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

A large city called Boaso was behind the gate.

"Somehow there's actual buildings on top of clouds."

The buildings were made of wood and stone, and their inhabitants walked around.

It was strange to see something solid on top of clouds.

(There's mostly dragonkin and divine people here. I guess the dragonkin came through the Gate of Judgement in the past.)

As the group passed through the gate, many gazes gathered on them.

[Features of divine people]

-They have no animal ears, tails, or wings, and their ears are not long either

-Their skin is white and most of them look attractive

-Their hair is brown and fluffy, and have brown eyes

-They wear white broad clothes, like ancient greeks

The gatekeepers also watched them.

"To think someone would cross the Gate of Judgement at a time like this…"

"...I'll go tell the patriarch."

The two guards spoke to each other behind Allen's group.

(Hm? He's going somewhere. Kuwatoro, use [Pursuing Eyes] on him!)

'Understood.'

Allen wanted to know what they would say. Kuwatoro was flying many kilometers away, but the Skill activated without issue.

(Ohhh, this feels like I'm just behind the gatekeeper.)

Allen could see from a few meters behind the gatekeeper. He decided to test that Skill while seeing who the dragonkin would report to. Meanwhile Sophie noticed something new.

"I wonder what that is?"

It was what looked like a ten meter wide telephone pole, which kept spinning in place.

"Oh! It looks kinda fun. Wait, whoaaa?!"

Luck thought it would be fun to jump onto it, but the spinning flung him away.

It was spinning fast enough to easily sent one or two people flying away.

"This reminds me of the windmills in my past life, though it doesn't have any blades. I guess it's rotating to move the water along?"

He looked at the tip with Kuwatoro's vision. There was a water canal on top, and as the pole rotated it carried the water, which traveled through the canal to other poles and into houses.

There were many more poles around, some inside houses even.

Allen took out some water from his Inventory and spilled it, and the clouds absorbed all of it.

(So the water in the divine realm is kept in the air since the clouds would absorb it otherwise.)

Those water canals gave cities in the divine realm a three dimensional feel.

Allen remembered that in his previous world things like telephone lines were kept underground to keep the scenery tidy, but it was the opposite in the divine realm.

"Did you see something interesting?"

Cecile asking, noticing Allen's curiosity for the spinning poles.

"I was just thinking why those poles are spinning. Can you go, Mogusuke?"

'But of course.'

Allen called the Beast F summon, which looked like a mole, and Growth Level 9 let it speak.

It burrowed into the clouds, going hundreds of meters down until reaching the end of the clouds.

(I see, it's still a cloud even if it's the size of a continent. And those are windmills.)

The summon could see five continents below the cloud, it was the human realm.

The Heavenly City of Shandar was the size of the American continent, far above the ground.

Underneath the pole were large blades of windmills, which rotated to keep the water moving.

Looking more carefully, the terrain below was moving slightly, so the cloud was not stationary.

(I don't remember seeing a cloud this big in the sky though.)

There was Void between the two realms, so even if the human realm was visible, it could not be reached by dropping down from the cloud.

"I see, there's still a lot to learn."

Saying that, Allen headed into the city. The large gate was only the outer area of it and there was little around there. After they walked for a bit, a lively voice made itself heard.

"Oh! It's a market!!"

Luck was the first to react. There was a market full of divine people and dragonkin.

Luck headed straight to the stalls with wooden boxes of fruit. The rest followed after him.

"What would you like? Wait, I don't recognize you. Did you come from below?"

"Do you have any Mormo fruits?"

Luck spoke with the dragonkin tending the store.

(So a dragonkin is tending the store. She doesn't seem to have a Talent.)

[Name] Gobochi

[Race] Dragonkin

[Age] 48

[Strength] 48

[Mana] 64

[Spiritual Power] 0

[Attack] 43

[Endurance] 40

[Agility] 27

[Intelligence] 15

[Luck] 29

[Attack Element] None

[Endurance Element] None

Allen Appraised her without hesitation.

"Of course, I sell everything. I'll give you one for a gold coin."

"Wha-?! I might look like a kid, but you're clearly trying to swindle me! That's too expensive!!"

