the only one impressed at the sight, however. Many of their other comrades were also unable to conceal their joy at finally setting their eyes on their reward—a physical sign of what they had accomplished by beating the final floor boss. There were three chests in total: a silver, a gold, and a glowing rainbow chest. Under normal circumstances, they should have received four chests, but one had been removed, as they would be receiving that prize directly from Dungeon Master Dygragni as a reward for being the first to defeat the final floor boss.
Well, well. Would you look at that. So the final floor boss only drops silver chests and better. I’m really curious about what kind of loot is gonna come out of that rainbow one.
Allen and the Gamers had defeated more iron golems than any of the others. In doing so, they had seen wooden, silver, and even gold chests, with silver chests appearing about ten percent of the time. The sheer fact that all three of the chests earned by defeating the final floor boss were silver or higher said something about what kind of special prizes awaited.
“These must be our rewards.” Prince Zeu looked intently at the three treasure chests.
“I figure that the silver, gold, and rainbow chests likely have increasingly more valuable rewards inside. Zeu, Garara, and Helmios, I’d appreciate it if you three would discuss among yourselves what you plan on doing.”
Zeu nodded at Allen’s explanation. “I see. That makes sense.”
“All right, why don’t we look and see what’s inside?” At Helmios’s prompting, the three men gathered together and opened the chests.
Contents
Silver chest: item storage magic tool (large)
Gold chest: adamantite body slate (leg)
Rainbow chest: pendant (Attack + 3,000)
Rosetta glimpsed the spoils of war from over Helmios’s shoulder, her eyes sparkling. “Well I’ll be! Looks like they’re all winners!”
Wow! So if there’s a pendant that can boost your Attack stat, that must mean that you can boost your stats even higher by pairing them with rings. I’m going to need to collect some of those.
Unlike weapons and armor, accessories could affect skills and boost stats. If they could increase the number of accessories they could equip, that would let them boost their stats even further.
“Considering I’m the leader of all four parties, I think it’s only fair that I choose first. I want the rainbow chest.”
“What?!” Rosetta blurted in objection. She could not believe that Prince Zeu would say that. However, no one else seemed to object.
“I don’t see a problem wi’ that.” Admiral Garara was interested in the adamantite slate anyway. “I’ll take th’ gold chest.’”
“F-Fine, then I guess we’ll make do with the grimoire.” Rosetta then took the storage magic tool (large) and held it close to her chest as if to prevent anyone from stealing it from her. They had no use for the golem slates, and even if they had ended up with it, they would hardly have gotten a reasonable price for it when selling it at the temple.
Helmios merely laughed ruefully. It was not until later that Allen learned that storage magic tools were incredibly valuable, costing as much to buy as it would to build a house in the most expensive part of the Giamutan capital. Furthermore, this one was spacious enough to store even large items. Were it put up for sale, it would be worth even more than a mansion.
And here I figured they’d be fighting over the rewards. Looks like this world’s more peaceful than I give it credit for.
Merely participating in a raid was not enough to ensure that every member would receive some kind of compensation. In his previous life, Allen had often participated in raids with fifty or so members only for the group to receive one or two prizes in return. It happened so often that it was not uncommon for the situation to devolve into a free-for-all.
While Allen was busy thinking back on his past life, Prince Zeu approached and held out his hand. “This is to thank you for saving Sara and the others,” he said in a rather stiff manner. He was holding the pendant he had taken from the rainbow chest mere moments ago.
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve already achieved my goals. I have no need for this.” It seemed that Zeu had intended to give the pendant to Allen the whole time, which was why he had said he wanted the rainbow chest. Allen looked past Zeu at the Ten Heroic Beasts and noticed that they were all nodding along.
“A single adamantite slate is o’ no use t’ me. Go ’head and give it t’ Meruru,” Garara said, offering up his slate to Allen as well.
“Whoa, you sure about that?”
“Ye helped us get revenge for our fallen friends,” the admiral continued with a smirk. “Thanks t’ ye, we can move on.” Apparently he, too, had planned to give the item to Allen all along.
Rosetta tightened her grip around the storage magic tool and pulled it even closer to her chest. “Now just wait a moment! We’re not giving this up!”
The Gamers had acquired a bunch of items through their time slaying nearly four thousand iron golems, including hihiirokane slates, adamantite weapons and armor, and even a storage magic tool.
Though the one we got was only “big,” not “large.”
From the three gold chests they had opened, they had obtained one lump of orichalcum and two adamantite slates. Fortunately for them, the slate they received from Garara was different from the other two they had.
This is great. Now we’re one step closer to turning Meruru’s Tam-Tam into an adamantite golem.
“Congratulations.”
With the matter of the rewards settled, the cube once again addressed the group.
“You are the first to clear the Tower of Tribulation Rank S dungeon. Please accept your certificate, which I will issue to you now.”
All-black cards the size of business cards appeared before Allen, Helmios, Garara, and Zeu. Written in gold lettering on the front of the card was the title “Completion Certificate for the Tower of Tribulation Rank S Dungeon,” while the names of all the participants were written on the back.
“This should be all the proof you need, Your Highness.”
Zeu turned his card over in his hand, inspecting both the front and back closely. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”
“Your reward for being the first to clear the dungeon will be given to you personally by Lord Dygragni.”
“Yes, that’s perfect!” Allen cried out in excitement. No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than a large magic circle appeared behind the cube. With a hefty thump, a massive, glimmering, pitch-black object appeared in the center of the circle. Before them now stood a ten-meter-tall adamantite golem.
