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

Multiple days passed after they went to contact Habarak.

Allen had already told everyone what to do, so they were focusing on completing their tasks.

Kurena, Dogora, Kiel, and Merus were in the S Rank Dungeon, hunting Iron Golems as planned.

The beastmen's Levels and Skill Levels were already pretty high.

Most of them could easily clear dungeons too, so they were already starting to enter the Talent Change Dungeon in groups.

Similarly to how Rosen conducted a Talent Change on Allen's party before, they would all be able to choose a new Talent that was similar to their original one.

But considering all the combat experience they had amassed in the battlefield, it was likely their power would increase more than they expected.

For example a simple Swordsman would know better than to become a Magic Swordsman, instead choosing a more valuable talent like Sword Emperor.

The elves also had high Levels and Skill Levels, but most of them had never set foot inside a dungeon.

Not many people in Rosenheim had a desire to put themselves in peril by going inside a dungeon for treasure.

Allen wanted them to at least go through one of the A Rank Dungeons before going to the Talent Change one.

The dark elves on the other hand, were rather inexperienced, lacked levels, and had never entered a dungeon.

They would need to start on lower level dungeons and slowly level up.

Forming an army of so many races together was like a dream come true, but each race was on a different skill level, so for now they were all still acting separately.

It was going to take around one year for Allen's Army to really take shape.

But he would push them to continue working their way through the dungeons all the time.

Rather than focusing on making sure everyone gained the maximum amount of Experience possible, Allen sent groups of 48 into the dungeons, making sure they cleared dungeons as fast as possible.

He also sent scouts ahead of time, making sure the rest would not get caught in traps.

This is the proportion of Experience party members gained depending on their number:

Solo: 100% 2 to 8: 80% 9 to 16: 60% 17 to 48: 40% 49 to 252: 20% More than 253: 10%

"There's a lot of people here now."

"Y-yeah. There weren't so many people last time."

"I know."

Allen muttered to himself at first, but Merle answered.

He was with Merle, Cecile, Sophie, and Formar.

They were in Latash's Academy City and noticed the streets were busy.

(Rushing here was a good idea after all.)

Not much time had passed since the Demon King's Army had been driven off, but the Academy City was already teeming with people.

It was quite a stark difference to how Allen remembered it from his days at the Academy, it was all thanks to the Talent Change Dungeon.

Seeing that explained why the emperor of Giamut was so intent in limiting entrance to the dungeon.

Once people really understood how much of a difference a Talent Change made, word would spread even more and the crowds would just keep growing.

It reminded Allen of how games looked when a new area or dungeon was added in an update.

Sometimes there would be so many people in a single place that the servers would crash, or there would be visual glitches.

"Master Allen, our base is over here."

A group of elves noticed Allen coming out from a magic carriage, so they went to greet him.

They were part of Allen's Army.

The elves took Allen's group to a large building.

"Here? Ohh! This looks nice, good job finding this place."

Allen looked up at the large buildings.

"Thanks. We tried to find the best place we could buy within our budget."

There was no news of any other Talent Change Dungeons appearing in other places.

That meant real estate costs in the Academy City would keep soaring.

Allen's Army's main centers of operations were Heavy User Island, the S Rank Dungeon's tower, and the Academy City.

They would visit each place depending on their current objective, but they still needed enough housing for a few hundred people at a time in each location.

Allen had a million gold coins in his Inventory, and he owned rings and weapons that could be sold for even more.

He had given a hundred thousand gold coins to the elves to scout a good location in the Academy City.

Since he had long-term plans for it, he wanted to actually buy the land rather than rent it.

The elves had bought a plot of land with six buildings on it.

(Hmm, I see. If we manage this place well we could easily stuff 500 people here. I guess it's best if we do most of our business on the surface around the S Rank Dungeon after all.)

Allen used a Bird E summon to observe the location from the air.

The paperwork with the Real-Estate Guild was already complete, and they had offered the tenants there a generous sum to vacate the buildings.

There were six buildings that could each house around fifty people, but if they got rid of the walls and fences between buildings and used that space for more buildings, it was possible for even 500 people to stay there.

500 people on the surface was not a number Allen was satisfied with.

He decided he wanted even more people to stay near the S Rank Dungeon.

The beastmen were scouting the city on the first floor of the S Rank Dungeon, carrying another hundred thousand gold coins.

If Allen still was not satisfied with what they got, he would give them another hundred thousand coins.

That other location would be a fair distance away from the Dungeon's entrance in the center, so Allen was hoping the land would be cheaper and that the land would be twice as large.

As more members of his army progressed through the S Rank Dungeon or their Talent Changes, more people would need to stay in those bases, so it was best to have room to spare.

Allen had never imagined he would end up using the money he saved up on another world in real-estate.

Knock knock

"It seems someone's here. I'll go check who it is."

Allen was taking a tour of the buildings when someone knocked on the front door, and an elf went to see who it was.

It was a Sunday, but Allen had still asked some people to come there in the afternoon.

"Hello, Allen. So this is the place? Wait, Cecile, long time no see."

