Hell Mode: Volume 6, page 7
“The biggest reasons behind half of all adventurers dying in the Rank S dungeon are attributable to Rank S bosses and death stages.”
“Yer right about that.”
The Rank S bosses were unbelievably powerful and would kill you before you could get away, while the death stages spawned endless waves of enemies, killing off adventurers before they could escape. Since the deaths from the latter could not be accurately counted, the Adventurer’s Guild instated a rule that any adventurer who did not return from the dungeon within a given period of time was considered dead.
“Helmios said he wanted to do whatever he could to get the death rate under ten percent.”
“Under ten percent? But how?”
“That’s the point of providing this information.” Allen’s demeanor made it clear that he intended to give no further explanation, but the guildmaster stared silently at him, unwilling to let the matter drop. “He asks that you wait two more months.”
There will be a prophecy regarding class promotions at the beginning of the year. Hopefully you’ll put two and two together then.
After learning that the Demon Lord Army had stolen Fire Goddess Freyja’s divine vessel, Allen was in a hurry to acquire all the equipment he would need to outfit the soldiers of Ratash, Rohzenheim, and the other allied nations of the Five Continent Alliance. But even if he were to protect each of these countries from the Demon Lord Army, he still stood no chance of beating it. What he needed were not stronger soldiers, but stronger adventurers.
The system for class promotions would help those with Talents become even more powerful. Those who could already take on the Rank S dungeon would gain even stronger Talents. As things stood, however, such capable warriors were being knocked off one after another, which prompted Allen to start providing this information in the hopes of improving the situation.
These adventurers would also need new best-in-class gear as they grew stronger. With the flames of the Fire Goddess weakened, they would no longer be able to forge weapons or armor, and both adventurers and soldiers alike would need to be outfitted primarily with loot found in dungeons. It was for this reason that he was telling everyone where the treasure chests could be found.
The reward for providing this information, in Allen’s mind, was that the lives of adventurers would be spared. That was why he had stayed up all night to compile all the information on the death stages. Of course, his friends helped as much as they could, but it was much faster to work using his grimoire, leaving him to do the brunt of the work. It was why he had cut their time in the dungeon down from three and a half days to just three days as well.
Though he was still fairly exhausted, he felt that it was more than worth it if their efforts helped grow the number of adventurers who would be around at the beginning of the year for class promotions—and to face off against the Demon Lord Army. Allen provided this information to the Adventurer’s Guild in the hope that it would spare their lives.
“So somethin’s gonna happen in two months?”
Allen held Popokka’s gaze in the hopes of convincing him without having to delve into further explanation.
“That’s correct. Helmios said that everything would make sense in two months’ time.”
Obviously, there were risks involved with telling the Adventurer’s Guild, an organization that existed around the globe, about the details that would come with the divine message. It could even impact their activities going forward.
“I understand. Thanks for the info.”
The guildmaster smiled wryly and nodded. Though he may not have understood why, he figured that Allen and Helmios were living at the same base and that Helmios must have at least agreed to lend his name to this project. The information itself was incredibly valuable, after all, and the guildmaster wished for nothing more than to decrease the death rate of adventurers who challenged the dungeon.
“Well then, I’ll bring along more information as it changes. Ah, one more thing. The information is only current as of today, but please note that the layout of the dungeon does change.”
Apparently Dygragni, the dungeon master, changed the layout of the dungeon whenever the mood struck him.
“Got it. I’ll make sure to put a warnin’ when I publish the information.”
Now that there was nothing left to discuss, Allen stood up.
“Thank you. I believe that’s all for today.”
Popokka looked down at the maps in front of him. On the map of the Floor 4 death stage, a route was marked which would allow one to escape to safety. It was easy to imagine just how many lives this single map could save.
“Who are you really, Allen?” he muttered to himself.
Sophie glanced over at Popokka and giggled as she followed Allen out of the room.
