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

I politely declined the invitation from the diplomat of the Giamut Empire, and got off the Magic Ship to transfer to the Magic Ship bound for the Bakius Empire in the Imperial Capital.

The next day, there was a flight on a Magic Ship to the Bakius Empire, and my friends and I set out for the Imperial Capital of the Bakius Empire.

There were quite a few dwarves on board on that Magic Ship, as it was heading for the Bakius Empire. I guess there were a lot of dwarves traveling back and forth between the Bakius Empire and the Giamut Empire.

A dwarf with beard, who appeared to be an adult, was even shorter than the still-growing 14-year-old me, and had a muscular body.

"It never gets old, does it, day in and day out?"

We were all eating together in a private room that day like always.

Cecile sighed at the commotion of the muscled dwarves that echoed even inside the private room.

"Dwarves love to drink."

Sophie reacted to Cecile's words.

It was lunch time, but the dwarves were drinking. It didn't matter to them whether it was morning, noon or night. The private rooms were not equipped with soundproofing, and the dwarves were so noisy that I couldn't even hear Cecile, who was sitting beside me, sometimes.

"Come to think of it, Merle liked to drink, too."

I joined in on the conversation.

Apparently, it was okay to drink alcohol from the age of 12 in this world.

However, there was no option to drink alcohol at the Academy's base, as I did not drink alcohol since my previous life, based on the belief that 'gamers do not drink alcohol'.

In the second year of the Academy, Merle moved in and when we all walked around town once, Merle refused to move from the front of a liquor store, so I had to allow alcohol at the base.

Since the alcohol was bought in a liquor barrel, Kiel and Kiel's of age servants drank alcohol with Merle. In addition, Merle drank as much as I bought.

Remembering Merle's drinking habit, I looked at the desolate land.

(It's not very green land. Is that why the technology of magic tools developed? Hmmm...)

The Magic Ship had already crossed the sea from the Central Continent and was flying over the land of the Bakius Empire.

Merle had told me that, unlike the lush green land of Rosenheim, the Bakius Empire was desolate and brown.

I wondered if that barren land was the reason why most magical tools had developed there.

As I was thinking about that, the E-rank Bird that I left behind in the White Dragon Mountains discovered something extraordinary.

"Allen. What's wrong?"

Kurena, who was munching on some rice, noticed the change in my expression.

"Everyone, listen up. A White Dragon has been born."

""Huh?""

Now that the White Dragon was gone, the mining of Mithril was supposed to resume in the Carnell territory.

In order to help that, I was using my summons to eradicate the magical beasts that were in the way.

In the midst of all that, I discovered what appeared to be an infant White Dragon in the middle of a mountain range in the Granvelle territory.

The infant was in a large recess that the White Dragon used to nest in when it was on the Granvelle side of the territory.

(Is it set up that there is one White Dragon in the White Dragon Mountains at all times? This is a total respawn. Maybe it's the reason for the world?)

I began to think.

When I traced the memories of my previous life, there were enemies that would always reappear when I defeated them, like the bosses that always existed in one area or one dungeon.

Defeating a boss once and having it reappear is called a 'respawn,' and the timing and frequency of respawn varied. Like the bottom floor boss of the Academy's dungeon could be fought only once a day.

It had already been more than ten days since we had defeated the White Dragon, but it seemed that a new White Dragon had been born.

I thought it to be a condition of repopulation, that there had to be one White Dragon in the White Dragon Mountains.

"Allen, what are you going to do? Are we going to kill him again?"

Cecile asked me what I was planning.

"No, we will grow it."

"What? Grow? You mean taming it?"

"Well, yes. If there is always one, there is no point in continuing to defeat it. More importantly, I want to know what the Demon King is capable of."

(There's also a way to check if it keeps respawning, though, by defeating the White Dragon continuously.)

""Demon King?""

My thoughts were always a mystery to my friends shown by how surprised they were by my reply.

I explained what I was thinking.

It was said that the Demon King had raised the rank of all magical beasts by one.

I wanted to take that opportunity to investigate the rank of the White Dragon as it grew. I wanted to learn if the infant White Dragon was an A-rank magical beast or it would slowly reach that rank as it aged.

And the White Dragon that we had defeated had an ego.

I also wanted to know if the Demon King's ability was only to make magical beasts stronger, because the White Dragon didn't seem to be manipulated by the Demon King.

I also wanted to check if the infant White Dragon remembered its past life like who defeated it.