It was Thomas, who was two years older than Allen.

"It's been a long time indeed, Thomas."

He was guided inside by the elf, and he quickly noticed Cecile, his sister, standing next to Allen, so he spoke to her.

Allen had been helping out Thomas with leveling up since a while back.

Now that Allen's Army was having a base in the Academy City, he decided to invite Thomas over as well, to discuss some of their future plans.

"Thomas, what is this place you've brought me to? There's nothing here."

The voice of a young woman could be heard behind Thomas.

Thomas' connection with her was one of the reasons why Allen had called him there.

"O-oh, Princess Leirana. My apologies for the bleak interiors, we've barely started settling here."

Allen quickly greeted her, who had started complaining about the place the moment she entered.

She was Latash' Princess Leirana, a young girl with blonde hair parted into two curls the fell down her shoulders.

There were two other female students with her.

They seemed preoccupied with the princess, either as her attendants or guards.

Allen could not remember the type of speech he needed to use in the Academy, since he and Sophie always ignored those rules.

"Huh?! Ah, yes, what he said, Lady Leira!"

Thomas had probably asked her to wait for him outside the building.

But she ignored that and followed him inside the building, which left Thomas in a bit of shock.

(Lady Leira, huh.)

"Oh, Thomas. I told you to just call me Leira, didn't I? Hm? Wait, could you be…"

Leirana's face was very expressive, looking slightly pouty as she complained of the way Thomas addressed her.

Then she noticed Cecile standing next to Allen.

"Yes, I'm Thomas' younger sister Cecile. Thank you for always taking care of my brother."

Cecile had to take a double take since Leirana had just asked Thomas to be less formal, but in the end she chose to greet her like she would any noble.

"You're quite pretty considering you're Thomas' sister. Though you're quite different from how he described you… I thought she was supposed to be a rowdy unmanageable girl?"

Hearing that, Cecile slowly turned to look at Thomas.

Leirana could not see her face from that angle, but Allen knew that whenever Cecile acted that way, it was his cue to run away for dear life.

Cecile was about to attack.

"Wait, wait Cecile. It's a misunderstanding. That's not what I said!!"

(Calm down Cecile. You might accidentally kill him with how strong you are now.)

Cecile was a maxed out Archmage, while Thomas had no Talent whatsoever. Such a fight was not fair at all.

"Anyway, we're all gathered now, so how about we discuss some matters, Princess Leirana? If you can excuse the lack of tidiness in the room."

Allen decided to change topics.

"Ah, you're right. At least you seem reasonable enough. You're Allen, correct?"

"Yes, I'm Allen. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Good idea, maybe we should find a better place to talk though."

Thomas wanted to get away from there no matter what.

Most of the building was still empty, but there was one room that was decently furnished already, so they all went there.

The conversation revolved around Thomas and his training regime in the dungeon.

"So tell me Thomas, how much time do you have? Or are you planning on taking a break from your duties in the palace?"

Allen was still a guest of Grandvelle's family, so he chose slightly more formal words when talking to Thomas, even though he had no formal rank yet.

He seemed to recall Thomas was currently studying and working in the palace to one day inherit the house of Grandvelle.

Before Allen could plan anything, he needed to know how much free time Thomas had.

"Don't worry about that, Allen. I made sure he got a year off from work."

(A year? I guess it's what they call a sabbatical year in those crowds.)

Leirana answered in Thomas' stead, saying he had a year free.

It was common amongst nobles to take breaks like that, sometimes they wanted to pursue arts like music or painting.

Those were usually known as leisure breaks, but this time Thomas was going to spend his break in dungeons.

"That's good to hear then."

"Wha-"

Allen did not seem to have an issue with that, but Cecile had always thought Thomas was going to be the next head of the Grandvelle family.

She had been working so hard so he could study for that role, but now she wanted to scold him from taking a break. But she managed to contain herself given she was in front of the princess.

Sophie was also present, she was the princess of a large country as well, but the roles of nobility were so different between them that she chose to remain silent.

"Well, let's get straight into it and talk about your schedule then."

Allen quickly pushed aside all those miscellaneous topics and went straight into discussing Thomas' way to level up and get through the dungeons.

For now he would join the elven groups, repeatedly clearing the dungeons.

Since Thomas had no Talent, he only had to focus on getting his Level to 60, there were no Skill Levels to worry about.

Once he could comfortably go through an A Rank Dungeon, he would be ready to enter the Talent Change Dungeon.

"Hmm, shall I join your trips to the Dungeon then?"

(Oh, she seems interested in fighting too.)

"If that's what you wish, you could join him during the weekends, given you still have school to worry about the other days. I would adjust the schedule so you can both spend most of the time in the dungeons together, but as Thomas has no Talent yet, I believe it's best if he prioritizes obtaining one first."

"You have a point. Make sure you pick a healing Talent, Thomas."

"Hmm, that sounds good to me."

They settled on having Thomas train six days of the week, and Leirana would join him for two of those during weekends.

On top of that, she chose Thomas' role for him.

Allen was simply happy knowing the discussion was proceeding smoothly though.