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

[4th Floor, time left 23:35]

-No necessary items gathered

According to Temi, if they kept going they would end up in a ghost den.

Considering the time constraints, those were places Allen wanted to avoid no matter what.

The rooms of the dungeon were large boxes 10 kilometers tall, 1 kilometer wide, and 10 kilometers long, connected through various straight corridors, which had T or cross crossings.

There were countless such rooms on each floor, and around 10 had treasure chests.

Ghost dens would sometimes appear there too, which were rooms filled with hundreds to thousands of ghosts. But if things went well, there could be upwards of 10 treasure chests too.

(There's no other way to go, and we have no shovel. We'll just have to push our way through.)

After going down the stairs, there was a single path that went forward leading to the ghost den, so there was no way to avoid it. The only other way would have been to make a hole with a shovel.

As they kept their formation and continued flying at high speeds, Allen thought of the best way to deal with this.

"Allen, I think the stairs are inside that room."

Next to Allen, Temi continued reading fortunes, and told the results to Allen.

Even if they entered a ghost den, they could minimize the fighting by rushing to the exit.

Temi also knew the priorities Allen had, and tried to advice him according to them.

(If the stairs are nearby then it might be worth it to sacrifice a bit of time. I'll just think of it as the stairs appearing close to the previous ones. It doesn't matter as long as we make it to the 51st floor in 10 hours.)

Everyone had various buffs applied, but their effects would eventually run out.

Sophie's Divine Technique [Spirit God's Blessing] could reset cooldowns, but only once, and only those of others, not her own. They had to find the right timing to use it so they found a Recovery Lake in time to reset it again, and those only appeared from the 51st floor onwards.

[Earth Labyrinth notes (5)]

-All buffs should be used right away

-Sophie's Divine Technique [Spring of Life] runs out in 3 hours

-Luck's Time Great Spirit can extend that to 6 hours

-Spirit God's Blessing can reset the cooldowns of Skills

-The Recovery Lakes that appear after the 51st floor reset all cooldowns

-Combining the Blessings from Luck and Sophie's Great Spirit, the Divine Technique [Spring of Life] can last for 12 hours

'...We'll charge right into the ghost den. Everyone keep your formation. I'll tell you when to go grab the treasure chests, and then we go downstairs. Ignore all gold nuggets though.'

Using the Bird F summon, Allen gave orders to everyone.

They had gotten so far without finding a shovel, so it was worth it checking the chests.

"Got it!"

Merle gave an energetic reply.

Ghost dens contained thousands to even tens of thousands of ghosts

As soon as Allen's group entered the room, the ghosts attacked right away.

'Shraaaaaa!!'

'Grawwwwr!!'

'Hyun hyun hyun!!'

As various types of ghosts attacked them, Gatoruga gave orders to the Ice Great Spirit.

"Lady Iruzo, freeze everyone who stands in our way!!"

'Leave it to me!'

The spirit absorbed all of Gatoruga's Mana and spread her hands, sending a gelid air to freeze hundreds and thousands of ghosts.

But they still had the advantage of numbers and continued attacking Allen's group.

"Hey! I thought he was Rosenheim's Strongest!!"

"Again, I can hear you. You're just saying that to bother me now!"

Gatoruga turned around to reply to Cecile's mocking voice.

But Cecile looked satisfied with having gotten those words out, and instead began to focus her own Mana to destroy their enemies.

(I guess she's just trying to get more attention. I feel like she's underestimating the power of Rosalina though.)

"Cecile, we should be fine here. Just leave it to Rosalina."

"Huh? What? Are you sure?"

Allen's main strategy was to not break formation. They would avoid fighting as much as possible and tighten their defenses around those riding on Tam-Tam.

Cecile turned to look at Rosalina, who was the one in charge of situations like this.

She also recalled that the moment Rosalina joined the Earth Labyrinth group, they got 5 floors deeper.

"Hmph, if you insist. And could you stop glaring at me like that?! Charming Song!!"

Rosalina began to sing together with a sensual dance.

"Grghhh! Hurry uppp!!"

Gatoruga desperately waited for the song's effect to activate, staring at Rosalina.

"Mwah~♡"

Rosalina sent out a flying kiss, and all the ghosts' eyes turned into hearts in an instant.

