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

"It will soon be evening. It's time to go back."

"Finally, I'm tired today."

I looked at my magical tool that showed time and said that it was time to leave the dungeon.

My friends and my three-day raid was over.

We used to stay in the dungeon for three and a half days before but after finding out that the Demon King's army had stolen the Divine Artifact, I decided to reduce the time to just three days.

The change in schedule was due to the fact that there were other things that had to be done.

"Looks like you made a lot of money again."

"That's right. We found quite a few Treasure Chests, but thanks to Kurena pulling the Death Zone, Dogora, Kiel and Formar have managed to reach their level cap."

"Hehehe."

Upon return, my friends and I had a meal with Helmios' party.

Kurena, with a mouth full of food, shouted with delight at the praise.

The Treasure Chests yielded quite a few weapons and armor.

The results of that raid was better than expected, as Kurena pulled a transfer from the hidden cube to the Death Zone as soon as we entered the dungeon, and Dogora, Kiel, and Formar reached Level 60 in just three days.

(Well, it just takes 250 million experience to reach Level 60 in Normal Mode, and in the S-class dungeon, it's a piece of cake.)

"You guys are the only ones who think of the Death Zone as a leveling place."

Rosetta, the Thief, joined the conversation with a dazed look on her face.

The Death Zone of the 4th floor was filled with a large number of A-rank magical beasts.

The Death Zone was not a problem for Helmios' party as well.

The Death Zone that we got transferred to belonged to the 4th floor but it wasn't on the 4th floor. The hidden cube that we had found had teleported to a different place. In order to return from the Death Zone, we had to find the hidden cube located in the Death Zone.

"I'll borrow your name again tomorrow, Helmios, for that matter."

"Yeah, well, that's okay. Just don't take it too hard, okay?"

Not knowing what to say, Helmios responded with a question.

"It's okay."

I responded with a smile, but Helmios let out a small sigh, wondering what was okay.

The next day, my friends and I headed to the Adventurer's Guild early in the morning.

"Mr. Allen. This way please."

As we headed to our usual counter at the Adventurer's Guild, an employee of the Adventurer's Guild noticed our arrival and came out from the counter.

My party's dealings didn't fit at the counter, so he showed us to a private room.

"Then I will leave the weapons and armor here and ask you to do as you always do."

"Yes, sir."

Several Adventurer's Guild employees retrieved the weapons and armor that I had brought with me.

"Sorry, Dogora and Kurena."

"What are you talking about? But are you sure? You don't want us to be here until the end?"

"Yeah, it's going to be fine. It will just take some time longer than usual. We'll head back to the base when we're done."

My friends and I had collected a lot of weapons and armor at once, and since they were too big to fit in the Grimoire, Dogora and Kurena carried them.

The two left the private room because they were about to have a training session with Doberg.

"Well, here's the Grimoire. So, as usual, let's begin."

"Yes."

Kurena and Dogora left for practice, but the rest of us were working together.

Cecile lifted a bag of magic stones in one corner of the room and poured the magic stones into the Grimoire on the floor.

The rest of us split up and put the magic stone into the Grimoire as well.

There were no employees of the Adventurers Guild present there.

The employees were assessing the weapons and armors and determining whether to auction them or sell them in another room.

I wanted to sell them at the maximum price possible.

I had been buying C, D and E-rank magic stones worth 1000 Gold coins each time.

I increased it to 2,000 Gold coins each.

I doubled the amount after learning that the Divine Artifact was stolen. So, I wanted to get my <Summon> skill to Level 8 as soona s possible.

It was impossible to buy more than 1,000 Gold coin worth of magic stones at once inside the S-class dungeon, so I was limited in that aspect, but in the Bakius Empire, there was another Adventurer's Guild that had the capability to sell the magic stones in the same number.

It was the Adventurer's Guild situated in the Imperial Capital of the Bakius Empire.

I wanted to buy the same amount of magic stones from the Imperial Capital. So the Adventurer's Guild agreed to transport the magic stones by Magic Ship from the Imperial Capital to Dungeon City.

Of course, it was only after I tripled their commision fee from 10% to 30%.

Thanks to me, the Adventurers' Guild of the Dungeon City was earning commission revenues in the thousands of Gold coins per month just from my transactions.

This private room was very spacious, as if it were a private room for entertaining Nobles, and the table is furnished with tea, sweets, and fruits.

I collected all the snacks and fruits as a matter of course.

"Sorry for the wait. We are done collecting the magic stone."

