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

A few steps before the Iron Golems, which would trigger the battle against them once crossed, Allen gathered his teammates.

He had already explained that their next move was to strengthen Cecile in the Spirit Garden.

"—And, this is how we're going to get Cecil's level up."

—The Three Steps Cecile Strengthening Plan—

1. Farm experience by fighting Iron Golem until Cecile has hit LV89 in the S-rank dungeon.

2. Defeat a Demigod class ghost in the Earth Labyrinth.

3. Resume the Trial of Space-Time God ※Cecile has only learned the blessing.

Allen swiftly briefed the party that he had jotted down on the Grimorie's memo pad.

The first two challenges were team effort, however 3rd was something only Cecile could challenge himself. The subsequent plan after that was to join Brave Helmios in his trial if they're not yet done.

Cecile remarked, surprised at himself how easily he accepted this arrangement.

"Well, I am sure Allen also has plans to check out Rio and Pecktan's techniques."

"Bingo, Luck. But of course, our first priority is still Cecile's level until he no longer requires our strict protection. Though it should be done in jiffy, haha. Alright, on the formation team. Sophieand team are to focus on the «Spear», while Luck and others on «Shield». Formar, you're the backup in case someone missed."

"As you say, Allen-sama."

"Uh-huh, so again we can't bruteforce huh?"

"Well, it is what it is."

«Hmm.»

"Why does it seem like someone here's not satisfied?"

(More like, that counts almost everyone.)

"Of course, this isn't the case, Allen-sama. Right, Formar?"

"As Sophie-sama said!"

Formar replied in a more spirited manner at the nudging of Sophie.

Iron Golems were the go-to hunting target when the team welcomed any new members in the Extra Mode. Among the hundreds of millions of S-rank Monsters, Iron Golem provided a whooping 1.5 billions of experience points after all. And since they also appeared as a duo, they could keep an endless spawn cycle of slaying one and reviving another.

After many trials and turns, Allen had fine tuned the Iron Golem Hunt strategy down to minute details for efficiency, something he had started before even S-rank Dungeon conquer.

But this strategy also put a burden on advanced vanguard, and this was why Luck and Formar both released a disgruntled.

Allen had his S-rank summoned beasts take their position. With Cecile as the core, Luck and Formar were the mid-guard, while Sophiewas in rearguard, firmly cementing their position.

"Blessing of the Spirit God! Life Spring!!"

Sophieand Luck activated their divine techniques, summoning all the four Great Spirits each while enhancing the team's status. The Iron Golems might only be comparable to S-rank monsters, but precautions were always better than cure.

«......»

«.......»

Iron Golems silently came to life as Allen and team closed the distance.

Their whole body shook as they took a big step ahead. One of them wielded a «Spear», and another a «Shield». So they'd been called Spear and Sword for convenience sake.

The eight Great Spirits promptly rushed forward at Sophieand Luck's command, and surrounded them, four of them each circling around one.

«Takeeeee this!!»

The Fire Great Spirit, clad in bikini armor, closed the gap in a flash, and bashed her fist against the face of Spear, stealing the window of preemptive strike to herself.

A huge dent appeared in Spear's face, and stumbled back.

Luvanca was waiting on the other end, and capturing the stagger of Spear, he slammed all six of his fists at once, defeating in a short moment, turning it into a light bubble.

«One Iron Golem has been defeated. Acquired 1.2 billion experience points.»

"Hurray. My luck is rising super fast!"

As soon as one enemy was slain, Cecile keenly felt the rising of his status inwardly. The single Iron Golem had raised his level from LV1 to LV49.

A Normal Mode holder would have hit the LV58, but since each level in Extra Mode required ten times more experience compared to that, this was the norm.

But of course, the hunt of Iron Golems had just begun.

«Repair Energy.»

The Sword saw Spear going down, and immediately activated a magic circle in an attempt to revive it. A second «Spear» started to emerge head first from the magic circle from the same spot «Spear» turned into a light bubble and disappeared.

"It's the time, everyone!"

«I know that! Hiyaaaa!!»

Merus made a sweeping gesture with the Angel B «Broadsword» in his grasp. The mowing attack easily cleaved through the shield and cut down its right arm.

The arm dropped onto the ground with a loud thud, and in a successive motion, the Great Spirit of Thunder showered the Shield with the rain of lightning.

The damage exceeded the «Shield» endurance, and it also turned into a light bubble.

(The typical status of Iron Golems were something around 25000 if I am not wrong. I guess they're not that much of an opponent against buffed Great Spirits or S-rank summoned beasts.)

Even the difference between status was at least ten times by lower margin. An insta-kill was to be expected.

«Spear» had just manifested when it noticed the «Shield» had been eliminated.

«Repair Energy»

*Fwoosh*

This time, a magic circle appeared where the «Shield» was.

"Alright guys, remember this timing! We must defeat the remaining one before the resurrection is complete. But make sure they have cast revive spells before you attack. It's time to raise our hourly wage!!"

"Understood!"

"Of course!"

"Roger!!"

"Let's go! It's an all-you-can-level-up party!!"

So far, their strategy had consisted of restricting the movement of «Shield», and smit down the «Spear», and then let «Shield» cast the revival spell. But since «Shield» was a tanky opponent, it wasn't an instant clear, and that kind of lowers their experience acquisition speed.