“Hmm? What is it?”
Sophie grinned. “Allen is a pioneer.”
The guildmaster nodded, seeming convinced.
“What is it? C’mon, Sophie and Volmaar. Krena and the others are waiting.”
“Certainly, Allen.”
Sophie then hurried after him.
Chapter 6: Slaying the Floor Bosses
Whenever possible, Allen and the No-life Gamers would join Helmios and Sacred for breakfast at their base. Today, however, Helmios was running late.
“Nnh, good morning.”
Helmios walked into the dining room on uneasy legs, rubbing his fist against his temple as if he had a headache.
I see someone slept in. Little hungover, pal?
“You’re running late. We’ve already started breakfast.”
“You’re not the empathetic sort, are you, Allen?”
Allen decided to use Grass C’s Awakened Ability, Potherb, on Helmios to help him recover. There was a reason, of course, why even the great Hero would suffer from a hangover.
Allen’s survey of the Rank S dungeon covered a wide range of topics, including how people could protect themselves from floor bosses and death stages, along with methods for earning money. In addition to the content and accuracy of his report, it was also important that the Guild trusted the source of the information. Naturally, the Adventurer’s Guild made mention of Helmios when revealing the information for exactly the same reason.
The beastkin and dwarves had been particularly pleased with these reports.
The beastkin, ordered by Crown Prince Beku to spend a year taking on the dungeon, generally spent their time on Floor 2 to try to earn money for their post-dungeon life as they toiled away. The biggest danger they faced was the Rank S floor boss, the Blood Blast Beetle—otherwise known as BB.
Information on where this fast, rhinoceros beetle-esque monster generally lurked and how close you could get to it before being spotted had doubtlessly saved countless lives. As a result, all of the beastkin who managed to live to the end of their term of service thanked Helmios every time they crossed paths. In fact, there were apparently many in Zeu’s party who expressed to him a desire to thank Helmios.
This was a bit odd when you considered the fact that Helmios was a noble belonging to Giamut, an empire that had persecuted the beastkin of Albahal one thousand years ago. However, it was also true that he had saved their lives and ensured they could see the end of their term of service, to say nothing of the fact that they were quite a ways away from their home country. The beastkin bore no ill will toward Helmios and, in fact, deeply respected him.
Of course, Zeu knew that it was actually Allen who had provided the information, though he also knew that Helmios had given his permission to make these reports in his name, so the beast prince shared the information with his beastkin under the same premise. None of this caused any problems for Helmios, anyway.
Everything was going well so far.
A tremendous shock ran through the dwarves when the full set of death stage maps, complete with escape routes, was announced the previous month. This was due to the fact that many of the dwarves used golems and sought out the hidden cubes in hopes of getting slates for the magic discs used to call them forth.
Hidden cubes tended to offer up golem slates either as a reward or for trade. The only place to sell off unneeded slates was the temple, which would buy them at bargain-basement prices, so it did not make any sense for parties without dwarves to take the risk of heading to the hidden cubes. Conversely, parties made up entirely, or even partially, of dwarves were forced to rely on hidden cubes to obtain slates, which often saw them heading into the death stage.
The dwarves were immensely thankful to learn that there was a near-surefire way to survive these hellish death stages. It was hardly uncommon to find them in tears in front of the Adventurer’s Guild’s bulletin board where this information was posted.
The dwarves would express their thanks by offering to buy a drink. Seeing as many dwarves had a penchant for alcohol, drinking was considered a pleasurable activity for all involved.
Now, no matter where Helmios found himself within the Rank S dungeon town, someone would invariably call out to him—and not only at bars or restaurants either. Even when simply walking down the street, dwarves would stumble out of nearby bars, steins in hand, and offer him a drink. And while Helmios was not one to shy away from alcohol, he was hardly what one would consider a heavy drinker. Using his quick wit and keen senses, he had thus far been able to turn down all of their invitations. Never before had he been so grateful for his high stats.
