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

They defeated the Demigod Rank ghosts from the 20th and 30th floors.

Allen's Level went from 224 to 226, and his Faith Card held 6000'000'000 Points.

Dogora needed to defeat 2 more ghosts to gain his Divine Technique too.

Now they stood in front of the dirt sculpture on the 40th floor.

'Congratulations on making it this far. Who will be getting a Divine Technique?'

"Does the Divine Technique change depending on the person's Talent?"

'Yes.'

"So we can get powerful magic or a strong attack?"

'You can get an Attack Skill, but Lord Gaia is not the best at magic.'

"What about spirit magic? Or for golem users?"

Allen wanted as much information as possible to decide who should take it.

'I'm really sorry, if you want a Spirit Divine Technique you should ask the Great Spirit God, and anything related to magic or magic devices should be handled by the God of Magic.'

(This is the first time someone tells me to go talk to another god.)

"And what about a blacksmith?"

'They'll obtain a powerful and useful Skill, which should lead to stronger weapons and armor.'

(So I have to choose between an attack Skill, a buff, or a Blacksmithing Skill.)

"What should we do, Allen? I'll pass if I just get a buff from it."

"I know, Rosalina would be a better choice for a buff, but she'll be able to enter the God of Dance's Shrine now that we have the Divine Compass, so she should be able to get something there. Dogora will also get a Divine Technique soon."

Freya had promised Dogora a Divine Technique if he defeated 2 more Demigod Rank ghosts.

Eventually Allen turned to look at Habarak.

"Me again? Are you sure?"

"Of course. Take the Divine Technique and craft more powerful orichalcum equipment."

"Alright then."

Habarak slowly approached the sculpture.

'Will you take the Divine Technique, Habarak?'

"Yes please."

'Okay.'

Just like at the 20th floor, Habarak was covered in dirt, which then shattered with light.

"Hmm, so this is what obtaining a Divine Technique feels like."

"Thank you very much. I realize I'm asking for a lot, but I hope you can get accustomed to it while we continue working through the dungeon."

"Sure, I don't mind. It's not like I'm doing anything most of the time. Though could you bring over some of my assistants? And a temporary blast furnace."

Their current schedule was to do a run of the dungeon one day, then rest the next. Habarak wanted to forge during the rest days.

But doing that alone would be hard, so he wanted some help from his assistants.

"Alright, I'll prepare your assistants and equipment next time we rest."

"Thanks, that'll be a huge help."

Allen wanted to accommodate Habarak as best he could.

(More people keep joining, huh. I'll have to make sure we can all fit here.)

Allen was glad he had managed to negotiate with Desperado to bring 100 people to the divine realm.

[List of the 76 people Allen brought to the divine realm (out of a max of 100)]

-Allen's party Abandoned Gamers (including Haku and Tam-Tam): 14

-Helmios' party [Sacred]: 10

-Admiral Galara's party [Stinger]: 15

-Dragon King Matildora: 1

-Peromus' wife Fiona: 1

-Gatoruga the Strongest: 1

-Larappa and her Magic Engineer dwarves: 10

-Habarak and his blacksmithing assistants: 10

-Ten Heroic Beasts: 10

-Giamut's emperor, prime minister, and home minister: 3

-Elmea's church cardinal Clinpton: 1

"Alright, we still have more than 6 hours left, let's keep going."

They focused on going down and mostly ignored ghost dens, soon reaching the 50th floor.

"Huh, this floor looks different."

They reached the 50th floor with 2 hours left, but Sophie noticed something was different.

The entire corridor, walls, and ceiling were black, instead of the yellow dirt color from before.

'Everyone keep your eyes peeled, and don't break formation.'

(Could this be…)

10 minutes passed as they moved through the corridor with black walls, ceiling and floor.

They were moving faster than a bullet train, at around the speed of a jumbo jet.

But no matter how much time passed, they would not arrive at any rooms.

There had been branching off corridors along the way, which Allen's summons checked.

But after going through many turns, they still would not find any rooms.

'Stop, everyone.'

Using his Bird F summon, Allen told everyone to stop.

"Is this an enormous maze maybe?"

"Probably yes. The God of Earth is so messed up to put a huge maze in this place."

Allen insulted a God without care.

The entire floor was an enormous maze he had to search, slowing them down considerably.

Allen then looked at Rosetta.

"There's no traps on this floor."

There were no traps on that floor, unlike the previous ones.

Everyone looked at Allen, wondering how to deal with the situation.

"If there's too many paths and no traps, there's only one thing we can do."

Allen took out the copper shovel he stole from the magic bag he also stole.

Then he hit the ground with the shovel.

Clink

Poof

"I-it vanished?!"

