Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Having discovered that the magical beasts were lurking in the rocky mountains, my friends and I continued to attack the rocky mountains.

The rocky mountains were probably what was called the spawn [oint for magical beasts.

Since only using B-rank Spirits for finding the spawning mountains was inefficient, I had B-rank Fishes, whom I had in large numbers in my Holder for increasing my [Mana], swim in the sand and head for the rocky mountains.

I found out because of them swimming in the sand that there were quite a few magical beasts there.

A B-rank magical beast was not enough to defeat a B-rank Fish that had fairly high durability, but there were other A-rank magical beasts on the 3rd floor besides the Floor Bosses, and against such enemies, my summons took some damage.

If they encountered a magical beast and were going to get defeated, I summoned them within Kiel's range and had them healed.

I did so to reduce my unnecessary magic stone expenditure.

We spent the entire morning hunting for magical beasts in the rocky mountains and were also able to find a Treasure Chest.

There was a Treasure Chest in a rocky mountain.

As for hunting magical beasts, some rocky mountains had Floor Bosses while others didn't.

Our results after the morning battle were as follows.

3 Iron Medals

Hihirokane helmet and sword

In addition to them, we also obtained A-rank and B-rank magic stones.

"I think this is a good place to raise our Levels."

"I guess so. We can just stay here until we can change Talents again."

"We can spend a month here Leveling up then. We'll continue our search for magical beasts and stone slabs in the afternoon."

We had been told that we could find stone slabs in the Treasure Chests, but all we found were weapons and armor.

We were planning to continue working on collecting stone slabs in the afternoon.

"I'm sorry. For me..."

Merle said gloomily.

(Oh? Suddenly you seem to have lost your energy.)

I had given Merle a large shield to guard Cecile and Sophie until we collected enough slabs for her Golem.

Merle, who knew how strong a Golem was, was confident at first, but after knowing that her friends had changed Talents only once and were clearly stronger than when they were at the Academy, she began to feel useless in battle.

We ended up spending all morning getting 4 Medals and 2 Treasure Chests, but no stone slabs. To me, it was just a matter of time, as I knew we would find it eventually, but as for Merle, she was anxious.

"Well, that's all right. It's not like it's going to take months to get the Golem together."

(We got two Treasure Chests in just half a day. It's just a matter of time.)

"But ..."

"I think your power is full of possibilities that can't be measured by simple strength. Besides, it's obvious from the other Golems that you will be very useful as a Tank."

I told Merle that we knew how useful and strong a Golem could be.

"Yeah."

Somehow Merle seemed to agree.

"Then again, Allen is obsessed with Tanks."

"Mm? That's not true. I just know a little bit about it."

My conditioned reflex was to deny it.

"When you put it that way, yes."

Sophie seemed to agree with Cecile's words.

I got the "why the Tank" look.

"Hmm~. Well, not to hide it, but I used to be a Tank in my past life."

"Heh. I see. That's why you know a lot."

Cecile recalled me speaking passionately about the importance of the role of a Tank.

My friends seemed surprised that I did so.

Having seen me as a Summon, they thought that I used to play as Summoner or something similar in my previous life.

(Well, I didn't want to Tank but I don't need to tell them.)

"Yes, so Merle. I chose to be a Summoner myself, but you never know until you try it. If you do it for a long time, you get attached to it."

Being a Summon in this world was not what I had expected, but I truly was having fun as a Summoner. So I told Merle not to worry if she didn't like being a Tank at first.

"I see."

"It's kind of persuasive. It's called experience."

In my previous life, in the first online game I ever played, I chose to play as a Tank.

There were a number of classes available, but the one I chose was Tank because it looked strong.

I didn't choose to be a Tank; my chosen class happened to be Tank.

Since it was my first time playing an online game, I had no concept of a "Tank" in his mind.

Compared to other vanguard positions, I just thought that the one I chose was less aggressive, more durable, and had the skills to protect his allies.

It was more than a year after I started playing that I learned about the position of Tank in detail.

I believe I fulfilled my role as a Tank until the end of the online game service.

The first and last time I mainly played as a Tank was in my first online game.

(So, it's no exaggeration to say that I didn't know what it was but grew to like it.)

I was in this world because I cherished the memories of those days.

The strong memories of the online games I was hooked on at the time determined my subsequent gaming life and values.

And as a result, I came to this world because I wanted to do it.

"But you 'used' to be a Tank, right? Did you change your Talent?"

(Mm?)

"... Yes."

I said tartly.

"What? What's that?"

My reaction to Sophie's realization made Cecile feel more uncomfortable than ever.

Clearly, she was hiding something.

"What do you mean what?"

"Say it right. What Talent did you have later?"

Cecile, who had been eating, nudged and stuffed herself.

"What Allen used to do?"

Kurena also joined in on Cecile's questioning.

"I was an adventurer."

(What else but a Great Adventurer!?)

"Hi! Why! Ow, that hurts. No, seriously!"

(Ri, that's inexcusable!)

AI blurted out Kurena's answer and was sanctioned by Cecile in her Iron Claw.

"You said?"

"I wore armor, and my weapons were a spear and a sword. I also had shields."

(Brings back fond memories of Kenichi.)

I played my first online game under the name Kenichi.

I played that game for the first time when I was a student and could not think of a cool name for it, so I named it after myself.

"Oh! Cool?"

Kurena imagined my previous life and asked further what it was like.

I wanted to change the situation, but I was running out of places to run to.

"Yeah, very cool."

"But you just said your equipment, not Talent..."

(Hey, Sophie. Aren't you supposed to be on my side? I mean...)

Sophie also seemed to be inevitably curious about my previous Talent.

There was not the slightest hint of kindness in her eyes seeing Cecile holding on to me.

Apparently, I was alone there without any allies.

"Wait! It hurts!"

"You'll tell me, won't you?"

"Yes, ma'am. I was actually a Holy Knight."

(I chose it because I thought it was a cool Talent, both the equipment and the name.)

It was the moment of the birth of Kenichi the Holy Knight.

When the first online game I played was discontinued and I looked at a number of online games I played after that, I found that most of the heavily armed Talents, such as Holy Knight, were Tanks.

It was simply that 'Kenichi' was ignorant at the time.

"I'm a Knight! Allen was a Knight! That's amazing!"

"Hey, you were a Knight! Why didn't you tell me!?"

Kurena and Dogora stood up and reacted strongly to my words.

(See, I knew Kurena and Dogora would react this way. Now, I have to clear up this misunderstanding.)

I knew how much the two of them admired Knights from when we were kids playing Knights.

So when I confessed to them, I only told them that I had memories of my previous life and had several Talents in my previous life, but I hid the fact that I had been a Holy Knight, a Talent with the word 'Knight' in it.

"Don't get me wrong. It was just my Talent. It just had the word Knight in it, but its status was the same as that of a commoner."

(I was a salaryman.)

"Of course not!"

Dogora, who had been quietly looking at us thinking, "Just the usual Cecile and Allen," rebutted me like never before.

"Hmm? Cube? It's a cube!"

The E-rank Bird, who was scouting, found a cube-shaped object floating at the back of the cave.

(Oh, just as Helmios told me yesterday.)

"Hey, what are you talking about?"

"No, I found a cube out in the rocky mountain cave. Everyone has already taken a break. Let's go."

"Oh, hey. We're not done talking! Let me hear more about the Knight. I mean, why did you keep quiet!?"

With Dogora's voice in the background, Allen summoned B-rank Birds and urged them to depart, brushing off everyone's questioning faces.