“What?!” Everyone present, with the exception of Allen, cried out in surprise.
Look who’s here!
“Whoops! Sorry ’bout that, I didn’t mean to surprise you. Name’s Dygragni!” The Dungeon Master cheerfully introduced himself to the group.
“Greetings. My name is Allen. While Prince Zeu here is the overall leader of the parties, my party and I will be the ones to receive the reward for being the first to clear the dungeon. Now, since I’m the party leader of—”
“Good grief, kid, cut to the chase!” Dygragni quickly interrupted Allen.
“My apologies.”
“No, I’m sorry too. Things’re just a bit hectic right now, is all, what with Lord Elmea giving me all sorts of crazy orders like the creation of a whole new dungeon by next month.”
“Ah, the dungeon for class promotions. How’s that going?”
“It’ll definitely be worth looking forward to.” Dygragni, currently in the form of a golem, gestured to Allen and the group with his index fingers.
According to what Allen had heard from the spirit gods, one of the Rank A dungeons in Ratash’s Academy City would be renovated into an entirely new dungeon come April. Anyone who cleared the dungeon would receive a class promotion.
Huh, I wonder if that means he was in Academy City until just now. That’d mean he managed to teleport clear to another continent instantaneously.
Up until recently, Dygragni had been residing in the Rank S dungeon, and though Allen and the others had never personally seen him, apparently he would sometimes venture out into the town located on Floor 1. Recently, he had been out quite often to adjust the settings of and make revisions to the class promotion dungeon.
Rohzen finally spoke up as well. “You certainly never change, Dygragni.”
“Huh?! My, my, if it isn’t Rohzen! It’s been a while!”
“Watch your tone. Unlike you, I’ve actually become a god. Ha ha.” The sight of Rohzen standing there with his brow furrowed reminded Allen of the way he talked while munching on fukaman. Dygragni and Rohzen were both around five thousand years old and had received their divine vessels from Elmea at the exact same time.
Looks like they aren’t exactly the best of friends.
“C’mon, you. Don’t scowl at me like that.”
“Hmph. You know, Lord Elmea would be beside himself if he knew you were putting everyone’s wishes and prayers into this playground of yours.”
“What’s that? If Lord Elmea has no sense of beauty, then he’s still got a lot to learn!”
“Y-You scoundrel! Now you’re insulting not only me, but Lord Elmea as well?!”
Dygragni took one look at the flying squirrel shaking his tiny fist in rage and rolled his eyes.
Huh, so apparently he uses all the faith he collects in the divine vessel granted to him by Elmea to create his dungeons, treasures, and dungeon completion rewards.
Allen had previously heard from Rohzen that those who were granted a divine vessel used it to collect the prayers of the faithful, the power from which would then turn them into a demigod and, later, even a god. Dygragni used the power from the prayers he collected to create and build upon his pet project, the Rank S dungeon.
In short, that meant that not only were the tower leading up to the heavens and the Floor 1 town that continued to grow year after year created from the people’s prayers, but so were Goldino and the other incredibly powerful Rank S floor bosses.
Finally, Allen remembered the whole point behind why he was here.
“I was hoping to discuss my reward for being the first to complete the dungeon.”
Dygragni turned to face Allen and leaned in close. “Oh, right, that! What would you like?”
“I want you to transfer all my friends over to Hell Mode.”
“What?!” The Dungeon Master stared at Allen in disbelief and immediately blurted out a response. “That’s impossible! Do you even know what you’re asking?!”
“Is Extra Mode off the table too?”
“Of course it is!”
Even the spirit gods, who had gathered countless prayers from the elves, had declared that transferring them to Extra Mode was simply not doable. As such, Allen had figured that it would be even less likely that Dygragni, who used all the prayers he accumulated to build up his dungeons, would be able to do it.
“All right, then how about granting us all a second Extra Skill?”
Thanks to Prince Zeu’s earlier performance, Merus had told Allen about the fact that people could have up to three Extra Skills. If he could not change the mode they were on, then he figured he might as well ask for additional skills.
“That’s not possible either. Everything you’ve asked of me is beyond my abilities. Besides, there’s a god right here, so why don’t you ask him?!”
“Hey!”
Allen took a moment to think things over. “Well, how about a class promotion?”
“Hmm? Now that’s something I can do, but only for those who haven’t already undergone a class promotion or those with a Talent without too many stars.”
Apparently there were some conditions.
“How many stars can you go up to, then?”
“Three.”
A three-star class promotion, huh? That’s not much. Then again, Rohzen was only able to upgrade Krena to five stars after becoming a spirit god. Anyway, it seems like Dygragni is being pretty open with me. I guess he doesn’t really care for all the limits Elmea has put on him.
These matters surrounding Hell Mode and star numbers were all well-known to Allen, but judging by the way Rohzen had acted when he brought the issue up before, he got the sense that these were things best not shared too freely. Perhaps Dygragni’s indiscriminate behavior was one of the reasons why he had been assigned to make the class promotion dungeon in the first place.
“The class promotion dungeon will open next month and allow only a single class promotion per person, up to a limit of four stars. That doesn’t really sound like too exciting of a reward,” Allen continued, though in the back of his mind, he could only help but wonder if the stubborn Rohzen would have simply fled back to Rohzenheim if he were in Dygragni’s shoes right now.
