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

There are Goblins, humanoid monsters, in front of me. There are five of them in total. Their green bodies are very well muscled. They are not very tall, only 150 centimeters, but they are carrying daggers and clubs in their hands. They can’t seem to stop giggling at the sight of the little boy, as if they think they found some food.

(Oops, I ran into Goblins.)

If it were possible, I would have liked to spot the magical beast from behind a tree and surprise attack it, but we met face to face. The basic rule of combat is to attack first.

“Gu-ga-ga!”

When one of the monsters shouted, they all reacted and came at me with their own weapons.

“Come on!”

“Grrrrrrr!”

Five E-rank Sabertooth Tigers around me at once. Naturally, all of them were already enhanced. Allen can summon as many summons as he wants at once if he is aware of it. It doesn’t consume any mana either.

“Gugi?”

The Goblins running toward me suddenly appeared to panic and were momentarily frightened.

That’s when it happened.

“Gurururu!”

Allen summoned five more E-rank Tigers behind the group of Goblins. The summons can be summoned anywhere within 50 meters as long as he can see the area. It is standard practice in battle to get behind your opponents. Allen made full use of his skills.

The Goblins that were trapped between summons panicked. They didn’t seem to have that much intelligence. The Goblins were attacked on their back by the Tigers.

(All right, let’s verify Swallowtail’s special skill in this state. Come out Swallowtail).

I could easily defeat Goblins so I proceeded with the test before defeating them all.

E-rank Insect, a meter large Butterfly appeared in front of Allen. When Allen ordered it to use special skill Scales, it flapped its wings and yellow scales scattered on the battlefield. Two Goblins fell asleep in the middle of the battle. 

I pulled out a stone from Inventory and threw it with all my might at the face of the Goblin which has fallen asleep and lost its balance while standing.

The Grimoire hadn’t shined yet meaning I hadn’t defeated it.

Then E-rank Tiger scratched and put an end to the Goblin.

“You have defeated one Goblin. You have acquired 200 experience points.“

(Hmm, 200 experience per Goblin, five Goblins equals 1000 experience, woohoo!)

 Albaheron gave 100 experience and the Great Boar gave 400 experience. The Great Boar, which I was able to hunt while sneaking my summons at the end of each hunt, gave me about 1200 experience.

However, I consider Goblins a better deal than Boar hunting.

(You always have to think about efficiency when earning experience, right? The hourly rate was better for Goblins.)

When Allen was Kenichi, he used to use the term hourly rate as a measure of experience efficiency in games: how much experience you can earn per hour.

 It used to take him six hours to get there and back for a hunt and the maximum experience he could obtain was 1200 experience points. But, he hadn’t even been there for two hours yet and he had earned 1000 experience points.

The hourly rate for Boar hunting was 200 experience, and for Goblins it’s 500 experience. Obviously, the Goblins are more efficient in terms of experience farming.

Soaring above me were E-rank Birds. It looks like they have found my next prey.

(Let’s get their magic stone and continue.)

I believe that there are certain rules for the debuff effects that Insect uses. I hope I can find those rules quickly.

I grabbed my dagger and headed for the Goblin I had defeated. I made a cut on the side of the heart and took out a magic stone. To be honest, I don’t want to do this, but magic stones are valuable. Especially for Summoners, the number of magic stones is like a lifeline. I couldn’t let them go to waste. I take out the magic stones from all the Goblins.

In the meantime, E-rank Tigers were still around Allen. There might still be Goblins around so they were guarding Allen.

“Search for more Goblins! If you find more than five Goblins, come down, but they should be within three kilometers from me.” Allen ordered his Eagle summons.

Then the four E-rank Birds began their search again. After some time two Eagles came down to Allen and started leading the way.

Time was passing while Allen was hunting Goblins. It was now nearly sunset.

(I killed 80 Goblins and 5 horned rabbits today! I have leveled up twice as well! It’s a great day off!)

200 experience points per Goblin 

     10 experience points per horned rabbit.

All in all, I earned 16050 experience points today. I also reached Level 9.

After a day’s worth of research, I found out the rules for Insects debuff.

-An E-rank Insect can only apply debuff upto D-rank magical beasts (One rank higher than its own)

– Two E-rank Insects are required to debuff a C-rank magical beast (Two are required for a magical beast two ranks higher than the Insect’s)

– For each increasing rank, one more Insect is required to apply the debuff 

– The success rate of debuffs is not 100% (even if you increase the number of insects, it will not reach 100%).

– A single Insect can apply debuffs to multiple magical beasts.

Three G-rank Insects were needed to provoke an Albaheron, a D-rank magical beast (three ranks higher). Also, an E-rank Insect can apply multiple, debuffs a group of Goblins, a D-ranked magical beast one rank higher than its own rank.

Scales induced the ‘Sleep’ effect on ot’s opponents. One use of Scales could put multiple Goblins to sleep. The success rate was roughly 80%. Maybe ‘Sleep’ was super-effective against the Goblins, but the odds were not half bad.

However, I was not totally safe. My summons were occasionally defeated as well. Apparently, it’s pretty easy to get killed by a muscular Goblin’s attack. The Goblin’s made up for their lack of Agility and Durability in the Strength and Attack Power department. The summons’ rank was also lower than the Goblin’s, which was probably one of the reasons as well.

I used Scales at the start of each battle, but if the Goblins were not affected by it, they would get attacked. As a result, I had to look for horned rabbits to get E-rank magic stones.

In addition, I found out that I can’t summon an E-rank using a D-rank magic stone. It seems the same rank of magic stone is required for Create Synthesis.

(Okay. Where are the Goblins?)

I became a Goblin Slayer. I recognized them as good prey since they were high in number and were easy to kill.

Then, all six of the E-rank Eagles descended at once.

(Oh? What’s wrong? Are they tired?)

I remember when I was playing an online game, I was hunting for about eight hours straight and my party mates got mad at me for making them so tired!　

When I asked, the birds shook their heads.

It was getting late. Soon the sun will set.

(Could it be that it’s too dark to see?)

Then the birds nodded at once.

“Seriously, you can’t see in the dark?”

I couldn’t help but exclaim.

I was so engrossed in hunting that I lost my sense of direction. I don’t know where I am now, or how far I am from the city of Grandver.

(I was going to ask Eagle to show me where the city was, but now it looks like I’m on my own.)

I checked the position of the sun to get a general sense of direction. 

A few hours passed.

“Oh! You’re alive, kid.”

“Yes, I am.”

The gatekeeper I saw this morning called out to me. It was already dark. I showed him the coat of arms of the Grandvelle house and entered the city.

(It’s already dark now. How long does he need to stay on duty?)

I was too absorbed in hunting. I should reflect upon it. 

Thus ended Allen’s first full day off.