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

"Now, let's go."

"Oh!"

Dogora responded to my voice after breakfast.

We were in the same dining room without tables or chairs where we had talked about everyone's goal the day before.

We had rented a house with a garden in a prime location near the temple.

The building, which could house more than 30 people, cost us 30 Gold coins per month.

The base where we lived in Academy City was similar, but the rent in the dungeon city was three times expensive.

The owner of the Real Estate Guild told me that when I looked for a property near the temple, Adventurer's Guild, and also many stores, the building would inevitably cost that much.

Good properties were inhabited by competent adventurers.

Looking at the property, I could guess how many adventurers were challenging the Tower of Trials, an S-class dungeon.

Equipped and ready, my friends and I set out for the temple.

The entrance to the temple, less than a 10-minute walk away, was crowded with adventurers.

We lined up in turn and showed our S-class dungeon invitation tickets to the gatekeeper who had blocked our way two days prior.

He didn't block us that day and let us through without a word.

We had been told the last time we came here where in the temple to go to the S-class dungeon, so we headed to that location with the adventurers.

Perhaps to prevent congestion, it was necessary to enter several separate rooms to proceed to the next floor of the S-class dungeon.

Each room was very spacious.

There were many adventurers in front of the room that we had entered.

(As usual, there are quite a few of them. Well, I have heard that the next floor consists of B-rank magical beasts. So, if they are well equipped, even 1-star Talents won't have any problems.)

I was wondering why there were so many people in the dungeon.

I had heard that there was no one in the Latash Kingdom who could challenge the S-class dungeon.

However, the place was crowded with quite a few adventurers, including dwarves and beastmen.

They were all equipped with fairly high quality equipment as well.

I estimated that even a 1-star Talent could conquer 5 A-class dungeons albeit with some difficulty.

But there was no need to attack an A-class dungeon with only 1-star Talent members.

If there were some 2 or 3-star party members present in the party, they probably wouldn't face any problems.

It was fairly plausible if there were a nation-wide policy of dungeon raiding.

(Well, if the party breaks off after stepping on a Transfer Trap, they will almost be wiped out. I wonder if that can be prevented by the trap detection type skills of Thieves.)

I wondered if the adventurers there had overcome those risks

As I was thinking about that, our turn was approaching

Adventurers were disappearing before our eyes.

Since about 10 adventurers or more were disappearing every time, our turn came sooner than I had anticipated.

And there was a cube-shaped object floating a little higher in my line of sight.

(Are dungeons managed by these cube-shaped objects on all continents?)

"Welcome, Abandoned Gamers. This is S108, the Dungeon Management System. Would you like to go to the next floor?"

The usual systematic voice was once again guiding us to the floor.

We were at that moment located in the S-class dungeon, the Tower of Trials, first floor.

I knew what the next two floors were going to be after asking the Adventurer's Guild about it.

"Please."

When I, the party leader, replied on behalf of the party, our vision changed at once.

""Oh, wow!""

All at once, our vision changed and voices leaked.

We were at an empty place crowded with adventurers.

I looked around, trying to wrap my head around what it meant.

(The Adventurer's Guild did say that the magical beasts in the 2nd floor were the same regardless of which room we transferred from. So this dungeon sends everyone to one lobby, huh. Is the ground still Earth?)

That aspect of the dungeon was completely different from the dungeons we had conquered in Academy City.

The dungeon at the Academy City took each party to a different dimension.

It seemed as if all the adventurers who lined up in the queue for the second floor had come directly to the crowded place.

"Let me see what's going on here."

"Yeah, I'll see what I can find out."

Cecile responds to my words.

Perhaps after spending a lot of time with me and being influenced, my friends had started to analyze anything that was new to them.

(The ground is soil. I see, this is a square. Are you transferring adventurers party-by-party to this empty square?)

Another group of a party of more than 10 adventurers suddenly appeared before my eyes.

When I used E-rank Bird and checked with its special skill [Eagle Eye], I found out that we were standing on a square.

Adventurers were randomly being transferred and appearing in the square that was about one kilometer on each side.

