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

Everyone in the party except for Merle and I successfully changed Talents for the second time.

They were all reduced to Level 1, but even regular magical beasts that were not Floor Bosses could raise their level without problems in the 3rd floor.

I decided to go to the 4th floor of the dungeon when my friends reached Level 50 which would require a month or so of grinding.

As a result of continuously exchanging our medals for Stone Slabswith the hidden cubes, we did not have that many Iron Medals, but the 3rd floor of the dungeon had a fair share of Hihiirokane weapons and armor.

Selling the weapons and armor we found would often net us profit that often exceeded 10,000 Gold coins in a single dungeon attack, so we decided that it was faster just to buy Medals.

Now that I had more Gold coins to spare, I negotiated with the Adventurer's Guild to see if I could buy magic stones other than E-ranks.

After negotiations, they agreed to let me buy 1,000 Gold coins worth of magic stones of other ranks as well.

I wanted to increase the number of D-rank and C-rank magic stones in my <Inventory> through these purchases.

The Adventurer's Guild took a 10% fee, the same as Academy City's Guild.

I didn't buy any B-rank magic stones as the S-class dungeon was filled with B-rank magical beasts and I had plenty of them in my <Inventory>.

"Hey, hey, hey. I'm eating now. Please be quiet."

"Auau."

"I'm getting used to it.

"Is that right?"

As everyone was having breakfast, Sophie, sitting in a chair, picked up something from her feet, laid it on her lap and hugged it.

It was bright red and looked like a Salamander, and the tip of its tail was burning like a candle.

I wondered why the fire at the tip of its tail didn't burn any furniture as if it was just for appearance's sake.

"Maybe the Salamander is hungry too?"

Kurena guessed while stabbing a piece of meat with her fork.

"No, no, Spirits don't need to eat. If they are hungry, I simply have to offer my mana.

(Though the Spirit God eats normally.)

Sophie was hugging a Salamander, an infant Fire Spirit who had crawled up to her.

"Auer."

The dull-eyed Salamander squealed in delight and flapped his hands in the air.

The situation was a result of my orders.

I had learned from Spirit Mager Gatoruga in Rosenheim that Spirits had a will and didn't always do what the Spirit User wanted them to do in battle.

{TLN: Spirit User encomapses any Talent that uses Spirit just like how Golem User encomposes any who uses a Golem.}

He also said that the longer a Spirit and the Spirit User are in contact with each other, the higher their affinity gets and the more willing the Spirits are to obey the Spirit User's instructions.

When I heard that Sophie was slowly and steadily getting to know the Spirits, I thought that 'slow' was not good enough.

So, I instructed Sophie to keep the Spirit out to the limit at all times.

Thanks to that, the infant Fire Spirit Salamander, which looked like a bright red Salamander, stayed by Sophie's side during meals and when she slept, until she emptied her mana.

It probably has low [Intelligence] as it was squealing and repeatedly wrapping itself around Sophie, rubbing her face, etc.

(The logic is totally different depending on the summons, Golems, and the Spirits.)

Having lived as a Summoner for about 14 years, I was interested in similar techniques for many years.

I had both Golem User and Spirit User as friends and had analyzed the characteristics of each, and noticed that they differed from a Summoner in many ways.

Summoner required mana and magic stones to summon.

A B-rank Dragon required over 3000 [Mana] and 29 B-rank magic stones.

It took a lot of mana and magic stones just to summon 1 B-rank Dragon, but no mana was needed to descend an Iron Golem or manifest a Fire Spirit Salamander.

A Golem User could descend his/her Golem as many times as they wanted as long as they had the required number of Stone Slabs in the Magic Board.

A Spirit User didn't need mana, magic stones, or anything else to manifest a Spirit.

That was a major advantage for Golem Users and Spirit Users, but there was also a disadvantage.

Golems and Spirits consumed the User's mana just by existing.

Both the Golem and the Spirits had mana requirements and continued to consume the Golem User's and Spirit User's just by being existing.

Looking at the Merle fight, I found out that a Golem User with about 3000 [Mana] wouldn't be able to fight for more than an hour in a skilled fight.

It seemed that Spirit Users were similar and required the same degree of [Mana] to make the manifested Spirit fight.

(So the Baukis Empire desperately needs [Mana Seed]s.)

I recalled that Foreign Minister Nukakai desperately sought [Mana Seed]s.

It took an enormous amount of [Mana] to move a Golem.

