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

Their run through the Earth Labyrinth began.

"Merus, you go first."

Keeping their formation going, Allen gave orders to Merus who was in the front.

'I know.'

The dungeon was just a straight path in the start, so Allen wanted to rush ahead until they got to the first branching paths. Merus used the Angel B summon Maracas' Special and Awakened Skills, empowering the max Mana and Spiritual Power Regeneration of everyone.

Allen had chosen the buffs that would let the party use Skills for longer.

It was important to consider the duration and benefits of buffs inside the Earth Labyrinth.

"Sophie, use Spring of Life next. Everyone else, use all your buffs!!"

"Got it. Spring of Life!!"

Sophie used all the nearly 400000 Mana and Spiritual Power she got thanks to Merus.

The Divine Technique [Spring of Life] lessened the load of manifesting spirits, so Sophie and Luck could manifest their 4 Great Spirits at the same time.

Great Spirits could cast buffs on each other, making all of them stronger.

That also meant that even though the 4 Great Spirits had the power of demigods, Sophie and Luck were strong enough to actually take command over them.

"Luck, tell Time to double the duration of Skills! And power up his Blessing to the max!!"

"Got it!"

Luck was not fed up like Merus, and replied right away.

The Great Spirit Time had the ability to double the duration of active Skills.

Now the mini-sculpture showed 23:56, showing how much time they had left.

The Earth Labyrinth had 99 floors which were squares with sides 1000 kilometers long.

Everyone was moving through the corridors at a very high speed.

Their formation was also a three dimensional one, watching every direction.

Very front line: (1) Merus, Bird E

Front line: (3) Gatoruga (1 Great Spirit), Rosetta

Middle: (25) Allen (Bird F), Sophie (4 Great Spirits), Luck (4 Great Spirits), Temi, Cecile, Shea, Habarak, Luvanka, Graham, Tam-Tam (Merle), Gretta, Ingrissa, Limia, Lola,

Upper line: (2) Dragon King, Kuwatoro

Right side: (4) Admiral Galara and 4 Golem Pilots from Galara's Party

Left side: (5) 5 Golem Pilots from Galara's Party

Rear line: (5) 5 Golem Pilots from Galara's Party

Lower line: (3) Haku, Gatoruga, Makris

*Sophie and Luck's 4 Great Spirits are all near them

*Gatoruga's Ice Great Spirit is next to Merus

*Everyone in the middle are riding on Tam-Tam

*The Bird F is next to Allen

*The Bird E is scouting ahead

(Alright, this time we're doing it for earnest, so I'll have to pay close attention to everyone in case we need to adjust something.)

Allen was trying to use up the least amount of summon slots.

He had to keep Luvanka and Graham out for future bosses, and he wanted all the Great Spirits.

As a result, that diminished the number of summons Allen usually had to expand his view.

But he was putting his incredible Intelligence to use to analyze everyone's movements, and whenever he spotted something that could be better he relayed a correction through the Bird F.

The whole group had some members with wingspans of 300 meters all the way down to members the size of humans, so everyone had different advantages and weaknesses.

Many had already learned what they were best at during the last 2 months though.

Merle's group had already managed to reach floor 62 before, after adapting a lot.

"There's a lot of ghosts this time around. Rosalina, use Princess of Mermaids."

"Yes, of course. Rosalina will charm you all!"

[Rosalina's 3 Skill Combo]

-Explanation of True Rooting (Skill Level 7)

[Skill User] Rosalina

[Skill Type] Skill, Buff

[Mana Cost (Spiritual)] 7000

[Appearance] Rooting in support like a cheerleader

[Effect] Strength +7000, Mana +7000

[Range] Around 1 kilometer

[Scaling (Effect)] Talent Stars x Skill Level x 100 x 2 (in case of Extra Mode) additional Strength and Mana

[Duration (seconds)] 30 minutes

[Cast time] 10 seconds

[Cooldown] 10 minutes

[Necessary Skill Experience] 1000 for Skill Level 2. Increases 10x each Level

[Others] It only applies to those seen as allies by the caster

-Explanation of True Requiem (Skill Level 7)

[Skill User] Rosalina

[Skill Type] Skill, Buff

[Mana Cost (Spiritual)] 7000

[Appearance] Singing like a nun with hands held together, and white feathers fall

[Effect] Clears all active debuffs and increases Debuff Resistance by 70%

[Range] Around 1 kilometer

[Scaling (Effect)] Talent Stars x Skill Level x 1% x 2 (in case of Extra Mode) additional Debuff Resistance

[Duration (seconds)] 30 minutes

[Cast time] 2 minutes

[Cooldown] 30 minutes

[Necessary Skill Experience] 1000 for Skill Level 2. Increases 10x each Level

[Others] It only applies to those seen as allies by the caster. The Debuff Resistance builds on top of the target's original one, so it's less effective on weaker targets

-Explanation of True Phantom Dance (Skill Level 7)

[Skill User] Rosalina

[Skill Type] Skill, Buff

[Mana Cost (Spiritual)] 7000

[Appearance] Sensual dance with a fan, and it looks like Rosalina splits into many clones

[Effect] Critical Defense +70%

[Range] Around 1 kilometer

[Scaling (Effect)] Talent Stars x Skill Level x 1% x 2 (in case of Extra Mode) additional Critical Defense

[Duration (seconds)] 1 hour

[Cast time] 2 minutes

[Cooldown] 30 minutes

[Necessary Skill Experience] 1000 for Skill Level 2. Increases 10x each Level

[Others] It only applies to those seen as allies by the caster. The Critical Defense builds on top of the target's original one, so it's less effective on weaker targets

She also used the buffs she used on Shea during Giran's trials.