If it did retain its past memory, then we might get one step closer to the truth of the world.

"He!" (Smile)

I didn't know how much of what I said Kurena understood, but she smiled in return.

"We're going to conquer the S-class dungeon, but that's just a step necessary to be able to defeat the Demon King. Last time, we found out that even the Demon King's subordinates are not easy to deal with. We have to do what we have to do and what we can do and get stronger."

My friends nodded at my words.

I remembered that even attacks that could one-shot A-rank magical beasts of my friends were almost ineffective against the Demon General Razel.

I sent one B-rank Dragon to the infant White Dragon.

I instructed it to catch one Great Boar on the way and feed it to the White Dragon.

I was naively hoping that the infant White Dragon would see the B-rank Dragon as a substitute parent.

"Let's call him Haku. He told us to name ourselves, but he didn't name himself."

I didn't know if the White Dragon had a name of its own.

"Is it possible to tame it by giving it a name?"

"It will be a good subject for an experiment."

The Spirit God devouring the potatoes on the table kept the information to himself. He was not going to give me any answers, so I needed to verify everything that came to my mind.

"Oh, I can see the city."

While I was talking about the White Dragon, Dogora noticed that a huge city was coming into view.

(Oh, the Imperial Capital of the Bakius Empire, the most powerful in the world. There are many tall buildings, and the development of civilization here is not comparable to other countries. Well, I prefer natural cities like Rosenheim though.)

I looked at the Imperial Capital of the Bakius Empire from the top of the Magic Ship.

Kurena was also sticking her cheek to the window and watching the Imperial City.

"Well, what are we going to do when we get there? First we'll have to find Merle. Then?"

"That's right."

After a while, the Magic Ship arrived at the airport, and the dwarves descended in droves.

We descended with the dwarves, going with the flow.

It was almost evening, so we decided to stay at a hotel that day, leaving the search for Merle for tomorrow.

(As expected, there are dwarves left and right here.)

There was something exciting about a new country.

After all, to me expanding the scope of our activities and being able to visit new countries and new cities was the best part of adventure.

In the city, the buildings were shiny and mysterious, with no corners. The Magic Train was fully equipped, and we could hear announcements on the train, so we decided to get off at the station that sounded somewhat like the center of town.

We found a building that looked like a luxury hotel and went to the counter.

When I talked to the receptionist there, he said it was a normal hotel.

In the meantime, I reserved two rooms, one for boys and one for girls.

No one ever asked for a private room, so we usually reserved two rooms wherever we stayed.

"You will be in two rooms on the third floor, please use the ascending magic tool to reach the third floor."

"Ascending magic tools?"

Kurena gave me a look that said, "What is that?"

"Maybe it's like an elevator."

"Elevator?"

I took Kurena, who stiffened her neck in confusion, and headed for the ascending magic tool that the receptionist pointed out.

It was like a private room, and once inside, it was a small, dead-end room.

"What the hell is this?"

"Maybe there's something that'll set it off."

A blue jewel-like button was embedded in the wall.

It had a triangular shape, and we could choose whether to go up or down depending on the direction of the corners of the triangle.

(You can't choose the number of floors? Looks like we'll be stopping at every floor.)

It seemed like we couldn't directly go to the third floor.

I touched something that looked like a button on everyone's behalf.

Whiz

"Oh? Are you okay?"

Dogora was also upset by something he didn't understand.

"Oh, I'm fine. I don't see any upward reaction."

I didn't feel like the elevator was going upward.

The button just responded with a faint glow.

But when I went out, I found a "2" marked on the floor.

Looked like we were on the second floor.

I thought to myself, "I see." and again touched the button.

I saw the same faint glow as before, and when I went out of the room again, there was a "3" marked on the floor.

We reached the third floor.

"This is how you get upstairs."

Dogora also muttered as he looked at the "3" on the floor.

"That's right. The travelers have a certain amount of luggage, so it would be more convenient to have this kind of magic tool."

With that, my friends and I went into our respective rooms to spend the night.

The next morning, as I was waiting for everyone to gather in the hotel lobby, a dwarf came up to me with some dwarves behind him to talk.

"Good morning. I'm Nukakai, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Are you with Lady Sofiarone?"

"Yes, that's right..."

(Hmm? Someone is suddenly approaching me again. Is it Sophie you want this time?)

"It's an honor to meet you. I have prepared a private room for you, so why don't we have a chat over breakfast?"

A dwarf who claimed to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bakius Empire invited Allen to breakfast.