Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~ Chapter 172

The Spirit King (2)

It wasn't a flying squirrel that was sleeping on the Elf Queen's lap.

The true identity of the being in the form of a flying squirrel was the Spirit King Rosen, who was said to have reached the level of a Demigod.

“What can I do for you?”

(Tell me why the sleep-talking Spirit King is a flying squirrel.l)

In his flying squirrel form, Spirit King Rosen talked to me as if it were natural.

As the elven Generals were standing in line gasping, I decided to proceed, wondering if the Spirit King rarely spoke directly.

“Yes. First of all, let me say thank you. Thank you very much for making the Mana Recovery Ring.”

(Well, the Hero gave it to me with a condition. I'll keep quiet about it though.)

The Spirit King had foreseen my existence, a Summoner, from what the Hero had told him. And it seemed that he took the trouble to make me a Mana Recovery Ring.

“Oh, you mean the other day. You're welcome. The Hero urged me to thank you, so I did. Haha.”

(Maybe the Hero went for a reminder shortly before he met me.)

I wonder if the Hero came all the way to Rosenheim to get the Mana Recovery Ring in order to drag me to the tournament.

“Then I have a request to make to the Spirit King.”

“Hmm?”

My friends were watching the conversation between me and the Spirit King with dismay, as I accepted the Spirit King's presence and appearance as a matter of course.

The same went for the Elven Queen and the Generals present in the room. They had been listening to us, wondering what it was that I wanted to see the Spirit King, but when they realized the reason, they were surprised, though they didn't say it out loud.

The reason why I had asked to see the Spirit King was because I had a request for him.

“We are currently fighting against the Demon King's army together with the elves. If we successfully save Rosenheim, I would like you to grant us a wish.”

With that, I bowed to the Spirit King.

“Oh, you want me to thank you for saving the elves?”

“Yes.”

“I see,” said the Spirit King as he began to touch his chin with his flying squirrel appearance.

I came here after hearing the request from the Principal.

He said, “I see,” as if it were a matter of course, but I didn't want to ask anything in return from the Principal.

In the first place, the Principal could not provide me with what I wanted.

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I had a few things I wanted.

• Magic stones
• Weapons and armor that cannot be bought with money

We would be collecting magic stones from the Demon King's army in the future, and although it would be better to have as many as possible, the number of magic stones that the Principal, who didn't have much power, could prepare was far too small. And I was not going to ask Rosenheim, which had suffered a great deal of loss, for magic stones.

I could obtain the weapons and armor that couldn't be bought with money by going to the S-class dungeon. The Principal would not be able to provide them, and I was planning to ask the Queen later if she had anything like Rosenheim's treasures, but I wasn't that hopeful.

A more certain and promising individual was in front of me although he was in the form of a small animal and was on the Queen's lap.

(That was pretty fast. I had planned to help the elven troops in the Central Continent.)

When I had heard that the Spirit King was a Demigod, I wanted to ask him for a favor if I had the right circumstances to lend to the elves.

“Something only I can do? Well, what is it, by the way?”

“I'd like you to put all of my friends in Hell Mode.”

“”What? Hell Mode?””

For the first time since arriving in this other world, Allen uttered the word Hell Mode.

No one who was listening to the conversation between Allen and the Spirit King bent over could understand it and recited it.

“Hmm? Hellmod? Huh? Hmm?

The Spirit King didn't seem to understand right away. He placed a hand on his chin and let his gaze wander hollowly in thought.

“Yes, Hell Mode. It increases the difficulty of God's Trials by 100-fold.”

“Oh, that. You're talking about the degree of ordeal people are put through.”

He didn't understand for a moment, but the Spirit King seemed to know about Hell Mode.

“Yes. My party members have reached their growth limit due to the difficulty of the God's Trials being too low. For the sake of further growth, I would like you to change everyone's mode to Hell Mode.”

“Oh, I see. I'll check it out.”

With that said, the Spirit King froze.

(He looks kind of stuffed, doesn't it? And…)

“Hebe!”

“Hey, hey, are you sure you're not saying something rude to the Spirit King?”

Cecile, who was behind me, grabbed me by the neck.

“I think it's okay. If not, I'm sure the elves would have stopped us.”

I was trying to be polite in my conversation, but if my mannerisms turned out to be rude regardless, it was the elf's fault for not teaching me manners towards the Spirit King.

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“I asked Lord Elmea, the God of Creation, but it was no use. He said he can never change the mode.”