Alas, he had let his guard down the previous night and found himself unable to escape the dwarves, who quickly dragged him off to a bar. He stayed up well into the night as the dwarves practically showered with liquor before they finally let him go. This morning was the result.
“Well, we’re off to go slay BB today.” Allen cast a sidelong glance at the bleary-eyed Helmios and announced his plans for the day.
His decision to finally take on BB, a monster they had not yet been able to defeat, was based on his desire to push his friends forward with their class promotions and to upgrade their skills. The members who had already undergone class promotions had skills around Lvl. 5, meaning that they still needed to be maxed out, while Sophie was still awaiting her final class promotion. This was why he had determined it had still been too dangerous until now and spent the last month focusing on boosting skill levels. However, considering that they still did not know what the divine vessel was going to be used for, he decided that it was counterproductive to ignore the floor boss. And in the event they were able to defeat it, they could analyze the monster’s unique characteristics to share with the Adventurer’s Guild and hopefully prevent even more deaths.
In one corner of the dining room sat Admiral Garara, sipping at his breakfast soup in silence. Over a month had passed since he disbanded his party and essentially moved into Allen’s base, though he no longer tried to stop nor even offer a word of encouragement to Allen and the party as he did in the beginning.
Once they were finished with breakfast, the Gamers made their way from the temple to Floor 2 and rode some Bird Bs to BB’s location. Since they had around an eighty percent chance of knowing where it could be found at any given time, Allen Summoned a Bird E and sent it to scout ahead, where it quickly found its target.
The party held in place about one kilometer above BB, the red creature moving around beneath them.
“All right, Dr. Meruru, you’re up.”
“Leave it to me!” Playing off of Allen’s joke, Meruru pretended to stroke at a nonexistent mustache before lifting up her magic disc and tumbling backward off her Bird B. “I’m off!”
Moments later, a fifty-meter-tall mithril golem appeared in midair—a tactic they had recently finished practicing.
By the time BB’s multiple eyes caught sight of the giant approaching from above, Tam-Tam had fallen to where even BB, fast though it might be, could not avoid it.
A thunderous roar erupted a moment later as rocks and dust shot high into the air like a geyser. A huge crater formed amid the plume of rubble, and at its center, Tam-Tam could be seen standing atop BB.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaar!”
Meruru let out a howl as Tam-Tam reached its hands underneath BB’s body while keeping it pressed down.
“Kishaa! Kishaa!”
BB jerked its legs in a desperate attempt to escape Tam-Tam’s crushing grip. However, as Allen and the others began their descent, it stopped moving sideways in a bid to escape and instead started pushing up against Tam-Tam.
With one leg holding BB down and the other on the ground, Tam-Tam started to find itself knocked off-balance.
Huh? I guess BB’s Endurance is higher than Tam-Tam’s Attack. BB’s going to break free from Tam-Tam and get away at this rate.
Allen Summoned up multiple Bug Bs.
“Antsys, soften it up with Formic Acid!”
“Clack clack!”
The Bug Bs clung to Tam-Tam’s arms and blasted BB with their Formic Acid attack. White wisps floated up from various parts of BB’s body as its carapace began to dissolve, but as it did, Tam-Tam lost its grip on the monster and BB was able to slip out from under the golem.
Now free, BB scuttled across the ground and turned around to launch a counterattack against Tam-Tam. Before it had a chance, however, Krena and Dogora put themselves between it and its target, blocking the path.
BB froze for an instant, which was all the time Krena and Dogora needed to strike the monster head-on with their respective weapons. It opened up its dissolved shell and, with a shudder of its wings, rose into the air to escape.
“Krena, Dogora, whatever you do, don’t let it grab you!”
“You got it!”
“Yeah! You’re going down today!”
