Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~ Chapter 404

“Once the Iron Golems are defeated and reborn, their attribute returns to earth. The Attribute-Supports should continuously use their skills, that way they'll get Skill Experience too.”

Kiel detailed more about their strategy to Helmios, who led the Hero's Army.

“Got it. We have to make sure they have mana to keep going too.”

The men from Allen's Army were regenerating as much mana as Dogora spent.
Meanwhile Allen had borrowed Helmios' Mana Regeneration Ring during the Five Continents' Alliance meeting.

Dogora was wearing that ring now.
Allen had also made Kurena give her Luvanka's Sacred Bead to Dogora for the time being.
Allen wanted Dogora's Skill Levels to go up as fast as possible.

During the meeting that morning, Dogora had asked the supports from both sides to replenish his mana whenever necessary.

“I feel like I'm starting to see the pattern now.”

Lochmet and the other Attribute-Supports were slowly getting into a groove.
Kiel was relieved seeing they could move as a unit, even though they had been given some rather vague orders.

“Mhmm. It's a rather simple strategy as well. By the way, would you happen to know what inspired Allen to come up with this strategy?”

Helmios seemed curious to know how Allen figured out this way to fight.

“I think the fight against the Evil Cult was the main inspiration.”

“The Evil Cult?”

That had been roughly the time when Allen began considering Attribute Changes.

At first, Allen's summons did not have the ability to perform Attribute Changes.
The most he could do was tell Cecile and Sophie which element of magic or spirits to use.

But then Merus became a summon, and his options became much broader.
Lastly, Dogora obtained the Divine Artifact Kagutsuchi, a fire element weapon.

Kiel narrated the source of that strategy while Dogora and Merle fought.

First they had received a distress signal from the Holy Land, which ended with a fight against Gushara.
While Allen's party had various methods of attack, someone with an insurmountable amount of Endurance appeared in front of them.

That was the leader of the Evil Cult, Gushara.

Allen had been continuously wondering and analyzing how Gushara was so resilient, no attacks getting through to him.

At first he thought it was the countless souls Gushara had gathered, or because his Intelligence and Endurance as a Demon Great General was too high, or he had some sort of resilience against offensive magic, but in the end he realized it was because of elements.

Merus had mentioned that while Allen kept thinking about that fight.

The concept of elements existed in this world, some made attacks more powerful, or enhanced defenses.
Depending on the element of an attack, and the element of a defense, the ratios of damage scaled differently. It was something so common they even taught it in the Academy.
The Four Great Gods formed the main elements, fire, water, wind, and earth.

For instance, a fire attack on a wind defense could cause devastating damage.
But on the other hand, a wind attack on fire defense was negligible.

Not all elements were equal though, there was a tiered system to them.

-At the bottom was null, no element attributes
-Next (on the lowest level) were the fundamentals, fire, earth, wind, and water
-Then the derivative (low level) elements, wood, ice, etc.
-Middle level elements were space-time, lightning, etc.
-High level elements were light, shadow, etc.
-Highest level elements were divine and darkness

Higher level elements usually had a more drastic effect than lower level ones.
If something had an element of the highest level, like divine or darkness, then an attack with any of the lowest level elements would do next to no damage.

The lowest level ones were usually called fundamental elements, but that was only done by order of the Goddess of Fire Freya.
When Allen explained elements to Dogora, he replied saying “What, so Freya is in the lowest level?” which prompted Freya's descent through the Divine Artifact just to pummel Dogora.
Allen tried explaining that elements were tiered, but gods not so much, though it was hard to say how much Dogora could hear, rolling around the ground as Freya punched him.

The black flames covering Gushara's body also had a very specific element.
Darkness.

Not even the Spirit King's Blessing that pushed Cecile's magic power to 40000 was enough to cause much damage to Gushara, and any scratches were instantly healed by the Skeleton Pope.

Covered by a defense of the highest level element darkness, Gushara was nearly untouchable for Allen's party.

“O-ohh, darkness, huh. Wasn't it possible to do an Attribute Change then?”

Helmios was slowly starting to understand.
Everything had started by Allen wondering why no attacks worked on Gushara.
That led to a lot of thought being put into elements and how to use them against the Demon King's Army.

Allen would often get obsessed over such things.

Helmios recalled Allen meticulously planning a way to taken down the Demon General Razel before, making sure they could win.
Then he would ask all sorts of questions, like whether Helmios' Extra Skill could be used in mid-air, or if it was possible to use it after canceling a cast, it went from the obvious to really niche things.

Knowing how much Allen focused on analyzing and trying things, he must have figured one thing out.
Attribute-Supports were limited on the elements they could change.

