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

"Now, let's go find some Medals."

"Yes."

After I passionately explained the usefulness of a Tank to my friends, we started to move.

(According to Helmios, the conditions for obtaining the Medal are...)

The Hero Helmios had previously told me about the dungeon conquering strategy in a cursory manner.

I already knew that we would need Medals to go to the next floor and we would require them each time.

And the number and types of Medals required were different for each level, but I didn't know what the Medals looked like.

"There are three ways to get the Medal."

"Apparently so."

Cecile and my friends apparently understood how to get the Medals.

I uttered the three ways as if reciting them in confirmation.

The first was that every floor had a magical beast that was stronger than the normal monsters, known as a Floor Boss.

Whenever you defeat that magical beast, you get one Medal.

But it was different from the bottom Floor Boss of the C-class to A-class dungeons.

In the S-class dungeon, each floor has a Boss somewhere in this area.

Moreover, it seemed that there were several types of Bosses on each floor.

The Medals obtained by defeating the Floor Bosses changed from floor to floor as well.

Bronze Medals from 2nd Floor Bosses

Iron Medals from the 3rd Floor Bosses.

Mithril Medals from the 4th Floor Bosses.

Second, the Treasure Chests in dungeons that contain various items such as weapons, armor, and status-increasing items had a certain amount of chance of having a Medal.

The rank Medal one got was linked to their method of acquisition.

Treasure Chests on the 2nd floor would yield Bronze Medals only.

In addition, we had heard that there were several ways to obtain the Treasure Chest.

The third was to do business with regular adventurers.

One could buy Bronze Medals through the Adventurer's Guild for 100 Gold coins each.

With my wealth, I could have gotten 3 Bronze Medals in a trade for 300 Gold coins.

It also confirmed that the Bronze Medals had a strong supply chain as I could have obtained them immediately had I paid.

But I wanted to first verify whether it was faster to trade or to obtain it from defeating Bosses or collecting Treasure Chests by ourselves.

That's why our objective that time was to defeat Bosses and find Treasure Chests to collect the 3 Bronze Medals as quickly as possible.

"Griffs, come out."

""Hah!""

I summoned a B-rank Bird in the square full of adventurers.

I was told that I shouldn't summon them in the city, but we were on the 2nd floor of the dungeon.

I had Foreign Minister Nukakai's permission and was allowed to summon.

(Now that no one attacked...)

After confirming that I was going to be attacked, I got on the B-rank Bird's back.

Some of the adventurers picked up weapons, but they did not attack.

Even if they attacked me, I planned to have C-rank Stone to use its special skill [Sacrifice] via <Fast Summon>, so I didn't think it was going to be a problem unless someone attacked with strength as strong as that of Helmios the Hero.

I had planned to spend a year attacking the dungeon.

It was impossible for me to avoid being seen every time.

If I hid it secretly, it might have looked suspicious instead.

So, I summoned B-rank Bird in front of them with the hope that the adventurers would get accustomed to seeing them.

B-rank Bird began to fly amidst the amazement of the adventurers.

(Now, Eagle. Again, with [Clairvoyance])

I summoned an E-rank Bird and made it use its awakening skill [Clairvoyance].

(There are quite a few adventurers here. I see, there are quite a few magical beasts that I have never seen before, but most of them are just B-rank magical beasts. That one is the one, right?)

I had learnt that the 2nd floor only had B-rank magical beasts except for the Bosses.

Since my friends and I didn't have the <Appraisal> skill, we couldn't tell the rank of a magical beast just by looking at it.

So, we were planning to look for and defeat the single-moving magical beasts that seemed larger than other magical beasts or were rarely seen, positioning them as Floor Bosses.

(I wish I had asked Helmios at least what the Bosses of each floor looked like.)

Eagle saw a large magical beast.

It was a big lizard magical beast that I had never seen before.

"Maybe that's an A-rank magical beast. We're going that way."

""Oh!""

At my call, we headed for the place where the Floor Boss was located.

"Oops."

"What's wrong?"

I stopped mid-way.

I was using <Sharing> on all the B-rank Birds, so all B-rank Birds stopped in mid-air as well.

Merle, who is riding with me, asked why we stopped.

"No, other adventurers have started fighting against it. Let's find another one."

(I bet there are a few Thieves in each party. I mean, the magical beast is moving half as fast as it should. The Thieves and the rest of the party are running all over the place.)

As we were about to arrive, an adventurer, who appeared to be a Thief, began to try to lure the magical beast to where a party was, keeping his distance from the Floor Boss and attacking it.

