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

Habarak quickly crafted what they needed at the forge while everyone waited.

"Here you go, 2 shovels."

"Thank you. That's enough break time for us, so let's focus on the dungeon again!"

Each of the adamantite shovels had taken 10 minutes to craft, making it 20 minutes in total.

Then Allen told everyone their break was over and they went back to formation.

So they left the forge and continued heading to the stairs leading to the lower floor.

Before an hour had passed they reached the 50th floor, which looked pitch black.

This floor had a rather time consuming layout.

The floor and walls were a shiny black color, and covered a square surface 1000 kilometers long and wide, filled mostly by a maze of corridors. The floor and walls were made of adamantite, and not even a hihiirokane pickaxe would do anything to them.

That was also why they needed to gather the materials for a adamantite pickaxe by the 49th floor, before finding a forge.

On top of that, having a blacksmith in Extra Mode and with high Skill Levels also meant crafting would go faster. So they had to make Habarak stronger, and not just Merle and the rest.

That was also why they gave Habarak the Blessing from the 60th floor.

"Let's do this then!"

As soon as they got to the 50th floor, Sophie grabbed an adamantite shovel.

Allen was too untrustworthy so he was not allowed to use shovels.

(Hmm, that's a good angle. I don't think the shovel will break.)

Allen held his arms crossed in front of his chest, analyzing Sophie's posture like an instructor.

Regardless of the materials, shovels had a 1 in 2 chance of breaking each use.

That was the same for keys and pickaxes.

Sophie let out a soft voice as she dug an enormous hole on the adamantite floor.

"I'm so glad, it didn't break."

Sophie seemed more relieved about the shovel remaining intact rather than the hole opening.

"Alright, we just made up for our wasted time. Let's search for a [Recovery Lake] next."

Allen looked at the mini-sculpture to check how much time they had left.

Then a few more hours passed.

[57th floor, 13:13 left]

-2 Adamantite shovels

-2 Keys

-Other necessary items omitted

There was a place that took more priority for Allen than the stairs on the 57th floor.

The small colorful stones on top of Temi's hand began to glow, and then let out a popping noise.

"Hmm, it's over there. Oh, the stones ran out."

The stones they used to guide them turned into light bubbles and vanished.

(I guess we were just in time. Though ideally I wanted to go all the way to the 59th floor.)

The stones Temi used to read fortunes were made from her Mana and Spiritual Power, making them more like Allen's summons and less like Sophie's spirits.

The time Temi had to read the fortune depended on her max Mana, which gave her roughly 12 hours before the stones ran out.

Some of those who were not part of Allen's party were starting to lose their buffs too.

But the members of Allen's party had better equipment and had undergone various Talent Changes, giving them more max Mana, so their buffs would last at least an hour more.

After turning a corner they reached a dead end.

(Oh? There it is, the mysterious oasis.)

For some reason there was a small oasis in the center of the room, those were the [Recovery Lakes], and they were the reason why Allen wanted to use all buffs at the start.

[Earth Labyrinth notes (8)]

-Recovery lakes appear with a 50% chance between the 51st and 59th floors

-Drinking water from a recovery lake restores all Strength, Mana, Spiritual Energy, and cooldowns

-By using the recovery lake's power, Sophie can use her Skill [Spirit God's Blessing] at the 6 hours mark and 18 hours mark

But there was someone who was the most excited about it.

'Gyau!!'

*SPLOOOSH*

Haku plunged his head into the oasis like a dog in front of food, making the water overflow.

"Hey, you don't have to drink, do you?"

'Gyau gyau!!'

No one had taught Haku to wait, and even though he had not used any Skills, he simply wanted to drink the water.

(Hmm, Haku hasn't used any long lasting Skills. Though he's going a bit wild without Kurena.)

Haku had the Buff Skill [Dragon Beat] to increase his stats, but he would only listen to Kurena's orders, slightly slowing down everyone in the Earth Labyrinth.

Everyone just sighed and went to drink from the water, which had decreased to half its level thanks to Haku.

"Alright, everyone use your buffs again. Let's make them last till the 80th floor this time."

Spirit God's Blessing was a very powerful buff, but resetting cooldowns was its biggest asset in the Earth Labyrinth.