However, after the countless trials and errors that spans over nearly two year, Allen had found a way to minimize their effort and raise the efficiency; instead of letting the second one completely revive, they just need to make sure the new Iron Golem had begun to materialised and take that moment to defeat the existing Iron Golem.

In broader terms, as soon as one of the Iron Golem was defeated, the second Iron Golem was programmed to cancel all of the existing actions, and prioritise activating «Repair Energy». However this cancelling of movement took place at slow pace, so it would cause «Repair Energy» to activate slowly.

"We're going to have a whopping 150 of them in one hour! Formar, you remain on standby, and be prepared to deliver the finishing blow if any of us misses!!"

And the final key was to make sure they'd have another member at standby. It was to keep the rotation within the margin of time. Due to resistance of «Shield», it was prone to have more resistance, and being stuck on one Iron Golem was the last thing in their plan.

"Why do you really have to be such a stickler for efficiency..."

"Keep your eyes on the opponent!!"

«Yeeees, I know.»

Former sigh met with a stern remark from Allen, his eyes completely bloodshot.

Meanwhile, Makris, aware of Allen's strategy, was already on the sky, an icicle conjured at the mouth. Overall, this was going to be a striking 150% increase in their efficiency.

The hunt continues, and within an hour, Cecile received yet another level upgrade.

"Woohoo, another level up! Man, I didn't know it feels that great to cross the freaking level 60 limit!!"

Cecile, having just fired a spell, remarked in an exciting tone.

After being the one that stuck out like a sore thumb among the group for constantly staying at LV60, it was a moment of rejoice for him. The joy was many fold as he saw the per level bonus stats was actually much more than the initial levels, starting from LV61."

"Alright, time out guys. Cecile, use your magic skill level uniformly now that you're level 87."

"Roger!"

The last one hour hunt had granted them a net 180 billion experience from taking down 150 Iron Golems, albeit, with the colossal amount of experience points required for each level up in the late phase, level 89 was still a faraway dream.

(At our current pace, it'll still take him almost 19 hours to reach level 89. At the very least, two full days—no, we also have fought Nestirad this morning, so it should be three days. Well, at least testing is progressing nicely. I didn't expect fungus bed cultivation to be this stellar.)

To reach level 89, a total of 3.3 trillion experience was required.

So they would require—3.3 trillion ÷ 180 billion = about 19 hours.

However, Allen also had to account for the fight against Nestirad they'd today. Then they barely rested before making a trip to the research institute of Magic God, and visited Spirit Paradise.

A fatigue was bound to creep up on his comrades, so he couldn't push things. He decided to call it a day after half a day of hunting.

In the meanwhile, he also tried to verify the effect of Pecktan and Rio's abilities in parallel to guiding the group on their movements, and coordination.

The first skill he chose was «Fungus Bed Cultivation». He gave Pecktan a signal, and the skill caused fungus to spread across the dungeon floor, and created a seedbed for growing plants.

He then proceeded to summon a Grass A summoned beast; the beast's appearance resembled a peach, albeit it had limbs growing out of it, and eyes. Subsequently, Allen used the awakening skill «Graces of God», and the peach-type beast buried itself in the seedbed, and barely a moment later, trees started to grow out in the seedbed at a staggering growth, bearing two fruits at about Allen's weight height.

(So, not only this promotes the growth of plants by twice, it also actually twice the yield. It's almost four times if I properly count the hourly income.)

The summoner job for Allen was all about how effectively he could make use of grass type summoned beasts to produce stuff. Even now, while he might have stepped foot on the Divine Realm, the importance wasn't lost on him. He had been in dire need of spirit stones and spiritual aura recovery ring to make his creation skill stronger, while the Grass-type demanded his mana.

Furthermore, it might appear that the growth speed had doubled, and so as the rate at which recovery medicine grew, it didn't actually mean the yield was four times. The harvested items still needed to be plucked—fruits need to be plucked, leaves need to be torn off, and in the case of aromatic plants, trees must be uprooted. And as the final touch, they needed to be stored in Grimoire or magic bags.

Now, Pecktan's ability was undoubtedly a handy one, the ripe for plucking materials still required the harvesting. If he was harvesting this alone, the yield would never hit four times.

[Pecktan's Special Skill and Awakening Skill (Simplified)]

1. Fungus Bed Cultivation - Unfurled a seedbed in the 100 meter area of the Grass S. Enhances the growth and yield of grass type plants etc twice. *Pecktan must be in the area to maintain the seedbed.

2. Protection Mushroom: Releases spores that increase durability by 10,000 and reduce physical, magical, and breath damage by half within a 1-kilometer radius.

3. Healing Mushroom: Releases healing spores within a 1-kilometer radius.

4. Revival Mushroom: Revives one fallen ally.

5. Giant Mushroom: Increases the size of the summoner or summoned beast up to 100 meters. The effect depends on luck.

6. Invincible Mushroom: Nullify all attacks. Duration is based on luck stats divided by 10,000 seconds.

7. Divine Seed Generation: Bears a divine seed. Cooldown: once per month.

Pecktan's attribute, technique and awakening skill all showed an inclination toward healing and buffing of summoned beasts.

As Cecile continues to level up and the newly joined S-rank summoning beasts grow stronger, their journey progresses.