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

It was the first holiday since Kurena learned to use her skills.

I’ve learned a lot about <Awakening> over the past few days.

I kept letting Denka use [Form a Flock], and it seems that after 24 hours, which is one day, it can be activated again. The cooldown is one day; I would have preferred to be able to use it in an hour or so, but thank goodness there is a cooldown.

In June, I finally ran out of Gold coins and C-rank magic stones. If I can collect at least 1,000 C-rank magic stones per week in B-class dungeons, I can resume recruiting 10,000 D-rank magic stones per week.

I have been working on C-rank summons that can be done at the base, as well as experimenting with <Awakening>. But for now, I want to resume collecting magical stones, so I want to proceed to B-class dungeons.

“I guess this is where we start today.”

This is the third floor of a dungeon that has six floors. Today, we’ll start from here to conquer the dungeon.

“Yeah.”

Kurena reacted to my words.

Kurena is always in a good mood, but she has been in a very good mood for the past few days since she learned how to use skills.

Kurena has been itching to use her skills. But I understand how she feels.

[Name] Kurena

[Age] 12

[Talent] Master Swordsman

[Level] 30

[Strength] 1240

[Mana] 474

[Attack] 1240

[Endurance] 872

[Agility] 838

[Intelligence] 494

[Luck] 595

Skills: Master Swordsmanship <2>, Slash <2>, Flying Slash <1>, Swordsmanship <5>

[Extra] Limit Break

[Experience] 21,970/30,000

Skill Level

[Master Swordsmanship] 2

[Slash] 2

[Flying Sword] 1

Skill Experience

[Slash] 6/100

[Flying Slash] 5/10

Thanks to our C-class dungeon rounds after the Academy ended, her <Slash> reached Level 2, and her <Master Swordsmanship> also reached Level 2. And she acquired a new skill, <Flying Slash>.

The <Flying Slash> is a long-range attack. The slash flies in a way that I can see. It seems to be a single-target attack.

In addition, the <Slash> is also a single-target attack. I think it’s time for her to unlock some multi-target attacks.

However, like both the <Slash> and the <Flying Slash>, I don’t know how powerful they are since we can only fight magical beasts up to C-rank in the dungeons. Kurena’s [Attack] is so high that she can kill a C-rank magical beast with her normal attack.

She was able to use <Slash> during the mock battle against Master Swordsman Doberg. She learned how to use the new <Flying Slash> skill on her own. It seems that it is important to focus your mind and understand the flow of mana to use skills.

That’s how it seemed when I translated Kurena’s words, who was very excited about her new skill.

In addition, Dogora was still unable to use his skills. He’s still struggling with it.

“You are testing a new summon today?”

“Yeah.”

I answered Kiel’s question. I’ve told him that today’s dungeon attack will also be an experiment.

Kiel and I still have a lot of distance between us, but we try to have normal conversations.

“Allen, what are you doing?”

“Kurena, look. Come out, Frans!”

I responded to Kurena’s words by summoning five C-rank Birds.

“”Kyuuoi!””

Five creatures that closely resemble bipedal flightless birds, Cassowary appeared. However, they were about twice the size of a Cassowary I have seen in my previous life. They are about 2.5 meters long and about 2 meters tall. They are bigger than Ostriches.

They have a large chicken crowned crest on their head and very strong legs with well-developed muscles.

“‘Those birds are big. What are you going to do with them?”

“Dogora,, we are going to ride this thing through the dungeons.”

“”Ride?””

I have always thought that someday there would be a summon that I could mount. I also think there will soon be summons that can fly, and summons that can cross the seas.

Getting a means of transportation and expanding your range of activities is the basis of a game. I knew that these types of summons would show up at some point since not all of them don’t specialize in attacking.

The Beast species is mostly attack-oriented, so there won’t be a summon like a horse. I thought it would be a new species or a Bird with many useful skills such as information gathering and searching for enemies.

And C-rank Birds have the special skill that seemed to be just that, [Run Through]. Today, we will test whether my prediction is correct or not.

“Are you going to ride this, Death?”

“Yes, Maria.”