(So this is the power of mermaids to lure sailors into the sea. She has really polished her Skills after entering Extra Mode too.)

All of the ghosts in an area of 10 kilometers were charmed, and even those who had not been frozen stood still and just watched Rosalina. Even the ghosts that could fly stopped flapping their wings and fell to the ground.

(This room is way too big.)

The room's side seemed to be 50 kilometers long, so there were many ghosts out of range.

"Sophie, tell Jigen to extend the range of Rosalina's Skills."

"Understood. Lord Jigen, Great Spirit of Space, please extend the range of Rosalina's Skills."

'Got it.'

The Space Great Spirit Jigen looked like the upper half of a set of armor, and took Sophie's Mana to follow those orders. A duplication in range meant 4 times the area could be covered, and 9 times the volume.

It was a buff as invaluable as Luck's Time Great Spirit that could make Skills last longer.

With that buff, the range of [Charming Song] grew to 20 kilometers.

'Grawrrrrrr!!'

But the ghost den was 50 kilometers wide.

Out of range, Archangel Rank ghosts (equivalent to S Rank monsters) came to attack.

They flew at them rapidly, but the moment they entered Rosalina's range their bodies lost all strength and they fell limp to the ground.

Rosalina's Skill had immobilized the movements of all the ghosts there.

"Heheh, I don't like rowdy men."

Rosalina said with a grin as she looked at the ghosts that had fallen face first onto the ground.

-Explanation of Charming Song (Skill Level 7)

[Skill User] Rosalina

[Skill Type] Skill, Buff

[Mana Cost (Spiritual)] 35000

[Appearance] Sensual dance with a fan while singing an entrancing song, ends with a flying kiss to the target

[Effect] Charms the target

[Range] 7 kilometers

[Scaling (Range)] Talent Stars x Skill Level x 100 meters x 2 (in case of Extra Mode) additional range. Intelligence and Luck raise the chances of the charm working

[Duration (seconds)] 1 hour

[Cast time] 3 minutes

[Cooldown] 1 hour

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

[Others] It doesn't apply to those seen as allies by the caster

*Rosalina's bracelets shortens her cast times and cooldowns by 25%

*Her anklets reduce them by 25% more

*Thanks to Luck's Great Spirit Time, the cast time is reduced

"Alright, the stairs are over there. Let's check the chests first, but not those where the ghosts are still active."

Allen quickly gave out orders to the group, who split up and quickly checked the chests.

"Master Allen, I found 2 shovels."

"Good, there was also a pickaxe and other valuable materials. Let's go downstairs!"

"Wait, there's still chests there!"

Rosetta had a Skill to sense treasure, and she saw other chests in another corner of the room.

"Those are too far, we don't have to get them."

It would take too long to get to them, so they would skip them. But Allen felt the need to admonish Rosetta more than Cecile, since she had been there for a month already.

(Good good, we have made up for the time we lost now.)

They had already used 20 minutes on that floor, but they would get that time back through the other floors.

After that they ransacked 2 stores, avoided a ghost den, and arrived at the 20th floor.

Allen looked at the mini-sculpture to check the time.

(It's been nearly 4 hours to get to the 20th floor. We'll have to keep going faster. But the boss of this floor has an 80% chance of dropping [Explosive Grass] so we can't afford to dodge it.)

The last time he was there they had taken 20 hours to get to the 20th floor.

But thanks to all the attempts Merle had gone through, Allen knew what to get from each floor.

It was not an ideal time, but at least they were still on pace to get through the entire Earth Labyrinth. They could avoid the fight and save up a key, but Allen wanted the Explosive Grass that boss could drop.

They could avoid the fight and hope the [Explosive Grass] appeared in a store, but it was likely faster to just get it from the boss than going through a bunch of stores.

"It's the floor boss!"

'Yes, I'll do my best.'

'Gyau!!'

Hearing Merle, Tam-Tam and Haku gave energetic replies.

"Alright, I'll open it then!"

Cecile had the magic bag, so she took out the key, and since Allen had lost all credibility in her eyes, she would open the door herself instead of letting Allen do it.

Past the door, there was a Demigod Rank ghost waiting for them.

"