Luck raised his fist in protest.

"Huh? What are you talking about kid?"

The shopkeeper looked confused by that reaction.

(I remember getting 4 for 1 silver coin in Kurena Village.)

Allen had good memories of going shopping for his father Rodan when they were still serfs.

"I see, give us 3 then."

Allen took out 3 gold coins from his Inventory and gave them to the shopkeeper.

"Right up."

Allen gave one Mormo fruit to Luck, kept one, and gave the last one to Dogora.

At least gold coins from the human realm also worked in the divine realm.

"It's just a regular Mormo fruit!!"

Just before Allen took a bite, Luck said it was a regular Mormor fruit, and Dogora nodded.

Allen tried putting it in his Inventory, but it also appeared as a common Mormo fruit.

He had hoped that the increased price meant it replenished Mana or had some effect.

"Hey Allen, come here. Everything here is crazy expensive!!"

Kiel was shouting, he was also outraged like Luck after asking for prices of equipment.

(Weapons in a market…usually those are pretty bad, but this is the divine realm.)

Allen went to where Kiel was yelling. There were weapons on top of a piece of cloth.

He had never found anything good in a place like that. He always chose a big specialty store.

Kiel was holding a staff with nothing unusual about it, which in Grandvelle would have sold for less than 3 gold coins.

"It looks like a common staff."

Appraising it was not enough to see any extra effects, but even when Allen put it inside his Inventory it did not have any fancy name. It was essentially worthless compared to Kiel's.

"Yes, and he's trying to get 5 platinum coins for it."

"...if you don't need it then just give it back."

The bad tempered dragonkin selling weapons demanded it back, and Allen returned it.

"So what do you think?"

Kiel asked Allen, making sure it was not just him that felt the prices were high.

"It is really expensive. I haven't heard of platinum coins in a while."

Platinum coins also existed in the human realm, as well as diamond coins. They were extremely rare and usually only were used in diplomacy or when building a city's infrastructure.

[Currency equivalence table]

-1 Diamond coin

-100 Platinum coins

-10000 Gold coins

-1000000 Silver coins

"It's a big city, so let's split up and see if anyone finds anything."

Everyone dispersed then. After around an hour they were certain, prices were hundreds of times their value in the human realm.

(Somehow this feels familiar. And all the shopkeepers are dragonkin too.)

Allen remembered games where the developer decided to be playful or prankful and made all items including healing items incredibly expensive in one city.

"I wonder why that's the case? Do people here not run out of money?"

Sophie asked when they all gathered again.

"I'm assuming that since we're so far in the sky, it's hard to come by items."

Or maybe platinum and diamond coins were easy to get instead.

Allen shared his findings with the rest. The divine realm was above clouds, and there were little provisions. There were no mines or caves, so mining was impossible too. There was no earth, so farming and growing crops was also impossible.

(And items to gather Spiritual Power cost 20 platinum coins.)

In other words each cost 2000 gold coins. In terms of Allen's past life, that would be 200000000 yen. Allen did have the money to buy them, but they were so expensive he hesitated.

"I see. You're good with finances too."

Cecile commented at the end. Being above clouds had its disadvantages.

"What should we do then?"

Sophie wanted to know what to do.

"Well, there was nothing that stood out particularly…"

They found out things were expensive, but there was nothing indispensable on sale.

(Oh he's finally here.)

While they talked, a dragonkin approached them from behind.

"Excuse me, all of you, Lord Somei would like to meet you."

"Is that the patriarch?"

Allen turned around, it was the gatekeeper from before. Allen had used [Pursuing Eyes] on him, so he already knew everything that happened.

"Yes. I'm sorry but could you follow me?"

He was going to take them there.

"I mean, sure. Just wait a bit while I bring everyone here."

Allen went to gather Helmios and Galara's parties. Galara and Rosetta were huffing angrily at the costs of alcohol there. Allen did not drink so he did not care about that, but when he saw how hopeless Merle looked he felt like that was a matter of life or death for dwarves.

Once everyone gathered, they followed the gatekeeper for around an hour until they reached a mansion.

"This is the patriarch's abode."

They had arrived at the patriarch's mansion.