BB was able to absorb HP from anyone it managed to get ahold of, and as such, ensuring that it was not able to do so was key to defeating the monster. That was why Allen had instructed Meruru to have Tam-Tam destroy BB’s wings, although apparently the carapace was far stronger than he expected and got in their way. Even the Formic Acid was not able to reach its wings.
Gah, its carapace is just way too strong. And it’s fast too.
While BB’s wings flitted about to keep it hovering in the air, Krena and Dogora used their weapons to exchange blows with the monster while also maintaining enough distance to both stay outside its attack range and keep it at bay.
Krena and Dogora were wearing two Agility-boosting rings each, giving them an additional 3,000 Agility points per ring. Having opened literally hundreds of treasure chests, the Gamers now held twenty stat-boosting items for every stat. From this collection, Allen had selected these particular 3,000-point-boosting rings for the pair because their role in this plan was to keep BB at bay and prevent it from attacking those in the rear. They could worry about attacking later.
As the two of them were drawing BB’s attention, Tam-Tam, a massive target in its own right, fell back to the rear of the group. Once BB took to the air to try and escape, Sophie and Volmaar used their bows to chip away at its health. Allen Summoned a Dragon B and used its Awakened Ability, Hellfire of Fury, to attack from a distance.
After about ten minutes of this, Allen issued his next order to Sophie.
“Looks like we’ve taken quite a bit of its HP. It’s about time now, don’t you think?”
“Agreed.” Sophie lowered her bow and nodded, her gaze distant.
Huh? What’s that about?
Though Allen’s curiosity had been piqued, there was no way he ever would have guessed that Sophie wanted to be referred to by an honorary title—such as “doctor”—like he had done with Meruru earlier.
“Salamander, please lend me your aid.”
“Au au!”
Salamander, a juvenile fire spirit, leaped out of Sophie’s arms. Using her MP, it transformed itself into a massive fireball.
Allen gave Krena and Dogora the sign to fall back and, within moments, the immense fireball slammed into BB, knocking it backward.
“Kishaa... Ki...”
BB dropped to the ground, engulfed in flames, and let out a faint cry as it slowly burned away. Allen made an observation from what he just witnessed.
Spirit magic is an entirely different beast than regular magic. Heck, it’s not even comparable to normal skills.
Whoa, we got 120 million XP from that! When we defeated the Demonic Deities we just gained a level without receiving any XP at all, but I guess defeating monsters always gives you XP.
Upon digging around the spot where BB disappeared, Allen found a Rank S magic stone and a bronze medal emblazoned with a motif that looked like a cross between a rhinoceros and stag beetle.
“All right, my first Rank S magic stone. This thing is huge.”
At thirty centimeters across, the giant magic stone only barely fit into Storage.
“Good job, everyone. Though I didn’t get to do anything this time around.” Cecil, who had to sit the battle out and watch on as her comrades fought, sounded both relieved and annoyed at the same time.
“Eh, not everyone will have a role in every battle.” Though BB was strong against magic attacks, spirit attacks worked just fine. Taking note of this fact, Allen realized just how important it was to create a diverse party in order to take advantage of these weaknesses.
“Anyway, great job, Sophie. You really saved the day.”
“Yes, Dogora, it all went quite well.”
Dogora had once suffered a burn to his rear at Salamander’s hands, but that was not an issue anymore now that Sophie had gotten used to how to handle the juvenile spirit.
“So Scarlet’s next, then. I think we can take it out today!”
After taking down BB, the Gamers planned to battle the Rank S floor boss monster of Floor 3, Scarlet Sandworm—usually referred to as just “Scarlet.” This monster was not strong against any particular type of attack, but it was incredibly difficult to defeat no matter how hard you laid into it due to its ability to heal tremendous amounts of damage.
However, even after spending three whole hours trying to take Scarlet down, the party eventually had to give up for the day. After that, they focused on leveling up some more and finally got Allen’s Strengthening up to Lvl. 8. Even after that, however, they still were unable to defeat Scarlet.