I let the Guild representative who was waiting outside the private room enter.

"..."

He looked slightly doubtful about the room, which had lost an enormous amount of magic stones, but said nothing.

The situation was not entirely impossible, since there were magical tools for storage and spatial magic in the world.

"So, Hero Helmios gave me this. Is it okay to hand it over to you?"

"Ho, really?"

He looked surprised and apologetic.

"Yes, this parchment."

I placed the parchment on the table.

"No, no, this time the Branch Manager of this Guild said he would receive it, so please wait here. I will go get him right away!"

Without waiting for my reply, the Guild representative walked out of the private room.

I had no choice but to wait.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry to keep you waiting."

A few moments later, a muscular, bearded dwarf entered the private room with the Guild representative in tow.

The Branch Manager and two persons in charge of the project will be available to help you.

"Hey, Allen. Get up."

"Hmm? Oh, sorry. Thank you for coming all the way."

It was a few minutes of waiting, but I had fallen asleep while sitting on the couch.

Cecile grabbed me by the elbow and made me apologize to the Branch Manager, which I did with a sleepy look on my face.

"No, what? I'm Popocca, the Branch Manager of the Adventurers' Guild here. What have you brought me today?"

(Cute name.)

It was not the first time that I had done something like that, so I got right to the point.

"First, here is an update on the information from last time."

"Wow, that's great."

Summarized on the parchment was information on the location of the hidden cubes and Treasure Chests.

And it was organized in detail into the hidden cubes and Treasure Chests.

The map showed where the hidden cubes and Treasure Chests appeared in the large floor.

It also mentioned the percentage chance of getting a Stone Slab or other item from the hidden cube, and what was the percentage chance of drawing a Death Zone.

What had been found so far from the Treasure Chests and the probability of the magical beasts mimicking them was mentioned in detail as well.

That information was updated and organized about twice a month and provided free of charge to the Adventurers' Guild.

"Additional information on the investigation into how many Sea Serpents Crimson will call next. It appears he can call up to 100 of them."

"What?"

The Branch Manager unintentionally spread the parchment in his hand and started to read.

Shaking his shoulders, he checked the report made by my friends and me.

"What do you think?"

"Is this true?"

The Branch Manager confirmed in two ways.

The 4th floor Floor Boss, Crimson-Kaiser-Sea Serpent, was an S-rank magical beast said to call for an infinite number of subordinate Kaiser-Sea Serpents.

I researched to see if it could really call infinite subordinates.

There was a record of an experiment in which Crimson didn't call subordinates for a whole day after 100 of its subordinate Kaiser Sea Serpents had been defeated.

The number of experiments conducted was 5, which meant that at least 500 Kaiser Sea Serpents had been defeated for the research.

He looked at me to see if it was really true.

"Here are the results of Hero Helmios' investigation."

"Was the Hero always this powerful?"

"Yes, but he's a sweet young man up close."

All of the research was done by my friends and me.

"Seriously? The last one you gave me gave me the shakes, but this one is amazing. I'm going to publicize this."

(And do some good analysis and validation.)

Since the Adventurers Guild said they would publicize it, I wanted them to do a good analysis and verification before they did so.

The Branch Manager passes the parchment he was given to the Guild representative sitting next to him.

"This is the last of today's reports. I'm told that it took a long time to create ..."

"What is it? Is this another map? Looks like a lot of space, but it's not the Floor map ..."

I handed him a piece of parchment that had a map on it.

The Branch Manager didn't know what the map was about.

"It's a map of the entire Death Zone, and where the Death Zone transitions to, and the location of the Dungeon Management System."

"... What?"

The Branch Manager was trying to listen carefully, but couldn't hear my voice.

It was more accurate to say that he did not understand than to say that he didn't hear me.

Hey! Such is the case with ... Branch Manager!!! This is amazing!"

Beside the Branch Manager, who froze, the Guild representative, realizing the value of the map, stood up, clasping his hands.

"It's impossible. Something like this can't be made..."

The Branch Manager dismissed my words, speaking as if something like that couldn't exist.

"No, it's not. According to Hero Helmios' research, the Death Zones are apparently the same location that doesn't change no matter where we enter it from. What seems to differ from one floor to the next is the magical beasts that appear. However, the teleportation destination seems to be random among 8 locations as shown on the map. The Dungeon Management System for escape is at..."

As the Branch Manager and the representative beside him stiffened, Allen explained in a matter-of-fact manner.