It also seems to be a resting area, and here and there I could see adventurers eating on rugs.

Beyond the square, the area seemed to be a mixture of forest and grassland.

The area around the square, with its bare soil, appeared to be a lush green space.

(It's a very large space. And as usual, I can't even see the ceiling. I need to check how high it is. Eagle, check how big this place is with your [Clairvoyance].)

I tried to figure out how big the place was with my E-rank Bird.

When I activated the E-rank Bird's awakening skill [Clairvoyance], which allowed it to see anything in a radius of 100 kilometers at a time if not obstructed by any objects, I found myself in a lush green space with no end in sight.

"Seriously! It's bigger than the tower, or rather, bigger than the city on the 1st floor."

The forest was much larger than the thickness width of the Tower of Trials, and I couldn't help but shout out.

(No, no. It's probably a fairly large space, but the space is distorted somewhere. And no one has ever made it to the top of the tower. So this is an S-class dungeon made by a Dungeon Master. Well, is it really a dungeon?)

It was overwhelmingly large, and the place where we were located seemed to be the center of it.

I had a general idea of where I was and what was going on around me.

"You shouted out loud, but what did you find out?"

"Oh, Cecile. I will tell you all at once."

I gathered my once-dispersed group of friends, and explained the situation of the 2nd floor of the Tower of Trials.

They seemed surprised that it was that big.

"So, um, maybe that can help us."

Just as I finished speaking, Kiel pointed to a cube-shaped object floating in the air.

"Maybe so."

After replying with that, we approached the cube-shaped object, while adventurers were appearing around us from time to time.

A good number of adventurers were appearing at once.

"Hello, Abandoned Gamers. This is S201, the Dungeon Management System. Would you like to go to the next floor? Or would you like to go back to the previous floor?"

"What? We can go to the next level now?"

(This is just as I heard. Helmios told me that the way to go to the next floor was the cube-shaped object.)

I recalled what Helmios had said to me.

Helmios said that finding the goal itself was not a challenge, since the cube-shaped object that served as the exit to the dungeon would be very close by.

The cube-shaped object words also implied that there was only one cube-shaped object for going back to the previous floor and to the next floor.

I had not heard all of the information about the dungeon's strategy from Helmios, but the amount of time it took someone to pass the floor had a long to do with how quick the adventurers found that point out.

(I guess there aren't that many floors, after all. Well, the Hero is only on the 4th floor after all.)

Even though the space was distorted, each floor was large, and the ceilings were quite high.

Considering the height of the tower, I expected the dungeon to be a structure with no more than 10 floors.

"I thought we could go to the next floor right now."

Dogora said what he thought.

The A-class dungeons used to be wide with complicated paths, and it took us quite a few days to just clear 1 floor.

And there were about 20 floors in those dungeons.

Compared to that...

"Well, it's probably not that simple. Let's see, I want to go to the next floor."

"You want to go to the 3rd floor. Please show me 3 Bronze Medals."

"I don't have one."

(What is that?)

"Once you have collected 3 Bronze Medals, I will take you to the next floor."

We couldn't go to the next floor without 3 Bronze Medals.

As we were having that conversation, a group of about 20 dwarves called out from beside me.

"You're late! I was going to leave you here and go to the next floor!"

"I'm sorry, Admiral. Admiral made me drink so much last night."

"Huh! Are you blaming me? An? And don't call me 'Admiral' in a dungeon!"

"Admiral. Don't be so rough~"

"Shut up!"

A dwarf, who seemed to be the party member, was doing his best to apologize to the dwarves and an old dwarf wearing a pirate hat who seemed to be the party leader.

The old man in the pirate hat's voice was so loud that we and the other adventurers around him looked at them to see what was going on.

"Ah! Admiral Galara?"

In the midst of all that, Merle pointed to the dwarf wearing a pirate hat.

"Hmm? Oh, isn't that Merle? What are you doing here with humans?"

Admiral Galara and the dwarves replied, seeming to know Merle.

A gruff dwarf approached Merle.