Everyone gave energetic replies and then they went back to going through the dungeon.

When they reached the 60th floor, they found themselves in another adamantite maze like the 50th floor.

"We've been to the 60th floor before, so we don't have to defeat the boss this time."

They had defeated the 60th floor's boss before, and given the Blessing to Habarak.

There was nothing else to do on that floor, so Allen looked at Sophie to watch what she did.

"Okay, let's go then! Nryaaaaa!!"

She let out a loud shout as she struck the floor with the adamantite shovel which lit up.

A large hole appeared on the floor as the shovel turned to bubbles of light and vanished.

"Hawawawa?!"

Sophie looked startled that it vanished with the second use.

"Don't worry about it. If anything at the 70th floor we-"

"Sophie, it'll be fine. Next time it'll work flawlessly."

"Ah, right."

Sophie seemed more reassured by Cecile's comment, though she felt bad for Allen's attempt.

(Huh… This world can be so uncertain.)

Allen closed his eyes and lamented the fickleness of the world.

"Stop mumbling like an idiot. Let's go!"

Following Cecile, everyone went down to the next floor.

After the 61st floor the ghosts would become even more annoying and powerful.

"We'll have to tighten up our formation as we discussed. Don't get too separated now."

Allen had not been many times down past the 60th floor, but he knew how difficult it was.

He almost wanted to question just who the Earth Labyrinth had been designed for, as it was carefully planned from beginning to end.

(Hm!)

Kuwatoro was in the position granting the best view in their formation.

The corridors were 1 kilometer wide and more than 10 kilometers long, so it was hard to see everything on it with the naked eye. Especially smaller ghosts.

But 1 of Kuwatoro's 4 eyes had the Special Skill [Thousand-mile Eyes] active, letting Kuwatoro notice a [Clod] that was moving weirdly.

"There! A trap user!!"

'Mokomoko!!'

Merle also saw the same Clod through the magnifying glass on Tam-Tam's screens.

It looked like a mud doll made of clay cylinders of various sizes, with countless strings attached to the back of its neck.

Each of the strings was attached to a balloon, making it float slightly above the ground, and Merle called it the trap user.

It was just a clay doll, but since this was past the 60th floor it had to be a powerful foe regardless.

(That's the one that makes more traps. I'd like it if it could make a pitfall, but I guess that's asking for too much.)

It dug through the floor like it was the ground after rain, forming a lump the size of a balance ball. Then it cut one of the strings and attached it to the lump, making it float with the balloon.

"Leave it to me!"

Just when Allen was about to talk, the dwarves moved ahead.

They combined 5 of their golems to create a gigantic flying one with Galara at the helm, who raised his voice.

The main artillery on the golem's back fired at the 1 meter wide balloon many kilometers in the distance.

*Pop*

The balloon popped and the lump of earth fell to the ground.

"Mokomoko?!"

The lump of earth nearly fell on the trap user's head, which made a weird noise to dodge.

*Boooommmm*

Then there was a large explosion more than 100 meters in all directions.

(So there was a mine inside. What's the God of Earth thinking, putting mines up in the air to stop those flying through.)

The different [Clods] created by the God of Earth Gaia served different purposes.

[The Clods of the Earth Labyrinth]

-Sculptures: Serve as guides and tend to shops

-Haniwa guards defeat those who steal items from shops

-Haniwa dog guards defeat those who steal items from shops

-Clay doll trap users lay traps in the way of those challenging the dungeon

The traps would activate when attacked or touched, with some being [Mines], [Ghost summons], [Pitfalls], [Teleportation Traps], [Poisoned Arrows], and many others.

Pitfalls would open a hole where the trap fell.

But teleportation traps would send a portion of the group somewhere else, which would not only generate a large time waste to regroup, but it could also put those teleported away in peril.

"Go left at the next T intersection."

'Go left.'

"Hey?!"

Temi's voice was relayed through the Bird F's Special Skill [Transmission] so everyone could hear it.

'Mokomoko'

'Mokomoko'

'Mokomoko'

A large group of trap users were already waiting for them around the corner, which shocked Cecile.

"

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