Hell Mode: Volume 1, page 5
Beast G, which had just popped its head out of the ground, was a mole the size of a small dog. Its Ability enabled it to easily dig holes thirty centimeters wide and one meter deep.
Moley would probably be really helpful for digging pitfalls, right?
The usage of a Summon’s Ability seemed more-or-less unrestricted, considering how doing so did not cost MP and had no cooldown. Although Beast G still wouldn’t listen to any other orders, it could be relied on to dig a hole wherever Allen willed it to.
The final new Summon, Insect G, was currently crouched right next to Allen. Its size and appearance both seemed reminiscent of an American bullfrog.
Provoke.
“Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.”
Upon receiving Allen’s command, the frog started jumping erratically and croaking loudly as its normally green skin flashed red and yellow.
The gears in Allen’s head turned as he stared thoughtfully at Insect G. It seemed increasingly clear that the point of his class was not to simply call on powerful Summons and have them fight on his behalf. For example, Insect G could perhaps aggro a monster when it was in the middle of chasing Allen, whereas Beast G seemed to possess the potential for creating large pitfalls. In short, the key to fully drawing out the capability of his class seemed to lie with properly understanding the characteristics of his Summons.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
A bell rang far in the distance, signaling to the whole village that it was now three in the afternoon.
Oh, it’s already that time? Allen thought, picking up the wooden sword on the ground next to him.
＊ ＊ ＊
Eight years after its founding, this frontier village had developed a rough town center near the front gate that included a commercial quarter with stores, an inn, the village chief’s house, and the residences of the commoners of the village. The vast fields where Allen lived were still within the village limits, but considered part of the outskirts. As such, it made sense for the bell that indicated time to be set up near the village entrance where the population density was highest.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Allen’s heartbeat quickened as the thought of the unavoidable upcoming battle soon filled his mind. Roughly ten minutes after the bell fell silent, she arrived. She was both his friend and his rival.
“Allen, let’s play!”
A little girl with shoulder-length pink hair and dazzling blue eyes rushed like a gust of wind through the crude gate that led into Allen’s garden. She was wearing an outfit made of hemp—like what most serfs wore, Allen included—and holding something that seemed strangely incongruent with a little girl: a roughly hewn wooden sword.
Ever since Allen turned three, Krena had been coming over to play every single day. As soon as Gerda heard that Theresia had granted Allen permission to leave the house, he brought Krena over. At that time, Allen felt a sense of foreboding seeing the two wooden swords in the little girl’s hands. And true enough, it turned out that Gerda was nearing his limits handling Krena’s rough-and-tumbling fun. He was so desperate for Allen to become her playmate that he had looked ready to prostrate himself.
Ever since then, Krena started coming over every day at the stroke of the bell. Judging by how fast she arrived, she had likely dashed off literally at the very first peal.
There was a time when I had been quite baffled about how Gerda, with his bodybuilder-like physique, could have trouble dealing with his daughter. Now I totally get it though.
Krena’s father, Gerda, was even more muscular than Rodin—the veins on his arms were practically popping out. Because of these two men, Allen was starting to get the mistaken impression that all serfs were super jacked.
“Good afternoon, Krena. You’re full of energy again, I see. So, what do you want to play today?” Allen asked for confirmation’s sake, even though the answer seemed quite obvious considering what the girl was holding.
“Mmmm!” Krena pouted, expressing indignation that he even had to ask. “Play knight, of course!”
“All right, then. The tree will be in our way here, so let’s go over there.”
“Sure!”
The pout on Krena’s face immediately melted into a beaming smile as the two headed for a wider area. Allen knew full well by now how much the terrain and surroundings could affect a fight.
Eventually, the two children stopped at the most open part of the garden. They each held up a roughly hewn wooden sword—around thirty cm long, or a third of their own heights—at the ready.
“We start! I am Krena the knight! Here I come, Allen!”
“Come at me!”
“Noooo! You have to say it too!”
Krena pouted once again. As long as Allen did not “properly” name himself, the play session would not start. She swung her sword crossly in a little fit.
It’s so freaking embarrassing though! Just what on earth were you teaching her, Gerda?! Why do I have to go all out with playacting at this age?! Though I am only three years old!
“I am Allen the knight! Let us fight with honor!” cried the thirty-eight-year-old while readjusting his doublehanded grip on his sword.
Having been satisfied with Allen’s proclamation, Krena rushed forward, signaling the start of the fight. Allen parried her swing, but the shock of the impact still ran through his arms. In exchange, he brought his own weapon down with both hands, but she deflected it with ease.
The exchange continued, filling the air with the incessant clacking of wood against wood.
This is strange. There’s definitely something weird about this!
Allen had been on the ropes ever since the start of this fight. The reason why he found this so unbelievable was because he was currently fully buffed from his cards. After suffering defeat after defeat at her hands, he had specifically changed out the collection of cards stored within his grimoire. He had replaced all Rank H cards with Rank G ones and, aside from stocking two Insect G and two Bird G for experimental purposes, filled all the remaining slots with Beast G for the Attack buff. He was now stronger than even a ten-year-old. In fact, Allen suspected that he currently matched a full-grown adult in strength. This was literally him going all out, and yet he was still losing against a three-year-old.
