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

Allen had summoned five Insect A summons, which looked like giant bees.

"Alright Bee, take over that Troll King."

'Chitter'

Troll Kings were A Rank Monsters, standing a step above regular B Rank Trolls.

The monster swung a metallic spiky rod trying to shake off the summon, but Insect A was strengthened and had an Agility of 12000, easily dodging everything.

And then the stinger sprouting from Insect A's read was stabbed into the Troll King's neck.

'Grrr'

The Troll King's grip of its metal rod loosened, as it stood upright on a neutral stance.

"Good, good. It works on the larger variants from this continent as well."

"Is your plan working?"

[Insect Summon has taken control of Troll King]

An entry was logged onto the Grimoire, showing the Troll King had been taken over.

"Yes, so far it is. Try to avoid killing the A Rank Monsters, I want to turn them into my minions."

Cecile peeked behind him and asked how it was going, and he replied favorably.

Usually Orc Kings and Ogre Kings had a [Regeneration] Skill, so their wounds would heal rapidly if they were not killed.

In other words, Cecile could cause as much destruction as she wanted, even if it damaged those A Rank monsters.

(I still need more minions, I should ask Bees to do more. We have to make sure we can use Niel as a base of operations.)

"Bees. Use Spawn and make Beelings. Then send the Beelings to use Minion Stinger on all A Rank monsters."

'''Chitterchitter'''

All five Insect A summons used their Special Skill Spawn.

Each made a hundred enormous eggs appear on the ground, and they all gave birth to what looked like white caterpillars.

Mere seconds after being born, the young turned into bees, growing wings and looking identical to the Insect A summons, just half the size.

Those bees born from the Insect A's Special Skill Spawn were only half the size of the summons, so Allen named them Beelings.

For some reason Insect A had really complex skills compared to the other summons, so learning everything they could required a lot of time.

He had tested various things while cleaning Rosenheim of monsters.

At the end of his experiments, he found out their skills were fully backwards compatible with Insect B's.

- Minion Stinger

The target monster will be under full control of Insect A. Allen can't control the minions directly, and the effect lasts at most one month.

It can be used on monsters of all ranks, but Minion Stinger causes damage as well, so B Rank monsters and below might die from it.

The skill is most effective against Insect, Beast, and Giant monster types.

Dragon types can sometimes be made into Minions, but Plant, Ghost, Armor, and other inert types of monsters aren't living beings, so they are immune.

- Spawn

Gives birth to a hundred Beelings. The newborn Beelings inherit half the Stats of their parents.

Minion Stinger is the only inherited Special Skill.

Can be turned into an Insect A card, and summoned for a month before vanishing and returning to the card. Has a one day cooldown.

- Coronation

An Insect A summon can give birth to another one with identical stats and abilities.

To differentiate them from the original summon, they are called Queen-Bee.

They can use Spawn right after being born. Cooldown is one day.

- Minion Monster

A monster under Bee's control.

Their EXP points are obtained the moment they turn into minions. Every time Minion Stinger succeeds an entry is logged onto the Grimoire, so it's possible to verify its effect.

After a month, or if the Bee, Queen-Bee, or Beeling controlling them dies, control is lost and the monster dies instantly.

If they take too much damage, they die as well.

- Beelings born after an Insect A summon uses Spawn:

[Name] Beeling

[Strength] 4500

[Mana] 2000

[Attack] 4450

[Endurance] 6000 (After Strengthening)

[Agility] 6000 (After Strengthening)

[Intelligence] 3350

[Luck] 2750

[Special Skill] Minion Stinger

- Queen-Bee created by Insect A's Awakened Skill Coronation

[Name] Queen-Bee

[Strength] 9000

[Mana] 4000

[Attack] 8900

[Endurance] 12000 (After Strengthening)

[Agility] 12000 (After Strengthening)

[Intelligence] 6700

[Luck] 5500

[Special Skill] Minion Stinger, Spawn

If the summoned Insect A gets killed, all Beelings and Queen-Bees produced by it disappear.

With the help of the newly born five hundred Beelings, they resumed destroying the monsters clinging to Niel's walls.

There were already quite a number of monsters running amok in the city, and there were more Pagan Worshippers and large monster variants on the way.

As they killed them, and the A Rank monsters were turned to minions, they spread Gold Beans around the city.

"Wh-what is going on?"

"Are we going to survive?"

The soldiers atop the walls, fighting with their spears with all their might, could not comprehend what was happening. All of a sudden giant bugs the size of dragons had appeared flying around them, but rather than attacking the walls, they used their stingers and sharp mandibles to kill the monsters clinging to the wall.

When more monsters approached the wall, golden beanstalks began growing, and the monsters avoided getting closer.

Allen's group had split into two as well, so they fought on a larger scale and an hour later they had secured Niel's outer walls.

