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

After confirming the Academy’s acceptance announcement, Allen and the others boarded the Magic Train and headed for the Adventurer’s Guild.

The Magic Train has a flat rate of one Silver coin no matter how many times you ride it.

When we were arriving in the city through a Magic Ship, I could look at the entire city, and it seemed to be a circular city. The Magic Train tracks ran in a circle around the east, west, north, and south part of the city. This city had convenient transportation.

Since I heard it was Academy City, I thought it would be full of students, but that was not the case. Perhaps it was because there were so many dungeons or because we were heading for the Adventurer’s Guild, but there seemed to be quite a lot of adventurers instead.

We got off the Magic Train and went in front of a large five-story building.

“It looks like this place.”

There was a symbol of sword, staff, and shield in the Adventurer’s Guild in Grandver. It was a big building, but anyone can just walk into it.

“Welcome. What can I do for you today?”

A beautiful lady called out to us as soon as we entered.

“We’re here to register as adventurers.”

“From the looks of it, you’re students, aren’t you?”

“Yes, we’ll be students starting in April.”

“Do you have anything that can tell us what your exam number was when you passed?”

So we all showed our tickets that were given to us at the Appraisal Ceremony. There was also an attendant at the entrance of the second floor, who asked us to wait for a while because the room was full.

In addition to us, there were quite a few students here. We had come here straight after checking the announcement of the results, but the fact that there were so many students meant that they might have passed the exam on a different day. There were more than ten low counters with partitions where you could sit and listen to the conversation. It was like a bank counter I had seen in a previous life.

This was a sight I hadn’t seen on the first floor, and they seem to be treating the students quite well. I wonder if the Adventurer’s Guild is cooperating with the Academy.

After a while, our turn came, and we sat down at the counter with the number that the attendant told me. Cecile and I sat in front, and Kurena and Dogora sat behind me.

The lady sitting at the counter brought us four crystals.

“To issue your adventurer’s cards, please place your hands on these crystals one by one.”

As we were told, we put our hands on the four crystals, one crystal per person. I don’t know what they reacted to, but the crystals glowed faintly.

(Appraisal? This crystal, who’s making these? )

“Please include it here.”

When all four of us have written our names, hometowns, Talents, etc., we take the crystal and parchment to the back of the counter.

“Please wait a moment. In the meantime, I will explain about adventurers.”

The beautiful woman explained to us about adventurers. I wrote down what she explained in bullet points and recorded it in my Grimoire.

Adventurers are managed by the Adventurer’s Guild.An organization independent of the Kingdom.There are ranks for adventurers, starting with E and going up to S.All adventurers start at rank E.An adventurer is a person who takes requests and gets paid for it.There are three types of requests: Normal requests, Urgent requests, and Nomination requests.Urgent requests and Nomination requests can be received by C-rank adventurers and above

(This is exactly what Raven told me.)

I’ve known Raven since I was eight years old and I think I have some understanding of adventurers. Some of it is new to me, but as far as I can tell, there’s nothing wrong with it now.

“That will be all. Do you have any questions?”

“I have so many questions, can you spare a few minutes?”

“Of course. Being an adventurer is a dangerous job, you can ask me anything.”

But I still have a lot of questions to ask.

“Is there any kind of requirement to go to the dungeon if I become an adventurer?”

“There are some requirements to enter the dungeon. You are an E rank adventurer, so you can only go to C-class dungeons.”

“A C-class dungeon? Please tell me about the dungeon.”

The lady at the counter told me about the dungeon.

There are 20 dungeons in this Academy City.10 C-class dungeons, 6 B-class dungeons and 4 A-class dungeonsThe dungeons are divided into three difficulty levels.C-class dungeons have EDC-ranked magical beasts and are considered the easiest dungeons.B-class dungeons have DCB-ranked magical beasts and are considered moderately difficult.A-class dungeons have CBA-ranked magical beasts and are considered the most difficult.

“How do I get rid of the restrictions on entering the dungeon?”

She told me the restrictions to enter the dungeon.