I can’t hit her at all. Should I increase my Agility with Bird G? But if my Attack goes down any further, I won’t be able to properly parry her strikes. Ugh, I don’t have enough stat points to shuffle around!
Currently, Krena was superior in both Attack and Agility. Allen did his best to not get cornered by the innocent devil that he was facing.
“Playing with Allen really is more fun than with papa!” Krena cried as her free hand quivered with excitement. She apparently found Allen, who was the same size as her and fully buffed with his cards, the perfect partner for playing knights.
“Gee, thanks,” Allen replied with a wry smile.
The play session had only just begun. The two continued for a whole hour with a few breaks interspersed within.
＊ ＊ ＊
The nights for serfs came early, as the only source of light they had was from their fireplace. Around four in the afternoon, Rodin and Theresia were already back from the fields.
“Oh my, if it isn’t Krena! Are you here to play with Allen again today?” Theresia asked, smiling warmly at the sight of the two children covered in dirt from head to toe.
“Mm-hm! I played knight with Allen!”
Allen looked both relieved and exhausted, indicating that the play session had just ended. He had remained on the defensive from start to finish.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Theresia replied. “But it’s about to get dark soon. Make sure you get home safe, all right?”
“Mm-hm! I’ll be safe! See you tomorrow, Allen!” The girl who was still bursting with energy dashed off, her wooden sword still in hand.
Rodin, who through his talks with Gerda was mostly aware of what was happening, placed a sympathetic hand on Allen’s shoulder. “Good work, son.”
The family then bustled to prepare dinner. There was one thing that was now different about this scene.
“Here you go, papa,” Allen said as he dished out the fried beans. Ever since he turned three, he had started helping out with the housework. There was a good reason for this.
“Mm,” Rodin replied gruffly.
Theresia rubbed her son’s head. “What will we ever do without you, Allen?” she murmured thankfully before slowly and carefully settling herself into a chair. The bulge of her belly indicated that she was pregnant again. This second child—which she and Rodin had been wanting for a while now—was due around the turn of the year. Because she was already quite far into her pregnancy, Allen had decided to help out with the housework so as to lessen the burden on his mother.
During dinner, Allen suddenly said, “Papa, mama’s tummy is getting bigger, so I’ll help with harvesting the potatoes.”
He had seen Theresia having to suddenly stop and recollect herself several times over the past few days. Because he had the strength of an adult, he thought he could handle potato harvesting without issue. What’s more, even though he still had no intention of explaining everything about being a Summoner to his parents, he thought this a good occasion to reveal a bit of what he was capable of thanks to the buffs that the cards were giving him.
Rodin froze, looking shocked and at a loss for words.
Theresia joined the conversation. “Allen, honey, you’re still young. You can go ahead and keep playing with Krena!”
“That’s right, Allen,” Rodin added. “You helping out around the house is already more than enough. We will need your help with the fields in the future, but until then, play as much as you can.”
Back when Kenichi—Allen’s identity in his past life—had been a child, it had been his duty to clean the house’s bathtub. In his mind, he was pretty much equating this with helping out in the fields.
Rodin saw it differently, however. For him, working in the fields was hard labor, something that he did because it was his duty as a serf. It was not fun, nor was it something that a three-year-old could be expected to take part in. On a more fundamental level, he did not think being a serf was anything to be happy about either.
There was a large rift in the value system held by Allen and Rodin. Allen had now lived three years in this world, but before his reincarnation, he had lived thirty-five years as Kenichi. The value system and common sense from back then still strongly affected his thoughts and decisions now.
No dice, huh. Well, I am only three years old. Guess I’ll increase my daily training menu starting tomorrow, then.
Despite the difference in values, Allen could tell that there was no point in pushing the matter. He had offered because he preferred spending his time with his family if given the chance, but it was not as if he could not find other ways to utilize his time.
“Oh, do you want to hear what Krena did today?”
“Sure, honey. Tell us!”
Sensing that his offer to help with the harvesting had caused the air to grow a bit heavy, Allen decided to change the topic to a funny story about his play session with Krena that day.
＊ ＊ ＊
October was nearing its end, signaled by the albaherons—the creature which Allen’s name was derived from—flying northward.
The harvesting is almost over. It’s completely hunting season now.
Ever since the start of the month, the men of the village had started getting together to go on hunts on days when they were all free. This year, they had already gone on two hunts in the midst of the potato harvesting period. Accordingly, Rodin had also gotten quite busy as of late. As someone with a burly 180-cm-tall body who had always dreamed of becoming a hunter, this was the time of the year that he always looked forward to the most. This year, he needed to work especially hard to ensure that Theresia, who was pregnant with their second child, got all the nutrition she needed.