So, if the Bakius Empire had an inexhaustible supply of [Mana], that would undoubtedly change the war situation

[Mana Seed]s were the best sort of supply the Baukis Empire could have asked for.

The Baukis Empire must have learned that the effects of the [Mana Seed]s were superior to any [Mana] restorative they had used before.

(So Mr. Gatoruga had a bow.)

Spirit Mage Gatoruga had a bow.

Gatoruga himself told me that it was so that he could fight even if he ran out of mana and could no longer manifest Spirits.

In addition, if he had high enough affinity with Spirits then he could instruct them even while using a bow.

Then, he could use the power of Spirits and make his arrows deal more damage.

That was why Spirit Mages were taught how to use bows.

As for Sophie's archery, she was steadily improving under Formar's tutelage.

"There's a reason for everything."

"What? What, out of the blue?"

I suddenly asserted something, and Cecile, sitting next to me, couldn't understand and asked a question.

Helmios' party also always had breakfast with us, so all eyes were on me.

"No, well, it's this way. I just thought it kind of made sense."

Cecile wondered if my analytical disease had returned with that statement.

"Allen, you are amazing at thinking and analyzing everything."

Helmios complimented me.

He didn't know what I was thinking, but he seemed to have learned over the past month that I liked to analyze and involve my friends in my experiments.

"Well, there's a lot I don't know after all."

"Heh!? Is there something you don't understand, Master Allen? Tell me."

"Hmmm. For example, what attribute does the Spirit God Rosen have?"

"What!? That, Master Allen."

When I asked about Spirit God Rosen, Formar who had asked me to tell him what I didn't know fumbled and tried to avoid answering.

"You know right, Formar? After all, you lived together for decades."

Since Formar was serving Sophie, a Royalty, he probably lived in the Temple.

The Spirit God Rosen or Spirit King Rosen at that time should have lived for decades under that Temple as well.

"That's ..."

Formar didn't seem to understand.

I looked at Sophie.

"I am sorry. Such prying eyes..."

"By the way, what kind of Spirit are you, Spirit God Rosen. I can't even guess what your attribute is."

"Hey! Master Allen!"

Formar exclaimed at how I asked something that Sophie and Formar weren't allowed to even in their dreams.

"Fugu. I am a Wood Spirit. The Spirit of the World Tree to be exact, I guess. Haha.

The Spirit God, who was chewing the Baukis Empire's famous Hakuman answered my question.

"I see. So you could use skills that increase other's status."

To me, it was common knowledge that Wood Spirits could cast buffs.

"Don't pry too much. Well, you're right. Haha."

Sophie and Formar were watching the scene, blanked out.

"Allen, you're really curious."

"Curious? Mr. Helmios. That's not true."

"Huh?"

I denied Helmios' words.

Almost everyone had stopped eating because of my words.

"If you don't think about why, you can't make a plan. That's how the Demon King's army has been playing us for decades."

"How?"

Doberg wrinkled his brow at the mention of being played.

"If we can figure out why and find the answers, then we can understand what's going on. Wouldn't that change our countermeasures?"

"I see."

Doberg said just that and closed his eyes.

He was convinced of something.

"What exactly is it that you don't understand, Allen?"

Cecile asked me, who seemed to know everything, if there was anything I didn't understand.

As everyone looked at me, I said what had been on my mind for the past few days.

"Why did the Gods decide to start allowing Talent changes that they never had before?"

"What? Why are you thinking that?"

Cecile wondered why I would question such a thing.

"The more I think about it, the more I don't understand. If all the Talented people changed Talents, then the Demon King's Army would be scared to attack. Then they should have done that long ago, from the very beginning."

(It's hard to imagine that the Creator God and other Gods didn't think about changing Talents until I mentioned it.)

Just going from 1-star to 2-stars was an instant boost in status.

If 10,000 soldiers could change Talents, that alone would greatly increase the odds of victory against the Demon King's army.

I even felt uncomfortable with the Talent change system that was about to begin abruptly.

My memory of my previous life whispered that anyone who wanted to change Talents had to do some kind of strange quest to do so.

"I see, that's strange. Haha."

I looked at the Spirit God who said so and continued to eat hukaman like he didn't know anything about it.

(The Spirit God definitely knows the answer. Or he really doesn't? Or can't he tell us? Well, for now, our priority should be to get along with Sophie's Spirit.)

The attitude of the Spirit God didn't provide a definitive answer.

The contemplation continued in Allen's mind as he looked at the infant Fire Spirit that clung to Sophie.