There was a high pitched sound and then the copper shovel shattered into particles of light.

So Allen took out the mithril shovel from the bag.

"Wait, give it to me."

Cecile quickly snatched the shovel away from Allen, who always had bad luck, and she slammed the shovel into the black ground.

Clink

Poof

But just like before, it shattered in Cecile's hand.

"It seems the rules of this floor are different from before."

Even after the shovels were used, there was no hole leading down.

Rosetta also could not find any traps, so they would have to search manually for the stairs.

In the end, they spent the last 2 hours searching the 50th floor and ran out of time.

"Aw shucks, I really thought we'd get further…"

Outside, Merle climbed out of Tam-Tam and spoke with disappointment.

"Yeah, though we wasted a lot of time with other stuff. We'll get further next time."

They had spent checking if Rosetta's Skills worked, negotiating with Freya, and discussing who should get the Divine Technique. In total that was less than an hour wasted, but it was still something.

While everyone rested, Allen went to bring Habarak's assistants and helped them set up the forge. Soon enough Habarak was forging happily during his resting day.

The next day everyone was rested and ready to enter the dungeon again.

Though Allen had barely slept to raise Generation's Skill Level and Cecile had been up with him, so they looked exhausted. Habarak was also up using his Divine Technique, but he looked the same as usual.

"This time we'll get the Dragon God's horn for sure."

Cecile raised her spirits by thinking of the horn she wanted.

"Right. Everyone look sharp!!"

They would be in the dungeon for the next 24 hours.

This time they managed to get further, but then they ran out of time on the 52th floor.

The mini-sculpture's eyes lit up and everyone was teleported out to the entrance.

"Hey! Do you think it's too hard maybe?"

Cecile looked confused, wondering if maybe obtaining the Dragon God Magra's horn would not be as easy as she thought. The dungeon required them to go fast, but those mazes took too long to get through.

(Hmm, what should I do? At least I've obtained what I could for now, but we're still far away from the final goal.)

Allen checked his Grimoire as he thought. They had defeated all the Demigod Rank ghosts from the 10th, 20th, 30th, and 40th floors.

He had a total of 7 Spirit Crystal Stones, and his Level went from 226 to 230.

The Faith Card had 10'000'000'000 Points saved up.

Dogora had also completed the requirements to gain his Divine Technique.

"Hmmm, what a pickle."

'It's a tricky situation. Maybe we can split up to search for the stairs faster?'

"But Tam-Tam, then we'll take more time to gather back at the stairs."

Merle and Tam-Tam were also thinking of more ways to get through.

(Maybe I could try giving it a few more runs myself. Though the plan is to get to the 99th floor. Piyon has also arrived at the Paradise of Primordial Beasts, so I really have to make up my mind.)

Allen, Cecile, Sophie, Dogora, and Kiel would be leaving the Earth Labyrinth.

Allen, Cecile, and Sophie would go to the Paradise of Primordial Beasts to reunite with Shea, and try to obtain Garm's tail and shards of the sun and moon.

Dogora and Kiel would go to the God of Medicine Poshon and try to get Kiel into Extra Mode.

Even if they tried to get more runs in, they would maybe get to the 60th or 70th floor with their current means.

"Should we stop hunting ghosts then? You already have 10'000'000'000 Points, right?"

That was enough to buy 2 Spiritual Power regeneration rings.

"No, keep going. We'll have to fight Nestiad eventually, so I want my Level to keep going up by defeating Demigod Rank ghosts."

Sometimes they would not find the locked rooms, or stealing the keys would be too hard.

But Allen believed he would keep getting 1 Level with each Demigod Rank Ghost at least until Level 250, so he wanted Merle to keep defeating the ghosts.

"Okay, got it. So we'll keep defeating the ghosts from the locked rooms and keep going down."

"Yes, that's it. You'll keep being the leader while I'm gone."

"Got it, eheheh. I'm the leader."

The group heading into the dungeon had grown quite a bit, and Merle would be their team leader. It was her first time doing that, so she seemed excited about it.

"But how will they keep going? It's like a dead end down there."

"I have an idea, Dogora. I think it'll work."

(I think, at least. I wonder if the negotiations will work though.)

Cecile sighed in relief hearing that. Even if Allen's luck was always atrocious, all of his plans had worked out relatively well in the past.

Even without knowing his plan, everyone felt reassured knowing there was one.

"Seriously? Way to go, party leader. And Freya, give me the Divine Technique already. Hurry!"

'Hm? Mind your manners, boy! I think you deserve a slight punishment for that!!'

Kagutsuchi began glowing with heat so much it turned white.

"Owch?!"

Dogora jumped and began to ran, feeling his rear be set on fire.