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

When Allen mentioned they could end up fighting the Beast God Garm, everyone got tense.

Garm was a Higher God, just like the Great Spirit God Easley or the God of Swords Sestavinus.

[Higher Gods Allen has been involved with so far]

-God of War Luminea (Oldest of the 3 Combat God Sisters)

-God of Armaments Ophoria (Second of the 3 Combat God Sisters)

-God of Swords Sestavinus (Youngest of the 3 Combat God Sisters, leader of the 8 Weapon Gods)

-God of Harvest Mormor

-Great Spirit God Easley

-Beast God Garm

It seemed like the God of Creation Elmea was turning a blind eye to the Beast God Garm's choice to give better Talents to the Beast Kings, though their relationship was still shaky.

(I've fully completed Giran's quests too.)

It had led to the First Angel making an appearance in the human realm, but the quests had been completed swiftly.

Everyone was silent for a while until Sophie spoke.

"Master Allen, is that because we need the Beast God Garm's tail for Cecile's trial?"

"That too, but he should give us a trial as well. He might tell you to fight him."

Shea had obtained a new Divine Technique from Giran's trials.

"So I'll be stuck in a dungeon for another month?"

"You should get to Skill Level 5 soon enough. We'll just have to make sure you still have enough time to complete more trials."

(It's a Skill with a high Spiritual Power Cost and low cooldown after all. It shouldn't take too long.)

Allen had no idea what the Demon King's Army was doing now.

He had no way of knowing what they were planning and when they would attack again, so he did not feel comfortable doing things that took too long.

The Bird A summon was heading to Garm's Temple, and Allen still had to meet up with Zew, so in the meantime Shea could stay with Merle and in the Paradise of Primordial Beasts to Level Up.

"I see, got it. So I'll stay there until I can go meet Lord Garm."

"That's it. Though I also want to conquer the Earth Labyrinth, so maybe after that's done."

Shea was starting to look more relaxed after that.

(I guess she was worrying about it too much.Then again Garm is a Higher God and Albahar's deity.)

"Hm? And what should I do then? Should I go meet up with Zew too?"

"No, I'm sorry but I still want you in the capital, there's the thing with Somei too…"

The patriarch Somei had requested something from Allen.

Apparently another patriarch, Tokugara, had started making unfair trades with the royal family, which made the other patriarchs upset, so Somei wanted to fix that without conflict.

"Ahh, right. I just have to start trading with the royal family too, right?"

"Yeah. And if possible I want to pay off our debt too."

"What do you mean our debt? I don't remember taking any loans."

Cecile butted into the conversation.

"I mean, we still have to pay the 100000000 gold coins. The 3 month deadline is coming up soon."

Allen made sure to stress that the burden of paying that was on everyone.

During the 5 Continents Alliance's meeting, he had asked for the Academy system to be revised and add 2 years of school. That would require a lot of costly changes though, so he had promised to pay 100000000 gold coins from his own pocket to make it happen.

Now he only had half a month before his time to pay was up.

(That's why I wanted Peromus to complete his trials with the God of Trading after all.)

"I see, I'll watch over Peromus then, don't worry Allen."

Fiona, who was next to Peromus, seemed to understand.

Peromus had to trade with the royal family and important nobles to gather the money.

Allen was hoping that overcoming the God of Trading Marne's trials would help too.

"Sorry for making you work even though you just got married though."

"Don't worry about that, just leave it to us."

Allen was requesting something that could completely turn around the way the divine people treated the dragonkin. And would also have a strong effect on Allen's Army.

But Peromus replied readily, showing how reliable he was.

"Alright, the Awakened Skill is over, so let's move on to the next step."

After discussing that, Merus' Awakened Skill [Happy Carnival] ended.

Divine Technique Activation was also over, so Allen closed his Grimoire and began acting, starting by taking Peromus and Fiona to the capital, and then Shea and Rosalina to the Paradise of Primordial Beasts to hunt ghosts.

After that he went with Cecile, Sophie, and Temi to meet up with Zew.

They arrived at a place with ruins, surrounded by moss and trees growing thickly.

There were also large broken columns, with an enormous temple further away.