Then, he used a howl-like signal, which his friends heard.

Although the whole party had not started to fight against the magical beast, I resigned to defeat the large lizard-like magical beast.

(The battle for the magical beasts, huh? It brings back memories. The first online game I ever played was like this.)

It was common knowledge for me in my previous life that a magical beast belongs to the first person who attacks it. It is an unwritten rule that must never be broken.

If you break this unwritten rule, you will be chased from the hunting grounds and will not be able to form a party, even a temporary one.

The attacker's name will be exposed on major forums as a violator of etiquette until the game's service is terminated.

I recalled that terms like 'first attack' and 'tagging' were often used when taking down a few enemies in a large field.

Unless the target of the magical beast changed from the Thief adventurer who attacked it, the perception was that this big lizard-like Floor Boss belonged to him.

I was not playing games, but I was not going to break the unwritten rule just because of that.

So, I gave up and began looking for another Floor Boss.

I summoned another E-rank Bird and made it use [Clairvoyance] to look for a free Floor Boss.

"Oh! There is a big Chicken in the middle of nowhere. That one is most likely a Floor Boss."

Surprisingly a large Chicken was walking around on the field.

I could see a wide area because of [Clairvoyance], but I couldn't find any other magical beast that was as big as that Chicken.

Somehow, I was getting the hang of finding the Floor Bosses.

Perhaps there was only 1 Floor Boss per type in the too-big floor.

As we were on our way towards the Chicken, something unusual happened.

"Hey, why did we stop!?"

I heard Cecile's accusing voice from behind me.

Because we stopped mid-way again.

"No, I'm sorry. But our target has vanished."

"What? What do you mean?"

I called Cecile and everyone nearby to explain.

As we were on our way, the big Chicken suddenly disappeared.

(Is it re-spawning somewhere else? Oh! There. There are adventurers near it, and now it's going to be taken. This seems to indicate that a Floor Boss who has not been in battle for a certain period of time will disappear and move to another location.)

I searched again with [Clairvoyance] and found the Chicken at a considerable distance away.

But I did not feel it was teleportation.

Apparently, the Floor Bosses moved randomly on a timed basis.

"But if a Floor Boss suddenly appeared, adventurers might be in danger."

Sophie looked troubled as she noticed the problem of the movement of the Floor Bosses.

We were in a very large space, so the probability of that happening was low, even if they randomly re-spawned.

However, if an adventurer's party was fighting another Floor Boss and or another Floor Boss appeared near when they were resting after a fight, they could get wiped out.

"That's right. I have heard that the Floor Bosses range from A to S-rank magical beasts."

Regardless of the floor, I recalled hearing from Helmios that the Floor Bosses were not always A-rank, but even S-rank magical beasts.

Somehow I understood why half the adventurers who challenge the S-class dungeon died within a year.

"What are we going to do? They are hard to find."

"What are you talking about? The hunt has just begun. We're not done yet."

I answered Cecile's question by saying that we were continuing.

(Well, let's see. There was some other distinctive magical beast, something unusual. A Red Beetle? Stag Beetle? Mm? At this rate, they'll run into other adventurers. I won't lose!)

I spotted a magical beast that looked like a combination of a Red Beetle and a Stag Beetle flying a little high off the ground.

There was also a party of adventurers a short distance away from that magical beast.

[Clairvoyance] also captures the movement of adventurers.

They still didn't seem to have noticed the Red Beetle-like magical beast.

In a little while, that magical beast was going to run into that party of adventurers.

By my previous life's rules, that magical beast belonged to me since the adventurers were not already aware of it.

"It's close by. If we don't do anything, they'll take it. Let's hurry!"

"Hey!"

Cecile filed a complaint as I suddenly rushed towards the magical beast but she didn't slow down because of that.

(If this is taken away from us, this will be my third failure. Damn it, the adventurers will take it if I don't do this.)

"Griffs, use [Soar]!"

""Gurulu!""

My shout caused the flight speed of B-rank Birds to increase dramatically.

I approached the red beetle-like magical beast at a great speed.

However, the situation changed

The red beetle-like magical beast seemed to have noticed the group of adventurers first.

It accelerated the flapping of its wings and headed towards the adventurers.

(Well, I am going to lose again. I mean, it's impossible to catch...)

It was at that moment when I thought I was clearly going to lose the battle for the Floor Boss again, the adventurers reacted differently than what I had expected.

The first person to notice was the party's Thief.

He shouted something loudly.

The adventurers saw the Red Beetle-like magical beast approaching them and began to flee at once.