Lower level Attribute-Supports could only alter the four fundamental elements.
Higher level ones could change higher level elements as well, and with more effectiveness.

But everyone in the world knew that divine and darkness elements could not be changed.

“Those are the elements of the God of Creation and the God of Darkness after all. Allen said he would need to rely on your Extra Skill [Phoenix Sword] if we ever encountered another enemy with the darkness element.”

The Hero's Army was not ready to fight Demon Great Generals yet.
Kiel said that their limit would be Demon Generals, and only high level elements.

“I see, my Extra Skill is a divine element attack after all.”

It was believed that all gods and spirits fit into one element or another.
The divine element belonged to the God of Creation Elmea, making it absolute.

And Helmios' Extra Skill had been handcrafted by Elmea.

“Yes, so it should work on darkness element defenses.”

Darkness was the opposite of divine.
It was said that the darkness element came from the God of Darkness, the ruler of the Dark World, who was said to have power equal to Elmea.
The God of Creation and God of Darkness were said to be untouchable entities.

“Your Extra Skill is truly magnificent, Helmios.”

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“Mhm, I know. It's a unique Skill given to me by Elmea.”

Rosetta and Doberg nodded at the same time.

“Well, just give me a call when you need me then.”

“You really have no reservations then.”

Allen knew Helmios would willingly agree to that.

Kiel also had his purification magic, which was a divine element spell too.
Any Saint or Saintess with 3 Stars could use purification magic.

They were nowhere as devastating as Helmios' Extra Skill though.

“I haven't seen how effective Attribute Changes can be in an actual battle yet, but I feel like light and shadow elements could be tricky to deal with.”

“I know what you mean. Allen said rescinding elements overall would be best in such cases.”

“I see. No element isn't the best when defending, but it can attack pretty much any element.”

Higher level elements were not always better.
There was something that could work on basically all elements.
Including divine and darkness.

That was raw attacks with no element.

No element was at the bottom of the ladder, meaning Attribute-Supports could grant it too.
Most Skills involving weapons had no element.

Sometimes such a plain attack was the best way to win against an enemy with a high level element.

Unless they were some rare type of enemy with ethereal bodies, no element attacks would work on any enemy no matter their element.
It was a normal conclusion to come to. If low level elements were negated by a higher one, it was best to just not use any elements to fight them.

“Still, I wasn't expecting people to be researching elements in such depth here.”

Rosetta sounded somewhat dumbfounded.

“To be honest this feels like nothing if you spend enough time around Allen.”

“That sounds quite troublesome. I remember him being that way our first time here too though.”

Kiel mentioned how being around Allen meant being involved in his ridiculous experiments.
Kiel only knew so much about elements because Allen would babble on about them all the time.

Rosetta also seemed to remember Allen being that way.
Allen was the one most engrossed in conquering the dungeon.
He always seemed to be enjoying himself, that was how Rosetta remembered him.

“So, where is Allen now?”

“Basically he's in a top secret mission, I guess I can say he's just trying to get more power.”

“That sounds like Allen alright.”

Allen had left the day before, but that was all Helmios knew.

Half of Allen's party had gone with him too.

“Hmm, still, this is quite some power you have in so few members. Allen's Army seems to be in good shape too. You should feel proud of yourself, Kiel.”

“Thank you for your kind words.”

Doberg praised Kiel's efforts too.

Kiel was the one seamlessly incorporating the Hero's Army into Allen's Army.
That was essentially the same as mobilizing various troops with thousands of soldiers.

Kiel was doing the work of a great general.
Allen had left Kiel as team leader because he knew Kiel's personality bowed down to no one.

“Anyway, Kiel.”

“Yes?”

Doberg continued talking.
He seemed to have something to tell Kiel.

“Before coming here I was told to ask you to contact Latash.”

“Contact them?”

“Yes. Could you use the guild's magic device and call Latash's royal family?”

Latash's royal family had entrusted Doberg with a message before he came here.
Kiel just said “Understood, I'll do it as soon as I have time.”
Doberg did not know why they wanted Kiel to call, so that was all he could say.

“Well, I think that's enough chatting for now. My Skills haven't reached their maximum level yet, and neither have yours, right Doberg?”

Doberg had said everything he had to, leading to Helmios talking again.

“Yes, we can think of the rest while we fight.”

Saying that, Helmios and Doberg both took their swords.

“Alright, I'll go collect the fallen treasure chests. I'm worried any valuable items could get damaged.”

Rosetta was going to take care of collecting all the treasure chests.
The rest of the members had already found their rhythm to fight Iron Golems, so treasure chests were periodically dropping from the fallen Iron Golems.

Helmios just sighed seeing Rosetta was still the same as always.

Chapter end