You must be a C-rank adventurer or higher to enter B-level dungeons.You must be a B-rank adventurer or higher to enter A-level dungeons.If you conquer one C-class dungeon, you will become a D-rank adventurer.If you conquer three C-class dungeons, you will become a C-rank adventurer.If you conquer three B-class dungeons, you will become a B-rank adventurer.If you conquer three A-class dungeons, you will become an A-rank adventurer.

I recorded the information in bullet points in my Grimoire.

(I see. Now, onto the main point…)

“I heard that valuable items appear in dungeons. In what form do they appear?”

I have a big goal that I need to achieve during my three years in this Academy City.

That is, to find a “Mana Recovery Ring”.

I want to do something about my skill leveling speed, which I’m still struggling with, and I want to make sure that I still have decent skill levels before entering the battlefield in three years. For that, I need more mana.

The first time I learned about the Mana Recovery Ring was when Cecile and I were kidnapped. I went to a Weapons Store to see if there was any kind of item that would protect me from being affected by the sleeping potion. The shop did not carry such a thing. I was told to go to a Magic Items shop instead by the shopkeeper.

I went to a Magic Items shop to see if there was such an item, and the shopkeeper said that there was indeed an item that completely prevented sleep. According to him, the item that prevents sleep comes in the shape of a ring, and it is called a “Sleep Protection Ring”. However, he said that he didn’t have such a valuable item.

I was told that they are not available in the Baron’s territory because they are hard to come by and are bought by the Royals, Nobles, and the wealthy who want to protect themselves. I was told that I would have to go to the Royal Capital or the Academy City to get one.

In addition, the market price for a complete Sleep Protection Ring is about 100 gold coins.

I then asked if there were any items that could restore mana with him.

He told me that he had never heard of such a thing, but that he had heard of a ring that could heal the wounds of the wearer. It was called the “Health Recovery Ring”. It had apparently been discovered in the Academy City a long time ago. I was told that even if there was such a thing, I wouldn’t be able to get it for less than 1000 Gold coins.

I think that if there is a ring that restores health, then there must be a ring that restores mana.

When I asked him how to get such a ring, he said that I could get them in dungeons.

“You can get items in the dungeon by…”

There is a treasure chest in the dungeon.Each dungeon has a boss at the bottom floor, and you can get items by defeating it.

“The bottom floor? How many floors are there in each dungeon? Also, how long will it take me to get there if I don’t get lost?”

“The lowest level depends on the difficulty of the dungeon.”

C-class dungeons have 4 to 6 floorsB-class dungeons have 10 to 12 floorsA-class dungeons have 15 to 20 floorsTravel time for one floor of a C-class dungeon is about 6 hoursTravel time for one floor of a B-class dungeon is about 12 hoursTravel time for one floor of an A-class dungeon is about 24 hours

(Hmmm… even the lowest difficulty takes 6 hours?)

“The dungeons are quite large, aren’t they? Is it true that Health Recovery Rings have been found in the Academy City?”

“It seems you’ve done a lot of research. It’s true that you can get the Health Recovery Ring in the dungeon. It is said to have dropped in the bottom floor of an A-class dungeon about 70 years ago.

(Well, if it was 70 years ago, it was before the Demon King strengthened the magical beasts. The difficulty has increased between now and then. Just the thought of searching for hard-to-obtain items in a dungeon is enough to make me excited.)

Because of the Demon King, magical beasts have gained strength one level higher than their rank. There is a difference in difficulty between the old A-class dungeons and the current A-class dungeons.

The lowest level boss of the A-class dungeon is an A-rank magical beast. It’s going to be pretty tough for us then. We might be able to get some items that we don’t know about and finding the one we want is pretty much an impossible situation. That alone convinced me that it was worth it to come to the Academy city.

“I still have a few questions, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course.”

The lady already had our adventurer’s card ready in front of us, but I still had some questions remaining.

Cecile and the others had heard the day before that there were some things Allen needed to check with the Adventurer’s Guild, but he seemed to have a lot of questions. They listened in silence to Allen, who was asking serious questions, and the Adventurer’s Guild staff’s answer at the counter.