"Where are we? Is this the Paradise of Primordial Beasts?"

Sophie was a bit confused, not knowing where they were.

"There's a lot of trees around here, but yes, it's the Paradise of Primordial Beasts."

Cecile also looked confused, so Allen confirmed their location.

So far the Paradise of Primordial Beasts had looked like a largely barren wasteland, unlike the lush greenery of this place, though they could not hear any birds or insects here.

"The silence is almost unsettling."

"I know, even the ghosts don't get anywhere near this place."

"Maybe it's some sort of barrier?"

"Probably, though it's hard to know."

Allen did not have a proper answer to Sophie's question.

"And so, where's Prince Zew?"

"He's looking around inside the temple."

Allen's group began walking there too.

There were spots of stone paving peeking through the ground, showing the path there.

It was hard to know how big the temple was, but the top of the triangular structure was already visible.

(That's the third pyramid I'm seeing. I guess everyone associates pyramids with gods, it happened in my past life too.)

Allen recalled there were many ancient cultures that built pyramids in his past life, including egyptians, ancient japanese, and others.

Here the palace in Rabul was also a pyramid, as well as Isiris' research facility.

But the pyramid here was even bigger. Vines had started growing on it, but because it was so large they did not even reach halfway up.

(There's entrances too, I'm glad it's not another dungeon though.)

After many years of abandon, the sides of the pyramid had started to cave in, showing many entrances.

Allen already had the Earth Labyrinth as a dungeon to go through, so he did not want to add another to the list. Thankfully Zew's group had been investigating inside for 3 days, so he knew it was not a dungeon.

While it looked like a pyramid, it was actually a temple inside.

He did not know what they prayed to in there, but the way there was lined with female statues with broken heads, scattered around.

That path led to an entrance to the pyramids' 1st floor.

"The entrance is huge too. I wonder who lived there."

"I don't know, but at least I'm sure they weren't human. There's no one living there now though, so let's go inside."

Allen's group continued heading into the pyramid.

"I wonder what type of stone this is, it's pretty bright in here."

There was plenty of light inside the pyramid without the need for torches or light magic devices.

It was not as bright as daylight, but comparable to the offices Allen used to work in.

Due to the decay, the walls broke off easily when Allen touched them.

The fragments he took had a bright metallic shine to them, but they became darker soon after separating from the wall. It seemed like there was some power making the walls brighter.

As they continued along the corridor, they started hearing various voices.

"Are we going to keep searching here? It's been 3 days already, there's nothing here."

"Lepe, stop with that attitude and get up already!"

"I'll never get up again!"

"Damn you! Lord Zew, pleash give me permishon to drive my hammer into hish skull!!"

"Shut uppp!"

"Hobah, calm down. You're starting to slur your voices."

Allen's group stepped into a larger room, where the Ten Heroic Beasts were staying, and Lepe and Hobah were quarreling as usual.

When the Bird A summon on Zew's shoulder saw Allen, it took off and flew to him.

"Thank you, Tsubamen. We were able to regroup thanks to you."

'Pii!'

"Oh, you're here."

Zew and the Ten Heroic Beasts turned to look at Allen.

"Thank you so much for starting the investigation before we got here."

"Don't mention it, this is necessary to stop the Demon King's Army."

"At least that's what I hope."

(It is, as long as this is the place Temi was pointing at.)

"It might be here. I heard you haven't found anything yet, but let me tell your fortune to see what that tells us."

Temi quickly understood what was going on, and sat on the floor.

Allen, Zew, and the Ten Heroic Beasts quickly formed a circle around her.

Only Lepe remained lying on the floor, not interested in what was happening.

Temi threw many shiny stones to the ground before her eyes lit up.

"Oh, it's calling for us."

"Calling? I see. I guess we've been making it wait a long time, let's go."

Temi stood up and headed down the corridor on the opposite side from where Allen's group arrived. There were many other corridors, but it seemed like whatever Temi had found was through that specific one.

"Wait, what are we even looking for?"

"Cecile, let's just go with them."

Temi was quickly going through the corridor, so Allen's group also followed after her.

"