“Okay, Death.”

The C-rank Spirit on top of my head which was floating fluffily moved onto the crest of one C-rank Bird.

I summoned Maria because of her request. A summon who can communicate with words has a strong ego and makes requests.

According to her, she wants to be summoned all the time.

She stays at the base while we are away, and she is also summoned in the dungeon.

I told her that I couldn’t take her around the city because I was too old to walk around with a French doll.

“Fran, sit down. I want everyone on board.”

“”Kyu-Ui”

(Hmmm… C-rank Birds can’t speak?)

Frans answered with their cries instead of words. It seems they can’t speak.

At my word, Frans folded their standing legs and placed their torso on the ground. Their height, which had been nearly two meters, dropped to about one meter.

I, on behalf of everyone, tried to ride on top of a Fran. I straddled its body like a horse and asked it to stand up.

“Stand up.”

“Kui.”

(Oh, it’s pretty tall. It looks like it’s taller than a horse. But is it better this way?)

Slowly, Fran rose up.

The ceiling of this dungeon is over five meters high in the corridors and over ten meters high in the smaller rooms. Even while riding, we won’t be troubled by the low ceiling.

Fran continued to walk around the area, following my instructions.

(Oh! I’m not shaking at all. These feathers are really comfortable.)

I continued my experiments while riding Fran. I don’t shake at all while riding Fran. This is an obvious specification for riding.

“I want to ride too!”

Kurena, who had been watching the situation, said to me excitedly.

“‘All right, then, get on. We’ll just keep going through the dungeon!”

Now that I know it’s safe to ride, I asked all four of them to get on other Frans. They all got on fearfully, but seemed to be surprised at how comfortable the riding Fran was.

As before, we moved forward with Dogora and Kurena in the lead, Cecile and Kiel in the center, and me in the rear.

To protect the center, I summoned two C-rank Spirits that were flying side by side surrounding their left and right sides.

An E-rank Eagle was flying above, searching for magical beasts.

I can feel the infinite possibilities. For the past two months, I’ve been having some difficulty with our movement speed, but I’m convinced that this has been resolved.

In the future, when fighting the Demon King’s army, whether we can use Fran or not will make a huge difference in your mobility.

And just before noon, we were in the bottom floor boss’s room. A crate has fallen in front of them.

“We are done!”

“That’s fast!”

Cecile and Kurena were impressed. We’ve been attacking one floor at a time, always with a break in between, and we reached the bottom floor boss before noon.

We conquered two floors and killed the bottom floor boss.

(So this is how Fran performs. She’s incredibly talented. I can’t wait to use <Awakening> on her.)

Travel speed is about 50 kilometers per hourWhen using her special skill, she can go about 100 kilometers per hourNever tiredCan’t talkSwords and axes can be wielded while mountedCan listen to other’s instructions as well beside mine’s

Fran is closer to the enemy from her sitting position than a cavalry horse. And because of her height, which is higher than that of a horse, Kurena and Dogora can easily wield large weapons like big swords and axes.

Both Kurena and Dogora are still growing. Even if their bodies and weapons grow in the future, these summons still will be powerful enough to handle them.

I also had the bottom floor boss run into Fran with Kurena and Dogora riding her.

“Okay, so now all five of us can become C-rank adventurers.”

The four of us had already conquered three dungeons, except for Kiel, but we were waiting for him to finish his. Together, we can now become C-rank adventurers.

“Yeah.”

“And since we’re done before noon, I think we should have a celebration at the base for reaching C-rank.”

“Celebration?”

“We haven’t even had a welcome party with Kiel as one of us yet. Would you be okay with that, Kiel?”

I was hoping that Kiel would integrate into the party soon. That’s part of the reason why I invited him to the base. I think it’s okay for him to live in the base.

“What? I’m a little, you know, that kind of thing…”

“Is there something wrong?”

Then there was silence in the hall. I was hoping to take this opportunity to solve any problems that Kiel was having.

Kiel spoke up after a moment of silence.

“…I actually have a family.”

It was Kiel’s confession.

{TLN: Fran is a female.}