All Pagan Worshippers had been killed, even though they still did not know if they could be turned back to humans.

"Well, in the end we just killed them all."

"We had no choice. Nothing else I tried worked."

Cecile felt guilty for having to do that.

Allen had tried many times to use Heaven's Blessing and Aromatic Vegetables on the Pagan Worshippers, but nothing reversed their transformation.

"What should we do next? Should we check up on Kiel?"

Cecile wanted to know what to do now.

After the two groups had killed all the monsters surrounding the outer walls, they had regrouped, though Kiel, Kurena, and Dogora were not there yet.

"No, not yet. I'll give my summons a new order. Maybe we can still save another city."

They had arrived at the precise moment when the gates were destroyed, just in the nick of time.

But it was easy to imagine there were many more cities facing their end that very moment.

At least now Allen had a grasp of the enemy's power, so he sent all his summons, as well as the Queen-Bees and Beelings, to search other cities and kill the monsters they found, leaving only the minions behind to defend Niel.

To help with transporting he would use Bird A's, and since there were A Rank monsters, he also summoned Wraith A's with Gold Beans.

"We don't have much time, so it's your turn, Hayate."

(Seeing how numerous and strong the enemy is, the plan I thought of last night should work without issue.)

Allen called ten Beast A summons.

Fenrir appeared.

Just like the wolf of nordic mythology, they were 15 meters long, covered in silver fur. Their eyes were menacing, jaws lined with long fangs, and sharp claws sprouted from their muscular limbs.

'Master Allen, it seems you finally have some work for me.'

Beast, Fish, Dragon, and Ghost type summons usually were able to talk.

Some also gained that ability once they reached rank A, like the Angel Merus.

"Yeah, we're kinda pressed for time here. You know what our priority is, right?"

'Yes. Rescuing cities and towns is more important than killing monsters. I've already memorized the map.'

"Good. If you can't tell whether someone is a human running away or a Pagan Worshipper, just ignore them. The map only has the largest cities, so you should still check if you find any smaller town that needs help."

Allen detailed the mission.

The Beast A summons would be sent to rescue the neighboring areas.

[Species] Beast

[Rank] A

[Name] Hayate

[Strength] 10000

[Mana] 8000

[Attack] 10000

[Endurance] 7000

[Agility] 9800

[Intelligence] 7500

[Luck] 6600

[Blessings] Strength +200, Attack +200, Critical % Up

[Special Skills] Gale Impact, Blink

[Awakened Skill] Instant Wolf Kill

The Blessings increased their Strength and Attack, so their running speed would surpass even that of the flying summons.

A Wraith A and Bird A sat on the backs of the ten Beast A summons. And they were sent to rescue other cities.

The Wraith A's all carried multiple Gold Beans and Heaven's Blessings.

On Allen's signal, the Beast A summons all scattered into the wilderness surrounding them at high speed.

The Insect A summons, as well as the Queen-Bees and Beelings, formed groups of fifty that moved out as well.

"I wonder if we'll get to rescue any other cities in the end."

"Something must have happened four days ago in Theomenia to cause this. Let's just hope there's nothing worse than what we fought here at Niel."

"Oh yeah. I wonder how Theomenia is looking now?"

Cecile sounded worried, and Allen answered as best he could.

Something happened in Theomenia four days before, causing the city to be overrun by monsters and Pagan Worshippers.

Theomenia was the Holy Capital, and there were many smaller cities and towns nearby.

The only places that still had a chance of being saved were those far enough that they could not be reached by monsters in four days.

The Beast A summons had been tuned for mobility and speed, so they should be faster than the monsters. All of them had already run so far they were out of sight, and Allen could only look at their tracks.

Cecile still wanted to ask him how Theomenia was looking.

"If there's still any survivors around, I can't imagine they're doing well."

He could see the ravaged landscape of Theomenia through his shared vision with Merus.

Merus had arrived there just moments before, but so far there were no signs of any survivors.

All he could see were scorched and crumbling buildings.

There were some Pagan Worshippers loitering around, but no signs of human life.

(What's that? There's something floating inside the temple.)

He was told that a tall pillar of flames had appeared in Theomenia's central square.

Merus went there, but there was no pillar of fire, or any people. Instead it looked like the destruction had started there before spreading to the city, as the scaffolding, benches and nearby barricades had all been reduced to cinders.

But something else had caught his attention in the shared view with Merus. There was a tall streak of pale blue light that seemed to pierce into the sky, which started inside the temple built to worship the God of Creation Elmea.

Up above, the line of pale blue light seemed to twist, heading far into the horizon.

"I see. That sounds pretty bad."

"Yeah, let's just regroup with Kiel for now."

Allen decided it was time to talk with the remaining members of the party and plan their next move.