As a result everyone could move so fast they were nearly flying, and the whole group's formation moved at the speed of a jet airplane and their formation looked like that of fighter airplanes.

(Now it's just a race against time. We have to arrive at the recovery lake soon.)

"Temi, we're about to reach the first branching path. Should we go right or left?"

There was a split like a T coming up ahead, around 2 kilometers away.

"Hmmm… Right."

Temi scattered various gemstones next to Allen to decide in which direction to go.

'We're going right.'

Allen used the Bird F summon's Special Skill [Transmission] to let everyone know.

Merus usually stood right in the center of the frontline, but he was leaning to the right as an indication of the direction they would turn. That was done as insurance in case they were separated more than 3 kilometers, which was the range of the Special Skill [Transmission].

Thanks to Temi who had gone through her trial, the dungeon had become a long straight path.

That also meant there was no need for the Bird E and Bird A pairings to search for the stairs.

(Everyone is focusing, huh.)

Temi had to divine the path they had to take, the 3 Spirit Masters had to focus to keep control over the Great Spirits they had manifested, while Shea and Luvanka had to keep their eyes open to make sure they could defend the rear lines if something happened.

"I guess there's no pitfalls here."

(If there's no pitfalls then there must be stairs somewhere. It's been 5 minutes already, and we can hardly afford to spend 10 minutes on the lower floors.)

Allen and Sophie were worried about the time, so they took their magic watches out.

[Earth Labyrinth notes (4)]

-There's 24 hours to reach the 99th floor of the Earth Labyrinth

-The 99th floor must also be completed (guess), so there must be a 100th floor

-A simple calculation for the average time allotted to each floor was 24 hours ÷ 99 = 14.5 mins

-That did not account for the time necessary to forge items like shovels, visiting stores (stealing from them), recovery lakes, and the bosses each 20 floors

-After the 50th floor, there was an adamantite area each 10 floors (guess)

There were floors that could take longer to get through than others, so it was important to get through the easier ones as quickly as possible.

All buffs would be used right away, and resistance to debuffs would also be built up.

They could not afford to lose any time.

As soon as they made the turn, they encountered around 10 snake ghosts, which coiled their bodies and jumped up reaching them.

"Lady Iruzo, please take care of them."

'Leave it to me, Gatoruga!'

The Ice Great Spirit Iruzo had lived for tens of thousands of years, and wore a leotard that did not expose too much skin.

A gelid breath came out from her and covered the ghost on the ground, freezing them instantly.

(They're all immobilized now.)

There was no point in senseless battles, so rather than defeating them they just focused on immobilizing enemies.

"I knew we could count on Rosenheim's Strongest!"

"Hey, I can hear you over here."

Cecile's voice was so loud that it reached Gatoruga's ears.

Before long, they reached the stairs leading to the next floor.

The stairs there were very close to the entrance, so they were almost instantly on the 3rd floor.

Then they kept moving on to the 4th.

"It's going well so far, but won't be able to get any shovels if we just go through the stairs all the time. We also haven't thought of a way to deal with ghost nests."

"Hmm, but we have no choice. Our strategy is to go down the stairs whenever we find them."

The Earth Labyrinth had some places they had to get into, and some they had to avoid no matter what.

[Places required in the Earth Labyrinth to search for]

-Treasure chests with shovels or other important items, like Magic Board Expansion terminals

-Ore deposits can be used to strengthen shovels, but pickaxes are required for them

-Forges hold the tools necessary to craft shovels, but hammers are required for them

-Stores have shovels, ore, hammers, pickaxes, keys, healing items, and other valuable items

-Gold nuggets are necessary to buy items from the store

-Recovery lakes appear after the 51st floor, and reset Strength, Mana, Spiritual Power, and Cooldowns

-Pitfalls are important traps that drop down to the next floor

[Places to avoid no matter what in the Earth Labyrinth]

-Ghost dens house a multitude of ghosts and are a massive time sink

-All sorts of traps can extend cooldowns, slow down everyone, or even teleport them somewhere random. The God of Earth has a truly despicable personality

In the end, they were unable to get any shovels as they moved forward.

Eventually Temi's face clouded over.

"Hm? If we keep going we'll run into a ghost den."

"Huh? Are you sure?"

Everyone aboard Tam-Tam looked worried.

"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l