“Is Hard Mode also impossible?”

There was also a Hard Mode with 10 times the difficulty of the Normal Mode, but I didn't mention it and talked about Hell Mode.

“Yes, it was. He seemed to be very strict about it. I'm just a Demigod, so it is impossible to get them to listen to me. Haha.”

(Demigods have a low status in the Divine Realm, huh.)

“I'm sorry to hear that. Then may I change my request to something else?”

“If you save my little ones, I'll grant you a wish if I can. Haha.”

“I would like to change my party members' Talent to higher ones. For example, changing a Swordsman to a Master Swordsman.”

Since they couldn't change the mode, I asked them to change our Talent.

As soon as he heard those words, the previously relaxed expression of the Spirit King turned stern.

He looked at me and exerted silent pressure but I didn't move and looked him straight back in the eyes.

The Spirit King sighed weakly at my attitude.

“Phew, Talent change. You're that guy, aren't you? You're in God's deism. That's why Lord Elmea cares about you.”

“What? Are you talking about me?”

“Yes, I've heard about it for quite a while. He told me that he was in a hurry to defeat the Demon King, so he created a higher-tiered Summoner. He told me that he made a mistake and gave it 8-stars when he meant to give it 6-stars. He said he was troubled because the Summoner wouldn't change it even though he advised him to. Haha.”

(I see. So it was an error that the Summoner had 8-stars? It's been a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure I got a message like “Are you sure you want to be a Summoner?”)

“I… I see.”

I think I heard some kind of secret story about the birth of the Summoner, or the other side of the story.

I didn't want to talk about my birth story, but I wanted to know if I could. I felt like Spirit King could probably change Talents, so I talked about it after changing modes.

The reason was that there were a lot of elves who could use Recovery Magic.

The only possibility for that was that someone was increasing the number. I was sure that someone in the Divine realm was giving them Talents through connections.

“No wonder Lord Elmea was having a hard time. Haha.”

(After all, they were doing it secretly? Well, the land of elves doesn't have a large population and it's hard to have children. If they don't increase the number a little, the country will collapse.)

The Spirit King scratched his head, “I'm in trouble.”

“Is it possible then?”

“Hmmm. There's a difference between giving Talent to those who don't have it and making those who do have it higher. It's hard to do without a price.”

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“Is saving Rosenheim not enough to pay?”

“I'm not sure if my power is enough, even if you include saving Rosenheim in the price. I'm talking about, for example, getting a lifespan in exchange.”

(Life expectancy. I see. That's not so bad.)

Everyone gasped at the Spirit King's request to give up their life to change Talents. It was so important that they had to exchange their lives for it. In the midst of all this, only I understood the exact meaning of his words.

“So how about we pay you with our experience we earned until we reached our growth ceiling?”

(See, this is what the price was all about. It's not about the life expectancy from now, it's about paying for the experience and time spent so far, right?)

“What? Are you sure? You'll lose everything and be Level 1.”

“If that's what we need to pay, then no problem. I assume our non-Talental skills, such as , will remain the same?”

Then the Spirit King froze again. He seemed to be checking something.

“All right. That's no problem. But I think the limit was to increase the difficulty of the Talent by one. I still can't give you 5-stars though.”

(Okay, so up to 4-stars is possible?)

“Thank you.”

“By the way, you can't do this with party members who aren't here or who join later.”

(Damn, I was going to change Merle's Talent later, too.)

“I wouldn't do that.”

“By the way, I can read minds. Haha.”

“I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm going to get anything out of this.”

There was no reward for me as our whole conversation until then revolved around my party members.

“I can read minds, you know. Muras, right? Summoner of the Beginning, how about I give your sister a 1-star Talent? She doesn't have a Talent, does she? I'll ask you later which Talent you want. …”

Perhaps wanting to end the conversation quickly, the Spirit King began to read my mind. He was quite out of it and seemed to be completely asleep.

Maybe he couldn't have very long conversations with people.

“Thank you, Spirit King. Then I will do my best to save Rosenheim.”

(Come to think of it, I am sleepy too.)

“Yeah, make sure you help him out. …”

The Spirit King muttered once more and fell asleep in the Queen's lap.

Thus ended the conversation between Allen and the Spirit King. In exchange for saving Rosenheim, he promised his friends that they would be able to change their Talents to a higher level.

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Thanks for reading.

Chapter end