Naturally, Gerda also participated in those hunts, so both Allen and Krena were growing up quickly and healthily. Everyone who participated in a hunt would gain a portion of the game’s meat. As the serfs’ diet was mainly composed of plant-based protein from sources like beans, the great boar meat served as a valuable source of animal protein. The hunting party had gotten so proficient now that they could normally manage ten to twelve hunts each year.
From January to March, the game of choice would shift to the white deer, a Rank C monster that looked more like an elk in spite of its name. However, it had white skin that camouflaged very well within the snowy landscape. As such, they were considered harder to hunt than the great boar.
Well then, how did my experiment turn out? Allen thought as he checked in on the Insect H that was currently inside a hole that he had made Beast G dig yesterday morning. “Oh, you’re still alive, Denka! This proves Summons can stay materialized for a whole day.”
This current experiment that Allen was conducting was meant to determine how long Summons could remain Summoned. This world had neither walkthrough sites nor online forums, meaning he had to figure everything out on his own. Now that he had been granted full permission to come and go inside his family’s front yard, he was taking the opportunity to test out a few things.
What Allen had just called out loud, “Denka,” was the nickname that he had assigned the grasshopper Insect H. It was possible to set names for each kind of Summon, and there was no change between using “Insect H” or “Denka” while Creating, Summoning, and Synthesizing. All of these Abilities could be performed silently, activating automatically as soon as Allen willed it.
Allen had assigned the following names to his available Summons:
Insect H: Denka (Grasshopper)
Insect G: Hopper (Frog)
Beast H: Mousey (Mouse)
Beast G: Moley (Mole)
Bird G: Chappy (Parrot)
These look more like names for pets than Summons, huh, Allen thought somewhat self-deprecatingly as he looked through the pages in the grimoire displaying the creatures’ Statuses. He knew he could change the names as many times as he wanted, though, so he decided to leave them for now. Well then, next thing.
The little boy left the grasshopper in the hole and turned around to walk toward the tree growing in his yard. He gathered ten stones and placed them at his feet. Then he picked up each one in turn and threw them toward the tree.
If I remember right, the description for Hell Mode said, “The only Skills you start out with are the skills tied to your class.” In my case, that would be Summoning. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t get other skills, right?
After throwing all ten stones, Allen retrieved them and added a stroke to the tally marks that he had been drawing on the ground. He then repeated the process over again.
For now, let’s do a hundred throws every day. I wanna figure out the conditions for obtaining skills.
Allen was working hard at leveling Synthesis up, but there was little to it beyond expending his MP three times each day; this was not nearly enough for the hardcore gamer inside him. As early as possible, he wanted to figure out whether he could obtain skills unrelated to Summoning and, if so, what those conditions were. So he decided to use the rest of his time to experiment with gaining other skills as well.
In short, Allen was attempting to gain a skill similar to “Stone Throw.” The stone throwing training regimen that he had taken up usually took him the entire morning to complete. One of the few advantages to having been reincarnated from birth was that he had all the time in the world to perform tedious trials like these.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Let’s play again tomorrow, Allen!”
“Sure thing.”
Today’s session of playing knight had just finished, leaving Allen thoroughly exhausted. Upon being prompted by Theresia, Krena sped off home, still filled with energy. It was dark there at night, as the roads that far out into the outskirts of the village were not lit. Traveling without clear visibility was dangerous, regardless of how energetic the little girl was, so Theresia always made sure to remind her to head off before the sun set.
If Krena keeps coming over every day like she’s been doing, I just might gain a skill related to swordsmanship before stone throwing.
As always, Theresia’s cooking graced that night’s dinner table, and the family of three gathered around the sunken hearth. Serfs lived frugally and had few possessions, but that did not necessarily mean they ate poorly. Rodin, for example, had a 180-cm-tall, well-built body capable of performing manual labor from six in the morning to four in the afternoon, day in and day out. The amount of calories that he burned was significantly higher than that of the average person in the modern era.
That said, they had very limited access to ingredients like oil and meat, which meant the only way to ingest the amount of calories needed was through quantity. Their diet mainly consisted of potatoes, unleavened bread baked with wheat flour alone, beans, and a thin soup cooked with dried summer vegetables.
“You were throwing stones at that tree again today, weren’t you, Allen?” Theresia suddenly asked. It was only natural for her to want to ask about this odd new behavior her son seemed to have taken up recently.
Allen simply nodded and said, “Mm-hm.”
This prompted Rodin to join in the conversation. Theresia had told him about this before, and his curiosity was similarly piqued. “Why were you doing that?” he asked.
“You said there are monsters outside our house, papa. If they appear, I’ll throw stones at them to protect mama!”
Allen delivered this answer that he had thought up ahead of time with the most childlike and endearing smile that he could muster. The reason his parents had kept giving him for not allowing him outside of the house was because “there are monsters outside,” so he was using that to his advantage.
This frontier village was surrounded by a wall, and there were only very weak monsters nearby. However, there were times when a few of them would slip in through small cracks in the wall. While easily defeated in short order by guards or other adult villagers, the monsters’ stats still made them a threat to children, especially the younger ones.
